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tomcpearce.bsky.social
Tom
@tomcpearce.bsky.social
310 followers 250 following 890 posts
Dad, teacher and PhD student based in Te Whanganui a Tara. He/him

Education, politics, prison abolition, books and bikes.
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tomcpearce.bsky.social
David Seymour:
"Sure, some of the kids have been eating melted plastic. But what about all the kids who haven't been fed melted plastic? Why isn't the media talking about them?"
(I'm paraphrasing but barely)

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
"You've got to bear in mind there's 143,000 of these meals going out every day. That's a very significant number of meals. It's a couple of million already this year and as a result we've got it right just about every time. In this case it was wrong and we've done something about it."
March 4, 2025 at 6:02 AM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Whether parents can afford to make their kids a Marmite sandwich is irrelevant. Lunches were introduced because kids didn't have food, the reason doesn't matter. Do we accept responsibility as a society for making sure our kids have kai? That should be a pretty simple question for us to answer.
Photo of Chris Luxon and Judith Collins in front of microphones with the news headline beneath "Live: 'Go make a sandwich' - Luxon on school lunches".
March 3, 2025 at 8:47 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Photo of a tino rangatiratanga flag flying in front of the New Zealand parliament
November 18, 2024 at 11:01 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
I wrote about David Seymour's pet charter school project in The Post. Sets out the evidence that charter schools just don't work; any benefits they provide (higher pay, better pastoral care) can and should be delivered through the public system.

www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3502...
Opinion piece in The Post, headline: "Public schools, not charter schools, need support" by Tom Pearce. Featured image "The children of South Auckland Middle School in a photo from 2017; the school was a partnership (charter) school or kura hourua opened under the previous model. Tom Pearce acknowledges that these offered benefits for some groups, including Māori and Pacific children."
May 15, 2024 at 6:19 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
nah there are, the school lunch programs have really great, diverse menus. Here's an example week (via @drbex.bsky.social a while back), and it doesn't have sushi but can anyone look at this and say they would rather their kids just had a sandwich vs being offered this every day?
diverse lunch menu via the Ka Ora Ka Ako school lunches program
May 8, 2024 at 1:33 AM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
ACT has decided that sushi is woke now folks.
Tweet from ACT New Zealand (@actparty) We just saved you $107 million on school lunches. Despite the shrieking from the left, we're not cancelling the programme. We'll be doing more with less money to feed kids the fruit and sandwiches their parents would, not woke food like quinoa and sushi. Bon appétit. 11:57 AM May 8, 2024
May 8, 2024 at 12:37 AM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Party Vote Poll | Talbot Mills (leaked to Newshub). National: 34% (-4) Labour: 33% (+5) Greens: 12% (-2) ACT: 7% (-1) NZE: 6%(-) TPM: 4% (n/a) 120 Aotearoa @120Aotearoa Seats in parliament: National: 42 (-6) Labour: 41 (+7) Greens: 15 (-) ACT: 9 (-2) NZF: 8(-) TPM: 6
April 30, 2024 at 5:27 AM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Here's the infographic of perceived political leanings in NZ media:
Public Ratings of Media Political Leanings Curia Market Research, April Poll, n=1000 Ratings: strongly left | somewhat left | neutral | somewhat right | strongly right NZHerald: 10% | 21% | 39% | 19% | 11% Radio NZ: 11% | 21% | 42% | 18% | 8% Newshub: 10% | 24% | 44% | 15% | 7% The Spinoff: 16% | 20% | 43% | 16% | 5% One News: 12% | 26% | 39% | 16% | 7% Stuff: 13% | 23% | 47% | 12% | 5% The Platform: 4% | 8% | 48% | 23% | 17% Newstalk ZB: 5% | 10% | 34% | 32% | 19%
April 26, 2024 at 8:12 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
NZHerald have now run four op-eds and one regular piece about how the high profile failures of government ministers is apparently a good thing.

This is the NZ media platform that a recent Curia poll found to be perceived as the most balanced.
Headline "All power to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's elbow - Matthew Hooton" Published 26 April 2024 Headline "The remarkable comeback of Paul Goldsmith; PM's shock reshuffle completely justified - Audrey Young" Published 26 April 2024 Headline "Christopher Luxon's show of strength is perfect for our angry era - Bryce Edwards' Political Roundup" Published 25th April 2024 Headline "What Christopher Luxon's reshuffle says about his leadership and Melissa Lee's future The Front Page" Published 24 April 2024.
April 26, 2024 at 8:06 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Media council upholds only the barest standards of accuracy in our media landscape.

"[T]he Council agreed with Dr Ali that the statement: “The worst intentional crime committed by Israel is to buy land off West Bank farmers and build houses” was inaccurate."

www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3502...
Headline "The NZ Media Council upholds complaint about Hamas opinion piece against Stuff" above a featured image of the Stuff news headquarters in Auckland.
April 25, 2024 at 9:11 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Meme with a block of text overlaid on a pixellated picture of Mr Rogers smiling and holding a revolver hand gun. The text reads "Mister Rogers had it down cold: after you get home, first order of business is to change into something comfy and then it's RIGHT into the neighborhood of make believe for some old-fashioned dissociation from the terrors of reality"
April 12, 2024 at 1:55 AM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Emerson comic from the NZHerald showing Patrick Gower in the middle of the classic WB cartoons closing sequence saying "...and that's the [ink splot]ing news, folks !!"
April 10, 2024 at 7:32 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
The utter irony of Nicola Willis, finance minister in a govt rolling back climate protections left and right, giving a talk about climate to a business group, literally at the same time as the West Coast is facing potential flooding from climate change.
Headline "Finance Minister Nicola Willis speaks to businesses" above a video box showing the Stuff logo and the words "Livestream starting soon"
April 9, 2024 at 8:18 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
The word cloud in here is just amazing. It's nice to know you aren't alone in the way you view the PM!

www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350...
Word cloud from Talbot Mills poll 8-14 March, in which respondents were asked for one word to best describe Christopher Luxon. The largest words are business leader, greedy, arrogant, unsure, good, rich, bald, idiot, entitled.
April 8, 2024 at 10:07 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
The Herald ran two op-eds today about how CEO Christopher Luxon is good, actually, and that his quarterly business plan nonsense was also good, actually.
NZ's CEO Christopher Luxon should double down on being Prime Manager - Heather du Plessis-Allan It's time for Christopher Luxon to lead like a CEO - Liam Dann
April 7, 2024 at 7:21 AM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
You know what to do here folks

www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350...
Poll asking "whose side are you on?" with two options: Simeon Brown currently on 46% and The cyclists' currently on 54%
April 2, 2024 at 7:21 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Just gross to see this on my commute this morning. The government needs to take responsibility for emboldening these goons.
Photo of a pedestrian crossing on Karangahape Road. The pride flag that is painted on the crossing has been painted over with white paint, which has partially washed away.
March 27, 2024 at 8:42 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Just the right amount of sass in this push notification from Auckland Transport.
Phone notification from the AT Mobile app that reads: "Fares change on 1 May for under 25-year-olds Free weekday travel for children ages 5 to 12 and half-price fares for ages 13 to 24 end 30 April. This is because of the government's withdrawal of funding for these concessions. We still offer discounts for children, students, and those with a Community Services card or accessibility needs. See if you qualify. https://at.govt.nz/farechanges"
March 25, 2024 at 11:09 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
oh my god the correction on this article today!
Correction A headline about pedestrian crossings being built between Point Chevalier and Westmere on February 13 said they cost $500,000 each. This was incorrect. The story also omitted AT's estimate for the crossings, which it predicts will cost between $19,000 and $31,000 each.
February 13, 2024 at 8:52 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
It's officially hot cross bun season again folks

(and shout out to Ima who are still the GOAT)
A hot cross bun sitting on a white plate on a table
February 8, 2024 at 8:43 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Just looked at the bottom of the website, it looks like it was funded by the parliamentary service?
Pink background with the text "The same respect and dignity for all." Below that is the Act party logo. Below that are various social media logos as circular clickable buttons. At the bottom is the text "Authorised by David Seymour MP, Parliament Buildings, Wellington. Funded by the Parliamentary Service. Privacy Policy"
February 7, 2024 at 4:02 AM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
No comment on the ground that I might be inviting violence.
Act MP David Seymour crouches and places something on the ground while maintaining eye contact with a line of people wearing traditional Māori clothing and holding traditional Māori weapons. A crowd of people can be seen in the background.
February 4, 2024 at 11:28 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
Why does he look like he's struggling over this child's school work?
Photo of Christopher Luxon sitting at a table in a classroom, with colouring pencils, glue sticks and paper on the table. Two children sit at the table, one looking at the pencils and another using a pencil to draw on paper. A person in a suit stands in the background.
February 1, 2024 at 6:44 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
In other words, the government is just telling teachers to stop kids using cellphones in class.

How is this meant to make any difference? Do they really think there are teachers out there who are fine with kids using their phones instead of learning?
Tweet from the NZ National Party (account @nznationalparty) that reads "the government has banned cellphones from classrooms, starting term 2, 2024" above an image of a phone with the text "we banned phones in class" repeated over and over in the background, text fading out as it goes down.
January 4, 2024 at 7:32 PM
tomcpearce.bsky.social
For anyone heading to family gatherings for Christmas, especially pākehā, here's a good resource about having conversations with Your Racist Uncle™

static1.squarespace.com/static/61afb...
Zine cover page titled "how to talk to your racist uncle" featuring a line drawing of a bearded person wearing a singlet that says beer on it, saying "it was just a joke love!". The subtitle of the zine is "holding conversations about racism with the people in your life "
December 23, 2023 at 7:33 PM