Demographics and Democracy
Monday, September 14, 2020
Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
Monday 14th September, 2020
Demographics
New Zealand is changing and the pace of this change is accelerating. You know that already. But do you know exactly what those changes look like? Stuff has produced a most interesting summary of the demographics of New Zealand along with twenty stories of ‘typical’ New Zealanders. Check out the two graphs about the changing Ethnicity of New Zealanders. Here are four summary statements.
- 84 per cent live in an urban centre.
- New Zealanders now have fewer children, later in life.
- Most New Zealanders will live to around 80.
- In education, Māori and Pacific people are about half as likely as New Zealand Europeans to achieve a diploma-level qualification, or higher.
Democracy
For Democracy to work well it depends hugely on an informed public otherwise known as ‘Civics’. The NZ Initiative, an independent think tank has written a report that should make us all concerned. It is (appropriately) called, ‘Democracy In The Dark’. Here is a summary pdf.
POV. Over the last 3 months I have been deeply immersed in the Cannabis issue and to a lesser degree the Euthanasia issue. I quickly realised one thing. How poorly informed many Kiwi’s are or worse still mis-informed. At one level I understand. There are just so many issues to get your head around these days. And then there are issues within issues. And all this takes a fair chunk of time that most busy family people don’t have. So I am sympathetic to that. Yet if we prize the fact that we are a Governed in a democratic political framework (Government by the People for the People) then having accurate information is very important. And this is critical prior to an election.
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