I decided to start delving into who the directors of the Atlas Network think tank NZ Initiative are and soon I was knee deep in information about what shares they hold and what other boards they sit on. Much of this is in their annual reports anyway - but deeper digging is online.
It's a curious web.
There's plenty to write about - but today, this is just a very brief article about some more matters of timing and - coincidence, if you wish to call it that.
The other day I was intrigued how a group of Charles River Associates Economists ( known for working with fossil fuel industry and the API in the USA to delay climate action ) had became embedded at Victoria University in the early 2000s and how ( long story short ) these economists had acted on behalf of BIG Oil to free up a consent to joint market gas exploration around a Taranaki gas field.
I had also noticed that Victoria University was a member of the NZ Initiative in 2018. ( Waikato University in 2020 & 2021, Auckland University in 2017 and 2021 ).
But what really interested me was how Neil Paviour-Smith a board member at Victoria University for nine years, two as Po Chancellor and four as Chancellor - was also a director of this Atlas Network Think tank.
Stephen Joyce had appointed Neil Paviour-Smith ( Investment banker Forsyth Barr $30 Billion business ) to the council at Victoria University on 27 June 2013 until 31 May 2017.
Notably Forsyth Barr is one of the sponsors of Fran O'Sullivan's Mood of the Boardroom - an opinion snapshot some say is used as a weapon against Labour led Governments. Having said that Neil gave Jacinda and Grant a solid pass in the early part of the Pandemic. You'll find many of these NZ Initiative directors being asked for comment as Shayne Currie and Fran present the mood to the angry mob and Mike Hosking selectively looks for mud to throw.
Back to Neil Paviour Smith - as mentioned - he became Chancellor of Victoria University in 2018 when Victoria University was also listed as a member of the Atlas Network think tank and he stopped being chancellor of Victoria University in early 2022.
Keep that in mind, because early 2022 was when Luxon was on the rise in the polls and Neil Paviour-Smith had been on the Atlas Network jolly with Luxon in May 2017 over in Switzerland.
In 2017 - over at the School of Education in Victoria University a previously fairly quiet academic ( who had worked years ago on some education research with Rose Hipkins ) started to get articles published in NewsRoom about his concerns with NCEA.
Michael Johnston was bothered with what the Productivity Commission had to say about abolishing UE and in 2018 he was concerned with draft ideas from a Ministerial Advisory Group about changes to NCEA. By June 2019 ( he was Associate Dean academic of the school of Education by then ) he was pleased some rethinking had taken place about those changes.
In early November 2021 Erica Stanford was appointed by Luxon to the role of shadow spokesperson for education.
Much was happening in the next couple of months.
Coincidentally - around the same time that Neil Paviour Smith ( director at Atlas NZ Initiative ) moved out as Chancellor of Victoria University - Michael Johnston also moved out of Victoria as Associate Dean of the School of Education on 1 March 2022 - and over to the NZ Initiative - finishing up his teaching duties.
This was in the exact same week when Luxon went into the lead in a One News poll.
It was not long before Michael Johnston was explaining he was interested in the environments for learning, literacy and the science of learning - and how he had come from being interested in psych matters like how the eye processes 3D pictures - and how he worked at NZQA in Stats between 2005-2011 before joining Victoria University.
However Michael Johnston had nothing to say about why he left Victoria University to take the job at the Atlas Network think tank?
Suffice to say Michael Johnston's articles and interactions with media pretty much supported Erica's positions on all matters Education during 2023.
On the 19 December 2023 - Erica Stanford announced a New education ministerial advisory group to review primary school English, maths and statistics curricula.
The chair of that ministerial group is Atlas Network think tank senior fellow Michael Johnston.
So in conclusion - Atlas are in charge of primary school English, maths and statistics curricula.
I said this was just a very brief article...but I'll add that both British American Tobacco and Imperial ( Tobacco ) brands are both members of the NZ Initiative where Neil Paviour-Smith former Chancellor of Victoria University - is still a director.
More Atlas Network Intrigue
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