February & March Seminars

OPEN DAY 2026

Safeguarding democracy globally and locally

Speaker: Jonathan Boston

Date: Saturday 28th February 9.30am-1pm

Venue: Waikanae Baptist Church Hall, 286 Te Moana Road, Waikanae

FREE event but registration is essential by 23rd Feb

Dr Jonathan Boston ONZM is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) and has been the Director of the Institute of Policy Studies and the Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies. His research interests include governance, public management, child poverty, the welfare state and climate change policy. He has served on many government advisory bodies and NGO boards.

Jonathan Boston, ONZM, is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy in the School of Government at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. His research interests include climate change policy (both mitigation and adaptation), child poverty, governance (especially anticipatory governance), public management, tertiary education funding (especially research funding) and welfare state design.

He has served at various times as the Director of the Institute of Policy Studies and the Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. In the early 2000’s he served as a member of the Tertiary Education Advisory Committee and helped design and implement the Performance-Based Research Fund in New Zealand’s tertiary education sector. During 2012-13 he co-chaired the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty for the Children’s Commissioner. In 2021 he was seconded to the Ministry for the Environment to contribute to policy advice on various aspects of environmental policy, including resource management issues. He served during 2022-23 as a member of the Expert Working Group on Managed Retreat for the Ministry for the Environment and also assisted the Environmental Defence Society with their project on climate change adaptation. Over the years he has served on the boards of various non-governmental organizations, such as Oxfam Aotearoa (2013-22).

Recent books and major reports include: Child Poverty in New Zealand (with Simon Chapple) (2014); Governing for the Future: Designing Democratic Institutions for a Better Tomorrow (2017); Safeguarding the Future: Governing in an Uncertain World (2017); Foresight, Insight, and Oversight: Enhancing Long-Term Governance through Better Parliamentary Scrutiny (with David Bagnall and Anna Barry) (2019); Transforming the Welfare State: Towards a New Social Contract (2019); Funding Managed Retreat: Designing a Public Compensation Scheme for Private Property Losses: Policy Issues and Options (2023); and A Radically Different Planet: Preparing for Climate Change (2024). He is the

Co-editor of Policy Quarterly.

Jonathan will explore the nature of current threats to democratic values, processes and institutions, ponder alternative scenarios (both globally and locally), and consider the options for defending fundamental human rights and enhancing the resilience of democratic governance. Humanity faces an unprecedented global polycrisis, with multiple existential threats. Compounding matters, growing political polarisation in many countries is undermining political stability and democratic governance. Today, there are more autocracies than democracies, and the drift towards autocratic modes of governance is gathering pace in many long-standing democracies. The need for global collaboration to tackle shared policy issues is urgent. At the same time, the rules-based international system is being weakened, and key multilateral institutions are facing threats to both their legitimacy and effectiveness.

Register by 23rd February

#2602 Politics, policy and professional issues of health service delivery

Speaker Jenny Carryer

Date Saturday 7th March 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall

43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Professor of Nursing at Massey University, and Honorary Professor at Auckland University, Dr Jenny Carryer, RN, Dip. Counselling, PhD, FCNA (NZ), MNZM. CNZM was previously executive director of the College of Nurses. She has clinical postgraduate qualifications in oncology and cardiovascular nursing and in counselling. Her PhD included extensive research and publication in the areas of primary health services, development of the Nurse Practitioner role and long-term condition management. She has been a member of; the Ministerial Taskforce on Nursing (1998), the Nursing Expert Advisory Group to the Ministry of Health (2003-2006), the PHO establishment Taskforce (2005-2007) Deputy Chair, the Nurse Practitioner Development and Employment Group for the Minister of Health (2005), the Primary Health Care Advisory Council to the Minister of Health (2007-2009), Chair. Health Workforce NZ Advisory group and Co- Chair of the NZ National Nurse Leaders Group. 2010- 2022.

In this seminar Jenny will consider the impact of defining health and health services through a medical lens which means we tend to prioritise acute care over prevention. This ignores the considerable impact of the socio-economic determinants of health and disadvantage the people who need health care the most.  Also, she will discuss the rearrangements of managerialism and high levels of bureaucracy to solve problems whilst simultaneously continuing with a model of service delivery (models of care) that has largely not changed in many years.

#2603 Co-collecting and military material culture in the Pacific

Speaker Sean Mallon

Date Saturday 21st March 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall

43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Dr Sean Mallon, of Sāmoan (Mulivai, Safata) and Irish (Belfast) descent, is Senior Curator Pacific Cultures at Te Papa Tongarewa. Sean’s publications include Tangata o le Moana: The story of New Zealand and the people of the Pacific (2012) and Art in Oceania: A new history (2012). In 2019, Tatau: a history of Sāmoan tattooing co-authored with Sebastien Galliot won an Ockham Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction, awards for Best Art Writing by a NZ Māori or Pasifika and Best Anthology in the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand awards.

In the first session, Small things matter: experiments in co-collecting, Sean will provide insight into Te Papa’s projects of co-collecting from the Pacific. Since 2017, new curatorial approaches have shared decision making with communities about what should be collected. From master artists on Guam, to Tongan youth in South Auckland, Hawaiian aloha shirts and climate change on the atolls of Tokelau, there have been some surprising and culturally significant acquisitions.

In the second session Indigenous militarisms: material culture from the Pacific, Sean will share stories related to the material culture of indigenous militaries in Pacific cultures and societies. Featuring rarely seen artefacts from Te Papa collections, from indigenous armour and weapons, to photography, art and fashion, he will talk about how the military and conflict have been experienced and materialised over the last 300 years.

#2604 A.I in our daily lives - navigating trust, ethics and the future

Speaker Andrew Lensen

Date Saturday 28th March  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall

43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Dr Andrew Lensen is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Director of Artificial Intelligence at Te Herenga Waka VUW. With a research focus on explainable and interdisciplinary artificial intelligence, Andrew  investigates the social and ethical dimensions of AI, ensuring its responsible application across diverse fields, including ecology, healthcare, and public policy.

He has published extensively on the challenges and opportunities of integrating AI into real world settings, with his work recognised nationally and internationally. As a passionate science communicator, Andrew regularly contributes expert commentary, op-eds, and interviews to demystify AI for the broader public. His public engagement work also includes co-authoring an Open Letter on AI regulation in New Zealand and speaking at forums on the role of AI in society. With a commitment to making AI accessible, understandable, and ethically grounded, he brings both deep technical expertise and a strong sense of social responsibility to his teaching and outreach activities.

Discover the fascinating world of artificial intelligence. In this seminar, Andrew will discuss how new tools like ChatGPT, Veo 3, Sora, and other types of AI are shaping our lives, focusing on issues such as transparency, trust, and ethics in AI. The seminar will delve into key societal questions, such as: how do we navigate the risks of AI-generated content? what would meaningful AI regulation look like for New Zealand? and how can AI be designed to support, rather than undermine, fairness and equity? He will help us gain a deeper understanding of how AI systems work, the choices behind their design, and how they impact society.

Participants will be encouraged to ask questions and share their perspectives. Whether you’re curious, cautious, or simply want to demystify the headlines about AI, this seminar offers a space to learn, engage, and debate the future direction of this transformative technology.