ALL of NZs Universities will be having strike action on Thursday.

If NZ wants to move past being a low wage economy based on Primary Product and tourism then we should be demanding the government fund universities properly.

I would have thought that COVID, Global Warming etc would have been a clear sign to the government that we MUST invest more, particularly in STEM subjects.

EVERYTHING in your life depends on STEM

Housing, clothing, transport , communications, health, food, water, waste disposal, energy, EVERYTHING.

The shortages of everything from overseas has shown how dependant we are on everyone else to even supply the basics.

We as a country need to be more resilient , less dependant on the whims of other bigger countries and the ONLY way to do this is with high quality education in ALL subjects.

We need to demand that schools employ staff who are actually qualified in a subject to be able to teach it, particularly in high schools.

We need to increase wages for Staff, encourage R&D, gets kids wanting to learn STEM subjects from qualified enthusiastic teachers, not just someone who has been stuck with that particular class.

We need MORE companies like RAKON, F&P Healthcare, RocketLabs, Tait Communications, Computer Games designers , Xero, Weta Workshops, etc etc etc ALL these companies are low impact on natural resources and land, high wages.

With 100 more F&P healthcare companies we would have a better standard of living than Australia, or we would need to double Dairy Farming or have 3 times as many tourists, neither being good ideas.

So yes, everyone should support the University Staff Strikes, th country needs these people more than ever.

Did you know back in the 90's Senior lecturers earned the same as a back bench MP, they now get about 1/2 of that.

Yet the University staff member requires a PhD, MPs need no qualification

The staff member must teach and do research, the back bench MP gets told how to vote

MPs get gold plated pensions, subsidised flights for them and their partner for life, and a whole heap of other perks.

Things need to be fixed. Doin more with less has shifted to doing less with less and staff just leaving overseas for better wages and working conditions.