The four dorsal body pattern types assigned to shore skinks at Tāwharanui Regional Park.

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Tāwharanui Regional Park

She conducted her research at Tāwharanui Regional Park to collect information on colouration trends within a wild population of shore skinks, at Tiritiri Matangi Island to assess any change in colouration in a translocated population as a response to a change in habitat, and a multi-population survey to determine colour variation between different locations.

During her thesis study, she had the opportunity to visit many locations during her surveys, and some of her highlights included visits to Poor Knights Island, Korapuki Island, Rurima and Motouki Islands.

However, conducting research is not without challenges, and she had to source her own funding for research and stipend. Her hard work paid off though and she was awarded various grants and fellowships, including the New Zealand Federation of Postgraduate Fellowship, Claude McCarthy Fellowship, and the Lovell and Berys Clark Fellowship. 

When she’s not conducting research, Dr Baling spend her time rock climbing, which that helped her to stay connected with friends and blow off steam especially during the writing stage of her thesis.

Graduating today not only represents an important stage in Dr Baling’s professional life but also a cultural one. She is only the second person from her ethic group, Berawan (a tribal group from Borneo, Malaysia) to have graduated with a doctorate degree.

Nurses not only experience bullying by other staff, but also by patients and their families.

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Cyberbulling can also affect victim’s families

There can also be a public component to cyberbullying when abuse is posted online, Dr D’Souza says.

“Nurses can become concerned about their professional reputation if they are are cyberbullied on a public platform like social media,” she says. “Sometimes their personal contact details have been posted online,

or false allegations made to the Nursing Council.

“This can produce a lot of anxiety as they have no control over who might see it. Nurses in this situation worry not only about their job and their own wellbeing, but also about the effect on their families should they see the content.” 

Dr D’Souza also found that nurses who were victims of cyberbullying often suffered traditional forms of workplace bullying too.

“These bullying behaviours can build on each other to create even greater harm in a more complex and dynamic way,” she says. “So, the traditional bullying impacts of anxiety and depression apply, but there is an almost unique anxiety associated with the public nature of cyberbullying, along with the constant accessibility outside of work hours.”

Cyberbullying can be a problem in any workplace

While Dr D’Souza’s thesis focused on the nursing profession, she says its implications would apply in other workplaces.

“One of the things that clearly emerged from my research is that cyberbullying is still an unknown problem and organisations are not sure how to deal with it. A lot of organisations have social media policies that outline what staff can and can’t do, but they don’t have policies to protect staff from external abuse.”

She recommends explicitly including cyberbullying in workplace bullying and harassment policies.

“It shows staff that cyberbullying is something the organisation takes seriously and, if it happens to them, they can see that it is recognised as a form of workplace bullying and there are processes for reporting it.”

She also suggests organisations create pathways for getting support from Netsafe, which can assist and support victims, including working with social media platforms to get content removed. 

“Cyberbullying needs to be acknowledged as a problem first, then supporting mechanisms need to be implemented to encourage people to report. In the absence of education and prevention, it is a problem that will continue to grow because of the accessability that electronic devices provide. I also expect to see new types of cyberbullying as technology develops.”

Read the report Workplace Cyberbullying in New Zealand Nursing.

Photo manipulation in the age of fake news is among hot topics on the agenda at the social documentary photo festival Photival, co-hosted at Massey’s College of Creative Arts in Wellington from April 26-29.

Massey University’s Wellington campus and staff from Whiti o Rehua School of Art will be front and centre at the festival, which showcases thought-provoking and inspiring photographic work. also The programme also includes talks, panel discussions and workshops with some of New Zealand’s leading photographic design practitioners from the School of Art as well as commentators on the use of imagery in wider social contexts.

It is being co-hosted at Massey’s College of Creative Arts from April 26-29.

School of Art senior lecturer Associate Professor Ann Shelton, a former photo journalist whose award-winning artistic photographic work engages conceptual and documentary approaches, is part of a panel that includes investigative journalist Nicky Hager. The panel will discuss how to approach visual media and be more wary of fake news in the age of Instagram, photoshopped billboards and image manipulation.

“An ability to read and understand images is critical in today’s society, including an ability to understand the complex contexts in which they circulate, Ms Shelton says.” The use of photography as a vehicle for fake news, is an extension of the power photography has always had to assert and influence. Understanding these mechanisms and how fake news images operate is a valuable skill.”

Ms Shelton’s colleague, lecturer Caroline McQuarrie who works with photography, video and craft practices, will be running portfolio reviews for photographers wanting their work assessed by a knowledgeable team of specialists in documentary photography. She will be joined for the portfolio review workshop by alumni of the University, environmental photographer James Gilberd and Virginia Woods-Jack.

One of the opening events of the three-day festival is a panel discussion featuring Associate Professor Sean Phelan from the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing. He will be debating issues around exiting photographic coverage in New Zealand and asking the question what issues aren’t getting enough attention that could be helped through visual story telling?

Other panel sessions include discussions about photography’s role in activist movements happening around the world.

The keynote address is being delivered by Australian-based photographer Michael Hall whose eye-catching images speak strongly about the human impact on the world’s environment. Currently undertaking an extensive project to document the causes and effects of climate change and to improve ecological awareness, Hall was the first creative fellow of the Climate Institute in Australia and is an alumnus of the Wellington Polytechnic, the forerunner institution to Massey’s College of Creative Arts.

By Dr Colin Robinson

In the upcoming months, the Government will begin to consider whether to extend the New Zealand Defence Force deployment of military trainers to the Taji military camp in Iraq. First sent in 2015 and extended in June 2016, the deployment is currently scheduled to end in November 2018.

The 140-strong contingent was dispatched to train Iraqi Army personnel, and formed part of the larger United States-led military effort to rebuild the Iraqi armed forces after large portions collapsed in the face of the ISIS military offensive in mid-2014.

Despite having spent billions of dollars on the Iraqi armed forces from 2003-11, the US risked wasting its effort when northern Iraqi forces collapsed in battle against ISIS in June 2014. Baghdad and the much of Iraq seemed vulnerable to seizure by ISIS. In response, US troops were sent in June 2014. The US began to rally allies to assist, and the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand joined the effort to train and rebuild the Iraqi Army by late 2015.

There are two crucial points to consider about the Taji deployment. First, short-term “train and equip” efforts such as these in war-torn countries have virtually no lasting results; and secondly, New Zealand is mostly sending troops because it may help assure our own security, via military aid from the United States if it were ever needed.

I researched US and British efforts to build new armies after conflict as part of my doctorate. From Zimbabwe in 1980 to today, the efforts, while enormous and costing billions, have produced scant long-lasting results. These countries’ aims can be very different from the West, and often the recipients instead are more focused on making money, sheer survival, and long-running ethnic, factional, or personal feuds within the host government. After the US withdrawal in 2011, various political factions, including Iran, and organized crime quickly began to acquire influence within the Iraqi Army, and gained powerful political protection. Neither the Kurds nor the Sunni were happy with growing Shia control over the armed forces. Senior commanders’ posts were bought and sold, and untruthful reports about unit status proliferated, sometimes even becoming expected. These recent reports echo the massive incompetence and poor performance found by US researchers in the ‘old’ Iraqi Army, stretching back to the late 1940s.

For decades, the Iraqi Army has been a corrupt, politically fractured, ineffective force, and there is no evidence that it is likely to improve. As soon as US forces left in 2011, performance declined. The troops that Kiwis are training at Taji are also not guaranteed to have either long service in the army or to stay long.

So in the absence of any long term effect, why have our troops been sent to Iraq? Since May 1942 and the Battle of the Coral Sea, when the US Navy defeated the Japanese, New Zealand’s ultimate security guarantor has been the United States. The last defence New Zealand has had for decades has been the US Pacific Fleet. To assure that guarantee, New Zealand troops were sent to Vietnam in the 1960s and to Afghanistan after 2001. Building up our credit with the United States in this way has been a decision seen as wise by both National and Labour governments.

As the disasters in in Iraq in 2014 show, progress there can be wiped away easily. The Iraqi Army has never been an effective force. New Zealand has been there because our troops bolster the chances that the US would respond to any future, desperate Kiwi call closer to home (the Coral Sea card). Is that enough? At present, yes. An extension would probably also be the best course. New Zealand would gain from increased US regard, and our soldiers’ lives are our greatest risk. But the world is changing, as China’s rise continues inexorably. The US today is the nearest equivalent of the UK’s bygone role as our imperial overlord. But there may come a time when it is not always wise, even partially, to go where the US goes and stand where she stands.

Dr Colin Robinson has just completed an attachment to Massey University’s Centre for Defence and Security Studies as a visiting scholar, and is preparing to return to East Africa to resume work advising on reform of the Somali security sector.