NZCPR Weekly: A New Parliament and the Labelling of Food

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

Since this week’s newsletter is going out as the voting booths for the 2017 General Election are closing, we firstly outline what needs to happen before Parliament is up and running again, and then we look into a bill that is in front of a Select Committee that deals with the complex issue of food labelling, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Alan Emerson outlines the case for compulsory country of origin labelling for food, and this week’s poll asks whether you would prefer the voluntary food labelling system that is presently in place to remain, or whether it should be replaced with a mandatory system.

Next week we will look into the election result and what it means for New Zealand.

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Frank Newman: Migration and property prices

In the year to the end of July, a record 72,400 more people arrived to live in New Zealand than left.  That represents an annual population increase of about 1.5%. Few would dispute that this has had a significant impact on house prices in recent years.

There are essentially four groups of immigrants: international students, those arriving here to work, those arriving for family reunification, and kiwi's returning from overseas. It's the latter that is having the most influence on the numbers. 

Mole News

Maori part of future cities plan
New Zealand cities need to change, and acknowledging their Maori history and presence is part of it.

That's an element in a new book put together by the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities, hosted at the University of Otago, Wellington.

GWPF Newsletter: We Were Wrong, Climate Scientists Concede

How The IPCC And Climate Alarmists Hid The Good New About Global Warming

In this newsletter:

1) We Were Wrong, Climate Scientists Concede
Ben Webster, The Times, 19 September 2017 
 
2) David Whitehouse: Climate Change Will Take Longer, Say Scientists
GWPF Observatory, 19 September 2017

Daniel Mitchell: The Real Victims of Class-Warfare Taxation

Remember John Kerry, the former Secretary of State and Massachusetts Senator, the guy who routinely advocated higher taxes but then made sure to protect his own wealth? Not only did he protect much of his fortune in so-called tax havens, he even went through the trouble of domiciling his yacht outside of his home state to minimize his tax burden.

I did not object to Kerry’s tax avoidance, but I was irked by his hypocrisy. If taxes are supposed to be so wonderful, should not he have led by example?

Brian Arrandale: Beware Labour and the Greens

If Labour do take this election with a clear mandate, then we can truly give them the dubious accolade that they are instituting their agricultural policy of eliminating the only world dairy Industry which can economically produce dairy products without the aid of subsidies.  

But emotive and exaggerated environmental concerns over ride economics and a greatly reduced export income. Although according to the Labour/Green electioneering this country will be a cleaner greener place with rivers sparkling.  (They forgot to mention the huge urban pollution from towns and cities)! 

Pat Palmer: The bureaucratic beat-up on home fires and wood burners

In 2007 the Health and Air Pollution in New Zealand report (HAPiNZ) from the Ministry for the Environment estimated that fine particles (PM10) in the air in New Zealand caused 1,170 premature deaths each year. 

This estimate was based on an epidemiological study from Europe and assumed that PM10 from all sources - blast furnaces, diesel trucks, petrochemical industries, or from your toaster - are all equally toxic. Most PM10 in the New Zealand air has been fairly reliably measured as coming from home fires.

Lindsay Mitchell: Jacinda Ardern will increase poverty because she doesn't understand the drivers

Last year I wrote a paper which explored the link between child poverty and family structure. 

The strongest correlation with child poverty is single parent families on welfare. Additionally, children born into de facto relationships - which had a much higher likelihood of dissolving than marriages - were much more likely to become poor.

In a Sunday Star Times column Jacinda Ardern attacked my research:

This week I opened the paper to find some astonishing "news" - a lack of marriage is to blame for child poverty.

Garth McVicar: Labour weakness on bail law a dangerous back-flip

The Sensible Sentencing Trust is deeply concerned at statements made by Labour Deputy Leader Kelvin Davis on Three's The Nation programme today that they may 'review' the Bail Amendment Act 2013.

The changes to bail brought in by the Bail Amendment Act 2013 simply 'reset' the bail law to a standard the public expect - and that should have already been in place.  For many years, the New Zealand public had repeatedly expressed their outrage and deep concern at the extent of crime committed by offenders on bail.  The fact the remand population has increased so significantly reflects just how lax the law used to be.  We now have a new normal, and that is a good thing.

NZCPR Weekly: Election 2017 - Style versus Substance

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, in our final Election 2017 update, we look into the ‘hot’ election topic of tax and investigate some of the promises that have been made by Labour, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Anthony Willy explains why the Labour Party’s plan to disclose the details of tax policies after the election is so dishonest, and this week’s poll asks whether you agree with Labour that New Zealand needs more taxes? 

All of our NZCPR Election 2017 updates can be viewed on our NZCPR.com homepage.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

GWPF Newsletter: Australian PM Face Rebellion Over Green Energy Policy

Tony Abbott To Outline Energy Policy At Annual GWPF Lecture

In this newsletter:

1) Malcolm Turnbull Faces Power Play From Tony Abbott Over Green Energy Policy
Dennis Atkins, The Courier-Mail, 13 September 2017 
 
2) Tony Abbott To Outline Energy Policy At Annual GWPF Lecture
The West Australian, 13 September 2017

GWPF Newsletter: Australian Govt Walks Away From Green Energy Target

World Building New Coal Plants Faster Than It Shuts Them

In this newsletter:

1) Back to Black: Australian Govt Walks Away From Green Energy Targets
Financial Review, 13 September 2017

2) Tony Abbott Fuels Push From Backbench Against Clean Energy Target
The Australian, 12 September 2017

Hugh Barr: Tribal groups threatening the public’s foreshore and seabed

National’s Marine and Coastal Area Act (2011) controversially gave Maori tribal groups the ability to privatise New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed out to 22.2 Km (12 nautical miles) from shore, if they could prove that they had exclusively used  and occupied an area of the coast and territorial sea from 1840 to the present day.

Until the 2011 Act, New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed had been in public ownership since 1840, when the colony adopted British law, under which the territorial sea is declared a public common, to which the public generally has access.

Anthony Willy and Anthony De Reeper: A Capital Gains Tax Yes or No

First published 9 September  2014 
  
Taxation is at the heart of the establishment and maintenance of civil society.  The difficulty is in knowing how much to extract from the wealth producing members of society.

Nothing much has changed since the seventeenth century when Jean-Baptiste Colbert the Controller General of Finances to Louis XIV’S remarked that “the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.” 

GWPF Newsletter: A $150 Billion Misfire - How Forecasters Got Irma Damage So Wrong

Did Climate Change Cause Hurricane Irma To Fizzle?

In this newsletter:

1) A $150 Billion Misfire: How Forecasters Got Irma Damage So Wrong
Bloomberg, 12 September 2017 
 
2) History Shows There Was Nothing Unusual About Hurricane Irma
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 12 September 2017 

Frank Newman: Labour's Tax Plan - clarified!

Jacinda Ardern has clarified Labour's tax policy: 

"Now let me be absolutely clear about this so there is no doubt. 

"Our tax plan is the plan we had before we had the most recent plan. 

"It's fair that everyone pays their fair share unless we believe it's not fair, in which case we will be fair and reasonable.  

"This is not a reversal or back down - it's my Captain's call.  

"People are telling us they want this clarity, and we are listening to their call. 

"It has nothing to do with our slide in the polls."

GWPF Newsletter: Beyond Hurricane Hype: A Reality Check

Hurricane Irma Comes 7th In List Of Landfalling U.S. Hurricanes

In this newsletter:

1) Hurricane Irma Comes 7th In List Of Landfalling U.S. Hurricanes
Watts Up With That, 10 September 2017 
 
2) How Did Irma Get So Strong? Hint: Not Global Warming
Michael Bastasch, Daily Caller, 10 September 2017 

Matt Ridley: Principles versus rules in free trade

Why does the European Union raise a tariff on coffee? It has no coffee industry to protect so the sole effect is to make coffee more expensive for all Europeans. 

Even where there is an industry to protect, protectionism hurts far more people than it helps. Last October the EU surreptitiously quintupled the tariff on imported oranges to 16 per cent to protect Spanish citrus producers against competition from South Africa and punish the rest of us. It imposes a tax of 4.7 per cent on imported umbrellas, 15 per cent on unicycles and 16.9 per cent on sports footwear.

Brian Arrandale: Back From The Past

Rotten ‘List’ Boroughs - why have we returned to the past in electoral terms?

In 1832, Britain in passing the “Great Reform Act” was instrumental in once again, following the early principal instituted in the signing of Magna Carta. It was followed by a long overdue Ballot Act of 1872, which introduced the secret Ballot. 

The passing of these two Acts over time, allowed the majority of people to enjoy the privilege of being able to vote in their Representatives into Parliament; without the interference of privilege, or the fear of recrimination in the way a person votes.

Frank Newman: New Zealand's Got Talent

Jacinda Ardern is cool - Bill English isn't. That's a significant challenge for National, but it's not the only challenge it has. National is too establishment. Boring, safe, prudent - but boring. Being fiscally responsible matters - a lot - but does not matter enough to enough people to assure National of another term in Parliament.

The world  is rising against the establishment; Trump vs Clinton, Brexit, the UK election result, the rise of Emmanuel Macron in France. National is just too establishment for its own good.  Their smug born-to-rule attitude is far too evident in the likes of Chris Finlayson and Nick Smith, and to a lesser extent Simon Bridges. It's a party that does not do humble well.