Mike Butler: Is prepaid power more expensive?

A claim from Labour’s Energy spokesperson David Shearer that power companies are unfairly targeting the poorest New Zealanders by charging them the highest electricity rates turns out to be untrue. Shearer wrote: "New figures obtained by Labour show those on pre-pay electricity plans - paying electricity bills in advance - pay up to 60 per cent more than those paying a regular power bill".

Therefore today, property owners throughout New Zealand would have fielded calls from distraught tenants demanding that the pre-power meter should be removed.

Frank Newman: Rotorua Mayor abolishes impact development fees

Not surprisingly the proposal in the Auckland draft unitary plan requiring Auckland property owners to seek iwi approval to work on what is a vast area covering some 3600 sites of "value to mana whenua" has come under a lot of criticism, from private property owners. Most landowners can see the proposal for what it is: yet another money making scheme based on Maori privilege.

In reply to that attention the Maori Party put out a press release which included this comment from Co-leader Tariana Turia, “this is also a Treaty issue. It's about tangata whenua having a right to participate in decision making over our natural resources…

Mike Butler: Campbell Live PR job for Ngapuhi

TV3 presenter John Campbell told his audience last week that he felt slightly ashamed admitting that he didn't know much about Northland tribe Ngapuhi and their mega treaty payout expectations, so he grabbed his microphone and cameraman and went north to learn. Sadly, all he revealed little more than we already knew. Chief Ngapuhi claimant Sonny Tau was first to speak:

Campbell: How much land did Ngapuhi lose?

Tau: We lost by dubious means 2.1-million acres of land

Firstly, why did Campbell and Tau use the word “lose”? The word "lose" means "be deprived of or cease to have or retain". Both Campbell and Tau used the words “lose” or “lost” in the sense that the Maori Anglican minister used it in a sermon on Waitangi Day last year. He said: “The missionaries taught us to pray and when we opened our eyes all our land was gone”. Campbell and Tau should be a bit more honest and say Ngapuhi sold most land in the area claimed as Ngapuhi tribal district.

Matt Ridley from the UK: E-cigarettes deserve encouragement as a lesser evil

Sweden’s reputation for solving policy problems, from education to banking, is all the rage. The Swedes are also ahead of the rest of Europe in tackling smoking. They have by far the fewest smokers per head of population of all EU countries. Lung cancer mortality in Swedish men over 35 is less than half the British rate.

Have they done it by being more zealous in ostracising, educating and shaming smokers in that paternalistic Scandinavian way? No — they did it through innovation and competition. In the 1980s Swedes developed a tobacco product called snus, which you put under your upper lip. You get the nicotine but not the tar. Snus is the most popular and effective way of quitting smoking in Sweden (and Norway).

Karl du Fresne: Are we really witnessing the last days of newspapers?

Back in the 1990s when I was working for Wellington’s now-defunct Evening Post, we experienced a series of printing press breakdowns which meant the paper was repeatedly late coming out. I recall an unusual sight as I drove home late in the afternoons. Along the streets leading to my house, people were standing at their gates gazing along the footpath to see whether the paper was on its way. It was striking to see how keenly people anticipated their paper each day and how discombobulated they were when it didn’t arrive on time.  

I thought of this recently as I read a book on the state of the New Zealand and Australian newspaper industries. Stop Press: The Last Days of Newspapers was written by New Zealand journalist Rachel Buchanan, who has worked for papers on both sides of the Tasman. It’s a pessimistic title – some would say unduly so. But there’s no doubt newspapers are going through a period of unprecedented upheaval and no one quite knows where or how it’s going to end.

Gerry Eckhoff: Representative Democracy

On the 14th of February 2014 the Chair of the Otago Regional Council (ORC) announced that representative democracy at the ORC was officially dead. Discussion on topical issues that impact on the Otago region must not be held in open debate.

Indeed the Chair had a legal opinion which was presented prior to the council meeting, to inform councillors that it would be “unlawful” for the council to debate a notice of motion supporting (in principle) the exploration for oil and gas off the Otago coast. This highly contestable legal opinion was swallowed whole by most councillors despite my assertion that we 12 councillors could all present a different legal opinion which was after all just that – someone’s opinion.

Mike Butler: Deal divides Blenheim community

A High Court ruling a week ago over Blenheim land that was compulsorily purchased by the government under the Public Works Act from a settler family that is to be sold to a tribe as part of a treaty settlement shows how the treaty settlements process divides a community.

The Fairhall family who began farming in Woodbourne in 1885 had a large part of their land taken to build RNZAF Base Woodbourne in 1939, and another part in 1947.

Mike Butler: The big land-loss lie

"The big lie" is a propaganda technique. The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Labour Leader David Cunliffe’s new right-hand man, head-kicker-in-chief Matt McCarten, is not above using the big lie technique when talking about treaty settlements. He wrote this commenting on the Ngapuhi suggestion that $600-million would settle their claims:

Senior members of the Iwi Group asked for $600 million to settle Ngapuhi claims - that was careless. Ngapuhi seemed to pluck this figure out of the air with the only justification that their iwi is much bigger than Ngai Tahu and Tainui, who got $170 million. This plays into prejudices these settlements are more about iwi bosses raking in money rather than legitimate compensation for historical theft. In reply, Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson's "pigs might fly" smackdown revealed a cavalier contempt to the process and disrespect to Ngapuhi.

Mike Butler: Labour's lurch to the Left

Matt McCarten, described as a hard-Left political head-kicker, is Labour leader David Cunliffe’s right-hand man, a move that illustrates the party’s lurch to the Left. What does a Left-ward lurch look like? Look no further than McCarten’s prescription for last year’s Budget:

1. Abolish 15 per cent GST. Replace with 1 per cent financial transaction tax as recommended by the New Zealand Bankers Association. Same money.
2. Abolish PAYE on wages and salaries. Replace it with a wealth tax and a capital gains tax when shares, businesses, land and property are sold. People are taxed when they’re cashing up, not when they are making it.

Bryan Leyland: The tunnel and the Unitary Plan

Len Brown is determined to commit Auckland to building a hugely expensive railway tunnel even though no independent and objective economic analysis has been made on the merits of the tunnel and whether or not alternative developments that do not concentrate on the city centre at the expense of other centres, would be better. If this is true, then the Council have neglected their obligation to investigate and evaluate all options before they decide upon a plan for Auckland. Given the enormous amount of expenditure involved, this  amounts to a serious dereliction of their duties.

Overseas research on in many urban rail systems reveals that the average cost overrun is 45% and the number of passengers is half the predicted amount. Has the economics of the Auckland tunnel been tested against 45% higher costs and half the passengers? If not, why not?

Mike Butler: Tribes threaten action on carbon price

Heh, heh, heh! Tribes accepted carbon credits as payment and those credits have slumped in value -- so the tribes are threatening a $600-million treaty claim, and will take their case to the United Nations in a bid to get the government to revalue the credits. Greedy iwi, global warming stupidity, frequently it appears the chickens come home to roost.

This is how the story has unfolded over the past few weeks. The Iwi Leadership Forum told Prime Minister John Key at Waitangi on February 5, 2014, that it is about to implement a "climate change escalation strategy" which includes a treaty claim for $600-million over the lost value of carbon forestry, according to carbon market newsletter Carbon News.

Matt Ridley from the UK: The sceptics are right. Don't scapegoat them.

Floods and gales in the UK are not evidence of climate change. In the old days we would have drowned a witch to stop the floods. These days the Green Party, Greenpeace and Ed Miliband demand we purge the climate sceptics. No insult is too strong for sceptics these days: they are “wilfully ignorant” (Ed Davey), “headless chickens” (the Prince of Wales) or “flat-earthers” (Lord Krebs), with “diplomas in idiocy” (one of my fellow Times columnists).

What can these sceptics have been doing that so annoys the great and the good? They sound worse than terrorists. Actually, sceptics have pretty well all been purged already: look what happened to Johnny Ball and David Bellamy at the BBC. Spot the sceptic on the Climate Change Committee. Find me a sceptic within the Department of (energy and) Climate Change. Frankly, the sceptics are a ragtag bunch of mostly self-funded guerrillas, who have made little difference to policy — let alone caused the floods.

Mike Butler: Ngapuhi dollar amount declines

The dollar amount for any Ngapuhi settlement is declining after a prediction yesterday from Labour MP Shane Jones that the government offer would be $250-million -- when the total demanded by claimants on Waitangi Day was up to $600-million.(1) From the Far North, Jones is of Te Aupouri and Ngai Takoto descent, as well as having Croatian, Welsh and English ancestry. Both Te Aupouri and Ngai Takoto have signed deeds of settlement. Jones even worked out for Ngapuhi the amount they would lose each year by not settling.

Without the Waitangi Tribunal's tortured arguments, the Ngapuhi claim for such a vast sum of taxpayers money cannot be justified. Note also that this claim is being negotiated before the Waitangi Tribunal has completed its inquiry into Ngapuhi claims. The government has made a decision without regarding the inquiry.

Mike Butler: Mind the facts when debating the gap

It’s election year again and Bryan Bruce was back on TV3 last night with another erratic poverty doco titled “Mind the gap” that appears to want to tax the rich more heavily to give more money to the poor. Some will remember his “Inside child poverty” about effort three years ago. Unfortunately, while Bruce ponders the questions “why is gap between rich and poor in NZ growing faster than anywhere else, and why is that bad for all of us, he is woefully selective or just ignorant when it comes to the data he uses.

Bruce gives example of family in which the dad earns around $350 a week after tax and pays $340 in rent. The mum works part time for an unspecified amount, and they get an accommodation supplement of $250 a week.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: A brave new world of pluri-potent females and redundant males

There was an exciting scientific discovery very recently: mature cells, when immersed in a dilute citric acid solution for half an hour, regress to the state of stem cells which can subsequently be cajoled into turning into specialised cells, such as a nerve cell or a liver cell. These ‘induced pluri-potent stem cells’ (iPSCs, or just iPCs) are not new in themselves, having been around for a few years, but we used to have to make them by manipulating their genetic make-up.

There’s no huge surprises here really. All cells in your body contain the same DNA, so all carry the genetic information needed to become any of the specialised cells. When you’re still a tiny ball of cells 10 days after fertilisation, you’re made of stem cells that are all alike but that start to differentiate into the various specialised types of cells a bit later.

Karl du Fresne: When hardship is self-inflicted

Few New Zealanders begrudge some of their taxes being spent on welfare for people who, through no fault of their own, have fallen on hard times and need a hand to get back on the rails.

Most draw the line, however, at helping people who assume a right to be maintained by their fellow citizens in the lifestyle of their choice. I’m not talking here about the usual sad suspects, such as the women who leave school at 15 and have a succession of children, often by multiple feckless fathers, and rely on the state to pay for their upbringing.

Mike Butler: Ngapuhi -- who gets the money?

The Government has recognised the mandate of the entity known as Tuhoronuku to negotiate the settlement of the Ngapuhi treaty claim, but more than 70 percent of tribal elders refused to attend a meeting on the issue on Saturday. What this most likely means is that all Ngapuhi heavy-hitters are getting themselves in the best position to receive the most money.

According to Radio New Zealand, the Ngapuhi tribal council, or runanga, which set up the Tuhoronuku board in 2011, claims majority support for negotiations but has run into strong opposition from an alliance known as Te Kotahitanga.(1)

Steve Baron: New Zealand's Titanic Problem

Imagine for a moment you’re in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Titanic. You’re in the ballroom having the time of your life rubbing shoulders with other wealthy individuals—the few who could afford such an expensive first class berth on one of the most expensive ships of its day. 

Suddenly the ship lurches and you wonder what the hell happened. Then you bump into Professors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (authors of The Spirit Level). They’ve just come up from below deck and tell you there’s a massive rip along the side of the ship and it’s taking on water fast. The Captain then makes an announcement over the ships intercom; “Don’t worry, we’re just taking on a little bit of water but the pumps are working well. By the way, we’ve rearranged the deck chairs and the band will play its latest hit song, so you can all sit back and relax without a care in the world”.

Ron Smith: Suicide warriors and the laws of war

What should we make of the offer by Japanese authorities of a collection of letters from WW2 Kamikaze pilots to the UNESCO World Heritage ‘Memory of the World’ document collection?  Unsurprisingly, the offer has not been well received by some of Japan’s WW2 adversaries, China describing it as a glorification of Japanese militarism.  

In view of China’s enormous losses in the 1930s and the 1940s, and present tensions between the respective states, this is hardly surprising.  But we still might ask whether this is an appropriate criterion to apply to the preservation of documents and artefacts, which might have historical, or legal/moral significance, in the matter of the way we view war.

Mike Butler: $21.04m soothes 'egregious' failures

A grovelling apology by the Crown delivered to Far North tribe Ngati Kuri at Ngataki on Friday, February 7, 2014, featured in a settlement that includes financial redress of $21.04-million. Ngati Kuri, one of five tribes whose traditional area is the region from the Hokianga Harbour to Mangonui, north, claims 5757 tribal members. The “egregious”, failures by the Crown being “settled” relate to:

1. An alleged failure by government agents to include Ngati Kuri when it bought the 86,885-acre Muriwhenua South block in 1858, reserving “only”100 acres for Maori use.