Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 21/11/24

Three minutes after midnight, police make arrest under new gang patch law – but the boot camp news is disappointing

The good news on the law-and-order front today came from an ebullient Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Police had made their first arrests under the new gang patch legislation, with two gang members arrested, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell.

Just before 11 this morning, Police in Wairoa apprehended a gang member for wearing a patch to the supermarket. He had been arrested and would face “enforcement action”.

Mike's Minute: The ComCom Transpower decision is madness

It's ironic that we mention the Commerce Commission yesterday and here we are today, indulging in a bit more of its madness.

Lines charges, the cost of getting power to your house, is going to get more expensive.

Your bill will rise for the next handful of years by up to $85. That’s over $1,000 a year.

Brendan O'Neill: Why they refuse to see Jews as victims

The left’s pitiless cynicism about the pogrom in Amsterdam confirms how morally lost they are.

It was the speed with which the racism fearmongers became racism deniers that was most unnerving. Virtually overnight, as men whose only crime was their Jewishness were still being patched up in Amsterdam hospitals, the preening racism denouncers of what passes for the Euro-left were saying this wasn’t racism. The very people who see racism everywhere could not see it here, in the broken teeth, black eyes and bloodied faces of Israelis who became the prey of a self-described Jew hunt earlier this month in Amsterdam. Confronted with beaten, bruised Jews, they said, for the first time I can remember, ‘Maybe it wasn’t a hate crime. Maybe it was something else.’

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Lessons for Australia in NZ's polarising Treaty debate

For decades, Australian advocates for indigenous reconciliation have pointed to New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi as a model. Where Australia lacks a foundational agreement with its First Nations peoples, New Zealand has had one since 1840.

Yet current developments across the Tasman suggest that having a treaty is no guarantee of settling complex questions of indigenous rights. In fact, New Zealand’s experience shows how such documents can become focal points for ongoing – and often polarising – debates about national identity and governance.

Dr Eric Crampton: Finally proposals to set access charges

Getting from Auckland to Cathedral Cove means a two-and-a-half-hour drive over 178 kilometres, the last third of which is a windy path through the Coromandel.

Inland Revenue sets a $1.04 per kilometre mileage rate for business travel – a figure meant to include wear and tear on your vehicle as well as running costs. Running costs will include the charges the government sets for using the roads, which help to recoup the cost of building and maintaining those roads.

Guest Post: A submission in support of the Treaty Principles Bill

Ann Arnold's submission first published on Waikanae Watch

The original Treaty of Waitangi February 1840 was written in English and translated exactly word for word into Maori (often called the Littlewood version) and was signed at Waitangi. It consisted of 3 Articles. There were no principles in the original document. The only difference between the Maori and English versions were the date and the word Maori, inserted to make sure it was understood Maori were citizens too. The original version brought all peoples of New Zealand under the sovereignty of Queen Victoria and was what Maori and Pakeha wanted, and signed on that auspicious day 6 February 1840.

Ele Ludemann: Public must have trust and confidence in police

Soon to be Police Commissioner, now deputy, Richard Chambers has a welcome perspective on policing by consent:

Breaking Views Update: Week of 17.11.24

Thursday November 21, 2024 

News:
"There's got to be respect": PM says the Parliament rules need revisiting
The Prime Minister says there needs to be rules in Parliament to ensure there's debate about difficult issues, without it degenerating into chaos.

Speaker Gerry Brownlee's confirmed he's received complaints about Te Pati Māori's haka in the House last week.

Simon O'Connor: The path to irrelevance

With so much media reporting at odds with public sentiment or clearly one-sided - be it in New Zealand or as we have seen recently in the United States - the direction of travel is not positive.

There are many lessons to take away from the United States’ elections, but one that has immediate relevance to New Zealand is the yawning gap between the views of mainstream media and the public.

David Farrar: A good top cop

The Prime Minister has appointed Richard Chambers as the new Police Commissioner. This will be a popular move with frontline police, and I daresay the public. He has significant operational experience.

His police career is:

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Dame Whina Cooper's hīkoi was for change.....

Dame Whina Cooper's hīkoi was for change. This week's hīkoi was for keeping the status quo, the opposite of what the NZ Herald claims.

Today the NZ Herald's front page headline blared, "Hīkoi to Parliament: Tens of thousands energized for change after protest against Treaty Principles Bill .. The time for change is here". How Orwellian. This week's march was a march for the status quo. Its a protest against ACT's Treaty Principles Bill, which seeks to define in legislation what are those principles.

Roger Childs: Te Pati Māori fears the Treaty Principles Bill

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. –Article 1, United Nations Declaration of Human Rights

Small but noisy

As the Hikoi grinds its way on to Parliament, the Maori Party claims that it has a key leadership role. But this is a group with a single focus: to speak with a strong, independent and united voice for Maori. They are just a small party with a loud voice having garnered only 3.08% of the popular vote in last year’s election. However, they have six seats in the House of Representatives courtesy of the undemocratic special Maori seats.

Dieuwe de Boer: New Zealand is an Ethno-State

This may seen somewhat strange and provocative, but I believe this is an important point to make out loud and one that should be as easy to say as "water is wet." A nation is a people. "Ethnos" is the Greek word for nation, tribe, and people. A nation-state is an ethno-state. Without the "New Zealand European" as the clear majority ethnic group there would be no New Zealand.

DTNZ: Heavily censored COVID jab “sudden death” study republished

A study examining sudden deaths following COVID-19 vaccination has been published after facing nearly two years of “unprecedented” censorship.

The study, initially submitted to The Lancet and another journal but pulled from publication at the last moment, has now been peer-reviewed and made public.

Capitalist: It Was Asking for Big Trouble

The founder of the British SAS was a Scots aristocrat called David Stirling. After WWII he found peacetime a bit boring – after having personally killed 43 Germans with his bare hands – and so he engaged in various mercenary activities in Africa and the Middle East. One of those mercenary engagements was the war in Yemen in the early 1960s. To cut a long story short, Stirling and his people had the war won but the handwringers in Whitehall in London didn’t like the idea of a private army fighting wars in a sensitive area and told Stirling to pull out, abandon the fighting and return home (or else).

Wednesday November 20, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 20/11/24

Researchers make the case for a carbon tax while NZ brays about our ETS (and finds $10m for climate change fund)

The University of Auckland has drawn attention to a new study which emphasises the value of a carbon tax to effectively decarbonise the economy.

A carbon tax is the most effective way for New Zealand to cut emissions while supporting a stable economy, according to the study.

Sir Bob Jones: Setting the record straight

In an editorial on Armistice day, the New Zealand Herald wrote the following nonsense.

“When it was announced at 3pm on August 5th, 1914, that the fledging nation of New Zealand was going to war on the other side of the world, patriotic young men cheered and rushed to sign up and do their duty”.

That passage is hogwash and reflects the sad decline in print media standards. A mere three decades back when our newspapers had informed back-room staff, it could never have been published.

Here are the facts.

David Farrar: The $1.3 million Christmas tree

Radio NZ reports:

A million-dollar Christmas tree is going up in downtown Auckland, leaving some baulking at the council’s spending while its residents struggle through a cost-of-living crisis.

Auckland Council hasn’t revealed the price of the 18m steel tree, set to stand in Te Komititanga Square (formerly Elizabeth Square) on lower Queen Street. However, the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance says it costs up to $1.3 million.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Finance Minister Nicola Willis - A First Year Economic Report Card

National was elected on the promise of fixing the economy. Not talking about it; but to deliver the goods. Not to do a public relations and marketing job, since we tired of the spin doctors & comms teams under the previous Labour government. National was elected to deliver tangible improvements in our daily lives. How is Finance Minister Willis doing? She has not yet proved herself. She has little over one more year to do so. How come?