Mole News

Maori Council partners with Massey research hub
The New Zealand Maori Council has announced a strategic research partnership with Massey University and its Centre for Culture-Centred Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE).

The partnership will see the joint development and co-design of evaluation frameworks around key areas of social policy. It will also lead to the development of an evidence base to support the council when it comes to challenges facing Maori, whanau and communities across New Zealand.

Bob Edlin: Weeds need pulling in the Far North, if Donna wants to do something about climate change

While Shane Jones was filling Point of Order’s email in-tray with a flurry of handout announcements, the grandly titled Māori Climate Commissioner was bleating about  Māori and their land being inadequately treated in the formulation of climate change policy. 

“Māori Climate Commissioner” is a title which rings with Wellington and officialdom. 

Actually it is the creation of a private carbon trading operation called the Māori Carbon Foundation, an organisation  which says it offers

… carbon planting solutions to all landowners, and we are particularly excited about the economic and social benefits that are offered to Māori landowners from participating in the MCF planting programme.

NZPR Weekly: Housing Affordability – Lottery or Reform

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we examine KiwiBuild and outline why it will not solve New Zealand’s housing affordability ‘crisis’, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Frank Newman explains why Labour’s housing changes are making the situation worse, and our poll asks whether you think KiwiBuild is a good policy.

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

Shale Shocked Crude’s Collapse Sends Shockwaves Across Global Markets

U.S. Shale Revolution & Free-Market Economics Dominate Oil Prices

In this newsletter:

1) Shale Shocked: Crude’s Collapse Sends Shockwaves Across Global Markets
Bloomberg, 14 November 2018

2) U.S. Shale Revolution & Free-Market Economics Dominate Oil Prices
Olivier Jakob, Financial Times, 14 November 2018

GWPF Newsletter: 'Too Many Polar Bears' 'Numbers Exceed Co-Existence Threshold'

It Has Come To This: Academic Samizdat

In this newsletter:

1) ‘Too Many Polar Bears:’ Govt Draft Plan Says Polar Bear Numbers ‘Exceed Co-Existence Threshold’
Bob Weber, The Canadian Press, 12 November 2018
 
2) Back To The Dark Ages: Pseudonyms To Protect Scientists Of Controversial Research Papers
Martin Rosenbaum, BBC News, 12 November 2018

Matt Ridley: How to stifle innovation

My biggest beef with the European Union has always been the way it stifles consumer-friendly innovation in the interests of incumbent businesses and organisations. Today’s victory for Sir James Dyson at the European General Court lays bare an especially shocking example.

Dyson’s case, which has taken five years in the courts, reveals just how corrupt and crony-capitalist the European Union has become. It is no surprise that Sir James was and is a big supporter of Britain leaving the EU. Essentially, the rules have been bent to allow German manufacturers to deceive customers about the performance of their vacuum cleaners, in a manner uncannily similar to – but even worse than — the way mostly German car manufacturers deceived customers about the emissions from diesel vehicles.

GWPF Newsletter: Global Fertility Rates Cut In Half Since 1950

Collapse Of UK Renewable Energy Investment Continues

In this newsletter:

1) Global Fertility Rates Cut In Half Since 1950
Michael Nedelman, CNN, 9 November 2018
 
2) 'Remarkable' Decline In Fertility Rates
BBC News, 9 November 2018

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ – except when a woman accuses a man of sexual misconduct

A prominent theme of the ‘Me Too’ movement is the need to ‘believe’ a woman who accuses a man of sexual misconduct – the man should be presumed to be guilty, thereby turning the presumption of innocence, one of the pillars of civilised law, on its head.

The principle of the presumption of innocence has its origins in the writings of Western European (French, Spanish and Italian) jurists but flourished mainly in the English system of law where it manifests itself in the need for the prosecutor in a criminal case to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt. The expression ‘innocent until proven guilty’ was coined by the Victorian jurist William Garrow. Lord Sankey in 1935 referred to it as the ‘golden thread’ that runs through English justice (readers may recall this as being one of Rumpole of the Bailey’s favourite quotations).

Clive Bibby: "Be careful what you wish for"

A recent provincial newspaper editorial suggesting the likely liberalisation of some of the laws governing social issues in this country, while an accurate summary of public opinion trends, was also a sad reflection of the nation's ambivalence towards safeguards of our sovereignty.

Every time an issue that requires some sole searching of our attitudes to what some would call a more "progressive" society, we are challenged to asked ourselves if the move will really provide the environment that will benefit us all or just a few.

It takes a lot of courage to stand up and be counted as one who believes the suggested changes will bring more problems than we need even if the evidence supports such a stance.

GWPF Newsletter: Washington Voters Reject Carbon Tax For A Second Time

A Bad Day For Green Republicans

In this newsletter:

1) Washington Voters Reject Carbon Tax For A Second Time
The Daily Caller, 7 November 2018 
 
2) The Ballot Question That Could Transform U.S. Climate Politics
The Atlantic, 5 November 2018 

David Farrar: What the US results mean

House

The Democrats have taken the House. This is a big achievement and significant. Nancy Pelosi will become Speaker. They Dems will take the chairs of every committee and will be able to launch investigations of the Trump administration. They might even compel Trump’s tax returns to be published. And no laws can be passed without them now.

It is not unusual for the House to change in mid terms. Clinton lost the House in 1994, Bush lost it in 2006 and Obama lost it in 2010. But the projected net loss of 33 seats is larger than average.

NZCPR Weekly: Return the Coast to Public Ownership

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we outline how New Zealanders have been misled over the Marine and Coastal Area Act claims process and why public ownership of the coast must be restored, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Professor Barend Vlaardingerbroek explains why tribalism undermines democracy, and our poll asks whether New Zealand’s coast should be returned to public ownership.

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

GWPF Newsletter: Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Cooling Dramatically

Wind Farms Kill Off 75% Of Buzzards, Hawks And Kites That Live Nearby, Study Shows

In this newsletter:

1) Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Cooling Dramatically, Cosmic Rays Continue To Increase As Deep Solar Minimum Approaches
Meteorologist Paul Dorian, Perspecta, Inc., 5 November 2018 
 
2) Green Species Killers: Wind Farms Kill Off 75% Of Buzzards, Hawks And Kites That Live Nearby, Study Shows
Daily Mail, 6 November 2018

GWPF Newsletter - Big Breakthrough: First Shale Gas Flows At UK Fracking Site

U.S. shale oil and gas boom keeps defying expectations

In this newsletter:

1) Big Breakthrough: First Shale Gas Flows At UK Fracking Site
Reuters, 2 November 2018 
 
2) Ta-Da! America’s Shale Boom Has Just Created A New Mexico
Bloomberg, 1 November 2018 

Barry Soper: Karel Sroubek residency case a shambles

The Prime Minister's got a habit of flicking her head away from a questioner who annoys her in the hope of getting a more friendly one. 

This week Jacinda Ardern would have done a break dancer proud, as the head bobbed this way and that, but try as she might she's been unable to deflect the torrent of questions about an issue that clearly has made her very uncomfortable and with good reason.

It was just over a week ago that her opposite number Simon Bridges was in the same position, although his head barely flickers, his vowels simply became even rounder, with the same words flowing from the elastic lips, "I have done absolutely nothing wrong", he'd proclaim as he defended himself from the onslaught from the feral Jami-Lee Ross.

Bob Edlin: Why the Democrats should brace for some serious soul-searching

Washington Correspondent:  Democrats hoping for decisive victories in the US mid-term congressional elections next Tuesday must be increasingly nervous. Polling guru Nate Silver still gives the Democratic party a six in seven chance of regaining control of the House of Representatives but he now says it would take a systematic opinion polling error (ie, most pollsters making the same mistakes) for them to win back the United States Senate.  And despite his excellent record, he still missed the Trump surge in 2016.

This is quite a change from the optimism of mid-year.  If the Democratic Party falls short of expectations, there will need to be some serious soul-searching.

Karl du Fresne: The Canberra elite's visceral loathing for Pauline Hanson

I first wrote about Pauline Hanson in 1997. She was then a newly elected Australian MP whom the liberal media – indeed most of the Australian political establishment – openly despised.

Hanson had been selected as a Liberal Party candidate in the 1996 elections but was dis-endorsed because the party was embarrassed by her opposition to special government assistance for Aborigines. She won the Queensland seat of Oxley anyway, despite it being an Australian Labor Party stronghold, and went on to form the One Nation Party.

Journalists and commentators made much of the fact that she had previously owned a fish and chip shop. She was seen as bigoted and uneducated and therefore not worthy of a seat in the Australian parliament. It didn’t seem to occur to her detractors that the bigoted and ignorant, in a democracy, are as entitled to representation as anyone.

Lindsay Mitchell: Increased cash hand-outs reduce incentive to work

Seems obvious to you and I, but a fact that the Left has long resisted. Their response is always to indignantly insist, "...people want to work."

But MSD doesn't necessarily agree. At least the actuarial arm which produces an annual Benefit System Performance Report.

Below is a graph tracking exit rates among Jobseeker-Work Ready (JS/WR) beneficiaries. The associated commentary notes that recent exit rates are lower than during the GFC!

But notice also the bold type sentence below the graph. Paying those JS beneficiaries with children MORE has reduced their exits off welfare.

GWPF Newsletter - Bolsonaro In, Merkel Out: The Paris Climate Gang Is Breaking Up

Only 16 Countries Meet Their Paris Agreement Commitments, New Study Finds

1) Bolsonaro In, Merkel Out: The Paris Climate Gang Is Breaking Up
GWPF & Climate Home News, 31 October 2018 
 
2) Will Trump And Bolsonaro Unravel The Paris Climate Agreement?
The Daily Caller, 29 October 2018

NZCPR Weekly: Global Warming - the New Political Platform

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we look into the implications of Jacinda Ardern’s zero carbon agenda and the austerity measures that she will need to introduce, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Jock Allison shares scientific evidence that shows the greenhouse gas emission data that our Government relies on is flawed, and our poll asks whether you believe agriculture should be included in the Emissions Trading Scheme.

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