Karl du Fresne: Long Bay - a reminder of what we value about living in New Zealand

I’m writing this column in a camping ground at Long Bay, on the Coromandel Peninsula.

It’s Sunday morning. From where our caravan is parked I could almost spit into the sea, if I were of a mind to.

There are bush-covered headlands to the north and south of the bay and pohutukawa trees line the shore. Last night I heard the quintessential New Zealand nocturnal sound of a ruru (morepork) calling.

At the moment the tide is out and I can see kids fossicking on the rocks. The floating platform that people were diving from when we arrived here yesterday is virtually high and dry.

Clive Bibby: Who should we blame?

The aftermath of the Christchurch tragedy is already showing us that too often we learn nothing from events that should have taught us much about ourselves.

If that proves to be the case here, then it will be a wasted opportunity to do something positive in memory of those individuals who were mercilessly gunned down in an environment that should have been amongst one of our most protected.

Alas, we now know that those sort of naive assumptions about even our places of worship were misplaced. In one act of "infamy", the terrorist has shattered all the preconceived ideas about the shrinking number of areas on the planet that could be regarded as safe havens.

Mole News

Trust boosts schools' reo resource
Taitokerau Education Trust has teamed up with the Te Puawai cluster of Northland schools to create the position of rūmaki and reo rua facilitator.

Whangārei Intermediate School teacher Neke Adams will support the cluster’s kaiako Māori to become digitally immersed in their classrooms, as part of the trust's successful digital immersion programme.

GWPF Newsletter: Record Snowfall Across Himalayas Blamed On … Global Warming

The BBC’s Age Of Denial

In this newsletter:

1) Record Snowfall Across Himalayas Blamed On … Global Warming
GWPF & Press Trust of India, 19 March 2019 
 
2) Climate Committee Chairman Is Paid £500,000 From Green Companies Set To Profit From New Policy He Helped To Push Through
David Rose, Mail on Sunday, 17 March 2019 

GWPF Newsletter: Political Climate Change Hits Brussels

European Conservatives Dismiss Higher Climate Target As Left-Wing ‘Propaganda’

In this newsletter:

1) European Conservatives Dismiss Higher Climate Target As Left-Wing ‘Propaganda’
EU Observer, 14 March 2019
 
2) Dutch Govt Election Panic Prompts Sudden U-Turn On Climate Plan
De Telegraaf, 14 March 2019

Melanie Phillips: Brexit Update

There are reports in today’s papers that the Attorney-General, Geoffrey Cox, is having secret talks with the DUP to persuade them that there is a way out of the Irish backstop trap after all.

It was the Attorney’s opinion on Tuesday that, despite the EU’s concessions on the backstop, the legal risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop with “no internationally lawful means of exiting” except with the EU’s agreement “remained unchanged”.

His blunt assessment provoked government fury that he had thus failed to provide the Brexiteers with a legal ladder from which they could climb down off their rejectionist tree. Mrs May’s deal was accordingly heavily defeated.

The Partnership Deception

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we look into the deception that underpins race-based privilege including proposed exemptions from a capital gains tax, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Anthony Willy explains why the claims by Maori that a capital gains tax would breach the Treaty of Waitangi are based on a false premise, and our poll asks whether you support capital gains tax exemptions based on race.

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

GWPF Newsletter: Climate Wars May Bring Down Yet Another Australian Prime Minister

Ireland: Parties At War Over Carbon Tax Increases

In this newsletter:

1) Climate Wars May Bring Down Yet Another Australian Prime Minister
The Australian, 12 March 2019
 
2) Ireland: Parties At War Over Carbon Tax Increases
The Independent, 11 March 2019 

GWPF Newsletter: Second Wave of U.S. Shale Revolution Is Coming, Says IEA

Maine Becomes The Most Recent Blue State To Reject A Carbon Tax

In this newsletter:

1) Second Wave of U.S. Shale Revolution Is Coming, Says IEA
The Wall Street Journal, 11 April 2019 
 
2) America Set To Surpass Saudi Arabia In ‘Remarkable’ Oil Milestone
CNN, 8 March 2019 

GWPF Newsletter: EU Leaders Fear Rising Energy Prices Will Boost Populist Parties In European Elections

As Energy Prices Rise Sharply, Dutch Turn Climate Sceptical

In this newsletter:

1) As Energy Prices Rise Sharply, Dutch Turn Climate Sceptical
NL News, 7 March 2019

2) Carbon Taxes May Decide Dutch Elections 
NL Times, 8 March 2019

Bob Edlin: All votes are equal on this regional council working group – but some are more equal than others

Here’s hoping the Greater Wellington Regional Council makes a better fist of restoring its eco-systems than it has done of overhauling its bus service.

But in establishing a consultative working group to develop the Wellington Regional Biodiversity Framework, it has brought curious ideas about “share” and “partnership” into considerations.

Clearly it has been infected by the same urge to foster co-governance that has swept through the country’s local authorities in recent years.

The working group will include three members who will cast TWO votes each, when it comes to electing the co-chairs.  The other 12 or so members will get one vote.

Any guesses about who might get two votes?

Barry Soper: Bit rich for Cullen to call Key a 'rich prick'

It's a bit rich (with rich being the operative word) for Sir Michael Cullen to have once called John Key a rich prick, when he seems to be doing the best to become one himself.

Is there any wonder why at the end of interviews over his Tax Working Group's report he politely says it was his pleasure.

That's because the cash register begins ticking over the moment he's approached to clarify aspects of his group's comprehensive report - and it will continue long after the Government's finally given its view of the report at the end of April.

Matt Ridley: Laundered Lies

‘The whole aim of practical politics,’ wrote H.L. Mencken, ‘is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.’ 

Newspapers, politicians and pressure groups have been moving smoothly for decades from one forecast apocalypse to another (nuclear power, acid rain, the ozone layer, mad cow disease, nanotechnology, genetically modified crops, the millennium bug…) without waiting to be proved right or wrong.

Increasingly, in a crowded market for alarm, it becomes necessary to make the scares up. More and more headlines about medical or environmental panics are based on published scientific papers, but ones that are little more than lies laundered into respectability with a little statistical legerdemain. 

Karl du Fresne: 2018 - the year of white noise

It’s said that when someone once asked the Chinese communist leader Zhou Enlai about the impact of the French Revolution, he replied that it was too soon to say.

This was in the 1970s, nearly 200 years after the event.

The message from this is that historical patterns emerge slowly and it’s unwise to draw conclusions too soon. Nonetheless I’m going to stick my neck out and predict that 2018 will be recorded as the year when New Zealand was irrevocably drawn into the so-called culture wars – the global contest between neo-Marxists, who view Western civilisation as rotten and oppressive, and the upholders of traditional mainstream values and beliefs.  

NZCPR Weekly: The Politics of a Capital Gains Tax

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we look at the politics of a capital gains tax and delve further into the detail of the Tax Working Group’s proposal, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Frank Newman assesses the so-called ‘fairness’ of the proposed capital gains tax, and our poll asks whether you believe the proposed capital gains tax is an attack on the Kiwi way of life.

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

GWPF Newsletter: Europe Split Over Its Own Green Deal As Germany Urges Prudence

2019 Global Temps Prediction: The Entries Are In

In this newsletter:

1) Europe Split Over Its Own Green Deal As Germany Urges Prudence
Bloomberg, 4 March 2019 
 
2) The Green New Deal Isn’t Going Anywhere Soon
Michael Bastasch, The Daily Caller, 5 March 2019 

GWPF Newsletter: WWF’s Secret War

Green NGO Funds Guards Who Have Tortured And Killed People

In this newsletter:

1) WWF’s Secret War: One Of The World’s Biggest Green NGO Funds Guards Who Have Tortured And Killed People
BuzzFeed News, 4 March 2019 
 
2) An Israeli Company May Have Solved The World’s Water Problems For Good
Jerusalem Post, 4 March 2019 

Bob Edlin: ‘Democracy’ rhetoric suggests Greens will oppose Ngai Tahu power grab – but let’s not count on it

The Green Party’s urge to strengthen our democracy through a Member’s Bill, the Electoral Strengthening Democracy Bill, should portend Green willingness to try to stall a Ngai Tahu power grab in Canterbury.  But don’t hold your breath.

Green electoral reform spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman, who is introducing the bill, said New Zealand proudly has a strong democratic system  – but

“… there is definitely room for improvement to ensure we have the best democratic system possible and that access is fair”.

And: “The Bill seeks to stop unfair influence and potential corruption in politics.”

GWPF Newsletter - Matt Ridley: The Rise Of Fake Science

Climate Law Threatens To Blow Apart Germany’s Coalition Government

In this newsletter:

1) Matt Ridley: The Rise Of Fake Science
The Spectator, 28 February 2019
 
2) Climate Law Threatens To Blow Apart Germany’s Coalition Government
Politico, 28 February 2019 

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Reining in the blustering Beijing bully

Most of us don’t like bullies. We all have memories of them from our childhood, when we were most vulnerable to their thuggery in the school playground, or locations outside school where they would accost and terrorise other kids.

To be a bully, one has to be totally self-centred and commensurately dismissive of the feelings and rights of others. Bullies seek psychological and material gratification through intimidation and violence. Popular wisdom has it that they are cowards at heart, and accordingly ensure that their quarry is comparatively powerless by virtue of physical prowess or being outnumbered.

Bullying is a reality on the international stage too, where the big and powerful coerce weaker countries into making concessions to their own detriment. The price of noncompliance – economic or military action against them – leaves them little choice.