Lindsay Mitchell: Prison population levels off

Labour's policy was to drive down the prison population. And they have.

But since March 2022 the population has levelled off. 2022 looks different to 2020 and 2021.

A change in policy? Time for a cup of tea? Something has changed.

Point of Order: Why the government should be working on a hydrogen strategy

Point of Order a week ago was serving up some commentary on the news that the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will not shut down in 2024 — and could have a long-term future.

The question now is whether Meridian Energy, which supplies the bulk of Tiwai Point’s electricity from the big Manapouri station, will be willing to do so without a price hike. The last price negotiation was difficult, with Rio Tinto using the threat of closure to screw the price down.

Kate Hawkesby: Hard working David Seymour is hitting all the right notes

 

The big winner out of last night’s One News Kantar poll is David Seymour.

While the two main parties both went down two points, Act went up by four.

And the good thing for them about that is, that while the Nats dropped two, they're still on 37 which means add in Act's 11 percent support, and the right block on those numbers, would have enough to govern. 

Bob Jones: Amusing nonsense from Shane Te Pou

Labour insider zealot Shane Te Pou writes regular Labour wonderfulness stories in the NZ Herald. I’m astonished the paper runs them as they’re so nonsensical and predictable. Then again, given the government is a source of so much mug taxpayer revenue in ridiculous full page adverts and payments to the media in various guises, I shouldn’t be surprised. But I laughed when I read the heading on Shane’s latest effort, specifically, “It’s increasingly evident Luxon is not up to the job.”

If Shane really believed that he’d shut up about it so as not to deter the Nats rolling Luxon.

Mike Hosking: We need more than talk over the rampaging crime spree

I note the some of the media have reacquainted themselves with crime.

The Government to their credit managed to quieten the whole mess down for a while by disposing of Poto Williams who, although spectacularly useless, was really just a sacrificial lamb to get the heat off the Government over an issue they have been woefully found wanting on.

Chris Hipkins announced he would visit every police district in the country. We had the Police Association on telling us they liked Hipkins and he had read his briefing papers, so things were looking up.

Meantime the ram-raids, abuse, violence, and lawlessness rolled on given thugs aren't really interested in political appointments.

Kerre Woodham: What was National's selection panel thinking keeping this quiet?

On a day when National should be soaring, and scoring all sorts of points with the latest political poll giving National and ACT enough votes to form a Government and Labour at its lowest since 2017.

When Andrew Little has had to concede that just nine nurses have applied to come to New Zealand when he said look, there's thousands. We don't need to change anything around immediate residency because we've got thousands of nurses who want to come here - so far, just nine.

And when the office of the Auditor-General has delivered what the opposition calls a scathing indictment of the Three Water’s proposal. A damning analysis of the overlap of proposed governance structures, lack of access to information by the public to scrutinise the proposed water entities, a lack of performance measures and a lack of integration with other reforms and local planning.

Roger Childs: New Zealand’s appalling record on dyslexia

 

People with dyslexia exist across genders, socioeconomic statuses, races, ethnicities, and intelligence levels. White Paper produced for the Government of California

About 10% of the world’s population have dyslexia

If 500,000 Kiwis had Monkeypox that would be big news in the mainstream media. How about the reality of half a million New Zealanders with dyslexia?

Mike Yardley: Bolder changes needed to tackle 'welfarism' across age groups

Proud of his Christchurch upbringing, it was apt that the National Party leader delivered his first major speech to the party faithful in his hometown, at Te Pae Convention Centre. And what a coup for Te Pae to have its world-class hosting credentials lustily on display, via the extensive media coverage of National’s big bash.

I’m sure it wasn’t deliberate, but what is it with Sir John Key “gate-crashing” the news agenda, on the same day his political protégé is gearing up for a set-piece speech?

Sir John’s excoriation of US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan as “reckless, provocative and dangerous” will have been music to Beijing’s ears, but he also ran the risk of upstaging Luxon’s big moment.

Guy Hatchard: The Dead Do Not Have a Voice, but They Are Entitled to Justice

Last week a school child died of a sudden medical event in New Zealand while running, and 12 thousand miles away, the 24 year old captain of a hurling team in Ireland collapsed mid game and died soon after.

The New Zealand school principal said:

Bryce Edwards: Luxon’s “New National”

Back in the 1990s, Tony Blair rebranded The British Labour Party as “New Labour”, to try and draw a line under past failures. It’s as if Christopher Luxon is attempting to follow suit, and launch “New National” at the moment – a party that’s fresh-looking, has made some big breaks from the past, but is still recognisably conservative.

The National Party’s weekend conference – the first with Luxon as leader – was relatively successful in breaking with the past and modernising. But there were still plenty of recycled policies on show.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 7.8.22

Tuesday August 9, 2022 

News:
Māori electorates: National Party to stand candidate in Tāmaki Makaurau at election
The party would be standing a candidate in Tāmaki Makaurau and was open to stand others in Māori seats, Sylvia Wood told Morning Report.

Over the years National has held various positions on standing candidates in Māori seats.

Bob Jones: Madness

In the USA in 2021 over 45,000 citizens were killed by gunshots, including over 1,500 children.

In total there were 692 mass shootings in supermarkets and the like (defined as 4 or more victims).

Yet here’s the madness. Current polling shows only a tiny majority of Americans favour gun restrictions, albeit the trend is rising from 20% in favour three decades back. Ironically, but perhaps understandably, every fresh mass shooting, on average one every 4 days, sees a surge in gun sales with people viewing them as essential protection.

Derek Mackie: I can't catch Covid - I'm inside, sitting down and eating!

I’ve been trying to fathom one of life’s great modern mysteries. 

Not quite up there with “Is there a God?” or “What happens when I die?” or even “Is the Universe infinite?”, it is nonetheless a contemporary enigma that needs solving, in my opinion. 

 Why can’t you catch Covid, sitting down, without a mask, in a public eating place? 

 I only ask because many months of observation has confirmed that people who religiously wear face-masks everywhere, outside and in, standing or walking, alone or in a crowd, are perfectly happy to whip them off when seated in public eating places. 

I’m principally talking about cafes and restaurants here, which seem just as busy as ever, even though current daily case numbers are hitting the 10,000+ mark and deaths have never been higher. 

Mike Hosking: The political choices are becoming clearer, let's see who wins

The chunk of the media who are still in love with the Labour Party are on some sort of campaign right now to undermine Chris Luxon.

They have taken two events they perceive to be major issues and tried to turn them into even more major issues.

One was the Te Puke post. Two, was the tax policy confusion. Neither are big deals; both are beltway only of interest to those obsessed with the Wellington political environment.

Guy Hatchard: Mainstream Media Stokes the Fear Factor

Our Covid-19 infection rate is declining, but the New Zealand Herald continues to stoke the fear factor.

They lead today with “Analysis: Covid-19 now one of NZ’s biggest killers” by ‘Science’ Reporter Jamie Morton. Statisticians are probably laughing into their coffee cups, and school teachers wondering whether to use it as an example of how to misuse statistics.

The Herald reports that Covid is causing 1 in 7 deaths (week ending July 17th). Their greatest fear is that we are becoming indifferent to the ‘dangers’.

Let’s fact check their figures:

Chris Trotter: We Are All Maori – With a Small ‘M’

Something very strange has happened on the left of New Zealand politics. This past week, Dame Anne Salmond has been derided on Twitter as a racist. To appreciate just how astonishing that is, it helps to know that Salmond was one of the three experts who advised the Waitangi Tribunal that the Maori chiefs gathered at Waitangi on 6 February 1840 did not concede sovereignty to the British. Politically, this makes her one of the key contributors to the currently dominant left-wing discourse of “co-governance”. What can she possibly have done to warrant the abuse to which she is now being subjected?

In a nutshell, she has argued (anne-salmond-time-to-unteach-race?) that the Treaty document itself is not a “racial” document, but a blueprint for how “ordinary people” – be they native born, or hailing from other parts of the world – can rub along together in these islands without pissing each other off too much. By pointing out that the concept of “race” is absent from both the Maori and English texts of the Treaty, however, Salmond has thrown a very large and inconvenient cat among the “co-governance” and “partnership” pigeons.

Guy Hatchard: Detailed Investigation of Spike Protein Action Suggests Mechanisms for Adverse Effect Generation

Some of the research work concerning Covid and Covid vaccination is centered around understanding why the spike protein is toxic and exactly how it affects elements of physiological systems.

Some of the published papers involve complex investigation of physiological mechanisms with implications beyond the background of a lay person.

A paper published on 14 June 2022 in Cells journal examines lipid toxicity. Another paper published earlier on 3 May 2021 studied a possible effect of the spike protein causing excessive immunoreactivity of brain pericytes.

John Porter: Ministry of Truth Happy to Hire an Anti-White Bigot

“Settler/Coloniser, we are your worst nightmare. And we are coming to a university near you!” So tweeted one Professor Joanna Kidman, who has recently been appointed a director of the newly launched Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism.

Or the Ministry of Truth as it is being referred to on social media.

The appointment of Kidman suggests that Ardern’s Government is comfortable and even agrees with the prejudiced views that Kidman expresses.

So who exactly is Professor Joanna Kidman?

Clive Bibby: A Scientific Own Goal

The fact that Peter Ridd has been proven right for his lone stance on the health of the Great Barrier Reef will go nowhere as compensation for the humiliation, lost employment opportunities and reputation suffered as a result of the pack attack led by his own scientific and academic peers.

I doubt that we will ever see a more damning episode involving a group of scientists so wedded to the IPCC mantra regarding the cause and effects of this cycle of climate change.

Garrick Tremain: Knockout

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on Jacinda's knockout of democracy!