The Breaking Views blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research at NZCPR.com. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
Then he was chided by Maori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer for failing to stop “racist” questions being asked in Parliament.
Other than Hansard, the only account of this attempt to curb MPs’ right to speak freely in Parliament was a Newshub report headed Rawiri Waititi lashes out at ‘Māori bashing’ in Parliament as Jacinda Ardern challenges Judith Collins to say ‘partnership’
But to whom – we wonder – is the Speaker accountable?
I base my support in this instant purely on a belief that
criticism is only effective when reserved for transgressions that are obvious
to people with a reasonable sense of fair play but are balanced with
complimentary comments that are equally potent when justified. Credit given
where or when credit is due!
The governments announcement of pay freezes for a large section of the public service is, in my view, an opportunity for the latter.
Jersey faces blackouts as France threatens to cut off electricity
In this newsletter:
1) UK manufacturers call for petrol and diesel car ban to be delayed
Daily Express, 5 May 2021
2) Jersey faces blackouts as France threatens to cut off electricity
GWPF Energy, 5 May 2021
Is this government listening to itself?
In an unbelievable move, it has just announced that it’s going ahead with Fair Pay Agreements.
Now I’ll run you through the details in a tick, but the main gist of it is that the government is re-introducing collective bargaining.
So that, if enough workers in one sector, let’s say cleaners, agree to a pay and conditions deal with their employers, then that will be binding on all employers of cleaners.
Even if the employers weren’t part of negotiations and didn’t say yes to the pay increase, even if they can’t afford it.
The document ‘He Puapua’ is apparently, the roadmap for the implementation of ‘The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ (UNDRIP) into New Zealand Law by the Year 2040.
This implies that He Puapua should reflect the principles of UNDRIP. However, as I read both documents, it becomes apparent that this is not entirely the case. He Puapua, is using UNDRIP as a disguise, it is obviously a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Unrealistic pledges revealed as grandstanding
In this newsletter:
1) The truth about Joe Biden’s climate summit: Unrealistic pledges revealed as grandstanding
GWPF, 3 May 2021
2) Japan's ambitious carbon target sparks bureaucratic panic
Financial Times, 3 May 2021
Call me heartless, but I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the border workers losing their jobs for refusing the vaccine. I don’t mind the fact you have a choice, and if you choose not to vaccinate, so be it, that’s up to you, but not if you’re a border or MIQ worker.
Because the risk there is too great, there’s too much at stake, we've come too far.
Sure, if you’re squirreled away in some non-contact, non-customer interfacing role, somewhere in a warehouse, or you’re a farm worker, or you’re self-employed and you choose not to vaccinate, no problem. But if you’re at the border, or in MIQ, surely you know by now that’s par for the course.
Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on He Puapua!
I suppose it’s fairly easy to sack a customs worker for not getting a Covid jab, as they have here, and despite that they’ve already got the unions and advocates exercised.
But this is a bigger issue, I suspect than many of us have given thought to.
63 percent of American employers, according to a poll this week, are going to be demanding their workers are jabbed.
63 percent is a lot, and it will grow, given there will be some who will be sitting and waiting to see how it unfolds, and if it unfolds towards vaccination, they’ll pile on.
Now, the legals.
It was reported in Stuff for 3rd April 2021 that Leah Bell spoke at a Fairfield College Assembly a few days earlier to commemorate the battle at Orakau Pa 157 years ago. Well, well, anything wrong in that? Yes actually there is - quite a lot!
Leah Bell, it may be recalled, first had her mind poisoned by a teacher – or the teacher’s spouse – when a student at Otorohanga College. She mounted a petition based on a false version of New Zealand’s history and presented it to Nanaia Mahuta at Parliament. So she has something of a record as a political activist. It is reported that she is a “Research Consultant” for Vincent O’Malley, author of dubious accounts of New Zealand history, notably about the events at Rangiaowhia during some Waikato tribes’ Kingite Rebellion, wrongly termed a “New Zealand War”.[1],[2]
As reported, the account stated that “Leah Bell won't forget the tears rolling down the elders’ cheeks as they stood at the green fields of Rangiaowhia. ‘We felt the immense grief and mamae there ... at the lack of justice given, the lack of apology for an atrocity where innocent women, children and elderly people were murdered’.”
“[O]n February 21, 1864, British forces unexpectedly attacked the flourishing agricultural centre of Rangiaowhia – burning homes and churches, killing women, children and elderly people.”
What is utterly appalling about this account is that there was never, simply never, any atrocity committed at Rangiaowhia by British forces.
While NASA goes green, China prepares to dominate Earth orbit
In this newsletter:
1) Europe’s heavy industry unlikely to survive Net Zero
GWPF, 30 April 2021
2) EU industry calls for urgent carbon border tax as prices soar
Financial Times, 29 April 2021
