Breaking Views Update: Week of 25.08.19

Sunday August 25, 2019

News:
Kaumātua wellbeing research gets $2.5 million in government funding
Better lives for the kaumātua [elderly] of Aotearoa is the focus of a $2.5 million wellbeing project led by a Waikato researcher.

The project, called Kaumātua Mana Motuhake Pōi, will involve up to 350 Māori elders and attracted its sizeable grant from the Government's Ageing Well National Science Challenge.

Christopher Monckton: Now They’re coming after the Roast Beef of Old England

At Harvard, there was once a University. Now that once noble campus has become a luxury asylum for the terminally feeble-minded. Walter Willett, one of the inmates (in his sadly incurable delusion he calls himself “Professor of Nutrition”), has gibbered to a well-meaning visitor from Business Insider that “eating a diet that’s especially high in red meat will be undermining the sustainability of the climate.” 

Farewell, then, to the Roast Beef of Old England. So keen are we in the Old Country on our Sunday roast (cooked rare and sliced thickish) that the French call us les rosbifs. But the “Professor” (for we must humor him by letting him think he is qualified to talk about nutrition) wants to put a stop to all that.

Melanie Phillips: Glad, confident morning for Britain’s battling Brexiteers? Er, not quite

Suddenly Brexit has become possible, coo the newspapers this morning; and suddenly, this Brexiteer’s heart stops for the umpteenth time during this national crisis. 

For what they are saying has now suddenly become possible is not Brexit — which, after all, Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been intoning like a stuck record will happen on October 31 even with no deal – but Brexit with a withdrawal deal with the EU.

Mike Hosking: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has become a serial thought bubbler

A disappointing week for the agenda worriers.

All those who have their lofty ideas and ideals as to how we've cocked up any given number of societal issues and have set out to amend them.

The gender pay gap, a calling card for a decent number of worriers and luvvies, turns out with new stats this week to still be a bit, well, stuck.

NZCPR Weekly: Setting New Zealand Up to Fail

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we outline how the Labour-Green-New Zealand First Government has set New Zealand on a path to failure, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Frank Newman explains why the Reserve Bank’s larger than expected cut in interest rates to boost confidence is likely to do the opposite, and our poll asks whether you too feel the country is being set up to fail.

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

Breaking Views Update: Week of 18.08.19

Saturday August 24, 2019

News:
Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft supports separate childcare system for Māori
Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft isn't ruling out a separate childcare system for Māori outside of Oranga Tamariki.

"There's a common cry for ownership by Māori and delivery of services by Māori for Māori. I think the time has come, as a nation, for us to seriously consider that."

When pressed on what that system would look like, Becroft said he could picture working alongside a Māori Children's Commissioner.

Henry Armstrong: Retirees beware - he’s after your savings!

Hundreds of thousands of older New Zealanders, after a lifetime of saving for retirement, were astonished recently to find those savings may be under real threat. 

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has made it abundantly clear that both RBNZ and Treasury are actively developing contingency plans for a negative interest regime.

GWPF Newsletter - NASA: Amazon Fires Slightly Below Average Rates

Michael Mann Loses Lawsuit Against Climate Sceptic Tim Ball

In this newsletter:

1) NASA: Amazon Fires Slightly Below Average Rates
Robert Walker, Science 2.0, 21 August 2019 

2) Michael Mann Loses Lawsuit Against Climate Sceptic Tim Ball
Anthony Watts, Watts Up With That, 22 August 2019

Bryce Edwards: Political Roundup - Simon Bridges and National go populist

Is Simon Bridges really trying to channel Donald Trump? Or is he taking his cue from Scott Morrison? Or is he looking to emulate Boris Johnson? 

Whatever the inspiration, there’s been a clear change in the National Party leaders’ political positioning and tactics in recent months that suggests he’s decided to go down a more rightwing-populist path in the search for power. 

Richard M. Ebeling: How Capitalism Could Save the World

In following the daily news events both in the United States and the rest of the world, it is easy to get lost in the detail and not step back and remind ourselves what the really important issues are. 

Under the anxiety of a possible nuclear war in Korea, actual terrorist attacks in the Middle East and by seemingly “lone wolves” in other countries, threats of trade wars, and polarizing trends in politics, the real underlying issue is, and remains, how should people live together?

GWPF Newsletter - False Alarm: Great Barrier Reef In Much Better Shape Than Climate Alarmists Claim

False Alarm II: Monsoon Rebound Prepares Ground For Record Harvest In India

In this newsletter:

1) False Alarm: Great Barrier Reef Is In Much Better Shape Than Climate Alarmists Claim, Australian Environment Minister Confirms
Graham Lloyd, The Australian, 14 August 2019

2) False Alarm II: Monsoon Rebound Prepares Ground For Record Harvest In India
The Economic Times of India, 17 August 2019

Bryce Edwards: Will more than a third vote in the local government elections?

The election race is on. The nominations process for local government positions has now closed, and the political campaign is officially underway. But does the public care? Will many of us even vote for any of the various mayoral or council candidates?

Going on recent experience, we shouldn’t expect many more than a third of eligible voters to actually cast a vote in local government elections this year. After all, at the last round of elections in 2016, the official turnout rate was only 42 per cent. Once you take into account the nearly ten per cent of eligible voters who don’t even enrol to vote, the turnout rate is not much more than a third of adult New Zealanders.

Is anything likely to change this year? And how can voter participation rates be increased? These are some of the big debates going on around the local government elections at the moment.

Clive Bibby: Rope a dope - a “Baldrick cunning plan”

The race for the Gisborne Mayoralty has implications for the nation's future.

Ex National Party MP Ross Meurant is vying with two incumbent councillors for the Tairawhiti (East Coast) region's top local authority job in this year's October elections.

Karl du Fresne: When gender politics morphs into craziness

History might well record that we reached peak craziness on July 20, 2019.

That was when I read a story in the sports pages about a champion New Zealand mountain biker named Kate Weatherly, who was born male but “transitioned to female” from the age of 17.

Weatherly was reported as objecting to a University of Otago study which found, surely to no one’s surprise, that transgender female athletes have an advantage over rivals who are born female.

Bob Edlin: Yet more discrimination from the Waitangi Tribunal

We are wondering – here at Point of Order – which politician will go out to bat for the idea that all citizens of this country be accorded exactly the same voting rights they were given at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. 

To ensure nobody was denied those rights, all prisoners of all races in our prisons should be included in this entitlement.

We would like to think the Waitangi Tribunal might consider endorsing this idea because today it has released He Aha i Pērā Ai? The Māori Prisoners’ Voting Rights Report in pre-publication format.

NZCPR Weekly: Race-Based Power and Influence

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we outline the bizarre recommendations from the Government’s Maori Hui, including abolishing prisons and the child protection agency Oranga Tamariki, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Lindsay Mitchell exposes the misinformation campaign being run against Oranga Tamariki by Maori leaders, and our poll asks whether Oranga Tamariki is right to remove at-risk Maori children from their Whanau.

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

Breaking Views Update: Week of 11.08.19

Saturday August 17, 2019

News:
Moriori trust search for descendants
Moriori are on searching for other descendants whose whakapapa has been hidden or lost.

Chief negotiator Maui Solomon says Moriori maintained they were never conquered because they maintained their customary tikanga of non-violence.

GWPF Newsletter: Chinese Scientists Warn Of Global Cooling, Impact Of Solar Activity

British Farmers Accuse News Media Of Climate Alarmism

In this newsletter:

1) Chinese Scientists Warn Of Global Cooling, Impact Of Solar Activity
South China Morning Post, 11 August 2019

2) Germany To Abandon Fiscal Prudence To Save Its Shambolic Climate Policy
Reuters, 8 August 2019

Clive Bibby: The green, green grass of home

I've never been much of a Tom Jones fan although l do admire his ability to keep drawing the numbers to his less frequent concerts.

However, the one song of his that gets me humming along is a nostalgic rendition of "The green, green grass of home".

I was reminded of its capacity to bring grown men to tears, including me, as it played on our car radio during a recent return to my turangawaewae near Waipawa in Central Hawkes' Bay for a family reunion.

GWPF Newsletter: Is The Left Beginning To Abandon Renewable Energy?

Greta Throws Journalists Out Of Climate Summit

In this newsletter:

1) Is The Left Beginning To Abandon Renewable Energy?
Associated Press, 8 August 2019
 
2) Greta Throws Journalists Out Of Climate Summit
BLICK - Swiss News, 9 August 2019