NZCPR Weekly: Election 2017 - Roundup

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week’s newsletter looks at the election and the factors that influenced the outcome, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Frank Newman reviews the winners and the losers, and this week’s poll asks whether Winston Peters’ referendum on the future of the Maori seats should be a priority in coalition negotiations.

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Richard Epstein: The Diversity Fundamentalists

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) is the new catchphrase of today’s elite businesses and universities. Those institutions assume D&I is both a means—to excellence—and an end in itself, making them more closely resemble the larger world of which they are a part. So understood, companies from Facebook to Apple to Goldman Sachs, and academic establishments from UC Berkeley to Harvard to Yale, have found their new holy grail. 

Their commitment to D&I is all too often treated as a self-evident truth that none should be allowed to question in public discourse. But this new consensus for D&I, if left unchallenged, has an unintended consequence: unthinking intellectual rigidity, a malaise that all successful institutions must guard against.

Brian Gaynor: NZ pension funds lagging behind Aussie

One of the most important decisions with any savings plan, particularly KiwiSaver and other superannuation schemes, is asset allocation. Asset allocation is the outcome of a process that aims to balance the risk and rewards of a portfolio after considering an individual’s goals, risk tolerance and investment horizon.

There are two main asset classes in the asset allocation process; high risk growth assets, mainly shares, and low risk income assets, comprising bonds and cash. The asset allocation decision has a huge impact on the risk profile and performance of a portfolio.

GWPF Newsletter - Forget The Spin: Offshore Wind Costs Are Not Falling

Subsidy-Free Wind Farms Risk Ruining the Industry’s Reputation

Full details:

1) New GWPF Paper:  Offshore Wind Costs Are Not Falling
Global Warming Policy Foundation, 25 September 2017

 

London, 25 September: Spin put on the government’s recently announced strike prices to three large offshore wind farms has misled many into thinking that the costs of offshore wind are falling.

GWPF Newsletter: Germany’s $800 Billion Merkel-Made Climate Policy Disaster

Climate Hysteria Vs Hurricane Resilience

In this newsletter:

1) Germany’s $800 Billion Merkel-Made Climate Policy Disaster
Bloomberg, 21 September 2017
 
2) GWPF TV: Climate Hysteria Vs Hurricane Resilience
GWPF TV, 22 September 2017

Melanie Phillips: World ends? Well it may take a bit longer now…

Climate scientists have now admitted they were wrong about man-made global warming and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Not very wrong, you understand, just a bit wrong. Apparently the planet is still going to hell in a carbon-lined hand-cart, just more slowly.

A study in the journal Nature Geoscience says the world has warmed more slowly than had been forecast by computer models, which were “on the hot side” and overstated the impact of emissions. You don’t say.

Matt Ridley: The poor are carrying the cost of today's climate policies

Here is a simple fact about the world today:

• climate change is doing more good than harm.


Here is another fact:

• climate change policy is doing more harm than good.

These are both well-established facts, supported by a great deal of data, as I will demonstrate. Do these facts surprise you? It’s certainly not the impression most politicians, scientists or journalists give. Yet the well-informed ones would not deny it if pressed. They would merely insist, instead, that this position will reverse later in the 21st century and that by then climate change, unchecked, will be doing more harm than climate policy. The eventual ends will begin to justify the painful means.

NZCPR Weekly: A New Parliament and the Labelling of Food

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

Since this week’s newsletter is going out as the voting booths for the 2017 General Election are closing, we firstly outline what needs to happen before Parliament is up and running again, and then we look into a bill that is in front of a Select Committee that deals with the complex issue of food labelling, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Alan Emerson outlines the case for compulsory country of origin labelling for food, and this week’s poll asks whether you would prefer the voluntary food labelling system that is presently in place to remain, or whether it should be replaced with a mandatory system.

Next week we will look into the election result and what it means for New Zealand.

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Frank Newman: Migration and property prices

In the year to the end of July, a record 72,400 more people arrived to live in New Zealand than left.  That represents an annual population increase of about 1.5%. Few would dispute that this has had a significant impact on house prices in recent years.

There are essentially four groups of immigrants: international students, those arriving here to work, those arriving for family reunification, and kiwi's returning from overseas. It's the latter that is having the most influence on the numbers. 

Matt Ridley: Hurricanes happen

As Hurricane Irma batters Florida, with Anguilla, Barbuda and Cuba clearing up and Houston drying out after Harvey, it is reasonable to ask whether such tropical cyclones are getting more frequent or fiercer.

The answer to the first question is easy: no. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change put it recently: “Current datasets indicate no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century.” 

GWPF Newsletter: We Were Wrong, Climate Scientists Concede

How The IPCC And Climate Alarmists Hid The Good New About Global Warming

In this newsletter:

1) We Were Wrong, Climate Scientists Concede
Ben Webster, The Times, 19 September 2017 
 
2) David Whitehouse: Climate Change Will Take Longer, Say Scientists
GWPF Observatory, 19 September 2017

Daniel Mitchell: The Real Victims of Class-Warfare Taxation

Remember John Kerry, the former Secretary of State and Massachusetts Senator, the guy who routinely advocated higher taxes but then made sure to protect his own wealth? Not only did he protect much of his fortune in so-called tax havens, he even went through the trouble of domiciling his yacht outside of his home state to minimize his tax burden.

I did not object to Kerry’s tax avoidance, but I was irked by his hypocrisy. If taxes are supposed to be so wonderful, should not he have led by example?

Brian Arrandale: Beware Labour and the Greens

If Labour do take this election with a clear mandate, then we can truly give them the dubious accolade that they are instituting their agricultural policy of eliminating the only world dairy Industry which can economically produce dairy products without the aid of subsidies.  

But emotive and exaggerated environmental concerns over ride economics and a greatly reduced export income. Although according to the Labour/Green electioneering this country will be a cleaner greener place with rivers sparkling.  (They forgot to mention the huge urban pollution from towns and cities)! 

Pat Palmer: The bureaucratic beat-up on home fires and wood burners

In 2007 the Health and Air Pollution in New Zealand report (HAPiNZ) from the Ministry for the Environment estimated that fine particles (PM10) in the air in New Zealand caused 1,170 premature deaths each year. 

This estimate was based on an epidemiological study from Europe and assumed that PM10 from all sources - blast furnaces, diesel trucks, petrochemical industries, or from your toaster - are all equally toxic. Most PM10 in the New Zealand air has been fairly reliably measured as coming from home fires.

Lindsay Mitchell: Jacinda Ardern will increase poverty because she doesn't understand the drivers

Last year I wrote a paper which explored the link between child poverty and family structure. 

The strongest correlation with child poverty is single parent families on welfare. Additionally, children born into de facto relationships - which had a much higher likelihood of dissolving than marriages - were much more likely to become poor.

In a Sunday Star Times column Jacinda Ardern attacked my research:

This week I opened the paper to find some astonishing "news" - a lack of marriage is to blame for child poverty.

Garth McVicar: Labour weakness on bail law a dangerous back-flip

The Sensible Sentencing Trust is deeply concerned at statements made by Labour Deputy Leader Kelvin Davis on Three's The Nation programme today that they may 'review' the Bail Amendment Act 2013.

The changes to bail brought in by the Bail Amendment Act 2013 simply 'reset' the bail law to a standard the public expect - and that should have already been in place.  For many years, the New Zealand public had repeatedly expressed their outrage and deep concern at the extent of crime committed by offenders on bail.  The fact the remand population has increased so significantly reflects just how lax the law used to be.  We now have a new normal, and that is a good thing.

NZCPR Weekly: Election 2017 - Style versus Substance

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, in our final Election 2017 update, we look into the ‘hot’ election topic of tax and investigate some of the promises that have been made by Labour, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Anthony Willy explains why the Labour Party’s plan to disclose the details of tax policies after the election is so dishonest, and this week’s poll asks whether you agree with Labour that New Zealand needs more taxes? 

All of our NZCPR Election 2017 updates can be viewed on our NZCPR.com homepage.

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GWPF Newsletter: Australian PM Face Rebellion Over Green Energy Policy

Tony Abbott To Outline Energy Policy At Annual GWPF Lecture

In this newsletter:

1) Malcolm Turnbull Faces Power Play From Tony Abbott Over Green Energy Policy
Dennis Atkins, The Courier-Mail, 13 September 2017 
 
2) Tony Abbott To Outline Energy Policy At Annual GWPF Lecture
The West Australian, 13 September 2017

GWPF Newsletter: Australian Govt Walks Away From Green Energy Target

World Building New Coal Plants Faster Than It Shuts Them

In this newsletter:

1) Back to Black: Australian Govt Walks Away From Green Energy Targets
Financial Review, 13 September 2017

2) Tony Abbott Fuels Push From Backbench Against Clean Energy Target
The Australian, 12 September 2017

Hugh Barr: Tribal groups threatening the public’s foreshore and seabed

National’s Marine and Coastal Area Act (2011) controversially gave Maori tribal groups the ability to privatise New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed out to 22.2 Km (12 nautical miles) from shore, if they could prove that they had exclusively used  and occupied an area of the coast and territorial sea from 1840 to the present day.

Until the 2011 Act, New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed had been in public ownership since 1840, when the colony adopted British law, under which the territorial sea is declared a public common, to which the public generally has access.

Anthony Willy and Anthony De Reeper: A Capital Gains Tax Yes or No

First published 9 September  2014 
  
Taxation is at the heart of the establishment and maintenance of civil society.  The difficulty is in knowing how much to extract from the wealth producing members of society.

Nothing much has changed since the seventeenth century when Jean-Baptiste Colbert the Controller General of Finances to Louis XIV’S remarked that “the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.” 

GWPF Newsletter: A $150 Billion Misfire - How Forecasters Got Irma Damage So Wrong

Did Climate Change Cause Hurricane Irma To Fizzle?

In this newsletter:

1) A $150 Billion Misfire: How Forecasters Got Irma Damage So Wrong
Bloomberg, 12 September 2017 
 
2) History Shows There Was Nothing Unusual About Hurricane Irma
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 12 September 2017 

Frank Newman: Labour's Tax Plan - clarified!

Jacinda Ardern has clarified Labour's tax policy: 

"Now let me be absolutely clear about this so there is no doubt. 

"Our tax plan is the plan we had before we had the most recent plan. 

"It's fair that everyone pays their fair share unless we believe it's not fair, in which case we will be fair and reasonable.  

"This is not a reversal or back down - it's my Captain's call.  

"People are telling us they want this clarity, and we are listening to their call. 

"It has nothing to do with our slide in the polls."

GWPF Newsletter: Beyond Hurricane Hype: A Reality Check

Hurricane Irma Comes 7th In List Of Landfalling U.S. Hurricanes

In this newsletter:

1) Hurricane Irma Comes 7th In List Of Landfalling U.S. Hurricanes
Watts Up With That, 10 September 2017 
 
2) How Did Irma Get So Strong? Hint: Not Global Warming
Michael Bastasch, Daily Caller, 10 September 2017 

Matt Ridley: Principles versus rules in free trade

Why does the European Union raise a tariff on coffee? It has no coffee industry to protect so the sole effect is to make coffee more expensive for all Europeans. 

Even where there is an industry to protect, protectionism hurts far more people than it helps. Last October the EU surreptitiously quintupled the tariff on imported oranges to 16 per cent to protect Spanish citrus producers against competition from South Africa and punish the rest of us. It imposes a tax of 4.7 per cent on imported umbrellas, 15 per cent on unicycles and 16.9 per cent on sports footwear.

Brian Arrandale: Back From The Past

Rotten ‘List’ Boroughs - why have we returned to the past in electoral terms?

In 1832, Britain in passing the “Great Reform Act” was instrumental in once again, following the early principal instituted in the signing of Magna Carta. It was followed by a long overdue Ballot Act of 1872, which introduced the secret Ballot. 

The passing of these two Acts over time, allowed the majority of people to enjoy the privilege of being able to vote in their Representatives into Parliament; without the interference of privilege, or the fear of recrimination in the way a person votes.

Frank Newman: New Zealand's Got Talent

Jacinda Ardern is cool - Bill English isn't. That's a significant challenge for National, but it's not the only challenge it has. National is too establishment. Boring, safe, prudent - but boring. Being fiscally responsible matters - a lot - but does not matter enough to enough people to assure National of another term in Parliament.

The world  is rising against the establishment; Trump vs Clinton, Brexit, the UK election result, the rise of Emmanuel Macron in France. National is just too establishment for its own good.  Their smug born-to-rule attitude is far too evident in the likes of Chris Finlayson and Nick Smith, and to a lesser extent Simon Bridges. It's a party that does not do humble well.

Frank Newman: Labour's capital gains tax proposal

Labour has foreshadowed the introduction of a capital gains tax (CGT), but given no detail of what such a tax could look like if it were to be elected government - as is now a real possibility.

Labour has said it would implement the recommendations of a yet to be formed Tax Working Group. Labour will set the terms of reference and appoint the members of that Group. Given that lack of independence there is every reason to believe the recommendations of the Working Group will reflect the wishes of the Labour Party. 

Karl du Fresne: Why journalistic objectivity is vital in a democracy

What a civilised election campaign this has been – so far, anyway. And what a contrast with the firestorms of 2014, when Nicky Hager and Kim Dotcom did their best to skew the election result. 

To their credit, the voters paid no attention to the noisy distractions. They took the phone off the hook.

Melanie Phillips: No trace of objectivity

The BBC Today programme has long been a shill for liberalising the drug laws. This morning’s edition, however, ran an item at 0810 which almost caused me to fall off my chair.

The item was pegged to the collapse of the prosecution case against people accused of supplying nitrous oxide (the “laughing gas” used by dentists). This has called into question a law passed last year banning such so-called “legal highs” which are considered a loophole in the drug laws. All too predictably, the discussion was soon steered from this specific issue into “bringing fresh thinking to bear on the whole problem” (code for drug liberalisation).

GWPF Newsletter: Prince Charles ‘Wrong’ On Climate Link To Syria War

New Research Disputes Claims That Climate Change Helped Spark The Syrian Civil War

In this newsletter:

1) Prince Charles ‘Wrong’ On Climate Link To Syria War
Ben Webster, The Times, 8 September 2017

2) Jan Selby et al. (2017) Climate Change And The Syrian Civil War Revisited
University of Sussex, September 2017

NZCPR Weekly: Election 2017 - Idealism vs Realism

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, we have been examining Parliamentary party manifestos and outline some of the promises that are being made, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Frank Newman provides an analysis of party policies that target residential property investors, and this week’s poll asks if New Zealand First holds the balance of power after the election, whether you think they will support National or Labour.

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GWPF Newsletter: James Lovelock On ‘Wicked’ Renewables & Why He Changed His Mind On Climate Change

First Harvey, Then Irma And Jose. Why? It’s The Season

In this newsletter:

1) James Lovelock On ‘Wicked’ Renewables And Why He Changed His Mind On Climate Change
James Delingpole, The Spectator, 9 September 2017
 
2) First Harvey, Then Irma And Jose. Why? It’s The Season
The New York Times,  6 September 2017

GWPF Newsletter: Pacific Ocean Cools Rapidly La Nina Threatens Early Return

South Africa Set For Biggest Maize Crop Harvest On Record

In this newsletter:

1) Pacific Ocean Cools Rapidly, La Nina Threatens Early Return
John Kemp, Reuters, 5 September 2017 

2) South Africa Set For Biggest Maize Crop Harvest On Record
The South Africa, 1 September 2017 

Richard Epstein: When Women Earn Less Than Men

This past week, the Trump administration rolled back an order that the Obama White House put into place to collect information about various disparities in labor markets. 

Last year, the Obama administration issued a “Fact Sheet” grandly titled “New Steps to Advance Equal Pay,” which contained a proposal “to annually collect summary pay data by gender, race, and ethnicity from businesses with 100 or more employees.” In total, the proposal would cover some 63 million people. The purpose of collecting the data was to provide “better insight into discriminatory pay practices across industries and occupations,” which would in turn give “women additional tools to fight pay discrimination.”

Brian Giesbrecht: One Set of Laws for All

A steadily increasing number of successful Canadians are proud of their Aboriginal heritage, but they have integrated into the Canadian economy and society. Political actor Wab Kinew, writer Tomson Highway, and Senator Murray Sinclair come to mind.

Many ethnic and racial groups strive to maintain separate ethnic, religious, or cultural identities in the face of the powerful homogenizing forces of assimilation. Some of these groups also have histories of being victims of intense discrimination, and many people struggle to keep their cultures alive under difficult conditions. Obvious examples are Jews, Chinese, Sikhs, Hutterites, Mennonites, and of course, Aboriginals.

Kevin Donnelly: Wear it Purple Day and other cultural-left moves sending us puce

Given the re-emergence of the Safe Schools program, a NSW primary school putting on a Stolen Generations play where children dress as nuns and victimise Aboriginal children, and the Australian Education Union’s campaign to promote the LGBTI Wear it Purple Day, there’s no doubt that the cultural left now dominates our education system.

The overwhelming majority of parents send their children to school to learn the basics, to socialise with other students and to acquire the knowledge and skills to be good citizens and to be better prepared for further study or the workforce.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Iconoclasm 21st century style

During the Middle Ages, there was an outbreak of smashing up of statues of religious significance – iconoclasm, which literally means the destruction of icons – which the perpetrators (iconoclasts) regarded as idolatrous.

Statues can be potent symbols of power that may attract iconoclastic attention should they be associated with toppled regimes. Many a statue of Lenin and Stalin were brought down after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in Iraq people flocked to witness statues of Saddam Hussein biting the dust after his demise.

Frank Newman: Tenant WOF and promising infrastructure

The Hawke's Bay District Health Board is taking a practical and enlightened view when it comes to rental property. They have introduced a two-session course called "Ready to Rent" which teaches tenants about their rights and responsibilities when renting and basic skills like cleanliness and heating.

In effect, those who complete the course receive a "warrant of fitness" in the form of a letter of support, which they can present when applying for properties. It appears to be a first for New Zealand, although similar schemes of the same name have been in running overseas for a number of years.

Dan Mitchell: New Zealand’s Road Map for Sweeping Pro-Market Reform

I wrote last September that New Zealand is the unsung success story of the world.

No, it doesn’t rank above Hong Kong and Singapore, which routinely rank as the two jurisdictions with the most economic liberty.

But it deserves praise for rising so far and fast considering how the country was mired in statist misery just three decades ago. That’s the story of this great video, narrated by Johan Norberg, from Free to Choose Media. It’s runs 56 minutes, but it’s very much worth your time.

NZCPR Weekly: Election 2017 - Taxing and Spending

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, we examine the spending promises of the political parties in the run up to the election, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Anthony Willy explains why binding public referenda are an important democratic tool for deciding fundamental constitutional matters such as the future of the Maori Seats, and in this week’s poll we invite you to make a call about which party you think will lead the next Government – National or Labour?

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GWPF Newsletter: Arctic Refuses To Melt As Predicted

Too Much Ice Forces Arctic Climate Explorers To Give Up Campaign

In this newsletter:

1) Arctic Refuses To Melt As Predicted
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That,31 August 2017
 
2) Too Much Ice Forces Arctic Climate Explorers To Give Up Campaign
Watts Up With That, 31 August 2017

Brian Gaynor: Building, the industry that got left behind

The poor productivity and performance of the construction and building sector is a major global issue because construction-related spending is approximately US$10 trillion ($13.9t) per annum, equivalent to 13 per cent of world GDP.

These inefficiencies have been highlighted in New Zealand by the disappointing performance of our building-related companies, particularly Fletcher Building.