Pages

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

NZCPR Weekly: Child overy - real or imaginary?



Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we question the claims by the Prime Minister that her new Child Poverty Reduction Bill will reduce child poverty, our NZCPR Guest Commentator, Dr Greg Clydesdale, outlines why the Government’s approach to reducing child poverty will fail, and our poll asks, whether you believe Labour’s income redistribution approach to lowering poverty will have lasting results.

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

GWPF Newsletter: The Next Shale Revolution








Mammoth Cubes Herald Supersized Future of Fracking

In this newsletter:

1) Cheap Energy Forever: Mammoth Cubes Herald Supersized Future For Shale
Bloomberg, 23 February 2018
 
2) Global Renewable Energy Sector Faces Enron-Style Collapses, Iberdrola Chief Warns
Financial Times, 23 February 2018

Monday, February 26, 2018

GWPF Newsletter: Offshore Wind Fiasco








Renewable Industry Faces $Billions Compensation Bill For Early Repairs

In this newsletter:

1) Offshore Wind Fiasco: Renewable Industry Faces $Billions Compensation Bill For Early Repairs
Jillands-Posten, 23 February 2018
 
2) Forget Paris: Global Fossil Fuel Consumption To Rise By 20% By 2040, BP Energy Outlook
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 22 February 2018

Sunday, February 25, 2018

GWPF Newsletter: Polar Bear Battle In Toronto








It’s Good Science vs. Climate Do-Gooders

In this newsletter:

1) False Alarm: Russia’s Polar Bears Adjusting To Climate Change, Officials Confirm
The Arctic, 20 February 2018
 
2) Terence Corcoran: Polar Bear Battle In Toronto! It’s Good Science Vs. Climate Do-Gooders
Financial Post, 22 February 2018 

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Karl du Fresne: Pssst - don't mention asylums


We should always cherish the lone voice – the individual bold enough to go against the flow and to speak out against conventional wisdom when conventional wisdom has got it wrong.

Andy Espersen of Nelson is such a voice. I’ve never met him, but I’ve been reading his letters to the papers for years.

Like most lone voices, Espersen is a single-issue crusader. In his case, the issue is mental health. His consistent and persuasive message is that New Zealand made a grievous mistake when it shut down its mental hospitals three decades ago.

Friday, February 23, 2018

David Skilling: Britain should think small


The first year of the Brexit process has not been a good one. The best that can be said is that we now know that it is too late to properly execute a ‘hard Brexit’ and at the same time the process is too far advanced for ‘second thoughts’. A soft Brexit, made in Brussels rather than London, is the most likely outcome. At what is effectively ‘half-time’, there are many lessons to be drawn for Britain. Viewed from outside the UK, a couple stand out.
The first is that the world beyond Britain is changing. As Britain retreats from Europe, the EU has begun to emerge as a more coherent strategic bloc – to the extent that Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees Mogg can complain about becoming a ‘vassal state’. From free trade agreements with Japan and Canada, to leadership on global climate change negotiations, to its increasingly deliberate stance with respect to China, the EU is realising its potential as a big power. This, of course, is partly motivated by the withdrawal – at least for the moment – of the US from its global leadership role.

Michael C. Zwaagstra: More Canadian History Needed In Schools


Last fall, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario demanded that John A. Macdonald’s name be stricken from all public schools in the province. More recently, Halifax’s city council voted to remove the Edward Cornwallis statue that had stood downtown since 1931. Both decisions were vigorously debated at the time and public opinion remains sharply divided.

These are two separate events about two different individuals. Nevertheless, the underlying theme is the same. Both Macdonald and Cornwallis stand accused of crimes against Indigenous people.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

GWPF Newsletter: Jeremy Corbyn Promises To Nationalise Britain’s Energy Companies To Prevent ‘Climate Catastrophe’








Russian Spies’ Role In The Great Green Hoax

In this newsletter:

1) Jeremy Corbyn Promises To Nationalise Britain’s Energy Companies To Prevent ‘Climate Catastrophe’
Business Insider, 10 February 2018 
 
2) Matt Ridley: Russian Spies’ Role In The Great Green Hoax
The Times, 19 February 2018

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

NZCPR Weekly: Last Chance to Oppose Coastal Claims



Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we examine serious flaws in the Marine and Coastal Area Act and remind everyone that next Monday Feb 26 is the closing date for lodging Notices of Appearance to oppose claims to the coast, our NZCPR Guest Commentator, Dr Hugh Barr, outlines some major concerns regarding the impact of claims on recreation users of the coast, and our poll asks, whether taxpayer funding to tribal groups claiming the coast should be withdrawn.

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

Monday, February 19, 2018

GWPF Newsletter: Exxon Sues The Suers In Fierce Climate-Change Case








More Than 100 ‘Climate Change Cases’ Filed In US Courts In 2017

In this newsletter:

1) Exxon Sues The Suers In Fierce Climate-Change Case
Bloomberg, 13 February 2018
 
2) More Than 100 ‘Climate Change Cases’ Filed In US Courts In 2017
Daily Caller, 15 February 2018

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Melanie Phillips: Is Jacob Rees-Mogg being Trumped?


Saturday, February 17, 2018

Open Letter to CYFS: How you let our whanau down a million times over


Dear CYFS,

A letter on how you have let my whanau down, a million times over. Names have been changed to protect the children's identity.

For me, it all started in 2003. But really, if you think about it, it started before that. When the mum, who was 18 had a baby and never stopped taking drugs. Not for the pregnancy and not after he was born. Let’s call him Leonard. Leonard was a lovely boy, such a cute kid with big brown eyes and curly hair. Like any normal boy he loved zooming his cars around the room and riding his “big boy” bike.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Matt Ridley: Censorious millennials are the new Victorians


I am sure I am not alone in finding the cultural revolution that we are going through difficult to understand. Like a free-living Regency rationalist who has survived to see Victorian prudery, like a moderate critic of Charles I trying to make sense of the Cromwellian dogma, like a once revolutionary Chinese democrat hoping not to be denounced and sent for re-education under Chairman Mao (or John McDonnell), I am an easygoing Seventies libertarian baffled by the aggressive puritanism and intolerance that seems to be everywhere on the march.

I turned 60 last week and expected by now to find myself in periodic, grumpy disapproval of the younger generation’s scorn for tradition, love of change and tolerance of “anything goes”. Instead I find something approaching the opposite. Many people of my generation have mentioned the same experience recently: the terrifying censoriousness of the young, even sometimes their own children, and the eggshell-treading dread of saying the wrong thing in front of them. The young are a bit like our parents were, in fact.

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Karl du Fresne: I reckon eventually, something will blow


Barry Soper made a surprising statement on Newstalk ZB yesterday. I didn’t take down his exact words, but essentially he said nothing was going to happen in the next three years (he meant politically) except that Jacinda Ardern was going to have a baby.

Perhaps it was intended as a tongue-in-cheek comment on the media’s fascination with the prime ministerial pregnancy. But if not, it was an astonishingly bold pronouncement from someone who has covered politics as long as Soper has, and who must surely know the risks of making predictions.

GWPF Newsletter: OPEC's Shale Nightmare Is Coming True








US On Track To Become World’s Largest Oil Producer

In this newsletter:

1) OPEC's Shale Nightmare Is Coming True
Bloomberg, 11 February 2018 
 
2) 'Colossal' American Oil Boom Could Spoil OPEC's Plans
CNN Money, 13 February 2018 

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Logan Albright: New Book's "Case Against Education" Is a Persuasive One


It’s common to hear politicians wish aloud that everyone should have access to a quality college education. As rhetoric, it sounds lovely, but as in many a fairy tale, there’s good reason to be careful what we wish for.

Bryan Caplan’s new book, unflinchingly titled The Case Against Education, is an important contribution to the growing body of literature challenging one of society’s most cherished sacred cows. Unlike most writers on the subject, Caplan doesn’t just target the Department of Education, the public school system, or liberal arts universities. He goes after all of it — the education system as a whole. And it’s about time someone did.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

NZCPR Weekly: A New Era of Politics



Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we look into some of the forces that are driving the new Government’s agenda, our NZCPR Guest Commentator, Michael Coote, examines whether the 2017 election marks the beginning of an era of effective first-past-the-post elections, and our poll asks, if Bill English was to step aside, which of the six MPs named as contenders for the National Party leadership do you believe would be the best choice: Judith Collins, Simon Bridges, Amy Adams, Jonathan Coleman, Nikki Kaye, or Mark Mitchell.

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

Sunday, February 11, 2018

GWPF Newsletter - False Alarm: 'Sinking' Pacific Nation Is Getting Bigger, Scientists Confirm








Peter Ridd: Science or Silence?

In this newsletter:

1) 'Sinking' Pacific Nation Is Getting Bigger, Scientists Confirm
AFP, 9 February 2018

2) Peter Ridd: Science or Silence? My Battle To Question Doomsayers About The Great Barrier Reef
Fox News, 8 February 2018

Saturday, February 10, 2018

GWPF Newsletter - Historic Energy Milestone: U.S. Oil Output Surges To Record Highs








Russia And Saudi Arabia Forge Energy Pact To Counter U.S. Shale Boom

In this newsletter:

1) Historic Energy Milestone: U.S. Oil Output Surges To Record Highs
Mark J. Perry, AEIdeas, 7 February 2018
 
2) U.S. Oil Exports Pour Into Markets Worldwide
Reuters, 8 February 2018

Friday, February 9, 2018

Frank Newman: Tenancy changes ahead


By the end of the year, the new coalition government is likely to have introduced a number of changes to the Residential Tenancies Act intended to "fix" the rental market.

The Minister of Housing said he wanted to introduce laws that, "bring the best out in people, and encourage their better side. And that's why modernising the tenancy laws will be about a set of rules that work for landlords and tenants - and encourage for instance longer term tenancies, which are good for families and good for landlords."

What a load of idealistic nonsense. The Minister's proposed changes will do nothing to "fix" the rental market. The most likely outcome is that it will make it worse for tenants. 

Matt Ridley: New diagnostic devices will save lives and money

As happens in the media, the excitement generated last week by the headline that cancer could be detected in the blood was overdone. The results announced in Science magazine are a long way short of meaning that the earliest signs of cancer can be detected in people with no symptoms: the 70% success rate in finding DNA from 16 cancerous genes was in people already diagnosed with serious cancers. False hopes may have been raised. 

But behind the headline, there is little doubt that a revolution in diagnostics is happening.  Till now, the slow process of culturing infectious agents to identify them has not changed much since the days of Louis Pasteur. It is becoming increasingly possible to identify the precise virus, bacterium, drug-resistant strain, antibody or telltale molecule that defines exactly what is wrong with somebody, quickly and without invasive procedures or lengthy cultures in distant labs. Yet Britain is lagging behind comparable countries in joining that revolution.

GWPF Newsletter - Scientists Surprised: Ozone Layer Not Healing








Cooling Sun May Partially Offset Global Warming, U.S. Scientists Predict

In this newsletter:

1) Scientists Surprised: Ozone Layer Not Healing, Continues To Deplete Despite Montreal Protocol
Press Trust of India, 6 February 2018 
 
2) Cooling Sun May Partially Offset Global Warming, U.S. Scientists Predict
Times of San Diego, 5 February 2018

Chris Trotter: Labour and Maori - The ‘Auld Alliance’ Re-Forged.


The five days allotted to Waitangi 2018 by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern can only be accounted as time well spent. Maori votes were critical to Labour being able to construct a governing coalition with NZ First and the Greens. 

Ms Ardern is well aware that maintaining – and if possible building on – the tangata whenua support that gave Labour a clean sweep of all seven Maori seats in 2017 will be crucial to securing her government’s re-election in 2020.

It is to be hoped that Ms Ardern understands the extent to which she and the Labour Party are indebted to the strategic insight of Andrew Little and his Chief-of-Staff, Matt McCarten, for the 2017 result.

Prof Jonathan Newman: A Stock Market Tumble Is the Correction We Need


Since hitting rock bottom in 2009, stock prices have consistently increased without much volatility — that is, until these first few days of February when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 2,200 points (-8.5%) and the S&P 500 tumbled 7.9% from their late-January highs. The most popular measure of stock market volatility, VIX, also spiked dramatically to levels not seen since 2011 and 2009.

Financial analysts and writers have pointed to a few events that may be behind the big movements in the stock market:

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

GWPF Newsletter: Global Temps Drop Back To Pre-El Nino Levels








Christians Proving Resilient To Climate Change Alarmism

In this newsletter:

1) Global Temperatures Drop Back To Pre-El Nino Levels
Michael Bastasch, The Daily Caller, 2 February 2018 
 
2) Heaviest Snowfall On Record Blankets Moscow
BBC News, 4 February 2018

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

GWPF Newsletter: Professor Peter Ridd Fights University Gag Order








Australian Marine Scientist Standing Up For Scientific Freedom & Integrity

In this newsletter:

1) Reef Row Scientist Peter Ridd Snubs University Gag Order
Graham Lloyd, The Australian, 1 February 2018 
 
2) Professor Peter Ridd Standing Up For Scientific Integrity Against James Cook University
Institute of Public Affairs, 1 February 2018 

NZCPR Weekly: Agendas and Demands



Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we reveal the political agenda behind the campaign to make the Maori language compulsory in schools, our NZCPR Guest Commentator is Professor Paul Moon with extracts from his new book Killing Te Reo Maori, and our poll asks whether you believe te reo should become a compulsory subject in New Zealand schools.

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

Saturday, February 3, 2018

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Donald Trump's new geopolitical designation


WARNING! Presidential neologism reiterated throughout!

It’s not often that the newsreaders on the BBC World Service get tongue-tied. Such did appear to be the case 3 weeks ago when the reader seemed to stall while reporting that a certain Donald J. Trump had, in the course of a meeting during which immigration was discussed, used an ‘expletive’ that had offended the African Union (and a few others), leaving us all wondering what that could have been.

An expletive is, according to my acquaintance with idiomatic English usage, a brief (usually one word) verbal outburst indicating strong, albeit often short-lived, emotion. What you mumble when you spill coffee over your nice clean trou early on in the day at work is almost certainly an expletive. Most expletives are fairly innocuous although some may be deemed offensive by more straight-laced people. But I racked my brain for expletives that would be so politically explosive and was unable to find one.

Friday, February 2, 2018

GWPF Newsletter - State Of The Union: Trump And U.S. Democrats Ignore Global Warming Completely








U.S. President Makes American Energy Dominance Key Priority

In this newsletter:

1) SOTU: Trump Does Not Mention Global Warming Once
Global Warming Policy Forum, 31 January 2018 
 
2) Democrats Ignore Climate Change In State Of The Union Rebuttal
Huffington Post, 31 January 2018

Frank Newman: Junk news cut and paste


A headline from a press release by Oxfam NZ, read: "Richest 1% of Kiwis bagged 28% of all wealth created last year". The press release issued as part of a global campaign to coincide with the annual meeting of political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (Press release HERE)

The NZ Herald "reported" the release by extracting large chunks of text, without interviewing anyone that may hold a contrary opinion. (See NZ Herald HERE)

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Bruce Moon: Ngai Tahu’s crooked path from rags to riches


Weakened by their own “Eat Relation” feud, continually outwitted and savagely defeated by the wily Te Rauparaha, most Ngai Tahu by 1840 were a desperate lot.  A mere two thousand or so were eking out a living in a few squalid villages.  

Even in the extreme south which escaped such ravages “They were altogether a dejected people.[i] ... [F]or every child born, from three to four persons died.  No wonder that they had lost heart and felt as if there were no spirit of life left in them”.[ii]  And cannibalism persisted, even that late.[iii]