Mike Butler: Burning trash the cleanest option

Waste incinerators in which all household rubbish except recyclables and concrete can be burned are the short answer to trash disposal and panics such as that caused by China’s recent refusal to take any more recyclable plastic.

Auckland man Chris Newman, who built New Zealand’s first waste tyre processing plant, was living in Japan when he noticed that household waste there was incinerated.

Returning home, Newman submitted a proposal for a waste incinerator that also generates electricity to Cr Penny Hulse at the Auckland Council, only to have it ruled out by council staff.

He then made a presentation to the office of Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage and found an impenetrable government ethos of “compost and recycle”.

James Delingpole: Three Years Ago We Voted Brexit. Here’s Why We Haven’t Got It…

Today is the third anniversary of the EU Referendum. Like all Brexiteers, I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the result. And more importantly, I remember exactly how it felt. 

It felt as people must have done on VE Day. (Quite appropriate, really, given what the E in VE Day stands for…)

It felt how that preeminent knight of the Crusades Reynald de Chatillon must have felt on his release after years in the lightless, airless, foetid dungeons of Aleppo.

Melanie Phillips: How the Tories Can Save Themselves and Brexit

A general election in Britain in the near future is surely well-nigh inescapable. Whoever wins the Conservative leadership election — and as we can see from the histrionics of the past few days, Boris Johnson may end up destroying himself — both Johnson and his rival, Jeremy Hunt, have committed themselves to leaving the EU with no-deal on October 31 if they cannot renegotiate the withdrawal terms.

Since it seems overwhelmingly likely — regardless of Johnson’s claims to the contrary — that the EU will not offer any concessions, the new prime minster will therefore be declaring that the UK will leave on October 31 with no deal (unless of course he weasels out of his no-deal commitment, an outcome which would surely surprise no-one).

Bob Edlin: What would a no-deal Brexit look like?

Throughout the Brexit negotiations, the media have struggled to describe how a no-deal Brexit might work.  Understandable really, as it all depends on the actions the parties take; the responses to each other’s actions; and adaptation to new policy realities.

The most recent effort from The Times (see here) sacrificed clarity for comprehensiveness, listing outcomes ranging from the far-fetched (that aerospace companies will abandon their investments and skilled workers and decamp to Europe and China) to the near-inevitable (that volume car manufacturing in the UK is facing serious restructuring). But in speculating on outcomes, it might have missed a chance to explain the choices driving them.

Clive Bibby: Care of the elderly - we have much more to do

Watching the parliamentary debate on the "End of life" bill during its second reading stages was an experience that l would recommend to anyone who genuinely wanted to form a reasoned opinion on the issue.

There is no question that, in these circumstances when MPs are not bound by party loyalties and are free to speak frankly from the heart, we see the institution of Parliament and those who represent us operating in a manner that makes us proud to be "kiwis".

Sadly, there appear to be few other branches of Government that rewards us in similar fashion for the massive amounts of taxpayers dollars spent keeping our version of democracy afloat.

NZCPR Weekly: Supreme Power for New Housing Authority

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we review the KiwiBuild debacle and outline how, instead of fixing the problems in the housing sector, the Government is creating a super agency with draconian new powers to not only sidestep council plans and the RMA, but to compulsorily acquire private land and impose new taxes; our NZCPR Guest Commentator Fiona Mackenzie shares her concerns about the role the tribal elite will play in the new agency; and our poll asks whether you believe this new Government agency should be given the power to compulsorily acquire private land for its developments.

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

GWPF Newsletter: Oregon Climate Bill Drama Ends In Victory For Runaway Senators

Oregon Democrats Say Climate Change Bill Is Dead After Republican Senators Fled The State

In this newsletter:

1) Runaway Oregon Republican Says Lawmakers Won't Return Until 'Expensive' Carbon Tax Bill Scrapped
Fox News, 25 June 2019 
 
2) Oregon Democrats Say Climate Change Bill Is Dead After Republican Senators Fled The State
Slate, 26 June 2019 

GWPF Newsletter: G20 Plays Down Commitment To Climate Change Action

UN Climate Talks Fail To Adopt Contentious IPCC Report

In this newsletter:

1) G20 Plays Down Commitment To Climate Change Action
Financial Times, 25 June 2019

2) UN Climate Talks Fail To Adopt Contentious IPCC Report
The Independent, 23 June 2019 

Brian Giesbrecht: UNDRIP won’t help marginalized aboriginals

Bill C-262, the proposed legislation requiring Canadian laws to meet an undefined measure of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Aboriginal Peoples (UNDRIP) is being held up by Conservative senators.

Tax paying Canadians should be thankful.

Advocates of the Bill say that the legislation will create no additional legal impediments for Canada, but it will significantly improve the lives of poor and marginalized Indigenous people.

Bob Edlin: What's happened to NZ's housing crisis?

The absence of emotive media reports and silence from the lobbyists does not mean the housing “crisis” has been fixed. 

So what happened to New Zealand’s housing “crisis”? Was it real, or just another imagined but emotive issue akin to “peak oil”, the fetish of the Green Party back at the turn of the century which was accompanied by grim forebodings that the world would run out of oil by 2006?

Surely it was not just a figment of our – or the public’s – imagination! After all, the media for months carried nightly images of the hundreds of homeless on the streets, people living in garages or – if they were lucky – people being accommodated at state expense in motels.

That was in the run-up to the general election.

GWPF Newsletter: EU Fails To Set Net Zero Emissions Target

2050 Climate Goal Relegated To Footnote

In this newsletter:

1) EU Fails To Set Net Zero Emissions Target
CNN, 20 June 2019

The European Union has failed to set a firm deadline to end its contribution to climate change, after a group of eastern European countries blocked a proposal to slash EU carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

European heads of government sitting at the council summit on 20 June. Photo: European Union Leaders of the bloc’s 28 member states agreed instead on Thursday to start working on “a transition to a climate-neutral EU.”

Matt Ridley: A Pledge to Abolish Sin

If the British government declared the abolition of sin by 2050, commentators would be rightly cynical. The announcement last week that Britain will enact a net-zero carbon target for 2050 was instead welcomed, especially by “faith leaders”. Yet without specifying how it is to be achieved, setting this target is about as wishful as pledging to eliminate sin. It is not just a matter of cost – although £1 trillion is not small change (if you had been spending a pound a second and had now reached £1 trillion, you would have had to start when Neanderthals were still on the scene).

Too many Tories think that going green means getting into lucrative bed with the crony-capitalist wind and solar industries, putting profit-seeking lipstick on a subsidy-dependent pig. But this is a futile strategy, politically as well as practically.

NZCPR Weekly: Dangers Ahead

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we outline how the Government is readying the country up for the legalisation of cannabis – and we remind readers concerned about drug users driving on our roads that the Ministry of Transport has called for public feedback on whether the random roadside drug testing of drivers should be introduced, our NZCPR Guest Commentator is the former Colorado District Attorney Bob Troyer who expresses his concerns about the State’s disastrous experiment with cannabis legalisation, and our poll asks whether you would support the introduction of random roadside drug testing for drivers.

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

Viv Forbes: How to Create a Country with no Heart?

What happened to Australia’s once-bipartisan policies favouring decentralisation? Why is every proposal to develop an outback mine, dam, irrigation scheme or a real power station now labelled “controversial” by the ABC and opposed by the ALP/Greens?

This coastal-city focus and the hostility to new outback industry (except for wind/solar toys) has surely reached its zenith with the recent state budget for Queensland.

The population of coastal and metropolitan Queensland is surging with baby-boom retirees, welfare recipients, grey nomads, tourists, overseas students, migrants and winter refugees. But the outback is dying with lagging industry and many aging farmers retiring to the coast. We are creating a country with no heart.

Guy Steward: Hong Kong, NZ, and the Common Law

The people of Hong Kong have an understandable concern for the future of their state, and especially of the tradition of English common law which forms most of their legal system. The young people there seem to highly value it.

So, it’s timely to discuss the implications of changes to that law wherever it has been found. That discussion could also focus on what appears at times to be a lack of awareness of and appreciation of common law and its history in New Zealand.

In fact, we’re connected to it through the Third Article of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Clive Bibby: Carnage always has a human face

Recent polls indicating support levels for the proposed “decriminalisation of cannabis use” referendum have produced interesting results. Although surprised that both surveys suggest it will be voted down (l wouldn't have picked that result), l am none the less grateful that kiwis appear not yet ready for such a change.

We must ask the obvious question - why not?

Having been inundated with supportive opinions from the self appointed guardians of social behaviour for years leading up to this point, l had become resigned to the fact that this was a fight that was not going to be won based on logic or even appeals from those who are the casualties of this selfish destructive pastime. I thought we had lost out to the smooth talkers who weren't interested in their responsibilities to future generations or even the current ones.  There appeared to be little hope of a re think and I wasn't looking forward to the consequences of this inevitable decision.

But, apparently miracles do happen.

GWPF Newsletter: Back To The Dark Ages

German Greens Look To Ban All Industrial Farming

In this newsletter:

1) German Greens Look To Ban All Industrial Farming
The Daily Telegraph, 17 June 2019
 
2) Merkel’s Climate Hype Backfires As German Greens Ride to Brink of Power
Bloomberg, 17 June 2019

GWPF Newsletter: Will Carbon Tax Bring Down Trudeau’s Government?

Majority Of Canadian Voters Oppose Trudeau’s Carbon Tax — May Decide Elections

In this newsletter:

1) Majority Of Canadian Voters Oppose Trudeau’s Carbon Tax — May Decide Elections
Toronto Sun, 12 June 2019

2) Only 32% Of Canadians Think Trudeau Deserves Re-Election As Tories Hold Lead: Ipsos Poll
The Canadian Press, 14 June 2019

Bob Edlin: Drilling programme vital to avoid importing oil and gas

The arrival of the self-propelled, 34,500-tonne offshore drilling rig COSL Prospector in Taranaki heralds an important stage in the exploitation of NZ’s oil and gas resources. 

The first task for the rig is to drill three side-track wells for Malaysian-based Tamarind at the Tui offshore field, in the expectation it can extend the life of the field beyond next year and lead to the extraction of 6-8m barrels of oil.

Then the rig is contracted by OMV, operator of the offshore Pohokura and Maui fields, to drill an exploratory well in the Great South Basin.

OMV, which also operates the offshore Maui and Pohokura gas fields, expects to begin drilling towards the end of the year – potentially using the COSL Prospector if consents are secured. OMV’s first well lies in about 1,200 metres of water 130 kilometres south-east of Balclutha. If successful, the programme potentially could involve drilling 10 wells, up to two further exploration wells and up to seven for appraisal.

Bryce Edwards: Who does the public trust in 2019?

How much trust do you have in politics and public institutions? It’s one of the most important political questions of our time. All over the world there has been a decline in trust, which is leading to a sea change in our politics – from Trump and Brexit through to the emergence of radical progressive causes that are challenging orthodoxies around economics, ethnicity and gender. So, suddenly people are more sceptical about authority, and it’s having major consequences, for good or ill.

Here in New Zealand there’s mixed evidence on the issue of trust, and today some new survey statistics are out which give us a better idea of levels of trust and mistrust. These come via Victoria University of Wellington’s Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, which commissions the Colmar Brunton market research firm to ask the public questions about trust each year.

GWPF Newsletter: The World Returns To Coal

Coal Boom Looms After Labor Government Approves Mega Coal Mine

In this newsletter:

1) Coal Boom Looms After Labor Government Approves Mega Coal Mine Down Under
7 News Australia, 13 June 2019
 
2) The World Returns To Coal
Graham Lloyd, The Australian, 13 June 2019

NZCPR Weekly: The Controversial Zero Carbon Bill

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we investigate the far-reaching implications of the Government’s controversial Zero Carbon Bill and encourage any concerned New Zealander to send in a submission, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Bryan Leyland outlines how the Government is ignoring its obligation under the Paris Climate Accord not to threaten food production through its attack on agricultural emissions, and our poll asks whether you agree with the Government that Maori interests should be exempted from the impact of the Zero Carbon Bill.

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

GWPF Newsletter: Energy Superpower U.S. -- Shale Oil & Gas Hit Record Production Levels

Big Rise In Global CO2 Emissions Puts Paris Agreement In Doubt

In this newsletter:

1) Energy Superpower U.S.: Shale Oil & Gas Hit Record Production Levels
The Wall Street Journal, 12 June 2019

2) Big Rise In Global CO2 Emissions Puts Paris Agreement In Doubt
The Daily Telegraph, 11 June 2019 

Viv Forbes: Cycles, not Carbon Dioxide, Control Climate.

The war on hydro-carbon fuels will have no measurable effect on global temperatures. Nor will carbon taxes, carbon offsets or subsidies for wind turbines or solar panels. There are climate controllers far bigger than human CO2 at work.

No place on Earth lives in the mythical average global temperature. Earth’s temperature dances to cyclic rhythms every hour, every day, every month, every season, every year, and to every beat of the sun-spot and glacial cycles.

The daily cycle of Earth’s rotation causes continual changes in radiant energy received by and transmitted from every spot on Earth. It produces the cold at dawn and the afternoon warmth.

GWPF Newsletter: Climate Alarm May Help German Communists To Power

Radicalised By Climate Hysteria, Germany's Youth Wake Up To Their Political Power

In this newsletter:

1) Climate Alarm May Help German Communists To Power, CDU Leader Warns
Associated Press, 9 June 2019 
 
2) Germany's Greens Oust Merkel's Christian Democrats As Most Popular Party
The Daily Telegraph, 9 June 2019 

Karl du Fresne: Perhaps they should listen rather than sneer

During a visit to Wellington earlier this year, John Podesta, a man described as a top American political adviser, gave a series of media interviews.

Among other things, he praised our “superstar” prime minister and said she had given hope to social democrats everywhere.

Jacinda Ardern’s election success in 2017, Podesta said, was a bright spot at a time when populist movements were winning political success around the world – a trend Podesta obviously saw as undesirable.

Clive Bibby: A disturbing aspect of a disturbing bunch of statistics

I wrote some time ago criticising the reaction of the Government to the Christchurch massacre by rushing to introduce legislation that would render automatic guns illegal and also allow for a "buy back" scheme aimed at removing those in existence from the public arena.

In doing so l voiced an opinion that their focusing on the elimination of the right to own or use automatic weaponry was largely a waste of time and money if the objective was to prevent a reoccurrence of that tragedy or even one of less magnitude.

Frances Widdowson: The Threat to Academic Freedom, Freedom of Inquiry and Academic Standards

In September 2018, the Office of Academic Indigenization provided Mount Royal University (MRU) faculty with a document entitled “Indigenizing Mount Royal’s Curricula: A Call For Engagement”. 

This document affirmed MRU’s “commit[ment] to indigenizing its curricula to ensure that all students graduate with a basic understanding of Indigenous content informed by Indigenous perspectives”, and encouraged faculty to transform their courses on this basis. These arguments for “curricula indigenization”, however, have not been subjected to any critical analysis. In fact, “Indigenizing Mount Royal’s Curricula” contains serious flaws and constitutes an unprecedented threat to academic freedom, freedom of inquiry and academic standards at MRU.

GWPF Newsletter: Mad Climate Policies Are Plunging Europe’s Car Industry Into Crisis

Europe’s Car Industry Faces New Emissions Scandal As CO2 Figures Don't Stack Up

In this newsletter:

1) Mad Climate Policies Are Plunging Europe’s Car Industry Into Crisis
Alex Brummer, Daily Mail, 3 June 2019
 
2) Climate Hysteria Threatens Europe's Car Industry
Financial Times, 16 April 2019

Theodore Dalrymple: No Consolation - the Netherlands didn’t actually euthanise a teenager

If I were Dutch, I would not be altogether reassured by the ease with which it was widely (though mistakenly) believed that a 17-year-old girl named Noa Pothoven was put to death by doctors because of her unbearable mental suffering, rather than the fact that she was actually allowed to refuse all food and drink until she died of dehydration. The first was believed because putting a depressed teenager to death is the kind of thing many people have come to expect of the Netherlands.

Their expectations are not the result of mere prejudice. In August 2017, a Dutch doctor published a letter about the evolution of euthanasia in the country. “In 2015,” he wrote, “92 percent of the patients who received physician assisted dying had a serious somatic disease,” from which it follows that 8 percent (or 450 persons in absolute numbers) did not. Even this number may be an underestimate, for it was based on a survey to which only 78 percent of doctors replied. Furthermore, “serious somatic disease” is not the same as “imminently fatal disease.”

Barry Soper: D-Day - 'The wartime generation is resilient'

It was clearly an impressive and moving spectacle, remembering the 75th anniversary of the biggest ever amphibious landing, mounted from the city of Portsmouth on the southern coast of England.

More than 130,000 men arrived on the beaches of Normandy, an area known today as the Parisian Riviera. Planes and gliders carrying 23,000 arrived ahead of them.

In the coming months troops flooded into the German-held France with the invasionary force growing to two million. It was the start of the end of the Second World War.

NZCPR Weekly: The 2019 'Wellbeing' Budget

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we examine the 2019 Wellbeing Budget and highlight how Labour is increasingly allocating funding on the basis of race instead of need, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Frank Newman shares his analysis of the Budget and raises concerns about the direction in which the Government is taking the country, and our poll asks whether you believe the Budget will improve New Zealand’s prosperity.

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

GWPF Newsletter: Britain’s Climate 'Present' To President Trump

UK Government Rejects Climate Change Committee Advice

In this newsletter:

1) UK Government Rejects Climate Change Committee Advice
Financial Times, 4 June 2019
 
2) Britain Looks Set To Use Legal Loophole To Meet Climate Targets
New Scientist, 4 June 2019

GWPF Newsletter: Climate Hysteria Threatens To Split U.S. Democrats

Climate Hysteria Destroys Social Democrats, Merkel's Government Faces Collapse

In this newsletter:

1) Climate Hysteria Threatens To Split U.S. Democrats
Politico, 1 June 2019
 
2) Bernie Sanders Demotes Carbon Taxes
E&E News, 3 June 2019

GWPF Newsletter: After Election Drubbing, Massive Opposition To Coal Exit In Ruling CDU Party

Will Climate Hysteria Cost U.S. Democrats The Next Elections?

In this newsletter:

1) After Election Drubbing, Massive Opposition To Coal Exit In Ruling CDU Party
Die Tagesschau, 31 May 2019
 
2) Cold Feet: Germany’s ‘Climate Cabinet’ Delays Action Again
Deutsche Welle, 30 May 2019

Melanie Phillips: The Only Way Forward for Brexit Britain

In the wake of the seismic EU parliamentary election results in the UK, Received Wisdom has settled on these conclusions:

• The Brexit party’s victory means that, unless the new Conservative party leader promises to deliver a no-deal Brexit, he or she will preside henceforth over the total destruction of the Conservative party;
• That means Boris Johnson is self-evidently an absolute shoo-in as the next party leader and prime minister;
• What’s needed above all is someone who can heal the nation’s wounds, map out common ground and bring a fractured society together once again;
• What absolutely cannot be allowed to happen is a general election before Brexit since the Conservative party, having come fifth in the EU elections (fifth!) with just over nine per cent of the vote (nine per cent!!) and a mere four MEPs (four! Compared with Brexit party’s 29!!!) would be totally slaughtered and Jeremy Corbyn would become prime minister.

As so often, Received Wisdom is out to lunch. Of the above, only the first is correct. The rest don’t follow at all.

GWPF Newsletter: EU Member States Plan To Stick With Coal Beyond 2030

The Myth Of The Green Wave

In this newsletter:

1) Forget Paris: EU Member States Plan To Stick With Coal Beyond 2030
Clean Energy Wire, 29 May 2019 
 
2) European CO2 Emissions Up In 2017
European Environment Agency, 29 May 2019