Breaking Views Update: Week of 25.08.19

Saturday August 31, 2019

News:
'Warm homes ... instead of them living out in caravans': Govt invests $2.7m in housing on Māori land

The Minister for Māori Development and Associate Minister of Housing Nanaia Mahuta made the announcement at Ranginui Pa in Welcome Bay.

Mike Hosking: No details on anyone who worked on this were leaked

So, it's time now, to mark the week. Rating the pieces of news and current events - it's as popular as still getting super when you're 65.

Big call from the Nats: 4. Is raising the super age a vote getter? No. Is it a lure for Winston, so in coalition talks next year they can give it away and make him look like the power broker? You'd be surprised how many have offered that up as a theory.

Boris: 9. If fortune favours the brave, Boris has got balls of granite. He won't die wondering and history shows people love strength in leadership. What they don't necessarily like is insanity. And this latest play has a mix of both.

The Waitangi Tribunal: 3. Starting to look increasingly deranged. No one owns water. You want to change that? It's a life time of lawyers.

Sterling Burnett: Alarmist Educators Pressure Children into Fear, Depression

No one is discussing a horrible case of mass child abuse I read about nearly every day. Among the most perverse and dangerous consequences of the “climate delusion” being hyped almost daily by the fake news mass media is the havoc it is wreaking on the health and psychological well-being of children of all ages.

As anyone who has suffered or studied spousal and child abuse knows, physical harm is not the only way people can be abused. Fear, despair, and rage instilled by words is a form of abuse that can cause just as much long-term damage as beatings, cigarette burns, or other forms of physical torture. 

NZCPR Weekly: Nature Rules

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we examine the influence of nature on the climate and look into the tactics being used by climate alarmists to force their dangerous agenda onto our country, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Edward Hudson shares his analysis of the Government’s Zero Carbon Bill and explains why it would be so damaging to the economy, and our poll asks whether you would like to see New Zealand First oppose the Zero Carbon Bill.

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

GWPF Newsletter - NASA: Global Wildfires Drop By 25% Since 2003

Science Goes Up In Rain Forest Smoke

In this newsletter:

1) NASA: Global Wildfires Drop By 25% Since 2003
NASA Earth Observatory, August 2019

2) Science Goes Up In Rain Forest Smoke
Dr David Whitehouse, GWPF Science Editor, 28 August 2019

Karl du Fresne: Some more thoughts on Ihumatao

I’ll say this much for Pania Newton, the leader of the Ihumatao occupation: she’s got nerve.

I don’t mean that in a complimentary way. Perhaps chutzpah, that wonderful Hebrew word meaning brazen audacity or cheek, would be a more appropriate term.

Bryce Edwards: Political Roundup - Democracy declines in media darkness

“Democracy dies in darkness.” That’s the motto of the Washington Post, and it refers to the role the news media plays in ensuring democratic political systems work.

It’s also an idea that’s been spoken about a lot in the last couple of weeks as debate heats up about the Government’s current, and potential, role in keeping the New Zealand media alive and kicking. Of course, there is hyperbole and self-interest in some of the pleas being made by journalists and company executives, but there is also no doubt the industry is in a major decline, which will have an impact on politics.

GWPF Newsletter: False Alarm

Almost Everything You've Heard About The Amazon Fires Is Wrong

In this newsletter:

1) False Alarm: Amazon Burning Is Mostly Farms, Not Forests
Ronald Bailey, Reason, 23 August 2019
 
2) Why Everything They Say About The Amazon, Including That It's The "Lungs Of The World," Is Wrong
Michael Shellenberger, Forbes, 26 August 2019

Clive Bibby: Change is coming - We don't need others to tell us what it looks like!

In a recent anniversary copy of the Listener, the Editor referred to some dramatic events in this country's history that literally changed things for ever. 

My favourite included a reference to a hostile and condescending reception that the then Finance Minister, Walter Nash received in 1939 when visiting Britain to renegotiate the nation's loans. The interesting part of this story wasn't just the arrogance displayed by our political mentors but how quickly their attitude changed when, within days of Nash's return home and the subsequent joint declaration of war against Nazi Germany, the Poms agreed to buy our entire exports of meat and dairy products. The editorial goes on to say that WW2 probably saved New Zealand.

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

Alan Jones: Fights against media global warming propaganda

UPDATE:

This interview by Australian broadcaster Alan Jones with Swedish Scientist Dr Nils Axel-Morner, who claims that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is misleading humanity about runaway climate change and rampant sea level rise, and that a new solar-driven cooling period is not far off, has now been banned by Facebook.

It is an excellent interview. Anyone interested in the real truth about climate change should watch this interview before YouTube ban it as well!

Australian broadcaster Alan Jones fights back against global warming propaganda and interviews a leading scientist who debunks the myth of rampant sea level rise.

Gerry Eckhoff: Of Tee Shirts, Tights and Super Conductors

The issue of climate change is not so much about whether the climate is changing but - how do we mere mortals differentiate the science from the politics. It is the “cause celebre” embraced by the political left as a convenient reason to also dismantle capitalism and replace it with socialism or worse. 

Our Governments’ traditionally reach for the easily accessible taxation tool to solve a problem - any problem. To impose a carbon tax to counter climate change can be described as requiring the paying of real money to ensure the partial removal of a natural and invisible substance, essential for life, to someone (Government) which is no one – who is pretending to do something, while achieving nothing. 

GWPF Newsletter - Greta Walks Out: Apocalyptic Climate Cult Shows First Signs Of Division

Global Meat-Eating Is On The Rise, Bringing Surprising Benefits

In this newsletter:

1) Greta Walks Out: Apocalyptic Climate Cult Shows First Signs Of Division
BuzzFeed News, 7 August 2019
 
2) Extinction Rebellion Prepares To Shut Down London Fashion Week
The Times, 6 August 2019

Breaking Views Update: Week of 04.08.19

Saturday August 10, 2019 

Maori nationalist parties exploit Ihumātao protest
In recent weeks the New Zealand media has given intense media coverage to an occupation led by Maori activists protesting against a proposed property development at a historic archaeological site on the Ihumātao Peninsula in South Auckland.

While it is legitimate to oppose the destruction of an important archeological site, the protest organisers have exploited the issue to promote Maori nationalism. This in turn has been taken up by the media right at the point when major struggles of workers and young people have erupted.

GWPF Newsletter: For Most Of The Last 10,000 Years, Greenland Ice Sheet Was Smaller Than Today

Meet The Fossil Fuelled Electric Car

In this newsletter:

1) For Most Of The Last 10,000 Years, Greenland Ice Sheet Was Smaller Than Today
Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, 5 August 2019
 
2) Let Them Eat Cake: Germany Plans To Make Eating Meat Expensive To ‘Protect The Climate’
Deutsche Welle, 7 August 2019

Bob Edlin: The not-so-secret plan for EU domination

With all the focus on Brexit turmoil, it’s easy to miss recent changes in the EU. Unfortunate, because they are important. 

The appointment of former German defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, as president of the European Commission was rightly seen as a signal of Germany’s predominance in Europe but her political programme is even more significant. 

This can be found in the aptly-titled manifesto “A Union that strives for more“. And it surely does – in enough detail for liberal nightmares.

Mike Hosking: This Government has strangled the life out of a 'rock star' economy

Cash rate chop shows this Government has strangled the life out of a 'rock star' economy.

There is no mistaking what Adrian Orr did yesterday, cutting the official cash rate 50 points, is outside what most were expecting. A one per cent cash rate, we have never been here.

The Reserve Bank governor has cut to stimulate the economy, it's a blunt instrument, but this country is as flat as a pancake, the great days are over.

Crikey OCR

Crikey! 

Is the economy so bad that we have to have negative interest rates to keep it moving in the right direction? 

That message is in itself enough to cause business confidence to decline at a faster rate than it is already.

A Tiger by the Tail

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we look at the huge influence that climate activism is having in New Zealand – including threatening our economic security, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Anthony Willy explains why the stance taken by one of the country’s main media companies in banning any challenge to their alarmism over climate change is so misguided, and our poll asks whether you have confidence in the New Zealand media when it comes to reporting climate change.

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

GWPF Newsletter: Green Energy Transition Flops As Global Demand For Fossil Fuels Keeps Growing

Can Tesla Survive?

In this newsletter:

1) Green Energy Transition Flops As Global Demand For Fossil Fuels Keeps Growing
Financial Times, 3 August 2019
 
2) Can Tesla Survive?
Seeking Alpha, 31 July 2019

Mole News

After years of hectic digging and investigating, the Mole has finally retired. We thank him for his wonderful service. Our "Breaking Views Updates" monitor race relations in the media, picking up where he left off...  

Iwi corrects New Zealand Geographic Board
Ohakune-based iwi Ngāti Rangi has corrected the New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB) on their recent incorrect spelling of Ohakune as “Ōhakune”.

Chairman Che Wilson said he was shocked and disappointed that the NZGB failed to consult with Ngāti Rangi during the name change process.

Frank Newman: Flight-shame about to touch-down in NZ

Flight-shame. If you have not heard about it already, you soon will. It's the latest buzz coming out of the global warming pandemic and gaining a momentum that is beginning to have an impact on air travel within Europe. It could potentially have an even more significant impact on long-haul destinations like New Zealand.

An article appearing in the Washington Post says, "…growing crowd of Europeans…are spurning air travel out of concern for the environment this northern hemisphere summer."

It tells the story of Johan who travelled from Sweden to Austria. Instead of taking a two-hour flight, he chose to reduce his carbon impact by taking a 30-hour journey by rail, bus and ferry.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: To what extent am I “my brother’s keeper”?

And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? - Genesis 4:9

You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour. – Lord Atkin on the duty of care, 1932

This picture of the bodies of a man and his little daughter after drowning in the Rio Grande en route to the US swept across the globe.

Karl du Fresne: On Ihumatao, child uplifts, the media and a few other things

We live in excitable times. It’s hard to recall a time when politics was more febrile and overheated.

I don’t mean in Parliament, where it’s more or less business as usual (in fact surprisingly civilised, considering the intensity of the debates raging outside), but around the fringes – in the mainstream media, and more particularly in online forums – on issues that include race, gender, sexual identity, equality, climate change, women’s rights, freedom of speech, immigration and poverty.

For this we can blame several factors, all of which are inter-connected and feed into each other.

Mike Huckabee: Interview with Greenpeace Dropout Dr Patrick Moore

Mike Huckabee interviews Dr. Patrick Moore one of the original Greenpeace founders, who left once the organisation became radicalised.

GWPF Newsletter - Ignore Climate Hysteria: World Grain Crop Set To Break Record

English Summer Failing To Meet Alarmist Expectations (Again)

In this newsletter:

1) Ignore Climate Hysteria: World Grain Crop Set To Break Record
The Weekly Times, 30 July 2019
 
2) French 2019 Soft Wheat Crop 2nd Largest In History
Business Recorder, 30 July 2019

NZCPR Weekly: Private Property Rights Under Threat

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we examine the land rights protest in Auckland and the dangerous implications for New Zealand, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Bryce Edwards provides an analysis of media reporting about the conflict, and our poll asks whether you believe the Government should allow the use of private land to settle Treaty grievances.

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

Bob Edlin: Amidst howls of “racism”, protesters demand an Irish agency boss’s resignation

The Hands Off Our Tamariki Network has an admirable ring to its name. Here’s hoping everybody gets the message because if whanau members kept their hands off their tamaraki … well, there would be no need for a state agency to intervene and get its hands on the victims of domestic violence.

The reasons why the Oranga Tamariki agency becomes involved in caring for children has been somewhat downplayed by speakers at protest meetings who demand the state leave their mokopuna alone and insist Māori be the ones caring for their children.

Clive Bibby: A departing Mayor shares his thoughts

The retiring Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon (recently appointed as the next Race Relations  Conciliator) is well qualified to share his thoughts about the selection criteria used in choosing candidates to make up the next lot of district Councils and Health Boards.

Given his lengthy meritorious tenure as the leader of the Tairawhiti region, his advice is timely and worthy of consideration by us all.