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Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Roger Partridge: Unbalanced compulsory NZ history curriculum lacks humanity


Eighteen months ago, the Government announced a curriculum change making it compulsory for all schools to teach “key aspects” of New Zealand history. The Ministry of Education was tasked with creating a new curriculum to “span the full range of New Zealanders’ experiences… with contemporary issues directly linked to major events of the past.”

Asking the Ministry of Education to draft a compulsory New Zealand History curriculum for school children was always fraught with risk. 

The Ministry has disavowed knowledge-based curricula – to the extent that the much-vaunted National Curriculum fits on a scanty 64 A4 pages. It covers the entire social sciences for years 1-13 in a single page.

Bob Edlin: May the force be with you – and it will be when tourist taskforce’s vision (influenced by Te Ao Māori) is turned into policy and practice


At a NetHui in Auckland in 2015, Māori discussed and shared their ideas about whether tikanga Māori crossed over to the internet.

A Lincoln University philosopher said it does, according to one report of the proceedings.

Indigenous Digital Philosopher, Karaitiana Taiuru says, “We’re kanohi ki te kanohi, you know their mauri, you can touch something and get the mauri and the internet, it’s nothing, it’s te kore and it’s hard to try and quantify that.  But if you use the internet for the right purposes then it will have mauri.”

Here at Point of Order we trust we are putting the internet to the right purpose by drawing attention to the cultural and spiritual thrust of the recently released Tourism Future Taskforce Interim Report. It says:

This is a taskforce and report that from day one has been inspired by the Te Ao Māori perspective.

The wisdom and guidance received from Māori leadership has been incredibly significant to the thinking along the journey towards these [the taskforce’s] recommendations

The concept of “mauri” looms large in the taskforce’s vision for the tourist industry. 

Henry Armstrong: How the Ardern Government and Its Allies are Dumping on Us Oldies


The Ardern government’s recently-announced housing and punitive tax policies will have a significant impact on New Zealand’s seniors and are clearly ageist in their outcomes. 

Anyone over the age of 70 years in New Zealand today (especially if you are male and of European descent), can be forgiven for feeling that somehow, after a lifetime of struggle, commitment to, and hard work in the interests of our country, New Zealand, we have suddenly become “the enemy”!

Green Party MPs, almost to a person, condemn “old white men” as somehow being responsible for all of the ills of modern-day New Zealand society. Julie-Ann Genter’s infamous statement to a class of school children in Christchurch (aged around 10 years) that “old white men” needed to move aside from their domination of boards (she did not specify which boards-charities, SOEs, closely- held family companies, Stock Exchange listings), as some kind of cleansing process after which organisations would be refreshed and renewed.

Peter Bacos: The Maori Language


I have become so sick and tired of the saturation of Maori on tv and radio that I’ve decided to make an effort to learn the language or the rudiments of it anyway. Instead of reacting with fury every time I hear a Maori word which makes the phrase unintelligible to me I’ve decided to teach myself. 

It’s remarkably simple; when you’re saturated by a language it’s very easy to learn it as you’re exposed to it all the time. I can see now how people become bi-lingual in countries which promote two languages. 

Did you know Te Papa was bi – lingual, or rather I should say it is Maori with English translation? On my walks along the waterfront I pop into it now and then and promise myself to learn 20 new words on each visit.

Kate Hawkesby: Anti-social behaviour's on the rise - where are the Police?

 

The Police are in the news at the moment for several reasons – one, they have new cars, and two, Napier’s Mayor fears they’re stretched to their limits in her region, weighed down with gang violence issues. She wants more Police for her area, and has written to the Police Minister to say so.

Good luck getting a response on that.

Hers is not the only region feeling short of a Police presence. Wellington, recently accused of becoming too dangerous to walk the streets of the CBD at night, is making moves to try to combat anti-social behaviour by committing to a ‘social contract’ and looking to take collective action.

NZCPR Weekly: Labour's Housing Bombshell



Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter, we investigate the Government’s latest housing package and reveal that both Treasury and the IRD opposed the punitive changes imposed on rental housing providers, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Ashley Church shares his concerns that rather than fixing the housing market the Government is ‘punishing’ property investors, and our poll asks whether you think Labour’s recent housing package will solve the housing affordability crisis.

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


Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Clive Bibby: “Slip slidin’ away!”


Those of you who are old enough to remember humming the chorus to this famous Simon and Garfunkel song may be taking time to revisit especially given its warning against complacency.

Another appropriate quote that could be added in today’s corrupt political climate is one used by JFK - “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing!”

When these memorable lines are added together, they provide a powerful lesson for keeping us safe.

Make no mistake, l believe that evil does exist in our society, most of it in subtle forms that are too often overlooked because we are encouraged to accept an environment that peacefully co-exists with the consequences.

Let me explain.

Monday, March 29, 2021

Kate Hawkesby: Has NZ given up on ambition and accountability?


 I just wonder if, as a country, we’ve given up on any kind of ambition or accountability.  

The pace of the vaccine rollout, the privacy details of those being vaccinated getting breached, the MIQ fees that remain unpaid.

I mean, do we even care anymore or have we just given up?

We’ve been told a goal of 2 million New Zealanders vaccinated by the middle of the year. We know the speed of the global vaccine rollout is critical. We know NZ has secured 10 million doses - but how fast are we jabbing?

Sir Bob Jones: Time for a Change

 

Wellington MP Nicola Willis hit the news this week with her claim of feeling unsafe in Wellington’s CBD. I’ve heard this repeatedly in recent weeks. So what’s occurred to suddenly bring about this state of affairs? Nicola knows but being a typical kick for touch Nat’, wasn’t game to say for fear of the wearying racism charge.

What’s happened is this year the capital’s CBD has suddenly become an attractive destination for maori gangs. And why? Because the bloody unbelievably idiotic Welfare Department is putting them up at taxpayers expense in central city hotels. This is sheer madness.

This filth is now everywhere on our CBD streets, threatening pedestrians. I’ve heard numerous stories including incidents from my own staff.

Sunday, March 28, 2021

NZCPR: Submission on the Climate Change Commission’s Draft Emissions Budget

 





Climate Change Commission
PO Box 24448
Wellington 6142
hello@climatecommission.govt.nz

New Zealand Centre for Political Research Submission on the Climate Change Commission’s Draft Emissions Budget

Dear Sir,

Thank you for providing the opportunity to submit on the Climate Change Commission’s draft emissions budget.

This submission is on behalf of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research, a public policy think tank established in 2005 by former Member of Parliament Dr Muriel Newman.

We propose to address three issues of major concern.

1. The emissions budgets are not evidence-based

Chris Trotter: Something Big


There are all kinds of political rumours, but they don’t get much bigger than: “The PM is about to resign.” 

When that rumour was relayed to me on Friday morning [19 March], my initial reaction was “Bullshit!” Wellington is a very intimate capital city, so the idea that such an important story could somehow be kept from the Parliamentary Press Gallery, struck me as fanciful. Were it not for the fact that my informant was “a usually reliable source”, I would have given the matter no more than a dismissive shake of the head. Instead, I decided to make some calls.

As I suspected, nothing remotely resembling a resignation rumour had been picked up by the Press Gallery. What I did hear, however, were concerns about “Jacinda”. The Prime Minister, I was told, was “out of sorts”, “morose”, “not her usual self”.

Saturday, March 27, 2021

Sterling Burnett: Paris Panic - Governments Fail to Meet Their Climate Commitments

Political leaders and media personalities are fond of saying climate change poses an existential threat to humans and the planet. The weight of scientific evidence doesn’t support this oft-made claim, and national governments around the globe seem to acknowledge this by their actions.

Despite what is reported almost daily in the mainstream media, data from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show no increase in extreme weather events as the Earth has modestly warmed over the past 150 years. In fact, the IPCC and NOAA data show cases of extreme cold spells, droughts, floods, heat waves, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires have all declined modestly or remained relatively stable since the late 1870s.

Despite these irrefutable facts, leaders from nations around the world have signed multiple international agreements, the latest being the 2015 Paris climate agreement, intended to avert a supposedly pending climate disaster.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.03.21







Saturday March 27, 2021 

News:
Northland teaching student earns $22,000 Kupe scholarship

Now, a Kupe Scholarship worth more than $22,000 is helping the Tai Tokerau teaching student fulfil her ultimate goals - to bring te ao Māori into the mainstream curriculum and to find ways to best support kids from low socio-economic groups.

Friday, March 26, 2021

Leighton Smith Podcast: Muriel Newman on NZ's political and social landscape


This week Muriel Newman offers a critical analysis of the NZ political and social landscape. She accurately targets where we could be heading. 

We examine the Maori sovereignty movement’s power grab and the forthcoming criminalisation of free speech (based on the Royal Commission’s recommendations for new hate speech laws). 

And more, is democracy under threat in NZ.

Guy Steward: On Lockdowns


We’ve had a break from lockdowns in Auckland so we could deal with the more pressing matter of the America’s Cup. Even the virus took a break, and rightly so. I take my hat off to it for that. Well done, virus! You did your bit for the country!

We seem to be doing very well compared with the rest of the world. And that’s great. Perhaps we’ve really done the right thing with lockdowns, although I rather think the natural border and the border restrictions could be the more obvious factors keeping us out of trouble. But we’re all asking: How long can that continue?

Roger Childs: Are we a Single Nation or Two Peoples?


During the recent America’s Cup series the country was united behind the efforts of Team New Zealand. There was no concern about whether there were enough Maori members in the crew, or whether there was a Te Reo name on the big sail. Basically New Zealanders were barracking for the country’s sailors. It is the same where the Silver Ferns, All Blacks, Black Caps, White Ferns or Olympians compete, they are teams representing New Zealand and we support them regardless of our ethnicity.

This is the way we should approach all aspects of life in New Zealand – we have so much in common.

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Mike Hosking: Fluoride the latest example of local government weakness

 

Another example for you this morning on the weaknesses of democracy especially at local body level.

The Whangārei mayor is against fluoridation of water. Is the Whangārei mayor a medical professional? Looking her up, she appears not to be.

I’m not even sure she represents the view of the people who elected her.

But that’s democracy isn’t it? We appoint or anoint people with experience and skill in little if anything and expect them to run important stuff.

What makes her fluoridation objection so ironic is the fact she’s from Northland and it is Northland that would appear to have the disproportionate amount of trouble in the social areas - one of them being dental health.

Kate Hawkesby: The housing announcement will not help renters

 

The housing announcement yesterday, apart from being a total broken promise from the government in terms of the bright line test, is essentially penalising mum and dad investors. And those are the investors running the rental homes providing tenants with much needed accommodation.

And the concern here is that the costs go up for those tenants, and that due to the government pinging them if they sell within 10 years, that landlords will hold onto rental properties for longer. And when they do that, you don’t get a cooler housing market, you get fewer houses up for grabs. What’s galling here is the brazenness with which this government has back tracked.

The Prime Minister campaigned on not introducing a Capital Gains Tax.. she was adamant, it was one of her biggest election promises. Not on her watch, she said. Grant Robertson is on the record ruling it out, saying it would never come to pass. And yet, here it is. A Capital Gains Tax in all but name.

NZCPR Weekly: The Final Step to Separatism



Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter, we expose the Government’s radical plan to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into law by 2040, our NZCPR Guest Commentator former Judge Anthony Willy explains why Maori tikanga cannot be incorporated into the common law, and our poll asks whether you support Labour’s decision to implement the United Nations Indigenous Rights Declaration.

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


Wednesday, March 24, 2021

GWPF Newsletter: EU considers labelling gas power as sustainable energy source

 




Staying at home more will help with climate fight, West Midlands Authority says

In this newsletter:

1) EU considers labelling gas power as sustainable energy source
Financial Times, 22 March 2021

2) Green groups dismayed over leaked EU plans to label gas plants as 'green'
Radio France International, 23 March 2021

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Barry Soper: Transtasman travel bubble - why do Kiwis still have to wait?

 

If there's one thing this Government's good at, better than any of its predecessors, in fact standing head and shoulders above them - it's making an announcement about an upcoming announcement.

The hospitality industry was on the edge of its bar stools, hotels were remaking the beds, the snow field chair lifts were being oiled and more generally the tourism operators were filling up the jet boats, the Kaikōura whales were being brought out of hibernation and the bungy cords were being stretched to ensure they will be able to take the weight of a a desperately needed Aussie influx.

There was an expectation we would have at least had an indication of when we would be enveloped by the Antipodean bubble.

Sunday, March 21, 2021

In The Tank Podcast: The Great Reset


 
The Heartland Institute's Donald Kendal, Justin Haskins, and Jim Lakely present episode 286 of the In The Tank Podcast. The Great Reset is in motion, it is no longer theoretical. They break down how The Great Reset is being enacted and how it is going to impact everyone. But it is not too late to fight back. There is some signs that show these international elites are scared of us everyday people. 

This podcast was first published HERE.

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.03.21







Saturday March 20, 2021 

News:
Polytech buildings renamed

Four buildings at Otago Polytechnic have been renamed to reflect the importance of their location as a point of intersection for Dunedin’s first people.

Otago Polytechnic and local rununga unveiled the new names at a ceremony on campus yesterday morning.

Friday, March 19, 2021

John Bell: Confronting Separatism


Each year, on 25 January, Scots around the world  gather to celebrate the birthday of their National Poet – Robbie Burns. This commemoration usually takes the form of a Burns Supper, but Scots in Auckland, Hokitika, Timaru and Dunedin also have the option of an event featuring their town’s fine statue of the poet.  The statue in Dunedin’s Octagon, by noted 19th century sculptor, Sir John Steele, is one of three modelled on his famous original in Dundee, the others being in New York and London.

Given the status of Dunedin’s Burns statue, I was concerned a few years ago to find that it had been disrespectfully adorned by a group of Maori staging a Parihaka protest in the Octagon. I wrote to the DCC expressing the view that, whatever the merits of the cause the Parihaka protesters were espousing, that did not entitle them to show disrespect for the culture and heritage of others, especially that of the city’s Scottish founders. I requested that the DCC require future groups allowed to use the Octagon to show proper respect for the city’s iconic Burns statue. The reply I received advised that no action was being taken not because my case lacked merit but because I was the only person  who had lodged such an objection.

Therein lies an essential truth about politics. Politics is about numbers not logic. 

Kate Hawkesby: Travel bubble would be good PR for floundering Govt

 

So are we getting a trans tasman bubble announcement this coming Monday?

The jungle drums are certainly beating that way and it would be great timing for the government.

They’d save face after being shown up by Scott Morrison, it would help the PM’s cred after that 15 point drop in the latest preferred PM poll, and it would take the glare off that shocking GDP figure out yesterday.

There’s never been a better time for some good PR for a govt that loves good PR.

 If we do get the announcement Monday, word is it will be mid to late April that the bubble opens up.

Matt Burgess: The Climate Commission’s transparency problem


It is now three weeks and three days since the Climate Change Commission extended the submissions deadline for its draft emissions budgets by two weeks.

The extension was prompted by concerns about the Commission’s refusal to release selected data from its models.

The extension pushed the submissions deadline just beyond four weeks, the required turnaround time under the Official Information Act (OIA). We immediately lodged an OIA request with the Commission for “all data on the marginal abatement costs of electric vehicles”. The Commission’s response is due in five days.

Our request aims to solve an enduring mystery behind the centrepiece of the Commission’s emissions strategy, their proposed ban of petrol and diesel light vehicle imports from 2032. Under the Commission’s plan, only electric vehicles (EVs) will be imported after that date.

GWPF Newsletter: The world’s three biggest coal users get ready to burn even more

 





Boris Johnson’s G7 dilemma: Carbon border tax vs geopolitical realism

In this newsletter:

1) The world’s three biggest coal users get ready to burn even more
Bloomberg, 16 March 2021
  
2) Greenwashing: Europe's aviation industry carbon scheme highly flawed, Brussels warned
Financial Times, 18 March 2021

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Mike Hosking: Govt's incompetence wrecking ball, not 'creative destruction', ruining businesses


Paul Conway, the BNZ’s new chief economist, he reminds me of the Australian Reserve Bank’s deputy governor a number of years back who famously said, upon the country entering a recession, that recessions can be good because it shakes out the shonky companies that weren’t up to much any way.

Conway, speaking to the NZ Herald, used an economist’s term: creative destruction. While you’re there look up the story of the brewery owner on the West Coast who has to sell after his quote-unquote “year of hell” due to the closed borders.

And in the two stories is the collision of theory vs reality.

Karl du Fresne: In New Zealand...


■ It was drearily predictable that young, female commentators online and in print would unquestioningly accept Meghan Markle’s account of the affronts and injustices supposedly heaped upon her. So it was refreshing to see the New Zealand actress Teuila Blakely suggest that perhaps the “racist” comment about the colour of young Archie’s skin – supposedly made by a member of the royal family who remains unidentified (if indeed it was made at all) – might not have been so racist after all.

In these situations, as Blakely (who is of mixed race) points out, context can be everything. “At a time where [sic] racism is at the forefront of our world in terms of creating awareness around it, I think [those comments] can be damning,” the New Zealand Herald reported her as saying. “[But] I think what’s really important to remember [is] we didn’t understand the context of that conversation or how those those concerns were presented.

“For the royal family, who have never had a person of colour come into their ranks before, the possibility that their first great-grandchild could be coloured would be a conversation you would have.” She said similar conversations had happened in her own extended family when her Samoan mother entered the picture.

Dr Arif Ahmed: Free Speech Policy – and the Importance of the Secret Vote


In March 2020 Cambridge University Council proposed a new ‘free speech policy’ featuring this passage:

In exercising their right to freedom of expression, the University expects its staff, students and visitors to be respectful of the differing opinions of others, in line with the University’s core value of freedom of expression. The University also expects its staff, students and visitors to be respectful of the diverse identities of others, in line with the University’s core value of freedom from discrimination.

I found this wording completely unacceptable.

Geoff Parker: The Authoritarian Noose Tightens


We live in disquieting times when even some books of the marvellous children’s author and perceptive political cartoonist, the late Dr Seuss are being deplatformed. This is in keeping with a trend throughout the Western World to restrict or manipulate the flow of information, commentary and opinion. This movement now includes historical facts, perceptions and historical context.  

The intent seems to be to create a new world order by promoting a radical, anti-Western, anti-democracy ideology. This is being facilitated by the internet’s global reach and behaviours of international bureaucrats, the mass media, large corporates, law firms and those lacking critical thinking skills. Here in New Zealand, organisations enjoying government or council largesse are particularly prone to looking the other way – and their numbers are growing by the year.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Clive Bibby: My “Eureka” Moment

It must be clear to readers that l struggle at times to understand the real reasons why people react to certain situations the way they do. 

I am quite prepared to acknowledge my own limited abilities to see through the deceit and fraudulent posturing that seems to bedevil much of what we have grown up believing is essential to our existence as a orderly society - trust in the law and peaceful coexistence with one another.

I become frustrated when society itself seems to have abandoned the traditional hallmarks of nationhood based on equal opportunities and concern for the genuinely disadvantaged. Instead we seem hell bent on destroying everything that our forebears fought and died for that has survived the test of time simply because it had been proved to work. 

NZCPR Weekly: A Slippery Slide to Totalitarianism



Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter, we examine the Government’s plan to criminalise free speech and outline what it would mean for New Zealand, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Arif Ahmed of Cambridge University shares with us how he defeated the University administration’s proposed restrictions on free speech and academic freedom, and our poll asks whether you believe hate speech laws in New Zealand need to be strengthened.

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


Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Mike Hosking: It's time we merge our local councils

 

Tenby Powell is keeping up the good fight.

He’s the former mayor of Tauranga. Having moved back to the region, he won the election only to find small town New Zealand at times, especially at council level, can be introspective and spiteful. He ended up quitting and such was the mess around the chamber, commissioners have been put in.

Looking on from the side-lines but still clearly passionate about his region, he  has made the appeal for those commissioners to consider merging local councils so they can then actually get on with running the place.

In the Powell plea is the plight of local body politics: we are hopelessly over governed.

GWPF Newsletter: Green Europe in terminal decline as 'demographic winter' grows icier

 




Climate ‘apocalypse’ fears stopping people having children – study

In this newsletter:

1) Green Europe in terminal decline as 'demographic winter' grows icier
The Times, 15 March 2021
 
2) Climate ‘apocalypse’ fears stopping people having children – study
The Guardian, 27 November 2020

Monday, March 15, 2021

Kate Hawkesby: Modern-day angst could be better suited on better causes

 

I’m just wondering if we are living in a heightened age of upset and this level of angst is all new - or have previous generations gone through this much agitation?

Have we always railed against societal norms and demanded change and that’s actually how we’ve evolved as a civilized society?

Have we always had this many grievances, but they’re just being flagged more now due to social media and the easy access to click on a petition and make a complaint? Or are we living in peak angst?

Change.org, for example, currently has a petition for just about everything.

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Bob Edlin: Moaning Meghan triggers howls for our Head of State to be cut off – and a blogger proposes a 50:50 race-based upper house

 

Newshub was among the many media who seized on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s accusations directed at the royal family to put the spotlight on the Queen’s role as New Zealand’s head of state.

Many here and throughout the Commonwealth think it’s another step towards severing the ties, Newshub reported, especially in the light of a remark that triggered the belief the Royal Family is racist:

But The Daily Blog’s Martyn Bradbury took considerations beyond whether New Zealand should become a republic and proposed entrenching the so-called “Treaty Partnership” into an overhaul of our constitutional arrangements.

An Upper House would be established.  Half the seats would be filled by Maori, giving governmental expression to what “partnership” really means.

Saturday, March 13, 2021

Bryce Wilkinson: More false arguments against our Emissions Trading Scheme


The Climate Change Response Act 2000, the Climate Change response (Zero carbon) Amendment Act and the Climate Change Commission’s draft advice have two things in common.

First, their purported primary goal is to reduce global net greenhouse gas emissions.

Second, their proposed means depart from that goal.

The Paris Accord permits international trade in carbon credits. The amended Climate Change Response Act largely prevents it. The Commission’s draft advice necessarily aligns with the Act.

Preventing New Zealanders from trading in overseas credits prevents them from maximising their contribution to reducing net global emissions. Doing that is inconsistent with the primary goal.

GWPF Newsletter: India's coal use to surge as power demand is set to double

 





Coal projected to be India's largest source of power in 2040

In this newsletter:

1) India's coal use to surge as power demand is set to double
Energy Voice, 17 February 2021
 
2) Coal projected to be India's largest source of power in 2040
The Economic Times of India, 12 February 2021

Breaking Views Update: Week of 7.03.21







Saturday March 13, 2021 

News:
Māori-led approach to dealing with crime and preventing reoffending, Te Pae Oranga, launched in Taranaki

A new Māori-led approach to dealing with crime and preventing reoffending has been launched in Taranaki.

Te Pae Oranga Iwi Community Panels are a partnership between police and Māori around the country, and the new panel in Taranaki is the 16th in New Zealand.

Friday, March 12, 2021

John Bell: What’s in a phrase?


In recent times, it has become common practice to commence a communication to someone with Kia ora and conclude with Nga mihi or some other expression in the Maori language. This now appears to be standard practice in communications from Government Departments, state-funded institutions like schools, community organisations and even some public companies such as Contact Energy.

The body of the communication remains in English for the good reason that the writer intended it to be understood. Why, then, a salutation and conclusion in Maori?    

At the end of 2019, the CEO of Forest and Bird even went as far as to wish supporters Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in Maori despite the fact that Christmas is a European Christian festival and Matariki is in the middle of the year. Has the language that served Shakespeare, Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, Tennyson et al. so well suddenly become inadequate for beginning and ending a letter?

Karl du Fresne: On freedom of expression and that $55 million media handout


It seems I’ve achieved the great distinction of being deleted from Reddit. A friend emailed me recently to advise that my Spectator Australia article – ‘NewZealand is being transformed, but not in a good way’ – had been uploaded to Reddit several days previously, but had then been taken down. A notice explained: “Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators”. This was followed by what appeared to be a standard explanatory note: “Moderators remove posts from feeds for a variety of reasons, including keeping communities safe, civil and true to their purpose”.

Who are these moderators? They’re not identified. Neither did the weasel-word explanatory note say exactly what the problem was with my article. I’m left to conclude that the anonymous moderators deemed it “unsafe” – but in what way?

We should be very suspicious of the word “safety” when used in this type of context. It has become another cover for the Stalinist authoritarianism that infects public discourse and seeks to silence and marginalise dissenters.

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Kate Hawkesby: We need far more clarity on the vaccine rollout

 

I’m glad we’re talking vaccine rollout, it’s high time we get some set dates and times around this. It was after all November last year that Chris Hipkins told us from the pulpit of truth that we’d be ‘at the front of the queue.’

It’s high time the government start looking forwards. So group one is the border and MIQ workers, group two is frontline workers and those in high risk settings, health workers, and South Aucklanders over 65 with underlying health issues.

Next up is priority populations, that’s about 1.7 million Kiwis, and following them is everybody else, vaccines for all should start rolling out in July.

So a plan at last, and by no means one that involves us being at the front of the queue – or indeed anywhere close.

Mike Hosking: Why don't we have a trans-Tasman bubble?

 

Was Stuart Nash misleading us yesterday when he said the reason we don’t have a two-way bubble with Australia is because of the Australian government?

Scott Morrison was asked about National's position raised on the show yesterday with Judith Collins who told us the bubble needed to be up and running now. 72-hour negative test, jump on a plane, land here, and get on with your holiday.

Morrison said the only reason Australians weren't on holiday right here, right now was on our government. As we suspected.

Michael Bassett: New Zealand's Modern Cultural Cringe


A bizarre craze seems to be sweeping New Zealand right now. All things derived from Europe except our creature comforts must be set aside as we are expected to embrace all things Maori. 

It’s racism on a grand scale. No longer do our television stations refer to New Zealand. In fact, we are lucky if its Aotearoa-New Zealand. No reference to the fact that, as Michael King shows, Maori didn’t have a name for these lands, and only came to accept “Aotearoa” in relatively recent times. 

Several newspapers are falling into line and are now calling our country Aotearoa, a name unknown to most people beyond our shores. No public debate. We are expected to acquiesce. 

The name “New Zealand” which dates back to Abel Tasman’s visit in 1642 came more into early use and is the name by which our land has always been recognized abroad. It won’t be long before the woke who are driving all this insist on officially changing our country’s name. 

Instead of being proud New Zealanders, we’ll be expected to call ourselves Aotearoaians. They’ll try to avoid a referendum lest it results in rejection like occurred with changing the flag. Just impose it! The woke have no respect for democracy.

Peter Morgan: An Open Letter to Chairman NZ Climate Change Commission








2 February 2021

An Open Letter to Dr Rod Carr, Chair, New Zealand Climate Change Commission

For the personal attention of
Dr Rod Carr
Chair
New Zealand Climate Change Commission
Email: Rod.Carr@climatecommission.govt.nz

Dear Dr Carr

The third-to-last paragraph of your “Letter from the Chair” in the Commission’s Report dated 31 January 2021 is:

“We are seeking feedback on our draft advice before it is finalised. There are matters of fact, assumptions and value judgments we invite you to review. We are committed to true consultation. We will consider all evidence we receive through consultation and are prepared to change any part of our work in light of this.”

Robert Doar: Cash Alone Won’t Solve Child Poverty


When I entered the policy world in the middle of the 1990s, I wanted to reduce poverty, encourage independence, and expand opportunity. And for more than 20 years, working in the social services departments of New York State and New York City, I helped implement reforms to achieve those goals. In so doing, we increased employment, reduced child poverty, and improved the lives of millions of New Yorkers.

We achieved these successes by establishing the expectation that recipients of government aid needed to seek employment, financial independence, and a path to self-sufficiency. And if they did, we would help with government-provided benefits that rewarded their efforts.

The successes of these welfare reforms are widely recognized. In the years after welfare reform, New York City’s cash welfare caseload dropped by almost 1 million recipients, labor force participation among never married mothers (the group most likely to be in poverty) rose by more than 20 percentage points, and child poverty was nearly cut in half. Similar trends occurred all across the country. Nevertheless, everyone acknowledges we still have work to do—myself included.

Roger Childs: History Ideas to Confound and Indoctrinate Our Youngsters

The 4 year old daughter of our neighbours is off to school later in the year. She chatters away about family, friends, scooters, toys, and clothes, but is she ready for ideas like

·Maori history is the foundational and continuous history of Aotearoa New Zealand.

·Colonisation and its consequences have been central to our history for the past 200 years and continue to influence all aspects of New Zealand society.

·The course of Aotearoa New Zealand history has been shaped by the exercise and effects of power?

All New Zealanders need to be concerned about the slant on New Zealand history that is very likely to be inflicted on our 5 to15 year olds from next year. The proposed new curriculum is now out for comment and you can access it through: Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories in our national curriculum – Education in New Zealand