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Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Frank Newman: "Don't Panic"


 "Don't Panic". That was the advice of Microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles when commenting on the COVID Delta variant, as reported by Stuff (29 August 2021).

One would expect a Microbiologist to comment about microscopic life forms and processes. It is a little less expected when the advice is of a psychological nature. However, it is good to be reminded that one should not panic when confronted with challenges in our life.

"Don’t Panic" was of course the advice Lance Corporal Jones so frequently provided to Captain Mainwaring when a crisis arose, as it often did in the seaside resort of Walmington-on-Sea. It was, after all, being confronted by Mr Hitler and his formidable army.

Karl du Fresne: Testing the limits of spin


We crossed a significant threshold in the Covid-19 crisis yesterday, and I’m not talking about the number of new cases.

Commenting on the potentially problematical disjunction between current high inoculation rates and dwindling supplies of the Pfizer vaccine, Jacinda Ardern had this to say: “It’s not a matter of running out [of the vaccine], it’s a matter of whether or not we are in a position of where we need to have a little less demand.”

Er, pardon me? I've read this sentence several times and I’m still not sure what it’s supposed to mean, or indeed whether it means anything at all. Communication is normally one of Ardern’s great political strengths, but this statement was, at best, cryptic. At worst it was nonsensical, and I’m wondering whether it’s a sign that the government is almost past pretending it’s in control of the pandemic.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Labour is putting its political reputation ahead of protecting us from Covid

 

Can we just stop and think about how crazy this is: 

In the middle of an outbreak – our government is seriously talking about slowing down our vaccination rate, because otherwise they will run out of supply. 

Surely, it’s better to have those vaccines in arms rather than the freezer?  

Surely, it’s better to simply jab until you run out?  

Because at least that way, you’ve protected every Kiwi you possibly can, rather than hoarding vaccines and blocking them from Kiwi’s. 

Monday, August 30, 2021

Bruce Moon: Real History – a land sale in the good old times


There are many part-Maoris[i] who bleat about their “loss” of land, today worth billions but worth little more than a song or a ‘fig’ of tobacco when their ancestors eagerly sold most of it to the wicked white colonials.  There could hardly be a more realistic account of this process than that of Irishman, Frederick Edward Maning, the self-styled “Pakeha Maori” who arrived in the Hokianga in 1833, a twenty-one-year-old in search of adventure and the prospect of “making good”.

Maning recorded it all in his lively text, “Old New Zealand, A Tale of the Good Old Times”, 1863, an extract from which, Chapter V, pp 77-80, is the following:

I now purchased a piece of land. ... I really can’t tell to the present day who I purchased it from, for there were about fifty different claimants, every one of whom assured me that the other forty-nine were “humbugs,” and had no right whatever.

Dave Witherow: Peace In Our Time


The American collapse in Afghanistan has provoked some urgent discussion on the current state of Western military competence. Are our armies fit for purpose? Will they ever again win a war? Or has armed force become obsolete in the world we now see evolving?

Here in New Zealand, of course, these questions are more or less moot. Our participation in Afghanistan was less than enthusiastic, and we have been well ahead of the pack in defusing the legacy of organized violence still associated with armies. Our recalcitrance runs deep, and I remember an auspicious Anzac Day, many years ago, when Prime Minister Helen Clark banned the carrying of real rifles by Army Cadets at memorial ceremonies. Guns, Helen reckoned, might give these impressionable young men - they were nearly all men then - the wrong idea.

Mike Hosking: We're paying a huge economic price for smugness

 

Depends on who you ask, of course, but a reality check for the Finance Minister who has been busy this lockdown reassuring us that the economy can handle 4 weeks of level 4 for Auckland.

Two weeks for the whole country with at least two coming weeks in level 3. 

And the added time, fingers crossed for Auckland in Level 3 then Level 2. 

Quick reminder of the numbers, Auckland Council has level 4 at $100 million a day for Auckland alone in economic damage. ASB has the country at $290 million a day in level 4.

The Finance Minister says the economy was going gangbusters. 

That's not true.

Guy Steward: Free Speech or Loaded Language?


“The Eleventh Edition is the definitive edition”, he said. “We’re getting the language into its final shape—the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else.”
- George Orwell, (Nineteen Eighty-Four, London, Secker & Warburg, 1966, p.54).

Our PM has acquired a reputation—or rather reputations—overseas, largely sympathetic and supportive. Her choice of words sometimes gives cause for concern though and has recently earned her a bit of a reputation as the “Don’t talk to your neighbour” PM. Whether extreme speech or just tough love, time will tell, but if your neighbour is fifteen or twenty feet away, then really? you shouldn’t greet them, or talk to them? Or is that not what she meant?

Twenty-three years ago, I wrote a little book entitled Mind Control, the result of a thesis on the subject of cults. It described a suite of ten practices characteristic of cult groups, including the use of fear and intimidation, relationship control, information control, reporting structures, and loaded language. If just some of the practices were present, then it could be called a group with cultic features. If most or all were present, then it was a full-blown cult. In passing I made some parallels with several places around the world, known to all, where it happens on a national scale. I also looked at how, if ex-cultists don’t resolve issues related to those practices, they run the risk of perpetuating them in other contexts.

Sunday, August 29, 2021

Clive Bibby: The energy giant we dare not speak its name

One thing farmers learn quicker than anything else when dealing with climate change is that your survival will depend primarily on decisions that are based on what we know to be true.

Most of the reliable data used when planning for a changing environment will be gleaned from historical records that give clear indications of the likely success of any mitigating scheme introduced that includes the lessons learned from past severe events. It’s just common sense but it usually works better than placing all our eggs in a basket of relatively unknown alternatives.

So it is with the nation’s search for reliable clean energy alternatives that will enable us to eliminate the traditional reliance on a mix that includes coal fired power stations.

It would appear that those who make the decisions on the alternatives we can choose from have been given clear instructions from our political masters that large scale hydro schemes are not on that list in any shape or form. More's the pity!

Saturday, August 28, 2021

Lindsay Mitchell: UNROC submission

Periodically the UN requires the NZ government to report on the progress - or otherwise - it is making on upholding the many articles that form the UN Rights of the Child convention. This is my submission on the latest draft report.

Submission on the government’s draft sixth periodic report to the United Nations on the Rights of the Child (UNROC) 

I wish to make two observations regarding the government’s draft sixth report to the United Nations on the Rights of the Child (UNROC).

1/ UNROC ARTICLE 26 states: 

“Social security - The child has the right to benefit from social security.”

Data at Table 21 in the draft report shows the number of children dependent on a social security benefit increased by 14.4 percent or 25,842 between 2016 and 2021.

The length of parental stay on a benefit is also increasing. The proportion of sole parents dependent for a year or more grew by 3.6 percent over the same period.

GWPF Newsletter: Taliban go green and vow to help fight climate change

 





Will the Taliban attend COP26?

In this newsletter:

1) Taliban go green and vow to help fight climate change
Global Warming Policy Forum & Newsweek, 24 August 2021

2) Taliban vow to tackle climate change: Terror group sets out its eco credentials (presumably by taking Afghanistan back to the Middle Ages)
Daily Mail, 25 August 2021

Hugh Perrett: Implementation of Separatism in New Zealand


Together with many other New Zealanders, I must express my extreme concern at Government’s continuing deliberate re-invention of and misinterpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi, seemingly for its own political agenda and benefit, by promulgating what can only be described as Government endorsed Separatism through a Government sponsored system of neo- apartheid - a political structure which for decades we despised and rejected relative to South Africa.

It is almost certain to be extremely damaging to our society, democratic system and democracy.

There is no justification for it, as is seemingly being claimed, in either our history or in the Treaty of Waitangi provisions.

Observably activists inside Government seem to have hijacked collectively, both Government‘s caucus and the Coalition.

They appear to have embedded a sense of guilt in the Prime Minister and to be successfully exploiting it to the full. 

John Gibson: Lockdowns only slightly postponed deaths in New Zealand


The Level 4 lockdown imposed on March 25 2020 in New Zealand was the world’s most restrictive set of closure and containment policies at the time.

While designed to deal with Covid‐19, it was soon noted by public health academics that all‐cause mortality fell below historical rates about five weeks after the lockdown restrictions began. 

Deaths stayed below their week‐of‐the‐year averages for most of the next four months, avoiding the usual winter peak due especially to influenza.

This effect has been dubbed a “COVID‐19 response induced life gain” and some commentators argue that the tools used in 2020 against Covid could be used every year to deal with the winter peak in deaths due to influenza.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 22.08.21







Saturday August 28, 2021 

News:
Fonterra - Being a New Zealand Co-operative, the Māori world view inspires our mindset.

We acknowledge the interconnectedness of all living and non-living things and our commitment to Manaakitanga (care for people), Kaitiakitanga (care for our land and environment) and Whanaungatanga (care for the connectivity between people) drives all that we do.

Friday, August 27, 2021

NZCPR Weekly: Democracy in New Zealand - a stocktake



Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter we undertake a stocktake of New Zealand’s democratic safeguards to assess the resilience of our democracy to attack, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Anthony Willy shares his concerns about the dangers of judicial activism, and our poll asks to what extent you believe tribal co-governance is a threat to New Zealand’s democracy.

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


Lindsay Mitchell: Most open and transparent govt ever

Most open and transparent government ever. That's what the Prime Minister, who charged herself with bettering outcomes for NZ children, promised. 

I monitor the Ministry of Social Development's website daily.

Today the following notice appeared:

Every five years, New Zealand reports to the United Nations about what they are doing to make sure children’s rights are met. 

The government has apparently prepared a response and says:

We would like your feedback on how well the Government has responded to the issues raised by the Committee.

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Mike Hosking: In 18 months, we have learned nothing

 

I assume most of us got the same e-mail; the supermarkets aren't coping.

The promises are not coming to pass, deliveries are off, you need to go in person, and queue for God knows how long. If you're old, sick, infirm, or alone you can apply, like a lot of third world countries, for a dispensation. If you're one of the lucky ones you can have your groceries delivered to you. 

This is not to blame the supermarkets, any more than it is to blame the ships that aren't arriving at the ports with the things for the shelves. It's to highlight the lack of planning from last time. 

Because we were here last time, we are here again, and nowhere in the ensuing 18 months was any sort of plan developed. 

Barry Soper: The life saving surgery cancelled by lockdown

 

We've been told repeatedly from the Beehive's Pulpit of Truth to be kind, it comes repeatedly from the Prime Minister's and her fellow preacher the Director General of Health's sermon sheet. 

But it's the old story, it'd be nice to see them practice what they preach. 

In fairness neither of them can be across the minutiae of everything that goes on, but whether they like it or not, the buck stops at their altar. 

We know the revolving door of detention has taken its toll on many fronts, on social gatherings, weddings and funerals to name a few. Even the late Sir Michael Cullen can't have a fitting farewell where many of us would have liked to have gone to celebrate his life. 

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

GWPF Newsletter: Biden’s Afghanistan debacle may sink his climate agenda

 




Welcome to the green #BlackoutState: California to build 5 gas power plants to avoid blackouts

In this newsletter:

1) Biden’s Afghanistan debacle may sink his climate agenda
Nives Dolsak and Aseem Prakash, Forbes, 20 August 2021
 
2) Growing fire risk of battery cars forces GM to recall its electric vehicles
AP, 21 August 2021

Bruce Moon: And The Lies Keep Rolling On!


When I scanned the news items from Stuff last week,[i] I could hardly believe my eyes!

There was a lengthy article from one Olivia Wannan, “Climate Reporter”, beginning: “As the country grapples with the two different versions of our founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi and Te Tiriti, the Government is asserting its authority to curb greenhouse pollution ... [She] asks how our zero-carbon journey can put both at its centre.”  And this when “greenhouse pollution” was quite unrecognized, if indeed it existed, when “Te Tiriti” was written!

For heaven’s sake!  Please let us start, not with Ms Wannan’s fantasies, but with the actual, verifiable facts of history.  Number One: There is one “Treaty of Waitangi”.  I repeat: There is one “Treaty of Waitangi”, sometimes referred to as “Te Tiriti o Waitangi”. 

Hugh Perrett: Open Letter to the Prime Minister


Dear Prime Minister,

Many, many of we New Zealanders are heartily sick of and extremely annoyed at your Government’s ongoing campaign to bring about a change in our country’s name from New Zealand to Aotearoa. 

This has obviously in effect involved instructing Government Departments and major media (at least) to continually push the name Aotearoa in association with or, increasingly, at the expense of our country’s name, New Zealand. 

We, as a country have spent billions of dollars over many, many years promoting the name New Zealand and giving it identity and meaning internationally. 

It is our Brand name in the same way as names like Coca Cola, Colgate, Persil, Watties, Palmolive, Milo, Vegemite and many others are brand names instantly conveying the identity, positive benefits and positive consumer associations with them. 

None of these brand owners would for a second contemplate changing the name of these branded products.

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Impossible to respect Jacinda Ardern's decision to refuse epidemic response select committee

 

I am so disappointed in the Prime Minister for refusing to allow the opposition the chance to properly scrutinise this lockdown and her decisions about it. 

I think most of us are reasonably understanding of the decision not to let Parliament sit. 

I think we can see that a gathering in Wellington like that might be a little problematic in level four. 

Graham Adams: Is Jacinda Ardern the Messiah? Or just a very crafty politician?


The Prime Minister’s politics — including her stance towards the Mongrel Mob and the Taliban — can be baffling. Graham Adams reckons answers lie in her past as a Mormon.

Whether it is from politeness or a lack of curiosity, it is rare for journalists or commentators to dwell on Jacinda Ardern’s religious history and how it might have shaped her politics.

When the Prime Minister is occasionally asked, she bats the question away with a stock answer: she rejected religion in her mid-twenties and never looked back. As far as the public knows, the Prime Minister was brought up as a Mormon but renounced her faith in 2005 — and that was that.

This view was encapsulated in her response to a question about whether she had smoked marijuana: “I was once a Mormon and then I wasn’t — that’s how I’ll put that.”

Monday, August 23, 2021

Ross Meurant - Chaos on the Horizon


It has been said that COVID is like a creeping pressure on one’s ability to breath.

It is also said that COVID restrictions on communities are a creeping form of suffocation. Like a python, slowly but surely, strangulation.

A quote from a Hungarian Jew from the documentary, “The Last Days”.

‘People wonder, “How is it that we didn’t do something?”. We didn’t run away, we didn’t hide. Well, things didn’t happen at once. Things happened very slowly. So, each time a new law came out, or a new restriction, we said, “well, just another thing. It will blow over. When we had to wear the yellow star to be outside, we started to worry”.

Is this what we now experience?

Nicholas Kerr: The perils of COVID-zero — manage the endemic


The perils of COVID-zero—how policymakers should manage endemic COVID-19


As the COVID-19 pandemic has evolved and we’ve learned more about the virus, the way we manage it should have evolved as well. From a policymaking perspective, step one is acknowledging that it’s one of many risks we face in life; we need to weigh up all of life’s risks as we decide how to tackle this problem.

Second, it’s important to note that, as we learned early on, COVID’s risks differ dramatically across age deciles and health conditions. At the onset of the pandemic, when we knew little about the coronavirus, it seemed reasonable to adopt a stricter set of blanket policies until we could properly assess risk. However, because risks differ dramatically for those two metrics (age and underlying health conditions), we should design policy approaches that are weighed against the risks that each subset of our population faces.

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Stuff: Aotearoa a European hoax


The following article, dated 18th Feb 2009, is posted on Stuff’s website. 

It is a reminder of what newspapers used to be like before they were lobotomised by government influence... 

Aotearoa a European hoax

10:38, Feb 18 2009

Maori arise. Tuhoe, march. You are in danger of having foisted upon you, in the guise of Maori history, a great European romantic invention.

We are talking here about the name Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud.

Karl du Fresne: The disturbing case of Moana


The disturbing case of Moana, the heavyweight influencer and the judges.

Dominion Post journalist Marty Sharpe has reported a disturbing case in which Oranga Tamariki and a Hawke’s Bay iwi tried to have a young Maori girl removed from a safe, loving and secure Pakeha foster home because her cultural needs were supposedly not being met.

That in turn has led to an even more disturbing development, also reported by Sharpe in today's paper. I can’t recall a New Zealand judge ever rebuking two of his judicial superiors and effectively telling them to pull their heads in. But that’s what Family Court judge Peter Callinicos did when two senior judges appeared to interfere in a case he was hearing that related to the girl.

Their action created the appearance of the judges, both of whom were appointed during the term of the Ardern-Peters government, exerting influence behind closed doors in a matter that raises politically sensitive race issues. It’s not a good look.

Peter Dunne: Mismanaging Covid


Last week, all the talk was of the proposed roadmap out of Covid19 – this week we are back into a Level 4 lockdown. I am not opposed to this short, sharp lockdown caused by the outbreak in Auckland of the Delta variant of Covid19. It was necessary and the right thing to do, especially given our embarrassingly low rates of vaccination.

But what I am opposed to is all the sickening hype that has accompanied it. Especially since everything has been so predictable. From the first signs of the emergence of the Delta variant the government should have been fully aware of the inevitable risk to New Zealand, given its capacity for rapid spread and our abysmal approach to rapid community vaccination. When Covid19 Response Minister Hipkins first threatened a “short, sharp lockdown” last week, the government’s planning for such an event should have been in full swing.

Saturday, August 21, 2021

Melanie Phillips: After America


Now the US has pulled up its drawbridge, how will the free world defend itself?


Much deserved opprobrium has been heaped upon US President Joe Biden for his shameful remarks on Monday justifying his decision to cut and run from Afghanistan. He blamed everyone but himself for the Taliban’s expedited return to power, and accused the Afghan army — who have lost almost 70,000 soldiers fighting the Taliban — of having 
collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight… American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves… We gave them every chance to determine their own future. What we could not provide them was the will to fight for that future.

Clive Bibby: The truth about appeasement

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks!” Only fools would think that it is worth a try.

Here’s why we shouldn’t even give it a passing thought. It has proven to be a failed policy.

Those who are in positions of national leadership have responsibilities to recognise the signs that characterise thuggish behaviour and never allow it to operate unchecked.

Unfortunately, history at this level is littered with examples of failures to protect citizens from these criminals - some are even repeated by those in whom we have mistakenly entrusted the nation’s safety.

The disaster that is unfolding in Afghanistan is the result of irresponsible attitudes towards the evil regimes that want to destroy western civilisation.

There is no other way to describe it.

Muriel Newman: Suggested Three Waters Letter to Councils


Following is a suggested letter that can be copied and modified for sending to councils expressing concern about the Government's Three Waters proposal and calling for proper community consultation.

Don’t forget that more details about the Three Waters Campaign can be found here: nzcpr.com/3waters

And council email addresses can be found HERE.

Dear XXX

I am writing with respect to the Government’s Three Waters proposal. As I am sure you would agree, it is perhaps the most significant decision affecting ratepayers since the amalgamation of councils in 1989.

The Local Government Act requires councils to consult with their communities over any plans to transfer water services, and a strategic asset like water requires the highest level of consultation.

NZCPR Weekly: Disunity and Division



Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter we look at the developing situation in Afghanistan and reflect on the dangers of tribalism and the He Puapua agenda that is currently being implemented in New Zealand, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Lindsay Mitchell shares the results of her comprehensive investigation into the progress being made by Maori under colonisation, and our poll asks whether you agree that DoC’s $26.5m taxpayer-funded visitor centre at Dolomite Point should be gifted to Ngai Tahu.

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


Friday, August 20, 2021

Effi Lincoln: Nine ways to disengage from the Woke praxis of Critical Race Theory in New Zealand.


Every time you use te reo you owe Māori more.

New Zealanders are increasingly asking what is going wrong in our beautiful country, despite us working so hard to make it inclusive and fair?

Why are there increasing demands to dismantle and replace our culture, our language balance and indeed, our entire political system which, until now, we have understood to be generally heading in the right direction?

And New Zealanders are pleading to know; What can we do to stop this juggernaut hurtling us all down the road to ruin?

How can we push back?

Karl du Fresne: Afghanistan? Remind me - where's that again?


First published on Wednesday...
 

One of the most dramatic news stories of my lifetime was unfolding yesterday. The collapse of Afghanistan is a massive human tragedy and a catastrophic foreign policy and military failure for the world’s most powerful country and its allies – one that’s at least as humiliating and ignoble as Vietnam.

International media have given Afghanistan saturation coverage, and rightly so. Few countries have endured greater agony, much of it inflicted by the clumsy, brutal and ultimately futile intervention of foreign powers.

But how much time did Newshub give this epic event in its 6 o’clock news bulletin? None, other than a passing introductory spiel that promised (but never delivered) “horrific scenes at Kabul”.

You see, there was a far more momentous story to cover. A man in Auckland had tested positive for Covid-19 and it was suspected (and has since been established) that he had the highly contagious Delta variant.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Paul A. Nuttall: The Queen of Woke


As she backs Churchill’s cancellation, it’s time to ask: is Queen of Woke Jacinda Ardern the world’s most insufferable leader?


The achingly right-on New Zealand premier says she doesn’t care about parliament’s decision to remove a portrait of the wartime leader. If there’s a woke cause, you can guarantee Ardern will jump on it, like an overgrown student.

New Zealand’s parliament has taken the extraordinary decision to remove a portrait of Sir Winston Churchill from its public gallery. As a result, he will now be hidden away from the public like some shameful reminder of the past. Not glorious, as he once was, but an embarrassment who is out of kilter with ‘modern day’ opinions and attitudes.

Karl du Fresne: Diversity training isn't much help when you're staring down the barrel of an AK47


The military has always had a distinct culture of its own – one that depends on the acceptance of order, discipline and authority. Its rituals, traditions and rigid hierarchical structure may seem peculiar to outsiders and out of step with the rest of the world, but that’s how it functions.

Most people who have served in the military would argue there’s no other way. In combat, soldiers must be able to rely on others to do what they’re told, even if it means risking their lives. This ethos permeates the armed forces even in peacetime.

But how much longer this will remain the case must be in question as the New Zealand Defence Force shows signs of succumbing to the tide of Marxist-inspired ideological upheaval sweeping through the rest of society.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 15.08.21







Thursday August 19, 2021 

News:
Delivering on Māori housing repairs

Over the last three years, our Māori Housing Network Repair Programme, has delivered critical repairs to 1471 Māori homes throughout Aotearoa New Zealand,” Willie Jackson said.

The Government invested over $3.5 million into the whānau-led community development project and produced:

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Kate Hawkesby: Stick to what we know, and we will be fine

 

Did you, like me, feel your heart skip a beat when the news flashed across your phone yesterday afternoon that officials were investigating a positive community Covid case? 

Especially for those of us in Auckland, given it was in the Auckland community, of course it was. It was always going to be. 

My sister and I have discussed this a lot in recent days, she lives in Christchurch and we were debating when Delta would hit us and how fast we’d go into lockdown, and she pointed out (rightly so) that it would be Auckland first. 

GWPF Newsletter: UK blames Joe Biden for looming COP26 failure

 





US coal and oil demand on the rise again in blow to climate goals

In this newsletter:

1) UK blames enfeebled Joe Biden for looming COP failure
Global Warming Policy Forum, 16 August 2021
 
2) US must double cash pledge to save UN climate conference
The Daily Telegraph, 16 August 2021 

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Clive Bibby: US border policies rank with crimes against humanity


The Trump haters will be finding it difficult to ignore this elephant in the room.

But such is the failure of the free press throughout the Western World to hold politicians of this administration to account, it is likely that these examples of wilful misconduct will escape along with all the others that are going unnoticed since Biden was elected only seven months ago. 

It wouldn’t be so bad if we could describe the current Border Control policies as the result of incompetent bungling. 

Unfortunately, it is far worse than that. We are being forced to accept that the Covid deaths that will occur as the result of deliberate government policy at the border deserves to be recognised for what it is. For my money, it comes close to “State condoned death of innocent civilians.” Others will say that is too harsh.

GWPF Newsletter: Concerns grow that UN climate summit may end in failure

 





In message to Biden & Boris China puts coal and growth ahead of climate

In this newsletter:

1) Concerns grow that UN climate summit may end in failure
Global Warming Policy Forum, 13 August 2021
 
2) Prince Charles to address COP26 amid concerns it may end in failure
The Times, 13 August 2021

Frank Newman: Te Huia in jeopardy


Good news…the two runaway carriages have been located and reunited with the Te Huia express which is now back up to full passenger potential of 500 a day. (see >>>)

That's the good news. Not so good news is the concerns being raised that Te Huia may be in "jeopardy".

Stuffed reports, "The Hamilton to Auckland passenger train will be in 'jeopardy' if passenger numbers don’t improve…Waikato Regional Council chairman Russ Rimmington admitted traveller numbers are 'a shocker'."

Monday, August 16, 2021

Graham Adams: Ardern’s winter of discontent far from over


The Prime Minister’s protective cloak of stardust is slipping from her party’s shoulders, Graham Adams argues, just when it will be sorely needed to sell the contentious health reforms.

During 2017’s election campaign, Prime Minister, Bill English, predicted the “stardust” that surrounded the newly minted leader of the Labour Party would “settle”.

He couldn’t have been more spectacularly wrong as Jacinda Ardern’s popularity — both here and around the world — soared into the stratosphere, culminating in Labour gaining the first outright majority of the MMP era at last October’s general election, largely because of her success in managing the threat of Covid.

Now the gloss is coming off. Ardern is still hugely popular but the omens are not propitious.

Kate Hawkesby: I've got my Covid jab and I feel good about it


Got my jab yesterday.

And here’s the rub on that.

It was easy as.

No queues, no faffing around, very efficient, very slick, very well organised.

The jab itself is a non-event – and no one is more needle phobic than me, so if I didn’t feel it, you certainly won’t.

I was, to be perfectly honest with you, vaccine hesitant.

Sunday, August 15, 2021

GWPF Newsletter: Boris Johnson backtracks as furious Tory MPs fear Net Zero fallout

 





Is Boris Johnson planning to abandon the 1.5C climate target to secure a COP26 agreement?

In this newsletter:

1) Net Zero is an existential threat to Boris Johnson and the Conservatives, furious Tory MPs warn
Global Warming Policy Forum, 11 August 2021
 
2) Boris Johnson will be hammered by Red Wall voters over cost of green revolution, furious Tory MPs say in WhatsApp tirade
The Sun, 11 August 2021

Frank Newman: $30k on a carving, while people live in cars

Act Party slams housing agency Kāinga Ora (previously known as Housing Corp) for $30,000 Māori carving spend.

Act leader, David Seymour, said "While vulnerable New Zealanders are desperate for shelter, the agency tasked with housing them is spending tens of thousands of dollars on artwork...We have people living in motels and cars and tenants whose houses aren't up to standard. Instead of them, Kāinga Ora is providing a home to expensive artwork."

Saturday, August 14, 2021

Peter Williams: Hurricanes fans, TJ Perenara - Troy Bowker is not racist


The insipid cancel culture is doing a lot of damage to NZ.

What do we make of this carry on with the Hurricanes rugby team and one of their owners Troy Bowker? Now regular listeners to this show will know of Troy Bowker. We’ve had him on here quite often because he’s a man of ideas and opinions. We’ve had him on here talking about the capital gains tax, the hypocrisy of electric vehicle manufacture and on allowing high net worth individuals to come and live in New Zealand as long as they bring a big chunk of their money. Opinions which I thought were eminently sensible.

He’s an entrepreneur, a type A personality who takes risks and has made a decent amount of money in his time, and along the way employed a good number of people. He’s the kind of guy who, in that respect, should be encouraged in our community.

NZCPR Weekly: Olympic Success - Political Failure



Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter we reflect on the wonderful success of our Kiwi Olympians – and the failure of politicians running this country, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Barry Brill shares concerns that the risk assessment data provided by the Government to inform climate policy development is not fit for purpose, and our poll asks whether Jacinda Ardern is the most radical Prime Minister New Zealand has ever had.

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