Bruce Moon: A vast deception

An extravagantly illustrated article in Stuff on 5th February 2022 written by one Philip Matthews and evidently endorsed by Claudia Orange, whose picture appears within it, carries the headline:

Was the Treaty of Waitangi an act of love or a vast deception?

The answer to that question is neither of those alternatives!!

It is indeed a common trick of hucksters and even, sadly, of politicians, to present false alternative answers to a question (sidestepping the correct answer) and inviting the audience to choose between them. We should be decidedly naive if we fell for that trick on this occasion.

Garrick Tremain: Recipe for Tribalism

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on the rise of tribalism and demise of democracy! 

Rodney Hide: Freedom!

One of the most invigorating things about Camp Freedom is the absence of fear. The protesters aren't scared. They move freely amongst the crowd and greet and socialise in the usual human ways. There are smiles, handshakes and hugs.

I am not a hugger but I could not help myself. I hugged at Freedomville. I felt human. I was a person not a biohazard.

It was so unbelievably joyful.

To step into the camp is to step into freedom. Stepping out was to cross back into tyranny where people fear each other and wear filthy hankies tied across their faces in a madcap attempt to stay safe.

It's the lack of fear that makes for freedom and provides joy. Having left the Camp, I want back. The Camp is normal life to me; outside is weird, miserable, irrational and tyrannical.

NZCPR Newsletter: Nothing To Fear

In a week when Russia invaded the Ukraine, and when the protesters in Wellington scored a major victory with the removal of vaccine mandates for children, the Government has embarked on a charm offensive to quell the growing public opposition to its racist He Puapua agenda.

He Puapua is, of course, Labour’s ‘masterplan’ to replace democracy with co-governance and tribal rule.

The New Zealand Herald’s two-page feature by senior political journalist Audrey Young identified Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson as an influential “power broker”.

What’s clear from the article is that Willie Jackson – and his Maori Caucus colleagues – are elevating the interests of Maori above those of all other New Zealanders.

Barry Brill: Coming Apart …..

New Zealand is a country of immigrants. Although it was the last country on earth to be occupied by humans, we have made up for lost time with successive waves of arrivals.

The Polynesian people from our local region arrived first, followed by the British from half a world away. Then people came from other European countries and – in the last half-century – from all the Asian/Pacific countries. The 2013 census noted that we now have more ethnicities (213) than the UN has countries (196).

National Idea

The glue that holds this polyglot of peoples together is not a common culture, but a shared national idea of what it means to be a “Kiwi”.

This vision of our nation isn’t built upon some theoretical melting-pot of brown, almond-eyed poms who can all play footy and do a haka. Instead, it relies upon a mosaic of multiple cultures continuously living and working together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and affection.

The very idea is challenging. It defies the parable of the Tower of Babel.

Karl du Fresne: Why the woke Left is so rattled by Camp Freedom

It’s been fascinating over the past couple of weeks to observe the intellectual contortions of people who forcefully uphold the right to protest, just as long as those ghastly lowlifes on the other side don’t do it.

Veteran old-school leftist Don Franks deftly skewered the hypocrites in a poem published on this blog, but it hasn’t deterred them from continuing to recoil in disgust at the sight of the “rabble” (a word suddenly much favoured by the illiberal Left, as opposed to those like Franks who believe in free speech) on the lawns outside Parliament.

There’s an unmistakeable note of panic in the posturing of the woke Left. They suddenly realise they no longer control the public debate and are wildly lashing out at the scruffy mob that usurped their right to make a nuisance of themselves.  How dare they!

Denis Hall: The real reason for the Ukraine war.

I've been watching News all day for days - because this situation fascinates me - and I'm not talking about the deadbeats in New Zealand's so called "news". They do not count for anything. I deal with them with the remote. Click – gone!

The most informative News Org I have to say - and it makes me squirm to say it - is Al Jazeera. and I have also been watching Fox and RT (Russia Today) and the wackos at the BBC - and some of the others that I have on my TV. I have also been interested in History all my life - and I never did get indoctrinated in any 'University' 'political science class' - and this below is what I think about all this.

Get on Google Earth first - and see where the Ukraine actually is in relation to the European Union and Russia. (And TRY to remember - that Russia and China are joined at the hip by tradition - landmass - politics - and the future.)

God forbid I would be on Russia's side in this - but in terms of stupid I find it difficult to be on NATO's side.

Kate Hawkesby: We're in Phase 3, it's now time to let it go

 

So we’re into Phase 3 as of today – and not before time. 

Problem is, nobody knows what any of it means. I was out all day yesterday driving around Auckland and what I can tell you is that there are still snaking queues everywhere for PCR tests. Why? 

Why is no one getting the memo on that? Why are all these people still queuing for tests? Possibly because RATs, which we’re supposed to be doing, are so hard to find.  

Breaking Views Update: Week of 20.2.22

Saturday February 26, 2022 

News:
Advertising Standards Authority says its hands are tied after racist pamphlets return to Auckland letterboxes
The authority's chief executive Hilary Souter told Open Justice that the lack of media platform in this instance made it harder to enforce the ruling to have it removed from circulation.

Normally, a media organisation would comply with a request not to run an advertisement found to have breached advertising standards.

Melanie Phillips: The green dream goes lethal

Through its obsession with “climate change,” the west handed Putin his greatest weapon

Western nations are shocked — shocked! — by Russian president Vladimir Putin’s onslaught against Ukraine.

There are many reasons why the west must bear considerable responsibility for this crisis. As I wrote here, these include the fantasy indulged in until this week by western nations that Putin posed no threat and was instead a person through whom westerners could enrich themselves.

Thus Britain’s capital has been dubbed “Londongrad,” because British governments have allowed so many of Putin’s fellow oligarchs to use its infrastructure to launder stolen Russian funds — contributing in the process so much to Britain’s GDP.

Then there’s the European embrace of pacifism, which has led Britain and other European states to cut their defence spending and rely instead on America’s protective umbrella which they all took for granted.

Clive Bibby: Inside a memory bank with no deposits

You don't have to be a brain surgeon to understand what the cranium of someone in cognitive decline looks like.

Consequently, those of us who have watched the recent press conferences involving the current President of the USA - particularly those since the Russian invasion of Ukraine - are alarmed to finally realise the fate of the Free World is in the hands of someone who has difficulty remembering where he lives.

Let's examine the reality of the relative positions of the two major super powers involved in this conflict.

Frank Newman: Message to Jacinda Ardern – Resign

This has been a big day for the protesters in Wellington, for two things that have occurred away from the Freedom Village.

First, the government has announced, "All school students would now be able to participate in school activities despite if they were vaccinated or not and gathering limits would no longer apply when unvaccinated students were participating."

In other words, mandates for kids have been dropped. Clearly, the government did not say it that simply because they did not want to be seen to be backing down to the protesters, but that's exactly what they have done.

Matt Ridley: How Global Warming Can Be Good For Us

Global warming is real. It is also – so far – mostly beneficial. This startling fact is kept from the public by a determined effort on the part of alarmists and their media allies who are determined to use the language of crisis and emergency. The goal of Net Zero emissions in the UK by 2050 is controversial enough as a policy because of the pain it is causing. But what if that pain is all to prevent something that is not doing net harm?

The biggest benefit of emissions is global greening, the increase year after year of green vegetation on the land surface of the planet. Forests grow more thickly, grasslands more richly and scrub more rapidly. This has been measured using satellites and on-the-ground recording of plant-growth rates. It is happening in all habitats, from tundra to rainforest. In the four decades since 1982, as Bjorn Lomborg points out, NASA data show that global greening has added 618,000 square kilometres of extra green leaves each year, equivalent to three Great Britains. You read that right: every year there’s more greenery on the planet to the extent of three Britains. I bet Greta Thunberg did not tell you that.

Mike Hosking: Bloomfield and Health Ministry fail us yet again

 

How is that love affair with Ashley Bloomfield going for you? Did you get the t-shirt or the apron? 

For those who beatified him, idolised him, and told everyone how wonderful he was, just what were you specifically basing that on? 

I saw through him at the start of the campaign when he kept telling us how there was no issue with the distribution of PPE, despite doctors and nurses, who of course are well known liars, telling us there was none. 

Michael Bassett: Centralising everything

When Labour governments run out of ideas they have usually resorted to centralisation and more controls. In its final term, Peter Fraser’s ministry that had been one of the most creative in New Zealand’s history, centralised as tired ministers hoped their trusted bureaucrats would keep Labour’s faltering show on the road. The ministries of Walter Nash, Norman Kirk and Bill Rowling followed similar paths. Jacinda Ardern’s government, you’ll recall, had very little policy to start with. So little in fact that when it came to office in 2017 it had to set up more than two hundred committees and inquiries to tell it what to think and do. The results were pitiful. Almost no Kiwibuild houses were constructed, homeless numbers increased, poverty figures rose rather than declined, educational achievement standards kept slipping against other countries, and major infrastructure construction fell well behind schedule. Whenever criticised, rookie ministers blamed the previous government, and then Covid. Message? Centralising everything can’t compensate for the absence of carefully-thought-through policy.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: This is the problem with Māori co-governance

I was slightly surprised to read an article in the Herald today in which Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson says Kiwis have “nothing to be scared of” when it comes to Māori co-governance of our assets.

But if you’ve been following the story of Te Urewera National Park, you’ll know that's not strictly true.

Te Urewera National Park – as in Lake Waikaremoana, one of NZ's great walks – has been closed since August and only reopened again 9 days ago.

Why? Because it’s no longer run by DOC only.

For the last eight years, it’s also been run by the local iwi tuhoe under a co-governance model.

The problem is that most of the huts and many of the swing bridges were in dire need of repair but the iwi wouldn’t allow the repairs.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The protesters are losing the PR battle

 

The reported assaults on police at the protest these last two mornings are completely unacceptable. 

None of us are going to be ok with protestors throwing faeces at police, and spraying officers with what they suspect is acid. 

Unless that kind of nonsense stops, the protest will lose any public support that it has, and I suspect, frankly, it has already lost a great deal of public sympathy. 

Guy Hatchard: Letter to Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt

To: Dr Paul Hunt
Chief Human Rights Commissioner

23 February 2022

Dear Commissioner

Thank you for providing the opportunity to present to yourself and staff yesterday afternoon. I did so as an individual scientist but on the invitation of Voices For Freedom. I remain independent of groups, but maintain communication with many groups and colleagues on scientific issues. I am not a protestor, nor do I have any history prior to the pandemic of publicly opposing vaccination. I am formerly a senior manager at Genetic ID a global food safety testing and certification company (now known as FoodChain ID). I am a long standing advocate of the benefits and safety of those natural approaches to diet and medicine which have been adequately scientifically verified. I have my own website, HatchardReport.com. At the conclusion of the meeting you said that the HRC would make a public statement and left the participants free to make public statements themselves. Thank you.

Bruce Moon: What is “tino rangatiratanga”?

A Stuff article on 6th February 2022 by two Victoria University of Wellington academics, Maria Bargh and Luke Fitzmaurice is one of many to appear within a few days around 6th February (our  “Waitangi Day”) which talks about They possibly hold the record by mentioning “tino rangatiratanga” no less than sixteen times – by my count anyway.

Now who are these people and what is this “tino rangatiratanga’ that they and so many like them keep talking about so repeatedly?

Rodney Hide: The protestors have won

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has told protesters at Parliament that they’ve “made their point”, and it’s now “time to go home”.

The Prime Minister is clearly rattled. She doesn’t understand that it is not for her to decide when the protesters go home (other than by her repealing the mandate orders).

She also fails to appreciate that the protesters aren’t outside her window to make a point: they are there to end the mandates.

In that one distinction we see the difference between the protesters and the Prime Minister. Everything the Prime Minister does is to make a point -- and only to make a point. She promises to build 100,000 houses or to plant a billion trees or to end child poverty. The promise serves only to make a point: that she cares. That’s it. It is never her intention actually to build the houses or to plant the trees or to feed the kids.

She clearly doesn’t know how to. She doesn’t know how to swing a hammer or to wield the massive machinery of government to make houses. If she did know, she would have done so.

But for her it doesn’t matter. She shows she cares by making her promise. She makes her point. And that for her is enough.

It’s the same with modern day protests. They make their point. And then go home.

The protesters that I know outside Parliament aren’t like that. They have gone to Wellington to end the mandates. They have a purpose. They have a job to do. And they will stay until it’s done.

Kate Hawkesby: Promoting division among people is the most 'unkind' thing a govt can do

 

I know lots of people are over the protest, and I feel a bit that way too, and I know that’s easy to say if you're not sitting in the same city as it. Even those in Wellington, just not near the CBD, say they’re sick of it as well.  

But then there are those at the epicentre who say it’s horrific, don’t underestimate the gruesome time we’re having. The students who can’t catch the bus, the law students who can’t get on campus, the local businesses being punished, the commuters held up. 

But for those of us for whom it's out of sight, it's out of mind. If it doesn’t affect you, do you really care? And many don’t care. 

Derek Mackie: Trev & Jacinda's Protest Debrief

J: Come in Trevor. Take a seat. Leave those big steel toe-capped boots at the door, please. 

T: Will this take long, Prime Minister? I urgently need to get back to the steps outside parliament. 

J: Why? Are you trying a new initiative to move the protesters on? 

T: I’m convinced that the power of my withering glare is making them buckle and get off my lawn. I’m sure the numbers are dropping. 

J: Really. How many have left, do you think? 10%? 20%? 

T: Two 

J: Percent? 

T: No, just two. But they looked really intimidated. 

J: I hate to burst your bubble but the police reports say the protest is growing, Trevor. I hope you have something better than that to hit them with, but strictly metaphorically speaking. Because, as you know, I abhor all forms of violence. 

T: I’ve been taking all practical steps to restore privileged access to the nation’s parliament grounds for government officials. 

You know, I think the seed for all this protest malarkey started when we allowed the public to take parliamentary tours. They were able to “case the joint”, so to speak. 

J: Don’t be ridiculous. I think you’ve been watching too many action movies. 

My seat of power should be open freely to the public - just as long as I don’t have to come in contact with them and be forced to answer any unapproved questions. 

Clive Bibby: Balanced reporting - a lost art but a growing scandal

I wonder how long it will take the NZ Main Stream Media to report the latest findings of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigations into the activities of US political parties leading up to and following the inauguration of President Donald Trump in 2017.

Last Friday Durham published his latest provisional report which makes explosive reading for all who might be concerned about the criminal activities of those opposed to the Trump Presidency - the bulk of the MSM, the Democratic Party governing body and the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign Committee.

Let’s be clear about the main points of what his investigations actually found.

Garrick Tremain: National's New Leader???

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on National's new leader! 

Graham Adams: Mainstream media chiefs and the five stages of grief

The Government giving money for journalism with strings attached is creating big problems for the organisations which accepted it. Some now regret taking the handouts. Graham Adams reports.

Listening to Newsroom’s co-editor Mark Jennings rail against people who accuse the mainstream media of having been bought by the government’s $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund, it was impossible to not think of the Five Stages of Grief.

Fifty years ago, Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross outlined the now-famous stages of denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance to describe how people cope with illness and dying.

Since then the stages have been used to describe everything from divorce and drug rehab to political upheavals (such as the profound grief experienced by many Democratic Party supporters after Trump won in 2016).

It has also become evident that the stages often don’t follow a linear progression, and people might experience only a few of them, or several at the same time.

Ross Meurant: The Red Squad Solution

In my view, Commissioner Coster is handling the situation in Wellington, commendably.

Police are the meat in the sandwich.

This not the first time in recent history that police have found themselves in the middle of civil disobedience created by politicians and which, in the case of where Red Squad found themselves in 1981, civil war.

Commissioner Coster did not create the problem in Wellington. 

The Government created the cause for the original protest in Wellington last week where former National M P Matt King was the stand out among a crowd of mostly reasonable Kiwis registering their disapproval of MANDATES.

Net Zero Watch: Putin sabre-rattling causes a seismic shift in views on UK energy security

 

In this newsletter:

1) Ukraine turmoil could mean more UK energy firms going bust, ministers fear
The Sunday Telegraph, 20 February 2022
 
 2) Putin sabre-rattling causes a seismic shift in views on North Sea energy
The Sunday Times, 20 February 2022

Bob Edlin: $50m generated four new Māori jobs in eight months

$50m generated four new Māori jobs in eight months – let’s see what happens under the Māori Employment Action Plan 

Almost a year ago, the Government was being accused of working at a glacial pace on fixing Māori unemployment. A $50 million training scheme had created just four new Māori jobs in eight months.

Stuff explained the Māori Trades and Training Fund – the scheme in question – was a contestable, grant-based initiative from the Covid-19 response and recovery package in Budget 2020.

They could have described it as race-based, too. Proposals (the Stuff report said) must be by-Māori and for Māori, aiming to upskill participants and provide “meaningful opportunities into employment”.

Garrick Tremain: Protest in Parliament Grounds

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on the anti-mandate/anti-government protest in Parliament grounds! 

Stephen Franks: Outcomes of the Parliamentary occupation

I spent time among the protesters on Thursday evening, then Saturday and several hours in the terrible rain on Sunday. I mainly wanted to see how the Police were handling it – since they plainly decided years ago to waive the law when private landowners (including Maori) sought protection against forceful Maori intruders – Shelly Bay being the latest local example. 

The Police conduct I saw (after the early failed attempt to arrest their way over the occupation) has been exemplary – if we accept that equality of treatment under the longstanding non-enforcement policy is a consoling value.

But I’ve been radicalised into hoping the protesters win (conspicuously by the end of mandates outside high transmission risk roles). That is by simple disgust at the bizarre RNZ and other MSM state propaganda vilifying the protesters. In my many hours there, I’ve seen nothing to support the calumny aimed at the protesters. Sure, its attracted some dingbats and potentially menacing individuals. But in my view a lower proportion than in most protests.

NZCPR Newsletter: Parliament’s Arrogance

A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud.” 
– George Orwell.

Over the last two years, Jacinda Ardern’s Government has instituted a raft of unprecedented emergency restrictions aimed at safeguarding our population from Covid-19.

In March 2020, using exaggerated modelling that predicted tens of thousands of deaths, Prime Minister Ardern made a Captain’s Call to abandon the New Zealand Pandemic Plan that had kept us safe during the 2009 Swine Flu epidemic, to introduce the first ever lockdown of healthy New Zealanders.

It turns out, however, that severely curtailing individual rights and freedoms creates enormous economic and social injury, with mounting evidence now showing that lockdowns have caused more harm than good.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 13.2.22

Saturday February 19, 2022 

News:
$15.7 Million Allocated In Latest Māori Communities COVID-19 Fund Tranche
A further 12 proposals totalling $15.7 million have been approved by Ministers through the Māori Communities COVID-19 Fund (MCCF) to build resilience and continue to support vaccination uptake.

The Ministers involved are Minister of Māori Development Willie Jackson, Associate Health (Māori Health) Minister Peeni Henare, Minister of Māori Crown Relations Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis and Minister of Finance Grant Robertson

Barry Soper: The longer this goes on, the harder dialogue will become

 

Normally politicians are scrambling over each other to get out on the front steps of Parliament to address protesters. 

It's a political skill to be able to handle vocal critics, which the anti-mandate camp dwellers out on the front lawn of Parliament and beyond most certainly are. 

But across the political spectrum they've decided those who have been singing and dancing out the front are a bunch of low lifes, white supremacists, Māori separatists and everything else in between. It seems they've come to that conclusion by looking at them and reading their placards from the safety of their offices because they most haven't been outside to find out. 

Russell Coutts: Supporting the Protest

Champion Kiwi sailor Sir Russell Coutts has announced he will join anti-mandate protesters outside Parliament in Wellington.

Owen Jennings: Cars versus Cows

What is the difference between a car and a cow?  Both can get you from A to B but the car adds Greenhouse Gas (GHG) to the atmosphere doing so while the cow doesn’t. The GHG produced by the car hangs around in the atmosphere for centuries, apparently, whereas the GHG from the cow is largely gone in 10 years.

The car’s contribution accumulates.  The cow’s contribution revolves – she simply replenishes what is lost.  The car’s contribution keeps building up, adding to the quantum of GHG as the car goes further.  The cow’s contribution stays static with no additional GHG produced.

Dr Shankara Chetty Interview: All You Need to Know about Omicron

In this interview with internationally renowned Dr Shankara Chetty from South Africa, Jean-Pierre Kiekens from Covexit.com discusses the Omicron variant, which is taking the world as a storm. Is this variant to be feared, or could it actually be a positive development in this pandemic, as mostly inducing mild disease, yet conferring post-covid natural immunity? These are among the timely and critically important aspects we discuss. 

Dr. Chetty is a Family General Medical Practitioner in South-Africa, with considerable experience with the outpatient treatment of COVID-19, having treated so far nearly 8,000 patients, in his outpatient practice, without any deaths or any need of hospitalisation or even oxygen. Dr. Chetty holds a degree in medicine and surgery and also has advanced education in genetics, advanced biology, biochemistry and microbiology. 

Net Zero Watch: Back to the Dark Ages

 

In this newsletter:

1) Back to the Dark Ages: Britons return to burning wood to cut spiralling energy costs
The Daily Telegraph, 15 February 2022
  
2) Welcome to Green Britain: One million adults in UK went entire day without food last month
Sky News, 15 February 2022

Kate Hawkesby: People need to stop living in fear of Covid

 

As was inevitable, my daughter’s school had its first Omicron case this week and in came the email notifying parents that a student had tested positive. They immediately followed that up with the very calm assurance that this should have no impact on school attendance, that all students - unless you’d been notified as a close contact - were safe to return to school, that health and safety protocols as per the Ministry of Health were being followed.  

This of course does not diminish the alarm that Omicron’s arrived on their doorstep. 

Clive Bibby: Maharey has it all wrong - time to tell the truth

Former Labour Cabinet Minister and Vice-Chancellor of Massey University, Steve Maharey, wrote a piece last weekend that should have sent the alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power – see HERE.

Given that it was a holiday weekend, it may have been that no one in the Prime Minister’s Department was reading the daily journals that masquerade as publishers of respectable journalism these days and may have missed it.

But you can bet that those with responsibility for keeping an eye on potentially dangerous material in the media would have been quick to poke Maharey’s offending words under Saint Jacinda’s nose first thing Tuesday morning. On sighting it, she may even have choked on her coffee. It was a shocker.

Frank Newman: "Inside the mind of Trevor Mallard"

Political Reporter, Audrey Young, has penned a piece in this morning's NZ Herald called "Inside the mind of Trevor Mallard".

One could be forgiven for assuming that would be a short article. It isn't. It's well worth a read, simply because it exposes the mentality of the man who holds one of the highest and most respected positions in our Parliament. Regrettably, while many respect the position of Speaker, few respect the man who holds the position.

Net Zero Watch: Tory grandees urge Boris Johnson to lift ‘unconservative’ ban on fracking

 

In this newsletter:

1) Tory grandees urge Boris Johnson to lift ‘unconservative’ ban on fracking
The Sunday Telegraph, 13 February 2022
 
2) A revived British shale gas industry will secure jobs and energy for generations
The Sunday Telegraph, 13 February 2022

Karl du Fresne: The fascinating new fault line in New Zealand politics

Some further thoughts on Camp Molesworth:

■ A fascinating political and sociological fault line has opened up – one that defies the normal understanding of New Zealand’s political dynamics. People at the bottom of the heap, as political scientist Bryce Edwards describes them – many of them working-class and provincial, with no formal organisational structure – have risen up in defiance of the all-powerful political class, the urban elites who are accustomed to calling the shots and controlling political discourse. I would guess most of the protesters outside Parliament have not previously been politically active and may not feel allegiance to any particular party. They appear to be angry about a number of things. Covid-19 and the vaccination mandate galvanised them into action, but it’s possible there are deeper, less easily articulated grievances – such as perceptions of powerlessness and exclusion – simmering beneath the surface.

Karl du Fresne: How tolerant of diversity are we? I mean, really?

I had to go to Wellington last Tuesday afternoon. On the way home, rather than avoid the CBD and take the most direct route onto the Hutt motorway, I decided for no particular reason to go through town. I knew about the protest convoy that had rolled into town earlier that day but assumed it would have been all over by four in the afternoon.

Ha! More fool me. I intended to drive up Molesworth St but found my way blocked by protest vehicles of all shapes and sizes, from massive trucks down to cars that looked as if they were rarely driven further than the nearest supermarket. Most were bedecked with flags - New Zealand flags, tino rangatiratanga flags and others that I didn't recognise - and slogans.

The area around Parliament was hopelessly clogged. No one was directing traffic (I didn’t see a single cop), but an escape route opened up through the bus marshalling area at the bottom of Lambton Quay and I followed a line of cars through to Thorndon Quay and the open road.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Do these protesters have a point?

Do these protestors have a point? I need to say upfront, I’m not a fan of the protest. I don’t’ like them parking their cars across Molesworth Street, disrupting businesses and hassling punters. Also, I’m double jabbed, and I think giving up your livelihood over the jab is ridiculous. But do they have a point?

Yes, they actually do. 

They insist this is an anti-mandate protest and reporters on the ground there say that does seem to be the case. 

Don’t confuse anti-mandate with anti-vax. For example: I’m pro vax. I’m double jabbed, but I’m anti-mandate. I think kicking people out of their jobs because they don’t have the jab is disproportionate. 

Mike Hosking: Wider economic mood and performance will bite the Government

 

So we got a big jump for the minimum wage - $21.20.

The advantage for the Government is most of the people they pay, aren't on the minimum wage.

The burden is carried by the small businesses of this country, the same small businesses that any number of polls tells us were already downbeat about the year ahead. 

And how can you not be?

Derek Mackie: An economics masterclass....well, not entirely

Grant Robertson was interviewed today on TVOne’s Q & A by Jack Tame and was asked why inflation is “soaring” in New Zealand. 

 Grant blamed it on “circumstances beyond his control”. Maybe he’s right but, suspiciously, this is standard politician-speak for “it’s all my fault, really, but I’ll never admit it”. 

He claims the increase in inflation is entirely due to high global demand for goods and services. Now I’m not saying that that isn’t a factor but is it really the only one? 

 Grant is adamant that rising inflation is most definitely NOT caused by the government’s huge Covid borrowing and spending programme. I’m certainly no economist, so I can’t contradict him, but there are apparently two schools of thought on this. Unsurprisingly, one thinks government stimulus packages will cause inflation and the other thinks it won’t. 

And that’s economics in a nutshell, I suppose. More of an art than a science. You can choose any outcome you want and someone will back you up. 

Frank Newman: Manilow fans join protest

MSM MEDIA: BREAKING NEWS
- Manilow fans join protest

Main Stream Media is this morning reporting large numbers of Barry Manilow fans are joining the protest at Parliament grounds. What's is being dubbed the Manilow Surge, follows overnight enforcement action by the Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, to remove protesters from the grounds of Parliament, by playing his Spotify Top 25 songs of all time, which included tracks by Barry Manilow and the Macarena.

Leighton Smith Podcast: Anthony Willy on Marxism in Jacinda Ardern's New Zealand

Leighton Smith Podcast Episode 142 
February 9, 2022 • 81 min

On this week's podcast: Marxism could not happen here... could it? After decades on the bench, covering four different courts, retired Judge Anthony Willy expresses his concern for the future of democracy in New Zealand. 

Derek Stubbs: The co-governance agenda visits the Hauraki Gulf

With the Government pushing ahead with its plan to introduce greater co-governance, the Hauraki Gulf Forum is jumping on the bandwagon.

For the fourth time in seven years, the Forum is considering a recommendation to seek legislative changes to the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act as outlined in the report ‘Updating and strengthening the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act’.

This report recommends several significant changes.

Net Zero Watch: The Great Climate Backslide has begun

 

In this newsletter:

1) The Great Climate Backslide: How governments are backtracking worldwide
Bloomberg 11 February 2022
 
2) Europe’s Net-Zero Carbon crackup begins ahead of schedule

The Wall Street Journal, 11 February 2022

NZCPR Weekly: New Zealanders Under Siege

“I support the protest 100 percent. I don't agree with you that my rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are extinguished by a government declaring a pandemic. To me those rights are absolute. If anything, I would wish the protest be more intense given the damage Parliament has inflicted on the people I love and the community of which I am a part.”

- Rodney Hide’s letter to the ACT Leader.

On January 27, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned New Zealand that Covid modelling predicted an explosion of Omicron cases: “The range of modelling meant that we've undertaken scenario planning for as little as 1,000 a day to over 50,000 a day. We do not know whether or not we would reach such high numbers, but we must be prepared for that based on the international evidence. The best thing we can do is act preventatively so that means get your booster...” 

Breaking Views Update: Week of 6.2.22

Friday February 11, 2022

News:
Christopher Luxon changes National's direction on Māori issues
His comments suggest he wants to draw a line under the leadership of his predecessor Judith Collins who attempted to stoke separatist fears through the contentious He Puapua report.

They are also part of his ambitions to modernise the party, drawing it back from the right and securing support from Māori and those who think the party is anti-Māori. But how National appeals to these voters amid the current culture wars is a question now facing the party.