David Farrar: Waipareira to be deregistered as a charity

Matt Nippert reports:

Charity regulators have moved to deregister high-profile social services provider Waipareira, concluding a long-running investigation into its funding of chief executive John Tamihere’s political campaigns.

The decision follows a four-year investigation by Charities Services into Waipareira that has seen settlements reached and breached, accusations of racism, and Charities Services staff complain about bullying behaviour from Waipareira’s lawyers.

Universities must be neutral

Academic freedom is a hot topic at the moment. The coalition agreement required universities to have academic freedom policies to receive government funding. Most universities have now produced draft policies.

Academic freedom is key to the university’s mission. It allows students and academics to explore ideas in the classroom and to produce innovative research. It is also explicitly protected in the Education and Training Act.

John MacNabb: China Cancels Christmas in Hong Kong – Leaving Churches Fearing for Their Future

I thought it was just me, but it transpires there are fewer Christmas decorations in Hong Kong this year than in previous years. A colleague confirmed, under orders from China, Hong Kong had been instructed to tone down the outward manifestations of the Christmas festivities this year.

Ross Meurant: Message to Santa - All I want for Christmas is …Happiness.

In this Odessey we call life; what path; which road do we take?

Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it’s the courage to continue that counts,’ extolled Sir Winston Churchill.

Euripides said: ‘I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.’

My family coat of arms embraces the Machiavelli dictum: “Virtu et Fortuna”.

Yet, for they who strive, be it from helot to bourgeois, or those born to the Manor (where bequeathments from they who before them strived, are often squandered), debt is a companion for life – an albatross around one’s neck.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 15.12.24

Saturday December 21, 2024 

News:
Move to deregister Waipareira over donations
Charity regulators have moved to deregister high-profile social services provider Waipareira, concluding a long-running investigation into its funding of chief executive John Tamihere’s political campaigns.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Luxon has made the right call re Waitangi

Christopher Luxon’s made the right call not going to Waitangi next year. 

He's probably going to cop it from the press gallery for being a wuss but most of us have been around long enough to see the logic in this. 

We know by now that Waitangi is volatile and unpredictable at the best of times. You can cop a dildo in the face for doing nothing. 

Andrew Lowenthal: Free Speech Wins the Culture War

"Gradually, then suddenly,” Hemingway’s bankruptcy quote can just as easily be applied to politics. If you had told me six months ago that a motley crew of free speech advocates would deal a thumping blow to the censorship leviathan I would have been deeply sceptical.

I had thought the Twitter Files would be the blow, but it turns out that was just a softening-up affair. The Twitter Files certainly moved the needle in the culture at large, but the institutions mostly continued their stiff resistance to accountability and change.

David Farrar: The hypocrisy

Radio NZ reported:

The government wants to divide New Zealand along ethnic and economic lines, Chris Hipkins says, and he wants to be the leader who brings it together.

Is he serious? He led a Government that tried to see everything in ethnic terms, and caused the huge division we still have today.

Joanne Nova: For years the CCP has been sending millions to US universities and NGOs to promote Green Energy

If you have the feeling that our universities are working for the enemy, you might be right

China is a developing nation, too poor to cut carbon emissions themselves, but somehow they can find the money to help the richest nation in the world reduce their fossil fuel use.

John MacDonald: Free speech rules shouldn't stop at universities

Here’s how I would sum up the Government’s changes to the free speech rules for universities.

It wants more Posie Parkers and less posey political statements.

Which I’ve got no problem with - but I don’t think it should stop at universities. I think the Government also needs to look at other public entities, such as local councils, which actually seem to be making more posey political statements than universities.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: NZ’s ferry farce is proof politicians are out of depth in business

Here is a simple business scenario: You operate ferries across Cook Strait, between New Zealand’s North and South Islands. Your vessels are ageing and need replacement. What do you do?

For a private operator like Bluebridge, owned by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, the answer is straightforward: make decisions based on business fundamentals. The company runs a profitable service, commanding 56 percent of the vehicle freight market. It secured that market share through sound commercial judgment.

Friday December 20, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 20/12/24

A bit like the news about those KiwiRail ferries, we must wait for the details about decentralising our polytechnics

It has been coming for a while and it has arrived just before Christmas – or some of it has arrived.

The government has confirmed its plan for breaking up the national institute of technology and re-establishing independent polytechnics.

Bob Edlin: The best Finance Minister the country has ever seen?

The best Finance Minister the country has ever seen? Luxon is proudly telling us we need look no further than his appointee

Labour leader Chris Hipkins, questioning the PM in Parliament for the last time this year on Wednesday, raised the matter of KiwiRail’s replacement ferry or ferries for Cook Strait.

Centrist: Fast-track Approvals Bill passes but Te Pāti Māori threatens applicants

The coalition government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill has passed its third reading, paving the way for rapid approval of many large development projects.

Applications under the new regime will open on 7 February 2025, a move Ministers Chris Bishop and Shane Jones call essential to solving New Zealand’s infrastructure deficit, housing crisis, and energy shortages.

Derek Mackie: Money, money, money...

It seems hard to believe but our National-led coalition, steered by our PM and National Finance Minister, are racking up EVEN MORE debt over the next 4 years than Labour managed in their whole term in government. 

 As for the promised extensive cut-backs to our grossly overstaffed, overpaid and under-performing public sector, well…..what exactly happened to those?

We still employ almost as many civil servants as when Labour left office.

 Disappointingly, the current National crew is following the same pattern as National governments of old with watered down pledges to turn around all the bad stuff that previous Left-wing administrations enacted while in power. After some early wins this time around, driven by their coalition partners, invariably they barely scratch the surface, leaving most of the damage in place for Labour to pick up the wrecking ball where they left off. 

In fact, these days Labour and National are not so very different from each other when they get into power, even if they pretend otherwise at election time. It’s often just a matter of degree. Climate change, co-governance, public service bloat…..ballooning debt! 

Time for a change? 

John Porter: An open letter to Prime Minister Luxon and the coalition cabinet.

An open letter to Prime Minister Luxon and the coalition cabinet.

Prime Minister Luxon and members of the coalition cabinet,

For how long do you think our country can allow its treasury funds to be plundered, for the country’s social services such as health and education to be run down to a point to where they are barely able to service the populaces needs? For how long will you allow the nation’s infrastructure to deteriorate due to a deficiency of funds?

For how long will you allow one of the worlds most attractive places to live slowly descend into 3rd world status all because of spurious and illegitimate claims lodged by the Waitangi Tribunal that have seen and continues to see billions of dollars be shoveled into Maori tribal corporation pockets.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The judge who yelled at Winston should lose her job

One of the most surprising things about that judge allegedly yelling at Winston Peters in the Northern Club is that she is still in her job. 

I want to be clear; I don’t want her to lose her job over this, and I don’t even want to be seen to be calling for her head. 

I’m just pointing out that she should lose her job. 

Natasha Hamilton-Hart: Design principles for constitutional hijack......

Design principles for constitutional hijack – or how we got those Treaty principles in the first place

The ‘principles of the Treaty of Waitangi/te Tiriti o Waitangi’ have arrived on the political stage. A smallish political party has got a bill before parliament in an attempt to define the principles. Opponents pushed back with street protests, mostly hostile media coverage and parliamentary theatre. The message from opponents is loud and clear: the Treaty principles are untouchable by ordinary citizens.

Lindsay Mitchell: What does society expect from fathers?

We live in a society utterly confused about parenthood and the role of fathers.

The last Labour government made fathers increasingly irrelevant.

In 2020 a law change repealing section 70a of the Social Security Act meant mothers applying for a sole parent benefit no longer had to name the father of their child for the purposes of collecting child support from him.

Dr Guy Hatchard: Major Alert - New Zealand Government is Enshrining ‘Medical Mandates’ in Law

There is a revolution in progress, and it is not a bloodless revolution.

The Gene Technology Bill introduced to Parliament this week includes the following provisions:—

Dr Eric Crampton: Trump’s declaration of war on universities

One week after the American election, Trump-advisor Elon Musk tweeted a 2023 video outlining Trump’s plans for higher education.

Trump is erratic. Many of his public statements seem more aimed at encouraging his supporters than at signalling actual changes in policy. His statements frequently ramble. And few of Trump’s statements put up what could reasonably be described as a coherent strategy for achieving his stated objectives.

This one was different.

Lushington Brady: Ferries a Good Ad for Government Efficiency

In the worst possible way.

Back when I was still an obediently socialist teenage idiot, Ronald Reagan made his famous quip about government. The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help’. At the time, I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard.

Then I grew up. A lifetime of experience and a predilection for studying history have taught me that Reagan was right. There have been very few questions where ‘more government’ was the right answer.

David Farrar: Will Te Pati Maori doom Labour?

Grant Duncan writes:

If a vote for Labour means, in effect, a vote for Green and TPM leaders in cabinet, then many centrist voters will reluctantly stick with National, thanks all the same. Chippy can’t control those other parties or explain them away over the next two years.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Hipkins Trashed our Economic & Social Fabric.......

Latest GDP data: NZ in Recession; One of World's Worst. Useless former Covid Minister Hipkins Trashed our Economic & Social Fabric. He should lock himself up.

Today's news headlines read, "Massive GDP fall: NZ in deep recession - ‘worst since 1991′". What's the cause? The economist who can best claim to have predicted the GDP numbers that came out today is John Gibson at Waikato University - one of our country's, and one the world's, best.

Rodney Hide: Doctors and Nurses now Kill and Maim

Our Doctors and Nurses are leaving babies to die should their attempt to kill them in utero fail. Their only care is to wrap the poor things in a blanket as they struggle and strain to their last pained breath.

That happens now in New Zealand hospitals with nurses and doctors present with the ability to save their lives. It happens because mum doesn’t want the baby hence the late term abortion.

Thursday December 19, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 19/12/24

Waitangi dissidents are denied the chance to chuck mud (or t-shirts) at Luxon next year – but his February 7 plans stay secret

Will he be there – or won’t he?

That was the question raised earlier this week when Prime Minister Christopher Luxon would not confirm whether he will attend Waitangi Day commemorations at Waitangi next year.

Gary Judd KC: No jurisdiction for Supreme Court MACA 'judgment'

Earlier today, The Capital Letter, New Zealand’s review of administration, legislation and law, published my article explaining why the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to deliver its so called “Judgment of the Court.” Put in less formal terms, the Court had no power to do what it did. I addressed the same issue in SUPREME COURT INTO THE POLITICAL ARENA AGAIN, but at greater length and with a focus on what the government and Parliament should do. This later, shorter article focuses on what the Supreme Court itself should do.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: Government's budget plan is lacklustre and possibly illegal

The New Zealand Treasury's latest forecasts and the Government's Budget Policy Statement (BPS) are disquieting. Public debt management looks lax and possibly illegal, government spending entrenches excess rather than tackles it, and productivity growth measures are welcome but piecemeal.

The BPS’s approach to managing public debt appears to fall short of legal requirements. The Public Finance Act sets the rules for how governments manage public money. One section requires each government to do two crucial things: determine what a "prudent" level of public debt should be and set out a clear timeline for achieving it.

Cam Slater: This Judge Needs to Be Sacked

A drunk dud judge attacks Winston Peters at a private function, and she’s in charge of the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court!

Andrea Vance reports at the Post:

A district court judge and her reality TV star partner have apologised for “verbally attacking” Winston Peters, Casey Costello and other New Zealand First members at a Christmas party.

Capitalist: Take a Bow

It is a pity I gave up drinking (again) back in October, as a smug, priggish, celebration is in order and the Taieri Plains tap water doesn’t quite give the same buzz as Jack Daniel’s.

First I warned that numerous economic and financial indicators were heading in the wrong direction: it’s come true. Then I warned that in Australia (and elsewhere) nobody is investing in New Zealand because they are mystified by all the Māori stuff and worried about property rights. Right on cue the Māori Party leaders have shown foreign (and domestic) investors their money is most definitely not safe in New Zealand any longer.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Labour Recklessly Borrowed $100 billion. National's doing the same.....

Yes, Labour Recklessly Borrowed $100 billion. National's doing the same. How Finance Minister Willis & Shadow Minister Edmonds Put their Own Careers Above the country's Interest.

This Blog is about giving some gentle advice to National Finance Minister Willis, and her Labour opposite number, Barbara Edmonds, on the theme that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Andrew Moran: Justin Trudeau Is on the Brink of Falling

Like a coffee at a gas station Tim Hortons, the career of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa is burnt. After nearly a decade at the helm of the Great White North, Trudeaumania 2.0 could be fading to black, with a resignation letter from the country’s top job inching closer to being signed. How did Canada’s Liberal Party leader sit on the brink of a political meltdown? It was a morning that will forever be ensconced in modern Canadian history.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government aren't fixing our economic mess

We knew the Government books were going to be bad, but not this bad. 

No way we’re getting to the surplus we expected in 2028. That is now so far away it’s not even in Treasury’s forecast period anymore. 

It’s some time, who knows when, in the 2030's. 

Barry Soper: My politician of the year

THREE KEY FACTS

• Christopher Luxon became 42nd Prime Minister in November 2023.
• He was elected to Parliament in October 2020.
• Luxon was the CEO of Air NZ from 2012 to 2019.

As the year draws to an end spare a thought of what life must be like for Christopher Luxon.

John MacDonald: Kneejerk reactions won't fix the fiscals

If New Zealand was a company staring down the barrel of running at a loss for at least the next five years and finding itself needing to borrow $20 billion more than it thought it did just six months ago, it would be lights out, wouldn’t it?

And no amount of creative accounting could change that picture.

Simon O'Connor: Fundamental(ist) mistakes

Just when you think Kim Hill and the people at Radio NZ cannot embarrass themselves – and New Zealand – anymore, they go ahead and outdo themselves.

During a recent visit, former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was invited for an interview with Hill. Meandering through a variety of topics, she eventually stated that those who voted for Brexit were racists and xenophobes.

Sir Bob Jones: Shallow thinking

For avid newspaper readers like me (admittedly a sadly fading sector in an age of smartphone-induced ignorance) a highlight is the amusement I deprive from reading the letters to the editor.

I suspect newspapers don’t receive many, the give-away to that suspicion by so often the same letter writer names cropping up.

The amusement I derive comes from the frequent lack of deeper thought in these missives.

JC: Vain Posturing Puts NZ in Real Peril

This is not my headline. It comes from an article by Leo McKinstry in the English newspaper International Express. It had UK in the heading, not NZ but the headline could well apply here, which is why I have used it. The article is essentially about the nonsensical net zero policy.

The article centres on Ed Miliband who is the energy secretary in the recently elected Labour Government. As McKinstry points out, Miliband’s neurotic attachment to the net-zero agenda is driving up energy prices, increasing business costs and undermining economic competitiveness.

Dr Michael John Schmidt: We’re Copping It – Climate Fraud

About a week ago, I wrote an article called Who’s Copping It, highlighting how New Zealand is allocating $235 million NZD to COP initiatives, supposedly to fight climate change. This amount is expected to triple after 2026 due to a COP29 agreement. I criticised the celebration of this agreement for several reasons:

David Farrar: I wish more journalists would do research

The Herald reports:

Staff at a charitable trust working with Northland’s most vulnerable kids held crying families as they told them their services were under threat.

Stand Tū Māia plans to take Oranga Tamariki to court over its decision to terminate a three-year funding contract worth $21 million a year.

Wednesday December 18, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 18/12/24

When we can’t gamble on greyhounds, maybe the TAB will take bets on how quickly new laws can be raced through the legislative hoops

A Newsroom report about a drafting error in the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill has drawn attention to the Luxon Government’s discreditable urge to legislate in unseemly haste.

The bill – intended to repeal the 2018 ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration and remove some liability from fossil fuel developers for decommissioning their drilling wells – won’t be passed before the end of the year as promised.

Gary Judd KC: Schedule to Submission on Treaty Principles Bill

Schedule

1. The “principles” were introduced as a concept by the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. They were not defined. Commencing during the 1980s, governments started promoting legislation referring to the principles of the treaty and requiring varying degrees of adherence to the principles — e.g., not inconsistent with, take into account, have regard to, give effect to, et cetera.

Dr Bryce Edwards: The Act Party’s highly influential year

The Act Party ends the year on 9.6% in an average of the last public polls, a moderate gain on its 2023 election result of 8.64% but still a strong result considering the poor track record of minor parties in MMP, and a testimony to the high profile enjoyed by its leader David Seymour and his Treaty Principles Bill.

Andrew Bydder: They Are Out of Control

Councils are out of control. Not just Hamilton City, but across the Waikato. The truth is in the numbers. On Three Waters alone, they have collectively projected $7.5 billion in costs over the next decade. Divided across the Waikato population of 320,000, that is $23,438 per person.

But a quarter of that population live in rural areas with their own water tanks and septic systems, who rightly won’t be paying for services that they don’t have. This leaves the figure for a typical family of four in our towns and city at a crippling $125,000.

Can you afford that?

Ele Ludemann: Shameful this is needed

The government is funding extra security for emergency departments over summer:

Health Minister Dr Shane Reti is again reminding New Zealanders that violence against patients, visitors and health workers won’t be tolerated, with additional security for hospital emergency departments across the country this summer.

David Farrar: The Judge should resign

The Post reports:

A district court judge and her reality TV star partner have apologised for “verbally attacking” Winston Peters, Casey Costello and other New Zealand First members at a Christmas party.

Chief Judge Heemi Taumaunu has also apologised on behalf of the court.

David Farrar: Huge savings on consultants

Nicola Willis announced:

The Government set the public service a target of eliminating $400 million in operating expenditure on contractors and consultants by 2024/25.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Has the bottom fallen out of the New Zealand ecomomy.....

Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman's GDP Graph Confirms the Bottom has Fallen Out of the New Zealand Economy

High profile US Economist Paul Krugman has written a New York Times article in which he shows in one graph the incredible resilience and performance of the American Economy. The dark blue line below tracks the pre-pandemic long-run trend in Real GDP. Meanwhile the orange line is actual real GDP. Krugman remarks that now, in the post-pandemic years, actual GDP is tracking significantly above its forecast pre-pandemic trend. As far as US GDP is concerned, America is fully back to business - as if the pandemic never happened:

Rodney Hide: Violence and Incendiary Language

Here’s retiring Climate Commission Chair Dr Rod Carr telling Parliament:

[T]hose who continue to promote the combustion of fossil fuels in the open air without permanent carbon capture and storage are …“committing a crime against humanity”.

Of course, Dr Carr is free to speak his mind and I encourage him to do so. I am also free to judge him accordingly.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Councils forced the Govt to bring out the big stick

Even people who think councils do a fantastic job must by now understand why the Government is going to have to pass law to get councils to focus on doing their jobs. 

It has been clear to councils for about four months now that the Government wanted them to drop the distractions and just do their work. 

Yet, councils just can’t help themselves.

Dr Guy Hatchard: The Risks of Biotechnology Deregulation are Unquantifiable

The Gene Technology Bill currently being introduced into the New Zealand parliament and fast tracked will allow for the appointment of a regulator to categorise gene edited products by risk.

The bill has already deemed a wide range of gene editing techniques as ‘low risk’ which will be proceeded, released into the environment, put into food or used in medicine without labelling, warnings or safety monitoring. In effect this will turn New Zealand into a laboratory for largely unfettered gene experimentation leaving the public at the sharp end of risk. So what are the risks and how do you assess them when it comes to gene editing?