Suze: The Christopher Luxon Side Step

For whatever reason, it could be National’s historic alignment with the Maori Party, attempts to avoid confrontation with Maori activists or simply kowtowing to the globalist agenda promoting indigenous rights, Christopher Luxon is noticeably hesitant about addressing racism and co-governance.

But his coalition partners are not slow about coming forward. They took responsibility for some of the issues the public supported with coalition negotiations acting as a trade-off: I’ll give you this if you give me that.

Michael Bassett: Shane Jones deserves support about Waitangi Tribunal

Shane Jones deserves full support for his round-arm swing at the Waitangi Tribunal which is now fiddling about with a constitutional inquiry and deciding who can take part in it. A clause in New Zealand First’s coalition agreement with the National Party commits the government to amending the Waitangi Tribunal’s legislation so that the body refocuses the scope, purpose and the nature of its inquiries back to the original intent of the legislation it operates under.

Bryce Edwards: NZ Politics Daily – 31 January 2024

Top “NZ Politics Daily” stories today

Below are some of the more interesting and insightful New Zealand politics items from the last 24 hours.

Robert MacCulloch: ACT's Treaty strategy is based on defining "Principles"; Is National's dilution?

Net immigration to NZ presently lies between 2 and 3 per cent of the population per annum, or around 120,000 people annually, not much less than Hamilton's population. NZ First Leader Winston Peters railed against high immigration when he was part of Ardern's coalition. It suited them both, since Labour's core (undelivered) promise was a high wage, high skill economy that did not rely on imported labour. Those days are gone. Immigration has gone back to higher levels than it was even during the height of the Key years.

Mike Hosking: James Shaw is a fish out of water when it comes to the Greens

I have never really been able to work James Shaw out.

As he quit his leadership yesterday, which made perfect sense, he waxed lyrical about the Green Party, and its achievements, and its place in the political landscape.

Which makes no sense because they are a mess and no longer remotely green, and he stands out like the dogs proverbials as the one remaining environmentalist.

Cam Slater: James Shaw Quits, Greens Continue to Lurch to Extreme Left

James Shaw has abandoned ship from the increasingly hard left Marxist Green Party. He was the last sensible MP, as far as sensible Greens go, left in the party. He will be a loss to them even though many Green members will be quietly cheering at his resignation.

The Greens have increasingly become harder and harder left wing, pushing their particular brand of cultural Marxism on us, along with embracing and advocating on behalf of terror organisations like Hamas and the Houthi rebels.

Capitalist: Cultures Superior to Western Culture

Over the last century there has been a constant campaign by left-wingers and academics to undermine Western civilisation. The system which has provided them with so much is the one thing they despise. This has been done in a variety of ways, but always reached a predictable stumbling block of “an alternative”. Their first attempt was communism; that didn’t work too well, so it was back to the drawing board.

Alistair Boyce: Why ‘Golriz’ Matters

The Golriz Ghahraman story is not just about Golriz and certainly not about the obvious deflection of mental health and wider parliamentary culture. The saga is a snapshot in time, emblematic of a failing, vacuous Green party, an exposure of a false, self-righteous ideology. 

I suspect NZ political history will eventually point to the event as a significant and poignant marker of the demise of social justice progressivism based on identity politics. Failed, over-reaching ideology succumbing to conservative reality, just like the 2023 election. So, while Golriz has done the right thing and resigned the issues raised still require ongoing scrutiny, something you will not find in mainstream media (MSM).

David Farrar: No wonder WCC has no money for pipes

The Herald reports:

Wellington City Council has decided to replace its parking meter system at a cost it will not disclose, despite paying $1.5 million to install a new sensor network as recently as 2016.

The new pay-by-plate meters that went live this month are a paperless system that uses a vehicle licence plate number, rather than a numbered car park, to record parking time and payment.

Tom Frewen: PM on delivering a set of deliverables

“How will it end? Will there be a mighty wind?” – British comedians Peter Cook and Rowan Atkinson discuss potential scenarios for the end of the world in a sketch about a Doomsday Cult in the Secret Policeman’s Ball, a comic revue raising funds for Amnesty International at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London, in June 1979.

John Campbell, TVNZ’s Chief Correspondent, posed similar questions on X (Twitter) when promoting his end-of-year politics column on Saturday 30 December last year. “Who are we?” he asked. “Where are we heading? And who will we be when we get there? Are we on the cusp of something new or something old?”

Ian Bradford: Convincing Arguments Against Anthropogenic Climate Change

The world is running on BS and propaganda and New Zealand is not exempt.

Here are a few reasons why human caused climate change is a gigantic fraud.

Background

The roots of this climate scare lay in an environmental movement of the 1970’s. The club of Rome (environmental consultants to the UN) used computer modelling to warn that the world would run out of finite resources if population growth was left unchecked. They came up with the following statement: “In searching for a new enemy to unite us we came up with the idea that....the threat of global warming would fit the bill.”

Clive Bibby: While the chiefs squabble and scrap, troops deal with the real world.

Living as I do amongst some of Maoridom's finest which has taken me on a journey of discovery that has been life changing, I watch in disappointment as their “leaders” battle amongst themselves to see who can obtain the biggest scalp - even ones with no hair. Sorry Christopher, only joking! 

Sadly, we have been and are likely to once again be witness to a demonstration of self destruction if and when the government politicians are stupid enough to venture into the “lion’s den” at Waitangi Marae next weekend. 

Heather du Plessis-Allan: I worry for the future of the Greens without Shaw

It's not altogether a surprise that James Shaw has quit as co-leader of the Green Party.

It's pretty well known that there are factions in the Green Party that have wanted him to move on for a while now.

There was a public attempt to remove him about a year and a half ago, and it while he won that- it always felt like it was only a temporary reprieve to get them through the election and safely out of Government.

Kerre Woodham: Why are so many young people on the Jobseeker benefit?

Wherever you were on holiday —if you were lucky enough to get away— did you see the ‘Staff Wanted’ signs in the windows of just about every business, North and South Islands?

A number of business owners I spoke to were having to reduce the days they were open because they simply couldn't provide the service they wanted, because they didn't have the staff.

John MacDonald: Message to OT: don't promise what you can't deliver

There’ll be no shortage of people lining up today to bag Oranga Tamariki. But I won’t be one of them.

They’ve just put out their latest safety report which says that, in the year to June 2023, just under 10% of kids in its care were harmed.

This is up from about 5.5% five years ago.

 Tuesday January 30, 2024 

                    ⇩

Alexander Gillespie: The UN’s top court didn’t call for a ceasefire in Gaza......

......how does NZ respond now?

The provisional measures issued by International Court of Justice (ICJ) in South Africa’s case against Israel under the Genocide Convention was, on balance, a victory for Israel.

While South Africa’s application was not thrown out, and the ICJ accepted it could rule on what is happening in Gaza, there was no provisional order for an immediate ceasefire.

Eric Crampton: A shift to smoking harm reduction

If Guyon Espiner at Radio New Zealand is right about Associate Health Minister Casey Costello’s plans for tobacco policy, there is reason to celebrate. At least for those who care about harm reduction, proportionality, and civil liberties.

The incoming government’s coalition agreements had already signalled a substantial change in approach to tobacco policy. Rather than rely on punitive measures that make life harder for current smokers, the incoming government would make it easier for smokers to shift to far less harmful ways of getting nicotine.

Bryce Edwards: NZ Politics Daily – 30 January 2024

Top “NZ Politics Daily” stories today

Below are some of the more interesting and insightful New Zealand politics items from the last 24 hours.

Mike Hosking: Do we need to have more logical discussions around the Treaty?

I am assuming you got as bored as I did over the break with the obsession—or mania, as Shane Jones quite rightly called it— when it came to ACT's idea of having a chat about the way we view and interpret the Treaty.

The problem with David Seymour is he is too logical, especially for nutters and extremists.

He wants to debate, to toss ideas about, to —dare we suggest— act like an adult and have a discussion.

Brendan O'Neill: UNRWA is worse than you think

For far too long this UN agency has provided moral cover to the anti-Semitic haters of Israel.

I long ago lost faith in the left. But even I wouldn’t have believed it if you’d told me that one day they would spend Holocaust Memorial Day cheering an organisation whose members stand accused of slaughtering Jews. That as everyone else was lighting candles for the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, they would be swarming the internet to praise and even fundraise for a group whose staff are suspected of massacring Jews. That on the very day we remember the worst act of anti-Semitism in history, they’d be heaping love and cash on an organisation whose people allegedly played a part in the worst act of anti-Semitism of the 21st century. The left is bad, I know, but are they that bad, I’d have wondered?

David Farrar: Taxpayer funded conspiracy theories

Josh Drummond shares his conspiracy theory about how there is somehow a link between the No campaign on The Australian voice referendum, and various groups in NZ.

Now I have no problem with Joshua shouting out his conspiracy theory to anyone who will listen. He's wrong in every aspect, but he is entitled to be wrong. But what has happened is taxpayers have paid for his conspiracy theory to be turned into a documentary that screened on the state television broadcaster. So we have taxpayer funded misinformation.

Owen Jennings: The mind of James Busby

It is worth stopping and thinking about the events around the 6th of February 1840. James Busby, a Scotsman was thinking about his 38th birthday, due the next day. More likely he was wondering if a large gathering of Māori chiefs who were arriving were going to oblige his new acquaintance, William Hobson by signing a document he had pulled together hastily the night before. It was to become the Treaty of Waitangi.

Chris Trotter: The Hollow Party

Over the last year, the Labour Party has been shown to be intellectually and morally hollow.

Labour's great good fortune, as New Zealand emerged from the worst of the neoliberal revolution, was to possess Helen Clark. It was Clark who engineered the installation of Mike Moore to “save the furniture” as Labour’s popularity plummeted in 1990. And, it was Clark who made sure that, when Moore failed (albeit narrowly) to win the 1993 general election, she would be the one to replace him. Labour thus acquired a highly intelligent, politically savvy leader, steeped in the Labour tradition, but also fully acclimatised to the new ideological climate. She would remain Labour’s leader for the next 15 years – beating Harry Holland’s daunting tenure by one year!

Robert MacCulloch: If the Coalition Agreement Stands, Wellington Will Cease to Exist as a City and become a Town, maybe a Village.

The Coalition Agreement between National and ACT states as a "principle" of the new government that all decisions will be "based on sound public policy principles, including problem definition, rigorous cost benefit analysis and economic efficiency".

David Seymour: State of the Nation Speech - Sunday, 28 January, 2024

Good morning, fellow New Zealanders.

Today I’d like to talk about the state of our nation, as our new government establishes itself at the start of 2024. It’s a story about the challenges outside our borders, how we can prepare inside them, and the role ACT plays in making sure we do.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 29/1/24

Seymour raises tax and Treaty issues in his “state of the nation” speech (which has not been posted on the Beehive site)

Just one statement has been posted on the government’s official website since Attorney-General Judith Collins announced the appointment of a new High Court Judge late last week.

It deals with education and the government’s aims to get better results from school students.

Graham Adams: Luxon keeps cool under referendum fire

The Prime Minister plays cat-and-mouse with journalists.

Within a day of becoming the National Party’s leader in November 2021, three of the nation’s most influential broadcasters — Ryan Bridge (The AM Show), Lisa Owen (Checkpoint) and Jenna Lynch (Newshub) — asked the new Leader of the Opposition whether he viewed abortion as tantamount to murder.

Christopher Luxon acknowledged that was his view but insisted the abortion laws were settled and he wouldn’t be revisiting them in government.

David Farrar: NZ should also cease funding UNRWA

The Herald reports:

The secretary-general of the United Nations on Sunday called on countries to continue funding the main agency providing aid in Gaza after several of its employees were accused of taking part in the Hamas attack on Israel that ignited the war four months ago.

Geoff Parker: Crown – Maori Partnership?

Some in New Zealand’s society today believe there is a Crown / Maori Partnership.

Lets go back to the time Te Tiriti was signed by the chiefs and Governor Hobson who was acting for the Queen of England.

Fraser Macdonald: Why some of Israel’s staunchest support comes from the Pacific Islands

One of the most perplexing yet poorly understood aspects of the international diplomatic response to the ongoing Gaza conflict has been the overwhelmingly pro-Israel orientation of Pacific Island states.

During the voting on two United Nations resolutions (October 27th and December 12th) calling on Israel to reduce the death and suffering of Palestinian civilians, many Pacific countries voted either against the resolution or abstained.

Why would these small island countries, on the other side of the world and with no direct links to Israel, choose to either oppose or not support this essential humanitarian gesture?

David Farrar: The Cathedral Cove scandal

Radio NZ reports:

The Department of Conservation has conceded there is no guarantee a walkway to cathedral cove will ever reopen but expects to know what may be possible by the middle of the year.

The walking track to the popular coromandel tourist destination was closed in February 2023 after it was badly damaged in extreme weather, including cyclone gabrielle.

Penn Raine: Who is Jennifer Pritzker…and why should we care?

Between 2000 and 2019 it is estimated that 500,000 Americans died from overdosing on OxyContin, the Perdue Pharma opioid pain medication, developed initially for severe pain but later widely prescribed. Subsequent Federal investigations revealed that Perdue had not held clinical trials to support its claim that the drug was likely not to be addictive and that its contact in the FDA had a cosy relationship with the company for whom he later went to work for a trebled salary soon after he had ushered OxyContin over the line.

Max Salmon: Houthi rebels

Half a world away from New Zealand in the Red Sea, a small group is making a big splash in international relations theory and philosophy.

The Houthis, already well known for their stunning flag design talents and progressive stance on ageist restrictions to military service, have awed the intellectual community once again.

Oliver Hartwich: Europe's precarious security could invite Putin to expand war

Happy new years do not start like this. The first few weeks of 2024 served as a reminder that the geopolitical situation is at its most dangerous in decades. As if we needed reminding.

Admiral Rob Bauer, chair of NATO’s Military Committee, warned last week that NATO must prepare for war with Russia within 20 years.

Bryce Wilkinson: New Zealand's fiscal challenges - Lessons from the Wellington City Council's plight

Wellington City Council’s current leaking water woes epitomise the misplaced spending priorities of successive councils.

Wellingtonians now face water rationing in their homes while they see vast quantities of leaked piped water escaping down streets and across pavements.

Brendan O'Neill: The rise and rise of Holocaust envy

A new generation drunk on victim politics is desperate for a piece of the Holocaust action.

Britain’s Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is not famed for its astuteness. These omnipresent public-school leftists, who rock up to every radical demo to holler facile chants in fake accents they learnt from EastEnders, are about as far from scholarly as you can get. Yet a few years ago they did something that was world-beatingly dumb, even by their famed low standards. They handed out a leaflet about the Holocaust that described it as an unspeakable tragedy in which ‘thousands of LGBT people, trade unionists and disabled people were slaughtered’. Spot the omission?

Caleb Anderson: The Religiosity of Woke

It is not uncommon to hear musings that wokeism bears religious (even cultic) hallmarks.  I have some sympathy for those holding this view.

I am going to use some typically religious terms here.  I am not taking any specific position concerning these terms, or concerning religion.  I am using these terms simply to support my contention that wokeism resembles a religion in certain key respects, and because there are no sufficiently similar secular terms.  I am also using them in the sense that they were used and understood by pioneering psychologists.

I have clocked up many hundreds of hours of counseling.  After deep-diving into people's struggles, as nuanced as they necessarily are, I find significant commonalities.  

I have become convinced of the following.

Clive Bibby: The Government is only answerable to those who voted for them

Promises made on the campaign trail only apply to those who accepted them at face value and voted accordingly believing that the new Government would honour them.

Like most kiwis who just want the Coalition to get on with the difficult job of restoring the democratic process to most of the institutions we depend on, l am frustrated at the amount of time being spent arguing the toss with all those groups who aren’t at all interested in our search for a truly egalitarian society. In fact, they wouldn’t recognise a communal effort that requires contributions from all who would benefit if they fell over it.

Ken Lomax: Democracy in New Zealand is dead, or is it just very terminal?

We had an election in October 2023, but you would hardly know it.

Recent events (and many before) have highlighted that the political left has deeply infiltrated those organisations that are supposed to be truly independent and neutral, such as our media and the public service.

Oliver Hartwich: The right step - New Zealand's engagement in the Middle East

The Government’s decision to deploy defence force personnel to the Middle East marks a significant, yet reasonable, shift in its foreign policy. Far from undermining our long-held independence stance, this move reaffirms New Zealand’s commitment to democratic values and global security.

Historically, New Zealand has prided itself on an independent foreign policy that navigates the complex geopolitical landscape with a nuanced and principled approach.

Roger Partridge: Public Service cuts needed to help rein in Government spending

The New Year always brings the promise of a new beginning. But it also confronts us with last year’s headaches. The problems we may have been only too happy to consign to the back of our minds as we enjoyed a summer break with family and friends.

For the National-led Government, the list of challenges inherited in 2023 is long. But few ministers will return to the Beehive with as daunting a task as Finance Minister Nicola Willis.

David Farrar: Should Parliament be exempt from public sector cost cutting?

Newsroom reports:

In a rare, albeit private, criticism of the government of the day, the clerk of the house David Wilson told staff in an email last week that new budget cuts would limit the work of Parliament.

 

The message, obtained by Newsroom, said Wilson received an email from Finance Minister Nicola Willis at the end of last year instructing his office “to make savings of 6.5 percent from the 2024/25 financial year. Vote office of the clerk is to be reduced by $1.6 million at the next Budget. All departments [are] required to make similar savings, proportional to their size. …

Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.1.24

Saturday January 27, 2024 

News:
Ngāti Kahu block boat ramp in fishing protest
Protesters have blocked a boat ramp in the Far North ahead of this weekend's Doubtless Bay Fishing Competition.

About 50 members of Ngāti Kahu are preventing people launching boats at Taipā, where the competition will be based on Saturday and Sunday.

Geoff Parker: Sovereignty ceded

The references to sovereignty in this first archived document establishes that the Treaty was about sovereignty (not government or governance) and transfer of sovereignty was the intent of the British Government.

* Lord Normanby’s brief to William Hobson > https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Mac01Comp-t1-g1-t5-g1-t2-g1-t6.html

These next four archived documents prove beyond doubt that the chiefs ceded full sovereignty.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 26/1/24

PM announces new jobs for his executive team while CTU leader announces closure of regional skills leadership groups

Just two ministerial announcements had been posted on the government’s official website, when Point of Order made its daily check.

One announcement involved new governmental duties: the Prime Minister announced several additional portfolio allocations of Associate Ministers and Parliamentary Under-Secretaries.

David Seymour explains his Treaty conversation

 

Click image to watch

Ele Ludemann: It’s about politics not identity

Identity politics highlights what makes us different instead of focussing on our common humanity.

It puts people into groups based on often immutable factors instead of regarding them as individuals with the wide variety of characteristics and beliefs each of us has.

And it’s far more about politics than identity.

Michael Laws chats to Gary Judd KC about the Treaty of Waitangi & the Prospect of a Referendum

Gary unravels the drafting and signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in easy to follow discussion.

Click to watch

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive 25/1/24

Nicola Willis agrees more needs doing when welcoming CPI data but Mark Mitchell lacks words to trumpet handout news

Most of our readers by now will be aware that the PM joined other politicians in what has become the annual trek to the Ratana Pa to try to curry favour with the Maori who celebrate the birth of the founder of the Ratana Church.

His speech can be found on the government’s official website, enabling you to learn what he said rather than what critics of the government were urging him to say.

Garrick Tremain: University today

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on indoctrination in Universities!