Sir Bob Jones: The Chief Ombudsman

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier having reached the compulsory retirement age of 72 and formally retired as he’s obliged to do, has now been asked by the government to carry on in the interim, which he’s delighted to do.

Being an Ombudsman can be a contentious role, as we’ve seen from time to time with the banking and insurance Ombudsmen’s verdicts. But to the best of my knowledge, not a single Boshier verdict has ever been contentious, despite his wide-spanning brief.

David Farrar: Government still subsidising Te Huia

NewstalkZB reports:

A reduction in funding for the Waikato to Auckland commuter train Te Huia, which was less than expected, may still spell its demise.

Waikato Regional Council and Te Huia supporters have welcomed news Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) will continue to fund the service at a reduced rate.

Brendan O'Neill: A judicial pogrom

The ICC’s threat of arrest warrants against Israel’s leaders is an affront to democracy and humanity.

So it’s a crime now to defend yourself against fascist violence? Some of the imperious prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC) seem to think so. Just 226 days after the Jews of southern Israel were subjected to the worst act of anti-Semitic slaughter since the Holocaust, the chief prosecutor of the ICC says he’s seeking arrest warrants for Israeli officials. The preening overlord of international law says he has ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe they’ve committed crimes against humanity. Behold the great moral inversion of our times: the victims of a crime against humanity are themselves suspected of crimes against humanity. The targets of fascism are treated as fascists. Rarely has the moral decomposition and blind arrogance of globalist institutions been so graphically illustrated.

Cam Slater: Labour Couldn’t Run a Bath

NZ’s Worst Landlord Woke and Broke

The review of Kainga Ora has been released and it shows without a shadow of doubt that Labour and anyone from Labour, couldn’t run a bath or anything else for that matter.

The report is damning and finds that the social housing system is not socially or financially sustainable.

Ele Ludemann: Labour’s legacy, National’s responsibility

Government debt ballooned under Labour, it now amounts to $90,000 for every household in the country.

That’s a lot of money to owe and the interest on it amounts to billions of dollars that are needed for other priorities including education, health and infrastructure.

Heather du Plessis Allan: We can't rule out asset sales

I think we’re about to find out whether this Government has got the cahones to make the tough calls that need to be made on one thing in particular: Asset sales.

If you've been reading political commentary lately, including in the weekend papers, there's been a lot of talk of the need for asset sales. Why?

Because as we said earlier, we have a structural deficit. Which is a very bad thing because it means we are, thanks to Grant Robertson, now spending more than we earn - on the regular.

Treasury's advice for how to fix it? Asset sales.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 19.5.24

Tuesday May 21, 2024 

News:
Iwi Leaders Group united against Oranga Tamariki scrapping Treaty obligations
The National Iwi Chairs Forum and the Pou Tangata Iwi Leaders Group are united against the proposed repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act.

The controversial Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament this week.

David Farrar: Biden’s tariffs disastrous for the environment and economy

AP reports:

President Joe Biden slapped major new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminum and medical equipment on Tuesday, taking potshots at Donald Trump along the way as he embraced a strategy that’s increasing friction between the world’s two largest economies.

These tariffs are massive. They include:

JC: The Left Want to Increase Tax While the Right Want to Cut It

Two articles in the Weekend Herald highlighted the stark difference between the left and the right when it comes to looking at tax. One article was written by Thomas Coughlan and the other by Steven Joyce. One talked about introducing a new tax; the other concerned cutting the existing ones. There are no prizes for guessing which was which. Elections are decided by swing voters and it is a source of fascination to me that the Labour Party think they can attract a majority vote by threatening to rob Kiwis of more of their hard-earned money.

Kerre Woodham: Could long term rentals help solve our housing crisis?

A new paper from the OECD has shown New Zealand has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the developed world, with more than two percent of New Zealanders recorded as being homeless. And that's the highest population percentage recorded of any country in the developed block being measured.

Although New Zealand's broad definition of homelessness kind of snookered us, and helped us gain another unwanted top spot, our figures include refugees and asylum seekers looking for temporary accommodation, as well as victims of domestic violence. It also included children and people living in uninhabitable housing. Housing that's not up to scratch. And most of the other countries do not include these groups.

Monday May 20, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 20/5/24

Priority is given to powerlines – govt strikes another blow for the economy while Jones fends off a fingers offensive

Tree-huggers may well accuse the Government of giving them the fingers, after Energy Minister Simeon Brown announced new measures to protect powerlines from trees, rather than measures to protect trees from powerlines.

Emeritus Professor Rex Ahdar: The Four Knights

The Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, likes to trace his political lineage back to the pioneers of parliamentary Maoridom. I will refer to these as the ‘big four’ or better still, the Four Knights. Just as boxing had its celebrated ‘Four Kings’ in the 1980s (Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Thomas ‘the hitman’ Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler), so New Zealand politics had the Four Maori Knights. This distinguished quartet of Parliamentarians---James Carroll (1857-1926), Maui Pomare (1875-1930), Apirana Ngata (1874-1950) and Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa)(1877-1951)---were all knighted. They were members of the Young Maori Party, not so much a party as a collection of like-minded Maori keen to advance the education, health and status of Maori. Their essential strategy was to be educated in European ways and to use the Westminster system to promote the Maori people.

David Farrar: Council tries to stop fiscally conservative Cr from participating

The Taxpayers Union released:

Around the country there are some elected officials who are on the ratepayers’ side: asking the tough questions of officials, and determined to deliver rate increases no higher than is absolutely necessary.

One of those centre-right councillors is our former Grassroots and Engagement Coordinator, Grace Ayling.

Damien Grant: Failure of state education continues despite who is in office

Some days I like to take my ageing carcass for a jaunt around the streets of Rosedale, on Auckland’s North Shore. I understand that there have been complaints from the locals distressed at seeing my shambling gait disfiguring the local leafy environs.

One group who do not seem to mind are the kids from the Vanguard Military School, who sometimes jog alongside me to amuse themselves at my expense. They are a chatty and friendly lot who enjoy a bit of banter and, as we pound the pavement together, speak highly of their school and the teaching staff who are responsible for sending them out on these irregular runs.

Bruce Cotterill: Asylum seekers ahead - Proceed with caution

It’s nice to see our political leaders playing a constructive role on the international stage again.

Last week, we saw our Foreign Minister joining other global leaders in calling for both sides in the Israeli conflict with Palestine to give serious consideration to the cease fire terms that were before them.

Cam Slater: Covered by the Green Shield of Sanctimony

Chloe Swarbrick went on Jack Tame’s show on Sunday as the Greens seek to influence, by their handmaidens in the media, the outcome of the looming Privileges Committee hearing into Julie Anne Genter’s misbehaviour both inside and outside the House.

The matter of privilege arose when she crossed the floor of the house to vociferously and vehemently remonstrate with Matt Doocey about something she disagreed with.

Rodney Hide: My journey

It’s been awhile since I have written. I have tried. But I have not had anything useful to say.

My concern has always been public policy. What should the government do for the best result?

My writing on the government was technical. Here’s what the government is doing. Here’s what they hope to achieve. Here are the perverse incentives created and here, the counterproductive result. I would conclude it was far better to do X than Y.

David Farrar: A PM who believes in measuring performance

The Post reports:

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s new “delivery unit” is not just designed to monitor the public sector’s performance, but also his own Cabinet ministers.

Briefings to Luxon, obtained under the Official Information Act, show how the new unit is expected to help the Government hit nine targets across health, education, crime, welfare, and climate, that were announced last month. …

Sunday May 19, 2024 

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Alwyn Poole: The Huge Potential Benefits of Charter Schools

In New Zealand we have approximately 460 high schools. The gaps between the schools that produce the best results for students and those at the other end of the spectrum are enormous.

In terms of the data for their leavers, the top 30 schools have an average of 87% of their students leaving school with university entrance (UE). This includes two outstanding schools for Maori, in St Joseph’s Maori Girls and Manukura. Both these schools are superbly led and also approach things a bit differently to the norm.

David Farrar: 50 charter schools for less than the cost of moving two schools!

David Seymour announced:

The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today.

David Farrar: The left may help Chung win in Wellington

Tom Hunt at The Post writes:

Already, with almost half the current council term still to run, Chung is confirming he is running for mayor in 2025. This time it is serious and he stands a good chance with the left on council partly to thank – or blame – for it.

Many Wellingtonians, even lifelong liberals, are increasingly frustrated with a council that appears not to be listening. ,,,

Roger Partridge: The Tikanga challenge for law schools, the rule of law - and Parliament.

Barrister Gary Judd KC’s complaint to the Regulatory Review Committee has sparked a fierce debate about the place of tikanga Māori – or Māori customs, values and spiritual beliefs – in the law.

Judd opposes the New Zealand Council of Legal Education’s plans to make teaching tikanga compulsory in the legal curriculum.

AUT Law School Dean Khylee Quince derided Judd on social media as a “racist dinosaur”. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters condemned the planned tikanga requirements as “woke indoctrination”.

JC: Luxon Has a Vision and a Plan

On Wednesday I listened to Christopher Luxon giving a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber, the CEO of which is Simon Bridges. It was a speech, delivered without notes, containing a vision and a plan to implement a means whereby the goals in the vision would be achieved. The speech was from the head of a businessman, someone who could both identify the problems and then the strategy needed to go about solving them.

Dr James Kierstead: The future of our universities

The Future of Our Universities is now in the past. The long-awaited symposium, hosted by the Initiative, took place on Wednesday at the Royal Society Apārangi in Wellington. It brought together senior academics, politicians, and policy wonks for a day-long discussion of university reform.

The ongoing cuts at several universities loomed large. One speaker with experience in banking regulation argued that our universities’ finances are basically sound, with adequate liquidity and very low debt. Others warned that university balance sheets can create a false sense of security. Property assets, for example, are not easily realisable.

 Saturday May 18, 2024 

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David Farrar: Is it time to take the Interislander away from Kiwirail?

The Herald reports:

KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later.

Not what most people regard as worst case.

Heather du Plessis Allan: Steven Joyce is right, tax cuts are the way to go

I'm gonna back up Steven Joyce on something that he’s said today.  

He's written a piece for the Herald arguing for why we need tax cuts - which is an argument at the moment. 

Because you have commentators and economists lining up saying Nicola Willis is doing the wrong thing by giving us tax relief. Because she can’t afford it, because she’s got a deficit and therefore she's basically borrowing for tax cuts.

Barrie Davis: Science and Universities

The ironic decision to cancel a meeting to discuss free speech at Te Herenga Waka University was because some students were ‘freaked out’ that there were some rightist speakers. That was not an isolated case but rather an example of mass hysteria on the Left and mass decadence on the Right that has taken hold in the West.

In recent times various people have been stopped from speaking in New Zealand because they hold rightist views: In 2018 Don Brash was banned from talking about Treaty issues at Massey University by Vice-Chancellor Jan Thomas after a complaint by some students. Also in 2018 commentators Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux were stopped from coming to New Zealand to speak by Auckland Mayor Phil Goff. In 2023 Kelly-Jay Keen-Minshull abandoned her tour of New Zealand without speaking after being booed, heckled and doused with tomato juice at Auckland.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 12.5.24

Saturday May 18, 2024 

News:
Iwi pledges to use only te reo Māori to communicate with Govt
A south Taranaki iwi will use only te reo Māori when corresponding or speaking with central government officials from now on and hopes other iwi and kaupapa Māori organisations will follow suit.

Michael Reddell: Two central banks

I got curious yesterday about how the Australia/New Zealand real exchange rate had changed over the last decade, and so dug out the data on the changes in the two countries’ CPIs. Over the 10 years from March 2014 to March 2024, New Zealand’s CPI had risen by 30.3 per cent and Australia’s CPI had risen by 30.4 per cent.

And that piqued my interest because the two countries have different inflation targets: New Zealand’s centred on 2 per cent per annum and Australia’s centred on 2.5 per cent.

So I drew myself this chart

John MacDonald: Come Monday, the bullies will be back on the job

If you talk to anyone who has been a manager and you ask them what’s the best thing about being a manager and what’s the worst, the answer will be the same for both. The people.

I know, because I’ve been a manager before, and I know exactly how brilliant it can be when things are going great with your people. But, when they’re not, it can be a nightmare.

Dr Matthew Birchall: Efficiency first in road pricing case

The Government plans to implement road pricing tools like congestion charging and toll roads. This will be an important first step in establishing a more rational transport system.

Over time, the transport funding model has become increasingly dysfunctional. Late last year, the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) observed that it will have to invest about twice as much as it expects to receive in revenue over the next decade – an annual funding shortfall of $4-to-$5 billion. In this context, a shift to road pricing and user-pays principles makes good sense.

However, its implementation is also likely to arouse passionate debate.

David Farrar: Sensible compromise on Christchurch Call

Stuff reports:

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and French President Emmanuel Macron have announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.

Kerre Woodham: Workplace bullying or crossed wires?

The report out that workplace bullying is costing the country in terms of productivity and lost earnings is nothing new. Bullying and harassment are conservatively estimated to cost employers $1.5 billion a year, according to a new study by KPMG, published for Friday's Pink Shirt Day.

Friday May 17, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 17/5/24

Seymour appeals to PPTA to call off meetings on charter schools – but does he seriously believe he can mollify their taniwha?

Associate Education Minister David Seymour is urging the PostPrimary Teachers Association to put learning ahead of ideology.

He wants the union leaders to call off their teachers meetings around the country where they hope to muster the strength to undo the government’s plans to establish several charter schools.

Gerry Eckhoff: Metiria Turei’s column

Most will still remember Metiria Stanton Turei as a former green Party leader who resigned from parliament due to telling porkies to receive higher payments from the Ministry of Social Development. Some might suggest it is  something of an unnatural progression to now lecture in law at Otago law School and  is a regular columnist in the Otago Daily Times.   

We should all express a vote of thanks to Metiria Turei for her commentary in the ODT 19^th April. In her opinion piece on discrimination against Maori,  Ms Turei illustrates wonderfully well  just how correct one of the world greatest thinkers - Tom Sowell is with his  observation, that “people who have been placed in a privileged position for a period of time, see any withdrawal of privilege as discrimination”. 

Mike's Minute: The Greens are a basket case

Do you get the feeling the only moderately normal person in the Greens left the building a couple of weeks back, and he is sitting in his new corporate financing job feeling a new lease on life?

Surely as he read, as I did, the tale of Darleen Tana on full whack doing virtually nothing and his good mate Tory "let me bugger Wellington up" Whanau, he must be feeling just a bit guilty about hanging out with such a bunch of no-hopers.

Dr Sheree Trotter: Defrocking Decolonisation’s Priesthood

Shortly after 7 October, a friend phoned for help in understanding her daughter’s social media messages. “What’s decolonisation?”, she asked. Like many Kiwis, my friend was mystified by the younger generation’s sudden and religious passion for a conflict on the other side of the world. What appeared to be “a spontaneous eruption of moral outrage”, turned out to be “a highly orchestrated, well-funded propaganda campaign”, one that had been decades in the making. Recently published research has revealed the degree to which funding connected to Hamas has poured into USA university campuses, fueling antisemitism and contributing to the angry and often violent protests.

Cam Slater: Good, the Unions Are Worried

One of the reasons I support charter schools, but not the only reason, is that they put the fear of God in to the teachers’ unions. And so, it is with some pleasure that I see that, right on cue, the teachers’ unions are saying they are afraid of the new format charter schools that David Seymour announced this week.

Ele Ludemann: If wild animals do this . . .

Wild bison are mitigating carbon emissions:

A herd of 170 bison reintroduced to Romania’s Țarcu mountains could help store CO2 emissions equivalent to removing almost 2m cars from the road for a year, research has found, demonstrating how the animals help mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis. . .

David Farrar: Green Councillor tries to get conference banned

The Post reports:

Te Papa has not yet decided whether to cancel an event described as “hostile to trans people”, but the organiser believes the event is going ahead.

The group, Inflection Point NZ, is holding an event on Saturday at Wellington’s Tākina conference centre that it’s describing as a “summit” to stop the Government “gender indoctrination and medicalisation of our children”.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Kiwis leaving NZ

OneNews blames immigration to NZ for emigration (of young Kiwis out of NZ). Maybe they're leaving because TVNZ has depressed them, seriously?

Gosh, if a Blogger ever accused immigrants of nicking houses and jobs off young native New Zealanders, causing them to leave the country, then we'd likely be prosecuted under some anti-freedom of speech legislation. But seems our State-owned broadcaster, OneNews, can get away with it. After all, like the Reserve Bank, TVNZ can do what it wants. Its above the law. Its more than happy to blame immigrants for the exodus of NZ residents to Australia & beyond.

Barry Brill: 'Greenhouse Theory’ is Threatened by the Confounding 2023 Warmth

In March 2023, sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic began to shoot up.

By June the extent of sea ice around Antarctica was by far the lowest on record. Based on the 30-year midwinter trend, a patch of sea-ice six times larger than New Zealand was suddenly missing.

At that time, there was no El Niño. There had been nothing unusual in the slow build-up of greenhouse gas emissions

Graham Adams: TVNZ hīkoi documentary needs a sequel

20 years on, judges are quietly awarding coastal rights to iwi.

Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account of 2004’s hīkoi from Cape Reinga to Wellington — narrated by Tāmati Rimene-Sprout, who marched as a 10-year-old — is undeniably atmospheric and will certainly be rousing for those who support Māori nationalism.

For others, Hīkoi: Speaking Our Truth will look like the opening salvo in a propaganda campaign to head off attempts by the government to amend the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011, which repealed Clark’s legislation.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: It's D-day for the Te Huia train service

Well, it’s D-day for Te Huia.

Today's the day that NZTA has met and has decided whether or not to keep funding the train past the end of June. Unless NZTA gives them more money, it’s all over by the first of July.

And come on, it’s gotta be all over right? Because the case for this thing has never actually stacked up.

Henry Cooke: What next for the Ministry for the Environment?

While idly sifting through Treasury’s proactive release of mini-Budget papers, I spotted an interesting line.

“Due to the sensitive nature of the proposals being put forward, the Climate Implications of Policy Assessment (CIPA) team has not been consulted to review these results.”

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Humboldt's Gift - What a Prussian aristocrat can teach us about education

For the past six years, I have had the privilege of writing this Newsroom column on any Europe-related topic. While some may appear obscure at first, I always choose topics that I think New Zealanders can benefit from knowing more about.

Today, I would like to pay homage to one of my intellectual heroes: Wilhelm von Humboldt. I believe that this Prussian aristocrat’s ideas on education could help us with our current challenges in New Zealand.

Kerre Woodham: Access to electricity is a basic human right

If you woke up this morning and you turned on the heater because it was a bit chilly, not as chilly as it has been, but a bit chilly, good for you. Did you think about the cost? If you didn’t, lucky you.

An estimated 40,000 New Zealand households had their power cut due to unpaid bills in 2023, which is a phenomenal number of households. One in five had trouble paying their monthly power bill and this is at a time when the “big four” power companies are earning more than $7 million every day while some households struggle to heat their homes.

Eliora: Did the WHO and Others Know?

Kiwis Are Suffering Long-Term Aftershocks of the COVID-19 Plandemic.

A new definition was added to the other grief disorders prior to 2021. It is interesting if you take an unsuspicious look at it. If a sceptical view is espoused, the timing is impeccable. The WHO anticipated chronic grief and loss. Grief is a natural reaction to all sorts of losses. Prolonged grief is another level.

Thursday May 16, 2024 

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Ian Bradford: We almost had a power crisis. Here’s why.

I was listening to the radio on Thursday night the 9th May when it was announced in the news broadcast at 10 pm that it would be very cold overnight and in the morning, and that everyone was asked to conserve power between 7am and 9am next morning. Out of the blue came the statement- “there is no wind”! Did anyone hear that, and wonder what that was about? Well it was very clear to me what that was about. It meant that the wind farms were near useless. They couldn’t produce any power to help out the national grid, and of course it had been dark all night and so solar panels were not much use either. 

How many times has it been said: “When the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine there is no power.”

Clive Bibby: Western Conservative Values versus Wokeism

Western conservative values are on a comeback and Wokeism is being destroyed in the process.

I have always considered myself to be a progressive conservative.

Before my “Woke” opponents, while lying in wait for something they can criticise and choke on their muesli, let me explain what l mean by that apparent contradictory term.