Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 31/7/24

Maori are invited to join others in the queue for mental health funding – and they may vote in any referendum on Maori wards

An invitation to dip snouts into a new trough for $5 million of goodies is among the latest posts on the Government’s official website. It is accompanied by news of a few new appointments and Shane Jones’ travel plans and of what Nicola Willis and Simon Watts have been up to in Brisbane.

Mike Butler: Maori ward vote exemption wanted?

Since the Ruapehu District Council’s mayor has asked for his council to be exempted from the requirement to hold a vote on Maori wards next year, let’s have a look at what happened there three years ago when signatures were being collected for a petition.

Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton said his community qualifies for an exemption because the community had its say when a petition failed to gain the numbers needed to demand a poll.

This is according to a Wanganui Chronicle story by Moana Ellis who is a “Local Democracy Reporter” funded by the Public Interest Journalism fund which encourages coverage that favours an affirmative-action interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi.

But Mr Kirton’s claim is not as clear-cut as he wants you to believe.

Mike’s Minute: We take the tax cuts as a rare win

Welcome to tax cut day.

It's been a while since we've been able to say that. The tax cuts arrive to an uncertain debate as to what exactly they do.

Do they add to inflation? Do they change lives to the extent that they are material to most people? Did they get lost a bit in what has been a tsunami of change and upheaval since the new Government arrived?

David Seymour: My letter to the organisations who wrote the Prime Minister about Act’s Treaty Bill

EXTRACTS:
There’s a common theme running through politics that unites people from the right and left. They want to be more united. People want more open, honest, respectful dialogue. They know our country faces some big asks at the moment. They want to solve problems and move forward. The question is, how?.....

......The bill emphasises the universal human rights that appear throughout te tiriti, and invites an open debate on it. That is the spirit in which Act launched the Treaty Principles Bill.....

Dr Eric Crampton: RNZ remains on-form

There are a few basic bits of reality that I'd hope we could agree on.

Minister Costello has set a lower excise rate for heated tobacco products as a bit of a trial to see whether it proves successful in encouraging remaining smokers to flip to something less harmful.

Kerre Woodham: A Firearm Prohibition Order won't keep guns out of the hands of gangs

We thought we'd start this morning looking at the Justice Select Committee’s review of the Firearms Prohibition Orders Legislation Amendment Bill. Exciting stuff, it's all in the way you say it!

This is something that is part of a suite of reforms that the government is bringing in to help crack down on gangs. It's the job of the Justice Select Committee, which is made-up of all parties, to take into account the views of citizens who make submissions to consider them, to consider the legislation, to make sure it's good legislation that it's intended to do what it says it's going to do, that there are no unintended consequences as a result of the legislation. And as you can imagine, there's a bit of toing and froing on it.

Tony Orman: How About an Outward Bound Based Youth Training Scheme?

Kids are in trouble. Just look at the news from commonplace ram raids and other crimes even at times involving youngsters in murders. It doesn’t end there. The jumbled minds of too many of todays kids sadly manifests itself in youngsters taking their own lives. In a word - suicide!

A UNICEF report found New Zealand's youth suicide rate - teenagers between 15 and 19 - to be the highest of a long list of countries. New Zealand’s adolescents are in deep trouble and at times of a tragic kind. 

Ele Ludemann: The mail isn’t getting through

The mail always gets through, or so the saying goes, but not any more:

Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) is deeply concerned at the latest news that New Zealand Post will stop providing postal services to the growing Tasman rural communities of Mapua and Upper Moutere.

David Farrar: Useful research on Maori views on entertainment

NZ on Air commissioned some interesting and useful research on what type of entertainment Maori like to access, how, where etc. Having understanding of what a large segment of the population wants should be helpful in making funding decisions. Some interesting findings:”

David Lillis, John Raine, Peter Schwerdtfeger, Rex Ahdar, Cathy Downes: Open Letter to the Coalition Government

Restoring the Standing and Reputation of Science in New Zealand - Open Letter to the Coalition Government

The recent news that GeoNet has been merging science with the myth, mysticism and legend of Māori traditional knowledge in their 2024 Geohazard Information has provoked a scathing response from international commentator, Professor Jerry Coyne (University of Chicago). This follows close behind publicity around the public funding of research projects that involve mixing of traditional knowledge and modern science which invited the inference that New Zealand had given equivalence to traditional knowledge and modern science.

JC: Kamala Odds On to Lose

In a Trump v Harris match up, Harris is doing worse in the crucial Rust Belt swing states than Biden.

The media can drool over Kamala Harris as much as they like but, as with the denial of Biden’s dementia, the public are once again having the wool pulled over their eyes. The only positive she has over Trump is her age. In terms of ability, if she has any, she’s keeping it well hidden. Her most distinctive traits are her ability to accrue failures, and her maniacal laugh. She stood for president in 2020 and pulled out early on due to the lack of support. Tulsi Gabbard, also a contender, exposed Harris for who she really is: someone who exhibits far-left tendencies.

Charles Krblich: What Happened to American Civics?

My son’s school assigned a civics project for summer vacation. The project’s scope is expansive and spans from explaining the history and functions of the three branches of government to creating a flip book of landmark Supreme Court cases like Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v Board of Education. One of the tasks is a minor level of civic participation, either through community service or writing a letter to his Congressman. My assistance has often been required, and I’ve been given a chance to revisit my own civics education against the anti-democratic themes of the recent world, including pandemic lockdowns and political coronations.

Dr Eric Crampton: Putting a universal basic income to the test

It’s hard not to marvel at Silicon Valley’s technological innovations. But I’m dumbfounded by the social science experiment they’ve been working on.

Last week, the National Bureau of Economic Research released two working papers, 248 pages all-up, with the first results from an experiment testing the effects of a Universal Basic Income – a UBI.

Peter 'Williams: Scotland the Clever

How Scotsmen influenced the world

Is there a nation on earth whose sons have contributed more to a modern world than Scotland?

I ask this after a two week road trip clockwise from Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye to Dornoch to Aberdeen to St Andrews and finally to Glasgow. Along the way we’ve had tourist experiences, done guided tours and indulged in a little follow-up reading.

What you discover is that for a country with a still modest population, the influence of Scotsmen on the world has been astounding.

Gary Moller: Biotechnology Experimentation - a Threat to Life!

I'm deeply concerned about the rapid advancement of biotechnology and its significant risks to our food supply and health. New Zealand's cherished vision of being a genetically-engineered (GE), GE-Free market garden for the world is under threat. The pandemic has shown us how quickly controlled information can turn fantasy into reality. The processes behind synthetic foods are shrouded in patents and lack labelling requirements, making it difficult for consumers to make informed choices. Thirty years ago, people demanded labelling of genetically modified content in traditional foods, and it's time to renew these demands with even more urgency.

Brendan O'Neill: Why is it only ‘escalation’ when Israel retaliates?

Israel has every right to respond to Hezbollah’s cruel slaughter of 12 Druze kids.

The New York Times is breathing a sigh of relief. For while Israel has fired a few rockets at Lebanon in response to Hezbollah’s massacre of 12 Druze kids in the Golan Heights on Saturday, it has stopped short of launching all-out war on its unfriendly neighbour. For now, says the NYT, we’ve not seen a ‘major escalation’ in Israel-Lebanon hostilities. Yes we have. The slaughter of the Druze youths was a ‘major escalation’. Hezbollah’s firing of a missile that butchered 12 children was surely the very ‘surge in fighting’ that the NYT fears. Or is it only ‘escalation’ when Israel retaliates to the apocalyptic violence of the Islamist armies that surround it?

Tuesday July 30, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 30/7/24

Scrapping of 11 pages of lending regulations will make it easier for people to borrow money

When the Government’s declared its intention to reform the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA), the providers of financial mentoring services expressed concerns that vulnerable borrowers could be exposed to loan-sharks and more debt.

The CCCFA was designed to protect people from taking out loans they could not afford.

Suze: There Are Only the Heroes and Villains

A war is no place for casual observers

VP Kamala Harris is dreaming if she believes Israel will yield to US pressure to enter into a two-state peace agreement with Hamas at this point. Taking the pressure off would inevitably lead to a resurgence of Jewish genocide.

Chris Lynch: Government introduces roadside drug testing legislation

The Government has introduced legislation that will enable police to test motorists for drugs.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown said “Alcohol and drugs are the number one contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand.

David Farrar: The child poverty target changed because Labour failed miserably

Radio NZ reports:

In 2021 the government set targets of reducing the number of children experiencing material hardship from 13.3 down to 9 percent by 2023/24. The government’s new target for 2026/27 is 11 percent.

Yes Labour,. set a target, but were they on track to meet it?

Mike’s Minute: The Waitangi Tribunal strikes again

At a time when the office that looks after the money that gets handed out to Māori to head off to court is in real trouble because they have run out of money, the Tribunal is pumping out report after report, costing Lord knows how much, to achieve virtually nothing.

This latest report deals with the Government's actions around a Tomorrow's Schools Review, in which the Tribunal has decided they breached Treaty principals.

Simon O'Connor: An opening insult

The Olympics' opening ceremony in Paris was not just an insult to Christian athletes and others, but also to the excellence that sports aspires too.

Poor old France. A country once iconic for flair and fashion, faltered on the waters of the Seine River. There were some very lovely and memorable highlights, including seeing and hearing Céline Dion once again and despite her health struggles. But so much fell flat, partly I think because of the choice to host outside a stadium. Somewhat symbolically, this decision showed the opening was more about selective values-promotion than sport.

NZCPR Newsletter: Climate Deception

This month the Coalition Government has released two new reports on Climate Change – a strategy paper HERE and an emissions reduction discussion document HERE (submissions close on August 12).

On the surface, apart from some differences around the treatment of agriculture, there is little to distinguish them from something a Labour Government could have produced. Their alarmist narrative implies man-made global warming causes adverse weather events, and they remain committed to the economically destructive goal of net zero by 2050.

David Farrar: Hurdle on light rail

Tim Hurdle writes:

Building new rail networks is super expensive as the Auckland light rail debacle showed. The Australian ABC TV show Utopia has mined a rich vein of comedy explaining the realities of their boondoggles, such as “the Very Fast Train” between Melbourne and Sydney. Perhaps NZ On Air could fund a similar show so we could explore some of the projects that Kiwis mythologise.

Jonathan Ayling Explains New Hate Speech Training for Police

Sean Plunket talks to Jonathan Ayling from the Free Speech Union who explains new hate speech training for police - on the Platform.

               Click to view

NZCPR Founder Dr Muriel Newman on Changes to Foreshore & Seabed Ownership

Sean Plunket talks to NZCPR founder Muriel Newman on the Platform about the changes to foreshore and seabed ownership.

          Click to view

Professor Jerry Coyne: US attempt to “braid” indigenous knowledge with modern science collapses

US attempt to “braid” indigenous knowledge with modern science collapses and is abandoned by the National Academies

Last October I posted a critique of a new National Science Foundation (NSF) initiative designed to combine indigenous knowledge with modern science—in the U.S. this time, and to the tune of $30 million. The NSF was very optimistic, as you can see from the article below in Science (click to read; see also a similar report in Nature):

Kerre Woodham: Belief in boot camp participants is vital

Ten young men will enter boot camp 2.0, more officially known as the Military Style Academy pilot. Not much is expected of these ten.

Critics argue that boot camps are cruel and unusual punishment that don't work and have never worked, so they won't work for this lot. Supporters of the boot camps really just want to see a few of the worst oiks punished with no real expectation that they'll be able to make anything of themselves, so really not much is expected of these ten young men.

Suze: The 33rd Olympiad Opening Ceremony Was Depraved

A celebration of a tiny segment of society that some view as outrageous and inappropriate and yet the participants demand we permit.

TVNZ on the six o’clock news talked more about the rainy weather than the drag queens and parody of the Last Supper, a substantial slur against the Christian faith. They’d never attempt it with Islam, would they?

Gary Moller: Eight Graphs That Show How We Die in New Zealand

The article from The Spinoff, a woke rag that we'd all be better off without, titled "Eight Graphs That Show How We Die in New Zealand," provides an overview of mortality trends in New Zealand. It looks at different things like how long people live, what causes death, how the assisted-dying law affects people, and how policy affects death rates.

Lushington D. Brady: Do They Ever Stop Lying?

The Biden White House are still lying about Joe’s cognitive decline.

When the late Christopher Hitchens wrote his political biography of the Clintons, he called it No One Left to Lie To. He dubbed Bill Clinton (“with reasonable confidence”), “a pathological liar”.

Kevin: How Far Do the Cover Ups Go?

One thing is for sure. Heads need to roll. Even if one of those heads happens to be the current President of the New Zealand Law Society.

A formal complaint has been laid with the New Zealand Law Society following revelations in this week’s landmark Abuse in Care report that the president of the legal organisation advised a religious group it could destroy the records of all the children it cared for.

Monday July 29, 2024 

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A.E. Thompson: Saving Money and Sense at Health New Zealand

Health NZ's governing board was replaced with a commissioner to rein in budget overruns. One might wonder where savings can be made. Unfortunately, some of the savings will be at the expense of 'front line' health services if critics are correct in alleging that the percentage increased funding for health fell well short the percentage increase in population due to immigration and the increased proportion of aging baby boomers placing greater demands on health services.

However, publications from Health NZ point to considerable race-based ideological investment of dubious benefit. For example, a communication last week stated:

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 29/7/24

PM says suffering in the Middle East can’t continue – but it can and probably it will

The Government has again appealed for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering his retaliatory options after hurrying home from the US and issuing a stern warning to Hezbollah.

Chris Trotter: Victims of abuse in care are, at last, receiving recognition, apologies and compensation

Victims of abuse in care are, at last, receiving recognition, apologies and compensation, but Chris Trotter asks if the Royal Commission has given them a credible explanation of why their suffering was inflicted, and how it was able to go on for so long?

Reading the abuse in care reports, two questions requiring clear and compelling answers remain unanswered: Why? and How? Why were so many children and young people abused in such awful ways? How was it possible for so much and such appalling abuse to continue unchecked for so long? Without satisfactory responses to these two critical questions, the chances of history repeating itself must remain unacceptably high. For some reason, however, the Why and How of Abuse in Care were not made the prime focus of the Royal Commission’s investigations. Its reports tell us the Who, When, Where and What of this horror story, but, those two key questions, Why? and How?, are not adequately addressed.

Dr Guy Hatchard: URGENT - Open Letter to Parliamentarians

Meeting the post-pandemic challenges facing the nation

I am writing to you on a matter of urgency that affects us all. Following on from the circumstances of the pandemic, the nation is facing new challenges on multiple fronts: with finances, the provision of healthcare, and regarding social and geopolitical relations. How we meet these in the coming months and years will define us as a nation going forward.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Ghosts from the past - Failed ideas

National-ACT-NZ First's Pathetic Roll-Call of Ghosts Exhumed from the Past to Roll out Failed Ideas. No wonder Young Kiwis either leave or vote Green.

If you worked for John Key's government and have retired, here's the deal - keep claiming the pension (like Peter Gluckman, Murray McCully, Lester Levy, and more) and get it topped up multiple times by the man who Key anointed to succeed him, Chris (when I don't know what to do I call John) Luxon. Here are his appointments since elected:

Chris Lynch: Study Reveals 60% of Kiwis Believe Home Ownership Is Out of Reach

A study by Consumer NZ has revealed that 60% of non-property owners in New Zealand believe home ownership is beyond their reach.

This finding coincides with a Deloitte report published this month, which showed that home ownership in the country has dropped below 60%, marking the lowest rate since 1945.

Damien Grant: IRD needs a systemic process to chase unpaid taxes

In a past life (I have had a few) I found myself in charge of a company that had run past its use-by date. Events were moving against the business model and it was time to smother it with a pillow. Metaphorically speaking.

Like many directors in a similar bind, I dithered. There is irony now that I find myself on the other side of that table; being a liquidator rather than the liquidated.

Ele Ludemann: What if replacement’s worse?

The Greens have ensured that the Darleen Tana saga will drag on for several more weeks:

The Green Party will decide whether to eject former Green, now independent MP Darleen Tana from Parliament at a Special General Meeting (SGM) on September 1.

David Farrar: Not much academic freedom at Massey

Go read the story of Dr Paul Crowhurst. The short version is:

Brendan O'Neill: Paris Olympics - a smug spectacle of wokeness

The self-consciously ‘queer’ opening ceremony was offensively drab.

Is anyone else bored of ‘queering’? Everything’s getting ‘queered’ these days. We’ve had ‘Queering the Curriculum’. ‘Queering the Arts’. And my personal favourite: ‘Queering Palestine.’ This entails academics ‘unpack[ing] the multiple intersections of queer politics and the Palestinian struggle’. Hot tip for these profs: if Hamas ever invites you to discuss your theories, don’t agree to meet them on the high floor of a building. ‘Queering the Pavement’ is the only thing they’re interested in.

Brian Easton: Balancing External Security and the Economy

New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China?

For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. Britain, then the international hegemon, provided the security and the main export market together with the capital which flowed into this country. New Zealand even twice fought on the other side of the world (three times if you include the South African War) as a part of the deal.

Professor Jerry Coyne: Shorter version of the ideological capture of science funding by DEI

The other day I wrote about the paper below that has now appeared in Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics (click headline to read; download pdf here).

Michael Reddell: Treasury says one thing in a speech but quite another in the BEFU

I picked up The Post this morning to find the lead story headlined “Recession hits homes harder than businesses”, reporting a speech given earlier this week by Treasury’s deputy secretary and chief economic adviser Dominick Stephens. There was an account of the same speech, but with some different material, on BusinessDesk a couple of days ago. Astonishingly, despite being an on-the-record address, on what are clearly high profile macroeconomic issues, including touching on monetary policy, The Treasury has not issued the text of the address, so the rest of us – not the Auckland “business crowd” who heard it live – are entirely reliant on journalists’ reporting of what the chief economic adviser to the government’s principal economic adviser (which is how Treasury likes to style itself) actually said, let alone the context within which he said it. That seems less than ideal (to say the least).

Sunday July 28, 2024 

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Jeffrey A. Tucker: Ten Points About Post-Lockdown Economics

The sudden economic lockdown of March 2020, the world over, was one of the more shocking moments in history. The very core of the economic problem from the beginning of recorded time was getting more of what people needed to them in a way that was sustainable given the inherent scarcities of the state of nature.

Regardless of the system, creating wealth was the stated goal, and humanity gradually discovered that trade, investment, marketing, and access to more via travel and creativity was the way forward.

David Farrar: Better phone access for prisoners

Christine McCarthy makes the case for having phones in cells:

Telephones in prison cells are becoming the norm in countries such as England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Belgium. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisoners in the UK both welcomed this. In New Zealand, only the Serco-run Auckland South Corrections Facility has in-cell telephones, which the Ombudsman has supported.

Michael Reddell: Not a good case for a CBDC

The Reserve Bank’s latest round of consultation on a possible central bank digital currency (CBDC) closes today.

The thick and probably expensive (at least one of the documents was produced jointly with the consultancy firm Accenture) set of consultation documents came out a few months ago. I thought I had run out of time to read and submit on them because somehow I’d got it into my head that the deadline was last week. It was nice of the Reserve Bank to send out a reminder to interested parties that the deadline was in fact today.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: Emigrating Kiwis an orange light for New Zealand

The record net migration loss of 60,100 New Zealand citizens in the year to May 2024 is an orange warning light for New Zealand. But fears that it represents a worrying brain drain are statistically premature.

Those are the main conclusions in my research note “Are Flying Kiwis Fleeing?” that the New Zealand Initiative published this week.

Dr Peter Winsley: Tikanga, law and information asymmetry

Justice Joe Williams in his 2013 paper Lex Aoteoroa made a case for Māori tikanga being recognized as New Zealand’s “first law”. Tikanga existed prior to New Zealand’s development of a legal system based on the British model. Without written language pre-European Māori tikanga is not well documented. However, its customs and norms governed, for example, relationships between people and the environment, property ownership, and conflict resolution.

Lushington D. Brady: BLM Are Right for Once

I know - I’m as shocked as you are.

You know we’re living in a Clown World when BLM are actually making sense.

I’ll wait while Good Oil readers wipe the coffee from their screens.