Mike's Minute: Confidence in our economy is growing

The good news is confidence in our economy is improving.

It has been a decent week: farmers confidence is up and markedly, our confidence is up a bit —still overall pessimistic, but up nevertheless— and last week we saw business confidence rise a bit.

Then come the newest numbers, our current account.

David Farrar: $8,000 per wooden step!

The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance released:

The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance can reveal through Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act that Auckland Council spent $263,000 on four sets of stairs for Milford Beach’s Southern Walkway.

Dave Patterson: A Buzzing Pager May Be the Last Message a Terrorist Gets

Hezbollah is experiencing a communications problem

In this modern high-tech age of instant communications, the exploding cigar is definitely passé. Terrorist operatives throughout Lebanon learned this the hard way. If you are a Hezbollah terrorist, you might want to think twice before saying, “Call my pager.” On Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 17), the sound of pagers exploding could be heard throughout Lebanon and Syria. Reports describe the detonations as more than just a little pop.

Peter Dunne: Leader coup?

It is often said that timing is everything in politics. Sometimes the timing is fortuitous, a case of being in the right place at the right time, and sometimes it is the precise opposite.

This week, the Labour leader heads off to Britain, taking up the traditional annual taxpayer funded overseas study trip, available to the Leader of the Opposition. He will be away until the start of October, attending the annual conference of Britain’s new governing Labour Party and “meeting with think-tanks, economists and writers both in Liverpool and London”. Hipkins says it is an opportunity “to take stock of what is happening internationally and discuss our direction with other policymakers.”

Ele Ludemann: Union’s politics showing

What’s better, no teacher or a recently retired, though now deregistered one?

. . .Two Otago principals have welcomed the government’s short-term fix to a relief teacher shortage despite the teachers union’s concerns.

PPTA Te Wehengarua president Chris Abercrombie said the “ad hoc” response from Minister of Education Erica Stanford meant thousands of young people would not be taught by trained and qualified subject-specialist teachers. . .

David Wojick: AI could take your computer from search to research

The news is full of predictions of explosive growth in electricity use because of AI. I wondered what all this AI was going to be used for, but then it hit me. AI could take our personal computers from search to research. I realize this is futuristic, so please read it that way.

The basic idea is very simple. Right now, when you want to know about something, you start by doing a search. You get a bunch of snippets and links to likely documents. So you go to the best-looking ones and read. If your question is fairly broad you might read quite a bit by way of piecing together an answer. Your computer does the search then you do the research.

J. R. MacLeod: Understanding the Basics of Modern Banking

The monetary and banking system plays an incredibly important role in contemporary economies. Knowledge of how this system functions should therefore be spread as widely as possible, yet the education system barely instructs its students about this subject, if indeed it instructs them about it at all. This article aims to contribute to bridging this gap by giving a basic overview of how the system of money creation and banking works today. The reader may also be interested in studying the discussion of alternative systems, however, this article will focus only on describing the dominant system of the present.

Brendan O'Neill: This wasn’t a war crime – it was an audacious assault on anti-Semites

The left’s crazy wailing over the exploding Hezbollah pagers shows that Israel can’t do right for doing wrong.

Getting your balls blown off by a primed pager has got to be the most ‘f**k around, find out’ thing that has ever happened. It took place in Lebanon yesterday. To the approval of both supporters of Israel and meme-makers everywhere, thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah operatives suddenly exploded. The footage coming out of Lebanon is extraordinary. A man’s trouser pocket erupting in a supermarket, a man writhing in agony in the middle of the road after his trusted comms device turned on him. The battle of the pagers will surely be recorded as one of the most unusual and audacious acts in the entire history of human warfare.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 15.9.24

Thursday September 19, 2024 

News:
Whakaata Māori CEO tells MPs Māori media law ‘not fit for purpose’
Whakaata Māori kaihautū / chief executive Shane Taurima has called the legislation governing Whakaata Māori “not fit for purpose” this morning.

Appearing before Parliament’s Māori Affairs committee alongside toihau / chair Jamie Tuuta, Taurima said it made no mention of any digital platforms or any new or emerging technologies.

NZCPR Newsletter: A Colossal Mistake

In a Herald interview, back in 2006, Auckland University’s Professor Elizabeth Rata warned, “The bicultural, Maori-Pakeha movement in New Zealand has been a mistake - it is subverting democracy, erecting ethnic boundaries between Maori and non-Maori and promoting a cultural elite within Maoridom.”

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The US Moves closer to NZ's Pharmac Model.....

The US Moves closer to NZ's Pharmac Model as its Medicare Health System starts negotiating drug prices with Pharmaceutical companies

The Biden administration announced Thursday that the US government's Medicare public health insurance program had started negotiated discounts with pharmaceutical companies on 10 drugs. The discounts will range from 38% to 79% when the negotiated prices take effect in 2026. The bargaining will save Medicare $6 billion per annum, according to U.S. Department of Health & Human Services estimates.

Michael Munger: Welfare Is a Jealous Polygamist

Nearly ten years ago, I wrote what I thought was a provocative essay about polygamy and the state. Specifically, I claimed that the state acts like a polygamist, enforcing a cruel and explicitly patriarchal regime on single mothers. Perversely, the justification for this repressive regime is compassion, even “social justice.”

Dr Bryce Edwards: An Age of growing discontent in New Zealand

The Establishment in New Zealand is becoming deeply unpopular. A range of new survey data shows that public discontent with politicians, the media, business and NGOs continues to grow.

Discontent with democracy revealed in the NZ Election Study

Kerre Woodham: Who wants to be a teacher? Not many of us apparently

Who'd be a teacher? Not many of us, apparently - the Teaching Council of New Zealand says half as many Kiwis are signing up to become teachers than there were in 2010, and the number of students graduating as teachers has dropped by more than a third. The Deputy Chief Executive Clive Jones said if you look at the number of domestic students enrolling in teacher training programmes for the first time, that's dropped by 51% between 2010 and 2023. We're simply not producing enough teachers to replenish the teaching workforce. He said teaching was not the attractive career prospect it once was. Those who'd chosen it felt undermined, undervalued and underpaid.

JC: Published Views From the Weekend

Politics is a rough and tumble, and at times nasty, game. It requires firm leadership.

Two contributors to the Weekend Herald I regularly read are Bruce Cotterill and Claire Trevett. Bruce writes from a business background, while Claire, as a political journalist, tends to write with a certain flair that I frequently find myself at odds with. Bruce, being analytical, usually hits the nail on the head concerning his subject matter. Claire, on the other hand, tends to be somewhat subjective, given her political beliefs but I wouldn’t go so far as to insult her by comparing her to the moderators of last week’s presidential debate. Compared to them Claire could be considered ‘far right’.

Wednesday September 18, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 18/9/24

Reti discusses his health portfolio challenges (and draws attention to the flexibility of those who serve as a kaiwhakahaere)

It’s hard to be cheered by Health Minister Shane Reti’s speech to the New Zealand Nurses Association. But he did give us a good idea of what must be done in his ministerial bailiwick.

Mike's Minute: The beginning of the end for Hipkins

It's only when you read the full detail in the latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll that you start to get a feel for where the Government currently sits.

Firstly, the poll is for corporate clients and reportage is usually limited to a few basic numbers, i.e. National up or down a point and added together that means “x” number of seats in the house.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Big tech’s political influence on debate and public watchdogs

The charity Netsafe is increasingly regarded as New Zealand’s “internet police”, or at least the leading authority on everything related to regulation and the dangers of the internet. It’s a well-deserved reputation, but there are also questions about whether they are being tainted by their financial reliance on big tech companies.

Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Politicians need to lift their game

Declining trust in New Zealand politicians should be a warning to them to lift their game. Results from the New Zealand Election Study for the 2023 election show that the level of trust in politicians has once again declined.

Cam Slater: Tell Him He’s Dreamin’

Chris Hipkins is delusional. Most Kiwis see him as the ugly face of the Ardern regime, the guy who presided over multiple debacles in Health, Education, Police and Covid. Claiming his caucus backs him is fanciful.

Just when I was sitting at my desk, scratching my head and wondering what to write about, up pops Chris Hipkins to tell us that he has the ‘full support’ of his caucus.

John Raine: Universities not Wānanga - Time for the Government to Step Up

Distinction between a University and a Culturally Based Education Institution

New Zealand universities have been undergoing a cultural reshaping, and Government intervention is needed if we are to avoid adverse societal and financial consequences. Earlier articles by Raine, Lillis and Schwerdtfeger [e.g. 1, 2] have already covered this issue in some detail.

New Zealand has three wānanga as publicly owned tertiary education institutions, providing tertiary education in a Māori cultural context, and creating these institutions was positive for young Māori. They are: Te Wānanga o Raukawa (1981), Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (1984), and Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiarangi (1991).  Why then, should our universities appear to be on a determined march towards indigenisation that will leave them looking like wānanga and no longer recognisable as universities in the internationally understood sense?

Ele Ludemann: Cost of incompetence

Labour’s handling of Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) was incompetent.

There was favouritism over who could get in and who could not – DJs were approved, people with dying relatives were not.

There was its unfair lottery for places which left getting a place to luck.

Professor Jerry Coyne: Ideological indoctrination of New Zealand science majors - a bizarre required course

I’ve mentioned before that at the University of Auckland—New Zealand’s most prestigious university—every student has to take a mandatory course related to indigenous knowledge, a course ostensibly related to their their field of study. In reality, these courses are exercises in propaganda, created to indoctrinate students into sacralizing indigenous “ways of knowing”. As an example, I gave this course, which is required for all science majors. Click to access the course description, which I went through a while back (see the link above).

Graham J Noble: Another Trump Assassination Attempt and More Shame for the Media

Left-wing reporters trot out the same awful narrative they used last time.

File this one under “Not the Media’s Finest Hour” – and, at this point, it’s a thick file. Left-leaning news outlets are once again attempting to play down and/or deflect the blame for another attempted assassination targeting former president and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump. Once again, and rather tragically, we are reminded that some left-wing reporters and political pundits are willing to practically brush off an attempted murder because the target was a man whose political agenda they don’t like.

Gary Judd KC: Taonga

Pre-European Māori did not read or write. They had a completely spoken language. One of the Treaty of Waitangi challenges is to ascertain the meaning of the words used in Te Tiriti, the document written in the Māori language signed at Waitangi on 6 February 1840 by both Governor William Hobson and about 45 chiefs most of whom were from the Bay of Islands and its immediate vicinity.

Kerre Woodham: Is Hipkins the man to lead Labour into the next election?

Let's talk politics, specifically the latest Taxpayers Union Curia poll. It showed a firming up of support for the Coalition Government and the parties that make that up, but Labour leader Chris Hipkins has lost support as preferred Prime Minister and the party is languishing. The party vote changes were all within the margin of error in this latest poll, but the preferred prime minister stakes saw Chris Hipkins dropping 6.1 percentage points.

Brendan O'Neill: We need to talk about the violent hatred for Donald Trump

Two assassination attempts in two months? This is a crisis of civilised norms.

The BBC says the latest suspected attempt on the life of Donald Trump is proof that ‘political violence’ is the ‘new norm’ in America. It’s half right. There does seem to be a ‘new normal’ over there, but it’s not some abstract thing called ‘political violence’. It’s not some broad-strokes brutish contempt for all rulers of society. It’s more targeted than that. It has one politician in particular in its crosshairs. If there’s a new normal in America, it would appear to be a new normal of an increasingly militant culture of grievance against the 45th President of the United States, now aspiring to be the 47th: Donald Trump.

David Farrar: So who is the bully

I love the Media Insider columns by Shayne Currie. They are my first read in the Herald. It is rare for me to disagree with one, but I must do so with this one on Google.

Suze: Why This Race-Fuelled Rhetoric?

My personal response to having te reo shoved up my nose is to reject it altogether.

It’s OK for the Waitangi Tribunal, Māori activists and the previous Labour Government to force us into Māori separatism but anyone not in favour will have their arguments labelled race-fuelled rhetoric.

Mike's Minute: We need minerals and can't ignore it

The most telling part of the release of the draft of our critical minerals list is that we have never as a country developed a comprehensive picture of our mineral needs and weaknesses.

The obvious question is: why not?

Tuesday September 17, 2024 

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David Farrar: Mountains don’t need healing

The Herald reports:

A person has died on Mount Ruapehu.

Local iwi have placed a rāhui over the Tūroa ski area. …

“The rāhui acknowledges the sacredness of our maunga, the sacredness of the loss of life and acknowledges the family’s loss.”

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive 17/9/24

RMA to be relaxed for farm recovery after floods – but court sentences are being hardened in a crackdown on criminals

On the one hand, the government can expect to win kudos for suspending the law – or one bit of it. On the other, it can expect to get plenty of support for hardening its law-and-order credentials.

The law is being over-ridden by an Order in Council intended to enable severe weather recovery works to continue in the Hawke’s Bay.

Dr Don Brash: Update on the Maori wards

Recap: the Helen Clark Labour Government gave local councils the right to establish Māori wards but, because creating racially-based wards was a major constitutional issue, also gave ratepayers the right to demand a referendum if they objected to such wards.

In every district where councils sought to create Māori wards ratepayers demanded a referendum on the issue, and in every district except Wairoa ratepayers made it abundantly clear – with overwhelming majorities – that they did not want racially-based wards.

Mike's Minute: Why did we need a directive on race?

When a Government has to issue an email directive the way they did on Friday over race, there is something profoundly wrong with the country.

Essentially it says the public service, whether on health, education, justice, welfare etc. - can not act on race.

It says they can't see race as an individual entitlement that allows services, or money, or support to be a determining criteria.

Peter Williams: We told you we were sick

Why are the numbers so bad?

Call it coincidence or not but on the day I publish an essay questioning the state of the nation’s health, the country’s most watched TV programme features consecutive stories on .. people being sick.

The first one outlined the dreadful number with some form of respiratory ailment, like asthma. The new statistic is one in five. Yep, twenty percent of us sometimes struggle with respiratory disease, a number up from fifteen percent only two years ago.

Cam Slater: How Long Has Chippy Got?

The latest Taxpayers’ Union/Curia Poll spells danger for Chris Hipkins as Labour languishes in the polls.

The latest Taxpayers’ Union/Curia Poll is out and it shows gains for National, who have widened the gap over Labour. The Greens have dropped again as their continual scandals grind their support down.

The summary of the headline results are:

Ele Ludemann: Putting victims before criminals

The government is prioritising victims with tougher sentences for criminals:

The Government has today agreed to introduce sentencing reforms to Parliament this week that will ensure criminals face real consequences for crime and victims are prioritised, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says.

David Farrar: Bill lodged to remove six month prognosis criteria for euthanasia

Todd Stephenson released:

ACT MP Todd Stephenson has lodged a member’s bill in Parliament’s ballot to extend eligibility for End of Life Choice services.

The End of Life Choice (Extended Eligibility) Amendment Bill removes the requirement for a terminally ill person to demonstrate a six-month prognosis, while retaining all other safeguards. …

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Has Former PM Ardern Become NZ's Single Biggest Individual Emitter of Greenhouse Gases?

Its impossible to keep up with former PM Ardern's emissions of Greenhouse gases.

Where has she travelled on carbon-dumping-into-the-upper-atmosphere long-haul flights this past year? To name just a few, back in November 2023, she flew to Singapore to walk the Green Carpet and give 'Earth Shot' awards including in the category of "clean air". How ironic.

Kerre Woodham: The phone ban is working - let's get on with banning vapes

So the Government's 'Phones Away For The Day' regulations came into force in state schools and kura at the beginning of term two. Schools must ensure students do not use or access a phone while they're attending school, including during lunch time and breaks.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced the policy before the election last year and there were the typical naysayers saying that'll never work. How can you enforce it, the children need their phones to be able to contact their parents, it's going to put more pressure on teachers, and so on and so forth.

Dr Guy Hatchard: Steep Rise in Autism Cases

The UK Telegraph reports “Special education spending surges 70pc amid autism wave”. UK Department of Education figures show that the cost of supporting schoolchildren with special needs has jumped by more than two-thirds since lockdown from £6.9bn in 2018/19 to £12bn today. One in 100 UK primary schoolchildren are now entitled to formal council support as a result of autism, double the one in 200 before the pandemic.

Dr Wanjiru Njoya: The Rebellious Old Right

In The Betrayal of the American Right, Rothbard asks “how many Americans realize that, not so long ago, the American right wing was almost the exact opposite of what we know today?” Describing the American Old Right, Tom Woods explains that:

Dr Michael John Schmidt: Ideology and groupthink in our public service - certainly immoral and probably illegal.

The phrase “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” is from one of Aesop's Fables: a wolf disguises itself in a sheep’s skin to blend in with, and ultimately prey on, a flock . The story serves as a moral lesson about deceit and the danger of those who pretend to be something they are not, often to cause harm. Nowhere does the phrase apply more aptly than with “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” policies in organisations.

Jeffrey A. Tucker: Grocery Rationing within Four Years

There is a lack of public comment and debate about Kamala Harris’s call for price controls on groceries and rents, the most stunning and frightening policy proposal made in my lifetime.

Immediately, of course, people will reply that she is not for price controls as such. It is only a limit on “gouging” (which she variously calls “gauging”) on grocery prices. As for rents, it’s only for larger-scale corporations with many units.

Dave Patterson: Will Ukraine Be Allowed to Strike Targets Deep in Russia?

Taking the fight deep into Russia is crucial for stopping Moscow’s assault on Kyiv.

Ukraine may soon be cleared to use Western weapons to strike deep into Russia. It’s what the beleaguered nation needs to turn the tide of the invasion, but it has, thus far, been strictly forbidden. Why? Not since September 11, 2001, has the US government seen the results of an enemy determined to bring America to its knees. Only then did the US military go after the terrorist group responsible with a vengeance. But time passes, and memories fade.

JC: They Are a Bunch of Crocks

When it comes to political matters, the bulk of the mainstream media gave up on balanced reporting a long time ago. It’s a global phenomenon.

Well if it wasn’t obvious before, it is now. The debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris proved beyond doubt the blatant left-wing bias of most of the mainstream media. ABC television, who were hosting the debate, didn’t even try to hide the fact. They made sure the viewers knew whose side they were on. Maybe they thought we were as dumb as they are and wouldn’t notice. What a bunch of crocks. On Tuesday night the moderators (a misnomer if ever there was one) looked vile, sounded vile and in fact were vile.

Monday September 16, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 16/9/24

Just a village of 100 (or so) people – but Parihaka is a potent force when it comes to winning govt funding

The Parihaka settlement – founded about 1866 – by the end of the 1870s had a population of about 1500 and was being described as the most populous and prosperous Māori settlement in the country.

Wikipedia says it had its own police force, bakery and bank, used advanced agricultural machinery, and organised large teams who worked the coast and bush to harvest enough seafood and game to feed the thousands who came to the meetings.

Sir Bob Jones: A brilliant new appointment

Every new government makes new appointments to a wide range of agencies, for which they’re frequently (and sometimes rightly) attacked by diverse critics.

Probably the most common criticism, is the charge of “jobs for the boys”.

But one recent outstanding appointment which has been largely ignored by the media, is that of Melissa Derby, a Waikato university academic, as the new Race Relations boss.

Peter Williams: Is it a Health or a Sickness Industry?

We need to think more about prevention

Minister of Health Shane Reti made a bold statement last week.

“We’re already investing more in health than any Government in New Zealand’s history – around $30 billion a year.”

Therefore every man, woman and child is having $5660 spent on them by the government this year for their medical needs.

Mike Butler: Tribunal’s coastal conjuring

More evidence that the Waitangi Tribunal makes it up as it goes along appears in its latest blockbuster titled Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 Inquiry Stage 1 Report.

Predictably, the tribunal “found” that “the procedural and resourcing arrangements supporting the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 breached the Treaty and prejudicially affected Maori”.

Why “predictably”? The tribunal almost without exception recommends in favour of claimants and has done so for decades.