Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 30/9/24

Corporate welfare? The Luxon government has yet to put a cork in it – and the wine industry has become a beneficiary

Eradicating corporate welfare was the rationale applied by the PM when he set about delivering National’s campaign promise to end the Government Decarbonising Industry Fund (GIDI).

Before the election, Christopher Luxon said he would use the Emissions Trading Scheme to give companies an incentive to install clean energy without taxpayer grants. He criticised Labour for handing out grants to “in many cases profitable” companies.

Joanne Nova: German leaders resign after crushing Greens election loss

“Suddenly everybody hates them”. German leaders resign after crushing Greens election loss

The Greens have become the “punching bag” of the Left and the Right

Things just keep getting worse for the Greens in Germany. After two terrible performances in recent state elections the Party “crashed out of the state parliament” in the Brandenburg region of Germany (which surrounds Berlin). Results were so awful, the two current leaders of the German Greens have jointly stepped down.

David Thunder: New Hate Speech Laws Scrapped in Ireland

The Irish Government has announced it is scrapping its plans to introduce significant updates to Ireland’s existing hate speech laws, as there is not enough support for the proposed legislation. Remarkably, the legislation had already passed the lower house of the Irish Parliament by an overwhelming margin (114 in favour, 10 against) in April 2023, but began to stall in the Senate as its more problematic features came to light. It had gained international notoriety when it came under fire from X’s CEO, Elon Musk.

Brian Easton: How has the New Zealand economy been doing?

Stagnation and Contraction

In this column I use the less familiar measure of GDP per capita instead of the GDP measure favoured by the commentariat. I became familiar with it when I began doing international comparisons because of the population differences between countries, while I depended upon the measure while working on New Zealand’s economic history because of significant population change. The measure is also better for thinking about distributional issues.

Ele Ludemann: No one’s saving, all paying

Around 35,000 people marched in Dunedin on Saturday to protest the government’s announcement on the new hospital.

I wonder if any of them listened to Nicola Willis explaining the background in the urgent debate on the issue last week:

David Farrar: Health Target 1 – cancer waiting times

Over this week I am going to blog the data on the five health targets the Government has set for the health system. Each of them tells a very interesting story when we look at the data for the last nine years.

All data comes from the fact sheets published by Health NZ.

Dieuwe de Boer: Death of Christianity is the Death of Nation

The wrong political theology is popular only because it is the only socially acceptable form of theology.

This is a partial rebuttal to Nathan Smith’s argument that “Christianity is the death of the nation”. We have great real-life conversations on this subject, but perhaps there is some benefit in debating some of this out in public.

DTNZ: NZ Herald promotes harmful content – Counterspin

In a powerful critique of the NZ Herald’s declining editorial standards, Counterspin Media has highlighted a disturbing contradiction in the legacy mainstream media’s messaging.

The NZ Herald is facing mounting scrutiny over its apparent promotion of content that many consider degenerate, leading to concerns about the social consequences of normalising such material.

Richard Meade: What ‘Jack and Jill’ can teach us about the (un)fairness of capital gains taxes

In New Zealand, capital gains tax debates spring up like zombies. Each time they get killed off, back to life they come.

New Zealand already has some types of capital gains taxes – such as the bright-line test (which taxes residential land bought and sold within two years) and taxes on other various activities. So the debate is more about expanding taxes on capital gains, rather than introducing a new tax.

Charles Krblich: Restrictive Schooling Imperils Our Children

Last week, my sons’ school went into lockdown. It wasn’t a drill. There was a real threat. Two high school-aged students, a boy and a girl, were discussing an alleged fight on social media when one of them wrote, “I’m shooting up the school at 9.”

Thankfully, someone reported this information to the school, and the next morning the school flooded with sheriff’s deputies and began the day in lockdown. The two students were arrested and expelled from the school, and now they face second-degree felony charges.

Dr Eric Crampton: The economics behind Auckland's planned parking revolution

Policies and regulations, most of the time, are a bit of a mess.

Even if policies made sense when first conceived, sludge accumulates over time. New rules get tacked onto existing frameworks, creating a jumble.

So Lloyd Burr’s column in last week’s Post was refreshing.

Burr explained the set of policies that Auckland Transport is pursuing to deal with that city’s parking issues.

Sunday September 29, 2024 

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Ross Meurant: Rugby Union v The Dollar

Once upon a time, when chaps played rugger for the love of the game - not the dollar, and the household names of players could be recognised and pronounced, the game united our Nation.

Saturday after the game, rugby clubs across this once Long White Cloud provided sanctuary, where a culture was nurtured; where club protocols of behaviour substituted for police and many a romance was kindled - be it all against a goal post as twilight fell.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: Should New Zealanders aspire to be among the world’s most taxed people?

Max Rashbrooke's recent research note, "High earner tax rates: New Zealand in context," makes a case that rich people in New Zealand pay less tax than they would on the same income in some of the highest-taxed countries in the world.
But is this really the case? And if it is the case, what follows?

The case is problematic. It is based on a stylised OECD study that does not take into account issues of loopholes, realised versus unrealised gains, inflation-adjustments and IRD refunds for capital losses.

Lushington Brady: They Don’t Want Your Life to Be Better

Capitalism developed cheap appliances that literally save lives – the green-left hate them.

What is it that the green-left have against human progress?

Humans spend 10,000 years learning how to manipulate the genome of wild animals and plants in order to provide abundant, healthy, cheap food – and the green-left complain about it. Humans develop an industrialised, liberal-democratic-capitalist society that lifts more humans out of poverty faster than any time in human history – and the green-left want to tear it down. Humans develop industrialised agriculture that means less land produces more food than ever, allowing the re-wilding of large tracts of land for the first time in human history – and the green-left want to destroy it.

Dr Guy Hatchard: Medsafe Report Underlines the Ongoing Myocarditis Crisis

The extraordinary New Zealand data of chest pain and cardiac incidence among the under forties, which has increased tenfold and remains high right up to the present, has provoked many questions and comments to our email inbox. Ranging from ‘how could the authorities let this happen’ to the ridiculous ‘the OIA doesn’t exist’ and everything in between. Making sense of the scale of the disaster is hard, and facing up to the failure and duplicity of those charged with protecting our health is even more perplexing.

Shane Jones: You cannot blame distant colonial events for the narcissistic, self serving, gangs

Shane Jones talks about victimhood ideology that is being popularised.....


Click to view

Ele Ludemann: #%@%&*#! daylight #@%&*#saving

%#@*&%#! daylight %#&*@ saving starts too early and ends too late.

We’re only seven days past the spring equinox which means day and night are more or less of equal length.

David Farrar: The Dunedin hospital rebuild

Almost amusing Labour feigning outrage over the Dunedin Hospital rebuild, when you look at the history of it.

In August 2017, National announced a rebuild with a projected cost of $1.2 to $1.4 billion, with it to be open between 2024 and 2027.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Does the "Gross" in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) explain why NZ's sliding toward a State of Emergency?

Technical Economics Note: Does the "Gross" in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) explain why NZ's sliding toward a State of Emergency?

It's gradually dawning on Kiwis that the cost of fixing NZ's depleted infrastructure is fast becoming unmanageable. Whangarei hospital needs $1 billion spent and Dunedin hospital $3 billion to make them fit for purpose. The interisland ferry needs $3 billion if it is to be rail-enabled. Meanwhile Wellington, with its tunnel plans and broken water supply, is wanting billions to sort out those problems. Meanwhile Auckland has no second harbour crossing. The proposed highway from Auckland to Whangarei, promised in the coalition agreement and so exempt from cost-benefit, will gobble up much of the money that instead should have been spent on these other projects.

Glenn Inwood: Democracy crashes into Wellington City Councillor

The following opinion article was offered first to The Post. They declined to publish, for reasons not given. It’s their call on what they put in their newspaper. We consider the points we raise in relation to Councillor Nikau Wi Neera’s stance on the Airport share sale requires discussion and is something that all Wellingtonians need to understand.

Party Ideology has no part in Local Government

It is any surprise that public confidence in the Wellington City Council is at an all-time low when considering the debacle around the sale of the ratepayer-owned shares in Wellington airport? The flip-flopping of councillors illustrates the point.

Christine de Lee: The Thorny Issue of Capital Gains Tax

ANZ Chief Executive, Antonia Watson, has spoken out, stating that she believes that ‘the time has arrived for a capital gains tax’. Bankers should stay right out of tax policy. They know little or nothing about it, and are merely stoking the fires of discontent.

In fact, it is fair to say that even politicians should stay out of tax policy.

Lushington D. Brady: It’s as Easy as Tahi, Rua, Toru

National prioritise public money for useful subjects.

Which do you think your hard-earned tax dollars would be better spent on? Kids who leave school equipped with world-leading maths skills? Or kids who leave school barely able to count to 10, but able to do so in a language spoken by just 0.0025 per cent of the world?

Samir Bhattacharya: Two world giants are vying to control this vital resource

New Delhi is eyeing Africa for critical minerals that are instrumental in shaping the nation’s energy transition, as well as establishing it as a leading power in the Global South.

Lithium, frequently dubbed “white gold,” is pivotal to modern industries and technology. Rechargeable lithium-based batteries are essential in storing solar and wind energy as well as in powering electric cars. Lithium-ion batteries, which have a long lifespan and excellent energy density, are also utilized to produce consumer electronics goods such as laptops and smartphones.

Roger Partridge: Why the RBNZ's "gold-plating' may be costing you

The Government has long promised an inquiry into banking competition. With the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee (FEC) about to begin its work, that time has finally come.

Politicians and economists often champion competition in banking. But competition is just a means to an end. The real goal is an efficient financial system providing services at the lowest cost customers are willing to pay.

Dr Eric Crampton: Monkeypox, Medsafe, and monkey business

Good news!

As of 11 September, it has been legal to advertise Jynneos, the monkeypox vaccine, to communities at risk for monkeypox. It’s also been legal, since then, to provide the vaccine without a lengthy consultation with a G.P.

Unfortunately, it’s all just a bit late.

Jeffrey A. Tucker: Lockdowns Codified a World of Violence

During the misnamed and mostly preposterous debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, a moderator fact-checked Trump’s claim that crime is up. In contrast to his claim, he said that the FBI reports that crime is down, a claim that likely struck every viewer as obviously wrong.

Shoplifting was not a way of life before lockdowns. Most cities were not demographic minefields of danger around every corner. There was no such thing as a drug store with nearly all products behind locked Plexiglas. We weren’t warned of spots in cities, even medium-sized ones, where carjacking was a real risk.

Saturday September 28, 2024 

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Dieuwe de Boer: It's The Economy, Stupid

New Zealand is in a recession and we have been for two years now. Our per capita recession has surpassed the Great Financial Crisis in length after contracting for seven consecutive quarters.

I'm not a fan of GDP as the be all and end all economic figure, but a decline in our yearly economic activity by 0.5% is a serious thing, even more so when you factor in that our per capita GDP has shrunk by a massive 2.7% in that time.

Sir Bob Jones: The guts about working from home

The debate rages as some employees who have had a lovely indulgent time since Covid, with the ‘Working from Home’ racket, complain about being ordered back to the office.

But here’s the guts of the issue. An employer offers a position in an office. Potential employees can either take it or reject it. But they can’t decide to take it then say they want to do it differently on terms (WFH) according to their whims. It’s that elementary.

Suze: They Are Lying Grifters

The Disinformation Project takes a close look at social media platforms, which they call an “online ecosystem”, but shows no interest in MSM platforms.

The Disinformation Project (DP) is aptly named and, if Chantelle Baker is an indicator of public push-back against Kate Hannah and her posse of disinformation experts, the DP should seriously consider packing up and leaving town because their disinformation days are numbered when they do not survive legal scrutiny.

Brendan O'Neill: The BBC’s shameful moral cowardice over Hamas

The Beeb is showing a film about Hamas’s pogrom but the film won’t feature the word ‘terrorist’. This is insane.

The BBC has reached a new low. It has tumbled further down the well of moral relativism. This week, it will broadcast a new documentary about Hamas’s massacre at the Nova music festival on 7 October last year. But according to the doc’s director, the version the Beeb is showing ‘won’t describe Hamas as terrorists’. If this is true, if the BBC can’t even park its weird aversion to calling Hamas terrorists when it is airing a film about Hamas’s butchery of the young at a festival in the desert, then that shames Britain.

David Farrar: After 30 years, there is hope

Chris Bishop and Simon Court announced:

Two new laws will be developed to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA), with the enjoyment of property rights as their guiding principle, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Simon Court say.

“The RMA was passed with good intentions in 1991 but has proved a failure in practice.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 22.9.24

Saturday September 28, 2024 

News:
New Plymouth puts Māori principle in green policy
New Plymouth’s council has put kaitiakitanga at the core of a new environmental sustainability policy.

As Parliament gears up for six months of public debate on the principles of Te Tiriti, New Plymouth District Council’s new sustainability policy is “underpinned by principles” about how to put it into practice.

Peter Williams: Hastings Gets it Wrong

We wanted elected representatives, not appointed ones

Democracy, as Winston Churchill may or may not have once said, is the worst form of government - apart from the all the other types that have been tried from time to time.

The modern English word is derived from two Greek words: demos meaning people and kratos which is rule. In other words it is the rule of the people by the people. The people ELECT those whom they wish to represent them.

Nick Clark: RMA Replacement Phase 3 – The welcome focus on property rights

Last Friday the government made a heartening announcement that its phase 3 reforms to the Resource Management Act will make property rights a ‘guiding’ principle.

The RMA has failed in good part because of two fundamental flaws from a property right perspective: first, it allowed all and sundry to object with impunity to a changed land use; second, it denied compensation for the lost value from a successful objection.

Both flaws are bad for New Zealanders’ wellbeing. Unaffordable housing, over-crowded homes and people sleeping in cars is one result. Consenting costs for infrastructure projects exceed $1.3 billion per year and can add many months to getting them built.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Uber clarity - NZ’s bold move on gig economy workers

When law students first learn contract law, they learn that entering into a contract can happen in all sorts of ways.

Only in the rarest of cases is a contract signed by both parties. In most cases, contracts just happen with both sides agreeing. The customer puts a few dollars on the tray, and the newsagent hands over the newspaper - a contract entered and fulfilled.

However, sometimes, customers probably do not even know the contractual relationships behind the services they purchase. They call an Uber through the app, the driver arrives, takes them from A to B and the customer is happy.

David Bell: The Right to Speak Evil

Words can harm. The childhood saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is obviously untrue. Words bring ruin and despair, drive people to suicide, and foment massacres and war. They are used to justify the enslavement of nations, and the genocide of entire ethnic groups. This is exactly why we must all, always, be free to speak them.

Geoffrey Miller: NZ’s trade deal with the UAE could unlock Middle East

New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are moving closer together – at record pace.

Just a year after agreeing to enter initial talks, Wellington and Abu Dhabi have concluded negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (or CEPA for short).

The deal will go down as one of New Zealand’s fastest trade negotiations. It is arguably the biggest breakthrough for New Zealand’s relations with the Middle East since negotiations began in 2006 on a wider free trade agreement (FTA) with the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Friday September 27, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 27/9/24

Thanks, Minister – but our wellbeing would be greatly improved if we knew the cost of this mental health initiative

Small Business and Manufacturing Minister Andrew Bayly is among the ministers who contributed to a flood of announcements and speeches to the government’s official website in the past 24 hours.

But we suspect something is missing from his enthusing about the Government and Auckland Business Chamber entering a memorandum of understanding

Mike's Minute: The public transport conundrum

Have a look at the report out in Sydney into their new metro line.

This is the $21b behemoth that opened a few weeks ago that was going to transform Sydney's public transport.

It seems, at first report, to be working – and in that is the clue to public transport generally and whether or not it is successful.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Proof that NZ's Reserve Bank has Inflicted Unnecessary Pain up and down the Nation.

In the past few hours, it has been stated that the US economy grew at a solid 3% rate last quarter, as given in the American government's final estimate. New Zealand's economy, on the other hand, shrank at a rate of -0.2%. The US Federal Funds rate (the equivalent of NZ's Official Cash Rate, OCR) is currently set at between 4.75 & 5 percent. By contrast, our OCR is presently at the higher rate of 5.25%. Meanwhile inflation in NZ was just over 3 percent for the June 2024 year, whereas inflation in the US was just under 3 percent for that same year.

Ele Ludeman: Another expensive Labour shambles

The ODT’s headline read : Dunedin’s new hospital – Anatomy of a shambles.

It told only recent history of budget blowouts and uncertainty over expected cuts to the build.

It didn’t say that the shambles started in 2017 when Labour came to power and, for purely political reasons, sacked the people who had already done considerable planning for the new hospital which the outgoing National government had promised to fund.

David Farrar: Who did we vote with?

Winston Peters announced:

New Zealand has voted for a United Nations resolution on Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian Territory with some caveats, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.

“New Zealand’s yes vote is fundamentally a signal of our strong support for international law and the need for a two-state solution,” Mr Peters says.

Professor Ananish Chaudhuri: Debate around ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill essential for a multi-ethnic nation

I support the Treaty Principles Bill introduced by ACT. I believe the debate around this bill is fundamentally important if New Zealand is to remain a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation.

Here is the way I see it. While I fully acknowledge the discrepancies between the Maori and English versions of Te Tiriti Waitangi, the debate on whether Maori ceded sovereignty to the British Crown is sublimated by a long list of subsequent acts (and laws) that hold New Zealand to be an independent sovereign state. Parliamentary sovereignty has long been considered a foundational constitutional rule.

Clive Bibby: Star Wars in our own time

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away there existed a planet populated by the human species that was in danger of extinction by its own hand. 

The world had been overcome by an elite group of self serving extremists who had gained power simply because of the apathy of those who had been lulled into a false sense of security due to the hard work of generations of predecessors generating the wealth capable of sustaining the modern version in a manner to which they had  become accustomed. 

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Don't expect David Seymour's crackdown to go over well with teacher unions

That's quite the crackdown on truancy from David Seymour today - don't expect this to go down well with the teacher unions.

So the first thing David Seymour's announced is that he's coming for the parents. He's bringing in the possibility of enforcing fines on parents who don't send their kids to school.

Now, it's 100 percent that the excuse-makers of this country are gonna have a problem with this because it’s picking on the vulnerable, etc.

Kristen Walker: Most Climate Policies Are Pointless But Costly

In the first major study of its kind, researchers from several European institutions analyzed 1,500 climate policies implemented across 41 countries since the turn of the century. Only 63 were found to be effective.

That means 1,437 policies (95.8%) were futile and failed. A meager 4.2% success rate would put most companies or organizations out of business or get someone fired. Such low rates of return are troublesome, but somehow, governments can get away with it.

Peter St. Onge: China on the Edge of Recession

China is on the edge of recession — excluding Covid, for the first time since 2008 — as new data showed all-important manufacturing contracted for the fourth month in a row with particular weakness in new orders.

In other words, what they’ve got is backlog, then it's a cliff.

David Farrar: Top class study

Louise Upston announced:

The Government is investing $16.8 million over the next four years to extend the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) Longitudinal Study.

GUiNZ is New Zealand’s largest longitudinal study of child health and wellbeing and has followed the lives of more than 6000 children born in 2009 and 2010, and their families. The study is led by the University of Auckland.

Peter Dunne: Darleen Tana

Darleen Tana’s extraordinary run as a Member of Parliament looks set to continue for some time yet. Now that the High Court has dismissed Tana’s application for an injunction to prevent the Green Party invoking the so-called party-hopping legislation, the party will be able to proceed with their proposed meeting to determine her fate.

JC: Here Is the Real News

The real news is not to be found at six o’clock on One or Three but elsewhere in places such as YouTube.

We sometimes tend to be very critical of the present coalition Government. Our criticism is often to do with their lack of action, their apparent reluctance to deal with issues pertaining to race or their inability to agree on certain issues. A fair bit of this criticism is based on what we hear, particularly on the nightly television news. This, as we know, is hopelessly biased because most of the journalists hate this government with an obvious passion and are working overtime to ensure it fails in its aims.

Thursday September 26, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 26/9/24

Learning our sums from Stanford: $30m (for maths teaching) minus $30m (from te reo training) equals a new education initiative

Associate Education Minister David Seymour – committed to toughening up on the truancy that burgeoned when Labour was running the country – was encouraged by data released today which show increased school attendance in Term 2 of 2024. The numbers he highlighted show 53.2 per cent of students regularly attending school, an increase of 6.1 percentage points compared to the same term last year.

Hmm. Only around half of students regularly go to school.