Mike's Minute: There's dumb games being played in health

There are some dumb games being played at the moment in the very serious business of health.

Health NZ is in the red to the tune of $1.7b - that's for the year. They are over budget by $1.7b.

That’s why Lester Levy got to be Commissioner and all the others were let go.

Bonner Cohen: Rising battery fires cloud electric vehicles’ future

China’s grip on EV supply chain makes U.S. dangerously dependent

Contributing to the slowing sales of electric vehicles in the United States and Europe are growing concerns about the safety of their lithium-ion batteries, which can spark spectacular fires, quickly engulfing the vehicle in flames and smoke and spewing toxic fumes.

The internet is awash in videos of EVs going up in flames in tightly packed underground parking garages.

Ele Ludemann: It really did happen

To disagree is normal, to base the disagreement on denial of facts is either stupidity, or a means to a very dangerous end.

At least some of the people who deny the holocaust weren’t born when it happened or in the immediate aftermath but that is no excuse.

There are first hand accounts and proven historical records from its victims and survivors, from the soldiers who liberated the concentration camps; and from the Nuremberg Trials, including confessions from those guilty of the crimes committed.

David Seymour - Helmut Modlik Treaty Debate

David Seymour and Helmut Modlik go head to head in a Treaty Principles Bill debate 

Click to view - Debate starts at 22 minutes timestamp

Peter Williams: At last - a Treaty Debate

We need more of this

It was a really good show, deserving of a wider audience.

It was “The Working Group” live debate on David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill. It was a show that either TV 1 or TV 3 should have shown live.

But they lack the courage to do so.

Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury is not everyone’s cup of tea. He was once even banned from RNZ’s “The Panel” for being too radical!

Breaking Views Update: Week of 6.10.24

Wednesday October 9, 2024 

News:
Government and iwi partner to build affordable homes
The government is partnering with Waikato-Tainui to enable the construction of 100 affordable rental homes near Ngāruawāhia.

The government's $35 million investment will go towards the delivery of 57 homes, and enable the infrastructure for a further 43 at the Hopuhopu Housing Development.

NZCPR Newsletter: The Judiciary on Trial

The Marine and Coastal Area (Customary Marine Title) Amendment Bill has now had its first reading in Parliament and has been sent to the Justice Select Committee for deliberation. 

With almost 600 claims on hold while the law is changed – some 200 in front of the High Court with the balance lodged with the Crown for Direct Negotiation – the timeframe for dealing with the Bill is tight. The closing date for submissions is 15 October, and the Bill is expected to be passed by Christmas.

David Farrar: A huge conflict of interest

Readers will be aware of how WCC set up an inquiry into allegations a Councillor had leaked information to the media about the proposed corporate welfare deal with Reading Cinemas.

Many months later it was revealed that the anonymous source who sparked the inquiry was Nadine Walker, the Chief of Staff to Tory Whanau (both are former Green Party staffers).

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Its a full blown scandal.....

Its a full blown scandal. The Samoa Observer Newspaper Reports the Kiwis have not yet done a thing to help them clean up and save their ocean.

Forget Dunedin hospital. Forget Whangarei hospital. Forget all of the infrastructure projects promised by National. Forget any Wellington Tunnel. All bets are off. The Finance Minister's budgets have officially been blown out for the next several years.

Kerre Woodham: Why don't we focus the headlines on the good news?

There is a common trope that if prisons worked, we wouldn't need them. And that if prison was a deterrent, people wouldn't commit crime. If prison was about rehabilitation then people would serve their term and then they would not reoffend.

David Farrar: The Wellington Airport sale

A very good column by Paul Ridley-Smith, who is a former director of Wellington Airport. He notes:

The Officers’ paper, that vociferously argues to continue with the sales process, is a mixture of a well reasoned and economically rational arguments for the sale, and pages of complete nonsense and irrationally presented scaremongering about the consequences of not selling.

Tuesday October 8, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 8/10/24

Reti is among ministers who are spending our money (but his injection for Palmerston North hospital is well below $3bn)

The Government has been in bad odour, down south, after Health Minister Shane Reti and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop announced advice is being sought on two options “for delivering the New Dunedin Hospital project within its existing funding appropriation to ensure the people of Dunedin get the modern, fit-for-purpose medical facilities they need”.

Mike's Minute: We will never not be jealous of people with money

I was going to suggest we are petty, but I have been saved by the Brits.

They are having a couple of debates over money.

One is involving a woman called Sue Gray, who has quit, and the other is over the role of Cabinet Secretary, which is the country's top civil servant, a job which is currently vacant given the incumbent stepped down for health reasons.

Clive Bibby: “We don’t know how lucky we are”

Most will remember the very popular theme song sung by that intrepid freedom fighter Fred Dagg as he and his band of “Trev” eco warriors waded through the pristine waters of our rural rivers.

But never a more serious truth was uttered in jest.

Here in our own little bit of paradise, well away from the polluted world (most of which is beyond redemption) we still have the ability to change the way we do things before we become collateral damage of those larger nations whose selfish actions will influence what ultimately happens to us all.

Chris Lynch: Filipino population surges in New Zealand as Tagalog becomes one of fastest-growing languages

New data from Stats NZ released today showed that New Zealand’s Filipino population has grown from 73,000 in 2018 to 108,000, making Tagalog one of the country’s fastest-growing languages.

National Party MP Paulo Garcia, New Zealand’s first MP of Filipino descent said “As a proud Filipino New Zealander, I’m excited to see our community expanding and making significant contributions across the nation. The growth from 72,000 to 100,000 Filipinos is a reflection of the hard work, values, and culture we bring to New Zealand.”

Ele Ludemann: Getting stuff done

The first projects to be fast-tracked has been announced:

The 149 projects released today for inclusion in the Government’s one-stop-shop Fast Track Approvals Bill will help rebuild the economy and fix our housing crisis, improve energy security, and address our infrastructure deficit, Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop says.

Brendan O'Niell: The fight for civilisation is only just beginning

The West failed the moral test of 7 October. We must never fail like this again.

So, it is here: the anniversary of fascism’s return. It is one year since Hamas’s pogrom. One year since that army of anti-Semites invaded the Jewish State and visited unspeakable terror on its people. One year since the atavistic hatreds of the last century leapt from the pages of the history books and violently imprinted themselves on our complacent world. One year since the pact humankind made in the aftermath of the last Great War – ‘Never Again’ – was turned to dust in the Negev desert and the kibbutzim of southern Israel.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The Sinking of the Manawanui

Why did NZ Navy's Chief, Rear Admiral Golding, Pre-Judge the Court of Inquiry into the Sinking of the Manawanui? It will cost NZ over $1 billion that should have gone into Health-care.

The sinking of the Navy's Manawanui ship is an environmental & economic catastrophe for Samoa & New Zealand. Defense Minister Collins and Rear Admiral Golding told the press they would not comment on the causes of the sinking, saying there would be a Court of Inquiry to find out what happened .. and then immediately proceeded to comment on the possible causes of the sinking and pre-judge that very Court.

Dr Guy Hatchard: Misdirection Steps Up a Notch Among Government Agencies Worldwide

Last week we covered alarming official figures for chest pain among the under forties in New Zealand released under OIA. A ten fold increase which began before New Zealand had COVID-19 but after the mRNA vaccine rollout began.

The story was picked up by the Australian media who pressed their state health authorities for data, and bingo the same alarming trend was uncovered in NSW and Queensland. Under pressure in a live interview with 2GB Sydney, NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said he had consulted at length with NSW Chief Health Officer Dr. Kerry Chant and as a result admitted to the interviewer “without a doubt some people presented to our ED’s with chest pain after the vaccination”. The Minister then tried to blame COVID-19 infection as the greater threat, but had to backtrack when the interviewer pointed out the chest pain trend in Australia also began before COVID-19 took hold as it did here in New Zealand.

Kerre Woodham: If we want progess, we need to make it easier to get things built

We’ve got roads, we’ve got mines, we’ve got housing developments, we’ve got 22 renewable energy projects, we’ve got aquaculture farms, we’ve got a roof for Eden Park, you name it, it’s there and it's happening in a town near you, because projects are spread right across the country. And these are the first 149 projects selected by the government to be included in its Fast-track Approvals legislation.

Monday October 7, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 7/10/24

Fast-track project list leaves us with a puzzle – just one more would have given us a round 150

An announcement from Chris Bishop and Shane Jones, along with the public reactions to it, have given the news media plenty to write and talk about over the past 24 hours or so.

The announcement was the 149 projects that will be included in the Government’s one-stop-shop Fast Track Approvals Bill.

Mike's Minute: More of us are a part of the housing dream

Possibly my favourite stat from the Census was that home ownership is up.

Who would have thought?

Ewen McQueen: Kāwanatanga katoa was the fundamental question at Waitangi

A guest post on Kiwiblog by Ewen McQueen, that the Herald refused to run:

Matthew Hooton wrote in the NZ Herald last week that “There’s no doubt that both Māori and Pākehā in 1840 understood tino rangatiratanga to be a bigger deal than kāwanatanga”.1 However whilst this is undoubtedly the modernist position on how we should interpret the Treaty, the historical evidence suggests something very different.

Dr Michael John Schmidt: From the River to the Sword

* To be “put to the sword” means killed or massacred: ‘ended’1.

* It can also be about how a religion can spread and dominate2.

Let us start, a long time ago and in a place called Libya.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Lester Levy

Is Health NZ's Chair, Lester Levy, tied to the biggest cost blow outs incurred in this nation's history?

Many years ago I received a mail from the current Chair of Health NZ, Lester Levy, who is now charged with slashing costs across our health system. He was doing part-time teaching at Auckland University as an "adjunct" & asked me to speak at a Tonkin+Taylor conference. They're an engineering consultancy firm specializing in infrastructure. I was surprised to discover Mr Levy was Chairman of Tonkin+Taylor, since to my knowledge he'd not studied engineering. Of course, not being an expert in the core activity of the business is no barrier to corporate success in NZ (Tonkin+Taylor's new Chair is an accountant). Some years later, Mr Levy turned up as full Professor at Auckland University of Technology, which is now in financial difficulty.

Ewen McQueen: The Chieftainship Rests With One – The Governor

Ewen provides further confirmation that the chiefs fully understood they were ceding full sovereignty.

After Hone Heke felled the flagstaff in 1844, a group of Chiefs meet with Governor Fitzroy at Waimate North to discuss the situation.

The transcript of the meeting gives a fascinating insight into how they understood the Treaty - WATCH THE VIDEO below).....

Click to view (then scroll down)

Damien Grant: Why a capital gains tax may not be such a great idea

Like building a waterfront stadium, hosting another Commonwealth Games, or installing Winston Peters as Deputy Prime Minister, this country has a passion for foolish ideas; and eventually we get around to doing them.

One idea that continues to keep returning, like tinea, is a capital gains tax. We had a Working Group of the great and the good that advocated introducing one. Labour occasionally favours one when they are in opposition. Last week the chief of the ANZ bank, Antonia Watson, bravely deflected from the more than two billion profit by advocating for a tax on capital gains.

Dr Eric Crampton: For a better tax conversation

Every three years, Inland Revenue undertakes a long-term insights briefing on the tax system.

This year’s could spark a shift away from tedious and fruitless discussions of Capital Gains Taxes.

Joanne Nova: First hint of energy squeeze and Big Tech drops the wind and solar purity.....

First hint of energy squeeze and Big Tech drops the wind and solar purity, and launches into nuclear power

All those sustainable dreams, gone pfft

Google, Oracle, Microsoft were all raving fans of renewable energy, but all of them have given up trying to reach “net zero” with wind and solar power. In the rush to feed the baby AI gargoyle, instead of lining the streets with wind turbines and battery packs, they’re all suddenly buying, building and talking about nuclear power. For some reason, when running $100 billion dollar data centres, no one seems to want to use random electricity and turn them on and off when the wind stops. Probably because without electricity AI is a dumb rock.

Daniel Klein: Don’t Let the ‘Infaux Thugs’ Close Down Debate

Today’s censors wield cudgels with the word ‘information.’ Content they don’t like they call ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation.’ The justification is fake. The protection is faux protection. Pretending to protect people from bad information by means of censorship may be called infaux thuggery.

The cudgels are hidden, of course, but it is not hard to see through the pretence and discern the underlying message: knuckle under or we will hurt you.

Sunday October 6, 2024 

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David Farrar: We do not have unlimited money

The usual suspects are up in arms because the Government diverted $30 million for teaching teachers te reo, to an initiative to teach students maths. This is the reality of government – you have to set priorities.

The Herald also notes:

Toby Rogers: Hypnosis, Stockholm Syndrome, and Hegemony

I. A New/Old Theory of the Case

As you know, here on my Substack I’ve been trying to understand why the last four and a half years have felt so incredibly weird. I agree with Debbie Lerman that we are in uncharted territory. But I’ve struggled to define the psychodynamics of this strange new society we are living in.

I haven’t written for a couple of weeks because I was traveling to participate in a small gathering of dissident scholars (and then recovering afterward). At the meeting, I had a fascinating short conversation with two fellow writers that provided a plausible explanation for what we are all seeing:

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The NZ Treasury's Lack of Imagination Threatens our Future...

The NZ Treasury's Lack of Imagination Threatens our Future. It has no faith in Economic Magic (Einstein did).

Our Treasury is at it again. Telling Kiwis a bleak future awaits them, especially in retirement. Its latest report about how NZ Demographic Change will affect the Country's Finances is enough make the PM's eyes glaze over, Finance Minister Willis fall asleep, NZ First leader Peters to press Delete on his laptop & everyone else to take anti-depressants. Though NZ won the Americas Cup with a boat called Black Magic & we've a radio station called Magic FM, Treasury's having none of it.

Lushington Brady: Reaching for the Stars While the Left Drag Him Down

Elon Musk is transforming the world, mostly for the better – so of course the left hate him

As I wrote recently, capitalism developed cheap appliances that literally save lives – the green-left hate them. And one of the world’s most successful capitalist innovators right now? Oh, boy, do the left hate him.

Now, I’m not exactly a signed-up True Believer of the Cult of Musk. In fact, I despise Tesla and its business model, which is rank crony capitalism. In other enterprises, though, from banking to communications, Musk is a consequential innovator up there with Thomas Edison or Steve Jobs.

Ele Ludemann: CEOs don’t rate opposition MPs

The NZ Herald’s Mood of the Boardroom was generally positive about Cabinet Ministers:

CEOs ranked the performance of Cabinet ministers and others outside Cabinet on a on a scale where 1 = Not impressive to 5 = Very impressive

Max Salmon: Government tackles work from home

The Finance Minister this week announced a crackdown on public servants working from home. The push comes as part of a wider focus on productivity and efficiency-increasing measures from the government.

However, there is a small problem.

Brian Easton: Is the New Zealand’s Retirement Strategy Sustainable?

Today’s mañana strategy will lead to a crisis for the oldest elderly.

It is said that the only certainties are death and taxes, but a lack of each causes uncertainties. As longevity increases, the pressures on state spending increase. A reluctance to increase taxation means the pressures on the elderly increase.

Dr Eric Crampton: What planet are they on?

New Zealand's newspaper chiefs' views on how the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill works is somewhat at odds with the text of the Bill.

Google today, admirably, said they'll stop linking to New Zealand news outlets in search if the Bill goes ahead.

News Publishers' Association's Andrew Holden and Stuff's Sinead Boucher aren't happy about that. But contrast what they say with what the legislation says.

Saturday October 5, 2024 

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David Barnhizer: Migration, Assimilation, and the Limits of Compassion

As I write this I am sitting on a balcony thirty feet above the Plaza Mayor in the center of Madrid Spain. Madrid is a fantastic city and, in my opinion, one of the last cities in the world where the idea and reality of what a healthy city should be still exists. This is my sixth visit to Spain where my wife lived during her Junior year of college, and brought me shortly after we were married. This trip is even more fascinating than the others. The reason for the difference is due to the dismaying contradictions posed by an exciting, safe, and strongly interactive urban giant such as Madrid and the declining, almost Third World, cities that now characterize much of America.

Juliet Moses: The Moral Confusion Of New Zealand’s UN Vote Over Israel and Palestine

New Zealand recently voted at the UN General Assembly to support a resolution concerning Israel and Palestine that our officials admit has many flaws. Their explanation for why we voted this way was as noteworthy as the resolution itself, and reveals disturbing illogic and moral confusion.

The resolution was drafted by the Palestinian delegation and sponsored by many states that do not recognise Israel and are not known as leading lights in human rights, including Algeria, Iraq, Pakistan, Malaysia, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bangladesh and North Korea.

Nick Clark: Do we need more powerful mayors?

The Government is determined to give local government a shake-up, with stern tellings-off about getting ‘back-to-basics’ and reforms to refocus councils on core services and efficiency.

One of its ideas is that mayors could be given access to independent staff advice, separate from their chief executives and council staff.

David Farrar: Life got worse under Labour

If you felt life got worse in the last five years, you were not alone. The 2023 General Social Survey data lets us see the changes since 2018, and 2021. Changes are:

Dr Michael Bassett: The Government money tree and new hospitals

Beware of any situation where a government promises to fund the construction of a new hospital. Invariably it results in chaos at the local level as competing interests decide to pluck funds for their particular interest from the government’s money tree.

There are plenty of earlier cases than Dunedin’s, all of them reflecting poorly on vociferous pressure groups with expensive opinions. I well recall the battle royal over the construction of Auckland’s children’s hospital before I became Minister of Health in 1984

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Consensus Politics can take a hike

You know what's more boring than talking about a capital gains tax? It’s talking about superannuation, and yet here we are again.  

We're talking about it again, and how we need to take the Super off the 65 year olds because of what happened yesterday.  

Now what happened yesterday was that for a brief minute, the two major political parties almost found consensus on the Super, but it only lasted a few hours.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 29.9.24

Saturday October 5, 2024 

News:
Te Pāti Māori referred to police over failure to file annual return
Te Pāti Māori has failed to file its annual return to the Electoral Commission, which has referred the breach of electoral law to police.

The Electoral Commission published political parties’ annual financial statements on Friday, revealing the high-level financials of parties in Parliament and others which contested the 2023 election. It was a new requirement, the commission said, due to recent law changes.

Professor Jerry Coyne: Māori academics finally admit that their way of knowing is not science....

Māori academics finally admit that their way of knowing is not science, but asserts that it is better than science because the truth is “both factual and ethically value-laden”

The “Listener letter” appeared in 2021, signed by 7 professors at the University of Auckland (see it here) in New Zealand. It was a response to the drive (still going on) to teach indigenous “ways of knowing”, Mātauranga Māori (MM), as coequal with science in science classes. The letter argued that while MM was of great value in understanding local culture, its nature was fundamentally different from that of modern science, and therefore MM should not inhabit the science classroom. If it did, they argued, this would only confuse New Zealand students about the nature and practice of science. A quote from the letter:

Lushington Brady: They Are Not Smart Men in Tehran

When will they learn: Jews don’t lose.

As I recently wrote, the Islamic world is marked by notably low average IQ. In fact, ‘Palestine’ scores so low that its population could be classed as functionally retarded. Iran fares much better, but still below average.

Like it or not, these are facts – and those facts have consequences.

Dr Michael Johnston: Causes and consequences of school bullying

There are reliable links between being bullied at school, poor attendance and poor academic achievement. New Zealand has serious problems with all three.

While there is strong evidence linking bullying, absenteeism and poor achievement, the causal relationships between these phenomena are poorly understood. For example, it is plausible that being bullied increases the likelihood that children will be truant, with negative consequences for their learning. But it is equally plausible that children who achieve poorly are sometimes bullied for being ‘dumb’, leading to the avoidance of school. (A complication is that both high- and low-achieving students are at greater than average risk of being bullied.)

Ele Ludemann: Diluting democracy

MMP has diluted democracy.

Electorates are bigger so MPs have to service more constituents over larger areas and list MPs are chosen by their parties.

This has given parties a lot more power at a time they have fewer members.

Michael Reddell: Inquiring into banking

Hard on the heels of the Commerce Commission’s inquiry into some aspects of banking competition, Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee is also holding an inquiry. Submissions weren’t open for very long and have now closed, but the full terms of reference are here. It is a select committee inquiry, so it is hard to be optimistic anything very useful will come from it. Select committees are poorly resourced, even if they wanted to make a serious contribution, and the incentives seem to be almost entirely partisan political in nature.

Friday October 4, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 4/10/24

Casey Costello (at long last) shows the information which she regarded as superior to the advice which Treasury gave her

Point of Order waited patiently for it to be posted on the Beehive website.

But no. Associate Health Minister Casey Costello has released her “independent advice” on heated tobacco products, but – at time of writing – she has not yet posted it on the official government website.