Dr Will Jones: 2024 Registrations Of New Electric Cars Plummet 27.5% in Germany

The share of electric cars in new registrations in Germany plummeted 27.5% in 2024 compared to the previous year. Blackout News has more.

According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), only 380,600 electric vehicles were newly registered. This corresponds to a decrease of 27.5% compared to the previous year. While 18.4% of new cars were electrically powered in 2023, the share was only 13.5% last year.

Dr Will Jones: Sweden Celebrates Migrant Crackdown Success as Asylum Seeker Numbers Hit 40-Year Low

The number of migrants granted asylum in Sweden dropped to the lowest level in 40 years in 2024 after a years-long crackdown on immigration under a succession of Governments. The Mail has the story.

Sweden stunned the world by taking in nearly 163,000 asylum seekers during the 2015 migrant crisis – the highest number per capita of any EU country.

Centrist: Simeon Brown wants to get rid of rules that ‘hold back’ Auckland

Auckland Minister Simeon Brown, also Minister for Transport, Local Government, and Energy, reflects on his first year in office.

Brown aims to reduce regulations and prioritise infrastructure projects to boost private investment and improve quality of life in New Zealand’s largest city.

Centrist: NZ election inquiry: submissions on voter fairness and electoral reform

Market researcher Geoff Neal of The Facts’ submission to the NZ Justice Select Committee on the 2023 General Election has gone viral online.

Neal tackled several electoral issues, including concerns about media bias, voting processes, and political advertising. His analysis pointed to systemic flaws impacting voter trust and election outcomes.

Lindsay Mitchell: Bad leaders solicit bad advice

When Jacinda Ardern became Prime Minister, she was determined to increase income for children in welfare-dependent families - her magic bullet for solving child poverty. The Welfare Expert Advisory Group, led by Cindy Kiro, was convened to make the desired recommendations. A number of evidence briefs were provided to the group, one concerned the "likely effect of increasing the adequacy of welfare benefits on life course outcomes for children."

Ele Ludemann: Will it be thrive in 25?

Business confidence is at its highest level in three years:

The latest NZIER Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion, which shows the highest level of general business confidence since 2021, is a sign the economy is moving in the right direction, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says.

“When businesses have the confidence to invest and grow, it means more jobs and higher incomes for Kiwis.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 12.1.25

Wednesday January 15 2025 

News:
Treaty Principles debate is "not about race", Seymour says
David Seymour’s controversial Treaty Principles Bill has faced a fair bit of opposition since its introduction.

The ACT Leader says it comes from two main camps, and in his opinion, it reinforces the need for a debate around the Treaty of Waitangi and its application.

Sallust: The Cold Truth – Britain’s Grim Winter’s Tale

Unfortunately, climate activists live in the fantasy world of averages and averages of averages, not reality. In their mythical universe temperatures can be stabilised and power consumption projected, all based on those averages. Their ideology has been allowed to drive Government policy for years and the result has been a misguided reliance on the vagaries and unreliability of solar and wind power.

Brendan O'Neill: You know who will cheer the death of DEI? The working class

So, is it RIP DEI? The boss class’s favourite ideology certainly seems to be in trouble. Big business everywhere is rethinking its devotion to ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’. As part of his coming out as a pretty standard tech bro who bristles at woke and loves Joe Rogan, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has said DEI might be for the chopping block. He even instructed his minions to take the tampons out of the men’s bathrooms at Meta HQ. Expecting people who menstruate to use the ladies’ loo? Guys, this is big.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: Submission: Discussion Document on the Proposed Regulatory Standards Bill

1 INTRODUCTION AND MAIN POINTS

1.1 This submission on the Ministry for Regulation’s Discussion Document on the proposed Regulatory Standards Bill is made by The New Zealand Initiative (the Initiative), a Wellington based think tank supported primarily by major New Zealand businesses. In combination, our members employ more than 150,000 people.

Roger Childs: Tariana Turia – Tribes First, Country Second

Her … backward-looking negativism is driving a wedge between New Zealanders, regardless of their ethnic origin, and it’s time it ceased. –United Party leader, Peter Dunne in 1997

A controversial figure

Andrew Bydder: How to Fix Our Councils (Part Five and Final)

Hamilton City Councillor Andrew Bydder has written a lengthy and detailed article for the Good Oil to help readers concerned about our local councils to get prepared for the next LGNZ elections. This is part five and the final. [Ed.]

PART E – HOW DO WE MAKE THE CHANGE?

“Somebody has to start, so it may as well be you.”

Tuesday January 14, 2025 

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Winston Peters: "Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi - Deletion" Bill......(08 June 2005)

From the archives....

Winston Peters speech on the first reading of New Zealand First's "Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi - Deletion" Bill......(08 June 2005):

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) : I move, That the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill be now read a first time. At the appropriate time I will seek leave for this bill to be sent to the Justice and Electoral Committee for consideration.

This Parliament should do New Zealanders an invaluable service today. When considering these so-called principles, we must start from the premise that Parliament created this historical anomaly, so it is Parliament that must correct it. We must also ensure that it is clear that this is not an attack on the treaty itself, but on the insertion of the term “the principles of the Treaty” into legislation.

John McLean: Root & Branch abandonment of.......roots

Dame Tariana Turia died on 3 January 2024, at 80 years of age after suffering a stroke. Her father was American (with, apparently, some Native American ancestry) and her mother had Māori ancestry. Turia chose to strongly identify with her Māori ancestry. Fair enough.

Turia entered New Zealand’s Parliament in 1996 as a Labour Party representative. She won the Te Tai Hauāuru (West Coast North Island) Māori electorate seat at the 2002 election, a Parliamentary seat she held until 2014, at first for the Labour Party and then for the Māori Party which she formed in 2004 in protest over then Prime Minister Helen Clark’s foreshore and seabed legislation. That controversial legislation extinguished the prospect of New Zealand’s activist Courts awarding people with Māori ancestors dominion over New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed.

DTNZ: Switzerland drifting towards NATO – largest party

The nation’s neutrality is being jeopardized by its policies on the Ukraine conflict and cooperation with the bloc, the SVP has said.

A gradual drift towards NATO and indirect support of Ukraine are threats to Switzerland’s neutrality and security, the conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) has warned, urging Defense Minister Viola Amherd to resign.

DTNZ: Greenland wants independence – PM

The Greenlandic people do not want to be either Danish or American, Prime Minister Mute Egede has said.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Egede has reiterated the island’s ambition to gain independence from Denmark, stating that the Greenlandic people do not want to be either Danish or American.

Centrist: NZ weighs sharing criminal records with Five Eyes nations

New Zealand is in ongoing discussions with Five Eyes allies Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, about sharing details of citizens’ criminal records.

The Migration 5 group already exchanges information on migrants’ travel and visa histories. But the move to include citizens’ criminal data raises privacy and sovereignty concerns.

David Farrar: Change in Hamilton

Radio NZ reports:

Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate, who was first elected in 2019, has announced she won’t be running for re-election later this year.

Sallust: How Wokeism Is Destroying the West

By the late 3rd century AD, the Roman Empire was a shadow of its former self. Beleaguered by mass migration and invasions across its frontiers, vast resources had been poured into fighting off the invaders, while at the same time, endless civil wars had created an ongoing crisis of leadership. Rampant inflation had destroyed the currency. The solution came in the form of a vastly more complex state under the emperor Diocletian (AD 284–305). A ballooning bureaucracy presided over a welter of new laws that, among others, tried to fix prices, lock workers into their occupations and prevent movement, while levying crippling taxes.