Dieuwe de Boer: Economic Nationalism, SEZs, and Bitcoin Mining

There's a stark contrast between the Luxon/Willis "say yes" and "open for business" positive propaganda in trying to attract investors and the reality.

We had a net loss of 47,000 citizens last year. A big story this week was US immigrants selling their farm and leaving the country due to lack of private property rights when the council designated their most productive land as a "significant natural area."

Dieuwe de Boer: One Rogue Billionaire Could Fix NZ

I've long said that New Zealand could be fixed by one rogue billionaire and a dozen men. A handful of millionaires working together could manage it too. The 9% stake that Jim Grenon bought in NZME to initiate a hostile takeover against the board is a small glimpse into that possible future.

True reform in New Zealand is possible, but I identify three key blockers. Unimaginative politicians. Hostile progressive mainstream media. Hostile progressive bureaucracy.

Dieuwe de Boer: Tougher on Crime With New Citizen's Arrest Powers

The government's latest announcement to expand the powers of citizen's arrests are the first ray of light in favour of the common man when it comes to fighting thieves. The increase in violence crime ushered in by Labour has been arrested, but there is a long way to go. The 24,000 fewer victims amounts to only a few percentage points drop in most categories, -2% overall.

Dieuwe de Boer: National’s New Ute Tax

Two unrelated stories caught my eye due to two unrelated events this week, but they both tell the same sorry story about the state of politics in New Zealand.

"Streamlining and simplifying the Resource Management Act is an important part of the new Government's programme."

So reads the press release published by the Beehive's in December 2008.

Dieuwe de Boer: Rogue Bureaucrats and Feeble Ministers

I hadn't followed the story of Janet Dickson's fight against the Real Estate Authority (REA) very closely. I knew she objected to the REA requiring real estate agents to do a left-wing "cultural course" before they can be licensed. I admire her taking this conscientious objection all the way to a Judicial Review, which she unfortunately lost.

Dieuwe de Boer: Mt Egmont "Collective Redress" A National Shame

All the winning that's going on in the United States is a stark reminder how far we still have to go. As Trump announced to restore the English name of Mount McKinley in Alaska, our own politicians pushed forward with the historical vandalism that has marked New Zealand in the past decades. It was during the Obama regime in 2015 that McKinley's name was erased from that mountain. That erasure was temporary, and now it is being restored. McKinley's name had been on that mountain for much less time than any English names on landmarks in New Zealand. After the Alaska Purchase, a gold prospector dubbed the highest peak in the nation as "Mount McKinley" after the incoming Republican President in 1897 due to his support for the gold standard. It stuck and became official in 1917.

Dieuwe de Boer: The State of a Nation Left Behind

It's been a good week for some. Our American cousins experienced the inauguration of President Trump 2.0 who unleashed an agenda of shock and awe on the woke managerial state. Rapid and radical change designed to put the focus back on America and unleash American excellence.

It has been a few years since I started following the "dissident right" and saw myself as part of their movement. Those dissidents worked their way into Trump's circles, understanding that he rewards loyalty and hard work. Their politics is now the mainstream in the Trump Administration, the powerless "dissident right" has become the "ascendant right" pulling the levers of power.

Dieuwe de Boer: The State of a Nation Left Behind

It’s been a good week for some. Our American cousins experienced the inauguration of President Trump 2.0, who unleashed an agenda of shock and awe on the woke managerial state. Rapid and radical change designed to put the focus back on America and unleash American excellence.

Dieuwe de Boer: Are the Rich Turning Right?

Elon Musk is openly calling for regime change in the United Kingdom. His platform X is shaping narratives of the damage that both illegal and legal immigration are having on the West. The inclusion of mass legal migration as a problem is a welcome one for New Zealand.

Mark Zuckerberg is firing 40,000 "fact checkers" as he wears a million dollar watch and solid gold chain. Looking and acting poor has become uncool for the tech billionaires. He started lifting weights, doing martial arts, and stopped eating seed oils. The testosterone boost drastically altered his politics.

Dieuwe de Boer: Our Submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill

I believe the bill to be better than the status quo. It has already been stated that the bill will not pass, so I make my comments in line with that expectation.

The principles set forward are accurate to both the text and the liberalism of the 19th century that birthed it. I am sympathetic to the view that the Treaty has no principles, since it is a simple document, however the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 establishes that there are principles and so this clarification is necessary as long as the 1975 act remains in force. I also support the requirement for a referendum before the bill comes into force due to the constitutional nature of the matter and the need to settle this debate by a direct democratic majority of voters.

Dieuwe de Boer: December 25th 1814 - The Saviour is Bourne to New Zealand

Former colonies of the British Empire all have an origin story: America's Pilgrims, Australia's First Fleet, and Canada's Thanksgiving. What of New Zealand?

New Zealand's Waitangi Day marks the formal start of the New Zealand government, much like America's Independence Day. That's quite late in our history and was only possible because of the first settlers. This particular date ought to be one of great civil and religious significance. Who were our first settlers and what did the first few years of that mission look like?

Dieuwe de Boer: In Government, but not in Power

There is a difference between being in government and in power. Far too often necessary changes are not made because bureaucrats entrench themselves and ministers refuse to demand the changes. I've spoken with former MPs who complain about the lack of influence they had or how departments would try to hide things from them. They were in government, but very far from power.

Dieuwe de Boer: New Zealand is an Ethno-State

This may seen somewhat strange and provocative, but I believe this is an important point to make out loud and one that should be as easy to say as "water is wet." A nation is a people. "Ethnos" is the Greek word for nation, tribe, and people. A nation-state is an ethno-state. Without the "New Zealand European" as the clear majority ethnic group there would be no New Zealand.

Dieuwe de Boer: Analysis of Trump support in New Zealand over eight years

Much was made of an August 2024 poll by the NZ Herald that showed “most New Zealanders support Kamala Harris.” Her support was 55% with Donald Trump's at a mere 21%. That was the least interesting observation of all time, but no legacy media journalist did the analysis that should have been done on the breakdown of the poll and the trend.

The NZ Herald ran a poll in 2016 and The Conversation did a survey in 2020. These paint an interesting picture:

Dieuwe de Boer: Are We Ready For Population Decline?

Allow me to stay on the theme of demographics for another week. This has been on my mind as I will be taking a break from writing as I will be on holiday for a month visiting Japan and Korea which are dealing with this scenario: low birthrates and a declining population.

New Zealand faces the same situation, but we have replaced the second ingredient with a more dangerous one: mass migration.

Dieuwe de Boer: The 2023 Census and Multicultural Identity

Stats NZ have finally released the full data of the botched 2023 census. There are lots of things you can glean from it, such as the inclusion of sexuality data showing that nearly 12% of Wellington is gay, which makes sense if you think about it. The ethnicity data is also interesting, all part of the "Aotearoa Data Explorer".

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.

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.

Dieuwe de Boer: All the Power, None of the Responsibility

Localism is a principle that is being spoken of more often. There are older terms like subsidiarity that have fallen out of use, in particular because people do not intuitively know what they mean. Localism has the word "local" in it and so is more straightforward of a concept.

Local Government NZ is supposed to be involved in promoting localism, but they got sidetracked with their Three Waters campaign that would have removed local ownership of water infrastructure. Left-wing racial activism took precedence over campaigning for more delegated power over core local services.

Dieuwe de Boer: Politics Is All About Identity

There are three different stories from the past week [10/8/24] that I want to weave together as they speak to the same problem. The Green's Pacific leaders group resigned as they believe the Green Party is racist, the ACT party has stated they are losing confidence in the speaker due to ongoing racial harassment of their MPs by the opposition, and Donald Trump questioned if Kamala Harris is really black.