Clive Bibby: Where have all the Labour voters gone

I hope l have not besmirched the memory of Peter, Paul and Mary’s beautiful song that asked a similar question but of a world wide audience.

I have purposely done so, simply because there is no other question that needs to be asked of the kiwi voters who have shown their disdain for Labour’s, soon to be in opposition, remaining rump.

Alistair Boyce: NZ Political Economy - the greens agenda vs reality

As we enter the election campaign we are once again enduring unsubstantiated rhetoric and narrative, especially from the greens. Te pati Maori offer little more than divisive tribal economic naivety. Labour feeds us the sugary diet and ongoing delusion of smoke and mirror economic and social policy that can only extend NZ’s inflationary and cost of living predicament and further divide society. Polling makes it clear that the NZ electorate wants change, necessarily to the center-right.

NZCPR Newsletter: The Great Global Warming Awakening

On the last Friday of May, students from all over the country bunked school to support School Strike 4 Climate rallies. They called for “urgent action from central and regional governments to reduce climate change”.

The Aotearoa Liberation League supported the strike claiming the crisis is caused by racism and disrespecting Maori culture: “Climate crisis isn’t a complicated issue, it’s as simple as society’s disrespect for Ranginui and Papatuanuku. If we resolve that disrespect and also the racism that underpins it, we’ll resolve not only climate crisis, but in fact all of our environmental issues”.

The demands of the student activists included: “Reduce emissions now – 50 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030; a 100 percent transition to regenerative agriculture by 2030; Te Tiriti-centred climate justice; and lowering the voting age to 16 so today’s young people help put climate breakdown at the top of the political agenda.”

Translating those demands into real-world effects, they want to kill the economy, destroy traditional agriculture, promote Maori supremacy, and lower the voting age to 16, so impressionable young people get to influence election outcomes.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: A Green Path to the Fringe

The Green Party has declared its wealth tax will be a red line in any coalition negotiations.

And because Labour knows this, the larger party left the door wide open. Rather than ruling out the Greens’ plans, both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance did not rule them out.

In separate interviews, both Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson said these plans were not Labour’s. No wonder, because Labour does not want another election campaign under the cloud of tax policy. Labour perhaps has sympathy for the plan but presently finds it convenient to blame its eventual introduction on a future coalition partner.

Clive Bibby: Another Unfortunate Experiment

The death recently of Warwick Rodger, the former editor of Metro magazine during a time when his magazine featured exclusive coverage of what became known as " The unfortunate experiment" is a timely reminder of what can happen when people in authority abuse their position in order to justify an unproven theory. 

While this country is indebted to Warwick Rodger, Sandra Coney and others for exposing this rotten episode in our nation's history, it is worth reflecting on whether we have actually learned much from the experience.

Given the freedom given to the Greens as part of an agreement to ensure the Government survives, it would appear that from a political perspective at least, the trifling with people's lives that chacterised Hubert Green's activities is no longer the sea anchor halting any further abuse that we had hoped for.