Tony Orman: The Political Power Culture is Wrong – and Dangerous to Democracy

The first paragraph of a recent article on website “Newsroom” said “Labour says it will “100 percent” repeal one of the most contentious parts of the Government’s Planning and Natural Environment Bills if it wins power.”

Power?

Power over who?

Tony Orman: The disastrous conversion of Fertile Agricultural Land into Pine Monocultures

What are the motives?

New Zealand was once a land of productive farms and independent food producers, but it is quietly – insidiously – being taken over by pine monocultures, fast growing water-sapping pine monocultures.

What lies behind the green curtain of ever-expanding pine forests energised by New Zealand’s illogical, irrational carbon trading scheme where once highly productive sheep and beef farms are planted in unmanaged, neglected forests.

Tony Orman: Call to stop the Emission Trading Scheme’s ‘Green War’ on New Zealanders

The Conservative Party has called on the government to repeal the Zero Carbon Act and end the Emissions Trading Scheme and all other climate-focused taxes, subsidies and regulations.

Party leader Helen Houghton made her comments following the resignation of Molesworth Station manager Jim Ward over the uncertainty of the control of wilding pines on the iconic high country station.

Tony Orman: Aquaculture’s Salmon Farming — a dream or nightmare?

Current Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is an unlimited fan for fish farming. Recently, he named fish farming to the front line for investment opportunities between New Zealand and Thailand. Jones was on a Zoom call to delegates at the inaugural Thailand-New Zealand business matching event, in Bangkok.

Back in March, Shane Jones lauded the final approval of New Zealand King Salmon’s Blue Endeavour open ocean aquaculture project as a significant step for New Zealand’s aquaculture and a win for the economy.

Tony Orman: A way to fix New Zealand’s political system?

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” ==Albert Einstein

Increasing dissatisfaction with politicians

New Zealanders are increasingly distrustful of politicians. And the poll figures emphatically show it. Just five months ago in May, researcher Dr Stephanie Worboys of the Maxim Institute researched the public’s “trust deficit” of Parliament.

Tony Orman: How does PM John Key’s legacy rate?

In August at the National Party conference, former Prime Minister John Key urged a more measured cautious approach to race issues. It drew forthright reaction.

Writing on the NZCPR website, Geoff Parker said “considering the race-based policies implemented during the last National government, (of which John Key was Prime Minister) many feel Key is out of line—in the debate around race issues.”

Former NZ First MP Michael Laws was more direct on YouTube saying, “The National Party made dreadful mistake yesterday of inviting the former Prime Minister (John Key) to their conference. “The dreadful mistake he added was “because Key was a bad prime minister.”

Tony Orman: It’s time to stop bickering over the country’s name — there’s one logical choice

Watching the Olympics and seeing New Zealand with just 5 million people competing and winning medals, must have made any good Kiwi-blooded person proud to be a Kiwi. The sports commentators, especially in the rowing, in athletic events like the triathalon frequently referred to Kiwis — gold medallists women’s golfer Lydia Ko (incidentally born in Korea) and amazing rower Emma Twigg, kayaker Lisa Carrington were called Kiwis, not New Zealanders.

Yet strangely I noticed the name “Aotearoa” appearing alongside “New Zealand” on athlete’s singlets. But no commentator called them Aotearoans. (What a mouthful of a word anyhow.)

Tony Orman: How About an Outward Bound Based Youth Training Scheme?

Kids are in trouble. Just look at the news from commonplace ram raids and other crimes even at times involving youngsters in murders. It doesn’t end there. The jumbled minds of too many of todays kids sadly manifests itself in youngsters taking their own lives. In a word - suicide!

A UNICEF report found New Zealand's youth suicide rate - teenagers between 15 and 19 - to be the highest of a long list of countries. New Zealand’s adolescents are in deep trouble and at times of a tragic kind. 

Tony Orman: Shane Jones’s snapper farming proposal ‘full of fish hooks’?

… fish farming is capital intensive, high risk and only marginally economic. –American fisheries expert

Fish farming — injudicious and flawed

A proposal by Fisheries Minister Shane Jones for the farming of snapper has been described by an outdoor recreation organisation as “injudicious and flawed”.

Tony Orman: Natural Climate Change

An article in a recent farming paper entitled “Carbon Credits a Discredit” by Leo Cooney rekindled questions about climate change, the ETS, indeed the whole matter of climate change formerly known as global warming. There arises much confusion in the manipulation by proponents of global warming to any modicum of thought and pondering.

I have pondered why the term "global warming” reverted to "climate change"? That in itself is confusing because climate change has always been happening in cyclic fashion. There’s scientific evidence.

Tony Orman: Cabinet Minister Doug Graham had it wrong - anyone can love rivers/mountains

Former National government Treaty Minister in the 1990s Doug Graham once said that “Maori had spiritual feelings for lakes and mountains and rivers that Pakeha people neither shared nor understood.”

I would be surprised if Doug Graham had much to do with the outdoors and particularly with trout or salmon fishing and just going with the flow out there with the river. But those “spiritual feelings” he attributes exclusively to Maori are wrong and arguably racist.

Tony Orman: "Boot Camps” Negative Misnomer - Outdoors Youth Training is the Path

It’s difficult to understand the inward looking attitude of Police Minister Ginny Anderson to youth training camps. The title “boot camps” that she negatively uses is derogatory and distorts the intention and what they should be.

I’m of dinosaur age and did 18 year old compulsory military training (CMT) in 1950s. Initially reluctant on entering, I  soon realised and observed this was great for youngsters, dissolving arrogance in some entrants but importantly for all, developing skills and building self esteem and respect for others.

It instilled self esteem and made for better apprentice citizens and we were physically fit.

Why not reinstate CMT but adapt it to be like an Outward Bound course?

Tony Orman: Climate Change - a Manipulated Deception?

There was a recent news item in the “Stuff” newspapers titled “Early Humans Were on the Brink of Extinction”. A major researched reason for the threat to humanity 900,000 years ago was “droughts”, i.e. an extreme weather event.

Then I chanced upon a recent u-tube by Neil Oliver a Scottish television presenter, archaeologist, historian and author.  In it he lambasted governments for “feverish blatant fear mongering” about climate change or as it was previously termed global warming. 

            

Neil Oliver then gave examples of extreme weather events that happened long, long before humans might have had any influence. In 1846, Paris’ temperature reached a sizzling 51.66 Celsius. In 627 AD the heat in France was so great that springs dried up and water so scarce that people died of thirst.

Tony Orman: The Moa were gone in the Geological Blink of an Eye

“You see heaps and heaps of the birds’ bones in archaeological site. If you hunt animals at all their life stages, they will never have a chance.” –Morten Allenton, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Copenhagen

Exterminating the giant bird

The rapid extinction of the several moa species from New Zealand has long been debated. Some, in defence of the early Polynesian migrants who had arrived about 1250, have said the flightless bird numbers were already in decline. The Polynesian migrants were conservationists it was claimed.

In 2014, scientists investigated further and concluded humans were the sole factor in wholesale killing of the birds and in destruction of habitat. Strangely their findings received little media coverage at the time.

Tony Orman: Book Review - ‘New Zealand’s History Curriculum ~ Education or Indoctrination?’

The Ministry of Education’s prejudiced social engineering and indoctrination

Roger Childs has been a teacher of geography, social studies and history for 40 years. In addition he has worked on many social sciences curriculum and examination contracts for the Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs and has been an author and co-author of several school textbooks, including history ones.

He is therefore very well qualified to carry out a critique of the Ministry of Education’s controversial new history curriculum. In this book he works his way through the curriculum and concludes “The final curriculum published in 2022 is a case of deliberate, pre-meditated social engineering. This curriculum is more about Maori studies than New Zealand history.”

Tony Orman: the Environmental Disaster of carbon farming

… about 72 per cent of pine forests were foreign-owned, with United States companies owning about 35 per cent and Asian companies about 12 per cent. –Keith Woodford, Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University, 2010

Rivers drying up

In April last year, I went trout fishing to a stream that is a tributary of the Wairau River. It is also an important spawning stream for both brown trout and probably some salmon. It is also a habitat for native fish.

At the road bridge just above its confluence with the parent river, it was a mere trickle. A couple of kilometres upstream it was dry river bed, whereas in previous decades it always had a healthy year-round flow.

The reason was not hard to identify.

Tony Orman: Outdoors Solution to NZ’s Beleaguered Teenagers

Startling statistics on teenager suicide, pregnancy and other social ills reflects NZ government’s disregard for the outdoors and its solid values says Tony Orman 

National and its leader Christopher Luxon recently promoted military style training for wayward youths as a solution to rampant youth crime. 

The furore from the “goody two shoes” brigade lambasting National for the concept of boot camps for wayward youth has been loud. To my understanding, Luxon never mentioned the phrase “boot camps” although critics in both the media and Labour/Greens government have conveniently used “boot camps” to denigrate the concept. 

Despite these attempts to smear the concept the majority of the public, going by radio talk back, favour the idea.

Tony Orman: A key election issue for 2023 – the Loss of Democracy

Politicians have always had a penchant to forget they are elected to serve the public and the public interest.

The rudeness of Henry May

Way back in 1974 I wrote to the Labour government and in particular the Minister of Internal Affairs Henry May about a government proposal to reorganise acclimatisation societies the predecessor of today’s fish and game councils.

The proposal was a thinly disguised attempt to impose state control on the politically independent acclimatisation structure of its democratically elected councils. Most concerning was the proposal for a national executive which would see sportsmen’s representatives in a minority to government appointees.

Politely but firmly, I made my opposition clear. I was not alone. Many trout anglers and duck shooters were concerned too.

The reply from Henry May was startling.

Tony Orman: Beware Self-Serving Councillors

Elections are basically about the public electing their representatives whether it  be central or local government. With local government elections now in full swing, voters have to assess policies and the intentions of candidates in terms of their duty of serving the public’s best interests. 

But sadly the reality is a significant number of parliamentary and local council politicians are not there to represent the voting public and the public interest. Perhaps outwardly they don’t realise it, but inwardly and sub-consciously they are in denial that they are elected by the people to serve the public interest.

Tony Orman: ‘Radical Sexual and Gender Ideology’ invades NZ’s outdoors and youthful minds

A new video has exposed a startling and shocking sexual invasion of New Zealand outdoors and the country’s youth by wokeist academics.

Outdoor education an admirable innovation into school curriculum over the past several decades, has now been twisted and tainted by trans-gender indoctrination inflicted on school children and youth.