Mike Butler: Playing young Maori crims for votes

The Maori Party appears to have has run out of ideas, with co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell recycling his “racist justice system” allegation by calling for a review to find out why young Maori become increasingly over represented in youth crime statistics.

Flavell raised the issue about a year ago and again in April this year in the presence of a United Nations delegation.

Latest Ministry of Justice figures show the number of children and young people charged in Youth Court is the lowest in 20 years, although the proportion of young Maori compared with non-Maori is rising.

Mike Butler: Another billion dollar tribe

South Island tribe Ngai Tahu’s 2014 report boasts a net worth of $1.075-billion and distributions of $21.96-million which is 13.6 percent of the tribe’s total net profit of $160.58-million.

Charitable distributions for the 2014 year were grants to: Runanga $5.76-million, healthy environments $7.4-million, marae communities $4-million, natural environment $2.7-million, and education $2.1-million.

Mike Butler: Woodburner police for Auckland?

The Environment Ministry has fixed its death stare on Auckland and a ban on domestic open fireplaces and old wood burners affecting 85,000 homes looms.

A report in the New Zealand Herald yesterday, or should I say a press release from the Auckland Council reproduced in the Herald, breathlessly asserts that 75 per cent of Auckland's winter air pollution is due to fine particle emissions (PM10) from open fires and non- compliant wood burners.

Noting that motor vehicles account for 18 per cent of pollution, and industry 7 per cent, “the burning of coal and wood during winter raised the level of PM10 inhaled and lodged in lungs, and that 110 adults died prematurely every year due to emissions from indoor fires.

Matt Ridley from the UK: How we got to now

The meteorologist Edward Lorenz famously asked, in the title of a lecture in 1972: “does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?”, and the phrase “the butterfly effect” entered the language. If Steven Johnson’s book How We Got to Now catches on — and it deserves to — then the “humming bird effect” will also become common parlance.

Humming birds exist because flowers needed to find a way to spread pollen over long distances, and they invented nectar to attract insects. Birds were not part of the deal at all until much later. That the evolutionary emergence of flowers would lead to a radical redesign of the anatomy of some birds could not have been foreseen.

Kevin Donnelly from Australia: A common education curriculum

Should all schools, whether government, Catholic or independent, be forced to follow a centrally designed and monitored curriculum? And should this central curriculum be imposed upon schools regardless of the ability, interests and motivation of their students or the character, needs and aspirations of the communities they serve?

These questions are more than just academic, given recent moves to give schools greater autonomy while mandating a centrally designed curriculum. This is illustrated by the Western Australian Independent Public Schools initiative and by states imposing their own curriculum like Victoria’s AusVELS and the NSW syllabuses.

Frank Newman: Development contributions dishonest

Section 199 of the Local Government Act 2002 gives local councils, “the power to levy a development contribution if the effect of a development is to require new or additional assets or assets of increased capacity and, as a consequence, the territorial authority incurs capital expenditure to provide appropriately for reserves, network infrastructure, or community infrastructure.”

The intention was that local councils experiencing population growth would have an additional revenue mechanism to recover the cost of putting in infrastructure to service that growth.  When the levy was introduced in Whangarei in mid 2005 it was promoted as a matter of fairness by anti-development councillors and council staff. It would, they said, shift the cost burden of new infrastructure from the general ratepayer to the developer. 

Barend Vlaardingerbroek from Lebanon: ISIS – hostis humani generis and the spectre of ‘legitimacy creep’

‘Hostis humani generis’ is a 17^th century legalism that means ‘enemy of all mankind’. It was at that time applied to the pirates, particularly those who had set up shop in the Caribbean where they had safe ports to go to such as Port Royal and even their own ‘pirate republic’ in Nassau at one stage. 

The indiscriminately brutish behaviour of many pirates had made them thoroughly unpopular with all and sundry, and there was no shortage of people who were after their blood. But tensions among the European powers – the Spanish, English, French and Dutch – stood in the way of effective cooperation towards combating the common threat.

Karl du Fresne: Deceived and demoralised

I wonder, was this the most demoralising election result ever for the New Zealand left? There was an excited buzz in the left-wing blogosphere and in social media in the weeks leading up to the election. There seemed to be a sense that victory was in their grasp, even when the polls suggested otherwise. But they were cruelly deceived.

Their optimism is easily explained. In the early stages of the campaign, they saw the fallout from Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics dominating the news bulletins night after night. After that firestorm had abated, the media turned its attention to Kim Dotcom’s Moment of Truth, with its dazzling line-up of high-profile journalists and leakers from overseas, all eager to tell us how morally bankrupt our government was.

Richard Epstein in the US: Declaring War on ISIS

There are currently two battles going on in the effort to—pick your favorite verb—contain, degrade, or destroy the new Islamic State, or ISIS, which has cut a wide swath through much of Iraq and Syria. The first is the military battle. ISIS is not just an occupier of territory, but a terrorist operation. It has slaughtered untold thousands of innocent persons and threatens to bring terror far outside the Middle East. Yet the American response, which I regard as woefully insufficient, has been to fight a prolonged war solely from the air, which may stem further advances, but cannot dislodge ISIS from its current strongholds.

Then there is the constitutional battle at home. Does the President have the power to wage war on ISIS unilaterally, or must he go to Congress for the same kind of approval that George W. Bush received when he entered into combat over a decade ago in both Iraq and Afghanistan?

Kevin Donnelly from Australia: How to teach what it means to be Australian

Celebrating diversity is only feasible when there is a willingness to commit to the values and beliefs that underpin and sustain tolerance. Now that Islamic State terrorism has arrived on our soil it's time to ask the question: what does it mean to be Australian?

There's no denying that during the 1950s and 1960s the prevailing mood was nationalistic and pro-British.  When I was at school, for example, every Monday morning at assembly we neatly lined up in rows, saluted the flag and sang God save the Queen. With our hands on our hearts children would then recite the oath of allegiance and promise to "cheerfully obey my parents, teachers and the law". The world map on the back of our workbooks was covered in red, proving that the sun never set on the British Commonwealth.

Mike Butler: Nats Left, Right, and Centre

The 61-seat majority achieved by Prime Minister John Key and the National Party a week ago, unprecedented since the adoption of the MMP electoral system in 1996, has some wondering what a single party majority government would bring. Key has already said ruled out a lurch to the Right. A bigger threat is a spread to the Left to suck further support away from Labour and the Green Party and to widen the National Party base from centre-Right to centre-Left.

As a reminder, the political Left-Right distinction hinges on ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, with those on the Left believing the state does the best job and those on the Right believing private sector individuals or companies do better.

Mike Butler: Quota woes for HB tribe

Hawke's Bay Seafoods has hired a high profile legal firm to explain in court alleged discrepancies between the amount of fish the company said it caught and the amount exported.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Primary Industries led a raid on sites in Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Tauranga, Gisborne, Chatham Islands and Christchurch. The police Asset Recovery Unit "froze" eight properties and five vehicles through the High Court. Hawke's Bay Seafoods leases the fishing quota of a local tribe, Ngati Kahungunu.

Chris Trotter: Where Has The Election Left The Left?

Where has Labour's worst defeat in 92 years, left the Left? Before answering that question, it might be helpful to offer a few suggestions as to where National’s stunning electoral victory has not left it.

 

The wailing and gnashing of teeth from some left-wing tweeters and bloggers notwithstanding, the Left is not in some antipodean approximation of Nazi Germany, or even Fascist Italy. Nor has it been deposited, overnight, in the Kiwi equivalent of George W. Bush’s post-9/11 America. John Key is not der Fuhrer, or even il Duce. And Steven Joyce is not Dick Cheney, waiting to be whisked away to “an undisclosed location”.

Karl du Fresne: This was not in the Left's script

What an extraordinary election campaign. And what an extraordinary result. I am writing this column on the morning after. By the time it’s published, most of the dust will have settled. But even at the time of writing, I think some firm conclusions can be drawn

Obviously the result can be seen as an endorsement of the National-led government. But for me the really significant point was that voters overwhelmingly repudiated concerted efforts by outsiders to sway the outcome. New Zealanders were emphatically saying this was their election and they weren’t going to have it hijacked by agenda-driven activists, some of them with no stake in the country.

Richard Epstein from the US: The Vogue of "Social Responsibility"

In September 1970, the late Milton Friedman published a bold manifesto entitled “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits” in the New York Times Magazine, where he argued that businesses do not need to engage in various charitable or public-spirited activities, even those that generally meet with approval from shareholders. 

The best defense of the Friedman thesis is that any discrete corporate effort to advance collateral ends will not enjoy the unanimous consent of all corporate shareholders, so that the contribution operates like an implicit tax on dissenting shareholders.

Mike Butler: Moment of truth for Harawira

Former MP Hone Harawira blinking while refusing to admit defeat was probably the standout moment in election coverage last night. Harawira’s performance was pivotal for Kim Dotcom, the "billionaire" German internet entrepreneur facing extradition to face copyright infringement charges.

Dotcom launched the Internet Party in March of this year, and entered an agreement with Harawira's Mana Party under which the parties could demerge six weeks after polling day. Dotcom donated $3-million to the Internet Party, and shortly after former Alliance Party leader Laila Harré was announced leader.

Matt Ridley in the UK: It's an official protection racket

Nobody seems to agree whether Islamic State is best described as a gang of criminals, a terrorist organisation or a religious movement. It clearly has a bit of all three. But don’t forget that it aspires, for better or worse, to be a government. A brutal, bigoted and murderous government, its appeal is at least partly that it seems capable of imposing its version of “order” on the territory it controls, however briefly. It reminds us that the origin and defining characteristic of all government is that it is an organisation with a monopoly on violence.

The deal implicit in being governed is at root a simple one: we allow the people who govern us to have an exclusive right to commit violence, so long as they direct it at other countries and at criminals.

Jeremy Sammut from Australia: Hard conversation about Aboriginal culture and child protection

Conservative social commentators have indulged in 'divisive grandstanding' by linking Aboriginal culture to the abuse and neglect of Aboriginal children, according to Ngiare Brown, the deputy chairman of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council.

These claims suppress the hard conversation we need to have about Aboriginal culture and child protection.

Steve Lafleur from Canada: Mid-Sized Cities Can Attract Tourists by Being Themselves

People flock to major cities to take advantage of unique experiences. In theory, most of the types of activities tourists seek out can be replicated most anywhere, but people are willing to pay a large premium and go out of their way to see a show on Broadway, or eat a Philly cheese steak in Philadelphia. 

These unique experiences don’t merely appeal to tourists. They are part of what keep people coming Downtown after hours, rather than staying in the suburbs. Having a glass of wine or coffee at a patio on a cobblestone sidewalk can be a much more enjoyable experience than doing in a suburban strip mall.

Karl du Fresne: Politics isn't all dirt, even if it sometimes looks that way

Don’t despair. Things are not as bad as they seem. At least that’s the optimistic message I’ve taken from all the unedifying political argy-bargy of the past few weeks.

It’s easy to think the worst, mind you. First, there was the YouTube video of Christchurch students moronically chanting “F… John Key”. That was a low in New Zealand politics, but it took only a couple of weeks to be surpassed in loathsomeness by a “song” – I use that word in the loosest possible sense – in which a semi-literate swamp-dweller snarled that he wanted to kill John Key and f … his daughter.