The Breaking Views blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research at NZCPR.com. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
In this newsletter:
1) Peter Ridd to ‘continue the war’ after High Court appeal loss over sacking
The Australian, 13 October 2021
It comes down to rabbit holes.
But I will let the author tell the story himself. Here it is.
I think as we wrap this week, we just have to accept we are at a point now where counting cases is actually pointless.
Delta has got away on us, it's had a good laugh at our elimination strategy, and off it's gone and there’s no stopping it now.
Hindsight’s a wonderful thing, but earlier access to vaccines, a few more ICU beds, a better MIQ system and all the other things we didn’t do would’ve been great, but that ship has sailed.
So here we are, and let’s look on the bright side. We’re allegedly not ever going back into Level 4. So that’s it. That’s all the bright side I can think of.
It is the first
council to withdraw its membership but it may not be the last. This week the
Christchurch City Council took the first steps towards doing so. They too
expressed concerns about the position LGNZ had taken on Three Waters and a
majority of councillors asked staff to prepare a report on the consequences of
cancelling their membership. The Mayor and ex Labour Party minister, Lianne
Dalziel, was the only member to vote against the motion.
So what’s going on?
Ardern was accorded an election victory in November 2020 with 50% of the total vote. But 50% did NOT vote for Ardern.
New Zealand embraces the voting system of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP). Under MMP minorities can collectively form a majority by attracting a range of minority interest groups. MMP allows one person to have two votes - one for an electorate candidate and another for a political party. But 50% of all New Zealand MPs are NOT elected, they are selected and appointed to a "list" by their party, so that the electorate has no say or direct input into the appointment of 50% of our representatives. Jacinda Ardern and Andrew Little were both rejected by their electorates on several occasions, but by being "listed" by their party, both now occupy high political office.
In this newsletter:
Another example of theory vs reality is playing out in front of our eyes.
One of my favourite quotes of the week came from the head of a company called JBC Energy. He was commenting on the gas prices that are gripping Europe at the moment.
Europe's green transition "has been management by chaos," he said.
It’s a multi-layered mess. But the essence of what is going on globally right now in terms of material that makes the world run, like fuel, is the simple inability of various players to promise one thing while delivering another.
We should now expect that Kiwis stuck overseas — especially those in low-risk Covid countries — to be allowed to come home for Christmas.
This shouldn’t even be a debate anymore. It just needs to happen.
Now that Covid is in Auckland — and spreading through Auckland — there is no reason these kids and loved ones can’t fly into Auckland and self-isolate at home or in an Airbnb or a hotel at their own expense or whatever.
They are not bringing in anything that we don’t already have here.
You are literally at more risk of catching Covid from another Aucklander in Auckland than you are of catching Covid from someone who is coming in from overseas.
If the Government are prepared to let Sir Ian Taylor have a crack at his self-isolation trial, one can only hope they will give some of his fellow business colleagues a crack at the idea of sorting out MIQ.
Everyone sees MIQ for what it is. Liam Lawson was the latest on the show this week, telling us of his misery and anger at the crap-shoot way it still treats people.
My daughter was in line again yesterday, although yesterday was different.
If you ever have any doubt that this Government has a credibility problem, you only had to tune into the latest sermon from the Pulpit of Truth to confirm it.
This is a government, don't forget, that Jacinda Ardern promised would be the most transparent administration that we have ever experienced. It'd be a pure as the driven snow.
Bollocks.
Two women have been holding Northland hostage for the past week. They crossed the border illegally to get there and travelled widely in the far north.
In this newsletter:
1) China rethinks path to climate goals due to energy crisis
Bloomberg News, 12 October 2021
2) Gripped by energy crisis, Europe considers breaking climate promises and turning to coal
Newsweek, 10 October 2021
The Prime Minister has got to stop telling falsehoods. And if she insists on doing it, the media have got to start calling her out.
In the midst of her ”you get nothing Auckland, so suck that up” spin yesterday, she referred to our world leading response and our world leading economy.
It's crap, it's not world leading. Just a week ago, the global monitor of rankings on Covid response dropped us from 1st to 38th.
It did so for very good and obvious reasons. We are locked down, our economy is haemorrhaging, and there is no targeted end in sight.
It’s lucky we weren’t on air last week, because we probably would’ve been sacked.
I mean there are only so many swear words tolerable on air, but expressing the rage of Aucklanders right now would use up a lot of them.
I get the overwhelming sense now that people are angry, and over it. I mean they were angry and over it a while ago, but it seems to be gaining momentum. There’s less empathy for lockdowns and teams of 5 million talk, and more rage.
Rage against those breaking the rules, border breachers, gangs.. don’t even get me started on the gangs.. the incomprehensible rules we are supposed to be following, the lack of a plan, the needlessness of all this.
Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on suppressing the truth!
