Point of Order: Take that, Iran......

.......but what must countries do to be considered unfit for sitting on the UN Human Rights Council?

China is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, along with countries such as Eritrea, Somalia and Libya, despite their shabby records when it comes to political rights and civil liberties.

We can only conjecture on what they must do to rile our government – and others – and be kicked off the council.

Viv Forbes: The Coming Crash of the Climate Cult

The Climate Cult worships two green idols – electric vehicles and wind-solar energy. This is part of a futile UN scheme promoting “Net Zero Emissions” which aims to cool the climate of the world by waging war on CO2 plant food.

Green worship is the state religion of all western nations. It is promoted by billionaires with other agendas, and endlessly repeated by the UN, the bureaucracy, all government media, state education and most big business leaders.

The promotion of electric cars and trucks will cause a great increase in the demand for electricity to replace diesel, petrol and gas.

We live beside a major highway connecting Ipswich and Boonah in Queensland and we can hear the roar of the traffic.

Don Brash: I admire Craig Jepson

Until a few days ago, I had never heard of Craig Jepson, and I suspect that that is also true of most New Zealanders. He has suddenly become almost as well-known as Meng Foon, the Race Relations Commissioner. Both men are hugely admired by some; and viscerally disliked by others – though those who admire Meng Foon no doubt detest Craig Jepson and vice versa.

For those who haven’t been following the media lately, Craig Jepson is of course the recently-elected mayor of the Kaipara District. He had the effrontery to point out to a Maori member of his council that reciting a karakia, or any other kind of prayer, at the beginning of a council meeting was quite inappropriate, given that the council is a secular institution.

Brendan O'Neill: The woke war on truth

The Cambridge Dictionary’s redefinition of the word woman is a gross assault on reality.

Now even the dictionary is lying to us. The Cambridge Dictionary has updated its definition of the word woman to include men. A woman is now any adult ‘who lives and identifies as female’ even if they had a ‘different sex at birth’. That is, even if they’re blokes. Even if they sport a pair of testicles. Even if they’re one of those human beings we’ve referred to as men for millenia.

Chris Trotter: Kaipara: A Struggle For Political Legitimacy And Cultural Power.

The question dividing Kaipara’s electors, and the rest of New Zealand, is one of political legitimacy and cultural power. Whose protocols should prevail: the standing orders of the local council; or, the tikanga of the local iwi?

In strictly legal terms, the standing orders of the Kaipara District Council, as interpreted by the elected head of the council – Mayor Craig Jepson – must prevail. The order of business, and the manner in which that business is conducted, is for him – and for him alone – to determine.

Except, in the rolling maul that is New Zealand’s racial politics, the letter of the law no longer counts for very much. As events in Kaipara have proved, it’s all about who can mobilise the most outrage – especially in the news media and online. On that score, the woman at the centre of the controversy, the woman representing the Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori Ward, Pera Paniora, is well ahead on points.

Bryce Edwards: Why Labour is putting up public transport fares in an election year

Yesterday’s announcement by Finance Minister Grant Robertson that the Government will axe half-price fares for public transport in an election year certainly seems odd. The Labour Government’s drive to show it can match the National Party in fiscal conservative economic management means it has ditched one of its most popular and effective policies.

Robertson announced yesterday that the Government’s current transport initiatives to combat the cost of living crisis would be axed at the end of March. The current fuel excise tax discount of 25c a litre will be phased out in March, and the half-price fares will be gone on 31 March, with only Community Service card holders able to access the cheaper fares.

John Porter: It Is Really Simple: One Man One Vote

Today I’m reading an e-mail I was sent recently. These are not my words but seemingly, they represent the feeling of a hell of lot of New Zealanders.

Firstly, we have to start telling the truth to our children and young people.

There has never been “culture” in any stone age society, as they all lived a subsistence lifestyle and usually fought tribe against tribe, for meagre resources.

That was Great Britain and Europe two thousand five hundred years ago.

Frank Newman: A great day out at the Kaipara protest

The Moa café in Dargaville’s Victoria Street was unusually busy for a Wednesday morning. A short stroll from the cafe some 200 to 300 protesters had gathered in the carpark of the Countdown supermarket. They had travelled from all corners of Northland to march the short distance to the town hall to send a message to Kaipara’s new Mayor and his council.

Exactly what that message was is unclear. Sporting a Che Guevara tee shirt and brandishing the Tino Rangatiratanga flag, the protest organiser delivered his message – which was to accuse Mayor Jepson of being a “racist white supremacist”.

Peter Dunne: The Ombudsman, The Controller and Auditor-General

The offices of the Ombudsman and the Controller and Auditor-General are two important independent statutory agencies charged with protecting aspects of the public interest against excessive or unnecessarily coercive actions by the government and its departments.

The Ombudsman’s office has the power to investigate approximately 4,000 public sector agencies across New Zealand. It does not have executive authority, but Ombudsman’s recommendations are normally taken very seriously by the government and rarely ignored.

The Controller and Auditor-General’s role is two-fold – responsibility for the annual financial audit of about 3,500 public bodies, including schools and other public bodies, and ensuring that government funding is both spent for the purposes for which it was appropriated, and in the best possible way. Like the Ombudsman, the Controller and Auditor-General is an officer of Parliament, meaning they report directly to Parliament, rather than the government of the day.

This week, both offices released separate highly critical reports on unrelated aspects of the government’s response to the pandemic.

Point of Order: We know what the PM thinks of David Seymour.....

.....but how does he stack up alongside Vladimir Putin?

Ukraine loomed large in the latest announcements and the one speech posted on the Beehive website in the past 224 hours.

The speech came from the PM, telling us what she said in her address to Ukraine’s President Zelensky on the occasion of his addressing the New Zealand’s Parliament.

Tim Dower: The cracks are beginning to show in the Government

Jacinda Ardern’s off-mic, but not quite far enough off-mic, comment in the House yesterday betrays just how rattled the Government’s front bench has become.

I doubt it was anything to do with the Curia poll, which put Labour off by another two points and National up another one.

It was possibly more to do with having to give in after holding out, inexplicably, for so long on green-listing the nurses for residency.

Garrick Tremain: Lying

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on goofey appointments! 

John McDonald: All I want for Christmas is a new Local Government Minister

All I want for Christmas is a new Local Government Minister. Because, as far as I’m concerned, Nanaia Mahuta has blown it.

And I don’t think I can believe a word she says anymore. I suspect some of her government colleagues might be starting to feel the same.

It’s all to do with revelations that she continued to consider entrenching part of the Three Waters legislation despite Cabinet ruling it out back in May. More than six months ago.

Clive Bibby: “To be or not to be”

It is somewhat ironic that the Shakespeare’s character, Prince Hamlet, is asking the same question that has been asked by earlier civilisations facing an unknown future which they, like us, were hopelessly unprepared for.

And, like modern society (which includes all the peoples of this planet), the problems we face are almost entirely of our own making.

Whether it be climate change, threats of nuclear war, famine or the collapse of moral standards that have previously ensured we have had the ability to rise to the challenge - our own destiny is hanging by a thread and most of our leaders appear unwilling to acknowledge the reasons why it has all come to this.

David Lillis: Another Comment on the Media, Education and Co-Governance

Another Characteristic Media Piece

Recently I was motivated to write a piece on the media and co-governance (Lillis, 2022). I expressed the opinion that New Zealand is on a dangerous path that advantages a small minority on the basis of genetics or self-reported ethnicity. I expressed the view that our media presents co-governance almost exclusively as the desirable pathway to our future, and seldom publishes alternative opinions.

 

I discussed an article from a former mayor of Kapiti Coast (Gurunathan, 2022a) and stated my perspective that it was well-meaning and positive in intent. I did note that he appeared to cast disagreement with co-governance as bias, or even racism, and to discount the possibility that dissenters articulate genuinely-held views, also advanced with positive intent.

Since then, the same author has published another piece in Stuff (Gurunathan, 2022b). I believe that this piece is well-intended, as was his previous, and we can understand his position. Nevertheless, it is notable that he presents a particular line that seems to cast any individual or body standing up to a minority as committing wrong and possibly engaging in racism. The title is already provocative: Councils should think twice before insulting their Treaty partners.

Point of Order: Public service review finds procurement and conflict management practices at four agencies fell below standard

The statement we were looking for was not to be found on the Beehive website, when we checked early this afternoon. But the issue we hoped would be addressed in a statement from the Beehive was publicised on the Public Service Commission website.

Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes released the findings of a review into how public service agencies managed conflicts of interest while procuring the services of Ka Awatea Services Ltd (KAS) and Kawai Catalyst Ltd (KC).

Hughes’ statement, curiously, made no mention of the names of Nanaia Mahuta or her husband, Gannin Ormsby.

Cam Slater: Bet You We Never Hear an Apology

The Government has copped another flogging over their cruel MIQ lottery system: this time from the Chief Ombudsman, Peter Boshier. You may remember earlier that Grounded Kiwis won a substantial case against the Government over the same system.

Bob Jones: David Clark, first of the mark

Senior Cabinet minister David Clark is reportedly about to announce his intention to stand down before the next election. That’s the first one down for me to win my $1000 bet.

My wager is with a government MP that at least 8 cabinet ministers and 12 Labour MPs will make identical announcements before the end of June next year.

Point of Order: Does Sir Ian Taylor’s elegy for the Ardern government match the mood of many Hamilton West electors?

Hamilton West voters sent a direct message to the capital on Saturday, although behind the Labour fence some found it had to read.

For those, the NZ Herald’s political editor Claire Trevett spelt it out:

“Make no mistake: no matter what Labour says about the result, it will be—and should be—very worried about it”.

For its part, Point of Order sees it as vindicating the pollsters who in their national sampling traced the gap widening between Labour and National, and becoming so wide even a budget full of handouts couldn’t do the trick in turning back the tide.

Point of Order: Lights, cameras, action.....

......and Stuart Nash gets to co-star with fellow ministers by bankrolling movie-makers

It was the equivalent of a double feature produced (with our money) by the munificent Stuart Nash, Minister of Economic and Regional Development.

First, on Friday, he announced the Government’s approval of