Gerrard Eckhoff: Balclutha Debacle

There has never been a Council mayor or chair, born, created, or cloned who would prefer to officially open the valve on a new sewage scheme in preference to opening the freshly polished handle on the front door of a new Council office block. 

The good rural people of Owaka, Stirling, Kaka Point, Lawrence and Tapanui (south and west Otago ) can rightly feel aggrieved that the proposed new community hall in urban Balclutha seems to be a rather large distraction for the Clutha District Councillors.

Fear not, good people of the Clutha District, for you are not alone as a cursory glance at the Dunedin City Councils stewardship of another essential utility – electricity distribution - shows. The debacle over Aurora’s neglect and therefore the DCCs lack of oversight of that network, shows a disturbing trend of inattention towards the less sexy but entirely essential services. 

Guy Steward: Elections

Karl Marx said, “take away a nation’s heritage and they are more easily persuaded”.

That’s us now in New Zealand as we move into 2021, although the taking away and the easy persuasion have been happening for some time. However, the heritage referred to has helped ensure that the way our elections are conducted has remained above board, whether or not the outcome has been to our liking.

H. Sterling Burnett: No, Weather Channel, 2020 Did Not Bring Unprecedented Climate Disasters

 

An article published by the Weather Channel tries to link climate change to a variety of environmental “disasters,” that struck around the world in 2020. The article cites limited evidence for any link. In reality, none of the asserted disasters are tied to supposed human-caused climate change.

In the Weather Channel article titled, “2020’s Worst Environmental Disasters, and How Climate Change Played a Role,” the author writes, “In a year of unprecedented disasters, much of the damage done to our planet in 2020 was self-inflicted.” Historical records and data show none of the disasters discussed in the article are, in fact, unprecedented.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 20.12.20

 

Saturday December 26, 2020 

News:
'Uniquely Maori' garden being built at Auckland reserve
A “uniquely Māori” garden which will pay homage to traditional planting is being built at an Auckland reserve.

Working with Ngāti Whatua Ōrakei, $2 million has been allocated and Small’s design is coming to life at the Pourewa Reserve in Ōrakei.

GWPF Newsletter: Tens of millions in China facing winter power blackouts

 

Mass blackouts after China cuts Australian coal imports

In this newsletter:

1) Tens of millions in China facing winter power blackouts, rationing
AFP, 22 December 2020
 
2) Mass blackouts after China cuts Australian coal imports
The Times, 17 December 2020

GWPF Newsletter: Nominations open for 'The World's Greatest Climate Hypocrite' 2020

 

Last year, we invited GWPF readers to submit nominations for a competition to find the World’s Greatest Climate Hypocrites of 2019.

We decided to recognise a true genius in the field, christening the prizes “the Emmas”, to mark Ms Thompson’s ludicrous devotion to the dark art of shamelessness.

NZCPR Weekly: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

On behalf of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research I would like to thank you for your wonderful interest and support over the last 12 months – and wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Roger Childs: Scott Watson is Innocent

When did a large, two-masted ketch turn into a small, single-masted sloop?  When the Police were framing Scott Watson for abduction and murder.

He has spent the last 20 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. A few weeks ago he went to a Parole Board hearing at Rolleston and was told that he would have one more year behind bars. His case is a huge black mark against the New Zealand Police and one of the worst miscarriages of justice in our history. 

The disappearance of Olivia Hope and Ben Smart in the Marlborough Sounds was the big news story of 1998. Now 22 years later the case against Scott Watson is going back to the Court of Appeal.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 13.12.20

Saturday December 19, 2020 

If land is taken, then it must be returned.
“Aotearoa is Māori land. All of it is Māori land, and there are pockets of Māori land that must be protected.” 

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Fletcher must front up over Ihumātao deal

 

I think we need to bring Fletcher into this covers nation about Ihumātao.

Despite their role in this, they’ve been near invisible in it, and I don’t think they should be.

Most of the public anger has quite rightly been directed at the government over this deal 

They’ve wasted $30 million of taxpayer money on something the Prime Minister should never have involved herself in.

They’ve potentially undermined private property rights by essentially forcing a land sale through their involvement.

But what about Fletcher? What’s their role in this?

GWPF Newsletter: China to expand coal power by 10% by 2025

 

China promises its primary energy use will peak in 2035

In this newsletter:

1) China to expand coal power fleet by 10% by 2025
Bloomberg, 16 December 2020

2) China's primary energy use to peak in 2035 ... promise
Reuters, 17 December 2020

Reynold Macpherson: Rotorua's Warped Economic Development Strategy

This opinion piece is offered to see if other district and regional councils are responding to the Covid Depression with economic development strategies that are unbalanced, divisive and misappropriating ratepayers’ resources. 

Rotorua Lakes Council’s framework is shown to be based on a fake collectivism, Te Arawa’s Vision 2050 replacing its obsolete Vision 2030, a simplistic dualism of short-term ‘economic recovery’ and long-term ‘economic development’ instead of pragmatic ‘economic reconstruction’, the Mayor’s co-governance agenda, a false virtue of ‘partnerships’ when they range from worthy intergovernmental projects to crony capitalism, unfulfilled political promises dating from 2013, deliberately marginalising ratepayers, and practices that violate the Auditor General’s eight elements of good governance.

Michael Rectenwald: What Is the Great Reset?

The Great Reset is on everyone’s mind, whether everyone knows it or not. It is presaged by the measures undertaken by states across the world in response to the covid-19 crisis. (I mean by “crisis” not the so-called pandemic itself, but the responses to a novel virus called SARS-2 and the impact of the responses on social and economic conditions.)

In his book, COVID-19: The Great Reset, World Economic Forum (WEF) founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab writes that the covid-19 crisis should be regarded as an “opportunity [that can be] seized to make the kind of institutional changes and policy choices that will put economies on the path toward a fairer, greener future.”1 Although Schwab has been promoting the Great Reset for years, the covid crisis has provided a pretext for finally enacting it. According to Schwab, we should not expect the postcovid world system to return to its previous modes of operation. Rather, alternating between description and prescription, Schwab suggests that changes will be, or should be, enacted across interlocking, interdependent domains to produce a new normal.

So, just what is the Great Reset and what is the new normal it would establish?

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Trevor Mallard has made things worse

 

If Trevor Mallard was hoping that appearing before the select committee today was going to make things better for himself, he misjudged that horribly. 

He has just made things a whole lot worse.

It turns out $330,000 is not the end of the Mallard clean-up bill us taxpayers are paying. We are in the gun for more. 

GWPF Newsletter: EU countries agree to use natural gas and nuclear power for Green Deal

 

How the EU opened the door to natural gas and nuclear energy to coax Green Deal sceptics

In this newsletter:

1) EU countries agree to use natural gas and nuclear power for Green Deal
EurActiv, 15 December 2020

2) EU’s Green Deal based on natural gas as ‘transitional energy’
EurActiv, 14 December 2020

Roger Childs: A Royal Commission should investigate the White Island tragedy

It’s now a year on from the disaster which killed 22 people in the Bay of Plenty, mainly Australians. The governor-general, prime minister and other dignitaries were there for the recent anniversary and took the usual photo opportunities. There was a lot of grief and sorrow, but I didn’t hear White Island Tours giving an apology.

 Last year’s catastrophe was an accident waiting to happen and it appears that because of the blasé attitude and greed of the tour company, lives were lost. Most people would have expected a Royal Commission to investigate the tragedy as happened with the Pike River Mine disaster and the shootings at the Christchurch mosques. Instead the government workplace regulator WorkSafe carried out an inquiry and last week decided to prosecute – 10 organisations and 5 individuals – seemingly anyone who had anything to do with the tragic events in the Bay of Plenty in December 2019. However Work Safe did not include themselves!

This scattergun approach to assigning culpability may have been intended to soften the blow for the chief culprits: the Ngati Awa tour operators.

Clive Bibby: Apologies are not the same as a meaningful response

The crocodile tears are becoming a flood.

Politicians around the world are notorious for apportioning blame after the publication of damning reports that highlight failures of leadership under their watch as long as the number of those who might lose their jobs doesn't include themselves.

Even our own country has a shameful record of senior ministers being slapped on the wrist before, after the mandatory stand down, being readmitted to the cabinet clique on full pay. "Welcome back! Have a good break?"

NZCPR Weekly: The Big Lie

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter, we expose the claim of a Treaty of Waitangi ‘partnership’ between Maori and the Crown as a big lie that is being legitimised through an orchestrated propaganda campaign, our NZCPR Guest Commentator the former Judge and law lecturer Anthony Willy explains why there is no legal foundation for the partnership claim and he outlines what New Zealand could look like under a Maori ‘partnership’ model, and our poll asks whether you believe New Zealanders are too complacent about the Treaty partnership agenda.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Barry Soper: Trevor Mallard should resign for his disgraceful behaviour

 

Trevor Mallard should resign from The Speaker's job before he faces a vote of no confidence when Parliament resumes sitting in February.

National's lost confidence in him and Labour, the party that preaches well-being and kindness, surely will have no choice but to vote against his continuing in the role.

It's been confirmed that the almost $334,000 in legal costs have been paid out by the taxpayer. Why?   Well Mallard had the rules changed after he made his outrageous comment to protect him from having the pay the bill for something he clearly knew would go against him.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 6.12.20

 

Friday December 11, 2020 

News:
Prime Minister confident at launch of new Whānau-centred young parents scheme, saying 'they've shown they work'
Ardern, who was joined by Minister of Health Andrew Little and Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall, officially launched the programme at the Tūnohopū Marae in Rotorua on Thursday.

It’s a scheme that was roundly welcomed by representatives of the Te Arawa iwi in attendance, with Te Arawa and Ngati Whakaue kaumatua Monty Morrison describing the scheme as an “important announcement today for all Māoridom”.