Sunday July 2, 2023 

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Don Brash: Shane Te Pou is profoundly wrong

On the odd occasion when I have found myself in a TV studio with Shane Te Pou, I have always found him a likeable and reasonable kind of person but he completely lost me in his Herald on Sunday article, "Shane Te Pou asks Christopher Luxon to stop playing the race card and put national interest first" on 2 July.

The article is written as if addressed to the Leader of the National Party, Christopher Luxon, and notes that there are probably many policy areas in which the two are in agreement, though Mr Te Pou makes no secret of his leaning to the Left.

But then he writes:

Kay O'Lacey: Satire - Bad Signs If You Can’t Read Them

Sharing my submission today, as follows:

Dear Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency,

I am writing to express my thoughts on the ongoing consultation regarding bilingual road signs. Please consider this letter as my submission.

I strongly SUPPORT the proposal to use bilingual signs when replacing old signage.

While I anticipate that you will receive numerous submissions opposing this idea, it’s important to dismiss those driven by hidden agendas. Dear Leader Chips-for-Brains Hipkins has hit the nail on the head by referring to such people as dog-whistling racists (well he should know, as has personally newly-minted millions of racists just in the last three years!). Just be aware that these people can be cunning and that some may even own dogs so as to provide cover for dog-whistling (I’ve actually seen this).

Michael Johnston: Modern learning environments have exit doors after all

For most of the 2010s, if schools wanted funding for new classrooms, the Ministry of Education insisted that they build Modern Learning Environments (MLEs). These are large, open-plan classrooms, sometimes housing more than a hundred children and their teachers.

In 2022, The New Zealand Initiative published a report on MLEs. Its title was No Evidence, No Evaluation, No Exit, and that seemed to sum it up.

Well, the first two were right, anyway.

Lushington D. Brady: Sweden Votes to Make Greta Cry

A rare outbreak of sanity on energy

The left just love Scandinavian countries. Mostly because they fondly imagine, no matter how many times Scandinavian leaders try to correct them, that Scandinavian countries are ‘socialist’. But leftists fall conspicuously silent about their beloved Scandinavian countries whenever Scandinavian countries do such inconvenient things as slashing immigration, booting out Muslim “asylum seekers” and asserting that Islam is incompatible with Scandinavian values.

And when Scandinavians turn their backs on “Net Zero”, you better believe the left doesn’t want to know about it.

Brian Easton: Is A Recession The Worst Of Our Worries?

Are we evaluating the economy on the right criteria? Perhaps we should be paying more attention to rising overseas debt.

The commentariat’s announcement last week that the New Zealand economy was in an ‘official recession’ by March 2023 – two quarters of output/GDP decline – was greeted with white faces by officials in the Reserve Bank and Treasury. There was queuing for the lavatories; some of the forecasters handed in their resignations to the Minister of Finance; one or two tested the windows to see whether they could jump out.

OF COURSE NOT. The officials would have been puzzled by the term ‘official recession’, since neither institution nor Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) use it. Later the commentariat changed the term to ‘technical recession’; I doubt any serious economist has the foggiest idea what a ‘non-technical recession’ is.

Cam Slater: It’s Death by a Thousand Cuts Now

As predicted, the Kiri Allan show is turning into a slow-moving train wreck with the drip feed of further allegations coming daily now. This time it is senior officials who outline the rantings and ravings of Kiri Allan in what can only be described as weapons-grade tantrums.

Bryce Wilkinson: When a Bill's objective is vague, it's provisions are rudderless

Parliament’s Environment Committee released its reports on the Natural and Built Environment and Spatial Planning Bills this week.

The (Labour) majority recommends that modified Bills be enacted.

But the recommended NBE Bill looks as unworkable and misguided as its earlier version. It has 12 parts, 861 sections, and 15 Schedules. The problems start with the NBE Bill’s purpose statement. It does not identify any problem in the community for which the Bill is the remedy.

NZCPR Podcast: Labour's Climate Scandal

Our farmers are the most efficient food producers in the world…. with the lowest carbon footprint.

 Saturday July 1, 2023 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 1/7/23

Mahuta (reiterating NZ’s anti-nuclear position in world affairs) says we are a small country but we have sharp teeth

Speaking as Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control, Nanaia Mahuta addressed a conference (unidentified in her speech notes) on the theme of “Populism and Global Politics”.

While discussing foreign policy challenges and the threats from populism, Mahuta said a crucial distinction must be made between populism and popularity.

Lindsay Mitchell: The Plague of Entitlement

The subject on Kerre Woodham's morning talk show today was the cost of living and how dire some people's circumstances are becoming. A texter wrote in:

Peter Wilson: The Week in Politics - Success in Beijing, trouble at home

While Prime Minister Chris Hipkins succeeds in Beijing another ministerial scandal breaks out at home; National's Christopher Luxon is called out for trying to humiliate Acting PM Carmel Sepuloni in Parliament and there's another controversy over the reliability of the RNZAF's ageing 757 VIP aircraft.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins' meeting with Chinese President Xi Jingping was, by all reported accounts, a success.

Kate Hawkesby: Three Waters cost blow out speaks volumes about this Govt's ability to read the room

If we ever needed proof this Government was one giant overlord of bureaucratic blow outs, it’s the estimated $1 billion blowout on establishment costs for Three Waters.

It’s been reported now that “the cost of creating 10 new Water Services Entities over a transition period that now stretches to July 1st, 2026 is expected to reach $2 to $3 billion. The estimate before recent revisions to the plan was $1 to $2 billion.”

But wait, there’s more.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 25.06.23

Saturday July 1, 2023 

News:
Māori inhabitants on Enderby found by archaeologists
Evidence gathered from a recent combined archaeological trip, run by the University of Auckland, Ngāi Tahu and the University of Canterbury, to the sub-Antarctic island of Enderby (in the Auckland Islands) could confirm not only an earlier Māori arrival date in this country but also any extended and later occupations.

A team of 12 spent just under two weeks in April on the island, 460 kilometres from Bluff, looking for evidence of early human interactions with the landscape.

Michael Johnston: The ministry of ignorance strikes again

New Zealand has produced some impressive scientists during its short history. Ernest Rutherford, dubbed ‘the father of nuclear physics’, must surely be foremost among them. But there are many others – Alan MacDiarmid, William Pickering and Ingrid Visser, to name a few.

Writing in the New Zealand Herald last week, Dr Andrew Rogers, Head of Chemistry at St Peter’s College, argued that “science education in New Zealand is in decline.” He’s right to be concerned. As Dr Rogers pointed out, New Zealand has fallen substantially in PISA science since testing began in 2006.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson on the rise in public service staff since Labour won in 2017

Sean Plunket talks to Dr Bryce Wilkinson from the New Zealand Initiative about the 28% rise in public service staff since Labour won in 2017.

Wayne Ryburn: Article 1 - Exposing History Curriculum Myths

This series of eight articles exposes some of the myths about New Zealand's History, now being taught to secondary school students. 

The Level 5 workbook for Year 10 students on the "Treaty of Waitangi - Te Tiriti o Waitangi" was published and has been in use since 2014. The page numbers and headings in the text are referenced throughout the series of articles. 

Some aspects, especially on the Taranaki and Waikato wars, are also re-taught in greater depth in the History curriculum at Year 13.

The series of articles was written as a critique to the editor of ESA publications, Jo Crichton and the author of the text book, F J Gibson. This critique was sent in October last year,to date there has been no reply.

Ross Meurant: Election Prediction

Within a ‘tent’ of politically astute colleagues with whom I have been assessing the political parody which plagues our fast-disappearing paradise, a distasteful outcome emerged over tea and cakes and that is:

The next general election, will see National and Labour form a coalition.

Whereas WW2 was used as justification for a similar route last century, this next display of unity will present the economy as the justification for perfidy.

 Friday June 30, 2023 

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