Centrist: Robert Patman - New Zealand must seek strategic independence in an unstable world

Robert Patman, International Relations expert at the University of Otago, warns that New Zealand must adopt strategic independence to navigate the challenges of 2025.

With a global order marked by declining US influence, rising geopolitical tensions, and transboundary crises, Patman argues that New Zealand must bolster defence spending, deepen ties with Australia, and pursue independent policies on AUKUS, Ukraine, Gaza, and climate change.

Martin Hanson: The unmasking of a political sociopath - the rise and fall of Jacinda Ardern

In an earlier essay I showed that Pfizer and other pharmaceutical corporations, and indeed all corporations

are sociopathic in their pursuit of profit. Institutionally, they show the same characteristic behaviours as individuals with sociopathic tendencies: callous unconcern for the safety of others, incapacity to experience guilt, repeated lying and conning others for profit.” (emphasis added)

Left largely unsaid was the implication that, in acting as Big Pharma’s enforcers, many leading politicians reveal themselves to be sociopaths.

Kelli Ballard: Crime Doesn’t Pay, But Certainly Is Expensive

Progressive lawmakers see the error of their ways.

Crime doesn’t pay, but it certainly costs cities, states, and residents. In Oregon, for example, just one murder costs $9.1 million, “with $5.15 million coming from quality-of-life losses,” The Center Square reported. As violent crimes continue to rise, so do the prices for handling them.
Everyone Suffers the Cost of Crime

Dr Guy Hatchard: Submission Template - The Gene Technology Bill

This release contains template suggestions to make a submission to the Health Select Committee querying the provisions of the Gene Technology Bill which was introduced into the New Zealand Parliament on 17th December 2024. The deadline to make a submission is midnight 17th February 2025.

To inform your friends, a video is available on YouTube entitled The Gene Technology Bill. What Kiwis Need To Know. For your information a short clip from a discussion between Dr. Guy Hatchard and Andrew Bridgen, former UK MP, about the international implications of the Bill, is available here. All or parts of the following template may be used as follows.

David Farrar: Grant Duncan on campus free speech

Grant Duncan writes:

The arguments from the TEU and the Greens are intellectually weak, as they only want “free” speech on campus for ideas which they’ve pre-approved, as if they were the academic arbiters, if not the censors. (Who do they think they are?) Anything that opposes what they approve can be de-platformed or shouted down or banned on health and safety grounds.

The reality is both organisations despise free speech. They don’t want debate – they just want acceptance of their views.

Saturday January 4, 2025 

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David Farrar: Government moves to strengthen free speech on campus

Penny Simmonds announced:

Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities.

“Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse approach,” Ms Simmonds says.

Graham Adams: Storm clouds gather over Tamihere's fiefdom

A likely reduction in Whānau Ora funding rattles Te Pāti Māori.

Alongside the woes crowding in on John Tamihere’s Waipareira Trust — including the report into Manurewa Marae due at the end of January and news that the Charities Services intends to deregister the trust over political donations — there has been a largely unremarked move by the Ministry of Māori Development / Te Puni Kōkiri to reopen tenders for Whānau Ora cash.

The news broke in late June, and clearly came as a bombshell to Tamihere, whose organisations have long been recipients of taxpayer money.

Mark Angelides: An Elegy for the Fourth Estate

The Fifth Estate rises.

With 2024 in the rearview mirror and 2025 just begun, perhaps a moment of reflection is warranted for the not-so-sudden demise of the formerly vaunted Fourth Estate. Its position atop the cultural landscape has been rejected by much of the Western world, and it exists now as an artifact that resides in nostalgia more than zeitgeist. It was an avoidable self-immolation. But what will rise from the ashes? And will the fresh phoenix be any better?

Dr Frederick Attenborough: New Hate Crime Laws in Ireland Came Into Force on December 31st

The provisions of the new Irish ‘hate crime’ law come into effect yesterday after Minister for Justice Helen McEntee signed a commencement order, the Department of Justice has said.

The Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024 was passed by the Oireachtas in October and introduces harsher sentences for crimes where the perpetrator is motivated by hatred of people with protected characteristics.

Gary Moller: The Market Demands Organics....

The Market Demands Organics and Rejects GM Food, Drugs, and Chemical-Based Food Production

New Zealand is best going organic because the world is demanding safe, healthy food. Health-conscious and discerning consumers are increasingly opposing genetically modified (GM) foods. You do not have to look far to see that organic products have a powerful and growing global following.

David Farrar: Should we have a referendum on the country’s name?

A Kiwiblog reader writes in:

Let’s Identify New Zealand.

In an attempt to heal (for some, the wound is too deep) the current division in the country.

The government could ditch the Principles bill and replace it with a referendum on the official name of the country. Apparently there is no official name of the Country.

Friday January 3, 2025 

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Ele Ludemann: Universities should be elite

Canterbury University Associate Professor Mike Grimshaw writes of a crisis in education:

It’s the end of year marking season in NZ universities and it’s evident that something has gone badly wrong in our schools over the past couple of years.

Far too many students are now entering university lacking the basic literacy skills to succeed. Their ability to read at a tertiary level has been steadily dropping for a decade, but recently there has been a very worrying drop off in their writing ability.

Josh Stylman: Read Between the Lies - A Pattern Recognition Guide

When Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, announced during Event 201’s pandemic drill in 2019 that they would “flood the zone with trusted sources,” few understood this preview of coordinated narrative control. Within months, we watched it unfold in real time—unified messaging across all platforms, suppression of dissent, and coordinated narrative control that fooled much of the world.

David Farrar: Te Pati Maori promise retrospective legislation

Te Pati Maori have written to organisations saying that if they are part of a Labour-led Government, they will pass retrospective legislation to punish organisations for actions that were entirely legal.

Dr Don Brash: Time to submit on the Treaty Principles Bill fast running out

This Parliament is being asked to pass a significant number of important Bills during the course of its three-year life – Bills related to resource management planning, to infrastructure, to education and to health. But few Bills are of greater significance than the Treaty Principles Bill which David Seymour has sponsored.

Why? Because it goes to the very heart of our constitution. And there are only days left in which to express your opinion: submissions on the Bill close at 11.59 p.m. next Tuesday, 7 January.

Maryanne Demasi: Australia’s Misinformation Bill Is Dead…for Now

It is official.

The Australian government’s attempt to ram through legislation to combat misinformation online has been blocked after the Greens party announced it would not support the controversial bill.

“We are concerned this bill doesn’t actually do what it needs to do when it comes to stopping the deliberate mass distribution of false and harmful information,” said Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Centrist: Record Boxing Day sales amid mounting financial pressure

Boxing Day sales were up by 13% this year, with New Zealanders spending nearly $68m. This is in contrast to subdued pre-Christmas activity, which dropped nearly 1% compared to 2023. Shoppers hit up bookshops, clothing stores, and hardware outlets, according to payment processor Worldline.

JC: The Left in Full Flight

If proof is needed the political left haven’t learnt then here it is. What is wrong with these people and what goes on inside their heads?

The chief advisor to the Democrats, a lady who raised billions for the party courtesy of wealthy donors, was called a whore by the party. She is of Asian heritage and they have asked for her to be deported. She has had enough and is now leaving the party to join a team where, in her own words, “Men are men and women are women and where men don’t get to take part in women’s sports.”