GWPF Newsletter: COP26 at risk of ‘failure’ over China’s refusal to slash emissions, officials warn

 

UN permits China to burn coal for a decade longer than Australia

In this newsletter:

1) COP26 at risk of ‘failure’, officials warn
GWPF International, 9 September 2021
 
2) UK-led Cop26 talks at risk of failure over China’s refusal to cut emissions
The Daily Telegraph, 8 September 2021

NZCPR Weekly: The High Cost of Failure

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter we examine last week’s tragedy that left seven people injured and the perpetrator dead, and ask whether anything could have been done to prevent it; our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Clarke Jones, an Australian National University expert in de-radicalising Islamic extremists, shares his views on how the tragedy might have been avoided; and our poll asks whether you agree with the Prime Minister that everything was done to keep the public safe.

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

Breaking Views Update: Week of 5.09.21

Saturday September 11, 2021 

News:
Taihape teaching farm transfer: Ombudsman says Education Ministry 'unreasonable
The Chief Ombudsman has found the Education Ministry was wrong to take a small farm used for agricultural lessons off a Taihape school.

Taihape Area School still has access to the farm but cannot get it back as it has now been shifted into the Treaty settlements landbank.

Kate Hawkesby: James Shaw is a complete hypocrite

 

For a government obsessed with optics, it beggars' belief that more thought wasn’t given to James Shaw’s decision to travel all the way to Scotland for a climate change conference in 8 weeks' time. 

I mean, let’s get past the glaring carbon footprint of all that travel and look at the other hypocritical aspects of this. 

This is a party who objected so strongly to Parliament being resumed in person that they refused to attend; such was their horror that travel should take place during Delta. That same sentiment seems to have conveniently been overlooked in this case. 

Add to this, the fact that he will take up an MIQ spot which has magically appeared for him at the end of it all. 

Mike Hosking: We're becoming more and more isolated from the world

 

A couple of big announcements that are worth giving some thought to, and making a few comparisons.   

A roadmap of sorts was announced in New South Wales. The vaccinated get access to pubs, restaurants, and cafes. New South Wales is opening back up and living with Covid. A similar plan is being sorted for Victoria. 

Australia, this week, announced international borders will be open by December. 

Scott Morrison yesterday announced ex-pats will be able to return and isolate at home; their mad ban on travelling overseas will be dropped. 

GWPF Newsletter: COP26 in trouble as China rebuffs UK

 

BRICS nations join forces in opposing EU carbon border tax

In this newsletter:

1) COP26 in trouble as China rebuffs UK 
GWPF International, 7 September 2021
 
2) We won’t be bullied into going green, says China
The Times, 7 September 2021

Mike Hosking: We have to push ahead with our re-opening plans

 

If you missed what Chris Hipkins told Parliament yesterday, the re-opening plan is on ice. 

The Sir David Skegg plan, the trial of people who go offshore, come back and self-isolate is on hold. 

When this Government says things are hold, you’ve got to sink into your chair with some real despair because no one delivers less and takes more time to deliver less than this lot. 

Hipkins says Delta has changed the game; heard that one before? 

Leighton Smith Podcast: Muriel Newman on Democracy, Three Waters and He Puapua

On this week's podcast:

We ask whether you think democracy is under threat. Are Three Waters and He Puapua compatible with democracy? We don’t think so. But how much do you care?

Muriel Newman takes a dive into the subject with us.

Derek Mackie: Is the tide turning?

Well, well! A leading newspaper, the NZ Herald, has published, in full, David Seymour’s response to the predictable woke furore that erupted all over the mainstream media outlets and on social media after he criticised the issuing of Priority Access Codes for Maori to get the Covid vaccine. 

As he points out, the codes themselves were already widely shared on social media, and yet only he was singled out for the social justice backlash. I wonder if that’s because he is the leader of the only political party in NZ to regularly and consistently take the government to task over its blatant racial preferment. 

His article is a scathing indictment on the government’s separatist policy, described fully in the He Puapua report, to divide NZ by race, creating two classes of citizens - Maori and the vast majority. The first class, in every sense of the word, gets more power, rights, justice, wealth, land, water and, ultimately, a veto over every decision the vast majority tries to make. Everyone else has to bite their tongue and say thank you. 

Mike Hosking: Massive housing issues are still coming

 

This is how an economy grinds to a halt. Level four lockdown, of course, is a fairly good way. 

But I am referring to the housing market. There are no houses to buy, and stock is at hopelessly low levels. 

It's that way for several reasons: 

One, Immigration is closed so supply of money and demand has stopped. 

Two, people want to buy, but have a house they won't sell until the find what they want. Given there isn't what they want, they don't sell. 

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Phil Twyford grants residency to criminals but says no to doctors

 

In his capacity as Associate Immigration Minister Phil Twyford has granted residency to three convicted criminals. 

They have ten convictions between them: One conviction for producing a false passport, one for unlawfully being in an enclosed yard or area, six for drink driving, one for dangerous driving and one for driving while disqualified. 

To be fair we don’t know the full details. These could be really old convictions, all three people might have found God since, changed their lives and become wonderful, contributing members of society.   

Or not. 

But either way, the problem is priorities. 

Frank Newman: Stuff or Stuffed?

Stuff has gone to some lengths in an article today to put the case why Ivermectin should NOT be used as preventative medicine for COVID. See HERE >>>

Clearly, this is in response to social media chat that it may prevent or mitigate the effects of COVID. It may also be in response to a warning issued by Medsafe yesterday that, "Ivermectin is NOT APPROVED to prevent or treat COVID-19, which means that Medsafe has not assessed the safety and efficacy for this use. Inappropriate use of ivermectin can be dangerous."

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Time to take an Australian approach to immigration

 

I think it’s becoming apparent to a lot of us that we need to stop being so soft and instead start taking a more Australian approach to immigration. 

Some say, this terrorist shouldn’t have been here.  He could have been booted out ages ago. 

Never mind the conversation about amending laws and what law he was charged under and whether he got the maximum sentence for his crime - actually none of that matters. Because he could’ve been deported. 

What happened is that the authorities tried to kick him out by revoking his refugee status. That predictably got tied up in an appeal and then paused for his criminal case and two years later he committed a knife attack. 

Ross Meurant: Beware of the words “internal security”

Apropos the question of whether, in New Zealand an individual (as opposed to conspiracy among three or more) planning a crime, can be – arrested and put before the Courts as I recently penned(1), Australia has the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill(2). 

Clause 5A of the Bill defines “Carrying out” preparations, credible threats, and attempts as follows:

(1) For the purposes of this Act, a terrorist act is carried out if any 1 or more of the following occurs:

(a) planning or other preparations to carry out the act, whether it is actually carried out or not: 

(b) a credible threat to carry out the act, whether it is actually carried out or not:

(c) an attempt to carry out the act:

(d) The carrying out of the act.

Shawn Means: Covid19 - Beating Ourselves with a Hammer?

When lightning struck the tree Homer Simpson sheltered under, hefting a sheet of corrugated steel for extra protection, he was inspired. The glowing bough crashing down struck him as a very magical piece of wood, and he should make a bat out of it. Bristling with bent nails after hours of hammering, Homer’s bat testifies to our human gift of improvisation using whatever tools we have like a trusty hammer. Surely, repeatedly whacking a problem with a familiar tool will solve it even if slightly dented and bent in the end.

Our Covid-19 toolbox has grown since March 2020 when the first extraordinary silence of a Level 4 lockdown blanketed New Zealand. Knowledge of the virus and its hazards for the vulnerable expanded considerably in tandem with a stunningly swift rise of vaccines and promising treatments. Yet, after some 18 months with scientists and clinicians furiously testing and trying other tools, New Zealand resorts to the same hammer swung in those first dim days.

Bryan Leyland: The underlying cause of the blackouts.

"You set the rules, we’ll play the game!" - the underlying cause of the blackouts.

The blackouts on the night of 9 August happened because we did not have enough generating capacity and we were unable to shed enough non-essential load. The spot price reached $300,000 per MWh - more than 1000 times normal. According to market theory it should have substantially reduced demand. It didn’t.

The immediate cause was lack of generation. Tokaanu hydro station shutdown because the intake screens got blocked by weed and starved the turbines of water. Huntly power station didn’t get enough warning of the need for more generation. Wind power dropped rapidly and substantially as the peak demand approached. Taranaki combined cycle station was not available for generation and, anyway, gas supplies were marginal. Not all our water heating load was shed because the industry reforms have decimated this previously world leading demand management system.

Frank Newman: Nelson Mayor needs Three Waters reality check

In an article "Concerns raised over benefits of 3 Waters reforms for Nelson" (Stuff, Sep 03 2021), Nelsons Mayor Rachel Reece makes it very clear she is in favour of the government's Three Waters proposal.  See HERE >>>

She is quoted as saying, "the status quo was no longer an option". What she does not seem to realise is the government's fundamentally flawed proposal is not the only option available to local councils. It is in fact a very bad option as the Castalia and Ferrier reviews categorically state (as detailed by the NZCPR. See HERE >>>). Has Mayor Reece even read those peer reviews, which show the assumptions underlying the modelling are faulty and the assumed financial benefits are fiction. 

Bronwyn Howell: Compulsory contact-tracing apps - the case of New Zealand

First published HERE by the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based public policy think tank, on August 25, 2021.

New Zealand, under the leadership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, has received considerable international kudos for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

With an elimination strategy best articulated as “zero tolerance of community transmission,” the country to date has exhibited one of the world’s lowest infection and death rates. 

By August 22, it had recorded 24 deaths (0.48 per 100,000 people) — notably few compared to the United States’ 628,503 deaths (191.5 per 100,000 people). Even the best-performing US state in this statistic, Hawaii (to which New Zealand, as a small Pacific nation, could be comparable), has a death rate of 39 per 100,000 people.

The core of New Zealand’s COVID-19 strategy is twofold.

First is a draconian border closure where entry is strictly controlled. 

Graham Adams: The battle over Plunket heats up

Mothers are aggrieved by what some say is a racist policy instituted by New Zealand’s most cherished parenting organisation. Graham Adams argues it is just one example of growing dissatisfaction over preference granted on grounds of ethnicity.

In terms of the nation’s traditional iconography, it’s hard to decide whether Sir Edmund Hillary or Plunket nurses rate more highly in the popular imagination.

For many New Zealanders, Hillary represents the epitome of individualistic adventure while Plunket nurses looking after anxious mothers and vulnerable babies represent the best of community spirit.

Nevertheless, news came this week that Plunket is a “white supremacist” organisation, for which root-and-branch regeneration will be inadequate. (See Cate Broughton’s Plunket takes on its history, and future, to be ‘a better Treaty partner’, and a response to this by Lynda Bryder: Plunket founder driven to reduce high infant mortality rate.)

Hugh Perrett: A State-Controlled Press?

Over recent weeks It has been brought to my attention that newspapers now generally seem very hesitant/ reluctant to publish “letters to the editor” that they consider too confronting, critical or overly judgemental of Government‘s policies, practices, procedures or actions.

Recently a politically concerned member of my coffee club, submitted and then re-submitted 4 or 5 separate letters to the newspaper for consideration for publication as “letters to the editor,” all of which were rejected for publication. 

He claimed each letter covered a distinct, separate, political issue of significant interest to the community and more particularly, of very serious concern to many people in the community.

I saw these letters and can confirm his claim.