Category: Guest Posts
Can I begin my comments today by saying how much I appreciate your invitation? I have no doubt that some of you see me as a racist of the worst kind. It is a great tribute to you that you are nevertheless willing to have me here today, at this place of great importance in our history, even though you may disagree with me on a whole raft of fundamental issues.
Just a few days before Waitangi Day the government announced it has earmarked several million more dollars for Maori projects. During Waitangi Day commemorations it may express its willingness to give iwi leaders a greater say in governance, too - but without providing critical details.
That referendums can lead to disintegration of rational thought and political process has become abundantly evident from the chaos that has followed the UK Brexit referendum of June 2016.
Will New Zealand politics in 2019 be characterised by policy substance or issues of leadership, personalities and political manoeuvrings? The various political journalists and pundits have made their forecasts for the year ahead.
In April 2016, the Royal Society of New Zealand published a report ‘Transition to a low-carbon economy for New Zealand’. The report was deeply substandard in my opinion, and I am not alone. I wrote up my findings and the resulting paper was rejected. I am publishing the original paper and the redacted referees’ reports here to show how serious debate is being suppressed.
This paper is in three sections. The first is a paper I wrote examining claims made by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2016 on transitioning New Zealand to a low carbon economy. The second is the correspondence with the editor of the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. The third deals with the editor of the Journal of New Zealand Studies. While the referees thought the approach to the research was to be lauded, they could not agree with the results, and used the old ruse of nit-picking instead of unravelling the substantive arguments...
It is well known that today Ngai Tahu is a billion-dollar plus entity, and growing. Ngai Tahu claim that they are under “attack ... led by “fiscal conservatives who attribute our remarkable success to not paying tax.” In this Ngai Tahu are wrong on two points.
The United Nations, in a non-binding agreement that almost all UN member states will sign at a ceremony in Morocco in early December, is making migration a human right. The agreement propagates the radical idea that migration - for any reason - is something that needs to be promoted, enabled and protected.
Referring to plastic grocery bags as “single use” is almost certainly a misnomer. Consumers in jurisdictions with bans who reused the grocery bags to line their household trash cans, pack lunches, or even pick up their dog’s poop most often have little choice but to purchase significantly higher-density plastic bags for these purposes.
This really points to the absurdity of the KiwiBuild scheme. It will not help a low income household at all - even “cost” price is too great, so those who are not on a wage on a par with a student doctor and IT expert will have to continue to rent and pay more as rents rise, thanks to all of the new rental-housing related regulations that the Government is bringing in
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