Category: Guest Posts
Following the Maori Party's allegations of Police bias towards Maori Sensible Sentencing Trust Spokesman Garth McVicar is asking if the Maori Party is really a covert organisation in disguise!
We may all be environmentalists now. However, just as, over the last several decades, most of us have learned to be feminists, most of us have also learned to reject the dark side of the feminist movement that remains deeply Marxist in its roots and intentions.
They are both dead wrong on economic policy. The terrible economic news from both Europe and the United States has led to much soul-searching on both sides of the Atlantic. How did we get here, and how can we get out of this jam? Both economies will be able to extricate themselves from their deep slumps only by promptly reversing those policies that have brought them to the brink. A successful and sustainable political order requires stable legal and economic policies that reward innovation, spur growth, and maximize the ability of rich and poor alike to enter into voluntary arrangements. Limited government, low rates of taxation, and strong property rights are the guiding principles.
For some years I taught constitutional law at the University of Canterbury. I was also a debater, in those days when debating was a more popular activity than it is now ~ and it would happen, from time to time, when I appeared to speak in a debate, that the chairman, in introducing me, would tell the audience that I was a remarkable man, because (among other things) I lectured in constitutional law, and this in a country that did not possess a constitution! I would smile politely at this merry jest and pass on to the subject of my discourse.
The latest New Zealand Energy Strategy is a strange mixture of pragmatism, ignorance, unachievable aspirations and disregards our biggest energy resource. The policy on oil and gas is sensible and admirable. Anything that encourages exploration and development of these resources can only be applauded. But maintaining a strategy for 90% renewable energy–which, technically, is virtually unachievable–really demonstrates an ignorance of the fundamentals of so-called “climate change".
In a Rasmussen national telephone survey of American adults conducted last month, 69% say it’s likely that some scientists have falsified research data in order to support their own theories and beliefs. Only 6% say it is not at all likely.
When I was a student, I took a course in the sociology of deviance. After weeks reviewing theories about the causes of law-breaking, the lecturer announced that we were asking the wrong question. The real question, he said, is not why some break the law. It is why we don't all break the law.
The total redress paid under Treaty of Waitangi settlements is approaching $2.5-billion and will continue to increase, according to information from the Office of Treaty Settlements. Eleven settlements with a total financial redress amount of $216.64-million are awaiting legislation and 29 settlements totalling $2.078-billion have been completed. A further 14 agreements in principle totaling more than $220.5-million await progress, and a further 20 in negotiation are moving towards agreements in principle.
Let me first explain the backdrop to the situation we find ourselves in today. Back in the 1970s businesses avoided the UK because of its high taxes, high strike rates and low productivity. Most commentators felt that there was little that could be done and decline was inevitable. Yet, after some radical reforms, strikes declined, productivity improved and as tax rates came down, companies started to invest in the UK once again.
The fact that Phil Goff intends funding Labour’s $800 million policy of paying R D tax credits by bringing agriculture’s biological emissions into the ETS two year early in 2013 raises some very interesting questions about the mechanisms of the ETS and its purpose.
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