Category: Guest Posts
An address to the Orewa branch of the National Party by Dr Don Brash
The following are extracts from Submissions to the Marine and Coastal Area Bill. All submissions can be found on Parliament’s website.
A solidarity picnic against a land protest at the Far North Taipa Sailing Club has shown what to do when authorities are reluctant to enforce a trespass order – take direct action. Since the organised protest picnic against a Maori land protest may indicate a turning point, the following quick look at 43 years of treatyist activism shows how the movement has relied upon occupations, marches, and litigation.
Last weekend was glorious at Taipa Point and looking out over the estuary it would have been difficult to find a more tranquil or beautiful setting in ‘God’s Own’. The beach had a colourful sheen under clear skies and the sea was blue green. The reserve was buzzing as our community and visitors alike enjoyed the best of what New Zealand has.
Opinion Piece by Prof. Roger Bowden The new Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill brings to mind the old saying ‘marry in haste, repent at leisure’. The problem is that it’s the National and Maori parties that joined in unholy matrimony, and it’s the rest of us will do the repenting. For this is a Bill hastily cobbled together and it shows.
Opinion Piece by Dr Don Brash As most readers know, the 2025 Taskforce was set up as a result of the coalition deal between the National and ACT parties immediately after the 2008 election. That deal involved the Government committing to policies which would lift living standards in New Zealand to the Australian level by 2025, and setting up an advisory group both to advise how best to achieve that goal and to report on progress towards it on an annual basis. Those two latter roles are the responsibility of the 2025 Taskforce.
Something very suspicious is happening. The Prime Minister and Attorney-General insist that their proposed new foreshore and seabed law will allow free public access, and accuse Dr Hugh Barr, of the Coastal Coalition, of telling ‘untruths’ when he disagrees. But when the Attorney-General says that he will nevertheless propose amending the bill in order to make things 100% clear, the Maori Party threatens to abandon its support for the bill, Hone Harawira calling ACT’s leader ‘a little fat redneck’. Why might Maori be angry, if things were only to be made clearer, and nothing were actually to change?
One of the most volatile pieces of law in our society is up for review again. The public has till 29th of October to make submissions on the review of child support led by Revenue Minister Peter Dunne.
What is freedom of expression? Without freedom to offend, it ceases to exist, wrote Salman Rushdie.
History tells us that when a government takes on a trade union, there can be only one outcome. In 1912, William Massey’s government famously crushed a strike by Waihi gold miners. The following year, the same administration recruited special mounted constables from rural areas – dubbed “Massey’s Cossacks” because of their riding skills – to subdue striking waterfront workers.
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