Category: Guest Posts

The recent finding by Justice Asher in the Auckland High Court that a group of District Health Boards failed to adequately manage both a conflict of interest invoked by one of their board members being a senior party in a contract let by the board and a fair consultation process throws into doubt the efficacy of many of the processes undertaken by a very large number of ‘quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations’ (quangos) established in the health care sector under the health reforms implemented since 2000.

Being a lawyer in Sweden under the regime of the anti-smacking law, I have known that the proposed law would lead to policing and criminalising responsible parents all along, and I am still trying to warn New Zealand before it is too late: The anti smacking bill will turn parents into criminals. If the Bill becomes law it will mean the abolition of parental authority.

WHAT kind of welfare state should New Zealand have in 30 years? If the trends of the past 30 years were to continue, we could end up with more than a quarter of working-age adults living on benefits, a huge retired population relying on a hopelessly overstretched pension and health system, and younger workers struggling under a massive tax burden as government soaks up almost half the nation's gross domestic product to pay for it all.

What a wonderfully powerful human trait is the imagination. No other form of animal life can think creatively as we humans…to dream up scenarios of passion…love, joy, hatred, anticipation. But distort our imaginative powers with a bit of fear guilt instilled by mischievous science…and presto, you have the makings of the catastrophic global warming [ooops, I’m sorry], I mean, climate change hysteria.

I describe ethnic fundamentalism or culturalism as a ‘secular religion’ because this particular way of understanding what ethnicity means shares a number of important features with religion. First, it is a set of beliefs about human nature. Second, those beliefs are unchallenged and unchallengeable. Third, ethnic fundamentalism rejects doubt and has a difficult relationship with reason (despite Benedict’s recent speech).

Too many Maoris think The Bash is a perfectly acceptable concept, a right and proper way to behave, to keep women – read bitches – in line. Yes, yes, a lot of Pakehas and Russians and Iraqis and Brits and Negroes, the whole wide world has men with attitudes like this. But Maoris more so. It must be so for the statistics keep saying it loud and achingly clear. And we have to change it before we can’t.

I must confess, I’m no expert on the Electoral Finance Act. In local government we tend to get so caught up on events within our own community that we don’t usually spend a lot of energy on nationwide issues.