Category: imported_weekly
The cost of living is on the rise due largely to the record prices that New Zealanders are now paying at the petrol pump. Petrol hit $2.40 and more for the first-time last week, but over the weekend, the “no new taxes” Labour Government imposed a new petrol excise tax adding another 3.5 cents per litre – plus GST - onto the cost of fuel.
Last week, the Government’s Tax Working Group released its interim report signalling that a Capital Gains Tax of up to 33 percent - more than double the 15 percent rate originally proposed by Labour – will be introduced before the next election.
Last week was Maori language week. Speaking te reo appears to have become New Zealand’s new cause célèbre. While on the surface it may appear to be a worthy objective, there is a radical political agenda behind this seemingly innocent cause.
Labour clearly sees the landlord tenant relationship as a definitive political ‘battleground’. Anyone living in rental accommodation is regarded as a potential voter. Put simply, there is political capital to be made by demonising landlords and victimising renters.
Growing numbers of people now believe that National’s Marine and Coastal Area Act has been a colossal mistake. They want it repealed, the claims cancelled, and Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed restored.
For nine years in opposition, Labour vilified wealth creators for political gain, only to find their tax revenue now depends on them! It's not easy for a Party that’s beholden to the anti-business trade union movement for funding and electoral support, and totally reliant on the extremist Greens to stay in Government, to revive business confidence.
I wonder if those Royal Society members who are responsible for introducing their new draft code, appreciate that in strengthening Treaty partnership requirements and implementing biculturalism they are embracing the radical political agenda of the Maori sovereignty movement.
Don Brash has become something of a lightning rod for free speech in New Zealand. In 2004, as leader of the National Party, it was over the Treaty of Waitangi. Now it’s over the right to free speech itself.
The Ministry of Health estimates that a half of all women drink alcohol while pregnant. As a result, their children may be born with irreversible brain damage and other serious disabilities that make it impossible to lead a ‘normal’ life. The cost of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder to children and society is massive.
Most New Zealanders strongly believe that the country’s beaches and sea are part of our national heritage and should be in public hands. They share a sense of dismay that the National's law change resulted in opportunistic tribal groups to lodging hundreds of claims, covering every square inch of our coast many times over.