Category: imported_weekly
The Nordic countries have reinvented themselves over the last two decades, and their progress is testimony to the value of proper reform. They faced up to the problems created by governments that had grown too big and entitlement programmes that had grown too generous, to find successful solutions that reduced the size of government and ‘set their entrepreneurs free’.
The problem for the wider community is that through this process, the government has become captured by the naked ambition of a race-based tribal aristocracy to co-govern the country. That this undermines the government’s commitment to a democratic society based on equal rights - relegating all other citizens to second-class status - appears of little consequence.
New Zealanders will soon get a chance to participate in the Citizens Initiated Referendum on asset sales. The referendum is required under law after the promoters (Grey Power, the Green Party, the Council of Trade Unions, the Labour Party, NZ Union of Students' Associations, and Greenpeace) secured sufficient signatures in a petition to Parliament this year.
We all know that in the media business, sensation sells. Advocacy groups like Greenpeace have long taken advantage of this by peddling scare stories - the world is running out of oil or food or trees, polar bears are dying out, the earth is becoming overpopulated, or melting glaciers are flooding the planet. Regrettably not enough people understand the need for scepticism over such reports.
A new Fairfax poll released today shows that while Labour has not made the inroads into National’s support that it would have hoped from the leadership change, it has stopped the loss of support to the Greens. While the poll indicates that National could govern alone, public opinion always firms up in the run-up to a general election and the polls will inevitably close.
As a result of his recent meetings in Washington DC with the governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Finance Minister Bill English has warned that New Zealand is still extremely vulnerable to global economic risks. Some of the world’s largest economies are about to enter unchartered territory as they shift their focus from stimulus to debt reduction - such changes will inevitably put pressure on a small country like New Zealand...
The New Zealand Centre for Political Research has long been concerned at the extent to which the ownership and control of communal resources are being transferred to private iwi corporations - without the public really being aware of what is going on. Under the guise of the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process, billions of dollars worth of cash and assets are being transferred from public ownership.
The rate of child abuse in New Zealand is a national disgrace. According to the Department of Child, Youth and Family, in the year to June 2012, there were 152,800 recorded notifications of potential abuse against children. However, after removing duplicate notifications for the same children and Police family violence referrals, which require no further action, there were 95,532.
Last week the United Nations spin machine went into overdrive as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a summary of its latest assessment of the state of the climate. The Summary for Policy Makers was prepared by politicians and bureaucrats representing the governments of many countries that have invested vast amounts of taxpayers’ money into projects designed to stop man-made global warming.
If the Labour Party’s new leader retains their full confidence and support, by Christmas 2014 he could well be our next Prime Minister. What do we know about David Cunliffe and his ideas?
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