Category: imported_weekly
In her final speech in the House of Commons on 22 November 1990, the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher engaged in one of her more memorable exchanges with the Member from Southwark and Bermondsey, to explain that policies aimed at reducing the gap between rich and poor will result in everyone becoming poorer.
Irresponsible sabotage or keeping the market fully informed? As anyone who has followed politics closely will know, there is no doubt that the coincidentally timed announcement by the Labour and Green parties to nationalise the wholesale electricity industry was designed to materially impact on the sale of Mighty River Power shares.
One only needs look at the present to see what New Zealand will be like in the future. The North Island will be known as Te Ika a Maui, the South Island as Te Waipounamu, and New Zealand as Aotearoa. Those who use water for commercial purposes will be charged “storage” because lakes and rivers will be known as vessels owned by iwi...
According to a survey carried out in 2010, New Zealand ranked first equal with Australia as the world’s most charitable nation. The World Giving Index, published by the Charities Aid Foundation used a Gallup survey of 195,000 people in 153 nations to assess the extent of charitable activities. It showed that 68 percent of New Zealanders had given money to charity during the last month, 41 percent had volunteered time, and 63 percent had helped a stranger.
The banking crisis in Cyprus came as a sharp reminder to savers around the world that banks are not necessarily the safe havens they like to imagine. The plan to impose a 6.75 percent tax on savings up to €100,000 (NZ$153,000) and a 9.9 percent tax on savings above that was proposed by the Cyprus government as a way of raising the €5.8 billion they needed to find to qualify for a €10 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. However, politicians swiftly backed away from their plan to tax savings once they saw the depth of public fury.
It’s not often that a government appointment ignites major controversy, but last week’s announcement that Dame Susan Devoy was to step into the role of Race Relations Commissioner did just that. The Race Relations Commissioner is one of six commissioners employed by the Human Rights Commission, an independent Crown entity established in 1977 that currently functions under the Human Rights Act 1993.
The IT revolution is dramatically changing how we live, in a way that is probably just as profound as the agrarian and industrial revolutions of previous ages. This new revolution has given people control over the way they communicate - in a manner that few of us could have ever imagined. As with all revolutions, change has casualties.
A World Bank Report published in 1998 ranked New Zealand second in terms of ‘natural capital, behind Saudi Arabia. However, while we have a wealth of land, minerals, water, and good clean air, our bureaucratic planning and resource management laws have hindered New Zealand’s ability to use many of those resources effectively. The well-being of our communities has suffered as a result.
The Maori Council’s claim over the ownership of New Zealand’s fresh water was a blatant attempt by a powerful political group to seize control of a public good natural resource. New Zealanders are angry about it and so they should be. The opportunistic endeavours by tribal corporations to seize control of public good resources such as air, wind, the electromagnetic spectrum – maybe even sunlight itself – are outrageous but very real.
Over the last few years, there has been a growing consensus amongst the leaders of western nations – including the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, and Australia - that policies and practices that divide citizens along ethnic and cultural lines are dangerous. In Holland, the Dutch government decided to abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that had created a parallel society within the Netherlands: “It is necessary because otherwise the society gradually grows apart and eventually no one feels at home anymore in the Netherlands.”
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