Category: imported_weekly
Waitangi Day has become national Maori Grievance Day. The Maori sovereignty flag, symbolising the desire of radical Maori to take over ownership and control of New Zealand, now flies from official buildings - with the blessing of the Prime Minister. What was once a family day – and a day of celebration for our unique identity and place in the world - has become a day of protest and division. Threats and intimidation are now the name of the game. The ugliness of the modern Waitangi Day is a reminder of how distant the vision of unity and togetherness that most New Zealanders aspire to has become.
The Department of Trade and Industry describes the food and beverage industry as the “lynchpin of New Zealand's prosperity”. Representing a half of all New Zealand's merchandise exports by value, the industry has a “crucial influence on our economy”.
The Speech from the Throne is delivered by the Queen’s representative, the Governor General, at the opening of a new Parliament. Traditionally, the speech sets out the reasons for summoning Parliament after a General Election by announcing in broad terms, the outline of the new government's legislative programme for the next three years.
The 2012 year has had a turbulent start – from the increasingly chaotic state of the European economies, to the proliferation of geopolitical unrest, to the on-going aftershocks in Christchurch, to the unpredictable weather! If this is a sign of things to come, we had better make sure our seatbelts are tightly fastened as we may be in for a bumpy ride.
Some huge challenges lie ahead. In a country where all New Zealanders, irrespective of racial origin should have equal status and equal rights, the Maori Party - once more a partner in government – wants to take the country further down the path to racial separatism. Using the fallacious argument that they have special governance rights as Treaty ‘partners’ with the Crown – a view that is already endemic within the government service – the Maori Party wants to enshrine the Maori seats and the Treaty of Waitangi in a new New Zealand Constitution. This would give superior rights to the Maori elite in the governance of New Zealand, turning them into a permanent ruling class and everyone else into second class citizens. Their plan must be derailed
This is the final NZCPR Weekly column dealing with the 2011 General Election. We hope you have found value in our coverage. Before the election we wanted to inform you of the policy prescriptions being promoted by the various parties to assist you in making your voting decisions. Since the election, we hope our analysis has provided you with useful insight into issues and agendas that will influence the direction of the country over the next three years. In particular, this newsletter details the promises outlined by the four coalition partners in the National-led government.
While the coalition negotiations between National, ACT, United and the Maori Party continue on in their indeterminable way, the sovereign debt crisis in Europe deepens. Amid fears of loan defaults by Italy and Greece,...
Last month, with the Rugby World Cup in full swing, the country was painted black in support of the All Blacks. Now, the country is painted blue in support of a National-led government.
John Key was right to take a principled stand to prevent the release of an illegal tape recording of a private conversation between himself and John Banks. If he hadn’t, the whole boundary between what is private and what is public would be forever blurred. Certain members of the media would feel perfectly entitled to snoop and engage in covert recordings across the board in the hope that they could get a ‘scoop’ and the rewards of an “exclusive” story. And those political leaders who are saying that the recording should be released are particularly disingenuous. In fact they should be ashamed of themselves because if they were the target instead of Key and Banks they would probably be calling for privacy too.
As the Head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde was warning about the bleak global economic outlook last week, New Zealand politicians were digging deeper into taxpayer pockets and promising to spend more. With our General Election on Saturday week, it is disturbing that so many parties are totally ignoring the dark clouds that are gathering as they try to bribe voters with money they don’t have.
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