Category: imported_weekly
In politics, ideology can be very dangerous if imposed without proper constraint. Nine years of rampant socialism saw New Zealand’s public policy framework inundated with ideological dogma. From the dumbing down of the education system, to the massive expansion of the welfare state, to the undermining of the family, to the erosion of private property rights, to the imposition of extreme environmentalism, to the relentless expansion of the state sector at the expense of the country’s wealth creators – the list goes on and on.
Over the last few years the information revolution has transformed the way we communicate and access knowledge. The New Zealand Centre for Political Research is a product of this. Every week New Zealand’s largest weekly electronic newsletter – the NZCPR Weekly - is delivered directly into your home and office. If you like what you read, you can forward it on to people around the country and the world. Our website, enables you to share your opinion, read our commentaries, use our research, or, through our new petition facility, add your voice to thousands of others who are demanding change.
A study released last year by the OECD on child wellbeing painted a grim picture of the status of children in New Zealand. It found that New Zealand children lived in poor conditions – average family incomes in New Zealand were low by OECD standards and child poverty rates high. In terms of the “health and safety” of children we ranked next to bottom – 29th out of 30, with by far the highest rate of youth suicide and an above average rate of child mortality.[1]
It has now been confirmed that under the new constitutional arrangements National and the Maori Party are planning to push through before Christmas, Maori will become the legal owners of large tracts of New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed.
The madness of the Government’s new carbon tax is that New Zealanders will be the only people in the world paying it. It will drive up the costs of living and undermine the competitiveness of New Zealand business for negligible environmental gain. A further concern is its impact on inflation, interest rates and the exchange rate. It will add to the costs of fuel and power and these flow right through the economy to basics like food. This puts pressure on inflation, which in turn drives up interest rates and the kiwi dollar. The Government’s carbon tax is a classic example of the way the Government is making things tougher for the productive exporting sector. The worst aspect of the carbon tax is that it will not make one iota of difference to New Zealand’s emissions. Nick Smith 2005
Five years ago, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous People, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, visited New Zealand to consult with Maori. In the report he subsequently produced, he urged the then Labour Government to recognise Maori rights to self determination. In particular, he recommended that the government support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, that they repeal Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed, and that they undertake a constitutional review in order to entrench the Treaty of Waitangi.[1]
“…long term worklessness is one of the greatest risks to health in our society. It is more dangerous than most dangerous jobs in the construction industry or working on an oil rig in the North Sea, and too often we not only fail to protect our patients from long term worklessness, we sometimes actually push them into it inadvertently…”
In Thursday’s budget speech the Minister of Finance, Bill English announced that this budget had four main objectives: “The first is lifting the long-term performance of the economy. The second is reform of the tax system, to make it fairer, more sustainable and more supporting of economic growth. The third is better delivery of public services, to make them better for users of those services and better for taxpayers. The fourth is to maintain firm control of the Government's finances, so we can return to budget surpluses and pull back our rising debt.”[1]
Last Monday, a teacher at Te Puke High School was stabbed in the neck and back with a kitchen knife by one of his students. The boy’s whanau said that the 13-year-old had been brought up by his grandmother because his father was in prison. There is speculation that the attack was gang-related – part of an initiation process for earning gang stripes. Reports indicate that the school has a culture of bullying, and the offender had been suspended earlier in the year for fighting with other students. However, the principal advised there was no formal record of any bullying claims. Police placed the boy in the care of Child Youth and Family.
Prime Minister John Key has just told party faithful in the Wairarapa there is no room for separatism in New Zealand. In defensive mode over the party's Maori policy agenda he said some of what we do in this area will, I understand, challenge you and other New Zealanders. In recent months the Government has proposed a repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act, supported the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, announced the roll-out of the whanau ora welfare policy and it is making haste on a raft of Treaty of Waitangi settlements with iwi. Mr Key said he did a deal with the Maori Party after the last election, despite already having the numbers to govern because I believe it is in the long-term interests of New Zealand.”
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