Category: imported_weekly

The ramming through Parliament of the deeply unpopular anti-smacking bill is the clearest sign yet that under MMP the ‘tail is wagging the dog’. As Iain Gillies wrote in an editorial in the Gisborne Herald last month: “Widespread antipathy to Sue Bradford’s bill on parental smacking could unwittingly provoke renewed calls for a review of the MMP voting system. The motion does not figure much - yet - in either public discussion or the parliamentary debate, but may well get traction when voters consider to whom their MPs are beholden; their party hierarchy or the electorate. (To read the article click here).

What do Powelliphanta Augustus and local government have in common? A great deal it seems as both appear to have the full attention of extreme environmentalists.

It was Thomas Jefferson who said: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. These words are as valid today as when they were first uttered over two hundred years ago, as the natural inclination of government is to extend its own power and control at the expense of the freedom and liberty of citizens.

The anti-smacking activists claim that with corporal punishment having been banned in schools, banning it in the home is simply the next step towards eliminating violence against children. But the argument just isn’t credible.

Last week NZ Post announced it will be increasing the price of stamps: on June 1st, the cost of stamps for standard domestic letters will rise from 45 cents to 50 cents and fastpost stamps will increase from 90 cents to $1. Accordingly to the mail chief, Peter Fenton, while the company has absorbed a number of business cost increases over the last three years, wages and other employment expenses - which make up around 40 per cent of the cost of mail delivery - must now be passed onto the customer.

A Newman Weekly reader, Martin Visser, recently sent me a copy of a letter he had written to the Minister of Health on 28 November 2006 about the way his brother was being treated by the health system. In his letter he stated:

New Zealand is being conned over the so-called anti-smacking bill.

A new report by the Centre for Independent Studies, New Zealand’s Spending Binge by Phil Rennie, highlights the fact that core government spending is now almost $20 billion higher than it was in 2000. In spite of that, the social benefits being delivered “have shown negligible improvements”.

I've just returned from our local pet shop to buy a replacement mouse for my 12 year old. $4.95.

In two week’s time Parliament will again consider the Crimes (Abolition of Force as a Justification for Child Discipline) Amendment Bill, a bill that seeks to remove section 59 of the Crimes Act.