Category: Politics
The Human Rights Commission has been a strong defender of the public’s right to the freedom of expression in New Zealand. It is therefore ironic that it has now created a permanent register which “names and shames” anyone who speaks out on the thorny issue of race relations, whose published opinions they deem to be negative.
There will always be individuals striving for greater personal power and control over others, at any cost. So when I read that Treaty of Waitangi workshops have been offered to new immigrants for the last 25 years, I’m curious.
Prime Minister John Key described his 2015 Budget as ‘compassionate conservatism’. Some have called it a legacy Budget. Certainly it delivered on his long standing commitment to protect the most vulnerable in society.
It would be churlish to be entirely negative about Bill English’s seventh Budget. There is merit in increasing the basic benefit level – the first increase in real terms since 1972 – and on the other hand increasing the expectation that those on a benefit will get into at least part-time employment.
Twice a year the Reserve Bank publishes a Financial Stability Report to assess the soundness of New Zealand’s financial sector. A key concern in the Bank’s May report is the impact on the economy of falling dairy prices: “Approximately 25 percent of farmers are estimated to have negative cash flow".
My brief is to talk from the Local Community and District Council perspective about the issues facing our district and particularly our export producers as we contemplate Heartland Hurunui’s contribution toward the Governments goal of doubling export earnings by 2025.
Whanau Ora is the birthchild of MMP. It is the Maori Party’s policy for tribal self determination. It has been designed to direct hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into empowering tribal groups for self-rule - independent from the state but funded by it.
This week, even Lyn Provost, the Auditor General who has presumably spent many, many hours putting together a report on Whanau Ora said, "It was not easy to describe what it is or what it has achieved." These outsider inabilities to understand the concept may not matter if insiders did. But there is now evidence that parties directly involved disagree about aims and purposes.
According to surveys conducted by the US polling company Gallup, trust in the media fell to an all-time low of 40 percent last year, from a high of 72 percent in 1976. A loss of confidence in the mainstream media's ability to report the news “fully, accurately, and fairly” along with a perception of bias - that the media is “too liberal” – has resulted in a growing disenchantment, as people look elsewhere for their news.
I made two predictions. First, that within the hour, that groaning giveaway of journalistic shoal fish mediocrity would emerge, namely the appendix "gate". Sure enough, exactly 38 minutes later, the Stuff website kicked off with the first "ponygate", the others all duly lapdogging along thereafter.
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