Category: Social Issues
Across the English-speaking world, debates have flared periodically about the impact of political correctness and left-wing ideology on the school curriculum. Education has become a central part of the culture wars and debates have centred on history teaching as well as English, especially literature, and the extent to which such subjects, so the critics argue, reinforce conservative values and capitalist, euro-centric hegemony.
As New Zealanders, we have grown up to believe in and cherish an egalitarian society. We like to think that our children's futures will be determined by their abilities, their motivation and their hard work. We want all kids to have a genuine opportunity to use their talents and to get rewarded for their efforts. That's The Kiwi Way.
The Prime Minister has said that New Zealand has far too many state agencies for a country of our size. He’s not wrong. It’s one of the reasons why government spending has escalated out of control.
This week, the Race Relations Commissioner expanded his mandate. No longer content to give certificates to school girls opposing right wing politicians, he is now entering the super-city debate. In fact, it seems there is no issue that Joris de Bres believes is beyond his influence.
New Zealand’s welfare system is long overdue for reform. Far too many people are gaming the system. That’s not to deny that there are many deserving people who realistically will never be able to work and need the full support of the state. But the fact of the matter is that welfare has become a “soft touch” and almost everyone knows someone on welfare who shouldn’t really be there.
Last week’s unemployment numbers were not good news.
Most of today's benefits were created at the point of passing the Social Security Act 1938. During the post-war years benefit levels were reasonably stable despite population growth. For instance between 1940 and 1975 the population grew by 92 percent but receipt of Unemployment, Sickness and Invalid benefits grew by only 9 percent. As a percentage of working-age people, reliance on these benefits actually dropped.
In his book The Vision of the Anointed, economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, Thomas Sowell, describes how the great catastrophes of history have typically resulted not only from ill-advised policies, but from the fact that public feedback cannot get through to decision-makers. He says, “Typically, there has been an additional and crucial ingredient – some method by which feedback from reality has been prevented, so that a dangerous course of action could be blindly continued to a fatal conclusion. Much of the continent of Europe was devastated in World War II because the totalitarian regime of the Nazis did not permit those who foresaw the self-destructive consequences of Hitler’s policies to alter, or even influence, those policies.”
I'm appalled that Mr Key thinks he is above the people and that his past promises (not to change the law) are more important than their wishes. Political parties are elected to govern the country according to the wishes of the majority. That's how democracy is supposed to work. In some circumstances, the majority view will be uninformed and the government may make laws that they think will provide a better result for society. But this is NOT one of those situations. I'm further appalled that he thinks that it's OK for him to just tell police how to enforce a law as has been reported in the news. That's not his or their job. It's his job to make laws that he thinks are correct and it's the police's job to enforce them without fear or favour. Then the courts decide if the police are correctly interpreting the law. The law is clearly against the wishes of the, by now, well-informed majority and MUST be changed or repealed. - a reader’s response to last week’s poll where 98% of informed NZCPR readers believe that the present anti-smacking law should be repealed.
We place a lot of weight on the word of authority figures, especially if they have qualifications and can call on supporting research. The media often report on research as if the findings are points of fact. Is this confidence misplaced?
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