Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.4.24

Saturday April 27, 2024 

News:
Decision to quash the Waitangi Tribunal's summons was 'a very good one' - barrister
A barrister says the High Court's decision to overturn the Waitangi Tribunal summons of the Children's Minister was a good and clear decision.

It ruled Karen Chhour could not be compelled to appear before the Tribunal over her plans to repeal part of the Oranga Tamariki Act.

David Farrar: Hipkins wrong

Newshub reports:

Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins has stood by increasing the public service workforce during his time in government, saying it’s been proportionate to the growth in population.

The Coalition Government has directed the public services to cut costs by between 6.5 and 7.5 percent to help reduce annual public service spending by $1.5 billion. It’s resulted in thousands of jobs proposed to be axed across the sector.

Brendan O'Neill: Elon Musk vs the globalist censors

Australia’s demand that X take down a violent video clip in every country in the world is wildly authoritarian.

I’m in Australia at the moment, which means I am bound by Australian law. If I do something here that this great democratic nation has decreed to be a crime, I’m in hot water. And rightly so. Yet when I jet back to Britain in a week’s time, that will no longer be the case, right? Surely no Aussie lawmaker, no Aussie cop, no Aussie bureaucrat will enjoy jurisdiction over the behaviour of this free Brit some 10,000 miles away? Actually, they might, if Australia’s ‘eSafety commissioner’ has her way.

Michael Ryan: Does fighting inflation always lead to recession?

Does fighting inflation always lead to recession? What 60 years of NZ data can tell us

There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession.

Suze: A Well Kept Secret

If you think politics is about unacknowledged influences misusing power, you’d be spot on, which makes me pessimistic about our political future.

Gone are the days of the altruistic politician with a heart of gold saying all the right things and attracting grassroots support because of their genuine, honest and hardworking characteristics. Even if you find such a rare naïve beast in politics today, they won’t survive long, as we saw during the 2023 election.

Capitalist: Their Low Standards

Los Angeles prior to World War II was a bit of a joke; it was isolated and difficult to get to; it had Hollywood but not much else. If you research the 1930s golden age of Hollywood you will be hard pushed to find a single movie actually set in Los Angeles – even the movie moguls considered their own city a joke! San Francisco was the major California city, home to banking and corporate headquarters. San Diego was home to the naval base. Even during the war, troops exiting the US for the Pacific left from San Francisco. LA was on very few radar screens.

David Farrar: Possible changes to End of Life regime

The Herald reports:

The End of Life Choice Act needs changes when it comes up for review later this year, say both the architect of New Zealand’s assisted dying laws and hospice leaders.

Friday April 26, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 26/4/24

Luxon’s demoted ministers might take comfort from the British politician who bounced back after the Gallipoli debacle

Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up.

In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled world.

Sir Bob Jones: The way things were

Recently someone sent me a faded photo of my standard four class in Lower Hutt, 75 years ago.

The oddities vis a vis the current situation were first, a total of 44 of us. I’m told in state schools today the maximum class size at that age is nearer 30 or less and in private schools, about 20.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: NZ's Worst PM Ever - Chris Hipkins

NZ's Worst PM Ever, Chris Hipkins, Hit Kiwi Families with the Biggest Tax Hike in the Developed World

Whilst Australia newspapers are blaring the headline, "Australians flattened by biggest Tax Increase in World", if you look at the OECD figures released yesterday from its publication called, "Taxing Wages" (where that Aussie headline was sourced) it reveals a startling fact. Whilst Australia had the biggest increase in the tax wedge (i.e., the amount of taxes taken from your wage as a proportion of gross wages) for the average worker out of 40 developed countries (NZ is third highest) when it comes to families, NZ had the largest increase of all. If you look at column (4) in Table 2 below, the annual change in the 2022-23 year in the Family Tax Wedge in NZ was over 3%, with Poland second at 2.8%.

Gary Judd KC: The Waitangi Tribunal is not "a roving Commission"

it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisition

The High Court is today [22/4/24] hearing an application by the Crown to set aside a witness summons requiring the Minister for Children, Karen Chhour to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal to be questioned as part of an inquiry into her plans to remove s 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act, which sets out the duties of the chief executive of Oranga Tamariki in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi. The section says, among other things, that the chief executive must ensure: “The policies, practices and services of the department have regard to mana tamaiti (tamariki) and the whakapapa of Māori children and young persons and the whanaungatanga [kinship] responsibilities of their whānau, hapū and iwi.” This description is taken from Audrey Young’s article in the Herald.

Bob McCoskrie: Jacinda’s legacy – Increasing number of abortions

Four years ago, our politicians decriminalised abortion and introduced one of the most liberal and extreme laws in the world, effectively legalising abortion to 40 weeks with token safeguards.

And remember – the law was rammed through by our politicians in March 2020 while we as a nation were all preparing to go into lockdown for COVID in order to protect the most vulnerable amongst us. But our then-PM who had recently had her first child prioritised this liberalisation of abortion. It really seems a sick joke, doesn’t it.

Ele Ludemann: Shades of 80s agsag

North Otago was particularly hard hit by the agsag of the 1980s.

The problems with farms that were too small to be economic units were compounded by recurring droughts.

Inflation and interest rates were high, input costs were too and the axing of subsidies by the Lange government resulted in very low prices for stock. Returns were so low that farmers were getting bills from meat works because what they earned didn’t cover the costs of transport and killing.

David Farrar: Three Strikes saw lower reoffending

Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017:

In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’.

In the five years prior to three strikes, 5517 people were convicted of an offence where that conviction would have been a ‘first strike’ had three strikes been in force at the time, and 103 were convicted of an offence that would have been a ‘second strike’.

David Farrar: Hysterical Hipkins

Newshub reports:

He [Hipkins] said the government had only been in office for six months, and “the wheels are falling off already”.

This is beyond stupid. Hipkins claims taking two portfolios away from Ministers who were seen to be struggling is the wheels are falling off.

Peter Dunne: Prime Ministers

The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became known as the Night of the Long Knives, Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe wryly commented – in a clever paraphrasing of St John’s Gospel – that “greater love hath no man than he lay down his friends for his life.”

Dr Eric Crampton: A new kind of city deal

For a few months after last year’s elections, Wellington consultancies seemed to be scrambling to publish reports on city deals.

National’s coalition agreement with ACT promised long-term city deals for funding and financing infrastructure but was short on details.

Thursday April 25, 2024 

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Clive Bibby: Deterrent or Paper Tiger

As the Ukraine war drags on with little show of victories (even small ones) on the Russian Front, and the much needed American replacement armaments package stalled in the US Congress, the question surely needs to be asked of the NATO alliance members - “Isn’t the outcome of this war EUROPE’S RESPONSIBILITY?”

Because the current stalemate is looking more and more like a lost cause if the European member states of NATO continue to allow the Americans to do the heavy lifting.