Category: Education

It was Labour’s handling of the pandemic that has played a central role in creating the country’s worst economic outlook in nearly a century.

As we look to the election, a major question on the mind of most voters is which government will best manage New Zealand out of the current crisis – one led by Labour or National.

We have been hearing the expression “the new norm” for some time but it is only starting to sink in that this ‘norm’ may be – as the term implies – long-term.

In the aftermath of the economic fall-out caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, the Labour Government must introduce the framework for policies which address the systemic weaknesses that have undermined our economy and society for so long, and which threaten our future.

The only effective way to reduce child poverty is to ensure parents are in work, not on welfare. Policies that make welfare attractive risk deepening the dependency trap.

What we have here is a slick manoeuvre by the current government to gain public approval for a community programme that will make them look good in election year...

The Prime Minister and the government coalition partners have opened the classroom door to vested interest groups to spread their propaganda. One of those groups is the Maori sovereignty movement. Another is the Greens.

The entire document is couched in the language of climate campaigners rather than that of scientists. It is a trashy and hopelessly unbalanced catechism of all the fashionable pseudoscience. It is pure propaganda, in the very best Goebbels tradition.

A free society releases the energies and abilities of people to pursue their own objectives. Freedom means diversity but also mobility. It preserves the opportunity for today’s disadvantaged to become tomorrow’s privileged and, in the process, enables everyone, from top to bottom, to enjoy a fuller and richer life.

2019 was to be the year of delivery for Labour. We were told this new government would be transformational, and their policies would have a wellbeing focus. Reality has not lived up to the expectations.