Category: Politics
The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition has asked the High Court to rule on the validity of NIWA's "Seven Station" New Zealand Temperature Record (NZTR) that features prominently on its website and is used in information it passes on to schools and is also used to support the emission trading scheme, resource consent applications for wind farms and many other key aspects of policies designed to “fight climate change”.
According to Saturday’s Herald, the co-leader of the Maori Party, Pita Sharples, is trying to save a Black Power gang house from being demolished by the city council because it caters for the spiritual and cultural needs of Maori. He claimed that the Mt Wellington property - which had been the Black Power headquarters and hub of a $1.5 million cannabis ring before being seized and sold under the Proceeds of Crime Act – was sometimes used as a marae.[1]
Earlier this year the National government appointed a working group to look at ways of reducing welfare dependence. The group has consulted widely, too widely in my opinion. But they wanted to be seen to be making a fair job of it. The conference they ran at Victoria University in June gave the first public indications that all would not be plain sailing, and it was naive to assume it could be. The traditional left/right divide became quickly apparent with many attendees characterising the initiative as ‘beneficiary bashing’. Prominent in the detraction were Sue Bradford, the Child Poverty Action Group, the ex Children’s Commissioner, and various church and community groups who have latterly joined forces to form an alternative welfare working group.
For generations of Kiwi families, once the children arrived, so too did the dreams of a house and a bit of land in the country. Five or ten acre lots were ideal – they provided tons of space for the kids, room for a pony, a few steers, some sheep, chooks and a pig, as well as a big veggie garden and an orchard. In addition, of course, the house would have a garage, maybe even a sleep-out, and with luck, one or more sheds for dad.
The Government’s RMA (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Act 2009 came into force on 1st October 2009.
Almost without a ripple, John Key’s administration is about to table a bill in Parliament that will have far reaching consequences that few can imagine. I am of course referring to the Government’s proposed changes to the foreshore and seabed.
The National-led government’s attempts to sanitize its controversial “remedy” to the Foreshore and Seabed Act (2004) grow ever more curious and contradictory by the day. It is quite clear that the government and Maori interests already do not see eye-to-eye over what the proposed replacement legislation will mean in practice, and that the government cannot hold a consistent line when explaining to the wider public what will happen when Maori tribes lay claims to title over the foreshore and seabed.
Last Tuesday a routine Police call-out left two Police officers with gunshot wounds and a Police dog dead. In the drug-related fracas, one officer had his jaw shattered by a bullet, while the other officer took a bullet in his thigh - just missing his femoral artery. Gage, a six year old German Shepherd, was shot and killed trying to protect the officers.
The recent incident in Christchurch in which two police officers were shot and seriously wounded and a police dog killed once again highlighted the risks that frontline police officers face going about what most would consider routine tasks.
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