Category: Politics
Recently Prime Minister John Key was caught musing over whether New Zealand should follow Australia’s lead and sign up to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Let us all hope that he doesn’t. This inane piece of bureaucratic ‘rights speak’ does few favours to anyone, and its paucity of substance should make it laughable.
Last month UMR Research released a report on New Zealanders’ living preferences. The results showed that 49 percent of us live in the suburbs, 20 percent live in small towns, 17 percent live in rural areas, and 13 percent live in the central city. In response to the question where would you like to live, 39 percent said the suburbs, 26 percent wanted to live in a rural area, 22 percent in a small town, and 11 percent in a central city area. 2 percent were unsure.[1]
Many of us are scared this global depression will lead to the abandoning of free trade and a rash of protectionism – like the last one did.
Whether we are talking about freedom or oppression, democracy or dictatorship, free enterprise or communism, ideas have the power to shape nations and profoundly impact on the daily lives of citizens. As the famous nineteenth century French writer Victor Hugo stated, “There is one thing stronger than all of the armies of the world and that’s an idea whose time has come”.
Crimestoppers has been an extraordinary success in the UK ; I set it up over 20 years ago, have been involved with it ever since and am extremely proud of being the Chairman of the Trustees of a charity that is making a serious impact in the fight against crime in the UK . But my discussions with the police, government and business leaders in New Zealand, looking at the idea of setting up a similar venture here, came about through an unexpected and unplanned direction.
In the seventies, the famous writer and philosopher Ayn Rand described the pervasive danger of the welfare state:
During a recent radio interview I was asked, is this a bad time to be talking about reforming welfare? No, I replied with little hesitation. There is no bad time to be trying to reform welfare.
The 2009 International Climate Change Conference, hosted by the Chicago-based free market think tank the Heartland Institute, was held in New York last week. It drew together over 700 attendees including world-leading climate scientists, legislators, researchers, policy-makers, and media representatives in order to share new research and fresh insights into the climate change controversy.[1]
When preparing my today's remarks, I took into my hands - looking for an inspiration - my last year's speech here, at the Heartland Institute's Conference. It did not help much. It is evident that the climate change debate has not made any detectable progress and that the much needed, long overdue exchange of views has not yet started. All we see and hear are uninspiring monologues.
With the economic crisis delivering more bad news each day, we must keep reminding ourselves that change brings opportunity. The return of frugality and thrift is good for discount businesses, the slump in the New Zealand dollar is giving exporters a real boost, low interest rates are assisting those with debt to repay their loans, and global uncertainties are encouraging New Zealanders overseas to return home.
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