Category: Politics

Avatar photo

Green scaremongering

Launched with appropriate earth-ending prophecies last October, Russell Norman claimed that nothing short of quantitative easing would rescue New Zealand’s economy from cataclysmic consequences. The problem for the Greens was that their new policy was typically lacking in realism. Furthermore, their policy was not quantitative easing at all. Instead it was an inflationary plan to moneterise government debt.


Avatar photo

A well fed world

In 1968 the prevailing mental landscape of the western world changed politically and socially. In particular concern for nature led to the growth of self serving taxpayer funded tithe gathering environmental organizations promoting by modern propaganda methods a green religion with its central doctrine a self loathing of humanity. This fed upon itself and led to the mindset - an age of impending catastrophes.


Avatar photo

A Two-Tier Society

Over the last two weeks our constitutional review public information campaign advertisement has been published in newspapers across the country. We used the ad’ to inform the public that a review of our constitutional arrangements was taking place - and to encourage them to get involved. After all, public awareness is a key pre-requisite for any constitutional change process, and a Research New Zealand survey published in April had indicated that only a third of New Zealanders had even heard of the government’s review.


Avatar photo

Politics, Cartoons and Free Speech

They say a week is a long time in politics. For the Leader of United Future, MP Peter Dunne, the last few weeks in Parliament must have seemed like an eternity. His fall from great heights has been sudden and surprising.


Avatar photo

The right to free speech - more fragile than ever

What do a world-famous historian, a British author and a New Zealand cartoonist have in common? On the face of it, not much – except that all three have been embroiled recently in controversies that show how fragile the right of free speech has become in supposedly liberal democracies.


Avatar photo

The Future of the Waitangi Tribunal

The Waitangi Tribunal was established by the Kirk Labour Government in 1975 through the Treaty of Waitangi Act as a permanent commission of inquiry into alleged breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi by the Crown. In 1985, as a result of intense lobbying by the iwi elite, the Lange Labour Government extended its jurisdiction to cover historic claims going back to 1840.


Avatar photo

Unity or Division - the way forward

Like it or not, the Maori Party’s constitutional review is providing the public with an opportunity to have a say on the future of New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements and our democracy. This $4 million review of our constitution was part of their 2008 coalition deal with the National Party.


Avatar photo

Democracy and Diversity

The New Zealand Labour Party has embraced the politics of diversity wholeheartly and with little self-criticism since the 1970s. This presentation explains the ‘cultural turn of the Left’ and its unintended and damaging consequences.


Avatar photo

Budget 2013

Whether we like it or not politics and politicians have an important influence on our lives. Not only do they shape the social agenda and impose regulations upon us, they control the purse strings to the state sector which represents more than a third of our economy. Their annual Budget reveals how well they are managing the economy.


Avatar photo

Budget 2013 - Good policy or good luck?

They say some politicians are just plain lucky. They seem to do the same things as other politicians who are perceived as failing, yet they somehow manage to charm voters or the media, or circumstances conspire to assist rather than defeat them. For four years Mr English must have wondered if he is one of the unlucky ones.