Category: Social Issues

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The Lockdown Week 3

Instead of locking down the nation and trying to stamp out a virus that cannot effectively be contained, we should be quarantining and supporting those who are vulnerable to keep them safe, while enabling the rest of society to get back to normal. Within a month or so, it should be safe for those vulnerable groups to re-enter society, and to re-open our borders.


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The Lockdown Week 1 – Questions...

German immunologist and toxicologist Professor Stefan Hockertz says, “Covid-19 is no more dangerous than influenza, but is simply observed much more closely. More dangerous than the virus is the fear and panic created by the media and the ‘authoritarian reaction’ of many governments.”


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A Country in Lockdown

Unless the Prime Minister knows something that we don’t, it certainly appears that enacting the Singapore model could have prevented the country from needing to be closed down.


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Singapore’s coronavirus response worked – what we can learn

Looking at what Singapore does differently, the biggest one is Singapore doesn’t let positive patients back into the community.


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Labour's Dependency Trap

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.


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The Dangers of Tribalism

That’s the tragedy of tribalism - vulnerable Maori families have become pawns in a complex revenue stream that relies on the number of people experiencing disadvantage increasing. Now the former Maori Party co-leader Dame Tariana Turia appears intent on using them to help her resurrect the fortunes of the party she founded.


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Ideas for a Better Future

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.


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A Better Way for New Zealand

The current welfare system has failed the people of New Zealand and led to too much inequality. We need to move away from the current welfare system of tax and spend via government-owned institutions to a system based on individual choice, competition, and personal savings...


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2019 in Review

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.


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Soft on Welfare

New Zealanders generally support the concept of a safety net for those in genuine need. Most believe that for the able bodied, assistance should be temporary. In other words, anyone who can work, should work.