Category: Social Issues
Months ago, when the Massey University Politics Society asked me to give a speech on the Manawatu campus about my time in politics, nobody could have guessed how events would unfold.
The Ministry of Health estimates that a half of all women drink alcohol while pregnant. As a result, their children may be born with irreversible brain damage and other serious disabilities that make it impossible to lead a ‘normal’ life. The cost of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder to children and society is massive.
More than half of Winnipeg’s Indigenous homeless population are former State wards. Many were born with irreversible brain damage caused by alcohol in their mother’s womb at a crucial time, resulting in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Their irresponsible parents placed their own selfish drinking and drug taking ahead of their duties as parents.
Politics is a battle of ideology and influence. While social media has the virtuous intent of connecting people and communities, it has also become the frontline for a colossal struggle between propaganda and the truth.
Earlier this year, Dr Bruce Moon, a retired physicist and avid historian, was invited by the Nelson Institute to give a talk at his local library. The topic he chose for his April 8th address was New Zealand's ‘fake history’ as it relates to Treaty of Waitangi issues. Four days before the event, Bruce was informed the talk had been cancelled.
Personal freedom, the right to live one’s life free from the interference of others is the natural bedrock of all human beings. Over the millennia it has been something more honoured in the breach than the observance, but as mankind emerged from societies whose economies were reliant on slavery and serfdom the assertion of personal freedom became unstoppable.
Far too many people driving on our roads are impaired. They are putting their lives and the lives of others in danger. The new Government needs to get real on this and put aside their political bias and give the green light to the random roadside drug testing of drivers.
Road deaths involving a driver with drugs in their system are increasing and it is well past time that New Zealand gave Police the ability to check for drugs through a saliva test. As illegal drugs and legal medications become ever-more part of people’s lives, crashes involving drugged drivers are increasing.
A critical shortage of workers in the kiwi fruit industry - while 118,755 New Zealanders are registered as unemployed - is symptomatic of a welfare system that is failing to ensure able-bodied beneficiaries transition into work.
According to the Dominion Post, April 25, " ...the Government is setting up a welfare overhaul 'expert advisory group' supported by a secretariat of officials from different departments." Labour has promised the Greens an overhaul. The ghost of Metiria Turei hovers.
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