Category: Social Issues
Cannabis is clearly a very dangerous drug. It causes cancer, lung disease, psychosis, and can lead to the onset of schizophrenia. It is highly addictive and can become a gateway to hard drugs. In addition it causes impairment that can result in accidents, hospitalisation, or death.
New Zealand has one of the highest reported rates of cannabis use, with about three-quarters of New Zealanders having tried cannabis by the age of 25, and nearly 10% cannabis-dependent by this age.
Finance Minister Bill English has just returned from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington. He said that despite a fair bit of pessimism about the global economic outlook, New Zealand's economy remains resilient and our prospects for 2-3 percent growth over the next three or four years is still on track.
The drop in the Global Dairy Trade auction price, and the subsequent decrease in Fonterra’s forecast to farmers, puts the average dairy farmer in the Waikato under the poverty line.
This election campaign has not only been notable for the dirty politics of Hager and Dotcom, but for the many myths that are touted as fact. Child poverty is a case in point. It is used by those on the left to justify higher taxes and a bloated government
The threat of a compulsory warrant of fitness for rental housing should evoke the strongest possible response from property investors. They will be well aware that such a scheme would come at a considerable cost, which would not only drive up rents, but would force some property owners to sell. By increasing rents and reducing the availability of rental housing, this misguided policy would hurt the very families that the advocacy groups purport to want to help.
Decisions loom on two politically motivated warrant of fitness schemes for our 480,000 rental properties, both of which could make housing less available and more expensive to the poorest people in New Zealand.
It is with great sadness that I must take exception to the Pope’s views on economics and business. His hostility to capitalism, shared by the Church of England, is tragically misplaced.
With the September 20 election less than three months away, and voters increasingly tuning into politics, we should expect to see a range of political advocacy groups promoting their causes. A particular target will be the 800,000 registered voters who failed to vote in 2011, since this voting bloc could affect the outcome of the election.
Authored by Jonathon Boston and Simon Chapple, Child Poverty in New Zealand was published on June 18, 2014. Two major reasons for child poverty are presented: Child poverty is a result of inadequate benefits, and Child poverty is the result of unemployment.
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