Kiwiblog

I blogged in October on 85 things the Greens want to ban.

This one off task now looks to be an ongoing challenge as they have found more stuff to ban. So I will try and keep updating the list as we go. Today we have

86. Ban cat and dog fur imports

Yes Sue Kedgley wants Customs to DNA test (I am not making this up) any fur at the border. Also going through the last new months we also have:

87. Ban plastic bags

88. Plasma TVs

I could also include banning smoking outdoors in the Auckland CBD as proposed by Green Party member Cr Cathy Casey, but I’m ot sure if it is official Green policy? Same for the admiration of the ban on bottled water by a Green Party member – I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and not include them, even though I am sure it is just a matter of time

The Greens are upset that NZ will not ban energy inefficient plasma TVs, as the UK is planning to do.

Gerry Brownlee says:

But Mr Brownlee yesterday told the Herald the Government did not favour banning energy-hungry TVs.

“Our view is the information about appliances should be given to consumers and consumers should then make their choice.

“Consumers should be given as much information as they possibly can about the energy efficiency of appliances … but at the final point of purchase it’s the consumer’s decision.”

Can you imagine the backlog of things to be banned under a future Labour/Green Government?

And yet another thing the Greens want to ban:

The Greens are fired up by South Australia’s ban on plastic bags and hopes New Zealand follows its lead.

How long until we have the sustainability police? They’ll raid your home looking for illegal products such as plastic bags, bottled water, fizzy drinks, over sized easter eggs etc.

Stevedore at g.blog is full of admiration for Leeds University students’ association banning of bottled water sales.

He proudly proclaims:

Note: in this context ‘ban’ means make a democratic collective decision that for the good of the planet.  Compare and contrast this for instance to it’s opposite ‘freedom’, as in restore my freedom to live against my will on a globally warming planet by rolling back the ‘ban’ on old style inefficient lightbulbs.

Does this mean that banning the Green Party is a good thing so long as 50.1% of us make a democratic collective decision that it is for the good of the planet?

Nothing worse than a combination of the tyranny of the majority and zealotry.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry:

A crackdown on Christmas crackers is looming, as the yuletide party piece is classified by authorities as fireworks.

Customs has issued a circular reminding importers that under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act, Christmas crackers are covered by the definition of, and controls on, the importation of fireworks.

“As such Christmas crackers require a completed Certificate to Import Explosives from Erma (the Environmental Risk Management Authority) New Zealand before they may be imported into New Zealand,” the circular states.

“It is estimated that only approximately 60 percent of Christmas crackers being imported into the country obtain the required certificates.”

Oh my God, how dare they – import christmas crackers without permission. Quick call out the SWAT team.

A really good column by Nick Smith in The Independent Financial Review yesterday.Not online but here is the beginning:

The first instinct of any decent government should be to legalise, liberalise and, where necessary, regulate.

Conversely, the universal characteristic of a lousy government is its tendency to ban things.

On that score, the present lot is a lousy government.

Absolutely – bans should be very much a last resort.

He then looks at the party pill ban:

The same cannot be said for the party pill ban, which will increase public demand for amphetamine and its more dangerous refined product, P.

People love intoxicants; always have, always will. The history of cannabis and psilocybin goes back at least 3000 years – testimony to humanity’s abiding desire to alter its consciousness. Don’t mistake this column as advocacy for drug use; these substances are dangerous if misused, particularly in comparison to party pills.

The relatively safe party pill industry serviced a huge market, and not just the dance scene, as evidenced by the drug’s ubiquitous presence on the shelves of corner dairies and booze shops. That demand will now be met, make no mistake, by the black market. Vendors won’t be selling party pills but amphetamine, which offers a higher yield to justify the seller’s risk of arrest and imprisonment.

Amphetamine abuse – already at high levels – will soar.

The fundamental economic law of denied demand underpins my certainty the prohibition will create more illegal drug use and criminal behaviour.

At some stage it would be good to compile a list of all the things the Government has tried to ban in the last nine years.