Bryce WIlkinson writes:

We in the Beehive are aware of some unfounded dissatisfaction amongst the great unwashed.

There are stories of a health system in crisis. This is not so. If it were, we would have told you.

The real emergency is, as everyone knows, climate change. Think not of hospital shortages today. Think instead of all those who are going to drown in 2100 because they did not notice sea-level rise. Subsidies for electric cars are more important than yet more money for hospitals.

There are also stories that the amalgamation of Polytechnics has destroyed their creativity and independence.

This is absurd. Our new structure has at least 21 people with “chief executive” in their titles. The 21 oversee the chief executives of the 16 polytechnics. What chief executive would not welcome such support?

Some are complaining that the top boss is earning $13,000 a week while on ‘special’ leave. That is what we call a fair go for the ordinary bloke. Others can learn from it.

School truancy. Another problem inherited from the other lot. What everyone is missing is how much worse it would be if parents were paying directly for their truant children. Private schools are the pits.

Some are concerned that around 40% of school leavers are barely literate. Will they be able to pay enough in taxes to support our retirement? Perhaps not, but again think of how much worse it would be if parents had greater school choice.

We had to shut down partnership schools because too many parents did not understand that state schools were best. Imagine if we told parents which schools were poor performers. There would be chaotic disruption. People need government to protect them from themselves.

There are stories that people are feeling unsafe in the streets. There are shootings. It is said that police are powerless to prevent reoffending by ten-year olds because of the laws protecting minors. Nor can they do much about hardened criminals given our lenient courts. Our judges even struck out Parliament’s three strikes legislation, before we did. If they do not understand our constitution, who does?

All such complaints are unkind. You are paying for approaching 450,000 public sector employees who wake up each morning thinking only of how they can best help you each day.

Our excellent governance arrangements ensure nothing stands in their way.

Tax is love. Enjoy its fruits.

Martyn Bradbury writes:

Wait – what the fuck?

The Spinoff, Local Elections 2022, up to $160,187 – a dedicated team of writers and contributors to cover the elections throughout the motu.

Very, very quietly, The Spinoff has been awarded $160,187 to cover the Local Elections?

Is this a very sick, very expensive joke?

Look, I love Efeso, we went to Uni together, he’d make an amazing Mayor, but sweet Jesus on a unicycle, how the hell is The Spinoff – who has post after fawning post loving Efeso while having angry post after angry post denouncing Leo getting Taxpayer money to cover the fucking elections?

It’s like giving Cameron Slater $160000 to cover the general election, I mean sure, you could give Cam $160 000, but wouldn’t that just be a donation to the National Party?

The Spinoff have shat repeatedly on Leo – which is fine and dandy, let’s be clear, but you can’t then give them $160 000 to cover the elections, they’ve just shat all over one of the candidates while supporting another.

How the hell is NZ on Air just endlessly shitting gold bullion straight into the mouth of The Spinoff?

Again, no issues with The Spinoff attacking Leo and supporting Fes, that’s not the issue, but you can’t hand over $160 000 to a partisan media outlet and pretend that money is covering local fucking elections!

Despite this wonderfully aiding my mate Fes, this is just so outrageous!

Martyn sums it up well as a sick sick joke. Anyone who thinks fiscally conservative candidates will get fairly treated by The Spinoff is deluded. And that would be fine if they were not getting taxpayer funds, but they are. so it isn’t.

Candice Riley writes:

Shane Te Pou (23 June) reveals himself as another man advocating to undermine fair competition and safety for female athletes under the guise of “inclusion”. Worse he claims ignorance as to the science of physiology and biology of the sexes while also comparing the professionals and experts involved with the FINA decision to the quasi race based science of eugenics.

The NZ Herald’s decision to publish this cannot go unchallenged. As a former elite female athlete who represented New Zealand I am more qualified to comment on the subject of male athletic advantage than Mr Te Pou will ever be.

Candice Riley has represented NZ globally in rowing.

Male athletic advantage begins in the womb and is supercharged by a testosterone based puberty, endowing advantage that cannot be reversed by testosterone suppression later in life. This includes, in general, larger hearts and lungs, greater muscle mass, higher blood oxygenation, skeletal differences, and greater grip strength than comparable female athletes. Women are not small men, we are not men with lower testosterone, we are our own sex.

The last sentence is well made.

Sports categories are by their very nature exclusionary for reasons of fair and meaningful competition and safety with separation usually done by age, sex, and/or weight. Mr Te Pou is not decrying that 30 year old men are excluded from playing 12 year old boys, nor that heavy weight boxers are excluded from the feather weight category. No, it’s just female athletes that he demands should roll over and make space for the opposite sex.

You can have inclusivity or you can have fairness – you can’t have both.

Mr Te Pou claims that FINAs decision not to allow swimmers who have experienced male puberty to compete in elite women’s categories further victimises the most marginalised and oppressed. Let us be clear, a white male Ivy League swimmer born to privilege who could not crack the top 200 when competing in men’s competition but wins a national championship against an silver olympic medalist when“included” in a women’s team is neither marginalised nor oppressed. Nor is a white male weightlifter, child of a multi-millionaire, who displaced a woman of colour from an Olympic spot. All athletes know the benefits that sport provides to peoples’ mental and physical well-being. We all want transgender people to be able to access sport, but it should not be by demanding that women include males in their categories.

FINAs intention to progress the creation of an “open” category is a decision to be applauded, not maligned by the uninformed.

An open category seems sensible.

 It is also one that should be followed by Sport NZ in community sport.

Here I disagree. I think at elite levels you need to ensure fairness, but I think at community (and definitely school) levels the priority should be inclusion.

Thorsteinn Siglaugsson writes:

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Denmark and Sweden took very different approaches. While Denmark imposed mask mandates, closed schools and repeatedly closed so-called “non-essential” businesses, Sweden imposed hardly any all-encompassing restrictions. Lockdown proponents have accused the Swedish authorities of recklessness and claimed their approach has led to an unnecessary death-toll.

But now the numbers are out, and according to two Danish professors, Christian Kanstrup Holm, virologist and professor at the University of Aarhus and Morten Petersen, professor of biology at the University of Copenhagen, in an article in the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende on July 8th, excess mortality in 2020 and 2021 was in fact the same in both countries.

Fascinating.

According to the models used to justify harsher restrictions in Denmark, about 30,000 people were expected to have died, had Sweden’s strategy been followed. But according to the data, the excess mortality in Sweden over the two years was around 6,000 and in Denmark 3,000, which amounts to the same percentage as the Danish population is about half the Swedish. Thus, the models were off by around 90%.

Do you recall being told 80,000 people will die in NZ without restrictions? Same models.

Professor Robert Beaglehole writes:

The Government’s strong support for reducing the harm of cigarettes by promoting vaping has contributed to the unprecedented reduction in smoking rates over the last year. Vaping is the most effective and cheapest available cessation tool; the Ministry of Health provides very helpful vaping information. The increased funding by this Government for mass marketing, supporting community-led initiatives, and controlling the illicit trade is also important.

Vaping is worse than not smoking at all, but it is far far far better than smoking tobacco.

Reducing the sales outlets for cigarettes, and making cigarettes less available than vaping, could be helpful. However, this will only work if the demand for cigarettes responds to the reduced supply. Given the high dependence of smokers on nicotine, we can’t count on a rational response, as shown by attempts to control illicit drugs, alcohol consumption and problem gambling. Policymakers must ensure that a rapid reduction in supply does not worsen inequalities and punish dependent smokers.

I’d say reducing legal outlets for cigarette sales will see a massive increase in illegal outlets.

Reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes to levels where they are no longer addictive or satisfy cravings is, in effect, prohibition and could negatively impact the mental well-being of dependent smokers. There are no real-world experiences with this policy, and its community-wide impact on quitting is unknown.

Prohibition has failed with alcohol, cannabis etc so why anyone thinks it will work with tobacco is beyond me.

An inevitable consequence of all three “game-changing” policy proposals is an increase in the illicit trade in cigarettes, which is already substantial.

Yep.

Michael Shellenberger writes:

Sri Lanka has fallen. On Saturday, thousands of protesters stormed the presidential palace. While the angry and the aggrieved swam in the president’s pool, had a cookout on his lawn, lounged on his bed, and set fire to his residence, the president was spirited away to a naval ship off the Sri Lankan coast. …

The underlying reason for the fall of Sri Lanka is that its leaders—starting with former President Maithripala Sirisena and continuing with his successor, the recently deposed Gotabaya Rajapaksa—fell under the spell of Western green elites peddling organic agriculture and “ESG,” which refers to investments made following supposedly higher Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria. Sri Lanka has a near-perfect ESG score of 98—higher than Sweden (96) and the United States (51).

What does having such a high ESG score mean? In short, it meant that Sri Lanka’s two million farmers were forced to stop using fertilizers and pesticides, laying waste to its critical agricultural sector. (Never mind that Tesla has been booted from the ESG S&P Index, while Exxon Mobil is in the top ten. None of it makes much sense.)

How many stories have you seen in the legacy media about the Green Party policy being implemented in Sri Lanka?

One-third of Sri Lanka’s farm lands were dormant in 2021 due to the fertilizer ban. Over 90 percent of Sri Lanka’s farmers had used chemical fertilizers before they were banned. After they were banned, an astonishing 85 percent experienced crop losses. Rice production fell 20 percent  and prices skyrocketed 50 percent in just six months. Sri Lanka had to import $450 million worth of rice despite having been self-sufficient just months earlier. The price of carrots and tomatoes rose fivefold.

Such misery and poverty all from a single Government decision.

Things were worse for smaller farmers. In the Rajanganaya region, where the majority of farmers operate two-and-a-half-acre lots, families reported 50 percent to 60 percent reductions in their harvest.

No wonder they revolted.

National introduced a target of 95% of ED patients being seen within six hours. This saw the proportion rise from 86% to 95% and then stay in the 93% to 94% range for some years.

Labour came in and scrapped the target. Here’s what happened:

• Sep 2018 89.1%
• Sep 2019 84.8%
• Sep 2020 86.6%
• Sep 2021 80.2%
• May 2022 74%

Note that it dropped well before the pandemic, and has continued to drop during it.

Andrea Vance has written a book called Blue Blood, which has had many extracts from it in the media. I haven’t yet purchased a copy, but plan to. It is about the National Party past John Key.

As always, just because someone says something doesn’t mean it is true. Julie Johnston (Deputy Chief of Staff to Judith Collins) has responded to two claims in the book at Newsroom.

There is no doubt that the problems with the fiscal plan dealt a major blow to the campaign, and I wrote about it at length in my submission to the party’s 2020 election review.

There is only light coverage of the fiscal plan issue in the Vance book but what is said, via an anonymous source, about the timing and origin of the plan, completely misrepresents what actually happened.

Vance pinpoints National’s electric vehicle announcement on September 11, 2020 as a turning point in the campaign and she suggests that it was at this very late stage, that Judith asked for a fiscal plan …

This is totally wrong. The fiscal plan was requested very early in the campaign in late July and early August, well before the EV announcement.

And Julie provides documents to back this up, such as e-mails in early August.

And in relation to the Nick Smith resignation, Julie also notes that the information about media interest in Nick came to a senior staffer from someone who worked with a ex-National staffer who had been involved in the employment investigation, and:

A few weeks after Nick’s resignation, both Richard Harman and Tova O’ Brien, as the most vocal proponents of the “stitch up” or “smoke- out” conspiracy theory, were given the name of the person from the lobby group  who had given the information to the National Leader’s Office staffer.

Tova was told in person by me. Richard was told by a mutual acquaintance. I was told that Richard knew the person from the lobby group. Tova said she didn’t know them. If Richard and Tova genuinely believed the whole thing was a stitch-up, they were given the information to get to the bottom of it.

This information from Julie helps set the record straight.

Stuff reports:

The decade-long debate over whether Christchurch’s Te Kaha stadium goes ahead is now over, but a fight over how to pay for it is just beginning.

After nearly six hours of discussion on Thursday – and listening to Hospitality New Zealand spokesman Peter Morrison courageously sing “Imagine there’s a stadium” to ram home his view – city councillors voted 13-3 to push on with the hotly-debated project.

The budget for the multipurpose, covered stadium will now increase by $150 million. It is set to open in April 2026.

Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge said he was “absolutely stoked” and on the verge of tears after the decision.

Tears of joy that the ratepayers are paying for a stadium, rather than his hugely profitable franchise.

The decision means the stadium budget has jumped from $533m to $683m and the difference will be funded through borrowing, which will take the city closer to its debt limits.

Paying back the debt will also sting Christchurch residents in their rates for 30 years to come.

The cost represents $5,000 per household in Christchurch.

It is going to cost five times as much as the Sky Stadium in Wellington. And that only cost ratepayers $40 million.

The Telegraph reports:

Mr López Obrador, an old friend of Jeremy Corbyn, has employed a radical approach to the relentless wave of cartel violence in his country: “Abrazos, no balazos.” “Hugs, not bullets” is the idea that poverty reduction and social programmes can provide a substitute for the war on drugs. And it is failing.

How amazing it is failing. Who would have guessed it?

Seems to me that slogan could apply to Labour’s law and order policy in New Zealand – “hugs, not bullets”!

Stuff reports:

The next phase of the Let’s Get Wellington Moving project – a detailed business case involving no construction – will cost more than $120 million.

I’m all for business cases. You should definitely do one for major (and minor) projects. And they will cost in the millions for large projects.

But $120 million is an obscene amount for a business case. Let’s say you pay $2,000 a day for consultants. That is 60,000 days of consultants. That would be 240 consultants working every workday for 12 months to cost $120 million.

And taxpayers and ratepayers will be funding it.

The Daily Wire reports:

A coffee shop in Philadelphia known for its LGBTQ brand identity closed its doors after employees revolted against the owners and demanded that they “redistribute” the company.

Mina’s World, located in the neighborhood of West Philadelphia, was characterized by Bon Appetit as a business that doubled as a “hangout spot for people of marginalized identities.” Sonam Parikh, who ran the company alongside partner and co-owner Kate Egghart, told the outlet that Mina’s World was the city’s first coffee shop owned and operated by queer, trans people of color (“QTPOC”) …

Parikh blasted other coffee shops for neglecting to “protect their Black and trans employees” and allow customers to enjoy coffee in a space that was not “whitewashed.”

Sounds like they were rather sanctimonious.

An Instagram page called the “Minas World Workers” began posting accusations against the ownership last month, claiming that they had subjected workers to “manipulation, abuse of power, exploitation, anti-blackness, ableism,” and other charges summarized in a “List of Grievances.” The employees demanded “immediate payment” and told the owners to “redistribute the business.”

Ableism!

Egghart and Parikh apologized in an Instagram video, which has since been removed from the Mina’s World account. “We’re going live as part of a radical accountability process. We’re complicit in the gentrification and anti-blackness on 52nd Street. We put our community at risk with our presence as well as our workers,” the pair said, per Libs of TikTok. “With the guidance of the workers and Black and Brown Workers Collective, we’re trying to raise funds to buy the business and turn it over to our staff.”

So rather than tell their staff who demanded they hand the business over to them to go work elsewhere, they tried to appease them.

Days later, the building that hosted Mina’s World was listed for sale. According to the workers, Kate Egghart’s mother, Eunjoo, was the owner of the building as well as an 18% owner of the company. The workers claimed that despite Parikh and Egghart’s best efforts, she “refused” the request to redistribute the business.

The workers attempted to raise $200,000 via GoFundMe to purchase the building, as well as the share of the business allegedly owned by Eunjoo Egghart. They managed to raise over $11,000 by July 6. In early July, however, Mina’s World said it did not “have enough money to continue operating” and closed its doors.

How surprising that Mummy wouldn’t let her woke daughter hand over the building and business to the even more woke staff.

“Egghart and Parikh’s surrender to the outrage shows a point proven again and again — no matter how many times you bend the knee to the mob, you will never be able to adhere to their insatiable standards for progressive enlightenment,”

So true.

The Daily Mail reports:

An Australian journalist has blasted Jacinda Ardern and said he doesn’t know any other leader in the world who ‘talks so much nonsense so consistently’ and ‘gets such lavish, wonderful praise for it’.

Appearing on Sky News, The Australian’s Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan was asked for his take on recent comments from Ms Ardern on the Pacific and climate change.  

Host Peta Credlin played a clip of the New Zealand Prime Minister addressing the Lowry Institute in Australia on Thursday. 

In her speech, Ms Ardern warned against ‘positioning the Pacific in such a way that they have to pick sides’.

Describing the speech as ‘a shocker’ Ms Credlin asked Mr Sheridan for his view. 

‘I don’t know what she’s taking in her morning coffee. We’re trying to give the Pacific an alternative from being conscripted into debt traps and hegemony by the most ruthless, authoritarian dictatorship in the world,’ Mr Sheridan replied.

That is a good way of describing it. China’s strategy is to make small states so dependent on them, they can’t risk getting offside with China.

‘And she says ‘don’t cast this struggle as one between authoritarianism and democracy’ – she might as well say ‘don’t describe the sky as blue and the trees as green’. I have no idea what she’s on about.

‘She comes from the worst, woke, unreal, fantasy-dwelling strain in New Zealand politics. I just think she makes no sense about anything, really.’ 

The lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is it is a struggle between authoritarianism and democracry.

The NZ Initiative released:

It is very rare for a former Governor to be critical of the performance of their successor. To be fair this report isn’t about the NZ reserve Bank so much as central banks generally.

A couple of extracts:

The main cause of inflationary pressures lies in the errors of judgment made by central banks in conducting monetary policy during the Covid pandemic. While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accentuated the rise in inflationary pressures, commodity prices were already high because of the rapid global expansion in liquidity and debt.

So Ukraine contributed but was not the primary cause.

In the US, the size of the Federal Reserve’s asset portfolio increased from USD $4 trillion in early 2020 to almost USD $9 trillion in early 2022-equivalent to around 23% of pre-Covid GDP. (In three rounds of quantitative easing in the six years following the global financial crisis the Federal Reserve’s asset portfolio increased by USD $3 trillion). New Zealand also had a large program of quantitative easing with $53.5 billion of asset purchases – equivalent to 17 % of pre-covid GDP.

And we are now paying the price for it.

Confident in their ability to maintain low inflation, central banks in recent years began diverting resources to other topics such as climate change and inequality (and in the case of the RBNZ also embracing New Zealand’s indigenous history and culture and adopting a Māori world view in the operations of the central bank). Such issues bear little if any relationship to the reasons why central banks exist — ensuring
price stability and financial stability.

It is a very good and easy to read paper. Sadly the Reserve Bank of New Zealand maintains their stance that they made no errors at all.

NZTU released:

The New Zealand Transport Authority have targeted a Featherston family with threats of enforcement action over a “Stop Three Waters” banner erected on private property.

Here is a photo of the banner in question:

The idea that motorists might mistake this sign for a stop sign is farcical.

Dr Jerry Coyne writes:

The latest effort to “indigenize” knowledge is the bestowing of a huge pot of money on Māori organizations to use “ancestral knowledge” to help cure mental health issues among the indigenous people.  …

What are these treatments? It’s not clear, but they’re based on lunar cycles and what can only be called psychoastrology.

Yes the health budget is going to be used to teach psychastrology.

Mental health is a form of health, and this is like treating diseases using astrology and “traditional methods” that have never been subject to genuine scientific tests. Doesn’t it seem wise, before investing $100 million in mental-health treatment, that the government of New Zealand be sure that those treatments actually work? 

This is the key – test and assess. Don’t just throw $100 million at something as a gesture. You could use that money on things proven to work.

The latest attendance data is a shocker. Some lowlights:

• Regular attendance rate in Term 1 was a record low of 46%
• That is 380,000 students not regularly in school compared to 160,000 in 2019
• The Maori regular attendance rate is 33% and Pacific 30%
• Around 25% of Maori and Pacific students are not even attending 70% of the time
• Only 25% of Decile 1 students are attending regularly and one in three are not attending even 70% of the time

We live in a country where fewer than 1 in 2 students regularly attend school. Incredible.

Stuff reports:

He donated $50 million for Wellington’s new children’s hospital, now Mark Dunajtschik is giving a further $40m to $50m to build a mental health unit in Lower Hutt.

The money, donated by Dunajtschik and his business and life partner Dorothy Spotswood​, will finance a new 34-bed adult mental health facility on the Hutt Hospital campus.

I am in awe of the generosity of Mark Dunajtschik and Dorothy. He has funded the Life Flight Trust as well as the two hospital wings. And his background is a toolmaker who turned to property when he was aged 57.

He has probably done more to improve health outcomes for people in Wellington than the Government (of either stripe). It shows the difference an individual or couple can make.