It seems clear that the Coalition have lost their majority in the Australian House.
The only real uncertainty is whether Labor will gain a majority in their own right or need to do a deal with the left leaning so called teal independents.
We all know that many on the left love cancelling historical figures because views of 200 years ago are different today. George Washington, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson have all been targets, let alone Cecil Rhodes.
But here’s one that they have not yet targeted. Here is his record:
Who said all this? One Karl Marx.
Dame Anne Salmond has published a series of six articles at Newsroom on Te Tiriti and Democracy. They made some very salient points, which I will try and cover below.
In Part 1 she notes the problem with the Cooke decision in 1987:
In the 1987 ‘Lands’ case, for example, the judges’ framing of the Treaty as “a partnership between races” (or between “Pakeha and Maori”, or “the Crown and the Maori race”), cannot be securely traced back to the text of Te Tiriti. …
Nor is there any talk of ‘races’ in Te Tiriti. Whakapapa is a relational framing of the world as a cosmic network, with a burst of energy that generates thought, memory and desire, aeons of nothingness and darkness, the winds of life and growth, followed by earth and sky, forests, crops, winds, the sea and rivers, and people. All human beings in Te Tiriti are spoken of as ‘tāngata’ (persons); and ‘tāngata maori’ is best translated as ordinary, everyday human beings.
Instead of a racialised, bilateral “partnership between races,” then, (or between “Pakeha and Maori”, or “the Crown and the Maori race” – a framing that lends itself to ‘Iwi vs. Kiwi’ interpretations), the relationships among the parties in Te Tiriti itself are multi-lateral and non-racial – as you’d expect in a whakapapa framing.
And then in Part 2 she notes:
In very recent times, Sir Robin Cooke’s rewriting of Te Tiriti as a binary ‘partnership between races’ has been interpreted as requiring a split in kāwanatanga, or governance at the national level. The division of populations into ‘races,’ however, is a colonial artefact that cuts across whakapapa and is scientifically obsolete. It is not a sound basis for constitutional arrangements in the 21st Century.
I agree.
In Part 3 she looks again at the problem of racial division:
After 250 years of shared history in Aotearoa New Zealand, the lineages of indigenous persons and incoming settlers from many different backgrounds have tangled in ways that defy separation into two distinct ‘races’. In whakapapa, with its kin-based relationships among earth and sky, the winds and the sea, plants and animals as well as people, this kind of complexity is handled with admirable simplicity.
As different kinds of incoming settlers marry and have children with those who are already living in Aotearoa, they enter the whakapapa, bringing their lineages with them. These include persons described as ‘African,’ ‘Asian,’ ‘Pacific Islanders’ or ‘Pākehā’ in contemporary census tabulations. Here, where racial categories do not exist, these tīpuna (ancestors) are all described as tāngata, persons with their own origins and ancestral heritages.
Individuals may identify with the kin group of either parent, and kin groups define themselves by reference to an apical ancestor. As time passes, non-indigenous incomers may even have whānau named after them – the Manuels, the Stirlings, the Jacksons, the O’Regans etc.
In the logic of whakapapa, ideas of weaving, or binding, or currents flowing together in a river abound. The notion that these interwoven, ever-changing kin networks can be split into two distinct, timeless ‘races’ – ‘Māori’ and ‘Pākehā’ – does not fit well with this relational framing. Nor does the idea of ‘race’ have scientific credibility, as pointed out above.
In Part 5 she looks at the Rotorua bill:
Frederick Maning, an early settler in the Hokianga who lived among Māori, agreed: ‘The natives are so self-possessed, opinionated, and republican, that the chiefs have at ordinary times but little control over them, except in very rare cases, where the chief happens to possess a singular vigour of character, or some other unusual advantage, to enable him to keep them under.’
Even in war, as the missionary Henry Williams noted, “it was their usual way for each party to go where they liked, that everyone was his own chief. Without any one to direct, not only does each tribe act distinct from the other, but each individual has the same liberty.”
The evidence suggests that democratic values cannot be regarded as a colonial imposition.
Democracy and democratic values do not belong to any one race or culture. They are universal human rights.
No New Zealander should be asked to accept that, by virtue of their birth, they are less worthy than any other. And the chances that if they are asked, they will agree, are vanishingly small, because to do so is to surrender their dignity as a person.
As it states in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ‘Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.’
No ifs, no buts, no exceptions.
Sadly thought 77 MPs voted against the UDHR and voted to end equality of suffrage.
Sent in by a health professional:
I was talking to a couple of overseas-trained theatre nurses the other day. Both had had to undergo a month-long course in “cultural safety/ Treaty implications etc” before they could get their NZ nursing registration, all at a cool cost of over $11,000 each! Followed by an exam on the topic. Needless to say they never once got examined on their clinical nursing competence!!
We might get more nurses wanting to come and work here if we didn’t charge them $11,000 for cultural safety training!
A press release from the UK:
The UK’s first full-sized autonomous bus will take to the roads of Scotland for the first time this week as live testing begins for project CAVForth.
Stagecoach, in partnership with Fusion Processing, Alexander Dennis and Transport Scotland, will be carrying out on-road testing* of the autonomous bus over the next two weeks in preparation for the launch of the CAVForth pilot service in late summer. The Project CAVForth pilot, which is jointly funded by the UK Government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) will see five single-deck autonomous buses operating at SAE Level 4 over the Forth Road Bridge between Ferrytoll Park and Ride in Fife and the Edinburgh Park Train and Tram interchange. The buses are fitted with Fusion Processing’s ground-breaking sensor and control technology, CAVstar, that enables them to run on pre-selected roads without the safety driver having to intervene or take control. The buses will provide a service capable of carrying up to 36 passengers over the 14 miles across the bridge, with capacity for over 10,000 passengers a week.
I have no doubt this is the future. Autonomous electric vehicles (vans and buses) that will pick you up from your home and deliver you to your destination. Many households will be able to give up owning their own vehicles, as you can summon an autonomous vehicle by app within minutes.
Sadly the Government here is doing everything possible to stop this future. They are degrading roads and putting all the money into 19th century transport modes such as trains and trams which can only take you from one fixed point to another.
Stuff reports:
Inland Revenue’s total tax take is expected to rise from just over $104 billion in the year to June to more than $138b in the year to June 2026.
This is partially because of high inflation. Let’s say you have inflation of 5% a year or 20% over four years.
Let’s say you were on $70,000 today. You pay $14,020 tax. If your wages stay the same in real terms your tax paid increases by $4,620 or 33%. Your after tax income only increases by 17% so in real terms you have less money while the Government has more.
But it gets even better than that for the Government with GST. If prices go up 20%, then GST revenue goes up 20%.
But the tax haul doesn’t even stop there.
The Government is also expecting its first inflow of levies from its proposed Income Insurance Scheme with its levies on workers and employers bringing in $1.1b in the year to June 2025, jumping to $4.7b the following year when the scheme is expected to be in full swing.
This will be the largest take hike in decades – almost $5 billion of extra tax will be paid by employers and employees.
Every employee in New Zealand will be paying this extra tax, up to $1,800 a year, so unemployed people can get paid up to $400 a day not to look for jobs. This is what you will get if Labour get a third term.
The Taxpayers’ Union released:
Grant Robertson is the first Minister of Finance since Muldoon to fail to deliver a budget surplus during a time of economic boom, says the Taxpayers’ Union, commenting from today’s Budget 2022 Beehive lockup.
“With Government revenues booming, it is stunning that Grant Robertson has failed to deliver either tax relief or a surplus,” says Jordan Williams, the Executive Director of the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.
“The spike to inflation has seen record revenue flooding into the Beehive due to workers paying higher income tax rates and more GST. But despite the inflation, the lowest unemployment since records began, the end of COVID lockdowns, and better than expected economic numbers, Grant Robertson has actually pushed back the return to surplus.”
“It is stunning that, during a cost of living crisis, Grant Robertson has failed to give back any of his windfall gain to the workers who earned it. His failure to deliver either income tax relief or a balanced budget beggars belief: while households tighten belts, Wellington balloons.”
“With Government revenues as strong as they are, the Finance Minister could have today announced both income tax relief and a surplus. Instead, he’s decided to feast on the revenue with a laundry list of spending commitments.”
“The temporary $27-per week ‘cost of living’ payment is a cruel joke. Unlike genuine tax relief, it fails to improve productivity incentives. It’s just a three month handout, and an ineffective one at that. At current prices, it wouldn’t even buy two blocks of cheese!”
“The only silver lining is pushing back by three months the hike to petrol taxes and Road User Charges. With inflation running at 6.9%, the hike to petrol taxes should have been squashed permanently”
The NY Times has basically told its reporters to stop using and relying on Twitter so much. This is a welcome development and it would be great if NZ media did the same here.
Here are some quotes from the NY Times Executive Editor:
All good common sense. I despair when I see stories entirely based on the fact a couple of people on Twitter have criticised someone or something.
Got sent this fascinating chart from the Third Reich that shows how specific German laws were over working out your blood ancestry. It wasn’t about religion, but bloodline. If you had the right ancestors you had the privileges’ of citizenship, and if you didn’t you had less rights.
I am not considered Jewish as my mother wasn’t Jewish. But according to the Nazis I would be classified as a Jew as I would have been a child of mixed ancestry of the 1st grade. I would have needed permission from the Nazis to marry a non-Jew.
It’s a good reminder that rights of citizenship should not be dependent on your bloodline.
Morrison is good at some things, but photo ops is not one of them
Paul Goldsmith released:
The revelation that fewer than 70 cases have been supported by the Government’s strangulation initiative means hundreds of victims have missed out on support they were promised, National’s Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.
“$20 million was allocated to this cross-agency initiative in Budget 2020, to aid the prosecution of strangulation as part of the Government’s response to family and sexual violence.
“The Government promised 869 cases would be supported each year – yet a year and a half since the announcement, nowhere near 869 cases have been supported and the initiative appears to be in its infancy. Even worse, only $54,000 of the $20 million has been spent on help for victims.
Example No 732 of how the Government’s only skill is making announcements.
Incredibly sad to read about the lives of those killed in Buffalo by Payton Gendron. It was beyond doubt racially motivated mass murder and terrorism. He appears to be partially inspired by the Christchurch terrorist, quoting much of his manifesto in Gendron’s own manifesto. Gendron self-describes himself as a fascist, a white supremacist and an antisemite.
He claims Jews are responsible for non-white immigration and that non-whites will overwhelm and ripe out the white race. He expressed support for Nazism. The Times of Israel notes:
He said he had targeted Black people, but that Jews were “the biggest problem.”
He said Black Americans were killing white people and taking public funding, and Jews were responsible, and that although he was targeting Black Americans, Jews “can be dealt with in time.”
In the manifesto, Gendron allegedly called for a war between Jews and non-Jews.
“The real war I’m advocating for is the gentiles vs the Jews. We outnumber them 100x, and they are not strong by themselves,” he wrote.
“By their Jewish ways, they turn us against each other. When you realize this you will know that the Jews are the biggest problem the Western world has ever had,” the manifesto said. “They must be called out and killed.” …
“The Jews are responsible for many problems that we in the western world face today,” he wrote, saying Jews mainly used control of the media to spread propaganda. “For our self-preservation, the Jews must be removed from our Western civilizations, in any way possible.”
Such hatred is sickening. It is incredibly sad to see these copycat events, especially having people slaughtered as they go about their daily lives.
Stuff reports:
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has ruled himself out of the running in the upcoming Tauranga by-election on the day that nominations closed.
The former MP for Tauranga had been widely tipped to run for the seat once more, but has officially backed away from the June election despite giving the matter “serious consideration”.
This means the main candidates are:
Fran O’Sullivan writes:
In the 12 months to March 2022, crime increased in Auckland city and more people began living on the street. Police statistics reveal 1971 assaults, 148 aggravated robberies and 1666 thefts from stores in that period. This was about 30 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Since then there have been the ram raids, intimidation of shop-keepers and break-ins.
Contrast this with Sydney and the rest of New South Wales, which recorded a drop in crime during the pandemic lockdowns. …As one of 38,000 central city residents, I’ve had to come to terms with the escalating lawlessness in the CBD in the past two years. I’ve been threatened multiple times by the layabouts plonked outside the supermarkets in Victoria St and Queen St. Chased up Queen St by druggies wanting money. I’ve yet to see them moved on or trespassed — particularly during the four-month period when Auckland was locked down late last year.
There’s been intimidation by drugged-up thugs and patched gang members coming into office blocks to supposedly use toilets. I’ve witnessed others pushed into the midst of Quay St while police on the other side of the road did nothing.
I’ve put up with 501 deportees from Australia checking into our central city residential block intimidating fellow residents then running amok in city stores.
I’ve heard the tales of other residents around town who have been mugged and beaten, or had their gear stolen. Heard from them about the elderly 501 deportees from Australia running drugs from their apartment blocks with a steady stream of “customers” entering the place they call home.
There is fear in the city.
The most basic responsibility of Government is to keep its citizens safe. Auckland, Wellington, Rotorua and many more cities have become very unsafe.
AP reports:
Finland’s government declared a “new era” is underway as it inches closer to seeking NATO membership, hours before Sweden’s governing party on Sunday backed a plan to join the trans-Atlantic alliance amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Russia has long bristled about NATO moving closer to its borders, so the developments will be sure to further anger Moscow. President Vladimir Putin has already warned his Finnish counterpart on Saturday that relations would be “negatively affected.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday the process for Finland and Sweden to join could be very quick. He also didn’t expect Turkey to hold up the process.
Putin claims he invaded Ukraine as he didn’t want NATO bordering Russia, and his invasion has achieved the very thing he didn’t want. Finland has 1,272 kms of land border with Russia and Sweden surrounds the Baltic Sea,
The Herald reports:
New Zealand On Air has been labelled out of touch and wasteful for awarding $200,000 of taxpayer money on a documentary about Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick.
The Act Party said Swarbrick should reject any role in the publicly-funded documentary.
NZ On Air today said “misinformation” was being sown after groups including the Taxpayers’ Union criticised the funding.
Swarbrick was not involved in pitching the project.
Irrelevant – she is cooperating with it, and it benefits her political aspirations massively.
“This is a gross misuse of taxpayers’ money,” Act leader David Seymour said.
NZ on Air must have lost their collective mind to think this was appropriate.
Media commentator Bill Ralston said the NZ On Air funding decision appeared to be problematic, even tone-deaf.
Ralston said it could be argued if the agency wanted to fund a documentary about a Green Party MP, it should do the same for all other parties in Parliament.
“It looks craven … It’s not a good idea by New Zealand On Air.”
How about we spend zero taxpayer dollars on fawning documentaries on any sitting MP.
Swarbrick directed queries to a producer who helped make 2020 film OK Chlöe.
Producer Letisha Tate-Dunning said the new project was a documentary following Swarbrick’s personal journey and daily life as an MP over the next two years.
So this in fact will be the second taxpayer funded “documentary” about the Green MP.
“Neither NZ On Air, the Green Party, or Chlöe herself have editorial control of the film. Chlöe does not benefit financially from the film,” she added.
“The producers want to make the film because they feel it’s important to show the reality of working within politics and how a young woman reconciles this with what and who is important to her.”
The benefit is political. Why did they not do one on ACT’s Brooke Van Velden?
Sean Plunket also writes:
our tax dollars all $199,9999.00 of them will fund this piece of electioneering and another $20,000.00 has already been tipped in for script development by another tax funded body, the Film Commission.
Now I’m not getting down on Chloe or the producers (one of whom is the wife of a prominent left-wing journalist) but there’s simply no way on God’s green earth that this can be seen as anything but taxpayer funding of a politically partisan puff piece. The decision to fund it with your tax dollar is bent, crooked, corrupt, and wrong.
To compound the problem it’s the second time NZOnAir has funded such a project. An earlier and much shorter film called “Ok Chloe” has already received the largesse of your tax dollar through NZOnAir.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pulled out of a similar project involving the same producers when she correctly read the room and realised how corrupt such funding looks.
It is impossible to imagine NZOnAir didn’t know exactly what they were doing when they approved this funding, but if they didn’t they are incompetent and if they did they are corrupt.
Harsh but true. The problem is they are so removed from the New Zealanders who fund them, that they probably can’t comprehend how anyone objects to a $220,000 taxpayer funded hagiography on a Green MP. I mean, all their friends will love it.
My solution is to move NZ on Air from the Wellington CBD to say Taihape. That will get them in touch with real NZ.
The Daily Wire reports:
A new corporate culture memo from Netflix is taking a hardline stance on attempts to silence artistic expression by warning those who are offended by the streaming service’s content that they may want to go find a job somewhere else.
Variety reports that the change in Netflix’s company culture appears to be in large part due to the backlash the streaming service faced from woke employees last year over its Dave Chappelle special, which the employees claimed was transphobic.
The updated Netflix Culture memo includes a new section called “Artistic Expression” that states that it will not “censor specific artists or voices” even if employees consider the content “harmful.”
“If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you,” the memo states, later adding that employees may be required to work on projects that they “perceive to be harmful” and that if they have a hard time accepting their work assignment, they might want to consider working somewhere else.
“Entertaining the world is an amazing opportunity and also a challenge because viewers have very different tastes and points of view. So we offer a wide variety of TV shows and movies, some of which can be provocative,” the new section reads, later adding, “we support the artistic expression of the creators we choose to work with” and that “we let viewers decide what’s appropriate for them, versus having Netflix censor specific artists or voices.”
This is great news. So many major corporations have allowed a couple of dozen woke employees to force them into censorship. You’ve seen publishing staff try to blacklist JK Rowling’s book, Netflix staff try to cancel Dave Chappelle etc and all too often they succeed when it is is someone who isn’t a global star.
Netflix’s response is what you want – if you don’t like who we publish or broadcast, then go find a job elsewhere.
They have probably seen what happened at Disney. DIsney changed their policies because of a protest by 0.3% of their staff and have had a massive backlash from conservatives. Their share price has dropped from $142 to $104 in six weeks.
Enter captions below. As always we want funny, not nasty.