BBC reports:

The publisher of a book about cancel culture by Julie Burchill has cancelled it after the writer was accused of Islamophobia on Twitter.

The book, Welcome to the Woke Trials, had been due to be published by Little, Brown in April.

But Burchill got embroiled with a row with fellow writer Ash Sarkar.

Little, Brown said her comments were “not defensible from a moral or intellectual standpoint” and “crossed a line with regard to race and religion”.

Beyond ironic that a book on cancel culture was itself canceled.

A friend suggested a genius move for Donald Trump for his last days in office.

He should announce a full and unconditional pardon for Hunter Biden.

Think of the chaos that would create.

A guest post by Alwyn Poole:

The in-School Education Fixes are so easy …

… but as a nation we clearly prefer the PROBLEM … above solutions.

This week Richard Prebble wrote:

“We are stuffed if we do not fix this. In the 2019 international maths and science test 81 per cent of New Zealand year 9 pupils got a simple math question wrong. 73 per cent of Singaporean students answered correctly.

There are already commentators saying “no need to panic”, we have just slipped a few places. In 1970 when New Zealand first participated in an international education comparison, for reading, we came top. If you slip 2 to 3 places every three years then in 50 years you are where we are, 40th position. We have gone from top to being bottom in reading and maths in the English-speaking world.

Being innumerate is a personal tragedy. For the country these results are a disaster.”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/richard-prebble-education-standards-in-freefall-whats-going-on-in-nz-schools/ELE4LBDP7G5GATWIOZY6BFQHUE/

Over the last three guest posts I have done on Kiwiblog I outlined the meta-problems in the NZ system and looked at how high performing people become good at what they do in sport and the arts.
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/12/guest_post_how_we_are_life_handicapping_kiwi_kids_from_all_backgrounds.html

As Mr Prebble (and some of the Kiwiblog comments) point out – teachers, coaches, mentors have a HUGE part to play – and without guidance even 10,000 hours can be misdirected and wasted.

“And it turns out this study shows that there’s another important variable that Gladwell doesn’t focus on: how good a student’s teacher is.

Practice is important, and it’s surprising how much it takes to master something complicated. But Ericsson’s research suggests that someone could practice for thousands of hours and still not be a master performer. They could be outplayed by someone who practiced less but had a teacher who showed them just what to focus on at a key moment in their practice regimen.”
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-05-05-researcher-behind-10-000-hour-rule-says-good-teaching-matters-not-just-practice#:~:text=You’ve%20probably%20heard%20of,as%20good%20as%20Bill%20Gates

The very good thing about excellence in Academics is that – unlike sports and the Arts – it is a lot further from a zero-sum game. All students can excel. In NZ we are desperate for great teachers and those that actually do the job the children need. All subjects need to be taught with skill passion and primary teachers should not avoid teaching Math (as Prebble suggests many do) simply because they struggle with it themselves.

While in a very mixed-quality NZ teaching environment what can students do to learn well and master content? This is the advice we give (and we can show that it is working).

How to get 100% in Year 11 – 13 Assessments … and beyond

The two key things are – understanding and locking concepts/information into long-term memory. How to do that is below.

1. Be well organized for every school day. Sleep well. Eat breakfast. Have all books and equipment you need for school. Dress well. Start the day with a great attitude. Hug your parent(s) on the way out the door.

2. Look forward to classes. Be positive towards all subjects and all teachers – even when others are complaining. When others are negative – that is a great opportunity. Be the counter-culture. Love the teacher that everyone else thinks is horrible and useless.

3. Pay MASSIVE attention in every class. Make good notes. When you don’t understand – ask questions. This could be during or after class. Understanding in class is so important. FOCUS is everything!

4. Take all of your subject books home each night and;

– with pencil in hand – review the lesson for the day in each subject. For Math – practice the hardest problems until the lights go on and you go – “uh ha!”

– each night – for one of your subjects – write summary/study notes for the past week.

– then do your set homework.

If you do this process every-day then what you are learning will be in your long term memory and when you get towards exams/assessments you will know things very well already. You will be able to do practice exams/assessments and perfect things. You may not think you are a genius but genius is about effort! You can do it. When exams come up create a great study time-table and stick to it. DO NOT waste study leave.

5. Always aim for excellence/100%! If you aim for the stars and land on the moon it is a great achievement. As you leave at Year 10 there is no career that you cannot work towards. Aim to master every concept in every subject – from Math and English to all of your options.

Newshub reports:

Newshub can reveal the number of jobs created from the Government’s $1.1 billion of funding for nature-based employment from Budget 2020 is almost 800 so far. 

Data from the Ministry for the Environment shows that as of December 7, the total number of jobs created was 796

That’s an average cost per job of $1,391,910.

The NY Post reports:

San Francisco may remove Abraham Lincoln’s name from a high school, because a district committee says the 16th president — who abolished slavery — did not demonstrate that “black lives mattered to him.”

Lincoln is one of dozens of historical figures who the city school district’s renaming committee argued led lives so rife with racism, oppression or abuse that their names should not grace its buildings, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“The discussion for Lincoln centered around his treatment of First Nation peoples, because that was offered first,” Jeremiah Jeffries, chairman of the renaming committee and a first-grade teacher, told the paper. “Once he met criteria in that way, we did not belabor the point.”

He continued: “The history of Lincoln and Native Americans is complicated, not nearly as well known as that of the Civil War and slavery,” according to the paper.

“Lincoln, like the presidents before him and most after, did not show through policy or rhetoric that black lives ever mattered to them outside of human capital and as casualties of wealth building,” Jeffries said.

They really are crackers.

Stuff reports:

The Government has struck a deal with the Māori King, Tūheitia, over the disputed land at Ihumātao, buying the property from Fletcher Building for $29.9 million and holding it in a trust.

The money comes from the Government’s Land for Housing Programme as there has been a commitment that there will be housing on the site.

There already was commitment by Fletchers for housing – 480 houses, including some for the local Iwi.

National’s finance spokesman Michael Woodhouse said taxpayers were paying for the Government bungling a land dispute.

“Taxpayers aren’t a bank to be called upon to clean up the Government’s poor decisions, particularly when it is meddling in private property rights,” Woodhouse said.

“The Prime Minister should never have involved herself in the Ihumātao dispute and taxpayers shouldn’t bailing her out now.”

“The ramifications of this Crown deal go much further than the lost opportunity of building houses immediately. It will call all full and final treaty settlements into question and set a dangerous precedent for other land occupations, like the one at Wellington’s Shelly Bay.”

“More than 20,000 Kiwi families are on the waiting list for a home this Christmas. The Government should not be spending $30 million on stopping 480 much-needed houses from being built right now.”

We spent $30 million to prevent 480 houses being built.

ACT leader David Seymour said Ardern was interfering with private property rights.

“If you own land and someone squats on it, the prime minister won’t defend your property rights, she’ll use taxpayers’ money to buy the land off you,” Seymour said earlier this week.

“The prime minister’s job is to uphold the law, and none more so than private property rights. Instead she has thumbed her nose at the very legal framework that was designed with Māori and has worked so effectively to right past wrongs.”

Expect many more occupations of privately owned land, now that people know the Government will step in and reward them for the occupation.

Stuff reports:

A decade of steep rates hikes and paying for water within five years are both on the cards under plans set out by New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom.

His proposals would see New Plymouth’s total rates take go up 12 per cent next year and an average of 6.1 per cent every year for the following nine years.

Does the Council think households have had a 12% increase in income?

As we are heading to 300,000 people on the dole, they think families can afford a 12% rates increase.

If they go ahead, they should all be voted out.

Stuff reports:

Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has announced that economist Ganesh Nana will be the next chair of the Productivity Commission.

Cabinet has approved the appointment of Nana who is currently the Research Director of Wellington economic consultancy BERL. He will take up the new job on January 31, 2021.

Berl is effectively the Labour Party’s economic consultancy. This is not the appointment of someone who will independently crique government policies to ensure they are increasing productivity.

Nana, an economist, is widely considered to be close to the Labour Party. His firm, BERL, costed Labour’s economic policies in the 2017 election, but not for the most recent campaign. He is the second recent appointment with close ties to the Labour movement after former New Zealand Council of Trade Unions’ policy director and economist Bill Rosenberg became a commissioner in September of this year.

Dr Nana is well outside the mainstream. Here’s his take on capitalism:

Such a pity as the Productivity Commission has produced excellent work in the past on how to solve the housing crisis etc.

Stuff reports:

The man who sued Speaker Trevor Mallard over a “rape” comment has an ongoing employment case against Parliamentary Service, it has been revealed.

Having had the Speaker settle a defamation case for wrongly calling him a rapist will only help his employment case. So overall costs to the taxpayer could end up well over $400,000 – maybe even higher.

Mallard said he almost immediately regretted describing the series of sexual assault complaints in a review of parliamentary culture as “rape” – but he did not apologise for the matter sooner as it soon became an employment issue and then a legal case.

It seems to be an immediate apology the next day would have been better than an 18 month process costing taxpayers $330,000.

Barry Soper writes:

Truth is more likely that he withdrew his rape claim now because if he did it last year chances are he wouldn’t have survived a no-confidence vote in his Speakership. New Zealand First wouldn’t have supported him.

Next year he’ll survive a vote with Labour’s majority and with mother of kindness, well-being and transparency Jacinda Ardern saying he simply made a mistake and he’s the man for the job. The man he maligned is out of a job and if now suffering ill health.

No kindness for the poor former staffer whose life has been pretty much destroyed.

The Herald editorial says Mallard should go:

The entire saga also injures the so-called MeToo movement, a rallying of support for genuine victims of sexual abuse and sexual harassment where people publicise allegations of sex crimes committed by powerful and/or prominent men. Any false rape claim undermines the real hurt and pursuit of justice in genuine cases. One from such high office, only more so.

Mallard’s situation will be an ongoing distraction and impediment to the second term of Government for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. For a Government needing sharp focus on recovery from a pandemic and a stated desire for transformation, continuing in this role must surely be untenable.

And HDPA writes:

But what makes this worse, if that’s even possible, is that Mallard did not admit there was more money due when he was asked about it.

In my opinion, he misled the public with his answer.

He was asked by Chris Bishop if there was “any further money to be paid”, and Mallard answered “there is no further money to be paid”.

But then, just over a minute later, the chief executive of Parliamentary Services, Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, admits “there is still a claim against the Parliamentary Service”.

Michael Woodhouse asks: “Is the committee now hearing that $330,000 is not necessarily the end of the matter in terms of cost to the taxpayer?”

Gonzalez-Montero answers, “Yes.”

She concludes:

We can now add to his list of transgressions: attempting to mislead the public.

He will continue to be problem for Labour, because now that the opposition and taxpayers know there is more of our money to be spent, we will be asking about it next year.

So, as much as he’s tried to kill off this story before Christmas, it now almost certainly will drag into the next year unless he does the dignified thing and leaves the job.

I would be amazed if Mallard loses the confidence of Ardern over this. They have an incredibly strong personal relationship, and I can’t imagine a scenario in which she withdraws support.

Eric Crampton writes:

Canada’s carbon tax is set to rise from its current CAD$30 per tonne (NZD$33) to $170 per tonne by 2030.

A credible price on carbon is the strongest commitment a country can make in reducing carbon emissions. 

If you set the price of carbon correctly, then you almost don’t need any other policies. Governments like to announce lots of stuff that often does nothing or even makes thing worse. The price of carbon in the ETS is more powerful than anything else.

But few in New Zealand would believe it possible to more than quintuple prices in our Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) without political costs high enough to break the system.

Big increases in petrol, in electricity etc are not popular.

Because of how Canada’s federal system works, the federal government simply imposing a tax on some provinces, but not others, would not work out very well.

The federal government solved the problem in a rather ingenious way. It takes all of the carbon tax revenue raised from a province, puts it into a pot, and then gives it back to people in that province.

Provinces that produce more carbon emissions will pay more in carbon taxes. Households in those provinces then get a higher rebate payment back from the federal government. In Ontario, the first adult in a household receives an annual payment of $224. The second adult receives $112, and each child receives $56. The amount of the payment varies from province to province and will increase as the carbon tax rises.

This is a brilliant idea. Don’t use the ETS to make money for the Government. Use it to soften the increased costs for households.

And it also makes higher carbon prices politically possible. Most households will wind up receiving more back in carbon rebates than they will pay in carbon taxes. By 2030, the average family of four in Alberta will be receiving a carbon rebate amounting to about $3200 per year.

It will reward you for moving to lower carbon usage.

Every year, the government sells emissions credits into the ETS. So far, there has been no serious discussion about what should be done with the revenues collected at those ETS auctions. Why not create a carbon dividend?

Every quarter, the government could tally up all the revenue it raised by selling credits into the emissions trading scheme. It could take the raised funds, divide them up, and send each of us a carbon dividend payment.

I suspect Labour could never bring themselves to actually giving money back to all households, but there is an opportunity for National here to adopt a policy that would be good for the environment and good for households.

The Government has released the Briefings to Incoming Ministers or BIMs. Key takeaways are:

• MBIE says no more grants to tourism businesses (agree)
• Treasury says house prices will continue to rise (no surprise Sherlock)
• Treasury says Govt’s books not sustainable due to rocketing public service costs (borrow and hope)
• DPMC says child poverty rates will increase (Who’s the Minister?)
• Ministry of Transport says govt policies will not significantly reduce transport emissions
• 91% of state houses do not meet the Government’s own compulsory healthy home standards
• DIA says we need to spend more money on Premier House
• MBIE wants the borders to open to allow in highly skilled migrants
• MSD expects 280,000 on the dole by Jan 2022
• MSD says some of those on the public housing waitlist will never receive a public house

Over 1,500 people have voted in the 2019 Kiwiblog Awards. The winners are:

• National MP of the year – Judith Collins wins with 31% followed by Simon Bridges on 28%, Shane Reti 22% and Chris Bishop 20%
• Labour MP of the Year – Grant Robertson wins this year on 53% followed by Jacinda Ardern on 38% and Trevor Mallard on 9%
• Minor Party MP of the Year – A two horse race and David Seymour gets his usual landslide majority of 90% with Chloe Swarbrick on 10%
• MP of the Year is also a big win for favourite David Seymour on 84% and Jacinda Ardern 16%.

Congratulations to the winners, and the runners up.

Newshub reports:

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has called out the New Zealand Government for its “so-called” climate emergency declaration earlier this month.

In a tweet on Sunday (local time), the 17-year-old linked to a Newsroom opinion piece, arguing the Government’s declaration is merely virtue signalling unless it’s backed by immediate action to reduce the country’s carbon emissions.

“‘In other words, the Government has just committed to reducing less than 1 percent of the country’s emissions by 2025’,” Thunberg tweeted, quoting an excerpt from the article.

On this issue, it is Greta in the right.

The Government has to date failed on almost every measure with reducing emissions. The renewable electricity share has dropped. They have managed only 0.9% of public sector cars to go electric. They are projecting an extra 15,000 kT of greenhouse gases and their carbon neutral public sector pledge is merely a repeat of the same promise they made in 2007/

The 538 members of the Electoral College met in their 50 state capitals and DC today and voted for their pledged candidates. There were no faithless electors. Joe Biden won 57% of the Electoral college vote and Donald Trump 43%.

The only remaining step now is for Congress to certify and count the votes. The electoral votes certified by each Governor can only be rejected by Congress if both the House and the Senate agree. So this would mean 50 out of 50 to 52 Republican Senators would have to sustain an objection as well as at least six Democratic members of the House (and every House Republican).

Voting is now open for the 2020 Kiwiblog Awards.

The contest for National MP of the Year is between

• Chris Bishop for getting the highest personal vote of any MP, relative to their party and for his work in transport and infrastructure
• Simon Bridges for keeping National in the mid 40s pre-Covid and for his social media game since losing the leadership
• Judith Collins for accepting the hospital pass and providing much needed strong leadership for the party
• Shane Reti for his competence and credibility in health, and now as deputy leader

The contest for Labour MP of the Year is between

• Jacinda Ardern for leading Labour to their best result since 1946
• Trevor Mallard for changes making Parliament run better
• Grant Robertson for steady economic stewardship through Covid-19

Note there were also nominations for Siouxsie Wiles, Ashley Bloomfield and Covid-19 🙂

The contest for Minor Party MP of the Year is between:

• David Seymour for leading ACT to their best ever election result and restoring ACT’s brand
• Chlöe Swarbrick for winning Auckland Central and almost single handedly winning the cannabis referendum despite the total lack of leadership from Labour

Finally for overall 2019 MP of the Year, it is between:

• Jacinda Ardern for her historic election victory and leadership during Covid-19
• David Seymour for his election victory and constructive criticism of the Covid-19 response

You can vote in the embedded survey below, or at this link.

As I expected, Sir Bob Jones has responded to the disgraceful and false smear against him by Green MP Ricardo Menendez March in his normal forthright style. The blog is titled:

A horrible Green Party little turd

He first addresses the false claim:

He protested at the simplicity of his film projection job involving pushing a start button and (again, I’m not making this up) being criticised by politicians for calling it a low-skilled job, despite just acknowledging that reality.

Then he moved on to fresh fields which is why people drew my attention to this abomination of a self-centred world class wanker’s maiden speech, saying,

             “I clearly remember seeing clips of Winston Peters and Bob Jones scapegoating immigrants for the housing crisis, for unemployment and for inequality in general. We were also blamed for bringing low-skilled, low wage labour that didn’t contribute to the economy- or so they claimed.”

So here’s a message to this little turd. First, you clearly remember no such thing. The only time I’ve had a TV exchange on immigration with Winston was brief.

Winston: “Walking down Queen Street is like being in Hong Kong”. Me: “Yes. Isn’t it wonderful. All those beautiful Asian girls”

Heh. So there was no TV clip of Sir Bob scapegoating immigrants. It’s something he invented.

After this was pointed out to Menendez March, he refused to back down:

So, waking to how utterly wrong he’s been in maligning me, how did Menendez March respond? An Apology! You must be kidding.

Instead he dug his hole even deeper responding with spectacular illiteracy, “the Bob Jones of the world see us as economic units, so yeah nah”.

It’s unbelievable this garbage is in Parliament with his snout in the taxpayer’s pocket. Now if I’m known for anything it’s my advocacy for the humanities.

For four decades I’ve ridiculed B Coms and Commerce degrees (success in business is basically common sense and energy, something alien to the fluttering Menendez March who from his utterances oozes a sense of entitlement).

I’ve forked out millions for history and philosophy students’ scholarships.

I think the real crime is that Sir Bob is wealthy. To a Marxist this is an obscenity. So he chose his maiden speech to smear him.

Stuff reports:

A law change that requires schools to be routinely warned if sex offenders move in to the neighbourhood would amount to “disproportionately severe treatment” of offenders, Ministry of Justice lawyers say.

National MP Matt Doocey, whose private bill seeks to make the changes, described the advice as “outrageous”, placing the rights of child-sex offenders above principals and parents’ right to know.

He said the suggestions that notifying schools would be disproportionately severe to offenders was similarly outrageous as there were many cases where schools were already notified, and his bill would only make notification routine.

The advice seems ridicolous.

If the bill required posters to be placed around the neighbourhood warning people, then I would agree it would be unfair.

But merely notifying schools that a paedophile has moved in down the road is the least we should do to keep kids safe.

A guest post by Simon Lusk:

The Alliance Group publicly released their annual results showing an impressive $1.8B of revenue, up from last year’s $1.7B. Despite appearing not meeting the criteria of the wage subsidy of turnover falling by 30% or projected 30% they are refusing to pay back the remaining amount they have retained.

Alliance were an essential service through lockdown, and while they may have incurred some additional costs, it appears they do not meet the criteria required to retain any of the wage subsidy.

Alliance may have legitimate grounds for refusing to return the wage subsidy. They may not have legitimate reasons. What is not in any doubt, however, is they are treating returning the wage subsidy as a negotiation. That is why I want their decisions tested by an independent referee in the form of a judge in New Zealand’s court system.

There is also an issue of fairness that appears to have been missed by Alliance, commentators & government ministers. If a poor brown beneficiary in south Auckland had claimed a few thousand dollars more than they were entitled from social welfare they would be pursued & punished. Our law is supposed to treat all equally. Alliance directors appear to think they can retain large amounts of corporate welfare and not face consequences, unlike the poor brown beneficiary in South Auckland.

This is why I have sought to extend my action to all Alliance directors. They are well paid, well educated and wealthy. They likely do not approve of the beneficiary struggling to make ends meet ripping off the benefit system. They should not be surprised that someone wants them treated the same way as the benefit fraudster. New Zealand is an egalitarian society where we pride ourselves on all being treated equally. That’s why I want to see the Alliance directors in court justifying their decision to keep corporate welfare. Let the judge decide and let the directors face up to defend themselves as the poor brown beneficiary would have to.