The Herald reports:

Gareth Morgan has quit The Opportunities Party (TOP) after a dispute over how to spend a $50,000 donation that the party has given back to him.
But Morgan says the main reason he is leaving is not the dispute, but simply because it is time to pour energy into other projects.
Morgan has donated about $2 million to TOP to contest the 2017 election, and said he had put in about twice that amount overall, including what it took to set up the party from scratch.

A total of $2.29 million donated.

Asked if the party had been a dictatorship, Simmons said: “Gareth was the sole funder, the leader, and chair of the board. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.”

Code for yes.

One former TOP candidate thought the old military quote “We’re here to preserve democracy not practice it” applied wonderfully to Gareth.

“In my view, the leadership cannot be kumbaya, ‘let’s hold hands’ – that’s Green Party-type stuff. For me, it’s got to be hard-ass, straight between the eyes, ‘this is the best policy and tell me why it’s not, otherwise adopt it’.
“Geoff is far more conciliatory. He’s a really nice guy. He and the others, well, they’re not going to be like me. They’ll adopt a different approach, and whether that works I have no idea, but it’s up to them.”

A leader does need to be able to get media attention. But that doesn’t mean all publicity is good publicity.

Stuff reports:

Little said he was fast-tracking a widespread review of New Zealand’s existing hate speech legislation.
This would include deciding if hate crime should be established as its own separate offence, as it is in the United Kingdom.

The UK is a great example of how well intentioned laws end up criminalising many different types of speech. Some examples:

• An evangelist, was convicted because he had displayed to people in Bournemoutha large sign bearing the words “Jesus Gives Peace, Jesus is Alive, Stop Immorality, Stop Homosexuality, Stop Lesbianism, Jesus is Lord”. 
• A man was arrested in Cardiff for distributing pamphlets which called sexual activity between members of the same sex a sin
• Harry Taylor sentenced to six months prison (suspended) because he left anti-religious cartoons in the prayer-room of Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport on three occasions and the Chaplain complained
• A 19-year-old woman was convicted of sending a “grossly offensive” message after she posted rap lyrics that included the N-word on her Instagram page
• Scottish YouTuber Mark Meechan of Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire was fined £800 after being found “grossly offensive” for posting a YouTube video that was viewed over 3 million times depicting him training his girlfriend’s pug to respond to the phrase “Sieg Heil” by lifting his paw in a Nazi salute
• A student was arrested for saying to a mounted police officer “Excuse me do you know your horse is gay”
• A teenager was arrested for barking at two labradors, as the owner was non-white
• A teenager was prosecuted for holding up a placard that described the Church of Scientology as a cult
• A man was charged with racially aggravated criminal damage for writing “Don’t forget the 1945 war” on a UKIP poster
• An Essex baker Daryl Barke was ordered to take down a poster promoting English bread with the slogan “none of that French rubbish”, because the police believed it would stir up racial hatred
• An 11 year old boy was charged for calling a classmate a “Paki bastard” in a playground fight after being called a teletubby
• The North Wales Police Commissioner tried to prosecute a newspaper columnist for suggesting a Welsh bridge should be named something indecipherable with no real vowels, such as Ysgythysgymlngwchgwch Bryggy”.
• An Irish TV writer was visited by the Police because he used the pronoun “he” on Twitter to refer to a transgender woman.

These are just a few examples I’ve plagiarized from various columns and articles I could locate. There are no doubt many more.

We already have a law which states it is an offence to publish anything which is “likely to excite hostility or ill-will against, or bring into contempt or ridicule, any such group of persons in New Zealand on the ground of the colour, race, or ethnic or national origins of that group of persons”

Lowering the bar from exciting hostility will lead to court cases like the ones cited above. If the Government proceeds, it will be buying a huge battle.

Phil Twyford announced:

We announced on the 31st of January that we are recalibrating Kiwibuild and its targets.

The Coalition Government is now in a position to announce our new targets to demonstrate we are on track to deliver 100,000 homes over ten years for first home buyers.

The old and new targets are shown below:

• 1 July 2019 1,000 150
• 1 July 2020 6,000 750
• 1 July 2021 16,000 2,500
• 1 July 2022 28,000 5,000
• 1 July 2023 40,000 10,000
• 1 July 2024 52,000 20,000
• 1 July 2025 64,000 40,000
• 1 July 2026 76,000 60,000
• 1 July 2027 88,000 80,000
• 1 July 2028 100,000 100,000

This looks absolutely unrealistic. The Government is saying in their first term they’ll now manage only 2,500 houses (probably right) but in a second term they’ll build 15,000 (a stretch) and in a mythical third term they’ll magically build 60,000 houses.

Excellent.

Stuff reports:

A Hamilton City Councillor who wore an anti-vaccine t-shirt to an autism awareness event says she didn’t mean to cause offence.

That is pretty offensive. Basically she wore a t-shirt telling all the parents I think the reason your kids are autistic is because they were vaccinated.

But Siggi Henry, known for her strident anti-fluoride stance, is defending her anti-vaccination views, saying many parents are too accepting of medical advice.

Yeah, what has medical advice ever done for humanity, apart from increase life expectancy by 30 years or so.

A new Danish study has found that the MMR vaccination does not trigger or increase the risk of autism in children. The survey looked at more than half a million children born between 1999 and 2010 and is the single largest study on this topic to date.
Henry said she hadn’t heard of the study but later contacted Stuff to say she had read the study and that her views on the MMR vaccine hadn’t changed.
Henry uses a variety of Facebook groups to keep her informed on vaccines.

Need more be said.

Duncan Garner writes:

Yet right now she carries so much political capital she could probably pass two capital gains taxes but that’s not the point. This decision matters next year when Labour is heading into an election campaign.
The environment next year must not be confused with now. She won’t have political capital and trust like she does right now. She’ll also be selling climate change measures in a slowing economy and the jobless numbers could be rising. 
And let’s be honest the housing market has gone cold – especially in Auckland. This week at the lunchtime Bayleys Auction 8 out of 8 houses did not sell. 
And here’s the real reality check, there was not one bid on any house. Two apartments sold, one for barely the same price as 3 years ago. 
So the desired effect has happened, the housing market has cooled and first home buyers are back. It does not need a huge tax shift that could slow the economy even further. This economy needs certainty and confidence not a half baked tax shift that could backfire. 

House prices have naturally corrected. The market has been flat for a couple of years now.

A CGT will impose huge compliance costs on hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders and have little impact on house prices.

Yahoo reports:

At just 37, Pete Buttigieg has deployed to Afghanistan, graduated from Harvard, learned seven languages and serves as mayor of a Midwestern American city.
Now the Millennial Renaissance man is seeking to become the first openly gay president of the United States — and the youngest — a longshot 2020 prospect whose odds appear to improve by the week.

I was listening to a live recording of the popular US Politics Gabfest podcast and was amazed by how many people in the audience cheered when Buttigieg’s name was mentioned.

In theory someone who has never held higher office that Mayor of a small city (301st by population in the US) should have no chance. But hey Trump never held any elected office before President. The rules have changed.

Buttigieg happens to be gay but isn’t campaigning as an identity politics activist (which upsets some on the left). His military service, earnestness, and sheer intelligence has gathered him a cult following.

He draws sharp contrasts with Trump on multiple fronts including age, government experience, military service, campaign style, and “intellectual curiosity,” she added.
“Every single thing about him is in diametric opposition” to the president, she said.
Buttigieg is relishing his breakout moment, fuelled by a star turn headlining a recent town hall that saw his national profile skyrocket.
Bookish and smart, he refutes the charge that he’s too young and inexperienced to compete in the diverse Democratic field, or against Trump himself.
“I have more years of government experience under my belt than the president… and more military experience than anybody to walk into that office on day one since George H.W. Bush,” he said at the event, broadcast by CNN.
“So I get that I’m the young guy in the conversation, but I would say experience is what qualifies me to have a seat at this table.”

Not lacking confidence.

In Iowa, Buttigieg surged from one percent support to 11 percent and third place in Emerson Polling’s survey released Sunday, behind former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders and ahead of more prominent candidates like senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.

One huge advantage Buttigieg will have is no voting record on national issues to attack.

CNBC reports:

The United States became the world’s biggest oil producer in 2018, and over the next five years, the nation will take aim at becoming the top oil exporter, according to the International Energy Agency.
IEA forecasts U.S. exports of crude oil and petroleum products will nearly double, hitting about 9 million barrels per day by 2024. At that level, the U.S. will surpass Russia’s shipments and threaten to unseat Saudi Arabia, the current top exporter.

That’s incredible. For decades the US was totally dependent on oil from the Middle East. Now they will be producing more than Saudi Arabia thanks to fracking technology.

Pulling ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia in exports would further erode their influence in the oil market.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have formed an alliance in recent years, coordinating oil production among OPEC and other oil-producing countries. The so-called OPEC+ alliance has capped output for much of the last two years, helping to boost oil prices after a punishing downturn.

OPEC is basically a cartel. The less market power they have, the better it is for consumers.

Stuff reported:

The trial of a new form of public transport in one of Auckland’s wealthiest suburbs is praying for rain after making a slow start.
AT LOCAL, which is a New Zealand-first, is a new form of public transport that’s currently being trialled for a year at an estimated cost of $1.3 million.
The Uber-style service provided by Auckland Transport allowed residents of Devonport to request a pick-up via an online app by one of five dedicated electric vehicles which then takes them home or to a nearby ferry wharf.
But after three months the number of people expected to use the service on a weekly basis have not even reached half of the modest target set by Auckland Transport.

So ratepayers have paid $1.3 million for a service run by the Council which is near identical to Uber.

Global News reports:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears to have suffered more damage from the SNC-Lavalin scandal than U.S. President Donald Trump has from the Russia investigation, hush money payments to a porn star, alleged campaign finance violations, threats of impeachment proceedings and the litany of new investigations launched by Democrats.
That’s according to a new Ipsos poll, conducted exclusively for Global News, which found that Trudeau’s approval rating (40 per cent) has now slipped below Trump’s (43 per cent), even as the Conservative Party established a double-digit lead over the Liberals.

Even worse is the voting preference which is 40% Conservatives, 30% Liberals, 21% NDP. And women have deserted them the most – only 28% of women now voting Liberal.

Current odds are:

1. Environment Secretary Michael Gove 7:2
2. Cabinet Office Minister David Liddington 6:1
3. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson 6:1
4. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt 10:1
5. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab 12:1
6. Home Secretary Sajid Javid 12:1
7. Work & Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd 49:1

Matthew Hooton writes:

There are theoretically four candidates to replace Peters but, if there is a change, NZ First MPs have no more choice than National MPs with Judith Collins, than to anoint Shane Jones.
While more internationalist than Peters, Jones would need to respect NZ First’s heritage by becoming the champion of globalisation’s victims and broadening the party’s appeal to small business owners — the so-called “white vans”. Jones’ Labour background might help attract its remaining conservative males.
If Peters accepts change is needed to assure his legacy, he may agree to forgo the leadership but try to remain Deputy Prime Minister. This would be a mistake.
If Jones is to get NZ First back above 5 per cent, it must be him voters see alongside Ardern over the next 18 months. He must become as much part of the political furniture as Peters for so many years. Bad behaviour won’t work post-March 15.

So Hooton argues Jones must become Deputy Prime Minister in order for NZ First to survive.

That would be very interesting indeed.

An insightful speech by Phil Twyford to the NZ Initiative. The key part is:

The second challenge I identified was a planning system based on urban containment.
That containment has acted to hobble vertical growth.
Height and density restrictions have stopped our cities growing up, preventing efficient land use, blocking the development of more affordable housing options like flats, terraces, town houses and apartments.
Environment Minister David Parker and I are working on national direction under the RMA that will set clear parameters for Council plan making to incentivise quality intensification.
The aim is to encourage density done well particularly around rapid transit interchanges and corridors.
It will also inject a significant increase in the quantum of development opportunities in the market.
That is vertical expansion. Now for the horizontal.
Our aim is to bring down urban land prices by flooding the market with development opportunities.
We want to break the current land market model which sees the planning system and infrastructure financing logjam create an artificial scarcity of land.
Incremental relaxation of the Urban Growth Boundary and zoning changes simply drip feed small amounts of new land, and new subsivisions, into a highly speculative market.
This is the land banking and speculation model that characterises the greater Auckland land market.

Twyford in opposition promised to abolish the Auckland Rural Urban boundary. If he can deliver on that, it will have a huge impact on house prices.

The Herald reports:

The Parole Board’s decision to release convicted killer Paul Wilson was a reasonable one, despite him going on to kill again, an independent review has concluded.
Paul Russell Wilson, aka Paul Pounamu Tainui, 55, was today jailed at the High Court in Christchurch for life with a minimum non-parole period of 28 years for murdering Nicole Marie Tuxford, 27, in Christchurch last year while on life parole – 24 years after he killed former girlfriend Kimberly Schroder in Hokitika.
The shocking case prompted the Parole Board to commission an independent review of its involvement with Wilson who was released on parole in 2011 — after being denied an early release four times previously.
Both the Tuxford and Schroder families have slammed the decision to allow Wilson back into the community.

The review was carried out by Devon Polaschek, a distinguished forensic clinical psychologist, professor of psychology, and joint director of the New Zealand Institute of Security and Crime Science, University of Waikato.
In findings released today, Polaschek concluded that the decision to grant Wilson parole was “a reasonable one”.

A reasonable one possibly, but also a disastrously wrong one.

Offenders whose convictions include a single, relationship-related homicide, but who have little criminal history otherwise, pose some challenges for decision-makers, she noted.
“It is well understood in the international research literature that those who murder a current or former intimate partner with few or no previous convictions for other types of offending are very unlikely to be reconvicted in a similar way, or at all,” said Polaschek, a former Fulbright scholar.
New Zealand data going back to 1972 found that the likelihood of a person convicted of a homicide being convicted of a second homicide following parole was in the region of 0.4 per cent. 

That is the wrong question. Of course double murderers are very rare. The data that is more pertinent is how many people convicted of homicide, go on to commit any sort of further violent offence once released?

The Herald reports:

ANZ’s Business Outlook Survey for March showed the New Zealand economy is “quietly losing steam”, the bank said.
The bank said “headline” business confidence fell 7 points in the month and a net 38 per cent of respondents reported that they expected general business conditions to deteriorate in the year ahead.
Firms’ expectations for their own activity eased 5 points to a net 6 per cent expecting a lift.
“Most activity indicators eased slightly in March, consistent with our expectation that the economy is quietly losing steam” ANZ chief economist, Sharon Zollner, said.

Zollner said the New Zealand economy was delicately poised.

So a really good time to introduce a new tax that will punish people for investing in businesses.

The Herald reports:

A double-killer who savagely raped and murdered a young Christchurch woman 24 years after he first killed an ex-girlfriend in a chillingly similar case has today been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 28 years.
Paul Pounamu Tainui, aka Paul Russell Wilson, 55, will be at least 83-years-old before he can even be considered for a release from jail.

A pity the court turned down the prosecution request for LWOP. The families of the two victims will still be alive in 28 years and they shouldn’t have to go through the trauma of submitting to the Parole Board to keep him in jail.

Someone who has murdered twice, should never be given a third chance.

The Guardian reports:

A first attempt by MPs to find a consensus route forward for Brexit has ended in deadlock and confusion after the Commons rejected every option put forward, albeit with a near-even split on the idea of joining a customs union.
Oliver Letwin, the veteran Conservative MP who led the process which allowed backbenchers to seize control of the order paper to hold a series of indicative votes, said the results were “disappointing” but he hoped a new round of votes would be held on Monday.
The Speaker, John Bercow, said he would allow this to take place, prompting shouts of protests from many MPs.
The Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, said the results strengthened the government’s view that Theresa May’s Brexit deal was the best and only way forward.

It is clear it is May’s deal or no Brexit.

The closest result was a commitment for the government to negotiate a “permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union with the EU” in any Brexit deal. Put forward by the pro-EU Tory veteran Ken Clarke and others, it was voted down by 272 votes to 264.
The only other relatively close vote was on a plan drawn up by the Labour MPs Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson, and tabled by the former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett, to require a referendum to confirm any Brexit deal. This was lost by 268 votes to 295.
Other softer Brexit options sustained heavier defeats. A plan for “common market 2.0”, involving UK membership of the European Free Trade Association (Efta) and European Economic Area (EEA), had 188 votes in support and 283 against.
The Labour frontbench plan for a softer Brexit was defeated by 237 to 307, while a motion tabled by the Conservative MP George Eustice, which proposed staying in Efta and the EEA without a customs union, only gained 65 votes, with 377 against.
The final three votes were also decisive, and concerned other areas of Brexit. A Conservative Brexiter plan to propose leaving the EU without a deal on 12 April lost by 160 votes to 400; a Scottish National party plan to revoke article 50 lost by 184 to 293; and another Brexiter plan seeking preferential trade arrangements with the EU if there is no withdrawal agreement lost by 139 to 422.

This is why 650 can’t negotiate a deal. It’s madness.

Time to back May’s deal or betray the results of the referendum.

Newshub reports:

New Zealand’s Jewish community is outraged and revolted after a prominent mosque leader blamed Mossad for being behind the Christchurch terror attack.
On Saturday, a group called Love Aotearoa Hate Racism organised a rally for the victims in Auckland’s Aotea Square.
Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar, gave a speech questioning where the gunman got his funding from. He said he suspected it came from “Mossad” and “Zionist business”.

It is such a shame that Bhamji did this, at a time when communities are trying to support each other.

His speech is clearly anti-Semitic in trying to blame Jews for the acts of the white supremacist terrorist.

As reprehensible as his speech was, it is worth putting in context. He said stuff in a speech likely to incite hostility against Jews. But he didn’t actually condone violence or commit acts of violence. So let’s not use his stupidity to minimise what happened in Christchurch or suggest any equivalence.

What is worth focusing on, is have there been any consequences for the speech?

Newshub spoke to Love Aotearoa Hate Racism co-founder Joe Carolan, who said Bhamji was one speaker out of 30 and there were many different points of view at the event.
When asked whether he agreed with or believed the theory that Mossad were behind the attack, Carolan told Newshub “absolutely not”.

Carolan is a far left activist. He basically seems to say that it’s not a problem as he was just one speaker of 30 and others had different views. Considering the group is called Hate Racism, you’d think he’d take a stronger stand against one of his invited speakers saying a terribly racist thing at his rally.

But Moses says the event organisers should have publicly disagreed with Bhamji.
“It is unfortunate that they did not appear to put its anti-racism message into practice, by challenging or condemning the racism in their midst,” she told Newshub.
“We must call out hateful dehumanising language, whatever the source, target and circumstances, and even when it is not politically expedient to do so.”

If someone says something deeply racist at an anti-racism rally, then intervening would be appropriate.

Newshub contacted Bhamji, who accused Newshub of singling him out.
“I made a statement, a lot of other people made statements,” he said.

Bhamji defended his speech, saying an inquiry is needed into where the alleged gunman got his money from. He didn’t offer any proof to his speculation Mossad had funded the alleged gunman.

“Mossad is up to all these things,” he said. “When I talk about Mossad, why should the Jews be upset about it? Give me an answer?”

Bhamji seems totally unrepentent. As we see reports every day of people losing jobs because of racist statements they may have made, are there any consequences for Bhamji for his racist statements?

I suspect the vast majority of Muslims in New Zealand are appalled by this man’s speech. Don’t think he is representative. But it would be good if he was removed from his position of authority.

The Washington Post reports:

Prosecutors in Cook County, Ill., dropped charges against Jussie Smollett on Tuesday, an astonishing reversal that came a month after the actor was arrested, charged with lying to police about a bigoted attack and pilloried by Chicago’s top police official on live television.
Prosecutors announced their decision only 18 days after a grand jury had indicted him on 16 felony counts, citing Smollett’s history of volunteer work and two days of community service performed by the actor since his arrest, as well as his agreement to forfeit his $10,000 bond to the city.

So he got off because he donated $10,000 to the city and did two days community service.

Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett and his attorneys “chose to hide behind secrecy and broker a deal to circumvent the judicial system.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) said: “This is, without a doubt, a whitewash of justice and sends a clear message that if you’re in a position of influence and power, you’ll get treated one way, other people will be treated another way. There is no accountability.”

Absolutely right. A shameful decision by the prosecutors.