The Herald reports:

Auckland Council is spending up to $90,000 to provide advance warnings to householders to be hit by rates rises not due to be generally notified until midnight tonight.

The council is making about 12,000 phone calls to brace those ratepayers for the worst, and has been mailing around 77,000 letters to let others know their rates notices will be coming soon.

A spokeswoman said the phone campaign had been funded through the council’s long-term budget, to the tune of a $60,000 initially, but with an option to add another $30,000 if needed.

“The call is a chance for council staff to talk through changes to rates as a result of revaluation, transition, change of property and the transport levy….” she said.

It is in advance of the council’s rating database going live online at midnight tonight.

But Point Chevalier resident Andrew Robertson, for whom a phone call received last night as he was cooking dinner for his family of six warning him of a 46 per cent rates rise, has condemned the campaign as another example of a spend-thrift council.

Mr Robertson, who faces a $1720 increase to $5500 in his rates bill, said he was expecting “some variation” in an average residential rise of 9.9 per cent in view of recent property revaluations.

“But 46 per cent?” he asked.

I’d encourage Mr Robertson and others to join the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance, and fight back.

“It must cost money to have a person sitting on a phone ringing up ratepayers telling them what’s going to be coming in a couple of days anyway. What’s the point?”

Trying to protect the guilty 10 who voted for the massive increases from a public backlash.

The Washington Post reports:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose caustic comments about Mexicans have inflamed the immigration debate, told thousands of cheering supporters here Saturday that “we have to take back the heart of our country.”

In a rambling, defiant speech delivered in this border state that has been the epicenter of the nation’s divisive battle over immigration reform, Trump declared: “These are people that shouldn’t be in our country. They flow in like water.” One man in the crowd of 4,200 shouted back, “Build a wall!”

On the back of such rhetoric, Trump is now leading the Republican field on 16%, ahead of Jeb Bush 13% and Ben Carson 10%.

This is a nightmare for the Republicans. Trump won’t win the nomination, and is unelectable as President. But his statements will poison the brand of the Republicans.

Most people standing for President moderate their remarks because they hold elected office, and can’t get away with being so inflammatory. Those who don’t tend to get very little publicity. But Trump is getting the headlines, and ramping up the rhetoric.

There is a problem with illegal immigration in the US.  But suggesting that the Mexican Government is actually deciding who to send over the border, is fanciful. It’s nothing to do with the Government, and everything to do with Mexicans thinking they can have a better standard of living in the US.

The Herald reports:

Locals in the remote Catlins area who saw John Beckenridge in the days before he disappeared with his 11-year-old stepson are adamant the pair are alive and have probably fled the deep south.

Mr Beckenridge, 64, was captured on security cameras paying for supplies in cash in the days after he took Mike Zhao-Beckenridge from James Hargest College’s junior school in Invercargill on March 13.

Over the next week, the pair were spotted driving around the Catlins, southeast of Invercargill, and seen camping in tents and in the back of the Swedish-born pilot’s dark-blue Volkswagen Touareg.

Sometime over the next 24 hours, Mr Beckenridge’s car went over an 88m cliff near Curio Bay – a remote spot notorious for rough seas.

A missing persons alert went out the day Mike Zhao-Beckenridge disappeared and border alerts were issued within 24 hours, police say.

It took six weeks to recover the vehicle from the wild cove’s crashing waves. Police found “no signs of human remains” in the car.

Mr Beckenridge is believed to have several aliases, including John Locke, John Robert Lundh, Knut Goran Roland Lundh and John Bradford. Friends believed he faked his and Mike’s deaths.

I think anyone with multiple aliases tends to be a bad sort. Beckenridge is basically a kidnapper. He stole his step son from his actual mother.  I hope he is caught one day.

The Telegraph reports:

Jo Goodhew announced:

Greater scrutiny of the Charities Register has resulted in over 1000 charities being deregistered says Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Jo Goodhew.

A recent inspection of Annual Returns held by the Charities Register found more than 2,000 registered charities had not filed their Annual Returns and financial information for two years or more.

“This clean-up of the Charities Register will provide the public with greater confidence that the 26,866 registered charities in New Zealand are fulfilling their legal obligations to report their financial information,” says Mrs Goodhew.

“Registered charities receive generous tax advantages funded by the taxpayer, and in return they are expected to explain to the public how they are using their funds and resources to benefit the people or cause they were set up to help.”

The inspection has led to 1,010 charities being deregistered, including 106 that voluntarily deregistered, and 904 that failed to respond to the requests to file their overdue Returns.

That still seems a staggeringly high number of charities.

Leyonhjelm is the Australian Senate’s only classical liberal Senator.

News.com.au reports:

Pao took over earlier this year as Reddit CEO after being fired from the prominent venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, prompting a highly publicised lawsuit.

But she quickly ruffled feathers and provoked anger with the unexplained firing of a Reddit employee, leading to an online petition calling for her departure.

Reddit, which has more than 163 million users and describes itself as a forum for real-time journalism, said in a statement that Pao resigned “by mutual agreement” and would be replaced by founder and original CEO Steve Huffman.

It wasn’t the petition that did her in, but that many of the moderators of subreddits went on strike, did blackouts etc. Basically they got the message across that they were collectively more important to Reddit than the CEO.

Rob Hosking writes at NBR:

This is where Mr Twyford’s effort is a cheap and nasty political shot. By basing his claims on data about whether investors have what Labour considers foreign-sounding names, he has opened up a seam of racism.

It appears he and Labour Party researcher Rob Salmond have simply gone down a list of property buyers and singled out anyone who has a name that sounds vaguely Chinese.

This has been wrapped in a patina of bogus statistical chatter in a bid to make it sound less odious: for example, Mr Salmond says someone with the surname of Lee has a 40% chance of being Chinese.

Message: if you have a Chinese-sounding name, you’re probably foreign. What’s more, Labour researcher Rob Salmond has an algorithm that calculates just how foreign you might be.

And over 30,000 have visited the parody site – and a fair number it seems think it is a legitimate Labour site. Labour should reflect on what that means that such an obvious parody is not seen as too far from what they have been doing.

This is really nasty stuff. Anyone with a passing acquaintance with some of the more bloody racial conflicts of the 20th Century will feel a chill that the Labour Party is doing this.

Really though, the matter of offshore investment in Auckland’s property market distorting that market is primarily an economic issue, not one of race.

By emphasising the racial aspect of the matter, Labour has deliberately embarked on a move calculated to raise racial tensions.

Why?

A good question.

Some of this is to do with Mr Twyford’s ambitions for the deputy leadership. This is also tied up with those well-known west Auckland voters who deserted Labour for National in recent elections.

Not sure this will help him. I understand a fair few Labour MPs are very upset with him.

There is no doubt people with Chinese names whose families have been here for years are justifiably enraged by Mr Twyford’s rather glib, shallow and irresponsible ploy.

But even for more recent arrivals: the assumption that anyone with a Chinese sounding name is foreign is nasty and poisonous.

Yep.

NBR reports:

The Green Party has reshuffled its portfolio allocations, giving new co-leader James Shaw the economic development and climate change roles held by Russel Norman, whom he replaced.

I would have thought Shaw would be a natural for Finance.

The reshuffle keeps intact the previous rankings of Green MPs, except to the extent that Shaw moves from 12th in the 14-member caucus, but leaves Norman at number three with responsibility for trade and national intelligence and security.

Well that is easy for Dr Norman – he is adamantly against trade, intelligence and security.

Genter picks up the finance portfolio, previously part of Norman’s economics portfolio role, with responsibility for tax and state-owned enterprises.

That is an unusual move. I would not have thought that was her natural area. Possibly this is a sign that Turei wants out also, so they are grooming Genter to take over.

“The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.”

– Milton Friedman

The quote of the week is brought to you by the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. To support the Union’s campaign for lower taxes and less government waste, click here.

Labour have a long history of claiming something is a crisis, and then you have record good news in that area. Their claims of a manufacturing crisis saw the manufacturing indexes hit 10 year highs.

Just last month Labour was claiming milk prices were too high. They said that it was awful that milk cost less than coke, which seemed a bizarre comparison. And as I pointed out they picked the one month in the last two years where in fact milk was cheaper than coke.

Their cure/curse continues with Stats NZ reporting this month:

In the year to June 2015, food prices decreased 0.1 percent, Statistics New Zealand said today. This drop follows eight consecutive food price increases since the year to October 2014.

Grocery food prices decreased 2.1 percent over the year, influenced by lower prices for fresh milk and bread. Prices for meat, poultry, and fish also decreased – down 1.9 percent from June 2014.

“The average price for 2 litres of blue-top milk was $3.36 in June, down 9.4 percent from its peak in November 2014,” consumers price index delivery manager Matt Haigh said. “The price of fresh milk is the lowest it’s been since August 2013, when 2 litres of blue-top cost $3.17.”

Well done Labour. Once again your timing is superb.

Some interesting data from the release:

• Food prices overall are 0.1% lower than a year ago
• Fresh milk is 6.7% lower than a year ago
• Soft drinks are 4.2% higher than a year ago

Stuff reports:

Auckland University has introduced a compulsory course to clear up the often murky guidelines around academic dishonesty.

The university’s online academic integrity course was made compulsory for all students this year, making Auckland the only tertiary institution in New Zealand where such a test is mandatory.

Students who do not complete the test face having their enrolment “discontinued”, according to Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) John Morrow.

Morrow said the course was not an attempt to reduce cheating at the university.

“It’s not about dishonesty as such, it’s about students learning how they can use printed and published resources in an effective way in their own work,” he said.

He admitted it did have the “advantage that if students do behave dishonestly, it’s difficult for them to claim it’s on the basis of ignorance”.

The online world allows this to be done easily. It’s a very good idea.

A two hour course and test is not a lot of time, over a three or longer year degree.

John Armstrong wrote:

The large ratio of National MPs to Labour’s means this Parliament is more conservative in composition. What seems odd is that Parliament has long been out of kilter with public opinion on this particular conscience issue. Opinion polls have consistently shown between 60 and 70 per cent of the public back voluntary euthanasia. But two private member’s bills brought before Parliament during the past two decades failed to make it even to the select committee stage.

Actually support has grown significantly for voluntary euthanasia in the last decade. I’ve got an archive of polls here. They have asked differently worded questions, so take that that into account. However the data says in terms of support:

• 2010 – 47%
• 2013 – 60%
• 2015 – 74%

A reader writes in:

Obesity is the new thing for the statists.

Unfortunately, nutrition science is now more shonky than climate science.

It’s not a matter of calories-in — calories-out; or we that are eating more and exercising less.

Traditional people’s didn’t run around much.  Hunter gatherers lay about in the sun!

It’s been understood for over a hundred years that it’s a matter of dysregulation and the focus has been on the cause and especially the recent cause for the dysregulation.

Think of everything else about an animal and the concept of homeostasis.  It’s the same for satiety and nutrition.  Animals on their own food don’t get fat.  You fatten them by feeding them different food.  We know that from zoos and feedlots.

The science is hard because controlled experiments are very hard.

It would seem that the shift from saturated fat to refined carbohydrate has caused a major disruption.  The issue here is sugar regulation and insulin and insulin sensitivity.

It’s increasingly likely that the cause of the obesity crisis is nutrition experts getting government to demonise saturated fats and the resulting increase in refined carbs and seed oils.  The problem also appears to transfer epigenetically to children.

I am not wanting to lecture you but simply to highlight what is a fascinating and truly shocking area.  Most of what we popularly think is so is not and has been knowing as not for decades.

It’s vey much like the argument over markets versus central planning.  Positions are entrenched without knowledge.

A couple of good places to start are Gary Taubes Why we Get Fat and Nina Teicholz The Big Fat Surprise.

The point is that the very people calling as experts for a tax on sugar are the very people who caused the obesity crisis and the sickness and death of millions.

Matthew Schoenfeld writes at the WSJ:

From 2000-10, many of the 34 OECD countries propped up growth by launching expansive social programs with borrowed money. But not all. The five most “unequal” countries in the OECD report—Israel, the United States, Turkey, Mexico and Chile—largely abstained. They increased sovereign debt by 3% on average compared with a 40% average increase among other OECD members.

When austerity pressures caught up to debt-laden sovereigns in recent years, however, the less leveraged—and not coincidentally, less equal—member countries grew a lot faster than their peers. From 2011-13, according to the World Bank, the five most unequal countries grew nearly five times faster (3.9% cumulative annual average) than the others (0.84%). By using a 2010 cutoff, the OECD has skewed its findings.

Thsi data destroys the argument that an economy grows faster if you tax and redistribute more.

Consider Greece. From 1999-2012, its Gini coefficient “improved” by 6% to .34 from .36—more than any other OECD country. (The Gini coefficient measures income distribution, where 0 represents complete equality and 1 represents a society in which a single person has all the income). Greece’s redistributive social transfer spending also grew most quickly among OECD peers from 2000-12. But Greece’s economy has shrunk by more than 20% since 2010 (World Bank data), and today more than a third of its citizens are considered to be at risk of poverty (Eurostat data).

Equality can mean equality of poverty.

From 1995-2012, OECD member countries that increased government expenditures as a percentage of GDP grew 30% slower than member countries that trimmed government expenditure as a percentage of the economy over that span—average annual growth of 1.9% compared with 2.5%.

This is no surprise.

A nifty wee video on what makes a great teacher.

Students instinctively know who are the great teachers and the poor teachers. We all can cite the teachers who inspired us and made such a difference. And the ones we struggled to stay awake for.

The Herald reports:

Closure of the entire KiwiRail freight network was an option if the company didn’t get more public funding earlier this year.

Bill English, Simon Bridges and Todd McClay presented a paper to Cabinet earlier this year arguing for continued financial support of KiwiRail, but outlined big challenges KiwiRail faced.

The finance, transport and state-owned enterprises ministers said a nine-month KiwiRail review showed the rail business faced two main options.

One was to retain most of the network and cut back unprofitable services on the network fringes.

The second option was to “close most or all of the freight network” with the option of retaining the upper North Island section only.

The northern section, Auckland to Hamilton to Tauranga, carried the biggest freight volumes and covered most of the network’s costs.

Passenger rail services in Auckland and Wellington were never in doubt.

Today, a spokesman for Finance Minister Bill English said the Government was “committed to a national rail network, but ongoing subsidies of around $200 million a year are unsustainable”.

Why not spend the $200 million a year subsidy on turning the rail network (outside major cities) into a national cycleway? You’d probably get ten times as many people using it!

Hamish Rutherford writes at Stuff:

What do Labour’s figures about the number of Chinese names appearing on property transactions in Auckland prove?

Nothing concrete about the state of foreign ownership in New Zealand’s largest city. In terms of evidence, it is seductive, yet shaky at best.

There is every chance that a Wang appearing on a property record can claim a century of proud Kiwi ancestry, while the Smith who bought the house next door is the foreign investor. …

So what the release has done is made everyone with a Chinese sounding surname seem second class.

The research has concerning limitations. Labour will not say who gave it the data, beyond saying it is from one of Auckland’s largest real estate companies. If the figures were not nakedly political – if they had been presented by an economist – they would almost certainly be dismissed completely for the lack of rigour.

I really wonder what Labour were thinking with this. They’ve alienated a lot of their own supporters, and opened themselves up to a lot of ridicule.

Eventually new rules will force the disclosure of where buyers are based for tax purposes, a better measure of foreign investors than Labour’s name game.

This should come close to settling the argument about the extent of offshore investment in New Zealand real estate. There is every chance it will prove Twyford correct, that thousands of investors are seeking a way to get their money out of China and into a stable investment.

Alternatively it may mark Twyford as the man, and Labour as the party, who squarely pointed the finger of blame a substantial portion of New Zealand for no other reason than that they sound like they might be Chinese.

On that note Melissa Hu (a Young Nat) writes:

I’m not sure if you saw Andrew Little, Phil Twyford and the New Zealand Labour Party hit a disappointing and desperate new low yesterday.

They blamed the challenge of housing affordability on whether your name sounds Chinese or not. 

I was born here, I study here, I work here and I’m a New Zealand citizen but because my last name sounds Chinese I’m apparently a big part of the housing affordability problem – (I’m actually of Mongolian descent but would Labour care about that?)

Melissa continues:

I’ve lived here all my life, and I’m proud to call myself Kiwi. Young New Zealanders like me are ambitious, excited and open about New Zealand’s future. I don’t think my last name, or yours, has anything to do with trying to buy a house.

We need to be encouraging all Kiwis – young, old, European, Maori, Chinese, whatever – to aim high, work hard, create wealth and continue to raise our living standards. We also need the Government to keep taking common sense steps with councils to make more land available for housing. That’s why I support National- they know there’s a problem and they have a real plan to fix it.

We don’t need to start a “pick on the Chinese” attitude which could create more problems than it solves. Auckland’s housing problem is a supply issue – not a Chinese issue. We’re a multicultural, ambitious and prosperous country – I hope we stay that way.

Well said.

The Herald reports:

Labour leader Andrew Little has stood by the decision to release figures showing a high proportion of Auckland house sales to people with Chinese names, saying it is time to blow the whistle on what is happening in the city.

The use of the data has been criticised by many as racist and “shonky” and Mr Little admitted there had been some backlash.

I understand a number of Labour MPs are very unhappy about this and see it as a test of of Little’s leadership, if he keeps defending this. They’re not so unhappy with the data as Phil Twyford’s comments which implied Chinese NZers are now hard working Kiwis. John Key demoted Lockwood Smith for his comments on Asians. Will Little continue to defend Twyford?

Imagine if for example a Don Brash led National Party had come out with a shonky analysis like this, and used the language Twyford did? Every Labour and Green MP in Parliament would have been calling Brash racist. Instead, we have silence.

Finally, if you want to work for yourself if you’re Kiwi enough to buy a house under Labour, try out this new Kiwi-O-Meter. Well done to the Young Nats for this humourous response to Labour’s dog whistles.

Michael Woodhouse has announced:

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse today announced a package of measures to prevent unfair employment practices such as ‘zero-hour contracts’.

“New Zealand has a well-functioning labour market in general and our employment relations framework aims to strike the right balance between flexibility and certainty,” says Mr Woodhouse.

“However there are some practices that I believe are unnecessary and unacceptable for modern working arrangements.

“For example, zero-hour contracts refers to employment arrangements, including permanent, where the employer does not guarantee any hours of work, yet requires employees to be available.  This is unfair and makes it difficult for employees to plan their financial and personal lives.”

It is vital that it is only the double standard situation which is covered, not all contracts with no guaranteed hours.If like some on the left you say no contracts at all should have no minimum hours, then you are abolishing every casual job in New Zealand.

As I have consistently said, I don’t think it is fair to require employees to be available for work, when the employer won’t guarantee any set hours.

The proposed changes will prohibit unfair practices including:

• employers not committing any hours of work, but expecting employees to be available when required

• employers cancelling a shift without providing reasonable notice or compensation to the employee

• employers putting unreasonable restrictions on secondary employment of employees

• employers making unreasonable deductions from employees’ wages.

These seem reasonable to me. I’m not sure there is a wide-spread problem in any of these areas – but there have been some cases where employers have acted badly – such as docking wages of petrol station attendants if someone drives off without paying. This is probably illegal under current law, but the bill being introduced will make it beyond doubt.

The Herald reports:

The Confederate flag no longer flies anywhere on the South Carolina Statehouse grounds for the first time since the 1960s civil rights movement, after it was removed in a swift ceremony Friday before thousands of people who cheered as the rebel banner was lowered.

Many people believed the flag would fly indefinitely in this state, which was the first to secede as the pro-slavery Confederacy began fighting the American Civil War. But the killing of nine black church members during a Bible study in Charleston last month changed that sentiment and reignited calls to bring down Confederate flags and symbols across the nation.

The votes were overwhelming. It needed a two thirds majority and passed 94 to 20 in the state house and 36-3 in the state senate. Both chambers are controlled by Republicans – they hold 77 of the 123 house seats and 28 of the 46 senate seats. The Governor is also Republican.

I think this move was long overdue. Regardless of arguments about its original symbolism, the confederate flag today is a deeply hateful one for many African Americans. You can argue all you like about it representing states’ rights, but again symbols change. The swastika is originally a Buddhist religious symbol, and the actions of the Third Reich have changed it.

Having the flag fly at the State Legislature was inappropriate. It does belong in a museum.

That doesn’t mean though you ban it from culture. The banning of reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard because their car (The General Lee) has a confederate flag is barmy. There’s a difference between the state parliament and a TV show.

Rodney Hide writes:

Little Devon Roke was turned down by three early childhood education centres before BestStart’s ABC Waterview agreed to enrol him.

The three centres had their stated reasons — but the real reason was that Devon has cerebral palsy. …

I had many wonderful experiences in politics but the greatest was my all-too-brief spell as Minister Responsible for Special Education.

I visited my first special school not knowing what to expect and was immediately swept up in a class where I had never before seen so much learning and sheer joy and such committed and loving teachers.

I couldn’t tear myself away and found myself cavorting on the floor, dancing and singing with the students, totally uncaring what I looked or sounded like or that I was supposed to be the minister, not a child at school.

I was hooked.

It consumed me.

It was wonderful.

I saw children learning more than I ever believed possible. I saw children put in more effort than I had ever before seen. I walked beside a boy as he dragged himself to class from the playground and then up into his chair.

And I saw the look of achievement and happiness on his face.

He could not have been prouder if he had just conquered Everest.

In another primary school, I saw children looking after their cerebral palsy mate in a wheelchair and playing football with him. I don’t know who among them was enjoying it the most.

And everywhere the teachers were the most wonderful I could imagine.

I did my best to make the students’ lives better, but instead it was they who made such a difference to mine.

I still get texts from some and some still remember my birthday.

I feel sorry for the students of the three centres who turned Devon away. He would have made such a difference to their lives. And now they are going to miss out. That’s sad and it’s wrong.

What a great column.