NZ's Disproportionate Response

The Value of a Life

[A guest post by Alwyn Poole.  This was reprinted in Kiwiblog.  We reproduce it below:]

It is astonishing how quickly key foundations of education and society can become twisted or subverted. A genuine proponent of education advocates important foundations; question everything, critique everything, suggest and evaluate counter scenarios (and other “experts”), ask who gains and who loses from particular actions, attack the argument and not the person. Children, youth and indeed all citizens need to apply these principles to current events and what appears to be deep moral confusion.

Everyone dies. It is maybe the least digestible fact of life but the rate of death in every generation is 100%. I complained about this to my mother once and she placated me by saying that it wouldn’t happen to me. I was 8 years old and, at that stage accepted my immortality. In NZ in 2018 33,225 human-beings died. That is a little over 91 people per day. Apart from reporting on road deaths and murders these deaths, by and large, pass unnoticed except for those close enough to attend the funeral.

In 2020 we have suddenly decided, as a society taking part in a global emergency, that these lives are more important than ever before. We have decided this to the extent that we have destroyed significant sections of the economy, drastically restricted human rights, and allowed a very small sector of government to create edicts without due process or challenge.

The Church Punished By Inconsistent, Prejudiced Politicians

Invercargill Reverend Calls For Ability to Worship Together

Damian Rowe
Stuff

First Presbyterian Church Reverend Nyalle Paris says people should now be able to worship in churches together.  Under Covid-19 Alert Level 2, the Government has restricted public gatherings of groups larger than 10 people, which will reviewed by Cabinet on May 25. 

However, cinemas, bars, restaurants and shops can operate and earlier this week the Government raised the limit of people able to attend funerals. Rev Paris said while the pandemic meant people were living in unprecedented times there had been no new coronavirus cases in the Southern District Health Board catchment area for weeks and it was time to allow some form of worship.

It seemed ironic that cinemas, cafés, bars and schools could open but the church could not, Rev Paris said.  It was also against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights regarding the freedom to religion, he said.

The Socialists Display of Arrogance is a "Tell"

Are These the First Signs?

Third Term Arrogance From a First Term Government?

Tracy Watkins
Sunday Star Times


Finance Minister Grant Robertson's budget this week will loom over generations to come; it's no exaggeration to say it's the most important budget in decades.  There will be intense debate about whether he has got it right; so it's unfortunate that as we head into budget week the government is exhibiting premature signs of the affliction known as third-termitis.

That was most evident in the emergence of a leaked memo this week in which ministers' offices were advised not to waste any time defending themselves to the media - not because they had anything much to hide but because (to paraphrase) people love us anyway, so why bother?

It's the assumption behind that advice that is so alarming; it speaks of supreme confidence at the moment that this government can do no wrong in the eyes of the public.

And to a point they're right; the backlash to any criticism of Jacinda Ardern or her Government in the current environment is a constant weight on the media's shoulders.

Secularistic Government Stomps Down on Churches

Covid 19 Coronavirus: Parties Clash Over Funerals

Jacinda Ardern is like 'Muldoon with slogans', say National Party

Derek Cheng
NZ Herald

Political consensus in the fight against Covid-19 is on the verge of falling apart, with the Opposition slamming the Government for its "inhumane" limit on funeral and religious gatherings under alert level 2.  One senior National MP last night described Jacinda Ardern as being like "Muldoon with slogans".

But Ardern has defended the 10-person limit at funerals because of public health concerns, citing mass gatherings at services overseas that had led to new coronavirus outbreaks.  Those concerns increased for funerals and tangi, she said, because of people's tendencies to hug each other for comfort when they are grieving.

National Party leader Simon Bridges said today it was time Kiwis were treated like adults and trusted to do the right thing.  "It's not just unkind. it's inhumane. If you can socially distance at a movie theatre with 99 other people you can do the same at a funeral or a church," Bridges told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB.

Ardern Reflects a Clear and Present Danger

New Zealand at a Crossroads


By Dr Muriel Newman
NZCPR Weekly

“Marxists get up early in the morning to further their cause. We must get up even earlier to defend our freedom.”    – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, 1978

New Zealand is at a crossroads. This is the moment that will define the next generation. Will our future embrace freedom and liberty, or are we staring down the barrel of increasing Sate control.

Some say we are already on a totalitarian path – our personal freedoms taken away by ever more powerful politicians and organs of the State.  Defined by the Oxford Dictionary as a system of government that is centralised, dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the State, ‘totalitarianism’ certainly describes the actions of Jacinda Ardern’s Government since mid-March.

At that time, the Prime Minister used the extraordinary powers reserved for use when the nation is under threat, to lock down the economy and confine people to their homes. The decision to abandon the protocols of the Pandemic Management Plan – last used by John Key to guide the country through the Swine Flu pandemic – appears to have been taken capriciously on the basis of grossly exaggerated modelling.

In his article What Price Liberty and the Virus, the former Judge and Law Lecturer Anthony Willy, explains that ‘For the first time in our history inalienable liberties and freedoms set out by the New Zealand Bill of Rights – freedom of association, freedom of movement, the liberty of the person, and the right to live in a Parliamentary democracy – have been suspended.’

“In a sinister twist, loss of these rights is backed by an apparently highly popular government encouraged scheme of dobbing in one’s neighbour for possible infractions.

A Must-Read Post

Government By Fear-Mongering

Kiwiblog has published a guest post which we believe is an essential read for every New Zealander.  In the light of its importance--at least in our eyes--we direct  our readers to the Kiwiblog posting (whose author is anonymous).

Guest Post: Should lockdown end early?

A guest post by a reader:

As we hit the halfway mark of the level 4 lockdown, the Government will shortly find itself in the unenviable position of having to defend its decision-making. . . . Read more.

Paralysis By Analysis

Muttering in the Ranks

Things must be pretty bad for the NZ Government when one of the more consistent left-wing rags tears the fumbling mumblers to shreds.  

Despite the babies and the engagements, maybe it’s time to ditch the default Jacindamania.  Let’s not bother with the criminal waste of tax on hundreds of working groups, existing to successfully suppressing oppositional opinion through co-option.

Oranga Tamariki has got three investigations underway for removing children, and is being kicked all over the park by the media. Cue another year of paralysis by analysis.

There is no reform of the justice sector.

There’s no substantial reform of social welfare, in particular no raise in base welfare levels, so no improvement in poverty levels this term. That’s another generation of 25% of our children.

Transport remains a fully self-inflicted disaster, with light rail gone from even starting for at least another term, mortality and injury and traffic congestion all soaring, and the only items of note to open this term will be National-inspired motorways in the Waikato.

How Low Can the Incompetence Go?

Unbelievable, But True

As inconceivable as it may appear, the fox has been put in charge of the henhouse--in real life.  New Zealand is being run by government agencies that are either incompetent, ignorant, or infantile, or, on the other hand, government departments have become front organizations for criminal gangs.

Consider the following:  

A high-profile gang member has been stood down from his role within the Royal Commission of Inquiry into historic state abuse months after multiple allegations of domestic violence were raised.

Harry Tam, a long-time member of the Mongrel Mob, was the facilitator of the inquiry's Survivors Advisory Group, a position that gave him the authority to appoint gang-affiliated men and women to the group, and access survivors' personal information.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in Care released a statement Friday morning stating it was aware of allegations raised against "a staff member" and had commenced an independent investigation, but would not comment on the nature of the allegations. The Commission said the matter has been referred to New Zealand Police.  [Stuff]

So, here is this leading gang member who has allegations of domestic abuse and assault made against him.  He has been appointed to help run an inquiry into historical abuse suffered by those in state care.  Apparently his bosses thought he would be a sitter for this particular sinecure because he had first-hand knowledge of domestic violence.  He has been a front-line perp it would seem. 

Harry Tam's former partner complained.

Petering Out

Winston Peters' Career-defining Mess in Turkey

Mike Hosking
NZ Herald

Fantastic with the compassion, not so good with the politics. How big of a gaffe, how big a mistake has this Government made with Turkey?

In the midst of last week Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan injected himself into Christchurch in an egregious way. Across the Tasman, Aussie PM Scott Morrison was ropeable and hauled the ambassador in and, when given an explanation, like it was for domestic consumption, he didn't believe and said so.

We, on the other hand, seemed to avail ourselves of a nicely placed op-ed piece in the Washington Post written by Erdogan's henchman designed to appease the gullible. We were one of the gullible. Meantime he carried on at his rallies stirring the pot by playing excerpts from the mosque gunman's livestream.

Our Prime Minister, immersed in Christchurch and its grief, dismissed the outrage by suggesting Winston Peters was on his way to Turkey via Indonesia, and he would deal with it. It was suggested Peters may not even get to see Erdogan, but nevertheless the message would be delivered and matters would be sorted out.

The good news was Peters did get to the see the President - but then astonishingly did not raise the matter with him. He said he didn't need to because the whole thing was sorted and Erdogan wasn't "doing that anymore". And yet half an hour later that's exactly what he did. We had more footage, and more vitriol.  Peters, even more astonishingly, denied Ardern had ever said what Ardern had said. How do we explain this? An abject failing of a diplomatic mission and complete denial of reality?

NZ's Anti-Christian Prejudices

New Zealand fails to offer sanctuary to any Christian refugees from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq

---

22 January 2019

Government figures released to Barnabas Fund show that no Christians from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq were granted the right to resettle in New Zealand last year.

In the 12 months up to 31 October 2018, the country gave sanctuary to 1,019 refugees. Of these 277 were from Syria, 105 from Afghanistan and seven from Iraq ­– and all were Muslims.

Figures for previous years, obtained by Barnabas Fund under the Official Information Act, are equally bleak. In 2016, only six Christians were among the 377 Syrians granted sanctuary, and in the five weeks up to 10 February 2017 no Christians were among the 45 Syrians, all Muslims, who were allowed to settle. Christians made up 10% of the population of Syria before the war.

A spokesman for Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government said refugees were considered for resettlement in New Zealand on the basis of “their protection needs and not religious affiliation”.

The UK government is also facing “embarrassment” over the tiny minority of Christian Syrians offered sanctuary in Britain.

Figures obtained by Barnabas Fund under a Freedom of Information request show that out of 4,850 Syrian refugees accepted for resettlement by the Home Office in 2017, only eleven were Christian, representing just 0.2% of all Syrian refugees accepted by the UK.

An article in UK’s Sunday Times on 20 January said that the finding “appears to discriminate in favour of Muslims” and “risks embarrassing the government” at a time when the Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered a government review into the UK’s response to the global persecution of Christians.

Risks of A Recession Mount in NZ

Messing In Our Own Nest

New Zealand is probably heading into an economic downturn.  It is too early to speculate on how deep or long the "recession" will be.  The irritating truth is that any downturn will have been largely of our own making.

Firstly, New Zealand is unable to get "cut through" with the United States.  We have been hit with a substantial tariff on our steel exports to the US.  There has been no "best friends" relief.  There is no free trade agreement with the US in sight.  Why the obstacles?  Well, NZ is very small in the grand scheme of things.  At the very time when NZ needed as much negotiating coin with the US as possible, we have elected a neophyte as Prime Minister whose "bestie" on the world stage is Canada's Trudeau. 

Our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern lacks the depth of a puddle in a parking lot.  Her most significant achievement is noting with famous people whilst overseas and managing to get a few photos taken so as to increase her profile back in NZ.

At the same time, we have managed to rile up China.  Now this may or may not be a serious matter.  We have a double mind with respect to the current president of China who has now engaged in one of the worst human rights abuses on the planet.  Premier Xi Jinping is happily engaged in smashing to bits one of its minority ethnic groups--the Uighurs, who are Islamic in faith.  He is also responsible for the suppression of Christians.  He is showing every sign of being a reincarnation of Mao Zedong.

Too Successful To Be Allowed to Continue

Bureaucratic Bumblers

The present Labour government is fast gaining a reputation for incompetence.  The latest "thing" is the imbroglio over the presence of a Ukrainian family in New Zealand.  They have been guilty of the unpardonable: they have bought and developed a successful business and they are being deported for their crime.

A Ukrainian family facing deportation once their work visa expires in July have received an influx of support from MPs and the public.  Nataliya Shchetkova, her husband Alex Derecha, and their five children, face an uncertain future after Immigration New Zealand's decision to deny the family residency because it does not believe their business adds significant benefit to New Zealand.

The family run Auckland restaurant La Vista which had a turnover of $1.6 million last year and employs 26 staff - 17 of whom are full-time.  Since the Herald shared their story this time last week, the family have received an influx of support from members of the public, MPs and Act Party leader David Seymour.  A petition has been launched and backed by Seymour, asking Parliament to urge the Minister of Immigration Iain Lees-Galloway and Associate Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi to grant them residency by special direction.  The petition has received almost 10,000 signatures of support in two days.

Seymour has organised a rally for next Sunday to support the family.  "Nataliya Shchetkova and her family are much-loved community members and successful proprietors of La Vista restaurant in St Heliers," the petition reads.  "The Government has declined their application for residency despite the family building a successful business as required by their visa requirements. . . .

 Immigration NZ manager Michael Carley said . . .  residency was denied because her business did not add significant benefit to New Zealand.  "We do not consider the immigration officer who assessed the application made an error in advice and we consider the decision to decline, and the process followed, was correct," Carley said.  "A core reason for the decline was the business did not add significant benefit to New Zealand by creating sustained and ongoing employment, over and above the existing level of employment.  [NZ Herald]

Let's get this straight.  The business has been slammed for not adding enough benefit to New Zealand.

New Zealand's Travelling Envirocrats

Expensive Self-Congratulation Is Always Ugly

Wars are expensive undertakings.  International bureaucratic talkfests crafting war plans, strategies, targets, timetables, and bloated bellies are likewise very expensive.  But since it is all necessary in the "war against climate change" such spending is absolute, industrial grade, highest quality kosher salt.

Of course communication via electronic means has never been more pervasive and cheaper.  But this has merely seemed to convince our spendthrift government masters of the need to revert to ancient forms of global communication.  In order to "fight" against climate change, face-to-face communication is absolutely essential.  The electronic age has strangely ushered in a global, "whites of their eyes" old-style model of communication.

According to Stuff, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent and wasted by our travelling climate change warriors:

Incompetence or Arrogance

Minister Out of Control

Mike Hoskings
NZ Herald

Do you think it says something about the mentality, outlook, and perhaps even sheer arrogance of Phil Twyford, that he decided on our behalf, without the permission or knowledge of Cabinet or the Prime Minister, to simply change the rules on KiwiBuild?

The original deal was, if you were lucky enough to be drawn from the ballot you would appreciate the Government's help in getting you into a first home 0 and therefore wouldn't flip it, or flick it, for profit.  But unbeknown to just about anyone, apart from Grant Robertson and Shane Jones, Twyford decided that wasn't a good rule. He decided you could change it.  Instead of 100 per cent of the profits being taken off you, if you were caught, you had to give back just 30 per cent.  In other words you got to keep 70 per cent of the profits.

In what person's right mind is that fair, sensible, logical - or even sane? And what moron would think they can do that with other people's money? And what grandiose clown thinks he can do that without even getting the boss' sign off?  If you don't think that's as good an example as you will ever get that this whole KiwiBuild thing is a snake oil scam, then you are as mad as Twyford.

By the way, if you don't want to flip the house you can rent it out as well. Oh, you're not really allowed to, but if they catch you, you will only be pinged for part of your windfall.

So what do we have so far?

Incompetence Excused

A Real Puzzler

Ah, the pain of it all.  We have been following the Iain Lees-Galloway case.  You know the one.  The New Zealand Minister of Immigration who decided that a Czech career criminal currently serving time in New Zealand for serious criminal offences being granted migrant status.  Why?  Well, Minister Lees-Galloway thought it was a good idea at the time. 

We have been speculating as to why the Minister would make such an incompetent decision.  We have appealed to Occam's Razor--the theory that suggests that more often than not the simplest explanation is the correct one.  We have argued that the simplest explanation in this case is that the Minister is a simpleton. 

The Minister has now reviewed his own case and reversed his decision.  How to explain this volte-face?  Well, the Minister has discovered "new facts" which justify his cancellation of Karel Sroubek's permission to stay in New Zealand and replace it with "see ya later, alligator" and a swift bundling back to Czechoslovakia where he is also wanted by the authorities.

Now we must be fair.  Minister Lees-Galloway claims he has gone back to the Sroubek file and discovered things he did not know before--and which, if he had known, would have meant that he never would have permitted him to stay in New Zealand legally. 

What were those things, we hear you ask?

Iain Lees-Galloway announced today that he is reinstating Sroubek's deportation liability, because Sroubek's previous convictions in the Czech Republic made him an excluded person under the Immigration Act.  He said information about Sroubek's Czech convictions led to his new decision, which would see Sroubek deported after his drug-smuggling sentence and unable to return to New Zealand.  [NZ Herald.  Emphasis, ours]

So, let's get this straight.

The Case of Karel Sroubek

Stranger Than Fiction

In New Zealand we have a really, really strange issue at hand.  A Czech national, a convicted criminal, Karel Sroubek is doing time as a guest of one of her Majesty Jacinda's prisons.  He has applied for citizenship, which seems reasonable.  Why shouldn't New Zealand make all involuntary guests of the government permanent citizens as a matter of natural justice?  Why not?  What could possibly be wrong with that?

Sroubek's lawyers have argued that there are some unsavory characters back in Czechoslovakia who want to see him sent back from NZ to his native land so they can show him a bit of rough justice, Czech-style.  Therefore compassion, human decency, and human rights legislation require that NZ give permanent citizenship to the convicted criminal.

Now right up to this point there is nothing unusual or sensational in the case.  Non-resident convicts often apply for asylum.  The vast majority, however, are shipped back home when the term of their accommodation in her Majesty's prisons is served.  But in this case, out of the blue as it were, the Minister of Immigration hastily reviewed Sroubek's case and granted him permanent citizenship in New Zealand.

Occam's Razor teaches us that the simplest explanation is usually the most plausible reason for human events.  So, for some time we have thought that the most plausible cause for the Minister's extraordinary "generosity" to a convicted drug manufacturer and smuggler was that Sroubek had bribed the Minister.  It represents a simple explanation.  But now we are not so sure.  It is possible that there is a simpler explanation still: namely, that the Minister in question, Iain Lees-Galloway lacks any reasonable sense of fiduciary duty, or a duty of care.  An impolite way of expressing this would be to entertain the notion that the Minister is dumber than a sackful of hammers.

Meanwhile, as the mess gets even messier her Majesty Jacinda becomes implicated by association.

Slums in the Making

KiwiBuild: a ‘Community Trainwreck’


Teuila Fuatai
Newsroom

A year after the coalition Government took office, its flagship housing plan KiwiBuild is barely off the ground. At this year’s Bruce Jesson Memorial lecture, Monte Cecilia Housing Trust’s Bernie Smith argued KiwiBuild’s flaws not only perpetuate housing unaffordability, but cause further intergenerational social problems.

Bernie Smith tells an interesting story.  After working in some of the most deprived communities in rural Australia and Papua New Guinea, Smith came back to New Zealand in 2016. At that point, homelessness and housing affordability were among the worst ever seen in the country.

Just over a year later, he watched Jacinda Ardern and her party enter into a coalition Government with New Zealand First and the Greens. Following through on their election promise, Ardern and her newly-minted Housing Minister Phil Twyford - a fellow Aucklander - announced their plan to ramp-up New Zealand’s much-depleted housing stock. By July 2019, KiwiBuild targets plan for 1000 new homes on the ground. After that, a target of 5000 new homes has been set for July 2020.

As chief executive of South Auckland based Monte Cecilia House Trust, Smith looked at the numbers eagerly.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Scrambling for Relevance

It's not hard in New Zealand, these days, to find plenty of material to poke fun at.  The gummint looks like a huge roadside advertisement peppered with shotgun pellets.  The locals are showing their respect, no doubt.

Many commentators have poked the borax at the government's propensity to set up commissions or inquiries into anything and everything that moves.  If you brush your teeth in the morning, by lunchtime the government will have announced an inquiry into dental cosmetics which will "report" in nine months time.  We wait with baited malodorous breath.

Prime Minister Ardern cannot help herself.  Hardly a day goes by without her grandly announcing the 176th gummint inquiry into some great looming apocalypse du jour.  Each announcement assures us that we going to be taking a great leap forward.  It's all bureaucratic self-serving rubbish.

Liam Hehir, writing a guest post in Kiwiblog, gives us a hilarious account of one of the latest pronouncements from the Throne of Wonderland Wizard.

The Government's Attack Upon Free Trade

New Zealand Risks Being Swatted Out of the Way

Ouch. Amazon is standing up to the lordly Aussie and New Zealand governments. They are saying, if you want us to collect your piddly taxes at considerable expense to us, we will ban you citizens from shopping on Amazon sites. Only the "inferior" Aussie site will be available. We think that Australian consumers who are banned from shopping at Amazon US will be highly indignant. And the blame falls squarely on the Aussie government, in the first instance, then upon the New Zealand government next year. 

 Amazon Tax Move Could Leave Government Searching For a 'Plan B'


Tom Pullar-Strecker
Stuff

The Government's plan to require foreign firms to collect GST on goods they ship to New Zealanders from October next year – its so-called "Amazon tax" – is suddenly in genuine trouble.  Australia is the canary down this particular coalmine, and right now that canary is looking pretty poorly.

If you listened to New Zealand retailers, you might think this was the last country in the world to close down a loophole under which consumers can buy low-value items from overseas without paying sales tax.  It is fair for them to grumble. New Zealand's $400 tax-free threshold for most goods crossing the border is relatively high by international standards and they have been dealt a bad hand in that regard.

But the solution the New Zealand and Australian governments have come up with to create a level-playing field for local retailers – requiring foreign firms to collect GST on their behalf at the point of sale – is untested.  Amazon has decided that rather than go to that trouble, it will instead block Australians from buying products through its main website.  Instead, Australians will only be allowed to shop at Amazon Australia, which for years at least looks set to offer only an inferior range of goods at higher prices.

The Kim Jong-Un Porky Award Goes To . . .

Phil Twyford, NZ Minister of Housing

If Twyford Can't Phil us in on KiwiBuy/Build, Who Can?

Duncan Garner
Stuff

Seriously, what has Labour and its MPs been doing these last nine years? Eating their lunch?  We'd been led to believe its flagship Kiwibuild idea was this amazing, smart and innovative housing policy.  We'd been told it was an answer to the housing crisis for those who couldn't get into their first home.

I was thinking wow, our best architects and planners had come up with something very new and impressive and all on a large scale. I was thinking, think big, but 2018 style. And I assumed KiwiBuild meant just that;  as Housing Minister Phil Twyford said, 100,000 homes would be built.

Now we learn, um no, that's not the case. It's Kiwibuy, that house, your house, any house will do.

Labour has simply thrown its arms up in the air and put up a classified advertisement the size of a house that calls for all houses to be bought and sold as Kiwibuild dwellings. Labour wants the biggest shortcut to success possible.  It wants to buy current homes under construction or off the plans and call them Kiwibuild's own. It's a total hoax.