Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 26/4/24

Luxon’s demoted ministers might take comfort from the British politician who bounced back after the Gallipoli debacle

Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up.

In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled world.

Sir Bob Jones: The way things were

Recently someone sent me a faded photo of my standard four class in Lower Hutt, 75 years ago.

The oddities vis a vis the current situation were first, a total of 44 of us. I’m told in state schools today the maximum class size at that age is nearer 30 or less and in private schools, about 20.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: NZ's Worst PM Ever - Chris Hipkins

NZ's Worst PM Ever, Chris Hipkins, Hit Kiwi Families with the Biggest Tax Hike in the Developed World

Whilst Australia newspapers are blaring the headline, "Australians flattened by biggest Tax Increase in World", if you look at the OECD figures released yesterday from its publication called, "Taxing Wages" (where that Aussie headline was sourced) it reveals a startling fact. Whilst Australia had the biggest increase in the tax wedge (i.e., the amount of taxes taken from your wage as a proportion of gross wages) for the average worker out of 40 developed countries (NZ is third highest) when it comes to families, NZ had the largest increase of all. If you look at column (4) in Table 2 below, the annual change in the 2022-23 year in the Family Tax Wedge in NZ was over 3%, with Poland second at 2.8%.

Gary Judd KC: The Waitangi Tribunal is not "a roving Commission"

it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisition

The High Court is today [22/4/24] hearing an application by the Crown to set aside a witness summons requiring the Minister for Children, Karen Chhour to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal to be questioned as part of an inquiry into her plans to remove s 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act, which sets out the duties of the chief executive of Oranga Tamariki in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi. The section says, among other things, that the chief executive must ensure: “The policies, practices and services of the department have regard to mana tamaiti (tamariki) and the whakapapa of Māori children and young persons and the whanaungatanga [kinship] responsibilities of their whānau, hapū and iwi.” This description is taken from Audrey Young’s article in the Herald.

Bob McCoskrie: Jacinda’s legacy – Increasing number of abortions

Four years ago, our politicians decriminalised abortion and introduced one of the most liberal and extreme laws in the world, effectively legalising abortion to 40 weeks with token safeguards.

And remember – the law was rammed through by our politicians in March 2020 while we as a nation were all preparing to go into lockdown for COVID in order to protect the most vulnerable amongst us. But our then-PM who had recently had her first child prioritised this liberalisation of abortion. It really seems a sick joke, doesn’t it.

Ele Ludemann: Shades of 80s agsag

North Otago was particularly hard hit by the agsag of the 1980s.

The problems with farms that were too small to be economic units were compounded by recurring droughts.

Inflation and interest rates were high, input costs were too and the axing of subsidies by the Lange government resulted in very low prices for stock. Returns were so low that farmers were getting bills from meat works because what they earned didn’t cover the costs of transport and killing.

David Farrar: Three Strikes saw lower reoffending

Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017:

In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’.

In the five years prior to three strikes, 5517 people were convicted of an offence where that conviction would have been a ‘first strike’ had three strikes been in force at the time, and 103 were convicted of an offence that would have been a ‘second strike’.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.4.24

Friday April 26, 2024 

News:
Legal fight to summons children’s minister will continue, with appeal lodged
A late evening judgement from the High Court overturned the Waitangi Tribunal’s subpoena to Children’s Minister Karen Chhour, but that didn’t spell an end to the remarkable rift between the courts and executive.

Annette Sykes, a high profile Treaty rights activist and lawyer, has confirmed to Stuff that she will be appealing the High Court’s Wednesday night ruling.

David Farrar: Hysterical Hipkins

Newshub reports:

He [Hipkins] said the government had only been in office for six months, and “the wheels are falling off already”.

This is beyond stupid. Hipkins claims taking two portfolios away from Ministers who were seen to be struggling is the wheels are falling off.

Peter Dunne: Prime Ministers

The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became known as the Night of the Long Knives, Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe wryly commented – in a clever paraphrasing of St John’s Gospel – that “greater love hath no man than he lay down his friends for his life.”

Dr Eric Crampton: A new kind of city deal

For a few months after last year’s elections, Wellington consultancies seemed to be scrambling to publish reports on city deals.

National’s coalition agreement with ACT promised long-term city deals for funding and financing infrastructure but was short on details.

Thursday April 25, 2024 

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Clive Bibby: Deterrent or Paper Tiger

As the Ukraine war drags on with little show of victories (even small ones) on the Russian Front, and the much needed American replacement armaments package stalled in the US Congress, the question surely needs to be asked of the NATO alliance members - “Isn’t the outcome of this war EUROPE’S RESPONSIBILITY?”

Because the current stalemate is looking more and more like a lost cause if the European member states of NATO continue to allow the Americans to do the heavy lifting.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 25/4/24

Maori Party (with “disgust”) draws attention to Chhour’s race after the High Court rules on Waitangi Tribunal’s summons

A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night.

It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it.

Lindsay Mitchell: Is Oranga Tamariki guilty of child neglect?

One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?

Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care.

David Farrar: High Court quashes Waitangi Tribunal summons

The Herald reports:

The High Court has ruled Children’s Minister Karen Chhour cannot be compelled to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal.

In a just-released decision, Justice Andru Isac granted the Crown’s application for judicial review, setting aside the summons issued by the tribunal.

Roger Childs: Anzac Day - Origins, Changes, Controversy

Anzac commemorations suited political purposes right from 1916 when the first Anzac Day marches was held in London, Australia and New Zealand, which were very much around trying to get more people to sign up to the war in 1916–1918. –Australian historian Martin Crotty

The first day of remembrance

The first Anzac Day was on 25 April 1916. This was exactly one year after New Zealand and Australian troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey in a joint Anglo-French invasion designed to capture Constantinople and take the Ottoman Empire out of the First World War, The first service in New Zealand, and the World, was held in the small Wairarapa town of Tinui where patriotic citizens dragged a large cross to the top of a local hill to remember the fallen.

JC: PM Needs to Don His Hard Hat

First, let me say I think overall the Prime Minister is doing a good job. He didn’t disappoint in executing his 100-day plan. He and his ministers have been getting on with the job, and publishing a plan for the next few months was a good move. I do however have one area of concern. Christopher Luxon appears to not want to offend those who would seek to derail his well-intentioned ambitions. I refer, in the first instance, to that august body (well, that appears to be how they think of themselves), the Waitangi Tribunal.

Chris Trotter: Comity Be Damned! The State’s Legislative Arm Is Flexing Its Constitutional Muscles

THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE of “comity” acknowledges the susceptibility of what should be complimentary state functions to dangerous entanglement. It enjoins the three branches of government; executive, legislative and judicial; to demonstrate a mutual respect for each other’s functions. Without “comity”, not only is the smooth functioning of the three branches of government put at risk, but also the political legitimacy of the state itself.

idbkiwi: About as Non-partisan as You Can Get

I listened to a Mediawatch bulletin from RNZ and heard the authors of the Trust in Media report exhorting news outlets to carry less opinion, emphasising that the issue of opinion, and the slant of such, was a major, very major, concern to news-consumers and a huge factor in the decline in trust we place in those outlets.