US versus Britain

A Harvard history professor, who splits his time between the US and his British home, gives an economic comparison between the US and Britain. Relevant because the same would hold true if you substituted Britain with New Zealand;

Like the U.S., Britain has been enjoying a debt-propelled consumption boom. Household debt has grown at an accelerating pace since 1997 and exceeds 150% of post-tax income. Saving has plunged. As long as housing prices kept rising, the party could go on. But since the market cooled in the second half of 2004, the hangover has begun. Last year, Britain's economy grew by a miserable 1.8%.

The other source of growth in Brown's Britain has been public spending. Real government spending has surged since 1999 at an average rate of nearly 5% a year. Significantly, nearly a third of all the increase in employment since 1997 has been in the public sector, which now accounts for nearly 6 million workers.

As in the U.S., this splurge has been financed partly by borrowing. And, like the U.S., Britain also has a large current account deficit because imports have grown faster than exports.

Yet in the case of the United States, these vices are in large measured compensated for by the underlying vitality of its entrepreneurs and workers. Can the same be said for Britain? The answer is a resounding no.

Superficially, to be sure, British unemployment is low. But the official statistics are deceptive. In fact, about 5.3 million adults of working age are dependent on benefits, and 2.3 million of them have been living on welfare for more than five years. The reason they don't show up in the statistics is that many of them are counted as unfit for work rather than jobless. Every day, 23 teenagers in Britain sign up for disability benefits.

Parliament's gym to close

The Labour government has announced it is closing down the Beehive gym. According to the Prime Minister, Helen Clark , there is no longer any need for a physical fitness programme. Everyone gets quite enough exercise jumping to conclusions, flying off the handle, running down the boss, flogging dead horses, knifing friends in the back, dodging responsibility, and pushing their luck.

Different Doctor view

The Press reports that the hours junior doctors are working is exaggerated.

According to one senior doctor, Many worked a 13-week cycle and the association quoted the worst week of about 70 hours, but his statistics showed most worked an average of between 40 and 60 hours a week.

Morton said that in the past two years he had worked with 220 British graduates, mainly junior house officers, and some senior registrars. "Generally, they find the conditions here are outstandingly good, except there's not enough to do."

Exit questionnaires showed many of the overseas doctors found there was less responsibility and less to do in their Canterbury District Health Board positions.

Of course, the hours worked may differ around the country.

A caller to talkback yesterday put an interesting slant on the issue. The young, single, female, high-earning doctors are being heavily taxed to subsidise staff with children, who work shorter hours but are benefitting from the Working for Families package. She suggested this is an additional source of resentment.

If that resentment is enough to drive them overseas the country loses twice; once through lost skills, and if they stay away, again through the lost potential to improve New Zealand's fertility rate.

Microchipping saga goes on

People frequently talk about MMP allowing minor parties to act as the tail wagging the dog. Now they literally are. This is really goofy politics from United Future.

MP Gordon Copeland sent a letter to deputy leader Michael Cullen and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta yesterday with a clear message – exempt working dogs or don't count on United Future's vote.

"If they don't buy that then we are going to have to do some careful thinking," Mr Copeland said.

What kind of thinking have they done so far? The government wants to do something totally stupid, United Future something half-stupid (which in a way is even more stupid). National and the Greens belatedly want to stop the stupidity, now they have sensed the public mood. ACT was the only party who saw the stupidity for what it was in the first place.

Debate degenerates

Sue Bradford says the Section 59 debate is getting ugly and she is receiving abusive e-mails. If they get worse she says she will involve the police.

Abusive e-mails are sent by bullies and cowards and, as much as I dislike Sue Bradford's politics, I see no justification for this sort of tactic. Sue and I have met on a number of occasions and she is always civil and respectful. No purpose is served by politics getting personal.

OK, from time to time I might go overboard with a post but generally I try to stick to playing the ball. It's good discipline because without insults your arguments are all you have. They have to stand up.

"Big girl's blouse"

Umm. Wonder if Super Trev is up with the play? Apparently the new Superman is a "big girl's blouse".

Concerns have been mounting that the latest Superman, played by Brandon Routh, an unknown from Iowa, may not be “macho” enough for a key group of ticket-buyers: teenage boys. Earlier this month The Advocate, an influential gay magazine, proclaimed Routh’s Superman a homosexual icon, alongside Judy Garland and Cher, because he “lives a secret double life, wears tights and has lovely long eyelashes”.

Last week Bryan Singer, the film’s gay director and responsible for previous hits such as The Usual Suspects and the first two X-Men movies, compounded the anxiety by describing Superman Returns as a “chick flick about a superhero seen from a woman’s perspective, with qualities you’d want in a husband”. The woman is the ace reporter Lois Lane, played by Kate Bosworth.

“Young men do not want a soft Superman: they want the Man of Steel, even if he is 68 years old,” said one Hollywood executive last week.

There are good ideas and there are others

Newsroom reports, An Otago University researcher, who has just had a report on smoking published in an international medical journal, believes a countrywide ban on smoking is inevitable.

Shane Bradbrook of the Maori Smokefree Coalition was on the TV3 last night again pushing the idea of making tobacco available only thorugh pharmacies. Last week the DomPost ran a column by an Otago University law lecturer advancing the same idea. Watch it gain traction.

Here is my analysis of it:

Otago senior law lecturer Selene Mize advances the idea that a ban on tobacco sales (but not use) be implemented alongside an addict’s maintenance programme, similar to the one now providing methadone to heroin addicts through pharmacies. Maori Party MP Hone Harawira has also promoted such a plan.

Mize says,” Current tobacco users would have a set period of time in which to visit their GPs, be diagnosed as tobacco dependent, and receive a prescription that would enable them to purchase a set supply of tobacco from the pharmacy every two weeks or month.”

The theory is that with no legal tobacco for sale there will be no new smokers and existing addicts being supplied through a pharmacy will gradually give up or die. We will then be smokefree.

Unfortunately there is no evidence to back up this theory. Despite the methadone programme, the number of opioid dependents continues to grow. There is little documentation about the programme but a 2001 report estimated the number of dependents would continue to increase at the rate of 15 percent each year. Of the then estimated population of addicts, 13,500 to 26,600, only 3,774 were being treated through a methadone programme. Many were on waiting lists; many more, unofficially waiting.

There have always been problems with funding, client willingness and specialist addiction services. Despite opioid dependents costing the community an estimated $1,000 per week there seems to be little political will to expand the programme.

There are around 700,000 smokers in New Zealand. Even if half could be persuaded to quit if tobacco products disappeared from the supermarket and dairy shelves, the remainder would need to be managed through their GP and pharmacy. A GP would need to see an average of 125 tobacco addicts and a pharmacy around 395. Which raises obvious questions.

Have either got the resources to manage that level of “clients” and, for that matter, do they even want to? Pharmacists will have ethical concerns about dispensing products that damage health. Doctors will have qualms about prescribing a harmful substance. There may also be security fears. Pharmacies are already common targets for criminals operating in existing drug black markets.

And there can be no doubt that a tobacco black market will develop. Selene Mize believes with supply through pharmacies the black market will be small. But the market will be driven by price and accessibility. Illegal suppliers will make both more attractive, especially at the ban onset. Tobacco will present a lost-leader opportunity to expand market share of other illicit drugs, especially to young users. Has Mize failed to see use of the cannabis growing despite prohibition?

Methadone programmes have reduced the amount of crime committed by addicts and offered a chance of rehabilitation for a small number. These are not considerations affecting smokers.

Methadone programmes have done nothing to diminish the number of addicts or reduce the black market, both aims of a ban on tobacco sales. Denying the evidence is a facet of wishful, rather than innovative thinking.

There isn't much to entice me to the big red shed but I concede their music DVDs are the cheapest and their selection the best.

Music DVDs are making available so much previously unseen or unheard of. Today I came across a Bonnie Rait concert with guests Jackson Browne, Bryan Adams, and Bruce Hornsby. Wonderful. Last week at concert by Bruce Hornsby with guests Gregory Hines, Don Henley and Pat Metheny. Don Henley perched on the end of Hornsby's piano stool dueting 'The End of the Innocence' is just beautiful. But today this one left me perplexed. Gordon Lightfoot's voice was always deep and rich. In this 2000 performance he sounds like he has inhaled helium. I did a search and found other people have commented on how thin and nasal his voice has become but can find no reason for this. It sounds as though he had some sort of surgery on either his nose or throat. The songs are still haunting but I don't feel compelled to watch it again.

Over-doing it

I've always been the sort that's in for a penny, in for a pound. If I get interested in something I get mega-interested. Maybe that's what is fashionably known as having an addictive personality. I'm not sure. But what I did work out is it paid to get interested in things good for me. Like painting and writing, as opposed to how to beat the TAB.

At one point somebody challenged me to run a marathon and as I was looking for a way to mark my 30th birthday I thought, this is it. Thing was, they wanted me to run the New York marathon in November and it was already early September. What the hell. I was living in London and started training like a maniac. I would run a two mile circuit from my flat. That way I could call it a day early if needed or just keep going...just one more...just one more.

Of course my body wasn't as keen as my mind. At around ten or eleven miles one knee would force me to stop so for the first time in my life I went to a physiotherapist who worked wonders. With her help I was able to push out the distance.

Three of us went to New York. The challenger was an experienced marathon runner. His brother and I were the novices. We each started separately. I ran thirteen miles and hobbled the rest, coming in at 5 hours and eighteen minutes. My place was around 23,000th. But the time would have been even longer if I hadn't been passed by the other novice about midpoint. From there on I refused to let him out of my sight.

We planned a great liquid celebration that night in Chinatown but by 8 o'clock all of our noses were in our chicken and sweetcorn soup. We crawled our way back to the hotel and flew out the next day. I remember landing at Heathrow and finding to my dismay we had to exit via steps. I needed assistance. My equally nutty companion lost his toenails later that week.

What brought on this trip down memory lane?

Well I was just reading about a ban on people who go to gyms and over-exercise. What difference will that make? People can exercise anywhere. If they are hellbent on wrecking their joints and tendons, they will.

Some people can't do "moderation" and frankly, thank goodness for that. There is a place in the world for passionate obsessives. And notice, politicians excepted, that they will rarely be found telling other people how to live their lives.

Democracy is depressing

Interesting quote e-mailed to me by the Information Clearing House. It highlights the obvious pitfalls of living in a poll-driven society.

"Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion -- and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion ... while Truth again reverts to a new minority.": -- Soren Kierkegaard - 1813-1855) Danish philosopher

Respect with reservations

These guys really do deserve respect and kudos for having the courage of their convictions. Good to see them getting some balanced coverage in the DomPost today. I don't have strong links with the various father's groups but Bruce, pictured here, and I have talked extensively over the years.
My problem with their politics (not Bruce's) is they're not extreme enough! They often don't see or understand the degree to which socialism has contributed to their position. The state displaced them. With no need of their wallet they became redundant to the mothers of their children.
So they often resort to saying, I want my rights in the system recognised. Men should have a Department of Men's Affairs, prostate screening should be free, we should be able to claim the DPB instead of the unemployment benefit so we aren't work-tested, we want paid parental leave too etc etc. Whereas I say, having rights in a system which provides all the wrong incentives isn't the answer.
This, published in The Press, explains why I don't entirely support their actions and ideas.

Worse hospital care for Maori

According to the NZ Herald,"Maori are more likely to suffer inadequate health care than Pakeha and other ethnic groups, a new study suggests......The study's authors say it suggests Maori were more likely to receive "sub-optimum care" in hospitals, but they were unable to explain the reasons."

So much for all the years of cultural safety and Treaty of Waitangi training. I am persuaded by observers who have put the discrepancy down to communication difficulties. Those dificulties are compounded by many medical staff not having english as their first language.

New blogger

It took me a weekend to get my blog up and running. My ? year-old boy often sits alongside me using our laptop. Asked what he was up to tonight he replied, "Making a blog."
Half an hour later, it was done - more questions than answers

Containing local government

One of our councillors is trying to persuade his colleagues the council housing should be sold. It is making a substantial loss. The Hutt News ran a piece about the issue. Interestingly mine was the only response. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Road rage gets a handle

Road rage has been dignified with a scientific name; Intermittent Explosive Disorder or IED. According to the LA Daily News, The average IED sufferer will fly into a rage 43 times in their lifetime, racking up more than $1,300 in damage to others' personal property.

Notice the person who has IED is the sufferer, not the person who ends up the victim of it. I suppose it will hold up as a form of legal defence; The deceased D.I.E.D as the accidental result of I.E.D, M'lord. My client therefore pleads 'not guilty'. That's alright then. Mr IED, I sentence you to six months of taxpayer-funded anger management therapy.

Nice little earner for the shrinks. They get to invent the "condition" and then they get to treat it. The real victims look on in disbelief as the state once more turns the tables on them.

SUPERTREV!!!!

He must figure, "If Rodney Hide can reinvent himself, so can I".

Labour, but not as we know it

Here the World Socialist Website continues its assault on the PM;

The increasing social inequality illustrated by these processes has been developing since the market “reforms” instituted by the Labour government in the 1980s, which saw a sustained attack on jobs and wages and the privatisation of public assets. Throughout the 1980s, the real value of wages declined, while the share of national wealth accumulated by the propertied elite rapidly expanded.

This process was extended by the Nationals in the 1990s, and continues today under the Labour-led government of Helen Clark. Since Clark was elected in 1999, by falsely presenting Labour as a “centre-left” alternative to the right-wing monetarist economic agenda of the previous period, the wealthy have increased their net worth at a greater rate than at any time during the previous decade when the conservative National Party held office.

Thoughtful

A man had three girlfriends, and didn't know which one to marry. But knowing the importance of choosing someone who would be good with money, he asked them all the same question: "If I gave you £5,000, how would you spend it?"
"I would spend it on furs and diamonds," said the first, "so I would always look glamorous for you."
"I would spend it on golf clubs and fine wine," said the second, "so you could always enjoy your favourite things."
"I would invest it in the stock market," said the third, "so we would never have to worry about money during our life together."
All the answers were so good that the man still couldn't decide, so he married the one with the big boobs.

Personal grievances up 28 percent

More from our friends at EPMU defending the rise in personal grievance claims from 340 in 2004 to 436 last year. What I want to know is how many of those cases were taken by people who had taken cases previously. I suspect some may make a habit of it.

EPMU says "Taxes a bargain"

New Zealanders might have to work an average 151 days to pay taxes, but they have the use of services like schools, hospitals, roads, parks and a police and justice system all year round, says the country’s largest union.

Let me run that through my reality checker. One massive state high school (roll 1800), a hospital that admits it cannot cope with the elective surgery demand, our local cop seconded to another community, a main highway into and out of Wellington that is to be avoided like the plague, the only access into our community constantly resealed as the contractors don't seem to know what they are doing, a local park which is increasingly littered with rubbish and bottles. A bargain?

Stop whingeing for heaven sakes

Here's another National MP in the wrong party (fast becoming the right party). Jackie Blue. Complaining about women having to wait for up to a year for a mammogram. Well no. They don't have to wait that long at all. They only have to wait for up to a year if they want someone else to pay for it. If they stuck their hand in their purse for the price of a new top or pair of shoes they could have one right away.

Not staying mum

Bring our boys home: Mothers say war was 'based on lies'

Tony Blair faces an unprecedented revolt from the wives and mothers of serving soldiers, who want British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

The organisers of Military Families Against the War, set up by the parents of dead armed forces personnel last year, say their movement is supported by hundreds of service families and that more than 100 families and veterans are actively involved.

But are they supported by their sons and daughters?

" The sad decline of something so potentially powerful"

I like to plug some of our very good regional newspaper editors. The Taranaki Daily News is never afraid to call a spade a spade;

It is a pity Donna Awatere-Huata disappeared into the Dark Side, never likely to be rescued and rehabilitated, writes the Taranaki Daily News.

Go you good thing!

Oh the plebs are up in arms this morning! There is only one topic. That dratted, dreadful, Rodney Hide. Why isn't he doing what we pay him to do? Why is he wasting our taxpayer money?

Here is my response just relayed to the NewstalkZB audience.

Rodney Hide will be pulling in tens of thousands of dollars, possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars for the St John Ambulance service. Now, if he was in Parliament leading a campaign for increased taxpayer funding for St John's most people would be right behind him. Just as they want Marian Hobbs to spend her time campaigning for taxpayer funding for the Karori sanctuary.

Notice however, that Rodney is raising money given voluntarily whereas Marian wants to use money taken forcibly. Which is, for those listeners who cannot connect the dots, absolutely consistent with ACT's philosophy.

I have never enjoyed spending my money so much as I have keeping Rodney on that show. That's what I call entertainment!

Here comes the NDD

As of July 1, 2006, a National Dog Database will be established. ALL dog-owners will have their details and their dog's details recorded henceforth. The information about the dog will include its date of birth and its breed. The Dept of Internal Affairs have collaborated with the NZ kennel Asoociation to compile an approved list of dog breeds and colours that all registered dogs must comply with for NDD requirements. Mixed, mongrel or unknown breed types can no longer be accepted.

OK. I'll be fabricating a lot of details to satisfy these control freaks. Many dog-owners would have no idea when their dog was born or who or what its mummy and daddy were.

And colour? Here is a anticipated question and the appropriate answer;

"My dog has been registered as a 'Chocolate' coloured dog for the last few years, why can't you just leave my dog as this colour?"

To ensure all Councils around New Zealand have a consistent group of colours by which to register dogs, its important that all existing records are updated to reflect the legislative requirements as defined by the NZ Kennel Club and the Department of Internal Affairs.

If you would like your dog's colour considered for addition to the approved list, then you will need to sumit a request to the Department of Internal Affairs Governing group.

Information about how to do this will be available at registration time (around June 2006).

Say what???

As for microchipping, This includes all dogs registered for the first time on or after 1 July 2006, all dogs classified as dangerous and menacing on or after 1 December 2003, and dogs that are impounded for a second time, prior to their release from the dog shelter.

The micro-chip number will be .... loaded onto the NDD with all the dog’s other details.

Is it beyond the realms of possibility that a microchipped dangerous dog could be mistakenly loaded against the wrong owner? What happens on the day that dog attacks somebody?

Well the chip didn't prevent the attack and now the wrong person is going to be held responsible. Of course, that person is going to deny the ownership. But will he be believed? You see bad dog owners are cunning types. For instance they turn up at the dogpound pretending to look for a dog to adopt when they are really only after their own mongrel. (This is why any genuine adopter now has to pay the release fee). We know how unreasonable and obstinate local govt bureacrats can be. It wouldn't surprise me to see a case dragged through the courts.

The chances of a gross injustice being perpetrated are not high but they are real. Which is why I am nervous about all forms of national database ID schemes.

No more Mum and Dad

This is ludicrous. Sure, a very small minority of children have same-sex parents. What they call them is up to their parents. The idea we should all henceforth be described as "parent" or "carer" for reasons of "sensitivity" is just stupid. In fact it is dishonest. The whole point of language, and the English language is particularly accommodating, is that words should convey as much accuracy, relevancy and information as possible. Having words available that are not to be used is quite a chilling thought.

These ideas are contagious

If you've got a blood pressure problem don't read on.

Scottish Ministers have decided to make alcohol consumption the next big health issue for the Scots.

Sources have confirmed the plan will focus on reducing alcohol consumption among professionals who buy alcohol at supermarkets and drink at home without realising the harm they are doing to their health....Government advisers also want supermarkets to introduce separate alcohol-only aisles to make the purchase of wine, spirits and beer less easy.

Clash of cultures

A adolescent health expert says statements she made about Maori teen pregnancy and births have been cut from a TV3 programme.

"New Zealand has the third highest teenage pregnancy rate in the OECD, but Bagshaw said Pakeha rates were similar to those in Europe. The rate for Maori teenagers was much higher.

Young Maori women were also less likely to have abortions and the Maori teen birth rate was nearly five times higher than Europeans.

Bagshaw said Maori culture valued pregnancy and there was less stigma attached to young mothers."

With leaders like Tariana "I am intolerant of the excessive focus on controlling our fertility" Turia this isn't going to change.

The problem isn't Maori having babies young. Not so long ago most women had their babies younger than they do today.

The problem is having babies they cannot support. There is a simple matter of the order in which things are done. At a certain age an education or a job should be valued more highly. It used to be that finding a supportive life partner was a priority but that's long gone by the by.

If Maori want to value teen pregnancy and birth that is their prerogative but I am intolerant of the expectation that other cultures will fund that value.

Bloggers too blokey

A Guardian journalist who likes to put people in boxes.

"Men used to go fishing when they wanted to get away from 'the wife' and swap smutty jokes. Now they take up blogging.....Today, it is one of the more useful services - some might argue, the single valuable service of the political blogosphere - to afford interested women a similar glimpse of what respectable middle-aged men do when they think themselves unobserved."

Double Standards

What a dilemma, when you agree with one sentiment expressed by a group whose main agenda is an obnoxious anathema. The National Front took out ads in a local newspaper describing National and Labour as Tweedledee and Tweedledum government. Well, if that's not true already there can be little doubt they are heading that way.

The National Front also called for "equal rights for kiwi whites". Wrong. They should be calling for equal rights for all individuals. BUT notice the furor over their ads while national ads claiming Maori Genocide earlier in the week passed under the radar. The Maori Smokefree Coalition can apparently make quite offensive claims without repurcussion.

April 1, 1939

Get the date. This marked the introduction of benefits to meet need of any kind. The new emphasis was on legal entitlement and disbursement of cash - no questions asked. That was not the department's responsibility.

A 5 percent tax on salaries, wages and other income was levied, along with a registration fee. Any other necessary funds were to be appropriated from the consolidated fund.

What's with National?

State Owned Enterprises and Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard today announced a change in policy for State Owned Enterprises, which will encourage them to get into new business areas to help build New Zealand's wealth.

Labour must abandon its policy of rewarding cronies by appointments to State Owned Enterprise boards if they are to succeed in expanding, says National Finance spokesman John Key.

Labour's encouragement of State Owned Enterprises to invest in areas outside their core business is a tragic policy, says ACT Leader Rodney Hide.

Fatherhood US-style

A federal report released yesterday found that 47 percent of American men without a high-school diploma have fathered a child out of wedlock, compared with about 6 percent of college graduates.

There's the welfare spring.

Dob-in a dope

A dob-in phoneline has been launched for people who are sick of having their letterboxes stuffed full of unwanted junk mail.

Down our street there is a section from which the house has been removed. There is no house but there is always junkmail sticking out of the letterbox. But dob-in the culprit?
Probably some dopey kid, MP3 stuck in his ear, away with the fairies.
What the heck. At least he's got a job.

UK Child Support Agency "to be scrapped"

Very interesting, actually exciting news from my friend Bruce Tichbon. The UK Child Support Agency is to be scrapped.

The Times has learnt that, in future, separating parents will be told to sort out their own financial arrangements with the help of national guidelines on appropriate levels of child maintenance.

Ministers will be accused of letting down some of the most vulnerable families in the country. However, they will argue that, when parents separate, the Government should get involved only as a last resort, not as soon as the break-up happens.

Frank Field, a former welfare reform minister, said that he would welcome any move to keep warring parents away from the agency.

“The power of the State should only be used against people who fail to meet minimum requirements of good parenting.”

No less than you would expect from the deeply considered Frank Field.

Correct me if I'm wrong but this agency has been around for about the same time as the IRD Child Support Agency. Certainly the NZ Child Support Act came out of the early nineties. The most iniquitous piece of legislation.

(Dunne is fiddling with it at the moment but don't hold your breath.)

Three boys were talking:
"What does your dad do, Tom?"
"He's an airline pilot"
"Wow! And what does your dad do, Dick?"
"He's a racing driver."
"Cool! What does your dad do, Harry?"
"He's a Cabinet Minister."
"Honest?"
"No, just the normal sort."



(Hat-tip Adam Smith)

Awatere Huata back in court

Donna must really like standing in the dock. She will appear in the Hastings District Court on June 30 on tax offence charges after not filing tax returns for 2003,2004 and 2005. I suppose she'll be nice and handy on the day. Must be planning her wardrobe and hairdo as we speak.

Maori Party Must Refocus

It is not my intention to run a one-man crusade against the Maori Party but, apart from some weak protestations from Labour Maori MPs, they get carte blanche to make all sorts of claims. Here is my latest advice to them as posted at Scoop

TAX FREEDOM DAY IS HERE!

Staples Rodney has just announced June 1 is this year's Tax Freedom Day. A cheerful thought for the first day of winter........what the?? winter?? Yes. You are now working into winter to satisfy the government's avaricious appetite

Fast forward to 2020

News report from 2020.

"In 2011 parliament passed Hone Harawira's smoke-free Aoteoroa legislation. After the revolution fewer people smoked but thousands of tobacco addicts continued to drive a huge black market. Crime spread into suburbs previously unscathed. More people were exposed to illegal drugs they had formerly had no contact with.

Poverty rose, especially among children, as tobacco prices escalated. Lung cancer rates dropped but obesity-related diabetes continued to sky-rocket. In 2011, the government was forced to increase income taxes to make-up the $700 million shortfall from lost tobacco sales revenue. Taxes were increased again in 2015 and 2018 to fund additional pressure on the health system and law and order spending. Authorities also began recording fatalities due to the ingestion of impure or contaminated tobacco.

A Royal Commission was established last year to review the financial and social costs of tobacco prohibition. Its report is due to be published later this year and is likely to lend weight to an ACT private member's bill to repeal prohibition legislation."

These are the ads the Maori Smokefree Coalition have published today. The top one appears as a full page advertisement in the DomPost. Any idea what a full page ad costs? These ads are intended to be "provocative". Given the Maori population is growing faster than non-Maori, using the term "endangered species" only provokes amusement here.

Bizarre

Apparently drug addicts are committing crimes so they can get into prison to recieve treatment. Prison psychiatrist, Theodore Dalrymple, writes about similar efforts whereby the addict makes a suicide bid for the same reason. But in a bizarre turn of events there are British prisons considering "quietly retoxifying" addicts due for release. Otherwise there is a risk that when released the prisoner, whose tolerance has declined while inside, kills himself with an accidental overdose!

If they don't value their own life, why should the rest of us? Leave them alone to get on with it. Even more bizarre is we spend millions trying to stop the production of drugs, millions trying to persuade people not to use them, millions putting people through the courts and locking them up, millions policing all the associated crime because we insist on prohibition, and now some to make sure these hapless creatures will be back for more.

If grown-ups want to smoke, drink, drug or eat themselves to an early grave - let them.

Revenue gathering taken to extreme

This happened just down the road from where I lived in London. The photo made me feel a bit nostalgic but the story didn't.

The dead donkey

Michael bought a donkey from an old farmer for £100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day, but when he drove up he said, "Sorry son, bad news...the donkey is on my truck, but he's dead." Michael replied, "OK, just give me my money back." The farmer said, "I can't do that. I've already spent it."

Michael told him to unload the donkey anyway. When the farmer asked what he intended to do with it, Michael replied, "I'm going to raffle him off." The farmer exclaimed, "But you can't raffle a dead donkey!" But Michael, with a big smile on his face, said "Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody that he's dead."

A month later the farmer saw him again and asked, "What happened with that dead donkey?" Michael told him, "I raffled it off. I sold 500 tickets at £2 each and made a huge profit" Totally amazed, the farmer asked, "Didn't anyone complain that you'd defrauded them with a dead donkey?" Michael replied, "The only guy who found out the donkey was dead was the raffle winner when he came to claim his prize. So I gave him his £2 back plus £200 extra, which is double the going value of a donkey, so he thought I was a great guy."

Michael grew up and eventually became Minister of Finance, and no matter how many times he lied or how much money he stole from New Zealand voters, as long as he gave them back some of the stolen money, most of them thought he was a great guy.

Hat tip Adam Smith

Pathetic excuse

An Auckland woman has been given 180 hours community service for chopping down a tree on her property. A representative of the council spoke to Larry Williams about this. He suggested their approach was rather zealous, to which she responded, if everybody was allowed to cut down trees imagine what the environment would look like, "We've seen the carnage."

Well isn't it strange that garden centres and nurseries are more popular than ever, that the environments where private homes predominate are more attractive, that so many people want to move onto lifestyle blocks, grow trees and protect their privacy. What a pathetic excuse for an outrage. What really motivates these people?

Maori Party should come clean

Hone Harawira has a column in the DomPost today about his aim to boot tobacco companies out of NZ (no link sorry). There are any number of points that could be argued eg he says smoking is not a choice, it is a disease, but I have chosen to argue the futility of prohibition.

Dear Editor

Maori Party MP, Hone Harawira's aim (DomPost, May 30) to boot tobacco companies out of New Zealand leaves questions about what comes after.

Many people already smoke tailor-made cigarettes sparingly and generally roll their own. If they can't buy their tobacco from the supermarket or dairy what does Hone think they will do? Give up?

We have been strikingly unsuccessful in stopping the cultivation and importation of cannabis. Only recently the DomPost ran a front page story about a Porirua tinnie house turning over huge money. Porirua's top detective was quoted as saying in some New Zealand suburbs it is easier to buy cannabis than tobacco.

If the Maori Party wants to drive tobacco underground then they should make that absolutely clear. We can then consider whether the downsides of banning legal production will be worse than the problem Harawira seeks to remedy.

Brave question

"Can a welfare culture that has no work ethic be in a position to prepare its children for school?"

Perhaps this is the question last week's hui (as commented on yesterday) should have been asking. The question is lifted from a debate over whether Aboriginal culture should continue to be taught in schools. But take the question in isolation. Forget ethnicity and focus on the "welfare culture" which can affect all races, albeit disproportionately.

(Do you notice the Aussies are more prepared to discuss these types of issues than we are?)

Abortions at home for 10,000

Abortions at home for 10,000

Not for the squeamish really. As far as I am aware this drug is not used in New Zealand. When I read about growing abortion rates, New Zealand included, I just wish that more people took a bit more care in the first place.

"Brash speech shows he's worried, says Clark"

"Brash speech shows he's worried, says Clark"

Well of course he's bloody worried. So am I, as we edge further towards becoming a Scandinavian-like state with a layer of separatism thrown in; as we fall behind not just Australia but other up-and-coming nations with more daring and vision than we collectively possess; as we fail to attract highly skilled migrants or get used as a stepping stone to Australia; as we refuse to face a growing ill-educated, ambitionless underclass fuelled by welfare. Hell's bells Helen. So should you be.

Stuff the ceremonies

Prince Philip is at it again. I love it.

"I am truly fed up with the opening and closing ceremonies. They are a pain in the neck," said the Queen's husband, renowned for his outspoken views and political gaffes.

"Opening and closing ceremonies ought to be banned. Absolute bloody nuisances. I have been to one that was absolutely, appallingly awful."

Philip said he hoped to do "as little as possible" during the London Olympics in 2012.

Yet another hui.....

The usual bunch of suspects get together and make all the predictable noises.The scene, a workshop about families;

Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright told delegates New Zealand family life had undergone dramatic and rapid change. Fewer people were marrying, women were choosing to have fewer children and at a later age, and single-parent and multiple-parent families were becoming "very common".

But she said the changes were exciting and families had not lost their importance in society.

Interesting choice of word don't you think?

Judge Beecroft, in juxtaposition said, "Building strong functioning families with strong male role models is perhaps the fundamental crime-fighting initiative we could deliver to the community."

Honestly. And this is a job for the state? Perhaps he thinks if the state undid it then the state can put it back together again.

And what great wisdom from the Children's Commissioner?

Dr Kiro, who first mooted the ID proposal, said it was important that every child had "a set direction and a plan".

The assessments, which are likely to include health, reading and literacy tests, would take into account the "whole child" across a range of agencies.

Oh thank goodness "they" know what they are doing. "They" are going to take care of my children. Now if anything goes wrong it'll be "their" fault - not mine.

That'll make me a much better parent.

Precious

Look out! Here comes Tana and he's got Mum's handbag.

Welfare pre-industrial times

Today I was told there was no welfare system in pre-industrial times. I pointed out that in England the Elizabethan Poor Law required parishes to tax and provide assistance to the poor - the aged, the unemployed, widows and deserted wives.

But, according to another person, I am confusing charity and welfare.

From this I gather that because the church (parish) was involved the welfare provided was deemed "charity".

But the church, at that time, was very much part of the state machinery. The law required tax to be collected and redistributed through the parish. This is "public" welfare. Charity is "private" welfare. It is a matter of private individuals giving to a cause voluntarily either of their time or from their pocket (although there is some blurring today with many organisations classed as charities also getting govt grants.)

I am going to use the words of author David Thomson to briefly describe the Britain most of our settlers came out of.

There had been a long "historical cycle of alternation between personal and public responsibilities in welfare matters."

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries "dependence on public support (was) a signal part of the English way of Life".

But the nineteenth century saw a turn against public assistance. During the early 1800's there were, "Repeated government investigations of work and poor relief through those years, which stressed the failure of employemnt subsidy in the stagnating and impoverished south, while free-market progress was booming in the north...there were also increased penalties against those who refuse to work or who failed to maintain their children....during the late 1860's...arguments against public assistance and in favour of the individual and family responsibility reached a new crusading pitch....self-help, independence, opposition to compulsory public support, and the lauding of voluntary effort were all standard features of the later-nineteenth century in western Europe and North America, as well as Australasia."

Unfortunately intergenerational memory is weak and during the twentieth century most western nations began to rebuild their public assistance programmes. This is what people now commonly refer to as the "welfare state". But it's not new.

And now we are once more out on the extreme of the pendulum trajectory, with state or public support having run to its useful and sustainable limits.

Meanwhile, back in Naenae...

Interest in Naenae seems to be gaining traction around the blogs. Here's another insight from Big News and a cautionary note from Oswald Bastable.
I missed my weekly visit to Naenae this past but had the pleasure of spending time in and around some Wellington council houses which are in even worse repair than the state ones I have seen. There's no getting away from mould resulting from the use of acrylic paint in bathrooms but cracks in windows can be hidden if you don't open the curtains.

I don't until "I do"

Kids that make chastity pledges are not keeping them. Well I never.

The debate over sex education vs abstinence rages on in the US. There are pitfalls with either approach. But a comment by an abstinence advocate who tours schools caught my eye;

(Yet) the effect of all that “sex ed”, argued Keith Deltano, a former teacher who tours schools advocating abstinence, is that the average American is exposed to between 240,000 and 480,000 sex acts before reaching the age of 18.

I have no idea what he means. Do you?

Subsidies create greater need

We have a community constable in Eastbourne who writes a monthly column in our local Herald. Today he explains that because Wainuiomata is short-staffed, unbeknown to us, he has been working over there. And will be until further notice.

For decades we've sudsidised education, health and welfare in our poorer neighbouring community, for no great social gain, because their law and order needs still take precedence.

There is a small bonus. He has promised to give us some "insight" into life "over the hill". It will be superfluous to my needs but a few people who read his column could do with some enlightenment.

Here is his first installment;

One thing I saw while working in Wainui was four very young kids, one a near newborn, who slept in the same room as their parents with the telly blaring. It was around midnight and not all were asleep. The other bedroom couldn't be used. They were all living in very sparse conditions to say the least, and I did'nt see much food about either.

What astounded me was the most expensive item in the house - a late model and flash Playstation with stereo etc., for the father to spend his days on. No, he did not have a job.

News for Sue Bradford

Whether or not minimum wages (and increases to them) affect employment is reasonably controversial. The question is also highly topical given Sue Bradford's push to scrap the minimum youth rate. The following is from this week's Featherston and Molesworth and worth a read.

Minimum wage and unemployment
Nobel laureate in economics and author of the best-selling economics text in hiostory Paul Samuelson once reputedly commented, “When the economic theorist turns to the general problem of wage determination and labour economics, his voice becomes muted and his speech halting. If he is honest with himself, he must confess to a tremendous amount of uncertainty and self-doubt concerning even the most basic and elementary parts of the subject.”
No such halting speech or uncertainty from the Auckland ‘University’ of Technology, which announced Maori would be most adversely affected by a rise in the minimum wage. The claim is based on a study by economics lecturer Gail Pacheco.
“There are high numbers of Maori and Pacific Island people on minimum wage. Together they account for more than a fifth of minimum and sub-minimum wage workers, therefore they’ll attract more negative impact if the wage rise drives employers to reassess their options,” she argued.
“My study found for Maori who find the minimum wage binding, a ten percent rise in the real minimum wage would see a 15.8 percentage point fall in employment propensity, a drop of 13.5 hours usually worked each week, a 5.7 percentage point increase in unemployment propensity and a 10.9 percentage point increase in inactivity, that is, not working or studying.”
These are dramatic findings: A substantial fall in numbers who have jobs and a staggering one third drop in average hours worked if the minimum wage increases by around a dollar.
The study is all the more dramatic because its certainty conflicts with the weight of international academic evidence on the topic. A 1998 International Labour Organisation study (Minimum Wages and Youth Unemployment, ILO Employment and Training Papers) found the relationship between minimum wages and the employment of youth can’t be usefully considered in isolation from other influences on the labour market - elasticity of labour supply, wages and demand for labour along with “reservation wages” (that is, the availability of welfare).
The ILO noted the key question is productivity.
Obviously, at some level a minimum wage would cause unemployment; and if there were no minimum wage and no welfare payments, there might be no unemployment because anyone could find employment for a dollar a day. But cartoonish examples do not tell us much about what happens when the minimum wage is a modest fraction of the average wage and it increases mildly.
Increases in the minimum wage entice some low skilled workers to join the workforce. They also increase purchasing power (by consumers who are most likely to spend their entire income) and therefore stimulate economic activity. It’s also clear that low value jobs can be destroyed (it’s hard to get your shoes shined in countries with a realistic minimum wage).
The AUT study goes further in attributing the employment effects not just to youth, but to Maori.
Claims a higher minimum wage affects racial groups differently were investigated and rejected in a major 1983 study published in the peer reviewed Journal of Human Resources.
“Minimum wage effects differ very little by sex, and there is no strong evidence that the effects vary by race,” it found. [Time-Series Evidence of the Effect of the Minimum Wage on Youth Employment and Unemployment; Brown, Gilroy & Kohen, Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter, 1983) , pp. 3-31.] That study, found a ten percent increase in the US minimum wage would reduce teenage employment by about 1 percent. But it also found the unemployment effects would be negligible because low-skilled workers would withdraw from the labour force.
A 2003 survey reports only 46 percent of academic economists in the US agree with the statement, “a minimum wage increases unemployment among young and unskilled workers”.
Another 28 percent partly agreed and 27 percent disagreed.
M&F WEEKEND UPDATE 26 MAY 2006

That's daring

The Scotsman reports, the pensions revolution is here;

"The message is this: if you want anything more than the basic pension in retirement, the state isn't going to do that any more. You have to do it yourself." - LORD TURNER

The British government have bitten the bullet and announced a raise in the pension age to 68. When? Wait for it.....2044!!

Some perspective

Expert says,"The social cost of alcohol is huge, and P pales in comparison to the danger alcohol causes."

This is bald fact yet we get constant hysteria about P from various sources unable to see the forest for the trees.

Hawkes Bay Today rates

The tenor and quality of the various regional editorials is fairly predictable - in this case, fortunately. Here's another well-written and well-informed offering from the Hawkes Bay Today. My response follows;

EDITORIAL: Bradford smacks of UN humbug

26.05.2006

One of the most frustrating aspects of MP Sue Bradford's intention to repeal Section 59 of the Crimes Act (1961) is the extraordinary claim made of it that it will "end the abuse of children".

Add to that the implicit assumption that anyone opposed to repealing the law is far less concerned with preventing child abuse than with the retaining right to beat kids and it is not hard to see why the bill, which would criminalise smacking, has had such a rocky road.

Apart from an irresistible urge to supplant parents by deciding what's best for everyone, motivation for the change has come from United Nations criticism of Section 59 (sufficient reason, one would have thought, not to repeal it).

The UN says our law violates its Convention on the Rights of the Child because parents are justified in "using force by way of correction of a child if the force used is reasonable in the circumstance".

Those who inveigh against Ms Bradford's amendment bill are not a creepy regiment of child abusers but people who worry that the law could define any parent who smacks a child as a criminal.

Unlike its sponsor, many of the bill's opponents probably recognise that while any smacking is regrettable, most of it is not abuse, that in an imperfect world parents do smack (though they may have cause to regret it) and that one simply cannot hope to prescribe in detail how people can, and should, behave.

Most, one hopes, would regard with extreme abhorrence the reality that violence can be found in many homes but would resist the childlike assumption that repealing section 59 of the crimes Act will cure it.

Ms Bradford has now taken a step back, saying her amendment bill should not outlaw "light smacking". Just how that concession might be made is anybody's guess.

She suggested a rewording of the bill or a commentary. How will a commentary assist? The police have already indicated that with the removal of Section 59 they will still be required to investigate complaints about smacking. Neither should any comfort be found in airy assurances that police are far too busy with more important crime than wanting to chase up petty smacking incidents.

Repealing section 59 so that the law echoes the pious sentiments of those who condemn any smacker as a child abuser is not the answer. The bill deserves to wither on the vine; not because nothing should be done about the abuse of children, but for the opposite reason: It will do nothing to make them safer.

It would be more useful (but grab fewer headlines) if Ms Bradford et all directed their energies where they might hope to make a difference.

The complexity of the causes of violence in the home will continue to elude lawmakers for as long as they seize on gestures to maintain the illusion that something's being done.

Ignorant, brutal parents who understand discipline only as beating children will continue to do so ... and allowances will continue to be made for them.


Dear Editor

Your editorial, May 26, re Sue Bradford's anti-smacking bill suggested, "It would be more useful (but grab fewer headlines) if Ms Bradford et all directed their energies where they might hope to make a difference."

NZ research has shown that children from benefit-dependent homes were four times more likely to become subjects of Care and Protection notifications to CYF. Yet Ms Bradford is an advocate of welfare expansion and an avid proponent of the DPB. Politicians should confine themselves to reform of damaging social policies.

Meanwhile, volunteer work in these homes is probably one of the most effective ways of reducing the chance or severity of child abuse. In many cases parents are mistrustful of state agencies. Giving those agencies even more discretionary power, the effect of passing Bradford's bill, would only exacerbate this.

Unsustainable lightbulbs ? Unsustainable logic

Having recently spent a small amount of time with Heather Simpson, Act on Campus President, I was impressed with her style, her affability and her mind. She stands in for Heather Roy this week (another in a very good series of proxies) with a column which, amongst other things, points out the absurdity and hypocrisy of students urging the government to ban unsustainable light bulbs.

It's only a matter of time

Voluntary euthanasia is an issue which is not going away. Lesley Martin is still very busy and you can read about her activities here. I'm not sure she is the right person for the job. But I was pleased to see Peter Brown's Death with Dignity Bill is back in the ballot box.

Another Hobson's choice

Lung cancer or diabetes? Many people worry that if they give up smoking they will gain weight. One of the target groups for anti-smoking campaigners is teenage girls. Appearance is often top of their priority list.

Some US economic research into the growth of obesity has found, "The rapid increase in obesity in the 1980s is partly an 'unintended consequence of the campaign to reduce smoking'." But the most important link the researchers found was between BMI and the number of restaurants in a given area.

Which reminds me, the US is the only place I have been where they sell anti-acids in restaurants.

"They wouldn't have been microchipped "

A herd of sheep were killed on a lifestyle block north of Hamilton. The owners had videoed the destruction and it appeared on TV3 tonight. The owner shot the two pig dogs responsible. Neither had collars. Labour MP, Nanaia "One law for all dogs" Mahuta was on the scene saying microchipping would have meant the dogs could have been identified. The owner disagreed. He said the dog's owners would not have bothered to microchip the dogs as they weren't even registered. We all know this (except for our learned politicians). But it was sobering to see the obvious shortcomings of this proposal so graphically illustrated. Some of the sheep had to be destroyed after the attacks due to the degree of mutilation.

Hoodwinked

The multi-million dollar Families Commission was the price government paid to keep United Future sweet after the 2002 election. Of course it was always going to be hyjacked by the Left so the government wasn't too bothered. Remember the first hassles over the definition of a "family"?

United Future created the exact opposite of what they envisaged. This was once again obvious today with Families Commissioner, Rajen Prasad backing Sue Bradford's bill at a select committee submission.

How the right-wing christians were hoodwinked.

United Future position; New Zealand families will lose their children to CYFS zealots if Sue Bradford’s anti-smacking Bill passes into law, United Future deputy leader Judy Turner said today.

United Future policy; Give the Families Commission responsibility for co-ordinating and promoting parenting education programmes, as well as initiating public education campaigns promoting parenting skills.

United Future achievements; secured $28 million of funding over four years and the passage of legislation to establish the Families Commission, which will ensure that all government legislation will be tested for its impact on families (as per the supply and confidence agreement)

Russia grapples with low fertility

Russia is planning large subsidies to women who bear a second child but the Wall Steet Journal thinks it will be difficult to halt their population decline. According to the CIA World Factbook Russia's fertility rate is 1.28. (I am a bit hesitant about their information because they give New Zealand's as 1.79 which in not correct).

Nice Quote

Just as centralized economic planning has failed, centralized ecological planning will fail. The solution to our environmental problems will not be found in more government agencies, bureaucrats, and arbitrary regulations. Rather, we need an approach which relies on individual responsibility and its concomitants, individual liberty and private-property rights.

— Chuck Olson, The Stanford Review [November 1, 1992]

(Thanks FFF)

What is National's policy?

Was it your impression that National's policy was to spend based on need, not race?

Yesterday a shouting match erupted over the Minister of Maori Affairs' apparent negligence in not bidding for more money for Maori in the Budget. I'd expect strong criticism from the Maori Party but look who was most upset.

National MP Georgina te Heuheu said Mr Horomia's admission made him a laughing stock and her colleague Tau Henare, a former Maori Affairs Minister, called it "reprehensible".....Mr Horomia and Mr Henare shouted at each other during the Maori Affairs committee hearing.

"Shooting galleries "

The United Kingdom are having another look at introducing hygenic environments for addicts to inject themselves. Have a read before you dismiss the idea. We already dispense methadone to thousands of NZ addicts daily.

Welcoming the report, chief executive of drugs education charity DrugScope Martin Barnes said: "This carefully-considered report will test the extent to which we are able to have an informed, rational and calm debate about drugs policy and reducing drug-related harms."

Finnish and French state-lovers

A group of Finns have founded the Happy Taxpayers Association and the French have banned vending machines in shools (the French vice-President was in NZ today recommending we do the same.)

Go away!

Give us facts, not feel-good fabrications

Why does David Benson-Pope constantly play us for fools?

Minister: Family support telephone pilot helping one in four families

Mr Benson-Pope says actual Family Helpline calls over the past year have confirmed this: In the period of 20 March 2005 to 15 May 2006, the 211 Helpline answered 15,918 calls. Given that there are approximately 64,000 families in the region this is equivalent to one call from every four families.

It might also be that one in sixteen families called the line four times.

Either he doesn't have the information or he isn't saying. Either is bad.

UPDATE; And here's another couple of things. The period he quotes is not a year and there are 75,100 families in the Bay of Plenty region. Why does it matter? Because based on the "success" of this trial he will roll it out right around the country.
Thank YOU very much for your kind donation.

Hobson's Choice

In a church hall 34 years ago political candidates gathered for an election meeting. Parties represented were Social Credit, Values, Labour and National. The hot issue was housing rents.

Mrs Harvey, the Social Credit candidate, said rent racketeering in the Hutt was very bad. She had had the experience of house hunting and soon found people were not there to make friends, but to make money. Social Credit would help by offering money for houses at only 3 percent interest.

Mr Colman, one of two Labour candidates, said his party would match that AND would impose rent control under a body of people who would serve at no cost.

Mr Overton, speaking on behalf of the Values Party said the problem was population growth. The more people you have, the more houses you will want. Half of the babies being born were unplanned. If people would just plan their families New Zealand could achieve zero population growth.

Finally Mr Fowler, the National nominee, said local and central government should acquire land and sell it, not to make a profit but to offer it cheaper. He said that speculators were the problem, purchasing land to their own advantage.

This was reported in the Hutt News on the eve of the 1972 general election.

Good God. What a choice. Where's Bob Jones when you need him?

Good on the Clutha District Council

A rare bouquet to local government;

The Clutha District Council plans to largely ignore legislation requiring dog owners to microchip all pups being registered for the first time after July 1.

Staff would not insist dog owners had their pups microchipped. Instead, they would only enforce microchipping if dogs were impounded or classified as dangerous and menacing, planning and environment manager Murray Brass said yesterday.

I wouldn’t say we are defying the law. I would say we are giving enforcement a low priority, he said.

The real story

There is outrage at the plight of a Christchurch grandmother, who cares for an eight year-old grand daughter, who was sent home after major cancer surgery without any home help. I'm appalled too but would direct my outrage elsewhere, in the first instance.
Where are her family and friends for goodness sake?
This is a classic example of civil society missing-in-action.

Chilling contrast

Experts believe that if someone on their way to the top of Everest had been prepared to forgo success to help a distressed climber who had run out of oxygen, he might not have died. When I read this I couldn't help but think about the Tasmanian miners who risked their lives each day to rescue their trapped workmates.

Bradford should check her priorities

Sue Bradford now maintains that her bill to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act was never intended to ban smacking. It is about preventing child abuse.

Since 1990 only 1.4 court cases per year have involved the use of section 59 as a defence.

Statistically, children from DPB homes are four times more likely to be the subject of a CYFS care and protection notification.

Yet you will never hear Bradford say a word against the DPB.

Crime - NZ versus UK

Nottingham, England is now apparently the most dangerous city in the UK.

Nottingham is the most dangerous city in England and Wales with a crime rate four times greater than the safest towns such as Southend and Poole, according to a study released today.

According to the public services think tank Reform, Nottingham had 115 crimes per 1000 people in 2005 compared to just 30 in Southend, Essex and 32 in Poole, Dorset.

Nottingham also had a far higher crime level than areas of similar size such as Wolverhampton (49 crimes per 1000 people) and Reading (43 per 1000).

So how do we compare. These are the 2005 recorded crimes per 1,000 for the Wellington region;

Kapiti-Mana 80
Lower Hutt 92
Upper Hutt 105
Wairarapa 103
Wellington 91

Counties Manukau region;
Central 139
East 71
South 109
West 128

Canterbury region;
Central 283 (Holy Cow!)
Mid South 74
Northern 69
Southern 67

Go here if you want to see other regions.

On paper we are looking considerably more dangerous than the UK. Then again, it is entirely possible that we are simply recording more crime or (less likely) measuring different types of crime.

Spotlight on Auckland

Remember, the country has just experienced a sustained period of low unemployment and strong economic growth.

Numbers of working aged Domestic Purposes Benefit recipients (aged 18–64 years), at the end of March 2001, at the end of March 2005, and at the end of March 2006, by service centre

Number of recipients who were registered in: Mar 2001 Mar 2005 Mar 2006
Albany and Browns Bay 666 712 748
Auckland, Queen Street and Queen Street Super Centre 254 251 305
Avondale 759 751 768
Birkenhead 864 798 783
Clendon 1,450 1,548 1,623
Glen Innes 1,106 1,021 1,046
Glenfield 891 671 637
Glenmall and Kelston 1,105 1,255 1,269
Helensville 297 330 338
Highland Park 1,057 1,086 1,125
Hunters Corner and Hunters Corner Super Centre 605 590 582
Mangere 2,725 2,785 2,724
Manukau 1,368 1,370 1,401
Manurewa 1,830 2,283 2,278
Mt Albert 601 611 632
Mt Eden 498 378 376
New Lynn 1,206 959 921
Onehunga 661 661 616
Orewa 845 824 881
Otahuhu 869 871 835
Otara 1,118 1,304 1,319
Panmure 959 889 938
Papakura 1,941 2,105 2,117
Paptoetoe 740 830 877
Pt Chevalier 306 264 256
Pukekohe 1,040 1,071 1,098
Surrey Crescent/Ponsonby 485 376 343
Takapuna and Takapuna Super Centre 679 615 587
Three Kings 910 861 881
Waiheke Island 356 294 293
Waitakere 2,643 2,809 2,728
Waiuku 324 351 331
Warkworth 418 468 459
West Gate 1,283 1,225 1,265

Number of working aged (aged 18–64 years) Domestic Purposes Benefit recipients 32,859 33,217 33,380

57 percent of recipients are Maori/ Pacific people and 46 percent have been on a benefit continuously for four or more years.

"The beast that will not die"

A very clever comic strip from Reason
Trying to stop America's seemingly unstoppable "War on Drugs" by P Bagge.

There's a turn up

Just watching the TV3 News. The Prime Minister and Speaker, Margaret Wilson were formally approaching the Maori Queen at celebrations today. Who was sitting on the Maori Queen's left? Bishop Brian Tamaki.
UPDATE: Paul Holmes this morning, Will she be brassed-off seeing Bishop Brian, the man who has denounced her as a "satanist" for imposing her homosexual agenda on the country, will she be brassed-off seeing him sitting up there, next to the Maori Queen? What do you think!!

Double standards

I took a friend to the Social Services Select Committee a couple of years back. They were taking submissions on the Care of Children Bill. He wasn't very articulate and blew all the arrangements we'd made beforehand about how we would present. He might even have come across as slightly wild-eyed. But that didn't change his story. He had fought for the custody of his three children for eight years. He feared for their safety. The court-appointed counsel for children constituted a huge barrier. Eventually he gave up. Soon after his ex appeared with the children and left them. She never returned. He still has them and they seem to be doing well.

When we look at the guys currently protesting it pays to consider what they have endured. In the seventies feminists decided it was cruel to remove children from their natural mothers. Society all but dispensed with adoption. As with mothers, in most cases, it is equally cruel to remove children from their fathers.

Strange headline

The headline that accompanies this graph from NZ Statistics is "Marriages Maintain Momentum"

I wonder what the chart accompanying "Marriages Lose Momentum" would look like.

UPDATE; Stuff don't see it quite that way with their headline "Fewer Kiwis saying 'I do'".

Welfare spending budget projections

Here are welfare expenditure figures in $ million;

The first is 2005 actual, the second is 2010 forecast and finally the percentage change

Super 6,083 7,902 +30%
DPB 1,547 1,582 +2
Unemployment 831 985 +19
Accommodation Supplement 750 961 +28
Invalids Benefit 1,026 1,282 +25
(Sickness Benefit 510 682 +34
Disability allowance 267 328 +23
Income related rents 370 471 +27
Family Support 846 2,072 +144
Child Tax Credit 141 9 -936
Special benefit 175 15 -914
In Work Payment 0 526
Benefits paid in Australia 91 48 -47
Paid Parental Leave 76 160 +111
Other Benefits 613 835 +36

Total 13,326 17,858 +36

(Excluding Super 7,243 9,956 +37)

Add to these:

Departmental expenses 781 782
Non-Departmental 423 433
Rehab and compensation 152 173

Total 14,682 19,246 +31

...and I've left out the pension fund.

Put into context working-age welfare will increase by 37 percent, Health by 23 percent and Education by 20 percent.

Mania for management

It is bad enough that spending on health "managers, administrators, supervisors and clerical staff" etc has reached $500 million but don't forget the added burden as these people extract their pound of flesh from the frontliners. With extra bureaucracy comes more analysis of systems, more paperwork, more meetings, more change for the sake of change. The productive time of medical staff is reduced. No wonder the government has put 50 percent more in and got less out.

Dilemma for do-gooders

In the 60s and 70s the abiding angst was over skinny, anaemic kids who got hustled off to health camps. Skinny = bad.

By the 80s we were witnessing the beginnings of massive paranoia over the anorexia nervosa 'epidemic'. Then we had the PC backlash calling for non-judgementalism about body shape lest we create an unhealthy, even fatal, obsession.

Now that's all out of the window. Apparently "self esteem" is no longer the flavour of the day, as we unrelentingly highlight obese kids in an attempt to legislate them into 'healthy' conventionality. Fat = bad.

In the UK, "From next year, however, parents of any obese 4- or 10-year-olds can expect a letter telling them their child faces long-term health damage unless they lose weight. The about-turn came after MPs dismissed as 'drivel' claims that telling parents the results could lead to children being bullied."

Obesity campaigners say the danger to obese children's future health is so great it outweighs any fears of bullying.

What a dilemma for those who would stick their beaks into other people's lives. Which is more important. Physical or emotional health?

Redistribution NZ- Style

Did you know that;

- 12 percent of people are paying 50 percent of the income tax collected?

- 65 percent of people are paying 20 percent of the income tax collected?

Consider this:

Average family gross income: ($)
- couple with children 88,661
- couple with no children 70,184
- sole parent 27,806
- single person 27,740

(Includes benefits and other non-wage income for year ended June 2007).

Couples with children are, on average, the highest income earners. Yet this is the group current economic policy targets for increased redistribution receipt.

A family with two children qualifies for Family Support up to $65,940 and the In-Work payment up to $81,540. The highest cut-off point for family income assistance is now $109,880.

The childless have three options; have kids, pay for somebody else's or leave the country.

Police "trickery" backfires

Here's an interesting story from Scotland.

THREE men who were on trial for armed robbery walked free from court after a judge ruled that their human rights had been breached when police listened in to conversations in their cells.

Do you care?

National law and order spokesman Simon Power said the public would be shocked to know that drivers could be 10 per cent more drunk than their breath tests showed.

"We've always been told the limit's the limit," he told the Dominion Post newspaper.

The legal limit is 400 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath for adults on a full license, and 150mcg for those aged under 20.

But New Zealand breath-tests will not return a positive result unless drivers have 440mcg or 170mcg in their breath.

Shocked? Big deal. Really. I'm shocked he can be bothered. I accept there needs to be limits on drinking before driving but not that people are categorically "drunk" at a specified level. Saying somebody is "ten percent more drunk" is silly.

Eye to Eye

Eye to Eye at 9.30 on TV 1 looks to be another brawl. Subject: What's in the budget for Maori? Apparently Hone Harawira says the only thing in the budget for Maori is more police to arrest them. Must away and watch it.

UPDATE; Well, I was right. It was a brawl. Clayton Cosgrove and Shane Jones on the left and John Key and Hone Harawira on the right. Willie Jackson in the middle goading them on. You know, the more I see of Shane Jones, the great Maori hope, the less I want to see of him. He is a smart arse but not a very good one. With lines like, "I want to ask Willie if he is a casting agent because Hone is acting" and "I want all New Zealanders to wake up because John has just put them to sleep" and "Give me the lotto numbers Hone if you can read my mind." Oh, save me.

Hone is one angry man. He thumbs it with his dress and language and comes over as a streetfighter. He is mad as hell at Shane Jones who he sees as a traitor to the Maori cause. "What really pisses me off is Shane understands this shit. These other guys don't."

Clayton Cosgrove had to try and get down and dirty with the boys and came out with probably the nastiest remark of all (which had nothing to do with the subject). "Don Brash stands up in Parliament everyday and you can smell the embalming fluid and formaldehyde on his breath." Having got Don off his chest he had a go at Rodney. "Rodney Hide will win (Dancing with the Stars) because he has two dances; the Hussle, which we all know he's very good at and the Limbo - no-one goes lower than Rodney."

John Key said that there was nothing in the budget for Maori because there was nothing in the budget for anyone! He kept calm and good-humoured throughout and won the match by default.

Truly. This programme is theatre. It isn't political debate. It replays Tuesday night.

A different perspective (cont)

...The anti-tobacco industry tells obvious lies, obvious enough for Maori to see through. Here are four of them;

A different perspective

I got this book out of the library called Maori Health and I don't want to give it back. If Hone Harawira is North these guys, Peter Caccioppoli (Ngati Kahungunu) and GP Rhys Cullen, are South. It's deliciously forthright. When you spend too much time trawling through tracts of unctuous material put out by state agencies and state-sponsored do-gooders you need an antidote. This is it;









(Let me know if you want the rest)

Spreading ideas

Here's my media release from yesterday. It went out to a number of National MPs, including Judith Collins. In it I said, "It is bad news for children that the Child Poverty Action Group has today won the right to take the government to court over what it calls a 'discriminatory' In Work payment......Welfare breeds poverty".

Here's a NewstalkZB item this morning in which Judith Collins says, "It is bad news for children that the government can be taken to the Human Rights Review Tribunal for not extending 'In Work' payments to beneficiaries....Welfare breeds poverty."

It's a surreal feeling when you hear your words followed by somebody else's name.