As I covered in yesterday’s part one of my NZ First Convention writeup, ours is a party often bedeviled by woeful (and frequently media-fostered) misperceptions as to who we are, what we’re about, and what we’re actually like ‘in the flesh’. We’re often presented as being a fairly hollow if not outright skeletal organizational structure that’s little more than a cob-web for Winston to perch, spider-like on top of.
Now obviously, if you’ve read my article from Saturday morning, you’ll know that that’s plainly not the truth. Winston remains an important – even integral and for now indispensable – figure in the Party. But thanks in no small part to the culture-change which has accompanied Ron Mark’s elevation to the Deputy Leadership, we now feel very much more like an actual, functional, and filling-out Party with brigades of motivated volunteers exercising individual initiative and planning.
Just as it should be.
But if that’s how I lead in to my Convention coverage, Day One on the Convention Room Floor has only served to exacerbate my perception that there’s a growing gulf between the hidebound image many people have of New Zealand First and who and what we actually are today.
We’ll start at the start and work our way through.
The day began with an opening and welcome ceremony conducted largely, if not entirely, in Te Reo. Representatives from local government and Iwi received a delegation from New Zealand First before the commencement of the opening address; which was responded to in kind by a lengthy answer (also entirely in Te Reo) from one of our own MPs – Pita Paraone. Now, in twenty first century New Zealand it’s pretty mundane for a political or civic occasion to be kicked off with Maori cultural protocol (although perhaps rather rarer for both the welcomers and welcomees to be quite happily conducting everything in the original language of this land without recourse to the de facto lingua franca). But considering the bad rap NZF often gets as a benighted home for barnacle-encrusted aging white rednecks … the fact that we have personnel who regularly and habitually communicate in fluent Te Reo front and center of our organization ought to say something.
Namely, that the stereotype is not exactly factually based. As you’d presumably expect for a Party whose Parliamentary Caucus is about 50% Maori.
Once the opening was completed, our MC for the morning noted that in his estimation, this weekend’s gathering apparently represents the largest Party Convention we’ve held in almost twenty years. I wasn’t around (politically, at least) in the mid-late ’90s, so I cannot safely verify such a claim. But in my spirit of due diligence, I counted up the number of seats and delegates laid out in the hall and arrived at a total in the low-mid two hundreds (with the number of NZF folk in attendance set to increase once more for tomorrow) – from an apparent total of fifty electorates nationwide.
The misconception I seek to highlight with the above is not simply New Zealand First-specific, but rather applies to our entire system of party-electoral democracy at large. Everywhere, we are told that common participation with our political system is … basically dying. That flagging voter-turnout rates suggest a slow slide into oblivion for our established electoral vehicles and the systems which empower them. Perhaps, macroscopically, this might be the case. But in this room this morning, I instead saw a strong counter to that trend – more people, from more backgrounds and walks of life, taking an active interest and putting in the reasonable effort to ship themselves potentially all the way to the other end of the country in service of our chosen cause.
Maybe it’s just New Zealand First who’re enjoying an energizing boom in both number and commitment of ‘ordinary’ party members. But even if that’s the case, the previous media leitmotif of NZF being “the dying party” when it came to our membership (take of that however you will) … is clearly strongly inaccurate, indeed (particularly in light of the ongoing presence of an array of younger faces in both the early-20s and early-30s/40s demographics).
Next year’s Convention up in Auckland will, undoubtedly, be larger again due to greater ease of access, greater proximity to some of our larger membership-bases etc.
Moving through the day into the Policy Remit Sessions, we kept having stuff happen which made me stop and go “well THIS doesn’t seem congruent with how we’re often painted in the popular imagination…”
Probably the first such instance was when the Whanganui Electorate’s remit covering the provision of “low THC medicinal marijuana” (and in particular, the Charlotte’s Web strain occasionally turned to in the US for the medication of serious and ongoing seizures in children). This was intriguing not just because it passed – thus showing to the world and assembled news media that New Zealand First can get in behind sensible drug policy which once, a decade ago, would have probably been the semi-exclusive preserve in Parliament of the Greens … but that there evidently exists out there in the NZF membership a group of concerned members who’ve put considerable time and effort into researching medicinal cannabis and attempting to find particular uses for it where other modern medicine is potentially lacking.
In other words, we are quite clearly no longer a Party who’ll simply bite-back against any hint or suggestion of drug law reform with a burning, knee-jerk vengeance. An impression amply and more than adequately confirmed for me when a follow-up remit from Papakura which would have sought to comprehensively prohibit in the long term even medicinal marijuana (and, for that matter, the legalization for recreational use of cannabis) … was voted down rather strongly after I rose to speak vociferously against it.
Other interesting aversions-to-type came with a slew of interrelated remits from the Rotorua electorate which fit the mold of a generic ‘tough-on-crime’ and strong ‘law-and-order’ stance party. I won’t go into the details, but suffice to say they were dedicated to calling for the constant lifetime GPS monitoring of convicted paedophiles, those with a history of domestic violence etc. There’s obviously a strong ethos of ‘keeping communities safe’ out there in the Party’s gestalt political psyche which is responsible for remits such as these coming forward in the first place … but the rational, reasonable – and even compassionate – series of debates and remarks which ensued amongst Party members before these remits were eventually failed serves to indicate rather tellingly that even on a core issue-set such as law and order or justice policy … we are not exactly as we have been imagined. (Oh, and don’t believe Nicholas Jones’ sub-article over at the NZ Herald about the remit-process. The GPS monitoring of those with a history of domestic violence remit, contra to his assertion, didn’t pass)
Most other remits were about what you’d expect from an economically nationalist party, and included innovative proposals to help out primary industries, use Post-War style housing bonds to finance the construction of new state housing en-masse, and alterations in taxation policy designed to directly assist some of our most vulnerable citizens.
But there were, again, a few which bucked the mould. One of these was what worked out to be a proposal to steadily phase out and eventually abolish battery hen farming. It turns out New Zealand First people really do care about animal welfare – and that we don’t mind potentially taking a bit on the chin from some farming interests in order to do so. I can’t give it full marks for compassionate policy-making because it’s not a straight-up and fairly immediate ban – but once again, perhaps something other than what you might expect.
Further surprises were to be had in connection to a pair of policy-remits from the Wairarapa. Now admittedly, New Zealand First has long had a philosophical enthusiasm for protection of the environment – as evinced by the commitment to same in our foundational principles. So remits talking about reducing pollution would be fairly ordinarily explicable. However, considering some previous positions held by certain MPs not five years ago concerning the reality or otherwise of climate change, it could come as a bit of a surprise to hear Ron Mark talking positively about transitioning energy away from coal, and the desirability of combating climate change.
It was also interesting, towards the end of the day, to hear a remit objected to by one of our MPs on grounds that the proposal would have been “disrespectful to the Treaty of Waitangi” (this from a Party which ten years ago put forward a Treaty of Waitangi Principles Deletion Bill in Parliament), and roundly rebuffed by the Floor for acting as a perceived attack upon the rights and heritage of Maori.
Anyway; there’s no doubt a litany of further examples I could delve into (including Tracey Martin making a very, very good speech on education policy) … but it’s presently 2 a.m, and I’m running on roughly eight hours’ sleep over the last three days. So I think we’ll call it there.
Suffice to say that today reaffirmed for me in oh so many ways that there really are *two* New Zealand Firsts:
First up, the one a lot of our critics conjure in their minds and imaginations. The irrational, reactionary, knee-jerk (or, possibly, knee-replacement) brigade of bigotish-inclined older while folks who’re slavishly devoted to the Gold Card powered hive-mind of pro-Winston idolatry …
… and second, the *actual* New Zealand First which represents a perhaps surprisingly multi-ethnic (and at the very least, very strongly biracial) grouping often seemingly prone to caring about the environment, the economy, and the New Zealanders who find themselves inhabiting both. All while operating demonstrably independently from the Chief – and having lively, vigorous internal debate as to determine our own future heading.
I certainly know which political party *I’d* rather be part of!
Good thing I already am 😉
[Photo-credit: Alex Eastwood Williams]
C. Can you precis this report in less than 200 words … you do wax on a bit m8!
(i’ll just fix the headline for you..)
shouldn’t it be ‘deception perception @ convention’..?
(there ya go..!..)
and on the eve of driverless cars – the ‘big-idea’ is to teach schoolkids how to drive cars..
(always/ever the futurists – eh..?..)
..and peters trying it on with some sort of antipodean bernie sanders schtick is just knee-slappingly funny..
(it’d be like sanders saying he couldn’t say yet if he would prop up trump – peters is truly fucken delusional with that one..)
‘Everywhere, we are told that common participation with our political system is … basically dying.’
Politicians are increasingly seen to be:
1. uninformed
2. inept
3. corrupt
4. self-serving
5. deceitful
6. destructive
Add to that dismal list the fact that the political system is increasingly seen to be serving the interests of international money-lenders, corporations and opportunists, and to be totally ignoring the needs of the general populace, is it at all surprising that the political system is dying?
The political system needs to die. In fact it need to be ‘murdered’. And until is does die or is ‘murdered’, everything will continue to be made rapidly worse by the political system.
Pity the children:
‘Early-years specialists monitoring children of school age found a higher number experience problems with their balance and coordination than previously thought, ultimately affecting their ability to learn in class. Researchers from the University of Loughborough said the increase was partly a result of modern children being less active in their early years compared with previous decades, with typical movements associated with play and development reduced by the introduction of electronic toys and screens.’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/school-age-four-year-old-children-not-physically-ready-experts-warn-a7220476.html
And on a slightly longer time frame, pity the children:
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/wp-content/plugins/sio-bluemoon/graphs/co2_800k.png
The big question for NZ First is can it survive without Winston?
Without meaning to be derogatory, Winston is in his 70s now. It is a big ask to be a high profile leader of a nationwide political party when you have got to that stage of life. He has looked to be knocked off his perch several times but always seems to be able to climb back on somehow. You have to give political survivors like that their due respect.
NZ Firsts problems are the same as any third party dominated by strong, popular and charismatic leader. They can’t go on forever and what happens when they go?
In NZ political history parties with charismatic leaders have often withered and died after their founder leaders called it quits. Like Social Credit’s Bruce Beetham, the Progressive’s Jim Anderton and of course the Bob Jones flying circus the NZ Party which didn’t so much wither and die but vanished in a puff of hot air after he quickly tired of it all and threw in the towel.
The problem with NZ First is that it has been regarded as Winston Peter’s Party so what happens after Winston?
Tracey Martin and others have shown ability in party organisation and in parliament but would any of them inherit the massive personal popularity that goes with Winston?
If NZ First want to survive and remain a force in NZ politics they have to start thinking about stage two. I would be surprised if they are not doing so already.
I wouldn’t describe myself as either a Winston or NZ First supporter, but I recognize their value as a third party balancing force in NZ politics and do agree with some of their policies and points.
Good to hear under NZ First, battery hen farming will be banned. But National is being so tricky about this. They’re trying to pretend No cages after 2022. In fact, the opposite will occur – just bigger cages with bits of silly plastic as pseudo scratch pads and privacy (unbelievable) with a higher number of hens, no doubt increasing in the hunt for bigger profits. These Colony cages are just like battery cages only bigger with more hens.
NZ is so far behind caring countries in this regard it’s embarrassing! What I want to be told by NZ First is that any cage that imprisons hens and pigs, away from natural sunlight and grass, will be banned asap, with funding input from govt to bring that change forward to pre 2018. Only greed by the egg producers that cling to animal cruelty housing still will say it’s undoable, when other caring egg producers under the egg producers federation are already doing it.
Perhaps someone should remind these ‘egg producers’ that they don’t actually produce the eggs. The hens do. Just sayin’.
I have been advised by someone who attended that the vast majority of attendees were dressed in black, and that there was almost no discussion of policy: sounds about par for the course for any mainstream political party.
The link at ‘as evinced by the commitment to same in our foundational principles’ leads us to a set of mutually exclusive concepts. For example:
‘3. Economic policy will comprise a strategy for export-lead economic development to add value to our resources, relying on independent business expertise with government support to encourage economic success.’
’11. Wise Governments view the preservation and enhancement of the environment as sound economics. All environmental policies will be proactive with a view to creating employment and sustainable wealth whilst improving one of our few competitive advantages.’
3 and 11 are clearly mutually exclusive, and most other policies are either mutually exclusive or are not implementable, upon close examination.
‘New Zealand First has long had a philosophical enthusiasm for protection of the environment’ Really? How are they going to do that and at the same time pursue ‘a strategy for export-lead economic development to add value to our resources’?
Many mutually exclusive concepts and much neuro-linguistic programming: again sounds par for the course for any mainstream political party.
Meanwhile, we inexorably march towards extinction of most life on Earth, including human life.
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/358053-earth-humans-geological-age-danger/
2050 seemed such a long way off when I was a child: now it’s just 34 years away.
I am proud to stand up for NZ because many other politicians don’t, as many bloggers say they pander to money leaders and corporates so this party is somewhat refreshing as Winston clearly focuses on their greed and wanton desire to enslave us all with their desecration of our middle class and fair pay society as they flood our country with slave labour, and is fighting for the provinces as the battleground, so NZ First you are a good balance act, so keep it up and battle for the average kiwi not the corporate greed.
The name NZ First says it all doesn’t it.
It’s just a name and has no meaning, of course. The party might as well be called Me First for all the good these clowns are going to do. Mutually exclusive is mutually exclusive, and there’s no getting round it.
If NZ First were to ever gain any power or control the balance of power we could be sure of two things:
1. betrayal of those who vote NZF.
2. support for business-as-usual policies that make matters worse.
It happens every election and whichever party or combination of parties hold power!
People seem to have such short memories. Think back to the Winston Peters who was true-blue National, then left in a huff. Then declared he’d never go with National. Then went with National. And was so useless as Minster of Finance he was thrown out.
there is only one new zealand first – the party that could stand next to key @ a press-conference in late ’17 to announce the formation of the fourth key government..
..anything else/any other claims – are just flannel..
OMG, you do not want to break that image of NZF that the media players have adopted, would you?
I saw Andrea Vance being at it again tonight, on the 6 o’clock news on TV One, saying Winston turned down invitations to Q+A, while at your convention he claimed the media never invited him.
So what is the truth now, we get endless confusion, and as usual, the MSM do not help. For a change TV3 presented a more positive report on this annual convention, even mentioning that Winston and NZF have set out to win over the missing million.
A bold step, I reckon.
I’m sorry but another political party wanking on about being tough on crime and law and order. We have a neutered police budget from the National Party who were apparently really tough on law and order, a neutered legal aid, justice and crown prosecution budget that is turning the justice system in a $2 shop joke. Yes I know in all forms National are full of shit but how many lying politicians claim they want to be tough on crime but never deliver, fuck I’ve lost count. And it’s not just being tough on crime, it is a holistic approach for drug rehabilitation and education, alcohol law tightening, dealing with poverty, not the insane Sensible (NOT) Sentencing trust conservative crap.
And driver licences to be a school subject? I have no objection to that but is it a weak bone to throw to the National Party in coalition talks, it sure as hell sounds it! I tell you NZ First go anywhere near that dishonest bunch of crooks and they can kiss goodbye any future!
Indeed, Xray.
I’m waiting for a novel approach; being tough on the causes of crime. Wouldn’t that be an amazing new angle (not new to the Greens, admittedly)?
Yes Frank.
Actually, I’m waiting for a party that has the novel approach of identifying the CAUSE of ANYTHING!
It will never happen, of course, because politics is entirely about AVOIDING discussion of causes and entirely about feeble or inappropriate responses to the symptoms of dysfunctional systems. And most of the time politicians promote ‘solutions’ to one set of symptoms that make another set of symptoms worse.
1. Global Financial unsustainability: causes -fractional reserve banking, creation of money out of thin air and charging of interest. Inappropriate response of governments: ever-greater injections of fiat money to stimulate growth, lowering of interest rates (towards zero or even negative) to prevent sovereign debts becoming unmanageable, bail-outs, bail-ins and subsidies to keep dysfunctional organisations in business.
2. Energy crisis: causes -overconsumption of fossil fuels and failure to decouple from them. Inappropriate response of governments: promotion of fracking, deep-sea drilling, processing of bitumen from tar sands, opening up of conservation areas to mining etc.
3. Environmental collapse and planetary overheating: causes -too many people using too much stuff. Inappropriate response of governments: increase population and promote greater consumerism.
We could examine any aspect of modern societies and get exactly the same picture, e.g. traffic congestion, cause too many people and too many vehicles: the inappropriate response of governments is to encourage road construction and purchase of vehicles.
‘The number of new vehicles sold in the past 12 months to August was an all-time record.
More than 98,000 new cars and more than 42,000 commercial vehicles were added to our roads in that 12 months, both records.
And that does not count the 144,000 used imports in the same period (not a record, but the highest in over ten years).’
And the utter madness will continue because NO mainstream political party will address ANYTHING fundamental. Fundamental truths are taboo for the Greens (at one time referred to as the Greeds, because they promote industrialism and consumerism).
Each day that passes NZ (and the word) gets made less sustainable, less liveable, and more toxic, and the populace gets made less capable of coping with what is clearly on the horizon to anyone who bothers to look (0.5% of the population?).
That is why western societies are on a trajectory that leads directly to ‘crash and burn’. The ‘crash and burn’ is now not far off.
This article, which suggests half of life on Earth will be gone by 2050, is very optimistic:
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/358053-earth-humans-geological-age-danger/
Truck numbers increased 12% all up the East Coast/HB during the previous year 2014-5 as Government deliberately forced the closure of rail.
So we are heading for a dead NZ future country and planet.
These clowns don’t see NZ Rail policy as it is the best policy to save the planet.
NZ First have the best rail policy on their website of any political party. Called RONI
quote,
TRANSPORT POLICY
RAILWAYS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE
· New Zealand First will ensure that none of New Zealand’s railway lines and other strategic railways infrastructure will be privatised, and will remain under state control and ownership to ensure that public service rather than commercial objectives is the paramount consideration.
· New Zealand First’s vision includes passenger train services along all rail routes between the main centres, with connecting coach services linking outlying areas or running services between centres which don’t have a railway line. These services would provide a mixture of accommodation standards and fares to make rail services more affordable for New Zealanders to use e.g. half the carriages to be high standard premium fare similar to that provided on current KiwiRail tourist focussed trains such as the Northern Explorer and Tranz Alpine services, and the other half of the carriages being basic, affordable economy fare intercity market, e.g. railcars would have one premium carriage and one economy carriage. The Silver Fern railcars, former Overlander carriages and Silver Star carriages could be appropriately refurbished and upgraded locally in railway workshops to operate daytime regional Intercity services. Fast modern railcars and new carriages, New Zealand built where possible, could later be purchased for certain routes.
· As a state-owned enterprise, KiwiRail is currently heavily constrained because it is required to pay for the maintenance, renewal and upgrade of rail infrastructure through the revenue generated from its freight and other businesses.
· New Zealand’s rail network is a national asset that must be developed to optimise its long term role in support of New Zealand’s economy and of an efficient and cost effective multi-modal and well integrated transport system.
· New Zealand First will develop a programme of railways of national importance (RONI) to ensure that better use of our railway network and services are achieved, with improvements and extensions where there is opportunity to significantly reduce dependence on the roading network, especially for heavy freight and bulk freight services, but also where passenger services can be redeveloped to attract sufficient demand over time.
· To this end New Zealand First will not require the whole cost of development of new railway tracks and services, and of electric reticulation, to be met by revenue generated by railway service charges; and these will instead be met in whole or in part by a combination of Land Transport Fund funding and crown grants.
· The Land Transport Fund funding will be achieved by reallocating funding from the current RONS $12 billion plus programme. An initial budget of $400 million would be created by reprioritising Roads of National Significance (RONS) projects that have low or marginal benefits.
· The rail routes listed below would form the basis of the core transport network between the main centres with daily passenger and freight services, and with the tracks being upgraded or new lines built as required, together with new transport interchanges between trains and buses, and freight hubs in all the main centres:
Auckland-Whangarei-Opua
Auckland-Pokeno-Paeroa-Te Aroha-Tauranga-Whakatane
Auckland-Hamilton-Tokoroa-Rotorua-Taupo
Auckland-Wellington
Wellington-New Plymouth
Wellington-Gisborne (via the Wairarapa line)
Nelson-Blenheim
Christchurch-Greymouth
Picton-Christchurch-Dunedin-Invercargill.
· The following are the proposed RONI projects to be considered in the long – medium term, subject to detailed cost and benefit analysis to confirm their value:
1. North Auckland and Marsden Point Line.
Northland needs good rail connections to the rest of New Zealand if it is to grow. That means upgrading the Auckland to Whangarei line. Good rail links to Northland means developing a rail link from the main line to Marsden Point port, which has great advantages as a deepwater harbour that does not require dredging. There is also plenty of land for expansion. There is great scope for it to serve as a container port and take pressure off Auckland and Tauranga. The potential of the Port of Northland for the region, as well as for the country as a whole, is being strangled by lack of an effective rail link.
2. Rolling Electrification Programme.
New Zealand First proposes an on-going rail electrification programme to use the skills and expertise built up in the current Auckland suburban rail electrification project. The first project will be to extend electrification from Papakura to Pukekohe. Other potential projects to be investigated include electrification between Auckland and Hamilton, Hamilton and Tauranga, and extending electrification north from Waikanae and from Upper Hutt to Masterton. Many other projects for electrification would follow in later years:
Lyttelton-Christchurch-Greymouth.
Christchurch suburban area.
Picton-Christchurch-Dunedin-Invercargill.
3. Regional Opportunities.
Funds will be made available for smaller capital investment opportunities that KiwiRail is unable to fund given its current funding constraints
In particular, $4m will be used reinstate the Napier –Gisborne line as soon as possible.
4. Cook Strait Ferries.
The Cook Strait Ferry service and vessels will be funded for upgrades to ensure a high quality fast reliable and safe service for freight and passengers.
5. Auckland-Pokeno-Paeroa-Te Aroha-Tauranga-Whakatane.
A new line to be built along the rail formation between Pokeno-Paeroa-Te Aroha, a new line to be built between Te Aroha and the western portal of the Kaimai tunnel and a new line to be built between Awakeri and Whakatane, all combined creating a shorter and more direct rail route into the Bay of Plenty.
6. Auckland-Hamilton-Tokoroa-Rotorua-Taupo.
A new line to be built between Kinleith-Rotorua-Taupo primarily for forestry traffic, as well as for general freight and passengers.
7. Nelson-Blenheim.
A new line to be built between Blenheim and Nelson, completing this long proposed project for freight and passengers.
8. Auckland International Airport.
A new line to be built to link the Auckland International Airport with the rail system. The proposed new integrated terminal at Auckland (like that built at Christchurch International Airport) is already being designed to accommodate a rail terminal within the building.
9. Auckland City Rail Link
Build the Auckland City Rail Link tunnel project under central Auckland as soon as possible, jointly funded with the Auckland Council.
10. Northland.
New lines to be built to link the rail system with ports in Northland between Oakleigh and Northport at Marsden Point, and Otiria and Opua in the Bay of Islands.
11. New suburban services.
New suburban passenger train services will be investigated for Christchurch, Dunedin, Tauranga and between Hamilton and Auckland.
This includes an initial investigation into establishing suburban passenger train services in Christchurch, Dunedin, Tauranga and between Hamilton and Auckland using Auckland’s surplus diesel rolling stock immediately following the introduction of electric services in Auckland.
12. Rail siding grant scheme.
New Zealand First will introduce a grant scheme to encourage greater use of rail transport by industry and by distribution centres, where the cost of installing or re-commissioning rail sidings will be met 50/50 by the businesses using the rail siding and the New Zealand Railways Corporation.
· New Railways structure proposed by NZ First.
KiwiRail would be restructured by splitting it into three new organisations:
1. New Zealand Railways Corporation – owning and managing rail land, tracks and infrastructure, stations and rail-freight centres, shunting yards, workshops, train control systems, managing and maintaining the rail network, allocating access to the rail network for rail operating companies, setting rail training standards and qualifications, and acting as the rail regulator and licence agency.
2. Kiwi Rail – operating rail passenger services between all main centres, and operating the Interisland ferries.
3. Rail Freight – a new State Owned Enterprise operating a commercial rail freight business.
End
Winston has announced that the battleground for NZ First will be the provinces, so bring it on.
Today Winston also announced on RNZ that NZ First are going to run against “weak” National seats and remove them.
Hurrah – as in Gisborne, a Herald poll last week showed over 70% want our rail back and government should fix the rail washouts National admitted through Kiwirail, that after removing $200Million from the rail maintenance budget was what caused the blocked drains/washouts, so it showed folks are sick of National for killing their brail and may run against Ann Tolley and unseat her as she did nothing to save the rail at all.
We will look for Winston to take our rail back as the kingmaker.
An enormous amount of work has been done in this area in the last 20 years and a lot has been learned. Obviously it’s a highly complex subject with many factors involved but one thing stands out:
Child abuse and neglect are often the precursors to youth involvement in crime. And crime in youth is often a precursor to crime in adulthood.
This is well worth reading:
http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi085.pdf
Just wait, we are heading into the “right” direction already, with the cracking down on crime obsession, while over the years crime is supposed to have decreased, and only recently increased again.
The day may come where we have similar approaches as Mr Duterte is now dishing out in the Philippines.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/02/deadly-blast-philippines-night-market-davao
The MSM has laid the fertile ground work for it, the increase in rhetoric and dramatic, sensationalist reporting will take is there, at last, where it will be shoot first and ask questions later.
New Zealand is heading into the “brighter future” for vigilante groups, who will be presented medals after each incident, by our Esteemed Leader for Eternity, the Grand Master John Key.
The coming coalition between Nats and NZ First will take us there.
“quite happily conducting everything in the original language of this land”
So nice. And who translated it into our THIRD language?
Still think the M$M ‘use Winston’ too much, so they don’t have show other (larger ) opposition parties quite as much.
It is SO OBVIOUS who the M$M answer too.
Get back our PUBLIC non-bias broadcasting, then watch a government fall!
Absolutely Kim Dandy,
NatZ commandeered the public media without a shot fired in a media cue and opposition Parties must take the government takeover as illegal as half belongs to the voter’s who voted for opposition parties it’s that simple injustice here has been done!!!!!!
Oh did Paddy Gower not love to rub salt into Winston’s wound on TV3 News last night, exposing how NZ First got a $3000,- donation from the rich Indian who is involved in setting up the People’s Party.
Gosh, politics is a nasty business, and the MSM can be even nastier.
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