Reading Melanie Reid’s incredible coverage of Peter Ellis’s obscene miscarriage of justice case reminds you of her longevity as a Journalist and her excellence at it.
It’s so hard to believe that a modern city, Christchurch, in the 1990s would have become so obsessed and convinced that a Satanic cult was sexually molesting and murdering children.
How could that have happened?
How could people convince themselves of that lie?
Melanie Reid captures that moment with this amazing review of her time covering the case…
It was June 1993 and the night before the verdict in a case that had consumed the nation with its far-fetched claims of satanic rituals and children being sexually abused with needles and sticks.
Accused childcare worker Peter Ellis spent it with young reporter Melanie Reid. They sat in his flat recording the very last of their remarkable clandestine interviews, hours from finding out whether he would be locked away.
Most of these secret recordings have never been seen, until now.
Right up to the moment of the verdict he staunchly believed he would be found not guilty, “I’ve got no concerns. I know there’s going to be a good result,” he told Reid.
Surrounded by a circus of media, families, lawyers, witnesses, cops, Ellis looked straight ahead when the verdict was read out. His mother left the court room and took the long walk down the three flights of stairs. A group of creche parents shouted “Witches!” at his four female co-workers, and in the week before sentencing one of the top police detectives shared his support for anti-homosexual activists. It was, in every sense of the word, a total fiasco.
…they were screaming ‘witches’, in broad daylight, on the street in 1993.
Jesus wept.
That moment captured by Melanie Reid had me thinking about another time when NZ on reflection bordered on the insane.
As the climate meltdown continues around us, and as we pay $20million to start compensating for the destruction the climate crisis is doing to the poorest, I thought about National’s original ‘Groundswell’ movement and their response to emissions targets 19 years ago by driving a tractor up the steps of Parliament…
Nineteen years after the ‘fart tax’, New Zealand’s farmers are fighting emissions
Almost 20 years ago, hundreds of furious New Zealand farmers jumped into their tractors, farm bikes and trucks and ploughed up Wellington’s main street towards parliament to kick up a stink against the so-called “fart tax” – a levy on livestock methane gases, proposed by the then-Labour government to reduce emissions.
A cow named Energy was led up the building’s granite steps and left an unwelcome mess in her wake. In doing so, she provided the opposition movement with a powerful, if indelicate, visual metaphor: rural New Zealand was ready for a mudslinging match with the capital. Just months later, the government abandoned the tax.
…despite all the evidence proving global warming is here and impacting us, how much has changed since this madness 19 years ago?
Look how in NZ the Corporate Quisling Farmers run NZ politics so much so that the merest hint of them being forced to pay for their own pollution is met with howls of persecution!
Farmers are 1.16% of the population, represent 5.5% of GDP, make 48% of greenhouse gas emissions and create 70% of NZ’s contribution to global warming yet they are able to run roughshod over any legislative reigning in because the have such enormous political and economic power!
They have structured the entire industry for their benefit in the form of a Monopoly and National sold 49% of our Hydro Assets to set up a $400million irrigation slush fund for dairy intensification!
They could still drive a tractor up the steps of Parliament and get away with it because they still hold enormous sway over the political and economic infrastructure.
I wondered if the Peter Ellis allegations had first surface now on Social Media whether he would have faced the same fervour, and you only have to look at how the Woke Lynch mobs operate to know he would have.
We are not learning from the mistakes of our past.
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Hmm.
So it makes sense to tax NZ sheep and beef farmers – who are amongst if not the lowest emitting in the world https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/11/study-finds-new-zealand-beef-and-lamb-among-lowest-carbon-footprints-in-the-world.html
such that we lose 20-25 percent of them, and that same food then has to be made overseas with approximately double the carbon footprint?
All while planting farmland in toxic fire prone pine trees so overseas companies can buy credits and continue emitting? While the Paris Accord specifically warned against food production being compromised by any measures.
I think the farmers aren’t the ones in moral hysteria here…
That’s the plan! Isn’t it great? Please clap.
You hit the nail on the head with taxing animal product farmers. While not all the land animal products are produced on can be used to grow plant products for human consumption we could still grow more than enough food to feed ourselves & export high-value food & still allow some animal products which will be even higher value as the carnivorous among us will pay any price to get their fix of animal protein.
The science is clear enough regarding Carbon emissions so it is smarter to work with the knowledge we have instead of wanting to live in the 50’s.
Sorry but I am not sure you can say all sales of farm land for forestry is all due to an unknown omissions tax (if that is what you mean) It sounds more like people are offering good money for land because after planting the owners can make money selling credits under the ETS. That needs to be looked at as well obviously
Farmers do provide food and are generally a lot better than other subsets of NZ that do nothing good at all – but are heavily subsidised in NZ aka meth dealers, 80% of government advisors, gangs crims.
Only a small amount of farmers protested so not all farmers.
Many farmers are organic and sustainable.
Get tired of everyone being put into identity groups in NZ and the assumption that all groups have the same ideas. Farmers can be in totally different camps – just like all the other identify groups.
Yes, Save NZ but at the moment it is the farmers who are the ones protesting and yet many of us can’t even afford to buy their products despite them polluting our waterways and getting many governments handouts something has to give and it needs to be them (the farmers)
Yes the price of grass hasn’t gone up yet mince and other meat prices are exorbitant, seems like price gouging to me.
When they have us all eating insects for essential proteins, I can’t wait to see how farting bugs is a the next existential issue. This insanity will not stop until people push back, and acknowledge that ALL modern progress has been made possible with cheap energy (carbon-based) and that there are no immediate alternatives to it. Regardless if you worship at the altar of climate change or not (I don’t), the fact is billions of people will starve to death if the IPCC gets its way. You can be all for that (like the WEF), but I won’t ever support it.
“Regardless if you worship at the altar of climate change”
Sigh. No Nitrium. Worship is for religion.
Science is not a religion.
The scientific consensus on causes of recent heating of the planet being the result of human activity is rock solid.
“the fact is billions of people will starve to death if the planet continues burning carbon as it currently does”.
A free correction service for you.
Brilliantly said Richard.
What utter bollocks. “Billions will starve”. Some of the screaming makes no sense whatsoever. It’s easy to see what happened to Peter Ellis.
Bob was probably on the jury.
What an an anti-farmer rant! Farmers just respond to demand for food. You can slap an emmissions tax on farmers or you could add an extra couple of percentage points gst on meat milk cheese butter to cover the consumers demand for the emmissions their food generates. Both taxes increase the price of food. You single out farmers as being a small percentage of the population and producing minor percentage of gst and neglect the powerful reality they earn over 80% of the nations foreign income. Climate change has been on scientists and economists radar since the early eighties. Any politician with an ounce of nous has known since the early nineties. You can’t expect the market failure embracing right to do anthing about this. The left has had 40 years to develop some clean green export industries but havent because its too easy to blame farmers. Farmers are just growing food. May be consumers could stop eating that would stop agricultural emmissions over night 😉
Changes in customer demand and supply technologies (in this case cow genetics) and regulation seem to be the best solutions to pollution. Taxes and cap and trade bs is just a financialistion rort.
“The left has had 40 years to develop some clean green export industries but havent because its too easy to blame farmers.”
non sequitur , not that it was ever any particular political sector’s job to do that in any case.
What an an anti-farmer rant! Farmers just respond to demand for food. You can slap an emmissions tax on farmers or you could add an extra couple of percentage points gst on meat milk cheese butter to cover the consumers demand for the emmissions their food generates. Both taxes increase the price of food. You single out farmers as being a small percentage of the population and producing minor percentage of gst and neglect the powerful reality they earn over 80% of the nations foreign income. Climate change has been on scientists and economists radar since the early eighties. Any politician with an ounce of nous has known since the early nineties. You can’t expect the market failure embracing right to do anthing about this. The left has had 40 years to develop some clean green export industries but havent because its too easy to blame farmers. Farmers are just growing food. May be consumers could stop eating that would stop agricultural emmissions over night 😉
Changes in customer demand and supply technologies (in this case cow genetics) and regulation seem to be the best solutions to pollution. Taxes and cap and trade bs is just a financialistion rort.
Labour and Greens seem to have a hatred of farmers and their constant attempts to undermine their work is causing them to leave the land they have farmed for generations and selling to tree growers . This will lead to a decline in small town NZ and making or large cities less able to cope with the problems they bring. Hopefully the voters of NZ will remove this government and farmers will be able to do what they do so well which is feed both NZ and millions off shore. If this lot stay in power it will be bad for the Worlds climate as our farmers cause less pollution than most overseas countries
What utter bullshit, Labour and the Greens don’t hate farmers. People like you have this belief that the right are pro gamers and the left aren’t. It’s very lazy thinking on your behalf.
If you read Countryboy’s posts you’ll realise you are so far from the truth you are embarrassing.
And a do nothing Nact combination on climate change will be the end of us as a trading nation.
Nact must never be elected again, the intelligent voters know this.
Seems 44 . 5 % say differently
Which means 55.5% agree.
@Nitrium with disrupted food + fertiliser supply chains and sharp decline in production is already in the pipe (Ukraine war, disrupted supply chains, export bans etc). I think starvation will become a very real issue for tens of millions 2023-2024 once last years harvest has been consumed.
In that environment I can see NZ farmers ramping up crop production over the next few years, to make dent in global shortfall (also because of higher international market prices).
Then they will be heroes again.
Pastoral farms are responsible for huge amounts of sequestration that they are not compensated for and they rightly are kicking up a stink about it. If you want to hit them for polluting then you should compensate them for reducing otherwise you can forget any agreement at all and watch everything undone every time there is a change in government.
The denial of many on this subject reeks of conspiracy theorists–it’s all a plot by leftist greenies to attack our economy and farmers. Why would the leftist greenies under the bed want to do this? Maybe the foreign owners of vast amounts of our agricultural industries are happy to have found a country where the farming lobby has such a strong influence?
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