Guest and sponsored opinion pieces published on The Daily Blog, offering diverse perspectives within clear editorial guidelines.
It’s another Queen’s Birthday Honours list and although I have never been a supporter of this nonsense and hope that one day we throw out this outdated way of honouring Kiwis, I have to admit there are certainly a couple of people who deserve their honours.
In a press release of June 1 2017, Social Housing Minister Amy Adams claimed her Government was “planning to increase the number of social houses from 66,000 today to 72,000 over the next three years.” A closer scrutiny of such a claim suggests that it is at best fanciful and at worse misleading.
I’ve had a number of people ask me about the latest TV One News Colmar Brunton Poll. If you missed it, the numbers are: National (49%), Labour (30%), Greens (9%), NZ First (9%), The Opportunities Party (1%), ACT (1%) and the Maori Party (1%).
In December 2015, I interviewed a young Aussie who had been deported from his home to New Zealand, the country of his birth. A 501er, as they are known in the Lucky Country. In the article, I referred to him as Doug for privacy reasons.
His real name was Matt and he killed himself last night.
Having studied criminal policy, worked as a prosecutor, and served as a justice policy advisor, I can tell you with absolute confidence that all the research concludes that prisons do not reduce crime. Prisons do not reduce crime. Prisons. Do not. Reduce. Crime. But what some of the research does show is that they make people feel good; make people feel more safe. More prisons offer the illusion of greater safety.
On this grand occasion of a visit by a Trump agitator to New Zealand next week – I speak of the former Fossil Fuel Industry ogre who is tasked with the oh so challenging job of finding a use for and promoting the sale of American weapons around the world – it seems timely to serve up a reminder to let go of America. The European Union is doing it and New Zealand as a country has opportunities to follow suite.
June 8 should be remembered in America as a ‘day of infamy’.
Let me ask you a very simple question: If you had a lot of money, would you invest in an industry that is growing substantially, has public acceptance and is sustainable? Or one that is finite, destructive and regularly incites protest?
Cloud Ocean Water Ltd is a China-based company specialising in investment in New Zealand. This month they gained the water rights to the Belfast aquifer in Waimakariri.
The amount of water they will be allowed to take for free each day is obscene.
Unelected Tory PM Theresa May called an early general election on April 18th, saying that she needed a mandate for Brexit. At the time, it was hailed as a masterstroke and it was assumed the Conservatives would romp to victory. But now … not so much.