It’s another big week for cannabis law reform. Parliament resumes hearings on the Government’s Medicinal Cannabis Bill on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, in the lead up to the 27th Annual J Day on Saturday 5th May.
Dirty Politics didn’t end with the demise in influence of Cameron Slater & David Farrar, it has cleverly mutated into a hundred social media voices that are all oddly saying the same things at the same time.
It is deeply disappointing to see such a lack of real political courage. We can make grand gestures against the oil and roading industry to appease white urban middle class liberals but we can’t protect the weakest, poorest and most brown parts of our community from a cruelty that is being perpetrated by the very Government that is supposed to protect them.
How can NZ have such conservative vested interests that can stop real progress in this country?
Yes – I know most readers of the Daily Blog are very cynical about the Tax Working Group. I share the cynicism. The TWG is stacked 8 to 2 with people who have spent most of their lives earning huge money to advise corporate New Zealand how to avoid tax. I blogged about it here.
But we have to build an alternative tax framework and you can help get your thoughts together on this through preparing a brief submission THIS WEEKEND.
People have labelled Folau’s comments as “hate speech”. Tuariki Delamare, ex-minister of Immigration said Folau should be banned from coming here, the media here and across the ditch want him booted out of rugby, and the nutters have gone ballistic on social media.
The Christchurch Progressive Network has written to Housing Minister Phil Twyford urging the government to consider implementing an Empty Homes Tax similar to the tax recently introduced in Vancouver, Canada.
As China and America lock horns in a trade war and with the enormous build up of naval hardware in the South China Sea, it is becoming increasingly likely that NZ is going to get dragged into this geopolitical vortex.
Maybe it’s me getting old and seeing looming economic crashes and environmental meltdowns that will demand a level of co-operation amongst our squabbling tribes that is making me so reflective but the entire Israel Folau issue just seemed like a terrible missed opportunity.
The reality is the crippling underfunding of Auckland’s infrastructure will require more than $28billion to seriously get the city moving.