Articles in ‘Opinion’

They are dying in the drift of chemical crop sprays. Where are the birds? Declining in numbers in the toxic wind with more dead from eating toxic seeds. How will the world cope without them? Where in this scenario does the agenda of feeding the world fit in? It really is incredulous that these chemicals applied to crops were produced without a complete scientific analysis of the…

I recently met the team from Henderson Budget Service who provide free advice for those who are struggling with financial hardship. There are many such organisations like this within our communities and they play a vital role in helping people to manage debt and get back to a semblance of financial stability. FinCap (the National Building Financial Capability Charitable Trust)…

Not since the Cuban missile crisis exactly 60 years ago has the world been in such danger. And that’s not just my own view: early in October, US President Joe Biden said that the risk of nuclear Armageddon is at the highest level since the Cuban missile crisis. He was right. As I write, Russia’s conventional military forces are being forced to retreat on many fronts and…

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has passed away, and the overwhelming majority of people in New Zealand mourn her passing. Not, of course, because her death was unexpected, or a tragedy in the ordinary sense of that word: at the age of 96 and increasingly suffering “mobility issues”, she had outlived the great majority of her subjects by at least a decade and was able to perform…

Rarely has a political party promised so much in an election campaign and achieved so little during its time in office. Labour made extravagant promises to end child poverty, to build 100,000 houses over 10 years and make housing more affordable, to make a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gases, and to improve our education system. Instead child poverty has increased on…

By Maryanne Demasi, PhD In December 2020, the US FDA authorised the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA covid-19 vaccines, claiming “the benefits outweighed the harms.” Now, a group of international researchers has gone back to re-analyse the original trial data upon which that claim was made. A valid claim? A pre-print study (not yet peer-reviewed) by Fraiman and colleagues contradicts…

Two days ago Jacinda Ardern said her government was about to make a significant Covid policy announcement. Yesterday we were subjected to an hour long government extravaganza where a succession of expert politicians urged us yet again to wear masks (we already are), get boosted, leave our windows open (in winter), test frequently, and isolate (presumably whenever you feel a need…

Family trusts are used to protect and manage assets, such as the family home, for the future, but the new rules for the disclosure of information are set to increase compliance costs dramatically. Photo pexels. Since the Labour Government came into power, the Minister of Revenue, David Parker, has been on a mission to tackle wealth and income inequality in New Zealand. Whilst…

On the night before the 2002 election, when I was a list candidate for the National Party, I was attending a black-tie event in Napier. Before we sat down to eat, the host asked the local vicar to give thanks. The vicar gave thanks for the food and the drink which we were about to consume, and then said that we should give thanks also for the fact that, in just 24 hours’ time,…

Remarkably some scientists in Qatar working with counterparts in New York have undertaken a study asking vital questions. They decided to study only the unvaccinated. Objectively considered, what they discovered should change the exclusively pro-mRNA vaccination policies which currently dominate the entire world. 90% of Qataris are vaccinated, but the authors tracked several…

Leading New Zealand epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker in an interview with the NZ Herald says that we are “losing the arms race with the virus”. Covid cases have increased by 50% within the last 9 days in an “abrupt rise”. Baker said "It's a dynamic, a battle between us and the virus and there are factors mainly favouring the virus”. The article reported hospitals were…

The issue of three waters has stirred up widespread public engagement – perhaps more so than many other recent Government reforms. Why? Because it calls into account our system of democracy. The Government is steamrolling ahead with its three waters agenda, introducing the Water Services Entities Bill to Parliament on 2 June. This is the first of three bills that will change the…

The Prime Minister’s recent visit to Washington, during which she seemed to have signed New Zealand up as a strongly pro-US outpost in the South Pacific – and her forthcoming (at time of writing) attendance at a major NATO meeting in Europe in the next few weeks – should prompt some serious thought about our long-term interests. After all, it was the US which unceremoniously…

Jacinda Ardern, who has escaped the continuing restrictions in New Zealand to visit Europe and speak at NATO, has met with her counterparts in France and Spain to suggest a global alliance to combat disinformation. Ardern spoke to them about the New Zealand capital grounds riot and played to her gullible audience by suggesting the threat to social cohesion and public health in…

The first reading of the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) (Definition of Significant Criminal Activity) Amendment Bill was recently read and rejected in Parliament. This is what National’s Simon O’Connor had to say about the bill and its ramifications for New Zealander’s. The full bill can be found here. …

The pressures of materials shortages are mounting up on builders. Headlines such as “Builders taking stress leave as ‘toxic mix of pressures’ plagues the industry” and “Owner of new build sleeping in tiny home on site after Gib shortage delays” are becoming far too common. The shortage of plasterboard has got to the point where builders are having to resort to paying way over…

Should New Zealand invest in a proper public transport network that covers not only main centres, but the regions as well? It is a question that needs an answer promptly. Public transport in New Zealand has mainly played second fiddle to private motorists needs since the 1950’s. However, with fuel prices and the costs of constructing new or additional motorway lanes or widening…

In recent weeks, more and more commentators are suggesting that house prices in New Zealand have started to fall, and are expected to fall further. For many homeowners, especially those who have bought within the last year or two, this news will be terrifying, and for them I have a great deal of sympathy. They were sold the lie that house prices would always and everywhere rise…

An article in the UK Daily Telegraph last week illustrated a dilemma we all face. Scientists have admitted that the AstraZeneca vaccine increases the risk of the serious neurological condition Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS)—just one of the many post-vaccination adverse effects. Scientists identified the jab’s genetically engineered Trojan horse adenovirus delivery system as…

It is worth pointing out that the recent (2021) study of inequality in New Zealand undertaken by Max Rashbrooke relies, by Rashbrooke’s admission, upon Piketty’s “Capital” or Capital in the Twenty First century (2014) which examines economic global growth (what might be considered as GDP) and the (global) return on capital assets for a millennia or so. The difference, as Piketty…