Articles in ‘Opinion’

There has been much talk in recent years of the ‘cashless society’. Certainly, our major banks are keen on electronic banking. By closing their branches and reducing the number of human tellers, replacing them instead with ATMs, the banks reduce their overheads. Some would claim e-banking is also more secure – “the cheque’s in the mail” is no longer an excuse. It’s also convenient – -e-banking is available 24/7 from anywhere, accessed from any…

What on earth is going on? In my late 70s I look back on values that have changed in my lifetime and find myself wondering just where we are heading now. Who and what is driving our country and what’s their agenda. It seems to me abundantly clear over the last months, we are travelling head on into a reverse Apartheid New Zealand apparently condoned by our Government. The population of New Zealand is approx. 15% Maori, and even this is unclear.…

A bizarre craze seems to be sweeping New Zealand right now. All things derived from Europe except our creature comforts must be set aside as we are expected to embrace all things Maori. It’s racism on a grand scale. No longer do our television stations refer to New Zealand. In fact, we are lucky if its Aotearoa-New Zealand. No reference to the fact that, as Michael King shows, Maori didn’t have a name for these lands, and only came to accept…

So much has happened since I wrote my last column for the February edition that it’s hard to know what on Earth to focus on both internationally and here in New Zealand. In the February edition, I expressed the view that Donald Trump was the worst US President in my lifetime. And since then we have seen Trump’s impeachment, for the second time, this time for inciting the insurrection of 6 January. The Senate voted 57 votes to 43 to find him…

The following address was delivered by David Seymour, leader of the ACT Party, at a function on Waitangi Day, 6 Feburary 2021. Introduction · Thank you very much to everyone who's here this morning and watching online. Happy Waitangi Day. · It's a good day for New Zealand. We alone celebrate a country founded by a voluntary agreement. A Treaty that guarantees each person - no matter their origins or ethnicity - their full, natural rights and…

I have a secret to confess: I have an unusual respect for Don Brash. Believe me; we don’t always see eye-to-eye. As a sixth-generation Kiwi, whose family’s early survival in New Zealand was in no small part due to the good-will and manaakitanga of the iwi on whose tribal lands they settled, I find his dismissive attitude towards Māori culture particularly offensive. · Nonetheless, I have always admired Brash for his unrelenting commitment to…

Days after Donald Trump was elected as US President in November 2016, I wrote one of my very first columns for Elocal. This was my opening paragraph: ·It’s a very long time since I’ve felt so depressed about the future of the United States and of the world. In President-elect Trump we have a man who, at least to judge from his pre-election rhetoric, seems to have not a single redeeming quality. · In mid-2018, eighteen months into his four-year…

It didn’t work in the United Kingdom! How many times have you heard this when a positive idea is promoted. What has anything to do with whether it worked in the UK or not? For a start the UK has a strange health system to say the least, some pretty awful health facilities, dealing with an enormous population compared to New Zealand which makes comparison of medical services chalk and cheese. · So what am I talking about? The column in a local…

My column this month argues that we’ve gone mad, with the widespread push to create local government wards based on race; with the increasing use of the Maori language in situations where almost nobody understands it; and with the rather ridiculous assertion that in 1840 Maori chiefs didn’t really surrender sovereignty to the British Crown – despite the clear wording of the Treaty – but rather entered into a “partnership” with the Crown. Just…

New Zealand has been applauded globally for its apparent success in limiting COVID-19 infections and death. It is true that New Zealanders enjoy liberties in their day-to-day lives that are not available to others around the globe. But a question remains that is relevant to both this pandemic and the next. At what cost was the success achieved? Available evidence suggests that the costs may have been much higher than anticipated and also higher…