Monthly Archives: Jun 2017

State of the Nation

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At the start of each year governing political parties around the world sometimes give a State of the Nation type address in which they outline the progress of the nation as they see it. In America it is called the State of the Union, and is delivered by the incumbent President. In New Zealand it is the State of the Nation. The address looks at the issues perceived to confronting New Zealand, the good, the bad and occasionally the ugly.

You might therefore wonder why this is happening in late June. With Parliament just weeks away from dissolving in readiness for the 23 September 2017 General Election, I wanted to bring a sharp focus on the state of the country that 4.7 million people call home. I wanted to make you, the reader ask yourself the following:

  1. Who will gain from a fourth term National Government
  2. How will people gain from a fourth term National-led Government when the last 9 years have produced the track record it has in housing, mental health, crime, environmental issues among others
  3. Putting aside what has been said in Parliament and what shall continue to be said in the next several weeks as we go in election mode, are the Opposition parties really as bad as the media and the Government have made out

It is frustrating to be a New Zealander and watch my country elect half cooked Governments that are the result of a declining interest in politics and understanding of how our political system works. It is frustrating to see those half cooked M.P.’s then fail to see beyond the three year cycle and work for the good of the country, frustrating to see that successive Governments of both the left and the right have made policy announcements and said “this is the best we can do”, when what they really meant is “this is the best we are prepared to do”.

But there is a solution. I believe the answer is two pronged and involves a) automatic enrolment of all New Zealand citizens at age 18 into the electoral roll and b) making legal studies compulsory in Year 12 just as English is compulsory in Year 11.

There is so many facets of life and society that we can do better in than we currently are, no matter how good our vital socio-economic statistics might look compared to other nations. Domestic violence and criminal offending is probably the worst, but slumping rates on literacy, ability write and count are not helping. Nor is our worsening poverty, housing and deteriorating natural environment – we can brag all we like about being clean and green, but any person who saw the articles recently in the media about tyre dumps or has been following our fresh water quality issues shall know we need to do better.

Rather than give solutions, let me ask you a question.

What sort of New Zealand do you want your family/whanau to live in? What sort of New Zealand do you want your children/mokopuna to grow up in? A well known Maori proverb goes like this:

He aha te mea nui o te ao
What is the most important thing in the world?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata
It is the people, it is the people, it is the people

When I think about that proverb I think about the very question I asked you. The society I want my family to be in, any future children I have to grow up in, to be one where we have a society built on the principles of fairness and respect, tolerance and justice. I want it to be a society where people with mental health issues are not told to harden up. I want it to be a society where people can have homes that are affordable and warm and dry, not so expensive that what 25 years years ago would have brought a nice place in Remuera or maybe in Fendalton can barely buy an average now in Auckland. I want an environment where swimming in rivers again in the summer will be possible; where we make an honest effort to limit our environmental footprint and realize that recycling is not a greenie tree hugging thing to do: its common sense.

But I cannot see that happening with this National-led Government and so on 23 September 2017, I shall be voting to change the Government.

 

 

Sex, drugs and Todd Barclay’s ongoing scandal

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Sex, drugs and an errant National Party M.P.

The day after the Police were prompted to reopen the Todd Barclay case, it has emerged that Parliamentary Services were apparently made aware of the contents of the conversations recorded by Todd Barclay’s dictaphone. One of the conversations allegedly mentioned matters to do with “sex and drugs”.

Sordidly fascinating. The sort of spectacle that fuels many a gossip mill, however improper and certainly inappropriate it might be. Except that in this case, I think for most New Zealanders it will viewed with a considerable degree of disgust.

The Todd Barclay saga is not likely to get much worse than it already is, unless the police charge Mr Barclay with something. It is however certainly going to keep rumbling on and prove to be a distraction for National, flinging mud helter skelter to the Opposition’s glee.

However, it is election year. Parliament dissolves soon and this is likely to be still in people’s minds when they go to the polling booths on 23 September 2017. National will certainly be hoping that most people have moved on by then. Except that two major problems lie in the way of that happening:

  • It involves the Prime Minister who also happens to be from Clutha-Southland
  • It involves money from the fund of Prime Minister John Key which was paid out as a settlement to stop the National Party agent whose conversations were recorded from taking further action

Whilst I do not think Clutha-Southland, the second bluest electorate in the country will change its electoral colours, I do think whoever National stands in the electorate will wake up on 24 September with a hugely reduced majority. The fact that many National Party staffers and loyalists down there were wondering about Mr Barclay’s suitability to be an M.P. and frissons of tension at the National Party conference over the weekend just gone, suggest to me that the National brand is certainly damaged goods.

So, where to from here? That depends on the police investigation. Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First will be looking to make as much hay as they can from it, and will continue to pepper Mr English and Mr Barclay in Parliament with questions over the issue. National – and A.C.T. for purposes of having a coalition partner after the election – will be hoping that this runs out of steam soon.

Unfortunately for National, it also depends on how willing the people of New Zealand are to forgive them. Given the duration of this scandal in time before the public knew and the fact it falls in an election year where National is desperate for a fourth term, and history does not favour such governments in peace time, this might be the straw that breaks the camels back.

 

 

Congratulations Emirates Team New Zealand

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It was May 1995. School was out for the holidays and a nations pride was swelling: New Zealand was about take on Dennis Conner’s Americans for the right to hold aloft the America’s Cup.

At that time only once before had it left American waters, when Australia successfully challenged for it in 1983. 12 years later, off the coast of San Diego, leading 4-0, the hopes, the pride of 3.5 million New Zealanders rested on the men sailing a boat appropriately called Black Magic for its colour. But also for the fact that all too often for the American’s the last thing their skipper Dennis Conner would see of it is the boat crossing the finish line some distance ahead of him.

So it was no small event for New Zealand to grab the America’s Cup in 1995. Huge parade’s were held in Auckland (population 1.0 million; 350,000 turned out), Wellington (population 380,000; 100,000 turned out), Christchurch (population 325,000; 140,000 turned out)to welcome them home. The man who engineered it, Peter Blake, earned himself a knighthood. Skipper Russell Coutts was a hometown hero in Dunedin. Several others were awarded significant honours in the Queens Birthday and New Years honours lists.

5 years later, Team New Zealand sucessfully defended the America’s Cup in Auckland, becoming only the first nation outside of the U.S. to win it and defend it. Again large crowds turned out across the country, now approaching 4.0 million people, to see the victors. On the day of the final race, instead of having Mr Coutts skipper the New Zealand boat, a young sailor named Dean Barker was given the wheel.

And then we lost it. For reasons I cannot remember, the next defence was brought forward and held in 2003. By that point, several ex-members of Team New Zealand including the skipper Russell Coutts, and tactician had jump overboard and found their way to Swiss Challenger Alinghi. It was a disaster. The boat mast snapped in a race we could not afford to lose and Alinghi seized their chances.

The next several years up to the 2007 challenge against Alinghi, off the coast of Portugal, because Switzerland is landlocked, was marred by court battles. New Zealand was led by Dean Barker again. The first perceptions of it being a race for rich men to play with their toys began to grow. I still wanted to maintain the faith, but New Zealand lost again and the acrimony began to turn people off.

Thus it was almost with complete disinterest on my part that 2013 saw in a new bid to win the America’s Cup back. It was in San Francisco. And I admittedly would probably have paid no attention whatsoever if it hadn’t been for a combination of having started a job at a rental car company where in the course of taking up or bringing cars back from the airport, the radio would be on and almost invariably tuned to hear coverage. It was against Oracle, a team headed by an American named Jimmy Spithill. New Zealand was led once again by Dean Barker T.N.Z. lost again, but it was a close race helped to foster interest that would not have existed.

But the acrimony returned. Mr Barker left for a Japanese syndicate. More court battles and a continuing controversy over funding when other perhaps more deserving sports got nothing at all seemed to have damaged the reputation permanently. And thus perhaps this more than anything else contributed to my such complete inattention that I didn’t even know we had made the final until I just saw something in the media one day a couple of weeks ago that T.N.Z. – now funded by Emirates – had mad the final and would challenge Jimmy Spithill’s Oracle for the Auld Mug.

I have to say honestly that I regret not paying any attention at all to the races until Monday 26 June when it was announced New Zealand was just one win away from winning the America’s Cup. Perhaps it was because it was at this point in the previous campaign we choked completely and the Oracle syndicate went on to win. Perhaps it was because with so many other things going on in the world and New Zealand I simply did not pay enough attention.

Whatever the case, I am sorry. You guys deserved my attention more than I actually gave. You undid the years of controversy that sullied the America’s Cup. You made a thing to be proud of again.

Well done.

Harawira completely wrong about executing Chinese drug dealers

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The comments by former Maori M.P. and Mana Party leader Hone Harawira that New Zealand should execute methamphetamine dealers from China are completely wrong.

There is no doubt that New Zealand is a nation that has a major drug problem. Methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, cannabis – all of them are serious contributors to crime, declines in important socio-economic indicators, affect peoples ability to get jobs. Cannabis is perhaps the least problematic of these, but all need a comprehensive policy for dealing with all of them. It needs to deal with how we educate people, treat those on it or who are a victim of it, those who have recovered but now have problems finding jobs.

Much of the crime wave of violent offences striking New Zealand at the moment is likely to have to do with drugs – most likely finding ways of funding drug addictions, or being able to source money for paying back drug debts.

However executing Chinese methamphetamine dealers is the wrong way to go about it and sends the wrong message. I would however go one step further and say that Mr Harawira is completely wrong about using the death penalty at all. It is nothing less than state sanctioned murder and there is no justification in my book for it.

Whilst the mechanisms that I am about to mention might already exist in law, how well are they used for their intended purpose? Are they even used? I am talking about:

  • Being permanently denied the right to hold a passport – no country is going to want another nations violent criminals
  • Confiscation of 100% of property gained using drug money as well as and in particular any cash – use the proceeds to help the victims with court/medical/other costs
  • Being subject to police monitoring even after the sentences are finished and the corrections department is obligated to release the prisoner/s in question
  • Non New Zealanders are deported and permanently barred from entering the country

If these instruments exist, how well are they used? There is little point in changing the law if they are a) well used and b) effective.

Part of Mr Harawira’s political repertoire has always been to speak his mind by saying provocative things, and then defend them and there is no doubt in this case, he has achieved that. It is a piece of race baiting in some respects by singling out Chinese dealers, and ignoring home grown ones and their supply chains. Perhaps Mr Harawira means well. It is certainly a departure from what I expected him to say on the issue – I was not expecting him to advocate for a reduction in penalties, but violating human rights statutes that New Zealand has ratified is not acceptable in any shape or form.

The dumbing down of New Zealand

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There is a subtle assault on the long term well being of New Zealand by politicians going on. It is mirrored in other western countries such as the United States, Britain, France, Canada and Australia. In our case, I call it the “Dumbing down of New Zealand”. It is a slow sustained and very deliberate attack on the intelligence of this country’s citizens. The methods are deliberately subtle, so as not to arouse undue suspicion. Quite deliberately, we as a nation, as a people are being dumbed down to believe whatever the Government of the day wants us to believe.

Both major political parties are guilty of it to some extent by slowly but deliberately squeezing the budgets of the arts departments at university. The effect has often been to lose academics in fields of research where society is finding it has significant short comings. Despite them saying to the contrary, there is a distrust among politicians of scientists, social academics and independent journalists not tied to a media agency.

There is also the collective and individual behaviour of politicians and the political parties that they represent. Despite attempts in a number of countries to improve transparency around the conduct of politicians, many people believe that the default setting of an elected official is to lie when under scrutiny. The use of Parliamentary privilege as well as the influence that goes with being an elected representative o . This was made demonstrably clear with the Todd Barclay scandal, where an incumbent National Party Member of Parliament has been made to quit in disgrace after it was found that he wire tapped the conversation of a senior staffer without her knowledge or permission.

A well known economic measure is the deliberate promotion of a low wage economy. This has the effect of forcing people into trade jobs, retail and the service industries. The hours can be long and the wages can be not much more than the minimum permitted by law. Workers come home and are generally too tired or distracted to read a newspaper. Playing games and surfing social media is much more appealing.

It happens in education too. I have mentioned academics, but I have not explained the flow on effects. The sciences are particularly vulnerable since a lot of research gets done using Government grants, public scholarships and so forth. One example is climate change – whether one believes it is occurring or not, there can be no doubt that it has been subject to political machinations by politicians who might have lobby groups telling them that they will donate to the representatives campaign if s/he does/does not do x, y and z. The constant putting down of science by politicians has had a negative net effect in that it has driven people away from wanting to do field research.

Whilst politics and politicians must share much of the blame, the media has a a role to play too. It has methods such as click bait articles which have no educational value, and rely on people’s natural curiosity to look beyond the attention grabbing visual such as a scantily clad woman. Corporate networks such as Fox, C.N.N., R.T., and others (Al Jazeera, Sydney Morning Herald)often require their reporters to follow a script about what is considered acceptable in terms of covering events, The same behavioural patterns have been noted among New Zealand media as well, with Stuff, 1 News, Newshub and New Zealand Herald particularly guilty of putting up click bait in place of actual news, or talk about rugby players and their upcoming fixtures instead of covering events like the attack on the Iranian Parliament, Saudi Arabia’s bullying of Qatar and the rise of New Zealand First.

What can one do? Become aware of what is going on around you. You can do it easily by spending 10-15 minutes a day looking at what is happening nationally and internationally:

  • Do not look at just one source. Cross reference reports against those from other sources. If the same thing is being said from many sources, it is probably true.
  • Note the biases of individual sources – R.T. in Russia for example is told how to report by the Kremlin; Fox is a conservative American network that tends to tint anything about Muslims and Islam in a negative light; New Zealand media try to minimize their coverage of New Zealand First.
  • If you use social media and you see obviously biased reporting in progress, correct them by writing in the comments sections and mention the name of the offending source so tthey know people are aware of what they are doing

Oh, and if you are eligible to vote, make sure you are registered. As we sometimes find out in New Zealand when electorates call for recounts of votes cast, because the numbers are so close it could be the difference between whether an elected representative still has a job or not, your vote counts.