Article is by Chris Lynch and I have pinched this one from The BFD Blog. `ĀCT MP Karen Chhour has responded to the Maori Party’s “divisive outbursts.” Co-leader Rawiri Waititi said yesterday, ‘It’s now time for us to step comfortably into our rangatiratanga and to not give too much to this Pakeha Government with their […]
UCLA Professor Hannah Appel has accused the school of human rights violations amounting to “torture” in the treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters. The reason is the denial of water and food from being brought into a building being unlawfully occupied by protesters, even though the students were free to leave at any time.
Barrister Gary Judd KC’s complaint to the Regulatory Review Committee has sparked a fierce debate about the place of tikanga Māori – or Māori customs, values and spiritual beliefs – in the law. Judd opposes the New Zealand Council of Legal Education’s plans to make teaching tikanga compulsory in the legal curriculum. AUT Law School…
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account of 2004’s hīkoi from Cape […]
The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people regard as worst case. It’s no wonder Ministry of Transport officials […]
Chris Bishop announced: “I have agreed with the Council’s alternative recommendations in nine instances, relating to development around Adelaide Road, the walkable catchment around the City Centre Zone (including Hay St), character precincts, building heights and controls on the interface of the City Centre Zone and Moir and Hania Street, setbacks for 1-3 residential units, […]
Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations is one of my favorite books and a classic of public choice. Olson may well have won the Nobel prize had he not died young. He summarized his book in nine implications of which I will present four: 2. Stable societies with unchanged boundaries tend to accumulate […]
The FSU reports: Last week, we were sent draft principles for what discourse Victoria University intends to allow on campus. … “We should not provide a platform for, nor invite, individuals or groups to speak on campus that have previously demonstrated or are expected to express hate speech as the current law defines…” So Vic […]
The backlash over the settlement of Northwestern University with pro-Palestinian protesters continues to mount. In a letter acquired by The Daily Northwestern, seven out of 11 members of the “President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate” resigned this week in protest.
Update May 1, 2024 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals grants Federal government’s petition for writ of mandamus in the case of Juliana v. United States, originally filed in 2015. Ruling excerpts are below in italics with my bolds. 20240501_docket-24-684_order In the underlying case, twenty-one plaintiffs (the Juliana plaintiffs) claim that—by failing to adequately respond to […]
Farmers have no hope of insuring their properties to cover damage caused to neighbouring solar factories. Public liability cover in property insurance contracts ordinarily caps out at around $20 million in Australia. As with any type of insurance, the greater the cover, the greater the premium. Although, there are certain risks that no insurer will […]
“to employ a hundred people is… exploitation, but to command the same number [is] honorable.” That’s an actual book by the way, explaining that although communism has failed in the past across different nations, races and cultures, it might work in the future where machines can create anything we want. Think Star Trek’s replicator technology. […]
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does not spell out what the […]
Over the years I’ve had various Wellingtonians approach me about setting up, or getting Jordan and the Taxpayers’ Union to set up, a dedicated Wellington ratepayer pressure group to fight for more fiscal prudence and better governance in our city. Jordan and I have always turned away the efforts as nine times out of ten, they […]
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
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