from David Lillis, John Raine, Peter Schwerdtfeger, Rex Ahdar, Cathy Downes The recent news that GeoNet has been merging science with the myth, mysticism and legend of Māori traditional knowledge in their 2024 Geohazard Information has provoked a scathing response from international commentator, Professor Jerry Coyne (University of Chicago). This follows close behind publicity around…
Restoring the Standing and Reputation of Science in New Zealand: a Letter to the Coalition Government
Restoring the Standing and Reputation of Science in New Zealand: a Letter to the Coalition Government
04 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science
Will there be any consequences from the Greens for JAG?
03 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
The Herald reports: Green MP Julie Anne Genter has been found in contempt of the House for “intimidating” behaviour directed at another MP and it has been recommended she be censured. A report just released by the Privileges Committee, which assessed Genter’s actions in the House in May, recommends the Rongotai MP be “censured by the House for acting […]
Will there be any consequences from the Greens for JAG?
Wooing The Masses – A Green Fairy Tale?
03 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: regressive left
Chris Trotter writes – CHLOE SWARBRICK has embarked on a brave, but almost certainly doomed, political experiment. She has set out to build a mass movement on the foundations of a political party that rejects majoritarian decision-making, and which, by elevating the particular above the universal, makes the social solidarity that fuels mass action impossibly […]
Wooing The Masses – A Green Fairy Tale?
Racism is racism
02 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Some Labour and Maori Party MPs have been making appalling personal attacks on Act MP Karen Chhour: The minister has been under pressure from opposition parties over contentious policies including the re-introduction of boot camps and the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act – removing treaty obligations from the law. But Chhour […]
Racism is racism
Plain packaging for infant formula is nuts
02 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand Tags: nanny state
Farmers Weekly reports: The Minister of Food Safety is set to take on his counterparts from all Australian states and the Federal Government on Thursday to try to save New Zealand infant formula exports to Australia and potentially to China. Andrew Hoggard’s aim will be to amend proposed rules that would limit New Zealand producers’ […]
Plain packaging for infant formula is nuts
RODNEY HIDE: Endless repetition makes lies truth
02 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: criminal deterrence, free speech, law and order, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
The Ardern years continue to blight the nation. It’s not just the destructive policies and debilitating debt but the lasting dysfunctional governance both public and private that routinely lies to us and infantilises us. The legacy media are gone. They are now pimps for government and corporate propaganda. Endless repetition makes lies truth, with dissent…
RODNEY HIDE: Endless repetition makes lies truth
Air New Zealand scraps its 2030 carbon emissions target, saying solutions are costly and scarce
01 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - New Zealand, transport economics
By Paul Homewood From the Independent: Air New Zealand scrapped its 2030 carbon emissions reduction targets on Tuesday, citing lags in producing new planes, a lack of alternative fuel and “challenging” regulatory and policy settings. The move by the national carrier — one of New Zealand’s biggest companies by revenue — was the highest-profile […]
Air New Zealand scraps its 2030 carbon emissions target, saying solutions are costly and scarce
Unsettling the settler colonial university: a “feminist decolonization” of higher education in New Zealand
01 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
This link was sent to me by a despondent (and of course anonymous) New Zealander with the comment, “This is now unstoppable in NZ.” It’s from the Times Higher Education site, and the authors are Mahdis Azarmandi and Sara Tolbert, both on the Faculty of Education of New Zealand’s University of Canterbury. Click screenshot to […]
Unsettling the settler colonial university: a “feminist decolonization” of higher education in New Zealand
Wellington rates skyrocket
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics
The Post reports: Many Wellington City home owners have received a nasty surprise after new rates costs came out with increases higher than the already-eye-watering planned increases. My rates have gone up over $900 a year, or just over 20%. This is not due to more investment in water infrastructure. This is due to the […]
Wellington rates skyrocket
The economics of the falling total fertility rate in New Zealand
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, population economics Tags: ageing society, economics of fertility
Earlier this week, I was interviewed by Paul Brennan on Reality Check Radio, on New Zealand’s declining birth rate. You can listen to the interview here. We didn’t have time to go through all of the questions I was given beforehand, so I thought I would add some points here, along with some links to…
The economics of the falling total fertility rate in New Zealand
Karen Chhour gives her response on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into …
29 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
PETER WILLLIAMS: The costs of Te Mana o te Wai are worse than we thought
29 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics
Last month I wrote about the Government’s failure to repeal David Parker’s mad ‘te Mana o te Wai’ (literally meaning the mana of the water) requirements. A few days ago, the research team at the Taxpayers’ Union were sent the details on how the rules are playing it out in my local area: Otago. While…
PETER WILLLIAMS: The costs of Te Mana o te Wai are worse than we thought
Treasury says one thing in a speech but quite another in the BEFU
28 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, inflation targeting, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, unemployment Tags: monetary policy
I picked up The Post this morning to find the lead story headlined “Recession hits homes harder than businesses”, reporting a speech given earlier this week by Treasury’s deputy secretary and chief economic adviser Dominick Stephens. There was an account of the same speech, but with some different material, on BusinessDesk a couple of days […]
Treasury says one thing in a speech but quite another in the BEFU
Tikanga, law and information asymmetry
27 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
Justice Joe Williams in his 2013 paper Lex Aoteoroa made a case for Māori tikanga being recognized as New Zealand’s “first law”. Tikanga existed prior to New Zealand’s development of a legal system based on the British model. Without written language pre-European Māori tikanga is not well documented. However, its customs and norms governed, for […]
Tikanga, law and information asymmetry
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments