New Zealand Conservative

You'd almost be forgiven for thinking that Labour still ran the country! I should be amazed that a bill from the Opposition is getting such traction with the Prime Minister and the Government. I'm not,however, since liberalism of this type is an infectious mind virus and unless a person has a very good grounding in who they are and why they do things, they'll be swayed by the slightest apparently favourable wind, which in this case seems to be following along in the footsteps of David Cameron and Barak Obama. Both of whom have not enacted same-sex marriage in their respective countries, but, they're working on it and we always like jumping the gun and being first, just like with the fantastic emissions trading scheme that we have going that most of the world are slacking in implementing. But nevermind! The last time a bill from the Opposition was taken up in this way by the Government, thus allowing it to pass with a slim majority was, when? If anyone can think ...

Did you know we had a "Family Violence Death Review Committee"? It's in the Ministry of Health and came into existence in 2008 under the last Labour government. OK this committee has just tabled its first report to Parliament and generated a shock horror headline in the process. 'Staggering' report shows 41 Kiwis killed by family Well this is bad, no doubt about it, but will this report, or the committee which produced actually do anything to address it? The problem is that "family violence", no matter how it is defined remains a cultural issue and unless it is talked about in cultural terms we will get nowhere - ever! Instead the cultural aspects will swept under the rug and generalized solutions will be sought, generalized solutions which will impact non-pathological families, grow government and governmental intrusions into everyday life but have no effect whatsoever on the pathological ones where these problems occur. And if past precedent...

The Labour Party are presiding over an apparently dysfunctional immigration service. Except that their recent actions, where bureaucratic stupidity seems to be the new "law of common sense" also mirrors Labour rhetoric. "We don't want rich pricks here. Specifically, we don't want rich, white, hard working pricks here." Quite keen to pack them off home, but probably not so keen on refunding the money invested to date. From Canada, to the UK. The message is clear. Investing in New Zealand with your hard earned cash is a high risk venture. The government will block you one way or other. So much for the rule of "common sense". Related Link at No Minister: Couple buys the farm - colloquial expression in NZ for "Thanks for investing in NZ, the tax rate is 100%" British couple who came to New Zealand to live their dream of running a farm are being booted out of the country after a nightmare experience with an "incompetent" Immigrati...

So, according to the news today , the Government's accounts (for the first time in almost 15 years) are in the red?  The Government can give all the reasons they like (and I'm sure they are many and varied) but I find it very hard to swallow that for years and years the take from the poor taxpayer has been rising to a surplus of billions and all of a sudden, six  months out from an election, there isn't any left - in fact, into the negative. As the Four-Square women would say to one another, "how convenient". According to the story - ..tax revenues are $700 million below forecast. Oh, really? Again, I find this a bit hard to believe. The Government is not taking enough from us? Sorry, but taking tax is one of the things this government is VERY good at and I doubt they would have mucked up on that. I'm sure someone will provide the reasons for this, but the story just left myself and family members watching saying, "yeh right" incredulou...

Yep, according to this story , Creative NZ (an organisation funded by the Government) is giving a $38,000 grant towards a stage version of Nicky Hagars book, The Hollow Men. So, not content with stealing money for Helen's pledge card, has Labour found another way to use taxpayer money to fund propaganda against their opponents? If so; low, really low.. Of course, they will just tell you that they are funding The Arts.

Yes, according to the news just now , Labour are already hinting at "tax threshold tweaks" ahead of next years election. Peter Dunne has had a chat with Cullen, who has said he has an agenda for personal tax cuts next year. No surprises there, of course - we all knew there would be a bribe next year. Peter Dunne says he doesn't have any specific numbers in mind but - "..when you have 12 percent of people caught by the top rate, when you are only supposed to have five percent, there is significant room for movement." Of course, it didn't matter before when they were raking in the money hand-over-fist but it's an issue now that election year is fast approaching.

Yep, according to what I heard on the radio today (and read HERE ), Helen Clark has re-opened Labour's Mangere electorate office and installed list MP Darien Fenton within. Looks like it's going to take more than the Philip Field case to dampen their enthusiasm for the electorate....