New Zealand Conservative

The four flag choices. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that we here in New Zealand are having a referendum early next year on whether to change our national flag - that is, of course,  after a separate referendum to decide on what the design of the new flag should actually be.   In other words, it's being done backwards, as though the decision for change had already been made. And I think that was the intent. Otherwise, why not ask first if people want a change, before wasting time and effort asking for design submissions and whittling them down to a final four? Perhaps they know damn well that when people are asked straight up, as they have been in the past, they don't want a new flag. If it must be done in this order, why not just have the one referendum (saving time and expense), and include the current flag as the fifth option? Will they, at some stage, perhaps decide not to have the second referendum regarding the choice between the new ...

Property rights should trump lava flow (a destructive effect of nature), yet a land owner has been fined for improving his property: The "damaged" lava flow (source NZ Herald) Damaging a historic lava flow has cost an Epsom homeowner more than $15,000. He was successfully prosecuted by Auckland Council after removing trees, plants and some of the historic lava flow from his property, which is part of the Almorah lava forest, an area of ecological significance protected under the Auckland District Plan. The forest is on Maungawhau, or Mt Eden, and comprises tracts of native bush. The fine followed a complaint from a member of the public, which prompted enforcement staff from Auckland council's resource consent team to visit the site near Mt Eden. This is just a sign of the growing pantheism of the environmental movement, that holds "Nature" as sacred, and disallows anything that interferes with what "Nature" does. In England, this pant...

Things are rotten in the State of New Zealand. Just glancing down the Scoop headlines for today leaves a sickening feeling that there's just a little too much "sick and twisted" out there. An Invercargill man today admitted sexually violating an 8-year-old girl at Oreti Beach this year. Jordan Storm Pavlovich, 21, who until today had name suppression, appeared before Judge Kevin Phillips in the Invercargill District Court and admitted sexually violating the girl on February 2. [ Link ] 10 years, minimum. He gets out age 31. But there is a twist to the story - He's married and step father to young children. Are they safe? The mother thinks so , because he was apparently high on a legal cannabis substitute - K2. Looks like there needs to be an investigation into side effects for this "safe" drug. If the excuse holds up in court, then even more so. Meanwhile, at the other end of the country: Two Auckland men have been left bloodied and bruised a...

Yet another sex attack on a child in New Zealand: A man has been arrested over a sexual assault on an 8-year-old girl at a South Island beach at the weekend. The 20-year-old Invercargill man was arrested this morning and was due to appear in Invercargill District Court today, police said. The girl was assaulted at Oreti Beach on Saturday. My impression given the number of stories lately of sex attacks on children (the most horrendous being that vicious attack on a five year old tourist ) that New Zealand has a great many paedophiles just lurking around, just waiting to nab the nearest child. Is this sort of thing getting more common? I shudder to think. Related link: Man arrested over sex assault on young girl at beach ~ NZ Herald

Anyone know of any?

This might cause a bit of embarrassment over here. AUCKLAND, New Zealand, July 4, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has decided to launch an inquiry into a complaint against the New Zealand Government’s antenatal screening program for Down syndrome and other conditions. The complaint was filed with the ICC by SavingDowns, the Spina Bifida Association of New Zealand (SBNZ) and Right to Life New Zealand. SavingDowns is an organized group of parents with children with Down syndrome. The groups allege that the screening program, introduced nationally in February 2010 by the Ministry of Health, targets unborn children with Down syndrome and other conditions such as Spina Bifida for birth prevention. They also claim that such programs are eugenic, discriminatory and put parents under undue pressure to abort wanted babies. The irony being that abortion in NZ is only legal if it puts the mother's mental or physical health in danger. ...

With a tent and an airbed packed into his old silver Mercedes-Benz, and a kayak strapped on top, overstayer Jurgen Karl Ahrens made the New Zealand outdoors his home. For 20 years, the 72-year-old German avoided authorities and deportation back to his home country because he was always on the move. Alas, after 20 years slipping past the entire NZ Police Force, our armed forces, the Department of Conservation Park Rangers (second only to Texas Rangers and those rangers that catch people stealing too much paua), and the nosey next door neighbours, Jurgen has been captured and summarily deported . This is a travesty, and I think we have to take a long hard look at the rights of the indigenous peoples of New Zealand, as Jurgens most surely is, and wonder if we too are on borrowed time? 20 years out bush and we treat him as an over-stayer? He obviously loves the place. What hope for those who have spent the last three years doing Year 11?

One contract to bind them all? The last time that was tried, things went terribly wrong. Hobbitses was hurtses. And it seems it might happen again, with the Hobbits being moved off to the land of mordor, somewhere near Hungary I think. I'm actually not sure what all the fuss is about, but I'll give it a go: An Australian union for Actors want to establish a minimum set of hiring standards and wages for NZ actors for the Hobbit production. Due to the current employment laws in NZ, apparently, this cannot be used as a binding contract, so it might be pointless. But the Union is fine with that, because it feels it necessary to establish a non-binding baseline. Except there is already some pink coloured book that does this. Nevertheless, the union just wants to have nice friendly informal talks with PJ to draw up a contract template. Until those nice friendly talks eventuate, they have encouraged the hobbits, treants, rangers and wights to go on strike. And apparently Gan...

Paul Henry has played the race card. It may have been a joke, but it was just as funny as when Hone tried it. Like, not. The TVNZ Breakfast host asked John Key if Sir Anand was actually a New Zealander. He then asked the Prime Minister if someone who looked more like a New Zealander would be the next Governor General. By gosh, Henry has a point. What does a real New Zealander look like? Given that we are denied the choice of even calling ourselves "New Zealander" on the census , I suddenly wondered if we might be suffering a National Identity Crisis. Is a New Zealander some-one you cannot bring home to Hone? I canvassed a few of my neighbours, and they did seem to be mostly white. They were also mostly woolly, and to be frank, sheep-like. Like the PC crowd that will no doubt bleat about this. Naughty Paul Henry. Baaaaa. Baaaad. Baaaaad. Ooh err, I think I'll join them.

Apparently not many people can sing our national anthem in more than one of our official languages and some-one is trying to raise an outcry. Oh the shame! The anthem is now often sung first in Maori and then English at major events, and increasingly, not being able to sing in Maori is considered 'not PC'. I think knowing or not knowing the anthem in two languages should not be used as an excuse to generate division, and to make issues where none need exist. It continues to frame the debate in "us versus them", and it becomes elitist to demand entry to the club of real New Zealanders requires fluency in Te Reo. This kind of discussion also ignores our third official language. Perhaps it is time we all learn to sign the national anthem? Let complaints fall on deaf ears, and more positive messages be a sign of the times.

I'm still trying to get a handle on this foreshore and seabed business, but it still seems to me that it was a good idea that it was owned by the Crown; and not so much 'owned' as 'administered'; it was owned by everyone and no one. I still think of the beach as a kind of "no man's land" that isn't sea and it isn't quite land, but something in-between that no one should be able to own. Belonging to the Crown it was like the front passenger seat of a family car that kids have to take turns in using – the parent wisely oversees that it is shared. Getting rid of Crown ownership now opens up that seat to squabbling. “It’s mine” “No, it’s mine” “But I was here first!” “That doesn’t matter – you went away!” “I used to sit in that seat driving with Dad before you were born” “So? I’m here now. How does that make it fair? We’re both here now.” I think Key has made a grave error. Now that there is no one to oversee, let the squabbling begin for sure... P...

A long time reader of this blog who resides in Europe is interested in getting a simple description of New Zealand. I thought perhaps we could provide a view of New Zealand in a series of snapshots - a paragraph or two of some aspect of New Zealand and life in New Zealand that would build a picture for our foreign visitors. Feel free to link to photos. List movies, books and paintings. Describe a quintessential Kiwi moment. What makes you proud to be a New Zealander? How do you feel as a Kiwi? Please, speak up!

A while back, a small article appeared in the Dominion Post on a happiness survey. Not surprisingly, the survey found that those on in excess of a $200,000 annual income were consistently more happy than any other group. Who said that money can't buy happiness? I would guess that is because at that level of income, the normal stressors wouldn't apply. A sudden growth spurt by your teenager necessitating a complete new wardrobe every four months would just be an excuse to shop. The car needing major repairs in excess of a thousand dollars might indicate the need to upgrade the car. A tooth imploding without warning, necessitating a root-canal would be paid for as part of that month's expenses. No sense of dread would accompany the power bill or the three-monthly rates bill or even an interest rate rise (unless you are seriously over-mortgaged), or the coming ETS tax . Two hundred thousand dollars a year means that a single income earner would still get $143,000 net salary pe...

My condolences to the family of Jason Palmer, who died yesterday. Jason Palmer, 33, a former member of the United States Marine Corps who came to New Zealand eight years ago, died yesterday after an inmate at Spring Hill Corrections Facility, about 65km south of Auckland, punched him in the head about 1pm on Saturday. Mr Palmer was one of three officers unlocking an inmate's cell when the attack happened. The punch threw him to the floor, where he hit his head. He was taken to Auckland's Middlemore Hospital suffering massive head injuries. Life support was turned off yesterday afternoon. He leaves behind his wife, Tracy, and children Riley, 5, and Abbey, 2. What a senseless, waste of a life. UPDATE: The newspaper article that I quoted from has not included another child from a previous relationship that Jason Palmer never got to meet. A son, Taylor Palmer, aged 13. Related link: Gang link to guard's death ~ Stuff

With the government signing up to the UN Declaration of Rights for Indigenous People, it's time everyone who was born in this great country of ours (can I use the word "ours"?), who felt moved to complete the recent census by ensuring that our ancestral heritage was properly marked "New Zealander" making us indigenous to our country of birth, are properly recognised by our government (can I use the word "our"?). There might be some that would quibble over the degree of indigenuousness we possess, but you will probably be arguing this with either lefties or pseudo-liberals, both who are used to redefining words to suit their purpose and will just babble incoherently. Anyway, if we were born here, how on earth can we be considered alien? What planet are these people on defining us as aliens? So, fellow New Zealanders, when some of our fellow indigenous people line up in front of what they think is the gravy train, and is likely just a clapped out K...

I'm not sure what to make of the latest news that the people of New Zealand have signed up to the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights. So what is wrong with the story? Well, firstly, it shows a certain level of immaturity, duplicity, and fear of the public to head off to New York in secrecy to sign up to something that, up until the signing New Zealand was officially against. Secondly, John Key had been recently asked if the official position on the declaration had changed. "Not at present" was his reply. Which was technically true, the stance hadn't changed officially, but unofficially the airfares had been booked and the deal done. That's basically lying. Thirdly,

I saw in the paper today some dudes got hammered for attempting to smuggle 13 cute geckos out of New Zealand. That sort of carry on is not permitted in the carry on luggage of an international departure, so these guys face fines and jail time for "this crime against all New Zealanders", as quoted by the Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson. So that's all great news and a win for justice and stopping criminals etc. But then I read how much loot they expected to make selling 13 Kiwi geckos in Europe. $192,000. Gee Wayne, why aren't we farming them and exporting them?

Imagine this - a new name for New Zealand,to go along with a new flag and a new national anthem, composed by Peter Sharples. We wouldn't recognize ourselves.

School boys who photographed themselves bowing to a Nazi symbol have been made to apologise to the Auckland museum and spend some time teaching visitors how evil the Nazis were. But, has anything happened to Bob Brockie, who confessed last month to his father potentially helping Soviet soldiers with their dysentry problem in 1940 ? The year my Dad, when he was a child, was transported to Siberia in a cattle rail car in the dead of winter by Soviet soldiers with his entire family - their only "crime" being enemies of Communism. That same year where up to 21,857 Polish officers were taken in groups out to the forests to be shot and buried in mass graves by Soviet soldiers, so that the problem of Polish leadership in a invaded country would be dealt with (ie the Katyn Massacre ). A little something the Soviets learned from the Nazis. No apology in the paper, no having to educate readers on the evils of Communism. Nothing, not even a mention. You'd think it was a crime in...

Given my defence of boxing , one might mistakenly think I'd embrace a culture of violence. I do not. That was about competition and self-mastery. So I'm not particularly impressed with the plans to build an 8m giant Maori Bronze Statue that will apparently " stir Kiwi pride ". It's an implicit celebration of the violent aspect of culture, so it doesn't stir any pride. It's a display of Maori culture rather than bringing together something all New Zealanders can relate to, and already Maori are complaining they were not properly consulted. It's also a 2 million dollar waste of Rate Payer funds (unless some is bolstered by private money?) Aside from that, I probably would have yawned and moved on except for the unfortunate opening paragraph: It will not rival the Statue of Liberty or come close to the Eiffel Tower, but it will be bigger than Paeroa's L&P bottle and Te Kuiti's shearing statue. This is sad and funny on several levels. The ...