New Zealand Conservative

I was called a cynic yesterday, because of a comment I made about why a lot of New Zealanders were not motivated to vote last weekend. I wasn't one of them, I actually voted for what it was worth - which was diddly. In response to the quoted statement I replied "Yet a million people can’t be bothered walking to the local school hall? Jesus wept." Not really – voting means about as much as a vote for teen idol or who gets evicted from the big brother house this week Your choice is vapid candidate A or vapid candidate B and regardless of who actually gets the most votes both Vapid candidate A and vapid candidate B will be taking their seats in Parliament and voting to pass bills you don’t approve of But In 2009 I also voted in a referendum, a citizens initiated referendum. And along with 1,470,755 of my compatriots, that would be 87.4% of the people who voted, I told the Government they were way out of line with their laws relating to child discipline. Sue Bradfo...

It's all over for another three years, the country has decided. And I have done my bit, ticked my boxes for what that was worth - not much. I watched the breathless coverage on TV One. It was the best show in town. They had reporters stationed outside John Key's house. A talking head in the studio was expounding on whatever when he was cut short by the MC " have to cut you off there, we are going to (insert whoever the reporter was's name) at John Key's house now ". And to John Key's house we vicariously went. The pizzas had arrived and the man on the spot told us all about it along with images of the pizza mans back and John Key answering the door. This significant development reported and it was back to the talking heads in the studio. They also had a reporter outside of Phil Goff's house which you couldn't see. This was a gig of great hardship, we were told, since Phil Goff lives on a hobby farm forty whole kilometers from Auckland. Wa...

The polls are closed - on TV the pundits are in their element. They will be going into orgasms of excitement as they analyse the results The hopefuls are eagerly awaiting what the voters have dealt out to them today. And at home we are getting comfortable with our chips and popcorn - will the steam be coming out our ears or will we be resigned to whatever the electorate has decided. I'm resigned to what will be. I've ticked my boxes and done my bit, what more can a man do. 7:20 Well aint that interesting - two Epsom voters, one Labour, one Green who both voted for Paul Goldsmith. Don't you just love MMP. 9:15 Eight seats for Winston - OK that sounds like fun

Election day and I was going to post about a significant non issue but then I realized it might be construed as being in violation of Paragraph (g) of Section 197(1) of the Electoral Act - even if unintentionally. So instead and to be completely on the safe side, what do you think of Tanya Tagaq's music?

Sean Plunket interviews Wylie Coyote Phil Goff . Sean Plunket interviews Road Runner Judith Collins . Meanwhile some people remain in a state of    blissful denial .

I didn't watch all of that damning TV child poverty doco last night. I watched enough as I could bear. It was made by Bryan Bruce who also made that "Jesus: The Cold Case" thing and whined when TVNZ wouldn't show it on Good Friday when it could cause greatest offense. Anyway a few days out from a general Election and TVNZ obliges by playing his histrionic "Inside Child Poverty". The thing is we all know there is child poverty and we all hate and detest that fact. But Mr Bruce thinks there is some sort of magic fix and the people who can spread the fairy dust to cure this ill are the Government. My friends any thing the Government can do to ameliorate social ills is at best ambulance at the bottom of the cliff stuff - it is. And there is a horrible history of misguided Government attempts to cure social ills with social programs, which at best shift problems but usually create a much worse mess. (DPB, No Fault Divorce etc which are both heavily i...

Expanding on two of Andrei’s links in Today’s Election Campaign Coverage , which I think reveal deeper issues about honesty in the election and the possible rise of extremism in New Zealand politics. “Goff Turns the Worm” It seems Goff, or at least Labour, really was turning the worm. The worm panel was meant to be made up of undecided voters to give an unbiased impression about the impact of the speeches by both leaders. BUT as shown by Kiwi Blog it seems that a number of Labour activists and diehards were part of the worm panel, no doubt cranking it up to high for Goff and turning it down low for Key. This was also picked up by the Whale Oil blog who managed to get a copy of the email used by Roy Morgan research to gather panel members. The Roy Morgan email as quoted from that website: “Hi Everyone, We are inviting people to attend the TV3 leaders debate on 21st November in the studio in Eden Terrace. I have blind copied this email to ensure your privacy. We are putting ...

I cannot believe that National is seriously proposing personality tests for teachers. Who gets to decide what type of personality is the best type of teacher? Is this their way of gradually weeding out the non-compliant teachers who refuse to tow the Government line? Personality tests are so nineties, and yet they are still around. It's as if people don't want to trust the interviewing process any more, they want a test to tell them what the person is like. And National's idea to get 98% of children in early childhood "education", by 2015? More groan. No mention of the fact that the best place for a pre-school child is at home with Mum who teaches their child far more than any early childhood "educator". But if this was acknowledged, then the oh so subtle push to get all women out working for the economy. Yes, Helen Clark, the previous PM voiced it, but National is right on-board with the idea. However, it seems it will be focused on Maori an...

I'm still not voting for John Key and National (shouldn't have ignored the results of the smacking referendum John, nor the increasing evidence good parents are being shoved through the wringer from over zealous officials) but the whole "release the tapes" and "John Key stormed out" frenzy the media, the Greens, and Labour have pathetically whipped up has me just putting down a wee note on the blog to remind myself in a few years hence just how far gone the media are in terms of ethical behaviour. Obviously, the recent UK experience with a duplicitous, unscrupulous and unethical media crew hasn't spread to this part of the world as far as the media are concerned. Do we diary our own version of that kind of scandal for a few years time? (Never saw it coming, yer honour). And definitely sic the law on them John, that is more for public interest than so-called public interest the media insist is more important than ending the right to have private co...

Yes, there is an income gap, some people are poor and others are rich. The reasons are many fold why this is so - bad luck, bad management, sheer laziness or some combination of the three may lead an individual into destitution. Likewise good luck, good management, hard work or some combination of the three may lead an individual to wealth. Being poor does not make you a bad person nor being rich make you virtuous and the converse is just as equally true. Anyway in election silly season the income gap becomes a topic of rhetoric as the hopefuls whore for votes. It's boilerplate for Labour but we all need to bear in mind that what they propose is not to make the poor richer but to make the rich poorer. Which is kind of pointless, don't you think?

So Phil Goff thinks that Labour's election policies are "applied Christianity". He really needs to read one of my old posts, Confused Catholic thinks Jesus was a Socialist . Furthermore, real applied Christianity is not coercive and is not funnelled through the government. While we are encouraged to directly help our neighbour, to donate money to good causes, to try and live good lives and not lie, cheat or steal, we can't force people to do good to others. Somehow, I don't think any Labour politician can stand on their record there. I don't see much leading by example. Instead, Labour's "applied Christianity" is going to justify raising taxes so that Labour can further encourage disintegration of the family unit so that Socialist Man can eventually emerge. Labour has done quite a bit over the years in this regard, so saying that their policies are "applied Christianity" are a joke. Related link: Labour leader Phil Goff is ...

Even though I could have voted today (or yesterday for that matter) or I could tomorrow I'm going to wait 'til the official day and tick my boxes in the local primary school hall. Ah - but what boxes to tick? That is a very vexing question to say the least. Today the nice Mr Goff is suggesting a chicken in every pot a living wage for all is on his agenda if elected. And meanwhile the nice Mr Key is promising that people wont have to wait as long to get their hemorrhoids sorted if we give him our tick. Both very noble objectives that I can support as I'm sure you do to. But how to choose between them?

Just a whiff but that is refreshing after all the banality we have been enduring. The ETS should be axed of course but hopefully batting it's full implementation further into the future will buy the time needed to consign this nonsensical idiocy into the dustbin of history. The fact that it has got as far as it has shows that rationality is not a feature necessary for Government policy to proceed but we all knew that already anyway. Source: National's moderate approach to emissions scheme

So, National is going to attempt to change behaviour through getting tougher on mothers who raise children without a husband and receive the DPB from the State. We have a Pandora's Box situation here - all the miseries have already escaped and have been inflicting themselves upon the New Zealand population for a very long time now. Rather than encouraging us to try and build up our resistance to these scourges of mankind, National instead are trying to use money to negotiate with the evils. Like that will work. The evils of social liberal policies have all but destroyed the notion of leaving sex to when you are married and instead encourage sexual libertinism with all and sundry as long as contraception is used.  They have changed women's primary roles from mothers to workers which has ensured that the numbers of children being produced over all has reduced and that women leave the care of their children to others. I mean, what family today who are working can afford...

With the score 8-7, John Key is reportedly very happy with the election campaign so far. He was seen earlier in the evening pressing palms with the members of the *National* team.