New Zealand Conservative

New Zealand politics is largely a discussion of a variety of left wing viewpoints. Centrist arguments can often be labelled "right wing" and anything Conservative or right wing may be labelled a variety of terms often insinuating a slur from "fundamentalist" to "far right" or "religious". The argument is attacked even before it is considered. However, pointing out the left wing bias in everyday political discourse will invariably be meet with howls of derision. Reds under the bed? Calling the Labour Party full of Marxist ideology? Ooh, how extreme and how scary this unhinged person is for using the M word. Which is why I am taking the time to remark on an otherwise unremarkable editorial in the Sunday Star Times this week. In a reaction to high salaried managers being at the helm when a stuff-up is discovered in government, the editorial calls on a salary cap. It advocated for a cap of $400,000 because that is what the Prime Ministe...

An interesting piece from Michael Laws today.  He's reflecting on what type of world his children will inherit and how he can teach them to do the right things.  He sees that his generation can't hold onto relationships, but I'm not sure he sees that as a bad thing, it's just how he became a father at an older age. Except that I am part of the greatest social revolution in the history of humankind. I am part of a new society that partners and re-partners and re-partners and does not regard mating for life as an imperative. So it is that I have a young family and have learnt to be a father. Sorry, I am learning to be a father – each day another mystery is solved but a new one presents itself. One of my most significant discoveries – no, my most significant – is that I am not at the centre of the universe. He's learning to live for his children rather than for himself and realises his own mortality. That my innate selfishness has been utterly undermined by the ...

Michael Laws has written a piece for today's Sunday Star Times, titled Produce the licence or forget about reproducing . His grumble is that any person currently has a right to produce a child, but owning animals seems to far more restricted. For instance, a judge can order a person who has neglected animals to be banned from owning animals for a certain period of time, but no such ban can be applied to the creation of children. His solution is to test potential parents, I presume before the woman is pregnant. He writes: The reality is that having a child should require a test. A demonstration that the child has the real opportunity for a future, and the real chance to be a positive contributor. Instead we work on the opposite tangent: have as many kids as you like. But if you want that dog? Prove yourself. What Laws forgets, is that civilised society does have such tests. These tests are called marriage. Make a commitment to a person of the opposite sex for life and vow t...

STORY ONE OF THREE The editor of the Sunday Star Times was in court today after 16 people were killed in a crowded stampede at a rugby stadium. The situation was caused when an SST reporter was caught with a fake bomb in their backpack. They explained to the security guard that it was all a big joke to point out how slack security was at these venues. Unfortunately, a nearby witness caught a glimpse of the fake bomb, and screamed "bomb" before the reporter could show a signed note from the editor saying that the letterhead was not fake, but the bomb was, but feel free to beat the reporter whilst in custody so they could get another story out of the scam. Meanwhile, once the scream "bomb" went up, the crowd went wild and stampeded for the exits. 15 people were crushed to death and the 16th, 99 year old rugby fan Martha Cruxton, had a heart attack thinking the match might be cancelled and died on the scene. Once in front of the judge, charged with reckless ...

I had to laugh this morning, when I read the Sunday Star Times' Editorial, titled Charging for a free education has to stop . Apparently a number of schools has been illegally charging parents for their children's education. Two dozen schools, 20 state and four integrated, have been caught since the beginining of 2008 charging for services that should legally be free. The Education Act is clear on the matter: state schooling is free until a child is 19. That's what free education means. State or state-integrated schools cannot make donations compulsory or charge parents for anything used to deliver the curriculum [...] The law says state schooling is to be free yet some schools feel they must charge for schooling, presumably because the funding from the State is inadequete. Money doesn't just grow on trees - I'm sure that in the curriculum somewhere. Or if it isn't it should be. But what I had a chuckle at this morning was the righteous position taken by t...