New Covid Inquiry for New Zealand

The old Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid will wrap up and then another inquiry will carry on under a new Chair and Commissioners. Finally, the New Zealand Government has listened to the people.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/new-covid-19-inquiry-announced-nz-firsts-winston-peters-invokes-agree-to-disagree-clause-for-first-time-of-coalition-government/2CWE2Q3XXZCOPEVRE4KS3CXOUQ/

https://www.nzfirst.nz/the-new-covid19-inquiry

Newshub Bailout Looms?

I've been closely following statements by New Zealand cabinet ministers, about the plight of TV3's News operation and its planned shutdown by Warner Bros. Discovery. It's looking increasingly likely that this private company will be getting a taxpayer funded bailout. It makes my blood boil.

These were people who championed lockdowns and the jab. They're the lowest of the low. 

This latest government hasn't been in office very long, so it's about time they learnt to read the room. TV3 are loathed by the majority of the people. Bail them out at your peril as if you do, your re-election chances will plummet. Use taxpayer funds to deliver long awaited improvements to the country's infrastructure instead. 

Just watch the outrage if Newshub gets bailed out 

Winston Peters Going After Media

 I've elevated Winston Peters to, Lord Winston.

Go get 'em Winnie. For the record, these people turned on us all. They were clearly serving their paymasters, the criminal Labour government of New Zealand. Now they want to be seen as independent. Yeah...nah...no mercy.

And while we're at it, cut ALL government advertising to only the essentials across all media, not just state owned.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/503394/deputy-prime-minister-winston-peters-attacks-state-funded-media-independence

"Well, we'll see the speed at which TVNZ and RNZ - which are taxpayer owned - understand this new message. We'll see whether these people, both the media and journalists - are they independent? Well, isn't that fascinating, I haven't seen evidence of that in the last three years."

He then laughed, and said "you can't defend $55 million of bribery, cannot defend $55m of bribery. Get it very clear".

That last remark was a reference to the Public Interest Journalism Fund, a three-year $55m contestable fund for journalists initially set up to shore up public interest media during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was wound up in July.

This included funding for 219 jobs and 22 industry development projects. Political coverage was exempted from eligibility to benefit from it. The fund was administered by NZ On Air.

RNZ's charter requires the broadcaster to be independent, including providing "reliable, independent, and freely accessible news and information".

While the organisation is funded by the government, by law no ministers of the Crown or person acting on their behalf may give direction to RNZ relating to programming, newsgathering or presentation, or standards, and cannot have staff removed.

National/ACT/NZFirst Must Deliver

I feel a great darkness is being lifted. For the first time in many years I can actually see New Zealand having a future. Things have been so bad, for so long. Watching New Zealand circle the drain has been agonising. But, my initial reaction to this government: the little country has a chance. It could survive but it has to rid itself of WEF agendas and globalist tyranny. Don't let us down, we are playing for all the marbles here, this is not tiddlywinks. Saddle up, spurs on, this is going to be a long hard ride.

More later....still thinking.

National/ACT/NZ First Coalition Agreements

Here are the full coalition agreements for the incoming National/ACT/NZ First government of New Zealand:

National and New Zealand First https://assets.nationbuilder.com/nationalparty/pages/18466/attachments/original/1700778597/NZFirst_Agreement_2.pdf?1700778597

National and ACT https://assets.nationbuilder.com/nationalparty/pages/18466/attachments/original/1700778592/National_ACT_Agreement.pdf?1700778592

There is a lot to unpack here and so I'm going to think about it before commenting. It does look positive though, it appears Winston Peters has delivered.

Final NZ Election Results 2023 - Winston Peters Kingmaker

Winston Peters is kingmaker. New Zealand First can make either side the government. That's the conclusion of the finalised results just announced.

Now, watch the fur fly.

Here's a link with some analysis:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/501620/updates-final-election-2023-results-released-after-special-votes-counted-ballots-checked

https://electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2023/

New Zealand Election 2023 Result

Those interested in the results of the New Zealand General Election 2023 can find the full information here:

https://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2023_preliminary/

Be careful following the mainstream media as they are full of it and often wrong in their assessment. Right now, National have a paper thin majority, which is likely to evaporate after special votes are counted. That means NZ First are back and able to bring some sanity to Parliament.

The problem hasn't been solved though. The NZ Parliament still kept us locked up under lockdown despite having done no wrong, and they tried to kill or injure us with the poisonous jab. So, National and ACT are not to be trusted any more than the other bunch of criminals.

For useful links about just how bad the poisonous jab is, see this page full of information to open your eyes with: https://kenhorlor.blogspot.com/p/interesting-links.html

Oh and now that timely graphic:

Do Not Vote Early

Early voting has begun for the New Zealand General Election 2023. The polls close at 7pm on October 14th, and between now and then you can cast your vote at any voting place across the country. 

Given the unsecured way voting occurs, with ballots placed into an unlocked cardboard box, I suggest voters DO NOT vote early. Leave things until the last minute. This prevents interference with ballots. Who knows what may happen to that piece of paper if you vote now.

I'm voting late, on October 14th preferably, and I'm voting for a party currently outside parliament. For me, that's a first, but I refuse to vote for any of the criminals that call themselves MP's, or their parties for that matter. They should all be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, and their parties banned. 

Shane Jones on the Climate Change Cult

New Zealand General Election 2023

The New Zealand General Election is only weeks away and the only thing to stand out: NZ First is back. It is not a case of will they make the 5% threshold, but a case of can they make 10 or even 15%?

Winston Peters seems to be back in form, and his sidekick Shane Jones is in a support role and being feisty; could Jones win Northland?

Back in 2020, voters dropped NZ First in droves, preferring to switch to Labour and Jacinda Ardern. They'd been panicked by the so-called pandemic and turned to Mommy Dearest. She was evil of course, and people soon realised. Now in public opinion polls, Labour cannot get more than 30% popular support. 

Still lingering around are the useless Greens. And then we have ACT and their weasel of a leader David Seymour. These two parties represent the worst of all worlds, on the one hand being dreamers and grasping lunatics, while on the other being prepared to sell their own mothers for a few pennies. Both parties are loathsome.

Maori party? They'll never amount to much.

And no minor parties have come through the middle. They're all too disorganised, and too incoherent. NZ First have some candidates who represent resistance to lockdowns and mandates, so for now, we'll just have to hope they get in this time.

Peter Williams Interviews Winston Peters

New Zealand First are back. Can they get to 10%?

 

Did Hipkins Just Blow It?

I believe New Zealand Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins just blew the 2023 election. He's announced he won't deal with Winston Peters and NZ First after the polls close. 

This is a big mistake as the effect must be to drive Labour voters away to NZ First. That's because the Labour voters won't want to see National and ACT running the country alone. If Labour voters switch to NZ First, they have the chance to put a stop to National's excesses by making Peters as powerful as possible within Parliament. 

No doubt Hipkins is thinking the opposite, that by ruling NZ First out the Labour support will return to him and stop playing footsie with Winston Peters. But that overlooks the past few years and the pain his policies have caused. A far better approach would be to say; he'd look at the results after the polls close and then consider who to deal with. 

But, with the approach he's taking, people remember the pain and back NZ First to be a handbrake on National/ACT.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/496678/instability-and-chaos-labour-rules-out-a-partnership-with-nz-first

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has ruled out New Zealand First as a possible coalition partner after this year's election, saying Winston Peters and his party would cause "instability and chaos".

Labour leader Chris Hipkins confirmed the decision at a media conference today.

"New Zealand First has become a party more interested in toilets than the issues that matter most to New Zealanders," said Hipkins.

River of Freedom

Due in New Zealand cinemas soon. This is a must watch documentary following the 2022 protests against mandates which the media and parliament tried to ignore.

Oh, and just a quick note; of all the minor parties only NZ First has any chance of getting over the 5% threshold, so I'm giving them my party vote. I suggest all other lovers of freedom do the same.

New Zealand Polytechnics to be Nationalised

The New Zealand Labour-NZ First government has just shot itself in the foot again, this time moving to centralise all the Polytechnics and Institutes of Technology under one administration. This has got to be a big blow to Invercargill and the people of Southland. They have SIT with its Zero Fees scheme. I am informed they can do this as it is funded by the local licensing trust and a large property portfolio. Invercargill still has an effective licensing trust returning the profits from alcohol sales to the community (they've also built sports facilities with those profits).

What the government are doing is similar to what highly bureaucratic multinational corporations do. Instead of rewarding success, they penalise it and drag everyone down to a low common denominator, creating layers of management that are largely pointless and who achieve nothing.  They do this in the name of efficiency and cost saving, but it rarely ends up being either.

Southland must be livid and they have every right to be. I was in Invercargill a couple of weeks ago and I was impressed to see the SIT campus was buzzing, full of diversity, the students were spending spending spending. This latest move will be a real kick in the guts for Invercargill.

New Zealand Defence Capability Plan

Those wanting to read the latest dreams and schemes put out by the NZ Defence establishment can read it here:

https://www.defence.govt.nz/publications/publication/defence-capability-plan-2019

This is an improvement but still doesn't go far enough. Readers will note that there are still no plans to regain NZ's air strike capability. Also lacking is a firm commitment to acquire drones which are a must-do in my book. They're also continuing with cuts even though the replacement capability is not ready. I'm talking here about the immediate removal from service of two inshore patrol boats, leaving just two in service. That's likely because they can't find crews to man them.

Then consider it appears the multi-role vessel HMNZS Canterbury is a failure. Read between the lines, it is spelt out bold and clear.

The NZ Government don't appear to be able to get its priorities right. Those priorities must be:

Navy
Air Force
Army

...in that order. Having two old and incapable Frigates to secure 11% of the earth's surface is ludicrous. Grow up New Zealand.

Oh and consider this announcement a bribe of sorts from NZ First's Ron Mark. But before voters consider giving them a chance in 2020, please remember that this lot shut down oil and gas exploration. They acted to harm the NZ economy, so they can't be trusted with defence either.

This was my blueprint published in 2017 https://kenhorlor.blogspot.com/2017/01/blueprint-for-new-zealand-armed-forces.html

MMP and the Failure of Smaller Political Parties

New Zealand's mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system has been around since 1996. It was meant to be fairer than its predecessor first-past-the-post system where a one vote majority means the winner takes the prize. It turns out nothing much changed, the two main parties, Labour and National have dominated since the Second World War and continued to do so under MMP.

It wasn't meant to be like that under MMP. New Zealanders were promised a plethora of parties vibrantly competing to secure the all-important party vote along with regional candidates contesting local issues for local people in local electorates. Everyone would get two votes when previously they had only one. Can you hear the cheers spontaneously erupting at this good news? 

Except the promises were empty and the people were duped. MMP ushered in an era of even more power for ruling elites. Local people got shafted, and their local issues were totally forgotten unless they happened to be in Auckland, in which case they became sacrosanct must-do's.

What went wrong and why have all attempts to break the Labour-National duopoly failed? There are four key areas to consider:

1. It's about MMP

Check the name again; mixed-member-proportional. It's not only about members and neither is it only about proportionality. All wannabe smaller parties forget this and go hell for leather at either trying to win seats, or building their party vote. To grow into a large third party they must be able to win and hold electorate seats AND hold their party vote across the country. Failure to do both means they wither on the vine and expire.

Examples of failure include; NZ First in 1996, they took all Maori electorates as well as Tauranga which was held by its leader Winston Peters. In total they secured 17 seats. Their failure, they could not hold the Maori seats. Then we have the Maori party which despite winning many Maori electorate seats, could not pick up enough party votes to make an impression beyond that.

2. The Media

Smaller parties struggle to get positive media coverage. If they are in the media then it's likely to be with some kind of spin attached. An example of this is the constant reference to Green list member of parliament, Golriz Ghahraman as an Iranian refugee. Or ACT's sole MP and leader David Seymour being portrayed as a simpleton (for those that don't know - he has a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic) and a BA (Philosophy) from the University of Auckland).

Any smaller party has to be able to infiltrate across the spectrum of news cycles - see 1 above.

3. Political Appointments and Alliances

Labour and National use their connections to maximum effect. National push their connections with farming, business and certain professions such as law and accounting. When in government they appoint their own people to groups and receive reward in favourable decisions and the corresponding coverage. Meanwhile Labour do the same thing, they have established union connections and they have the nurses, teachers and social workers in their hip pockets. 

In this power play smaller parties cannot compete, in effect they're getting squeezed at both ends.

4. Government Departments and Flow of Information

Smaller parties work in a vacuum, they're starved of information and then find themselves walking into ambushes all the time. An example of this is the leaking of the superannuation details of NZ First leader Winston Peters.

***********************

To get beyond small and to become a contender, a political party must bridge the gap between it and the two main parties. It must do this by winning at least 3 electoral seats and more than 10% of the popular vote, and then hold that position or increase it to become established. At that level it can no longer be ignored at the national level and at the local level it would have the reach to also influence voters on the ground. What we are talking about here is economies of scale. Has any smaller party done this? Since the end of the Second World War, only Social Credit came close during the late 70's and early 80's. They held two electorates during this time and their popular support rose to a high of 20% at the 1981 general election. So close and yet so far and that wasn't under MMP, so it can be done, it just requires clever use of resources and effective candidate selection.

Labour on the Slide

The latest opinion polls have New Zealand's Labour government falling in the polls and their coalition partner has slipped below the 5% threshold. Not only that but the Greens who support the coalition on confidence and supply are right on the threshold.

But here's where it gets interesting: only a few hundred votes stand between Labour and electoral oblivion. If the Greens fall below the 5%, then Labour are no longer government, instead national would be. Watch for signs of desperation as Labour look to move the threshold down.

Time to start getting very nervous Labour, and you deserve to be nervous. These are the reasons:

1. Oil and gas exploration ban,
2. Being held captive by Greens,
3. Giving up the centre ground,
4. Not paying teachers enough,
5. Grandstanding around the world instead of looking after the knitting,
6. Incompetent ministers,
7. Shane Jones Bank.

And that's just for starters.

Shane Jones Bank

I laughed when the New Zealand ACT party leader David Seymour called the Regional Development fund, Shane Jones Bank. NZ doesn't have a good record with this kind of thing. Money is always diverted and any gains often remain illusory. The latest round of funding for the West Coast of the South island is a drop in the ocean compared to what the West Coast mining sector could generate in earnings on its own, and they wouldn't need government funding at all. But then most of the minerals that the West Coast is rich in, the NZ government is allergic to.

Oil and Gas Exploration Ban

Well New Zealand has gone and shot itself in the foot. The current government has passed into law, a future ban on oil and gas exploration.

Name the parties that did this harm to the Taranaki region and New Zealand as a whole; Labour, NZ First, and Green.

Energy security is very important, NZ is now badly exposed. NZ is not well governed, we had National fiddling the books and moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic, now we have a party called Labour, hating the workers and doing whatever they can to put highly skilled workers out of jobs. NZ First talks regional development but hurts the regions. And finally the Greens, a bunch of former communists pretending to be environmental.

Is there a solution? Avoid voting for either Green or NZ First, they're both minor parties with far too much say. Drive these parties below the 5% threshold and get them out of parliament. Beyond that I don't have an immediate solution as there are no viable alternatives to National and Labour, but they're both utterly incompetent.

Labour's Oil and Gas Decision Very Naive

We are now seeing New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern's major weakness. She's good at media stuff, smiling and looking pleasant but when it gets hard and the issues are deep, she can't handle it. All she thinks about is whether the decision will be popular or not. How do I know this is how she thinks? She's got a team on Twitter constantly saying exactly that. Banning oil and gas exploration will be seen as widely popular they say. There is no evidence for this thinking mind you, but that's obviously how she thinks.

Thing is, we're talking real-world stuff here. This is playing for keeps, decisions have consequences. And with some decisions it doesn't matter whether they're popular or not, they just have to be taken.

A hard decision would be to embrace the oil and gas exploration industry and I'll tell you why: it has to do with sovereign risk. Since the Second World War, NZ has begged oil companies and their investors to come to NZ. Note I say begged. The world is a big place and these investors could go anywhere, but a few listened and they turned up. They'll now be regretting they did.

When that money departs, it will never return. Investors have memories and they won't forgive easily. In future they'll say thanks but no thanks. That is if they even answer the call. And don't think this rebuff will be limited to just oil and gas. There will be spillover into other sectors as well.

When the next financial crisis hits, NZ will be left swinging in the breeze. It is that serious, I find it hard to believe Labour would be that naive. Even if Labour reverse their decision, harm has already been done. The question also needs to be asked, why did Winston Peters and NZ First form a coalition with such fools? Was it so personal with National that Peters was prepared to sacrifice the whole economy? It seems so.