Don Brash bassettbrashandhide.com In the last couple of days, poverty and inequality have been in the news. Yesterday, Simon Wilson wrote in the Herald about the Salvation Army’s latest State of the Nation report, released two days earlier. That report told us that last year 23,000 more
Chris Sellars It’s been a funny old year in a funny old world. Definitely more in the vein of funny peculiar rather than funny ha ha I have tried to discharge my patriotic and prophetic duty of informing my loyal reader along with my many disloyal readers as to
Rodney Hide bassettbrashandhide.com I read the news now strictly for its comedic value. The New Zealand Herald and Stuff guarantee several belly laughs every morning. The headlines alone are more giggles than the Sunday funnies ever were. I once read these rags as though news was still a thing.
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com The following was brought to my attention and is very hard to argue with: Extracted from the Feb 13 Economist’s leading article, How well will vaccines work? : For all these reasons, governments need to start planning for covid-19 as an endemic disease. Today
Don Brash bassettbrashandhide.com Shortly after the 1975 election, won by the National Party, Rob Muldoon announced that New Zealanders should stop contributing to the compulsory superannuation fund which the previous Labour Government had put in place. The law still stated that contributions were compulsory. The Prime Minister didn’t
Peter Joyce bassettbrashandhide.com Peter Joyce: “I am a retired English teacher from Nelson. Living and working in Taiwan for five years gave me a special interest in matters cultural. In particular, I was impressed by the way the Taiwanese had transformed their society and economy so profoundly in less
Chris Sellars I tried to write an article explaining the nature of truth and falsehood. I stopped writing and gave up after exceeding my word allocation four fold. It may have to be the theme for a book that I will probably never write. I will sum up though that
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com People growing produce which earns income for the country are no longer good. They pollute, they treat their animal stock badly, they export livestock in inhumane ways to countries that abuse human rights. People providing places for other people to live in are no longer
Michael Bassett bassettbrashandhide.com Ever since Jacinda Ardern announced that history would become a core subject in schools, Ministry of Education officials have spent millions of dollars devising a curriculum. They got advice from a very narrow range of the woke and well-meaning, and some serious barrow-pushers. They
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Regarding the new history curriculum, according to RNZ, “On Wednesday, Education Minister Chris Hipkins urged New Zealanders to check out the content and provide feedback before it was finalised.” It isn’t the easiest website to navigate but I eventually found, from the ‘draft curriculum’
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com New Zealand seems poised to implement separate child protection services based on ethnicity. Minister for Children, Kelvin Davis says he is against separatism but recommendations of the all-Maori four-person panel appointed to advise on reform of OT may carry more weight. We have
Michael Bassett bassettbrashandhide.com We are all familiar with Donald Trump’s recent mythmaking. He “won” the election, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Votes were either “stolen” from him, or, alternatively, the Democratic opposition shuffled in bags full of “illegal” ballots to swamp his stellar achievement. Trump’s efforts
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com This ‘guest post’ is from ‘The Slippery Slope’ who blogs at: downtheslipperyslope.blogspot.com I parted ways with my social work Master’s with the last re-write of CYF/OT legislation. Whanau placement children have demonstrably worse outcomes than general placement children because there
Rodney Hide bassettbrashandhide.com Peering through the gloom, I think I can see light at the end of the tunnel. The covid pandemic is all but over! Let me explain, noting that I am all too fallible, that I am an incurable optimist, that I am not medically qualified, that
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com ACT’s response to the resignation of Oranga Tamariki CE Grainne Moss is spot on. Karen Chhour is part-Maori and grew up in foster care so has firsthand experience of CYF intervention: “Oranga Tamariki (OT) will remain ungovernable and continue to fail children unless
Michael Bassett bassettbrashandhide.com There is something genuinely nauseating about the witch hunt that removed Grainne Moss from the head of this oddly re-named state entity. Naida Glavish salivating on TV about her exit; the sight of those middle-class Maori Dames, most of them good mothers themselves, fulminating
