Toll existing Auckland roads?

The call by the Mayors in Auckland to toll existing roads is a healthy one. They want to do it to raise more money to build roads, but it will have a number of impacts when it eventually happens – and I believe it is inevitable. It will cut demand at peak times sufficiently that there wont be a need to build many new roads – this should please the Greens, as well as the economists. You see with road pricing, if done properly, everyone wins. The loony leftwing populist Residents Action Movement (RAM) which won some seats at the local body elections two years ago opposes it, and frankly it is a bunch of conspiracy theory driven lunatic rabid slobbering at the mouth old fashioned socialists.

The Auckland Mayors want road pricing to get additional money (to build more roads), rather than replace existing charges – it should replace rates and mean a cut in petrol tax – that is the main argument for it. Then at off peak times you pay next to nothing, compared to peak times – on average, the same amount of money is collected to pay for road maintenance and construction.

With road pricing, done properly and on a commercial basis, the motorist wins because roads are no longer congested – you can pretty much guarantee that if you pay for the road, you’ll get to where you are going on time. In addition, instead of a tax you pay with petrol, the money you pay goes to whoever runs the roads, so your roads are better maintained and there is money to pay for new roads when they are really needed. Public transport wins, because buses and taxis wont be on congested roads and pricing means that they are more competitive with cars (as the price of road space can be more readily spread among many passengers). Residents win because there is less traffic and less pollution. Environmentalists like it because it reduces congestion, reduces emissions and improves the attractiveness of modes other than driving. People in uncongested parts of the country win because they can no longer complain about paying for Auckland’s roads (which they never actually did anyway) – Aucklanders would be paying for their roads explicitly. Businesses like it because they have certainty of journey time.

and who can argue against paying for what you use - well plenty...

The problem is that as long as roads are run through socialist central planning with flat rate pricing, we don’t KNOW if there aren’t enough roads, too much roads or if it is about right. If a company ran all of the state highways and main arterial roads in Auckland, it would price vehicles to pay for the cost of maintaining those roads (and non-state highways are about half funded from rates) and to keep traffic flowing. Why? Because stationery traffic doesn’t pass a toll point or generate many kilometres of travel – some toll roads overseas do this, and it works. Yes revenue is high at peak times, but for about a third of the day the roads are underutilised – and the price is very low at those times. The price would be higher in the peak direction flow in the morning (to the city) than in the other direction. Just like airlines, phone companies, hotels and other services. Peak demand would be suppressed by pricing, but if there was sufficient high demand spread out during the day, a road company may pay for more lanes or a new road. Another company may build another road. At peak times, people who drive would choose to pay to get a fast trip, or catch the bus or train, or businesses may shift to less congested areas, which is surely a good thing. In addition, telecommuting and other more innovative ways of working would get an enormous boost – because the resource that is run like a Polish shipyard (the roads) are now priced properly.

So what about the arguments against it? I thought I should go through RAM’s “facts” on its press release and see how true they are (note RAM has no website):

1. “tolls will likely have a negative impact on those who can least afford them, being - low and middle income earners, students, the elderly, those who do not live close to work and those who are not close to public transportation. In addition, tolls will probably cause house prices to rise near work centres.” Well this is called pricing, but lets think about this rationally. Road pricing will match congestion, and be targeted at peak times (when unemployed people and the elderly never travel, or shouldn’t travel!), on routes to the central city (where most low income earners don’t work). It will mainly impact on people middle to upper income with jobs in the central city – but regardless, this is about people paying for what they use. Road space is at a premium on certain routes at certain times, at those times you pay for the privilege.

2. “Low income workers tend to travel greater distances across Auckland than other groups and will be most disadvantaged if tolls, cordon or other, are introduced.” This depends entirely how a scheme is developed, but most of these workers aren’t working downtown – they don’t use the most congested routes as much as others and at the moment they pay the most petrol tax. Besides, if you use more road space than anyone else, why shouldn’t you pay for it?

3. “Tolls will likely have serious consequences for families with children and those with high overheads such as mortgages “ Since when are the children taken downtown at peak times, unless they are going to school there? This is raving nonsense. This same organisation tends to support higher taxes, but only on the hated rich – this has serious consequences for this group.

4. “The CEO of the MoT and Secretary of Transport Dr Robin Dunlop, has strongly advocated for tolls in the past - as co-author of Road Reform, The Way Forward (1997), and a few years ago within an opinion paper to the World Bank suggesting that New Zealand roads will probably be tolled in the future" So? It is up to Parliament to pass the legislation, the Ministry only provides advice, and the existing legislation to allow tolling on new roads was passed before Dr Dunlop became Secretary for Transport. This is probably some claim there is some World Bank conspiracy to introduce tolling - since these are the claims that RAM has made in the past.

5. “A visiting professor said last year, that it was almost impossible to conduct an audit on Britain's toll regime. Issues involve the deliberate lack of transparency and accountability on the part of Government and private sector investors.” Notice how RAM wont quote the person by name, so the source cannot be checked. Britain has no toll regime, but there are a handful of toll roads and two congestion pricing schemes operating. This claim is arrant nonsense in relation to the London scheme, which does not have private sector investors involved and is under very close observation. Ken Livingstone (hardly a pro-capitalist big business friend) introduced it and got re-elected – the London public obviously are reasonably happy with him.

6. “The Mayors are pushing for a toll regime that potentially will line the pockets of Councils, Government and private sector corporations and interests. Predictably, the Government study on tolls due for publication this year will show tolls to be a viable means of raising funds for land transport. Officials are key stakeholders with a vested interest.” This is very close to defamation, accusing your political opponents of corruption. The government study on Auckland road pricing will say what it says when it is completed, but it probably WILL say road pricing is a viable way of raising funds – it works elsewhere, it is not a conspiracy. To further accuse officials of promoting this because they may get some backhand deal of money is simply wrong – this is New Zealand, not Africa. Maybe road pricing will be supported because it makes rational economic sense!

7. “I organised and was a representative at a public meeting with ACC, ARC, Transit, Transfund and local iwi (invited) on the Victoria Park Tunnel (SH1) issue in 2003. It was at this meeting that Transit agreed to a tunnel given adequate funding. At the time, Auckland's Mayors, Councils and Government were working on tolls to pay for new roads and changes to the Resource Management Act, behind doors closed to the public.” Actually no, the Land Transport Management Bill went to Select Committee, it was quite public, Labour announced the policy of tolling new roads in 2002. You’ll find that every single step of public policy is not open to the general public, because nothing would happen.

8. “Over the last 20 years, the New Zealand public demanded successive governments pay for land transport infrastructure using existing road user charges which are petrol taxes. For 20 years, successive governments have ignored the public's request and used around half the billions of dollars collected in petrol excise taxes for other expenditure.” Yes, that’s true. Although all road user charges, which are a form of road pricing (licensing distance, weight and axle configuration, paying for the use of the roads) have been around for 27 years and all of that money goes on roads. Labour, National, NZ First, United Future, the Alliance and Greens all supported governments that maintained this. See my post below that explains that Labour has been using more petrol tax money than any other government for land transport.

9. “Mayors Dick Hubbard (ACC), Sir Barry Curtis (MCC) and Bob Harvey (WCC) seem to have no idea about the toll-trap that New Zealanders will fall into if they go about fund-raising as they propose. Mayors without common sense are useless leaders at best, and at worst, will likely lead us into a financial quagmire from which we cannot escape.” Meaningless drivel. If done properly (by privatising the highways), it wont be a financial quagmire. Even the public sector has done it well in Norway and Singapore, but still, I am not convinced that Auckland local authorities could do road pricing well. Look at some of the people elected to it from RAM!

10. "Do the Mayors of ACC, MCC and WCC know that government is investigating getting overseas companies (countries?) to manage New Zealand's toll accounts? If not, then why not and what other facts have they missed before pushing tolls onto the innocent public? Serious factors such as New Zealanders' rights and civil liberties must come into play." Well it isn’t looking at getting government to do it, it is looking at whether financial institutions can manage the transactions and accounts for tolling. You know, like Visa/Mastercard, American Express, the banks. This is positive, as they are all far more accountable and efficient than any government agency, and are far less likely to abuse information than the government. If you think your rights and civil liberties are at threat because you might pay to use a toll road with your credit card then you need serious psychiatric help.

RAM wants free buses -well, paid for from your rates and taxes, while other people use them. This doesn't work, it doesn't reduce traffic congestion, just costs a lot of people more in taxes and sees a dramatic decline in walking and cycling (which costs taxpayers nothing).

So, beyond that inane drivel, there are serious issues about road pricing:

1. Who should do it? (not local government, it is just as likely to divert the money to other purposes. Preferably privatise the roads, or have an SOE do it)
2. How should it be done? (preferably across the network of the road owner, so you don’t get distortions by tolling some routes but not others)
3. What about existing charges? (if road pricing is introduced nationwide, scrap petrol tax – it shouldn’t be about raising additional money, unless the company running the highways needs it to build new ones).

There is a study underway commissioned by central government into whether to price Auckland roads. When it is concluded, the government will consider what to do – and it wont be easy. Technology currently allows single point pricing to be easily introduced, using tags you install in your car with a gantry or beacon to pick up the signal as you drive by. This would be easy. It is more complicated to charge distance across the network, varying by route and time of day, especially just for one region (Auckland). So, expect things to not go much further for now – especially since NZ First is rabidly opposed to tolls.

However, road pricing is a good idea - it is about the market working, on something run by governments. As I may paraphrase a quote by Andrew Galambos (hat tip Not PC) he said "A traffic jam is a collision between free enterprise and socialism. Free enterprise produces automobiles faster than socialism can build roads and road capacity. " I would say free enterprise produces automobiles faster than socialism can build AND MANAGE roads and road capacity.

Are we being fleeced by petrol tax?

Following on from Auckland mayors calling for the law to be changed to allow tolling on existing roads – in effect, road pricing, one argument against this is “we are already paying enough, this would be a new tax”.
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The AA has consistently argued against congestion pricing, believing that tolling should only exist where there is an untolled alternative route and that priority should be to complete Auckland’s motorway network before considering pricing existing roads.
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The AA simply fears that road pricing would be an additional tax, given the amount of money motorists already pay in petrol tax – but it ignores two very important points. The first point is that petrol tax is a very poor way of charging roads to manage the network – unlike pricing, it is a very blunt mechanism. At times of peak demand, when pricing should be high to ensure the level of service of the road (speed of traffic flow) is maintained, the road congests – Soviet style. Like queuing for bread, because everyone pays the same, it takes too long – and then people complain that there aren’t enough roads. The AA secretly knows congestion pricing works, London, Singapore and now Stockholm are examples of it working – it just fears that motorists will be fleeced more. However, are they being fleeced?

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Setting aside GST (which is placed on top of everything else, so if you fixed petrol tax, GST would fix itself), the ACC component of petrol tax (which should be replaced by being able to choose your accident insurance provider) and a couple of tiny other taxes (which come to around 1c/l), it is petrol excise that is the bulk of the tax on petrol. I mean petrol, not diesel, not LPG.

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If you are in a diesel or LPG vehicle all the money collected from your road user charges and LPG tax goes to the National Land Transport Fund, of which 85% or so goes on roads (the rest almost entirely on public transport). There is no tax on diesel, besides GST and a tiny local authority tax of 0.33c/l. So, except for GST, you’re not contributing towards other state spending from your road use. So buy a diesel or LPG vehicle if you want to deny Dr Cullen some tax.
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Of the current petrol tax, 22.5c/l goes into the National Land Transport Fund, and another 18.7c/l (rounded to the nearest 0.1c) goes into the Crown Account. However – this is where it gets complicated.
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Dr Cullen has pledged a good deal of that money for roads and public transport in Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Wellington. $900 million for Auckland, $885 for Wellington (assuming it can sort out the Transmission Gully vs. coastal highway argument) and $150 million for the Bay of Plenty. In addition, Dr Cullen has pumped another $800 million of Crown money into road spending nationwide at the last budget, $300 million over three years and the remainder over a longer period. This was surplus money that he didn’t want lying over for a tax cut or to be soaked up by wasteful spending down the black hole of health. In all, $2.735 billion of Crown funding for land transport, and most of it is likely to go on roads (Land Transport NZ ultimately decides).
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These figures are spread over a period of 12 years, (some is already spent) so you get $228 million per annum approximately in Crown funding for (mostly) roads. 1c/l petrol tax produces about $33 million p.a. in revenue. Now ignoring that a good third of that money comes in a five year blip in the middle (assuming that can be smoothed out over 12 years), you can assume that around 7c/l of petrol tax revenue that goes to the Crown is now being reinvested in land transport. So that means around 30c/l of your petrol tax is being spent mostly on roads and about 11c/l is not.
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You are still paying more in petrol tax than gets reinvested in roads, but it is a lot less than it has been for 25 years. A feather in the cap for Dr Cullen on that one, but that still means 11c/l is not going on roads. The AA is right, but it is clear that this Labour government is the biggest road building government New Zealand has seen since the early 1970s – so much so, that Dr Cullen has been voting extra money for roads time and time again in the last couple of years, beyond the growth in petrol tax revenue.
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In short, you are being fleeced at the petrol pump, but about a third less than you were under previous governments - although the 22.5c/l dedicated to land transport is going to increase annually according to the Consumer Price Index. It isn't as transparent as it would be if Dr Cullen simply changed the rate at which petrol tax went to the National Land Transport Fund, but it is still better than it was in the 80s and 90s.

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It is too much to hope that Dr Cullen will spend the other 11c/l on land transport, I don't think the budget would cope!

Celebrity Big Brother continues

George "I miss the Soviet Union" Galloway is my top pick for the next eviction - he has tried too long to be the fatherly figure of the Celebrity Big Brother household, and nauseatingly wears a Cuba tracksuit jacket while he works out -because Cuba is such a great role model for Britain or the world.

I used to listen to Radio Havana Cuba on shortwave in English some years ago, as the signal could be received well in New Zealand on a Sunday morning and I was studying international relations at the time. It sounded all friendly and nice, and Cuba loved how all of its health and education statistics were better than those in the US. As if anyone can verify them!

Galloway is evil and I will be (horrors) text voting him out tonight.

The other two, Dennis Rodman (who is far more sensible and level headed than I had ever thought) and Chantelle Essex (well don't know her surname and she isn't famous for anything other than being on this show) don't deserve to go - yet.

Michael Barrymore on the other hand, seems to have lost it, flaring up at opportunities to get upset at what really is nothing.

The real disappointment is no real scandal - nobody has snogged anyone, and the most likely paring (Chantelle and Preston) wont happen because Preston has a girlfriend on the "outside" and Chantelle is too nice a girl to do anything while she is reminded of that (and Preston is too). However, they are both clearly gagging for it and avoiding being too close most of the time.

However, for me, the star remains Pete Burns. An individual through and through, who can be nasty and critical, but also encouraging and thought provoking. He has had to put up with the fur police barging into the Big Brother household and confiscating his "monkey coat" secretly to check if it was legal. Apparently it is made of an endangered monkey, but could be so old that it doesn't matter - nevertheless, the "cuddly animal lobby" apparently clamoured for something to be done about it and about him. Yes, there is a law against it, but what good is done by prosecution over the possession of a coat that exists? Endangered species protection is best done by other means, but that is another issue.

What is most shocking of all is how my girlfriend and I are addicted to this damned show!

Homeless, welfare and labour laws

One of the less desirable facts of living in Europe are the homeless people. Despite protestations about how socially inclusive and fair Helen Clark’s model societies are, there are more homeless people or beggars (who knows who is homeless and who isn’t) per kilometre in London, Paris, Zurich and other major cities in Europe than there are in New Zealand cities. So why is that?

One reason could be the population is huge – therefore more poor people. Well, maybe so, but that doesn’t explain why they congregate in central London and Chelsea (where I am usually at). What explains that is something very simple – the homeless aren’t entirely stupid. They target commuters because with the million plus people entering central London every morning, even if you get 1% of all those walking past you giving you some change, you wont be too badly off. Secondly, sitting on Kings Road in Chelsea means that you can target the guilty wealthy who live there and tourists who are shopping. You don’t find the homeless hanging out so frequently in High Barnet or Wimbledon. Let’s not forget that if you were homeless and seeking somewhere affordable to live, the LAST part of London you’d be in would be Chelsea – see a one bedroom flat there costs between £300-£450 easily a WEEK. The £300 one would be noisy, small and unbearable, whereas £450 would be pleasant. If you were homeless and serious about finding somewhere to live, you’d go to Hounslow, Brixton or somewhere else where not so many wanted to live.

However, you say, they probably don’t have a job. That is where the government is partly responsible – for pricing jobs out of the market.

One thing that is sadly lacking in the UK compared to New Zealand is service. You don’t know how lucky you are to go to a supermarket and find that someone on NZ$10 an hour (or less) is filling your shopping bag with your groceries as everything is being passed over the barcode reader and scales. These are jobs that anyone without serious physical or mental handicaps can perform – but they don’t in many supermarkets in the UK. You do it, unless you specifically ask for it to be done – which the entire British population should do because it would bring the absurdity of packing your own groceries to an end, and give a nearly unemployable person a job.

However, there is, no doubt, minimum wage laws and other socialist inspired restrictions that stop this. So there are people begging on the streets instead of being “exploited”. I am sure that the supermarkets would happily pay someone £5 an hour to fill shopping bags, partly because customers hate having to do it, but it also slows things up immensely – as the checkout person (not chicks – but then it could be that Chelsea teens wouldn’t be seen DEAD working in a supermarket) has to wait for you to finish packing before serving the next customer.

The same thing happens in other sectors. Furniture removalists work on Saturdays grudgingly with a massive surcharge. Why? Well, you see, this is considered overtime – when flexible labour laws should mean that Gary Upminster can work Wednesday to Sunday, and his employer doesn’t need to pay him more to work weekends, because HIS weekend is Monday and Tuesday. I’d LOVE to not work Mondays and Tuesdays, when the shops are open but quiet. Supermarkets are not open beyond 5pm on Sundays.

Now I could be wrong – maybe people in London don’t want the level of service that people in New Zealand expect. Somehow I doubt it. More liberal labour laws and abolition of the minimum wage may give homeless people a chance to get jobs. The left may say this people would be exploited earning low wages - but I don't see too many of THEM giving money to the homeless. I'd rather work 4-8 hours a day for low wages that sit in the cold begging for money - there is at least a chance I could do better if I was working. More inexplicable is the huge amount of local authority housing that remains in Britain, yet there are homeless people.

Overall the homeless are rather sad – but when I see the tax and national insurance confiscated from my pay packet, that really pisses me off. I don’t owe the homeless anything and it is preying on consciences (and frightening to some) to sit in a blanket in Chelsea beside an ATM and ask people for money. If I didn’t have so much of my income confiscated by central and local government, much of it dedicated to helping those “less well off” (because being well off is a matter of luck to most of us, not hard work), then I might feel more inclined to give some change to people begging.

People selling the Big Issue, on the other hand, are doing something useful. Albeit the only ones I consider are those who are friendly and making an effort, the drone like man staring into space mumbling “big issue” isn’t going to get my attention, when there is a guy on the Strand who is full of life and greets everyone with a smile and thanks them whether or not they buy a copy.

Yes, there are similar people in Paris – in fact I saw a boy of around 15 begging outside a bakery in Paris. Homelessness is seen throughout Western Europe, and although I have not done research into it, I suspect that much can be done in changing labour laws and other restrictions on business that would give such people a chance. However, for too many of them, they have psychologically given up - and the welfare state does nothing for them.

Victim of sex offender witchhunt

Lloyd Walsh, a Dunedin bus driver is a single father of two kids, he is 50. He is a convicted sex offender.
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As a result, he has lost his licence, because the law denies sex offenders the right to drive buses.
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Quite right too, I hear many of you say. The National Party, ACT and even Labour all support a tough stance on sex offenders. Many even believe a public register with his name on it, so everyone knows that he committed a "sex offence" (whatever that may be, they're all dirty perverts!) and when he moves the local community should be warned. I bet some even wonder whether he should be allowed to have custody of his children – a man, alone with two children, who knows what he might do! Terrifying really. After all, once a man commits a sexual offence, he is a danger to children and women everywhere.
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Particularly when the offence was to have sexual intercourse with a girl under 16. That’s it, he’s a pedophile, a pervert, hang him high by his testicles. There is nothing lower than a sex offender is there? I can see the MPs nodding their heads and tut tutting, Lloyd Walsh needs ostracising and nobody need forget what he has done.
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Really?

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Well it was his first and only offence, he was 16 at the time and his girlfriend was 15, in fact two days away from her 16th birthday. You might still think – who cares!! It’s wrong. Well tell that to him and his kids. He is out of a job now, because so many supported Nanny State used an elephant to crack a nut. He committed a victimless crime, there was no rape, there was no exploitation - he is no pedophile, but the witchhunt about sex crimes now has its latest victims - Lloyd and his children.
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Labour had legislation to amend the Crimes Act to remove such an offence, it would have meant that a 16yo with a 14yo was legal, and would have seen a two year exemption from the age of consent, largely because there was some recognition that young people of similar age experimenting sexually and consensually. More importantly, the criminal law is there to protect them from rapists and predators, not from their peers engaging in consensual activity. It is not the business of the law to criminalise consensual teenage sexual experimentation.

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However, it didn’t matter, the Victorian era outcry and caterwauling from the interfering do-gooders was that this was perverted and would encourage teenagers to have sex, despite the evidence to the contrary. Tony Ryall, in a vile display of scaremongering claimed that keeping the law as he claimed "the law should protect children from sexual pressure and support families in their efforts to provide boundaries for their young people" As if a teenage couple think about the law before they get intimate, as if hormone ridden teenagers get encouragement from a law change? Ryall wasn't thinking about policy - he was thinking about scaring parents away from voting Labour and voting National. It is not Ryall's business whether or not a teenage couple get intimate. Well Lloyd Walsh's children don't have a father with a job anymore, that's Ryall's family values as he pandered to the Christian Heritage/Destiny NZ voter.

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So when you next think about cracking down on sex offenders – decide what you mean. Do you mean rapists? Do you mean adults that molest children, not teenagers fooling around together? And ask, why don’t you care about violent offenders? The ones who beat up children, stab adults, attack old ladies – why does it matter whether or not it is sexual?
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And ask yourself, did you really mean that Lloyd Walsh can’t be a bus driver because he had sex with his similar age girlfriend when he was 16?

Privately owned river?

In New Zealand - there is one, at least according to government highways agency Transit New Zealand which states on its site:
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"The Arahura River is unique as it is the only privately owned river in New Zealand"

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In case you didn't know, the Arahura river is on the South Island's West Coast. Transit's only interest is that it is responsible for the single lane State Highway 6 bridge over the river, which it shares with OnTrack - as the branch railway line between Greymouth and Hokitika shares the bridge with the road, causing a few headaches for motorists when they have to give way to trains. Transit has some of your petrol tax money to investigate options for replacing the bridge, but that is not my issue and there is no claim that the fact the river is privately owned is causing any difficulties with this project.

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What IS important is that, if true, the Arahura River is an example of what can be done with other rivers. The world has not fallen in, Grey District Council has not foretold disaster and nobody seems to notice. A bit of research uncovered that Mawhera Incorporation owns the river according to Trade and Enterprise NZ. In essence, a company owned by a local Runaka (subset of Ngai Tahu). Nothing wrong with that. I would presume the Maori Party would support this being maintained, as does the Libertarianz, as should ACT.

It is one response to concern about libertarians privatising what is seen as "the commons". Would anyone notice if all the rivers were privately owned? Who would want to nationalise it?

How to deal with yob culture?

Social misfits, like the young cretin I saw the other day, who threw away his McDonalds thickshake across the footpath on Kings Road the other day, to impress the girls he was with to some extent, are repulsive. I wish I could have dumped rubbish on his bed and made him clean up the street.

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Britain has more than its fair share of them. Essentially there is a lack of respect, of others and their property, and a lauding of a culture of looking and acting tough and threatening, and not caring how obnoxious you are. It is about attention seeking and rebellion, and its vile. It scares older people, and sometimes involves intimidating people for a laugh or vandalism. It comes from regarding all around you as demanding your attention, and you not needing to take responsibility for you or your actions.
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Tony Blair is declaring war on it. Having already introduced ASBOs (Anti Social Behaviour Orders) which can be taken out on anyone down to the age of 10 for consistent behaviour that can be considered a nuisance or comprises low level criminality such as vandalism, tagging and the sort. It is effectively a fast track prosecution, without actually being one – it prohibits people from being out at certain times or being in certain locations. Unfortunately, they are often broken.
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Blair’s concern is understandable. The Guardian reported him saying:
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"In practice, the person who spits at an old lady on her way to the shops is not prosecuted because to do so takes many police hours, much resource and if all that is overcome, the outcome is a fine. The result is the police do not think it is worth it; and so it doesn't happen."
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Unfortunately his response is a mixed bag. Some have value, such as increasing some fines, lowering the threshold for seizure of proceeds of crime, providing an option for requiring offenders to undertake unpaid work to make good damage (such as cleaning tagging off of properties), a national non-emergency police contact number and orders that be sought against parents for serious misbehaviour by children.
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Others are either silly or disturbing. Silly, like paying teenage parents to attend parenting classes – disturbing such as the suggestion that the burden of proof be reversed in some cases. That is a dangerous precedent, that could lead to false accusations by those who are the problem – what if an obnoxious 14yo told the Police you spat on her and made a lewd comment and you had to prove your innocence? Trust the Police isn’t good enough.
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So what IS the answer? Longer term, it is about cultural change, about decrying the nihilistic, do what you want, have no responsibility, blame everyone else for your problems culture that has grown in the last few decades. It is about celebrating excellence, and not snarling at it, and about genuine benevolence for those in need, not as a right, but because people care about people who genuinely show effort and desire to look after themselves. This means not glorifying the stupid, vapid, obnoxious, tough and unproductive. It means a culture where entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, surgeons, shopkeepers and others who create are what people aspire to – rather than aspire to be rich, rude and otherwise useless, as the glorification of fame for the sake of it, rather than due to talent, continues to grow.
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Shorter term, it is about giving those who CAN deal with obnoxious people the means to act, and about not subsidising the obnoxious at all.
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This means:
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1. Abolishing victimless crimes, so the Police can concentrate on offences of the person and property. Leaving peaceful people alone so that those who are not can be targeted, and then the Police themselves may be respected more, and have a greater presence in public places as a deterrent;
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2. Asserting the right of people to defend themselves and their property. This means not banning pepper sprays, allowing peaceful people to own firearms and making it clear that you have the right to use reasonable force to respond to any attack;
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3. Defending private property rights – which means ensuring landlords can evict tenants who damage property and harass other people, and shopkeepers can ban people from their shops and impose whatever restrictions they wish upon who enters or not. Private property is not a public place – people may learn than entering malls, shops, railway stations is not a right;
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4. Stop subsidising failure. At the very least, convicted criminals (offences against the body or property) should be prohibited from receiving any state welfare or state/council housing. As long as welfare remains, parents who do not control their children’s behaviour should have their benefits cut off after a warning, and face eviction from state provided housing. The public should not be forced to subsidise the lives of those who damage the lives of others. This should be the first step towards abolishing compulsory social welfare.
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Blair has a point that many Brits will agree on, but it needs people to act and for parents to be held accountable. There are many reasons why a segment of young people spit, vandalism and disturb people – the change in families, erosion of fear of parental authority for starters, but it needs a concerted effort to turn back over time.

Changing the burden of proof for any criminal offences removes a fundamental freedom, that will be exploited by a segment of the public and the police - and should be resisted.

Iran - how long is nothing done?

Iran continues to metaphorically tell the West to “get fucked” once more by ripping off seals placed on equipment at several nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran has been sidestepping the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty for around 18 years, but the appeasers in Europe have kept blocking the desire by the US to impose sanctions through the UN Security Council. Bush was not wrong when he included Iran in his axis of evil - the current Islamic Republic is a cancerous proponent of terrorism which has only been beaten by the Taliban for its stone age barbarity based on religion.
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Of course, many on the left will remain wilfully blind to this. Iran after all sent child soldiers in war against Iraq, has the state forcing women to dress as it says and bans any literature that it deems contrary to Islam, but that is nothing compared to the evil West. Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map, but that isn’t warmongering. Iran tortures prisoners as a matter of course, and has done so for many years (before and after the Islamic revolution), but lets ignore that. On top of that, the fact the US has been attempting to use multilateral mechanisms to deal with Iran is ignored – especially as they have failed.

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There must be one more attempt to get the UN Security Council to threaten economic sanctions against Iran, of course if it withdraws from the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (as North Korea did), then the toothlessness of international diplomacy in the face of determined evil is exposed once more.
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The Daily Telegraph reports that

“Teheran claims its nuclear programme is "peaceful", and it intends to carry out only "research and development" rather than full-scale enrichment. But it has stretched the definition so far that experts say there is no real distinction.”

Economic and diplomatic sanctions should be imposed until Iran demonstrates transparently that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons. If they do not work, either Iran withdraws from its threats of aggression against Israel and support for terrorism, or military action must be contemplated. For the leftwing advocates of peace - this is called SELF DEFENCE. It is TOO LATE to respond when Tel Aviv has been flattened by a nuclear missile - although you can be sure Israel will flatten Tehran in response, and rightfully so.

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The new Iranian President has demonstrated that he puts the mental into fundamentalism, and is an enemy of civilisation and peace. He denies the Holocaust and he is instrumental in murdering those who disagree with Islam.

So what is likely to happen?

Nothing.

The noise about Iraq will mean Bush and Blair will probably not undertake any serious action against Iran, while Iran will continue to develop a nuclear capability. Once it has done so, it will either declare it explicitly or through a test, or it will allow such a capability to be used by the terrorist groups it funds, trains and supports.

The question for Israel is this. How long do you wait, before a country that has vowed to eliminate you acquires the means to do so? Even if the US and Europe go weak kneed, Israel will not – I expect it is considering military means to put back the Iranian nuclear project by years, much as it did for Iraq.

Any Israeli government that wasn’t would not be doing its duty – I would much rather an angry Iranian government and hoards of mindless drone Muslims protesting, than a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv.

Unfortunately, promising that any use by Iran of nuclear weapons will result in all out war against that country, is worthless to people in power who think the afterlife is more important than the here and now. However, it is all that there is. The evil thugs in Tehran must know that if they persist, they will be overthrown.

Religion - the root of all evil?

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The Marquis de Sade thought so, but then he was no paragon of virtue himself.

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That is the name of an excellent documentary that was on Channel 4 in the UK last night (which led nicely into Celebrity Big Brother afterwards).

The documentary claimed religion was the root of all evil – because it was faith over science and reason. This is a point that all objectivists would agree with, with one exception - religion isn't the only source denying reason - but it certainly is a major one.

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There is a clash of cultures between pre-modern Islam and modern Western civilisation, but also between post-modern Christianity (evangelical) and modern Western civilisation. The war on terror is just, and should be waged for the sake of secular Western modernity - but this is blurred by those claiming it is a Holy War between Christianity and Islam, which is what fundamentalist Muslims believe. ANY adherents of Islam or Christianity (or Judaism) which seek to use force to achieve their goals are evil - but unfortunately, the battlelines are messy.

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To have such a controversial topic on prime time television is a testament to the courage the commercial privately owned Channel 4 has in confronting Christians, Muslims, Jews and others over what they believe. The presenter, Professor Richard Dawkins no doubt is hated by fundamentalist Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. He went to Jerusalem and the United States to talk to people who propagate their irrational hatred of reason, to see if he could understand or get them to understand why people might think differently – he got barely disguised hatred. One man who was raised Jewish in the US, moved to Gaza as a settler and converted to Islam blamed him for allowing women to dress like whores in the streets – when he responded “they dress themselves, I don’t dress them”, the response was “but you let them do it, you let your society allow this”. Islam thinks men should be controlling women, regulating them - hmmm.
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Religion is a denial of reason, science doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, whereas religion does – God did it! Not only did God do it, but some book, written by men centuries ago, contains all the guidance you need to live your life and run the lives of others.
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My beef with religion is twofold:
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1. It is about denying reality. It is about asserting a being exists without there being evidence for its existence – indeed faith is just that, an acceptance that something is real without any other grounding for that belief. Denying reality is fatal, it reduces what your life can bring you and what your life can bring others, it is a form of insanity. Nothing more and nothing less, belief in religion is a form of madness.
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2. Many of the rules propagated by the major religions are irrational, illogical and immoral. Take how Islam treats women, like second class citizens that need cared for. Take how Christianity treats sex, filthy and vile – necessary to have children, but otherwise filthy and vile. They do not believe human beings own their bodies or their property and should be able to do with them as they please, as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others to do the same.
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Go to the website here and check it out, next week is part two of the series which argues that religion is a virus when taught to the very young, it infects their minds and warps their thinking. After all, why do some countries produce generation after generation of Muslims or Christians, because children are raised and never doubt it?
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Ask TVNZ, TV3 or Prime to buy the programme and show it in New Zealand.

"You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think"

Celebrity Big Brother UK! no not the latest surveillance system devised by bureaurats in London to watch you online or on the road - but the popular reality TV show on Channel 4.

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After my little spiel on French culture I will digress with some mass culture - the voyeuristic pleasure gained in watching celebrities be watched and stuck in a house for days on end.

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The quote in the title of the post is the BEST quote so far from this programme, it was Dead or Alive singer Pete Burns talking about slapper Jodie Marsh. Now if you haven't seen Pete Burns since "You Spin me Round like a Record" you'll be shocked, as his cosmetic surgery has been drastic, and not necessarily how he expected (the lip surgery cost him a fortune to fix after it went wrong).
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I never watched any other "Big Brothers" but I ashamedly have been seduced by the sheer entertainment value of the people in it:
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Starting with Chantelle, a dizzy blonde Essex girl (which, despite reputation, can be good), unfortunately not that bright, though rather sweet really – she didn’t know what a gynaecologist was when it was being discussed, and didn’t even know that she should have known. She’s said many naïve things, you’d think she was around half her age, she’s only endearing because she is kind – but now she is an instant nonlebrity – famous for doing nothing other than appear on this programme. She convinced the others for the first 3 days that she was a celebrity leading a non-existent band called Kandyfloss with a "hit" called "I want it right now" - by convincing them of this, she got to stay. However, I think this is largely because two of the other musicians (Maggot and Preston) don't rate themselves too highly anyway.
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David Farrar has blogged about the extreme leftwing Saddamite George Galloway appearing on Celebrity Big Brother a man who said in an interview with the Guardian that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy. That tragedy that cost 30 million lives, that invaded Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, ran a totalitarian state of brutality and lethargy. Great one George.
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However, he isn’t half as interesting as the rest. NBA basketball star and notorious womaniser (and occasional cross dresser) Dennis Rodman, is by far the most famous person there (internationally) and looks distinctly uncomfortable, probably because this is the longest time he has spent without having sex for a while – and he has tried to get into the knickers of the three sexiest women, Traci (ex. Baywatch), Jodie (Essex porn channel host, nosejob victim and slapper who complains endlessly about how she is misunderstood and quite intellectual) and Chantelle.
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Jodie Marsh is a bitchy model, who got her nose done when she was 15 (big mistake it looks far from good) with big self esteem issues that she handles by being loose about sex, talks about it all the time, and by crying about how hard it is to be famous, to be called a slapper, to have her boobs criticised, then she criticises others. She has been in an orgy, wants to have sex with Pamela Anderson and likes girls as much as boys (and I mean boys, she likes them younger).
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Then there is Pete Burns, the diva from band Dead or Alive (You Spin Me Round like a Record) who looks rather scary but is bitchy and incredibly funny. He disclaims that he is gay or a transvestite, but appears to be comfortable simply saying he wants to look the way he does and wear what he wants, but he is a man and is not interested in changing his sex. He’s my pick if only because he is comfortable about who he is, and has upset some of the others by claiming his fur coat is gorilla (which is almost certainly is not).
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Michael Barrymore is the last interesting one, although he is a shadow of his former self, looking worn and tired and sad. I don't need say much more about him, except that he clearly looks like the UK tabloid media have chewed him up and spat him out and it has hurt.
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So there you have it, while Brits will remain addicted to this, so will I – watching a range of semi famous people interact like goldfish in a bowl, being bitchy, being bored and half of them waiting for something to happen.
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I’m hoping that Galloway is booted out this time – because he has been boring, and the prick deserves to lose this publicity vehicle (which has backfired both against his traditional supporters and the youth he was trying to target). He is evil.

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If you want to keep up to date, go to the website here. If you are really addicted pay around £8 for continuous broadband video coverage access - I wont be, it helps to have digital TV!

Bonne Annee - Vive La France - Happy New Year

May this be your year of Joie De Vivre.

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Well I’m back, I hope you all had a good end of year/new year vacation – with lots of good food, drink, sex and relaxation whether you were in summer or winter.
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I learnt one thing over my break, and that is that the French have gone some things very right.

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Food, drink and attitude to life is wonderful – there is little doubt that their passionate, romantic and sensual belief in living from day to day is light years ahead of the protestant masochism of so many in the English speaking world. The contrast in food between Britain and France is dramatic, even though the French love McDonalds - it is the most successful country for McDonalds in continental Europe and fastest growing.

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Yes French public services are rather disastrous, with the exception of the Paris Metro and the TGV, most French railways are far from alluring. Charles de Gaulle Airport (the terminal for non French airlines) is the worst in western Europe.

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Yes French politics are about left or lefter – and I have written before about the abominable agricultural policy that continues to be propagated by French governments.

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Yes, outside central Paris, much of the city is dire, there is tagging everywhere, a loose attitude to respect for property. Indeed, the poor state of the French economy is very apparent, with closed department stores and shops in Paris - and Paris has its share of homeless people, despite the generous welfare state.

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However, in France joie de vivre means something – life is to be savoured, food is to be enjoyed passionately. I have never been in a city with so many chocolatiers. I need say nothing about wine or art. The French language is more beautiful than English, so it is little surprising that they look down about it – and the arrogance? I saw little of this, and certainly no more than in the UK. France may be strangled by bureaucracy, the legacy of philosophers that were wrong (like Foucault, Rousseau and Sartre) and a suspicion of laissez faire “Anglo Saxon” economics and politics – but the French love life and beautiful things. They are also, usually, polite - if you are polite, you will get courtesy in return.

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If New Zealand and the UK learnt to enjoy life, to enjoy good food, wine and beautiful art and music - and to love romance, passion and creativity, over banal mediocrity and vacuousness, they would be much better off. If the UK could round up its yobs and transport them to an island where nobody could find them and where they couldn't leave - it would be better to, but more on that another day!

The Year in Retrospect- Part 2

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Passing the Banner Award – David Cameron
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The political landscape in the UK changed in 2005, and it had nothing to do with the election. The election was a yawn, Labour lost some seats, the Tories gained a handful – but it was a foregone conclusion. Blair celebrated a third consecutive Labour win, and he earnt it by being resolute and leading the only party in the House of Commons that looked like it could govern. Now, several months later – the Conservative Party, which had been written off, was in the resurgence and it is due to one man – David Cameron.
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Besides his youthful charisma, he started to show a new more liberal Conservative Party – that wasn’t afraid of women, people with non-white skin and gay people, and he was not afraid of questions about him taking drugs while at university. Like water off a duck’s back he didn’t let it distract him from his key message, which was – in effect – to take over where New Labour left off and what it couldn’t do. Much as Ruth Richardson took over where Roger Douglas left off, David Cameron will take over as Tony Blair bows out for Gordon Brown.
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The British electorate are sick of the Labour government, sick of its spin and now that Blair is under attack from a host of rebel leftist MPs, they see old Labour rearing its ugly head again – Britain defeated old Labour in 1979 and had not wanted it back. Gordon Brown is New Labour, but one that looks back – and Blair recent capitulation of part of Britain’s EU rebate is just another nail in the coffin. On top of that Cameron promising to back Blair's excellent education reforms shows he is above some of the petty politicking that is often rife among Opposition parties.
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So here is to David Cameron, a promising start, the polls have the Tories effectively neck and neck with Labour now – maybe there is hope for Britain yet. The banner of reforming Britain has moved from Blair to Cameron, now we just have to wait.
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Misdirected attempt to save the world award – Bob Geldof
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Bob Geldof and Bono wanted world governments to give loads of money to Africa and to wipe off debt that corrupt governments have taken out in the name of their citizens. The held Live 8 – it called for an end to poverty, it did little to further that goal.
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What the developing countries need are three things:
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- Open world markets: This means free trade, it means no bans, quotas or tariffs on their goods entering other countries. It also means no subsidies against their competition. This means that producers can sell their goods and services to willing buyers, and they will all be better off. It is very simple, most developing countries protect their own markets and the very worst of the developed countries do the same, particularly the EU and Japan. Bob Geldof didn’t call for free trade – had he done so he might have helped destroy the arguments of the so called “fair trade” advocates, protectionists in drag – and he would have needed to confront the European Union.
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- Stable, uncorrupt, independent governments to enforce personal and property rights, and contracts: The basic infrastructure of rule of law, so that people can keep what they own, enforce contracts and not have to spend most of their energy protecting themselves from looters (private or government) is what lacks in so much of Africa. This wont come from state aid, but it needs encouragement. Wiping debt in exchange for good government may be one way forward, as it will pay off enormous dividends when countries have growing economies (and markets for our own goods). The wiping of debt which has been promised is to be linked to good governance, but not tightly enough – too many Africans live under kleptocracies.
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- A culture that respects success and diversity, and values reason over superstition and faith: This means not wanting to loot from the successful man, and not wanting to suppress dissenting views, new ideas and differences in approach. It means allowing people to be free to grow, to learn and to take risks. It means respecting the use of the mind over the environment, and rejecting the totems of blind religious worship, fear and rumour. It means taking the enormous energy and willingness to learn and work hard that is apparent in most African schoolchildren – and having a society that values that and respects them.

Geldof doesn't really understand much of this - the left supported him, along with some very very wealthy stars (who are obsessed with something they have so little of - poverty!) - he raised some money and awareness, but besides assuaging his guilty conscience, did little else. Next time, he should read some books about economics.

Most ignored dictator of the year - Saparmurat Niyazov "Turkmenbashi"

President of Turkmenistan, building a Stalinist state, arresting journalists who sway at all from the sycophantic line towards his regime. No one is allowed to mention how short Turkmenbashi is (around 5 feet) and that he wears a toupee. All religious groups are closely monitored, there are internal passports to manage movement of people, women under 35 are allegedly not allowed exit visa unless they have given birth to at least 2 children. Exit visas are difficult to get regardless without one undertaking official state business. All public gatherings, including weddings, in the capital must be registered in advance. Non governmental organizations must be registered or its members face criminal prosecution. Read more about Turkmenistan's appalling human rights record here.

What is being done about it? Well, bugger all actually - he is surrounded by states that are slightly lesser bullies, he declares his country neutral so we all sit back and watch him putting up big statues of himself in the capital Ashgabat. As long as he gets some oil and gas revenue he'll probably be happy that he is not starving his people like Kim Jong Il is, and he probably wont cause any trouble for other countries - but he is a sign that dictatorship is NOT gone, and can rise again. Turkmenistan is probably the only former Soviet republic WORSE off since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Big Brother Britain

The Independent (UK) reports on plans to use automatic number plate recognition cameras for crime prevention across Britain’s roads. Big Brother is associated more and more with a TV reality show - when it needs to be associated with George Orwell's 1984. This is very much the road to hell being paved with good intentions. The Independent reports..

“Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.”

The Police have clearly seen that with the war on terror, they can increase their surveillance of citizens many times over- the UK already has the greatest numbers of CCTV cameras in public in the world. It is one thing to use cameras on roads to catch traffic offences, such as running red lights or avoiding road tolls, quite another to use it for state surveillance across the board.

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“What the data centre should be able to tell you is where a vehicle was in the past and where it is now, whether it was or wasn't at a particular location, and the routes taken to and from those crime scenes.”

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This will be sold on the basis that if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear – which is how all totalitarian regimes operate too. In short, Britons have everything to fear. It is one thing to have a search warrant to get details from a suspect on their property, or in their car or from a place where you know they have been frequenting – if the roads were privately owned, and there were cameras identifying vehicles, you may even justify a warrant to get individual details about whether the vehicle of a murder suspect went past a particular point – especially if someone has gone missing under suspicious circumstances.

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However, this goes far further. This is a database of where everyone has gone, being held for years – it can be abused by the Police, it can be used to snoop on where people are doing business, where they might be socializing, who they might be seeing and where they go on holidays. The state has no business knowing where anyone is, until that person is a suspect – this reverses that principle. Now the state will know where you are, but wont use it unless it suspects you.

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The real test will be whether new Tory Leader David Cameron comes out against this proposal. I expect the Liberal Democrats to do so, but they have little influence alone. The Conservatives unfortunately have always wanted to be seen as tough on crime, but this is not about that – it is about the privacy of peaceful citizens. New Labour has never understood individual personal liberty – that is one of its biggest let downs – is this the state Britons want defended from Islamic fundamentalists? A police state as invasive as any of our enemies would want?

(Update - No Right Turn has also blogged on this, why don't the so called right wing bloggers post on this much? Is it the libertarians and the left?)

Your taxes for Russia

Your taxes are going to help pay for Russia to destroy stockpiles of chemical weapons and decommission its last plutonium producing nuclear reactor. Yes it is only $1.3 million – but it is the principle. Anything wrong with the task itself? No - it is good that a semi-authoritarian state is getting its chemical weapons capability destroyed and will have reduced capacity to build more nuclear weapons. My question is - why do New Zealand taxpayers have to pay for it?

Does Russia not have enough money, with its enormous gas and oil companies worth billions, so it needs New Zealand taxpayers to help it develop a fossil fuel based power plant. Its GDP grew by over 7% in 2003 and will have grown around this much in the last year or so due to the high price of oil and gas. It has foreign exchange reserves of over US$73 billion, GDP per capita now at over US$10000 per annum. It really needs aid from NZ?

100% marginal income tax rate

New blogger Who Cares is coming up with some excellent stuff. Read his analysis and proposed solutions here related to the article on Gareth Morgan’s site about someone with an income of $32000 paying an effective marginal rate of income tax of 100% if they increase their salary to $35128, given Labour’s “Working for Families” package. This, of course, is what happens when you start welfare for the middle classes. It isn’t just assistance for the very poor, it becomes part of most families’ day to day income - but it penalises those who improve their lot at the margins. It is outrageous that the mainstream media haven’t cottoned onto this, even MORE outrageous that Peter Dunne, the leader of the so called family friendly United Future party is supporting this.

However I disagree with some of Who Cares’ solutions. The simplest way out is to cut income tax and abolish Working for Families, a good first step would be to eliminate the top two tax brackets of 39 and 33%, leaving the lower rate of 21% to be cut to 15% as a flat rate. Negative income tax is one option as a transition to replace welfare advocated even by some libertarians, and economist Milton Friedman, but should be no more than that. However, I wouldn’t increase GST, in fact I’d cut it back to 10% immediately before eliminating it altogether.

Regardless of the way forward, the fact remains is that Labour has increased the size of the welfare state by making middle income families dependent on handouts instead of tax cuts – so instead of getting your own money back, you get money back through a bureaucratic process. This is what Labour, the Greens, United Future and NZ First are giving you - more dependency!

National MP shows her Nanny State credentials

It didn’t take long for the new National caucus to start revealing its own Nanny Statists. Jacqui Dean, newly elected Otago MP has launched a petition for a review of the legal status of party pills.

Whaleoil says “Whilst I can see where she might be coming from, and can see how it might be a popular move, I’m not quite sure the answer lies in tighter restrictions.”

I agree with that although I don’t agree with Whaleoil’s conclusion “Good on Jacqui though for taking on a cause which is important to her and is a concern of constiuents. At the very least, a review of the party pills situation will not hurt anyone.”

I would NOT congratulate an MP asking for a lot of signatures for tightening up on something which is not her business. Why should she be telling adults what they can and cannot put into their bodies? Her concerns about misuse are understandable – and her energies may be better placed in promoting how to use such pills safely and responsibly. Driving it underground would put up the price and prohibit any messages about using BZP safely.

I also suspect this is the reflection of a rural electorate of people who regard BZP as something new and alien, whereas alcohol, which is far more dangerous and pervasive, is accepted as legal and available. I suspect blogger BZP will have something to say about this too
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The year in retrospect - Part 1

A few bloggers have been retrospective for 2005, and since I am fleeing to France for Christmas, I thought I should list who I think deserve some mention as 2005’s greatest successes and failures politically:

New Zealand’s great political survivor Award: Helen Clark

After the disappointing budget, the reactionary approach to race relations and bungle after bungle, she is the first Labour Leader to win power in three consecutive elections. Only the first Labour government won three elections, but with Savage then Fraser as leaders. Regardless of the ins and outs of it, she pulled off a nailbiting finish against the National Party, shored up the leftwing vote and lost only a small percentage compared to 2002. She runs Cabinet and this government with an iron fist, and only Cullen comes close to her in terms of power and influence, (excluding H2). She is an intelligent, organised and hard working individual – and has a high level of political astuteness, and she knows what she wants and believes in. She will sell out her friends for power (Greens) and will sell her soul for it too (deal with Peters and Dunne), but knows that she is on top. I strongly dislike her politics, her view of the state and so much of what her government has done – but Helen Clark remains number 1.

The great comeback Award: National Party

Just look to see what a bit of backbone can do. National came back from the brink in this year’s election and we have an Opposition again. This is due to Don Brash. To rescue National from its worst ever result of 21% - a result of Bill English’s mealy mouthed inability to appear to stand for anything or to offend anyone was a monumental task while the economy continues to ride well with high international commodity prices, and the dynamism unleashed through the reforms of the 80s and 90s. However, Dr Brash did it. He got a higher proportion of the vote for National in 2005, than it got in any MMP election and more than it did in 1993 when it won by a slender margin. He did it by focusing mainly on two issues – race relations and tax. He campaigned, mostly, on eliminating race based laws and funding, which many New Zealanders could relate to – and on cutting tax, instead of increasing welfare for families. He proved that taking a principled stance won votes, and by far his biggest blunder was to prevaricate on any other matters of principle. Nuclear ships, the brethren campaigning issue – all of those weakened his image of credibility and honesty. The left were terrified of Brash, and still are. Only John Key matches Brash for a clear mind and principled approach – National has learnt it can turn its back on the vapid soporific nothingness of the Bolger and English leadership and win votes. National has captured rural and provincial New Zealand by storm - it has yet to make enough inroads in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch - this is where it needs to focus. If it keeps up the focus on principle and strategy and screwing down the government's failures - it should be able to take the Treasury benches after the next election.

Politically lost but personally won Award: Winston Peters

Having lost his personality cult like Maori constituency to the Maori Party, some of the greedy grey grizzlers to the National Party – Winston Peters played a rather half hearted trump card in choosing the party with the largest number of seats to provide confidence and supply, and now he is invisible. Winston saw his party slip from 10.4 to 5.7% of the vote, he lost his electorate, lost a legal challenge to the newly elected MP Bob Clarkson, and after campaigning against holding the baubles of office – now enjoys first class air travel around the world as Minister of Foreign Affairs outside Cabinet. He can’t speak up against the government he supports credibly – he doesn’t have influence on policies decided in Cabinet, because he isn’t in it. In short, having been stripped of his Tauranga electorate base, Winston, now 60 years of age, is setting himself up for retirement. So has he lost? Personally no. He is getting lots of trips, getting a Minister’s salary and can enjoy the quiet life having been a major force for change in NZ politics for over 13 years. Winston almost cost the National party the 1993 election, and he shook up Maori politics more than any other party before in 1996. He will have given support to keep Jim Bolger and Helen Clark –arch opponents – as Prime Ministers, and he helped the campaign for MMP. Winston can spend the next few years looking back on a remarkable political career as a maverick, and live comfortably for it, and convincingly kept his private life, by and large, outside the purview of the media.
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Man happiest to step back from Cabinet Award: Paul Swain

With a sexy wife (Toni Reeves-Swain) just over half his age, Paul Swain is thrilled to step back from Cabinet and enjoy himself, with her. He can spend time with his new daughter, did I mention his sexy wife? Good for him. If only more Labour MPs would just live life to the fullest and stop trying to run everyone else’s.

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Phew we made it, but that's it Award: jointly won by the Greens and ACT

With the peak oil campaign flop, no big issue was in front of the public and some Greens supporters were more concerned about keeping Labour elected than voting for their potential (always potential, never actual) coalition partner. The Greens slipped in with 5.3% of the vote, and then found themselves cast adrift by Helen Clark, as the numbers looked better going with NZ First and United Future. Once again, the Greens are on the sidelines, for their third term in Parliament - not in Cabinet. Having lost one of their more important MPs (Rod Donald) they look bereft, and many voters are tiring of their armageddon vision of the future, and "do what we say" view of environmental politics. It will be hard work for Jeanette Fitzsimons to turn around.

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ACT was decimated by Don Brash bolstering the Nats and giving it a chance to win, not helped by opinion polls that made a vote for ACT seem like a wasted vote. ACT had always won votes because the National Party looked like it wouldn't win, or had lost its way in terms of being a principled party on the right - well the Nats found their way, took ACTs tax cut policy (watered down), its race relations policy and law and order policy - ACT had little left beyond "me too and more of it", but most voters were not convinced. Despite having a principled leader in Rodney Hide who believed more in the libertarian ideals of ACT than many of its backers and his fellow MPs, it floundered because a vote for ACT seemed pointless - it was National that was the real opposition for once. Rodney Hide focused on Epsom and took it, from a staid and virtually irrelevant Richard Worth - he saved ACT from what would have been oblivion, and now it is on life support with 2 MPs. It will be a challenge to see if he can differentiate ACT from National and win new votes for the centre-right - at the moment it doesn't look promising.

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The God Works in Mysterious Ways Award: Destiny, United Future and Christian Heritage

Having hooked his wagon to the former Christian Democrats, Peter Dunne got a powerful network of soft Christian supporters peddling United Future as a party of the Christian right, ready to defend the family and commonsense morality. However, it was stuck between the urban liberals who liked a party of the centre, and the Christian supporters who opposed civil unions and the like. Furthermore, many Christian voters saw little point in voting for a party which kept Labour in power for three years, which was seen as the source of "anti family" legislation - they either slipped towards Destiny or supported National. They were more motivated to get Labour voted out, than to vote for a soft Christian party. A vote for United Future was seen as a vote for nothing in particular and its vote halved. Peter Dunne is now propping up Helen Clark for another three years expanding the welfare state - great for a family party. Once he retires, this party is gone too.

More delightfully after marches of black t-shirted largely Polynesian and Maori men in Auckland and Wellington, Destiny Church's Brian Tamaki's Destiny NZ party (sorry he isn't the leader - no) got a paltry 0.6% of the vote. This is around what the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party got in 2002 - fire and brimstone fundamentalist Christian Ayatollahs are not welcome in New Zealand.

Finally, following the disgrace of Graham Capill, Christian Heritage is a mere shadow of the party that nearly slipped into Parliament (with what was the Christian Democrats) with 0.12% of the vote. Soul searching time indeed.

More on blog roll

I've added a few more blogs to my disjointed sidebar in the last few days, all of them liberal/libertarian in one form of another - specifically:

Sir Humphreys
Socialist Free Haven
Who Cares
NZ Pundit
Lindsay Mitchell
Teenage Pundit and
Oswald Bastable.

Some are new, some not so new, but all have posted articles recently that I liked so it is just courtesy to list them :)

End of the Carbon Tax

The government is canning the Carbon Tax - probably thanks to NZ First and United Future, making the Greens livid and making David Farrar cheer.

It follows a 400 page report from the Ministry of the Environment which concluded "the proposed charge was unfair, inefficient and unlikely to substantially cut greenhouse gas emissions".

Given how committed so many in that Ministry are to the ecological agenda, this is damning stuff. I have dealt with a few MfE officials in my time, and they are at the least, very ecology conscious, and at the other extreme would have been very comfortable with a Green Party Minister. The Greens should read this report and see what an organisation that believes in their objectives does when it objectively analyses a policy - this sort of turnaround is not a small one.

However, as much as the Greens wanted NZ to be part of the moral leadership of the world - the only reason other countries signed up to Kyoto was because they would be net recipients - because they are experiencing economic decline, flat population growth (e.g Russia) or significant improvements in the efficiencies of their industries (e.g. former Soviet bloc countries) which means they are cutting net carbon emissions.

Moral leadership was to cost NZ a 0.2% decrease in GDP by 2012. That, under current values, is around $234 million a year - $59 for every man, woman and child that you would not be able to spend every year. The Greens would say this is a small price to pay for moral leadership - is it?

More fundamentally, the Greens are wrong - the planet is not burning, the world is not coming to an end - it has been ending for centuries, there was an ice age imminent in the 1970s, now it is global warming. The scaremongering and hatred of the productive with phrases like "They are putting the corporate pursuit of short-term profits ahead of the planet’s and our grandchildren’s future" are irresponsible.

These profits keep people fed, clothed and sheltered - they employ people, they produce the goods that we use everyday, they allow people to communicate, move, socialise and enjoy their lives. They pay for the professionals, the medication, the facilities for our infrastructure from plumbing to healthcare to heating. Most people don't make profits to put in a money bin like Uncle Scrooge, they do so to produce and consume and spend on what they want - which is to spend on what others produce.

As PC said some weeks ago, the question is whether government interference or benign neglect are better approaches when dealing with global warming.

Unfortunately the final call from the Greens was concern about what services will get cut or taxes increased to pay for Dr Cullen's "loss of revenue" - how about less government spending on bureaucracies, subsidies and crazy rail projects?

Bolivia's new socialist President

Also reported by Clint Heine, It looks like Evo Morales, leader of the Movement Towards Socialism party and member of the indigenous Aymara people will win the Bolivian Presidential election. Now Bolivia is ranked as a partly free country by Freedon House, but this victory is being acclaimed by many worldwide as a victory for indigenous people and the left.

Can the people of Bolivia look forward to a brighter future? Well that is less clear. Many on the right will fear him, because of his declared anti-Americanism and support for Castro, but it is a little more complicated than that.

He wants to legalise growth of the coca leaf, if not cocaine – which will challenge the US War on Drugs. This is good. The coca leaf is used extensively in Bolivia for its narcotic and pain relieving qualities, and banning it clearly has failed. As a locally used crop (as well as the basis for cocaine), Morales campaigned in favour of it, but will face pressure if the US threatens to cut aid because of his policies. This is sad - the war on drugs is one of the greatest travesties of US government policy and should be ended because it has failed miserably, and it is immoral to persecute adult users of drugs. It is also immoral to persecute the people who grow the crop.

More ominously Morales has talked about nationalising private company investment in oil and gas, although he is more likely to renegotiate contracts with foreign energy companies. That will cost Bolivia dearly. Curiously he said his party will respect private property rights, although “vacant unproductive land” would be turned over to farmers with little or no land (what sort of farmer has no land?). Though none of the reports I have found has said much more about his policies.

Morales is an ally of Castro and Venezuelan bullyboy Hugo Chavez, neither are friends of individual freedom or tolerate political dissent – it would be a disaster if Bolivia slipped towards a one-party state like Venezuela is doing. However, it will also be sad for Bolivia if by renegotiating the contracts with foreign energy companies, he strips so much value from them that they leave – or stop investing. Hopefully he will renegotiate genuinely – not with the threat of force – and all parties can come away satisfied. Hopefully he will not succumb to the corruption often rampant in Latin America, and confiscates wealth for the aggrandisement of himself and his cronies.

Brazil's left wing President Lula de Silva campaigned on socialism, but has largely maintained the liberalising reforms of his predecessors, when his own economic illiteracy hit reality (although he has been tainted by corruption) - hopefully Morales will face the same. Time will tell if he avoids being the state bullies that Castro and Chavez are, or the corrupt leaders that his predecessors were.

Auckland rail money gone - like that!

How do you wipe out the value of hundreds of millions of dollars in an instant? Easy - spend it on a railway in New Zealand.

The government is going to spend $540-$600 million of your money on upgrading Auckland’s commuter rail network (which it bought from Tranz Rail for $81 million in 2001), which means finishing the double tracking of the Western line, a branch line to Manukau city and some resignalling and other improvements. Divided by Auckland households, that is around $1800 a household - would you rather have that money in your pocket, spent on healthcare, your kid's local school or on some railway tracks (before the trains have even run on them)?

So an asset that had a book value of $81 million (I’m being generous in not considering market value) is going to have at least $540 million poured into it, and after that? It will still have a book value of $81 million. Fabulous investment isn’t it? Could the private sector take money by force and eliminate its value so quickly and get away with it?

Ah, there are profits to be made from that investment that aren't realised in capital. Um no. No profits, in fact you can't even cover your day to day operating costs.

Ah, the rail advocates say, you forget the social and environmental benefits of being able to run more passenger trains because of reduced car traffic and traffic congestion. No I haven’t. They are just too infinitesimal to measure. The passenger train operational costs are 80% subsidised and the majority of users were former bus patrons. Many of those buses were not subsidised – so there is no net gain at all there in terms of congestion, just increased cost (a few buses off the road will make virtually no difference). The shift from car to rail is also very low – and makes virtually no impact on congestion - work done by the ARC a few years ago indicated that road traffic speeds would be improved by less than 0.5km/h. This taxpayer funding is around 50% more than the cost of building the Mt Roskill and Manukau extensions of SH20 (both of which will make a noticeable difference to congestion) - and those are funded from petrol tax, so are paid for by road users.

Remember the $540 million for rail does NOT include money for running the trains, or upgrading stations or new trains.

So should Auckland ratepayers be thrilled? Well being saved from funding the rail track infrastructure upgrade is one thing – but the quid pro quo is that capital expenditure on stations and trains will be entirely funded by ARTA, which means ARC rates and Auckland Regional Holdings dividends and cash assets. Operating costs continue to be subsidised 60% by Land Transport NZ (your petrol tax) and 40% from ARC rates. That will cost ratepayers a packet, and you wont see congestion reduce. The marginal difference to congestion made by these projects is tiny – because rail is very expensive, and most trains don’t go near where most Aucklanders work. Buses do better, they carry around 30% of commuters into downtown Auckland, but they are not sexy – and some of them are not subsidised. It costs little to put in bus lanes, or other measures to speed up bus journeys.

Ah but the trains provide Aucklanders with an option to bypass congestion. Well, if you can walk or bike or bus quickly to a station and there is another station on your line that is close to where you want to go -yes, if the train stopping at every station is faster than driving continuously. However only 13% of Auckland employment is downtown where most of the trains terminate. Look at a map of Auckland and where most people live, it isn't near the railway stations.

Of course the Greens want to spend even more money, electrifying the network (when that has not been proven to be worth the additional cost) and building lines all over the place, with little care for where the money comes from to pay for it - you see it is ok to make unnecessary journeys, wasting electricity and other people's money, as long as you are on an electric train.

Iran bans Western Music

Yes, the nuclear weapon seeking, child soldier using, terrorist backing, Holocaust denying Islamic Republic of Iran is now banning western music according to the BBC.

Kenny G may no longer be background music on Iranian television - (lucky them).

None of this is on the official Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting news site, just lots of bland news about co-operation with other countries - much like most authoritarian regimes have for official news.

Note also PC's report on how limp wristed the West is about Iran - the big question is what to do with it? Should its nuclear facilities lie there untouched until it gets nukes and is as untouchable as North Korea? I guess the Greens would say yes... but for how long can you let snoozing bullies lie? It will be too late when Iran is found to have sold a nuclear warhead to terrorists who let it off in Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, Sydney or London. More on this later...

Unseen North Korea

The BBC carries a series of photos from an anonymous businessman who took some images rather freely in the country - they show a sad, hard working people, struggling to survive and large empty roads.

Smoking ban for England?

England may have total ban on smoking in public places, because a partial ban (for pubs that serve food). is considered “unenforceable” as reports the Telegraph. This will follow similar bans soon to come in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Unfortunately, none of the debate about this in England is about what it should be about – property rights.

The arguments are always vacuous claims about the “rights” of smokers to smoke wherever they want (which is nonsense) or the “rights” of workers to not be exposed to smoke.

The only right at stake here is the property right of the owner of the premises. Either you have the right to permit (or ban) any legal activity on your own property or not. That means the right to ban smoking in YOUR pub or to allow it, or make it compulsory. The same would apply to a dress code, a language code or allowing people to perform sexual acts or enforcing silence. It is NOT a place that anyone else has to right to enter except on your terms – and that includes employees. I watched an absurd item on the BBC news last night with a pub owner saying he wished smoking was banned in pubs, because he doesn't like it - as if anyone is stopping him from banning it! Clearly he prefers the income from smoking customers to having cleaner air inside his pub - but he should make that tradeoff, not the government.

and I am speaking as a non-smoker, who has asthma and much prefers pubs which have no smoking, so I have no vested interest from that perspective, but I have an interest as a property owner. I don't want anyone telling me what I can or cannot do on my property, as long as I am not initiating force against anyone else on my property - and unless I force someone to remain on my property while I or others smoke, then I am not infringing on anyone's rights.

Freedom House ratings

Hat tip to DPF for blogging about Freedom House’s annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties, and it is important to remember what that actually means. All the detailed results are here.

Political rights and civil liberties cover the right to vote for all adult citizens (with fair and transparent elections), protest and criticise the government, with political parties having access to the public freely and openly directly and through the media. None of this covers the state’s role in the economy regarding what you can do with your property, income or choices to set up business, or if you can publish a magazine about cannabis, engage in consensual adult homosexual acts or other freedoms – but, nevertheless, without political and civil liberties little else matters.

Most interesting are the ones that are now in the top ranking, along with New Zealand, Australia and most other “Western” countries that one generation ago would have been well down the list:

Cape Verde (yes go look it up)
Chile (Pinochet’s legacy is well and truly gone)
Czech Republic (ex. Soviet disaster)
Estonia (ditto)
Hungary
Latvia (improved on last year)
Lithuania (also improved)
Poland
Portugal (look it up, just like Franco)
Slovakia
Slovenia (ex. Titoist disaster)
Spain (remember Franco?)
Taiwan (free China vs. the mainland)
Uruguay

A mixture of former socialist and military dictatorships now free is not insignificant, and there are more not far behind (Bulgaria, Greece, Grenada, Panama, South Africa, South Korea).

Optimism also with some of the more notable improvements:

Afghanistan (thank you USA)
Colombia
Georgia
Indonesia
Iraq (Andrew Falloon reports that improve freedoms in Iraq are a reason to celebrate)
Kyrgzystan
Romania
Ukraine
Vietnam (higher rating than China for civil liberties due to easing religious expression)

Of some of the pinup countries of the left, Cuba remains in the bottom ranking, while Venezuela under leftist President Hugo Chavez has dropped because of voter intimidation and increased corruption.

And a further note of concern about those that have dropped, in most cases a handful of states from Africa and the Americas, but also sadly Nepal (which is facing full on civil war thanks to Maoist rebels), the Philippines (due to electoral fraud and intimidation of the opposition)) and Uzbekistan, one of the former Soviet republics to be stepping backwards.

Reason to be cheerful? Yes.
Reason to be vigilant? Yes - the war against terror is a legitimate fight against those who would destroy our freedoms and civil liberties, but civil liberties should not also be destroyed as part of that. This is something that politically only the Greens (of those in Parliament) actually seem to understand, and that is what Ahmed Zaoui is all about.

Air NZ engineering part saved by sensible union

There appears to be a deal for part of Air NZ’s engineering services in Auckland and Christchurch to remain, thanks to the EPMU and the Aviation and Marine Engineers' Association negotiating sensibly with the airline to provide service efficiently. Around $38 million worth of savings have been agreed.

However, it will still mean the end of jet engine maintenance as that can clearly be done at lower cost elsewhere. This is not surprising, Air NZ is not a big airline and the economies of scale of bigger operations elsewhere go against it.

This should be seen as a win-win, especially as many of the engine workers who will be made redundant could be snapped up by other employers.

It is also a feather in the cap to Andrew Little and the unions involved - better to negotiate and find a way forward that suits both parties than stand your ground and find you lose it all - Air NZ, after all, has to compete with other airlines. I doubt that many who are supportive of the workers always fly Air NZ to show solidarity.

Nevertheless, Sue Bradford is holding out claiming that engine maintenance is a strategic asset. Well it isn't for Air NZ, and how is it for NZ inc? The engines are not made here, the fuel is not local in origin, and planes are, funnily enough, rather portable. What strategic goal would there be? Would there be a war and our airliners can't hop across the Tasman to get their engines' fixed?

Sue needs to join the 20th century - companies do not need to own all factors of production to operate effectively and efficiently, and they probably shouldn't! Air NZ doesn't make planes or produce jet fuel, or airline seats or anything else - it is an operator, marketer and provider of services. You could argue it "strategically" needs to do everything from fuel to planes - it doesn't - and it shouldn't undertake an activity because it can - because that will cost more, and it will cost the airline - either by increasing fares (reducing market share) or reducing net dividends (and the capital able to reinvest in new planes or other areas of better return).

It's called running a business - which is what it is - and unfortunately, too many Green MPs have little to no understanding of basic economics. Air NZ has needed bailing out twice by the taxpayer in its history, in both cases following excessive interference in its business by the government - as long as the government owns it, it should be left well alone.