From the mind of Hamish

My views on news, current events, sports and the general goings on in my life.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Happy birthday to me! Another year, another year older. As a present, click on one of my Google ads, please?

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Welcome to The People's Republic of New Zealand, where politicians know better than everyone. Yesterday the Minister of Conservation Chris Carter denied the Resource Management Permit for the Whangamata Marina, going against the decision of the Environment Court.

The question I ask is how did we end up in a situation where a minister can overrule a court? Why bother actually going to the Environment Court where even if you win, a minister can simply veto the court's decision?

The Whangamata Marina Society spent 14 years and $1 million to get resource consent for their project, only to have Chris Carter veto it because he doesn't like coastal developments. After listening to him on the radio this morning mention Gulf Harbour and Pauanui with a real sneer in his voice this is the only conclusion I can draw.

He harped on about the salt marshes that he felt were ecologically important, something 3 experts testified to, while 1 testified against. Mr Carter said he had to "go with the numbers". That statement staggered me, it is up to the court to weigh up evidence. If the evidence of 1 expert outweighs the evidence of 3 experts, then that is what the court will accept. If we start playing the numbers game in the judicial process we might as well throw the whole process out the window.

The National Government brought in the Resource Management Act in 1991. Labour have now used this act to veto the marina development, proving that they are each as bad as each other. The marina development should be handled by local government, there is no good reason central government should ever get involved. But they do, because they have been allowed to. It is time for New Zealanders to say "no more!". Large government doesn't work, and the New Zealand government has grown larger and larger, becoming more and more intrusive into our lives. We need to pare it back to its bare minimum.

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny" - Thomas Jefferson

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Today is census day. The day when the government comes to your house, asks you all kinds of questions and threatens you if you refuse to answer. As has been noted in Not PC and LibertyScott the Libertarianz are organizing a protest in Wellington today. And good on them, this kind of civil disobedience is what this country needs.

Even the most basic stat to come out of this census, the population count, is useless as there will be people born tomorrow, and people will die tomorrow. Not only that, but some of the questions being asked smell of crosschecking with WINZ or the IRD.

We're also being asked questions about smoking and mobile phones this time around. I don't see that in section 24 of the Statistics Act 1975, nor do I see it in section 4. So not only are we forced to answer questions at gunpoint, we're also forced to answer questions about topics that are not covered by the Statistics Act 1975!

I highly recommend you read what Bill Weddell had to say in 1978 regarding his moral objection to being forced to fill out the census. Perfectly logical arguements, yet almost 30 years later we're still subjected to the same process. A process the government isn't even able to get right! There are still a large number of people who don't have their census form. Is the government going to prosecute all of them? Wouldn't put it past them.

Apparently: Statistics New Zealand greatly appreciates your goodwill and cooperation in providing information.

And to get that "goodwill and cooperation": By law, everyone present in New Zealand on census day ( 7 March 2006 ) must be included in the census. Section 43 of the Statistics Act 1975 states clearly that an Individual Form must be completed for every person and a Dwelling Form must be completed for every occupied dwelling.

Section 43 of the Statistics Act 1975 does not clearly state what they claim either, it lays out the penalties for not complying like a good little citizen.

So for this year's census the government is asking you questions they are not entitled to ask, and lying to you about "goodwill" by simply forcing you at gunpoint to comply with their orders. And people wonder why I say government doesn't work.

Monday, March 06, 2006

I'm letting the current political news slide with this entry. I'm sure I don't have anything to add to the Benson-Pope story which has been beaten to death by the media.

An interesting topic came up in a recent conversation I had about bird flu. Experts in Britain have been saying that bird flu in its current form is not likely to spread rapidly throughout Britain. Why not? Because most Brits don't live in close proximity to birds, any birds they eat they didn't kill for themselves and are frozen. But can they convince the public of this? No. Because the media are constantly hyping this story.

Currently our government is considering closing the borders in the event of a pandemic, which of course means turning back all ships and aircraft. Being as we're an island nation it will be much easier to patrol the borders than land locked nations. But being an island nation we're also a good destination for refugees, or simply people trying to get away from infected nations. Can you imagine someone trying to illegally fly into a locked down New Zealand? We'd just force them to turn back with our Skyhawks.....oh wait, the government mothballed our only combat aircraft fleet!

Great plan Helen, let's hope this one doesn't come back to bite us.