What's Keeping Them Behind?

Auckland Mayor John Banks is pledging, that for the 2011 World Cup, $20,000 will be put into "a development plan to manage homelessness", and $197,000 will be spent on cleaning up graffiti around the city.

First off, the $197,000 to be spent on cleaning up graffiti. How do you need $197,000 for the relatively simple job of cleaning up graffiti? The last time I checked, it only takes some cleaning materials, buckets and a few volunteers willing to put their time into cleaning the graffiti up to make a city clean again. Preferably, however, the hooligans who actually do the graffiti should, at any possible chance, be made to clean it up themselves. But rather than cleaning up only the graffiti they've drawn, make it a several day task, at multiple locations in pink overalls. Don't just let them get away with only a light warning.

Secondly, the homeless issue. $20,000 to simply keep them off the city streets during the weeks occupied by the Rugby World Cup will do NOTHING to alleviate the problem. Instead, the labour regulations keeping them from working in a productive job, even if it is for little, should be scrapped.

And even though regulation like that is a national issue, the City (and Regional) Council can do its part as well, by moving restrictive regulations such as "Urban Boundaries", which merely serve to keep house prices artificially high. Don't require buildings to need permits, scrap the RMA, and any other such legislation that makes the idea of owning a home close to work an impossibility, even for the middle class.

More government spending never helps in the long run.

Student Stupidity

The recent challenge put out to students at Auckland University granting $3,700 to any student who makes a successful citizen's arrest of Condoleezza Rice during her recent visit to New Zealand represents no more than stupidity on behalf of David Do, the President of the typical leftist student group Auckland University Students' Association.

The prize money was offered to any citizen who could arrest Rice for, according to the President of the Students' Association, "overseeing the illegal invasion and continued occupation of Iraq".

Left-wing students in New Zealand have had a long history of idiotic anti-US demonstrations. First, it was against American occupation in Vietnam -but never mind the North Vietnamese. Then it was against American nuclear submarines in NZ waters -submarines that have NEVER presented any threat to New Zealanders. Now, it is against the American occupation in Iraq.

But do any of these students recognize that the increased US presence in Iraq since the troop surge has actually led to a huge decrease in violence in Iraq? Have they considered that very little violence in Iraq is actually committed by fundamentalist Muslims -not Americans? Have they considered the effects of radical Islamism on Iraq?

The answer, as always, is no. Instead, they run a smear campaign against America -which is actually doing something right. Unfortunately for the socialist students, it's a bad cover of their true campaign against capitalism, individual rights and Western Civilisation.

Libz Conference '08

I had the pleasure of attending the Libertarianz Annual Conference for 2008 on Saturday in Auckland. And although it wasn't in as nice a venue as last time's Wellington conference, it went very well, and I got to meet the lovely Sus, Annie Fox, Tim Wikiriwhi, *the* Elijah Lineberry, plus a whole lot of members old and new from the Libertarianz. We unrolled part of our election campaign, such as Libz TV (to keep all our YouTube campaign videos) and our newspaper campaign, which will be in the Sunday Star Times and the Sunday News later on in the year. We received speeches from several new members.

It was also good catching up with the other members of the Libz from around the country, such as Peter Cresswell, Richard McGrath and Robert Palmer.

Just afterwards, Elijah sent me an email on his thoughts of the conference, which was his first. An excerpt reads as follows:

"I thought it went splendidly with a great deal of talent on display, and feel we are well placed for an excellent result in October."

I couldn't agree more, Elijah.

Pictures to come!

...The British...

Kiwis are fat and ugly. Our cities are disasters, and our wine is disgusting. Well, according to a new book put out by British author Duncan Fallowell, entitled "Going As Far As I Can".

In it, he goes spewing about how his trip to New Zealand was a disaster, and how New Zealand as a whole is a disaster. He criticizes every aspect of NZ, calling Christchurch a "visual disaster zone". Auckland is "not my type of town", and Wellington is worse. He said that NZers were fat and ugly, covered in too many tattoos (which is true in some aspects, but also true for every other nation, including Britain, as well). Our wine has no taste with a "slight chlorine finish".

And yes, he is from Britain. Beautiful Britain, with commieblocks, weird accents from all over, no real scenery (which you have to go to Scotland to view), and terraced worker's houses compromising most cities. Don't forget it was out-and-out socialist from the 1950s right until Ms. Maggie Thatcher (who, despite her very conservative outlook, did wonders for Britain considering the state it was in).

Cheap little hypocrite.

At It Again!

Auckland has staged its second march against the Electoral Finance Bill, which took place yesterday. And a much larger crowd turned up, matching the 5,000 that John Boscawen, who the organizer of all of these marches, wanted. Keep up the good work, guys!

EFB Wellington Protest

It was two days ago, but I'm pleased to announce that the march against the Electoral Finance Bill (that I couldn't attend, but had several friends and family attending) here in Wellington was a success, with 200 or thereabouts turning out. Unfortunately for the protesters some Young Labour idiots happened to be in town, drowning the protestors out, but apart from that everyone had a good time.

Also, Auckland's going to have another go on December 1, at 2:30pm. Apparently 2000 protesters were not "good enough" for not good enough for Helen Clark, so John Boscawen is calling on 5000-or more-to turn up then.

Marches Against the Electoral Finance Bill

John Boscawen from Kill the Bill! is organizing two marches against the Electoral Finance Bill. Please note that we have less than two months from 1 January, under the Bill, any political speech WILL BE ILLEGAL. For you jafas, the march is tomorrow (Saturday) from 10am onwards, from Town Hall to Queen Elizabeth Square. For people in Wellington such as I, the march will be on Wednesday at 12:30, marching from Lambton Quay to Parliament.

Unfortunately I have school that day. However, I could always fake sickness. :-)

Also, there will probably be marches in other parts of the country. Keep an eye and an ear peeled for any local marches in other cities.

NO to billboard ban!

Article here

As most readers here would know, the ACC is planning to ban all billboards from Central Auckland. From the article:

"The idea was to remove giant pictures such as All Black Dan Carter in underwear so people could appreciate buildings, heritage and natural landscape instead.

It was argued that the ban would make Auckland an 'international city'."

As we can see, not only are the reasons for the ban nonsense, the ban is immoral and makes no allowance for property rights.

It is the owner's right to put up billboards, not the council's. What would the incentive be to put up a billboard over a historic building, for instance, be anyway? Even if a billboard was put up over a historic building, the public would not be pleased (we have seen that countless times before) and, as it is historic, lower the property value.

On the over hand, billboards can make for excellent high-tech public squares. Just look at New York's Time's Square or London's Picadilly Circus. Where would they be if they didn't have their billboards to give them a modern-day feel? They'd be very average squares, I can tell you that.

So why should Auckland's CBD be prevented from having that? Why should it be prevented from having a modern feel to it. Billboards could do wonders for, say, Aotea Square.

Anyway, you can email your disgust and hatred to Auckland councillors here:

mayor@aucklandcity.govt.nz, cr.hucker@aucklandcity.govt.nz
cr.abel@aucklandcity.govt.nz, cr.armstrong@aucklandcity.govt.nz
cr.boyle@aucklandcity.govt.nz, cr.casey@aucklandcity.govt.nz
cr.caughey@aucklandcity.govt.nz, cr.christian@aucklandcity.govt.nz
cr.fryer@aucklandcity.govt.nz, cr.hinchcliff@aucklandcity.govt.nz
cr.leighton@aucklandcity.govt.nz, cr.millar@aucklandcity.govt.nz
cr.milne@aucklandcity.govt.nz, cr.mulholland@aucklandcity.govt.nz
cr.northey@aucklandcity.govt.nz, cr.raffills@aucklandcity.govt.nz
cr.sefuiva@aucklandcity.govt.nz,cr.simpson@aucklandcity.govt.nz
cr.storer@aucklandcity.govt.nz, cr.walsh@aucklandcity.govt.nz