Te Aro Meeting

The Te Aro Valley Meeting is usually one of the most entertaining political meetings in New Zealand, with good justification. Luckily, I was there on Tuesday to support Bernard Darnton, the Libz candidate running in Wellington Central, and there was a good Libertarianz turn out to the meeting.

The Highlights:

1) Michael Appleby, the candidate for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannibis Party -he was really funny, and said afterwards that he's "a libertarian at heart".

2) The Worker's Party candidate looked like he'd walked straight out of the 1930s.

3) Meeting up with the other Libz (normally, Tuesday's our meeting night, and we did pop around to a local bar for a few minutes) and seeing Peter McCaffrey from ACT on Campus again -he's a great guy.

4) Bernard's answer to the question about which party he'd vote for, if not his own. His answer: Labour -for comedic value! (and to show the NZ public the evils of big government)

Lowlights:

1) Sue Kedgley -there aren't strong enough words that I could use to desribe her! She was (/is) very maternalistic in her demeanor and politics, and someone who wouldn't think twice about controlling every aspect of your life.

2) The United Future Candidate -he was younger than all the other candidates and obviously had no idea about what he was promoting, and performed a highly irritationg song/rap at the end of the meeting.

3) All the other leftist candidates proposing the same "all things to all men" policy.

All in all, it was a much more interesting political meeting than the last one I attended (in middle-class Eastbourne)!

Elijah Throws in the Towel?

I've noticed that Elijah Lineberry, long time rival of the Wellington Libz (especially Richard Goode), has mysteriously disappeared from the Libertarianz Candidates page.

Now, most Wellington Libz have been rearing for something to be done about him, and that's why he was at the bottom of the list. However, no new information to this regard has been put on the Liberty Loop or Elijah's blog. So currently, we're all more or less in the dark. What's happened, Elijah?
______________

Onto another topic, eight candidates still haven't got their profiles or pictures up there. Where are they?

Edit: Never mind, I've received word that Elijah resigned after learning about his position on the list.

Transmission Gully

There was a big 4 page section in the A section of the Dominion Post today dedicated to answering questions about Transmission Gully, including the main headline on the front page.

And as much as I'd like to see Transmission Gully built, I honestly think it never will. And if it is, it will all be funded privately, built privately, and owned privately. There is just no way a huge bureaucratic NZ Government, City Councils that squabble amongst themselves, and a ton of lawyers battling for or against the RMA will get it built.

Where's Atlas when you need him?

...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.

The EFB's Impact on Polls

The recent controversy surrounding the Electoral Finance Bill has had its impact on the most recent public opinion poll, and it's hurting Labour severely:

-Labour slips to just 35%, one of its lowest for a long time.

-John Key is on 35% for preferred PM, Helen Clark is at 30%. (the other 35% is made up of various third-party candidates)

-National is in the fifties, which means it can govern alone.

-NZ First and the Greens dip below five percent, which means that, providing the pools are accurate, they'd need to have an electorate to stay in parliament (which hopefully they won't have).

Lindsay Perigo discusses the implications of this poll on SOLO. With any due luck, the results will stay like this during the election -the one poll that truly matters.

An Obvious Outcome

It should come as no surprise that the Wellington DHB is offering $100 shopping vouchers for new mothers who are out of the maternity ward in six hours or less. This overcrowding, and the treating of customers -customers who have paid, whether the Ministry of Health will admit it or not- as cattle, is the inevitable result of a flawed public health system.

Peter Cresswell once said on his blog, regarding the rampant problems our health services face on a daily basis, that a private hospital would love to be 98% full. Yet, no customers would be spared a bed. These are paying customers - not cattle, and they have a mind of their own. Unfortunately, that mind is more often that not confined to the poor quality of the public health system.

The American health system has the highest rate of survival for most operations, including those most common, in the world. There, you expect good service, and on the spot. For any leftist who complains about the price, let them know that "private" and "free market" are two different things. But for many people, the difference between "private" and "public" often means the difference between life and death.

Wellington Hospital's "crisis" mode isn't a crisis; it's now the norm. The mistreatment of patients in a very flawed and problematic system that as Sus, at Sus's Sound-Bites, can't "run a bath, let alone a business"- let alone a hospital.

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.

Atlas' 50th Birthday Celebration

All manner of Kiwi SOLOists got together in Wellywood on Saturday 27 (last saturday) to celebrate 50 years of Ayn Rand's magnificent and world-changing novel, Atlas Shrugged. It was a good time, with several speeches, great food and the launch of Mitch Lee's new pet project, Samazdat-the SOLO newsletter, launched every two weeks. Here is me at the event:

Yes, I'm quite well aware of the fact that I look like Rose O'Donnell in the photo (and be aware that photos are never capture you tres bien-it's in greyscale). Plus, I've been sick. And that jacket I'm wearing there is BIG.

NZBR Seminar

Last night I was lucky enough to attend a seminar by the New Zealand Business Roundtable, a leading NZ think tank, directed towards young people about public policy and the role of government in the economy. The relatively short discussion featured Roger Kerr, head of the NZBR Roundtable who I got to meet later in the night, Bill Day who is head of the major corporation "Seaworks", and a Labour list MP by the name of Charles Chauvel who serves on several committees (and is a lot more agreeable than most Labour MPs).

It was a good opportunity to mix and mingle with a lot of important people, including heads of major Kiwi corporations and a whole bunch of ACT on Campus people who couldn't believe that I'm only 14, considering my ACT on Campus Essay Competition (which (and no mean to brag) I apparently did very well on).

All in all, it was a good meeting and a chance to expand my knowledge of NZ's "movers and shakers".

Kill the Bill!

David Farrar , Bernard Darnton and Cameron Slater have started up activist movement "Kill the Bill!", designed to oppose the Electoral Finance Bill which will ban free speech for one-third of your lifetime, and is proving incredibly unpopular amongst anyone who isn't an MP. You can find Kill the Bill! at www.killthebill.org.nz.

Back Off, Nanny State!

There is a new activist site dedicated to destroying Nanny State that everybody in NZ who cares for our future should get behind: Back Off!

The people at Back Off! concern themselves with activism in the name of freedom in NZ. Right now, they are planning a march in Wellington, against Nanny State and any organization who wants more power and control over NZers.

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left
to speak up for me."

...And the people at Back Off!, just like freedom lovers all over NZ, are determined to stop that.

http://backoffnz.blogspot.com/

Congestion Tax in Wellington Possible

According to Stuff, NZ's biggest internet media site, the Wellington Regional Council is proposing a brand new "congestion tax" during peak travel times on the City's motorways and highways, using the success of the scheme in other world cities (London being the main example) as a justification for the tax. A congestion tax is also being planned in central Auckland.

Although the "congestion tax" is a lot fairer than other taxes because of the fact that it's a user-pays scheme, but, like all councils and governing bodies, I'm certain it's merely an excuse for another tax. Unless rates were lowered in Wellington to have a larger percentage of income come from this possible new tax, I think it'll simply be another case of more financial burden on Wellington's residents. For the time being, we'll have to see what happens.

The March Against Sue-Bradford's Anti-smacking bill

I'm back from my little trip away, and this blog is active again, thanks everyone for your patience.

As you would know from all the news articles, there was a big march in Wellington and Christchurch. Unfortunately, due to other committments, I wasn't able to join in against the ludicrous bill, but all the Libertarians from Wellington joined in, including Bernard Darnton, Phil and Luke Howison, and Lindsay Perigo.

The protestors marched up to Parliament, chanting slogans and waving picket-signs as protestors do. However, unlike many protestors, they were protesting against a law that is unjust, unfair (to good parents), and will inevitably end up as a disaster.

The Anti-Smacking Bill will not stop bad parents from beating their children; it will stop good parents from discipling their children. It will not stop bad parents from terrorizing their children; it will stop good parents from instilling a sense of 'right' and 'wrong' (two words most politicians have never heard of) into their children. Catch my drift, Sue?

Any politician who actually thinks that this bill will end family violence is well and truly a complete idiot.

Wellington's coldest december on record

Last month, the average temperature for Wellington was a pathetic 12.9 degrees celsius (oC), when we''re meant to be in summer. Last year, the december average was a more reasonable 17.4oC, and the mean for Wellington is 15.3oC.

Funny that, the coldest december on record when the world is meant to be at it's hottest for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.