Friday, February 04, 2005
The speech Helen did not give
2005 began with the international response to the catastrophe caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. New Zealand’s official response amounts to this country’s largest ever relief effort. This was not difficult, considering that we normally spend only 0.2 percent of GNP on overseas aid.
The tsunami was a natural disaster without precedent in our lifetimes, at least certainly since I’ve been Prime Minister. Of course, I ignore the 500,000 killed by Cyclone Bhola in Bangladesh in 1970, or the 1.2-million who died in the recent North Korean famine. And, of course, I stress natural disasters, as opposed to the nearly 4-million killed in the recent Congo war, the half-million or so in the Somali civil war, the 500,000 in the Angolan war, the 500,000 in the Ugandan war, and the 800,000 in Rwanda. As New Zealand has followed the lead of the United Nations and made little response to any of those, they don’t count.
I know there was some criticism of New Zealand’s Hercules aircraft, which kept breaking down during the tsunami relief efforts. However, maintenance of the aging fleet has been budgeted for the coming year, and this should be sufficient to forestall any further criticism. Should there be unexpected demand on our transport facilities in future, cheap air fares on commercial services are now available thanks to our encouragement of competition. As I previously stressed, New Zealand lives in an incredibly benign regional environment, so we can be good neighbours without the need to spend further money on our defence forces.
New Zealand at the beginning of 2005 is a confident nation, and it’s moving ahead. We might be only 20 in the OECD rankings, we might be the most indebted country in the western world, our balance of payments might have been in the red every quarter since 1973, household debt might be 130% of income, and we might be equal with Slovenia in personal purchasing power, but the economic indicators, I’d like to believe, remain positive. We were after all, extremely lucky in 1999 to inherit a windfall economy which has enabled us to implement our inclusive, diverse and reconstructionist social agenda. New Zealanders live by the maxim, “it is more blessed to give than receive”, and the generous contribution by so many of $6 billion dollars in taxes beyond what the Government need gives me confidence that we can continue this policy with little dissension.
The results are being felt in homes across the country. They’re all doing so well that from April my government will give them an extra $1.1 billion dollars out of the rich people’s taxes over the next two years just so they don’t feel left out.
People are feeling safer, too, because the crime rate is at its lowest level in 21 years—setting aside the fact that violent crime is at near-record levels, and the prison population is the highest ever. Now we must focus on measures that will reduce prison rates so that we can get tougher on crime without needing to build more prisons beyond the extra already planned.
Benefit numbers have tumbled, too. Only 350,000 people are now on benefits, for which we budgeted $12.3 billion dollars this year. Because the numbers are tumbling, we estimate that only an additional half billion dollars will be needed in 2005-2006 (a total of $12.8 billion).
Health spending is up 40 percent over the past five years, therefore it is imperative that we get maximum efficiency in the sector. For this reason, we have moved 5,163 people off hospital waiting lists and back into the care of their GPs. A total of 1,164 people died while on waiting lists, which further reduced costs. We have also been able to continue the previous government’s policy of reducing public hospital beds—together we have achieved a reduction of 2,000 beds over the last 10 years, matching the reduction in the number of operations performed.
As New Zealand moves into the 21st century, technological progress is imperative. For this reason, we are moving away from funding old-fashioned procedures such as ear grommets for children and hernias in favour of assisted reproduction technologies, which will assist same-sex couples who otherwise could not have children.
Education spending is up 39 percent, which is reflected in the fact that only a quarter of our students are now in the lowest rankings of international literacy and maths tests. This is praiseworthy, considering the gap between girls’ and boys’ achievement is one of the largest in the world. In 2005, we will see a further improvement in New Zealand’s world-class educational qualification, the NCEA. I can be absolutely sure about this because the introduction of NCEA has shown it has so many problems things really can’t get any worse.
At the tertiary level we are continuing to make education more affordable. Therefore, student debt will be held to an increase of only $1 billion over the next 12 months, on top of the current debt level of $7 billion.
Everything this government does in education reinforces the vision we have for taking New Zealand ahead, which is why we do not apologise for the forced school closures, the increased violence in classrooms, the politically correct curricula, and the refusal to allow integrated schools to expand. Our vision of increased centralisation and control of education will become everyone’s vision.
New Zealand is a very different place now from the way it was in the 1990s. Today, 44 percent of children are born outside marriage; 18,000 are killed by abortion; teenage pregnancy is the third-highest in the world; sexually transmitted diseases have become an epidemic; we have the highest teen suicide rate in the world; 27 percent of dependent children live with a sole parent; and prostitution is legal.
Through innovative legislation, my government has succeeded in restricting freedoms in a wide range of areas, such as smoking. This government may have legislated to increase binge drinking by young teens, but at least they will not be able to harm themselves by smoking publicly while they do it.
Other proud achievements have included restrictions in the ability to build your own house, imprisonment without trial, removal of the right to appeal to the Privy Council, swimming pool fencing, school zoning, playground regulations, compulsory micro-chipping of dogs, and increased surveillance of emails. This will be continued after the next election with such measures as taking away the right of farmers to keep people off their land, and hate speech laws. As my government demonstrated with the hate crimes provision in the Sentencing Act, we are determined to punish people who think inappropriately.
We may be taking away some freedoms, but we are an equal opportunity government. Therefore, we will be expanding the rights of minorities. Maori now have equal opportunity to block projects under the Resource Management Act. We have given same-sex couples the right to register their relationship as if it were marriage. Before the election, we will pass a law to allow any de facto couple all the rights of marriage. No longer will married couples be able to claim that their relationship is anything special. After the election, my government will move to allow same-sex couples the right to adopt; Muslim immigrant families to bring in multiple wives they have committed to in marriage overseas; and the expansion of children’s rights, such as the right to privacy and the right to not be physically disciplined.
In this government we are proud New Zealanders. When I visit our embassies overseas, I swell with pride to see my portrait hanging there in place of the Queen’s. I am proud that we no longer feel obliged to say grace at a public banquet, even if the principal guest is the head of the Church of England. I am proud that we have had the confidence to do away with such anachronisms as Queen’s Counsel and English titles. These are the things that make us great.
This is a nation with huge potential. This is a government with a bold agenda to realise that potential.
2005 began with the international response to the catastrophe caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. New Zealand’s official response amounts to this country’s largest ever relief effort. This was not difficult, considering that we normally spend only 0.2 percent of GNP on overseas aid.
The tsunami was a natural disaster without precedent in our lifetimes, at least certainly since I’ve been Prime Minister. Of course, I ignore the 500,000 killed by Cyclone Bhola in Bangladesh in 1970, or the 1.2-million who died in the recent North Korean famine. And, of course, I stress natural disasters, as opposed to the nearly 4-million killed in the recent Congo war, the half-million or so in the Somali civil war, the 500,000 in the Angolan war, the 500,000 in the Ugandan war, and the 800,000 in Rwanda. As New Zealand has followed the lead of the United Nations and made little response to any of those, they don’t count.
I know there was some criticism of New Zealand’s Hercules aircraft, which kept breaking down during the tsunami relief efforts. However, maintenance of the aging fleet has been budgeted for the coming year, and this should be sufficient to forestall any further criticism. Should there be unexpected demand on our transport facilities in future, cheap air fares on commercial services are now available thanks to our encouragement of competition. As I previously stressed, New Zealand lives in an incredibly benign regional environment, so we can be good neighbours without the need to spend further money on our defence forces.
New Zealand at the beginning of 2005 is a confident nation, and it’s moving ahead. We might be only 20 in the OECD rankings, we might be the most indebted country in the western world, our balance of payments might have been in the red every quarter since 1973, household debt might be 130% of income, and we might be equal with Slovenia in personal purchasing power, but the economic indicators, I’d like to believe, remain positive. We were after all, extremely lucky in 1999 to inherit a windfall economy which has enabled us to implement our inclusive, diverse and reconstructionist social agenda. New Zealanders live by the maxim, “it is more blessed to give than receive”, and the generous contribution by so many of $6 billion dollars in taxes beyond what the Government need gives me confidence that we can continue this policy with little dissension.
The results are being felt in homes across the country. They’re all doing so well that from April my government will give them an extra $1.1 billion dollars out of the rich people’s taxes over the next two years just so they don’t feel left out.
People are feeling safer, too, because the crime rate is at its lowest level in 21 years—setting aside the fact that violent crime is at near-record levels, and the prison population is the highest ever. Now we must focus on measures that will reduce prison rates so that we can get tougher on crime without needing to build more prisons beyond the extra already planned.
Benefit numbers have tumbled, too. Only 350,000 people are now on benefits, for which we budgeted $12.3 billion dollars this year. Because the numbers are tumbling, we estimate that only an additional half billion dollars will be needed in 2005-2006 (a total of $12.8 billion).
Health spending is up 40 percent over the past five years, therefore it is imperative that we get maximum efficiency in the sector. For this reason, we have moved 5,163 people off hospital waiting lists and back into the care of their GPs. A total of 1,164 people died while on waiting lists, which further reduced costs. We have also been able to continue the previous government’s policy of reducing public hospital beds—together we have achieved a reduction of 2,000 beds over the last 10 years, matching the reduction in the number of operations performed.
As New Zealand moves into the 21st century, technological progress is imperative. For this reason, we are moving away from funding old-fashioned procedures such as ear grommets for children and hernias in favour of assisted reproduction technologies, which will assist same-sex couples who otherwise could not have children.
Education spending is up 39 percent, which is reflected in the fact that only a quarter of our students are now in the lowest rankings of international literacy and maths tests. This is praiseworthy, considering the gap between girls’ and boys’ achievement is one of the largest in the world. In 2005, we will see a further improvement in New Zealand’s world-class educational qualification, the NCEA. I can be absolutely sure about this because the introduction of NCEA has shown it has so many problems things really can’t get any worse.
At the tertiary level we are continuing to make education more affordable. Therefore, student debt will be held to an increase of only $1 billion over the next 12 months, on top of the current debt level of $7 billion.
Everything this government does in education reinforces the vision we have for taking New Zealand ahead, which is why we do not apologise for the forced school closures, the increased violence in classrooms, the politically correct curricula, and the refusal to allow integrated schools to expand. Our vision of increased centralisation and control of education will become everyone’s vision.
New Zealand is a very different place now from the way it was in the 1990s. Today, 44 percent of children are born outside marriage; 18,000 are killed by abortion; teenage pregnancy is the third-highest in the world; sexually transmitted diseases have become an epidemic; we have the highest teen suicide rate in the world; 27 percent of dependent children live with a sole parent; and prostitution is legal.
Through innovative legislation, my government has succeeded in restricting freedoms in a wide range of areas, such as smoking. This government may have legislated to increase binge drinking by young teens, but at least they will not be able to harm themselves by smoking publicly while they do it.
Other proud achievements have included restrictions in the ability to build your own house, imprisonment without trial, removal of the right to appeal to the Privy Council, swimming pool fencing, school zoning, playground regulations, compulsory micro-chipping of dogs, and increased surveillance of emails. This will be continued after the next election with such measures as taking away the right of farmers to keep people off their land, and hate speech laws. As my government demonstrated with the hate crimes provision in the Sentencing Act, we are determined to punish people who think inappropriately.
We may be taking away some freedoms, but we are an equal opportunity government. Therefore, we will be expanding the rights of minorities. Maori now have equal opportunity to block projects under the Resource Management Act. We have given same-sex couples the right to register their relationship as if it were marriage. Before the election, we will pass a law to allow any de facto couple all the rights of marriage. No longer will married couples be able to claim that their relationship is anything special. After the election, my government will move to allow same-sex couples the right to adopt; Muslim immigrant families to bring in multiple wives they have committed to in marriage overseas; and the expansion of children’s rights, such as the right to privacy and the right to not be physically disciplined.
In this government we are proud New Zealanders. When I visit our embassies overseas, I swell with pride to see my portrait hanging there in place of the Queen’s. I am proud that we no longer feel obliged to say grace at a public banquet, even if the principal guest is the head of the Church of England. I am proud that we have had the confidence to do away with such anachronisms as Queen’s Counsel and English titles. These are the things that make us great.
This is a nation with huge potential. This is a government with a bold agenda to realise that potential.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
You're not going mad.....
I recently read a wonderful book entitled The Inmates are Running the Asylum, in which Alan Cooper says if your computer drives you mad, it is not you to blame. The problem is that computers and their software are designed by computer geeks, and they just don't think the same way poor users like you and I think.
It would appear that things have become so bad across the Tasman that Australian workers are increasingly technophobic with almost half yearning for a time before mobile phones, email and text messaging.
One thousand Australian office workers were interviewed by recruitment agency Talent2 which found 54 per cent of them believed that technology, including mobile phones, mobile emails and laptops, made their working day far longer. It has also made workers more accessible to bosses, with 21 percent of respondents saying their employers text, email or phone them out of office hours to discuss business.
Australian workers firmly believed things had got worse at work because of technology. Thirty-nine percent said technological advancement had detracted from their personal lives and they would rather go back to a slower-paced time where workers could not be contacted after hours.
I recently read a wonderful book entitled The Inmates are Running the Asylum, in which Alan Cooper says if your computer drives you mad, it is not you to blame. The problem is that computers and their software are designed by computer geeks, and they just don't think the same way poor users like you and I think.
It would appear that things have become so bad across the Tasman that Australian workers are increasingly technophobic with almost half yearning for a time before mobile phones, email and text messaging.
One thousand Australian office workers were interviewed by recruitment agency Talent2 which found 54 per cent of them believed that technology, including mobile phones, mobile emails and laptops, made their working day far longer. It has also made workers more accessible to bosses, with 21 percent of respondents saying their employers text, email or phone them out of office hours to discuss business.
Australian workers firmly believed things had got worse at work because of technology. Thirty-nine percent said technological advancement had detracted from their personal lives and they would rather go back to a slower-paced time where workers could not be contacted after hours.
IVF babies at greater health risk
Researchers at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth analysed 25 studies from around the world and concluded that IVF babies consistently showed a 25 to 40 per cent greater risk of abnormalities. The same researchers released a study in 2002 claiming the incidence of abnormalities in IVF babies was twice the level for those who were conceived naturally. About 5000 Australian babies a year are born using some form of IVF, about 2 per cent of total births.
(Source: Clara Pirani, "Defect risk is 40pc higher with IVF," The Australian, January 28, 2005)
Researchers at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth analysed 25 studies from around the world and concluded that IVF babies consistently showed a 25 to 40 per cent greater risk of abnormalities. The same researchers released a study in 2002 claiming the incidence of abnormalities in IVF babies was twice the level for those who were conceived naturally. About 5000 Australian babies a year are born using some form of IVF, about 2 per cent of total births.
(Source: Clara Pirani, "Defect risk is 40pc higher with IVF," The Australian, January 28, 2005)
Monday, January 31, 2005
Don't stop under-age kids from having sex - give them a hand, says medical journal
An editorial in the British Medical Journal of 15 January says sexually active sub-16 year olds should be helped to enjoy "caring and safe relationships". The advice comes from epidemiologist Caroline Free, who says more than a quarter of young people in Britain are sexually active before they are 16 and health services should be helping these young people. Free says that to promote sexual health in adolescents, services need to "offer advice and interventions that deal with the needs of young men, improve compliance with the use of oral contraceptive pills, inform young people about long acting contraceptives, and promote dual use of contraceptives and condoms".
But she has been taken to task by Dr Ellen Grant, author of The Bitter Pill, who points to many dangers of hormonal contraception for young women. "Under age sex is a form of child abuse and it is no help to add on biochemical abuse from steroid hormones," says Dr Grant.
It is also astounding that Free is apparently advocating that sex at any age is good, as long as it is "safe" (whatever that means). This totally ignores the damage that under-age sex does to kids in a host of different ways, well documented in numerous social studies. Has the medical profession become totally amoral?
An editorial in the British Medical Journal of 15 January says sexually active sub-16 year olds should be helped to enjoy "caring and safe relationships". The advice comes from epidemiologist Caroline Free, who says more than a quarter of young people in Britain are sexually active before they are 16 and health services should be helping these young people. Free says that to promote sexual health in adolescents, services need to "offer advice and interventions that deal with the needs of young men, improve compliance with the use of oral contraceptive pills, inform young people about long acting contraceptives, and promote dual use of contraceptives and condoms".
But she has been taken to task by Dr Ellen Grant, author of The Bitter Pill, who points to many dangers of hormonal contraception for young women. "Under age sex is a form of child abuse and it is no help to add on biochemical abuse from steroid hormones," says Dr Grant.
It is also astounding that Free is apparently advocating that sex at any age is good, as long as it is "safe" (whatever that means). This totally ignores the damage that under-age sex does to kids in a host of different ways, well documented in numerous social studies. Has the medical profession become totally amoral?
Uganda's First Lady, Janet Museveni, has defended abstinence from pre-marital sex as the best way to protect young people from AIDS. "What is not practical about that?" she asked at a meeting of municipal leaders in Kampala. "Why should young people in colleges and universities run around with sex? What is the hurry? Why should we allow ourselves to listen to voices that lead us to death, and debate with those that save lives?" She decried abortion, pornography and sugar daddies who lure children into sex. She asked the mayors to purge the streets of pornographic material. (Note: the above article is only available by subscription.)
What a contrast between Uganda and New Zealand. Our "first lady" is aiding and abetting the perpetrators of all the above.
What a contrast between Uganda and New Zealand. Our "first lady" is aiding and abetting the perpetrators of all the above.
If you're really worried, Mr Censor....
I know the year is young, but the 2005 award for hypocritical statement of the year must have already been claimed by our chief censor, Bill Hastings.
Hastings is outraged with parents who let their children watch or play anything with an R18 rating. He says the increasing number of parents buying R18 video games for their children is an insult to his work, and they are breaking the law.
This, from the man who is overseeing the most rapid deterioration in public morality ever seen in this country. (For "overseeing" read "aiding and abetting".) Hastings' office is allowing increasingly violent, degrading material into New Zealand under the guise of artistic licence, or because it cannot be "proved" that it is injurious to the public.
Many films like Baise-Moi, Visitor Q, Irreversible, Anatomy of Hell and Twenty-Nine Palms, with gratuitous and explicit depictions of sexual violence and degrading perversions (necrophilia, sodomy and incest) have been cleared in recent years by the Chief Censor without cuts, for viewing in public cinemas and/or in university media courses by those 18 years of age and older. More R18 sexually-explicit/ultra-violent films and videos have been cleared for home video/DVD viewing and theatre viewing under the leadership of Mr Hastings than by any other Chief Censor.
Mr Hastings should know better than anyone that R18 material will filter down to younger ages, in exactly the same way that the lowered drinking age made alcohol more accessible to younger kids. If he is genuinely concerned for children, then he would do well to call a halt to the flood of filth that he is allowing to pour into this country.
I know the year is young, but the 2005 award for hypocritical statement of the year must have already been claimed by our chief censor, Bill Hastings.
Hastings is outraged with parents who let their children watch or play anything with an R18 rating. He says the increasing number of parents buying R18 video games for their children is an insult to his work, and they are breaking the law.
This, from the man who is overseeing the most rapid deterioration in public morality ever seen in this country. (For "overseeing" read "aiding and abetting".) Hastings' office is allowing increasingly violent, degrading material into New Zealand under the guise of artistic licence, or because it cannot be "proved" that it is injurious to the public.
Many films like Baise-Moi, Visitor Q, Irreversible, Anatomy of Hell and Twenty-Nine Palms, with gratuitous and explicit depictions of sexual violence and degrading perversions (necrophilia, sodomy and incest) have been cleared in recent years by the Chief Censor without cuts, for viewing in public cinemas and/or in university media courses by those 18 years of age and older. More R18 sexually-explicit/ultra-violent films and videos have been cleared for home video/DVD viewing and theatre viewing under the leadership of Mr Hastings than by any other Chief Censor.
Mr Hastings should know better than anyone that R18 material will filter down to younger ages, in exactly the same way that the lowered drinking age made alcohol more accessible to younger kids. If he is genuinely concerned for children, then he would do well to call a halt to the flood of filth that he is allowing to pour into this country.
