Canberra and Wellington Awkward exhibitions of Righteousness generate only contempt China does not change. But the perceptions of it do. In recent weeks attempts by liberal democracies in Australia and New Zealand to influence China via governmental morality signalling mechanisms have had diametrically the opposite effect of the virtuously-anticipated outcomes. In Australia the government instituted charges against its soldiers for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan and in doing so ensured that pictorial evidence of several supposed incidents was made publicly available to support these accusations. The result? Chinese media quickly responded with conflated images designed to portray Australia’s soldiers in…

Diversity, Multiculturalism shunted aside in Councils CBD “Quick Win” Wellington City Council’s scheme to turn the capital’s restaurant and entertainment district into a car-free zone was sprung on business proprietors there in the middle of the Covid–19 series of alerts. Traders in the Courtenay Place district have united under their SOS (save our street) banner and are stating bluntly that the car ban will put them out of business. Businesses in the area now believe that the council’s ambition to implement the scheme so rapidly meant that the time was similarly compressed for the multi-racial restaurant proprietors to learn about…

Privy Councillor looks like a Lord, sounds like a Lord Winston Peters is already a considerable distance along the honorifics track that leads to the summit of attainment in the Commonwealth which is the House of Lords which is where you get true respect. The Rt Hon. Winston Peters PC looks like a lord, sounds like one. He merely has to be elevated there on the recommendation of a friendly Prime Minister. Too old? He is younger than United States president elect Jo Biden. He is in his prime by House of Lords age standards. And yet…and yet…certain tumblers need…

Sophisticated multinational persuasion techniques are unseen by New Zealanders including Federated Farmers The climate industry in a cruel assertion of its power now seeks to ensure that funds scheduled for post Covid recovery are instead diverted to the climate change industry itself. This means that funds badly needed already in New Zealand will be substantially disbursed overseas and for no practical return to New Zealand taxpayers. The display of the climate industry’s power is such that the organisations tasked with countering such demands are mute. None dare say for example that the money thus diverted could and should be used…

Diplomatic intervention only solution to interminable Dotcom Four process Eight years of intensive court house toing and froing failed to dent the Dotcom extradition process and merely reinforces the only possible resolution to the case, a political one in which it is declared moot. This will end the present public expense in which cohorts of lawyers of varying hourly billing firepower tramp through courtrooms of varying status and show every sign of continuing to do so into the foreseeable future. A moot declaration is straightforward and starts with the incoming United States ambassador who must be apprised of a basic…

Ideology booby trap sank Party pledged to reality and Ordinary People scribe tells influencers Winston Peters and his NZ First Party evaporated in the general election simply because he departed from the teachings of his guiding light, the late National Party prime minister Sir Rob Muldoon. It was Muldoon who inculcated Peters with the principle of avoiding entanglement with any exotic ideology or doctrine and to always put the practical needs of New Zealand first, National Press Club president Peter Isaac told the Wanganui Club. In the event Mr Peters and his party had become inexorably enmeshed in climate doctrine…

Overseas Investment Commission Loophole allows acquisitions by climate credit speculators United Nations success in inducing a lacerating self-guilt among New Zealand activists has relegated the nation’s total dependence on agriculture to a mere side-issue in the pending general election. Farming for United Nations- sponsored financial credit instruments means that immense swathes of productive farm land are under replacement by forestry for the purpose of global emission offset gains. The United Nations sponsorship means that foreign owners under this scheme can acquire land without encountering New Zealand’s once powerful Overseas Investment Commission. In fact, only half of one percent of New…

Western Intelligence believed that mystery mandarin Nation Builder was actually demolition agent. When Keith Ovenden married Helen Sutch only daughter of Bill and Shirley he can be forgiven if he believed that in this alliance he had also become heir to a cultural hegemony. There were though early indications that Keith’s induction chez Sutch would be anything but smooth. Indeed Keith Ovenden newly arrived in New Zealand and supping with his new in-laws found the experience difficult to the point of indigestion. This froideur could not be alleviated by the ingestion of a chardonnay or pinot, local of course. A…

Soldier of Fortune & Scholar was present at the creation of global co-operation shift A soldier of fortune turned humanitarian and increasingly recognised pivotal figure in the last Balkan wars is now thought to have had New Zealand origins. Major Bill Foxton (pictured) who served with the European Commission Monitoring Mission was present at the hinge of history when it became obvious that United Nations by its structure was unable to deal with conflicts such as those in the breakup of Yugoslavia. The fall of Srebrenica and other towns that the Security Council had identified as safe areas, but then…

Jason Connery 2009 film proves that Life does follow Art Graham McTavish might not be everyone’s idea of a travelling companion. A grotesque dwarf in Sir Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, the grizzled fiery lead in Preacher, the only actor to play opposite to Sly Stallone in both Rambo and Rocky….. Sidekick Sam Heughan presents a milder aspect as the two Outlander stalwarts hit the glens in their Clanlands travel book aided by a strong tailwind in the form of a forward by Outlander creator the American author Diana Gabaldon. All a bit other worldly you might think as the footloose…

Liberal Leader Malcolm Turnbull’s true belief in Opposition policies haunts Australian politics The Turnbull Test is designed to show the degree to which a political party leader has their heart in their own party. Or in the other side’s. It is named after Australian Liberal Party leader and federal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. He consistently demonstrated that far from being a conservative his leanings were anything but conservative and that in fact that his heart was very much with the Opposition in the form of the Australian Labour Party and the Green Party. Mr Turnbull’s inability to disguise his preference…