Word of the day

Gonochoric– sexually reproducing species in which individuals have one of at least two distinct sexes; having the sexes separate; not hermaphroditic.

Woman of the day

Woman of the Day philosopher, historian and author Mary Wollstonecraft born OTD 1759 in Spitalfields, London, widely regarded as one of the UK’s first feminists. Her reputation was unjustly shredded for a century after her early death but her influence was far-reaching and can… pic.twitter.com/EksV6LSDjG

— The Attagirls (@TheAttagirls) April 27, 2024

Quotes of the week

The Government we have today campaigned on delivering tax cuts to the people. They said that if they were elected, they would increase after-tax pay for the squeezed middle by shifting income tax brackets.

And they won. So deliver they must.One thing this country would do well to have is a return to old-school political values. Values that see a newly elected government doing everything possible, despite the odds against it, to honour the promises it made to the electorate.

Delivery against those promises, alongside our overall wellbeing, should be the standard by which a government is judged. –  Bruce Cotterill

Restoring faith in government means that a government keeps the promises on which it was elected. It means a government that prioritises work on the things that matter most to the majority of the electorate. Those things in all likelihood are education, health, crime, transport, and equality of treatment under the law. – Bruce Cotterill

We need a government that delivers on the above while watching the cost base and ensuring that every dollar of taxpayer money spent is spent well.

The last Government prioritised reckless but headline-grabbing promises in terms of housing, poverty, crime and health. They then filled government offices with thousands of additional bureaucrats to give the impression that they were doing something. They increased taxes and borrowed millions to pay for it all. And they ultimately achieved very little.

Most of us would want the opposite.

So now we have a government with a well-publicised and transparent list of things to do, a list that is shared with the public, updated quarterly, and with items that are ticked off in a public manner along the way. They’re seeking to reduce the number of people working in government departments to get the country’s cost base down. And, they’re trying to keep their promise to reduce taxes. – Bruce Cotterill

At a time when both the media and our politicians have major issues of trust, both groups need to double down on recovering the confidence of the people. The best way to do that is for government to be transparent, to honour their promises, and for media to report their activities with accuracy and openness and without distortion. – Bruce Cotterill

We can argue that tax cuts are a stimulus, making it more difficult in an economy that’s fighting inflation. And we can argue that tax cuts rob money from worthwhile government initiatives. Both are good arguments. But we have to remember that the Government was voted in with a series of policies that included the changes to our taxes.

It’s what they promised to do. – Bruce Cotterill

Government is meant to be about the people who comprise a community rather than the politicians themselves. Tax cuts are for the people. In this case, those people will primarily be low- to middle-income earners, the people who work hard all day for modest returns. As “tax bracket creep” has evolved, these people have seen their modest pay increases subjected to increasing levels of taxation for years. These people are the Government’s “core business” and they need and deserve some relief.

Taxation should be about collecting the minimum amount of money from all taxpayers, in a manner that is fair and equitable, in order to enable the delivery of essential and desirable services, firstly for our people to prosper, and secondly, so that we play an appropriate role in the international community.

It may surprise many to learn that the Government is not in business for the various interest groups with an agenda to run or a cause to champion. More and more is being asked of our government. There are already too many things that government does that they shouldn’t. – Bruce Cotterill

Indeed, the quickest way for our Government to get back on top of matters financial is to get out of the things we shouldn’t be doing. We have government bureaucracies that get bigger and bigger every year. In this writer’s opinion, the cost of that bureaucracy is the single biggest issue facing the New Zealand economy. – Bruce Cotterill

The quest for efficiency across government will need to be a multi-term focus if we are to get our cost base back to something that is sustainable. – Bruce Cotterill

Good government is not about building bureaucracies that get bigger and more expensive every year. It is about getting outcomes for the society that government is intended to serve. Big bureaucracies fall into habits of doing business with each other. That is not how outcomes are generated. We need a better, simpler and less costly way.

Thankfully, it feels like we have a government that is focused on finding that better way. I get the impression that Luxon and Willis, despite the odds that are against them, are trying desperately hard to deliver on their promises while making government more efficient. – Bruce Cotterill

However, if we are to recover a level of trust in our parliamentary system, and the politicians who occupy the House on our behalf, those politicians must act in the interests of the people who put them there.

And that means that they must, without exception, deliver on the promises they make. – Bruce Cotterill

Ironically, the media they wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to expanding social justice. The challenge now, for these wise members of the academy, is to explain why the media they wanted is not what so many of its readers, listeners and viewers wanted. – Chris Trotter

All the “summits” in the world will avail their organisers nothing, if all they are willing to listen to are their own fears. – Chris Trotter

I found the term “at risk” in this connection both odd and significant. By “at risk of becoming” was meant, presumably, statistically more likely to become. It is a term taken from medical parlance: for example, doctors speak of obese people (or increasingly of “people with obesity” or even of “people living with obesity”) being at risk of becoming diabetic, or of people with high blood pressure being at risk of having a stroke or heart attack.

Criminality, and ultimately all human conduct whatsoever, is here conflated with disease, and thereby becomes a disease in itself. For example, I am at high risk of going into a bookshop and buying a book. I can no more help it than can a person with a family history of, say, gout, help having a higher-than-average chance of developing gout. Statistical chances rule the world, including the human world; besides which, for me at my age to buy more books is irrational, the sign both of a compulsion and an obsession—which, as everyone knows, are diseases. The only way that these diseases can be cured is for the government to give me so many books that I will no longer feel the compulsion to buy. –  Theodore Dalrymple 

Leniency is compassionate, severity cruel: such at any rate is the presumption of the intellectual middle classes, who, perhaps feeling guilty at their own good fortune, often inherited, by comparison with the classes from which criminals are usually drawn, find in making excuses for the latter, and in proposing lenient treatment of them, a way of demonstrating their generosity of spirit. I have rarely met such a person who has taken full cognisance of the fact that most of the victims of crime, as well as the perpetrators of it, are poor—relatively, that is. Most criminals are not great travellers: they rob, burgle and assault those around them, and since in the right circumstances they will readily admit that they have committed far more crimes than they have ever been accused of (borne out by, or compatible with, the fact that the police solve only a small proportion of crimes recorded by them), it follows that leniency is not necessarily compassionate, at least not if compassion is to be measured in part by its practical results and is not simply a warm, fuzzy feeling of self-congratulation at not being ungenerously punitive. – Theodore Dalrymple 

Welcome to another war of words between the greenies and the government over changes to the Resource Management Act.

With the poor old farmers stuck in the middle, just wanting the chance to be trusted to do the right thing when it comes to protecting the environment. And that’s what I think we should be doing.

You know how people have this concept of Mother Nature and how it’s all peace and love and milk and honey and bees buzzing and gentle rivers and all of that? It’s amazing, isn’t it, how quickly all that goes out the window if the milk and honey brigade don’t like something?   – John MacDonald

But, unlike climate activists and politicians, I’m willing to accept that things aren’t black and white. Which is why I think it’s time we just trusted farmers to do the right thing and let them get on with it.  – John MacDonald

Firstly, I’ve got friends who are farmers and every time I go and see them, I can see that they just want to do the right thing. But, instead, they’ve had governments and government departments behaving like helicopter parents and watching their every move just in case they do something wrong. And that’s nuts.

And secondly, show me a farmer who wants to poo in their own nest.

They don’t. And this is where the greenies lose it. Because if they think farmers want to destroy the natural environment on their properties for short-term financial gain, then they know nothing about how it all works.

Farms are businesses, yes. But they’re also assets. And why would anyone want to do anything to damage their asset? They wouldn’t.

And that’s why I think that, instead of pulling farmers to bits, we should be trusting them to do the right thing.   – John MacDonald

And if you think the Resource Management Act is how you sort out muppets, then you might want to think again. So, we can’t do anything about the muppets.  

What we can do, though, is say to the farmers who aren’t muppets, that we trust them to do the right thing – and leave them to it.  – John MacDonald

What’s happened today will shock a lot of people, because over the last few years we’ve got used to Prime Minsters just putting up with their ministers doing a bad job or behaving badly in public.

It took forever for Hipkins or Ardern to demote the under-performers, and they suffered for it – public opinion of them was tainted.

That is clearly not how Chris Luxon operates, and it’s a good thing.

Because who doesn’t want performance from the people that we pay to run the country? – Heather du Plessis-Allan

If the state does not spend more than it collects and does not issue (money), there is no inflation. This is not magic. – Javier Milei 

Surely we didn’t miss the irony on climate change?

On the day it’s announced we have reduced our emissions now for three years in a row, so good on us, the very next day Transpower, the people who get the electricity into your lounge, tell us yet again that this Winter has issues and peak load and demand might be problematic.  – Mike Hosking

Here is a simple rule of thumb; to not have enough power in 2024 is simply not good enough and it should be seen as an abdication of responsibility. 

The reason we don’t have enough is quite openly admitted. It’s because the renewables are not voluminous enough and not reliable enough to cover the growing demand. 

The transition hasn’t transitioned to the point where we can largely leave fossils behind. 

So, here’s the line for me. Save the planet all you want, even if it is futile given China and India aren’t as interested. But don’t get so hell bent about it that the heater isn’t on in July when its -3 degrees. That’s not a first world country and it’s not a first world approach.  – Mike Hosking

If we don’t have enough power now, how do we power EV’s? How do we power generative AI, the so-called future? It’s a future that requires 10x more power than a Google search.

Talk about cart before the horse.

When we still struggle Winter in, Winter out to do the basics we have allowed ideology to hijack reality.

That is not the future, of the future.  – Mike Hosking

My view is that the State should have nothing to do with broadcasting. The recent optics surrounding the Public Interest Journalism Fund which has given rise to the perception – I emphasise perception – that media were promoting Government messaging has done enormous damage to the media as an institution. It is best that the State cuts its ties with broadcasting in the interests of broadcasters and indeed its own interests. – David Harvey

I would put it like this: while increased wealth above a certain level is not guaranteed to increase happiness, or what is now routinely called human flourishing, attempts to limit wealth to that level are almost guaranteed to result in increased human unhappiness. –  Theodore Dalrymple

I take it that this implies that equality of opportunity is, or would be, a desirable goal: but on the contrary, it seems to me to be a terrible one, among the most terrible that could well be imagined. This is despite the fact that almost no one has a word to say against it. Equality of opportunity is as morally untouchable as grandmothers or kindness to animals. – Theodore Dalrymple

The formal equality of opportunity that we already have is the only form of it that is not inherently tyrannical. Nor is it real, actual equality of opportunity, since the life chances of people born in different circumstances are very different. This fact is not at all an argument against it, however, when one considers what real, actual equality of opportunity would entail.

In the first place, the complete absence of opportunity, provided it were evenly spread, would satisfy the demand for equality of opportunity. Perhaps it could never be entirely equal (someone would have to suppress all that opportunity, after all), but there is little doubt that, by comparison with our present situation, overall equality of opportunity would be increased by the maximal suppression of opportunity.

It is hardly to be supposed that anyone, except an aspiring totalitarian dictator, would want such a thing.  – Theodore Dalrymple

But how does inequality of opportunity arise? The first and most obvious cause is in genetic endowment. Differing genetic endowment is unfair, but not unjust. For example, I should like to have been born more handsome than I was, but there is no one I can blame for this unfortunate fact, and nothing that I can do about it. What goes for looks goes for other attributes too numerous to mention.

There is no way this genetic unfairness can be abolished, except by universal cloning to ensure that all start with the same genetic endowment. From the point of equality of opportunity, it does not matter whether that endowment is good or bad, for everyone would be in the same genetic boat. – Theodore Dalrymple

It is certainly not fair that some people are born into nurturing environments and others into the very opposite. Moreover, it is possible that if environments could be to some degree equalised, marginal differences would become more important. The only way to avoid the unfairness caused by environmental differences is to make the environment in which children are raised (now clones, of course) absolutely identical in all respects, the equivalent of a battery farm. Only thus can the famous level playing field be achieved. Such an upbringing, of course, would make North Korea seem like a school for individuality. – Theodore Dalrymple

On the other hand, it ought to be possible to provide every child with opportunity, though not equal opportunity, for example by instituting good schools that nurture talent and build character. How this is best done is a matter of trial and error, and of experience. No system will ever be so perfect that “no child will be left behind,” to use the cant phrase. But while trying to provide opportunity for every child suggests practical solutions, aiming for something impossible like equality of opportunity supplies an excellent alibi for failure to do whatever is truly possible to give every child opportunity: for what is mere opportunity as a goal when compared to equality of opportunity? Have we no ambition? – Theodore Dalrymple

I have since been crystal clear about my concerns that women are being erased in this debate, and have always been clear that women do not have, nor have ever had, a penis. – Gillian Keegan

For several years, trans activist lobby groups pushed the use of phrases such as ‘trans women are women’ as a tactic to silence debate and fair questions about how gender self-identification clashes with women’s rights.

“Many didn’t recognise the dangers of these slogans early on, including politicians who doubtless thought they were simply supporting a good cause. It takes guts to publicly change your mind. Women’s rights and the safeguarding of children are serious issues that need to be addressed with clear and accurate language. – Maya Forstater

They say that because they believe women to be less than men. A woman is "reduced" to her biology if you recognize than women are female humans, but womanhood is somehow "elevated" when men claim it for themselves. It becomes "more" because they take it away from women.

— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐬 (@therestofus5) April 25, 2024

Dawn begins each day. Sunrise speaks to the promise of a better day. From a long-ago battlefield to this morning’s promise, we must leave this ground dedicated to making our worlds better. Then the men buried here will not have died in vain.

Yet we live in a troubled world, the worst in memory.

We have emerged from a global pandemic a more divided world. Regional instabilities and the chaos they create threaten the security of too many.

So we must all do more. Demand more. And deliver more.  – Winston Peters

You will create your own memories and draw your own lessons from being here. But we must all come together, as people and as nations, to do more to honour those who paid with their lives. 

We must protect and care for our young. We must reject and resist those who seek to conquer and control. We must always seek the path of peace. 

Then, and only then, will the men buried here not have died in vain.  –  Winston Peters

Next ANZAC day I’d like to see the news cameras get out of the cities, and come experience an ANZAC service in Dargaville, or Taihape, or Lumsden. Because regardless of nonsense in Wellington, in rural New Zealand We Will Remember Them. – Mark Cameron

Divisiveness seems to be the new aim of the game. Race, political beliefs and religion are all motivators in separating our people. People are more concerned with being correct and proving a point… This is where we can learn more from our ancestors –

They stood as brothers to fight for us. They could see the purpose greater than themselves and put aside their petty arbitrary differences. It makes me wonder what could be accomplished if we could do the same? – Jared Lasike 

We don’t address racism by pretending white people can be black, nor is ableism solved by giving able-bodied people wheelchairs, so why are women and girls supposed to applaud their male imitators, centre them in language and hand over rights their foremothers fought for? 3/X

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 26, 2024

We stand up that weak arguments have their say so they can be shown to be weak arguments, and strong arguments have their say so they can be shown to be strong arguments. It’s a dangerous view that free speech needs to be held back from hurting minorities. The first thing free speech does is protect the minorities.

If we’re going to live in this idea that everyone gets to have a say, that in a democracy everyone gets to participate in society equally, then we’re going to have to accept that if you disagree with someone or you consider their perspective offensive, or harmful, or belligerent, they still get a say. We have to have confidence in the fact that society as a whole can discern error from truth. –  Jonathan Ayling

If students are not resilient enough or mature enough to be able to deal in ideas – even those that they find uncomfortable – then maybe they shouldn’t be at university. – Jonathan Ayling

"Paradoxically, the mere framing of this event has surfaced a depth of feeling and a polarisation of views on how we should proceed, that has made it challenging to even schedule a conversation about how to have challenging conversations." – Vice Chancellor Nic Smith

If we have…

— 🗣 Free Speech Union ✊ (@NZFreeSpeech) April 26, 2024

No man can become a woman. We need as a progressive society to be better at allowing individuals to be socially (because it’s society that’s dictating what is traditionally male/female characteristics) to be as masculine or feminine as they like. Again humans don’t change sex. – Sharron Davies

 

Govt clear ‘biological sex matters”

The UK”s National Health Service (NHS) has come to its senses:

The NHS is to crack down on transgender ideology in hospitals, with terms like “chestfeeding” set to be banned. . . 

Referring to “people who have ovaries” rather than “women” will also be prohibited under plans to ensure hospitals use clear language based on biological sex.

The new constitution will ban transgender women from being treated on single-sex female hospital wards to ensure women and girls receive “privacy and protection” in hospitals.

Patients will also be given the right to request that intimate care is carried out by someone of the same biological sex.

It follows concerns from patients about biological men being allowed in women’s hospital wards. NHS guidance has previously stated that trans patients could be placed in single-sex wards on the basis of the gender with which they identified.

Kemi Badenoch, the women and equalities minister, has backed calls for a public inquiry into the “pervasive influence” of transgender ideology in the NHS. . . 

A government source said: “The Government has been clear that biological sex matters, and women and girls are entitled to receive the protection and privacy they need in all healthcare settings.  . . .

Of course biological sex matters. How on earth did trans ideology prevail anywhere, let alone in hospitals where science and biology are critical?

How have the radical trans activists been able to force the acceptance of their assertion that trans men are women, have access to females spaces and participate in female sports categories?

And how have they been able to infect the health system to the extent of enabling disturbed children – many of them gay and/or autistic – to undergo medical and surgical procedures without the strict ethical approval and rigorous need for proof of efficacy that usually is required for life changing treatment?

Perhaps Damien Grant has part of the answer:

The debate over gender identity has gained in prominence in recent years and, to what will be my enduring shame, I chose not to confront it.

When you distil the serious complaint by those against the current gender-fluidity of modern culture, it is that the medicalisation of children’s gender dysphoria is wrong.

That puberty blockers, hormone treatments and gender-affirming surgery are a mistake. That we are damaging and potentially sterilising children because of an ideology. . . 

This sounds like something that happened in Nazi Germany last century, it should not be happening anywhere now.

Puberty is an essential aspect of human development. At the time the local Ministry of Health addressed puberty blockers and confidently asserted they were safe, reversible, and gave young people time to consider their identity. I see that advice has changed.

Why did I place faith in the pronouncements of the Ministry of Health? Given my inherent distrust of the state I am left with the uncomfortable conclusion that it was cowardice.

Seeing how others who waded into this topic had their careers and reputations damaged, it was preferable to hide behind an official declaration that the experts knew what they were doing than look closer and risk having to speak up.

Those others included people who lost their jobs and endured public shaming. Some were public figures like Graham Linehan and J.K. Rowling, some were medical professionals and some were concerned parents of children who were given life changing medical and surgical treatment without their parents knowledge. Many were ordinary people who knew that science matters and some things can’t change and one of those is biological sex.

The Cass Report has ended the ability to seek refuge in this sophistry. . . 

According to Cass, “the long term health impacts of hormone interventions is limited and needs to be better understood”. “Young people become particularly vulnerable at the point of transfer to adult services.”

She acknowledges hormone treatment for adults is “not without costs…” but is “…dramatically outweighed by the long-term benefits.”

Adults can give properly informed consent. Children can not.

The story for those under 18, and especially under 16, is different. Children on blockers will cease development while their friends continue and “…there are no good studies on the psychological, psychosexual and developmental impact of this period of divergence from peers”. . . 

Her report states: “Clinicians are unable to determine with any certainty which children and young people will go on to have an enduring trans identity.” . . .

She writes: “This is an area of remarkably weak evidence, and yet results of studies are exaggerated or misrepresented by people on all sides of the debate to support their viewpoint. The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender related distress.”

However, “Some clinicians feel under pressure to support a medical pathway based on widespread reporting that gender-affirming treatment reduces suicide risk. This conclusion was not supported by the above systematic review”. . . 

There will be other critiques but this report has reversed the burden of proof. If these treatments are safe and effective then the evidence needs to be presented and peer reviewed. 

Such evidence and peer reviews would be required for any other treatments and procedures.

Until they are maybe we should not treating people below the age of consent with powerful and unproven treatments.

Mostly the report has been received well and in the wake of its publication England and Scotland have joined the four Nordic nations in banning puberty blockers being prescribed to minors, although some hormone therapies are available for those over 16.

In New Zealand the Ministry of Health’s report on puberty blockers has been delayed in the wake of the Cass report.

Given the Ministry initially claimed that puberty blockers gave children an opportunity to consider their future, the following quote from the Cass report may prove disturbing: “Moreover, given that the vast majority of young people started on puberty blockers proceed from puberty blockers to masculinising/feminising hormones, there is no evidence that puberty blockers buy time to think, and some concern that they may change the trajectory of psychosexual and gender identity development.”

It is possible that we are looking at a major medical misadventure with a cohort of children having their lives compromised.

And too many of us, those with the opportunity and a platform, stood by and said nothing. Because we were afraid of the consequences, because if we did we’d feel compelled to say something, and to say something would come at a cost.

So we said nothing. Shame on us. Shame on me.

Radical trans activists and their followers have been very successful in silencing people.

One of their tactics is to label anyone who states biological facts, stands up for the safety and dignity of women, and/or their right to fair competition in sport as transphobic.

A few might be but most don’t have a problem with what adults do until they trample on other people’s rights, including those of women and children.

Adults can be who they choose to be and dress as they wish but they should not be influencing children and advocating for them to receive irreversible treatment.

Children with gender dysphoria need mental health support not medicine and surgery.

The MoH must accept the findings of the Cass report and follow the NHS which has stopped the routine prescribing of puberty blockers and cracked down on trans ideology in hospitals and it must also accept that biological sex matters.

And we must be prepared to speak out to ensure they do.

Word of the day

Besorrow – to sorrow about or over; to be anxious or troubled about; regret; care about or for; look after; fill with care or sorrow; make sad;

Milne muses

“We are like a tree whose roots divide and subdivide again and again as they spread outward. Our neighbours are the same. Their roots too spread and interlace with ours. Our trunks are separate but beneath the soil an inextricably tangled network of fibres.”
~ C.R.Milne #Monday pic.twitter.com/Dg5EO1zuAp

— A.A.Milne (@A_AMilne) April 15, 2024

Beautifying the blogosphere

The ladybug resting on a floating dandelion pic.twitter.com/PryNz86XTc

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 21, 2024

Woman of the day

Woman of the Day teacher and social reformer Gertrude Tuckwell born OTD 1861 in Oxford, the first woman magistrate in London, a founder member of the Magistrates’ Association in 1920 and president of the National Association of Probation Officers. Deeds Not Words really should… pic.twitter.com/KR6gDtZxRq

— The Attagirls (@TheAttagirls) April 25, 2024

Standing up for kids

It’s time we let kids be kids again, and that means adults have to be adults, stand up for children and protect them.

Word of the day

Occultation – the state of being blocked, hidden from view or lost to notice; an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them; the passage of a celestial object in front of another, hiding it from view.

Sowell says

No matter how much people on the left talk about compassion, they have no compassion for the taxpayers.

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) April 25, 2024

Woman of the day

Woman of the Day the Venerable Honora Nagle of Co. Cork who died OTD 1784, aged 66. Known by her childhood nickname, Nano is credited with establishing education for girls in Ireland through her work with the Presentation Sisters.

Born at a time when the Education Act 1695, one… pic.twitter.com/Tvl5GzRwRH

— The Attagirls (@TheAttagirls) April 26, 2024

More tax for less

New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year:

New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says.

The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax in New Zealand was 4.5 percent higher last year compared with 2022.

That was only behind Australia, where taxes rose 7.6 percent in the same period.

Single Kiwis earning the average wage were paying tax at a rate of 24.9 percent in 2023, up from 23.2 percent a year prior, according to the OECD data released on Thursday. . .

We paid all that more for less of what we need and more of what we don’t – poorer education, health, infrastructure  and a bloated public sector – a public sector that a public servant says needs recalibrating:

I have worked in the public sector for around 12 years. My role is impacted by the staff reductions.

I don’t agree with the way it is happening in every agency. It’s horrible for those impacted & I sympathise with them.

I’m not a coalition voter. But I support the cuts. Why? – I have seen first hand unbelievable levels of waste & inefficiency in the public sector.

– I have seen first hand the lack of accountability for leaders, managers & staff failing to deliver (& worse, in many cases them being promoted).

– I have seen first hand agencies not performing (& in many cases not even able to properly measure performance) & little to nothing changing except their head-count going up.

– I have seen first hand consultancies get rich on the tax payers dime while delivering little value (& in some cases making things demonstrably worse), & agencies not instead investing in building the internal capability required so they wouldn’t need consultants.

– I have seen first hand good people coming into work every day & working hard because they genuinely care about our country & want to contribute

– despite working under poor cultures, poor systems, poor leadership, poor management, poor strategies, poor execution.

Yes, our agencies do deliver some great work we should all be very proud of. Yes, we do have some great leaders & managers in the public service.

Yes, there are many positives to celebrate.

But we are a long, long way from getting the return on investment we should from our public sector.

It doesn’t matter which party is in power, the public sector needs recalibrating, with a real & genuine focus on measurable performance so we can, in future, make informed, objective, defensible & transparent decisions about whether we increase or reduce their headcount.

A friend who works in the public service echoes this, giving examples of incompetence, waste and poor leadership.

Fixing that requires new and better leadership, and will result in more job losses.

That’s tough on those who will be affected.

But let’s keep the cuts in perspective – 10s of thousands of back room jobs were added between 2017 and 2023, so far only 3,000 have been cut and some of them were vacant positions.

The reality is that there is much more that can be cut. pic.twitter.com/A8aRYCWQeE

— New Zealand Taxpayers' Union (@TaxpayersUnion) April 25, 2024

Word of the day

Chiliad– a group of 1000; a group that contains 1000 elements; a period of 1000 years.

Sowell says

Deep thinkers who look everywhere for the mysterious causes of poverty, ignorance, crime, and war need look no further than their own mirrors. We are all born into this world poor and ignorant, and with thoroughly selfish and barbaric impulses. Those of us who turn out any other…

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) April 24, 2024

Woman of the day

Woman of the Day Madge Easton Anderson born OTD 1896 in Glasgow, the first woman to work professionally as a lawyer in the UK. It took an appeal to the Court of Session before this highly qualified woman was permitted to sit her final Law Agent exam on the same basis as men… pic.twitter.com/Xkswy59j6E

— The Attagirls (@TheAttagirls) April 24, 2024

Shades of 80s agsag

North Otago was particularly hard hit by the agsag of the 1980s.

The problems with farms that were too small to be economic units were compounded by recurring droughts.

Inflation and interest rates were high, input costs were too and the axing of subsidies by the Lange government resulted in very low prices for stock. Returns were so low that farmers were getting bills from meat works because what they earned didn’t cover the costs of transport and killing.

Some predicted farmers would be forced off their farms in their thousands. Some were but there was safety in numbers – banks and stock firms knew forced sales when there were few, if any potential buyers, would only depress land values further and worked with farmers to allow them to hold on until things improved.

Farmers’ adult children left for education or work elsewhere and at least one partner, usually but not always the wife, went to town for work, earning enough to keep farms and families afloat.

However,  people and businesses servicing and supplying farms were hard hit. Jobs were lost and businesses failed.

The current situation isn’t too bad for those in dairying or cropping but beef returns are only just okay and it’s horribly reminiscent of the 80s agsag for sheep farmers.

Widespread drought, shearing costs which exceed the price of wool and low returns for lambs and sheep mean few who depend on these stock for their income will be making a profit.

Stock and real estate agents are already telling some sad stories and at least one in many farming partnerships is looking for work off farm.

Low prices for sheep meat are partly due to sluggish markets in China and partly due to an over supply in Australia.

Demand for by products including pelts and tallow is also contributing to low returns.

Why wool prices are so bad is hard to fathom. It ticks so many green boxes – free range, renewable, natural . . . and it’s versatile. Strong wool is now not only used for carpets, it has a variety of other uses including cosmetics, surfboards and coffins.

A silver lining to the low price for wool is that it is relatively cheap to use in research for what might – fingers crossed – lead to another wool boom.

That won’t come soon enough for too many who are feeling like they’re back in the 80s and contemplating giving up.

Some who can will sell. Others will hang on, hoping and praying that rain will come before it’s too cold for pasture growth and demand for sheep meat and wool will bounce back, as it eventually did when the ag was over.

Word of the day

Valorous – showing great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle; to show valour: to be brave; to be valiant and courageous.

Night After Night

The book Night After Night tells the story of New Zealanders in Bomber Command in World War II.

Night after night also applies to the people of Ypres in Belgium.

Night after night, almost uninterrupted every night since 1928, even during German occupation in World War II, they observe a Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate Memorial in gratitude for the Commonwealth soldiers who died in the surrounding countryside during World War I.

We were among about 1000 people from many different countries who stood in silence as the Last Post was played, and then as a bonus, a piper played the lament.

I thanked one of the men and told him it is an incredible tribute they are paying, night after night.

He replied, what they are doing is nothing compared to what the men they were remembering did.

“Known unto God”

Visiting war graves in France and Belgium is moving and sobering.

They are immaculately kept, thanks to the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

They are peaceful, in stark contrast to the noise and brutality that those buried there endured.

They are a tragic reminder to the tragedy of war and what so many sacrificed in the fight for freedom.

So many of the men who are buried there were so young – in their teens and early 20s.

Private V.J. Cameron of the Otago Regiment is one of them buried in the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery.

In World War I, soldiers didn’t have dog tags and many bodies were unable to be identified. Tomb stones for them have the inscription Known unto God.

Tyne Cot Cemetery: