After their manufactured manufacturing crisis, it comes as no surprise that yet another of Labour’s media stunts is backfiring.

In the same way you don’t hear Labour banging on about ‘the manufacturing crisis’ any more, you don’t hear David Shearer banging on about the number of Kiwis going to Australia anymore

And why is that?

In the year to the end of April New Zealand has seen a net migration gain of almost 4800 people, a two-year high, as more people arrive to live here long term than leave the country permanently.  Read more »

The Young Nats’ Mitchell Baker has a great remit at the National Party Northern Region Conference this weekend, calling for the repeal of Section 97 of the Employment Relations Act 2000. Section 97 was bought by the union funders of the Labour Party, to give them disproportionate power in contract negotiations.

Section 97 was unprecedented. It did the following:

1.    Removed the right for employers to use others, including volunteers, management and workers from other divisions during strikes.

2.    Allowed Unions to hold primary production operations to ransom, knowing that no labour in a milk factory meant millions of dollars a day of wasted milk.

3.    Removed the right for employers to test the market to determine if union demands are fair.

Unions bought this legislation to skew the playing field in their favour and put business at a disadvantage. New Zealand has had labour related legislation for over 100 years, prior legislation including that passed by previous Labour governments has never had anything like Section 97. There was no prohibition on use of replacement labour in The Employment Contracts Act 1991, or its predecessors, the Labour Relations Act 1987, the Industrial Relations Act 1973, the Industrial Relations Act 1949, the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1925 or 1908.

Unions are good at buying legislation mainly because no one on the right is ever willing to call it for what it is.

This is very different from the way Labour squeals like a little girl over things like Sky City’s convention center.

National should follow Mitchell Baker’s lead and man up to the enemy rather than running away from them the moment they squawk.

Parekura Horomia’s replacement is being chosen for the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by election. Word from the electorate is that there is a very nasty stitch up going on to ensure the nasty faction candidate wins and the locals get shafted.

The nasty faction favored candidate is Shane Taurima, and there are a surprising group of unpleasant, unelectable people behind him committing the kind of sins that hasn’t been seen in a selection since the skullduggery in the Rodney selection was outed by this blog.

In the thick of things are some very unpleasant people, including Sue Moroney and Carol Beaumont and the rest of Labour’s women’s caucus. They are being joined by union heavy Paul Tolich who is one of the best practitioners of low bastardry in New Zealand politics.  Read more »

Finally a Catholic Archbishop has admitted that the church helped cover up the activities of pedophile priests.

Now if only more bishops would be so honest the church might be able to start to recovery from their awful legacy of protecting ratbag priests.

MELBOURNE archbishop Denis Hart has admitted the crimes of pedophile priests were covered up by former long-time Melbourne archbishop Frank Little, who dealt with complaints confidentially, kept no records and moved offending priests to new parishes.

In a three-hour interrogation by a Victorian parliamentary inquiry, it was also revealed Archbishop Hart last year warned the Vatican of the possibility of a “scandal for the faithful” if it did not defrock a pedophile priest.

Archbishop Hart also said the church would support the extension of mandatory reporting to ministers of religion, except for the sanctity of the confessional.  Read more »

Most people know my feelings about politicians and social media. Either be good at it or go home. Trevor Mallard is just cringe-worthy, and then you have Judith Collins who has actually grasped the concept of Twitter.

It is no use senior advisors whinging about activities of politicians on Twitter when paid party consultants attend caucus and implore MPs to “engage” with voters via Twitter. Bitching about their screw ups or sledging or even poor messaging is pointless when you are the ones who set the cat amongst the pigeons in the first place.

This post at The Telegraph properly explains Twitter and politicians.

I shudder to think what would have happened if we had been armed with Twitter. Politically, the micro-blogging site has become a weapon of mass destruction. Where Alastair Campbell complained about the drumbeat of the 24-hour news channels, Mr Cameron must contend with the minute-by-minute verdict of social media, where his performances and policies are scrutinised, judged and discarded instantly.  Read more »

The Young Nats have a remit up at the Northern Region conference calling for the repeal of Section 97 of the Employment Relations Act, 2000.

This Act was bought by the unions who funded the 1999 campaign for Labour, and their money bought them Section 97. Section 97 removed the right for employers to replace striking workers with temporary labour, giving massive power to unions, especially over some of New Zealand’s biggest primary production industries.

How it works is meat or dairy processes have massive amounts of raw product coming during the peak of the milk or killing season. The unions know this, and know that a strike at peak times will cost businesses millions. So they wait until the worst possible moment for the business and call a strike with an extortionate demand.  Read more »

No one really likes Green politicians…not even Kangaroos.

A startled kangaroo knocked an Australian politician to the ground and clawed his leg after its morning graze on a suburban lawn was interrupted by the jogging lawmaker.  Read more »

There is an old saying that when you are young you ar a socialist, and then you grow up. Unfortunately some take a long time to realise that socialism doesn’t work. But when a socialist finally realises just how bad socialism is…well much hilarity ensues.

The Venezuelan opposition on Monday released a recording of what it says is a conversation between Mario Silva, a prominent Venezuelan television host and a favorite of the late Hugo Chávez, and a Cuban intelligence officer, in which Silva details a feud within the government between Chávez loyalists and Diosdado Cabello, the president of the National Assembly.

In the conversation with Aramis Palacios, a lieutenant colonel in the G2, the Cuban intelligence agency, Silva, the host of the state television program “La Hojilla,” describes a government deeply divided against itself, with rival factions competing for power amid rampant corruption.

The conversation was allegedly recorded for the benefit of Cuban President Raúl Castro, but its authenticity has not been independently verified. Writing on Twitter, Silva dismissed the recording as a Zionist plot.  Read more »

Proverbs 22

¹⁴The mouth of an immoral woman is a dangerous trap; those who make the LORD angry will fall into it.