The Guardian Political Review issue53,~pring2007 Produced by Guardian Publishing on behalf of the N.Z. Democratic Party for social credit, PO Box 18-907, New Brighton, Christchurch 8641 TeUFax: 07 829 5157. Email: nzdp,inc@xtra.co.nz Website: www.democrats.org.nz Editor: Tony Cardy, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400. TeUFax: 03 434 5523. E-mail: cardy@callsouth.net.nz
EDITORIAL Sharing the vision
he 2007 Annual Conference of Democrats for social credit was "a good humoured and buoyant affair",
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Five years ago at the same venue, delegates chose to break away from their existing political alliance in order to become, once again, an independent political party. But was this the correct decision? Retaining the "status-quo" held out the hope of regaining Democrat representation in parliament. But subsequent events proved that this would not have been achieved and, in all probability, the party name and its principles would have been subsumed past the point of no return.
As it is, the name and policies of the transformed Democrats for social credit are now receiving wider public recognition and the longer-term goal of parliamentary representation is not an impossible dream. The Reverend Canon Peter Challen sees a plan unfolding: 'Democrats for social credit are an important part of the challenge to the serfdom of the status quo.. .inproviding and communicating a model of a new economy." (p.5 )
In its editorial, a major newspaper stated: The Democrats for social credit are promoting afresh the financial reforms that have been a core element of their policies for more than half a century. IP-4) The South Pacific News Service commented "the Democrats for social credit are engaged in a revitalisation and rejuvenation
process", and referred to submissions being made by the party. fp.4)
The Submission to the Independent Inquiry into Local Government Rates was reproduced in our last issue. Prepared by deputy leader and finance spokesman, John Pemberton, it was given feature coverage in The National Business Review. According to this establishment publication: "The most unorthodox submission to the select committee on housing affordability comes from Democrats for social credit, which promotes its theory of community credit". (p.26)
The latest Submission to the Independent Inquiry into the future monetary policy framework by John in co-operation with vice-president Katherine Ransom, is another "outstanding document" @.ID) And the widely-read national publication, The NZ Listener, has published a letter from Katherine on "NZ's Way to Wealth", spelling out the real cause of our economic woes and giving the solution that would "transform New Zealand into a world-leading example of democracy, equality and prosperity'. Significantly, the status of the author was given for all to see: 'Wee President, Democrats for Social Credit". (p.6 )
In 2002, the then newly-elected leader Stephnie de Ruyter said "it takes confidence in our beliefs to step out from the shadows and into the spotlight of public scrutiny. It's time to share our vision."
CONTENTS
- Editorial - Leader's message - Media reports - Rev Canon Peter Challen 6 - Dick Ryan + Submission 7 - Conference report 8 - News & views 9 - The case against fluoridatton 10 - Newsroom 11 - David Tranter 12 - Dr Robert Anderson 13 KIwISaver or KiwlScammer? 14 - The NZ Monetarist Revolution 2 3 4 5
Guardian Politlwl Review, Issue 53. 2007 -Page 2
15 - Richard C. Cook 16 Ditto + World News 17 Have your say 18 Reviews 19 The Modern Universal Paradigm 20 Not Yet Equal
21 - Obituaries 22 - In the Land of the Emperor 23 - Whitmill's World (1) 24 - Whltmlll's World (2) 25 - News Bites + Notice Board 26 - News Bites (2) 27 - News Bites (3) 28 - Back cover Conference photos
LEADER'S MESSAGE
An independent future By Stephnie de Ruyter Leader, Democrats for social credit
ensuring the completion of necessary infrastructure projects a& and when they are needed, A full and thorough explanation offhe C o m i t y Credit Programme was included. 'The Inquiry was urged to request the government to source locsil authority capital fending utilising the RBNZ instead of commercial trading bacte. The The report's authofs claim that DSC submission offered a "this is a report that creates an The Democrats for social credit f o W d looking, practical, simple agenda for change". I hope it sulutim t o a key driver flfrates does nothing of the sort: my rates- submission offered a forward increases-It wasn't rocket bill is high enough already. The 96 recommendations contained in looking, practical, simple solution science, but it was a sound, workable alternative. tile report include: proposals for user-Bays charges for water, private sector Instead, the Pahd has produced a report which involvement in funding infrastructure such as roads, advocates the use of the same tire& .failed policies of more flat charges for services, increasing the local the purveyors of right wing. market-driven authority petrolem tax, and removing the business, differential for rates. The report states that "the panel economics. The challenge for the LabourProgressives Government will be in resisting the does not support removing GST on rates". It also r&mmm& %&hg more me of &bt to finance temptation to act in accordance with the report's long-term assets (including mfi-astructorfi bonds)". r&mmendaknsb Ratepayers struggling with an increasing rates burden will hope that this report is filed away somewhek dark and inaccessible. The PanePs chairman, David Shand, spent eight
he Independent Local Government Rate^ Inquiry panel released its report in August It provoked a brief flwry of media attention, a few mild comments Ă‚ÂĽfro local authorities and an audible, collective sigh of disappointment from ratepayers.
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years as a public financial managemhit specialist for the World Bank and the IMF so I suppose it should
New Zealand i s an island nation. W e ark in die position of being able to set our own standards, determine our own direction and live according to our beliefs without unduly affecting any other nation. We can make our own roles. Out geographical The Democrafsfor social credit submission to the isolation liberates us: we can please ourselves, and courageously in our own best interests. Inquiry was comprehensivfc It cded for the removal of GST on rates. It fully explored the benefits of Unlike the Local Government Rates Inquiry report, cenwal government enabling local authorities to borrow interest-&^ money ftom the Reserve Bank, Democrats for social cfkdit monetary reform policies thereby reducing the cost of new projects, virtually give New Zdsndeis the freedom to choo* an eknhating htergener&tional debt, reducing rates and independent future.
as no surprise that the report has a strong flavour of tfae "structural adjustment" policies promoted by those organisations. GOIW
Monetary woes BEWILDERED, BOTHERED and bedevilled by excessive interest rates and a rampant Kiwi dollar, mortgaged home-owners and exporters alike wiIl be looking for answers and solutions from a parhmntary committee's proposed investigation into the nation's future monetary pdicy, for which sub~issionsclose next Thursday, It is a big ask for the finance and expenditure select committee; one which will not only test the mettle of its chairman, Labour's up-and-coming Shme Jones* but will ultimately show whether the Beehive has a grip on the problem. The pressure i s political as well as econodc, and is hardening at different points of the spectrum, New Zea-
code of fiscal responsibility she initiated and introduced in 1994, and the Democrab for Social Credit are promoting afresh the financial reforms that have been a core element of their policies for more than half a cmtuy. With New Zealand's inkrest rates reputably the highest in the OECDy it is inarguable that foreign investors wiI1 shun a 2%return iq say, Japan for 8% here. Latching on to these concerns, Democrats for Social Credit leader Stephnie de Ruyter told her party's annual conference last weekend that ''the Reserve Bank governor has lost his way* the Minister of Finance is wearing blinkms, and the Government lacks the poIitica1 will to do anything mean-
Housing affordabiliw crisis looms By N W E McMILIAN in Wellington
CONCERN among younger people at the affordability of housing is stirring fresh interest h social credit monetary policies, judging by last weekend's annual conference of the Democrats for Social Credit politicd party. Debate was conspicuow for its frequent references to housing issuesy I d e r Stephnie de Ru@r tald the Greymouth Star in a pst-conference interview. It W&9 U p p m O S t h the ~GlUlTtHlb0f younger people, m y of whom had come into the pany as independent thinkers who were inspired by party activists. 'They're in the age bracket where they've got their quaIifications and student loans md are q i n g to establish themselves within their comunities. "Thefre struggling to buy a house and are r d y nervous about the sort of money fiey need to borrow;" Ms de Ruyter said. The issue coincides with submissiom being made by the party on housing aBordabiliQ, the 1maI body rates inquiry and a parliamentary committeels invwtigation into housing policy. "Though the current political arena is crowded with parties jostling for voter support, our core message of monetary
justice has a relevance which is unprecedented in recent years," she said. 'The Resefie Bank governor has lost his way, the Minister of Finance is wearing lslinkm, md the Govemmt lack the political will to do anything meaningfbl about the growing disparity between those who have plenty and those in need." It was because government ministers failed to understand the cause of inflation that they were unable to address it, she said.
The housing affordability "crisis"was a key issue for the conference guest s p e a k , Colin Whitmill, secretary of the UK Christian Council for Monetary Justice, who said it was depressing to see a &ancia1 system excluding the next gen-
go to Australia as
a refuge h m e m -
nomic failure. Social Credit has been part of New Zealand's political scene far more than half a century, for much of that time as the nation's third politicd party and, in its hey-day, had two members of Pariiament. As part of the Jim Anderton-led Alliance until 2002, former leader John Wright served a term as a parliamentary
under-secretary. Having polled abysmlly in 2005, the
Democrats for Social Credi~are engaged in a revitalisation and rejuvenation process; Ms de Ruyter said membership was not only growing but developing a younger base and the party was asse-rich. ''No matter what anybody says, Social Crediters h o w about money." Next year's election seemed l h l y to be particularly dificul t for parties o u ~ i d e
eration of New Zealanders fiom ever owning their own homes. I1The govemifig parties in efWt have become the architects of class division Parliament, since the foundations had where none previously existed." Mr Whit- been laid for an exclusively Labourmill said ideas which were promoted to Nationd contest, overcome housing and other problems foT h e party had yet to decide whether to cused on beating symptoms other h n contest constituencies as we11 as list seats causes. but a campaign planning team was workWithout fundamental correction of the ing at "h1l throttle1'. ~ m system, c younger ~ people would South Pac~ficNews SetGm, G r e y ~ ~ uStar t h lWIO7
The plan unfolds Message from Rev Canon Peter Challen U.K. Christian Council for Monetaty Justice
Please express to all at the Democrats fur social credit conference my best wishes, and those of the participants at the London Global Table, for a productive, enjoyable and friendly gathering in conference. In these days of growing d i s p a r i ~between those who have plenty and those in need, the cause of monetary justice for a11 must be upheld by those concerned to see right prevail.
Although it may not seem evident in New Zealand, there is a growing trend towards questioning the current financial system. It is a worldwide movement now and those in the DSC are an important part of this challenge to the serfdom of the status quo. As the sense of foreboding reaches more people everywhere, attention to our ability to provide an agency for practical change is evidentiy increasing.
In providing and communicating a model of a new economy New Zealand's DSC has a unique opportunity 10 make a global impression.
England expects that every New Zealander will respond to Democmfsjor s o c i d credit in the light of the inspired renewal and energetic strategy that emanates f k m this conference!
Go well in your hard talking and in mutual creative tolerance - as the plan ~mfolds. Peter F o o h ~ t e : It is hoped tho! Rev Canon Peler Cl?ullen wiii visil New Zeaiund uguin in ApriI 2008
Democrats Eor social credW Leademhlp: badw
Stephnle de Ruytw PO Box 18 907, New Brighton, Chrjstchurch 8641 Ph/Fw 09 382 9544 Mobile 027 a2 Email: ~ e r @ d l s o u ~ Oeputy Leader John Pemberton FU Box 402 Matarnata 3440. Ph 07 888 8664, Mobile 021 716 8g5.
Executive:
Party President
Neville Atchison PO Box 25424 Epsom, Auckland Mobile 021 366 553, Emaii: &&son@xtra.co.nz Vice-president Katherine Ransom, PO Box 402 Matamata 3440.Ph 07 888 8564 Mobile 027 471 6891 Email: k a t r a n s o m B s l i n ~ Northern Region John Rawson Lookout Hill, No. 8 RD, Whangarei 0178. Ph 09 438 9265. Email: j.arawson@holmail.m North Show Region Barton Evans. PO Box 65-077 Mairangi Bay. North Shore City 0754. Ph Og 478 7624, Email: h-dam-
Guardian Poli!ical Review - Issue 53, 2007 - Page 5
Executive Contact List
Auckland Regiion C/o Neviile Aitchison PO Box 26-624 Epsom, Auckland. Mobile: 021 366 553<Email:: n a i t c h i s o n @ x t r a . ~ Waikata Region Les Port 21a Herschel Street, Ngaruawahia 3720, Ph 07 824 5096, Mobile 021 725 791.
Party Secretaty
Mark Atkin 5 Tarras Grove, Lower Hutt 5010 Ernail: v a l h a l l a @ p ~ ~
Ex Ofticio Positions 'Guardian' Editor Tony Cardy (refer Southern Region President entry for detaiis) Secrehrlal Support Margaret Hook 393 Marychurch Rd, No. 4 R.D.? Hamilton 3284 Ph 07 829 5157, Email: nzd~,inc@xtra.co.nz
Email: ~ @ w d a f o n e . n e t . n z Eastern Reglon John PembeMn PO Box 402, Matamata 3440. Ph 07 888 8564, Mobile 021 736 895, Emall: slinashot.co.nz WebsitshnmmbWestern Region Committee Conveners Heather M. Smith Finance Commlttea 14 Broughton St, Wanganui East 4500. David Wilson PhIFax 06 343 3038 PO Box 60 Paparoa 0543 Ph 09 431 7004 Fax 09 Wellington Region 431 8615 Email: w~lsondf@xtraco.nz Mary Weddell Pollcy Committee 57 Shakespeare A v q Upper Hull 5018. Charles S i k l l Ph 04 971 7143 Fax 04 914 2405 Mobile 021 701 598. Ernail: ~ e l l 6 Q a r a d i s e . n e t . n ~ 26 Hillcrest Road, Hamilton 3216. Ph 07 856 6332 Mobile 021 060 8021 CanterburyWest Coasflasrnan Reglan Email: csitwell@xtra.co,nz Ray Palmer Constitution Committee 57 East Belt, Rangiora 7400 Ph 03 313 851 3 Neville Aitchison FBX03 313 8583 Email: ray,veny@xh.co,nz (refer President's entry for details) Southern Region Campaign Planning Team Tony Cardy Stephnie de Ruyter 26 Warren Street<Oarnaru 9400. PhlFax: 03 434 5523 Ernail: t x r d v @ ~ l l s o u I h ~ (refer Leade& entry for dehils)
wrong direction. As we Democrats h o w ONLY too well, and the Economic Submission makes ONLY too clear, the ONLY solution is a fundamental change of our socio-economic system. What we actua1Iy get is the same idiotic mantra we have had to listen to far too often, The medicine isn't workiig - so what we need is more of the same potionc'- that is killing the body politic! Worst of all, the main medicine is Market Forces, we11 hown and e q d y well practised in doing absolutely stuff all for society. Where are the profits in social cohesion or communiQ wellbemg? As a result this lunatic system will plan for measurable quantity but ignore ethereal quality. Lately I glanced at a futures booklet I wrote for the P m over twenty years ago. 1 am somewhat hstrated ta find that this antiquated document could be reprinted today, without amendment and would stilt stand as an up to date and feasible utopia for NZ. Qn the options matrix in Economics, Theregsno stapptng pragress- yeah right h t e m t i o d Relations, Environment, and Society; 1 included ways in which NZ COULD move, HAS BEEN moving, What a pity that Joh Pemberton and Katherine Ransom's SHOULD NUT move and sensibly WOULD move. Regrettaexcellent paper 'Subrniwwn: lnq&y into the fitwe moneimy bly we are 6tiU marching in the same wrong direction p01iqJmmewmk' will not be read by the people who need it. -one can put no store in the next election changing the Specifically by the Minister of Finance, who signed a response Country's leadership from a duplicitous traitor (scrapping the to a Democrat's ki-annual quew, stating that bmks ody lend Air Force and introducing GE)and putting us in the hands of their customers' deposits. an ex-money ttader. What is clew is that as we continue down One has to wonder how it is that the majority are wedded to the mil of larger scale, higher produ~tion,greater allegiance mnventional lore when all around them sociev's mores slip. and higher energy, so we rn ever M e r away h r n the ideal Whenever I am stirred to comment adverseIy - that the of an anticipatory participatory democracy. economic Emperor is naked - or that we have been joined by a So it is goodbye for another genefaiim to the happy State 4 huge wustainab1e heffalump sitting in our greenhouse - 1 am where EVERYONE might feel they are an mtrinsic part of it. told 'You can't stop progress, Dick.' Oh - so that's what this is! Dkk Ryan of Ket-ikerl Is a former Royal Navy a d Roy& New Zealand Damaged en~ironmen& depleted resources, falling quality of Navy o # c e ~D l d r of the Commission far the Fotum, and former D e m o a t Deputy Leader and Spokespemn for Defence and FomigtI life, eroding cohesion, and social problems acceLerating, yet I A f f a k He Is a past Director for the QE I / National Tmt end currently suppose one could argue that all these items are progressing. an advkoty ~rusteeof The Prince3 Trust N.Z. The only problem being that they are a11 progressing in the
Submission to the Independent Inquiry into the future monetary policy framework JUIY 2007
INTRODUCTION
Democrats for social cmdii (DSC)welcome the opportunity to mahe this submission on the bture of New Zealand's monetary p o k y framework. It has been obvious to us for many years that
the techniques promulgated by orthodox economists, from the left or the right, do not work for the best interests of a modern society. It comes as no surprise that the experts are baffled; of a wide variety of tools and instruments used to tinker with the emnomy, none has been more than slightly successful at sustainable. Current monetary policy drives the 'boom and bust" cycles, at best hinderlng healthy economic gram and at worst damaging the economy irrevocably. Recent attempts to correct economic difficulties with blunt instruments such as the Ofncial Cash Rate are a case in point. In short, current monetav polity is falling New Zeatand, as evidenced by:
Crushing consumer and commercial debt, The widening gap between rich and poor,
0 Mounting social distress, Environmentat damage,
Share market fluctuations, Currency instability driving companies overseas, and
Commercial banks undemlning and even usurping the rote of the Resei-v~Bank. The world wide nature of inflation suggests that stable prices will prevail only when different policies whkh arise from an unorthodox theoretical base are applied.
"An outstanding document'' The extract above is the inbductow first page of a 25-page submission. A print-wt of the full document is available free on request from Demmmts for sodat cmdit, PO Box 18-907 New Brighton, Chistchurch 0641 or download from ~ . d e m o c ~ ~ . o m + ~ F l l e s ~ u b m i ~ i o n s / ~ b M o n P o l 1 7 - 0 7 . d o c
Stephnie de Ruyter comments: "Thissuhmfsshm is an oufshnding document and m e of which we can a# be proud, thanks to the e f i r t s of John Pembe&n, Deputy Leader and Finance Spokesman, assisted by W e r i n e Ransom, Vice President anti Social Issues Spokesperson.".
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Guardian PolMwl Review, l s u a 53.2007 Page 6
As I saw it The 2007
Democrafs for sociai credit Annual Conference A report by Colin .I Whitmill (abridged)
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was good to once again attend.a social credit based conference after some twelve years' absence.
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The party - because of its fatal dalliance with the AlIiance group of parties and h e loss of its identi@ - no longer enjoyed the political recognition it once had. But the message is still relevant - and even more so with the parlous state o f the NZ economy. As usual the Conference acknowledged the passing of former loyal and active members including the h t party secretary based in Wellington, Oliver Marks. Other names were recognised and their presence would be missed. What was surprising for me was the number of young people present and participating. Percentage-wise it was the highest 1 have seen at m y conferences. .They ceriainly made their presence felt in the campaign planning focus groups. It was also heartening to see new members attending. R e President commented that with bright young people present, long-
"A fine example of front Ilne public activism" David Tranter enjoys a coffee break with Margo Chandler-Wal[
standing members could look forward ta a bit more energy to drive the boat foward. It was not the name of the organisation that mattered, but the work behind it. When it did come to the proposal to change the party name fiom the Democrats for social credit to Social Credit there were some cogent arguments in favour, but the view that we can't keep on changing names domiuated by 72% of those voting. Of the main addresses, John Pernberton Guardian Pol/!ica/ Revlaw, Issue 53,2007 - Page 7
"A good humoured and buoyant affair" Colin wnkrnill (foreground] gives serious consideration to one of the remits.
proposed replacing the Reserve Bank with a Monetary Authority of New ZeaLand while David Tranter was given the opportunity to explain and illustrate his activities on behalf of others. It was noted that David is a fine exumple of front h e public activism in defence u/' h e vulnetwble, the mistreared ut~dthe wronged Campaign planning focus groups provided all who wished to have input and there were some excellent proposals nade. The election for oficers saw Neville Aitchkon and Stephnie de Ruyter returned as President and Leader respectively with 93% and 98% support. Katherine Ransom was elected Vice President with 87% support while John Pemberton pipped David Wilson to the position of Deputy Leader by a narrow margin. In an address, Katherine Ransom said that community was the parly's starting point and skength. Members needed to get out and do ihings; to stop and talk with people because they cared; to be involved and listen to neighbours and speak to them of social justice to which they could relate. Ron Harsant introduced a Disability Policy document drawing policy together from various parts of the policy register. This well-received paper illustrated how comprehensive an approach the pmty had had over previous years. The Conference endorsed a proposal horn the leader that she chair a Leader's Commission comprising a group of the party's younger mernbem and supporters
reposition the party and its message in the public domain. to consider how to
In conchsion, Stephnie de Ruyter believed the Conference had been a ~ -ood humoured and buoyant affair.
And with that I agreed. Phalas by Kfltherine Reflmm
'What was surprising for me was the number of young people present and participating." HereEBrathan Balsom participates wlth his mother, Kelly.
John Kilbride is a long-time member of Democmfs for social cfedit, having stood as a candidate on numerous occasions from I975 onwards. In 1981 he gained over 34% of the votes cast in the Waipa electorate and came dose to unseating the slttlng MP, Marilyn Waring.
1988 to hold I00 per cent of the shares
in Trust Bank Waikato. In 1996 the trust John Kilbride has just been appointed as the chair of Tmst Waikato, a body responsible for hamling out millions of dollars to Waikato groups each year. He was appointed to h e Trust in 2002 by the Minister of Finance and is part way through his second term Last year, Trust W h t o provided around $8.6 million do1lm to more than 1100 groups. "It is huge ($8.6 million] but our area covers from the West Gast to Taumwui, Tokoroa and over to the Corommdd and up to Te Kauwhah, so its a big area,'' John said. . The Trust was formed by statute in
sold its s h e s for $156 million and exited the banking world. The investment has grown to approximately $230 d i m since then; despite h e fact the bust has given around $80 million back to the c o m w @ . This year, the Trust is expected to give away mother $8 million. The Trust h d s communiQ works, but will not h d anything the government should fund, such as education or health, John said. If the school has a facility that is available to the public, a gymnasium for e x m p k , the trust will Iook at helping out. Trust Waikato has
already given Hospice Wakato $300,000. One of the best things about being a trustee is seeing how many groups are involved in the community,John said. "It's quite m experience r d y , there's a whole army out there doing things for other people for no financial reward that brings you back to earth."
John came to Cambridge in 1960 to take over the family farm in h n t w o o d He describes himself as "semi-retired1', but John and his wife Moira still own a dahy farm nearby and John's d e on the Trust takes up a reasonalde amount of time, too. Cambridge Edition I 1/7/07 ( ~ X P U C I )
Damien 0'Connm1sstatement. "We need to refurn to such an a p p m c k Post O f h e savings accounts, administemd thmugh schoals, whhh encawaged from an eady age, regular lifelong savings", would be mom convincing if it wasn't linked to pmnothg Kiwiaver. Gewng a one-uif "gift" h m government and putling it into the stockmarket jungle Is more akin to encouraging gambllng than promoting thrift by saving pocket money and seeing It amumulate. Add to this the warnings that we now have a sjmilar wodd-wide financial situation to thal pm&ing the 1929 stockmarket crash and WwiSaver is dearly not the wonder some would have us believe. Of course people have the righi ta grab Cullen's $1,000 if they wish, but pmmoting the scheme WIWIOU~ spelling out b many snags is extremely mlsleadlng. Quita apari from this aspect , Mr. O'Connots reference to %pare cash to be saved rather than spenr will raise wry smiles - and possibly hackles - amongst the many New Zealandem on meagre Incomes who have to borrow merely to survive. And as wntributions from both employer and ernploy~eare based on percentages of people's pay It 1s clear that, even If the stockmarket holds tugether for a k w years, the gains will be greatest for those on higher incomes, In other words, Kiwisaver is designed as an upwards re-dlsb-ibution of wealth to the better off - and h l s in a country whme the increase in the rich+oor gap Is one of the highest in the devef~pedw o d d David Tranter, Democmts for Social Credit Medim Release 2/8/07
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1 BUREAUCRAT
DEMOCRAT
An original billboard suggestion by Carolyn McKenzie ftm one of the Conference fo~us-groupsessions
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Guardian Political Reviewa 1s.we 53,2007 Page 8
The case against fluoridation By Dr Bruce Spittle
Democds for social credit
Submitted to The Otago Daily Times 11/7/07 and reproduced with the permission of the author
A layperson attending diligently to the
of silicofluoride treated water combined information available about fluoridation with chlorine or chlorarnine has been over the past year would be hard put not found to elevate the blood lead in to vote for it in the upcoming referenda. children causing cognitive impairment, reduced impulse control, and increased Fluoridation has been endorsed by the susceptibility to dental caries. mayors in Waitaki, Clutha, Central Otago, and Queenstown-Lakes(ODT, In the USA violent crime statistics 7.1 1.06), the Otago District Health Board correlate with exposure to silicofluoride and the World Health Assembly of the treated water probably due to lead World Health Organization ( O m , intoxication or the inhibition of a brain 2.7.071, the Medical Officer of Health enzyme acetyl-cholineskrase. A 2006 and the Senior Public Health Dentist study -from Harvard University has found (letter to the DCC, 6,3,07), and the dean a 5 to 7 fold increase in osteosarcorna, a of the University of Otago School of bone cancer, in young men associated Dentistry (Dental Centenary, Sunday with exposure to fluoridated water during several areas any increase in morning with Chris Laidlaw, Radio NZ the ages 6-8 years. The late John decay rates occurring.For the whole of National, 1,7.07). Colquhoun asked teeth You the South Island in 2004 and 2005 there had to save to justify one person dying What then is the case against was no difference of note between the from bone cancer. fluoridation? It is unethical, 12-vear-olds in the fluoridated unsafe and ineffective. areas and the nonfluoridated "What then is the case against fluoridation? a-ans No conclusions can be Except in unusual circumstances a doctor must It isunethical,unsafeandineffectiven drawnabouttheeffectivenessof fluoridation unless other variables obtain the consent of a patient such as socioeconomic status and before medication is administered to A 2006 507-page report Fluoride in them. Drinking Water by the National Research disadvantage are controlled for. In 2004 a study by Armfield and Spencer in What makes it right for a city council, Council in the USA identified many Australia showed that there was no research studies in which animals or without medical qualifications, to longer a significant difference in dental humans drinking water close to 1 part administer forced medication to a whole decay between fluoridated and per million had, adverse health effects community without their consent? nonfluoridated areasincluding moderate dental fluorosis Prior to fluoridation starting in (chalky white patches on the teeth), bone The Precautionary Principle requires Dunedin in 1967 a majority rejected it in fractures, decreased thyroid function, that where there is doubt about safety the a referendum. Whereas chlorination treats impaired glucose tolerance, brain cell benefit of the doubt must be given to the water, fluoridation involves using the damage, lowered IQ in children, those likely to be adversely affected. The water as a vehicle to administer fluoride Alzheimer-like symptoms, kidney unethical, unsafe, and ineffective nature to treat the persons consuming the water. damage and arthritis. of fluoridation is clear to me but many The dose of fluoride given in this way is will not be able to accept this and may Robert Carton found that when the not controlled but is dependent on how well ridicule these views. However effects on the thyroid, joints, and brain much the person consumes. "No George Bernard Shaw declared, "All were considered there was no room for allowance is made for the 1% who are great truths begin as blasphemies" and a adding any fluoride to water. Dental allergic to fluoride or those with German philosopher Arthur Schopenfluorosis now affects many children and inadequate dietary iodine. hauer submitted that "All truth passes in November 2006 the American Dental In effect it is forced medication through three stages: first it is ridiculed, Association recommended that because expensive reverse osmosis or second it is violently opposed, third it is fluoridated water not be used to mix distillation equipment is required to accepted as being self-evident." infant formula because of the risk of remove the fluoride rather than a simple dental fluorosis. Where are mothers The citizens of Otago would do well charcoal water filter. Some restriction of supposed to find nonfluoridated water? to adopt the motto of its University, individual liberty for the good of the Sapere Aude, and have the courage to Fluoride accumulates in the pineal community may be appropriate if the think for themselves rather than to gland in the brain, affecting melatonin restriction is both safe and effective, as blindly follow the recommendations of with wearing seatbelts, but fluoridation is production, and has been associated in those in authority. animal studies with the earlier onset of neither safe nor effective. Or Spittle Is the Dunedln-based Managing sexual maturity. It is nonsensical to swallow a Editor of 'Fluoride - the Journal of the Fluoridation delays the eruption of International Society for Fluoride Research. substance that is considered to act teeth so that they are exposed for a topically. This is equivalent to Comment by Albert W Burgstahler, Professswallowing sunblock to prevent sunburn. briefer time to the factors leading to or Emeritus, University of Kansas, U.S.A. decay. Nowadays the evidence of any Your article will certainly help readers cut The chemical used in Dunedin to benefit is statistically weak and may no through the flimflam end shaltowness of knowlfluoridate, sodium silicofluoride, has not edge and thinking exMited by their dected longer be clinically signif~cant. been tested for health safety as a water officials and health authorities about water Fluoridation has been stopped in fluoridation. fluoridation agent. The chronic ingestion
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Guardian Political Review, Issue 63,2007 - Page 9
In addition file rm& of GST from our t'fltes'wotildalso feduce the mflationflty driver curreatly inherent in the present structure. But wait, there's more A finarKaal tsansactions tax md a. land usage charge, as a replacement for tbe 'historic land value rating system, would be the icing on fee ratepay-' cake
Trevor Crosbie, Fairfield WfflkcttaTimes 24/7/07
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Monetary woes From (he party's heyday, when it haft Wo members of Parliament and was indisputably New Zealand's Aird largest politic?] party, Social Credit has slumped in public standing politically as well as in the acceptance and understanding of its financial theories. But (here is no denying people's recepfiriq to ideas, however tadid - teited or unt+ted ¥whe sufScientty aggrieved. It,is irrefutable that there are serious problems with. current monetary policy and its do-economic consequences and the challenge for S h e tones' committee and Helen Clark's &&try is to find a way b u g 4 die tangle of compelling and coatiattictory proposals being canvassed to find solutions sad allay public foots. Otttsft Daily Times editorial 16/7/07 Healing the system Seven decades ago, Micky Savage unveiled a new vision - no longer would the sick have to grovel for charity. Instead,the govenuneat would fund hospital care for all. But next montfa(hepoorand&k will beliningup for charity once again in New Zedand, at the Canterbm'y Charity Hospital, Hospital ctiaircnaa, PbiUp Bagshaw, says demand for operations-and specialist oonsultations from people turned by OW public hospitals "is massive, and it's growing". A world away, at quiet private; clinics where the rich ~t the well-tosured never have,to wait long, are another group who have found Michael Joseph Savage's 1938 prdmise of few universal health care badly wanting. Patients here are paying fat fees tea rapid attention from a fast-growingprivate medicine sector. Smslay Star-Times 15/7/07 But writ, there's more It is iron~cthat a former national politician, now Mayor, should be admittiBg the funding mechanism he defended whilst an MP is "Ultsustainable"~ When I sto^d-^H-Htoiiltoa-Weatin 1981/84 my message to the voters was fhat the debt based foundation of local authority/&tional fending was nflsustainabte. I thaok Mr Snncock fm finally Aicaitting that Social Credits analysis of the debt issue was correct The next step &r the politicians to take on board is that local and regnftod infrastructurfti funding should be provided-by an interest fiee facility througha properly sanctioned,MrftioMy answerable to Partianaenf, as Social Credit typposftd. Such a mechanism would ptovitje an opp&tunity to remove interest bearing debt. from the rating equation with obvious benefits to .afl ratepayers.
The prime cause Alan Bollafd's blaming "debt-laden households'*for current economic wofls. again shows that The mjor requirement to be goveroar of the Reserve Bank te the possession of aa incredible level of bats-faced cheek. The prime cause of household debt - and ultetnErtiopaleconomic problems is known to anyone who understands t(ie grew banking ripoff. It is the licence gownroents give to banks to create mqey out of nothing and then to charge usurious interest rates far pieces of paper which purport to represent assets which the banks simply do nut have. As. former U.K. Chancellor of the Excheqtier and Midland Bank chairman Reginald McKenna put it, "Tho& who create and issue mney aucL credit, direct the policies of government and hold in the h&w of their hands tile destiny of the people". Yet ttre governor of the Reserve Bank blames the people? David T ~ t e rHoIdtiba. , "The. Press, Wi07
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Speaking out may help cure health system David Tranter, a, promkeat speak-yourmind proponent, recently had this to say about the sick system: 'Â¥Recenculling of thousands of patients irocfl .surgery waiting lists because they cannot 'be offered treatment within six ~ionlibsis' awceeptebte for mots reasons than have been published by the media". He queriedthe use af the wcard "cull"in this context, calling it a stark indication of haw the
caring aspect of health trestatmt bad Ireen compromised under National's cCTpor&sa^on
of health management and Labow's continua-
tionofthatagenda. I was a shepherd, once. We culled sheep that were no longer pro$toUe. I get the feeling New Zealand's teed and infirm do tend to be categorised by health bureaucrats as ready fer
culling. Jack B~adsbaw~ Otogo Dimly Times 20/7/07
The scary thing The Clutfaa District Council will be holding a non-binding referendum on fluoridation of the drfaldng water with Qie October election. The, scary Bring that worries me is- what guaratttee do we have fbat, if there is a no vote, the council will take tiny notice of the
people's wishes. What happened with Ihe Dunedin referendma TW(S fhti people voted no but the council went ahead aad (Ed it anyhow. For this reason, I Will be standing for the Clittha District Council in the October ^teetion,
Colin Weathei'all, Milton Otago Daily Times 9/8/07 mitofs note: CoHn & a /on<~ewing member of Democrats forsoaiai credit.
A richer country The cover story outlined in detail what most of us already know: we work harder, smarter and longer for less, wwle a lucky few (dairy fanners,property speculators, entrepreneurs) strike it rich. We slip further down the odious comparison s W (OECD), alternating hmd-wrihgiagabout whafs wrong with pate of encouragement about how milieni we are to have survived this long. One item statute out like a beacon Trevor Mallard gave an interest-free loan to an up-and-coming FT company, What an excellent ideal The real cause of our economic woes is interest on credit (usury). It is immoral and inefficient It pushes up prices, destroys our environment for the sa)ss of profits apd sucks the wealth frpm this country faster than we can make it. Usury robs the productive"and rewards the son-productive. It was Once outlawed by all major religion? -as being unjust a& impoverishfog to the major-ty. No wonder we are sliding down-ward. We have the highest interfist rate in the world, and we do not need to charge interest,at all. The solution is so simple. Get offthe treadmill that is robbing the poor to give.to,the already rich. Give thepower to create money to the publicly owned Reserve; Bank, which will lend it into the economy interest~free - for firsthome ownership, capital works, environmental projects, a d to the trading banks for business investmenti Plus a bonus: no interest means DO inflation. Taken step by step, this modem scono'mic paradigm will n^asfonn New Zealand into a world-leading example tif democracy, equality and prosperity. Katherine Ransom Vice President, Democrats for Social Credit (Matamata) NZ Listener 1/9/07
Why I am standing again in District Health Board elections By David Tranter Health Spokesman, Democrats for social credit
F
ive years ago 1 resigned from the West Coast DUB when I was the only dissenting voice in a ten to one vote endorsing management's disgraceful decision to dump Hugh Bodle, one of the finest surgeons ever to have served the Coast - or any other area of New Zealand. Mr. Bodle spent 25 years at Grey Hospital and apart from being a very fine surgeon he was renowned throughout the community for being the surgeon who would go back late at night after a full day in the operating theatre to check on a patient he felt concerned about.
However, having learned a great deal
about DHB processes since then, and seeing the way corporatised management is systematically eroding the caring ethic of the health professions throughout New Zealand, I feel it's worth a last try on my part at least - to make another effort.
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I am also heartened by a number of community-minded people who are going to stand for the board ?is time, and since it appears that only one of the elected sitting members is going to stand - and the Auckland-based chairman is stepping down - maybe a new broom might have a chance of effecting some change.
As a board member I saw petitions from the Coast's G.P.s and nurses Of course, 1 run the risk that the voting backing Mr. Bodle and asking for him to public may say, "We voted for you before be retained. Those petitions were treated and you quit after a year", in which case, with contempt by management and the so be it - that's democracy. board as was the massive public support for him expressed in To me, one of the When the alternativeis continuing a torrent of letters to clearest indicators of corporatisation of what should be a the failure of DHBs the editor in local papers. service based on the ethic of helping to influence what is happening in the In a secret board those in need of care there's no choice ~ u b l i chealth service meeting before the is shown by the role played over the past public meeting at which the vote was six years by highly respected Christchurch taken the chairman pressured me to surgeon Philip Bagshaw. agree with the other members and informed me that if I publicly disagreed In standing down from the Canterbury with management I would be breaking the DHB board in 2004 Mr. Bagshaw law under the Health and Disability Act. I described the DHBs as "dysfunctional" did so - and nothing happened - but and that as a board member he had been coming after a year of utter frustration as unable to make any difference to what my fellow board members repeatedly happened. knuckled under to management agendas Subsequently Mr. Bagshaw has been a this despicable episode was the last straw prime mover behind the setting up of a for me. Mr. Bodle's worth was again charity-funded hospital in Christchurch to spelled out when the Ne!son+-Marlborough try to fill some of the gaps in the public DHB snapped him up to work for them as service, albeit he admits it will only be soon as he became available. able to help a small proportion of those Why was he dumped? In my view it who cannot access treatment in the public was nothing more than petty, internal, old- system. boy network politics which have emerged If that is not a stunning indictment of on the West Coast under Simon Upton's lunatic health management theories which the wasteful, post-1993, corporate mindset-afflicted public health system I have been continued under subsequent don't know what is. governments. So what can be achieved on the little So after a year of witnessing the West Coast board? farcical pretence of DHBs which amount to nothing more than a buffer to deflect criticism from government and to mbberstamp everything put before them by the Health Ministry and local corporate management, I felt unable to participate further in their moralSy and ethically bankrupt processes.
Clearly the corporate juggernaut has huge momentum and the effects of antagonising devoted health professionals over the past decade and a half may already have spelt the death knelt for the Coast's base hospital as a facility with extensive surgical services.
Having explained all that it must appear completely illogical to stand again for election to the same board.
With entire departments run by shortterm locums and little inducement other than money to keep staff here. the
Guardian PoStical Review, Issue 53, 2007 - Page 11
destruction of the traditional supportive smaller hospital environment is almost complete. But whatever lies ahead in that respect I still believe there is a vital role for a genuinely community-minded board in bringing health administration into the open (it is not unusual for half of the Coast board's monthly meetings to be held "in-committee") instead of the current spin-doctor approach which prevents people from knowing what is going on. Whatever the fate of the base hospital which, incidentally, is increasingly being added to for mental health patient accommodation (whatever happened to "deinstitutionalisation"?) primary health care must be retained and improved for the Coasfs far-flung population. It should not be forgotten that Karamea to Haast is roughly the same distance as Auckland to Wellington. Further, IF seven genuinely communityminded board members were elected (we may as well write off the governmentappointed members of the board who clearly take their orders from their political masters in Wellington and the local corporate office) and those elected members stuck together they may light a candle amidst the pervading gloom of dysfunctional DHB boards throughout the country,
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Call me a cock-eyed optimist but when the alternative is continuing corporalisation of what should be a service based on the ethic of helping those in need of care there's no choice.
COMMENT
Hello Pot, Kettle calling Contributed by Dr Robert Anderson
M
edia output of John Key outright falsehoods, it crosses the attacking David ~ e n s o n i ~ o ~ ethreshold into the politics of personal over fhe mysterious telephone destruction. The reasons politicians lie is call, made with or without his permission because the public do not want to hear to sack Madeleine Setchell, simply turned the truth. People want to hear what they my stomach. Key's extravagant rhetoric want to hear. When two candidates are seems to have gone amiss. The general running and one of them tells the truth wisdom in political circles is that the and the other says what the public wants those engaging in to hear, the one who says negative attacks are what the public wants to usually compelled to do hear usually wins the so because their internal election. Thus, if you numbers show their want to win an election candidate is getting no and there are exceptions traction; hence the need to to this - you better start go negative. lying, because the guy who is telling you the Nicki Hagar's excellent truth does not have a exposition, The Hollow chance. Men, clearly showed Brash's campaign recently In a perfect world crossed the Rubicon and politicians would not lie, entered the realm of . . .--..-ICE of half- When voters elect promoting half-truths, truths, deceits end outright - lies ~oliticianswho lie over deceits and outright lies. those who tell the truth The Exclusive Brethren's $1.2 million then the voters should not be surprised at campaign in support of National, the result. But in order for politicians to orchestrated with Don Brash and other tell the truth, people are going to have to senior National members,has been stop punishing honesty. Voters are going allowed to quietly die away. But it is to have to be ready to face the truth and likely that Key was also well aware of the hard decisions that politicians face in the Brethren's money flowing into passing fair laws that are good for the National's coffers. Yet, there he stands as people. Some issues are going to be bold as brass accusing Benson-Pope of tough- issues and require tough choices. similar crimes of deceit and lying. They will require a solution that is more Furthermore, what could be more childish complicated than just a slogan. So when than Key referring to Benson-Pope's someone runnine for election tells vou facial twitch, which reveals itself when the minister is under pressure. This kind of spiteful childish rhetoric should clearly show a man not fit to lead any political party intending to run a country. There is an obvious pattern here. Politicians seem to think they have carte blanche to say anything that gets them elected, while feeling no obligation to abide by the truth and their campaign promises. So it is no surprise that history is repeating itself. The characters come and go but the underlying script remains the same. Campaign literature usually promotes the sponsoring candidate while detracting from their opponent.That is considered fair game in politics and voters understand that candidates will embellish their qualifications while belittling their opponent. But when a campaign distorts the truth and promotes Guardian P0;itical Review, Issue 53, 2007- Page 72
do the job they were hired to do? We elect people to do a job, Our 'leaders' really are not leaders as much as public servants. They work for us. They are our employees. And we need to keep reminding them of that to keep them in their place, They get paid to do a job, and that job is to wisely spend taxpayer's money and to pass laws for the benefit of society as a whole. We must start to judge politicians only on the basis of how good a job they do, MPs need to get the message loud
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and clear the time for action is now Let's make sure they do
doing what we hired him to do. It is time to chop down the pedestal and put these people to work on matters that are increasingly criticaL to world survival. Global climate change and the coming shortages of oil will require radical and drastic changes to our society. We need politicians working hard towards preparing for that time not acting as 'Hollow Meny bickering to gain points over the opposing Party. Ideally, it is time when, like the onset of the second world war, we require a coalition government to work. together at war time speed. MPs need to get the message loud and clear - the time for action is now. Let's make sure they do.
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on its own, listen to them. What should we expect 'from our politicians? Should we expect moral perfection? Or should we expect them to
Apocalypse' (on genetic engineering technology), The Ultimate War Crime' (about depleted uranium weapons), and 'At What Cost?' (on she modem banking - reviewed in Issue 49 of The - system " Guw-dian Political Review).
Its official; Politicians just can't take a joke MPs may make fools of themselves from time to time but they want to ban others
from doing i t , Satire, ridicule and denigration o f MPs using any television footage shot from Parliamentary galleries is to be banned under rules proposed by the standing orders committee. Photos and rest: NZ Herald 26/7/07
KiwiSaver or KiwiScammer? 'The insurance industry's just been delivered four million heads on a platter" From the 1st July 2007 all New Zealand residents up to the age of 65 will be able to join Kiwisaver, the government's great leap backward in retirement policy. Individuals can contribute 4 to 8% of their pre-tax income, and the scheme will lock their savings in until they turn 65. As a sweetener, the government will provide an upfront contribution of $1,000. Anyone starting a new job after 1 July will be automatically enrolled, and has eight weeks to opt out. At present all New Zealanders are entitled to government superannuation when they turn 65. NZ super is universal - available to all regardless of income or work history. The universal nature of NZ super is one reason there is so tittle poverty among the elderly. Individuals also had the option of saving for their retirement privately. A simple, fair system that worked! What changed? According to the Minister of Finance. Michael Cullen, we need to be saved from ourselves and encouraged to save more. Saving will make us "less dependent on foreign capital", reduce our overseas debt, and "improve living standards for the retired,' There are a few problems with Dr Cullen's argument. For a start, It's not clear we're not saving enough for our retirement. In 2004, Treasury "tentatively" concluded "there is no apparent gross under-saving for retirement..." If export-led economic growth is what is wanted, then how about getting rid of the tax breaks enjoyed by property investors? The main reason we have so much overseas debt Is because many New Zealanders borrow to speculate in housing. We don't have a saving problem, we have a property speculation problem. Where will your savings go? Into a privately managed fund, which will hopefully mean your nest egg grows. Managed funds make money by trawling the globe trying to get the edge on the competition, usually by buying and selling shares and bonds. it's been called the global casino, and is about as risky. Sharemarkets around the world are - mostly - doing very nicely. But they can lose a lot of money very quickiy, and your nest egg bears all the risk. Kiwisaver accounts have no government backing or Insurance. Under pressure from fund managers, and contrary to Treasury advice, the government has made employer contributions tax-exempt. These tax exemptions offer rich rewards for those on high incomes. The more you earn the more you can get. There Is now pressure to make employee contributions tax-exempt and for retirement saving to be compulsory (another reason not to vote for Winston Peters, if you needed one). If this happens, kiss your universal N2 super goodbye. It will be back l o the bad old days when the rich retired well and the rest of us - oarticularlv women and the lowpaid - scraped by in moth-eaten boarding houses or worse. If we really do need investment and io-cailed economic mnsfonnation, then /re should be spending the <Fwlsaver millions on at-risk children in ow-income house~olds,not subsidlsing h e retirement savings of the better3" aff. ~ k our d kids aroperly, educate P a hem and make sure Ă&#x201A;ÂĽ 01 they're healthy. That g is the best Investmerit we can make in 8 aur future.
$
Donna Wynd, A place of the action1 John Banks and Don Workers Charter, Brash celebrate their involvement in Kiwisaver June 2007 (extract) Guaivlian Pol!tical Review, Issue 53,2007 - Page 13
Crystal ball gazing One of the great nonsenses of KiiSaver are projections of how much you will have saved In 20 or 30 years' time. Not only ia that crystal ball gazing, but the figures are dreamt up by marketing departments keen to sign up new savers. Rob Stock,Money column, Sunday Star-Times 8/7/07
Feeding time for the reef sharks KiwiSaver is, says economist Gareth Morgan, "feeding time for the reef sharks... the insurance industry's just been delivered four million heads on a platter". Morgan urges people to ask, "Is the deal transparent? Can I see what I own?" Most providers will say, 'No'. The life insurance industry has an atrocious record with these products. Every man and his dog has lost money in endowment policies and long-term superannuation policies. Morgan says people should ask whether providers are charging expenses in addition to fees. "In most of them you will find expenses are in addition and they are now quantified. It's horrible." He sees a risk that once money has gone into the reserves and been separated from the people who own it, up to 30% of their money could be left behind In reserves when they leave a scheme. Lyfords financial planner Alison Renfrew also cautions people signing up to KiwiSaven do not assume that just because you have joined, you will have financial independence in retirement "Go to a website calculator, put In the numbers and you'll say, 'God. how can I live off that?" Joanne Black, #Z Listener 7/7/07 (edited extract)
Norman Kirk would turn in his grave. Just the other day I heard the prime-minister comparing Michael Cullen's KiwISaver Scheme to Norman Kirk's New Zealand Superannuation Scheme. Prime Minister, you're wrong, KiwiSaver is nothing like Norman Kirk's scheme. In fact, the idea of transferring billions upon billions of wage and salary-earners' hard-won dollars to a swarm of private sector 'providers", where - for a "reasonable" fee. and without the slightest guarantee they will invest them in God knows what enterprise, would, I am pretty sure, make Norman Kirk turn In his grave. If a government-approved provider goes belly-up, you, tile KiwISaver contributor, will lose the lot - capital, interest everything. Thafs right, the KiwiSaver Scheme does not come with a government guarantee.
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Nor are KiwiSaver providers obliged to invest your money ethicaily. To achieve the average market rate of return they may find it necessary to invest in genetic engineering, the arms industry, the tobacco industry. Greenhouse-gas emitting power stations and brutal Third World sweat shops. You'll never know. Chris Trotter. Sunday Star-Times, 24/6/07 (edited extract) Brash hangs out his shingle
Former National Party leader and Reserve Bank governor Don Brash has hung out his shingle with politician John Banks and millionaire businessman Peter Huljlch to form a boutique funds management company in downtown Auckland. It intends to establish three KiwiSaver funds and, after Securities Commission approval, will begin taking KIwiSaver contributions. Sunday Star-Times 1/7/07
Curiouser and curlouser1 What puzzles me is the recent mention that the average New Zealand family spends 115 percent of its weekly income (Christchurch Press). In other words,they have to borrow to live. How are these people going to find another 4 percent to put into this scheme? By borrowing more? Curiouser and curiouser! David Tranter:
The New Zealand Monetarist Revolution By Bryan Gould Extract from 'The Democracy Sham' (see review
In
The Guardian Political Review No.51)
"it was a lightning war"
they were also created the reality that things were actually getting worse.
At a time that proponents of the reforms were proclaiming an economic miracle, New Zealand was running a trade deficit of record proportions, which meant that seven cents of every dollar of New Zealand's economic income (and therefore 7 per cent of "NewZealmders* living standards) were being financed by borrowing from overseas.
L
abour was elected in 1984. The Finance Minister, Roger Douglas, had long been a convert to monetarist doctrine, but little had been done to The media were either ignorant enough prepare the New Zealand public (or or compliant enough to allow the many of his political impression to gain colleagues) for the You moved quickly and YOU ground that 'we' revalutiOna t blasted everything in your path were 'in surplus', then unleashed, and that this was "NewZealand has a unicameral somehow a sign of economic well-being, legislature and no written constitution, The facts that the country as a whole was which mean that it is possible for a small in effect trading at a substantial loss and group of people with a well-defined that this could not be sustained, and that agenda to push through change in a the public sector surplus simply showed remarkably short time, and that is exactly that the government was raising more in what happened. Indeed, Roger Douglas tax revenue than it was spending, were has revealed in his own account of the largely overlooked. period that bfi and his colleagues Whatever the economic consequences deliberately set such a pace of change of New Zealand's -free-market that those affected had no time to draw experiments, there can be little argument breath before the next change was upon about the wider social outcomes. From them. being one of the most egalitarian The economist Brian Easton described societies in tile world, New Zealand the process as a Blitzkrieg: 'It was a moved more rapidly than any other lightning war. You moved quickly and OECD country to become one of the you blasted everything in your path. most unequal second only to the Then you moved on immediately and United States. blasted something else.. . the New On a country with an average annual Zealand constitution wasn't robust income to wage-earners of little over enough to be able to deal with that.' NZ$30,000, it was not unusual to find The supposed economic miracle was top salary earners being paid a hundred nothing of the sort. It was a ramshackle times as much. Since 1974, the real structure, built on a rickety foundation, incomes of the poorest 60 per cent of the and sustained by hot air. It rested on a population have fallen, while the particularly pernicious form of selfincomes and wealth of the richest 10 per delusion- The same policy that created cent have increased considerably. And the illusion that things were better than most of society has not shared in any
benefits, but has rather contributed resources to that small minority who have done well, and who have used their power and influence - especially their
Labour Finance Minister Roger Douglas had long been a convert to monetarist doctrine, to be termed "rogernomics". Later knighted for his "achievements"
control of the media - to proclaim the benefits of the reforms. A study published by Otago University in 2006 concluded that a reduction in income inequality was the single most important step that could be taken to improve the mortality and morbidity rates of a significant part of the New Zealand population.
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Guardian Political Review, W e 53, 2007 Page 14
The Democratic Alternative Bryan Gould, the Kii-born former deputy leader of the British Labour Party, and vicechancellor of the University of Walkato, reminded New Zeafandersthat the "There Is No Alternativsrislogan had permitted the apostles of We market" to determine monetary policy tor the past 20 years Now we've seen where the markets leads, he said, there is no alternative to beginning the search for a more rational - and democratic
alternative. Chris Trotter, Sunday Star-Times 22/7/07
Iconoclast: ' a pwwn who attacks or rttffcnles tradtlSwalor vwiorsWe insstitullons or ideas'
(cantinu& on next page)
with long-term investment. Everything we do is for a short Behind the scenes, this was going on, and meanwhile, term. Douglas was saying, "Look, you guys are bringing on the next The cost of money is really very high. I mean, they talk world war with this policy, and I can tell you I've seen a about low interest rates today, but by historic standards, six or documentary of this. What's going to happen is that the seven percent is way high. In the New Deal, you had the European nations are going to destroy each other, and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation funding infrastructure financial giant of the world will become the United States. That projects at one percent. We could do that again today. Dennis is what you were doing to yourselves." They couldn't stop, and Kucinich (American Monetary Institute) has introduced an they went ahead with it anyway. infrastructure bank bill that would finance projects at zero percent. All it needs is capitalization, and it can be done. So 1 began to study all of these things, and then when I retired from the government in January, I finished with my I'm part of the monetary reform movement in the U.S. Challenger Revealed book, I restarted my monetary research which is not huge but it is getting fairly well-established. The that I had done at the Treasury where I had performed training most important component of that is the American Monetary courses and taught the history of the monetary system.I was Institute www.rnonetarv.ore,and I've worked with them on working with the American Monetary Institute behind the drafting a model legislation for monetary reform. It's called the scenes advising them, and American Monetary Act. ' I have tried to bring together the social credit ideas of British then I sat down and acamplid, lot nations with the monetary reform ideas from the American tradition" ofthe ournosesofthe started to turn out these articles. monetary reform The mitigation of global wanning requires infrastructure movement that we've been talking about. investment, and the question that is always asked is the political Social credit as a movement is less well-known in the U.S. question. If you're in Washington anytime anybody has a good In fact, right now, the things I have written have probably been idea, the question is "Where is the money going to come at least in our generation the first writings that have tried to from?"because it requires capital investment to do about bring together the social credit ideas of British nations with the anything. If you look at the Katrina issue, and all of the things monetary reform ideas from the American tradition and unite that should have been done or not done, like the wetland those to show how they are really two legs of a similar policy. restoration and levee construction, that would have required a I'm in very close touch with the social credit people, lot of capital investment. particularly in Canada and New Zealand, where they have the most experience with these things. I'm trying to bring together There isn't money for capital investment because both our social credit with the American Monetary Institute movement public and private infrastructure is totally consumed with debt. We've got a debt overhang from all sources. I've seen estimates and do the basic theoretical work- I've gotten incredible response from all over the U.S. and the world from people of $8 trillion, and so for a company to raise money or for the government to raise money, you hit up immediately against that who understand what I'm talking about and who are very debt because we have a debt-based financial system, and we excited about it. also have a corporate structure that is totally obsessed with What we're trying to do is educate people about this long short-term financial profits. They've got to meet a bottom line tradition with knowledge and understanding about these things that is established by Wall Street even though it's not a public- that if you think about it and take a look you'll see that there traded company.You still have your equity owners tooking at is a much better way to do it. the quarterly bottom line because a11 they're trying to do is Richard C. Cook www.Tichardccook.com extract dividends out of it on a quarterly basis, so they're always looking at the short term. &hard C. Cook was a MSA analyst who testified before the Presidential Commission on the dem!w of the Chdlenger shuttle disaster of Jan. 28, 1086. His So you don't have the money available for the kind of experiences at NASA can be found In his book Challenger Revealed: He has infrastructure investment that you need to tackle the long-term worn other hate over his years in government and his career Included stinis wfffi problem like global warming, but the knowledge exists, as I the US, Civil Servi'ce Commission, ihe Food and Drug Administration, the Carter think everyone realizes, for the mitigation of global wanning. White House, and NASA, followed by 21 years with the U.S. Treasury Departnwnt. But something like this they just can't and won't do because it Now retired from government work, Cook has decided to delve back to an /nferest requires capitalization, and the people believe it's not available thathas been on his mind since his college days - monetary system reform. His book on monetary reform We Hold These Truths' will be published later this year. because it has so much debt attached to it and you're dealing (continued)
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The American Monetary Institute continues its program of education on monetary history, theory and reform. This Is done through The Lost Science of Money book, through our annual Monetary Reform Conference at Roosevelt University In Chicago (to which two New Zealanders are coming In 2007) and now also through our new CD of my presentation on monetary reform at the National Convention of the U.S. Green Party held In Reading Pennsylvania In mid July. The talk, called GREENING THE DOLLAR - Reclaiming our democratic Vatlies through Monetary Reform,was very well received and is available for free at our website; htto://www.monetarv.ora I met the co-leader of New Zealand's Green Party at tile convention and he returned home "armedwwith a copy of The Lost Science of Money book! Guardian Political Review, Issue 53, 2007 - Page 16
In addition we are sponsoring two forms of monetary reform leglslatlon:The American Monetary Act, and the Monetary Transparency Act, both presented at our website. Comments from students of monetary reform are most welcome. Finally we have found the long lost classic video of John Hotsan addressing a meeting in New Zealand in 1991 of the Democratic Party. A remarkable DVD, made by Ken Bohnsack of Sovereignty Tame. That will be made available on our website in the next month or so. Bill Hixson reminded us of Its existence and Ken then found it. (See Guardian Issue Nov.1991: Ed.) John H o t ~ o n We are establishing various Chapters of the AM1 found the around the US. Presently operating in Burlington and Coming Iowa; Kansas City Missouri; Chicago video of John Illinois; Portland Oregon; Centralia and Seattle Hdson addressing a Washington; South Dakota. Also Boston; New meeting In New York, and a couple of other start ups. Zealand in 1991 of Sincerely. Stephen Zarlenga, the Democratic Party
FROM GEOFFREY The Guardian Political mew arrived today. A good journal,with lots of interesting 'material to feast over Great story about John A Lee. I guess everybody knew the rest of the stray: of how he was sacked ftom the Labow Party,and they held up notice of Micky Savage's death ondl they had the vote. Otherwise he would have been PM.And Peter Frazer and Walter Nash would not have gained control, which opened the door to revealing-back to the old financial system. I was a member of the Papakura Chamber of Commerce when we invited John A. Lee to address the annual meeting; his first public deIiveiy after many y e w . What a speaker. He really was an orator. Many thanks far the hospitality OB oar recent visit. It was a pleasure to meet you all, including Stephie da Rayter in Christehurch. We wish you much success in your endeavour for social credit. Geofiey mid Sally Morell, Washington DC
FROM THE U.S.A. I received the copy of The Guwdicm PditIcal Revlew - th&! Most inspiring that you have a whole political party talking about these things. I'd be interested in learning more about the NZ state housing project that was financed witfa social credit to die 19which is featured on the back cover. Tve just finished two articles suggesting something similar far funding our infrastructure repairs. Ofcome the objection I always get is that i t would be inflationary. 1 have arguments why it wouldn't be, but it would be great to ham an actual real world model where ii was done and didat wreak havoc on foe economy. My articles are here, if you want to see them: 'Wakingup on a Afmnesotd Brtdge, How to solve the infrastructure crisis without selling a/four ttutioml assets' b q J h . w W M
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'ThiÈSan ouuide the 6w. How a banicrupt Germany solved its infiasttvetwe problems ' ~
FROM THE UiK. Hearty congraitulations on your latest Guardian Political Review. I noticed the article about Peter CfaaUeo who, for some years, was the secretary of the Forum for Stable Cwrencies. The Forum was set up by Sabime McNeill in 1998. after she ha3 started the G m t t Money Network in 19S9. Meetings have been held in the House of Lords and (he Comaions, offering a platform for every thinker of note in this area. Her energetic and visionary work includes that with MP Austin Mitchell to table a series of 'Early Day Motions* since 2002, advocating pilot monetary reform projects. The Guardian was so interesting and clearly informative that I should like to send a copy of this Wher issue to some influential & supportive contacts, including an active MP who broke the taboo on introducing financial refom proposals in Parliament, leader of a regional political party and chairman of a governmeqt organisation two pages from his latest book attached. Jwes Robertson, whose work he cites, is a member of our New Era
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coalition, Once again, congratulations to all concerned, I narticularlv valued, tbe articles by the Leader and deputy.It will not be easy to maintain this standard but I send every good wish far this work. Barbara Panvel, Bromsgrove Group, sotihd, U.K. b a ~ E r n v e ~ @ ~ c o m Guardian Political Revfew, b
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I have a good frfend in New Zealand who invited me to go there for a visit. I might have to come and see your party in action! Ellen Hodgs~fiBrown, Newhall CA U.S.A. tfote: E/len Brown is the author of 'TheWeb of Debt, reviewed in this issue
ECONOMIC REFORM AUSTRALIA We appreciate receiving the Guardian Political Review, which is in tune with much of ow thinking on economic dm.
Best regards. John Herotann, Modbury, South Australia.
What a privilege and inspiration it has been ia the past few -weeks to participate in Wo protest rallies both motivated by passionate beliefs in what is right and just The first was Hokitika's rally against the iniquitous legislation aimed,at handing control of access to natural medicines and treatments to an Australian-conlrolled body which has already drastically reduced the Australian people's right to choose their own health products, And on Friday in Greymouth, a remarkable number of people braved the elements to protest h e indiscrimhate spreading of a deadly poison across vast areas of the
countryside. Putting folk acid in our bread, fluoride in our water and 1080 in our environment will, in years to come, be seen as appalling mistakes. la the meantime, Vive la Protestors! David Tranter. Hukifiica CAPITAL GAINS Capital gain other tbaa feat earned by improving a property or business is a zero sum game where the gains of one party quai
the losses of other people. If you subtract the
administration and legal crisis of buying and selling it is less than a zero sum game. The other thing about it is that over time it leads to increased cortcmtratical of wealth in fewer hands. These outcomes are contrary to social credit philosophy. By taxing land capital gain you could reduce or remove the 95% of the land inflatinn, which is speculative in origin. This invidious activity is unsustainable and will in time bring about social and economic disaster. Allen Coohon, Oxford
IT'S CRUNCH TIME
The global sioclonatkets have taken a bearing and many people ia the USA and elsewhere are technically bankrupt (unable to pay their debts). The USA has debts that are now four times theh Gross Domestic Product. Their debt liabilities are greater &an their assets. This is the case in New Zealand. For
,TOO& long,
millions ofpeople have been using credit cards to spend beyond their hcofae, just as some governments, corporations and
city/di&ct councils. It's crunch time for homeownq stockmarkets and batiks. Social Credit has warned fat years about the debt financing system. It will take a crisis like the 1930s Depression for people to look towards the alternatives social Credit has to offer. Adrian Bayly, Nelson News w m 11WOT: Nearly $79(1 million was wifind off ffie value of the HZX-SO & Hew Zealand's top shorn
index fell victim to (fte twmoti seen In ifta US and Ewtpean markets. Central banks In]selectissord amounts of cash fo p m w t a finai-ickdsysiwiseteure.
READ ALL ABOUT IT 1 bought a folder, put the last two Guardians inside and took it to the local library. Would they like to have this in the libfaty? They would. Good-oh. So I left the folder with them, and will insert new copies as they arrive, Not only that, but there are five libraries in the Far North jurisdicdo~:Kerikeri, Kaikotre, Kawakawa, Kfdtaia, and Paihia; each of which, the librarian said, would be pleased to have our publication. The library here will pass them on, so it can all he done through KenkKri. As well. there are small local libraries Ksmo, Rawme, RUE& Doubtless Bay, and perhaps some more I don't know about at fhe moment, which might be able to, take the Guardian also. I'll work on i t I have some contacts around and am supplying them with Guardians. At the right moment, I'll *pop the question'. GeoffChurch, Kerikeri. Editor'snote: &off ChWeh,a swiw fnemberof Democrats for social &Wit,shews what # be {lone wWf a lit& fficua/rt and effort, HIS suggasfltels Muid W d be applied 8IWWh8m.
Letter? should be sent to The Guardian Political Rtiview, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400, HZ. Fax; 03 434S523. B-mait: CaKiy@callaouth.netm The editor reserves the right to edit or abridge. The views çx preaseij are not necessarily thosa of the adttor or the N2 DemocraSsa,Party for soel& credit.
Nourishing Traditions
BY Sally
Fallen with Maw G. E ~ IP~~ .,D .
Published by New Trends Publishing Inc., 1220 L Stmet, NW, Suite 100-529, Washington DC 20005. www.newtrendssublishin~~om email: newtwnds@kconllne.wm Price $25.00 US plus p& p. Chronic Illness in industrialized nations has reached epic proportions. We have fast foods, fractionated foods, convenience foods, packaged foods, fake foods, embalmed foods, ersatz foods - all the bright baubles that fill up the shelves at our grocery stores, convenience markets, vending machines and even health food stores. The premise of this book is that modem food choices and preparation techniques constitute a radical change from the way man has nourished himself for thousands of years and, from the perspective of history, represent a fad that not only has severely compromised his health and vitality but may well destroy him; and that the culinary traditions of our ancestors, and the food choices and preparation techniques of healthy non-industrialized peoples, should serve as the model for contemporary eating habits. The author of Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon, recently completed a lecture tour of New Zealand with her husband, Democrat life member Geoffrey Morell. The revised and updated Second Edition of her book is a substantial compilation of 700 recipes-
The Guernsey Experiment
BY oiive and Jan Grubiak
Available from Guardian Publishing, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400, NZ. cafdv@>&s~uth.net.nz Price $5 inc p&p Originally published in 1960, this 36-page A5 size bookiet has been reprinted In NZ and is again available. Written nearly 50 years ago before the widespread use of credit cards, it notes: "But for hire-purchase, personal loans, etc., our economy would soon be on the rocks - it would founder on a surfeit of unsold goods. The whole nation flounders In debt. The money loaned would be valueless without a backing of goods and services. Surely. with all our brilliant economists, we could devise a system whereby money could be issued as required, without having resort to debt or usury," In 1816, the Guernsey States Debt was 19,137 pounds, bearing an annual interest charge of 2390 pounds - but the annual revenue was only 3000 pounds. There was a need to improve the Public Market but borrowing money from the banks would incur debt charges at a high interest rate, which they could not afford and which would never be repaid. The Commtttee made an historic recommendation that the Market be eroded and the expenses to be met by the Issue of State Notes to the value of 6000 pounds. The Guernsey Experiment is an historically significant publication, giving an account of the monetary techniques initiated in 1817 which contribute to the Island's present prosperity. It includes the full reprint of the reply of the States of Guernsey in the Privy Council Justifying their experiment in monetary reform.
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The Web 0f Debt
BY Ellen Hodgson Brown
Published by Third Mlllenium Press, 2007. Price US$27.95 (Special website price US$19.95 + shipping).
Contact www.webofidebt.com/order.oho Forsword - by Reed Simpson, M.Sc: I have been a banker for most of my career, and 1 can report that even most bankers are not aware of what gobs on behind dosed doors at the top of their field,
The process by which money comes into existence Is thoroughly misunderstood, and for good reason: it has been the focus of a highly sophisticated and long-term disinformation campaign that permeates academia, media, and publishing. The (iomplextty of the subject has been intentionally exploited to keep Its mysteries hidden. In banking schools and universities, I was drilled in the technology of money and banking, clearing houses,the Federal Reserve System, money creation through the multiplier effect, and the peculiar role of the commercial banker as the guardian of the public treasure. This idealized vision contrasted sharply with what I saw as I worked in the US. banking sector. This book not only exposes the problem but outlines a sound solution for the everincreasina debt and other monetary woes of the nation and the worldi It shows that ending the debt-money fractionalreserve banking system and returning to an honest debt-free monetary system could provide a future that is prosperous beyond our imagining
The Rise and Demise of the Canadian Federal Social Credit Party This 30-page, A4 size booklet has been prepared by the UK-based Life Member of Democrats for social credit, Colin J. Whitmiti, Its six chapters cover the following: (1) Social Credit reaches English speaking Canada, (2) Alberta turns to Social Credit, (3) Social Credit reaches French Canada, (4) United again -just for a while, (5) The Thompson Caouette split, (6) Towards the end for Social Credit. It also includes a list of elected party members of the Federal Parliament
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Chapter One opens with the following comment: 'The social credit message has been available for over eighty years to those searching for economic freedom and justice for all, in a world of potential and actua! abundance. The failure of those enlightened by the message, and therefore intellectually liberated from the shackles of orthodox economics, to gain the necessary political power to lrnphnent what they see as posithe proposals for economic and social ]ustice has been sufficient evidence for those not so enlightened to justify their adherence to the status quo." Chapter Six closes with the statement: "In Canada, at the time of writing, the party which pushed and pushed these concepts despite derision and opposition has disappeared. Their ideas have not."
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Mention must be made, however, of the ongoing activities in support of social credit principles wiQaa-Aw~ L r ~ w n by $the~Quebec-based y ^ ~Catholic organisation, the Louis Even Institute for Social Justice, and its publication The Michael Journal. & a ~ d t ^ l v w t O a S H W - u l & ^ W p t s t U D J d I f l f IF ~~ The Rise and Demise of the Canadian Federal Social Credit Party can be highly recommended to any person interested In the history of the subject. The author has given permission for the booklet to be reproduced In New Zealand. Copies are available from Guardian Publishing. 26 Warren Street, Oarnaru 9400, NZ. Email: cardv@callsouth.net.nz Price: Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ8.5 + $1.50 p & p.
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GuBfdian PolHIcal Review, Issue 53, 2007
- Page 18
REVIEW
The Modern Universal Paradigm by Rodney Shakespeare Reviewed by Colln J Whitmill Published by Trisakti University, Price see Special Offerbelow
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Guardian Porftf(Sri ~eview,tssw S3,2GQ7 - Pa@. f9
Not Yet Equal - t h e National Council of Women CEDAW Shadow Report (Conventionfor the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women)
By Katherlne Ransom Social Issues spokesperson, Democrats for social credit With a few very visible women In top positions of New Zealand government and industry right now,some of you might be forgiven for thinking that the battle for women's equality has been won. Some might even feel that things have gone too far. that men and boys now suffer discrimination in the name of political correctness. Any government initiatives that privilege women are condemned In some quarters as "social engineering" or ridiculed as "political correctness gone mad".
The gender issue has been dropped from Government agendas, have you noticed? A lot of effort has gone into drafting law and policy that is "gender neutral", to presumably save the feelings of the men. Equal Employment Officers no longer stride through the halls of Academia, and the Department of Education is more concerned about the poor performance of boys in school compared with girls. We are all very careful to refer to "domestic violence" and "family violence" in case men get ignored if their wives beat them. The truth is, there is still significant discrimination against women, and in some areas it is getting worse, as set out in the National Council of Women's CEDAW Shadow Report. This is a well-research document taken to tile United Nations CEDAW as supplernentary information from New Zealand. Here then, ladies and gentlemen, are the facts, and they aren't pretty. Women do perform better at school, and they get better results at university too. In spite of that. they still earn only 65% of their male counterparts upon graduation. In fact. in 2003 women over all earned 87% of the income level men enjoyed, but in 2007 the level has dropped to 82%. There are some explanations for this, though they are hardly excuses,
The "cluster effect" - that is. the proliferation of one gender working in certain areas - is one reason why the income gap between men and women has got wider. The building trades, booming in the last decade, are overwhelmingly men, although there are Ministry of Women's Affairs initiatives to change attitudes and draw more women into apprenticeships. Attitudes are slow to change, so the women in apprenticeships are very few as yet. In the health sector, white hospital nurses (mostly women) have had a long awaited pay rise. their counterparts in the private sector, particularly in the area of aged care (again, mostly women as both patients and carers), have not kept pace. In addition, there is huge number of poorly paid caregivers, nearly all women, who lack opportunity for training and often have to find their travel costs out of the hourly rate they earn (less than $10). Both women and aged people in rural areas suffer, because of the understandable difficulty of attracting staff for this kind of work. Who would work for a take home pay after expenses of $150 an hour? On the other side of the health sector, funding for women's needs has been cut, with the reduced funding of such services as Guardian Political Review, issue 53,2007 - Page 20
Plunket and other maternity and postnatal care. The continued closure of smaller and rural hospitals impacts particularly on women and children, and the incidence of clinical postnatal depression is on the rise while correspondingly, the rate of breastfeeding is waning. Women are often employed in repetitive work, and many develop severe Occupational Overuse Syndrome (00s).ACC gives less attention and less compensation to this debilitating syndrome than to the accidents that men have at work. In the area of mental health, women are the majority of carers of family members, mostly unpaid. Maori women are diagnosed with a mental illness at twice the rate of nowMaori, and twice the rate of Maori men, yet there is little attention paid to gender or to the needs of carers.
"Are you depressed? I know I could be - if I wasn't a Democrat. We have the mechanism to right some of these wrongs" Generally, the higher proportion of women in
an occupation, the lower the pay. There are more women in non-standard and precarious work such as cleaning. Large cleaning companies compete for three-year contracts, with no guarantee their workers will have a job still at the end of that time. Another contractor may win the tender, and benefits such as holiday pay, sickness pay and so on may not necessarily be part of the new contract. Many of these workers are migrant women, already subject to language barriers, cultural discrimination, bullying and lack of awareness of their rights, Even well educated women are slipping backward. Women employed in universities lack promotion, are generally placed below lecturer levels, face long hours and heavy work loads, competition and bullying, and work in environments that are not child-friendly or lack adequate child care. With the lapse of EEOs, they seriously lack mentoring, and follow-up from government agencies is almost nonexistent. The criteria for allocating research grants (set by panels of men) penalises women for taking time out of their academic careers to have children, and for not having enough time for research because they have children. Student debt also dlscrimlnates against women. It was far worse when interest was compounding on the capital, but even interestfree, on average a man will take 15 years to pay off a student loan. compared with 28 years for a woman because of the income gap. For a Pacific Island woman It will take an average of 33 years. Although the proportion of women in Parliament is the highest it has ever been, 33%, there are still only 5 women Cabinet Ministers compared to 15 men. Local body positions held by women is static at 28% or decreasing, with a drop in the number of women mayors to a mere 17%. I could go on,
quoting statistics regarding boards of directors in the public and private sectors, employment and so on. None of it is evidence of equality, by any means. Poverty, poor housing, violence, poor diet, lack of access to health care and an inconsistent sexuality education across the country - all these impact more severely on young girls. The use of contraception among young people is static or declining, and teen pregnancy and abortion figures, which are a direct symptom of poverty, are on the rise. Teen pregnancy indicates the level of violence and rape, and perpetuates the cycle of exclusion and social disadvantage. Women head up 83% of solo parent families, which are especially vulnerable to poverty and disadvantage. Women's Refuge statistics are the most damning: despite being underfunded and depending largely on volunteers, every year they assist more women, who need to stay in safe houses longer. Fully 97% of the abuse comes from men, and violence against women is too often associated with violence against children. Domestic violence is the fifth leading cause of female death, and 50% of all female homicides are committed by male partners or ex-partners. Women's Refuge reports that migrant women and disabled women are particularly vulnerable. They also note the alarming rise of date rape and drug rape occurrences. Added to all these statistics are some facts about the "averaue" women: she has fewer opportunities to save for retirement, is more likely to end up living alone and is more in need of rest home care. (Rest home care, where the staff is underpaid!) There is no national Code of Practice for bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace, and government initiatives to get women into work by assisting with child care take no account of the lack of employment opportunities or the inequality of pay. National accounting systems only include economic indicators, neglecting social injustice, discrimination and the huge army of voluntary labourers who are largely women. Are you depressed? 1 know I could be - if I wasn't a Democrat. We have the mechanism to right some of these wrongs. A fully funded health system will include well-paid carers; a guaranteed basic income will soften the impact of seasonal, nonstandard and precarious work. and solo parent families will be less disadvantaged. A fully funded education system will do away with those terrible student loans, as well as providing for staff child care and other oncampus amenities, It is therefore important for us all remember that the wrongs still exist, and that complacency is not only indolent but downright dangerous. Humanity, without the full and equitable participation of women, is less human.
END
OBITUARIES
next 15 years and during that time he Society until 1961 when he moved to chaired key committees. Wellington to become the first full time secretary of the Social Credit League. In his 1996 interview he said while fellow councillors were staunch Apart from a three-year spell teaching supporters of a variety of political at Wanganui High School, Mr Marks worked as an accountant or administrator parties, party politics was never an issue around the council table. all his life. "That didn't stop us debating the He retired from full-time work in issues and enjoying each other's 1996, but continued to contribute voluntarily to a number ,of organisations company." He said. on a part-time basis until he died. When he was first elected to the council it had to vote on the first stage Given his father's involvement in the of the wastewater scheme. Social Credit party, little wonder the younger "Roly" Marks was determined to Staggered by the cost of the make an impression on the national scheme, Mr Marks voted against it. political stage. "I wasn't against it being done but, He followed his father's footsteps in for financial reasons, I believed the 1963 when he was the Social Credit Government through the Reserve candidate in the Pahiatua electorate, Bank, should make interest-free money A favourite with local voters standing against Keith Holyoake, then available because I believed it was too By John Maslin, Wanganui Chronicle Prime Minister. big a burden for the ratepayers," he 29/6/07 (abridged) told the Chronicle in 1996. It is noteworthy that he was the only Social Creditor that increased his vote in "Ever since, the council has been A LIFE in politics at both local and that election. grappling with the fact that up to 25 national level has closed "with the Unsuccessful but unbowed, he stood as percent of its rates income has gone death of Oliver Marks, 76. into the wastewater scheme." the party's candidate in the Stratford Mr Marks carved out a career in electorate in 1966 and again three years Away from politics, Mr Marks was Wanganui local body politics, elected later. treasurer of the Aramoho School as a city councilor in 1977, and committee, the Christ Church parish, The family returned to Wanganui retaining his seat through four further Victim Support, and the Kaierau where he again carried the Social Credit elections, serving the city for 15 years. flag in general elections in 1972, 1975 Rugby and Sports Club. He also carried the torch for Social and finally 1978, substantially increasing He also served as a director for Credit, carrying on the pathfinding the Social Credit vote and challenging Wanganui Gas, and was a member of work of his father, the late Roly the two party dominance. the Founders' Society. Marks. In an interview with the Chronicle in Early in his life he was a keen Born in Wanganui, Mr Marks went 1996, Mr Marks said that on a personal sportsman, playing tennis, cricket and to St John's Hill and Gonville primary level he was not disappointed missing rugby, and he was a rugby referee far schools, and did his secondary out on a parliamentary seat, although he a time. Later in life he was a keen schooling at Wanganui Collegiate. He had always thought that eventually the spectator of cricket and grass-roots studied accountancy at. Victoria voters would get him there. rugby and racing, University and graduated in 1952. He But while success eluded him at a Oliver Marks is survived by his married Cynthia in 1958 and they had national level, Mr Marks found favour wife, Cynthia, two daughters, three two daughters and three sons. with voters in the local body elections in sons and 10 grandchildren. He worked for the Western Building 1977. He was a council fixture for the
Wynton (WY~)
Eggleston
When Wyn passed away in October 2006, the Waimakariri Electorate and the Pa- as a whole lost a memorable person. He was originally the Social Credit
Guardian Political Review, Issue 53,2007 - Page 21
talented self-taught musician and a candidate for the Duller electorate in fine singer. At many of our functions 1954. His tales of having to finance himself, sleeping in his car at times, were Wyn would finish the evening with passed on to us in only the way he could one or more jokes told in his own inimitable style with the appropriate relate. He wrote many letters to the accents. Two of his favourite sayings editor and MPs right up to the time of were: "Problems are there to be his untimely passing. solved" and "Live each day as if it is Wyn was head teacher at Kingsley your last" Girls Training centre and started the Wyn's enthusiasm for Democrats needs unit at Aranui High School. for social credit,and his open Retiring to Kaiapoi in 1992 he was very involved in the community and in recent friendship, will be sorely missed. years was Town Crier. He was also a Obiiuw supplied by ~ I T J Palmer
In the Land of the Emperor By Colin Whitmill
Address to Democrats for social credit 2007 Conference (abridged) When Peter Challen, the chairman of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice, came to this country In 2005,one of his constant themes was that we should accept people where they are in the matter of monetary reform - either with no knowledge or little knowledge, and lead them on from there. We may need to address people's objections to our cause and help remove obstacles to them joining us. For, were people in any search for monetary justice to take time to analyse current problems they would eventually find themseives at the cause the creation of money out of nothing, Hie interest charged for it and the unrepayabte debt that ensues but fewwill attempt or have the courag~ to take any path of investigation. Most people in New Zealand prefer to leave It all to their leaders and their advisers- and that is fatal because we are In the land of the Emperor who had no clothes. For example let us look just at two Issues which give concern today and which seriously affect the ne)tt generation - house prices and environmental damage. Housing The problem of high housing costs In New Zealand is much the same as it is in Britain. Much of Britain is in the grip of a house price frenzy, It's at Its most intense in London, awash with foreign buyers' cash, City boyst $3 mtilion annual bonuses and property speculators It is exacerbated by the buying of property as an investment by people living overseas. Indeed In London, the current slogan accompanying an invitation to attend seminars is property Investment is the new global currency. In one advert, people are invited to Invest in housing to tet. In a group of countries, one of which was New Zealand. Accofding to the British housing charity 'Shelter' in Britain, we are seeing the slow demise of the housing ladder which Is now completely out of reach for the majority of young people. As pension schemes collapse, thanks to gambling on shares, and companies defaulting on their liabilities, the person saving for a pension now invests In areas other than In shares and one of the attractions is buying not building - houses to let. In Britain last year there were 900 mortgages granted each day for the purposes of buy to let existing properties to let not only for income, but for capital gain. In addition money from the non producttve money making money economy is pouring into the productive economy buying what assets it can. It seems to be the same in New Zeatand. And all of this activity leads to higher house prices with fewer houses available for people to buy their own homes. The Nelson Mail recently reported ttie view that new research shewed that it is now almost Impossiblefor an average wage earner to buy a house In New Zealand. An Auckland Tenants Protection Association
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cowdinator was not surprised that people earning up to $70,000 a year faced a lifetime of renting. What we are seeing in New Zealand is a financial system that is excluding a generation, iwnomically and socially, from ever owning their own homes. The Government parties have become effectively the architects of class division In New Zealand by creating a dispirited distinct social class - a generation never to own their own homes, Ideas have been put forward to overcome the housing problem, but, apart from sound ones from the Democrats for soda! credit, all approaches have been for treating the symptoms, but nothing, absolutely nothing, about tackling the causes. Environment Let us look at the serious problem of environmental degradation and climate change. Our party has been, and perhaps still Is, In the Torefront of the environmental issue. Even before the 1973 document - You and Your Environment - the abuse of the environment had been one of the main concerns of the social credit movement.. And our assessment of the environmental problems was based on their causes, not just tinkering around with
symptoms The new buzz word is clean tech, a term for innovations that are energy off~ientand environmentally friendly for trig business as they get In on theact. No more so Is this happening than In San Fraflciso's Silicon Valley which has found a new mission in alternative energy developing wind power, solar panels, ethanol plants and hydrogen-powered cars. Venture capitalists - funded with Interest bearing debt by the banks through hedge funds and the like - have begun pouring billions of dollars into energy related start up companies with names such as Sun Power, and Nanosalar. In America, one large energy cormany pledged to put the environment at the core of its business operations and fund environmental groups. Unfortunately for those environmental groups, Enron went out of business, While our leaders may hays good intentions, their whole approach to pending environmental disaster Is one of such ignorance, and closed mlndedness, that the very solutions they suggest to overcome problems actually exacerbate the problems they wish to solve. But even were there to be free energy with no C02 emissions and the use of magnetic interaction for clean electricity generation seems to make this possible, - not enough people have racognised that file devastation of the wortd would continue, because of the Insatiable demands of tha debt based financial system. - see www.stecBTi.com Addressing symptoms not causes Our leaders have learned nothing. Our wannabee leaders, whether they be Key, Peters, Fitslrnons, Anderton, Norman or Dunne, have learned nothing. They still carry on
Guardian Politics! Review, Issue 53,2007 P a p 22
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"we who have stumbled across the knowledge of truth in economic matters, have a grave duty to perform, for the survival of civilisation could well denend on our efforts" addressing symptoms not causes, living in the Emperor's land admiring the Emperor's no* existent dothes, time i s running out. For them, delusion can no longer ha a viable policy option. This way (if empowering people and transforming society is not new, but access to bank finance Is not the-trlck, but a clue. The real trick is access to finance, interest free. In the book The Modem Universal Paradigm, Professor Rodney Shakespeare advocates that Individuals would become entrepreneurs and shareholders and could gain an independent income through their own endeavours unfettered by interest charges. This is simitar in some aspect to what Dr Atbus told this conference here in Christchurch about 22 years ago with his proposal for People's Capitalism. Hope for all We've seen the symptoms of forthcoming economic and environmental disaster, we know the causes for them. Meanwhile our country's leaders, cosseted in the Emperor's court,prefer to see the emperor adorned with the finest clothes, as they are told he is, rather Bran think for themselves and see he is completely naked. Let us remind ourselves what John Rawson told the Marsden branch in 1963, words that are even more applicable today than they were then: "we who haw stumbled across the knowledge of truth In economic rnaHers, have a grave duty to perform, for the survival of civilisatton could well depend on our efforts."
Whether our numbers in this party be small or large, or whatever our name Is, it is our privilege and duty to continue the best we can to Inform the people of New Zealand that, despite the agonies of today and the fears for the future, the answer to their problems Is actually in their hands. For our part, we have the perspicacity to see the causes of problems, we have the policies to resolve them, we have persistence and all we now need is continued patience to open the eyes of people - individually or collectively - to see that the Emperor has no clothes. For let us make it abundantly dear to all those who now seem lost, in complete despair. and without hope, that there is hope for them and New Zealand - we are here.
Well said ~ s s$ \ F r e s n e ~ k * in-toe ~titi~tfeftutch Pi~assof 14 July 2007
"When will the GreasaFaxty WÈ announc6 that Wwfionsfmto their corndhent to carbon No wonder it's crowded Over tta past sewn yogfe, nfflftifer af
people who have moved to work In Brttajn (setached 2t500+000with numbers;rising web year. Last year 773,000 came to the country for
worh and that's only tt& known numbersi Trite do@ not inc[ude Illegal ifrintfaianta,M e d
eaytwn s<?ekeFS,andWttes, Wugh Council haWisom@laiitedto the Government that they cannot finaitctaDy cope, with Vn6 Influx, but of cfiurae Labour doesn't want to know the offsetof thekqm door (ekoept fbf AuMes an4 l^te ) tmmlgratton 'policy. The BBC, in a tsteviaitsn pr~gcawnj&, found Ih Slough l!rid( built shmds housing psopiemd one small house Had I S poppis rwing in-it* When one searches far the causes of the problem, ft points to *<? financial system not pwMiiig for needsi f people where they are. Poland now has a labour shortage h u g e then- young and skilled workers thanks to (heir enby to ¥thCuropeaft State h w miwe'd ta areas &&re they hope they can earn better
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wages. Tories better offunder Labour Kick Cohm in his Qbseiver grttite of 22 July comrriepted on r e p i whfch showed thai since Labour came to power finamial wealth has been pouriftg hte sEte'Tory $We.In om Tory seat by the River Thames, 30% of households &ern@ to be '.exdus@//w891fhy and 83% bad assets large enough -to makd thm Wle for irtheBtarot?tax whte only ?% were considered to be poor. A few unites downstream in a Labour held seat, was-atetow weatthy, only 8% were fehfe for inliaritance tax and 6% ww& poor. Wtth two bye elections shcmflng no Surge to
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the Tories fte,Comwa8tfe Party that fe, not fhe tight Wing Labour P&ty Nick Cohen found the reason.
'Nw*r&mte tws W n very good for most Tocy voters and it shoutdn't be a sutpcfea thattKey6entWiW i&@& affiffffffainsfomindedness to drive Labour from,pww. As for ff>e poor, ffwir'stef? ematos.pitifd+mthtsy donYwte, so faw polit?ans cafe whst twapwSto(ftem."
Brown doesn't suit everybody 'The Tory Party" [ie the Conservative Party not the Labour Party - it is difficult to make out the difference between them, If there Is any] "seems to be run now by Old Etonians and they dont seem to understand how otherpeople live. They seem to be very arrogant, like I suppose Old Etonians can be," Sir Tom was unimpressed by Dave Cameron who, when his W h e y constituency was flooded with disasterous results for many of its residents, flew [or was that fled?! to Rwanda for some Conservative Party project He only came back when some impertinent local reporter asked him why he was there and not In Wltney.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been enjoying a Brown bounce in recent polls as Labour goes ahead of the Conservatives. Columnist Jaspar Gerard In The Observer (5/8/07)decries those news media people now fawning on Brown. He said, inter alia, "For people paid to ponder, the commentariat sometimes displays less independent thought than creatures that go 'baa! Brown's main quality for which they laud him is the way he has transformed British polfiics with hi? suit. This apparently demonstrates he is serious, grown-up, substantial. Which is such a very M I n g paint. Because what in substance is this walking suit changing?"
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I can tell Jaspar Gerard -to date, absolutely nothing.
Beware of Mr Brown Henry Porter writing in The Observer {29/07/07) commenting on Gordon Brown's succession to the position of Prime Minister said:- "Hemay become a great Prime Minister or one who reflexively resorts to increasing state powers. It's too earty to judge, but I won't be surprised if, in four or five years, the crisis of liberty in this country Is much graver than it is today. As things stand, w6 are leading Western democracies Into an aUt/Tontarianw d d of arbitrary st* powers and total surveillance of people's movements and personal lives.' (END)
Kiwisaver not a panacea, not a pension guarantee By Colin Whitmill
The KiWiSaver pension scheme has been called a scam by some and It is not difficult to discover why. It provides money marketing people -fund managers and the like -with a ready made, captured, supplier of funds at a time when New Zealandem' savings wens Insufficient to keep the New Zealand money marketeers buoyant. Instead of letting the money marketeers fade away, Labour and the Progressives have handed a lifeline to the already rich in their insatiable need for other people's money from which to profit If In any doubt, ask John Key how the money-rnaking-money system works to make a few even richer, It is notable that neither the LabourProgressive government, nor the
National opposition which supports the scheme, have guaranteed people that their pension savings will be safe. Maybe, because they probably arent If the Government wants to go along this mute of pension providing, as welt as giving people the opportunity to have a deposit for a house, they could well have studied the proposal by Richard Murphy in his article published in the Guardian Political Review number 42 of Summer 2002. The relevent portion is reproduced below and one might well ask what scheme would you prefer, the Kiwisaver or the Murphy Plan?
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Investing in shares won't help t h e pension problem By Richard Murphy BSc FCA
Over recent weeks, the problems of the pensions "industry"have been
highlighted. Falling share prices have left massive holes in the funding arrangements for thousands of pensioners. The only slightly annoying thing about this is that it was to be expected. The simple fact is that most o f what pensioners want in their old age can only be provided by people who are at work at that time. You can't store healthcare, food and leisure activities for use at a future time. So the reality of financing healthcare provision has to be based on one of two things. Either people in work have to agree, implicitly or explicitly, to directly fund the pensions of those who are retired as part of a moral contract between generations. Or those who are now working have to put aside part of the wealth they generate in such fashion that those who will be working when they are retired will want to buy it from them. The first option seems out of fashion so the second option is the one we must favour. And for reasons that have always baffled me, the "stare o f valuet'we choose to sell to the next generation are shares in quoted companies. It is hard to think of anything more unsuited to the
continually demand of politicians. And to date those same politicians have denied the population access to the very funds that can provide the resources the population want, not just for now, but when they are retired because they've insisted that people's spare cash must go into shares. If however politicians thought for a moment instead of following economic dogma, they'd let that cash be used, subject to suitable pre-conditions for things of real worth, like schools, system isn't working, And when that's the hospitals, sewers, transport systems and so on. For convenience, I call these case, the funds stop flowing into the market. And as we have seen in property things local capital. crashes, like that of 1989, when the net These infrastructure projects are inflow of funds into a speculative market designed t o last many years. As a result, stops, the market falls apart. They aren't once built the benefit is available for a just capable of managing a downside. considerable time to come. So further request, requirement or Quite possibly those who built them instruction that people "save" in share might benefit from them in their own based funds cannot solve the pension retirement. It is equally possible that problem. Shares are the problem, not the those of the next generation who use solution. them might be willing to pay what is in effect a rent to do so, and so provide an The solution is readily available. And economic return for the future. it happens to be extremely expedient for any politician with the will to use it. The biggest potential problem we have in our Richard Murphy is a regular writer as a taxation society is the lack of spending power on expert for the British newspaper, The Observer, infrastructure. It is what people
task. Shares are intrinsically worthless, second hand, unenforceable, property rights to a future income stream from companies that have always been, and always will be, run for the benefit of those who work for them or own them now, and not for the sake of those who might be in retirement some time in the future. Just about the only reason why shares have gone up in price in the past has been that more people have been persuaded to buy them, either by choice or by coercion as pension funds have had little choice but buy them. But that game is now over, People realise that the
GuaffifianPolitical Review. Issue 53, 3007 - Pflge 24
cy's overall aim was to ensure all information on a subject was made available and not kept behind "closed doors', and referendums would be sent to every person on the electoral roll. Ofago Daily Times 14/6/07
- hunting through the media jungle! THINGS ARENT GOOD You know things aren't good when central banks start sloshing money into the financial system. Next of course,come politicians' reassurances of "sound fundamentals", President George W Bush's the fundamentals of our economy are strong" echoed the words of his inept predecessor, Herbert Hoover, who, as the New York stockmarket bumped sickeningly downwards into the great crash In 1929, declared: "The fundamental business of the country is on a sound and prosperous besls". A few days later came Black Thursday. Millions were out of work and terrible flow-on damage was done to aconomles around the world. Here, probably two-fifths of msn were out of work, bankruptcies soared, farmers walked off their land and a generation was scarred and scared Into wheel-damped financial conservatism. Colin James. Ofago Daily Tines 14/8/07
CON JOB Ltke many other Qamaru pensioners Mick Robertson was disappointed when his Supeffiold card arrived In the mail. The card was negottated by Winston Peters' NZ First Party in a deal with Labour. "When Winston Peters did the unveiling he said there would be discounts on travel and electricity, which the card did not offer", said Mr Roberteon. Former Hastings Grey Power president Ted Dufflll said the card was "the biggest con Job since Orson Wells broadcast that the world was being invaded by allens. OamafU Mail & NZfA 31/8/07
MESSAGE FROM DOWN UNDER Australia and New Zealand might be 12.000 miles away, but these are societies, like Britain, taming to terms with globalisation, China, affluence, debt and turbo-charged capitalism. The lessons are salutary. What is the prospectus for the future? John Key's r i p o f centre National Party has no answers, offering to do largely the same as Ms dark, but offering tax cuts. Australia and New Zeatand, brutally, have no defences to an endless wave of assetstripping and financial engineering. It Is nut that the right has a better answer to the questions of out times. It ia that the modem left has fittle to say either, GmnSsn News f. Media (UK), 61W07
A RIGHT CHARUE Annette King, whose hobby horse the Therapeutic Medicines Bill has been for the last several years, stuffed up. Being unconsultative, high-handed and arrogant, King pooh-poohed the complimentary medicines Industry's concerns, ignored voters' anxieties and severely rationed consuitafons with other parties. And she ended up looking a right Charlie. Jane Clifton, NZ Listener 28/7/07
OPEN DEMOCRACY A new local gov2rnment political group headed by Dunedln city councillor Lee Vandewis has launched its campaign for the October local body elections, promising to promote the use of non-binding referendums for significant city decisions. Open Dsrnocm-
Special offer
Visiting Hamilton?
George the secrets of an ordinary Kiwi, the autobiography by George Bryant, Social Cmctlt president from 1976 to 1979 (normally retailing at $25) Is being offered at special price of $22 post-paid to Guardian readers. Orders to George Bryant, P.Or Box 7031, Maungatapu, Tauranga- Emall: BrvahtGWfSixtra.co.nz (Reviewed in Guardian issue No.5H
Bed and Breakfast accommodation Is available In the Hamilton area, hosted by Mary Russell-Bethune and Don Bethune, at 11 Prospect Place, Western Heights, HamiltonTel: 07 846 5401. Own bathroom and toilet. $60 doubte, $45 single, with half the amount being donated to Democrats for social credit. Highly recommended 'Very cornfortable"
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Autobiography by former Social Credit President, George Bryant. Special Price: $22 (post-paid) the :
an ort
GuafrilanPoaScal Review,
Order from George, Box 7031, Maungatapu, Tauranga, Issue 53, 2007 - Page 25
WOT, NO FLUORIDE? Anti-cavity chewing gum is being added to ration packs for New Zealand Defence Force personnel. The gum. made in Japan and available only through dentists, contains calcium-rich milk protein that recalcifies teeth and heals small lesions, preventing major dental work. Ofago Daily Times 18/7/07
TRUST ME John Key has displayed llMe evidence that he has acquired the political skills and character to encourage voters to believe he has the mettle to be a prime minister. Mr Key's behaviour has been all tog consistent with his curiously uncertain backing into the limelight immediately after taking the party leadership. His persona of working class boy made good, a tyro politician on the mate, could only fast for so long and has run its time. The longer Mr Key Is unabte or unwilling to define what he intends a National government to do -and when then the more people wlll think he lacks substance, cannot be trusted to deliver, and does not mean what he says. Ofsgo Daily Times editorial 14/B/07
WHERE ARE THE REAL MEN? Over many years now,deep and systemic failures have been identified in parenting in this country. If every child in "Gads Own" to be safe, then safe and taving families, and strong, safe loving men - not the blundering State, not social services agencies - are required. Do we value traditional marriage as we once did? The purpose of which was the production, raising and care Where, though, are the real men? Ofago Dally Ttmgs editorial 2/8/07
(Heather Marion Smith), 'We thoroughly enjoyed our stay - and the company " [Colin WhgmiU and Peter Challen.). Hamilton East & West Democrats for social credit meet every month. Corns along for a shared lunch and much chatter. A photo by Mary Russell-Bethum of some happy folk attending last year's Mid-Winter Brunch is shown below:
SILENT SPRING? Within 20 years,our forests will start dying as our sol1 micro-organisms, soil and surface invertebrates, and the once rich avifauna all succumb to the tens of thousands of tonnes of 1080 that are annually raining down on them. This country Is potentially facing the biggest and irretrievable environmental disaster in human history. We are talking about an industrial poison - sodium fluomacetate wiping out entire systems of iinked biological support systems. It is 45 years since Rachel Carson published S/lent Spring, which led to the universal banning of the "miracle" agricultural chemical DDT. We are in exactly the same position now with 1080. 1080 kills everything. Mike Bennett, Otago Dally rimes 25/6/07
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COLLECTIVE DEBT Cash-strapped Nelson parents are surviving on only one meal a day because they cannot afford to feed their children and themselves. Te Korowai Trust budget adviser Janice Luke said they had trained five extra staff members to handle the increase in the number of people struggling to pay their bills, Mrs Luke said many people were building up debts through hire purchase orders and credit cards, and then unable to meet the escalating repayments. She estimated that 60 percent of her clients went hungry. Budget Advice Nelson said their clients had a collective debt of almost $3.9 million. Including $800,000 owed on credit cards. Nelson Mail 20/6/07 (Item supplied by Adrian Baylyj
COMPULSORY MEDICATION The sudden announcement at the weekend that synthetic folic acid was to be added to all bread except organic has outraged a group of Hokiiika campaigners and left the town's bakers flabbergasted. Spokesperson for the campaigners, David Tranter, said medicating bread is an absurd way of providing a substance which should be given In properly measured amounts and only to those requiring It. "Presumably Mrs King will be looking for further opportunities to meddle with people's food and their right to choose their own medication on the advice of their health professionals, rather than according to politicallydriven agendas." West Coast Times 2616107
^NATIONAL
BUSINESSREVIEW June 22,2007
Social Credit goes back to the future The most unorthodox submission to the select committee on housing affordability comes from Democrats for Social Credit,which promotes its theory of community credit. Under this theory, local bodies and first home buyers should be able to borrow money interest free from the Reserve Bank. Local bodies would borrow for capital projectswith voter approval.
"The Reserve Bank would get the money not from the budget or by borrowing from a commercial bank but by creating it, just as banks and lending institutions do every day. "Creating new money for such a loan increasesthe money supply, of cows& However, when the loan is repaid by the local body or borne owner, the money is extineuiahed, STUCK IN A RUT There Is indeed something depressing about what passes for economic orthodoxy these days, There Is something disturbing, surely. about our little dollar being among the most traded currencies on the world market. I wonder how we'd feel actually seeing the kind of pin-striped spivs who cash In on rigid monetarist regimes like New Zealand's, popping
thus reducing the money supply to what it was before such a loan was made. This extinguishing action is what prevents inflation. "In the years 1100to 1694, Great Britain used this system and had no debt for the 594 years. It was only when they were talked into a form of the modem day banking system, with the central bank (Bankof England) a private commercial type, did they start to lose their non-debtstatus. The little country of Guernsey, located in the British Isles, used community credit to get out of debt, fund the necessary road construction and also market reconstruction.A plaque indicating they got out of debt and no longer have any debt hangs in their market square. -Chris Hutchine
the top off the Meet and roaring off in a cloud of Porche fumes. An acquisitive appetite that is actively encouraged by the foreign-owned banks bloated with speculative capital Tor which they must find borrowers. The answer must be that we are still stuck in the theoretically pure rut we dug far ourselves in the 1980s. Fintay Macdonald. Sunday Star-Times 10/6/07
ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON In the story, "The Sign of Four", Sherlock Holmes observed, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truthn.This quote occurred to me on being told that the New Zealand government has reduced the royalty it charges on our oil from 5 percent to 1 percent making it the cheapest in the world. In comparison Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Britain, Australia and others charge upwards of 50 percent. At 70 dollars a barrel we wilt get 70 cents while the Saudis get 35 dollars, It is believed that the Great South Basin off the Southland Coasi contains more oil than was ever under the North Sea and is conservatively estimated to be worth about 20 years of New Zealand's total annual weaith generation. And our Wvemmenb will give ifaway for a 1 Percent royalty. Guardian Political Review, Issue 53, 2007 - Page 26
Which brings me back to Sherlock Holmes. Why does the New Zealand government want to give away this bonanza? Are our politicians thick? Are they taking bribes? Have they been threatened by foreign powers? Or are they, whatever parties are in power, simply not concerned with the welfare of the New Zealand people? I'll be charitable and assume they are not utterly stupid, and will eliminate the bribes and threats - after all they would have told us about It if this were the case wouldn't they? Which leaves that they simply don't care people - and that certainly about the New explains a great deal of what governments have done Over the Past several decades. David Tranter Dsmocrate for Social Cnsdit Media Release 23/7/07
COALITION OF THE BILLING Iraq is the most heavily privatlsed conflict on record, with the contracting and "outsourcing" of both core and support organisations at phenomenal levels. The number of contractors on the American payroll In Iraq now exceeds US combat troops. The LA Times quoted "This Is not the coalition of the willing. It's the maltton of the billing", Rnlay Macdonald. Sunday Star-films 19/8/07
DEMOCRATS FIRST The Minister of Local Government Mark Burton told the Local Government NZ conference (16.7.07) that every month the country produced enough solid waste to cover a rugby field and reach 30 storeys high. The previous week the Democrats for social credit conference had discussed 'therrnolysis' a thermal treatment which turned waste Into carbon solids, producing gases which could be used to fuel tile process.
INFANT WARNING
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The American Dental Association, which has for many years been one of fluoride's biggest advocates, alerted Its members fate last year that parents of Infants younger than a year old "should consider using water thai has no or low levels of fluoride" whsn mixing baby formula. The ADA was concerned about fluorosis, a condition caused by too much fluoride that damages the enamel of teeth. Some scientists believe that even mild to moderate cases of fluorosis can lead to more significant problems. Studies have associated fluorosis with lower 10, endocrine system problems, and skeletal damage.
STAYING AFLOAT Kiwi households are now the second most Indebted in the QECD, with net debt equal to more than 160% of dlsposabia income. Reducing that level of indebtedness - personal and national - is an urgent mission if we are fo stay afloat in the current stormy seas. Sunday Star-Times editorial 18/8/07
MADE HIS MILLIONS Anonymous traders sitting at desks in Tokyo, New York and London have toyed with the collective futures of this country's primary exporters as they move billions of dollars, pounds and yen around the world. National Party leader John Key made Ms millions as a Wall Street currency trader and is in a better position than most to look at the current situation. Ohgo Daily Times editorial 271S/07
THE SAME SONG SHEET Despite Ciark's claims of a hidden National
NUCLEAR DEBT LEGACY Finance chiefs from the G7 industrialised countries have endorsed nuclear energy as an 'inareasingly attractive power source" . The card which destroys nuclear power is the moral and physical one of waste - a debt legacy handed to future generations. M u m y Grimwood, Ohgo Dally Times 22/8/07
Sf. Petereiwo Tinws 4/6/07
(Item supplied by Bill W y )
A SINISTER TWIST Having to fork out $20 million to settle Insider trading ailegafions is more than a whipping with a wet bus ticket, but is it enough? David Richwhite and Midavia Rail, which he owns with hls merchant banking partner Sir Michael Fay, agreed to settle the Securities Commission case over the sate of Tram Rail shares in 2002. Commerce Minister Uanne Dalziel revealed to Parliament "powerful Interests' had tried to stop the regulator pursuing -the case. A sinister twist.
SORRY TO BE A JEREMIAH Commerce has become mainstream, ttia entrepreneur has become regarded as a creative, and not some sort of demented, parasite. Now commercial classes are jamcrammed at varsity and nobody wants to be a doctor. Instead they alt aim to go into property development. Or the finance industry. Some enterprise that pays you to wear smart suits, attend swanky events and generally impress. There Is only one problem with commerce. It Is cyclical. Peak and trough, boom and bust. We are currently in a pre-bust phase. These are times of plenty. And they are about to end. Sorry to be a Jeremiah but the New Zealand economy Is stuffed. Michael Laws, Sunday Star-Tim 22/7/07
Party agenda. the policy that "dare not speak Its name", she and Key often appear to be (to use one of his management-speak phrases) "singing from the same song sheet*. John Ralston, NZ Listener21/7?07
A SLIP OF THE TONGUE A slip of the tongue by John Key in his speech to the National Party's annual conference saw Mm state that "under a Labour government I lead
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NOT ALWAYS HEEDED Crossword (1. Across): People's voice, not always heeded. (Solution: 'Referendum'). Gray Power Quarteriy, June 2007
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Address
GuSftfkn Poltticsl Rew'sw, Issue 53,2007 - Page 27
Â¥NWftt Attchison welcomes guest speaker Colin Whitmill
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Conference Secretary Margaret Hook keeping an accurate record
Guardian Political Review, Issue 53,3007 7 Page 28
Photos by Katharine Ransom & CoBn Whttmlll ',a
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