David Seymour

[TheDemonLord]

Something he's done by taking disinfranised voters away only from National or fans of bad dancing TV

He's not done anything the greens the NZF or Social credit or Jim Anderton has not done previously, yes not some political genius.
going on dancing on the stars to raise his profile and then dance badly was exactly what Rodney Hyde did before him.
So how about you list his accomplishments like i asked?
None of these other partys didn't get a free pass by national not standing people against him like national do for him.

Aaaaaaaah smells good, doesn't it?

[sugilite:Me]

Euthanasia.

An impressive list, and all within 10 years you say?

[husaberg]

An impressive list, and all within 10 years you say?

No prizes for guessing he was just lucky to have it drawn when their wasn't an evangelical Christian majority.
https://eolc.org.nz/history/
http://www.nathaniel.org.nz/21-bioet...in-new-zealand

oh look

Last year, a binding referendum held in conjunction with the general election resulted in the David Seymour-sponsored End Of Life Choice Act, a Bill modelled on Mr Laws’ original draft, being passed after gaining 65.2% support.
Mr Laws said given Labour, New Zealand First and Act New Zealand MPs had sponsored various attempts for euthanasia law reform it was an issue which transcended political and philosophical boundaries.

1 Netherlands Netherlands Passed by the States General 1 April 2002
2 Belgium Belgium Passed by the Belgian Federal Parliament 28 May 2002
3 Luxembourg Luxembourg Passed by the Chamber of Deputies 19 March 2009
4 Colombia Colombia Ruling of the Constitutional Court of Colombia 15 December 2014
5 Canada Canada Passed by the Parliament of Canada 17 June 2016
6 Spain Spain Passed by the Cortes Generales 25 June 2021
7 New Zealand New Zealand Passed by the Parliament of New Zealand and adopted in a referendum 6 November 2021

To recap, in 1995 then-National Party MP Michael Laws failed to convince the House that voluntary euthanasia should be legalised, with the Death with Dignity Bill falling short by a margin of 32 votes. New Zealand First MP Peter Brown got much closer in 2003, but his private member’s bill was defeated by one vote.

More recently, Labour MP Maryanne Street withdrew her End of Life Choice Bill in 2013 on the grounds that she did not want euthanasia to become a ballot box issue in the 2014 election. Post-election, Labour chose not to resubmit the bill.

Auckland, New Zealand – Voters in New Zealand are expected to have voted “yes” in a referendum to legalise euthanasia when preliminary results are announced on Friday, underlining the measure’s consistent support among the public and the backing of newly returned Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Polling has put support for the legislation, one of two referendums put to voters during the general election earlier this month, at above 60 percent. A “yes” vote will mean New Zealand joins a small group of nations and territories including the Netherlands and Canada that have legalised assisted dying.

The road to the End of Life Choice Bill, which took place at the same time as the election, began five years ago with lawyer Lecretia Seales.

After being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour Seales wanted very much to remain alive, but her husband Matt Vickers says she was frustrated by the lack of personal autonomy for those facing terminal illnesses and the lack of political will to address the issue

[TheDemonLord]

An impressive list, and all within 10 years you say?

I mean there's others - but in terms of major policy (and as an aside - one I don't entirely agree with) - it's a pretty landmark piece of legislation.

And to Husa's point - other people did indeed try (and fail) to get it through.

But it was Seymour who was successful. Just like we remember who Sir Ed and Sherpa Tensing were, but not the poor sods that attempted before them.

[sugilite:Me]

The cartoonist does have a point!

[R650R]

Well for violent offences surely yes….

As for voting younger minds are easily lead by populist rhetoric that makes up most political movements.

What would happen say another generation fully indoctrinated in the climate cult saddled with the cost of looking after us old boomers when someone runs on a non voluntary euthanasia policy to save the planet etc….????

[TheDemonLord]

The cartoonist does have a point!

They would, if the type of 17 year old where there's a compelling argument for them to vote was the same type of 17 year old that was committing armed robbery.

Somehow though (and I'm going out on a limb here) - I don't think that's the case.

[sugilite:Me]

Oh yes, lets have a "type" of person that is allowed to vote

[husaberg]

Well for violent offences surely yes….

As for voting younger minds are easily lead by populist rhetoric that makes up most political movements.

What would happen say another generation fully indoctrinated in the climate cult saddled with the cost of looking after us old boomers when someone runs on a non voluntary euthanasia policy to save the planet etc….????

You always seem to attempt to deflect actual truths
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...osystem-online

An insidious “far-right ecosystem” is targeting children in an attempt to radicalise them online, with experts warning that progressively younger school pupils are becoming ensnared in extremist ideologies, a Guardian investigation has found.

[pritch]

Well for violent offences surely yes….

That is already the law. If the offence meets the criteria kids can be sent to prison. I'm not sure how that works though.

A girl, given a bottle of vodka by grandma and told to have a good time, murdered a guy with a hammer. Completely unprovoked. She was sent to a youth justice facility.

A guy with a long youth justice crime record entered a house, held a knife the the wife's throat and told the husband to get the money or he'd kill the wife. He got the big house. When he was to be sentenced the judge ordered that his co-offenders be in the court. The idea was that they would be impressed by the seriousness and the severity of the sentence. That was optimistic. When questioned immediately afterwards they had no understanding of what had happened It had to be explained to them by the social workers.

Both of these offenders will be free long since. Unless they've offended again.

The ex Inspector that used to run the Auckland Crime Show on TV (Police Ten7) said that many offenders were educationally sub normal. No argument from me.

[Grumph]

Don't be misled by what you see on TV. A Youth Justice facility is to all intents a prison. With - for the serious offenders - a commensurate level of security.
I worked at the old ChCh Kingsley facility. As support staff - no interaction with the kids at all.
But if for any reason i had to go into the secure unit it was full prison level security.

What you see on TV - the fights - are a lower level offender held in a different part of the unit. I'd compare it to cage hens vs barn hens.

Some of the youth offenders score very highly on intelligence tests. Most don't.

If 17 yo are to be given the vote, I'd make it such that they have to ask for it individually. That IMO would sort the interested from the dgaf group.

[Berries]

Oh yes, lets have a "type" of person that is allowed to vote

We do.

People who think it makes any difference.

[nerrrd]

I have some questions about the latest transport policy from Act.

Aren't all the roads already being built and maintained by private contractors? Or is the idea to bring in foreign companies to be in competition with the local ones? How would that be an economical option for the foreign company considering how far away we are from anywhere, unless they use local labour and materials (and contractors)?

I understand that tolls can help cover the costs of building and maintaining roads over time, but how does that help you pay for the construction of the road in the first place? The level of return from tolling would have to be set at a level that the local economy can sustain, which is going to be much lower than most foreign companies are used to.

The initial cost would have to be financed somehow, wouldn't a government have a lot more borrowing power than a commercial enterprise?

If what they're saying is tolls can help fund maintaining the roads, that makes sense to me. But surely that maintenance is only ever going to be done by the same local companies doing it now. How you get them to do a better job would be the crucial question, just giving them more money I suspect is not going to solve the issue.

Foreign investor involvement in building our roads is a surely a pipe dream, there won't be enough of a return in it for them. Unless the Chinese decide spending a whole lot of their own money in NZ is a good idea...altruistically, of course.

[pete376403]

I have some questions about the latest transport policy from Act.

Aren't all the roads already being built and maintained by private contractors? Or is the idea to bring in foreign companies to be in competition with the local ones? How would that be an economical option for the foreign company considering how far away we are from anywhere, unless they use local labour and materials (and contractors)?

I understand that tolls can help cover the costs of building and maintaining roads over time, but how does that help you pay for the construction of the road in the first place? The level of return from tolling would have to be set at a level that the local economy can sustain, which is going to be much lower than most foreign companies are used to.

The initial cost would have to be financed somehow, wouldn't a government have a lot more borrowing power than a commercial enterprise?

If what they're saying is tolls can help fund maintaining the roads, that makes sense to me. But surely that maintenance is only ever going to be done by the same local companies doing it now. How you get them to do a better job would be the crucial question, just giving them more money I suspect is not going to solve the issue.

Foreign investor involvement in building our roads is a surely a pipe dream, there won't be enough of a return in it for them. Unless the Chinese decide spending a whole lot of their own money in NZ is a good idea...altruistically, of course.

Wellingtons Transmission Gully is a good example of how these questions should be applied - it's not a toll road (yet) but I'm sure that idea has been thought of

[R650R]

I have some questions about the latest transport policy from Act.

Aren't all the roads already being built and maintained by private contractors? Or is the idea to bring in foreign companies to be in competition with the local ones? How would that be an economical option for the foreign company considering how far away we are from anywhere, unless they use local labour and materials (and contractors)?

I understand that tolls can help cover the costs of building and maintaining roads over time, but how does that help you pay for the construction of the road in the first place? The level of return from tolling would have to be set at a level that the local economy can sustain, which is going to be much lower than most foreign companies are used to.

The initial cost would have to be financed somehow, wouldn't a government have a lot more borrowing power than a commercial enterprise?

If what they're saying is tolls can help fund maintaining the roads, that makes sense to me. But surely that maintenance is only ever going to be done by the same local companies doing it now. How you get them to do a better job would be the crucial question, just giving them more money I suspect is not going to solve the issue.

Foreign investor involvement in building our roads is a surely a pipe dream, there won't be enough of a return in it for them. Unless the Chinese decide spending a whole lot of their own money in NZ is a good idea...altruistically, of course.

It’s the way the rest of the world does it on big jobs. It’s the power of having all the gear ready to go vs the likes of Higgins or Fulton hogan having to get around to ordering 20 each of new motor graders, bulldozers haul trucks etc. Plus it’s the management experience of knowing how to make a big project work.
Even in the likes of USA another company from out of state sometimes travels thousands of miles to do an important job because they have the collective skill set to make it all happen on time.
Funding would prob be the 50/50 public private model national proposed.
Tolls are pure cashflow which any business loves.
Even at a modest 2$ toll on 10,000 vehicles a day is $7.3 million a year.
It’s a bit like the home handyman vs getting a professional tradie in to do job quickly and better.

All that aside I think we really should bring back ministry of works as an infrastructure civilian engineer army and give all our troubled youth some purpose and skills. Flood protection works alone has decades or work let alone the roads as well.