nanny state Archive

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  Send the leaky houses bill to Ruth and Roger

  
  
  
  One of the series of damaging legacies from the new right revolution of the 80s and the 90s is the leaky housing fiasco. The NZ Herald reports this morning that the leaky houses fiasco is now threatening NZ’s credit rating because the liabilities are so large ($6 billion) to fix the houses. The 1991 Building Act, [...] read more
  September 12, 2009 8:55 am - 57 Comments
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  Should voluntary tanning standards be made law?

  
  
  
  Today is the day when a new joint Australian/New Zealand standard for the use of sunbeds comes into effect, albeit a voluntary one for New Zealand. This is the result of lots of work by the standards authority following a damning report that I posted about last January in Death by Tanning. The Cancer Society is [...] read more
  January 26, 2009 10:18 am - 15 Comments
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  Shower despots

  
  
  
  The civil rights leaders of the right wing blogosphere are again up in arms at the egregious and dictatorial invasion by the Greens of hard working New Zealanders’ bathrooms.  And rightfully so. The Greens secret policy on showers will require armed, masked police officers to enter each person’s bathroom, one by one, and forcibly remove their [...] read more
  October 9, 2008 2:40 pm - 66 Comments
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  It’s not winner take all

  
  
  
  There’s a misconception in some corners of political coverage that this election is ‘winner takes all. For instance yesterday Deborah Coddington writes: If Key keeps on smiling through personal attacks – and reassuring New Zealanders that, under his watch, this country won’t go belly up – National might win the election. Which, in these crazy MMP [...] read more
  September 22, 2008 9:28 am - 11 Comments
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  Michael Law’s jackboot nanny state (fashion police gone mad)

  
  
  
  Picture a world where the state tells you what you can and cannot wear in public. Where the state tells you who you can and cannot associate with. Where the civil liberties you get are based on the lottery of your demographics. This is the world that the self-proclaimed nemesis of the nanny state, Michael [...] read more
  August 3, 2008 10:56 am - 81 Comments
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  Barking mad

  
  
  
  Rodney Hide and friends are apparently rebelling over their new parliamentary recycling bins and rubbish cubes: ACT leader Rodney Hide said it was an example of the “nanny state gone barking mad”. In an e-mail over-riding their protests, ACT staff were told to prepare for an hour-long “changeover”, an operation that was conducted with military precision on [...] read more
  June 11, 2008 9:54 am - 23 Comments