Human rights must apply to everybody – even to those who have abused others’ rights. This is the uncomfortable underpinning of the Police Minister’s proposed register for the close monitoring of sex offenders in the community. Anne Tolley has, however, struck the right balance in, first, piloting the monitoring system with about 300 convicted child Read more
“Egali-what?” Even as New Zealand’s income gaps have yawned open in recent decades, public concern about that inequality has fallen. Egalitarianism used to be one of New Zealand’s touchstones, a term that conveyed a kind of pride in being a country with relatively small income gaps. Even among the politically active, the word has little Read more
How much would you pay to save a life? Not necessarily your life, nor the life of someone you know or love. Just a life: Joe Bloggs, Jane Doe, the guy from the bus, the high school friend you don’t speak to any more. Think of a figure, round it to the nearest hundred thousand, Read more
A Mormon missionary has produced a striking guide to serving in New Zealand, describing Kiwis as “earthy, raw, straight-shooting, irreverent, hilarious, and caring folk”. Missionary Gina Colvin, in a blog on a major Mormon website, also took shots at her own Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints and the way Americans see the Read more
Delegates at a Vatican conference have been told that forced labour on industrial fishing vessels is occurring in New Zealand as well as in Russia, Turkey, South Korea, Ireland and Scotland. The conference of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Workers heard that fishing crew are particularly susceptible to exploitation by certain ship owners, Read more
Last week the Australian Catholic Media Congress took place in Sydney. Monsignor Paul Tighe, a media adviser from the Vatican, told the assembly that new media technologies “enable the forming of community, they have extraordinary potential for the wellbeing of the church”. In his CathBlog Michael Visontay points out that over 150 years ago, under Read more
Election times are almost with us. Beware of “millennial cargo cult” politicians! Why the strange language? Well, it aptly describes a dangerous type of politician and political policy. Millenarian cults are social movements common throughout history. They proclaim for devoted believers the destructive end of one era and the dramatic coming of another more perfect Read more