The Prime Minister claims there is a growing threat from New Zealanders attracted to Islamic State and he wants to increase state powers to watch such people and take away their passports. I believe there is a better way to discourage would-be jihadists than the state enacting measures that erode the civil liberties of all New Zealanders.
Before deciding on a military contribution to Iraq, our Prime Minister should explain who he would be supporting, or be allied with. Let’s look at who would be on his side.
Canada’s Green Party has provided a welcome counterpoint to Prime Minister Harper’s call for tougher anti-terrorism laws in the wake of a soldier outside the Canadian Parliament.
Countering the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq requires solutions that are mainly political, not military.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11345416
New Zealanders are right to be concerned about the rise of the Islamic State (Isis), but our best contribution would be to provide...
I asked Graeme Edgeler of the Legal Beagle blog to work out the seat distribution in feasible scenarios involving Hone Harawira winning Tai Tokerau, Peter Dunne losing Ohariu and the Maori Party holding their seats in Te Tai Hauauru and Tamaki Makaurau.
We may eventually wipe out the current strain of Ebola. But until we address the inequalities in the world more epidemics are likely to arise in the poorer countries.
We should be suspicious when 800 police conduct “terror” raids across Australia, but only one person is charged with a relevant terrorism offence (of which we know few details).
One of the reasons National won the election was due to its success in counter messaging – and the way so many media commentators ran with th the right-wing spin.
John Key assured us on RNZ’s Nine to Noon programme yesterday that “In terms of the Fives Eyes data bases… yes New Zealand will contribute some information but not mass wholesale surveillance.”