Election 2008 Dunedin North and Dunedin South candidates respond to your questions.
AS part of The Star 's Election '08 coverage we offered all candidates standing in the Dunedin South and Dunedin North electorates the opportunity to answer some written questions compiled by The Star readers and The Star and Otago Chamber of Commerce staff. Candidates' answers were limited to 100 words per question in this week's The Star and were edited where necessary. Their extended answers are shown here.
THE QUESTIONS
1. Rail What are the chances of restoring a commuter rail service between Mosgiel and Dunedin during the next electoral term, and what is your medium/long-term vision for commuter/passenger rail services through Dunedin and the South? (Brighton resident Lorraine Johnston)
2. Taxation Will your party repeal taxation on unearned capital gain on foreign income that is in Taxation (Business Taxation and Remedial Matters) Act 2007, section 11, Foreign Investment Fund Income. (John Horrocks, Mornington)
3. Crime How would you address the escalation in violent crime, including domestic violence, in this country? (Business and Professional Women's group Dunedin/The Star/Chamber of Commerce)
4. Power What energy policies would you champion and what would you do to help Dunedin in terms of its old, cold homes? (The Star/Chamber of Commerce)
5. Health What is your opinion of population-based funding and what changes, if any, would you make to the current health system? (The Star/Chamber of Commerce)
6. Stadium Do you support the proposed Awatea St stadium? (The Star/Chamber of Commerce)
THE ANSWERS
1. Rail
The restoring of commuter and passenger rail services is an excellent idea, especially as it could utilise New Zealand's vast coal reserves as oil's future becomes more uncertain. It won't happen in the next electoral term. The coming catastrophe will present far more pressing problems. Restore All Things in Christ alone foretold this catastrophe at the last election and spelt out its fundamental, moral solution. And financially, Labour's most recent term actually promoted sub-prime mortgages, the visible cause of the current financial crisis, in stark contrast to the home-ownership account/high deposit/low interest loan scheme we proposed last election.
2. Taxation
Governments based on Masonic principles - the current universal fashion, are notoriously ravenous. When Masonic-backed Victor Emmanuel stole the Papal States from Pius IX in 1870, direct tax went from 2.5 per cent to 13.5 per cent, the people from happy to oppressed and services were run down; education went from first-rate to fourth grade no use. As Restore All Things in Christ replaced Masonic principles with Catholic principles, taxes would progressively lower to minimal rates. Also, the reintroduction of justice, defined as that virtue which gives to each their due, would ensure that any tax intrinsically unjust would be immediately abolished.
3. Crime
The Masonic agenda of removing from states all Catholic principles and defying the law of God at will has been so universally successful that seemingly all countries now enshrine in law the ultimate causes of domestic and other violence, namely abortion which when legalised establishes in principle all violence as licit; divorce, which destroys families; contraception and prostitution, which promote fornication and adultery as recreational pursuits, etc, while instruction in revealed truth, especially God's moral law, is strictly forbidden. We would reverse all this.
4. Power
Electricity should be largely a state-owned monopoly run strictly on Christian principles - for the common good. This would immediately cut the cost per unit in half. NZ is rich in coal, this should be prudently utilised. Good-quality, hot-burning coal should be available cheaply to domestic users, not given away to China. This coal and cheap wood should be readily available for fires, open and other, which are invariably found in Dunedin's old cold homes. Also modern efficient units which can be utilised for water heating and cooking should be available cheaply, not forbidden by absurd regulations.
5. Health
So long as we fund such immoral practices as abortion which violates the fifth Commandment, IVF which violates the natural law and sterilisation which mutilates a healthy body, moral corruption in the health system will be rife and patients' needs unmet. Run on sound Catholic principles there is already
excess funding to meet all patients' valid needs. It's worth examining the apparent economic miracles performed by the Catholic governments of Salazar (1889-1970) in Portugal and especially Garcia Moreno (1821-1875) in Ecuador. Let us run the health system to draw down God's blessing, not his curse.
6. Stadium
However much propaganda is spewed out, the fact remains that modern rugby stadiums are a colossal liability, not an asset. If the rich and foolish wish to squander their money on these things, that's their affair, if they squander my money on it, that's theft and to hang it around the necks of ratepayers for years to come, that's criminal.