Colin Peacock – usually one of the most reliably discerning voices in New Zealand media – set sail last week on the stormy waters of the gender identity debate. After some curious navigational choices, the good ship Media Watch almost foundered on the dangerous reefs lying between the Scylla of confirmation bias, and the Charybdis of ideological forelock tugging.
Some of us have been worrying for years about the long term, adverse effects of what has become known as the Dutch Protocol. Abigail Shrier’s article about two prominent American advocates of the protocol who are stepping back from it, is timely in New Zealand given two pieces of legislation, currently in Select Committee, may well result in an increase in its application here.
Neo-liberalism has been in the driving seat for almost forty years.
Maori incarceration statistics go from awful to appalling when the rate of Mana Wāhine in New Zealand’s prisons is considered. Currently at 68%, it is the highest per capita incarceration rate of indigenous women in the world.
We may forgive McConnell’s youthful hubris but his apparent ignorance of history and of contemporary realities is harder to excuse.