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We've got a problem
The three men responsible for the 2008 attack on the Government
Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) base at Waihopai — a
schoolteacher, a Catholic priest and a farmer, who openly admitted to the
crimes — were acquitted of all charges in Wellington District Court.
"After a week-long trial, the jury took a mere two hours to rule that
the men should be set free since they were acting for the greater
good," writes Forbes deputy lifestyle editor Eric Arnold.
"Were they?" Arnold pontificates. "Perhaps. The extension
of U.S. government tentacles around the world is often troubling even to
Americans. But the jury's decision is much more troubling. It conveys to
the rest of the country — and to the larger world — that in New
Zealand crime is OK if you believe you're in the right. It also shows that
xenophobia is becoming as [much a part of New Zealand culture] as rugby
and meat pies. I can't say that I saw the crime or even the acquittal
coming, but I don't find either surprising. Spend a year in rural New
Zealand and you'll learn that the country, for all the virtues and
benefits it enjoys by being small and far-flung, is also greatly impaired
by these two things, for they stir a sense of one-dimensional, nativist
paranoia in many of its people that only grows stronger by the day …
Progressive people affect change by using their brains, not their sickles
and their sense of paranoia. History's already seen how that sort of thing
shakes out, and I'd hate to see it repeat in New Zealand."
(19 March 2010)


Green mirage
The Guardian newspaper's 'greenwashing exposer' Fred Pearce uncovers a
number of offending countries who have succeeded in raising their emissions from
1990 levels despite signing up to reduce them. "Step forward Spain,
Portugal, Ireland and Greece — all with emissions up by more than a quarter
... US and Australia, which both reneged on the protocol after signing it. And
Canada, which never reneged but still has emissions up by a quarter… But my
prize for the most shameless two fingers to the global community goes to New
Zealand, a country that sells itself round the world as 'clean and green'."
"New Zealand secured a generous Kyoto target, which simply required it not
to increase its emissions between 1990 and 2010. But the latest UN statistics
show its emissions of greenhouse gases up by 22%, or a whopping 39% if you look
at emissions from fuel burning alone."
(12 November 2009)


Strengthening relations
New Zealand's outgoing ambassador to Vietnam James Kember has received a medal
from the Vietnamese government for his contributions to relations between the
two countries. Speaking at the award presentation ceremony in Hanoi, President
of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) Vu Xuan Hong said during
Ambassador Kember's term of office for the last three years, friendship and
co-operation between Vietnam and New Zealand have seen progress in all areas
from politics to economics and trade. Kember said it was an honour for him to
receive the award and reaffirmed that no matter what position he takes in
future, he will continue to play his part in strengthening and developing
friendship and co-operation between the two nations. Kember's foreign service
includes postings in China, New York, New Caledonia and the Cook Islands.
(22 August 2009)


Holding them accountable
New Zealand academic and Professor of international political economy at Oxford
University, Ngaire Woods, may have the answer to preventing another economic
crisis with a new book The Politics of Global Regulation — the
culmination of a five-year study with Oxford colleague Walter Mattli. At its
crux, the book addresses why, with globalisation having taken off, the global
economy has such a lack of effective regulation. It's a groundbreaking study
because it's the first time scholars have looked at what Woods calls the theory
of global regulatory capture, which is effectively what has happened in finance.
"Those parts of the financial sector that are global and highly leveraged
very effectively avoid the kind of regulation that is required, because these
institutions are too large to let fail," says Woods. Woods and Mattli's
solution to the conundrum of how we "prevent this happening again", is
two-fold. First, there needs to be better monitoring by whomever supervises
banks and the financial sector. The second, more ambitious solution calls for a
global adjudication mechanism, similar to the disputes settlement mechanism at
the World Trade Organisation.
(19 June 2009)


Leading negotiant
New Zealand's Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dr David Walker
has been appointed as the new Chair of the WTO Doha Round Agriculture
Negotiations. Walker replaces fellow New Zealander Crawford Falconer, who will
be returning to Wellington to become deputy secretary at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Trade, the WTO said. Walker's resume includes active roles in past
trade negotiations, including the GATT agreement and Uruguay Round. He is the
third successive New Zealander to chair the Agriculture Negotiations.
(22 April 2009)


Clark first choice for UN role
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has been tipped to head the United
Nations Development Programme, according to an unnamed UN official. If confirmed
in this posting, Clark will be responsible for the administration of projects in
166 countries and become the third most powerful official in the UN’s
hierarchy. With an annual budget of US$5 billion, the Programme’s activities
are targeted to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which address
such global issues as poverty, education, health and environmental
sustainability. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who reportedly nominated Clark
for the post, is expected to officially announce her appointment today.
(25 March 2009)


Leader for change
Time calls John Key’s election win “an emphatic triumph”, and in a Q&A, Key notes that “we are 22nd out of 30 countries in the OECD for average income. I think this is grossly inadequate. We’re on the edge of Asia, which arguably will be the fastest-growing region in the world for the next decade or two. We’ve got to be able to do a lot better.”
And ...“I was blessed to have a mother who understood that education was a liberator and that you get out of life what you put into it. And so one of the things that really concerns me is the long tale of
underachievement in New Zealand …” And … “The biggest challenge for any Prime Minister is to stay connected with the people who elect you. Once you lose sight of that, then the end is probably not that far away.”
(1 December 2008)

Indigenous art in the spotlight
The Musée du Quai Branly, French President Jacques Chirac's long-awaited €235.2
million shrine to indigenous art, was officially inaugurated on June 21 in
Paris. The Quai
Branly boasts a collection of 300,000 works from Africa, Asia, Oceania and
the Americas, including a 19th-century Maori woman's cloak, the prows of a war
canoe and a carving from a marae entrance. Contemporary photographic works by
Michael Parekowhai and Fiona Pardington are exhibited in the museum's garden.
French opinion is hotly divided over the Quai Branly - while some hail it as a
symbol of the universality of art, others see it as an archaic reminder of
European colonialism. Chirac has made it his project since 1996. "There is
no hierarchy among the arts, just as there is no hierarchy among peoples,"
he proclaimed at the inauguration.
(21 June 2006)

Top 10 for 100%
New Zealand has ranked 10th in an index of the strongest brands in the world compiled by marketing research firms Anholt-GMI. New Zealand had positive brand values and managed, like Ireland which came 13th, to punch above its weight on the global stage, the survey said. "Both countries have relatively small economies and few well-known local brands, but have nonetheless managed to become well known and highly regarded." The survey's authors said New Zealand could thank its "vigorous, well co- ordinated and unusually thoughtful promotional campaigns" under the banner of "100 percent Pure". The Lord of the Rings trilogy was another factor. New Zealand did best on tourism and investment and immigration. It scored least on culture and heritage and exports. The top ten nation brands are Australia, Canada, Switzerald, United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, France and New Zealand.
(3 August 2005)


Opposing views
Free Liberal weblog comments on a
Washington Times article detailing NZ’s anti-nuclear stance, military
capabilities, and reliance on its more powerful neighbour. “An interesting story
about how NZ's rather modest defense budget and decision to stay out of military
conflicts has allowed the nation to … retain its independence on the global
stage. Something tells me that because of policies like these (as compared to
Washington's belligerence) Wellington is pretty far down on Bin Laden's list of
targets. Oh, and before you think of NZ as a bunch of socialists, it must be
noted that Heritage Foundation ranked the nation third on its 2004 index of
economic freedom, a full seven slots higher than the U.S. of A.”
(27 May 2005)

You can’t buy happiness
NZ born lecturer of
economics at Stanford University, John McMillan, believes that the obsession NZ
politicians have with raising the country’s per capita income to equal that of
Australia is a waste of time. “Any cross-country comparison of living standards
should be taken with a grain of salt. There is no dependable way to do it. If we
must do such comparisons, we should look at an eclectic range of measures and
make an overall evaluation based on all of them.” For example, he points out,
Australia may rank higher than NZ in the per capita income stakes, but NZ enjoys
a much higher rating on the Happiness and the Human Development Index.
(28 June 2005)


Kiwis in flight
The “brain drain” issue is back in the
news with a vengeance, sparked by Immigration Minister Paul Swain’s newly minted
campaign to lure ex-patriots home. Writing in the
NZ Herald
writer Simon Collins received a staggering number of replies to his
online
questionnaire directed at overseas New Zealanders, which centred on questions such as “Do
you intend to return to NZ definitely soon/definitely eventually/possibly/never?
Why?” and “How do your current income and living costs compare with your
potential income and living costs in NZ?” An
OECD report
released just days after the launch of Swain’s campaign shows that NZ has the
greatest number of skilled workers living abroad of any developed nation. The
issue is sure to be a major one this year, and for many years coming. Russell
Brown's 15 March
blog on the subject attracted a lot of commentary and messages.
(March 2005)

Putting our money where our mouth is
In a show of commitment to the
Kyoto Protocol, NZ became the first country in the world to levy a public carbon
tax. NZers will now pay an extra $2.90 per week for electricity, petrol and gas,
which is expected to add about 6% to household energy prices and 9% to
businesses. The idea is to make polluting energy sources such as oil and coal
more expensive than cleaner ones such as hydro, wind and solar power.
Guardian: “The experiment will be watched closely by bigger countries which
are also committed to reducing carbon emissions but are failing to reduce energy
demand.”
(5 May 2005)

Employment looking up
According to new figures released by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), NZ has the second
highest employment growth rate in the developed world. The report shows that
NZ’s labour force grew 3.4% last year, up from 2.3 in 2002 and 2003. The top
five countries listed were Mexico, NZ, Ireland, Greece and Spain.
(29 June 2005)


Narrowing the Gulf
NZ has forged closer ties with Bahrain,
signing two major agreements on bilateral cooperation in March. “We have vast
potential for co-operation, and we have much to gain from each other's
experience,” said Bahrainian PM Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa. “We look
forward to working with you to construct the framework through which our peoples
can move closer together.”
(30 March 2005)


No more 5 cent lollies
NZ’s 5 cent coin is soon to be
no longer, thanks to a major overhaul of the national currency by the central
bank. 1 and 2 dollar coins will remain unchanged but 10, 20 and 50 cent pieces
will be made smaller and lighter.
(31 March 2005)

Basis for change
The British government is considering an
overhaul of its outdated pension scheme based on the current NZ system.
According to the Times, the state of women’s pensions in the UK is “a
national scandal” in urgent need of attention. In NZ, a flat-rate payment equal
to approximately £94.48 per week is made to all people over 65, on the condition
that they have lived in the country for at least ten years. Raising the income
of elderly women means that only around 5% of pensioners live in poverty,
compared to 20% in Britain.
(21 October 2004)


Tycoon Teece
Berkeley Planet profiles David
Teece, the man dubbed an “economics rock star” by the NZ government and one of
the world’s top 50 business intellectuals by global management giant Accenture.
As well as advising PM Tony Blair on economic policy, founding Russia’s first
major league business school, owning Canterbury International apparel, founding
the large global firm the Law and Economic Consulting Group, and establishing and funding the Kiwi Expat
Association for professional experts, the Nelson native holds the Mitsubishi
Bank Chair in International Business and Finance at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of
Business and directs its Institute of Management, Innovation and Organization.
(6 August 2004)

Review of the Market Years
Illinois' Hillsdale College, published an overview of New Zealand Government
reforms in the 80s and 90s, penned by former NZ MP Maurice McTigue. The article
argued that high living standards result from significant ingenuity operating in
a free market environment, not from protectionism, taxation and layers of
Government.
(15 May 2004)


World Gender Role
Amanda Ellis - formerly head of women's banking for Westpac Australia -
now has a global role leading the World Bank's work on gender in Private
Sector Development. Ms Ellis also serves on the OECD's international advisory board
for women's entrepreneurship, the Commonwealth Businesswoman Leaders Network,
and was recently a guest speaker at the RBC Royal Bank's
Women Trading Globally seminar in Vancouver.
(30 March 2004)

100 years of class
Worldwide centenary celebrations for
Rolls Royce were launched in NZ January 25, with a commemorative dinner
for fans and owners held in Auckland. 50 of the company's luxury cars -
including a 1912 Silver Ghost and a 1923 Silver Ghost built for the then Prince
of Wales - made a 17-day tour of NZ before heading off to Australia, Europe, and
the US.
(January 2004)
Nukes not the issue
State Department spokesman, Phillip
Reeker, dismissed claims that NZ’s anti-nuclear policy was a barrier to a
free-trade agreement with the US on his recent trip to Wellington. “If you want
to re-examine that policy, that would be great. We would love to be able to
cooperate more fully with New Zealand as we did in the past. But those are
decisions New Zealanders have to make and we respect your decisions and we'll
continue to have a solid relationship regardless of your decisions.” He also
insisted that a free-trade agreement was not the “be-all-and-end-all” of US-NZ
relationship.
(22 November 2003)


Edge breath freshener
Sweden’s Right Livelihood Award
Foundation – the “alternative Nobel” - honoured former-PM David Lange for
his “steadfast work over many years for a world free of nuclear weapons.” The
foundation was formed in 1980 by former European Parliament member and stamp
dealer, Jakob von Uexkull, who believed that the Nobel Prize ignored
contributions towards social responsibility and world peace made by those from
less-developed nations. Lange felt
humbled by the
award, and was quick to point out the many “driving forces” behind NZ’s ongoing
anti-nuclear stance. Lange
famously remarked at the Oxford Union that he could "smell the
uranium" on the breath of a contesting debater.
(2 October 2003)

Australia looks to the near east
The Australian features a 20 page special report on The Pacific. Strongly
focused on NZ, the supplement includes a regional overview ("Australia is
said to be the superpower of the South Pacific. If so then New Zealand is
certainly the second power, with Wellington playing London to Canberra's
Washington. The relationship between New Zealand and Australia is fascinating,
multi-dimensional and elusively complex."); CER ("Twenty years of
closer economic relations have been boon to both sides of the Tasman" Tim
Harcourt); building cultural bridges (focusing on Dr Mein Smith and Professor
Hempenstall's efforts to set up a trans-Tasman research centre in NZ); fashion:
a case study of World's designs in the Aussie market; the mateship of regional
policing; energy and freight provision in NZ; and the proposed Air NZ-Qantas
merger.
(25 August 2003)


Legalised lovin'
A new law has been proposed to grant NZ
gay and lesbian partners the same rights as those enjoyed by married
heterosexual couples. The Civil Union Bill - which is to be voted on later this
year - would allow homosexual partners to officially declare their union, and
make them subject to the same property, separation, and next-of-kin laws that
apply to heterosexual marriages. The bill is expected to gain majority support
in Parliament.
(17 July 2003)

Land of the free: Part 2
NZ is the third most
un-corrupt country in the world, according to the latest global corruption
perception index released by Transparency International. Finland and Denmark
head the list, which draws from sources including the World Economic Forum and
auditors Price Waterhouse Coopers.
(4 July 2003)

God defend your freeland
"This is your country and you have the power to change it and uphold all
that is good and right. I am saddened to know that many do not vote and still
complain about America…" Although Kara Smith's NZ citizenship prevents
her from voting, it didn't affect her having her say as the NZ student scooped
first prize in a US democracy essay contest.
(6 June 2002)

For the people
Don't cry for me Argentina. The BBC looks at the progress of KiwiBank:
" New Zealand, more often famed for its sheep population than its financial
sector, is attempting to shake-up its banking system with a new state-owned
venture. With plans for the biggest branch network, no business customers, and a
New Zealand-owned and operated focus, Kiwibank is rapidly making its mark in the
retail scene."
(03 May 2002)

Protecting shared heritage
The NZ and Australian governments are making a combined application to the World
Intellectual Property Organisation to protect the use of the word Anzac. Both
countries have legislated against the unauthorised use of the word at home, and
are now seeking to extend this control via international treaties.
(15 April 2003)

Clark puts money where her mouth is
The NZ government is contributing NZ$3.3 million in humanitarian aid to war-torn
Iraq. The announcement by Foreign Minister Phil Goff came just days after the
U.S and its allies commenced war in the Middle East. The money will be spread
amongst relief agencies including the World Food Program, UNICEF and the Red
Cross.
(20 March 2003)
The taxman only rings once
An end to double-taxation in Australasia seems imminent after meetings between
Australian Treasurer Peter Costello and NZ Minister of Finance Michael Cullen.
The removal of "triangular-tax" is expected in the near future, in a
move sure to encourage Trans-Tasman investment.
(19 February 2003)

Enough with the pavlova war
"ANZAC sibling rivalry must end," says High Court judge Michael Kirby.
Kirby has proposed a common passport, currency and tax system to honour the 2015
centenary of Gallipoli. Visiting Australian Treasurer Peter Costello: "A
single Anzac currency might be possible in future but political union is
unlikely."
(21 February 2003)

A strange breed
"Because of the congenial climate and lack of pollution, Godzone
politicians are generally taller and stronger than those cloned overseas.
Nestled at the bottom of the world, gravity is stronger and extra strength is
required to stand and face the disbelieving people." Upper Hutt wit Lance
Broughton pokes fun at local politicos courtesy of satirical site, goOff.com.
(3 December 2002)


"Go to the world girls and conquer it".
"Top city dame teaches Brit
woman a trick or two": BBC News series on women in business profiles
overachieving NZer and head of City of London, Dame Judith Mayhew."For a
glimpse of Britain's future, look not to your horoscope or government flier, but
the next flight to Wellington, Auckland, or Otago. Matthews explains her femme
edge: "The colonies developed women's rights early on, because you could
not ignore half your workforce, ... They had to clear the land with the men and
get the tents up. New Zealand is led by women. The prime minister is a woman,
the chief justice is a woman, the governor general a woman, the chief executive
of the largest company is a woman..." (above: Mayhew meets Rudolph
Giuliani)
(10 October 2002)


New Zealand zeal
Kiwi beats the Tigers: "Kiwi businesspeople often speak of their
country as a cork floating on the sea of the world economy. At least their
cork floats; so many other nations have sunk in the past decade including
Argentina, Russia, Thailand, South Korea [...]". A
growing economy makes the Kiwi state an attractive option for investors:
"if you are an optimist about the world, place your chips on the
Kiwis."
(July/August 2002)
NZ
press-ganged in The Australian
Greg Sheridan, using some sobering cliches, gives his views on the
trans-Tasman relationship: as well as comparing NZ to Tasmania he invokes ghosts of ANZUS
past and our "unreliable" unwillingness to join Australia in
Pax-Americana, as reasons why NZ won't be part of a joint free-trade deal. "NZ is a place of infirmity and irrelevance [...] the Howard
Government is well advised to keep its distance from the eccentric Kiwis."
Read one way it's a decent snapshot of how some Aussies see us through the
corkscrews; read another, it's a strong provocation and affirmation of the edge metaphor.
(20 July 2002)

Pacific protest
Yachts containing more than 50 protesters from NZ, Australia and Vanuatu
confronted a ship carrying nuclear waste through the Tasman Sea from Britain to
Japan. According to Greenpeace, the cargo contained enough nuclear material for
50 bombs, thus rendering it a terrorist target as well as a potential
environmental disaster.
(22 July 2002)

Georgie girl
"Quintessentially NZ story" highlight of Sydney Film Fest. Annie
Goldson's "Georgie Girl" follows the edgy life of Georgina Beyer - the
world's first transsexual MP - from her days as a sex-worker and drug user, to
her inauguration as Mayor of Carterton and eventual election to Parliament:
"the stallion who became a gelding, the gelding that became a mayor, and
the mare who finally became a member".
(9 June 2002)

Off the sheep's back?
The BBC looks at the changing iconic status and importance of the sheep to
the New Zealand economy. Sheep numbers have fallen from 70 million to 40 million
in the last two decades and farmers are under increasing pressures to diversify
as drought and rising returns from forestry and the dairy industry have meant
that sheep farming pastures are not so green. Still, it concludes, culturally
and economically NZ will continue to count on sheep - zzzzz.
(2 May 2002)

Wading into a globalisation debate
Prospect ("Britain's intelligent conversation") hosts a debate between
prominent LSE economist NZer Robert Wade and Martin Wolf over whether global
inequality and poverty are actually getting worse. Wade: "At the heart of
our disagreement, I think, is the question about how far rich countries in
general should go in using the power our superior resources give us."
(30 January 2002)


"Come together"
Wearing a traditional Maori cloak of native bird feathers, the Queen calls on New Zealanders to work together to
resolve lingering differences between indigenous Maori and the Government.
Elizabeth II was on her 10th tour of New Zealand as monarch. In a case of Queen-to-queen
Her Majesty meets MP Georgina Beyer, the world's first trans-sexual Member of
Parliament. And Sir
Edmund Hillary
pumps for the monarchist status quo.
(26 February 2002)

Kiwi
bashing is no joke
Air New Zealand's role in the financial difficulties of Ansett Australia
has created heated comment in the Australian media. "In recent days it
has not been difficult to come by jokes and derisive comments about New
Zealanders. Some jokes, however, go beyond the pale."
(19 September 2001)

Kudos
for Kiwis
Messages of thanks and congratulation pored in from all over the world
in response to New Zealands' decision to take in the Afghan refugees.
"By accommodating our homeless and stranded children and mothers, New
Zealand has placed herself in the hearts of the Afghan people," said Afghanistan's
consul in Australia, Mahmoud Saikal. (Times of India discusses
the situation: so does CNN).
(10 September 2001)
The Pacific
Petri Dish
The Australian takes an editorial swipe at the Triple Bottom Line
approach advocated at New Zealand's Knowledge Wave Conference. Paul Kelly
believes "New Zealand today raises loud alarm bells for an Australian."
(8 August 2001)
Once more around the track
Driving-man New Zealander Scott
Dixon turns twenty-one, old enough to have a drink to celebrate being the
youngest-ever winner in major open-wheel racing.
(21 July 2001)

Writing with a cause
Working for international NGOs appeals to journalists as "an honorable
route forward", including former New Zealand reporter Brendan Parry, now
working for Amnesty International, where there is "a huge amount of
recognition if you do good work".
(3 July 2001)

Don't
bank on British security
NZ is light
years ahead of Britain for banking security. "I don't want to sound like
a homesick Antipodean", writes Charlotte Denny, "but ever since I arrived
here 10 years ago, the true awfulness of the British banking system has
always puzzled me."
(2001)
Compensation won
International interest raised by Waitangi Tribunal ruling on compensation for
Moriori descendents of survivors of the 1835 Chathams massacre.
(16 June 2001)


Public interest
Once watched as the world's greatest free-market experiment, New Zealand is
leading the way in getting democracy out from under the corporate thumb says
prominent intellectual Noreena Hertz.
(8 April 2001)

Groundbreaker Gov-Gen
"As one of the few female law students of her generation, [Dame Silvia]
Cartwright was barred from the Law Students association, denied access to
textbooks and told she was only at university to find a husband."
(1 April 2001)


Jumping Jackie Flash
Australia's Sports Minister and Howard political protégé, New Zealand-born
Jackie Kelly ducks the limelight after "a huge year".
(1 April 2001)

Head for debate
Commonwealth Sec-Gen and former New
Zealand 2IC Don McKinnon indicates the next Leader of the Commonwealth might be
up for debate after the Queen moves on.
(7 April 2001)

Peace memorial visit
Helen Clark, noted in Japan as the leader of a "declared anti-nuclear
country", visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum during her official
trip to Japan.
(16 April 2001)

No free trade free lunch
"There is no short cut, and we should not fool ourselves
that some deal will come down from above. The only round we can launch is one
that WTO members across the spectrum can identify with and support," says
WTO chief, former New Zealand PM Mike Moore.
(3 April 2001)


Hat Trick
"I think it has become so normal in New Zealand that there are women in
senior positions, that I was taken aback by this attention," says Dame
Silvia Cartwright. The new Gov-Gen completes the female trinity of top
constitutional positions.
(22 March 2001)
Ambassador goes nutty
"I love New Zealand and New Zealand
has been a warm and just an extraordinary experience," says former US
ambassador Carol Mosley-Braun, returning to the States to take up pecan farming.
(1 March 2001)

Edge unity
"There are no two countries in the world that are closer historically,
culturally and economically than Australia and New Zealand," stated
Australian PM John Howard on a friendship visit, claiming a "relationship
that has substance and durability beyond the political complexion of governments
in power in Canberra and Wellington."
(1 March 2001)

Former Gov-Gen dies
Sir David Beattie, former Governor-General and Supreme Court Judge, died
suddenly in his home, aged 76.
(6 February 2001)


Evidence compelling
"The economic evidence to support broadened and deepened negotiations is
compelling," states former New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore, now
trying to kick-start free-trade talks in his role as WTO chief.
(26 January 2001)

Tax miles
Is the New Zealand system of a odometer-based tax on diesel vehicles the best
option for funding roads?
(11 January 2001)

Anti-nuke action
Rainbow Warrior survivor Chris Robinson and New Zealand-based Henk Haazen and
his family form part of the flotilla prostesting the shipping of nuclear waste
through the Tasman sea. Australian
shipments also raise ire.
(28 January 2001)

Earthquake aid
The New Zealand government has pledged $500 000 in earthquake aid for Gujerat,
home state of many of New Zealand's Indian immigrants.
(29 January 2001)

Alas, no Elias
It's time Britain had a male judge a la New Zealand Chief Justice Sian Elias,
the conspicuous
lone woman on the Privy Council.
(30 Janaury 2001)

Growth healthy
Statistics New Zealand figures show GDP growth of 4.5% in the year to September.
(20 December 2000)
Bombs away
Foreign Minister Phil Goff has ruled out allowing high-level
nuclear waste to travel through New Zealand waters.
(22 December 2000)

Torture campaigner
Nations that try to bury painful episodes in their history are destined to
remain dysfunctional until the past is confronted, says New Zealand-born
anti-apartheid activist Michael Lapsley.
(12 December 2000)
Troubled Tainui
A brief look at the finances and politics of Tainui since the $170m settlement.
(28 November 2000)


Edge of menace
New Zealand-born lawyer Denise Kingsmill, new deputy chairwoman of the UK's
Competition Commission, relishes her title as "the most feared woman in
Britain".
(25 November 2000)
Godzone/Godawful?
Australian-based Kiwi Bernard Lagan trashes New Zealand's health,
wealth and
spirit. Helen Clark exercises the right
of reply.
(20 November 2000)


Lamb-blasted
The WTO ruled in favour of New Zealand in the appeal against US tariffs on
our lamb. The Prime Minister was pleased with the result, but said
"ideally, you don't want to be taking your best friends to court".
(26 October 2000)
Keep Our Yurts Nuke Free!
Mongolia, inspired by New Zealand, is asking to be declared a Nuclear-Free Zone.
No more American warships for them!
(05 September 2000)

Murderball 2
Cage fights? Question time in the New Zealand Parliament is being broadcast
live on the net.
(22 September 2000)

That's not a camera flash
PM Clark ventured on a guided
tour of the Sydney Harbour Bridge super-structure. Was that an admirer taking a
picture? Was it an apparition of Roger Kerr? No, the sudden illumination was
lightening striking the bridge, narrowly missing the Prime Ministerial group.
The SMH described the PM as "quite relaxed" after the incident.
(29 September 2000)
A leftist free-trader:
Oxymoore-onic?
Kiwi WTO chief Mike Moore, speaking to an audience of young socialists in Sweden
responds to criticism of the World Trade Organisation "It is odd that some
on the left have sometimes opposed free trade. If international solidarity means
anything, surely it means helping people around the world who are less fortunate
... and surely that means buying coffee from a Ugandan grower and T-shirts made
in Bangladesh ..."
(27 July 2000)


Satellite spies: Big Brother is watching.
'Echelon', a mysterious spy
network between the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia,
has come under fire from the European Union, as well as defenders of civil
liberty. The station at Wahopai, in the South Island, featured prominently in a
report to the European Parliament.
(16 July 2000)


Helen Clark on the edge of World Power Summit
Kiwi PM attends Conference on
Modern Governance in the 21st Century in Berlin. The Conference, chaired by
Gerhard Schroeder and attended by Bill Clinton, was a meeting of the
world's "third way" governments. Clark was the only female
amongst the brokers of world power.
(3 June 2000)
Kiwi 'ghost of 68' asks if Secret Service Intelligence is an oxymoron
Victoria University's "frightenly radical" David Robinson gets
accused of being 'a red under the bed' in a British Secret Service
intelligence report, but questions whether a secret intelligence report
means that the report is secret or that the intelligence is not only a
secret "but a complete mystery."
(3 June 2000)

'Red Ken' appoints blue-chip Kiwi as his business advisor
51-year-old New Zealander
Judith Mayhew has joined London Mayor Ken Livingstone's cabinet as his business
advisor. Announcing the appointment on Thursday, Mr Livingstone said he
was "delighted." The appointment of Tory Mayhew gives new
meaning to socialist Ken's "Paint London Purple" election campaign.
(18 May 2000)

New Zealand under the world's microscope
South Africa: while New Zealanders have mixed feelings about the manner in which
their economy was overhauled, few in business have argued with the results and
each year hundreds of public and private sector players visit New Zealand to
study the country's economy following its transformation more than a decade ago.
(12 May 2000)

Singapore look to New Zealand model in fair trading laws debate
Edmund Baker, Executive Director of the Consumers Association of Singapore is
pushing the Kiwi and Australian Fair Trading Acts as model examples in debates
over fair trade legislation in Singapore.
(3 May 2000)

New Zealand spreads no-nukes message
In a letter to the editor of the Financial Times spokesperson
for the New Agenda Coalition, Mexican Ambassador Antonio de Icaza, expressed
concern at current developments "whereby nuclear weapons are being re-rationalised
for the foreseeable future; indeed are gaining in importance in policies and
postures".
(4 May 2000)

Kiwi Kosovo peacekeeper threatens UN withdrawal
as violence escalates
Dennis McNamara, the UN High Comissioner for Refugees top official in Kosovo,
threatened to suspend UN activities in the Kosovo city of Mitovica, if attacks
on its staff and vehicles did not cease.
(4 May 2000)

Big spin-off in positive trade ties, says Kiwi PM
A successful economic tie-up between Singapore and New Zealand could kick
start multi-lateral talks on trade-liberalisation, says New Zealand PM Helen
Clark
(29 April 2000)
Aotearoa casts big shadow over Australia
Australia's population is five times bigger, its economy six times bigger and
its defence capability similarly robust. Yet in recent years New Zealand has
been the far more influential of the two neighbours in world affairs.
(30 April 2000)

New Zealand leads the have-nots against the haves at UN battle
Impatient at the slow progress in arms control, governments from Brazil to
New Zealand plan to tell the United States and other nuclear powers on
Monday they have to do more to make the world safer.
(23 April 2000)

Commonwealth to help develop vulnerable states
So stated Don McKinnon on his first
visit to Bangladesh since being elected Secretary-General of the 54-country
assembly last November.
(21 April 2000)

"Put another Kiwi on the barbie Mate" New Zealand scoffs at statehood
idea
Prime Minister Helen Clark has dismissed a suggestion that NZ should become a
part of Australia. Former Australian Liberal Party Leader John Hewson, said it
was time to consider incorporating New Zealand into a new independent republic
of Australia.
(15 April 2000)

New Zealand at forefront of
‘World Citizenship’ project
The World Citizenship Curriculum is to develop and implement in Bangladesh a
pilot plan, led by Dr. Muhammad Nur Nabi, to educate people to become true
citizens of the world and also to promote social justice. The curriculum project
would belong to the MNN Trust as a part of its World Citizenship Project, whose
head office is in Christchurch, New Zealand.
(11 April 2000)
Diplomatic Ingratiation: US Ambassador consigned to paradise
Mosely-Braun, who came from her New Zealand post just to attend the Feminist
Expo 2000... called New Zealand and Samoa, where she is now the U.S. Embassy
official, "about as close to paradise as I have ever seen".
(5 April 2000)

Democracy challenge for Commonwealth Chief
New Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Don McKinnon, takes up his post
formally on Monday, his main task being to make the 54-nation organisation
"more relevant and useful" to its 1.6 billion citizens.
(3 April 2000)

Solid achieving New Zealand economy - an oxymoron?
"In broader terms, the best-performing economies of the 20th century
have been the "Western Offshoots" of Western Europe - the United
States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand".
(April 2000)
Three wishes for the world
On the eve of
International Women's Day Thinkers from the four corners of
the globe, including a New Zealand women's rights and healthcare advocate, offer
their visions for enriching the economic, educational, social and emotional
lives of their contemporaries.
(7 March 2000)
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New Zealand and
Sweden take stance on Zimbabwe Crisis
Harare - Sweden and New Zealand have openly called for President Mugabe's
resignation as international anxiety continues to rise following the collapse in
law and order, indiscriminate farm killings and strained race relations.
(25 April 2000)
Celebrities endorse NZ-led anti-nuke Campaign
"Call To Action" is the dramatic headline in an advertisement put
forth in the mainstream broadsheets by an eclectic group of spiritual leaders,
Nobel laureates, Hollywood superstars, sports legends, authors and scholars
coincide with the opening of the sixth Non-Proliferation Treaty review
conference in New York.
(25 April 2000)

McKinnon asserts himself in new role
The new Commonwealth Secretary
General Don McKinnon, has asked Pakistan's military government to release
deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from prison and set a definite timeframe for
national elections.
(22 April 2000)
Where there's Smoke ...
Green MP Nando Tanzcos and political cartoonist Tom Scott debate the
currently topical subject of marijuana decriminalisation on Crossing Continents
(World Service).
(9 March 2000)
WTO chief reminds rich of moral duty to help poor
Mike Moore said on Tuesday that opening up the markets of wealthy nations to
exports from the poorest countries was a crucial pillar of free trade.
(5 February 2000)

ANZACS cautious in South Pacific
New Zealand and Australia in recent
years have turned their attention away from the South Pacific, and increasingly
cast it towards Asia. Two coups in as many weeks, in Fiji and the Solomon
Islands, have re-focused attention, but colonial lessons have meant their
governments are more than a little tentative in interfering.
(22 June 2000)

The porn's on you
"New Zealand Member of Parliament Winston Peters lashed out at
Wellington's National Library of New Zealand, painting its provision of free
Internet access as an invitation for unrestricted surfing of porn sites and for
foreigners to check e-mail at taxpayers' expense." The member for Tauranga
has a history of drawing attention to matters of national significance.
(23 November 2000)

Say fish
Mi'kmaq Indians look to New Zealand's lead on fishery settlement deals.
"Strong, tradeable property rights in fishing can be powerful economic and
environmental force," argues this article.
(24 October 2000)

Miracle flightless
Since 1984, New Zealand has undergone "the most comprehensive economic
reform programme undertaken by any OECD country in recent decades". Not all
the results have been bright: "Looking back over the past 15 years, you
would have to conclude that the reform process, while positive in many respects,
also led to poor economic results, an unbalanced economic structure and many,
many missed opportunities".
(October 2000)

Dollar for dollar
Ian MacFarlane, Governor of the Australia Reserve bank, has been positive about
the idea of currency union with New Zealand, but has left the initiative firmly
on the Kiwi side of the ditch. Earlier this month he told the World Economic
Forum any union between Australia and New Zealand would be at the discretion of
the smaller country.
(11 September 2000)

Better, but not good enough
Helen Clark
addressed a UN meeting of world leaders, stating: "We recently announced
that our next governor-general will be a woman, our prime minister is a woman,
the leader of the opposition is a woman, the cabinet secretary is a woman, the
chief justice is a woman.To chuckles, she added, "However, we are not
satisfied.''
(06 September 2000)

New Zealand urges Japan to halt whaling
Representatives
of 15 countries have urged Japan, the world's largest consumer of whale meat, to
halt its research whaling. New Zealand and Australia, along with anti-whaling
groups and conservationists have been at the forefront of efforts to compel
Japan to respect the non-whaling resolutions made by the International Whaling
Commission.
(21 August 2000)
The Gould standard
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato and former British
Labour spokesman Bryan Gould offers his perspective on one of the most heated
debates in British politics - the integration of European currency and urges
Blair's government to open up the issue to debate before making "a decision
of the greatest national importance."
(17 August 2000)


Sheep joke
Alliance MP Grant Gillon faces being baa-ed from parliament after making a
wise-crack (more commonly used by Australians) about the relationship
between sheep and opposition politicians. The remark was made during a
debate on the experimental use of human female DNA in sheep.
(5 July 2000)

The edge beckons
The Financial Times ponders years
of reform, New Zealand's loss of confidence in its ability to survive in an era
of globalisation and evaluates the context: what is the role of a small western
economy on the periphery of the world going to be in the 21st century? Peter
Montagon decides that "A new approach must be found if such defeatism is to
be overcome."
(3 July 2000)
Bryan Gould: best belletrist on the left
The New Statesman's literary editor uses his position to weigh up the
relative literary merits of the Tory MPs compared to their Labour counterparts,
and finds that the Tories are up at halftime, "with the exception of [Kiwi]
Bryan Gould, now in disappointed exile in New Zealand."
(26 June 2000)

The Cold War is over, but rogue Kiwi spy wants to sell secrets to the Russians
Richard Tomlinson, whose 'licence to spy' was revoked by MI6 in 1995 is
negotiating with a Russian publisher to disclose details of his experiences as
an agent. He claims he was unfairly dismissed. MI6 said he was
regarded as edgy, unreliable and was inclined to "go off on adventures of
his own". Bugger me Bond.
(30 May 2000)


Not the third way, but the Kiwi Way: Clark impresses in the UK
John Monks, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, marvels at NZ
Prime Minister Helen Clark's golden ride in government, "That's a
government that knows what it's doing, that is business-friendly, but insists on
some rules too".
(9 May 2000)

Kiwi in "Britain's Most Powerful Women" list
Judith Mayhew, currently head of policy (effectively its boss) of the
Corporation of London, came in 31st in Management Today magazine's annual
ranking of Britain's most powerful women. She was recently appointed as
London Mayor Ken Livingstone's
business advisor.
(April 2000)

Mike Moore wants to give globalisation a human face
The cherubic
WTO head Moore, readily likened to a panda in caricutures, admitted that the
free-traders were losing the PR battle after the "Seattle Debacle" and
failed consensus, but vowed to do what it takes to convince sceptics that
globalisation does indeed have a "human face" and to push ahead with
the next round of global free trade talks.
(18 June 2000)
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Shared heritage
"Canada and New Zealand may lie at opposite ends of the earth, but we
are bound together by a common history," Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper declared during John Key's visit to the capital Ottawa, who
was on his way home via Turkey having previously been at American
President Barack Obama's two day Nuclear Security Summit. "We are
both peaceful and prosperous commonwealth nations that have drawn, and
continue to draw, generations of newcomers to freedom and opportunity. The
Prime Minister of New Zealand has always been a steadfast friend to Canada
and we're honoured therefore to host the first Prime Ministerial visit by
a New Zealand Prime Minister in 11 years." When Key visited Ottawa,
trade and investment were high on his list of priorities to discuss with
his like-minded counterpart, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said the Ottawa
Citizen's Jennifer Campbell. Asked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership —
a trade agreement that began in 2006 with New Zealand, Brunei, Chile and
Singapore, but is now negotiating with other countries, including the
United States — New Zealand High Commissioner Andrew Needs said
it's an important one for New Zealand and it did come up in discussions
between the two leaders. "We see it as something that's important for
New Zealand to move to a whole new level of trade and economic integration
in the Asia-Pacific region." New Zealand will also contribute
$685,000 to a Canadian-led project which aims to help prevent the illicit
trafficking of nuclear and radiological materials. Key spent 40 minutes
with American Vice President Joe Biden who said New Zealand's relationship
with the United States was at the highest point it has been in years.
Prime Minister John Key's next meeting was with Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara ahead of ANZAC day commemorations.
(21 April 2010)


Pure tax
In a CNN article titled, 'Why the US can learn from New Zealand when it comes to
taxes," Dody Tsiantar writes that American tax experts and economists are
pointing to New Zealand as an example of a country best enforcing a uniform
good-and-services tax to "nearly everything". "In New Zealand, it
works in a very pure form," says Eric Toder, an economist at the Tax Policy
Center and a former consultant to the New Zealand Treasury. Toder analysed the
economic impacts of several different VAT tax models for the centre. "The
population likes it. People think it's fair because it doesn't exempt some folks
and not others." Critics fear that an American VAT may invite the creation
of an arbitrary morass of tax exemptions and could hurt those with low incomes
the most. However, in New Zealand, it contributes about 25 per cent to the
government's bottom line, and the Tax Policy Center in December projected that a
5 per cent VAT tax in the US would generate over $3 trillion in revenue by 2019.
That's not enough to cover America's huge debt obligations, of course, but it's
a start. The big questions will be whether or not politicians here can keep it
as pure as New Zealand wool.
(13 April 2010)


Maori across Tasman
More Maori live in Australia than in New Zealand according to leading
population expert Australian Professor Peter McDonald. Studies show there
are about 110,000 Maori in Australia, representing about one in four of
all New Zealand migrants who have settled here. This compares with about
15 per cent of New Zealand's total population declaring themselves to be
Maori. Professor McDonald, who is chairing a public inquiry into the need
for a population policy in Queensland, said one of the biggest drivers of
the state's growth was newly arrived New Zealanders due to the relaxed
travel and settlement agreements between the two countries. The inquiry is
due to produce an interim report by May.
(16 March 2010)


Referendum in sight
New Zealand is due to hold an election referendum in 2011 to enable the
population to decide between using AV or the current 'first-past-the-post'
system. Ken Ritchie, the chief executive of Britain's Electoral Reform Society,
praised New Zealand's government for allowing voters a range of options.
"People will be asked firstly if they want change, and secondly what sort
of change. That would allow a real debate on the merits of different electoral
systems and would let the voter take the decision on the type of politics they
want," Ritchie said. New Zealand's referendum is the first of its kind
since 1993, when New Zealanders voted to replace the Westminster system of FFP
with the Additional Member System, or, as it is known in New Zealand, Mixed
Member Proportional Representation (MMP). Politics lecturer at the University of
Otago Dr Bryce Edwards, who has worked as a government policy analyst in New
Zealand and the UK, commented that: "Disillusion with MMP has existed ever
since it was brought in, and there has been widespread expectation of a
referendum for some time. "It's too far away now to know exactly what will
happen, but we have been promised that if a different system is not voted for,
there will be a review of the current MMP system, and changes made."
Regardless of whether votes choose to discard or retain an improved version of
MMP, a new system will not be introduced until 2014, when a general election is
scheduled.
(24 February 2010)


All in good time
New Zealand switched to proportional representation in 1993 and since then
no single political party has been able to command a majority, so are
there are lessons to learn from New Zealand if this year's UK election
fails to produce a clear-cut result? New Zealanders have come to regard
elections as a two-phase affair: first, the voting; and second, the period
of government formation that follows afterwards which often takes weeks.
Senior British civil servants appear to think so. In Wellington for a
recent gathering of public servants from Australia, Canada, Ireland,
Britain and New Zealand, the British Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell
paid very close attention to a document called the Cabinet Manual. It lays
down the procedures and conventions which come into effect in the event of
no single party gaining a majority. The New Zealand civil service does not
like to use the terminology hung parliament because it implies paralysis.
It believes that it has come up with a workable model which ensures smooth
transitions. After the 1996 election, the first under the new system, the
period of uncertainty dragged on for more than a month, as the kingmaker,
Winston Peters of the New Zealand First party, continued parallel
negotiations with the two major parties, the National Party and Labour.
Since then, the periods of governmental transition have been smoother and
less troubled.
(7 May 2010)


Place for NZ in Chile
The New Zealand government has gifted the Chilean capital Santiago a new plaza
in the municipality of Providencia. Plaza Nueva Zelandia aims to represent New
Zealand culture, landscape, flora and fauna, and to provide a green oasis in an
urban environment. "New Zealanders and Chileans are forging strong links
through education, at all levels, and a working holiday scheme enables young
people from both countries to travel to the other for tourism, with the
possibility to study and work," said New Zealand Ambassador Rosemary
Paterson. The plaza was constructed with the support of the New Zealand
government, the Municipality of Providencia, and with the sponsorship of the
Chilean Bicentenary Commission.
(2 December 2009)


Least bent
New Zealand is the least corrupt country in the world according to the annual
Transparency International index which ranked 180 countries on a scale of zero
to 10 with zero being perceived as highly corrupt and 10 as having low levels of
corruption. New Zealand topped the table with a score of 9.4 after coming second
last year. In second place was last year's leader, Denmark with 9.3 followed by
Singapore and Sweden tying at 9.2 and Switzerland at 9.0. "Stemming
corruption requires strong oversight by parliaments, a well-performing
judiciary, independent and properly resourced audit and anti-corruption
agencies, vigorous law enforcement, transparency in public budgets, revenue and
aid flows, as well as space for independent media and a vibrant civil
society," said chairwoman of Transparency International Huguette
Labelle.
(18 November 2009)


Looking at Labour
Former New Zealand Rhodes Scholar and Vice Chancellor of Waikato University
Bryan Gould writes in the Guardian that "barring a miracle, and miracles
seem likely to be in short supply, [Britain's] Labour will lose the next
election." "The question is not the survival of the Labour government,
but the survival of Labour as a force in British politics … All is not lost.
Political parties can and do recover from electoral wipeouts. My own native New
Zealand provides a good and encouraging example. The New Zealand Labour
government elected in 1984 confounded opponents and supporters alike by
embarking on a ferocious revolution that saw New Zealand become the test-bed for
a daring experiment in far-right, free market economics. By 1990, it was thumbs
down, ushering in nine years of conservative government. By 1990, it was thumbs
down, ushering in nine years of conservative government. Labour's return to
office in 1999 competent and well-regarded government that not only won two
further elections but also restored sense and order to New Zealand's political
scene. Even after an election loss last year, Labour remains the government in
waiting. Voters know that, if they want a left-of-centre government, Labour will
deliver. Even in opposition, Labour remains identified with left positions and
attitudes and is widely seen as where voters will go when they tire of the new
conservative government."
(3 October 2009)


Liquidity rules
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has "become the first authority to pass
hard-and-fast rules for liquidity since the crisis", writes The
Economist in an article called 'Lord of the Ratios'. Locally incorporated
banks will be expected to meet a trio of specific funding ratios within a couple
of years. Two "mismatch" ratios are designed to ensure that banks have
enough cash and liquid assets readily available if creditors suddenly come
calling. The third measure, a "core funding ratio" (CFR), is more
novel. At least 75 per cent of banks' total lending will have to be funded with
stickier liabilities such as retail deposits and wholesale borrowing maturing in
more than a year. A one-size-fits-all rule may also make more sense for New
Zealand's homogenous banks than for other countries.
(3 September 2009)


Hands up for a smack
New Zealanders have voted overwhelmingly to overturn a law that prohibits
parents from hitting children, according to the results of a nationwide
referendum, but the government says the law is working and won't be changed.
Opponents of the 2007 law won the right to hold the referendum — which is not
binding — by signing up 300,000 eligible voters in support of it. They also
drew up the question. In a postal vote that closed last week, 87.6 percent of
voters responded 'No' to the question: "Should a smack as part of good
parental correction be a criminal offense in New Zealand?" But the ballot
measure has drawn widespread criticism, with Prime Minister John Key and
opposition leader Phil Goff refusing to vote. Both said the question was so
skewed as to make the results meaningless. Key said he would take note of the
referendum result but won't change a law "that is working." Deborah
Morris-Travers, a spokeswoman for the Yes-vote coalition, was
"unsurprised" by the result. "We always expected it would go in
favor of the no-vote because of the way that the question was phrased — it was
loaded and misleading ... suggesting that good parents are being criminalized
when in fact they are not," she said.
(21 August 2009)


New Zealander in NY
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark, now in the role of administrator for the
United Nation's Development Programme (UNDP), talks candidly to TV1's Breakfast
show host Paul Henry in New York about "fitting in" as a New Zealander
in the Big Apple. Helen Clark admitted that she doesn't miss the
"bubble" which is New Zealand. She loves the fact that she no longer
makes the front page of the newspaper if she trips over in the street. Clark
said her job would not be completed in her lifetime but she had a positive
attitude and expected to make a difference. "In the end what matters is
what results you get on the ground." Asked about the slow moving nature of
the UN Clark said it was understandable. "I've come to appreciate that what
happens in … the general assembly and the security council, it's a democracy
of 192 countries so we are sometimes frustrated that the UN can take its time
reaching a decision but it's very difficult to corral 192 countries or the 15 on
the Security Council from a wide range of countries for that matter." Clark
became the first woman to lead the UNDP on April 17.
(27 July 2009)


Sustainability ninja exits
UK Green party member, adviser and Treasury antagonist Jonathan Porritt, 59, has
left his post as chairman of the Sustainable
Development Commission (SDC) after nine years "trying to crash the
gears of the machine of state". When Porritt started in 2000, the SDC was a
titchy £350,000-a-year operation with a unique licence to be independent,
provoke, criticise and scrutinise government as a "critical friend".
But it has since grown into the government's "most authoritative and
provocative quango and has challenged it on everything from climate to roads,
equality, housing, economics, consumption and health." "The watchdog
role, especially, has been impossible for governments to ignore. Whitehall is a
heaving bureaucracy and you make it work for you," he says, "only by
making its systems friendly to sustainable development." Porritt is the son
of New Zealand's 11th Governor General and Olympic bronze winning athlete Arthur
Porritt.
(25 July 2009)


Arrivals soar
New Zealand saw the number of Australian tourists exceed the one million mark
for the first time and the total annual immigration increase to a two year high,
Statistics New Zealand has reported. The number of permanent migrant arrivals
exceeded departures by 11,202 in the year through May, which may stoke consumer
spending and housing demand and help the economy recover from a recession.
"The gain in migration represents a tangible positive ingredient for
underlying housing demand," said chief economist at UBS AG in Christchurch
Robin Clements. "The drag that housing has placed on GDP growth is set to
fade."
(22 June 2009)


Beauty reigns
National MP Korean-born Melissa Lee has been voted one of "the most
beautiful women in politics in the world" by Spanish newspaper 20
Minutos, a poll which also included Hillary Clinton. Photos of 60 female
politicians from 30 countries were posted on the newspaper's website, with
voting buttons under each picture. Lee has 20 years journalism experience
including a 5-year stint at the Sunday News and writing for numerous
publications including the New Zealand Herald, The Listener and
various other magazines. She is New Zealand's first Korean MP.
(26 March 2009)


Fatter but happier
New Zealand men are a little shorter than the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation Development average and New Zealand women are quite a bit shorter
according to the latest report from the Organization, a report released every
three years. We watch the least amount of television, and place behind only
France when it comes to how much time we spend eating and drinking. The study,
which is based on government data and Gallup polls from the OECD's 18 member
countries, includes a broad spectrum of "social indicators" — from
education spending and fertility rates to adult height and "life
satisfaction" — to determine how the different societies stack up. Most New
Zealanders rate their life satisfaction at 7.5 out of 10; the OECD average was
6.7. "Clearly you don't have to have a really high average income to be
pretty satisfied with life," Massey University sociologist Paul Perry said.
The study also shatters several national stereotypes: we play the least amount
of sport, we have a problem with obesity, and we have less leisure time than
many other countries.
(6 May 2009)


Symphony ire
New Zealand anti-apartheid activist John Minto recently flew to Capetown to lend
his support to 127 families who for the past 14 months have lived in makeshift
homes on Symphony Way pavement in the township of Delft having been evicted from
houses they illegally occupied in the N2 Gateway Project in February last year.
"Symphony Way is a microcosm of the bigger problem in South Africa,"
Minto says. "We didn't expect things to change overnight — we didn't expect
miracles. But when we were protesting during apartheid we didn't do it to make a
few black people rich. It's a huge disappointment." Now in his 50s, Minto
is turning his ire on South Africa's democratically elected government, claiming
the poorest citizens are still living under a form of apartheid. "In South
Africa the links between politicians and business are very strong, but the links
between politicians and people are very weak." writes a weekly column for The
Press and is editor of the Workers' Charter newspaper.
(19 April 2009)


Clark's UN role confirmed
Helen Clark’s nomination to lead the United Nations Development Program
has been officially announced by Michele Montas, spokeswoman for the UN
secretary general, in New York today. As the former New Zealand Prime Minister,
Clark is the first politician to occupy the role of Administrator, which
effectively places her as third in command of the UN. The nomination
announcement noted Clark’s “outstanding qualifications and numerous
accomplishments in her long career”. Phil Goff, Ms Clark's replacement as the
Labour Party's leader, has called the appointment “great for her and great for
New Zealand".
(27 March 2009)


The siege of Helengrad
Antony Green, election analyst with the Australian Broadcasting Commission, summed up Election 08 thus (abridged): “Whether New Zealanders wanted change or just a change of government is the mandate question that John Key will face. He has stressed that he wants to run a centrist government and promised, in the face of a Labour scare campaign, that he will limit himself to the moderate promises he made in the
campaign … “There has always been a whiff of political correctness about [Helen] Clark. As a feminist and one of the first women elected to the New Zealand Parliament for Labour, there was always much resentment against her intellect and ambition within Labour ranks. Yet while her personal political views were strongly ideological, as leader of a democratic party she was rarely prepared to take on issues she viewed as electorally divisive or as lost causes. She learned the art of compromise
in … the coalition-building required to work politics in an MMP Parliament …
Hard work on policy formation and a deep understanding of the process of government and politics made her a formidable
politician … “Key comes to power at a difficult time for New Zealand. Economic figures released ahead of the campaign revealed that the country’s economy had moved into recession even before the full effects of the global financial crisis had been
felt … “The biggest economic problem faced by Key will be New Zealand’s struggle to retain its younger educated workforce, forever lured across the Tasman or further afield by higher-paying jobs. For much of the Kiwi diaspora, returning home is an ever-present but always impractical dream. Now the country has a Prime Minister who has lived the overseas dream and then returned to try to enrich the land of his birth.”
Spectator Australia’s report also noted “The last two decades have also seen New Zealand address the unresolved legal problems stemming from the Treaty of Waitangi…New Zealand has become a country more at ease with its indigenous past than its larger cousin across the Tasman.”
(13 November 2008)


Beyer receives iconic status
Former mayor of Carterton and Labour MP Georgina Beyer - the world's first
transsexual to hold such positions - is interviewed by Boston publication Windy
City Times about her recent selection as one of 31 individuals named by the
American Equality Forum for the 2008
GLBT History Month. Each year, GLBT History Month highlights the
achievements of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender icons. The 31 icons,
living or dead, are selected for their achievements in their field of endeavour,
their status as a national hero, or their significant contribution to GLBT civil
rights. Beyer is included alongside authors Tennessee Williams and Alice Walker,
fashion designer Gianni Versace and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. "To
be selected as a GLBT icon is awesome and humbling," Beyer says. "It
has also helped to restore faith in myself and that the trials and tribulations
[of my life] were a worthwhile endeavour." Beyer resigned from parliament
in February 2007. Her life is recounted in Cathy Casey's 1999 biography Change
for the Better.
(4 October 2008)


Peaceful isles
New Zealand comes in at number four on the second annual Global Peace Index
released by Britain's Economist Intelligence Unit. A survey on the
harmoniousness of the world's nations, the Index evaluates 140 nations with
respect to 24 criteria, including numbers of deaths from organized conflict,
levels of violent crime and proportions of GDP used for military expenditures.
The report said New Zealand lacked internal conflict and had generally good
relations with neighbouring countries. "It is clear that small, stable and
democratic countries are the most peaceful," the report said, noting that
island nations also "generally fare well". New Zealand ranked behind
number one Iceland, Denmark and Norway.
(21 May 2008)


Trade relationship anniversary
In 1983, New Zealand and Australia signed the Closer Economic Relations trade
pact, and this year, on the 25th anniversary of the agreement, chief economist
of the Australian Trade Commission Tim Harcourt reflects on a first of its kind.
Considered a model for dismantling trade barriers and harmonising regulations
between two economies, New Zealand and Australia are now more economically
dependent than ever before and in some ways operate as a single trans-Tasman
market. Trade commissioner in Sydney for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Tim
Green, says: "CER has effectively created a single regional domestic market
five times the size of the NZ market by itself."
(25 April 2008)


Beijing pact signed
New Zealand is the world's first developed country to sign a free-trade deal
with China. "It's a bit like getting the first date with the best-looking
girl on the block," says Stuart Ferguson, chairman of the New Zealand-China
Trade Association: in this case, ahead of suitors Australia, Norway and India.
Dairy and timber exporters are expected to profit most, but manufacturers like
white-goods maker Fisher & Paykel and fashion house Icebreaker also stand to
gain from easier access to China's low-cost factories as well as to its
fast-growing middle class. Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao described the occasion as "a day of historical
significance".
(3 April 2008)


On financial restraint
New Zealander Robert Wade, Professor of Political Economy and Development at the
London School of Economics and Political Science and author of Governing the
Market, debates global finance with the UK's leading economic commentator
Anatole Kaletsky in Prospect's December 2007 issue. Wade argues global
finance is out of control, citing an increase in serious financial crises in
wealthy countries over the past two decades. He discusses the "outer
wheels" driving this instability which include: the US dollar standard and
the response of central banks in countries running trade surpluses like China.
Wade says these outer wheels need to be reconfigured. "Global economic
governance has to find a better way to rein in trade imbalances," he says.
Wade has also worked at the IDS Sussex, the World Bank, Brown University, and
the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton and Berlin.
(12 March 2008)


Mugabe expert comes full circle
Stephen
Chan, longtime analyst and authority on Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe,
returned to NZ recently to deliver the 2007 Chapman Lectures at Auckland
University, his alma mater. Born in New Zealand to refugee parents, Chan
became a well known political activist and literary figure in NZ. He was
president of the Auckland University Students Association in 1973 and editor of
Craccum in 1971, before leaving the country in 1976. He has since held a variety
of academic and advisory posts in Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Uganda, Zambia and
Zimbabwe, and is currently a Professor of International Relations and foundation
Dean of Law and Social Sciences at the University of London’s School of
Oriental and African Studies. His Auckland University lectures focused on
Mugabe, the subject of his 2003 book Robert Mugabe: A Life of Power and
Violence, "an informed, insightful biography of Zimbabwe's first--and
only--president...We follow the triumphant nationalist leader, reconciling all
in the new multi-racial Zimbabwe, degenerate into a petty tyrant consumed by
hubris and self righteousness facing an endgame of potentially horrifying
dimensions." (University of Michigan Press)
(27 October 2007)


NZ sets pace on climate change
A recent Guardian op-ed hailed NZ as "the new climate change pioneer",
after the unveiling of an ambitious new environmental plan by the NZ government.
The plan's stated targets include generating 90% of the country's electricity
from renewable sources by 2025, and for the electricity, stationary energy (coal
and gas) and transport sector to be carbon neutral by 2040. In addition, an
emissions trading scheme will be launched in January next year. "New
Zealand's plans are worthy of a green hurrah, if for no other reason than they
show how an entire country (albeit a small one) can be turned around once
leaders recognise that pollution does indeed cost," writes columnist Tim
Watkins. He notes, however, that while NZ is leaving other developed nations
"in the shade", its efforts should not be seen as an extreme example
of environmental policy, but as marking the beginning of a global change.
(25 September 2007)


Half-way happy
NZ ranks 94th out of 178 countries in the inaugural Happy Planet Index,
produced by independent British "think-and-do tank" the New
Economics Foundation. The Happy Planet Index (HPI) measures human well-being
in relation to ecological efficiency, using the three values of life
satisfaction, life expectancy and ecological footprint. NZ scored 7.4, 79.1 and
5.5 in each respective category, earning a total HPI rating of 41.9. The top
five spots went to Vanuatu, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica and Panama, with NZ
neighbour Western Samoa coming in at number 14. Britain placed 108th, Australia
139th and the US 150th.
(August 2006)


Dining with giants
Canterbury University Professor of Philosophy and Arts
& Letters Daily founder, Denis
Dutton, was invited to the White House Press Correspondents' Annual Dinner,
as a guest of The Washington Post. The black tie event - a celebrity roast of
the current US President and celebration of the free press - is a who's who of
celebrities, power brokers and political juggernauts, and invitations are
notoriously hard to secure. Dutton wrote a full report for the Sunday Star
Times: "I never met the President, who left the event immediately. But I
encountered one of his speech writers, a man who reads Arts & Letters
Daily 'every few days.' Later on that night, a journalist introduced me to
the director of a policy unit at the White House. He reads Arts & Letters
Daily 'regularly,' but since he can't every day, someone on his staff is
assigned to check it for essays and articles relevant to government initiatives.
A little like that old Steinlager ad, I guess: a picture of the White House
overwritten, 'They're reading our webpage here.' To what effect remains a
mystery to me."
(7 May 2006)


End of ancestral visa
A new points-based immigration system could end the door-opening power of the ancestral
visa. Many New Zealanders and other Commonwealth citizens have relied on
having British grandparents to allow them to settle in the EU. Under the old
system, Commonwealth citizens who have proof of a grandparent's birth in Britain
can gain entry to the country if they are prepared to work without relying on
the State and after four years of doing so they can apply for permanent
residency. The new hardline policy comes as a result of the May 2005 election
campaigning of both Tony Blair's Labour Party and the Conservatives for a
tougher approach to immigration and asylum.
(27 October 2005)


Continental drift
Former PM Mike Moore spoke up
about NZ’s increasing politico-cultural distance from Australia in the
Melbourne Age. “After 100 years of convergence, there is the
beginning of divergence. Australia is becoming more like the US and NZ more like
Canada and a bit Nordic … The elephant in the living room that the polite
diplomatic community will not admit to is the defence and security issue.”
(13 October 2005)


Nuclear discussion just that
NZ's iconic 21-year-old nuclear ban has returned to the news, both as a sideline
issue in the recent parliamentary elections, and through a National Power
Union-commissioned white paper on the pros and cons of nuclear power.
"There are limits … with NZ's mostly hydroelectric power generation,
which depends a lot on the weather and is having a hard time keeping up with
growing demand," says an NZNPU spokesperson. "All options are on the
table: better conservation, more efficient generation, other power sources. And
nuclear power is something else people are discussing." A repeal of the
1984 ban is considered highly unlikely by most media and political commentators.
"This is really a defining issue for New Zealanders," says an
unidentified MP to ISN. "We are the country that did not bow to US
pressure. We are the country that has a clean environment in part because we are
nuclear free."
(22 November 2005)


Government formed
Just over a month after election night, Helen Clark has formed a government and
been sworn in as Prime Minister, making her the first Labour Party leader to
form a government in three successive terms. Following negotiations with the
smaller parties Labour has entered into a formal coalition with the Progressives
and United Future and New Zealand First have signed confidence and supply
agreements. The Greens have committed to support the government during
confidence and supply votes but the party will not have a role inside the
executive. Ministerial portfolios have undergone a major reallocation following
the formation of the new government in a bid to renew and refresh itself for the
third term. Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen keeps finance and gains the
tertiary education portfolio. Jim Anderton is allocated agriculture, biosecurity
and fisheries and Phil Goff becomes Minister of Defence. Peter Dunne was given
Minister of Revenue and Associate Health Minister outside of the cabinet and
Winston Peters becomes the new Minister of Foreign Affairs outside cabinet, as
well as the Minister of Racing and Associate Minister for Senior Citizens.
(17 October 2005)


Forecast fine with a top of 9.6
The Ministry of Tourism
predicts that foreign tourist spending in NZ will increase by as much as 52% in
the next 7 years. Spending is forecast to rise to NZ$9.6 billion by 2011 from
NZ$6.3 billion in 2004, while foreign tourist arrivals are predicted to rise 38
percent to 3.2 million people by 2011, according to a recent report published by
the Ministry. Tourism is currently the NZ economy’s biggest foreign exchange
earner.
(19 September 2005)


Mrs Peace leaves her mark
Political activist, peace campaigner and renowned author, Sonja Davies, has died
aged 81, leaving an inspiring legacy in her wake. According to her Guardian
obituary, Davies – known to many as ‘Mrs Peace’ - ranks alongside Sir
Edmund Hillary and Janet Frame as one of NZ’s national treasures. Among other
things, Davies was a holder of the Order of NZ, an executive member of the World
Peace Council, chaired the NZ committee for the UN international year of peace
in 1986, and was an active trade unionist and member of parliament. The Sonja
Davies Peace Award, which promotes women's initiatives and the cause of peace in
Aotearoa, was established in 2004 in honour of Davies’ 80th birthday. Her
memoir Bread and Roses, which was made into an acclaimed film by Gaylene
Preston, is one of the cornerstone stories of NZ’s national identity.
(18 June 2005)

Future partnership likely
Helen Clark has fast-tracked a bilateral
free trade agreement with Malaysia, which could come into effect as soon as this
time next year. Malaysia’s NST: “For the trade experts, [NZ] is neither
too big (which would make negotiations difficult) nor too small (which would
make them redundant). More importantly for such negotiations, the two countries
share a ‘complementarity’ - a polite way of saying that they don't trade in
potentially deal-breaking competing products.”
(3 April 2005)

Voters want out
The re-election of George W Bush has
sparked an increase in enquiries about emigration to NZ from US voters seeking
more liberal pastures. According to the Telegraph, “the size of [Bush’s] victory has
led hardcore Democrats, as well as homosexuals, opponents of the Iraq war and
supporters of abortion rights to fear that their values and way of life may be
at risk.” The NZ Immigration Service website recorded 10,300 hits from the US
the day after Bush was re-elected, more than four times its usual average.
Another 300 inquiries were received daily by phone and e-mail, up from roughly
eight a day before the election.
(9 November 2004)


Exchange of potential
In mid-October Helen Clark made the first visit to India by a NZ Prime Minister
in nearly 20 years. During her meetings with the President, Prime Minister,
Congress Party leader, and economic heads, Clark emphasised the potential for
mutually beneficial
cultural and information exchange between the two countries. The importance
of the film industry to both nations was a key point of Clark’s speech in
Mumbai.
(20 October 2004)

Travellers flock to the Edge
NZ’s booming tourism industry shows no
signs of slowing down, with a 20% increase in overseas visitors arriving in July
than for the same period last year. According to the Tourism Research Council,
tourism will grow by an average of 5.8% a year to reach 3.1 million
international visitor arrivals in 2010, up from 2.3 million at 31 July 2004. The
majority of these arrivals are, and are likely to continue to be, Australians.
Melbourne’s
Herald Sun: “The reality is Australians are flocking to NZ in record
numbers, lured by cheap airfares and greater airline capacity across the Tasman.
And somewhere along the way, NZ has begun to shed its image as Australia's
backward neighbour.”
(20 August 2004)

Flexible, shock-proof, and room for growth
The NZ economy received a big tick in
the annual IMF report. According to the Washington-based lender, a
combination of sensible policies and reforms over the last 20 years had "contributed
to NZ's robust economic growth, made the economy more flexible and increased its
resilience to external shocks."
(5 May 2004)


Judith Mayhew Jonas: Alpha female
Dame
Judith Mayhew Jonas – former financial advisor to the Mayor of London, current Provost
of Kings College, Cambridge, and chairman of the Royal Opera House – was one of
nine “alpha females” interviewed in the Observer about the role to be
played by women in the workforce in the 21st century. Says Mayhew Jonas, “'I owe my
success to an unfair advantage: I'm from New Zealand. People here can't
pigeonhole me by class or by which school or university I went to, so I've been
judged only on my work and my results. I have a big competitive streak, which is
common in Antipodean and American women […] We weren't brought up to believe
that it's playing the game the matters - for us, winning was what counted.” Her predictions for the new century: “'The next generation of women is
making smarter, better-informed choices […] I don't think women will take over
from men, but there's a big adjustment coming in this next generation. We'll
have more shared responsibility and power, at home and at work.” Mayhew Jonas
was named
New Zealander of the Year in Britain at the annual Waitangi Day dinner in
London.
(14 December 2003)


Edge envoy to Iraq
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan named
New Zealander Ross Mountain as his interim
envoy to Iraq. Veteran Mountain has had a long career with the UN and has
worked as a relief co-ordinator in war zones in Africa, the Middle East and
Asia. He will head a staff of about 40 people, based in Nicosia or Amman, and
travel to Baghdad when needed. Iraq is still too dangerous to reopen the U.N.
office in Baghdad, Annan said. Mountain replaces top envoy to Iraq, Sergio
Vieira de Mello, who was killed in an August suicide bombing along with 21 other
people. Click here
for ABC interview with Mountain.
(11 December 2003)

No mutinies here mate
The British government has named Auckland businessman, Leslie Jacques, as the
new day-to-day administrator of Pitcairn Island. According to the British High
Commission, Jacques has been hired for an initial 4 month period, during which
time he will assess the island’s troubled administration office from a business
perspective.
(29 September 2003)

Jobs for (almost) all
Unemployment in NZ is at a 16-year
low of 4.7% thanks largely to net gains in permanent and long-term migration.
Employment Minister, Steve Maharey: "We are now experiencing lower
unemployment than all our major trading partners,'' including Britain, Japan,
Australia and the US."
(9 August 2003)


Clark, Kissinger and South Korea
PM Helen Clark was the keynote speaker at the 50th anniversary celebrations of
the end of the Korean War held in South Korea in July. At a luncheon held in her
honour, President
Roh Moo Hyun described her as "a remarkable global figure" and
"a role model for all women." During her stay, Clark also met with
former US Secretary of State and Nobel Prize winner, Henry Kissinger. Clark - a
former anti-Vietnam activist - had "a fascinating discussion" with the
man responsible for the Vietnam War ceasefire, although the two agreed to
disagree on NZ's ongoing anti-nuclear stance.
(27 July 2003)

Third Way talking points
PM Helen Clark
discusses
republicanism, Iraq, same-sex marriages, prostitution
reform, and The Lord of
the Rings in a forum with BBC News Online's Talking Point. Clark was in London
attending Tony Blair's 'Third
Way' summit - a gathering of centre-left government leaders including
Germany's Gerhard Schroeder, South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, and ex-US President
Bill Clinton. In the Guardian's
low-down of 'New Labour's favourite leaders,' she is described as "the
outspoken prime minister of a country that has reinvented its politics in the
past decade."
(11 July 2003)


Mrs Speaker ...
"Just how a conservative and
largely white electorate came to support an outspoken transgendered woman - of
Maori (that is, indigenous non-white) descent, no less - is the story behind the
remarkably engaging documentary Georgie Girl." Annie Goldson's
celebrated portrayal of MP Georgina Beyer screened at America's 2003
International Women's Film Festival held in May. Georgie Girl was also
included, and equally acclaimed, in the Connecticut
Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, as part of the event's "Sweet 16"
celebrations.
(16 May 2003)


NZ firm on pacific principles
Drawing on NZ's historical role in the setting up of the UN charter and as
an advocate of multilateralism, Helen Clark (described as "one of Tony Blair's closest foreign political allies")
told the Guardian
that the invasion of Iraq without UN backing had created a dangerous precedent.
"New Zealand always argued against the veto, argued for the rights of small
states, and saw the UN as a fresh start, where the world can work out its
problems together, rather than simply returning to the C19th where the great
powers carved it up ... who wants to go back to the jungle?" The comments
position NZ as an
independent and principled player on the world stage ("an honest broker in
the post-Iraq world"), as Clark completed a European tour where she successfully
chaired the OECD ministerial
council and met with French President Jacques Chirac and British PM Tony
Blair.
(03 May 2003)

Passengers may remove their safety belts?
The effects of war and the SARS crisis on tourism and travel may be looming for
global airlines, but presently Air NZ is bucking the global downturn. The
carrier recently reported a half-yearly net profit of NZ$93.9, up from a net
loss of NZ$376 million for the same period a year earlier. Air New Zealand also
made the top ten in the passenger-voted Skytrax
2003 Airline of the Year survey.
(26 February 2003)


Clarke talks creative countries
New York Times interviews PM
Helen Clarke about her role as arts benefactress. As the self-appointed minister
of "arts, culture and heritage," Clarke has given the creative
industry a much-needed injection of funding and promotional support. Clarke:
"Both the indigenous culture and the contemporary performing and visual
arts are of interest to us in projecting the NZ identity."
(31 January 2003)

Sir Garfield Todd dies
NZ born and raised Garfield Todd, ex Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia (now
Zimbabwe) and human rights activist, has died aged 94. Todd, "courageously
resisted a short-lived racist regime in a small country" and, while
opposing the white regime of Ian Smith, dreamt of a "of a just and
multi-racial democracy. [...] Beyond argument, Garfield Todd was a good man and
a true statesman." A church minister in NZ before ariving in Africa on
mission, Todd was "one of those rare politicians who become more radical
with age, whose impact is greater out of office than in it." Early on, he
recognised, "the dam of white supremacy could not hold for ever. Stripped
of power, the enlightened paternalist turned into a real revolutionary."
(14 October 2002)

Branson to fly NZ's friendly skies?
NZ's Sir Richard Branson continues his upward trajectory in the world of
aviation. Branson's Australian domestic airline - Virgin Blue - is about to
triple its fleet by purchasing 40 new jets. The possibility of extending flights
to NZ and Hong Kong is also under discussion.
(8 September 2002)


Uncle Sam's Head?
The sale of Te Kuri/Young Nick's Head to an American financier has not escaped
international notice. Symbolic for both Maori and European firsts (reputed to be the
first land seen by Captain Cook's Endeavour), comparisons were made
between Young Nick's Head and the iconic Plymouth Rock. After press coverage,
and discussion with locals and government, the American buyer donated the headlands
to the government for protection
in order to safe-guard the culturally and historically significant land.
(9 August 2002)

"No place at the table … but a good deal across the counter."
NZ representative Paul Cotton responds to Greg Sheridan's criticism of NZ's
independent defence stance in The Australian (20/7). As Cotton avers,
"It doesn't seem that the Kiwis are suffering too much from just being a
'very, very good friend', as PM Helen Clark was told by Colin Powell and Bush in
Washington." Affirming edge smarts Cotton uses the example of NZ's
successful purchasing of American Seasprite helicopters in comparison with the
bungled Australian attempt to do the same. Axis of Edge.
(24 July 2002)
Where are the Kingswoods?
The PMs of NZ, Australia and Canada, all of whom look to the Queen as
head of state, were (apparently) extended "the minimum of courtesy" at
her mother's funeral. Seating plans, travel arrangements, and entry times were,
according to John Lloyd, designed to emphasise that "royal blood precedes
election."
(26 June 2002)
 Under the radar
A governmental mission to Australia led by PM Helen Clark aims to repair the
damage done to already slack perception of NZ business ("yokels")
across the ditch by events such as the Ansett collapse and the Rugby World Cup
fiasco. As well as emphasising the large number of New Zealand companies
operating successfully in Australia - including Fisher and Paykel, Lion
Breweries and Tower Insurance the mission aims to fly the flag by stating NZ's
case as an advanced, new-wave economy.
(22 April 2002)


Progressive governance
Prime Minister Helen Clark joins leaders
of "third
way" governments from five continents at a Progressive Governance
Conference in Stockholm. "The post-September 11 environment requires not
just a military response but much broader international cooperation", says
Helen Clark. "If our neighbours are poor, we are impoverished as
well". Because of her absence Clark is not
on hand to greet the Queen when she lands in Wellington to begin her
official visit. Clark, however, has other things on her mind: "I think it's inevitable
that New Zealand will become a republic and that would reflect the reality that
NZ is a totally sovereign-independent 21st century nation 12,000 miles from the
United Kingdom.
(23 February 2002)

September 11
New Zealanders and Australians unite in New York City to
share their grief at the loss of antipodean lives on September 11th.
Kiwi Alan
Beaven, a leading environmental lawyer based in California,
was on the hijacked plane that crashed in Pittsburgh. A close friend described
him as a man of "incredible courage" who would have been at
the front of the action when passengers took on the terrorists.
(September 2001)

Corporate Drain
"Forget the brain drain - the Kiwis who leave usually come back; the
real problem we face is the corporation drain, the breaking up or moving
offshore of our top corporations," says Mike Pratt, dean of Waikato Management
School. To solve the problem, an innovative solution combining industry
and education has been developed.
(6 September 2001)

Entrepreneurial
drive
The Waikato Management School has launched an innovative scheme to counter
the supposed Brain Drain.
(16 September 2001)

NZ
'no subsidies' model for Europe?
"New Zealand is one of a handful of countries which have embarked
on free trade for agriculture and some say it should be used as a model
for changes in Europe."
(24 August 2001)

GE Free?
Against anxiety that it will affect our clean, green image, New Zealand's Royal
Commission on Genetic Engineering suggests cautious introduction of GM. In
reaction, Kiwi artists raising their voice include Dave Dobbyn and Bic Runga
wearing their GE-fears on their chests in an Alannah Currie organised t-shirt
campaign protesting the Commission's report.
(30 July 2001)
WTO tangle
"It's a little puzzling that the major trade remedy for an organization
that promotes liberalized trade is to restrict trade," says Mike Moore,
referring to the problems in enforcing WTO rulings. Will the next round of talks
under his leadership find a way to sort this out? Also, Moore blasts
anti-WTO protesters.
(23 July 2001)

Nearly there
"In principle, we are just about there. I want it and everyone wants
it," says former NZ-PM, WTO head Mike Moore, confirming his work on
bringing China into the WTO has nearly reached its conclusion.
(28 June 2001)


The ghost of Rob
"A late but not widely lamented New Zealand prime minister once introduced
strict currency controls. When asked if the fixed rate was not out of line with
market reality, he responded that the value of the New Zealand dollar was
exactly right; all the other currencies were out of line..."
(19 May 2001)

Election aid
New Zealand will provide personnel, technical and funding assistance to ensure
Fiji's up-coming elections run properly.
(15 May 2001)
In The Black
The New Zealand trade surplus for April comes in at $391 million.
(28 May 2001)
Young diplomats
Exchange student are young diplomats, Prime Minister Helen Clark told a high
school in Osaka during a speech promoting youth exchanges between New Zealand
and Japan.
(17 April 2001)


Global warning
Kiwi LSE economist Robert Wade, tracks the winners and losers in the
big-stakes game of globalisation and stirs debate with new thinking:
"Growing inequality is analogous to global warming. Its effects are diffuse
and long-term... we should mobilise our governments, the multilateral
organisations, and international NGOs to establish as an overarching priority a
more equal world income distribution-and not just, as now, fewer people in
poverty."
(26 April 2001)


Dollar getting burgered
The Economist's Big Mac index indicates
the New Zealand dollar is 40-50% under fair value. Burgernomics in more detail.
(20 April 2001)

Plenty to go around
New Zealand's trade surplus widens on the back of a 2.2% rise in the value of
New Zealand exports.
(26 March 2001)
Economic outlook
New Zealand's economy continues on the up; will the edge buck the downward
trend of trading partners and major players?
(22 March 2001)

Green Edge
The Greens are a presence in parliaments around the world - the
revolution started in Wellington.
(19 March 2001)

Relations open
New Zealand to open diplomatic relations with North Korea.
(25 March 2001)
Co-operation
The time is right for co-operation between India and New Zealand on food
processing, IT and forestry, says Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Phil
Goff.
(6 March 2001)

Making waves
"Where once New Zealand seemed bent on shrinking the public sector to
anorexic proportions, it is new pumping it full of new blood. New Zealand has a
long record of setting global trends. It was first to give votes to women, first
to create a welfare state, first to baulk at nuclear power and first to tear
down the state in favor of the market. If New Zealand is heading the other way
now, we should all take notice: we have followed in their wake before."
(17 February 2001)
Bonded money
A province of Ontario 2008 bond in New
Zealand dollars creates a flurry among savvy Canadian investors.
(28 January 2001)

Human rights for all
New Zealand-born and educated John Fisher is Canada's leading gay rights
activist. "Human rights, for me, are universal and transcend national
boundaries," says Fisher. "Everyone knows someone who is gay or
lesbian, and a society that affirms diversity is one that benefits us all."
(25 January 2001)
Anzacs?
New Zealand voice in Sydney Bernard Lagan dissects the question of Federation
with Australia: "It is unlikely that what modern New Zealanders most define
themselves as - a nation of Pacific peoples - could have come about had they
joined the Federation."
(4 January 2001)
Federate or die?
"It is likely that the New Zealand situation will become so critical in the
early years of this century that support for political union will rise
rapidly."
(28 December 2000)

Privy decision
Attorney-General Margaret Wilson flags
the government's intention to abolish the right of appeal to the British Privy
Council, instead creating a highest right of appeal based in New Zealand.
(19 December 2000)
Brash blueprint
New Zealand's Reserve Bank is a model for a proposed independent committee of
economic advisors in Britain.
(12 December 2000)


Can the Kiwi economy fly?
A contrary view: "recent claims that New Zealand's economic experiment has
failed, and that it therefore needs to change course, do not stand up".
(2 December 2000)
John Bull (& Kiwi)
Michael Wills' mother was a New Zealander, and his father an Austrian. Today he
is charged with putting British patriotism on New Labour's agenda.
(25 November 2000)

Centrist thinking
Geographical isolation meant New Zealand's "great experiment" with
"radically liberal economic ideas" was bound to fail...
(29 November 2000)

Lazarus
New Zealand First's annual conference saw leader Winston Peters returning to
traditional themes of nationalism, battling on behalf of the battler, equal
rights for all New Zealanders and anti-political correctness. He also mentioned
that NZF is still "relevant and promotable".
(21 November 2000)

Eco edge
"Politicians have got used to being
told by their clever advisers and focus groups that the environment isn't sexy.
It doesn't lead to votes. But that's where the leadership thing comes in. If
politics is merely about interpreting where public opinion is at any one point,
then what's the bloody point?" says Jonathon Porritt, Blair's chief
environmental advisor and the son of Lord Arthur, former NZ Gov-Gen.
(16 October 2000)

Election blues
American academics laud MMP: "When New Zealand had its first PR election in
1996, the first Asian citizen was elected, and Pacific Islanders and indigenous
Maoris tripled their representation."
(October 2000)

McKinnon calls for debt relief
Commonwealth Sec-Gen Don McKinnon has
called on G-7 countries, the World Bank and the IMF to "just do it" on
the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative which would write off debts owed
by some of the world's poorest countries.
(22 September 2000)

Kiwi on panel to improve UN"s peace-keeping ability
Dame Ann Hercus represented New Zealand
on a special panel formed to examine the UN’s peace-keeping resources.
"While stopping short of calling for a permanent U.N. army, the panel
appealed to United Nations members to prepare several brigades, each with about
5,000 troops, that could be sent to a trouble spot in 30 to 90 days."
(24 August 2000)
Secret History
An Italian monk's stinging criticism of British mistreatment of Maori has been
published in New Zealand for the first time - more than 100 years after it was
written. Written by Benedictine monk Dom Felice Vaggioli, it details the
"abominable behaviour " of British colonisers. The British government
was so incensed it asked Rome to destroy all copies, but a handful survived and
were largely forgotten until a translation project began 6 years ago.
(21 August 2000)

War and Peace: Kiwi UN official warns of half-job solutions
As the United Nations administration in
Kosovo prepares to shut down, its job of emergency relief deemed to be over,
Kiwi UN special envoy Dennis McNamara has some advice for the next great
international mission to rebuild a country: be prepared to spend as much money
and effort in winning the peace as in fighting the war.
(3 July 2000)
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Under the garden
New Zealand's $30 million pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is
expecting 400,000 visitors through its doors over the next six months. New
Zealand Commissioner-General Phillip Gibson said that, even before the
opening, hundreds of people had come to touch a 12-metre-high steel and
rubber pohutukawa tree which guarded the entrance to the New Zealand
pavilion. "We've had to build a barricade around it because it's been
so popular," Gibson said. Gibson said New Zealand had bagged a prime
spot near the Chinese pavilion and in clear view of the millions who use
one of Shanghai's main bridges. A waka would be carved outside and an
1800kg pounamu boulder was already proving to be an attraction. A rooftop
garden, designed to reflect the diverse New Zealand landscape, is planted
with alpine mountain grasses and includes a bubbling mud pool, and a
beach. Beyond the scenery were business and political objectives.
"It's a great opportunity to showcase ourselves in a country that is
increasingly critical to our economic wellbeing," Gibson said.
(1 May 2010)


Irish influx
Thousands of Irish are flocking to New Zealand shores for a "less
hectic" yet familiar way of life, though a simultaneously exotic one
too. In the past 10 years almost 30,000 Irish people have received
permission to work in New Zealand. She may be over 18,000km from where she
was born, but Lillian Dowd, 32, seems very much at home. It's a balmy
February's day in the heart of New Zealand's second-biggest city,
Christchurch. With Ireland's economic collapse, New Zealand is proving an
increasingly popular destination. "So many people have gone to
Australia, so I decided I'd do something different," Dowd says. Irish
Honorary Consul General Rodney Walshe says New Zealand is going to
continue to see the Irish exodus. "There is a national affinity
between Ireland and New Zealand. Eighteen per cent of the population here
are of Irish descent. New Zealand is the Ireland of the south Pacific, but
with a slightly better climate."
(29 March 2010)


Missing the boat
"New Zealand was a 1980s-era beacon of economic
reform and rising prosperity," writes Luke Malpass, an analyst in the New
Zealand policy unit of the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney. In an
article for the Wall Street Journal Malpass continues: "The election
in late 2008 of National Party leader John Key as prime minister promised to
return some of that liberalizing spark after nine years under a left-leaning
Labour government. Yet more than a year into his tenure, Key is losing his way.
With a unicameral parliament dominated by his party and a right-of-center
coalition partner, Key ought to be able to push through a range of free-market
reforms. Instead his signature policy achievement is to move ahead with a
pork-laden emissions-trading scheme even as the rest of the world seems set to
reject that approach. Meanwhile, other important reforms are in danger of
falling by the wayside. If he doesn't come to his senses — and return to
the reform track — soon, New Zealand risks missing opportunities for
growth."
(25 February 2010)


Attention to change
Former prime minister Helen Clark, now head of the United Nation's Development
Agency, was recently at Sydney's Lowy Institute calling for climate change to be
put at the centre of international development strategies. In her speech, Clark
set out a four-point strategy for moving the development agenda forward. She
called for a renewed focus on meeting goals for the future and for climate
change to be placed at the centre of development thinking and strategies. There
should be particular attention to vulnerable groups. "For a number of
Pacific Island nations and communities, climate change is not just an abstract
issue, not just an environmental or an economic issue," Clark said.
"It is about their very survival." Clark was the 37th Prime Minister
of New Zealand, for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008 and led the Labour
Party from 1993 until it lost the 2008 general election.
(12 February 2010)


Miniature by might
A 25-hectare replica New Zealand city, dubbed "Little New Zealand" is
being constructed in the northern Chinese city of Qufu. The $400 million New
Zealand Gardens initiative will come with its own Maori village and education
complex. Anthony Wilson from Awataha Marae, who is a partner in the project,
says the development is part of Qufu city's overall expansion plan. Wilson says
the "Little New Zealand" project will create hundreds of jobs for
Maori people. "As part of the deal we will be providing all of the cultural
performers, we will be also providing labour staff and also providing all the
carvings," he says. The project's most ambitious goal is for Chinese to
enjoy the New Zealand Gardens experience so much, that they want to come and
visit the real thing. Spokesman for New Zealand's Ministry of Tourism Bruce
Bassett says while the government has no formal links to the project, the
initiative could potentially boost long-haul tourism. "The China market is
New Zealand's fourth largest market in terms of in visitor arrivals so it's
pretty important and a fast growing market," Bassett says.
(26 November 2009)

Slump looks likely
New Zealand economist Robert
Wade, a professor at the London School of Economics, predicts a further
slump into global recession in 2010 or 2011. Wade, who made his name analysing
East Asia's economic "tigers", advocates re-regulating finance by
strengthening financial consumer protections, raising capital requirements for
financial institutions, separating commercial and investment banks,
international co-operation on exchange rates, and temporary taxes such as a 2
per cent tax imposed by Brazil recently on foreign portfolio investment. He said
that the past year's crisis was partly because of relaxation of controls on
international financial flows and domestic banking capital ratios, fuelling huge
imbalances between overspending economies, such as the US, and under-spenders,
such as China. But he believes tackling the other side of the problem,
inequality, will be "very problematic". "The people at the top
have now got enormous political power and would be extremely resistant to any
serious increase in the progressivity of income tax which is one obvious way to
do it," he said. Professor Wade was in Auckland to deliver the annual Bruce
Jesson Lecture at Auckland University.
(28 October 2009)


Seoul mates
New Zealand's trade commissioner in Seoul Graeme Solloway, who is responsible
for promoting bilateral trade and investment, has been in the South Korean
capital promoting technological ties between the two countries. "Both Korea
and New Zealand are very innovative countries, and we can combine some of our
innovations and put them into products," Solloway said. Solloway stressed
that New Zealand has more to offer than its high-quality and safe agriculture
products, grass-fed beef, timber and other natural resources. He said the
technology industry also plays a big economic role, while standing as a
fast-developing sector offering much promise as a future growth engine. And to
the trade master, Korea, his home country's sixth-largest trading market, is
"very important."
(25 September 2009)


Same but different
On the eve of talks between Australian and New Zealand cabinets in Sydney last
week, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Tink looks back to 1840 —
when New Zealand was briefly a dependency of NSW — for an answer to the debate
about whether the two countries should become one. "Although people on each
side of the Tasman appear indistinguishable to those of other nations, much like
Americans and Canadians appear to us, the reality is that Australians and New
Zealanders have substantially different national identities which first became
apparent in the mid-19th century," says Tink. Nevertheless, during the past
two world wars, the Australian and New Zealand governments have shown they can
work together for mutual defence when it matters. "Short of some natural
catastrophe, it is difficult to see what would generate the momentum for union.
If the Great Depression did not, it is hard to envisage what economic crisis
would. Rather than working towards union, as the Australian parliamentary
committee recommended, Australia's focus should be on what can yet be learned
from the Treaty of Waitangi."
(20 August 2009)


Clark enjoys anonymity
Head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) former Prime Minister
Helen Clark, 59, has told the Dominion
Post that "New Zealand is just not quite big enough for me at the
moment" and that it is not her nature to sit on the sidelines. Clark took
over the reins at the world body's global development network in New York last
April, the first woman to do so. Today she oversees an annual UNDP budget of six
billion dollars and a global army of thousands of highly motivated people tasked
with spearheading the UN drive to achieve eight poverty-reduction Millennium
Development Goals by 2015. "I was looking for a new challenge commensurate
with what I had been doing," she told AFP. "I was the only person who
came forward with my sort of skills," she said. Clark also chairs the UN
development group.
(7 August 2009)


It's all turned sour
Federated Farmers President Don Nicolson has lashed out against President Barack
Obama and US milk subsidies in an opinion piece for the latest issue of The
Wall
Street Journal. Nicolson vented his frustrations in the article — aptly named
"Milking Trade Subsidies" — attacking in the particular the US Dairy
Export Incentive Program (DEIP) which was implemented last month. He said that
the subsidies paid by the US Department of Agriculture under the DEIP distorted
global prices, effectively punishing New Zealand farmers for their success.
"New Zealand and its farmers are up against a powerful U.S. dairy lobby
that's only interested in keeping its subsidies," said Nicolson in a press
release on the federated Farmers website. "Hopefully this opinion piece
will give U.S. policy makers time to pause, think and reconsider what folly it
really is."
(8 June 2009)


On women in Yemen
Former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley has been in Yemen lecturing in a workshop
promoting local women's political participation with a special emphasis on New
Zealand women and their role in decision making and development planning in
politics. Shipley will also bring up her experience when she served as a Prime
Minister, with the aim to present Yemeni women a model that they may benefit
from to reach their goals through negotiating with men over participation in
legislative and strategy-making aspects. "Yemen has effective legislation
on women's participation in the development process which is very suitable for
the Yemeni women ambitious to take part in decision making," Shipley said.
Shipley was born in Gore in 1952. She was the Prime Minister from December 1997
to December 1999. In 2007, she joined financial services firm Sentinel.
(30 May 2009)


To save the Queen or not
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark, 59, who has given her valedictory speech to
the House after 27 years as an MP, said the country's institutions had
"evolved a long way from our colonial heritage". "Many of our
forebears came to this land to escape the class-bound nature of Britain, where
their place in the economic and social order was largely prescribed by
birth," Clark said. "I deeply detest social distinction and snobbery,
and in that lies my strong aversion to titular honours. To me they relate to
another era, from which our nation has largely, but obviously still not
completely, freed itself." Opinion polls have shown a majority of people,
particularly the elderly, favour retaining the monarchy, but the number has
declined in recent years to only slightly above 50 per cent. Clark takes up a
post as head of the United Nations Development Programme in New York.
(8 April 2009)


Questioning change
New Zealander Bob Rigg has published an extensive analysis of the Obama
administration's initial approach to foreign policy in a paper for the South
Asia Strategic Forum, a recently launched thinktank on global geo-political
development. The paper examines the reputations and backgrounds of high level
White House foreign policy appointments to date, paying particular attention to
key players in the Middle East and nuclear fields. Rigg notes a reluctance to
appoint outside of the political establishment and the apparent power of Hillary
Clinton in these areas, questioning the likelihood of radical moves towards
disarmament hoped for by many of Obama's grassroots supporters. Bob Rigg was
formerly senior editor for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons in The Hague, and chairman of NZ's Consultative Committee on Disarmament
2003-2006, and has published widely on issues of chemical and nuclear weapons,
the Middle East, Iran and US foreign policy.
(6 April 2009)


Stormy outlook ahead
New Zealand's economy contracted in the fourth quarter at its fastest pace in 16
years as the global turmoil worsened a domestic slump, putting interest rate
cuts back on the agenda. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is now torn
between pressure to lower interest rates to revive growth and the need to keep
the return on New Zealand's currency attractive enough to lure foreign
investment. "It may yet force the RBNZ's hand to do more, either on the
rate front, or in signalling the potential for rates to remain at low levels for
an extended period," said ANZ-National economist Philip Borkin. Only
Iceland, which imploded under the weight of the global financial crisis last
year, had more net external debt as a percentage of GDP among the OECD group of
rich nations. New Zealand's trade partners such as Japan, South Korea, the
United States, Britain and Taiwan had all suffered contractions between 1.5% and
8.4% in the fourth quarter.
(27 March 2009)


Copywronged righted
New Zealand's Creative Freedom Foundation, opponents of an amendment to the
country's copyright law, Section 92a, have secured victory with the scrapping of
the plan which would have required Internet service providers to implement a
system for shutting off the connections of repeat copyright infringers. Online
rights advocates CFF had seized on a few rather glaring omissions in the
measure: There was no explicit definition of "infringer," nor was
there a requirement that infringement be legally proved. To freedom fighters,
this meant that even an accusation of infringement could count as a strike
against someone, and that because ISPs are not in the business of investigating
the merits of alleged violations, it would be easier for them to yank
connections than to adjudicate every complaint. Loud protests of this
"guilt by accusation" law echoed around the Web in February, spawning
Facebook groups, a "blackout" protest and even a pretty good
"copywrong" song. But now the demonstrators have what they
wanted.
(23 March 2009)


Stormy outlook ahead
New Zealand's economy contracted in the fourth quarter at its fastest pace in 16
years as the global turmoil worsened a domestic slump, putting interest rate
cuts back on the agenda. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is now torn
between pressure to lower interest rates to revive growth and the need to keep
the return on New Zealand's currency attractive enough to lure foreign
investment. "It may yet force the RBNZ's hand to do more, either on the
rate front, or in signalling the potential for rates to remain at low levels for
an extended period," said ANZ-National economist Philip Borkin. Only
Iceland, which imploded under the weight of the global financial crisis last
year, had more net external debt as a percentage of GDP among the OECD group of
rich nations. New Zealand's trade partners such as Japan, South Korea, the
United States, Britain and Taiwan had all suffered contractions between 1.5% and
8.4% in the fourth quarter.
(27 March 2009)


Setting things straight
New Zealand ambassador to Indonesia Phillip Gibson recently addressed the
Jakarta public at 'New Zealand Week', which included a series of events aimed at
increasing Indonesian public awareness about New Zealand, sponsored by the New
Zealand Embassy, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and Pacivis University of
Indonesia. Rhiannon Horrell, a student from New Zealand doing an internship in
Jakarta, said the event was a good idea because Indonesians and New Zealanders
knew very little about one another. "There are a lot of misconceptions, I
think," Horrell said. "A lot of Indonesian students wonder about the
treatment of Muslims in New Zealand." New Zealand Embassy second secretary
for political affairs, James Waite, said the purpose of the event was to raise
the county's profile among Indonesian students.
(10 February 2009)


Hold the cash
One alternative form of paper money in New Zealand is the local exchange trading
system (LETS) of green dollars,
which is a particularly useful means of trade in smaller towns. Swiss national
and former banker Christoph Hensch, now living in Christchurch, says alternative
currencies do not try to replace cash. Rather, they offer a way "for people
to share and redeem value they have in the community." Hensch says the
currencies are most useful in geographical areas or social sectors where money
doesn't flow sufficiently, citing for example Golden Bay, which is so remote
that it sometimes nearly functions as its own economy. According to an online
source, as of the mid 1990s there were approximately 70 "Green Dollar
Systems" in New Zealand.
(14 December 2008)


Parliamentary melting pot
Pansy Wong, 53, is New Zealand's first Asian cabinet minister, having been named
Minister for Ethnic Affairs and Minister of Women's Affairs in the new
government. Wong, who was born in Shanghai, said her appointment showed New
Zealand is an open and tolerant country. She said she had always battled to be
treated like any other New Zealander and her electorate win in Botany and her
new role as a minister, sent a message to the world. The result was significant Wong
said, because it showed that voters had "matured" and could see beyond
race to assess a candidate. It was possible, she said, that New Zealand could
one day have an Asian prime minister. Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi is New Zealand's
first Sikh MP and Melissa Lee the first Korean-born member.
(19 November 2008)


Elias on equality
New Zealand's first female Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, and presiding judge of
the country's Supreme Court, recently gave a lecture at the University of New
Mexico School of Law on indigenous rights entitled, 'First Peoples and Human
Rights: A South Seas Perspective'. Elias explored why addressing indigenous land
claims and interests continues to challenge legal systems where first peoples
are a minority, comparing contemporary issues faced by Maori with those faced by
indigenous groups in the United States, Canada, Australia and the Pacific
region. Elias was named Chief Justice in 1999 and is known for her
representation and defence of Maori in treaty claims and litigation concerns
regarding fisheries, land transfers, elections and other matters.
(20 October 2008)


Pride in heritage
New Zealand's first Governor-General of Asian descent Anand Satyanand - who
recently paid a visit to India - is the subject of an article in The Times of
India, which discusses how "the heirs and successors of Indian indentured
labour have become the new Establishment." As Satyanand said in his address
in Delhi, "I retain with pride the girmitya (indentured labour) shipping
papers of my grandparents and the link they represent with my Indian
heritage." For Satyanand to pay a state visit to India, as New Zealand's
highest representative, underlines the increasingly high profile ethnic Indians
enjoy in the countries they now call home. Satyanand replaced Dame Silvia
Cartwright as Governor-General of New Zealand on 23 August 2006.
(14 September 2008)


Enigma funds school
Though New Zealand tycoon Christopher Chandler keeps a reclusive profile, he has
invested $50 million in a business school for students from developing countries
in Boston. Chandler, a beekeeper's son from Matangi who has built a fortune
estimated at $1.7bn (£866m), has been a called an antipodean version of Warren
Buffett. Along with his brother Richard, he has bought and sold chunks of Hong
Kong property, Brazilian telecoms, Japanese banks and Russian electricity
enterprises. The Legatum Centre for Development and Entrepreneurship is intended
to create a generation of business leaders in poverty-stricken parts of the
globe. The Centre's director Iqbal Quadir describes Christopher Chandler as a
"very global person who cares about how the world is shaping up". Last
year Chandler invested $25m in India's leading microfinance lender, Share
Microfin, which specialises in microfinance schemes for people who have no
access to formal banks.
(22 May 2008)


Cattle for capital
New Zealand dairy farmers are benefiting from a worldwide demand for milk and
cheese with Fonterra Cooperative Group members promised big payouts for their
efforts this year. Never before has the term "cash cow" been more
appropriate. Senior economist for Westpac Institutional Bank Doug Steel said
demand is being driven by the urbanisation and economic growth of emerging
markets, with a significant contribution from freshly enriched oil-producing
nations. Steel
said this is particularly true in the South Island. "Those farmers have had
by far their best year, probably in history and certainly in recent living
memory" One hundred farms a year are converting from lamb and beef to dairy
in Southland alone. But more cows equals more methane, so scientists in New
Zealand and Australia are developing a strain of "burpless" grass for
cows that would maintain dairy herds' productivity and profitability while
reducing their wind problems.
(10 May 2008)


Moore to head charity
Former prime minister and World Trade Organisation Director-General Mike Moore
has been hired by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman. Moore will chair the
Altimo Foundation, one of Fridman's charitable organisations associated with the
telecom arm of the Alfa Group. The foundation will focus on fighting poverty in
developing countries. Credited with restoring confidence in the multilateral
trading system following the setback of the 3rd WTO Ministerial Conference held
in Seattle in 1999, Moore is also author of a number of books including World
without Walls, a reflection on his time at the WTO. Moore is widely regarded as
one of the most powerful voices in the debate about the future of
globalisation.
(30 March 2008)

Questions of difference
Are New Zealanders really afflicted by a 'tall poppy syndrome'? Do they lack in
confidence? Are they indeed Australia's poor cousin? And if so, does this mean
the New Zealand culture is to blame for widening the income gap between the two
countries? Phil Rennie, policy analyst with the New Zealand Policy Unit of the
Centre for Independent Studies, discusses these questions. He explores the
significant role cultural differences play - particularly in comparing Australia
and New Zealand - including: attitudes to success, assertiveness and ambition,
and financial literacy. The differences were well summarised by former
Australian Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, who told a New Zealand audience in 2003
that Australia is prospering because of 'good policies.' When asked 'what else?'
he replied, 'good policies.'"
(24 March 2008)


Gov-Gen reflects on changing nation
NZ Governor-General Anand Satyanand gave an exclusive online interview to Indian
TV station NDTV. In it, he discussed NZ's increasingly multicultural
makeup, as well as his own Indian ancestry. "New Zealand, like all
countries, continues to have disparities in race and other areas but my
appointment is symbolic of this country's commitment to ending those
disparities," he says. "Since the first New Zealand-born
Governor-General was appointed in 1967, two Governors-General have been women
(Dame Catherine Tizard and Dame Silvia Cartwright) and one has been Maori (Sir
Paul Reeves) and their appointments in turn reflect other changes within New
Zealand." Anand Satyanand succeeded Dame Silvia Cartwright as
Governor-General in 2006.
(8 January 2008)


Renewing friendships, broadening horizons
Helen Clark was the first foreign leader to meet with Kevin Rudd in his new role
as Australian prime minister. The pair met for a casual lunch at Rudd's Brisbane
home, where they discussed climate
change ahead of the summit in Bali. "We'll be in close contact as
governments on the challenges we face with climate change, the challenges we
face with Bali, plus the negotiating agenda over the next couple of years - it's
going to be a tough, hard negotiation," said Rudd in the Sydney Morning
Herald. "But when you've friends with common interests then we can work
these things through." Rudd and Clark have known each other for a long
time, and Rudd described their meeting as renewing a friendship. "As for
New Zealand, we have so many things in common," he said. " ... I look
forward to not just continuing this relationship but broadening it." Rudd's
election marks the first time that Australia and NZ have both had Labour
governments since 1990.
(9 December 2007)


NZ unites against death penalty
NZ has joined a United Nations effort seeking the worldwide abolition of the
death penalty. Co-sponsors of the UN resolution include Brazil, East Timor,
Gabon, Mexico, the Philippines and Portugal. "Capital punishment is the
ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," said PM Helen
Clark, in a speech marking World Day Against the Death Penalty. "The death
penalty violates the right to life ... it is known to have been inflicted on the
innocent." The last execution in NZ occurred 50 years ago, and the death
penalty was abolished for all crimes, including treason, in 1989.
(9 October 2007)


Senior Iraqi posting for Shearer
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has named New Zealander David Shearer as his
deputy special representative for Iraq. Shearer will also serve as Iraq's UN
resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator. "David's a pretty
special guy. He's hugely regarded by those he works with and people within the
UN," said NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff, who went to Papatoetoe
High School with Shearer. "He'll do as good a job as can be done in a
situation that is clearly having tragic consequences in the sheer loss of life
and sectarian violence." David Shearer has worked for the UN since 1995, in
such global hotspots as Lebanon, Serbia and Rwanda. He has headed the UN Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Jerusalem since February
2003.
(24 August 2007)


A rebel remembered
British political figure Anne Gilman, "a rebel from New Zealand", has
died aged 76. Gilman was born in NZ and attended Canterbury University, where
she founded the student magazine, Canta. Gilman's daughter, Catherine, describes
her mother as a "colourful and lively bohemian woman, [who] had been a
vegetarian since the age of six" in an obituary for the Guardian. Gilman
became mayor of the north London borough of Islington in the 1990s, after many
years working for trade unionist and communist groups in the UK. Her mayoral
inauguration ceremony featured Maori dancers and her "greening"
project for Islington included the planting of numerous native NZ trees.
(5 July 2007)


Three strikes, you're out
Rainbow Warrior bombers Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart have lost a third
court appeal to prevent TVNZ from screening footage from their 1985 trial. Three
NZ appeal court judges unanimously granted the channel permission to air the
video recording, which shows the French secret agents pleading guilty to the
manslaughter of Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira. The footage has never
before been released.
(8 August 2006)


Hunt fights for our rights
Waikato University graduate Paul Hunt has built a high profile international
career as a human rights lawyer and independent expert. Hunt was elected to
serve on the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1998. In
2001 he was enlisted by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, to
co-author the Guidelines on Human Rights Approaches to Poverty Reduction. In
2002 he was appointed UN Special Raconteur on the right to health, a role he
remains in today. He has lived and worked in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and
South Pacific, has written prolifically on economic, social and cultural rights,
and is an active member of the global Make Poverty History campaign.
"Making poverty history is not just a question of morality, charity or
self-interest," he says on the Realizing Rights website. "Developed
countries have a human rights responsibility, binding in international law, to
assist Africa and others burdened by poverty … Making poverty history - and
ensuring a fair deal for Africa - is the greatest human rights campaign of our
time."
(January 2006)


David Lange 1942-2005
Former Prime Minister David Lange died on Saturday
13 August aged 63 after a long battle with ill health. He was regarded as
"the best loved New Zealand political figure of the last 20 years"
(Guardian Unlimited).
Elected to office in 1984 at the age of 41 (New Zealand's youngest Prime
Minister), Lange inherited a country in the midst of a political and economic
crisis. The policies his government employed to steer the country through this
era of transition were certainly radical.
Lange's greatest legacy to New Zealand will likely be his anti nuclear policy.
Lange's "No-Nukes" stance took New Zealand's foreign policy to the
world stage and carved out a path for other countries to follow.
During a debate on nuclear weapons against American evangelist Jerry Falwell at
the Oxford Union, Lange, a highly skilled orator, famously responded to an
interjector by saying: "Hold your breath just for a moment. I can smell the
uranium on it".
Working as a lawyer in South Auckland for many years, Lange had always been an
advocate of those marginalized by society. He received great respect from the
Pacific Island community when he actively campaigned against the "Dawn
Raids". Lange's strong social conscience stemmed from his Methodist
beliefs. His sharp wit and luminous personality
have found no equal in New Zealand's political history. Throughout the ups and
downs of his leadership Lange kept his sense of humour, a trait he reportedly
maintained until the last moments of his life.
Obituaries ran in The
Guardian, The
Times, The
Independent, The
Washington Post, The
New York Times, The
Daily Telegraph (Australia), The
LA Times, The
New Zealand Herald among others.
Kyoto Protocol a “feelgood gimmick”
Meanwhile, SMH columnist Miranda Devine says “Our Kiwi
neighbours, once smug about ecological superiority, face a cost blow-out from
the treaty exceeding $NZ1 billion ($900 million). The farcical result is that
even though the country produces only 0.2 per cent of the world's greenhouse
gases, it is to be punished as if it were a big polluter because it is unlikely
to meet its emission targets. The Government has admitted it will exceed its
Kyoto target by 36 million tonnes of carbon dioxide between 2008 and 2012. In
their enthusiasm for the project, New Zealand officials miscalculated carbon
dioxide inputs and outputs, claiming there would be a net profit in carbon
credits from the treaty. They reportedly counted some forests twice and didn't
account for increased car use due to a booming economy. So, instead of profiting
by being a global green goodie, it will have to buy carbon credits to meet the
shortfall, which will cost as much as $NZ1.2 billion. Worse, a consultant's
report released by the industry group Business New Zealand last year calculated
a future liability of as much as $NZ14 billion under the protocol over the next
20 years.
(4 August 2005)

Closing the gap
NZ ranks sixth overall in a new study
measuring the gap between genders by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum. The
top five positions went to Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. The WEF
appraisal of 58 countries assesses patterns of inequality in areas such as
economic status, political empowerment, health and education.
(17 May 2005)

New law embraced
Planet Out feature looks at the newly instated Civil Union Bill in NZ.
More than 600 couples registered for a civil union in the first week after the
law came into effect. The article quotes GayNZ.com writer, Craig Young: “I think
most of our fellow New Zealanders have realized that a pack of rabble-rousing
fundamentalists were the only ones getting into hysterics about civil unions,
and don't mind us having our day at the registry.”
(26 April 2005)

Mutual milestone
76 Tampa refugees were made NZ citizens on April 8, including the youngest on
board Azizullah Mussa (now 17). “I've been waiting three years for this day to
come. I can call myself a Kiwi now,” he said. NZ accepted 208 people from the
Tampa as refugees; 131 straight from the boat and a further 77 from the
resettlement at Nauru. PM Helen Clark: “Today's ceremony is a milestone in the
lives of these new young New Zealanders. They are already making a positive
contribution to NZ life, and our lives have been enriched by having them here.”
(8 April 2005)

Simple is best
The British government is officially
considering modelling its pension system on NZ’s current superannuation scheme,
which is described in the Guardian as “a model of elegant simplicity
compared with Britain's multi-layered mixture of private and state provision,
means tests and tax allowances.” A group of British officials visited NZ in
early March to assess the system and have come out decidedly in its favour, as
has the British media.
(6 March 2005)

National symbol under question
NZ’s growing movement in support of a
new national flag featured in the Daily Telegraph. Wellington businessman
Lloyd Morrison officially launched the campaign in January, with the support of
numerous high profile sporting, political, and entertainment industry figures.
The most popular alternative to the current flag is a white silver fern on a
black background, which many Kiwis already regard as their national symbol.
(27 January 2005)


Signed and sealed
The passing of the Civil Union Bill,
giving gay and lesbian couples legal recognition in NZ, made headlines around
the world. “It is just a fantastic day for us,” said Christians for Civil Union
member Margaret Mayman in the Sydney Morning Herald. “[It] makes you
really proud to be a New Zealander, in the sense of feeling at home and equal in
this country.”
(9 December 2004)

Mind the gap
The Herald ran a lengthy feature
on trans-Tasman cultural differences prior to the Australian elections, claiming
that “geologically, the land masses are creeping together again. However, all
other evidence points the other way.” According to the writer, the shift in
national identities began with NZ’s anti-nuclear stance in the 1970s and has
been exacerbated by such recent issues as the war in Iraq. “NZ sees itself as a
country that wants to make its own judgement,” says Foreign Minister Phil Goff.
“Not just to be an echo of another nation.” The “browning” of NZ - its move
towards a distinct Pacific/Asian identity - is another major factor.
(9 October 2004)


Crusader of the highest order
NZ’s foremost campaigner against
apartheid, Trevor Richards, was awarded the Supreme Companion of OR Tambo by
South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria. “Its not every day that one
wakes up and wonders what award they will be receiving today,” said Richards,
the founder and leader of HART (Halt All Racist Tours) and author of seminal
anti-apartheid work Dancing On Our Bones. In an inspiring address,
President Mbeki described the national order recipients as “beacons that must
guide us forever as we build a society founded on the high ideals of freedom,
justice, equality and human solidarity.”
(29 October 2004)

The sheep that roared
An Australian feature by Claire
Harvey likened the Israeli passport scandal to the infamous Rainbow Warrior
incident of 1985. PM Helen Clark has cut diplomatic ties with Israel until an
official apology and explanation is offered stating, "We're
a small, friendly nation on the edge of the world. You do not expect your
friends to do this to you." A Mr B Hill of Nelson had his views
regarding the incident published in the
Gulf News: "NZ's brave denouncement of Israeli
spy activities in its territory has revealed that NZ may be a land of many sheep
but it doesn't act sheepishly on the world stage. When much larger countries
cower down to the global whims and diktats of powers, it is good to see a small
country stand up for its international integrity, and goodwill. The sheep has
roared and it has been heard around the world."
(16 July 2004)

Easy money
NZ has the world's third freest economy,
according to an annual survey by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street
Journal. Hong Kong took the top spot for the tenth consecutive year,
followed by Singapore.
(9 January 2004)


Knowledge economist
Finance Minister and Deputy PM, Dr. Michael Cullen, articulates the edge
phenomenon in a lengthy interview with the Economist. “[There is] a very
significant solid eclectic range of niche manufacturing and service industries
which have developed in NZ, and continue to develop at a strong pace. These are
industries which really build on flipping over NZ’s disadvantage of scale and
distance, and concentrate on areas where distance isn’t important, and where
small size is actually an advantage, like the ability to engage in short-run
production, for example, the ability to be highly innovative and flexible, so
you’re not locked into just punching out huge numbers of electronic boxes one
after the other. We can never compete with that, but we increasingly do
elsewhere. People are often quite surprised to find that what they’re using,
what they’re doing, what they’re seeing, is actually NZ product.”
(2 December 2003)

Land of milk and honey
The NZ economy is currently on a high, with the lowest unemployment rates
since 1987, 26,000 new jobs created in the last 3 months, and a $1.2
billion surplus in the first 3 months of the year - $730 million more than
predicted in the 2003 budget. An
LA Times
feature on the "Frodo economy" cites the LotR trilogy as a primary factor
behind the remarkable financial boost: "Much
of the payoff was tied directly to the estimated $500 million that was spent to
make the three movies ... For a time, the production engaged 23,000 workers,
making it the largest private employer in NZ. Then came the tourists, and scores
of new restaurants and bed and breakfasts to cater to them. From the majestic
fields of Twizel in the heart of the South Island, the site of the 'Pelennor
Fields,' to the artisan colony of Nelson on the coast of Tasman Bay, where the
trilogy's pivotal One Ring was forged, nearly every small town and cozy hamlet
has benefited."
(11 November 2003)

Clean dealings
An annual survey by global
anti-corruption campaigners, Transparency International, ranks NZ as the world’s
third cleanest business environment (equal with Denmark) on 9.5 points. Finland
topped the list with 9.7 points, followed by Iceland on 9.6. The results are
gathered by canvassing academics, investors, risk analysts, and government
officials from all over the world.
(9 October 2003)

Little Brother is watching…
NZ’s National Radiation Laboratory has been given the government go-ahead to
build a NZ$1 million nuclear test monitoring station in Fiji. The station will
be one of a global network of 321 facilities set up in support of the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The National Radiation Laboratory already
oversees two similar stations in NZ and another in the Cook Islands.
(24 September 2003)


The bomb stays banned
July marked the 30th anniversary of
"what was probably the first state-sponsored Ban the Bomb protest" -
NZ PM Norman Kirk's diplomatic and symbolic attack on the French government. In
outrage at continued nuclear testing by France in the South Pacific - despite an
International Court ruling banning them from doing so - Kirk sent the frigate
Otago on a mission of peaceful protest, to act, in his words, "as a silent
accusing witness with the power to bring alive the conscience of the
world." Kirk's actions made international headlines, and began a legacy of
anti-nuclear opinion in NZ, which continues today.
(26 July 2003)
Land of the free
The 2003 Index of Economic
Freedom has named NZ the world's third freest economy, behind Hong Kong and
Singapore. The Index, compiled by the US-based Heritage Foundation, ranks
economies according to factors including trade policy, capital flow, foreign
investing, and black market activity. Hong Kong was listed in first place for
the ninth consecutive year.
(7 July 2003)

Miss speaker ...
Georgie Girl - the award-winning documentary on transsexual NZ MP
Georgina Beyer - screened on American public television last month as part of
the acclaimed Point of View (POV) documentary series. Described as "an
extraordinary counterpoint to American politics," Georgie Girl
opened POV's program in honour of Gay Pride Month. The American screening marks
the fourth
major international coup for the Annie Goldson produced doco, which has
already aired on CBC Canada, SBS Australia and Britain's Channel Four.
(24 June 2003)


Frankly fascinating
Mike Moore's A World Without Walls
hailed as a fascinating, candid and paradoxical account of ideals versus
bureaucracies in Foreign Affairs magazine. "When all is said and
done, [Moore] believes democratically elected governments and markets will
respond appropriately to the challenges they face. The forces of openness,
freedom, competition, and, of course, free trade will prevail. Moore is too
modest to say so himself, but having able politicians at the helm of
international institutions does not hurt either."
(May-June 2003)


Nearest neighbours worlds apart?
Gerard Henderson makes a pre-ANZAC Day assessment of current Aussie-Kiwi
relations. "The Australia-NZ commercial relationship has never been
healthier … However, the trans-Tasman economic co-operation has been
accompanied by an increasing disagreement on security issues. The NZ is still in
Anzac. But these days the term symbolises more about the past than about the
present - still less the future. Alas."
(22 April 2003)

A view from the right
Robert Darwall proffers an aggressive
and provocative outsider analysis of NZ's economic
reforms in April's Policy Review. "Steep cuts in welfare programs
and the most radical shake-up of labor law outside Margaret Thatcher’s
Britain. [...] On these South Pacific islands of a little under 4 million people
has been distilled the political dynamics of market-based reform and the
countervailing forces opposed to it." Darwall asks the big broad questions, but
the answers sometimes seem to have come direct from the textbook.
(3 April 2003)
These boots are made for walking ... on
Dame Judith Mayhew will not seek re-election to her position as head of
the City of London Corporation, claiming she is "doing too much." She's not joking
either - see above for BBC
profile. Described as
"one of Britain's most powerful women," Dunedin-born Mayhew has been a
formidable force on the financial and political scene for some time now. Observer:
"She may have relinquished the top job at the corporation but her
mover-and-shaker role seems unlikely to diminish. Expect to see her name at the
top of many more 'power' league tables."
(3 November 2002)
On the straight and narrow isles
A survey of 102 countries by German-based Transparency International found
NZ to be one of the least corrupt states. The annual report claims "to
reflect perceived levels of corruption among politicians and public
officials." NZ scored 9.5 out of 10 on the Perceived Corruption Index, with
only Finland rating higher on 9.7.
(29 August 2002)

Clean and green: even out of the lab?
"The clean green
reputation of NZ - an image worth millions, according to the environment
industry - is under threat." The GM issue continues to divide NZers,
rearing its head in the fields of economics, agriculture, tourism, and, of
course, ethics. "New Zealand is one of the few countries left in the world
where the entire production of food is GM-free," said Jim Kebbell, who runs
the country's biggest organic retail outlet, Commonsense
Organics. "On large animal research, we
are ahead of the rest of the world, but unless we commercialise it, we will lose
that advantage," said Francis Wevers, head of the Life Sciences Network
lobby.
(22 July 2002)
"She's a go-getter and a good chap"
Georgina Beyer interviewed in the Independent in the wake of
promoting Georgie Girl in Sydney. A mass of contradictions - "she
might judge a sheep show one day, march in a gay pride parade the next" -
Beyer is proving to be a groundbreaking ambassador for NZ, her success
suggesting how far the nation has come in terms of tolerance and
diversity.
(19 July 2002)

Sirs and Dames or Sheilas and Cobbers?
Four NZers received our country's highest award via the Queen's jubilee year
honours list. Those admitted to the Order of New Zealand were; ex-Governor
General Dame Catherine Tizard, Auckland anthropologist and Maori leader Sir Hugh
Kawharu, former Court of Appeal president Lord Cooke of Thorndon, and
Christchurch justice campaigner and activist for the disabled Dame Ann
Ballin.
(5 June 2002)
Give Me Your
Skilled, Your Entrepreneurial
Immigration issues are foremost in a feature interview with Helen Clark in The
Bulletin. Clark contributes to the discussion about immigrants' contribution
to growth, or lack thereof, and muses on NZ's wider place in the world. "The
challenge remains, however, to convince New Zealanders that they can easily
become irrelevant in a world that is constantly striving to outperform."
(22 May 2002)


Middle line management
NZ Reserve Bank governor Don Brash, has stepped down after 14
years in the top job as central banker to make a new career for himself as a politician. Widely
regarded as the architect of New Zealand's low-inflation economy. Finance
Minister Michael Cullen says Brash was "a leading central banker recognized
around the world for his commitment to price stability."
(26 April 2002)

The B-list of baaad has an axis to
grind
International relations satire: bitter after being snubbed for membership in the "Axis of Evil",
peer-conscious nations rush to gain triumvirate status in what becomes a game of
geopolitical chairs: "Spain, Scotland and New Zealand established the Axis
of Countries That Be Allowed to Ask Sheep to Wear Lipstick". Scottish
Executive First Minister Jack McConnell: "That's not a threat, really, just
something we like to do".
(6 February 2002)

World First
Associate finance minister Trevor Mallard is the first person to
conduct a euro cash transaction, exchanging NZ dollars for new euro notes at
Wellington's airport.
(1 January 2002)

Green Party turns red
The Green Party briefly turns red after the party swallows a report posing
as part of a campaign to ban the substance Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO). Convinced
it was genuine the party responds enthusiastically requesting more information
to take up the cause until it is pointed out to them DHMO is the scientific name
for water. This episode is doing the rounds as a cautionary tale about the
volume of unreliable research being published on the internet.
(26 October 2001)

ANZUS
Shmanzus
"The Chinese are not coming, the Russians are not coming, the Indonesians
are not even coming. Time has moved on." Helen Clark doesn't miss ANZUS
- and doesn't think she will any time soon.
(11 September 2001)

Wading
In
Robert Wade, Professor at the London School of Economics, gave NZ a "developing"
status at the Knowledge Wave Conference. "The comparative position of
New Zealand today is more serious than many think," Dr Wade said, adding
that the country was "on track to have its average income fall to below
half of the average in north-west Europe and America".
(23 August 2001)

All
the money in the world
New Zealander Graeme
Wheeler has been appointed Treasurer of the World Bank and in the process
takes responsibility for a portfolio worth hundreds of millions.
(28 August 2001)

Dealing to the Queen
It's only a matter of time before New Zealand becomes a republic says PM Helen
Clark, stressing that it's still not a high priority.
(10 July 2001)

Financial future rosy
Finance Minister Michael Cullen optimistic about New Zealand's economic future
despite the global slowdown.
(4 July 2001)

On the up
A low dollar, good tourism revenues and buoyant international prices for our
primary commodities are leading New Zealand towards an unexpectedly strong
export-lead recovery, including a $95million current account surplus. Also,
"It was a
boomer," says UBS Warburg New Zealand chief economist Robin Clements.
(28 June 2001)

Boyish Blair
Ex-Labourite, New Zealander Bryan Gould comments on the man who runs Britain:
"When I see him on television now, he still seems very young to me - just
as he was in 1983, refreshingly boyish, wet behind the ears. It's a puzzle to
me, why he still seems so young."
(6 June 2001)

Sharing the wealth
Former New Zealand PM now WTO head Mike Moore writes on spreading the gains of
free trade to the world's least-developed countries. Also, Moore warns against bully-boy
tactics.
(15 May 2001)

Law Lord retires
Lord Cooke of Thorndon, the man whose decisions changed the face
of race relations in New Zealand, retires from the Privy Council. "Lord
Cooke's achievement in being appointed as a law lord on his retirement as the
senior judge in his own country is unlikely ever to be repeated".
(15 May 2001)

Top dollars man
The Australian Treasury head-hunted Ken Henry from Canterbury
University in 1984: now he's the head of the outfit.
(19 May 2001)

Womanly example
Japanese society should look to New Zealand for kick-ass high-profile female
role-models suggests PM Helen Clark.
(10 April 2001)

Trade freed up
Bi-lateral trade between New Zealand and Singapore grew 35% from January to
February, following a free trade pact which kicked off at the beginning of the
year.
(16 April 2001)

Free economy
New Zealand has the third freest economy in the world, after Hong Kong and
Singapore, according to Economic Freedom in the World 2001 Annual Report.
(19 April 2001)

Hand of friendship
Helen Clark and Jiang Zemin: "old friends".
(21 April 2001)

Reviewing the guard
Prime Minister Helen Clark reviews the honor guard as she is welcomed to
Beijing.
(19 April 2001)
Get talking
Foreign Minister Phil Goff will push for a new WTO round during a
continental trip, as well encouraging continued European support for East Timor.
(18 April 2001)

Kyoto controversy
New Zealand will not give up on
the Kyoto Protocol states Helen Clark. "New Zealand and Japan worked very
hard to get it and we hope to find a way to bring the US back into the
process".
(17 April 2001)
Rating well
Standard and Poors lifts New Zealand's long-term foreign currency credit rating
to stable on the back of a government surplus and declining debt burden.
(7 March 2001)

On the Defensive
International interest in the Clark government's announcement on defence plans
to 2010 .
(22 March 2001)

Peaceful PM
PM Helen Clark sat on the selection committee for the Millennium Peace Prize for
Women, alongside writer Alice Walker and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose
Ramos Horta.
(9 March 2001)

She's right
New Zealand business confidence hits two-year high.
(27 February 2001)

Bank on it
Here it comes - the People's Bank. Lower fees, more branches, but there is a
risk.
(15 February 2001)

Seats of power
New Zealand backpackers unwittingly helped end apartheid, acting as bus-filling
decoys for safari-organising gun-runners.
(11 February 2001)
Never say die
One of Briton's most popular MPs
before being expelled from the Labour party for communist sympathies, New
Zealand-born John Platt-Mills is still a practicing lawyer at 94. "Is there
anything else he wants to achieve? 'Yes, I'd like to set an example...that chaps
can go on indefinitely. There's no need to die.'"
(2 January 2001)

Big job for McKinnon
"Turbulence in Zimbabwe, civil war in Sierra Leone, the violent overthrow
of prime ministers in Fiji and the Solomons; the Commonwealth's programme of
improving the quality of democracy ran into political setbacks in 2000. On the
other side of the balance sheet, there was progress in focussing word attention
on the problems faced by small states."
(15 January 2001)
Over the back fence
"I think we should say this is not small-town New Zealand, it’s big
town America. Whether we meet as neighbours is something for the future,"
says Jim Bolger, asked about Bill and Hill, his ex-Presidential neighbours.
(28 January 2001)

NAFTA pacific
New Zealand and Australia as part of NAFTA? It could happen under Bush.
(22 December 2000)

Right to protest
The actions of New Zealand police, removing protesters during the visit of
the Chinese President Jiang Zemin last year were "unjustifiable and outside
the law".
(12 December 2000)


A plague on both your houses
"All the studies that have been done in New Zealand show that
the sentiment 'a plague on both your houses' motivated the majority who voted in
New Zealand's 1993 referendum...in practice, MMP in New Zealand has mainstreamed
oddballs...Ex-Trotskyists, old Communists, and the sorts of ideas the world has
been discarding over the past two decades have all been given a new lease on
life in New Zealand."
(7 December 2000)
Thatcher revisited
Ten years after the fall of the iron Lady, her policies still reverberate
around the globe: "More than £400bn of assets have been privatised in
countries as diverse as the Czech republic and New Zealand."
(24 November 2000)

Kiwi Commonwealth leader gets pacific about the Pacific
The Commenwealth Secretary General,
New Zealander Don McKinnon, working towards peace in Fiji, admitted yesterday
that it would be hard to find an effective way of pressing Fiji to abandon its
newly re-imposed race-based constitution.
(6 June 2000)

Nuclear free New Zealand adds weight to New Agenda Coalition
United Nations, New York: After
pressure from the New Agenda Coalition, weeks of intense negotiation and decades
of international pressure, the five original nuclear powers have agreed for the
first time to the "unequivocal" elimination of nuclear arms.
(22 May 2000)
|
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Controversial precision
"New Zealand is joining the global race to meet a surging demand for energy
and minerals, with a plan to open up highly protected conservation areas to
mining," writes Paul Cleary for The Australian. The country has also
commissioned extensive geological surveys, which have identified a massive
resources bounty that the new conservative government is rushing to develop. The
government has called for submissions on a plan to allow mining on 7000ha of the
most environmentally sensitive land in the country. The decision follows a
geological study that revealed potential for gold, silver, coal and rare earth
elements in these areas. Better known for its tourism, sheep and dairy, New
Zealand is emerging as a significant oil producer, potentially making it the
Norway of the Pacific. New Zealand's mineral resources excluding coal and
petroleum have been estimated at about $194bn. Energy and Resources Minister
Brownlee said coal resources could be worth just as much, with substantial known
reserves in the South Island. He said the 7000ha area was a tiny part of the
4.6m hectares in Schedule 4, and that the "precision" mining that he
envisaged would not tarnish the country's brand image, "100%
Pure".
(27 April 2010)


Happy birthday
"New Zealand has marked the Queen's 84th birthday by rejecting an
attempt to abolish the monarchy," writes Paul Chapman for The
Telegraph. A bill that would have set up a referendum on the country
becoming a republic was thrown out by parliament on its first reading, by
68 votes to 53. Keith Locke, the Green MP who tabled the bill with
Labour's support, said it could have led to an elected president having
similar powers to the Governor-General, the Queen's representative.
"The question many New Zealanders ask is: Why should we have a head
of state on the other side of the world who is not a citizen of our
country?" Chairman of Monarchy New Zealand Professor Noel Cox hailed
parliament's stand, saying: "New Zealanders should strongly support
their democratic monarchy, and are rightly proud of it. "He condemned
the bill as "an expensive and time-consuming waste of taxpayers'
money". An opinion poll, conducted by the Republican Movement just
before the vote, showed 45 per cent of respondents favoured Prince Charles
becoming the next king of New Zealand, with 43 per cent supporting a
republic. Women supported the monarchy more strongly than men.
(22 April 2010)


Division debate
"There has always been sense in New Zealand and Australia being one
country," writes the Anthony Mason Professor of Law at the University
of NSW George Williams in an opinion piece called, 'A nation girt by sea —
and divided by it'. "The chance for them to join together arose at
federation in 1901, but the opportunity was missed when the new nation
included only the Australian colonies," Williams continues.
"Debate on a New Zealand–Australia
merger has been sparked by an opinion poll commissioned by New Zealand
television showing some support for the move. Not surprisingly, more
Australians than New Zealanders are in favour, with 24 per cent of the New
Zealanders and 37 per cent of the Australians polled believing the two
nations should join forces. As the recent poll suggests, the greater
obstacles lie on the other side of the Tasman. There have always been good
arguments to join. Many are economic. We could be stronger together.
Though as the recent poll suggests, the greater obstacles lie on the other
side of the Tasman. It is one thing for Australians to accept New Zealand
as a seventh state, it is another again for New Zealanders to see their
nation swallowed up by its larger neighbour."
(30 March 2010)


To scrap or not to scrap
The
New Zealand Herald has called for the country's 108-year-old-flag to be
scrapped. Under the banner headline "It's time for a change", The
New Zealand Herald, the country's largest circulating daily newspaper,
devoted almost its entire front page to the issue. In an editorial published on
the eve of Waitangi Day, the Herald said the flag "harks back to a
time when maps of the world had huge slabs of British Empire red on them. But it
says little else. Worst of all, it is nondescript. The flags of more than 20
countries and territories carry the Union Jack in their left corner." The Herald called for a panel to be set up to commission alternative designs and
for public submissions to be considered by a select committee of parliament.
Ideally, the paper said, a new design would be adopted in time for the Rugby
World Cup, which New Zealand is hosting in 2011.
(4 February 2010)


Arguing the green
"Sometime in the 2020s, New Zealand will become responsible for a massive
surge in emissions from its forests," writes Fred Pearce in his Guardian
series 'Greenwash'. "The central problem seems to be that when it comes to
carbon, Middle Earth is a scientific minefield," Pearce continues.
"And the Kyoto rules give the government considerable potential to pick and
choose which carbon emissions and which carbon sinks from forests it declares
for the purposes of meeting its targets. In a nutshell, the Kyoto protocol
allows New Zealand to ignore what is happening across the wider landscape and
simply report the growth of its 600,000 hectares of new forests, planted mostly
during the 1990s. That sounds dodgy, though within the Kyoto rules. Even so, if
these 'Kyoto forests' had been specifically planted as part of a genuine policy
to cut the country's long-term contribution to global warming — we might still
applaud. Unfortunately it is not quite like that."
(19 November 2009)


Compensation comparisons
New Zealand "has some good ideas" when it comes to tort reform writes Newsweek
blogger Katie Connolly, who uses this country's government-operated Accident
Compensation Corporation (ACC) as an example of a system the US ought to
consider "within a comprehensive health-care reform package, particularly
when the political upside is so evident." "In the US many patients'
claims fail because they can't prove negligence. Many Americans harmed during
their treatments are simply ineligible for compensation because they weren't
victims of negligence. In New Zealand anyone who has suffers a medical injury,
irrespective of whether it was the because of negligence, can receive
compensation. They just need to prove a link between their treatment and the
harm. New Zealand's commission is also significantly cheaper to operate than
American's malpractice system. Instituting a commission-type system in the US
would increase the number of people receiving compensation for poorly
administered care, while decreasing the financial burden on the health-care
system." Following the 1967 'Woodhouse Report' the Accident Compensation
Commission was established in 1974 to operate the 1972 Accident Compensation
Act, and the 1973 Amendments.
(13 October 2009)


Wall Street suggestions
"The findings of the 'Emissions Trading Review Committee' … is green PR
gone wild," writes the Wall Street Journal. "New Zealand
already boasted one of the world's most pristine environments before it passed
cap-and-trade last year. The law, if anything, has made the country less green,
not more so." The article goes on to suggest that: "The best
advertisement for New Zealand isn't to support ideas that make the country
poorer. Instead, Key's government would do better by focusing on encouraging
strong economic growth to support a vibrant, entrepreneurial society. That way,
tourists may want to come to New Zealand and stay."
(7 September 2009)


Tasman union imminent
Flights between New Zealand and Australia will soon be as cheap as domestic
flights under new efforts to streamline trans-Tasman travel. Following talks
between New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Australian Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd, travellers could benefit from no departure fees, the scrapping of
duplicate quarantine, customs and security checks and allowing planes to land at
domestic terminals. The two countries would recognise each other's security,
immigration and quarantine checks, effectively setting up a "high ring
fence" similar to that in the European Union. Open border air travel is not
unprecedented. A similar model has been operating between the US and Canada for
about six years, where customs and security clearances at the end of the journey
were abolished.
(16 August 2009)


Madcap genius
What were the 1949 "leading thinkers at the London School of
Economics" to make of New Zealand inventor Bill Phillips' hydraulic water
system used to predict the economy, wonders New York Times' columnist
Steven Strogatz. "Pacing back and forth, chain smoking in front of the
luminaries" Phillips' machine "worked perfectly that day at the
L.S.E., and soon attracted worldwide interest. Copies of the 'Moniac,' as it
became known in the United States, were built and sold to Harvard, Cambridge,
Oxford, Ford Motor Company and the Central Bank of Guatemala, among others. In
all, it is thought that only 14 Phillips machines were ever built. Though it's
tempting to view the Phillips machine as a relic of a bygone era, in one way
it's just the opposite; there's something about it as fresh as the day it began
gurgling. Look at its plumbing diagram. It's a network of dynamic feedback
loops. In this sense the Phillips machine foreshadowed one of the most central
challenges in science today: the quest to decipher and control the complex,
interconnected systems that pervade our lives."
(2 June 2009)


Not much on television
Birth rates in New Zealand are the highest since 1991 with the average number
per woman at 2.2 births. In the 12 months to March 31 this year, 64,160 babies
were born Statistics New Zealand reported. Despite that, it remained about half
the peak of 4.3 births per woman reached in 1961. New Zealand women on average
now have children about five years later than their counterparts 40 years ago,
with the median age of 30, compared with 25 in 1969. Auckland psychologist Sara
Chatwin, a mother of four, said the statistics could be referred to as
"Baby Boomers Mark II". "A year of lacklustre performances by our
national sports teams could have seen people turn to child-rearing to focus on
something positive", she added.
(19 May 2009)


Key looks ahead
The idea of growing a nation out of recession by improving productivity puts
Prime Minister John Key and his conservative National Party at odds with
Washington, Tokyo and Canberra writes Mary Kissel for the Wall Street Journal.
You have to travel far to find a national leader who is talking about
market-based approaches to the global recession. "We don't tell New
Zealanders we can stop the global recession, because we can't," says Key.
"What we do tell them is we can use this time to transform the economy to
make us stronger so that when the world starts growing again we can be running
faster than other countries we compete with." Key's coalition government,
which includes parties to the right and left of the Nationals, has moved fast to
implement a program of tax cuts, regulatory reform and government retooling. He
won't label it supply-side economics and smiles when I ask if he's a Milton
Friedman or Friedrich Hayek acolyte. "I'm not deeply ideologically
driven," he says. "I believe in good center right politics."
(6 March 2009)


To save the Queen or not
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark, 59, who has given her valedictory speech to
the House after 27 years as an MP, said the country's institutions had
"evolved a long way from our colonial heritage". "Many of our
forebears came to this land to escape the class-bound nature of Britain, where
their place in the economic and social order was largely prescribed by
birth," Clark said. "I deeply detest social distinction and snobbery,
and in that lies my strong aversion to titular honours. To me they relate to
another era, from which our nation has largely, but obviously still not
completely, freed itself." Opinion polls have shown a majority of people,
particularly the elderly, favour retaining the monarchy, but the number has
declined in recent years to only slightly above 50 per cent. Clark takes up a
post as head of the United Nations Development Programme in New York.
(8 April 2009)


No with black
A protest against Section 92a, an amendment to New Zealand's copyright law due
to come into force from February 28*, has resulted in an "internet
blackout", part of a political protest against the law that has angered
internet campaigners. Section 92a tells internet service providers that they
"must adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for
termination" of accounts used by anyone deemed a "repeat
infringer" — regardless of whether the person has been convicted of a crime
or not. Internet users accused of copyright infringement can have their internet
connections cut legally without a trial. As part of the protest, New Zealand's
Creative Freedom Foundation is asking internet users to replace their photos and
icons with blank spaces to give people an idea of what the internet could look
like under the new regime. Director of the CFF Bronwyn Holloway-Smith says
thousands of New Zealand musicians and artists have signed a petition against
the law, and that the public needs to voice its frustration. "Treating fans
as guilty until proven innocent isn't what artists want done in their name and
many see that as being damaging to creative industries," Holloway-Smith
says.
(16 February 2009)
*In a post-cabinet press conference on February 23, Prime Minister John Key
announced that the implementation of the legislation is to be delayed until
March 27.


Onward and upward
Former Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Helen Clark is a candidate for the
position of administrator of the UN Development Program, three below the UN
secretary-general. The role becomes available in August when Turkey's Kemal
Dervis retires at the end of his four-year term. Clark said: "This position
came up at short notice. It's a very senior position and will be hotly contested
by a number of candidates." The administrator of the UNDP is appointed by
the secretary-general of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, but the appointment must be
confirmed by the General Assembly. The UNDC is the UN's global development
network, overseeing a budget of $US5 billion. Its head office is in New York,
and it has 140 offices around the world.
(8 February 2009)


Teaming up for culture
New Zealand and South Korea are forging an artistic alliance with a film co-production treaty signed in September 2007 and the forthcoming New Zealand Cultural Diplomacy International Program which will be held over three days in April 2009. The Program will be the first and largest New Zealand event in Korea and will take place in Seoul. A preview event, ‘Celebrating New Zealand’ held this month “allowed guests to get a quick glimpse of New Zealand culture, which is expected to widen perspectives of the island country to Koreans, about which little is known other than it is an English-speaking country.” New Zealand Ambassador Jane Coombs called the film treaty “a true milestone” in Korea-New Zealand relations.
(23 November 2008)


Key in Clark out
National Party leader John Key, 47, has ousted Labour's Helen Clark from office and a nine-year term, with a
mantra of change. Prime Minister Helen Clark conceded defeat. Clark, 58, has led the country since
1999 and was seeking a fourth term. She said she would remain in Parliament but
will quit as Labour Party leader. In his victory speech, Key said: "Today,
New Zealand has spoken, in their hundreds of thousands, they have voted for
change." Foreign
affairs and trade policies are unlikely to change under the new leadership — including the ban on nuclear-powered ships entering New Zealand's ports that has
rankled the United States. In other publications, Britain's Telegraph
described Key's victory as putting "Boadicea to the sword." In the Guardian:
"[Key] has taken a more pragmatic approach by accepting many of the Labour
government's policies ... by moving [the National Party] towards the centre and
broadening its appeal to blue-collar workers." And in the Australian:
"Far from killing him, Key, the son of a poor Jewish refugee widow who grew
up in a housing commission flat, learnt about making money from hard work. On
Saturday night, he achieved the second of his two boyhood goals in life. He
wanted to be a millionaire — he achieved that years ago — and he wanted to be
the prime minister of New Zealand."
(8 November 2008)


Berkett settles in
Neil Berkett is eight weeks into his role as chief executive at Virgin Media and
already has battle scars. Actually, he explains in an interview with Sunday
Times reporter Andrew Davidson, he just banged his head at home, and you
wouldn't want to argue. Berkett, 52, is a scrapper who makes a virtue of
pragmatism, like many rugby-loving New Zealanders. Medium height, with an
economy of movement that underpins his occasional terseness, he has jumped
enough sectors and continents to take whatever's coming. "My appointment
coincides with a huge coming together of opportunities," says Berkett, keen
to accentuate the positive. "We are the single organisation with the most
powerful digital network in the UK." And right now, he says, he is where he
wants to be - scarred, but involved.
(4 May 2008)


Questions of difference
Are New Zealanders really afflicted by a 'tall poppy syndrome'? Do they lack in
confidence? Are they indeed Australia's poor cousin? And if so, does this mean
the New Zealand culture is to blame for widening the income gap between the two
countries? Phil Rennie, policy analyst with the New Zealand Policy Unit of the
Centre for Independent Studies, discusses these questions. He explores the
significant role cultural differences play - particularly in comparing Australia
and New Zealand - including: attitudes to success, assertiveness and ambition,
and financial literacy. The differences were well summarised by former
Australian Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, who told a New Zealand audience in 2003
that Australia is prospering because of 'good policies.' When asked 'what else?'
he replied, 'good policies.'"
(24 March 2008)


Wellywood and Bollywood unite
The NZ and Indian governments are to negotiate a film co-production agreement,
whereby resources will be pooled to benefit filmmakers in both countries.
"Films made jointly by New Zealand and Indian producers would qualify as
works with national status in both countries, making them eligible for
government support and facilitation," says NZ Finance Minister Michael
Cullen. NZ has traditionally been a popular location with Indian filmmakers, but
they have stayed away in recent years due to a lack of government incentives
compared to other countries.
(2 October 2007)


Potential World Heritage sites in NZ
UNESCO is considering three NZ locations as potential World Heritage Sites at
the request of PM Helen Clark, who is also NZ's Minister of Culture and
Heritage. The Waitangi Treaty Grounds, Kerikeri Basin and Napier's Art Deco
historic precinct have all been suggested as worthy of World Heritage
protection. Known as "the birthplace of the nation", the Waitangi
Treaty Grounds at Russell were the location for the first signing of the Treaty
of Waitangi between Maori and the British Crown in 1840. The Kerikeri Basin in
Northland saw the birth of Christianity and bi-cultural society in NZ, with the
arrival of European missionaries in 1819. Napier's Art Deco historic precinct
was built following the town's near complete destruction from a massive
earthquake in 1931.
(16 July 2007)


Praise for bright and vital
Ferris South Australian Liberal Senator Jeannie Ferris has died after a
two-year battle with ovarian cancer. Born in NZ, Ferris studied agribusiness and
worked as a journalist and political adviser before entering Australian
parliament in 1996. She had been government whip since 2002. Fellow Liberal
Senator Nick Minchin described her as an "energetic and bright person"
to the ABC. "She was quite a remarkable human being," he said.
"She's had adversity and difficulty in her life but approached her tasks of
representing South Australia in the Senate and working as Government whip and on
various parliamentary and party committees with enormous energy and
vitality." Ferris was particularly admired for her cross-party women's work
and her establishment of an ovarian cancer research facility.
(2 April 2007)


Clark visits Oval Office
Helen
Clark made an official visit to Washington last month, in what was her
second such meeting with President Bush and just the third between NZ and US
leaders in the last 24 years. Bush described Clark as a "straightforward
honest woman who cares deeply about the country she represents" and praised
NZ's leadership on Pacific problems. Counter-terrorism, the increased US role in
the Pacific and trade were also discussed, with Clark now confident that a free
trade agreement with the US is not "a question of if ... [but] a question
of when." The meeting marked a historic turning point on the issue of NZ's
nuclear-free stance, with Bush conceding that the majority of New Zealanders
supported the policy and the US would no longer actively seek to change it.
Following her lunch at the White House, Clark met with numerous other high-profile
US figures, including Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, US Trade
Representative Susan Schwab, Defence Secretary Robert Gates, House of
Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and influential Democrat Senator Barbara
Boxer.
(21 March 2007)


World Heritage watchdog
Ngati Tuwharetoa chief Tumu te Heuheu has been named chairman of the UN World
Heritage committee, the global supervisory body for cultural and natural
heritage sites. PM Helen Clark described the appointment as a "momentous
achievement," and Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia "a milestone
for Maori." Tumu te Heuheu has been a World Heritage committee member since
2003.
(17 July 2006)


Political force remembered
Auckland-born Leo
McCarthy, a prominent figure in Californian state politics, has died of a
kidney ailment aged 76. A lifelong Democrat, McCarthy was the state assembly
speaker from 1974-80 and went on to serve a record three terms as lieutenant
governor of California. "Never did he lose sight of what his purpose was
there, which was to make life better for people in California," said
current lieutenant governor John Garamendi. "Leo set the standard among
modern lieutenant governors." The McCarthys left NZ for San Francisco in
1934, when Leo was just three years old. He studied at the University of San
Francisco before beginning his career in politics as a campaign manager and aide
to a state senator. Nearly a thousand mourners attended his funeral at San
Francisco's St Ignatius Church, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, John
Garamendi and former San Francisco mayor and Assembly speaker Willie
Brown.
(10 February 2007)


Prussia of the Pacific?
A Guardian columnist points out
an eerie similarity between the recent elections in NZ and Germany. Both were
held on the same weekend and both delivered a spectacularly close finish between
the two dominant centre-right and centre-left parties. “The obvious answer to
the problem would be for Germany's SPD party to form a grand coalition with NZ's
Labour and rule both countries - NZ did once rejoice in a 19th-century nickname
as ‘the Prussia of the Pacific.’”
(20 September 2005)


Rainbow resonates 20 years on
July 10 marked the 20th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing in Auckland
Harbour. The Greenpeace flagship was targeted by French agents
under the
orders of then President Francois Mitterand, in retaliation for Greenpeace
protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Photographer Fernando
Pereira was killed in the blast. NZ held a memorial service at the site of the
bombing, followed by a commemorative concert. Services were also held in Paris
and Sydney, and Canada declared July 10 to be Rainbow Warrior Day in Toronto and
Vancouver. “Today we are facing a bigger nuclear threat as an ever increasing
number of states continue their development of nuclear weapons,” said 1985 crew
member Steve Sawyer at the NZ memorial. “No bomb will stop conflict - whether it
be in the arsenals of the nuclear weapons states, on the Rainbow Warrior, on
buses and tube stations in London, nor on the streets of Baghdad.”
(11 July 2005)


In defense of whales
NZ led the anti-whaling nations at the
International Whaling Commission meeting in Ulsan. Headed by Conservation
Minister Chris Carter, the delegation included officials from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and DoC, as well as Whaling Commissioner Sir Geoffrey Palmer.
“NZ feels very passionate about conservation," said Carter. "Now that Japan has
proposed to double the amount of whales they intend to kill, and most of [the
whales] will not be around Japan but will be around NZ in and the southern
ocean, we feel very angry about that and we don't agree with their policy.”
(28 June 2005)

Opposing views
Free Liberal weblog comments on a
Washington Times article detailing NZ’s anti-nuclear stance, military
capabilities, and reliance on its more powerful neighbour. “An interesting story
about how NZ's rather modest defense budget and decision to stay out of military
conflicts has allowed the nation to … retain its independence on the global
stage. Something tells me that because of policies like these (as compared to
Washington's belligerence) Wellington is pretty far down on Bin Laden's list of
targets. Oh, and before you think of NZ as a bunch of socialists, it must be
noted that Heritage Foundation ranked the nation third on its 2004 index of
economic freedom, a full seven slots higher than the U.S. of A.”
(27 May 2005)

4-way FTA
PM Helen Clark has signed negotiations for a free trade agreement spanning four
continents. The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement brings
together NZ, Brunei, Singapore and Chile, and will come into effect in January
2006.
(3 June 2005)

Built to last
NZ economist Anthony Byett was
interviewed on ABC Radio about the country’s booming economy. “We've had
a great 10-year period, and the last three years in particular have been very
strong … We have the economy – the platform now – to grow at the three per cent
growth rate in the next five, 10, 20 years … [We] can all chase our initiative,
our dreams, and then it's up to us to go and make it happen now.”
(20 March 2005)

Right royal stand-off
The Guardian ran an
overview of NZ media coverage of Prince Charles’ recent tour of the country.
Commentary ranged from the Christchurch Press dismissing the Prince as “a
faintly comic participant in a toffee-nosed soap opera” to Chris Laidlaw’s sober
opinion in the NZ Herald that he “will know it is only a matter of time
before the rupture occurs and that there may never be another King of NZ.”
National Party candidate David Round came out in favour of the Prince in the
Christchurch Press, arguing that “No human being is perfect. Would we argue
that a republic should be abolished because our president was not a saint?
Saints are found only in heaven. Here on earth we have only the Prince of Wales,
and we could do a lot worse.”
(9 March 2005)

Our history and future in global spotlight
Otago University graduate Chris Ford
penned an in-depth three part overview on NZ race politics for the Global
Politician. The first provides a historical backdrop to the events of 2004
when, in Ford’s words, NZ’s widely held status as home to the world’s best race
relations was “devastatingly challenged” in the aftermath of Don Brash’s now
infamous Orewa Speech. Read the
second and
third parts here.
(5 January 2005)


Land of the free-thinking
New Zealand: Leading a Small Nation across a Tightrope, offers an
in-depth analysis of the abilities and international standing of PM Helen Clark,
and outlines the numerous difficulties inherent in “governing a country of
free-thinking Kiwis.” The article’s chief focus is on NZ’s role in Asia; in
particular the work Clark has done towards establishing new ties there, as well
as strengthening existing ones. “[Clark] paints a picture of NZ that deftly
allows for its location falling off the edge of the world, at the same time as
she stresses its blend of creativity, skills, feisty independence and
first-world standards … ‘It's our job to make ourselves relevant to Asia because
we could easily be irrelevant because of size and distance. So that means we
must go the extra mile to engage,’ she says.”
(8 June 2005)

Civil unions 101
Chris Carter, elected as the country’s
first openly gay MP in 1993, spoke to LA’s The Advocate about gay
rights in NZ and the Civil Union Bill. “The reason that we haven’t gone for
marriage is that politically that would be very difficult to pass in our
parliament. But secondly, we also feel from a personal and a political point of
view that the term marriage is loaded with tradition … Our law is based on the
French model, where since 1999, when civil unions came in, about 95,000 people
have participated, of which about half have been straight couples. Our Prime
Minister herself said she would prefer a civil union, since it doesn’t have
that traditional religious aspect, because she’s not religious.”
(8 November 2004)


Blood brothers
Cabinet minister John Tamihere has
spoken out in the defense of heterosexual “red-blooded blokes” and been heard
around the world. Excerpts of his speech at Epsom’s St Peter’s College appeared
in the Washington Times, as well as several other international papers.
(29 July 2004)


Recognition for political torchbearer
Mayor of Dunedin, Sukhi Turner, has been conferred the Indian government's
highest honour for non-resident civilians, the
Pravasi Bharatiya Samman
Award for the Indian Diaspora. She is the first New Zealander to receive the
award, and one of just 24 recipients to date. Turner entered NZ politics in
1992, with her election to the Dunedin City Council. In 1995 she became the
youngest and first woman Mayor of Dunedin, and has retained her post at the
subsequent 3 elections. According to the
Indian government's website,
"[Turner] is considered a torchbearer of the politics of change." Turner herself
was both
thrilled and humbled by the award: "I see this as recognition for all of the
people I have worked with in NZ, especially those who have helped me further the
cause of cultural diversity."
(2004)

Innovators R Us
NZ has been named one of the world's
most entrepreneurial countries for the third year running by the annual Global
Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). The 41-country UK/US-based survey identified NZ
- alongside Chile, Korea, Venezuela, and Uganda - as having the highest
Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) and Firm Entrepreneurship Activity (FEA)
rates overall for 2003. Howard Frederick, principal investigator of GEM
NZ: "New Zealand's
performance is due to our extraordinary efforts to create new businesses, as
well as the high level of innovation and growth among our existing businesses."
(10 January 2004)

New frontier
The NZ government’s multimillion dollar media campaign in the US aiming to lure
wealthy Americans to “the new California” is the subject of a December
Voice of America feature. Major selling points are the clean/green image and
promise of a terror-free existence, as well as the financial attraction of
relatively cheap properties and investment opportunities. Says vineyard owner,
Beth Mills, of her new home: “It's a good place to raise kids. It's very safe.
It basically is able to take us back to the way things were in the US when we
were growing up.” Applications by Americans for permanent residency recently
reached 1,000 per annum for the first time in NZ history. Making the trip easier
for Californians is the
newly launched Air NZ service between Auckland and San Francisco.
(24 December 2003)

Closer Thais
A move towards closer economic relations
between NZ and Thailand was kick-started by Foreign Minister Phil Goff’s talks
with his Thai counterpart, Surakiart Sathirathai, in late November. The NZ
government has offered Thais aged 18-30 6 month working holiday visas to
“promote people-to-people contact at a youth level,” in attempt to correct the
current tourist imbalance (60,000 Kiwis visited Thailand last year, while only
8,300 Thais visited NZ). The two countries are also expected to sign a free
trade agreement based on the one between NZ and Singapore at next year’s APEC
meeting in Chile.
(25 November 2003)

President Hu Jintao goes oriental to the edge
A 3-day diplomatic visit to NZ
by Chinese President Hu Jintao has further strengthened economic ties between
the two countries. Hu met with PM Helen Clark to discuss the possibility of a
free trade agreement and to seek NZ's collaboration on fighting diseases
such as SARS and AIDS.
(26 October 2003)
Shining happy people
NZ was ranked 15th happiest nation overall in a World Values Survey of over 65
countries – ahead of the US (16th), Australia (20th) and the UK (24th). The
study is a global examination of sociological and political change conducted by
an international team of social scientists every four years, one part of which
assesses how satisfied people are with their lives. This year’s results –
published in New Scientist – found that Nigeria had the highest ratio of happy
people, followed by Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Puerto Rico.
(2 October 2003)


Suffr-edge-ettes applauded
Guardian feature on the campaign for women’s suffrage in Kuwait notes
NZ’s status as the first country in the world to grant their female citizens the
right to vote – in 1893. Australian women waited until 1902, French women until
1944 (98 years after their male counterparts), and Swiss women were not allowed
to vote until 1971. Kuwait is the only country left in the world where women are
specifically denied the right to vote.
(29 September 2003)
NZer to head World Bank
Banker John Austin has been appointed to the helm of the Washington-based World
Bank (one of the world's largest sources of financial assistance for
developing countries). Austin has resigned from his current position, as head of
private development bank Nimmo-Bell, to take up the post. In late 2002 Austin
finished a 6 year tenure as alternate Executive Director to the Asia Development
Bank. "John's experience, particularly with the ADB, gives him a strong
understanding of international financial institutions and development banking as
well as development issues for small island countries" said NZ Finance
Minister Dr Michael Cullen.
(25 July 2003)

NZ ups the anti
NZ joined the first wave of countries
to sign the United Nations anti-tobacco treaty on June 16. The Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control aims to curb tobacco advertising and sponsorship,
limit the use of misnomers such as "low-tar" and "light,"
and place further restrictions on public smoking. 28 countries have so far
ratified the pact, which needs at least 40 signatories to come into force.
(16 June 2003)
Little brother
New Zealand ranks near the top in an international index 'Ranking the Rich',
published by Foreign Policy and the Centre for
Global Development, gauging how rich nations help out poorer nations. NZ
toppped the list with The Netherlands and Denmark. The US, Japan and Australia
ranked at the bottom.
(May/June 2003)


Mike Moore: A view from the top
Former PM Mike Moore speaks to the Independent about his latest
publication, A World Without Walls. The book deals with his experiences
as director-general of the WTO; his greatest challenges, mistakes, and success
stories, from Seattle forward. Moore's time at the helm brought the organisation to the attention of
the mainstream media. Says Moore; "Trade policy used to be really, really
boring - it is still is, in a way, but now it's becoming democratised."
(16 March 2003)


Assessing our edge
The Auckland Hilton was the setting for February's "Investment
Regatta," a forum aimed at matching potential investors in town for the Cup
with aspiring local businesses. The event, asked
foreign businesspeople to comment on NZ's value as an alternative marketplace.
Ex-Levis president, Tom Tusher: "[NZ] has the infrastructure, innovative
people and governmental environment in place to attract investment." NZEDGE
co-founder Kevin Roberts articulated the message. Read the speech here.
(12 February 2003)

A breath of fresh air
The Human Rights Watch International
Festival seems an unlikely place for a feel-good flick, but Georgie Girl
is reportedly putting a smile on otherwise grim film-going faces. Boston
Herald calls the story of NZ MP Georgina Beyer - the world's first
transsexual to hold national office - "a tale full of irony and humour."
(21 January 2003)

"Not just the land of lamb and
honey"
"It's more than just a
big farm in the South Pacific, it's a modern, sophisticated economy with some
real niche products." Gulf Business cover feature highlights the
increasingly diverse interaction between NZ and the UAE. In the past year, the
NZ government has actively stepped up relations between the two open economies.
Helen Clark: "The aim is to create a two-way flow of trade and investment
and people."
(December 2002)
"Read this and weep some more"
Anonymous Kiwi makes an impassioned plea to US citizens in the Baltimore Chronicle. "America dips its toes in the water and
my nation gets flooded by a tidal wave … such is the power and influence of a
once-great nation." The writer demands of Americans that they question
their leaders, as well as their personal culpability for the state of affairs at
hand: "Remember that to do nothing is to support your government, and that
makes you just as responsible for its actions."
(2 November 2002)
Bolger on water
In a letter to the Times, ex-PM Jim Bolger cites the role of water in
global tensions. Warning against letting War on Terror overshadow basic human
needs, Bolger advocates a government-led promotion of water conservation and
efficiency: "Passive policies and deaf ears will contribute to the spread
of poverty across developing nations, leading to violent uprisings in an already
turbulent time." See the NZEDGE hot profile on Terry
Collins for a NZ scientist doing ground breaking work to improve the
world's water.
(30 October 2002)

Moore free trade?
Mike Moore, outgoing NZ director-general of the World Trade Organisation, makes an
impassioned plea for wealthy nations to review their agricultural trade
policies, arguing that subsidies are no help to poorer nations. He cites the
world sugar market as a key example of trade protection: "Having exploited
developing poor countries for generations, the north now keeps their products
out of their markets […]."
(5 August 2002)
"In a faraway land ...
... the left prospers." According to British Labour MP Austin Mitchell
(author of The Half-gallon quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise) writing in the
'Observations' section of the New Statesman. "New Zealand stands out
in the blue horizon". says Mitchell, portraying NZ under Clark's Labour
government as a flagbearer for social democracy worldwide.
(15 July 2002)

Rogernomics resurfaces
He engineered some of the most radical and controversial reforms in
New Zealand history, where efficiency clashed with social affect, and Roger
Douglas is still a believer, giving his tuppence worth on the English health
system in The Independent: "Ministers must let go, giving
doctors and hospitals freedom to compete and empowering patients as the
purchasers of care."
(18 June 2002)
We're All Royalists Here?
Miss representation? Put that portrait of the Queen back on the lounge wall: "All New
Zealanders are royalists, not like the Aussies," proclaims the Dame (Kiri
te Kanawa). Perhaps this is not surprising coming from someone who sang for the
Queen at her recent Buckingham Palace Jubilee. Kiri recently performed at Edinburgh's newly refurbished Usher Hall and
she told The
Times she enjoys singing to people in places like "Turkey, Estonia, places where
they've never heard me sing".
(28 May 2002)
 Z-files: conspiracy theory
"Pretty unlikely", is the way
Helen Clark responds to allegations that her predecessor David Lange received death
threats ("liquidate him") from former US vice-pres Dan Quayle over his
government's anti-nuclear stance.
(28 March 2002)

"Names will never hurt me?"
Deputy PM Jim Anderton tells the Australian Government to stop its
"insults", after Aussie
Defence Minister Robert Hill dubs New Zealand "Tasmania". "For God's sake",
Anderton says,
"we're the closest neighbours to each other, so we need to get on by and
large".
(5 February 2002)

Lessons from the Kiwi experience
The Scotsman praises "small, proud" New Zealand -
"the more the government intervenes in industry the less enterprise and
boldness there is. By rolling back the frontiers of the state New Zealand has
discovered enormous energy and drive. These are qualities we could do with in
Scotland".
(14 January 2002)

Asian free trade zone
Japan is keen to envelop New Zealand and Australia into its vision for an
Asian free-trade zone in both trade and investment, and beyond into technology,
education and tourism.
(14 January 2002)

Hemorrhaging talent
A disturbing survey of New Zealand's graduating medical students reveals four
out of five plan to depart overseas within two years. The survey makes clear the
importance of addressing issues like student loans and remuneration to prevent
this hemorrhage of talent.
(26 November 2001)
NZ among ten most competitive
New Zealand ranks amongst the ten most competitive countries in the world,
according to a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF). New Zealand
perches at #10 on the index, which the WEF argues is an accurate projection of
future economic growth potential.
(17 October 2001)

Archived story
NZ economy surged
New Zealand's economy surged two percent for the June quarter, Statistics
New Zealand has revealed.
(28 September 2001)

The
person is political
Voters across the political
spectrum have convinced Georgina Beyers not to quit politics after she
said she was stepping down. "The fact that a transsexual, a former
sex worker and a Labour candidate could win the historically [centre-right]
electorate of Wairarapa says a great deal about how far New Zealand has
come," says the Labour party's Chris Carter.
(29 September 2001)

CNN
on PM
With a focus on Clark's style of governance and personal history,
CNN attempt to get behind the professional life of the New Zealand Prime
Minister.
(31 July 2001)


Click go the sheilas
Kiwi shearer Kylie Hamilton, "not really a very hefty bird," but
"with a good chassis under her" matches the men in her gang sheep for
sheep - one of the first women in enter this very male domain.
(19 July 2001)

Get up stand up - Kiwi cultural laboratory
New Zealand doesn't get the attention it deserves as a "kind of cultural
laboratory for issues such as the rights of indigenous inhabitants or the
equality of women".
(15 July 2001)

Private worries
New Zealand's privacy laws touted as an example for Australia to follow in
protecting the rights of its citizens and mesh better with EU legislation.
(26 June 2001)

Big money beware
The Government seeks to implement a "code of conduct" for foreign
investors, leading to "higher standards of investment".
(6 April 2001)

Into left-field
Labour hits 50%, Helen Clark does a pb of 36%. "The government is the only
game in town," says Clark.
(10 April 2001)

Small country with a big attitude
"Recent history shows that the New Zealand government, especially with
Clark's own Labour Party at the helm, has not shied away from David and
Goliath-like confrontations. The feisty nation arguably made its first proper
international splash in 1984 when newly elected Labor Prime Minister David Lange
honored an election promise and declared New Zealand nuclear-free."
(13 April 2001)

Anti-terror laws
New Zealand Parliament looks to pass new anti-terrorist laws,
"strengthening New Zealand's ability to deter and react decisively to
international terrorist attacks".
(17 April 2001)
Oz needs women on top
Australia needs to heed New Zealand's example on female politicians, roping more
talented women into mainstream parties. New Zealand's current female dominated
political scene is "light years away from Australia's old-fashioned old
boys' game."
(19 April 2001)
Cabinet re-maker
New Zealand's cabinet rulebook gets an overhaul to make it coalition
compatible.
(10 April 2001)
Insiders out
The New Zealand Government is to tighten rules controlling insider trading
on the stock market.
(28 March 2001)
Mystified about money
Don Brash, the world's second-longest serving central banker, admits he finds
current currency fluctuations as baffling as the next guy.
(31 March 2001)

In from the cold
Former New Zealand PM, now WTO-head Mike Moore plans to see China a WTO member
in time for the November meeting in Qatar.
(9 March 2001)

Canuck farming luck
"In 1985, New Zealand stopped bailing out farmers. Today, its rural areas
are thriving. It's a 'brutal process,' experts say, but it would work in
Canada."
(19 March 2001)
Judgement in paradise
Retired New Zealand Appeal Court judges Sir Maurice Casey and Sir Ian
Barker lead the judicial charge for democracy in Fiji.
(1 March 2001)
Protest flotilla
"The people who live around the Japanese reactor that the plutonium is
destined for don't want it, Australians and New Zealanders don't want their seas
being used to transport it and Pacific Islanders are vehemently opposed,"
says New Zealander Henk Haazen, spokesman for the anti-nuke shipment protest
flotilla.
(28 February 2001)

Into the black
New Zealand leads the pack in debt
reduction, cutting government debt from 65% of GDP in 1993 to 31% in 1999.
(15 February 2001)


Spy on top
Of the bestseller lists that is. New Zealander Richard Tomlinson's account
of his time with MI6, The Big Breach, proves popular despite legal
wrangling over publishing and copyright.
(4 February 2001)


Big Breach
Kiwi ex-MI6 operative Richard Tomlinson's memoirs, The Big Breach
hits Russian bookshops and are serialised in the Sunday
Times, to the
dismay of the secret service establishment in Britain.
(28 January 2001)

Youth voice
Wellington's youth council is part of the international
phenomenon of youth engagement, pushing youngsters into leadership
and decision making roles.
(8 January 2001)


Different age
Queen Victoria reigned over an age of adventure and conquest, innovation and
development. She was Empress of the Empire on which the sun never set, including
New Zealand, her furthest-flung domain.
(27 January 2001)


Royal kiss-off?
47% of New Zealanders, including 63% of Maori, believe the monarchy should
go.
(26 December 2000)
Figuring it
Britain's Chief Statistician, New Zealander Len Cook, is "in the hot
seat" over the accuracy of official figures.
(11 December 2000)

Benefits suspended
New Zealanders, the group with the highest
rate of employment in Australia, will lose the right to benefits under new immigration
restrictions.
(11 December 2000)
Hardie-Boys' China adventure
NZ Gov-Gen Michael Hardie-Boys will wrestle alligators and leap from
speeding sampans as the guest of President Jiang Zemin.
(24 November 2000)

Nuke free
New Zealand continues to play a key role in the call for a New Agenda,
successfully co-sponsoring wider acceptance of Non-Proliferation Treaty
commitments at the UN.
(22 November 2000)

Security or spying?
Activist Nicky Hager sees proposed anti-hacking laws as spying - Minister
Paul Swain defends them as essential cyber-security.
(16 November 2000)

Green-edged Canada
"The Green Party is part of an international movement of environment-centred
parties that began in New Zealand in 1972." - Values Party perhaps?
(19 November 2000)
Burmese campaign
From New Zealand to Burma, and then into prison for playing pro-democracy songs.
Londoner James Mawdsley used his OE to fight SLORC.
(19 November 2000)


No Tree Hill
One Tree Hill of U2 fame lost its
signature pine, removed due to safety considerations after attacks over six
years to highlight indigenous land claims. The exotic Monterey pine replaced a
native Totara cut down by a settler in 1852.
(26 October 2000)

Democracy deal
PM Helen Clark was at the forefront of
the push to make the Pacific Island Leaders Forum a defender of democracy in the
region.
(30 October 2000)

Malaysia and New Zealand: becoming closer neighbours all the time
Trade between New Zealand and Malaysia totalled over NZ$1 billion for the year
ended June. As well, there are major cultural and social links between the two
countries. "Over the years, tens of thousands of Malaysians have been
educated in New Zealand, enriching the cultural lives of our campuses,'' said
Minister of New Zealand Trade Negotiations and Agriculture Jim Sutton, speaking
at a lunch in Kuala Lumpur. He then went on to call for lower trade barriers.
(5 September 2000)

All Black diplomacy
Kiwi Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Don McKinnon, is "a New
Zealander in the traditional mould ... he's a refreshing antidote to the
blandness of his three predecessors, who knew that if they stopped being boring
they were likely to offend." His 'All Black style robustness' has been
severely tested in his first four months in office, first by the civil war in
Zimbabwe, and then the coup in Fiji.
(5 August 2000)

Piecing together the WTO after Seattle
Kiwi World Trade Organisation head Mike
Moore urges resolve and ponders the failure to launch a new round of trade talks
in protest-ridden Seattle. "The WTO is at the heart of a passionate debate
about the defining issue of our time: globalisation."
(July 2000)

New Zealand seeks new relationship with Korea
New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Phil
Goff said his country will seek to support the process for peace on the Korean
peninsula "through a developing dialogue and new relationship" with
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
(5 July 2000)

Helen Clark: good bloke
"Good bloke" politics is playing well in
"reform-fatigued" Australian electorates. The new model is not
gender-specific. Prime Minister Helen Clark in New Zealand may like to imply
that it is, but she has profited from the same trends as Bracks, Baettie and
Bacon. That is, an acute distaste among voters for being treated as subjects in
an economic rationalisation experiment.
(22 June 2000)

WTO promises Moore action
Ex-New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore needs to enlist all his skills of
diplomacy in taking steps towards launching a round of global trade talks this
year if he is to get the World Trade Organisation back on track.
(31 May 2000)
Davids and Goliaths: Coalition says nuclear states fall short of goals
United Nations: the "New Agenda Coalition", of which New Zealand is a
key member, criticised the 'big guns' (US, Russia, France, Britain and China)
for making an empty pledge to eliminate nuclear weapons by falling short of
taking concrete steps to actually do so.
(3 May 2000)
The future is Kiwi
"Helen Clark met Tony Blair in Downing Street last month. Apparently
he asked her lots of questions about her flying start in government: let's hope
he was taking notes". New Zealand's Labour government looked upon as
role-model for ailing Tony Blair and new-Labour.
(3 May 2000)

New Zealand sets the standard in how to say sorry
"The question of an official apology to the indigenous people which is
proving so contentious in Australia, has been dealt with quite differently in
New Zealand, as part of the settlement process initiated by the Waitangi
Tribunal".
(17 March 2000)

Tomlinson, Richard Tomlinson, MI6
Richard Tomlinson, New Zealand born Cambridge educated British spy, faces
prosecution under the Official Secrets Act for revelations about his past work
for MI6. Tomlinson, claiming wrongful dismissal and already sentenced to prison
for 12 months for attempting to sell a manuscript to Australian publishers, was
believed to have signed a book contract with a publisher in Zurich.
(18 May 2000)

Apology not black and white for Aussie PM
The Kiwi way puts pressure on John Howard to formally apologise to the
aboriginal people. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said: "This
is a global issue ... he pointed to leaders in the United States, Canada,
New Zealand and Britain apologising for past injustices against the
original inhabitants of their countries."
(29 May 2000)
McKinnon and the end of the world
"No sooner had former New Zealand
foreign minister Don McKinnon stepped across the threshold of London's
Marlborough House to take over as Secretary-General than all hell broke loose
across the Commonwealth. It was a coincidence, of course [...] but the western
driven quest for good government and democracy is facing serious setbacks."
(10 June 2000)
  ;

Oui Fumer
A political party in New zealand is
to hand out free cigarettes in protest at the countires recent increase in
tabacco taxes. The Libertarianz Party will hand out free cigarette's in
the city of Roturua, a geothermal area where, appropriately enough, smoke
naturally rises from the ground.
(12 June 2000)
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