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.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Reviewing the Guard
Prime Minister Helen Clark reviews the honor guard as she is welcomed to Beijing.
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.
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.
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…
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”.
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.
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.
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…
Womanly Example
Japanese society should look to New Zealand for kick-ass high-profile female role-models suggests PM Helen Clark.
Into Left-field
Labour hits 50%, Helen Clark does a pb of 36%. “The government is the only game in town,” says Clark.
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.
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.
Big Money Beware
The Government seeks to implement a “code of conduct” for foreign investors, leading to “higher standards of investment”.
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…
Groundbreaker Gov-Gen
“As one of the few female law students of her generation, Cartwright was barred from the Law Students association, denied access to textbooks and told she was only at university to find a husband.”…
Jumping Jackie Flash
Australia’s Sports Minister and Howard political protégé, New Zealand-born Jackie Kelly ducks the limelight after “a huge year”.
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.
Insiders Out
The New Zealand Government is to tighten rules controlling insider trading on the stock market.
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.
On the Defensive
International interest in the Clark government’s announcement on defence plans to 2010 .
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…
Economic Outlook
New Zealand’s economy continues on the up; will the edge buck the downward trend of trading partners and major players?
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.”
Green Edge
The Greens are a presence in parliaments around the world – the revolution started in Wellington.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
Judgement in Paradise
Retired New Zealand Appeal Court judges Sir Maurice Casey and Sir Ian Barker lead the judicial charge for democracy in Fiji.
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…
Making Waves
“Where once New Zealand seemed bent on shrinking the public sector to anorexic proportions, it is now pumping it full of new blood. New Zealand has a long record of setting global trends. It was first…
Into the Black
New Zealand leads the pack in debt reduction, cutting government debt from 65% of GDP in 1993 to 31% in 1999.
Seats of Power
New Zealand backpackers unwittingly helped end apartheid, acting as bus-filling decoys for safari-organising gun-runners.
Former Gov-Gen Dies
Sir David Beattie, former Governor-General and Supreme Court Judge, died suddenly in his home, aged 76.
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.
Alas, No Elias
It’s time Britain had a female judge a la New Zealand Chief Justice Sian Elias, the conspicuous lone woman on the Privy Council.
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.
Bonded Money
A province of Ontario 2008 bond in New Zealand dollars creates a flurry among savvy Canadian investors.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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…
Tax Miles
Is the New Zealand system of an odometer-based tax on diesel vehicles the best option for funding roads?
Youth Voice
Wellington’s youth council is part of the international phenomenon of youth engagement, pushing youngsters into leadershipand decision making roles.
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…
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…
