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…

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…

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…

Key Looks Ahead

6 March 2009 – 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…

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…

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…

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…

Leader for Change

01 December 2008 – 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…

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…

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…

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…

Key In Clark Out

8 November 2008 – 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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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….

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,…

Protest Heard Around the World

NZ-born pro surfer Dave “Rasta” Rastovich led an international protest over Japan’s commercial slaughter of dolphins in November, gaining significant media coverage for his cause. Rastovich, a free surfer for Billabong, is…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…