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The hīkoi has reached parliament, filling the grounds and swelling out into the surrounding roads and streets.
It is shoulder to shoulder, with people and flags stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction. The notorious Wellington wind is whipping the flags high, their flicks and pops adding to the cacophony.
Continue reading...Police say about 42,000 people gathered at parliament in the last stage of the nine-day protest in opposition to the Treaty of Waitangi bill
A protest march estimated to be one of the largest in New Zealand history arrived at parliament on Tuesday, flooding the grounds with song in a display of unity against a controversial bill seeking to reinterpret the country’s founding treaty between Māori and the crown.
Police said around 42,000 people took part in the march, in what was likely New Zealand’s largest-ever protest in support of Māori rights.
Continue reading...Voting temporarily suspended amid disruptions including a Māori party MP ripping up a copy of the bill
New Zealand’s parliament has erupted into fiery debate, personal attacks and a haka over a controversial bill that proposes to radically alter the way New Zealand’s treaty between Māori and the crown is interpreted.
The treaty principles bill was tabled by the libertarian Act party – a minor partner in New Zealand’s coalition government – and passed its first reading on Thursday, amid scathing speeches and disruptions.
Continue reading...Tiny isopod is dubbed Pentaceration forkandbrewer in push to engage community with climate-threatened life in local waters
New Zealand scientists have named a tiny snowflake-like crustacean after a Wellington brewery, in an attempt to boost the public’s interest in local marine life.
The roughly 1.5mm marine isopod was found in the silty depths off New Zealand’s southern east coast. It helps decompose organic material that drifts to the seabed.
Continue reading...Historic apology by PM Christopher Luxon comes after landmark report that exposed decades of abuse in state and faith-based care institutions
New Zealand’s prime minister Christopher Luxon has formally apologised to the more than 200,000 children and adults who suffered “horrific” and “heartbreaking” abuse and neglect while in state and faith-based institutions.
The historic apology follows a harrowing landmark report, released in July, which laid bare the scale of abuse that occurred across care institutions from the 1950s onwards. It was the most complex royal commission inquiry the country has held. The judge who chaired the inquiry, Coral Shaw, described the abuse as a “national disgrace and shame”.
Continue reading...The widely criticised bill aims to redefine Treaty of Waitangi principles that guide relations between Māori and ruling authorities
A controversial bill that seeks to radically change how New Zealand’s treaty between Māori and the Crown is interpreted in modern times will be introduced to parliament on Thursday, nearly two weeks ahead of its initial schedule.
The Treaty of Waitangi is considered New Zealand’s founding document and is instrumental in upholding Māori rights. The bill will be tabled in parliament by the libertarian Act party, a minor partner in New Zealand’s coalition government, which has regularly called for an end to “division by race”.
Continue reading...Reports of vomit streaming down windows as more than 100 University of Canterbury students fall ill, with cause of stomach bug being investigated
A mass outbreak of suspected food poisoning has caused “carnage” across two university halls in New Zealand, with reports of early morning queues for toilets, vomit dripping down building windows and students abandoning exams to dash to the loo.
More than 100 students reported being struck down with vomiting and diarrhoea at two University of Canterbury student residences on Sunday night, the university confirmed on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Buttle brothers argue in Auckland court that tour operators to blame for deaths of 22 people, including 14 Australians
The owners of an island volcano in New Zealand that erupted in 2019 killing 22 people, including 14 Australians, have launched an appeal against their criminal conviction for violating safety laws.
They argue that tour operators – rather than their company – were responsible for the safety of visitors to Whakaari, also known as White Island.
Continue reading...Dunedin airport boss says the move is designed to keep traffic flowing in drop-off zones and enable ‘others to have hugs’
Hugging your loved ones goodbye could land you in trouble at a New Zealand airport should your embrace linger too long.
The international airport in Dunedin, a city in the South Island, has introduced a three minute cap on cuddles, as part of a broader effort to improve safety and keep traffic flowing at its drop-off zone.
Continue reading...Growing diplomatic row as police say they have evidence of Delhi’s links to murder of Sikh leader in Canada
Britain joined its Five Eyes intelligence partners on Wednesday in saying India’s cooperation with Canada’s legal process was “the right next step” in the deepening diplomatic row between the two countries, adding that it had full confidence in Canada’s judicial system.
Canadian police said on Monday they had credible evidence that Indian agents including India’s high commissioner to Canada were linked to the murder of the Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil in June 2023 and accused Delhi of a broader effort to target Indian dissidents in Canada.
Continue reading...Pig hunters captured video of Tom Phillips and his three children in camouflage walking in rugged terrain in the Waikato region
A fugitive father and his three children have been spotted together for the first time in nearly three years, along the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island.
Just before Christmas 2021, Tom Phillips fled into the Waikato wilderness with his children Ember, now 8, Maverick, now 9, and Jayda, now 11, following a dispute with their mother.
Continue reading...All crew safe after specialist dive and hydrographic vessel ran aground near the southern coast of Upolu as it was conducting a reef survey
A Royal New Zealand Navy vessel has run aground and sunk off Samoa – the first time the navy has lost a ship since the second world war, the New Zealand Defence Force said in a statement on Sunday.
Manawanui, the navy’s specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, ran aground near the southern coast of Upolu on Saturday night as it was conducting a reef survey, Commodore Shane Arndell, the maritime component commander of the New Zealand Defence Force, said in a statement. All 75 crew and passengers were safe.
Continue reading...More than 6,000 people perform Māori dance at Eden Park rugby stadium in Auckland, to break France’s record
New Zealand has reclaimed the world record for the largest mass haka after more than 6,000 people performed the Māori dance, dethroning France.
The record was broken in deafening fashion at Eden Park rugby stadium in Auckland, where thousands of men, women and children combined on the pitch to complete the traditional dance involving vigorous movements, stamping feet and rhythmic shouting.
Continue reading...The narrow-nosed spookfish is also found in Australian waters and is distinctive for its elongated snout and whip-like tail
A new species of ghost shark, with an unusually long nose and a whip-like tail, has been discovered in the inky depths of New Zealand waters.
Scientists at New Zealand’s National Institute for Water and Atmospherics (Niwa) initially believed the creature was part of an existing species found around the world, but further investigation revealed it was new, genetically distinct, species.
Continue reading...Prof Rawinia Higgins tells the Guardian that te reo Māori is under threat from the rightwing coalition despite long-running efforts to revive it
New Zealand’s Māori language commissioner has described government policies to limit the use of the Indigenous language in the public service as “a risk” to the half-century effort to revive it.
“Any affront to the efforts that we have been making has to be taken seriously,” the commissioner, Prof Rawinia Higgins, told the Guardian. “We’re seeing a reaction – only from a small corner of people, but enough that we don’t want that to snowball.”
Continue reading...Announcement comes hours after rebels said the Indonesian army had bombed its headquarters where Mehrtens is being kept
Rebels in Indonesia’s West Papua region have proposed terms for the release of the New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens a year and seven months after he was detained.
It comes hours after the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) released a statement saying the Indonesian army bombed its headquarters in Alguru, which is where Mehrtens is being kept. The statement also said Mehrtens “survived the attack”.
Continue reading...The hoiho, which means ‘noise shouter’, triumphed in a year free from the usual scandals surrounding the competition
One of the world’s rarest penguins has been crowned New Zealand’s bird of the year, in an unusually sedate year for the competition, free from the foreign interference and voting scandals of previous events.
The endangered yellow-eyed penguin, or hoiho, is the largest of New Zealand’s mainland penguin species and is distinctive for the pale yellow band of feathers linking the eyes.
Continue reading...Family of Paula Leeson sued Donald McPherson after criminal prosecution over fatal drowning collapsed
A man who stood to claim a £4.4m estate from his wealthy wife has had his inheritance blocked by a judge who ruled he killed her.
The family of Paula Leeson, 47, who was found dead in a swimming pool in a Denmark holiday home in 2017, sued her husband, Donald McPherson, 51, for unlawful killing after a criminal prosecution collapsed when there was not enough evidence.
Continue reading...Former gameshow host reportedly signs £1m deal with ITV for show in same vein as global hit Clarkson’s Farm
It seems to be turning into a rite of passage for former Top Gear hosts who have been the subject of public opprobrium.
Noel Edmonds is set to follow in the footsteps of Jeremy Clarkson by presenting a new TV series from his country retreat. The presenter, 75, who began working as a DJ in the late 1960s, has reportedly signed a £1m deal to return to television after a six-year gap by presenting a series from his park and vineyard in New Zealand.
Continue reading...Only daughter and youngest child of the former Māori king Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII ascends to the throne in emotional ceremony
The second ever Māori queen in the eight-dynasty reign of the Kiingitanga movement in New Zealand has ascended to the throne in an emotional ceremony attended by thousands at Turangawaewae marae.
On Thursday morning Māori leaders hailed her as the “new dawn”.
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