Record-breaking rainfall hit Auckland in January, only to be followed by Cyclone Gabrielle ravaging the North Island in February
The New Zealand government is allocating NZ$1.1bn to help communities recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and flooding.
The funds from the 2023 budget are to cover “basics” of rebuilding roads, rail and schools, as well as flood protection, the government announced on Sunday.
Continue reading...Group reportedly got into difficulty as torrential rain hit during outing in Northland region
Searchers in New Zealand have found the body of a teenager who died on Tuesday as torrential rain fell during a school trip into caves in the Northland region.
The deluge swamped parts of the North Island, including Northland, where damage from record floods in February was still evident. In New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, inspections of 120 water-damaged buildings began on Wednesday morning as the weather cleared.
Continue reading...Hāmiora Bailey says wall to wall Charles III coverage is unappealing to Indigenous people and has devised a solution
A Māori artist has designed a way for the masses to tune out of royal coverage, with a web browser plugin that replaces all monarchy and coronation stories with Indigenous news.
Despite a distance of more that 18,000kms from the palace, New Zealand news headlines have featured a steady flow of royal family gossip: the latest potential snubbing, deep-dive analysis of the new king’s conduct, invitation list scandals and features on the coronation quiche.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Aboriginal Olympian Nova Peris says ‘change begins with listening’ as campaigners from 12 countries ask for ‘process of reparatory justice to commence’
Australians have joined Indigenous leaders and politicians across the Commonwealth to demand King Charles III make a formal apology for the effects of British colonisation, make reparations by redistributing the wealth of the British crown, and return artefacts and human remains.
Days out from Charles’s coronation in London, campaigners for republic and reparations movements in 12 countries have written a letter asking the new monarch to start a process towards “a formal apology and for a process of reparatory justice to commence”.
Continue reading...Liaison office plans likely to attract criticism from China which has warned against the western alliance extending into Asia
Nato is reportedly planning to open a liaison office in Japan to coordinate with close partners across the Indo-Pacific region including Australia, South Korea and New Zealand.
The plans are likely to attract criticism from the Chinese government, which has previously warned the western alliance against extending “its tentacles to the Asia-Pacific”.
Continue reading...New Zealand group Half/Time to perform alongside artists who sing in Cymraeg as part of musical cultural exchange
They will bring heavy riffs, pounding drums and lyrics delivered with a growl – but a punk band from New Zealand arriving in Wales this week is also hoping to spark important conversations about what it means to create pop songs in “minority” languages.
The band Half/Time, which perform in Māori as well as English, is to appear alongside artists and groups who sing in Cymraeg as part of a cultural exchange organised by the universities of Cardiff and Waikato in the south Island of New Zealand.
Continue reading...Prime minister welcomes move to let New Zealanders apply for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first
A “historic” agreement allowing New Zealanders a faster pathway to Australian citizenship is the biggest change “in a generation” and will help the two countries forge even closer ties, the New Zealand prime minister, Chris Hipkins, has said.
Hipkins visited Australia on Sunday for talks with the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, after the decision to give New Zealanders the right to apply for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first.
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese hails discovery of Montevideo Maru shipwreck after 80 years. This blog is now closed
Deer populations surge to pest level, experts say after animal crashes into home
Experts say deer populations are surging across Victoria, which may explain the incident on Thursday in which a deer crashed into Alexander Hill’s Alphington home in Melbourne’s north-east after the animal spotted itself in a window and thought it was another deer.
Continue reading...In a move that restores reciprocity to rights of expats, about 380,000 New Zealanders living in Australia will no longer have to become permanent residents first
About 380,000 New Zealanders will gain the right to apply for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first, under sweeping changes restoring reciprocity to the rights of expats of the two countries.
On Saturday the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, and immigration minister, Andrew Giles, will announce the changes ahead of a visit by New Zealand prime minister Chris Hipkins.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary cancelled plans in Samoa and New Zealand due to crisis in Sudan, his office said
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has skipped planned meetings to New Zealand and Samoa to focus on coordinating the UK’s response to the crisis in Sudan.
Cleverly had been scheduled to join the New Zealand foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, in Samoa on Wednesday for a series of trilateral meetings with the Samoan government, and then travel on with Mahuta to New Zealand.
Continue reading...Separatist rebels confronted Indonesian army troops as they searched for New Zealander who was taken hostage in February
Separatist gunmen attacked Indonesian army troops who were deployed to rescue a New Zealand pilot taken hostage by the rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua province, leaving at least six dead and about 30 missing, officials said on Sunday.
Initial information from army reports said there were about 36 soldiers at a post in the hilly district of Nduga, when attackers from the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, opened fire on Saturday.
Continue reading...Residents of New Zealand’s largest city say people are ‘heartbroken’ at fresh damage wreaked by storm
Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, has been hit by a tornado, two months after the wider region was devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle and three months after the city was struck by deadly flooding.
Auckland Emergency Management said it began receiving reports of “localised havoc” around 9pm on Sunday, according to the NZ Herald. Authorities received more than 30 calls, with roofs lifted off homes and trees toppled.
Continue reading...Pest numbers are booming and the annual cull has been called off, forcing one rural council to look at other ways to control the rabbit boom
In New Zealand, Easter is usually a time for killing rabbits. But, faced with a ban on the annual slaughter this year, one region is hoping to deploy a deadly virus instead.
Wild rabbits are considered a serious pest in New Zealand, particularly in rural areas, with major impact on agriculture and native landscapes. In parts of the South Island, the boom is reaching “plague” proportions, a spokesperson for Otago regional council (ORC) said on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Analysts say country’s strategic importance in Pacific has attracted attention of nations such as China
New Zealand’s intelligence bosses have warned of “increasingly aggressive activity” in the country by people they believe are spies for foreign states.
The annual report by the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), published this week, said unnamed states are making “enduring and persistent” efforts to collect intelligence against New Zealand’s government, target those with access to sensitive information, and interfere in all spheres of the country’s public life. Agents from one foreign government have cultivated “a range of relationships of significant concern”, the report said.
Continue reading...Former New Zealand PM calls for politics to be opened up for all in emotional address to parliament
“You can be anxious, sensitive, kind and wear your heart on your sleeve. You can be a mother, or not, an ex-Mormon, or not, a nerd, a crier, a hugger – you can be all of these things, and not only can you be here – you can lead.”
Jacinda Ardern has left New Zealand’s parliament with a highly personal, often emotional speech, calling for an opening up of politics to those who may not see themselves as typical leaders.
Continue reading...Former New Zealand prime minister will push initiative she created in wake of 2019 terrorist attack
Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern will take on a new role working alongside international governments and social media companies to target extremism and terrorist content online.
Prime minister Chris Hipkins announced on Tuesday evening that he had appointed Ardern as special envoy for the Christchurch Call, a newly created position.
Continue reading...Losing more nurses from workforce already facing shortages and burnout could reduce quality of patient care, union organiser says
Thousands of New Zealand nurses are registering to work in Australia in pursuit of better pay and conditions, amid staffing shortages and industrial action in their home country.
Almost 5,000 New Zealand nurses have registered to practise in Australia since August, a spokesperson from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia confirmed on Tuesday. While not every nurse who registers will make the move, they make up about 8% of the approximately 65,000 nurses registered in New Zealand.
Continue reading...Opponents claim that bill put forward by Labour government amounts to fear-mongering in an election year
Large groups of asylum seekers arriving to New Zealand by sea could be detained in prison for up to 28 days without a warrant, under a law change that was proposed even though a refugee boat has never reached the country.
The bill – put forward by the Labour government – passed its first reading on Wednesday. It also determines that asylum seekers who arrive in groups of 30 or more by sea would have no possibility of attaining the entry permissions or temporary visas conferred on other travellers to New Zealand – including asylum seekers who enter the country by air.
Continue reading...Recent auroras have been so intense they have been visible as far north as Auckland
The lure of unusually vibrant views of the southern lights in New Zealand has prompted aurora-hunters to drive for hours through the night to capture the “elusive” sight on camera, with social media groups devoted to swapping tips growing in size.
The aurora australis is always more visible in New Zealand and Australian skies during autumn and winter – beginning in March in the southern hemisphere – but this month, the southern lights have been more visible than usual, analysts say. Auroras – beautiful light shows in the night sky – are seen when sunspots erupt, causing solar storms which send material from the sun towards Earth.
Continue reading...Defence minister says government ‘willing to explore’ participating in ‘pillar two’ of defence deal founded by Australia, UK and US
New Zealand’s government has confirmed it is discussing joining the non-nuclear part of the Aukus alliance founded by Australia, the UK and US.
“We have been offered the opportunity to talk about whether we could or wish to participate in that pillar two [non-nuclear] aspect of it,” said Andrew Little, the New Zealand defence minister. “I’ve indicated we will be willing to explore it.”
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