Category Archives: New Zealand

New Zealanders coming home for Christmas warned quarantine hotels may be full

Posted on by

Military says Kiwis will be disappointed if they haven’t prebooked a place as hotels approach capacity

New Zealand’s quarantine hotels are approaching capacity as the military warns there may not be room to house Kiwis planning to return home for Christmas.

Some 65,000 people have passed through New Zealand’s quarantine hotels since the borders closed in mid-March. Despite the facilities generally being four- and five-star establishments, there have been multiple escape attempts from them, and they have been denounced by a conservative US television host as “Covid camps”.

Continue reading...

Voting opens in New Zealand’s beloved Bird of the Year competition

Posted on by

What started 15 years ago as a modest promotion to draw attention to native birds, many of which are endangered, has become a phenomenon

Normally on a post test-match Monday in New Zealand, the talk is all about the national rugby team’s latest performance. But this week, while the All Blacks’ destruction of the Wallabies was on everyones’ lips, there was another topic of conversation: birds.

Voting began on Monday in the hotly contested and brutal election of New Zealand’s Bird Of The Year.

Continue reading...

New Zealand Greens accept Ardern’s offer of ‘cooperation agreement’

Posted on by

Deal with Labour stops short of a coalition but will see Green’s co-leaders, James Shaw and Marama Davidson, hold ministries outside of cabinet


New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has agreed on a governing “cooperation agreement” with the Green party, offering two ministries and agreeing to a handful of shared policy priorities for her second term – an offer they accepted late on Saturday.

Labour won the general election in October with an outright majority, meaning they could govern alone. But Ardern invited the Greens into a “cooperation” agreement, saying it would allow the government to benefit from the expertise of Green party members in areas such as the environment, climate change and child wellbeing.

Continue reading...

‘No predators, plenty to eat’: New Zealand struggles with plague of peacocks

Posted on by

Farmers complain feral birds eat pasture their livestock depend on, and their numbers are increasing thanks to hunting of stoats and possums

A bird renowned around the world for its beauty has showed its ugly side by causing havoc on farms in New Zealand; eating crops, evading control efforts and driving landowners to distraction.

The jade and green peafowl, commonly known as the peacock, has become naturalised in New Zealand after what New Zealand Birds Online calls “benign neglect of birds kept for display”.

Continue reading...

New Zealand votes to legalise euthanasia in referendum

Posted on by

Results must be enacted by the new Labour government by November 2021, but second referendum on legalising cannabis fails to find support

New Zealanders have voted to legalise euthanasia for those with a terminal illness, in a victory for campaigners who say people suffering extreme pain should be given a choice over how and when to bring their life to a close.

The decision on whether to legalise euthanasia appeared as a referendum question on the 17 October general election ballot paper, alongside a second referendum question on whether to legalise cannabis – which did not succeed, according to preliminary results.

Continue reading...

New Zealand counts down to verdicts on cannabis and euthanasia votes

Posted on by

Campaigners for legal changes could be stymied by voter desire for the status quo after a tumultuous year

The results of New Zealand’s referendums on whether to legalise cannabis and euthanasia will be released this week, with campaigners nervous that the upheavals of 2020 could have tilted the vote to the status quo.

Political experts say that in years of unrest and instability voters tend to veer towards keeping things as they are, which could affect the likelihood of both referendum questions passing.

Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern holds all the cards but should still keep the Greens sweet

Posted on by

While Labour’s landslide makes a coalition in New Zealand extremely unlikely, the PM might set up a ‘consultation’ deal with the smaller party

New Zealand’s Labour and Green parties have met for the third time to discuss what role the latter might play in the new government expected to be formed by Jacinda Ardern within days.

With Labour holding all the cards after its landslide victory earlier this month, a formal coalition government is seen as extremely unlikely after the latest talks on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

The Green party won in Auckland by reaching beyond its own bubble | Chlöe Swarbrick

Posted on by

A minor party hasn’t won a general electorate seat in well over 20 years. The result shows what is possible when convention is scrapped

I was making toast in my tiny apartment kitchen four weeks ahead of election day. Not that I really had track of the days. They had melded into one ever-extending runway as Auckland went through its second Covid-19 lockdown and New Zealand’s election date was pushed back a month.

We were a few months into an insurgent campaign for an electorate seat at the centre of the country’s largest city. We’d built a team of hundreds of people – particularly young people, some so young they couldn’t even vote yet – who, despite their claims to the contrary, were all doing a lot more than the least they could do. They were about to make history.

Continue reading...

Queensland investigates Covid-19 strain on cargo ship after New Zealand alert

Posted on by

MV Sofrana Surville barred from docking after officials in New Zealand said crew members on departing cargo ship might have new strain

Queensland health officials are working to determine the strain of Covid-19 infecting the crew of a cargo ship anchored off the Australian state’s Sunshine Coast.

The MV Sofrana Surville was blocked from docking in Brisbane after New Zealand warned it could be carrying a new strain of the virus.

Continue reading...

Tova O’Brien: my ‘feral’ interview with Covid-19 denier Jami-Lee Ross

Posted on by

Good journalists know balanced reporting is not as simple as providing both sides of the story. You have to squash falsehoods

Like the families of 1.14 million people worldwide, our family has lost people we love to Covid-19. They are people who would not have died were it not for this deadly, hyper-contagious virus. We are in a global pandemic that is at least 15 times more fatal than seasonal influenza.

When people argue otherwise it puts more lives at risk; more families will mourn. Covid-19 conspiracies are dangerous. In New Zealand those conspiracies were driven by arguments against lockdowns and misinformation about the seriousness of the virus.

Continue reading...

Ardern urged to review New Zealand Covid measures after election landslide

Posted on by

Veteran epidemiologist calls for review, and openness to adopting measures suggested by political rivals, now that voters have given PM a mandate

Jacinda Ardern won New Zealand’s election with a commanding majority, in part attributed to her handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in her country. But a veteran epidemiologist is exhorting the prime minister to use the political capital gained in her decisive victory to scrutinise the coronavirus response by her government and officials, and adopt strategies proposed by her opponents before Saturday’s vote.

“New Zealand has shown it can be quite smart and flexible, but we can see we’ve got these blind spots and we need to have no blind spots,” said Nick Wilson, a University of Otago epidemiologist. “This is such an unforgiving disease and very few countries are doing it right so we need to smarten up our act quite substantially.”

Continue reading...

New Zealand records 25 Covid cases amid arrival of foreign fishing crews

Posted on by

Twenty-three cases caught at the border, with two more local transmissions linked to Sunday’s port worker case

New Zealand has recorded 25 new cases of coronavirus, the biggest daily toll the country has reported since the height of its initial outbreak in March and April.

Two were local cases and the rest were discovered at the border, including 18 infections among Russian and Ukraine fishing crews who had arrived on a charter flight from Moscow days earlier.

Continue reading...

The Māori Party defied the odds because Labour has left Indigenous voters wanting | Leigh-Marama McLachlan

Posted on by

Māori are calling for much-needed systemic change – but the question is whether Labour is willing to deliver it

It was one of the most gripping showdowns of Saturday night’s election – the Māori Party’s Rawiri Waititi and Labour’s Tamati Coffey were neck-and-neck until the end.

Counting on the night put Waititi ahead by a narrow 415 votes, but the final result will come down to the remaining half a million “special votes” yet to be counted.

Continue reading...

New Zealand journalist feted for brutal takedown of minor party politician

Posted on by

Tova O’Brien’s interview with Jami-Lee Ross, who has been accused of spreading misinformation, praised as ‘a masterclass’

A New Zealand journalist is being praised around the world for her determined effort to shut down the spread of Covid-19 conspiracy theories during an interview with a minor party politician.

Newshub’s political editor, Tova O’Brien, interviewed the leader of the Advance New Zealand party, Jami-Lee Ross. The party failed to secure enough votes in Saturday’s general election to enter parliament, after peddling rumours and misinformation on social media about the coronavirus.

Continue reading...

Why New Zealand rejected populist ideas other nations have embraced

Posted on by

Labour’s historic win delivered Ardern a second term while voters punished politicians who embraced populism

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s Labour prime minister who was returned to power for a second term with a commanding majority, has often been hailed internationally as a foil to global surges in right-wing movements and the rise of strongmen such as Donald Trump and Brazil’s leader, Jair Bolsonaro.

But the historic victory of Ardern’s centre-left party on polling day – its best result in five decades, winning 64 of parliament’s 120 seats – was not the only measure by which New Zealand bucked global trends in its vote. The public also rejected some political hopefuls’ rallying cries to populism, conspiracy theories and scepticism about Covid-19.

Continue reading...

‘I don’t tend to have communications with Donald Trump,’ says Jacinda Ardern – video

Posted on by

After securing a historic election victory, the New Zealand prime minister was asked about the world leaders who sent her congratulations. 'I have had a few lovely messages. Scott Morrison ... I've had the prime minister of Denmark, Pedro Sánchez from Spain. Of course, Boris Johnson reached out as well.' When asked about whether Donald Trump had been in touch, she replied: ' I don't tend to have those direct communications with the president of the United States'

Continue reading...

What next for New Zealand’s National party and its embattled leader?

Posted on by

New Zealand overwhelmingly embraced Jacinda Ardern’s Labour, leaving Judith Collins’ party in the wilderness

Judith Collins had a spring in her step and a high-beam smile when she appeared for reporters the day after a New Zealand election that delivered a landslide victory to her opponent, Jacinda Ardern of Labour – the country’s most popular leader of modern times.

“I’m feeling really good,” she said. “Woke up today, the sun was shining.”

Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern considers coalition despite New Zealand election landslide

Posted on by

Prime minister says she will be ready to form a government in two to three weeks as New Zealanders enjoy return to normal life

Jacinda Ardern has held out the possibility of forming a coalition government despite securing a historic election victory that will enable her Labour party to govern alone.

New Zealanders expressed relief on Sunday at her re-election, after a campaign that felt long and wearying for many. Ardern’s party won the highest percentage of the vote in more than five decades, claiming 64 seats in parliament, with her handling of the Covid-19 crisis regarded as decisive in her win.

Continue reading...

New Zealand’s three-week streak without local Covid case ends as port worker falls ill

Posted on by

Jacinda Ardern says case is an example of the system working, as Dr Ashley Bloomfield urges continued vigilance

After 22 days of no new Covid-19 cases in the community, a port worker in New Zealand has tested positive for the coronavirus.

The case is a New Zealand man who worked at the ports of Taranaki and Auckland and began showing symptoms on Friday, before testing positive on Saturday evening.

Continue reading...

‘We made history’: New Zealand Greens on the rise after voters return to the fold

Posted on by

Supporters jubilant after defying poor early polls and gaining first electorate win since 1999

The mood at the election headquarters of New Zealand’s Green party was triumphal, almost as though the party had won the election outright. The election result was everything they hoped for and perhaps more than they expected.

Just a few weeks ago, polls had the party below the 5% threshold that would trigger proportional representation and deliver it to parliament if none of its candidates won an electorate seat.

Continue reading...