Category Archives: New Zealand

Coronavirus live news: Captain Tom Moore funeral takes place; Auckland to go into lockdown for seven days

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Rishi Sunak warns of risk to economy; Joe Biden tells US ‘now is not the time to relax - follow all the day’s news as it happens

Attendees have been asked to stand while a verse from the war poem For the Fallen were read at Captain Tom Moore’s funeral.

The bugler is now playing The Last Post.

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New Zealand: Auckland to go into seven-day Covid lockdown

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Restrictions in country’s biggest city to be imposed after single Covid case of unknown origin was recorded

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the country’s biggest city, Auckland, will go into a seven-day lockdown from early morning on Sunday after a new local case of the coronavirus of unknown origin emerged.

It comes two weeks after Auckland’s nearly 2 million residents were plunged into a snap three-day lockdown when a family of three were diagnosed with the more transmissible UK variant of coronavirus.

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Sustainable aviation fuel is the only way forward if we want to keep flying | Paul Callister and Robert McLachlan

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The targets envisioned by the Paris Agreement leave no room for fossil fuelled commercial aviation by 2050

Aviation is an important part of the global economy; until Covid-19, it was responsible for 2.8% of global CO2 emissions. In New Zealand, aviation is responsible for an even higher percentage of CO2 emissions, the figure having doubled since 1990 to 13% in 2018. The country’s geographic isolation, transport system, international tourist industry, and globally dispersed families have all contributed to the jump in growth and will make reducing emissions a challenge.

But New Zealand has signed up to net zero emissions by 2050 and enacted the Zero Carbon Act, which aims to implement policies that will limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5C, in line with the Paris Agreement.

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Words matter: how New Zealand’s clear messaging helped beat Covid

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One year on from the nation’s first case of coronavirus, Aotearoa has largely eliminated the virus - communications played a key part in its success

“Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.” The catch cry of pandemic Britain under Boris Johnson, revived last month, might sound familiar to New Zealanders now enjoying their “unstoppable summer”.

Johnson’s three-part slogan reportedly derived last March from a suggestion by Ben Guerin, a 25-year-old Kiwi who advised on the Conservatives’ social media strategy. His attention had been caught by a phrase that was increasingly prevalent in Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s messaging back home: “Stay at home, save lives.”

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Before and after: how the 2011 earthquake changed Christchurch

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Many parts of central Christchurch are unrecognisable now

Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel was born and raised in the city she now represents. But she finds it hard to describe how it has changed since the earthquake.

“I don’t know whether it’s a post-disaster thing,” Dalziel says. “But for me, it’s sometimes hard to remember what was there before.”

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Jacinda Ardern to pay tribute as Christchurch commemorates earthquake victims

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A minute’s silence is to be observed at 12.51pm, exactly 10 years after the quake struck the New Zealand city

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is to lead tributes for the 185 people who lost their lives 10 years ago in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

First responders and community members will read each of their names at a memorial service held on Monday in the heart of the city at the Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial.

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Healing the heart of the city: the battle to restore Christchurch’s cathedral

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While new buildings have sprung up around it, the ruined cathedral has long been a painful reminder of the earthquake

In the months, then years, after the Christchurch earthquake, it was not Sue Spigel’s mind that needed healing, but her spirit.

What worked was her home high on the hillside above Governors Bay, where Spigel, 74, and her husband, Bob, have lived for 20 years. “It was this place … being here, cocooned from the rest of the agony that was going on, that really helped,” she says, sat with her back to a large window framing bush, sky and sea.

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Drone footage shows years of damage to earthquake-struck Christchurch cathedral – video

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Ten years after an earthquake hit Christchurch in New Zealand and left 185 people dead, a major rebuild of the city's cathedral is under way. As part of the project, a drone survey from 2019 has revealed extensive damage to the historic structure, with rubble littered around the building and chairs still strewn across the floor. When the cathedral's tower fell it opened up the building to the elements, with thousands of pigeons since taking over the space, while water ingress has caused further damage. The cathedral's rebuild is expected to be completed in 2028

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‘Marginalising our own brothers and sisters’: the disrespect Micronesia has been shown is a tragedy for the Pacific | Surangel Whipps Jr, President of Palau

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Micronesia had no choice to but to abandon the Pacific Islands Forum after being ‘thoroughly and publicly disregarded’, the President of Palau writes

What becomes of an organisation when it disregards one-third of its membership? What happens when “we” stops being inclusive?

As the eldest of four, I have always felt responsible for the safety, security, and well-being of my siblings. In my family, “I” has always been synonymous with “we”, the collective, being one inclusive family and ensuring no one is left out. This is what I understand to be the Palauan way; this is what I understand to be the Pacific Way.

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‘Joy and agony’: Christchurch earthquake survivors ten years on

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On 22 February, 2011, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit, killing 185 people. Those left behind have spent a decade coming to terms with the tragedy

Some likened it to a tornado, or an oncoming train; others remember registering not much more than a rumble before the roof caved in. At 12.51pm on Tuesday, 22 February 2011, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch. In the devastation, 185 people died, and an entire city was scarred.

Ten years on, Christchurch remains forever changed. Though new layers to survivors’ trauma are still being revealed, in amongst them lies faith in other people, hope for the future – and astonishing resilience.

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Summer in Auckland felt like a fool’s paradise – we all knew it couldn’t last | Steve Braunias

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Reports of queues for inessential items have come in fast but we can still count ourselves lucky

The bananas were the first to go. “Look,” I said to my daughter. We stood and gazed at the supermarket shelves set aside for bananas. They’d been stripped bare less than an hour after the latest lockdown was announced. We sighed, and then went about stripping the shelves of nectarines. She asked, “Will six do?” I said, “No. Grab 10. You never know.”

Last night’s lockdown announcement took place at 7pm. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called an urgent press conference and emergency sirens wailed from mobile phones – they’d make a good ringtone – as New Zealanders were told to return to various states of lockdown. A family of three in South Auckland had tested positive for Covid-19. The city was put in lockdown level 3 at midnight, the rest of the country in the more relaxed level 2. It’s in place till Wednesday midnight and what happens after that is largely going to depend on whether more cases are tested positive in the community.

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Australia politics live: Daniel Andrews gives press conference update on Victoria cases; jobseeker in spotlight as parliament returns

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Pressure mounts for Coalition to announce a permanent increase to unemployment payment; Australia closes quarantine-free border to New Zealand after coronavirus cases confirmed as UK variant. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

• Victoria Covid hotspots

NSW has recorded no new locally acquired cases - or any cases in hotel quarantine.

So another zero day for NSW

Daniel Andrews:

Again, the types of cases, this UK strain, the fact that despite the amazing efforts of all of our contact traces and testers and lab workers and the work of so many genuine hard-working Victorians, we had a situation where at the same time as we are becoming aware of the primary case, they have already infected their close contacts, that is not something we’ve seen before.

The speed at which this has moved saw our public health team make the very difficult decisions based on the best of science and the best understanding you can possibly have on any outbreak, that this was a difficult but proportionate and necessary thing to do.

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New Zealand’s Auckland Covid outbreak is UK variant, says Ardern

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Some 1.6 million Kiwis face bans on non-essential movement until Wednesday under strict new lockdown as Australia suspends travel bubble

Aucklanders are waking up on Monday to a new lockdown, hoping the short and sharp three-day restrictions ordered by Jacinda Ardern arrest the spread of Covid-19.

The prime minister said genomic testing had shown that the three community cases were the UK variant of Covid-19.

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New Zealand Covid outbreak: Ardern puts Auckland into three-day lockdown

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Three members of a South Auckland family have tested positive for Covid-19, prompting Jacinda Ardern to place the region into level 3 measures

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has placed Auckland in lockdown from midnight on Sunday, and increased restrictions across New Zealand after three local cases of coronavirus emerged in the region over the weekend.

Emphasising the past effectiveness of her “go hard and go early” approach to the virus, Ardern said on Sunday that Auckland would go into level 3 lockdown for the next three days until more was known about the source of the most recent cases.

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Canons don’t only belong to dead white Englishmen. We have a Māori canon too | Alice Te Punga Somerville

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Literary canons have real-world effects – they steal limelight from everyone else. We can challenge them by drawing attention to how they work

I feel sheepish to admit how deeply affected I was when I encountered the research of Gauri Viswanathan, a professor in English at Columbia University in New York City. In Masks of Conquest: Literary study and British rule in India, she traces the history of English back to when it was first systematically taught as a secular discipline. I ask my students: where do you think English was first taught as a discipline? “England?” someone will always guess, realising it seems so obvious there must be a trick.

And yes, they’re right. It’s a trick.

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Patient diagnosed with Covid-19 dies in New Zealand hospital

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Case is not being included in official Covid-19 death toll pending further investigations

A patient diagnosed with Covid-19 has died at a New Zealand hospital, the Ministry of Health has confirmed, after being transferred from a managed isolation facility for treatment of a separate, serious health condition last week.

The person, whose death was not yet being included in New Zealand’s official Covid-related death toll, was diagnosed with the virus after their admission to North Shore hospital in Auckland.

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Opportunists and smugglers: illicit trade in sacred Māori greenstone thrives

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Covid hardships mean pounamu is increasingly being targeted for its value, Indigenous leaders say

The rugged west coast of New Zealand is home to many secrets. Rivers that run flush with gold, beaches that conceal ambergris, and waterways dotted with boulders of the sacred Māori stone, pounamu.

Imbued with spiritual significance to New Zealand’s Indigenous tribes, pounamu – otherwise known as greenstone or New Zealand jade – is highly prized. For centuries Māori have fashioned it into jewellery, tools and even weapons, which could denote status or be used as ceremonial objects or symbols of peace agreements.

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Coronavirus live: France advises single vaccine dose for those who had Covid; Germany shut parts of land border

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French health authority will give one jab to previously infected people; Germany to ban travel from Czech border regions and Austria’s Tyrol

Reuters reports:

The French government has no plans for now to order local lockdown measures in the eastern area of Moselle to rein in the spread of highly contagious Covid-19 variants, health minister Olivier Veran said on Friday.

Veran told reporters that a high number of cases of the South African Covid-19 variant had been found in the region.

The World Health Organizations’ director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has discussed US support for COVAX vaccines:

I so appreciated today’s call with @CDCDirector Dr. Rochelle Walensky on our organizations' enduring partnership. It was good to discuss ‘s support for @ACTAccelerator and COVAX, #VaccinEquity, prioritizing robust public health systems, and our partnership to #EndPolio. pic.twitter.com/LVba0R3aFq

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New Zealand Covid vaccines to arrive one month early, border staff to be inoculated next week

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Jacinda Ardern says vaccination of the wider population will begin in the second half of the year

New Zealand’s first Covid-19 vaccines will arrive in the country ahead of schedule in a win for the government, which has been criticised for being too slow to procure them.

In a surprise announcement on Friday, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said hundreds of thousands of vials of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would be arriving early, and vaccinations for border staff would begin next Saturday.

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New Zealand male MPs no longer have to wear ties after Māori MP ejected

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Speaker says ties will not be required ‘appropriate business attire’ despite a committee meeting failing to reach a consensus

New Zealand’s male MPs will no longer be required to wear ties in parliament, following a row over the item of clothing that involved the speaker ejecting Māori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi from the chamber for refusing to wear one.

New Zealand parliament speaker Trevor Mallard made the announcement after a meeting on Wednesday of the standing orders committee held to discuss the issue and hear a submission from the Māori party.

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