Woman sentenced in New Zealand for biosecurity violations after hiding plant material inside stockings
A woman has been sentenced in New Zealand after being caught trying to smuggle nearly 1,000 cacti and succulents strapped to her body.
Wenqing Li, known as Wendy, pleaded guilty at the Manukau district court to charges under two separate violations of biosecurity laws, attempting to bring in plants from China.
Continue reading...Country has already set up direct deals but is entitled to receive jabs from programme for poorer countries
Canada is set to receive a significant haul of vaccines over the next months through a platform designed to maximise supply to poor countries, according to a new forecast, despite reserving the most doses-per-person in the world through direct deals with pharmaceutical companies.
Chile and New Zealand, which have also made controversial side deals to secure their own vaccine supplies, will also receive above-average numbers of doses, according to the interim allocation schedule released by Covax on Wednesday.
Continue reading...She is impossible to miss, understands both sides of the Māori debate and speaks up on foreign policy in a way that works well for Jacinda Ardern
In a room of dignitaries, New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta is impossible to miss.
She is the first woman to sit in the country’s parliament wearing a moko kauae, an ancient Māori tattoo form. Koru patterns wrap around her chin, framing it in rich black inks, a visual statement that “I am Māori”.
Continue reading...New Zealanders may be taking an interest in learning reo but the system seems hell-bent on making it difficult
This year I am studying a full immersion te reo Māori course at the renowned Te Wānanga o Takiura. Like many other Māori, I’ve spent my adult years using my own time, money, energy, and resources in an attempt to learn the language of my ancestors. A language that was stolen from my whānau because Te Tiriti of Waitangi was not honoured. So here I am, out of complete desperation, trying to reclaim and hopefully become fluent in te reo Māori.
At a glance, it seems New Zealanders are taking an interest in learning reo. The number of teenagers studying te reo Māori at secondary school has passed 30,000 for the first time. Māori Made Easy, a language study book by Scotty Morrison, has become a staple in every household. There are waiting lists across the country to get into part-time te reo classes. If this is the case, why won’t the Labour government commit to making te reo Māori compulsory in schools?
Continue reading...Prioritising Māori for the vaccine would be a concrete sign the government is committed to improving our health
A Māori doctor on the government’s immunisation implementation advisory group, Dr Rawiri Jansen, said recently that Māori would be prioritised in the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out. A predictable outcry ensued, with familiar protestations about “race-based policy” and convenient ignorance displayed about the other priority groups being discussed – the elderly, those with known risk factors, front-line workers.
New Zealand’s first Covid-19 community case in months was confirmed two weeks out from Waitangi Day. The new case is awkwardly located in Northland – the site of the annual commemorations of the signing of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, an event attended by politicians, iwi leaders, whānau, lobbyists and tourists from all over the country.
Continue reading...Changes called for will require rapid and sweeping regulation in all areas of society from transport to forestry
The New Zealand Climate Change Commission has released their first package of advice for public consultation. The advice covers the first three carbon budgets (out to 2035) and provides a detailed plan on how to achieve them.
As many aspects of the country’s climate policies have been criticised as weak – from the “split gas” approach in which not all gases need to reach net zero emissions by 2050, to an over-reliance on commercial forestry, to a past failure to cut emissions and future projections that miss targets – the commission’s first major report has been keenly anticipated on all sides.
Continue reading...Three years after the prime minister asked Māori to hold her to account, many are disillusioned with her government
In an oft-repeated story New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has recalled how growing up in the small, largely Māori town of Murupara, she would see children going to school hungry, and with no shoes on their feet.
It was these scenes of entrenched inequality and poverty, often along racial lines, that drove a teenage Ardern into the Labour party, where she has dedicated herself to combating child poverty.
Continue reading...Restrictions imposed in Perth, Peel and south-west, with schools suspended and residents only allowed to leave home for essential reasons
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Western Australia has imposed a five-day lockdown in metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the state’s south-west region amid fears a hotel quarantine worker who has tested positive to Covid-19 has contracted the highly contagious UK variant.
South Australia and Victoria shut its borders to the affected areas late on Sunday evening, and in other states and territories, WA residents were told to immediately go into self-isolation, potentially creating chaos in Canberra where MPs had flown in for the resumption of parliament this week.
Continue reading...More electric vehicles, renewable energy and forests are among the steps recommended to help meet Paris accords
New Zealand needs to urgently increase its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if it is to meet its obligations under the Paris climate accords.
The country’s climate change commission – an independent body – has delivered its draft advice to the prime minister, on the vital steps that must be taken if it wants to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.
Continue reading...Book extract: A lot of things will change as a result of this pandemic and it’s clear the recovery won’t be marked by a discrete event
In 1844, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote: “Whoever has learnt to be anxious in the right way, has learnt the ultimate.”
I’m no Kierkegaard, but I think he may have been on to something. The anxiety we may be experiencing in these coronavirus times might be something that feels different, deeper, and beyond perhaps your usual fear or anxiety about day-to-day troubles. This feels more existential.
Continue reading...The New Zealand foreign minister’s moko has become international news, but beyond an identifier, our tatau are a link to ancestors, a vessel for our cultures’ stories, and a tribute to those who have gone before
Shortly before my interview with six Europeans at a roundtable in Germany, I gently covered my hand tattoo with a skin-toned foundation.
I knew that without the proper context, they would stereotype me in the western sense and presume me either a criminal or at least uneducated or unprofessional. A perception of tattooing common on that side of the world.
Continue reading...Albanese pins election hopes on major reshuffle; Australia extends travel bubble suspension with NZ; Another 350 jobs to go at Virgin Australia. Follow the latest updates live
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Guardian Australia contacted CSL to ask for more information about why the manufacturing company did not send a representative to appear before the Senate Covid-19 Committee.
While CSL told the Committee it was too busy to appear, other major companies, including Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have appeared. Pfizer appeared despite currently trying to meet a tight deadline of delivering its vaccine for roll-out in Australia by the end of the month.
It is totally disrespectful for CSL, the recipient of $1.7 billion in taxpayer funded vaccine related contracts, to refuse to appear before today’s Senate COVID Committee. If they won’t respect the Senate’s request, they should expect a ‘subpoena’. #auspol https://t.co/ZS3gMO8VoE
CSL appreciates invitation to attend the Senate Select Committee Hearing on COVID-19. Due to our commitment to urgently deliver 50 million doses of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine we are unable to resource our participation at this time.
In response to the global pandemic, CSL employees allocated to the COVID-19 vaccine program are fully focussed and working around the clock to ensure vaccines are available for use in Australia as soon as possible. We will be in a better position to consider a similar invitation later in the year.
Virgin Australia has cut another 350 jobs, this time at its head office in Brisbane, the Australian Services Union says.
It comes on top of more than 3000 sackings at the airline since it was bought by US investment group Bain Capital last year after going into administration due to the coronavirus crisis.
Continue reading...Countries trying to eliminate the virus have been far more successful and economically better off than those that have tried to suppress it
The past year of Covid-19 has taught us that it is the behaviour of governments, more than the behaviour of the virus or individuals, that shapes countries’ experience of the crisis. Talking about pandemic waves has given the virus far too much agency: until quite recently the apparent waves of infection were driven by government action and inaction. It is only now with the emergence of more infectious variants that it might be appropriate to talk about a true second wave.
As governments draw up their battle plans for year two, we might expect them to base their strategies on the wealth of data about what works best. And the evidence to date suggests that countries pursuing elimination of Covid-19 are performing much better than those trying to suppress the virus. Aiming for zero-Covid is producing more positive results than trying to “live with the virus”.
Continue reading...Two people had completed isolation at the same Auckland hotel as Sunday’s case, which was New Zealand’s first in months
Two more returnees who stayed at the same New Zealand hotel at the same time as Sunday’s coronavirus case have tested positive after finishing their quarantine.
The two people are asymptomatic and had already completed their managed isolation at Auckland’s Pullman hotel and returned two negative tests, the Department of Health said.
Continue reading...The country’s most visible scientist worries Kiwis aren’t doing their bit when it comes to preventing another mass outbreak
On Christmas morning, Siouxsie Wiles got a call from her father-in-law. He he had woken up feeling fluey after attending an event a few days before.
As he spoke, Wiles looked up his closest Covid-19 testing centre on her phone. “I recommend you give them a call,” she told him, “because you are not coming for Christmas dinner.”
Continue reading...The first community case for two months is a reminder that our freedom to go to the office is something to be appreciated
A chap working in the prime minister’s department mentions in passing that he’s on holiday in Golden Bay, that amazing republic of long, empty beaches lapped by the Tasman ocean, at the top of the South Island. “Too much sand,” he texts. “Too much sun.” He’s plainly in heaven. In normal circumstances I’d hate someone for enjoying a holiday while I’m back at work but things are different this year.
Most working New Zealanders are back to the grind after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Schools start next week. Parliament resumes on 7 February. Business as usual, but there’s something light-hearted about it in 2021. The tedium and drab necessity of returning to work is tempered by the knowledge that it’s not that bad, that it could be a lot worse. The mere fact we can move around the towns and cities, squeeze into elevators, and mooch around with each other in offices and cafes and doctor’s waiting rooms and any confined space you care to name, is a joy. Freedom isn’t just the open road; freedom is also a day measured in paperclips and paper jams. It’s a freedom denied other countries in lockdown.
Continue reading...Indigenous methods of tackling ecological problems were developed by dint of necessity - there is no better impetus for success
When I was taught how to trap possums, I was encouraged to combine the traditional knowledge of my Māori ancestors with modern technologies. An example of this is when the kawakawa plant bears fruit – the best lure to use is cinnamon. This is because the scents complement each other in the forest, to which the possums become attracted.
I assumed this was also the case when taught to use curry powder as a lure for when the hangehange flowers blossom. Instead, it was because wasps were very active at the time and I learned curry powder is one of the few lures to which wasps are not attracted; and no one wants to fiddle with traps covered in wasps!
Continue reading...While the departure of the child welfare boss is welcome, social justice for Māori children in the state care system is a long way off
The resignation of Oranga Tamariki boss Gráinne Moss signals the end of a protracted ideological dispute over child protection policy. But as is often the case with social work in liberal capitalist states, this represents the end of a specific battle rather than the resolution of a long-running war.
Continue reading...Decades-old tradition is grounded as priority shifts to tackling other drugs, such as meth
Helicopters that have for decades taken to the skies of New Zealand every year to search for cannabis-growing operations will stay on the ground this year amid a shift in policing priorities.
Light aircraft and helicopters have mounted aerial surveillance operations searching for the banned class C drug since the 1970s, but police now say their resources could be better deployed, particularly in the fight against methamphetamine, known locally as P.
Continue reading...Chris Liddell says he is staying for Trump’s last days to help manage a ‘volatile’ time, but after Biden takes office he seems destined for a return home
He is Trump’s trusty New Zealander, his right-hand man, one of only a handful of advisers to have seen him through all four years of his presidency – not to mention, an “amazing friend” of the family.
But being among the last Trump staffers standing after the siege of the Capitol seems sure to limit Chris Liddell’s options as he oversees the presidential transition – and finds himself out of a job.
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