Category Archives: New Zealand

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...

New Zealand has put its faith in Labour: now the party must deliver | Claire Robinson

Posted on by

With its most resounding victory since 1946, the weight of expectation on Labour has never been greater

The Jacinda Ardern-led New Zealand Labour party has swept to its largest election night victory since 1946, winning 49.1% of the party vote and 64 seats in parliament. While the outcome is, in effect, a little-change election in the sense that the next government will still be led by Ardern, Labour’s victory is one for the history books. Not since the introduction of New Zealand’s Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system, has the Labour party had a mandate to govern alone.

For Labour’s former coalition partner, New Zealand First, the result was a disaster. It appears minor-party voters were no longer attracted to New Zealand First’s promises to be a handbrake on change, preferring instead to give their vote to ACT and the Greens, two parties with strong ideas about how to deal with the issues that are confronting New Zealand in the immediate future: rising house prices, income and social inequality, climate change, and the post-Covid economic recovery.

Continue reading...

New Zealanders have recognised the good luck that Jacinda Ardern is ours | Steve Braunias

Posted on by

As prime minister, Ardern inspired love and trust; now she has to do something with it

And the winner is … New Zealand. It was the happiness election – Covid fizzled out, lockdown was released, and a sense of gratitude and sheer joy buoyed Jacinda Ardern through a long campaign to Saturday’s landslide victory.

“Let’s keep moving,” Labour’s campaign slogan urged, but in reality it was much more a case of: “Let’s stick with what we’ve got, so actually let’s not, you know, move.” The alternative – National’s Judith Collins – was too appalling a prospect.

Continue reading...

New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern condemns divisive elections in victory speech – video

Posted on by

Jacinda Ardern condemns divisive elections during victory speech, saying polls 'don’t need to tear people apart'. Her words were interpreted as a veiled allusion to the divisive US election, which take place in two weeks.

The Labour party secured a landslide victory with its best result in five decades after Ardern emphasised kindness and cooperation during her first term, and told voters she needed a second term to deliver on her promises of transformational change

Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern’s first term as New Zealand’s prime minister – in pictures

Posted on by

Jacinda Ardern has secured a second term as leader after a resounding victory in the country’s general election. The Labour leader had led a coalition government since October 2017, ending nearly a decade of National rule. During her first term Ardern had to deal with responses to the Christchurch terrorist atrocity, the Whakaari volcano eruption and the Covid-19 pandemic. She gave birth to her first child, Neve, in June 2018

Continue reading...

NZ election 2020: Jacinda Ardern thanks New Zealand amid Labour landslide – live results

Posted on by

Judith Collins concedes as results show Labour on track for a large majority. Follow live:

A tweet from 2012 by Jacinda Ardern in which the newly reelected New Zealand prime minister is less than complimentary about the British prime minister Boris Johnson is being circulated once more on social media.

Are people really discussing Boris Johnson as possible candidate for PM? When I lived in London he was known as the gaffe man!

Thanks Helen.

David Seymour, the leader of the libertarian ACT party, has been pictured arriving at his election celebration on a boat – with his party set to win 10 seats, tied with the Greens.

David Seymour arriving at the Act party by boat – exclusive photo by our man on the ground, @duncangreive pic.twitter.com/6jsTPVoQm3

Brutal scenes. @JohnJCampbell offering Nikki Kaye lollies as consolation #NZElection2020 #nzpol pic.twitter.com/jOdSTZUr8f

Continue reading...