Actor and director is made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit and joins more than 170 New Zealanders on the list
Oscar-winning director Taika Waititi has been honoured on New Zealand’s Queen’s birthday list for services to film.
The 44-year-old Māori man who hails from the east coast of the North Island has been made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Continue reading...Swaths of coastline covered with squat lobster, which cling to the sand at high tide and then perish
The sandy beaches of Otago in the deep south of New Zealand have turned blood red after millions of squat lobster died in a series of mass strandings.
Locals in the small coastal communities of Broad Bay and Edwards Bay, who have seen whole swaths of coastline saturated in colour, reported the phenomenon to the national broadcaster this week.
Continue reading...Vision for commercial fishing to reduce deaths to zero is right, but implementation will fall short
From our hotly contested Bird of the Year competition, to the constant updates from backyard bird watchers during lockdown, it’s safe to say New Zealand is a nation of avian obsessives.
It’s hardly surprising given our history. This small island nation has been shaped by bird life like no other, with endemic species part of our national identity. From the Kākāpō to the Kiwi, we share our home with some of the most unique feathered creatures on the planet.
Continue reading...Many of us recognised ourselves in the PM’s cool response to an earthquake on live TV, but we do fear the ‘big one’
As I awoke to the bedroom shuddering and rattling around me on Monday morning, my first thought was a frantic household census, followed by the realisation that I was alone at home and not responsible for anyone’s safety but my own. My second, before my eyes had even properly unstuck themselves from sleep, was: “Ugh, not this again.”
Moments later, the earthquake – a magnitude 5.9 shake that hit about an hour’s drive north of Wellington, New Zealand, where I live – was subsiding. It rattled the lower part of the North Island for just 15 seconds or so, long enough for a little tendril of fear to uncurl – would it build, or die away? Was this “the big one”?
Continue reading...Leader says she can feel ‘quite a decent shake here’ as the 5.8 quake strikes during a live interview
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has developed a reputation for keeping her cool in the face of a crisis. But an earthquake first thing on Monday morning as she was interviewed live on television seemed like an unusually trying way to start a week.
“We’re just having a bit of an earthquake here,” Ardern told Ryan Bridge, a host for Newshub’s AM Show, live on air. Casting her eyes to the ceiling of the room she was standing in at New Zealand’s parliament in Wellington, she remained in place as the television camera jolted.
Continue reading...The new opposition leader must win back centrist voters, just four months out from the election
It was never a foregone conclusion, but with three poll results in the last three weeks putting National’s support at around 30%, the chances of Bridges remaining as leader were increasingly slim. By 1pm on 22 May, the parliamentary National party had sealed his, and deputy Paula Bennett’s, fate.
The new leader, Todd Muller, now faces the unenviable task of clawing back the centre right voters who appear, for now, to have deserted National in droves.
Continue reading...International praise for Covid response and her rebuilding of traditional Labour support has been astute, but PM must address women’s wellbeing
The gendered dimensions of political leadership during the Covid-19 crisis has achieved global proportions, with headlines claiming that women are doing things differently, and with better results. Much of this is assertion, given Vietnam and Georgia, amongst other countries with male leaders, have also seen successful containment. We have also witnessed some pushback against the policy decisions taken by Belgian prime minister Sophie Wilmès.
Nevertheless, the novelty of women political leaders remains newsworthy, and the media’s go-to international “face’” of those women who have managed this crisis exceptionally well is Jacinda Ardern.
Continue reading...New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has suggested employers consider a four-day working week and other flexible working options as a way to boost tourism and help employees address persistent work/life balance issues.
Ardern said people had suggested everything from the shorter work week to more public holidays as a means to stimulate the economy and encourage domestic tourism, while the borders remain closed to foreign nationals
Continue reading...Prime minister says flexible working options can boost productivity and domestic tourism and improve work/life balance
New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has suggested employers consider a four-day working week and other flexible working options as a way to boost tourism and help employees address persistent work/life balance issues.
In a Facebook live video Ardern said people had suggested everything from the shorter work week to more public holidays as a means to stimulate the economy and encourage domestic tourism, while the borders remain closed to foreign nationals.
Continue reading...As countries around the world adjust to life with Covid-19, people are finding new ways to enjoy themselves responsibly. From the restaurant using plush pandas to help with social distancing, to a drive-in rave in Germany, these are the week’s most cheering clips
Continue reading...By taking out a mortgage against the economy, the government is investing in jobs and our economic recovery
With the economic storm of the Covid-19 pandemic raging on, the government has opened the umbrella to shield New Zealand from an even worse economic fate and set the foundation for its recovery. Although the finance minister, Grant Robertson, has accepted that the government can’t save every job, Thursday’s announcements show he is doing everything he can to save as many as possible.
Overall, New Zealand’s 2020 budget was one of the most comprehensive economic packages seen around the world, walking the fine line between responding to the crisis and keeping up economic momentum, while setting down the conditions for recovery and rebuilding.
Continue reading...Eight thousand new houses promised but 15,000 are on wait lists; experts worry mental health not a focus, one year after ‘Wellbeing’ budget
New Zealand’s most vulnerable people have been neglected by the government as it desperately attempts to kickstart the economy following a seven-week lockdown, advocates say.
The country of 5 million has been in strict lockdown for seven weeks and the International Monetary Fund is predicting the economy could contract by as much as 8%, while thousands have joined the dole queue during the pandemic.
Continue reading...New Zealand school principal writes tune to help children returning to classes after lockdown
It is regularly cited as the most hated word in the English language and even Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has visibly struggled while using it. But now the word “moist” is being deployed for good – in a song written by a New Zealand school principal that aims to helps children observe social distancing guidelines.
Shirley Șerban of Lake Brunner school in the South Island penned the song Moist Breath Zone as a health and safety message for students returning to school after the Covid-19 lockdown.
Continue reading...After joining a meeting of Australia's national cabinet, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern explains the reasoning behind possibly easing travel restrictions between the two countries in a future trans-Tasman bubble. While Australia and New Zealand have both had success in slowing the spread of Covid-19, Ardern adds there remains a lot of work to be done before travel between the countries can recommence
Continue reading...More than 50% of voters must say yes to the proposed changes for parliament to consider the changes
New Zealanders will be asked at September’s national election whether they want to pass a bill that would legalise cannabis and regulate how it is used and sold. This will include producing and selling fresh and dried cannabis, including plants and seeds – for people over 20 years old. The change would impose more stringent restrictions than the rules around sales of alcohol and tobacco.
Continue reading...Many Pacific nations are Covid-free and their economies depend on tourism. Cautiously restarting travel there could be an important move
As Australia and New Zealand tentatively celebrate successes in their battles to bring Covid-19 under control, Winston Peters, New Zealand’s deputy prime minister, has raised the possibility of the two nations opening up travel to one another.
The mooted “trans-Tasman bubble” would allow travel between these two countries, which seem – for now – to have brought infection rates under control, while keeping their borders with the rest of the world closed or tightly managed.
Continue reading...Plenty of countries with male leaders have also done well. But few with female leaders have done badly
On 1 April, the prime minister of Sint Maarten addressed her nation’s 41,500 people. Coronavirus cases were rising, and Silveria Jacobs knew the small island country, which welcomes 500,000 tourists a year, was at great risk: it had two ICU beds.
Jacobs did not want to impose a strict lockdown, but she did want physical distancing observed. So she spelled it out: “Simply. Stop. Moving,” she said. “If you don’t have the bread you like in your house, eat crackers. Eat cereal. Eat oats. Eat … sardines.”
Continue reading...Jenny McGee says British PM ‘absolutely’ needed to be in intensive care and tells of surreal experience of swapping emojis with Jacinda Ardern
The New Zealand intensive care nurse thanked by British prime minister Boris Johnson has revealed he was treated like “any other patient” – and originally thought his praise was a prank.
Jenny McGee said she had not been told of the public praise in advance. “My first reaction was that it was a joke. I thought my friends were playing a joke on me … it was totally out of the blue,” she told TVNZ.
Continue reading...New Zealand climate minister says governments must not just return to the way things were, and instead plot a new course to ease climate change
James Shaw, New Zealand’s climate change minister, has asked the country’s independent climate change commission to check whether its emissions targets under the Paris agreement are enough to limit global heating to 1.5C. He explains why he’s prioritising the issue during a strict national lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19, which could send New Zealand’s unemployment rate soaring.
To say that we find ourselves in an unprecedented moment is so obvious and has been so often repeated it’s almost become white noise. What is less obvious, however, is where we go from here.
Continue reading...Volunteers in the Wellington tap micro-grant scheme to ensure vulnerable people are not left left without essentials
When Lauryn Miller was forced to stay at home during New Zealand’s stringent Covid-19 lockdown, which has barred everyone but essential workers from leaving their houses, she jumped at the chance “to do something for anyone”.
Miller, 34, who usually works as a librarian in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington – and lives in the quiet, beachfront suburb of Lyall Bay – has been helping, along with her friends, to deliver food parcels to people nearby who have been left vulnerable during the four-week national shutdown.
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