Category Archives: New Zealand

New Zealand floods: first ever red weather warning issued as thousands evacuated

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South Island’s southernmost region cut off amid fears paper mill could release toxic ammonia if chemicals mix with floodwaters

Part of New Zealand’s South Island has become cut off after days of torrential rains washed away roads, forced the evacuation of 2,000 people and saw the country’s MetService issue its first ever red weather warning.

The flooding across the flat agricultural plains of Southland, in the island’s southernmost end, came a day after hikers and tourists were evacuated from another part of the region, Fiordland, where more than a metre of rain had fallen in less than three days.

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Drone footage shows extent of flooding in New Zealand’s South Island – video

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Drone footage shows extent of flooding in New Zealand's South Island. Southland, on the southernmost tip, has become cut off after floodwaters washed away roads. Two thousand people have needed evacuation amid storms that forced the MetService to issue their first ever red weather warning

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The treaty of Waitangi was forged to exclude Māori women – we must right that wrong | Emma Espiner

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The signing of the treaty marks the point at which Māori women began to be written out of history

This week, to mark Waitangi Day, the Guardian is publishing five pieces of commentary from Māori writers.

This year I’m not interested in the symbolism of what Jacinda Ardern does or doesn’t do or say at Waitangi. I’m looking to the Mana Wāhine Kaupapa inquiry. Nearly 30 years since it was instigated, the inquiry investigates the role of the Crown in contributing to the disadvantage that has inequitably burdened wāhine Māori since the Treaty was signed. At the end of this month a judicial conference will be held to consider the claims.

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New Zealand flooding: helicopter footage shows landslides and ruined roads – video

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Fiordland in New Zealand’s South Island has been deluged by 1.1 metres of rain in the past three days alone, stranding hikers, causing landslides and washing away roads. The region usually receives about 10 metres of rain a year. Video from helicopters shows the extent of the destruction. Nearly 400 people in the township of Milford Sound have been cut off by the flooding after roads had to be closed

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New Zealand: 100 hikers cut off after deluge destroys roads and sparks landslides

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Two hikers injured by landslide as helicopters ferry those stranded to nearby town in South Island

About 100 hikers are being rescued by helicopter after becoming stranded overnight on popular bush tracks in New Zealand’s South Island when a month’s rainfall in a single day washed out roads and bridges and caused flooding and landslides.

Eight helicopters and waiting buses ferried the hikers stuck in shelters in Fiordland – and about 70 drivers trapped on the Milford Road – to safety in the town of Te Anau. Two of the hikers were injured when the hut they were sheltering in was hit by a landslide.

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Forget anti-racism. This Waitangi Day demand our land back | Morgan Godfery

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Land loss is at the heart of every Indigenous struggle and our national day is a reminder that Māori are still fighting for self-governance

This week, to mark Waitangi Day, the Guardian is publishing five pieces of commentary from Māori writers.

One reason progressives love committing to anti-racism rather than, say, decolonisation is the former requires nothing more than a state of mind. “I’m not racist” – drop the spoken or unspoken “but” – and congratulations, you can wash away the guilt.

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We must dismantle our colonial system and rebuild it with Māori at the heart | Tina Ngata

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Waitangi 2020 is the year for us to prepare for a national discussion on power in Aotearoa, and rights for Māori on Māori land


This week, to mark Waitangi Day, the Guardian is publishing five pieces of commentary from Māori writers.

For many in Aotearoa, Waitangi Day is still a warm mid-summer holiday. A day to relax with friends, or perhaps to celebrate our nationhood.

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This election is do or die for NZ First and the fight could get dirty | Bryce Edwards

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Winston Peters has been a kingmaker for years but faces a National backlash after helping Labour into office

Winston Peters is a colossus of New Zealand politics, and his New Zealand First party is, once again, poised to be the lynchpin in this year’s election campaign. But so much hinges on whether his party makes it over the electoral system’s all-important 5% threshold.

Being the only centre party in parliament has made NZ First incredibly powerful. It can, and does, pivot between the left and right blocs of Labour-Greens and National-Act. Since 1996 when New Zealand adopted the mixed-member proportional electoral system, NZ First has decided the government three times – throwing its lot in with National once and Labour twice.

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New Zealand election: Jacinda Ardern promises stability as she sets poll date

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Vote on 19 September will also see referendums on legalising euthanasia and recreational marijuana

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced her country’s next general election will be held on 19 September, firing the starting pistol on a campaign race lasting more than seven months.

On Tuesday, Ardern said the forthcoming election campaign would be “positive, factual and robust”, and that her party had signed up to Facebook’s advertising transparency tool to counter misinformation.

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Ardern: New Zealand election race should be free of misinformation – video

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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces the next general election will be held on 19 September and promises a transparent campaign free of misinformation. She says Labour has signed up to Facebook's advertising transparency tool, adding: 'New Zealanders deserve freedom from misinformation and some of the negative style of campaigning that we have seen take place overseas in the past.' Ardern says Labour will also have its major policy costings independently verified.

She says Labour has run 'a strong economy with low unemployment and growth rates that others look to with envy, outstripping countries we often compare ourselves to, like Australia and the UK while making critical investments in health and education and reducing child poverty.'

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Jacinda Ardern lets phone call from Scott Morrison go to voicemail – video

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The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, lets a phone call from her Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, go to voicemail during a press conference. Ardern was speaking about the idea of cooperating with Australia on an evacuation of citizens from Australia and New Zealand from coronavirus-hit Wuhan, China

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Aiming for the stars: how New Zealand’s space industry is causing turbulence

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The once-sleepy Mahia peninsula is now the site of regular rocket launches but a plan to put US spy satellites into space is causing concern

Life on the Mahia peninsula on New Zealand’s North Island used to be quiet: surfing beaches, historical monuments, and good snapper fishing.

Then space came to town.

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New Zealand needs to show it’s serious about addressing Chinese interference | Anne-Marie Brady

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Wellington has restricted foreign political donations but its lax approach to Beijing suggests economic interests still trump national security concerns

Transparency International announced yesterday that New Zealand is the least corrupt country in the world. This is excellent news, but New Zealand cannot afford to rest on its laurels.

Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index assesses whether countries have a corrupt judiciary and public sector. Some other aspects where corruption can also occur, such as political funding, are not included in the index.

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White Island eruption: last two missing victims declared dead

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Police said Hayden Marshall-Inman of New Zealand and Winona Langford of Australia perished in the disaster

The death toll has risen to 20 from the volcanic eruption on New Zealand’s White Island last month, as two people still missing were officially confirmed dead.

The two people were Hayden Marshall-Inman of New Zealand and Winona Langford of Australia, police said on Thursday.

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The haka isn’t yours – stop performing it | Morgan Godfery

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Ever more non-Māori are doing the haka – but shouldn’t be unless its integrity is preserved

I wonder if any of the French lawyers protesting their government’s pension reform with a haka, the Māori dance form, have ever set foot in New Zealand?

For a good number of white people, including white New Zealanders, haka is apparently irresistible. “Ka Mate”, the Ngāti Toa haka the All Blacks perform pre-match, delights global audiences every year. Contemporary teams take it dead seriously, but in the late-19th and early-20th century the mostly white team would turn to the British crowds, slapping their thighs and hanging their tongues out for “entertainment”.

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New Zealand has been a life-raft for unique species – now they must adapt or die | Erica Wilkinson

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Our nation has been in a biodiversity crisis for more than 100 years, but the climate crisis could push our at-risk animals to the brink

As world leaders debate how to curb emissions to shape a better tomorrow, for New Zealand’s iconic wildlife the reality is clear – the environment they once thrived in has rapidly changed and species must adapt to survive.

New Zealand is home to species found nowhere else in the world – a flightless parrot, a reptile as old as the dinosaurs, a bat that uses folded wings as “limbs” to scramble around on the forest floor. The unique wildlife thrived on a landmass that was essentially a life-raft separated from predators such as rats and stoats for 80m years.

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‘Earth sandwich’: two men, two slices of bread and 12,724km of filling

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Men in New Zealand and Spain calculated longitude and latitude to perfectly align both slices

An Auckland university student has created an “earth sandwich” with a stranger in Spain, after a long search for an accomplice.

Etienne Naude, 19, placed a slice of white bread on the ground at Bucklands Beach in Auckland, using longitude and latitude to ensure he was precisely opposite a volunteer he had found in the south of Spain after posting for help on Reddit.

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Climate refugees can’t be returned home, says landmark UN human rights ruling

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Experts say judgment is ‘tipping point’ that opens the door to climate crisis claims for protection

It is unlawful for governments to return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by the climate crisis, a landmark ruling by the United Nations human rights committee has found.

The judgment – which is the first of its kind – represents a legal “tipping point” and a moment that “opens the doorway” to future protection claims for people whose lives and wellbeing have been threatened due to global heating, experts say.

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Laptops stolen in burglary at New Zealand’s National party headquarters

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Thieves broke in to the office in Auckland on Sunday night or Monday morning

The National party’s headquarters have been burgled, its deputy leader, Paula Bennett, has revealed, with three laptops stolen in the “serious” incident overnight.

The break-in occurred on Sunday night or Monday morning at the party’s Auckland office, Bennett told local media, and the burglar had triggered the office’s alarm system.

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