Category Archives: New Zealand

Silver Ferns face first big test of 2020 – without Langman, Rore, Folau or Korpua

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Netball team will look quite different from World Cup-winning outfit, as they take on understrength England

The new-look Silver Ferns will take on England in their first international of 2020 without some of their biggest hitters on the court.

Captain Laura Langman is on sabbatical, as is key defender Katrina Rore, and neither will play in the inaugural Netball Nations Cup in the UK that starts on Sunday night, UK time. The Ferns will take on England, Jamaica and South Africa in the tournament; Australia’s Diamonds are not playing.

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New Zealand schools to teach students about climate crisis, activism and ‘eco anxiety’

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Changes to the curriculum will put the country at the forefront of climate crisis education worldwide

Every school in New Zealand will this year have access to materials about the climate crisis written by the country’s leading science agencies – including tools for students to plan their own activism, and to process their feelings of “eco-anxiety” over global heating.

The curriculum will put New Zealand at the forefront of climate change education worldwide; governments in neighbouring Australia and the United Kingdom have both faced criticism for lack of cohesive teaching on the climate crisis. The New Zealand scheme, which will be offered to all schools that teach 11 to 15 year-old students, will not be compulsory, the government said.

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‘I’m the last censor in the western world’: New Zealand’s David Shanks tackles the c-word

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The word is loaded with connotations of state suppression but NZ’s chief censor takes a different view

When David Shanks presents himself at international conferences, his peers recoil slightly.

“I’d introduce myself as, ‘Hi, I’m David from New Zealand. New Zealand’s chief censor,’” he says. “And basically these people would take an involuntary step backwards, almost, on many occasions.”

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White Island volcano eruption: 13 victims still in hospital a month on

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Four remain in critical condition while two people still missing after 17 killed in New Zealand disaster

More than a dozen people remain in New Zealand hospitals with life-threatening injuries a month on from the fatal eruption of Whakaari White Island.

Seventeen people have been confirmed dead following the 9 December 2018 disaster, with a further two people missing presumed dead.

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Australia’s bushfires mean New Zealand has become the land of the long pink cloud | Jim Salinger

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The impact of smoke on New Zealand’s environment, health and tourism raises the legal issue of trans-boundary air pollution

Kiwis have been shocked in recent weeks to discover their pristine glaciers turning pink, with apocalyptic orange skies covering New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland. So much so that police have been deluged with emergency calls asking what is going on, as the land of the long white cloud is turning pink (kikorangi māwhero).

The catastrophic bushfires in Australia have also affected New Zealand. Because of the impact of trans-boundary air pollution (and its effects on other countries), there are legal implications to be considered.

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New Zealand sends troops to help with Australian bushfires as Pacific nations offer support

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Jacinda Ardern says country ready to repay Australia for its help through a tough 2019 as Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu offer money and troops

Australia’s neighbouring countries, including New Zealand, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, have offered support as the country continues to fight massive bushfires burning in New South Wales and Victoria.

Members of the New Zealand military are en route to Australia to assist with the efforts, adding to the 157 New Zealand firefighters already deployed in Australia, some of whom have been assisting their Australian colleagues since October.

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New Zealand’s year of style over substance

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In 2019, politics was dominated by spin doctors PR professionals and talented communicators while a ‘Year of Delivery’ failed to do just that

Style isn’t always a bad thing in politics. There is a lot to be said for a politician who can channel emotions and values in a way that salves the soul or mobilises the masses. That’s the type of powerful leadership that makes history. Jacinda Ardern has been an exceptional world leader in this way. In 2019 the New Zealand PM responded to the 15 March terrorist attacks with an emotional and thoughtful response that was a lesson in leadership.

Understandably Ardern’s strong and appropriate statements made her the “politician of the year” in nearly every political pundit’s end-of-year summary. Similarly her pronouncement about the Muslim victims that “They are us” was clearly the quote of the year.

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What is #TurnArdern and why are New Zealanders doing it? – video

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When Jacinda Ardern's popularity irked a 66-year-old Christchurch bricklayer, he spawned the #TurnArdern movement, urging people to turn over books, magazines and other items featuring the New Zealand prime minister's face on the cover. The publicity has boosted sales of the new Ardern biography, which has spent seven weeks on New Zealand’s bestseller list, and created the #ReturnArdern countermovement, with people filming themselves turning the items the right way round again

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Hot blob: vast patch of warm water off New Zealand coast puzzles scientists

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Area of water in the Pacific Ocean is 6C hotter than normal, possibly due to a lack of wind in the region

A spike in water temperature of up to 6C above average across a massive patch of ocean east of New Zealand is likely to have been caused by an “anti-cyclone” weather system, a leading scientist says.

Appearing on heat maps as a deep red blob, the patch spans at least a million square kilometres – an area nearly 1.5 times the size of Texas, or four times larger than New Zealand – in the Pacific Ocean.

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Sky shepherds: the farmers using drones to watch their flocks by flight

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For some farmers in New Zealand, Britain and Australia, drones are not just a toy – they’re an increasingly vital tool

A shepherd is out tending a flock when a presence appears above. It descends from the sky and communicates vital information. It may sound like a nativity scene, but for an increasing number of farmers it’s a daily occurrence – and that celestial being is a drone.

Corey Lambeth, a New Zealand farmer, originally purchased a drone for photography, but he quickly realised the device had more practical applications. “I thought ‘I’ll just give it a nudge on the sheep and see what that goes like’ and it actually worked out quite well,” he says. Now, Lambeth has been using a drone “pretty much as another dog” to muster sheep for three years.

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Reasons to be fearful – the international news review of 2019

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This year world leaders struggled to manage the fallout from the erratic tenant in the White House – as China flexed its imperial muscles. We look back at the events that created the most turbulence

Click here for 2019’s reasons to be cheerful

A year of high anxiety was rendered more alarming by intensifying clashes of interest between world powers. As international cooperation declined, and nationalist agendas gathered strength, China, the US, Russia and Europe, and their respective allies, emulators and proxies, engaged in often dangerous competition.

The Chinese communist regime’s increasingly assertive behaviour at home and abroad, reflecting the authoritarian outlook of its paramount leader-for-life, Xi Jinping, produced head-on collisions with western countries, notably over Hong Kong, trade, technology and the repression of the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang.

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New Zealand would be honoured to take Behrouz Boochani. Australia be damned | Morgan Godfery

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The moral case for the former Manus island detainee becoming a citizen is as simple as ‘asylum is a human right’

I wonder if it winds up Peter Dutton to know that Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish-Iranian journalist, award-winning author and former Manus Island detainee, is a free man in the continent’s orbit. Boochani, the best-known witness, critic and victim of Australia’s offshore “processing centres”, remains in New Zealand after his 30-day visa came to an end. No one quite knows what the No Friend But the Mountains author is planning next, but it seems safe to assume that sooner or later he’ll lodge an application for asylum in New Zealand. A permanent reminder to Dutton, his predecessors and the country’s immigration detention system that they are not as close to vanishing the “boat people” problem as they might have thought.

For their part New Zealand’s policymakers fear as much with headlines suggesting if Boochani’s hypothetical asylum application is successful it could “fuel tensions with Australia”. The problem is Behrouz Boochani, New Zealander, would enjoy free movement between his new home and his old incarcerators, unless Dutton and the gang insert new exceptions in the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement. This is the “back door” the Coalition government in Canberra is so afraid of, and the political problem preventing Scott Morrison from taking up Jacinda Ardern’s invitation to resettle the last remaining detainees on Manus.

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New Zealand volcano eruption: death toll rises to 19

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Police said on Monday that another person died at an Auckland hospital overnight

The death toll from this month’s volcanic eruption in New Zealand has risen to 19 after police said that another person died at an Auckland hospital on Sunday night.

There were 47 people visiting the tourist destination of Whakaari, also known as White Island, when the volcano erupted on 9 December, killing 13 people initially and leaving more than two dozen others hospitalised with severe burns. The latest victim is the sixth person to die in hospitals in New Zealand and Australia in the two weeks since the eruption.

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Housing, inequality, climate: what the Guardian’s New Zealand readers asked Jacinda Ardern

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As an election year approaches, several key themes emerged from questions you sent in for the prime minister

As New Zealanders count down to the end of tumultuous year and look ahead to the election in 2020, the Guardian asked readers which questions they would like to pose to Jacinda Ardern.

We will publish the prime minister’s answers on Monday, but here we lay out the topics that people in New Zealand felt were the most pressing.

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New Zealand police say 56,000 guns and 194,000 parts handed over in buyback

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Authorities say nearly 3,000 guns made lawful under new scheme, as expiry to hand over firearms ended at midnight on Friday

New Zealand police have confirmed that more than 56,000 guns were handed in as part of the buyback and have praised gun owners for their response to the scheme, which ended at midnight.

“As of midnight, 20 December 2019, 56,240 firearms and 194, 245 parts have been handed in,” said deputy police commissioner, Mike Clement.

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‘It’s fine not to do it their way’: Bret McKenzie on home, Hollywood and the oddness of fame

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The Flight of the Conchords star, who is guest curating the New Zealand festival, reflects on his career and the cost of compromise

Although he’s one of Wellington’s best-known pop cultural exports – as a musician, songwriter, actor and comedian – nobody makes a fuss when Bret McKenzie arrives in a central city cafe.

Fuss wouldn’t be entirely unwarranted. McKenzie’s portrayal of a particular type of socially awkward, deadpan New Zealander helped put the country’s dry humour on the map. And the comedy duo Flight of the Conchords – in which he performs with Jemaine Clement – so enraptured Hollywood that he could still be there if he wanted to, churning out season after season of the acclaimed TV show of the same name.

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New Zealand’s gun buyback won’t change things overnight, but it will give people hope | Hera Cook

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New Zealanders who refuse to hand in their now illegal weapons may alienate the community and expose themselves to prosecution

The New Zealand gun buy back ends today. The very fact that semi-automatic weapons are now prohibited and the buyback took place is a success. Politicians, supported by 70% of the public, are changing the direction of travel for New Zealand gun culture. This country had climbed to an estimated 17th highest number of guns per capita in the world. Three decades of plaintive warnings about the need to ban semi-assault rifles before another massacre took place, had no effect.

The primary aim of the buyback is prevention of future mass killings by taking these guns out of society and compensating the previous owners. Prevention is a poor servant and a hard master.

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Something to chew on: New Zealand man sets up ‘stick library’ for dogs

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Andrew Taylor came up with the idea because of a lack of ‘good’ sticks at the local park

A New Zealand man has created a “stick library” for his local dog park as a way to recycle branches from tree pruning.

Andrew Taylor, of north Canterbury in the South Island, cut a dozen tree branches down to “stick” size for the community’s four-legged friends, and smoothed away the rough edges using tools he had around the house.

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New Zealand’s euthanasia and cannabis referendums will rightly give power to the people | Bryce Edwards

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Some politicians may fret about the consequence of a public vote on these two issues, but with an increasing suspicion of elites, it’s the best way forward

New Zealanders will take part in a world-leading double referendum next year when they vote in the country’s general election. In addition to electing a new government, one referendum question will ask about the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use, and the other will ask whether euthanasia should be legalised in certain circumstances.

It’s going to be messy, emotional, and polarised. There’s already a lot of anxiety and negativity about the referendums across the political spectrum. Much of this is influenced by the ongoing fallout from the Brexit referendum, as well as a general fear of conservative populism.

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New Zealand volcano: last two bodies may never be found, say police

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Both bodies are believed to be in the water surrounding Whakaari, with police using tidal models to expand search

The bodies of a local guide and an Australian tourist who died on Whakaari may never be recovered, New Zealand police have said, after days of bad weather hampered search efforts.

Deputy police commissioner Mike Clement told RNZ he believed both bodies were in the sea, but sonar radar and divers had been unable to find them. The search was now being widened beyond Whakaari, also known as White Island, in line with tidal modelling.

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