Joseph Auga Matamata, who brought people to Hastings where they were forced to work without pay and subjected to abuse, also convicted of slavery
A New Zealand-based Samoan chief has been found guilty of human trafficking and using 13 of his countrymen as slaves over a 25 year period.
Joseph Auga Matamata, 65, also known as Villiamu Samu, was found guilty on 10 counts of trafficking and 13 counts of slavery following a five-week trial at the High Court in Napier.
Continue reading...Thousands in limbo around the world as vessels seek a port at which to dock
As countries scramble to close their borders in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of cruise ship passengers are stranded on the high seas while their vessels seek a port at which to dock.
The Norwegian Jewel, sailing under the flag of the Bahamas, has been refused permission to dock in French Polynesia, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, and is piloting to American Samoa to refuel.
Continue reading...Independence movement lodges documents in high court arguing $45bn fund invests in illegally mined fertiliser
The Western Sahara liberation movement has taken New Zealand’s superannuation fund to the country’s highest court over its investments in farms that use phosphate illegally mined in the occupied territory.
New Zealand is one of the few remaining countries – and last western nation – that accepts imports from the contested territory in West Africa, forcibly occupied by Morocco since 1975. Morocco’s claims to the territory are largely unrecognised internationally.
Continue reading...New Zealand has called off a national remembrance service to mark a year since the attacks on two Christchurch mosques because of concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. The event, which was to be held in the city on Sunday, was expected to attract a large crowd of people from across the country and overseas
Continue reading...I worry we don’t have enough resources and skills locally to adequately monitor threats in our community
In the hours after the Christchurch mosque attacks on March 15 last year, I wrote that I hoped New Zealand would finally stop believing it was immune to far-right extremist violence. A year on, I’m not sure enough has changed.
I’ve researched far-right extremism for decades – and I would argue it remains a high-level threat in New Zealand, not just overseas.
Continue reading...Maysoon Salama, whose son was killed in the massacre, says survivors miss their loved ones, but are working hard to bring the community together
At the childcare centre my husband and I run in Christchurch, most of the children would have had somebody in their family who was injured during the attack or knew somebody who was injured.
Five of the children lost parents; lost their fathers. One of them was my granddaughter, Aya. And we had several whose parents were traumatised or injured. Some of the children were hearing a lot of things at home.
Continue reading...On International Women’s Day, let’s commit to properly compensating women for the unpaid and underpaid work they have always done
The world would stop running were it not for the unpaid and underpaid work undertaken by women. It is past time for our contribution to be recognised, and remunerated fairly. Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we are creating a new process to appropriately value the caring work traditionally undertaken by women.
It started in 2013, when a care and support worker named Kristine Bartlett, supported by her union (E Tū), filed a pay equity claim under the Equal Pay Act 1972. She made the case that the caring work she did was undervalued because it was mainly performed by women. This was compared to work that was male-dominated but required a similar level of skill, effort and responsibilities.
Continue reading...As the first anniversary of the atrocity that shocked New Zealand looms, victims struggle with enduring trauma – but also carry a sense of hope
At first, Hisham al Zarzour couldn’t remember what had happened. Later, he tried to forget. Lying beneath the bodies of other worshippers at Al Noor mosque in Christchurch last March as a gunman fired again and again, he prayed that Allah would send him back to Syria to die.
There, war had been a way of life. Chaos became normal. But the violence in peaceful New Zealand came just seven months after the sleepy, leafy city had become his home. That something so barbaric could happen in his place of refuge was unbearable.
Continue reading...Owner of a home that measures just 8m by 3m wins high profile three-year legal battle with government over rates and regulations
Yachts and caravans have all served as home for Alan Dall but it is his tiny house in Canterbury that has finally claimed his heart and where he’s firmly put down roots after 25 years of transient living.
Measuring just eight metres long and three metres wide, Dall’s tiny home has become something of an inspiration for the movement, with his fight to retain its status potentially having lasting ramifications around the country.
Continue reading...New Zealand Oscar winner to develop animated show based on the beloved Roald Dahl book
The Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi has signed a deal with Netflix to write, direct and produce two animated series based on the works of the children’s author, Roald Dahl.
The entertainment giant said Waititi’s collaboration with Netflix would be “based on the world and characters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, while the second series would be a “wholly original take” on the Oompa-Loompas, the diminutive and mysterious workers who dispense chocolate, and sometimes cautionary advice, at Willy Wonka’s factory.
Continue reading...Ahead of the first anniversary, New Zealand First’s Shane Jones goes into election mode and stokes racial tensions
Isn’t it astonishing that, not even two weeks out from the Christchurch shooting’s first anniversary, the senior cabinet minister Shane Jones – an MP for New Zealand First, a party you could arguably describe as our local Ukip branch – is basing his re-election campaign on stoking anti-immigrant racism.
In a television sit-down last weekend the “retail politician” – Jones’s words – went after the Indian community, blaming its students for “ruining” New Zealand universities and arguing the country was opening the doors too widely to immigrants from “New Delhi”. He guaranteed that only New Zealand First would cut immigration. Labour, in Jones’s telling, is too “PC” to make the necessary cuts, and National are apparently in the pocket of Johnny foreigner taking big-money donations from overseas contributors. They won’t follow through either.
Continue reading...Turkish Angora roams tattoo parlours, office towers and churches, posing for social media snapshots along the way
A feline that roams New Zealand’s capital city and is welcomed into tattoo parlours, hairdressers and office towers has become a social media star, with 30,000 followers who track his every movement online.
Mittens first came to attention in 2018 after repeatedly wandering inner-city dwellings, including the university, the post office, and a Catholic church. Mittens was also reportedly taken to the police station by concerned locals.
Continue reading...The partner of the woman, who flew to Auckland via Singapore and is now in isolation, is also showing symptoms and is being tested
A second case of coronavirus has been confirmed in New Zealand, with the infected woman having recently arrived in the country from Italy.
The latest infection is a New Zealand citizen, a woman in her early 30s who recently returned from a trip to northern Italy and rapidly became ill.
Continue reading...Australia’s home affairs minister had linked New Zealand prime minister’s comments to her upcoming re-election bid
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has brushed off criticism from Australia’s home affairs minister Peter Dutton, saying his policy decisions are “regrettable”.
At her weekly news conference in Wellington on Monday, Ardern was scathing about Dutton’s criticism of her recent meeting with Scott Morrison, saying it was not her plain-talking that was to blame for increasing tensions between the neighbours – but Australia’s policy decisions on immigration matters which were hurting Kiwis.
Continue reading...The New Zealand prime minister said the Australian government's policy of deporting NZ citizens, no matter how long they had spent in Australia, was “testing” the friendship between the two nations, at a joint press conference in Sydney on Friday.
Jacinda Ardern lashes Scott Morrison for 'testing' friendship over deportations to New Zealand
The New Zealand prime minister was justified in taking Scott Morrison to task over a policy that is both spurious and damaging
We’ve seen this movie before.
Then, in Love Actually, Hugh Grant played the unlikely prime minister of Britain, standing up to an oleaginous Billy Bob Thornton as president of the US.
Continue reading...New Zealand PM says Australia is deporting ‘your people and your problems’ using unfair policies
The New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has lashed Scott Morrison for “testing” the friendship between the two nations, accusing Australia of deporting “your people and your problems” using “unfair” policies.
Ardern took her strongest stance yet opposing Australia’s policy of deporting New Zealand citizens, no matter how long they had spent in Australia, if they had committed a crime.
Continue reading...Airline which operates some of world’s longest flights is considering ‘Skynest’ sleep pods with pillows, sheets and blankets
Air New Zealand has announced it could have flat beds in economy for some of its long-haul flights, but it will be more than a year before customers could get the chance to sleep in one of the new pod beds.
Continue reading...We have had a history of suppressing information about those facing trial, but it is unclear if it can survive in the era of Facebook, Google and Instagram
British backpacker Grace Millane’s murderer was last week sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
However, the killer’s identity has not been published in New Zealand. When convicting Millane’s killer, Justice Simon Moore extended an existing suppression order that not only prohibits his naming, but also the reasons for making it.
Continue reading...Thorny issues await the two prime ministers when they meet in Australia this week
As gang violence in New Zealand soars – partly fuelled by Australian deportees, police say – prime minister Jacinda Ardern is heading to Sydney for her annual bilateral with Scott Morrison.
The issue of New Zealanders with only distant links to their home country being summarily shipped back to Aotearoa will again be on the agenda, but experts say it is unlikely Ardern will take as tough a stance as last year, when she said the issue was having a “corrosive” affect on trans-Tasman relations.
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