Category Archives: New Zealand

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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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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