Category Archives: New Zealand

Behrouz Boochani, voice of Manus Island refugees, is free in New Zealand

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Kurdish Iranian refugee and journalist – a multiple award-winner for documenting life in Australia’s offshore detention system – has left Papua New Guinea

•The story behind Behrouz Boochani’s flight to freedom

Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish Iranian refugee and journalist who became the voice of those incarcerated on Manus Island, has landed in New Zealand and says he will never return to Papua New Guinea or Australia’s immigration regime.

“I will never go back to that place,” he told the Guardian, shortly after leaving PNG. “I just want to be free of the system, of the process. I just want to be somewhere where I am a person, not just a number, not just a label ‘refugee’.”

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After Christchurch, kindness is the only way to live each day

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The mosque attacks rocked New Zealand but good deeds and generosity will help keep us together

The day of 15 March 2019 will stay with me forever. I was working in my bedroom, listening to radio and drawing. The on-air chat and music was interrupted as news of a shooting at a mosque in Christchurch began to filter through. How could this possibly be happening in our quiet little island tucked away at the bottom of the world?

I brushed it off as some sort of mistake, until news of a shooting at a second mosque emerged minutes later. While witnesses and locals reported the horror that had just unfolded, I scrolled online looking for some sort of explanation, a way to make sense of it – and found everyone was lost for words as I was.

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Grace Millane trial: suspect prepares to dispose of backpacker’s body – video

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A New Zealand jury has been shown CCTV of the man accused of murdering Grace Millane wheeling out a luggage trolley bearing two suitcases – one containing the 21-year-old’s body – into a hotel lift and loading them into a hire car. The man – whose identity has been suppressed by the court – is accused of strangling her in his apartment. He has pleaded not guilty to murder. Millane's body was found crammed inside a suitcase buried in scrubland outside the city

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Grace Millane trial: significant bruising on body typical of restraint – pathologist

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UK backpacker died from pressure to neck as police interview reveals suspect initially claimed he said goodbye to her in Auckland city centre

Grace Millane died from prolonged pressure to the neck, which took place during sex, a forensic pathologist has told a jury in Auckland, as it emerged the suspect initially lied to police about the last time he saw the British backpacker.

Dr Simon Stables told the high court injuries like Millane’s were extremely uncommon worldwide. “From my point of view it is incredibly rare, I have never heard of another case … in New Zealand.”

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Helen Clark: ‘I’d like to think I was ahead of my time’

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Interviewed about her plans for retirement, the former Aotearoa New Zealand prime minister says the word is not in her vocabulary

Helen Clark, 69, is the second woman to hold the post of prime minister of Aotearoa New Zealand and fifth-longest serving prime minister. She was also the first female head of the United Nations Development Program.

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My ‘OK boomer’ comment in parliament symbolised exhaustion of multiple generations

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For a very long time, our politics has been run by older dudes in suits – but for democracy to work it must look like all of us

Good comedy is supposed to prompt reflection on privilege and power structures, bringing to light the unsaid. It’s supposed to serve as a fuse-breaker for conversation about things we take for granted, things that we don’t question about the culture and society we’re deeply imbedded in.

Baby boomers had stand-up. Gen X got the Netflix specials. Millennials made memes, and the Zoomers are reinventing humour altogether with the likes of TikTok.

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Grace Millane trial: blood in hotel room likely backpacker’s, court hears

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Forensic evidence shows ‘extremely strong scientific support’ that blood in CityLife hotel room was Millane’s

Forensic scientists have given evidence at the murder trial of Grace Millane in Auckland’s high court, and said the blood found in the accused’s hotel room most likely came from the British backpacker.

Millane, 21, was on a round-the-world trip when she disappeared on 2 December in New Zealand’s largest city during a date.

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‘On the right side of history’: Jacinda Ardern hails New Zealand zero-carbon law – video

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The New Zealand prime minister's zero-carbon bill has passed in parliament with historic cross-party support. It commits the country to new climate change laws and to reduce its carbon emissions to zero by 2050 in line with the Paris climate agreement. The bill passed by 119 votes to one with the centre-right opposition National party's support, despite none of its proposed amendments being accepted

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Ardern says New Zealand on ‘right side of history’ as MPs pass zero-carbon bill

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Centre-right opposition National party throws support behind the legislation that has been applauded around the globe

Jacinda Ardern’s landmark climate legislation has passed in New Zealand parliament, with historic cross-party support, committing the nation to reduce its carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and meet its commitments under the Paris climate accords.

The climate change response (zero carbon) amendment bill passed on Thursday afternoon with the centre-right opposition National party throwing their support behind it late in the day, despite none of their proposed amendments being accepted. The bill passed 119 votes to one.

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Grace Millane murder trial: friend feared for her during date as CCTV shows final hours

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UK backpacker’s friend says ‘something seemed out of place’ during online chat as jury watches video of Millane visiting bars with Tinder date

The parents of Grace Millane have watched CCTV footage of the last hours of their daughter’s life as an Auckland court heard how a friend of the British backpacker feared for Millane on the Tinder date during which she died.

The CCTV footage, played to the court on Thursday, showed Millane, in a black dress and white sneakers, greeting the man now accused of her murder with a hug and a brief kiss on the cheek before the pair visited bars around the city together and then went to his hotel.

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Grace Millane trial: CCTV shows British backpacker visiting Auckland bars with Tinder date – video

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A New Zealand jury has been shown CCTV of British backpacker Grace Millane’s movements on the night she died while on a Tinder date with a 27-year-old man. The footage shows the pair visiting numerous bars across Auckland. The man – whose identity has been suppressed by the court – is accused of strangling her in his apartment later that night. He has pleaded not guilty to murder. Millane's body was found crammed inside a suitcase buried in scrubland outside the city.

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Jacinda Ardern has a major problem with minor parties, and it could seal her fate | Bryce Edwards

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With micro-parties poised to steal votes from the PM’s coalition partners, it could sink them all in 2020 election

With a year until the next election, Jacinda Ardern may be extraordinarily personally popular, and Labour polling well, but neither fact will determine her fate.

In the end, all eyes will be on a handful of low-polling minor parties that could wield influence well beyond their size and ultimately determine the outcome.

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‘No hustle and bustle’: the only place in New Zealand where population is falling

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The South Island’s beautiful and desolate west coast region suffers from a severe lack of jobs and people

Driving up the west coast of the South Island, it’s possible to have the road to yourself; kilometre after kilometre of black-sand beaches, snow-covered southern Alps and towns that have barely changed since the gold rush.

The quiet, traditional lifestyle of the coast is prized by residents, many of whom say they are unfazed by decades of stagnant or declining growth – in fact, they prefer it that way.

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New Zealand’s migrant boom is good news for Māori. It empowers us

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As 5 million approaches, it’s thanks to the Treaty of Waitangi, that multiculturalism will succeed

We are expanding our coverage of New Zealand. Please help us by supporting our independent journalism

In April 2003, the year New Zealand’s population hit 4 million, statisticians were predicting the country would hit at 4.8 million people in 2046. As in Europe and North America the country’s birth rate was falling, and no one quite knew whether mass immigration would – or even could – continue at pace. Instead, the pressing concern at the time was how to reverse the brain drain.

In the mid-2000s almost 40,000 New Zealanders were upping sticks each year. Miners and truck drivers were packing their bags for Queensland’s mining boom. Bankers and lawyers were taking up plum jobs in London. Teachers, nurses, and other public servants were comparing what they made in Wellington with what they might make in Washington or Ottawa.

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Winston Peters sues two National MPs over superannuation leak

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Acting PM takes action against MPs, ministry and public servants, alleging a breach of privacy in 2017

New Zealand’s acting prime minister, Winston Peters, is suing two National party MPs, a slew of public servants and a government ministry for breach of privacy.

Peters, who is currently acting PM in Jacinda Ardern’s absence, alleges that Anne Tolley and Paula Bennett breached his privacy by leaking his superannuation documents to the media.

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No fly zone: I didn’t catch a plane for a year and saved 19 tonnes of Co2

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A year without air travel taught me the path to carbon neutral won’t be easy, but I learned I could inspire others to act

What is the single thing that you could do that would most reduce your carbon footprint? Take your bike to work rather than your car? Dig up your lawn for a vegetable garden? For me, an academic scientist living and working in Auckland, New Zealand, I reasoned that the most significant thing I could do was to stop flying.

In 2017 I flew 84,000km. I made twenty day trips to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city. I travelled to the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia to attend conferences and work on joint projects with other scientists. All of this made me accountable for around 19 tonnes of carbon dioxide that year, nearly three times that of the average Kiwi.

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‘Bulging at the seams’: Auckland, a super city struggling with its own success

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The government dreamed of a metropolis that is a beacon to all but the pace of change has left some behind and others disillusioned

Tāmaki Makaurau, the Māori name for Auckland which can be translated as “the place desired by many”, is living up to its billing. The city’s population has swelled rapidly to 1.7 million and is estimated to be adding 40,000 people a year. By 2048 it could host nearly half of New Zealand’s current population.

In the 1980s only a couple of thousand people lived in the central city. Now some 57,000 people call it home, a figure that was not expected to be reached until 2032.

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Grace Millane: trial for backpacker’s murder to begin in Auckland

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New Zealand man, 27, has pleaded not guilty to murder of 21-year-old British tourist

One year since the body of British backpacker Grace Millane was discovered in dense bushland on the outskirts of Auckland, the man accused of murdering her is set to stand trial in New Zealand this week.

The 27-year-old New Zealand man, who was granted name suppression by the Auckland high court in December, has pleaded not guilty to her murder.

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New Zealand: just 11% of sexual violence reports lead to conviction

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Major Ministry of Justice report analysed tens of thousands of cases over four years, with nearly two-third involving children

Less than a third of sexual violence reports in New Zealand lead to a court case, and only 11% to a conviction, the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken in the country has found.

The Ministry of Justice report, which looked at tens of thousands of cases over four years, “does not make for happy reading” and highlighted just how many people face barriers to justice, said Jan Logie, under-secretary to the minister of justice.

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