Category Archives: New Zealand

Russia Today puts Japan on the map, where New Zealand should be

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New channel apologises to New Zealanders for map mix-up that also labelled Papua New Guinea as South Korea

Russian news channel RT has apologised for apparently accidentally labelling New Zealand as “Japan”, and Papua New Guinea as “South Korea” in an embarrassing southern hemisphere mix-up.

The mistake came in a segment produced by their US bureau about potential new missile bases in “Japan, South Korea and Australia”. But in a large, erroneous graphic only Australia was correctly labelled.

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Hundreds of protesters march on Jacinda Ardern’s office over Māori land dispute

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Petition with more than 25,000 signatures delivered, calling on New Zealand PM to visit sacred Ihumātao site

Several hundred protesters have marched on Jacinda Ardern’s Auckland office, demanding she visit Ihumātao, the site of a major indigenous land dispute that has broadened into wider anger at government inaction in tackling Māori disadvantage.

The protesters delivered a petition, signed by more than 26,000 people, to the prime minister’s office urging her to travel to the site that has been occupied for the past month as part of a housing dispute.

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Alan Jones says advertisers who leave his program will be replaced by others

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Total of 19 big advertisers have dropped his breakfast program after comments he made about Jacinda Ardern

Broadcaster Alan Jones says advertisers who chose to abandon his program because of his slurs against women will be replaced by others.

“I’ve got no comment about the advertisers, they can make their own judgement if they go,” a defiant Jones told Nine News. “There will be others that take their place.”

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‘Terrifying’ hand sculpture flies in to give Wellington nightmares

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‘Monstrous’ and ‘malevolent’ sculpture Quasi alarms office workers and divides opinion

A “terrifying” five-metre tall sculpture of a hand with a face has been flown in from the South Island to perch on top of a contemporary art gallery in the New Zealand capital of Wellington.

It fixes passers by with a disapproving expression. Meant to liven up the Civic Square that was damaged in a 2016 earthquake, the work has instead alarmed and terrified locals, who have described the work as “a Lovecraftian nightmare [that] has come to life”.

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Man charged over murder of Australian tourist in New Zealand

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Killer fled with body while tourist’s Canadian partner ran several kilometres to get help

A man has been charged over the murder of Australian surfer Sean McKinnon, who was shot in a random attack while camping in New Zealand.

The 23-year-old man will face Hamilton district court on Saturday charged with murder, aggravated robbery and threatening to kill, New Zealand Police said.

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Australia ‘has to answer to the Pacific’ over climate change, Jacinda Ardern says – video

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Jacinda Ardern has declared that ‘Australia has to answer to the Pacific’ on climate change, saying that New Zealand is doing what it can to limit global emissions and expects other nations to do the same. Pacific leaders have this week been urging Australia to commit to urgent action to reduce emissions

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‘It brings everything back’: Christchurch despairs over white supremacist attacks

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Fresh atrocities in El Paso and Norway bring back the pain of New Zealand’s worst mass-shooting

It’s just gone lunch time at al Noor mosque in central Christchurch and a handful of men gather to pray. They bend down on a thick blue carpet, newly installed, and sit up to face walls gleaming with fresh plaster and paint. In the corner, one young man appears to be quietly crying.

“We’ve replaced everything, everything,” says worshipper Murray Stirling, 52, gesturing around the main prayer room, now serene and bathed in winter sunshine. “There’s no physical trace left of what he did to us.”

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New Zealand gun buyback: 10,000 firearms returned after Christchurch attack

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Police praise response after thousands of now-banned guns taken out of circulation in less than a month

More than 10,000 firearms have been bought by New Zealand’s government in less than a month as part of its gun buyback scheme following the Christchurch mosque shootings in March.

Following the killing of 51 people in two inner-city Christchurch mosques by an Australian white supremacist, prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s government rushed through legislation to ban military-style semi-automatic weapons and set aside NZ$150m to buy firearms that were now illegal.

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Pacific Islands Forum: Tuvalu children welcome leaders with a climate plea

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Climate crisis is more than a meeting agenda item in a host country that could be left uninhabitable by rising sea levels

As the leaders of Pacific countries step off their planes at Funafuti airport this week for the Pacific Islands Forum, they are being met by the children of Tuvalu, who sit submerged in water, in a moat built around the model of an island, singing: “Save Tuvalu, save the world.”

The welcome sets the tone for a Pacific Islands Forum meeting that will not only have climate change at the top of the agenda – as it has been for many years – but is being hosted by a country that the UN says is one of the most vulnerable to rising sea levels, which could render it uninhabitable in the coming century.

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Fossils of largest parrot ever recorded found in New Zealand

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Giant bird estimated to have weighed about 7kg has been named Heracles inexpectatus

Fossils of the largest parrot ever recorded have been found in New Zealand. Estimated to have weighed about 7kg (1.1st), it would have been more than twice as heavy as the kākāpo, previously the largest known parrot.

Palaeontologists have named the new species Heracles inexpectatus to reflect its unusual size and strength and the unexpected nature of the discovery.

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Māori land rights leader calls on Jacinda Ardern to recognise Indigenous ‘crisis’

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Activist leading Ihumātao dispute calls on PM to visit site and act on Māori disadvantage

The leader of a major Indigenous land dispute in New Zealand has criticised Jacinda Ardern’s government for its lack of action on confronting systemic Māori disadvantage, and says the Māori nation is in “a state of emergency” and “crisis”.

Hundreds of activists camped out in tents and cars continue to occupy a sliver of land at Ihumātao in South Auckland – land they say is sacred to Māori, but which has been sold to a private developer and slated for private housing.

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‘Five Eyes’ nations discuss backdoor access to WhatsApp

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Countries focus on increasingly effective encryption of communications

British, American and other intelligence agencies from English-speaking countries have concluded a two-day meeting in London amid calls for spies and police officers to be given special, backdoor access to WhatsApp and other encrypted communications.

The meeting of the “Five Eyes” nations – the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – was hosted by new home secretary, Priti Patel, in an effort to coordinate efforts to combat terrorism and child abuse.

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Henderson Island: the Pacific paradise groaning under 18 tonnes of plastic waste

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Rubbish has been washing up on its isolated beaches in the Pitcairn chain at a rate of several thousand bits of plastic a day

Henderson Island, uninhabited and a day’s sea crossing from the nearest sign of civilisation, should be an untouched paradise.

Instead its beaches, which were awarded Unesco world heritage status in 1988, are a monument to humanity’s destructive, disposable culture.

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South Korea: world championship athletes injured in fatal balcony collapse

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Two South Koreans killed and athletes from US, New Zealand, Netherlands, Italy and Brazil injured

Two South Koreans have died and several others, including athletes attending the world aquatic championships, have been injured after a structure collapsed in a nightclub in the city of Gwangju early on Saturday, a fire department official has said.

The deaths happened when a two-level structure in the club, which is next to the athletes’ village, collapsed at about 2am local time, hitting and pinning revellers, the official said.

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Jacinda Ardern accused by Māori of ‘lacking leadership’ in land dispute

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Row over plans to build 500 homes on sacred land in Auckland escalates with seven protesters arrested

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is being accused of a “lack of leadership” over an escalating land dispute between Māori and a construction company which plans to build 500 homes on sacred land in south Auckland.

Opposition to the project boiled over this week over when a group that had been illegally occupying the land was served an eviction notice.

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Jacinda Ardern prime minister of Australasia? If only it was that simple | Nicholas Reece

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New Zealand has a long history of outstanding policy innovation and political leadership. Australia could learn a lot from it

The good and the great of Melbourne packed in to the town hall on Thursday evening to hear the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, speak on the topic of why good government matters.

Since the tragic Christchurch mosque massacre, Ardern has come to be seen not just as one of the world’s youngest leaders of a nation, but also as one of the world’s great leaders.

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