Shake-up of voting laws by Labour government will also allow same-day registration
As well as picking up a carton of milk and a loaf of bread at the supermarket, voters in New Zealand will also be able to pick their new prime minister at the next election, after a shake-up of voting laws allowed for ballot boxes to be placed in busy shops and malls.
The new regulations announced this week will also allow same-day registration and voting.
Continue reading...New Zealand gave a home, and hope, to Abbas Nazari. He wishes all refugee children could be given the same chance
Abbas Nazari was stranded on a ship in the Indian ocean when he first heard the words “New Zealand”.
Then aged 7, Nazari’s mother, father and four siblings were among 430 asylum seekers, predominantly of the ethnic minority Hazaras of Afghanistan, plucked from a sinking fishing boat by the Norwegian cargo ship, the Tampa. They were later transferred to the HMAS Manoora, where they waited for asylum after Australia refused to accept them; creating an international quagmire over which country would, or should, offer sanctuary on humanitarian grounds.
Continue reading...Trial to be held in May 2020 for Australian man who faces 51 murder charges, 40 of attempted murder and one terrorism charge
Australian Brenton Tarrant has pleaded not guilty to all charges in relation to the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand.
Tarrant, 28, is facing 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of engaging in a terrorist act. The trial, estimated to take six weeks, will go ahead on 4 May, 2020.
Continue reading...Praise for spending on mental health and child wellbeing is tempered with concerns that the economic plan fails to address root causes of inequality
Pensioner Garry Harvey lived in Australia for decades before returning home to a tidy council flat in South Dunedin earlier this year. The socio-economically deprived suburb at the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island is in the crosshairs of the nation’s first-ever “wellbeing budget”, a radical economic plan for the country devised by Jacinda Ardern to improve the lives of the poorest citizens.
For the first time the annual budget puts social wellbeing indicators ahead of GDP when it comes to spending decisions. From now on, the health of New Zealand will not be measured by growth alone, but instead by the overall wellbeing and prosperity of its nearly 5 million people.
Continue reading...Search for Darren Myers, who went missing in the Tararua ranges on Saturday, hampered by bad weather
Hopes of finding a British hiker alive after he went missing in New Zealand five days ago are dwindling as rescuers battle severe weather on a mountain range where he was last seen.
Darren Myers, 49, failed to return from a hike in the Tararua ranges in the North Island at noon on Saturday. The Tararuas are a rugged destination popular with hikers from Wellington.
Continue reading...Claim follows review into bullying and harassment that uncovered three allegations of serious sexual assault
The deputy leader of New Zealand’s opposition party has called for an investigation after the parliament’s speaker suggested there was a rapist working at Parliament House.
After the release of a review of bullying and harassment in parliament, speaker Trevor Mallard said there were three allegations of “serious sexual assault” that amounted to rape.
Continue reading...Pictures show a lot of groundwater has seeped into the mine since 2010 disaster that killed 29
The first images from inside the New Zealand’s Pike river mine, where an explosion killed 29 men nearly nine years ago, have been released.
The shots were taken as a three-person re-entry crew broke through the 88cm concrete seal on Tuesday at the mine’s opening to start the process of gathering evidence on what caused New Zealand’s worst mining disaster since 1914. The bodies of the 29 victims remain in the mine.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern and Emmanuel Macron met companies and G7 nations in Paris for Christchurch Call summit
World leaders and heads of global technology companies have pledged at a Paris summit to tackle terrorist and extremist violence online in what they described as an “unprecedented agreement”.
Wednesday’s event, organised two months to the day since the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, drew up a “plan of action” to be adopted by countries and companies to prevent extreme material going viral on the internet.
Continue reading...New Zealand prime minister says laws changed after massacres in her country and in Australia
New Zealand’s prime minister has said she cannot understand America’s failure to ban automatic and semi-automatic guns, despite dozens of mass shootings.
Jacinda Ardern told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in unusually blunt language: “Australia experienced a massacre and changed its laws. New Zealand has had its experience and changed its laws. To be honest with you, I don’t understand the United States.”
Continue reading...New Zealand PM will reportedly urge nations to enforce laws banning extremist material and set rules for reporting on terrorism
Details have emerged of a plan by New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and French president Emmanuel Macron to eliminate terrorist and violent content online.
Ardern and Macron will meet in Paris this week on the sidelines of a meeting of digital ministers from the Group of 7 nations to discuss the plan – named the “Christchurch Call” – and urge other leaders to sign up.
Continue reading...Scientists have identified a spike in ‘vagrant’ species of fish including damselfish, wrasse and triggerfish
Warming ocean temperatures have been blamed for luring tropical fish thousands of kilometres into New Zealand waters, threatening vulnerable native species as they compete for resources.
Scientists have identified increasing numbers of what they call “vagrant” species rarely seen in the New Zealand’s oceans and said their extended visits were raising concerns about how the islands’ unique local wildlife would adapt.
Continue reading...Police called after flight delayed following refusal of woman to watch safety video and read card in exit row seat
A woman who refused to watch the regulation air safety video or read the safety instructions card handed to her by flight attendants has reportedly been removed from an Air New Zealand flight in Wellington.
The woman, described by other passengers as “wealthy-looking”, was sitting in the exit row but ignored attendants’ attempts to get her to listen to the safety instructions for flight NZ424 to Auckland on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Ardern, who has been with the TV presenter for five years, was spotted wearing a diamond ring on Friday
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is engaged to her long-term partner Clarke Gayford, a spokesperson for the prime minister has confirmed.
It emerged that the couple had got engaged over the Easter weekend in Hawke’s Bay after Ardern was spotted wearing a diamond ring at an event at the Pike River mine on Friday.
Continue reading...Reporting guidelines devised and signed by five major news organisations
New Zealand media organisations have taken the unprecedented step of agreeing to censor their reporting of the trial of the man accused of the Christchurch mosque massacre in an attempt to contain the dissemination of his white supremacist beliefs.
On 15 March a shooter killed 50 people in two Christchurch mosques, the largest mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history.
Continue reading...Duke of Cambridge and Jacinda Ardern press noses as part of hongi during visit to honour those affected by the Christchurch attacks
Prince William has joined Jacinda Ardern at Anzac commemorations in New Zealand in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks.
The pair shared an intimate hongi [Māori nose press] and espoused the values of freedom, democracy, and peace where they attended a service in Auckland before travelling to Christchurch to meet with survivors.
Continue reading...Turkish police said they had arrested a Syrian national who was planning retaliation for New Zealand mosque attack
The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has cast doubt on a possible plot to target Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli despite the arrest of a man with suspected links to Islamic State by Turkish police.
The suspect, a Syrian national, was arrested after a police operation in Osmaniye and was among several Isis members detained.
Continue reading...Nation known for its natural beauty is under pressure with extinctions, polluted rivers and blighted lakes
A report on the state of New Zealand’s environment has painted a bleak picture of catastrophic biodiversity loss, polluted waterways and the destructive rise of the dairy industry and urban sprawl.
Environment Aotearoa is the first major environmental report in four years, and was compiled using data from Statistics New Zealand and the environment ministry.
Continue reading...Supermarkets are struggling with supply as the nation’s hen flock decreases and demand for eggs soars
New Zealand is in the grip of an egg shortage as the industry undergoes a massive period of disruption while it transitions to free-range farming.
The shortage has also been caused by an increased appetite for eggs, with New Zealanders consuming 230 eggs per person last year, compared with 200 per person a decade ago.
Continue reading...New Zealand prime minister unhappy that details of Lousia Akavi’s abduction were made public by the aid agency
The revelation that a New Zealand nurse has been detained in Syria for five years has prompted tensions between the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the New Zealand government, with the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, criticising the aid agency for releasing details of the woman’s abduction.
On Monday the New York Times, in conjunction with the ICRC, revealed that New Zealander Louisa Akavi, 63, had been abducted along with two Syrian colleagues on 13 October 2013.
Continue reading...Total number of gatherings in Auckland reduced from 84 to 26 in wake of mosque shootings
More than 50 Anzac events and parades have been cut in New Zealand’s largest city at the request of police, as the country’s terror risk remains high in the wake of the deadly Christchurch mosque attacks.
Police have asked Auckland Returned Serviceman’s Associations (RSA) to “consolidate” their events, with the total number reduced from 84 last year to 26 this year, allowing officers to better protect large crowds in attendance.
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