Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop … research and training in development and family issues across the Pacific region. Image: AUT
Pioneering Samoan academic wins key social sciences role at UNESCO
By RNZ Pacific
A leading Samoan academic from Auckland University of Technology has been appointed to a key role at New Zealand’s branch of United Nations culture agency UNESCO.
Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop, foundation professor of Pacific studies at AUT, is well known for her research and training in development and family issues across the region.
She has been appointed NZ’s next Commissioner for Social Sciences with Unesco’s National Commission.
“In my eldership, you have time to do or devote more attention to things where you can indulge in what you want to do and so, yes, as a commissioner of social science with UNESCO will be another little avenue,” she said.
Prior to AUT, Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop was the inaugural director of Va’aomanu Pasifika at Victoria University in Wellington.
She has also been the president of PACIFICA, a network for Pacific women in New Zealand, served on numerous committees and received a number of awards and recognition for her work.
This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.
Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz
]]>Ex-Bougainville VP blasts Canberra’s ‘top down’ interference in referendum
Bougainville MP Joseph Watawi … “Australians attempting to hijack our political system.” Image: Twitter
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk
A former Bougainville regional vice-president has condemned Australia for political interference over the independence referendum process, saying Canberra would be better served dumping their diplomatic and aid corps in favour of “a drunk rugby team”.
Bougainville is preparing for a referendum on independence to be held on June 15 next year.
Joseph Watawi, Bougainville Member for Selau and former vice-president of the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG), Joseph Watawi has accused Canberra of “tokenistic efforts” and contrasted Australia with New Zealand’s “trusted and respected” role because of its cultural awareness.
Watawi is chair of Bougainville’s parliamentary select committee responsible for the referendum preparation, weapons disposal, peace and unification.
“Without consultation, the Australian government has sent ‘advisers’ to all of our political offices while making only tokenistic efforts to actually help the people here,” he said in a statement.
“Let us not be naive, Australian aid is not about helping people but about gaining political power and influence. The problem is that in Melanesian cultures the only way for outsiders like Australians to gain political power and influence is to actually start at the grassroots and help people and communities.”
Watawi said the “top down approach” of the Australians in “attempting to hijack our political system merely confirms the suspicions of many Bougainville people that the Australian programme is one of spying and jockeying for position over our natural resources in the lead up to next year’s independence referendum”.
Real task
The real task facing the Australian government and their representativeness was to deal with Australia’s legacy issues.
“It was the Australian-owned mine at Panguna that started the Bougainville war that led to the deaths of at least 10,000 Bougainvilleans and it was Australian helicopters and pilots who contributed to that death toll [by] shooting people from the air and burning villages,” Watawi said.
“Australia [had] also contributed to the naval blockade of southern Bougainville, stopping essential food and medical supplies from reaching civilians in the conflict area.
“In the past 10 years we Bougainvilleans have put a lot of work into the reconciliation process among our various factions and language groups. Australia, as one of the key causes of the war, has been noticeably absent from this process.
“If you go to the Panguna [mine] pit today and ask the women who are the traditional landowners there they will tell you that in the life the wealthiest mine on the planet at the time, they did not get paid enough to buy food from the mine supermarket
“If Australia is genuine about rebuilding its relationship with us they need to send us useful people like nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers – not bureaucrats,” Watawi said.
“Australia would have won more power and influence here if they had sent us a drunk rugby team rather than their current batch of bureaucrats.
“Compare this to New Zealand [which has] slowly and carefully with great cultural awareness built the Bougainville police force and law and justice sector since the signing of the peace agreement in 2001,” Watawi said.
“The result is that New Zealand is a trusted and respected international partner and member of our community.”
Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz
]]>Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: How much should we pay politicians?
Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: How much should we pay politicians?
[caption id="attachment_13635" align="alignright" width="150"]
Dr Bryce Edwards.[/caption]
It’s hard to find anyone who disagrees with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s decision to freeze politician pay and review how increases are given. This indicates how the decision really was a no-brainer for the new government.
They get kudos for what seems to be a benevolent and self-sacrificing move, and they avoid what would have been an uncomfortable comparison as the Government attempts to keep a lid on other public sector wage claims.
[caption id="attachment_15325" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern.[/caption]
But despite the support for the announcement, there are still big questions to be asked about how much politicians should be paid, and how increases should be decided.
In announcing the pay freeze and review, Ardern put forward a strong and admirable explanation for the decision. She stated: “We do not believe, given that we are at the upper end of the scale, that we should be receiving that sort of increase”, and “This is an absolute acknowledgement that we are high income earners compared to other New Zealanders… we are not comfortable with that and this is our response”.
But “don’t rush to pull out the violin” says Stuff political journalist Stacey Kirk, who thinks it was simply an “astute” move on the part of Ardern, and the rest of Parliament were also smart enough to go along with it: “any MP who had the temerity to moan about the loss of a 3 per cent hike to their $175,000-plus salary would quickly find themselves with a target on their back” – see: MPs need more pay like a hole in the head.
More importantly, the pay decision was clearly made in the context of the current rounds of public servant pay claims, which the Government is trying its hardest to limit. Hence, Kirk says, “As the head of a Cabinet engaged in trying to haggle down the pay demands of teachers, a $13,792 pay rise for Ardern would just about be enough to spark civil unrest at the next march if pay negotiations find little progress.”
Others are also cynical about the freeze. Barry Soper points out that the new Government Cabinet ministers have, after all, just received a doubling of their pay: “A move like this is easy for a new Cabinet to sign off, given they’re now all on the pig’s back when it comes to their pay packets, earning more than many of them would ever have thought possible. So it was easy for Ardern to sound altruistic, maintaining the move was all about her Government’s values” – see: Pay freeze an easy move for Jacinda Ardern to sound altruistic.
Are politicians paid too much?
Hopefully the Government’s pay freeze decision will now spark a bigger discussion on politician pay, and what the right level of remuneration is. This is what I argued today on RNZ’s Morning Report, in an interview with Guyon Espiner and Darien Fenton – you can listen to the eight-minute item here: MPs’ pay freeze: Smart politics?
Part of what I argued was the democratic problem of having our political representatives in the top one per cent of income earners. It means those politicians become more divorced from the lives of ordinary voters. This is a point also put by blogger No Right Turn in response to the pay freeze: “their high pay and the fact that they get a pay increase year after year no matter what they do puts them on a different planet from most New Zealanders” – see: Frozen. And he suggests the best way forward is “indexing their pay to the median wage”.
Similarly, Greg Presland points to some details of MP pay which suggest that remuneration for MPs has got out of kilter: “Bryan Bruce has the details: ‘Backbench MPs are about to earn $163,961 a year. The top of the pay scale for teachers is $78,000.’ If we turn the pay clock back to 1979, Backbenchers and experienced teachers earned roughly the same amount ($18,000 a year) Now the basic MP’s salary is more than twice as much as what a senior teacher earns” – see: Ardern announces salary freeze for MPs.
So, is it right that MPs are earning so much more than ordinary workers? One MP has spoken out strongly about this increasing inequality. Chloe Swarbrick said in an interview late last year, “I think politicians in regard to the rest of society are overpaid and I feel pretty gross about it” – see 1News’ ‘Feel pretty gross about it’ – Chloe Swarbrick says politicians overpaid in regards to the rest of society.
Swarbrick explains how this change occurred: “Since certain reforms in the 1980s what we have seen is this massive divergence where politicians have been looking after themselves”. Furthermore, “She says part of the weird and gross feeling about her wages comes from knowing there is such inequality in New Zealand, with people living on the streets while others are in a far more privileged position.”
There have been some other recent signs that politician pay is extremely lucrative in New Zealand. In May, a study was released which showed that our prime minister is relatively highly paid: “New figures show Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is the fifth highest paid leader in all OECD countries. Consultancy group IG studied the annual base pay of 32 member countries to figure out where each head of government sits. Ms Ardern earns NZ$491,117 (USD $339,862) per annum, more than Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and UK Prime Minister Theresa May” – see: Jacinda Ardern 5th highest paid leader in OECD.
Other reports suggest that MP remuneration is fairly decent. According to one financial adviser, each backbench MP should be able to save about $45,000 each year – see this and other details of their salary packages in Rob Stock’s Life hacks from the Beehive: saving on an MP’s salary.
And even after politicians depart office, they all get further lucrative benefits. For example, “As a former Prime Minister, Sir John Key will get $51,725 a year for the rest of his life, a taxpayer-funded car, and free travel if he is carrying out duties as a former leader. It is not known whether he is claiming this entitlement. His predecessors Helen Clark, Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley have all benefited from it” – see: Former MPs and their perks – salary, free travel and taxpayer-funded cars.
How should their pay be increased?
The article above also reports that “Former MPs and their partners spend about $700,000 a year” on domestic and local travel, which longer-serving politicians such as Annette King, Murray McCully, Maurice Williamson, and Peter Dunne qualify for. Dunne went on the AM Show today to defend MP pay, agree with the pay freeze, and suggest a different way to determine the increases – see: MP salaries need fixed three year terms – Peter Dunne.
There are other ideas being thrown into the mix about how to decide on MP pay increases. The best article covering this is Stacey Kirk’s Government freezes MPs pay amid multiple pay negotiations with educators, police. This explains some other recent changes to pay increases – such as when Prime Minister John Key had the law altered in 2015 to reduce the annual increases.
Green co-leader Marama Davidson has suggested that future pay increases should only be the same dollar amount – not percent – that the average worker gets: “MPs are paid well above the average worker, so giving them a percentage rise accentuates their higher pay. When it is right for MPs to get a rise, they should get the same in dollar terms as what the average worker receives.”
Perhaps we actually need an ongoing pay freeze for MPs, according to Gordon Campbell who has responded to the pay freeze news saying, “the restraint is long overdue. Arguably, MPs are well placed to take at least a five year holiday from inflation adjustments at least” – see: On MP pay.
Here’s Campbell’s main point about the upcoming review of how politician pay is set: “If this exercise is to mean anything of lasting value, the government may have to be brave enough to declare that the current pay (plus perks) packages for MPs have hit a ceiling beyond which evidence of significant hardship would be required before the pay needle is allowed to swing upwards, again. In other words, why not declare the freeze is semi-permanent? Certainly, the freeze shouldn’t be used mainly as a gambit to deny senior teachers – who once used to be paid the same as MPs but who are now paid less than half what first term MPs receive – a leverage point in their current pay negotiations.”
Finally, there is one commentator who disagrees with the pay freeze – Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking has written a colourful column putting the case that MPs, ministers and the prime minister aren’t actually paid enough. And he likes the idea of bulk-funding the political parties in Parliament so that they can decide the performance pay of each politician: “Pay a party a lump sum and they hand it out to MPs based on talent. Not a bad idea. Potentially full of acrimony and because of it, political fall out. But at least it attempted to differentiate skill sets” – see: MPs’ pay freeze nothing more than PR fluff.]]>
Village on the broken mountain – the plight of PNG’s quake-hit Highlands
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Special report by Johnny Blades of RNZ Pacific
“We have no home, our village is devastated, therefore I have to move my people to another location.”
The words of the village leader from a remote earthquake-affected village in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands region had an unmistakable desperation.
LISTEN: More on Dateline Pacific (duration 6m40s)
Richard Don’s Yalanda village in Nipa-Kutubu district of Southern Highlands province was largely ruined in February’s magnitude 7.5 quake in the region.
We met him at the Moro airfield near Lake Kutubu. My colleague Koroi Hawkins and I had cadged a couple of seats on a helicopter used by the team leading PNG’s earthquake relief effort.
The chopper was flying around the quake-affected region, offering us startling views of collapsed mountainsides and deformed valleys. The quake and its significant aftershocks had caused many major landslides and landslips.
The slides and slips had taken out a number of villages, and destroyed countless structures. The disaster is estimated to have killed at least 180 people, although in a remote region like this, nobody can give an exact figure.
Richard Don … six people from his Yalanda village died in the earthquake. Image: Koroi Hawkins/RNZ Pacific
Badly isolated
When we picked him up at Moro, Richard Don told us that six people from his village had died in the disaster. The village, he explained, was now badly isolated as the main road and bridge which led to Yalanda’s general area had been cut off.
It wasn’t until we flew in with him to the remaining part of Yalanda village, perched as it is on the top of a small mountain, that the precariousness of this community’s position became clear.
The landslips which undermined the flanks of the village had taken huts, foot bridges and food gardens. Homes were collapsed or teetering on the hillside.
We walked up to the top, the village square, where dozens of villagers assembled, carrying axes and small children. Richard Don introduced us to them and they greeted us warmly. Little pigs and dogs wandered by. The kids who milled around had an almost forlorn look about them.
Don said Yalanda’s villagers, of whom there were 1300 in total, feared another big quake and sought to relocate to another location “where it’s more flatter, more good place, for them to resettle themselves”.
The mountain top village of Yalanda. Image: Koroi Hawkins/RNZ Pacific
“But there are a lot of things to be done, like a road. We require a road network to be completed. I have already given the request to the prime minister.”
PNG’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill visited Yalanda shortly after the initial quake and was aware of the village’s situation.
Basic supplies
The company Oil Search, a well established player in the local oil and gas sector, had given assistance with basic supplies and logistical support.
Don also mentioned that Yalanda had received help from the World Food Programme, the Red Cross and governments of Australia and New Zealand.
The team led by PNG’s Emergency Controller, Dr Bill Hamblin, has been helping co-ordinate relief in the region and had distributed many re-starter kits to affected communities to help them move gradually into recovery phase. However, villages like Yalanda were not easy to get to.
The village leader indicated the Yalanda community was aware that its request for infrastructure assistance, and help in relocating, would take time to process.
They had already begun clearing trees and establishing food gardens at a new village base at nearby Endela. A few people had already set up temporary, crude huts to live in at this base.
Other villagers had gone to stay at a care centre several kilometres away in Baguale. But around 800 remain in and around this desolate mountain village.
I spoke to a local pastor who conveyed in Tok Pisin (PNG language, or at least his community’s variation of it) how the Yalanda people had lived on this beautiful mountain for centuries, and that moving away would cause great sadness.
Village ‘bagarup’
But a young woman called Ruth Jeff told us in no uncertain terms how relocation was inevitable, because everything about the village was now broken, or in Tok Pisin “bagarup”.
“Bridge bagarap, road bagarap, house bagarap, haus-sik (medical hut) bagarap, garden bagarap. Children feel sick, feel worried, shocked,” she said, indicating the villagers had much work to do to re-establish their homes.
Richard Don presented us with a ten-page report detailing Yalanda’s situation, their relocation plans, request for help and description of assistance required, including items such as water tanks, tarpaulins and ‘spiritual development’.
The villagers we met were effusive in their gratitude for the help they’d received so far. A United Nations consultant who had flown with us in the helicopter was thrilled to find a wrapper for a World Food Programme muesli bar to take back with him as evidence that their assistance had, in this case, reached its target.
Yet the Yalanda community was struggling with food and medical shortages. They were also in desperate need of water tanks and tarpaulins among other relief items.
“My village, my people, I’m very worried, we need to have that road,” Richard Don noted.
“We’ve run out of food. We made a garden, but that can’t be harvest within a month or two. So at the moment we’re very hungry now, and most of the people are really suffering.”
Pilot anxious
The time to leave rolled around quickly. The pilot was looking anxious for us to leave, as we needed to fly back to Mt Hagen before the weather packed in.
As we got in the chopper, dozens of villagers sat on the hilltop, smiling and waving at us. The visit had served as little more than a quick situation update for the relief team representative. Still, the locals seemed grateful for the opportunity to get word out about their plight.
They kept waving as we ascended. The chopper whipped up dirt and debris, trees thrashed around dramatically, and a pig ran away frantically across the village square.
The earthquake disaster has left many Highlanders facing an uncertain future.
I could still see the villagers waving as we flew off and away, until they faded like dots into the brown and green of the mountain.
Johnny Blades and Koroi Hawkins of RNZ Pacific recently travelled to Papua New Guinea for a series of special reports. This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s publishing partnership with Radio New Zealand.
Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz
]]>Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – August 21 2018
Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – August 21 2018
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
[caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption]
Salary freeze for MPs
Stacey Kirk (Stuff): MPs need more pay like a hole in the head
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Pay freeze an easy move for Jacinda Ardern to sound altruistic
Mike Hosking: MPs’ pay freeze nothing more than PR fluff
Newshub: Government considering changing MP pay rises to every three years
Newshub: MP salaries need fixed three year terms – Peter Dunne
1News: Jacinda Ardern says raising MP salaries is ‘not keeping with public expectations’
RNZ: MPs’ pay freeze about doing what’s right – PM
Chris Bramwell (RNZ): Broad political support for MP pay freeze
Audrey Young (Herald): Watch: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces salary freeze for MPs
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Pay freeze for MPs following ‘unacceptable’ proposal
1News: Jacinda Ardern announces a pay freeze on MP salaries, after Remuneration Authority recommends 3 per cent hike
Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Government freezes MPs pay amid multiple pay negotiations with educators, police
Chris Bramwell (RNZ): MPs’ salaries to be frozen for a year
Jason Walls (Interest): PM freezes MPs pay increases until she can find a ‘fairer formula’
Emma Hurley (Newshub): Government to freeze MPs’ salaries, allowances for a year
Newstalk ZB: Grant Robertson: Closing gap between highest and lowest paid ‘priority’ (audio)
No Right Turn: Frozen
Greg Presland (The Standard): Ardern announces salary freeze for MPs
Justice
1News: Jacinda Ardern wants ‘heavily politicised’ justice system based more on evidence than public reaction to crimes
Gia Garrick (RNZ): ‘We’ve talked about this for decades and still haven’t made changes’
Sam Sachdeva (Stuff): Politics and sentiment: the challenge of justice reform
David Fisher (Herald): Prisons a ‘moral and fiscal failure’ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says
1News: ‘We all realise that prisons are a moral and fiscal failure’ – Jacinda Ardern opens Criminal Justice Summit
Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Govt’s criminal justice summit launched with promise of long-term reform
Garth McVicar (Herald): Prison summit will ignore a prime cause of crime
Colin Williscroft (Stuff): National forensics plan raises miscarriage of justice fears
Herald: New contracts will improve coronial post-mortem services across NZ – Ministry of Justice
Police
Newshub: Meth, family violence, and gang crime: What south Auckland’s new cops face on frontline
Kate Gudsell (RNZ): New police officers need to ‘walk alongside the community’
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Extra police officers won’t make NZ safer says advocacy group
Herald: Police Commissioner Mike Bush announces 1800 new cops
Newshub: Where the extra 1800 police officers will go
Laura Walters (Stuff): Where the extra 1800 cops are going
1News: Police numbers see ‘significant boost’ after 1800 added around country
RNZ: ‘A huge difference to combat the methamphetamine scourge’
The Opportunities Party
Richard Harman (Politik): Why TOP will not be much help to National
Liam Hehir (Stuff): Opportunities Party faces significant challenges
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): TOP is not dead after all, and Simon Bridges is pretty damn happy about that
Brigitte Morten (RNZ): TOP’s resurgence: What are its prospects?
RNZ: TOP revives plans to contest 2020 election
Michael Daly (Stuff): The Opportunities Party decides it isn’t riding off into the sunset
Greens
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): This Is Your Green Captain: We Are Going Down.
Bryce Edwards (Herald): Political Roundup: The Green Party goes greener
Yvette McCullough (Newstalk ZB): Is slow progress worth the payoff for the Greens?
1News: Mining on DOC land, protecting fallen native timber and water rights – where the Green Party sits
1News: Green Party ‘really happy with the wins’, says James Shaw, despite having to swallow dead rat
Herald: Pregnant Julie Anne Genter’s cycle to hospital makes world-wide headlines
Newshub: Green MP Julie Anne Genter’s bike ride to give birth draws global attention
Steven Cowan: A bluer shade of green
No Right Turn: Small victories
Waste
Lisette Reymer (Newshub): Former working group exasperated by Government’s new waste scheme
Andrew Dickens (Newstalk ZB): Greens’ waste policy too simplistic
RNZ: Tyres pollution: Some collectors ignore disposal rules
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Govt’s new programme to tackle NZ’s waste problem
1News: Government expands waste minimisation plan with $3.1m grant
Gerald Piddock (Stuff): A blueprint for solving New Zealand’s waste problem
Carla Penman (Herald): 40,000 tonnes of Auckland’s plastic waste to be turned into concrete from end of 2019
Foreign affairs and trade
Audrey Young (Herald): Jacinda Ardern turns up heat over asylum seekers as Peters heads to Canberra in the midst of political turmoil
1News: Winston Peters talks trans-Tasman friendship ahead of Canberra meeting with Australian counterparts
Philip Matthews (Press Editorial): Taking the Nauru kids makes moral and political sense
Laura Walters (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern: NZ can’t save kids detained on Nauru
Chris Bramwell (RNZ): Plea to save families on Nauru: ‘This is an emergency for those children’
James Harris (Spinoff): In a few days, NZ has a chance to rescue the betrayed children of Nauru
Martin van Beynen (Stuff): Antarctica NZ chief executive Peter Beggs was sacked
RNZ:Antarctica NZ head resigns
Māori seats
Dan Satherley (Newshub): NZ First may back entrenchment of Māori seats – if there’s a referendum first
Point of Order: All this politicking about Māori seats – will Massey staff and students be able to discuss it?
Primary and extractive industries
BusinessDesk: Onshore exploration date shifts as Govt buffers position
Zac Fleming (RNZ): SAFE calls for end to feedlots
Jennifer Eder (Stuff): Dirty dairy report: Compliance team scores ‘C’ for ‘see you next year’
Christine Mckay (Hawke’s Bay Today): Horizons’ proposed One Plan changes could avert $105m hit to Tararua economy
Farah Hancock (Newsroom): Tōtara project sets sights on sustainable timber
Tim Miller (ODT): Protests too late: farm owner
Keith Woodford (Interest): Why is Fonterra so bad at international ventures?
Carla Penman (Herald): Buy your milk at dairies, force supermarkets to compete on price, says Federated Farmers
Business, economy
Grant Robertson (Herald): Govt’s aim an economy fit for the 21st century
RNZ: Investor confidence at two-year low – survey
Herald: New Zealand’s boardroom diversity debate ‘stuck’, says Mai Chen
BusinessDesk: Scant FMA oversight drags out investigations ‘in deepest secrecy’
Health
Logan Church RNZ): Ageing population puts pressure on dementia beds
RNZ: Dementia sufferers in care lack legal safeguards – report
Herald: New report raises human rights concerns for elderly people held in secure dementia units
Ripeka Timutimu (Māori TV): Government to regulate vaping
Dave Armstrong (Stuff): If dental professionals, hardly fringe radicals, are calling for a tax on sugar we should at least listen
Hannah Martin (Stuff): ‘The rot needs to stop’: school dental services failing New Zealand children
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Elderly rise up against axing of bus drop-off point at Greenlane Clinical Centre
Ben Strang (RNZ): Hospital’s poor care of teen who died after car crash: report
Imran Ali (Herald): Whangārei medical centre offers patients video consultations
Education
Simon Collins (Herald): Year 13 ‘dual pathways’ scrapped to fund 1060 extra trades academies places
Simon Collins (Herald): Botany Downs College students rebel against digital NCEA exam
Simon Collins (Herald): Ngāti Paoa group ‘repossesses’ Northcote’s Hato Petera College
1News: Around 850 specialist school workers including psychologists and speech therapists to strike today
Adele Redmond (Stuff): School support specialists set to strike in protest of low pay and high caseloads
Alwyn Poole (Stuff): Striking teachers have lost the war, even if they win a small pay battle
Zizi Sparks (Rotorua Daily Post): Several Rotorua principals to leave positions in 2018
Zoe Hunter (Bay of Plenty Times): Heavy workload leads Kaimai School principal Dane Robertson to quit
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk ZB): When principals quit to drive a tow truck we have a problem
Jacob McSweeny (Wanganui Chronicle): Parents frustrated teacher’s baby in classroom but Kaitoke School says it has been congratulated for ‘holistic’ approach to teaching
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Teacher sexually harassed by Upper Hutt students speaks out about upskirt incident
Mānia Clarke (Māori TV): TWOA welcomes new CEO Te Ururoa Flavell
Regan Paranihi (Māori TV): Te Ururoa Flavell set to start new role at TWoA
Nikki Preston (Herald): Waikato polytech chief executive on sick leave for extended period
Michelle Duff (Stuff): No problem with sexual misconduct policy, Victoria University of Wellington tells students
Housing
ODT Editorial: The foreign ownership conundrum
Zane Small (Newshub): NZ’s foreign buyers’ ban influenced by ‘new US Civil War’ – author
Catherine Harris (Stuff): Is regulation looming for property managers? One says yes.
Paul MItchell (Manawatū Standard): Palmerston North’s Watson Real Estate calls for regulation of ‘Wild West’ of property management
Treaty settlements
Kim Webby (Māori TV): Treaty process ‘dirty deals, done dirt cheap’
Moana Makapelu Lee (Māori TV): Tauranga Moana says talks with Hauraki ‘pointless
Leigh-Marama McLachlan (RNZ): ‘We did not want to be held ransom by a process’
Immigration and refugees
Sophie Bateman (Newshub): Fijian woman charged with human trafficking to New Zealand
1News: Fijian woman charged with human trafficking to NZ where victims were ‘heavily exploited’
RNZ: Woman in Fiji remanded over NZ human trafficking case
RNZ: Women Caring for Women
Free speech, debate
Martin van Beynen: Taboo subjects need the fresh air of discussion
Janet Anderson-Bidois (Herald): Free speech debate needs to get facts right
David Farrar: Massey academic laments deplatforming
Jonny Wilkinson (Northern Advocate): Shedding a different light on speech marks
Grant Shimmin (Stuff): In the digital age, discernment is as important to democracy as free speech
Wayne Hope (Daily Blog): Clash of Civilities – review of Dr Cornel West & Douglas Murray
Local government
Andre Chumko (Stuff): Racism row at Gisborne council: ‘Not enough Māori killed’ comment leads to rally
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Towns seek to break away from Horowhenua District Council
1News: Tauranga City Council reach settlement with one owner of property in failed Bella Vista subdivision
1News: Council to spend $30,000 on Northland cleanup after historic site discovered with illegally dumped rubbish
Laura Dooney (RNZ): Push to keep free weekend parking in Wellington
Environment and conservation
Georgia May (Hawke’s Bay Today): Rainbow Warrior coming to Napier as Greenpeace celebrates oil and gas ban
Southland Times Editorial: Who, can we say, is asking?
Newshub: Illegal species trade targeting New Zealand
1News: Leopard seal left badly bloodied in suspected dog attack near Wellington
Emma Moffett (RNZ): Time to step up to save NZ whitebait
Waatea News: Maori sidelined in whitebait debate
Fallen servicemen, baby boy repatriated
NIta Blake-Persen (RNZ): Ceremony in Malaysia marks return of NZ soldiers’ remains
Newshub: 3mo baby’s body arrives back in New Zealand
Transport
Aimee Shaw (Herald): Why Auckland Mobil stations 2km apart have a 19 cents per litre fuel-price difference
Laura Tupou (Newshub): Aucklanders say motorway repairs are damaging their homes
1News: South Auckland homeowners claim motorway widening work damaging their homes
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Air NZ 787 engines still under scrutiny
Katie Doyle (RNZ): New Kāpiti flight service to Auckland begins
Tom Furley (RNZ): Global pilot shortage affects NZ
Tourism
1News: Tourism industry moves to attract more young workers to stave off threat to NZ’s biggest earner
RNZ: French Polynesia hails Māori investment in Tahiti tourism
Jacinda Ardern
Lyn Webster (Waikato Times): Feel a bit ripped off by Ardern
Newshub: Jacinda Ardern reveals the extent baby Neve has changed her and partner Clarke Gayford’s sleep
Other
1News: Disabled people three times less likely to be employed
Joel Ineson (Stuff): Work and Income promotes ‘patronising’ investigator who wrongfully axed mother’s benefit
BusinessDesk: Robertson targets the missing million in upcoming KiwiSaver review
1News: ‘Unfinished business’ – Pike River families furious Peter Whittall won’t admit guilt ahead of possible manslaughter charges
Raniera Harrison (Māori TV): Ministerial calls for axing of Waitangi National Trust financial arm
Patrick O”Meara (RNZ): Kiwis love a bargain, but are we getting ripped off?
Simon Wilson (Herald) Warwick Roger: A storyteller’s devotion to good journalism
John Minto (Daily Blog): Imagine if the rich listers paid the same tax rates as beneficiaries…
RNZ: Helen Clark in Solomons to encourage women candidates
Joel Maxwell (Dominion Post): You’re never too old to become a better you
Richard MacManus (Newsroom): More to crowdfunding than just free beer
Newshub: Lawyer campaigning for parents to be allowed to name kids Justice
Stuff: HELL pizza tackles discrimination against LGBTIQA+ community]]>
Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: The Green Party goes greener
Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: The Green Party goes greener
[caption id="attachment_13635" align="alignright" width="150"] Dr Bryce Edwards.[/caption]
Those who want the Green Party to focus primarily on the environment should be very happy with the direction the party is heading in. Over the last ten months in government – and especially during the weekend – it has become clear that the party is more about the environment than ever before and much less focused on economic and social issues.
[caption id="attachment_16876" align="alignleft" width="300"]
New Zealand Green Party co-leader, Marama Davidson.[/caption]
The conference in the weekend presented the party at its most green ever. All of the main issues that the leadership and membership focused on were environmental. Unlike last year’s conference where Metiria Turei unveiled an incredibly leftwing welfare policy – and dramatically confessed to welfare fraud – at this conference the talk was all about climate change, conservation, landfill waste issues, and water bottling.
For the best account of how the party has returned to an environmental focus, see Henry Cooke’s Bruised Green Party go back to basics at annual conference. He points to the two major announcements on water and waste, saying these “catered entirely to the more environmentally-focused wing of the party”.
Cooke suggests the focus is strategic: “With the party facing a raft of criticism from the commentariat that it was forgetting the ‘Green’ in the party’s name, launching some solid environmental policies made sense. The water testing stuff, clearly aimed at big foreign water bottlers, was some of the most populist policy the Greens have had in years, and will be well-received across the country.”
Of course, the Greens have always been a complex coalition of many different factions and philosophies. This was expressed colourfully on Friday in Matthew Hooton’s column, in which he detailed the historic divisions in the party, and how they appear to be resurfacing – see: Cracks in the Green revolution.
Hooton argues that the party has traditionally done very well to keep the various factions working coherently together, but multiple fault-lines in the party are becoming harder to paper over. He suggests the current co-leadership duo are less able to work together in the yin-and-yang fashion that Russel Norman and Metiria Turei achieved. Furthermore, he believes Marama Davidson’s more radical supporters are in the ascendancy.
It seems, however, that the opposite is the case – that the environmentalists are now firmly in control – and, indeed, there’s a much more moderate atmosphere in the party. This has led some to warn the party about losing its radical edge, or even some of its voters. Former MP Catherine Delahunty emphasised how important it is that the Greens don’t become perceived as just being “‘Labour Lite” – see Lucy Bennett’s Uncomfortable discussions to be had at Green Party AGM.
Sue Bradford, also a former Green MP, commented during the weekend that the party was becoming “less and less the party of choice for people on the ecological and social justice side of the Greens”.
So, is the party vulnerable to losing its more leftwing members and voters? Henry Cooke reports that “A new movement called Organise Aotearoa, to the left of the Greens, has sprung up to soak up some of those who might be less comfortable with the compromises.”
Jason Walls has recently argued that the party’s wins in government have heavily favoured the environmental faction: “If you side more with the environmentalists, it has been a good first nine months for the Greens… From the perspective of the Greens greener supporters, all is well. But on the other side of the coin, the party is having a few teething issues” – see: The Greens’ 5% polling puts them on the precipice of oblivion and with simmering issues within the party.
Walls says this imbalance isn’t currently a problem: “there is nowhere for New Zealand’s more socially progressive voters to go apart from the Green Party”. However, “if a socially progressive party were to rise, it could plausibly siphon votes away from disenfranchised former Greens supporters and ultimately lead to the Party’s demise.”
This is also a position held by leftwing political commentator Gordon Campbell: “Before 2020, the Greens will need major gains that set them apart from Labour. Especially on the social justice front, where it risks looking entirely redundant” – see: On National’s obsolescence and the Greens’ dilemma.
Campbell is uneasy with the Greens’ continued endorsement of Labour’s conservative fiscal policies: “The Greens did not have to sign up last year to the Budget Responsibility Rules that continue to restrict the government’s ability to meet social needs. They chose to do so back then, and they’re choosing right now not to revisit that decision.”
A damage-control conference
The Green leadership will be very pleased with how the conference went at the weekend, because in the end there was very little infighting or pushback from the membership’s leftwing. Instead, the MPs were able to convince assembled activists that the progress made and concessions won within government far outweighed the compromises and shortcomings.
Davidson and Shaw were able to point to a list of environmental wins, including the current process of crafting climate change legislation, establishing the Interim Climate Change Committee, the ban on plastic bags, setting up a Green Investment Fund with $100m, more funding for public transport, and most of all, the ban on new permits for oil and gas exploration.
This doesn’t mean there weren’t challenges for the MPs and leadership, who had to answer some questions about selling out its ideology and principles – especially on their support for the so-called Waka-Jumping Bill.
As Henry Cooke explains, much of this sales job fell to Marama Davidson, who has the responsibility of keeping peace between the wider party and its ministers in government – see: Green Party’s first conference in Government a chance to show why it’s worth them being there.
Do the Greens need to get more radical?
A number of commentators have pointed to the Greens getting fewer policy wins than the New Zealand First party, and the fact that they haven’t been able to make more of the environmental wins they have achieved. For Guyon Espiner it’s a case of the MPs simply needing to use the “weapon the Green Party appear reluctant to use: Its voice” – see: The Green Party needs to speak up.
Many are pointing to the need for Davidson, in particular, to speak up more. And although Espiner agrees, he says others should too: “As a backbencher Ms Davidson is completely free to speak her mind. Even the Green ministers are largely free of the constraints of collective responsibility, in that it only applies to their portfolios.”
Similarly, Sam Sachdeva has said the Greens need louder voice in government. He argues that “The party may need to fight its corner more often if it is to survive and thrive”. In particular, “A dead rat or two may be palatable, but the Greens must show they can choose their own cuisine when they want to.”
According to Gordon Campbell, a return to a more principled-focus is necessary because “much of the Greens appeal has been based on the notion that its core values are not up for bargaining. That’s one reason why the deal on the waka jumping law has been so harmful.” He says that “the Greens are going to need to display a backbone. If it is to survive, the self-declared party of principles will have to demonstrate a greater willingness to fight for them.”
Finally, recently the Green MPs have become more aggressive and dissatisfied with how the media is covering the party. For example, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage retorted to one journalist asking hard questions: “If you want to sit in this seat, then perhaps you should stand for election.” And for the latest push back against the media, see RadioLive’s Reporting on Marama’s speech ‘disgraceful’ – James Shaw.]]>
Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – August 20 2018
Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – August 20 2018
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
[caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption]
Green Party
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Bruised Green Party go back to basics at annual conference
1News: Green Party ‘really happy with the wins’, says James Shaw, despite having to swallow dead rat
Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): Government worth an occasional deceased rodent
Audrey Young (Herald): Winston Peters’ obsession on defections has soured the Greens’ start in Government
Gia Garrick (RNZ): Green leadership stands firm on Waka Jumping Bill at AGM
Newshub: ‘I’ve made my point’ – Marama Davidson says she won’t use C-word in public anymore
1News: James Shaw ‘really furious’ female colleagues Marama Davidson and Golriz Ghahraman are subjected to threats online
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Waka Jumping: Former MPs hope Greens conference will make party pull support
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Green Party concludes two-day annual general meeting in Palmerston North
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Wellington Paranormal: Sage Incompetence & Fitzsimons Naivety – Green Party Conference descends into omnishambles
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): It’s the media’s fault for covering the reclaiming of the C word fiasco?
RNZ: Water announcement disappointing – campaigner
1News: Green Party pushes to have ‘water extraction’ assessed in future Overseas Investment applications
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Green Party wants review of selling water access to overseas buyers
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Water-bottling announcement a highlight of Green Party AGM
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Greens gain concession in review of Act to consider water bottling
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Greens push for ‘water test’ on foreign land sales in bid to stop bottling plants
Herald: Greens target foreign land buyers bottling NZ water in review of Overseas Investment Act
1News: Green Party pushes to have ‘water extraction’ assessed in future Overseas Investment applications
Newshub: National accuses Greens of hypocrisy over water
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Local councils welcome work on reducing waste going to landfills
Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): Greens’ war on waste
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Green Party tackles mountain of waste going to New Zealand’s landfills
Gia Garrick (RNZ): Greens want to tackle waste by increasing landfill levies
Andrea Vance (Stuff): Government tackles tyred old problem
Gia Garrick (RNZ): Greens to get tougher on dumping of tyres and lithium batteries
RNZ: Simon Bridges says Greens’ waste commitment is ‘vague words’
Lisette Reymer (Newshub): Green Party’s new waste scheme savaged as ‘tyre tax’ by National
Gia Garrick (RNZ): Green Party AGM: ‘We now have a shot at delivering’
Henry Cooke (Stuff):James Shaw opens Green Party conference: We’re ‘just getting warmed up’
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Green Party co-leader James Shaw speaks at party’s AGM in Palmerston North
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Uncomfortable discussions to be had at Green Party AGM
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Green Party’s first conference in Government a chance to show why its worth them being there
Chris Bramwell (RNZ): Can the Greens survive being part of the establishment?
AAP (Guardian): New Zealand’s minister for women cycles to hospital to give birth
Stuff: Green MP Julie Anne Genter bikes to hospital to be induced
Herald: Green MP Julie Anne Genter cycles to hospital for an induction to ‘finally have this baby’
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Julie Anne Genter cycles to hospital to give birth
1News: MP Julie Anne Genter cycles to hospital to have her baby – ‘Wish us luck!’
RNZ: Green party minister bikes to hospital to have baby
The Opportunities Party
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): ‘What I am doing right now is pretty much career suicide for an economist. There’s no going back’ – TOP’s new leader Geoff Simmons
Dan Satherley (Newshub): The Opportunities Party lives on, with new leader Geoff Simmons
1News: The Opportunities Party stages a comeback, naming new leader and new role for Gareth Morgan
Herald: The Opportunities Party to contest 2020 election after all
National
Simon Wilson (Herald): Back to the future – the challenge facing National
John Armstrong (1News): Simon Bridges’ travel spending ‘was state funding of a political party in drag’
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Spending scoop highlights the pros and cons of leaks
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Expenses leak came from a Govt that wants to distract – Simon Bridges
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Bridges doesn’t need a formal inquiry into limogate
Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Searching for the silver linings in Simon Bridges’ playbook
1News: Simon Bridges’ expenses leak like ‘a game of Cluedo’ – 1 NEWS political reporter
Jane Bowron (Stuff): Smears, conjecture and collective consternation over Bridges spend-up leak
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of … Simon Bridges
Andrew Gunn (Stuff): Getting to the bottom of Bridges’ expenses
Dan Satherley (Newshub): National now backs water levy
Finn Hogan (Newshub): National ‘too scared’ for cannabis reform while in Govt – Peter Dunne
Jeremy Elwood & Michele A’Court (Stuff): Opposition for the sake of it? Yeah, nah
NZ First
1News: Winston Peters renews his push for referendum on future of Māori seats
Herald Editorial: Embarrassing waka jumping bill doesn’t put NZ first
Nick Smith (Spinoff): Winston Peters’ $300,000 fealty clause is an affront to our democracy
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Ron Mark backs Winston Peters on approach Simon Bridges made to him
1News: ‘Outright nonsense from Winston Peters’ – Simon Bridges denies asking NZ First’s Ron Mark to join National
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Winston Peters says Simon Bridges tried to poach his MP Ron Mark
Newshub: NZ First claims Simon Bridges tried to do deal over Wairarapa seat
Parliament
Lachy Paterson (ODT): It’s about how best to represent Maori interests
Daniela Maoate-Cox (RNZ): Māori seats? What are they?
Lucy Bennett (Herald):National MP Nick Smith upset over Labour MP Kris Faafoi’s ‘offensive’ comment
Emma Hurley (Newshub): Labour MP Willow-Jean Prime speaks out after being told not to speak te reo
1News: Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime defends right to speak Te Reo in Parliament after emailer tells her to ‘say it in English’
Budget
Jason Walls (Interest): Before the 2020 election, Robertson must decide if Labour will stick with the Budget Responsibility Rules, or ditch them
Daniela Maoate-Cox (RNZ): All about the money money money: Budget 2018 passed
Act
1News: Inside Parliament podcast: ACT rebrand would ‘have to be a massive splash’
Coiln Peacock (RNZ) Mediawatch: Keeping up the Act
Foreign affairs and trade
Grant Bayldon (Stuff): Dear Prime Minister, Evacuate the kids off Nauru
Laura Walters (Stuff): Calls for PM to bring Nauru refugee kids to NZ
Chelsea Boyle (Herald): Plea for PM to reach out to Nauru and take on refugees
1News: Exclusive: NZ and Pacific countries lobby for WHO regional director as Asian influence puts candidate in doubt
Edward Gay (RNZ): Visit with seriously ill partner turned down, says NZ detainee
Gerard Hutching (Stuff): Saudi agribusiness hub stalled after neighbour objects to abattoir
Martin van Beynen, Cate Broughton and Thomas Manch (Stuff): Antarctica NZ chief executive resigns suddenly after boardroom discussions
Brian Easton (Pundit): Uneasy Lies the Head That Wears the Global Crown
Newshub: Is Jacinda Ardern failing to speak out on international issues?
Simon Draper (Stuff): China’s mysterious Belt and Road Initiative
1News: ‘A very humble man’ – Former Prime Minister Helen Clark remembers the work of Kofi Annan
Newshub: Former PM Helen Clark remembers Kofi Annan
Herald: Helen Clark remembers Kofi Annan as ‘leading statesperson of our time’
Justice and police
David Fisher (Herald): The politics of crime – how the hunt for votes filled our prisons and threatens Minister of Justice Andrew Little’s plans for reform
1News: Justice system ‘not doing the job properly’ as prison population rises and reoffending remains high
Asher Emanuel (Spinoff): ‘It clearly isn’t working’: Andrew Little on his crusade to reform criminal justice
1News: Simon Bridges dismisses Government justice summit as a ‘talk fest’ – says it will lead to a ‘softening’ of laws
Laura Walters (Stuff): Experts question make-up of criminal justice advisory group ahead of summit
Gia Garrick (RNZ): Kelvin Davis: ‘Ngāpuhi ‘most incarcerated tribe in the world’
Leigh-Marama McLachlan (RNZ): Man arrested at Work and Income office hours after leaving prison
Jared Savage (Herald): Power, politicians and police – What the inquiry into the appointment of Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha is really about
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Haumaha affair a test for the PM
Herald: Inmates blocked from parole by Three Strikes may be staying away from the help that makes them less dangerous
Sam Hurley (Herald): Nearly 900 complaints against judges in three years – judicial conduct report
Herald: Pathologists warn: murders may not be detected after national forensic pathology service dismantled
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Courts seek to assist those with disabilities to better access support while in justice system
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): The hurdles to housing a sex offender
Isaac Davison (Herald): Corrections failed to notify schools of nearby placement of sex offender
Isaac Davison (Herald): High-risk sex offender housed near Epsom schools following release from prison
Newshub: Sex offender housed near three Auckland schools after prison release
ActionStation: Māori perspectives on the justice system – They’re our whānau — a report in the making
Newshub: Some ethnic communities feel unsafe in Auckland
1News: Can police force you to unlock your social accounts? No, says privacy lawyer
Charlotte Carter (Stuff): Cost of living in Auckland driving police officers out of the super city
Housing
Shamubeel Eaqub (RNZ): Banning foreigners: wasted policy effort
ODT Editorial: The foreign ownership conundrum
Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian): ‘Stress is huge’: New Zealand’s foreign buyers ban brings home scale of crisis
Anuja Nadkarni and Catherine Harris (Stuff): Chinese investors spooked by foreign buyer ban, says website
Lucy Warhurst (Newshub): Auckland family begs Labour to keep promise to wipe emergency accommodation debt
1News: Demand still growing two years after Auckland marae opened doors to homeless
Liam Dann (Herald): Will Auckland property follow the Sydney slump?
Newshub: Judith Collins calls Housing New Zealand’s focus on post 2000 homes ‘dopey’
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Housing New Zealand fixes ‘swamp’ state house after tenant raises voice
Laine Moger (Stuff): Housing New Zealand family sleeps on living room floor to keep warm
Chris Harrowell (Stuff): Manukau bus station in south Auckland sheltering rough sleepers at night
Health
Newshub: Elderly Kiwis being detained in locked units
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Melanomas possibly missed
RNZ: Children of smokers ‘risk adult disease’
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Alcohol harm more than triple the cost of all Treaty claims so far – economist
RNZ: Insight: Foetal Alcohol – Damaging Baby Brains
Philippa Tolley (RNZ): Alcohol packaging needs warning for pregnant women – experts
ODT Editorial: The risks of herbicide exposure
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Study: media affects health funding ideas
Libby Wilson (Stuff): Cambridge’s St Kilda Care Home gets surprise inspection
Mandy Te (Stuff): Study finds growing resistance to antibiotics in New Zealand
RNZ: New Zealanders consuming lots of antibiotics without benefit – study
Cleo Fraser (Newshub): Recent study shows New Zealanders over-consuming antibiotics
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Warning over hospital meals: ‘Significant risk’ to some patients
Raniera Harrison (Māori TV): National Māori genetics research centre unveiled in Kaitāia
Herald: Sir John Key puts up Hawaii home for a week to help top Auckland detective Sarah Cato’s cancer fight
Dan Dalgety (RNZ): Aretha Franklin’s death shines light on treatment options in NZ
Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff):Engineering New Zealand call out complacency on drinking water quality
Cate Broughton (Stuff): Mentally ill asked to cook noodles to prove they can live on their own
Samantha Gee (Stuff): Youth mental health crisis team changes approved by Ministry of Health
Kaitlin Ruddock (1News): Controversial restructure of after-hours mental health hotline for Nelson’s young to go ahead
Helen Harvey (Stuff): The rise and rise of mental illness among our young
1News: Number of New Zealanders using anti-depressants for other conditions has surged
Euthanasia
RNZ: Disabilities Commissioner concerned about End of Life Choice bill
Carolyn Moynihan (Stuff): No human dignity in killing or being killed
Environment and conservation
Cherie Sivignon (Nelson Mail): Greens to oppose, Labour to back Waimea dam local bill
No Right Turn: Labour supports Muldoonism
The Standard: No Waimea dam
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Supreme Court ruling protects ‘precious’ Coromandel land
Scott Palmer (Newshub): What is 1080, and why do people oppose it?
Kurt Bayer (Herald): Poison drops on Molesworth Station suspended after 1080 drop kills dozens of red deer
Stuff: Online post says 1080 poison placed at Palmerston North pools and public parks
Peter Griffin (Listener): Was former EPA chief scientist Jacqueline Rowarth muzzled?
Talisa Kupenga (Māori TV): Marginal and erosion-prone land target of carbon trade scheme
Dominic Harris (Stuff): Pollution blamed as Christchurch waterways fall short of quality standards
Jono Galuszka (Stuff): Fish and Game tells Horizons to worry about important water issues before trout
Brendan McMahon (Greymouth Star): Recyclables to be dumped as landfill at tipping point
Thomas Neitzert (Spinoff): Why compostable plastics may be no better for the environment
Dave Nicoll (Southland Times): DOC publish redacted documents as part of move to be more ‘transparent’
1News: New moveable hut planned for Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park
Samantha Gee (Stuff): Repairs in storm-hit Abel Tasman National Park hit $1 million mark
RNZ: Bay of Plenty: Warning issued over toxic algal bloom
Tess Brunton (RNZ): Marine mammal tours begin in Otago Harbour
Primary industries
Tova O’Brien (NEwshub): Farmers slam MPI’s response to Mycoplasma bovis as an ‘absolutely bloody disgrace’
Mere McLean (Māori TV): Māori Trust Dairy Operation supports new legislation
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Law changes give MPI more power in wake of cattle disease
Moana Makapelu Lee (Māori TV): No search warrant required to inspect properties for mycoplasma bovis
Gerald Piddock (Stuff): Monitoring all Waikato dairy farms would cause a huge rates hike
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Milking it: NZ’s milk price: Who’s getting rich?
Anuja Nadkarni (Stuff): Milking It: From the farm to the shelf
Andrew McRae (RNZ): ‘Whistleblowers’ in animal abuse cases need protection – SAFE
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Nurseries and orchards face a $1.5 billion loss, says lawyer
Guy Trafford (Interest): Two issues that can no longer be ignored
LIam Dann (Herald): Economy Hub: Can our farmers rescue the economy?
David Hargreaves (Interest): The Government needs to concede that the creation of Fonterra was the wrong thing to do and start again
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Why we need grown-ups to lead Fonterra
Gerard Hutching (Stuff): Fonterra has destroyed shareholder value: farmers
Immigration
Anneke Smith (RNZ): ‘Tolerance towards migrants, contact is the most important factor’
RNZ: Immigration policy needs to return to first principles – minister
RNZ: Christchurch to be a refugee settlement location again
Oliver Lewis (Stuff): Christchurch reinstated as refugee settlement location
Katie Fitzgerald and Dave Goosselink (Newshub): Christchurch reinstated as refugee resettlement location
Chelsea Boyle (Herald): Christchurch restored as a refugee settlement location
Alex Braae (Spinoff): Christchurch open for refugee resettlement, but quota remains underfilled
Education
Simon Collins (Herald): Tighter University Entrance rules lift university pass rates
RNZ: Fee rises for university and polytech students capped at 2 percent
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Trade training groups vie with universities for school-leavers
Adele Redmond (Stuff):‘Expressions of interest’ sought for Lincoln University, sources claim
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Uni students told to switch off laptops, smartphones during lectures
Andre Chumko (Stuff): Women face fraud charges following investigation into Hawke’s Bay kura
Tema Hemi (Māori TV): $20mil to build new school for Manukura
George Heagney (Manawatū Standard): Manukura gets $20m for new school site
Southland Times Editorial: Prosecutions to improve parenting?
Education sector pay claims
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Teachers Union falls into same trap as Nurses Union
John Roughan (Herald): Teachers’ pay reflects the way they bargain
Damien Grant (Stuff): Decades of bureaucratic hand-wringing has delivered a broken system
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Teachers with 40 years’ experience stuck on $59,600 because of pay ‘inequality’
1News: Negotiations must be settled to avoid two-day teacher strike, say National
1News: Over 500 education specialists set to strike next week – ‘Prioritise the needs of children’
Emma Hurley and Alex Baird (Newshub): 550 learning support specialists to strike on Tuesday
Emma Hatton (RNZ): Education Ministry special needs staff to strike
Infrastructure
Richard Harman (Poltik); Jones reinvents the Ministry of Works
Dominic Harris (Press):
Super-regions or a special tax – how the Government plans to fix New Zealand’s broken water systems
Newshub:Interview: Shane Jones (video)
Herald: National criticises Government’s infrastructure plan after Shane Jones appears on Newshub
Newshub: Interview: Katie Black (video)
Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): Govt in the dark on infrastructure threats
1News: Independent infrastructure entity to be created to provide ‘certainty’ for industry
John Anthony (Stuff): Government to set up infrastructure agency to tackle deficit
Jason Walls (Interest): Shane Jones ‘opens NZ for business’ with new infrastructure agency
RNZ: Long-term strategic thinking was neglected – infrastructure boss
RNZ: New infrastructure agency proposed to improve planning, investment
Employment
Tom Hunt (Stuff): WorkSafe fails to take a prosecution on a single bullying case
Catherine Harris and Julie Iles (Stuff): Complacency rises in workplace health and safety, and we’re all to blame
RNZ: Scoring system for sick days ‘dubious legally, morally’
Laine Moger (Stuf): Domestic violence bill: Survivor questions its practicality in the workplace
Stuff: My boss treated my miscarriage like it was a holiday
Stuff: Unlimited sick leave keeping Kiwi employees more honest than not
Miranda Burdon (Stuff): Last year only 324 men took parental leave, and it’s an issue
Rob Stock (Stuff): Hire women, and men work harder
Guy Williams (Stuff): Stop saying the gender pay gap doesn’t exist
Free speech, debate
Stuart McCutcheon (Herald): Free speech debate must be of higher standard
Matt Stewart (Stuff): Free speech battle brews between feminist and trans-activist groups
Moana Jackson (E-Tangata): Rethinking free speech
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Review: Dr Cornel West and Douglas Murray: Polarised
Media and Broadcasting
Regan Paranihi (Māori TV): Unified support for longest-running Māori radio station
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Māori radio station battles iwi to stay open
Francine Chen (Spinoff): The new national newspaper devoted to making the invisible visible
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Let us watch what we want – why NZ On Air needs reining in
Tom O’Connor (Waikato Times): Opinion: Social media needs regulating
Herald: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to guest edit Suffrage NZ Herald
Lizzie Marvelly (Herald): Why British journo has no place in haka debate
Warwick Roger dies
Bob Harvey (Spinoff): Warwick Roger, Metro founder and giant of NZ journalism
Martin Johnston (Herald): Journalists remember Metro magazine’s ‘crusading’, ‘pioneering’ founding editor Warwick Roger who has died
Herald: Celebrated journalist and Metro magazine founder Warwick Roger dies
Glen McConnell (Stuff): Metro magazine founder Warwick Roger dies
RNZ: Metro magazine founder dies at 72
1News: Metro magazine founder Warwick Roger dies aged 72
Communication
Ben Thomas (Spinoff): The evidence-based case for more PR in politics
Jess Berentson-Shaw (Newshub): Opinion: Why do facts fail?
Jess Berentson-Shaw (University of Auckland): Can we teach critical thinking in a post-truth world?
Jamie Morton (Herald): A matter of fact: Fighting fake news in a post-truth world
Stuff: Kiwi companies pack feel-good images into annual reports
Deborah Hill Cone (Herald): Let’s not descend to Parliament’s level
Kīngitanga
John Boynton (RNZ): Koroneihana wrong time to bring up misspending allegations
RNZ: Fraud allegations put aside at Māori King’s koroneihana celebrations
RNZ Checkpoint: Rangi McLean supports Māori king coronation media ban
Mānia Clarke (Māori TV): Kiingitanga commences Coronation celebrations
Treaty settlements
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Confidential Treaty settlement document left on Wellington train
Mānia Clarke (RNZ): Urban Ngāpuhi want say in proposed treaty mandate
Poverty and inequality
Stuff: Government monitoring families package impact, amid ‘heartbreaking’ deprivation
Māori TV: Record number of food items sent out to schools
Hannah Ross (Stuff): Call for fewer pokies near poor communites
Transport
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): As pricing changes, AA warns price spreading will be ‘fatal’ for regional fuel tax
Chris Knox (Herald): Insights: Who is paying Auckland’s fuel tax?
Finn Hogan (Newshub): Transport revolution coming faster than we think – expert
Jessica Long (Stuff): Justice Ministry apologises over Wellington’s ‘mess’ of a bus system tweet
Virginia Fallon (Stuff): Kāpiti’s new airline takes off: Air Chathams launches new Auckland route
Local government
Katie Doyle (RNZ): Councillor: Apology for ‘not enough were killed’ comment inadequate
Herald: ‘Not enough were killed’: No sanctions for Gisborne councillors over alleged Māori comment
1News: Tauranga City Council taking court action over failed Bella Vista development
Matt Shand (Stuff): Companies linked to Bella Vista Homes continued selling houses
Matt Shand (Stuff): Bella Vista financials didn’t add up, say ex-staffers and contractors
Taroi Black (Māori TV): Tira Hou Marae gets makeover
Newshub: Is Auckland performing? (video)
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Prominent residents to reveal their dreams for Wellington city
Colin Williscroft (Press): Rates bill jumps $1000 after council reviews status of granny flat
Liz McDonald (Press): Project 8011 plans to repopulate central Christchurch
Drugs
Bryan Cadogan (Stuff): It’s time the lower South Island woke up
Max Harris (Spinoff): ‘Aren’t we all drug users after all?’: What drug law reform in Portugal can teach NZ
Tourism
1News: Tourist spending sees jump of close to $900 million from last year
Grant Bradley (Herald): Boom time: Visitor spending up by $880 million
Amanda Cropp (Stuf): West Coast rūnanga aims to make freedom camping user-pays
Pacific communities
RNZ: Pasifika opinions sought in New Zealand survey
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Call for better Pacific support in New Zealand’s far south
Other
Northern Advocate: Jones calls for change at Waitangi Treaty Grounds trust
Chris Hutching (Stuff): What does it mean for homeowners faced with new risk-based insurance?
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Second expat vice-chancellor flees ‘for safety’ as PNG universities turn nasty
Professor John Warren … forced to leave PNG as threats and lawlessness descend on universities targeting senior expatriate administrators. Image: PNG Attitude
By Keith Jackson
A letter from the former vice-chancellor of Papua New Guinea’s University of Natural Resources and Environment (UNRE) in Rabaul says senior staff urged him to leave the country for his own safety after a scurrilous attempt had been made to level trumped up criminal charges against him.
A member of UNRE staff has revealed a letter to the university’s council which explains to its members exactly why Professor John Warren left hurriedly and without formal ceremony this month, with the experience of former University of Technology vice-chancellor Dr Albert Schram fresh in his mind.
Earlier this year, there were attempts to detain Dr Schram in PNG as an act of vengeance following his identification of corrupt practices at Unitech.
READ MORE: Albert Schram: My wrongful dismissal and malicious prosecution – a warning
Dr Schram was later able to leave the country when he realised a conspiracy against him was beginning to take shape and was able to regain his passport and return to Italy.
In his letter to the university council, Prof Warren says he hopes it will clarify the circumstances surrounding the events that led to his sudden departure which occurred after the UNRE chancellor Kenneth Sumbuk accused him of spreading rumours that he (Sumbuk) wanted to take over the university.
“On five separate occasions he mentioned the possibility of reporting me to the police over this,” Prof Warren wrote.
“Although I was aware of rumours that the chancellor wanted to be vice-chancellor, they had not been circulated by me. In fact I considered them trivial gossip.
‘Very disturbed’
“However, I was very disturbed by the chancellor’s repeated threats to report me to the police.”
At a hastily-called council meeting on July 26, Prof Warren’s authority was constantly undermined and normal protocols and procedures ignored and ridiculed by the chancellor. It seems council members themselves also failed to assist, resolve or regularise matters.
“By the end of the meeting my job had become untenable, and I submitted my resignation the following day,” Warren wrote.
Prevailed upon to remain for a transition period by PNG Higher Education Secretary Fr Jan Czuba, Prof Warren at first agreed but was then informed by senior UNRE staff that they were concerned about his safety if he remained.
The same afternoon he received news that a court order was about to be served on him and, after consulting the British High Commission and his lawyer, and with the Schram case in mind, he decided that “although the charges were ludicrous, I should leave PNG as quickly and quietly as possible”.
He added: “This I did, regrettably without being able to say goodbye to my many close friends and colleagues.
“My decision to accept the position of vice-chancellor at UNRE was not motivated by financial or career reasons,” Prof Warren said.
‘Significant reduction’
“I took a significant reduction in salary when moving to UNRE and have no ambition to work in academia following this appointment.
“I was motivated purely by a desire to help UNRE improve as an organisation, to enhance the education received by its students, and to promote the sustainable use of natural resources in PNG.”
Since his departure, angry UNRE students have been boycotting classes and demanding an explanation of the events that led to his departure.
But Prof Warren will not be coming back. “Under no circumstances will I be returning to UNRE as vice-chancellor,” he said.
In his letter to the university council, he accused it of repeatedly overturning decisions it had no authority to make.
“It is extremely poor governance for council to undermine the authority of the vice-chancellor unless there is a significant disciplinary issue,” he said.
“If you were unhappy with my performance, you should have said so and I would have been happy to step down. Instead you took over the responsibilities of the CEO.”
Making up rules
Prof Warren said council members should consider their positions.
He did not say this, but it can be observed here, that the chancellor and council should be sacked and the operations of Fr Czuba’s struggling higher education authority put under scrutiny.
However, with PNG rapidly becoming a place where people make up their own rules as the normal functioning of organisations breaks down, none of this will happen,
The prospects of PNG’s higher education system recovering and strengthening through the application of qualified, competent and dedicated leadership seem a long way off.
Keith Jackson is a retired educator, teacher, civil servant, police maker and broadcaster who lived for many years in Papua New Guinea, but who also had experience in Fiji, India, Indonesia, Maldives and the Philippines. His blog PNG Attitude was established to address a major issue – “the silence that, for too long after PNG independence in 1975, existed between Papua New Guineans and Australians.”
Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz
]]>NZ and Pacific countries contest Asian influence for WHO regional director
Hundreds of millions of health dollars are at stake as the Pacific region grapples with a number of crises including diabetes and even the re-emergence of polio. Image: TVNZ
By Barbara Dreaver
Battlelines are being drawn as New Zealand and Pacific countries lobby for an important appointment at the World Health Organisation.
The region’s health ministers had all agreed to support a Pasifika candidate, but offers of aid and influence from Asian countries have left that in doubt.
Hundreds of millions of health dollars are at stake as the region grapples with a number of crises including diabetes and even the re-emergence of polio.
The regional director nominee, Dr Colin Tukuitonga, says the small island communities do not get a fair deal from the World Health Organisation.
“People complain about resource limitations, there is never enough money. The voice of the islands is often drowned out by the voices of the bigger Asian countries,” he said.
It is why New Zealand has nominated Dr Tukuitonga as the WHO regional director.
At a recent meeting, Pacific health ministers unanimously agreed to support that nomination.
Sudden change
But things suddenly changed. Both the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea have gone back on their agreement, publicly expressing commitment to Japan.
“This is an opportunity to remain united and influence a particularly important position for the health of the people of the region. And clearly we have two members who haven’t honoured their commitment to regionalism,” Dr Tukuitonga said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says the government hopes that the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea “will this time sign up for their own neighbourhood rather than bargain their vote off somewhere else for alternative reasons”.
Coincidentally, Japan has made aid offers to island countries, including a major international airport extension and rebuild for the Solomon Islands.
“A free airport does not improve the health of the Pacific people,” Peters said.
Dr Tukuitonga said: “Some of our island members are very vulnerable, very susceptible to these offers. And that’s the unfortunate thing I think.”
Nonetheless there’s been solid support for Dr Tukuitonga who’s pledging to fight for a region he’s already dedicated to.
Projected decline
“WHO budget is projected to decline. There’s a lot to be said about getting a fair share for our region because if you do that then you have a better chance of allocating a decent level of resource to our island members,” he said.
Peters said: “We start with a huge asset on our side. We have got the right candidate.”
It would be an historic win for the Pacific as the role has always been held by Asia.
Thirty countries will decide if the time is right for change in October.
Barbara Dreaver is the Pacific affairs correspondent of Television New Zealand. This article is republished with permission.
Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz
]]>Rodrigo Duterte’s killing season now opens fire on Lumads and the Left
By Bong S Sarmiento in Mindanao
Tactics used to target Filipino drug suspects are now being deployed against leftist activists and alleged supporters of an outlawed communist movement
Last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to bomb the schools of indigenous Lumad people in mountainous areas of the southern island of Mindanao for allegedly teaching communism to students.
The threat represented a violent reversal for the tough-talking leader, who famously said on the campaign trail in 2016 that if elected he would become the country’s first “leftist president.”
READ MORE: Manila brands volunteer teachers as ‘terrorists’, say Lumad activists
Upon taking office, the Mindanao native prioritised pursuing peace with the leftist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA). Formed in 1969, the NPA has been at war against the government ever since.
Duterte’s peace initiative, like those of his predecessors, quickly fell apart amid new firefights between rebels and government troops.
The president abandoned the peace effort last year and designated both the CPP and NPA as “terrorist organisations”, a punitive upgrade from their previous classifications as “illegal organisations.”
The shift has opened the way for a new offensive against the country’s leftists, a campaign of harassment some see as an extension of his brutal war on drugs. ”
16,000 deaths
The anti-drug drive has resulted in as many as 16,000 deaths, many in police shoot-outs with alleged drug suspects, according to rights groups.
In January, Duterte vowed to pursue left-wing organisations for allegedly acting as fronts for the outlawed communist movement. Weeks later, Duterte stirred a backlash for his unbridled threat to “shoot in the vagina” female NPA fighters.
Duterte’s crude and violent threats against communist rebels has put leftist activists and ethnic minority Lumad communities situated in known NPA-controlled territories spread across Mindanao in the government’s firing line.
In December, eight Lumad tribe members were killed during a military operation against the NPA in Lake Sebu town in South Cotabato province. Authorities later closed the village’s school on suspicion that it was teaching communism to students.
The Save our Schools Network, an umbrella group of child-focused nongovernmental organisations and church-based groups, has documented 225 military “attacks” on Lumad schools since last year.
John Timothy Romero, spokesperson for the Centre for Lumad Advocacy, Networking and Services (CLANS), a civil society group, said 33 formal and non-formal Lumad-run schools in Central Mindanao have been closed by authorities since last year, affecting nearly 4600 primary and secondary school students.
Local military officials accused the schools of teaching subversion and communism, and justified the closures because they lacked proper Department of Education licences. Romero denied the schools were used to propagate communism, although he admitted that NPA rebels have a presence in the affected areas.
‘Caught in the war’
“We’re operating in remote mountain areas where communist rebels are around, but that does not mean that we are NPA supporters. We are just caught in the war between the military and the NPA,” he said.
A local court in Northern Luzon, an area where the NPA is also active, ordered the arrest of four prominent leftists – Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casino, Rafael Ocampo and Liza Maza – on murder charges. Maza currently heads the government’s National Anti-Poverty Commission.
The court ruled out the murder case against the four on August 13 due to insufficient evidence.
Ryan Amper, spokesperson for the Stand for Human Rights Mindanao group, stressed the crackdown against leftists, human rights activists and environmental defenders is part and parcel of the Duterte government’s rising political persecution.
Amper says that “Oplan Tokhang”, Duterte’s anti-drug policy that has morphed into a seemingly unmitigated killing spree against illegal drug users and pushers, is now being deployed against left-leaning activists, community leaders and Lumads who resist big mining and plantation operations in Mindanao.
“We have verified incidents where the military knocked on the houses of suspected NPA rebels or supporters and asked them to surrender,” Amper said.
He said in several cases those identified as NPA supporters, including some who opposed big mining operations, were eventually killed by unidentified gunmen.
State agent killers
Amper’s group has recorded at least 140 killings of activists and Lumad tribal leaders, allegedly perpetrated by state agents, since Duterte came to power.
Duterte’s anti-drug drive has killed at least 4075 in legitimate police operations, according to official data up to March 2018. More than 16,000 potentially related deaths recorded through the end of 2017 were classified as “cases under investigation.”
Oplan Tokhang was derived from the two Visayan words “toktok” (knock) and “hangyo” (plead). With tactics derived from Duterte’s Davao City when he served as mayor, the operations involve police officers knocking on the doors of alleged drug suspects and pleading for them to surrender and undergo rehabilitation.
Amber says those tactics have been transformed into “political tokhang”, whereby more than 600 mostly leftist activists in Mindanao have been slapped with allegedly fabricated charges, mostly by the military, since Duterte assumed power in June 2016.
“This political tokhang is meant to silence the dissent of activists and community leaders,’ Amper said.
Amper blamed the growing number of cases filed against activists on the Inter-Agency Committee on Legal Action, which was created by the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in October 2017. The mechanism aims to strengthen intelligence-gathering, investigations, prosecutions and monitoring of perceived “threat” groups in the country.
Captain Arvin Encinas, spokesperson of the 6th Infantry Division based in Central Mindanao, denied accusations that the military has filed fabricated charges against those critical of the government or its associated business interests.
‘Evidence-backed’
“Our charges are backed with evidence,” he said. Encinas also acknowledged that there has been a surge in cases filed against believed militants and community leaders since the military intensified its operations against the NPA in response to Duterte’s call to “crush” the insurgents.
The allegedly “manufactured” charges filed against suspected communist rebels and their activist supporters include murder, frustrated murder, serious illegal detention, alarm and scandal, public disorder, grave coercion and obstruction of justice, among others.
So far, the government has sought to declare more than 600 individuals as “terrorists” in the mounting crackdown against the communist movement under the Human Security Act of 2007, which critics said puts named persons on a virtual “hit list” for state agents.
From a high of 25,000 combatants in the 1980s, the military estimates there are now around 3700 NPA guerillas under arms, mostly operating in Mindanao, a region prone to various types of insurgencies.
The military hopes to reduce the NPA’s numbers by half this year through programs that include payments for surrendered firearms and livelihood assistance schemes that help fighters transition to live peacefully in mainstream society.
For Amper and others, Duterte’s regime is laying the groundwork for mass arrests and even political killings by filing false charges against political dissenters.
Activists are fighting back through protests. Last month, a Lumad group barricaded the entrance of the Department of Education in Central Mindanao with a coffin bearing the remains of their dead tribal leader, Pakingan Gantangan.
Cardiac arrest
Gantangan died of cardiac arrest on July 21 while participating in a months-long picket protest seeking permits for dozens of schools serving Lumad communities that had been closed by the government for operating without licenses.
They recently dismantled their picket after reaching an agreement with education officials.
Gantangan’s daughter, Jolita Tolino, a volunteer teacher for the school operated by CLANS in their remote community in Sultan Kudarat province’s Kalamansig town, was arrested by the military earlier this year on charges of murder and frustrated murder.
Her family claims the charges are fabricated.
Bong S. Sarmiento is a Philippines-based journalist with the Asia Times.
Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz
]]>Pacific Journalism Review ‘launch’ of our ‘disasters, cyclones and communication’ edition with UGM
An excerpt from the latest PJR cover.
Event date and time:
Friday, August 31, 2018 – 16:30 – 17:30A SPECIAL LAUNCH OF THE COLLABORATIVE EDITION OF PJR WITH CESASS AT UGM
Pacific Journalism Review is collaborating with the Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies at the Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
What: Launching of Pacific Journalism Review
When: August 31, 4.30-5.30pm, Pacific Media Centre, WG1028
Who: TBC
Report by Pacific Media Centre ]]>
Former Colonel Richard Hall speaking on the dilemmas of peacekeeping. Image: David Robie/PMC
Afghan women under the watchful eye of a soldier. Image: Richard Hall
The wrecked entrance to the Kamasan Papuan Dormitory in Surabaya, Indonesia. Image: Suara Papua
Crowds gather to meet the crew of the Freedom Flotilla ship as they prepare to leave for Gaza. Image: Middle East Monitor
A Chinese protest placard among several against the Confucius Institutes on display at the end of the Auckland film screening. Image: Rahul Bhattarai/PMC
A horde of PNG “ban on Facebook” stories on Google, but stories on PNG’s subsequent back off in the proposal are hard to find. Image: PMC
