Selwyn Manning Editorial: More Intrusive Spy Laws Loom for New Zealand

March 10, 2016

Editorial by Selwyn Manning.

The Government is considering the recommendations of a former Deputy Prime Minister and lawyer as it embarks on designing a new wave of controversial spy-law reform. And again, it looks certain to drive a wedge into contemporary New Zealand.

On one side are those who support and trust the government to get the balance right between security intelligence and civil liberties, and on the other… those who don’t. Previous polls on such matters suggest the split is about 50/50.

The Report was delivered to the Government on February 29 and had been kept under wraps until yesterday (Wednesday March 9). It’s titled: Intelligence and Security in a Free Society and was written by former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister in the Clark Labour Government, Sir Michael Cullen, and, Dame Patsy Reddy a lawyer with corporate experience.

Sir Michael and Dame Patsy write: “The need to maintain both security and the rights and liberties of New Zealanders has been at the forefront of our minds. Given the intrusive nature of the Agencies’ activities, New Zealanders are understandably concerned about whether those activities are justifiable. This concern is not helped by the fact that the Agencies’ activities have been kept largely in the shadows.”

Fair comment.

But I would add to that the fact the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) was found only four years ago to have been operating illegally under the current Prime Minister’s governance. That is, until he changed the law in 2013 to accommodate the spy agency’s illegal operations. And after much public outrage on the matter, the Prime Minister also read into the new legislation a retrospective element, making past illegalities legal. In some suburbs of Auckland, slick manoeuvres such as this are called a hustle.

However, in this report, there is some progressive thinking in evidence. For example Sir Michael and Dame Pasty recommend New Zealand’s spy laws be redrafted and brought under one single intelligence and security act, so as to make it clear what the spy agencies “can and cannot do”.

In a comprehensive report such as this, there is much detail, and within it much that when brought out for discussion will attract considerable and enduring controversy.

Let’s look at the recommendations regarding proposed authorisation procedures.

This set of recommendations frame how authorisation is applied for, and given, when spy agencies seek to surveil New Zealand citizens and permanent residents. The recommendations include changes to:

* how targeted surveillance is authorised against New Zealanders and permanent residents be designated as Tier 1 authorisation and require sign off from the Attorney General and a judicial commissioner. This changes from the Prime Minister (or minister responsible for the intelligence agency) and commissioner.

* how covert spying and intelligence gathering activities be designated as Tier 2 authorisation and would require the sign off of just the Attorney General

* how open source intelligence gathering is authorised, defining it based on how it is collected (which includes the surveillance of organisations, people, and individuals while in a public place) – such activities would be designated as Tier 3 authorisation and would only require a broad policy statement to be issued by the Attorney General.

If the spy operations intend to target a foreign dignitary, or embark on an operation likely to have implications for New Zealand’s foreign policy or international relations, then the Attorney General ‘should be required’ to refer authorisation applications to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for comment.

Is this an erosion of the status quo, of the current requirement that security intelligence operations involving the surveillance of New Zealand citizens and permanent residents require a warrant signed off by the commissioner and Prime Minister or minister responsible? Or is it improving on the current regime by tagging the responsibility to the Attorney General, a minister in the Executive Government’s cabinet whose justifications can be more readily challenged, even reprimanded, than can a prime minister?

The report fails however to address the fact that when our security intelligence agencies target an individual placing him or her under surveillance, breach a network, a computer, smartphone or communications device, they initiate an operative methodology referred to as up to ‘two hops’ – which means hundreds or even thousands of others fall into the scope of surveillance simply because they may have been in direct communication with the individual under surveillance or (in the case of two hops) been in communication with an individual who may have been in communication with the individual upon whom an authorisation surveillance warrant has been granted and actioned.

It is believed that this is how Keith Locke’s SIS file included references to surveillance while he was a member of Parliament representing the Green Party. Helen Clark, who was the prime minister at the time, suggested no warrant had been authorised permitting the SIS to place Mr Locke under surveillance. However, it is believed, that a person of Sri Lankan Tamil origin, whom Mr Locke was in communication with, was the subject of an authorised and warranted surveillance operation. If correct, then Mr Locke’s privacy and rightful right to political liberty was breached without authorisation.

The report fails to address this nor make a recommendation on how such a practice should be addressed.

Scope of the Spy Agencies:

There is considerable attention given to how the security agencies should come under the State Services Act and be under one umbrella; that accessible information databases be defined and information and intelligence sharing and cooperation among public agencies (including the Police and Inland Revenue) be permitted.

It suggests a legislative catch-up be initiated to detail in law how the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) work with the Police on operations, share skill-sets, and prevent duplication of the same within other agencies.

The National Assessments Bureau (NAB) is also given some attention, suggesting it be brought into the fold as a significant specialist analysis body that works with executive government and politicians to understand and accurately assess the intelligence product. The NAB has been doing this in part since it was brought in from the cold, its title changed from the under-utilised External Assessments Bureau and brought within the respectable influence of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

The report did not observe nor comment on how professional, efficient, or otherwise the spy agencies are. However, moves to locate elements of the intelligence community within the scope of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet suggest deep-seated concerns by those of the Public Service’s highest office. And the fact that senior members of the DPMC have in recent years been seconded to the SIS and GCSB also suggest a tipping point was breached once realisation was publicly noted of ill-defined and illegal surveillance activity.

The report also fails to address the question of in whose interests (foreign or otherwise) the GCSB and SIS serve. The Edward Snowden revelations, and the FBI’s involvement in the raids on Kim Dot Com and his associates (of which the GCSB was found to have been illegally involved) underscore why the public rightfully has concerns that external foreign powers use the GCSB as an instrument that serves their own national security interests.

Human Rights:

The report does mention how human rights should be a consideration for investigations conducted by the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, which could offer a counter-balance to the previously heavy-weighted national security intelligence considerations applied to trade implications.

This recommendation may provide a reference, or at least a point of discussion, should the SIS embark on another disastrous, costly, wobbly, and legally flawed security risk certificate exercise – as was initiated when former Algerian politician and academic Ahmed Zaoui was imprisoned unjustly after seeking asylum and refugee status in New Zealand. In that case, the SIS cited likely negative trade implications with Algeria as justification for imprisonment without a trial while the Government considered Zaoui’s fate and possible deportation. Of course in the end, after years of legal battles and millions of dollars spent, the SIS retracted its security risk determination and deemed Zaoui not to be a risk to New Zealand’s national security at all.

Oversight:

With the forever intensification of state security intelligence powers, there has been much discussion about the need for more robust oversight. It is interesting, if not disappointing, that Sir Michael and Dame Patsy only recommend a slight tweaking of the status quo.

For example, it is recommended the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security’s investigative powers be expanded in scope to include investigations into ‘sensitive’ operations. And, the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee be increased to a minimum of five and a maximum of seven politicians. There is nothing in the report’s recommendations that addresses Sir Michael and Dame Patsy’s observation that politicians on the intelligence committee are at times unable to fathom the detail or underlying consequences of information communicated during intelligence briefings – presumably due to the use of jargon, intel-speak, and vague references in the communications.

One would have expected, at the very least, this report would have recommended a robust oversight committee be established with a mix of sworn in and appointed experts including political, judicial, constitutional, and formerly operational members.

In Summary:

There is much detail in the report, and overall Sir Michael and Dame Patsy have provided a robust analysis of today’s security intelligence environment, its demands, complexities, and referenced realities of security threats (whether they be cyber-security, human, infrastructure, or reputational in nature).

The Cullen-Reddy report does not make recommendations nor observations as to whether New Zealand has the balance right between the state’s search and surveillance powers and those of the citizenry’s right to expressions of freedom and liberty without undue corruption of those ideals.

And as far as public discussion, discourse and debate is concerned, it would have been helpful had the report included an observation of where New Zealand currently sits on the search and surveil Vs civil liberties axis when compared to the other Five Eyes intelligence partner states – I would suggest the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Act 2013 and other states’ counterpart legislation could be used as a benchmark.

You can download the full Cullen/Reddy report –Intelligence and Security in a Free Society (pdf).

And, Dr Paul Buchanan’s comprehensive Analysis: Institutional Lag and the New Zealand Intelligence Community

And, Dr Paul Buchanan’s polemic on KiwiPolitico.com: Questions of the Day.

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New Pacific report on illegal tuna fishing for frontline officials

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 10, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

The findings of a major study which will put accurate and up to date numbers to the nature and extent of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing will be made public in New Zealand next week.

Pacific frontline officials in monitoring, control and surveillance work are attending a suite of MCS meetings in Auckland this month — at their working group meetings next week, they will be presented with findings of a major quantifying illegal (IUU) fisheries report two years in the making.

“This is the first time that the Pacific countries, through the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), have been in a position to determine the type and scope of such a review. As such it will help clear the air on previous claims made, and the sensational figures that are often quoted,” says FFA Director-General James Movick.

“More importantly, the study itself provides a clearer sense of what the main IUU risks are, what is working, and what needs additional priority when it comes to ensuring tuna vessels in Pacific waters are complying with the rules.

“The report will be useful to anyone and everyone with an interest in Pacific development and oceanic resources. It is not just for those interested in seeing how the authors arrived at the conclusions they reached.

“We anticipate that Pacific officials receiving the report will welcome the information and recommendations it provides,” says Movick.

“It’s all about having the best data to lock in better decisions and action for the future of Pacific fisheries. Of course, this is a highly complex issue and it will take detailed consideration and analysis to ensure that the results are viewed in the correct context.

Costs to the region
“Very importantly, this report will set a definitive baseline for the scale, composition and quantified value on IUU fishing and what it is costing this region, against which future success can be measured.

“It will also help to provide a clearer basis to assess what is working and what needs reworking to ensure that collective regional efforts are targeted toward the most prevalent and costly forms of IUU in the evolving Pacific tuna fishery.”

The report authors are the MRAG Asia Pacific, an independent fisheries and aquatic resource consulting company dedicated to the sustainable use of natural resources through sound, integrated management practices and policies.

Funding for the study came from the European Union-funded DEVFISH II project aimed at ensuring a fairer slice for Pacific peoples of the economic benefits from tuna fisheries.

Following its presentation to the 19th MCS Working Group of the Forum Fisheries Agency on March 15, the report will be made public.

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Indonesian broadcasting body finds rampant violations by TV stations

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 10, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) has identified rampant violations by broadcasting companies, particularly television stations, of laws that govern the content they air to the public.

“We found journalistic content showing violence, descriptions of criminal acts in too much detail, insufficient protection of victims, inaccurate news and repetitive reporting of tragedy,” said KPI chairman Judhariksawan in a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing intelligence, defence and foreign affairs on Monday.

The KPI had imposed 49 sanctions, including discontinuing two programs and limiting the duration of two others, across several television networks in the first two months of 2016, he said, adding that there was still a lot of broadcast content that violated the Broadcasting Code of Conduct and Programme Standards (P3SPS).

Among those remaining violations are: the use of public channels to serve the interests of their owners, physical and verbal abuse on various television shows and featuring personal and private matters as infotainment, Judhariksawan added.

He also said that the broadcasting commission planned to evaluate the 10 television networks whose permits were set to expire this year.

Lawmaker Elnino M. Husein Mohi of the Gerindra Party said that House Commission I had discussed several changes in the revision of the Broadcasting Law, including the extension of the KPI’s power to fine unresponsive television networks and the restriction of cigarette and political advertising.

“We are proposing one point to be included in the hearing’s conclusion: stopping all unfair and unequal political ads, so that there will be no more complaints from the public about kids memorising political party anthems,” he said.

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Across the Ditch audio: More Intrusive Spy Laws Loom for New Zealand

By Selwyn Manning -

March 10, 2016

In this week’s Across the Ditch: Australia’s Radio FiveAA host Peter Godfrey talks to Selwyn Manning about an armed stand-off in the Bay of Plenty which saw four police officers shot. Also discussed, new spy laws loom for New Zealand New Zealand’s unemployment rate Oh no… The Batchelor is back, this time with a guy called Jordan and a host of hopefuls.

Across the Ditch broadcasts live on Australia’s radio FiveAA.com.au and webcasts on EveningReport.nz, LiveNews.co.nz and ForeignAffairs.co.nz. Recorded live on 10/03/16.

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‘Untouchable’ teen journalist challenges corruption at Indian rural schools

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 9, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Gregory Walsh

Nineteen-year-old Mukesh was born into a marginalised community in an impoverished region of rural India. Now he documents corruption in his region’s school system in an effort to transform his community for the better.

Mukesh Rajak’s childhood was marked by discrimination due to his status as a dalit, a member of India’s “untouchable” caste.

But an opportunity to attend a nonprofit private school led him to find his voice as a journalist.

In rural schools, corruption is rife: teachers take bribes, appear drunk in the classroom, and claim students’ stipends.

After Mukesh reported these concerns for one school, the principal was transferred, and bribes stopped.

“It’s quite fascinating that this young boy has been able to make so much of a difference”, says Indira, from the community news service Mukesh works for.

A 27min documentary by Gregory Walsh. Journeyman Pictures is an independent source for the world’s most powerful films, exploring the burning issues of today.

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Paul Buchanan Analysis: Institutional Lag and the New Zealand Intelligence Community

By Dr Paul Buchanan -

March 9, 2016

Analysis by Dr Paul Buchanan.

Introduction. This essay examines the subject of institutional lag after foreign policy realignment, using as an example the “core “ of the New Zealand intelligence community (the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and National Assessments Bureau (NAB)) after the end of the Cold War. The essay argues that New Zealand intelligence agencies have been slow to adapt to changes brought by the country’s foreign policy realignment in the mid 1990s as well as broader changes in the geopolitical and technological landscape. The study focuses on the post-Cold War period because modern New Zealand’s intelligence community was born of and deeply influenced by the Cold War, which made the latter’s termination a milestone in the history of New Zealand intelligence community (NZIC). As will be elaborated ahead, how the New Zealand intelligence community responded to the changes wrought by the end of the Cold War and subsequent geopolitical shifts were not necessarily foresighted, seamless or responsive to the actualities of the moment. Instead it reflected the clash between old ways of viewing things, reliance on foreign intelligence partners (and their perspectives), as overlaid on the practical necessities of coping with new technologies, areas of focus, non-traditional threats and changes in foreign policy orientation. The essay is organized as follows. The first sections explicate the concepts used as foundational stones of the argument. The essay then proceeds to brief case overviews before concluding with an explanation as to why things happened as they did. Institutional lag. Institutional lag refers to the time gap between external events or exogenous conditions and institutional (bureaucratic) adjustment or response. There is varying depth to the delay in organizational change given historical and contextual conditions both internal and external to the agencies involved. Influenced by the work of Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) on cultural lag, the term “institutional lag” was coined by philosopher and economist Charles Ayers in his Theory of Economic Progress (1944). “Ayres propounded a theory of “institutional lag” whereby technological changes inevitably kept economic technology one step ahead of inherited socio-cultural institutions. The process of Veblenian “evolution” Ayres envisaged was that technological changes were generated by spurts of instinctive inventive activity to innovate in technological processes but that the relatively slow, inherited socio-economic structures would be maladapted to these changes. With glacier-like gradualness, institutions would eventually respond to the new technology, but by the time they adjusted, the next round of inventive activity would have been skipping along further ahead, thus maintaining a permanent lag and thus incongruity between social structures and economic technology.”[1] Used as a means of explaining the delayed response of firms to technological change in a cycle of perpetual catch-up, the concept has now been expanded to include slow or belated public bureaucracy responses to cultural, socio-economic, political and diplomatic change (as well as technological change). More specifically, policy shifts announced by governments as new initiatives often occur before the public agencies responsible for implementing them have undertaken the organizational reforms required to do so., which necessitates a process of institutional “catch up.” Delays in bureaucratic responses to shifts in environmental conditions extend to foreign policy and security. This is particularly the case when nation-states have reoriented their international orientation due to external or internal factors (say, as the result of war, alterations in trade regimes or domestic political change). New Zealand’s response to the elimination of British export preferences in the early 1970s and declaration of its non-nuclear status in the mid 1980s are examples of external and internally motivated foreign policy realignment. Foreign policy realignments can be brought about precipitously or after much deliberation. The former is often reactive to externalities whereas the latter is the product of calculations of longer-term costs and benefits. Either way, the institutional apparatus underpinning the old status quo has to adapt to the change in orientation. Given the inertial weight of institutional history and tradition, it may be something that takes time, especially if confronted with bureaucratic opposition within affected agencies. Two further syndromes compound the problem of institutional lag following foreign policy realignment. On the one hand there is the issue of institutional rippling, whereby a government opts for realignment but does not involve agencies other than those most immediately and directly affected by and involved in the shift. Whereas the diplomatic corps and foreign affairs bureaucracy are integrally involved in implementing the details of foreign policy realignment, other affected government agencies are slower to follow and often do so in uncoordinated and uneven fashion. This is seen in military and intelligence agencies as well as those such as Customs and Immigration, which are often not fully involved in the decision-making process leading to a foreign policy realignment and yet have to engage organizational reforms in accordance with their own institutional traditions and structures that may not easily follow the dictates of diplomats or the pet projects of politicians. That brings into play the second syndrome, that of institutional “depth.” Institutional depth refers to the historical legacies of institutional tradition and practice. Some public agencies, such as the police and the military, have long traditions and standards of practice that often date to the days of independence or state foundation. Others, such as agencies involved in the oversight and regulation of information technology and telecommunications, are relatively new to the scene and do not have the accumulated “weight” of institutional mores and practices to deal with when confronting significant change in their operating environments. Institutional rippling in response to policy realignment often begins with agencies directly involved in the transition and “newer” agencies lacking in relative institutional depth, which are then followed by agencies less directly involved in the realignment decision and/or which have greater institutional depth. The overall effect is that institutional lag becomes a process as well as a distinct organizational phenomenon, with some agencies suffering less institutional lag than others depending on the level of involvement in implementing the realignment and the degree of institutional depth encountered in each. To summarise: Significant change in a nation’s foreign relations often leads to a process of institutional lag that is determined by the relative institutional depth and degree of involvement of the agencies affected. Front-line agencies such as foreign affairs ministries and recently created agencies with connections to priority aspects of foreign relations may undertake immediate organizational reforms in response to the policy shift, but other agencies, including security and intelligence agencies, may lag behind in reorienting their institutional gaze as well as their internal conformation. Foreign policy realignment. Foreign policy realignment refers to a shift in a nation-state’s geopolitical and diplomatic relations. It can be the product of internal factors such as political regime change or an alteration in government perspectives on global affairs, or it can be the consequence of changes in the external environment such as the beginning or termination of conflict, the emergence of new actors, markets or areas of resource contestation, diplomatic shifts by allies or enemies, and more. Foreign policy realignments may be sudden and/or forced upon states or they may be the product of lengthy deliberation. The end of the Cold War is an example of an external event that produced rather quick foreign policy realignments on the part of many states, while New Zealand’s decision to broaden its trade relations in the mid 1990s is an example of an internally-directed foreign policy realignment that was deliberate and measured in light of systemic changes in the international environment over the previous decade. Foreign policy realignment does not come easily. Whether they are consulted in advance or not, government agencies must adapt to the change in posture. This can well involve significant and discrete organizational and policy changes as well as alterations in their relationship with private sector and public interest groups, some of which may be resistant to change. The end of the Cold War illustrates the reality of institutional lag in the wake of foreign policy realignment. Although the international community first shifted from a tight bipolar to a unipolar system, then to a loose multipolar configuration, many defense and security organizations, to include intelligence agencies on both sides of the Berlin Wall, continued to view the world and organize themselves according to Cold War precepts. As this proved inadequate for confronting the new security and intelligence challenges of the 1990s and 2000s, only then did military and intelligence agencies begin to undertake the organizational, doctrinal and perspective changes required in order to do so. This slow and reactive response to changing global externalities was evident in the New Zealand intelligence community. Issue Linkage. Issue linkage in international relations refers to the tying together of two or more foreign policy concerns in a “holistic” approach to bilateral and multilateral relations. During the Cold War the most important example of issue linkage was that of trade and security, whereby security partners on both sides of the ideological divide traded preferentially with each other, thereby reinforcing their alliance commitments. After the Cold War there was a move to uncouple trade and security. This was primarily due to two factors, these being the loosening of security alliances in a unipolar security environment dominated by the United States and the globalization of production, communications and exchange connected by international commodity chains. It was believed that security and trade relations could be uncoupled and dispersed across a wider array of partners, thereby avoiding undue dependence on any one of them (Buchanan and Lin 2006). They key to success of this new paradigm was to ensure that the new trade and security relationships were not juxtaposed in a contrary or contradictory manner (say, by attempting to trade with a state at war while maintaining security relations with its main antagonist). So long as that did not occur, states were free to loosen the linkages between their trade relations and national security. As shall be discussed below, this was the dilemma posed to New Zealand after its foreign policy realignment in the mid-1990s. The New Zealand Intelligence Community (NZIC). This essay focuses on the three “core” intelligence agencies in New Zealand, the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and National Assessments Bureau (NAB, formerly titled the External Assessments Bureau), which is part of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC). There are a number of other agencies that serve as intelligence collection and analysis units. This includes the Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination (ODESC), which coordinates assessments and responses to a wide range of potential threats ranging from natural disasters to cyber warfare. The New Zealand Defense Forces have military intelligence branches in all three services (Army, Navy and Air Force) as well as military intelligence units (Directorate of Defense Intelligence and GEOINT) serving the NZDF as a whole. These agencies, especially the service branch intelligence units, produce tactical intelligence in areas in which the NZDF operates or from where armed threats to New Zealand interests may originate.

Pipitea House, Home of the GCSB, SIS and NAB.

The GCSB is a signals (SIGINT) and technical (TECHINT) intelligence gathering agency that is part of the Anglophone 5 Eyes or Echelon alliance. Its primary focus is foreign intelligence collection but in specific circumstances and increasingly as of late it can undertake domestic SIGINT and TECHINT work in a “partner” role at the behest of other New Zealand government agencies (such as the Police or Customs). The SIS is responsible for domestic intelligence gathering, counter-intelligence operations and foreign human intelligence collection. It also has a “hand in glove” relationship with other New Zealand security agencies when the occasion warrants. The NAB is the ultimate recipient of intelligence streams from all of the NZIC, where it prepares assessments for the Prime Minister within the confines of the DPMC. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 produced a proliferation of intelligence “cells” in a host of New Zealand public agencies. New Zealand Police, Immigration New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise, New Zealand Customs Service, and Treasury have their own specialized units. There are also interagency intelligence cells such as the Counter-Terrorism Assessment Group (CTAG), Security and Risk Group (SRG), Intelligence Coordination Group (ICG), and the National Assessments Committee (NAC), with the intelligence from all of these agencies as well as the SIS and GCSB flowing to the NAB, which in turn answers to the Cabinet Strategy Subcommittee on Intelligence and Security (CSSIS). In total, there are 12 intelligence agencies encompassed with the NZIC. The question is whether the proliferation of these intelligence agencies has increased the accuracy, efficiency and reliability of the information obtained and processed by the New Zealand intelligence community. That raises the issue of how the New Zealand intelligence community sees the world around it, how it frames and assesses threats and how it responds to them. In order to determine this, mention must be made of the research methodology underpinning this analysis. Methodology. The focus of this essay is on the SIS, GCSB and NAB because the first two are the lead human and signals/technical intelligence agencies in New Zealand and the latter is the ultimate intelligence assessment and evaluation unit in the country. The perspectives they have on international security matters and New Zealand’s geopolitical context constitute the core of the NZIC’s current assessments and future forecasts of risks and threats. To study what these are, the essay uses the secondary literature dedicated to the theme as well as summary diachronic analysis of the annual reports of the NAB, GCSB and NZSIS (where available), which postulate what are perceived as New Zealand’s most pressing security and intelligence concerns. The summary analysis is diachronic in that it is both chronological and covers four separate governments: the National government led by Jim Bolger from 1990-1996, the Jenny Shipley-led National/New Zealand First government of 1996-99, the 5^th Labour government led by Helen Clark from 1999-2008, and the John Key-led National government of 2008-2015. Viewing core NZIC assessments over time and across governments allows us to determine if there were variations in threat perception under each or if they remained constant regardless of who was in power. The Bolger Years. The Bolger government was confronted with significant shifts in its domestic and foreign environment. Domestically, it inherited and was charged with deepening market-oriented economic reforms initiated by its Labour predecessor. Externally, it witnessed the official end of the Cold War. It focused on the former rather than the latter for two reasons. First, because the transition from the welfare state to a market economy was contested, controversial and polarizing, something that demanded the full attention of policy-makers as they embarked on efforts to “deepen” and institutionalize structural reforms. Secondly, because the collapse of the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies was not seen as directly or fundamentally altering New Zealand’s (largely pro-NATO) foreign policy orientation, regardless of the tensions between New Zealand, France and the US over the issue of nuclear weapons testing and the presence of nuclear powered and armed warships in the South Pacific. This had an interesting effect on the two main intelligence agencies. Under the terms of the 5 Eyes/Echelon signals intelligence alliance “reciprocity agreement” that saw it collect information on the Pacific region (and elsewhere when designated) in exchange for global intelligence collected from its larger signals partners, the GCSB basically served as the local storefront for them. It continued to focus its attention on targets of interest mainly to the partners rather than those of New Zealand itself. This included the communications of former Warsaw Pact members as well as Pacific and Eastern Asian nations and Iran in particular, with the emphasis placed on military, political and diplomatic communications. It included (and includes) monitoring of French communications in the Pacific.[2] It was important for New Zealand to continue to support its Anglophone partners in the 5 Eyes/Echelon signals intelligence network because that was one of, if not the primary method of secure and trustworthy contact after the diplomatic and military fallout from New Zealand’s 1985 decision to adopt a non-nuclear policy (which had the effect of banning nuclear powered and armed vessels from New Zealand waters, which in turn led to the dissolution of the Australia-New Zealand-US (ANZUS) defense alliance). The SIS likewise maintained a special relationship with its Anglophone partners, but given its small size and domestic orientation this was not as crucial to alliance relations as was the reciprocity agreement within 5 Eyes. However, when the Berlin Wall fell the SIS was left without a mission. Its primary focus was (and is) domestic espionage, and in the Cold War period that meant identifying reds under beds. With that concern removed, the SIS was hard pressed to justify its existence beyond assisting the Police on criminal matters, at least when it came to domestic intelligence gathering and counter-espionage (since the thrust of SIS counter-espionage efforts during the Cold War were directed at Soviet intelligence gathering activities in New Zealand and, in the wake of the Rainbow Warrior bombing by French operatives in Auckland harbor, on French clandestine activities in the South Pacific). The SIS assigned itself the task of uncovering new domestic threats, and fortuitously for the agency this was provided by the move to market-driven economics. Besides an ongoing interest in criminal enterprise, opponents to the market-oriented policy shift became the new focus of domestic intelligence concern. These came in the form of unionists, environmentalists, human rights, fair trade and social welfare activists, community organisers, Maori separatists, anarchists and other domestic Left activists unconnected to the former Soviet Union and its satellites. The trouble for both spy agencies was that with the end of the Cold War the ideological conflict between East and West largely died, especially with the adoption of capitalist economics by former communist countries such as the People’s Republic of China and Vietnam. This meant the end of “exporting” revolution by supporting indigenous Left groups, particularly those who advocated armed struggle. As for the French, the arrest, trial and conviction of two French agents over the Rainbow Warrior bombing signaled the downsizing of French intelligence operations in New Zealand in exchange for improved diplomatic relations. The combined result meant that the SIS no longer had foreign-based espionage or subversion to be concerned about when it came to domestic intelligence and counter-intelligence operations. The result was that threat assessments provided by the (then) EAB focused on domestic actors, regional instability and criminal enterprise. Little emphasis was placed on foreign conflicts further afield and little to no mention was made of terrorism beyond the potential for low-level violence on the part of domestic militants. The Shipley Government. The first elected government under MMP, the Jenny Shipley-led National/New Zealand First coalition “deepened” market-oriented policies, the most significant being making trade the centerpiece of foreign policy and developing export markets in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. This ran in parallel with further opening of the New Zealand market to foreign imports and investment. What this meant in practice was significant foreign policy realignment, arguably one that was built upon and yet more significant than those occasioned by the end of the special trade relationship with the UK and the declaration of nuclear free status. Foreign policy otherwise ran in concert with the “independent and autonomous” stance favoured by both major parties, with continued emphasis on non-proliferation, disarmament and peacetime military operations (particularly regional conflict resolution, humanitarian assistance, and peace-keeping). But the dye was recast: henceforth New Zealand would put trade at the center of its foreign policy and it no longer would privilege the Anglophone world when it came to commercial relations. There was no “issue linkage” between the shift in foreign policy and the orientation of the New Zealand intelligence community. Issue linkage is pursued in order to provide coherency in the approach to foreign affairs. The problem for New Zealand was that its intelligence orientation did not match the new trade-based approach to the international system. Instead, it remained focused on pre-existing domestic threats and the external preoccupations of its foreign partners. The GCSB focus continued to respond to the strategic requirements of its 5 Eyes partners, especially the US and UK. It shared eavesdropping duties in the South Pacific with Australia and traded selected intelligence with France even as it monitored French military and diplomatic communications in the region. Emphasis shifted to include communications in failed, failing and rogue states and those of non-state armed actors. But the mainstay of its eavesdropping and intercepts were focused on South Pacific states, North and Southeast Asia, extra-regional diplomatic communications, international and non-governmental organizations and telemetry from non-5 Eye satellites that disclosed military, particularly naval, communications. The SIS maintained the focus it had under the preceding government, to include monitoring of anti-status quo ideological activists, Aian criminal organizations, and foreign spy networks operating in New Zealand and the English speaking South Pacific. It’s foreign intelligence collection efforts centered on the South Pacific, specifically focusing on domestic sources of instability and the growing influence of extra-regional actors. Foreign terrorism was not a priority even though it began to impact on New Zealand’s major security partners. All of this was reflected in (then) EAB reports. The Fifth Labour Government. The Fifth Labour government headed by Helen Clark looked to be serious about abandoning its Euro- and Anglo-centric view of the world and embracing the notions of trade internationalism, security multilateralism and a diplomatic independence marked by commitment to human rights, non-proliferation and disarmament, regional development in the South Pacific and environmental sustainability. This was evident among other things by its cancellation of a purchase order for F-16 tactical aircraft to replace the aging A4 fleet, which left New Zealand without a combat air wing. It reduced the defense budget across the board and ramped up the trade component of its foreign affairs bureaucracy as it moved to expand and deepen the initiatives begun under the Shipley government. The NZIC perspective did not change significantly immediately after the Clark government was installed in 1999, although increased attention was given to international disarmament, non-proliferation and support for peace-keeping and military missions other than war. Both the GCSB and SIS continued a priority focus on instability in the South Pacific while tending to the requirements of foreign partners, on the one hand (GCSB) and the necessities of domestic espionage on the other (SIS). 9/11 changed that. The unconventional attacks by al-Qaeda on New York and Washington DC, precipitated the global “war on terrorism.” The US opted for pre-emptive war on al-Qaeda, saber rattling at the so-called “Axis of Evil” and other rogue states, and started a war of aggression on Iraq. It sent out a call for solidarity and assistance to the international community, and given its traditional ties to the US, New Zealand could not refuse the request. The question for the Clark government was how to do so without betraying the Left wing of the Labour Party and other Left parties in Parliament (especially the Greens). The answer was found in image management and quiet diplomacy. Security conservatives in the NZDF, MFAT, NAB and DPMC urged the Clark government to use the opportunity to finally repair ties with the US strained since the 1985 non-nuclear declaration. This extended to supporting specialized defense niche businesses based in New Zealand, but was primarily centered on improving bilateral military-to-military and intelligence links with the US as well as strengthening security training and cooperation agreements with Australia, the UK and other Western powers (including France). For the intelligence community the impact was two-fold. The SIS re-directed its energies towards counter-terrorism, specifically in detecting so-called “home grown” jihadis who might be planning attacks on New Zealand soil as well as those who supported al-Qaeda and other Islamicist extremist groups financially or politically (such as via the use of non-profit organizations as fronts for extremist recruiting or for sending money to al-Qaeda affiliated NGOs). Later, under the Key government, this concern turned to the subject of so-called returning “foreign fighters, that is, New Zealand citizens and permanent residents who left to Middle Eastern war zones and were suspected of trying to return to New Zealand having been radicalized and trained by violent extremist groups like the Islamic State. This tasking extended to monitoring the activities of suspected Islamicists in the English-speaking South Pacific and became the dominant preoccupation of its domestic espionage program. The problem with the sudden focus on domestic Islamic terrorists was that there were few to be found. This led to some awkward moments, such as when the 2005 SIS annual report claimed that the primary threat to domestic security were “home-grown” jihadis and al-Qaeda supporters, only to have the 2006 report, under a new Director, abandon the claim entirely in favor of foreign espionage on New Zealand soil (Buchanan, 2007). Likewise, there was a brief media frenzy about a New Zealand based plot to bomb targets in Australia to which the government replied cryptically (thereby fueling public speculation about local jihadis), but in the end not a single person was detained, much less charged for Islamicist-inspired terrorist offenses during the entire term of the 5^th Labour government, as well as that of its successor. The SIS continued monitoring of non-Islamic domestic radicals, particularly Marxists, Anarchists, Maori separatists, environmental and animal rights activists. This culminated in the “anti-terrorist” raids of October 15, 2007 where 18 individuals fitting these descriptors (including one with pro-Palestinian sympathies) were arrested on grounds that they were part of an armed criminal conspiracy plotting to commitment politically-motivated violent acts against high profile targets (all terrorism charged were eventually dropped and only four were convicted and sentenced for firearms related charges). It also increased its counter-espionage activities, as growing numbers of Chinese migrants brought with it a concern about PRC espionage activities in New Zealand. Although the SIS did not name the countries it believed were engaged in foreign espionage in New Zealand, successive annual reports indicate that it remained a primary concern for the duration of the 5^th Labour government. One effect of the focus on counter-terrorism and domestic extremism is that the SIS lost some of its ability to engage in South Pacific based human intelligence collection. This was particularly evident in its failure to anticipate the 2006 Fijian coup or the 2009 hardening of the military bureaucratic regime installed by it. The GCSB also refocused its energies on the terrorist threat, but its role included using its assets in support of and supplying personnel to the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Hager, 2011). GCSB involvement in locating, identifying and targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban “high value” individuals in Afghanistan and Pakistan occurred in spite of the government’s claim that New Zealand was only engaged in non-combat roles (a claim that it also used when questioned about New Zealand Defense Force deployments in Afghanistan and more recently Iraq). The push to show concrete support for the war on Islamicist extremism made for a difficult juxtaposition. By the early 2000s New Zealand was firmly committed to expanding its commercial relations with Asia and the Middle East, yet some of the countries that it was working to establish deeper commercial ties with such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were hotbeds of violent Wahhabist and Salafist thought. The contradiction was evident in New Zealand signing bilateral education agreements with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia by which thousands of students from those countries were given visas to pursue university studies in New Zealand without any security vetting. Moreover, the move to re-establish security ties with the US and its allies in the War on Terrorism brought with it the possibility of alienating Chinese economic and diplomatic interests that saw better New Zealand-US security ties as a threat to China’s growing role as a great Pacific power. Since New Zealand was the first Western country to sign a bilateral trade agreement with the PRC, the reaffirmation of its security relationship with the US placed New Zealand in a particularly awkward diplomatic position vis a vis the two rival powers, one that has a distinct possibility of becoming a “Melian Dilemma.” (Buchanan 2010 b) The reassertion and extension of New Zealand’s security ties with the US counterbalanced the thrust of New Zealand’s trade-oriented foreign policy realignment away from its traditional sources of patronage and alliance. For the NZIC there was no contradiction inherent in the juxtaposition of an East-focused trade policy and a West-focused security policy and was, in fact, seen as having the best of both worlds (Buchanan 2010a). Even so, there was an increased awareness within the NAB that in spite of claims about New Zealand’s “benign” strategic environment, the country was increasingly exposed to the repercussions of foreign conflicts, something driven home by the deaths of Kiwis on 9/11 and in the 2002 Bali and 2005 London bombings perpetrated by affiliates of al-Qaeda (none of which were foreseen by the NZIC or its major allies). This forced the NZIC to focus priority attention on irregular threats originating or inspired from abroad, to include domestic sources of funding and recruitment for foreign extremism. The Key Government. The process of rapprochement between New Zealand and the United States came to fruition with the election of the John Key-led National government in late 2008. Key makes no secret of his affection for the US and was determined to overcome the final barriers to full restoration of bilateral security ties with it. The task was accomplished with the signing of the Wellington and Washington Declarations in 2010 and 2011 respectively. These restored New Zealand as a first tier military partner of the US. In parallel, after a number of breaches and spy scandals, then the Edward Snowden leaks, the GCSB saw a series of systems and protocol upgrades designed to address the problem of cyber security while increasing its ability to engage in mass surveillance and hacking operations against targets of interest to the US and other 5 Eyes partners. The GCSB was fully integrated into the 5 Eyes mass data collection schemes as well as providing technical support for US drone operations in the Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan and Pakistan (Hager, 2011). Beyond that its targets include foreign diplomatic and commercial communications, notably those of neighboring Pacific states, diplomatic allies, trade partners, other friendly nations as well as international and non-governmental organizations, interest groups, charities and foreign regulatory agencies. The SIS continued its attention on counter-terrorism, accentuating its focus on Muslim extremists (including so called foreign fighters and home grown jihadis) while continuing its long-standing interest in Maori separatists, Marxists of various persuasion and anti-free trade groups and individuals. As had occurred under the Fifth Labour government, the heightened concern with counter-terrorism continued to divert resources away from overseas human intelligence operations, particularly within the South Pacific. One area that continued to grow in importance for the SIS was counter-intelligence operations. These are mainly directed at Chinese espionage, which includes economic as well as military-diplomatic targets. In concert with GCSB efforts to thwart Chinese and other foreign based cyber-espionage and theft, the SIS focus on counter-espionage became the fourth pillar of its institutional orientation (along with counter-terrorism, domestic political espionage and criminal investigations). Added to issues such as fisheries poaching, whaling, arms proliferation and people smuggling, these concerns comprised the bulk of the threat assessment packages delivered to the Prime Minister by the NAB. In 2010 a reform process was initiated within the NZIC under the banner “one community, many agencies.” The ICG was created and along with the NAB and SRG was re-located in the same building as the GCSB with an eye towards improving information sharing and coordination between them. The SIS was urged to improve its coordination with domestic security agencies and other members of the NZIC in an age of globalized threats. Based on recommendations made in the 2009 Intelligence Agency Review commissioned by the State Services Commission (known as he Murdoch Review), the reforms were driven by the understanding that the NZIC was the product of historical legacies that included adoption of doctrines, precepts, perceptions and policies from foreign intelligence partners that led to a patchwork approach to intelligence gathering and analysis and some “tribal” outlooks on inter-agency dynamics. (Whibley 2014). Notwithstanding these reform efforts, subsequent reviews of the GCSB and SIS found serious issues with legal compliance, organizational dysfunction and misunderstanding or uncertainty about specific responsibilities within the larger division of labour within the NZIC. Public revelations of these failings led to the creation of the Intelligence Review committee whose review and recommendations will be published in early 2016. Conclusion. The New Zealand intelligence community suffered some but not a particularly uncommon degree of institutional lag after the Cold War and the foreign policy realignment of the mid 1990s. Its priorities slowly changed over the 20 plus years that followed the end of the Cold War, but its core areas of interest remained largely unchanged. That was because it did not engage in issue linkage following the foreign policy realignment of the mid 1990s and basically followed the lead of its larger intelligence partners when it came to foreign intelligence priorities and assessments and, at their behest, added terrorism to its list of domestic intelligence priorities. It was slow to react to the threats posed by Islamic extremism and cyber warfare as well as the use of social media for untoward ends, but that was a common problem for all of its intelligence partners prior to 9/11 and the subsequent introduction of “smart” mass communication technologies. Institutional lag in the New Zealand intelligence community is the product of five factors: over-reliance on foreign intelligence streams for information; subservience to allied intelligence requirements and priorities; limited autonomous signals and human collection capabilities; organizational sclerosis and misplaced focus (on the nature of domestic “threats”). The combination saw the NZIC respond reactively rather than proactively to the emerging threat environment in which it is located. In addition, institutional lag in the SIS and GCSB appears to derive from three organizational pathologies: bureaucratic insulation, inertia and capture. Both agencies were until recently very insulated from outside scrutiny, to include that of the Ministers responsible for their oversight and direction. This allowed them to conduct their affairs and determine their priorities in relatively unchecked fashion, to include engaging in operations that stretched the boundaries of their legal charters. In part this was due, and in turn contributed to, bureaucratic inertia. Bureaucratic inertia in the NZIC was characterized by collector bias, organizational complacency, operational redundancy (especially within the GCSB) and resistance to internal and external criticism, administrative change or outside advice. Much of this was rooted in organizational features dating back to the Cold War and recruitment patterns that favored a specific demographic. Until the mid 2000s both agencies were characterized by an “old boys” culture, with limited recruiting outside of pakeha (white European) males, many of who had previous military or police experience. A partial exception is in the GCSB, which fields a significant number of translators. Because of the requirements for native or near-native fluency, recruitment in the GCSB tends to reflect the listening priorities of its 5 Eyes partners more so than those of New Zealand itself. That includes Farsi speakers as well as those who have command of Mandarin and Korean, which means that the recruitment base for translators extends beyond the traditional pool of European males with military or police experience. SIS recruitment of Asians and Maori, while ongoing due to concerns about Asian based organized crime and Maori separatists, was expanded post 9/11 to include females and people of Middle Eastern descent. Although females are now a significant component of both the SIS and GCSB (over 30 percent in each agency), Maori, Pacifika and other ethnic minorities remain a very small percentage of these agencies’ staffs (New Zealand Herald, January 3, 2016). The same can be said for the NAB. More importantly, the overall mindset, again until very recently and perhaps extending to this day, was one that emphasized group cohesion and shared perspectives and logics that placed a career premium on “team players” rather than those who might challenge the status quo or rock the boat. Given the very small size of the NZIC (approximately 600 people, of which 500 work in the GCSB and SIS) this mitigated against substantive reform within it. This organizational culture would not matter, or may not have been allowed to persist, had there been effective oversight of these agencies. But the contrary occurred (and still occurs). Rather than having Ministers and independent oversight agencies such as the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) of and Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security (PCIS) effectively acting as overseers of the agencies that provided a check on their activities, the reverse occurred: ministers, IGs and parliamentary committees were essentially “captured” by the logic and expertise of the intelligence managers who ostensibly reported to them. Given the limited scope of authority and powers made available to IGs and the PCIS (which excluded them from scrutinizing operational matters, among other things), this left them at the mercy of senior intelligence officials for information about agency activities. With such emasculated oversight that provided no counter-weight to what the agencies claimed to be in the legitimate national security interest, the ministers responsible for them (until this year the Prime Minister acting as Minister of Intelligence and Security) were left to their own devices when it came to critically evaluating intelligence assessments and operations (when they were aware of them). Again, this led to their bureaucratic “capture” by their senior intelligence managers and advisors, with Ministers having to take more on faith than knowledge that what the IC was doing was in fact legal, timely when it came to emerging threats and in the national security interest. This was as true for the NAB and other intelligence consumers within the government at large. In practice the quid pro quo for government acceptance of bureaucratic capture by the IC appears to be the supply by the latter (specifically the SIS and GCSB) of politically sensitive domestic intelligence for partisan use by the government of the day. Again, until very recently in light of the Snowden revelations and Kim Dotcom scandal, both major parties seemed confortable with that arrangement, although recent evidence suggests that the Key government was particularly adept at using intelligence agencies for partisan purposes (Hager, 2014). The combination of external dependency and internal conformity contributed the most to the NZIC’s institutional lag. Added to that was the significant depth of organizational culture and practice within the SIS and GCSB, which was resistance to change even after the 2010 reforms and which focused on either debatable domestic threats or the external concerns of New Zealand’s main intelligence partners. This ran counter to the thrust of New Zealand’s mid 1990s foreign policy realignment, particularly with regard to its relations with China and a variety of Central Asian and Middle Eastern nations. That has left New Zealand in the unenviable position of straddling the fence when it comes to its trade and security orientation and partners, something that is arguably untenable over the long term given the divergence interests of and growing strategic competition between the larger partners (Buchanan 2010b). 2016 represents a potential watershed moment for the NZIC. An Intelligence Review will be published that is anticipated will recommend legal and organizational changes to the SIS, GCSB and perhaps other members of the NZIC. Two female lawyers now head the SIS and GCSB, and their tenures have been marked by more transparency and critical self-reflection than in previous eras. Efforts to broaden the recruitment base for the NZIC are underway within the limits of what secrecy and security allow. It remains to be seen if any changes are made to the PCIS and the relationship between it and the NZIC, as well as that between the Minister of Intelligence and Security, the Commissioner of Security Warrants, IGIS and the agencies they oversee. They key to improving oversight and quality control mechanisms is to make them proactive as well as reactive in their scrutiny of agency operations and to give them powers of compulsion under oath (Buchanan 2014). Some measures have been taken in this regard with respect to the authority of the IGIS, but oversight currently remains thin at best. The primary solution to the problem of institutional lag within the NZIC is to develop more autonomous priorities and capabilities. Although doing so in the context of the 5 Eyes system is difficult given alliance commitments, it is not impossible to add a New Zealand centric focus to signals and technical intelligence targeting that does not interfere with ongoing alliance priorities. Even more so, the SIS has the opportunity to redefine its role in a way that is more in line with its relatively limited capabilities, for example, by divesting itself of domestic espionage duties (to the Police) in order to concentrate on foreign human intelligence and counter-intelligence work. For all the good intent of the 2010 reforms and proliferation of intelligence agencies and cells through government departments, it remains unclear if the intelligence gathering, analysis and assessment process in New Zealand has improved or been streamlined to the point of increased efficiency and accuracy of intelligence products. The 2016 Intelligence Review may help shed light on whether that is the case. One thing is certain. If the NZIC is going to confront the security challenges of the 21^st century it will have to continue to adapt and reform. Only by doing so can it overcome the problem of institutional lag and the contradictions inherent in issue de-linkage. Because being small and distant is not a secure barrier to global threats, and be they foreign or domestic, the threat environment in New Zealand is constantly evolving and posing new challenges to those entrusted with its safe-keeping. Endnotes. [1] Anonymous correspondent Phillip H. quoted in Charles Hugh Smith, Institutional Darwinism: Adapt or Perish, www.oftwominds.com, February 18, 2010. [2] The French Pacific Fleet is headquartered in Papeete and the French Pacific Army is headquartered in Noumea. Concern with French nuclear testing and instability in former French territories drove New Zealand’s interest in them. References. Buchanan, Paul G. and Lin, Kun Chin (2006)) “Symmetry and Asymmetry in Pacific Rim Approaches to Trade and Security Agreements.” Asia-Pacific Research Universities Research Paper/36^th Parallel Assessments Working Paper. http://36th-parallel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Symmetry_and_Asymmetry_in_Pacific_Rim_approaches_to_trade_and_security_agreements-final1.pdf Buchanan, Paul G. (2007). “A Change of Focus at the SIS,” Scoop.co.nz, February 27. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0702/S00257.htm Buchanan, Paul G. (2010a). “Lilliputian in Fluid Times: New Zealand Foreign Policy afterthe Cold War,” Political Science Quarterly, V.125, N.2: 255-279. Buchanan, Paul G. (2010b). “New Zealand’s Coming Melian Dilemma,” Scoop.co.nz, September 14, 2010. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1009/S00097/paul-buchanan-new-zealands-coming-melian-dilemma.htm. Buchanan, Paul G. (2014). “Analytic Brief: A primer on democratic intelligence oversight.” 36^th Parallel Assessments, May 3, 2014. http://36th-parallel.com/2014/05/03/analytic-brief-a-primer-on-democratic-intelligence-oversight/ Fisher, David (2015). “Just how bad were our spies?” New Zealand Herald, November 6. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11541220 Fisher, David (2016). “Activist says SIS will struggle to recruit Maori as report reveals spy agencies are ‘old boys club’ that makes racist jokes,” New Zealand Herald, January 3. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11568617 Hager, Nicky (1996). Secret Power: New Zealand’s Role in the International Spy Network. Nelson, Craig Potton Publishing. Hager, Nicky (2011). Other People’s Wars: New Zealand in Afghanistan, Iraq and the war on terror. Nelson: Craig Potton Publishing. Hager, Nicky (2014). Dirty Politics: How attacks politics is poisoning New Zealand’s political environment. Nelson: Craig Cotton Publishing. Hunt, Graham (2007). Spies and Revolutionaries: A History of New Zealand Subversion. Auckland: Reed Publishing. Patman, Robert G. and Laura Southgate (2015). “National security and surveillance: the public impact of the GCSB Amendment Bill and the Snowden revelations in New Zealand,” Intelligence and National Security, V.30 (Online version published 20 October 2015). Smith, Charles Hugh (2010).“Institutional Darwinism: Adapt or Perish,” www.oftwominds.com, February 18. Whibley, James (2014). “One Community, Many Agencies: Administrative Developments in New Zealand’s Intelligence Services,” Intelligence and National Security, V.29, N.1: 122-135 (2014). http://www.nzsis.govt.nz/publications/annual-reports/ http://www.gcsb.govt.nz/publications/annual-reports/ http://www.nzic.govt.nz/about-us/nab/ http://www.nzic.govt.nz http://www.gcsb.govt.nz/assets/GCSB-Compliance-Review/Review-of-Compliance.pdf An edited version of this essay appears in R. Patman, ed., New Zealand and the World. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2016.]]>

Greater police powers planned in new Indonesian anti-terror law

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 9, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Chris Brummit in Jakarta

Indonesian police will be able to detain suspects for six months under a significant expansion of powers contained in a revised anti-terrorism law, according to a copy of the bill.

The introduction of preventative detention is one of several new provisions drafted to strengthen the fight against extremism in Indonesia following a January 14 attack in Jakarta blamed on Islamic State militants.

The government’s bill will now be discussed by Parliament, where changes may be proposed.

The bill also gives authorities the power to strip convicted terrorists of their passports and citizenship, as President Joko Widodo tries to plug holes in old laws that were exposed by the emergence of the Islamic State.

The move is likely to be opposed by human rights groups and Muslim activists in Indonesia, which emerged in 1998 from three decades of dictatorship during which security forces were frequently alleged to have acted with impunity.

“The police don’t need more powers, just a better coordinated anti-terrorism fight,” said Wahyu Wagiman, executive director of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy, a human rights organisation. “If the government is not careful, this could add to the ranks of terrorists because it will create fresh grievances.”

Preventative arrests
Since the January bomb-and-gun assault in the center of the capital, the government and police have advocated for preventative arrest powers, saying they were currently unable to disrupt plans for attacks and communication with terrorist leaders in Iraq and Syria.

The country remains on the alert for another attack, Luhut Panjaitan, the coordinating minister for security affairs, said last month.

New offences under the revised bill include taking part in military training at home or abroad, communicating with someone at home and abroad about the commission of terrorism and either joining or recruiting for a declared terrorist organisation.

The clause on preventative detention says authorities have the power to hold terrorism suspects for six months for the purposes of deradicalisation, international cooperation, investigation and prevention. Currently authorities can hold suspects for a week before formally charging them.

“There are some sensible additions such as criminalising membership of a terrorist group and paramilitary training,” said Adam J. Fenton, a senior researcher at the Center for Radicalism and Deradicalisation Studies in Indonesia.

“But some will be controversial and may meet some resistance when they are debated in Parliament.”

Dwi Ria Latifa, a parliamentarian on the commission that will oversee the passage of the bill, said lawmakers were preparing to begin discussing it. She declined to comment on its contents because she had yet to study it.

The government implemented anti-terrorism laws in the immediate aftermath of the 2002 Bali bombings. It has been talking about the need to revise them ever since, but the process was given impetus by the January attacks.

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Digicel finally granted permission to operate Sky Pacific

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 9, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Peni Shute in Suva

Digicel Fiji has been given three licenses for 12 years to fully operate Sky Pacific, six months after formally acquiring the pay television station from previous owners Fiji Television Limited.

SkyPacific Attorney-General and Minister for Communications Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum outlined in a press conference three different licences given to Digicel Fiji, effective from Monday:

Broadcast licence under the Television Decree.
Spectrum licence under the regulations of the National Spectrum Decree.
Special licence under the Media Industry Development Decree.

Minister Sayed-Khaiyum said Digicel could not show any advertisement unless an agreement with the three existing free-to-air (FBC TV, Fiji One, Mai TV) channels is made.

They (Digicel) cannot advertise on Sky Pacific. Advertisements cannot take place unless all the three free-to-air providers agree to it. So all three of them have veto powers.

Minister Sayed-Khaiyum said the Ministry of Communications would be monitoring advertisements aired by Sky Pacific. He added there were service level commitments built within the licence to protect consumers.

If the Sky channel goes off air, they have to pay a rebate to the subscribers, so if they are off air to four to eight hours there is a one percent rebate, eight to 16 hours there is a two percent rebate, 16 to 24hours there is a three percent rebate and plus there is an additional three percent for every 24 hours that the particular service is off air.

Communications Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum ... safeguards. Image: Peni Shute Newswire — Communications Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum … viewers can expect a new channel called “TVWAN”. Image: Peni Shute Newswire

Minister Sayed-Khaiyum said Sky Pacific would be showing 24 channels, most of them existing channels. The minister said viewers could expect a new channel called “TVWAN”.

Digicel Fiji chief executive officer Darren McLean was happy to get the licences from the government after an announcement was made in September last year about the purchase of Sky Pacific.

I want to thank the Fiji government and the Minister of Communications, Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum for his commitment in helping to turn this opportunity into a reality.

I would also like to thank our new partner Fiji Television Limited, who has been cooperating well with us and the government in this process. There is a lot more work to do to plan the transition from Fiji TV to Digicel ownership until such time there is no change to Sky Pacific operations and channel lineup.

The focus in the short term is to keep the business focused and delivering for customers, while we plan the improvements that are necessary over the coming months.

Channels of Sky Pacific announced by the minister:

Super Channel
MTV
Nickelodeon
Comedy Central
ESPN
History
Lifetime
FYI
Toonami
Warner TV
CNN
Net Geo Wild
BCC
Star Plus
Colours
Zee
FX
Fox Crime
Fox Family Movies
NHK
Trinity

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Cyclone Winston damage in Fiji runs to $476m, says disaster office

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 9, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Allison Penjueli in Suva

A total of $476.3 million of estimated damages in all sectors was recorded from damages caused by TC Winston, the Fiji Roads Authority has recorded the highest preliminary amount of $135 million of damages around the country.

This was announced by the Natural Disasters Management Office Director, Akapusi Tuifagalele, at a press conference today.

The damage assessment results by sector, the FRA now tops the list with 135 million. The rest remains, with the Agriculture Sector with $120 million, the Sugar Sector with $80 million and Education with $50.2 million. We now have a preliminary estimate of $476.3 million in total damages.

The director said that the Fiji Red Cross Society had assessed 10,397 households and had assisted 5243.

As of today, there are 619 operating evacuation centres around Fiji with 19,649 evacuees. We expect people to move back to their homes, move back to their places and start to rebuild also to clean up in the respective areas

Director Tuifagalele said that rehabilitation on Koro Island was continuing and that the Prime Minister with other cabinet ministers were on the island today.

The preliminary assessment results of destroyed dwellings around Fiji stands at 7042 and 11,111 of damaged dwellings. Coming to total of 18,154 dwellings destroyed or partly damaged.

Update of Statistics:

Deaths: 43
Evacuation Centres: 619
People in evacuation centres: 19,649

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‘Equal rights but we’re not using it,’ says new Samoan woman MP

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 8, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Diedre Fanene in Apia

Ali’imalemanu Alofa Tuuau is a proud Samoan woman. She is the only new female representative in Samoa’s Parliament, having secured her seat at Alataua West on Friday during the General Election.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer, she said she is ready to serve her constituency and the country.

Ali’imalemanu said she was honoured to have been elected by her district and she hoped the result would encourage other women to step up.

“I don’t believe in this saying, ‘promoting equal rights’, because there are equal rights of women everywhere but it’s just that they are not using it,” said Ali’imalemanu.

“The main thing that I will be focusing on with this issue is to try and build women’s self confidence.

“We are the problem because we put ourselves down. When I was growing up until I started working, I never struggled because of the non-equal rights.

‘No self-confidence’
“It is us. We don’t use it and we have no self-confidence, but it is an issue that we can deal with because it’s easy. These are some of the things that I want to work on.”

Looking at the developments in her constituency, she said it was early days.

“I believe that there are so many things that need to be done within my constituency, like the improvement of roads and also education,” she said.

“However, we need to have a meeting with my constituency first, to see what they need me to prioritise in terms of developments.

“I didn’t make any promises or plans as I was focusing on winning the election rather than making promises.”

Asked about her thoughts on the General Election and how it went, Ali’imalemanu said there were a few problems but praised the Office of the Electoral Commissioner for their work.

As for Parliament being a one-party state, Ali’imalemanu said the government would have to be extra careful with its decision-making.

‘New challenge’
“I know the government is prepared for a whole new challenge,” she said.

“Before it was the Opposition which provided those questions. Now that they are no longer here, the government should really think hard about its decision making. It will have to be accountable to itself and the public.”

Ali’imalemanu acknowledged the support of her constituency.

An accountant by profession, she comes into the role well qualified.

She worked at the Public Trust as a Chief Accountant for 13 years before she moved to Fiji to work as a finance manager for another 13 years at the University of the South Pacific.

When she returned to Samoa, she took up an administration job at the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) where she had been for 14 years.

The 58-year-old is a mother of four with two grandchildren.

Diedre Fanene is a reporter on the Samoa Observer.

Samoa now a ‘one party state’

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‘I was told it was against kastom for women to be in Parliament’

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 8, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

“Respect”, as Father Walter Lini famously said, “is honourable”. But despite the enormous social, economic and cultural contributions they make every day, Vanuatu’s women are rarely given the respect they deserve; they continue to be shut out of political life. And yet, as the scandals of the last 12 months have shown, Vanuatu urgently needs better, more representative political leadership. Vanuatu’s full potential can only be realised when it has a gender-balanced leadership that includes, respects and values the enriching perspectives that women bring to political life. Today, on International Womens’ Day, we bring you the powerful story of a Vanuatu woman leader’s journey as she stands up for the right to take part in politics.

By Mary Jack Kaviamu

My journey started in 2008, when I sought the endorsement of community leaders in my home island of Tanna to contest the Vanuatu provincial elections. I didn’t get their approval. I was told it is against kastom for women to be in Parliament, and that I wasn’t prepared to take up such a challenge.

I tried again in 2012, this time paying my candidate fee without the approval of the community chief. When the community leaders learnt of this, they organised a meeting to stop me from contesting. They asked that I give up my candidate fee to a male candidate of their choice, promising in return that they would support me in the 2016 national general election.

I respected their decision and gave my ticket away. Their male candidate failed to win.

In 2015, cyclone Pam devastated Vanuatu, with Tanna being one of the worst-hit islands. Women bore the brunt of the devastation, forcing them to seek out new ways to survive. A realisation began to dawn that it was time for them to stand up and speak for themselves.

After numerous meetings with women groups, the first ever Tanna Women’s Forum was held in October 2015. More than 1200 attended the meeting where women demanded change to a political system that held them down, tied them in poverty, and gave them no opportunity to speak out.

It was a breakthrough moment as many of these women have lived under threat all of their lives.

The women put their heads together and agreed it was time someone took the lead. I was nominated. The women agreed that I would contest the next general election scheduled for late 2016.

Just days later the government announced a snap election, effectively wiping out our time to put together an election campaign. We moved ahead, anyway, with membership numbers now standing at 3700. We had much confidence that we would secure one of the seven seats in the Tanna open constituency.

Mary Kaviamu ... "even if we failed to win a seat, we would learn valuable lessons." Image: Vanuatu Daily Post — Mary Kaviamu … “even if we failed to win a seat, we would learn valuable lessons.” Image: Vanuatu Daily Post

With very little time to prepare, I took on the challenge with much confidence. That as a solid membership of women we could succeed, and that even if we failed to win a seat, we would learn valuable lessons from the snap election experience that would better prepare us for the next general elections in 2020.

I had so much confidence. I wasn’t thinking of losing; our hopes based on the registration figures signed by women across the island.

Crossing controversial territory
The first obstacle was informing community leaders of our decision to field our own candidate – a woman. Working with a chief that I have close ties to, a community meeting was arranged whereby I would declare and launch my candidacy.

No one uttered a word, except a female friend who stood up, and much to my surprise, said: “I am not in support of women being electoral representatives in Parliament, and I am also against the policy of reserving seats for women.” I took this understandably as coming from someone speaking from her heart, but it also confirmed that the notion that women “do not belong in Parliament” was not held by men alone.

With no financial backing (other than two small personal contributions totalling 15,000 vatu) I had to dig into my own pockets to fund the campaign. I must say the election process is very expensive, with transportation in Tanna costing 20,000 vatu per day. We hired six public transport vehicles for the campaign.

We managed to visit (and revisit in some cases) 19 communities, speaking with roughly 700 men and women. Our slogan was Hemi Taem! (It is time!).

Taking centre stage during the campaigns was the most challenging. The questions and comments raised by communities were not difficult to answer, but there were also tricky ones coming from those who perceived us to be defying kastom.

‘You have not killed a fly or an ant, how can you prove that you can work like men in parliament. You are nothing but a woman.’

‘Our custom and culture perfectly points out your place – which is to look after the children, and mine (male speaking) is to do the talking. Where is your respect for this kastom? Are you from Australia that you don’t know our kastom? Who has given you this right to contest?’

‘Maybe we can vote for you in the provincial council election, but not to parliament.’

‘Our fear right now is the domestic violence law; we do not want our women to take those laws into their own hands.’

‘We don’t want to vote for women, because we don’t want women to have the right over us men.’

‘We don’t want our women to vote for women. If they do, we will divorce them.’

In a lot of places, prior to our campaign meetings, there would be community meetings, most held in the nakamal where “consensus” was often reached for all community members to vote for a particular candidate.

In some cases, I wasn’t allowed to go and campaign – even to speak to just the women. In one case, some women called me and said: “Mary, please don’t come to our community as you will not be allowed to speak here.”

Discrimination and the threat of violence
The campaign revealed that culture is a main contributor to the limitation of woman’s influence in politics. I’ve seen how a lot of people are reluctant to vote for a woman.

We did not receive discrimination from men alone, but women also. The discrimination we received was more on emotional violence. Discrimination against women in the society was very obvious at the time of campaigning and we observed how discrimination was somewhat based on a woman’s age, her marital status, her level of education and economic status.

And as such, a woman may not be considered to be valuable or worthwhile if she does not fit the collective representation of both men and women.

Personally, I was able to endure a male-dominated political campaign period, but stories of threats of violence experienced by some women have just been unbearable. There are many of such accounts, ones that I share with a sad heart.

This is one woman’s account of the threat she received from her partner the night before the poll:

I was already in bed pretending I had fallen asleep for some hours, but my husband came up and woke me up. He held a knife to my throat and demanded that I tell him who I was going to vote for. I was so afraid, I did not speak. He told me to speak or else he would beat me. I started crying. I was short of breath and was shaking. I cried out, “please help me … someone listening outside, please help me!”

But nobody came to my rescue because they were afraid of my husband. He pushed me down, punched me again on my stomach and head, and said he was giving me a chance to speak or else he would beat me up. He knew of my intention to support women in this election.

I begged him to let go of my throat or I was going to die, and I promised him that I was going to vote for the candidate of his choosing.

Another woman also had a similar story.

I saw you talking with those women, but I have stated clearly my rules and you have to follow them. We are going to vote for a male candidate and not for any woman. If you fail my words and I find out the numbers at our polling station, I will make you pay for it.

Other women were reportedly threatened by their partners to show candidate photos after they had cast their votes to prove they voted for a particular candidate. In some polling station, men threatened to divorce or physically torture their wives if results showed a significant number of women’s votes from that particular polling station.

A way forward
Political parties, as we know, are the most important institutions affecting women’s political participation. Even though our group knew we could have more support (moral and financial) from political parties if we ran under one of them, we still made the hard choice of running as an independent candidate.

We had a few reasons for this, with the main one being that bigger political parties filed their candidates in advance, leaving no space for women to contest under their ticket. Secondly, women still have a long way to learn about the processes and lobbying involved in politics.

In spite of the challenges women continue to face, I see a new generation of powerful women flourishing in Tanna. Women with a strong sense of identity and power.

Through our journey, many have come to understand that participation in the electoral processes involves much more than just voting. It is time to exercise the democratic rights that have either been ignored or violated over the last 36 years.

Through our journey in politics, many have come to appreciate that through political participation women can have the freedom to speak out for the first time in the island’s history, which they’ve done through campaigning, assembling, associating and participating.

I have seen the power of ordinary women who have stood up against injustices to say they are tired. I have seen the faces of those who shed tears because of so much ill-dealing and threatening within their homes and communities.

We have started a journey where we will continue to celebrate the united power of women who have taken the first steps to uncovering the multiple forms of discrimination and injustices. We shall continue to seek the empowerment of women to a level where they can think and speak for themselves.

Mary Jack Kaviamu has more than 10 years experience working with provincial government, which included a period as acting secretary-general of the Tafea Provincial Government Council. She worked at the Pacific Institute of Public Policy (PiPP) from 2010 to 2015 to implement a programme of political stakeholder engagement in Vanuatu. She is currently a manager for ActionAid. This article was first published on both Vanuatu Daily Digest and the PiPP blog and is republished by arrangement with PiPP.

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Vanuatu disaster officials dump tonnes of expired relief supplies

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 8, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Anita Roberts in Port Vila

Tonnes of relief supplies donated to the people of Vanuatu in the aftermath of the category 5 cyclone Pam which hit Vanuatu in March last year have been dumped at the Etas landfill.

Last week, the Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) authorised the dumping of tonnes of food aid because they had expired.

Cyclone Pam relief supplies stored in the Vanuatu Mobile Force camp. Image: Vanuatu Daily Post

The supplies – including cartons of cans, beans and tomatoes, tin fish, noodles, flour and juice – have been kept in storage at the Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF) Camp for almost a year after cyclone Pam battered the country on March 13.

“These donations were expired when they reached Vanuatu,” NDMO Director Shadrack Welegtabit told the Daily Post.

“Some of the foreign donations towards recovery were delivered by ship. Due to the long distance, some of the relief supplies were expired or on the verge of their expiry dates when they reached Vanuatu, thus cannot be distributed.

“It is proper for NDMO to dump the expired items instead of distributing them to disaster areas.”

The NDMO director urged all donor agencies to support response efforts through cash donations rather than solicited goods.

Cash donations
He said an effective way to help next time when disaster struck was through cash donations as it would allow relief supplies to be purchased near the disaster site, avoiding delays, steep transportation and logistical costs.

Member of Parliament from Pentecost Francois Chani has raised concerns to why these donations had not reached the affected communities in 2015 when the NDMO recruited a lot of volunteers.

Sources revealed that some members of the public collected the expired Chinese noodles to feed their pigs while some of the clothes and food donations currently on shelves are also near their expiry dates.

Meanwhile, MP Chani told the local media that the Vanuatu community in Queensland, Australia, which supplied 11 containers of assorted food and clothing, o assist the people after cyclone Pam, was still waiting to hear a “thank- you” from the government and a response to clarify where the containers had been sent to assist distribution.

Anita Roberts is a Vanuatu Daily Post reporter.

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IFJ criticises high levels of gender discrimination, violence in media

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 8, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

In a report to be released today on International Women’s Day, the Gender Council of the International Federation of Journalists highlights high levels of gender discrimination and violence against women in the media across the globe.

“We have hit a plateau, a place where movement and change appear non-existent,” states the report, pointing at the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), which indicates every five years the place women hold in the news.

Its 2015 report starkly concludes that “Progress for women in news media has grinded to a halt.”

The GMMP 2015 report, which was conducted in 114 countries with the help of some IFJ affiliates, shows that women make up “only 24 percent of the persons heard, read about or seen in newspaper, television and radio news, exactly the same level found in the 2010 report.”

These findings echo many of the regional and country reports presented earlier this year to the IFJ Gender Council. The reports, compiled by Gender Council members from around the globe, include snapshots of the situation for women journalists in: Palestine, Africa, Latin America, Europe, Mexico and Peru.

In many regions issues of violence, safety, continued bullying and harassment continue to undermine women’s role in the media. In some regions, women suffer from outright sexism and discrimination in the news rooms and hiring practices, while in others it is the lack of access to promotions and jobs, or continued rising of unemployment – with women having the lowest rates of re-hiring and most often forced into unstable working conditions.

“The aftermath of the financial crisis continues to impact many women journalists and their unions,” says co-chair of the IFJ Gender Council Mindy Ran. “with a return to the bad old days where equality is once again seen as a luxury item to be added on as an extra – not at the beating heart of our unions. It is a dangerous trend that will leave the most vulnerable forced out of the profession, or decision making posts in our unions, effectively erasing yet more of our voices.”

‘Our responsibility’
IFJ president Jim Boumelha said: “It is our responsibility to fight against any form of discrimination in the newsrooms.

“We urge our affiliates to build momentum for widespread action towards gender equality within our structures and in the media and mark International Women’s day by spreading the word that journalists’ unions stand by gender equality standards.”

The IFJ calls on media companies to increase the number of women journalists in newsrooms and decision making posts. It also encourages its affiliates to continue to promote equality within their own organisations and seek to have equal representation and urges them to pursue the fight against bullying, harassment and violence against women journalists.

Use the IFJ stand up for equality logo and tweet your messages of solidarity with women journalists on March 8 – #IFJVAW.

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US, Pacific countries resolve treaty deadlock – fleet fishing again

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 8, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz A fishing rights dispute that has seen the US-flagged tuna fleet grounded in the Western and Central Pacific has ended with Pacific countries’ selling unused days to other fleets. Tri-Marine International, which operates 10 of the 37 vessels in the fleet that have been idle since January 1, said that negotiations between a group of Pacific island nations and the US government have been successful. “This is welcome news not only for our fleet and our business, but to the many families in American Samoa that depend on a tuna-based economy, including the 2000 employees we aim to have working when we are at capacity at Samoa Tuna Processors (STP),” Don Binotto, CEO of Tri-Marine subsidiaries Samoa Tuna Processor and The Tuna Store, said. During the fleet grounding, Tri Marine had been sourcing tuna from more distant waters and relying on raw material reserves in order to continue production, it said. Fishing rights in the region are allocated under a decades-old system, the South Pacific Tuna Treaty. Under the treaty, the US fleet negotiates collectively for fishing access days with nine Pacific Island countries, represented by a group called the Parties to the Nauru agreement (PNA). The grounding began January 1 on the orders of the US fishing regulator, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which said that the fleet cannot fish until the FFA issues vessels licences for 2016. The FFA had said that licences would not be granted until the fleet agreed to pay the PNA, its subordinate body, the US$17 million in quarterly fees that the fleet agreed to at an August meeting in Brisbane, Australia. Sharp price fall At that time, the fleet, through its representative body the American Tunaboat Association (ATA) agreed to purchase around 5700 days of fishing access. But after a sharp fall in skipjack tuna prices, some members of the American fleet had indicated they could not pay the fees and wanted to instead re-negotiate to purchase 3700 days of access. According to a person familiar with the situation — who declined to be identified publicly — Bellevue, Washington-based Tri Marine International and Dongwon Industries, which owns the tuna seiner Pacific Breeze, are among those seeking to reduce the number of days. Tri Marine previously criticised the current form of the treaty as inflexible and obsolete. In an interview with Radio New Zealand, FFA director James Movick said that the breakthrough occurred after the Pacific nations agreed to reduce the number of days it had agreed to sell to the US fleet. Those extra days may be sold to other fleets. “That and a number of other conditions which they had, and which the US essentially agreed to, with a few minor revisions, that minor revision was in turn reviewed by Pacific Island parties. So as of Monday [last week], we finally have all Pacific Island parties agreeing,” he said. And in January, the US government signalled its intent to leave the South Pacific Tuna Treaty in 2017, paving the way for a more flexible arrangement to be negotiated in the future, something all parties to the treaty say they want. Jason Smith is a senior reporter with Undercurrent News, a US fishing industry publication. –]]>

Eva Cox: Feminism has failed and needs a radical rethink

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 8, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz By Eva Cox There was a 1970s badge that declared:

Women who want equality with men lack ambition.

This statement neatly sums up the broad intentions of second-wave feminists to create radical shifts of gender power. On International Women’s Day 2016, looking back, I suggest we failed to pursue that agenda and settled for much less. We achieved formal legal equality over the subsequent decade, but moving past that into wider social equity changes seems definitely to have stalled. What went wrong? We knew then that legal equality was only the starting point. We understood that real gender equity would require radical changes to macho cultural power structures. So we planned and discussed the ways we could revalue what matters and eliminate gender-biased, macho-designed cultural dominance. Despite fixing most of the legal barriers, the cultural changes failed to follow. There were other changes happening. By the 1980s the arrival of neoliberalism as the dominant political paradigm slowed most social progress, as market models took over. These changed the political focus from progressive social change to market choices and individualised material success.

Eva Cox ... neoliberalism changed the political focus from progressive social change to market choices and individualised material success. Image: Women Who Kick Ass — Eva Cox … neoliberalism changed the political focus from progressive social change to market choices and individualised material success. Image: Women Who Kick Ass

This approach also emphasised machismo and reinforced gender inequities, because market competition rewards materialist views of what matters. The more collectivist social roles that are part of our social infrastructure – and often heavily feminised – are devalued and considered private concerns.

Our early support for increasing the proportion of women in positions of power was not driven by wanting more women sharing male privilege, but a belief that feminists could infiltrate and make the social and cultural changes we wanted. Now, the increasing numbers of women allowed to join men in positions of power and influence are mostly prepared to support the status quo, not to seriously increase gender equity. So 41 years after International Women’s Year, Australian (and New Zealand) women are still the very much the second sex, insofar as we are permitted limited share of power and resources in the public sphere, but on macho market terms. What is the second sex? It was neatly defined in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex analysis of how gender roles were socially designed:

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.

and

She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute – she is the Other.

Still the second sex In Australia, women are still clearly the “other”. Our once radical social movement has been diverted into good works such as women’s refuges, counting female victims of violence and calling out sexism. While all these are necessary, there is little focus on offering serious alternatives. Too many women’s groups are plaintively asking for better access to the options open to men, on men’s terms. The current groups seem to have lost the necessary optimism to identify and lead serious changes to the nasty, inequitable and fading market model which not only excludes the social but is showing serious flaws. The damage to social well-being that results from the reliance on unfettered markets is much wider than just the continued poor status of women. There are clear indications of social distress in many developed countries whose austerity cuts have created serious inequality. A review of current public policy priorities at the local level shows few social goals and policies that indicate any serious efforts to make Australia fairer and create better social well-being. The long-term over-emphasis on GDP and financial growth is exacerbating inequalities, with changes focused mainly on punishing the unemployed. The market model stresses paid work only, completely ignoring feminised unpaid, underpaid, often uncounted roles and tasks, most notably the raising of children. These are not included in GDP, but are essential to good social functioning. This shift is clearly illustrated by proposed changes to the funding of children’s services, whose role will move from complementing community/family to servicing GDP growth. In the process, “progress for women” has been reduced to increasing their participation in paid work. This pattern appears in parenting payments and other areas where unpaid contributions are ignored. Similar issues arise in Closing the Gap failures, which emphasise white male models and ignore the value of good social relationships that were once also more important in Western societies. Time for a radical rethink In the lead-up to the 2016 election, voters increasingly distrust the major parties, whose economic emphasis turns them off. Rather than leave solutions to the current holders of power, or some populist alternatives, we need feminist-led setting of social equity goals. Can some good feminist ideas reignite the light on the hill to find ways out of current political dilemmas? Let’s commemorate International Women’s Day this year by offering some bold initiatives that show our concerns are universal, albeit from feminist standpoint. Here are some starting points:

devise and discuss good social policy goals, which prioritise gender and other equity outcomes, and make them central to the coming election;
revalue the rewarding the skills and time put into care, relationships, feelings and other social needs that require attention and commitment;
broaden the agenda and revise our assumptions about what matters to make sure that gender biases are removed from roles such as caring;
ensure that men recognise their need to be liberated from the limited assumptions about masculinity that also limit their choices and lives;
abolish the term “women’s issues”: these are social issues that affect everyone, and the label stereotypes women as the second sex who have special interests; and
acknowledge that women cannot “have it all” because men can’t either, but ensure that both can take on fairly shared responsibilities for essential paid and unpaid roles.

These are starting points for addressing deficits in mainstream politics and putting social well-being high on political agendas. We require feminist perspectives to set social goals that are sustainable, and create social resilience. These necessary strengths are undermined by the macho tendencies in current political directions. We need to recognise the importance of social connections, cultural needs and care of others that economics doesn’t cover; to balance material and social stability.

And, as de Beauvoir said, women need to decline to be the “other”, to refuse to be a party to the deal. This would mean for women to renounce all the advantages conferred upon them by their alliance with the superior caste. That’s feminism.

Feminist and author Eva Cox is a professorial fellow at Jumbunna IHL, University of Technology Sydney. This article was first published in The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivatives licence. –]]>

Work together on illegal fisheries – ‘no nation is immune’, says Dunne

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 7, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Lealaiauloto A F Tauafiafi in Auckland

At the official opening of the 5th Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop today there was general agreement that the key to stopping illegal fishing globally is through international cooperation and sharing of information by monitoring, control and surveillance practitioners around the globe.

“No nation is immune to illegal fishing activities. We must all work together whether that be at bilateral, regional or international frameworks to target and eliminate what is internationally recognised as environmental crime,” according to Martyn Dunne, Director-General for host New Zealand’s Ministry of Primary Industries.

He singled out the International Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Network as the collective platform that can deliver the “intent” of unity of purpose to “deter and eradicate the IUU threats to our oceans”.

He believes that to stamp out illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, the workshop (GFETW) needs to look at adopting the following five principles:

1. Acknowledge its existence (IUU – illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing)

2. Create and maintain unity of purpose in targeting offenders

3. Share information, intelligence and resources

4. Have the ongoing resolve to collectively bring in perpetrators to account before the courts, and

5. Effective control of nationals

Critical information
Through the five principles, Dunne believes the MCS international network has the influence to harness the power of intelligence and frameworks necessary to share critical information that would lead to the eradication of IUU fishing.

He points to a number of case studies that will be discussed during the week-long workshop showcasing the effectiveness of such a collective approach.

“The case study regarding international efforts targeting IUU vessels operating in the Southern Oceans is testament to these coalitions willing to fulfil international obligations and working collectively for a common outcome,” he said.

His final point was to re-affirm his belief in the power of the MCS Network (celebrating its 50th year of existence this year).

“Don’t underestimate the power of the network. It is a collective body of individuals linked through a common purpose. The relationship you forge here is critical to achieving success and the ability personally to contact counterparts whose trust and confidence has been established through such conferences is often more effective than prolonged and formal channels that can limit timely action.”

Chair for the MCS Network Cephas Ralph said: “As a global entity the network through its promotion of international cooperation plays a significant part ensuring that national jurisdiction and borders are less of a barrier to the enforcement of surveillance activities for member countries.”

He highlighted the key strength of the network which has grown to more than 70 member countries covering every inhabited continent on the globe.

New members
New members South Korea and Cambodia were acknowledged today.

“One of the great strengths of the network is its ‘informal’ structure. Indeed, the network does not wish to interfere with the policy issues of any country or region.”

In fact, the global organisation is not bound by a treaty or convention. Rather, its membership of MCS practitioners across the world designed the network to promote cooperation and exchange of information; help with MCS capacity building; and gives it “wiggle room” to develop it in line with the needs of MCS practitioners.

The powerful reach of the network is expanded by working with organisations such as FAO, Interpol, by promoting exchanges of information, coordinating training activities, brokering exchanges of MCS equipment, promoting exchanges of expertise between countries, and organise workshops such as the GFETW.

“In my view the network remains increasingly relevant and should be developed by members as they wish it to be. We have to continue to search for new ways to capitalize better on our key asset which is the expertise and knowledge of the MCS practitioners,” said Ralph.

“It is indisputable that the network is bringing together, at the global level, the best knowledge and expertise in the world of fisheries enforcement. At this workshop, we hope to develop a process to capture and archive the high level risks inherent in IUU activities.”

During the week, participants will be shown all the charges that are outstanding. As well as recent successes in combating IUU.

One of the reasons for people like Ralph to be more optimistic today than say decades ago is that “the main drivers for change in the fisheries sector are: the work of the international community in particular through the FAO-COFI in establishing ever more clear and comprehensive international rules.

“International cooperation remains the key to finding solutions to IUU issues. No single state can resolve the problem by themselves and no country is without sins in this field.”

Pacific officials join global tactics workshop on illegal fishing

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‘Hurricane’ Winston – we’re lucky catastrophe didn’t strike Suva

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 7, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Dr Sushil K Sharma in Suva

The term “Hurricane Winston” can be used instead of Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston for brevity similar to the common references in the past, for example, Hurricane Bebe in 1972. For one thing the term “Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston” is a mouthful and too long for people in the media and the general public to use on a day-to-day basis.

Hurricane Winston is more apt despite being short. The term clearly suggests that Winston attained hurricane force winds.

All systems in our region are not only tropical origin but also cyclonic in nature, meaning winds rotate in a clockwise manner around the centre of the system.

Severe does not necessarily give the general public any understanding of its true strength but once the term “hurricane” is used, it is understood clearly that the system is of the top-notch category with sustained winds of 10-minute average of 64 knots or over.

The momentary gusts – wind gusts lasting for a few seconds or minutes — can be estimated by adding 50 per cent of the 10-minute average sustained winds to arrive at the damaging gust value. Thus if the forecast was for 220 knots for Hurricane Winston, the damaging momentary gusts would be 220 knots plus 110 knots (50 percent of 220 knots) to arrive at the estimated top strength of the gusts, which in this case would be 330 knots.

It should be noted that wind speeds fluctuate like a sine-wave with differing amplitude and frequency in very short 10-minute periods, as you may have noted during Hurricane Winston. Thus in an average 220 knots speed hurricane, you would expect winds to fluctuate between 110 knots and 330 knots.

Many people may question building standards by just looking at the extent and arial variation of damage in a region. This is an unfair comparison as the winds are very different from one house to the other in a region depending on the exposure and wind channelling between hills, mountains, trees, small breakers like trees and buildings.

Media talk of building standards
Further, we note that people in the media always talk about building standards during these events, as if by looking at the destruction to buildings they can correctly assess the situation. They always wrongly assume that each house was faced with the same velocity (wind speed and direction) force.

They hardly ever comprehend that winds change direction and hit localities from more than one direction, as Hurricane Winston showed, hitting some homes from the southerly direction first and then turning westerly after an hour and finally becoming easterly at full hurricane speed.

The airflow during a cyclone is very turbulent and dynamic in nature. Apart from plane horizontal winds that the general public think of, during Hurricane Winston or any other similar systems, there would be very strong downdrafts — that is vertically downward flow hitting the earth from the upper atmosphere around the central regions of the hurricane. There would also be severe vertically upward wind flow out and away from the central regions of the system.

It should also be noted that at the same time the cyclone is moving away horizontally on the surface of the earth. Thus apart from the revolving horizontal cyclonic winds, we also have upward and downward — that is both vertical and horizontal wind motions simultaneously in the atmosphere in a three dimensional manner.

Talk of building standards for a system such as Hurricane Winston is sheer nonsense. No developing nation in the Pacific can adequately cover for and take precautions in their buildings for 330 knots winds.

Winds of this type have enough momentum to uproot entire buildings structures and flatten concrete walls of any type. The three dimensional nature of the varying forces applied to structures both inside and outside the walls of buildings, with winds changing directions to loosen them from all sides during the passage of these systems, should also be considered.

The speed of passage of a tropical cyclone across a nation, region or small geographical area is also responsible for the extent of damage. Hurricane Winston was a very fast moving system, which meant that the extent of damage was very limited.

Slower systems
Often systems take two to three times more time moving only at 3-8 knots speed compounding geometrically the damage as structures weaken in real time. Weaker winds are able to do more damage as the system lingers in an area.

Hurricane Winston was also a very small diameter-system which meant that the area of damage was very limited.

Of note, and one thing that people almost always forget is that the air pressure is very low indeed in the central regions of the cyclones. Unlike what people believe, the system as it was moving over the sea, would have uneven sea levels — with the sea elevated 20-30 metres in the central regions of the system.

As Hurricane Winston was moving, making landfall, the water levels would suddenly rise over the island in the ocean or coastal region 20-30 metres suddenly. Storm surge damage is a major issue in systems such Hurricane Winston where cyclones often wipe out entire coastal regions.

Fiji should thank God, as from my own analysis, the nation was spared from a major catastrophe. The system was headed right for the Capital City, where it would have wreaked havoc, with deaths in many thousands with the city almost wiped out from the map of the nation with its 330 knots gusting winds. We were spared as the system passed over less populated regions and the fact that the eye of the centre appears to have been away at sea, with minimal or no storm surge damage.

God definitely was on Fiji’s side. For a scientist like me who has spent his entire life in this field, I can categorically say that people need to be more positive as we were saved from a major carnage and destruction. The tragic scenario envisaged did not eventuate, though every single death or damage is not small.

We have just seen nature at full play with Hurricane Winston. As a community we have to learn to respect nature and adapt to live with it.

We cannot fight nature or any act of God.

Dr Sushil K Sharma is an associate professor of meteorology in Fiji.This article was first published in The Fiji Times

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Pacific officials join global tactics workshop to combat illegal fishing

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 7, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Fatu Tauafiafi in Auckland

A large contingent of Pacific island country officials will be among delegates from 60 countries meeting in Auckland today to discuss latest tactics to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing across the globe.

The 5th Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop (GFETW) will align to the theme: “Working together to combat IUU fishing to ensure the sustainability of world fish stocks.”

Hosted by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the International Monitoring Control and Surveillance (MCS) Network, it is an opportunity for nations to update each other on the latest techniques and technologies and to strengthen the communication ties that makes the MCS network successful.

The International MCS Network focuses in particular on enhancing cooperation with developing countries, and at the 4th GFETW held in Costa Rica 2014, several presentations pointed to the need to deploy additional efforts in developing countries in order to strengthen their capacities to implement effectively internationally agreed measures. These efforts were urged to address governance, legislation and technical capacities (means and skills).

MPI spokesperson Dean Baigent said global co-operation means there was increasingly nowhere to hide for boats and crews that deliberately plunder high seas fisheries.

“We have a successful network where nations share information gathered from satellite monitoring, aerial surveillance, catch data and vessel inspections that targets illegal operators and makes it very difficult to profit from IUU fishing.”

Obvious host
Baigent plugged New Zealand as the obvious country to host the global workshop.

“We are responsible for managing the world’s fourth largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and are an active participant in monitoring and patrolling the toothfish fishery in the Southern Ocean and the tuna fishery in the southwest Pacific Ocean.”

Niue’s MCS Officer Launoa Gataua certainly hopes the meeting will deliver on its objective as Niue desperately needs help for the monitoring, control and surveillance of its 360,000 sq km fishery.

Niue had only recently re-opened its waters for fishing in June 2013 and so far licensed seven vessels with the hope that its cap of 10 will be reached in the near future.

However, they are aware that a lot of their fishery income is hemorrhaging through illegal, unreported and unregulated fishers. And they are powerless to do anything about it at the moment.

Niue is one of three Pacific island countries without a patrol boat but that is not usually a big problem because it has a constitutional arrangement with New Zealand to provide surveillance for its EEZ. But for the whole of 2015, that service did not happen as New Zealand assets were diverted elsewhere.

‘Pretty much blind’
“Last year alone we had no surveillance patrol done for our EEZ except for a chance visit by a French patrol boat which was very welcome. But that apart we are pretty much blind,” Gataua said.

“We do know there’s a lot of IUU going on in our EEZ. An estimate of how much that loss of income is to Niue would probably be on the low side.”

He explained that they get regular reports from visiting yachts on their way from the Cook Islands. Reports which they [Niue’s fisheries division] are not picking up through the Automatic Identification System (AIS) or the regional Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) run by the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA).

“To me that’s an indication of IUU fishing,” he said. “Each of those ships sighted is lost income to Niue.

“But what else can we do? It’s too hard for us to monitor the area.”

Gataua is attending the 5th Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop and is hopeful the next five days will provide options and help for Niue’s situation. Help that would have significant impacts to Niue’s economy. With its GDP, a meager $28.5million, any increase from its fishery revenue would be a massive boost considering that tourism, is the biggest earner at just under $6million.

“If we can reduce the IUU going on in our EEZ, it’s quite feasible that our fisheries revenue will rival that of our tourism sector.”

He points enviously towards their smaller neighbor Tokelau, whose 2015 fisheries revenue topped $12.5million, as to what is possible.

The Future of Fisheries Roadmap

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Academics, African leaders, youth call on police to apologise

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 6, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Anna Majavu

Prominent Auckland academics and community leaders have called on the New Zealand police to formally apologise for “rubbishing” new research alleging that police are racially harassing and assaulting African youth.

The two-year research project was led by Auckland University of Technology associate professor in social sciences, Dr Camille Nakhid.

Last week, New Zealand police issued a press statement claiming that the research was nothing more than “unsubstantiated claims from anonymised individuals” made online.

Yesterday, at the official launch of the research in Mount Roskill, Auckland, about 400 people called on the police to acknowledge that the research was credible and legitimate.

AUT associate professor of public policy, Love Chile, said the police had been “completely dismissive”.

“This research went through a stringent ethics approval. We are demanding an apology”, said Dr Chile.

Dr Chile called on police to issue everyone they stopped with a leaflet advising them of their human rights, similar to those displayed in hospitals.

‘Tip of the iceberg’
“The issue of racism within the police is fundamental. We may deny it but what we are seeing in this report is only the tip of the iceberg. Insidious racism has to be addressed” said Dr Chile.

Noah Ghebremichael, vice-president of the African Communities Forum Inc. (Acofi), also called on the police to retract their claims that the research was unsubstantiated.

A young Somali woman asks a question at the African Youth Forum yesterday called to respond to a research report alleging NZ police are racially profiling young Africans. The tall man in the rear of the picture is Guled Mire, one of the organisers of the forum. Image: Del Abcede/PMC — A young Somali woman asks a question at the African Youth Forum yesterday, called to respond to a research report alleging NZ police are racially profiling young Africans. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

Presenting the report, co-researcher Kizito Essuman said it was very unfair that the positive relationship African youth organisations had tried to foster with the police did not seem to positively influence the culture of policing on the streets.

Dr Nakhid emphasised that the alleged police abuses were not isolated incidents.

“It is not one or two police. It is a police culture” said Dr Nakhid.

The police abuses of African youth had far reaching effects – the African community in general did not trust the police and so even when they were victims of crime, they did not always call the police, Dr Nakhid said.

Māori activists at the meeting welcomed the new research, pointing out that Māori were the original victims of police racism.

‘Country based on racism’
“This country is based on racism. If you stand up now, maybe you can stop the mass incarceration of African youth” said one speaker.

The police have said they will not take action based on the research unless individual participants (whose identities were protected in the report) come forward and lay complaints.

This was rejected by the audience at the meeting with one speaker saying that the Independent Police Conduct Authority of New Zealand was not “independent” at all, but was “80 percent police investigating police”.

Dr Nakhid said instead of arguing about why African youth did not come to police after being abused by other police, the police could solve the problem by ending their mistreatment of African youth.

Members of the audience also rejected the notion that the arrests and alleged abuses of African youth may have come about because of “unconscious bias” on the part of the police.

With “prisons full of Māori and Pacific Islanders, that is a bit more than unconscious bias” said criminologist Dr John Buttle of AUT, while another speaker said Muslim youth were also racially profiled by the police.

The police, represented at the meeting by Senior Sergeant Joe Tipene, the police Māori Responsiveness Adviser, would not commit to apologising for their dismissal of the report and maintained that “the full details of everything that has been said” should be brought to them.

Anna Majavu is an independent journalist and a former contributing editor on the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project.

Photo gallery at the forum by Del Abcede

Africa On My Sleeve website

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High risks for Fiji divers in Pacific documentary ‘disturbing’

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 6, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

Trailer for Le Salaire des Profondeur, a deeply disturbing New Caledonian film about the fate of Fijian fishermen diving for sea cucumbers.

By Christina Milligan in Pape’ete

The 13th Festival International du Film Documentaire Océanien (Pacific International Documentary Festival) was held recently in Tahiti, attended by filmmakers from throughout the Pacific.

FIFO, as it is known, is an important event for bringing attention to Pacific films which sometimes struggle for attention outside their home territories.

An outstanding example this year was the film Le Salaire des Profondeurs, a film from New Caledonian filmmakers Dominique Roberjot and Christine Della-Maggiora. This film explores the fate of Fijian fisherman diving for sea cucumbers in an illegal, unregulated environment which exposes many of them to injury, even death.

It is a deeply disturbing, politically challenging story which deserves a wider audience.

The festival screens a small number of films in competition, with a much wider selection of features and shorts screened outside competition. Prizes are awarded by an international jury, which this year was headed by Abderrahmane Sissako, the Mauritanian director who expressed his deep appreciation for the work that FIFO does, and the connections that he felt between the indigenous people of the Sahara and of the Pacific.

Jury prizes were awarded this year to the New Zealand films The Ground We Won and The Price of Peace, and to the NZ-Tahitian co-production Tupaia. Honourable mention was made of Le Salaire des Profondeurs.

And the audience prize, awarded by public vote, went to the New Zealand film Hip Hoperation.

A compilation of trailers for the 11 films entered in this year’s FIFO in Tahiti.

The Grand Prize was awarded to Another Country, directed by Australian Molly Reynolds. This film follows the great Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil back to his home territory and is a searing indictment of the damage done to the Aboriginal people by colonisation.

Co-creator and chair of FIFO, Wallès Kotra, has commented that the festival is “at least as popular with grandmothers as with the young” and visiting filmmakers find this engagement by the people of Tahiti one of the truly charming aspects of this festival.

As New Zealand filmmaker Lala Rolls comments: “These stories are Pacific stories that it is right to share in our own neighbourhood. They help reflect on and build the Pacific community, often with shared heritage, cultural similarities and values.”

Christina Milligan is a film director and producer, and is also a lecturer in documentary making and screen writing at Auckland University of Technology. She was co-producer of The Price of Peace, one of the jury prize-winners at FIFO this year.

FIFO 2016 – the 13th Pacific International Documentary Film Festival

New documentary gives fresh side to Tame Iti story

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Bougainville faces mental health issues legacy from the civil war

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 6, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

Edited extracts from a report by the Health Medicine Network published on PNG Attitude.

Estimates of the number of war deaths attributable to the Bougainville civil war vary considerably, but a figure of between 15,000 and 20,000 appears to be most widely accepted in Bougainville.

Most deaths involved civilians.

Other events relevant to mental health were the displacement of more than half of Bougainville’s population; the perpetration of wide-scale human rights abuses; undermining of the traditional authority of elders and women, cultural values and relationships; property damage; and major disruptions to education and the economy.

Absence of epidemiological data, with the exception of information regarding domestic violence and sexual assault limits the extent to which the prevalence of the problems identified can be specified.

Nevertheless, Beleh (a local politician) and Sr Garasu (a Catholic Nun) reported that they had identified 232 ex-combatants as manifesting one or more mental health problems arising from the conflict in one of Bougainville’s 33 political constituencies.

Those who were children or adolescents during the war (“the lost generation”) were reported as having limited education, a lack of engagement in traditional values and activities and displaying aberrant behaviours all of which contribute to their marginalisation in the community.

Many of this group experienced events during the war likely to have been traumatic and, while the numbers who continue to be impacted by these experiences is yet to be determined, an expatriate Marist Brother teacher/counsellor noted that most of 50 male students he taught had been involved in combat and appeared to be suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Substance abuse
Various reports, largely based on community perceptions, have highlighted the detrimental effects of the conflict on subsequent risk of substance abuse.

Gender-based violence, including sexual violence, is considered a significant issue in Bougainville and thought to continue at a higher rate compared to that prior to the war.

The number of people missing presumed to have died during the war is unknown, but the inability to conduct customary burial ceremonies was reported as resulting in complicated grief for the surviving relatives and as having broader impacts, including land title and use issues.

Meetings with senior police personnel highlighted the difficulties the police force experience in carrying out their duties among a community impacted by the war and its aftermath and by some officers who continue to be impacted by their personal war experiences.

People continue to be displaced since the war and family separation, separation from traditional land, insecure living circumstances and the strain on host communities/families were reported as continuing impacts.

Finally, our informants reported a trans-generational impact on those born after the war through their exposure to a range of trauma-related aberrant behaviours displayed by parents and within the community at large.

Collectively, the mental health issues identified were described as having a broad impact on the social fabric of Bougainville society and, indirectly, on economic recovery.

Broad consensus
There was a broad consensus concerning the priority need to address mental health issues to reduce the distress experienced by individuals and the burden of associated disturbed behaviours on families, community, health services, the police, the judiciary and educational institutions.

The overarching view of our informants was that addressing mental health issues, particularly trauma related aberrant behaviours, had the potential to: assist in healing relationships damaged during and since the conflict; support efforts to maintain and enhance the peace process; and encourage the re-engagement of those affected in purposeful and productive family, community and economic activity.

It was recognised that, in addition to the need for mental health and psycho-social services, traditional reconciliation ceremonies in which perpetrators compensate victims might play a complementary role in achieving healing for sides of the conflict.

While a range of government and non-government services, agencies and groups are confronted by mental health issues in their daily work, only a few agencies are specifically focused on assisting people with these problems.

Two such agencies are the Nazareth Centre, which provides refuge for women and other survivors of family violence, youth who have substance abuse issues and treatment for former combatants; and the Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency, which provides counselling and referral related to gender based violence, trauma-related awareness raising programs and training for community based organisations.

In addition to the limited number of trained staff to address mental health issues across Bougainville, there are minimal resources to attend to people with severe mental disorders including those with psychotic disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychotic disorders), neuropsychiatric conditions/brain disorders, severe mood disorders and chronic traumatic stress disorders that are typically found in low-income, post-conflict settings.

At the time of writing, there is only one mental health nurse for the total Bougainville population of 254,000. Patients referred to the national hospital are assessed and treated by the mental health nurse supported by hospital physicians, noting that the hospital is distant from and difficult to access from many areas of Bougainville.

Limited options
The only options for care for the more severely disturbed patients referred to the hospital are short-term accommodation in a centre designed principally to provide refuge for women experiencing domestic violence; being held in police cells with criminal offenders; or being transported by air (with medical and police escort) to the national capital, Port Moresby, for specialist treatment.

The inadequacies of the system add credence to observer reports that the mentally ill are at risk of neglect (and in some cases abuse) throughout Bougainville.

This brief overview indicates that while key individuals and agencies have worked valiantly over many years to address mental health and psycho-social issues, it is evident that the capacity within Bougainville to address them is severely limited relative to the demand.

On the positive side, important facilitating factors were made evident. A clear recognition of the need to address mental health was identified throughout the consultation process as was a strong interest in building Bougainville’s capacity to address these needs and the government’s interest in developing the necessary supportive policy and legislative framework.

This report was originally published in Keith Jackson’s PNG Attitude blog.

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Samoa now ‘one party state’, Tuilaepa crushes Tautua opposition

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 6, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi has achieved another first for his country.

As of early today, he has become the first leader of the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) to lead the party to a complete demolition of the Opposition in the General Elections.

Only two members of the Tautua Samoa Party survived the HRPP onslaught, giving Tuilaepa’s party nearly all the seats in Parliament.

The unofficial count stands at 47 to the HRPP and 2 to the Tautua Samoa Party. The only remaining Tautua MP is deputy leader, Aeau Dr Peniamina. He is joined by new MP, Ili Setefano Ta’ateo.

Three of more than 20 women candidates won seats with Fiame Naomi Mata’afa making up four women in Parliament. It means one more woman will be added, taking the number of seats in Parliament to 50.

In his victory speech last night, Tuilaepa was one proud leader.

“As leader, and on behalf of the Human Rights Protection Party, I would like to extend my gratitude to all of Samoa for the support, and the overwhelming vote of confidence in our vision for this country,” he said in a statement issued by his office.

‘Not easy journey’
“I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge and commend the leadership of the Opposition, the Tautua Party. This has not been an easy journey, and I congratulate you for the commitment and effort to representing your constituency and your party with such dedication.”

Interestingly, while the HRPP secured the majority of seats, most of them will be filled by new members. Among the casualties are Cabinet Ministers and some long serving MPs.

“My sympathy goes out to the Members of Parliament, especially the Cabinet Ministers who have been unsuccessful in retaining their seats,” Tuilaepa said.

“They deserve our thanks for their commitment and hard work to meet the needs of their constituents, as well as fulfilling their duties and service as Cabinet Ministers.

“But that is the nature of elections. You can only do your best, and hope that voters will choose you again. But as we see time and again, it’s often unpredictable.

“Looking at the results, about half of Parliament’s seats are going to change. This is democracy at work.”

Tuilaepa said the support shown for the HRPP proves that the country trusted their leadership.

‘Many developments’
“HRPP has been leading Samoa for a very long time and there are many developments done during that time. The country is mindful of it.”

The Prime Minister said he knew the results way before they were announced.

The HRPP will hold its ava ceremony today to greet and congratulate all the winners. The special voting booths will also be counted today.

All the attention will now turn to the make up of the HRPP leadership, especially in terms of who will become the Deputy Prime Minister.

Lanuola Tupufia and Sarafina Sanerivi are journalists with the Samoa Observer covering the general election.

HRPP heading for landslide win in Samoan election

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HRRP heading for landslide win in Samoan election

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 5, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Mataeliga Pio Sioa in Apia

The numbers are favouring a landslide win for the ruling Human Rights Protection Party in the Samoan general election with 21 or 43 percent of the 49 seats in Parliament already assured in provisional results today.

A Newsline analysis of the election in the remaining 28 constituencies left to be contested on polling day, may see the HRPP claim a further 21 seats for an overall tally of 42 seats or 86 percent.

The final tally, however, will depend on how the allocation is made of the five seats assured for women in Parliament .

The Minister of Justice, Fiame Naomi Mataafa is already in, so that leaves 4 seats to be decided either by outright win in the constituencies, or on the count of the highest votes won.

The opposition Tautua Samoa Party has only 9 current sitting members in the running to retain their seats.

Party leader Palusalue Fa’apo II is locked up in a tight three-way battle for the Safata West constituency with the Minister of Works, Manu’alesagalala Enokati.

MP Lefau Harry Schuster has two HRPP candidates coming after his Vaimauga i Sisifo Tautua seat.

Fierce challenge
HRPP candidate Faaolesa Katopau Ainuu is mounting a fierce challenge to win the seat away from the Tautua incumbent.

Faleata Sasa’e MP Aveau Niko Palamo is the lone Tautua trying to fight off the challenge to his seat by three other candidates, all bearing the HRPP banner.

A’ana Alofi No. 3 Constituency is a Tautua seat firmly in the hands of Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster. But he has two HRPP candidates gunning for his place.

The Tautua current sitting MPs in Savai’i are clinging to the constituencies of Fa’asaleleaga No.2, Vaisigano No. 2, Falealupo, Salega East and Salega West.

Fa’asaleleaga No.2 MP Papali’i Taeu Masipau is flanked on both sides by two HRPP candidates.

Motuopua’a Aisoli Vaai, is brush off for the third consecutive time the designs of his lone opponent, and HRPP candidate, Tapusatele Mauteni Esera.

The Tautua deputy leader, Aeau Peniamina, is squared up once again against the same two HRPP candidates who were after his Falealupo seat in 2011.

The two seats for Salega East and Salega West are held respectively by Tapuai Toese Ah Sam and Afualo Wood Salele.

Tapuai is up again two HRPP candidates and his former Tautua party colleague but now running as an Independent, Levaopolo Talatonu, who has assumed a new title, Olo Fiti Vaai.

Tautua Samoa registered 24
The Tautua Samoa officially registered 24 candidates for the general elections, including two who were disqualified in court.

The HRPP assured seats include the unopposed seats won in court by the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Justice Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa and Aleipata Itupa I Luga current sitting member, Amituanai Fagaivalu Samu.

The court upheld candidate challenges they brought against their respective election opponents.

The Minister of State Enterprises, Lautafi Lafi Purcell, was registered as an unopposed candidate for his Satupaitea Constituency.

The HRPP assured seats are where the only candidates in each of the constituencies are running under the party banner.

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Fiji’s ruined houses need better building in wake of Winston

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 5, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

Day 9 – Alex Perrottet reporting on Skype on Monday from Vanua Balavu for RNZ’s Checkpoint

By Alex Perrottet of Radio New Zealand International

Around half of Fiji’s houses will have to be rebuilt after the devastation caused by Cyclone Winston, damage assessors say.

In the worst-hit areas, villages have been destroyed, and tens of thousands of people are still in evacuation centres as they wait for long term shelters to be set up.

Teams of builders and engineers say they will submit reports saying many ruined houses were simply not built to standard.

In the Lau Group, just off the coast of Vanua Balavu, the Fiji government ship MV Cagivou carried aid and damage assessment teams representing almost every ministry, from energy to education.

A supply boat from New Zealand’s multi-role HMNZS Wellington also arrived with a load of 10-litre water containers.

Lieutenant Leroy Judge, the man in charge of the initial deployment, said the Wellington had a desalination plant “so it can keep producing as much water really as required until it essentially runs out of diesel.”

The day before it had produced about 3000 litres and that day it gave some 2000 litres to the closer islands.

The Cagivou was running late. Crew members started to fill containers from the ship’s own water tank but the browner shade was a sign it would need to be boiled, and the message was sent out to the island.

Rebulding in Fiji after Cyclone Winston. Image: Alex Perrrottet/Radio NZI

Destroyed homes
Lomaloma school had become the military post. Out front, the almost compulsory game of one-touch football was underway.

But next door, in Lomaloma village, no one was playing football. People were cutting up dead trees and burning them along with ruined possessions.

Titoka Nakavulevu, the turanga ni koro (chief), explained that 52 of the village’s 60 houses had been destroyed.

Hundreds of tents were at the command post, and Titoka Nakavulevu was grateful they had arrived – but they had not quite been dispatched to the villagers yet.

Jesse Delailomaloma has set up a tiny tarpaulin on a small slab so his wife and grandson can sleep above the ground. Next to it is a pile of wood and tin that used to be their house.

He was waiting for the tent supplies and was not sure when they would get them. However, the first thing he needed was his house.

“Never mind the food or what, just the house to cover me from the sun and the rain.”

A village on Vanua Balavu Photo: Neil Covert — A destroyed village on Vanua Balavu. Image: Neil Covert

‘Six months to two years’ in tents
Commander Humphrey Tawake is in charge of the mission and said there was a reason for the delay.

“That was supposed to be done yesterday but we had a bit of difficulties,” he said.

“All the vehicles here are privately owned, so you have to have some sort of understanding.

“They pay for their own fuel and we have to make some sort of arrangements that is a balanced approach so that they get their money’s worth and the assistance is given. Having said that, those will be gone by this morning.”

But the commander said they would not be enough. He needed more than 800, immediately, and they had to be good enough to house people until their homes were rebuilt.

“The tarpaulins are not good enough, because the houses I’ve seen here, we need tents that will accommodate from six [months] to two years. People can live in them, because some of the reconstruction material and some of the tarpaulins won’t last.”

Building techniques exposed
Savenaca Volau is an elderly man who crawled with his wife under the floorboards after half his house was ripped away by the storm and the furniture was blown out.

He argued Fijians would be better off building their traditional bures, made from coconut palms and bamboo, as most people died from corrugated iron and glass cuts or crushing concrete.

“The young people now, they don’t know how to do that kind of Fijian roof. Only the people, those old people, but we people. I can make it, I can make the thatch.”

Mr Volau agreed it was important to teach the next generation how to build the thatches.

“But this people here, the new generation, they don’t like the old one, I don’t know why.”

Engineers on board the Cagivou said they had seen multiple building errors in the ruined houses. Incorrect strapping methods and cost-cutting short cuts in the foundations were evident on the islands, far away from from the scope of government regulators.

The chief, Titoka Nakavulevu, saw the whole experience as having served as a lesson.

“It really teach us to safe, to build a proper house preparing for the hurricane, for the long term, for our families.”

Titoka said he would take his lead from the government, and the engineers agreed. They said the government needed to put out rebuild tenders to private companies who could bear the burden of compliance.

HMNZS Wellington being loaded with aid in Fiji post-Cyclone Winston. Image: NZ Defence Force

Unprecedented cyclone
But everyone agreed with Commander Tawake that this cyclone was unprecedented.

“You have storm surge, you had the cyclone and the wind, then you have … tornadoes.”

“Prior to that, for a couple of days we were having tremors, earthquake tremors, and it was like they were swimming in a swimming pool with tornadoes flying, roofing irons flying everywhere.”

He felt that with that combination the traditional bure would not survive.

“And the one thing that we must be, that we are, thankful of is that those who lost their lives [were not as many] as we would have expected with the level of devastation that is here.”

Commander Tawake said whatever the building style, it had to meet standards and be kept small. Bigger houses with greater surface area were more vulnerable to strong winds.

He said that at least 50 percent of Fiji had to be rebuilt, house by house, and that was going to take some time to finish.

Alex Perrottet, a reporter of Radio NZ International, has spent the past two weeks in Fiji reporting on the aftermath of TC Winston, often venturing to the most devastated remote parts of the country. He is a former Pacific Media Watch contributing editor at the AUT Pacific Media Centre and a Masters in Communication Studies graduate.

More Alex Perrottet stories

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Selwyn Manning Editorial: Mouths Firmly Shut – Is A Cover-up In Play?

By Selwyn Manning -

March 4, 2016

[caption id="attachment_183" align="alignleft" width="150"] Selwyn Manning, editor.[/caption] Editorial by Selwyn Manning. Respected New Zealand Herald journalist Phil Taylor’s reportage this week has again raised concerns about poor Government transparency. I also spoke on the issues raised in Phil Taylor’s report, on Radio New Zealand’s The Panel with Jim Mora.

Phil Taylor’s latest report (in what is shaping up to be a series) is titled ‘Witness said no to video link‘. It is about the New Zealand Defence Force and its attempt to avoid paying damages to a journalist, Jon Stephenson, who claimed it defamed him after [caption id="attachment_7548" align="alignright" width="150"]

Metro – Eyes Wide Shut, May 2011.[/caption] his Metro magazine expose titled Eyes Wide Shut was published. The Herald began digging in to this issue after the National-led Government was forced by the Court to pay Jon Stephenson an undisclosed sum. The settlement came with conditions where both parties were not to discuss the proportioned values of that settlement. It is important to point out, those conditions do not prevent the Government from facing up to its public interest responsibilities, to enquire and speak out on what went on up in Afghanistan and why it attempted to shut this issue down through shoot-the-messenger tactics. Phil Taylor’s reportage shows the stonewalling continues and details how:

1) The Government spent $1 million on failing to defend itself after it apparently defamed journalist Jon Stephenson, after he exposed potential breaches of international law by New Zealand Defence personnel in Afghanistan.

2) The Government’s star witness, an Afghani security unit commander, refused to testify via video link from Afghanistan, but insisted he be brought to New Zealand.

3) Once here, the commander’s testimony was found to be untrue.

4) Despite this he was left to wander off around New Zealand without supervision.

5) He failed to take his return flight to Afghanistan, but has since claimed asylum and is seeking to stay here permanently.

When the Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee was asked by Phil Taylor:

Would there be an inquiry into whether or not the commander committed perjury, and whether the Defence Force was gamed?

Gerry Brownlee answered “no”. Frankly, such a response fails to serve the public interest, and leaves one wondering: what has the Government got to hide. This is serious stuff. The public deserves to know:

1) What really happened up there in Afghanistan

2) Why the Government appears to be shying away from revealing the facts and context of this affair

3) Why it appears the NZ Defence Force permitted its Afghani commander witness to wander off without supervision, especially after he may have committed perjury

4) And ultimately, who is possibly culpable or entangled in what may have been a significant breach of international law during the time New Zealand Defence personnel were operational in Afghanistan.

This sordid affair underscores how, under recent governments, how difficult it is to advance or compel our elected representatives to initiate a thorough formal inquiry on any matter that may be contrary to their political interests. Considering how this Government’s politicians appear determined to keep the facts hidden, in my view, it is now reasonable to question their motives. –]]>

Kurdish hacker attacks Fiji defence websites

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 4, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Allison Penjueli of Newswire Fiji

Websites belonging to the Republic of Fiji Military Force (RFMF), Fiji Police Force and the Immigration Department were today “defaced” apparently by a Kurdish hacker known for his anti-ISIS views.

In the attack, MuhmadEmad uploaded a picture of the Kurdish flag along with the words, “KurDish HaCkerS WaS Here” and “HaCKeD by MuhmadEmad, Long Live to peshmarga.” This was a reference to the Kurdish army of Peshmerga, which has been fighting to defend its homeland from the so-called Islamic State force based in Iraq.

Fiji police spokesperson Inspector Josaia Weicavu said the force was aware of the hack and was working to rectify it.

An RFMF spokesperson was unaware of the incident when contacted, but said he would look into the issue.

Director of Immigration Nemani Vuniwaqa also said he was unaware of the hack, but would look into it urgently.

MuhmadEmad has reportedly hacked numerous US and Turkey government websites over the past two years.

Website defacement:

Website defacement is an attack on a website that changes the visual appearance of the site or a webpage. These are typically the work of system crackers, who break into a web server and replace the hosted website with one of their own.

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Damage to Fiji’s water system repair costs will hit millions

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 4, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Peni Shute in Suva for Newswire

Water Authority of Fiji says it was well prepared before tropical cyclone Winston devastated areas around the country – but damage to water systems around the country will run into millions of dollars.

WAF chief executive officer Opetaia Ravai said in a press conference yesterday that investment in the F$4 million of Gensets generators helped to keep water supply consistent around the country during and after TC Winston.

Since the warning came when Tropical Cyclone Winston was approaching Fiji, our team — and we have a team of disaster risk committee here at WAF — started to mobilise and prepare for what was termed at that time a very big cyclone.

we now know that it was one of the biggest to hit the southern hemisphere.

Ravai said a lot of Fiji’s systems nationwide were affected.

“There are 227 pumping stations around the country and all these pumping stations require electricity and as you would know there was a huge damage to the electricity infrastructure and in the previous cyclones if you recall whenever there would be a cyclone people would be without water.

“This cyclone we were better prepared, we invested a lot in standby generators to the tune of $4 million and this year we will continue with that investment and other generators in key establishments so that when power outages do occur we can still supply water to the people of Fiji.”

Ravai thanked the wisdom of the board and management of WAF in investing in the Gensets to stand by for disasters like Winston.

He said WAF would continue to invest in generators so that in any situation consistent water supply was made available.

“And you would have experienced that in most of the towns and cities. We were able to do this because we had installed Gensets, had it not been for these Gensets, which were very big … and very expensive …

“For example, in Suva over 300,000 people would have been without water and that power was almost off for the week so you can imagine the inconvenience that would have caused and the amount of water carting we would have been going 24 hours 7 days a week and it would have been inconvenient to people.”

Running on Gensets
Ravai said water systems in the west from Tavua to Ba and Rakiraki were running on Gensets at the moment due to the delay in power restoration in the area because of the amount of damage that were caused to the power lines in Kings Road and the surrounding areas.

“There are just certain areas in the high areas of Tacirua, the high areas of Caubati, Khalsa road, Colo-i-Suva which are being supplied through trucks because of the power fluctuations that are happening now and again, causing our systems to depressurise.

“Then we have to recover again and that is why the high elevated areas will get affected the most.

A Water Authority of Fiji, plumber repairing a broken water pipe along Thurston Street in Suva yesterday. Source: Peni Shute / Newswire — A Water Authority of Fiji, plumber repairing a broken water pipe along Thurston Street in Suva yesterday. Image: Peni Shute/Newswire

Ravai said WAF had isolated the area and was servicing them through water carting with trucks.

About six water trucks were being used by WAF to cart water to the surrounding areas of South Taveuni.
“In the North, the biggest damage I think occurred in the south of Taveuni where the desalination plants were damaged by TC Winston and it was quiet sometime before we were able to get to the southern end of Taveuni because of the damage to the roads.

“But our people are now there on the ground and starting to repair the desalination plant of the south of Taveuni.

47 water trucks
Ravai said there were about 47 water trucks carting water nationwide to supplement water coming through pipes; Ravai said each truck costs the Water Authority $1000 a day to hire and so far had supplied 6.5 million litres of water.

A team was leaving for Vanua Balavu to assess the area this afternoon, Ravai said.

“The areas in the Lau Group in Vanua Balavu and Lakeba have recovered from what we’ve gathered so far but nevertheless our teams are going out there with the assistance of the Australian and New Zealand Navy to fully assess the system and start with some repairs.”

Ravai said WAF would be hiring more project workers next week to repair systems in the 233 villages in rural areas around the country that were on the path of TC Winston.

So far, WAF had restored water systems in 87 villages.

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Wanted: 2000 more spies in Indonesia, says BIN chief

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 4, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

Indonesia’s National Intelligence Agency (BIN) plans to spend Rp700 billion (US$54 million) to recruit more agents in response to concerns over personnel constraints, a lawmaker has said.

BIN currently has 3000 agents, which is considered insufficient to cover such a huge and problematic country.

“We need 2000 more spies,” House of Representatives member Tubagus Hasanuddin told reporters after the House’s budget hearing with the BIN chairman.

The additional BIN personnel are to be dispatched to provincial intelligence bureaus (Binda) in accordance to the threat level, population and size of the respective region.

The intelligence body would also try to improve the qualifications of its human resources through more training, Tubagus said.

“The agents’ capacity must be equal or even greater than the threat,” he asserted.

BIN chairman Sutiyoso has asked for extended powers to arrest suspected terrorists following the recent terrorist attack in the heart of Jakarta that left eight people dead.

BIN has been criticised for failing to prevent the attack, which has been attributed to the radical Islamic State group.

“The point is, we are asking for more authority to extract information from suspected terrorists and complete the investigation,” said Sutiyoso.

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‘Life and death’ climate action needed now after February heat spike

By Asia Pacific Report -

March 3, 2016

AsiaPacificReport.nz

The month of February has experienced a whopping temperature rise not seen before in the history of record-keeping, according to just-released global satellite data, claims Greenpeace.

Greenpeace executive director Russel Norman said temperatures around the planet — including in New Zealand — had experienced such a spike that the world would be “crazy” not to act immediately.

“Based on the data that’s just been put out it’s pretty clear that February has obliterated our previous record-setting month. It’s completely unusual, even taking El Niño into consideration,” he said.

“Doing something about this right away is a matter of life and death. We can’t afford to muck around.

“Even the climate deniers, who ironically have used this very satellite data in the past to further their own agendas, have gone very quiet.”

Action here in New Zealand needed to start with calling it quits on any future oil exploration, said Norman.

But on the back of the #COP21 Paris Climate Conference in January, Prime Minister John Key said he had no intention of scaling back any search for fossil fuels.

Facing floods, droughts
“Key is doing less than bugger all when it comes to climate change. And this means we’re facing floods in our homes, and droughts on our farms. We need to make the call now that enough is enough,” said Norman.

“I think this will be the year of peaceful protest in New Zealand. We’ve seen it with the TPPA [Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement], and we’re going to see it with the oil industry. Next on the agenda is Greenpeace’s day of peaceful civil disobedience in three weeks at the annual petroleum conference at SkyCity.”

Last month, Greenpeace launched the campaign, pegged as an “an escalation of protest tactics”, and called on members of the public to take part in a co-ordinated demonstration of civil disobedience at the conference in Auckland on March 21.

“Everyone who is concerned about news like February’s overwhelming temperature record should come and join us at the oil conference. We need real climate action,” said Norman.

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