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Food prices fall 0.7 percent in February

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MIL OSI – Source: Statistics New Zealand – Food prices fall 0.7 percent in February In February 2015, food prices fell 0.7 percent, Statistics New Zealand said today. This follows a 1.3 percent rise in January and a 0.3 percent rise in December. “Lower prices for fruit, vegetables, and meat this month were partly countered by higher prices for sweets, energy drinks, and soft drinks,” prices manager Chris Pike said. In February, the fall in fruit and vegetable prices (down 2.4 percent) was influenced by seasonal price falls for both fruit (down 2.8 percent) and vegetables (down 2.1 percent). The main downward contributions came from apples and tomatoes, partly countered by higher prices for strawberries. Apple prices fell 23 percent from a peak in January, but are still 25 percent higher than a year earlier. New season apples arrived later than usual in January, and in smaller volumes, due to adverse weather conditions in spring. Lower prices for meat, poultry, and fish (down 1.6 percent) were influenced by lower prices for all types of meat, particularly lamb, beef, and chicken. Prices for beef and chicken peaked in January 2015 and December 2014 respectively. Grocery food prices fell 0.6 percent, with lower prices for snack foods, yoghurt, chocolate, and bread. These falls were partly countered by higher prices for sweets. The price of boxed chocolates (down 16 percent) falls every February, when Valentine’s Day occurs. Prices for non-alcoholic beverages rose 1.1 percent, reflecting less discounting on energy drinks, soft drinks, and packaged coffee.

Annual change in prices

In the year to February 2015, food prices increased 1.5 percent, following a 1.2 percent increase in the year to January 2015. Fruit and vegetable prices increased 11 percent. Prices were higher for lettuce, apples, potatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, and carrots, while prices for tomatoes were lower. Meat, poultry, and fish prices increased 3.1 percent, reflecting higher prices for beef (up 9.6 percent). Grocery food prices decreased 2.3 percent in the year to February, influenced by lower bread prices (down 12 percent). Supermarkets discounting some own-brand bread to about $1.00 from the second half of last year contributed to the lower bread prices. Prices for snack foods, butter, cheese, and chocolate also decreased, while fresh milk prices increased for the year. The food price index (FPI) measures the rate of price change of food and food services purchased by households. Statistics NZ visits shops across New Zealand to collect prices for the FPI and check package sizes. –]]>

Māori in Business report released

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MIL OSI –

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment MBIE – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Māori in Business report released

12 March 2015

The Māori in Business report was today released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, providing an analysis of Māori who run their own business, using data from the 2013 and 2006 Censuses of Population and Dwellings.

The key findings of the report show. 

  • Over 21,000 Māori run their own business.
  • Māori are half as likely to be self-employed as the total population.
  • Median incomes for self-emplopyed Māori are similar to those for all self-employed people, while there is a larger gap between the incomes of Māori employees and all employees.
  • More self-employed Māori worked in the service sector than in any other sector.
  • The self-employment rate amongst Māori differs by region.

Read the full Māori in Business Report on MBIE’s Labour Information website.

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SkyCity hole sucks up more taxpayer cash – Labour

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MIL OSI – Source: Labour Party – Press Release/Statement

Headline: SkyCity hole sucks up more taxpayer cash

More evidence that taxpayers are being ripped off by a Government playing fast and loose with their cash has been provided by Television New Zealand, the SOE caught up in the dodgy SkyCity deal, Labour Economic Development Spokesperson David Clark says.

“Questioned at the commerce select committee today TVNZ Chair Wayne Walden admitted he had conversations with Minister Craig Foss about the sale of TVNZ land to SkyCity.

“This was land designated for use as part of the proposed convention centre to be built on the adjoining site. Shortly after the long-sought land transfer, SkyCity announced its intention instead to build a five star hotel on the land.

“TVNZ Chief Executive Kevin Kendrick told the committee that a commercial valuation for the land had been sought, but appeared to concede that alternative uses such as the planned hotel had not been explicitly considered in the valuation.

“If the land was worth more as a site for a premium hotel, it is likely it would have attracted other commercial bidders, and the likelihood of a return to the taxpayer.

“Unfortunately, the taxpayer is unlikely ever to know how much of TVNZ’s foregone returns to taxpayers could have been offset by a proper market-driven sale process.

“The Board Chair’s satisfaction that they had extracted a sharp price from SkyCity’s deep taxpayer-assisted pockets seems odd in their current financial position. TVNZ chose not to put the property up for commercial sale. It looks like they handed it to SkyCity at the first price they were offered rather than seeking the best deal for taxpayers.

“This is either a story of poor commercial decision-making by New Zealand’s state-owned broadcaster, or the result of pressure applied by a hapless minister doing SkyCity’s bidding.

“Either way, once again, the taxpayer is left worse off,” David Clark said.

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Across The Ditch: Targeted Spying + EcoTerrorism Threat

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Across The Ditch with Selwyn Manning and South Australia’s Peter Godfrey – Recorded Live on 12/03/15.

    In this edition of Across The Ditch, Selwyn Manning and Peter Godfrey discuss how the latest Snowden Revelations show how New Zealand’s signals spies have been targeting diplomats and officials of the country’s close trading partners… at the behest of the United States. Also discussed, New Zealand reels after an ecoterrorism poisoning threat.
ITEM ONE: The Snowden Revelations investigation continues to be rolled out, and this week official United States intelligence documents show New Zealand’s signals spy base, the GCSB, has been used to conduct target surveillance operations against our main trading partners. Equipped with United States technology, our signals spies have been targeting diplomats and officials of China, Japan, South East Asian countries, India, Pakistan, Iran. The GCSB’s electronic surveillance has also targeted South American countries, Chile, Argentina, and as was revealed last week, most of the South East and west Pacific Islands states are also being targeted in a take-all collection operation, where all communications within those States is hoovered up, packaged, and packed off to the USA. France’s Pacific territories are also targeted. Until now, New Zealand has been considered the little finger in the Five Eyes Fist, an alliance of intelligence agencies made up of the USA, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. But the Snowden Revelations show the USA’s National Security Agency uses New Zealand’s spies to hack the cellphones and devices of, among others, ASEAN diplomats. Our spies hack into the hardware, infect the device with malware that sends data and communications made by the individual back to the GCSB. It is an extraordinary realisation that has security analysts like Dr Paul Buchanan worried for the impact on New Zealand’s national trade interests. Last night on EveningReport.nz Paul Buchanan said New Zealand’s trade diplomats will have a difficult job ahead of them, apologising for what their government is doing at the behest of the Americans. He said New Zealand can no longer straddle the divide with one foot in the USA’s camp on security intelligence, and the other foot planted deep inside South East Asia and China through its trade dependency. This issue, he believes is the tripwire that will see New Zealand injured. ITEM TWO: New Zealand is also being rocked by a ecoterrorism threat. This week the New Zealand Police, the Government’s primary industry wing, and the Prime Minister himself revealed how some three months ago a threat was made that if New Zealand continued to use 1080 poison to reduce the numbers of rats, possums, stoats, and weasels in our forests, then high grade 1080 would be used to contaminate agriculture giant Fonterra’s milk powder products. Since the threat was revealed on Tuesday, the New Zealand dollar dropped in value, and the country has been consumed with dread that China may cut our milk product exports. The government has given assurances that it is highly unlikely that the threat will be played out. But at the same time it is being cautious, tightening regulations of use of 1080 poison, and attempting to identify those involved with the threat. We understand, that the samples the government received from those threatening ecoterrorism, were of very high grade 1080, a potency beyond that normally used. That, could indicate a sophistication of intent beyond an attention seeking lone wolf. Across The Ditch broadcasts live on FiveAA Australia and webcasts on EveningReport.nz. –]]>

Evening Report Episode 2 Video on Demand: Paul Buchanan on the GCSB’s Targeted Ops

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Evening Report episode, 8pm, March 11, 2015, 36th Parallel Assessments‘ founder Dr Paul Buchanan joins us to analyse the latest Snowden Revelations that demonstrate how New Zealand’s GCSB has been active in targeted operations against our close trading partners. –]]>

1080 milk threat likely to be personal, not political – Massey Academics

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Key overplays hand and puts dairy trade at risk – Labour

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Headline: Key overplays hand and puts dairy trade at risk

Prime Minister John Key and Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy’s use of the term “eco terrorism” is unfortunate, Labour’s Primary Industries and Food Safety spokesperson Damien O’Connor says.

“It has already played into the hands of our international trade competitors after the phrase was repeated in overseas publications.

“John Key is overplaying what is effectively the work of an independent idiot and nutter.

“We cannot afford to have a Prime Minister and his junior playing fast and loose with words that could seriously undermine our $11 billion dairy export industry.

“Everyone hopes the Police will quickly resolve this situation so we can reassure our international trade partners that New Zealand continues to produce the highest quality and safest food in the world,” Damien O’Connor says.

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GDP figures show growth in all NZ regions

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Headline: GDP figures show growth in all NZ regions

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce today welcomed the latest regional gross domestic product (GDP) data release, which shows that all regional economies in New Zealand have grown in the last 12 months.

The GDP figures for 15 regions for the year ended March 2014 were released by Statistics New Zealand today, revealing a national increase of 6.7 per cent.

“Today’s nominal GDP data, combined with the Household Labour Force data last month showing employment growth of 80,000 jobs in the last year, paints a strong picture of a broad-based economic recovery,” Mr Joyce says.

“Strong sustainable economic growth is the only way to create more jobs and increase incomes.”

Several regions grew strongly above the national average, including Southland (11.0 percent), Canterbury (10.6 percent), Marlborough (10.3 percent), Waikato (10.1 percent) and Northland (7.8 percent).

The Auckland and Wellington regions had the smallest increases of 5.1 percent and 4.4 percent respectively.

“The strength of growth in some South Island regions, particularly Southland, Canterbury and Marlborough, is particularly notable,” Mr Joyce says. “In the North Island, the Waikato, Northland and Taranaki stand out.

“Overall, the South Island has experienced stronger growth than the North Island over the last five years. The South has grown 27 per cent while the North has grown 21 per cent in five years. That’s another signal, alongside lower unemployment rates, that there are significant job opportunities in the South Island.”

New Zealand’s total GDP was $229.7 billion for the year ended March 2014. The North Island contributed 76.6 percent to total GDP, compared with 23.4 percent from the South Island.

“The Government is continuing to focus on economic policies that encourage business investment right across New Zealand,” Mr Joyce says.

“It is only when businesses have the confidence to invest that we achieve the sort of job growth that we are now seeing in the New Zealand economy.”

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Live Video Analysis tonight 8pm on Evening Report – GCSB’s Targeted Ops

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Evening Report editor, Selwyn Manning. Evening Report editor, Selwyn Manning.[/caption]From The Editor’s Desk – March 11, 2015. Coming up tonight on Evening Report at 8pm: Evening Report (episode 2): Live Video Tonight at 8pm – We will be digging into the fallout of New Zealand GCSB operations targeting South East Asia countries, as exposed in the New Zealand Herald today by Nicky Hager and Ryan Gallagher. 36th Parallel Assessments founder Dr Paul Buchanan has confirmed availability and will examine the intelligence aspects, and, consider the national interest implications. What are the solutions should New Zealand need to clean up this geopolitical mess? We also hope to have Oliver Woods on (tbc), a Kiwi who is very knowledgeable on technology and such things and is based in South East Asia. So set your diary to EveningReport.nz 8pm. ALSO Early Edition of Evening Report: Live Video of Pacific Media Centre’s Climate Change – media ethics and Pacific challenges debate – Live on Evening Report 5-7pm tonight (click here). This event features Dr Jan Sinclair (Massey University) who began reporting on climate change in 1987; and Doctoral candidate and Kiribati Independent editor Taberannang Korauaba who knows what it is like to see his homeland disappearing beneath the Pacific waves. Analysis: We have a thought-provoking piece in from COHA’s Frederick B. Mills, who is a Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Philosophy at Bowie State University. He analyses how US President Barack Obama has declared “a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” See: Obama’s Hard Turn to the Right in Hemispheric Policy And we have full raw coverage of today’s big news items – including:

See you at 8pm – Selwyn Manning. –]]>

Live Video: Climate Change – Media Ethics and Pacific Challenges – Live 5-7pm Tonight

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Event date and time:  Wednesday, March 11, 2015 – 17:00 – 19:00 – Submitted by Dr David Robie (PMC)

[caption id="attachment_1170" align="alignleft" width="300"]A coastal freighter breaches a climate change seawall during a king tide at Tarawa, Kiribati. Image: Kiribati Independent and PMC. A coastal freighter breaches a climate change seawall during a king tide at Tarawa, Kiribati. Image: Kiribati Independent and PMC.[/caption]

PMC SEMINAR 1/15: ETHICAL REPORTING OF ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS: People are not receiving available information about expected risks and remedies as climate change escalates. People get most of their information about science from the media. Therefore, inadequate reporting of risks and remedies becomes a matter of journalistic ethics. 

A doctoral thesis by Dr Jan Sinclair showed that the news media have framed climate change as political but not physical, global therefore not local, and a problem for “others” but not for “us”. 

For example, recent news stories have warned that the US South West faces escalating drought problems in coming decades. This warning first surfaced in 1990, in the first report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

The New York Times mentioned these risks just three times between 1990-2007. News media in both developed and developing countries have focused on the solutions of emission reductions but have ignored the escalating risks to human health, environments and economies.

This failure to warn populations of likely dangers applies both to Pacific journalists, and journalists from developed countries.                                                                                       

The seminar will be introduced by PMC director Professor David Robie and will feature two main speakers:

Science communication specialist Dr Jan Sinclair (Massey University) began reporting on climate change in 1987.  Her PhD investigated why journalists ignored scientific warnings in favour of political controversies.

Doctoral candidate and Kiribati Independent editor Taberannang Korauaba (AUT University) who has recently conducted field work in Micronesia and will discuss climate change issues and the media especially from a Pacific perspective.

All welcome.

Venue: WG608, Sir Paul Reeves Building, AUT City Campus

When: 5-7pm

Organised by the AUT Pacific Media Centre

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Govt Introduces Extra Controls on 1080

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Government Headline: Extra controls on 1080 The Government has introduced tighter controls on high purity forms of 1080 in response to the criminal threat to use 1080 to contaminate infant and other formula, Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith announced today. “I am satisfied that the controls for 1080 in the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act are robust, but with this criminal threat we are putting in place extra controls,” Dr Smith says. High purity 1080 is highly toxic. It is mainly used for the manufacture of pest control baits, but small quantities are also used for research. “The current regulations have an exemption for research laboratory use, as is the case for dozens of similarly toxic substances. This threat justifies putting in place additional controls that will require tighter security of high purity 1080 in laboratories, tracking of the quantity of the poison stored and used, and requiring Environmental Protection Authority certification of importers of high purity 1080 into New Zealand,” Dr Smith says. “I have no information that the high purity 1080 sent with the letter containing the threat came from a research laboratory, but I want to take a precautionary approach to minimise the risk of the poison getting into criminal hands. “We have communicated with research laboratories known to use 1080 about the need for increased security prior to yesterday’s public announcement on the threat, and have had their full cooperation in tightening up security. The new regulations were approved by a special Executive Council yesterday, signed off by the Governor-General last night, and will be published in a special Gazette notice today to take effect immediately. “These regulatory changes make it unlawful for anybody to possess 1080 without the prior approval of the Environmental Protection Authority, including research laboratories. It will enable the Authority to better track the importation, distribution and use of high purity 1080, and ensure it is always securely contained.” The HSNO Act provides the Minister for the Environment with the ability to make urgent changes in the public interest without consultation. “The regulatory controls on the importation, distribution and use of 1080 are tight but no controls can be 100 per cent when people are threatening to take criminal action. These changes will make 1080 the most tightly regulated toxic substance in New Zealand,” Dr Smith concluded. –]]>

EPMU Says Govt Must Fix Solid Energy Mess

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“The Government has pushed Solid Energy to the brink with constant, unrealistic demands for returns, turning a blind eye to appalling management mishaps and governance failures,” says Ged O’Connell, EPMU assistant national secretary.

“Now they’re hinting that they’ll just make the problem go away, with the endorsement of the rightwing shell lobby group, the Taxpayers’ Union.

“That’s not what’s best for New Zealand.

“This isn’t just about miners. Many jobs rely on New Zealand coal mining. With our current technology, we need coal to smelt steel. Our railways and construction industry rely on coal mining.

“Closing down Solid Energy will not mean our industries stop using coal – it just means importing it from countries like China and Indonesia instead of here.

“New Zealand taxpayers would much rather see their money spent on real jobs supporting our communities, rather than shady casino deals and big payrises for Cabinet ministers.”

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Government must fix the mess it created at Solid Energy

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Headline: Government must fix the mess it created at Solid Energy

11 March, 2015

The Government must take responsibility for the role it has played in Solid Energy’s current financial crisis, and support the company which has returned $600 million to the country over the past decade.

“The Government has pushed Solid Energy to the brink with constant, unrealistic demands for returns, turning a blind eye to appalling management mishaps and governance failures,” says Ged O’Connell, EPMU assistant national secretary.

“Now they’re hinting that they’ll just make the problem go away, with the endorsement of the rightwing shell lobby group, the Taxpayers’ Union.

“That’s not what’s best for New Zealand.

“This isn’t just about miners. Many jobs rely on New Zealand coal mining. With our current technology, we need coal to smelt steel. Our railways and construction industry rely on coal mining.

“Closing down Solid Energy will not mean our industries stop using coal – it just means importing it from countries like China and Indonesia instead of here.

“New Zealand taxpayers would much rather see their money spent on real jobs supporting our communities, rather than shady casino deals and big payrises for Cabinet ministers.”

ENDS

For more information contact:

Ged O’Connell, EPMU assistant national secretary: 0275 328 152
Stephanie Rodgers, EPMU communications officer: 022 269 1170​

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MPI closes online fish black market

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Myanmar: Violent police crackdown against protesters must end – Amnesty Int

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Background Students in Myanmar have for months been protesting the newly adopted National Education Law, which they say curtails academic freedom. In January 2015, student groups from across the country began a series of peaceful marches towards Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. In February marches were suspended as the authorities and student leaders engaged in talks to amend the law. However, as talks broke down, student leaders attempted to resume the march on 3 March while police tried to prevent it – leading to the current standoff. —  ]]>

Mexico must face up and investigate widespread torture after scathing UN report

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Juan Mendez, lawyer and human rights activist, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. © Amnesty International. A new United Nations report detailing how torture is widespread among Mexico’s police and security forces must prompt the authorities to address this sickening practice once and for all, said Amnesty International. The report from Juan E. Méndez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, was presented to the UN Human Rights Council today. It outlines how officials in Mexico often fail to investigate the complaints of torture victims and forensic doctors working for the government often ignore signs of torture. “Police and soldiers have regularly turned to torture to punish or extract false confessions or information from detainees in its so-called War on Drugs. Frequently, victims are forced to sign declarations under torture and in many cases are convicted solely on the basis of those statements. When medical forensic examinations are practised, they usually fall short of international standards.” Amnesty International is calling for the government to ensure that forensic officials provide prompt, impartial and thorough examinations to anyone who alleges torture. It is also calling on the authorities to accept forensic reports by independent experts as valid evidence in court cases. “The investigations into allegations of torture in Mexico are riddled with flaws. Internationally agreed guidelines such as the Istanbul Protocol on how to investigate torture are routinely ignored and often victims have to wait months or years to be examined. Documenting torture is the first step to break the wall of impunity,” said Erika Guevara Rosas. In recent months Amnesty International has campaigned for justice for Ángel Colón and Claudia Medina, both of whom were tortured to extract false confessions, in separate incidents. Ángel Colón was asphyxiated, humiliated and beaten by soldiers while detained at a military base. It took five years for Ángel to be given a proper medical forensic examination into his torture claims. It was conducted by an independent forensic expert after the authorities failed to take action. Claudia Medina was tortured with sexual violence at the hands of marines. The authorities have been reluctant to investigate her allegations, and the government made it practically impossible for her to access the official forensic service. The only forensic evidence of her torture comes from two independent examinations. On 3 March, Mexico appointed Arely Gómez González as the new Federal Attorney General. “Arely Gómez González has the opportunity to take a strong stance on torture. She must ensure victims have access to adequate forensic examinations by official experts who are autonomous from the Federal Attorney General’s Office, as the UN has pointed out today,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas. More information: In September 2014, Amnesty International issued the report, Out of control: Torture and other ill-treatment in Mexico exposing a serious rise of torture and other ill-treatment and a prevailing culture of tolerance and impunity. This report is part of Amnesty International ongoing global campaign Stop Torture. –]]>

Global backlash against women’s rights is having devastating toll

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©Robert Godden. Demonstration in Hong Kong protesting the physical abuse of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, an Indonesian migrant domestic worker. Two decades after the adoption of a landmark global agreement on gender equality, a vicious backlash is threatening to strip women and girls of their rights, said Amnesty International ahead of a major UN meeting in New York. The organization is calling on governments to build on progress made in women’s rights and act urgently to honour these commitments. “Whilst the achievements made since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration are significant, full gender equality has yet to be achieved in a single country on the planet and the rights of women and girls are under threat.” As the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) reviews the progress of the Beijing Declaration adopted in 1995, Amnesty International warns that conflict and the rise of violent extremism expose vast numbers of women to multiple human rights abuses including rape, abductions and sexual slavery. Women throughout the world continue to face discrimination, are denied equal access to participation in public and political life and suffer sexual and gender-based violence and abuse in public places and at home. Women human rights defenders frequently face threats, intimidation and attacks, sometimes even paying with their own lives in their efforts to advance gender equality. Women in conflict zones In conflict zones such as Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, north east Nigeria, and in areas controlled by the armed group known as Islamic State (IS) and other violent armed groups, there is escalating violence against women and girls, including widespread rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage. Survivors of such abuses are frequently denied access to justice, while perpetrators get away with impunity. Female refugees and displaced populations are particularly at risk. Women in conflict or post-conflict situations are excluded from peace talks and ceasefire negotiations. Threats to sexual and reproductive rights Women and girls continue to suffer gender-based violence and other human rights violations in the belief that they are justified by tradition, custom or religion, such as forced marriage, female genital mutilation and crimes committed in the name of so called “honour”. Some governments continue to attempt to water down previously agreed international obligations and commitments on women’s access to contraception and abortion under the guise of so-called ‘traditional values’ or ‘protection of the family’. Around the world the ability of women to make informed decisions about their bodies is coming under increasing pressure. Their ability to have a say in the laws and policies that affect their lives is restricted. In some parts of the world women are even jailed if it is suspected they had an abortion. Time for action The UN Commission on the Status of Women will not just look back at the progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, but will also look ahead to ways to achieve greater gender equality. “We are calling on governments worldwide to make good on their decades-long promises to protect the rights of women and girls. They must confirm that women’s rights are human rights and act urgently to fully implement the rights of women and girls,” said Lucy Freeman. Amnesty International is calling on states to: • protect the rights of women and girls living in conflict situations, including increasing their participation at all levels of decision-making; • end harmful practices and any attempts to justify them based on tradition, culture or religion; • implement measures to prevent and protect women and girls from gender-based violence and bring perpetrators to justice; • uphold the rights of women and girls to make free decisions about their sexuality, bodies and health and abolish laws that restrict these decisions; • empower and enable women to participate in decision-making and leadership and to challenge negative gender stereotyping; • promote and protect the work of women human rights defenders In addition, as part of the its My Body My Rights campaign Amnesty International has today launched a manifesto demanding that governments turn their obligations on sexual and reproductive rights into action. “The right of all women and girls to make informed decisions about their own bodies is coming under unrelenting attack as many governments and others increasingly attempt to control and criminalize women’s sexuality and reproduction,” said Lucy Freeman. “This manifesto sets out the minimum standards that states must commit to in order to ensure sexual and reproductive rights for all.” — ]]>

Scientists return from successful Antarctic research voyage

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New Zealand-Australia Antarctic Ecosystems Voyage highlights from NIWA on Vimeo.

NIWA deepwater research vessel Tangaroa docks in Wellington today to complete a successful six-week New Zealand-Australia Antarctic Ecosystems voyage.

“It is good to be home safe and sound” said Voyage Leader Dr Richard O’Driscoll, “Antarctica is a tough environment and we’ve had to work around some difficult ice conditions during the voyage.” Beyond the imperative of returning safely, Dr O’Driscoll said that the 21 scientists and 19 crew onboard Tangaroa had accomplished all five science objectives they set out to achieve. “We’ve been able to visit some of the ocean’s top predators – humpback whales, blue whales, killer whales and Antarctic toothfish – on their own patch, and we’ve thoroughly surveyed the ecosystems of Antarctica that support them. We’ve also gathered valuable oceanographic and atmospheric data to help monitor the Southern Ocean climate.” The 42-day voyage achieved all five scientific objectives:
  1. To determine factors influencing the abundance and distribution of humpback whales around the Balleny Islands
  2. To locate and study blue whale foraging ‘hotspots’ in the northern Ross Sea
  3. To survey demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish species on the Ross Sea slope, particularly grenadiers and icefish, to better understand the ecological effects of commercial toothfish fishing in the region
  4. To deploy a moored echosounder in Terra Nova Bay to study Antarctic silverfish spawning during winter
  5. To collect oceanographic and atmospheric data from the Southern Ocean.
“The underwater acoustic devices allowed the scientists to pick up more than 40,000 whale calls and make over 520 hours of individual song recordings,” said Australian Antarctic Division Science Leader Dr Mike Double. “After travelling a large distance without sighting any whales, we were staggered to witness over 80 of these rare whales in a relatively small area. “With such a patchy distribution it is only possible to study this endangered species efficiently using the acoustic technology developed by the Australian Antarctic Division”. The scientists photo-identified 58 individual blue whales during the voyage.  These images will help estimate the population size, rate of recovery and movements of the endangered Antarctic blue whales. The non-lethal whale research is part of the International Whaling Commission’s Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP). Relatively benign sea and weather conditions contributed to the success of the voyage, though some trawling activity was re-routed due to ice conditions in the Ross Sea and heavy weather was encountered in the ‘Ferocious Fifties’ and ‘Screaming Sixties’ on the way home. The project leaders said the 2015 voyage would have an enduring legacy for the science community and the understanding of the unique ecosystems. “It’s not just about finding whales” said Dr O’Driscoll, “we now have a much greater understanding of the big picture – the ecosystem – on which the top predators depend. When all the data from the voyage have been analysed we will have an improved scientific basis to understand impacts on the Southern Ocean and its inhabitants”. The NZ-Australia 2015 voyage was a joint project between New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and the Australian Antarctic Division, supported by Antarctic New Zealand and NZ Government ministries, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), Ministry for the Environment (MfE), and the Australian Government’s Department of Environment.

Bad weather while returning from Antarctic voyage from NIWA on Vimeo.

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Government Insists Opposition’s RMA Claims Over Kauri Wrong

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First Union: Business numbers rise while unemployment remains high

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Paengaroa pair fined $1250 each for paua conviction

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A haul of 102 undersized paua from Maketu cost a couple of local Paengaroa men $1250 each after they pleaded guilty in Tauranga District Court (5 March, 2015).

Te Ngaue Richard Roberts, 32, and Wharehuia Toheriri Roberts, 34, were stopped by Ministry for Primary Industries compliance officers on Newdicks Beach at Maketu in October last year. Officers inspected their catch and found 102 paua. 101 were undersized and the paua ranged in size from 73mm to 102mm. Recreational gatherers can take 10 paua per person per day. The minimum length is 125mm. MPI District Compliance Manager Waikato/Bay of Plenty Brendon Mikkelsen says paua is a highly valued resource and it is very disappointing that some peoples’ actions puts its future sustainability at risk. “People who are caught taking too many or undersized paua can expect an instant fine, and in serious cases may lose any cars, boats and equipment used in the offending.” People can report any suspicious fishing activity or illegal sales to 0800 4 POACHER (0800 476 224). All calls are confidential.
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Uptake of energy efficient products saves New Zealand millions

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Govt’s Books show surplus for seven months to January – Bill English

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Electoral Commission Announces Advance Voting in the Northland By-election Begins

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www.elections.org.nz.” “It’s important to vote in advance if you can’t get to a voting place in the Northland electorate on election day, Saturday 28 March,” says Mr Peden, “as there will be no voting places open outside the Northland electorate on election day.” Advance votes in the Northland by-election can be cast at one of the advance voting places around the electorate, and can also be cast at the offices of Registrar of Electors across the country or at the Electoral Commission, Manners Street, Wellington. Electoral Commission staff will also be visiting hospitals, rest homes and remand centres in the electorate to provide voting services to those unable to get to a voting place. Voters enrolled in the Northland electorate, but currently overseas, can also vote from today. “Northland voters going overseas after today can vote before they go, at any advance voting place,” says Mr Peden.  “The easiest option for Northland voters currently overseas is to download their voting papers from www.elections.org.nz  and upload, fax or post them back so we receive them by 7pm on election day.” People overseas can also vote in person at overseas posts in London, Sydney and Brisbane, or can apply to have voting papers posted to them. “Remember, if you’re not yet enrolled, the easiest ways to get a form are online at elections.org.nz, or call 0800 36 76 56, pop into a PostShop, or freetext your name and address to 3676,” says Mr Peden. “But if none of those options work for you, you’ll be able to fill in or drop off an enrolment form at any advance voting place.” Voters can vote in advance in the Northland electorate from Wednesday 11 March at these locations:

Northland  Advance Voting Places

Suburb Address Date Open Hours
Dargaville 36 Victoria Street (next to Fosters Home Decorating) Wed 11 Mar – Fri 13 Mar Mon 16 Mar – Wed 18 Mar Thu 19 Mar Fri 20 Mar Sat 21 Mar Mon 23 Mar – Wed 25 Mar Thu 26 Mar Fri 27 Mar 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 10am – 4pm
Kaikohe Library Square, 8 Dickeson Street Wed 11 Mar – Fri 13 Mar Mon 16 Mar – Wed 18 Mar Thu 19 Mar Fri 20 Mar Sat 21 Mar Mon 23 Mar – Wed 25 Mar Thu 26 Mar Fri 27 Mar 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 10am – 4pm
Kaitaia Te Ahu, corner South Road & Matthews Avenue Wed 11 Mar – Fri 13 Mar Mon 16 Mar – Wed 18 Mar Thu 19 Mar Fri 20 Mar Sat 21 Mar Mon 23 Mar – Wed 25 Mar Thu 26 Mar Fri 27 Mar 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 10am – 4pm
Kawakawa Kawakawa Baptist Church, 1/19 Gillies Street Tue 24 Mar – Thu 26 Mar 10am – 4pm
Kerikeri Kerikeri Baptist Church, 41 Hobson Avenue Wed 11 Mar – Fri 13 Mar Mon 16 Mar – Wed 18 Mar Thu 19 Mar Fri 20 Mar Sat 21 Mar Mon 23 Mar – Wed 25 Mar Thu 26 Mar Fri 27 Mar 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 7:30am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 7:30am – 4pm
Mangawhai Mangawhai Museum, Molesworth Drive Mon 23 Mar – Fri 27 Mar 9am – 4pm
Maungaturoto Maungaturoto Primary School, 8 Gorge Road Mon 23 Mar – Wed 25 Mar Thu 26 Mar Fri 27 Mar 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 7:30am – 4pm
Moerewa He Iwi Kotahi Tatou Trust, 53 State Highway 1 (opposite BP) Tue 24 Mar Thu 26 Mar 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm
Paihia Paihia War Memorial Hall, Williams Road Wed 11 Mar – Fri 13 Mar Mon 16 Mar – Wed 18 Mar Thu 19 Mar Fri 20 Mar Sat 21 Mar Mon 23 Mar – Wed 25 Mar Thu 26 Mar Fri 27 Mar 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 7:30am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 7:30am – 4pm
Wellsford 149 Rodney Street, opposite Wellsford Pharmacy Wed 11 Mar – Fri 13 Mar Mon 16 Mar – Wed 18 Mar Thu 19 Mar – Fri 20 Mar Sat 21 Mar Mon 23 Mar – Wed 25 Mar Thu 26 Mar Fri 27 Mar 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 7:30am – 4pm
Whangarei Northland Electorate Headquarters, 9-11 Reyburn Street Wed 11 Mar – Fri 13 Mar Mon 16 Mar – Wed 18 Mar Thu 19 Mar Fri 20 Mar Sat 21 Mar Mon 23 Mar – Wed 25 Mar Thu 26 Mar Fri 27 Mar 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 7pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 10am – 4pm 7:30am – 7pm 10am – 6pm
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Six new judges sworn in today at the seat of the International Criminal Court

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MIL OSI – Source: Emailwire – Six new judges sworn in today at the seat of the International Criminal Court (EMAILWIRE.COM, March 10, 2015 ) Today, 10 March 2015, six new judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) were sworn in at a ceremony held at the seat of the Court in The Hague (Netherlands). Judges Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (France), Piotr Hofmański (Poland), Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Bertram Schmitt (Germany), Pter Kovcs (Hungary) and Chang-ho Chung (Republic of Korea) were elected for nine-year terms during the thirteenth session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute in December 2014. Judges Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, Piotr Hofmański, Bertram Schmitt, Pter Kovcs and Chang-ho Chung will commence their service on a full-time basis at the Court on 11 March 2015. Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua will commence at a later date. The judges made a solemn undertaking in open court before the President of the ASP, Minister of Justice of Senegal, H.E. Mr Sidiki Kaba, stating: “I solemnly undertake that I will perform my duties and exercise my powers as a judge of the International Criminal Court honourably, faithfully, impartially and conscientiously, and that I will respect the confidentiality of investigations and prosecutions and the secrecy of deliberations”. ASP President H.E. Mr Sidiki Kaba speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of six new ICC Judges in The Hague on 10 March 2015 ICC-CPI ASP President H.E. Mr Sidiki Kaba welcomed the new judges to the Court: “It is a historic responsibility but also a great privilege. Your responsibility is to apply the law, to respect the spirit of the Rome Statute, and to work independently, thereby carrying out the functions which the States entrusted you with. But I do not doubt that you will perform your duties with independence, impartiality and competence. ICC President Judge Sang-Hyun Song stated: “From tomorrow the new judges will be working together with their colleagues to reinforce the rule of law and continue to implement and develop a system of international criminal justice of which the ICC and its States Parties can be proud. In doing so, I am sure they will always remember the countless people around the world, especially the victims and vulnerable, who look to this Court with hope and expectation for a better, more just future.” Also attending the ceremony were the judges of the International Criminal Court, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, ICC Deputy Prosecutor James Stewart, and ICC Registrar Herman von Hebel, together with a large number of diplomats and other high-ranking guests, representatives of other international organisations in The Hague and members of the civil society. The International Criminal Court has a bench of 18 judges who are nationals of States Parties to the Rome Statute. Judges are chosen from among persons of high moral character, impartiality and integrity who possess the qualifications required in their respective countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices. The election of the judges takes into account the need for the representation of the principal legal systems of the world, a fair representation of men and women, and equitable geographical distribution. -–  ]]>

Telstra Australia extends network reach across Middle East with Etisalat Smarthub

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MIL OSI – Source: Telstra Australia – Telstra extends network reach across Middle East with Etisalat Smarthub Telstra today announced the launch of a new point of presence (PoP) in the United Arab Emirates, in a technology partnership with Etisalat, a pioneer company in next generation networks technology in the Middle East. Announced at Capacity Middle East in Dubai, the region’s leading annual wholesale conference, the new PoP will be housed in Etisalat’s UAE Smarthub facility and will enable Telstra customers to benefit from reduced latency and increased network availability across the Middle East. Bernadette Noujaim Baldwin, Telstra’s Head of Connectivity & Platforms Portfolio, Global Enterprise & Services, said the company was committed to expanding its network footprint across key regions and into new markets that are of high value to its customers. “The Middle East is an emerging economic and technological powerhouse, with IDC predicting almost double digit year on year growth in IT expenditure, which is expected to hit more than $270 billion in 2015 alone1. “In light of these economic conditions, it is drawing in businesses that require a stable local network with international reach. It’s critical these organisations have access to integrated, robust and seamless connectivity options and we are pleased to extend our network into this region to address such demands. “Additionally, the new PoP enables Telstra to take advantage of the Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) cable, which will enter service later this year and become one of the fastest routes from the Middle East to East and South-East Asia,” Ms Noujaim Baldwin said. Ali Amiri, Executive Vice President Carrier & Wholesale Services, Etisalat said: “We are delighted to welcome Telstra, Etisalat’s long term technology partner, to the Smarthub and we look forward to continued cooperation with them. “Thanks to the robust capabilities of Etisalat’s Smarthub, global operators such as Telstra have recognised the value of collaborating with Etisalat to deliver the network quality and seamless services that only our combined international and regional strengths can offer. “We are pleased to be working in partnership with Telstra to deliver new opportunities and connections across the Middle East and around the world,” Mr Amiri concluded. 1IDC, Top 10 ICT Predictions for the Middle East and Africa, 2015 About Smarthub Etisalat’s Smarthub is the largest capacity, content, internet and data hub in the Middle East. Smarthub provides regional access for global service providers and global access to the internet for the region. Smarthub includes the Middle East’s first IPX for mobile operators and includes the region’s largest portfolio of internet content. Smarthub IX (Internet Exchange) will extend the reach of Smarthub content and connectivity options. Connectivity to Smarthub is provided through a robust and diverse infrastructure of both regional and intercontinental cable systems combined with world class hosting facilities in the Smarthub data center, managed by Etisalat’s Carrier & Wholesale Services www.etisalat.ae/smarthub. –  ]]>

Equality means business: UN urges private sector to help close gender gap

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MIL OSI – Source: United Nations – Equality means business: UN urges private sector to help close gender gap 10 March 2015 – Although businesses were not part of the discussions at the historic Beijing Women’s Conference 20 years ago, it is now clear that achieving gender equality will require the concerted efforts of the private sector, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told participants at the annual Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) event at UN Headquarters. “Removing the barriers that keep women and girls on the margins of economic, social, cultural and political life must be a top priority for us all – businesses, Governments, the United Nations and civil society,” Mr. Ban said at the 59th Commission on the Status of Women side-line gathering. “As we reflect on the Beijing+20 findings and prepare to implement the sustainable development goals that will guide us for the next 15 years, until 2030, it is extremely positive to see so many business leaders stepping up to work with us,” Mr. Ban added, who was joined at the event by Former United States Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, his Special Envoy for Climate Change, Mary Robinson, and Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Following the opening segment, several panels took place on women and business. The Women’s Empowerment Principles provide a roadmap for businesses to play their role in respecting and supporting women’s rights. Launched by the Secretary-General in 2010, the initiative aims to engage businesses to advance gender equality and sustainability. In the past five years, it has reached nearly 1000 companies, each of which has made a commitment at the highest level to implement the seven guiding Principles. “I am particularly gratified that seven Women’s Empowerment Principles are resonating around the world, helping hundreds of companies to identify gaps and scale up their efforts to implement gender equality and empower women in their workplaces, marketplaces and communities,” the UN chief said. There are many examples of companies that are taking real steps to close the gender gap, Mr. Ban said. From a global electrical energy company linking gender diversity performance with financial bonuses to a sanitation company in India headed by a female CEO making bio-friendly toilets available to poor communities and from a Turkish bank designing products to support women entrepreneurs to a renewable energy company in Brazil setting up a domestic violence support system. To that end, Mr. Ban encouraged businesses supporting Women’s Empowerment Principles to join UN Global Compact and communicate their progress annually. Taking to the podium next in her keynote address, Hillary Clinton said today’s gathering comes at a pivotal moment in gender equality: “We are here to build on the progress of the past and the promise of the future.” Men and women who understand that gender equality is “not just morally right but the smart thing to do” are growing in numbers. “We may be approaching critical mass but we have to keep on pushing because what we are doing here today is smart for companies and for countries.” “Some of you were with me at the Beijing Conference where remarkably leaders pledged to work for the full participation of women and girls,” Mrs. Clinton said. Out of Beijing came the Beijing Platform for Action and in many parts of the world it turned into an “organizing document.” UN women was created, the Security Council recognized the role of women in peacekeeping missions, the World Bank promoted women’s role in development, and national laws were passed to close gender gaps in health and education. “Now, 20 years later, it is our job to keep ambition alive,” Mrs. Clinton urged, noting that all the evidence reveals that despite the obstacles that remain, there has never been a better time in history to be born a girl. A girl born in Lesotho 20 years ago could not hope to own property, now she can. A girl born 20 years ago in Rwanda grew up in the shadow of genocide and rape, and now there are more women serving in her country’s Parliament than in anywhere else in the world. But despite all this progress, “we are still not there yet”. More than 30 million girls never go on to secondary schools. More than one million girls are never born because of gender-based selection mainly in China and India. More than half the nations in the world still have no laws on the books combating gender-based violence and an estimated one in three women is subject to it. “Rights have to exist in practice not just on paper, and laws have to be backed up with resources not just political will,” Mrs. Clinton declared. She said that deep-seeded cultural bias continues to hold girls back. “Join us in making absolutely clear that the full participation of women and girls is the unfinished business of the 21st century. We can’t afford to leave anyone behind.” In the United States alone, if the workforce gap between men and women closed the economy would grow by 10 per cent. These numbers are significant for other countries as well. She emphasized the importance of gender-equality being included in the proposed sustainablde development goals (SDGs). “When I was Secretary of State and I would speak with my colleagues around the world about these issues there was a moment when I saw their eyes would glaze over, ‘I know she’s going to talk to me about women and I’ll smile until we get on to more important issues,’ they would think. But that has changed now,” she said, adding that the progress of the last 20 years was no accident; it took commitment, accountability, unity and hard work. “These issues remain deeply personal for me. My late mother was born in the United States before women could vote and before there were employment opportunities, but she had real grit and grace and gave me the drive to have integrity and provide a service to others. We each know so many women whose names will never be in the headlines and we can take a moment to think about the teachers and mentors who have changed our lives and now it is time to do that for the next generation.” Mary Robinson said the women’s empowerment principles were the “best step forward that the UN Global Compact has taken in the last 15 years,” and she stressed the extent of her support for their understanding of the importance of forging the relationship. Underlining the importance of fully integrating gender equality and women’s empowerment into the several important international processes going on in 2015, she focused her comments on addressing what she called the “double injustice” of climate change and gender inequality. Gender equality, she noted, was recognized within the post-2015 development agenda and the sustainable development goals through Goal 5, but was not as secure in the climate process. She described her disappointment at the recent meeting in Lima of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) at the failure of negotiators to be specific about the link between climate change and gender equality but she added that she had seen an improvement in Geneva, where “relatively good” gender language and human rights language had entered into the text. “We need that balance to ensure that we will achieve our objectives,” she said, as she outlined the gravity of the climate change crisis facing the world, including the human rights dimensions faced by countries like Kiribati, which purchased land from Fiji because of the existential threat posed by climate change. If the response to climate change is such that people have to move from the land where “the bones of their ancestors” are buried, it is clear that a people-centred approach was not being taken to tackling the crisis. She closed on a personal note, saying that she was motivated as a grandmother to consider what her grandchildren would say about the work done by leaders in 2015, because she knew it would hugely impact their lives in 2050. “That’s why we need this grand alliance,” she said of the link between women and the business sector, “because we have a lot to do to secure a very good, legally binding agreement in Paris,” she said referring to a crucial meeting of UNFCCC parties set for the end of the year. –]]>

New UN-backed report reflects ‘crushing’ impact of conflict in Syria on its people

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MIL OSI – Source: United Nations –  New UN-backed report reflects ‘crushing’ impact of conflict in Syria on its people 10 March 2015 – Four years of armed conflict, economic disintegration and social fragmentation in Syria have hollowed out its population by 15 percent, forced some 10 million people to flee their homes and reduced life expectancy by two decades – from nearly 76 years of age to 56 – according to a United Nations-backed report released today on the “catastrophic” impact of the conflict. “While crushing the aspirations of the Syrian people and their ability to build and form institutions that can restore human security and respect human dignity and rights, the armed conflict has depleted the capital and wealth of the country,” according to the Syria: Alienation and Violence, Impact of the Syria Crisis Report, produced by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research with the support of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). “Measured in terms of human development capacity and choices, the [Human Development Index] HDI value of Syria degraded by 32.6 per cent since 2010, falling from just below a middle ranking position to 173rd position of 187 countries,” it said. Syria has become a country of poor people, with an estimated 4 in every 5 Syrians now living in poverty – 30 percent of the population having descended into abject poverty, according to the report. The report details the tragic context facing all people in Syria, including the lives of Palestine refugees that have not been spared the trauma, UNRWA says, noting that the agency delivers humanitarian aid to 460,000 refugees who are wholly dependent on it to help them meet minimum daily needs. During the last four years, more than 10 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes and neighbourhoods because of violence, fear, intimidation and homelessness. “The population of Syria was hollowed out by 15 percent as 3.33 million Syrians fled as refugees to other countries, together with a 1.55 million persons who migrated to find work and a safer life elsewhere,” the report explained. “Within the remaining population of Syria, some 6.80 million people had been internally displaced.” The report drew attention to “the appalling loss of life,” as the death toll increased in the past year reached 210,000 persons. And together with the 840,000 people who were wounded, 6 per cent of the population were killed, maimed or wounded during the conflict, it said. “Equally horrendous is the silent disaster that has reduced life expectancy at birth from 75.9 years in 2010 to an estimated 55.7 years at the end of 2014, reducing longevity and life expectancy by 27 per cent,” the report noted. In the midst of this social disintegration and economic degradation, the education, health and social welfare systems are in a state of collapse. The report said that education is in a state of collapse with half of all school-age children no longer attending school, with almost half of all children already losing three years of schooling. “Total economic loss since the start of the conflict until the end of 2014 is estimated at $202.6 billion, with damage to capital stock accounting for 35.5 per cent of this loss,” it said. “Total economic loss is equivalent to 383 per cent of the GDP of 2010 in constant prices.” The report concluded that “the people of Syria are now forced to live under a terrible state of exception, estrangement and alienation with a massive social, political and economic chasm dividing them from those involved in violence and the institutions of violence.” And humanitarian interventions are unable to keep pace with the rapidly escalating needs of the poor and displaced, who are increasing exposed to insecurity and sectarian violence. The report said its aim is to estimate, document and analyze the catastrophic socioeconomic impact of the ongoing armed conflict, and highlight some of the pitfalls and gaps in applying mainstream analytical framework due to the complexity and specificity of Syrian crisis. –]]>

UK’s record on implementing human rights judgments risks being undermined

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MIL OSI – UK’s record on implementing human rights judgments risks being undermined

In a report published Wednesday 11 March, the Joint Committee on Human Rights commends the Government for the downward trend in the number of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights which have found the UK to be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and for its successful efforts to bring to a conclusion a number of old cases.
The Committee draws to Parliament’s attention, however, the disparity between the good record of the Government before the European Court of Human Rights and the media’s portrayal of these statistics.

Prisoner voting

The Committee is, however, concerned by the Government’s failure to implement the judgments relating to prisoner voting and recommends the new Government brings forward legislation to implement the recommendations of the Joint Committee on the Draft Prisoner Voting Bill to demonstrate the UK’s continuing commitment to the rule of law.  Judgments of the European Court are not merely advisory. The UK is under a binding legal obligation to implement them, an obligation it voluntarily assumed when it signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, and its continuing failure to amend the law on prisoner voting undermines the UK’s credibility when invoking the rule of law to pressurise other states to comply with their legal obligations.

Northern Ireland issues

The Committee is also concerned by the delays in the implementation of some judgments in Northern Ireland and recommends that the UK Government and the Northern Ireland Executive need to consider what lessons are to be learned from the seven years it has taken for the Marper judgment to be implemented in Northern Ireland, to prevent delays of this unacceptable length occurring again. The Committee welcomes the provisions in the Stormont House Agreement establishing the Historical Investigations Unit as a potentially significant breakthrough in the implementation of a number of outstanding judgments concerning inadequate investigations into deaths in Northern Ireland. However, it is concerned that the Legacy Investigation Branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), which is to carry out the work of the Historical Enquiries Team until the Historical Investigations Unit is established, cannot itself satisfy the requirements of Article 2 ECHR because of its lack of independence from the police service. It is also concerned by the five year limit on the work of the new Unit.  The Committee recommends that legislation establishing the Historical Investigations Unit be treated as an urgent priority by the new Government.

Other issues

The Committee also:
  • is concerned that the Government’s failure to implement the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) judgment may be prolonging the chilling effect on freedom of expression and recommends that the new Government treat this Leveson recommendation as a priority.
  • recommends that the Government bring forward the amendments to the two documents which are necessary in order to make clear to a person who is the subject of a whole life order that they can apply to the Secretary of State for discretionary release.
  • reports that the Government’s systems for responding promptly and fully to Court judgments concerning human rights are generally working well.
  • commends the Government for its annual report on human rights judgments and recommends some ways to make the report still more useful to Parliament, including by turning it into  an “Annual Human Rights Report” to Parliament which would then form the basis of the annual appearance of the Human Rights Minister before this Committee.
  • recommends that the Government become a champion of increasing parliamentary involvement in the ECHR system, beginning with the forthcoming Brussels Declaration on “Our Shared Responsibility” for the Convention rights which will be adopted at the end of March.
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Obama’s Hard Turn to the Right in Hemispheric Policy

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MIL OSI Analysis – Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage – Obama’s Hard Turn to the Right in Hemispheric Policy By: Frederick B. Mills, COHA Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Philosophy at Bowie State University This article was originally published with Counterpunch at http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/10/obamas-hard-turn-to-the-right-in-hemispheric-policy/. [caption id="attachment_1164" align="alignleft" width="300"]US President Barack Obama. Image: Whitehouse.gov. US President Barack Obama. Image: Whitehouse.gov.[/caption]U.S. hemispheric policy reached a new low today when President Barack Obama invoked emergency powers to declare “a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” Thanks to Obama’s action, the U.S. has now blatantly rehabilitated its traditional imperial posture towards the South and challenged the continent-wide Bolivarian cause of Latin American and Caribbean independence and sovereignty. With such a reckless declaration, Washington has sent a green light to the ultra right opposition that was behind the anti-government violence in Venezuela during the first quarter of last year. This contravenes the current efforts of a delegation sent to Caracas by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to maintain the peace, and thereby further alienates a region committed to defending their national sovereignty and independence from any power block on earth. While Venezuela has identified the issue of corruption, is prosecuting a number of its security personnel for human rights abuses, acknowledges the need and is engaged in the reform of police training and practice, and is indeed in the midst of an economic crisis, Washington’s exceptionalism as applied to Venezuela, may raise more than some skepticism. For the U.S. continues to lumber aid to the regime in Honduras and Mexico, which have engaged in well documented systematic brutality and gross violations of human rights. While all human rights abuses merit attention and accountability wherever they occur, the Obama Administration’s selective indignation aimed at Caracas,and a complete lack of critique of the violent anti-government guarimbas (violent demonstrations) of the first quarter of last year, is bound to draw questions about the motives of U.S. hostilities towards Venezuela. Does the Bolivarian cause in Venezuela threaten U.S. national security? Venezuela is not at war with any country on earth, has declared the region a zone of peace, and has been helping mediate the talks between Bogotá and the FARC in order to bring the longest running civil war in the hemisphere to a negotiated solution. The base of support for the Chavista government of President Nicolas Maduro are not terrorists bent on destroying Western civilization; they include the millions of formerly excluded and poor who now have proper nutrition, housing, access to health care, to a free education, and a voice in the governance of their country. Times are hard for them too, but they prefer the ballot box as the means of settling political differences, not violence. The grassroots movements behind the cooperatives and community councils as well as the numerous social movements that put people before profits are not our enemies. They do not ask for intervention from the North. They expect to be left alone to pursue their own organized expressions of constituent power. From a Bolivarian, rather than a Monroe perspective, it is up to Venezuelans to address their economic problems, to root out corruption and to continue implementing the police reforms in their country, just as it is up to the people of the United States to address human rights abuses from Ferguson to New York City. Polls conducted in Venezuela show that the large majority of respondents oppose attempts at extra-constitutional regime change and prefer democratic procedures for resolving political differences. They also show that most Venezuelans oppose a U.S. invasion of their country. It is critically important to note that campaigns for legislative seats in Venezuela’s National Assembly are getting started and these elections, which include opposition candidates, do not pose a threat to U.S. citizens either. The Venezuelan Electoral Commission (CNE) has a solid record and is second to none. Both Chavistas and allied parties as well as opposition MUD and their allies are using the CNE to run their primaries. Allowing the Venezuelan legislative elections later this year to be held in peace, so that Venezuelans themselves, not an outside power, can decide who governs them, is a pro-democracy perspective. And the opposition can use the recall referendum in 2016 if they seek to try to recall Maduro by constitutional means. Does the Bolivarian cause in Venezuela threaten U.S. foreign policy? Venezuela has been at the forefront of regional integration ever since Hugo Chavez was first elected president in 1998. Chavez argued that a necessary condition for any nation in the region to depart from the Washington Consensus and forge an alternative economic policy is the independence and sovereignty of the region from imperial domination. He also promoted the idea that in a multi-polar world, the region would be more likely to diversify its trade relationships, experiment with complementary types of commerce, and avoid political submission to any power block on the planet. These ideas have actually been put into practice, bringing about an epochal change over the past sixteen years, that has led to the formation of ALBA, UNASUR, MERCOSUR, CELAC and other associations of Latin American and Caribbean nations that do not include the U.S. or Canada. The recent CELAC—China conference in January is an example of this exercise of independence and multi-polarity. But none of this poses a threat to the American people or the state. It does however, challenge one of Obama’s major policy goals, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. This free trade accord would be much easier to sell at the Summit of the Americas next month in Panama should the Maduro Administration be ousted in time. But that would be a crude calculation. The people of the United States can benefit from a partnership with the new Latin America and Caribbean that complements each peoples’ needs and resources; but it must be based on mutual respect for sovereignty, and that means a U.S. policy that does not resort to “arm twisting” to impose free trade and neoliberal economic policies on our neighbors to the South. This would take a re-evaluation of the present overall U.S. hemispheric policy and an immediate step back from the precipice. By: Frederick B. Mills, COHA Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Philosophy at Bowie State University This article was originally published with Counterpunch at http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/10/obamas-hard-turn-to-the-right-in-hemispheric-policy/. Featured Image: “Official Photo of the VI Summit of the Americas Cartegena 2012,” Javier Casella – SIG, http://wsp.presidencia.gov.co/Especiales/Documents/CumbreAmericas/index.html – –  ]]>

Doctors Without Borders Sends US President Obama A Letter About The TPPA

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MIL OSI –

Source: Doctors Without Borders – Press Releases/Statement:

Headline: Trans Pacific Partnership: A Letter to the President of the United States of America

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing on behalf of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to express our deep concern over provisions under negotiation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) that threaten to restrict access to affordable medicines and much-needed innovation for millions of people, and for treatment providers like MSF and Ministries of Health.

MSF is an independent international medical humanitarian organization that delivers medical care to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare in nearly 70 countries. Our ambition to provide quality health care to these populations requires constant access to affordable, quality medicines and vaccines, and patient-focused innovation.

In July 2013, MSF sent an open letter to all heads of government, Ministers of Health and lead negotiators for countries involved in the TPP negotiations expressing concerns regarding the impact that provisions in the TPP could have on access to medicines. Unless certain damaging provisions are removed, the TPP could be the most harmful trade pact ever for access to medicines, we warned in the letter.

Despite our numerous attempts to engage constructively with various U.S. government constituencies on this issue, our concerns remain largely unaddressed. The ongoing TPP negotiations have been conducted in secret, without opportunity for public scrutiny. However, leaked texts indicate that intellectual property (IP) provisions proposed by the United States go well beyond rules established by the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). These demands will roll back public health safeguards and flexibilities enshrined in international and national laws, and put in place far-reaching monopoly protections that will restrict generic competition and keep medicine prices unaffordable in the long run.

Generic competition has proven to be the best way to reduce drug prices and improve access to treatment. Ministries of Health, humanitarian medical treatment providers like MSF, and donor-supported global health institutions routinely rely on affordable quality generic medicines to treat a variety of health needs. Two important U.S.-funded programs, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, are salient examples of this, saving hundreds of millions of dollars a year and reaching more patients by purchasing generic medicines.

We have several concerns with the text under negotiation. For example, the TPP proposes to lower the bar of patentability and mandate the granting of secondary patents for modifications to existing treatments even in the absence of therapeutic benefit for patients (a practice known as patent “evergreening”). The agreement would also impose an unprecedented extended period of exclusivity for clinical data required to prove the safety and efficacy of drugs and vaccines that are “biologic” products. Both provisions would perpetuate monopolies and prevent generic competition, making medicines and vaccines more expensive for longer.

Both provisions contradict the Administration’s own priorities in the United States. The White House has proposed restricting some abusive evergreening practices in each budget proposal sent to the United States Congress since the beginning of your Presidency. The White House has also proposed reducing the period of exclusivity for biologics, citing the need to facilitate faster development of generic biologics and cost savings of up to billions of dollars over the next decade.

Other provisions proposed in the TPP, including patent term extensions, patent linkage, additional intellectual property enforcement measures and investor-state dispute settlements, are equally concerning from a public health and access to medicines perspective.

If these provisions are included in the final text of the agreement, they will represent a direct threat to the future availability of affordable medicines and vaccines for millions of patients in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as for MSF and governments in the region. In Mexico, a TPP-negotiating country, we are currently providing medical support to migrants and mental health services to victims of violence. But the TPP could have effects far beyond the current twelve negotiating countries. Because the TPP is billed as a 21st century model trade agreement that aims at becoming a global standard, it could have damaging repercussions for access to treatment and innovation worldwide.

We urge the United States to remove provisions that will harm access to medicines and to ensure that the final text is aligned with relevant global public health commitments. Such commitments include the 2001 WTO Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health; the WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property; and the bipartisan United States May 10 Agreement, also known as the New Trade Policy.

The current biomedical innovation system is highly dysfunctional and unable to deliver affordable and needs-based medical tools for many of our medical operations. We are witnessing this in practice with the lack of appropriate medical tools to respond to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. We also see the innovation challenges here in the U.S. For example, the United States government is working to respond to the growing threat of antibiotic resistance and the insufficient pipeline of new antibiotics. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has advised that major changes are needed to address these challenges and has suggested reforming the innovation system. By contrast, promoting longer monopolies through the TPP only reinforces and facilitates abuse of the current research and development system.

The United States government, under your leadership, should introduce global norms which reaffirm a public health imperative and promote balanced implementation of current intellectual property obligations. MSF believes this is essential to closing the gap in access to medicines for millions of people around the world. The TPP could be an opportunity to make significant progress toward these goals. Instead, in its current state, the TPP is a threat to the health of millions.

Thank you for your attention. We are available to discuss these issues further at your convenience.

Sincerely,

Sophie Delaunay

Executive Director, MSF USA

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders

Dr. Manica Balasegaram

Executive Director, MSF Access Campaign

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders

Please direct future correspondence and response on this issue to:

Sophie Delaunay,

Executive Director,

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders-USA,

333 7th Avenue, 

New York, NY 10001,

Phone: 1-212-655-3783

C.C.:

Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services

Deborah Birx, Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator of United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS Globally

Michael Froman, United States Trade Representative

Ron Wyden, Chairman, United States Senate Committee on Finance

Orrin Hatch, Ranking Member, United States Senate Committee on Finance

Dave Camp, Chairman, United States House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means

Sander Levin, Ranking Member, United States House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means

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Bribe-O-Meter Relaunched for Northland By-Election

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Headline: MR: BRIBE-O-METER RELAUNCHED FOR NORTHLAND BY-ELECTION

10 MARCH 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Taxpayers’ Union is today proudly relaunching its election Bribe-O-Meter to keep track of politicians’ pork-barrel promises in the lead up to Northland’s by-election. Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says:
 
“While the by-election is for the seat of Northland, the cost of pork-barrel promises will impact the pockets of all New Zealand taxpayers.”
 
“The Prime Minister has already indicated that there will be further Northland-related policies launched throughout the campaign. The Bribe-O-Meter is to provide transparency to taxpayers on what those promises will cost.”
 
“Currently the National Party’s Northland promises equal $28.37 per New Zealand household. Winston Peters meanwhile is promising new ports and railways. Our initial estimate is that the cost, if implemented, would be at least $180 per household.”

The Bribe-O-Meter is available at www.taxpayers.org.nz/bribe-o-meter and will be updated regularly in the lead up to polling day on 28 March.

ENDS

ENQUIRIES:

Jordan Williams
021 762 542

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is an independent activist group, dedicated to being the voice for Kiwi taxpayers in the corridors of power. It’s here to fight government waste and make sure New Zealanders get value for money from their tax dollar.

The Taxpayers’ Union operates a 24 hour media line for comment on taxpayer issues. Representatives are available on (04) 282 0302.

High resolution images and logos are available on request or online at http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/resources

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Full Transcript: The Nicky Hager Interview

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Launch Programme – EveningReport.nz launched Monday March 9, 2015 with an extended one-on-one interview with investigative journalist Nicky Hager on the Snowden Revelations.

Here is a full transcript of the Nicky Hager interview. Courtesy of Newsroom Monitor
You can also view the video interview here.
Newsroom Monitor logoManning: Nicky Hager, thank you for taking part in the launch of EveningReport.nz and also congratulations at the front-end for this investigation that is obviously ongoing at the moment. Now, Nicky, the state services review recently stated here ‘suspicions and mistrust have more opportunities to flourish in the absence of information’. Now that this kind of information is in the public arena is the public’s mistrust and suspicion warranted do you believe? [caption id="attachment_981" align="alignleft" width="150"]Investigative journalist, Nicky Hager. Image: PMC. Investigative journalist, Nicky Hager. Image: PMC.[/caption]Hager: Oh I think so. What happens with spy agencies is that there’s a great arrogance around them. They use their secrecy which they need for their work to be a secrecy which means they don’t have to be accountable. That when people come up with allegations or want to know what they’re doing, they can say they’re far too secret and nobody needs to know, which is actually not true. That while some of what they do has to be secret mostly it’s just very convenient for these retiring kind of, you know, living in the shadows organisations to just have a ‘get out of jail free’ card on everything. So they can always deny and they can always say that it’s security stops them having to comment. And that’s not good enough in a democracy. Manning: How do you think this affects the New Zealand democracy when the State is operating almost as an entity that has no consequence from oversight.. is almost an entity to its own? Hager: To me it has two consequences. One is don’t have a serious debate about our foreign policy as its affected by intelligence, which to me is very important, but that’s only half the picture, because the other thing that happens is that if they won’t engage factually, it means that there’s a whole lot of wild fears and beliefs around what they do, which actually .. within New Zealand is more damaging than the truth. And what I’m talking about here is that I’m continually approached by people who believe or are worried that there’s a van outside their house with GCSB written on the inside that is bugging their lives, is intruding on them. Now this is a huge cost on a society. If your spy agencies play their secret games and won’t deny, won’t confirm anything, get caught out doing illegal spying, and still keep the barriers up, well then they have to expect this to happen, and they’re not doing their share of fixing it, which is people have real but actually unnecessary fears about them. So I’ve got a divided view about the intelligence agencies. On the one hand I think we fear them more than we need to, and there’s a widespread fear that there doesn’t have to be. On the other hand on the other things where they’re really doing thing wrong, and in their shadowy world they get away with a lot of things which are wrong and out of synch with our country, on those real things they don’t get accountability either. [caption id="attachment_183" align="alignleft" width="150"]Selwyn Manning, editor. Selwyn Manning, editor.[/caption]Manning: So if we’re looking at those specifics there, for example this is obviously like a dragnet type operation that you and David Fisher and others have brought to the public, the ‘full take collection’ being the key words here obviously, so that means everybody in the Pacific, that goes down to some small, even a teenager using a cell phone is being captured and is that data, is that communication being stored somewhere, so that even when that person perhaps is ten years older it could be retrieved, and even potentially used against them? Hager: OK, it’s important that I explain what we know and what we’re not sure of here. So what we know is an absolute fact now, without a doubt, is that the GCSB and its Waihopai station like its overseas allies have moved to this full take collection. And what that means is yes, right down to the person who uses gmail on a little island of Tuvalu or the person who’s calling their aunty in New Zealand from Samoa or whatever it is, this stuff is being captured and it’s on a huge scale. That’s all true. It doesn’t mean that all those people are being actively watched, because most of them can’t be, which is where we don’t want to spread unnecessary fear. But their communications are being caught. What we don’t know because there is just no source on this is how long they keep it all… It used to be at Waihopai that they would search for what was going on and it would just disappear into the ether the next second. What seems to be going on now, what my best guess would be is that they have got all these national security agency programmes which are processing, like a great big food production company with everyone’s messages and emails and everything from around the Pacific, they’re processing that into different formats. One is putting them into databases of phone calls and literal emails and text messages which are available for some length of time for analysts to look through. We don’t know the length of time and that’s the bit I’m personally uncertain. It won’t be forever because the bulk of this stuff will just be beyond us I think, at least on current storage capability. But the other thing that they are doing is saving what’s called the metadata. Metadata is this word that came into the general language pretty much with Edward Snowden and that means that the thing often most valuable to an intelligence agency is not being able to listen to every phone call, which would take them a thousand life times, you can’t do that, it’s that they store up the ‘who called who’, ‘what time they did it’, ‘what was the nearest cell phone tower’ and when you build up year after year of everyones’ calls and everyone’s connections that’s extremely valuable if you’re trying to connect up people or track down people, or find out who peoples’ friends are, in their crazy world of thinking they need to spy on everybody. Now that metadata, my strong presumption is that if it’s not already, it will pretty soon be saved permanently. That that’s a low enough data sizes that we can expect that side of it will be permanently recorded for the young boy or girl going on to gmail, or the person contacting their aunty in New Zealand, or whatever. Manning: I also understand that there’s been significant ongoing development in the infrastructure in the United States, particularly on the western side, to contain and become storage silos for such information. Hager: That’s right. So what we know is whether you’re talking about the Waihopai base in New Zealand, the documents we had talked about how they were building up their capacity ready for full take collection so they actually had enough computer storage for all the new huge increase in data they would be bringing in there, and then you got the other extreme which is in the desert in the United States where they’re building these massive warehouses which are just going to try to store the world’s communications. Everything forever, we don’t know that because these are very secret activities but what we do know for certain is these agencies with their obsessive desire to have everything everywhere and for as long as they can are holding as much of this data for as long as they can everywhere. Manning: And of course what we’re talking about here is the full take collection of communications within the realm of New Zealand, that’s an awful name isn’t it,  including Tokelau, Niue, Cook Islands.. significantly too Fiji, Samoa, Tonga. I would imagine that the sensitivity inside Tonga in particular would be heightened when you consider that ‘Akilisi Pohiva is the new Prime Minister over in Tonga who has had a lifetime of activism, a lifetime of political representation from the grassroots coming through. The pro-democracy movement has been in the past hammered in Tonga by the nobility and the clash within that community. Now this kind of revelation where the big powers of the Pacific, and certainly the US leading the charge, what kind of effect do you think that’s going to have on the way Tonga interacts with New Zealand? Hager: This is a very interesting question. Can I correct something first, because we want to be as accurate as we can be when we’re given fog and mist and then when we’re trying to engage with the agencies. So just to be clear from what we managed to find out Tokelau is not on the target list and Cook Islands and Niue are all New Zealand citizens so the citizens aren’t being spied on but the government is. So those are the only exceptions and every other country like Tonga is being comprehensively spied on all the time.. So what do I think about Tonga for example. If I was a leader in Tonga I would be incensed because Tonga doesn’t spy on New Zealand. Tonga doesn’t spy on the US. New Zealand has no special reason. There have been a few people in New Zealand commenting ‘of course we would spy on the South Pacific, we need to know what’s going on’ which is an incredibly patronising, colonial kind of view of the world. That somehow you can’t have diplomats sit around over a drink or coffee with people in these countries and talk to them and treat them as human beings you can actually understand, as opposed to having to read their private emails in the Prime Minister’s department or something. This is an unnecessary way to do things and so if was the leader of Tonga I would be really mad at New Zealand. I would be mad first of all because we do it, but secondly because why we do it. Because I do not believe that the New Zealand intelligence agencies are collecting information on Tonga because there is a burning foreign policy desire to have strong information and do the right things on Tonga. The reason that we spy on Tonga is the same reason we spy on Tuvalu, and the same reason we spy on Vanuatu, and that is, simply, that we have got we have got what’s called an area of responsibility in the Five Eyes alliance. They are just tokens of our allegiance to a US intelligence alliance. In other words the reason we spy on those countries literally – I’m really sure I’m right on this – the primary reason we do it is so that we can have an offering, a useful offering, at the table when we’re one of the Five Eyes intelligence partners. So this is even more insulting than if we were spying on the Tongans and others because we wanted to know their secrets. That’s not even the reason we’re doing it. We’re just doing it to buy our way into closer relations with the US intelligence alliance. It’s a really scummy reason when you think about these are our neighbours we’re selling out for that. Manning: And if we look too at French Polynesia, New Caledonia comes into the scope of the New Zealand GCSB surveillance here, and that takes a more sinister overtone when you consider that nation and France that controls that territory is a nuclear power. Do you think that that has a consequence on the way New Zealand can be treated perhaps by France when it realises that OK now New Zealand it’s official really, in the sense that the official documents are suggesting, is the primary collector of all communications on its territory in the Pacific? Hager: I think it’s a little bit different for France. For these smaller countries, I won’t call them naive but they are not in the swim of big time espionage and high-level politics. These are small countries… some of them are the size of a small town in New Zealand, literally, and so they can’t be expected to have the infrastructure to present themselves, the high level codes to be involved in world espionage or something. When you get to France, France does this stuff themselves. They know it goes on so they’re going to have a completely different attitude actually and it won’t come even as the slightest surprise to them to know New Zealand has been spying on their territories for years, so I think in terms of diplomatic and emotional impact it will be different there. It’s those small countries, it’s the ones where we don’t have a good excuse, and we’re just selling them out where I think it’s particularly bad. Manning: Where the bully factor kicks in… Hager: Where the arrogant, don’t care about them… we claim to care, we profess to be great buddies and actually just be prepared to sell them down the river because we can get some benefit in Washington. Manning: I notice some of your critics on social media this week as the information has been revealed to the public have criticised in this way: so what, of course New Zealand does this, it’s a part of the Five Eyes. And of course on the other side they’re saying China will be doing it so what does it matter? How do you respond to that? Hager: I think this is a kind of world-weary, cynical, kind of know-it-all view actually. Because the world doesn’t know that New Zealand spies on all those Pacific countries, especially not in the way that we do. And the idea that it’s natural for a little country of 4 million people, which claims to have these special relationships country by country around the Pacific and be their friend, to be intensely spying on them against their interests, this is not known. I’m afraid that’s what you get with a certain kind of journalist or commentator is that they will say something’s wrong, they’ll believe it’s wrong, they’ll just as happily have said I’ve got the whole story wrong and then when it’s proven right they’ll say ‘yep, everyone knew this, so what’. I don’t think those people are kind of our moral and political thinkers and leaders, and we shouldn’t take their views too seriously. Manning: OK if we’re looking at New Zealand hoovering up all of this information on its so-called colonial patch here in the south-west Pacific, who’s doing it to New Zealand? If the GCSB is not doing it to New Zealand itself, which one of the Five Eyes partners is doing it to us? Hager: Well we don’t know what we don’t know. I think it’s an open question whether the US national security agency quietly spies on its allies like New Zealand. Because one of the things that is absolutely clear from the Snowden revelations is that other US intelligence allies like France, Germany and the rest of Europe who thought they were the closest buddies and were immune form US spying were being spied on just the same as any other country. So maybe New Zealand is getting that, but we don’t know that. But I actually think this is a very important question in terms of New Zealanders’ feelings on these sorts of things – Is every New Zealander being spied on from somewhere? Well according to the documents I’ve seen, no they’re not. The debate in New Zealand is about how the GCSB has acted, as if the GCSB is there to spy on New Zealanders – it’s not, it’s a foreign intelligence organisation, that’s what it was set up to do. Spying on New Zealanders is not part of its routine remit. And there have been exceptions because they’ve been operating in the shadows, so they’ve stretched the rules and they’ve done other things like the illegal spying on 88 people over the last 10 years that came up. But 88 people over 10 years is not a very large number, it’s not their primary work. So one of the things I wanted to emphasise when we actually had the Snowden documents and we could tell the proper story, as far as those documents would allow us, was hey everyone let’s focus on the issue that is most important about this, which is not the privacy of someone living in Wellington or Auckland, it’s the privacy of someone living in Honiara or Suva, and many other countries that are yet to be revealed actually because we’ve got many more stories to come. Now I think that’s probably the first important lesson about this. On the other hand mass surveillance systems are a problem and if you are have a mass surveillance system for a start which is spying on the whole of the south Pacific, heaps of New Zealanders have their families there, were born there, they come and go from there, they might be living there at the moment, they go on holiday there, they’re doing business there and all of their communications are being caught as well. Which is why I hadn’t actually thought this through when I was writing the stories but I’m very pleased that there’s been a complaint that’s gone into the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security to say ‘wait a moment, is this actually lawful?’ for every New Zealander who one way or another is living in the Pacific, interacting with the Pacific, to have their communications intercepted, which is what a mass surveillance full take collection means. That’s great, that’s very important. And within New Zealand there’s another level of it in that the GCSB can be used, and the laws were actually strengthened on this, by the police, by the defence force, by the SIS, to target people in New Zealand. And because that’s happening in secret, and without proper accountability, and because they always get things wrong, we can reliably expect that there are going to be more scandals come out on this. That there will be more things that they have done wrong. And while I don’t think they’re doing mass surveillance, I’m certain the GCSB is not doing mass surveillance every day of every New Zealander, and getting metadata on every New Zealander, they are doing operations agains particular New Zealanders and some of them are going to blow up in their faces because they will have done stupid things again. Manning: Now the presumption would be that New Zealand doesn’t have the capability to develop the technology that’s necessary to do this type of operation, so what do we know about that technology .. and where it’s based in New Zealand, and who provides it? My presumption clearly is that it’s US led, Five Eyes type of equipment. Hager: The idea that New Zealand can’t do it ourselves is fairly accurate, but it’s irrelevant because the GCSB is not a New Zealand operation in any practical sense. Our latest story on the Waihopai facility, which is New Zealand’s main Five Eyes contribution, is that when you go inside it – which we could only do with the Snowden documents, not physically – every single piece of the equipment there, every program on the computers, every database, every search took, every intelligence processing tool is an NSA tool or British GCHQ – that’s their equivalent of the GCSB and NSA. Every single thing there is British or American technology which is the same in every other place like this around the world. So it’s nominally a New Zealand base but actually the only sense in which it’s even vaguely a New Zealand base is that there are New Zealanders who go in there and do the work of managing and tending foreign equipment. And apart from that, as the stories have been showing, it’s barely a New Zealand operation. When they do the spying on the whole of the south Pacific, and suck in all this material and then save it as metadata or in other ways, if a New Zealand intelligence officer wants to look at that, it’s not New Zealand data, what they do is they go into an NSA database to look for it. That’s how integrated it is. It’s not even that the Americans can look at the New Zealand intelligence. It becomes American intelligence within (that) system and if New Zealanders want to see it they have to go to it through a US interface and look at it on a US database. That’s how integrated we are. Manning: Now the Prime Minister said this in his criticism of yourself and others involved in this investigation is that some of the information is old, the presumptions that have been made – or the word presumption is what he’s referring to – are inaccurate, that basically there’s nothing to see here. In your book Secret Power, the foreword written by David Lange – and I think it surprised many who would read that book to realise that the Prime Minister at the time that the GCSB was established here knew very little of what its intention was, and what it went about doing. Do you think that our representatives, those that are in the Beehive governing the affairs of New Zealand in an executive government are aware of this type of information, aware of what is going on, or are they looking the other way and saying I don’t want to know, or are they blindly lying? Hager: My own view is, of course I don’t know for sure. This is what I believe from having worked on this hard, and working on the subject of course for many years since I was writing that first book. I feel fairly confident that John Key won’t know most of the stuff that we reveal, the details that we’ve just come out with about what’s going on inside the Waihopai station, he won’t know that. He won’t know that but more to the point he’s not interested, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t care about foreign policy very much, he’s never taken an interest in it. It’s not a part of his life, he likes to meet important people overseas but he’s not actually interested in foreign policy or defence policy or intelligence policy. So I see no reason why he would have taken any close look at any of this, and so he’s actually, when I was writing that book, he’s more or less in the tradition of a line of National Party leaders who have traditionally been in charge of the intelligence services, which is that they don’t look because they don’t really care, and the ships pretty much run themselves. So that’s the main thing I would say about John Key’s involvement, but in terms of his immediate reaction which was before the material had even began to be published he said it was wrong, he knew it would be wrong, it was wrong like my last book and that kind of statement. He’s just making that up. What he’s doing is – to move into political analysis – he’s trying to talk to people who have got a tribal view of politics and say to them don’t look at this. In fact he even made the astonishing statement, which is quite spooky in a supposedly democratic country, where he said I strongly advise New Zealanders not to even read these stories when they come out. Now what kind of a weirdo is that? What kind of strange idea is it that you want the public not to even hear a different point of view? So I don’t think this is about his knowledge, or even about secrecy of intelligence, I think it’s a peculiar style of political management where he’s inviting as much, as large a section of the public as possible to not engage, and not to think, and not to listen to a point of view which he’s saying that they shouldn’t listen to. Of course for me it’s been very satisfying because he said in advance, that it was going to be wrong, when it came out he said it’s going to be wrong and then since then the former head of the GCSB, who knows much more about this than he has, has been on the radio seeing that in fact the whole story is right. Manning: Clearly there is a lot of information going to be revealed over time. One of the things that seems to remain unanswered at this juncture is the idea that was put out there, or the statement that was put out there, by Edward Snowden last year in the election campaign that there was an NSA base in Auckland. And he made reference to another one as well. Now what information do you have that would indicate that this was accurate or not? Hager: I’ve actually been in contact with Edward Snowden about that, I can explain now. And this is a work in progress. We’re in communication about it and what he was writing about and spoke about there has some substance to it, but he had his geography slightly wrong. That’s actually the true story of this because I’ve been in contact with him which is what he said to me, but we haven’t got to the bottom of what he actually does know yet, so I won’t speak up on that, because I’m not sure what the final answer is going to be. Manning: Thanks Nicky. Thanks very much for taking part.
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Response Report: Hager says NZ spying bad for Pacific relations (PMC Audio)

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Reporter: Alistar Kata. AUCKLAND: It’s no secret that NZ is spying on its Pacific neighbours. Investigative journalist Nicky Hager says intercepted communications from countries such as Fiji, Samoa and Tonga and Vanuatu are captured as “full-take collection” by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and passed onto the US National Security Agency. In an extended interview with journalist Selwyn Manning on the newly launched EveningReport.nz website, Hager says New Zealand’s position is “arrogant”. (ref. ER episode 1) He says the New Zealand move will prove bad for future relations with Pacific governments. “It’s those small countries, the ones were we don’t have a good excuse and we are just selling them out, where I think it’s going to be bad,” he says.

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Response Report: Hager slams NZ ‘arrogance’ over spying in new e-media interview (PMC)

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Report by Alistar Kata. AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch/Pacific Media Centre): Investigative journalist and author Nicky Hager has condemned the New Zealand government as being “arrogant” over  revelations about its spying on Pacific neighbours. [caption id="attachment_941" align="alignright" width="300"]Evening Report, Episode 1, Nicky Hager. Evening Report, Episode 1, Nicky Hager.[/caption] Hager talked with journalist Selwyn Manning last night about the implications and challenges to the New Zealand public and Pacific communities. The interview was hosted on a new independent interactive news website, eveningreport.nz Manning, editor of eveningreport.nz, said the launch of the website could not have come any sooner. “I intended for the launch to be in April,” he said. “But with the investigation rolling out of the Snowden revelations and what that means to New Zealanders – but most importantly to those in the Pacific region – the site is perfect for that type of topic”. With the recent wave of popularity with online media, particularly blog sites, Manning said audiences needed a place where “robust debate” took place. Blogs partisan “Most of the blogs are very partisan, they’re extremely biased and often are opinion driven in their items and articles,” he said. “I think that the New Zealand public deserve to have a place where it can go irrespective of the political position a person may have, where they can have robust debate without being swamped by people attacking their views.” As well as providing a reliable news service, eveningreport.nz will engage audiences in debates through respectful channels. “The You Live section for example will provide a live text, live audio and live video platform for the audience itself to debate the issues in real time,” Manning said. “There are safety mechanisms built into the technology, so if someone’s being an idiot on the live functions of the site whether it be audio or whatever, people can report that person.” References:

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Response Report: NZ ‘selling out’ Pacific neighbours to ‘buy’ US links, says Hager

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NSA Worldwide SIGINT Platform 2013. Photo: NSA via Wikimeida Commons. NSA Worldwide SIGINT Platform 2013. Photo: NSA via Wikimeida Commons.[/caption]

Pacific Scoop:

Report – By Michael Neilson

Investigative journalist Nicky Hager has denounced critics who minimised the Snowden espionage revelations, saying New Zealand has no good reason to spy, and is “selling out” its Pacific neighbours to “buy [its] way into closer relations with the United States intelligence alliance”.

Hager was speaking in an interview on the new e-media site EveningReport.nz launched last night about the latest revelations from US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Even though the extensive data is collected and stored at the Waihopai base it is fed straight into the US intelligence network, and New Zealand cannot even access it without going through the US system, said Hager.

New Zealand’s Pacific neighbours had built up trust over several decades and should feel violated, such as Tongan Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva who reacted strongly last week, said Hager.

New Zealanders who were in the Pacific could also have their data collected.

The investigative journalist supported the complaint being made to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security by the Green Party over whether it was legal.

Hager criticised Prime Minister John Key’s advice for New Zealanders to avoid the revelations, saying intelligence and foreign policy were not Key’s main interests and he was trying to deflect attention from their activities.

Editor and founder of EveningReport.nz Selwyn Manning said the site provided independent analysis of public interest issues and served as a platform for live video debates, interviews, and viewer input.

Manning said the site would appeal to New Zealanders who wanted to debate the big issues without the “tribal” political nature of blogs.

The site’s focus was on public interest advocacy of humanitarianism, environmentalism, progressive economics, sustainable business practice, and security, said Manning.

Manning said the website was looking for well-researched and well-argued submissions from all fields – “be they journalists, writers, or anybody else” who could contribute to New Zealand debate on issues.

Michael Neilson is a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student journalist at AUT University.

Pacific Scoop.

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Delay in communicating threat questioned

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MIL OSI – Source: Massey University Headline: Delay in communicating threat questioned One of the letters sent to Fonterra containing the blackmail threat

Massey University crisis communications specialist Dr Chris Galloway has questioned the delay in informing the public about the 1080 threats.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="196"] Dr Chris Galloway.[/caption] “You can understand way the authorities didn’t release the information immediately, but after a short period to check out their veracity, I think most parents would have preferred to find out as soon as possible,” Dr Galloway says.“Most people operate on a belief they have the right to know and they want to be able to make a decision about whether to stop using a product or not, even when the risk is minimal.” Dr Galloway says the message that the risk was low and the police were doing everything possible to monitor the threat and apprehend the blackmailer would have done more to establish trust with the public if communicated earlier. “Announcing the threat four months after the fact puts them in a weaker position,” he says. Dr Galloway says the agrifood sector is so critical to New Zealand’s economic success that more coordinated crisis communication plans are needed. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="196"] Professor Steve Flint.[/caption] “Key stakeholders need to have a co-ordinating action team to so they can move quickly in cases like this to minimise damage to consumer confidence.” Meanwhile, Massey University food safety specialist Professor Steve Flint says unless the alleged blackmailer threatening to contaminate infant milk formula with 1080 works at a dairy company, it would be extremely difficult for them to access the product. Professor Flint, from the Institute of Food Science and Technology, says that  other means of contamination open to the blackmailer were also limited. “Supermarkets also have tamper-proof packaging it’s unlikely they’d be able to access it that way either.” Professor Flint says as with any threat “you can never be completely assured of safety.” However, the chance of this threat happening in New Zealand is extremely low.

Created: 10/03/2015 | Last updated: 10/03/2015

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ESR part of response to formula threat

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MIL OSI –

Source: ESR – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: ESR part of response to formula threat

ESR is part of the Government and industry response dealing with a criminal blackmail threat concerning the contamination of infant and other milk-powder-based formula. We will assist the Ministry for Primary Industries and Police in a sampling/testing/toxicology workstream by examining any products referred to us from Police under an agreed triage criteria and response protocol.

Public information is available here (external link) and any request for media comment should be directed to the Ministry for Primary Industries as the lead agency.

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Police warn buyers from social media sites to be wary following gunpoint robbery

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Headline: Police warn buyers from social media sites to be wary following gunpoint robbery

Tuesday, 10 March 2015 – 6:53pm

Be wary of dealing with strangers and where possible, conduct transactions using traceable payment options is the message from Waikato Police investigating the gunpoint robbery of a man in Gordonton overnight.

Detective Russell Crawford of the Ngaruawahia CIB said detectives were alerted to the incident after a distraught man flagged down a passing patrol car on SH3 in Otorohanga about 4pm.

“It appears our victim has driven up from New Plymouth to Hamilton yesterday morning to purchase a motorbike he saw for sale on a Facebook based site that specialises in selling motorbikes.

“He had arranged to meet the seller at the Five Crossroads shops but when he arrived the “seller” advised him to go to a Gordonton property. When the victim arrived a Caucasian male opened a farm gate to let the victim’s car and trailer in and suddenly he found himself confronted by a second male brandishing a firearm.”

Mr Crawford said the victim was understandably traumatised by what happened with the offenders making him lie on the ground and threatening to shoot him several times.

“The pair have taken the victim’s money he intended purchasing the motorbike with and fled in a getaway vehicle driven by a third offender.

“The man was so shaken he didn’t call 111 and instead began to drive home, flagging down the first Police car he saw which was in Otorohanga. Obviously with the benefit of hindsight Police would recommend calling 111 immediately but the man was obviously in an emotional and stressed state.”

Mr Crawford said while Police work closely with a number of internet based selling companies the number of social media based operations was increasing all the time and he urged potential buyers to take some simple safety precautions.

• Where possible avoid paying cash, instead make a bank payment so there is an auditable trail of the transaction
• Avoid carrying large some of cash and if you must use this form of payment, ensure you go with someone else and conduct the transaction in a well lit, public place where you can be seen
• Obtain as much detail of the seller as you can prior to the purchase such as their name, their phone number, address or any other identifiable piece of information
• Remember, if the deal seems too good to be true it probably is and by buying that super deal you may make yourself the next victim
• Never use a money transfer service to send money overseas
• Keep all emails, texts and messages exchanged with the seller
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Coming Up Tonight On Evening Report – March 10 2015

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Evening Report editor, Selwyn Manning. Evening Report editor, Selwyn Manning.[/caption]From The Editor’s Desk. Coming up tonight on Evening Report at 8pm: Lead Report: We have a full transcript of the extended interview with Nicky Hager on the Snowden Revelations. Response-Reports: We have two reports framing the Nicky Hager interview by rookie journalist Alistar Kata. She’s an absolute professional and a journalist to watch in the future (Audio report) + (News Report). Full Coverage: And we have full raw coverage of this threat to contaminate infant and other formula in what the government states is an apparent protest over the use of 1080 in pest control. ALSO:

Tomorrow evening we are planning another live video interview that will kick off at 8pm, Wednesday, March 11. See you at 8pm – Selwyn Manning.]]>

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