West Papuans who have been living in Papua New Guinea for many decades will be granted citizenship soon.
The PNG Immigration and Citizenship Authority will also embark on registering all West Papuan refugees who have crossed over from Indonesia to seek refugee status in Papua New Guinea.
“So far we have over 10,000 refugees from West Papua who have lived with us for a very long time, and we have commenced registration of them with the view to finally granting them legal status,” said Deputy Chief Migration officer for Refugee Division, Esther Gaegaming.
“We’re pleased to announce that for more than 1000 of them, their applications have been finalised and they will be going before the Citizenship Advisory Committee very soon for issuance of their citizenships.
“This Friday, a team from our office will commence registration in Vanimo, another one of the biggest refugee settlement areas for West Papuan refugees. We will follow onto Wewak after that and then to Lae.
“So by the end of this year, we hope to have over 85 percent of West Papuans registered.
“I am proud to say that PNG is fulfilling its obligations as a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on the status of refugees. PNG now has a vibrant legal and procedural framework for the processing of refugee claims under the Migration Act and Regulations,” Gaegaming said.
“We also have a system in place for the registration and naturalisation of refugees from West Papua who have lived in Papua New Guinea for decades.
“We also have a national refugee policy that is clear on refugee matters, including guidance on the resettlement of refugees in Papua New Guinea and most of all, we have a dedicated team in the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Authority that is set up especially to manage this,” she said.
Senior police officers have been given a week’s refresher training in the use of firearms following an uproar over the force opening fire on peacefully protesting University of Papua New Guinea students on June 8, wounding 23 people.
The officers were in training at the Bomana Police Training College on the outskirts of Port Moresby.
“Firearms are one of the dangerous equipment that police use,” said Commander Perou N’Dranou. “It’s there for a purpose to make sure that we do our job properly to protect life and property.”
The police have faced widespread criticism over the use of firearms with critics claiming that they are using firearms illegally.
Bradley Gregory reports for the state-run National Broadcasting Corporation TV News.
Two digital journalists based in Makassar, in the region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, have been attacked while attending an event held by Makassar branch of Islamic Students Alumni (KAHMI Makassar) at Makassar mayor’s house.
Global Voices author Arpan Rachman and his wife Icha Lamboge, who is also a journalist, told Global Voices that on June 5 two men in black uniforms – not the standard uniform of city security guards – stopped them and asked for their journalist ID cards.
The men then took them into a small room behind the house where Arpan asked them to identify themselves, which they refused to do. One of the men then snatched Lamboge’s mobile phone, which is her main reporting tool.
When Rachman intervened and tried to get her phone back, the man grabbed and punched him in the chest while the other man strangled him.
The couple reported the incident to police, and Rachman was examined by a doctor. While he is recovering from the incident, both he and his wife are fearing for their safety.
The Alliance for Independent Journalists in Makassar has documented 12 cases of journalist abuse so far in 2016, including harassment while reporting, destruction of reporting tools, intimidation, and physical assault. Neither KAHMI, AJI, nor Makassar officials have issued any statement regarding the attack on Rachman and Lamboge.
Shortly afterwards, Lamboge expressed concern that the incident would be “dismissed and forgotten or the evidence record doctored”.
Fearing for safety They have since obtained legal representation from Legal Aid Foundation Makassar, but much remains uncertain about their case. They continue to fear for their physical safety.
Both work actively as journalists, with Lamboge working chiefly with SINDO Trijaya FM, a radio station based in Jakarta, and Rachman working as investigative journalist with multiple local news outlets including BaKTINews, inspiratifnews, Membunuh Indonesia and Media Lingkungan.
The couple has worked together on stories that they suspect could have provoked the incident. For a recent print edition of the human rights magazine Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives, they wrote about controversial mass evictions taking place in the Bulogading zone at the center of Makassar.
More than one online story about the evictions has been taken down as tensions have risen.
In Indonesia, violence against journalists happens regularly. Attacks like these often go unreported in the media, and perpetrators often go without punishment.
The case involving Arpan and Icha was covered by one local news website, but the story was subsequently removed for unknown reasons.
Global Voices community condemns all forms of violence against journalists in Indonesia and elsewhere in the world. As a community, we stand by our colleague Arpan and his family’s appeal for truth and justice.
Media experts say journalism institutions lack the resources needed to raise the quality and awareness of environmental reportage in the Asia-Pacific region.
Widely published writer and chairman of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), Professor Crispin Maslog says that because of this he rarely sees climate change being reported in Asia-Pacific media.
Professor Maslog … climate change under-reported.
“Based on my experience in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, the problem has been the lack of science courses in the curricula, the lack of teachers to teach the basics of science and the environment,” he said.“There are no textbooks and no teachers.”
Dr Maslog writes an analysis blog on science and development at the SciDev.net website with his latest column on Asia’s “invisible women farmers”.
The Indonesian country representative of AMIC and a researcher of indigenous and environmental issues, Dr Hermin Indah Wahyuni, says a key challenge such as climate change is often overlooked by the media because it is not emphasised in many journalism schools.
“Journalism lecturers in most Indonesian communication departments don’t offer specific attention to this issue [climate change],” she said.
This results in a “fallback effect” when students leave to join major media organisations.
“This condition impacts on the media structure in general,” Dr Hermin says. “Media education has a big role to offer perspectives for a better society, however not many media and communication departments can do this.”
She says a factor contributing to the quality of climate change reportage is that it is seen as an unpopular topic because it is competing with other issues that are having immediate effects on people.
Corruption priority “Topics like corruption, political conflict, and economic issues,” she says are examples that are given priority over climate change.
Dr Hermin Indah Wahyuni and Dr Maslog will be presenting on a panel about the challenges of climate changel reporting and journalism education at the World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) held in Auckland next month.
They are both sponsored by the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s media programme, which supports media professionals to take up placements or projects in New Zealand or Asia.
Dr Hermin Indah Wahyuni … speaker at WJEC next month.
Foundation media adviser Rebecca Palmer says events like the WJEC are a great way for journalism educators around the world to interact and share knowledge with their counterparts.“We hope they have the opportunity to shed light into current affairs and media issues in their home countries and that they build networks with New Zealand-based journalism educators, who will then be able to pass their knowledge on to their students,” she says.
In addition a former secretary-general of AMIC and investigative journalist, Jose Maria Carlos, will also present at the conference.
Currently a desk editor with CNN Philippines, Carlos has been busy preparing news coverage for the inauguration of the Philippines President-elect, Rodrigo Duterte.
The Pacific Media Centre is sponsoring Carlos to attend the WJEC.
The World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) will be held at AUT University’s city campus in the Sir Paul Reeves Building. It will run from the July 14-16 and follow an Australia-NZ-Pacific preconference on July 13 jointly staged by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA), Media Educators Pacific and the Pacific Media Centre.
TJ Aumua is contributing editor of the Pacific Media Watch Project.
Fiji’s Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama used what would normally have been a bland official speech in Suva earlier this month to bluntly air continuing grievances over the policies of the region’s key powers, directing his remarks to his visiting New Zealand counterpart John Key.
The diplomatic strains are a sign of unresolved and deepening geostrategic tensions in the Pacific.
Australia and New Zealand are determined to ensure their continued regional dominance as part of the US-led drive to counter growing Chinese influence and prepare for war.
Key’s 24-hour visit on June 9, the first by a New Zealand prime minister to the impoverished South Pacific country since Bainimarama’s 2006 military coup, was intended to advance New Zealand’s foreign policy interests.
Australia and New Zealand both regard Fiji, the South Pacific island state at the crossroads of Polynesia and Melanesia, as critical to their influence.
Following the coup, Canberra and Wellington imposed diplomatic and economic sanctions. These had nothing to do with defending democratic rights in Fiji but were driven by concerns that the coup could destabilise the region and open the way for Chinese influence.
Sanctions backfired The sanctions, however, backfired. Bainimarama responded with a “Look North” policy, seeking and receiving economic, diplomatic and military aid from China, Russia and elsewhere.
In 2007, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Fiji, Michael Green, was accused of interfering in the country’s affairs and was expelled.
In January this year a consignment of gifted weapons arrived from Russia for the Fiji army, followed by a 10-member team of Russian military instructors. The response by the Australian and New Zealand governments was muted, at least publicly, but Murdoch’s TheAustralian declared that Bainimarama was “making a bad mistake” if he believed that the consignment was “a good idea for his nation.”
Canberra and Wellington are determined to counteract the growing presence of “outside” powers in what they regard as their own backyard. In March, the two governments exploited the devastation caused by Cyclone Winston to send warships, aircraft and hundreds of military personnel to Fiji.
It was New Zealand’s biggest military deployment since World War II. While the intervention was characterised as a “humanitarian and disaster aid” mission, it was consistent with the intensifying militarisation of the Pacific.
Following the cyclone, China provided aid of US$100,000 to the Fiji Red Cross Society, the first country to do so. Beijing later increased its disaster relief package to US$10 million. Key derided the contribution, telling reporters that “when the need was great for Fiji … it was Australia and New Zealand that turned up.”
New Zealand Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee visited Fiji in March to reinforce Wellington’s “help” in the disaster relief. It followed a visit by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
‘Big opportunity’ The Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, noted that Bishop’s visit presented “a big opportunity for Fiji” to put behind it “all the bad blood between the two countries since the 2006 coup” and “normalise relations.”
Key’s visit this month had a similar agenda. Before leaving Wellington, Key told reporters that following the 2014 elections in Fiji, the military coup was now “ancient history.”
Although democratic rule was still not “absolutely perfect,” the time was “right” for the highest-level diplomatic relations to resume.
No sooner had Key arrived in Suva than it became clear the trip would not go according to script. At the welcoming banquet, Bainimarama reminded Key that he won Fiji’s 2014 election with an overwhelming majority.
“It is on that basis I stand before you tonight. Not as a coup maker or dictator, as some in your country would still have it, but as a properly elected, freely chosen leader of Fiji,” he declared.
During Key’s visit, Bainimarama refused to give way on two central matters. Firstly, he refused to rescind a ban on New Zealand journalists identified as being critical of the regime.
Bainimarama claimed there was “a substantial body of opinion” in New Zealand, led by “your generally hostile media,” that “what is happening in Fiji somehow lacks legitimacy. That somehow I lack legitimacy. And my government lacks legitimacy.”
Such claims, Bainimarama stated, were “not borne out by the facts.”
Military still key In reality, the government still rests directly on the military. The election in which Bainimarama’s Fiji FirstParty purportedly won 60 percent of the ballot was held under conditions of press censorship, military provocations and severe restrictions on opposition political parties.
The government remains anti-working class and authoritarian, ruling largely through fear and intimidation.
A week before Key arrived, Bainimarama’s government used its numbers in Parliament to suspend an opposition MP, the National Federation Party’s Roko Tupou Draunidalo, for more than two years after alleging she called a minister a “fool.”
Secondly, Bainimarama again refused to return to meetings of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), from which Fiji was earlier suspended.
The Australian and New Zealand-dominated PIF rescinded the suspension after the 2014 elections. Bainimarama declined Key’s invitation to re-join the PIF.
In return, Key said New Zealand would not quit the regional organisation, as Bainimarama previously sought.
Fiji has encouraged other Pacific nations to take a more “independent” stance, setting up the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) in 2012, from which Australia and New Zealand were excluded.
Greenhouse gases In the lead-up to the COP21 environmental summit in Paris last year, Pacific leaders were highly critical of Australia and New Zealand for refusing to support their call to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep global temperature increases below 1.5 degrees centigrade.
The PIDF declared the target was required to protect their tiny island states from rising sea levels.
Tensions between the official parties following Bainimarama’s outburst in Suva were reportedly palpable. Fairfax Media columnist Tracy Watkins described Wellington’s delegation as “seething over the Fijian prime minister’s extraordinary diplomatic slapdown.”
Nor did it go unnoticed that Bainimarama was “hardly effusive” in his low-key acknowledgement of New Zealand’s assistance during Cyclone Winston. Watkins declared that, by the time it finished, Key’s trip had been stripped of any “diplomatic wins.”
New Zealand Labour Party foreign affairs spokesperson David Shearer described Key’s trip as a “disaster,” writing: “He [Bainimarama] didn’t step back from the restrictions on media [or] the heavy-handedness within Parliament.”
Key’s government needed to keep pushing Fijian officials “for a better democracy,” he declared.
Labour’s position is completely hypocritical. It was the previous Labour government that imposed New Zealand’s sanctions regime on Fiji after the 2006 coup.
In 2014, Labour endorsed the “democratic” election of Bainimarama and the rehabilitation of his regime.
The proceedings came before Justice David Cannings today who refused to hear the application as respondents UPNG in the application had not been served a notice of motion.
This is a fresh proceeding and the motion was filed on June 17.
Justice Cannings described the “non-service” on the part of the lawyer representing the students as an “ambush” on the respondents.
UPNG registrar Jennifer Popat is the first respondent, the UPNG Senate is the second respondent and the state is the third respondent.
Justice Cannings said he could not see why the lawyer representing the students, (Laken Lepatu Aigilo) could not serve the respondents, ordering that they be served by 10am tomorrow.
The application will be heard at 4pm.
Two orders sought In the application, the students are seeking two main orders:
A declaration of the court to nullify the purported Students Reaffirmation form that the UPNG administration issued to students to sign when the suspension of semester one was lifted.
An order seeking to restrain registrar Popat and the university from forcing students’ to sign the reaffirmation form.
Aigilo explained that if students signed the reaffirmation form, they would basically shut down their rights to raise concerns and views the students had been fighting for in terms of national concerns.
On June 8, the UPNG administration succeeded in obtaining a National Court order to restrain the members of the SRC from boycotting classes.
The National Court issued restraining orders against members of the SRC, including president Kenneth Rapa and the student body, from putting up barricades to block classrooms and lecture theatres, threatening and assaulting enrolled students and university staff.
This interim injunction also restrained members of the SRC and students from carrying out activities which are contrary to their enrolment as students.
The matter will return to court on June 22 for the court to hear the judicial review filed by the students.
On June 1, the National Court granted leave for the students’ application for a judicial review to be conducted into the University Council’s decision on May 24, ordering students to vacate the campus within 48 hours.
Students and staff at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences forum discussing UPNG academic and national issues today. Image: Citizen Journalist
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The Otago Foreign Policy School next month will explore the complex and evolving interaction between government policy making and “old” and “new” forms of news media.
Academics working in the field of media and politics as well as veteran journalist Mike McRoberts, Maramena Roderick (head of news, Māori Television), independent investigative journalist Nicky Hager, senior foreign corespondent Luke Harding (The Guardian), and professor David Robie, editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Asia Pacific Report, will engage with a very diversified and active audience that includes students, policymakers, diplomats and members of the public.
The school will be held at St Margaret’s College on the university’s Dunedin campus from the evening of Friday July 1 until Sunday July 3.
Topics to be explored range from broader overarching issues such as:
what is communication today,
the role played by “old” and “new” media in international strategic narratives,
public diplomacy,
the effects of foreign news on international affairs,
how new media technology have empowered non-state actors (digital activism).
The school will also feature a roundtable discussion on the Panama Papers and whistleblower journalism.
“Shoot me!” The voices of Sri Lankan refugees – a heartbreaking video. Indonesian authorities refuse to allow the 44 Sri Lankans leave a boat which has been stranded off the coast of Aceh for almost one week. Video: Nakkheeranwebtv
By Saifulbahri Ismail in Jakarta
On June 11, a boat of 44 Sri Lankans was discovered in the waters of Aceh, a northern province of Indonesia. They were en route to Australia when the boat encountered engine problems.
It is a situation that Indonesian officials are all too familiar with. It is a reminder of the 2015 migrant crisis when thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladesh left their homes in rickety smuggler’s boats and travelled to Southeast Asia.
“The Indonesian authorities are quite well prepared to deal with these boat arrivals,” said Paul Dillon, media officer at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). “When matters unfolded last May there were roughly 1800 individuals who arrived from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
“The Indonesian government has a lot of experience, sadly, from many years of emerging as a transit country for migrants who are trying to establish themselves for a better life in other countries.”
The crisis prompted countries to reinvigorate coordinated efforts to better tackle the regional challenge of irregular migration.
“Indonesia’s position is still the same in tackling irregular migrants,” said the spokesperson of its foreign ministry, Arrmanatha Nasir. “It should be resolved not only by the country of transit, but also the countries of destination and origin – just like a year ago when we managed to work together with the country of origin, IOM and UNHCR until (the migrants) are able to go back to their place of origin.”
300 still in camps Out of the more than 1000 Rohingya migrants who reached Indonesia’s shores last year, about 300 of them still reside in various camps in Aceh.
Many have left the camps on their own to go to Malaysia with the help of people smugglers.
Most of them still in the camps have already been verified by UNHCR as refugees.
Altogether there are nearly 14,000 asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia. A number of them have been resettled to other countries, but many are still stuck in transit for many years.
Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention and refugees cannot legally work here while waiting for resettlement in a third country.
‘Spirit of humanitarianism’ “Even though Indonesia is not a signatory – they’ve not signed the refugee convention – they live up to their humanitarian responsibilities and the spirit of humanitarianism that I think most Indonesians have,” said Thomas Vargas, a representative at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
“It’s very important that that spirit continues and by signing the refugee convention, I think the government could move even further in showing solidarity with the international community, with other countries around the world,” he added.
For the refugees who are in transit, it could be a long wait for them before they can be resettled or even reunited with other family members in another country.
Until that happens, government, agencies and local communities have a shared responsibility to make their stay a little more bearable in the name of humanity.
Report by David Robie. This article was first published on Café Pacific
AN EXCLUSIVE video created by the University of Papua New Guinea’s
Student Representative Council about the events on
8 June 2016 involving the shooting of at least 8 UPNG students by police officers outside of their Waigani campus in Port Moresby.
Hospital authorities denied news reports of deaths, but confirmed at least 23 people had been treated for gunshot wounds, four with critical injuries
The students were assembling at the campus for a peaceful march to Parliament to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to face an investigation into corruption allegations.
The narrator is Kenneth Rapa, president of the SRC, and he explains the sequence of events leading up the police opening fire on the students with gunshots and tear gas.
The Magic Flute – Performed by New Zealand Opera. Accompanied by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. AUCKLAND: ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre Thursday June 16, Saturday June 18, Wednesday June 22, Friday June 24 2016 performances at 7.30pm. Then Sunday June 26, at 2.30pm.
IF YOU GET A CHANCE do treat yourself to New Zealand Opera’s performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which continues this week at Auckland’s ASB Theatre. The music alone is sublime, and, most importantly in honour of Mozart, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra delivers under the baton of conductor Wynn Davies.
[caption id="attachment_10598" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Queen of the Night’s three ladies – Amelia Berry, Catrin Johnsson and Kristin Darragh – Image by Marty Melville – New Zealand Opera’s performance of The Magic Flute. [/caption]
The director of New Zealand Opera’s performance of The Magic Flute is Sara Brodie. She has nurtured something special from this opera. She has brought into balance the essential elements of the original while giving opportunity for today’s audience to consider interpretation. There’s conflicting layers to this story, a plot with threads that come together to weave a fairy tale fabric of 21st century life. It transports with relevance. There’s puppetry (a controversy according to one critique) that drew hilarity from the audience. I thought it marvellous. It’s so Mozart.
And of course, there’s the music. At times during the Auckland performance, I shut my eyes and simply listened – to the music, to the singing. The orchestra was like the fabled flute and a delight in itself.
Under Brodie’s guidance, Kit Hesketh-Harvey’s English translation of The Magic Flute connects with its Auckland audience. Brodie speaks of softening the accents to accommodate her international cast. It works.
[caption id="attachment_10579" align="alignright" width="200"] Tamino (Randall Bills) gets his girl Pamina (Emma Fraser) – Image by Marty Melville – New Zealand Opera’s performance of The Magic Flute.[/caption]USA tenor Randall Bills balances wonderfully the initial frailties and eventual conquering dualism of the vulnerable Tamilo’s character.
And Sydney-based New Zealand soprano Emma Fraser (who is New Zealand Opera’s 2016 Dame Malvina Major Young Artist) is the perfect balance as Tamino’s infatuation-become-love, Pamina. Emma Fraser’s stage presence wonderfully supports her soprano performance. She is a testament to the quality of this country’s performing artists. And in this role, she is an absolute delight.
The UK’s Ruth Jenkins-Robertsson certainly brings alive the dark depths of brooding intent from her character the Queen of the Night when she reveals her malcontent to her supposed beloved daughter Pamina. It’s powerful opera that would lead to tragedy, but for the strength of Pamina and that magical flute.
And there was a moment of pure magic at the opening night of the Auckland performance, when a member of the audience called out from his seat somewhere amid the theatre’s front-left stalls. The calling to Papageno would no doubt have had Mozart chuckling from his lofty pew. Immediately, on hearing the call, as if on cue, Papageno, in the hands of Australia’s Samuel Dundas (a graduate of Melbourne’s Melba Conservatorium of Music) interacted and traded banter with the improvising theatre-goer. Then, with the entire audience sharing hilarity, Dundas continued seamlessly with Papageno’s journey. It was comic timing at its best and perfectly in character connecting to the somewhat bawdy, fairy tale, ambience of the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden where the opera was first performed in 1791.
[caption id="attachment_10583" align="alignleft" width="640"] Papageno (Samuel Dundas) and Papagena (Madison Nonoa) triumphant in love – Image by Marty Melville – New Zealand Opera’s performance of The Magic Flute.[/caption]
Oh, and watch out too for Hamilton’s Madison Nonoa, who is New Zealand Opera’s Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist. She is fabulous in the latter part of Act two in bringing to life a vivacious Papagena (kitted out with an arty leg tattoo). Oh, and Wellington’s Bonaventure Allan-Moetaua, honestly this guy is absolute class, and, an audience pleaser as the conflicted and brooding Monostatos.
Of course, The Magic Flute carries perhaps Mozart’s most poignant message. As Sara Brodie said, it isn’t simply a story of good being triumphant over evil. It’s much more than that.
It came to me when I closed my eyes to see. At that moment when Papageno sensed hope and broke free from fear and doubt. It was as if Mozart was there in the theatre, his voice clear and speaking as music as his genius fluttered and danced about – speaking from his past to our future, with his cheeky wit, his shock humour, poking fun at the male chauvinists of his time and ours, exposing how dippy in character they were and are, how easily manipulated, how dangerous is the circumstance when envy, jealousy, difference and indifference intersect, when belief and reason, conceit and control align to compel the meek to become the tools of powerful fools.
New Zealand Opera created the opportunity for Mozart’s message to be heard. This review isn’t a critique. It’s my celebration of one night at the opera, and my hope that you too will become a witness to a world-class performance of a musical genius’ enduring gift to us all.
Cast To Watch:
TAMINO Randall Bills
FIRST LADY Amelia Berry
SECOND LADY Catrin Johnsson
THIRD LADY Kristin Darragh
PAPAGENO Samuel Dundas
PAPAGENA Madison Nonoa
QUEEN OF NIGHT Ruth Jenkins-Róbertsson
MONOSTATOS Bonaventure Allan-Moetaua
PAMINA Emma Fraser.
The Backstage Backstory:
Of course there’s always a huge team of talent that doesn’t make it to the stage, that all play their part to make a performance, to create the opportunity for magic to happen.
https://youtu.be/TBU7W3SWUp0
The Director:
This performance of The Magic Flute is directed by Sara Brodie.
The opera was first performed at Freihaustheater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria, on 30 September 1791 only 10 weeks before Mozart’s death.
It is said that The Magic Flute is open to interpretation. That its message is varied, is layered within the structure of plot and music.
When interviewed for New Zealand Opera’s programme, Director Sara Brodie says: “It is certainly a red herring to think of it as a tale of good versus evil, but its themes are universal. Like a good fairytale it seems to include a lesson, a hidden mystery or meaning to be revealed.
“I tend to think of it in layers. There is a conglomerate of theatrical layering, which includes: musical theatre, pantomime, comedy, opera and magical effects. The layers of plot; a quest, lovers who need to prove they are worthy before achieving the sacred marriage, battling leaders, trails in an underworld, and the sub-plot of an everyman. And then the thematic tension of: superstition versus the enlightenment, anima versus animus, and night versus day.
“It is most certainly a comedy but one which is subliminal and sublime,” Sara Brodie says.
The Set:
https://youtu.be/vQnaLHvJnGs
NZ Opera’s David Larsen profiled set designer John Verryt for the performance’s programme. He describes how the design concept always begins with the script. Verryt says: “‘It is impossible to read the script too often. With an opera, you want to marinate yourself in the music as well as the story. But this is a matter of listening, not of watching recordings of other productions.’ The great classic operas have design histories stretching back centuries; he does not want those legacies cluttering his head as he starts work… After the opera has soaked into his brain, Verryt starts to draw. Sketches, scribbles, rough ideas.”
The final set design became rather a challenge for the performers and choreography team. The raked stage is significantly higher at the rear than the front. That means the cast must perform on a slope which is challenging on feet, ankles, knees.
The upside is the sloping stage delivers clearer sound to the audience, the vocals are more accentuated, more balanced.
But it doesn’t end there. The set design is simple. Oblique. Giving structure to the stage. But as the performance ticks along, the set transforms, giving added dimension to scenes, aiding interpretation as the plot progresses, as the story unfolds.
And along with The Magic Flute come host of strange and larger than life creatures, like the Spider that looms from above and behind. It’s quite a menacing critter, that’s subdued when the Magic Flute is played.
The Costumes:
https://youtu.be/XXA04HiUn_c
The costume designers for The Magic Flute are Elizabeth Whiting and Lisa Holmes and they speak about how a clever tattoo design was created for Papageno’s love, Papagena that trailed down the performer’s thigh. The costumes were also made unique for each chorus singer, which is a feat in itself.
The Conductor and the Score:
https://youtu.be/vGAnhrUEiAg
Auckland Philharmonia’s much loved and celebrated Wyn Davies conducts the Auckland performances. Director Sara Brodie says she “adores” working alongside Davies.
The Cast:
TAMINO Randall Bills
FIRST LADY Amelia Berry
SECOND LADY Catrin Johnsson
THIRD LADY Kristin Darragh
PAPAGENO Samuel Dundas
QUEEN OF NIGHT Ruth Jenkins-Róbertsson
MONOSTATOS Bonaventure Allan-Moetaua
PAMINA Emma Fraser
GENIE 1 Barbara Graham
GENIE 2 Katherine McIndoe
GENIE 3 Kayla Collingwood
ARMED MAN/PRIEST Derek Hill åˆ
SARASTRO Wade Kernot
THE SPEAKER/ARMED MAN/PRIEST James Clayton
PAPAGENA Madison Nonoa.
After monitoring 20 months of the human rights situation in Papua and West Papua provinces under Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s administration, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is dismayed at the utter lack of progress in the protection and realisation of people’s rights.
Since President Widodo’s inauguration on 20 October 2014, there were considerable expectations for improvement in Indonesia’s human rights situation, particularly in Papua and West Papua.
President Widodo was believed to have a strong commitment to addressing the various human rights violations in Papua, providing remedies for victims and families, and evaluating the presence of security forces in the province.
Over a year of his presidency however, has neither resolved any of the past human rights violations, nor seen any adequate remedy and guarantee for non recurrence given to the victims.
Law No. 21 of 2001 on special autonomy for Papua and West Papua province has yet to bring benefits to local indigenous Papuans. Similarly, government development of public infrastructure has an economic and business orientation rather than benefits for the local community.
The government’s attempts to boost international investment to Papua and West Papua will likely see an increase in migration to the provinces from elsewhere in Indonesia, further fuelling local discontent.
Police involved Furthermore, criminal justice institutions in the provinces do not function to address human rights problems.
The police are frequently involved in various human rights violations in the two provinces, and the accountability mechanism has failed to address this problem.
The Paniai case of 8 December 2014, where four indigenous Papuan children were shot to death, two adults seriously injured, and 17 others injured (AHRC-UAC-089-2015) is an indicative example of the brutality faced by Papuans, as well as the lack of any effective investigation or remedies.
Other cases that have also not been investigated and prosecuted under President Widodo’s administration include the case of a member of the Air Force heavily maltreating 22-year-old Amsal Marandof (AHRC-UAC-143-2015), the case of arbitrary arrest and torture of three indigenous Papuans on 27 August 2015 (AHRC-UAC-003-2016), and the case of the shooting and brutal attack on 10 indigenous Papuan youth conducted by police officers of Tigi Police Sector (AHRC-UAC-090-2015).
The AHRC has also observed the Indonesian government’s lack of willingness to deal with past human rights abuses in Papua and West Papua provinces.
The investigation report of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on the gross violations in Wasior Wamena Papua (2001 and 2003), for instance, has been sitting with the Attorney General for the past eight years, without any action taken by that office.
In the allegations of genocide in the Central High Lands of Papua from 1977-1978 as well, although the AHRC submitted a report to Komnas HAM, as of yet there is no progress in the investigation.
While Komnas HAM initiated establishing a team in November 2015 to audit human rights violations beginning from the integration of Papua to the Republic of Indonesia until the case of Tolikara (AHRC-UAC-106-2015, AHRC-UAU-002-2016), since then there has been no clear information on the team’s existence or work.
Recently, a government initiative under the Coordinator Minister of Politic and Security (Menkopolhukam), Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, was announced, to establish a special team dealing with human rights violations in Papua and West Papua provinces.
Initiative rejected Local human rights groups however, have largely rejected the initiative, saying that representative indigenous Papuans in the team are not genuinely representing indigenous Papuans on the ground.
In fact, the initiative is typical of the government process to suddenly establish a team without proper consultation and discussion with Papuans on the ground.
The government tends to simplify the problems in Papua, and its economic and infrastructure perspective on Papua does not seriously take into consideration the history of human rights violations occurring from the time of integration to the present.
The AHRC therefore calls for President Joko Widodo and his administration to take serious and comprehensive steps to deal with the various human rights problems facing Papua and West Papua provinces.
The government should stop seeking political benefits in dealing with the provinces, and focus on improving the situation of the local communities.
In particular, the government must guarantee protection of local indigenous Papuans, local human rights defenders and journalists, and consistently open Papua and West Papua to international monitors to ensure the progress of resolution.
Mounting anger over the weekend reporting of the death of a Samoan transwoman in Apia has spilling over into New Zealand with prominent transrights campaigner Phylesha Brown-Acton saying the Samoa Observer’s coverage has left her “absolutely disgusted”, reports Gay NZ.
On the front page of its Sunday Samoa edition the Samoa Observer showed a full-length image of Jeanine Tuivaiki’s body hanging from the rafters of a central Apia Catholic church hall. In the accompanying news story, the newspaper referred to Tuivaiki as “a man”, and used the words “he” and “his.”
“I am absolutely disgusted by the Samoa Observer and their front page photo of a young fa’afafine woman,” said Brown-Acton, who described the reporting as “completely inappropriate and disrespectful”.
“Where is the respect for this young person and her family? The use of such an image to sell newspapers is the lowest form of sales tactics and the editor and the reporter should be held accountable for such degrading journalism”.
The Samoa Observer followed up with an apology that is closer to a justification, which in turn has faced criticism on social media.
Headed “And if you’re offended by it still, we apologise,” chief editor Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa said the publication of the photo was “never meant to demean,vilify or denigrate”.
He wrote that over the recent past, a proposal by Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi to “change Samoa’s constitution to make Christianity the country’s sole religion has drawn much opposition from other religions to the point that there is growing division in Samoa today”.
The photo had been in circulation on social media for a week and “if you’re offended by it still, all we can do is apologise”
The “apology” from the Samoa Observer.
Brown-Acton said the newspaper, the biggest circulation newspaper in Samoa, had a “track record of misgendering, misclassifying and misrepresenting Fa’afafine and continuing to portray and promote fear among community about Fa’afafine”.
Postings on the Samoa Observer Facebook page and a #BeautifulJeanine hashtag have been hugely critical of the reporting.
The Cook Islands-based media monitoring group Pacific Freedom Forum said in a statement the “shameful” publication of the unedited photo of the dead woman “breaches common decency, not just ethics”.
Le Va says Pasifika media can play a key role in leading safe messaging in reporting suicide to Pasifika communities.
In partnership with Pasifika media, Le Va has launched “Pasifika media guidelines for reporting suicide in New Zealand”.
With Beijing and Shanghai experiencing a decline in air pollution, is China finally starting to win the battle for its clean energy revolution? Jihee Junn reports for Asia-Pacific Report.
Yu Hua, one of China’s most acclaimed writers, wrote in his 2012 book China in Ten Words: “We had no concept of expressways or advertisements; we had very few stores, and very little to buy in the stores we did have. We seemed to have nothing then, but we did have a blue sky.”
Twenty-first century China, however, is a different story. The once insulated and agrarian-based nation has been transformed into a petrie dish of modern technological and economic advancement. Manufacturing has boomed and exports have skyrocketed, but so have their unsightly results.
Smog-filled skies now blanket the country’s metropolitan centres, along with polluted waterways and excess waste. Last year, Beijing issued its first ever “red alert” on the city’s air quality, closing schools and factories, and forcing thousands of private vehicles off the road.
Dire as China’s environmental situation may seem, recent studies have noted some improvements. The World Health Organisation’s latest data shows that air pollution is no doubt rising in the world’s poorest cities, and that Chinese cities are still some of the most polluted. But at the same time, air quality throughout much of the country has also improved.
“Airpocalypse” in Shanghai. Image: Greenpeace East Asia via Twitter
Similarly, Greenpeace East Asia’s air quality rankings found worsening conditions for almost 70 cities in central and Western China. But in major cities in the East such as Beijing and Shanghai, the average concentration of pollution in both cities fell by double digits.
In a media release, Greenpeace East Asia’s climate and energy campaigner Dong Liansai says that the implementation of anti-pollution measures five years ago has had a drastic effect in cutting down on toxic emissions
“The findings show that the government’s measures to curb air pollution in eastern China’s key regions work,” says Dong.
“But now is not the time to selectively implement these policies. They must be introduced across the country to ensure clean air for all.”
Declaring change For the government, curbing pollution has been a serious matter for some years now, and it now seems to make a routine of declaring war on the country’s atmosphere.
China’s Premier Li Keqiang … a promise to “declare war” on air pollution. Image: Wikimedia Commons
Speaking at the opening session of the country’s parliament last year, China’s Premier Li Keqiang announced that an “unrelenting” effort was needed to clear the country’s smoggy skies and toxic rivers. A year before that, Li promised to “declare war” on pollution.
Dr Jason Young at the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, says that the government realises the model that brought modernisation to China can no longer be sustained.
“There is a realisation that energy security cannot follow the traditional uses. They have come to the realisation that China’s urbanisation and industrialisation has come about at a period of world history where it’s just no longer an option to industrialise in the same way.”
Environmentalist Ma Jun says he has been encouraged by the government’s commitment to punish not just the companies causing pollution, but also local officials who have often ignored environmental crimes.
Despite having environmental protection laws, Jun says “the cost of violation remains low and serial polluters just pay fines year after year without solving their problem”.
Dr Young says that part of the problem stems from the fact that many polluters are often local and beyond central government control.
‘Abject failure’ “A lot of efforts have been made at the central government level on new environmental standards. But you have this disjuncture between the interests of central government, the interests of local government, and the interests of local businesses and state enterprises.”
“I’d say they’re making more of an improvement lately…but at the moment it’s still quite an abject failure.”
Following Li Keqiang’s speech, the Finance Ministry announced that it would spend more than 11 billion yuan (more than NZ$2 billion) in combatting air pollution. A further 47 billion yuan (NZ$10 billion) has been ear-marked to subsidise work such as energy conservation and emission reduction.
With both figures outpacing China’s GDP growth target, it highlights a key balancing act for the government.
“On one hand you want to keep a certain level of economic growth, while on the other hand, you want to restructure and rebalance, and environmental issues are part of that,” says Professor Xiaoming Huang, a specialist in East Asian political economy at Victoria University
Premier Li also announced that the money would be partially spent upgrading coal-fired power stations to help them achieve “ultra-low emissions,” as well as introducing “zero-growth in the consumption of coal in key areas of the country”.
But with traditional forms of energy still embedded into the livelihoods of thousands of Chinese, many workers will be forced to pay the steep price of the ‘clean energy revolution’.
‘Unfair distribution’ “There’s a groundswell of opinion that the environment is a really significant issue, but the implications of doing that often have very unfair distributions on people’s livelihoods. So people who work in the fuel sector or coal sector are the ones that get made redundant,” says Dr Young.
“They want to ensure their kids don’t get lead poisoning from water or that their school isn’t next to a polluting factory. But on the other hand, there’s a general belief that China needs to push on through development so that it can become an advanced.”
“China is still a middle income country. It’s not an advanced economy, so you have this strong push, almost like a social desire for the country to develop.”
In China, coal accounts for almost two-thirds of all energy produced, but is also one of the biggest pollutants into China’s atmosphere.
In an effort to curb its coal dependency, it was announced that not only would the world’s largest energy consumer continue to trim production capacity, but that it would halt the building of all new coal mines for the next three years—the first time the government has ever done so.
With coal consumption currently around 64.4 per cent, the National Energy Administration is aiming to cut this number down to 62.6 per cent by the end of 2016, as well as closing down more than a 1000 existing coal mines.
To compensate, China plans to increase its wind and solar power capacity by more than 20 per cent, continuing its path onto a renewable energy-based future.
Renewable technology Professor Huang says China is becoming one of the international leaders on renewable technology.
“The predominant form of energy in China is burning fossil fuels. So the government is spending quite a lot of money in solar, wind, and water-based energy and it works with quite a lot of American and German companies.”
“Internationally, in terms of technology, China is doing very well. Over time they want to reduce fossil-based energy forms, although I don’t think they’re there yet.”
Coal use in China is slowing. Source: US Energy Information Administration / China National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)
Yuan Ying, an energy campaigner for Greenpeace East Asia, says the reality of China’s efforts to become a high-tech, innovative economy is much more complicated.
“China’s grid is in urgent need of an upgrade if it is to fully utilise the potential of wind and solar power…Coal is doing its utmost to dig itself in, despite the headwinds of falling coal consumption, declining heavy industry, government policies limiting coal and promoting renewables.”
Social consciousness Since the making of former United States Vice-President Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, the film has been credited with raising international awareness on global warming and reenergising the environmental movement.
Almost a decade on from its release in 2006, Chinese audiences were treated with their own cinematic examination when Under the Dome was released online last year. The feature length documentary went viral, attracting more than 200 million viewers before internet censors removed the film for sparking intense criticism of the government online.
Created by celebrity journalist Chai Jing, Under the Dome looks at the human faces behind China’s perennial smog problem, with some observers calling the film “a tipping a point”.
As viewers faced up to the facts of their ‘inconvenient truth’, the government vowed to tackle the “unprecedented” environmental issue of mass pollution.
Ying says there has been a massive upsurge in public awareness around the safety hazards of pollution and waste.
“For many people, it is now a daily routine to check air pollution apps and make the decision whether or not to wear a protective mask.”
“Awareness in other areas is starting to grow too. Many safety concerns over food, for example, have given rise to an awareness of environmental standards in the agricultural industry.”
Rest of Asia still faltering Despite China’s steady improvements, the rest of Asia—containing some of the most populous developing countries—are still falling behind on the air quality radar.
In the same WHO report which found China’s air pollution rates to be falling, it says the most polluted cities are in India, while Hanoi is the most polluted city in Southeast Asia.
With one of the worst air quality levels in the entire continent, Vietnam’s environmental monitoring agency says that road traffic is to blame for 70 per cent of Hanoi’s stifling air pollution.
As was the case in China, rapid economic growth in the post-Cold War period has seen the use of cars and motorbikes skyrocket in Vietnam, a significant departure from days when cycling was the primary form of transport.
Even in advanced economies such as Japan, activists warn that it is at serious risk of damaging its air quality. As the country continues to suffer from the radioactive fallout from the 2011 Fukushima disaster, Japan plans to build dozens of new coal-fired power plants over the next 12 years instead.
Low carbon plan In March, China announced its 13th Five-Year plan that will lead one of the largest economies into the next phase of development. The plan, which was announced at the National People’s Congress, announced that it would promote a cleaner, greener industry.
According to Chinese state media, the plan will focus on the “energy revolution” which will establish a modern system that is clean, low-carbon, and efficient”.
Dr Young remains realistic, and says that China will suffer “a lot of environmental degradation, a lot of pollution, and a lot of pain in the medium term”.
“But in the long term, I’m quite positive that’s how China will pull through.”
Jihee Junn compiled this report as part of the Pacific Media Centre’s Asia Pacific Journalism Studies course.
“Warm Waters’” a photo essay on climate change by photojournalist Vlad Sokhin, is the best piece of reporting on climate change in the Pacific. It is a must-see collection!
Sokhin’s images and text capture the grave threat climate change poses to the Pacific islands from sea level rise, hotter weather, changes to rainfall and stronger cyclones.
Browse the photoessay here, and encourage your colleagues and friends to read it too!
Newly endorsed Director-General Amena Yauvoli said the request for membership was on the agenda, along with endorsements from the MSG senior officials and foreign ministers meetings in Lautoka this week.
“The foreign ministers’ meeting (yesterday) is to deliberate on the issues put forward and recommended by senior officials,” he said.
“Today, the decisions they take will go up to the leaders during a special summit in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on July 14.”
According to Yauvoli, the key decisions made by foreign ministers were in relation to strengthening the MSG and its secretariat based in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
One of these was the appointment of the MSG director-general, which was endorsed by the foreign ministers yesterday.
“Now that the senior officials have agreed and have recommended to the foreign ministers, they have endorsed it and now, they will take it up to the leaders for the formal endorsement, which completes the formalisation of the appointment.”
The adoption of the newly-established MSG trade agreement will also be at the forefront of next month’s meet.
Yauvoli said a meeting of senior trade officials and ministers in Port Vila endorsed the MSG Free Trade Agreement and this would be submitted to leaders for their endorsement and approval. If all goes to plan, the new agreement could come into effect by January 1 next year.
Melanesian Spearhead Group Director-General Amena Yauvoli (left) with foreign affairs ministers meeting chair Milner Tozaka (Solomon Islands) in Lautoka, Fiji, this week. Image: Reinal Chand/The Fiji Times
“The deliberations [for the agreement] so far have been really good and it will trigger further opportunities and benefits not only for MSG member countries but the Pacific as a whole.”
Yauvoli said they were also working and trying to strengthen and improve the financial status of the MSG secretariat.
Meanwhile, United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) delegate Amatus Douw said the process of becoming a full member was quite complicated.
“I believe the MSG Secretariat has been working hard to formalise a criteria of membership from observer to full member,” he said.
“We also really appreciate all the delegates and members of the MSG themselves, they are really working hard to help West Papuan people.”
Last year West Papua’s bid to join the group was knocked back by the MSG — but they were given observer status while Indonesia is an associate members.
This month, Timor-Leste signed a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with the French company Bolloré to build and operate a major new container port at Tibar, 15km west of the capital of Dili.
La’o Hamutuk has analysed the project in depth, identifying some social and environmental impacts, raising concerns about economic viability and pondering implications for Timor-Leste’s sustainability.
This blog summarises points from our longer article, which is in both English and Tetum.
The contract promises to pay $129 million to Bolloré up front, but the 2016 State Budget only allocates $94 million over the next five years, and neither figure includes additional spending for roads, project management or unanticipated cost overruns.
PPPs all over the world underestimate costs in the planning stages, as promoters often bias their research to justify viability.
Just this week, Timor-Leste’s leaders suggested a mid-year increase to the 2016 State Budget to cover some Tibar port costs, notwithstanding that officials knew about them long before the budget was enacted.
The Private Partner – Bolloré Africa Logistics in consortium with Bolloré subsidiary SDV – will initially invest $278 million for construction and will operate the port for 30 years, collecting revenues to recover their investment, costs and profit. However, La’o Hamutuk is concerned that the final concession contract (which we have not been shown) may obligate Timor-Leste to guarantee Bolloré’s return if the port does not generate as much income as expected, due to lower traffic or shipping being diverted to other ports.
When this project was conceived four years ago, many thought that Timor-Leste’s non-oil GDP would continue to grow at ‘double-digit’ rates, and that our oil and gas wealth was more valuable than it has turned out to be.
However, ‘non-oil’ GDP – which is largely driven by government spending of oil money – has not grown as much as expected; the latest government figures report growth of 2.8 percent and 5.9 percent in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
With rapidly falling oil revenues, the government will have to reduce spending, which is likely slow the growth of non-oil GDP even more.
Lower state spending means fewer imports by the government, as well as less money circulating to enable citizens to buy things from overseas.
For the last several years, Timor-Leste has imported 30 times as many goods as we exported, so that most containers shipped out are empty and will be so for decades to come. Without other economic activity, this trade deficit cannot continue.
The Tibar port design was based on overly optimistic economic projections, and more recent data cast doubt on its rationale. In addition, its traffic will be shared with other new ports planned for Suai, Oecusse, and Baucau.
Current evidence La’o Hamutuk hopes that current evidence and realistic forecasts will underpin decisions about the Tibar project. We believe that longer hours and more efficient operation of Dili port may provide for Timor-Leste’s needs for decades to come.
In addition to the impact on State finances, Tibar port subsidises imported products relative to locally produced ones. Although this may make imports less expensive, local producers – especially farmers – will have to struggle even harder to compete against cheap food products from overseas.
Reduced demand for locally-grown produce could discourage Timorese farmers from growing food, hurting productivity, the economy, food sovereignty and nutrition.
By the time Timor-Leste’s Petroleum Fund runs out (which could be as soon as 2025), many fields may be unused. Without money to purchase imported food, people will starve.
Therefore, the port will make Timor-Leste even more dependent on overseas products, at a time when we should be increasing local production to ensure non-oil economic sustainability.
It will also take over local people’s land, destroy their livelihoods, and divert government resources away from basic services for ordinary people.
Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on this new port, La’o Hamutuk urges policy-makers to seriously analyse Timor-Leste’s long-term shipping requirements to see if they can be met by operating the existing port in Dili 24/7 while controlling corruption, improving its management, and enhancing its workers’ skills and numbers.
In that way, Timor-Leste would save money, protect vulnerable people and address public needs, allowing us to focus on building the domestic economy to provide a sustainable future for all of Timor-Leste’s people. La’o Hamutuk is theTimor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis. Alonger article, which will be updated as the project evolves, includes many graphics, links, documents and articles from a wide variety of sources.
There are as many ways to control the media as there are styles of government. The continuing ban on TVNZ reporter Barbara Dreaver by the Fiji government is part of an ongoing slip in freedom of expression worldwide, writes Dana Wensley.
OPINION: There’s many ways to silence the media. Governments such as those of Fiji and the Ukraine (where President Petro Poroshenko placed dozens of journalists on a blacklist last year) favour the ban. Nauru prefers setting prohibitive visas – visiting journalists are required to pay $8000 to enter the country.
The Philippines’ President-elect, Rodrigo Duterte, allegedly said, “Just because you’re a journalist, you’re not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch”, although his spokesperson has since said his comments were a case of “incorrect news reporting” when he was challenged by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
Most overt is Isis’ preferred method – the beheading of members of the foreign press. In September 2014 American journalist Steven Sotloff was killed, two weeks after James Foley was beheaded in similar circumstances.
There are as many ways to control the media as there are styles of government. Canada is just emerging from a haze of media shutdown after the departure of Steven Harper’s government. Harper, a leader who tended to control journalists in a style not unlike military dictatorships, was famous for his press conferences.
Famous, not because he welcomed open and honest questions from the press but because he issued invitations with the tag “photo opportunity only”. Hardly an invitation to hard journalism.
The continuing ban on TVNZ reporter Barbara Dreaver by the Fijian government is part of an ongoing slip in freedom of expression worldwide. Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has stated he will not be lifting the ban which he sees as necessary to prevent the “wilful propagation of false information”.
Pacific censorship Censorship in the Pacific continues to be a problem. Not just overt forms like this, but what is called “silent censorship”, the self-monitoring by journalists afraid to speak out for fear of persecution. While “hard” censorship gets reported, often “soft” censorship is ignored.
Each year PEN International produces a case list of persecuted writers. From January 2015 to December 2015 there were 1054 writers brought to PEN’s attention. Methods of “persecution” range from killing, missing in action, imprisoned, to presumed dead. Last year’s statistics show that journalists, bloggers, and those involved in digital media feature prominently on the list.
Reporters Without Borders also keeps current watch on a chilling list of figures. Since January 2016 there have been 17 journalists killed, 7 media assistants murdered, and 3 journalists imprisoned.
New Zealand is currently the leader in freedom of press statistics in the Pacific. We rank 5th in the world in the latest World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. This is well ahead of Australia, which ranks 25th of 180 countries.
New Zealand should take its place as leader in the Pacific in freedom of the press, to make a clear stance in favour of Barbara Dreaver and the other journalists currently banned from Fiji. By not raising this subject with a forceful voice, Prime Minister John Key let down not only Barbara Dreaver and journalism in this country, he failed to defend freedom of speech in the Pacific.
If he’s not going to do it, who is?
A human right Freedom of expression is a right guaranteed under the European Convention of Human Rights. Article 19 of the convention states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression”. PEN NZ notes that this right includes the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.
A right is only worth something if we are prepared to enforce it.
Foreign media and journalists play a critical role in reporting on human rights abuses and conditions in countries without a strong record of press freedom. It takes courage to stand up and defend something in the face of criticism. But without that courage we are on a slippery slope to a media blackout.
Dana Wensley, PhD, is spokeswoman on freedom of speech for PEN (NZ), which promotes literature and freedom of expression and is governed by the PEN Charter and the principles it embodies: unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and between all nations. Republished by the Pacific Media Centre with the permission of both the author and The New Zealand Herald.
The West Papua press freedom micosite … embargoed until 28 March 2019
Karen Abplanalp
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Abstract
Indonesia has restricted access for journalists seeking to visit West Papua for more than 50 years. On May 10, 2015, shortly after this thesis was submitted, Indonesia’s President, Joko Widodo, announced the media restrictions on Papua were to be lifted. The apparent change in policy is yet to be tested. According to Papuan journalist Victor Mambor, no foreign journalist has tried to visit Papua since Widodo’s statement (Mambor, personal communication, June 19, 2015). Using the concepts of Peace Journalism, this research exegesis and microsite artefact seeks to examine the impact the media restrictions have had on the quality and type of journalism produced about West Papua, and also on the public’s opinion of Indonesia. The research is largely drawn from a case study involving 10 journalists from West Papua, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia – all of whom report about West Papua. The author is also a participant in this study. The thesis includes a web-based artefact incorporating a series of video interviews with the 10 journalists. This thesis finds that media restrictions directly impact on the quality of journalism produced about West Papua and create serious risks for journalists and their sources, and impact negatively on Indonesia’s international image. If the aim of the restrictions is to control and limit negative reportage about West Papua, then this study finds that they do the opposite. The media constraints severely limit the possibility of positive and unbiased reportage. The study provides suggestions on how to mitigate these risks.
Supervisors: Professor David Robie, Dr Allison Oosterman
[caption id="attachment_1450" align="alignleft" width="150"] Keith Rankin.[/caption]
In a series of recent articles, a book-chapter, and a presentation to the New Zealand Fabian Society, I have discussed how, practically, a Universal Basic Income – as a core component of a conceptual reform of income taxes – can be implemented in New Zealand, and can open the door to reveal a future that does not require there to be poverty in the midst of plenty.
I suggest a move away from the name Universal Basic Income; a name that I adopted in 1991 through the following construct: “a universal tax credit available to every adult – the universal basic income (UBI) – and a moderately high flat tax rate” (from my The Universal Welfare State; incorporating proposals for a Universal Basic Income, most easily accessed here).
In the present debate, Universal Basic Income has come to too many to mean a rigid and politically unsaleable something‑for‑nothing proposal, funded implicitly through levels of taxation much higher than New Zealanders are familiar with. The name for the universal payment that I now advocate – noting that language is very important – is Public Equity Dividend (PED). A PED is an unconditional payment from public revenue that may be small or large, and that is seen as a complement to rather than as a substitute for other forms of social assistance. A ‘public equity dividend’ represents a distribution from a capitalist fund that reflects public property rights, somewhat analogous to distributions from private equity funds.
The central concept that can take us forward is that of ‘public equity’; a concept of public income that finds common ground between the philosophies of the liberal capitalist right and the liberal egalitarian left. The presumption is that the public is an equity partner to market production. As such, public equity offers a new way to clearly demark the division between publicly‑sourced and privately‑sourced incomes, and can facilitate the regrowth of a genuinely liberal economic order. Public equity can become a way of distributing some income equally, enabling gains from past and future productivity increases to be available to all, and making it easier for people to make more sustainable and less pressured life choices.
We note that the historical sources of productivity gains are essentially public (eg the application of public knowledge and other public domain resources to productive processes). The PED, more than ever, needs to be understood as a productivity dividend, which adjusts sufficiently to ensure that productivity gains do not become causes of increased inequality or exploitation.
The underlying concepts are not usefully injected into the party-political environment of a general election campaign, where sound-bites, bumper stickers and pledge-cards reign. Rather the ideas presented here, which are essentially apolitical – all political parties represented in the New Zealand parliament advocate liberal capitalism – may be incorporated into public finance reform in New Zealand from as soon as 2018, regardless of who becomes government after the 2017 election.
Distributional Challenges of Liberal Capitalism
Reforms informed by the concept of public equity are essential if liberal capitalist societies are to meet the distributional challenges of rising economic productivity. Such societies require adequate – indeed more than adequate – spending capacity on the part of the ordinary (especially middle‑decile) people who constitute the markets for the ‘wage goods’ whose production is the hallmark of liberal capitalism. If the system cannot distribute income to those for whom these goods and services are designated, then the whole capitalist edifice eventually fails; such failure is delayed only by a spiralling indebtedness that compensates to some extent – and only temporarily – for present failures of income distribution.
In the process of meeting the distributional challenges that can sustain liberal capitalism, ordinary people are able to make labour supply choices – work‑leisure trade‑offs – that cannot be made when systemically‑inadequate wages and consumer debt are their sources of purchasing power. Maintaining a more elastic labour supply – with people working shorter hours in normal times – is the key to the sustainability of the natural environment as well as the sustainability of capitalism itself.
Income security in high productivity societies is neither unaffordable nor a luxury. Rather, income security extends the core liberal capitalist concept of ‘consumer sovereignty’ to sovereignty over household time as well as over consumer choices. A mature liberal capitalist society that acknowledges and values public equity has a mechanism to recycle income to all its equity‑holder households in such a way that they can make genuine choices about spending and sustainable living. Their governments could easily adjust the core fiscal parameters (especially the income tax rate and the size of the ‘public equity dividend’) to ensure that nobody is left behind, and that nobody is forced to enter into exploitative labour contracts or degrading self‑employment in the informal economy.
Public Equity Dividends are our best means to keep in circulation the money that represents our disposable incomes, and that atrophies when concentrated in private hoards. Public Equity Dividends represent capitalism’s option of economic freedom; of a happy liberal future. Capitalism begets other illiberal futures if we do not have the imagination, or if we are too cynical, to acknowledge and enforce our public property rights.
Public Equity and Social Assistance
Please refer to my longer essay Public Equity and Social Assistance (PDF) for a practical step‑by‑step guide to integrated tax-benefit reform in New Zealand, based on liberal equity principles.
A Vanuatu government team left for Port Moresby today to conduct an on-the-ground assessment of the crisis at various universities in Papua New Guinea, where ni-Vanuatu students are studying.
The Council of Ministers met on Wednesday and decided to urgently send an assessment team to PNG to carry out assessment on the current situation, meet PNG officials and the Vanuatu students at the universities where they are studying, and return to Vanuatu with findings and recommendations.
Their report would be for the Vanuatu government to act upon for the safety and future education of the Vanuatu students, according to the Acting Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yvon Basil.
This follows unrest at several universities this week, including rioting at the University of Goroka, and police opening fire on students at the University of Papua New Guinea last week.
Basil confirmed that an assessment team of two or three officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Education would depart from Vanuatu for Port Moresby.
Basil said the government would make a final decision based on the findings and recommendations as soon as the assessment team returned to Port Vila.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the government have assured the parents of all students studying in all universities and institutions in Papua New Guinea that all Vanuatu students are safe.
Social media plea Earlier this week, a Vanuatu student studying in Goroka in appealed on social media to the Vanuatu government to repatriate Vanuatu students back home as reports of fresh clashes between students began escalating again.
This public appeal was made through the popular Facebook pages Yumi Toktok Stret and Yu Save Seh.
The Daily Post understands that there are 41 students from Vanuatu currently in PNG – 5 students studying at the University of Papua New Guinea, 9 at Unitech Lae, 6 at the Medical Faculty of UPNG and 21 at the University of Goroka.
The incident led to 46 students being treated in hospital on Tuesday as universities across PNG faced another week of disruption and uncertainty.
This followed five weeks of protest calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill which ended with a shooting incident at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby earlier this month when police opened fire. Some 23 students were wounded, four critically.
More than 300 students who arrived in the Enga capital of Wabag on Wednesday night in three hired buses said students from Enga, Hela, Jiwaka, Southern Highlands and Western Highlands were attacked without reason by their Eastern Highlands and Chimbu colleagues.
The students alleged the attackers were assisted by locals with dangerous weapons, including firearms, bush knives, spears and arrows.
Their spokesman, Lawrence Anton, who is also the Student Representative Council (SRC) delegate to the University of Goroka Council, said a minor incident involving a handful of students from WHP and EHP on Tuesday morning had been resolved amicably after breakfast.
‘Attacking spree’ However, the students were shocked to see locals coming 30 minutes later into the campus and going on “an attacking spree”.
Anton said that incident had nothing to do with the ongoing boycott of classes spearheaded by fellow students, mainly from the University of Papua New Guinea.
“What happened at UOG was an isolated issue. It was started by a handful of drunken students who did not agree on some personal issues. It had nothing to do with the ongoing boycotting of classes,” he said.
Lawrence said it was fair that an investigation was carried out to establish why outsiders crossed over the university boundary to attack students over a trivial matter.
The 300-plus students from Enga had to leave without going back to their living quarters to get their personal effects in fear of their lives.
“We want an investigation into the sudden attack and bring those involved to justice,” he said.
Anton said they will return to class anytime when the university council calls them after restoring normalcy on campus.
The controversial UPNG “pledge’” for students to sign declaring that they face expulsion if they become involved in further “illegal boycotts”.
‘Pledge’ protest Meanwhile, at UPNG there have been ongoing issues preventing some students from returning to class.
The “pledge” required by the university registrar to be signed by students stating that they understood “any involvement in unrests [sic], illegal boycott of classes or related activities” would result in their expulsion from their programme of study had caused some resentment.
In an incident at one UPNG academic school today, a group of students were reported to have gone into the faculty office and torn up a pile of the affirmation notes.
Economic Analysis by BNZ economist Tony Alexander.
This week I am at Fieldays so start the Overview with a few observations on the mood at Australasia’s biggest agricultural gathering. I also take a look again at the housing market, focussing in on two things. Firstly a list of structural changes helping to explain the apparent downward trend in home ownership. Second the data suggesting near 40% of house sales in our three biggest cities are to investors.
We are invited to adopt a view that investors are snatching up everything. Not so. Given the tendency to flick properties on quickly there is an upward bias to the investment proportion of house sales. The same goes for mortgage lending. Quickly sold properties have their debt repaid quickly and new borrowing massively biases upward the proportion of a year’s lending counted as being for investment purchases.
It pays to note that while total new mortgage lending since September 2014 has totalled $118bn, the actual stock of debt as at March 2016 was only 12.4% or $24bn higher than in September 2014. Debt repayments during the period totalled $115bn! The difference is largely interest charges. The Reserve Bank in fact has no published data showing changes in the proportion of the mortgage debt owed by investors. None. That is very disappointing because it prevents informed debate and provides space for the same old incorrect housing collapse stories which bad forecasters have been peddling for years now. Pity those who listened to them.
For the full analysis, continue reading below or Download document (pdf).
Fieldays
As is usual for this time of the year I’m spending Wednesday through Friday this week in the BNZ tent at National Farm Fieldays in Mystery Creek, Hamilton. The number of people attending the event seems to be in line with previous years but by all accounts willingness to spend is mildly down – obviously because of the weakness in the dairying sector.
Having said that there is a noticeable absence of pessimism. Most operators in the dairy sector have seen downturns before and know what to do, and there is anticipation of payouts slowly improving over the next couple of years. That seems like a reasonable expectation on the basis of some eventual rebuilding of stocks in China and reduced growth in European production along with NZ supply being curtailed as marginal land reverts back to something else (manuka bush for honey perhaps), and farmers pull away from costly supplementary feeding systems.
Few farmers have expressed concern about the NZ dollar which at US 70 cents sits below the ten year average of 74 cents, and no-one has moaned about the level of interest rates facing borrowers. Some are concerned about low interest rates being offered to savers. Everyone seems to be wondering what it will mean for the world economy if the UK referendum on June 23 results in a decision to leave the EU – which it probably will – and Donald Trump becomes US President in the November US Presidential election, which seems like a 50:50 call given the quality of his opponent.
Fewer people are moaning about Auckland now that house prices in their local towns are rising at a faster pace than those in our biggest city.
All up sentiment seems good here and it will be interesting to see the spending figures when they eventually emerge.
Housing
CoreLogic this week released some analysis showing that in Auckland an estimated 42% of property sales are to investors, same in Christchurch (thus slamming any notion that Auckland is “special”) and Wellington 38% (ditto). The media invite us to adopt the view that such proportions are too high and this is bad for first home buyers.
But it pays to note the other anti-investor commentary which runs along the lines that properties are being bought then on sold quickly for rapid profit. CoreLogic note an average investment property holding time in Auckland of less than one year.
There is an upward bias in the proportion of sales classified as to investors because of this turnover tendency which does not occur for first home buyers or owner-occupiers moving between houses after a few years. This means some 40% of the housing stock is not suddenly shifting to investor ownership.
Table C35 produced by the Reserve Bank on their website since September 2014 shows that between then and the end of March this year total mortgage debt grew by $24bn or 12.4%. But total drawdowns added up to $118bn. Drawdowns, from which data on the proportion of loans going to investors are derived, are over five times the size of debt growth. Loan repayments totalled $115bn. Interest charges largely account for the difference.
New lending data focussing on the proportion undertaken by investors is meaningless.
For the record, in the 12 months to April 34% of gross new lending was to investors.
But what if the new lending is higher risk than the old lending? It isn’t. The proportion of the mortgage stock where lending exceeds 80% of the value of the property has fallen from 18% in September 2014 to 13% in March. The Reserve Bank is being very successful at reducing the threat to financial stability from high risk bank lending.
What really matters is the proportion of the housing stock owned by investors if home ownership is the thing you are interested in. The Reserve Bank provides zero information on that breakdown. They do not know what proportion of household debt represents lending to investors.
The Reserve Bank’s Table C22 does include a line entitled “Housing loans (including rental properties)” which we can compare with another line “Housing loans (long-term)” and on the face of it see that 37.3% of the loans outstanding are for rental purchases. But do this percentage calculation for all periods from the start of the table in December 1998 and you get a 37.3% answer every single time. That is because the 37.3% is a Statistics NZ estimate which has nothing to do with the Reserve Bank. Statistics NZ has far less information on the nature of bank lending and borrowing than the Reserve Bank so this 37.3% is a number thrown in there and not derived from any up to date statistical survey. It might derive from some adjustment to home ownership rate numbers.
We do not know what proportion of household debt is held for the purpose of buying an investment property.
We only get a measure of home ownership in the census and that measure itself is imperfect. Last census in 2013 Statistics NZ was unable to specify ownership of just over 20% of the housing stock. The home ownership rate nonetheless was 73.5% in 1991, 66.9% in 2006, and 64.8% in 2013. It has been falling these past few years though perhaps less than shown because of problems with houses going into trusts. One would struggle to realistically challenge the notion that a rising proportion of our housing stock is owned by investors. But you cannot use debt data to determine the current speed of that increase.
Why Falling Home Ownership?
Regarding the downward trend in home ownership, little analysis exists on why this is happening. Here are a few suggestions. The biggest cause is probably the structural decline in low risk investment returns such as term deposits which has encouraged savers to raise the proportion of housing in their asset base built up these past few decades. After all, you can’t easily get residential property exposure through managed funds.
Another is the aging population. More older people own investment properties to fund retirement than young people, the proportion of the population which is old is rising, therefore the proportion of the housing stock in the hands of young people will naturally fall.
Life expectancy is also rising seemingly rapidly and young people are choosing to delay home purchasing – especially as it locks them into a location and occupation. In this modern world we are repeatedly told that people entering the workforce should expect to hold multiple roles if not careers during their lengthening lifespan. Flexibility is to be valued and that is hard to achieve when you are locked into home ownership.
Bank lending standards are also rising. Central banks are requiring banks to reduce the level of risk in their portfolios and that means people offering the highest security, such as a mortgage secured over two properties, are better deals than those borrowing to the hilt to get into their first home with minimal equity. First home buyers are high risk and we banks are being explicitly steered by the Reserve Bank toward avoiding such risks.
Additionally, few entry level houses get built these days. The proportion of the housing stock which is affordable/accessible to first home buyers is structurally declining as developers build big houses on small expensive sections. With nothing else changing, this tendency in the past three to four decades will naturally lower home ownership for first home buyers.
But Houses Can Fall In Price!
Ignoring the structural factors driving the rate of home ownership down is not the most dishonest ploy to generate headlines which grab reader attention. The killer is this one. Apparently there are times when house prices fall and people need to be wary of that when they contemplate their housing investment. Oh how shocking.
Anyone buying any investment product will be aware that prices are not fixed and they go up and down. Were we to however back off massively from buying investment properties because of the occasional period when house prices fall then all arguments for buying other assets like shares go completely out the window.
Share prices go up and down on a daily basis and there will be hundreds of thousands more people who have seen their wealth decline for a while and worried about being wiped out because of a rout in share prices in New Zealand than have ever worried about going down the gurgler because their house price has gone down.
The following graph shows annual changes in the REINZ measure of Auckland house prices since 2004 and annual changes in the NZX 50 share index calculated as three month averages versus a year earlier. The red line showing share index changes is far more volatile than the line showing house price changes. Share prices dipped over 30% come late-2008, house prices 10%.
Note that this graph is just presented to show volatility, not total annual returns and not longterm returns. But as an aside, in the Reserve Bank’s Financial Stability report Excel data file sheet 4.2 you will find a time series of Auckland rental yields. They decline from 5.1% in March quarter 2000 to 2.8% March quarter 2016 with a 16 year average of 4.1%. But the average bank six month term deposit rate has declined from 5.5% to 3.2% with an average of 5.3%. Rental yields are less below average than term deposits.
Plus, the average mortgage rate has fallen from 7.6% to 5.6% with an average of 7.5%.
Any argument that one should avoid houses because they can sometimes fall in price needs to be put in context.
Challengers to this angle will note that house purchases are invariably financed with debt whereas hardly anyone borrows money to invest in shares. True. And the reason why? Because banks with hundreds of analysts consider houses to be much safer than shares as security against a debt. It should hardly be any surprise then that the average person feels the same way and so is choosing to purchase houses rather than shares as they try to boost their returns where those returns are calculated as potential for capital gain and income.
But there is another angle to consider. House prices do sometimes fall. But trends have been strongly upward. If you buy fully acknowledging prices will probably fall for a while one day your perceived incentive is to buy sooner rather than later in the cycle. That is because you will expect to build up a buffer to handle the price pullback – three steps forward, one step back. Not bad progress.
This next graph shows the levels of the NZX 50 and Auckland house price index in three month rolling average terms since 2004.
As shown in commentaries here in recent weeks and in fact years, it is not hard to find fundamental economic factors which explain the strong rises in house prices and declining home ownership. But the main question people have asked us for many years is not about what is causing house prices to move, but whether it is a better idea to buy now or to wait for a price correction before buying.
So, would I still buy now? Yes. Why? Because the Auckland shortage is getting worse, all efforts to stop prices rising have failed, the chances of a stringent regime of debt to income rules being applied and proving effective are low, people are still decreasing their expectations for interest rates over the long-term, population growth looks set to stay above the 1.1% per annum norm for a while longer, and because in the regions the sight of Aucklanders buying properties has spurred local investors to storm into their markets in force.
But when is it likely I will analyse the balance of factors and probabilities and err on the side of caution?
First, there is essentially no chance any of us will correctly forecast a rout should one come along so no-one should try to base their decisions on forecasts of one happening. We can’t do it.
However, there will come a time when vulnerability to small shocks will be great enough that any tiny shock will throw up some opportunities for those actively looking for them. When? This is where it gets interesting and you’ll need to pause before moving beyond the next paragraph to truly grasp an understanding.
The higher prices go the greater the risks. Right? Not necessarily. Note our comment above and comments in fact from the Reserve Bank that risky bank lending has decreased. Prices can rise while fewer borrowers and less bank capital becomes exposed to a price pullback if lending standards are improved.
Those standards are improving courtesy of efforts by our central bank and as seen this past week our own decisions on risk management. Only 13% of outstanding mortgage debt is now above an 80% LVR versus 18% one and a half years ago. The Financial Stability report released in May showed just 4% of top 5 bank lending as at the end of 2015 was at an LVR of 90% or above compared with 7.8% at the end of 2012.
The way things are going there will soon come a time when in spite of Auckland house prices still rising in a 10% – 15% range the Reserve Bank will be so happy with the low level of risky bank lending that when asked about the pace of price rises their comment can only realistically be “meh”. Issues of affordability, homelessness, home ownership, etc. are outside their purview.
At this stage I anticipate continuing to say I would be happy to be a buyer until some point in 2018.
The risk is I become neutral in the second half of next year.
Lending to Foreigners
Almost all major NZ banks have this past week changed rules regarding lending to people who are not Kiwis or Aussies or do not have permanent residency. There are slight variations so just focussing on our BNZ changes, from now on we will not count the income foreigners earn overseas when calculating their ability to service a mortgage. This is being done because it is extremely difficult to verify the accuracy of information volunteered regarding that foreign income and this raises the risk of incurring losses or lending to someone who cannot really afford the mortgage.
So this is an internal and customer risk management-driven change rather than a reaction to worries about the role of foreigners in driving house prices higher in New Zealand. Will there be much impact? At the margin some people will not be able to borrow funds from us lenders in order to buy a property. If they still want to make a purchase they can go to another lender in New Zealand, or pay cash using funds from offshore. Or if they already have assets in New Zealand they might gear them up further.
The actual market impact is likely to be small so this will join the list of things which have changed in the past five years making it harder for investors to buy a property but which ultimately don’t much alter market dynamics. Included here are the two year bright line test, need for an IRD number, loan to value rules, removal of easy depreciation claims, removal of ease of using LAQCs to offset losses against other income, higher bank capital requirements for investor financing.
Tinkering with little policy changes which attract big headlines is worthless if main players in the regulatory environment don’t even understand the fundamentals causing a market to move, as has been the case in the NZ and especially Auckland housing market since at least 2008.
NZ Dollar
The NZD has ended this afternoon unchanged from last week against the USD just below 70 cents. But against the Aussie dollar we have jumped to just under 96 cents from 94.5 cents on the back of stronger than expected NZ GDP data this morning (economy ahead 0.7% in the March quarter rather than the expected 0.5%, 2.8% annual growth now).
Against the British Pound the NZD has risen to almost 50 pence from 49 last week as more polls have shown voters will almost certainly opt to leave the dysfunctional European Union next week. The likelihood of this happening was one reason behind the US Federal Reserve last night deciding not to raise their funds rate, along with the recent poor employment report. The chances are good that the Fed. will not raise rates again this year.
In fact around the world bond yields are rallying to new lows on the back of this building expectation, a flight to safety on expectations of Brexit, and weak growth and inflation numbers coming out of Japan and Europe. The US ten year government bond yield has fallen to only 1.55% from 1.72% last week. This is the lowest yield since late 2012. The low was just below 1.5% that year and before that somewhere before 1970.
If the world were looking good this would not be happening – hence money coming down our way.
The chances are that the NZD will see US 75 cents before it sees 65 cents, and if you believe dairy prices are rising (they were flat at the auction last night) then you best start thinking of when we get back to 80 cents because relying on rising US interest rates to push the NZD lower has long been a sucker bet.
Just for your guide, at US 70 cents the NZD is four cents below the ten year average. But at near 95 Aussie cents we are well above the 84 cent average, at almost 50 pence well above the 45 pence average, at 63 Euro well above the 56 centime average, and at 74 Yen right on the 74 Yen average.
If I Were A Borrower What Would I Do?
Nothing new. I would fix most of my debt at a two or three year period. Strong NZ growth data mean we will at best see one further rate cut here. But falling foreign yields suggest fixed rates might come down again soon though this is not guaranteed. Could be worth holding off for that to happen if you like a punt.
The Weekly Overview is written by Tony Alexander, Chief Economist at the Bank of New Zealand. The views expressed are my own and do not purport to represent the views of the BNZ. To receive the Weekly Overview each Thursday night please sign up at www.tonyalexander.co.nz To change your address or unsubscribe please click the link at the bottom of your email. Tony.alexander@bnz.co.nz
The West Papua National Committee claimed that more than 1000 of its members have were detained by Indonesian police during a rally on Wednesday to oppose a Human Rights Investigation Team set up by the Ministry of Political, Legal and Security Affairs.
“All were detained. We are now at the Jayapura Police Station. There are 1004 activists. They are still being questioned at the police station,” chairman of KNPB Sentani Region Alan Halitopo told Jubi.
He said the police had arrested them because they did not have a permit for the rally.
But KNPB said they were likely to be released after being questioned.
Bazoka Logo, Central KNPB spokesperson said the police broke its record of arrests against Papuans.
“The colonial government made a record for the highest number of detentions,” he said. These mass arrests detention proved Indonesia was no longer a democratic State.
Separately, Jayapura police spokesperson Imam Rubianto said they had questioned 600 people and released them shortly after.
“They have been released this afternoon, at five o’clock. Cellphones that were seized by the police have been returned as well,” he said.
Papua police spokesman Patridge Renwarin said police localised the demonstrators to limit their movements. He added no one was arrested.
The police action was backed by Atmadji Sumarkdijo, an aide of Chief Security Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, who is visiting the province today.
Spanish student arrested
Solomon Islanders in Honiara on Wednesday protesting for West Papuan membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Image: Free West Papua Campaign FB
Edo Karensa of the Jakarta Post reports that a Spanish national was among the “hundreds of people” detained for attempting to stage a rally in Jayapura to support West Papua’s independence and reject a reconciliation plan prepared by the Indonesian government.
Thousands of protesters from pro-independence group West Papua National Committee, or KNPB, had descended from neighboring districts into Jayapura but were intercepted by the police before they could reach the Papua Provincial Council office in Jayapura.
The KNPB has rejected a reconciliation plan prepared by Chief Security Minister Luhut Panjaitan, arguing that the Indonesian government is still pursuing repressive tactics toward pro-independence Papuans.
Among the detained protesters was Andreu Arino I Prats, a Spanish national and a student at Fisica University in Barcelona.
Political Roundup by Dr Bryce Edwards. Increasing the refugee quota to 60,000
Is New Zealand willing to save more lives in the global refugee crisis? Yes, but not very many more.
[caption id="attachment_4808" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr Bryce Edwards.[/caption]
New Zealand could increase the refugee quota from 750 per year to about 60,000. That would put us in line with Sweden’s efforts. We could even just increase it to about 56,000 to put us in line with how many refugees Germany took last year. But as Murdoch Stephens, spokesperson for the Doing Our Bit campaign, says “No-one argues we should match the Swedes and increase our quota 80-fold”, and he just wants the quota doubled to 1500 – see his opinion piece, Refugee quota boost ‘less than bare minimum.
Instead of an increase to 60,000, or even just 1500, the Government has decided this week on a figure of 1000 per year. Why not more? In Stephens’ article, he suggests that National Government politicians are too removed from the realities of the refugee crisis, and he challenges them to visit a refugee camp where they would see the lives that could be saved and improved if New Zealand increased the quota.
Stephens argues that National politicians aren’t willing to save more refugees because they “have the luxury of never having to meet any of the people we could have offered protection to but chose not to. I hope the thought passes through their minds, just once, over the coming months when they see more drowned children wash up on Europe’s shores, that perhaps one person, on one of those boats, would have been referred to resettle to our small country in the South Pacific.”
Similarly, refugee advocate Tracey Barnett sarcastically asks, “What’s a few more years watching more children dying in Aleppo or drowning on their way to Lampedusa? As long as they don’t start washing up in Wellington harbour, we’re sweet” – see her hard-hitting opinion piece, How to pretend to care.
The reality of more lives being saved by New Zealand accepting more refugees is batted away by many politicians, who claim the problem is just too big, and New Zealand is simply too small to make enough of a difference. The Minister of Immigration Michael Woodhouse uses the metaphor of our efforts being a drop in the ocean, saying: “The question is, should we put one drop in the ocean, or two? …We’ll take one drop at a time” – you can watch his five-minute interview/interrogation with Paul Henry – see: Woodhouse on refugees: One drop at a time enough.
Henry is not the only one. In fact it’s hard to find any commentators, newspaper editorials or politicians willing to endorse the Government’s choice of just 1000 refugees.
Two newspaper editorials have strongly condemned it. The Dominion Post is particularly hard-hitting, labelling National’s refugee policy “ a stain on our reputation” and “mean-spirited” – see: National’s decision on refugees is mean-spirited and callous. The newspaper suggests that the Government had a duty and option to do much more, but it simply didn’t want to do so: “The other political parties have outbid him – even ACT wants to do the decent thing. Meanwhile the world’s greatest refugee crisis since World War II continues to explode all around us. In this hour of desperate need, the Government responds by doing the minimum.”
Likewise, the New Zealand Herald says the current quota is “disgracefully low” on top of which National has delivered a “miserable increase” – see: Pathetic lift in refugee quota needs rethink.
New Zealand Amnesty International is also disheartened by the tiny increase. Its chief executive Grant Bayldon said: “This is a shameful and inhumane response and a stain on our country’s reputation as a good global citizen” – see Stacey Kirk’s New Zealand refugee quota upped to 1000 – ‘stinks of a Government that doesn’t care’, say advocates.
A majority in favour of change
The above news article also quotes other party leaders condemning the decision, including United Future’s Peter Dunne saying the new quota was “miserly”.
The fact that so many other political parties are in favour of a much greater increase is emphasised by Amnesty’s Grant Bayldon: “I struggle to think of another time when this has happened – every other political party, from ACT to NZ First to the Greens and everyone in between, has firmly supported an increase. The political path was clear in a way that it wouldn’t have been for any other government. It didn’t need to spend any political capital on this one; heck, even the young Nats publically called the Government out on it” – see: Refugee crisis requires stronger NZ response.
Bayldon says that the quota decision puts to rest the notion of New Zealand as “a principled country which punches above its weight internationally.” Instead, the country’s “international profile starts to look like nothing more than a cynical branding exercise.”
And Duncan Garner has also pondered New Zealand’s real role in the world: “We like to think we are the caring nation, don’t we? We are the good guys of the world – the honest broker. We care for human rights more than others, right? That’s a nonsense actually. So I’m just going to come out and say it – I’m embarrassed that we don’t take more refugees” – see: We must take more refugees.
National’s calculated pragmatic decision
While there seems to be a consensus amongst commentators and political activists in favour of increasing the refugee quota, could the same be said for the wider public? The debate has become highly polarised, and as pointed out in a column one year ago – Why won’t New Zealand accept more refugees? – there’s a more populist and reactionary mood amongst the general public that sees refugees as a problem – or at least, someone else’s problem.
The National Government has clearly been caught between the two sides of this polarised debate, and has gone for a decision that it hopes will cause only limited negative reaction from both sides. As Winston Peters says, it’s a decision that “will end up pleasing no one” and that’s because, as Isaac Davison reports, the Government choose the middle option: “Mr Woodhouse said raising the quota from 750 to 1500 places was one of three options presented to Cabinet as part of its regular review of the quota. The other options were raising it to 1000 places – which the Cabinet supported – or not changing it at all. “We’ve landed in the right place in my view,” Mr Woodhouse said” – see: Govt considered doubling quota.
Newshub political editor Patrick Gower is candid about the extreme cynicism involved in National’s decision: “Yes it was tokenism, yes it was miserly, yes it was quite meagre, and deliberately so. But it’s smart politics as well. They’ve given that symbolic gesture essentially of taking it to that nice round number of 1000… and that’s just enough to satiate middle New Zealand”
Sceptics can clearly see the influence of public opinion polling in the National’s decision. Giovanni Tiso blogs: “as always you can see the calculation made by National. Not increasing the quota would have been scarcely thinkable. A modest increase plays both to the prevailing, soft anti-immigration rhetoric – which the opposition in other areas cheerfully goes along with – and to the government’s attempts to portray itself above all as pragmatic. We cannot afford to be too compassionate” – see: National values.
Likewise, Michael Timmins emphasises the amount of market research that would have occurred behind the scenes and says, “It is a token gesture designed to mollify proponents for more resettlement and to be able to tell the general population that the government is ‘doing something’.” – see: The Refugee Quota Compromise.
And campaigner Murdoch Stephens complains that the number of 1000 lacks robust justification: “Where’s the justification for this round number? There is no justification because this is not a government that works on justifications. It is a government that works on opinion polls and a “prudence” that too often amounts in reality to callousness” – see: NZ’s response to the humanitarian crisis of the century puts shallow prudence above people and principle. He argues that the quota decision “reeks of a government bereft of ideas and ambition, and more willing to see refugees as a problem than as people.”
Then again, is a figure of 1500 any less of a round number? And perhaps the ambitions for a quota increase have been so modest that people’s horizons have been lowered. Instead of battling for 60,000 refugees, or whatever, the debate has been very conservative in its demand for an increase. After all, even the Greens have only been campaigning for an increase in the quota to 1000, with a private members bill to achieve this. Therefore the National Government has simply met the demands of critics on this issue.
Finally, why are New Zealanders against saving more lives during this time of a global refugee crisis? Could it be that many believe some of the misinformation about refugees? They might benefit from Murdoch Stephens’ article, Five biggest myths about the refugee quota debate. Or is it that the country doesn’t care much about others anymore? – see Guy Williams’ When did New Zealand become selfish?
An open letter by Benny Wenda, a West Papuan independence leader and spokesperson for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP):
Dear everyone,
Today thousands of West Papuan people rallied in the streets to call for freedom and for our fundamental right to self-determination to be exercised.
They showed their full support for the United liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP)’s full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).
The people of West Papua also rallied to show their support for the Pacific Islands Forum Human Rights Fact Finding Mission to West Papua, and a rejection of Indonesia’s false attempts of an Indonesian-led Fact Finding Mission.
In every corner of West Papua and in several Indonesian cities, the people of West Papua gathered peacefully to show their true aspirations.
I hope that the world will look and see these demonstrations as evidence that we, the people of West Papua, continue to risk our lives by simply calling for our fundamental right to self-determination.
While our demonstrations were entirely peaceful, the Indonesian police were determined to use brute force to crush them and unconfirmed reports estimate that over 1000 people were arrested simply for joining and supporting these peaceful demonstrations.
It is reported that in the last 5 days over 1000 people have been arrested in Port Numbay/Jayapura, over 100 people arrested in Wamena, 32 people arrested in Malang, 5 people arrested in Yahukimo and 4 people arrested in Nabire.
At least one of the people arrested in Port Numbay/Jayapura is believed to have been interrogated and beaten until they lost consciousness.
Such mass arrests and brutality are becoming increasingly common in West Papua and it is estimated that in the last 2 months, nearly 3000 West Papuan people have been arrested by the Indonesian authorities simply for peacefully demonstrating and calling for our fundamental right to self-determination to be exercised.
Where are human rights for the people of occupied West Papua? My people cannot be silent while our fundamental human rights continue to be crushed, violated and denied to us by this brutal occupying colonial power.
We desperately need a Pacific Islands Forum Fact Finding Mission to come to West Papua to help to uncover, document and expose these ongoing human rights violations.
The Indonesian government is trying to claim that there are only 11 human rights abuses that need to be investigated in occupied West Papua. We West Papuans know that this is totally and deliberately false.
It is estimated that over 500,000 West Papuan people have been killed since Indonesian illegally took control of West Papua and this killing along with torture, rape and other of the most heinous human rights abuses continues unabated to this day.
As an example of the scale of human rights atrocities in occupied West Papua, the Asian Human Rights Commission has found that between 1977 and 1978 at least 4146 West Papuan people were killed by the Indonesian authorities in the Central Highlands region of West Papua alone.
Why then is the Indonesian Security Minister Luhut Panjaitan going to West Papua, the UK and Australia, attempting to claim that he is helping human rights in West Papua when his government continues to oppress our fundamental human rights, arresting hundreds of people for peacefully demonstrating?
Clearly there is no democracy or freedom of expression in occupied West Papua. We are being silenced and suppressed by the Indonesian government, military and police.
While the Indonesian government is trying to claim it is resolving human rights abuses, literally thousands of West Papuan people have been arrested in the last two months alone; just for peacefully demonstrating for self-determination.
West Papuan people continue to be arrested, continue to be tortured and continued to be murdered by the Indonesian military and police.
The world needs to see this truly desperate situation in occupied West Papua.
West Papua is a militarised emergency zone with more and more Indonesian soldiers coming and killing innocent people.
The biggest human rights disaster in the Pacific is happening today just 250km north of Australia and we West Papuans are worried that if this genocide and illegal occupation continues to be ignored, in the next few decades will will be completely wiped out from our own country.
Therefore ,on behalf of my people I am calling for urgent international intervention in West Papua.
We are suffering under a cruel genocide and have been brutally oppressed ever since Indonesia illegally took control of our country in the 1969 Act of NO Choice.
It is time for we the West Papuan people to be free to choose our own destiny and to exercise our fundamental right to self-determination in an Internationally Supervised Vote (Independence referendum).
Please help to support the people of West Papua before there are no West Papuans left.
Please help to end to these human rights atrocities once and for all by joining the growing number of voices around the world supporting the people of West Papua and our fundamental right to self-determination being exercised through an Internationally
With media freedoms on the decline in Hong Kong, amid growing fears of “mainlandisation” , is the press still performing its function as a watchdog? And can new media pick up the slack? Dominic Pink inquires for Asia Pacific Report.
The vibrant city of Hong Kong, once regarded as a haven for free speech, is experiencing a steady erosion of press freedom.
The former British colony was promised a high degree of economic and social autonomy upon its handover to China in 1997 — including freedom of the press — with the Hong Kong special administrative region operating under a “one country, two systems” principle. However, despite initially enjoying one of the most free media climates in the region, the situation appears to have deteriorated in recent years.
In the annual world press freedom index compiled by the Paris-based NGO Reporters Without Borders — or Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) — Hong Kong has slumped in the rankings from 18th in 2002 to 69th in 2016 (China sits at number 176 of 180 countries).
Further cause for concern can be found in the latest survey by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), which reports that both journalists and the general public believe that press freedom in Hong Kong has worsened for second year in a row.
Self-censorship has been stressed as one of the major issues facing the media; when the HKJA asked journalists to evaluate the level of self-censorship on a scale of 1 to 10, their average rating was 7.
Benjamin Ismaïl, head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, found Hong Kong’s media freedom situation troubling enough to warrant an in-depth report. Aiming to draw attention to self-censorship and editorial interference issues, the report calls on the special administrative region’s authorities to “reverse their insidious policies towards the media as a matter of urgency”.
Despite noting that there is no incontrovertible evidence of Beijing’s hand in undermining Hong Kong’s press freedom, the report raises questions about several distressing developments.
“The unfortunate truth is that for many physical attacks and other ‘legal’ violations of press freedom, it has been impossible to prove the intention of the perpetrators, and in the case of this attack, to identify the individuals who gave the order,” says Ismaïl.
Lau’s two assailants were jailed for 19 years in August 2015, confessing that they had been offered HK$100,000 each to “teach Lau a lesson”, but refusing to reveal who hired them. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club quoted Lau as saying that only when the perpetrator behind his attack is found “will the shadow cast on journalists by this violent attack be lifted.”
“We’ve seen ways that people can be pressured,” says veteran journalist Francis Moriarty.
“Kevin Lau is an example: pushed out of his job and physically attacked in the streets to within an inch of his life. His successor was marched out of the office at midnight and told don’t come back … You can see the results, even if you can’t always see the hand at work.”
Ming Pao has come to the fore of Hong Kong’s press freedom debate once again as their latest editor-in-chief, Keung Kwok-yuen, was suddenly fired last month after running a front-page story on local politicians and businessmen named in the Panama Papers. Following Keung’s dismissal, Ming Pao columnists submitted blank columns in protest, but to no avail.
Another disconcerting example of Beijing’s invisible hand at work, according to the RSF report, is the acquisition of the South China Morning Post (SCMP) — Hong Kong’s leading English-language newspaper — by billionaire Jack Ma, founder and chairman of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Company executives have said that they aim to counter the “negative” perception of China in the Western media. This move raised such fears of mainland interference that Ma felt it necessary to defend the decision in a recent SCMP interview.
‘Legal’ violations As well as physical attacks and editorial interference, the RSF report details “legal” press freedom violations, such as the withdrawal of advertising to asphyxiate a publication and the demoting of critical journalists, as major causes behind growing self-censorship. Ismaïl says that for some journalists, “making no compromise will mean losing their job”.
Hong Kong journalist and press freedom advocate Mak Yin-ting fears that self-censorship may become “endemic” in Hong Kong, irreparably weakening the watchdog role of the Fourth Estate. “According to the [HKJA] surveys, the most self-censored issues are those sensitive to the central government in Beijing,” says Mak, who served as the HKJA chairperson for several years.
Stories regarding the independence of Tibet, Taiwan and Xinjian are considered to be the most sensitive to Beijing, and therefore most likely to go unpublished. Mak also points to human rights suppressions in China and Hong Kong’s vocal localist movement as further examples of issues less covered by Hong Kong media.
“This makes it impossible to play its watchdog role, it’s as simple as that,” says Ismaïl. “This happens the moment a journalist starts to balance the interest of the public with the interest of the state.” He contends that the “poor” local coverage of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s secret A$7 million payout is one such example.
The HKJA’s current chairperson, Sham Yee-lan, is renewing calls for the government to introduce a Freedom to Information Act, which Mak says is something journalists have been demanding for decades. Hong Kong’s existing information laws are “insufficient” for journalists to report effectively, according to the HKJA.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (right) committed to implementing a Freedom to Information Act while campaigning in 2012. “He has not kept the promise,” says Mak Yin-ting. Image: Hong Kong Journalists Association.
Mak “condemns” Leung for failing to keep his promise on this legislation once he became Chief Executive, as he signed a freedom of press charter in 2012 stating his commitment to implementing the act.
Leung made overtures towards defending press freedom at the annual Hong Kong News Awards last month, saying, “the SAR government will continue to maintain freedom of speech in Hong Kong … because it is a necessary condition for Hong Kong as an international city. Freedom of the press is essential to maintain Hong Kong’s competitiveness and free society. In other words, protecting freedom of the press means protecting Hong Kong’s way of life.”
Harshly criticised This speech was harshly criticised by the Hong Kong Free Press. “Nowhere in his administration do we see these inspirational words put into action. In fact, Leung has presided over a troubling erosion of the very core value to which he was so keen to give lip service,” wrote Kent Ewing.
“One of the things for which many people in Hong Kong fault CY Leung is that he takes the mainland’s side in issues,” says Moriarty. “He couldn’t even bring himself to root for the Hong Kong soccer team when it played against China.” Leung’s growing unpopularity is on display on his Facebook page, where the public have taken to express their anger.
Polarising public dissatisfaction and accusations of Leung’s mainland-bias have been renewed over his administration’s inactive response to the missing booksellers, one of the most sensational freedom of speech cases in recent years. Five men with links to a Hong Kong bookstore — Causeway Bay, known for publishing scandalous material critical of China’s senior party officials — disappeared without trace over the course of several months late last year, only to resurface sporadically on Chinese state television giving what appear to be forced confessions.
The ongoing saga has dominatedHong Kongmedia for months and is threatening to become an international incident now that Angela Gui, daughter of one of the missing men, has gone public with an appeal for help in the United States. She has accused China of carrying out “illegal operations” beyond its borders, and urged the international community to respond.
“Almost nothing ever gets solved in China quietly,” says Moriarty. “Every case I’ve ever seen when something was resolved and somebody ultimately was freed was because there was a campaign, there were people in the family that wouldn’t give up, the public got behind them and wouldn’t give up — keeping quiet doesn’t help people.”
Timothy Hamlett is another veteran Hong Kong journalist critical of Leung’s pro-Beijing administration. “Hong Kong does not have a state of democracy,” he says. “Leung’s predecessors were quite successful in obscuring this fact by an ostentatious display of concern for public opinion. Leung doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him and makes this obvious. He is regarded as a shameless puppet.”
Hamlett says that the silence of Leung’s administration on the disappeared booksellers — one of whom, Lee Bo, is believed to have been illegally abducted from Hong Kong — is viewed as complicitous by many. “It is clear that the Chinese government is trying by a variety of ways to muzzle the Hong Kong media, and to a considerable extent it has succeeded,” he says.
Worrisome figures Considering the worrisome figures presented by the HKJA and RSF, Hamlett says they do not present an accurate reflection of the media landscape, as “the reality is worse… Journalists and editors try to hide in areas like business where accuracy is still valued and ‘sensitive’ topics do not come up, or they consider alternative careers.”
While Hamlett bemoans the decline of Hong Kong’s traditional media, he says several new media outlets are picking up the watchdog baton, such as the newly-established Hong Kong Free Press, for which he is a contributor, and the pro-democracy Next Media websites — whose outspoken founder, Jimmy Lai, has often found himself a target.
Tim Summers, an adjunct assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, offers a “slightly counter-consensus view” on the issue, arguing that it is more complicated than “a critical one-dimensional decline in media freedom.”
“One of the things mixed into this debate is the changing nature of the media here,” he says, “and I think that makes it difficult to evaluate.” According to Summers, most people in Hong Kong now get their news and information from a wider range of sources, including social media and online chat groups, where “freedom of expression and information transfer are healthy.”
Summers suggests the extensive local coverage of the 2014 Umbrella movement as a positive example, during which all media outlets were live streaming the protests as they unfolded without restrictions, including the oft-criticised SCMP. “I’m not saying there are no issues around … there is perhaps less variety and diversity of outspoken views across the traditional media in Hong Kong, but I would argue that that is more than compensated by the emergence of new media.”
This more measured take on the state of Hong Kong’s press freedom is echoed by Dr Judith Clarke, a seasoned professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University’s journalism department. “There is certainly a lot of pressure to conform, but there are plenty of independent media getting the news out and leading the way on stories — scrutinising every move of the government, so that even pro-government media have to follow.”
She concedes, however, that the introduction of a Freedom to Information Act is unlikely under the current administration. “There are already some procedures in place, such as the Code on Access to Information, various complaints mechanisms and the Ombudsman’s office. These are not really adequate, but they do provide some level of access.”
Open access Moriarty says that even these procedures are under threat, as the administration is attempting to make access more difficult for journalists. “Without open access to business records you wouldn’t have seen the same stories about the rich family members of the Chinese leaders — the Hong Kong records were extremely important in being able to confirm who was who and where the money was going.”
Ismaïl emphasises that regardless of whether the act happens or not, it should not be viewed as a solution to the threats that the Hong Kong media are facing. “Even with the Freedom to Information Act, which will [reduce] discrimination against independent online media like the Hong Kong Free Press, the media will continue to be pressured and encouraged to self-censor.” The Hong Kong government — perhaps sensing that new media could become the Fourth Estate’s new watchdog — does not allow online media access to press conferences and press releases.
In spite of his many concerns, Ismaïl is not yet ready to call the “one party, two systems” experiment a failure — at least as it relates to press freedom guarantees — and he promises RSF will continue to monitor the situation closely. “The Hong Kong media, both local and foreign, enjoy all sorts of freedoms that are refused to journalists operating in mainland China. And international press freedom organisations like ours can still go there and speak freely … But the moment RSF members are denied access to Hong Kong, we’ll be extremely worried.”
Dominic Pink compiled this report as part of the Pacific Media Centre’s Asia Pacific Journalism Studies course.
Across the Ditch: In this week’s Across the Ditch bulletin Australian radio FiveAA.com.au’s Peter Godfrey and EveningReport.nz’s Selwyn Manning discuss:
Weather comparisonLatest NZ headlinesIn depth:ITEM ONE – Teina Pora Compensation
New Zealand Government announces $2.25 million compensation will be paid to Teina Pora after wrongfully being convicted of the murder of South Auckland woman, Susan Burdett.
Teina Pora served 21 years in prison after being found guilty twice, despite there being no evidence of him having been at the murder scene and the fact that DNA extracted from semen found at the scene matched the notorious lone wolf serial rapist Malcome Rewa.
Teina Pora is affected by Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. Shortly after the killing of Susan Burdett in 1992 the Police issued a reward for information leading to the conviction of the prime offender.
Pora believed that if he made up a story, and the Police believed him, then he would get the reward. Instead, he found himself confessing to a murder he didn’t commit.
After a persuasive media investigation into the case by journalists Paula Penfold and Eugene Bingham, and earlier work done by the New Zealand Herald’s Phil Taylor, Teina Pora’s case was tested at the Privy Council. It found in favour of Teina Pora and quashed the Crown convictions.
The Minister of Justice, and the New Zealand Police have unreservedly apologised for this most awful injustice.
Meanwhile, serial rapist Malcolm Rewa remains in prison under a preventive detention order, and the murder of Susan Burdett remains unsolved. Surely now, the Police ought to put Rewa back before the courts and seek justice for Susan Burdett and her family.
ITEM TWO – Meth Bust:
New Zealand Police bust part of a methamphetamine ring with a HUGE haul of P (ice) valued at $448 million on the street.
The bust followed people in Northland, around the Kaitaia and Ninety Mile Beach area reporting unusual and suspicious activity in the area. Strangers were seen attempting to launch a board into the ocean off the sandy beach. And vehicles said to be from out of town, and a few people paying locals large sums of money to help them launch the boat, raised suspicions even higher.
The Police investigated and found suitcases packed with the drug onboard the boat and later found even more buried in sand dunes at the remote location.
Three men have appeared in court charged with relative drug offences. Police investigations are continuing.
The All Blacks beat Wales last Saturday. The first half was a bit of a worry for All Black fans and saw Wales go into the break ahead with 18 points. But the second half was a demolition by the All Blacks with a win for New Zealand 39 – 21.
The All Blacks winning streak against Wales going back to 1953 looks fairly likely to continue this weekend, with Wales having been beaten by Waikato’s provincial Union the Chiefs 41 – 6.
The All Blacks haven’t been beaten here in New Zealand in 39 winning streak goes all the way back to September 2009 when the Spring Boks beat the ABs at Hamilton.
BUT… stats are one thing, to maintain the standards displayed by the previous All Black era, this generation of players will have to build on their second half performance from last weekend, and take it up a notch or two.
The shooting of university students by the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary in Port Moresby last week has been likened to the almost “terror-like” tactics used by the Riot Squad against Bougainvilleans in the late 1980s.
A parent from Bougainville said that the violent action by the police last Wednesday – shooting at random into the crowd, leaving at least 23 people wounded, two of them still serious in hospital – was reminiscent of the Riot Squad (predecessor of the Special Service Division’s Mobile Squad) harassment of Bougainvilleans which went on to ignite the 10-year bloody Bougainville Crisis.
The parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said that this was the type of behaviour by the police that had escalated a situation that could have been easily resolved.
The concerned parent, from Kieta in Central Bougainville, said the shooting of unarmed students by by police was a clearly indication that the safety of their children was not guaranteed in the nation’s capital.
“I am calling on the Autonomous Bougainville Government to look at measures to ensure that our children’s safety at UPNG [University of Papua New Guinea] is not compromised,” the parent said.
Seeking refuge He also revealed that his son was currently seeking refuge in a settlement to avoid being targeted by the police who were supposed to be protecting their rights.
He added that his son had no way of getting financial aid or receiving help from relatives in the city as he was too fearful to venture out from his current place of refuge.
“As far as I know the Prime Minister will not relent on his position to step down despite this sudden turn of events and our children, not only from Bougainville but throughout PNG are not safe as the police have displayed a complete disregard for human lives – the lives of young people who will be the leaders of this nation one day,” he said.
“I call on the Prime Minister to consider the concerns that many of the parents throughout the nation have on the safety of our children,” he said.
The Australian West Papua Association has condemned the arrest of 65 KNPB and student activists in Sentani and 4 in Nabire on Monday.
Local news media, such as Suara Papua, have reported the latest arrests, as well as 31 KNPB activists being arrested in the capital Jayapura last Friday, bringing the total of arrests to at least 100 in four days.
“The Indonesian security forces are doing everything possible to stifle any raising of awareness of the issue of West Papua by cracking down on peaceful rallies,” said Joe Collins of AWPA.
“In this case they arresting people for simply handing out leaflets about the upcoming rally planned for 15 June 15 [today].”
Although the activists have been released, many were injured by being thrashed with canes.
Suarapapua.com reported that Allen Halitopo, chairman of KNPB Sentani, had confirmed the arrests of activists and students at the KNPB Sentani.
Now freed Allen said all the arrested had been freed. There is only one student who was currently experiencing health problems. He was arrested at the airport Sentani.
In relation to the 31 activists arrested on the June 10, the Director of Manokwari’s LP3BH (Institute for Research, Study and Development of Legal Aid) reported to local media Tabloid Jubi that “the deeds of the Jayapura police chief clearly violate the principles of respect for human rights set out in the Criminal Procedure Code and Law No. 39 of 1999 on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which has been ratified by the government of Indonesia”. [Google translation]
Collins said it was hoped that the governments in the Pacific region (the Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders are due to meet in Fiji) are noting the mass arrests in West Papua.
He called on the MSG to raise concerns with Jakarta about the abuses in West Papua and to urge Jakarta to allow rallies like the one planned for today to go ahead peacefully.
Vice-chancellor Derek McCormack of Auckland University of Technology has described the weekend massacre in Orlando, Florida, as “profoundly shocking” and he has extended the institution’s students and staff condolences to everyone affected by it.
Authorities have named the victims of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, that left at least 49 victims and the shooter dead, and 53 people injured in the worst mass killing in United States history.
The massacre happened on Latin night at the Pulse nightclub in the heart of Orlando, a city best known for its theme parks. About 350 people were in the club at the time, police said.
“One can only condemn such an horrific attack. It was not only made on those in the nightclub, who were so grievously targeted, but on an entire global community,” McCormack said in a statement.
“As an organisation that aspires to be a safe and welcoming place for diverse individuals and groups, including all those who identify as LGBTI, I know that we will all feel a sense of outrage and dismay at this act of hatred, that has sent shock-waves across the world.
“Hate attacks of any kind are utterly deplorable, and as a university, with our various communities, we must continue working towards a society and world that is safe for all.
“Our support at this time must go too to our own AUT colleagues and students of the LGBTI community, who will feel the distress at this awful event acutely.
A vigil was held at Western Springs, Auckland, in support of the LGBTI community on Monday evening.
Papua New Guinea authorities deny a student has died from the police crushing of a protest at the University of PNG last Wednesday, but have admitted that two students are still being treated in hospital for their gunshot wounds. EMTV News
By Camela Gware, Charles Yapumi and a Citizen Journalist in Port Moresby
Students at the University of Papua New Guinea today refused to return to classes and about 40 daubed themselves in red earth in “haus krai” mourning for their wounded fellow-students still in hospital.
Students daubed in red earth in “haus krai” solidarity with their wounded fellow-students still in hospital at UPNG today. Image: Citizen Journalist
The vice-chancellor, Professor Albert Mellam, said last Friday students would return normally to classes from today, but the mourning protest of the painted haus krai students was the significant development of the day.
It is understood at least two students who were critically wounded by police gunfire at UPNG last Wednesday are still being treated in Port Moresby General Hospital.
In other protests today, there were clashes at both the campuses of University of Technology in Lae and the University of Goroka in the Eastern Highlands.
Protesters, now in the sixth week of action, are calling on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to resign and face an investigation into corruption allegations.
The painted UPNG students gathered first in the Forum area near the Michael Somare Library and then walked around the main Waigani campus.
“This is to show that we are still in a haus krai. We are not in the mood to attend classes,” a student leader, Christopher Kipalan, announced to those on campus.
‘Sign of respect’
Vice-chancellor Albert Mellam speaking to students at UPNG on Friday. His pledge then that students would return to class today went unheeded. Image: Citizen Journalist
“Pasin Melanesia na mipla peintim pes na kam,” he said. “This is a sign of respect to our fellow students who are still on the sick bed,” another student said.
“We are not here to destroy anything. We want the administration to understand our plight and not force us to go to class.”
The line of students increased during the day as they walked around campus back to the Forum Square.
Only a handful of students could be seen on the ground for classes.
But the mood was quiet and orderly.
Fighting at Goroka At the University of Goroka campus in the Eastern Highlands town of Goroka, police were called in to control students fighting each other over a disagreement to resume class.
“The situation got out of hand, yesterday and today,” chancellor Joseph Sukwianomb told Loop PNG today.
He could not confirm the number of students injured but said the casualties were from both sides due to stones being thrown and fired from slight shots. Bows and arrows were also being used.
“A number of students have been injured and taken to the hospital,” Dr Sukwianomb said.
Students smeared with red earth in “haus krai” respect for their wounded fellow-students shot during the police crackdown at UPNG last Wednesday. Image: Citizen Journalist
“We have called police in just now to, first stop the fight and evacuate the injured students.
“The student group is a small number, made up of Enga and Western Highland students who want to continue with the boycott, while some students from Eastern Highlands and Chimbu want to return to class.
“The situation escalated when there were serious disagreements between those who wanted to return to class and those that wanted to continue the boycott.”
In Lae, an Engan student suffered knife wounds to his body after a fight broke out at the University of Technology’s Lae campus yesterday afternoon.
The student was rushed to Angau General Hospital by the Unitech clinic ambulance and he was reported to be in a stable condition.Today the situation on the ground was quiet but tense.
Loop PNG was reliably informed by a student that the fight broke out at the conclusion of a student forum hosted by the Unitech administration and Student Representative Council.
The student, who wanted to remain anonymous for safety reasons, claimed the attack on the general student body by Southern Highlands students was preplanned.
Source: Professor Jane Kelsey.
[caption id="attachment_6181" align="alignleft" width="150"] Professor Jane Kelsey.[/caption]Trade Minister Todd McClay has proclaimed a new era of openness for trade and investment negotiations in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations, urging critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) to “Leave your protests and your placards outside and come and join the conversation”.
‘If he is serious there needs to be a genuine conversation, not giving people two minutes to express serious concerns about impacts on health, workers, environment, the Treaty’, says Professor Jane Kelsey, who has urged the government to open up the secretive RCEP negotiating process.
‘It turns out that industry has an additional session tomorrow to advise negotiators on what regulations they want changed.’
At the last round in Australia, where that government organised the first tentative ‘stakeholder’ engagement, concerned local experts had the opportunity to sit with negotiators on investment and intellectual property to discuss the issues with them.
‘Today’s “stakeholder” programme was a matter of ticking the box’, says Professor Kelsey.
‘Ironically, the process has gone backwards from the frustrating TPPA rounds. MFAT’s own account of the Auckland round in December 2012, before the TPPA negotiations went underground, said more than 300 stakeholders from over 200 organisation made over seventy-one presentations on topics including Intellectual Property, Labour, Environment, Market Access, and Investment and a briefing with Chief Negotiators.’
‘I have a simple message for the Minister: If you don’t want RCEP to turn into another TPPA disaster for the government, open this process for effective input and release the negotiating texts now’.]]>
The Vanuatu Ambassador to Brussels, Roy Mickey Joy, says the Melanesian Spearhead Group is too politicised, has lost its Melanesian integrity and what it stood for.
Joy made this statement to Daily Post when asked if he was still interested in the possibility of becoming the next director-general of the Melanesian regional institution, if the upcoming MSG leaders meeting in Suva decides to re-advertise the post.
“Honestly, I am no longer interested,” was his simple and direct answer.
Asked to elaborate he said, “because the MSG has been too politicised by the member leaders and the MSG has tarnished its integrity.
“There are a lot questions being asked abroad by international organisations about the image of the MSG in Melanesia and the Pacific region.”
Joy was the Vanuatu candidate for the MSG top post when it became vacant.
The Vanuatu Prime Minister, Charlot Salwai, wrote a letter to the MSG chair, who is the Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogovare, advising him of the Vanuatu candidate.
Already ‘appointed’ But shortly after, the member countries learnt that the MSG chair had already appointed Fiji’s candidate to the top post.
The Daily Post understands that the Fiji’s candidate arrived in Port Vila to take up his post.
In the meantime, the Daily Post also understands that the pending issue of the director-general of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) will be on top of the agenda in the upcoming MSG leaders meeting in Fiji.
“Whatever the outcome, I am no longer interested because the MSG leaders have politicised the Melanesian institution and likewise with the MSG Secretariat in Port Vila,” Ambassador Joy said.
“Transparency and guiding rules have not been followed when the MSG is supposed to be an independent and impartial and transparent organisation.
“Its influence is at stake. Organisations in the region and abroad are watching and questioning what’s going on in the MSG and the leadership of the MSG.
“As a long serving ambassador abroad, I am calling on the MSG leaders to come to a drawing board as to how far we have come and where we are going,” said Joy.
Second mandate He said his second mandate as the Vanuatu Ambassador to Brussels would end in March 2017.
“If the offer is made to me by the Vanuatu government for a third term in Brussels, I will take it because I want to stand for my country.
“I have always been patriotic regionally and abroad about upholding the image of my country Vanuatu abroad,” Joy said.
Meanwhile, the Committee of Ambassadors of the Africa Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Secretariat in Brussels is meeting next week to prepare a dossier on West Papua for eventual submission to the Council of Ministers of the European Parliament four months away in October.
This was confirmed Ambassador Joy, during his accreditation to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and World Food Programme (WFP) in Port Vila last Friday.
The Ambassador took the opportunity to assure the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Leingkone, that the workload on West Papua is now on the shoulders of Vanuatu’s special representative to ACP, young and energetic MP Marco Mahe.
“Technology is essential for providing Pacific youth with better opportunities for their future.” This was a key message at the Pacific Wave “Prosperous Futures through Technology” conference in Auckland on Friday. The Pacific Media Centre’s TJ Aumua reports.
Hosted annually by the Pacific Cooperation Foundation, this year’s Pacific Wave event was held at Aotea Square, Auckland, where guests spoke about the importance of Pacific youth playing an innovative role in technology.
A significant keynote speaker was Dr Michelle Dickinson, director of the science and technology organisation Nanogirl and a senior University of Auckland lecturer.
“Nanogirl” Dr Michelle Dickinson says science and technology industries need to speak more openly about diversity.
Dr Dickinson, who describes herself as a “passionate engineer who wants to make a difference in the world”, stressed the importance of having diversity in science and engineering industries.
A call for diversity “We need to talk more openly about having more female and especially Pacific and Māori students in this industry,” Dr Dickinson said.
“I get students to draw what they think a scientist looks like and it’s always a guy,” she said during her presentation.
“I’ve probably had over a thousand kids draw a picture of a scientist and I’ve never had one of them draw a women and I’ve never had one of them draw a picture of someone from a minority group… we need to change that.”
Speaking to Asia Pacific Report, Dickinson explained: “Diversity in science and engineering is really important because what we do is solve problems. The best way to solve problems is to have teams and if you have a team of people that are just like you and think like you, you probably are not going to problem solve as well as if you had a diverse team.”
Diverse teams ensure people are coming with different experiences and backgrounds, which help create the best science solution or engineering product, she said.
Also a co-founder of OMG Tech! A programme that is focused on state of the art technology, allows children in primary and intermediate schools across the nation to take part in workshops, learning aspects of 3D printing, coding and building robots.
Passionate about her cause, Dr Dickinson said she did not run a workshop unless the class was 50 percent female and 50 percent low decile Māori and Pasifika students.
“Because I want to create a technical space of education where the minority become the majority,” she said.
Pacific innovation Pacific high school students who attended the conference were encouraged to be creative and to think of innovative ways of using technology to add value to society.
Mike Usmar, the chief executive for High Tech Youth, an organisation which allows young people to use technology to change economic environments, said technology creates room for groundbreaking ideas.
“There is amazing innovation in the Pacific community and they’re utilising technologies in ways probably the designers didn’t think. That is just a hallmark of where our future is with our young people.”
New Zealander and global entrepreneur Jamie Beaton also spoke at the event.
The Kings College graduate is the chief executive of Crimson Consulting, a company that has made almost $90 million within three years.
The institution helps young professionals gain the mentoring and assistance they need to study at world-class universities.
“Basically after high school I had applied to all these universities around the world. After I gained admission to them I realised there was this massive need in New Zealand to help students with the resources necessary to break these geographical boundaries – that was the starting block,” he told Asia Pacific Report.
More Pacific needed The 21-year-old reinforced the theme of empowering youth with technology.
Beaton explained he is particularly focused on helping universities which are actively trying to recruit students from the Pacific.
“But there isn’t enough representation right now from Pasifika, so we need more applicants.”
“I want to help inspire more of these students by providing the tools necessary to get into these places.”
He said it was important for young people to remember that their potential is not bound by their community, but instead bound by the world.
[caption id="attachment_10539" align="alignleft" width="150"] ALP leader Bill Shorten.[/caption]
The Australian Labor Party has promised not to give foreign investors the right to sue the Australian government in any future free trade and investment agreements. That policy would include the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) currently being negotiated in Auckland this week, says Auckland University law professor Jane Kelsey.
The promise forms part of the ALP’s policy platform in the current general election campaign. Latest polls have Labor slightly in the lead for the election on 2 July, which makes this a real possibility.
‘Presumably the Australian government is now in caretaker mode and can’t make commitments to the controversial investor-state-dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism in RCEP’, Professor Kelsey said.
According to Professor Kelsey, a leaked text of the RCEP investment chapter from last October showed Australia – and New Zealand – had yet to table a position on ISDS. India proposed quite radical moves to strengthen governments’ rights to regulate, while Japan and South Korea sought to transfer some of the worst parts of the TPPA investment chapter across to this deal.
‘A change of government would shift the balance in the investment negotiations and provide important impetus to other countries, and the New Zealand Labour Party, to follow suit’.
Background
Previous ALP governments had a similar policy, following the Howard Liberal government’s position that produced the only US free trade agreement not to contain ISDS. The Philip Morris dispute against Australia over plain packaging tobacco deepened opposition to the use of offshore investment arbitration.
The current Liberal-led government took a case by case approach, including ISDS in the agreement with South Korea and in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement but not in the deal with Japan.
Successive reports by the Australian Productivity Commission have challenged the value of ISDS in such agreements.
[caption id="attachment_4808" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr Bryce Edwards.[/caption]
Seemingly out of the blue, the Government has come up with a proposal for a colossal $20 billion dollars of new expenditure on the military over the next 15 years. What’s the thinking behind this massive increase? Is it too much, or not enough? Does it mean New Zealand will be going to war more, or better defending the country’s economic resources and people?
New Zealand’s defence forces could be set to expand, with a focus on going into a greater number of new wars around the globe. That’s one interpretation of the Government’s new Defence White Paper released last week. But there are a few other views of where Government policy is taking the military. Unfortunately, there’s not really a full public debate occurring in this vital area, with politicians failing to provide leadership and diversity of views on the future of warfare and peace for this country.
Military expansion and opportunity – despite no real threats
New Zealand’s military is about to expand significantly, with new military engagements likely to occur throughout the world. That’s the possible outcome of the new Government policy according to some of the more considered analyses of the White Paper. Robert Ayson of Victoria University’s School of Strategic Studies says that at the heart of the new proposals, the Government wants “to have real military options for operations further afield”, and the new spending spree “is not just about preserving the status quo” but instead about new combat-ready capabilities – see: A Defence Force for New Zealand conditions?
Ayson suggests that the White Paper couches these ambitions within the more politically acceptable justifications of the military patrolling New Zealand’s backyard: “Yet appearances can be deceptive. New Zealand doesn’t need to spend $20 billion on capital items in the next dozen years to send non-combat ships around its extensive periphery. These plans only make sense if we also want options to deploy forces into potentially more dangerous places.”
Ayson’s analysis of increased military foreign engagement is backed up by a Dominion Post editorial, Questions remain about $20 billion defence spend-up. The editorial also complains, “the paper is vague about which foreign hot spots defence forces might be sent to.”
Similarly, Gordon Campbell argues that New Zealand simply doesn’t face any significant threats that would justify the huge new expenditure. He argues that it’s going to happen because defence chiefs believe that “there are always other things we can find to do with some of this great stuff, once we’ve bought it” – see his in-depth analysis, On the new Defence White Paper.
Campbell suggests that the new expenditure “looks more like a Defence bureaucracy seeking to perpetuate itself – by relying on WWII or Cold war precedents that no longer hold water – than a case based on genuine relative worth.” He details how even the National Government has strongly expressed its belief that New Zealand faces no likely threats.
Campbell also wrote about the so-called Defence Pretence in April, asking: “Why keep spending billions on defence, when there’s no discernible threat?” He points to the Government’s own Defence Force Assessment of last year, which said “the threats that New Zealand faces are (a) limited and (b) of a nature that would give us time to upgrade and to prepare, should that ever be needed”. Furthermore, the type of potential threats of cyber threats and terrorism are hardly going to be prevented with a focus on “brand new batch of frigates or cargo planes or spotter planes”.
Another military critic, blogger No Right Turn, says that the latest leap in military expenditure will simply enable the defence forces to “fight other people’s wars, the wars the New Zealand public opposes” – see: Toys for the boys.
He takes issue with the new equipment being suitable for regional non-military needs: “The big fancy cargo plane NZDF wants as a replacement for the current Hercules? It will need a long runway to take off, won’t be able to land on rough airstrips, and there will be only one of them rather than four. So, the basic role of delivering aid to the Pacific after disasters, the one the planes actually get used for and that the public overwhelmingly supports, will be sacrificed for a gold-plated status-symbol useful only for providing logistical support for other people’s wars. Those ASW planes? What we actually need is something to monitor illegal fishing, do post-disaster damage assessments, and look for lost ships – not… imaginary submarines from thirty years ago.”
The blogger suggests the massive increase in expenditure is simply about keeping up with, and pleasing, the Americans and Australians. And according to NBR editor Nevil Gibson, the big expansion “will be welcomed by New Zealand’s allies, such as Australia and the US, who may detect a stronger commitment to defending this country’s wider interests than just the immediate maritime environment” – see: Defence paper takes right step forward.
There is no doubt that the proposed increase in expenditure here comes in the context of rising defence spending in both our region and the world. Gordon Campbell outlines how New Zealand’s allies are “throwing money at Defence as if there is no tomorrow”, with the Australians planning to increase military spending by 81 per cent – see: The Defence Pretence.
This escalating expenditure is also detailed by the University of Waikato’s Alexander Gillespie, who says “Collectively, the world has gone from spending $1675 trillion on weapons in 2001 to some $2590 trillion today. This is over 10 times the amount spent globally on foreign aid each year” – see: Defence spend hangs on our Pacific role.
But hasn’t the international environment become more threatening, necessitating substantial upgrades to New Zealand defence capacity? This argument is highlighted by Stacey Kirk, who says that “A lot has changed since 2001” when then Prime Minister Helen Clark pronounced that New Zealand existed in a “benign strategic environment” – see: Not the ‘benign strategic environment’ of old, the Defence Force targets sights closer to home. She puts a particular emphasis on potential aggressive foreign motivations towards Southern Ocean and Antarctica, suggesting New Zealand needs to increase its expenditure to protect its resources there.
However, the latest Global Peace Index gives New Zealand a ranking of fourth in the world for its peaceful environment – this suggests that our strategic situation is still relatively benign – see the 2016 report.
No real debate or party differences?
Despite the huge significance and major spending proposed in the defence white paper, there has been very little public debate, or even strong political party reaction to it. As Chris Trotter says today, “hardly a voice has been raised in protest at this monstrous outlay on the NZ Defence Force” – see: How many houses could we get for $20 billion spent on defence?
The one exception has been from New Zealand First, whose defence spokesperson Ron Mark, who has strongly criticised it for its omissions, lack of imagination, and for not increasing defence spending enough – see his eight-minute interview with Paul Henry: NZ First: More than $20B needed for ‘sci-fi’ warfare. Mark proposes that more emphasis should be put on the use of drones, and rebuilding an air strike wing of the air force, even if the planes had to be built in New Zealand.
We might therefore see a multi-party consensus develop in favour of the various proposals: “I suspect Labour’s caucus and perhaps even the Greens are actually pretty comfortable with the increased attention on our immediate neighbourhood and the stress given to non-traditional defence activities.”
Likewise, TVNZ reports that political editor Corin Dann “says the ‘general thrust’ of the report seems to have been welcomed, with even the Greens saying they’re pretty comfortable with it and he thinks that’ll give the Defence Force ‘the confidence it needs to go about trying to make those purchases’.” – see: Defence to replace frigates and planes – but with what?
In fact the Greens surprisingly gung-ho approach to the military can be seen in the statements of the party’s global affairs spokesperson Kennedy Graham, in Rosanna Price’s Inequality widens, global peace drops: is New Zealand doing enough? Graham argues that New Zealand is not contributing enough to UN-sanctioned military engagements, suggesting that the Greens might quietly welcome the new military expansion in the Government’s white paper.
Is $20 billion too much or too little?
New Zealand First says the Government actually needs to double its spending on the military, taking defence spending as a proportion of GDP from one per cent to two per cent – see: NZ First: More than $20B needed for ‘sci-fi’ warfare.
For the strongest case for the need to upgrade the military’s equipment, see Karl du Fresne article for a foreign audience, in The Spectator – see: Off the radar. Published last month, before the white paper was released, du Fresne argues that “The gap between Australia’s and New Zealand’s defence capabilities is an embarrassment”, due to public complacency, and the fact that the defence sector simply doesn’t have much influence anymore in New Zealand. Previously, he says, “the Returned Services Association was arguably the country’s most powerful lobby group.”
The low funding of defence, according to the NBR’s Nevil Gibson, is explained in his editorial, Defence paper takes right step forward. He says: “The absence of thinktanks and defence commentators has created a vacuum filled largely by ideas promoted by pacifists and anti-American activists. This wasn’t helped by the abolition under Labour of the air force’s strike wing, some strange procurement decision for unsuitable ships and armoured vehicles, and an emphasis on peace-keeping, humanitarian support and disaster relief. Important though these last three items are, they are no substitute for a well-armed and trained force.”
Gibson salutes the proposed new expenditure, but bemoans it’s still much less than for social purposes: “A $20 billion spend over 15 years is nothing against the $16 billion that will be spent on health alone for the coming financial year.”
David Farrar also seems to suggest that current expenditure is too low, emphasizing “1% of GDP on defence is around half the world average”, and he details a range of OECD countries spending more – see: Defence spending to remain modest.
But maybe much of the planned expenditure is unnecessary. Keith Locke argues that New Zealand should get rid of its frigates, rather than upgrade them, and that “New Zealand is better placed to be a peacemaker, not a warmaker, in our region” – see: First sell the frigates, not the patrol boats.
In fact, why not just get rid of the military? Today Chris Trotter proposes the abolition of the defence forces, along the lines of Costa Rica, where “The monies previously spent on the military were reallocated to education and culture” – see: How many houses could we get for $20 billion spent on defence?
Trotter says the money could be better spent elsewhere in New Zealand: “Imagine the number of state houses and affordable apartments this country could build over the next 15 years with even half the $20 billion currently promised to the NZ Defence Force. Surely, in a democratic state, it is the adequate provision of health, education, housing and employment that should take priority over the vast sums required to purchase the most up-to-date weapons of war?”
Finally, for an indication of just how much the military environment and debate has changed, see Nicky Hager’s argument in favour of US warship visits to New Zealand – see: Let the US send a warship. He says that although such ships have been a key part of killing 100,000 in the Middle East, displacing millions, and making “the world a less safe place”, we should bring them here in order to prove that New Zealand has won our nuclear-free debate. And, for another Nicky Hager-related item, see TVNZ’s Q+A flashback item from 1988 – a one-minute video of Hager and others protesting against the last massive increase in defence spending – see: No more frigates.
Indonesia’s Golkar party wants former strongman General Suharto to be declared a national hero. In the Philippines, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte is in favor of burying the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a heroes’ cemetery.
Supporters of Suharto and Marcos believe they deserve to be recognised as heroes in their respective countries but human rights groups insist the two leaders are dictators not worthy of emulation.
Major-General Suharto led Indonesia for 32 years and was accused of widespread atrocities and plundering the nation’s wealth. Image: Tempo Archive
Suharto, known as the “Smiling General”, ruled the country for 32 years until a student-led uprising forced him to step down in 1998. He died ten years later.
In 2010, his name was floated as a possible nominee in the annual recognition of national heroes. It was not approved by the government but the proposal was revived again last year.
A government agency is studying the nomination but President Joko Widodo will have the final decision when he appoints new national heroes in November.
Supporters assert that Suharto’s leadership brought stability and prosperity in the country. When he was removed from power, Indonesia’s economy was already the biggest in Southeast Asia.
But critics accused Suharto of being an authoritarian leader who committed widespread atrocities to silence the opposition. He and his family are also known for plundering the nation’s wealth.
Misused state funds Last year, the Supreme Court ordered Suharto’s family to pay $325 million after one of Suharto’s foundations was found guilty of misusing state funds to bankroll various business transactions.
During Suharto’s rise to power, more than half a million suspected communists and their sympathisers were allegedly killed and arrested by the military. There are various initiatives today which seek to determine the truth about this dark period in Indonesia’s modern history.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the proposal to bury Marcos in a heroes’ cemetery continues to be a divisive issue.
Like Suharto, Marcos ruled as a strongman for two decades until he was ousted by a peaceful “People Power” uprising in 1986. He declared Martial Law in 1972 to save the republic from the communist threat but his rivals think it was merely a ruse to extend his term.
Marcos is accused of using the military to intimidate the opposition. Thousands became victims of human rights violations such as torture, unlawful arrests, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings.
Marcos is also known to have amassed ill-gotten properties which he entrusted to cronies and family members.
He died in 1989 in Hawaii. His body is interred in a private air conditioned mausoleum in his home province while his family continues to seek a hero’s burial in Manila.
‘Golden age’ Supporters of Marcos refer to the Martial Law years as the Philippines’ “golden age” because the country supposedly enjoyed peace and economic boom. They add that as a former World War II soldier and elected president, Marcos has the right to be buried in the heroes’ cemetery.
The newly-elected president endorses a hero’s burial for Marcos since it would lead to national healing and reconciliation. But outgoing President Benigno Aquino II rejects the proposal by emphasising that the heroes’ cemetery is “reserved for people worthy of praise and emulation”.
Suharto and Marcos died several years ago, but their legacy is still being debated. They were humiliated when they were ousted from power yet their names have undergone rehabilitation in recent years.
How did this happen? At least two factors are immediately apparent.
First, their subordinates and cronies are still influential in the bureaucracy. But second and equally importantly, those who succeeded them have failed to convincingly demonstrate to the people the effectiveness of a democratic system in delivering economic development and confronting remaining political and social challenges.
Things like poverty and political gridlock are still realities in both Indonesia and the Philippines, making many yearn for a time where decisive leadership can offer a quicker fix.
Meanwhile, supporters of Suharto and Marcos are happy to exploit public frustration to promote historical revisionism.
It is not simply enough to resist proposals recognising Suharto and Marcos as national heroes. The more important question that requires urgent answering is this: Why are an increasing number of Indonesians and Filipinos still open to naming both dictators as heroes?
A feasibility study for the first large-scale copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea’s environmentally-sensitive Sepik River catchment suggests it will be even bigger than expected.
The Sepik is one of the largest wild river systems left in the Asia Pacific region.
The mine owners say they would be using proven best-practice waste and pollution controls but environmentalists say the risk to the pristine Sepik and Frieda Rivers is huge.
The Frieda River Copper and Gold Project is controlled by an 80:20 joint venture between Chinese-owned company PanAust and Australian Stock Exchange-listed junior Highlands Pacific.
“It is important to understand what we have at Frieda River. What we are sitting on is one of the 10 largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world,” said PanAust managing director Fred Hess.
A PanAust announcement said its recently-completed feasibility study outlined a larger scale development than that proposed by previous owner Xstata.
That has scientists and environmentalists worried.
Forested highlands The Frieda River runs for 100 km from the mine site in the steep, forested highlands before it joins the Sepik which flows another 600 km through a wetland-dotted plain before reaching PNG’s northern coast.
“From a biological perspective I can hardly think of a worse place for a copper mine,” said mammologist Professor Tim Flannery, who made his name in Papua New Guinea identifying 16 mammal species previously unknown to science.
“I spent a decade in that general region doing a faunal survey and was able to show that the mammal faunas in that area were the richest in all of Australasia,” he said.
The feasibility study said the project would build an innovative integrated waste management facility that would see both tailings and waste rock stored underwater.
Monash University environmental engineering senior lecturer Dr Gavin Mudd said integrated management makes sense in that environment but the risks were big.
“The total size of the resource is reported to be about 2.7 billion tonnes. That is just the ore they dig up that has got the copper and gold in it but … there would probably be several billions of tonnes more of waste rock added to that,” Dr Mudd said.
“So it is certainly a very large scale mine and with that … comes very large scale risk,” he said.
Troubled history In addition, there is concern about the environmental record of mining companies in PNG.
“The history of large mines on rivers in Melanesia is not very good,” Professor Flannery said.
“We’ve had the Bougainville copper mine, tremendous damage to a whole river system. You can go on Google Earth and see it today.
“The Freeport mine in Irian Jaya — again, utter devastation of a river system.
“The Ok Tedi mine and the Fly River — again, you can see the damage done on Google Earth. It is absolutely massive and not denied by anyone,” he said.
PanAust said the design for its integrated waste management facility was world’s best practice and it had a proven track record in similar conditions at its mine in Laos.
“While the pristine environment is there (at Frieda River) we are not looking to disturb that outside of the footprint of the mine,” Hess said.
“The main driver for us is the economic benefit to an enormous number of communities who are deprived of any opportunity to gain better education or medical services because of their subsistence lifestyle,” he said.
Water management The Frieda River mine site is in a seismically-active region with very high rainfall.
“These will be challenges, along with mineral sulphides, which become unstable when exposed to air and water,” Dr Mudd said.
“Sulphides like that can react with water and with oxygen and then … form sulphuric acid.
“That in turn … dissolves a lot of heavy metals that can sometimes be at concentration thousands or tens of thousands of times greater than the concentrations we know will start to kill fish and algae,” Dr Mudd said.
“It is a very, very serious problem and it is a very widespread issue in the global mining industry.”
PanAust agrees seepage and water management will be a challenge but Hess said the innovative waste management system aimed to properly treat polluted water rather than prevent dam overflow.
Generate hydro-electricity In fact, the overflow would be used to generate hydro-electricity.
“The aim is to make sure what overflows is of an acceptable quality and meets all of the international standards,” Dr Hess said.
“We have done a lot of modelling … and all of the work that we have done to date suggests that will comfortably allow us to meet the most stringent standards for discharge.”
PanAust’s application for a special mining lease will submitted to the PNG Government before the end of June.
Jemima Garrett is Pacific economics and business reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). This article is republished from Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat by permission of the author.
Lifting of the mining moratorium on Bougainville has hoodwinked the majority of people on Bougainville, says the Bougainville Freedom Movement.
In March 2016, the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG), knew that the decision on the future of the mining moratorium on Bougainville was a major concern and “that there should be wide public debate on the issues involved”, the BFM has said in a statement.
This was reiterated again as stated by Patrick Nisira, Vice-President of the ABG in his public lecture on 28 April 2016 in Canberra.
Yet in his next breath, Patrick Nisira advised, “but we don’t have the funds necessary for an extensive public awareness and consultation programme”, BFM quoted him as saying.
“Instead, the decision to lift the mining moratorium was done without the majority of people on Bougainville even knowing.
“Therefore, it appears they were deliberately left out of the decision. They have been intentionally ignored on purpose to allow BCL (Bougainville Copper Ltd) and Rio Tinto to return to Bougainville.
“So, if BCL returns to operate the Panguna mine, like it did in the past, will BCL and Rio Tinto be providing payment and compensation for the deaths and destruction it caused under the unfair Bougainville Copper Agreement?”
Only time will tell when the Panguna Mine will be reopened after the Autonomous Bougainville Government House of Representatives lifted the mining moratorium in Parliament session on Tuesday.
Member for Hagogohe Constituency, Robert Hamal Sawa told The National that the decision was done in consultation with the people who agreed that the moratorium be lifted.
Sawa said the next task was for the Bougainville Executive Council, Bougainville Copper Limited, Government and the Panguna landowners to negotiate on how well the mine would operate in accordance with the new Bougainville Mining Act.
He said as the lifting was constitutionally amended, one condition of the lifting was for the Panguna Mine to be reopened.
“We decided that for the moratorium to be lifted and for Panguna Mine to operate again, only BCL will be allowed back because they know the operation back then,” he said.
Sawa said they did not want to engage another company apart from BCL which did not understand the situation in Panguna.
For areas that have minerals, it was up to the resource owners to organise and decide which mining activity either in alluvial or exploration should take place. – The National, 9 June 2016
The 13th round of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the China-led rival to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), will be held at Sky City in Auckland in the coming week.
[caption id="attachment_6181" align="alignleft" width="150"] Professor Jane Kelsey.[/caption]
‘Talks on RCEP were launched back in 2012, but it has remained largely under the radar and over-shadowed by the government’s clear preference for the US-led TPPA’, says Auckland University Law Professor Jane Kelsey. ‘Now that deal is threatened by American domestic politics, attention has turned to RCEP as the fall-back option.’
Last month, US President Obama depicted the competition between TPPA and RCEP as a battle over whether America or China makes the rules for the Asia-Pacific region.
‘As the two goliath’s face off, the New Zealand government is trying to keep a foot in both camps. It ignores the fundamental question: why should the rules that decide our future be made by either of these superpowers?’, Professor Kelsey said.
Like the TPPA, the details of these negotiations have been shrouded in secrecy. Recently, Trade Minister Todd McClay refused to name all the chapters being negotiated in response to an Official Information Act request made by Professor Kelsey, withholding the titles of 7 out of 29 chapters, annexes and schedules.
However, draft texts of the investment and intellectual property chapters have been leaked, including different countries’ positions. According to Professor Kelsey, they show Japan and South Korea are seeking to export some of the worst parts of the TPPA into RCEP, notably provisions relating to medicines and foreign investors’ rights and enforcement powers.
‘To date there has also been no opportunity for “stakeholder” engagement in RCEP, although corporate lobbies have had access to negotiators. The Auckland round will be the first such event with a session on Tuesday afternoon’, Professor Kelsey said.
‘The Minister has promised more openness than his predecessor, so hopefully this will be a free and frank exchange, rather than the stonewalling from Ministry officials that we experienced throughout the TPPA. If not, they can expect this negotiation to come under the same intense scrutiny, and face challenges to its legitimacy for undermining sovereignty and te Tiriti o Waitangi and by-passing proper democratic process.’
