Thursday 2nd of April 2026 11:24:18 PM
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IRD Wellington Staff Threatened Extra Security In Place

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At 11.40am on Tuesday 7th April Inland Revenue’s call centre received a phone call from an individual threatening staff at the IRD offices in Wellington. Police have worked closely with IRD to ensure the safety of their staff and premises. Extra security has been put in place. Wellington Police are actively making enquiries into the source of the threats and are following positive lines of enquiry. Individuals need to be aware that these types of threats are taken seriously by the Police. —

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Disappearing data a blow to research – Child Poverty Action Group

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CPAGChild Poverty Action Group says the loss of the Ministry of Social Development’s annual statistical report is a blow to researchers and makes the Government’s decision making on social issues less transparent.

The annual statistical report was last published in 2012.  It contained valuable information for researchers including trends in the use of financial assistance, and the numbers receiving each type of assistance from the Unemployment Benefit to the Gold Card. CPAG spokesperson, Dr. Gerry Cotterell says, “The current National Government often talks about the need for transparency in decision making and in many areas argues for improving access to data to make better decisions about public policy. However it appears that the Ministry of Social Development is exempt from these exhortations to be more open.” Dr. Cotterell says the lack of publication of important information has spread to other areas of the Ministry’s work. The Ministry no longer produces its annual Social Report which provided a picture of progress towards better social outcomes for New Zealanders, using a set of statistical indicators to monitor trends across key dimensions of people’s lives. The Ministry has also ceased publication of the New Zealand Journal of Social Policy – another useful source of information on social policy matters of interest to academics, students, the public and other government agencies. The last volume was published in 2011. A check of the MSD web page showcasing its publications shows that it has nothing listed beyond 2013 – no research reports or working papers. Dr. Gerry Cotterell says, “One can only assume the National Government does not want the broader population to know or understand the policies it is introducing in the social area – and more importantly, in many cases, the negative impacts of these policies.” Child Poverty Action Group is calling on research organisations to continue to seek the data they need via Official Information Act requests.  “A flood of OIA requests may help the Ministry understand the importance of these reports to researchers and the wider public of New Zealand,” says Dr. Cotterell. – –  ]]>

Law Society welcomes Coronial legislation changes

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Law Society – Coronial legislation changes welcome and timely Lady-of-JusticeThe New Zealand Law Society says changes proposed in the Coroners Amendment Bill are welcome and timely, including changes to suicide reporting and removal of the need to hold an inquest for all deaths in custody. In its submission to Parliament’s Justice and Electoral Committee on the bill, the Law Society also recommends that the Act be strengthened by adding a requirement to report back on what has been done in response to a coroner’s recommendation, and publishing any failure to respond or inadequate response. Under proposed changes to the legislation, the coroner would be required to notify certain persons or organisations of a proposed recommendation or comment and record any comments received in a publicly-available register. “Drawing recommendations to public attention may reassure the public that action is being taken to prevent a similar incident but it is not clear that it will ‘reduce the chances of further deaths’,” the Law Society submission says. “There is empirical evidence that shows it is the interaction with the organisation concerned that is more likely to reduce the chance of further deaths.” The Law Society says there is also evidence that requiring reporting back and publication of failure to respond would be effective in ensuring recommendations are taken seriously. Supporting amendments to provisions relating to suicide reporting, the Law Society says the new provisions provide greater clarity about what cannot be made public, subject to exemptions. It supports this approach, along with a new section which would enable the Chief Coroner to grant exemptions from restrictions. However, it recommends an amendment to require the Chief Coroner to consult with interested parties when deciding to grant an exemption. The submission also supports removal of the need for an inquest to be held in respect of every death occurring in official custody or care, “taking into consideration that a percentage of such deaths appear to be from natural causes.” The Law Society says the wording of the proposed new amending section should, however, be clarified to ensure that it is interpreted in the manner intended. It says the wording could be taken to mean threshold considerations have been introduced, contrary to what the Law Society understands is the intention of the amendment – which is to confer a broad discretion. The submission contains a recommended amendment to better achieve the desired outcome.

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MPI and Auckland community in for the long haul on Queensland fruit fly eradication

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MIL OSI – Source: Ministry for Primary Industries – MPI and Auckland community in for the long haul on Queensland fruit fly eradication

[caption id="attachment_3073" align="alignleft" width="300"]Queensland Fruit fly. Image: MPI. Queensland Fruit fly. Image: MPI.[/caption] The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) remains confident that the isolated population of Queensland fruit fly will be eradicated from Auckland.
Since the first male fruit fly was trapped in Grey Lynn in mid-February, 14 adult flies have been located. The last find was over a month ago on 6 March. The last detection of larvae in fruit collected from the affected area was on 13 March. MPI’s Director of Response, Veronica Herrera says this is good news but is not yet an indication that the flies are gone for good. “We need some months yet to be quite sure this population has been eradicated. We believe that we will be working in the area until at least the end of November and we will need the community’s support for the long haul,” she says. Dr Herrera says treatments of the five directly affected properties with insecticide spraying are now complete. But going forward, MPI will still need to regularly apply bait to attract and kill any flies present, plus maintain regular trap inspections to make quite sure the flies are gone. “We are so appreciative of the support of the people in those homes who have had daily visits from our field staff over the past six weeks. “We are also hugely grateful to the wider community in the Controlled Area who are having fruiting trees in their gardens baited and are having to comply with the restrictions on moving fruit and vegetables. “It takes some commitment to support this operation. We are pleased that both residents and local businesses realise their support is vital to stopping the spread of the fruit fly and eventually eradicating it.” As fruit flies go to ground over winter, MPI expects to stop the baiting treatments in the entire Controlled Area sometime around early June. However, to be quite sure they are eradicated, MPI is likely to need to resume baiting in the springtime. The intensive network of surveillance traps will stay out over the winter but will be checked less frequently. This continued trapping is needed to verify that the fruit fly is gone. “This will enable us to assure our international trading partners that New Zealand is once again fruit fly free,” Dr Herrera says. “Until that time, the controls on the movement of fruit and vegetables outside of the Controlled Area will need to continue to make quite sure any surviving flies are not spread from the area.” MPI recently made it easier to comply with the rules by allowing customers to purchase fruit and vegetables at certain MPI-approved retailers within the Controlled Area that can be taken outside of the Controlled Area. A full list of approved retailers is at: http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/files/pests/queensland-fruit-fly/2015/auckland-fruit-fly-2015-MPI-approved-retailers-in-controlled-areas.pdf
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Gallipoli preparations on the home straight – Foss

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Government – Gallipoli preparations on the home straight [caption id="attachment_3076" align="alignleft" width="300"]Poppies at Chunuk Bair, Gallipoli. Image by Selwyn Manning. Poppies at Chunuk Bair, Gallipoli. Image by Selwyn Manning.[/caption] Veterans’ Affairs Minister Craig Foss says final preparations for the centenary commemorations at Gallipoli this Anzac Day are well underway, with the Gallipoli 2015 ballot now complete. “The allocation and reallocation of passes for the commemorative services was a massive undertaking. I’m pleased to say the ballot is now complete,” Mr Foss says. “I look forward to sharing this once-in-a-lifetime experience with nearly 2000 other Kiwis.” Mr Foss says on-site arrangements, including the construction of stands and installation of supporting infrastructure, are progressing well. “There is no permanent infrastructure on the commemorative sites so everything — power, water, food, stands, lighting, tents, emergency facilities — has to be brought in. “The Turkish authorities have generously agreed to an extension of the base around the New Zealand Memorial at Chunuk Bair, as well as extra seating and two large tents. “This will ensure, rain or shine, we have the best possible environment for the New Zealand service,” Mr Foss says. –]]>

Steven Joyce off to China International Boat Show

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MIL OSI – Source: National Party – Minister Joyce to visit China [caption id="attachment_2365" align="alignleft" width="150"]Steven Joyce. Steven Joyce.[/caption] Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce leaves for Shanghai, China, this evening to foster ties between the two countries’ marine, education and technology sectors. Since the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) came into force in September 2008, New Zealand exports to China have more than tripled to reach $11.8 billion in 2014. Mr Joyce will be attending the 20th annual China International Boat Show, where he will receive an award on behalf of the NZ marine industry for New Zealand’s commitment to developing business ties with the marine sector in China. He will meet delegates of seven Kiwi companies exhibiting at the boat show and host a networking function between industry representatives and their Chinese partners and customers. “New Zealand is recognised internationally for its expertise in the marine sector and it is a great honour for our country to be acknowledged with this award,” Mr Joyce says. “The China International Boat Show is the largest marine industry showcase in China. It is a great opportunity for New Zealand companies to promote their cutting-edge products and technology and build relationships with like-minded companies and investors.” Mr Joyce will attend the opening of a new Nuplex factory, which extends the New Zealand-listed chemical company’s presence in China, and open the Shanghai offices of Primary Collaboration New Zealand – a coalition of several New Zealand food and beverage companies. “New Zealand companies are making major inroads in China across a range of industries and the opening of these two new facilities will further increase New Zealand’s footprint in one of the largest markets in the world,” Mr Joyce says. He will also visit New York University Shanghai Vice-Chancellor Jeff Lehman, meet Kiwi students studying in Shanghai, and visit the Shanghai Technology Innovation Centre. Mr Joyce returns to New Zealand on Saturday 11 April. –]]>

DOC urges hunters to think before they shoot this ‘roar’ season

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MIL OSI – Source: Department of Conservation – DOC urges hunters to think before they shoot this ‘roar’ season [caption id="attachment_3081" align="alignleft" width="300"]Red deer. Image: www.newzealandhuntingsafari.com. Red deer. Image: www.newzealandhuntingsafari.com.[/caption] With the annual deer ‘roar’ or ‘rut’ approaching, the Department of Conservation is reminding hunters to put safety first at all times and think before they shoot. Traditionally the ‘roar’ is the busiest time of year for deer hunting and this year it coincides with the Easter holiday period when many people are camping and tramping on conservation land. “Hunters should be aware that other people can be anywhere at any time,” says DOC National Hunting Advisor, Ian Cooksley. Anybody intending to hunt on public conservation land must gain a permit first and check whether there are any local hunting restrictions. A DOC permit can be obtained by visiting the DOC website. Hunters must follow the firearms safety code when hunting on conservation land.  Ian Cooksley says there are some simple measures hunters can take to reduce risks:

  • Wear coloured or high visibility clothing that contrasts with the hunting environment and animals being hunted.
  • Make sure they identify their target properly. Do not shoot at movement, colour, shape or sound alone.
  • If hunting in a party and a party member is lost sight of, no shots should be fired until the party member has been sighted again.
“A critical factor in several fatal incidents in recent years is hunters failing to differentiate between a person and the intended animal being hunted,” he says. It is illegal to hunt on conservation land after dark (1/2 hour after sunset and 1/2 hour before sunrise). “Hunting at night using a spotlight, or other night vision equipment, poses a serious risk to other people who are using these areas. This practice must stop,” says Mr. Cooksley. “Most hunters are responsible and follow the firearms safety code. But it’s important that firearms safety awareness is at the forefront of all hunters thinking when in pursuit of that trophy or meat for the table.” Anyone who sees hunting activity at night on conservation land should contact the New Zealand Police immediately or call the DOC hotline on 0800 DOC HOT. Information of the firearms safety code can be found on the New Zealand Police website or along with other relevant safety information on the Mountain Safety website. Information on safe hunting practices around walks, huts and campgrounds is available on the DOC website. There is also a detailed list of special conditions for specific hunting areas across the country. New Zealand Deerstalkers Association runs a Hunter National Training Scheme, HUNTS, which covers hunting safety as well as other practical outdoor skills. –]]>

Police welcome safer Easter on roads

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Police are thanking New Zealand road users for making it a safer Easter weekend on the roads, with provisional figures showing just one fatality over the break. One person died on Sunday following a crash near Lake Pukaki in the Canterbury Police District. Conditionally it is the second ever lowest Easter road toll on record, following the zero deaths achieved in 2012. Five people died on the roads in 2014, and three in 2013. “While the one death recorded is a tragedy, it’s heartening that no other families have been left grieving this Easter, says Inspector Peter McKennie, Road Policing National Operations Manager. “We thank the driving public for their efforts overall in making it a generally safer Easter for everyone.” Over the long weekend Police targeted high risk driver behaviour – including drink and drug-impaired driving, speeding, and failing to wear safety belts – including for children and other passengers. In addition to breath testing and other high visibility policing tactics, Police enforced a reduced 4km/h speed threshold as it had done for every other long holiday weekend since Queen’s Birthday Weekend in 2010. Mr McKennie said it was pleasing that overall, road users seemed to be getting the road safety message. “We acknowledge all of the road users across the country who played their part to make it a safer Easter for everyone. But the challenge now is to keep that momentum going throughout the rest of the year and make it a record low road toll for all of 2015.”

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English’s state house flog off plans exposed – Twyford

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MIL OSI – Source: Labour Party – English’s state house flog off plans exposed [caption id="attachment_3025" align="alignleft" width="200"]Phil Twyford. Phil Twyford.[/caption]Labour is calling on Bill English to confirm or deny a claim the Government is exploring a mass sell-off of state housing to tenants. Property magnate Bob Jones writes in a newspaper column published today that the Minister responsible for Housing NZ, Bill English, told him the government was exploring the idea. “If the claim is correct, it is more evidence Mr English is simply making up this policy as he goes along,” Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says. “The Salvation Army and the Methodist Mission don’t want to buy state houses. The public hates Bill English’s plan to flog them off to property developers. So desperate is Bill English to offload state housing it seems he is now thinking about a mass sell-off to tenants. “Stripped of the soothing spin about charities taking over state housing, the policy is looking more and more like National’s last big sell-down of the 1990s when 13,000 houses were sold at knock down prices and snapped up by property developers and speculators. “Many of those ended up back on the rental market with the help of a taxpayer subsidy. “Helping struggling Kiwi families into home ownership is a worthy goal, but if Bob Jones’ claim is correct, this is just the latest attempt by National at sugar-coating their desire to off-load state housing at any cost,” Phil Twyford says. –]]>

Tonga and Australia cement bilateral development partnership

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MIL OSI – Source: Tonga Government – Tonga and Australia cement bilateral development partnership Tonga and Australia today agreed to continue working together on a number of development programs, including more support for women in Tonga. The Prime Minister, Hon Samiuela ‘Akilisi Pohiva, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, joined his counterpart, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop in announcing that in a joint press conference at the Fa’onelua Convention Centre in Fasi. The programs cover the different sectors of governance, education, health, defense and security, humanitarian assistance and resilience and the empowerment of women in the economic life of Tonga. In addressing the joint press conference, Hon Pohiva said Australia’s development assistance has always been responsive to Tonga’s priorities in the economic  and public sector governance, education, health, defense and security, humanitarian assistance and resilience, which have been of great benefit to all development. “Australia and Tonga also continue to work together on the regional and international platforms to achieve neutral goals and to tackle common challenges,” he said. “In the past Australia has always been a avid friend and supporter of Tonga and the Pacific and truly a regional architecture, that remains relevant to our culture, political, economic and social needs. “Today with your visit Foreign Minister it recognizes a new era for partnership and prosperity between Tonga and Australia.” Hon Pohiva said he wanted to reaffirm the commitment of his Government to the further building of partnerships that will advance economic development in Tonga. “My government looks forward to working together with the Australian government to achieve these goals and to uphold the principles of democracy,” he added. Hon Bishop said her visit was designed to emphasise “the close and deep relationship that exists between our two countries.” She said that Tonga and Australia are friends and partners – with a long-standing history. During the press conference Hon Bishop announced that her government was spending more money on a number of projects “to improve the lives of people here and economic development of the country”. She announced that 54 local women will benefit from a Horticulture project that is being funded by Australia. She also announced that Australia will continue with a $450,000 funding for the Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) program run by the Tonga Ministry of Health. On Education she announced that 16 young Australians will be here this year to study the different sectors of health and education. That will include 10 working with the Helth Sector and six in Education. For locals, Australia is putting aside 34 study scholarships this year. “Australia is Tonga’s major development partner and a major economic and security partner,” she said. Hon Bishop announced that her government will continue to expand the Seasonal Work Program, where a lot of Tongans are now being employed. She said they are working on expanding the program gradually and are looking at also opening opportunities in other sectors apart from horticulture. Meanwhile, both Hon Pohiva and Hon Bishop agreed that dialogue with Fiji was important for the Pacific Island Forum, especially after Fiji started the Pacific Islands Development Fund. Hon Pohiva said Tonga will remain neutral on the issue. Hon Bishop said she has been in constant contact and dialogue with Fijian leaders. The Australian Foreign Affairs Minister was in the Kingdom for meetings with Hon Pohiva and his Cabinet as part of her South Pacific visit. She also visited some of the Australia Government funded projects while here in Nuku’alofa. —  ]]>

Goff on Nuke Non-Proliferation – Iran Nuclear deal should be just the start

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MIL OSI – Source: Labour Party – Nuclear deal with Iran should be just the start [caption id="attachment_43276" align="alignright" width="250"]Phil Goff. Phil Goff.[/caption] A deal struck by Iran and major powers to ensure the Iranian facilities producing nuclear material are not used for the purpose of constructing nuclear weapons has been a long time coming, Labour’s Disarmament spokesperson Phil Goff says. “Undoubtedly Iran’s position in reaching agreement was influenced by the sanctions imposed by Western nations, which will be lifted when the final deal is signed. “Most importantly the deal is not based on hope or simple promises but will be verified by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. “The IAEA is experienced in the verification process and the deal should ensure that Iran will not progress to producing nuclear weapon-grade plutonium. “It reduces Iran’s nuclear centrifuges from 19,000 to 6104 and curbs its nuclear capabilities by reducing its enrichment capability. “While this deal will be opposed by some, including right-wing Republicans in the US Congress and by Israel, it should be welcomed as a much more positive alternative to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call for Iranian nuclear facilities to be bombed. “It’s a bit rich for Mr Netanyahu, whose own country possesses nuclear weapons, to be threatening other countries with air strikes to prevent them developing the same capabilities. “While Labour strongly supports this deal we are also calling on the nuclear weapons states which negotiated the deal, to themselves start a process of disarming their nuclear weapons. “In three weeks time the UN will convene the Nuclear Non-proliferation Review Conference. The non-proliferation treaty was struck 45 years ago and under it other non nuclear countries promised not to develop nuclear weapon capabilities in return for the nuclear weapon states making an unequivocal undertaking to begin the process of nuclear disarmament. “Those states have not honoured their promises, despite repeated undertakings to do so. We welcome the deal reached with Iran and now call on the nuclear weapon states to finally deliver on their promise,” Phil Goff says. –]]>

BREAKING: Greenpeace Climbers Scale Shell’s Arctic-Bound Oil Rig

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MIL OSI – Source: Greenpeace – Greenpeace Climbers Scale Shell’s Arctic-Bound Oil Rig Pacific Ocean: [caption id="attachment_3009" align="alignleft" width="300"]Image courtesy of Greenpeace.org. Image courtesy of Greenpeace.org.[/caption]Six Greenpeace climbers have intercepted an Arctic-bound Shell oil rig in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 750 miles north-west of Hawaii and have scaled the 38,000 tonne platform. The multi-national team of volunteers will set up camp on the underside of the Polar Pioneer’s main deck. They have supplies to last for several days and are equipped with technology which will allow them to communicate with supporters around the world in real-time, despite being hundreds of miles from land. Last week, the United States Department of Interior approved Shell’s drilling lease for the Chukchi Sea in the Alaskan Arctic. This means that in 100 days, Shell could begin drilling in the Alaskan Arctic. At dawn this morning, approximately 1 PM EST, the six, from the USA, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden and Austria, sped towards the Polar Pioneer, which Shell intends to use to drill for oil in the Chukchi Sea, in inflatable boats launched from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza. They are also hoping to unfurl a banner containing the names of millions of people from around the world who are opposed to Arctic oil drilling. Aliyah Field, one of the six, tweeted from the Polar Pioneer: “We made it! We’re on Shell’s platform. And we’re not alone. Everyone can help turn this into a platform for people power! #TheCrossing.” Johno Smith from New Zealand, another one of the six, said: “We’re here to highlight that in less than 100 days Shell is going to the Arctic to drill for oil. This pristine environment needs protecting for future generations and all life that will call it home. But instead Shell’s actions are exploiting the melting ice to increase a manmade disaster. Climate change is real and already inflicting pain and suffering on my brothers and sisters in the Pacific. “I believe that shining a light on what Shell is doing will encourage more people to take a strong stand against them and other companies who are seeking to destroy this planet for profit. I’m just one voice out here, but I know I’m not alone, and millions if not billions of voices demanding the right to safe and healthy lives will have a huge chance of changing things.” The Polar Pioneer, which is being transported on a 712 feet (217 metres) long heavy-lift vessel called Blue Marlin, is one of two drilling vessels heading towards the Arctic for Shell this year. The second, the Noble Discoverer, is one of the oldest drill ships in the world. In December 2014, Noble Drilling, one of Shell’s biggest Arctic sub-contractors and owner of the Noble Discoverer, pleaded guilty to committing eight felonies in connection with Shell’s failed attempts to drill in the Arctic Ocean in 2012. Both the drilling vessels are crossing the Pacific and are expected to arrive in Seattle around the middle of April before heading to the Chukchi Sea. Shell intends to use the port of Seattle as a base for the company’s Arctic fleet, despite growing opposition from a range of Seattle-based groups. The 35 person crew on board the Esperanza have tailed the Polar Pioneer for more than 5000 nautical miles, since it left Brunei Bay in Malaysia. The six climbers, who will not interfere with the navigation or operation of the vessel, are Aliyah Field, 27, from the USA (@aliyahfield), Johno Smith, 32, from New Zealand (@nonstoperjohno), Andreas Widlund, 27, from Sweden (@widlundandreas), Miriam Friedrich, 23, from Austria (@mirifriedrich), Zoe Buckley Lennox, 21, from Australia (@zoevirginia) and Jens Loewe, 46, from Germany (jens4762). The footage will also become available from the Greenpeace online library at (please register for download): http://tinyurl.com/qxlls68 – –  ]]>

Mounting civilian casualties, humanitarian concerns as Yemen fighting continues, warns UN

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MIL OSI – Source: United Nations – Mounting civilian casualties, humanitarian concerns as Yemen fighting continues, warns UN 6 April 2015 – The violence in Yemen continues to wreak havoc upon the country’s civilian population and restrict humanitarian access to those most in need amid a spate of aerial attacks and ground incursions, the United Nations has reported. In the last 24 hours alone, air strikes aimed at halting rebel activities have hit the Yemeni cities of Aden, Al Dhale’e, Sana’a, Sa’ada, Al Hudaydah, and Hajjah Governorates killing at least eight civilians, according to information provided today by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the press. At the same time, clashes are continuing in the country’s south as Houthis and Government forces battle in Aden and Ma’ala, where a number of civilian targets have reportedly been destroyed including four residential buildings and a number of bridges connecting two major roads from Aden. The situation in Yemen has been rapidly deteriorating since the country formed a new Government in November 2014 aimed at ending a period of political turbulence and bringing about a full transition towards democracy. The country continued to be plagued by violence and political demonstrations despite UN efforts to bring about a peaceful political resolution. As the fighting has ratcheted up in intensity, the World Health Organization (WHO) today also released its estimates suggesting that more than 540 people have been killed and some 1,700 others wounded by the violence in Yemen since 19 March. Against that backdrop, increasing numbers of people from Sana’a and Sa’ada are reportedly being displaced to Amran Governorate, just north of the country’s capital. OCHA said local partners estimated that up 28,000 people had moved into Amran since the beginning of the crisis and warned that the fighting risked interrupting humanitarian access, such as medical supplies, to those civilians most in need. In addition, the ongoing shelling in Aden has disrupted the city’s waterworks with the need to ensure a reliable water supply becoming an “urgent priority” for humanitarian partners. –]]>

Forced Prostitution and Modern Slavery: Brazil’s Response

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MIL OSI Analysis – Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage: Headline: Forced Prostitution and Modern Slavery: Brazil’s Response

By: Chen Jiang, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs Tourism statistics have shown that the World Cup and sexual slavery can be dangerously linked. During the German 2006 and South African 2010 World Cups, sex trafficking rose on average from 30 to 40 percent.[1] Last summer 3.16 million spectators traveled to Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.[2] Along with the tourism boom came a noticeable increase in human trafficking and sexual exploitation. In anticipation of this, a month before the World Cup, a number of Catholic nuns in Vatican city began a campaign called “Play in Favor of Life – Denounce Human Trafficking”, which was backed by the Pope and the United States Embassy to Vatican City. Brazil’s booming, if fitful, economy has attracted massive flows of investment. Some of the investors have proven highly scrupled, but others are sharks. Brazil has long been a teaming site for human trafficking. As the wealthiest and most developed economy in Latin America, Brazil serves as both the origin and the destination of a daunting amount of human trafficking. In 2013 Brazil’s GDP was $2.24 trillion USD: the highest in Latin America. However, its GDP per capita is only $11,208 USD, a number noticeably lower than Chile, Argentina, and Venezuela.[3] Socioeconomic inequality in Brazil has created a large underclass of impoverished women and children–prime targets of human trafficking. The U.S. Department of State defines human trafficking or trafficking in persons as “the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.”[4] Often, victims of human trafficking are unable to escape because their passports are taken or they are coerced to work by violent as well as non-physical threats. According to the Global Report on Trafficking In Person by the United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), the most common forms of human trafficking are sex trafficking and forced labor.[5] It is important to note that statistics gathered by the United Nations only include reported crimes: as a large number victims of human trafficking go unreported, the situation may be much worse. Brazil has failed to meet the international expectations in controlling human trafficking. The matter comes down to the definition of how one defines the crime in question. Brazil defines human trafficking as a movement-based crime, while the international standard defines the act of recruitment and transfer of human beings for exploitation to be human trafficking. Moreover, Brazil is listed as a Tier 2 country by the U.S. State Department in 2014 Report on Trafficking in Person, which suggests that even though Brazil’s laws do not fully comply with the international minimum standard for trafficking in persons, it is relatively invested in making progress.[6] The Global Trade in Human Misery In order to fully examine human trafficking in Brazil, it is necessary to look at the global status of human trafficking. The UN’s 2014 report by the Office on Drugs and Crimes, covering the years 2010 to 2012 provide a chilling overview. The majority of worldwide human trafficking cases are based in sexual exploitation, but other forms of human trafficking, such as forced labor, have been increasing in recent years. Indeed, in some regions, Europe and Central Asia for example, human trafficking and forced labor has exceeded sex trafficking as the most common form of slavery. Nevertheless, in the Western Hemisphere, levels of forced labor and sexual exploitation show comparable percentages.[7] Significant differences also exist between North, Central, and South America. In North and Central America, more than 50 percent of victims are exploited as forced labor, while in South America, only 40 percent of victims can be considered to fit into this category.[8] This is because in South America, people who work under “slavery conditions” are not considered human trafficking victims due to legislations of South American countries.[9] The report also suggests that if South American countries were to consider people who work in “slavery conditions” to be forced labor victims, the number worldwide would be substantially larger.[10] Conviction rates show the same pattern. In the entire Western Hemisphere, only the United States and Peru have more than 50 convictions for human trafficking each year. There is a large discrepancy between the number of police investigations, prosecution and actual conviction in the region.[11] In 2007, there were 426 cases of “trafficking in persons” prosecuted in the Western Hemisphere, and of the 426 cases, only 113 of them ended with a conviction. In 2013, 1,182 cases were prosecuted with only 446 convictions.[12] An earlier Global Report on Trafficking in Person released in 2009, which analyzed data from 2003 to 2007, suggests that human trafficking frequently remains regional, which means that victims are transported to places close to home. Also, a general trend suggests that victims from poor countries are often taken to wealthier countries.[13] Human trafficking cases officially reported in Brazil are typically categorized as being victims of sex exploitation, because of Brazil’s lack of legislation on forced labor.[14] Brazil’s Challenges Article 231 and 231-A of Brazil’s criminal code defines movement as an essential element in human trafficking, therefore, internal sex trafficking crimes such as child sex exploitation are prosecuted as other crimes.[15] Due to inconsistencies with international standards on human trafficking laws, Brazil often prosecutes internationally defined sex traffickers under pimping statutes.[16] In the case of labor trafficking, Article 149 of the code prohibits trabalho escravo (forced labor) and other circumstances that do not constitute as human trafficking. Brazil’s law neglects human trafficking cases in which people are not physically coerced to work, but rather are threatened with deportation, or are tricked into indentured servitude.[17] On the other hand, given the aforementioned low prosecution and conviction rates, it is not only important for Brazil to uphold international standards, but it is also crucial that its government invests resources in law enforcement, and prosecutes criminals, giving them actual prison sentences rather than just community service or fines. For years, prosecution of human trafficking has remained comparatively low, and conviction rates tend to be even lower due to inefficient investigative work, as well as corruption in the judicial sector. The judicial system in Brazil is widely perceived as a corrupt institution. In the Global Corruption Barometer of Transparency International, in the year 2013, 50 percent of Brazilians reported that they believe their judicial system was corrupt or extremely corrupt.[18] The legal process in Brazil is slow; on average it takes five years for a decision to be rendered on a lawsuit due to the large number of appeals the system receives each year.[19] In addition, any trials for criminal offenses must be held within a certain period, giving judges the opportunity to dismiss cases without a hearing, benefiting human trafficking perpetrators simply by delaying the process.[20] Brazil has established a federal justice system in an effort to tackle human trafficking issues. The Federal Police investigate such charges on an international level in addition to cases involving more than one state. In the Federal Police system, the Central Division of Human Rights specializes in crimes that violate human rights. The best available data shows that from 2003 to 2007, the number of investigations regarding slave labor—as defined by Article 149—conducted by Brazilian Federal Police increased from 52 cases in 2003, to 200 cases in 2007.[21] The Federal Police investigated 55 “trafficking in person” cases, which specifically refers to sex exploitation; the number increased to 109 in 2007. Among the suspects investigated, all of them were Brazilian nationals with the exception of six Europeans. Moreover, during the entire period, only 11 cases ended with prosecution, and none ended with a conviction of any sort.[22] Brazil’s Effort Brazil defines slave labor as “forced labor or labor performed during exhausting work days or in degrading working conditions”. Under this definition, there are more than 200,000 people in Brazil working under slave labor conditions.[23] Although Brazil does not truly have an effective criminal justice system to punish and effectively put away human traffickers, crime report rates have gone up in recent years, and Brazil has had to announced enhanced anti-human trafficking measures, as well as create more governmental bodies to implement anti-trafficking initiatives. In 2012, the Brazilian Congress passed an amendment that places more penalties on employers who have been found to force their employees to work in “slave-like” conditions.[24] The amendment specifically penalizes businesses guilty of forced labor with confiscation of land property without compensation.[25] Initially introduced in 1995, the measure only passed the first round of voting in Congress in 2004. It was not until 2012, however, that it was finally written into law, illustrating a lack of political will on the government’s part to counteract human trafficking.[26] However, like other anti-human trafficking laws in Brazil, this law does not specify how it should be executed, and it is predicted that employers will push their interest as well as legal groups to either rewrite the law or find loopholes. A human trafficking hotline established by the government reportedly received 263 allegations in the first half of 2013, a significant growth compared to the 17 received over the same time period in 2012.[27] In 2013, the Brazilian government announced their second national plan against human trafficking, which is set to run from 2013 to 2016. This three-year national plan includes increased border control and a revision of the penal code. The first national plan took place from 2008 to 2010. The government also announced its $3 million USD investment to create ten additional control posts on the border.[28] Furthermore, Brazil has funded campaigns to raise awareness of the issue, and has created service centers, in which they offer victims both psychological and financial assistance, throughout the country. However, a major problem is that there is no service center exclusively dedicated to human-trafficking victims.[29] Although there are service centers in a majority of Brazilian states, they are often underfunded. More importantly, many of these centers fail to report how many forced labor victims they have assisted.[30] After their rescue, victims of slave labor receive minimum wage for a period of three months, whereas victims of sex exploitation do not receive any sort of compensation. Unfortunately, slave labor victims often do not receive their payment because their employers refuse to pay.[31] The Next Step There are two primary aspects in the fight against human trafficking: conviction and prevention. First of all, Brazil’s government should set up a legal system that is effective in the investigation, prosecution and, most importantly, the conviction of offenders. Only by separating criminals from their potential victims can human trafficking be prevented in the future. Also, awareness campaigns are necessary to prevent people from being deceived into human trafficking, especially in rural areas where criminals tend to recruit. Due to the lack of conformity on the definition of sex trafficking, forced labor, and other forms of human trafficking in the international community, it is hard to determine how many people are actually victims of human trafficking crimes. Therefore, the first and most important step Brazil must take is to revise its human trafficking regulations in compliance with international standards. Currently, because of Brazil’s different definitions of forced labor and human trafficking, the number of slave-labor victims is likely to be underestimated in the country. Human trafficking crimes, especially the ones in the realm of forced labor, are often treated as crimes punishable by fines instead of prison sentences, enabling traffickers to continue their lucrative business with only nominal consequences and punishment. Revising the law will also raise awareness, which could gradually lead to greater rates of reports. However, even if Brazil does revise human trafficking legislation, it will not guarantee that criminals will be adequately punished. The number of cases Brazilian police investigated is significantly higher than the number of prosecutions, and of those prosecuted few are ever convicted. Even if a case does end with a conviction, it is likely that the defendant will appeal or pay a fine to evade jail time. Efforts must be made to ensure that criminals serve actual prison sentences. When a crime has been committed and damage done, the government should assist victims both psychologically and financially. Brazil must invest in specialized service centers dedicated to human trafficking victims. Furthermore, these centers should work to prevent victims from falling back into trafficking traps again. Poverty is the primary reason that people who are victimized into prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of human trafficking; therefore, if the government could reduce socioeconomic disparity, it could go a long way in reducing the tragedy of human trafficking. By: Chen Jiang, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs Please accept this article as a free contribution from COHA, but if re-posting, please afford authorial and institutional attribution. Exclusive rights can be negotiated. For additional news and analysis on Latin America, please go to: LatinNews.com and Rights Action. Featured Image: OEA – OAS, “OAS and Brazil Sign Agreement on Meeting of National Authorities to Combat Human Trafficking,” Retrieved from Flickr Creative Commons, https://www.flickr.com/photos/oasoea/15781093841. [1] “Nuns, Backed by the Pope, Warn of Human Trafficking at World Cup”, Reuters, Published May 20, 2014. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/20/us-soccer-world-trafficking-idUSBREA4J0IS20140520 [2] “Sex Trafficking at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil”, Human Trafficking Search, Published July 14, 2014. http://humantraffickingsearch.net/wp/sex-trafficking-at-the-fifa-world-cup-in-brazil/ [3] “Brazil”, World Bank http://data.worldbank.org/country/brazil [4] “Definitions and Methodology”, U.S. Department of State, Published 2014. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/ [5] “Global Report on Trafficking in Person”, United Nation Office on Drugs and Crimes, Published 2014 http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/GLOTIP_2014_full_report.pdf [6] “Tier Placement”, U.S. Department of State, Published 2014. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2014/226649.htm [7] “Global Report on Trafficking in Person”, United Nation Office on Drugs and Crimes, Published 2014 http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/GLOTIP_2014_full_report.pdf [8] Ibid [9] Ibid [10] Ibid [11] “Global Report on Trafficking in Person”, United Nation Office on Drugs and Crimes, Published 2014 http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/GLOTIP_2014_full_report.pdf [11] Ibid [12] “Tier Placement”, U.S. Department of State, Published 2014. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2014/226649.htm [13] “Global Report on Trafficking in Person”, United Nation Office on Drugs and Crimes, Published 2009 http://www.unodc.org/documents/Global_Report_on_TIP.pdf [14]Ibid [15] “2014 Trafficking In Person Report”, U.S. Department of State. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2014/226687.htm [16] Ibid [17] Ibid [18] “Global Corruption Barometer”, Transparency International. [19] ” How Brazilian Judges Undermine the Rule of Law: A Critical Appraisal “, Augusto Zimmermann, Published 2008. http://www.profpito.com/ITBLRBrazilianJudiciaryZimmermann.pdf [20] Ibid [21] “Global Report on Trafficking in Person”, United Nation Office on Drugs and Crimes, Published 2009 http://www.unodc.org/documents/Global_Report_on_TIP.pdf [22] “Ibid [23] “Sweatshop Raids Raises Concern Over Peru to Brazil Human Trafficking”, InSight Crime, Published March 13, 2014 http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/sweatshop-raid-raises-concern-over-peru-to-brazil-human-trafficking [24] “After Decades of Struggle, Brazil Anti-Slave Labor Law Moves Forward”, InSight Crime, Published July 19, 2012. http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/after-decade-of-struggle-brazil-anti-slave-labor-law-moves-forward [25] Ibid [26] Ibid [27] “Reports of Human Trafficking Rise Dramatically in Brazil “, InSight Crime, Published October 10, 2013. http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/reports-of-human-trafficking-rise-1500-in-brazil [28] “Brazil Announces New Anti-Human Trafficking Measures”, InSight Crime, Published February 28, 2013. http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/brazil-announces-new-anti-human-trafficking-measures [29] “2014 Trafficking In Person Report”, U.S. Department of State. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2014/226687.htm [30] Ibid [31] Ibid
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NASA Extends Campaign for Public to Name Features on Pluto

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MIL OSI – Source: NASA – NASA Extends Campaign for Public to Name Features on Pluto The public has until Friday, April 24 to help name new features on Pluto and its orbiting satellites as they are discovered by NASA’s New Horizons mission. Announced in March, the agency wants to give the worldwide public more time to participate in the agency’s mission to Pluto that will make the first-ever close flyby of the dwarf planet on July 14. The campaign extension, in partnership with the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Paris, was due to the overwhelming response from the public. “Due to increasing interest and the number of submissions we’re getting, it was clear we needed to extend this public outreach activity,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This campaign not only reveals the public’s excitement about the mission, but helps the team, which will not have time to come up with names during the flyby, to have a ready-made library of names in advance to officially submit to the IAU.” The IAU is the formal authority for naming celestial bodies. Submissions must follow a set of accepted themes and guidelines set out by the IAU’s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. After the campaign concludes, NASA’s New Horizons team will sort through the names and submit its recommendations to the IAU. The IAU will decide whether and how the names will be used. The campaign allows the public of all ages to submit names for the many new features scientists expect to discover on Pluto following the encounter. “I’m impressed with the more than 40,000 thoughtful submissions,” said Mark Showalter, scientist New Horizons science team co-investigator, and SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, which is hosting the naming website. “Every day brings new lessons in the world’s history, literature and mythology. Participation has come from nearly every country on Earth, so this really is a worldwide campaign.” New Horizons already has covered more than 3 billion miles since it launched on Jan. 19, 2006. Its journey has taken it past each planet’s orbit, from Mars to Neptune, in record time, and now it’s now in the first stage of an historic encounter with Pluto that includes long-distance imaging, as well as dust, energetic particle and solar wind measurements to characterize the space environment near Pluto. The spacecraft will pass Pluto at a speed of 31,000 mph taking thousands of images and making a wide range of science observations. At a distance of nearly 4 billion miles from Earth at flyby, it will take approximately 4.5 hours for data to reach Earth. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) manages the New Horizons mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), is the principal investigator. SwRI leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. APL designed, built and operates the spacecraft for NASA. To find out more information about how to participate in the Pluto naming contest, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons Detailed IAU guidelines for acceptable names submissions are available online at: http://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/#dwarfplanets For images and updates on the July 14 Pluto flyby, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons and http://pluto.jhuapl.edu –]]>

Update: Indictment for Khmer Rouge member for Crimes Against Humanity

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MIL OSI – Source: US Global Legal Monitor – Indictment for Khmer Rouge member for Crimes Against Humanity [caption id="attachment_3014" align="alignleft" width="300"]Ao An, aka Ta An, photographed in 2011. Photo Courtesy DC-CAM. Ao An, aka Ta An, photographed in 2011. Photo Courtesy DC-CAM.[/caption]On March 27, 2015, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a United Nations-backed tribunal established in 2006 to try those accused of crimes committed when the Khmer Rouge controlled the country, charged Ao An, a former Khmer Rouge member, with “crimes against humanity of murder, extermination, persecution on political and religious grounds, imprisonment, and other inhuman acts.” (UN-Backed Court Charges Former Khmer Rouge Leader with Crimes Against Humanity, UN NEWS CENTRE (Mar. 27, 2015); The International Co-Investigating Judge Charges Ao An in Case 004, ECCC website (Mar. 27, 2015).) The indictment is part of Case 004, which was initiated on September 7, 2009, and covers crimes committed between April 17, 1975, and January 6, 1979, in many locations within Cambodia. (Case 004, ECCC website (last visited Mar. 30, 2015) [includes a full list of the locations involved].) Ao An has been charged with crimes that took place at three locations and that include premeditated homicide, which is a violation of the Cambodian Penal Code of 1956, and murder, extermination, persecution on political and religious grounds, imprisonment, and other inhumane acts (including inhumane detention conditions). (The International Co-Investigating Judge Charges Ao An in Case 004, supra; CODE PÉNAL ET LOIS PÉNALES [CRIMINAL CODE AND LAWS] (Phnom Penh, 1956).) Ao An’s attorneys will now have access to the files in the case and may participate in the investigation. According to the ECCC, “[t]his will allow the investigation to proceed with full respect of the rights of all parties and to conclude it within a reasonable time … .” (The International Co-Investigating Judge Charges Ao An in Case 004, supra.) The ECCC has held other former Khmer Rouge members in custody for crimes against humanity, including two charged recently. On March 3, 2015, an investigating judge of the ECCC charged Meas Muth in Case 003 with the commission of a range of atrocities. Muth was the commander of the navy for the Khmer Rouge. In addition, in the same case under which An is charged, Im Chaem, a former district commander, has been accused of similar crimes. (Cambodia: Two New Suspects Charged Before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, International Federation for Human Rights website (Mar. 5, 2015).) It is estimated that 1.7 million people died in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime in the years 1975-1979, from starvation, torture, execution, and forced labor. (UN-Backed Court Charges Former Khmer Rouge Leader with Crimes Against Humanity, supra.)

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Government Does U-Turn on Passports

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MIL OSI – Source: Taxpayers Union – Government Does U-Turn on Passports New Zealand PassportThe Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming reports that New Zealanders are soon to get their 10-year passports back, but says that a 10-year passport does not justify the hike in fees being hinted at by the Prime Minister. Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says:  “If the validity of Kiwi passports is doubled to 10 years, our report on the cost of New Zealand passports shows that a price hike is still unjustified.” “Even at the current price, New Zealanders would still pay more for a 10-year passport than the average citizen in our trading partners.” “Last year we exposed the Government for sitting on a whopping surplus from passport fees. Passport fees should be set to recover the cost and not a dollar more. If Mr Key is being advised that a price hike is needed, clearly New Zealand officials are doing a much poorer job than our trading partners in running an efficient operation that allows citizens the basic ability to travel.” NOTES TO EDITORS: The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is an independent activist group, dedicated to being the voice for Kiwi taxpayers in the corridors of power. It’s here to fight government waste and make sure New Zealanders get value for money from their tax dollar. –]]>

Lone Pine seedlings to mark the 100th Anzac Day anniversary

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MIL OSI – Source: University of Canterbury – Lone Pine seedlings to mark the 100th Anzac Day anniversary [caption id="attachment_2993" align="alignleft" width="300"]Pine tree seedlings from Gallipoli cultivated on UC campus, Matthew Turnbull and Alan Lecki, Bio Science. Pine tree seedlings from Gallipoli cultivated on UC campus, Matthew Turnbull and Alan Lecki, Bio Science.[/caption]Three Turkish red pine seedlings from the original Lone Pine at Gallipoli will be planted around Christchurch on April 25 to commemorate the 100th Anzac Day anniversary later this month.

The First World War campaign in Gallipoli, Turkey, was one of the darkest events in New Zealand military history. New Zealand and Australian troops suffered heavy casualties and to this day the battles are commemorated on Anzac Day.

Of the 7500 New Zealand casualties at Gallipoli, 2721 soldiers died or more than one in four of those who landed there. The word Anzac has become a lasting label synonymous with trans-Tasman co-operation and friendship. The Lone Pine tree in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery on the Gallipoli Peninsula holds the highest memorial significance for Australians and New Zealanders.

New Zealand Crown Research Institute Scion, based at the University of Canterbury, has seedlings grown for the 100th anniversary. The seedlings have been nurtured at Scion and the University of Canterbury’s School of Biological Sciences glasshouse and Scion researcher Alan Leckie says the seedlings will become the most important trees in New Zealand in terms of their Anzac connections.

“These trees are providing a memorial to honour the memory of all those who have served and passed. They will be planted at The Park of Remembrance, Burnham Military Camp and Rannerdale Home.”

The trees have been grown in the past for the Hawkes Bay Regional Council. The Scion nursery has a quarantine facility, a nursery sanitation policy and monitors any issue with the trees it grows for various trials throughout New Zealand.

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Police urge motorists to remain vigilant on journey home

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Police – Police urge motorists to remain vigilant The Easter weekend road toll stands at 1 with less than 24 hours to go in the holiday period. The single fatality occurred on State Highway 8 in Canterbury at around 2pm on Sunday afternoon. Inspector Pete McKennie said Police are very pleased with the general attitude of New Zealand motorists over the Easter weekend. “Police have put a huge amount of effort into targeting ‘high-risk’ drivers over the holiday weekend”, Inspector McKennie said. “We have put a particular emphasis on targeting drunk – and-drug impaired drivers, speedsters and those who do not wear seatbelts or ensure their children are wearing seatbelts.” “Thankfully the vast majority of New Zealand drivers have taken these messages on board and are playing their part in keeping New Zealand roads safe.” Inspector McKennie said Police expect high volumes of traffic this afternoon as holiday makers head home. “Police will have a number of high visibility patrols in place across the country to assist in getting everyone home safely. Please drive carefully, take your time and show courtesy to your fellow drivers.” The official holiday period ends at 6am on Tuesday morning. The lowest road Easter holiday road toll recorded in New Zealand was in 2012 when there were no fatalities over the Easter long weekend. Issued by Kevin Sinnott – –

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Investigation underway as Police hold serious concerns for pedestrian

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Police – Investigation underway as Police hold serious concerns for pedestrian op_link_car_1Auckland City Police have serious concerns for a pedestrian who is believed to have been hit and injured by a car last Sunday morning in Great North Road, but has not yet been identified by Police. On Wednesday 3 April, Police were contacted by a rental car company. A blue Suzuki Swift they had hired to a customer had been returned to them with considerable damage to the windscreen and bonnet. (Pictures attached) An examination of the car has established that the vehicle has in fact hit a person. The driver of the vehicle has been identified and located and is assisting with Police with enquiries and over the past few days the investigation have followed several lines of enquiry. Police now believe the crash occurred at 1.30am on the morning of Sunday 29 March. The unidentified victim is believed to have been crossing Great North Road in Avondale, between the Mobil Service Station and Larch Street. The Suzuki was driving in the right-hand east bound lane, and has struck the pedestrian. Police believe the pedestrian has hit the bonnet and the windscreen and has then been left lying on the side of the road. The driver has left the scene shortly afterwards and Police understand the victim has, at the very least, sustained a head wound. “While we can reassure the public that we have identified the driver and are speaking with him, we desperately need to identify and speak with the victim here’’ says Detective Sergeant Kevin Blackman, Auckland City Police. “We’ve checked with all of the hospitals and are making other enquiries, however at this point we still don’t know who this person is. The information we have is that the victim is possibly a young, dark-skinned woman with long dark hair. There could be any number of reasons as to why that person hasn’t come forward or sought medical help, but we’d encourage them to make contact with us as soon as possible, or tell an adult or friend about what has happened” says Det Sgt Blackman. The driver of the vehicle is a young man. The investigation is ongoing and until all of the facts have been gathered, Police are unable to make any comment about criminal charges at the moment. Anyone with information is asked to call Auckland City Police on 09 302 6641 or Detective Sergeant Kevin Blackman on 09 213 7926. Information can also be given anonymously to the organisation Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Beth Bates/NZ Police – -]]>

Uri Avnery on Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bomb?

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MIL OSI Analysis – Source: Gush Shalom – Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bomb? By Uri Avnery Morality of AgumentI know that this makes me an abnormal person, almost a freak.I MUST start with a shocking confession: I am not afraid of the Iranian nuclear bomb. But what can I do? I am unable to work up fear, like a real Israeli. Try as I may, the Iranian bomb does not make me hysterical. MY FATHER once taught me how to withstand blackmail: imagine that the awful threat of the blackmailer has already come about. Then you can tell him: Go to hell. I have tried many times to follow this advice and found it sound. So now I apply it to the Iranian bomb: I imagine that the worst has already happened: the awful ayatollahs have got the bombs that can eradicate little Israel in a minute. So what? According to foreign experts, Israel has several hundred nuclear bombs (assessments vary between 80-400. If Iran sends its bombs and obliterates most of Israel (myself included), Israeli submarines will obliterate Iran. Whatever I might think about Binyamin Netanyahu, I rely on him and our security chiefs to keep our “second strike” capability intact. Just last week we were informed that Germany had delivered another state-of-the-art submarine to our navy for this purpose. Israeli idiots – and there are some around – respond: “Yes, but the Iranian leaders are not normal people. They are madmen. Religious fanatics. They will risk the total destruction of Iran just to destroy the Zionist state. Like exchanging queens in chess.” Such convictions are the outcome of decades of demonizing. Iranians – or at least their leaders – are seen as subhuman miscreants. Reality shows us that the leaders of Iran are very sober, very calculating politicians. Cautious merchants in the Iranian bazaar style. They don’t take unnecessary risks. The revolutionary fervor of the early Khomeini days is long past, and even Khomeini would not have dreamt of doing anything so close to national suicide. ACCORDING TO the Bible, the great Persian king Cyrus allowed the captive Jews of Babylon to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. At that time, Persia was already an ancient civilization – both cultural and political. After the “return from Babylon”, the Jewish commonwealth around Jerusalem lived for 200 years under Persian suzerainty. I was taught in school that these were happy years for the Jews. Since then, Persian culture and history has lived through another two and a half millennia. Persian civilization is one of the oldest in the world. It has created a great religion and influenced many others, including Judaism. Iranians are fiercely proud of that civilization. To imagine that the present leaders of Iran would even contemplate risking the very existence of Persia out of hatred of Israel is both ridiculous and megalomaniac. Moreover, throughout history, relations between Jews and Persians have almost always been excellent. When Israel was founded, Iran was considered a natural ally, part of David Ben-Gurion’s “strategy of the periphery” – an alliance with all the countries surrounding the Arab world. The Shah, who was re-installed by the American and British secret services, was a very close ally. Teheran was full of Israeli businessmen and military advisers. It served as a base for the Israeli agents working with the rebellious Kurds in northern Iraq who were fighting against the regime of Saddam Hussein. After the Islamic revolution, Israel still supported Iran against Iraq in their cruel 8-year war. The notorious Irangate affair, in which my friend Amiram Nir and Oliver North played such an important role, would not have been possible without the old Iranian-Israeli ties. Even now, Iran and Israel are conducting amiable arbitration proceedings about an old venture: the Eilat-Ashkelon oil pipeline built jointly by the two countries. If the worst comes to the worst, nuclear Israel and nuclear Iran will live in a Balance of Terror. Highly unpleasant, indeed. But not an existential menace. HOWEVER, FOR those who live in terror of the Iranian nuclear capabilities, I have a piece of advice: use the time we still have. Under the American-Iranian deal, we have at least 10 years before Iran could start the final phase of producing the bomb. Please use this time for making peace. The Iranian hatred of the “Zionist Regime” – the State of Israel – derives from the fate of the Palestinian people. The feeling of solidarity for the helpless Palestinians is deeply ingrained in all Islamic peoples. It is part of the popular culture in all of them. It is quite real, even if the political regimes misuse, manipulate or ignore it. Since there is no ground for a specific Iranian hatred of Israel, it is solely based on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No conflict, no enmity. Logic tells us: if we have several years before we have to live in the shadow of an Iranian nuclear bomb, let’s use this time to eliminate the conflict. Once the Palestinians themselves declare that they consider the historic conflict with Israel settled, no Iranian leadership will be able to rouse its people against us. FOR SEVERAL weeks now, Netanyahu has been priding himself publicly on a huge, indeed historic, achievement. For the first time ever, Israel is practically part of an Arab alliance. Throughout the region, the conflict between Muslim Sunnis and Muslim Shiites is raging. The Shiite camp, headed by Iran, includes the Shiites in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. (Netanyahu falsely – or out of ignorance – includes the Sunni Hamas in this camp.) The opposite Sunni camp includes Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf states. Netanyahu hints that Israel is now secretly accepted by them as a member. It is a very untidy picture. Iran is fighting against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, which is a mortal enemy of Israel. Iran is supporting the Assad regime in Damascus, which is also supported by Hezbollah, which fights against the lslamic State, while the Saudis support other extreme Sunni Syrians who fight against Assad and the Islamic State. Turkey supports Iran and the Saudis while fighting against Assad. And so on. I am not enamored with Arab military dictatorships and corrupt monarchies. Frankly, I detest them. But if Israel succeeds in becoming an official member of any Arab coalition, it would be a historic breakthrough, the first in 130 years of Zionist-Arab conflict. However, all Israeli relations with Arab countries are secret, except those with Egypt and Jordan, and even with these two the contacts are cold and distant, relations between the regimes rather than between the peoples. Let’s face facts: no Arab state will engage in open and close cooperation with Israel before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is ended. Even kings and dictators cannot afford to do so. The solidarity of their peoples with the oppressed Palestinians is far too profound. Real peace with the Arab countries is impossible without peace with the Palestinian people, as peace with the Palestinian people is impossible without peace with the Arab countries. So if there is now a chance to establish official peace with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, and to turn the cold peace with Egypt into a real one, Netanyahu should jump at it. The terms of an agreement are already lying on the table: the Saudi peace plan, also called the Arab Initiative, which was adopted many years ago by the entire Arab League. It is based on the two-state solution of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Netanyahu could amaze the whole world by “doing a de Gaulle” – making peace with the Sunni Arab world (as de Gaulle did with Algeria) which would compel the Shiites to follow suit. Do I believe in this? I do not. But if God wills it, even a broomstick can shoot. And on the day of the Jewish Pesach feast, commemorating the (imaginary) exodus from Egypt, we are reminding ourselves that miracles do happen. – –  ]]>

Keith Rankin Questions Capitalist Perpetual Motion?

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By Keith Rankin, column first submitted to TheDailyBlog.co.nz I ENJOYED CHRIS TROTTER’s The Common Affairs Of The Whole: Why National is so bad for Capitalism in The Daily Blog last Friday. To reinforce Trotter’s point, capitalism works best when all capitalists bear the costs that they incur. Capitalists themselves, motivated by self-interest, want the costs they bear (but not necessarily the costs they incur) to be minimised. Thus capitalists are more than happy to have someone else bear their costs. National Governments, Trotter argues, are too close to capitalists, and so are prone to favour the sorts of cost-shifting and circulation-stifling policies that eventually undermine capitalism. Trotter says of arch-capitalist Henry Ford: [caption id="attachment_2964" align="alignleft" width="300"]Henry Ford posing next to a Model T. Henry Ford posing next to a Model T.[/caption]

Ford’s vision was clear – but narrow. He could see the advantage of paying his workers enough to purchase the Model-Ts they were putting together on his production lines, but he never made the next conceptual step: the one that would have allowed him to conceive of a society in which the working-class was paid enough, collectively, to consume its own production. This was capitalism’s equivalent of a perpetual motion machine (assuming, of course, that capitalism had somehow discovered a way to exempt itself from the laws of planetary thermodynamics).
So is there a capitalism equivalent of a perpetual motion machine? A good analogy for the circulation of incomes and spending – an analogy that dates back to Thomas Hobbes and William Harvey in the seventeenth century – is that of the circulation of the blood through the mammalian body. While it’s a good representation of an equilibrium system, the human body is certainly not a perpetual motion machine, relying on outside inputs such as food and drink and sunlight. The French économistes – called the ‘physiocrats’ in English – developed the idea in the eighteenth century. Their concept of the ‘net product’ captures the idea of a surplus that is made possible by nature’s external contribution that otherwise enables the free market ‘clockwork’ to work. (A pendulum clock is the closest analogy in the physical world to a perpetual motion machine.) The économistes emphasised the circular flow mechanism. François Quesnay, the founder of this school of economic thought, was himself a doctor. I have played around with the analogy – Circular Flow: Drawing Further Inspiration from William Harvey (2012) – useful because so many who dabble in the dismal science completely ignore the fact that total incomes must equal total spending, much as arterial blood flow should equal venal blood flow. I adopted the approach that it is the capitalists who represent the head of the market economy of goods and services and finance; not the ‘sovereign’ as a seventeenth century writer would have assumed. I place the governments as the right hand, and the workers as the left hand. In 2014 George Cooper employed this analogy – and others – in his interesting book Money, Blood and Revolution. Cooper looked at scientific revolutions in astronomy, biology, medicine and geology and concludes that each of these disciplines was vastly simplified following their revolutions. Economics’ revolution, he claims, is long overdue. (In large part the problem is our backtracking on, rather than our development, of Keynes’ macroeconomics.)  In the latter part of Cooper’s book he notes that when capitalism is working well ‘money’ flows easily through the different levels of the social-economic hierarchy. When it’s not working well, capitalism relies too much on debt. (Excess debt can be likened to a drug that frees up clogged arteries, but has potentially dangerous side-effects.) So we could say that capitalism that relies on huge debt imbalances is capitalism treating the symptoms of arteriosclerosis. In terms of Chris Trotter’s argument, and my argument too, Labour’s policies (or at least those based on egalitarian philosophy) get that spending (‘money’) flowing both through the right hand of the public interest and through the left hand of the working class. Unhealthy capitalism is when the capitalists themselves hoard their incomes. Think of a person with a bloated head and chilblains in their hands. That’s a result of management of capitalism that’s too soft on the capitalists. Democracy should be good for capitalism, because the workers outnumber the capitalists.

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Before finishing I should note that economic policymakers love economic growth. The perpetual motion analogy falls down somewhat here. Indeed that’s why we cannot think of 1950-80 as being the system working as such a machine. Yet, the fire in capitalism (fuelled by the twin forces of demand and supply), can create a growing circulating system for long periods of time, though not forever. Perhaps we can use the analogy today of the blood-circulation of a 15-year-old, still growing but past the biggest growth spurt. Whereas blood flowing to the left and right hands in the past stimulated economic growth, in the future it is needed to forestall systemic collapse. Then finally, we should be careful with analogies like perpetual motion machines. Unscrupulous readers may simply associate such a concept with ‘cranks’, the easily dismissed though sometimes very clever people, some of whom have made extraordinary contributions to our techno-modern 21st century lives. Stephen Johnson’ recent PBS/BBC TV series How We Got to Now explores the contributions to modern economic comforts by a range of clever people who few of us today have ever heard of, and who were generally intellectual outliers in their own times. Their legacies remain forever in the public domain. One such unusual person in the past, who we all have heard of, was Isaac Newton. In the first half of his career he was a committed alchemist who also did some really good science and maths. In the second half of his career (as a sound-money man; warden and then master of the Royal Mint) he prosecuted counterfeiters. He hanged people who helped capitalism to flow at a time when the monetary system became somewhat constipated. He made a lot of money through his employment, though he lost much of his share in the South Sea Bubble of 1720. Despite his foibles, we have much to thank Newton for.

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Capitalism requires circulation. Governments soft on capitalists, and soft on inequality, help capitalists to stifle the circulation of incomes that is at the core of capitalism. Governments made up largely of non-capitalists, on both hands, are good for capitalism.]]>

State Of It: Politics, Yes. Leadership, Yes. But Does NZ First Have the Infrastructure to Become the Rural Bloc Option?

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Part one of a two part series – By Selwyn Manning.

New Zealand First positions to export its rural New Zealand representation brand.

Selwyn Manning, editor – EveningReport.nz

AFTER THE NORTHLAND POLLING BOOTHS HAD CLOSED a well positioned National Party insider text messaged me from inside one of the Party’s election night functions.He said: “The mood from some is explosive tonight. The campaign was a disaster with the Sabin bomb still ticking.

All the National list MPs will be watching, and Nats in provincial seats, with reasonable majorities, will be a tad shaken too. A 13,000 vote turnaround in six months…” He added National would likely “concede Northland in 2017. Shocking”.

He feared: “We should lose East Coast, Tukituki, Wairarapa, Whanganui, Otaki and Invercargill in 2017. But it will be tough for Labour to win unless Little allows Nash to find candidates to run there.” That’s the reality-check Northland delivered to National’s true-blue loyalists.

The only uncertainty is whether New Zealand First has the infrastructure to become our version of rural Australia’s the Nationals – the conservative, monarchist, rural-based counterbalance to urban-political-dominance across the ditch. And, whether Labour leader Andrew Little has the courage to let Stuart Nash loose to develop the take-back-the-provinces plan.

AS SOON AS NEW ZEALAND FIRST leader Winston Peters scented the mood in Northland he knew a political vacuum was in evidence – that rural New Zealand, beyond the borders of the Far North, was angry and suffering from a lack of political representation. But can New Zealand First export the win from its Northland base to become the rural New Zealand voter’s option? To achieve this, the party will need an infrastructure robust enough at ground-zero to attract quality representatives who are already recognised for driving solutions to challenges specific to their region. The pressures on New Zealand First – the Party as opposed to its Parliamentary extension – will be considerable. If the Party is to succeed in realising its potential, it must sustain a recruitment drive on a grand scale, all-the-while delivering, from Wellington, solutions for those it seeks to represent.

Cause and Effect: Politically, the Northland result shows rural New Zealand has been promised much only to see its fortunes dwindle.

During the 2014 General Election the National Party’s message to farmers was to expect to receive their bounty from the ‘white gold’ they produced and exported from their gates. Those working within the farming support and service sector picked up the message too.

The promise was: a decent slice of the domestic economy pie-graph was coming, that farmers were going to reap huge rewards, that rural communities and New Zealand as a whole, was about to bask in trickle-down wealth of unprecedented proportions.

But as farmers arose in early Autumn, the Governing party’s promises ran hollow and nothing emitting from Wellington could arrest the reality – the bank balances were turning red.

As Winston Peters said on March 26 prior to the by-election “… Fonterra’s latest downwards revision in the 2014/15 forecast… for a fully-shared up farmer, can be blamed on an urban focused government that is not putting farmers first.

This will hurt Northland’s 801 farm owner/operators and 291 share-milkers given nine percent of New Zealand’s herds are in the region”. (ref. ForeignAffairs.co.nz)

For Northland a reality had broken the day before. When Fonterra returns are in free-fall, whole communities are starved of income. And when the costs of milk production are higher than Fonterra’s Farm-gate Milk Price of $4.70 per kgMS (as announced on March 25), then, the farmers, the rural dependent sectors, workers, families, and communities… hurt.

During the September 2014 campaign, the National Party leader John Key told all of New Zealand we were on the cusp of something very big, something special – the implication was rural New Zealand, and especially farmers, should expect to be rewarded for their farming expertise, investment, and high quality, high levels of production.

But after the election, commodity milk and powder prices could not sustain global downward pressures. The trade-weighted GlobalDairyTrade price index hit a five-year low in December, and by degrees, Fonterra, the co-operative dairy exporting giant, began reducing the value of returns to farmers.

At first, the newly elected National Government insisted returns to farmers remained sound, that the overall trend was positive. But farmers are not fools. Nor are the communities that work with them. Northland voters, like their rural counterparts all over New Zealand, knew their farmers were in trouble – despite producing more milk per head of cow, more milk per hectare of land, they were getting less back for it.

By March 27 2015 Fonterra delivered a forecasts no one wanted to hear. Its interim report detailed:

    • Forecast Cash Payout for the 2014/15 Season of $4.90 – $5.00
    • – Forecast Farm-gate Milk Price $4.70 per kgMS
    • – Estimated full year dividend of 20-30 cents per share
    • – Revenue $9.7 billion, down 14 per cent
    • – Reported EBIT $483 million, up 16 per cent
    • – Normalised EBIT $376 million, down 7 per cent
    • – Net profit after tax (NPAT) $183 million, down 16 per cent
    • – Interim dividend of 10 cents per share.

(ref. ForeignAffairs.co.nz) In the forecast statement, Fonterra’s Chairman John Wilson said that given the results achieved in the first half of the year, and the continued volatility in international prices “the Co-operative was holding its forecast Farm-gate Milk Price at $4.70 per kgMS.”

Wilson added: “Our half-year results are a snapshot of tough conditions in dairy with variable production, demand and pricing.  There was also the challenge of generating profit from inventory made in the previous financial year when the cost of milk was higher, but sold in the first quarter of the financial year when global dairy prices were falling.”

Put simply, supply outweighed demand and buyers undervalued milk, which was reflected in prices that declined to unsustainable levels.

Wilson: “Oversupply from dairy producing regions around the world in the early months of the financial year saw the trade-weighted GlobalDairyTrade price index hit a five-year low in December.” (ref. ForeignAffairs.co.nz)

That’s another reality which Winston Peters (the morning after his landslide Northland win) spoke to the nation about.

He highlighted how some farmers were having to borrow hard to sustain themselves through this downward cycle. Add to this the uncertainty factor: no one knows how long the commodity price downturn will last.

That affects the cost of borrowing from banks, pushes interest rates upward to reflect the significance of uncertainty.

Peters pushed for Government support stating it would provide some clarity at a time when confidence in the sector’s performance was being exhausted.

On TVNZ’s Q+A programme (ref. Q+A) Peters questioned why this was a negative. He claimed an honourability to his willingness to help out rural New Zealand and compared this to the dishonourable practice of corporate welfare dished out by the Key Government to SkyCity casino and the $1.7b+ bailout of South Canterbury Finance (ref. Stuff.co.nz).

It was classic Peters politics – compare one sector to another to drive home the divide between commonsense and ridiculousness.

But politically, it drove home a message to rural voters beyond Northland, who will be well aware their National Party MPs will not advocate their interests like this.

They will not go into bat for farmers over their party – at least, not in public. For rural New Zealand, it must have been music to their ears.

For others it exposed the broad-tent National Party’s biggest weakness: party loyalties are supreme. The regions, as opposed to the provincial cities, are New Zealand First’s for the taking.

While Winston Peters has the leadership, the zest, and the tenacity to achieve it, the New Zealand First party has yet to show it has the infrastructure to reach deep into rural New Zealand and turn out candidates that are leaders of their regions.

But, as the National Party insider said to me on Northland by-election night: “The Northland example does show that Joyce’s economic development record is a weak spot.”

If New Zealand First can’t foot it, then Labour will continue to galvanise its connection with Peters, present a good governance rural/provincial/regional development brand, and seek stronger candidates to take East Coast, Tukituki, Wairarapa, Whanganui, Otaki, West Coast, and Invercargill in 2017.

Under this scenario, New Zealand First would anchor in with Northland and urge true-blue party voters to swing its way.

However to achieve this Labour’s leader Andrew Little would be wise to scent the air and promote Napier’s MP Stuart Nash to the front-bench.

It would send the right signals to provincial New Zealand, acknowledge Nash as a regional specialist, provide him with a mandate to develop policy, a much needed campaign plan, and a key role in attracting quality candidates for 2017.

Add to this the angle where Labour positions to really represent share-milkers.

That would drive a wedge between this under-represented group and their farm land owners who remain loyal to National, and potentially foot it with New Zealand First for swing votes in heartland National seats. Recently, there have been some signals on this from Labour.

Take Labour’s West Coast specialist Damien O’Connor this week stating on April 2: “Dairy farmers throughout New Zealand are currently frustrated by the low pay-out from their co-operative company.

Many are concerned that Fonterra has been too busy focusing on satisfying the demands of its investors rather than meeting the needs of farmer supplier shareholders.” (ref. ForeignAffairs.co.nz)

At this stage, National’s arrogance appears to be blinding it to the ‘up you’ message the Northland voters delivered via Peters. These people want solutions, not politics and National’s performance in the House since votes were counted suggests its arrogance-factor has not waned.

If New Zealand First cannot construct the party infrastructure needed to broaden its rural base, then a co-ordinated approach with Labour’s more conservative/centrist MPs may occupy the vacuum created by National.
Much common-ground and high regard is exchanged between Winston Peters and former Labour ‘backboners’ Shane Jones and Dover Samuels.
You can also include Kelvin Davis and Stuart Nash in this group.
But let’s examine such important relationships in the second instalment of this series: New Zealand First’s Challenge: The Conservative Balancing Act.Whatever way this plays, 2017 looks a more interesting election than the bizarre shenanigans of 2014.

See Also:

State Of It: Factional Fractures In Evidence As National Loss In Northland Looms

Weekend Feature Doco: Inside the Dark Web

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Inside the Dark WebInside the Dark Web turns to the topic of internet surveillance concerning the pros and cons of the ability for everything that passes over the immense World Wide Web being able to be watched, recorded, and analyzed. –]]>

A cultural treasure: James K Baxter – of time and timelessness

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THIS SLOW GOOD FRIDAY, twitter led me to one of the many national treasures available on the NZ on Screen website (itself a national treasure). It introduced me to a 2000 music video of a Baxter love poem set to music and sung by Greg Johnson: “Let Time Be Still” It is a beautiful sight and sound production combining nostalgia for the summer of love, with an arty blue-lit, romanticised landscape.  It demonstrates both the timeliness, and lyrical power and sophistication of Baxter’s poem.  It provides glimpses into his rootedness in landscape, and honouring of Māori culture and tradition. It also demonstrates a kind of masculinity that is both of its time, as well as being part of a long legacy.  This can be seen in the romantic, orientalising shots of the body of a young woman with moko as passive object of desire. She is mostly shown as part of indoor rooms and city-scapes.  Meanwhile, Baxter’s words paint her as part of the natural landscape, prey to the swooping falcon, slipping into the past with the changing of seasons. The links below the video took me to excerpts from a 1997 documentary: The Road to Jerusalem: another national treasure, and is also well worth a look. It constructs Baxter’s legacy in his rural upbringing.  It sets his poems in the long tradition of romantic poets; from Robbie Burns through Byron, Keats, Blake and Wordsworth to Dylan Thomas. The natural world is a spiritual guide and resource, while cities and the alleged progress of “civilisation” are sites of everything that is destructive to this spirit and the nobility of human creativity. [caption id="attachment_2911" align="alignleft" width="202"]Baxter-on-postal-round-NZ Edge James K Baxter, doing his postal round in Khandallah, Wellington, 1965. The Dominion post collection, Alexander Turnbull Library[/caption] Clip one begins with an extract from Baxter’s “Ode to Auckland”, accompanied by a montage of overlapping images of people and locations in the city of the Muldoon era:

Auckland, even when I am well stoned On a tab of LSD or on Indian grass You still look to me like an elephant’s arsehole Surrounded with blue-black haemorrhoids. The sound of the opening and shutting of bankbooks, The thudding of refrigerator doors, The ripsaw voices of Glen Eden mothers yelling at their children, The chugging noise of masturbation from the bedrooms of the bourgeoisie, The voices of dead teachers droning in dead classrooms, The TV voice of Mr Muldoon, The farting noise of the trucks that grind their way down Queen Street Has drowned forever the song of Tangaroa on a thousand beaches, The sound of the wind among the green volcanoes, And the whisper of the human heart.
The clips trace Baxter’s life, as explained in the synopsis:
Readings from the poems of James K Baxter trace the poet’s life through its various New Zealand locations, and provide a biographical voice in this film by Bruce Morrison (co-written with Dr Paul Millar). Baxter’s family and friends discuss the man and his work, and the readings and beautifully shot landscapes fill in the gaps. The film won Best Documentary at the 1998 Film and TV Awards. The opening montage, describing “the chugging noise of masturbation from the bedrooms of the bourgeois” of Auckland, is seminal Baxter.
In the second clip, following a piece about his father having suffered in France as a contentious objector in WWII, the reading of some of Baxter’s reflections states:
Objectively I remember my childhood as a happy time, yet a sense of grief has attached itself to my early life, like a tapeworm in the stomach of a polar bear. The sense of grief, even at times a sense of grievance helped me write poems. In a way, the poems sprang out of a quarrel with the status quo.
At school, he learned to distrust “mass opinions” and to pursue his “own ideas”. This led to him feeling like a Jewish person in an anti-Semitic neighbourhood. He claims that the sense of persecution nurtured his poetry writing. The over-emphasis on Baxter’s Jerusalem years, have led to him gathering a bit of a hippy cult following.  He was both of that time in the 1960s and early 1970s, and of earlier and future times, . He is part of a line of continuity a discontinuity: of a time that was still dominated by masculine culture, while also being in the tradition of rebels against the authoritarian status quo that diminishes the human spirit, and leads to the persecution of minorities: a tradition that, one way or another, will continue into the future – and hopefully will embrace racial and gender equality. –]]>

NZ welcomes Iran nuclear talks breakthrough

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Government – NZ welcomes Iran nuclear talks breakthrough [caption id="attachment_2269" align="alignleft" width="300"]New Zealand foreign minister, Murray McCully. Image courtesy of Scoop.co.nz. New Zealand foreign minister, Murray McCully. Image courtesy of Scoop.co.nz.[/caption]

Foreign Minister Murray McCully today welcomed news that an agreement has been reached which lays out parameters for a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme.

“The announcement from the P5+1 (United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany) and Iran is a significant development, which opens the way for a comprehensive agreement,” Mr McCully says. “A final agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme will have a positive impact on regional stability in the Middle East, and give scope for the further expansion of New Zealand’s relations with Iran. “New Zealand fully supports the P5+1 process, and commends the leadership being shown by all parties at this latest round of talks. “While the negotiations are complex, the agreement which has been reached in Lausanne provides a roadmap through and demonstrates the goodwill on all sides. We hope this momentum can now be converted into comprehensive agreement by the 30 June,” Mr McCully says. – -]]>

Prince Harry to begin military attachment with the Australian Defence Force – Aus Department of Defence

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MIL OSI – Prince Harry to begin military attachment with the Australian Defence Force – Department of Defence

[caption id="attachment_2939" align="alignleft" width="260"]Prince Harry trooping the colour. Prince Harry trooping the colour.[/caption] Prince Harry will arrive in Australia on Monday, 6 April to begin a four week attachment to the Australian Defence Force (ADF). On arrival in Australia, Prince Harry will travel to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, where he will join the Governor General, The Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK, MC, and senior Government officials to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and view the World War I and Afghanistan galleries. At the end of the visit he will have the chance to greet members of the public outside at the Australian War Memorial’s main entrance. Prince Harry will then report to the Chief of Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, AC for duty. The Chief of Army, Lieutenant General David Morrison, AO and other senior Army officers will join Prince Harry to officially mark the start of his military attachment with the Australian Army. During his time with the ADF, Captain Wales – as he is known in the British Army – will work and live alongside colleagues in the Australian Army in a number of regiments in Sydney, Darwin and Perth. He is expected to take part in a range of unit-based activities and training exercises. These will include urban training exercises, regional bush patrols, flight simulation and aviation activities, joint fire exercises and Indigenous engagements activities. Captain Wales will also take part in routine activities, such as physical training, first aid training and pack marches. Additionally, he will have the opportunity to meet wounded, injured and ill service personnel during his time in Australia, which will compliment his advocacy work in this area in the UK. The British and Australian Armies have a shared military history as well as a long and enduring association. Secondments, exchanges, bilateral training and professional development opportunities are routine practice between our two armies. These exchanges typically range from a few weeks to several months. Military-to-military exchanges provide British and Australian personnel with valuable insight into their counterparts’ operations equipment and training as well as opportunities to build professional personal relationships. As such, Defence’s focus for this attachment is to provide Captain Wales with an authentic military experience in the Australian Army that builds on his previous experience with coalition forces and complements his work with wounded, injured and ill service personnel. Defence has selected units that best utilise Captain Wales’ skills and allow him to experience a broad range of Army capabilities. The attachment will also allow Captain Wales to share the experience and knowledge he has gained over 10 years of military service in the British Armed Forces, including two operational tours of duty in Afghanistan. During his attachment, Prince Harry will travel from Australia to Turkey to attend the Gallipoli Commemorations on 24 and 25 April. Note: The Australian War Memorial is coordinating media accreditation for Prince Harry’s visit to the Australian War Memorial on Monday 6 April, 2015. Defence is aware of the public interest in Captain Wales’ attachment with the Australian Army and will provide imagery of his military activities during his four week attachment. This material will be provided under general release arrangements via the Defence Image Gallery at http://images.defence.gov.au/S20150823 and the Parliament House Press Gallery. International media agencies should contact their Australian affiliates to access vision. The material will be available after midday (AEST), Monday, 6 April 2015. Defence does not routinely release specific details of operational training activities or an individual Defence member’s movements or schedule. Defence thanks the public and the media in advance for their assistance and cooperation in safeguarding the spirit and purpose of Captain Wales’ attachment with the Australian Army. —
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Invasive wasps costing NZ economy, environment

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MIL OSI – Source: China State Council Information Office – Invasive wasps costing NZ economy, environment Paper_wasps_and_nestInvasive wasps from overseas are costing the New Zealand economy more than 130 million NZ dollars (97.24 million U.S. dollars) a year, according to a government report released on Thursday. Wasps were one of the most damaging invertebrate pests in New Zealand, harming native birds and insects and competing for food with native species, said the study commissioned by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and the Ministry for Primary Industries. The study has found that wasps also have a major financial impact on primary industries and the health sector. Wasps disrupting bee pollination activities, reducing the amount of clover in pastures and increasing fertilizer costs, added more than 60 million NZ dollars (44.88 million U.S. dollars) a year in cost to pastoral farming. –  ]]>

Volcano erupts in Indonesia’s Sumatra

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MIL OSI – Source: China State Council Information Office – Volcano erupts in Indonesia’s Sumatra [caption id="attachment_2943" align="alignleft" width="300"]Mount Sinabung volcano. Mount Sinabung volcano.[/caption] Mount Sinabung volcano in Karo district of Indonesia’s North Sumatra Province erupted on Thursday afternoon, spewing a column of ash by up to 2 km to the sky and triggering small-scale evacuation, official said earlier Friday. Powerful burst of hot ash was spread from the rumbling volcano, heading 4 km away to the south of the crater and 1 km away to the southeast, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of national disaster management agency said. Some of villagers living near the volcano have been evacuated to the safe places, Sutopo disclosed. “Some of residents of Sibintun village have to be evacuated by force by officials to other places,”he told Xinhua via phone. Others villagers at Sigrang Garang, Kutagunggung, and Sukanalu villages located 3 km from the craters were panic and scared as they prepared for evacuation, said Sutopo. “The officials keep conducting patrol and monitoring at the field,”he revealed. Lava floods also hit the district and damaged roads, said Sutopo. The 2,475-meter Mount Sinabung erupted on June 29 after erupting on and off from September 2013 to February 2014, which left 15 people dead and more than 30,000 other internally displaced. Mount Sinabung is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the “Pacific Ring of Fire.” –  ]]>

Update – search for man thrown into water at Manukau Heads

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Police – Update – search for man thrown into water at Manukau Heads

[caption id="attachment_2908" align="alignleft" width="300"]Manukau Heads, viewed from Whatipu. Manukau Heads, viewed from Whatipu.[/caption] The search for a missing elderly man who is missing after a vessel capsized at Manukau Heads yesterday afternoon has resumed this morning. The 74 year-old hasn’t been seen since he and another man were thrown into the water at around 5pm last night. A nearby boat managed to pull one man from the water but the elderly man did not surface and Police hold grave fears for his safety. Four members of the Police National Dive Squad arrived in Auckland from Wellington this morning, and have launched from the Te Toro boat ramp in Waiuku. The capsized vessel sank and divers will search the area where the boat was last seen. The Police Eagle Helicopter is continuing to do an aerial search of the area and it is anticipated that a Police LandSAR team will conduct a search of the coastline this afternoon at low tide. Senior Constable Garry Larsen of the Police Maritime Unit says “The Police Eagle Helicopter resumed the aerial search at first light this morning, and a Police LandSAR team will do a search of the coastline this afternoon at low tide. This is obviously a very distressing time for this man’s family, and we’re doing as much as we can to support them”. Beth Bates/NZ Police
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Make it a safe journey this Easter

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Police – Make it a safe journey this Easter

Central District Police are encouraging motorists to make safe decisions on the roads as the Easter holiday season begins.
Across the holiday period staff will conduct checkpoints that will focus on high-risk driver behaviour, particularly drink and drug-impaired driving, speeding, and not wearing seatbelts. Officer in charge of Central District Highway Patrol, Senior Sergeant Kris Burbery says: “We know that seatbelts save lives so before you start your engine ensure that your seatbelt is on and that your passengers have also buckled up.” “There will be a significant volume of traffic traveling through the central North Island and motorists should expect some delays. No one likes waiting in traffic but you can turn a negative into a positive by pulling over and taking a break. “Anyone we identify doing anything that places other drivers at risk can expect to be stopped.” Police is again enforcing a reduced speed threshold of 4km/h over the official Easter holiday period, from 4pm on Thursday 2 April to 6am on Tuesday 7 April 2015, as it has done for all other holiday weekends since 2010. Anyone travelling at more than 4km/h over a sign posted speed limit may be ticketed by either a speed camera or a Police officer. “Sign posted speed limits are simply what they say they are; being aware of the conditions and keeping a constant eye on what speed you are doing are the actions of a responsible driver. “Officers will be highly visible across the District’s roads and motorists should expect that at anywhere and at anytime they could be stopped and be subject to a breath screening test. “Eleven lives have been tragically lost on Central District roads this year and the trauma to the family and friends of those who have been killed is immeasurable. “Road safety is everyone’s responsibility and when you get behind the wheel the decisions you make will ultimately affect your journey,” says Kris. Planning your journey and traffic updates If you want to know about potential delays before you hit the state highways visit onthemove.govt.nz or call 0800 4 HIGHWAYS for either the latest highway conditions or to report incidents or hazards on the state highways. Report a bad driver You can report dangerous or erratic driving by dialing *555 FREE from your mobile phone. —
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NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for April 2, 2015

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Newsroom Digest This edition of NewsRoom_Digest contains five media release snippets and four links of the day from Thursday 2nd April. Top stories in this news cycle currently include frustrated farmers considering leaving Fonterra Co-operative after prices in the global trade auction fell for the second time in a fortnight, a Turkish official saying New Zealanders are safe to travel to Turkey for upcoming Gallipoli centenary celebrations despite terrorist attacks in Istanbul over the past three days, and coverage of a report that is critical of New Zealand’s handling of human rights issues and says that Parliament’s failure to act is harming the country’s reputation. SNIPPETS OF THE DAY Rule Out Diesel For Main Trunk Line : The National Government must rule out KiwiRail’s proposal to replace electric with new diesel trains on the Main Trunk Line, the Green Party said today. KiwiRail is proposing to replace electric trains with more diesel-powered engines in a cost-saving plan to buy a dozen more diesel locomotives from China rather than refurbish or replace the electric units. The move will also put hundreds of jobs at risk. “The Government must ensure the massive investment in rail electrification is protected and not sacrificed for a short-sighted cost-saving operation,” says Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter. NZ Dollar Recovers Despite Dairy Fall: The New Zealand dollar rebounded from overnight weakness as prices fell in the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction, with softer US data weighing on the greenback. The kiwi slipped to a two-week low of 73.90 US cents overnight, and was trading at 74.44 cents at 8am in Wellington, from 74.75 cents at 5pm yesterday. The trade-weighted index fell to 78.25 from 78.47 yesterday. Flu Vaccine Distribution: The first shipment of this year’s funded influenza vaccine has arrived and is being distributed to general practices this week, says Dr Don Mackie, Chief Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health. “We aim to immunise more than 1.2 million New Zealanders against influenza over the course of the influenza season. More than half a million vaccines are now in the country – with the first batch of 208,000 doses now being distributed to GP practices. A second batch of 340,000 vaccines will begin to be distributed after Easter.” NZDF At Its Busiest In Vanuatu: Repairing buildings, clearing roads, delivering food and purifying water supplies has kept New Zealand Defence Force personnel busy on Epi Island in Vanuatu this week.More than 200 NZDF staff remain in Vanuatu, including HMNZS CANTERBURY and her crew, engineers and health services personnel, and most will be working through Easter. The largest total concentration yet of NZDF and other Kiwi aid workers went ashore at Port Kwemi in a series of landing craft trips from HMNZS CANTERBURY on Wednesday. LINKS OF THE DAY RESTRICTION ON INFANT FORMULA MARKETING: The Commerce Commission has authorised members of the Infant Nutrition Council (INC) to follow their Code of Practice that restricts advertising and marketing of infant formula for children under six months of age. The INC asked the Commission to authorise its Code under section 58 of the Commerce Act, as restrictions on advertising and marketing may lessen competition. After consulting on its draft determination, the Commission found that the public benefits outweigh the likely competitive detriments.The written reasons for the decision are available on the Commission’s website at: http://www.comcom.govt.nz/business-competition/anti-competitive-practices/anti-competitive-practices-authorisations-register/detail/851 INCREASE IN COMMODITY PRICE INDEX: The ANZ Commodity Price Index for March increased by 4.6%, the second lift in a row. Dairy products once again led the increase (+9.2%), but much of this was a carryover effect into early March from the February rally in the GlobalDairyTrade (GDT) auctions. The last two GDT auctions have seen all of this improvement unwound already, not boding well for next month’s Commodity Price Index. One positive in March was a bounce in most meat and fibre product prices, which will hopefully prove more sustained. Outside of these two sectors prices were either lower or unchanged. Click here for more: http://www.anz.co.nz/about-us/economic-markets-research/commodity-price-index/ HIGH TECH SALES: The information and communication technology (ICT) sector had sales worth $23.5 billion in 2014, an increase of 3 percent since 2012, Statistics New Zealand said today. Although the increase in overall sales was small, there have been changes within the sector. “Sales by the ICT sector are the equivalent of around 10 percent of GDP,” business performance manager Jason Attewell said. “While sales of ICT goods are generally falling, we are seeing strong growth in software and ICT services.” For more information about these statistics: http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/information_technology_and_communications/ICTSupplySurvey_HOTP14.aspx CAUTION OVER WEEKEND: Easter weekend is a popular time for New Zealanders to get out and enjoy everything our great outdoors has to offer. As part of preparation for outdoor adventures, the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council (MSC) recommends planning for reduced daylight and changeable autumn weather. MSC Chief Executive Mike Daisley says while Easter is a great chance to venture out with friends and family, it is easy to forget about the time difference when enjoying yourself in the outdoors. Visit this websites for safety tips: www.mountainsafety.org.nz And that’s our sampling of the day that was on Thursday 2nd April 2015. Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

WW100 marks the centenary of the Gallipoli landings

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage – WW100 marks the centenary of the Gallipoli landings [caption id="attachment_2883" align="alignleft" width="192"]A group of unidentified Australian and New Zealand soldiers in a front line trench on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Standing in the narrow confines of a trench passage, with sandbags at the parapet above them, several of the men are smoking pipes and cigarettes. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial. ID number C03420. A group of unidentified Australian and New Zealand soldiers in a front line trench on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Standing in the narrow confines of a trench passage, with sandbags at the parapet above them, several of the men are smoking pipes and cigarettes.
Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial. ID number C03420.[/caption] “The list of killed and wounded in the recent landing at Sari Bair which appears in this morning’s cables brings home to us feelingly how hard a service and how high a duty are imposed upon the young men of the present generation throughout the Empire. For these men who have jeoparded their lives unto the death are our own sons and brothers. But a few short months ago they were going in and out among us intent on the business, and the pleasure, of ordinary civil life, and not one of them, in his wildest flight of fancy, would have imagined that he would be called on before a year elapsed to face death at the cannon’s mouth in the far-off peninsula of Gallipoli. And now the call has come, and the men have been found faithful. – A report on the Gallipoli landings, The Press, 5 May 1915. WW100 New Zealand’s First World War Centenary is presenting a national programme that marks 100 years since the landings on the Gallipoli peninsula. The programme will explore New Zealand experiences at home and at war; and the beginning of our Anzac connection. New Zealand and Australian soldiers’ journey to war began as they sailed in convoys across the Indian Ocean via Colombo and the Arabian Sea to training camp in Egypt. The organisation of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force with the Australian Imperial Force occurred on training grounds in Egypt in late 1914. Anzacs quickly became the name for Australian and New Zealand soldiers who served on the battlefields of Turkey from April to December 1915; and later all Australian and New Zealand soldiers. Through the centenary 2014 – 2019 you can follow in the footsteps of New Zealanders at home and abroad. Events, activities, archives and museums represent New Zealand stories from the war period, including conscription, fundraising efforts at home, as well as social and economic stories and protest, all of which are part of the wider legacy of the First World War. To mark the centenary of the Gallipoli landings WW100.govt.nz will have a day-by-day ticker tape of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Gallipoli fatalities from 25 April. Around 2779 New Zealand soldiers died in the campaign, representing an estimated 16.3% of New Zealand fatalities in the First World War.  You will be able to select a name on the ticker tape to see the individual service record in the Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph database. Communities across New Zealand and further afield are commemorating the Centenary.  A community programme of over 200 events can be accessed through the WW100 events guide. This programme of community events includes civic services in towns around New Zealand and the events listings which present a range of New Zealand viewpoints and interests: historical talks and lectures; public art installations; national sporting events presented with centenary themes; local theatre items; heritage walks, literary events and museum displays.  The variety, innovation and creativity of communities commemorations tells us that the Anzac Connection is felt strongly and communities have not forgotten. The government has invested in a series of legacy projects that will connect New Zealanders to our story of this global war and provide a resource for studies in civics and the history of conflict. These include Auckland War Memorial Cenotaph online database of soldiers’ records, Walking With An Anzac school curriculum project; Ngā Tapuwae New Zealand First World War Trails, Pukeahu National War Memorial Park which is hosting the National Service of Commemoration on Anzac Day within a week of activities; and the significant exhibitions ‘Gallipoli’ at Te Papa and The Great War Exhibition created by Sir Peter Jackson in the heritage museum building on Buckle Street, Wellington. WW100 New Zealand’s First World War Centenary is a platform for New Zealand experiences of a global event. The programme includes official commemorations, a large programme of community events, legacy projects, new print publications and new research and commentary on First World War topics. –]]>

NZ Super Fund suspends Milford Asset Management

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MIL OSI – News in Brief – The Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, the manager of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, has suspended the Fund’s mandate with Milford Asset Management until a Financial Markets Authority (FMA) investigation into Milford is completed. In the interim, the funds will be managed internally. Milford Asset Management was appointed to a New Zealand active equity mandate by the Guardians in 2009. The value of the mandate is NZ$281 million. ]]>

Deed of Settlement signed with Hineuru

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Government – Deed of Settlement signed with Hineuru The Crown has signed a deed of settlement for all outstanding historical Treaty claims with Hineuru at Parliament, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Christopher Finlayson announced today. Hineuru is an iwi based northwest of Napier in the Hawke’s Bay region. Hineuru’s historical claims relate primarily to war and raupatu, the operation of the native land laws, Crown land purchasing and virtual landlessness and its impacts. “We can never fully compensate for these past wrongs,” Mr Finlayson said. “However, this settlement will enable the people of Hineuru to look forward to a stronger future.” The settlement includes financial and commercial redress of $25 million as well as cultural redress to recognise the traditional, historical, cultural and spiritual associations of Hineuru. This will allow Hineuru and the Crown to protect and enhance the conservation values associated with culturally significant sites. “Signing this deed of settlement with Hineuru is an important step towards settling all historical grievances in the Bay of Plenty and New Zealand as a whole,” Mr Finlayson said. The settlement will be given effect through legislation. A copy of the deed of settlement is available on the website of the Office of Treaty Settlements, www.ots.govt.nz. –]]>

Waikato: Fatal collision with a tree prompts Easter warning from Waikato Police

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Police – Fatal collision with a tree prompts Easter warning from Waikato Police

With what appears to have been an avoidable road death on Waikato roads just hours before the start of the official Easter Holiday period, a senior road policing officer is urging motorists to adopt a cautious approach.
District Road Policing Manager, Inspector Freda Grace, said Police officers searching for a stolen car near Ngaruawahia came across the single vehicle crash shortly after 4am today. “It appears the male driver and sole occupant of a northbound car has lost control on Great South Rd, near the intersection with Havelock Rd, and collided with a tree. “The driver, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was found alive but in an unconscious state and died a short time later in an ambulance.” Mrs Grace said work is currently underway to formally identify the man and notify his family who Police wish to pass their condolences on to. “Of concern for us is today’s crash is the second serious incident where a car has hit a tree in the past 24 hours. This crash appears to have been as a result of a low speed impact and tragically, it appears that if the driver had been wearing a seatbelt, his injuries may have been survivable. “Road safety is no accident, it comes about by people treating the roads as a social environment and recognising that person coming towards them, separated by a thin painted line on the road, is someone’s mum, sister or daughter or someone’s brother, husband or dad.” Mrs Grace said Police would be maintaining a highly visible presence on Waikato roads this Easter, trying to emulate the fatal free Easter Holiday period of last year. —
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Three charged in Christchurch following homicide investigation

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MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Police – Three charged following homicide investigation

Canterbury Police have charged three men with murder following a homicide investigation into the death of 44 year old Benton Marni Parata.
Benton was taken by ambulance to Christchurch Hospital on 25 March 2015 with critical injuries and was placed on life support in ICU. Benton never regained consciousness and died in the early hours of Monday 31 March 2015. Three men aged 20, 21 and 36 are due to appear in Christchurch District Court on Wednesday 8 April 2015. Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Worner says “the Police investigation team have been working closely with Corrections staff and the victim’s family over the last nine days and will continue to do so.  We still have ten Police staff working on an ongoing investigation into this incident.” “As three men have now been charged, aspects of the investigation including the injuries Benton suffered will not be released” explained Detective Senior Sergeant Worner. Benton’s family are understandably very upset and have asked Police to convey their request for the need for privacy at this time so they can grieve as a family. —
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Kākāriki released into Abel Tasman National Park

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MIL OSI – Source: Department of Conservation – Kākāriki released into Abel Tasman National Park Ten kākāriki or yellow-crowned parakeet have today been released into the Abel Tasman National Park to join a further 12 birds released last year. Students from Golden Bay’s Motupipi Primary School were on hand to help Project Janszoon release the captive raised birds from a purpose built aviary near Wainui Hut, in the top of the park. Project Janszoon aviculturist Rosemary Vander Lee says the birds were keen to leave the aviary and she could tell they were excited about their new surroundings as there was a lot of chattering.

Yellow-crowned parakeet. Photo: Leon Berard | CC-BY-NC 2.0. Yellow-crowned parakeet/kākāriki

“Since the birds have been in the aviary we have noticed another pair of kākāriki coming to visit and these are likely to be some of the birds we released last year. It is encouraging to see they are still around and we still have a bit of summer left so the birds may even breed before winter which would be wonderful,” she says. The kākāriki were transferred to the aviary last week to acclimatise to their new home. The native birds were bred at Lochmara Lodge in Queen Charlotte Sound. Project Janszoon Director Devon McLean says extensive predator control in the area should provide a safe habitat for the birds. “We have completed an extensive stoat trapping network, and undertaken an aerial 1080 drop in response to the beech mast, so the birds will have the best chance possible to thrive. The goal is to continue to release kākāriki into the park annually, in early and late summer. It will be exciting when more unbanded kākāriki are seen in the area as that will be a sure sign the birds are breeding as well. I would also like to thank Lochmara Lodge for breeding the kākāriki. Without support from them and other breeding aviaries, reintroducing birds into the park would not be possible,” says Mr McLean While it is too early to tell how the 12 kākāriki released in May last year are doing, Project Janszoon ornithologist Pete Gaze saw four in one tree when he was monitoring the area in late 2014. DOC Motueka Conservation Services Manager Chris Golding says continuing bird releases will ensure the kākāriki population has every opportunity to flourish. “The released birds will supplement the few kākāriki still surviving in the park and together should provide sufficient numbers for the population to grow in the improved environmental conditions,” he says. Lochmara Lodge, EcoWorld Aquarium and Tui Nature Reserve are now all raising kākāriki on behalf of Project Janszoon and a fourth breeding aviary is likely tocome on board soon.

Background information

Project Janszoon is a privately funded trust named after Abel “Janszoon” Tasman. Over a 30-year time frame It will work with DOC, the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust, the community and iwi to reduce predator numbers and weeds, restore eco-systems and re-introduce native birds, animals and plants in the Abel Tasman National Park.For further information on Project Janszoon visit www.janszoon.org or like Project Janszoon on Facebook.

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Fonterra Notifies Affirmation of Credit Rating

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MIL OSI – Fonterra Notifies Affirmation of Credit Rating

Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd is pleased to advise that it has been notified by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services that they have affirmed Fonterra’s credit rating. This affirmation follows the release of Standard & Poor’s rating criteria for agricultural co-operatives which applies to Fonterra.

Standard & Poor’s has affirmed Fonterra’s long-term rating of A and short-term rating of A-1. The outlook remains stable. Standard & Poor’s has also affirmed the issue ratings on all of Fonterra’s debt, including the subordinated notes which are rated A-.

Chief Financial Officer Lukas Paravicini welcomed Standard & Poor’s affirmation, reflecting their view of Fonterra’s strong business position as a low cost, leading global dairy co-operative with significant financial flexibility.

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Radio: Across The Ditch – Lundy Found Guilty of Double-Murder Again + Cricket Wrap + Easter Safe Driving

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    [caption id="attachment_1205" align="alignright" width="300"]Peter Godfrey and Selwyn Manning. Peter Godfrey and Selwyn Manning.[/caption]Recorded live on 2/04/15 – Five AA Australia’s Peter Godfrey and Evening Report’s Selwyn Manning deliver this week’s bulletin of Across The Ditch. This week they discuss a controversial double-murder case concluding with Mark Lundy being found guilty for the second time of the murders of his wife Christine and daughter Amber.
ITEM ONE: A controversial double murder case here in New Zealand concluded Wednesday with guilty verdicts on both counts. Mark Lundy was convicted for the second time of murdering his wife Christine and daughter Amber back in 2000. The retrial was ordered after Lundy successfully appealed to the Privy Council in London for contradictory evidence, central to his initial conviction and life sentence, to be reconsidered. The Privy Council found that the evidence that led to his initial convictions for murdering his family, may have been unsound and that a new trial ought to be scheduled. It was, and after $5 million worth of proceedings and two days of jury deliberations, Lundy was convicted again and sentenced to a minimum of twenty years before parole ought to be considered. The thirteen years he has already spent in prison will be considered. The Police welcomed the verdict and Lundy’s own brother thanked the Police for their dedication to deliver justice for Christine and Amber. ITEM TWO: Cricket wrap and Easter… Easter, the transport agency is urging holiday makers to prepare and plan their journey early, to drive safely, rest when tired, and be patient when traffic jams occur. Is there a great migration out of the cities of South Australia? And is the message the same? Across The Ditch broadcasts live on FiveAA.com.au and webcasts on EveningReport.nz. –]]>

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