Joel Lam made his Moana Pasifika debut last weekend against the Blues.Alan Lee / www.photosport.nz
Former Crusader Joel Lam is expecting plenty of banter as Moana Pasifika get set to meet his old side.
Lam has been handed halfback duties for Moana in Saturday night’s round five clash, his first start in Super Rugby, against the side he earnt his first cap with.
He anticipates a few verbal jabs to be thrown his way on the pitch.
“I’ve got a a lot of mates in the Crusaders team that I went to the academy with straight out of school, so definitely a lot of familiar faces in that line-up, so, there will probably be a bit of chat.”
It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for Lam, who started the year without a Super Rugby contract.
“I got brought in on a player interim contract for the pre-season block and managed to secure myself a few more weeks after the pre-season. Last year was full of challenges and growth, it was actually quite funny the way it played out.”
Lam wasn’t even playing the same code in 2025, before Samoa came out of nowhere to offer him an international debut.
“I got a bit of a taste of playing hooker at league and said, ‘why not?’ So signed up to the Hornby Panthers, played a few club games there, and then moved over to the ditch to Brisbane and played for Souths Logan Magpies. Then got a call from Manu Samoa and I was back on tour.”
Lam scoring a try for Samoa in 2025.Stephen Parker / www.photosport.nz
The 23-year-old made his Samoa debut in a loss against Tonga last year.
He said the reconnecting with his cultural roots had been special.
“Jack, my cousin, skipper of Samoa. He has been a great mentor to me. Being exposed to Samoa has obviously led me down the path of reconnecting with that side of my family.”
Lam comes from rugby royalty, Pat, AJ, Ben and Jack among the famous names in the game.
“There’s a good chunk of us, 350 plus of us, granddad’s a brother of 21. There’s a lot of us in our aiga, which is pretty cool and special to me.”
After making his mark for Samoa, Moana came calling.
“They had always known I was from the Crusaders region, there’d been a few conversations along the way, they said, ‘we’ve seen and heard about you. We’re really keen to get you in.’ And as soon as I stepped in the door, I’ve just felt welcomed. It definitely feels at home here.”
Lam said his time in league helped sure up his defensive skills.
“It definitely gave me some, I don’t know if I can say this, but it gave me some balls. Making tackles off the back fence.”
Back in union, Lam has already spent more time on the field for Moana, having only played ten minutes off the bench for the Crusaders in 2023.
Lam’s rugby journey began in the Canterbury academy.Chris Symes / www.photosport.nz
Despite limited opportunities, he looks back on his time in Christchurch fondly.
“The standards that they hold is something that I still carry to this day and how I go about my professionalism. I’ve taken a lot from what the organisation preaches.”
But after his time in the 13-man code, the nuggety number nine said his game has evolved.
“Moana Pasifika flair suits me more. The aggression, energy, and collisions.”
Lam gets the chance to unleash that new-found aggression on some old team-mates, who he said will be sure to remind him of his Crusader’s roots.
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Dame Kerry Prendergast had her licence returned last week, with a remaining 60 demerits on it.123RF
A former Wellington mayor has admitted to having her driving licence suspended after getting caught speeding five times.
Dame Kerry Prendergast told Nick Mills, the host of Wellington Mornings on Newstalk ZB live on air that she had lost her licence for three months before Christmas.
Prendergast admitted it while discussing whether speeding fines should be raised to reduce road deaths.
She told RNZ that she was “shocked” when her licence was suspended as she had not noticed the demerit points adding up over two years,
“Suddenly, you get a letter and you’re not allowed to drive,” she said,
NZTA suspends licences after 100 demerits are accumulated in a two-year period.
Prendergast had her licence returned last week, with a remaining 60 demerits on it, as the points gradually taper off.
“I’ve learnt my lesson and I won’t be speeding because I cannot go through the trauma of losing my licence again,” Dame Kerry said.
She said she struggled with the loss of independence and was upset with herself for speeding.
She had to rely on her husband to get around and walked a lot while she was not allowed to drive.
Her grandchildren were “shocked to find that their grandmother had been caught speeding not just once but five times”.
“They didn’t think it was funny at all.”
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Forensic accountants are continuing to find “areas of concern” as they look into the accounts of the failed Du Val Group.
Statutory managers have released their latest six-month report into the group of about 70 entities that collapsed in 2024 owing more than $300 million to hundreds of people.
Its founders Charlotte and Kenyon Clarke have had their personal assets and passports frozen.
In the latest report, the statutory managers said they could not give many details about their latest discoveries because they did not want to prejudice any formal action that may come later.
The Financial Markets Authority was also investigating the group and had the power to pursue charges if warranted.
Today’s report showed the statutory managers still had many unanswered questions – the Clarkes had refused to be interviewed and had gone to the Court of Appeal seeking the right to refuse.
The managers said extensive forensic accounting analysis needed to continue partly because of the group’s “materially incomplete” accounting records.
“While investigations have progressed and further related issues have been identified for analysis, to ensure that any potential subsequent formal action is not prejudiced, no further information is currently able to be disclosed regarding our ongoing investigations into these areas of concern,” they said.
Broad concerns identified in earlier reports remained, including about GST transactions and the lack of clarity about goods paid for by the company but possessed by the Clarkes.
Since the last report, the debt owed by the group had fallen from $268 million to $226 million.
That was partly because some of its property developments had been sold including the Earlsworth, Sunnyvale and Edmonton residential projects.
None has been sold for a high enough price to cover the debt owing on them.
Investors in Du Vals Build to Rent Fund were likely to receive about 41 cents in the dollar on their investment after the sale of the fund’s residential properties in May last year, the report said.
Work was underway to sell to more developments, it said.
The report also gave an update on a British legal case against some Du Val entities that had wound up in New Zealand’s courts.
The British courts ordered Du Val to pay $1.35m (NZD) in damages and $164,205 (NZD) in costs.
The person awarded the costs was seeking to have the judgement recognised in New Zealand but the statutory managers opposed that in the High Court, the report said.
The judgement was pending.
The statutory managers are John Fisk, Stephen White and Lara Bennett.
They had previously been working under the PWC banner but the company sold its business restructuring arm to the global firm Teneo earlier this year.
The Authority said today it could not provide any update on where its investigation was at for “legal and confidentiality” reasons.
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan M. Sawyer, Professor of Adolescent Health The University of Melbourne; Director, Royal Children’s Hospital Centre for Adolescent Health; and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The University of Melbourne
Australia’s world-first national legislation to restrict access to social media accounts for children under 16 years old has been in force for about three months. New data from a survey of 1,070 Australian adults provides tantalising evidence of some positive effects.
The YouGov survey found many parents had noticed several positive behavioural shifts in their children aged 16 and under since the law took effect on December 10 2025. This, however, wasn’t universal, with some parents also reporting negative changes in their children’s behaviour.
So what exactly do the results of the survey show? And how should they be interpreted?
A first step
Before we can assess any effect of the legislation in preventing online harms we need to know whether the age-assurance processes are working.
Initial figures gathered by Australia’s eSafety Commission indicated social media platforms had removed 4.7 million accounts of children under 16 last December.
This figure reportedly includes a number of inactive and duplicate accounts. As a result, it may not be an accurate representation of the actual number of young people affected.
Young people are also reportedly circumventing age verification restrictions. And a report by Crikey, based on new data by parental control company Qustodio, showed social media usage among under-16s had dropped only marginally in the first three months of the ban.
Parents see some positive impacts
The YouGov survey took place online on January 12–14 this year – a little over a month after social media age restrictions took effect.
Among parents of children under 16 years old, 61% observed between two and four positive effects. Some 43% noticed more in-person social interactions, while 38% said their children were more present and engaged during interactions and 38% reported improved parent-child relationships.
But these parents also reported negative impacts. Some 27% noted a shift to alternative or less regulated platforms. And 25% observed reduced social connection, creativity or peer support online.
Two thirds of adults in this survey believed greater parental involvement could make the ban more effective. And 56% agreed stricter enforcement and age verification would improve its effectiveness.
This suggests many parents understand the complex challenges around implementation of effective age-assurance processes.
Limitations of the survey
Disappointingly, the proportion of parents in the YouGov sample is not reported, nor is the exact age of their children.
Given the survey took place in the middle of the summer holidays, it is hard to know what contribution this may have had, as social media use generally declines then.
We also do not know whether the reported behavioural changes were observed among young people who had been “kicked off” their social media accounts.
We are involved in an ongoing study that aims to evaluate the impact of social media age restrictions. This study directly measures how much time young people actually spend on different social media apps using passive sensing technology, in addition to more common self-reported questionnaires.
Our baseline data (collected before the new rules came into effect) from 171 young people counters the prevailing narrative that “all teens are against the social media restrictions”.
In fact, 40% of 13–16-year-olds were either supportive of or indifferent to the legislation, suggesting a more nuanced examination is warranted.
Young people also showed insights into their own experiences of using social media. Watching short videos was the most frequently reported activity. But only 16% thought it was a good use of their time.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has also committed to a comprehensive evaluation of the Social Media Minimum Age Act.
A collaboration between the eSafety Commission, Stanford University’s Social Media Lab (the lead academic partner), and an 11-member academic advisory group, this evaluation aims to assess how the minimum age requirement is being implemented and examine both intended and unintended impacts.
A major element of the eSafety evaluation is its longitudinal design over at least the next two years, with perspectives from over 4,000 young people aged 10–16 years and their parent or carer. The participants include enough young people from certain groups, such as those living in the country, or who are neurodiverse, to take a closer look at whether restricting access to social media has a disproportionate impact on them.
The eSafety evaluation will also directly track how much time young people spend on different apps and when they do so.
Measuring success in years, not months
The next few months will no doubt be the toughest for the eSafety Commissioner as she works with each of the technology platforms to ensure they are taking the “reasonable steps” required by the law.
There will be much global interest in the public compliance report that the eSafety Commission will soon release, which will detail these steps.
Technology companies face fines of up to A$49.5 million for failing to comply with the law. For many, the financial cost may be less of a concern than avoiding damage to their reputation, as evident in recent court cases in the United States where Snapchat and TikTok settled out of court.
Rather than anticipating immediate benefits in young people who have already enjoyed access to social media, we may see stronger effects in the next generation of children, whose parents are yet to provide permission for them to access social media accounts.
In this regard, the true benefit of Australia’s legislation may be whether it changes social norms among parents about the “right” age for children to have a phone and around what role social media should play in young people’s lives.
Such changes will be measured in years, not months.
When Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, was assassinated in the opening stages of the US-Israeli war against Iran, I didn’t mourn.
Khamenei was not someone who deserved to be mourned notwithstanding my contempt for the increasing use of assassination by aggressor nations; in this case the United States and Israel.
Having said this, had either US President Donald Trump or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu been assassinated I would have “not mourned” them even more.
On the other hand, along with thousands of residents in the Iranian city of Minab a mass funeral, I did privately mourn for the at least 165 schoolgirls and staff killed in the opening hours of the US-Israeli strikes when one of their missiles hit a girls’ elementary school.
Two words distinguish Iran from United States and Israel Understanding what distinguishes Iran from both the United States and Israel begins with two uncomplimentary words — repression and genocide.
Repression is the action of subduing someone or something by force. This can include suppressing thoughts or desires in people so that they remain unconscious. Iran’s theocratic political system is unquestionably repressive.
If, in some way, you question the regime or the governing values enough there is a high risk of repression. Keep your head down and you are likely to be safe. If not then you are likely to be in danger.
In contrast, genocide is the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
Bodies on display at Murambi memorial site on February 23, 2003 in Murambi outside Gikongoro, Rwanda. About 800.000 mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in about one hundred days in 1994, and about 100.000 prisoners accused of the genocide are still in prison awaiting trial. Rwanda is currently trying to cope with these huge problems and some prisoners that confessed to crimes can be tried in village trials, known as Gacacas.
” data-medium-file=”https://politicalbytes.blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/genocide-getty.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://politicalbytes.blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/genocide-getty.jpg?w=612″/>Bodies on display at Murambi memorial site on February 23, 2003 in Murambi outside Gikongoro, Rwanda. About 800,000 mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in about 100 days in 1994, and about 100.000 prisoners accused of the genocide are still in prison awaiting trial. Rwanda is currently trying to cope with these huge problems. Image: politicalbytes.blog
Genocide a characteristic of Israel and US government policies Israel’s policy of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland now incorporates genocide as the main means of achieving this objective, particularly in Gaza which is there for all to observe.
While Israel is the practitioner of genocide in Gaza, the United States is the enabler and main funder. This is in terms of both funding weapons supplies and political support for Israel’s brutal military occupation of this small remaining piece of Palestinian land.
Without this US support there would be no genocide in Gaza; like the West Bank, just ongoing repression.
While it is right to condemn repressive actions by the Iranian government, it is mindbogglingly immoral for these genocide supporting governments to make any judgment call on Iran, let alone declare war on the country.
Understanding the Islamic Republic As discussed above, the Islamic Republic is a repressive government towards those who oppose it in some public way. But repression is not its only characteristic.
Iran comprises a diversity of ethnicities and religions. Image: politicalbytes.blog
Iran is a highly diverse nation. While 61 percent of its population are Persian, there are more than 20 ethnic groups in total. Major minority groups include Azeris (16-24 percent), Kurds (7-10 percent), Lurs (2-6 percent), Baloch (2 percent), Arabs (1-3 percent) and Turkmens (2 percent).
As many as 99 percent of Iranians in the Republic are Muslim, predominantly Shia (90-95 percent) with the remainder comprising the Sunni minority.
While the Islamic Republic state is dominated by Shia Islam, there are recognised minority religions which are granted reserved parliamentary seats. These include Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism.
An exception is the Baháʼí faith, a world religion was founded in the 19th century mainly in Iran. It may be the second largest non-Muslim religion in the country.
Many Iranian Baháʼí have a previous Muslim background and are subjected to persecution. However, this is an inherited persecution that goes back to the mid-19th century.
Iran is not repressive towards minority ethnic groups because of their ethnicity. Azeris, for example, are not repressed because they are Azeris; only if they “put their heads above the barricades” so to speak.
The same can be said for Sunni Muslims and non-Muslim religions, except for Baháʼí whose repression is historical, predating the Islamic Republic by over a century.
But if the Republic is only seen as despotic, then an entire historical legacy explaining so much more than this is lost.
Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest continuous major civilisations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to the 5th century BC.
In spite of invasions by foreign powers, such as the Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols, the Iranian national identity was repeatedly asserted and preserved despite several changes in its dynastic empires.
The Pahlavi dynasty legacy In 1925, Reza Khan established the Pahlavi (and last) dynasty. Following a military coup he became the new dynasty’s first Shah. In 1941, however, he was overthrown with his son Mohammad-Reza becoming the second and last Pahlavi Shah.
Initially there were hopes of a constitutional monarchy. However, in 1951. Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq got sufficient parliamentary support to nationalise the British-owned oil industry.
In response, Mosaddeq was briefly removed from power in 1952. But, due to a popular uprising in support of him, he was quickly but reluctantly reappointed by the Shah. This enabled Mosaddeq to briefly exile the Shah in 1953 after surviving a subsequent failed military coup.
However, in August 1953, Mosaddeq was deposed by a successful US-supported military coup that was also actively supported by Britain.
The Shah then returned to power ruling Iran as a brutal autocracy with strong US support until the 1979 revolution and the Shah’s final overthrow.
Oil was central to the Shah’s policies. His government entered into agreement with an international consortium of foreign companies which ran the Iranian oil facilities for the next 25 years, splitting profits 50-50 with Iran. However, Iran was not allowed to audit the companies’ accounts or have members on their board of directors.
The Iran that the Islamic Republic inherited in 1979, on the one hand, had never been colonised; unlike much of Africa and Asia, for example. It had a proud national identity. On the other hand, under the Pahlavi dynasty, particularly in its last 25 years. it had become subservient to the United States and the oil companies.
The Shah’s autocratic regime was overthrown by a powerful mass popular movement. Among the forefront of this unstoppable movement were those that came to lead the new Islamic Republic.
The republic was the consequence of this popular will. While today there is strong internal Iranian opposition to the leadership of the Republic, there is also strong internal support for it
“Ayatollah” Donald Trump in an Oval Office religious ceremony (White House) . . . Iran isn’t the only “theocracy”. Image: politicalbytes.blog
In 1979, Iran’s political system had changed from an autocracy to a theocracy. But there was more to it than this.
The hated legacy, under the last Shah, of the interests of Iranians being subservient to that of US imperialism, was powerful. In no small part this shaped the Islamic Republic’s politics. It was reinforced by US support for Iraq’s protected war against Iran in the 1980s.
Further, whereas the Shah held openly expressed racist views on Arabs, the republic saw it differently.
In particular, it intuitively supported Palestinian self-determination which put it at odds with Zionist Israel.
Iran also empathised with countries with quite different political systems, such as secular Cuba, that had been subjected to continuing US hostility and shared Iran’s antipathy towards US imperialism and supported for Palestine.
While your enemy’s enemy may not be your friend, nevertheless there may be principled shared interests.
Understanding the United States and its imperialism Imperialism put simply is a policy of extending a powerful country’s economic power, exploitation of, and influence over other countries. Historically this has been through colonisation, invariably by the use of military force.
Historically the biggest imperialist power was the British Empire which, by the early 20th century, included much of Africa and Asia (and beyond).
The United States is now the world’s strongest imperialist power.
The United States began as an imperialist power in the early 20th century, particularly in Central America, the Caribbean, and the Philippines. Since the Second World War it has become, by far, the biggest imperial power reinforced by the most powerful military.
Put simply, capitalism is an economic system relentlessly driven by the maximisation of wealth accumulation. Imperialism is the highest and most extensive form of capitalism.
In this context, particularly since 1953, Iran under the Pahlavi dynasty was a complicit pawn willingly exploited by US imperialism.
This ended in 1979 by the popular will that led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic; something US imperialism has never forgiven and the republic has never forgotten.
In other words, the US-Islamic Republic relationship is a recipe for continuous conflict and has reached its highest point with the current US-Israel initiated war.
False confusing justifications for the US-Israel war The failure of the United States (and Israel) to acknowledge the above discussed escalating conflict to the point of outright war between them and the Islamic Republic has led to their muddled and changing false justifications for the war.
The truth of the matter is that the war centres on the republic’s firm opposition to US imperialism and support for Palestinian self-determination. The use of deceitful justifications is a public relations attempt to fudge this truth.
One false argument is that Iran was close to developing nuclear weapons. However, in the short war last June, the US and Israel boasted that they destroyed Iran’s nuclear weapons capability.
What is the lie — what they said then or what they now say? More likely it is both. After all Israel is the only country possessing nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Further, unlike Iran, it isn’t a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In fact, there is only one nuclear power in Middle East — Israel. But while Israel is ignored, Iran hypocritically is the focus of deceitful accusations and intense pressure, and now war.
Another false justification is that the US, in particular, wants to save Iranian lives by ending the repression. It is barely worth the time rejecting this claim from supporters and practitioners of genocide.
Further their bombing has already killed more than 1400 Iranians (a reported 30 percent are children) and rising. More than 17,000 have been injured including over 1000 children. Hypocrisy at its peak.
A related occasional justification is restoring democracy. But the Islamic Republic is more democratic than the outright autocracy it replaced and no less democratic than the ruthless US ally Saudi Arabia; admittedly they are both low thresholds.
Joe Kent’s resignation as Director of the National Counterterrorism Centre has severely damaged Trump’s credibility. Image: politicalbytes.blog
Perhaps the most damming indictment of the claimed justifications is the recent resignation of Donald Trump’s Director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, Joe Kent.
Explaining this dramatic decision, Kent referred to his concerns about the justification for military strikes in Iran. These included that, despite Trump’s claims, there was no imminent threat from Iran and that the US was “manipulated” by Israel.
Consequently Kent advised that he “cannot in good conscience” back the Trump administration’s war against Iran. Both optimistically and bravely he urged the President to end it.
In fact, Trump’s disingenuousness and underestimation of the strength of Iranian resistance and fightback have made a ceasefire improbable for some time.
Iran already agreed to a ceasefire in June. But the US and Israel broke it even though diplomacy discussions were underway.
US, Israel can’t be trusted Why would Iran agree to another ceasefire just to give the US and Israel enough time to regroup and start another war against a combative but weakened Iran.
Iran now believes that the US and Israel can’t be trusted and it would be better to try to further weaken them instead. After all, what does Iran have to lose!
Words like reaping and sowing come to mind!
Since the mid-1980s successful New Zealand governments have had an independent foreign policy.
US-Israel war against Iran has implications for New Zealand’s economic recovery. Cartoon: Slane, Listener
However, especially under the current government, we have drifted back towards being aligned with our former position of being a United States lapdog.
This observable drift was further escalated by the government’s response through Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (in an embarrassingly mashed way) and Foreign Minister Winston Peters.
US military bases located around Iran. Map: politicalbytes.blog
In summary, while maintaining a loud silence on the US-Israeli bombing of Iran, they condemned Iran’s own bombing response in those neighbouring Arab countries with US military bases.
These US bases would be akin to Iran having its own military bases in Canada and/or Mexico (perhaps Cuba; just saying).
There has been considered media coverage of the government’s response to the war beginning with Bryce Edwards’ Democracy Briefing (March 1): How should NZ respond to the US bombing Iran.
Christopher Luxon fumbles and flounders in toe-cringingly style
To complete this considered coverage was international relations expert Professor Robert Patman, also in Newsroom (March 3): Risky Iran attack gamble.
However, it took former Prime Minister Helen Clark to demonstrate the type of political leadership we deserved to have (having herself demonstrated this over the disastrous US-led war in Iraq nearly two decades ago).
Her uncompromising criticism of the government’s response included calling it a “disgrace” (March 1): Government response a disgrace.
Being a US lapdog doesn’t protect NZ from the war on Iran. Cartoon: Emmerson, NZ Herald
While Clark didn’t use the term “lapdog” to describe the government’s position, if she had she would have been right.
Repressed by Iranian government – but terrified of regime collapse The insights of Iranians critical of the Islamic Republic’s repressive nature but even more critical of the US-Israel bombing of Iran are invaluable.
Below is an extract from a Facebook post (March 2) from an Iranian man’s YouTube channel. Consistent with the theme of my comments above, this Iranian expresses the paradox Iranians involuntarily now find themselves in — caught between an internal repressive regime and external narcissistic warmongers.
In his words:
“As an Iranian, I can tell you the situation is no longer just political — it’s existential. We are trapped between two collapsing structures: one internal, one external. On one hand, we face a deeply dysfunctional government, led by the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Republic’s unelected institutions.
“Decades of economic mismanagement, suppression of dissent, and brutal ideological control have alienated multiple generations. No one believes in reform anymore — because every attempt has either been co-opted or crushed.
“But here’s the paradox: We are also terrified of regime collapse — because we’ve watched the aftermath of Western intervention in countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan. Each was promised freedom; each descended into chaos, civil war, or foreign occupation.
“So no, we don’t trust the US or Israel. Not because we support our regime — but because we know how imperial powers treat ‘”liberated” nations in the Middle East.
“Freedom, in their language, often means vacuum, fire, and permanent instability. Right now, many Iranians live with three truths at once: The Islamic Republic is morally and politically bankrupt. The alternatives offered by foreign actors are not liberation — they’re collapse.
“A bad government is survivable. No government is not. We are not silent because we agree. We are cautious because we’ve learned — too well — what happens when superpowers decide to “help”.
“In a sentence: Iran is a nation held hostage by its own regime, but haunted by the fate of its neighbors. We are stuck in a house we hate, surrounded by fires we fear more.”
The final word — and what a word it is Sahar Delijani is an Iranian American author most known for her internationally acclaimed debut novel, Children of the Jacaranda Tree. It has been translated into 32 languages and published in more than 75 countries.
In her own courageous and insightful words:
I was born in an Iranian prison. My parents were held in their jails. My uncles lie in their mass graves.
Nothing you can tell be about the crimes of the Iranian regime that I haven’t lived in blood and bone.
That does not mean that I want my people bombed, maimed, killed, their homes in ruins.
If your vision of liberation is only through the destruction of innocent lives, then it’s not freedom you’re after.
These words are more than eloquence; more than heart rendering. They convert complexity into simplicity; they are powerful; they speak truth to power.
They deserve to be the last word in this article.
Ian Powell is a progressive health, labour market and political “no-frills” forensic commentator in New Zealand. A former senior doctors union leader for more than 30 years, he blogs at Second Opinion and Political Bytes, where this article was first published. Republished with the author’s permission.
Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Analysis by Keith Rankin, 20 March 2026.
Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
The human world changed twice during the twentieth century. The first transition lasted from 1914 to 1945. The principal cause of World War Two was World War One. So, to understand the drivers of that long transition, indeed a great levelling event, it is necessary to investigate the causes of World War One. What happened between those wars was not inevitable, of course. But those inter-war events formed part of a comprehensible transitional sequence.
The next transition began, I would argue, in 1967 and lasted until 1980. Though key pre- and post-transition events took place in 1948, 1953 and 1956; and 1989/1990. The 1967 to 1980 transition significantly involved both Israel and Iran. As a result, the post-war world of cold war and decolonisation gave way to a neoliberal world order in which the new financial and political elites increasingly ruled under the titular covers of ‘liberal democracy’, ‘global rules-based-order’, and the ‘unipolar moment‘.
Are we today in a new transition, away from neoliberalism; maybe into a bleak zero-sum order (or negative-sum) of right-wing identity politics? An order in which national or cultural identity groups seek to harm other such groups more than they benefit their own group. An ultra-Hobbesian world in which individuals and groups gain pleasure directly from the pain they cause to others? Or will such gratuitous and predatory behaviour be limited to a transition now under way? While such behaviour happened markedly during the last years of the 1914 to 1945 transition, there were also substantial precursors to it in the lead-up to World War One. Not least the Judeophobic pogroms in Ukraine and some of its neighbouring territories.
These remain open questions. My aim here is to outline the 1967 to 1980 transition, noting some parallels between that transition and present times.
Before that, I’ll just mention that, in 1948, Israel and Palestine were both granted, by the new United Nations, the status of sovereign nation states. The Palestine nation was stillborn, for a number of reasons, one of which was that the eventual borders of Israel split the Palestinian territories. And I’ll mention that, in 1953, the United States instigated a political and military coup in Iran, converting a developing independent democracy into an absolute monarchy whose role was to acquiesce to Washington’s stated and unstated interests.
Suez Canal: the First Crisis
Most wars start with a pretext, an event manufactured or exploited by the true belligerent to justify its aggression.
One country which had been subjugated – indeed occupied – by the United Kingdom for many years was Egypt. That’s why Egypt came to be so important for the New Zealand military in both WW1 and WW2.
The critical strategic asset in Egypt was the Suez Canal, built by French interests, opened in 1869, and effectively wrested by the British from 1882 (though France maintained a strategic interest). For the steamship age, that canal became the critical conduit for the British Empire, connecting London with India (which included modern Pakistan and Bangladesh), East Africa, the ‘Middle East’ (meaning the Persian Gulf), the ‘Far East’, and the Australian colonies which became Australia.
The Egyptian Revolution took place in 1952, and Egyptian president Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal in July 1956. The result was a war in the latter part of 1956, in which the British and French persuaded Israel (only created in 1948) to invade Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. (These events were covered in an episode of The Crown.) The Israeli attack took place as Operation Kadesh. Less than two days after this pretext, presented as a threat to Israel’s security, Britain (and France) started bombing Egypt at Port Said, in an operation to ‘secure’ the Canal.
The end result was an ignominious defeat for Britain and France, unsupported by the US, but with no meaningful withdrawal by Israel; the Israel-Egypt border had become permanently militarised, noting that Gaza had been (by agreement) under Egyptian control since 1949.
The Suez Canal was closed for nearly six months, until April 1957.
Suez Canal: the Second Crisis
Ten years later, in June 1967, Israel went for broke. This was the much bigger second crisis for the Suez Canal. In six days, Israel conquered the entire Sinai Peninsula – therefore including Gaza – meaning that Israel had annexed the eastern side of the Canal. In addition Israel conquered East Jerusalem, which in 1948 was supposed to have become the capital of an independent Palestine, the West Bank (which the State of Tennessee, in an act of appeasement towards Israel, now wants to call Judea and Samaria; refer Bill requiring Tennessee to use ‘Judea and Samaria’ instead of ‘West Bank’ advances, Fox17, 6 March 2026), and Syria’s Golan Heights.
The principal consequence was that the Suez Canal, an even more important waterway than the Gulf of Hormuz, was closed from 1967 to 1975.
With hindsight, we can see that the global economic crisis of the 1970s began in 1967. It is understood as a crisis of inflation which morphed after 1973 into a crisis of stagflation; for an overview, biased towards the US and towards the received narrative, refer to The Great Inflation, in Federal Reserve History.
The closure of the Suez Canal had little impact on oil prices. But it did lead to a surge in the cost of international transportation, as Asia to Europe trade had to be diverted to the South African and Panama routes. The other two drivers of that inflation-surge in the late 1960s were the escalations of the Vietnam War, and the prevalence of a corporate structure – outlined by John Kenneth Galbraith in The New Industrial State (1967) and Economics and the Public Purpose (1973) – which made the global marketplace less responsive towards increases in global spending. That last point means that large corporate firms, like today’s energy companies, became predisposed to respond to increased demand by raising prices rather than by raising the quantities of output supplied.
Wartime is almost always associated with inflation, because it both raises costs and constrains the supply of consumer goods. (American wars since the 1970s can be an exception, because they are financed by instant money and readily-available imports; by US government-deficits and US economy trade deficits. Deficits which the rest of the world is eager to facilitate.)
Israel 1967 to 1973
With the partial exception of Syria’s Golan Heights, Israel did not formally incorporate the other conquered territories. This retention of these territories as subjugated territories was partly due to international pressure to not recognise conquests, but was probably more to do with their implications for the demographic balance of Israel. Integration would have led to the possibility of Jews becoming a minority of Israel’s population, and Arabs a majority.
(We should note that, for the secular Jews who run Israel, to be Jewish is understood more as an ethnicity than as a religious faith. Hence, Israelis tend to juxtapose Jews and Arabs, whereas people in the rest of the world juxtapose Israelis (understood to be mostly Jews) and Palestinians. Israelis favour the word ‘Arab’ over ‘Palestinian’, because of a popular Israeli narrative that the indigenous population of Palestine is descended from immigrants from Arabia.)
The 1973 Arab-Israeli War happened in October 1973, beginning with a surprise attack by Egypt, during the Yom Kippur holy day (and noting that the 2026 attacks on Iran occurred during Ramadan, Islam’s holiest period). Basically, Egypt wanted its Sinai Peninsula back, in part so that it could reopen the Canal. Other nearby countries joined-in, especially Syria, but also Jordan and Iraq. Not Iran, which was then under United States hegemony.
Despite Egypt’s initial advantage of surprise, Israel not only fought back defensively, but counterattacked. The counterattack included an Israeli army contingent crossing the Suez Canal and marching on Cairo; ie approaching the Nile River. Potentially this war could have led to the creation of a Greater Israel; from the Euphrates (in Syria and Iraq) to the Nile. But again, the problem of conquest becomes the problem of having to incorporate supposedly ‘inferior’ populations into the expanded nation state.
(We note that surprise attacks often do not bear fruit; noting the American president’s tasteless and quasi-triumphant comparison between 28 February 2026 with the ultimately unsuccessful attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. See Trump jokes about Pearl Harbour in meeting with Japan’s PM, TVNZ, 20 March 2026. For a brief moment, I wondered if the President was going to refer to the surprise attack of 6 August 1945, or that of 10 March 1945.)
Further, the international community had interests other than appeasing Israel. The biggest of these concerns was the price of oil. In the end the international community got its way, but at a cost of making Israel itself into a significantly more belligerent state than it had been hitherto.
Oil Prices
The 1973 Oil Crisis led to a quadrupling of crude oil prices by 1977, most of that taking place in 1974. Given the general inflation, much of it instigated by the oil price increases, real oil prices only increased by 150 percent in United States’ dollars.
The main reasons for the huge price increases of oil were the roles of the likes of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait – through the Vienna-based OPEC cartel – being able to push back against the encroachment of the Zionist project in their region, by using their effective near-monopoly power. In turn, these high prices led to the further development of the petroleum industries in the Persian Gulf, and of the Gulf States themselves. Additionally, we should note that oil was underpriced prior to the 1973 war; much as it can be argued that oil was underpriced in January 2026.
This had a much bigger economic impact on countries like New Zealand than anything we’ve either seen or projected in the present March 2026 crisis. (In my case, it brought forward my OE plans. At the end of 1973, for $400 I bought a ticket to sail to England via Acapulco, Panama, Curaçao and Barbados. By time the ship sailed in April 1974, the fare had been subject to two surcharges and I ended up paying more like $480. It could have been worse if the ship had not had access to cheap Venezuelan fuel in Curaçao.)
The result was a series of massive financial imbalances across the world; between oil-importing and oil-exporting countries, and also within larger oil-producing countries such as the United States. (New York’s loss was Texas’s gain.) While those 1970s’ financial challenges were navigated by the world’s finance ministers and central banks with a large measure of pragmatic success, the turmoil of the times let in a new and simplistic narrative around money and inflation; an unnuanced narrative that harked back to the classical stories about money during World War Zero (that’s the Napoleonic Wars of 1798 to 1815).
That new narrative was monetarism/neoliberalism, and placed itself perfectly to exploit the economic crisis – the Great Inflation– to create the neoliberal anti-intellectual hegemony which has ruled over the western world and hence over the whole world since the early 1980s. The guru of monetarism was a Chicago School economist; Milton Friedman. As an academic, Friedman and his acolytes had been plugging away through the 1950s and 1960s; well-placed to take advantage of a good crisis, especially a crisis centred around the word ‘inflation’. Chicago School economists experimented on Chile following its 11 September 1973 military coup.
If Israel had simply returned Sinai to Egypt in say 1970 – in circumstances similar to the eventual return of Sinai – allowing the Suez Canal to reopen, then the 1970s and 1980s could have turned out very differently.
Revolution, and Oil Prices again
One of the consequences of the political crisis in the Middle East was further crisis in the Middle East. Various latent nationalisms in the region intensified markedly; these intensifications turned for inspiration to the common faith in the region, Islam.
Hence, there was a direct – albeit convoluted – pathway from the 1973 war to the 1978/1979 Iranian Revolution. In February 1979 the Imperial State of Iran gave way to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
(I could have gained a personal glimpse of revolutionary Iran. Returning from my OE in September 1978, my partner and I were on a PanAm flight from Rome to Istanbul. The flight originated in New York, and terminated in Tehran, and was running late. Many of the passengers were agitated, because the flight was now projected to arrive in Tehran during the evening curfew. I guess it was always possible that PanAm would take the decision to overfly Istanbul, in order to arrive in Tehran on time. The plane did land in Istanbul, later than scheduled, so I know not about what dramas may have unfolded in Tehran later that evening. I expect that the return flight out of Tehran was fully booked, given the deteriorating situation there for American citizens.)
An important result is that oil from Iran, a founding member of OPEC, came off the world market for a few years. (Although, Aotearoa New Zealand, in its own pragmatic navigation of the crisis, came to do a swap deal with Revolutionary Iran. Despite the fact that, for a few years instances of capital punishment in Iran came to exceed those in the United States, New Zealand negotiated a sheep-meat for oil swap, thereby saving this country’s critical sheep-farming industry.)
The result of the loss of Iranian oil from the word market led, in 1979, to a further doubling of the world price of crude oil. In the second half of the 1970s, many countries – including New Zealand and United States – cut their speed limits to 80kph (or 50 miles per hour). (I still remember, in October 1976, riding in a Greyhound Bus in Pennsylvania, watching big trucks traveling very slowly along the United States’ interstate motorway system.)
In 1979, the crisis became so difficult that the New Zealand government made the sensible though since-derided decision to ration petrol by requiring motorists to observe carless days each week.
Governments in oil-importing countries made the pragmatic decision to both conserve oil and, for balance of payments’ reasons, to develop their own oil, gas and exportable reserves. New Zealand electrified its North Island Main Trunk Railway, doubled its aluminium production capacity (in order to export renewable energy), substantially expanded its oil-refining capacity, developed the Maui gas field; and developed the Glenbrook steel mill as a means to gain export receipts from the sale of west coast iron-sand.
Eventually, in 1986, the world oil price collapsed, ushering in a new (and environmentally discordant) era of cheap oil. Inflation-adjusted oil prices in 1999 were even lower than in 1972.
The Great Deception
World price-inflation was on a substantial downward path once the leading economies’ central banks allowed interest rates to fall (through liberalising monetary policies) in the years 1983 to 1985, and once cheap oil resumed. But in some countries high consumer-price-inflation persevered until the end of the 1980s’ decade, especially as they shifted towards goods and services taxes.
New Zealand pioneered a particular form of illiberal monetary policy in 1989, when inflation was already falling back to normal levels; and claimed that the new simple-minded monetary policy was the sole cure. This policy, which was in fact very much associated with the aforementioned monetarist project, became akin to a biblical truth; and was successfully exported to the consolidating globalised political and financial elites, making this new quasi-biblical truth into a bedrock policy-of-faith in the post-1980 world order.
Today, we can easily observe how false this ‘truth’ of faith is. By looking at the United Kingdom and Australia, two countries which have minimally reduced interest rates since 2022, we can see how their inflation rates have remained stubbornly higher than those with lower interest rates.
The next political and financial world order?
Are we in a new transition? Probably yes. Will it take a decade or so? Probably yes. While there are many calamities that could happen – and remembering that the world faced the possibility of global nuclear war early in both the cold war world order and the neoliberal world order – an optimistic take is that the world will move into a multipolar principles-of-engagement world order in which no single polity (or alliance) can dictate terms to the rest of the world with apparent impunity.
A unipolar world order is an illiberal geopolitical monopoly. Present events may either entrench or destroy the forces pushing for geopolitical illiberalism. Multipolarity is geopolitical liberalism.
The next world order should not be reliant on cheap oil nor indefinite economic growth nor the idolatry of money. Money is a means, not an end; it is a technology, not a commodity. Capitalism can become a peaceful private-public partnership. If enough of us want it to be.
————-
Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
New Zealanders are really starting to feel the pinch from the United States and Israel’s attacks as fuel prices get close to $4/litre at the pump.RNZ / Quin Tauetau
Analysis – An unexpected address from the Prime Minister in Wellington this week spoke volumes about the economic crisis the government is staring down the barrel of.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis and the minister responsible for fuel security, Shane Jones, have been doing the heavy lifting on what the impacts may or may not be for New Zealand’s economy if the conflict in Iran drags on.
Already suffering a cost of living crisis, New Zealanders are really starting to feel the pinch from the United States and Israel’s attacks as fuel prices soar past $3 at the pump and the flow-on effects mean almost everything else – food, services, flights – also climb to unaffordable levels.
It’s an attack on the economy and that’s an issue National has pinned its electoral hopes on in November after promising in 2023 to get the country back on track.
Late last year Labour surpassed National as the party most trusted to respond to the economic challenges, and in the most recent Ipsos Monitor this month the two parties were neck-and-neck on the issue.
Labour is also seen as more capable on inflation and cost of living.
That’s no small concern for the major governing party as it prepares for a tightly-contested election, while simultaneously dealing with an economic shock not of its own making.
Enter Christopher Luxon.
While the foreign affairs’ nuances of the war in Iran are certainly not Luxon’s forte, on the economy he feels more comfortable and has a reputation at least as a former chief executive for knowing what he’s talking about on that front.
But until Thursday he wasn’t doing the talking – Willis and Jones were.
Luxon had tasked the pair with leading the work and then jumped on a plane for four days to the Pacific at about the exact time the situation reports got bleaker back home.
The ministerial advisory group is having online meetings every morning to get updates from officials, and Willis has been doing blanket coverage media interviews and press conferences for the past couple of weeks.
Jones has taken the lead on the fuel security element and has been very much second in command.
So not surprising Luxon chose to high-tail it down to the Beehive for a face-to-face meeting with his officials on Thursday morning about what the state of play is.
For the seven days prior he’d only been receiving updates via reports and phone calls and was keen to hear the lay of the land from those at the coal face of the government’s response.
It led to a last-minute decision to hold a media conference at Parliament, alongside Willis, where the substance of what the government was doing hadn’t changed but the tone certainly had.
The purpose of the media conference was two-fold: tell New Zealanders they need to be realistic about what might be coming down the line and how bad it might get, and put the prime minister in charge of a looming crisis.
The hope for National is that it can claw back the narrative of being a safe pair of hands when the economy is in choppy seas, but the flip side is that if things do get worse before they get better and things haven’t improved at all for Kiwis’ backpockets come the election, then it’s Luxon and Willis who will wear all of it.
The war coming to an end soon is crucial to their success because even if it does end in the next week or three, the lag effect is such that it will still take time for the economy to bounce back.
With an election just shy of eight months away, it isn’t a lot of runway.
The biggest take-away from Thursday’s update was the work being done to prepare cost-of-living relief for some people if the pain at the pump, the supermarket, and almost everywhere else, continues.
Willis has signalled she’s tasked Inland Revenue with finding the best way to get targeted, temporary, and timely funding to those working Kiwis who will be impacted the most.
The biggest problem she has isn’t how to administer it, but when to pull the trigger on it.
Go too early and the government books end up looking worse for longer, but go too late and voters feel like they’ve been abandoned.
Expect discussions on the specifics of that payment to be high on the agenda at Monday’s Cabinet meeting.
National has talked a big game on being fiscally prudent.
If there’s even a whiff of Willis and Luxon sliding into cost-of-living relief creep to try keep as many voters as possible happy in the months ahead, it will be deputy prime minister and Act leader David Seymour shouting the loudest.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Town of Waitangi on Chatham Island.Vk2cz / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)
Chatham Island council is meeting this afternoon to try and come up with a way to soften the blow as diesel prices jump a dollar a litre for the isolated community.
Meanwhile, in Waiheke Island, petrol prices are sitting [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/590158/foodstuff-s-petrol-stations-continue-to-offer-discounts-despite-stores-running-dry close to $4 and the main Waiheke ferry is making some timetable changes to accommodate increasing fuel costs.
Petrol stations across the country are seeing a bump in drivers filling up amid fears over the Iran war and potential shortages, but Chatham’s runs slightly differently.
The islands ship petrol and diesel to the island. It’s heavily reliant on diesel as the main form of fuel to power the island.
Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust chief executive and council interim CEO Bob Penter said diesel was at $2.29 per litre and petrol at $4.50 per litre before the conflict in the Middle East.
He said they have capacity to store 400,000 litres on the island, but the problem will arise when they have to buy more at the current prices.
“Diesel has experienced much greater price increases rather than the increases we are seeing with petrol, so diesel is where we are experiencing most of our pressure at the moment.
“The higher prices are starting to flow through to what we need to purchase to top up our on island supplies, so we will have to consider over the next few days, looking at when we need to announce price adjustments and the price is obviously likely to increase.
“It’s risen about a dollar in purchase cost.”
But Penter is determined not to put that increase directly on islanders.
“The main concern for us is if we are able to soften the blow for Chatham Islanders, rather than the price climbing up a steep faced waterfall, if we can have a bit more of a gentle slope with gradual increases rather than a sudden shock.”
“We will give people as much forewarning as we can of any price changes. It won’t be a price at 11.59pm and another price at 12am and they don’t find out till morning.”
He said because the island had some resilience with storage and stock levels there was hope.
“We can potentially absorb some of the price increases from the new stock coming in as we release the old stock, so its just how we manage that in terms of a timing pathway and ensuring that we are meeting our purchase price that we have to pay.”
Chatham Islands was already the most expensive place to buy petrol in New Zealand before the conflict at $4.50.
He said it had to be that price because it was a expensive and dangerous process to get it.
“Petrol is probably ok at the moment because we do have some reserves… we are watching it really closely… if the current pricing structure we are seeing for petrol in New Zealand continues then I’m afraid inevitable it’s going to flow through to the Chathams and what we are able to price petrol for.”
As for the Hauraki Gulf, ferry company Fullers said despite the rising costs they have no current plans to make changes to the pricing.
It said they will make timetable changes to some destinations so they can ensure a reliable and sustainable service.
Fullers said it will revert to its off peak timetable slightly earlier than planned, starting Saturday.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on March 20, 2026.
I’m a kidney surgeon. Here’s why I hope I never see you Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Dat, Consultant Urological Surgeon and Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Surgery, School of Clinical Sciences, Monash University As a urological surgeon, I meet many patients with chronic (long-term) kidney disease. Sometimes, I see patients that have progressed to the point where their kidneys do not work at
Labor set for landslide in final South Australian polls with One Nation ahead of Liberals Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The South Australian state election is Saturday, with polls closing at 6:30pm AEDT. The 47 lower house seats will be elected in single-member electorates using preferential voting.
Bacterial meningitis is deadly, but can also have life-altering long-term effects – new study Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Octavia Calder-Dawe, Lecturer in Health Psychology, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Bacterial meningitis is once again in global headlines, with recent cases linked to the University of Otago in New Zealand and a fast-growing outbreak at the University of Kent in England. Bacterial meningitis
Many tourism hotspots are ‘de-marketing’ – with mixed success. We researched the smartest ways to do it Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Hardy, Adjunct professor, Tourism, Southern Cross University Those who watched the recent Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics probably placed Italy high on their travel bucket lists. Global events frequently generate abrupt spikes in visitor demand. This is a boon for many tourism operators and business
Keith Rankin Analysis – Turkmenistan: The Hermit Autocracy in the Centre of Eurasia Analysis by Keith Rankin, 17 March 2026. Iran is a crucial country in Southwest Asia. Not only is it strategically placed with respect to maritime transport, it also has land borders with seven countries. Most of these countries have been in the world news in the last decade, generally in relation to some conflict or
Why Iran is attacking Gulf energy infrastructure Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Powell, Teaching Fellow in Strategic and Air Power Studies, University of Portsmouth Iran targeted energy facilities across the Middle East on March 18, including the world’s largest liquefied natural gas hub in Qatar, in retaliation for Israeli strikes on an Iranian gas field hours earlier. Iran
Why drawing eyes on food packaging could stop seagulls stealing your chips Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Kelley, Associate Professor, Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter The increasingly urban lifestyles of seagulls in the UK and around Europe has made them experts at grabbing food from unsuspecting outdoor diners. Herring gulls in particular are gaining a reputation for food theft in
Return of the oil shock: lessons from a crisis New Zealand has seen before Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Basil Sharp, Professor of Energy Economics, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau The world’s energy situation is growing more volatile by the day. The US-Israel war on Iran has effectively shut one of the world’s most important oil choke points, the Strait of Hormuz, sending the price
What does One Nation actually believe in? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kurt Sengul, Research fellow, Far-Right Communication, Macquarie University One Nation’s unprecedented surge in the polls raises important questions about whether a party built on grievance can present coherent policies to voters. While a Pauline Hanson-led federal government remains highly unlikely, One Nation now sees itself as a
Indigenous Australians always come off worst in disasters. This needs to stop Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bhiamie Williamson, Research Fellow in Disaster Resilience, Monash University Indigenous communities are often the worst hit when major disasters strike. The recent floods across the Northern Territory are a case in point. Last week, residents in the regional centre of Katherine were either evacuated or sought shelter
Some kids stop swimming lessons too early. How well can your child actually swim? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Graefe, Adjunct Research Fellow, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University As the weather starts to cool down and outdoor pools shut, are you thinking of pressing pause on your child’s swimming lessons, or even stopping altogether? If your child has reached a certain level,
Fines alone won’t stop big tech behaving badly. Here’s what might work Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren C. Hall, PhD Candidate in Psychology, University of Tasmania As countries around the world look to follow Australia’s lead and implement a social media ban for kids, many are also considering fines as an enforcement mechanism. This is part of the playbook when it comes to
What is Flumist, the new flu vaccine for kids that’s sprayed in their noses? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allen Cheng, Professor of Infectious Diseases, Monash University Many kids are scared of getting needles, and this can stop them getting vaccinations that protect that against the flu. Less than one in four Australian children were vaccinated against influenza in 2025. This winter, Australian families have another
How does your super balance compare to other people your age? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Peng, Lecturer in Accounting, The University of Queensland If you have ever checked your super balance and wondered whether you are “behind” for your age, you aren’t alone. To see where you truly sit, you should ignore “averages”, which can be skewed by a small number
Shifting more healthcare to the private sector calls for a clear government plan – where is it? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robin Gauld, Executive Dean, Bond Business School, Bond University Access to public elective services such as hip replacements or cataract surgery has long been inadequate in New Zealand, with extended wait times and exclusion of those not assessed as high priority despite genuine clinical need. Workforce shortages
Seattle tried to guarantee higher pay for delivery drivers – here’s why it didn’t work as intended Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Garin, Associate Professor of Economics, Carnegie Mellon University If you’ve ever ordered food through DoorDash, Uber Eats or Instacart, you may have realized the person who delivers it isn’t a salaried employee. They’re gig workers – independent contractors who pick up delivery tasks through an app,
China’s growing grip on the fragile Solomon Islands media sector SPECIAL REPORT: Reporters Without Borders Since the Solomon Islands established diplomatic relations with China in 2019, the Pacific country has become a strategic arena for Beijing’s influence. By capitalising on the economic fragility of the local media sector, China has stepped up conditional funding, editorial partnerships and influence programmes to disseminate its narratives. Reporters Without
Australian charities funding Israel’s illegal settlements ‘untouchable’, says Labor govt The Labor government has told the Senate that Australian charities don’t have to comply with international law, nor will they be compelled. Michael West Media reports. SPECIAL REPORT: By Stephanie Tran The Albanese government has rejected a proposal to strip tax-deductible status from Australian charities found to be supporting illegal occupations, amid mounting scrutiny over
Grattan on Friday: Chalmers is trying to make economic uncertainty a springboard for reform Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When he talks about the May 12 budget, Treasurer Jim Chalmers always stresses that what’s done on things like the capital gains tax discount will be a matter for cabinet. It would be more accurate to say the fate of
Heading to Bali, Vietnam or Thailand? Why a measles vaccine is more important than ever Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Niall Johnston, Conjoint Associate Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney If you’re planning an Easter holiday to Bali, Vietnam or Thailand, it’s a good time to check if you and your family are vaccinated against measles. These are among destinations in Southeast Asia with ongoing measles outbreaks,
Cook Islands PM Mark Brown and New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters held an informal discussion at Peters’ private residence in Auckland on Friday, 20 March 2026 Supplied / Minister of Foreign Affairs
Winston Peters has met “informally” with Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown at Peters’ home in Auckland.
Four days ago, Peters’ office said they had no plans to meet Brown while he was in New Zealand.
In a joint statement, they said they discussed “fundamental challenges facing the New Zealand-Cook Islands relationship over the past 18 months” though there appeared to be no resolutions.
“Political dialogue between the two countries will continue in the coming weeks in order to determine whether these challenges can be resolved in the present circumstances,” it stated.
“In the meantime, the Governments of the Cook Islands and New Zealand will not be providing further comment.”
Christopher Luxon said on Thursday that he would not meet with Brown in any capacity, preferring to keep it between officials.
“I’m confident we’ll get to a good place in the end, we’ve made some good progress recently, but I’m going to let our officials handle that progress,” he said.
Addressing a room of dignitaries on Wednesday, Brown said his country was “growing in influence” globally on its “voyage of statehood”.
“Our desire to pursue our own policies and interests have been reflected in our growing participation on the international stage,” Brown told a room of dignitaries.
“There are times when we must pause and consider whether the conventions and evolved understanding between our freely associated states remain aligned … we find ourselves in such a moment.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Dat, Consultant Urological Surgeon and Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Surgery, School of Clinical Sciences, Monash University
As a urological surgeon, I meet many patients with chronic (long-term) kidney disease.
Sometimes, I see patients that have progressed to the point where their kidneys do not work at all. This leads to the toxic build-up of waste products, meaning they need regular dialysis or a kidney transplant.
While these treatments are lifesaving, access to them is becoming increasingly challenging.
As more people are newly diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, the larger the demand for dialysis. By 2032, it is expected dialysis rates in Australia will surge by almost 86% compared with rates in 2022.
So my colleagues and I are increasingly working in a health-care system at capacity caring for people with kidney disease.
Clearly, it would be better for patients and the health system if we detected kidney disease early and treated it before it progressed.
Kidney Health Australia’s action plan provides a practical blueprint of how to get there.
The cost of kidney disease
An estimated one in seven Australian adults have indicators of chronic kidney disease, the vast majority not knowing it.
About three out of four Australian adults have at least one factor that increases their risk of chronic kidney disease. This includes diabetes or high blood pressure.
Chronic kidney disease is associated with a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and premature death.
It also has a significant public health impact, costing Australia A$9.9 billion a year.
Remind me, what do your kidneys actually do?
The kidneys are two fist-sized organs that sit at the back of the abdomen and perform some of the body’s most essential tasks.
They are best known to filter waste and excess fluid from the bloodstream to produce urine.
They produce hormones that help support red blood cell production and bone health. They also regulate blood pressure by maintaining the balance of salts and minerals in the body.
But kidney disease can start and progress for a variety of reasons.
For instance, high blood glucose (sugar) levels and high blood pressure can damage kidney blood vessels and nephrons (filtering units). This affects the kidneys’ ability to filter blood.
Kidney disease is often ‘silent’
Kidney disease is often described as “silent”. That’s because kidneys can lose up to 90% of their function before development of symptoms including:
fatigue
swelling in the legs and ankles
persistent high blood pressure
shortness of breath
needing to urinate more often, especially at night
foamy urine.
Unfortunately, kidney damage is often irreversible by this stage. So we need to focus on preventing kidney damage in the first place.
What you can do now
Not all causes of chronic kidney disease are easily preventable. However, there are ways to reduce the chance of kidney disease:
avoiding excessive use, over long periods, of NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), such as ibuprofen.
How do we catch kidney disease early?
Kidney Health Australia proposes GPs perform a “kidney health check” on people at higher risk every one to two years. This would include:
people with diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or who are obese
First Nations people
people who smoke or vape (or who have done so in the past)
people with a family history of kidney disease
those aged over 60.
This check would include a blood pressure reading, blood test for kidney function and urine test checking protein levels.
It has been estimated early detection and treatment of kidney disease could prevent more than 38,000 premature deaths, generate 165,000 extra years of healthy life, and deliver a saving of $45 for every $1 invested over the next 20 years.
The best dialysis is the one you never need
By the time many patients reach specialists like me, the damage to their kidneys is advanced and irreversible.
Many causes of kidney disease, however, such as high blood pressure and diabetes are largely preventable.
Greater awareness of how to look after your kidneys, simple screening and early intervention could stop many Australians progressing to kidney failure.
The catastrophic failure of the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant may have been caused by air trapped in the pipes, a report has revealed.
The Wellington plant failed last month, flooding the facility and sending millions of litres of raw sewage into the sea each day.
Wellington City Council on Friday released the first report into the ongoing saga.
Wellington Water commissioned the engineering report on 5 February – the day after the failure – to understand how the plant could be operated during the recovery.
Experts from Stantec used software to develop a hydraulic model of the plant, and replicated the likely flow of water running through the plant when it failed.
While the report was not commissioned to identify the cause, it revealed valuable information, Wellington Mayor Andrew Little’s office said.
Wellington Mayor Andrew Little said the report was just one piece of the puzzle.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
“The report found that air can become trapped in the wastewater bypass pipeline, particularly when there is a high flow of wastewater passing through the plant.
“It is possible that trapped air could disrupt the flow of wastewater, pushing it backwards and flooding the plant.”
There was a “significant risk” of the air being trapped in the system, causing a “choke point” the report said.
And if it did happen, it would be “a likely cause of the flooding”.
The bypass system allows screened wastewater to bypass further treatment – like disinfection – and be discharged out to sea when the plant is at maximum capacity.
The experts suggested Wellington Water install additional air release equipment at specific locations in the system.
Wellington Water chief operating officer Charles Baker speaking to media following the release of the report.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
“This is expected to provide some improvement to the issues identified until the design of a new bypass pipeline alignment and connection can be developed and implemented.”
The report was just one piece of the puzzle, Little said.
“There are other areas of interest that require a more detailed investigation, and Wellington Water has commissioned an external specialist to conduct a wider investigation into these other factors.
“It’s natural to want a quick answer, but it’s important that we take the time to uncover all the facts and not draw conclusions too early.
“Wellingtonians deserve assurance that our recovery addresses the root cause and any related factors, so we can be confident we’re preventing this from happening again.”
The Wellington plant failed last month, flooding the facility and sending millions of litres of raw sewage into the sea each day.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Air pocket ‘burping’ seen since
The report revealed that Veolia, the plant operator, told Wellington Water at a meeting this week that crews had observed the burping of air pockets during the storm on 3 March when there was a high level of water running through the system.
“The operator … observed burping of large air pockets and large splashes from the outlet chamber during the initial pumping sequences,” it said.
That showed the air release capacity of a vent pipe downstream had been exceeded at times, the report said.
More risks identified
The experts identified other potential risks at the plant and made a number of technical recommendations.
“Wellington Water should address the potential risk of a blockage or debris in the outfall section of the pipe and implement monitoring of operating pressures in the ocean outfall (during the recovery phase at a minimum).”
The company should also review the condition of existing air and isolation valves, and replace them if necessary, the report said.
CCTV from the pipeline showed the polyurethane liner had eroded and cement mortar had potentially degraded in some sections, it said.
“This has occurred due to high velocity super-critical (shallow and fast) flow impacting on the liner.
“This flow regime presents risks to the long-term durability of the effluent pipeline liner and structural steel which warrants additional review and investigation.”
An independent Crown review into the failure is also underway, and its final report is expected in August.
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
The South Australian state election is Saturday, with polls closing at 6:30pm AEDT. The 47 lower house seats will be elected in single-member electorates using preferential voting.
In the past few days, we have had SA polls from Newspoll, DemosAU, YouGov and Fox & Hedgehog. These polls all suggest a Labor landslide, with Labor’s primary vote at 37–40% and the Greens at 11–12%. One Nation is in the low 20s, supplanting the Liberals (high teens) as the main right-wing party.
Breakdowns from the DemosAU, YouGov and Fox & Hedgehog polls suggest Labor is doing particularly well in Adelaide. The Liberals will likely beat One Nation on primary votes in many Adelaide seats, but if Labor wins these seats, it won’t count for the Liberals. In regional seats, One Nation is likely to beat the Liberals and win the seats.
On these polls, the Liberals could be wiped out in the lower house and be replaced by One Nation as the main right-wing party. But Labor would win a landslide.
Eleven of the 22 upper house seats will also be up for election by statewide proportional representation with preferences. A quota for election is one-twelfth of the vote or 8.3%.
In previous SA elections, only ordinary votes cast on election day have been counted on election night. However, legislation passed in 2024 will allow pre-poll and postal votes to also be counted on the night.
By the end of the night, we will have a much higher share of the overall vote counted than at previous SA elections. However, the pre-poll votes will take much longer to count than those cast on election day.
This article also includes a New South Wales Resolve poll that has Labor’s primary vote slumping eight points since January to 29% as One Nation debuts with 23%.
SA Newspoll
A SA Newspoll, conducted March 12–18 from a sample of 1,048, gave Labor 40% of the primary vote (down four since the mid-February Newspoll), One Nation 22% (down two), the Liberals 16% (up two), the Greens 12% (steady) and all Others 10% (up four). No two-party estimate was reported.
Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas’ net approval was down six points to +34 (65% satisfied, 31% dissatisfied). Liberal leader Ashton Hurn’s net approval was up four points to +8 (43% satisfied, 35% dissatisfied). Malinauskas led Hurn as better premier by 64–22 (67–19 previously).
SA DemosAU poll
A SA DemoaAU and Ace Strategies poll for InDaily, conducted March 12–18 from a sample of 1,242, gave Labor 37% of the primary vote (down six since the early February DemosAU poll), One Nation 23% (up four), the Liberals 17% (down one), the Greens 11% (down one) and all Others 12% (up four). No two-party estimates were provided.
Malinauskas’ net positive score was +29 (49% positive, 20% negative), while Hurn was at net zero (21% positive, 21% negative). One Nation’s lead upper house candidate Cory Bernardi was at net -16 net (36% negative, 20% positive).
SA YouGov poll
A SA YouGov poll for The Advertiser, conducted March 9–17 from a sample of 1,265, gave Labor 38% of the primary vote (up one since the mid-February YouGov poll), One Nation 22% (steady), the Liberals 19% (down one), the Greens 12% (down one), independents 5% (down one) and others 4% (up two).
By respondent preferences, Labor led both One Nation and the Liberals by 59–41, a one-point gain for One Nation vs Labor and steady against the Liberals.
Malinauskas’ net approval was down three points to +33, with 63% satisfied and 30% dissatisfied. Hurn’s net approval was steady at +7 (42% satisfied, 35% dissatisfied). Malinauskas led Hurn as better premier by 62–23 (64–20 previously).
SA Fox & Hedgehog poll
A SA Fox & Hedgehog poll, conducted March 6–16 from a sample of 1,008, gave Labor 38% of the primary vote (down two since the early February F&H poll, One Nation 21% (up one), the Liberals 18% (down one), the Greens 11% (down one) and all Others 12% (up three).
By respondent preferences, Labor led One Nation by 59–41, a four-point gain for One Nation. They led the Liberals by 60–40, a one-point gain for the Liberals. In a three-party preferred, where Green and Other voters are asked to choose between Labor, the Liberals and One Nation, Labor had 52% (down two), One Nation 26% (up one) and the Liberals 22% (up one).
Malinauskas’ net approval was up two points to +33 (52% approve, 19% disapprove). Hurn’s net approval was up three to +10 (25% approve, 15% disapprove). Malinauskas led Hurn as preferred premier by 55–22 (54–22 previously). Bernardi’s net approval was down five to -9 (23% disapprove, 14% approve).
Federal politicians included in this SA poll were Anthony Albanese (down six to -15 net approval), Pauline Hanson (down five to +5) and Angus Taylor (up six to -1).
NSW Resolve poll: Labor slumps as One Nation debuts with 23%
The New South Wales state election is in March 2027. A Resolve poll for The Sydney Morning Herald was conducted March 9–14 from a sample of 1,100. Unlike most previous NSW Resolve polls, this was conducted in one week, not over two months.
Labor had 29% of the primary vote (down eight since the December to January Resolve poll), the Coalition 25% (down two), One Nation 23% (not previously asked for), the Greens 10% (steady), independents 8% (down three) and others 5% (down ten).
Resolve doesn’t usually give a two-party estimate for its state polls, but analyst Kevin Bonham gave Labor about a 53–47 lead over the Coalition. Optional preferential voting in NSW hurts the right as there’s a split between One Nation and the Coalition.
Despite Labor’s slump on voting intentions, Labor incumbent Chris Minns held a 38–17 lead as preferred premier over Liberal leader Kellie Sloane (40–18 in January). On the NSW state outlook, 30% said it would get worse in the next year, 19% better and 51% said no change.
This poll contrasts with a NSW DemosAU early March poll that gave Labor 34% of the primary vote, the Coalition 23%, One Nation 21% and the Greens 15%.
Federal Morgan poll and further Resolve questions
A national Morgan poll, conducted March 9–15 from a sample of 1,654, gave Labor 28.5% of the primary vote (up two since the March 2–8 Morgan poll), the Coalition 24% (up 1.5), One Nation 22.5% (down one), the Greens 12.5% (down two) and all Others 12.5% (down 0.5).
By respondent preferences, Labor led the Coalition by 54–46, a 0.5-point gain for the Coalition. By 2025 election preference flows, Labor led by 52–48, a one-point gain for the Coalition.
I previously covered the national Resolve poll for Nine newspapers. In additional questions, respondents were pessimistic about the near-term economic outlook, with 44% expecting it to get worse in the next year and 21% better and more pessimism about shorter horizons. But in the next five years, “get better” led by 33–30.
On the rising cost of living, 40% thought the federal government most responsible, 17% global factors, 10% state and territory governments, 6% businesses and 6% the Reserve Bank.
Danniverke Carriers owner Nigel Castles expects further price rises for fuel are inevitable.123rf
A rural transport company carting stock to the meat works couldn’t get the fuel it needed at two North Island commercial truck stops.
Pumps ran dry in Wairoa and Eltham on Thursday when the Stephenson Transport truck and trailer units from Central Hawke’s Bay were on a freezing works run.
Owner Bruce Stephenson said it’s a situation he’s never faced during his seven decades in the business.
“We had stock trucks on the road obviously all over the place. We couldn’t get fuel in Wairoa and we couldn’t get fuel in Eltham,” he said.
“They were loaded with stock heading to the works, so we had to stretch things out a bit – it gets a bit tricky when you’re doing that sort of thing.”
He fielded phone calls from his concerned drivers wondering what to do next.
“I’m talking about truck stops where we fuel up and where we get our contract prices from. That’s where access is relatively easy for a big truck and trailers with crates on.”
“So we had to go to service stations and find one we could get under the canopy of.”
Danniverke Carriers owner Nigel Castles is also coping with the swiftly evolving situation.
His company also carts stock around the country and he’s concerned about the massive spike in prices.
And his family-owned business can’t absorb the soaring fuel prices alone.
He’s reluctantly passing these increases on to farmers and estimates his fuel bill is up 20 percent from the start of the year.
The company filled its tanks last week, and he hopes the next delivery will arrive in a week.
With no signs of tensions easing in the Middle East, he expects further price rises for fuel are inevitable.
“The next lot of fuel supply is actually going to go up again,” he said.
“Definitely out on farm there’s a lot of worry, and as transporters we certainly don’t want to come to a grinding halt either.”
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Bacterial meningitis is well known as an acute, deadly illness. The World Health Organization estimates about one in six infected people will die – even with prompt medical care and antibiotic treatment.
While this frightening statistic makes headlines, less well understood is what happens to those who survive this highly contagious infectious disease.
Much of the existing research on bacterial meningitis tends to follow a similar pattern, focused on the acute phase when people are hospitalised and receiving treatment.
While this makes sense, it also bolsters the idea that bacterial meningitis is a short-term illness that is effectively dealt with by the time patients leave hospital.
This is not the case. Emerging international evidence suggests a majority of patients experience ongoing and life-altering physical, psychological and social impacts well beyond the acute treatment phase.
Our new research with people who survived bacterial meningitis is the first of its kind conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand.
With support from the Meningitis Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand, we collated exploratory survey responses from 16 adult participants, followed by in-depth interviews with ten of these people.
This allowed us to build a nuanced, personalised picture of what life after meningitis is actually like. Our findings show significant and long-lasting impacts of infection.
Ongoing impacts long after acute illness
Participants emphasised that bacterial meningitis was a long-term illness with far-reaching impacts.
Far from being “cured” at hospital discharge, participants described experiencing multiple chronic after-effects, including fatigue, difficulties with concentration, memory and emotional regulation, persistent headaches, and issues with mobility, vision and hearing.
These after-effects were permanent for some and persisted for years for others.
Ongoing symptoms had major implications for how participants were able to live their lives. They affected their ability to work and support themselves, to study and to maintain relationships with others.
In turn, this had serious downstream effects on mental health. Participants linked their experiences to anxiety, depression and suicidality. As one reflected:
I thought my life was absolutely done and dusted.
Lack of guidance and support
In the context of these life-changing impacts, participants described an absence of accurate and useful medical advice about after-effects and recovery trajectories.
This information vacuum made the adjustment to living with lasting impacts especially difficult to understand and cope with. Interviewees described feeling abandoned and did not know whether and where they could access help.
Those we interviewed were not offered mental health follow-up despite having faced a life-threatening medical diagnosis – a known risk factor for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Many described leaving hospital in shock, with no accident compensation cover and no ongoing primary care plan or specialist referral in place. One participant explained her experience like this:
When I was eventually discharged, there was no support. There was no brochure to tell me that I could go and talk to someone or a list of potential after-effects.
Reflecting the focus on acute care, participants were typically treated by healthcare providers as if they were recovered and would be ready to resume their normal activities soon.
Several participants were told by doctors to return to work or school within weeks.
This proved to be alarmingly inaccurate advice. Most of those we spoke to experienced after-effects that affected their ability to work, study and socialise for months or years.
Without access to formalised aftercare, close family and friends filled the gaps. Many participants described being discharged from hospital while unable to feed themselves, and unable to move unassisted. In these situations, support from loved ones was vital.
Our findings demonstrate that bacterial meningitis is much more than a life-threatening infection. It is an acute disease with serious, chronic after-effects which are poorly understood and often go unrecognised.
Alongside efforts to raise vaccination rates and improve symptom recognition, we need to do better by those living with the impacts of this cruel disease.
Our recommendations highlight that patients and families need realistic information and responsive support to help them adjust to life after bacterial meningitis.
Those who watched the recent Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics probably placed Italy high on their travel bucket lists.
Global events frequently generate abrupt spikes in visitor demand.
This is a boon for many tourism operators and business owners, but it often leads to short-term yet significant pressures on destinations, resulting in concerns regarding overtourism.
Some destinations are therefore actively trying to reduce tourism – with mixed success.
We recently researched how tourism destinations could do this successfully without causing major disruptions.
Rather than using the traditional “4 Ps” of marketing (price, produce, place and promotion) to attract tourists, de-marketing uses them to keep people away.
Tasmania’s Overland Track: a case study
Our soon-to-be-published research shows de-marketing risks failure if it ignores trends and pressures in society.
We found successful de-marketing cannot be conducted from one angle, such as changing the way a location is marketed. This is because attractions, businesses cultures, residents, heritage assets and natural areas all form the tourism system – when one is altered, the entire system is affected.
The Overland Track in southwest Tasmania, Australia, illustrates this well.
Hikers walk along Tasmania’s Overland Track with Barn Bluff in the distance.Adam Cooper/AAP
Following extensive consultation, in 2011 the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service introduced a suite of measures:
a booking and permit system
a track fee
capped daily departures
the introduction of free mid‑track access for Tasmanians to maintain local recreation opportunities.
In 2011, hiker numbers were at 8,260 per year. Since then, there has been modest increase, and for the past three years numbers have stabilised at around 11,000 per year.
Using permits and capped daily departures slowed the growth of visitors, while track fees provide revenue from which rangers are employed and improvements to trails, huts and toilets can be made. This in turn reduces track erosion and environmental impacts.
Sometimes it backfires
Ironically, as destinations have tried to de-market themselves, media coverage of their actions can cause these attempts to backfire.
Locations such as Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam are recent examples.
Its “stay away” campaign targeted young British men searching online for terms like “stag weekend” or “pub crawl,” aiming to deter tourists seeking party trips.
The campaign backfired.
Some businesses began selling “stay away” t-shirts and promoting rebellious “stay away weekends” while the campaign was parodied on social media.
Instead of discouraging this market, the message became a meme – and, for some, a reason to visit.
Why there is often pushback
De-marketing can be successful. But how can destinations that have had major investments from private and public stakeholders suddenly slow down business without triggering economic instability and resistance?
Not surprisingly, there is often pushback from businesses. Sudden halts to tourism hurt the hip pockets of those whose livelihood depends upon it. In Venice in 2021 for example, a ban on large cruise ships from entering the Venetian lagoon was met with resistance from local business leaders.
Regulating tourist behaviour, banning short-term rental accommodation and tourists taxes are popular responses to overtourism but are often ineffectual.
Iceland introduced a tourist tax in 2024 but what followed was a rise in tourist numbers.
Taxes can create revenue to repair environmental damage but they do not reduce people’s desire to travel.
How it can be done successfully
Our research shows successful de-marketing requires simultaneous use of soft and harsh responses.
Harsh responses include caps on visitor numbers, complete bans, regulations on visitor movement and raising pricing or taxes.
Soft responses include changing the types of attractions on offer (to attract certain tourist segments), codes of conduct, educational campaigns and using social media to promote initiatives.
Both soft and harsh responses must be co-designed with the tourism industry and community.
Technology can also be used.
Majorca, in Spain, has implemented an AI-powered platform to help tourists plan trips. At the same time, it recommends alternative attractions when tourist attractions are crowded.
Travellers can also contribute: staying longer rather than taking short, high-impact trips, avoiding peak periods and looking beyond algorithm-driven “must-see” lists can reduce pressure.
The most responsible travel choices are rarely the most “Instagrammable”. And sometimes, the most sustainable decision is not where to go, but when, or whether to go at all.
In his La Ronde performance, Adam Malone’s burlesque-inspired feats include a “chaotic” hoop act in which he manipulates fast-spinning blunt objects with his hands.
Less stressful, he says, is pulling off his take on the traditional but rare ‘Washington Trapeze’, which involves balancing on his head.
“I go into a bit of a Zen space, and I balance, and my body kind of takes over for me,” Malone tells RNZ’s Nine to Noon.
The gloves are coming off for the next instalment of Dan Hooker’s “1 Minute Scraps”.youtube
Police are monitoring a bare-knuckle fighting event in Christchurch organised by MMA professional fighter Dan Hooker.
The seventh-ranked UFC lightweight contender announced another “1 Minute Scraps” event on social media recently, telling hopefuls the event “is gonna scrap the gloves, we’re going bare-knuckle”.
A $50,000 prize was on offer for the winner with each combatant getting $1000 and $5000 available for each knockout.
Hooker told The Rock FM‘s Morning Rumble he had chosen the city for Sunday’s event because “I believe Christchurch has the craziest people”.
“We had thousands of people try to enter this. This excites me as a fighter,” he said.
The seventh-ranked UFC lightweight contender announced another “1 Minute Scraps” event on social media recently.STEVEN MARKHAM
Backyard-style fights have previously attracted backlash from some people involved in combat sports with the Boxing Coaches Association labelling it “straight-out thuggery“.
Following the criticism, Hooker told online combat sport programme the Ariel Helwani Show that, “there’s a few lefties having a sulk”.
“Since when did putting gloves on in the backyard and having a punch up become illegal?” Since when is that a crime?” he said.
Detective Senior Sergeant Damon Wells said police were aware of the event.
“We have spoken with the organisers of the event, who have been cooperative, and confirmed they are running a lawful event which they have done previously,” he said.
“Police monitored previous events run by these organisers and had no issues. However, we will continue to monitor such events, and anyone found to be participating in unlawful or antisocial behaviour should expect to be held to account for their actions.
“If anyone witnesses any concerning or antisocial behaviour is urged to call 111 in an emergency, or 105 to report non-urgent information.”
Hooker had promised to run more events in the future and said his plans for the next one “gets even more wild”.
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If you’ve ever dealt with a sick household, the appeal of hand soap to kill germs is understandable and there are plenty of “antibacterial” and “antiseptic” products promising to do that.
Hand washing is one of the most important ways to prevent the transmission of pathogens between people, says Professor Paul Griffin, an infectious diseases physician and clinical microbiologist from Brisbane/Meanjin.
“Anyone who’s worked in health care, child care or had young kids knows how quickly germs spread amongst the household and in those environments,” he says.
Professor Paul Griffin says it is less about the product you use and more about the correct hand washing technique.
Supplied/ABC
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Finland has once again been named the happiest country in the world, a title it has now held a record nine times.
New Zealand often ranks in the top 10, but it has just dipped outside to 11th in the most recent World Happiness Report. It’s the third year in a row New Zealand has ranked outside the top 10.
The USGC Polar Star has operated in Antarctica for the past 55 days.RNZ/Mark Papalii
A United States Coast Guard icebreaker has sailed into Wellington harbour after working with New Zealand in Antarctica.
The USGC Polar Star, celebrating its 50th year of service, has operated in Antarctica for the past 55 days resupplying New Zealand’s Scott Base, among other duties.
Two New Zealand sailors joined the American crew to participate in this year’s Polar Star’s deployment, Operation Deep Freeze.
Polar Star cuts channels through thick ice, creating access for ships to reach Antarctic research stations and bases.
David Gehrenbeck, the US Charge d’Affaires, said the arrival of the ship highlights the relationship between the United States and New Zealand.
“Each time Polar Star arrives in Wellington, it’s a reminder of the strong partnership and shared commitment between the United States and New Zealand in Antarctica,” he said.
“Royal New Zealand Navy sea riders have become an integral part of these missions. Their expertise and upbeat approach are always appreciated by everyone on board.”
The USGC Polar Star in Wellington harbour.RNZ/Mark Papalii
Earlier this year marked the end of a multi-year effort between New Zealand and the United States, with the Polar Star delivering a new pier for scientific research at McMurdo Station.
Gehrenbeck said that the ship’s mission involves more than supporting scientific research.
“It’s about making sure people and supplies can move safely, so our hard-working teams are supported and research at the bottom of the world never stops.”
In January, the Polar Star crew performed a six-hour rescue operation for the cruise ship Scenic Eclipse II, which was trapped in ice near McMurdo Sound.
Over the past decade, the ship has regularly docked in New Zealand when sailing to and from Antarctica.
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Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Analysis by Keith Rankin, 17 March 2026.
Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Iran is a crucial country in Southwest Asia. Not only is it strategically placed with respect to maritime transport, it also has land borders with seven countries. Most of these countries have been in the world news in the last decade, generally in relation to some conflict or other.
Two of these are currently at war with each other: Afghanistan and Pakistan (refer ‘I heard a huge blast’: Afghan journalist describes Kabul rehab hospital strikes, Sky News, 16 March 2026). Two others were at war a few years ago: Armenia and Azerbaijan. And Iraq has been in five separate wars, one against Iran itself, and one against Iran’s near-neighbour Kuwait, two against the wider West, and one against ISIL. Türkiye, by contrast, has been a sea of relative stability, and is indeed the main recipient of Iranian refugees at present.
But what about Turkmenistan, a country which has a 1,000km border with Iran; and important demographic and cultural links with Iran? A country successfully hiding in plain sight.
Korea was dubbed the ‘Hermit Kingdom’ in the nineteenth century, and since the Korean War (ceasefire in 1953) North Korea is not uncommonly still called that. But, at least in our awareness, Turkmenistan makes North Korea seem rather gregarious in terms of its relations with the world. I understand that it’s harder to get a visa to visit Turkmenistan than to visit North Korea.
Google: “Ashgabat, the capital, was rebuilt [after a big earthquake in 1948] in Soviet style in the mid-20th century and is filled with grand monuments honouring former president Saparmurat Niyazov.” This architectural gigantism is reminiscent of North Korea. BBC, 17 Sep 2016: “Turkmenistan has unveiled a gleaming new international airport with a roof in the shape of a flying falcon. … Ashgabat [the capital, and close to the Iranian border] boasts several other unique structures, including a publishing house in shape of an open book [and] two giant golden statues of both Mr Berdymukhamedov and his late predecessor Saparmyrat Niyazov.”
Economy
Turkmenistan, on the southeastern side of the Caspian Sea, has an ancient history in terms of trade along the Silk Road; it was indeed a land of transit in the times of caravans and camels.
In 1881 it was annexed and fully incorporated into the Russian Empire. And, during Soviet Union times, it was a full republic of that Union. Since the Soviet split-up, Turkmenistan, in true Orwellian fashion, has largely denied that it was ever part of the Soviet Union. Its population, believed to be just over six million, is kept in perpetual ignorance of the wider world. There is a relatively large regional diaspora of Turkmen people.
That ignorance is mutual. The West knows as little about Turkmenistan as Turkmen subjects know about The West. Interestingly, I looked up the CIA Factbook – a widely favoured reference resource for political geography – to verify my own knowledge. And I found this; the Factbook was closed last month (though see the wayback machine). Not widely reported, but note this on CNN: CIA terminates its World Factbook, overthrowing reference regime, 6 Feb 2026.
Turkmenistan is not a poor country. It has substantial oil reserves, and has huge barely tapped natural gas reserves, comparable to those of Qatar. Despite contrived inequality between rulers and subjects, its people are not as poor as North Korea’s. Its long-distance trade nowadays passes mostly either to The West via the Caspian Sea, then Azerbaijan and Georgia; or to China via just one other country, Kazakhstan. There will also be regional trade with its four land neighbours: Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.
Strategic Matters
For reasons fully beyond its control, Turkmenistan finds its most natural neighbour and most natural ally, Iran, in fullscale war with both regional and global hegemons. I suspect that there are very few Iranian citizens seeking refuge in Turkmenistan, even though many living near Turkmenistan – including in bombed nearby cities such as Mashhad (refer Iran’s Mashhad Airport Targeted Amid Ongoing Israeli Strikes, The Caspian Post, 1 March 2016) – are now living in considerable danger.
Wars typically spill over, in one form or another, into neighbouring countries. Further, Turkmenistan might now become coveted for its geopolitically strategic location and resources. War might come in more than a local spill.
Airspace
Once upon a long time ago, the most strategic spaces in the world were land-spaces, especially central Asian steppes such as those of Turkmenistan. The last incursions from the East into Europe came from these lands: those invasions by Genghis Khan in the twelfth century, and Tamerlane in the fourteenth.
The last incursion from the East into Western Europe was that of Attila the Hun in the fifth century. Since those invasions – and since earlier western conquests, eg those of Alexander the Great – there have been many Western megalomaniacs invading Asia. The main opportunity for the West arose from the strategic development of seaspace trumping landspace.
Nowadays, airspace to a considerable extent trumps both landspace and seaspace. There are two components of this. The first is the military exploitation of airspace, a form of warfare favoured by most modern tyrants. The second is the civilian – and peaceful economic – use of airspace for long-distance transit and trade.
My guess is that, at least up until now, long-haul flights will have avoided overflying Turkmenistan. (Avoidance of countries’ airspace is not uncommon: in 2008 I flew Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to Seoul return, and the flights avoided Chinese airspace. And I flew from Shenyang in China to Seoul by Korean Airlines, a flight that took a wide circle route to avoid North Korea.)
As it is now, if civil flights want to avoid both Turkmenistan and all countries currently at war, a flight from Singapore to London (say) would have to fly over Nepal, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and then over the Black Sea. That’s a very narrow corridor for two-directional long-haul flying. Turkmenistan airspace would ease this constraint somewhat. But how safe can we expect any of Iran’s neighbours to be in the future? Certainly, with airspace now being the geopolitically dominant space today, Turkmenistan comes at a premium; potentially a new aerial Silk Road.
Safe national airspaces are important, not only to avoid being shot-down as Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was in 2014, but also as potential emergency landing sites. How will long-distance civilian air travel function during a twenty-first century world war?
Conclusion
Most of us have some geographical blindspots and many historical blindspots. Some places and historical events are blind to most of us. If democracy is to survive in any form, we need populations – not just ‘experts’ – with more knowledge of the world. And, if not unbiased knowledge (very difficult to achieve), then at least knowledge with relatively balanced biases.
Turkmenistan is a strategically placed nation towards which most better-informed people have almost no knowledge. For us in the West, that lack of geographical knowledge is ignorance by choice, or by having priorities determined by our not knowing what we don’t know, even when those places are in plain sight. For the Turkmen subject people, their ignorance is different; it’s by design.
*******
Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Police are investigating following a serious assault on Thursday night in Amberley, in the Hurunui District in North Canterbury.
Detective Senior Sergeant Karen Simmons said officers responded around 10.25pm after being told a person had been seriously assaulted at a rural property on Racecourse Road.
The victim was taken to hospital with critical injuries and was due to undergo surgery on Friday, she said.
Police are speaking with a person in relation to the incident and are not seeking anyone else at this time.
A scene examination is underway at the address, and enquiries into the circumstances of the incident are continuing.
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Mark ‘the mahi man’ pictured here with Warriors skipper James Fisher-Harris, will lead the Warriors onto the field this weekend to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day.instagram
He’s the unofficial Warriors hype man, and a worthy challenger to the Mad Butcher’s title of the club’s biggest fan.
Introducing Mark ‘the Mahi Man’ Dekker.
From filling water bottles, to leading the team victory song, there is no job Dekker won’t do for the club.
But this weekend’s role stands out.
Dekker will lead out the Warriors team onto the field for their round three NRL clash against the Newcastle Knights on Saturday evening to mark World Down Syndrome Day.
It is not the the first time he has been asked to do the honour, but after a slight hitch in 2024, Dekker is ready to deliver in Newcastle.
“He jumped the gun and ran out a bit too fast ahead of the boys. Hopefully this year he’ll take his time,” said friend Leityn Swann.
Dekker was introduced to the Warriors after Swann emailed and asked if he could attend a training.
Although it was supposed to end after a few trainings, the cub quickly fell in love with the Mahi Man.
Dekker is always on hand to offer high-fives to players before and after training, as well as cater to needs from hydration, to a chat on the mats during stretching sessions.
Halfback Tannah Boyd said Dekker is the “energiser” of the club.
“He’s amazing, he waits for us when we come out every day to train, he gets us fired up, he has a big role this weekend and he’s pumped for it.”
Former Warriors star Shaun Johnson greets Mark Dekker ahead of the Warriors first game back at Mount Smart in June 2022.Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz
Swann said Dekker’s duties are wide ranging.
“He’s filling the waters and ice in the morning, setting up the field, getting all the equipment in the field ready for the coaches to come and lay the safety fields. And then I think he’s head of morale boosting.”
Swann said the Mahi Man had a special connection with players.
“Some of them are very patient and sit down and listen, they’ve got banter, I wish people could see what I get to see every day, the love and time he gets from them. He gets a sense of fulfilment with what he does.”
Dekker said it’s a special moment to be in the spotlight.
“I love my club.”
He said he is already preparing for the party when the Warriors win the 2026 grand final.
“Up the Wahs, baby!”
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The council publishes multiple different flood maps, which provide broad information about flood risks across the city.Auckland Council
An Auckland homeowner disputes her property is flood-prone, despite it being designated as such on Auckland Council’s online maps.
The council publishes multiple different flood maps, which provide broad information about flood risks across the city.
Stephanie Burgess said the council’s flood modelling used a “broad brush model”, but it had a real impact on value of her Glendowie property and other properties in those areas.
Auckland Council’s flood mapping was based off aerial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) from 2016, which did not accurately reflect the real risk on her land, she said.
“There’s never been any flooding at my property. It requires a pipe to block and a 100-year flood to both happen together.”
The flood-prone marking from the Auckland council maps she had seen was not yet on her Land Information Memorandum (LIM) report, but she was concerned it would be, she added.
Auckland Council’s natural hazard map designates half of Stephanie Burgess’s Glendowie property as flood-prone.Auckland Council
Looking to sell her house, she was worried by the impact this flood-prone designation would have.
“I’m fearful that our property will be devalued because a lot of buyers will not be interested, because they see this notation.”
She was also concerned that people did not understand the difference between a flood-prone area and a flood plane, and the different risk levels between them.
Working in real estate, she said some people would not even enter the open home if there was flood notation on the LIM.
She was calling for the council to factor in site-specific information to more accurately represent the flood risk at properties in designated flood-prone areas.
“I’d like a letter that I can give to buyers that explains the real risk.”
‘Literally within centimetres’
Auckland Council head of planning networks Nick Vigar said the councils across the country were working to provide better information about flood risks, but contested the claim that LiDAR was not an accurate measurement.
“Modern LiDAR is getting within centimetres on your property. Yes, it makes some assumptions where there’s trees and where there’s buildings, but it’s literally within centimetres.”
It was, to an extent, “broad brush”, he conceded, but it was the best information the council had.
“If you want to go and develop your house you should absolutely get someone to come in and survey it accurately,” he said.
The council assessment was only based on the land, so flood mitigation work would generally not be acknowledged in its data, Vigar said.
“If there’s some mitigation in which the landform is changed then, next time we run the LiDAR, that will get brought into the model. But I think the important thing here is: its triggering an assessment of the house on the property.”
The flood-prone designation would need to appear on the LIM report, he said.
“If you get a LIM on that property then you have to understand if there’s one of these triggers across you property … because you need to understand that if you’re developing, the presence of one of those will trigger a flood risk assessment.”
He acknowledged that using decade-old LiDAR was not necessarily fair, but said new data had been gathered in 2024 and would soon be available.
That data was already being applied to landowners who had contested their designation, he said.
“Where we have more accurate information in the new LiDAR, we have inserted it for customers already.”
But getting a property survey would not remove the flood-prone overlay from Burgess’s property, Vigar said.
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Team Brazil was crowned champion at the Robot Rampage World Cup.Robot Rampage
Fought inside a bulletproof cage, a battle between combat robots is not for the faint-hearted.
It’s the grand final of Robot Rampage World Cup, a four day competition between teams from New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, and the United States.
Sparks are a common sight during the battle between the bots.Robot Rampage
Unfolding on a quiet Sunday evening at Auckland’s shopping suburb Onehunga, the venue is packed with enthusiasts.
Ten-year-old Elon Jacobs secured a front row seat to catch the sparks, the clashes, and sometimes even a small fire.
Ten year old Elon Jacobs brought a robot he is building to the battle.Ke-Xin Li/RNZ
“It’s really loud and there’s a lot of robots fighting today. So far there’s been a lot of action and it’s been very fun.”
He had been sketching robots since he was four years old, and thinks robotics will definitely be a big part of his future.
On Sunday, the battle was between Brazil and USA.
Thirteen-year-old Josephine Estevez gave her predictions.
“Brazil looks like it’s winning. I do enjoy watching different robots. I really like Touro. That was a great design. Displaying blade and it being a mostly defense robot, it’s very locked in on all sides and very sturdy looking.”
Josephine Estevez and Kira Matevie are enjoying the battle between the robots.Ke-Xin Li/RNZ
Her mom, Kira Matevie, the bigger robotic fan among the two, has her eyes laid on other robots.
“For tonight, I’ll have to say my favorite is Jump Rope because he’s a showboat, I like that. But my favorite robot to date is Black Rose. It reminds me of a vacuum cleaner.”
The matches are livestreamed for free, but that didn’t stop Ashley and Bryan Pierre booking a trip from USA to watch in person.
“It’s a neat format that they have here. You have five robots and basically until all your robots are out, you keep going. So, they kind of need a little bit of strategy to play. Do they want to fix a robot after the match if they win? They only got eight minutes to fix it. Not a lot of time if they got a lot of damage.”
Robot Rampage
After Bryan introduced Ashley to battlebots, robots quickly infiltrated every part of the couple’s life.
“Our wedding rings are made of a battle bot. We’re from Wisconsin and Team Wyachi is from Wisconsin. One of their main bot, Son of Wyachi, they sent us a signed part of Son of Wyachi.”
Ashley and Bryan Pierre’s wedding rings are made of a part of one of their favorite combat robots.Ke-Xin Li/RNZ
Ashley said turning the signed part into rings is another miracle.
“We randomly met someone who could work titanium and they were able to save the signature and make 4 rings out of it.”
Back inside the cage, the decisive moment arrives.
As Brazil’s Touro Feather defeated USA’s last standing bot, they were declared champions!
The decisive moment when Team Brazil defeated Team USA.Ke-Xin Li/RNZ
Team Captain Matheus Freitas said the victory means a lot.
“It’s such an amazing fight. We are from 4 different teams from Brazil, we designed two new robots that we put to test here. It did such a great job, and we are very excited for the results. It’s our first time here on New Zealand. I hope that we come on more times in the future.”
His family had been up early to watch him fight.
“When the live stream started, it’s 3am in Brazil and they [stayed up] just to watch and send good energies to us.”
The team brings together members from Brazil’s top robot combat teams, and Freitas said their strategy paid off.
In between fights, the Brazil team works on fixing their robots.Ke-Xin Li/RNZ
“We won the first fight with Dark Khaos and then we unfortunately got some damage and then we swapped that, very strategically, and then we brought Jublieu. Jublieu did such a good damage on Synthesis 30, and then we put Touro, Touro did the rest of the job.”
The competition format means teams have very little time to fix their robots.Robot Rampage
Getting to New Zealand was a battle in itself.
Together, the Brazilians travelled with more than 180 kilograms of gear.
Team member João Marcos Cavalheiro recounted his journey.
“From Brazil to Miami, Miami to Atlanta, Atlanta to Austin, then we drove to Dallas, and Dallas to Houston, and Houston to New Zealand, six flights.”
Meanwhile, runnerup Team USA is looking on the bright side.
Team USA is fully made up of members without engineering backgrounds.Ke-Xin Li/RNZ
Captain Sam Hanson is proud the team is made up entirely of members with no engineering background, and encourages anyone to give robot building a go.
“One of them is a student. One is a nurse. I managed a farmer’s market. I’ve been building fighting robots since the early 2000s. All the information is on the internet. You don’t have to be an engineer. You just have to want to do it.”
Hosting the event was Robot Rampage, a venue founded by friends Jack Barker and Nick Mabey.
Jack Barker and Nick Mabey are founders of Robot Rampage. Outside of hosting events, the space also runs robot building and fighting experiences.Ke-Xin Li/RNZ
Barker said the venue has 90 seats, but there were more people standing.
“I’m really stoked with the turnout. We’ve had six shows and every single seat has been sold out.”
He said there is a special appeal to the format.
“Normally it’s a 1v1 fight, but this is a 5v5 fight format. It’s more exciting because instead of supporting one robot for one fight, you get to support your country between five to nine matches.”
Barker said it took them two years to build the venue with a bulletproof cage, and now they intend to fully utilise it.
Their next event – Kings Crown – is scheduled for May at Robot Rampage in Onehunga.
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Iran targeted energy facilities across the Middle East on March 18, including the world’s largest liquefied natural gas hub in Qatar, in retaliation for Israeli strikes on an Iranian gas field hours earlier.
Iran has gone on to attack other energy facilities across the Gulf. This has included hitting a Saudi refinery on the Red Sea and setting two Kuwaiti oil refineries ablaze in an intensification of its campaign against energy infrastructure in the region.
As an expert on military strategy, I see the Iranian attacks on Gulf energy facilities as part of a broader strategic agenda the regime in Tehran has employed to try and ensure its survival.
Iran’s attacks on energy infrastructure since the start of the conflict have been accompanied with wider missile and drone strikes against US military bases and infrastructure in the region. Through these attacks, which have killed seven American service personnel so far, the regime has looked to demonstrate its capacity and capability not only to international audiences but also the Iranian population.
This includes, perhaps most importantly, those responsible for maintaining Iran’s internal security. If those tasked with this responsibility began to doubt the regime’s capacity to respond to attack, they might become less inclined to suppress rebellions and uprisings.
The ability to exercise force has long been central to maintaining the regime’s domestic political position in Iran. This has been demonstrated by the brutal repression of various protest movements over the past decade or so.
In its attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure, Iran has two main goals. The first is to hit the Gulf states economically in the hope that this will reduce their willingness to provide support to the US.
Gulf countries are heavily reliant on the export of energy for revenue. In Qatar, for example, earnings from the hydrocarbon sector accounted for 83% of total government revenues in 2023. These revenues help Gulf states maintain the low tax regime that is enjoyed by their populations.
If these revenues reduce substantially because energy cannot be processed, some of these nations may begin to question their alliances with the US. Such a scenario would reduce the ability of the US to conduct military operations in the Middle East and project its power and influence on the region.
The war is already having a significant impact on these countries. Goldman Sachs has estimated that Qatar and Kuwait could see their GDP drop by 14% if the war lasts until the end of April. Likewise, Capital Economics has suggested that GDP in the region could fall by between 10% to 15% if the conflict causes lasting damage to energy infrastructure.
Rifts do not yet appear to be emerging between the US and its Middle Eastern allies. But Tehran will be calculating that prolonged attacks – alongside continued disruption to the vital strait of Hormuz shipping lane – will add strain to relations.
Raising energy prices
Iran’s second, and wider, goal is to raise global energy prices. The Middle East is a key energy supplier globally, so disruption to supplies in this region can have an almost immediate impact on prices.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil pricing, has increased from around US$68 (£51) on February 27 to nearly US$100. This has so far largely been the result of disruption to the strait of Hormuz, which has prevented the Gulf states from supplying their energy to global markets.
But Tehran’s calculation appears to be that further efforts to reduce Gulf energy supplies will force nations worldwide, who are having to implement costly policies to reduce the impact of increased energy prices on their populations, to question the actions of the US in Iran.
In the Philippines, which is highly dependent on the Gulf oil, the government has told its agencies to cut electricity and fuel use by between 10% and 20%. Vietnam has introduced work-from-home policies for many public sector workers. And the UK government has announced a £53 million support package for people who rely on oil for central heating.
Iran’s final strategic consideration is that attacking energy facilities may help erode domestic support for Trump in the US. This could force a change in political direction. The price of petrol has already increased to an average of US$3.60 per gallon in the US – a level not seen since the opening days of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
This price increase will be passed on to consumers, creating a headache for Trump ahead of midterm elections in November. Trump’s platform of reducing the inflation seen under the Biden administration was a key part of the election campaign that successfully returned him to the White House.
Iran’s attacks on energy infrastructure are likely to continue. This is because they enable the regime in Tehran to increase the costs of the war even to those who are not directly involved, ramping up global pressure on the US to draw the conflict to a close.
The increasingly urban lifestyles of seagulls in the UK and around Europe has made them experts at grabbing food from unsuspecting outdoor diners. Herring gulls in particular are gaining a reputation for food theft in seaside towns like Falmouth in Cornwall, where I live.
On a day out at the beach last summer, I watched as one rummaged through an unattended bag and hopped off with a packet of crisps. Sadly, the gull didn’t hang around long enough for me to see whether it successfully opened the packaging.
Watching this kind of behaviour led me and my colleague Neeltje Boogert to explore new ways of deterring these resourceful birds. Our new research shows that displaying a pair of eyes on food packaging can be enough to stop some gulls from pinching your food.
This builds on our previous work which showed herring gulls approach food more slowly when someone is looking at them directly, compared with if they are looking away.
Many animals – both wild and domesticated – are very aware of eyes, which can indicate the presence of a predator or be used to communicate intent. Direct eye contact often conveys aggression, while looking away indicates a lack of threat.
Animals generally respond defensively when they see eyes staring at them. This is probably an instinctive tendency, since avoiding being eaten by a predator can be a split-second response.
Some animals may have evolved markings to exploit this behaviour. So-called eyespots are found on many insects, amphibians and fish, and they come in a variety of colour, size and pattern combinations.
Exactly how eyespots might deter predators has been hotly debated by scientists for over a century. They may increase predator wariness by being mistaken for predator eyes, or divert attacks to less important parts of the body.
Given that evolution suggests eyes are a good way of increasing animal wariness, the idea of mimicking nature by using fake eyes to deter other animals has been tried in a variety of settings.
Eyes were painted on the rears of cows in Botswana to put off predators.Communications Biology
In Botswana, livestock are at risk of being eaten by ambush predators such as lions and leopards, which causes conflict with farmers. To test whether eyespots could reduce the risk of predation, experimenters painted pairs of eyes or crosses on the rumps of cattle, or left them unmarked. This was repeated across multiple cattle herds, and any attacks on cattle were recorded.
During the study, 19 cattle were killed by lions or leopards – but none of the cattle with eyespots on their rumps were among them. They were also attacked less than either cattle with crosses or unmarked cattle, suggesting that eyespots can be an effective deterrent for a wide range of animals.
Put off by the eyes
For our study of herring gulls, we tested this idea in coastal towns in Cornwall where gulls are known to take food from people eating outside. We stuck pairs of eyes onto food takeaway boxes and presented individual gulls with a choice of two boxes placed two metres apart on the ground: one box with eyes and one plain box.
Gulls appeared to be put off by the eyes, as they were slower to approach and less likely to peck at these boxes, compared with the ones without eyes.
We also wanted to know whether gulls would, over time, figure out that the eyes on boxes were not really threatening. To test this, we presented 30 gulls with one takeaway box either with or without eyes, but did this three times for each gull over a short amount of time.
Around half the birds never pecked at the box with eyes, whereas the other half quickly approached and pecked. This suggests there could be a sustained effect from the fake eyes for some gulls that do not realise they are being tricked.
We now want to test this in a more realistic setting, by teaming up with food vendors and asking them to use takeaway boxes with eyes on. While this might only ever deter half of gulls from stealing food, perhaps when paired with other deterrents – including shouting – it can have an impact on the amount of food theft.
Eye-like markings have already been used to exclude birds from certain areas, including keeping starlings away from crops, seabirds from fishing nets and raptors from airports.
Video: SciShow Psych.
Humans respond to eyes too
It’s interesting to note that people, like gulls and many other animals, also pay attention to eyes. Images of human eyes have been found to reduce bicycle theft, reinforce honesty, and even increase charitable donations – all by creating the impression of being watched. This is probably because we are a social species, and tend to act more honestly if we feel we might be judged by an onlooker.
But as with herring gulls, the effect on human behaviour is inconsistent. Images of eyes can nudge behaviour in certain situations, but they don’t work on everyone.
Whether protecting chips, bicycles or cattle, the next step is to understand why some animals (and people) do not find eyes aversive. But already, the evidence is clear that fake eyes can offer a cheap, simple way to mitigate conflict with humans and other animals.
There has also been talk of other extraordinary interventions, available under the 45-year-old Petroleum Demand Restraint Act. Again, these are measures the government says would only be necessary if fuel supply were seriously disrupted.
Unsurprisingly, this has all focused attention on the vulnerability of New Zealand’s fuel security. In particular, there has been renewed political debate over whether the 2022 closure of Marsden Point refinery made the country less resilient.
Experts say the difference would be marginal. But for those who lived through New Zealand’s past oil shocks, the events unfolding now will come with a strong sense of déjà vu.
And with talk of reviving interventionist measures from decades ago, the question is whether the country has learned enough to respond differently this time?
Lessons from the Muldoon era
New Zealand’s response to the soaring oil prices of the 1970s, similarly driven by turmoil in the Middle East, came at a time of extensive government control of the economy and energy sector under the National government of Robert Muldoon.
The discovery of Taranaki’s Māui gas field in 1969 appeared to offer New Zealand a trump card for energy supply. But it was tied to a long-term “take-or-pay” contract, meaning taxpayers ultimately carried the cost whether the gas was used or not.
This was the beginning of the “Think Big” strategy. Large-scale projects, including gas-to-gasoline and CNG/LPG conversion, were promoted as pathways to energy security, with little room for dissent.
At the same time, the Petroleum Demand Restraint Act was used to impose restricted petrol sales and carless days, along with reduced speed limits.
Much of this intervention proved costly and ineffective. When global oil prices fell sharply in the mid-1980s, New Zealand was left with debt-funded infrastructure that no longer made economic sense.
From 1984, the economy shifted away from heavy government intervention towards a more market-based model. Nearly four decades later, there are some valuable lessons to be drawn from those interventionist responses to past oil shocks.
One is the appreciation that markets are complex systems, with many players. Interdependence exists across economies. Actions by one sovereign country, such as an oil embargo, inevitably affect others. Complexity plays out over time.
The current government’s response to the energy crisis needs to recognise that any heavy-handed decisions made now may influence the system for decades, often in ways that are difficult to predict.
Another lesson is that New Zealand is actually well positioned to let markets do what they do best: price scarcity.
When prices rise, people adjust their behaviour in response. Farmers faced with higher diesel and fertiliser costs, for example, do what they are renowned for: adapting and modifying.
With higher prices at the pump, many motorists may also prove able to adjust by using public transport, working from home or switching to electric vehicles.
Of course, the impact will be uneven and regressive. But the government directly intervening in the market with hardline measures similar to the Muldoon era should not be the answer.
A new fix, or old risks?
Lessons about the state meddling in energy markets should also apply to the government’s recently announced plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal.
The facility, likely to be based in Taranaki, is purposed to provide a back-up fuel source for electricity generation during periods of low hydro storage or weak wind. While that appears logical, the plan nonetheless warrants careful consideration.
Māui gas was a sovereign asset. By contrast, the government’s proposal would rely on imported LNG, tying New Zealand to overseas suppliers and long-term contracts that may prove inflexible and costly.
A gas backup could also reduce incentives to invest in alternative energy sources or manage demand, while raising questions about how gas would be integrated into the electricity system and who would ultimately control its use.
While efforts to improve the reliability of electricity are welcome, past experience should make us wary of direct government involvement in commercial enterprise.
The current crisis should be treated as a strategic policy opportunity as the government reconsiders New Zealand’s energy settings to build a more resilient and sustainable system.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said as of Sunday, New Zealand has 41.3 days worth of petrol 47 days of diesel and 49 days of Jet Fuel but they are preparing for the ‘worst case scenario’ from a prolonged conflict.
On Friday morning, some Pak ‘n’ Save and New World petrol stores had closed their stations because they were empty and awaiting delivery.
New World Levin had been waiting for more than two days. Consequently, the Gull station across the road was very busy.
Pioneer New World in Palmerston North and Pak’ N’ Save Hawera were also without supplies on Friday morning.
A Foodstuff’s spokesperson said fuel was available across New World and PAK’n SAVE sites, and there was plenty of supply.
On Friday morning, some Pak ‘n’ Save and New World petrol stores had closed their stations because they were empty and awaiting delivery.Jimmy Ellingham / RNZ
“The increased demand has meant some sites have temporarily run out ahead of scheduled deliveries.”
Foodstuff’s said there were no changes to it’s fuel discount program at this time.
“We continue to closely monitor demand and work proactively with our suppliers to maintain continuity at all sites. “
Pak ‘N’ Save Kapiti said it had been without stock but was refilled overnight.
“We’re still operating on a day-to-day basis as demand remains high and our supplier is finding it challenging to keep up.”
Overnight, petrol price app Gaspy updated to allow it to remove stores/stations from the site when they have run out of fuel.
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Genesis Energy says its $300 million rights issue has been strongly supported, raising $242.7 million from eligible shareholders – including the Crown, which will maintain its 51 percent stake.
The offer opened on 23 February, giving investors one new share for every 7.9 held, and about 81 percent of eligible shareholders took up the offer.
Genesis said shareholders who exercised all their rights also applied for an extra $48.1 million in additional shares, which will be considered in Friday’s shortfall bookbuild by its underwriter, local investment bank Jarden.
Chief executive Malcolm Johns said the company was delighted with the response from its shareholders, including the Crown.
“The success of the equity raise is a strong endorsement of the Gen35 strategy from shareholders,” he said.
To complete the shortfall bookbuild, Genesis has asked the NZX and ASX to halt trading in its ordinary shares and subordinated bonds from the start of trading on Friday.
The halt will be lifted once the bookbuild results are announced, or when markets open on 24 March, whichever comes first.
The company said the halt was needed to ensure the bookbuild could be conducted fairly, without some investors having information before others.
Shareholders who did not take up their rights – along with those ineligible to participate – may receive a pro‑rata payment if the bookbuild price ends up higher than the rights‑issue price of $2.05, although this is not guaranteed.
Settlement of the new shares is expected on 24 March for ASX investors and 25 March for NZX holders, with trading beginning on 25 March.
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Police are investigating after a woman was found with serious injuries in Christchurch on Thursday night.
Detective Sergeant Ben Rolton, Christchurch Metro CIB said officers were called to Worcester Street, between Latimer Square and Barbadoes Street, around 10pm.
There were reports that a person had been stabbed.
The woman was taken to Christchurch Hospital by ambulance where she underwent surgery.
A scene guard was put in place overnight, and a scene examination is taking place today.
Police are making enquiries into the circumstances of the incident and working to identify who is responsible, Detective Sergeant Rolton said.
St John Ambulance told RNZ two people were taken to hospital.
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It’s the third year in a row New Zealand has ranked outside the top 10 in the World Happiness Report.123rf.com
Finland has once again been named the happiest country in the world, a title it has now held a record nine times.
New Zealand often ranks in the top 10, but it has just dipped outside to 11th in the most recent World Happiness Report. It’s the third year in a row New Zealand has ranked outside the top 10.
It’s mostly Nordic countries ahead of New Zealand, but Israel is in 8th. Our friends across the ditch, Australia, were ranked 15th.
Finnish philosopher Frank Martela, the go-to expert on Nordic happiness, told First Up that Finnish people were relatively sceptical of the results.
“I guess the Finnish people think of themselves as this slightly introverted, even melancholic, bunch of people. So, being the happiest people in the world doesn’t really fit into Finnish self-image,” he said.
Martela said rather than Finnish people being happier, there are fewer extremely unhappy people in Finland, which drives up the average.
“When you say that Finland is the happiest country, it’s one way of putting it, [but] another way of putting it would be saying Finland is the country where there are the least amount of people who are actively unhappy about their lives – that would be, in a way, a more accurate description.”
In other words, if New Zealand wants to boost its ranking, Kiwis should complain less.
“That’s the Finnish way of doing this – not complaining too much, just minding one’s own business and being happy about it,” Martela said.
To determine the ranking, the Gallup World Poll asks respondents in 147 countries to evaluate their lives using the image of a ladder, with the best possible life as a 10 and the worst possible as a 0. Each respondent provides a numerical response on this scale, referred to as the Cantril Ladder.
Researchers look at six factors, including GDP per capita, life expectancy, generosity and perceptions of freedom and corruption to help account for variations among countries. The rankings are based on a three-year average, which smoothes out spikes and dips occasioned by big events such as war or financial downturns.
The Finns reported an average score of 7.764 to evaluate their life satisfaction.
Martela said universal healthcare, low corruption, high-quality free education, unemployment benefits and good maternity leave are some of the factors behind the score.
Finland’s deep commitment to cooperation helps explain its staying power at the top of the ranking, John F. Helliwell, professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia and a founding editor of the World Happiness Report, said in an interview.
“Successful societies cooperate in the face of adversity,” he said. “The Finns know this. And once you have the sense that you are in this together, there’s no end to what you can do.”
New Zealand has ranked 11th in the World Happiness Report.123rf.com
Youth crisis
The report’s writers have begun to pay attention to what they consider a crisis in youth happiness, first mentioned in the 2024 ranking.
In the latest edition, the survey found life evaluations among respondents under age 25 in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have dropped by almost one full point on the scale of 0 to 10 over the last decade, a dramatic slide especially since the average satisfaction for young people in the rest of the world has increased, according to Gallup World Poll data.
A key factor in the sharp drop in youth happiness, researchers said, is the number of hours young people spend consuming social media or gaming. And while experts say it’s important to limit time spent with the Internet overall, some ways of spending time online are healthier than others, including communicating with loved ones, and learning new skills.
A certain amount of Internet and social media consumption wasn’t necessarily negative, he said, saying, “There seems to be a sweet spot.”
“You don’t want to be unconnected but you don’t want to be too connected,” he said. “With the Internet, too much is a bad thing.”
Reserve Bank to increase media events after cash rate decisions
Will have online news conference after cash rate reviews, starting 8 April
Previously cash rate reviews only had written statement
Governor Anna Breman to speak about Middle East impact on economy next week
Reserve Bank governor Anna Breman has moved to deliver on her pledge to improve the central bank’s communication and transparency.
She is due to speak to business leaders next week on the RBNZ’s February monetary statement and the country’s payments system, but will now directly comment on the conflict in the Middle East.
“Due to the wider economic impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, this speech will now focus on the potential impacts of this evolving situation on the New Zealand economy,” the RBNZ said in a statement.
The speech will be released ahead of delivery and Breman will do a news conference and briefing for economists.
In the past, the RBNZ has entered a monetary “cone of silence” in the run-up to a meeting and decision about the official cash rate (OCR).
The next decision is due on 8 April and would normally only be a short statement and a summary of the meeting of the monetary policy committee.
But the April decision will be followed by an online news conference, which will now become standard practice.
In the past the RBNZ has only given media conferences after a quarterly monetary policy statement, along with full economic forecasts and interest rate track.
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Christchurch Men’s Prison.Luke McPake / The Wireless
An investigation is underway into the death of an inmate at Christchurch Men’s Prison.
Corrections says staff and paramedics tried to revive the man, who died in the health unit early on Thursday morning.
Other inmates and staff are being provided support.
Corrections says all deaths in prison are subject to an internal incident review, an investigation by the independent Corrections Inspectorate and are also referred to the coroner.
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Some Sounds Air flights had been cancelled due to fog.RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
MetService says low cloud disrupting flights in the capital is already starting to lift.
Wellington airport said 12 flights had been cancelled and a further 10 delayed on Friday morning.
An airport spokesperson said the weather was expected to improve.
“We advise passengers to check directly with their airlines for details on their flights.”
MetService meteorologist Michael Pawley said the fog hanging about was already beginning to shift.
“We’re not expecting it to stick around for much longer.”
The airport’s online departure board showed some Sounds Air and Air New Zealand flights had either been cancelled or delayed indefinitely since 6.45am on Friday.
Sounds Air owner Andrew Crawford said planes can’t land in the fog, so they’d be waiting for it to clear.
The fog hasn’t affected Jetstar flights. Air New Zealand has been approached for comment.
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Queenstown’s mayor says pumping treated wastewater into the “pristine” Kawarau River is the council’s only realistic option.
Queenstown Lakes District councillors agreed on Thursday to lodge a 35-year resource consent application for discharge from the Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant, while staff keep looking for alternative solutions to the region’s wastewater woes.
It comes after emergency discharges from the treatment plant to the Shotover River.
The mayor John Glover told Morning Report it was a difficult decision that would see treated wastewater pumped into the Kawarau rather than the Shotover River.
“I don’t think anybody recognises that what we’re moving forward with is what we want to do. I mean, it’s the case of there are no – at the moment – no realistic other options.”
Under the $77.5 million plan – recommended by staff and supported by most councillors – advanced filters would be installed at the treatment plant, and a 1.4km pipeline built to carry the treated wastewater to a rock outfall structure on the Kawarau River.
The decided-upon plan was strongly opposed by Ngāi Tahu, with iwi representatives stating the direct discharge of human waste to nature water was “abhorrent”.
Glover said council staff were also directed to investigate land-based solutions as most people understood – particularly Wellingtonians after the catastrophic failure at Moa Point – that discharging to waterways carried risk.
“So in the long-term, if we’re able to discharge to land, that’s obviously going to be the preferred solution. It certainly aligns with the preferred option for mana whenua.
“In a district where land is very expensive … it’s a challenge. But I think we owe it to future generations to do more and look at other options.”
He conceded that such a solution wouldn’t happen time soon.
In response to criticism that the council had failed over successive years to address wastewater issues, Glover said the current situation was the culmination of investment decisions, management of plants, and unknown technology.
“What has happened has happened. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that around New Zealand and elsewhere in the world, the primary route to deal with our discharge, with our treated wastewater is to pump it into the sea or pump it into a river.”
He said the environmental impacts would be assessed through the consent process.
“Because of the pristine environment of the river that the council are looking to discharge into there will be a consenting process, those environmental impacts will be tested.”
He said the Local Government Act means the impact on local mana whenua would also be taken into account.
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One Nation’s unprecedented surge in the polls raises important questions about whether a party built on grievance can present coherent policies to voters.
So what does One Nation stand for? How would the party change the country, if given the chance?
Strong views, light on detail
Since launching in 1997, One Nation has been a party driven by grievance, defined more by what it opposes than by a comprehensive vision for the nation.
The party has typically relied on its supporters prioritising the party’s values and principles over a developed policy platform. The party believes its key strength is that Australians know where Pauline Hanson stands on the issues that matter to them, such as immigration.
In contrast to what One Nation sees as out-of-touch political elites and unelected “woke” bureaucrats, the party prides itself on a “common sense” approach to policymaking that recognises the needs of “ordinary Australians”.
However, if the party continues to ride high in the polls, it will face mounting pressure from voters, journalists and competing parties to do something it has long avoided – produce detailed policies to address Australia’s complex challenges.
New National Party leader Matt Canavan – whose party faces its greatest threat from One Nation – has accused Hanson of leading a party without substance:
Pauline [Hanson] has been in politics for more than double the time I’ve been, and I struggle to point to a single dam, single road, single hospital, that Pauline has delivered in Australia.
As we move closer to the next federal election, these lines of attack are likely to intensify.
Immigration
When assessing One Nation’s policy positions, immigration is the logical starting point. It is the party’s foundational issue, and frames its responses to many of the major challenges facing Australia, from cost of living pressures and housing affordability, to national security and social cohesion.
Like most far-right parties, One Nation argues most of Australia’s problems can be explained by excessive immigration.
One Nation’s current immigration policy calls for capping visas at 130,000 per year, a reduction of more than 570,000 people from current levels, which it argues would “ease pressure on housing, wages, and infrastructure”. (This is despite experts highlighting serious flaws in the policy).
In addition to cutting net migration, the party has proposed an eight-year waiting period for citizenship and welfare, deporting 75,000 “illegal migrants”, withdrawing from the United Nations Refugee Convention, and “refusing entry to migrants from nations known to foster extremist ideologies that are incompatible with Australian values and way of life”.
Economic policy is arguably where One Nation is weakest. The party has faced accusations of flip-flops and about-faces on economic policy issues in the past. Even Hanson concedes the party needs to strengthen its economic pitch.
One Nation’s solution to Australia’s housing affordability and rental crises is to reduce housing demand by cutting immigration. At the same time, it wants to increase supply by banning foreign investment. The party has also proposed allowing Australians to use their superannuation to purchase a home.
Last year, Hanson announced the party planned to slash $90 billion in government spending. One Nation plans to do this through a range of cuts, including abolishing agencies such as the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). It also wants to cut funding for arts and multicultural programs, as well as foreign aid, and withdraw from the UN and World Health Organization. It claims these moves will generate billions in savings.
One Nation has proposed levying royalties on gas producers, introducing income splitting for families to reduce their tax burden. It has also indicated support for flat income taxes.
To address immediate cost of living pressures, the party proposes cutting the fuel excise by 50% for three years, and immediately slashing electricity bills by 20%. However, as with most of One Nation’s policy proposals, there is no detail on how this would be achieved or what it would cost.
First Nations, climate change, education and health
Arguably, the party’s most consistent policy positions have been in areas affecting First Nations people. Hanson and One Nation have persistently opposed agencies and measures aimed at addressing the systematic inequalities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These include native title, the Voice to Parliament, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ASTIC) and the NIAA.
They are staunch critics of Australia’s climate change policies and renewable energy transition. The party has called for Australia to withdraw from the UN Paris Agreement, reverse its commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, build more coal fired power stations and embrace nuclear energy. It has repeatedly challenged the scientific evidence supporting human-induced climate change, boasting that One Nation “are the only political party to question climate science”.
One Nation is especially light on education and health policy. On education, the party is primarily concerned with ending what it calls “Western, white, gender, guilt shaming” and the “indoctrination of students” classrooms.
Key proposals on health include reducing the gestational limit for abortions, reviewing access to COVID-era medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and bolstering regional medical services by paying HECS-HELP loans of new doctors in full in exchange for working in regional communities. One Nation are opposed to vaccine mandates and are still pushing for a Royal Commission into the management of the pandemic by state and federal governments.
Should it manage to translate its polling spike into seats, One Nation will have an unprecedented opportunity to shape the state and national legislative agenda.
However, without policy details, One Nation risks falling foul of its supporters with on-the-fly decisions, as right-wing populist party Reform UK has recently experienced.
