MIL OSI – Source: British Parliament News – Press Release/Statement: Headline: Drone industry could create 150,000 jobs in EU, say Lords The Committee, which has been scrutinising the European Commission’s proposals for drones, supports its plans to harmonise safety rules across the EU but argues for flexibility in national safety rules for small drones or Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS). The Committee’s report also recognises growing public concern over the use of drones by private individuals, with little knowledge of aviation rules. The report urges the Government and the Commission to adopt a raft of measures to improve safety and the enforceability of existing laws. These include: Developing a shared manufacturing standard for drones, such as the CE marking (kite mark); Creating an online database of drone operations to track and manage drone traffic. The Committee expects that commercial operators could register their drones on an online database or app in the near future, and that in the longer term it would encompass leisure users as well; Widening the application of geo-fencing technology, which limits flights over high risk sites; Creating guidance for the police to enforce existing safety rules. Other findings The Committee heard that there is huge potential for growth and jobs in this emerging sector: businesses across Europe are using small drones for photography, filming and surveying, and they can also be used to carry out dull, dirty or dangerous jobs, such as cargo shipping and search and rescue. Evidence given to the inquiry agreed with the Commission’s estimate that around 150,000 new jobs could be created across Europe from drone activity by the year 2050. But the report noted that for this potential to be realised, the safety of drone operations will have to be demonstrated and gain public approval. The report finds that stifling the industry through over-regulation can be avoided if safety rules are proportionate to risk. The Committee also welcomes the Commission’s support for research into key technologies, such as ‘detect and avoid’, but urges that research projects should include the small drone sector. The Committee found that current EU and UK legislation adequately covers data protection issues. However it recommends increased guidance on data protection and insurance requirements for commercial operators. In light of evidence that the media and police use of drones will increase, the report also recommends urgent public debate regarding acceptable civilian applications for drones. Chairman’s comment Commenting on the report, entitled Civilian Use of Drones in the EU, Committee Chairman Baroness O’Cathain said: “The growth in civilian drone use has been astonishing and they are taking to the skies faster than anyone could have predicted. We have a huge opportunity to make Europe a world leader in drone technology. But there’s also a risk—public understanding of how to use drones safely may not keep pace with people’s appetite to fly them. It would just take one disastrous accident to destroy public confidence and set the whole industry back. “So we need to find ways to manage and keep track of drone traffic. That is why a key recommendation is that drone flights must be traceable, effectively through an online database, which the general public could access via an app. We need to use technology creatively, not just to manage the skies, but to help police them as well.” – ]]>
Nigeria: NPF to establish counter-terrorism units in Nasarawa State
MIL OSI – Source: Federal Republic of Nigeria – Report: Headline: NPF to establish counter-terrorism units in Nasarawa State LAFIA (FIC Lafia Report) – The Nigeria Police Force has announced the plan by its agency to establish a counter-terrorism unit as part of effort to fight crime in the state. The Assistant Inspector-General of Police in-charge of the Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Force Headquarters in Abuja, Yahaya Ardo Garba disclosed this when he paid a visit to Umaru Tanko Al-makura, the Governor of Nassarawa State in Lafia lately. He added that the plan to establish the unit in the state became necessary to support the security in the area and to bring peace and stability to the state. Ardo Garba noted that the aim of his visit was to discuss with the State Governor the possibilities for collaboration with the state government on the procedures for engaging counter-terrorism activities in the state. He further appealed to the State Government to support the initiative of the Inspector – General of Police towards having a crime – free society. Al-Makura applauded the AIG and described the decision to introduce a special police unit in the state as timely. He noted that it will go a long way to reduce crime and criminality as well as ensure peace and stability in the state. Adding, the state is willing to support and collaborate with the Nigeria Police to establish the terrorism unit in the state, especially now that there is yearning for more security personnel to enable the IDPs in the state go back to their homes. He maintained that the State Government has already donated 500 residential units to the Nigeria Police to make them comfortable. – – ]]>
Life to get harder for zero hour workers
MIL OSI –
Source: New Zealand Labour Party – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Life to get harder for zero hour workers
Employment law changes that take effect tomorrow will make life even harder for workers battling zero hour contracts, Labour‘s spokesperson on Labour Relations Iain Lees-Galloway says.
“From tomorrow, it will be harder for working people to bargain collectively, harder to make sure new staff members get good terms and conditions and harder to take partial industrial action.
“Meanwhile it will be easier for employers to walk away from negotiations, easier to dismiss an employee without giving them access to relevant information and easier to ditch employees when a business is sold.
“And taking away the right to a tea-break is just a kick in the guts.
“Many workers will try to use collective bargaining to get zero hour contracts out of their workplace this year. It’s bad enough that the Government refuses to take action on zero-hour contracts but making it harder for workers to take action themselves is just shameful,” Iain Lees-Galloway says.
–
]]>Seven arrests for alleged kidnap
MIL OSI –
Source: New Zealand Police – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Seven arrests for alleged kidnap
Thursday, 5 March 2015 – 2:47pm
An investigation into a suspected kidnapping has culminated in the arrest of seven men and the recovery of thousands of dollars worth of stolen goods.
The coordinated operation, across three North Island Districts, targeted properties predominantly associated to members of the Headhunters, and sends a clear message that organised criminal activity will not be tolerated.
The investigation was initiated on Tuesday, 17 February. It is alleged that one man in his 20s was abducted from a property in Tauranga on the night of Monday, 16 February. Early the following morning a second man in his 40s was abducted from a property in Rotorua. Three vehicles were stolen during the two incidents.
The older victim managed to escape several hours later, and the younger one was released that night. Both had been assaulted.
This morning a number of search warrants were executed at addresses in the Tauranga and Whakatane areas of Bay of Plenty District. Other searches were carried out in Auckland Central and in Waitemata Police District. Six men were arrested during this operation and a 7th man was arrested yesterday (Wednesday, 4 February) in a vehicle in Northland. Armed Offenders Squads assisted with a number of this morning’s search warrants.
A significant amount of other stolen property has been recovered including vehicles and earth-moving machinery. A firearm has also been recovered.
All seven men, with ages ranging from 21 to 36, have been charged with kidnapping, aggravated robbery and participating in an organised criminal gang. Some face additional assault and firearms related offences.
One man from Whangarei appeared in Whangarei District Court today and has been remanded in custody. One man from Auckland is appearing in the Waitakere District Court today. The five remaining men (three from the Western Bay of Plenty, one from Rotorua and one from Edgecumbe) will appear in court tomorrow.
Police will be providing no further details about the alleged kidnap now that the matter is before the court.
However Crime Services Manager for Bay of Plenty Police, Detective Inspector Tim Anderson warns that that anyone who chooses to associate themselves with organised crime should be prepared for the consequences. He said: “Organised criminal gangs across New Zealand should be left under no illusion that the Police will continue to seize every opportunity to disrupt their activity. They are living a life of intimidation, violence and drugs and the harm to society is huge and will not be tolerated.”
Media enquiries should be referred to Communications Manager Kim Perks on 027 234 8256.
–
]]>Invite: Launch of ‘It shouldn’t be this hard’: children, poverty and disability
MIL OSI –
Source: Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Invite: Launch of ‘It shouldn’t be this hard’: children, poverty and disability
RSVP HERE or download the flyer
When: Thursday 19th March
Where: Potters Park Events Centre, 164 Balmoral Road, Balmoral, Auckland
Child poverty and child disability are inextricably linked – children with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty than other children and much of this is to do with indifferent policy and indifferent policy makers.
‘It shouldn’t be this hard’: children, poverty and disability is the most recent research publication from Child Poverty Action Group. The research looks at the current status of support programmes for families with disabled children noting that access to support payments have been cut over the past five years while the needs of families and the rights of disabled children continue to be overlooked by policy makers.
Alan Johnson: CPAGs co-convenor as well as a social policy analyst with The Salvation Army’s Social Policy & Parliament Unit. Alan wrote the chapter on Housing market changes and their impact on children in part four of CPAG’s latest flagship publication Our children, our choice priorities for policy.
Colleen Brown: Colleen has a strong background in local government. She currently chairs the Parent and Family Resource Centre in Onehunga; a Not For Profit organization supporting parents and families with disabled family members. She has been involved with many different facets of the disability sector for over 30 years setting up informal support groups and running lobby groups. She is passionate about ordinary people having a strong voice.
Dr Louise Porteous: Louise is a senior developmental paediatrician in South Auckland. Louise sees firsthand the what it life is like for struggling families who have a child or children with disabilities.
– –
]]>NZ First Pulls Reins On TPPA ‘Trojan Horse’ Nightmare
MIL OSI –
Source: New Zealand First – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: NZ First Pulls Reins On TPPA ‘Trojan Horse’ Nightmare
New Zealand First is taking emergency measures to axe the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement’s (TPPA) ‘Trojan Horse’ provisions, which will allow foreign corporations to sue the New Zealand government for billions of dollars.
“New Zealand First is bringing forward the Fighting Foreign Corporate Control Bill to ban our government from signing any treaty, which gives foreign corporates the right to seek compensation if they believe our laws affect their business,” says Fletcher Tabuteau, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Commerce and Trade.
“Leaks from the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations show it’s full of nasty details. One of the nastier provisions puts the interests of foreign corporates ahead of the New Zealand public.
“It is not just the TPPA but the National government signed us all up to the New Zealand-Korea Free Trade Agreement which has ‘an investor clause.’
“This is wrong. New Zealanders must rule our country, not foreign businesses. New Zealand absolutely relies on our exports so trade is essential but the price of trade agreements shouldn’t mean selling our soul.
“New Zealand First’s Bill will stop provisions known as investor–state dispute settlements.
“It is wrong that the National government maintains a shroud of secrecy around TPPA negotiations, especially when they go well beyond being just a trade agreement. National must do right by New Zealanders and let them know just what this government is prepared to give away to overseas corporates.
“New Zealand First’s Fighting Foreign Corporate Control Bill will mitigate the worst of these new age trade deals,” Mr Tabuteau said.
– –
]]>New Zealand First Gets Fruit Fly Pest Hotline Staffed 24/7
MIL OSI –
Source: New Zealand First – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: New Zealand First Gets Fruit Fly Pest Hotline Staffed 24/7
New Zealand First thanks the Ministry for Primary Industries on behalf of our primary producers for now seemingly staffing the Pest and Disease Hotline 24/7.
“It seems the message finally got through to Minister Nathan Guy that the country’s Pest and Disease Hotline needs to be staffed 24/7,” says Spokesperson for Primary Industries and Biosecurity Richard Prosser.
“It took New Zealand First to highlight the issue through questions in Parliament and the press, but at least they have finally acted.
“Now concerned New Zealanders who call the Hotline can have a conversation with and receive good advice from people who are knowledgeable, according to the feedback we have received.
“Eleven Queensland Fruit Flies have now been found due to the government’s failure to properly resource biosecurity at the border. We are pleased the government has heard us and appears to have stepped up by moving to 24/7 staffing of the Hotline.
“Now we want to hear that there will be 100% x-ray of all hand-held luggage, in-hold luggage, mail and freight in the future.
“The Government has shown they can listen to sensible advice from a constructive opposition Party once, now we’d like to see them do it again,” says Mr Prosser.
– –
]]>Appointment made in key rebuild role
MIL OSI –
Source: Christchurch Central Development Unit – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Appointment made in key rebuild role
An interim appointment has today been made to replace outgoing Christchurch Central Development Unit director Warwick Isaacs.
Baden Ewart will step into the position when Mr Isaacs departs on 27 March.
John Ombler, the acting chief executive of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority says the appointment of Mr Ewart will ensure CCDU’s work programmes continue smoothly until CERA’s transition arrangements are finalised.
“Baden has worked closely with Warwick since the earthquakes, and was Warwick’s second in command throughout the demolition phase, as well as with CCDU,” Mr Ombler says.
“He is a respected leader within the organisation and in the wider community, and I am pleased he has accepted the challenge that comes with this important role.”
Before joining CERA in 2011, Mr Ewart held roles within the health sector, and served 43 years with the Royal New Zealand Army.
CERA’s special legislation ends in April 2016 and work is currently underway to ascertain how the organisation’s work programmes will be managed in the future.
–
]]>South Island road safety work fast-tracked
MIL OSI –
Source: New Zealand Government – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: South Island road safety work fast-tracked
Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss today announced the Visiting Drivers Signature Project (VDSP) will be extended and planned safety improvements fast-tracked following recent crashes involving overseas visitors.
“The Government recognises that many people are concerned with poor driving behaviour on challenging roads in and around popular tourist destinations, particularly in the lower South Island,” Mr Foss says.
“That is why we are extending the VDSP to include the West Coast — an area that attracts a large number of tourists.
“A range of planned safety improvements on state highways in Otago and Southland will also be fast-tracked for completion by July 1 this year.”
These improvements include an additional:
- 50km of centre-line ‘rumble strips’
- 140km of no-passing markings
- 200km of highway marked with ‘keep left’ arrows
“This work will improve safety for all road users, including the increasing number of overseas visitors choosing to explore our country by car,” Mr Foss says.
The safety improvements announced today will be in addition to a range of measures already in place in Otago and Southland, including 564km of edge-line rumble strips, 1800km of highway marked with ‘keep left’ arrows, 4755 curve warning signs and 165km of safety barriers.
“Every death or serious injury on our roads is a tragedy and these tragedies can be prevented by improving safety in every part of the transport system — vehicles, speeds, road users and the roads themselves,” Mr Foss says.
– –
]]>Massey honours top Thai business leader
MIL OSI –
Source: Massey University – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Massey honours top Thai business leader
(from left) Marshall Kathleen Vossler, Orator Tony Lynch, Professor Ted Zorn, Chancellor Chris Kelly, Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey, Dhanin Chearavanont, Thai interpreter Sarasin Viraphol and University Registrar Stuart Morriss.
Dr Dhanin Chearavanont speaking at the Riddet Complex
Dr Dhanin Chearavanont (centre) visiting Food HQ
Dr Dhanin Chearavanont receiving his honorary doctorate
Greater access for New Zealand to Asian food markets through research and knowledge exchanges between Massey University and a Thai food conglomerate is on the cards.
The prospect of stronger links with Thailand in the agrifood sector was championed in a speech by one of Thailand’s most successful business leaders, Dhanin Chearavanont.
He was recognised by the University with a Doctor of Science (honoris causa) at a ceremony at the Manawatū campus on Wednesday. The degree was in recognition for his services to international business and philanthropic activities.
Dr Chearavanont, 75, is chairman and chief executive officer of the Charoen Pokphand Group (known as C.P. Group), a conglomerate with core businesses in agrifood, retail and telecommunications that employs more than 300,000 people worldwide, with total revenues of more than $US 41 billion.
Speaking through a translator at the ceremony, Dr Chearavanont said he would “advocate for the immediate formation of a joint committee between the University and the C.P. group to work out a plan for collaboration. C.P. will definitely gain from the knowledge that Massey University can dispense, but hopefully C.P. can also provide some knowledge about the Asian market, consisting of more than three billion people.”
“I am confident that we can assist New Zealand in distributing value-added goods to Asia,” he told the audience of around 100 senior agrifood, business and food science academics as well as Massey alumni, business leaders and members of the Thai community.
Dr Chearavanont also commented on the similarities between the C.P. Group and Massey University, saying they both work across the agrifood value chain from farming to processing, manufacturing and distribution. “We owe it one another to see how we can work together.”
New Zealand’s former Ambassador to Thailand Tony Lynch, orator at the ceremony, said Dr Chearavanont is widely regarded as an exemplar businessman in international trade, and has also made an enormous contribution to improving the standard of living for Thai people in the agrifood sector.
“His achievements are due to his international vision, his astute leadership and his strong family and corporate values,” said Mr Lynch, who is the current Deputy Secretary of Defence for the Ministry of Defence.
Dr Chearavanont was overwhelmed by the recognition, saying: “This day will forever live in my memory.”
Chancellor Chris Kelly told the audience it was an “historic occasion”, being the third conferment of an honorary doctorate to an international recipient by the University. The first, in 2002, was an Honorary Doctorate of Sciences awarded to the King of Thailand H.M. Bhumibol Adulyadej. The second was in November last year when Madame Peng Liyuan, First Lady to the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, received an Honorary Doctorate of Literature.
Dr Chearavanont’s father founded the family seed business in 1921 and it has grown into the C.P. Group of today, with investments in 17 countries, including China, India, Russia and Turkey, and offices in 14 other countries including the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy. C.P. Group was the first foreign investor in China after the economy was reopened to outside investment in late 1970s. In 2007, it founded Thailand’s first and only work-based learning higher education institute, the Panyapiwat Institute of Management.
He was the first person to implement the poultry integration business in Thailand and South East Asia and is credited for introducing modern agricultural development to emerging economies.
He has been acknowledged by Forbes as one of the world’s billionaire philanthropists for several years running and was chosen by Forbes Asia as Businessman of The Year in 2011. He is the founding and current president of the China Association of Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs, an official business organisation established by the State Council of the Chinese government.
Dr Chearavanont advocates as the C.P. Group’s guiding principle the “Three-Benefit Principle” that reflects the leveraging of benefits to all stakeholders in a sustainable business enterprise, namely benefit to the country, the people and the company.
Before the ceremony, he toured Massey’s Food HQ, Food Pilot and Hopkirk Institute. After his conferment, he addressed guests at a reception at the Riddet Complex.
– –
]]>Customs seeks big brother powers
MIL OSI –
Source: New Zealand Labour Party – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Customs seeks big brother powers
A proposal giving New Zealand Customs powers to compel anyone to provide passwords and encryption keys to their electronic devices is another step towards a surveillance society and should be strongly resisted, Labour’s ICT spokesperson Clare Curran said today.
“There are existing powers in search and surveillance law and other legislation which provide compulsion to disclose a password if someone passes through Customs and is under suspicion.
“This is another example of New Zealand falling into line with its five eyes partners, the US, Australia, Canada and the UK and is another step towards the erosion of civil liberties and privacy.
“It’s also a disturbing new piece of evidence that encryption as a business model is under threat.
“In January, UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s suggestion that a new Tory government would ban messaging apps that use encryption was described by the international tech industry and security experts as ‘living in cloud cuckoo land’ with a massive detrimental effect on the IT industry.
“In New Zealand it could lead to stifling innovation of new businesses which provide encryption services and even dissuade people from travelling to a country with such draconian laws,“ says Clare Curran.
“It is over the top and unwarranted. If the law already provides for the requirement to provide passwords and encryption keys when someone is under suspicion. Why does Customs need wholesale powers to compel all travellers?”
–
]]>Public complaints help halt speeding driver
MIL OSI –
Source: New Zealand Police – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Public complaints help halt speeding driver
Tasman
Marlborough Police arrested a man who was recorded driving at 171kmh on State Highway 1 south of Ward about 4.30pm yesterday.
Police received several complaints from members of the public about the man’s driving and went in search of the vehicle.
Officers caught up with the speeding vehicle after it became caught behind other traffic. When the driver was signalled to stop he did a U-turn and fled in the opposite direction. The car was stopped after a short pursuit and the driver arrested.
Marlborough Highway Patrol Sergeant Barrie Greenall said young man’s driving placed all road users at risk.
“I’d like to thank those members of the public who alerted us to his behaviour. Thankfully we were able to apprehend him before his road trip ended in tragedy.”
Sgt Greenall said the man had travelled from Dunedin yesterday and complaints had been received from as far afield as Canterbury. A hitch hiker who was in the vehicle when it was stopped told Police a second hitch hiker, who he believed was a Canadian tourist, had asked to get out of the car near Kaikoura due to concerns about the driver’s behaviour. Police are interested in speaking to that person.
The 21 year old from Ashburton has been charged with Failing to Stop and Driving at a Dangerous Speed. He received an immediate 28 day suspension of his driver’s licence and has been released on bail to appear in the Blenheim District Court on 23 March.
end
–
]]>Hospital patients urged to fill in care survey
MIL OSI –
Source: Waikato District Health Board – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Hospital patients urged to fill in care survey
Four hundred discharged patients from Waikato District Health Board (DHB) hospitals are part of a nationwide patient experience survey that asks them to rate their care in hospital.
The 400 were Waikato’s part of 6000 randomly selected survey participants who were inpatients between 2-15 February this year at public hospitals across New Zealand.
They have until Tuesday 17 March to return the survey and Waikato DHB is urging them to do so.
“We really want to hear from you. We do listen, so please complete the survey and give us your insights into our care,” says Waikato DHB’s Quality and Patient Safety assistant group manager Mo Neville.
What matters to patients is important to us.
The Health Quality & Safety Commission coordinates the national survey across all 20 district health boards in New Zealand. The survey is a quarterly event designed to help all district health boards assess the quality of care in public hospitals, from the patient’s perspective.
This is the third time the national survey has been held. It asks people to rate their care experience out of 10 based on communication, partnership, coordination of the care, and having their physical and emotional needs met.
They have also been asked a range of 20 more detailed questions, including ‘Were you involved as much as you wanted to be in decisions about your care and treatment?, ‘Overall, did you feel staff treated you with respect and dignity while you were in the hospital?’ and ‘Was your condition explained to you in a way that you could understand?’
The previous national and local survey results were released in February, and the response rate for Waikato DHB was a good 31 percent, up from 17 percent in the very first survey.
Mo Neville says reminder letters were sent out on Tuesday to the 400 Waikato participants and she is hopefully that the response rate will rise yet again.
The Health Quality & Safety Commission is aiming for 40 percent national response rate this time.
Commission director of health quality evaluation Richard Hamblin urges anyone invited to fill in the survey to do so. “It’s easy, doesn’t take long, and you remain anonymous unless you choose to supply contact details.
‘You can reply online or post your response. However you do it, your feedback on your stay in hospital will let DHBs know what they’re doing right and where improvements are needed.’
–
]]>media release – Law students help fight miscarriages of justice
MIL OSI –
Law students help fight miscarriages of justice
March 5, 2015
University of Canterbury law students are involved in a number of legal fights, the university’s Dean of Law, Associate Professor Chris Gallavin says.
The Canterbury students are helping fight against miscarriages in New Zealand, with the prospect of them making a difference in the community, he says. Associate Professor Gallavin is part of a team established in 2013 to examine public interest cases in both criminal and civil jurisdictions.
“We are very proud that two of our finest students have worked tirelessly on the Teina Pora appeal for the last six months of 2014,” Associate Professor Gallavin says.
“They played a significant role in the defence team completing important research and opinions on aspects of both the law of evidence and criminal procedure. We here at Canterbury are endeavouring to bring real world experiences into the classroom giving academic credit and ultimately a life changing experience to students who are keen and eager to put their education to use as part of their LLB studies.
“Teina Pora was this week a free man after the Privy Council quashed his convictions for the 1992 rape and murder of Auckland woman Susan Burdett. This is a great victory for justice and I hope now that attention will focus on finding out who did kill Susan Burdett. That is very important for the Burdett family and it is important for our community. No one wins in miscarriage cases.”
“The Teina Pora case is not the only case in which Canterbury law students are involved. Our students are also at the centre of the team examining the Mikaere Oketopa (Michael October) case and will be working on the Peter Ellis file and the Tamihere case.
“A team of experts has been formed and it is a privilege and a pleasure for our students to work under the guidance of these experts in uncovering defects in cases that have potentially led to the wrong person being convicted and families of victims receiving little to no closure.
“The team includes barristers, private investigators and scientists and is called the New Zealand Public Interest Project (NZPIP) and in the absence of a criminal cases review panel for New Zealand we are hopeful that we might play a small part in setting the record straight for those unjustly convicted of serious offending.
“We are looking to formally launch NZPIP this year and while we are a little nervous about the number of criminal and civil cases that might be referred to us for review. We are keen to do our best in our little corner,” Associate Professor Gallavin says.
media release – Are New Zealand women on equal job footing with men?
MIL OSI –
Are New Zealand women on equal job footing with men?
March 5, 2015
Today many consider that women in New Zealand and in other industrialised countries are competing on equal footing with men on the job market.
However, University of Canterbury business and economics associate professor Annick Masselot says this is not quite true.
“The gender pay gap is still at 10 percent and women are still over-represented in segregated traditional gendered professions that are underpaid and undervalued such as care work, cleaning and cooking.”
Associate Professor Masselot will give the university’s first What if Wednesday public lecture of the year on campus next week (March 11). See here for a preview YouTube clip: .
“About 35 percent of New Zealand women work part-time because they also need to do housework and care for children and other dependents. Even though New Zealand men participate in domestic work more than men in other industrialised countries, women in New Zealand do more than double the unpaid house-work and care.
“Women continue to disproportionately experience the double burden of paid work on the labour market and unpaid work at home. New Zealand women outperform men in education. Two-thirds of university graduates are women and research shows that women are ambitious, yet only 12 percent of company directors on the New Zealand Stock Exchange top 100 listed companies in 2013 are women.
“Only 19 percent of partners in Auckland’s top legal firms are female, despite there being more women than men legal graduates since 1993.”
Associate Professor Masselot will raise issues such as work-life balance and legal rights relating to equal treatment between women and men. She says New Zealand’s legal rights to balance work and life are of a reasonable standard when compared to other developed countries.
However, like in other countries, the legal protections, based on an outdated male breadwinner-female caregiver social norm, are inadequate and, even when relevant, are under-enforced or simply ignored.
“Cultural stereotypes are still very much alive across New Zealand and women are still perceived as the main carers and therefore not primarily as workers with full employment rights.
“New Zealand women face high levels of discrimination because many employers still consider that women should first and foremost be carers for children or other dependents and that they are only secondarily interested in paid work. Discrimination takes place before women have children. This leads to unequal pay and gender segregated labour market.”
Manning on the Snowden Revelations: Has The NSA Constructed The Perfect PPP?
Former intelligence analyst and whistleblower, Edward Snowden – speaking live to those gathered at the Auckland Town Hall on Monday September 17, 2014. Investigation by Selwyn Manning (updated). THE PRIME MINISTER JOHN KEY’s admission in September 2014 that whistleblower Edward Snowden “may well be right” that our data-communications may be accessible through XKeyscore raises further questions of whether the Prime Minister has told the ‘whole truth’ or whether he is simply out of his depth on global intelligence operations. The New Zealand Herald reported in September 2014:
Prime Minister John Key acknowledged today that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s claim that New Zealanders’ data is accessible through the controversial XKeyscore system “may well be right”.However, the Prime Minister then maintained that information will not have been gathered under any Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) mass surveillance programme as the agency doesn’t have that capability. (Ref. NZHerald). That statement is clearly polls apart from the revelations published in a cooperative effort by investigative journalist Nicky Hager, the New Zealand Herald’s David Fisher, and the Sunday Star Times (pending publication). The contradictory statements raise questions as to whether the Prime Minister has been outplayed by the deep state, the true masters of the great game? If not, then it suggests John Key is attempting to prevent New Zealanders from knowing what his government is permitting in our name. Whatever the truth is, the issue drives home the need for New Zealanders to fast become familiar with what the United States-based spy agency does, its reach around the world, how it sets up sites in countries like ours, and importantly what the National Security Agency (NSA), has already admitted to. Is New Zealand merely a pawn in a US-led system designed to protect the superpower’s economic and foreign policy interests? The Snowden Revelations suggest this is so. Has the NSA a facility in New Zealand as whistleblower Edward Snowden suggests? To consider this we need to realise that the agency has many difference faces. Let’s consider: how does the NSA operate? How does it use privately owned businesses, corporations, to do its work abroad? How does it partner up with such players to construct what is simply a spy network of privately owner profitable cells and government agencies all feeding back to the mothership Stateside? Is this the ultimate version of a public-private-partnership (PPP)? And, is this how it masks, in part, its operation around the globe?
Companies like Palantir International, conceived deep within California’s Silicon Valley, has become a giant among the technology companies that have made millions and millions of dollars networking with governments and the world’s largest spy agencies – the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the NSA among them.
Palantir Technologies New Zealand Ltd is operating in New Zealand. Now, we do not at this juncture suggest Palantir is operating in New Zealand at the behest of the NSA, but we can confirm that it registered as a company here in 2012, its official office is listed in the Government companies office register as being with legal firm Simpson Grierson, 88 Shortland St, Auckland; that it has a headquarters in Wellington; it recruited for interns at Victoria University as recently as May 19 this year; it actively employed data analysis and computer engineers at locations in New Zealand, has invested around $12 million into New Zealand information communication technology (ICT) start-ups, and certainly specialises in highly efficient deep data analysis on a global-scale.
Palantir states on the New Zealand section of its global corporate website: “We are composed of technical people doing technical work, software engineers who establish natural rapport before discussing solutions and pounding the keyboard, analysts who can tweak servers, and communicators who listen. Our goal is to implement our platform where people need it, without a surplus of jargon. We don’t do business as usual; we do business as Palantir.”
So what is this business it speaks of?
Well the Wall Street Journal describes one of its products, Palantir Gotham, as: Palantir Gotham is used by counter-terrorism analysts at offices in the United States Intelligence Community and United States Department of Defense, fraud investigators at the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, and cyber analysts at Information Warfare Monitor (responsible for the GhostNet [a Chinese cyber attack network] and the Shadow Network investigation). Palantir Metropolis is used by hedge funds, banks, and financial services firms. (Ref. WSJ).
WSJ wrote in the early stages of Palantir’s rise:
Palantir’s software has helped root out terrorist financing networks, revealed new trends in roadside bomb attacks, and uncovered details of Syrian suicide bombing networks in Iraq, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the events. It has also foiled a Pakistani suicide bombing plot on Western targets and discovered a spy infiltration of an allied government. It is now being used by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Yet Palantir — which takes its name from the “seeing stones” in the “Lord of the Rings” series — remains an outlier among government security contractors.Only yesterday (September 15, 2014 US timezone) Palantir was cited in the Silicon Valley Business Journal as adding US$50 million to its corporate spy war-chest. Palantir Technologies disclosed on Friday that it has raised $50 million more in a funding round that now totals about $444 million. The secretive Palo Alto Big Data analytics company led by Alex Karp didn’t disclose where the funding came from in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company was already one of the most heavily funded startups in Silicon Valley. It raised a total of $829 million before this latest funding. (Ref. SVBJ). The report noted: Palantir’s backers include the CIA’s In-Q-Tel venture fund and, the company’s co-founder Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. The report listed among its customer’s the US “government intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency”. All of this material is easily accessed via the internet. It would be helpful if New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key revealed what exactly Palantir Technologies New Zealand Ltd is doing here, particularly as the company states in its recruitment material that it is working with government to deploy its platform. What platform is this? Why is this company so intent on establishing itself here? It would also be worthwhile for all those interested in investigating Edward Snowden’s claim – that the NSA has operations in at least two locations, one in Auckland (perhaps located near the Southern Cross cable underground hub on Auckland’s North Shore, that feeds large capacity to the Albany IT sector) and another north of the city – to consider the PPP tactic. Companies like Palantir have the expertise and the track-record of getting results for their clients For example, Palantir’s corporate website states: “DATA FUSION PLATFORMS Back-end infrastructure for integrating, managing, and securing data of any kind, from any source, at massive scale.” (Ref. Palantir.com). In 2012, shortly after it established in New Zealand, Palantir was actively recruiting for IT specialists. For example:
Palantir is looking for a brilliant, technical mind to help deploy our Government platform in New Zealand. We need someone to take a step back, look at who we are interacting with, and what those interactions mean across the organisation.It offered insight into what it does, stating: We currently offer a suite of software applications for integrating, visualizing and analyzing the world’s information. We support many kinds of data including structured, unstructured, relational, temporal and geospatial. (Ref. LinkedIn). Describing its operation, Palantir wrote it is: “broadly deployed in the intelligence, defense, law enforcement and financial communities, and are spreading rapidly by word of mouth into applications in other industries and realms of impact.” Palantir clearly has an overt presence here in New Zealand. And nothing suggests its operation is anything other than lawful. The above references are cited in the public interest simply to illustrate how state spy agencies contract and outsource to the private/corporate sector, and how the private/corporate sector accumulates vast profits in what is a very lucrative field.
StormBrew.[/caption]
STORMBREW: Location, Auckland, NZ. (Ref. NoPlaceToHide Greenwald/Snowden doc: Page 107).
-
The jargon: DNI/DNR = CONTENT AND METADATA; DOMESTIC INFRASTRUCTURE ONLY; CABLE STATION/SWITCHES/ROUTERS/IP BACKBONE); CLOSE PARTNERSHIP WITH FBI & NCSC.
-
DNI Selectors = 9 US based service providers (PRISM). Worldwide sources (UPSTREAM).
DNR Selectors = Worldwide sources.
The pre-positioning access-points into hard-target networks worldwide. (Ref. NoPlaceToHide Greenwald/Snowden doc: Slide, Page 149).[/caption]
WHAT’S ALL THIS ABOUT METADATA THEN?
Metadata is the tip of the surveillance iceberg. As Edward Snowden said on Monday night, metadata is an analyst’s dream as it doesn’t lie. It shows who a person talked to, the time, the location, the duration. It can easily be cross referenced and applied layer upon layer. It can be visually analysed, geospatial analysis can be used to identify patterns of connections between disparate groups, cells, networks, individuals. This data is powerful.
Back to Xkeyscore.
XKeyScore acquires your information via DNI Upstream sensor sites (which Snowden referred to as being located in Auckland and Northland) and pre-positioned access points at ISPs (a capability that the GCSB and TICS legislation made lawful and asserted a requirement obligation on the country’s ISPs).
The principle of mass surveillance is a matter of definition. What governments define as surveillance is often quite different to how you or I may define the word.
But for the purpose of this piece, surveillance – whether it be technology-driven dragnet ‘indiscriminate’ surveillance, or human analyst driven search surveillance – it is one of the same. It involves four elements: Trafficthief (metadata), Pinwale, MARINA, and the big foundation of the four: XKeyScore.
[caption id="attachment_52532" align="alignleft" width="565"]
DNI Discovery Options. (Ref. NoPlaceToHide Greenwald/Snowden doc: slide – DNI Discovery Options Page 160).[/caption]
Remember too that with the help of Microsoft, the NSA stated in the source documents that it can easily crack high encryption. It also is able to decipher voice over internet protocol (VOIP) data calls on Skype (something that initially proved tricky).
THE INTERACTION BETWEEN GOVERNMENT BODIES:
Another important aspect to realise is how the NSA shares, cooperates, and utilizes the multiple jurisdictions permitted within separate departments of government.
Crossover and sharing of information is one thing, but sharing capability is the foundation of the relationship between intelligence agencies and the major estates of government.
We realised this to a degree in 2013 when it became known that the New Zealand GCSB was acting unlawfully when assisting the New Zealand Police to surveil Kim Dotcom. It also came to pass that 88 other New Zealand citizens or residents had also been unlawfully surveilled, although the circumstances of those offences were never revealed.
Let’s consider SIGINT (or signals intelligence). SIGINT developed as a primary tool of defence and military when acquiring intelligence on an enemy. But the NSA documents reveal SIGINT is vital to its ‘indiscriminate’ surveillance operations against the citizenry. Here in New Zealand, until recent times, the GCSB’s primary skill was signals-based.
The relationship between defence SIGINT activity and the NSA’s surveillance of the world’s citizens may also give some clarity as to whether the NSA does have a sensor site in Auckland and Northland. New Zealand Defence facilities are located here. And New Zealand Defence has an intelligence unit intelligence
THE SIGINT DEFENCE CRYPTOLOGIC PLATFORM:
[caption id="attachment_52533" align="alignleft" width="565"]
SIGINT-defence Cryptologic Platform. (Ref. CNE access at 50,000 locations worldwide including Auckland, New Zealand. Ref. NoPlaceToHide Greenwald/Snowden doc: Page 117).[/caption]
We know from the NSA’s own documents that the National Security Agency/Central Security Service shares “technological developments, cryptologic capabilities, software and resources for state-of-the-art collection, processing and analytical efforts, and IA capabilities.”
The intelligence exchange with Canada for example “covers national and transnational targets. No Consolidated Cryptologic Program (CCP) money is allocated to CSEC (Canada’s Communications Security Establishment Canada), but NSA at times pays R&D and technology costs on shared projects with CSEC.”
It has long been a question that remains unanswered as to whether New Zealand has received money to assist its spying for the Five Eyes Intelligence Agency. The Canadian experience suggests that at least in part, New Zealand has.
Some may ask, why would sovereign states like New Zealand, with a history of independent foreign policy give so much control away to a foreign superpower?
So what does the Five Eyes Intelligence Agency offer? Well, the NSA states the answer as: “… resources for advanced collection, processing and analysis” and open sharing of information/intelligence gathered via “covert sites at the request of NSA”.
In return, the Five Eyes member states provide the NSA “unique geographic access to areas unavailable to the U.S.”. (Ref. NoPlaceToHide Greenwald/Snowden doc: Page 121).
The NSA documents also state “comprehensive cooperation” is provided to ‘first tier’ member states Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. While “focused cooperation” is exchanged with Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary and 13 other nations.
GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE:
While the United States is able to reach and breach information on a global scale, its partners of the Five Eyes Intelligence Agency are valuable in part due to their location and geopolitical idiosyncrasies. Each has a unique opportunity capability.
The NSA documents show that Australia’s location and interactivity with Indonesia assists the NSA to target “high priority targets” inside Indonesia.
While it is yet to be clear what New Zealand provides the NSA in terms of international trading partner intelligence, New Zealand’s relationship and trading status with the People’s Republic of China provides a specific and unique trade-led environment that others, including the USA, do not share.
Also, New Zealand’s capital city Wellington is the location of a significant French diplo-contingent. The French Embassy in Wellington is the fourth largest of France’s foreign affairs posts and interconnects with France’s territories in Polynesia and French Polynesia. This includes its need to assist in the transit of its military hardware in the wider Pacific basin.
New Zealand’s external offshore signals surveillance, via the GCSB base at Waihopai, is now well known. What is not so well appreciated is that the GCSB’s patch is east of Australia’s east coast, northward and eastward then out into Polynesia and French Polynesia. It would seem likely that China aside, France’s interests in the Pacific are the target of New Zealand Government spying.
SO WHAT HAPPENS TO ALL THIS INFORMATION?
So where does this intelligence all end up?
What kind of personal information is gathered?
The NSA documents show us that virtually everything is acquired.
Internet surfing, webmail (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail etc), Facebook, Myspace etc, internet searching (Google, Bing, Wikipedia etc), online mapping (Google Maps, Mapquest etc).
Xkeyscore and a number of other platforms collect all forms of communications. To cite the NSA: “Communications, day to day activities, contacts and social networks, photographs, videos, personal information (e.g. addresses, phone, email addresses), location and travel information.”
Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, and now Kik, Instagram, Twitter and a host of other social media platforms provide the NSA “A very rich source of information on targets: personal details, pattern of life, connections and associates, media,” the NSA documents state.
And social media friends… if you think Facebook’s lockdown security settings provide you with privacy, think again. The NSA’s ‘Passive’ system enables this global system: “the opportunity to collect this information by exploiting inherent weaknesses in Facebook’s security model.”
[caption id="attachment_52536" align="alignleft" width="565"]
Facebook Surveillance.[/caption]
Also, at the time the NSA documents were acquired, the Five Eyes alliance was advancing its capability to track and monitor communications passengers of aircraft.
The UK’s GCHQ was leading this breakthrough technology. This new system referred to as Thieving Magpie hacks into any GSM and GPRS calls and data communications emitting form onboard aircraft. It is able to probe such communications every two seconds, while the aircraft is flying anywhere in the world.
In 2013 the NSA documents noted that “many airlines are offering on-board mobile phone services, particularly for long haul and business class (list is growing).”
Thieving Magpie was anticipated to provide XKeyScore “global coverage” via its Southwinds platform at some stage in 2014.
This technology announcement was provided to all Five Eyes member agencies, including New Zealand’s GCSB.
Of course, the New Zealand National-led Government has not informed its citizenry of any of this information.
The GCSB was informed that once Thieving Magpie’s global capability is achieved it will be “available to FVEY (Five Eyes) users” via a simple to use “light weight web page”.
THE SINISTER SIDE OF OUR SPYS’ METHODS:
Disturbingly, the NSA documents indicate how the use of sinister manipulation can destroy the reputations of Five Eyes targets, the NSA documents also describe how “radicalizers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area of authority when their private and public behaviors are not consistent.
It lists four behaviors to look out for when surveilling a target, to identify the:
- “Viewing sexually explicit material online or using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls;
- Using a portion of the donations they are receiving from the susceptible pool to defray their own personal expenses;
- Charging an exorbitant amount of money for their speaking fees and being singularly attracted by opportunities to increase their status; or
- Being know to base their public messaging on questionable sources or using language that is contradictory in nature, leaving them open to credibility challenges.”
- “Set up a honey-trap
- Change their photos on social networking sites
- Write a blog purporting to be one of their victims
- Email/text their colleagues, neighbors, friends etc.”
Effects-Definition.[/caption]
This information was presented by the NSA to New Zealand’s GCSB officers are a training/briefing session.
The NSA officer briefing the Five Eyes spies added: “Honey-trap; a great option. Very successful when it works. Get someone to go somewhere on the internet, or a physical location to be met by a ‘friendly face’. JTRIG has the ability to ‘shape’ the environment on occasions.”
The officer adds that changing a person’s photograph on a social media profile page is effective in driving up paranoia: “Can take paranoia to a whole new level.”
And the officer suggests email and txt operations can assist the state’s spies to gain credibility with online groups and infiltration of the same.
The above methods will no doubt ‘ring a few bells’ and cause some unease for New Zealanders who have become privy to the inner workings of Dirty Politics, as practiced by members of the National Party and their attack merchants in the blogosphere and media.
And in case the connection still seems value, here is a direct quote from the NSA briefing to the New Zealand GCSB: “Issues of trust and reputation are important when considering the validity and appeal of the message. It stands to reason that exploiting vulnerabilities of character, credibility, or both, of the radicalizer and his message could be enhanced by an understanding of the vehicles he uses to disseminate his message to the susceptible pool of people and where he is vulnerable in terms of access.”
If the messenger or target ‘radicalizer’ needs to be shut down, the NSA advice is to “Bombard their phone with text messages, bombard their phone with calls, delete their online presence, block up their fax machine.”
If a computer or site or network needs to be taken down, the officer also said: “Send them a virus: Ambassadors reception – encrypt itself, delete all emails, encrypt all files, make the screen shake, no more log on. Conduct a denial of service attack on their computer…”
According to the NSA documents, ‘Effects Operations’ save time and money when compared to “traditional law enforcement”.
And in a section titled: DISRUPTION Operational Playbook, it breaks it down into easy-to-follow terminology:
- Infiltration Operation<
- Ruse Operation
- Set Piece Operation
- False Flag Operation
- False Rescue Operation
- Disruption Operation
- Sting Operation.
Brook Barrington Appointed Head of New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand State Services Commission – Press Release/Statement
Headline: Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Appointed: Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Appointed
[caption id="attachment_689" align="alignleft" width="296"]
Dr Brook Barrington.[/caption]State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie has today announced the appointment of Brook Barrington as Chief Executive and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).
Mr Barrington is a senior public servant. His career includes 20 years in MFAT working on foreign policy and international trade issues, including as Ambassador to Thailand. More recently he has been Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, and for the last three years has been a Deputy Chief Executive at the Ministry of Justice.
“I am very pleased to appoint Brook Barrington to this important role,” Mr Rennie said.
“Brook has significant experience in diplomacy, international negotiations and trade as a former Ambassador and long serving diplomat, as well as experience in senior leadership roles in other sectors of the Public Service,” he said.
“MFAT has an important and unique role in representing New Zealand and promoting our interests overseas as well as providing assistance to New Zealanders in other countries when they need it”.
“Public agencies working together as a single ‘system’ focused on ongoing improvement to the services we provide New Zealanders is a major priority for the Public Service,” said Mr Rennie.
“I am confident Brook will be able to draw on his networks and experience across the Public Service to work as a team with other chief executives and ensure MFAT’s work is well integrated and aligned”.
Mr Barrington has been appointed for a five year term commencing on 23 March 2015.
Craig Hawke will be Acting Chief Executive until Mr Barrington takes up the role.
The Chief Executive and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade is responsible for a network of 57 posts in 50 countries. MFAT has 103 accreditations to other countries and 74 Honorary Consuls.
ENDS
BIOGRAPHY OF BROOK BARRINGTON
Mr Barrington joined MFAT in 1990 and held a variety of roles both within New Zealand and offshore. He left MFAT in 2009 to take leadership positions in the wider public sector.
The first part of Mr Barrington’s career in MFAT was spent advancing New Zealand’s trade policy interests. He worked across government and the private sector, and had postings to Canberra and Brussels. The later part of his time in MFAT was more focused on political and security issues, including as Foreign Policy Advisor in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) and as Ambassador to Thailand for three years.
From 2009 until 2012 he was Deputy Secretary, Policy and Planning in the Ministry of Defence, where he led the development of the 2010 Defence White Paper.
Mr Barrington has recently held two Deputy Chief Executive (DCE) roles at the Ministry of Justice.
He was initially the DCE Sector (2012-2014) with a particular focus on improving alignment and governance across the justice sector (Ministry of Justice, NZ Police and Department of Corrections).
During 2014 he moved to the DCE role responsible for the overall management of the day-to-day operations of the Ministry of Justice, ensuring the Ministry has the strategy, governance, engagement and capability to deliver its core services effectively and efficiently.
Mr Barrington holds a PhD in history from the University of Auckland.
–]]>
Australia Government: Building Partner Capacity in Iraq
MIL OSI – Source: Australia Government Ministerial Statements – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Building Partner Capacity in Iraq
Joint Statement: THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MP, Prime Minister, and, THE HON. KEVIN ANDREWS MP, Minister for Defence.The Government has decided to commence the preparation and training of a force to contribute to the international Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission in Iraq.
This decision marks the next phase of Australia’s contribution to the international coalition to disrupt, degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL, or Daesh, and follows requests for our participation from the Iraqi and United States Governments.
Working together, the Iraqi security forces and their coalition partners have stemmed Daesh’s onslaught. Now Iraq’s security forces require international training support to conduct effective offensive operations against Daesh and ultimately to take responsibility for their country’s security.
The Australian BPC force would be based at Taji, northwest of Baghdad, and the mission is expected to commence in May 2015.
The Australian contribution would include around 300 ADF personnel centred on a training team. The force would also comprise a substantial force protection element along with command and support elements.
This initial step of preparing the BPC force will enable the Australian Defence Force to commence planning, preparation and administration for the mission.
Australia’s participation in this mission would build on the active contributions of our Air Task Group and Special Operations Task Group to international efforts to counter Daesh in Iraq.
The Government will keep under review the size and nature of Australia’s commitment in Iraq, taking into account the increasing focus of coalition efforts on building the capacity of Iraq’s security forces.
The Australian BPC force would work closely with personnel from the New Zealand Defence Force who will be involved in the international BPC mission, which also includes forces from the United States, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.
The decision to prepare for the BPC mission underlines Australia’s commitment to supporting stability in Iraq and the Middle East and helping to stop the spread of violent extremism to Australia and our own region.
This decision is in Australia’s national interest.
Recent attacks in Australia and elsewhere around the world show that no country is immune from the threat of terrorism.
3 March 2015
–
]]>
New Zealand just a ‘minnow’ in the TPPA
MIL OSI –
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – ASMS – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: New Zealand just a ‘minnow’ in the TPPA
The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will increase the power of global corporations, and be a bit like the Sky City convention centre deal on “super steroids”, Professor Jane Kelson told a Dunedin audience. She described New Zealand as a “minnow” in the controversial deal. The full Otago Daily Times article can be read here.
Meanwhile, Jane Kelsey will be providing an update on the TPPA in Wellington, Wednesday 4 March at 5.30pm at Connolly Hall, Guildford Terrce. She will be joined by Simon Terry from SustainabilityNZ, Hadyn Edmonds of Consumer NZ, and Dr Gay Keating, who was a signatory to a recent letter to the Lancet expressing concerns about the TPPA.
A national day of action is also planned for Saturday 7 March. People are gathering at 15 locations around New Zealand to express concern – more information is available at http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/7-march/. Details of the Wellington event can be found here.
– –
]]>Kiwis tied to zero-hour contracts speak out
MIL OSI –
Source: Unite Union New Zealand – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Kiwis tied to zero-hour contracts speak out
3
Mar
More employees on zero-hour contracts have contacted Campbell Live complaining of how their employers can’t even promise them half a shift.
Employers say the contracts allow them flexibility, but for the employee it means turning up for a shift, even if that shift is only an hour long.
As the union gets into negotiations this week with fast food companies, Campbell Live wanted to ask how many employees are on zero-hour contracts, and how does that number impact on New Zealand’s low unemployment rate?
Watch the video for the full report from Anna Burns-Francis.Video- Kiwis tied to Zero Hour Contracts
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/campbelllive/kiwis-tied-to-zero-hour-contracts-speak-out-2015030220#ixzz3TH6eU8fm
– –
]]>$905k to grow tomorrow’s business leaders
MIL OSI –
Source: New Zealand Government – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: $905k to grow tomorrow’s business leaders
Young people across New Zealand will receive a boost to develop their entrepreneurial skills and knowledge, after Youth Minister Nikki Kaye today announced $905,000 funding under the Youth Enterprise Fund.
“Eight organisations will receive funding to help deliver a range of business enterprise initiatives to a diverse range of youth, including young people not in education and from disadvantaged communities.
“This will see around 3,000 extra young people receive the chance to develop their entrepreneurial ability.
“The Young Enterprise Trust will receive the largest funding of over $600,000, to extend the reach of their successful Young Enterprise Scheme.
“This scheme encourages school students to come up with ideas for a company or product, and then receive coaching from local business people on how to develop their ideas and turn them into reality.
“Some schools need greater support to provide the scheme to their students, especially in communities that don’t have the necessary breadth of local business expertise to draw on.
“Based on a successful pilot in Pacific communities, the extra funding will help Young Enterprise Trust employ roaming, specialist teachers to support more schools to introduce, improve and grow business enterprise in the classroom.
“Young people today are growing up in a complex, challenging and fast-changing world, and it’s important we help them develop skills such as leadership, problem solving and innovation to succeed in the future.
“This is what the Youth Enterprise Fund is all about. I recently announced $835,000 of funding for social enterprise initiatives under the fund, and look forward to announcing technology related funding in the near future.”
See more information about the Youth Enterprise Fund here.
Notes for editors:
The successful recipients of business enterprise funding under the Youth Enterprise Fund are:
- Young Enterprise Trust – $612,000 towards supporting schools and teachers nationwide to grow business and enterprise education in the classroom
- Te Awamutu and Raglan Chambers of Commerce – $35,000 to help support young people with established or identifiable skills in Te Awamutu/Raglan to set up their own business
- EBAT Charitable Trust – $20,000 to help run pilot programmes in Eastern Bay of Plenty to identify and develop young people with entrepreneurial skills and talent
- Crosspower Ministries Trust – $25,000 to help deliver projects in Otara that offer entrepreneurial and small business skills to young people
- Victoria Link Ltd – $80,000 to help build business acumen and awareness amongst Māori and Pacific students in Wellington
- ARCO Workshops Ltd – $51,000 to help run enterprise training for disadvantaged youth in Kaikohe
- Vaer Consulting Ltd – $20,000 to help teach start-up thinking to young people in Wellington
- Foundation for Youth Development – $62,000 towards enterprise and investment literacy programmes for Year 11 and 12 students in Auckland, Waikato and Christchurch.
– –
]]>Ministers must answer questions on IRD blowout
MIL OSI –
Source: New Zealand Labour Party – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Ministers must answer questions on IRD blowout
The current and previous Revenue Ministers must front up and explain how the child support system had a budget blowout from $30 million to $210 million in just four years, says Labour’s Revenue spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.
“Peter Dunne was Revenue Minister for eight years. He oversaw the introduction of the new system. Yet both he and the new minister Todd McClay have been silent on the cost blowout.
“The ministers have a responsibility to explain this debacle to the public. The two of them must come out of hiding and answer basic questions:
- Why did the budget blow out from $30m to 210m?
- Is the cost of the revised proposal of $163m justified?
- Does the Treasury support spending $163m on what is little more than tinkering with the child support system?
- What are the implications for the IRD’s business transformation project where IT costs are already estimated at $1.5b?
- Did the Revenue ministers monitor this project, ask the right questions and when did they know that costs were spiralling out of control?
- Or were they asleep at the wheel?
“The revised proposal is four times the cost of fixing Novopay and rivals the INCIS police computer disaster the last time National was in office.
“Former Deputy Commissioner of Inland Revenue Robert Oliver said he baulked at the original $30m cost. Perhaps he is the person the ministers should be listening to,” says Clayton Cosgrove.
–
]]>iPredict Update: Ireland To Back Same-Sex Marriage
MIL OSI –
iPredict Update: Ireland To Back Same-Sex Marriage
]]>
IRELAND EXPECTED TO VOTE FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Voters in Ireland are overwhelmingly expected to vote to allow same-sex marriage in a referendum on 22 May, according to the combined wisdom of the 8000+ registered traders on New Zealand’s predictions market, iPredict. Elsewhere in Europe, the UK Conservatives have lost ground to smaller parties over the last week putting the 7 May election on a knife-edge. In New Zealand, more than 20 Queensland fruit flies are now expected to be found as part of the current outbreak but there has been no change in economic forecasts. John Key and National have made a small gain over the last week. National’s Mark Osborne is overwhelmingly expected to win the Northland by-election ahead of NZ First’s Winston Peters, although with less than 50% of the vote. Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime has 0% probability of winning the seat. The Liberal/National Coalition is favoured ahead of Labor in New South Wales. Tony Abbott looks safe as Australian Prime Minister until midyear but is still expected to be replaced by Malcolm Turnbull before the next federal election.
New Zealand Politics:
· National’s Mark Osborne expected to win Northland by-election (88% probability) but to fall short of 50% of the vote (only 29% probability of winning more than 50%)
· Only an 11% probability the byelection will be won by a party other than National or Labour, and a 0% probability it will be won by Labour
· Kevin Hague overwhelmingly favoured to be next Green Party co-leader (94% probability, down from 95% last week)
· John Key is expected to remain National leader until at least the end of 2016 (79% probability, down from 80% last week) and has a 50% probability of remaining National leader until at least the end of 2017 (up from 49% last week)
· Steven Joyce remains favourite to become National Party leader if a vacancy arises (28%, down from 29% last week), followed by Paula Bennett (28%, up from 26%) and Amy Adams (12%, steady)
· Stocks on Andrew Little’s longevity as leader of the Labour Party will be launched in the near future
· Judith Collins expected to be appointed to Cabinet before next election (60% probability, steady compared with last week)
· Next election expected in 2017 (92% probability, steady compared with last week)
· Forecast party vote shares at next election:
o National 45.2% (steady compared with last week)
o Labour 32.1% (steady)
o Greens 11.0% (down from 11.1%)
o NZ First 6.9% (steady)
o Others 4.8% (up from 4.7%)
· National expected to win 2017 General Election (57% probability, up from 55% last week)
· Wellington councils not expected to be amalgamated by end of 2015 (only 43% probability they will be, steady compared with last week)
New Zealand Economics:
· More than 20 Queensland fruitflies expected to be found in New Zealand as part of current outbreak (55% probability)
· New Zealand dollar expected to reach parity with Australian dollar by the end of 2015 (69% probability, down from 75% last week) but not before July 2015 (30% probability, down from 53% last week)
· Quarterly GDP growth expected to be:
o 0.7% in the March quarter (steady compared with last week)
o 1.1% in the June quarter (steady)
o 1.1% in the September quarter (steady)
o 1.1% in the December quarter (steady)
· Annual growth expected to be 4.0% in the 2015 calendar year (steady compared with last week)
· Unemployment expected to be:
o 5.4% in the March quarter (steady compared with last week)
o 5.3% in the June quarter (steady)
o 5.2% in the September quarter (steady)
o 5.3% in the December quarter (steady)
· Current account deficit expected to be 3.5% of GDP in the December quarter (steady compared with last week) and 3.4% in the March quarter (steady)
· Annual inflation expected to be:
o 0.3% to end of March 2015 quarter (steady compared with last week)
o 0.6% to end of June 2015 quarter (steady)
o 0.8% to end of September 2015 quarter (steady)
o 1.0% to end of December 2015 quarter (steady)
· Official Cash Rate priced to be:
o 3.495% on 12 March (steady compared with last week)
o 3.488% on 30 April (steady)
o 3.447% on 11 June (down from 3.450%)
o 3.421% on 23 July (down from 3.424%)
o 3.384% on 10 September (down from 3.386%)
o 3.365% on 29 October (down from 3.367%)
o 3.360% on 10 December 2015 (down from 3.372%)
o This implies the OCR is more likely than not to be cut on 29 October (steady compared with last week)
o OCR stocks out to June 2016 will be launched in the near future
· Only 18% probability of a fiscal surplus in 2014/15 (up from 17% last week)
· Fiscal balance expected to be:
o -0.18% of GDP in 2014/15 (down from -0.17% last week)
o 0.81% of GDP in 2015/16 (down from 0.85%)
o 1.98% of GDP in 2016/17 (steady)
o 2.38% of GDP in 2017/18 (steady)
· There is a 63% probability Fonterra’s payout in 2015/16 will be above $6.00 (before retentions) up from 55% last week
Foreign Affairs/Constitution:
· Next UK Parliament expected to consist of:
o Labour 38.1% of seats in the House of Commons (up from 37.1% last week)
o Conservatives 34.1% of seats in the House of Commons (down from 37.9%)
o Nationalist parties 6.8% of seats (up from 6.6%)
o UKIP and similar 6.4% of seats (up from 5.7%)
o Liberal Democrats 5.5% of seats (up from 4.9%)
o Unionist parties 2.3% of seats (up from 2.1%)
o Green and similar 2.2% of seats (up from 1.9%)
o Independents and Speaker 2.1% of seats (up from 1.9%)
o All others 2.3% of seats (up from 2.0%)
· David Cameron expected to be prime minister after next UK election but with just 52% probability, down from 57% last week
· Boris Johnson expected to be elected to UK House of Commons this year (92% probability, steady)
· Socialist Workers’ Party expected to defeat People’s Party in next Spanish election (60% probability, steady compared with last week)
· All Eurozone countries, including Greece, expected to remain in Euro in 2015 (only 12% probability of an announcement of a departure this year, down from 13% last week)
· New South Wales Liberal/National Coalition expected to win most seats in NSW state election (80% probability)
· Tony Abbott is expected to remain leader of the Australian Liberal Party until 1 July 2015 (only 38% probability of departing before then, up from 23% last week) but be replaced by Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the Australian Liberal Party by nomination day (60% probability Turnbull will be leader on that day, down from 69% last week)
· Bill Shorten expected to be Labor leader at next Australian federal election (90% probability)
· Liberals now marginally ahead of Labor for next Australian Federal election in 2016 (52% probability of Liberal win, up from 50% last week)
· Hillary Clinton is favoured to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for US president in 2016 and to be elected to that office (47% probability, down from 48% last week). Jeb Bush has a 39% probability of being the Republican nominee (steady compared with last week) followed by Scott Walker (22% probability, up from 20% last week)
· There is only a 31% probability New Zealand will sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership this year (steady compared with last week), and the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not expected to be ratified by the US Congress before 1 July 2017 (only 31% probability it will be, steady compared with last week)
· Helen Clark’s prospects of being the next UN Secretary General are 23% (down from 25% last week)
· There is an 11% probability New Zealand will become a republic by 2020 (down from 13% last week)
· Ireland to vote in favour of same-sex marriage before July 2015 (92% probability)
Notes:
· iPredict Ltd is owned by Victoria University of Wellington. Details on the company and its stocks can be found at www.ipredict.co.nz.
· The weekly economic and political update is prepared by Exceltium Ltd on a pro bono basis and is based on a snapshot taken at a random time each week. This week’s was taken at 12.51 pm today.
150303-1251-Economic-and-Political-Update-FINAL.pdfAssociation calls for Police Officers to routinely have Tasers on their belts
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Police Association – Press Release/Statement
Headline: Association calls for Police Officers to routinely have Tasers on their belts
NZPA | Mon March 2nd, 2015
“The time has come for Police Officers to be equipped with Tasers on their belt when they are attending calls for service, as the seemingly weekly serious attacks on Police Officers continue with today’s attack on a Police officer at the Foxton WINZ office,” Police Association President Greg O’Connor said today.
“It is no longer good enough for the Police hierarchy and politicians to say that, in general, assaults on Police are down when serious assaults continue to rise at this rate,” said Mr O’Connor.
“Once again a Police Officer attending a routine piece of policing has been seriously injured in a situation where he has been ill-equipped – not having either a Taser or a firearm on his person or in his vehicle.”
Mr O’Connor went on to say, “while there continues to be a public debate about the general arming of police, there is no doubt that sensible New Zealanders can understand the need for a Taser, when officers are called to confront violent offenders like the man in Foxton today.
“Beyond the leafy suburbs in New Zealand where policy is made and directed at, there exists a violent environment Police Officers operate in every day,” said Mr O’Connor.
“Police Officers must have the tools to defend themselves and the public in violent incidents that arise out of routine policing.”
Back to listing
—
]]>
Oysters ahead: Bluff season begins
MIL OSI –
Source: NIWA – National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Oysters ahead: Bluff season begins
Each March, oyster lovers descend on the catch of Bluff’s best bivalves – a seasonal delicacy from one of the last remaining wild oyster fisheries on the planet.
The Bluff oyster season opens on Sunday, March 1 and runs until August 31, or earlier if the annual harvest limit is reached.
The science of providing the information that helps manage the fishery has been part of NIWA’s research work since 2000. This research programme is funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries, the Bluff Oyster Management Company, and Seafood Innovations LTD. The research is undertaken collaboratively and includes wide ranging programmes such as improving fishing technology and methods, understanding the oyster fishery, the ecosystem from which it is fished and the key drivers of oyster production.
Crucial to the research is keeping tabs on the health of the fishery through a survey carried out before each season. The survey estimates the size of the oyster population and levels of bonamia – a disease that kills oysters, though it’s harmless to humans.
These surveys are undertaken in February and, together with a spat monitoring programme, provide up-to-date information on the status of the fishery and its likely future status to inform harvest limits for the coming season. These limits are reviewed in-season based on the oyster skippers’ information from the first few weeks of fishing and the final results of the pre-season survey.
NIWA coastal fisheries scientist Keith Michael leads research on the fishery and says bonamia has devastated wild fisheries all over the world. It’s important work that affects not only the price and availability of Bluff oysters, but the livelihood of the fishing families and the businesses that support the industry.
Keith says the annual survey provides vital information for management. “Although little can be done to change the outcomes for the fishery, our science provides a ‘weather forecast’ that allows the oyster industry to prepare for a good or not-so-good seasons, and the ability to explain changes in the fishery with evidence from this research, he says.
Research is undertaken as part of a strategic research plan developed with the Bluff Oyster Management Company, the Ministry for Primary Industries, customary and recreational fishers to provide the key information required to better manage the fishery and fishing.
Keith says that the oyster population size has declined from 2014, mainly as a result of disease. “Bonamia killed 200 million legal-sized oysters in early 2014 while the oyster fishery harvested 13 million oysters,” he says. “Early indications for the 2015 season suggest fisher catch rates will be similar to the 2014 season.”
Graeme Wright, a spokesman for the Bluff Oyster Management Company, says: “Based on the science information we have from NIWA, the 2015 oyster season will start with a more conservative catch limit than 2014 and we will review the catch limit in-season.”
The Bluff Oyster Management Company represents all the fishery stakeholders, and Graeme Wright says the cooperative nature of the industry is its strong point.
“There has been a real emphasis in the past 20 years to involve the fishermen who work these beds plus everybody involved – customary and recreational groups, commercial fishermen and scientific researchers – and I think it’s at a stage where everybody believes we’re managing the fishery, in the interests of everybody, for the future,” Graeme says.
“The key to the future of the fishery is information and the quality of information that NIWA gives us offers the fishery some certainty and security going into the future.”
OYSTERS AHEAD: Bluff season begins from NIWA on Vimeo.
More information:
Cameron Williamson
NIWA Senior Media Advisor
027 839 0730
– –
]]>Nominations open for Māori Business Leaders Awards
MIL OSI –
Source: University Of Auckland – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Nominations open for Māori Business Leaders Awards
Nominations are now invited from individuals, groups or organisations for the Aotearoa New Zealand Māori Business Leaders Awards, which recognise and celebrate outstanding Māori excellence and success in business.
The awards, hosted by the University of Auckland Business School, are New Zealand’s premier Māori business awards event, and nominations close on 20 March.
Business School Dean Professor Greg Whittred says the awards recognise individuals and organisations for their contributions to the advancement of Māori enterprise in New Zealand and around the world.
Held for more than ten years, the awards have grown in size and stature, and the prizegiving reception attracts politicians, Māori business and community leaders, iwi organisations, government agencies, Māori Business School alumni, Business School partners and friends, family and business associates of the award winners, and current Māori students and faculty members.
Previous individual winners include computer animator Ian Taylor, businessman Chris Mace and banker Sir Ralph Norris; and previous organisation award winners include Nelson-based Māori incorporation Wakatū and South Island iwi Ngāi Tahu.
“In a new development, a steering committee has been established to review the award categories, agree selection criteria, seek nominations, evaluate candidates and select award winners,” Professor Whittred says.
“The steering committee is comprised of successful and respected people from across the Māori world and representatives from the Business School.”
The awards categories this year are:
For individuals
- Outstanding Māori Business Leaders Award
- Emerging Māori Business Leaders Award
- Māori Woman Business Leaders Award
- Dame Mira Szászy Māori Alumni Award
For organisations
- Outstanding Māori Business Leadership Award
Professor Whittred says the new categories reflect the growing breadth and depth of Māori excellence and success in business. Finalists will be revealed and award winners announced at a reception on 1 May in Auckland.
Further information on the awards, including the composition of the steering committee, the awards criteria, and a nomination form, is avalable on the awards website www.auckland.ac.nz/maoribusinessleadersawards.
–
]]>Mobile phones not causing increase in brain tumours
MIL OSI –
Source: University Of Auckland – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Mobile phones not causing increase in brain tumours
The risk of brain tumours has not changed significantly with increased mobile phone use, according to new research from the University of Auckland.
In a paper just published in the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, on the trends in primary brain cancer incidence in New Zealand between 1995 and 2010, research led by cancer epidemiologist, Professor Mark Elwood, showed no general increase in brain tumours.
Professor Elwood says there have been concerns about whether the use of mobile phones could lead to an increase in the frequency of brain tumours.
“Several major international studies have suggested either no risk or a slightly increased risk in high users, while some others have suggested substantial risks,” he says.
His team examined the frequency (yearly incidence) of brain cancers, both in total and in those sub-types highlighted in some other studies, in New Zealand from 1995 to 2010, using data from the New Zealand national cancer registry.
“There has been no general increase,” says Professor Elwood. “In fact, for the wide age range 10 to 69 years, there has been a decrease of about one percent per year.”
“This adds to the evidence against there being a substantial increased risk in mobile phone users. This is consistent with most, but not all, similar studies done in other countries,” he says.
Professor Elwood says these studies together suggest that previous reports of large increases in risk in mobile phone users are likely to be incorrect.
“But a study of this type cannot exclude a small risk, or one limited to a certain subtype of cancers, or a risk only arising after more than about 15 years of phone use,” he says.
“We have no explanation for the decrease in brain cancers in New Zealand,” says Professor Elwood. “In people aged over 70 years, there was an increase in some types of brain cancer. This has been seen in other countries and is likely to relate to improved diagnosis.”
The research team included research student, Stella Kim, research fellow Sally Ioannides and Professor Elwood who is a professor in the cancer epidemiology section of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Population Health, University of Auckland.
For media enquiries email s.phillips@auckland.ac.nz
–
]]>University writer shortlisted for International Short Story Award
MIL OSI –
Source: University Of Auckland – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: University writer shortlisted for International Short Story Award
University of Auckland lecturer and award-winning fiction writer Paula Morris has made the shortlist of six for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, the world’s richest prize for a single short story.
Paula’s story, False River, was announced as one of the 19 short stories on this year’s long list in February. In an international line-up of writers, she is the only author from the Southern Hemisphere in contention for the award.
The other five on the shortlist are Elizabeth McCracken, Scott O’Connor, and Yiyun Li, from America; Rebecca John from England and Canadian Madeleine Thien.
Well-known actors will perform the shortlisted stories at two reading evenings at Foyles, Charing Cross Road, London on April 22 and 23.
The winner will be announced on April 24 at a gala dinner at the Stationers’ Hall in London.
The award — now in its sixth year, and worth £30,000 to the winner — has always attracted an impressive list of names. Previous winners and shortlisted writers have included the Pulitzer prize winners Adam Johnson, Junot Diaz and Elizabeth Strout, the double Man Booker-winner Hilary Mantel, and fellow New Zealander CK Stead.
“I’m thrilled to be shortlisted alongside such excellent fiction writers,” Paula says. She was informed of the shortlisting last week, but announcements were embargoed until Sunday. “I’ve just arrived back in New Zealand from the UK, and now I have to return in April for the various events. It’s especially exciting to have the story performed in public by an actor.”
False River is set in Louisiana, and draws on some of Paula’s experiences ten years ago as a Hurricane Katrina evacuee.
Like two of the other writers on the shortlist – Elizabeth McCracken and Yiyun Li – Paula is a graduate of the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the US. She recently returned to Auckland after teaching at the University of Iowa, Tulane University in New Orleans and the University of Sheffield in the UK, and is the new convenor of the University of Auckland’s Master in Creative Writing (MCW) course.
Paula’s novel Rangatira (2011) won the fiction categories at the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards and the Nga Kupu Ora Maori Book Awards. Her short story collection, Forbidden Cities, was a regional finalist for the 2009 Commonwealth Prize, and her stories have been published and broadcast in New Zealand, the UK and the US.
Contact
Anna Kellett, Media Relations Adviser
Email: anna.kellett@auckland.ac.nz
–
]]>Prime Minister to slash Remuneration Authority’s power
MIL OSI –
Source: National Party – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: MPs’ remuneration to be changed
Prime Minister John Key today announced an overhaul of the Remuneration Authority Act, tying MP salaries to those of the wider public sector, which will be passed under urgency.
Mr Key says the decision was made after the Remuneration Authority’s latest determination which saw the total remuneration received by MPs increased by about 3.5 per cent.
“That increase was neither necessary nor justified at a time when inflation is at 0.8 per cent,” says Mr Key.
“While the decision was made independently of MPs, they should not be receiving increases which are disproportionate to the wider public sector.”
Mr Key says the Remuneration Authority referred specifically to the criteria contained in the Remuneration Authority Act 1977 as the reason for the increases, therefore a law change was necessary.
The change will take away the Authority’s discretion when setting MP pay. The sole criteria will now be the average public sector pay increase for the previous year.
Mr Key says the decision to remove the Authority’s discretion was not taken lightly, given that it changed a practice going back several decades.
“However, it is clear that changing the criteria upon which that rate is set is the only way to ensure the Authority will start handing down more modest pay increases.”
The new legislation will be backdated to 1 July 2014, meaning the pay increase outlined in the latest determination will not be awarded.
Based on the most recent data, total remuneration will instead increase by something in the range of 1 – 2 per cent, reflecting average wage growth in the public sector.
Ministers anticipate more detailed advice from officials on the measure to be used, which will be set out in the legislation, likely to be introduced in the next sitting session.
–
]]>Serious assault accused in Court
Headline: Serious assault accused in Court
Auckland City
A 34 year-old man will make a first appearance in the Auckland District Court today to face charges in relation to an alleged home invasion incident in Eden Terrace’s Karaka St on December 2, 2014, during which time a woman was seriously assaulted in her home.
The man is accused of burglary and wounding with intent to cause injury.
Issued by Noreen Hegarty
Auckland City Police communications manager
—
]]>
Canadian soldiers depart for Operation REASSURANCE in Eastern and Central Europe
MIL OSI – Source: Government of Canada – MIL OSI National News – Press Release/Statement
Headline: Canadian soldiers depart for Operation REASSURANCE in Eastern and Central Europe
OTTAWA — Media are invited to a photo opportunity when approximately 125 soldiers from 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment (3 RCR), depart Petawawa, Ontario, on March 2, 2015, for a deployment as part of Operation REASSURANCE.
Cheryl Gallant, Member of Parliament for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, will attend the event to wish the troops well on their deployment.
The 3 RCR contingent is a part of 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, based in Garrison Petawawa, Ontario. Operation REASSURANCE refers to the military activities undertaken by the Canadian Armed Forces to support NATO reassurance measures through the provision of military capabilities for training, exercises, demonstrations and assigned NATO tasks.
WHAT: Departure of soldiers for a deployment on Operation REASSURANCE.
WHEN: Monday, March 2, 2015, at 9 h 30 (EST).
WHERE: Garrison Petawawa
– 30 –
Notes to editor / news director:
Media must pre-register. The rendezvous point will be at the front gate at 9h15 a.m. and media will be escorted onto Garrison.
Contacts
Lieutenant J-F Carpentier
2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Public Affairs Officer
Phone: 613-687-5511 Ext 6351
Cell: 613-633-7896
Email: jean-francois.carpentier@forces.gc.ca
Media Relations
Department of National Defence
Phone: 613-996-2353
Toll-Free: 1-866-377-0811
Email: mlo-blm@forces.gc.ca
–]]>
Labour’s mistake on US bombing in Iraq
Headline: Labour’s mistake on US bombing in Iraq It was good to see two of National’s allies, the Maori Party and United Future, coming out against New Zealand’s military contribution to the US-led coalition in Iraq. Interestingly, United Future’s Peter Dunne took a stronger antiwar stand than Labour in Tuesday’s parliamentary debate.
Unlike Labour’s Andrew Little, who is supporting US air strikes in Iraq, Dunne highlighted the problems with Western military intervention, arguing that “when one looks at the history of engagement in the Middle East, over a long period of time… one constant has been that external intervention has inevitably produced failure. “ The “consequence [of military intervention] has been an ingrained and increasing sense of disillusionment and bitterness that gives rise to the next form of expression we might regard as extremist and unacceptable, and which we recognise today as ISIL. So we can go on doing what we have done. We can go on repeating the mistakes of the past. We might feel good that we are making a contribution, but we will not be fundamentally changing anything.”
Later in the debate Green co-leader Russel Norman made a similar point, that “after half a century of Western military adventures in the Middle East, many, if not most, New Zealanders now know that it has only made things worse.”
If Andrew Little studied the history of US bombing missions in the Middle East he would have to admit that Dunne and Norman are right.
For example, Libya is now a total mess – just four years after US, British and French planes came to the aid of the anti-Gaddafi forces. Yes, Gaddafi fell but what message did the rebel factions take from the victory? That military power is everything. Now the armed rebel factions (including IS) have filled the political vacuum and are fighting among themselves. The result has been a social and economic catastrophe for the Libyan people. In 2011 peace was never given a chance, even though the African Union was deeply involved in negotiations for an orderly transition from the Gaddafi regime to more democratic Libya. America, Britain and France ignored the African Union initiative and began the disastrous bombing.
As in Iraq today, the bombing of Libya was explained as urgent and necessary to prevent a massacre. We were told that Gaddafi’s forces were at the gates of Benghazi. No one doubts that the battle for Benghazi could have been bloody, but the overall result of the bombing that year was more people dying, right across Libya. The killing has continued, in one form or another, to the present. The nation is now fractured in a manner that is going to be difficult to rectify.
Similar fratricidal killing followed the US bombing of Iraq in 2003, with the more extreme Shia and Sunni militias attacking each other’s communities. The more recent US bombing against IS targets is probably increasing communal revenge attacks, from both IS and the Shia militias. Such communal hostility is also helping IS recruit Sunni youth.
In his speech to Parliament Andrew Little recognized that IS recruited from the “dispossessed” and the “marginalised”. Unfortunately the number of marginalised and dispossessed youth is growing as US bombing destroys oil installations and other economic infrastructure in the Sunni heartland.
US bombing has also increased the flow of IS recruits from Western countries, some of whom seem to have been radicalised by the suffocating attention paid to them by intelligence agencies. In the highly publicized case of Mohammed Emwazi (“Jihadi John”) the effort to stop him leaving Britain seems to have made him keener to leave. He earlier told the human rights group CAGE the he felt like “a person imprisoned and controlled by security service men, stopping me from living my new life in my birthplace and my country Kuwait.” The increased surveillance powers granted to Western intelligence agencies can be counter-productive.
– –
]]>
Plunket needs your hugs!
Headline: Plunket needs your hugs!
Next week (2-8 March) is Plunket’s Annual ‘Bear Hug’ Appeal and Plunket volunteers are getting out and about to raise funds for local and regional services for children and their families.
Plunket has been welcomed into the homes of New Zealand families for over 100 years – giving New Zealand parents the support they need to nurture healthy, happy kiwi babies.
To keep Plunket services going, volunteers are once again fundraising in a range of ways across the country – from taking to the streets with Plunket mascot ‘Big Blue’ for a street collection, through to Teddy Bear picnics where people can make a gold coin donation while joining in the fun.
“Each year, the New Zealand community help us continue to provide support to local families when they need it most by supporting our Bear Hug Appeal in March – we’re grateful to everyone who donates, and to all the volunteers who fundraise for us,” said Plunket’s New Zealand President Andree Talbot.
“We’re heavily reliant on the funds raised during our appeal. While Plunket’s free home and clinic visits are government funded, we rely on community fundraising to provide all our other support services.
“When you make a donation it helps fund your local Plunket services such as parent support groups, playgroups, car seat services, parenting education programmes, toy libraries and much more.
“Plunket’s volunteers work with Plunket staff to ensure every family in the community has access to the Plunket services they need.
“Plunket is a kiwi icon, as much a part of our culture as hokey pokey and pavlova! Nine out of 10 New Zealanders are ‘Plunket babies’. We want to be around for another 100 years but to do that we need community support”.
Find out more at plunket.org.nz or go to your local BNZ to donate.
For more information contact:
Jen Riches | Plunket Media Manager | 021 405 842 | jen.riches@plunket.org.nz
About Plunket
For over a century Plunket has supported New Zealand parents to nurture healthy, happy kiwi babies.
Plunket is a not-for-profit organisation and is New Zealand’s largest provider of services to support the health and development of children under five.
Plunket is dedicated to working with parents and communities to ensure that New Zealand children get the best start in life. Plunket’s services help families nationwide, through over 300 branches, mobile clinics and a free phone service PlunketLine, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (0800 933 922).
Plunket services are available free to families in New Zealand with children aged 0 to 5. As registered nurses with a postgraduate qualification, Plunket nurses are able to offer high standards of expertise and a range of services to families.
For more information visit plunket.org.nz
About BNZ – Principal Sponsor
Bank of New Zealand is proud to work hand in hand with Plunket to bring young New Zealand families support when they need it most.
BNZ is proud to have been a part of New Zealand since 1861 and looks forward to supporting another organisation that has been integral to our country’s upbringing.
– –
]]>
Lower dairy prices continue to push down terms of trade
Headline: Lower dairy prices continue to push down terms of trade
The merchandise (goods) terms of trade fell 1.9 percent in the December 2014 quarter, due to export prices falling and import prices rising, Statistics New Zealand said today. This is the second consecutive fall in the terms of trade, following six increases in a row.
Seasonally adjusted export volumes rose 1.5 percent, while the price of exported goods fell 1.8 percent, both led by dairy. Excluding dairy, export prices rose about 4.9 percent. Higher meat and forestry prices partly offset the fall in dairy prices.
“Dairy prices fell 15 percent in the December quarter,” prices manager Chris Pike said. “They are now 28 percent below a recent peak in the March 2014 quarter, and are at their lowest level since early 2013.”
Seasonally adjusted dairy values fell 9.6 percent, while seasonally adjusted volumes rose 2.7 percent.
Meat prices rose 12 percent, influenced by higher prices for beef. Beef prices rose 23 percent to reach their highest level since the series began in 1971. Seasonally adjusted meat volumes rose 4.2 percent and values rose 15 percent.
Forestry prices rose 8.4 percent, influenced by higher prices for pine logs. Seasonally adjusted forestry volumes rose 7.4 percent and values rose 13 percent.
Seasonally adjusted import volumes rose 1.6 percent, led by intermediate goods. Imported goods prices were up 0.2 percent. There were several upward contributors, influenced by the lower New Zealand dollar, particularly against the US dollar. Offsetting these increases was a 10 percent fall in the price of petroleum and petroleum products.
The price and volume indexes for exports and imports of goods are compiled mainly from overseas merchandise trade data.
Ends
For media enquiries contact: Chris Pike, Wellington 04 931 4600, info@stats.govt.nz
Authorised by Teresa Dickinson, Acting Government Statistician, 2 March 2015
– –
]]>
Hokianga Artist in Residence
Headline: Hokianga Artist in Residence
Apply now to be the 2015 Hokianga artist in residence.
This ten week residency offers free accommodation, a small supplementary fee and space to create in an inspiring environment. It’s open to practising artists for whom the environment plays a significant part in their new work.
The residency will take place at Rawene Art Park, set in four acres of park-like grounds with stunning harbour views.
It includes accommodation in a studio unit with kitchenette and ensuite bathroom plus use of all facilities including artist’s studio at no cost plus $200 per week to supplement living expenses.
Applications close 16 March, 2015.
For more information and application forms contact Linda Blincko creativeinitiativestrust@gmail.com
—
]]>
Statement by the President on the Murder of Boris Nemtsov
MIL OSI – Source: United States White House statements – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Statement by the President on the Murder of Boris Nemtsov
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
February 27, 2015
[caption id="attachment_582" align="alignleft" width="300"]
US president, Barack Obama. Image: White House.[/caption]The United States condemns the brutal murder of Boris Nemtsov, and we call upon the Russian government to conduct a prompt, impartial, and transparent investigation into the circumstances of his murder and ensure that those responsible for this vicious killing are brought to justice.
Nemtsov was a tireless advocate for his country, seeking for his fellow Russian citizens the rights to which all people are entitled.
I admired Nemtsov’s courageous dedication to the struggle against corruption in Russia and appreciated his willingness to share his candid views with me when we met in Moscow in 2009.
We offer our sincere condolences to Boris Efimovich’s family, and to the Russian people, who have lost one of the most dedicated and eloquent defenders of their rights.
—
]]>
OSCE PA President expresses outrage, calls for justice following murder of Boris Nemtsov
MIL OSI –
Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: OSCE PA President expresses outrage, calls for justice following murder of Boris Nemtsov
COPENHAGEN, 28 February 2015 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) today issued the following statement on the murder of Russian opposition leader and former First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov on Friday night in Moscow:
“I am outraged and appalled at the news of Boris Nemtsov’s murder. On behalf of the parliamentarians of the OSCE, I call on Russian authorities to uncover the truth behind this killing and bring its planners and perpetrators to justice. I sincerely hope that a swift and comprehensive investigation will dispel fears that Mr. Nemtsov was targeted for his political views and outspokenness in criticizing the Russian government, including its recent actions in Ukraine, as well as corruption in the country.
“Boris Nemtsov will be remembered as a passionate man who fought for what he believed was best for Russia and its people, knowing full well the dangers that came with his work. I express my condolences to his family, friends and supporters.”
– –
]]>
Kaspersky Internet Security Wins AV-Test’s Best Performance Award 2014
MIL OSI –
Source: Kaspersky Lab – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Kaspersky Internet Security Wins AV-Test’s Best Performance Award 2014
27 Feb 2015
Comparative Tests, Product news
AV-Test, an independent research company, has collated the results of its 2014 tests and given Kaspersky Internet Security the Best Performance Award for its minimal impact on system performance.
Throughout the past year, AV-Test experts regularly tested the impact of security products on computer performance. In all the assessments of products for home users, Kaspersky Internet Security proved its superiority. With the solution running and Kaspersky Internet Security’s reliable protection in place, researchers did not encounter any decrease in PC performance when opening web pages, downloading applications from the Internet, copying data or installing software.
With a new version of Kaspersky Internet Security released in summer 2014, both versions were tested during the year and were found to perform equally well. The AV-Test experts also noted the solution’s high scores in the Protection and Usability category tests.
“Kaspersky Lab Internet Security is an absolutely reliable product that consistently met our high test requirements throughout the entire year of 2014,” commented Andreas Marx, CEO AV-Test GmbH.
“In a constantly changing threat landscape, Kaspersky Lab keeps the ‘combat-readiness’ of its solutions at a high level. Most importantly, this is achieved by improving protection technologies rather than increasing the load on the computer’s resources,” said Timur Biyachuev, Director of Anti-Malware research, Kaspersky Lab.
Kaspersky Internet Security was not the only Kaspersky Lab product to be recognized by AV-Test on the basis of tests carried out during 2014. In August 2014, the Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool was named winner of the Best Repair 2014 category for its effectiveness in cleaning up infected systems. Kaspersky Lab is the only company to win awards in two different AV-Test Award categories in 2014.
–
]]>
World Cup Cricket: Police happy with behaviour at blockbuster match
MIL OSI –
Source: New Zealand Police – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Police happy with behaviour at blockbuster match
Saturday, 28 February 2015 – 8:55pm
Auckland City Police are pleased with the behaviour of the crowd at today’s blockbuster ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 match between New Zealand and Australia at Eden Park. More than 40,000 fans enjoyed the family-friendly atmosphere of the venue and only one arrest was made.
Auckland City Police Operational Commander for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Inspector Peter Gibson says that the event was a great demonstration of the world-class events that Auckland hosts.
“Overall the event ran smoothly and while there was some congestion experienced with moving the crowd in and out of the stadium before and after the game, from a Police perspective it can be considered a success,” he says.
The arrest made was for a behaviour offence.
“Only 21 people were evicted from the stadium for various reasons including intoxication and inappropriate behaviour. However we feel that the majority of the crowd was there to enjoy the game, and enjoy the game they did.
“The nailbiting result for the Blackcaps just added to the festivities of the day.
“We hope that today’s experience is exemplary of the next three ICC Cricket World Cup games that take place in Auckland.”
–
]]>Wild Giant Panda Population Increases Nearly 17%
MIL OSI –
Source: World Wildlife Fund – Press Release/Statement:
Headline: Wild Giant Panda Population Increases Nearly 17%
The number of wild giant pandas has increased nearly 17% over the last decade, according to a new survey conducted by the Chinese government.
Figures released today by the Chinese government show that the global population of wild giant pandas has reached 1,864 – up from 1,596 when their numbers were last surveyed in 2003.
A symbol of wildlife conservation, giant pandas are only found in China’s Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
“The rise in the population of wild giant pandas is a victory for conservation and definitely one to celebrate,” said Ginette Hemley, Senior Vice President of Wildlife Conservation, World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
“This increase in the population of wild giant pandas is a testament to the commitment made by the Chinese government for the last 30-plus years to wild panda conservation,” Hemley said. “WWF is grateful to have had the opportunity to partner with the Chinese government to contribute to panda conservation efforts.”
According to the Fourth National Giant Panda Survey, 1246 wild giant pandas live within nature reserves, accounting for 66.8% of the total wild population size and 53.8% of the total habitat area. There are currently 67 panda nature reserves in China, an increase of 27 since the last survey.
The report found the total area inhabited by wild giant pandas in China now equals 6,370,000 acres, an expansion of 11.8% since 2003.
Despite a positive trend in the number of wild giant pandas, the species still faces challenges. 46% of panda habitat and 33.2% of the population live outside of protected nature reserves. Habitat fragmentation – the separation of wildlife populations by physical barriers – is increasingly noticeable with about 12% individuals facing higher risks to their survival.
Though there appears to be a decline in traditional threats to pandas such as poaching, large-scale infrastructure projects like mining, hydro-power, and supporting roads and railroads are becoming more severe and were referenced in the survey for the first time.
WWF supports the government of China’s work by establishing panda nature reserves and a conservation network that integrates those reserves with forests farms and corridors of forest that allow pandas to find food and meet mates. The organization’s work ensures the legal protection of a large percentage of panda habitat and an improvement in how conservation efforts are carried out. WWF was also involved with the survey produced.
Xiaohai Liu, Executive Program Director, WWF-China said, “The survey result demonstrates the effectiveness of nature reserves in boosting wild giant panda numbers.”
–
– –
]]>
