MIL OSI – Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI – Former Federal Agents Charged with Bitcoin Money Laundering and Wire Fraud Two former federal agents have been charged with wire fraud, money laundering and related offenses for stealing digital currency during their investigation of the Silk Road, an underground black market that allowed users to conduct illegal transactions over the Internet. The charges are contained in a federal criminal complaint issued on March 25, 2015, in the Northern District of California and unsealed today. Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag of the Northern District of California, Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson of the FBI’s San Francisco Division, Special Agent in Charge José M. Martinez of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation’s (IRS-CI) San Francisco Division, Special Agent in Charge Michael P. Tompkins of the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General Washington Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Lori Hazenstab of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General in Washington D.C. made the announcement. Carl M. Force, 46, of Baltimore, was a Special Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Shaun W. Bridges, 32, of Laurel, Maryland, was a Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service (USSS). Both were assigned to the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force, which investigated illegal activity in the Silk Road marketplace. Force served as an undercover agent and was tasked with establishing communications with a target of the investigation, Ross Ulbricht, aka “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Force is charged with wire fraud, theft of government property, money laundering and conflict of interest. Bridges is charged with wire fraud and money laundering. According to the complaint, Force was a DEA agent assigned to investigate the Silk Road marketplace. During the investigation, Force engaged in certain authorized undercover operations by, among other things, communicating online with “Dread Pirate Roberts” (Ulbricht), the target of his investigation. The complaint alleges, however, that Force then, without authority, developed additional online personas and engaged in a broad range of illegal activities calculated to bring him personal financial gain. In doing so, the complaint alleges, Force used fake online personas, and engaged in complex Bitcoin transactions to steal from the government and the targets of the investigation. Specifically, Force allegedly solicited and received digital currency as part of the investigation, but failed to report his receipt of the funds, and instead transferred the currency to his personal account. In one such transaction, Force allegedly sold information about the government’s investigation to the target of the investigation. The complaint also alleges that Force invested in and worked for a digital currency exchange company while still working for the DEA, and that he directed the company to freeze a customer’s account with no legal basis to do so, then transferred the customer’s funds to his personal account. Further, Force allegedly sent an unauthorized Justice Department subpoena to an online payment service directing that it unfreeze his personal account. Bridges allegedly diverted to his personal account over $800,000 in digital currency that he gained control of during the Silk Road investigation. The complaint alleges that Bridges placed the assets into an account at Mt. Gox, the now-defunct digital currency exchange in Japan. He then allegedly wired funds into one of his personal investment accounts in the United States mere days before he sought a $2.1 million seizure warrant for Mt. Gox’s accounts. Bridges self-surrendered today and will appear before Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James of the Northern District of California at 9:30 a.m. PST this morning. Force was arrested on Friday, March 27, 2015, in Baltimore and will appear before Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Sullivan of the District of Maryland at 2:30 p.m. EST today. The charges contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The case was investigated by the FBI’s San Francisco Division, the IRS-CI’s San Francisco Division, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General and the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General in Washington D.C. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also provided assistance with the investigation of this case. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn Haun and William Frentzen of the Northern District of California and Trial Attorney Richard B. Evans of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. – –]]>
East Asia and the Pacific: Criminal Charges Filed against Protesters in Burma
MIL OSI – Source: United States Department of State – East Asia and the Pacific: Criminal Charges Filed against Protesters in Burma The United States State Department has issued a statement of concern after Burma authorities laid criminal charges against peaceful protesters. The US State Department “… is concerned by reports that the Government of Burma has filed criminal charges against peaceful protesters engaged in campaign activities advocating reform of the National Education Law. “We call for the immediate, unconditional release of all individuals being detained in the country as a result of exercising their right to peacefully assemble. “Transparency, accountability, and justice are vital for the Burmese Government’s expressed goals of social stability, peace, and democracy. “We strongly urge an impartial and credible investigation into the events of March 5 and 10, in cooperation with civil society, that would hold accountable all those involved in the violence, including security forces who applied excessive force. Only an impartial investigation and accounting will advance the country’s goals of mutual trust and national reconciliation and avoid deepening division.” –]]>
New steps against kauri dieback – Govt
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Government – New steps against kauri dieback
Conservation Minister Maggie Barry today announced the Albany Scenic Reserve in Auckland will be closed until further notice to prevent the spread of kauri dieback.
The 40 hectare Department of Conservation reserve is infested with the spores which cause dieback, a disease ravaging New Zealand’s forest giants. Several kauri trees growing next to the track through the reserve are visibly infected with it.
“Closing the reserve was not a decision I took lightly, but as we go into winter the threat posed to our majestic kauri by dieback requires decisive action,” Ms Barry says. “The risk of someone unwittingly spreading the disease from Albany to healthy trees is simply too great to be ignored.”
“I am also announcing the start of a major track upgrade programme which is aimed at keeping 400km of paths through kauri forests elsewhere open. This is the beginning of a roll-out of measures to contain the spread of the disease.”
“It may be necessary to close other kauri forests on DOC land in future and I am taking advice about where else it might be required.”
Kauri dieback, caused by the microscopic spore Phytophthora taxon Agathis (PTA), attacks the tree’s roots and destroys tissues which carry water and nutrients, gradually starving kauri to death. Nearly all infected trees die and there is currently no cure.
PTA can be spread easily through mud and water contaminating footwear, vehicle tyres and machinery without proper disinfection.
“Dieback has spread through the North Island forests and represents the single biggest threat the species has ever faced. The Government is committed to ensuring the disease is met and beaten,” Ms Barry says.
Last year’s budget gave the Department of Conservation $21.6 million towards upgrading tracks through kauri forest to prevent the spread of dieback.
$10.7 million will be spent on track improvements and another $10.9 million on operational costs over four years.
More than 100km of paths will be upgraded to remove mud from the track surface, 5km of boardwalks installed to keep feet clear of the tree’s root systems and 300 new cleaning stations set up at track entrances and exits.
Signage will also be upgraded to ensure the public are fully informed of the threat and do what they can to prevent its spread.
Meanwhile, the multi-agency Kauri Dieback Management Programme continues research into the cause of the disease, its spread and possible treatments.
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Law change proposed to ban cosmetic testing on animals
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Government – Headline: Law change to ban cosmetic testing on animals
The Government will introduce a change to the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill to ban the use of animals for testing finished cosmetic products and ingredients, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has announced today.
“To the best of our knowledge there never has been any animal testing for cosmetics in New Zealand, but this amendment will send an important message that this kind of testing is unacceptable to New Zealanders and will never happen here.”
Mr Guy has introduced a new Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) to the Bill before it is expected to be debated later today.
The new SOP bans animal testing in New Zealand for finished cosmetic products and ingredients, where those ingredients are being tested for the exclusive purpose of developing a cosmetic.
“The Government has decided to introduce an alternative to the original SOP introduced by Green MP Mojo Mathers because of concerns the wording may have been too broad. This could lead to unintended consequences such as banning testing on ingredients in medicines that New Zealanders depend on.
“I want to thank Mojo Mathers for her work on this issue. Although the Government has introduced slightly alternative wording, this amendment still captures the principle of her SOP.
“It’s important to note we already have a strong framework for any animal testing done in New Zealand. Any testing for products like medicines has to be approved by an independent ethics committee and has to show the benefits will outweigh any harm caused.”
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Woman dies after crash between vehicle and a mobility scooter in Levin
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Police – Woman dies after crash
A woman has died in hospital after a collision between a vehicle and a mobility scooter on Oxford Street, Levin, on Thursday 26 March, 2015.
The crash happened at approximately 4pm and emergency services attended the scene.
Preliminary indications suggest the woman, who was riding the mobility scooter, was waiting on a median strip on the road when the collision occurred.
The woman sustained serious injuries and was rushed to Palmerston North Hospital, however she passed away yesterday (30 March, 2015) in the presence of her family.
She was Marie Hall, aged 83, of Levin.
Levin Police assisted by the Serious Crash Unit are investigating and inquiries are ongoing to determine the factors behind the crash.
Officers are continuing to speak to the male driver of the vehicle who did not sustain any injuries but was left shaken from the crash.
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]]>Time to show RMA housing affordability plans – Labour
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Labour Party – Time to show RMA housing affordability plans Labour is challenging the Government to reveal its plans to make housing more affordable through amending the Resource Management Act, Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says. “Labour remains willing to consider the proposals on housing affordability on their merits and will work constructively with the Government if they stack up. “Nick Smith has blamed the RMA for the housing crisis. That is nuts. It is yet another attempt to scapegoat others for the failure of National’s housing policy. Under National, Auckland building rates are 40 per cent less than they were under Labour in 2004 – under the very same RMA. “Today’s underwhelming consent data shows building rates are persistently falling far below what Auckland needs just to keep up with population growth. “Labour’s view is a National Policy Statement under the RMA on affordable housing is the best way to change how Councils administer the Act. “But if the Government has other ideas on RMA reform that will ease the housing crisis, we are all ears. “If the Government is not willing to put its cards on the table, then we can only conclude that all the talk of housing affordability was just a way of dressing up its deeply unpopular attempt to gut the RMA’s environmental principles,” Phil Twyford says. –]]>
Revised controls for moving purchased fruit and vegetables outside the Fruit Fly Controlled Area
MIL OSI – Source: Ministry for Primary Industries – Revised controls for moving purchased fruit and vegetables outside the Fruit Fly Controlled Area
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) today announced changes to the movement controls for fruit and vegetables in the Queensland fruit fly Controlled Area.
These changes will enable customers to purchase fruit and vegetables from MPI-Approved Retailers within the Controlled Area that they can take outside of the Controlled Area.
“For the public and the retailers approved by MPI, it will mean that shopping for fresh produce within the Controlled Zone will be getting closer to normal,” says Veronica Herrera, Director, Investigation, Diagnostic Centres and Response.
“MPI-Approved Retailers will be required to take precautions when purchasing and selling fresh produce, to avoid potentially spreading Queensland fruit fly. They will source all fruit and vegetables for sale from outside the Controlled Area, and protect the produce from exposure to Queensland fruit fly during transit to stores. Some retailers may also be required to cover fruit and vegetables in their store with a fruit fly resistant mesh so that fruit flies cannot lay eggs on the produce.”
Approved retailers will be required to seal the fresh produce in a supermarket plastic bag so customers are able to safely move it out of the Controlled Area. Customers may not remove the fruit from the plastic bag until it is outside the Controlled Area. MPI requires that customers keep their receipt as proof of purchase when they move the produce out of the Controlled Area.
“The Horticulture industry has been fully supportive of these changes and is working with MPI and retailers in the Controlled Area to source fresh produce that can be purchased, transported and sold under the new movement controls,” says Dr Herrera.
People will be able to identify approved retailers in the Controlled Area as they will display this MPI poster .
A list of approved retailers and more information is available on MPI’s website: http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/pests/queensland-fruit-fly
–]]>Local Government invited to support UFB, RBI and Mobile Black Spot programmes
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment MBIE – Local Government invited to support UFB, RBI and Mobile Black Spot programmes
31 March 2015
Local authorities are being asked to get involved in identifying the next priorities and ways they can support better connectivity of broadband and mobile coverage in their areas.
Examples of the actions local authorities could take to support their bid for better connectivity include:
- working with residents and businesses to identify opportunities for broadband use and support rapid uptake
- developing a Digital Enablement Plan for the community
- facilitating consent processes for new infrastructure
- making deployment quicker and less expensive by providing information about existing infrastructure
- providing assistance in developing or operating new sites (for example, by making land available or providing access or track maintenance).
Submissions are due by 3 July 2015.
Read more about the programmes and register your interest on MBIE’s Economic Development Information website.
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]]>Seeking fish for injured yellow-eyed penguins
MIL OSI – Source: Department of Conservation – Seeking fish for injured yellow-eyed penguins Only six days of fish stock remains to feed 77 threatened yellow-eyed penguins in penguin rehabilitation centres in Otago. The penguins have been hospitalised over the last five weeks after suffering lacerations to their feet, legs and abdomen following attacks by barracouta, a predatory fish on the Otago coast. A shortage of salmon smolt, which are the optimal food for hospitalised penguins, has lead to Penguin Place on Otago Peninsula and the Penguin Rescue Trust in North Otago to look for alternative fish to feed their patients.
Penguin Place’s rehabilitation co-ordinator Julia Reid said any offers of fish would be greatly appreciated. “We’ve used fish such as silverside and smooth oreo dory before, but they are larger and need to be cut to size before feeding. We need fish that are 10-20cm long (able to be fed whole) and untreated.” At present Penguin Place has only six days fish supply remaining for 57 penguins in care.
Penguin Rescue Trust Manager Rosalie Goldsworthy said she was keen to hear from anyone who can supply the trust with untreated bait fish, preferably with a high fat content, in the range of 100 to 200 gram smolts. The trust is treating 20 penguins at its facility. Department of Conservation (DOC) Coastal Otago Services Manager David Agnew said adult penguins in rehabilitation need to moult within the next month, which requires them to near-double their body weight for the 24-day fast as they replace their feathers with a new waterproof set.“The penguins removed from the wild for veterinary care and rehabilitation will have an average stay of 24 days in care before being released back to their breeding site. So far, four adults had been released back to the Catlins, and more will be released in coming weeks as the birds are fattened for their moult,” David said.
He thanked St Kilda Veterinary Centre, Massey University’s Wildbase, Wellington Zoo and Air New Zealand for helping to treat penguins with extensive injuries that require longer-term surgery and hospital care that cannot be given in Otago. The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust is co-ordinating the appeal for fish or donations.Background information
Penguin Place thanks fish suppliers that have supported them so far – King Salmon, Akaroa Salmon and Sanfords. As of today, Penguin Place had received an offer of 2 tonnes of silverside and 1 tonne of jack mackerel from Ngai Tahu Fisheries. This will keep the penguins fed for a while but rehab centres are still keen to hear of any other offers, particularly salmon smolt. – -]]>New dwelling consents decreased in February
MIL OSI – Source: Statistics New Zealand – New dwelling consents decreased in February The number of new dwellings consented was 0.6 percent lower in February 2015 than in February 2014, Statistics New Zealand said today. “The trend for new dwellings has more than doubled since March 2011,” business indicators manager Neil Kelly said. “But it is now showing signs of decreasing after generally increasing for almost four years.” The seasonally adjusted number of new dwellings consented decreased 6.3 percent in February 2015. Excluding apartments, this number fell 1.4 percent. A total of 1,758 new dwellings were consented in February 2015 (including 160 apartments). The regions that consented the most new dwellings were:
- Auckland – 528 (including 98 apartments)
- Canterbury – 517 (including 62 apartments)
- Waikato – 195.
- all buildings – up $136 million (12 percent) to $1.2 billion
- residential work – up $43 million (5.9 percent) to $769 million
- non-residential work – up $93 million (25 percent) to $469 million.
Homicide investigation launched following assault at Christchurch Men’s Prison
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Police – Homicide investigation launched following assault at Christchurch Men’s Prison
New Zealand can hold its head high, sports professor says
MIL OSI – New Zealand can hold its head high, sports professor says New Zealand can hold its head high, sports professor says
New Zealand can hold its head high in the cricketing world, University of Canterbury sports coaching professor Richard Light says.
The efforts and spirit of the team captivated the nation and took New Zealanders on an exciting ride to the pinnacle of one day cricket, the head of the university’s School of Sport and Physical Education says.
“The Black Caps played the Cricket World Cup in a way that represented the spirit of New Zealand, making a very positive statement to the world about New Zealand.
“They played with confidence, aggression, belief in themselves and the team and were a joy to watch. They were fearless, and as one of Australia’ most combative captains, Steve Waugh, asked his teams to do, left nothing on the field. Any team that does that can never have any regrets.
“The final was probably a little disappointing but the team’s performance at the tournament is beyond criticism. The team played the same way in the final that had taken them unbeaten through the rest of the tournament but on this occasion their lack of experience at this level was probably a disadvantage.
“Playing in front of 93,000 spectators in one of the greatest sport stadiums in the world with the weight of a nation on their shoulders is a tough ask, and particularly against a team like Australia that is so intensely competitive. Nobody choked – they did not quite play their best.
“New Zealand had been at the top their game for the entire tournament but it was widely assumed that if Australia were able to be at the top of their game in the final they would triumph.
“We should not let one game, even though it was the final, detract from the amazing achievement of the Black Caps and what they have done for New Zealand cricket.
“We should celebrate their fabulous achievement and look forward to the future. New Zealand has now emerged as a major player in world cricket and we should be ensuring that we build on this success.
“Prime Minister John Key said before the final that he expected huge growth in cricket among New Zealand girls and boys and this needs to be the focus of well thought out plans to grow the game. This is not only to boost the numbers playing cricket but also to follow the wonderful example set for the whole country by the Black Caps that goes beyond merely winning.
“The success of the Black Caps rested on a team-first ethos, belief in each other and the team as a collective, confidence and freedom of spirit that not only won games but won many fans in New Zealand and elsewhere. Above all, the spirit of sportsmanship and fair play demonstrated by the Black Caps set them apart from many other teams including Australia.
“The Black Caps provided a much-needed example of how teams can win without compromising the values and ethics of sport that are so often threatened. In this regard, New Zealand was the winner on Sunday night,” Professor Light says.
–]]>‘Remarkable’ professor retires after 45 years – Massey University
MIL OSI – Source: Massey University – ‘Remarkable’ professor retires after 45 years
Massey University’s longest serving academic, Professor of Animal Physiology Heather Simpson, has retired after 45 years on staff and more than 50 years at the university.
Professor Simpson started her PhD in 1965 when she also began demonstrating part-time. Her teaching roles have involved educating virtually every vet to have graduated from New Zealand since the course was first offered.
After completing her PhD, Professor Simpson continued to demonstrate part-time while also raising her two children. She then became a part-time lecturer in 1976, then a full-time senior lecturer in 1994, an associate professor in 2000 and was promoted to professorin 2007.
She has seen the veterinary degree grow over this time and says interests have changed.
“We started with about 30 students and now we are at over 100. People used to come in and say ‘I’m doing vet because I come from a sheep farm’ now they’re saying ‘I want to be a vet because of my love of my pony or cat’.”
She says her fondest memories are of meeting and getting to know students “especially in the smaller practical classes. Those classes were a lot of fun.” She has developed relationships with students from all over the world.
Professor Simpson has also served on numerous committees, including the University Research Committee and chaired the Palmerston North Research Committee. She was patron of the Veterinary Students Association, supervised 16 doctoral and 5 doctoral students and has more than 60 publications.
Her research has focussed on the biology of parasites found in the gut of sheep, an area she says is both an important health problem and interesting because it requires and understanding of “the relationship between two organisms and the struggle between them”.
Head of the Institute of Animal, Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences Professor Paul Kenyon says Professor Simpson has had a highly successful teaching and research career. “She has taught pretty much every Bachelor of Veterinary Science class since we started offering the degree. She is such an integral part of our team.”
Her husband, Dr Bruce Simpson, says he is extraordinarily proud of what his wife has achieved. “Biased as I might be, she is a remarkable women. Not only was did she love to mix with students, she worked with scientists across many disciplines.”
The previous longest-serving academic staff member was chemist Professor Sylvia Rumball, who had completed 42 years when she retired in 2009. College of Sciences Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Anderson also retired this week after 44 years with Massey.
Professor Simpson will continue to help her current PhD students and has an honorary position with AgResearch. However now she also has more time for her other interests: tending to her orchids, stamp and shell collections, and getting to the golf course more often.
“I have plenty of things to keep me occupied.”
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]]>New air services agreements strengthen global links – NZ Govt
MIL OSI – Source: National Party – New agreements strengthen global links The approval of 10 new and amended air services agreements, or arrangements, will strengthen global links for Kiwi travellers and businesses, Transport Minister Simon Bridges says. Cabinet has approved new air services agreements with Bahrain, Colombia, Egypt, Greece, Oman, Serbia and the Seychelles that will give greater options for New Zealanders travelling to those countries. It has also confirmed arrangements reached with the Czech Republic and Curaçao to provide opportunities for airlines to offer code-share services, where two or more airlines share the same flight. “The new arrangements mean that airlines from these countries will have the opportunity to offer services to New Zealand if they see commercial opportunities – unhindered by the regulatory barriers that characterise much of international aviation. “Similarly, New Zealand airlines now have the opportunity to offer services in these markets”, Mr Bridges says. An amendment to an agreement with China announced in November last year, has been confirmed, doubling the number of services airlines that can operate between both countries. “The amendment provides immediate opportunities for continued growth in air services between New Zealand and China following an increase in weekly services from three to 21 in the last four years,” Mr Bridges says. The agreements with Bahrain and Oman mean that New Zealand now has air services agreements with all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. “These agreements remove the barriers for Gulf carriers seeking to fly to New Zealand and will pave the way for stronger links with the Middle East, further underpinning the Government’s Gulf Trade Strategy,” Mr Bridges says. All 10 agreements or arrangements were negotiated by Ministry of Transport officials at the International Civil Aviation Negotiation Conference held in Indonesia in November 2014. Since the Government launched its International Air Transport Policy in August 2012, over 40 new or amended agreements have been negotiated. “The government will continue to seek opportunities to open and expand new and existing air links with other countries,” Mr Bridges says. More information about New Zealand’s international air services agreements is available on the Ministry of Transport’s website www.transport.govt.nz/air/internationalairservices Background information: International air services are highly regulated. Under a global system dating back to the 1940’s, airlines are only able to operate services between two countries where the governments involved have entered into a treaty-level arrangement referred to as an air services agreement. Air services agreements set the conditions under which international air services may be operated. There are several thousand bilateral air services agreements in-force globally, resulting in a complex web of regulation. –]]>
Turkey: Draconian reforms give police wide-ranging powers to repress dissent
MIL OSI – Source: Amnesty International NZ – Turkey: Draconian reforms give police wide-ranging powers to repress dissent
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| clashes between the Turkish riot police and the protestors around Taksim. June 2013 © Mehmet Kacmaz / NarPhotos | |
Survey shows complex views about New Zealand’s relationship with Asia
MIL OSI – Source: Asia New Zealand Foundation – Survey shows complex views about New Zealand’s relationship with Asia
New Zealanders feel more connected with and positive toward people from Asia, but less positive about the economic benefits of New Zealand’s relationship with the region, a new survey has found.
Respondents in the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s annual survey, New Zealanders’ Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples 2014, reported a higher level of involvement with Asian people and cultures and an increased sense of integration between Asian and non-Asian New Zealanders.
Contributors to the report commented that Asian people had become more visible in their own lives. They had Asian neighbours, colleagues and healthcare professionals. These personal connections had become more common and everyday, so they felt that Asians were ‘one of them’ in the community.
The survey also finds high levels of support for language learning in schools, with Chinese viewed as the most valuable foreign language to learn.
But survey respondents were less positive about the benefits of the New Zealand’s economic relationship with Asia, particularly when it came to investment. The survey found fewer people agreed with a survey statement that investment from Asia would have positive impacts on New Zealand’s economy (from 74 percent in 2013 down to 64 percent in 2014); and more people agreed with a survey statement that New Zealand was allowing too much investment from Asia (up from 36 to 41 percent).
Although still a minority, an increased number of people agreed with the statement that Asian people were responsible for rising house prices (up from 33 to 39 percent). This view was most likely to be held by Auckland residents (54 percent) but the survey also found greater numbers of Wellington residents shared this view than they did in 2013.
Asia New Zealand Foundation chairman John Luxton said the Foundation had been tracking New Zealanders’ opinions of Asia and its peoples since 1997. “The latest survey is nuanced and complex. It shows a growing acceptance of Asian people as part of the fabric of New Zealand life, and an increased understanding of the need for our education system to reflect the significance of Asia to New Zealand.
“The survey also shows some concerns about investment from Asia and the perceived impact of Asian buyers on the housing market, which perhaps isn’t surprising given the prominence of those issues in the media. Overseas investment from non-Asian countries and housing purchases by non-Asian buyers simply do not attract the same level of attention.
“However, the survey also shows that the majority of New Zealanders view the Asian region as important to New Zealand’s future, second only to Australia. In particular, they recognise the importance of exports to Asia and tourism from the region.”
Dr Andrew Robertson of Colmar Brunton, which carried out the survey for the Asia New Zealand Foundation, said it conveyed a sense that: “New Zealanders differentiate between individuals and corporations. They stand up for the individual and for small businesses. They are a bit more skeptical about companies coming to New Zealand and investing in New Zealand, and what they think that means for New Zealand jobs.”
The survey also found that eight out of 10 New Zealanders (83 percent) thought that school children should learn a language other than English. Chinese was most commonly named as the language school children should learn, but nearly five times as many secondary school students learn French as Chinese.
Mr Luxton says the Foundation has been working with partners on a range of initiatives to help boost the numbers of school students learning Asian languages. “This doesn’t mean that every New Zealand child should be compelled to learn Chinese but access to Asian languages needs to be equitable. Asian languages shouldn’t – and needn’t – come at the expense of te reo Māori. Children learning te reo will be better placed to pick up other languages.”
Asia New Zealand Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organisation dedicated to building New Zealand’s links with Asia through a range of programmes, including business, culture, education, media, research and a leadership network.
About the survey
New Zealanders’ Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples in 2014 was prepared for the Asia New Zealand Foundation by Colmar Brunton. The results are based on 1,000 telephone interviews carried out between 6 October and 9 November 2014, and a follow-up online forum. The results have a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.
In an accompanying podcast, Asia New Zealand Foundation director of research Dr Andrew Butcher discusses the survey findings with media specialist and Asia New Zealand Foundation trustee Trish Carter; New Zealand Institute of Economic Research principal economist Shamubeel Eaqub; and Victoria University of Wellington’s BNZ Chair in Business in Asia, Professor Siah Hwee Ang. Listen to the podcast
–]]>Bystanders jump into the water to rescue male in trouble
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Police – Bystanders jump into the water to rescue male in trouble
At approximately 10.35pm on Monday 30th March 2013 Wellington Police received a report of a male person in the water, near Burdons Gate in Eastbourne.
The male was yelling for help.
The following units responded
· Hutt Police
· Wellington Maritime Police
· Westpac Rescue Helicopter
· Ambulance Service, along with Eastbourne Volunteers and Seaview Fire Service
In the meantime persons on shore were trying to locate the location of the person in the water and once they located him with a torch, they saw he was in difficulty and his head went under water, at this stage he was more than 50 metres from shore.
Two members of the public, a male and a female entered the water and swam out to the male who had become unconsicous and managed to bring the male into shore, where they commenced CPR. Police staff along with Fire Service arrived a short time later and continued CPR and the male was taken to Hospital in a serious condition.
The identity of the male is not known at this stage:
He is described as a male Indian approximately mid twenties to mid thirties. He was wearing a Maroon colour short sleeved poloi shirt and a pair of black light weight trousers. He was not carrying any form of ID on him.
Police would like to hear from anyone who knows the identity of this male and they should contact the Lower Hutt Police on: (04) 560-2600
Senior Sergeant Andre Kowalczyk said that the actions of the two members of the public who entered the water is to be applauded, they did an excellent job in very difficult circumstances and their efforts to enter the water to save this mans life were exceptional. The two rescuers are both young people and their actions were extremly brave.
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]]>Litigious Approach to School Discipline Worrying Trend
MIL OSI – Source: Family First – Litigious Approach to School Discipline Worrying Trend
Media Release 30 March 2015
Family First is warning that a litigious approach to school disciplinary decisions will undermine the authority and special character of individual schools and has the potential to send some schools bankrupt. The comments come in response to two recent cases where parents have gone to court to challenge school rulings, including the St Bede’s rowers and the haircut ruling at Hasting’s St John’s College last year.
“Schools are working hard to instill values, discipline and respect in their students and they should be allowed to develop policies and rules to the benefit of the whole school community – not just the rights and demands of individual students and their parents,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ
“Parents rushing to courts and the decisions in these two most recent cases smack of politically correct human rights nonsense – especially ‘children’s rights’ – and shows a lack of respect to the role of authority and values of a particular school,” says Mr McCoskrie.
“The actions of the schools were reasonable and were not disproportionate, and were respected by the overwhelming majority of the wider school community. If parents don’t like the values of the school, they should challenge the rules through the Board of Trustees which is a representative group of parents anyway, or go elsewhere.”
“If every parent went to the court every time they disagreed with a decision, schools would quickly go bankrupt on legal fees,” says Mr McCoskrie.
“Where does this all stop? Can pupils now challenge for the right to have piercings all over their face, or to wear mufti rather than uniform, or to play in school sports teams despite wagging class throughout the term, or refusing to wear the required team uniform or attend practices?”
Family First has previously criticised a court ruling that overturned a St John’s College school decision to set a hair standard.
“We would encourage the Minister of Education to determine how to protect schools from expensive and inappropriate legal action, on behalf of many other schools who call for adherence to school rules, discipline, tidiness, and standards in their schools.” –]]>
Children Concerned About Sex, Violence in Media – Study
MIL OSI – Source: Family First – Children Concerned About Sex, Violence in Media – Study
Media Release 30 Mar 2015
Family First NZ says that the Children’s Media Use Study by NZ on Air and the BSA is sounding alarm bells about the levels of violence and sexual content being viewed by children 9-14 years old, and the concerns of the children themselves and also their parents.
The study shows that parents’ main concerns with television include children being exposed to violence (71%), sexual content (61%), adult programmes (40%), and bad language (39%). Online, it is children being exposed to sexual material (72%), violence (46%), unintentional access to inappropriate sites (44%), or adult sites (36%).
Three in five children said they have been exposed to some content on TV or online that they didn’t like, or that bothered or upset them. Exposure to aspects of violence, sex, pornography and inappropriate advertising has increased since 2007. Foul language is the most common type of challenging content heard on radio.
“The good news is that parents are being far more active in monitoring their children’s use – but why are children being exposed to this material in the first place. Our first concern should be the protection and welfare of children,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
“The Broadcasting Standards Authority which ironically commissioned the research have tried to argue that their standards are reflecting community standards and that there is a ‘softening’ of attitudes. However, it is quite clear that as they allow broadcasters to push the boundaries, the standards are lowered, offensive material becomes more mainstream, and is then used far more in the media. Families are now telling us that they think it is pointless complaining, yet they are more and more concerned about declining standards.”
“Also of concern is that only one in three parents have software on devices to prevent access to certain objectionable or inappropriate online sites,” says Mr McCoskrie.
In 2013 the BSA released a survey which shows that their own standards are out of sync with the views of the public. The survey, What not to Swear: The acceptability of words in Broadcasting, reveals that highly offensive words – deemed unacceptable by half of the respondents in their survey – can still be heard anytime from 8.30pm onwards on television in NZ, and often during so-called family movies.
“Parents are sick and tired of lunging for the remote to protect children from offensive and inappropriate content – including promos for upcoming adult-rated programmes during the early evening, and even during news programmes which children may be watching for educational purposes,” says Mr McCoskrie.
Family First continues to call for the development and enforcing of higher standards for TV, film, radio and advertising content including stronger censorship of violence, sexual content and objectionable language, and a complete overhaul of the BSA, ASA and Censorship Board with greater community and family representation. Family First has already called on the government to join the UK in having pornography blocked by their internet provider unless they specifically choose to receive it.
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NZDF Hard at Work in Vanuatu
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Defence Force – NZDF Hard at Work in Vanuatu
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) sealift vessel HMNZS Canterbury has begun unloading vital stores and equipment to assist Vanuatu in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Pam.
Fourteen NZDF personnel and three New Zealand Fire Service staff landed at Rovo Bay on Epi Island yesterday to start repairs at the Vailame Medical Centre. Work is also scheduled for this weekend at the local school in the hope that the buildings can be ready for classes tomorrow.
The tasks have been prioritised in consultation with Vanuatu Government representatives who are on site with the aid teams.
The Commanding Officer of HMNZS Canterbury, Commander (CDR) Simon Rooke, said that it was very satisfying to be getting the much-needed aid to Epi and the outlying islands.
“Everyone is really happy that we are here and are moving stores and personnel ashore. On Saturday a landing craft took 15 tonnes of Red Cross stores to a neighbouring island, then took the NZDF engineering teams ashore, and the helicopter was also busy moving people to where they needed to be.
“The beauty of this ship is that we have a platform that can put a very capable force to work, but we don’t put any additional demands on the island,” CDR Rooke said.
“Having combined reconnaissance teams of NZDF, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Vanuatu Government personnel going ahead of us sets up access for us, allowing us to prioritise work and decide what to put where and when.
“It has been a really well co-ordinated activity. Everyone here has the same sense of purpose and vision, and we are all determined to provide maximum effect to improve the situation of the people on these islands as soon as possible.
“We are all focused on the same thing so that makes it really easy to work together,” he said.
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Evening Report: We Cross To Hanoi To Talk With Matt Robson on NZ’s Reputation in South East Asia After The Snowden GCSB Revelations Evening Report: We Cross To Hanoi To Talk With Matt Robson on NZ’s Reputation in South East Asia after revelations that the New Zealand Government’s GCSB has been spying on ASEAN member states and officials. Interviewer: Selwyn Manning (in Auckland). Here in New Zealand the issue of the John Key Government’s credibility has arisen, especially since New Zealand First leader Winston Peters achieved a huge win against the National Party machine in the Northland by-election. But what is the mood in South East Asia after it was revealed the New Zealand Government, via the GCSB, had been spying on our friends and significant trading partners in that region? We cross live to Hanoi, Vietnam, to talk to former Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Matt Robson. MIL Video: This video is copyright to Evening Report and Multimedia Investments Ltd (MIL).]]>
Gareth Renowden on Totten hots up, ice shelves melting: it’s grim down south
Hot-Topic.co.nz
Totten hots up, ice shelves melting: it’s grim down south
Much news in recent weeks from Antarctica, and none of it good. An Argentinian base on the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula recently reported a new high temperature record for the continent — 17.5ºC. A team of scientists has discovered that East Antarctica’s Totten Glacier — which drains a catchment that contains enough ice to raise sea levels by 3.5 metres — is vulnerable to melting caused by warm ocean water lapping underneath the ice and reaching inland1. Another group has stitched together satellite data on ice shelf thickness gathered from 1994 to 2012 and found that the ice shelves — mostly stable at the beginning of the period, are now losing mass fast2. From the abstract:
Overall, average ice-shelf volume change accelerated from negligible loss at 25 ± 64 km3 per year for 1994-2003 to rapid loss of 310 ± 74 km3 per year for 2003-2012. West Antarctic losses increased by 70% in the last decade, and earlier volume gain by East Antarctic ice shelves ceased. In the Amundsen and Bellingshausen regions, some ice shelves have lost up to 18% of their thickness in less than two decades.The Amundsen region is home to the Pine Island Glacier, notorious for its current rapid loss of mass, and probably already past the point of no return for long term total melt. The map below shows the big picture: large red dots are ice shelves losing mass. Blue dots are shelves gaining mass.
Ice shelves are important features of the Antarctic cryosphere. They buttress the ice piled up on the land, slowing down the flow of ice into the ocean. As the shelves lose mass, the flow of ice from the centre of the continent can speed up, adding to sea level rise. There’s a very good overview of the process — and the findings of the Paulo et al paper — in this excellent Carbon Brief analysis.
The study of the Totten Glacier — one of the fastest thinning glaciers in East Antarctica — is the first to look at the detail of the sea floor and ice thickness in the area. The study finds that there are “tunnels” under the ice leading into a deep trough inland that cold convey warm water inland — the same process that has destabilised the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica. As the authors suggest, rather drily, “coastal processes in this area could have global consequences”.
These signs of rapid changes around the coasts of Antarctica, together with hints that large parts of the huge East Antarctic ice sheet are at risk of following West Antarctica into the sea, suggest that even if sea levels only rise by a metre by the end of this century as the IPCC projected last year, the longer term picture will be a great deal wetter than that. After all, there is the equivalent of 60 metres of sea level rise locked up in East Antarctica.
For a very good overview of the state of our understanding of what’s going on in Antarctica, I recommend a listen to VUW’s Professor Tim Naish being interviewed by Radio New Zealand National’s Kim Hill last Saturday. Naish even covers what’s happening to the sea ice down there, but a longer term study of the sea ice is getting under way, led by another VUW prof — Jim Renwick.
- Greenbaum JS et al, (2015), Ocean access to a cavity beneath Totten Glacier in East Antarctica, Nature Geoscience, doi:10.1038/ngeo2388 [↩]
- Paolo, F.S. et al, (2015), Volume loss from Antarctic ice shelves is accelerating, Science, doi/10.1126/science.aaa0940
Keith Rankin Reflecting on the Northland By-election
Analysis by Keith Rankin – First Published on Scoop.co.nz.
[caption id="attachment_2497" align="alignleft" width="300"]
National Hoardings – Northland. Image: Courtesy of Twitter.com/stevenljoyce.[/caption]
NATIONAL’S VULNERABILITY in Northland should have taken nobody by surprise. Winston Peters is a very natural fit in his turangawaeawe. National, on 49% in Northland at the general election did not even have a majority of party votes. Patrick Gower finally noted this in The Nation this weekend, but was completely unaware of its significance; a majority of votes in 2014 were cast for other parties. Instead Gower told us that Northland had been a safe National seat since its inception in 1966! (When will the media stop calling the winning margin in an FPP election a ‘majority’?)
Who does Gower’s research? The Northland seat has existed of course since New Zealand became a self-governing colony (long before 1966); albeit under different names. In 1966, under the name of Hobson, Northland was won by the Social Credit leader Vernon Cracknell. Of all the ‘expert’ commentators, the only one I ever heard mention this was Don McKinnon on Q+A yesterday.
In character, Northland may be closer to Westland (now West Coast – Tasman), a conservative electorate that is quite different to more typical farming regions such as those in Waikato, Taranaki and Southland. Northland has always been fertile territory for a party like New Zealand First, when the moment was propitious.
The most significant presence in Russell on Saturday night may have been Shane Jones, another Maori blokey populist from the North. I can certainly see Jones coming back to Parliament in 2017 on the New Zealand First list, and becoming NZ First leader and Northland candidate in 2020.
Now that New Zealand First have this electorate, it has become New Zealand First’s ‘home’ electorate. I cannot see National coming up with a man or woman of the north who could win this seat from a Winston Peters or a Shane Jones.
Another significance of Northland is that even the mainstream media is just about getting to understand both FPP and MMP voting. Electorate contests are FPP, a system that only works in a head-to-head contest (and then only at the local level; watch out for lottery-like happenings in the upcoming United Kingdom election). Andrew Little figured this out quick enough. In an FPP contest, the only reason to vote for an ‘also-ran’ electorate candidate is if you are completely indifferent about who actually wins, or if the contest appears to be ‘no contest’ (such as Selwyn or Waikato).
What the media present to their consumers as scandalous ‘deals’ (eg around Willow-Jean Prime this time) are now seen as what they always have been; common-sense politics.
In general elections, it is the party vote, not the electorate vote that National and Labour need from Northland. At a national level, these head-to-head FPP electorate contests mainly give local colour and ensure a semblance of geographical balance. They also give smaller parties a home base, an opportunity to maintain their proportionality in the party vote without having to meet a 5% threshold.
Because in MMP elections (not FPP by-elections) the actual election is the Party Vote, tribal voters do not have to vote for their party’s candidate when they can actually vote for their party (unlike in the UK). It frees them to vote in their electorate for someone who can win, and who they believe will represent them better than the other man or woman who could win.
The mainstream media are on the verge of getting this. Almost everyone else got it long ago. The outrage about electorate ‘deals’ has always a mainstream media beat-up.
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WEST PAPUA: Leaders meet solidarity groups in Brisbane
MIL OSI Analysis – Pacific Media Centre/Pacific Media Watch
ULMWP spokesman Benny Wenda … at the solidarity meeting in Australia. Image: Free West PapuaMonday, March 30, 2015
Item: 9187
BRISBANE (Free West Papua Campaign/Pacific Media Watch): West Papuan leaders of the newly formed United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), including Benny Wenda, Octovianus Mote and Rex Rumakiek, met in Brisbane over the weekend with Australian and some Aotearoa/New Zealand solidarity groups. As their campaign for full membership for West Papua to the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) gains momentum, the ULMWP met to strengthen campaign support for the July MSG meeting in Honiara, where the application for West Papuan membership will be considered. The newly formed ULMWP is the coordinating body representing all organisations in the struggle for West Papuan self-determination as a unified front.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence. ]]>
Peters Winning Speech: We Asked You To Send A Message And You Have
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand First – Speech – We Asked You To Send A Message And You Have
New Zealand First Leader and Northland by-election candidate, Rt HonWinston Peters
Speech at Duke of Marlborough Hotel
Russell
28th March,2015
WE ASKED YOU TO SEND A MESSAGE AND YOU HAVE
[caption id="attachment_2529" align="alignleft" width="300"]
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.[/caption]We must thank the people of Northland who put aside their party preferences and came out to vote for Northland.
We must thank all of those people within our party, and so many who are not members but who nevertheless have done all they possibly could to bring us home in front tonight.
To all those people who gave us financial support to fund this campaign our sincere gratitude. To all those people who helped the campaign along the way with kindness and encouragement, thank you indeed.
May I say to my opponents in this campaign you have not to despair you have our understanding and sympathy and no one should hold you accountable for past neglect and political abandonment.
If they do, then they will show they have no understanding of the economic and social conditions of this electorate called Northland.
We went along hundreds of country roads and to many hamlets to speak to those New Zealanders.whether on farms, in small factories or in shops, to share their anxiety at the lack of sympathy there is in the corridors of power for their persona; and family situations. Whether it be a young Northlander looking for a job with decent wages or a farmer in a critical industry yet struggling to survive with high interest rates and a deeply damaging currency.
In the Northland by-election New Zealand First took “the road less travelled”, or never travelled at all.
We went to thousands of forgotten people and they have responded and that has made all the difference.
What this means is that New Zealand First has put the voters of Northland first.
In a real campaign devoid of stage managed spin laden platitudes this by-election was about what really maters to the voters of Northland.
So we campaigned on the real state of jobs, poverty, education, housing, roads and infrastructure, businesses and primary product enterprises in Northland.
We in Northland know we are not alone and there are many regions suffering from years of neglect and a lack of a genuine regional development policy. They have seen their regions being hollowed out while resources are poured in elsewhere.
No one should underestimate how difficult this campaign was from the outside. Just four weeks ago when we knew we were ready we launched our campaign, 17,412 votes behind.
We have to put aside our political differences up here if we are going to restore this province and this electorate to its rightful position in New Zealand
That’s why we are here in Russell tonight, symbolic of where the power once lay in this country, with the full intention that hereafter, it will be restored.
We made a commitment to you in this campaign that if you voted for us then there would never be a future important economic and social issue in the corridors of power without they first turned and asked, “but what does Northland think?”
We asked you to to send them a message, and you have – so resounding that they must now respond.
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NZ ICT sector thanked for work on IRD transformation
Headline: NZ ICT sector thanked for work on IRD transformation
Revenue Minister Todd McClay has thanked the New Zealand ICT sector for their collaboration with Inland Revenue on the modernisation and simplification of New Zealand’s tax system.
“Tomorrow we will launch two discussion documents that will outline the overall direction of the modernisation and ask for feedback. I would like to acknowledge the hard work already put in by the ICT sector,” says Mr McClay.
In October 2014 a working group with 20 representatives from small, medium and large software developers was established to co-design how GST and PAYE information could be transferred to Inland Revenue in the future.
“This group is helping Inland Revenue design smart ways to file returns electronically from within software packages. For example, businesses will be able to submit their GST and payroll information directly to IRD with the press of a button,” says Mr McClay.
In parallel, Inland Revenue is working with major software developers, MYOB and Xero.
“We are using their extensive knowledge to learn how we can simplify processes for small businesses.
“The Government is making a major investment in simplifying the tax system for New Zealand taxpayers, so we want to make sure it delivers significant improvements for third parties and New Zealand as a whole, not just Inland Revenue,” says Mr McClay.
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John Key now admits no broad support for RMA changes – Labour
MIL OSI – Source: Labour Party – John Key now admits no broad support for RMA changes John Key has now been forced to admit that he never had the broad political support to gut the Resource Management Act, says Labour’s Environment spokesperson Megan Woods. “Cornerstone legislation such as the RMA should never be changed without genuine consultation with all the parties in Parliament. “Now that National has lost Northland John Key is suddenly talking of ripping up the changes. It shows that the Government only ever had a knife-edge majority for any change. “This is the second time National has had to abandon their attempts to change the RMA. Last term they could not get the numbers, even from their own support partners, after Minister Amy Adam tried to gut it. “The fact is that the Government has not revealed any detail of what changes they are proposing for the RMA. All we have ever had is an over-cooked speech from Nick Smith in January. “A bottom line for Labour is that we will not support the gutting of the fundamental principles of the RMA – this is the tool for protecting ordinary people’s enjoyment of their property and their environment. “Labour is happy, and has always been happy, to look at any sensible changes that do not water down our environmental protections,” says Megan Woods. –]]>
New Zealand’s dark history and violent present revealed in award-winning plays.
MIL OSI – Source: Creative New Zealand – New Zealand’s dark history and violent present revealed in award-winning plays. PLAYMARKET is pleased to announce the ADAM NZ PLAY AWARD winners for 2015: Anders Falstie-Jensen for Centrepoint and Hone Kouka for Bless the Child. The Adam NZ Play Award recognises and celebrates the best in new writing for the theatre. Director of Playmarket Murray Lynch announced the win at Circa Theatre on 28 March 2015 alongside four other special award winners. Based on meticulous research and interviews Centrepoint is a fictional take on the story of New Zealand’s most notorious community. In order to save their marriage, Kate and Neil decide that a change is needed. Inspired by the vision of Bert Potter, they sell everything they own and, with their two young children, move to Centrepoint. As they embrace the community’s radical lifestyle their family is changed in ways that they could never have imagined. Anders Falstie-Jensen was born in Denmark and has lived in Aotearoa since 2001. He is one of the founding members of The Rebel Alliance Theatre Company. He has worked as a director, writer, producer and in many other roles in the theatre. His writing credits include A Night of French Mayhem (2007), The Bomb (2008) and Standstill (2012). Bless the Child eloquently and passionately highlights the tragic issue of violence against children. Another Maori child has died and hotshot lawyer Khan Te Ahi Richards is reluctantly dragged in to the case to defend the mother as the whanau close ranks. Shardae, mother to the deceased child, is demonised and guilty until proven innocent. Who killed baby and will they be found out? Affecting all is Ruaumoko, god of earthquakes and unborn children. Hone Kouka (Ngati Porou, Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Kahungunu) is an acclaimed Maori writer, winner of the Bruce Mason Award (1992) and multiple Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. His plays, which have been produced throughout Aotearoa and around the world, include Waiora, Nga Tangata Toa, The Prophet, Tu and the solo show I, George Nepia. Hone has published five books and co-founded theatre production house Tawata Productions with Miria George. Tawata produces the works of emerging and established Maori, Pasifika and tauiwi playwrights and the Matariki Development Festival. Hone became a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Contemporary Maori Theatre in June 2009. Dean Parker was named Runner Up for his play Polo, an hilarious evisceration of class and politics set amongst the Auckland glitterati and full of sparkling dialogue and despicable characters. Highly Commended was awarded to Tom McCrory for his play Significance in which an ageing Shakespeare muses on the death of his son. The Adam NZ Play Award, now in its eighth year, is the only one of its kind for new writing. Playmarket’s only entrance requirements are that the playwright be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident and that the play has not yet had a production. The award is generously funded by the Adam Foundation. Playmarket is also very grateful for the support of Circa Theatre, and major funders: ASB Community Trust and Creative New Zealand. ADAM AWARD WINNERS 2015 Anders Falstie-Jensen for Centrepoint and Hone Kouka for Bless the Child Runner-up: Dean Parker for Polo Best Play by a Woman Playwright: Michelanne Forster for The Gift of Tongues Best Play by a Maori Playwright: Hone Kouka for Bless the Child Best Play by a Pasifika Playwright: David Mamea for Kingswood Highly Commended: Tom McCrory for Significance Finalists: Aroha Awarau for Officer 27 Sam Brooks for Spitting it Out Kip Chapman for Hudson and Halls Live! Denis Edwards for Service to Love Pip Hall for Squeak Squeak – Tales of the White Mouse Nathan Joe for Who is Sada Abe? Part One: Bullfight of Love Riwia Mackenzie-Brown for The Violet and the Huia Feather Ken Mizusawa for Why We Do What We Do? James Nokise for The Last Part Gavin McGibbon for Congregation Robyn Patterson for The World’s First Fight April Phillips for Charlotte Badger – Miscreant, Mother, Mutineer! John Smythe for Where there’s a Will Aroha White for 2080 –]]>
National’s changes leave student bodies in chaos – Cunliffe
MIL OSI – Source: Labour Party – National’s changes leave student bodies in chaos The chaos created by National’s scrapping of compulsory student association membership may force the 86-year old Union of Students Association to fold, Labour’s Tertiary Education spokesperson David Cunliffe says. “National’s 2011 Voluntary Student Membership Act has left student associations with no minimum funding. “While some are well set up, many are underfunded and hamstrung by their universities. This law change means these vital independent student bodies depend on the decisions of institutions for their funding. “Student associations are such a mess that the Union of Student Associations has just 10 members left after major institutions such as Canterbury and Waikato universities pulled out several years ago and now Victoria and Otago are leaving. “Despite representing 400,000 tertiary students, the union established in 1929 may have to fold. “Tertiary education has never been more important to driving our dynamic economy and building a strong and vibrant New Zealand. But student life has never been less affordable and too many young New Zealanders are being locked out. “Having a strong voice for students is critical for them and for New Zealand,” David Cunliffe says. –]]>
More parents resolving disputes outside court
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Government – More parents resolving disputes outside court Almost 70 per cent of family disputes referred to mediation involving children are being settled out of court a year on from the Government’s family justice reforms says Justice Minister Amy Adams. The reforms, which have been in effect for a year tomorrow, place out-of-court community-based resolution services at the heart of the system to resolve family disputes about the care of children. Ms Adams says the reforms have delivered a modern, accessible family justice system that encourages parents to reach out-of-court agreements about arrangements for the care of their children. The suite of reforms was the biggest overhaul since the Family Court was established in 1981. “The new system is reducing the stress experienced by families and children, by avoiding the delays, conflict and expense that court proceedings entail through greater use of out-of-court mediation,” says Ms Adams. The centrepiece of the reforms is the new Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) service where, working with mediators, parents sort out disputes about the care of their children. “FDR is proving highly successful, of the 905 disputes referred to FDR in the last year, 68 per cent of mediations resolved all matters, and a further 18 per cent resolved some matters. “Almost seven out of ten disputes referred to mediation are being resolved without having to go to court which is reducing the inevitable stress children and families face when their parents separate. It also means the Family Court can now focus on the most difficult cases, especially those involving family violence, that require judicial expertise,” says Ms Adams. Ms Adams said there was a strong focus on family violence. “With these reforms bedding in, family violence remains a priority area. The reforms have refocused the system and mean we’re now able to concentrate on the more difficult matters,” says Ms Adams. The reforms relate to Care of Children Act matters, which account for about 40 per cent of Family Court applications. While most cases are now initially referred to FDR, urgent matters (e.g., disputes that involve domestic violence or abuse) continue to go straight to the Family Court, where all parties are entitled to legal representation and, if eligible, to legal aid. Fewer applications are being filed in the court since the reforms were implemented. The number of active applications on hand at 31 January 2015 since 31 March 2014 has reduced by 12 per cent. Background A Ministry of Justice review of family justice in 2011 found court processes were complex, uncertain and too slow. There was a lack of focus on children and vulnerable people, and not enough support to assist parties to resolve parenting and relationship issues out-of-court. For those participants who are eligible for government funding (an estimated 60 per cent of participants) their share of Family Dispute Resolution is fully funded by the government. Those participants who are not eligible for full funding can access the Family Dispute Resolution service for no more than $897 (including GST) from government providers. Key statistics:
- In the year 31 March 2014 to 2 March 2015;
- 2348 assessments were completed. Of these, 1278 were suitable for Family Dispute Resolution.
- There were 793 exemptions.
- 905 mediations were held with 68 per cent resolving all matters. A further 18 per cent resolved some matters.
- Only 14 per cent had no issues resolved.
- 5,199 people have completed Parenting through Separation courses
- 4,033 people have accessed the new Family Legal Advice Service;
- There have been almost 4 million page views on the Family Justice website (www.justice.govt.nz/family-justice)
National environmental report topics announced – Statistics NZ
MIL OSI – Source: Statistics New Zealand – National environmental report topics announced Secretary for the Environment Dr Paul Reynolds and Government Statistician Liz MacPherson today announced the topics that will be the focus of the Environment Aotearoa 2015 and Environmental indicators Te taiao Aotearoa reports. The national environment reports are being compiled by the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand, and will be released in the middle of this year. The broad range of topics includes river quality, native plants and animals, ocean acidity and impacts on human health. Dr Reynolds said the report was the start of a journey to give New Zealanders a comprehensive overview of the environment. “The reports will contain high-quality data on five key environmental domains – air, climate and atmosphere, land, fresh water and marine,” he said. “They will assess the environmental health of each domain with data from key topics.” The Ministry for the Environment and Statistics NZ spent months assessing existing data available from a list of potential topics to include in the reports. Experts from many sectors provided advice. The Ministers of Statistics and the Environment approved the topics, but the public will be consulted about topics for future reports. Ms MacPherson said the assessment used Statistics NZ’s rigorous criteria. “This means New Zealanders can have confidence in the information we will publish about why, where and how New Zealand’s environment is changing, as well as what impact this is having on our lifestyle, standard of living, and well-being.” Data to measure the topics come from existing datasets so councils and ratepayers will not face additional costs. For some topics, data of sufficient quality are not yet available. The list of measures, or statistics released today are provisional at this stage as the assessment process has not been completed and the full set of national indicators, case studies, and supplementary information has not been signed off by the Government Statistician. Central and local government are working together to improve the representativeness, consistency and quality of future environmental data and reporting. Dr Reynolds said Environment Aotearoa 2015 and Environmental indicators Te taiao Aotearoa were developed in parallel with legislation to make future environmental reporting more regular, more independent, and more useful. The Environmental Reporting Bill is before Parliament and is expected to be passed in the next couple of months. “Once the legislation is passed, the Government will consult with the public on which environmental topics will be reported on under each domain,” he said. Read the topics: New Zealand’s Environmental Reporting Series: 2015 topics and provisional statistics. –]]>
Fight against weeds goes hi-tech
MIL OSI – Source: University of Otago – Fight against weeds goes hi-tech: WWF-New Zealand partners with University of Otago to develop iPhone app Monday, 30 March 2015 3:27pm With Flora Finder – WEED mobile app, users will soon be able to instantly identify problem weed species just by taking photographs using the camera on their smart phones and devices. With weeds in New Zealand costing billions to control and often causing irreversible damage to ecosystems, the University of Otago is bringing the war on weeds into the hi-tech space with help from a Conservation Innovation $5,000 grant from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Using the leaf shape recognition technology in the Flora Finder mobile application, users will soon be able to instantly identify problem weed species just by taking photographs using the camera on their smart phones and devices. Up to 80 of the most common weed species will be included in the app. “We are always looking for new ways to make conservation easier for everyone to participate in. This app caught our attention because it will provide instant ID of our worst weeds and encourage action before they get out of control,” said Michele Frank, Community Conservation Coordinator for WWF. Targeted at identifying weeds earlier, Flora Finder – WEED solves the problem of users not knowing which weedy plant they are looking at and how to deal with it. “Even if the app can’t identify the weed, Flora Finder – WEED aims to have the capacity for users to attach unidentified photographs of weeds to an email which could be sent to local experts for identification. In essence Flora Finder – WEED becomes a citizen science application” said Graham Strong, commercialisation manager with Otago Innovation Limited. With $5,000 in support from the WWF combined with the technical expertise of the Flora Finder partners (Otago Innovation Ltd, the University of Otago Botany Department, and MEA mobile), Flora Finder – WEED is expected to be available to the public by October 2015. Graham StrongOtago Innovation LimitedEmail: graham.strong@otagoinnovation.com Rosa Argent WWF-New ZealandMob: 027 212 3103 About Otago Innovation Limited Otago Innovation Limited is the technology transfer office of the University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ. They help University of Otago Research Researchers get their big ideas out there. The team has over 56 years of combined experience, is stable, highly experienced and has a strong reputation and track record for delivering outcomes. They look at all sorts of ideas – products, services, mobile apps, medical devices, novel therapies, ebooks and diagnostics just to name a few. About WWF WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. About Botany Department University of Otago The Department of Botany at the University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ is the oldest and only Botany Department in a university in NZ. And over the last 90 years has produced famous NZ Botanists like Professor Geoff Baylis and Sir Professor Alan Mark. Of special note, is renowned 19th century artist Mr John Buchanan. A naturalist botanist, Mr Buchanan was also from the Otago Region and one of the plants in Flora Finder is named after him. About MEA MEA Mobile has been building apps since before there was even an app store, creating mobile solutions which are beautifully designed, tested and developed to work seamlessly in your life. MEA has developed and released over 200 apps with millions of downloads and is local, with offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and New Haven, Connecticut. They are a full service digital agency with specialists in branding, marketing, video and digital services. A list of Otago experts available for media comment is available elsewhere on this website. Electronic addresses (including email accounts, instant messaging services, or telephone accounts) published on this page are for the sole purpose of contact with the individuals concerned, in their capacity as officers, employees or students of the University of Otago, or their respective organisation. Publication of any such electronic address is not to be taken as consent to receive unsolicited commercial electronic messages by the address holder. –]]>
New website showcases World War I footage – NZ Government
MIL OSI – Source: New Zealand Government – New website showcases World War I footage Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry says a new website featuring previously unavailable film from World War I is an engrossing historical resource. Anzac: Sights & Sounds, from Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision, gives an evocative, insightful and compelling view of the conflict, using archival film footage gathered from across the world, recorded interviews, songs and photographs. “The films and audio recordings on the website are an extraordinary record of a tragic and painful time in New Zealand’s history,” Ms Barry says. “Sounds and images give an emotional, personal connection to the past. Watching the footage, you can picture yourself saying goodbye to your loved ones, knowing it might be for the last time.” “Having this footage publicly available at no cost makes the site an important part of our ongoing World War I commemorations. It will also be a valuable education tool.” The focus of the launch is on the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 as well as the home front, with more footage from later in the war to be added as other anniversaries approach. Highlights include a recording of the Otago Regiment leaving Dunedin in 1914 as well as the soldier’s recollections of life in the trenches of the Dardanelles. “You get a real sense of what their lives were like in the appalling conditions at Gallipoli. You can feel the camaraderie, the experiences and also the sense of humour that bound them all together in the horrific battles they had to endure.” www.anzacsightsound.org –]]>
Without Consent reveals the truth of Australia’s past
MIL OSI – Source: National Archives of Australia – Without Consent reveals the truth of Australia’s past A new exhibition Without Consent: Australia’s past adoption practices, at the National Archives of Australia, brings to light the previously hidden adoption practices of Australia’s past. It has offered those affected by forced adoptions the opportunity to share their experiences – some for the first time ever. The exhibition was today opened by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard who, in 2013, offered a National Apology to the many thousands affected by forced adoption. It is estimated that 250,000 adoptions took place; a significant number were forced adoptions. The mothers who had their babies taken were unmarried and often forced to live a lie for decades. For some, it was a secret they took to their graves.’ We are very proud that, following the Senate enquiry into forced adoptions, the National Archives was given the responsibility to develop this national touring exhibition– and the website we launched last year on the first anniversary of the National Apology,’ said Director-General of the National Archives, David Fricker, at the launch.’ The practice of forced adoption was and is illegal. People suffered physical coercion and emotional manipulation. Informed consent was not given by mothers and fathers; these adoptions were without consent.’ I believe this exhibition is a tribute to the courage and generosity of those who volunteered to share their experiences and, in doing so, exposed this previously unknown aspect of Australia’s history.’ Without the voices of those affected, our nation’s history would rely totally on institutional records that show nothing of the human anguish such practices caused.’ Mr Fricker said he hoped the exhibition would show the truth – that the babies taken for adoption were dearly loved and wanted by their parents. One letter in the exhibition, from a mother to her son, read ‘I loved you so much it hurt, and I loved you much more than I loved myself; that was why I was prepared to sacrifice my happiness for yours’. The exhibition opening at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra was live streamed to Archives offices around the country and shared with stakeholders marking the occasion in other capital cities. Without Consent is on at the National Archives in Canberra until 19 July 2015.NOTE TO ED: High-res images can be downloaded from http://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/media/images/without-consent/index.aspx Facebook: facebook.com/naagovau Twitter: naagovau – ]]>
KPMG responds to release of Tax Discussion paper
MIL OSI – Source: KPMG – KPMG responds to release of Tax Discussion paper We welcome the paper‘s clear conclusion that company tax is too high and bracket creep a real issue. It is too often unappreciated that bracket creep is inherently regressive – it is not a problem just for middle to high earners. Similarly, we are glad to see the paper acknowledge that high company tax rates damage the interests of workers in the long run – there is considerable evidence to suggest that in a medium-sized open economy like Australia’s, a lower corporate tax rate would actually help workers by generating increased capital intensity, greater technology transfer, and R&D per employee. This would lead to greater productivity and hence higher wages. The government’s decision to require unanimous support of states and territories for changes on GST effectively consigns that to the medium future – but as the paper says, GST is an efficient tax and we look forward to the time, which must come, when the federal government does not feel so constrained. The paper notes the growing importance of spending on items not subject to the GST such as goods below $1000 and services sold online. This is a difficult issue and the Government is looking for solutions that do not carry a substantial compliance burden. On negative gearing, which so many people point to, once again the paper has taken a measured approach and pointed out that the problem lies in the CGT discount, not the interest deduction. It would seem unlikely the Government will seek to deny the ability to offset excess interest expenses related to rental income against salary income. The paper recognises the huge complexity for small business, in part created by concessions and different legal structures. We welcome moves to reduce administrative burdens on this sector. On a related matter, the Bank Deposit Levy, the Tax Discussion Paper correctly points out that bank accounts are already the highest taxed form of savings. The distortionary effects of the taxation of bank accounts was discussed in the Murray Report and it concluded that a more consistent basis of taxation of all savings would likely increase productivity. KPMG believes that any increased taxation burden on bank accounts in an environment where the ongoing consultation is canvassing a reduction would be premature and prejudge the tax discussion that today’s paper is intended to create. – ]]>
Welcoming peaceful Nigerian elections, Ban encourages patience as polls wrap up
MIL OSI – Source: United Nations – Welcoming peaceful Nigerian elections, Ban encourages patience as polls wrap up United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has congratulated the people and Government of Nigeria on the largely peaceful and orderly conduct of yesterday’s presidential and parliamentary elections. In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban condemnedthe attacks reportedly carried out by Boko Haram and others who attempted to disrupt the polling. “He is encouraged by the determination and resilience shown by the Nigerian people in pressing forward and exercising their civic duties in the face of unjustifiable violence.” The Secretary-General’s statement goes on to encourages all Nigerians to continue to maintain a peaceful atmosphere and to exercise patience throughout the ongoing voting process and the announcement of the final results. “He calls on all actors to channel any complaints that might arise through the established dispute resolution mechanisms,” the statement says, adding that the UN chief believes that the successful conclusion of the electoral process will mark an important step forward in further consolidating democracy and the rule of law in Nigeria. –]]>
Russian and Ukrainian parliamentarians discuss conflict resolution at OSCE PA-German Bundestag retreat
MIL OSI – Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE – Russian and Ukrainian parliamentarians discuss conflict resolution at OSCE PA-German Bundestag retreat LEINSWEILER, Germany – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the German Bundestag hosted a retreat and seminar in Leinsweiler, Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany on 28 and 29 March to discuss conflict resolution strategies and hear from experts on German-French rapprochement and post-conflict border issues. The seminar facilitated one of the few direct meetings between Russian and Ukrainian parliamentarians since the crisis in and around Ukraine began. “A few weeks before the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and in this 40th anniversary year of the Helsinki Final Act, we need to draw lessons from examples of reconciliation and post-conflict rehabilitation between neighbors,” said OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland). “Despite the differences between the conflicts, the German-French example shows that conflicts can be resolved when there is political will and incentives to do so. I hope that my Russian and Ukrainian parliamentary colleagues can take lessons learned from history, and from this seminar, back to their capitals and be inspired to work hard for peace,” Kanerva added. The seminar was addressed by history experts and officials including the former Prime Minister of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, Kurt Beck; the Head of the Taskforce for the 2016 German OSCE Chairmanship, Ambassador Antje Leendertse; County Chief Executive Theresia Riedmaier; and the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), former German Foreign Office State Minister Michael Georg Link. On behalf of German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Ambassador Leendertse welcomed the efforts undertaken by the OSCE PA, which she described as a parliamentary parallel to the meetings of governments in the so-called “Normandy format” on the conflict in and around Ukraine. “In any conflict, both sides will be losers,” said former PA President and President of the Parliament of Montenegro Ranko Krivokapic. “In the present conflict in and around Ukraine, it is a particular tragedy that – in contrast to the historical German-French conflict – the peoples of Ukraine and Russia have been living peacefully side by side,” he added. The history experts noted that the German-French example demonstrates the strong desire of citizens affected by conflicts to preserve their cultural identity, their economic livelihoods and their personal freedoms, and that viewing conflicts primarily through military strategy has always led to crisis and even catastrophe. OSCE PA Vice-President Doris Barnett of Germany, who hosted the seminar, and fellow OSCE PA Vice-President Alain Neri of France concluded, “This is why we should not focus on the history of the conflict only, but rather, on possibilities for reconciliation and co-operation in the interest of all affected human beings.” The participants, including the members of the Russian and Ukrainian Delegations to the OSCE PA, welcomed the opportunity for an exchange of views on issues vital to the people affected by the current crisis and agreed to continue talks in support of full compliance with the Minsk Agreements and to help facilitate the resolution of the crisis in and around Ukraine. All participants insisted that local elections in the eastern part of Ukraine, as called for in the Minsk Agreements, must be held in line with OSCE commitments and monitored by election observers, with security guarantees for those observers. Participants also discussed the need to observe developments along the Russian-Ukrainian border in order to receive as much objective information as possible. The Leinsweiler retreat and seminar is part of the “Vienna Process,” which then-OSCE PA President Krivokapic launched in April 2014, following a proposal by Vice-President Barnett. At the 2014 OSCE PA Annual Session in July, OSCE PA President Kanerva also began work on the formation of a high-level Interparliamentary Liaison Group on Ukraine which aims to contribute to confidence-building and conflict resolution. “The Vienna Process aims to the create space for inter-parliamentary dialogue in an intimate setting. Such opportunities are badly needed for any attempt to address the current conflict in and around Ukraine and to achieve what is needed most – namely, to stop human suffering,” said Vice-President Barnett. Participants generally welcomed a suggestion by German OSCE parliamentarian Franz Thonnes, the Deputy Chair of the Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, to have a follow-up meeting take place in the north of Germany with a focus on the protection of national minorities, looking at the German-Danish example. OSCE PA participants in the retreat and seminar included: Leadership President Ilkka Kanerva (Finland) President Emeritus Ranko Krivokapic (Montenegro) Vice-President and Head of the German Delegation Doris Barnett Vice-President and First Deputy Head of the French Delegation Alain Neri Russian Delegation Nikolay Kovalev Oganes Oganyan Ukrainian Delegation Nataliia Ahafonova Olha Belkova Sergey Vysotskyi Other parliamentarians Franz Thonnes (Germany) Josip Juratovic (Germany) Deputy Head of the Swiss Delegation Filippo Lombardi – – ]]>
iPredict: New Zealand Weekly Economic & Political Update
IPREDICT LTD: NEW ZEALAND WEEKLY ECONOMIC & POLITICAL UPDATE
BENNETT NOW CLEAR FAVOURITE TO SUCCEED KEY
Paula Bennett is now the clear favourite to succeed John Key as leader of the National Party after Steven Joyce’s prospects plunged to just 13%, only one point ahead of Jonathan Coleman, according to the combined wisdom of the 8000+ registered traders on New Zealand’s predictions market, iPredict. Mr Key’s medium-term hold on the leadership remains strong however, with only a 27% probability he will step down before the next General Election – although there is now a 77% chance he will be gone by the end of 2017. There is nearly a 50% probability New Zealand will sign the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2015 but just a 33% chance it will be ratified by the US Congress before mid-2017.
New Zealand Politics:
· John Key expected to remain National leader until at least the end of 2016 (79% probability, down from 88% last week) but has just a 23% probability of remaining National leader until at least the end of 2017 (down from 32% last week). Mr Key has a 73% probability of being National leader on Nomination Day before the next General Election (new stock)
· Andrew Little expected to remain Labour leader until at least the end of 2016 (95% probability, down from 97% last week) and has a 68% probability of remaining Labour leader until the end of 2017 (down from 72% last week). Mr Little has a 90% probability of being Labour leader on Nomination Day before the next General Election (new stock)
· Paula Bennett is the clear favourite to become National Party leader if a vacancy arises (35%, up from 33% last week), followed by Steven Joyce (13%, down from 26%) and Jonathan Coleman (12%)
· Stocks on who is favoured to become Labour Party leader if a vacancy arises will be launched in the near future
· Kevin Hague is strongly expected to be the next co-leader of the Green Party (82% probability, up from 62% last week), followed by James Shaw on 14%
· Judith Collins expected to be appointed to Cabinet before next election (55% 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 44.2% (down from 45.1% last week)
o Labour 32.8% (up from 32.6%)
o Greens 11.0% (steady)
o NZ First 7.2% (up from 6.9%)
o Others 4.8% (up from 4.4%)
· National narrowly expected to win 2017 General Election (53% probability, down from 55% last week)
· Almost no chance Wellington councils will be amalgamated by end of 2015 (only 7% probability they will be, up from 6% last week)
New Zealand Economics:
· Fruit-fly outbreak expected to be contained with fewer than 20 Queensland fruit-flies expected to be found in New Zealand as part of current outbreak (82% probability, up from 79% last week)
· New Zealand dollar expected to reach parity with Australian dollar by the end of 2015 (55% probability, down from 57% last week) but not before July 2015 (20% probability, down from 23%)
· Quarterly GDP growth expected to be:
o 0.8% 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 4.1% 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:
o 3.6% of GDP in the March quarter (steady compared with last week)
o 3.5% in the June quarter (steady)
o 3.4% in the September quarter (steady)
o 3.5% in the December quarter (new stocks)
· Annual inflation expected to be:
o 0.3% to end of March 2015 quarter (up from 0.2% last week)
o 0.4% to end of June 2015 quarter (steady)
o 0.6% to end of September 2015 quarter (steady)
o 1.0% to end of December 2015 quarter (steady)
· Official Cash Rate priced to be:
o 3.488% on 30 April (steady compared with last week)
o 3.475% on 11 June (steady)
o 3.458% on 23 July (up from 3.455%)
o 3.424% on 10 September (up from 3.417%)
o 3.405% on 29 October (up from 3.395%)
o 3.387% on 10 December (up from 3.377%)
o 3.377% on 28 January 2016 (up from 3.367%)
o 3.374% on 10 March 2016 (up from 3.364%)
o 3.364% on 28 April 2016 (up from 3.354%)
o 3.354% on 9 June 2016 (up from 3.344%)
· This implies the OCR is more likely than not to be cut on 28 January 2016 to 3.25% (steady compared with last week) and to remain at that rate until at least 9 June 2016 (steady)
· 28% probability of a fiscal surplus in 2014/15 (steady compared with last week)
· Fiscal balance expected to be:
o -0.14% of GDP in 2014/15 (up from -0.16% last week)
o 0.80% of GDP in 2015/16 (steady)
o 1.98% of GDP in 2016/17 (steady)
o 2.32% of GDP in 2017/18 (down from 2.43%)
· Fonterra’s final payout (before retentions) expected to be:
o $4.79 in 2014/15 (down from $4.82 last week)
o $5.86 in 2015/16 (down from $6.10)
o $6.43 in 2016/17 (down from $6.49)
Foreign Affairs/Constitution:
· Next UK Parliament expected to consist of:
o Conservatives 37.9% of seats in the House of Commons (steady compared with last week)
o Labour 35.3% of seats (steady)
o Nationalist parties 7.1% of seats (steady)
o UKIP and similar 6.0% of seats (steady)
o Liberal Democrats 5.2% of seats (down from 5.3%)
o Unionist parties 2.2% of seats (steady)
o Green and similar 2.1% of seats (steady)
o Independents and Speaker 2.1% of seats (steady)
o All others 2.2% of seats (steady)
· David Cameron expected to be prime minister after next UK election (58% probability, down from 63% last week)
· Boris Johnson expected to be elected to UK House of Commons this year (91% probability, steady)
· Socialist Workers’ Party expected to defeat People’s Party in next Spanish election (75% probability, up from 71% last week)
· All Eurozone countries, including Greece, expected to remain in Euro in 2015 (21% probability of an announcement of a departure this year, down from 23% last week)
· Tony Abbott is expected to remain leader of the Australian Liberal Party until 1 July 2015 (only 23% probability of departing before then, steady compared with last week) but be replaced as leader of the Australian Liberal Party by nomination day (53% probability Malcolm Turnbull will be leader on that day, up from 50% last week)
· Bill Shorten expected to be Labor leader at next Australian Federal election (86% probability, down from 88% last week)
· Liberals marginally ahead of Labor for next Australian Federal election in 2016 (53% probability of Liberal win, steady compared with 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 (49% probability, up from 47% last week). Jeb Bush has a 45% probability of being the Republican nominee (steady compared with last week) followed by Scott Walker (20% probability, up from 19%)
· There is a 48% probability New Zealand will sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership this year (up from 17% last week), but the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not expected to be ratified by the US Congress before 1 July 2017 (only 33% probability it will be, up from 31% last week)
· Helen Clark’s prospects of being the next UN Secretary General are 25% (steady compared with last week)
· There is a 10% probability New Zealand will become a republic by 2020 (steady compared with last week)
· Ireland to vote in favour of same-sex marriage before July 2015 (95% probability, steady compared with last week)
· There is a 17% probability Kim Jong-Un will cease being leader of North Korea before 2017 (down from 18% with last week)
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 8.13 am today.
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]]>Keith Rankin on Games of Dominos: Selection, Rejection and Belief
Keith Rankin.[/caption]
ON Q+A LAST WEEKEND I heard Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee say “Terrorist organizations will sprout up all over the place, but this one needs to be seriously nipped in the bud”. And then I heard the New York Times‘ Marsha Gessen say “It is impossible to underestimate how much of a threat Putin is to the western world”. The first implies that a really heavy-handed military response to IS will somehow make us safer. And the second verges on implying something similar may be soon required to suppress Russian ambition.
The problem underlined by the quotes above is that the beliefs that underpin these statements may lead us into actions that substantially aggravate the problems such actions would be purportedly addressing.
It got me thinking about how we decide on a course of action, and about the principles of selection more generally. Essentially, I conclude, Darwinian natural selection, the scientific method, market forces and wilful blindness represent different aspects of the same mechanism. Essentially it’s a rejection mechanism.
In Darwinian natural rejection, the course of the future is moulded by death and a lack of sex. Your genes are not passed on if you die young, or if you die in circumstances that compromise the life chances of your descendants. And your genes are not passed on if you or your kin reproduce less sustainably than others with other genes. Which genes prove more successful varies in different environments.
Group selection/rejection also applies; groups made up of too many selfish individuals perish on account of their collectively unsustainable behaviour. Groups pursuing unsustainable strategies are less likely to survive than groups behaving sustainably. The most successful groups are those that can contain unsustainable tendencies that emerge within those groups.
In the scientific method, the principal criterion for rejection is empirical disproof. Thus carbon-14 techniques to measure the age of ancient biota disprove the long-held biblical hypothesis that the earth is less than 7,000 years old. When facts get in the way of beliefs, in the scientific method hypotheses are selected because dogmatic beliefs are rejected through factual evidence.
The scientific method is a creative and speculative method. Informed conjecture about anything represents a valid hypothesis if it is conceptually capable of being rejected but has not yet been rejected.
In historical analysis the scientific method requires a counterfactual that can only be argued; never measured. Thus if we ask whether the Reserve Bank’s inflation targeting monetary policies have reduced inflation rates, we cannot even begin to answer that question in the absence of a counterfactual scenario. Thus the best ‘truth’ should arise from the most plausible counterfactual. In the absence of contested counterfactuals, we only have faith. Indeed faith is all that underpinned anti-inflationary monetary policy.
Science is the selection mechanism that defines modernity. Yet the application of the scientific method to the ‘soft sciences’ has been very limited, because we have not yet got into the habit of creating contestable counterfactuals. We have no widely practised mechanism for rejecting beliefs that are most probably false.
In economics, selection takes place through markets. Again, it is really a rejection mechanism; your business does not survive if too few people buy your wares. Markets don’t just exist in the worlds of goods and services. There are, for example, relationship markets, which take us back to the sexual side of Darwinian selection. And there are markets for ideas, or ‘propositions’ of truth. Yet market failure reigns.
In markets, a ‘true’ idea is an idea that people will buy. More to the point, propositions are rejected if they are not able to be sold; and this often has little to do with how well argued a proposition is. A proposition will be rejected if it cannot engender an audience. A proposition may be rejected if it is drowned out by other propositions. A proposition is less likely to be rejected if it serves the interests of an influential group of buyers, regardless of its merit in any scientific sense. There are imbalances in the distribution of selection influence, as well as in the distribution of income.
Success in markets conforms with the selection principle of consumer sovereignty. Rejection takes place when a thing or an idea is unattractive to influential buyers. However, a new idea that becomes attractive to many uninfluential buyers may prevail over an old idea that remains attractive to a small number of influential buyers of ideas. The adoption of MMP voting in New Zealand was one such example. (Indeed democracy itself is such an idea, rejected for many centuries in the skewed marketplace of ideas.)
Finally wilful blindness represents a refusal to consider any choice other than a prior belief. It means that we are prone to reject anything that does not fit our preconceptions; in particular it means we will reject such things by subconsciously choosing not to even be aware of what we are rejecting. Thus our preconceived ideas – our beliefs – survive, and ideas that deign to challenge them generally do not. And this may be true even when there is a clear and present change in the information we are confronted with.
Remember those Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction”. They were so obviously a political ruse. Yet so many of us seemed to fall for it. The naïve mainstream media gave credibility to an obvious pretext for western aggression. It was our leaders who wanted to go to war, and we were so easily conned.
Then in economics there is the austerity con in Europe and elsewhere. The arguments for austerity are so obviously false; yet deep-seated beliefs prevent many from seeing the obvious. The people who suffer the least from austerity politics are among those most fearful of ideas that challenge the ethos of paid work and of individual (and political) thrift, even propositions and ideas that would benefit them. It took a great depression in the 1930s before the blindly interested minority could be persuaded to buy into those new-fangled Keynesian ideas. And even then, Keynes’ proposals to save capitalists from themselves were only ‘bought’ (ie not rejected) because of the sheer terror of a Stalinist alternative that they could not be blind to.
In New Zealand the Left indulged in a particularly blatant case of wilful blindness in the 1980s. The Roger Douglas Treasury line was a fraudulent pretext for enrichment by the selfish for the selfish. We bought it. We didn’t really believe that New Zealand pre-1984 was like Albania or Soviet-era Gdansk. But we allowed ourselves to consider uncool just about everything we had thought was good about pre-1984 New Zealand.
So what today about Gerry Brownlee and Marsha Gessen?
Does Brownlee really believe that the west’s martial approach to the Islamic State (IS) will somehow suppress the problem of “sprouting” terrorist organisations? The clear scientific evidence is that western counter-aggression will further fertilise the soil from which such extremism spreads. I don’t even think Brownlee is that wilfully blind; rather he speaks on behalf of the wilfully blind.
And what about Marsha Gessen’s warning about Vladimir Putin? I’ve seen this new Cold War talk as well from Francis Fukuyama, an intellectual whom I have some time for. There’s little doubt that Vladimir Putin is a politically ambitious man. But it does all humanity a disservice to overstate his ambition. He is a brutal and ruthless Russian nationalist seeking to create a strong Russian polity that answers to no outside force. He does not want to rule the whole world, but wishes Russia to maintain a position of strength within it. People in the west should beware of taking on overly belligerent beliefs about Russia and then acting on those beliefs, having needlessly rejected more sanguine and nuanced understandings of world politics.
In the 1960s we were subject to the Domino Theory which gave us the Vietnam War. Yet once Vietnam finally prevailed and was free (after 1980) to set its own course, we soon realised that Vietnam posed no danger to us, and that any vestigial dangers the Vietnam regime posed to its own people were short-lived. (And this despite an escalation of Cold War posturing in the early 1980s.) The Domino Theory was and is an obvious nonsense that needs to be continuously rejected. Ho Chi Minh never presented a danger to western liberal-democracy. The Vietnam War did create such a danger, however. Fortunately there were enough individually uninfluential people in the west to reject war and save liberal democracy from itself.
Let’s not create new Games of Dominos. Let’s reject the real dangers – inequality, deflationary miserliness and environmental havoc – and stop believing in the faux dangers of our easily-led imaginations.
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]]>Covering the net-beat for the dailies – The Guardian – lessons for NZ media & the left?
EVER SINCE MY VERY YOUNG DAYS in the 1950s listening to Night Beat on NZ radio, I have had a fairly romantic idea of investigative journalists. Night Beat was a bit of radio-noir, covering the fictional investigations of a “hard-boiled”, streetwise reporter for a US daily paper. Each story began:
Hi, this is Randy Stone. I cover the night beat for the Chicago Star. My stories start in many different ways. This one began…Such reporting always had a masculine edge, some of which still remains in news, current events, and political journalism today. The shifts towards digital media, with its webs of interconnected relationships, have opened up more possibilities for women, but there is still a way to go. The Guardian’s new chief editor – lessons for NZ media & the left The appointment of Katharine Viner as The Guardian’s first ever female chief editor raises important issues of the changing nature of news media in the digital age. [caption id="attachment_2410" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Katharine Viner. Photo: The Guardian[/caption]
Related to this are challenges for (left wing) politics, gender equality and global-local dynamics. Within this tangle, there are important indications for the NZ media (mainstream and alternative).
The Guardian is known to be a left leaning, liberal daily paper, yet has never before had a female chief editor. The range of UK papers contrast with the lack of diversity in the political leanings of NZ’s dailies, which are largely conservative, and hover around the middle ground of the political spectrum. The New Zealand Herald, has long been regarded as leaning to the centre right. The Otago Daily Times is the only exiting daily newspaper with a track record of supporting some left wing causes.
Along with NZ’s smallness of scale, is its openness to foreign influence, with most of our mainstream media companies now being owned by right leaning transnational media corporates.Some NZ dailies have female chief editors, but this is more on a par with small local newspapers in the UK, some of which also have female chief editors.
Many in NZ feel the left is under-represented in our mainstream media. Part of the solution to this, is to strengthen the base through developing relationships with alternative overseas media organisations and initiatives. At the same time there needs to be more sustainable and secure support for challenging and diverse news and current events content by, about and for New Zealanders.
The Guardian: internationalisation, investigative journalism & digitisation
The Guardian PR has foregrounded the gender aspect of Viner’s appointment along with her track record with digital media and in extending The Guardian’s reach beyond the UK. Michael Wolff of USA Today claims that Viner’s appointment is part of a staff backlash against the retiring Editor (Alan Rusbridger’s) support for the Guardian’s role in obtaining and publishing the Edward Snowden documents
Wolff claims that Viner’s appointment is a shift away from critical 4th estate journalism that holds those with political power to account. He argues it is a move towards a softer, more culturally focused approach by The Guardian. Seeming to contradict this, Henry Mace of the Financial Times has claimed that Viner is more leftwing than Rusbridger.
Few commentators comment on how events prior to Wikleaks and Snowden’s revelations had impacted on The Guardian. For instance, it began picking up a significant online US readership after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York, and the subsequent invasion of Iraq. The US mainstream media tended to follow George Bush Jnr’s prescription, to be with his “war on terror” rather than against the power of the US elites. Many US people were looking for alternative takes on the events.
Later in 2009 The Guardian broke stories about the News of the World phone hacking scandal, which exposed political influences and unethical practices within Murdoch papers. Investigative journalist Nick Davies had a crucial role in this, and the later wikileaks stories, as explained by Rusbridger in Newsweek:
Every so often—perhaps once every 18 months—the veteran Guardian writer Nick Davies comes into my office, shuts the door with a conspiratorial backward glance, and proceeds to tell me something hair-raising.The Murdoch hacking revelations lead to the Leveson Inquiry, and its rather inadequate outcome, as well as to some setbacks for Rupert Murdoch. His News Corp still has a strong foothold in the Australian media. He has recently returned his attention to NZ media, taking a 14.9% shares in Sydney-based APN which owns NZ Herald. The Guardian comes from a different position. It was established in the 1820s when liberal values were gaining traction. This was well before the rise to prominence of the labour movement, working class solidarity and politics, and the Labour Party. The Guardian remains fairly liberal rather than being a voice for working class politics particularly. Katharine Viner’s pitch In her pitch for the editorship of The Guardian, Viner promoted herself as being for this radical tradition,
… holding power to account; defending liberties; exposing injustice.as well as for a focus on breaking news stories, international expansion, and strengthening The Guardian’s use of digital platforms. Whatever the backroom struggles, there is no doubt that Viner does have credentials in areas that need to be at the forefront of progressive and financially sustainable news media, now and in the future. Viner began her work for newspapers covering women’s and lifestyle topics. She was appointed to head the of the paper’s online expansion into Australia and the US. This also opened opportunities for Australian, and to a lesser extent NZ journalists, writing from a local perspective on local issues, but written for an international audience. (Toby Manhire of NZ Herald, article in Guardian.com.) Lessons for NZ media: strengthening the local (left) & international collaborations. [caption id="attachment_941" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Evening Report, Episode 1, Nicky Hager.[/caption]
There are other models indicating that NZ-overseas collaborations could work to strengthen NZ journalism, and particularly NZ progressive journalism, in a context where news media are struggling to survive financially. One outstanding example is the collaboration between Glenn Greenwald and his online news site The Intercept, and NZ news organisations and journalists, providing New Zealand angles on the Snowden papers. Internationally respected investigative journalist Nicky Hager is playing a significant role in this. He brings to it a deep understanding of NZ society and politics.
Towards gender equality
These are the kinds of collaborative initiatives that the NZ media and the left should be learning from. The one area that NZ (and other countries) could improve on here, is that our most renowned investigative journalists (especially with regard to current affairs, politics and international relations) are male. This is part of a long masculine legacy, but it is not clear why it hasn’t shifted more with our changing society. It is worth investigating.
Related articles/videos on Evening Report:
My article on the importance to democracy of Radio NZ and public service broadcasting.
Selwyn Manning’s interview with Nicky Hager on Snowden revelations
Selwyn Manning’s interview with Paul Buchanan on GCSB’s targeted ops.]]>
