New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron launched the Christchurch Call initiative in Paris in May 2019.
EPA/Yoan Valat
The US, Russia and China haven’t backed the NZ-led Christchurch Call to crackdown on online extremism. Without them, and key non-western media, the initiative is unlikely to make enough difference.
My assessment is that there are about 150 to 300 core right-wing activists in New Zealand. This might sound modest – but proportionate to population, it’s similar to extremist numbers in Germany.
New Zealand’s government has hailed a fossil fuel ban for KiwiSaver default funds as part of its commitment to addressing climate change – but there’s scant detail about what exactly the ban covers.
COVID-19 has now been confirmed in New Zealand in one case, but as yet, there is no evidence of transmission to others. Pandemic planning is focused on keeping the novel coronavirus out.
Members of the public mourn at a makeshift memorial following the Christchurch mosque attacks in March 2019.
AAP/David Alexander
In the wake of last year’s Christchurch mosque attacks, New Zealand’s intelligence agencies must become more transparent in their reporting on the risk of right-wing terrorism.
Young New Zealanders are less likely to use cannabis than their 1990s counterparts. But if New Zealand decides to legalise recreational use, teens will have easier access.
Michael Norris, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Classical music station RNZ Concert may have been saved by an outcry from music lovers – but as a composer, it’s clear to me that its management still doesn’t realise what a national treasure it is.
New Zealand has become more economically dependent on China than many nations in the past generation, with a 12-fold jump in trade in commercial services.
Campaigning for a third term in government in 2014, NZ Nationals leader John Key visits a new housing development, consistent with the government’s framing of affordability as a supply problem.
Sarah Robson/AAP
Tracing politicians’ use of the term ‘housing crisis’ reveals it came into common use only in recent years, and then only by opposition MPs. Governments prefer to frame the issues differently.
Thai health officials await passengers arriving on international flights. All signs point to a global overreaction to this crisis, and therefore to an amplified economic impact.
Rungroj Yongrit/EPA
Ilan Noy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
The preliminary evidence suggests the Wuhan coronavirus is less deadly than SARS. But with social media, panic can now spread more rapidly and further.
The male bluehead wrasse defends his group of yellow females, one of whom has to step-up and take charge if he leaves.
Kevin Bryant
When a male bluehead wrasse is removed from the group he dominates, the largest female changes sex, rapidly transforming ovaries into sperm-producing testes. Molecular research shows how.
British Columbia’s law should see First Nations’ people included in public decisions and economic development, especially in relation to natural resources.
from www.shutterstock.com
British Columbia’s new law requires its parliament to align all laws with the UN declaration on indigenous rights. New Zealand and Australia should watch closely to see what it could mean for them.
Holiday birthdays are lonely.
Bryan Keogh/The Conversation via Shutterstock.com
December 25 is the least popular day to give birth in the US, Australia and New Zealand, and second only to Boxing Day on Dec. 26 in England, Wales and Ireland.
Indian Muslims protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens.
AAP/Divyakant Solanki
Chris Wilson, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Widespread protests have broken out against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act, which sanctions the recasting of India as a Hindu nation where minorities, especially Muslims, are second-class citizens.
Globally, 387 delivered and about 400 undelivered Boeing Max aircraft remain grounded indefinitely.
AAP/Mark Wagner
The Boeing MAX disaster has already cost the company billions of dollars and will have ripple effects on suppliers and the wider US economy, with tens of thousands of jobs at risk.
In April 1916, armed police invaded Maungapōhatu to arrest the Tūhoe leader Rua Kēnana (handcuffed, fourth from the left) in an unlawful raid that killed Kēnana’s son and another family member.
Wikimedia Commons
New Zealand will pardon religious Māori leader Rua Kēnana, who was arrested more than a century ago for “moral resistance”, but the pardon fails to acknowledge the miscarriage of justice.
To keep temperatures from rising above 1.5°C requires reducing fossil fuel burning by half by 2032.
from www.shutterstock.com
Under the Paris Agreement, countries have registered plans to meet emissions reductions, but the current pledges, if fully realised, would take us to 2°C by the 2050s.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University