The first year of dealing with the pandemic has taught New Zealand many lessons — including how we might tackle systemic social and environmental problems.
David Hall, Auckland University of Technology and Nina Ives, Auckland University of Technology
New Zealand has put just over half of its NZ$50 billion pandemic stimulus towards clean energy, but several fossil fuel powered projects will slow down the country’s shift to a low-emissions economy.
Simon Bridges’s attack on New Zealand’s ‘wokester’ police commissioner might work as politics, but it fails to grasp the nature of policing in an open society.
New Zealand’s anti-smoking campaign used all levers, from taxation to advertising bans and smoke-free environments, to change behaviour. We need a similar approach to decarbonise transport.
Given climate change predictions of more extreme floods in New Zealand, it’s time to change management practices to work with a river, allowing it room to move and its channels to adjust.
Now is the time to reform the rules for travellers who park up and camp in public spaces. But don’t blame freedom campers for all the problems in a community.
February 22 2011 changed Christchurch forever. On the tenth anniversary of the deadly earthquake, how far has the city come and what challenges remain?
Air New Zealand and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade have both potentially breached international human rights agreements. The government must demand answers.
It’s important to get the figures right to know if we are truely out of any recession, or if we need further stimulus to help get more people into work.
A new report pushes for a modern tourism model, including the introduction of airport departure taxes, to enhance New Zealand’s competitive advantage in a climate-conscious world.
Increasing plastic pollution in southern hemisphere oceans adds a deadly threat to albatrosses, already among the world’s most imperiled seabirds with 73% of species threatened with extinction.
The rapid increase in the number of infections is the most obvious reason why new variants of the virus have been emerging recently. Case numbers doubled in just two months at the end of 2020.
Investment in renewable electricity needs bipartisan political support and some bold decisions if New Zealand is to meet its future energy commitments.
Instead of wage subsidy and business loan schemes, allowing households, workers and employers to borrow against future income could be more efficient and equitable in the long run.
Research measuring how water flows between living kauri trees and a leafless stump adds evidence that trees use their underground root systems to support each other.
Michael Plank, University of Canterbury; Shaun Hendy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau, and Siouxsie Wiles, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
The highly infectious nature of the COVID-19 variant, and the fact the infections have no clear link to the border, leaves the worrying possibility of a more widespread community outbreak.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University