Politics

The Herald’s Project Auckland 2022 publishes today as Auckland’s city centre reaches a “turning point”. The report celebrates Auckland’s reopening for business after multiple lockdowns and constraints caused by the pandemic, and, takes a deep dive into plans to “reactivate” the city centre. The plans are impressive, and as their authors — Heart of the City and Auckland Unlimited — …

Former New Zealand Prime Ministers Sir John Key and Helen Clark back current government’s position of open and honest dialogue with China, reports Graham Skellern The seventh China Business Summit in Auckland – jointly presented by NZ INC. and Auckland Business Chamber – carried the beguiling theme of “The New China Paradigm.” In a full house of 500 delegates, it didn’t …

John Blaxland, Australian National University Talk of war has become louder in recent days, but the “drumbeat” has been heard for some time now as China’s military capabilities have grown. China does not want war, at least not yet. It’s playing the long game and its evident intentions have become more unnerving. Scholars like Brendan Taylor have identified four flash …

Jacinda Ardern’s speech at the China Business Summit was a crowd-pleaser. Geoffrey Miller explains its role in the “rebalancing” of New Zealand’s orientation to China and the West. For critics who believed she had gone soft on China, Jacinda Ardern’s line that differences between China and New Zealand were becoming “harder to reconcile” will be interpreted as tough talk. They will see …

A new analysis by the Democracy Project of Nanaia Mahuta’s public statements and tweets over the past six months reveals some intriguing initial insights into her foreign policy agenda. By the end of Wednesday this week, Nanaia Mahuta had made 31 formal statements or speeches on foreign affairs in her time as minister. On Twitter, she had published 85 original tweets (i.e. excluding retweets …

Mahmoud Elkhodr, CQUniversity Australia New Zealand’s coronavirus contact-tracing app COVID Tracer was revamped yesterday. It now uses the Bluetooth-based Google/Apple exposure notification (GAEN) framework. This allows Android and Apple (iOS) devices to communicate via a contact-tracing mechanism built into the devices’ operating systems. Meanwhile, Australia continues to use the COVIDSafe app, which also uses Bluetooth, but with a different underlying …

Melissa Conley Tyler, University of Melbourne China has certainly got Australia’s attention with a highly inflammatory tweet from a government spokesperson. It has provoked the desired reaction — a storm of outrage. This is the latest in an ever-growing list of problems between Australia and China. In recent days, China imposed new tariffs on wine, while Australia threatened legal action …

Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato With tension escalating between China and members of the Five Eyes security alliance, most recently over a Chinese tweet that used a doctored image to attack Australia, New Zealand is arguably in a prime position to broker a kind of truce. Someone needs to take the initiative. Right now, things are deteriorating, as the trade …

The China-New Zealand relationship, both trade and cultural, is in good shape irrespective of different views on some issues. That was the message from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Minister of Trade and Export Growth David Parker and Chinese Ambassador Wu Xi to more than 300 delegates attending the 2020 China Business Summit, organised by NZ INC. and Auckland Business Chamber. …