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President Barack Obama landed a lot of punches in his foreign policy debate with Mitt Romney in Boca Raton, Florida,” says Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove. “But President Obama’s truest line of the night was when he said to Governor Romney: ‘You say you would do the same things we did but you would just say them louder.’” …

Eleven candidates are seeking election to the Fonterra board as shareholder directors: They are Blue Read, Donna Smit, Eric Ray, Grant Cochrane, Grant Rowan, Jacqueline Rowarth, Jan Marten Kingma, Lachie Cameron, Michael Spaans and the two incumbent directors John Wilson and Nicola Shadbolt. Candidates for the Fonterra Directors’ election were announced following the completion of the Candidate Assessment Panel (CAP) …

The 2012/13 season is expected to be more subdued for pastoral farm businesses as product prices come off recent highs, the Ministry for Primary Industries says. MPI has released the 2012 pastoral farm analyses as part of its annual Farm Monitoring Report series. The reports provide models and overviews of the financial performance of typical dairy, sheep and beef, and …

Heritage Foundation experts have submitted five questions they consider vital to the foreign policy debate: Given that the Taliban movement still poses a threat to the futures of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, how do you plan to ensure stability in the region and prevent either country from serving as a base for international terrorists intent on attacking theU.S.? Over the last …

Chinese women dominate latest Hurun Report, half of the 22 self-made female entrepreneurs worth over US$1 billion are from China. The number of women making the cut this year fell from 28 in 2011 to 22. Of the top ten women on the list, seven are from China. The average wealth is 13.7 billion yuan, a decrease of 6.8 percent compared …

Lowy Institute’s Dr Michael Fullilove  “At first glance, the differences between the two candidates for president of the United States in 2012, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, are striking. Each candidate is doing his best to emphasise these differences. Most commentators have drawn sharp distinctions between the two candidates on foreign policy. Global perceptions of the two men …

The majority of New Zealanders aged 14+ years are now using some form of social media. Having monitored Facebook for over five years, Roy Morgan Research also reports that over half of New Zealanders (56%) use Facebook in an average four weeks. These finding are from ‘The Digital Universe’ report, recently released by Roy Morgan Research. Currently visited by 2 …

All Blacks legendary captain and captain of business Sir Wilson Whineray passed  away yesterday aged 77. Sir Wilson played 32 tests for New Zealand, and was captain in all but two of them. He rose to great heights in his business career chairing Carter Holt Harvey for a decade and also National Bank. Auckland International Airport chairman Joan Withers said today, …

Australia has a seat on the UN Security Council after an emphatic win in New York this week, and the key to Australia’s success in part was support from the African nations.  Now New Zealand is also campaigning for its own seat in 2015 so what does Australia’s success mean for our bid? Former New Zealand Ambassador to the UN …

For thirty years New Zealand has run a current account deficit, averaging around 5% of GDP.   To cover this cash outflow, New Zealanders have sold assets to, or borrowed from, foreigners.  As a result New Zealand’s net foreign liabilities are around 75% of GDP, a very high ratio by international standards. Despite recent years having enjoyed higher prices for our exports and …