A poem by writer, journalist, and former Manus Island refugee Behrouz Boochani. Forgive me my love Translated by Moones Mansoubi, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, 2018 Forgive me my bird as I am not able to embrace you. But here, in this corner, I know some migrating birds that I smile to at dawn. … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Fletcher Building holds AGM at crucial time for company, chances of Manus Island refugees being settled in NZ increases, and more NZ First Foundation documents emerge. To lead us off today, a look at the AGM of a hugely important company. Ihumātao has been forced onto … Read more
The Shouting Valley is a powerful group exhibition at the Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland that interrogates and gives voice to the people caught between borders. But is the real paradox of this politically charged show the limit of what art can do? Lana Lopesi reviews. “What’s bad about borders?” asked David Hall in a … Read more
For those attempting to seek asylum in New Zealand, the path is rarely straightforward. Tim Maurice of Asylum Seekers Support Trust gives us a glimpse of life as an asylum seeker. The room is alive with conversation. Before us, a meal is set out on the brown Formica table: a traditional Pakistani dish made from … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Major milestone reached in Pike River story, report paints damning picture of parliamentary bullying, and Alfred Ngaro builds profile with abortion comments. For the families of those men killed in the Pike River mine explosion, yesterday was a culmination of years of hard work. Almost nine years … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Scott Morrison wins re-election in Australia, major boost in funding for sexual violence services, and stories around Alfred Ngaro party continue to swirl. Few saw it coming, but Australian PM Scott Morrison is set to win re-election against the odds. With some votes still to count, the … Read more
The Coalition win in Australia has dealt a blow to the hopes of more than 800 refugees stuck on Pacific Islands, writes RNZ Pacific’s Johnny Blades. Refugees in Australia’s offshore processing centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island had their hopes pinned on a Labor victory yesterday. Labor’s leader Bill Shorten had promised … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Man appears in court charged with murder of British backpacker Grace Millane, little progress made on child poverty, and National responds to UN pact critics. A 26 year old man has appeared in court, charged with the murder of 22 year old British backpacker Grace Millane. The … Read more
We were all horrified to see children ripped from their parents’ arms at the US-Mexico border last month. Sadly, this kind of thing happens in Australia, too, under their mandatory detention policies. Thalia Kehoe Rowden talked to a human rights lawyer about one family that has been separated for the last three years. Content note: … Read more
New Zealanders are outraged at how the United States is treating asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. Thalia Kehoe Rowden reckons this is a good time to figure out if we want to be the good guys or the bad guys, here in Aotearoa. Whenever New Zealanders criticise other countries’ treatment of refugees, someone on … Read more
New Zealanders have been rightly horrified by Trump’s camps separating children from their parents. Are we similarly outraged by the illegal detention by the Australian government of babies and mothers? Thalia Kehoe Rowden spoke to some mums living in Nauru, waiting for years to be welcomed to a new country. Content note: this article contains … Read more
A 17-year-old New Zealander is being detained in an Australian immigration detention centre for adults, in direct contravention of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. New Zealander Rebekah Holt, the only journalist to have spoken to him, tells how she uncovered his story. Watch last night’s Newshub story about this case here. … Read more
Journalist, broadcaster and former member of the press gallery Guyon Espiner analyses New Zealand’s foreign policy, and how it must look to outsiders, in the first of a new fortnightly column for RNZ. To outsiders New Zealand foreign policy must look like a riddle wrapped in a mystery, perhaps clear only to the enigmatic deputy prime … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Australia plays politics with NZ’s refugee offer, National vows to reverse govt’s stance on oil exploration, and dentists warn against getting teeth done overseas. Behind closed doors, Australia asked New Zealand to keep a rejected offer to take refugees interred on Manus Island on the table, … Read more
The current trans-Tasman tensions have nothing on the decades of covert and overt collaboration between the Liberals, National and the Crosby Textor strategists. After less than three months into the new government, Trans-Tasman relations seemed to have plunged to their lowest point in years. First, during the campaign, Labour MP Chris Hipkins, at the behest … Read more
In order to be a good friend we don’t owe Australia our loyalty – we owe them honesty, writes Graham Cameron. The deputy prime minister of Australia, Barnaby Joyce, is grumpy with Jacinda Ardern because she offered a place to 150 of those refugees that Australia illegally imprisoned and then abandoned on Manus Island in … Read more
I was just a child when NZ took me and my family. Today, as hundreds of refugees cry out for help from Manus Island, we need to remember what we’re really about as a nation, writes Abbas Nazari. During her first foreign trip as prime minister, Jacinda Ardern on Sunday renewed New Zealand’s offer to … Read more
Mike Hosking has made another big mistake, this time on the UN’s refugee convention. Amnesty International New Zealand’s Grant Bayldon gives him a lesson in international law. In alarming misrepresentation of international law in today’s Mike’s Minute, Mike Hosking has applauded the Australian prime minister’s rejection of New Zealand’s offer to help resettle refugees from offshore … Read more
Over the weekend PM Jacinda Ardern reiterated the government’s offer to take 150 asylum seekers imprisoned on Manus Island. But we can’t stop there, writes Jessie Dennis. Now it’s time to swap compassionate words for life-saving action. The situation for refugees on Manus Island is a humanitarian crisis. The New Zealand government’s response to this … Read more
