Yearly Archives: 2021
NZ experts say Auckland move to alert level 3 ‘risky’ – but PM still...
By Rowan Quinn, RNZ News health correspondent
Alert level 3 is being called a roll of the dice that could either eliminate delta or send...
Pacquiao says boxing career over in favour of his presidency quest
By Roy Luarca in Manila
Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao is leaving the sport that propelled him to stardom as he seeks the Philippine presidency...
PNG’s labour minister calls for truce in ‘no jab no job’ controversy
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk
Papua New Guinea's Department of Labour has broken its silence over the government’s stance on covid-19 testing requirements in the "no...
Auckland moves ‘cautiously’ to covid alert level 3, rest of NZ stays put
RNZ News
Auckland will move to alert level 3 from 11.59pm on Tuesday night, and stay in level 3 for at least two weeks, Prime...
Criminalisation of activists blamed for Indonesia’s declining democracy
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk
The criminalisation of activists -- including those in West Papua -- in 2019 and 2020 has been cited as one of...
Three new NZ ‘breakout’ covid cases in Waikato include two students
RNZ News
A testing centre is being set up at a marae in New Zealand's Waikato settlement of Kaiaua today after three community cases of...
On the money: Kate Sheppard and the making of a NZ feminist icon
ANALYSIS: By Katie Pickles, University of Canterbury
In 1992 four New Zealand icons (and the queen) appeared on new banknotes. Part of creating national identity,...
NZ delta’s tail is ‘long and tough’, says PM Jacinda Ardern
RNZ News
As Auckland waits to hear if it will move down an alert level this week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has assured New Zealand...
AUKUS pact strikes at heart of Pacific nuclear-free regionalism
By Johnny Blades, RNZ Pacific reporter
Australia's new security pact with the US and the UK has touched a nerve at the core of Pacific...
New Caledonia extends lockdown – covid death toll now 24
RNZ Pacific
The New Caledonian government has extended the current lockdown as well as the curfew, until October as the covid-19 pandemic worsens.
On Thursday, seven...
NZ reports jump to 20 covid community cases after falls
RNZ News
New Zealand's number of new community cases of covid-19 has jumped after several days of falling numbers, with 20 new cases reported in...
Richard Naidu: The Fawlty Towers government – everything they touch seems to turn...
By Richard Naidu in Suva
In my household, the 1970s BBC comedy Fawlty Towers is on regular repeat for family entertainment.
Only two years ago it...
Papua’s KNPB accuses Jakarta of using military post attack to criminalise them
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk
The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) claims that an attack on a military post in Maybrat regency earlier this month is...
ANZUS without NZ? Why the new security pact between Australia, the UK and US...
ANALYSIS: By Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato
We live, to borrow a phrase, in interesting times. The pandemic aside, relations between the superpowers are tense....
Covid-19 red alert over PNG ‘super spreader’ independence events
By Lulu Mark in Port Moresby
Ten people have died from Papua New Guinea's covid-19 pandemic and 203 new cases were reported in five days...
Fiji government sacking of chief statistician branded ‘shameful’
By Christine Rovoi, RNZ Pacific journalist
Questions have been raised about why the head of Fiji's Bureau of Statistics was fired by the Bainimarama government...
Fiji opens Viti Levu covid containment borders from 4am tomorrow
By Timoci Vula in Suva
Fiji will lift the covid-19 pandemic containment borders everywhere on the main island of Viti Levu from 4am tomorrow, Friday,...
Colonial border between PNG and West Papua ‘will fall like Berlin Wall’
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk
A West Papuan group seeking self-determination has greeted Papua New Guinea on its 46th anniversary of independence, predicting that one day...
PNG controller issues new measures as covid-19 remains threat
By Grace Auka Salmang in Port Moresby
Police Commissioner and Controller of the PNG National Pandemic Response David Manning has authorised the release of new...
Afghanistan media: ‘You can’t put that genie back in the bottle’
By Colin Peacock, RNZ Mediawatch presenter
Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks prompted the US to invade Afghanistan, the Taliban announced they have taken the...
New Caledonia records three more covid-19 deaths as cases hit 1150
RNZ News
Three more covid-19 deaths have been recorded in New Caledonia eight days after it was plunged sharply into the pandemic.
Official government figures as...
Herald warns NZ over ‘lockdown fatigue’ and says delta is beatable
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk
New Zealand's largest and most influential newspaper has warned the country against "lockdown fatigue" as the major city Auckland entered its...