Mike's Minute: America might be able to help in the Pacific

Forget Greenland – in our own backyard we have growing action in the Pacific between America and China.

This is not breaking news, but the US is trying to renew its strategic compact ties with places like Palau and the Marshall Islands, and testimony in front of the House Committee on Natural Resources suggests China is waging a sustained influence campaign aimed at weakening democratic institutions and strategic alignment in the Pacific.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 27/6/24

Tougher sentences for criminals are in the offing – and Goldsmith highlights crime stats to justify law-and-order crackdown

The government continued beating the law-and-order drum over the past 24 hours, during a week in which it introduced a Bill to restore the Three Strikes sentencing law, announced the deployment of more Police on the beat in Auckland’s Central Business District, and introduced action to tackle youth crime in the form of a new declaration for young offenders to ensure they face tougher consequences and are better supported to turn their lives around.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 8/5/24

Hurrah for coal – Shane Jones welcomes Genesis Energy’s import plans as natural gas production shrinks

A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal.

For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal.

Geoffrey Miller: Nanaia Mahuta under pressure as Pacific’s geopolitical Great Game heats up

As a new ‘Great Game’ for control of the Pacific escalates, New Zealand’s foreign minister is coming under pressure from all sides.

For those keeping score, China has now signed co-operation agreements with Samoa and Kiribati, while the US has convinced Fiji to join its new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF).

Most details of China’s new agreements have yet to be released, but they reportedly focus on economics and development – rather than hard security. But like the rather vague and weak IPEF on the Western side, the mere existence of the agreements is currently what counts.

As geopolitical competition and polarisation continue to deepen, timing and symbolism have been everything over the past week.

Richard Prebble: The world has got more dangerous. It is time to rejoin ANZUS

New Zealand is a partner of an Atlantic Defence treaty but apart from a pact with Australia this country has no defence treaty. New Zealand is a NATO partner, a nuclear alliance, but our membership of ANZUS is suspended.

Jacinda Ardern has explained New Zealand is sending troops to Europe because “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of international law”. Russia’s “blatant attack on a country’s sovereignty is a threat to all of us”.

The PM is correct. Russia’s invasion is a threat to the international rules-based system that is fundamental to New Zealand’s national security.

All the political parties say the Pacific should be New Zealand’s focus but the actions do not match the words.

Barry Soper: Jacinda Ardern needs to learn how to deal with talent and potential trouble

Jacinda Ardern's unknowingly become an expert at doing the dance of the unveiled - the seven have long since been shed even though she clearly believes she hasn't missed a step and they're still in place covering her embarrassment.

So did she directly tell Louisa Wall - one of her most talented MPs - that she wouldn't have a place at her Cabinet table?

Wall makes no bones about it: "The Prime Minister told me I would never be in her Cabinet. It wasn't just that she didn't want me in her Cabinet, she was obviously very clear she didn't want me in her caucus."

Getting a direct answer from Ardern though and the music starts playing and the dance begins.