Matua Kahurangi: Refugee offenders exposed

The devastating toll of Immigration NZ’s failures

In recent decades, New Zealand has opened its doors to thousands of people under humanitarian grounds. Refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants have been granted entry on the premise of fleeing persecution and seeking safety. That kindness has not always been repaid.

Bruce Cotterill: Asylum seekers ahead - Proceed with caution

It’s nice to see our political leaders playing a constructive role on the international stage again.

Last week, we saw our Foreign Minister joining other global leaders in calling for both sides in the Israeli conflict with Palestine to give serious consideration to the cease fire terms that were before them.

Alexander Gillespie: Foreign policy has been missing from NZ’s election campaign

Tax cuts, crime, the cost of living, potholes and co-governance … these and various other issues are now familiar to most voters. But there has been one major election area missing the serious debate it needs: foreign policy.

Whichever parties form the next government, and whoever becomes prime minister, they will also be charged with negotiating New Zealand’s place in a dynamic and changing world.

Adrian Beaumont: Foreign policy has been missing from NZ’s election campaign

Tax cuts, crime, the cost of living, potholes and co-governance … these and various other issues are now familiar to most voters. But there has been one major election area missing the serious debate it needs: foreign policy.

Whichever parties form the next government, and whoever becomes prime minister, they will also be charged with negotiating New Zealand’s place in a dynamic and changing world.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 20/6/23

Oops – govt could do better with childhood education initiative (as it admits just a few weeks after Budget Day announcement)

A Government backdown can mean a policy has gone down badly with voters. Or it can mean a programme may not be working as well as was intended, perhaps because of unintended consequences.

In the case of childhood education, a Budget announcement that looked like it was packaged to attract the votes of delighted parents has turned out to have been problematic with its consequences.

Point of Order: Clark has a new Bill to back up his threats to supermarkets

Who will blink first – Russian oligarchs or Kiwi duopolists?

We ask because our government has further tightened the thumbscrews on both.

It has introduced a bill to crimp the powers of the supermarkets in this country and it has imposed further sanctions to express this country’s disapproval of Russian and Belarusian military action in Ukraine.

Karl du Fresne: New Zealand - shining light, or breeding ground for violent extremism?

You may not have heard of the Somalian refugee Guled Mire. He was in the news last month when he appeared before a parliamentary select committee urging the government to remove what he described as a racist restriction on refugees from Africa and the Middle East.

He was referring to a policy introduced in 2009 which requires refugees from those regions to have existing family connections in New Zealand in order to be resettled here.

Speaking in support of a World Vision petition asking for the restriction to be lifted, Mire said it was an unnecessary and racist requirement that shut vulnerable people out.

NZCPR Weekly: Refugee Controversies and Climate Change

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s newsletter we look into media reporting and the new Government’s plans for refugees and climate change, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Barry Brill shares his concerns about the use of global warming propaganda, and in this week’s poll we ask whether you think New Zealand should open its doors to “climate change” refugees.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Jock Anderson: Of Flags And Refugees

Freelance journalist Jock Anderson calls for reasoned thinking when considering two media-driven issues.

No two topics have consumed the New Zealand media as much in recent times as the so-called flag “conversation” and the push to take more refugees.

Reporting on both topics has been at fever pitch as hand-wringing reporters and presenters do their damnedest to foist on the country things many folk are uncomfortable accepting and won’t accept.

Ron Smith: Boat People

We really need to decide what we want to do about refugees/immigrants, rather than making cheap points about every incident that occurs. This applies to political activists and the major media (not that there is a clear distinction between the two).

The first question concerns whether we wish to control the process or whether we are content to just let it happen.  Whatever, the history, or the particular claims, that individuals might present with, it seems to me that we would want to control the process, both in regards to numbers and individual characteristics.  This cannot be done if we simply wait until the persons concerned turn up on our shores, or appear in distress in our coastal waters (or even somewhere in our exclusive economic zone).