Handshakes, photo ops and Pacific politics as PM arrives in PNG
It may be missing a US president, but today's Port Moresby talkfest still matters to New Zealand.
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Monday, May 22 by Catherine McGregor. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: Government touts huge new emissions-reduction project; Green Party publish post-Kerekere list rankings; banks forecast hefty new rate rises. But first, Stewart Sowman-Lund reports from Papua New Guinea.
NZ PM Chris Hipkins and PNG PM James Marape (Original photo: Adek Berry/AFP via Getty Images, additional design by The Spinoff)
For the PM, a whistlestop visit and a packed schedule
Stewart Sowman-Lund reports from Papua New Guinea.
A gun salute (19, not the full 21) welcomed prime minister Chris Hipkins to Port Moresby, the largest city in Papua New Guinea last night. The sudden noise made some of the New Zealand media delegation, fresh off the Air Force plane, swear – and at least one journo fully dived for cover. After Auckland’s chilly weekend, the humidity in PNG, even at 8pm at night, was confronting.
But beyond the pageantry of a Pacific welcome, it’s what today brings that will be the real excitement for Chris Hipkins. The prime minister has a packed schedule during his one-day visit to the Pacific nation. He’ll first meet with PNG’s prime minister Jame Marape, before a bilateral with the Cook Islands’ PM Mark Brown. Later, he’ll host a roundtable with local economic and business leaders before rounding out his agenda with two heavy-hitters: India’s Narendra Modi and US secretary of state Antony Blinken.
Blinken was a last minute replacement for US president Joe Biden, who pulled his planned trip to Australia and PNG due to an impending economic crisis back home. While PM Hipkins has remained diplomatic, he’ll be sad to have missed the opportunity for an election year handshake with the leader of the free world. “Everyone would have welcomed it if [Biden] had been able to attend but I certainly acknowledge and respect that sometimes things change,” he told me yesterday. The two may meet during a Nato summit later in the year.
Hipkins suggested during a pre-flight press conference yesterday afternoon that his visit to PNG was largely about building ties in the Pacific given his absence from a Pacific Island Forum meeting at the start of the year. When asked by The Spinoff whether anything “concrete” would come out of the visit for New Zealand, he said: “It will be largely introductory meetings for me with a lot of the Pacific leaders, but I also think it’s really important that New Zealand is represented at this meeting as well, clearly a significant set of discussions taking place.” As well as “grin and shake” photo ops, expect discussion on the militarisation of the Pacific, the growing influence of China – and the chance for Hipkins to make the case for a free trade deal with India, something National will be hoping for.
We’ll have live updates throughout the day – follow along here.
The rocky state of the NZ-India relationship
Hipkins may have missed the chance to talk in person with Joe Biden, but with today’s Narendra Modi meeting he’s getting facetime with one of the world’s most powerful people (and now leader of the world’s most populous country). New Zealand’s trading relationship with India is in poor health, writes Geoffrey Miller on Victoria University of Wellington’s Democracy Project website, and the prospect of a free trade agreement (FTA) appears further away than ever. AUT’s Rahul Sen tells Q&A we’ve “fallen off the radar” – in stark contrast with Australia, which signed an FTA with India last year. One of the issues is that India doesn’t need our dairy or meat. “India is not a food deficit country; in fact, it is one of the world’s agricultural producers,” India NZ Business Council chair Earl Rattray told Dileep Foneska in December. The solution, Foneska suggests, is to focus for now on building diplomatic relations – and hope the economic benefits arrive later.
How data accessibility is improving youth outcomes
How can we use data and technology to create equitable outcomes for rangatahi in Aotearoa? Ta’ase Vaoga, rangatahi insights lead for Te Rourou, One Aotearoa Foundation, explains how a data accessibility project is helping communities leverage their own data to benefit rangatahi in need.
Read more about the OHI Data Navigator on The Spinoff now. (sponsored)
Government announces biggest ever emissions-reduction project
A new electricity-powered furnace to be installed at NZ Steel’s Glenbrook plant will halve its coal use and eliminate 1% of the country’s total annual carbon emissions. NZ Steel will receive up to $140 million from the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry fund (GIDI) for the furnace, with the company funding the rest. The project “reduces more emissions on its own than all the other 66 GIDI projects we have approved to date,” says energy minister Megan Woods. Installing the new furnace will also remove 800,000 tonnes of climate pollution from the air each year – “the equivalent of taking approximately 300,000 cars, or all the cars in Christchurch, off the road”. National leader Christopher Luxon says the announcement shows “this is a government that's got its priorities all wrong”, given that last week the budget “couldn't find money to actually help support Kiwis going through a tough cost of living crisis. But all of a sudden they can find $140 million as a subsidy paid for by Kiwi taxpayers and give it to a large foreign, multinational, profitable company.”
Green Party publishes post-Kerekere list
The Greens this weekend released their list rankings for the general election, after a tumultuous few weeks that saw allegations of bullying and the resignation of Elizabeth Kerekere. She now sits as an independent MP and “it’s understood her most vocal supporters ranked her as their #1 anyway in protest, despite her resignation,” Stuff reports. Kerekere had previously been fourth on the list, and Julie Anne Genter moves up to take her place, behind co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson and Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick. The top 10 is rounded out with Teanau Tuiono (5), Lan Pham (6), Golriz Ghahraman (7), Ricardo Menéndez March (8), Steve Abel (9) and Hūhana Lyndon (10). In 11th place is former Auckland councillor Efeso Collins, who defected from Labour to the Greens earlier this year.
A message from Jane Yee, head of podcasts at The Spinoff
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Get ready for more rate hikes, say banks
The next Reserve Bank monetary policy statement is coming on Wednesday, and banks are expecting a rise in the official cash rate (OCR) of at least 25 basis points, with more rises to come, the Herald reports (paywalled). The forecasts represent a dramatic change in sentiment since April, when banks were widely predicting a final peak of 5.5% (the OCR is currently at 5.25%). Bank economists now say the double whammy of persistent inflation (supported by a mildly inflationary budget last week) and a predicted sharp rise in net migration gives Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr little choice but to keep on increasing rates. Westpac is forecasting a peak of 6%, while BNZ and ANZ are picking 5.75% as the highest the OCR will go.
Click and collect
More than nine in 10 New Zealand workers have experienced intermittent workplace bullying in the past year, according to new research (Businessdesk, paywalled).
New Zealand’s Special Group has been named global creative agency of the year by UK magazine Campaign for the second time in three years. OMD New Zealand won silver in the Media Agency of the Year category.
Loafers Lodge had just one working ground-floor exit on the night of the fire after the main entrance was locked shut due to damage, The Post reports (paywalled).
Meanwhile, a building inspector allowed the Empire Apartments, a hostel in downtown Auckland, to pass an inspection despite its main fire doors being locked shut, the Herald reports (paywalled).
Traffic gridlock is forcing buses to the Remarkables ski field out of Queenstown CBD this winter.
Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz.
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Stewart Sowman-Lund reveals that a central Auckland bus has amassed over $4.5m in fines since September last year. After a newspaper repeated false claims about her community, Jennifer Shields asks what responsibility the media has when reporting trans disinformation. Rachel Judkins recounts how she gradually learned to love her grey hair. Spinoff writers choose their favourite local albums of all time. Chris Schulz reports that Auckland’s last inner-city street full of free parks is no more. And Sharon Lam explains why there’s something special about a female friendship trio.
Sporting snippets
Manchester City have won the English Premier League for the third time running, and without needing to step foot on the pitch. The team clinched the title on points after second-placed Arsenal lost to Nottingham Forest.
Meanwhile French team La Rochelle won the European Champions Cup after beating Ireland’s Leinster.
Aaron Mauger has resigned as head coach of Moana Pasifika after two years in the job, and a Super Rugby season in which the team has so far failed to win any games.
‘If someone wanted to destroy the place, I’m just a sitting duck’
As police continue to search for more victims of the fatal Loafers Lodge fire, former residents of the Wellington boarding house, and others like it, talk to The Guardian’s Tess McClure and Charlotte Graham-McLay about the tragedy that claimed the lives of their friends, and the housing crisis that forced them into such poor accommodation in the first place.
“I’ve read online and on social media saying that, you know, it [the hostel] is a place for the vulnerable,” says Loafers Lodge resident Chris. “I think that is the wrong word. Because sure, most are unemployed, or most of them are elderly – but it doesn’t make us vulnerable. I don’t consider myself a vulnerable person, you know – it’s just at the moment there’s a struggle with housing.”
RNZ also has an in-depth report on the fire and its aftermath that’s well worth your time.
