This is something that happens in our country
Yesterday started with tragedy as a gunman opened fire in Auckland. It ended with a historic win for the Football Ferns. We grapple with one event and celebrate the other.
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Friday, July 21, by Anna Rawhiti-Connell. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: emissions drop for the third year in a row; the tension between the modern banking system and te ao Māori; the moment the whistle blew last night; but first, what we know so far about yesterday’s shooting and the questions that will be asked
We are not immune to the devastation caused by gun violence
Yesterday morning, Auckland’s mayor Wayne Brown closed his interview with Radio NZ about the shooting in Auckland's CBD by saying “This is not something that happens in our country.” He is right in the sense that we don’t hear the term “active shooter” anywhere near as frequently as it is heard in the United States. But these things do happen here. As history has proven, we are not immune to the devastation caused by gun violence, the circumstances that give rise to events like this or the need to ask questions about gun control. Somehow we have to grapple with that. This is something that happens in this country.
What we currently know about yesterday
As to yesterday’s event, details are still emerging but here is what we do know. Three people died including the shooter, Matu Reid. Seven people remain in hospital. Police are still trying to identify the two victims shot dead by Reid as he opened fire at a construction site in downtown Auckland. A scene examination will continue today. We know Reid did not have a license for the gun used in the shooting but that it was not a weapon banned following the March 15 terror attacks in 2019. A sentencing report obtained by media last night reveals that Reid was serving a sentence of five months’ home detention for domestic violence charges at the time of the shooting and had approval to travel to work at the building site where the shooting took place. A cultural report prepared for the court before Reid’s sentencing described a history of systemic deprivation, exposure to domestic violence and physical abuse. The report writer said there may also be some mental health issues. Corrections are now undertaking a review of the handling of Reid’s home detention. Prime minister Chris Hipkins said yesterday that he has also seeking advice on whether there should be a wider system review.
Questions about gun control and sentencing to come
With regard to other things that happen in this country, political leaders put politics aside yesterday. Most shared confirmed information, safety advice and messages of comfort and condolence from both big and small podiums and did not politicise the issue. You can argue that’s a basic expectation but in 2023, events, tragic or otherwise, are instantly and often speciously politicised by political figures across the world. We shouldn’t take the response from our leaders yesterday for granted. It’s clear however that yesterday's appropriate deflection of questions about sentencing, home detention and gun control, won’t hold forever. Last year, Dame Jacinda Ardern received applause for our ban on semi-automatic weapons from the audience during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Back home, on the same day, police did not answer a question about how gangs were continuing to stockpile arms. Statistics published last year showed that when compared to the previous decade, there was a 53% increase in gun crime and a 327% increase in injuries caused by guns in the year to 31 July 2022. There is also debate about the role of the freshly launched gun registry in stopping illicit guns from falling into the wrong hands.
“Flickers of that strange, defiant, joyful, ineffable stuff of life.”
Yesterday, we also welcomed the world to the opening ceremony and opening game of the Fifa World Cup. Eden Park in Auckland was packed. A moment’s silence was observed to honour the lives taken yesterday morning. Visitors were welcomed as volunteers handed out poi on arrival. This is also something that happens in this country. I watched the game from home but Toby Manhire was there and has done a superb job capturing the atmosphere at Eden Park and the significance of the historic win for the Football Ferns against Norway and the event as a bookend to an awful, tragic day.
“July 20 2023 will go down as a grievous, lamentable day for the city, and a game of football is trivial beside it. And still, in moments, when 42,137 people and countless others beyond are a thousand feet high on something so daft as a ball game, there is something there. You see flickers of that strange, defiant, joyful, ineffable stuff of life.”
Read the rest of Manhire’s account on The Spinoff this morning.
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Emissions fall for third year in a row
As Stuff’s Olivia Wannan reports, New Zealand’s climate pollution has dropped 9% in three years, according to new Statistics NZ data. Statistic NZ’s Stephen Oakley says the tail-end of the pandemic could have kept 2022’s emissions down but last year saw big drops in pollution produced by steel and aluminium manufacturing and large gains in renewable energy generation. If sustained, the drops go some way to meeting the pledge from the government to halve the country’s emission footprint by 2020.
Breaking the financial barriers for Māori
The Māori economy is one of the fastest growing in the country, yet many tangata whenua still face major barriers when borrowing from banks to kickstart businesses. Kiwibank's head of Māori advisory Teaho Pihama sits down with Bernard Hickey in the latest episode of When the Facts Change to discuss the issues many Māori face when it comes to accessing capital and what practical solutions his team at Kiwibank are doing to give Māori greater access to lending.
Click and Collect
Big report from the Herald’s Matt Nippert (paywalled) on the long-running Charities Services investigation into Waipareira Trust which found hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations breached the Charities Act.
The Department of Conservation has received “inquiries of interest” for the purchase of Chateau Tongariro (paywalled - The Post)
The water industry says the government should look at appointing a minister for water
Lynley Dodd has picked the Hairy Maclary lookalike competition winners
The woman who photographed every single thing she owns, 12,795 items in total
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Sporting Snippets
Fifa World Cup co-hosts Australia also had a win last night against Ireland
Shane van Gisbergen’s second NASCAR race confirmed
It’s Friday…
The day after a very grim day. Here’s the moment the whistle blew last night and the Football Ferns win was declared. For a brilliant split-screen view of the team on the field and the coaching staff on the sidelines at the same moment, head to the Football Ferns's Instagram.
As an American New Zealander, I shake my head every time the news goes bonkers over a shooting incident not because it isn’t tragic but because they’re giving it WAAAAY too much airtime! Media coverage can give ideas to insane people. By refusing to speak the name of the Christchurch shooter, Jacinda withheld the sick glory and copycat potential.
What sort of thin emotional economy do we live in when a shooting tragedy in the morning is off set by a soccer/football victory later in the day? Yes they happened on the same day but are of vastly different orders of significance.