China not the US is undermining NZ's security - Nicholas Khoo and Reuben Steff
It is China and not the US that is undermining New Zealand's security, Nicholas Khoo and Reuben Steff argue. Photo / Getty Images
Opinion by Nicholas Khoo and Reuben Steff
Nicholas Khoo is Associate Professor in the Politics programme at the University of Otago and a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Affairs in Christchurch. Reuben Steff is Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato. Author of 'New Zealand's Geopolitics and the US-China Competition'.
THREE KEY FACTS
Does New Zealand's increasingly close security ties with the United States and Australia put our security and sovereignty at risk?
In their op-ed in the NZ Herald on May 2, Helen Clark and Marco de Jong contend that 'by aligning with the United States and further integrating
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
19 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Concern unis will be weakened by focus on science
By John Gerritsen of RNZ Next year's funding boost for science courses and other associated subjects won't drive up enrolments in those fields, universities warn. They also calculate that the government's decision to increase funding for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, but not for most other fields in 2026 is a net zero. That's because this year's Budget allowed an emergency two-year 4% funding boost to lapse. Craig Marshall, an associate professor at the University of Otago's School of Biomedical Sciences and a member of the Tertiary Education Union's council, told RNZ without a serious funding increase, universities would increasingly struggle to offer the research-informed teaching that defined them. The ongoing decline in funding compared to inflation could prove fatal, he believed. "I think it'll be incremental. You'll just see small losses here and there and everywhere else and at the end of it all it's very difficult to predict what that leads to, but perhaps the loss of a university." Marshall said the latest decisions meant universities would struggle to offer some humanities courses and students would start to vote with their feet. "What we're starting to see is students instead of coming to universities in New Zealand from school, they'll go to universities overseas. They see that as a better outcome. "Increasingly, students opt now for postgrad graduate training outside of New Zealand, rather than in New Zealand. Some of the universities will be weakened, some may be fatally weakened." Marshall agreed the government was unlikely to let a university to go under, but one or more could lose the ability to provide the research-informed teaching that fostered critical thought - in which case it would cease to be a university in all but name. Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said the long-term trend for university funding was poor, but none of the eight institutions was close to failing. "It's becoming challenging to basically retain our position internationally. "We shouldn't care about things like international rankings, but the reality is they do send quite important signals to academic staff, to people that want to do research collaborations with New Zealand researchers and to international students," he said, referring to league tables in which New Zealand universities had been falling. "There is a tipping point where if funding got so low we were not able to maintain that quality, we would have a problem. But I don't think we're anywhere near that." However, Whelan said the net effect of last month's Budget was no increase to total university funding next year. That was about as good as the sector could have expected under the circumstances. But he said the government's decision to favour STEM subjects over humanities was mistaken. "It's an unfortunate message. There seems to be a belief that somehow universities, if they're given more funding for science, technology, engineering, maths-type subjects, can persuade students to drop doing the liberal arts or social sciences and shift across. "The reality is that's just not the case," he said. All fields of university study contributed to the skilled workforce the government said it wanted, he said. Universities minister Shane Reti told RNZ that was correct, but STEM subjects were more closely linked to productivity. "The message we're sending is that we're particularly investing and funding those courses that clearly have a pathway to productivity and economic gain and these are generally the science and the STEM subjects." Enrolments in those subjects had been increasing and the funding decision should encourage universities to increase the breadth and depth of their STEM programmes, Reti said, and universities were not sliding toward failure. "Across the sector, there are some who are doing well and some who are struggling and indeed have been struggling for some period of time and and are receiving extra attention support and monitoring from TEC (the Tertiary Education Commission). "But if we look at the big picture, there's a significant increase in student numbers this year... It's quite a change in trend from over the previous few years where student numbers have been falling away." The government had allocated $111m over the next two years to cover growing university enrolments, he said. He confirmed that the government had allocated enough funding to cover 99% of expected enrolments next year and the commission would be expected to cover the remainder from its reserves. Changing shares of the enrolment pie Ministry of Education Ministry show that sciences have lost ground against other subjects in terms of enrolments in Bachelors degrees in the past 10 years. Considered by predominant field of study, the percentage of students enrolled in the "natural and physical sciences" dropped from 14 to 13% between 2024 and 2015. Health enrolments rose from 17 to 20 percent while education, management and commerce, and the creative arts all dropped slightly. Predominant field of study for 120,995 domestic students enrolled in Bachelors degree programmes in 2024 and 127,705 in 2015. Subject in 2015 / in 2024 Sciences 14% / 13% IT 6% / 7% Engineering 3% / 3% Arch and building 2% / 3% Ag, environment 2% / 2% Health 17% / 20% Education 8%/ 7% Management, commerce 20% /18% Society and culture 33% / 33% Creative arts 11% / 10%
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- NZ Herald
Artificial intelligence key to unlocking New Zealand's economic potential
AI offers an amazing opportunity for New Zealand, if we can push past the fear and see what's possible, Steven Joyce writes. Photo / Getty Images THREE KEY FACTS It's always hard to write a Government Budget. As one who had a hand in eight and then wrote one of my own, there are certain immutable facts to be faced. There are always more interest groups with their hands out than there is money to
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- NZ Herald
Greg Dixon's Another Kind of Politics: Peters refuses to quit as Deputy PM, barricades himself in office
David Seymour takes up the Deputy PM role this weekend, after Winston Peters spent 18 months in the job. Photos / Getty Images Greg Dixon is an award-winning news reporter, TV reviewer, feature writer and former magazine editor who has written for the NZ Listener since 2017. Online only Greg Dixon's Another Kind of Politics is a weekly, mostly satirical column on politics that appears on Armed police are surrounding the Beehive after Winston Peters announced 'hell would freeze over, sunshine' before he resigned from the office of deputy prime minister. Under New Zealand First's coalition deal, Peters is supposed to hand over the official title and office to Act leader David Seymour on Sunday. However, the NZ First leader is refusing to hand over the office, including the baubles of office. He has instead barricaded himself in the office and issued a five-point list of demands. The first states that 'Winston Raymond Peters shall remain Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand for life, whether he is in government, opposition or not in Parliament. Upon the unlikely event of his death, he shall also remain Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand in the afterlife.' The four other demands relate to the size and colour of his ministerial limousine, use of the Prime Minister's executive toilet on the 9th floor of the Beehive, a limitless tab at Bellamys and exclusive parliamentary use of the word 'sunshine'. The incident began when parliamentary staff told Peters late yesterday he must pack up his office so that Seymour could move in by Monday. Peters then locked the door and began piling the baubles of office against it. Attempts to get him to leave led to a barrage of sarcasm and threats from Peters, after which police were called. It is understood that Peters is holding an Italian-made espresso machine hostage and has armed himself with a stapler and a paperweight. Attempts by a police negotiator to get Peters to release the coffee machine unharmed and to give himself up have so far come to nothing. Seymour told a press conference that Peters' decision not to stand down as deputy prime minister would make no difference. 'As of Sunday, I'm deputy prime minister by right and by name, though Act party supporters should not be worried that this amounts to a demotion. I can assure them I will carry on running the country until the next election by continuing to outmanoeuvre the Prime Minister.' Contacted for comment before his phones were cut off, Peters said he was prepared for a long siege but was not concerned. 'Listen, sunshine, this isn't my first rodeo. I've been holding other political parties and the country to ransom for years. This is child's play.' Willis to wear NZ-designed sackcloth and ashes until next year's Budget Finance Minister and Feminist of the Year Nicola Willis has bowed to demands by local fashionistas that she dress in New Zealand-designed sackcloth and ashes as an act of contrition for her Budget day wardrobe blunder. Willis, who claims to be pro-New Zealand business and asserts she is growing the New Zealand economy, wore what was believed to be a $1100 Nouvelle Sculpt Stretch Crepe frock from British womenswear label The Fold London while she delivered the Budget last Thursday. Local clothes horses were left aghast by the slight, with one saying the Nouvelle Sculpt dress wasn't only 'fashion treason' but made Willis 'look like she was in The Handmaid's Tale'. 'It was like she was channelling Serena Joy, which was very appropriate given that she had just helped shaft other women so that she could balance her budget,' said one local designer who did not wished to be named but was wearing a vintage piece from Karen Walker matched with a very odd hat made by World. Demands for Willis to have to wear locally designed sackcloth and ashes garments as an act of penitence have grown throughout this week, with Willis yesterday agreeing she would do so, though she has refused to wear a hair shirt. In a win for New Zealand business, Willis's sackcloth frocks will be designed by a fashion house in Auckland, although the sackcloth will be manufactured in China, the ashes will come from India and the garment will be sewn by a person in a sweatshop in Bangladesh. Oxford invites Seymour to debate legal status of larvae in school lunches Soon-to-be Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour will take part in an Oxford Union debate next week, opposing the moot that states 'no larva can be illegal if found in a school lunch paid for by the government'. The invitation is perfectly timed after a larva was recently found atop a pile of mashed potato in a meal produced by Seymour's cut-price school lunches programme. Serving commercially made food containing dead insects is illegal under New Zealand food safety regulations. However, Seymour said those rules do not apply to school lunches provided by the government. 'Under the programme I designed, larvae are legal and so is melted plastic.' Joining Seymour to argue that larvae are lawful in state-funded school lunches will be US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has previously said that consuming insects like the one found in his brain is perfectly safe. Political quiz of the week Photo / Facebook What is Minister For Everything Chris Bishop saying to Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown? A/ 'Hallensteins sale or Farmers sale?' B/ 'Should we give each other a heads-up next time?' C/ 'I like the jacket but the Lynx Africa is too much.' D/ 'Seeing you makes me wonder if I should let the wife do my clothes shopping.'
