Listen to The Country: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon talks polls and popularity
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Scoop
an hour ago
- Scoop
Kiwis Leaving Clear Vote Of No Confidence In Luxon
Data from StatsNZ shows more people are leaving New Zealand as the cost of living keeps getting worse under National. 'The number of New Zealanders leaving is a clear vote of no confidence in Christopher Luxon and his government,' Labour finance and economy spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. 'Christopher Luxon promised his business experience would make things better, instead he's making life worse. New Zealanders are being forced to leave to find opportunities that should be available here. 'Almost 72,000 New Zealand citizens have given up hope for a better future here in New Zealand in the year to June 2025, the highest since 2012. That's more than the population of Napier gone, all thanks to this government failing to deliver on their promises. 'No one should have to leave their country to build a future. It doesn't have to be this way. 'We can build a future where young people want to stay, put down roots, and help shape a thriving Aotearoa. 'Labour is focused on rebuilding opportunity here at home while easing the pressure households are feeling right now,' Barbara Edmonds said.
Otago Daily Times
9 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Whether to recognise a grey waste of dust and rubble
Christopher Luxon has announced that by late September 2025, New Zealand might be ready to recognise Palestinian statehood. This curiously equivocal statement contrasts sharply with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's firm commitment to recognise that unfortunate entity. Australia's pledge matches those already given by France, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Of New Zealand's Five Eyes partners, only the United States stands unequivocally behind Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu's list of reliable allies grows thin. Does New Zealand's reticence merit the criticisms levelled at it by supporters of the Palestinian cause? When Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong can tell journalists Australia is moving to recognise Palestine "while there is still a Palestine to recognise", then, surely, New Zealand awaiting the outcome of the monstrous events convulsing Gaza and the West Bank is wise? It might also be prudent to ascertain exactly what sort of "state" New Zealand is being called upon to recognise. If we are talking about the partitioned territory offered to the Palestinians in 1947, the boundaries of which the Palestinian authorities, such as they were at the time, emphatically rejected, then the harsh truth of the matter is that, within those boundaries, there is precious little left out of which a recognisable state of any kind could be fashioned. As anyone who watches the news networks is only too aware, the Gaza Strip (as it was known in 1947) has been turned into a grey waste of dust and rubble. In their biblically ferocious quest for vengeance, the Israeli Defence Force has done its best (and its best is terrifying) to leave not one stone standing upon another. Indeed, not since Rome conquered Carthage has the victors' determination to utterly destroy their enemy been so openly displayed. Roman historian Tacitus famously observed: "Rome makes a desert and calls it peace." Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes one better. He will not even talk of peace until he has made a desert strewn with the bones of Hamas' fighters out of Gaza. The West Bank is larger than Gaza, but only marginally more favoured. Bisected by walls, bedevilled by endless checkpoints, its people are hemmed in on every side. Israeli soldiers and their bulldozers flatten whole blocks of the West Bank's beleaguered towns. The flower of Palestinian youth — those whose slingshot stones have not been repaid with the explosive bullets of Israeli snipers — rot in Israeli jails. Their grandparents' olive groves burn in the night, their livestock are driven off. Those who venture out bravely in search of their stolen goats are beaten, stabbed, shot. Because not all the hills of the West Bank have been disfigured by the Israeli occupation. Cascading down some hillsides are the gleaming homes and lush gardens of the settler communities. As beautiful as they are illegal these settlements are peopled by fanatics every bit as bright-eyed and implacable as Hamas. When it comes to their Palestinian "neighbours", there is only one state these settlers wish to recognise — their absence. There was a time when the "two-state solution" promoted by the United Nations seemed a viable prospect. So much so that, with generous donations from the backers of a free, democratic, and independent Palestine, its presumptive rulers commenced constructing an impressive parliamentary complex for its legislators to sit in. Elegant of line, impressive in its austere functionality, the structure took shape in Abu Dis a neighbourhood of East Jerusalem — the designated capital of the Palestinian state. In 2003, however, construction ceased. The Second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) was in the process of suffocating the Oslo Peace Accords in tear-gas, shrapnel and blood. The Israelis responded by building their infamous "Separation Wall". From the river to the sea there would be only one state. Palestine's half-completed Parliament is still there, a dark and cavernous testimonial to diplomatic and moral failure. The building's grey concrete walls are stained, as if by the tears of all those on both sides of the conflict who were forced to abandon their dream of a peaceful two-state future. Nations presenting Palestinian recognition as a panacea should be made to argue their case from the cold concrete platforms of that doomed and gloomy monument. Hopefully, Christopher Luxon knows better than to sit there with them. ■ Chris Trotter is an Auckland writer and commentator.
Otago Daily Times
9 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Co-operating with overseas firms
A new era is dawning for Alliance Group and how that plays out now lies in the hands of its 4000-odd shareholders. On Tuesday, the red meat industry's worst-kept secret was confirmed; Irish company Dawn Meats Group would take a 65% stake in the wholly farmer-owned co-operative for $250 million, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. Alliance says the investment will reduce its short-term working capital facility by about $200m, accelerate the board's strategic capital expenditure programme and enable the distribution of up to $40m to the co-operative, subject to shareholder livestock supply. In many ways, it is a repeat of 2016 when China's Shanghai Maling (now Bright Food Group) took a 50% stake in Silver Fern Farms for $267m. Just like then, one has to ask if shareholders do not give the international investment a tick at a special general meeting in October, then what? For Silver Fern Farms, there was no other option and it is looking very similar for Alliance. It was 1948 when a collective of Southland farmers came together to establish Alliance Freezing Company Ltd. In 1980, the company underwent a change in ownership structure, transitioning into a co-operative. Since then, it has proudly lauded its farmer-owned status, particularly — and rather smugly — following the Silver Fern Farms' Chinese deal which left it the only true 100% farmer-owned red meat co-operative. Alliance farmers have now been forced between the proverbial rock and hard place. The future of their co-operative lies with them; say yes to the deal and 65% of ownership of what has been a traditional proud southern company goes offshore. Chief executive Willie Wiese says it could trade its way out but the time it would take was far too long from a banking perspective. So say no, and the bankers will be banging on the door. There appears to be little room for sentiment or tradition. It is somewhat inexplicable that Alliance finds itself in this position, with many questioning how a company can go from a record $116.3m profit in 2022 to two thumping losses in the following years. Last year, experienced agribusiness leader Mark Wynne was appointed chairman of Alliance and he did not mince words when it came to the task at hand. "I'm not doing this for a good time or a long time. This is damn hard work. We've got an enormous amount to do to turn this big super-tanker around," he said at the time. So why was the super-tanker ever grounded in the first place? And where is the accountability from those who allowed it to get so far off course? The future ownership of the co-operative might lie with its farmers but it is not those folk who got their company into such a perilous position that selling 65% of it is the only way forward. Mr Wynne has previously said that remaining a 100% farmer-owned co-operative was a choice and if farmers wanted it to remain that way, then the company needed their livestock. That was their clearest way of showing their support. But loyalty is a two-way street and Alliance used to have that in spades from its suppliers. Over time, it has eroded. For farmers already battling with rising on-farm costs, a few dollars more on their killing sheet from selling to a competing company offering a better price makes a substantial difference. Dollars and service can quickly replace any misty-eyed values around tradition and 100% farmer ownership when it comes to paying the ever-present stack of bills. Alliance has signalled site closures and asset sales are possible if the Dawn Meats deal is not inked. The company is a large employer, particularly in the South, and that would have huge ramifications for both rural and urban communities. But as livestock numbers continue to fall amid pine-tree studded farmland, the long-standing wider issue of over-capacity in the country's red meat sector continues to be the elephant in the paddock, and plant closures appear inevitable. What is guaranteed is that more change is coming in the sector — to be sure, to be sure.
