Political commentators Gareth and Liam
Liam Hehir is a Palmerston North lawyer, political commentator and a National Party member.
Gareth and Liam discuss the latest politics, including recent CPI data.
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RNZ News
18 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Cook Islands celebrates 60 years of self-governance amid growing rift with NZ
The biggest event in the Cook Islands calendar is currently underway, marking 60 years of free association with New Zealand. It comes at a tense point in the relationship, or as New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters would put it, a "constitutional crisis", largely stemming from what Wellington viewed as a lack of consultation over agreements Prime Minister Mark Brown signed with China in February. The Cook Islands had been administered by New Zealand since 1901, and in 1965, the two entered into free association. This means the island nation is self-governing, although New Zealand is responsible for assistance with foreign affairs, disasters and defence. The Cook Islands is celebrating 60 years of self-governance. Photo: Caleb Fotheringham In 2001, New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a Joint Centenary Declaration, which requires the two to "consult regularly on defence and security issues" - which is what the government has felt has been breached. But problems stem back further than the China deals. In October last year, Brown proposed a Cook Islands passport as part of the 60-year celebrations. He viewed it as an "internal matter", no different to how New Zealanders can carry dual passports. Wellington felt otherwise. The full extent was shown through documents released to 1News under the Official Information Act (OIA) which said the country can have its passport but at the cost of New Zealand citizenship. Brown dropped the idea and told Cook Islands News in December that New Zealand "bared its teeth". Shortly after on Christmas day 2024, the Cook Islands-registered vessel Eagle S was seized in the Baltic Sea by Finnish authorities, who believed the vessel severed the Estlink 2 submarine cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia. The vessel was thought to be linked to Russia's shadow fleet, which seeks to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil. OIA documents released to RNZ Pacific show high levels of concern from New Zealand surrounding the ship and the Cook Islands shipping registry. In the lead up to the Cook Islands signing the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China and other agreements, Brown said there was "no need for New Zealand to sit in the room with us". He said New Zealand was advised on the agreements but did not need to be consulted to the level they were asking for. Brown returned home from China to a vote of no confidence - that failed - and protesters marching towards parliament, emotional that their leader was ruining their relationship with the nation's closest friend. But some in the country supported Brown, feeling the move was a natural progression of the country having more autonomy, which has been happening slowly since the Cook Islands first entered into free association. A recent example, in September 2023, the United States recognised the Cook Islands as a "sovereign and independent state". However, New Zealand has drawn red lines - United Nations membership is only available to fully independent and sovereign countries is one of the big ones. An issue that had been floated by Brown and previous prime ministers, including his predecessor, Henry Puna. In June, New Zealand paused $18.2m in development funding, citing the lack of consultation it received from China as the reason. Brown called the move "patronising" and "inconsistent with modern partnership". "The relationship between the Cook Islands and New Zealand is defined by partnership, not paternalism," he told his parliament in June. Last week Brown said if New Zealand could not afford to fund the country's national infrastructure investment plan - billed at $650 million - the Cook Islands would need to look elsewhere. Peters in return, has said Brown is making it harder to restore trust with each "mischaracterisation of the New Zealand approach". He also challenged Brown to hold a referendum on independence from New Zealand. Peters in an interview with RNZ Pacific this week, said the problems in the relationship are all from the Cook Islands side. "Members of parliament, people like me come and go, and governments come and go, and ministers of foreign affairs come and go, but the enduring relationship with the people of Cook Islands is what we are constitutionally required to maintain," Peters said. Brown has made several comments suggesting a double standard from Aotearoa and that the 2001 Joint Centenary Declaration requires New Zealand to consult the Cook Islands on its dealings. Peters said that has never been the case. "That was never the arrangement, to construe it as being the arrangement now is done without any basis. If you're going to make a claim, you've got to lay down the foundations of that claim and that's the difference of opinion, and we're clearing it up," he said. The agreements the Cook Islands signed with China have been made public and Brown has maintained there is nothing in them that could cause concern. Geopolitical commentators have suggested that they could undermine New Zealand's national security by having China involved in maritime infrastructure like ports. But Peters said if he has any issues they were for "our private conversation with the Cook Islands government" and that "the value and the content and the dimension, the breadth and the depth of the agreements" was not what the issue is about, with the focus being on the lack of consultation. Some commentary from academics has been critical of aid being used as a bargaining chip and the pause could even push the Cook Islands closer to China, which Peters doesn't believe. "I am very confident that we have taken the right steps, after serious consideration," he said. "It is with the greatest regret, we find ourselves having [to pause funding] but I've got an obligation to the Cook Island people and to the New Zealand taxpayer." Peters said he was "not going to speculate" if there would be further funding pauses and labelled questions from RNZ Pacific as "defeatist" when he was asked what the consequences to the Cook Islands would be if the relationship was not mended. Te Maeva Nui celebrations are on now. Photo: Caleb Fotheringham The political turmoil feels far away at the current constitutional celebrations called Te Maeva Nui. "We're just celebrating us as a nation right now, so, yeah, none of that matters right now," said Teriimaevarua Marsters, who is leading the team from Palmerston Island. The small atoll is only accessible by boat and has a population of 28 people, 16 of them have made the trip to be in Rarotonga. "It's a huge deal, because once every ten years we come together as all, for us out there we get to come together with other islands, within the Cook Islands." Terry Piri who works at the Ministry of Finance, was setting up a stand that's selling special minted coins marking the big 60th. "You can see there's the turtle and the fish travelling together in the ocean, that's [because] we're people of the ocean," Piri said while showing the coin. Teriimaevarua Marsters is leading the team from Palmerston Island. Photo: Caleb Fotheringham Like Marsters, Piri is not interested in the government-to-government problems with New Zealand at the moment. "For me, I'm here celebrating, and people are here celebrating, so we're enjoying it. We don't worry about the political side. Let the politicians look after that side." Terry Piri holding special coins marking the big 60th Photo: Caleb Fotheringham At the hostel housing people from the Northern Group island Pukapuka, team leader Ruarau Iakobo has no interest in being fully independent. "We the people, we don't like that, we don't want to separate our relationship with New Zealand. We want to be with New Zealand because they've looked after us for 60 years." Team leader for Northern Group island Pukapuka Ruarau Iakobo does not want to leave the relationship with New Zealand. Photo: Caleb Fotheringham
RNZ News
18 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Beef farmers likely first in line for emissions-reducing livestock pill
Photo: RNZ/Susan Murray Industry-government venture AgriZero is hinting that New Zealand beef may be the first agricultural sector to gain access to tools like a new methane-reducing pill for livestock - and soon. Ruminant BioTech was developing a slow-release bolus, or pill, to be fed to livestock. Recent trials on New Zealand farms resulted in a reduction of methane emissions. It was one of AgriZero's 10 investments towards reducing agricultural emissions. AgriZero first invested $1.8 million into Ruminant BioTech's product in April 2023, followed by $4m to accelerate its commercialisation in August. Chief executive Wayne McNee said the company was planning a limited release for beef cattle, once it was approved by the regulator. "Ruminant BioTech, so likely to be the first of these products in the market. It's a bolus, many of you will have heard of, containing bromoform," he said. "The benefit of a bolus, obviously is that you can administer it once, it lasts for at least 100 days, reduces methane by 70 percent or so over that period. "And the current thinking is to probably administer one of these [boluses] to an animal during its lifetime, and you average out the benefit of that over the period of that beef animal's life." Ruminant BioTech's bolus won a protype category innovation award at Fieldays near Hamilton in June. Ruminant BioTech's bolus contained Tribromomethane (bromoform), a chemical compound that could be found in marine algae, phytoplankton or as a by-product of chlorinated drinking water. It applied to register trade names for two products, the "Calm A Cattle Bolus" in September and "Emitless" more recently in May. Department of Internal Affairs information showed Emitless was a 172g oral bolus containing 48g of Tribromomethane, and users were instructed not to use the product in cattle intended for reproduction, or cattle intended to produce milk for human consumption. Whereas, Calm A Cattle Bolus was a 165g bolus containing 36g of Tribromomethane, intended to reduce enteric methane emissions in cattle for up to 4 months. Last week, the Environmental Protection Authority said it determined that the inhibitor - containing 50-70 percent tribromomethane as the active ingredient - fit within the scope of the veterinary medicines group standard, under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (1996), and did not require an individual approval. Before the product could be used in New Zealand though, it would require registration under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act (1997), which was administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries. New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general, Vincent Arbuckle said it had received and was assessing the application for registering Ruminant BioTech's "Emitless" product. Ruminant Bio Tech's R&D team holding boluses, designed to curb methane emissions in cattle, in front of the lab team producing a batch of boluses Photo: Supplied Arbuckle said the product was an intraruminal bolus for reducing enteric methane in cattle weighing between 350 kilograms and 450kg for up to 4 months. Would you feed your cattle emissions-reducing technologies like the bolus? Let us know ruralnews@ McNee said it expected a result from the regulator soon. "It's going through regulatory process at the moment and hoping to be available later this year or worst case early next year," he said. "Certainly by next year and over the next few years, we'll see one or two products, maybe three products come into the market each year. That's what the companies are telling us." McNee said in future, farmers will have a range of emissions-reduction tools to choose from. "If there's a productivity improvement, it may be relatively straightforward to get uptake. "But in other cases, if it's pure methane reduction, then at the end of the day, somebody's going to have to pay for that," he said. "There are a number of processors, certainly the ones that have invested in us, who are talking with companies offshore to look at the potential to provide incentives to farmers to take up those tools." Also speaking at the red meat sector conference in Christchurch this month, Dr John Roche the chief science advisor for the Prime Minister and the Ministry for Primary Industries, said progress had accelerated. "Incredibly exciting. I've sat in front of Select Committee for the last several years talking about these technologies and I kid you not, two or three years ago I was promising I'm reasonably confident they'll be here by 2030. "Two years later, I'm saying we will have a bolus that reduces methane by 70 percent in dry stock, slow release over 120 days, and it will be released either later this year or early next year," he said. "These technologies are coming fast and more of them are becoming available." Company records showed Ruminant BioTech Corp's main shareholders were Rosrain Investments, which owned 44 percent of the business. It had two company directors from New Zealand and two from Australia. Other backers included New Zealand Trustee Services, Crown Terrace Investments and New Zealand Green Investment Finance, the latter a government fund towards low-emissions projects that the government announced in April it will shut down .
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Small business sales drop
Photo: 123RF Small business sales underperformed in the second quarter of the year, with weakness concentrated in the North Island. The latest Xero Small Business Insights indicates sales fell 0.1 percent in the three months ended June over the year earlier, which was consistent with the downturn seen over the the past 12 months. The latest sales data was tracking under the long term average of 6.3 percent growth, and well below the 3 percent growth seen in Australia over the second quarter. However, the month of June was the best since April 2024, with sales up 4.4 percent. The agricultural sector was another bright spot with a 11 percent increase in sales in the June quarter, making it the third quarter in a row for double digit growth. However, Xero country manager Bridget Snelling said the resilience of the agricultural sector was not enough to offset weakness elsewhere, with the construction sector hit particularly hard with a 6.4 percent drop in sales. She said the sector's sales had been falling since late 2023, with retail and manufacturing sales also down. "Despite consistent OCR (official cash rate) cuts by the Reserve Bank since August 2024, we're yet to see the expected boost to consumer and business activity. "While there are some bright spots like agriculture, the overall picture remains muted." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
