NZ 'lagging behind' on Palestinian statehood: Clark
New Zealand is lagging behind the rest of the world through its failure to recognise Palestinian statehood, former prime minister Helen Clark says.
Canada today became the latest country to announce it would formally recognise the state of Palestine when world leaders met at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
It follows recent similar commitments from the United Kingdom and France.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon yesterday suggested the discussion was a distraction, saying the immediate focus should be on getting humanitarian aid into Gaza.
But, speaking to RNZ's Midday Report programme today, Clark said New Zealand needed to come on board.
"We are watching a catastrophe unfold in Gaza. We're watching starvation. We're watching famine conditions for many. Many are using the word genocide," she said.
"If New Zealand can't act in these circumstances, when can it act?"
The Elders, a group of world leaders Clark is part of, last month issued a call for countries to recognise the state of Palestine, calling it the "beginning, not the end of a political pathway towards lasting peace".
Clark said the government seemed to be trying avoid the ire of the United States by waiting until the peace process was well under way or nearing its end.
"That is no longer tenable. New Zealand really is lagging behind."
Even before the recent commitments from France, Canada and the UK, 147 of the UN's 193 member states had recognised the Palestinian state.
Clark said the hope was that the series of recognitions from major Western states would first shift the US position and then Israel's.
"When the US moves, Israel eventually jumps because it owes so much to the United States for the support, financial, military and otherwise.
"At some point, Israel has to smell the coffee."
She was "a little surprised" that Foreign Minister Winston Peters had not been more forward-leaning, given he historically had strongly advocated New Zealand's even-handed position.
New Zealand yesterday signed a joint statement with 14 countries expressing a willingness to recognise the State of Palestine as a necessary step towards a two-state solution.
However, later speaking in Parliament, Peters said that was conditional on first seeing progress from Palestine, including representative governance, commitment to non-violence and security guarantees for Israel.
"If we are to recognise the state of Palestine, New Zealand wants to know that what we are recognising is a legitimate, representative, viable, political entity," he told MPs.
Peters agreed with a contribution from ACT MP Simon Court that recognising the state of Palestine could be viewed as "a reward [to Hamas] for acts of terrorism" if it was done before Hamas had returned hostages or laid down arms.
Luxon earlier told RNZ New Zealand had long supported the eventual recognition of Palestinian statehood, but that the immediate focus should be on getting aid into Gaza rather than "fragmenting and talking about all sorts of other things that are distractions".
"We need to put the pressure on Israel to get humanitarian assistance unfettered, at scale, at volume, into Gaza.
"You can talk about a whole bunch of other things, but for right now, the world needs to focus."
Australia supports two-state solution - Albanese
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said today that he had discussed the crisis in Gaza with his UK counterpart, Sir Keir Starmer, and reiterated his government's strong support for a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, Reuters reports.
Starmer this week said Britain was prepared to recognise Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in response to growing public anger over the images of starving children in Gaza.
The war began on October 7 in 2023, when Hamas led attacks on communities and military bases in southern Israel in which some 1200 people were killed, including more than 700 civilians, and another 251 taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 60,000 people and laid waste to much of the territory, the Gaza health ministry says.
- additional reporting by Reuters
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
'System just sucks': Political scientist says Māori being deterred from voting
Photo: RNZ / Sarah Robson A Māori political scientist says reports people have been removed from the electoral roll or shifted off the Māori roll could discourage some Māori from voting. Political scientist at Victoria University Lara Greaves was blunt in her assessment of New Zealand's voting system, calling it difficult to navigate, particularly when it comes to updating or changing enrolment details. "This system just sucks," she said. Past surveys have shown that a significant minority of people don't have a good understanding of the electoral system at all, she said. "So I think this whole system is set up in a way that is quite confusing, quite hōhā and quite bureaucratic and a bit annoying overall." Over the last several days social media has been awash with people checking their voter details only to find they are no longer enrolled or that they cannot find their enrolment details. Lloyd is a voter on the general roll, he checked his enrolment status on Thursday was unable to find his details and had to reenrol. He told RNZ it was like there was no record of him at all. "It just seemed very inflexible considering you want everyone to vote ... I hope they get on [and] start advertising and telling people 'please just go and check and you may have to do this from scratch and we're sorry' or something." Lloyd said he has been voting for about 30 years and last checked his voting details prior to the last election in 2023. Adding extra steps to the enrolment process just makes it that much harder, he said. "I just think they should fix the system so it's a little bit smarter and easier." Lloyd's kōrero follows that of Taryn Utiger, who told RNZ she had been put on the dormant roll despite updating her enrolment details three weeks prior. "They were like, yup ka pai you're on the Māori electorate roll, everything's good to go you will be able to vote in the local body elections and the referendum. I was like cool, thought that was the end of it, everything confirmed. Then I logged in last night and nothing." Lara Greaves. Photo: Supplied Greaves said there are realistic barriers between Māori enrolling to vote, including a lack of knowledge among poll workers about the Māori roll and a legacy of colonisation that has discouraged Māori from participating in the electoral system. "We know that there are barriers out there, and the barriers and perception of barriers do cause lower trust, lower trust in democracy. We go back decades and we can see that there have been a lot of barriers for Māori voters," she said. "All of this is contributing to a culture where people think 'hey why would I even bother voting they don't want my vote.'" Greaves said as the facilitator of New Zealand's democracy the Electoral Commission needs to be sufficiently staffed, especially in its IT department. "Could we just invest in an IT system, could we invest in a computer system, could we invest in more people on the ground and get better results. Democracy does need money, it does need investment, it does need personnel to run it and that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment." When a system has inequities those inequities tend to affect Māori, Pacific people and migrant communities more, she said. The Electoral Commission have said there were no technical issues with their online system. Its deputy chief executive of operation Anusha Guler said it was likely some people had been moved to the "dormant roll" because they had not got in contact with the commission for sometime. According to the Electoral Commission 2023 General Election Report, the dormant roll contains voters who have been removed from the main roll for their electorate because they no longer live at an address and have not updated their enrolment details. At the election, there were 96,406 people on the dormant roll and of those, 86 percent were on the general dormant roll while 14 percent were on the Māori dormant roll. Between 31 July and the 2023 election day, just under 78,000 people moved from dormant rolls to the main roll. Speaking to media yesterday, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said he was also concerned but the Electoral Commission had said there was no issue and if people were experiencing them, they should contact the commission directly. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
3 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Government responds to tariff shock as Labour accuses it of ‘major fail'
Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Trade Minister Todd McClay will respond to the Trump administration's decision to raise its proposed tariff on New Zealand. In April, US President Donald Trump announced proposed tariffs on America's trading partners including a 10% tariff on New Zealand. That base tariff has been increased to 15%. Other countries, like Australia and the United Kingdom have secured tariffs of 10%. McClay earlier told RNZ the higher rate could be because New Zealand has a trade surplus with the United States, meaning we export more than we import. He said the Government will try to push back on the higher rate. McClay and Willis are scheduled to speak on the matter at 4.15pm. However, Labour pointed the finger at the Government, with trade spokesman Damien O'Connor saying the episode was 'a major fail for the Government and for our relationship with the US'. 'Christopher Luxon has failed to secure a low tariff rate for our exports, while others around the world such as the EU and UK have managed to make a deal,' he said. 'Businesses will have to decide whether to pass the costs on to American customers, or weather those themselves. They may have to explore new markets. None of these options are good for business confidence here at home,' he said. Deputy Prime Minister and Act leader David Seymour said the tariffs were 'a choice' for the American Government. 'Our choice is to continue expanding to new markets with new trade deals,' he said. Seymour said New Zealand believes in free trade and would continue to advocate for low tariffs around the world. 'We can't control other countries' policy at the end of the day. We can seek new markets and new trade deals,' he said. Seymour would not say whether he believed the tariffs would be inflationary. 'There is so much going on in the world economy. One person's reckons are probably not worth the paper they're written on. There are things we can change, there are things we can't change. 'We can't change other countries' political choices, that's their right to make, what we can change is that this is a place that's good to build a business, things that people will beat a path to our door for, rather than us begging them to open theirs,' he said. Trade expert Stephen Jacobi said the tariff was unjustified at 10%. 'And it's now even more unjustified.' 'We impose very few tariffs on the United States. 'They have no major trade issues with us.' He said the impact of the revised tariff regime on New Zealand exports would depend on the individual sector. 'I think it's going to depend, of course, but there may be some water to flow under the bridge on this.' Today's statement from the White House said the Australian tariff would stay at 10%. 'Britain obviously is at 10%, but we don't really compete directly with them,' Jacobi said.
Otago Daily Times
3 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Air NZ appointment of new boss sparks backlash
The appointment of Nikhil Ravishankar as Air New Zealand's incoming chief executive has caused a stir, after major news outlets were forced to disable comments on their social media platforms due to receiving a barrage of racist remarks. Ravishankar, chief digital officer at company, was tapped to lead the national carrier - one of the country's most respected corporate brands - after Greg Foran steps down in October. However, the appointment of the Indian-origin insider to the airline's top job has attracted a torrent of abuse online, with many zeroing in on Ravishankar's ethnicity. The abuse forced the country's leading media organisations to restrict or disable the ability to comment on the social media posts announcing the news. New Zealand Herald disabled comments on the Facebook post announcing the appointment "due to racist comments". "We appreciate the high level of interest in this story but cannot safely moderate it at this time," the news outlet said in a post in the comment thread. A spokesperson at New Zealand Herald later pointed RNZ towards the company's policy on social media comments. "We want to foster a safe online community by reducing instances of hate, racism, abuse and misinformation," the media organisation's policy said. "We welcome your feedback on articles but there has to be some parameters, and these are explained in our community house rules. "These clearly explain that we will not publish comments that are insulting, inflammatory or derogatory or those that spread misinformation or include personal attacks. "We cannot tolerate hate. We cannot tolerate abuse towards individuals in our stories or other commenters." RNZ was also forced to disable comments on the social media post regarding Ravishankar's appointment. "Under RNZ's comments policy, we will proactively disable comments on posts which may attract abusive or harmful comments or when resources are required elsewhere," a spokesperson said. "In this instance, the comments were disabled after our monitoring found racist comments. "We want people to feel safe and respected on our community forums and will continue to proactively disable comments where necessary. We will not tolerate harmful communications." TVNZ's 1News digital service took similar action in terms of restricting comments on the post. "We received a large number of comments on this post," a spokesperson for 1News said. "The vast majority were appropriate, however some were not. With our news team diverted to cover the tsunami event yesterday afternoon and evening we opted to turn comments off given sufficient monitoring wasn't possible." Ravishankar holds bachelor's degrees in science and commerce from the University of Auckland after attending Mount Albert Grammar School in New Zealand's largest city. He sits on the board of New Zealand Asian Leaders and is an advisory committee member of The Auckland Blues Foundation. Ravishankar has been with Air New Zealand for nearly five years and been involved in strengthening its technology, loyalty and customer services. Before joining the airline, Ravishankar was chief digital officer at Vector New Zealand, leading the company's digital and information technology function and its transformation programme from 2017. He was previously managing director at Accenture in Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, and held technology strategy and transformation leadership roles at Spark New Zealand. Ravishankar highlighted the deep legacy of the company he would soon lead in his first public comments after his appointment was announced. "This airline is an institution with a deep legacy but also a fantastic future," he said. "It's a privilege to step into the CEO role and take on that responsibility for our people, our customers and our country. "At the end of the day, we are a people business - purposeful, ambitious and deeply rooted in Aotearoa New Zealand, and I'm excited to help shape what this next stage of Air New Zealand looks like." RNZ has approached Air New Zealand for comment. Latest Census data in 2023 showed that the Indian population had leapfrogged the Chinese community to become the third-largest ethnic group in New Zealand. A total of 292,092 people in the country identified as a member of the Indian community in the 2023 Census, an increase of 22% since 2018. The New Zealand European ethnic group remained the largest, with a population of 3,099,858, followed by Māori with 887,493. Auckland's Indian population grew by 13% between 2018 and 2023, rising from 154,824 in 2018 to 175,794 five years later.
