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The Spinoff
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Spinoff
‘Storm clouds are gathering': 40 years on from the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior
From the preface of the 40th anniversary edition of David Robie's seminal book on the Rainbow Warrior's last voyage, Helen Clark writes about what the bombing on 10 July 1985 means today. The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour on 10 July 1985 and the death of a voyager on board, Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira, was both a tragic and a seminal moment in the long campaign for a nuclear-free Pacific. It was so startling that many of us still remember where we were when the news came through. I was in Zimbabwe on my way to join the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations World Conference on Women in Nairobi. In Harare I met for the first time New Zealand Anglican priest Father Michael Lapsley who, in that same city in 1990, was severely disabled by a parcel bomb delivered by the intelligence service of the apartheid regime in South Africa. These two bombings, of the Rainbow Warrior and of Michael, have been sad reminders to me of the price so many have paid for their commitment to peace and justice. It was also very poignant for me to meet Fernando's daughter, Marelle, in Auckland in 2005. Her family suffered a loss which no family should have to bear. In August 1985, I was at the meeting of the Labour Party caucus when it was made known that the police had identified a woman in their custody as a French intelligence officer. Then in September, French prime minister Laurent Fabius confirmed that French secret agents had indeed sunk the Rainbow Warrior. The following year, a UN-mediated agreement saw the convicted agents leave New Zealand and a formal apology, a small amount of compensation, and undertakings on trade given by France – the latter after New Zealand perishable goods had been damaged in port in France. Both 1985 and 1986 were momentous years for New Zealand's assertion of its nuclear-free positioning which was seen as provocative by its nuclear-armed allies. On 4 February 1985, the United States was advised that its naval vessel, the Buchanan, could not enter a New Zealand port because it was nuclear weapons-capable and the US 'neither confirm nor deny' policy meant that New Zealand could not establish whether it was nuclear weapons-armed or not. In Manila in July 1986, a meeting between prime minister David Lange and US Secretary of State George Schultz confirmed that neither New Zealand nor the US were prepared to change their positions and that New Zealand's engagement in ANZUS was at an end. Secretary Schultz famously said that 'We part company as friends, but we part company as far as the alliance is concerned'. New Zealand passed its Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act in 1987. Since that time, until now, the country has on a largely bipartisan basis maintained its nuclear-free policy as a fundamental tenet of its independent foreign policy. But storm clouds are gathering. Australia's decision to enter a nuclear submarine purchase programme with the United States is one of those. There has been much speculation about a potential Pillar Two of the AUKUS agreement which would see others in the region become partners in the development Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific / Kia Toitū Te Mana o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa of advanced weaponry. This is occurring in the context of rising tensions between the United States and China. Many of us share the view that New Zealand should be a voice for deescalation, not for enthusiastic expansion of nuclear submarine fleets in the Pacific and the development of more lethal weaponry. Nuclear war is an existential threat to humanity. Far from receding, the threat of use of nuclear weapons is ever present. The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists now sits at 89 seconds to midnight. It references the Ukraine theatre where the use of nuclear weapons has been floated by Russia. The arms control architecture for Europe is unravelling, leaving the continent much less secure. India and Pakistan both have nuclear arsenals. The Middle East is a tinder box with the failure of the Iran nuclear deal and with Israel widely believed to possess nuclear weapons. North Korea continues to develop its nuclear weapons capacity. An outright military conflict between China and the United States would be one between two nuclear powers with serious ramifications for East Asia, South-East Asia, the Pacific, and far beyond. August 2025 marks the eightieth anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A survivors' group, Nihon Hidankyo, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. They bear tragic witness to the horror of the use of nuclear weapons. The world must heed their voice now and at all times. In the current global turbulence, New Zealand needs to reemphasise the principles and values which drove its nuclear-free legislation and its advocacy for a nuclear-free South Pacific and global nuclear disarmament. New Zealanders were clear – we did not want to be defended by nuclear weapons. We wanted our country to be a force for diplomacy and for dialogue, not for warmongering. The multilateral system is now in crisis – across all its dimensions. The UN Security Council is paralysed by great power tensions. The United States is unlikely to pay its dues to the UN under the Trump presidency, and others are unlikely to fill the substantial gap which that leaves. Its humanitarian, development, health, human rights, political and peacekeeping, scientific and cultural arms all face fiscal crises. This is the time for New Zealand to link with the many small and middle powers across regions who have a vision for a world characterised by solidarity and peace and which can rise to the occasion to combat the existential challenges it faces – including of nuclear weapons, climate change, and artificial intelligence. If our independent foreign policy is to mean anything in the mid-2020s, it must be based on concerted diplomacy for peace and sustainable development. Movement back towards an out-of-date alliance, from which New Zealand disengaged four decades ago, and its current tentacles, offers no safe harbour – on the contrary, these destabilise the region within which we live and the wide trading relationships we have. May this new edition of David Robie's Eyes of Fire remind us of our nuclear-free journey and its relevance as a lode star in these current challenging times.
Daily Record
03-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Record
Scotland facing unprecedented rush of AI-designed super-strength synthetic drugs
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark - a drugs policy reformer - has told of inevitable rise of nitazenes, more than 100 times stronger than heroin. Scotland is facing an unprecedented rush of AI-designed and super-strength synthetic drugs that could ramp up our appalling death rate even further. The chilling warning was issued in Glasgow by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, now chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Clark, who was visiting the UK's first legal drugs consumption room in the city, said drugs can now be produced on 3D printers, making detection and enforcement even harder for police forces, which are already failing spectacularly to break down supply chains. And the dogged campaigner for drug policy reform said she has been briefed on the inevitability of a reshaping of drug supplies that will include more deadly fentanyl and nitazenes, which are many times stronger than heroin and already being sold on Scottish streets. She believes that drug checking facilities are urgently needed and that greater moves should be made to educate drug users on the huge risk of death by dabbling with new substances. Clark said: 'We've had up to date briefings at our Global Commission meeting in London with experts who are telling us that they think we're coming to the end of a plant based substance use pattern. 'The use is moving to synthetics, like fentanyl, which is far more potent than heroin. And nitazenes, which are more potent again. 'This raises the very real prospect that the drug death rate could accelerate again, even in Scotland. 'If you look at the drug death rate statistics, and you put the UK population in the rest of the European Union, the UK deaths are making up 40% I mean, this is incredible. It's absolutely extraordinary. 'But the picture could certainly get worse.' Clark said the dawning of AI platforms like ChatGPT could bring a new realm of danger. She said: 'If you ask GPT ask it to design you something, it will. AI is not just used by ordinary people, it can be a resource for criminals.' And she said that the use of perfectrly legals chemicals in the creation of deadly drugs will make it impossible for police to get ahead of the gangs and smaller manufacturers who will target vulnerable communities. She said: 'You can outlaw get heroin and cocaine and the rest of it, but the precursors of some of the synthetics are so widely used for multiple use, an interdiction policy has almost no meaning. 'A banning policy has no meaning because the compound will change tomorrow. 'So law enforcement has an impossible task.' Clark said a massive public health response is the only way to combat the rise of the new drugs. She said: 'I am aware that this facility in Glasgow has applied to the Home Office for a drug testing licence. We need these to be the norm across towns and cities in Scotland and other nations. 'I am aware that at The Thistle centre there has been 39 medical emergencies on the six months it has been operating and that tells us there is a need for drug testing. 'Users don't want to die. They want to know what they are taking and they want to know they are not taking stuff laced with fentanyl of nitazenes.' Clark said New Zealand was the first nation in the world to legally allow all drug testing. Warm tributes for tragic drugs crusader Peter Krykant Glowing tributes were made to campaigner Peter Krykant, who launched hi sown mobile drugs van to force political action on Scotland's drug deaths. Dad of two Krykant, 48, died suddenly last month after battling relapse for his own addiction. He took the bold decision to defy UK law and run his own safe drug space for injecting addicts in Glasgow. Operating from a converted former ambulance, Krykant drove from his home in Falkirk and dealt with users that include some clients of The Thistle today. Helen Clark added: 'When I heard of Peter's death I was really shattered. I became aware of his efforts because I was chair of the Global Commission on Drugs Policy and I was noticing what was happening in Scotland. 'I was aware of his courage in getting out there in the van, being hassled by police. 'He was a pioneer and when came here two years ago, he was at our meetings. 'I loved meeting him, so I'm shattered by what's happened.' Councillor Allan Casey, city convener for addictions, said: 'Peter Krykant was a trailblazer and although Glasgow City Council was determined to open this facility, Peter humanised the debate and won over many people along the way. 'His contribution cannot be ignored.' She said: 'We do the festivals, street corners, wherever. Everyone's entitled to have the drugs tested. That's where Scotland and the UK needs to be. 'You need more of these kinds of facilities in other Scottish cities, with more research and effective antidotes to the new drugs coming onto the market. 'We already have Naloxone and it does quite well for the plant based substances, but we're getting into new territory with synthetics. 'There needs to be more research also on the substitution therapies because while methadone can work for opioids, it doesn't necessarily do it doesn't do it for the methamphetamine and othjer drugs. 'So it's really digging into what are going to be the ingredients of a really successful harm reduction approach, because the thought that you're going to stop people using drugs, human beings have always used drugs. 'Why do people have a drink at a party? What they have tobacco in the trenches of World War One that spread through society? 'As long as we have people who have a requirement to be transported out of their reality we will not be able to stop it, so we have to be prepared to help them.' Scotland's new drug policy minister Maree Todd, a qualified mental health pharmacist, said the benefits of The Thistle were demonsrated when a wave of contaminated drugs hots Scottish streets earlier this year. And she said that spreading word on contaminated os extremely dangerous drugs is crucial. Todd said: 'Very profoundly unwell people here in this facility had their lives saved by the staff when contaminated drugs were used all over Scotland. 'We can be fairly confident that there was a life saving intervention. We were able to pick up that knowledge and feed it into the public health Radar system in Scotland and disseminate the word that there were contaminated drugs on the street, which made things safer for everyone.' The Thistle, opened after years of controversial political and legal wrangling, claims to have helped more than 300 addicts in the past six months. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Run by Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, it is regarded as a pilot that will lead to other centres - although UK PM Keir Starmer has failed to embrace the 'safer drugs' philosophy. Scotland is the worst nation in Europe for drug deaths by a long way. Deaths in Scotland rose risen by a third in the first three months of this year, 'devastating' figures revealed. There were 308 such deaths over the period January to March, with this total up by 33% on the last three months of 2024. There were 1,053 suspected drugs deaths in the 12 months to March 2025 – meaning there were 166 (14%) fewer such deaths than in the 12 months to March 2024, when the total was 1,219.
Scoop
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Applications Now Open For Young New Zealanders To Join Ship For World Youth 37
The Ship for World Youth Alumni Association of New Zealand is excited to announce that applications are now open for the 37th voyage of the Ship for World Youth (SWY), an international leadership programme sponsored by the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan. Applications for the New Zealand delegation close at 11:59pm on Monday, 4 August 2024. The programme is designed to foster global leadership, intercultural exchange, and lifelong friendships. Participating countries for the next programme are New Zealand, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Greece, India, Jamaica, Mongolia, Mozambique, Palau, Spain, and Japan. SWY37 is scheduled to take place from the 15th Feb to 13th March 2026. The journey traditionally sees participants spending time in Japan, learning about Japanese history and culture, as well as several weeks at sea aboard the Nippon Maru, where they sail to one or more countries. During the voyage, the participants engage in workshops to develop their leadership skills, as well as foster cross-cultural understanding - a central theme of the programme. As part of next year's programme, participants will spend time onboard the Nippon Maru ship, stopping off in Okinawa and Aichi. This will be New Zealand's 18th time participating in the programme. Alumni of the programme include a range of inspiring leaders — including former Prime Minister Helen Clark. The selection process is managed by the SWY NZ Alumni Association. The delegation will be made up of 10 participants (including the National Leader), who are active in the community, capable of representing Aotearoa on the world stage, and demonstrate an eagerness to learn about other cultures. Participants are required to be New Zealand citizens between 18-30 years old. The delegation will be headed by the National Leader: a past participant of the programme, who will be selected via a similar application process, closing also on the 5th August.
Scoop
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
The Rainbow Warrior 1985-2025 Part 1: French State Terrorism And The End Of Innocence
Immediately after murdering Fernando Pereira and blowing up Greenpeace's ship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, several of the French agents went on a ski holiday in New Zealand's South Island to celebrate. Such was the contempt the French had for the Kiwis and the abilities of our police to pursue them. How wrong they were. To mark the 40th anniversary of the French terrorist attack Little Island Press has published a revised edition of Eyes of Fire first released in 1986. A new prologue by former prime minister Helen Clark and a preface by Greenpeace's Bunny McDiarmid, along with an extensive postscript which bring us up to the present day, underline why the past is not dead; it's with us right now. Gil Hanly Written by David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report, who spent 11 weeks on the final voyage of the Warrior, the book is the most remarkable piece of history I have read this year and one of those rare books that has the power to expand your mind and make your blood boil at the same time. I thought I knew a fair bit about the momentous events surrounding the attack – until I read Eyes of Fire. Heroes of our age The book covers the history of Greenpeace action – from fighting the dumping of nuclear and other toxic waste in European waters, the Arctic and the Pacific, voyages to link besieged communities across the oceans, through to their epic struggles to halt whaling and save endangered marine colonies from predation. The Rainbow Warrior's very last voyage before the bombing was to evacuate the entire population of Rongelap in the Marshall Islands who had been exposed to U.S. nuclear radiation for decades. This article is the first of two in which I will explore themes that the book triggered for me. It's not a review - go and get your own copy right now! Neither secret nor intelligent - the French secret intelligence service. Jean-Luc Kister was the DGSE (Direction générale de la Sécurité extérieure) agent who placed the two bombs that ripped a massive hole in the hull of the Rainbow Warrior on 10 July 1985. The ship quickly sank, trapping Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira inside. Kister was a member of a large team of elite agents sent to New Zealand. Some had them infiltrated Greenpeace months before, some travelled through the country prior to the attack drinking, rooting New Zealand women and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that led all the way to the Palais de l'Élysée where François Mitterrand, Socialist President of France, had personally given the order to bomb the famous peace vessel. Robie aptly calls the French mission 'Blundergate'. The stupidity, howling incompetence and moronic lack of a sound strategic rationale behind the attack were only matched by the mendacity, the imperial hauteur and the racist contempt that lies at the heart of French policy in the Pacific to this very day. Thinking the Kiwi police would be no match for their élan, their savoir-faire and their panache, some of the killers hit the ski slopes to celebrate 'Mission Accompli'. Others fled to Norfolk Island aboard a yacht, the Ouvéa. Tracked there by the New Zealand police it was only with the assistance of our friends and allies, the Australians, that the agents were able to escape. Within days they sank their yacht at sea during a rendezvous with a French nuclear submarine and were able to return to France for medals and promotions. Two of the agents however were not so lucky. As everyone my age will recall Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart were nabbed after a lightning fast operation by New Zealand police. With friends and allies like these, who needs enemies? We should recall that the French were our allies at the time. They decided, however, to stop the Rainbow Warrior from leading a flotilla of ships up to Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia where yet another round of nuclear tests were scheduled. In other words: they bombed a peace ship to keep testing bombs. By 1995 France had detonated 193 nuclear bombs in the South Pacific. David Robie sees the bombing as 'a desperate attempt by one of the last colonial powers in the Pacic to hang on to the vestiges of empire by blowing up a peace ship so it could continue despoiling Pacic islands for the sake of an independent nuclear force.' The US, UK and Australia cold-shouldered New Zealand through this period and uttered not a word of condemnation against the French. Within two years we were frog-marched out of the ANZUS alliance with Australia and the U.S. because of our ground-breaking nuclear-free legislation. It was a blessing and the dawn of a period in which New Zealanders had an intense sense of national pride – a far cry from today when New Zealand politicians are being referred to the ICC in the Hague for war crimes associated with the Gaza genocide. The French State invented the term 'terrorism' I studied French History at university in France and did a paper called 'La France à la veille de révolution' (France on the eve of revolution). One of the chilling cultural memories is of the period from September 1793 to July 1794 was known as La Terreur. At the time the French state literally coined the term 'terrorisme' - with the blade of the guillotine dropping on neck after neck as the state tried to consolidate power through terror. But, as Robie points out, quoting law professor Roger S. Clark, we tend to use the term today to refer almost exclusively to non-state actors. With the US and Israel gunning down starving civilians in Gaza every day, with wave after wave of terror attacks being committed inside Iran and across the Middle East by Mossad, the CIA and MI6, we should amend this erroneous habit. The DGSE team who attached limpet mines to the Rainbow Warrior did so as psychopathic servants of the French State. Eyes of Fire: 'At the time, Prime Minister David Lange described the Rainbow Warrior attack as 'nothing more than a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism'.' Don't get me wrong. I am not 'anti-French'. I lived for years in France, had a French girlfriend, studied French history, language and literature. I even had friends in Wellington who worked at the French embassy. Curiously when I lived next to Premier House, the official residence of the prime minister, my other next door neighbour was a French agent who specialised in surveillance. Our houses backed onto Premier House. Quelle coïncidence. To his mild consternation I'd greet him with 'Salut, mon espion favori.' (Hello, my favourite spy). What I despise is French colonialism, French racism, and what the French call magouillage. I don't know a good English word for it … it is a mix of shenanigans, duplicity, artful deception to achieve unscrupulous outcomes that can't be publicly avowed. In brief: what the French attempted in Auckland in 1985. Robie recounts in detail the lying, smokescreens and roadblocks that everyone from President Mitterrand through to junior officials put in the way of the New Zealand investigators. Mitterrand gave Prime Minister David Lange assurances that the culprits would be brought to justice. The French Embassy in Wellington said at the time: 'In no way is France involved. The French Government doesn't deal with its opponents in such ways'. It took years for the bombshell to explode that none other than Mitterrand himself had ordered the terrorist attack on New Zealand and Greenpeace! We the people of the Pacific We, the people of the Pacific, owe a debt to Greenpeace and all those who were part of the Rainbow Warrior, including author David Robie. We must remember the crime and call it by its name: state terrorism. The French attempted to escape justice, deny involvement and then welched on the terms of the agreement negotiated with the help of the United Nations Secretary-General. A great way to honour the sacrifice of those who stood up for justice, who stood for peace and a nuclear-free Pacific, and who honoured our own national identity would be to buy David Robie's excellent book. I'll give the last word to former Prime Minister Helen Clark: 'This is the time for New Zealand to link with the many small and middle powers across regions who have a vision for a world characterised by solidarity and peace and which can rise to the occasion to combat the existential challenges it faces – including nuclear weapons, climate change, and artificial intelligence. If our independent foreign policy is to mean anything in the mid-2020s, it must be based on concerted diplomacy for peace and sustainable development.' You cannot sink a rainbow. Eugene Doyle
NZ Herald
24-06-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
Helen Clark on Iran tensions: ‘Nothing learned' from Iraq war
Parallels are being drawn between the United States' involvement in Iran and how the 'war on terror' began more than two decades ago. After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, New Zealand's then Labour-led Government strongly opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq. Prime Minister at the time, Helen Clark, became
