Morning Report Essentials for Friday 13 June 2025
crime politics 10:00 am today
In today's episode, at least 290 people have been killed when an Air India plane bound for London crashed minutes after taking off from the city of Ahmedabad, Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran has been in touch with the Air India to offer his support, we have our weekly political panel, and we cross the ditch to talk to our correspondent in Australia.
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RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
PM Christopher Luxon rejects idea of visa waivers, extended visas on first trip to China
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (centre) and Tourism Minister Louise Upston (to his left) at headquarters in Shanghai. Photo: RNZ / Craig McCulloch Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has poured cold water on the idea of complete visa waivers, or extended visas for "premium" travellers from China. On his first trip to China in the job, Luxon spent the morning visiting the headquarters of the country's top online travel agency to witness a deal being signed with Tourism New Zealand to coordinate marketing campaigns. He was given a tour of the building and treated to a high-tech multimedia display showcasing the demand for holidays from Chinese tourists. chief executive Jane Sun and vice president Edison Chen both used the opportunity to pitch the extended visa ideas to Luxon, but he told reporters it was not being considered. "Immigration New Zealand deals with immigration for 195 countries, what we've asked them to do since the beginning of the year as we go for growth is to continue to look at our settings with respect to China - are they appropriate? We believe they are," he said. "You're seeing us constantly adjust our visa settings ... we won't be doing that today, it's not something we've discussed or talked through." He denied it was about a lack of trust. "No, not at all. It's just Immigration New Zealand has a decision and a responsibility to look at the visa settings for 195 countries ... that's a decision for them to make," he said. "I'm really comfortable with Immigration New Zealand, I'm very comfortable with our visa settings." Luxon pointed to a 40 percent increase in interest in New Zealand from the platform over the last 30 days. Sun and Chen both commended Luxon for the government's Monday announcement the government would trial visa waivers for Chinese travellers arriving from Australia . Immigration NZ is also adding simplified Chinese content to its official website, and scrapping the requirement for certified translations on visa documents. "Those are the things that we're trying to do to make sure the visa encumbrance is as less as possible ... New Zealand's a pretty attractive proposition," Luxon said. The challenge New Zealand faced in recovering tourism from China was more to do with marketing than improving access, he said. "Just ask you to take a step back, this is a country where New Zealand's trade with the China economy is about a third of 1 percent ... so our biggest challenge is actually getting share of mind and raising the profile of New Zealand within China and that's a marketing challenge. "You have to be in the market advocating very strongly and there's no doubt about it we had a very inward-looking period, and we also actually were very slow coming out of Covid." Tourism Minister Louise Upston said that as suggestions about visa changes came up, they would be evaluated "on whether or not those support our aspirations". "We've had a number of suggestions put to me in my time as the minister and we have actively worked on a couple of them. There's another one coming, but we will consider other options as the months progress. "I want to make sure we're taking practical steps at a time rather than leaping into changes that would be more significant." She pointed to the marketing deal signed with saying it meant using technology "not just to launch to the China market but across the globe, making it very clear that New Zealand's open for business". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
Kiwis stranded in Bali after volcano erupts
world politics 20 minutes ago Asia correspondent Erin Hale spoke to Lisa Owen about a volcanic eruption in Indonesia that has left many tourists, including New Zealanders, stranded in Bali, meanwhile two suspects have been arrested after an Australian tourist was shot and killed in Bali.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
As Christopher Luxon heads to China, his government's pivot toward the US is a stumbling block
By Robert G. Patman of NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon meets with China's President, Xi Jinping in Lima. Photo: Pool / Chris Skelton Analysis: Ahead of his first visit to China, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been at pains to present meetings with Chinese premier Xi Jinping and other leaders as advancing New Zealand's best interests. But there is arguably a degree of cognitive dissonance involved, given the government's increasing strategic entanglement with the United States - specifically, the administration of President Donald Trump. It was this perceived pivot towards the US that earlier this month saw a group of former senior politicians, including former prime ministers Helen Clark and Geoffrey Palmer, warn against "positioning New Zealand alongside the United States as an adversary of China". Luxon has brushed off any implied criticism, and says the National-led coalition remains committed to maintaining a bipartisan, independent foreign policy. But the current government has certainly emphasised a more active role on the international stage in closer alignment with the US. After coming to power in late 2023, it hailed shared values and interests with the Biden administration. It then confidently predicted New Zealand-US relations would go "from strength to strength" during Trump's second presidency. To date, nothing seems to shaken this conviction. Even after the explosive White House meeting in February, when Trump claimed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky was a warmonger, Luxon confirmed he trusted Trump and the US remained a "reliable" partner. While Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters apparently disagreed in early April over whether the Trump administration had unleashed a "trade war", the prime minister depicted the story as a "real media beat-up". Later the same month, Luxon agreed with Peters that New Zealand and Trump's America had "common strategic interests". We can trace the National-led government's closer security alignment with the US back to late January 2024. New Zealand backed two United Nations General Assembly resolutions calling for immediate humanitarian ceasefires in Gaza. But Luxon then agreed to send a small Defence Force team to the Red Sea to counter attacks on shipping by Yemeni Houthi rebels protesting the lack of a Gaza ceasefire. The government has also enthusiastically explored participation in "pillar two" of the AUKUS security pact, with officials saying it has "the potential to be supportive of our national security, defence, and foreign policy settings". In the first half of 2025, New Zealand joined a network of US-led strategic groupings, including: To be sure, New Zealand governments and US administrations have long had overlapping concerns about China's growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. The Labour-led government of Jacinda Ardern issued a defence policy statement in 2018 explicitly identifying China as a threat to the international rules-based order, and condemned the 2022 Solomon Islands-China security pact. Ardern's successor, Chris Hipkins, released a raft of national security material confirming a growing perception of China's threat. And the current government has condemned China's comprehensive strategic partnership with the Cook Islands - a self-governing entity within the New Zealand's realm - and expressed consternation about China's recent military exercises in the Tasman Sea. But US fears about the rise of China are not identical to New Zealand's. Since the Obama presidency, all US administrations, including the current Trump team, have identified China as the biggest threat to America's status as the dominant global power. But while the Obama and Biden administrations couched their concerns (however imperfectly) in terms of China's threat to multilateral alliances and an international rules-based order, the second Trump administration represents a radical break from the past. Trump's proposed takeovers of Gaza, Canada and Greenland, his administration's disestablishment of USAID, sanctions against the International Criminal Court, and withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord and the UN Council for Human Rights are all contrary to New Zealand's national interests. Similarly, his sidelining of the UN's humanitarian role in Gaza, his demand for a Ukraine peace deal on Russian terms, and his assault on free trade through the imposition of tariffs, all conflict with New Zealand's stated foreign policy positions. And right now, Trump's refusal to condemn Israel's pre-emptive unilateral attack on Iran shows again his administration's indifference to international law and the rules-based order New Zealand subscribes to. It is becoming much harder for the Luxon government to argue it shares common values and interests with the Trump administration, or that closer strategic alignment with Washington balances Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. On the contrary, there is a real risk Trump's apparent support for Vladimir Putin is viewed as weakness by China, Russia's most important backer. It may embolden Beijing to be forward-leaning in the Indo-Pacific, including the Pacific Islands region where New Zealand has core interests. A better strategy would be for New Zealand to reaffirm its friendship with the US but publicly indicate this cannot be maintained at the expense of Wellington's longstanding commitment to free trade and a rules-based global order. In the meantime, a friendly reminder to Luxon's hosts in Beijing might be in order: that New Zealand is an independent country that will not compromise its commitments to democratic values and human rights. Robert G. Patman is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Otago. This story was originally published on The Conversation.
