Category Archives: Jacinda Ardern

At the time, Immigration Minister Michael Wood defended the policy saying working for two years before getting residency is still fast-tracked.

But Wood also suggested he was open to changes if the system didn't work.

When questioned on Monday by AM host Ryan Bridge whether the Government was planning to change their policy to include nurses in the fast-tracked list, Jacinda Ardern said they already have a pathway to residency

"All we're asking is that you not just be qualified but that you be willing to work as a nurse. Because of course, we won't solve our problem unless people come in and are willing to be a nurse while they're here," Ardern told Bridge.

"So we've simplified it. In the past, there was only one nursing category that had a pathway to residency or a simple one, and that was aged care, we've now opened that up across the board. And relative to other countries we have a very simple in some cases, most cases I would argue, better and easier pathway to residence."

When asked why nurses were expected to work for two years before applying for residency but doctors weren't, Ardern said nurses were more likely to gain residency and leave the sector than GPs.

"Immigration New Zealand was proposing that they work [for] two years first. What I was advised at the time was that it was a request that had come through because there had been a slightly higher rate of those who would come into New Zealand as nurses exiting the workforce, so that was the reason for that."

When asked what evidence the Prime Minister had to support the theory that nurses were more likely to switch careers, Ardern said she had already answered the question.

"I actually answered it in the first question - a slightly smaller but slightly higher rate of exit amongst those migrant nurses who were coming into others."

When questioned what percentage the increase was, Ardern said it was "relatively small, but higher".

She said the request to put nurses on the secondary list came from the District Health Boards.

Ardern also suggested if the two-year requirement was too high for some nurses, perhaps they didn't actually want to come and work as a nurse in Aotearoa.

"If the issue is that we have a nursing shortage, why would you not want someone who came into the country to come in not just with a qualification but with a commitment to be a nurse?" the Prime Minister questioned.

"If people think that the barrier is too high that suggests that perhaps they don't want to be a nurse in New Zealand, and that is really what we need them for."

The Prime Minister didn't clarify exactly how much more likely nurses were to leave the sector than doctors.

Ardern's comments come after the New Zealand Nurses Organisation warned patients will die unless staffing shortages are fixed.

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PM Jacinda Ardern suggests migrant nurses put off by needing to stay in role for two years 'perhaps don't want to be a nurse in NZ' - Newshub

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Covid-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall will give an update on the traffic light system on Thursday.

The Government is expected to make it easier to get free masks and rapid antigen tests (RATs), with concerns many cases of Covid-19 are going untested and unreported.

Covid-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall is set to announce an update to the Governments Covid-19 plan and guidelines on Thursday afternoon.

Stuff understands Verrall will outline plans for the Government to provide free masks and Covid-19 tests.

Verrall had already outlined plans to deliver 50 free masks to every school child in years 4-7.

READ MORE:* Covid-19: Govt invests $1.5 billion in testing, tracing and support for cases* Covid-19: New 'traffic light' system of restrictions could replace alert levels

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, speaking in Fiji on Wednesday, said the country would not be moving to the red of the traffic light settings.

A move to red would introduce an indoor gathering limit of 200 people but there is little political appetite for such a disruption and most infectious disease experts do not think it would have a significant impact at this time.

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The prime minister says the Government anticipated cases would rise in winter.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon has criticised the traffic light system, saying it is out of date and confusing. However, it is understood Verrall will not announce major changes to the settings.

Instead, Thursdays announcement is expected to focus on ways for people to self-manage.

The spread of the flu and general colds has made identifying Covid-19 trickier during winter, and officials are concerned the virus is far more prevalent than official statistics indicate.

On Wednesday, the daily case count exceeded 11,000 and 729 people were in hospital with the virus.

Professor Michael Baker said the Government needed to do more to normalise mask use and urged Verrall to introduce a mask mandate for schools.

Children should come back to mask mandates in schools. Look, for instance, at my 12-year-old daughter, who has a high quality mask but says 'it is very hard to wear it all day if I'm the only one.

We need to switch to being a mask using environment, as quickly as possible.

Ross Giblin/Stuff

Infectious diseases and pandemic expert Professor Michael Baker says there should be masking requirements in all schools.

Stuff understands the Government is not interested in a U-turn on former Covid-19 minister Chris Hipkins decision to remove the mask mandate for schools.

Ardern said the Government remained focused on isolation requirements, mask use and vaccination.

She said there would be an increased focus on boosters for at-risk groups, such as older people and those who are immuno-suppressed. Many people in these groups are now eligible for a second booster.

While she acknowledged many countries had removed isolation requirements, Ardern said it was still important for household contacts of confirmed cases to isolate.

Baker said isolation remained crucial and anyone unwell needed to stay home.

Going out while unwell is just like driving drunk, he said.

You are going to kill people. You cant see the virus but it will kill.

Baker said there was no point moving to red, other than to indicate that the pandemic needed to be taken more seriously. He suggested a warning system, similar to the roadside fire risks, rather than the rules-based traffic lights.

At the end of June, Verrall said a move to red was not needed as daily cases remained below 10,000 and fewer than 500 people were in hospitals. In the weeks since, case numbers and hospitalisations have exceeded those thresholds but there is no sign the country will move to red.

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Covid-19: Free masks and RATs but traffic light setting expected to stay orange - Stuff

By Geoffrey Miller*

Analysis - Is New Zealand suddenly softening its more pro-Western foreign policy - and its tougher line on China?

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver

After months of inching towards the West, Jacinda Ardern's set-piece speeches on her Europe trip last week seem to have been crafted to try and keep observers guessing.

At the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in Madrid, the New Zealand prime minister gave a speech that - in tone at least - seemed designed to evoke memories of the direction that her Labour predecessor David Lange had taken in the 1980s.

Lange built his foreign policy on the trinity of Labour's nuclear-free policy of 1984, France's bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985 and the US's formal suspension of its obligations to New Zealand under the ANZUS Treaty in 1986.

At the outset of her three-minute speech to NATO leaders in Spain, Ardern said "New Zealand is not here to expand our military alliances. We are here to contribute to a world that lessens the need for anyone to call on them".

The remarks vaguely recalled the fiery tone taken by Lange when New Zealand's role with NATO came up at the Oxford Union debate in 1985: "This country, New Zealand, is not going to contribute to a nuclear alliance. This country, New Zealand, never has".

Ardern followed up on her opening remarks by pointing to New Zealand's "fiercely held independent foreign policy" that she said should not be judged against "political ideology".

The prime minister also rebuffed the idea that Russia's war should be seen as a "as a war of the West vs Russia, or even democracy vs autocracy".

This particular line was surprising, given that it could easily be interpreted as a rebuke of US President Joe Biden.

After all, the US President made "the battle between democracy and autocracies" a theme of his State of the Union and Warsaw speeches in March. He has also used similar framing elsewhere, such as when he organised the inaugural 'Summit for Democracy' last December, which Ardern herself attended.

US Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi applaud US President Joe Biden as he delivers his first State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP

Ardern's pledge not to join a military alliance might seem like a significant concession to China, which tends to see the rise of new Western-led groupings in the Indo-Pacific as plots against it.

Of course, plenty of wriggle room remains on that front. Even if New Zealand were to join either of the two most hawkish groups - AUKUS (Australia, the UK and the US) or the Quad (Australia, India, Japan and the US) - it would technically not be signing up to a formal defence alliance.

Ardern also seemed to take a softer approach when she spoke to Chatham House in London on Friday. Her prepared speech did include relatively mild criticism of China - which she called "assertive" - but she managed to avoid mentioning China by name entirely during the much longer 40-minute Q and A session that followed.

This wasn't for a lack of effort on the part of her questioners: Ardern was quizzed twice on the rather sensitive matter of how New Zealand would respond if China invaded Taiwan.

In her answers, Ardern largely talked around the issue and generally preferred to bring the discussion back to Russia and Ukraine itself - far safer ground. Noting that she would be "loath to assume any particular trajectory", she also deployed the strategic soundbites of "diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy" and "dialogue, dialogue, dialogue".

Did New Zealand effectively blink last week and return to its old, pre-Ukraine hedging strategy of satisfying the West one week - and China the next?

Time will tell, but Beijing will be far more interested in Ardern's actions than her rhetoric.

After all, Ardern was invited to attend last week's Madrid summit precisely because the alliance wanted Asia-Pacific countries standing alongside it when NATO called out China in its new 'Strategic Concept'.

To that end, NATO's new blueprint did not mince words. The line of "China's stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values" served as just the opener for several paragraphs of very specific and pointed critique of Beijing's military, nuclear and economic policies.

And as if to underline New Zealand's true stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta released a statement on Friday - while Ardern was still in Europe - that called out China for "continued erosion of rights, freedom and autonomy in Hong Kong".

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with leaders at the NATO summit in Madrid, 29 June 2022. Photo: RNZ / Katie Scotcher

Moreover, the many and varied steps that New Zealand has taken this year to align itself more closely with the West remain. Ardern's foreign policy U-turn in March that saw New Zealand impose sanctions on Russia has been followed by the Prime Minister choosing to visit countries that are also clearly in the Western camp: Australia, Belgium, Japan, Singapore, Spain and the United States.

In its relations with the US, New Zealand has joined Washington's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and - even more significantly - the new Partners in the Blue Pacific (PBP) initiative. The latter group - made up of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the US - pledges to co-operate for 'prosperity, resilience, and security in the Pacific' and seems squarely aimed at countering China in the region.

In fact, as Richard Harman points out, the PBP is of such a delicate nature that Wellington has almost pretended it does not exist: a White House statement remains the only official announcement of New Zealand's involvement.

The Partners in the Blue Pacific announcement came a month after Jacinda Ardern visited Joe Biden in the White House at the end of May, a key outcome of which was Wellington's joint statement with Washington that itemised a long list of typical US complaints about China.

On the Pacific, Ardern has sided with the Western position that essentially seeks to keep China out of the region. In April, she said there was "no need" for Solomon Islands to sign a security deal with China. Citing the Pacific Islands Forum's Biketawa Declaration - a mutual regional support pledge signed after the Fiji coup in 2000 - Ardern expressed the view that the arrangement between Beijing and Honiara crossed a "very clear line".

Since then, Ardern has also been careful to show unity with Canberra by repeating Australian lines of "our backyard" and "Pacific family" to describe New Zealand's own relationship with the Pacific.

More broadly, the prime minister and her foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, have talked up the role of the Pacific Islands Forum - which Ardern described at Chatham House as "the place for discussing and determining regional security needs".

Later this week, Nanaia Mahuta is scheduled to attend the Forum's foreign ministers' meeting in Fiji, which will be followed by Ardern's participation in the leaders' summit next week.

Effectively, the Pacific Islands Forum will be the West's chance to make a counter offer to China's multilateral ambitions for the region that foreign minister Wang Yi unveiled on his tour of the Pacific in May.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi toured the Pacific Region in May. Photo: AFP

New Zealand's Pacific-focused, post-Ukraine tilt towards the West might now seem locked in: China's security deal with Solomon Islands that was first leaked in March and its subsequent even grander plans for the region arguably forced Wellington's hand.

But that does not mean there is no room, or no time, or no reason for a major rethink.

Last week's mediocre free trade deal with the EU - which gave New Zealand only minor gains in the crucial meat and dairy sectors that make up 40 percent of its exports - only underlined the simple fact that New Zealand needs China more than ever.

The EU and the US are unwilling - or unable - to put their money where their mouths are.

They are failing to match their rhetoric of solidarity with the kinds of high-quality trade deals that New Zealand would need as any kind of China substitute.

By contrast, China remains a willing and able buyer of a massive 33 percent of New Zealand's exports, especially of the butter, cheese and beef that the EU would rather exclude from the bloc on protectionist grounds.

For the foreseeable future, China will remain New Zealand's biggest trading partner - by far.

There is no Plan B.

*Geoffrey Miller is the Democracy Project's geopolitical analyst and writes on current New Zealand foreign policy and related international issues. He has lived in Germany and the Middle East and is a learner of Arabic and Russian.

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Is Jacinda Ardern rethinking her China strategy? | RNZ News

The Express reports that the photo featuring Ardern and William reveals "some subtle but significant changes to the home's reception room since members of the public last saw it".

"At the time [of the Obamas' visit], the room was shown to have a neutral colour scheme, with two matching cream sofas, an array of light-coloured armchairs for visitors and a large octagonal ottoman in the centre of the room that was also finished in a cream fabric with intricate gold detailing."

However, according to the outlet, the new photo shows that the ottoman has been reupholstered with a "much brighter floral print" that "brings out the red accents in the room's lampshades and floral print cushions". However, those remain unchanged.

The apartment apparently has 20 rooms, including five reception rooms and three master bedrooms.

The New Zealand Prime Minister visited William on her last day in London. She was in the United Kingdom as part of her five-day Europe travel.

While with William, Ardern gifted him a book and a Women's Rugby World Cup jersey and ball.

Ardern told media Prince William has a "very close relationship with New Zealand". But she didn't reveal whether any Royal visits to NZ were in the works, saying those announcements would be made by the Royal household.

She previously met with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

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Jacinda Ardern's photo with Prince William reveals change to Kensington ...

Chris JacksonGetty Images

Prince William has welcomed New Zealand's Jacinda Arden on her first trip to the U.K. since the pandemic.

The Duke of Cambridge held an audience to the young prime minister this morning at Kensington Palace. In a photo released by the palace, the pair smile as they chat, while sitting on a pair of sofas at the duke's London residence.

William wears a classic navy suit and a blue dress shirt sans tie, while Ardern wears a floral maxi dress with elbow-length sleeves.

Ardern has visited London for talks with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, regarding trade and the ongoing war in Ukraine. After meeting yesterday, the pair issued a joint statement condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and committing to "working harder to support an international [trading] system."

The Kensington Palace audience was the first meeting between Prince William and Prime Minister Ardern since the duke traveled to New Zealand in April 2019, in the wake of the tragic shootings at two mosques in the city Christchurch. During his visit, the duke met with the victims of the shootings and laid a wreath on the cenotaph at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, on behalf of Queen Elizabeth.

In 2017, Ardern became the youngest female head of government at age 37 upon her election to New Zealand's highest office. Significant moments during her tenure include the passing of strict gun laws in the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack, as well as the country's swift response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Prince William Meets With New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern - Harper's BAZAAR

There will be a lot of focus on the relationship between Jacinda Ardern and Australian leader Anthony Albanese.

OPINION:

Jacinda Ardern's United States foray was delayed by Covid. Now Grant Robertson has come down with the virus.

He is not quite jinxed yet, however.

Robertson is still confident of attending next week's pivotal meeting of Australian political and business power brokers in Sydney: the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF), which will take place for the first time since September 2019, before the Covid pandemic emerged. That's because all things being equal he will get the all-clear to cross the Tasman on Thursday morning in time to join forum attendees for the first plenary reception.

If he had tested positive another day or so later, it would have been a Zoom call or nothing at all.

The Prime Minister will also be back in town from her successful foray building support from European political leaders to get negotiations on the bilateral free trade agreement over the line. She will have a fireside chat with Australia's new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a forum dinner later that night.

Businesspeople present will be judging the verbal and physical semaphore between the two leaders to get a sense of how this new PM-to-PM relationship is unfolding. There will be humour. Some transtasman jostling and hopefully some zinger questions from the audience that evoke pungent and forthright responses to cut through the PR.

It all matters when it comes to building confidence.

But her bilateral business will take place elsewhere the annual meeting of the two prime ministers takes place on Friday morning before the Air Force 757 departs at 1pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time) for New Zealand.

The theme of this year's forum is "The Great Acceleration Emerging Stronger Together", pointing to the acceleration of trends arising from the pandemic's impact and how Australia and New Zealand can emerge from global disruptions stronger together.

The Finance Minister who has multiple gigs at the forum told me at Air New Zealand's parliamentary reception this week that he was looking forward to a conversation with the new Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers on the economic growth challenges post-Covid.

That session will be chaired by McKinsey's David Dyer and is expected to invite some engagement with the participants.

It is central to the forum's theme.

The economic relationship matters to both countries, with two-way trade worth $23.33 billion in 2022 and significant two-way investment flows.

However, Covid impacted the flow of trade as well as people between Australia and New Zealand. That two-way trade figure is down from $27.7b in the year to March 2020.

Both countries share some problems. Both are dealing with international ructions such as war, pandemics and climate change, and are seeking to deepen relationships through emerging architecture like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

The cost of living crisis; emerging issues with our major trading partner China (more so for Australia, which has a habit of poking the panda); monetary policy; supply chains; housing bubbles (ours is bigger); and the Great Resignation to tip just a few.

One advantage for Australia is its ability to tap into our most valuable export across the Tasman people.

The Great Resignation is now accompanied by the Great Exodus.

We are staring down a developing situation where go-ahead people in New Zealand who can't actually get ahead here will simply go to Australia instead, to fill labour gaps in its economy, and get paid more so they can buy homes. Australia (and Singapore) have capitalised on these situations before by offering tax breaks and even baby bonuses for people who shift nations.

ANZLF's New Zealand director Fiona Cooper relates that this year's forum will have a strong focus on transtasman collaboration on climate change, strengthening transtasman digital connections, the shared challenge of labour and skill shortages and economic growth challenges post-Covid-19.

"We will also discuss the challenges and opportunities for transtasman business in a range of sectors and spheres including international trade, foreign policy, indigenous business, tourism, science and innovation, infrastructure and health innovation," says Cooper.

Under her leadership on this side of the Tasman complemented by her Australia counterpart Charlotte Renwick Cooper has built multiple working groups to focus on common policy issues and present solutions.

Among the workstreams: health technology; indigenous business of the 250 expected attendance at this forum there is a major indigenous group; infrastructure; innovation; and tourism.

There are six Cabinet ministers taking part: Ardern and Robertson will be joined by Stuart Nash (Tourism), Willie Jackson (Mori Development), Ayesha Verrall (Associate Health ) and James Shaw (Climate).

The forum has previously been promoted as a "successful symbol of transtasman togetherness", but it hasn't always been so.

The first at Government House in Wellington in 2004 was dominated by Australian interests who believed all would be just fine if New Zealand only adopted their institutions and formed common banking regulators, competition regulators and merged the national flag carriers. Hugh Morgan, then CEO of Western Mining, even gave the Kiwis a slap for under-investing in defence and the emergence of the Anzus debacle.

Later forums focused on proposals for common borders and common currencies.

If anything, it was the development of the Single Economic Market (SEM) concept under the leadership of former Australian Treasurer Peter Costello and the late Finance Minister Michael Cullen which forged a common purpose both sides could sign up to.

The ANZLF has put forward new measures to further strengthen the e-commerce and digital trade element of the SEM agenda. And it has recommended a transtasman Digital Economy Agreement to bring the governance and enabling of the digital economy into the Single Economic Market and help future-proof a more seamless transtasman regulatory environment.

Says Cooper: "We look forward to meeting with representatives of the new Australian Government and the New Zealand Government and to having new conversations on matters of common interest such as climate change.

"This will be an important meeting for sharing business priorities with both governments in preparation for some key bilateral milestones in 2023, including 80 years of diplomatic relations, and 40 years of our ground-breaking Closer Economic Relations trade agreement."

Cooper says the forum is looking forward to the outcome of the joint prime ministerial meeting including on SEM issues.

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Fran O'Sullivan: Ardern, Albanese have plenty to chew over - New Zealand Herald

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern meets French President Emmanuel Macron before a Nato summit in Madrid, Spain. Photo / AP

OPINION:

This week's Nato summit was the first major gathering of world leaders attended in person by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern since the pandemic began more than two years ago.

Ardern is in demand overseas, and while she attended plenty of virtual summits while borders were closed, there's something about meeting people in person, particularly when you want to twist their arms about things like a trade deal.

Nato was a particularly efficient way to do this, with most leaders from Europe and North America in attendance.

For reporters, these meetings are an opportunity to witness some of the more unusual and human habits of often larger-than-life politicians.

French President Emmanuel Macron is, well, very French.

Greeting Ardern with typically Gallic bisous, his kisses on both of Ardern's cheeks were so energetic their bright peal, like the sound of peeling velcro, was clearly audible on radio reporters' relatively distant microphones.

Though it's fair to say Europe has very much "moved on" from Covid-19, with Europeans displaying as much enthusiasm for masking as they do for appropriate beach attire, this is not so for Macron, whose germophobic zeal was on full display in his bilateral meeting with Ardern.

Before the meeting, Macron's staff each held open their hands for him to eagerly spray hand sanitiser on their expectant palms, like a post-pandemic Maundy Thursday.

The meeting concluded, reporters witnessed a waiter at the hotel the French delegation had commandeered rushing towards Macron's group at great speed, carrying a tray with almost a dozen cups of espresso. How French.

Ardern secured a meeting with Macron's only equal on the European stage, new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Recent New Zealand Prime Ministers enjoyed strong relations with his predecessor, long-serving chancellor Angela Merkel.

New Zealand media would love to have glimpsed the beginnings of a new relationship forming between Ardern and Shulz, but they were barred from the meeting - Shulz is apparently camera-shy (an official photograph was released later).

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was once (briefly) considered something of an Ardern bestie, but the pair have appeared to drift apart since those early years.

That was, at least, until this summit, at which Trudeau seemed especially keen to have some facetime with Ardern, greeting her with a big hug.

Meanwhile, there was some debate between the Prime Minister and the NZ Herald about the NZ Herald's description of her dinner with King Fillipe VI of Spain as "ritzy".

Speaking to media ahead of the dinner, Ardern looked in the direction of the Herald and said it was not, in fact, going to be a flash dinner an obvious reference to the Herald's description.

The Herald argued that any meal hosted by a king in a palace was "ritzy" almost by definition.

"Even a breakfast?" Ardern countered.

Seeking to settle matters, the Herald hastily acquired accreditation for the pre-dinner photograph, and entered the palace with a bevy of Spanish-speaking photographers.

It took nearly 15 minutes of wandering through endless stairways and gilt-dripping antechambers of the Palacio Real, Europe's largest working palace, to find the room in which the photograph would be taken.

One room was decked with a chandelier the size of Russian President Vladimir Putin's meetings table.

Ardern was possibly a bit sensitive about scenes of extravagance overseas while the cost of living bites at home. But in terms of the argument in question, the Herald declares itself the winner.

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Jacinda Ardern at Nato: The glitz and glamour of PM's time in Madrid - New Zealand Herald

From New Zealand to the moon, another step closer to a competitive grocery market and Jacinda Ardern announces a new agreement in Spain in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald

OPINION:

The Prime Minister is busy on the international travel circuit - a necessary part of governing for a small trading nation like ourselves.

After imposing hermit-like status on her fellow citizens, she is now engaging with the world. It is a very different and dynamic environment.

The major powers are in flux. Global inflation is rampant; substantial food shortages loom; missiles rain down in Europe; and all this before President Xi is installed as eternal leader in Beijing. The formula that John Key and Helen Clark previously used for China no longer seems to hold water.

So what is the Prime Minister's foreign policy recipe or do we learn about it as she is on the road? The US visit would have revealed to her there are deep and powerful currents at crossed purposes in the world's most powerful nation. No doubt this will be revealed in the mid-term elections. Such internal discord should make us all nervous as it can make Uncle Sam very capricious on the global stage.

While in Washington, she ended up in the middle of a gun ownership debate. Thankfully she was not present during the recent Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion. After all, her primary role overseas is to advance our economic and sovereign interests.

Much was made of the White House visit and predictable platitudes followed. Affirmation of the importance of Western alliances, the need to safeguard democracy and other such matters. This gives the impression that the Beehive and the White House stand together. Not necessarily. Hopefully, she told her hosts that, in the absence of a trade deal enabling us to diversify our export flows, such symbolism needs to be tempered with hard economic reality.

As with all visits the Prime Minister takes, much of the focus was on her star power. Below her personality, however, it was evident she is shifting our independent foreign policy heritage.

Now she is in Europe meeting with Nato countries and seeking support for a positive trade deal between ourselves and the EU. Nato commitments are of dubious value to our essential interests. Quality trade deals, however, are crucial as our economic eggs are progressively in the Beijing basket. However, that should not be taken for granted.

Herein lies the rub: how to navigate between our Chinese economic dependence and our ties with Western allies. Why has the Prime Minister shifted the dial from the independent foreign policy stance of the past 30 years to a much closer alignment with the Nato/US crew?

Presumably, she sees enlarged threats to our national wellbeing. If so, it's time for show and tell, preferably not on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Have the Prime Minister and her advisers become giddy and lost their bearings as they sign New Zealand up to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, IPEF? An initiative promoted by the US, an addition to the alphabet soup which is the staple of international diplomacy. What value does this yield to us?

This is not a trade agreement. Apparently, it is designed to maintain a free and open region including an accent on supply chain resilience. The US pivot to Asia has been achieved, according to their Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin. What will be expected of NZ through this agreement as Washington counters Chinese influence in this region?

The natural instincts of the Prime Minister are not economic, her strong suit is talking about human rights, climate, fairness, and other liberal causes. She has a slick formula where she glides and assures everyone there's nothing to see here. Such artifice may have worked during Covid but it is extremely dangerous in matters of international affairs.

She hasn't laid out a lucid, long-term plan or strategic narrative justifying why she is changing our stance of non-alignment and independent foreign policy - a framework hard fought for by generations above the current Government. She may deny she is changing these credentials but, in diplomatic matters, it is less about what you say and more what is heard and seen.

Since 2020, domestic socio-cultural settings have been reset by her Government. It would appear our Prime Minister has decided to take this playbook on her overseas forays. She needs to be wary about being seen to be encouraging a Nato expansion into the Pacific.

She owes the public an explanation, a comprehensive account of her foreign affairs priorities. How do we disassociate her personal brand from our nation's sovereign interests? Her post-White House press conference with President Biden showed the goalposts have shifted. Her advisers need to school her up. The calculus is basic, unless the EU or US provides robust trade agreements to protect our international revenue their expectations of us should be tempered.

In the event she delivers such an account, it must be less about herself, short on liberal virtue signalling, and hard-nosed on our economic situation. No more glib gestures, no more gloss.

Much of our diplomacy in the various outposts is humdrum, occasionally there are the big calls.

The Prime Minister should address whether she now believes that our foreign policy should be driven by Nato/US security priorities. Will they look after our export receipts? Given the phase of Chinese hide-and-bide is over, what is her plan to ensure that our most important export lifeline is not compromised?

Nato-plus notions in our neighbourhood are wacky without a massive increase in our military spend-up. Such money has to be earned and to date, neither the EU or Uncle Sam seem to be interested in decreasing our reliance on China.

Perhaps her strange European diversion is designed to improve the prospects of EU trade negotiations. Be warned: diversification is a work in progress, it is underdeveloped and won't pay our immediate Covid bills. We are experts in food production and China consumes almost 40 per cent of our primary exports. The appetite continues to grow and the export revenue is absolutely necessary to our Crown coffers.

There was a time when diplomats and US presidents believed in the notion the West could change the Chinese Communist Party through WTO inclusion and further integration into the international order. The latter remains relevant, but the former is a pipe dream.

The economic rise of China over the past 30 years is now being followed by its political and military reach. Ongoing engagement from us with China remains crucial. We are not Canberra, we are not Washington, we need to be focused on our critical interests. No one owes us a living.

Naturally, there will be debates as to which values our Government should give precedence to. Presumably, they have been addressed by ministers. But who would know?

Currently, there is no clear statement as to what values the Prime Minister is elevating - and what is being repositioned in her foreign policy rejig.

Shane Jones is a former Labour MP and NZ First MP, and was Ambassador for Pacific Economic Development from 2014-17.

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Shane Jones: Just where is PM Jacinda Ardern positioning New Zealand? - New Zealand Herald

This story is from the team at thespinoff.co.nz.

If gifting fellow prime ministers a stack of local LPs is the new tradition, here are 10 suggestions to take to No 10.

When Jacinda Ardern popped across the Tasman a few weeks ago for her first official meeting with Anthony Albanese, prime minister, she presented her friend and counterpart with a clutch of New Zealand vinyl.

Grant Robertson had gone shopping and picked out records by Aldous Harding, The Clean and Reb Fountain. Albanese responded in kind, giving Ardern an album by Midnight Oil and a pile of other Australian muck.

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Tonight, with Nato and the EU out of the way, the New Zealand prime minister engages with another storied European institution: Boris Johnson. And what better way to rock up to No 10 Downing Street than with a bag of records under your arm?

Minister for the Dunedin Sound Grant Robertson has come down with Covid, so weve gallantly stepped into the breach, and humbly present some homegrown New Zealand music that might carpe the Boris diem.

Ardo gave Albo Aldo, or more precisely she gave him Aldous Hardings eponymous debut album. For Bojo, a better bet is her second, Party.

If such a thing is available, the perfect format would be a Party gatefold edition, a cheerful nod to the numerous lockdown-breaching parties attended by Johnson, which landed him a fine from police.

Among the tunes on Party: Im So Sorry and, of course, What if Birds Arent Singing Theyre Screaming, a title which captures as well as anything the essence of post-Brexit Britain.

Chuck in a VHS of this, too: the entertaining yarn about a desperate man who will stop at nothing to stay in the game, desperately gripping the steering wheel as the country yellow Mini swerves wildly in horror.

Mostly, though, this is a reassuring title for Boris to prop by the gramophone, as he faces the re-emergence of the pork pie plotters so named because one of the MPs involved represents Melton Mowbray, birthplace of the pork pie.

Theyre determined to find another way to roll him, despite the no-confidence vote a few weeks back failing by 211 members to 148.

The glorious first single by the Flying Nun giants might be 44 years old, but the lyrics read just like Boris Johnson answering questions at a hastily arranged press conference after another yet another cabinet ministers resignation in protest at inept, amoral leadership.

Now, you said it was yesterday, yesterdays another day, said the prime minister, gesticulating furiously at the assembled media.

Had a lot of make believe, I dont know if its you or if its me. Oh, I dont know, I dont know. Tally ho! Tally ho!

(Johnson once encouraged defiance of a ban on fox-hunting, by the way, and wrote about how part of his love for hunting with dogs was the semi-sexual relation with the horse.)

A no-brainer. Because its Dobbo, obviously. Because its about a dog, and Boris has dubbed himself The Big Dog. And because it includes various pigs, and David Cameron has dubbed Boris The Greased Piglet.

In case you doubted whether Murray Ball could see the future, one of the pigs in Footrot Flats was in fact called Boris.

The breakout Royals is very relatable for any graduate of Eton and Oxford. Bloodstains. Ball gowns. Trashing the hotel room. Jet planes. Island. Tigers on a gold leash. It reads like a shopping list for the Bullingdon Club AGM.

In 1970, country singer Maria Dallas topped the charts for six weeks with Pinocchio. Thats a name that has been flung a number of times at Johnson, for the simple reason that he does lie rather a lot.

Fellow old Etonian and former Conservative MP Rory Stewart described him as perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister, going on to say:

He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation and flat denial.

He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy.

He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie and the bullshit lie.

This goes in chiefly for the track Done, given Johnsons most vaunted achievement, in the words hes uttered innumerable times: he got Brexit done, despite, as he might like to sing, red lights flashing madly and a stop sign saying no more road to go.

The prime ministers will tonight celebrate the freshly inked NZ-UK free trade agreement, a deal the British PM welcomed last October with a bit of sporty banter.

Were absolutely thrilled that we seem to have driven for the line, weve scrummed down, weve packed tight and together weve got the ball over the line, and we have a deal, said Johnson, whose prowess at the game of rugger is legend.

In acknowledgement of that expertise, why not chuck on a USB stick the greatest New Zealand rugby song of all, sung in stadiums around the country: the Air New Zealand Men In Black safety video. (Maybe add the Sean Fitzpatrick giant fist car thing, too.)

What better than the first album from the groundbreaking band that named themselves both for a Dunedin street address and to deeply confuse foreigners unfamiliar with the New Zealand accent.

Among the tunes that will resonate for a man with a complicated past is the triple-platinum Dont Forget Your Roots.

Pretty obvious why this one goes in.

Not for the cri de coeur of the award-winning One Day (All I can offer you is me / Im all I can offer you right now / Im all I am / All I am, yeah), but because Jason Kerrison, the apocalypticist bunker builder and OpShop lead singer, recently won The Masked Singer dressed as a massive tuatara, and as you know during Boris Johnsons last trip to Aotearoa he had a lovely time at Zealandia with a tuatara.

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What New Zealand music should Jacinda Ardern give to Boris Johnson? - Stuff

Defence is firmly on the agenda of Jacinda Ardern's trip to Europe this week. Photo / NZDF

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern doesn't remember the last conversation she had with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The pair have crossed paths a number of times, at various international forums with impenetrable acronyms. Putin's "not one for engagement", in Ardern's recollection - even in more private settings in which leaders tend to relax a bit, free from the prying eyes of the public.

"I've had the odd opportunity [to meet Putin] in the margins of meetings where it's just leaders in the room, and that has been one of my observations," Ardern said.

She doesn't know what she'll say to Putin when or if she ever sees him again, should he drag himself out of the international doghouse and back onto the global leaders' circuit. Indeed, the question of what she'd say to Putin if she ever saw him again has Ardern (who, like most politicians, has an answer for almost everything) stumped.

There'll be no "shirt-fronting" of Putin as former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott once said he would do.

Ardern sat down with the Herald last week to discuss her trip to Europe which begins on Sunday night, New Zealand time. The first stop is Madrid, for a Nato leaders' summit, and a visit with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is fast-becoming one of Ardern's closes international friends (Sanchez came through for Ardern last year when he helped save the vaccine rollout by offering up Spanish vaccines).

Though not a member of Nato, a northern-hemisphere security pact, Ardern has been invited to the conference with the leaders of other Indo-Pacific nations, Australia, South Korea, and Japan. The meeting is likely to focus on Ukraine and the question of a rising China, which will be included in Nato's new "Strategic Concept", a once-in-a-decade document that sets out how Nato looks at the world.

Ardern then heads to Brussels, where negotiators are in the final stages of talks on a free trade agreement with the EU.

She will then head to London, where she will meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with whom New Zealand has just concluded trade talks and inked a widely applauded trade deal.

Putin hangs over the trip. Nato is the vehicle through which New Zealand has sent much of its aid to Ukraine. Its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will appear (via video-link) at the conference, addressing the leaders who have done so much to help his war effort. It will be the first time Ardern and Zelenskyy have appeared at the same forum since war broke out.

Putin hangs over trade talks in Brussels too.

Primary industry leaders are understood to be concerned any trade deal with the EU will not deliver concessions on market access for their goods, particularly dairy and beef. It's hoped that rampant food price inflation, triggered by the war, might help twist the EU's arm with the promise of cheaper food imports from New Zealand.

The difficulty here is twofold: New Zealand is seeking larger quotas for its goods to enter the EU at lower tariffs, however just winning a larger quota is not enough. Within that quota, goods will still be subject to tariffs.

If those tariffs are too high, then securing a larger quota is meaningless because the cost of sending those goods to the EU makes them uncompetitive when they arrive there.

This can be seen this in some goods sold in Europe, where New Zealand already has market access quotas, but the tariffs applied to goods within those quotas are so high New Zealand only uses a portion of its total quota access.

Even within the quotas, the EU's high tariffs make New Zealand's goods uncompetitive on European shelves. Kiwifruit, honey, and dairy from New Zealand have tariffs applied to them at a higher rate than other EU trading partners like Chile.

Ardern acknowledged that "dairy and beef is very sensitive for the EU. Right now, we're negotiating with 25 plus economies and negotiating teams. It's very complex."

While she appeared to manage expectations around beef and diary, she appeared optimistic on other goods.

"It's always about what both parties can get," Ardern said.

"Horticulture and kiwifruit have a very, very uneven playing field, so that's what we're seeking," Ardern said.

She thinks what the EU gets out of New Zealand is a trading partner with values, particularly commitments to climate change (this is possibly a nudge to New Zealand's agricultural sector, which is squeamish about attempts to subject itself to emissions pricing, and outright resistant to attempts to make that pricing meaningful).

"They're looking for an ability to demonstrate that actually trade can have values within it. That is what we offer," Ardern said.

"Don't for a moment assume that the things we are trying to do domestically on climate change don't matter. It is becoming one of the core reasons we are in this negotiation in the first place because the EU sees that we are adding values and they want to use that as a demonstration of the way that trade can be used in the future," Ardern said.

Despite the long-term economic and strategic importance of the EU deal, it's the Nato leaders' summit that has Wellington buzzing, with some questioning whether it's a sign that New Zealand's hardening stance on China (a response, in part, to China's increasingly hardening stance on everyone else), and participation in the Ukraine invasion response, is a sign of a deterioration in New Zealand's independent foreign policy in favour of alignment with traditional, western allies.

New Zealand has pursued an independent foreign policy since the fourth Labour government's nuclear free legislation, effectively withdrawing New Zealand from the Anzus pact,

Unsurprisingly, Ardern disagreed with the idea that she is leading New Zealand away from that post-84 independence in world affairs. She said the independent foreign policy is more difficult to maintain now than it has been in the past, but she said it is becoming "increasingly important" that New Zealand makes the effort to maintain that independence nonetheless.

In terms of Nato, Ardern said the independent foreign policy, "doesn't restrict our ability to continue to build strong relationships and to play a strong role in multilateral institutions that we've historically relied on".

"This is something I've been thinking about a lot because the environment is rapidly changing around us, but New Zealand continues to be utterly consistent and that's regardless of the government that's in at any given time".

Ardern thinks that the rapidly-changing security environment means New Zealand needs to "firm up the values we use" to "determine our foreign policy decision-making".

She believes these values - the "pre-considered lens that you use for foreign policy", as Ardern described them - are particularly important when significant foreign policy decisions must be made quickly, as was the case when deciding where New Zealand's place was in the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"The need that was there and the requests that were being made of the international community meant that you had to move with relative haste if you're going to play a role that was meaningful at that time," Ardern said.

And what are these values?

"First and foremost, being able to stand up on the world stage in defence of the international rules-based order, and those norms and values and we will always stand very clearly in articulating where we see a breach of those.

"Secondly, the importance of those multilateral institutions [the United Nations, for example] in pursuing where there had been a breach and if we see those being threatened, undermined, or in need of strengthening, we will play a really strong role in that as well.

"So you saw us speaking really firmly around the UN needing to play a role in Ukraine in the same way we have for the WTO needing to play a role where trade is concerned," Ardern said.

The final value is, "if New Zealand is unable to see the rules-based order supported by those institutions", Ardern would seek to still impress the importance of those institutions. Here, she cited the example of the Russians sanctions legislation, where the Government made clear that it would have preferred to follow the UN route to sanction Russia, but because of Russia's veto powers neutering the powerful UN Security Council, this avenue was closed and bespoke legislation was used instead.

Ardern's foreign policy was tested early in her leadership when the Government was forced to respond to the Salisbury poisonings of 2018, which were widely pinned on Russia. Back then, the Government was thought to have responded more slowly and with less vigour than other western democracies to Russia's aggression.

Not so on Ukraine, where New Zealand's response was relatively forceful, and relatively quick.

She's currently contemplating laying out this foreign policy more clearly in a speech - not the speech she will deliver to London's Chatham House on this trip (fortunately, for those wanting to tune in to that speech, it will not be protected by Chatham House's eponymous rule).

Ardern agreed that the international security picture had become more unstable over her time in office. She put much of this down to changing technology.

"What I see is this ongoing evolution. We see these reasons why the way some countries engage with the world is changing because actually the methods of engaging with the world are changing.

"We're not just seeing, for instance, a war on the ground in Ukraine. We're also seeing a cyber-based war attached to it as well, so the threat landscape is changing - previously we might have thought about foreign interference through a quite simple lens, but now the ability to influence other nations has broadened vastly as technology has changed too," Ardern said.

One of the asks Nato might have of Ardern and New Zealand is that the Government lift defence spending to the target Nato asks of its own members: 2 per cent of GDP.

Ardern is non-committal on whether she would consider lifting spending, noting that New Zealand spends 1.59 per cent of GDP already, which is more than some Nato member countries.

But what if she is asked?

"Our independent foreign policy kicks in. We get asked for particular responses, we get asked for a particular resource and investment, and we will always make those decisions on our terms, based on our regional needs," Ardern said.

New Zealand has been a Nato partner for a decade. Ardern said the relationship means that in certain theatres, New Zealand has a partner it can co-operate with, but she said any decision on whether to get involved with Nato is based on whether its a "conflict or area of tension where we believe we have a role to play".

Ardern said Ukraine was the best example of this. New Zealand wanted to be involved in the response, and "the fastest way New Zealand could do that was through other partners and through the Nato trust fund".

Making friends at Nato is not without controversy. China, New Zealand's most important trading partner, is unlikely to be impressed by Ardern's attendance at an event where Nato will issue a new "Strategic Concept" which will likely carry an explicit warning about the implications of China's rise on global security.

Ardern said New Zealand would be "transparent" about what its attendance at Nato means, which is building relationships in an uncertain world, although she acknowledged that one reason New Zealand might be at a forum like Nato could be that other international institutions were not agile enough for New Zealand's needs.

"This is not particularly new. New Zealand has been a [Nato] partner for 10 years," she said.

"The world is in a hurry to connect and build relationships with each other. In some ways that might be a response to the growing threatscape, it might be a response to whether or not we have the same agility in the multilateral institutions we need.

"The way New Zealand approaches those is again with the same set of values: transparency, openness, and with a view that we want peace and stability in the region," she said.

"Regardless of whether it's the Quad or Aukus [two security deals in the Asia-Pacific region], we'll apply the same approach," Ardern said.

"When it comes to our relationship with China we are really consistent. What we say in a Nato forum will be exactly what we say publicly. Consistency is also key. No one will be surprised by our position on issues," Ardern said.

"What we share in private is what we share in public," she said.

She said there will "always be tension" in some relationships with countries that "have a different history, culture, political systems".

"For us, a sign of maturity in a relationship ... has the ability for you to talk about those things that you agree on and that are mutually beneficial, whilst being able to strongly disagree, and that is what we have always sought in our relationships".

Read more from the original source:

PM on why she's going to Nato, and what she would say to Putin - New Zealand Herald