A critic says a change to the accommodation supplement rules is expected to push some households further into poverty.

The Social Security Amendment Bill was introduced in Parliament on Thursday.

It introduces changes that were signalled in the 2025 Budget, which the government said were designed to better target financial assistance and ensure the sustainability of the welfare system.

It introduces a parental assistance test for 18- and 19-year-old JobSeeker applicants and adjusts the calculation for the accommodation supplement.

Homeowners will be assessed based on contributing 40 percent – not 30 percent – of their income to housing costs before they are eligible for a subsidy.

Child Poverty Action Group spokesperson Isaac Gunson said even households that could meet that threshold would experience “deeper after-housing-cost poverty”.

He said they would probably have to defer things like home maintenance, which could have a flow-on effect to worse health outcomes.

Social Development Minister Louise Upston said the accommodation supplement calculation had not changed for 33 years, and those with unsubsidised housing costs now generally paid a higher proportion of their income towards housing.

“This rebalances that. This will target the accommodation supplement to those with the greatest need, while continuing to support the most vulnerable groups.”

The amount that people are allowed to have in assets and still qualify for the supplement has also not been changed in more than 30 years. A couple or a sole parent could have cash assets up to $16,200.

She said she did not have the details of how many people would be affected or how much it would save.

“The bill has been tabled, they are Budget ’25 measures so there won’t be any surprise there.”

The change does not apply to renters and boarders, nor homeowners who are likely to require longer-term social assistance, including those on superannuation, veteran’s pension, supported living payment, or emergency benefit equivalent of supported living payment.

Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make and spend money.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

MIL OSI

A political party named “Palestine Free From the River to the Sea” has been formed to contest the upcoming general election.

The party explicitly supports a single democratic state with equal rights for all from the river to the sea in the historic land of Palestine.

“We chose the party name to reflect our belief in freedom for all people,” says party President Paul Hopkinson, “but also to challenge the creeping fascism that seeks to silence our speech as a thought crime. Our party name itself is illegal in Queensland and Germany. They fear that the public will realise that we only ask that Palestinians have the same human rights that we all enjoy and our government claims to support.”

Aotearoa/New Zealand has a special responsibility to the Palestinian people as one of 33 nations to vote for the partition of Palestine in 1947. This precipitated the violent ethnic cleansing process known as the Nakba or Catastrophe.

MIL OSI

A Christchurch post shop with a difference is set to close as NZ Post moves to shut more than 140 counters around the country, devastating customers who say it is vital community hub.

Staff and volunteers at Stanmore Book and Post in Linwood had hoped for a reprieve because of its unique model and local support but an appeal by customers, businesses, community organisations and politicians has failed.

A post office has served the area for more than 140 years, with community development organisation Te Whare Roimata taking the business on in 2016 after an earlier fight for survival.

Coordinator Jenny Smith said the trust appointed two part-time staff, supported by a team of volunteers, and learned everything needed to successfully manage the shop.

“There are a lot of isolated people, so this is a place where they come for connection,” she said.

Smith said the closure was a blow for an area that was already under-served.

“It feels like an undermining or a devaluing of the people of this side of town. Many of them are low socio-economic neighbourhoods, but that still means they have a right to access, an increased right to access, because it’s harder to get to some of the services that are very important to them,” she said.

She felt there was inequity in the way remaining post services had been allocated.

“That whole assessment model assumes people are able to easily access these other sites or have got reliable transport to be able to do that and takes no consideration of the terrain or some of the other difficulties, such as a very high number of people with disabilities,” she said.

NZ Post said commercial returns and the social impact of counter closures were important factors in the company’s decision-making.

According to Census data, Central Christchurch and Linwood West are among the city’s most socio-economically deprived areas.

StatsNZ data shows lower incomes, higher unemployment, poorer health outcomes, higher disability rates and lower digital and car access than the city average.

Smith said some people needed help to complete transactions, deal with government agencies, advice on other community resources or companionship.

“Many just drop in to be able to say hello, come and spend a time, have a cuppa with us, take note of the books we provide and a whole range of community information,” she said.

Team leader Janine Carney was a trust social worker when she took on the role.

She was able to link people with help by listening to their stories and building a rapport, combined with her knowledge of the neighbourhood and support services.

“We’re all about this community and within this community there are groups – some are having mental health issues, some are having poverty issues, some are having recidivist crime issues, some are having all of the above,” she said.

“We deal with gang members, we deal with people who are very obviously mentally unwell but we treat all of those people as a human first.”

Carney acknowledged changes in the way people sent and received mail and the steep drop in letters but said there was still big business in packages, with many of the fast-growing suburb’s small business owners and online traders frequent customers.

Postal Workers Union spokesperson John Maynard was also critical of the way NZ Post had handled the process.

“NZ Post is required to exhibit a sense of social responsibility but we’re concerned it does exactly the opposite. They make a decision and then rely on people to have to fight back to keep their resources,” he said.

The union claimed the company had repeatedly approached cuts in the same way and the lack of consultation and communication was eroding public confidence in the postal service.

Local MP Reuben Davidson said the closure would cause a deep sense of loss.

“It’s much more than a postal service. It’s a real connection and a service for that community, to send and receive but also to build community cohesion, which is and should be a real priority,” he said.

Davidson said he had met NZ Post and was not convinced the shop’s multi-faceted role was factored into its decision.

NZ Post spokesperson Sarah Sandoval said all the relevant information was considered and the company had a dual mandate as a state-owned enterprise.

“We absolutely need to deliver a commercial return, that’s absolutely clear,” she said.

“We need to consider the social impact and do no social harm. Obviously, absolutely, that’s part of our decision-making criteria when we’re reviewing these things.”

Sandoval said there were several other outlets in the area, the closest of which was two kilometres away, upstairs at a local mall.

“We have one of the largest retail networks right across the country, larger than any supermarket brand, and really pride ourselves on the services that we deliver,” she said.

“That doesn’t undermine that this decision is a very, very difficult one but we’re absolutely committed to the services and really proud of what we provide for the communities in New Zealand.”

Locals were passionate about the post shop, including long-time P.O. Box-holder Dee Bagozzi who planned to use a competing service once the counter closed, rather than face a drive or deal with infrequent buses.

“It’s a really big environmental issue and all the older people that live around here will be forced to drive,” she said.

“I can’t understand how a public utility can transform itself into a hard-nosed business.”

Noel West, 85, has had a post box in Linwood since he moved to Christchurch 50 years ago.

Since retiring, he said he was more likely to sit and chat with staff, mull the history of the city’s post offices, “chew the fat, put the world to right and disagree at times”.

The alternative sites were “miles out of his way”, and he felt NZ Post would lose a lot of business as a result of the move.

“They’re cutting their own throat,” he said.

Business owner Fono Fili used the shop as her delivery address and to post and pick up orders.

“We’d like to see them stay. It’s very handy, they’re very friendly, the service we receive here is different from the service I’ve received at any other post shop,” she said.

Hilary Talbot, a former volunteer and regular customer, was clear about what Linwood would lose when the doors closed.

“A little bit of its heart.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

A Christchurch post shop with a difference is set to close as NZ Post moves to shut more than 140 counters around the country, devastating customers who say it is vital community hub.

Staff and volunteers at Stanmore Book and Post in Linwood had hoped for a reprieve because of its unique model and local support but an appeal by customers, businesses, community organisations and politicians has failed.

A post office has served the area for more than 140 years, with community development organisation Te Whare Roimata taking the business on in 2016 after an earlier fight for survival.

Coordinator Jenny Smith said the trust appointed two part-time staff, supported by a team of volunteers, and learned everything needed to successfully manage the shop.

“There are a lot of isolated people, so this is a place where they come for connection,” she said.

Smith said the closure was a blow for an area that was already under-served.

“It feels like an undermining or a devaluing of the people of this side of town. Many of them are low socio-economic neighbourhoods, but that still means they have a right to access, an increased right to access, because it’s harder to get to some of the services that are very important to them,” she said.

She felt there was inequity in the way remaining post services had been allocated.

“That whole assessment model assumes people are able to easily access these other sites or have got reliable transport to be able to do that and takes no consideration of the terrain or some of the other difficulties, such as a very high number of people with disabilities,” she said.

NZ Post said commercial returns and the social impact of counter closures were important factors in the company’s decision-making.

According to Census data, Central Christchurch and Linwood West are among the city’s most socio-economically deprived areas.

StatsNZ data shows lower incomes, higher unemployment, poorer health outcomes, higher disability rates and lower digital and car access than the city average.

Smith said some people needed help to complete transactions, deal with government agencies, advice on other community resources or companionship.

“Many just drop in to be able to say hello, come and spend a time, have a cuppa with us, take note of the books we provide and a whole range of community information,” she said.

Team leader Janine Carney was a trust social worker when she took on the role.

She was able to link people with help by listening to their stories and building a rapport, combined with her knowledge of the neighbourhood and support services.

“We’re all about this community and within this community there are groups – some are having mental health issues, some are having poverty issues, some are having recidivist crime issues, some are having all of the above,” she said.

“We deal with gang members, we deal with people who are very obviously mentally unwell but we treat all of those people as a human first.”

Carney acknowledged changes in the way people sent and received mail and the steep drop in letters but said there was still big business in packages, with many of the fast-growing suburb’s small business owners and online traders frequent customers.

Postal Workers Union spokesperson John Maynard was also critical of the way NZ Post had handled the process.

“NZ Post is required to exhibit a sense of social responsibility but we’re concerned it does exactly the opposite. They make a decision and then rely on people to have to fight back to keep their resources,” he said.

The union claimed the company had repeatedly approached cuts in the same way and the lack of consultation and communication was eroding public confidence in the postal service.

Local MP Reuben Davidson said the closure would cause a deep sense of loss.

“It’s much more than a postal service. It’s a real connection and a service for that community, to send and receive but also to build community cohesion, which is and should be a real priority,” he said.

Davidson said he had met NZ Post and was not convinced the shop’s multi-faceted role was factored into its decision.

NZ Post spokesperson Sarah Sandoval said all the relevant information was considered and the company had a dual mandate as a state-owned enterprise.

“We absolutely need to deliver a commercial return, that’s absolutely clear,” she said.

“We need to consider the social impact and do no social harm. Obviously, absolutely, that’s part of our decision-making criteria when we’re reviewing these things.”

Sandoval said there were several other outlets in the area, the closest of which was two kilometres away, upstairs at a local mall.

“We have one of the largest retail networks right across the country, larger than any supermarket brand, and really pride ourselves on the services that we deliver,” she said.

“That doesn’t undermine that this decision is a very, very difficult one but we’re absolutely committed to the services and really proud of what we provide for the communities in New Zealand.”

Locals were passionate about the post shop, including long-time P.O. Box-holder Dee Bagozzi who planned to use a competing service once the counter closed, rather than face a drive or deal with infrequent buses.

“It’s a really big environmental issue and all the older people that live around here will be forced to drive,” she said.

“I can’t understand how a public utility can transform itself into a hard-nosed business.”

Noel West, 85, has had a post box in Linwood since he moved to Christchurch 50 years ago.

Since retiring, he said he was more likely to sit and chat with staff, mull the history of the city’s post offices, “chew the fat, put the world to right and disagree at times”.

The alternative sites were “miles out of his way”, and he felt NZ Post would lose a lot of business as a result of the move.

“They’re cutting their own throat,” he said.

Business owner Fono Fili used the shop as her delivery address and to post and pick up orders.

“We’d like to see them stay. It’s very handy, they’re very friendly, the service we receive here is different from the service I’ve received at any other post shop,” she said.

Hilary Talbot, a former volunteer and regular customer, was clear about what Linwood would lose when the doors closed.

“A little bit of its heart.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

MIL OSI

MIL OSI

MIL OSI

World Vision’s ethical gift catalogue offers New Zealanders a meaningful way to celebrate mums, while helping families around the world

This Mother’s Day, New Zealanders looking for a meaningful alternative to flowers or chocolates are being encouraged to choose an ethical gift that changes lives.

Gifts from World Vision New Zealand’s Gift Catalogue help deliver practical, life-changing support to millions of mothers and children worldwide facing hunger, displacement, and poverty.

Through the catalogue, shoppers can choose unique and ethical gifts that honour their special mum or mother figure while supporting families living in some of the world’s toughest places.

With prices starting from just $10 (which can provide lifesaving immunisations for a child), the practical and life-changing gifts make it easy for everyone to contribute to a brighter future for vulnerable children and mothers globally.

Popular gifts include fast-growing seeds so families can grow more food ($10); nutrition programmes for mothers and babies ($63); cooking classes to help fight malnutrition ($54); emergency food for children suffering hunger ($60); and support for women to start a business ($160). Larger gifts such as emergency shelter can also help families rebuild after disasters or conflict.

World Vision New Zealand’s National Director, TJ Grant, says Mother’s Day is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the care and compassion mothers show every day.

“Mother’s Day is about recognising the love and sacrifice of mums and mother figures in our lives. Choosing an ethical gift is a powerful way to celebrate that love while extending it to another family who may be facing incredibly difficult circumstances.

“These gifts provide practical support for women and children around the world — whether that’s access to nutritious food, education, healthcare, or the opportunity to earn an income and build a better future.”

Ethical gifts are designed to support both immediate needs and long-term change, helping communities strengthen food security, improve health outcomes, and create opportunities for women and girls.

Each gift comes with the option of a printed card or e-card, allowing the giver to share the story behind the gift with their mum on the day and explain how their present is helping families around the world.

To make a meaningful impact this Mother’s Day, visit the World Vision New Zealand Gift Catalogue at worldvision.org.nz/give-now/smiles-gift.

MIL OSI

MIL OSI

MIL OSI

A survey of more than 200 charities has revealed winter as the period of highest demand for support.

The survey was conducted by The Catalytic Foundation, which found that the demand this year is at the highest level since 2020.

The organisation’s chief executive Teresa Moore said food insecurity was widely recognised, but cold poverty remained largely hidden.

She said many families were forced to choose between heating their homes, paying bills, or putting food on the table.

“There’s a lot of working poor this year, you know, a lot of people that are working but just cannot pay their rent, and finding it really tough.

“There’s a whole new wave of people coming through that need support from community charities, and what we’re finding with charities is that they’re not getting enough resources – not enough donations or resources – to do the work that they want to do.”

The Catalytic Foundation has begun a campaign – called The Big Warm Up – to provide households with warm clothing and blankets, as well as tents and sleeping bags for those who are homeless.

“This is about communities showing up for each other,” Moore said.

“Every donation helps ensure someone else can face winter with a little more warmth, comfort, and dignity.”

As part of the campaign, people are being invited to take part in a mid-winter cold plunge challenge – taking a cold plunge to raise money for families struggling to stay warm.

“It makes it a little bit fun, but the whole thing behind the campaign is that, you know, you’re feeling cold now, imagine how this feels all winter when you’re trying to get your family warm.”

People are also encouraged to get involved in the campaign by donating money, new items, or filling care package bags.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

By MATA

Content warning: This story contains direct quotes of racist language

This story has been corrected to remove the reference of the controversial haka happening on the Te Matatini stage.

People’s Action Plan Against Racism (PAPARA) is calling on Te Matatini to implement anti-racism standards to compositions, in the wake of a controversial performance by the kapa haka Te Pae Kahurangi.

MATA has done further translations of the controversial haka, which was performed at the Tainui Regional Kapa Haka competition last weekend. The haka was delivered by the kapa haka Te Pae Kahurangi and directed at ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar.

It also featured lyrics such as “hoki atu rā ki tō kāinga ake, ki nui whenua, ki nui pōhara, ki nui raruraru!”, “Return to your own home, to vast land, to great poverty, to many problems”.

It was accompanied by choreography drawing on Indian cultural and religious elements such as kaihaka pressing their thumb into the centre of their forehead where the traditional bindi is worn by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist women, and sitting cross legged with hands in the prayer position.

During parts of the haka Che Wilson, a former president of Te Pāti Māori, used an Indian accent and head gestures.

PAPARA said there had been an increase in “racist rhetoric” against the Indian community in Aotearoa.

“This harm has been compounded by a recent performance during the Matatini Tainui regional competitions, which lampooned Indian culture as a form of objection to ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar’s actions and political positions. While Te Matatini carries a long history of politically charged performance, this should never be allowed to tip over into racist attacks against individuals or communities.”

Te Matatini does not receive scripts from teams performing at regionals ahead of the event. It should now mandate anti-racism standards for compositions “so that such a highly esteemed atamira (stage) can never again be used as a racist weapon”, PAPARA said.

Te Matatini chief executive Carl Ross said there were already clear expectations that compositions must meet broadcasting standards.

“When concerns are raised we act immediately, as we have done in this case, to remove the content. We will be reviewing our internal process to ensure all performances consistently meet Broadcasting Standards Authority standards in the future.”

A controversial composition

Parmar has previously drawn criticism for seeking advice from officials on the range of possible penalties for Te Pāti Māori MPs following their Treaty Principles haka in Parliament, including whether imprisonment was an option.

She has opposed giving scholarships based on a person or group’s race or ethnic origin, designated spaces, rooms, or other facilities at universities. She also opposed requiring students to take a paper on the Treaty of Waitangi, particularly for international students, for whom she said the course would “hold little value”.

The haka began by addressing ACT Party leader David Seymour.

“Rawiri Himoa, te wahine Iniana kei tō pāti, he wahine tarapekepeke pāti.

“Takahi tangata, takahi Maori e.”

“David Seymour, the Indian woman in your party, the party jumper.

“Who tramples people, who tramples Māori.”

Directly addressing a party leader is not unusual in a haka but referencing the ethnicity of a politician is not common practice.

In a statement to MATA, Wilson said the haka was composed and choreographed by a collective known as Te Whānau o Te Pae Kahurangi.

“Haka is a platform to challenge and where relevant, denigrate in response to an issue.”

Te Pae Kahurangi regarded Parmar’s actions as “clear examples of prejudice towards Māori culture”.

“And as such, the haka is aimed specifically at Mrs Parmar and not the Indian community.

“Te Pae Kahurangi does not condone racism. Te Pae Kahurangi apologises for any offence caused to the Indian community, towards whom this haka was not directed.

“It is worthwhile noting that there are many examples of haka and kaioraora (derogatory songs), that often include references such as ‘pokokōhua’ (boiled-head), ‘kai a te kurī’ (food for the dogs), ‘porohewa’ (baldhead) used to denigrate people.”

Who specifically was a part of the collective which composed and choreographed the haka has not been revealed.

Indian community ‘feeling hounded’

In a social media post, former Young New Zealander of the Year Shaneel Lal said the rise of racist rhetoric against the Indian community has left it “feeling hounded”.

In their opinion, the ACT MP Parmar had caused incredible harm to Māori.

“Criticism of her as an individual, and of what she advocates for, is justified … But when criticism of her actions extends to all people who share her identity, that is racism,” Lal said.

“When criticism of Parmjeet turns into criticism of being Indian, that includes people like me. It also includes many in the wider Indian community who have spent decades standing alongside Māori across Aotearoa.”

In an interview with Māni Dunlop for Te Ao Māori News, Māori-Gujarati academic Dr Jessica Hutchings discussed the impact of the haka.

“Ehara i te mea he Māori anake tātou (we are not just Māori). Some of us are mixed race, and we carry that proudly. When something like this happens, it harms all parts of who we are,” Hutchings said.

“They mocked my culture. They mocked our tikanga, our wairuatanga… that’s racism, and it’s really important that we call it out.”

It was wrong to frame the haka as targeting one individual when its impact was wider, she believed.

An online storm

Haka is often used as medium for Māori political expression, with many groups composing waiata to fiercely critique political policies, issues and politicians.

But Te Pae Kahurangi’s haka has sparked fierce debate online with many commenters expressing disappointment that an item aimed at one MP has demeaned the cultures and practices of Indian people.

Others have spoken out in support, advocating for the right to free speech, even if it is hateful.

In their social media post, Lal appealed to the connection between colonised people.

“There is nothing to gain from stereotyping, mocking, or ridiculing entire groups of people, especially when so many of those people stand with you.”

Get the latest episodes of MATA with Mihingarangi Forbes from RNZ, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

By MATA

Content warning: This story contains direct quotes of racist language

People’s Action Plan Against Racism (PAPARA) is calling on Te Matatini to implement anti-racism standards to compositions, in the wake of a controversial performance by the kapa haka Te Pae Kahurangi.

MATA has done further translations of the controversial haka, which was performed at the Tainui Regional Kapa Haka competition last weekend. The haka was delivered by the kapa haka Te Pae Kahurangi and directed at ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar.

It also featured lyrics such as “hoki atu rā ki tō kāinga ake, ki nui whenua, ki nui pōhara, ki nui raruraru!”, “Return to your own home, to vast land, to great poverty, to many problems”.

It was accompanied by choreography drawing on Indian cultural and religious elements such as kaihaka pressing their thumb into the centre of their forehead where the traditional bindi is worn by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist women, and sitting cross legged with hands in the prayer position.

During parts of the haka Che Wilson, a former president of Te Pāti Māori, used an Indian accent and head gestures.

People’s Action Plan Against Racism (PAPARA) said there had been an increase in “racist rhetoric” against the Indian community in Aotearoa.

“This harm has been compounded by a recent performance during the Matatini Tainui regional competitions, which lampooned Indian culture as a form of objection to ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar’s actions and political positions. While Te Matatini carries a long history of politically charged performance, this should never be allowed to tip over into racist attacks against individuals or communities.”

Te Matatini does not receive scripts from teams performing at regionals ahead of the event. It should now mandate anti-racism standards for compositions “so that such a highly esteemed atamira (stage) can never again be used as a racist weapon”, PAPARA said.

Te Matatini chief executive Carl Ross said there were already clear expectations that compositions must meet broadcasting standards.

“When concerns are raised we act immediately, as we have done in this case, to remove the content. We will be reviewing our internal process to ensure all performances consistently meet Broadcasting Standards Authority standards in the future.”

A controversial composition

Parmar has previously drawn criticism for seeking advice from officials on the range of possible penalties for Te Pāti Māori MPs following their Treaty Principles haka in Parliament, including whether imprisonment was an option.

She has opposed giving scholarships based on a person or group’s race or ethnic origin, designated spaces, rooms, or other facilities at universities. She also opposed requiring students to take a paper on the Treaty of Waitangi, particularly for international students, for whom she said the course would “hold little value”.

The haka began by addressing ACT Party leader David Seymour.

“Rawiri Himoa, te wahine Iniana kei tō pāti, he wahine tarapekepeke pāti.

“Takahi tangata, takahi Maori e.”

“David Seymour, the Indian woman in your party, the party jumper.

“Who tramples people, who tramples Māori.”

Directly addressing a party leader is not unusual in a haka but referencing the ethnicity of a politician is not common practice.

In a statement to Mata, Wilson said the haka was composed and choreographed by a collective known as Te Whānau o Te Pae Kahurangi.

“Haka is a platform to challenge and where relevant, denigrate in response to an issue.”

Te Pae Kahurangi regarded Parmar’s actions as “clear examples of prejudice towards Māori culture”.

“And as such, the haka is aimed specifically at Mrs Parmar and not the Indian community.

“Te Pae Kahurangi does not condone racism. Te Pae Kahurangi apologises for any offence caused to the Indian community, towards whom this haka was not directed.

“It is worthwhile noting that there are many examples of haka and kaioraora (derogatory songs), that often include references such as ‘pokokōhua’ (boiled-head), ‘kai a te kurī’ (food for the dogs), ‘porohewa’ (baldhead) used to denigrate people.”

Who specifically was a part of the collective which composed and choreographed the haka has not been revealed.

Indian community ‘feeling hounded’

In a social media post, former Young New Zealander of the Year Shaneel Lal said the rise of racist rhetoric against the Indian community has left it “feeling hounded”.

In their opinion, the ACT MP Parmar had caused incredible harm to Māori.

“Criticism of her as an individual, and of what she advocates for, is justified … But when criticism of her actions extends to all people who share her identity, that is racism,” Lal said.

“When criticism of Parmjeet turns into criticism of being Indian, that includes people like me. It also includes many in the wider Indian community who have spent decades standing alongside Māori across Aotearoa.”

In an interview with Māni Dunlop for Te Ao Māori News, Māori-Gujarati academic Dr Jessica Hutchings discussed the impact of the haka.

“Ehara i te mea he Māori anake tātou (we are not just Māori). Some of us are mixed race, and we carry that proudly. When something like this happens, it harms all parts of who we are,” Hutchings said.

“They mocked my culture. They mocked our tikanga, our wairuatanga… that’s racism, and it’s really important that we call it out.”

It was wrong to frame the haka as targeting one individual when its impact was wider, she believed.

An online storm

Haka is often used as medium for Māori political expression, with many groups composing waiata to fiercely critique political policies, issues and politicians.

But Te Pae Kahurangi’s haka has sparked fierce debate online with many commenters expressing disappointment that an item aimed at one MP has demeaned the cultures and practices of Indian people.

Others have spoken out in support, advocating for the right to free speech, even if it is hateful.

In their social media post, Lal appealed to the connection between colonised people.

“There is nothing to gain from stereotyping, mocking, or ridiculing entire groups of people, especially when so many of those people stand with you.”

Get the latest episodes of MATA with Mihingarangi Forbes from RNZ, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Content warning: This story contains direct quotes of racist language

The Te Matatini stage was used as “a racist weapon” in a haka that translates in part as: “bloody curry Indian, dark skinned, oily, racist, roti eater”, an anti-racism group believes.

MATA has done further translations of the controversial haka, which was performed at the Tainui Regional Kapa Haka competition last weekend. The haka was delivered by the kapa haka Te Pae Kahurangi and directed at ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar.

It also featured lyrics such as “hoki atu rā ki tō kāinga ake, ki nui whenua, ki nui pōhara, ki nui raruraru!”, “Return to your own home, to vast land, to great poverty, to many problems”.

It was accompanied by choreography drawing on Indian cultural and religious elements such as kaihaka pressing their thumb into the centre of their forehead where the traditional bindi is worn by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist women, and sitting cross legged with hands in the prayer position.

During parts of the haka Che Wilson, a former president of Te Pāti Māori, used an Indian accent and head gestures.

People’s Action Plan Against Racism (PAPARA) said there had been an increase in “racist rhetoric” against the Indian community in Aotearoa.

“This harm has been compounded by a recent performance during the Matatini Tainui regional competitions, which lampooned Indian culture as a form of objection to ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar’s actions and political positions. While Te Matatini carries a long history of politically charged performance, this should never be allowed to tip over into racist attacks against individuals or communities.”

Te Matatini does not receive scripts from teams performing at regionals ahead of the event. It should now mandate anti-racism standards for compositions “so that such a highly esteemed atamira (stage) can never again be used as a racist weapon”, PAPARA said.

Te Matatini chief executive Carl Ross said there were already clear expectations that compositions must meet broadcasting standards.

“When concerns are raised we act immediately, as we have done in this case, to remove the content. We will be reviewing our internal process to ensure all performances consistently meet Broadcasting Standards Authority standards in the future.”

A controversial composition

Parmar has previously drawn criticism for seeking advice from officials on the range of possible penalties for Te Pāti Māori MPs following their Treaty Principles haka in Parliament, including whether imprisonment was an option.

She has opposed giving scholarships based on a person or group’s race or ethnic origin, designated spaces, rooms, or other facilities at universities. She also opposed requiring students to take a paper on the Treaty of Waitangi, particularly for international students, for whom she said the course would “hold little value”.

The haka began by addressing ACT Party leader David Seymour.

“Rawiri Himoa, te wahine Iniana kei tō pāti, he wahine tarapekepeke pāti.

“Takahi tangata, takahi Maori e.”

“David Seymour, the Indian woman in your party, the party jumper.

“Who tramples people, who tramples Māori.”

Directly addressing a party leader is not unusual in a haka but referencing the ethnicity of a politician is not common practice.

In a statement to Mata, Wilson said the haka was composed and choreographed by a collective known as Te Whānau o Te Pae Kahurangi.

“Haka is a platform to challenge and where relevant, denigrate in response to an issue.”

Te Pae Kahurangi regarded Parmar’s actions as “clear examples of prejudice towards Māori culture”.

“And as such, the haka is aimed specifically at Mrs Parmar and not the Indian community.

“Te Pae Kahurangi does not condone racism. Te Pae Kahurangi apologises for any offence caused to the Indian community, towards whom this haka was not directed.

“It is worthwhile noting that there are many examples of haka and kaioraora (derogatory songs), that often include references such as ‘pokokōhua’ (boiled-head), ‘kai a te kurī’ (food for the dogs), ‘porohewa’ (baldhead) used to denigrate people.”

Who specifically was a part of the collective which composed and choreographed the haka has not been revealed.

Indian community ‘feeling hounded’

In a social media post, former Young New Zealander of the Year Shaneel Lal said the rise of racist rhetoric against the Indian community has left it “feeling hounded”.

In his opinion, the ACT MP Parmar had caused incredible harm to Māori.

“Criticism of her as an individual, and of what she advocates for, is justified … But when criticism of her actions extends to all people who share her identity, that is racism,” Lal said.

“When criticism of Parmjeet turns into criticism of being Indian, that includes people like me. It also includes many in the wider Indian community who have spent decades standing alongside Māori across Aotearoa.”

In an interview with Māni Dunlop for Te Ao Māori News, Māori-Gujarati academic Dr Jessica Hutchings discussed the impact of the haka.

“Ehara i te mea he Māori anake tātou (we are not just Māori). Some of us are mixed race, and we carry that proudly. When something like this happens, it harms all parts of who we are,” Hutchings said.

“They mocked my culture. They mocked our tikanga, our wairuatanga… that’s racism, and it’s really important that we call it out.”

It was wrong to frame the haka as targeting one individual when its impact was wider, she believed.

An online storm

Haka is often used as medium for Māori political expression, with many groups composing waiata to fiercely critique political policies, issues and politicians.

But Te Pae Kahurangi’s haka has sparked fierce debate online with many commenters expressing disappointment that an item aimed at one MP has demeaned the cultures and practices of Indian people.

Others have spoken out in support, advocating for the right to free speech, even if it is hateful.

In his social media post, Lal appealed to the connection between colonised people.

“There is nothing to gain from stereotyping, mocking, or ridiculing entire groups of people, especially when so many of those people stand with you.”

Get the latest episodes of MATA with Mihingarangi Forbes from RNZ, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

MIL OSI

The Hīkoi for Peace is happening on Saturday, 25 April starting at 2pm at Waitangi Park walking to Pukeahu for a free concert and peace activities from 3pm-4pm. A collection of organisations working for peace, justice, ecological well-being and decolonisation is hosting the whānau-friendly event.

“We believe that Anzac Day must be a day where we commit to working for peace, justice, decolonisation and ecological sustainability. People can see that hatred and conflict are threatening to poison unity between peoples for the private profit of a very few. We do not want war,” said Valerie Morse, a member of the Hīkoi organising committee.

“We believe a better, beautiful flourishing world is not only possible, it is urgently necessary for us, for our children and for generations to come. Our world is the most astonishing garden that can care and provide for all of us – but it can’t do that when billionaire war criminals are driving us to global war and nuclear destruction.”

“The Hīkoi is also about ethical remembering of our history and demanding ‘never again’ for anyone. Ethical remembering means to learn what World War 1 was really about, the horrors that happened there, and taking action to ensure those never happen again.”

“Many of us know that World War 1 was a huge imperial war that wasted millions of young people’s lives unnecessarily. There is a lot more to that story that directly impacts the whole world today. People are making the connections between the US and Israeli war on Iran, the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, crushing climate change events and growing poverty. We are united in a determination to build a different
future.”

The Hīkoi organising committee includes Peace Action Wellington, Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition, Justice for Palestine, Alternative Jewish Voices, Asians Supporting Tino Rangatiratanga, Climate Liberation Aotearoa, Pōneke4Palestine, Aotearoa Irish for Justice & Peace, International Socialist Organisation Aotearoa and Aotearoa Healthcare Workers for Palestine. We work under the tikanga of Te Kahu o Te Raukura (a cloak of aroha and peace) acknowledging the call from mana whenua and Parihaka for peace and respect in the rohe.

MIL OSI

By Mata

Former Te Pāti Māori president Che Wilson has sparked debate following a controversial haka performed at the Tainui Regional Kapa Haka competition over the weekend.

The haka, directed at ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar, included the phrase “purari karikari iniana”, which has been interpreted as a derogatory reference to Indians. It also incorporated gestures referencing Indian cultural practices, including sitting cross-legged with hands in a prayer position. Wilson appeared to mimic an Indian accent and head movements during the performance.

When contacted by Mata, ACT Party ethnic communities spokesperson Parmjeet Parmar said: “Reports that this performance was composed and directed at mocking Indians are deeply troubling. Many in the Indian community have come to New Zealand seeking opportunity, safety, and a sense of belonging. They deserve to be treated with dignity“.

In an interview with Te Arawa FM journalist Kereama Wright posted on Monday, Wilson defended the haka, saying, “Ko te hunga pēnā ki a Parmjeet e hiahia ana te tohutohu mai, ko tāku, haere hoki!”, “For people like Parmjeet who want to tell us what to do, I say you can go”.

Indigenous rights advocate Tina Ngata criticised the performance online, writing that she believed, “Parmjeet Parmar has indeed done a lot of damage, and delivers racist harm to Māori and many others. The answer to that should not be to deliver racist harm back upon her people by mocking them, ridiculing their culture, jeering at the poverty on their lands that comes from the same coloniser, and using racial slurs cloaked in our reo”.

Parmar previously drew criticism after seeking advice from officials on the range of possible penalties for Te Pāti Māori MPs following their Treaty Principles haka in Parliament, including whether imprisonment was an option. She said at the time she was “doing her homework”.

Political connections

Wilson served as Te Pāti Māori president from 2018 to 2022 before being replaced by John Tamihere. He is also a former Deputy Secretary for the Ministry of Environment.

He leads the kapa haka – Te Pae Kahurangi, an affiliate of the kapa haka Te Iti Kahurangi. When Mata first contacted Wilson, it was advised he would not be available to comment due to wānanga commitments.

Te Iti Kahurangi, the senior group, is led by newly selected Labour Party candidate Kingi Kiriona, who announced during the competition that he would stand against Waikato-Hauraki MP Hana Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke.

When Mata contacted Kiriona, he provided a statement attributed to Wilson, and reiterated that Wilson had been unable to reply because he had been away at a wānanga.

The statement said: “Haka is a platform to challenge and where relevant, denigrate in response to an issue. The haka was composed and choreographed by a collective known as Te Whānau o Te Pae Kahurangi, and takes aim at ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar for her actions in seeking imprisonment advice for the performance of the haka by Māori MPs in the house last year, as well as her attack on Māori-focussed roles, courses, and spaces at the University of Auckland.

“Te Pae Kahurangi regards these actions as clear examples of prejudice towards Māori culture, and as such, the haka is aimed specifically at Mrs. Parmar and not the Indian community.

“Te Pae Kahurangi does not condone racism. Te Pae Kahurangi apologises for any offence caused to the Indian community, towards whom this haka was not directed”.

Rising tension

The controversy comes as the government prepares to sign a free trade agreement with India. The issue has already created political tension between National and New Zealand First.

Minister Shane Jones previously warned such a deal could lead to a “tsunami of butter chicken“, a comment that drew strong criticism.

On Tuesday Labour leader Chris Hipkins condemned Jones’ remarks which he described as “racist at the least”, adding “there is no room for racist rhetoric in any government that I lead”.

Last year Hipkins was critical of former Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris when he attacked Labour for using “Indians, Asians, Black and Pākehā” to help campaign for Peeni Henare in the Tāmaki

Makaurau byelection.

Last week an Auckland man was arrested in relation to anti-Indian graffiti near Papatoetoe Central School.

Over the weekend Tāmaki Makaurau MP Oriini Kaipara met with members of the Takanini Gurdwara Sahib in a show of solidarity. She has been vocal in her support of the Sikh community and critical of attacks against them by Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki.

Kaipara who is a founding member of national champion kapa haka Ngā Tūmanako told Mata she was appalled Te Pae Kahurangi’s haka, which she believed had ridiculed the Indian culture.

She said “we were always taught that humility is the quintessence of who we are as Māori. Our values of manaakitanga and whanaungatanga never leave us, even in competition mode”.

The Tāmaki Makaurau MP said haka is often controversial but this is different. She said “I don’t recall a haka as confronting as this. I believe it crossed the line. It is racist”.

In her statement she went on to say “we must do better as Māori, and we need our leaders to lead much better than this, whether on the haka stage, in Parliament, in churches, or in our communities”.

ACT response

In her statement to Mata, Parmar said “Racism in any form is unacceptable. It doesn’t matter who it comes from or who it is directed at. It has no place in a country that prides itself on fairness and mutual respect.

“New Zealanders reject the idea that one group is superior or inferior to another. People should be judged on their character and contribution, not their identity”.

Last year Parmar drafted a members bill to prevent universities from giving scholarships based on a person or group’s race or ethnic origin, nor any other financial assistance, accommodation, housing, access to “designated spaces, rooms, or other facilities” or “any other benefit, entitlement, or opportunity”.

“I wrote to the minister for universities to raise concerns about allocation of resources toward students based on ethnicity. This includes special allowances, separate study spaces, scholarships, and course entrance pathways in fields like medicine.”

Parmar also raised concerns students at the University of Auckland were being forced to do a paper on the Treaty of Waitangi, particularly for international students, for whom the course would “hold little value”.

Debate over kapa haka and political expression

Expressing political views through kapa haka is not uncommon, with many groups composing waiata about contentious issues and policies. However, in this case, the use of racial stereotypes on stage has drawn strong criticism. Te Matatini, the national kapa haka organisation, shared clips of the performance on social media over the weekend which have now been removed. When contacted by Mata, Te Matatini chief executive Carl Ross confirmed it had received complaints and acted immediately to remove the haka from its social media and other platforms and contacted Whakaata Māori, which will also remove the haka from all Whakaata Māori platforms.

“We assessed the haka against the standards of the Broadcasting Standards Authority, particularly those relating to discrimination and denigration. We concluded that elements of the performance risked reinforcing negative stereotypes about Indian people, and on that basis, the material did not meet the standard expected.”

A common sentiment expressed on social media was that political critique should focus on ideas rather than culture. One commentator posted “Werohia ngā whakaaro o te tangata, kaua ko tōna ahurea”, “Challenge the ideas of a person, not their culture”.

Wilson, who is currently a director of Māori consultancy firm Naia, appeared unrepentant in his earlier interview with Te Arawa FM, saying: “Mēnā e riri ana ētahi, e tū ana ngā pihi, kei te pai, kei a rātou tēnā”, “If some are angry or upset about it, that is fine. That is up to them”.

The statement to Mata, attributed to Wilson, said “It is worthwhile noting that there are many examples of haka and kaioraora (derogatory songs), that often include references such as ‘pokokōhua’ (boiled-head), ‘kai a te kurī’ (food for the dogs), ‘porohewa’ (baldhead) used to denigrate people”.

Parmjeet Parmar was critical of Wilson saying “leadership comes with a responsibility to bring people together, not to foster division or target others based on race”.

“Kapa haka is a powerful and respected cultural art form. It should celebrate identity, tell stories, and bring people together, not denigrate a particular racial group. When it is used that way, it diminishes the mana and meaning of the haka itself.”

In response to the interview, Ngata stated on Facebook, “This is a perfect example of how colonial harm turns into lateral racism, and it’s exactly why we, as Māori, need to stop excusing ourselves from anti-racism training. Ka pā pouri ahau mō tōku reo rangatira, kua mahia hei patu i runga i te iwi Iniana, hei āwhina i te kaikiritanga anō hoki.” She said she was sad that te reo Māori was being used in a way that harmed Indian people and reinforced racism.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

21 April 2026 – Amnesty International calls on states to stop predatory, anti-rights order from taking hold in pivotal moment for humanity

Predatory attacks on multilateralism, international law and civil society marked 2025
The alternative on offer is a racist, patriarchal, unequal and anti-rights world order
Protesters, activists and global bodies are working to resist, disrupt and transform

The world is on the brink of a perilous new era, driven by powerful states’, corporations’ and anti-rights movements’ assaults on multilateralism, international law and human rights, Amnesty International warned today upon launching its annual report, The State of the World’s Human Rights. States, international bodies and civil society must reject the politics of appeasement and collectively resist these attacks to prevent this new order from taking hold, the organization said in its assessment of the human rights situation in 144 countries.

“We are confronting the most challenging moment of our age. Humanity is under attack from transnational anti-rights movements and predatory governments determined to assert their dominance through unlawful wars and brazen economic blackmail,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard.

“For years, Amnesty International has denounced the gradual disintegration of human rights in every part of the world, warning of the consequences of flagrant rule-breaking by governments and corporate actors. We’ve also demonstrated time and again how double standards and selective compliance with international law have weakened the multilateral system and accountability.

“What marks this moment as fundamentally different is that we’re no longer documenting erosion around the system’s edges. This is a direct assault on the foundations of human rights and the international rules-based order by the most powerful actors for the purpose of control, impunity and profit.

“The spiralling conflict in the Middle East is a product of this descent into lawlessness. Following the initial unlawful US-Israeli attacks in violation of the UN Charter, which triggered Iran’s indiscriminate retaliation, the conflict has quickly morphed into an open warfare against civilians and civilian infrastructure, exacerbating the already catastrophic suffering of people across the region. It is now engulfing countries around the world, impacting populations everywhere, and threatening the livelihood of millions. This is what happens when the norms, institutions and legal framework painstakingly built to safeguard humanity are hollowed out for the purpose of domination.”

“Amnesty’s 2025 annual report moves beyond warning of imminent breakdown to documenting a collapse now underway, and exposing its devastating consequences for human rights, global stability and the lives of millions in 2026 and beyond. It calls on states around the world to urgently reject the politics of appeasement embraced in 2025, overcome fear, and resist in words and actions the construction of a predatory world order.”

Predatory attacks are accelerating the destruction of international law

The State of the World’s Human Rights, and Amnesty International’s documentation so far this year, detail pervasive crimes under international law and mounting attacks on the international justice system, which are gravely harming the foundations that underpin human rights globally.

Israel has maintained its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, despite the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, and its system of apartheid over Palestinians, while accelerating the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and taking steps toward annexation. Israeli authorities have increasingly allowed or encouraged settlers to attack and terrorize Palestinians with impunity, and prominent officials have praised and glorified violence against Palestinians, including arbitrary arrests and the torture of detainees.

The United States of America has committed over 150 extrajudicial executions by bombing boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and carried out an act of aggression against Venezuela in January 2026. Russia has intensified its aerial attacks on critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, while Myanmar’s military used motorized paragliders to drop explosive munitions on villages last year, killing dozens of civilians, including children.

The United Arab Emirates has fuelled the conflict in Sudan by providing advanced Chinese weaponry to the Rapid Support Forces, who seized control of El Fasher last October after an 18-month siege of the city and committed mass civilian killings and sexual violence. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the M23 armed group, with the active support of Rwanda, captured the cities of Goma and Bukavu and unlawfully killed civilians and tortured detainees.

In early 2026, the USA and Israel’s unlawful use of force against Iran, in violation of the UN Charter, has triggered retaliatory Iranian strikes on Israel and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, while Israel has escalated its attacks on Lebanon. From the killing of over 100 children in an unlawful US strike on a school in Iran, to the devastating attacks by all parties on energy infrastructure, the conflict has endangered the lives and health of millions of civilians and threatens to inflict vast, predictable and long-term civilian and environmental harm, impacting access to energy, healthcare, food and water across an already turbulent region and beyond.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban escalated its predatory policies against the female population, with further bans prohibiting them from education, work and freedom of movement, while in Iran, the authorities massacred protesters in January 2026, in what was likely the most lethal such repression for decades.

The USA, Israel and Russia further undermined international accountability mechanisms, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in particular, last year. The Trump administration enacted sanctions against ICC staff, collaborators and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, while Russian courts issued arrest warrants against ICC officials. Several other states withdrew or announced their intention to withdraw from the Rome Statute and treaties banning cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines.

The vast majority of states have been unwilling or unable to consistently denounce predatory acts by the USA, Russia, Israel or China, or to chisel out diplomatic solutions. The European Union and most European states appeased US assaults on international law and multilateral mechanisms. They have failed to take meaningful action to stop Israel’s genocide or end the irresponsible arms and technology transfers fuelling crimes under international law around the world. They have also been unwilling to enact blocking statutes to protect the targets of US sanctions, including on ICC judges and prosecutors. Italy and Hungary declined to arrest individuals subject to ICC warrants in their territory, while France, Germany and Poland implied they would do the same.

“World leaders have been far too submissive in the face of attacks on international law and the multilateral system. Their silence and inaction are inexcusable. It is morally bankrupt and will bring nothing but retreat, defeat and the erasure of decades of hard-fought human rights gains. To appease aggressors is to pour fuel on a fire that will burn us all and scorch the future for generations to come,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Some may be tempted to dismiss the system built over the last 80 years as nothing but an illusion. This is to ignore the hard-fought achievements towards the recognition of universal rights, the adoption of multiple international conventions and national laws protecting against racial discrimination and violence against women, enshrining the rights of workers and trade unions, and recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is to forget the poverty addressed, the reproductive rights strengthened and the justice delivered when states chose to uphold the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  

“The political and economic predators, and their enablers, are declaring the multilateral system dead not because it’s inefficient but because it’s not serving their hegemony and control. The response is not to proclaim it an illusion or beyond repair, but to confront its failures, end its selective application and keep transforming it so that it’s fully capable of defending all people with equal resolve.”

Ramped-up assaults on civil society spread around the world

The proliferation of attacks on civil society and social movements deepened in 2025, with sustained efforts to silence and disempower human rights defenders, organizations and dissenters spreading to almost every part of the world.

Authorities in Nepal and Tanzania were particularly brazen in their unlawful use of lethal force to repress protests expressing political and socio-economic grievances. The governments of Afghanistan, China, Egypt, India, Kenya, the USA and Venezuela, among others, also violently repressed protests, criminalized dissent through counterterrorism and security laws, or used abusive policing tactics, enforced disappearances or extrajudicial executions.

In the United Kingdom, authorities proscribed Palestine Action, a direct-action protest network primarily targeting Israeli arms manufacturers and their subsidiaries, under overly broad counterterrorism laws and arrested more than 2,700 people for peacefully opposing the ban. The UK High Court ruled this unlawful in February 2026. The government is appealing the decision.

Turkish authorities detained hundreds of peacefully protesters after the arrest of Istanbul mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is among over 400 people facing politically motivated prosecution under alleged corruption charges.

US authorities launched an unlawful clampdown on migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, committing unnecessary and excessive use of force, racial profiling, arbitrary detention, and practices that amounted to torture and enforced disappearance. In Latin America, states such as Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela adopted or reformed legal frameworks that impose disproportionate controls on civil society organizations directly impacting their ability to operate, access resources, support communities and defend human rights.

Many governments, facilitated by corporate actors, used spyware and digital censorship to restrict freedom of expression and the right to information. US authorities used AI-powered surveillance tools to target foreign students expressing solidarity with Palestinians with arrest and deportation. Serbia’s government used spyware and digital forensics tools against student protesters, civil society and journalists. Kenyan authorities systematically deployed technology-facilitated repression tactics, including online intimidation, threats, incitement to hatred and unlawful surveillance, to suppress youth-led protests.

The USA, Canada, France, Germany and the UK, among others, announced or enacted sweeping cuts to international aid budgets, despite knowing they would likely result in millions of avoidable deaths, and in several cases while committing to massive parallel hikes in military expenditure. This has had a catastrophic impact on NGOs’ efforts to advance press freedom, climate resilience, and gender justice, to protect refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, and to provide healthcare and sexual and reproductive rights.

Many states continued to resist reining in the aggressive tax avoidance and evasion by billionaires and corporate giants while weakening further restraints on corporate power. In the USA, strategic lawsuits against public participation had a chilling effect on civil society, with one such lawsuit resulting in a court ordering Greenpeace to pay a fossil fuel company $345 million (reduced from an initial $660 million).

In a context dominated by the US president describing climate change as a “scam”, governments did nowhere near enough to address climate displacement, equitably transition away from fossil fuels, or adequately ramp up finance for climate action – even as the UN Environment Programme warned that the world is on track to reach 3°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

“What alternative do the bullies and predators offer to the imperfect global experiment they’re so intent on destroying? The world order they propose is one that mocks and discards racial, gender and climate justice, treats civil society as an enemy, and rejects international solidarity. It is built on silencing dissent, weaponizing the law and dehumanizing those deemed ‘others’. Their vision of the world is predicated not on respect for our common humanity, but on military force, trade domination and technological hegemony. It is, ultimately, a vision with no moral compass,” said Agnès Callamard.

Protesters, civil society and international bodies lead efforts to resist, disrupt and transform

Undeterred by adversity, millions around the world are resisting injustice and authoritarian practices.

Gen Z protests swept over a dozen countries in 2025, including Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Nepal and Peru, and around 300,000 people defied Hungary’s ban on Budapest Pride to defend LGBTI rights. Throughout early 2026, demonstrators from Los Angeles to Minneapolis have organized street by street and block by block against violent and highly militarized US immigration enforcement raids.

Mass demonstrations against Israel’s genocide spread around the world last year and humanitarians from over 40 countries launched flotillas to show solidarity with Palestinians. Global activism against the flow of arms to Israel expanded, with dockworkers in France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Sweden seeking to disrupt arms shipment routes. Activism and legal pressure also led several states to restrict or ban arms exports to Israel.

While many governments appeased attacks on international justice, several states and bodies bucked this trend by demonstrating their commitment to multilateralism and rule of law. A growing number acknowledged that Israel was committing genocide and several states joined the Hague Group, a collective committed to holding Israel accountable for violations of international law, and contributed to South Africa’s case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The Philippines handed former president Rodrigo Duterte over to the ICC to face charges of the crime against humanity of murder, and the court issued warrants against two Taliban leaders for gender-based persecution. The Council of Europe and Ukraine agreed to establish the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, and a hybrid court in the Central African Republic convicted six former members of an armed group for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The UN Human Rights Council established an independent investigative mechanism for Afghanistan and a fact-finding mission and Commission of Inquiry on Eastern DRC, and expanded the mandate of its fact-finding mission on Iran. Significant progress was made toward a binding UN tax convention and a Crimes Against Humanity Convention, and the ICJ and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued landmark advisory opinions affirming state human rights obligations to respond to climate damage.

More states have started speaking out against authoritarian practices and attacks on the rules-based order in 2026, with the Spanish government notably taking principled stands, but such calls must be backed up with decisive and sustained action.

“From city streets to multilateral forums, 2025 brought powerful displays of resistance and solidarity from protesters, diplomats, political leaders and many others around the world. We must build on their example and courage and forge bold coalitions to reimagine, rebuild and re-centre the global order around human rights, the rule of law and universal values,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Let 2026 be the year we assert our agency and demonstrate that history is not merely something imposed upon us; it is ours to make. And for the sake of humanity, the time to make history is now.”

MIL OSI

Parliament’s grounds in Wellington are a knoll of relative peace in a dense governmental zone that includes cathedrals, courts, the National Archives and National Library, university schools and numerous government office blocks.

Imaging how it once was is not easy.

Elizabeth Cox is the author of Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street , which uses an astoundingly detailed 1890s map of Wellington to anchor details of life in the Victorian city. It is a beautiful and fascinating insight into the early and often ugly days of Wellington.

The House chatted with Cox about what the Parliamentary neighbourhood was like in the 1890s. You can hear the conversation at the link above, and read a little about that and earlier times below.

To set the scene, let’s first go back in time just a few decades further.

Pre-colonial Wellington

Before Europeans flooded in, Pipitea (where Parliament is now) was close to the sea, looking down on mudflats and streams that wended down from Tinakori Hill. The area was a centre of Māori habitation and food production.

Parliament’s own little hill had ponds and two creeks running down to a small beach, just a stone’s throw away.

The stream’s Māori names are not appealing. Waipiro stream (meaning putrid, stinking water) ran right through where Parliament House now stands.

Tutaenui stream (great amounts of excrement) ran down what is now Bowen Street (alongside the Beehive). Make of that what you will.

The hill rises up along Molesworth Street. It was known as Kaiota (unripe, food of dubious quality).

The pallisaded Pipitea Pā was a block or so east of Parliament, alongside the Pipitea stream. The pā had been established in the 1820s by Ngāti Mutunga, but by 1840, was occupied by Te Ātiawa, who had been pushed south out of Taranaki by the expansion of Waikato tribes.

A 2021 cultural impact assessment for a new Tenths Trust office development on Molesworth Street noted “the pā extended over much of the flat known as Haukawakawa [later Thorndon Flat] with extensive gardens spreading to what is now Parliament grounds and up to what is now the Wellington Botanic Garden. Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga also had kāinga/villages at Tiakiwai [now off 191 Thorndon Quay] and Raurima, near the corner of Hobson Street and Fitzherbert Terrace”.

There were also kāinga at Kumutoto stream, which is now Woodward Street off Lambton Quay.

When the somewhat unscrupulous rake Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s Wellington Company sold off parcels of Wellington it didn’t really own, he took some prime acres for himself – including on the beach at the far northern end of Lambton Quay, and between Hobson Street and the beach at Thorndon Quay (about where the Australian High Commission is now).

The small hill the Beehive sits on was set aside by the Wellington Company for government. This was the centre of things, where they put the provincial government, and later the governors’ house.

Nowadays, the area is the seat of Parliament and government.

Mr Ward’s map

Fifty years after 1840, almost everything about Wellington had changed radically. The coastline had been pushed back a few blocks through reclamation, the beaches were gone, streams were culverted, the forested hills were bald, and peppered with sheep and cattle, and both Europeans and buildings were thick on the ground.

The city had already spread through Newtown, and was stretching rapidly into Berhampore and Kilbirnie.

Cox met me at Parliament to wander the area and imagine what Parliament’s neighbourhood was like by the 1890s. There was a lot to take in.

We know a lot about Victorian Wellington because of an outrageously detailed map drawn by Thomas Ward.

“Thomas Ward was a surveyor and an engineer,” says Cox. “He approached the city council to say, ‘How about I make a map for you?’, because he was disgusted by the quality of all the maps that were around Wellington at the time.

“Originally, he was just going to draw the town acres and the subdivisions and the roads, but about four months later, he approached the council again and said, ‘I’ve had this fabulous idea, how about I draw all the buildings as well?’, so he drew every single building in Wellington.

“Every outbuilding, every outdoor toilet, every shed, every commercial building, every house and then he went further. He also told us what the walls of every building were made of, what the roof was, and then how many rooms every house had and how many floors there were, but it’s even more valuable, because for the next 10 years, he was updating the map.”

That map, and its additions and annotations are a treasure trove for historians and anyone vaguely curious about the past.

Victorian Pipitea and Parliament

Inside Parliament’s own boundaries, only one building from the period remains – the Parliamentary Library, opened in 1899 and built in part with bricks made by prisoners at the Mount Cook Jail (on the current site of Wellington High School).

The building’s plan was downsized halfway through construction in an effort to save money. As a result, architect Thomas Turnbull demanded his name be removed from the foundation stone.

There are two statues in Parliament grounds. Both are of premiers who died in office – John Ballance and Richard Seddon.

Seddon was a racist, sexist, populist and popular politician, who lived just up Molesworth Street, after spurning Premier House. His influence on Parliament and its neighbourhood was strong.

The library building was built after Seddon demolished part of the former provincial chamber without first asking permission from the MPs. Within eight years, the wooden buildings on either side had also burned down, leaving just the library.

The current marble edifice known as Parliament House was constructed during World War I and it too was downsized during construction, when money ran short.

In the 1890s, Sydney Street ran right across Parliament’s lawn and through the space that is now Parliament House. It began at Thorndon Quay and joined up with what is now upper Bowen Street, towards Tinakori Road.

It was later cut in half and renamed.

The southern side of Sydney Street, where the Beehive now is, was not part of Parliament. Government House, where the governor lived with his family and staff was “an incredibly public place to live”, says Cox.

“The wives and kids and staff would wander around in the garden, and kind of be on public display.”

The Governors were all minor English nobility sent to administer the colonies. They weren’t always keen to be here.

Lord Onslow arrived in the middle of one of Wellington’s regular typhoid epidemics (spread via poor sewerage). After his eldest son and an aide-de-camp fell ill, the family made themselves largely absent and their snub made them unpopular.

New Zealand didn’t have a locally born governor general until Arthur Porritt in 1967. (The title changed from governor to governor general in 1917).

Governors general now live in relative seclusion in Mount Cook, near the Basin Reserve, on grounds that Ward’s map marked as reserved for an “asylum”. Make of that what you will as well.

The Pipitea neighbourhood

To the north of Parliament is Hill Street, which now has two competing cathedrals, cheek by jowl. The Anglicans arrived later, but Catholics were already there in 1890 (although their first cathedral burned down in 1898).

Alongside the cathedral was a convent, a presbytery, a residence for priests and a fee-paying academic girls school. The Sisters of Mercy also ran the large St Joseph’s Orphanage and Industrial School.

The word ‘school’ is a misnomer.

“It was not a very pleasant place at all, I should think,” says Cox. “It was sort of like an orphanage, but you didn’t necessarily have to have your parents [die] to end up there.

“Sometimes, if your mother just wasn’t coping or if your father left the family, and… your mother couldn’t afford to look after you, they would take your children off you and put you in one of these industrial schools. Even from seven-years-old, they were learning how to work, they were learning how to knit and sew to become good wives and good domestic servants.

“It was a lot of focus on training them up to be domestic servants.”

Behind Parliament is Museum Street, named because, at the time, it was the location for the national Colonial Museum. It was set up by James Hector in 1965, as a reference museum of New Zealand’s natural history, geology and mineral resources.

Hector was then director of the Colonial Survey. He was also chief scientist, head meteorologist and looked after the botanical garden, ran the precursor to the Royal Society and was the university chancellor as well.

Cox reports that, as it was a reference museum, there are descriptions of it as “being an incredibly boring place to visit” and that was in spite of there being “massive whale skeletons hanging up and stuff like that”.

To the east of Parliament is Molesworth Street, which runs down a gentle slope to what was once the beach at Lambton Quay. It has a few shops and apartments today, but is busy with government buildings.

In the 1890s, it was “lined with small shops, commercial buildings and businesses, including herbalists, drapers, bootmakers, coal dealers, fishmongers, a horse bazaar, butchers, a dairy selling milk, cabinet makers and a number of Chinese fruit sellers. Many shop owners lived above their shops”.

Behind the shops on the eastern side was a dense neighbourhood of tiny dwellings, described at the time as a “rookery” and, as the Evening Post described it then, “a hotbed of vice, a place where people of the most depraved character flaunted themselves in broad daylight”.

That densely packed slum was sandwiched between Parliament and the then-Anglican Cathedral (now Old St. Paul’s on Musgrave). On the Anglican side was Thorndon Flat, where the wealthy lived along Musgrave and Hobson streets.

“There were lots of very unkind jokes about how convenient it was that for all these prostitutes that they were living between the Anglican Cathedral and Parliament, how handy it was,” says Cox.

The community of tiny lanes and smaller houses was more than a slum. It included the poor, working single women and ethnic communities.

“There was a really interesting mix of people living in those blocks,” says Cox. She notes one example.

“At the time, they were often called in the newspaper ‘Syrians’, but they were actually Lebanese Christians. There’s a quite wellknown Lebanese Christian community that lived in Dunedin [at that time], but I found a whole group of them living here in this poverty stricken area.

“[Another] group of people that were living there were lots and lots of prostitutes, there were lots of brothels. Ward, as well as drawing the massive great big parliament buildings, he would come along and actually draw every single tiny little house.

“He would draw a two-roomed house – not two bedrooms, but two rooms in total – and its outdoor toilet and everything, so you could see how incredibly packed those blocks were.”

Those lanes no longer exist. The poor were chased away and their homes demolished, with no plan for where they might go instead.

“The city, particularly under pressure from Seddon… started to do this thing called ‘street widening’, which was sort of a euphemism for pulling all the buildings down. They built Aitken Street and a whole bunch of the other streets around here in order to justify pulling down those slums.”

Reading Elizabeth Cox’s engrossing Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street and pouring over its detailed maps, you might notice mirrors for modern news, some eerily specific and others just typically human.

Government buildings demolished by populist leaders without permission, developers naming things after themselves and their families, landmarks named for questionable people, fly-tippers, crazy fads, bad housing, poor planning, suburban development across the most productive land, and a failing city sewerage system and resultant disease… and they say history never repeats.

All the tragedy, comedy, glory and absurdity of a city. A marvellous read.

You can find out more about Elizabeth Cox’s book here and here.

You can compare Thomas Ward’s 1890s map to present day Wellington at the Council’s Historic Map Viewer.

You can read about Parliament’s own history here.

*RNZ’s The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament’s Office of the Clerk. Enjoy our articles or podcast at RNZ.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

MIL OSI

Stewart Island resident Bruce Ford reckons there’s a problem with getting old on Rakiura – there’s nowhere suitable to do it.

The local of 60 years is the head of the Stewart Island Seniors Cottage Trust.

The trust is trying to raise an additional $1 million to build small, warm, accessible homes for elderly residents at a site in Oban.

It has already raised $750,000, purchased a section and drawn up plans for between six and eight one-bedroom duplex units.

Ford said seniors were stuck in ageing, draughty homes or paying housing costs beyond their means in a bid to stay put on the island.

“If there’s only one person in the house on a pension, you’re on about $28,000. By the time you take off $8000 of rates and insurance and perhaps another $4000 for electricity, you’ve still got to get some food and you’ve still got to do some maintenance on the property and it just doesn’t fit very well,” he said.

“We’ve got one chap here that lives on a boat because he doesn’t want to pay the insurance and the rates. And every day you’ve got to get in your dinghy and paddle ashore. If you’re in your 70s that’s a bit of a handful.”

Often people were being forced to leave the island and ended up in care facilities on the mainland far from friends, neighbours and familiar places, he said.

“People get medevac’d – perhaps they’ll have some ailment – so they get medevac’d and of course the chances are that they don’t get back because they can’t look after themselves quite well enough. We do have home help, some of those services are here, but some of the people that we’ve known have finished up in those rest homes and they die,” he said.

Proud, independent islanders struggled to adjust to life in rest homes and retirement facilities, Ford said.

“You turn up in Invercargill or wherever and you don’t know anybody and, of course, you don’t know who to ask for any assistance or anything,” he said.

“There was one lady we went to see one day, a lovely old lady, and she said ‘oh, I wish I was home with my own place and cat and garden’… She said ‘I don’t like it here’.”

The existing donations included a gift left in late island character Sam Sampson’s will, Ford said.

The trust had a memorandum of understanding with Habitat for Humanity and the charity would help decide who would get to stay in the new houses, Ford said.

Southland mayor Rob Scott said he was right behind the trust.

“I take my hat off to them. They’ve certainly rolled their sleeves up and they’ve done a heap of really good work and they’ve managed to attract some really good funding to date,” he said.

The council did not have the ability to fund the homes but the benefits were clear, Scott said.

“We don’t have a magic pot of money that we can throw at it so I’m supporting with advocacy – whatever I can and wherever I can,” he said.

Age Concern chief executive Karen Billings-Jensen said the need for seniors housing went beyond Stewart Island.

Many older New Zealanders faced the same choice – unsuitable housing or leaving their community, she said.

“In some of our cities there are suburbs where there are only large houses or double-storey houses, which don’t make it easy if you want to look to move somewhere accessible or to downsize. We know in rural communities, similar to Stewart Island, that there just aren’t the choices of housing,” she said.

It was crucial to have housing stock in place that allowed people to age – “so they can age where they know the community, where they have connections”, Billings-Jensen said.

“The proportion of people aged 65 and over who are renting is expected to double by 2048… As home ownership rates decrease and there’ll be more people looking in the rental market, and we know there’s some real challenges around rental stock,” she said.

Ford said he had sought help from the government but they were not forthcoming.

“I’ve written to many different government ministers and, as often as not, they come back full of encouragement and say ‘oh, I’m very sorry but there’s nobody registered for poverty at your end of the country. There’s no need, because you have to be registered social welfare, MSD, to be recognised as a region in need’. And of course our people are proud enough that they don’t get registered… they just stick it out and try and survive,” he said.

Ford remained optimistic the trust would meet its goal.

“It’s a big challenge but we’ve had big challenges before, community-wise. We have a new museum across the road – it cost $4 million and there’s no rates on it. It was all fundraising to get there. We have a town hall and stadium around the corner there and I believe it’s got insurance value of $6 million and it was all done with community work. The bowling green has a synthetic turf – that’s all done with local fundraising,” he said.

“Nothing’s impossible and we’re having a damn good try.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

MIL OSI

MIL OSI

New survey of over 5,000 New Zealanders finds housing costs now drive sacrifice
across health, food, and family life.

AUCKLAND – 7 April 2026 – More than one in four New Zealanders delayed medical care last year because of what they pay for housing. One in four skipped meals.

This is a choice faced by ordinary households – renters, moderate-income families, and first-home aspirants – caught in a housing system that consumes too much of their income and offers too few alternatives. It is not limited to people living in extreme poverty.

The second annual New Zealand Housing Survey®, released today by urban strategy consultancy The Urban Advisory (TUA), draws on the experiences of 5,232 New Zealanders surveyed between August 2024 and January 2026. It is the most comprehensive demand-side housing dataset in Aotearoa.

Its findings are unambiguous.

“The sacrifices revealed in this data are not a cost-of-living story. They are an ongoing story about housing system failure,” says Dr Natalie Allen, Co-Founder and Director of TUA. “We are now two years into this survey, and the patterns are not changing. They are hardening.”

What the survey found:

• 50% of respondents worry they cannot pay for housing in the future.
• 45% are dissatisfied with the housing options available to them.
• 27.8% delayed medical appointments because of housing costs.
• 25.3% skipped meals.
• 91% say housing costs too much relative to income.
• 76% rank safety from natural hazards as the most important property feature — above price and outdoor space.

The tenure divide

The survey’s sharpest finding concerns the gap between two types of tenure: owning and renting. While 90% of homeowners feel stable and secure in their housing, only 57% of renters say the same. Renters also report colder and damper homes, lower energy efficiency, and less control over their living conditions.

Critically, the survey finds that New Zealanders are not dissatisfied with renting as a way of living. They are dissatisfied with the quality and insecurity of the rental homes available to them. Renting is a viable tenure option — but only if the product improves.

“Renters are paying more for less,” says Allen. “That is a structural failure with nationwide implications, not a set of unfortunate individual circumstances.”

Deposits, not repayments, lock people out

Using a Residual Income Model which integrates deposit levels, lending constraints, stress-tested rates, and age-adjusted mortgage terms, the survey shows that, while many moderate-income households would be able to afford mortgage repayments, they cannot accumulate a deposit. Although recent OCR cuts have reduced monthly costs, they have done nothing to address the deposit gap.

A demographic shift the market is not ready for

Nearly half (49%) of people planning to retire in the next ten years expect to downsize. Most plan to stay in the region where they currently live. Yet the market offers very few well-located, accessible, compact homes at the quality and price this cohort needs. This is not a niche problem: it is one of the strongest signals of future housing demand in the dataset.

The commercial opportunity

Fifty-two percent of respondents want more secure, long-term rental options. The market delivers almost none at scale. Internationally proven models such as Build-to-Rent, shared equity, cooperative housing, community land trusts, progressive ownership, and new-generation retirement living, remain undersupplied in New Zealand, despite clear and growing demand.

“There is a large and growing segment of demand that the current market is not serving,” says Greer O’Donnell, Co-Founder and Director of TUA. “Diversifying New Zealand’s housing stock is now both a social necessity and a commercial imperative.”

For developers, iwi, councils, government agencies, and investors, the survey data offers a precise evidence base: which typologies are in demand, where, and for whom. The Urban Advisory is using the dataset to reduce risk and align investment with real household need.

Download the survey

You can find the full survey, as well as additional supporting imagery, here: https://www.theurbanadvisory.com/research/the-new-zealand-housing-survey-year-2-survey-results

About The New Zealand Housing Survey®

The New Zealand Housing Survey® is an independently administered, annually repeated national study. The 2026 dataset drew on 5,232 respondents aged 16 and over, surveyed across Aotearoa between August 2024 and January 2026. The survey methodology underwent academic peer review, Te Ao Māori cultural review, and multiple rounds of user testing. All responses are fully anonymised.

About The Urban Advisory

The Urban Advisory is an Aotearoa New Zealand urban strategy consultancy, established in 2016, working with developers, iwi, councils, and government to deliver better housing and urban development outcomes.

MIL OSI