Nau mai hoki mai – who’s flying to Australia next week?

According to early bookings after the announcement of a quarantine-free trans-Tasman travel bubble, quite a few New Zealanders are packing their bags already. Long delayed family reunions will be a major driver, but the big question is what impact this will have on the tourism industry in the medium and longer term.

As AUT’s Michael Lueck writes, a single foreign route can’t possibly compensate for the loss of an entire international market, and winter isn’t the most promising season. But the optimistic outlook of Qantas and Air New Zealand, both of which are forecasting relative growth in their trans-Tasman operations, is reasonable – and the boost might just get some tourism businesses through until better times return.

There is plenty more to read in this newsletter and on our homepage, including the remarkable story of how Paul Scofield and Vanesa De Pietri from Canterbury University tracked down the first kiwi seen by European scientists and established it originally came from Rakiura/Stewart Island.

Thanks as always for your support and readership. Until next time, mā te wā, all the best – and maybe even bon voyage.

Finlay Macdonald

New Zealand Senior Editor & NZ Editor: Politics, Business + Arts
www.shutterstock.com

With the trans-Tasman travel bubble about to open, how much should the tourism industry get its hopes up?

Michael Lueck, Auckland University of Technology

Quarantine-free travel between Australia and New Zealand will be a make-or-break moment for many tourist operators hit hard by COVID-19.
Author provided

Forensics and ship logs solve a 200-year mystery about where the first kiwi specimen was collected

Paul Scofield, University of Canterbury; Vanesa De Pietri, University of Canterbury

Māori treasure kiwi feathers for weaving cloaks for high-ranking people. But the bird's first description by European scientists is quite recent, based on a specimen that arrived in London in 1812.
Shutterstock/Natalia Deriabina

ACC’s policy of not covering birth injuries is one more sign the system is overdue for reform

Claire Breen, University of Waikato

New Zealand's Accident Compensation Corporation has been urged to reconsider a policy change that restricts access to treatment for women who suffered common birth injuries.
Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, during the Pacific Islands Forum in Apia, Samoa, in 2017. Lukas Coch/AAP

Samoa’s stunning election result: on the verge of a new ruling party for the first time in 40 years

Tamasailau Suaalii Sauni, University of Auckland; Patricia A. O'Brien, Georgetown University

Despite indications the Samoan government was out of favour, few predicted it could lose power.
GettyImages

New Zealand’s new housing policy is really just a new tax package — and it’s a shambles

Norman Gemmell, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Without making housing supply the priority, the government's tax-based policies create more objectives than they can reasonably achieve.
GettyImages

Indigenous scholars struggle to be heard in the mainstream. Here’s how journal editors and reviewers can help

Apisalome Movono, Massey University; Anna Carr; Emma Hughes, Massey University; Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, University of South Australia; Jeremy William Hapeta, Massey University; Regina Scheyvens, Massey University; Rochelle Stewart-Withers, Massey University

Mainstream academic publishing presents many obstacles to Indigenous authors, especially the conventional peer review process — but there are ways to overcome this.
Ministry of Health

Vaccination alone will not provide full protection. When borders open, NZ will still be managing COVID-19

Nikki Turner, University of Auckland

Even with the highest possible rates of vaccination, New Zealand will need to keep up public health measures, or consider letting go of the concept of elimination and focus instead on disease control.
Shutterstock/Pro Aerial Master

Managing retreat: why New Zealand is drafting a new law to enable communities to move away from climate risks

Catherine Iorns, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

New Zealand is replacing its once groundbreaking environmental legislation with new laws, one of which focuses on climate change adaptation and will include a fund to enable managed retreat.

From our international editions

The best hope for fairly distributing COVID-19 vaccines globally is at risk of failing. Here’s how to save it

Deborah Gleeson, La Trobe University

COVAX, the global vaccine distribution initiative, is well behind its goal of delivering 2 billion doses this year due to under-investment, vaccine nationalism and export restrictions.

Why China’s attempts to stifle foreign media criticism are likely to fail

Tony Walker, La Trobe University

There's a sizeable gap between Western perceptions of the role of journalists in democratic societies and China’s view that media should serve the interests of the state.

Write ill of the dead? Obits rarely cross that taboo as they look for the positive in people’s lives

Janice Hume, University of Georgia

Obituaries tend to play down any negative aspects of character. Over time, they reveal what we value in life.

We’re creating ‘humanized pigs’ in our ultraclean lab to study human illnesses and treatments

Christopher Tuggle, Iowa State University; Adeline Boettcher, Iowa State University

Medical research to benefit people is first conducted in animals. Creating a new biomedical model by inserting human immune cells into pigs may lead to new insights and treatments.

Northern Ireland: the politics behind the riots

David Mitchell, Trinity College Dublin

Brexit is only the latest episode of cynicism and scaremongering at the top of unionism

Passive vaping: an impending threat to bystanders

Beladenta Amalia, Universitat de Barcelona

Young vapers do not know that their habit may also endanger bystanders, as the vapers may also expose them to e-cigaratte emission.

Writing from 130 years ago shows we’re still dealing with the same anti-Asian racism

Mary Chapman, University of British Columbia

Chinese-Canadian journalist Edith Eaton documented anti-Asian racism in Canada in the late 19th and early 20th century. Over 100 years later, not much has changed.

Archaeology in West Africa could rewrite the textbooks on human evolution

Eleanor Scerri, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

New evidence affirms that significant, long-standing inter-group cultural differences shaped the later stages of human evolution in Africa.