Editor's note

Kia ora koutou – and welcome to your New Zealand newsletter.

How does New Zealand’s $12.1 billion package to support businesses, workers and seniors and low-income families compare with the rest of the world, and will the new measures help soften the blow of a looming recession? We asked economists from Massey University and Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, as well as our Australian business editor, to share their expert analysis.

Tuesday’s big news followed earlier announcements banning large events and new travel restrictions requiring everybody who arrives in New Zealand – with the exception of people coming from Pacific Island nations – to go into self-quarantine for 14 days. Public health researchers have described the border restrictions as painful but necessary to contain the spread of COVID-19 in New Zealand and the Pacific.

As Massey University development studies scholar Regina Scheyvens writes, New Zealand is a gateway for people visiting Pacific Islands, and the restrictions will help protect lives across the region.

The travel restrictions New Zealand and Australia have put in place are in contrast to other countries, as University of Canterbury epidemiologist Arindam Basu explains.

You can read more of the latest coronavirus coverage from across The Conversation’s international editions here.

Countless March 15 commemorations of the Christchurch mosque attacks were among the events cancelled as a precaution against coronavirus. But as New Zealand anthropologist Shamim Homayun writes, in a moving tribute to a lifelong friend, there are many ways to honour those lost – including continuing to live with a spirit of openness.

We’re expanding The Conversation’s New Zealand coverage ahead of this year’s election by hiring a second NZ Editor – and with so many journalists busy covering COVID-19, we’ve extended applications for this senior role until Monday.

If you find this newsletter useful, please consider sharing it with a friend. Ka kite anō, ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa.

Veronika Meduna

New Zealand Editor

Top stories
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, speaking alongside Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in February 2020. Bianca De Marchi/AAP

New Zealand outstrips Australia, UK and US with $12 billion coronavirus package for business and people in isolation

Liz Minchin, The Conversation; Wes Mountain, The Conversation; Veronika Meduna, The Conversation

New Zealand will spend NZ$12.1 billion – or 4% of its GDP – to support businesses, increase benefits for seniors and low-income families, pay people in self-isolation, and boost health care capacity.
Simon McSweeney/Flickr

The ‘herd immunity’ route to fighting coronavirus is unethical and potentially dangerous

Arindam Basu, University of Canterbury

Without a coronavirus vaccine, a herd immunity strategy would simply lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths.
Shutterstock

Why NZ’s tough coronavirus travel rules are crucial to protecting lives at home and across the Pacific

Regina Scheyvens, Massey University

Tourism is vital to NZ and small economies in the Pacific. But as the Samoa Tourism Authority's CEO says, "we can always get money back, but once there’s a loss of life you’ll never have that back".
Shutterstock

NZ’s decision to close its borders will hurt tourism but it’s the right thing to do

Siouxsie Wiles

New Zealanders should expect new border entry restrictions to stay in place for some time, but the measures are important to control the spread of coronavirus in New Zealand and the Pacific.
71-year-old grandfather Haji-Daoud Nabi, who was shot as he welcomed a stranger to his mosque.

Remembering my friend, and why there is no right way to mourn the Christchurch attacks

Shamim Homayun, Australian National University

Haji-Daoud Nabi was a lifelong friend, who helped inspire my research in Afghanistan on how violent events shape people's sense of community. I never thought my work would one day apply at home in NZ.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron launched the Christchurch Call initiative in Paris in May 2019. EPA/Yoan Valat

Christchurch’s legacy of fighting violent extremism online must go further – deep into the dark web

Joe Burton, University of Waikato

The US, Russia and China haven't backed the NZ-led Christchurch Call to crackdown on online extremism. Without them, and key non-western media, the initiative is unlikely to make enough difference.

From The Conversation's international editions

Fear can spread from person to person faster than the coronavirus – but there are ways to slow it down

Jacek Debiec, University of Michigan

It can feel like everyone is stewing in anxiety about COVID-19 and seeing other people freak out can make you freak out more. A psychiatrist explains this phenomenon, and how to keep it in check.

Laughter in the time of a pandemic: why South Africans are joking about coronavirus

Herman Wasserman, University of Cape Town

Jokes and satire can build resilience but also spread misinformation as people don't always know what is trustworthy and what is just funny.

First pocket-sized artworks from Ice Age Indonesia show humanity’s ancient drive to decorate

Michelle Langley, Griffith University; Adam Brumm, Griffith University; Adhi Oktaviana, Griffith University; Basran Burhan, Griffith University

Portable artworks have never before been found in the most ancient contexts of Southeast Asia-Australasia.

A tiny bone from Little Foot’s skeleton adds fresh insights into what our ancestors could do

Amélie Beaudet, University of the Witwatersrand

The findings suggest that this specimen could climb and move in trees. But it may also have been able to walk on the ground. This echoes previous studies.