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Nau mai, haere mai.
To say Winston Peters has become part of the political landscape is an understatement. About to turn 80 on Friday, and with 50 years in public life behind him, the NZ First leader and current deputy prime minister is a one-man Mount Rushmore.
In Grant Duncan’s entertaining profile today, we see a politician whose instincts were formed during the reign of that other pugnacious populist, Robert Muldoon, and who has adapted to the dynamics of the MMP era with unrivalled success.
Peters hasn’t so much had a career as a succession of remarkable comebacks, nearly always against the odds, which have taught even his fiercest detractors never to count him out. The occasional spell in the political wilderness seems only to have stoked the self-belief.
Over the decades, he has taken on all comers, including his own National Party, big business, the media and now all things “woke”. At the same time, he has displayed genuine statesmanship as a foreign minister, past and present.
In a campaign ad before the 2023 election, Peters was depicted mounting a horse in full cow cocky get-up, boasting “this is not our first rodeo”. Even at 80, we can be fairly certain is wasn’t his last, either.
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Finlay Macdonald
New Zealand Editor
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Grant Duncan, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
As he prepares to blow out 80 candles this Friday, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters continues to defy political gravity.
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Christina McCabe, University of Canterbury
Soil erosion, water pollution, waste production and the loss of biodiversity are among multiple pressures degrading New Zealand’s environment.
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Janet Hoek, University of Otago
New Zealand seems unlikely to reach its stated goal of cutting smoking prevalence to 5% or less across all population groups.
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Rod McNaughton, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Trump’s tariffs shine a light on New Zealand’s supply chain vulnerabilities. Is it time to revisit the idea of ‘import replacement’?
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Jesse Kearse, Kyoto University
Calculating the dual effect of rising seas and sinking land gives coastal communities a more accurate projection of the impacts of sea-level rise.
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Anna Matheson, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Data-driven policy is often held up as the gold standard. But by reducing people to measurable statistics, it can also what’s needed to drive real-world change.
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Niven Winchester, Auckland University of Technology
Modelling of how Trump’s tariffs will hit global trade suggests the US will be the biggest loser – while a few nations may emerge as surprising winners.
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Dennis Wesselbaum, University of Otago; Ronald Peeters, University of Otago
The pandemic – and the emergency responses to it – laid bare fissures in New Zealand society, while permanently shifting the way many live, work and shop.
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Gregory Camp, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
With their new show Happiness, Kip Chapman and Luke Di Somma have created a welcome New Zealand answer to the backstage musical TV show.
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Christian Yao, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
China’s vast middle class is now changing its values, aspirations and consumption habits in an era of much slower economic growth – dubbed ‘garbage time’.
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From our foreign editions
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Rebecca Strating, La Trobe University
The US alliance will endure despite Trump’s efforts to upend the global order. But whoever wins the May 3 election must boost engagement with regional partners.
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Luke Hartigan, University of Sydney
Financial markets have reacted very badly to the upending of global trade. But that doesn’t mean you should panic.
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Lucy Durán, SOAS, University of London
The famous blind couple, Amadou & Mariam, helped take Mali’s rich musical traditions to a new global audience.
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Madhav Joshi, University of Notre Dame
The ongoing crisis in South Sudan has been long in the making – its roots lie in a faltering peace implementation process.
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Ceri Brown, University of Bath; Nadia Siddiqui, Durham University
Pupils from poorer backgrounds – those eligible for free school meals – made less progress in their schooling than their peers.
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Simon Kolstoe, University of Portsmouth
Funding replicating research is important, but only when allocated well.
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Tarek Alexander Hassan, Boston University
The word ‘deficit’ may sound alarming, but America’s trade gap is a sign of its financial and economic dominance.
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Billy J. Stratton, University of Denver
The dread that AI evokes seems a distraction from the more disquieting scrutiny of humanity’s own dark nature.
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