The go-between: NZ’s soft power role in global politics

An earlier study, by independent advocacy group Te Kuaka New Zealand Alternative, presented a similar argument in a 2018 analysis of our foreign policy settings. And yet, however persuasive or earnest this pitch might be, neither report moved the policy dials of the government of the day. The current National-led coalition similarly remains unmoved.

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Thomas Nash
Caught On Camera: French Government Sharply Criticised For Human Rights Abuses In New Caledonia

Kanaky Aotearoa Solidarity condemn the use of police brutality to suppress Indigenous dissent in Kanaky. Footage has surfaced exposing French security officers pushing a handcuffed Kanak man to the ground before kicking him in the head, rendering him unconscious. This was gratuitous violence against an already incapacitated individual who posed no threat to the officer.

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Thomas Nash
Spying on our Pacific family

The startling thing about New Zealand’s spy bureau hosting a “foreign capability” isn’t that this activity happens.

We already know that the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) shares intelligence and technology with its “partners”: the US, Australia and the UK. What’s shocking is the lack of democratic oversight of these arrangements.

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Thomas Nash