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Sponsored by the Asia Pacific Viewpoint, this paper was originally delivered as a keynote address at the New Zealand Geographical Society (NZGS) conference in November of 2020. Building on the conference theme, 'Embracing Diversity: Expanding Geographies', it argues that any consideration of our diverse, layered and growing environments must consider the sacred. Rather than focus solely on what are often deemed 'sacred' sites – or those places marked by physical signposts, particular rituals or sanctioning – it encourages us to think deeply about the everyday sacred though recognising how places feed. Flowing between places and times, between Kumutoto Stream in Te Whanganui‐a‐Tara and Pōhakuloa in Hawaiʻi, this paper is a call to stand on whenua and see it, smell it, taste it and love it. It is an invitation to relate to place on an intimate level. It is a prompting to be critical of the urban and colonially constructed spaces that have become naturalised in our daily lives and to uncover the stories, histories and peoples they work to displace and erase so that we can plant collective roots of resistance and solidarity for better futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon a literature review, this paper first identifies and articulates the importance of studying physical activity and sport (PAS) engagement of new Asian migrants within a particular geographical location – New Zealand. A pilot study with a series of in‐depth interviews highlights some challenges that New Zealand Regional Sports Organisations (RSOs) and new Asian migrants face in terms of PAS engagement. Findings from the pilot study interviews indicate that RSOs in New Zealand are well aware of these challenges, and these challenges mainly stem from a lack of understanding of the needs of new Asian migrant communities. These findings also indicate that ethnicity plays a significant role in influencing migrants' PAS engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Later‐life migrants, as older people living away from their home nations, occupy multiply‐precarious positions in relation to national COVID‐19 pandemic responses. Concern has particularly centred on this group's increased risk of social and linguistic exclusion. We explore the perspectives of later‐life older Chinese and Koreans living in New Zealand during the nation's COVID‐19 lockdown of 2020. This paper presents a sub‐analysis of culturally‐matched interviews conducted with 3 Korean and 5 Chinese later‐life migrants. These participants are a sub‐sample of a larger qualitative interview study comprising 44 interviews. A social capital approach has been used to aid conceptualisation of participants' experiences and a reflexive thematic approach guided analysis. Despite their underrepresentation in national response efforts, Chinese and Korean later‐life migrants resourcefully participated in ethnically‐specific pandemic initiatives. Three themes identified were: (1) taking it seriously (2) already digitally literate (3) challenges and difficulties. Older Asian migrants engaged in a range of creative strategies to stay connected during COVID‐19 lockdowns which drew heavily on pre‐existing social capital. Future pandemic responses should seek to improve connectedness between the national government COVID‐19 response and older Korean and Chinese later‐life migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impacts of the 2015 New Zealand (NZ) All Black rugby test match with Manu Samoa in Samoa: the 'Game that stopped two nations' (henceforth referred to as 'the Game'). Outlining key concepts as well as events and experiences surrounding the Game, this paper reflects on how the Game aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals as well as NZ's current Pacific Reset Agenda, an agenda which aims to increase understanding, friendship, mutual benefit, collective ambition and sustainability (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2017). A Likert‐styled questionnaire, a 15‐category ranking exercise, semi‐structured interviews, analysis of relevant media and other sources, informal discussions and participant observation help to provide insights into how sport for diplomacy and development functions. The Game was viewed as providing an opportunity for income generation, most participants felt excited to have shared in the experience, and many were hopeful as to what this might mean for future NZ/Samoan relations. However, we argue that, overall, this event represented a missed opportunity. If sport diplomacy events are to authentically contribute to diplomatic and development goals, more needs to be done to create meaningful and enduring engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the evolution of the dairy complexes of New Zealand and Chile in the context of increasing bilateral interaction between the two countries, and their recent signing of a ‘Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership’ (TPSEP) free-trade agreement. The two economies can be said to occupy semi-peripheral positions in global markets and have, through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, increasingly competed for market share in a range of primary product (particularly agricultural)-based export markets. Similar sets of historical processes, although variably timed, have shaped the roles of New Zealand and Chile respectively as resource peripheries, and the extent to which the two countries can collaborate for mutual benefit and transcend these roles is uncertain. In taking a sectoral approach this paper questions the compatibility of the two dairy complexes in the context of the TPSEP, and recommends further sectoral and localised studies in order to better appraise the model of ‘co-opetition’ promoted through the agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in immigration and refugee policy since 1991 have led to an increasing number of minority ethnic groups settling in Aotearoa New Zealand. The number of Black African migrants and refugees granted permanent residence in New Zealand has increased substantially from about six in 1982 to over 770 in 1998 (New Zealand Immigration Services, 2001). The socio–economic, professional and cultural characteristics of this emerging Black African minority ethnic community are complex but fascinating. In mid 2000 the majority of the Black African community in New Zealand were refugees (Chile 1999A). This paper is part of a broader study to analyse the nature and structure of Black African migration and settlement in New Zealand. It is an attempt to undertake applied migration research from a participatory methodology framework that addresses the expressed needs of the grass–roots level client community. The paper examines the socio–economic status of Black African refugees in New Zealand and analyses the factors and processes that create an impoverished community that is increasingly excluded from mainstream society. Strategies to reverse the process of marginalisation and create a healthy, vibrant community with the capacity to participate effectively in New Zealand society are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A massive demographic rural-urban shift has taken place within Maori society since the second world war. This demographic shift prompted changes in the structure of some Maori social institutions. Due to a number of factors these new social institutions have not been readily assimilated by Maori cultural practices. Recent battles over the allocation of pre-settlement Treaty assets have brought this issue to the fore, acting as catalysts in the struggle for recognition between evolutionary social change (represented by urban Maori) and the perceived static boundaries of indigenous culture (as represented by modern Iwi). This paper therefore addresses the problems of accommodating social change within ‘static’ cultural frameworks raised by the issue of asset allocation. The paper outlines the historical factors that have allowed incongruities between social structure and culture to emerge in New Zealand Maori society, and provides a number of options for consideration in the hope of resolving this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how the transformation of coastal New Zealand is directly connected to the dislocation and marginalisation of many Māori coastal communities. It focuses on how this transformation is played out in text and talk and how certain types of boundaries function as important determinants in the construction and social order of coastal New Zealand. The high value and demand placed on specific, accessible 'cadastral' parcels of private coastal property dictates that much of New Zealand's coast is mapped according to constructs of wealth and desirability. In other parts of the country where development pressures on the coast are less prevalent, coastal communities are less evidently connected to markers of affluence and/or 'whiteness'. In these less disciplined spaces, uncertainty and liminality is more influential in the making of coastal places. Through an analysis of interviews with coastal planners and residents of coastal communities it is revealed that particular hegemonies, through the discourses they produce, attempt to assert a particular socio-spatial epistemology on counter-hegemonic groups in an effort to develop and manage the coast. Communities that revealed an alternative social ordering are described as messy and difficult to manage, while other coastal communities are marketed as exclusive, where model residents inhabit model places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the value-generating strategies used in some of New Zealand's primary activities in a rapidly changing trading context in which the countries of East Asia increasingly figure. These strategies range from scaling up volume, with a consequent conspicuous impact on rural landscapes, to innovative value-enhancing relationships linking producers, processors and consumers in processes which value landscapes for the contribution they make to provenance stories. Our argument is that higher-value strategies are necessarily more intensely collaborative and involve a pursuit of engaged relationships, especially between onshore producers and manufacturers and consumers at a distance. We term this collaborative form of strategising as 'the relationships economy'. We illustrate our argument using two case studies, dairying and merino. While there are great differences in scale between them, and dairying focuses significantly on volume-generating capacity, there are players in dairying who are adopting higher-value relationships-based approaches similar to those developed in the merino industry. The common thread connecting the case studies is that of intentional enactment, which echoes earlier periods in New Zealand's trading history when considerable work was undertaken by industry participants to create new markets for primary products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the evolution of the dominant politico-economic paradigm over the past 80 years in two ‘resource periphery’ nation states that have become ‘models’ of economic reform, New Zealand and Chile. Analysing the forces that have driven change, it traces the shared transition from a neoclassical model, through structuralist/Keynesian principles, and on to neoliberalism. The paper discusses whether the contemporary convergence around neostructural policy represents a paradigm shift or an adaptation of the neoliberal model designed to sustain free-market principles in a form that is acceptable to electorates. The paper concludes that the broad commonalities in the transitions are remarkable and come about as a result of shared external shocks as well as similar historical insertions into the global political economy. Notwithstanding the parallels, the comparative approach reminds us of the contingent unfolding of economic paradigms across space, a point that counters arguments that assert that neoliberalism, and the globalisation to which it gives rise, create a homogenous global political economy. This comparative study is timely, as the two countries have recently signed a bilateral strategic trade partnership. This agreement indicates continued pursuit of neoliberal agendas in both countries rather than, as respective governments have heralded it, a move to foster South–South cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the theme of governance as it relates to the evolution of global commodity chains in agro-industry and their incorporation of wine firms in two countries of the semi-periphery, New Zealand and Chile. The paper goes on to specifically examine the upstream and downstream relationships of selected New Zealand and Chilean wine firms to the wider commodity chains in which they are involved. Brief case studies will analyse the downstream and upstream links to the commodity chain of key wine firms in both countries. Such cases provide indicative evidence of the underlying processes of the commodity chain that are constantly changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, international education has become a source of considerable political, academic and media debate in New Zealand. This is nowhere more the case than with regards to Auckland, the New Zealand city that has hosted the greatest number of international students. This paper focuses on the media debates around international students in Auckland with particular emphasis on the representations of the largest group of international students, those who originate from countries within the North-East Asian region. The media representations of these students have fixed a diverse group of individuals within a singular racial identity that is known by stereotypical economic, cultural and social characteristics. As a result, these representations have further problematised the interaction between international students and the host population in Auckland while simultaneously implicating a cohort of young New Zealand citizens and permanent residents who are of similar descent within the same discourses. This process of othering the Asian student, regardless of citizenship, has consequences not simply for the practice of exporting education in this city but also for the future of a multicultural Auckland and New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1990s represented a decade of immense changes in environmental management in New Zealand. This paper outlines the challenges of implementing the widespread reforms started in the 1980s. In terms of the environment, reforms came in the form of a large volume of new legislation and a new system of decentralised planning and management. This paper discusses these changes in the context of a shift toward a new environmental paradigm. Key issues and initiatives of the 1990s are discussed which address sustainability, integration, environmental leadership, and public involvement. Specific strategies are outlined in reference to biodiversity, which has been identified as New Zealand's most pervasive environmental issue. Ongoing challenges for the future include how to better involve stakeholders to incorporate alternative values in decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to open up what economic geographers think they can do as academics engaging in the policy realm. It draws on the author's role as an academic and his policy persona as academic expert and academic with expertise that has been guided by post-structural political economy (PSPE) thinking. It is Auckland-centred, situated in three trajectories: PSPE thought and practice developing at the University of Auckland, the Auckland Regional Economic Development Strategy (AREDS) trajectory of the Auckland Regional Council and Auckland City Council's sustainability trajectory. The paper recovers in PSPE terms dimensions of two 2006 policy moments, those of the Metropolitan Auckland Project (MAP) and the Mayoral Taskforce on Sustainable Development (MTSD), in which the author participated. Placing intellectual (PSPE) and policy trajectories (growth and sustainability) into conversation allows a unique exploration of co-constitutive dimensions between academy and policy worlds. Conceptually and methodologically, the moments in the policy trajectories are accessed by (i) analytic description of the policy trajectory from the outside in terms of academic understandings of institutional processes and (ii) in-the-room deliberations about policy decision possibilities. New insights about academy-policy relations emerge from the PSPE focus on rooms and moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to examine the various geographic shifts occurring in New Zealand air passenger service as a result of the liberal aviation policies pursued by the country. A brief history of New Zealand air passenger travel both domestically and internationally will be followed by a more in-depth investigation into the impacts of the single aviation market between New Zealand and Australia, first negotiated in 1992, subsequently altered in 1996 and, in its present form, agreed to in 2000. Particular attention is given to the increased competition that has arisen in the Trans-Tasman market, making it one of the most heavily contested routes in global aviation. The Trans-Tasman is analysed at a variety of levels, including airline competition, market growth, and fare changes that have occurred in the five years since the ‘full open skies’ agreement came into effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholders are an integral part of environmental conflict. Analysing the positions and interests of stakeholders is vital in effective environmental conflict management. This paper reviews the literature related to stakeholders and their dynamics in environmental conflict. It also presents the results of a study relating to a New Zealand transport infrastructure project where the positions and interests of stakeholders have kept on changing during the life of the project. This study plots the changing positions of some of the key stakeholders, towards this project. These stakeholders include a policy manager, a community stakeholder, an environmental stakeholder and a political stakeholder. The paper also analyses the changing positions by identifying and classifying the key drivers for these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: New Zealand's population growth of 10 per cent over the decade 1991–2001 resulted substantially from an increasing number of those claiming Pacific Island and Asian ethnicity, and to a lesser extent of the New Zealand Maori. Using census data for a comparable set of small areas with average populations of just over 100, this paper examines the changing geography of the four main ethnic categories – New Zealand European, New Zealand Maori, Pacific Island Peoples, and Asians – across the country as a whole and in its major settlements, especially Auckland. There is little extreme segregation of the three minority groups, but most of the Europeans live in areas where there is little exposure to those of other ethnicities. Most of the changes in segregation reflect the growth of Auckland's Pacific Island and, especially, Asian populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some of the socio-demographic changes which have occurred in the Pacific-descent population in New Zealand in the last decade. It examines significant shifts which have occurred in the social and economic characteristics of overseas and locally-born sub-populations and identifies some of the factors which have produced these. The chapter points to the growing internal socio-demographic diversity within the Pacific population and argues that we may need to think about this population in different ways in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-1950s Professor R. Gerard Ward carried out his first significant research project as a graduate student in the ‘Taupo country’ – a diverse volcanic landscape with a rich Maori history in the central North Island of New Zealand. This paper traces my own ‘journeys’ into the Taupo country and my association with the complexities of both historical and contemporary understandings and realities of Maori land tenure. I use several specific examples, and draw on a variety of experiences to argue that the ‘Taupo country’ cannot be understood without an appreciation of the enduring Maori values which still permeate society and land tenure in New Zealand’s ‘volcanic desert’ landscape. Despite legislative efforts to impose on Maori a title system derived from British property law, and all the subsequent pressures to assimilate, enduring Maori values intertwined with ancestry and identity cannot be ignored either in reconstructions of the history or in current planning for the future of the Taupo region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an increasing focus on migration management by academics and policy makers, especially in relation to temporary and transitional forms of mobility. This paper considers the acceleration of Filipino migration to New Zealand in recent years, partly driven by changing policies allowing migrants to transition from student and work visas to permanent residence. It outlines the history of Filipino migration to New Zealand, the roles of the Philippines and New Zealand governments and intermediaries in migration management and the nature of student, temporary work and permanent residence migration. The transitional pathways used by Filipino migrants are analysed in relation to the influence of skills and educational characteristics in creating opportunities for some and vulnerability for others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature on natural resource governance has highlighted the consequences of a strong imprint of neoliberal political ideologies on current environmental policies. A parallel theme in the recent literature relates to claims pertaining to ownership and management of natural resources by indigenous minorities in post-colonial Western democracies who have been historically marginalised and impoverished by the aftermath of European colonisation. Recently, in order to respond to indigenous demands to settle long-standing grievances for the return of their ancestral lands and natural resources, some post-colonial governments have encouraged the development of indigenous self-governance and co-management initiatives to manage natural resources such as fisheries and forests. Based on a study of the recent Maori fisheries restitution policy initiatives in Aotearoa/New Zealand, this paper presents a preliminary interrogation of the new hybrid indigenous fisheries governance spaces within the bounds of a neoliberal fisheries management regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing attention is being paid to how workers in the creative industries negotiate transitions from amateur to professional status and seek opportunities for work and spaces for expression that suit artistic desires. The settings have usually been large cities with populations that can support diverse and specialised audiences and subcultural scenes. In this paper, we discuss research where we participated in a music scene, and talked to dance music disc jockeys and venue owners in a small, regional university city – Dunedin. In Dunedin opportunities for musical work are comparatively plentiful but are constrained in a number of ways. Disc jockeys negotiate audience demands, distances from key musical centres and associated infrastructure, and the shifting venues available for performance. We emphasise the importance of an ethnographic perspective to the study of musical work that remains attuned to the manner in which urban spaces are created, transformed, challenged and remade in the musical nightlife economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the convergence of immigration/globalisation and education in New Zealand. The issues of immigrant students at Epsom Normal Primary School were raised nationally in 1995, and this incident serves as a useful departure point to consider some of the challenges involved in bridging the gap between immigration and education. Educational immigration is a notion used by Belich (2001) amongst others, to suggest that immigrants arrive in New Zealand in order to bypass full cost fees paid by international students. This notion, while useful, is challenged. Research undertaken in North Shore City as well as official immigration figures show the complexities of the issue: immigrant communities may be indirect recruiters of these students, but there are also an increasing number of international students becoming permanent residents. Either way, education providers face particular challenges with migrant students, not only in terms of English language abilities, but also in the lack of financial incentive migrant students give to an education provider relative to international students’ contributions. These micro issues are placed in perspective when returning to considering the transient nature of many young migrants exploring opportunities in a globalised world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In New Zealand while women dominate leadership positions in constitutional, political and business areas, gender inequality remains entrenched. Despite significant gains in rights (employment, pay equity, property), as a group women earn less and perform more family care and unpaid work than men. In part these disparities result from the economic restructuring of the last 15 years which saw a loss in unskilled manufacturing jobs, less social support and greater rewards to business and public sector elites. Maori and Pacific Island women are the most disadvantaged groups. Labour/Alliance government initiatives to reduce poverty particularly among Maori and Pacific Island peoples by strengthening access to health and education services and supporting and replicating successful community initiatives are also likely to benefit other low income women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1990s began with unprecedented market conditions for labour: unemployment rates were reaching their highest level in over 50 years, participation in the labour market had fallen to historically low levels and net emigration was widespread across all occupations. It seemed that things could only get better. While some did benefit from the limited growth that took place in the nineties, many did not. The greater inequality generated during the 1980s was fanned by the deregulation of the labour market and remained undiminished throughout the following decade. The marked reduction in manufacturing employment in the 1980s continued into the early 1990s negatively impacting Maori and Pacific Island men and women in particular. Increasingly post-secondary school education became necessary to gain entry into regular work and those with little formal education and few work skills fell further down the queue. These changes are closely allied to the processes of globalisation which is already exercising considerable influence on the employment opportunities of New Zealanders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, sustainable development goal 2 (SDG2) specifically seeks to 'End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture'. However, there is no clear prescription for how this goal should be achieved which allows various donors adopting diverse strategies to all claim they are contributing to SDG2. This article examines whether policies of five donors on food security and agriculture in the Pacific Islands region are likely to help to achieve SDG2. Fundamentally, the current and future wellbeing of many Pacific Island peoples, many of whom live on small, geographically dispersed islands with limited market access, is strongly tied to their abilities to produce food for themselves. This is somewhat overlooked by bilateral donors from Australia and New Zealand who invest relatively small amounts in the agriculture sector of Pacific countries and show little interest in supporting people's food security through local sourcing and production for subsistence. From an SDG2 perspective of ending hunger for all people, it is positive to see that, by contrast, two multilaterals have shown commitment to a more balanced and holistic approach to food production in the Pacific Islands region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the potential impact of increased school choice, specifically of proposed charter (partnership) schools, on educational inequality in New Zealand. An initial review of the educational marketplace literature proves inconclusive as to whether privatised schooling is capable of reducing disparity in academic outcomes and broader social contexts, and even suggests it might further increase segregation. Subsequently, the article presents a case study of educational inequality in Chile (1990-2010) to set up a comparison of an education system that has become increasingly market based and unequal. The 20-year time frame was selected to cover the shift to decentralised education under Pinochet until the large-scale breakout of student protests against systemic inequality, known as the ' Chilean Winter'. In conclusion, the article suggests that a successful strategy to counter educational disparity needs to create viable alternatives to a free-market approach and, as such, it appears that there are important lessons that New Zealand can learn from the Chilean Winter - lessons that go beyond the implementation of charter schools to fundamental social structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chile and New Zealand both depend on their natural resource bases for their exports. This situation characterises the historical condition of the resource periphery. Despite similar processes of globalisation in their fisheries sectors since the 1970s, the ways in which public and private policies and management strategies have been brought to bear on sustaining the resource base differ considerably. In light of the strategic economic agreement between the two countries (and Singapore and Brunei) signed in 2005, these contrasts reveal that multiple options exist for countries in the resource periphery to enhance their national development by working with comparative advantages alongside competitive advantages introduced into the sector. Chile’s explosive growth in aquaculture and its low levels of public and private concern for more sustainable fisheries is contrasted with New Zealand’s more sustainable approach to natural resource management through a range of instruments and commitments. The principal conclusion is that resource periphery producers should capitalise on their natural assets, but only within the context of a sustainable strategy that promotes and enforces responsibility. The current crisis in global capture fisheries is both an opportunity and a warning in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1990s can be characterised as the decade of migration as far as New Zealand's 20th century population history is concerned. There was the largest decennial net migration gain this century, the largest annual net migration gain since 1875, the largest decennial numerical increase in population since the 1960s, and the largest influx of immigrants from countries in northeast Asia on record. This was a decade when migration flows both in and out of the country attracted considerable public and political comment. In the mid-1990s it was the ‘Asian invasion’ that was the key migration-related political issue; in the late 1990s it was the ‘Kiwi exodus’, especially to Australia, that was attracting attention both in New Zealand and Australia. A ‘blip’ in birth rates in the early 1990s also attracted considerable attention from demographers and policy analysts – a short-lived increase associated with irregularities in New Zealand's population structure as well as the changing patterns of fertility evident in later child bearing. The decade also saw some significant changes in the ethnic composition of the population, as well as debates about socio-economic ‘gaps’ between some of the major ethnic components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces the April 2001 issue of the periodical 'Asia Pacific Viewpoint' which focuses on New Zealand. Economic reforms; Immigration; Industry updates.

Dissatisfaction amongst large sections of the electorate with the results of 15 years of economic reform on account of the tardy arrival of the supposed benefits of those reforms, led to the return of a centre-left, Labour–Alliance–Green coalition in the final months of 1999. The coalition immediately set about revising some of the policies of the previous National Party administration. The privatisation of the Accident Compensation Commission was reversed; further privatisation of the diminished stock of state assets halted. Tax on incomes over $NZ 60,000 was raised, as were pay-outs to pensioners. Interest repayment on student loans was delayed. Market rents for state houses were abolished, as was bulk funding for schools. Arts funding was increased. Government intervention in regional development was revived. Above all else, the Employment Contracts Act was replaced with legislation that would result in a revival of union power. The Prime Minister herself acknowledged New Zealand now lived in world of global magnitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuation of the deregulated and restructured environment of the 1980s has produced differential impacts across different farming types and therefore varying results in different rural regions. There has been a major land use change away from traditional sheep farming to dairying on the flats and forestry on the steeper hills. Net farm profit during the 1990s has increased by 180 per cent on dairy farms but by only 97 per cent on sheep and beef farms. In one sense agriculture in New Zealand has become more ‘post-productivist’ with a reduction in government support, a dramatic reduction in the number of farms, and an increase in farmland converted to urban and recreational uses such as farm tourism and golf course capitalism. But on the other hand New Zealand farmers still remain family rather than corporate, and they are firmly committed to increased production. Other challenges include pressure to deregulate the co-operative and producer board system, and genetically modified food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While not as bad as the loss of 80,000 manufacturing jobs in the 1980s, the loss of a further 30,000 jobs in the 1990s showed that the process of restructuring did not stop in 1990. The picture that emerges is more varied than the destruction of the earlier decade. There is certainly evidence of a lean, mean, more export-orientated group of firms that are competing internationally under the new low protection regime. On the other hand, it is clear that the process of restructuring and the removal of protection did not stop in the 1990s. There has been a sizeable loss of larger factories and a 22 per cent increase in smaller businesses, while surprisingly the level of foreign controlled enterprises has not increased significantly. In terms of manufacturing's contribution to exports there is both good and bad news. Exports of machinery, for example, increased by 518 per cent between 1989 and 1999. The bad news is that this is still only 18 per cent of total dairy exports, 29 per cent of meat, and only marginally ahead of wool exports, which have declined by 58 per cent in value between 1989 and 1999. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport in the 1990s has continued the pattern of significant change begun in the 1980s. Rail, sea and air have essentially completed the process towards privatisation, with minimal government involvement in monitoring standards and safety. Roading, however, is still financially confused in its funding and management. A sharp increase in cheap vehicle imports has brought the vehicle per capita ratio to be amongst the leaders in the first world, while the highway network remains at a lesser standard. Rational road pricing, especially in its impact on major urban areas, remains the critical issue for the next decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1990s was a decade in which radical institutional restructuring was imposed from above on an energy economy which was in a stage of stable maturity following half a century of rapid development. The key plank in the reforms was the withdrawal of the state from ownership of energy production where possible (natural gas and parts of electricity), and from any non-commercial philosophy in relation to the electricity and coal enterprises which remained state-owned. Regulation of natural monopoly elements (pipelines, transmission and distribution lines, processing plants) was virtually eliminated under the rubric of ‘light-handed regulation’, and the scheduling of electricity generators was moved from a planned to a market system. Underlying real trends in energy intensity, production and use were unaffected by the reforms, and the expected efficiency gains which had motivated reform were not in evidence by the end of the decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a quarter of a century, the government of New Zealand has been engaged in a process of restitution of property to Maori. Although land is the main object of Maori claims for restitution, rights to fisheries are also important. The nature of these rights is being influenced by findings of the Waitangi Tribunal and determined by legislation and judicial decisions. Both the definition of customary rights of Maori and the allocation of commercial fishing assets between urban Maori and members of traditional tribes present difficult questions not fully resolved. One principle that does appear to be settled is that full restitution is not feasible. Instead, both government and Maori seek settlements that will provide a firm foundation for community and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keith McPherson Buchanan, Emeritus Professor and first Professor of Geography at Victoria University, recently died at the age of 78. Buchanan was a prolific writer, polemicist, reviewer and commentator. His work includes nine books plus two co-authored volumes, well over 200 articles and comments, and a very large number of book reviews. As a radical geographer, a socialist, a champion of the dispossessed, and an unrelenting critic of orthodoxy, capitalist regimes and power elites, Buchanan was always controversial. His work represents a powerful case directed against some of the great evils and dangerous trends shaping the later twentieth century world. As one of the founders of this journal Asia Pacific Viewpoint (originally Pacific Viewpoint) Keith Buchanan along with his colleagues in the sixties helped establish the Wellington Department of Geography as a centre of innovative research and writing on Asia and the Third World. In this reflection on the man and his work former colleague Ray Watters argues that although best known for his work on China Buchanan’s greatest contribution was as a radical polemicist and essayist on contemporary issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]