Politics Central

Evan Roberts is a kiwi living in Minnesota and gives The Weekend Collective an insight into what life is like as riots erupt across America.

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NZ Herald Business Editor at large Liam Dann discusses who is going to be able to bounce back quicker from the economic impact of covid-19.

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Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick welcomes the number of people who have travelled into the city over the holiday weekend.

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Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye likely face a difficult challenge when it comes to the September election. 
The two have rolled Simon Bridges and Paula Bennett for the National Party leadership and deputy role respectively, after two polls showed National and Bridges' popularity had dropped. 
However, there are rumours that Muller won narrowly - with some sources claiming there was just one vote separating the leaders.

"It came down to a number of MPs very worried about their survival and about having a job in Parliament after the election."
The issue now for Muller and Kaye is trying to make their mark before going to the polls in September.
If they don't win, Bradford says the party could then be in the same position again at the end of the year.
"If National lose, can they hold onto those jobs, or will the party want to see someone else come in? And that's the risk Todd and Nikki have taken in doing this, is they know the task ahead of them now is massive."

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Beijing's plan to introduce a hugely controversial national security law in Hong Kong has sparked widespread fears over its potential impact on the city's much-cherished freedoms.
Residents of the semi-autonomous city only need to look across the border at mainland China to get a glimpse of how "national security" -- broadly and vaguely defined -- can be used as a convenient pretext for the political prosecution of dissidents, activists, human rights lawyers and journalists.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, for example, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power." Prior to his arrest, Liu helped draft a manifesto calling for democracy and political reform in China. Liu died of multiple organ failure in 2017 after being diagnosed with liver cancer, making him the first Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in state custody since Carl von Ossietzky, who was imprisoned by Nazi Germany.
China enacted its first National Security Law in 1993, which focused on issues relating to espionage activities. That law was replaced by the Counterespionage Law in 2014 with updated rules that more closely targeted foreign spies -- as well as Chinese individuals and organizations who collaborate with them.
In 2015, China passed a sweeping new National Security Law covering a much wider array of areas, including, but not limited to defense, politics, the economy, the environment, technology, cyberspace, outer space, culture, ideology and religion.
The new law is part of a broader push by Chinese President Xi Jinping to strengthen national security. A year after he came to office, Xi set up a powerful National Security Commission -- which he heads himself -- to lead the effort and increase coordination among the various wings of the country's security bureaucracy.
But long before the new National Security Law went into effect, the Chinese government had been throwing dissidents, activists, human rights lawyers and journalists in jail for national security crimes -- a trend that has only intensified under Xi's crushing crackdown on activism and dissent.
Jailed on national security grounds
In 2014, Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti was sentenced to life imprisonment for "separatism." Before he was imprisoned, Tohti was known for his research on Uyghur-Han relations and has been a vocal critic of the government's ethnic policies in Xinjiang, a resource-rich region long inhabited by the Uyghur minority.
In 2015, veteran journalist Gao Yu was handed a seven-year jail sentence for "illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities." She was accused of disclosing an internal party document in 2013 to an overseas Chinese-language news organization.
Known as "Document No.9," it revealed the Chinese Communist Party's ideological battle plan to counter advocates of constitutional democracy, banning public discussions on topics ranging from press freedom, civil rights to judicial independence.
In November 2015, Gao's term was reduced to five years, and was allowed to serve her sentence outside prison on medical grounds. She also served more than five years in jail in the 1990s on similar charges.
More recently, China sentenced Wang Yi, a prominent pastor of one of China's largest house churches, to nine years in jail at the end of December. He was convicted of "inciting subversion of state power."
National security crimes of subversion and inciting subversion were also used by the Chinese government to imprison human rights lawyers and activists detained in July 2015 -- a nationwide roundup later became known as the infamous "709 crackdown."
In the summer of 2016, Lawyer Zhou Shifeng was sentenced to seven years in prison for "subverting state power," and democracy advocate Hu Shigen was jailed for seven and a half years for the same crime.
In 2017, lawyer Jiang Tianyong was sentenced to two years in jail for "inciting subversion of state power," and...

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National will be hoping that Todd Muller has the same "pixie dust" effect of Jacinda Ardern. 
Muller on Friday ousted Bridges for the party's top job today in a Caucus vote on the back of two polls putting the party well behind Labour.
After his win, Muller said he isn't interested in opposing just for the sake of it, as people are all tired of that kind of politics, and he's about ideas that get results.
Former MP Peter Dunne told The Weekend Collective that there is a game-changer for National. 
"I've known Todd for probably 25 years so his success doesn't surprise me, though the timing does surprise. Though go back three years, six weeks before the election and Labour changed their leader and the rest is history."
He says that Labour proved last time that it isn't political suicide to change leaders so close to an election.

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A Chinese political specialist says there's nothing to panic about when it comes to New Zealand and China's relationship.
Last week, Winston Peters spoke out in support of Taiwan's membership of the World Health Organisation, sparking a rebuke from China.
Professor Anne Marie Brady told The Weekend Collective the Government should be defending the decisions they have made - including closing the borders when we needed to.
"It's just a normal part of our foreign policy that our Government will defend our interests."

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The Tourism Minister is defending his tourism support package.
A $400 million support package was announced in the budget last week, to help the industry transition to domestic tourism.
Some businesses say it's not enough, with Hobbiton Chief Executive Russell Alexander calling the package a joke.
Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis told The Weekend Collective they're criticizing it before engaging with it.
"To suggest that we should be funding some businesses until international tourism starts again, I think that is unsustainable."

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The Tourism Minister is defending his tourism support package.
A $400 million support package was announced in the budget last week, to help the industry transition to domestic tourism.
Some businesses say it's not enough, with Hobbiton Chief Executive Russell Alexander calling the package a joke.
Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis told The Weekend Collective they're criticizing it before engaging with it.
"To suggest that we should be funding some businesses until international tourism starts again, I think that is unsustainable."

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The National Party is pushing for religious gatherings to get the green light at alert level two.
At level two, religious gatherings are limited to 10 people.
National MP and pastor Alfred Ngaro told The Weekend Collective there was no rational explanation from the Government to why churches couldn't have more than 10 people.
"If there was one flat rule for all, then no one would be arguing."
He says the country obeyed the level four and level three rules for seven weeks, and people shouldn't be told they can't go back to Church, when restaurants, gyms and retail can operate.
"We don't live in a dictatorship, we live in a democracy, and the very thing that democracy is based on is the freedom of choice."
Earlier this week, the limit for attendees at funerals were increased from 10 to 50. 
Last year, Ngaro decided against launching a new political party with a religious focus, that was seen as an attempt to give National a potential coalition partner for this year's election.

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