Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for New Zealand
Newsline: New Zealand’s embassy in Sweden to close
New Zealand’s embassy in Sweden will close as part of a move to slash $10 million from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Europe budget. The Stockholm post was opened by the Clark government in 2008 and downsized by the current Government in 2009. McCully said in a statement it was not always necessary to have a diplomatic presence in a country to maintain good relations. “Sweden does not have an embassy in New Zealand and I am confident that we can manage the relationship through an accreditation.” McCully said moving some embassies into less expensive accommodation is another option the ministry is considering to cut costs. “The move is part of a series of decisions that will enable the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to meet the Government’s expectations of a $24 million efficiency dividend and then manage within a flatline budget for the next two years.” McCully said the ministry’s cost-cutting plans have been scaled back following feedback from staff and ministers. “I have made it clear the final package will need to provide a structure capable of attracting and retaining capable staff,” McCully said. The Labour Party last month received leaked documents showing the Ministry is planning to halve the number of job losses it had originally announced in February. The leaked documents say the Ministry is also considering downsizing some bases to create mini-posts in Madrid, Rome, The Hague, Vienna and Warsaw.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/nz-s-embassy-in-sweden-close-4891357
Newsline: NZ embassy repair man paid $154,000
Lucrative allowances are nearly doubling the pay of some overseas-based foreign affairs staffers – including a maintenance worker making as much as $154,000 a year. It is not uncommon for overseas Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade staff members to collect $100,000-plus a year in allowances, and even workers on roughly the average wage are collecting six-figure sums. Once extra costs such as rental accommodation and school fees are taken into account, a person earning $51,874 in salary – such as a maintenance worker at the New Zealand embassy in Moscow – can collect about an extra $100,000 once direct employee benefits including allowances, phones and internet are included. Rent is not included in that figure. MFAT refused to comment on the figures but confirmed it was taking “appropriate” steps over the leak of information. This month, ministry chief executive John Allen announced radical plans to scale back the allowance system and introduce a merit-based appointment system after being told to find $40 million in savings. He also suggested that overseas staff might have to pay a “nominal” contribution to rent. But Mr Allen’s plans have sparked a furious response from diplomats, and a threatened exodus of senior diplomatic staff has pitted him against the Government, which has warned that his plans are too “harsh”. Some workers could apparently lose $60,000 a year as a result of the cuts. Among the 144-overseas based staff allowances can reach as high as $211,000 a year, not including rent. Some workers earning under $100,000 a year can push their packages to well over $200,000 once allowances are included.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6641624/Embassy-repair-man-paid-154-000
Newsline: Finnish embassy seeks explanation
The Finnish embassy in Canberra wants an explanation of derogatory remarks by the Government minister Gerry Brownlee in Parliament about Finland and its people. Last Wednesday, Mr Brownlee attacked crime levels in Finland, its economy and the status of women. Mr Brownlee says the debate was humorous and satirical. The minister, who holds several posts including Leader of the House, accused the main opposition Labour Party of idolising the Nordic country. Then, after listing a series of ways in which he said Finland lagged behind New Zealand, Mr Brownlee argued that Labour would struggle to make this argument work. “You’d actually get someone to go out there and make the speech saying, ‘I want New Zealand to be like Finland which has worse unemployment than us, has less growth than us, can hardly feed the people who live there, has a terrible homicide rate, hardly educates their people and has no respect for women’.” The deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Finland in Canberra has written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade seeking an explanation, saying he wants to know if there will be any reaction from the Government. The embassy is accredited to New Zealand. Juha Parikka says the things Mr Brownlee said were not nice to hear, and do not reflect life in Finland. He says the comments are being covered intensively in newspapers and broadcast media in Finland. Mr Brownlee has said his comments were humorous and satirical. A Finnish academic in New Zealand called Mr Brownlee uneducated. Lecturer Merja Myllylahti, who teaches at AUT’s School of Communications in Auckland, says Mr Brownlee’s remarks are wrong – especially regarding the status of women. “He hasn’t been well educated in these things, I think.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/101813/%27please-explain%27-request-from-finnish-embassy
Newsline: Another NZ diplomat criticises Foreign Affairs restructure
The Labour Party has released another cable from a senior diplomat criticising plans to restructure the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In the leaked cable the ambassador to Japan, Ian Kennedy, said in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami last year, the embassy was able to rush staff from Wellington who had previously worked in Japan to help New Zealanders caught up in the disaster. Labour Party leader David Shearer says the service New Zealanders receive when caught up in life threatening situations must not be put at risk by cost cutting.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/100523/another-diplomat-criticises-foreign-affairs-restructure
Newsline: Diplomats aid beaten NZ woman in escape
A Tirau woman claims she was beaten with a slave whip, starved and scared, and believes she would still be a hostage of her Egyptian husband if it wasn’t for a team of New Zealand diplomats who helped her escape. Sharon Churchill says last month she was was sleeping with a steel pipe for protection, and claims she was suffering emotional abuse and beatings from her husband of five months – a man she once called the love of her life. With the help of New Zealand embassy officials from Cairo, she escaped on February 14 and is warning other women about the dangers of holiday romances. In letters the 41-year-old has sent to Prime Minister John Key and other Government ministers, Ms Churchill credits a team of diplomats with saving her life by working with Egyptian authorities to get her safely out of the house and on a flight back to New Zealand. One of those who assisted her was Barbara Welton, the same diplomat who has been helping a Northland woman locked in a child custody battle with her husband in Algeria. Ms Welton is understood to have sat on the floor during a tense stand-off involving dozens of police, soldiers and Algerian locals. She refused to leave the property “without my citizens”. Back home in Tirau, Ms Churchill had some words of advice for any woman considering a holiday romance in the Middle East: “Have a fling.”
http://www.rotoruadailypost.co.nz/news/diplomats-aid-beaten-nz-woman-in-escape/1299832/
Newsline: NZ ambassadors warned over job cut cables
Diplomats overseas have been ordered not to send cables expressing their concerns at potential job cuts after the messages ended up in the hands of the Labour Party. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is proposing to slash 305 positions to make savings of $25 million, with 169 ministry staff in Wellington and overseas, and 136 locally-hired staff in foreign missions, to lose their jobs. New Zealand’s ambassador in Argentina sent a cable to MFAT and other overseas missions requesting a clarification on its future. The ambassador said downsizing the embassy, which is also responsible for Uruguay and Paraguay, from the current three New Zealand and six locally engaged staff to one and three staff respectively “is not sustainable in the local environment”. Staff would face a heavy administration burden, and cuts would meet the progress the embassy has made to raise awareness of New Zealand was “likely to be lost, and carry broader implications”. The embassy said it had received no response to repeated email and phone requests for clarification on its role and expectations. Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman Phil Goff alleged in parliament on Thursday that diplomatic staff had since been instructed not to express their concerns in cables. He said the New Zealand embassy in Singapore had raised similar concerns about the proposed job cuts.
http://news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8431902/ambassadors-warned-over-job-cut-cables
Newsline: NZ Embassy’s $900k pool upgrade under fire
Almost $1 million has been put towards a swimming pool at the New Zealand embassy in Japan, despite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cutting hundreds of jobs. The money was set aside to upgrade the pool and recreation complex at the embassy in Tokyo as part of an eight-year project. Last week the ministry announced it would be cutting 305 staff jobs as part of a crunch on the public sector. The revelation has sparked stong action by Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “I’ve asked them [the Japan embassy] to put a halt to non-essential capital expenditure at the moment.” The project would have seen $550,000 spent this financial year to cover a new filtration system, among other upgrades, and another $93,000 next year. The minister says 16 apartments are part of the Tokyo compound upgrade as well as a new badminton court area and gym. McCully is now deciding whether the pool upgrade is a luxury he can afford.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/embassy-s-900k-pool-upgrade-under-fire-4745361
Newsline: New Zealand confirms job cuts, embassy closures
The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is cutting 305 positions, closing two embassies and setting up a call centre to help Kiwis in difficulty overseas. Chief executive John Allen says the changes will save about $NZ25 million ($A19 million), and there’s likely to be more ‘efficiency gains’ in the future. Staff were told about them on Thursday and Mr Allen says maintaining morale in the ministry is ‘pretty challenging’ as they absorb the news. Foreign Minister Murray McCully has endorsed the changes which include: 305 positions will be cut – 169 ministry staff here and overseas, and 136 locally-hired staff in foreign missions. 600 of the ministry’s 1420 staff will have to re-apply for their jobs, and Mr Allen says they won’t be re-hired on the same terms and conditions. Embassies in Warsaw and Stockholm will be closed as diplomatic activity in Europe becomes centred on Berlin and Brussels. A call centre will be set up in New Zealand, probably run by a private provider, to handle calls to consulates overseas. The call centre will prioritise help for Kiwis in trouble. Some salaries in Wellington will be increased as staff posted overseas receive fewer perks and less accommodation support. Mr Allen denies the changes are just cost-cutting moves and says other governments are making similar moves to improve the efficiency of their diplomatic operations. Staff have a month to make submissions on a consultation document they’ve been given and final decisions will be announced in April. Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman, Phil Goff, says the ministry has been told to save $40m and the cuts are the direct result of that.
http://www.skynews.com.au/businessnews/article.aspx?id=721668&vId=
Newsline: N.Z. embassy in South Korea aims to maximize impact of Rugby World Cup
For the past few weeks, about 4 billion viewers worldwide have been captivated by the Rugby World Cup played in New Zealand. Rugbyis virtually unknown here in Korea except for games played at the local universities, military academies and expat teams such as the Seoul Survivors Rugby Club. Yet, the International Rugby Board sees the Asian continent as an area of growth for the sport. “Japanis already quite strong and getting stronger, they will be hosting the next World Cup, so there is no reason why it won’t pick up in Korea or China, ”New Zealand Ambassador and avid rugby fan Richard Mann told The Korea Herald. To assist the sport in spreading its wings inAsia, the International Rugby Board organizes promotional events paid for by the revenue generated from the World Cup. “That’s important because at its top level it is a professional sport,” noted Mann. In Korea, particularlySeoul, the seeds have been planted for children to learn and appreciate playing the game through the Han River Pirates volunteer club which is run by families for children to learn and play touch rugby. The figures are still being tallied, but the Rugby World Cup is set to have a deep economic impact on New Zealand. Studies by Britain’s Coventry University Business School and New Zealand’s Reserve Bank estimated anywhere from 85,000-95,000 overseas visitors would spend about $650 million during the six-week tournament. The long-term legacy of the games would be even more valuable with tourism and business getting a $1.2 billion boost, a welcome prospect as the country struggles with the economic crisis still lingering in its main export markets of Europe and North America and the estimated $15 billion cost to rebuild Christchurch after a devastating earthquake in February.
http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111023000293
Newsline: Chinese Embassy says farmland investments not to be feared
The Chinese Embassy wheeled out a government spokesman today in a rare move, to tell New Zealander’s they have nothing to fear from Chinese investment. The Chinese Embassy in Wellington has not always had an open door policy. For only the second time, media were invited inside today to share cashews, biscuits and green tea. The Chinese explained their economy is still strong despite the shudders in theUSandEurope. Then the Chinese explained they wanted to buyNew Zealand farms. The Chinese failed in their high profile bid to buy the Crafar farms. The Government then tightened the law to make it harder for foreigners to buy land here. But the Chinese remain firmly interested and say Kiwis have nothing to fear. “I think there has been a certain number of people in your country, those xenophobes who tend to be unreasonably fearful of Chinese investments,” says one diplomat.
