News of Zealand: Our Future Rocket Industry and Racism in the Justice System

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New Zealand is a small island nation in the middle of nowhere, and that makes it the perfect location for launching rockets. A new deal between space company Rocket Lab and the state-owned Airways—which takes care of air traffic control services—means New Zealand could soon be leading the world in space launches. Rocket Lab plans to soon launch up to 100 rockets a year from its remote site on Mahia Peninsula, on the East Coast.

The potential economic impact of Rocket Lab has been valued at $1.5 billion over the next 20 years. Airways chief operating officer Pauline Lamb says there could be more to come. Lamb told Sunday Star Times that other companies needed to take a "deeper look" at what New Zealand has to offer. NASA and Google have both previously used the country for balloon launches.

Maria Pozza, a specialist space industry lawyer, said the deal sets New Zealand up to be a space-faring nation. "It is realistic that New Zealand will become a space hub, especially for small satellite launches and operations as a result of its geographical location, excellent governance structures, and reputation for technological ingenuity," said Pozza.

Nikolas James Posa Delegat is white, rich, and just 19 when he punched a female police officer unconscious during a drunken attack last March. Last week, the son of a rich-list winemaker was sentenced to 300 hours community service for the assault, and ordered to pay $5,000 emotional harm reparation to the officer. The fact that Delegat escaped without a prison sentence has ignited a discussion about "white privilege" in the justice system. Police Association president Greg O'Connor told RNZ that if the offence had been committed by a person who was poor or Polynesian the sentence would have been "unlikely to have got the same consideration."

Regardless of the outcome of the Delegat case, statistics reveal race is an issue in the judicial system. Maori are only 15 percent of the population but Maori inmates make up 52 percent of the sentenced prisoners. 40 percent of Maori men over the age of 15 have served time in prison or in community service. Stuff investigated 10 years of data and concluded "there is no doubt that, from whichever angle you look at it, there is a serious skew in the system against Maori."

Prime Minister John Key and Minister of Justice Amy Adams in a video announcing the family violence law changes. Image via.

Two acts that were previously unethical but perfectly legal—coercing someone into marriage and non-fatal strangulation—will now be considered offences. This comes with a raft of law changes designed to crack down on New Zealand's horrendous family violence problem. The Government has announced 50 changes to the Domestic Violence Act, Care of Children Act, Sentencing Act, Bail Act, Crimes Act, Criminal Procedure Act, and the Evidence Act. Included in the far-reaching reforms is a new offence of assault on a family member, which will carry tougher sentences than common assaults. Criminals who commit violence against family members will have it marked on their records for life.

Family violence advocates have called the Government's $130 million legislative package a step in the right direction. Police respond to 110,000 family callouts a year, and children are present at nearly two thirds of them.

Illegal fish dumping is unmonitored, prevalent, and damaging fish stocks, according to internal Ministry of Primary Industries emails that came to light in a recent report on the industry. The email sent by director of fisheries management David Turner says, "Fisheries Management can't quantify the tonnages involved but we suspect they are significant to the point that they are impacting stocks. We estimate that if we found the golden bullet to stop discarding, we would probably put over half of the inshore fleet out of business overnight."

Greenpeace, as well as the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand are calling for an inquiry into the way the MPI has handled dumping by commercial boats. In 2012, five of the six fishing vessels the ministry was monitoring were found to have discarded quota fish. The skippers were all let off with a warning.

A customer at McDonald's in Frankton, Hamilton has described "hysterical" scenes at the restaurant's playground after a child defecated on the slide and staff took 20 minutes to clean it up. "Children started sliding through the faeces,'' Julian Rivers-Smith told the New Zealand Herald. "By this point, the staff were notified and came out to observe the incident. There was a mother clearly distressed, screaming hysterically for them to make it stop."

A spokesperson for McDonald's said reports that children were "sliding around" in the mess where untrue but admitted the incident was mishandled initially due to the lack of an immediate response.

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