The Labour party is looking to toughen up the New Zealand Government’s proposed Alcohol Law Reform Bill by introducing amendments including a minimum price and more power for local government to make licensing decisions.

However, Prime Minister John Key has announced he does not believe that minimum pricing will affect people’s drinking habits.

This comment concerns activist group, Alcohol Action NZ, with Professor Jennie Connor, medical spokesperson for Alcohol Action NZ, wondering where Key is getting his information from, especially since “A recent Canadian study has shown that a 10% increase in the minimum price of alcohol reduces its consumption by 16% relative to other drinks.”

Professor Connor suggests that the most effective option to deter binge drinking or ‘pre-loading’ is to combine a minimum unit price with tax increases on alcohol products.

Labour’s Justice Spokesperson Charles Chauvel agrees. “As a community, we need to get real about what encourages people to binge drink. We know that just like tobacco, the price of alcohol is a big influence on how often and how much we drink.”

However, ACT party leader John Banks disagrees, saying the reform punishes responsible drinkers rather than targeting the problem.

“Under Labour’s policy, buying a relatively cheap bottle of wine to go with dinner would be a thing of the past.”

Banks is aloso concerned about where the extra money from price increases would end up; ”because a minimum price is not a tax, all the additional revenue from a price increase will flow straight out of consumers’ pockets, into the hands of liquor companies and retailers.”

Mr Banks also suggests that price hikes will not affect problem drinkers as they are usually not responsive to those kinds of measures.

“A minimum price on alcohol will penalise responsible drinkers and is a policy that should be dismissed,” Mr Banks said.

The proposed price increase may also be accompanied by a change in the age of purchase as the Government looks at a split age system. The age of purchase at an on-licence (bar, pub or club) will stay at 18 years while the age of purchase from a bottle store or supermarket will rise to 20 years.

The Alcohol Law Reform Bill had its first reading in November of 2010 and second reading in September of 2011, with Labour’s Supplementary Order Paper released in April 2012.

The bill faces a parliamentary debate to finalize the details and then a third reading before it can become law. Many drug and alcohol activism and community groups are supporting this move, which could reduce alcohol abuse and the ‘binge-drinking’ culture in New Zealand.

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Four schools in Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealand, will be the lucky recipients of weekly fresh fruit thanks to a local initiative.

All Good Bananas is a New Zealand-based Fairtrade importer of bananas, which in March set up a donation section on their Facebook page, encouraging their customers to pledge bunches of bananas.

“Children going hungry is not just a developing world problem,” says All Good Director Simon Coley, “Thousands of Kiwi kids go to school without having had a proper breakfast.”

With this in mind, All Good teamed up with New Zealand-based charity KidsCan Trust, which specifically targets children in low socioeconomic areas, providing food, clothing and shoes to children whose families cannot afford it.

As a part of the food donations KidsCan will now be able to provide 25,000 bananas to Kia Aroha College and St Joseph’s School in Auckland, and North New Brighton and New Brighton Catholic schools in Christchurch- enough for the entire year.

Many children in low socioeconomic areas come to school without breakfast, which affects their learning and concentration for the entire day, which can impact on their ability to access further education.

Many schools, including North New Brighton School, have taken the initiative with the help of KidsCan to set up ‘breakfast clubs’ which provide students with a substantial breakfast to give them a nutritious start to the day.

North New Brighton School Principal Brian Walkinshaw is very appreciative and says students will be too.

“The bananas are a perfect addition, great energy food and a good nourishing snack, packed full of carbohydrates. The fact that they’re Fairtrade adds that double feel good factor.”

KidsCan is always looking for donations, but not only in funds. Currently, KidsCan is appealing to New Zealand knitters so that they can give children beanies to keep their heads warm during the winter.

In 2011 KidsCan gave away 8500 beanies, and in 2012 hopes to reach 10,000 to distribute around the 218 schools in the program.

Beanie donations finish around the end of June, but don’t worry if knitting isn’t really your forte, there are plenty of ways you can help children in poverty in New Zealand.

Go to the KidsCan website www.kidscan.org.nz for some fundraising ideas. They have details of nationwide initiatives, as well as examples of fundraising that schools and businesses have done.

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Journalists at Fairfax Media have gone on a 36-hour strike over job outsourcing to New Zealand. Fairfax Media is the second largest publishing company in Australia, and is accused of making “easy instead of smart” decisions about cost-cutting.

This strike affects journalist staff in both print and online sections of several papers including The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review, The Sunday Age, The Sun Herald, Newcastle Herald, and Wollongong’s Ilawarra Mercury.

The strike began at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday evening with staff walking out after hundreds of journalists met with media union officials from the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) that same day.

The cost-cutting, outsourcing plan is causing fear in the journalists for their job safety and will result in 66 jobs lost due to the relocation of the editorial staff.

Rallies were held May 31 in Australia by the striking journalists and the MEAA. Louise Connor, MEAA Victorian secretary, stood outside Fairfax’s Melbourne offices on Thursday with around 100 journalists.

“Our grave concern is that this company makes the easy decisions to cut costs instead of making the smart decisions to move this company into the new era,” Ms. Connor told reporters.

“This is a very dangerous step for Fairfax to be taking. There has been no experience in Australia of companies making the decision to offshore such a central part of the newspaper and this can only destroy the vital nexus between the newsroom and the community. Sub-editors are journalists and the heart of the newsroom.

They should always be embedded in the community to enable the newspaper to tell the local story accurately.” said Chris Warren, MEAA federal secretary. The MEAA said the outsourcing is just Fairfax’s way to finding cheap cuts in journalism.

The striking journalists risk the chance of being fined. To them, it is definitely worth it.

“We don’t think we’ll be fined. We understand the risk that we took in walking out, but there’s frustration at the decision to outsource jobs,” said Ben Schneiders, a journalist at The Age.

Fairfax Media management has expressed disappointment at the journalists’ strike action, but says the changes will put the company in a better position to take advantage of the numerous opportunities in digital media.

Senior staff and sub-editors from the involved newspapers are going to negotiate with Fairfax management over the next few days to find an alternative solution, the MEAA says.

The strike is due to end Friday morning.

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Nashville, U.S.A. – Documentary Channel (DOC) is proud to announce the US television premiere of “Warrior Champions“ on June 10, 2012. An emotional and inspiring story of sacrifice and determination, “Warrior Champions“ follows a group of wounded American soldiers as they fight to turn their nightmares of war into Olympic dreams.

As little as a year after losing limbs and suffering paralysis after fighting for their country in Iraq, four brave men and women set out to do what many considered impossible – to compete in the Paralympic Games. Through failure, pain and triumph, “Warrior Champions“ follows these soldier athletes for a full year as they compete for their positions on the US Paralympic team. Though at times heart wrenching, the film is an uplifting testament to the human spirit that challenges every notion of what it means to be disabled.

Other special programming highlights for June include:

“This Way of Life“ an intimate portrait of a Maori family and their relationship with nature, adversity, their 50 wild horses and society at large.  Set against the stunning beauty of New Zealand’s rugged Ruahine Mountains, two parents struggle to instill in their six children the values of independence, courage and happiness.  Cultivating the magic in the everyday while turning hardship into a meaningful and satisfying life, the family has little in the way of material possession but enjoys a physicality most people today can only dream about.

“His & Hers”, award-winning director Ken Wardrop’s intimate gender and cultural snapshot exploring a woman’s relationships with the men in her life – father, boyfriend, husband, son – through the voices of 70 women.  From kitchens, living rooms and hallways across the Irish midlands, ”His & Hers” tells a 90-year-old love story through little girl to old woman, each character portrait woven with the next to create one perfectly crafted cinematic quilt to celebrate both men and the women who love them.  US Television Premiere

“Murder by Proxy: How America Went Postal“ an unprecedented exploration of the growing epidemic of spree killings in America.  The first documentary film to look at the so called “going postal” phenomenon through the lens of the mounting socio-economic changes that have swept over this country, “Murder by Proxy: How America Went Postal” examines the basic question of what brings a seemingly normal person to the point of committing mass murder, studying the complex interplay of personal and societal factors leading to incidents of workplace massacres, starting with the earliest deadly post office killings in 1986.

Documentary Channel (DOC) is the USA’s first 24-hour television network exclusively devoted to documentary films and the independent documentary filmmaker, providing viewers with round-the-clock opportunities to see fascinating, eclectic and award-winning documentary films of all lengths and genres.

Image Courtesy of  CHEN WS / Shutterstock.com

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The New Zealand Government has proposed changes to the Student Loan Scheme in order to increase repayment rates and bring the overall loan balance to a more manageable figure.

“This in turn will make the scheme fairer for the vast majority of borrowers who do honour their loan obligations and for taxpayers more generally,” says Revenue Minister Peter Dunne.

However student advocate groups are opposing the move saying they will make it even harder for new graduates to find their feet as the repayments start too low and demand too much.

“New Zealand graduates already make payments from a level of income below any other income-contingent loans scheme in the world; the rate of payment proposed will now also be higher than is demanded anywhere else,” said Pete Hodkinson, President of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA).

Currently those with student loans who earn over $19,084 per year pay 10% of their income over the threshold. This will rise to 12%, an increase that the Massey University Extramural Students Society and NZUSA estimate will cost students and graduates between $15 and $30 per week.

The Green Party is also opposing the Government’s proposal, stating that a graduated rate would be fairer and more effective.

“A better alternative would be a progressive repayment rate that kicks in when graduates are actually earn[ing] higher incomes so that those who can afford to repay their loans do so, while those on lower incomes have a chance to find their feet first,” suggests Green Party student spokesperson Holly Walker.

The Government has also indicated it plans to make changes around student allowance eligibility and is considering a student allowance cap of four years.

The student allowance scheme allows students from low income families access to funding for living costs which is not added to their loan.

Student groups, including the New Zealand Medical Students Association, are also angered by these plans saying that it is unfair to those completing longer degrees and may discourage students from entering those degrees including medicine which is a minimum of eight years.

“We have grave concerns that the seven-year cap on student loans and now this four-year cap on access to student allowances may force students to take out high-interest bank loans to live, which will reduce access to tertiary education for many students and is unreasonable,” says NZMSA President Michael Chen-Xu.

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In its new Travel Trends 2012 report, flight comparison site Skyscanner has revealed that Australia and New Zealand are seeing a resurgence of interest from the British travelling public. Skyscanner, which has over 15 million users a month, analysed its vast data on user flight searches to produce the report on global travel trends.

Both countries have long had close ties with the UK with strong tourist traffic going in both directions, but the report reveals that interest has increased during 2011. Flight searches to New Zealand were up by 35.4% (making it the fourth biggest rising destination in Skyscanner’s report) and flight searches to Australia were up 24.9%, making it the 20th biggest rising destination.

Travel to New Zealand was boosted significantly by the Rugby World Cup which took place during autumn 2011. The total number of visitors arriving for the rugby has now been confirmed at 133,200 against a forecast of just 95,000 for July through to the end of October.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive Kevin Bowler hailed it as a fantastic result. He said: “We promoted the New Zealand message hard around the tournament and so expected to see this sort of growth from traditional rugby-loving nations like Australia (up 17,200 people, 21.2%), South Africa (up 4,900 people, 417.4%) the UK (up 2,800).”

This increase in interest is expected to have a knock-on effect for tourist visits to New Zealand in 2012. When Germany hosted the football 2006 World Cup, tourism bosses reported an increase in travel to the country for the following 24 months.

Australia’s boost in interest is thought to be partly attributed to innovative advertising campaigns with partner airlines targeting the UK market. In 2010, Tourism Australia partnered with Emirates, while in February this year, an GBP800,000 advertising campaign with Singapore Airlines had both TV and online slots to boost visitor numbers in the wake of flooding in Queensland and wildfires in Perth.

In autumn 2011, Tourism Australia also worked with ITV on a major broadcast campaign with UK breakfast show Daybreak. The promotion, in partnership with Qantas, saw 50 winners and their companions head to Australia, with their holiday adventures featured on the television programme from November 7-11, generating excellent publicity for the country. Tourism Australia also sponsored Paul Merton’s Adventures, a UK Channel 5 travel programme running for six weeks from October 19.

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Eden Park bore witness to New Zealand being crowned World Champions earlier today, as they defeated France 8-7 in one of the closest matches in World Cup history. An honour which arguably should have come to this group of players four years earlier, the All Blacks have finally shaken off the tag of ‘chokers’ that they have had to shoulder since they last won the tournament in 1987. For Head Coach Graham Henry, and iconic captain Richie McCaw, this is a real vindication of their tenures, which has seen them lead one of the greatest New Zealand squads to ever take to the field.

Tensions were running high, and challenges were laid down before the game even began, with France arranging themselves into an arrowhead, and marching towards New Zealand as the hosts came to the crashing crescendo of the Haka. History is divided on whether or not opposing the Haka is the right course of action, but it certainly laid down the gauntlet to the All Blacks to come out and prove them wrong.

The beginning of the game seemed to mirror the two nations earlier clash in the World Cup, with France dominating both possession and territory in the first 10 minutes, yet unable to find a way through the wall of All Blacks.

Despite the pressure however, it was New Zealand who broke the deadlock, with perhaps the most unlikely of try scorers, Tony Woodcock, going over from short distance. Although Piri Weepu couldn’t quite kick the extras, the try was enough to send the All Blacks into the half 5-0 up

While the first half will not be remembered for any great displays of attacking rugby, two key injuries marked it. The first to French fly half Morgan Parra, who was replaced by Francois Trinh-Duc, a replacement which many French fans may have been quietly happy about, and the second, almost predictability, was to New Zealand fly half Aaron Cruden. This meant that Cruden, quite incredibly, became the third All Black fly half to be injured at the World Cup, and was dutifully replaced by Stephen Donald.

Status quo looked to be maintained at the outset of the second half, with France missing a penalty and New Zeland extending their lead to eight points with a penalty of their own. If one thing was keeping France out of the game, it was their inability to convert chances into points, but this was soon to change.

A loose ball at the back of a New Zealand ruck was kicked by Weepu straight into the hands of Trinh-Duc, who broke for the try-line. Although the substitute fly half couldn’t quite make the distance, France recycled the ball, and after going through several phases, captain Thierry Dusatoir sliced through the All Blacks line and went over for the score.

If Kiwi’s the world over had been fearful of their side choking at another World Cup before this game, those fears were redoubled with France just one point behind New Zealand, and the home side beginning to look very average with around 20 minutes to go.

With the fingernails of both sets of fans nearly bitten down to the nub, the game entered the last 10 minutes, and New Zealand seemed to have recouped enough composure to re-establish their tactical game, and were playing much more of the game in France’s half.

Tensions grew however as a prolonged spell of French possession in the New Zealand half was within the range of Trinh-Duc’s boot, and any misdemeanour by the All Blacks defence could lead to a French penalty, and a reversal in their tender lead. The experience of the All Blacks was seemingly critical, and they maintained their discipline, eventually forcing an France into an error which turned over possession to the deserved victors, New Zealand.

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With the Rugby World Cup Final just days away, the French seem an unfit match for New Zealand’s strong team. France making it into the Rugby World Cup was an unusual feat. The team lost greatly to New Zealand in the group stage, were defeated by Tonga and were anything but convincing in their victories over both Japan and Canada.

In fact, even the Rugby minnows of Japan and Canada gave the French a torrid time, with Les Bleus looking weak in defence, and lacking the attacking flair that they have become renowned for. Things barely improved for France’s head coach, Marc Lievremont, and his team during the knockout round.

Many people were predicting that even an out-of-sorts England side were record an easy victory over them at the Quarter-Final stage. Although England had been heavily criticized for their performances thus far, very few predicted the abysmal outing they’d have against the French.

Not even the loud renditions of ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ from England’s faithful travelling fans could summon up any kind of success for the English players on the field. France defeated England to enter the semi-finals. Arguably it was also no great performance from France that led them to defeat Wales in the Semi-Final.

Welsh team captain, Sam Warburton, was controversially red carded early in the game, leaving Wales at a numerical disadvantage for the majority of the match.  Even with this penalty, Wales still came close to winning the game on several occasions, and was only through the standout performances of a few defensive players, such as France captain, Thierry Dusatoir, that France was able to win.

It is not a surprise to see New Zealand in the Finals. Although perhaps not looking at their sublime best throughout the tournament, the New Zealand All Blacks have put in performances at every stage of the tournament so far, and have never looked in danger of being knocked out of the race. That being said, the home nation does have several issues to contend with.

New Zealand dealt with the loss of talismanic fly-half and playmaker, Daniel Carter. Carter suffered from a groin injury in training during the group stage of the season. This injury placed Carter on the side lines. The loss of such a strong player has caused anxiety all over the rugby obsessed country. Carter’s replacement, Colin Slade, was also injured.

Slade was struck with an almost identical injury as Carter during New Zealand’s Quarter-Final match against Argentina. New Zealand was then forced to call on their third choice fly-half, Aaron Cruden, to step onto the field. Cruden, who had not expected to play, had spent much of the off-season skateboarding rather than playing rugby.

Fortunately for Kiwi’s worldwide, Cruden stepped up well in their Semi-Final victory over Australia. Some would argue that the biggest threat New Zealand will have to contend with in the World Cup match is themselves. Accepted almost unanimously as the best team in world rugby for the majority of the last 25 years, the All Blacks have a tendency to ‘choke’ at the big moment.

Of the six World Cups they’ve contended in, New Zealand has won just one, albeit being favorites the majority of the time. New Zealand team captain, Richie McCaw, has been quick to dispel any theories people have about New Zealand being over-confident and taking France for granted.

When the two sides meet at Eden Park in Auckland on Sunday, it will not be for the first time. In the 1987 Rugby World Cup Final, New Zealand comfortably beat France 29-9. Although their seasons suggest a similar outcome this time around, fans of both teams eagerly await the outcome of Sunday’s match.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.rugbyworldcup.com

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