Stuff reports:

New Zealand and the European Union are to pursue a free trade pact – but don’t expect any action until at least 2015.

Prime Minister John Key made the announcement in The Hague after meeting European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council president Herman Van Rompuy. He described it as “quite an important” meeting

Two-way trade between New Zealand and the 28 members of the EU totals $16 billion a year.

Key said the EU has, for the first time, agreed to consider a free trade agreement.

But he admitted an ambitious EU-US trade deal, as well as a pact with Canada, will take priority for the Europeans. 

The EU is highly protectionist so a free trade pact would be a very good thing.

However as indicated, not likely to happen anytime soon. However an agreement for one to be considered is a worthwhile start.

Had a great night in Queenstown staying at the superb Villa del Lago (stunning views) and a few wines (okay five bottles!) along with superb rotisserie chicken at the Searle Lane Bar & Rotisserie.

Despite that we were up fairly early and Trail Journeys picked us up at around 9 am. A fairly quick drive to Clyde, and we grabbed the bikes and we were off. We decided to do the Clyde River Trail for the section to Alexandra, even though it is 7 kms or so longer. Figured the views would be worth it, and it was.

Starting off by the bridge in Clyde.

The river trail part was very beautiful in parts, but also a bit challenging where there was gravel, slopes and bends.

A lovely part with the trees leaning over.

This was very cool – a seat in a bath.

These old rail bridges are bloody bumpy.

A falcon keeping watch.

One of the many old buildings on the trail.

The view from another bridge.

The stretch up to the Chatto Creek Tavern was pretty tough as was uphill and a head wind. The gradient is only 2 degrees but when it goes on for some kms you really feel it. Speed drops from say 23 km/hr to 12 km/hr. We were very ready for lunch as it was 2 pm. Very friendly service.

I loved this, the cat sitting under the table waiting for food scraps.

Some great views as we keep heading up.

Then we got to the Muddy Creek Cutting B&B. They have geese, roosters, turkeys and a peacock – plus a very friendly dog.

This is the place we stayed in. It is first class. Can not recommend it highly enough. You should stay here even if just driving through the area. It’s a mud house and the inside is beautiful,and great fireplaces.

Even better is the food – we had very very slowly roasted lamb. Also some more wine, but not as much as in Queenstown luckily.

Overall a great day but harder than I expected. We cycled 56 kms, and I’d never done more than 25 kms before. And it was all off road, and quite loose shingle at times. My legs were remarkably painful and burning at the end.

Tomorrow we have 64 kms to cycle. Heading from Lauder to Kokonga. Quite a bit of uphill but yay also some downhill.

The Herald reports:

The Problem Gambling Foundation is seeking legal advice over a possible High Court challenge to a controversial Government decision to axe funding for most of its services for gambling addicts.

So because the Salvation Army was judged better able to provide support for gambling addicts, the PGF may use some of its money (90% taxpayer funded) on court action rather than actually helping gambling addicts. Shows their sense of priority.

The PGF has been claiming that the loss of its funding will silence its voice. This shows how much they have lost the plot. Taxpayers do not fund them to be a voice to lobby Government. That is explicitly illegal, ruled so by the Auditor-General. They are funded to provide support for gambling addicts. Any advocacy is meant to come out of their own funds.

So if they claim their loss of taxpayer funding will silence their voice, it is a de facto admission they have been illegally cross-subsidising their advocacy work from their taxpayer funding. This means it is no surprise that the Salvation Army were found to be better able to actually help problem gamlers.

In Stuff the PGF said:

Ramsey confirmed the meetings, saying “it’s fair to say our political activity creates tension with the funder” but said he had told the ministry no taxpayer money was spent on advocacy work.

Yet in the same article he says:

Ramsey said the ministry’s decision, which strips away 77 per cent of the foundation’s budget and is likely to result in up to 52 job losses from a staff of 63, had the effect of “silencing the big voice against gambling”

So he is contradicting himself.

The answer of course is that the PGF used the taxpayer funding to massively fund their lobbying activities. It’s easy to do so. The biggest cost is always staff time, and you just have a proportion of the staff’s time spent on lobbying.

Now again I have no problems with lobbying – so long as it is not taxpayer funded lobbying.

The Research Association of New Zealand has announced:

A new Code has been released today that will guide the conduct and reporting of political surveys for this year’s General Election.

Research Association New Zealand has produced the NZ Political Polling Code to ensure fair and dependable political polls.  It has been designed in conjunction with researchers, politicians and media, and is binding on members.

The working group that oversaw the code has representatives on it from Colmar Brunton, Reid Research/Baseline, Digipoll, Ipsos, UMR and Curia. It has three sections to it:

1. Conducting of political polls by researchers (binding)
2. Reporting of political polls by researchers (binding)
3. Publishing of political polls by media (advisory)

Polls that comply with the code will have the logo below on them, so people can quickly see if they are code compliant.

The best practice guidelines for media reporting are:

1. If possible, get a copy of the full poll report and do not rely on a media release. 
2. The story should include the name of the company which conducted the poll, and the client the poll was done for, and the dates it was done. 
3. The story should include, or make available, the sample size, sampling method, population sampled, if the sample is weighted, the maximum margin of error and the level of undecided voters. 
4. If you think any questions may have impacted the answers to the principal voting behaviour question, mention this in the story. 
5. Avoid reporting breakdown results from very small samples as they are unreliable. 
6. Try to focus on statistically significant changes, which may not just be from the last poll, but over a number of polls
7. Avoid the phrase “This party is below the margin of error” as results for low polling parties have a smaller margin of error than for higher polling parties. 
8. It can be useful to report on what the electoral results of a poll would be, in terms of likely parliamentary blocs, as the highest polling party will not necessarily be the Government. 
9. In your online story, include a link to the full poll results provided by the polling company, or state when and where the report and methodology will be made available. 
10. Only use the term “poll” for scientific polls done in accordance with market research industry approved guidelines, and use “survey” for self-selecting surveys such as text or website surveys.

The full code is below:

Political Polling Code 2014

Liam Dann writes in the NZ Herald:

We are fortunate to have a favoured status with the Chinese Government but we will need to be actively engaged as a nation to ensure we achieve the best results for New Zealand.

The currency convertibility deal was an important symbolic move. More significant for us was the agreement to target $30 billion worth of bilateral trade by 2020.

That target announced by John Key and President Xi Jinping in Beijing updates our previous objective of $20 billion by 2015. There is no reason to assume we won’t get there.

The Chinese don’t like to miss targets.

Indeed.

You could also argue that all they have done is get a pencil out and extend the growth curve along its existing path.

But growth has been spectacular since the free trade deal was signed in 2008. Another six years of equivalent growth will have an even bigger impact on New Zealand life.

In 2007 two-way trade with China was worth $7.5 billion. Last year it was worth $18.2 billion.

So exports in 2020 may be $22 billion higher. Per household that is around $10,000 per household. And recall Greens and NZ First fought so hard to oppose the free trade deal with China.

We have both had huge growth in the past decade at the low end of the value chain. Where we’ve been relying on agricultural commodities, China has relied on cheap labour to export mass-produced consumer goods.

Now we want to sell more infant formula, wine and gourmet food. China wants to sell more of its own premium consumer products instead of just making them for the likes of Apple and Nike.

New Zealand won’t be a big market for China but will likely be a good test market.

The Japanese made the shift in the 1980s. Its products went rapidly from a running joke in the West to become the benchmark for high quality cars and electronics. The Koreans – led by Hyundai and Samsung – have achieved the same kind of shift in the past decade.

China is planning on making such a transition. New Zealanders should expect to see Chinese companies like telco Huawei and car maker Great Wall pour enormous sums into marketing and branding in the next decade.

Locally we can see the benefits of this shift at F&P Appliances, now owned by Chinese whiteware giant Haier.

Haier is using New Zealand skills to push up the value chain.

The Chinese firm is investing $2.5 million expanding its Dunedin R&D plant and has hired 80 new engineers. It is going to spend a further $5.5 million building a new R&D hub in Auckland and hopes to have F&P Appliances generating $4 billion of revenue in the next decade – up from $1 billion.

But I thought foreign investment was bad, according to Labour?

This is really good news for New Zealand but the cynics will have noticed the downside in the story.

We’ll almost certainly see Haier reducing its commitment to basic manufacturing over the next decade.

That’s an inevitable part of this economic story for New Zealand. It was already happening when F&P Appliances was locally owned. NZX-listed F&P Healthcare is following the same path.

We need to get ready for an acceleration of this shift. We can’t compete with low-wage economies such as Vietnam and the Philippines and we shouldn’t try.

The Green Party might call it a crisis but if we want to maintain a high standard of living and lift the median wage then we need to start viewing this as an opportunity.

It’s what the wine industry went through in the 1980s. They used to compete by being the cheapest wines you could buy as tariffs meant no foreign wines could be sold cheaply. Then the protection went and the result was the NZ wine industry focused on quality and exports boomed as many NZ wines become valued around the world.

Wine exports are over $1 billion a year and in the 1990s were under $100 million.

David Cunliffe has said:

New Zealand’s interest rates are among the highest in the world and homeowners that are bearing the brunt of them should join Labour’s call for an Economic Upgrade, Labour Leader David Cunliffe says.

“New Zealand mortgage rates are higher than Australia and much of the developed world. That’s because our economy is not paying its way in the world and has major issues that need to be fixed.

No it’s because our economy is growing faster than Australia’s and hence our interest rates have started to go up.

This is using official Reserve Bank data on effective mortgage rates. Note they were up to almost 9% when David Cunliffe was a Minister and are below 6% now. The RBNZ data is not yet updated to take account of the 0.25% OCR rise but it will have only pushed things up by around 0.25%.

Stuff reports:

Kim Dotcom’s new Internet Party will have a couple of New Plymouth connections.

Veteran journalist and journalism tutor Jim Tucker has taken up the role of media adviser and would be writing the new party’s housing and education policies. He had already finished the environment policy.

Tucker is a very respected journalism tutor. He’s taught many of today’s journalists.

At the moment the party was polling at 2.6 per cent, he said.

So here’s my question to any of those journalists who were trained by Jim Tucker. Considering that the Internet Party hasn’t registered above 0.1% in any published poll, should a Jim Tucker trained journalist just report such an assertion without challenge, knowing that gullible members of the public may read it and assume it to be true?

Or would a Jim Tucker trained journalist ask the person making the claim to substantiate it?

Also would a Jim Tucker trained journalist upon being told they are supporting the party because Dotcom was a visionary, ask the subject of the interview how much they are being paid to take up the role of media advisor?

Anne Tolley announced:

Corrections Minister Anne Tolley says the Government is now over half way to achieving the Better Public Service target of a 25 per cent reduction in reoffending by 2017.

Reoffending has fallen by 12.6 per cent against the June 2011 benchmark, resulting in 2,319 fewer offenders and 9,276 fewer victims of crime each year.

“These figures are extremely encouraging, and combined with a 17.4 per cent drop in recorded crimes over the last three years it shows our communities are safer,” says Mrs Tolley.

The crimes figures are good, but get impacted by many factors. The reoffending rate is in my view more important. That has real flow on long term benefits.

Stuff reports:

The devastated relatives of passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 must assume the plane is “lost” and the flight crashed in the Indian Ocean, the Malaysian PM says.

The families were called to meetings this morning to be told the fate of flight 370, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people, including two New Zealanders, aboard while en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.

Those who could not attend received a text message or phone call from the airline confirming the terrible news.

New satellite analysis showed MH370 flew along the southern corridor and its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean west of Perth, representatives of the UK Air Investigation Branch had told Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

“This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sights,” Najib said today.

“It is, therefore, with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

I think this almost rules out terrorism.

Either it was a freak accident that overwhelmed the pilots, or it was one of the pilots.

I’m unconvinced that something like a fire on board would kill the pilots, yet allow the plane to keep flying for seven hours.

Also there is the mystery of the fact that the deviations from  the flight path appear to have been programmed into the computer in advance.

At least the families of those on dead have some certainty now, but questions will remain until at least the black box is found. Even then it may say little as it only has the last two hours of cockpit conversation, in the bizarre interests of pilot privacy protection. Anything short of a clear motive for or confession from a pilot will mean it remains a mystery.

Jevan Goulter is Hone Harawira’s press secretary. He has facebooked:

Guys, MANA DOTCOM!
Ok so we would be helping a fat white rich prick with a bunch of money, but it would obviously help MANA to! I’m not picking a side, just wanna be clear! The parties would not merge, we would share a list, and guaranteed MANA would have the top spots to start! If we did it, the difference could be 2 or 3 MANA MPs, and we remain our own party! It’s not all doom and gloom ! Could be the difference of having say John Minto and Te Hamua Shane Nikora in the House! Didn’t mention Annette Sykes cause she will already be there  Doesn’t sound that bad when you look at it like that aye?

His commenters are less keen:

•  I have a lot of respect for Hone and the Mana Party. That would vanish instantly if this loony idea came to fruition. It’s also not really keeping within the spirit of MMP.
• Mana will come off as looking very desperate. Sad really.
• You have got to be kidding!
• It sounds bad to me.
• Dont do it… please hes another john keys but worse… hmble your guys self and partner up wif maori you go to dotcom im out sori bt ur party would b his bitch seen it to many times.. better to lose honourably than to win disgracefully

Will Hone listen to the activists or his chief blogging advisor?

The Herald reports:

Labour has announced five new candidates to contest National-held seats at the election on September 20.

Tofik Mametov, an insurance representative, will contest Botany which is held by Jami-lee Ross.

Barry Kirker, a clinical psychologist, will contest Pakuranga, which is held by Maurice Williamson.

Jerome Mika, a union organiser, will again contest Papakura, which is held by Judith Collins.

Penny Gaylor, an Otaki member of the Kapiti Coast District Council, will contest Taranaki King Country, where sitting MP Shane Ardern is retiring.

Kelly Ellis, a Whangarei lawyer, will contest Whangarei where sitting MP Phil Heatley is retiring. Shane Reti has been selected there for National.

Dunedin South MP Clare Curran was confirmed today as Labour’s candidate.

Fair to say that none of those seats are likely to be won by Labour, so they will be hoping for list spots. This may help Gaylor and Ellis as the gender quota is now in effect.

The Herald reports:

Turkey’s government on Saturday accused Twitter of allowing “systematic character assassinations” a day after social media users easily evaded a government attempt to block access to the network.

The attempted crackdown came after links to wiretapped recordings suggesting corruption were posted on Twitter, causing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government major embarrassment before local elections on March 30.

The government’s effort to shut down the service backfired on Friday, with many finding ways to continue to tweet and mock the government for what they said was a futile attempt at censorship. Even President Abdullah Gul worked around the ban, tweeting that shutting down social media networks cannot “be approved.” Turkey’s move to block Twitter sparked a wave of international criticism.

Sad to see a country head down the path towards attempted censorship of the Internet. Of course it has backfired.

Hooker Valley, Mt Cook/Aoraki National Park, New Zealand

The Hooker Valley track provides relatively simple access to some great views of Mt Cook/Aoraki via a couple of swing bridges suspended across the river. There is stunning scenery pretty much all along the way and multiple opportunities to take great photography

I captured this image late in the afternoon just as the emerging shadows were beginning to add some welcome contrast to the scene.  

 Click on the image for a larger view of this photograph.

Cheers

Richard [richardhume.com]

Now Hone’s proposed deal with the German multi-millionaire has been exposed, some in his party are wary. The Herald reports:

Mana member and former MP Sue Bradford is worried at the prospect of any deal with Mr Dotcom’s internet Party, which has yet to be launched.

“I would be extremely concerned if Mana was to go into any arrangement with Kim Dotcom because what I think he stands for is the anti-thesis of what Mana is about to me,” she told the Herald last night.

Indeed, normally you’d expect Mana and UNITE to picket him for being a bad employer. But Hone wants his money it seems.

“In any way joining forces with a billionaire who is very likely a fraudster and under various legal challenges would really go against the kaupapa that I believe in.”

She said there had also been concerns about the poor payment or no payment of staff and poor payment or low payment of creditors.

“All this does not really one to think he is a person of credibility that a political party with mana in Aotearoa would want to be associated with.”

Well done Sue Bradford on staying true to her principles. She’s not in favour of selling out.

Labour’s Shane Jones said he visited the mansion late last year. But the discussion was limited to rap-music – and he had told leader David Cunliffe about the visit.

Rap music? Yeah, right. Are they any Labour MPs that haven’t visited Dotcom? If Shane Jones has been there, I presume every Labour MP has been invited at some stage. Maybe media can ask them all who has been?

It does make you wonder again if Dotcom is one of the secret donors to Cunliffe’s secret trust?

Stuff reports:

New Zealand has joined the countries imposing travel bans on those Russian and Ukrainians seen as responsible for the crisis in Ukraine.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully today said New Zealand had made it clear that Russia’s actions regarding Ukraine and Crimea are unacceptable.

“We have confirmed that New Zealand will not recognise the outcome of the referendum in Crimea,” McCully said.

“Applying sanctions will position New Zealand alongside other members of the international community who have condemned the breach of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Targeted individuals would be banned from obtaining visas to enter New Zealand.

“We will update and revise the list of those covered by the sanctions based on future developments,” he said.

Putin will be trembling I am sure.

The Herald reports:

The Press Council will offer membership to blogs and digital media and will get tougher powers for dealing with complaints.

The move follows a review by the council’s main funder, the Newspaper Publishers’ Association, after considering recommendations by the Press Council and a Law Commission Report.

Association editorial director Rick Neville said most publishers felt the time had come to strengthen the council’s authority and extend its coverage to handle complaints against digital media, including blogs.

I presume it will only extend to blogs who decide to join, otherwise they’ll be very busy! Cactus Kate has commented that they’ll need an extra staff member just for Whale Oil.

Digital media will be offered a new form of membership with a fee based on the size of the entity and its commercial or non-commercial status. They must agree to the same statement of principals and complaints process as other members.

Take up may depend on the size of the fee.

Under the changes the council would also have the right, in exceptional circumstances, to censure a magazine, newspaper or website by unanimous decision of the council.

Other new measures include greater power over where an adjudication appears in a publication.

Members will be required to regularly publicise information about the Press Council’s complaints process, and member websites will be required to provide an easy-to-find complaints channel with details on making a complaint.

The council will also have the power to direct that elements of a story be removed from an online article, or for a story to be taken down.

Good to see slightly more teeth.

Whale Oil notes:

The only problem I have is the two EPMU representatives on the Press Council. I believe that in extending these provisions they need to have two bloggers on the council too. Perhaps is now time to formalise the Bloggers Union so that representatives can be appointed to the Press Council.

That is a concern. The EPMU are members of the Labour Party, fund the Labour Party and vote for its leader. Having EPMU representatives take part in decisions on non Labour supporting blogs could be a conflict of interest.

News has reached me, even in Clyde, that the Labour Leader’s office has lost another staff member. A senior researcher who has worked there for eight years is off.

She’s worked for four party leaders and six chiefs of staff, but it seems she isn’t a fan of being shouted at and having the staff blamed by the new Chief of Staff for mistakes made by the Leader. The whispers are she may not be the only one seeking to bail.

It is relatively rare for staff to leave a leader’s office just six months before an election. The general expectation is that if you want to move on you leave the year before an election or just after it – not just before it.

The final day is a fairly big one. It’s 21 kms from Quintin Lodge to Sandfly Point. So another 6.15 am wake up for a 7.30 am start. Have a slight hangover from the mixture of whiskey and wine from the night before!

Just as the sun was starting to come up, you get a view of Sutherland Falls from the track. They really are quite massive.

Some very welcome sunlight lighting up the snow covered peak in the distance.

The nice thing about the rain the night before is the bush is more green.

Most of the track on Day 4 is well maintained and easy to walk on. You learn tramping that the surface makes a huge difference to your speed.

This is the boatshed, where we had morning tea. Before a bridge was built they used to use boats to cross the Arthur River.

Ultimate Hikes keep supplies in all the huts and shelters which means you get hot coffee, tea, milo and/or soup. I became quite an addict of Chicken Noodle Soup for morning tea and miso soup for afternoon tea!

Most of the 4th day is next to the river. This photo gives some idea of how beautiful it is. But imagine 21 kms of such views. Wonderful. It’s like being in another world.

Another bridge!

You can drink the water, and the taste can’t be beaten.

Around the halfway stage, the trail gets more rocky which slows you down.

Smeagol looking for the ring.

I never get sick of the river shots.

This is the Giant’s Gate waterfall, where we stopped for lunch. After a dare from Nisa, I dove in for a swim. It was the most painfully cold water I have ever gone into, and that includes polar plunges. I lasted around 12 seconds. Nisa then went in also, followed by the Japanese boys and a couple of the Aussies. The nice thing is that even without towels you dry off within five minutes as it was so sunny.

Guides Adie and Mel enjoying lunch. I’m sure all the guides are good, but we certainly struck gold with out three. They were friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. I have a reasonably fast walking pace so tended to spend quite a bit of time with the guide who was up the front (one would be at front, one at back and one goes between) and enjoyed the chats with them. I was quite proud I was keeping up with them, which got smashed when they then hit high gear to get to the hut in advance to open up – and suddenly they’d be going around 50% faster than me!

Snow , mountains and water are a great combination.

The Milford Track had markers every mile. This was the final mile marker before the end.

The final part of the track. This was originally laid by prisoners. The intent was to have them lay the entire track but one of them died so they had to stop 🙂

The view at Sandfly Point.

Another view from Sandfly Point. And yes the  sandflies are large and numerous. One poor Japanese girl was surrounded by at least 100 of them.

The official track end.

Then it’s on the boat to Milford Sound.

It’s around a 20 minute boat trip. Most of us sat on the front of the boat.

The Bowen Falls.

And finally the view from my room (forgive the reflection) of Mitre Peak, from Mitre Peak lodge. A great view to end the trek on.

That night we had the final dinner, swapping of e-mail addresses and general socialising.

The next day we had a cruise around Milford Sound, and then the bus back to Queenstown.

I was skeptical before the tramp about whether it was worth doing the guided option, as we did Heaphy and Tongariro unguided.  I basically went with the majority who were more keen to the “glamping” option. I have to say I have become a total convert and will definitely use Ultimate Hikes again when I do the Routeburn in two years time.

I wouldn’t do the guided option on tramps where you still stay at the DOC huts. Just having someone cook the meals for you and carry the food isn’t a big deal for me. I actually quite enjoy the feeling of self sufficiency.

But where they provide separate accommodation where you get hot showers, heated rooms, drying areas, a bar, flush toilets etc – well it makes a huge difference. You’re still tramping just as long a distance, but not having to spend hours crushed into a small hut with 30 other people and only a couple of tables.  The other nice thing with the guided is you do socialise much more with the  other trampers and get to form some good friendships with both trampers and guides.

Anyway that’s all three Great Walks done for this summer. Next summer I plan to knock another three off – probably Rakiura, Whanganui and Kepler. Then the summer after that will be Abel Tasman, Lake Waikaremoana and Kepler. I plan to do a few local tramps during the year also. The New Zealand outdoors is too great not to enjoy.

Reporters without Borders has released its annual Enemies of the Internet report. The enemies they list, and why are:

• Saudi Arabia: prime centre of content blocking
• Bahrain: No Internet spring
• United Arab Emirates: Tracking “cyber-criminals”
• USA: NSA symbolises intelligence services’ abuses
• Cuba: Long live freedom (but not for the Internet)!
• Syria: online tracking is a family affair
• Iran: Cyberspace ayatollahs
• Russia: control from the top down
• Arms trade fairs: Surveillance dealerships
• United Kingdom: World champion of surveillance
• Belarus: Apparatus of repression
• Uzbekistan: Welcome to digital tyranny
• Pakistan: Upgraded censorship
• India: Big Brother up and running
• Vietnam: Targeting bloggers
• China: Electronic Great Wall getting taller
• Turkmenistan: News black hole
• North Korea: the Web as a pawn in the power game
• Sudan: Scoring high in censorship
• Ethiopia: full online powers

How sad the US and UK make the list due to their over-reach of surveillance. Surveillance should be targeted as suspects with probable cause, not the entire population.

Andrea Vance writes:

As Europe hovers on the brink of a second Cold War (or so the rhetoric goes), there could not be a better time for more than 50 world leaders to gather to discuss nuclear security.

Prime Minister John Key will join the likes of US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye in the Hague tomorrow.

The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) was established back in 2009, by Obama, to respond to the threat of nuclear terrorism, and shore up international security systems around fissile materials.

It’s the third such meeting. Previous pow-wows failed to realise Obama’s ultimate goal: to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials by the end of 2013.

Key was a star-turn at the last summit in Seoul in 2012. In an off-the-cuff address, he cautioned a room chock-full of the world’s most powerful, that they would be held to account for failing to stop a nuclear terrorist attack.

The speech clearly made an impact on Obama – who gave Key a shout-out in his closing remarks.

I recall some on the left predicting that Key would be a catastrophe with foreign affairs as his background was all business and no government.

Fran O’Sullivan writes:

John Key has firmly put his personal stamp on the New Zealand-China relationship by forging a “trusted partner” status with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Xi heralded the co-operation between China and New Zealand as “pioneering and exemplary”, saying he believed Key’s tour would instil new vitality into the bilateral relationship.

The Chinese President not only made sure New Zealand media were present for all of his reassuring opening remarks at the onset of the two leaders’ bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People, but he also welcomed Key and his officials “as family” to a rare private dinner.

Pretty good to be on such good terms with the President of our largest trading partner.

Key relates that Xi placed great store on his decision to go to China and offer explanations for the fiasco and the steps that our Government has taken to ensure there is no repeat. “You did the right thing by coming up,” Xi told Key. This move had “built trust” into the relationship.

The upshot was Xi’s decision to elevate the so-called apology tour into a full-scale official visit complete with a series of deliverables like announcing direct convertibility of the New Zealand dollar with the renminbi.

But Key’s biggest takeaway was securing a commitment from Xi to set a new joint goal of $30 billion for bilateral trade by 2020.

The significance of the commitment has possibly been under-sold.

From the NZ side, it is a statement of good intention. However the NZ Government has little influence on decisions made by individual NZ importers and exporters. They will go where the money is or goods are.

However in China, the Government has far more influence. When the Chinese President says he wants an extra $15 billion of trade with NZ in the next six years, then many Chinese companies will pay heed to that and NZ companies become preferred suppliers.

That statement by President Xi probably means more to NZ exporters than any domestic policy in NZ.

Here’s the thing: New Zealand exporters are scathing of the Opposition’s timing of the Oravida revelations. Beijing expats retain deep suspicions that in the first place, some “low-level” Foreign Affairs official leaked details of Cabinet minister Judith Collins’ off-schedule meetings with Stone Shi’s Oravida in October, and that the Opposition sat on the issue until the eve of the Prime Minister’s China trip to inflict maximum political damage while he was overseas.

Politics ahead of country. The issue is quite legitimate, but the timing was done to try and sabotage the visit. Fortunately for NZ exporters, they did not succeed.