New Zealand

Signed on 8 September 2021, the PASO Support Programme is a five-year New Zealand Aid Programme partnership which provides PASO’s 10 Pacific Island Member States with continued strategic capacity support to improve their international aviation safety and security compliance.

New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), Deputy Secretary, Pacific and Development Group, Mr. Jonathan Kings said ultimately improving Pacific aviation safety and security means better connectivity for Pacific people and enables sustainable regional economic development and prosperity.

A number of the highest vaccination rates among Pasifika are in densely-populated areas like South Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

In the South Auckland area, some suburbs with a population of more than 2,000 Pasifika, saw vaccination rates for the first dose in the early 70s.

This included Sutton Park (72 per cent), Clover Park North (71 per cent) and Otara East, Mangere Mascot and Mangere Central (all at 70 per cent).

Consultation has begun on the Pacific Languages Strategy which is aimed at increasing the use of Pacific languages in New Zealand.

Minister for Pacific People's Aupito William Sio said the strategy will allow for more effective leadership and co-ordination across government and supporting communities to drive language revitalisation.

Aupito said unfortunately fewer people are using Pacific languages than they did a couple of decades ago.

He said this strategy celebrates the value of languages and everyone is invited to have their say not just Pacific people.

Ardern announced the changes for people who may need to cross the Auckland boundary at today's media briefing on the Delta outbreak.

There are eight new cases of Covid-19 in the community today and four in managed isolation.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield also spoke at the briefing.

Ardern says from 11.59pm tonight, people will be able to leave Auckland into a level 2 environment if they:

In a statement the Health Ministry said there are now a total of 1177 community cases associated with the latest outbreak of the Delta variant of the virus.

All of the latest cases were identified in Auckland.

The ministry said one of today's community cases had previously been under investigation and is now confirmed and linked to the current outbreak. "The case has now recovered. The case spent 14 days in a quarantine facility along with household members who also tested positive for Covid-19."

The men were charged with breaching the country's tough COVID-19 rules.

Under Auckland's strict Level 4 lockdown, all restaurants, including take-away services, remain closed.

Police said the men, aged 23 and 30, had travelled from Hamilton, about 75 miles south of Auckland.

A police spokesperson told the BBC that officers made the arrest after they noticed a suspicious looking vehicle travelling on a gravel road on the outskirts of the city.

Greenpeace Aotearoa made the criticism after the vote at the International Union for Conservation of Nature's World Congress last week.

The motion received support from most countries, but Greenpeace Aotearoa seabed mining campaigner James Hita said New Zealand's government continued to fall behind the rest of the world in preserving oceans.

Delegates at this year's congress also voted overwhelmingly for reform of the International Seabed Authority, the UN-mandated body tasked with regulating this activity

The first drive-through event which coincides with Tonga Language week - runs from 8.30am-4pm, Thursday to Saturday at the Free Wesleyan Church Of Tonga.

As of this week, 56 percent of the eligible Pacific population 12+ years have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Pacific Response Co-ordination Team chair Pakilau Manase Lua said Tonga is a proud nation with community spirit and hopes to capture 12-30 year-olds who are yet to be vaccinated.

Geonet says the quake was centred 5km north of the town at a depth of 36km.

It occurred just before 5pm (local time).

Within 15 minutes more than 6000 people had registered their ratings of the quake on the Geonet website.

The All Blacks had chosen not to travel to Perth due to the uncertainty surrounding the Rugby Championship, a decision Rugby Australia described as "unilateral", with boss Andy Marinos essentially accusing his New Zealand Rugby counterpart Mark Robinson of deceit.

"It's incredibly disappointing to be informed of this decision via the media, despite having a conversation with the CEO moments before and there no mention that this was the intention," Marinos said in a statement after NZ Rugby announced it would not travel for the August 28 fixture.