New Zealand in 2012

New Zealand in 2012

Area: 270,692 sq km (104,515 sq mi)
Population (2012 est.): 4,439,000
Capital: Wellington
Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae
Head of government: Prime Minister John Key

Economic and earthquake recovery dominated the events of 2012 in New Zealand. The government was determined to halt a run of budgetary deficits by 2014–15. To achieve a budget surplus of NZ$197 million (NZ$1 = U.S.$0.85) by June 2015, Prime Minister John Key restated his government’s commitment to attaining public-sector savings of NZ$1 billion over the three years begun July 1, 2012. Finance Minister Bill English’s May budget projected new spending of only NZ$4.4 billion over the following four years. Most of it was earmarked for health, education, and welfare, but also included were NZ$385 million for research, science, and innovation. To curb public debt, Parliament enacted controversial legislation by a 61–60 vote authorizing the sale of 49% of four state-owned energy-generation companies to private investors. Challenged by Maori legal claims to water rights involved in the companies’ hydroelectric stations, the government deferred its first proposed share float until 2013.

In the central Christchurch earthquake zone, 1,350 buildings had been partly or fully demolished by the end of September. They included a 14-story office block imploded with the use of 63 kg (139 lb) of explosives—the first such demolition in New Zealand. The deconstruction of the city’s damaged Victorian-era Anglican cathedral was halted by a mid-November High Court decision in favour of the plaintiffs, a group (led by former deputy prime minister Jim Anderton) that initiated the proceedings on heritage grounds. Though earthquake aftershocks diminished sharply during 2012, official records showed more than 4,000 tremors exceeding magnitude 3 in the two years to September. In other seismic news, Mt. Tongariro, in the central North Island, erupted on August 6 for the first time since 1897. It spewed ash, rock, and steam, but no lives were lost.

Political fallout attended the attempted extradition by the U.S. of German-born Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom—a permanent resident in New Zealand since November 2010—on charges of copyright infringement in relation to his Megaupload Web site. The case was delayed by a government investigation into allegations that New Zealand security services had unlawfully spied on Dotcom.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced a relaxation of restrictions on New Zealand naval vessels visiting American ports. The restrictions had been introduced in 1985 after Prime Minister David Lange’s administration banned U.S. nuclear vessels from New Zealand ports. In April Defense Minister Jonathan Coleman assigned two additional staff members to the UN mission in Syria. New Zealand’s final six-month deployment of 150 troops for duty in Afghanistan was made in September; earlier, in August, five New Zealand soldiers had been killed in Bamiyan province.

In October the Daina Shipping Co. agreed to pay back up to NZ$38 million for cleanup costs incurred by the government after the company’s container vessel MV Rena ran aground off Tauranga (North Island) in 2011. Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said that by October 2012 actual costs had exceeded NZ$47 million.

New Zealand achieved its most successful Olympic Games since 1984, winning six gold, two silver, and five bronze medals in London. Following the disqualification of Nadzeya Ostapchuk, the Belarusian gold medalist in the women’s shot put, for drug use, the gold was awarded to the second-place finisher, New Zealand’s Valerie Adams, at a ceremony in Auckland in September. Among social issues were Labour MP Louisa Wall’s introduction in Parliament of legislation permitting same-sex marriages. Notable deaths included those of scientist Sir Paul Callaghan, internationally recognized for his work in molecular physics, and Sir Peter Tapsell, the first Maori to serve (1993–96) as speaker of the House of Representatives.