What’s it Like in Paradise?

“Even this self-consciously egalitarian society, which was first to give women the vote in 1893, is not immune to social and economic inequality,” writes Michael White for the Guardian. “What’s it like in paradise these days?” White asks. “There’s a row over the exemption of charter schools from freedom of information requests, another over perceived weakening of the country’s ‘clean, green’ environmental standards, so important to Hobbit-seeking tourists. The rising dollar – NZ is another of those elusive ‘safe havens’ for foreign savings – hurts exports and investment. ‘We can’t grow more agricultural land,’ one farmer reminded said. Overall … New Zealand is a much more outward-looking and sophisticated place than it was.”