New Zealand

I. Country Profile

New Zealand

New Zealand is a democratic country in which the members of the Parliament are chosen in free and fair elections. All citizens and permanent residents who are 18 years and over are eligible to vote in the elections.

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy. The Queen of New Zealand, Queen Elizabeth II, is the Head of State. The Queen's representative in this country is the Governor-General who has all the powers of the Queen in relation to New Zealand. However, both the Queen and the Governor-General remain politically neutral and do not get involved in the political contest.

The land is the most important resource of New Zealand. It is ideal for crop farming, dairy farming, and the raising of sheep and cattle, all of which predominate in the economy. Forest products are also important. Numerous mineral deposits are found throughout the main islands, including coal, gold, sand and gravel, limestone, clay, and dolomite. Large natural-gas fields are on North Island and off its southwestern coast. Deposits of uranium and thorium are believed to be present on the islands, because these minerals have been found in isolated boulders. There are many industries in New Zealand. The Chief Economic Products in New Zealand are:

Wool, barley, wheat, maize, oats, fruits and vegetables, meat and dairy products.

Radiate pine, Douglas fir, rimu and miro.

Red cool, orange roughy, snapper, hoki, tuna, barracuda, blue whiting, crayfish, lobsters, squid.

Coal, petroleum and natural gas, gold, iron ore, silica.

Meat and dairy products paper and paper products, chemicals, metal products, machinery, clothing, lumber, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, refined petroleum, and printed materials.

There are 3.5 million people in New Zealand. Most live in cities and only 15% live in rural areas, where they do, however, they have 50 million sheep for company. Three quarters of the population lives on the North Island, and almost a third lives in Auckland. The rest of the population (25%) lives in the South Island.

A majority of the New Zealand population is Christian. The primary denominations are Anglican (22 percent), Presbyterian (16 percent), and Roman Catholic (15 percent). Methodist, Baptist, and other Protestant denominations are also represented. Most of the Maori are members of the Ratana and Ringatu Christian sects. Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists constitute small minorities. About 21 percent profess no religious faith. However, they all seem to get along pretty well.

In the early 1990s the army, navy, and air force of New Zealand were coordinated under the ministry of defense. The army numbered about 4800 regular personnel. Regular navy personnel totaled about 2300. The air force had about 3700 regular members. Military service is voluntary. Recently, the government has agreed to fund major new defense purchases, which will provide new mobility, fire support and communications equipment for the New Zealand Defense Force. However, it doesn’t have a real need for this many defenses at this time, since it has very good relationships with its neighbors.

New Zealand is a self-governing country in the South Pacific Ocean, situated southeast of Australia. It comprises two large islands, North Island and South Island, and numerous smaller islands, including Stewart Island to the south of South Island. The area of New Zealand is 270,534 sq. km (104,453 sq. mi.).

New Zealand is a young country with plenty of room to grow. It lies in the South Pacific, as far south of the equator as California is north of it. Its neighborhood is not crowded, New Zealand is 1,200 miles east of Australia, 4,500 miles south of Hawaii, and surrounded by so much sea that the native Maori people believed a great hero had fished it from the ocean.

There are two main islands, the North and South Islands, separated by Cook Strait, a frequently turbulent passage 15 miles wide. From the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island New Zealand is 1200 miles long, but no point in the country is more than 70 miles from the coastline, which extends for more than 3,200 miles.

With the start of World War II in 1939, New Zealand imposed earnings and price controls and generally emphasized financial stability rather than social progress. New Zealand contributed a larger percentage of its population to the armed services than any of the Allies except Great Britain. The army saw service in Greece, Cyprus, North Africa, Italy, and the Pacific. The air force was active in all theaters. The casualties of New Zealand exceeded 11,600 dead and 15,700 wounded. New Zealand became a charter member of the United Nations (UN) in 1945. New Zealand by that is an independent country, however, it does follow Great Britain in most cases. New Zealand also has a good relationship with Australia.

New Zealand has signed many agreements recently, such as the Joint Declaration on relations between the European Union and New Zealand, signed on the 4^th of May, 1999. Agreements and prospective agreements include Science & Technology, Wine, Veterinary Inspection, Nuclear Safeguards, and Conformity Assessment.

Since 1984 the government has accomplished major economic restructuring, moving from a rough economy dependent on a granting British market access towards a more industrialized, free market economy that can compete globally. This means that it moved more to the left side. This dynamic growth has boosted real incomes, broadened and deepened the technological capabilities of the industrial sector, and contained inflationary pressures. Inflation remains among the lowest in the industrial world.

Per capita GDP has been moving up toward the levels of the big West European economies. New Zealand's heavy dependence on trade leaves its growth prospects unprotected to economic performance in Asia, Europe, and the US. The slump in demand in Asian markets largely explains the slight drop in GDP in 1998.

The inhabitants of New Zealand at the time of Tasman's visit were the Maori, who began settling the land in the early 9th century. They had come to North Island from other Pacific islands, the last shift came from Tahiti about AD 1350, in a fleet of large canoes. After that, the Maori spread out along the coast and the rivers on both the main islands, although they were more numerous on North Island.

In the late 18th and early 19th century British missionaries and whalers, despite fierce opposition from the Maori, established settlements and trading posts in New Zealand, chiefly among the Bay of Islands on North Island. Systematic immigration began in 1839 and 1840 under the means of the New Zealand Company, which had been organized in London.

After New Zealand banned nuclear vessels from its ports in 1984, the United States suspended in 1986 its defense obligations under terms of the ANZUS treaty. Separate defense agreements with Australia remain in force.

In 1993, in addition to voting on a new three-year government, New Zealanders approved such a vote to change the structure of the electoral system. After protracted debate in the government, a national referendum was held on whether New Zealand should retain its majority-vote electoral system or replace it with a system of proportional representation, or mixed-member proportional voting (MMP). About 53 percent of the voters favored a change from the existing system. The first election under MMP is scheduled to be held in 1996.

The results of the parliamentary election in 1993 were the closest of the 20th century. The initial outcome was a hung Parliament, where no party had an outright majority. The National Party, led by Bolger, gained 49 seats; the Labour Party, led by Moore, 45 seats; the Alliance Party, led by James Anderton, 2 seats; and the New Zealand First Party, led by Winston Peters, gained 2 seats in its first year of existence. Recounts of votes in marginal electorates allowed the National Party to emerge with 50 seats, a majority of 1 in Parliament. Soon after the narrow defeat of the Labour Party in the 1993 elections Helen Clarke replaced Moore as party head, becoming the first woman to lead a major political party in New Zealand.

Delegation: New Zealand

ISSUE:The Question of the Role of the UN Regarding Intervention in a State or a Region for Humanitarian Purposes.

While we come from a range of different countries it is important to affirm that we are united by the universality of human rights. Fundamental Human rights are the same all over the world, as Rosalyn Higgins perceptively observed.

" Individuals everywhere want the same essential things. To have sufficient food and shelter; to be able to speak freely, to practice there own religion or to abstain from religious belief; to feel that their person is not threatened by the state; to know that they will not be tortured, or detained without charge, and when the trial comes, they will have a fair trial."

The Preamble of the United Nations Charter requires member States to not only reaffirm their faith in fundamental human rights; but also to pronounce themselves determined "to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom".

Delegation: New Zealand

Delegate: Ghazi Al-Sharhan

ISSUE:The Question of Developing an International Legal Code to Deal With Criminal Activity on the Internet (WWW) such as hacking, pornography, viruses, etc.

The Internet is increasingly being used by businesses all over the world. This is especially relevant to New Zealand because the Internet helps overcome the barrier of remoteness from our markets and suppliers.

The Government's policy response so far has been to maintain an environment of competition, preventing a player from "capturing" any specific part of the New Zealand net.

Social Policy

The social policy impact relates to the content of the Internet. Since New Zealand has no land borders it has grown used to having the ability to control goods and information entering and leaving the country. While such control is liberal by international standards, the Customs Department can, for instance, seize pornography as it arrives. Internet erodes this ability which has led to calls for its regulation.

Most public Internet access services in New Zealand refuse to accept the alt-sex hierarchy. This does not guarantee that other news groups do not contain objectionable material. Also anyone with full Internet access can read material from news servers or ftp sites overseas.

In response to the calls for control of information access the options range from to requiring individual responsibility or to cutting off the Internet altogether. Obviously, the widespread commercial use of the net means that such an extreme measure would damage New Zealand's trading position.

Delegation: New Zealand

Delegate: Ghazi Al-Sharhan

ISSUE: Whether Palestine Should Have Full Voting Rights

New Zealand has long supported the United Nations in its efforts to make peace and will continue to do so. We have played a significant part in UN peacekeeping operations, not just in East Timor and Bougainvillea, but in countries as diverse as Sierra Leone, Bosnia, and in the Middle East. At present we have 907 Defense Force personnel deployed in thirteen separate peace support and mine action missions around the world. So, this shows that New Zealand is very aware of all the United Nations Rules.

As for the question of giving Palestine full voting rights, New Zealand strictly follows the rules of the United Nations. The rules of the United Nations state that in order for a country to have full voting rights it should be an independent and a recognized country. So, New Zealand is against giving Palestine full voting rights.

Delegation: New Zealand

Delegate: Ghazi Al-Sharhan

FORUM: General Assembly

QUESTION OF: Developing an International Legal Code to Deal With Criminal Activity on the Internet (WWW) such as hacking, pornography, viruses, etc.

Defining Criminal Activity on the Internet as any activity on the Internet that has caused harm to other Internet users, such as: hacking, viruses, pornography, etc.

Defining Hacking as getting into someone else's computer system without permission in order to find out information or do something illegal.

Deeply Concerned by the fact that there are no laws that protect the rights of people on the Internet.

Fully Alarmed by the criminal activity on the Internet, that has, until now, cost big companies and many people a total of hundreds of millions of dollars.

-Evidence # 1: hacking has become very widespread over the last decade.
A programmer had managed to hack into some top-secret government data.

Bearing in mind that if no country does anything to promote the criminal activity on the Internet, then the situation after a few years will be out of control and will be closest to a disaster.

Believing that pornography is a Criminal Activity on the Internet for the following reasons:

Realizing that viruses, in the past year, have caused chaos and losses up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

-Evidence # 1: As of 5:00 p.m. EDT(GMT-4) May 8, 2000, the CERT Coordination Center has received reports from more than 650 individual sites indicating more than 500,000 individual systems are affected with the "Love Bug" virus.

1. Proclaims that the Criminal Activity on the Internet is reaching a dangerous level.



2. Further Proclaims that countries should do something to cease and promote the Criminal Activity on the Internet.



3. Have Resolved to develop an International Legal Code to deal with Criminal Activity on the Internet. The details of the Code are:

1. If an individual(s) hacks into an ordinary P.C. and causes harm to it, then that individual(s) will spend 5 years in jail.
2. If an individual(s) hacks into a special P.C. (ex. The main P.C. of the U.S. Ministry of Defense) and causes harms to it, then that individual(s) will spend 20 years in jail.
3. If an individual(s) spreads a virus in 1,000 P.C. or less, then that individual(s) will spend 5 years in jail.
4. If an individual(s) spreads a virus in between 1,000 and 1,000,000, then that individual(s) will spend 10 years in jail.
5. If an individual(s) spreads a virus in 1,000,000 P.C. or more, then that individual(s) will spend 20 years in jail.
6. If an individual(s) owns or constructs a Pornography web-site, then the web-site will be destroyed or deleted and that individual(s) will have a choice of either paying $10,000 or spending 2 years in jail.

*Note: that all prison or jail punishments will be done by the police themselves in the country of the convict. Also, the same police group will do the conviction of the convict.

1. Calls Upon the countries that already lost a lot of money because of the Criminal Activity on the Internet, and reminds them that this code will save your money by preventing any of those Criminal activities from happening again.



2. Further Invites other countries that haven’t faced the problem of the Criminal Activity on the Internet yet, and assures them that this is their perfect chance for them to guarantee that they will never face that problem.








New Zealand’s Opening Speech

 

Delegate: Ghazi Al-Sharhan

Delegation: New Zealand

 

Honorable chairperson, respectful delegates, and helpful administration staff, good morning. From the heavens of the green islands, from the land of rugby fields. From the glory of its’ mountains, from its’ volcanic peaks. New Zealand, a self-governing country in the South Pacific Ocean, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, situated southeast of Australia. It comprises two large islands, North Island and South Island, and numerous smaller islands. The capital of the country is Wellington, while Auckland is the largest city. New Zealand is very concerned with the fact that there aren’t any laws that protect Internet users all around the world from the Criminal Activities on the Internet. These Criminal activities include hacking, pornography, and spreading viruses. So, New Zealand would like to support and if possibly present a well-detailed plan that suggests a perfect solution for this problem.

 

 

Statement of New Zealand Ambassador

I strongly believe that I represented New Zealand very well at CACMUN, of course taking into consideration that they were very BIASED in choosing the speakers. I believe that I did a very good job in merging my resolution with Rakans' Resolution and fixing it. I also believe that I had a major effect on the policies of other countries towards the resolution of Israel.

I accomplished that by passing a very large amount of notes and, by that, communicating with the delegates of other countries and making things go the way that WE always wanted. At CACMUN, BBS has made a historic move. It constructed the Highway on which other delegates of other schools were forced to ride. They were forced to ride on it because of the convincing tone of our schools' delegates, including me. That move was to change the base clauses of Israels' resolution and replace them with clauses that support Palestine, and at the end also vote against the resolution thinking that it's still not good enough. And that was what we did exactly, and we didn't stop at this point, but we extended it to make EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY IN THE GA follow our steps on this resolution. And New Zealand had a very effective part in all of this.