Update

Update

National Population Estimates, March 2005 Quarter

  • New Zealand's estimated resident population was 4.09 million at 31 March 2005.
  • Estimated population growth was 38,600 (1.0 percent) during the March 2005 year.
  • Natural increase and net migration gain contributed 28,600 and 10,000, respectively, to population growth during the March 2005 year.
  • The median ages for men and women were 34.5 and 36.3 years respectively.
  • Quarterly population growth was estimated to be 9,300 at 31 March 2005.

Thanks to Statistics NZ

National Ethnic Population Projections

The following Statistics NZ projections (out to 2021 and compared with 2001) are based on what they refer to as "Series 6". This is one of a series of models they use, and this one assumes medium fertility, mortality, net migration and inter-ethnic mobility) for each ethnic group:

  • New Zealand will have greater ethnic diversity in the future. The Maori, Asian and Pacific populations are all projected to increase their share of NZ's population.
  • New Zealand's European population is projected to reach 3.23 million by 2021, an increase of 150,000 or 5 percent over the estimated resident population at 30 June 2001 of 3.07 million.
  • New Zealand's Maori population is projected to reach 760,000 by 2021, an increase of 170,000 or 29 percent over the 2001 figure of 590,000.
  • New Zealand's Asian population is projected to reach 670,000 by 2021, an increase of 390,000 or 145 percent over the 2001 figure of 270,000.
  • New Zealand's Pacific population is projected to reach 420,000 by 2021, an increase of 160,000 or 59 percent over the 2001 figure of 260,000.

Thanks to Statistics NZ

R&D Reaches $1.6 Billion

Total research and development (R&D) expenditure in the 2004 reference period was $1.6 billion, according to the results of the Research and Development Survey 2004. R&D spending in the 2004 reference period comprised private sector expenditure of $648.1 million, government sector (excluding universities) expenditure of $498.4 million, and university expenditure of $454.8 million.

Although not directly comparable with 2002 data due to survey design changes, there has been an increase in total R&D expenditure of 13.1 percent between 2002 and 2004. This increase was largely due to an increase of 24.5 percent in private sector R&D spending. The government (excluding universities) sector increased by 8.4 percent, while the university sector increased by 4.4 percent.

Total R&D expenditure has grown to 1.17 percent of New Zealand's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004, which is a relatively low figure by international standards. Australia reported R&D expenditure as 1.62 percent of GDP in 2002, while the OECD average was 2.26 percent.

Thanks to Statistics NZ

National Climate Summary - April 2005

  • Rainfall: Rainfall was well below average (less than 25 percent of normal) throughout much of Northland, parts of Auckland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Nelson and central Marlborough. Totals were less than 50 percent of normal in Waikato, Taranaki, Marlborough, Buller, Westland and Fiordland. Rainfall was also below normal in the west of the North Island from Wanganui to Wellington as well as Ruapehu, Tongariro and coastal areas of both Southland and Otago. Rainfall was at least 125 percent of normal in scattered coastal areas of Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa and Central Otago.
  • Sunshine: Sunshine hours were at least 120 percent of average in parts of Northland, Auckland, Nelson, Westland, inland south Canterbury, Southland, and Otago. New April record totals occurred in Northland, Auckland, Nelson and Dunedin. It was also sunnier than average in most other regions. Hours of bright sunshine were near average in South Taranaki.
  • Temperature: Mean temperatures were above average in parts of Northland. However, they were below average throughout the lower North Island, as well as in Buller, north Westland, and eastern South Island regions from Marlborough to Southland. Mean temperatures were more than 1.0°C below average in parts of Horowhenua, Kapiti, Wairarapa, Marlborough, and inland Southland. Temperatures were near average elsewhere.
  • The Four Main Centres: Auckland was easily the warmest, sunniest and driest. Rainfall was below average in all four main centres. Temperatures were near average in Auckland and below average in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Sunshine hours were well above average in Auckland and Dunedin, and below average in the other main centres.

Thanks to NIWA

Seasonal Climate Outlook: May-July 2005 (Mild Start to Winter Likely)

Climate and Oceans: More westerlies and north westerlies than normal are expected over the country, with sea temperatures around NZ tending to be above average.

Temperature: Air temperatures are expected to be above average in all districts, with a decreased risk of frosts likely in many places for early winter.

Rainfall, Soil Moisture and Stream flows: Normal or above normal rainfalls are likely in western districts and the north of the South Island, with normal rainfall in the north of the North Island and east of the South Island, but tending towards below normal in the east of the North Island. Normal or below normal soil moisture levels and streamflows are expected in the north and east of the North Island. Normal soil moisture levels and streamflows are expected in the southwest of the North Island and over all the South Island.

Regional predictions for the next three months:

  • Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty: Above average temperatures are likely during May to July. Near normal rainfall is expected, with normal or below normal stream flows and soil moisture.
  • Central North Island, Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatu and Wellington: For May to July, above average temperatures are expected. Normal or above normal seasonal rainfall is likely, with normal soil moisture levels and streamflows.
  • Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa: Temperatures are forecast to be above average during May to July. Normal or below normal rainfall, soil moisture levels and streamflows are expected.
  • Nelson, Marlborough, Buller: Above average May to July temperatures are expected, with normal or above normal rainfalls. Normal soil moisture levels and streamflows are predicted for this region.
  • West Coast, Alps and Foothills, Inland Otago, Southland: Above average seasonal temperatures are forecast. Above normal or normal rainfall is predicted, with normal soil moisture levels and river flows.
  • Coastal Canterbury, East Otago: Above average seasonal temperatures are expected with normal rainfall, soil moisture levels and streamflows forecast.

Thanks to NIWA

Budget 2005: Clean Drinking Water

A government fund (Drinking Water Subsidy Fund) totalling $136.9 million (exclusive of GST) is to be established to help improve drinking water systems in NZ communities. The Fund will provide funding to councils and other water suppliers for technical advice and direct capital assistance with upgrading water systems. The new fund will set aside an average of $13.7 million (exclusive of GST) a year for 10 years. Local authorities and other water suppliers will be able to apply to it for help, and assistance will be determined by a set of criteria agreed with local authorities and water suppliers. Waterborne disease is estimated to cost the economy about $15 million a year.

Smokefree Support Rises

According to the most recent UMR Research survey, 70 percent of people support the smoking ban in pubs and bars. The survey also revealed 42 percent of smokers now support the ban, compared with 22 percent in the previous survey conducted in November. Support from non-smokers increased to 75 percent, up from 66 percent. Nationwide, only 195 complaints have been received since the smoking ban came into effect; 94 from licensed premises, 50 from workplaces, 29 from retail outlets and 22 from others (such as work vehicles and schools). Of these, 115 have been resolved and smokefree officers are working with the remaining establishments to ensure compliance.

Professional Property Investor Survey Results

According to the second annual NZPIF/ANZ Property Investors Survey (conducted in February), 68 percent of those surveyed said that they intended to make further investments in the coming year, with only 4 percent intending to reduce their property portfolio.

Another key finding is that property investors are more likely to invest for rental income than capital gains. Fifty-one percent of the investors surveyed said they had invested to access rental income, while 28 percent said they were investing mainly for capital gains. Single people are more likely to invest for capital gains, while married or de facto couples are more likely to invest for retirement or family reasons.

Other key findings included:

  • residential property is by far the most popular property investment - 98 percent of survey respondents own residential property, 14 percent own commercial property and 11 percent own rural property (some own a combination of several categories);
  • 78 percent invest only in residential property;
  • of the investors surveyed, 86 percent own more than one property, 53 percent own between two and five properties, and 33 percent own six or more properties;
  • 68 percent intend to make further investments in the coming year;
  • nearly seven out of every 10 investors surveyed own property worth more than $500,000 and four out of every 10 have property investments worth more than $1 million;
  • the proportion of equity held by property investors varies, but the equity is most commonly between 30 percent and 50 percent of the total value of properties owned;
  • the vast majority of investors do their own financial analysis of property investments (only a small proportion consults accountants or financial planners); and
  • magazines (88 percent) and newspapers (80 percent) are the most common sources of information for keeping up to date with the property market.

Source: NZ Property Investors Federation (NZPIF) Press Release

Budget 2005: Paid Parental Leave to Be Extended to Self-Employed

Legislation to extend paid parental leave scheme to the self-employed will be introduced to Parliament this year. If passed, it will come into force from 1 July 2006. Fourteen weeks paid parental leave will be available to self-employed mothers who have been working an average of 10 hours per week during the six months before the birth or date of adoption of a child (with the same right to transfer to their partners as applies for employees).

Payment would be at a rate equal to their average weekly income, up to a maximum consistent with that applying to employees (currently $346.63 per week). Self-employed people who make a loss or earn less than the minimum wage for a minimum of 10 hours per week (currently $95 per week) would be entitled to parental leave payments at a flat rate equivalent to 10 hours per week paid at the rate of the minimum wage.

Budget 2005: Health Becomes Lead Agency in Suicide Prevention

The shift from a youth to an all-ages suicide prevention strategy will see the Ministry of Health taking over administrative leadership for the government's suicide prevention initiatives from the Ministry of Youth Development. From 1 July, the Ministry of Health will become responsible for leading and coordinating suicide prevention initiatives, including current responsibility for the NZ Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy and the draft NZ Suicide Prevention Strategy.

Funding of $9.1 million (GST exclusive) over four years will be transferred to the Ministry of Health in order to continue to support existing suicide prevention activities and to develop new ones. Of this money, $1.8 million (GST exclusive) over four years is new money to lead and coordinate suicide prevention in NZ. Some funding will be retained by the Ministry of Youth Development to continue having a role in youth suicide prevention and to fund policy advice and other activities on youth suicide prevention.

Budget 2005: Services for Children Witnessing Family Violence

Twelve million dollars will be spent on services for children who witness family violence. The service will see up to 45 child advocates placed in community Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) around the country.

Child advocates will work with children who receive family violence services from both NGOs and government agencies. Their role will include:

  • education and awareness of the effects of family violence on children;
  • ensuring all agencies respond to the needs of the child;
  • advice and consultation with those working one-on-one with a child; and
  • specialist assessment and referral for individual children where necessary.

Budget 2005: More Cataract Operations

The government will spend an extra $17 million over the next three years in providing a total of up to 7500 more cataracts operations. Currently about 8000 such operations are performed a year, and the aim is to perform an extra 1050 operations in 2005/06, up to 2500 extra in 2006/07, and to reach an extra 4000 operations a year by 2007/08. By then it's planned to have 12,000 operations a year being performed.

To fund this, $2.67 million (all figures are GST exclusive) will be provided in 2005/06, rising to $5.78 million in 2006/07 and $8.71 million in 2007/08. Funding for the cataract project will be allocated to DHBs on a population basis. DHBs are expected to use their own facilities as the first option, those of neighbouring DHBs if more capacity is needed, and private facilities when required.

SAGES Funding Now Available Nation-Wide

Funding for the Older People as Home and Life Skills Mentors programme (also known as SAGES) will now be available nation-wide. SAGES involves older people providing one-on-one life and home skills to young families in need. SAGES volunteers provide information, encouragement, practical advice and support to families in areas such as budgeting, nutritious cooking, positive parenting and networking.

The initiative's first round of funding was available in Northland, Bay of Plenty, Manawatu-Wanganui and Otago. The next funding round will be open to groups throughout the country. Applications for the second round of SAGES funding will be available in May 2005. Application forms will be available on the Family and Community Services website (www.familyservices.govt.nz) in May and will close on 15 July 2005.

Added Detail: 2002 Carbon Tax Policy

The government recently gave further detail on its carbon tax policy, first announced in 2002. The carbon tax will be set at $15 per tonne and introduced in April 2007. As outlined in 2002, this will add around one cent to the cost of a unit of electricity, about 4 cents to a litre of petrol, 46 cents to a 9kg bottle of LPG and 68 cents to a 20kg bag of coal. The impact on the typical Kiwi household will total about $4 per week for electricity, petrol, and other fuels. It has been designed to allow for a future transition to emissions trading.

The carbon tax will not lead to an increase in government revenue. Net proceeds from the tax will be used for tax changes elsewhere. These will be announced as part of the business tax package in the budget.

Budget 2005: Carbon Tax Mitigation

The scale of the pilot grants, training and education package to help energy intensive small and medium size enterprises take up energy saving technologies to offset the impact of the carbon tax, were announced as a pre-budget release. Over the next three years, $4.45 million will be made available for the pilot programme. The package is being developed in partnership with representatives of energy intensive businesses. It will be rolled out from 1 July this year and will be monitored make sure that it's developed in a way that meets the needs of business.

Budget 2005: Core Conservation Work

The Department of Conservation is to receive a $24.6 million funding boost over four years in Budget 2005 to bolster its core work, such as saving the critically endangered kakapo. This will comprise $3.7 million in 2005/6 and $6.9 million a year thereafter.

Landsborough Station Purchased for National Park

The Nature Heritage Fund has purchased Landsborough Valley Station within the South West NZ/Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site in South Westland. The station encompasses 519 ha of freehold land and grazing rights over more than 1370 ha of valley flats. The valley contains natural and mixed grasslands, lowland forest on wide river flats, rising to join the main forest landscape of the Bealey Range. It is home to a population of the threatened mohua (yellowhead), regarded as important enough to be included as one of only 11 Operation Ark sites throughout the South Island.

Child Tax Rebate to be Raised

A doubling of the child tax rebate next April will reduce the number of children having to pay tax. The number of children required to pay tax will be reduced from next April when the child tax rebate is increased from $156 a year to $351. The change, which will be included in the next tax bill, will increase the amount of income, excluding interest and dividends, that a child can earn tax free from $1040 to $2340 a year.

International Education Value Exceeds $2 Billion

International Education was worth $2,187,822,000 in foreign exchange earnings to NZ during the 2003/04 year. Over the last eight years, the value of international education to NZ has gone up nearly 500 percent. It has tripled since the new millennium. However, ongoing information on new student approvals is giving everyone in the industry considerable food for thought. The growth of offshore student approvals peaked in September 2002, and has been dropping since then.

Changes to International Student Policy

Changes to immigration policy are aimed at making it easier for international students to work and study in NZ. The changes, which come into force from 4 July, are:

  • international students who have graduated from a course that would gain points under Skilled Migrant Category will be eligible for a six month open work permit;
  • the pool of students eligible to work part time while studying will be expanded to include Year 12 & 13 school students and some English language students, provided certain conditions, including English language standards, are met;
  • eligible students will be able to apply to work for up to 20 hours a week during term, instead of the current 15 hours;
  • anyone undertaking a course of 12 months or more will be able to apply to work full-time over the summer holidays; and
  • partners of students studying in areas of absolute skill shortage and partners of all postgraduate students will be able to apply for an open work permit valid for the duration of the student's course of study.

Lowering Doctoral Costs: International Students

The cost of study for new international doctoral students is being lowered to domestic fee levels. Also, the children of new international PhD students will be able to attend school without paying international student fees. These moves are aimed at increasing the attractiveness of NZ universities as research locations in the international student market, and will apply from the beginning of 2006.

Fewer School Suspensions This Year

The annual report on the stand-down and suspension of students reveals that there were 4774 school student suspensions last year, compared with 4885 suspension cases during 2003.

Suspension problems are concentrated in a small number of schools. Seventy-five percent of schools had no suspension cases in 2004, and less than 3 percent of schools were responsible for 43 percent of all suspensions. Most students returned to school after being suspended and 61 percent of them went back to the same school.

Meanwhile, student stand-downs from schools in 2004 have remained at the same rate as in 2003. Some 20,447 students (or just under 2.8 percent of the national school population) were stood down from schools last year.

The full report is available on the Ministry of Education's website at www.minedu@govt.nz

Budget 2005: ICT Package for Under-Fives

The new "Foundations for Discovery" framework aims to promote the use of ICT (information and communications technology) as a tool to strengthen the education young children receive. Sixteen million dollars, over the next 4 years, will be spent on the package. The use of ICT in early childhood education is not about computers for toddlers. It is about all the new technologies that are increasingly influencing our lives - from DVDs and interactive multimedia programs, to digital cameras and telephones, and how these can be used to support learning.

Budget 2005: Special Education

Funding for three areas of special education will be increased by $30.7 million over the next four years:

  • An increase of $16.9 million goes to Supplementary Learning Support to increase the number of students eligible for this funding from 1000 to 1500. These are students with high levels of need but who do not qualify for Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS) funding. They will now be provided with additional specialist support and specialist teacher time.
  • The second initiative is a $9.8 million increase in funding for teacher aides. This will help ensure that schools can meet the special needs of students receiving support through ORRS or Ministry of Education Special Education behaviour services, by meeting a greater proportion of the actual cost of employing teacher aides.
  • The third is $4 million to develop effective assessment for students with special education needs. This will provide teachers with more support in assessing the learning needs of children and young people with special education requirements.

Budget 2005: Student Tracking System

Every intermediate and secondary school in the country will access a new electronic student enrolment system by the end of term one 2006. From now on when a school enrols a student, or when a student leaves for another school, schools will fill in a single electronic form over the Internet. This central register of enrolment information will reduce the time taken to identify non-enrolling students. Students who have been out of school for more than 20 days will be quickly and accurately identified by the system as non-enrolled and will trigger an alert for the Ministry of Education and other services to begin tracing them. The cost; $4.8 million.

Budget 2005: More Money for Civil Defence

Extra funding ($21.5 million) will be spent on civil defence in the coming Budget. Of that, $15.4 million will be spent on increasing Civil Defence's emergency management capability over the next five years. Also $6.1 million is to be spent on national public education programmes for the first four years, to increase awareness and preparedness amongst individuals and communities.

Accelerating Small Business into E-Commerce Loop

Government is part funding a pilot e-commerce Accelerator Project (cost: $500,000). The pilot aims to get more small businesses into on-line marketing and exporting. The project will be managed by the E- Regions Trust*. The pilot will assist 30 small businesses who will receive: a website, technical support, high-speed Internet service, sales and marketing advice, e-commerce training and mentoring in order to develop international trade of their goods.

*E-regions is a non-government organisation established during the national rollout of high speed Internet and PROBE regional broadband.

Work-life Balance Initiative

Over the next three years $1.8 million is being spent on a project to help achieve work-life balance. The Department of Labour will work with participating public and private sector workplaces to identify the issues affecting work-life balance, develop practical tools for putting in place work-life balance initiatives and then evaluate the effectiveness of changes.

The organisations taking part include Feltex Carpets and IndeServe, as well as Child, Youth and Family, the Department of Labour, the Education Review Office, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Treasury. The issues and solutions could include working hours, flexible working arrangements, rostering, retention, training, and out-of-school childcare. This initiative also has the buy-in of a range of employer and employee groups including the EEO Trust, Council of Trade Unions, Business NZ, the Chamber of Commerce, the Hospitality Association, Roading NZ, and the Retailers Association.

New Work-Life Balance Resource

A recently launched Work-Life Balance resource aims to enable the government, as a large employer, to lead by example in the wider workplace. The resource has been produced by a joint team from departments, the Public Service Association (PSA) and the State Services Commission (SSC). It describes principles for putting in place work-life balance policies and offers a range of initiatives and solutions, as well as practical guidelines to achieve work-life balance. Although the resource is prepared primarily for government agencies, the content is relevant for private sector employers as well.

The resource is on the SSC website at: http://www.ssc.govt.nz/display/document.asp?DocID=4462

Online Shopping Booms - New Data

New figures show NZers are the third biggest online shoppers in the Asia Pacific region, and that online spending is growing rapidly. NZers spent almost 80 percent more buying products and services over the Internet on Visa cards than a year ago, according to recent Visa International figures.

Kiwis spent NZ$56.51 million in e-commerce sales using Visa cards in March 2005, up from NZ$31.51 million in March 2004. This puts NZ in third place of the region's biggest online spenders by total sales volume, behind the Japan and Australia, and ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore.

Online sales now represent 6.6 percent of all Visa transaction volume, up from 5.4 percent a year ago. The average ecommerce transaction value in NZ was NZ$159, up from NZ$141 the year before and ahead of the average transaction in the region, NZ$123.

The number of ecommerce transactions in NZ rose by 58 percent to 223,951 in March 2005 compared with the same month a year ago. By comparison, global ecommerce sales are up 42 percent compared with a year ago.

Tourism Expected to Increase

A study by the Pacific Asia Travel Association suggests the number of tourist arrivals in the Oceania region will grow by 7.83 percent for 2005/06. However, it predicts the average growth will decelerate, with tourist arrivals increasing by 6.67 percent in 2006/07.

Thanks to "NewsRoom"

NZ Tourism Flows Model under Development

A project to provide better information on tourist movements within NZ is under way. The Ministry of Tourism's NZ Tourism Flows Model, will map where and how international and domestic tourists move throughout NZ. The model will illustrate tourism trends and allow agencies to identify capacity constraints before they occur, hopefully enabling them to take quick action.

Economic Impact of Sporting Events: Study

The importance of smaller, regional sporting events to local economies is being studied by the NZ Tourism Research Institute. Three events have already been surveyed: the Kururau Krusher multisport race in Taumaranui, the Women's Special K triathalon in Taupo and the Arc 12 and 24 hour race in the Coromandel. The final race to be studied is the ASB Waiheke Challenge. It's hoped to come up with an economic modelling tool by the end of the year.

Thanks to NewsRoom

Company Fined for Woman's Work Stress

Nelson marine engineering firm Nalder & Biddle is the first company in NZ convicted for failing to provide a safe work environment, after an employee broke down from work-related stress. The firm admitted the charge, were fined $8000, and ordered to pay reparation of $1300 to the employee. It is the first prosecution of its type under the Health and Safety in Employment Act, for which the maximum fine is $250,000. OSH charged the company after the woman employee was diagnosed as suffering depression and hypertension as a result of work-related stress. An OSH spokesperson said the mental and physical harm the woman suffered was the direct result of work pressures and poor work organisation, which the company failed to deal with despite numerous complaints.

New Agresearch Animal Health Facility

The new facility, the Hopkirk Institute, will be built at the Turitea Campus of Massey University (Palmerston North). When finished (in around 18 months), the Institute will house about 70 research staff. Initially the Institute will focus on:

  • researching new solutions for the control of parasitic diseases;
  • evaluating new, more effective vaccines to combat infectious diseases; and
  • identifying and predicting the occurrence of food poisoning threats in NZ.

Global Information Technology Report 2004-2005

NZ has jumped two places in the world ICT rankings, according to the "Global Information Technology Report 2004-2005" released by the World Economic Forum. By overtaking Ireland and Korea, NZ is now placed 21st out of 104 countries, ahead of Belgium and 10 places behind Australia.

Singapore tops the rankings for the first time whereas the US has fallen from first place in the 2003-2004 report to be fifth. The report suggests that much of Singapore's superior performance is due to its government's consistent and continuous efforts in fostering ICT penetration and usage, as well as the quality of the country's education system and its ability to use foreign technology.

Nordic countries continue to perform well, with Iceland, Finland, Denmark and Sweden placed second, third, fourth and sixth respectively. Iceland experienced the greatest improvement among the top performers, moving from number 10 last year to number two.

The ranking is based on the Networked Readiness Index, which assesses each country's regulatory regime, infrastructure, and the uptake of ICT by government, individuals and businesses.

For more information go to the World Economic Forum website at http://www2.weforum.org

Budget 2005: Promoting Contemporary Music Exports

A total of $5.4 million will go to support export growth of the NZ music industry. The package comprises $2 million for the NZ Music Industry Commission and $3.4 million for NZ on Air. Over the next three years $444,000 per year will be provided to the NZ Music Industry Commission (NZMIC) to fund a music specific market development grants programme aimed at encouraging both domestic and international market growth. NZMIC will also receive additional funding of $178,000 per year, starting 1 July 2005, to undertake new domestic initiatives and to support artists to become "export ready". And, new funding of $850,000 a year will go to NZ On Air for its International NZ music airplay strategy.

Budget 2005: Film NZ

$578,000 for Film NZ for 2 years to help international production companies source NZ crew and resources.

Mapping the Spread of Humans

US researchers are hoping to build up a comprehensive picture of how early humans spread around the world. They plan to take samples from indigenous people at 10 sites, and 100,000 people across the globe, so they can map and compare DNA. The Genographic Project is a partnership between the computer giant IBM and the National Geographic Society. Team leader Dr Spencer Wells says the five-year project is "the Moon shot of anthropology".

Thanks to "NewsRoom"

What Australians Think

An opinion poll (on Australian foreign policy) published on 28 March 28 asked Australians to rank a list of 15 countries and regions by their "positive feelings". The highest rating country was NZ, which 94 percent of Australians felt positive about, followed by Britain, the EU and Japan. America came eleventh, at 58 percent, just behind Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. Only Indonesia, the Middle East, Iran and Iraq rated worse.

  • asked whether they were "very worried" or "fairly worried" about 10 potential threats from the outside world, those worries rated, in order: unfriendly countries developing nuclear weapons (71 percent); global warming (66 percent); international terrorism (63 percent); international disease epidemics (61 percent); US foreign policies (57 percent); Islamic fundamentalism (57 percent); world population growth (46 percent); illegal immigration and refugees (44 percent); failing countries in our region (46 percent); and China's growing power (35 percent).

The poll was conducted for Sydney-based foreign-policy think-tank, the Lowy Institute. The survey results can be downloaded from http://www.lowyinstitute.org/

The 2005 Time 100

Each year, "Time" magazine comes up with its list of most 100 influential people of the year (albeit tailored for a US audience).

  • Leaders and Revolutionaries: Warriors and peacemakers, dictators and democrats, terrorists and holy men-these are the men and women with the clout and power to change our world. George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Frist, Donald Rumsfeld, Mark Malloch Brown, Gordon Brown, Ali Husaini Sistani, Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, Hu Jintao, Kim Jong Il, Manmohan Singh, Thabo Mbeki, Benedict XVI, Mahmoud Abbas, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ariel Sharon, Javier Solana, John Howard, Chen Shui-bian, Hugo Chavez.
  • Heroes and Icons: They righted the wrongs, played through the pain, offered spiritual solace or simply inspired us with their remarkable talents. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, LeBron James, Eliot Spitzer, Melissa Etheridge, The Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Viktor Yushchenko, Dina Astita, Hania Mufti, Wangari Maathai, Mary Robinson, Lubna Olayan, Ellen MacArthur, John Stott, Michael Schumacher, Stephen Lewis.
  • Scientists and Thinkers: Whether to conquer space or remake the political world, they have come up with the big ideas of our time. Jeffrey Sachs, Malcolm Gladwel, Robert Klein, Andrew Weil, Burt Rutan, Karl Rove, Rick Warren, Brian Atwater, Mitchell Baker, Timothy Garton Ash, Natan Sharansky, Abdolkarim Soroush, Peter Singer, Richard Pound, Lee Kuan Yew, Larry Summers.
  • Builders and Titans: Hot gadgets, cool sales techniques and sheer brashness make these business brains the world's most influential. Steve Jobs, The Google Guys, Lee Scott, Meg Whitman, Martha Stewart, Craig Newmark, Jay-Z, Amy Domini, Reed Hastings, Bram Cohen, Martin Sorrell, John Bond, Howard Stringer, Katsuaki Watanabe, Noël Forgeard, Anne Lauvergeon, Ren Zhengfei, Lee Kun Hee, Roman Abramovich, The BlackBerry Guys, Rupert Murdoch.
  • Artists and Entertainers: Whether inspired by boxing or Bush, comedy or kung fu, this diverse group of stars has won fans and spawned imitators around the world. Clint Eastwood, Michael Moore, Hilary Swank, Quentin Tarantino, Dan Brown, Dave Eggers, Marc Cherry, John Elderfield, Kanye West, Jon Stewart, Alicia Keys, Jamie Foxx, Johnny Depp, Art Spiegelman, The Halo Team, Ann Coulter, Hayao Miyazaki, Ziyi Zhang, Juanes, Miuccia Prada, Marc Newson, Santiago Calatrava, Alice Munro, Cornelia Funke.

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