“We have such a strong contingent of children’s artists in New Zealand.” Bush won the award with multi instrumentalists Victoria and Andrew Knopp, who have their own indie pop project The Response. “They take the song I write and make them fly.”
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Christchurch-based Michal Bush writes and performs children s songs as Music with Michal. Bush began writing children’s songs in 2012 after the birth of her first daughter, Harper. “I started writing lullabies, trying desperately to get her to sleep.” Bush first performed in duo Petite Music Box, then began performing as Music with Michal in 2019. She now had three daughters who sang in her songs too and “inspire everything I do”.
New Zealand slams China s treatment of Uyghurs, stops short of calling it genocide
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern s Labour Party has watered down a parliamentary proposal to accuse China of genocide. The Pacific nation has taken a softer stance than the US and UK.
China is New Zealand s biggest trading partner
New Zealand s parliament unanimously voted to name China s treatment of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province as severe human rights abuses on Wednesday, but shied away from the term genocide put forward by the opposition.
All parties supported the motion put forward by a small opposition party, but the original designation of genocide was replaced with the phrase severe human rights abuses following an objection from Prime Minister Jacinda Arden s ruling Labour Party.
Hi Russell,
Thank you for your interest in our piece. The commentary, published yesterday in Drug & Alcohol Review, discussed some of the social, political and campaign factors that may explain the outcome, with international academic audience in mind. We have endeavoured to present the evidence in a balanced way and that has meant we have been criticised by interest groups from both sides of the debate. It’s our job to present the evidence and analysis, not advocate for one side or the other. We asserted that Prime Minister Jacinda Arden’s decision not to reveal her voting preference before the vote may have been decisive based on her effectiveness as a political communicator and broad popularity with middle New Zealand conservative voters. We believe Jacinda Arden’s communication skills and popularity are self-evident and so we didn’t provide any reference to back that up (although there are numerous political opinion poll results you could refer to). Incidentally, we are