World football’s ruling body has the final say on where the final will be played.AFP
Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) President Rafael Louzan has said that Spain will stage the final of the 2030 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
Morocco wants to stage the game in Casablanca at the Grand Stade Hassan II, a huge stadium currently under construction north of the city.
“Spain has proven its organisational capacity over many years. It will be the leader of the 2030 World Cup and the final of that World Cup will be held here,” Louzan said late on Monday (local time) at an event organised by the Madrid Sports Press Association.
Louzan did not say whether the match would be played at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu or Barcelona’s Camp Nou, the two leading candidates.
Once completed in late 2028, the new stadium in Morocco is expected to hold 115,000 spectators. Morocco’s Royal Football Federation (FRMF) President Faouzi Lekjaa last year expressed his wish to see a final against Spain in Casablanca.
That match, which Senegal won 1-0, was overshadowed by fan disruptions and player protests that temporarily halted play.
“Morocco is really undergoing a transformation in every sense, with magnificent stadiums,” Louzan said.
“We must recognise what has been done well. But in the Africa Cup of Nations, we have seen scenes that damage the image of world football.”
FIFA and the Portuguese and Moroccan football federations have not responded to requests for comment on the final’s location.
FIFA told Reuters last year it was premature to decide the venue for the 2030 final, saying the host city for the 2026 World Cup final was revealed only two years before the tournament.
World football’s ruling body has the final say on where the match will be played.
-Reuters
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor of Physical Geography (Climate Science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
It has been a month of umbrellas rather than sunscreen across much of New Zealand, with persistent rain, low sunshine and deadly storms dominating headlines and daily life.
For many people, it has felt like midsummer never really arrived. Is it simply bad luck, or is there something more going on?
As with most aspects of our climate and weather, the answer isn’t straightforward. It reflects the interplay between New Zealand’s geography, warmer-than-average ocean temperatures, large-scale regional climate patterns and long-term global warming.
What the data shows – and why it’s been so wet
Climate observations back up what many New Zealanders have been feeling this month. Across northern regions in particular, sunshine hours have been well below average, while rainfall totals have been far above normal.
In central Auckland, a weather station in Albert Park had recorded around 244mm by January 27 – nearly three times the (1981–2010) average for the month. At Mount Maunganui, the month-to-date total had climbed to roughly 385mm, more than four times the norm.
The left map shows the 1991–2020 average for January rainfall across New Zealand. The right shows how much wetter than normal conditions have been this month, particularly across the upper North Island. Earth Sciences New Zealand, CC BY-NC-ND
Similar patterns have been seen in many parts of the upper North Island, with repeated heavy rain events, high humidity and prolonged cloudy spells. The result has often been soggy soils, swollen rivers and increased risks of flooding and landslides.
While each storm that affects New Zealand is different, many of the systems visiting the country this summer share some common features. Several have originated in the tropics, subtropics or the north Tasman Sea before drifting south toward New Zealand. These systems typically carry warm, moisture-laden air – and the potential for intense rainfall.
When these moist air masses interact with cooler air from the south, or encounter New Zealand’s rugged topography, conditions become ripe for heavy rain.
As air is forced upwards over hills and mountain ranges – particularly along the Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, East Cape and Gisborne regions – moisture condenses rapidly, producing very high rainfall totals. This is why northern and eastern parts of the country so often bear the brunt of these subtropical events.
The regional patterns loading the dice
One background factor this summer has been the lingering influence of La Niña, part of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) system that dominates climate variability across the Pacific.
During La Niña, atmospheric pressure tends to be lower than normal over Australia and the north Tasman Sea, and higher than normal to the south and east of New Zealand. This effectively flips our usual weather pattern on its head, reducing westerly winds and increasing the frequency of easterly and northeasterly flows.
Those northeasterly winds draw warm, humid air from the subtropics toward New Zealand. Because our temperatures are highly sensitive to wind direction, even small shifts can have large effects.
La Niña also tends to be associated with warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures, which have again been observed around New Zealand. So, when northeasterly winds blow across these warmer waters, they pick up additional heat and moisture, further fuelling heavy rainfall potential.
Another background driver that constantly shapes New Zealand’s weather and climate is the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), which describes the north–south movement of the westerly wind belt that circles Antarctica.
A positive SAM phase, which has dominated much of this summer, tends to bring higher pressures over the South Island and southern New Zealand. This allows storms from the subtropics more room to drift south and linger near the North Island.
As the planet heats, the atmosphere can hold more moisture – about 7% more water vapour for every 1°C of warming. This means that when storms do develop, they have more fuel available, increasing the potential for heavier rainfall and stronger winds.
Climate change does not cause individual weather systems, nor does it directly control large-scale climate patterns like ENSO or the SAM. But it acts as a powerful intensifier.
Event-attribution studies in New Zealand to date have shown climate change can increase the total rainfall from intense storms by around 10–20%.
But for the most intense downpours – when the atmospheric “sponge” is wrung out most vigorously – rainfall intensities can increase by as much as 30%, depending on the frame of time being looked at. These short, extreme bursts of rain are often what cause the greatest damage.
There are still important uncertainties. Scientists are actively researching whether climate change will alter the frequency or strength of La Niña and El Niño events, but so far there is no clear answer. The same is true for long-term trends in the Southern Annular Mode.
What we can say with confidence is that background warming is shifting the risk profile.
As global temperatures continue to rise, the kinds of extremes we’ve experienced this season are likely to become more common. The biggest unanswered question is how quickly we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit how severe these impacts ultimately become.
James Renwick receives funding from MBIE and the Marsden Fund for climate research.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri WaititiRNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi says the government’s $1 million to reimburse marae that provided welfare in response to severe weather events is “not enough”.
He said, “We don’t need money for a response, we need money for resilience, and our communities need it right now.”
The first day back at Parliament saw parties responding to the government’s announcement on Tuesday it would top up the Mayoral Relief Funds with $1.2m for immediate support to those communities affected, alongside $1m for marae.
Christopher Luxon praised support from marae as “exceptional”.
“They have provided shelter, food and care to people in need, and I cannot speak more highly of them.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said Te Puni Kokiri would coordinate with NEMA on distributing funds to marae, “often Te Puni Kokiri are the ones with the relationships on the ground”.
“But of course, in all of these responses, it’s a matter for council, marae and emergency response to work together.”
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell also praised marae, saying they had stood up and provided support at “just about every event that I’ve been to”.
He said his emergency management bill that was in the house at the moment “actually formally codifies them having a seat at the table, because they are very good at emergency management”.
Luxon went on to say he and Mitchell had the privilege of visiting some of the marae in Northland over the weekend.
“I came away feeling incredibly proud and humbled by the manaakitanga shown by everyone there,” said Luxon.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at He Maimai Aroha on Monday after the Mount Maunganui landslide.RNZ/Nick Monro
But Waititi said it was “nice to be proud and humbled by it when you just visit for five minutes”, but those communities had “quite often” had to face severe weather and climate issues without plans to “build resilience”.
“It’s our little communities that are hit first.
“We’re the first to respond, but we’re the last to be given any type of resources,” Waititi said. He wanted the Prime Minister to reconsider “giving the right resourcing to the right communities”.
The recovery period would take “months and months and months” he said, “but we’re sick of response”.
“This has happened before. This is not an unprecedented issue anymore. It’s not one in 100 years. This is not once in a lifetime. These events are happening every year. We’re having these conversations every year.”
He pointed to Te Tai Rawhiti who were having to rebuild roads “all the time”, and marae there who had to respond all the time.
“But they’re responding on the smell of an oily rag.”
He acknowledged those who had lost their lives, “but how many more lives must we lose before we start looking at plans of resilience and not response?”
NZ First leader Winston Peters said Waititi had got up and “made a fool of himself”.
He said NZ First had given the most money to marae upgrades “because we know they’re sustainable institutions” and they demonstrated that during Covid-19 and the current crisis.
NZ First leader Winston Peters spoke at Rātana last week.RNZ / Pokere Paewai
His deputy leader Shane Jones brushed off questions about whether climate change was linked to last week’s storms.
Jones said he was not interested in a debate on climate politics but he was all about adaptation.
He had this response when asked if climate change played a part, “no – the volatility of the weather is something we must not take for granted, but taxing cows as they belch and emit from the rear end is something I’m totally disinterested in.”
Jones said he was the minister that found $200m for stopbanks from the Regional Infrastructure fund.
Labour’s Chris Hipkins also said marae should be valued “day in, day out, year round” not only in “times of tragedy”.
“Marae do amazing work when New Zealand’s faced with tragedy, when we’re faced with adverse situations.
“They throw their doors open. They welcome everybody.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Hipkins was broadly supportive of the government’s initial funding support, saying it was “clearly a start”.
“I recall when cyclone Gabrielle hit initial sums of money looked quite modest, and then we had to build from there.”
He didn’t want to rush and criticise the amount, “because it will take some time to identify exactly what support for rebuild and clean up is required”.
Luxon had outlined this during the post-cabinet media conference on Tuesday when announcing the package.
“The top up of Mayoral funds, which is a very tactical, practical, immediate piece of funding, that is not the ‘be all and end all’ here.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis echoed this, saying the Mayoral Relief Fund was a “drop in the ocean”.
“Tthat’s just putting cash in local bank accounts to ensure that voluntary efforts aren’t stopped for lack of resource.”
Nicola Willis at the National Party caucus retreat on 21 January 2026.RNZ / Nathan McKinnon
Luxon indicated it was too early to say how much the total cost of recovery would be, but Gisborne District Mayor Rehette Stoltz told Checkpoint on Tuesday she estimated the damage caused to her region alone during last week’s storms will cost some $21.5 million to fix.
Willis said there was “hundreds of millions of dollars available across government for responding to this event”.
She gave the government policy statement on transport as an example, which specifically allocated funds for the rebuild of roads following natural disasters. There was $400m available for the rebuild of state highways and more then $300m for local roads.
The Greens also criticised the government’s $1.2m, questioning why the government had not implemented Civil Defense Payments, which was immediate relief and available under current legislation.
The Greens co-leader Chloe Swarbrick said the government was not doing enough – especially when it came to long term challenges.
She said the government had “knowingly and intentionally made decisions to make climate change worse”.
Greens co-leader Chloe Swarbrick.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
“Climate change is not only devastating in terms of the loss of life that we see, but also in terms of exacerbating the cost of living crisis – so no, the government is not doing enough.”
The ACT leader said he was more in favour of climate funding going toward adaptation rather than mitigation.
David Seymour noted the government had spent “around a billion dollars on climate change adaptation”. He said the government had done deregulation work making it easier to “raise roads, to build drainage, to ensure that these things are less likely to happen”.
ACT leader David Seymour.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
“So are we there yet? Clearly not remotely close,” he said.
“But the government has done a major pivot away from really quite futile efforts to reduce global emissions towards practical improvements to what is on the ground in New Zealand.”
He said he didn’t want to “further politicise it” by pointing out who he thought was politicising it.
Hipkins said in response to whether mitigation or adaptation should be the focus, “we need to be able to do both”.
“The reality here is that without mitigation, the amount of money that we’d need to spend on adaptation would be unaffordable.”
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Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Paul Goldsmith at the National Party caucus retreat, 21 January 2026..RNZ / Nathan McKinnon
Ngāpuhi leaders are calling on the government to pause its Treaty settlement mandate process in Te Tai Tokerau, describing it as “divisive” and against the collective interests of hapū.
Ngāpuhi kaumātua and kuia say the process is moving too quickly and is not allowing enough time for hapū to reach collective decisions in line with tikanga.
Frances Goulton, a Ngāti Ruamahue kuia, said the mandate approach was causing harm within communities and reopening old wounds.
“This mandate process is driving wedges between our people,” she said.
“We’ve been here before with Tūhoronuku, and we rejected it then for good reason. It ignores our tikanga and pressures whānau and hapū to fall into line rather than taking the time to build real agreement. That is not the Ngāpuhi way.”
The Crown previously recognised Tūhoronuku as the mandated body to negotiate a Ngāpuhi settlement, but the model was widely opposed and later disbanded following legal challenges and hapū resistance.
Mike Smith, Tahawai kaumātua, said the current process mirrors that earlier approach.
“The Crown wants us to voluntarily extinguish our rangatiratanga now and into the future, that’s what this so-called settlement process is really about,” he told RNZ.
Smith said the historical context is critical to understanding the current tensions.
“Ngāpuhi has proved to be a rather tough nut to crack for the Crown in terms of a settlement. The Waitangi Tribunal two years ago ruled in our favour, confirming we have never surrendered our rangatiratanga authority,” he said.
“Yet the Crown embarked upon a tortuous 10-year process, Tūhoronuku, trying to cajole and manipulate tribes in the north into these extinguishing deals. We refused, and that process collapsed. It divided communities and caused acrimony.”
Now the Crown has returned with a new process, Smith said, seeking negotiators to sit across the table to finalise the settlement of treaty claims.
“They haven’t satisfied their own legal requirements to have a robust decision, but they’re still pushing forward with it.”
He described the current process as “fraudulent” and warned it risks dividing communities.
“People are jockeying for positions about who’s going to be the negotiators. But it doesn’t matter who the negotiators are going to be. You’re still not going to get anything,” he said.
“There’s very little around the edges to negotiate. What you really effectively want is some people who are going to sign the deal. That’s what you want. There’s no negotiation.”
Once agreements are signed, a post-settlement governance entity (PSGE) appointed by the Crown would receive any financial and commercial resources, leaving claimants and negotiators with little influence, Smith said.
“A lot of them have put their whole lives – it’s been a 50-year process. Many of the claimants have died, never seen the resolution of their claims. Their hapū, their whānau have endeavoured to carry that on,” he said.
“Now that it’s moving into this phase where the claimants are just shunted off over the horizon, many of them are trying to stay relevant in the game.”
Smith said the current process undermines tikanga and Māori unity.
“Ngāpuhi have consistently made clear that unity cannot be imposed. Settlement achieved through division, coercion, or exhaustion is not reconciliation – it is destabilisation,” he said.
He also criticised the lack of engagement from those facilitating the government’s process.
“We’ve recurrently requested all documentation to show evidence of engagement because they’re meant to be meeting with our people to convince them, but they haven’t,” Smith said.
“They’ve spent the last 12 months just having meetings with the Crown. So they’re not engaging with us. They’re engaging with the government, which is not a neutral process.”
Smith said the mandate process reflects broader political challenges facing Māori.
“We know that there’s a war on Māori. There’s a war on the Treaty. There’s a war on the environment,” he said.
He also questioned whether now was an appropriate time to negotiate with the current government.
“If we were going to settle with the government, do you think we ought to be settling with this government?” he said.
“They’d be the last ones to afford us any emoticon of justice.”
“Dark clouds loom over Waitangi”
As Waitangi Day approaches, Smith said Ngāpuhi are focussed on commemorating the vision of their tūpuna rather than celebrating government initiatives.
“If we had been getting things right, or at least moving in that direction, it would be a cause for celebration. But nobody up here is celebrating Waitangi,” he said.
“By continuing on its current path, the government risks entrenching conflict and doing lasting damage to relationships within Ngāpuhi and between Māori and the Crown.”
Smith said they are calling for a pause to the mandate process to allow whānau and hapū the time for genuine discussion and tikanga-based decision-making.
“Consent must be freely given and informed. Not manufactured through pressure, deadlines, or by treating silence as agreement,” Smith said.
“We want Treaty justice. We don’t want Treaty extinguishment, and that’s what we’re getting. We’re not getting the justice bit. We’re getting the extinguishment bit. Who does that suit? That suits the government. That doesn’t suit us.”
Smith said the current trajectory undermines decades of work and risks perpetuating grievances across generations.
“The light at the end of the tunnel is the Treaty extinguishment train, and it’s pulling into the station, and it’s just going to mow people down,” he said.
“It’s not only going to deprive the claimants and have no return to them. It’s a really abusive process, and it only benefits the government.”
Minister responds
Speaking to Media on Tuesday, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Paul Goldsmith said that when talking about a potential Ngāpuhi settlement, there is no surprise “there’s a wide variety of views.”
“Some who are implacably opposed to settling ever, and some who are fully in support.” he said.
“We’re just working our way through the process as carefully and constructively as we can.”
Goldsmith said as it stands, there are currently three or four different groupings across the North who are working their way through that process.
“We’re hoping to have more starting in the next little while. We’re seeing some momentum, so that’s good.”
However, Smith rejected this framing, arguing that it ignores hapū concerns and historical grievances.
“We’re not opposing settlement. We’re opposing extinguishment,” he said.
“We haven’t met anybody who said they don’t want to settle ever. We’re saying taihoa, just hang on a minute, put the brakes on. We need an independent review of what the government is doing so that we can hold that up to some type of standard.”
Smith said Ngāpuhi leaders will continue to advocate for processes that respect hapū autonomy and uphold the spirit and intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
“Ngāpuhi deserves a process that builds unity, respects hapū autonomy, and upholds the Treaty,” Smith said.
“Not another failed mandate imposed in the name of expediency.”
RNZ has approached the Minister for further comment.
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Braydon Ennor arrived in Christchurch as an 18 year old, and spent the next decade establishing himself as one of the club’s most reliable midfielders.John Davidson / www.photosport.nz
Crusaders utility Braydon Ennor will move to France at the end of the Super Rugby season.
The nine-test All Black has signed with French side Perpignan, where he will link up with former Crusaders team-mate Sevu Reece.
Ennor said the decision came with a lot of emotions.
“I love this place and the people here, but I’m really excited for what’s next. I’ve done so much growing in this place, and I owe so much to the red and black jersey. I’ll always call this place home.”
Ennor joined the Crusaders Academy in 2015 after moving from Auckland on a scholarship.
He arrived in Christchurch as an 18 year old, and spent the next decade establishing himself as one of the club’s most reliable midfielders.
In 2018, he made his Crusaders debut and just one year later he would earn All Black selection.
“To be able to call this a job and turning up to Rugby Park every week with my mates to go to work, it’s the best thing in the world. This is a chapter I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.”
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Since December, three Hutt Valley bars have been targeted in similar ways and police say the crimes may be linked.
Police said in each robbery the offenders used weapons, including a firearm, to demand money and other items.
For the Hardware Bar & Restaurant in Stokes Valley, it made for a rough start to the year when it was targeted on New Years Day.
Duty manager Mohammad Usama said because of the public holiday, it was a quiet night and it was the only place that was open.
He said his colleague was the one to close the bar.
He said a man was “hiding himself in the bush” across the road waiting for his colleague to exit the building.
Usama said he was however on the phone with his colleague at the time as they were taking precautions after an earlier robbery, and the Police were quickly called.
He said his colleague did however experience some anxiety following the robbery.
Duty manager Harmony Weherua said an offender was also waiting in the bushes as her colleague exited the building.
“He was pretty shaken up.”
She said it also made some other staff nervous.
Weherua said they were also in quite an isolated area, with rest homes on both sides.
She said staff now were continually looking out the windows.
They had also increased the number of staff at closing.
“We always make sure there’s two staff on now, ’till we all leave. Sometimes there’s four of us as well as the cook.”
The most recent robbery was at 7 Bar & Restaurant, just over two weeks ago.
Police said two people entered the bar with weapons, including a gun, and threatened employees.
After making various demands, the offenders then fled in a stolen vehicle which was later located on a nearby street.
7 Bar & Restaurant declined to comment.
Neighbouring Blend Bar & Bistro, which shared a back exit with the bar was also open that night.
Duty manager Faye Biascan said the robbery had made a lot of staff there nervous.
“We’ve been more tight with the security,” she said. “Like going outside, we always have to have someone else come with us. It’s been very scary.”
Upper Hutt mayor Peri Zee.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Last week Upper Hutt City Council held a community meeting alongside Police, where the community was able to talk through some areas of concern.
Upper Hutt mayor Peri Zee said the community indicated it would like to see more cameras around the city. She said that could be considered in upcoming budgets and planning.
“The police are doing a really good job,” she said. “We also have an awesome local community patrol who are well resourced with volunteers as well. So there’s lots of people working on this together.”
Meanwhile Police have released images of a ‘Nike Academy’ sweatshirt with distinctive white stripes and metallic coloured shoes with a reflective marking on the heel.
They would like to hear from anyone who may know someone who has worn items that match these.
The shoes one of the offenders wore.NZ Police
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Crews continue to search for six people buried in a landslide at Mount Maunganui, while police say they will investigate whether there is any criminal liability.
A rāhui is in place at the site where six people – including two teenagers – were caught in the slip, which came down on the holiday camp.
Police say they [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/585156/police-say-they-did-not-attend-mt-maunganui-campground-over-disorder-call did not attend the campground after receiving a call about a disorder incident[ that referenced a potential landslip about three hours before a deadly landslide as it was unclear if the disorder resulted in any property damage.
The government is mulling an independent inquiry into the disaster.
For all the latest updates, check RNZ’s blog at the top of this page.
The ongoing high costs of living are prompting some families to turn to backyard killing of animals.
There’s also a claim that New Zealand’s food safety rules disproportionately affect Pasifika and other migrant communities.
Carolyn Press McKenzie from animal charity Helping You Help Animals (HUHA) says it’s noticed an increase in calls to rescue animals at risk of being slaughtered illegally.
Press McKenzie said HUHA was itself caught out after rehoming a pet cow.
“Somebody went through the process with us, we did home visits, passed the check, everything seemed very above board,” she told First Up. “The person was chatty and engaging, pretended to absolutely love the cow and then we found out they’d slaughtered it and eaten it.”
On another occasion police intervened when a wild goat had been hog tied and hung upside down from a tree.
Press McKenzie said it was also getting harder to rehome animals in the current economic climate. Feeding and caring for a pet was becoming a luxury many couldn’t afford.
“It’s pretty bad out there. There’s more animals being born into situations where they’re not being cared for correctly but shelters don’t have the homes to put them in.”
Meanwhile, Tongan community advocate Melino Maka said the recent decision by a Pakuranga bakery to withdraw its horse pies should not be seen as an isolated incident.
The former food safty regulator told First Up that it was not just a compliance issue, but a consequence of a system that no longer educated ethnic communities about food safety.
Maka was concerned Pasifika and other migrant communities weren’t being adequately warned of the dangers of eating non-regulated meat. He said MPI has cut community education programmes.
“Everything relies on online, and most of our community don’t get access to that information,” he said.
He agreed that the cost of living was exacerbating the situation as many households struggled.
“The reality of the cost of living is having a real impact on people affording meat for their own consumption.”
Maka said meat sold as pet food at flea markets was often bought by members of the community with the intent of feeding the family.
“The pet food companies, they target the Pacific community and I often engage with them and ask them to label the meat or even put food colouring on it just to make the people aware of what they’re buying, but they just play around on the fringes.”
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Two British stars have been quietly turning heads in Wellington.
Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke was spotted browsing blue cod at Lambton Quay’s Wellington Seamarket on Monday, telling staff she was in town filming a movie.
Teyenne Taana, who was working at the store when Clarke came in, says the actress told him she would be around for a bit, and he invited her back to try the shop’s fish and chips.
Clarke made her return to TV with spy series Ponies, now streaming on TVNZ+.
Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran surprised bar staff at Monsoon Poon by dropping in after officially wrapping the New Zealand leg of his Loop world tour.
Fresh from sold-out shows in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, the pop superstar kept things low-key. Restaurant and bar staff member Maddy O’Callaghan, who was on shift last night, says he signed a plate for the venue’s celebrity wall, left a tip, and charmed staff with his down-to-earth attitude.
“We were really taken aback when he was in Wellington. We were like, it would be so cool if he came. But obviously he didn’t last week and then [he did last night], yeah, it was very, very out of the blue,” she says.
“Everyone was very, very excited to see him. They were wanting to take photos and we were like, ‘no, no, no, let’s just leave him be’.”
His next tour stop will be Perth, Australia, on 31 January.
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Rising prison numbers put pressure on remand prisons like Mount Eden.RNZ/Calvin Samuel
With prison numbers at their highest ever and still rising, one former prisoner and critic of this government’s tough-on-crime policies has put his hope in a controversial programme.
As the prison population ticked over to a new record above 11,000 this month, one expert says controversial military-style academies are one of the best ways to keep troubled young men and women out of jail.
“I have never come away from anything to do with the justice system with more hope in my heart than I have when I visited the military-style academy,” says Paul Wood, a former prisoner who promotes rehabilitation programmes for men and women.
Wood is a critic of the current government’s prison policies and admits his stance on the academies, also known as boot camps, would surprise many people.
During the 12-month pilot academy, which ended last August, participants ran away, one was booted off the programme and another was killed in a car crash. Most of the 10 young men involved re-offended.
An ndependent report out late last year said the pilot contributed to “meaningful and positive change” but also said the cohort was too small to draw firm conclusions.
Wood, a convicted murderer who now has a PhD after starting his tertiary studies in prison, was on the advisory committee for the pilot programme. He is also an ambassador for other rehabilitation programmes.
“We have to be doing early intervention, we have to be identifying and supporting kids who are at risk of ending up exposed to the justice system once they’re teenagers. By the time people are in prison, by the time people are caught we have already missed the best, most useful opportunity to turn people around,” he says.
But his support of the academies comes with a big ‘but’.
The programme must be well-resourced, and right now the justice system and rehabilitation schemes are poorly funded, he says.
“When you use the term ‘boot camp’ that means a variety of different things but what we know is that the so-called boot camps that have a therapeutic focus as well as the discipline, those are actually really effective,” Wood says.
A system under pressure
The Detail looks at why the number of people in prison is now over 11,000 when earlier projections said that figure would not be reached until 2030.
Latest figures show there are 199 per 100,000 people in prison in Aotearoa, more than double Canada’s number and 29 more per 100,000 than Australia.
The coalition government’s tough-on-crime policies, including the reinstatement of three strikes legislation and sentencing changes, are factors in the sharp rise, says Wood.
“Can I just say this government is tough on crime, and unfortunately rehabilitation and reintegration.
“I do believe that they’re succeeding in terms of punishing people, that piece of the imprisonment experience, which is a legitimate part of what imprisonment is about, to punish you for misdeeds.
“But I think unfortunately they’re doing so at the expense of the capacity to rehabilitate and reintegrate people back into society.”
Criminal barrister Emma Priest says the record numbers affect the whole justice system.
Priest is also the convenor of the Law Association’s parole and prisoner rights committee and says it means prisoners on remand are being moved all the time to make way for more remand prisoners.
“We are really feeling it on the ground,” she says.
“They are literally playing Tetris trying to fit prisoners in beds.”
One of her clients is a teenager facing a serious criminal charge in Wairarapa, whose family lives further north and cannot afford to visit him in the youth facility. His trial date is set for mid-2028.
“That’s one very difficult and poignant example of how difficult it is for him.”
The teen is cut off from his family and Priest limits her visits to him to less frequent but extended meetings because of the cost to the taxpayer through legal aid.
“But his family are limited to phone calls,” she says.
“We’ve got these increased prison numbers but we also have real deficits in resource around the courts.”
Regions are worse off with court delays than the main cities which have high courts.
“There’s just a lot of flow on. So more prisoners mean you need more judges, you need more court rooms, you need more lawyers.”
Increased prisoners also puts pressure on programmes.
“People are just waiting for longer before they can start their substantive rehabilitation. And to be direct, until they’ve done their rehabilitation, they’re not going to get released on parole.
“They really need to do that criminogenic, substantive rehabilitation which allows them to come up with a safety and release plan, which allows the parole board to be satisfied that they don’t present an undue risk to the community and that allows them to be released safely.”
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Households comprised of single people aged over 75 had the highest level of inflation.RNZ
Single older people are bearing the brunt of rising prices, and women may be particularly hard hit.
Data from last week’s CPI shows that over a five-year period, households comprised of single people aged over 75 had the highest level of inflation, up 27.2 percent, compared to a general rate of 25.3 percent.
Over two years, they had inflation of 7.8 percent compared to total inflation of 5.4 percent.
Those aged 70 to 74 had the next highest rate of inflation over five years, 1.8 percent higher than the overall level.
Over a two-year period, households of single people aged 65 to 69 had inflation of 6.3 percent.
Every age group of single people had a higher inflation rate than the overall rate over five years.
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub said it was because these households spent more of their money on essentials, which had experienced the biggest price increases.
“Inflation in recent years has been very focused on things like food, rates, insurance – those things take up more of the household budget.
“So the households who are spending more of their income on necessities have experienced more of it. The deflation was on things like buying TVs and stereos, stuff like that. Single older people aren’t buying many of those things.”
He said many of the costs of running a household were not reduced by only having one person in it.
“A single household is really expensive because you’re carrying all the rent, all the power, all those kinds of things that are more to do with the unit of house rather than the unit of people.”
One woman who contacted RNZ said she felt women were under more financial stress than their male counterparts. She estimated that having children had cost her $100,000 that would otherwise have gone into retirement savings.
“My brothers, in comparison, who did not take any time off to raise children, are much better off than me.
“Us women have given birth to and raised the generation of New Zealanders now in their 30s and 40s. We did this in the days before the widespread availability of full-time child-care by paid professionals.”
Eaqub agreed that older women were probably finding it tougher.
Single person households spend more of their money on essentials, which had had experienced the biggest price increases, economist Shamubeel Eaqub said.123rf / Warren Goldswain
Work by the Retirement Commission found that while there was not a lot of difference in how people aged over 65 felt about money, women were worse off. Just over half the women in its research had income below $30,000 a year compared to 42 percent of men.
It said women’s lower KiwiSaver savings were not because women were contributing less but because they earned less.
Older women were nearly twice as likely to live alone as men were and were reporting taking steps such as cutting down on food to save money.
Single older women were twice as likely to have experienced significant financial impacts due to the death of their spouse than men. Almost 40 percent of single women aged 65 to 74 said they did not feel at all confident about a financially comfortable retirement, compared to 25 percent of single men. But single women aged 75-plus were most likely to say they felt financially comfortable.
Eaqub said wage discrimination against women could compound over the lifetime to have an effect on their savings.
“Women, on average, earn less than men and take more time out of work. Time out of the workforce has quite a big impact on people’s lifetime incomes and lifetime savings.”
Liz Koh, from Enrich Retirement, said retirement was a struggle for women who were alone, or those in second relationships where finances were kept separate.
“It’s a well known fact that women earn around 10 percent less than men on average. This affects their KiwiSaver contributions and their ability to save. Women also have periods of time out of the workforce taking care of children and again, this impacts on retirement savings. Add to this the fact that women live longer than men, which means they need a higher level of retirement savings to avoid running out of money before the end of life.
“Women can be less confident investors, and a more conservative approach to investing can mean lower investment returns over the long term. On the other hand, women plan ahead and are receptive to receiving advice.
“There is a rather alarming trend, which is the number of women reaching retirement who do not own a home or who still have a mortgage. Separation and divorce combined with lower earning power are contributing factors to this situation. Owning a debt free home is essential for a comfortable retirement and those who are renting or still paying a mortgage struggle.”
The labs would be able to develop their own risk management plans, a new code of practice would be developed, and some specific rules were being tweaked.
One researcher said the changes would make it much easier and cheaper for the sector, which he thought would support the new code of practice.
When the government changed the regulations for hazardous substances in 2017, rules for research labs – which had previously been separate – were lumped in with those for industrial labs including petrol refineries, food processors, and commercial cleaning and pesticide producers.
Van Velden told RNZ carve-outs for researchers were intended to be developed, but that never happened and some of the regulations were not well suited.
“It’s pretty clear there’s a big difference between people who have huge amounts of hazardous goods for … sale and production of goods versus people that have a lot of smaller portions of hazardous goods for research,” she said.
Victoria University of Wellington School of Chemical and Physical Sciences senior lecturer Mathew Anker said it was not that the rules for dangerous chemicals were being softened, but suited to the environment.
Victoria University of Wellington School of Chemical and Physical Sciences senior lecturer Mathew Anker.Supplied / Victoria University
For instance, the rules for handling ammonia made sense when using industrial quantities to treat milk.
“In a research lab we have 1000 chemicals, we don’t have 1000 sensors. Half the sensors we’d have to put in don’t exist … on top of that it’s at such a low volume that it won’t happen.
“We have huge amounts of ventilation, we have fume cupboards that suck away all those fumes … but that isn’t taken into account in the regulations.”
A Cabinet paper showed many research labs were now non-compliant with the rules because they were built under the previous requirements.
“The costs to rebuild these laboratories to comply would be extreme …. and overly restrictive, and may not improve safety,” the paper said.
Van Velden pointed to estimates from Universities New Zealand suggesting it would have cost between $1.5 billion and $3b to make the labs compliant if there was no change.
She said current rules specified that labs must be on the ground floor, but at a university it made more sense to have them on a higher floor so people could escape in case of a fire.
The regulator, WorkSafe, would work with the industry to develop a new Approved Code of Practice (ACOP), she said, clearly setting out obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act to solve problems like that.
“Industry experts as well as WorkSafe will be creating this tailored compliance pathway – it’s not going to be created by a minister that doesn’t have scientific background,” she said.
Cabinet on 2 December had also agreed to change some specific regulations:
Research labs would be able to manage handling, packaging and storage of hazardous substances through a risk management plan
Storage sites located nearby, which currently could face more stringent rules, would have the same regulations as labs
Researchers, who already had higher levels of training, would not need separate certification to handle hazardous substances
Lab managers would no longer need to be on site at all times, instead only required to be available to provide oversight
Instead of needing knowledge of all hazardous substances used, managers would only need knowledge of safety risks
Dr Anker said the research sector had been lobbying the government for eight years trying to get fit-for-purpose rules in place.123RF
Dr Anker said research labs were operating safely, but compliance under the old rules was another question altogether.
For example, the university had spent more than three years and more than $1 million to move a device for purifying solvents without using heat or electricity because the regulations demanded it.
As a result, students now needed to walk through the hallways carrying solvent in glassware rather than simply moving around the lab.
“Two buildings across and three floors down, and that piece of equipment was being used 10, 20, 30 times a day … but we now have our students traipsing across two buildings and down the three floors to collect their very, very small volumes of solvent.”
WorkSafe had intervened, despite Fire and Emergency agreeing with the university about the safest way to do things, he said.
“The industry experts using the chemicals and the experts at putting the fires out from the chemicals agreed with each other, but the regulator disagreed with us.”
He said the research sector had been lobbying the government for eight years trying to get fit-for-purpose rules in place, and the result was a return to a pragmatic, risk-based approach.
He was confident creating their own risk management plans would be unlikely to lead to corner-cutting.
“The onus for responsibility for health and safety is on that person that’s trying to cut around the rules. Now, most people are not going to stick their neck out and say ‘I’m going to do something incredibly unsafe, just because I want to’,” he said.
“Second of all, when the lab managers build these risk assessments and all the rest of it, it has to go through a very thorough process.”
Such risk plans were already used in universities around the country, he said.
WSP Research national manager for research Wendy Turvey in a statement said the codes of practice and other tools agreed on were a pragmatic solution and would provide clearer settings for risk management while recognising the realities of research environments.
“WSP has had input through the working groups as the regulations were shaped, and we’re pleased with the final outcome. Just as importantly, the process has been strongly collaborative – involving MBIE, universities, WorkSafe, [public] research organisations and other independent research organisations and companies.”
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Labour leader Chris Hipkins is getting little clarity from voters on which governing partners he should shut out.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Labour leader Chris Hipkins is getting little clarity from voters on which governing partners he should shut out, with a new poll showing the electorate divided on his post-election options.
The latest RNZ-Reid Research poll, conducted from 15-22 January, asked New Zealanders whether Hipkins should rule out any potential pathways to power.
About half of voters want Labour to rule out deal with Te Pāti Māori
The most definitive response came regarding Te Pāti Māori, with almost half of all respondents – 49.6 percent – saying Labour should rule out working with it, compared with just over 34 percent who said it should not.
A further 16 percent said they did not know.
But Hipkins’ dilemma is driven home when looking more specifically at Labour’s own base.
There, just 38 percent of Labour voters said Hipkins should reject Te Pāti Māori, while 44 percent preferred to keep the option open. Undecideds numbered 18.5 percent.
Supporters of Te Pāti Māori and the Greens were strongly aligned in wanting Labour to leave the door open, with more than 60 percent in favour and just 20 percent against.
Among National voters, nearly two-thirds said Labour should rule out Te Pāti Māori, a view shared by about 75 percent of ACT voters and more than 80 percent of NZ First voters.
The polling lands after months of turmoil for Te Pāti Māori, marked by internal conflict, ill discipline and the expulsion of two MPs, one later reinstated after court action.
Hipkins has increasingly sharpened his criticism, saying Te Pāti Māori clearly was not ready for government right now. He has also said Labour would aim to win every Māori electorate, effectively eliminating Te Pāti Māori altogether.
But Labour’s pathway to power is precarious without Te Pāti Māori’s numbers.
NZ First could make the difference and has worked with Labour before, in 2005 and 2027. But leader Winston Peters says he will not work with Labour as long as Hipkins remains leader.
Hipkins has also been sceptical of any reunion, telling media he ruled out NZ First before the last election and that was “highly unlikely” to change.
New Zealand First divides voters most sharply
Voters appeared more open to the idea of a revived Labour-NZ First deal than the parties’ leaders were, though opinions were fairly evenly split.
Thirty-nine percent said Labour should shut the door on NZ First, while almost 37 percent said it should not. Nearly a quarter were undecided.
Labour voters leaned more strongly toward ruling NZ First out, with 45 percent suggesting that course of action and about 35 percent opposed.
In fact, supporters of every Parliamentary party except NZ First were, on balance, more inclined to want Labour to exclude Peters.
That was the stance of 37 percent of National voters, 44 percent of ACT voters, 46 percent of Te Pāti Māori voters and 52 percent of Green voters.
By contrast, just 23 percent of NZ First supporters wanted to kill off the potential partnership. Two thirds were in favour of keeping it on the table.
What about Labour’s good friends in the Greens?
Voters were also divided over whether Labour should rule out the Green Party, despite the two parties’ recent cooperation.
More than 40 percent of respondents said Labour should rule out the Greens, compared with about 46 percent who said it should not.
Once again, views split down government and opposition lines.
More than 60 percent of Labour voters wanted the Green Party to remain in play, as did 84 percent of Green voters.
National, ACT and NZ First voters were far more likely to want the Greens excluded.
Speaking to RNZ, Hipkins said he was giving “plenty of thought” to Labour’s governing options and would outline his position “in the fullness of time”.
“Under MMP, you do need to work with other parties,” he said. “But you’ve also got to make sure there’s some compatability there.”
This poll of 1000 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 15-22 January 2026 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.
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Police say they did not attend the Mount Maunganui campground after receiving a call about a disorder incident that referenced a potential landslip about three hours before a deadly landslide as it was unclear if the disorder resulted in any property damage.
It comes after a camper who contacted emergency services on the morning of the landslide told RNZ she saw a local council representative drive through the Mount Maunganui campground and directly past three slips about two hours before the deadly landslide.
The victims of the landslide have been named as Lisa Anne Maclennan, 50, Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, Sharon Maccanico, 15, and Max Furse-Kee, 15.
A woman, who was woken by Maclennan, spoke with RNZ on Monday about efforts to raise emergency services earlier that morning, including her own call to police three hours before the landslide.
The woman captured this photo of a slip at the campsite at 6.15am on Thursday morning.Supplied
Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz
A call log provided by the woman confirms she called police at 6.18am. The outgoing call lasted eight minutes.
“I explained to them about the slips. I said, ‘look, I understand that you guys will be really busy, and this might not be anything, but this is what’s happened here’.
“It was enough to push the ladies’ campervan forward, and there’s a homeless man in the toilet block, and he was actually going crazy and sort of banging on the walls and smashing things.
“And so I said, maybe you should send someone to have a look at that, just in case. You know, there’s a lot of kids here… and they said, yeah, it is a really busy night. It’s been a busy night. It’s a busy morning, we’ll try and get a unit there.”
In response to questions from RNZ, a police spokesperson confirmed police received an emergency call at 6.18am in relation to a disorder incident that had occurred at the campsite.
“During the call, the informant also referenced a potential landslip.
“Police did not attend as it was unclear whether the disorder resulted in any property damage.
“Fire and Emergency New Zealand were earlier alerted to the slip, and the council was in turn notified.”
Between 5am and 9.30am in the Mt Maunganui area, Police received one other call about a slip on the base track.
“The informant left the area safely and noted cones had been placed to restrict further access.”
A recovery crew working on the Mount Maunganui slip site on Monday.Nick Monro/RNZ
The woman earlier told RNZ no-one arrived until about 7.45am, when she said she saw what she described as a ute that was sign-written with Tauranga City Council. The ute stopped and the woman says she called out:
“Look, I don’t know if you can see them from where you are, but there’s these slips up here, I think, you know, someone should look at them.”
The woman was unsure the man heard her. The woman said the ute then drove through the Pilot Bay side of the campground slowly past the slips that she had filmed directly in front of several campsites.
“I figured, well, everything will be fine. Someone from the council’s come, they’ve seen the slips, he’s driven past them, he’s driven through the water that was coming down from that corner that collapsed. So I had no worries after that.”
Max Furse-Kee, 15, Sharon Maccanico, 15 and Susan Knowles, 71, are three of the six Mt Maunganui landslide victims.SUPPLIED
RNZ asked Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale for comment on the woman’s account.
In a statement sent via the council’s media team, Drysdale said “all relevant matters relating to the lead-up to this tragic event will be considered as part of the independent review we are currently initiating”.
“This will be reported back to the community as quickly as possible.
“The detailed scope, timeframes and personnel involved in this independent review process are currently being worked through and will be communicated publicly as soon as finalised.”
He announced the possibility during a media conference on Tuesday afternoon, and said many questions about last Thursday’s slip were being asked, including whether there was a missed opportunity to evacuate people sooner.
“Six families are grieving the unimaginable loss of their loved ones, and they deserve answers. I acknowledge that the Tauranga City Council has ordered its own inquiry into the events leading up to the landslide at the campground.
“However, I do believe there is a strong case for an independent government inquiry, and we’ll be talking to Tauranga City Council about that.”
Luxon said it would be important not only for the grieving families but for helping to ensure lessons were learned to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
While an independent inquiry had already been announced by local council, Luxon said there were concerns it would not be impartial if it was conducted by the council.
“There’s a potentially an inherent conflict between the ownership of the campground and the council, but it’s also coming from conversations directly with the families that Mark [Mitchell] and I had in the last 48 hours with people in Tauranga at the Mount, and their big desires to actually understand what did happen here.
“I think doing that dispassionately, being able to do that very objectively, through an independent government inquiry would be the way forward.”
A gazebo was erected on the Mt Maunganui slip site on Monday afternoon as a crew in white suits continued work on the ground nearby, while diggers stopped for about half an hour.Nick Monro/RNZ
RNZ approached the Tauranga City Council and police for comment on Monday evening on the woman’s account.
“Once the recovery efforts are completed, we have secured the site and have geotechnical assessments that the landslide area is stable, there will be a process undertaken to examine the events that took place before and during this tragic event,” the council’s controller Tom McEntyre said.
“It would not be appropriate to make any comment now that could affect that process or pre-empt the outcome.”
In response to earlier questions from RNZ, deputy national commander Megan Stiffler confirmed FENZ received a 111 call at 5.48am on Thursday, 22 January, from a person reporting a slip near the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park.
“Our call takers made contact with the Tauranga City Council, the landowners of the camping ground, and notified them of this information at 5.51am.
“The landslip that was referenced in the 111 call received at 5.48am did not impact life or property and therefore Fire and Emergency did not respond firefighters to attend, instead we notified Tauranga City Council as the landowner responsible.”
View of the scene at the landslide that crashed through the Beachside Holiday Park in Mt Maunganui.Supplied / Alan Gibson
Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Tauranga City Council chief executive Marty Grenfell said there was no record of a 111 call being referred to the council.
However, a council statement released only hours later backtracked on this version of events.
“After further enquiries, we can confirm that the Tauranga City Council’s main Contact Centre received a call from Fire and Emergency New Zealand at around 5.50am on Thursday, 22 January.”
The council said the chief executive’s earlier comments referred specifically to information logged in the council’s Emergency Operations Centre, which did not receive a call.
At about 9.30am a slip came down at the Beachside Holiday Park at Mount Maunganui, smashing into campervans, tents, vehicles and an ablution block near the Mount Hot Pools.
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Fresh off finishing an often dramatic tenure as NZ Rugby CEO, Mark Robinson has found a new role with World Rugby. The sport’s governing body has hired Robinson as their chief of rugby, which will focus on growing rugby’s global appeal.
“The game is evolving rapidly, and the way players and fans engage with rugby is changing,” said Robinson via a World Rugby press release.
“I’m excited for the chance to help shape a future that enhances the spectacle for fans, supports unions and protects rugby’s core values on a global stage. I look forward to contributing to a strategy that ensures rugby continues to grow in relevance, reach and impact.”
Robinson has long been an advocate for change in rugby, notably brokering the controversial deal between NZR and the US private equity firm Silver Lake. He also attempted to reshape the make up of the NZR board, which was ultimately unsuccessful after major resistance by a number of provincial unions.
Mark Robinson. Graphic: Liam K. SwiggsPHOTOSPORT
Part of the Silver Lake deal involved increasing the All Blacks’ brand presence through digital media, something that Robinson had targeted in the long sought-after US market.
“We are a tiny, isolated island on the other side of the world with a leading sports brand. So we’re trying to grow value so we can invest in all levels of the game,” he said in October in Chicago as the All Blacks prepared to play Ireland at a sold-out Soldier Field.
“I think the positioning of the (All Black) brand now through digital reach and the fact that we’re in markets like the US with such a strong following, shows that our strategy in terms of the work we’ve done overseas is definitely worth it. Now we’ve got a handful of global partners, and we’ve got a growing fan base and much more strategic connection than we’ve ever had.”
The challenge ahead for Robinson will be to maximise the commercial potential for World Rugby in what is still a very scattered global landscape. This year will see the first edition of the Nations Cup, which is the closest the sport has been to a global season since the dawn of professionalism three decades ago.
Brett Robinson, World Rugby Chair.Mark Kolbe/Photosport
However, outside of its World Cups, World Rugby is currently facing challenges in getting the fresh eyes on the game. Despite being a popular Olympic event and a format that has been a door opener into non-traditional markets, Sevens is now a significant cost centre, with the rebranded SVNS circuit incurring estimated losses of between NZD $70-120m since 2023.
World Rugby chair Brett Robinson said: “Mark’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for rugby…and as we embark on the delivery of a bold new five-year strategy, his leadership, rugby intelligence and knowledge will be instrumental in reimagining how our great game grows and thrives.”
Robinson will officially join World Rugby in May, after conducting a sport-wide review of game philosophy and match official alignment, which will be presented at the 2026 World Rugby Shape of the Game conference taking place in late February.
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A Boeing Dreamliner 787-9, from the Air New Zealand fleet.Supplied / Air New Zealand
The Flight Attendants Association (FAANZ) says problems with Air New Zealand’s planes and services are creating extra headaches for staff working to look after passengers at 38,000 feet.
Flight attendants working aboard the airline’s B777 and B787 long range aircraft will stop work for three strikes on 11, 12 and 13 February.
The airline said it was looking to balance the contributions of crew members against the “challenging economic times” and international cabin crews had a unique work and compensation structure.
FAANZ president Craig Featherby said – despite months of bargaining and two rounds of mediation through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – Air New Zealand had been unable to present a satisfactory pay offer to international cabin crews.
“The company has offered a pay increase that would see crew just hit the living wage. With inflation continuing to bite, many flight attendants are concerned they’ll be back below a liveable wage within a short time,” Featherby said.
He said the airline was failing to prioritise its staff and passengers – leaving it up to crews to address problems, often at 38,000 feet in the air.
“Flights are repeatedly impacted by preventable issues: lack of catering and limited choice, missing equipment to effectively look after customers, inoperative seats, and broken cabin features, alongside higher than usual cancellations.
“Flight attendants, as the face of the airline, are constantly having to work around these issues and apologise to passengers who have paid premium fares to fly with the national carrier,” Featherby said.
He said the latest pay offers from the airline were asking flight attendants to work harder and give up hard-earned terms and conditions in their current contracts in exchange for any “meaningful improvement” in wages.
“The company is sending a clear message to those who represent its front-line – that they are undervalued, despite carrying the weight of the operation every day.
“Air New Zealand must recognise that flight attendants are integral to the airline’s success. They’re safety professionals and ambassadors for the company. It’s time the board and executive team realise that their front-line staff – on the ground, in the call centres and in the air – need real investment,” Featherby said.
E tū union assistant national secretary Rachel Mackintosh said many of the airline’s long range crews had been with Air New Zealand “for decades” and did not take striking lightly.
“Pay for flight attendants has not been good enough for a long time and they are really aware that they are the factor that makes the airline a great airline. They have been pushing Air New Zealand for a long time and this really is a last resort,” Mackintosh said.
Air New Zealand chief people officer Nikki Dines said the assertion that crews were paid below the living wage was not accurate.
She said the airline’s latest offer increased base salaries by a range of 4.14 percent to 6.41 percent.
“Their base salary provides a consistent income, regardless of the hours they fly. In addition to their base salary, cabin crew receive payments and allowances to recognise additional responsibilities, time away from home, and longer duties. They also receive further allowances to support them while they are away from home,” Dines said.
Dines said the airline would work to support customers and minimise disruptions as much as possible if the strikes went ahead.
“We’ll contact any affected travellers directly as soon as more information becomes available and encourage everyone travelling during this period to check their booking details are up to date and to sign up for our Travel Alerts service,” Dines said.
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Crews searching for six people buried in a landslide at Mount Maunganui have so far had the weather they’ve been hoping for today.
It’s warm – 20 degrees – and sunny, with some cloud cover and a very gentle breeze.
Officials yesterday labelled moisture “the enemy” – because with it, the clay-like ground they’re working with could become unstable and risk further slips.
The rain has held off so far, however showers are forecast late afternoon and early evening.
An independent review, announced by Tauranga City Council, will look at events leading up to the landslide. Meanwhile, WorkSafe says it will looking into the organisations that had a duty of care for everyone at the Mt Maunganui holiday park.
See how the day unfolded in RNZ’s blog at the top of this page.
In Gaza today, university scholarships have taken on a whole new meaning. No longer are they a step towards self-development, educational attainment or an academic experience in a different country.
For a whole generation of Gazan students, a foreign university scholarship has become a lifeline and one of the few remaining legal escape routes from the besieged territory.
Gaza’s students are not asking each other where they will study or which university programme is best; the question is existential: “Will I even be able to leave?”
In an environment that has become defined by war, trauma and uncertainty, a university education has taken on a whole new meaning, no longer just a human right or tool for building one’s future.
A university education is now a survival strategy.
The reality of higher education under siege Over two million Palestinians in Gaza continue to live in exceptional circumstances, under an indefinite Israeli blockade interjected over the years by repeated wars and economic collapse.
While universities continue to operate partially, they do so among power outages, limited resources, damaged laboratories and libraries and poor internet access.
Language centres, where university-age Palestinian students would go to study for IELTS and TOEFL exams, two English proficiency exams for non-native speakers, which are prerequisites for many universities, were either destroyed or shut down as a result of the most recent war.
This has made meeting traditional admission requirements at foreign universities virtually impossible for many students.
“I had been preparing to take my IELTS exam for two years,” 24-year-old computer engineering graduate Samer Labad from Beit Lahia in North Gaza told The New Arab.
“The language centre I was studying at was completely destroyed in the war. Since then, there has been no stable electricity or internet.”
“How can we be required to meet [admissions requirements] when the tools for them no longer exist?”
More than a degree Despite the difficult circumstances Palestinian students continue to live in, they have not given up on applying for scholarships in foreign universities. In fact, scholarship funding has increased over the last two years.
Since the most recent ceasefire, which went into effect on 10 October 2025, hundreds of Gazan students have continued to apply for scholarships, with 200 being successful so far.
According to international independent educational initiatives, last year, dozens of students successfully left the Strip to enrol and begin their scholarships abroad. This increase in applications for foreign scholarships does not come from a desire to emigrate, but from the search for safety and psychological stability.
Yasser*, a 26-year-old computer science graduate, recently secured a scholarship for his Master’s degree in Germany.
“I did not only apply for this scholarship because of my love for computer science, but because I felt like my life in Gaza is on hold: work, marriage, my future.” he said.
“This scholarship has enabled me to regain a sense of control over my life.”
He added: “How do you explain to university admissions teams that you’re applying not only so you can learn, but so you can live?”
The surge in demand for scholarships post-October 2023 Israel’s most recent war on Gaza changed the relationship between Gaza’s students and foreign university scholarships forever.
Students no longer viewed a foreign scholarship as a future possibility or nice-to-have, but a necessity for survival in an emergency.
Alaa Al-Turk, an accounting graduate from Al-Jalaa in North Gaza, said when Israel’s genocide broke out in October 2023, his plans to apply for a foreign scholarship transformed from being long-term to imminent.
“In October 2023, I felt like time had run out. I thought, ‘Either I get out [of Gaza] now, or I stay in a danger zone indefinitely.’”
Social experts believe this sharp surge in applications for foreign scholarships since October 2023 reflects a shift in the role of education in Gaza, from a natural path to self-development to a means of emergency survival.
Scholarships not only enable young Palestinians to attempt to leave Gaza legally, but psychologically, they are being used as an attempt to regain control over their destinies.
International universities step in Understanding the exceptional circumstances Palestinian students face, some international universities in the UK, Germany, Italy, Turkïye and some Scandinavian countries have taken steps to facilitate the admission of students from Gaza.
These steps include offering scholarships specifically for Palestinians from Gaza or easing admissions requirements, particularly language requirements. Some have accepted applications from Gazan students without TOEFL and IELTS exams.
“I was so afraid the university would not accept me because I did not have a language certificate,” said 22-year-old English graduate Layan Al Mashharawi from Shuja’iyya in East Gaza.
“They conducted a lengthy interview with me and told me they knew the issue isn’t my language level, but where I live.”
In the UK, the University of Manchester, the University of Birmingham and SOAS in London have eased admissions requirements for Palestinian students from Gaza as part of the Chevening Scholarships programme, including relaxing language and document requirements.
In Ireland, universities such as Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin have accepted Palestinian students from Gaza onto their programmes, with special humanitarian and academic arrangements.
The University of the United Arab Emirates offers Palestinian students from Gaza full scholarships.
Independent initiatives such as Scholarships for Ghazza and the Gaza Scholarship Initiative have played a large role in connecting Gazan students with these universities.
A scholarship does not always lead to an exit Obtaining a foreign scholarship does not automatically mean an exit from Gaza. The bigger challenge is actually leaving the Strip.
Gaza’s border crossings are open only for limited periods, and they are sporadic and irregular. There are complex coordination lists and security approvals, making it a highly stressful process.
Every delay to crossing the border puts Palestinian students at risk of losing their scholarships, and every border closure places them back at square one. Many live for months in a state of limbo, waiting for academic acceptance and geographical isolation.
“I was living between two suitcases,” said political science student Noor Hijazi from Deir-El-Balah in central Gaza.
“One packed and ready for travel, and the other for the life I would have to return to if I failed to leave Gaza. This waiting was more stressful than the studying itself.”
Meanwhile, 27-year-old Master’s student Mahmoud Awad from Khan Younis in South Gaza almost missed the start of his degree.
“The university sent me a starting date three times, and each time I explained to them that the problem wasn’t my visa but my inability to leave Gaza. I was afraid I would lose my scholarship because of something that was beyond my control,” he told The New Arab.
When university admission becomes a commodity for survival With the near-total closure of Gaza’s borders and lack of safe and legal routes out of the territory comes the rise of a disturbing new phenomenon: purchasing acceptance into a university programme not for study but to leave the Strip.
It is not a topic students will talk about openly; those who spoke to The New Arab asked to have their identities protected not for fear of legal repercussion, but because of the moral stigma.
Behind this phenomenon lies a reality more complex than mere cheating. It comes with legal and financial risks, and those who benefit are the middlemen.
Twenty-nine-year-old Karim* said: “I wasn’t looking for a university, I was looking for a door. I applied for official scholarships the traditional way and was unsuccessful.
“The waiting was mentally killing me. At the end, I paid for acceptance into a university just so I could leave.”
Another student, 27-year-old Heba* said: ” I knew I might not be able to continue my studies, but staying in Gaza was no longer an option. I wasn’t buying a university education; I was buying a chance at survival.”
Education should not be a corridor to survival What Gaza’s university-age students are asking for is not emigration, but the ability to choose to study, travel and also return to Gaza without these options being a matter of life and death.
University scholarships should not be a ticket to survival, and education should not become a substitute for the basic human rights of freedom of movement and the right to live with dignity.
Until that happens, for Gaza’s students, foreign scholarships will remain more than an academic opportunity.
*Names changed upon request
Haya Ahmed is a doctor and freelance writer from Gaza. This article was first published by The New Arab.
Tiian Whelpton runs leadout leg in a 4x100m relay at Hastings.Kerry Marshall/Photosport
New Zealand’s fastest sprinters have taken their international ambitions into their own hands – and they’ve found an unlikely source of support for their endeavours.
Less than a month after watching national recordholder Eddie Osei-Nketia change allegiances, many of his former rivals have joined him across the Tasman to participate in an Australian national sprint camp focused on relays.
Under a community-driven initiative known as ‘Black Batons’, the Kiwi speedsters have joined forces to push for Commonwealth Games and world championships selection this year.
Seventeen sprinters paid their own way to attend the week-long camp on the Gold Coast this month, tapping into Athletics Australia resources, as they try to qualify for the world stage.
The scheme has been masterminded by local coaches Nuree Greenhalgh and Sonia Waddell.
Greenhalgh was a junior champion over 400m/800m, but has found her niche as an up-and-coming mentor for sprinters, guiding Lex Revell-Lewis to a men’s national 400 metres record (45.88s) and Kendra Scally Tu’i to a women’s junior 200 metres mark (23.52s) last summer.
Waddell is simply a part of Kiwi sporting folklore. Daughter of All Blacks flanker Alistair Scown, she was a junior 400m hurdles champion on the track, before switching to rowing, where she reached two Olympic single sculls finals and won world championship silver in the quad.
As a cyclist, she won a national time trial title and then piloted partially sighted Jayne Parsons to para-cycling world championship gold.
She’s married to former Olympic rowing champion and America’s Cup winner Rob Waddell. Daughter Madeline is the current national women’s 400 metres champion and junior recordholder (52.62s), and is about to take up a track scholarship at prestigious Duke University in the United States.
“We reached out to David Reid at Athletics Australia, just to find out about his relay programme, because after three years, it’s been really successful,” said Greenhalgh. “We’re just building out knowledge and Athletics Australia invited us over, as coaches, to come into camp with them.
“Then they reached out and said, ‘Why don’t you bring a relay squad and run against us at the end of the week… you’re helping us’.”
The Aussies have recently used their relay programme to catapult their sprinters to new heights. Vindication of that effort came, when their women’s 4x400m team won world indoor bronze at Nanjing, China last March.
Lex Revell-Lewis and Eddie Osei-Neketia found themselves on different teams at the Gold Coast relay camp.Supplied/Casey Simms
In May, their mixed 4x400m – two men and two women – finished second at the world relays championships at Guangzhou, China, as Australia qualified teams in all six events contested.
For qualification, record and ranking purposes, races must feature at least two international teams. The Aussies have previously hosted Papua New Guinea at their camps to fulfil that requirement, but having a competitive Kiwi contingent on board suited them perfectly.
“They went above and beyond helping,” Greenhalgh reflected. “They imparted all their knowledge.”
The NZ athletes trained alongside their trans-Tasman counterparts, attended tactical and video analysis sessions, and at the end of the week, a men’s 4x100m team of Tiaan Whelpton, Hayato Yoneto, Shay Veitch and Revell-Lewis came within one-tenth of a second of a national record, almost running down old mate Osei-Nketia in the process.
A mixed 4x100m combination clocked 43.29s, which would have ranked 28th-fastest nation last year. Twenty-four teams will qualify for the world relays at Gaborone, Botswana, in May.
Homegrown sprinters have long been frustrated at the lack of international opportunities afforded them and Osei-Nketia’s non-selection for the Paris Olympics, despite breaking his father’s NZ 100 metres mark at the world championships, was undoubtedly a factor in his switch of nationality.
While New Zealand has a long and rich record of distance-running success, the last sprinter to make an Olympic final was more than a century ago, when Arthur Porritt took bronze over 100 metres at Antwerp 1924.
Forty-seven men broke 10 seconds over 100 metres last year alone – the first man dipped under that barrier 58 years ago.
New Zealand has never had one. Top Kiwi Whelpton clocked 10.10s – good for second on our all-time list – and ranked only 120th in the world.
Promising sprinter Kendra Scally Tu’i in action at the Gold Coast relay camp.Supplied/Casey Simms
Although New Zealand struggles to turn out top-class sprinters – Zoe Hobbs is the lone exception in recent times – its depth over 100 metres, especially among men, has probably never been better.
Throughout the years, only 25 NZ men have equalled or beaten 10.50s, admittedly a very modest time by world standards. In 2025, NZ had seven – not counting Osei-Nketia – more than the country had ever had.
“In the past, relays have not worked in New Zealand,” Greenhalgh said. “They haven’t taken off.
“Athletes have been more individual based and not committed to the relay.
“After seeing Australia competing their teams on the world stage and creating opportunities, we saw a little gap. We just wanted to create a way to get our athletes out there.
“Realistically, some won’t make it internationally as individuals, so their chance is the relay space. We want to keep athletes in the sport and give them results for all their hard training.”
When Greenhalgh and Scown first floated the proposal, they achieved buy-in from about 30 athletes across men and women, senior and junior.
South African-born Whelpton, 25, admitted he was sceptical about the idea. He had represented New Zealand at world indoor and outdoor, and last weekend came as close as any Kiwi to that 10-second benchmark, clocking 10.02s at Whanganui, with the aid of an excessive tailwind.
“My initial reaction was, ‘Here we go again’,” he said. “This is not the first time someone’s tried to get a relay going – there’s been quite a few failed attempts in the last few years.
“Initially, I didn’t pay as much attention as I probably should have. I thought this would be another one that didn’t get anywhere.
“After talking to Sonia and Nuree, and seeing how many people were getting stuck in and grabbing the bull by the horns, I’ve been 100 percent on board.
“I think we’ve got an unparalleled level of depth in the sprints that we’ve not had in previous years. We could genuinely have quite a competitive team – we might not have the speed some other countries have, but if we nail our changes, there’s no reason we can’t be competitive.”
Lex Revell-Lewis and Shay Veitch transfer the baton during a 4x100m relay on the Gold Coast.Supplied/Casey Simms
New Zealand sport is famous for fielding teams that perhaps lack the raw talent of their opponents, but make up for that by performing above the sum of their parts. In relay running, the great leveller is the requirement to get the baton safely around the track, while transferring it from one runner to the next within designated zones.
Inability to perfect this has derailed many fast teams throughout history, but the Kiwis can improve their standing considerably through mastering the intangible.
“That’s what we’re trying to work towards,” Whelpton said. “It’s going to take a while to get there.
“The Aussies have been doing it for a number of years now and, watching them, they are on another level. They are an Olympic final relay team and our goal is to get to the level they’re at.”
Whelpton insisted the Gold Coast camp was one of the best he’d attended in his career.
“We had access to their physios, their bio-mechs… they were filming us and giving us all our data. They were really holding our hand along the way and you could see they really wanted us to be better.
“If we can get to the point where we’re faster and competitive with them, that will be better for their relays too.”
The most notable absentee so far has been Hobbs, who also missed out on Tokyo Olympic selection, but used that setback as motivation to establish herself among the world’s fastest women.
In 2024, she became the first Oceania female to crack 11 seconds for 100 metres (10.97s) and has lowered her national record twice since. She has reached semifinals three times at world championships and again at the 2024 Paris Olympic, while narrowly missing a world indoor medal over 60 metres.
Zoe Hobbs overcame Tokyo Olympics non-selection to reach the Paris semifinals two years later.AFP/JEWEL SAMAD
Hobbs, 28, has the least to gain and the most to lose from diverting her attention towards a relay programme.
“It’s really important Zoe focus on her individual [goals] at the moment,” Greenhalgh said. “She hasn’t said she’s in or out.
“We’re just letting Zoe do Zoe, because she obviously has a Commonwealth Games campaign and world champs indoors.
“The goal of these relays is to get athletes competing on the world stage and growing in confidence. Zoe’s already there.”
For its part, Athletics NZ has expressed its backing for the initiative, even if its material contribution is limited.
“Athletics NZ is supportive of community-led initiatives that help move our sport forward at all levels and it’s been great to see the work going into the recent independent relay programme,” it told RNZ. “We’re fortunate to have passionate coaches all over the country, who make a huge contribution to athletics at all levels, every day.
“Although we’re not able to allocate funding to these types of development initiatives, we’ll offer support where we can and have worked with our meet promoters this season to make sure there are relay opportunities available at our domestic events.
“Some of the athletes and coaches involved also recently attended an Athletics NZ performance development camp, organised as part of our wider performance-development programme.
“Looking ahead, the Oceania Championships are a significant international competition opportunity for these teams, with qualifying for the 2026 world relay championships and the 2026 Commonwealth Games as aspirational goals for many of our athletes.”
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The results saw New Zealand First climb into third place on party preferences, recording its strongest result in the Reid Research series in more than eight years.
The RNZ-Reid Research poll also asked voters a series of topical questions, including what party they trusted most to manage the economy.
A slim majority of 32.2 percent of voters said they trusted National, with Labour just a whisker behind on 31.4 percent.
The next highest score was those who said they didn’t trust any party to manage the economy (9.7 percent) followed by those who said they didn’t know (7.7 percent).
New Zealand First scored next on (7.6 percent) followed by the Green Party (5.8 percent), the ACT Party (3.2 percent), Te Pāti Māori (1.7 per cent) and those who said other (0.6 percent).
The result will be a worry for the National Party, having battled two years of economic headwinds after promising to get the country back on track.
It will also be a concern that National came in behind Labour when voters were asked what party they trusted the most to assist with the cost of living.
Labour lead on 35.5 percent followed by National (24.6 percent), those who answered none (9.9 percent), the Greens (8.3 percent), New Zealand First (8.2 percent), those who said they didn’t know (7.8 percent), the ACT Party (3.5 percent), Te Pāti Māori (1.4 percent) and other (0.7 percent).
The leaders heading up the two major parties have also returned low results in their performance ratings.
There was a small improvement in the public’s perception of National leader Christopher Luxon’s performance, with a net score of -14, an improvement of 1.2 points over his September 2025 rating of -15.2.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins returned the lowest net score of 0.9 since he has been the Leader of the Labour Party.
This poll of 1000 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 15-22 January 2026 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.
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Ōakura Bay Reserves Board member Malcolm Devereux, left, and chairman Glenn Ferguson mop out the devastated community hall.RNZ / Peter de Graaf
A nail-biting, mostly single-lane gravel road will remain the key lifeline linking a storm-battered Northland town with the outside world for the next eight to 14 weeks.
That’s how long the Whangārei District Council expects it will take to clear a monster slip at Helena Bay Hill on Russell Road, the main road between Ōakura and Whangārei.
The slip came down on Wednesday at the end of a four-day deluge that soaked the district’s northeast coast.
The tiny settlement of Punaruku, for example, recorded as much rain each hour between 3am and 5am on 18 January as most places in Northland get in the entire month.
A washed-out bridge on the road from Ōakura north to Russell reopened after temporary repairs on Saturday night, but the only direct link to Whangārei – via Pigs Head Road and Kaiikanui Road – is a back route open to local residents, recovery workers and emergency services only.
‘Lifeline road’ remains steep, narrow and unsealed
Nena Rogers, owner of Ōakura Bay Store, said the closure of the main road to Whangārei would hit the business hard.
“It’ll definitely slow us down. People won’t be able to come here for fishing on the weekends and things like that. It’s our busy season, so it will have a huge impact on us further down the track. We have to make money in the summertime to get through the winter, so we can carry on the service we’ve provided for the past 30 years.”
Ōakura Bay Store owner Nena Rogers says the closure of the main road will hit her business hard.RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Rogers said the past year had already been tough due to the economic climate and a drop in visitors in the lead-up to Christmas.
However, she said the town, and the store, had survived without the main access road in the past.
In 2007 a huge chunk of road fell away at Helena Bay Hill – not far from the current slip – leaving Ōakura cut off for almost four months.
“So we’ve been there before,” she said.
Since last week’s slip, council contractors had urgently cleared and graded Kaiikanui Road, and installed traffic lights on a particularly nerve-racking 800-metre section.
However, the “lifeline road” remained steep, narrow and unsealed, with sheer drop-offs in many places.
The main road to Ōakura has disappeared under a massive slip at Helena Bay Hill.Supplied / Ngātiwai Trust Board
Rogers said it was fortunate the shop was stocked up for summer when the storm hit, though she was now starting to see serious gaps in her supplies.
Flour, tea, coffee and even chocolate were among the essentials starting to run low.
Her wholesaler had pledged a big delivery this week, using small trucks that could get through Kaiikanui Road.
Rogers said Ōakura had seen huge support from suppliers, the council and tradies, many of whom had baches in the settlement.
She had lost very little stock to the flood, mostly because she had spent the past 30 years preparing.
That included improving drainage, ensuring nothing was stored at ground level, and sandbagging.
Flooded properties at Ōakura Bay as seen from the air.Supplied / Ngātiwai Trust Board
The biggest problem was sewage backing up when the treatment plant failed.
Unclear how isolated Ōakura will fare for medical services
Rogers said it was not yet clear how Ōakura, which was isolated even in normal times, would fare for medical services.
Before the deluge a health clinic operated once a fortnight with a doctor visiting once a month.
“During the storm we had a lady who needed staples removed from an operation, and they were going to fly the staple remover out from Whangārei because there was no road at that time. But they did manage to get her out in an ambulance,” Rogers said.
“We’ve got a couple of nurses living out here, so that makes a difference, and I do minor stuff. I fixed up a man’s hand who’d taken a great lump out of it. We couldn’t get hold of anybody but my mother was a nurse, so I know what I’m doing.”
She said locals were “pretty resilient” and used to looking after themselves, but reality was starting to sink in.
“When something like this happens, you pick yourself up and you go and do things. But I’ve noticed people are looking drawn and tired. It’s pretty sad, really.”
However, for people heading to Whangārei, that was a long and costly detour, requiring either a trip on the Russell ferry – a car costs $18.50 each way plus a fee for each passenger – or braving the rugged and flood-prone Waikare Road.
Only essential vehicles, full-time residents can use Kaiikanui Road
Whangārei District Council has said it would only allow essential vehicles and full-time residents to use Kaiikanui Road.
Rogers agreed with keeping sightseers off the lifeline road, but believed bach owners should be allowed.
They needed to check and clean up their properties, and in some cases, salvage what was left.
“But if you’re just coming out here because you want to have a look, turn around, because you just might end up at the bottom of one of those slips.”
Rongoā Māori practitioner Donna Kerridge attempts to rescue raranga (weaving) soaked by floodwaters that swept through the ground floor of her Ōakura home.RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Just down the road from the shop, Sunday’s flash flood rose to chest-height in the ground floor of Donna Kerridge’s home.
The flood submerged priceless books and notes the rongoā Māori practitioner had collected over the years, as well as woven kete and cloaks.
Kerridge said the months-long closure of the main road would affect her financially.
“I’ll probably lose quite a bit of contract work, because I won’t be able to go backwards and forwards, but that’s just money. Also, we’ll lose conveniences, things like fresh milk, but conveniences are not important,” she said.
“I guess the challenge will be more for family who can’t come and see us, who are concerned about our welfare. It’s going to be hard for them.”
Kerridge said people had held up well so far but she expected the isolation would take a toll.
“After a while, we might start to get grumpy. Right now we’re very grateful. The mood is one of gratitude that nobody got hurt. I think we’re still very much in stunned mullet, grateful mode, but the shine will wear off shortly. I expect we’re going to have a slump in our emotions.”
A clean-up of the slip-damaged Ōakura Community Hall is on hold until it can be assessed by council engineers.RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Self-sufficiency, resilience essential skills for Ōakura residents
Key lessons for Ōakura residents from the storm included the need to be more self-sufficient and able to fend for themselves for extended periods of time.
If a disaster were to hit Whangārei as well, Ōakura would be well down the list of priorities for help – which Kerridge said was understandable, given Whangārei’s much greater population.
“So we need an extra element of resilience,” she said.
Emergency access routes also had to be considered, she said.
Whangaruru had its own Coastguard vessel, but in a storm like last week’s the sea was too rough to put it to use as emergency transport.
As for Kaiikanui Road, Kerridge said she wouldn’t be using it in a hurry.
“The stories I’ve heard are enough to make me say, if I had a baby that was unwell, I might use it. For anybody else, I’m sorry, but don’t ask me to take you out over that road.”
Mark and Victoria Seymour, 13, work to clean up the stinky, stinky silt that has engulfed the long-time family bach.RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Around the corner, on the Ōakura waterfront, Tauranga’s Mark Seymour and daughter Victoria, 13, were scraping a sticky, stinky layer of silt from their front lawn.
Seymour said the bach had been in the family for 42 years, in a “magic” spot offering great views, good fishing, and a safe beach for the kids to swim and kayak.
He said the floodwaters had been about half a metre deep through the ground floor, trashing six beds, fridges, a washing machine, and other belongings.
Slips from the hillside behind the bach had blocked stormwater drains, turning waterfront properties into one large brown lake.
“The water itself is a problem, but it’s the silt that has washed down from the slips that’s been a really tricky thing to work with. Very, very sticky,” he said.
Seymour said even a high-pressure water blaster had little impact on the silt, so he was now scraping and shovelling by hand.
“I’ve probably dumped about 30 wheelbarrow loads now, and it’s just a sticky, goopy mess of silt.”
The town’s sewer network had been overwhelmed by floodwaters and septic tanks had overflowed, causing other problems.
“Now the sun’s out and the wind’s blowing, things are starting to heat up and dry out, and the stench is pretty hard to bear.”
On the surface normality appears to be returning to Ōakura, but it’s a different story for home owners cleaning up flood-hit properties or trying to get in and out of the isolated settlement.RNZ / Peter de Graaf
However, he counted himself lucky – at least three nearby homes had been badly damaged by slips.
“These are families that have been here 60 years. That’s a long, long tenure, and it’s pretty hard to see people you’ve grown up with go through that.”
Seymour was not fazed by Kaiikanui Road, saying it was “definitely” a challenging, narrow, winding, metal road, but it was similar to the access road used in his grandparents’ day.
However, he urged people thinking about taking a tiki tour to Ōakura to leave the road to those who needed it most, such as recovery workers or locals trying to get to their jobs in Whangārei.
Like Rogers and Kerridge, Seymour said he’d been struck by Ōakura’s resilience.
“We’ll carry on and get stronger. We’ll learn from it, and next time, we’ll be even stronger. But I think it’s a good wake up call, to look at what’s happened and what could be done in future to avoid it, like maintenance on drains and roads, that kind of thing. It’s only going to get worse as time goes by with the storm intensities we’re seeing.”
Kerridge said continuing to live in a place like Ōakura, where access was fragile and beset by so many pinch points, would mean making compromises.
“And I think the people here are resigned to that. We don’t get to live the life that we did a week ago. It requires adjustment, and I think we’re adjusting really well.”
State of Emergency for Hikurangi-Coastal Ward extended
On Tuesday afternoon Whangārei Mayor Ken Couper extended the State of Emergency in the Hikurangi-Coastal Ward for another seven days – but lifted it for the rest of the Whangārei District.
Couper said a localised State of Emergency would allow the council to deploy extra support quickly, if needed.
The Hikurangi-Coastal Ward includes Ōakura and Whangaruru, the worst affected areas in Northland during last week’s storm.
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The slip at Mauao, Mount Maunganui as seen from the air.Screengrab / Amy Till
Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale says all relevant matters relating to the lead-up to the fatal Mount Maunganui landslide will be considered as part of an independent review.
The victims of the landslide have been named as Lisa Anne Maclennan, 50, Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, Sharon Maccanico, 15, and Max Furse-Kee, 15.
A woman, who was woken by Maclennan, spoke with RNZ on Monday about efforts to raise emergency services earlier that morning, including her own call to police three hours before the landslide.
Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz
She told RNZ that about 7.45am she saw what she described as a ute that was sign-written with Tauranga City Council. The ute stopped and the woman says she called out, “Look, I don’t know if you can see them from where you are, but there’s these slips up here, I think, you know, someone should look at them.”
The woman was unsure the man heard her. The woman said the ute then drove through the Pilot Bay side of the campground slowly past the slips that she had filmed directly in front of several campsites.
“I figured, well, everything will be fine. Someone from the council’s come, they’ve seen the slips, he’s driven past them, he’s driven through the water that was coming down from that corner that collapsed. So I had no worries after that.”
RNZ asked Drysdale for comment on the woman’s account.
In a statement sent via the council’s media team, Drysdale said “all relevant matters relating to the lead-up to this tragic event will be considered as part of the independent review we are currently initiating”.
“This will be reported back to the community as quickly as possible.
Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale says details of the review are being worked through.Calvin Samuel / RNZ
“The detailed scope, timeframes and personnel involved in this independent review process are currently being worked through and will be communicated publicly as soon as finalised.”
He announced the possibility during a media conference on Tuesday afternoon, and said many questions about last Thursday’s slip were being asked, including whether there was a missed opportunity to evacuate people sooner.
“Six families are grieving the unimaginable loss of their loved ones, and they deserve answers. I acknowledge that the Tauranga City Council has ordered its own inquiry into the events leading up to the landslide at the campground.
“However, I do believe there is a strong case for an independent government inquiry, and we’ll be talking to Tauranga City Council about that.”
Luxon said it would be important not only for the grieving families but for helping to ensure lessons were learned to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
While an independent inquiry had already been announced by local council, Luxon said there were concerns it would not be impartial if it was conducted by the council.
“There’s a potentially an inherent conflict between the ownership of the campground and the council, but it’s also coming from conversations directly with the families that Mark and I had in the last 48 hours with people in Tauranga at the Mount, and their big desires to actually understand what did happen here.
“I think doing that dispassionately, being able to do that very objectively, through an independent government inquiry would be the way forward.”
RNZ approached the Tauranga City Council and police for comment on Monday evening on the woman’s account.
“Once the recovery efforts are completed, we have secured the site and have geotechnical assessments that the landslide area is stable, there will be a process undertaken to examine the events that took place before and during this tragic event,” the council’s controller Tom McEntyre said.
“It would not be appropriate to make any comment now that could affect that process or pre-empt the outcome.”
In response to earlier questions from RNZ, deputy national commander Megan Stiffler confirmed FENZ received a 111 call at 5.48am on Thursday, 22 January, from a person reporting a slip near the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park.
“Our call takers made contact with the Tauranga City Council, the landowners of the camping ground, and notified them of this information at 5.51am.
“The landslip that was referenced in the 111 call received at 5.48am did not impact life or property and therefore Fire and Emergency did not respond firefighters to attend, instead we notified Tauranga City Council as the landowner responsible.”
Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Tauranga City Council chief executive Marty Grenfell said there was no record of a 111 call being referred to the council.
However, a council statement released only hours later backtracked on this version of events.
“After further enquiries, we can confirm that the Tauranga City Council’s main Contact Centre received a call from Fire and Emergency New Zealand at around 5.50am on Thursday, 22 January.”
The council said the chief executive’s earlier comments referred specifically to information logged in the council’s Emergency Operations Centre, which did not receive a call.
At about 9.30am a slip came down at the Beachside Holiday Park at Mount Maunganui, smashing into campervans, tents, vehicles and an ablution block near the Mount Hot Pools.
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NZ army firefighters in live fire exercises at FENZ’s national training centre.Supplied / NZDF
Shipping containers in Rotorua that provide some of the only live firefighting training for new recruits are being replaced, after they were boycotted and shut on safety grounds months ago.
This week Fire and Emergency evaluated responses to a tender to replace the containers, saying this was better than trying to fix them, and until it had chosen a contractor it could not give a cost and timeframe.
Recruits have been shuttled to Auckland Airport’s live training site since trainers slapped a safety notice on the containers last September.
At the time, the acting manager who is also the union president, said the containers had warped over the years so were leaking toxic smoke during exercises that was a threat to recruits not kitted up outside.
FENZ said recruits had still been able to use two other live-fire facilities (compartments, and one to do with gas).
Live fire training at FENZ’s national training centre in Rotorua.Supplied / FENZ
The Professional Firefighters’ Union said not having the container facilities “is currently hindering these safe systems of work for firefighters” and fixing them must be a priority.
“The fact that FENZ has allowed the current live fire training facilities to deteriorate so much, to the state that they are not working is yet another sign of the organisation failure to spend money on frontline services,” said national vice-president Martin Campbell.
The containers had been expected to last 15 years and were 13 years old “and are now approaching the end of their practical asset life”, said FENZ.
Design had been done to get new ones that balanced “functionality, safety, and durability”.
The union has regularly criticised the state of FENZ’s fire trucks, stations, pay and conditions in an industrial dispute stretching on for months.
The Rotorua national training centre set up almost 20 years ago, houses the containers in a bigger building meant to contain the smoke and make it cleaner in a ‘reburner’, though the acting manager in November said the reburner had never worked well.
Live fire training at FENZ’s Woolston training centre, Christchurch.Supplied / FENZ
The tender said other parts of the training centre, which includes classrooms, must be able to keep operating while the work went on.
FENZ had struggled not just with Rotorua but with trying to fix leaking smoke at its South Island live-fire training centre at Woolston in Christchurch.
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A week out from the resumption of parliament, the federal opposition is in a state of paralysis.
The Liberals have a full-blown leadership crisis. A majority of the party believe Sussan Ley can’t survive for long.
But leadership contenders Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie, both from the right of the party, don’t want to run against each other, dividing their factional support. They’re in a wrestle, each wanting the other to pull back.
Taylor trails his coat while keeping formally within the rules. He won’t confirm he is after Ley’s job, pleading shadow cabinet discipline when pressed. But he won’t rule anything out either.
The Hastie camp had a story in The Australian saying he had discussed with his wife the implications of becoming leader, and she was “fully supportive”. This was to clear away Hastie’s position of some time ago that he was not pitching for leadership for a while because of having a young family.
Hastie seems raring to go, Taylor is preferring to delay. Moderates argue the Nationals should not be rewarded for last week’s behaviour by the Liberals rushing into a change.
The stand-off lessens the chance of a vote next week, though the situation is febrile and so it is not impossible it comes to a head then. The Liberal Party will have its regular meeting on Tuesday morning.
Many in the Liberals and some in the Nationals think the most urgent issue is to have the split in the former Coalition repaired.
But Nationals leader David Littleproud says this won’t happen unless the three Nationals frontbenchers whom Ley forced to resign last week (after they broke shadow cabinet solidity over the government’s anti-hate legislation) are reinstated. Ley has refused to contemplate meeting that condition.
Liberals continue to lash out at Littleproud’s behaviour last week, leading to the fracture. Victorian Liberal Tim Wilson told Sky on Tuesday the Nationals leader “basically replicated the political consequences of Barnaby Joyce on a Braddon pavement [when an intoxicated Joyce was pictured lying flat out talking on the phone]. They’ve hit a flat. It hasn’t worked. What we need is leadership. We need responsible people standing up for the national interest and doing what’s right by Australia and Australians.”
Meanwhile Ley needs to reshuffle her frontbench by the time parliament resumes next week, to fill the positions vacated by the Nationals. She has stayed her hand to give some time for a possible rethink by the Nationals about re-forming the Coalition. But it would be odd to go into the sitting with multiple vacancies, and especially difficult when Senate estimates hearings loom the following week.
Littleproud has yet to nominate spokespeople for a “shadow” shadow ministry. Once he does that, it becomes harder to get the Coalition back together, even under a new Liberal leader.
On Thursday many Liberals will gather in Melbourne for a memorial service for Katie Allen, who was Liberal MP for Higgins in 2019–22. It’s a sad reality that during leadership crises, such gatherings can provide the opportunity for very political conversations. This occasion is likely to be no exception.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Austen Keith Richardson and his grandmother Yao Fang.Supplied / Police
The family of a child and grandmother killed when a landslide hit a house in Pāpāmoa say they’re “absolutely devastated” by the loss of a “treasured son” and his “beloved Nai Nai”.
Two bodies were recovered by police at the home on Welcome Bay Rd on Thursday.
On Tuesday, police named the pair as 10-year-old Austen Keith Richardson and his grandmother, 71-year-old Yao Fang.
Their deaths have been referred to the Coroner.
In a statement Austen’s parents, Keith and Angel, said he was the “much-loved” only child of the couple, and Fang’s only grandchild. Angel was Fang’s only child.
“Austen and his grandmother had an incredibly close relationship – with Austen affectionately calling her Nai Nai.”
Austen was born in Shanghai, China, and the family moved back to New Zealand with him when he was about eight months old.
Since Austen was born Fang had spent “extended periods” of time with the family in New Zealand.
“Austen had just finished at Arataki School where he thrived in the Montessori class. It perfectly suited his personality.”
Austen had been accepted to Bethlehem College and was due to start as a Year 7.
“A gifted musician, Austen loved piano, was extremely mechanically minded, loved building Lego, riding motorbikes, Pokémon and solving math equations.
“The weekend before the tragedy, we visited the Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival before surprising him with his dream motocross bike from a mate on the way home.
“This will forever be a treasured memory.”
The family recently attended the Annual Honda Kids Camp at Lake Rotoiti.
“Austen spoke Mandarin fluently, was proud of his Chinese heritage and loved visiting China on our trips back.”
The family said they were “lucky” to have Fang spend so much time with them.
Ten-year-old Austen Keith Richardson and his grandmother, 71-year-old Yao Fang.Supplied / Police
“She was a beautiful mother and grandmother, deeply caring, so generous and always prioritising looking after others ahead of herself.
“Fang worked as an architect in China while raising Angel as a solo parent.
“She loved the nature in New Zealand, helped us grow an incredible vegetable garden, looked after our chickens, and joined us at Chinese Methodist Church in Greerton.”
The family was grateful for the “amazing support” they had received.
“We are absolutely devastated by the loss of our treasured son and his beloved Nai Nai.
“Our thoughts are also with the other families impacted by the Mount Maunganui tragedy and what they are going through.”
‘Bright’, talented musician
St Peter’s Anglican Church director of music Chalium Poppy earlier told RNZ the boy was due to come to a piano lesson at the Mt Maunganui church on Thursday.
Poppy said he was contacted by a friend of the family to say the boy was missing in one of the slips.
“I’d been teaching all morning, so I hadn’t heard the news about the slips yet, and so I was a little bit caught off guard and on the back foot, but it became obvious during the day that it was a lot more serious,” he said.
“Then I found out again from a friend of the family, whose son also takes piano from me, that it was confirmed today that he was one of the two victims.”
Poppy said the boy had recently started taking piano lessons with him.
“He had only sort of just started, so he had a few lessons… but like with all my students, I always sort of do a meet and greet first and make sure that it’s going to be a right fit for the student and the parents and everything and so I got to know him through sort of the meet and greet more than his lessons, but he was just really bright and incredibly talkative… asked lots of really great questions, like a really cool, sort of inquisitive mind, and obviously talented
musically.”
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Millions of people in southeastern Australia are sweating through a record-breaking heatwave. The heat this week is likely to be one for the history books. The heat began on Saturday January 24th. On Australia Day, three sites in South Australia and two in New South Wales broke their all-time temperature records. Ceduna reached a whopping 49.5°C in the shade – just 1.2°C off the highest temperature ever recorded in Australia.
Today, temperatures have topped 49°C in northwest Victoria and South Australia for the first time on record, and many towns face days of heat over 40°C. Regions such as the Otway Ranges in Victoria are facing extreme fire danger. Renmark in South Australia has reached 49.3°C and Walpeup in Victoria has reached 48.7°C.
This is shaping up as the worst heatwave since the Black Summer of 2019-20. The intense heat that summer contributed to catastrophic bushfires which burnt 21% of the continent, an area still considered globally unprecedented.
Independent analysis found the last heatwave between January 5 to 10 was made over five times more likely by global heating. This current heatwave is substantially worse, but we’ll have to wait for attribution studies to understand how much global heating has contributed to its overall severity.
The sustained heat hitting the southeast will be widespread and prolonged. It’s likely more all-time temperature records will be broken this week, as the body of hot air stagnates over the south and southeast. People in exposed areas should heed warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology and advice from health and emergency response authorities.
What’s driving this heatwave?
The Pilbara region in northwest Western Australia is sometimes called the nation’s “heat engine”. This large, sparsely populated area is very dry. When heat hits Pilbara rocks and sands, it can quickly build up. Weather conditions are very stable, and Pilbara heatwaves can last weeks.
But that doesn’t explain how the heat gets to population centres in Australia’s south and southeast.
Over summer, there are often active monsoonal troughs (areas of low atmospheric pressure) over northern Australia. As the monsoon brings heavy rain and low pressure systems to parts of northern Australia, it pushes high pressure systems, known as heat domes, further south. This directs intense heat thousands of kilometres towards the southern, central and eastern parts of the continent.
Tropical monsoonal low-pressure systems in the north often work in tandem with slow-moving high pressure systems in the Tasman Sea or Great Australian Bight. The result is a weather pattern able to shift hot air masses thousands of kilometres to reach the southern states.
Predicted temperature around 5pm at 2m above sea level from January 27 to January 31, 2026. NOAA Visualisation Lab
Blocking highs are strong high pressure systems which can sit in place for days or even weeks, blocking other weather systems from moving in. The blocking high pressure system responsible for the current heatwave is staying put in the atmosphere a few kilometres above New South Wales.
As winds blow from areas of high pressure to low pressure in the atmosphere, air is forced to flow down towards the surface. As the air descends, it compresses due to rising atmospheric pressure. Compression heats the air further, which can make heatwaves hotter and longer-lasting.
When conditions like this are in place, hot northerly winds often persist for days, funnelling more and more desert heat towards the coasts. This can cause temperatures to exceed 40°C in states such as South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland.
During this extreme heatwave, maximum temperatures in some southern towns are approaching 50°C – the sort of temperature once restricted to famously hot towns such as Marble Bar in Western Australia.
The official Australian record for the maximum temperature in the shade is 50.7°C, recorded at Oodnadatta (South Australia) in 1960 and Onslow (Western Australia) in 2022. This shared all-time record may be broken at several southeast inland locations this week as atmospheric conditions are amplified by the steady drumbeat of global heating.
During severe, prolonged heatwaves, intense daytime heat is accompanied by hot nights. The humidity can sometimes also increase due to tropical moisture being transported south. The combination of heat and humidity (measured as heat indices) is particularly dangerous to humans, livestock and wildlife.
Should this heatwave be named?
For decades, tropical cyclones hitting Australia have been given names. Should heatwaves similarly be given names to encourage people to take them seriously? Names can make weather hazards more memorable, helping people recall warnings, share information with neighbours and prepare more effectively.
This week’s heatwave would be an excellent candidate for naming. It is severe, breaking all-time records, long-lasting and widespread. It is also threatening major metropolitan centres with high populations, as well as major regional centres and nationally important agricultural districts. To date, there’s no sign authorities plan to name it.
Responding to future heatwaves
Climate scientists now widely agree average global temperatures will permanently rise 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels by the early 2030s. They may reach 2.7°C by the 2090s if global carbon emissions do not fall sharply.
This means future heatwaves are likely to strike more often and hit harder when they arrive.
We need to adapt to the increasing threats posed by more and worse heatwaves even as we work to cut emissions. Extreme heat is a public health issue, to say nothing of the threats it poses to our wildlife and livestock who have no escape.
Steve Turton has previously received funding from the Australian and Queensland governments.
An upturned car and water tank were amongst the debris from the large slip on Motuhoa Road last week.RNZ/Calvin Samuel
Thames Coromandel’s local State of Emergency ends at noon tomorrow, and the mayor told RNZ at this point it is unlikely to be extended.
However, as the district tried to dry out it had challenges ahead, including two major slips on its main state highway and 63 storm-damaged homes.
Claire Steer, chair of Pāuanui Neighbourhood Support said the sun was shining today and things were getting back to normal after the recent storm.
“During the weather event last week we had a tremendous amount of rain, in fact probably more rain than we had at Gabrielle, but we were very very lucky we didn’t have the wind that accompanied Gabrielle, so the amount of damage wasn’t as bad initially,” she said.
Pāuanui was flooded in for a time, and three houses had been red stickered.
Steer said being a sandspit the water had drained away easily, roads were now open, and locals had shown up for each other.
“The community’s been amazing in that we’ve had just huge amounts of offers for temporary accommodation to help the local people,” she said.
Across the river mouth from Pāuanui, Mt Paku faced a bigger clean up with a major landslip taking out a home and cutting the main water pipe into the community.
One of many slips on Tairua Whitianga Road.RNZ/Calvin Samuel
Resident John Drummond lived two houses away and had been keeping a close eye on the slip.
“Over the last few days, the slip has pretty much remained where it was – although a few smaller bits of trees and land have slipped down the face,” he said.
Drummond said the council was very quick to get the water back on, clear a way through the road and make sure the community was ok.
“The road down below has been cleared, the neighbouring properties are busily tidying up their properties and with the sun coming out it’s all starting to look a whole lot better,” he said.
Higher up the Peninsula at Cooks Beach, water was still ponding and smaller slips were being cleared.
Mercury Bay South Residents and Ratepayers Association chair, Paul Hopkins, said he would like to see small communities given more authority and agency to clean up after events.
“I think every small centre should have a designated group that actually gets in and can help out, it should be communities that fix problems not necessarily relying on your local council,” he said.
Hopkins said what might seem like a small low-priority slip to council can really affect locals who currently were discouraged from clearing these themselves.
Thames Coromandel District mayor Peter Revell said all local roads were open and no community was still cut off.
But two major slips on the main road, Highway 25, remain and one was particularly challenging.
“The one south of Whangamata blocking the road between Whangamata and Waihi is massive and is going to take longer and at this stage I’m not sure NZTA is even putting an estimated date on when that might be cleared,” he said.
SH25 between Hikuai and Tairua was severely damaged in some parts.RNZ/Calvin Samuel
These slips would be causing problems for local residents who were no longer trapped but were inconvenienced.
“If you live in Whangamata and you were wanting to go for instance to Tauranga you can’t just drop down and go through Waihi you need to come up and go across State Highway 25A and then head your way back down,” he said.
Revell said it could take the rest of the week to complete rapid building inspections, checking in on storm-damaged homes.
As of today, nine homes had been red stickered (no one should enter), 24 yellow stickered (residents have limited supervised access only), and 30 white (safe to occupy).
He said everyone was out of those homes and were safe.
“The places which are being placarded are a mix of permanent residences and holiday homes, the impact would not be the same as if they were all residential properties,” said Revell.
Today, Prime Minister Chris Luxon announced the government was adding $1.2 million to the five mayoral relief funds in affected regions.
Revell encouraged people affected by the storm to look into applying.
“That fund is for people to be able to apply and just get a little bit of financial help that they might need at this stage,” he said.
As people take stock and the clean up continues, local MP Scott Simpson said everyone is hoping for a few dry weeks ahead.
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The Foreign Affairs Minister says the US President’s invitation for Christopher Luxon to join the Board of Peace for Gaza is a “multi-faceted” issue and requires a “measured look”.
No decision has been made yet regarding the invite, but Winston Peters says advice from his ministry is being prepared “as we speak”.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said last week he welcomed the beginning of the next phase of the peace plan for Gaza and would give the invite “due consideration”.
Speaking to reporters on the first day of Parliament, Peters said there hadn’t been a chance yet for him to discuss the invite with Luxon.
But he said the government was going to sit down and “dispassionately discuss” the issue in its entirety and what it might mean.
“Because it’s not just a small issue, it’s a multi-faceted issue, and we need to take a quite measured look at it.”
Asked whether he’d requested advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peters said “of course, they’re busy working on it as we speak”.
“I’ve asked them for a comprehensive paper covering all issues they can imagine.”
A draft charter for the organisation, which will be chaired by Trump, has been sent to a number of world leaders – including Canada’s Mark Carney, Australia’s Anthony Albanese, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Opposition leaders have condemned the invite, with Labour leader Chris Hipkins labelling the government’s so-far refusal to rule out joining the Board an “absolute disgrace”.
He said the fact Luxon was leaving the possibility open was “embarrassing for New Zealand”.
Greens-co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick had written to the Prime Minister on Monday, urging Luxon to “publicly and unequivocally reject this invitation”.
“It is critical that New Zealand joins like-minded nations, such as France, in rejecting the Board and defending the United Nations framework,” the letter read.
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Coach Andrew Webster calls the shots at Warriors training.Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
If this is to finally be the NZ Warriors’ year, the recipe for success seems simple enough.
“If you’re asking me what needs to happen, we need to do what we do better for longer,” coach Andrew Webster teased, as he addressed media for the first time in 2026.
“That’s a pretty similar response from me for a long time now. When we do it well, we do it really well – that’s why we’ve made the playoffs twice in the last three years – but we’re not here to do that.
“We’re here to win the whole thing.”
Last sighted, Webster painted a forlorn picture, reflecting on his team’s one-and-done exit from the NRL playoffs against four-time defending champions Penrith Panthers.
“I just feel we’ve built some great stuff, but that last piece is missing.” he lamented last September. “I feel like we’ve handled adversity and stayed really tight, but there’s a piece missing.
“We could launch, if we take those lessons and go to the next step, or we could stay exactly where we are, which is just a top-six team. I just think we can be better.”
With the benefit of four months to review last year’s effort, Webster isn’t making any bold predictions about the upcoming campaign, which begins with a pre-season trial against Manly Sea Eagles at Napier on 14 February.
Warriors co-captain Mitch Barnett in pre-season training.Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
His response to the ‘how’ question acknowledges that his Warriors were one of the form teams early in the 2025 competition, when they came out of the blocks 8-2 and sat second on the table after Round 11.
Injuries and fatigue inevitably eroded their performance, as they lost co-captain Mitch Barnett and star half Luke Metcalf in quick succession mid-season, and never really recovered.
“We’ve got to improve what we do and do it for longer,” emphasises Webster. “We can’t have those periods where there are big momentum shifts and we give teams those opportunities.”
Barnett and Metcalf still aren’t up to full speed, as they continue to nurse their respective knee injuries, although they are back out on the training field. Both seem likely to miss the pre-season.
“Barney is expected around Rounds 0-4, anywhere in that range,” estimated Webster. “Luke would be Rounds 7-10.
“In the last month, they can start doing a lot, but they can’t give everything, so you have to see how they progress in that period. It looks like they’re flying up to this point, but this is the point where you actually see how they go.
Warriors halfback Luke Metcalf in pre-season training.Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
“Luke definitely won’t be in pre-season trials or early rounds, that’s for sure.”
Centre Rocco Berry was another who could not stay on the field through a series of niggly injuries and he will again miss early rounds, after more off-season shoulder surgery.
Back-up fullback Taine Tuaupiki, whom many expect to press hard for the starting jersey this season, also suffered a leg injury during “an incident on his farm” and made a later start to training. He’ll be touch and go for the opening round.
Bolstering the squad are the additions of newcomers Morgan Gannon (second row/lock), Jye Linnane (half), Haizyn Mellars and Alofiano Khan-Pereira (wings), whom Webster expects to push for first-grade spots this season.
Meanwhile, the Warriors coach is not a fan of proposed rule changes designed to enhance the competitiveness of games.
One would give teams the option of either kicking off or receiving the ball, after conceding a try. The current format sees the conceding team kicking the ball back to their opponents.
“Whatever they give us, we’ll take it,” Webster said. “I thought it’s pretty good how it is, really.
“I think they’re trying to stop that big momentum, where someone can score three tries in a row, but if you’re conceding those, you’re probably not good enough.
“One of the most frustrating things, as a coach and player, is to be conceding off a kickoff, but if you’re getting scored against, the good teams make sure they stop the bleeding right there and then.
“I’m happy with the current rule, but if they change it, we’ll come up with ways to use it tactically to our advantage.”
Another change could see the interchange bench expand from four to six players, although the number of substitutions would stay at eight each game. Most coaches wrestle with the composition of their four-man benches, either carrying a utility player or relocating forwards out of position to cover injuries among the backs.
This amendment would allow them to cater for all contingencies.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Kurt Capewell lead the Warriors onto the training field.Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
“Any of the 19 could play and that would give clarity to the fans early in the week,” said Webster, who is renowned for making late changes to his gameday squad. “You guys are laughing at me, I can tell.
“I’m frustrated by this rule – I think it’s going to be hard to give guys gametime in reserve grade, because you’re carrying an extra two players.
“The beauty of our game is resilience and the ability to adapt, so if you’ve got particular players on the bench and someone goes down, that changes quick.
“I think now you’re always going to carry two hookers and a half, and a fullback/outside back on the bench, plus your forward rotation, which won’t change.
“If you lose the halfback and put him on, someone else doesn’t get a game. Come 10-12-16 games into the season, you could find these guys aren’t getting gametime in reserve grade and aren’t getting any better.”
Webster argues, if the rule change is designed to cater for concussions, this could be covered by activating the ’18th man’ quicker.
Current rules require three players failing head injury assessments or a match-ending injury caused by foul play, before the extra reserve can take the field.
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Woolworths in Te Awamutu was briefly closed on Tuesday afternoon.Google maps
Woolworths says its supermarket in Te Awamutu closed briefly on Tuesday afternoon after diesel fumes entered the rear storeroom while the sprinkler system and generator were being tested.
A spokesperson said staff working in the affected area were assessed by ambulance staff and no further treatment was required.
They said no customers were impacted and the store is now trading as usual.
“A full investigation will be conducted to prevent a recurrence of this type of incident. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience and any alarm caused,” the spokesperson said.
Fire and Emergency said two trucks attended the callout to the supermarket shortly after 2.30pm and cleared the store for re-opening by 3pm.
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A woman who arrived at Christchurch Hospital’s emergency department in acute pain died the next day after staff missed signs she had sepsis.
The 65-year-old patient died of urosepsis, a life-threatening complication of a urinary tract infection, in January 2022.
In a report released on Tuesday, deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Carolyn Cooper said the hospital failed to provide reasonable care, making “severe departures from standard practice”.
“I concur that there was a failure to recognise urosepsis in a timely way, which subsequently led to a lack of appropriate treatment being provided to [the woman],” she said.
Health NZ completed an adverse event review (AER) into the woman’s care and also found delays in the recognition and treatment of urosepsis.
The report said the woman had a history of high blood pressure and Crohn’s disease, with a previous bowel resection, small bowel obstructions and a kidney stone.
The woman was diagnosed with renal colic after being assessed in the ED and given pain relief.
She was then transferred to the hospital’s urology unit.
The report said the woman was experiencing prolonged hypotension by the next morning.
“Throughout the day, [the woman] received intravenous fluid boluses as the primary intervention for her hypotension. However, her [blood pressure] did not respond to this adequately,” the report said.
“The AER found that a lack of response or improvement from the fluid should have triggered a challenge of the diagnosis and consideration of other possible differential diagnoses or causes. However, this did not occur.”
Medical reviews at the time suggested the woman’s hypotension may have been due to the effects of the pain relief.
Clinicians noted the woman was “chirpy and chatty” throughout the day and that she did not have a fever but clinical notes also recorded instances of the woman shivering, a symptom of sepsis, the report said.
“The AER found that clinical staff exhibited anchoring bias – that is, there was an over-reliance on the absence of a fever, which normally is present in urosepsis, despite the lack of improvement over the day,” the report said.
“While the nurse in charge, the house officer, and the registrar were informed of [the woman’s] deterioration, there is no evidence of a senior medical officer consultation (after the initial ward round at 8am), consideration of involvement of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) team, or a rapid response call being made when [the woman’s] observations were in the red and blue zone, as required by the mandatory escalation pathway.”
The deputy commissioner found an “early warning score” chart had several incomplete observations throughout the day, with the total score also not recorded, which was not in line with Health NZ policy.
Cooper criticised Health NZ’s failure to follow its mandatory escalation and urosepsis policies and the renal colic protocol.
“Had these policies been adhered to, the delay in the diagnosis of urosepsis may have been avoided,” she said.
Cooper recommended Health NZ Waitaha Canterbury apologise to the woman’s family.
She also recommended developing an education and training plan for staff around diagnosing urosepsis and the importance of medical documentation.
Health NZ told the commissioner it had changed its renal colic protocols to highlight the need to consider an alternative diagnosis, run an education refresher on sepsis and run an education session for urology nurses.
In a statement, Health New Zealand chief medical officer Te Waipounamu Alan Pithie said patient safety and quality of care was a top priority.
“On behalf of Health New Zealand, we would like to say how sorry we are for what happened and extend our sincerest condolences to the patient’s family and friends for the loss of their loved one. We are deeply sorry for the distress caused and recognise that the patient’s death in 2022 has had, and continues to have, a profound and long-lasting impact,” he said.
“We acknowledge the deputy commissioner’s findings and have provided the family with a written apology. We have also implemented changes to improve our services including amending the renal colic clinical pathway for care, rolling out a national sepsis action plan, and updating processes for recording clinical information on deteriorating patients.
“Work is also underway to implement refresher education for urology nursing staff on early warning scores (EWS) and adding more functionality to the digital adult EWS pathway.”
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For flowering plants, reproduction is a question of the birds and the bees. Attracting the right pollinator can be a matter of survival – and new research shows how flowers do it is more intriguing than anyone realised, and might even involve a little bit of magic.
In our new paper, published in Current Biology, we discuss how a single “magic” trait of some flowering plants simultaneously camouflages them from bees and makes them stand out brightly to birds.
How animals see
We humans typically have three types of light receptors in our eyes, which enable our rich sense of colours.
These are cells sensitive to blue, green or red light. From the input from these cells, the brain generates many colours including yellow via what is called colour opponent processing.
The way colour opponent processing works is that different sensed colours are processed by the brain in opposition. For example, we see some signals as red and some as green – but never a colour in between.
Bees see their world using cells that sense ultraviolet, blue and green light, while birds have a fourth type sensitive to red light as well.
Our colour perception illustrated with the spectral bar is different to bees that are sensitive to UV, blue and green, or birds with four colour photoreceptors including red sensitivity. Adrian Dyer & Klaus Lunau, CC BY
The problem flowering plants face
So what do these differences in colour vision have to do with plants, genetics and magic?
Flowers need to attract pollinators of the right size, so their pollen ends up on the correct part of an animal’s body so it’s efficiently flown to another flower to enable pollination.
Accordingly, birds tend to visit larger flowers. These flowers in turn need to provide large volumes of nectar for the hungry foragers.
But when large amounts of sweet-tasting nectar are on offer, there’s a risk bees will come along to feast on it – and in the process, collect valuable pollen. And this is a problem because bees are not the right size to efficiently transfer pollen between larger flowers.
Flowers “signal” to pollinators with bright colours and patterns – but these plants need a signal that will attract birds without drawing the attention of bees.
A walk through nature lets us see with our own eyes that most red flowers are visited by birds, rather than bees. So bird-pollinated flowers have successfully made the transition. Two different theories have been developed that may explain what we observe.
One theory is the bee avoidance hypotheses where bird pollinated flowers just use a colour that is hard for bees to see.
In evolutionary science, the term magic trait refers to an evolved solution where one genetic modification may yield fitness benefits in multiple ways.
Earlier this month, a team working on how this might apply to flowering plants showed that a gene that modulates UV-absorbing pigments in flower petals can indeed have multiple benefits. This is because of how bees and birds view colour signals differently.
Bee-pollinated flowers come in a diverse range of colours. Bees even pollinate some plants with red flowers. But these flowers tend to also reflect a lot of UV, which helps bees find them.
The magic gene has the effect of reducing the amount of UV light reflected from the petal, making flowers harder for bees to see. But (and this is where the magic comes in) reducing UV reflection from a petal of a red flower simultaneously makes it look redder for animals – such as birds – which are believed to have a colour opponent system.
Red flowers look similar for humans, but as flowers evolved for bird vision a genetic change down-regulates UV reflection, making flowers more colourful for birds and less visible to bees. Adrian Dyer & Klaus Lunau, CC BY
Birds that visit these bright red flowers gain rewards – and with experience, they learn to go repeatedly to the red flowers.
One small gene change for colour signalling in the UV yields multiple beneficial outcomes by avoiding bees and displaying enhanced colours to entice multiple visits from birds.
We lucky humans are fortunate that our red perception can also see the result of this clever little trick of nature to produce beautiful red flower colours. So on your next walk on a nice day, take a minute to view one of nature’s great experiments on finding a clever solution to a complex problem.
Adrian Dyer previously received funding from The Australian Research Council.
Klaus Lunau previously received funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer in International Studies in the School of Society and Culture, Adelaide University
Five years ago, on February 1 2021, Myanmar’s top generals decapitated the elected government. Democratic leaders were arrested, pushed underground or forced into exile.
Since then, the economy has spluttered and foreign investors have headed for the exit. The only growth industries – mostly scam centres, drugs and other criminal activities – enrich those already well-fed.
The military junta has kept its stranglehold via draconian curbs on civil and political liberties. It has bolstered its fighting forces through ruthless conscription, including of child soldiers. They now face rebellions in almost every corner of the ethnically diverse country.
It helps that the military brass can still depend on international support from Russia. China, meanwhile, is playing a careful game to ensure its interests – including prized access to the Indian Ocean for oil and gas – are secured.
And US President Donald Trump’s second term in office has introduced newly unpredictable and detrimental elements to great power politics.
The US government last year cited “notable progress in governance and stability [and] plans for free and fair elections” as justification for removing the Temporary Protected Status designation for immigrants from Myanmar. Although a federal judge blocked this decision a few days ago, this may eventually force previously protected Myanmar citizens to return home.
However, far from being free and fair, the month-long elections that just concluded in Myanmar have been devoid of meaningful democratic practice.
They will entrench the junta and provide little more than a patina of legitimacy that anti-democratic major powers will use to further normalise relations with Myanmar’s military leaders.
Myanmar’s deeply flawed election
The multi-stage elections were being held in only a fraction of the country currently under the military’s authority. Elections were not held in opposition-held territory, so many otherwise eligible voters were disenfranchised.
As such, there is no serious opposition to the military’s proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Civil and political space is also heavily restricted, with criticism of the election itself being a criminal offence.
The main opposition would be the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which has won by a landslide in every national election it has participated in since 1990. But it has been banned, along with dozens of other opposition political parties. Its senior leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, have been imprisoned.
Despite recent military gains by the junta, supported by Russian military technology and Chinese government pressure, the lines of control may be starting to solidify into an eventual Balkanisation, or break up, of Myanmar into hostile statelets.
The prospects for a future federalised democratic Myanmar seem increasingly remote.
Since, the coup there are many areas now under full opposition control. Take, for instance, a recent declaration of independence by a breakaway ethnic Karen armed group. While they represent only one part of the Karen community in eastern Myanmar, this could well precipitate a flood of similar announcements by other ethnic minorities.
Other groups might declare themselves autonomous and seek backing from governments and commercial and security interests in neighbouring countries such as China, Thailand, India and Bangladesh.
Most neighbouring countries will be uneasy about any further fracturing of Myanmar’s territorial integrity. Some, however, see potential benefits. China, for example, supports some ethnic armed groups to protect its strategic economic assets and maintain stability and influence along its borders.
Will international rulings have any impact?
While the conflict continues at home, Myanmar’s military leadership is defending itself at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. It faces claims it committed genocide against the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority, particularly during the massacres of 2017.
Given the disdain for international law shown by Russia, China and the Trump administration in the US, any finding against the junta will have limited practical impact anyway.
What next?
Meanwhile, some countries in the the ASEAN bloc appear to be softening their opposition to the junta.
Recently, the Philippines foreign secretary met with Myanmar’s senior military leadership in the country’s first month chairing the bloc. This highlights the conundrum faced by regional leaders.
In the years immediately after the coup, ASEAN sought to keep Myanmar’s junta at arm’s length. But a number of key ASEAN players, particularly the more authoritarian regimes in Southeast Asia, would prefer to find a way to normalise engagement with the generals.
From that perspective, the flawed elections are a chance to embrace superficial democratisation and renewal.
This leaves the Myanmar people – millions of whom have fought hard against the coup and its negative consequences – with invidious choices about how to best pursue their independence and freedom.
There is little positive economic news on the horizon. The IMF projects inflation in Myanmar will stay above 30% in 2026 with a real GDP fall of 2.7%. This would compound an almost 20% contraction since the coup. The currency is worth around one quarter of what it was five years ago at the time of the coup.
In practice, this means many Myanmar families have gone backwards dramatically. An untold number are now entangled in illicit and often highly exploitative businesses.
The military’s proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), will undoubtedly form government after the elections. But unlike the USDP-led government that formed after the similarly flawed 2010 election, this new administration is unlikely to pursue political and economic liberalisation sufficient to entice opposition forces to play along.
The people of Myanmar have now been betrayed and brutalised by the military far too often to believe their easy promises.
As a pro vice-chancellor at the University of Tasmania, Nicholas Farrelly engages with a wide range of organisations and stakeholders on educational, cultural and political issues, including at the ASEAN-Australia interface. He has previously received funding from the Australian government for Southeast Asia-related projects and from the Australian Research Council. Nicholas is on the advisory board of the ASEAN-Australia Centre, which is an Australian government body established in 2024, and also Deputy Chair of the board of NAATI, Australia’s government-owned accreditation authority for translators and interpreters. He writes in his personal capacity.
Adam Simpson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Outgoing Blues coach Vern Cotter revealed today that his deal with the Queensland Reds was too far advanced for him to consider the now vacant All Blacks head coaching role. Cotter will leave the Blues for Brisbane at the end of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season and said he was as surprised as anyone when he heard the news of Scott Robertson’s sacking earlier this month.
“I was a bit blindsided by the Razor thing,” said Cotter.
“Probably nobody thought that was coming. There was a review, and after two years and two years before the World Cup, that’s what happens.”
Cotter, who originally agreed to a two-year contract with the Blues and extended for this season, said that he had committed to the move to the Reds to replace Les Kiss by the time NZ Rugby (NZR) had made their decision regarding Robertson.
“We were so far down the track with the Reds, it would have been hard to make myself available for the All Blacks. It’s timing and it didn’t work out.”
The 64-year-old, who has had an extensive coaching career at both test and domestic level, admitted that things could’ve been different had they lined up better.
“I’d love to coach All Blacks – I applied in 2011. That’s a long time ago, but, but once again, I had given my word and I don’t want to go back on it. I’m not letting people down.”
Cotter said he hadn’t discussed the end of season player review, that proved so critical in Robertson’s fate, with any of his All Blacks squad members.
“What we can gather from it is that there’s a very clear idea of what they want to happen next. The (NZR) board, David Kirk and whatever. So we’re not privy to it the players aren’t really either… we certainly don’t like asking and that belongs to them and that (All Blacks) environment.
Cotter ruling himself out of contention seemingly narrows the field to Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie as likely leading candidates for the All Blacks role.
New Blues CEO Karl Budge said the process to find a replacement for Cotter was already underway.
“This has been part of planning for quite some time,” said Budge.
“So we’ve had loads of chats with Vern. He’ll tell you that timing is always pretty important, and this is a club that’s well planned out. We wanted to look out to the future and I think the work with Vern has allowed us to do that.”
Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu holds up the trophy as the Blues team celebrate winning the Super Rugby Pacific final.Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
Budge praised Cotter for “teaching us how to win” after guiding the Blues to the 2024 title, their first in a full Super Rugby format in 21 years.
Meanwhile, Cotter remains focused on the upcoming Super Rugby Pacific campaign, as they try and repeat that 2024 championship run. He confirmed today that All Blacks Beauden Barrett and Patrick Tuipulotu will be missing from the first few rounds, with Barrett on mandatory rest and scheduled to return in round four against the Crusaders.
Tuipulotu is still recovering from a shoulder injury and is expected back by round six.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Farmers came from far and wide for the the Parapara-Makirikiri Sheep Dog Trial Club auction.supplied
Organisers of a long-standing North Island working dog auction are in disbelief after $320,000 changed hands at their latest sale.
With sheep farming riding a wave of record lamb prices and strong international demand, buyers arrived at the auction near Whanganui last Saturday with extra money in their back pockets.
Hundreds attended the annual Parapara-Makirikiri Sheep Dog Trial Club auction held on a rural property near Whangaehu which featured more than 60 dogs up for sale.
Inclement weather on the day did little to slow the bidding.
Fierce competition pushed heading dog Trix to the top price of $12,200, bettering last year’s best by nearly $3000.
Jonathan Smailes shows his 11-month-old Wedge to the crowd at the Parapara-Makirikiri Sheep Dog Trial Club auction. She sold for $9800.supplied
The top huntaway Mufasa from Taihape’s Peter Wilson sold for $10,500 – with the young farmer selling three more prized working dogs Spud, Shaggy and Queen. This topped last year’s top huntaway of $9800.
And in a strong run of prices, seven huntaways and two heading dogs sold for at least $9000 on Saturday.
Club spokesperson Brenda O’Leary said the scale of the prices had taken organisers by surprise.
“People can’t believe how much money we have turned over at the sale,” she said.
“There’s a shortage of quality farm dogs.”
O’Leary attributed some of the success of the sale to farmers having less time to break dogs in.
And top-priced Twix certainly fitted the bill.
Taihape farmer Peter Wilson said it’s hard to let your best friends go to another home.supplied
She was described in the run down as “honest, good natured, easy to work and have around”.
Mufasa meanwhile was also fully broken in and “a nice powerful dog”.
Wilson conceded it could be hard to let dogs go to a new owner.
The sun came out only briefly on the day of the sale.supplied
“I’m pretty adamant that these dogs have to go to a good home. At the end of the day they’re good mates of mine,” Wilson said.
“They do a lot for you. But when someone’s paying top dollar like they have been, they’ve got to look after them.”
On average huntaways fetched higher prices with an average of $6500.
That pipped the heading dogs average of $4700.
The event is run as a fundraiser for the Parapara-Makirikiri Sheep Dog Trial Club. O’Leary said the auction entry fee of $150 per dog will now help with the club’s running costs. She said most of the funds will be used to host their annual hill country trial held at Parikino which includes the cost of getting sheep to the trial.
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The logbook of presidential flights in Indonesia reveals an unusual pattern — from the Merdeka Palace to the Land of the Bird of Paradise.
By 2023, then President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had set foot in Papua at least 17 times — a record in the republic’s history, surpassing the total visits of all previous presidents combined.
Each touchdown of the presidential plane on the land of Papua or at the new airports he inaugurated was more than just a working visit. It was a statement of presence as a political message: Papua is no longer marginalised; it exists on Indonesia’s main political map.
Yet, behind the roar of the presidential plane and the welcoming traditional dances, lies a critical question: Has the physical presence of a national leader, accompanied by the rumble of massive infrastructure projects, touched the core issues of Papua?
Or has it merely become a grand symbol of integration, while social fractures, injustice, and sorrow continue to flow?
This analysis evaluates the multifaceted impact of President Jokowi’s dozen plus visits and draw crucial lessons for the new administration of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka (Jokowi’s Son) in weaving a more just and sustainable Papuan policy.
The multidimensional impact of Jokowi’s visits From a national political perspective, the frequency of President Jokowi’s visits to Papua, was a smart and unprecedented political communication strategy. Each landing in the Melanesian land has not merely been a routine agenda but a powerful symbolic political performance.
Handshakes with tribal chiefs, meetings with traditional leaders in public arenas, and speeches amid crowds function as direct counter-narratives to long-standing issues of marginalisation and separatism.
This physical presidential presence is an undeniable visual declaration: Papua is an inseparable part of Indonesia, and the nation’s highest leader is consistently present there.
This presence serves as a potent tool of state legitimacy, shortening the psychological distance between the centre of power in Jakarta and the easternmost Melanesian region, while demonstrating the intended political commitment. However, beneath this symbolism, the legitimacy built through physical presence is temporary if not supported by real structural change.
The critical question often raised by the community, especially Indigenous Papuans (OAP), is simple yet fundamental: “After the president’s planes and helicopters leave and the protocol frenzy subsides, what has truly changed for our lives?”
The narrative of integration through presence and physical development often clashes with demands for self-determination and historical grievances still alive among indigenous Papuans, as reflected in the ongoing armed conflict in the Central Highlands, indicating that this approach has not fully addressed the deep-seated roots of dissatisfaction.
The most visible legacy of the Jokowi era in Papua is none other than the infrastructure revolution — thousands of kilometres of the Trans-Papua Road cutting through wilderness and remote mountains, the magnificent Youtefa Bridge in Jayapura, and airport modernisations like Ewer Airport in Asmat, Wamena Airport, and the construction of the trans-Wamena-Jayapura road, Wamena-Nduga road, and other physical developments.
The government’s logic is that connectivity is an absolute prerequisite for growth. With good roads, the price of necessities in the interior is expected to drop, tourism can develop, and public services like health and education can become faster and more equitable.
Data from the Ministry of Public Works and Housing indeed records significant accessibility improvements. However, behind this physical progress, reports from organisations like the Pusaka Foundation and Greenpeace Indonesia warn of massive and often overlooked ecological impacts.
The opening of certain segments of the Trans-Papua Road is judged to accelerate deforestation, threaten Papua’s unique biodiversity, and disrupt watershed areas.
More profoundly, the issue of community involvement and consent in land acquisition processes often becomes a source of new conflict, sparking tension. As Indonesian human rights activist Usman Hamid has stated, infrastructure development is like a double-edged sword: on one side, it opens isolation and shortens distances, but on the other, it paradoxically erodes customary land rights, damages the environment that is the source of their cultural life and subsistence, and ironically, is enjoyed more by new settlers with greater capital and networks.
On the socio-economic level, the government vigorously distributed various social assistance programmes such as the Indonesia Health Card (KIS), Indonesia Smart Card (KIP), and various forms of Direct Cash Assistance (BLT).
These affirmative policies aim directly at catching up on welfare gaps and, statistically, have succeeded in reducing poverty rates in cities like Jayapura, although they remain the highest nationally. Sectors like Youtefa Bay tourism also show rapid growth. However, the economic growth created is often enclave-like and not inclusive.
Maria, a small business owner in Jayapura, illustrates this reality — large infrastructure projects are handled by contractors from outside Papua, hotels and medium-scale businesses are often owned by non-Papuan investors, while local SMEs struggle to compete due to limited access to capital, training, and marketing networks.
The structural gap between OAP and non-Papuans in ownership of means of production and access to quality job opportunities remains wide. Consequently, many Papuan sons and daughters only become manual labourers or contract workers on the grand projects building their ancestral land, an irony that deepens the sense of injustice.
In the socio-cultural realm, President Jokowi’s presence, often adorned with Papuan cultural ornaments and humbly participating in traditional dances, was a powerful form of symbolic recognition. This gesture sent a national message that Papuan culture is respected and valued at the highest state level.
However, this symbolic recognition on the political stage often does not align with the daily reality in Papua. The late Papuan peace figure, Father Neles Tebay, once described that in Papuan cities, “two worlds” often coexist but do not integrate: the modern world of migrants dominating the formal sector and modern economy, and the world of indigenous communities, often marginalised in culturally insensitive development processes.
Ethnic-tinged horizontal conflicts that have occurred, such as in Jayapura and Mimika, are clear indicators of how fragile social harmony is and how deep the unresolved socio-cultural gap remains.
The darkest and most challenging point of this entire development narrative lies in human rights issues and the unending armed conflict. Although presidential visits often include a conflict resolution agenda, incidents of human rights violations and armed clashes between security forces and the TPNPB (West Papua National Liberation Army) continue to recur, with unarmed civilians often becoming trapped victims, as in the tragedies in Nduga and Intan Jaya highlighted by Komnas HAM and LBH Jakarta.
An approach relying almost solely on physical development, unaccompanied by sincere efforts towards historical reconciliation and fair, transparent law enforcement for past human rights violations, is considered by many in Papua as merely “covering a festering internal wound with a bandage”.
This unresolved historical pain and injustice continues to be the main fuel for resistance and demands for independence, proving that concrete and asphalt roads alone are not enough to build lasting peace and justice felt by all the nation’s children.
Valuable lessons for the Prabowo-Gibran era The current administration under President Prabowo Subianto and Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka must not continue the Papuan policy with business as usual. The previous administration’s legacy offers a clear roadmap, as well as warnings about dead ends that must be avoided.
Four critical lessons should form the basis for transitioning from symbolic development to substantive, just transformation.
First, policy focus must undergo a paradigm shift from mere physical development towards the holistic empowerment of Papuan people. This means massive investment in quality education with curricula relevant to social contexts and local potential, as well as vocational training that equips Indigenous Papuans with skills to manage the economy on their own land.
Firm and measurable affirmative schemes must be designed to ensure Indigenous Papuans are not merely spectators, but the primary owners and managers of strategic economic sectors, from culture-based tourism and organic agriculture to creative industries.
Without this step, magnificent infrastructure will only become a channel for an extractive economy controlled by outsiders, perpetuating dependency and disparity.
Second, the government must enforce the principle of absolute harmony between development, cultural preservation, and environmental protection. Every major project, especially those touching customary lands and indigenous forest areas, must undergo credible, participatory, and legally binding Environmental and Social-Cultural Impact Assessments (AMDAL & ANDAL).
Development must no longer sacrifice local wisdom and ecosystems that are the soul and identity of Papuan society. Development models imported from Java or Sumatra must be reviewed and replaced with approaches born from dialogue with local ecology and culture, so that progress is not synonymous with environmental destruction and cultural marginalisation.
Third, this new era must open space for conflict resolution through a courageous approach of dialogue and reconciliation. The government needs to initiate inclusive dialogue involving all elements of Papuan society, including pro-independence groups willing to discuss peacefully, to address the roots of historical and structural dissatisfaction.
This complex issue has been comprehensively formulated by the Papua Peace Network. The establishment of an independent and trusted Papua Truth and Reconciliation Commission could be a monumental step to heal past wounds and build a foundation for sustainable peace, recognising that true security is born from justice.
Fourth, Special Autonomy must be revived in its meaning and spirit. A comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law, along with its trillions of rupiah in fund flows, is a necessity.
These funds must be shifted from physical projects that are often off-target to investments in enhancing the capacity, health, and economy of indigenous Papuans. More importantly, Special Autonomy must be interpreted as a political recognition of the special rights of Indigenous Papuans.
This means strengthening traditional institutions and providing real and decisive participatory space in every strategic decision-making at the provincial and district levels, so that policies are no longer felt as something imposed from Jakarta.
Ultimately, the main challenge for the Prabowo-Gibran administration is to demonstrate that commitment to Papua goes beyond rhetoric and showcase projects. Success will be measured not by the length of roads built, but by the fading of tension, the reduction of disparities, and the rise of self-confidence and economic independence among Indigenous Papuans.
Only by making these four pillars — human empowerment, harmony, dialogue, and living autonomy — the foundation of policy can Papua be truly integrated into the Republic of Indonesia in a dignified and sustainable manner.
“Only by making four pillars — human empowerment, harmony, dialogue, and living autonomy — the foundation of policy can Papua be truly integrated into the Republic of Indonesia in a dignified and sustainable manner.” Image: Laurens Ikinia/APR
A revolutionary approach model To translate the lessons from the previous era, the current administration requires a radical change in its approach model, moving from a centralised development paradigm towards participatory governance based on Papuan native institutions.
This ministry is not intended to manage regional administration, but specifically to guarantee the fulfilment of indigenous Papuans’ rights, as mandated in the Special Autonomy Law.
By placing the Governing Body for the Acceleration of Special Autonomy Development in Papua (BP3OKP) and the Papua Special Autonomy Acceleration Executive Committee under it, the government can create centralised, strong, and accountable coordination, thereby avoiding programme overlap and leakage of Special Autonomy funds.
This institutional revolution must be supported by data-based governance and authentic participation. Every policy and fund allocation, especially the massive Special Autonomy funds, must arise from rigorous data studies and in-depth dialogue with the community, rather than just technocratic planning in Jakarta.
Transparency and accountability in fund use must be guaranteed through independent oversight mechanisms that actively involve representatives of traditional councils or institutions, religious institutions, and local NGOs as watchdogs. Only then can the allocated funds truly become an instrument of change, not merely an instrument of expenditure.
Another key pillar is building equal and formal partnerships with Papuan traditional institutions, such as the Papuan Customary Council (DAP) and various stakeholders. These institutions are not merely ceremonial objects but must be recognised as strategic government partners in every stage of development, from planning and implementation to evaluation.
As socio-cultural anchors, understanding the pulse and real needs of the community, their involvement can prevent social conflict and ensure development programmes align with local wisdom and customary rights.
Furthermore, meaningful decentralisation becomes a prerequisite for success. Local governments in Papua must be given substantive authority and massive capacity building to independently manage natural resources and public services.
Moreover, the development approach must start from the grassroots, making participatory development at the village level the standard method. This method ensures that community aspirations are heard directly and the projects implemented truly address their priority needs, not merely pursuing physical targets.
Ultimately, this approach aims to reverse the traditional relationship between the central government and local governments in Papua. From a relationship that has so far seemed patron-client, to a partnership based on the sovereignty of indigenous communities and substantive justice.
Thus, development is no longer felt as something given from above, but something built together from below, creating a sense of ownership and sustainability that will become the foundation for long-term peace and prosperity in Papua.
Indonesianising in the Papuan Way Reinterpreting the term “Indonesianising” Papua is a main task for the current administration. This concept must no longer be interpreted as an assimilation process erasing distinctive identity, but must transform into an integration that respects uniqueness.
True integration is not homogenisation, but an effort to embrace diversity as a strength. In this context, Indonesia is not a single mould, but a mosaic that gains its beauty precisely from the differences of each piece. For this, a multidimensional approach grounded in four main pillars is required.
First, in the field of education, the national curriculum must become more flexible and inclusive. Enrichment with local content — such as the history and wisdom of Papuan tribes, local languages, and inherited ecological wisdom — should not be merely supplementary, but the core of the learning process.
Schools must become places where Papuan children are proud of their identity while mastering global competencies. Second, in the field of the economy, self-reliance must be built on local strengths.
Easily accessible micro-financing systems, entrepreneurship training, and strong marketing support for flagship products like Wamena arabica coffee, sago, matoa, or high-value marine products will create a sovereign economy that empowers, rather than displaces, the indigenous people.
Third, recognition at the legal level is the foundation of justice. Recognition of the customary land rights of indigenous communities in land and natural resource governance must be guaranteed and integrated into national regulations. This is a concrete step to prevent agrarian conflict and ensure development benefits return to the rightful land owners.
Fourth, building intensive cultural dialogue through student, artist, and youth exchange programs between Papua and other regions, or other countries. This direct interaction will break the chain of prejudice, build empathy, and strengthen a true sense of brotherhood as one nation.
Towards a ‘Just Papua’ The legacy from the previous period is ambivalent. On one hand, there is magnificent infrastructure and symbolic integration strengthened through physical presence; on the other, deep disappointment remains due to unbridged gaps and a persistently pulsating conflict.
The Prabowo-Gibran administration now stands at a historical crossroads. The choice is between continuing the visually spectacular yet often elitist “concrete development” model or taking a more winding yet dignified path: namely, the Papuan human empowerment model, which places indigenous Papuans as the primary subject and heir to the future of their own land.
This strategic choice will be fate-determining. It will measure, later at the end of their term, whether presidential and vice-presidential visits to Papua are still met with cold protocol performances, or with new hope and genuine smiles from a people who feel recognised, valued, and empowered.
Ultimately, genuine national integration can only be realised when Indigenous Papuans can stand tall with all their identity and dignity, not as a party being “Indonesianised,” but as fully-fledged Indonesians who also shape the face of the nation.
The future of Papua is not about becoming like others, but about being itself in the embrace of the Bird of Garuda.
Laurens Ikinia is a Papuan lecturer and researcher at the Institute of Pacific Studies, Indonesian Christian University, Jakarta. He is also an honorary member of the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN) in Aotearoa New Zealand, and an occasional contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
A cordon is up and armed police are in the suburb of Awapuni in Palmerston North while armed officers search for person who fled police after their vehicle’s tyres were spiked.
The police said they were told about a stolen vehicle on Main Street, Roslyn, at about midday.
It was spotted on a nearby street and officers watched the vehicle before deploying road spikes.
The driver then fled on foot, and police are trying to find them.
A gun was found in the abandoned vehicle.
A cordon is up on Alexander Street, and the public is being asked to avoid the area.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
More than 10,000 more withdrawals were made from KiwiSaver for hardship reasons last year than in 2024, and providers say there’s no sign of the rate slowing.
Inland Revenue data shows there were 58,460 withdrawals for hardship reasons in 2025, 10,000 more than were made for a first home.
In total, $514.8 million was withdrawn from KiwiSaver because of hardship, and $2.1 billion for a first home.
In 2024, there were 47,390 hardship withdrawals to a total of $403.8m
Dean Anderson, founder of Kernel, said it showed the two-speed economic recovery that New Zealand was experiencing.
The level of first-home withdrawals up a third year-on-year for the month in December, while hardship withdrawals were up 12 percent.
“On one end, sustained economic pressures, both at the household level and business level – such as in the hospitality sector – have forced Kiwis who’ve exhausted other means to tap their retirement savings just to get by,” he said.
“On the other end, three years of falling house prices, plus price stabilisation through 2025, and falling interest rates have opened the door for first-home buyers – many now in their mid-to-late 30s with a decade-plus in the workforce and substantial KiwiSaver balances built up.
“Combined with government first-home support, KiwiSaver is proving a key deposit tool, and we should expect these withdrawals to keep rising as balances grow… The data underlines that KiwiSaver is serving a dual role – supporting home ownership and acting as a financial release valve for those under pressure – but that growth masks a deeper trade-off: every dollar withdrawn today is a dollar not compounding for retirement.”
Pie Funds’ chief executive Ana-Marie Lockyer said there had been no meaningful slowdown in hardship withdrawals.
“The number of approved applications has remained relatively static over the past year rather than trending down.
“That suggests financial pressure is still present for a consistent group of members, even as broader economic indicators begin to stabilise. While we’re not seeing an acceleration, we also aren’t seeing clear signs of easing yet.”
Koura founder Rupert Carlyon said he expected the rate of withdrawals to continue.
“I think there’s three things. There’s clearly the economic climate, which is making life difficult for people. I think you’ve got larger balances, which mean that people all of a sudden are starting to think about it a whole lot more.
“And then the third thing is there’s a greater awareness that you can actually make withdrawals.”
He said a big question would be whether, if there was a shift to make KiwiSaver compulsory or add incentives, the rules on withdrawals had to be tightened.
“At the moment it’s a voluntary saving scheme without any incentive, so you kind of go ‘it’s people’s money’. It’s kind of hard to argue that they can’t get it out for all this stuff. If we move into a different type of scheme, which I think is what a lot of people are starting to talk about, then yeah, what happens to all these withdrawals?”
Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson said the data showed that more New Zealanders were having to dip into KiwiSaver to deal with immediate financial pressure.
“Households are clearly under strain, but early withdrawals come at a real long-term cost because people lose the compounding investment gains that help fund a decent retirement. KiwiSaver is designed to support people later in life, so accessing it early should remain a last resort.
“Our 2025 Review of Retirement Income Policies highlighted that New Zealand still lacks consistent data on the range of reasons why these withdrawals are happening. Without better information, it’s difficult to design targeted solutions to try to reduce hardship withdrawals and improve financial resilience. Better data collection is essential if we’re to protect New Zealanders’ long-term retirement outcomes.”
