Latest number show 50 hospitalisation and 19 deaths with the virus within the span of a week.
University of Otago professor of public health Michael Baker said earlier this week, New Zealand was experiencing its ninth wave of the virus.
The chairperson of General Practice New Zealand, Dr Bryan Betty, told Morning Report, vaccination rates were dropping, with the number of people getting a booster hovering at 56 percent.
As Winter came closer, Betty believed we would see the Covid booster being promoted alongside the annual flu vaccination.
“I think lining it up with it [the flu vaccine], does make sense.”
He said he would like to see people getting a Covid booster once a year, especially if they were aged over 65, or over 50 if of Māori descent.
Betty noted Covid-19 was not seasonal and affected people year round.
Covid-19 is not seasonal. (File photo)123rf.com
“Covid is always with us, it never goes away. When immunity drops we see a wave. Due to low immunisation rates that wave is occurring at the moment.”
Betty said 56 percent of the eligible population had the Covid-19 booster while 14 percent of non-Māori and 28 percent of Māori were not vaccinated at all.
“The booster vaccination is important to protect yourself against these very irregular waves of Covid that can occur,” Betty said.
Health NZ’s national director of public health service Dr Nick Chamberlain, said while Covid hospitalisations and cases had increased in recent weeks, levels remained below previous peaks.
“Since the arrival of Covid in our communities, we have been seeing both summer and winter Covid-19 increases, but from the available data, recent increases are currently not near the magnitude of 2022-2024 rates of Covid-19 illness.”
Chamberlain said since fewer people were testing and reporting results, most cases were identified in hospitals. He said there was no single dominant variant driving the increase.
Health NZ was monitoring Covid-19 trends through wastewater testing, hospital data, genomic sequencing and case reporting, he said.
“As we head into winter, we encourage people, particularly those at higher risk, to get your flu vaccination and stay up to date with their Covid‑19 boosters.”
Betty said lots of patients weren’t testing due to the fact tests were not subsidised by the government.
“Our advice is to stay home in those situations.”
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Political donations made in an election year must be declared within 20 days if they are more than $20,000.RNZ
Technology entrepreneur Brian Cartmell appears to have donated at least half a million dollars to the coalition parties – and to the Opportunity party.
Cartmell moved to New Zealand in 2010 and gave up his US citizenship in 2015. His former professional background includes working for the Internet Entertainment Group, an online pornography company. It was a pioneer in live webcam shows and subscription services.
In a statement on his website, Cartmell said he had donated equally to the three coalition parties as well as to Opportunity. The ACT Party told RNZ it had received a total of $200,000 from Cartmell last year. The Electoral Commission said a $100,000 donation to Opportunity from Cartmell had been disclosed. Neither National nor NZ First would confirm donations from him.
But Cartmell himself said the current coalition parties represent “the best available chance of navigating” a period of significant economic, technological, and geopolitical change in a way that preserves New Zealand’s sovereignty, prosperity and independence.
He said he chose to donate equal amounts to National, Act and NZ First last year as none of the three represents his thinking, but he believed the three parties complemented each other. The donation to Opportunity was made because he feels healthy democracies need parties willing to put forward ideas major parties won’t.
“New ideas enter the political process from the edges, and parties like Opportunity play an important role in making sure that process doesn’t stagnate.”
Who is Brian Cartmell?
Cartmell lives in Queenstown with his partner. He says he has donated more than $1 million to a range of organisations including Starship Children’s Hospital, Cure Kids, Hato Hone St John and NZSAS Regiment Trust.
Cartmell also founded a domain registry firm in 1997 which managed domain names with the .cc extension, associated with the Cocos Islands territory, an island territory with a population of around 600 people. He told the United States Senate Commerce Committee 400,000 domain names were registered to the extension. The Australian Financial Review reported the islands received no benefits from domain name sales, although Cartmell did distribute technology and grants. Cartmell sold the company to Verisign in 2001 for an undisclosed sum.
Cartmell also funded an anti-spam service called SpamAlert. This company won a court case against the food company Hormel, maker of tinned Spam, over the use of the word spam. He was also an early adopter of cryptocurrency Bitcoin and participated in the first funding round of Coinbase.
The Companies Register shows he is a director of three New Zealand companies and a shareholder in an additional 12 companies. These include crowdsourcing platform PledgeMe, food and beverage companies Angel Food and Yeastie Boys. He has a small shareholding in Invisible Urban Charging, an electric car charging company co-founded by former National Party MP Jake Bezzant.
According to Cartmell’s website he is seeking investment opportunities and is looking for innovative start-ups in transformative technologies.
Parties respond
Opportunity party general manager Iain Lees-Galloway said the cash injection, which was declared as being received on 25 February was incredibly helpful for the small party, which is not in parliament.
“We don’t have parliamentary resources to run our campaigns that sitting MPs do. So a donation like this makes a huge difference to us to be able to get our message out.”
Donations would be spent on marketing as well as travel and events. The party has received one other big donation of $50,000 from Phillip Mills, taking its currently declared total for 2026 to $150,000.
Donations made in the 2025 calendar year will be published in early May. Donations made in an election year must be declared within 20 days if they are more than $20,000.
An ACT party spokesperson confirmed Cartmell had made donations in 2025 but had not made any donations this year.
“ACT New Zealand received a donation from Brian Cartmell of $100k in December last year. He donated a total of $200k to ACT in 2025.”
New Zealand First party secretary Holly Howard said donations would be disclosed as required by law.
“Out of respect for our donors’ privacy and due process, we will not provide commentary or confirmation on individual donations ahead of the statutory reporting requirements.”
The National Party said it wouldn’t comment on individual donations, except where required by law through donation disclosures.
Information released on the electoral commission website shows coalition parties have received $750,000 in donations of over $20,000 so far this year. National has received $250,000, ACT $350,000 and NZ First $150,000.
The Greens have received $43,000 and Labour $22,000.
Cartmell’s statement says he supports transparent political donations, but will be making no further statements on the matter.
“These donations were made with that broader objective in mind – with the understanding that it is voters, not donors, who decide the direction of New Zealand.”
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Crusaders’ forward Kershawl Sykes-Martin is one of the players reported to have been involved in the dust-up in training.Joe Allison
Clarification: An earlier version of this story reported punches were thrown. This was incorrect.
Days after a significant loss to the Blues, tensions rose at Crusaders training on Tuesday with reports of a heated scuffle.
Stuff is reporting prop Kershawl Sykes-Martin and lock Will Tucker were involved in the incident at Rugby Park in Christchurch during a contact session.
Captain David Havili was reportedly the man to break up the altercation.
After training, coach Rob Penney did his best to downplay the tension, telling reporters he was not fazed by the clash between his players and even welcomed it.
“So there should be,” Penney said when asked if there was tension in the camp after the 29-13 defeat to the Blues.
“It was a really lovely sight to see, actually. It is a reflection of how much it means. The boys aren’t happy with the performances and the outcomes.
“Very proud young men are going to come up against each other, and create a bit of sandpaper from time to time.
“But it’s not a thing that is going to affect negatively. We are all over it, the boys are fine.”
Penney expected there could be more scuffles at training in the future.
“It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last.”
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Altman, Vice Chancellor’s Fellow and Professorial Fellow, Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University
It’s well known that Donald Trump consumes television broadcasts and often makes policy based more on Fox News punditry than advice from political or government advisors. So it’s unsurprising that one of his most influential advisers, Tucker Carlson, has never held a political or government appointment.
Of course, Carlson, an early sceptic about the Iraq War, last week called the attack on Iran “absolutely disgusting and evil”. Trump responded by saying “Tucker has lost his way” and “he’s not MAGA”.
While this may signal the end of his hold over Trump, they’ve weathered disagreements before – as when Carlson attacked last year’s strikes on Iran, as well as consistently pressing Trump over the Epstein files.
Review: Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the unravelling of the conservative mind – Jason Zengerle (Scribe)
But if Carlson’s ruptures with Trump widen, some observers told the author of a new book, “he could then portray himself to a disillusioned MAGA base as the true leader of their movement – and run for president himself in 2028”.
The great mystery of Tucker Carlson is how a once-serious journalist, whose writing for the likes of New York magazine and Esquire was admired, wandered into the crazy world of the American far right and came to dominate it.
In his book, Hated By All the Right People, Jason Zengerle (a contributing writer for the New York Times magazine) traces Carlson’s evolution over past 30 years. It is, he writes, the story of what has happened to the United States in that period.
Origin stories
Carlson was born in 1969 to a prominent conservative father and a bohemian heiress mother: they divorced before his eighth birthday and Carlson’s father got sole custody. His mother lived mostly abroad. “I don’t know this person,” Carlson reported feeling as she was dying. She left him a dollar in her will.
He failed to graduate from college, where, Zengerle writes, he was an “abysmal student”, but charmed his way into a succession of small conservative media outlets, and a few national magazines. By the turn of the century, he discovered the lure of television and went through a series of attempts to break into mainstream broadcasting.
First CNN, where Jon Stewart essentially ended Carlson’s contract and his show by savaging it, at length, while appearing as a guest. Then PBS, and MSNBC – where Carlson picked liberal self-described “butch lesbian” talk radio host Rachel Maddow to be his sparring partner. (Maddow is now one of the most high-profile media defenders of progressive politics in the US.)
At his lowest point, he became a political analyst at the only cable-news network he’d yet to work at, Fox News – or, as he’d once described it, “a mean, sick group of people”.
At his lowest point, Carlson moved to Fox News – which he once described as ‘a mean, sick group of people’.Richard Drew/AAP
His rise (and increased air time) was tied to Donald Trump’s: he was the rare conservative or Fox News pundit who didn’t initially dismiss him. Fox gave him his own show days before Trump was elected in 2016.
For seven years, Carlson was a mainstay of Fox right-wing cheerleading, until he was unceremoniously dumped in 2023. Just why he was removed is not clear. Carlson came to believe it was part of Fox’s settlement in the Dominion lawsuit. Zengerle speculates Rupert Murdoch finally lost patience with Carlson (despite his closeness to Lachlan Murdoch), as he had on several occasions with Trump too.
Considered for Trump’s ‘veep’
Carlson bounced back, creating his own successful network, on which he hosted interviews with Andrew Tate, Nazi apologist historian Darryl Cooper and Trump himself (including an interview aired on X at the same time as Fox’s first presidential primary debate, in which Trump refused to participate).
In 2024, he campaigned vigorously for Trump’s second term. Trump even told reporters, Zengerle writes, that he “was entertaining the idea of tapping Carlson as his veep”.
Carlson had endeared himself further by presenting a three-part series, Patriot Purge, which presented the riots at the Capitol on January 6 2021 as “a false flag operation, instigated by undercover FBI operatives in the crowd, so that the Biden administration could then persecute Americans for the crime of being conservative”.
During the Biden years, a bizarre crowd of conspiracy seekers and racist right-wingers paid court to Trump. Carlson was among the most important: possibly even more than Elon Musk. As Zengerle writes, he was active behind the scenes in the vice-presidential selection of JD Vance, whom he had helped mentor into politics, and at least two cabinet members: Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard.
Carlson was instrumental in the appointment of at least two Trump cabinet members: RFK Jr and Tulsi Gabbard.Erik S Lesser/AAP
Vance’s “remarkable dressing-down” of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was “a direct echo” of Carlson’s criticisms on his shows for the previous three years. Carlson’s criticisms of Zelensky drew on antisemitic tropes, calling him “ratlike” and “a persecutor of Christians”.
Zengerle credits Carlson with providing much of the mismatch of policies that have marked Trump’s second term (as well as the border wall with Mexico, which Carlson argued for as far back as 2005).
Trump has consistently expressed hostility to immigrants, with the notable exception of white South Africans – whose cause Carlson seems to have pioneered – and promoted Viktor Orban’s Hungarian authoritarian regime, which Carlson called a “lesson” for America after he visited to interview Orban, before anyone in the US had paid him much attention.
Unsurprisingly, Carlson has expressed sympathy for Vladimir Putin. He became the first American journalist to obtain a one-on-one interview with Putin after the invasion of Ukraine.
It was widely believed Putin played him, avoiding any difficult questions about respect for Ukrainian sovereignty: just as he had played Trump in his infamous meeting in Helsinki in 2018. Zengerle does not explore whether there is any connection between the two men’s remarkable sympathy for the Russian dictator.
Tucker Carlson interviewed Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow: it was widely believed Putin played him.GAVRIIL GRIGOROV SPUTNIK KREMLIN POOL/AAP
Since Trump’s re-election, Carlson has become less sycophantic, particularly on Iran and the Epstein files. At one point, he claimed Epstein was working at the behest of Israel’s government: part of the increasingly antisemitic and anti-Israeli raves that characterise the contemporary Carlson.
Carlson and the Republican journey
Carlson, like Vance before he became vice president, has become a strident America Firster, opposed to involvement in foreign wars or desire for regime change.
Given the uncertain outcome of the current war on Iran, it is impossible to predict whether Carlson’s position as perhaps the most significant right-wing ideologue in the American media is doomed to burn out, or to become yet more influential.
Either way, Zengerle is right to point to Carlson’s career as a symbol of the way the Republican Party has been captured by a set of beliefs and principles previous Republican leaders would have denounced as racist and undemocratic. The two Republican candidates for president before Trump, John McCain and Mitt Romney, would no longer find a home in their party.
But of course, they both lost to Barack Obama. Trump’s 2016 victory caused a major reversal in American politics and many of the people who originally abhorred him are now part of his inner circle. Both Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio had declared him totally unfit for office. Zengerle reminds us that while a senator, Rubio supported immigration reforms he has now disavowed in fealty to the president.
Carlson shared these doubts about Trump in 2016, though he was one of the first to recognise the strange charisma that would propel Trump to the top.
As the Republican Party has moved increasingly into territory that used to be regarded as frankly conspiratorial and crazed, so too has Carlson. But while Zengerle does an excellent job of charting this transformation, he does little to explain why it happened.
He writes well, as befits a veteran of the best US print media, but there is a surplus of information and a lack of real analysis. Take the example of Carlson’s increasingly virulent antisemitism. Early in his career, he worked with and for many prominent Jewish intellectuals, like neoconservative writers Bill Kristol and John Podhoretz. Zengerle demonstrates that Carlson is providing increasing time to extreme antisemites, but makes no real attempt to explain it.
Calculation or genuine belief?
But his drift towards the fringes of overt racism seem to date back to his founding of the briefly successful website The Daily Caller in 2010.
While it began with some claim to journalistic integrity, The Daily Caller soon found space for that particularly virulent antisemitism that ties together ancient tropes about Jews with fear and hatred of African Americans and Muslims. Carlson’s willingness to host antisemites on his program has meant his criticism of Israel’s behaviour in Gaza is too easily dismissed by the powerful Israeli lobby in the US.
Reading Carlson’s increasing attraction to fringe irrationality, I wondered how far this is political calculation and how far it represents genuinely held beliefs. Does Carlson ever wake in the night and ask himself if he bears any responsibility for Trump’s cruelty to alleged illegal aliens – or Republican attempts to disenfranchise electors?
Hated by all the Right People is a revealing title, akin to Hillary Clinton’s comment about the “basket of deplorables” who voted for Trump. But I would have liked to see Zengerle explore the reasons for Carlson’s appeal. As he concludes, Carlson now speaks to millions. Maybe he should have spoken to some of these millions, to better understand why they listen to him.
After the US and Israel began their military strikes on Iran on February 28, oil and gas markets were plunged into chaos and energy prices shot up. As of today, Brent Crude Oil prices are 20% higher than in late February. They went from around $70 a barrel in late February to quickly surpassing $100, before falling to around $90 on March 10. The main reason for the fall was Donald Trump’s market-calming announcement that the war will end “very soon”.
The fall in oil prices is reminiscent of events that followed the April 2025 “Liberation Day” tariffs. After the announcement, stock markets plummeted, but when Trump paused the tariffs just days later, the stock market responded by rising again – just as oil prices have fallen in response to his reassurances about the war ending.
If the war is indeed drawing to a close, markets may be right to start pushing prices down, but there is a caveat to this optimism. War is not tariffs – the US administration can impose and pause tariffs, but if Iran rejects potential terms for ending the conflict, it will continue.
Despite Trump’s announcement, it remains very unclear when the Middle East’s production – and the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route, which 20% of the world’s oil passes through – will get back to business as usual. It’s therefore extremely difficult to predict when prices will go down to February-like levels. This is a major cause for concern in Europe, which depends heavily on imported energy sources.
How oil shocks hit Europe
An increase in oil prices is different from other economic shocks because it has a direct, immediate effect. For consumers, it means instantly higher petrol and energy prices. For producers, it means an immediate increase in the cost of manufacturing and delivering goods.
To understand potential damage to the EU economy, we can take a look at the bloc’s oil consumption and production patterns.
Diversity of energy sources and more efficient technology all mean that we are better protected than we were during, for example, the oil crisis of the 1970s. Nevertheless, some countries and industries will be more affected than others.
The EU’s main energy consumers are its biggest economies: Germany, France, Italy and Spain. These countries will be the most interested in controlling the increase in retail oil prices. Road transportation makes up the lion’s share of oil consumption (around half), while the continent’s other high energy consumption industries include chemical, paper and steel.
What can Europe do?
In February 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted the continent’s gas supplies, subsequently pushing up electricity prices. To understand what’s on the table today, it’s worth looking at what the European Central Bank (ECB) and European Commission did to help EU citizens during the continent’s last energy crisis.
After an oil shock, both inflation and unemployment tend to rise, and this presents any Central Bank with a conundrum. It can reduce inflation by increasing interest rates, but this also creates more unemployment – higher borrowing costs slow growth and business activity, resulting in layoffs.
The Central Bank therefore needs to choose which objective is more important: its primary goal of keeping inflation in check (around 2% in Europe), or protecting jobs.
In July 2022, the ECB opted to raise interest rates (which were then at -0.5%) and kept raising them until they reached 4% in September 2023. But the situation then was very different, as the economy was still recovering from the large spike in inflation (9% in June 2022) caused by the Covid pandemic.
Today, interest rates stand at 2%, and the ECB will need to decide which risk is bigger: an increase in inflation (which was 1,9% in February, below the ECB’s target of 2%) or an increase in unemployment.
Beyond monetary policy
The European Commission and national governments have more direct and effective ways of dealing with the oil shock. During the 2022-2023 energy crisis, the Commission rolled out several initiatives to stabilise energy prices, including recommendations to minimise consumer energy use.
Perhaps most importantly, there were also price caps, and measures that allowed national governments to directly help their citizens, such as continent-wide joint gas purchases.
On the national level, governments have the option of borrowing to fund subsidies, as many did in 2022. However, this is a less viable option than it was in 2022, as global interest rates are now higher. Investors will be wary that many EU countries – including France, Italy and Spain – have government debt that is above 100% of their GDP. These governments were some of the most active during the last energy crisis, and also those most exposed to the oil shock today.
The EU now faces a real risk of recession. If there’s any silver lining, it may give the continent a much-needed push towards renewable energy development, but even this will depend on how national governments tackle the crisis over the coming months.
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For all the parallels to history, though, Trump’s Iran war is historically unique in one critically important way: In its early stages, the war is not popular with the American public.
A recent CNN poll found that 59% of Americans oppose the war – a trend found in poll after poll since the war began.
As an expert on U.S. foreign policy and regime change wars, my research shows that what’s likely generating public opposition to the Iran war today is the absence of a big story with a grand purpose that has bolstered public support for just about every major U.S.-promoted regime change war since 1900. These broad, purpose-filled narratives generate public buy-in to support the costs of war, which are often high in terms of money spent and lives lost when regime change is at stake.
Likewise, in the 2000s a dominant narrative about preventing a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and stopping terrorism brought strong initial public support for the war in Afghanistan, with 88% support in 2001, and the war in Iraq, with 70% support in 2003.
With no comparable narrative around Iran today, Trump and Republicans could face big problems, especially as costs continue to rise.
No anti-Iran narrative
Iran has been a thorn in the side of many American presidents for a long time. So, what’s missing? Why no grand-purpose narrative at the start of this war?
A U.S. Army carry team in Dover, Del., moves a coffin on March 7, 2026, containing the remains of a U.S. soldier killed in the retaliatory Iranian strike on Kuwait’s Port of Shuaiba.Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
Gains like these by rivals prove traumatic to the nation. They also dislodge the status quo and provide the opportunity for new grand-purpose narratives with new policy directions to emerge.
Today, most Americans see no existential danger around Iran. A Marist poll from March 3, 2026, found that 55% of Americans view Iran as a minor threat or no threat at all. And the number who see Iran as a major threat, 44%, is down from 48% in July 2025.
By contrast, 64% of Americans saw Iraq as a “considerable threat” prior to the 2003 U.S. war in Iraq.
In the summer of 2025, Iran’s nuclear nuclear enrichment facilities were significantly damaged – “completely and totally obliterated,” according to Trump, though there is no confirmation of that claim – during the 12-Day war between Iran and Israel.
As the polls show, none of that has sparked a grand-purpose narrative.
Missing a good story
The second missing factor for narrative formation today is any strong messaging from the White House.
In the months prior to World War II, Roosevelt used his position of authority as president to give speech after speech, setting the context of the traumatic events of the 1930s, explaining the dangers at hand and outlining a course going forward. Though less truthful in its content, Bush did the same for nearly two years before the Iraq War.
Trump did almost none of this storytelling leading up to the Iran war. Five days before the war started, the president devoted three minutes to Iran in a nearly two-hour State of the Union Address.
Prior to that, he made a comment here and there to the press about Iran, but no storytelling preparing the nation for war. Likewise, since the war began, the administration’s stated reasons for military action keep shifting.
By comparison, Americans approved of Bush’s handling of foreign policy by 63% in early 2003.
Absent a cohesive, unifying story, it’s also no surprise there is lots of political fracturing today.
Partisan divides run deep – Democrats and independent voters strongly oppose the war. But Trump’s MAGA coalition is cracking too, with people like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene sharply criticizing the war.
The way out
If he opts for it, there is an off-ramp for Trump from the Iran war. It’s one he knows well.
When U.S. leaders get caught up in costly regime change wars that outrun national support, they tend to back down, often with far fewer political costs than if they’d continued their unpopular war.
When the disaster referred to as Black Hawk Down hit in Somalia in 1993, killing 18 U.S. Marines, President Bill Clinton opted to end the mission to topple the warlords that ruled the country. Troops came home six months later.
Likewise, after the Benghazi attack killed four Americans in Libya in 2012, Obama pulled out all U.S. personnel working in Libya on nation-building operations.
And just last year, when Trump realized that U.S. ground troops would be necessary to topple the Houthi militant group in Yemen, he negotiated a ceasefire and ended his air war in that country with no significant political fallout.
When US and Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Iran, the shock waves were felt far beyond the region. As the conflict escalates, understanding who benefits from this crisis might be as important as counting its costs.
The timing could hardly be worse for the UK economy. Official forecasts for GDP growth in 2026 had already been downgraded to 1.1% before a single missile was fired. Predictions that inflation might dip now look optimistic; and expectations of an interest rate cut on March 19 have fallen sharply.
The energy shock is immediate. Tanker traffic in the strait of Hormuz has fallen by around 90%. Qatar, the world’s second largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, halted production indefinitely. Although the UK sources little gas directly from the Gulf, energy markets are global so UK households could see more than £500 added to their annual bills.
For defence stocks, however, the picture is different. London-based BAE Systems surged around 6% on the first day of the conflict. And the American defence industry seems determined to quadruple production of some weapons.
Peace benefits ordinary citizens, small businesses, global supply chains and the planet’s climate trajectory. The beneficiaries of war are more concentrated.
One of the most uncomfortable truths about this conflict is that while it inflicts pain on some, it creates windfalls for others. In my co-authored research, we call this the “paradox of incentives”. Determining who benefits is essential to understanding why wars persist long after it may seem rational to stop.
Defence contractors and the arms economy
On Wall Street, defence firms including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and RTX rose between 4% and 6% on the first day of the strikes. The three firms’ combined shareholder gain on that one day was US$25–30 billion (£18.7-£22.5 billion).
In Israel, Elbit Systems briefly became the country’s most valuable listed company, with its shares up 45% since January. In Europe and the UK, defence stocks surged against a falling FTSE 100.
The rally ‘round the flag effect
Wars may also be good for incumbent politicians in the short term. Before the strikes began, the fallout from the release of the Epstein files was reverberating globally, and piling scrutiny on to many with connections to the White House. Within hours of the first strikes, web searches for the Epstein files collapsed.
But perhaps the most counterintuitive application of the paradox concerns Iran itself. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) controls up to half of Iran’s oil exports. Its engineering arm, Khatam al-Anbiya, has become one of the largest contractors in the country, controlling construction, telecoms, agriculture and energy.
Economic sanctions designed to weaken Tehran have actually entrenched the power structures they were meant to erode. As foreign firms exited and domestic companies struggled, IRGC-linked entities used access to informal trade routes, currency controls and security networks to expand their dominance.
At the same time, according to the World Bank, close to 10 million ordinary Iranians fell into poverty between 2011 and 2020 as the sanctions tightened.
The energy windfall
The oil and gas price shock is already providing a windfall in unexpected places. The US could benefit as Europe’s reliance on American energy exports, accelerated by the Ukraine war, grows even more.
For the Gulf petrostates, the picture is nuanced. Saudi Arabia and the UAE together hold a huge share of the world’s spare production capacity. They face real costs from the conflict, but their exposure to the Hormuz closure is lower than neighbours Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq. Both countries built bypass pipelines specifically to export oil without transitting the Strait.
And for Russia, the war diverts price-sensitive buyers such as India and China away from competing suppliers in the Gulf.
The green transition
Higher oil and gas prices make new fossil fuel extraction more commercially attractive. The same crisis that bolsters the case for renewables also makes fossil fuels more profitable. This could slow the transition by redirecting attention back towards oil and gas.
In our research, we argue that breaking the paradox of incentives is possible. But it would require the financial interests of powerful actors like those mentioned above to become aligned with solutions. In the context of this conflict, that principle points towards four routes.
The first would be a windfall tax on companies benefiting exceptionally from wars. The UK already has a precedent: its energy profits levy hits oil and gas profits above a set threshold until 2030. Although this levy has come under fire recently, there is a strong case for extending its principles to defence contractors whose share prices and profits surge during conflicts.
For oil-producing nations, a release of emergency stocks coordinated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) could cap price spikes. This happened in 2022 when IEA member countries released 60 million barrels from strategic reserves. The G7 nations have now said they “stand ready” to do this.
On the political side, democratic accountability, independent economic institutions and a free press all narrow the window within which leaders can exploit wartime popularity. These things can’t always be changed from the outside however, and underline the need for robust domestic institutions.
The green transition paradox is perhaps the hardest to address in the short term, but it is also where the fix is clearest. It has been argued that the more dependent economies become on the profits of war through arms exports, fossil fuel revenues or defence procurement, the harder it becomes to divert funding and attention to climate issues.
The solution is not to stop countries defending themselves – but to ensure that the transition to a green and secure energy system proceeds, precisely because of crises like this one.
The costs of this war are already being counted in energy markets. Before long, they will show up in national and household budgets. What makes this crisis particularly hard to resolve is the paradox at its heart: the actors best placed to end it are among those with the most to gain from its continuation.
Chinese culture and New Zealand culture are like “two mutual friends who have heard of each other but never met”, says Auckland art historian Yang Fan.
“We’ll send them a letter on the 17th of March,” Wayne Brown said.
“We’ll just be handing them ‘this is the process we’re going to go through’ and if you don’t like it we’ll stick with 2 million,” he told Morning Report.
He was asked what would happen if the government did not like the plan from councillors.
“They’re just the government, and they live in Wellington, and they should just spend their time wandering around the coast picking up the lavatory paper that they put into the harbour,” he said.
“And we’ll carry on running a big city.”
Brown said with 180,000 votes, he represented Aucklanders more than Parliamentarians did.
But he said he was “not really grumpy with the government”.
The back-and-forth on future development in the city has been a divisive debate.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop has previously said he was frustrated by resistance from some for the government’s push for greater intensification.
After pressure from people worried about heritage homes and infrastructure, he announced last month Cabinet had agreed to lower the 2m number.
“We decided on some policies about how we would go about reducing the number from 2 million to 1.6, but we didn’t do anything about implementing it,” Brown said of Tuesday’s meeting.
“We’re not going to actually do any work about that until the government passes the legislation, so we’ve decided some sensible rules.”
Brown said there would be no intensification in suburbs “that haven’t got everything needed” and that are more than 10-kilometres from the central city.
But he said there would be in places with good public transport and infrastructure.
“It’s just sensible, it will end up with a city which looks like a city, not the world’s largest suburb,” the mayor told Morning Report.
Brown said “vocal constituents” had no more influence than local councillors did.
“Parnell has a railway station, bus service, and is on the upgraded sewage area so it will certainly be involved in intensification,” he said.
“Just like Mount Eden, Epsom, Ponsonby, and all the other areas that are close into the city that actually have a lot of it already.
“If you have a look, if you visit Parnell, there’s a multi-storey apartments everywhere, same with Ponsonby where I live, I’m in a multi-storey apartment as we speak so they’re just sensible things make it into a nice city.”
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The electric guitar Kurt Cobain played in Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ video is expected to sell for more than US$7 million at auction in New York later this month.
The left-handed 1969 Fender Competition Mustang, which Cobain bought just before the release of the genre-defining album Nevermind, is among hundreds of items to be auctioned by Christie’s from the collection of late American billionaire Jim Irsay.
The guitar previously sold at auction in 2022 for $6.7 million ($US4.7 million), making it the most expensive electric guitar ever sold.
Kurt Cobain’s left-handed Fender Mustang is the most expensive lot listed for sale.
Christie’s
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Rough sleepers in New Plymouth, in Northland rough sleepers are typically waiting for more than 800 days for a home through Housing First.RNZ / Robin Martin
In Northland, rough sleepers typically wait more than 800 days for a home through the Housing First. The nationwide programme helps chronically homeless people into housing. It’s effective, and successive governments of both stripes support it. But a Northland provider says “horrendous” wait times are driven by a lack of funding, and a lack of homes. Lauren Crimp reports.
Casey Tangira, her husband, four kids and niece spent four months living in a car in 2024.
They had been in the same rental in the Northland town of Opua for eight years – but their landlord needed the house back, and they had nowhere else to go.
They parked up at a local rugby clubrooms, and showered at a freedom camping facility nearby.
But winter hit, and it got too cold, so they sought shelter with their in-laws.
Ten people crammed into a two-bedroom converted shed in Northland, sleeping on couches and mattresses on the floor.
“It was hectic, very stressful, just on edge all the time,” Tangira said.
Finally, after just over a year registered with Housing First through Ngāti Hine Health Trust, they were placed into a home near Moerewa, in the trust’s housing development.
“Were just so over the moon, that we could have a house of our own … and we could just be settled.”
The kids were not themselves when they were homeless, Tangira said. In their new home, they have their sparkle back.
“Just seeing my children waking up every morning and smiling and having their own beds… it’s my kids that I worry about the most,” she said.
“We’re just so grateful to Ngāti Hine every day.”
Northland, Bay of Plenty rough sleepers face longest wait
Tangira’s story is not unusual in Northland. In fact, a year-long wait is shorter than what’s typical: 826 days, from being accepted into Housing First, to being housed.
Bay of Plenty has the next longest median wait time of 566 days.
In other regions it’s between 100 and 300 days, aside from Waikato, where it’s 70 days.
The housing ministry allocates Housing First “places” – that is, funding for a person to be housed – to providers like Ngāti Hine Health Trust, who find homes for rough sleepers, often leasing them through the private market.
The ministry said at the end of January there were 3613 households in the programme, of which 2596 had been housed.
That leaves more than 1000 people who have sought help – and been told they could get it – still waiting.
Ngāti Hine Health Trust chief executive Tamati Shepherd-Wipiiti said its allocation of 60 places is full, and up to 100 people are on the wait-list.
Single men, often just released from prison, usually wait the longest, he said.
That’s because “in these constrained times” the Trust is forced to make tough choices, and prioritise.
“You have to draw a line about what you find unacceptable. And for us, that’s families in cars,” Shepherd-Wipiiti said.
“We won’t have families in cars.”
He said the problem was twofold: housing supply, and funding.
In Moerewa and Kawakawa, there aren’t enough homes to lease from the private market, so Ngāti Hine is building some.
In Whangārei, the Trust could house 10 whānau immediately – if it had sufficient Housing First places, Shepherd-Wipiiti said.
He’s asked the housing ministry to consider upping its allocation.
The government funded an extra 300 Housing First places last year for Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.
Tamati Shepherd-Wipiiti wants the government to think smarter about the distribution.
“It was a bit sad to hear that some providers aren’t actually reaching their cap because, if we run this sort of as a national network, we could easily fill that gap for people who are actually struggling to fill their cap,” he said.
However, the shortage isn’t just felt in Northland – Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson has said her city alone needed 1000 more places.
A South Auckland house which has been allocated under the Housing First programme which places chronically homeless people into permanent housing.RNZ / Eva Corlett
National, Labour won’t commit to more funding
Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka said since September nearly 500 rough sleepers had been housed through Housing First, and the government was spending “hundreds of millions, billions of dollars into supporting people who have been doing it tough in this space”.
He said households and providers must navigate “challenging social circumstances and local housing market conditions” to secure appropriate housing.
RNZ asked whether an 800-day wait time was acceptable.
“I don’t think anyone is happy to see people doing it tough on the street or living in a rough space,” Potaka said.
“No one wants to see Kiwis living under a bush, in a car, in a cowshed.
“And that’s why we’ve been really clear, we want the funds that we have applied to this space to be used efficiently and effectively.”
Labour’s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said the need for Housing First jumped after the [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/525607/government-was-warned-emergency-housing-crackdown-could-increase-homelessness
government made it tougher to access emergency housing] nearly two years ago.
“When you consider that they’ve saved a billion dollars by keeping people on the street … the amount that they’ve put into Housing First is an absolute fraction of that,” he said.
“It is a drop of water into an empty bucket.”
But he would not commit a potential Labour government to boosting Housing First support.
McAnulty said that call would be made after it considered this year’s budget, so it knows what money it had to work with.
While politicians battle over budgets, Casey Tangira thinks about other vulnerable people in her community, who she noticed when she was living in her car.
“Down the park and behind the library and that there was a lot of other homeless people too,” she said.
“I just want to bring them all home.”
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Animals are noisy. And their noises can travel a long way.
But making sounds can be a double-edged sword: it can help them communicate, sometimes over long distances, but it can also reveal them to predators.
In new research published in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution, my colleague and I studied how far the sounds of 103 different mammal species travel, and discovered some surprising patterns.
What’s more, these patterns hint at an overlooked impact humans may be having on our fellow creatures: not only changing their sonic landscapes through our own noise, but also changing the world their sounds are travelling through, with unknown effects.
What’s happening in the water?
In aquatic mammals, the relationship between the size of an animal and the farthest distance its call travels is simple. Bigger animals can be heard farther away.
On a perfect day in perfect conditions, the call of a blue whale (the largest animal in history) can travel up to 1,600 kilometres. Its (slightly smaller) cousin the fin whale can be heard over a similar distance.
These are the longest-travelling animal sounds ever reported.
What’s happening on land?
On land, the story is very different. Environmental factors are crucial to how far the sound of a terrestrial mammal travels.
Things that matter include the size of an animal’s home range (the area in which it lives and defends resources), whether a call is territorial (to defend against other animals), whether the environment is open versus densely vegetated, and if the animal is very social or solitary.
On a good day in the savannah, lions and elephants have sounds that travel 8km and 10km, respectively.
Lions call to announce their presence in the landscape and to defend territories.Ben JJ Walker / UNSW Sydney, CC BY-NC-ND
How does this work?
Our research is centred around the idea that your sound reveals you to predators, and that revelation leads to a higher risk of injury and death (potentially before you pass on your genes, and hence reducing what evolutionary biologists call “fitness”). This would be because the predator can more quickly locate its calling prey.
There is a delicate balance between using sounds to communicate and using sounds in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
If sound is revealed at the wrong distance, it may mess up the reason an animal uses the sound in the first place.
Animals that cannot adapt to changes in the sound environment may reveal themselves and be eaten, or may be unable to find their friends.
Our finding that land mammals in closed habitats have evolved to have relatively farther sound distances is important because of what happens when the environment changes.
If a possum has evolved in a eucalyptus forest, for example, and the forest is cleared, its sounds will travel farther (because there are fewer trees to muffle it). As a result, the possum may reveal itself to a predator when it doesn’t mean to.
This in turn means the animal’s call leaves it more exposed than it “should” in evolutionary terms. The animal may not have the same tools to escape predators that animals evolved for open environments do, and so may be more easily eaten.
Since 1981, for example, the length of northern right whales has become about 7% smaller. Among gray whales, animals born in 2020 are estimated to be 1.65 metres shorter than animals born in the 1980s.
Given our finding that larger body sizes mean farther-travelling sounds in aquatic mammals, smaller whales may not be able to be heard as far away.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kristen Foley, Research Fellow, Centre for Public Health, Equity and Human Flourishing, Torrens University Australia
Ellidy pops into the bottle shop on her way out to dinner with friends.
She’s faced with rows of evocative labels – using artwork, imagery and symbols to help portray the essence and style of the alcohol on sale.
She narrows it down by wine variety, something local and in her price range. She chooses between two eye-catching labels: one with vivid pink flowers and another with a young woman’s face on the label, hidden by clouds.
She grabs one she thinks will mean something to the group of people she’s going to see.
Ellidy is a fictional shopper. But the labels she’s faced with are real examples from our research on how alcohol labels are designed to appeal to women.
This includes pink labels, and those featuring women’s body parts, high heels or needlework.
Here’s what else our research, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, found.
What we did and what we found
We visited ten bottle shops in South Australia over a period of two years. We photographed products that used gendered cues on labels, bottles and packaging.
We analysed 473 products – including wine, spirits and ready-to-drink products – and spotted five themes.
1. Pink, purple and glitter
Companies used pink, purple, petals and glitz (such as glitter, embossed glass, sparkles, and images of diamonds) in the product design and label.
This “pinkwashing” appeals to some women. But it perpetuates the stereotype of the pink, hyper-feminine consumer.
Labels featured stereotypical and sexualised versions of women’s names, bodies and body parts. Examples included names such as “la femme” and “madame sass”, and images depicting breasts and an orgy.
Sex sells: sexualised images and body parts are used to sell alcohol.Foley, K et al (2026)
3. Wellness
Our analysis found labels suggested alcohol was a form of wellness, balance and connection.
This included a wine called “Mother’s Milk”. This suggests alcohol may provide replenishment in a woman’s life and care for her as she cares for others.
Another was “One Lovely Day”, which featured young women holding hands in a forest.
Alcohol promoted women’s strength, resilience and confidence. For instance, it showed them in positions traditionally associated with men (playing cricket, owning a vineyard) or exercising choice and power.
These depictions are typical of postfeminism, sometimes called “backlash” feminism, which focuses on individual women who succeed in the face of gendered adversity. This may be “doing it all” while keeping a happy, confident and “feminine” disposition.
Their success is then used to downplay the structural forces that disadvantage women. This includes sexism and misogyny, as well as gendered expectations around unpaid care and emotional labour.
Examples in this category included wines featured children with shiny purple and pink text saying “follow your dreams” or “chin up”.
This group of products promoted the dissipation and disassociation alcohol can enable. This includes the wine label Ellidy looked at with clouds drifting over a woman’s face.
These kinds of marketing suggest alcohol can provide psychological distance from life’s pressures, somewhat like anaesthetic.
We found products that referenced mental health states such as “muddled up moscato” or “better days”. Others reflected desires for freedom, revelry or rest, such as “freebird”, “tail spin” or “silence”.
Such “femmewashing” can also be confusing for women. Alcohol may be marketed as sexy, empowering and offering escapism. Yet there’s a growing understanding of the health risks of drinking alcohol, including breast cancer.
And while it is laudable for companies to recognise women and celebrate their strengths and talents, not everyone’s a fan of this type of gendered marketing. Some feel powerless to stop it.
In other research, Australian women told us it communicates that women need to be hyper-feminine, sexy and happy if they want to succeed.
As part of Kristen’s PhD research, one woman said:
I think that there should be regulation of it […] it’s very cynical and destructive, I totally see that.
Another participant said women were conscious they were being targeted to prop up industry profits:
Large companies clearly prey on exhausted, time-poor women tempting them to find their ‘me time’ in a glass or several of wine.
Is this legal?
Our research with women shows they can often see through this marketing spin. However, it can also work in the background to reinforce harmful gendered norms, and associate drinking with femininity.
In Australia, there is no current regulatory mechanism to restrict gendered alcohol marketing, but this is needed for a number of reasons. For a start, it would bring Australia into line with World Health Organization advice to reduce gender stereotypes in alcohol control policies.
We also need to be cautious of repurposing feminism as a cheap gimmick to market empowerment as a commodity.
Some suggest commoditising feminism ironically worsens gender inequality by hiding its social and political drivers. It gives the impression that merely buying the right products will enable you to succeed as a woman.
Parents of young children will be aware of the need to encourage early reading and maths skills in their kids. They know it’s important to make time to read with their children. Or point out that “cat” starts with the letter “c”. Similarly, they will help their children begin to count (“how many sausages are on your plate?”).
But what about science skills? Studies suggest parents may not be as confident about teaching these skills in every day family life.
Our study, published in The Australian Educational Researcher outlines five practical ways parents can help their children develop their science skills and scientific literacy at home.
Parents can lack confidence
We know Australians science skills are slipping. For example, there are gaps in Year 12 enrolments in key areas including agricultural science, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, data science and climate science.
One way we can address this is by fostering scientific knowledge from a young age.
Children can gain scientific knowledge from everyday contexts. We know parents can play a significant role in extending children’s science literacy at home before they go to school.
But studies have found many parents believe they do not have adequate science knowledge to teach their children or respond to their questions.
However, parents do not need to be experts in science to do this. Simple science activities at home can gradually enhance scientific learning.
Here are five ways to do it.
1. Encourage science play at home
Helping your child’s science skills does not need to be about formal lessons and explanations. You can do this through play.
Parents can regularly arrange small activities at home to extend children’s interest in science. For this, they do not need specialised knowledge. They can build upon a child’s existing areas of interest.
For example, if a child shows interest in colours, provide three primary colours (red, yellow, and blue) in paints and ask children to experiment with how many colours they can produce using those three.
This experiment provides children with a greater sense of colour mixing. Parents do not need to discuss chemistry, but this experience plants a root in children’s minds about chemical reactions.
Or you could cook something like pancakes together. This shows how mixing certain ingredients and adding heat can transform them into another form. At the same time, children gain an understanding of a step-by-step approach.
2. You already have the materials
Parents do not need to offer high-cost or specialist materials. The household or nature can provide what you need.
What happens if you mix flour and water? How many different-shaped leaves can you find in the park? What insects live in our garden?
Existing toys can also help. Lego blocks can used to build an understanding of engineering (how high can you stack the tower before it wobbles?). Toy cars can be used in a game to see what surfaces are quickest.
3. Keep the emphasis on play
With little kids, creating interest in science is not about talking about abstract concepts. It’s about helping a child to understand the concept in action. And hopefully, extending their curiosity.
This is why it’s important to play or engage in the activity together.
For example, rather than discuss what text books say about photosynthesis, role play what happens to a flower in the sun. The flower needs the sun to grow, but too much sun (or not enough water) will see the flower wilt.
Sometimes parents can initiate play activities, sometimes they can follow their children’s lead.
4. Try and answer questions
Children’s questions can be tricky. And sometimes we don’t know the answer. But rather than say “magic” or “I don’t know”, tell your child you can find out together.
This might be through looking something up or doing your own experiment.
For example, “why does ice cream melt so quickly when we eat it but not in the freezer?”
You could then experiment by keeping ice cream in different places, such as at room temperature, in the freezer, and in the refrigerator. You could see how long it takes for the ice cream to melt at each temperature.
5. Get suggestions from your child’s educators
If you need some ideas for science-based games or activities, talk to your child’s educators at daycare or preschool/kinder.
Educators regularly arrange a variety of play activities at early learning centres and know how to tailor play to children’s specific interests and needs.
What now?
Keep in mind, not all development is visible. Children can internalise their learning and apply it in a new situation in their own way.
But if parents regularly talk about science and incorporate it into play, they can help build their child’s logical thinking, problem-solving, and conscious decision-making.
This paves the way for them to enjoy and engage with science subjects when they reach school.
The war in Iran has once again exposed how vulnerable the world’s energy markets are to geopolitical disruption. In wild swings, benchmark crude oil prices spiked as high as US$120 per barrel, roughly 50% higher than before the conflict, before sliding below $100.
Energy price surges hit households quickly. Higher petrol prices raise transport costs and push up everyday prices. This is the second major energy price spike in the past five years due to war.
The federal government faces a familiar question: what policy tools should it use to respond to sudden global oil price shocks and rising living costs?
For Australia, the answer is more complex because of its unique position in global energy markets. But right now, there is a strong case for taxing windfall gas profits to help households – as long as we get the policy right.
Australia’s unique position in energy markets
Australia imports most of its crude oil and refined petroleum products. Like many other oil-importing countries, it is exposed to the adverse effects of higher oil prices on transport costs, consumer prices and business costs.
This means the same global energy shock that raises Australian households’ energy bills also generates very high profits for gas exporters such as Woodside, Chevron, Shell, Inpex and Santos.
However, Australia’s gas industry is largely foreign owned. This means a large share of the additional profits generated by higher energy prices flows overseas, rather than directly benefiting Australian households.
This raises an important policy question: should part of these windfall gains be captured to help households cope with higher energy costs? And how would this compare with cutting fuel taxes?
In our research, we modelled the impact of a global oil supply shock on Australia and compared two fiscal tools:
a fuel excise cut, similar to the one implemented in 2022, and
a temporary levy on supernormal profits in the energy sector.
Here are our findings.
The high cost of a fuel tax cut
Cutting the fuel excise can make petrol cheaper in the short term and cushion the shock. But it comes at a significant cost to the federal budget.
The federal government halved the fuel excise for six months during the last energy crisis after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The policy helped reduce petrol prices – but cost the budget about A$5.6 billion in lost revenue, weakening the government’s fiscal position.
And this does not address rising gas prices. Domestic businesses and households compete with overseas buyers for Australian gas, pushing energy bills higher.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government is monitoring petrol prices.Mick Tsikas/AAP
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said last week the government is unlikely to repeat the fuel excise cut, saying it is “not something we’ve been considering”. Instead, he pointed to other cost-of-living measures and petrol price monitoring.
If fuel tax cuts are off the table, what other policy tools are available?
Why taxing windfall gains may work better
Our modelling suggests a temporary levy on windfall profits in the energy sector may work better.
When global energy prices surge, gas exporters can earn unusually large profits. Economists often call these “windfall gains” or “scarcity rents”. These profits arise not because companies become more productive or innovative, but from global energy price shocks.
Because much of Australia’s gas industry is foreign-owned, a significant share of these gains flows overseas. A temporary levy on windfall profits during energy shocks could capture part of these gains and redirect them to support households facing higher energy costs, without weakening the federal budget.
Global gas prices have also surged as supply from the Middle East was disrupted.
Australian gas mainly sells to Asian markets. LNG exporters benefit both from higher global LNG prices, and from rising oil-linked LNG contract prices.
This strengthens the economic case for a temporary windfall tax when Australian households face rising energy bills and cost-of-living pressures.
Designing a tax that works
Australia’s dual role as both an energy importer and exporter matters for policy design.
In our study, the energy profit levy is temporary and well defined. In practice, firms may worry that a “temporary” tax could become a precedent for repeated new taxes whenever prices rise.
This concern doesn’t mean the government shouldn’t act, but it does mean the design of the policy matters. A poorly designed tax could create uncertainty and discourage investment.
If investors feel the government will only tax the “unexpected” highs without offering support during the “unexpected” lows, they may be less likely to fund future projects. A serious policy proposal would require three features:
• Well-defined triggers: Clear rules for when the tax applies.
• Sunset clauses: A legal “expiry date” so the tax ends when the crisis does.
• A fair tax base: Applying only to windfall profits generated by global price shocks.
A carefully designed temporary levy on windfall energy profits is therefore worth exploring to help protect Australian households from global energy shocks.
Over the past two years, viral clips, news headlines and TV series such as Adolescence have ensured much of the public has encountered the “manosphere” – an online ecosystem that repackages misogyny, anti-feminism and male grievance as self-improvement and hustle.
Journalist Louis Theroux is further lifting the lid on this dangerous ideology with his new Netflix documentary, Inside the Manosphere, in which he showcases the individuals driving this culture.
In his measured and sometimes risky style, Theroux traces not only the rhetoric of “high-value men”, but also the livestream formats and business models that sustain this world. The result is both illuminating and unsettling.
An insidious ideology
What emerges in Theroux’s exposé is not just provocation, but a clear misogynistic worldview. Across interviews and through influencers’ own content, we see the defence of a regressive gender hierarchy – and attempts to restore it.
Women are described as having innate value through their beauty and sexuality, yet dismissed as less rational and emotionally stable. Monogamy is framed as binding for women, but optional for men. Gender equality is blamed for cultural decline.
At times the language is openly authoritarian. Infamous influencer Myron Gaines describes himself to Theroux as a “dictator” in his romantic relationship. He casts intimacy as something he permits, and domestic care as something owed to men.
But Gaines also rejects that he is a misogynist; he claims he loves women, but that women don’t know what they want, and must be led.
The hypocrisy is striking. Several manosphere figures such as Harrison Sullivan publicly deride women who use platforms such as OnlyFans, while claiming to privately profit from managing their accounts.
Misogyny as a business model
Theroux also shows how the audiences of these influencers form.
In one early scene, young boys who look to be around tween age (with blurred faces) repeat lines about hating women and gay people with unsettling ease. Later, young adult men speak of having “no value” unless they accumulate wealth, status and dominance. Working a nine-to-five job is framed as submission to the “matrix” and the “hustle” as freedom.
The complaint that stable work no longer guarantees security will resonate with many. But in the manosphere, economic strain becomes personal failure: if you are struggling, you have not worked hard enough. This is not just ideology. It is a business model.
Subscription “academies”, private groups and coaching schemes convert insecurity into income. In one example from the documentary, we see American influencer Justin Waller promoting The Real World – an online university run by his close friend and business partner Andrew Tate (who is currently facing charges of rape and human trafficking in multiple countries).
Young men and boys are told they are deficient unless wealthy, muscular and emotionally invulnerable, and then charged for access to the mindset said to fix them. The hierarchy that elevates dominant men and denigrates women simultaneously and exploitatively monetises the boys beneath it.
The worldview is not confined to provocation. In one segment, Waller’s partner Kristen explains that she feels fulfilled staying in her “lane”, and caring for the children and home, while he occupies his role as provider and leader.
She speaks warmly of their respective “masculine and feminine energies”, presenting inequality not as constraint but as comfort – despite viewers learning she has no legal right to his wealth as they are not legally married.
Breeding ground for conspiracies
Running alongside the hustle narrative is a thread of conspiracy theorising. The “matrix” is invoked as a metaphor for societal and institutional systems said to keep men compliant and blind to alternative paths to power.
From there it darkens into talk of shadowy elites engineering cultural decline, including “moral” decline and the erosion of men’s place in the world (which they bizarrely link to the growth of pedophilia).
The “manfluencers”, notably Sullivan and Gaines, suggest recent political developments – such as the rise of President Trump – vindicate their worldview.
Theroux’s instinct is to return to the manfluencers’ own accounts of absent fathers and unstable upbringings. That humanising impulse tilts the story toward sympathy and, problematically, to trauma as a key explanation.
But misogyny does not require trauma to flourish, nor are most boys who experience hardship drawn into sexist worldviews. These ideas are ideological and structural, with long-standing gender hierarchies repackaged and broadcast at scale.
The real-life consequences
Inside the Manosphere does acknowledge harms to women, but doesn’t dwell on it very long.
One segment on schools uses news clips from English-speaking countries to signal the spread of misogynistic language among boys. But the documentary could have done more to highlight these significant manosphere-inspired flow-on effects.
Research I conducted with Stephanie Wescott and colleagues extensively documents how manosphere narratives have permeated schools internationally. This has resulted in higher levels of harassment and gender-based violence by some boys against girl peers and women teachers, eroding women’s workplace safety and girls’ participation.
Theroux is right to suggest we are all, in some sense, now living inside the manosphere. Understanding what drives the men at its centre matters – as does focusing on the real-world harms they cause.
A weather alert has been issued as a tropical storm nears the north of the country.
A tropical low is expected to lie north of New Zealand on Wednesday afternoon, bringing southeast gales and heavy rain to the north.
MetService has issued a strong wind watch for the Far North District from 1pm to 11pm on Wednesday. There was a moderate chance the watch could be upgraded to a warning.
Civil Defence Northland is advising people to take extra care on the roads and check they are prepared for any potential power outages caused by strong winds
From Thursday, the forecasting agency said the system is expected to move and reach Auckland.
Meanwhile, another front moves onto Fiordland, bringing strong northwesterlies and heavy rain.
MetService said there is low confidence that warning amounts of rain will accumulate in Northland, northern Auckland and Coromandel Peninsula, but moderate confidence that warning amounts of rain will accumulate in Fiordland.
Come Friday, the remnants of the low and the associated front are expected to move across the northern half of the North Island, while the front over Fiordland moves northeast over the remainder of the South Island.
“There is low confidence that warning amounts of rain will accumulate from Northland through to Taupō, also northern Gisborne/Tairawhiti, and from northwest Tasman to Westland, but moderate confidence that warning amounts of rain will accumulate in Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty and Fiordland,” MetService said.
The rain is expected to ease by Saturday morning.
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Sam Tanner and Sam Ruthe, 800m, Potts Classic, Mitre 10 Park, Hastings.Kerry Marshall/Photosport
Sam Ruthe has set the world alight with his speed but he’s far from the only Kiwi track and field athlete making waves right now
When RNZ sports reporter Grant Chapman was a budding athlete in the 1970s he went along to international athletics meets to score autographs from the world champions visiting the country. They were there to compete with the likes of middle distance star Sir John Walker.
But for decades since those heady days of track medals on the world stage, athletics has more or less been in hibernation when it comes to profile.
“Nick Willis probably bridged that gap, won a couple of Olympic medals in the 1500 metres,” says Chapman. “He was a world class performer for us in middle distance running, but there has probably been a gap between say the 90s and now in athletics where it’s kind of slid back – it’s lost a lot of ground.
“I think a lot of other sports have come through in that time. One of them … was basketball which has emerged as a so-called ‘sleeping giant’ and is now probably one of our top five or six sports in the country. I think the sporting landscape in New Zealand has become way more diverse than it was in the 90s.
“The really cool thing about athletics in New Zealand at the moment is, I think Sam Ruthe and his emergence over the last couple of years has really captured the public imagination.
“I think that’s got a lot to do with the fact that New Zealand has a big tradition in middle distance running. You go back to Jack Lovelock, Peter Snell, Murray Halberg, John Walker, Rod Dixon, Dick Quax.”
Sam Ruthe, for anyone living in a box, is the 16-year-old who’s rewritten the history books, now holding every New Zealand under-20 title from the 800m to the 5000m.
A month ago he shattered the record for the mile set by Sir John Walker in 1982, 44 years ago.
He’s stunned the world – but he’s not the only champion we can expect to see hogging the limelight in July at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. (Presuming he’s going – the team hasn’t been named yet.)
Today on The Detail, Chapman talks about the athletics renaissance.
It’s gone from being a sport that only really surfaced at the Olympics or Commonwealth Games, to selling out an Auckland stadium over the weekend in an event branded “Track Stars”, where the national championships were hyped and packaged for TV, and broadcast live.
That follows hard on the heels of a good haul for athletics at the Halberg Awards, where high jumper Hamish Kerr took out the Supreme Award.
Chapman says when he was interviewing Kerr recently he told him about a meet in Christchurch where there were some good athletes, but they weren’t world-class athletes.
“He said they were leaving the venue and all these kids started swarming them for autographs and they were completely like, ‘what’s going on here? Why do you want my autograph?’
“And Hamish is trying to tell them, you are inspiring these kids. And that’s the kind of interaction that has been maybe missing over the years, and the more opportunities you can create for that to happen can only be good for the sport.”
Making sure athletes can see a pathway to the top is important, says Chapman, and now they have role models to look up to. That was more difficult for the likes of high jumper Kerr, in a sport where New Zealand didn’t have a record.
Now an Olympic gold medallist, Kerr had to be convinced that he could create the pathway for others.
“Which he’s done – and hopefully now we will have kids seeing that it’s possible, and following him down that pathway.”
Parents and family are also important, and it helps if athletes have people around them who’ve succeeded in the past – Ruthe is a classic example of a family with a pedigree.
“Again going back to that ‘see it and be it’ saying, I mean he’s lived it – his whole family has lived it,” he says.
But Chapman does have a concern about Ruthe’s trajectory.
“He’s achieved so much at such a young age, and suddenly now there’s this bandwagon that everyone is jumping on. That has got to affect you as a person, as a kid. He seems like a great kid … but I worry about how having this much attention on him will affect him.”
And Chapman says, just quietly, Sam’s younger sister Daisy, who is also performing above her age and showing a lot of promise, could be the best in the family.
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RNZ has reported on Fire and Emergency lines rescue teams who do cliff rescues, who are upset they must go through police to get a chopper and are sometimes being turned down.
“Confirming the minister has sought advice from police and expects to receive that soon,” said Mark Mitchell’s office.
RNZ has also heard of frustrations among lifeguards and helicopter crew themselves about police gatekeeping of choppers.
An agreement in 2022 in rescue circles reiterated police were the lead agency on most search-and-rescue callouts.
Health NZ and St John in the last two years had reminded FENZ that its teams were not allowed to call out an air ambulance chopper off their own bat but must go through police.
FENZ told RNZ recently there had been “some discussion amongst our people” about the impact of the 2022 change to chopper callout procedures.
“We sought to discuss and confirm [with HNZ] our understanding of the details of the change to procedure, namely that requests for contracted air ambulance helicopters to transport Fire and Emergency lines rescue teams to incidents must come from a search and rescue coordination agency which is either Police or the Rescue Coordination Centre,” said national manager of response capability Ken Cooper.
The centre handles major rescues, while police handle most other rescues.
Cooper was part of an email chain among lines rescue personnel and managers alarmed after being turned down by police for a chopper to go to a cliff rescue in January 2025, and who said this type of thing was happening repeatedly.
Police admitted they made a wrong decision at the cliff rescue at Hahei.
“We have now clarified the procedures, and our people clearly understand them,” Cooper told RNZ.
“Fire and Emergency personnel take their responsibility for serving and keeping their communities safe in a timely way very seriously.”
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Immigration New Zealand says 47 staff members have faced disciplinary action in the last five years for breaching its integrity standards.
It has investigated 146 allegations over the same period.
INZ would not go into details, but said integrity matters could range from dishonesty and not declaring conflicts of interest, to inappropriate access of systems and fraud.
Its head, Alison McDonald, said there has been no staff member dismissed recently because of corruption.
Staff disciplined over the 47 allegations, which were substantiated, or partially substantiated, since 2021, were dealt with by dismissals, warnings, training or letter of expectations.
“The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) does not tolerate instances of fraud, corruption, dishonesty or harassment,” she said. “Any such allegations are taken extremely seriously. When we are made aware of any issues we act promptly, and any allegations are investigated.
“MBIE, of which INZ is part, sets clear and reasonable expectations of conduct and behaviour for all employees. All INZ staff are expected to act with the highest level of integrity and make fair decisions without bias.”
Staff and managers complete modules on MBIE’s fraud, corruption and dishonesty policy as part of their induction, and employees have training sessions on integrity, she added.
“Additionally, staff receive regular communication from their managers, which includes reminders about our policy, the process for raising integrity concerns, as well as specific security threats.
“Any member of staff who has concerns about the integrity of the Immigration system is encouraged to raise the issue, either with their manager or through MBIE’s integrity line, so it can be investigated. Any member of the public is also encouraged to use this integrity line.”
They can call 0800 33 77 33, email integrity@mbie.govt.nz or contact Crime Stoppers.
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Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group chairperson Hoani Langsbury is congratulating the community for reaching possum free, saying it would not have been possible without them.Supplied
Otago Peninsula has been officially declared possum-free after years of hard mahi.
The milestone was officially marked on Tuesday with more than 24,000 possums removed from about 10,000 hectares.
Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group chairperson Hoani Langsbury said they would not have reached possum free without the community and many volunteers.
“Being community driven has enabled us to get onto nearly all of the properties. There’s virtually no one on the Otago Peninsula now that probably even realises that we still had possums up until recently because roadkill is something that the generations coming through now have never seen,” he said.
A possum trapped in the Otago region in 2024.Supplied
They have been waiting to mark this milestone for close to a year, and he was thrilled the community could finally celebrate the years of mahi.
It was far from easy terrain, covering steep cliff faces, farmland, gullies and bush to the backyards, villages and popular tourist trails.
Having new technology meant they could ramp up their efforts, he said.
“We have live capture traps in people’s backyards because they don’t want their pets getting caught up, through to cliff faces where it’s impossible for our volunteers or staff to get down, where drones and helicopters had to be used, Langsbury said.
Tūī, pīwakawaka and bellbird had all returned to the Peninsula and they were spreading the seeds that were now able to survive on trees, he said.
“It’s almost like a human-induced mast event where we have so much seed out there that, as long as we have plenty of birds to distribute it, we will see the peninsula come back naturally, and if we can augment that by the community helping with regenerational rewilding, the future can only be positive for the Otago Peninsula.”
Predator Free Dunedin – a collaboration of more than 20 organisations – took over the final push to eliminate possums in 2024.
It has received funding as part of the government’s goal to eliminate stoats, rats, possums and feral cats by 2050.
Project lead Rhys Millar said the project was existing on the smell of an oily rag in the early days and he did not think elimination was possible on such a limited budget despite the hard mahi.
Rhys Millar.Supplied/Predator Free Dunedin
It was a breakthrough moment when the Predator Free 2050 funding kicked in, he said.
Becoming possum free was a massive accomplishment, Millar said.
But it had been a challenge tracking down the last possums.
“Possums inhabit every little nook and cranny that they can so we would see a south facing, cold damp cliff as being inhospitable and not a place possums would live. They do,” he said.
“They will inhabit backyards and live in a tiny little heap next to a compost bin.”
They have been using a mix of technology to hunt them down including AI traps, thermal drones and even man’s best friend.
“The dog, probably not such modern technology, but having a focused scat dog in the team … has been the biggest detection device, the most useful detection device because it’s in real time.
“Scout can detect the scat and then we can allocate resource to that immediately.”
Detection dog Scout sniffs for scat to find possums.Supplied/Predator Free Dunedin
Department of Conservation strategic projects manager Brent Beaven said it was a great win.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? The community’s been working a long time toward getting a possum free peninsula and that extra investment and focus associated with Predator Free achieved an eradication or an elimination of possums,” he said.
The community had been championing this project for years, Beaven said.
“Predator Free’s one of those goals across the country that can only succeed if communities buy into it and contribute to it so this is everyone’s business.
“We won’t achieve it unless we’ve got communities onboard.”
The country was doing really well towards its Predator Free 2050 goal, he said.
But the mahi was not over now the Otago Peninsula was possum free.
Hoani Langsbury said the Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group had been talking with Ōtākou Runaka and the Otago Peninsula Trust about what was next.
“We’re already starting to talk about what next species look like, which ones we might need to suppress, which ones we may be able to eliminate and we’re not put off by the fact that it’s going to be another intergenerational project like the 17 years it took us to remove the possum,” Langsbury said.
For Predator Free Dunedin, its efforts would be shifting across the harbour to support The Halo Project and implement a pilot programme to eliminate possums, stoats, other mustelids and feral cats around Orokonui Ecosanctuary – about 2000 hectares.
The Halo Project, a delivery partner of Predator Free Dunedin, checks the elimination efforts in the Silver Peaks near Dunedin.Supplied/Predator Free Dunedin
Native birds were flourishing behind the pest proof fence, but once they left the safety of the ecosanctuary, he said they could become easy prey.
They also wanted to hold onto their community’s possum free win with an extensive AI live trapping network in the buffer zone and a request to residents to report any signs of possums.
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Regional airline Air Chathams has announced it is introducing a $20 fuel surcharge on all flights due to increased aviation fuel prices.
The announcement came a few hours after Air New Zealand raised its fare prices on Tuesday, adding it could be forced to raise them again and review routes.
In its statement, Air Chathams said aviation fuel prices in New Zealand “have risen significantly” due to the war in the Middle East.
The critical Hormuz Strait, a shipping route for up to 20 percent of the world oil is essentially closed due to the conflict in the region.
The price of jet fuel has been fluctuating wildly since the conflict broke out, and has at times gone up more than 120 percent.
Air Chathams’ $20 charge will be added to ticket prices at the time of booking but will not apply to existing fares.
“This surcharge will be reviewed regularly and will be removed once fuel prices return to more normal levels,” the airline said.
Air New Zealand was raising one-way economy fares by $10 on domestic routes, $20 on short-haul international services and $90 on long-haul flights, with further price, network and schedule changes possible if jet fuel costs remain elevated, according to a Reuters report.
The national carrier has suspended the earnings guidance it issued less than two weeks ago because of what it said was unprecedented volatility in jet fuel markets.
The airline expects a meaningful impact on its seccond-half earnings.
Reuters also reported that Qantas was increasing international fares, and was exploring options to redeploy capacity to Europe as airlines seek to evade disruptions in the Middle East.
Singapore Airlines has raised fares to Europe by $140 for a return ticket.
Travel agent Vincent George told Checkpoint the price increase was not only to do with fuel costs, but also supply and demand.
“With the demise of some of the airlines travelling through the Middle East, which were some of the hugest carriers out of New Zealand, Qatar and Emirates, then we’re looking at people travelling on other routes.
“As these routes get taken up and the capacity gets lower not only is the airfare going to increase a little because of aviation fuel, but also because of supply and demand.”
George said travellers hoping to visit the Northern Hemisphere should book their flights as soon as possible to avoid any further price increases.
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Sunita Torrance (right), who goes by the stage name Coco Flash, and Daniel Lockett, also known as Erika Flash, hosted roughly 250 Rainbow Storytime events in New Zealand.Supplied
Sunita Torrance grew up in the rural Taranaki town of Stratford feeling largely distant from her Indian heritage.
The 46-year-old was born into one of the oldest Indian families in the country, but her parents didn’t seem to cling to their South Asian heritage.
“My family … were the only Indian family in Taranaki through most of my life up until I was about 20,” Torrance said.
“My mum and I didn’t necessarily embrace our Indian heritage all that much and we were very Western.”
Torrance’s family originally hails from the Indian state of Gujarat, and she spoke Gujarati as a child.
However, Torrance found identity to be confusing growing up in a place where differences stood out.
“I thought I was Māori [when I was a young child] but [I had] a weird name, and [later] found out that I was Indian,” she said.
“It took a little bit of time to figure out my identity a little bit.”
There were few Indian families in Taranaki when she was growing up, she said, and even fewer Indian restaurants.
As a child, she changed her name to Sunny, thinking it would be easier for people to pronounce and remember.
“But, also, I wasn’t really all that proud of being Indian back then,” she said.
“I didn’t understand it then but I’m now proud of my heritage and probably identify a lot more with that side than anything.”
Her first trip to India at 15 did little to spark that pride.
“I was 15 years old, you know, hormonal teenage girl,” she said.
“I had left my boyfriend in New Plymouth – and he was my life – and I was stuck in this awful village with a long trip for a toilet.”
Her relationship with her culture began to shift around the age of 18, when Indian influences appeared more prominently in mainstream pop culture.
“There were touches of Indian culture in mainstream pop culture like the Pussycat Dolls having Indian themes to their music and wearing saris and it was just, like, okay, so being Indian is quite cool [and] that’s when I kind of figured out maybe I should actually get into this,” she said.
Over time, Torrance said she came to see her culture as something to celebrate rather than hide.
She travelled to India again last year with her mother and said she now loved visiting the country.
Torrance said she began performing drag to support one of her best friends, who wanted to try it but did not want to attempt it alone.
She later began performing alongside Daniel Lockett, also known as Erica Flash.
What started as support for a friend grew into something much bigger, with Torrance eventually adopting the stage name Coco Flash.
“[And] it just developed into something bigger and then my allyship and activism in regard to the rainbow community really grew from that as well,” she said.
Torrance went on to host the first Pride festival in Taranaki and helped establish initiatives such as Taranaki Pride, Outfest and Out and Proud Taranaki to support rainbow communities.
Sunita Torrance said her business income dropped from about $150,000 to $30,000 in the past year.Supplied
Encountering threats of violence
Inspired by Drag Queen Story Hour in the United States, a South Taranaki librarian approached Torrance and Lockett about launching a similar children’s event in New Zealand.
This eventually became Rainbow Storytime.
The duo toured the country twice, performing at about 130 libraries and holding roughly 250 sessions before protests by Destiny Church halted shows in 2024.
In April 2024, Torrance and Lockett cancelled a nationwide Rainbow Storytime tour due to threats of violence.
Around the same time, two rainbow pedestrian crossings in Auckland and Hastings were vandalised, and multiple Rainbow Storytime events were cancelled in Hastings and Rotorua.
In February 2025, about 30 adults and children were barricaded into a room at a West Auckland library after a group linked to Destiny Church attempted to disrupt a Pride Festival event in Te Atatū.
Torrance said the fallout had taken a heavy personal toll.
“We were on the rise, we were getting keynote speaker invites and we felt it was super positive and then it’s all come crashing down and I can’t even do any of my shows that have a drag twist to it just because of safety and even the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I’ve been touring for nine years, I haven’t been able to do that.”
In 2024, Haus of Flash, one of Torrance’s companies, filed defamation proceedings against Brian Tamaki and Destiny Church in the Auckland High Court, seeking just over $2 million in damages over alleged attacks on their Rainbow Storytime events.
Drag artist Sunita Torrance speaks to reporters outside Auckland High Court in June 2024.RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Torrance said the case carried wider significance beyond the rainbow community, particularly as other groups faced backlash.
In January, Sikh community leaders called for calm and dialogue after two Nagar Kirtan religious processions were disrupted in Auckland and Tauranga.
Videos later posted by Brian Tamaki showed protesters approaching members of the Sikh community wearing shirts with slogans such as “Kiwis first”, “Keep NZ, NZ” and “True patriot”, alongside a banner reading: “This is New Zealand, not India”.
Destiny Church-affiliated Freedom and Rights Coalition protesters assembled at Victoria Park before attempting to cross the Harbour Bridge only to be stopped by a police cordon.
A second protest on the same day, led by Toitū te Aroha, called for solidarity among diverse communities.
“It sickens me, it honestly does,” Torrance said.
“It was already personal with the rainbow community, even though I’m not a part of that community, but now he’s attacking hardworking Indians, people who have really built the foundation of our country along with other cultures.”
Despite the turmoil, Torrance tried to remain hopeful.
“I also think that the Indian community, or all communities really, they just need to show strength in numbers,” she said.
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The conflict in the Middle East has pushed up the price of oil which has been reflected in the price at the pump in New Zealand.
While the spot price of urea has jumped since the war began – retail prices in New Zealand had remained stable as the big fertiliser companies assured farmers they had enough product to cover the busy autumn period.
Federated Farmers arable chair David Birkett said for arable farmers it was a double whammy as they used a lot of fertiliser to grow crops and then diesel in their harvesters.
“At the moment we’re busy in the middle of harvest, so we’re using combine harvesters and a large machine that will use about a thousand litres of fuel a day.
“Then there’s trucks and tractors on top of that – so if we see an increase in price of $1 or even 50 cents a litre that’s $2000 to $4000 extra a day.”
Birkett said farmers were already feeling the pinch of rising fuel prices but were eagerly watching to see what would happen to the price and supply of fertiliser.
“The key word at the moment is uncertainty because we don’t know how long this is going to go on for, we know there is enough supply in the country for autumn, I guess for us it depends if the war continues how this will hit us in the spring.”
He said farmers were starting to hear from their fertiliser suppliers but were nervous about two things, the price and supply.
“There have been shortages before and farmers can use different products, they normally are more expensive but we have never got to the point where we’ve run out of fertiliser.
“Farmers should start planning ahead – talk with their fertiliser companies to give them an idea of what demand will be like come spring time.”
Fertiliser company Ballance Agri-Nutrients said it did not know what impact the escalation would have on price.
Chief executive Kelvin Wickham said the company had already seen significant price increases leading into this conflict and given this latest escalation and the market’s reaction it anticipated more.
“Upcoming shipments are mostly subject to pricing at time of shipment, as a commodity, fertiliser pricing experiences movements similar to the imported oil market.”
He also encouraged farmers to plan ahead: “Thinking ahead and creating a plan early will help us make sure we have what they need, when they need it.
“The uncertainty caused by the situation in the Middle East highlights how critical local resilience is for New Zealand. In an increasingly uncertain global environment, secure access to fertiliser matters for farmers and for the wider economy.”
Wickham said for Ballance’s Kapuni gas to urea plant it continued to be active in the gas market.
“We’re becoming more assured about the likelihood of securing longer-term supply. Our priority remains very much on maintaining locally manufactured nutrients as part of the nutrient supply mix and preserving future options.”
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The Nurses Organisation said the hospital hit 108 percent capacity on Monday morning, with ED a pinch point.
Union delegate and Christchurch Hospital healthcare assistant Al Dietschin said the ED was seeing more than 400 patients per day, some of whom had to wait in corridors.
“It’s been chronic for some time the busyness. We haven’t seen numbers drop over summer it’s been kind of relentless. That just puts so much pressure on the workforce and obviously affects patient care,” he said.
“It’s horrendous but unfortunately it seems to be the new normal.
“On the ground what it looks like in ED is an overwhelmed department where patients are waiting in corridors. We get a situation when the wards are all so full you can have a bed lock occur.”
Otago University Professor Michael Baker said New Zealand was in its ninth Covid-19 wave, with hospitalisations and deaths climbing.
Otago University Professor Michael Baker.supplied / Otago University Wellington
Wastewater analysis from PHF Science showed the number of cases was at its highest rate for more than six months and the latest Health New Zealand figures showed there had been 50 hospitalisations and 19 deaths with the virus in the past week.
Covid-19 was filling up hospitals, and everyone needed to “act to reduce impact”, Baker said.
Dietschin there were too few staff at Christchurch Hospital for the number of patients and the situation would only get worse over winter.
“It’s quite scary because staff get sick as well and that just increases the short staffing. It just causes sort of a rationing of care which then contributes to the moral injury and burnout of staff,” he said.
He said staff were being regularly redeployed from one area of the hospital to another to meet the shortage.
“It’s kind of a bit like moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic,” he said.
“We’re short of RNs [registered nurses], we’re short of healthcare assistants, we’re short of doctors, we’re short of midwives and Te Whatu Ora and this government don’t seem to be addressing it. We need a massive increase in funding in public healthcare.”
The union had been in bargaining with health authorities over safe staffing levels for 18 months, Dietschin said.
“The increase in presentations within the ED department, that’s partly a result of primary healthcare that’s failing, where people aren’t being caught early so they become more acutely unwell and present in ED,” he said.
Health New Zealand said Christchurch’s ED was busier than usual at the end of the weekend, but put that down to acute trauma demand rather than staffing shortages.RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Health New Zealand Canterbury operations group director Hamish Brown said Christchurch’s ED was busier than usual at the end of the weekend.
“Our team saw an average 423 patients over the weekend (394 on Saturday and 451 on Sunday), which is 22 patients more compared with the previous weekend and 35 more compared to the same time last March,” he said.
“This pressure was primarily related to acute trauma demand affecting the emergency department and wards rather than staffing shortages.
“We had, and continue to have, staff to cover to meet demand, and our teams actively managed the situation to minimise any impact on care. At very busy times there may be some waits for a bed space to become available, however patients are only discharged when they are well enough.”
Brown said anyone who needed urgent or emergency care should come to ED without delay or call 111.
“We encourage those with non-urgent concerns to consider other options for access to acute care, including the free Healthline (0800 611 116) to speak to a registered nurse, or local GPs, healthcare providers and community pharmacies,” he said.
Initiatives had been put in place or were being worked on at the hospital to help manage the anticipated high winter demand for illnesses like Covid-19, flu, and other respiratory conditions, Brown said.
Kidney patients in Christchurch were also being warned dialysis treatment may have to be rationed because of staffing shortages and a lack of space at the hospital.
In a letter to patients and seen by RNZ, the hospital’s kidney department said some patients might be asked to change treatment days, times or locations to manage the pressure.
Dr Curtis Walker from the Board of Kidney Health New Zealand told Morning Report it was a difficult situation.
“It’s incredibly disruptive for patients. I’ve got patients on dialysis who are trying to run a business, who are trying to get kids to school, trying to look after elderly parents and the last thing they need is even more uncertainty in what’s already a pretty challenging treatment,” he said.
“Most patients need three dialysis sessions a week and if they don’t they start to feel unwell or even worse they can get fluid build up or potassium build up and that can have fatal consequences.”
Dr Curtis Walker from the Board of Kidney Health New Zealand.RNZ / Karen Brown
Walker says dialysis demand was placing stress across the country and was projected to get worse.
“There are 12 main dialysis units in New Zealand and all of them are under stress and strain,” he said.
“All of them say they can’t dialyse all their patients according to the patient’s preference, all of them report a lack of physical capacity and funding and over half have said we’ve had to reduce hours or delay dialysis when patients start dialysis.”
Brown said Health New Zealand was considering options for addressing the problems at the Christchurch unit.
“In 2024, an existing inpatient room was repurposed to add four further dialysis chairs. Longer term options include building a new unit, or re-purposing an existing larger space as well as exploring chairs in more remote sites such as Ashburton, so dialysis care can be provided closer to home for those patients,” he said.
“Advertising for a senior medical officer and approximately six FTE nurses is already underway to meet the immediate need for extra sessions for dialysis in Canterbury.”
Heath New Zealand acknowledged kidney disease was a growing challenge nationally and said it was working to strengthen renal care, increase capacity and improve early detection.
Over the past year it had increased dialysis shifts in several high-demand regions and invested in new and upgraded dialysis units, including the new $40 million Waikato Renal Centre.
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A cycling advocacy group said it was an issue right across Auckland.
Māngere man Selwyn Lilley knows the danger cars pose to cyclists – he was hit by one while coming around a roundabout near Māngere town centre on his bike.
“This car came up from Bader Drive and collected me. So I was lucky… got out of it with just with a couple of cracked ribs and a chipped pelvis. But I spent three weeks on crutches.”
Lilley no longer cycled for fear of being hit again.
There were now several cycleways covering the area around Māngere town centre, but Lilley said drivers parking over the lanes were causing problems for cyclists.
Some days it might be one or two cars, he said, but on busy weekends or when there was an event on nearby, whole streets could be clogged up.
“If you have car after car after car where the road is pretty busy. They don’t take any notification. Then they honk at you and say ‘use the cycle lane that’s what it’s been built for’.
“Most people would turn around and say ‘hey, we’ll use the cycle lane but you cars are in the way’.”
Manukau councillor Alf Filipaina.RNZ / Felix Walton
Manukau councillor Alf Filipaina said part of the problem was that there were not enough carparks for families living in new apartments in the area.
“You’ll see a lot of the cars parking on the verge, because they don’t have sufficient car parks … especially when you’ve got multiple families in there.”
“Hopefully we’ll have an alternative – I know they want to get people out of their cars but when you’ve got the car that’s for all the family members, there’s no option.”
Filipaina wanted a community campaign to encourage people to make use of the cycle lanes in the area.
“Let’s use some of our community people to sort of let them know the benefits. But also realise that sometimes we just can’t get the bikes for the kids for them to use the cycle lanes.”
Co-chair of Bike Auckland Karen Hormann said people parking on bike lanes was a problem right across the city.
“It’s forcing people riding bikes, expecting the protection of a cycleway, to be forced out into the traffic. It’s actually really unsafe.”
Co-chair of Bike Auckland Karen Hormann.Supplied
It was important to keep on top of the issue because getting people onto different modes of transport was the only way to improve congestion in Auckland, she said.
“Auckland is very congested. And drivers are getting frustrated. They’re also parking on footpaths and berms and blocking people’s access. We really need to allow for all of these different mobility modes.”
Auckland Transport (AT) head of transport and parking compliance, Rick Bidgood, said enforcement with consequences was the only real way to deal with the problem. The fine for parking on a cycle lane was $70.
As cycling was relatively new to Auckland compared to European cities, it would take time for people to recognise it as a real form of transport, Bidgood said.
AT head of active modes Tania Loveridge said when the new stretches of cycleway were being built in Mangere, it ran a targeted communications campaign edcuating people about changes to parking.
There had been an average five percent growth per year in cycling across Auckland over the past three years, Loveridge said.
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Markets have been volatile this week as they digest the impact of the war in the Middle East.RNZ
Worried KiwiSaver members are asking: is this time different?
Markets have been volatile this week as they digest the impact of the war in the Middle East.
But some investors have been concerned the warnings of economic disruption could mean more pain to come for their KiwiSaver balances.
One woman who wrote to RNZ said she was 64 and worrying about her KiwiSaver balance falling.
“I am out of work due to illness and have no other income or support from the government … I am really counting on this money. I’m worried not much will be left.”
KiwiSaver managers say – as ever – the volatility is the price that investors pay for the returns they get on the other side, and for most people, sticking with their investment strategy is the best plan of action.
ASB chief investment officer Frank Jasper said the bank was fielding some inquiries.
“People obviously seeing headlines, especially [Monday] seeing some pretty dramatic market moves and asking questions around what’s going on.”
Jasper said, while riding it out was usually the best course of action, a downturn in markets could sometimes highlight a personality mismatch for investors.
“We do all of this risk profiling when we go into KiwiSaver and we get asked about our attitude to risk.
“And then we live through these experiences and they are visceral experiences, that really test your genuine attitude towards risk.
ASB chief investment officer Frank Jasper.Supplied / LinkedIn
“I think for some people, it’s a learning opportunity … And they realise ‘when I actually experience it, I realise that it does affect me a bit more than I thought’ … every time there’s a dramatic market move, despite the fact the long-term evidence suggests the world gets through it and we do recover, there’s a scenario you can paint where things get worse.
“Sometimes people will lean heavily on that ‘things will get worse’ scenario. Sometimes they will be right, but most of the time the world returns to normal and things are okay.”
He said, since 2009, the S&P500 had fallen more than 5 percent 32 times and continued to record all-time highs through that period. “It’s just a feature of the market.”
He said it typically took 47 days for the market to recover from a shock.
‘And then within 12 months, about 68 percent of the time, the market is higher than it was 12 months ago.”
He said persistently negative markets would usually come only when a shock become a macroeconomic crisis.
But Jasper said it was a good opportunity for people to think about whether their fund was a match for their emotional ability to cope with risk, not just their investment time horizon.
“It’s very easy to think you are relaxed if there are drawdowns or relaxed if there are shocks in the markets. It’s only living through these experiences you get to actually genuinely test what your attitude to risk is. For some people, they will experience this and go ‘you know what? I don’t sleep well at night and I’m genuinely uncomfortable about this’.
“For those people, it may be very rational to think about a different risk profile over time. But for others they’ll go ‘I’ve got 20 years left, I know these things happen. I’m okay with it’.
“If you think about any other thing in our life, if the big screen TV was on special we’d be really happy about it. Or if you could dine at your favourite restaurant bit cheaper than normal, you’d be really happy about it. The minute shares go on sale, they fall a bit, we get the chance to buy more shares in good companies that we can own for the next 120 years, we kind of get nervous about it. It’s strange behaviour in the financial markets we don’t see in any other parts of our lives.”
ANZ, the country’s biggest KiwiSaver provider, said it had been contacted by a small number of people who wanted to switch to a more conservative fund.
“In April 2025, during another recent period of market volatility, we also noticed an increase in customers contacting us to switch into more conservative funds. However, the numbers were again low – a couple of hundred – and a fraction of what we saw in March 2020.
“We think this is a reflection of how ANZ Investments, alongside other KiwiSaver providers and industry participants, have made conscious efforts to remind KiwiSaver members to stay the course.”
Milford head of KiwiSaver Murray Harris.Supplied / Milford
At Milford, head of KiwiSaver Murray Harris said it had not received many calls or questions but was telling members that markets moved up and down and this was no different.
He said investors who stuck to their goals would do better than those who tried to time the markets and switch funds to avoid a downturn, because they would often turn out to have moved at the wrong time. That could mean locking in losses and missing out on the recovery.
Morningstar NZ spokesperson Greg Bunkall said the impact on funds would depend on the performance of equity markets from now.
“To date, the KiwiSaver balanced and growth indexes Morningstar uses to track KiwiSaver funds are flat, and that doesn’t include the bounce back [Tuesday] morning.”
So what can you do if you’re worried?
You should be in a KiwiSaver fund that matches your risk profile.
If you have a long time until you need your money, you can afford to take some more risk and should get through this disruption – and others – by not paying too much attention to your KiwiSaver balance.
If you need the money soon, you should already be in a conservative fund that hopefully isn’t moving around too much.
If you’ve realised you’ve got your settings wildly wrong, and you need money now, you’ll probably need to move your investments, even if it means locking in losses.
Former Black Cap Luke Woodcock knew something was seriously wrong late last year when he had trouble catching a cricket ball.
The cricketer-turned-coach started experiencing symptoms in October. It started with chronic fatigue, then came the random vomiting and loss of appetite.
By December his balance and co-ordination went awry, his vision became blurry, and he had a couple of bad falls.
And while doing some coaching at a college cricket tournament he had trouble simply throwing and catching a ball.
“You’d think that I had never played cricket before,” Woodcock said.
After another trip to the GP, the 43-year-old was referred to a neurologist. Three MRIs later he received the news on 21 January that he had a large cancerous brain tumour.
Three weeks later, the father of two underwent urgent surgery to try to remove the tumour. The associated risks with the surgery were significant, including the prospect of having to learn to walk again but Woodcock came out of it well.
However, surgeons were only able to get 80 percent of the tumour out.
“The last 20 percent, I think it’s on the right side of my spine where the stem cells are leading back up to the brain, just where it was unfortunately they couldn’t operate on that and that was a risk of potentially being paralysed through the face, my talking, stuff around my throat.”
Luke Woodcock played seven white ball games for the Black Caps between 2010 and 2011 and enjoyed a first-class career for Wellington that spanned 17 years.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Despite feeling well post-surgery and exceeding doctors expectations with his rate of recovery, he was later told that the remaining 20 percent was an aggressive grade four tumour.
“Unfortunately it’s terminal and getting told you’ve got 14 to 18 months to live was a bit of a shock… that was obviously pretty tough,” said Woodcock.
“I’ve had some dark moments post then, I’ve been working through that, really enjoy the day time but night time and sleeping was really difficult post hearing that.”
The next phase for Woodcock will be undergoing radiation and chemotherapy, which will not stop the tumour completely but can keep it at bay.
Woodcock and his partner Jacqui Incledon have been trying to navigate the New Zealand health system and explore all the treatment options available, including non-funded drugs. They are also investigating what treatment options might be available overseas, which are extremely expensive.
Incledon said it has taken a lot of time, energy and research.
“It really started in mid October last year – we had a total of 10 different doctors that we saw up until Christmas and four ED [emergency department] visits before we even got to an MRI, which was frustrating,” Incledon said.
“Having to spend a lot of energy with unknowns as to what could possibly be the cause of Luke’s sickness, we’ve had everything from stomach ulcers, to gall stones, to long-Covid, never did we imagine cancer.
“We’re just putting everything at it, making sure that all our energy can go into prolonging things for Luke.”
Facing a three month wait in the public system, the family elected to go private for Woodcock’s surgery.
Luke Woodcock’s partner, Jacqui Incledon, says navigating the public health system has been challenging.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Day to day life now for Woodcock is about making the most of this period when he is feeling good before his next phase of treatment.
“I get up early, I’ve got some rehab exercises, do a bit of meditation and some breathing that I do.
“Jacqui and I just get out for walks… we find a local cafe and try and do some things with my kids and stuff that I enjoy because for basically three or four months I couldn’t do that, I was stuck at home. I couldn’t play my golf, couldn’t play my tennis or just hang out.”
Next week, Woodcock is looking forward to returning to some part-time work at Wellington College.
Woodcock’s brother Leigh recently set up a Givealittle page to help raise funds for his treatment and ease the everyday financial pressures on the family.
Woodcock, who describes himself as a fairly private person, said the support he had received when news of his illness spread had been overwhelming.
“That influx, the Givealittle page… a lot of people have reached out, people I haven’t spoken to for a while. It’s been incredible, I can’t thank everyone enough and just every little bit, some fund-raising things that are happening, it means a lot.”
From Firebirds stalwart to influential coach
Woodcock played seven white ball games for the Black Caps between 2010 and 2011 and enjoyed a first-class career for Wellington that spanned 17 years.
The Wellington Firebirds record holder retired at the end of the 2018-2019 season before going full time into coaching.
Woody, as he is affectionately known, was part of the Wellington Blaze coaching team for several years until joining the sports department at Wellington College in the middle of last year.
Luke Woodcock and Amelia Kerr celebrate the Wellington Blaze’s Super Smash T20 title win at Eden Park in 2024. Kerr says Woodcock played a big role in her development..Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
Through coaching the Wellington Blaze, Woodcock played a big part in the development of White Ferns players such as current captain Melie Kerr, who was shocked to hear the news.
Kerr, a right-arm leg-spin bowler and top-order batter, said she enjoyed talking tactics with Woodcock, who bowled left-arm spin during his career.
“In the women’s game you’ve seen spin dominate the game, left arm spin dominate the game, so I loved to use and abuse his shoulder and practice facing a lot of left-arm spin in the nets against him,” Kerr said.
Kerr said winning the T20 Super Smash title in her first full year as captain of the Blaze in 2024, was one of her favourite cricket memories.
“It was such a special title to win with that group and captaining it also meant a whole lot more – working closely with the coaches and just trying to help the team as well. There’s a photo that’s been shared of Woody and I with the trophy hugging, and it’s a really special photo to me and you can kind of see from that picture as well how much it meant to him to win that title as well.
“As a coach who I think worked in the men’s game before coming into the women’s game, to offer that passion and see how much he enjoyed seeing the success of others when we won that title, it was a pretty cool moment to have it captured as well.”
White Fern Maddy Green was also coached by Woodcock at the Blaze.
“He was really influential for me, I would often bat with him a lot through the winter and he’d throw me lots of balls and was always really generous with his time – you can just see he lives and breathes cricket.”
Blaze and White Fern veteran Jess Kerr described Woodcock as a bit of a “teddy bear” whose reputation as a hard worker around Cricket Wellington and New Zealand Cricket is “exceptional.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
The tino rangatiratanga haki (flag) outside Parliament on the day of the Treaty Principles Bill introduction.RNZ / Emma Andrews
The Waitangi Tribunal has granted urgency to an inquiry into the government’s decision to scrap school boards’ legal duty to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and reset Te Mātaiaho, the New Zealand Curriculum.
Northland iwi Ngāti Hine and hapū Te Kapotai, alongside the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), filed the claim in November last year, arguing the changes undermined Māori rangatiratanga, partnership and equity in education.
In the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision, it said the changes had constitutional significance and met the threshold for urgency.
“Any legislative change altering the nature and manner of the Crown’s Treaty obligations has a constitutional significance. That is especially so in a case where Māori have not been consulted.”
While the Tribunal noted the Crown had acknowledged there was no engagement with Māori on the decision to amend the law, it said removing the statutory obligation for school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti had “immediate consequences for the status of the Treaty and for tamariki Māori within the education system”.
The Tribunal also rejected the Crown’s argument that other inquiries or future policy reviews could address the issue, saying those pathways would not provide “timely or targeted scrutiny”.
The Treaty of Waitangi.RNZ / Quin Tauetau
The requirement for school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti was introduced in 2020 as part of reforms to the Education and Training Act.
The government later removed the provision in 2025, with Education Minister Erica Stanford saying at the time of the anouncement that Treaty obligations sit with the Crown, not schools.
“School boards should have direction and we are giving very clear direction. You need to ensure equitable outcomes for Māori students, you need to be offering te reo Māori and you need to be culturally competent,” she said at the time.
Since the change, more than 1800 kura – around 70 percent of schools across Aotearoa – had publicly reaffirmed they would continue giving effect to Te Tiriti.
The Tribunal acknowledged the number of schools that had pledged to continue honouring Te Tiriti in its decision. However, it said the absence of a statutory framework could make those commitments inconsistent across the edcation system.
NZEI President Ripeka Lessels, the head of the country’s largest education sector union.NZEI supplied
NZEI Te Riu Roa president and claimant Ripeka Lessels welcomed the Tribunal’s decision, saying it sent a strong signal about the seriousness of the issue.
“I’m absolutely elated that they have granted urgency. It isn’t something that is done lightly for the Waitangi Tribunal,” she told RNZ.
Lessels said the decision to grant urgency reflected growing public and sector support for Te Tiriti.
“There was a time in our history where we didn’t have it, we didn’t have to give effect to it at all. And so nobody did. Nobody taught it. Nobody made references to it. Schools certainly didn’t see the importance of it until the Education and Training Act put in section 127. So that’s why it’s really, really important that we challenge what this government has unilaterally decided around moving the Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
She said removing the Treaty obligation signalled where the government’s priorities lay.
“By removing section 127 of the Education and Training Act, they are clearly deprioritising Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, te reo Māori, tikanga and mātauranga Māori from legislation.”
Lessels said the Tribunal inquiry was an opportunity to challenge the government’s decision.
“We have to challenge this removal. We don’t want future generations looking back and thinking this happened and nobody stood up against it.”
Ngāti Hine leader Waihoroi “Wassi” Shortland speaks at Ruapekapeka Pā.RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Speaking to RNZ, Ngāti Hine kaumātua and claimant Te Waihoroi Shortland said removing the obligation felt politically motivated.
“When you have it dismissed out of hand, for no other reason than people feel like they are losing something or they’re giving up something to Māori when they recognise the articles of Te Tiriti in any way, shape or form … it plays out to a largely Pākehā constituent that has no time to consider these things,” he said.
“People forget that two nations made this deal (Te Tiriti o Waitangi). One of them was Māori and one of them was the Crown of England … then one nation turns around and swallows the other one up and says, everything we decide is for your good.
“It’s been that way for 186 years. These kind of actions remind us that we haven’t moved very far in all of that time.”
Asked why Ngāti Hine felt it was important to file a claim, Shortland said his people were following the guidance of their tūpuna, Te Ruku Kawiti.
“In his ōhaki to Ngāti Hine – his last legacy statement to Ngāti Hine – he challenged all Ngāti Hine descendants to hold fast to our faith and to protect the commitments of our tūpuna … at any time that the words of the document that they signed up to are challenged, then Ngāti Hine must stand and oppose,” he told RNZ.
“We often can’t rely on the system of government to do that for us. Even with two sides of the Parliament, it doesn’t matter which one is in. It usually is a case that they both begin in their own interests first, and Māori are way, way in the distance second.”
In a statement to RNZ, Education Minister Erica Stanford said she was unable to comment.
“As the matter is currently before the Tribunal it would not be appropriate for me to comment.”
A date was yet to be set for the hearings.
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South Africa’s captain Aiden Markram (L) and David Miller (R) with New Zealand’s Lockie Ferguson at the T20 World Cup.AFP
After nearly three months in the subcontinent, the Black Caps are finally headed home, albeit without the trophy they wanted, and staring down one last challenge before they part ways.
A five-match T20 series against South Africa, starting on Sunday, will cap off the home summer.
The series comes less than a week after the T20 World Cup final loss against India in India. And two months after their first ever one-day series win in India.
The cricket calendar can be relentless and Black Caps coach Rob Walter had that in mind when the team for the South Africa series, which begins in Mt Maunganui, was selected.
Eight players from the World Cup squad – captain Mitch Santner, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Kyle Jamieson, Cole McConchie, Jimmy Neesham, Ben Sears and Ish Sodhi – will play at least some part in the series.
“Primarily, we want to find a nice balance now between giving guys off, it was a pretty intense nine weeks to be fair in India and Sri Lanka, and obviously stepping straight into a five-match series in a couple of days’ time,” Walter said.
“So, sort of managing the guys who are going to PSL (Pakistan Super League), going to IPL (Indian Premier League), with guys who didn’t have much game time in the actual World Cup itself and working hard to get that balance right.
“That’s the nature of the beast right now in international cricket and understanding we also have to take care of our players
“Those guys left everything out there from a World Cup point of view.”
Walter said he was in “constant communication” with the playing group to gauge their readiness to continue into another series.
“You still need to be in a mental space to put your best foot forward for your country when you’re competing.
“But we have a fairly decent showing of our World Cup squad in the series, which is great, and there’s a lot of keenness from the players’ point of view to actually play, which is awesome, given that it’s been a pretty hectic little while.”
Ishan Kishan of India celebrates his fifty runs ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Grand Final.www.photosport.nz
Selector Gavin Larsen said they had to be “pragmatic” in selecting the squad.
“We’re lucky to have strong depth across the different skill sets, which has afforded us the opportunity to rest a few players and introduce some others,” Larsen said.
“That provides an excellent opportunity for many to stake their claim for regular inclusion in the T20 team moving forward as we begin a new World Cup cycle.
“It’s been a busy couple of months for those on the road and with the South Africa series ahead, a tour to Bangladesh in April-May during the IPL and PSL windows, alongside a New Zealand A tour to Sri Lanka and followed by winter tours to England and West Indies – keeping our players fit and fresh in the short and the long term is our top priority.”
Those who would be taking a break after the World Cup to manage workloads or family life were: Finn Allen, Mark Chapman, Jacob Duffy, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Seifert and Matt Henry.
Top order batters Katene Clarke and Nick Kelly are in line to make their T20 debuts during the series, as is Central Districts spinner Jayden Lennox.
Clarke’s maiden Black Caps call-up follows a break-out Super Smash season where the 26-year-old topped the competition run-scoring charts with 431 runs, including an unbeaten century, as his Northern Brave side claimed the T20 domestic title.
Katene Clarke of the Northern Brave.Photosport
“Katene is someone we’ve been keeping an eye on for a while now and so it was great to see him shoot the lights out in the Super Smash and force his way into his first Black Caps squad,” Larsen said.
“He’s an explosive player who possesses plenty of power and a variety of shots. He’s shown destructive ability inside the power play, but also crucially the ability to bat deep in an innings too.”
Lennox’s first inclusion in a Black Caps T20 squad follows his successful ODI debut series against India in January where he claimed 3-84 from his 20 overs against the formidable home batting line-up.
Kelly’s been a consistent performer for the Wellington Firebirds across the formats in recent years and earns his maiden T20 call-up off the back of his ODI debut series against Pakistan at home last April.
Josh Clarkson, Zak Foulkes, Bevon Jacobs and Tim Robinson get their chance to impress after being selected for the full five-game series, with Clarkson back in the side for the first time since playing eight T20Is in 2024.
Tom Latham, who was the top run-scorer for the Canterbury Kings in the Super Smash, makes his return to the national T20 set-up as a wicket-keeper-batsman and will also take over the captaincy reigns from Santner for the final two matches.
With Conway departing after three matches, Central Stags gloveman Dane Cleaver will join the squad for the end of the series, having last played for New Zealand in 2023.
South Africa arrived in New Zealand with three players from their World Cup squad that was knocked out of the tournament by the Black Caps.
None of their players with IPL contracts will travel to Aotearoa.
Walter, a former South Africa coach, knows the Proteas team that does come will still provide a challenge.
“The depth in South Africa has always been strong. Obviously, the SA20 competition has developed a lot of younger players in South Africa, so from that point of view, they have a pretty good team,” Walter said.
“Most of them have played international cricket, or have done very well domestically so it’ll be a good challenge.”
Black Caps T20 squad v South Africa
Mitchell Santner (c) (matches 1-3)
Katene Clarke* (4-5)
Josh Clarkson
Dane Cleaver (wk) (4-5)
Devon Conway (wk) (1-3)
Lockie Ferguson (2-3)
Zak Foulkes
Bevon Jacobs
Kyle Jamieson
Nick Kelly*
Tom Latham (wk) (c – 4-5)
Jayden Lennox* (4-5)
Cole McConchie
Jimmy Neesham
Tim Robinson
Ben Sears
Nathan Smith
Ish Sodhi
*Potential T20I debut
Michael Bracewell (calf), Adam Milne (ankle), Will O’Rourke (back) and Blair Tickner (ankle) were not considered for the series due to injury.
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It comes as a political commentator says the party might be looking to distance itself from the drama of last year, and focus on the election ahead.
The formally reinstated MP took to social media on Tuesday night to celebrate the verdict, saying her intention in bringing the case was not to incite division, but “seek clarity and ensure the processes we hold ourselves to – particularly those grounded in tikanga, are honoured”.
“Finally, today, the truth has risen,” Kapa-Kingi said following the release of the verdict on Tuesday afternoon, which ruled her suspension and subsequent expulsion as “unlawful”.
Radich said the tikanga principles that were infused into the kawa document “were not mentioned or applied” in relation to her suspension.
“Perhaps most fundamentally, the relevant tikanga principles – which must inform the way in which a decision-maker considers the kawa’s rules – were not applied in any way,” Radich said.
“This decision on its own will not heal all the mamae, but it is an important first step,” Kapa-Kingi said online.
Kapa-Kingi also mentioned she looked forward to meeting with those from Te Tai Tokerau to discuss their future strategy for the election in coming weeks.
She finished by acknowledging this week belonged to “my darling nephew Peeni Henare”, whose many years of service “deserve recognition and respect”.
Mike Colson KC – Kapa-Kingi’s lawyer – told RNZ it was nice to see an “unjust situation rectified”.
Mike Colson KC.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
He was particularly interested in the judge’s assessment of the party breaching its own tikanga, acknowledging tikanga was a “fairly hot topic” amongst the legal profession at the moment.
“Many judges are slightly nervous dealing with it, or – one might expect very respectful of it.
“Here we had such a clear explanation of what the tikanga was of the party, and I thought it was quite brave and right of the judge to find that kawa and tikanga had been breached.”
He also acknowledged it might be considered “unusual” for a judge to “direct a party to take an action within Parliament”.
But Colson said the situation was so clear, and there was a lack of clarity last time as to whether that extra step was necessary.
“The judge thought it was proper to do so and to direct them to give a notice to the speaker.”
He said it was an unusual set of circumstances, and did not think it would set a major precedent.
The defendants had argued the case was a contractual matter, and should be dealt with privately, but Colson said the judge was quick to point out the “public character of the proceeding”, and that it was not just Kapa-Kingi’s case, but her electorate who voted her in.
“They, of course, also had a role to play and a voice to be heard, and that really pushed into very much the public arena.”
What will happen now?
On Tuesday Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi told reporters he had attempted to make contact with Kapa-Kingi, but it was not clear what the process was for her reinstatement or how the apparent rift would be addressed.
Associate professor in politics at Victoria University, Lara Greaves, told RNZ she had expected this ruling from the case.
She explained Te Pāti Māori’s constitution “wasn’t particularly clear”, and it was “very hard” to figure out if the party had followed the rules in terms of her expulsion.
Greaves thinks the decision to go to court was Kapa-Kingi’s attempt at staying with the party, “to change it from the inside,”, and this was “politics pushing up against the law”.
“Legally, there’s a judgment, here that Kapa-Kingi is still part of the party, but it’s not clear what will happen next.”
Political scientist & Victoria University of Wellington Associate Professor Dr Lara GreavesRNZ
She said the co-leaders had not spoken about the ruling much, and they had expressed a desire to limit any further drama, so “for a lot of us, it’s just going to be a case of waiting and seeing what happens”.
“Being within a political party where you’ve been expelled is probably not a comfortable place,” Greaves said.
She pointed to potential scenarios of further attempts at expulsion or further issues raised, “there’s still a lot of things that could happen here and happen here”.
Greaves said a lot of people, including herself, had made the assessment there was a “bit too much commentary” taking place last year from the party and others involved.
“So, just being a bit quieter might be a good solution there.
“Te Pāti Māori may have listened to a lot of their critics, listened to a lot of their whānau and communities, and thought – we need to keep this out of the media and keep a bit quiet on it going forward.”
Greaves also pointed to the Māori seats, and Labour and the Greens running strong candidates this election, “there are quite a few potential threats to their electoral success, so it’s kind of important that [Te Pāti Māori] sort it out now and figure out what they’re doing in order to get success in the election”.
“Te Pāti Māori may have made a decision in a way to hope that voters think that these issues are behind them and to move forward constructively.”
She said there would be a lot of scrutiny on the dynamics between Kapa-Kingi and the party leadership in the coming months, as well as a focus on MPs Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke and Oriini Kaipara and how they were fitting into the party.
It was possible, she said, that there would be enough time between the “drama” last year to the election this year that people did forgive and forget, “that would actually be a pretty good comeback”.
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The Association of Counsellors says there is growing demand for counselling – alongside a shrinking workforce and funding pressures.MICROGEN IMAGES/SCIENCE PHOTO LI
Counsellors say long wait lists and not enough publicly funded services are preventing people seeking the help they need.
The Association of Counsellors said its Counselling Workforce Report 2025 found growing demand for counselling – alongside a shrinking workforce and funding pressures.
President Huhana Pene said the lack of public funding for sessions was putting the handbrake on help.
“New Zealand has a qualified counselling workforce that wants to help,” Pene said, “But system barriers mean many people who need counselling are waiting too long or missing out altogether.”
Pene said there were also concerns about the workforce – with more than half working part-time with low or insecure incomes.
Many planned to reduce their practice, retire or leave the profession within two years.
“Without changes to funding and employment conditions, we risk losing experienced counsellors at a time when demand for support continues to grow,” Pene said.
Many said they were forced to prioritise students in crisis, leaving limited time for preventative support.
Pene said practical solutions were available – improving funding stability for non-government organisations, increasing the ratio of counsellors to students in schools to 1:400, and strengthening recognition of the profession would all improve access to counselling.
“Counselling is a vital part of New Zealand’s mental health support, and if we address some of these barriers, counsellors would be better able to help many more people when they need it.”
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A weather alert has been issued as a tropical storm nears the north of the country.
A tropical low is expected to lie north of New Zealand on Wednesday afternoon, bringing southeast gales and heavy rain to the north.
MetService has issued a strong wind watch for the Far North District from 1pm to 11pm on Wednesday. There was a moderate chance the watch could be upgraded to a warning.
Civil Defence Northland is advising people to take extra care on the roads and check they are prepared for any potential power outages caused by strong winds
From Thursday, the forecasting agency said the system is expected to move and reach Auckland.
Meanwhile, another front moves onto Fiordland, bringing strong northwesterlies and heavy rain.
MetService said there is low confidence that warning amounts of rain will accumulate in Northland, northern Auckland and Coromandel Peninsula, but moderate confidence that warning amounts of rain will accumulate in Fiordland.
Come Friday, the remnants of the low and the associated front are expected to move across the northern half of the North Island, while the front over Fiordland moves northeast over the remainder of the South Island.
“There is low confidence that warning amounts of rain will accumulate from Northland through to Taupō, also northern Gisborne/Tairawhiti, and from northwest Tasman to Westland, but moderate confidence that warning amounts of rain will accumulate in Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty and Fiordland,” MetService said.
The rain is expected to ease by Saturday morning.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Five years afterWho’s Eating NZ, this series revisits where our food goes – but this time through the lens of Kiwi breakfast, lunch and dinner staples. We track how much of what we produce is eaten here, and who has a seat at our global table during meal times. Today, it’s lunch time.
New Zealand certainly does enjoy an abundance of apples.
We grow so many that almost nine out of 10 are sold overseas, fresh and processed.
The bumper crop is no accident. There has been a concerted push to grow the apple export industry with the development and marketing of new varieties. Royal gala and Braeburn apples have been joined by Jazz, Envy and Rockit.
Back in 2012, the industry set a goal of reaching $1 billion in exports by 2022. At that time, exports were sitting at $340 million. The target was missed in 2022, but exceeded in 2025 when exports of $1.26b were achieved.
New challenges come with that success though. Horticulture company T&G won a court order in China, forcing orchards in China to rip out illegally grown knock-offs of its Envy variety.
China clearly has developed a taste for our apples – it was our biggest apple buyer in 2025, followed by Taiwan, Vietnam and India.
For local apple buyers, prices fluctuate through the year, with the highest prices occurring in January. In 2007, 1kg of apples cost $3.89. In January 2025 a kilogram of apples cost $6.15.
The humble avocado might be one of the most controversial foods around. Along with being blamed for creating a generation of renters, its notoriously slippery stone has meant millions in ACC payouts for ‘avocado hand’ injuries, and telling someone they “have the avocados” can spark a language debate.
As well as being keen consumers, New Zealand makes a solid contribution to the global supply of avocados. More than 4700 hectares of the country is planted in avocados, with most concentrated in the Far North and Bay of Plenty.
About 50 percent of what was grown locally last year remained in the country, the rest heading offshore.
Australia is the biggest buyer, purchasing about a third of our exports in 2025, down from a peak of 90 percent in 2020. Far smaller quantities are bought by South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Export earnings have fallen from a 2020 high of $177m to $102m, as New Zealand competes with other global growers, such as Peru, which had a bumper crop in 2025.
New Zealand Avocado chief executive Brad Siebert said countries such as Mexico, Peru, Columbia and South Africa are producing more avocados, which leads to volatile prices. Demand globally is increasing, but at a slow, sometimes uneven pace.
Domestic prices rise and fall annually, often peaking in May. The highest price per kg of $28.67 was in May 2019.
Seafood might be hard to miss in an office lunchroom, but in the data it disappears. It is incredibly hard to put a figure on how much commercially caught seafood ends up in our lunchboxes compared to what’s exported.
The industry body Seafood NZ said there’s been no need to collect domestic information and this position hasn’t changed since RNZ examined seafood exports in 2020.
It is possible to take some stabs at the number. Previously published figures include 90 percent, 77 percent, and numbers previously on Seafood New Zealand’s website say approximately 450,000 tonnes of seafood is caught each year, with 276,901 tonnes exported.
This comes out at about 63 percent – but working on caught weight versus exported weight is not accurate. Fish is gutted and often filleted before export, so it is impossible to match the caught weight up with export data. Sanford’s 2025 annual report says about 82 percent of its sale value is from exports.
Where our seafood goes has shifted over time. In the 1990s, Japan, Australia and the United States were the biggest buyers of our seafood, but by 2011 China emerged as the top buyer. Its spending peaked in 2022 at $709m but by 2025 dropped to $594m.
Seafood exports earned $2b in 2024 and 2025. The biggest single export earner was live rock lobster – China bought $290m worth of them.
Crayfish might not be on everyone’s lunch menu, but rock lobster has been New Zealand seafood’s biggest export earner since 2017 with around 2500 tonnes exported each year, earning between $266m and $392m. Export volumes hit a record 2700 tonnes in 2025.
Despite high-profile controversy about global beverage giants bottling our water, exported New Zealand water actually represents a small proportion compared to what’s sold locally.
An exact figure for local sales is hard to come by, but 2018 information published on the Ministry for the Environment’s website suggests only 17 percent is exported.
Bottling companies pay resource consent fees, but do not pay for the water itself. This can mean they pay less for water than residential rate payers.
In 2020 China was the biggest buyer, but since 2022 the US has taken top position.
Despite abundant water here, Kiwis still pay for water from other countries. In 2025 more than 3 million litres was imported, including 1m litres from Italy and nearly 300,000 litres from Fiji.
Stay tuned for Friday’s story, where we take a look at who we’re sharing our dinner with and dive into beef, sheep, onion and wine exports.
Where the data came from
Apples: New Zealand Apple and Pears and StatsNZ trade data items with a harmonised system description containing “Fruit, edible; apples”.
Avocados: New Zealand Avocado and StatsNZ trade data items with a harmonised system description containing “Fruit, edible; avocados, fresh”.
Seafood: Various sources and StatsNZ trade data for items with a harmonised system code between 301910000 to 308909000.
Water: Ministry for the Environment and StatsNZ trade data items with the following harmonised system descriptions: “Waters; mineral and aerated, including natural or artificial, (not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter nor flavoured), other than in metal containers”, Waters; other than mineral and aerated, (not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter nor flavoured), ice and snow, other than in metal containers” , “Waters; mineral and aerated, including natural or artificial, (not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter nor flavoured), in metal containers”, “Waters; other than mineral and aerated, (not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter nor flavoured), ice and snow, in metal aerosol containers, not containing chlorofluorocarbons” , “Waters; other than mineral and aerated, (not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter nor flavoured), ice and snow, in metal containers, not aerosol”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Animal Welfare Minister Andrew Hoggard.RNZ / Mark Papalii
The Green Party is welcoming news that the government has backtracked on plans to reinstate live animal exports.
Animal Welfare Minister Andrew Hoggard told 1 News he could not get Cabinet agreement on overturning the ban, which formed part of coalition agreements with both ACT and NZ First.
Green Party spokesperson Steve Abel said the news was a win for animals, the public and the groups campaigning against the move.
“From the outset, there was overwhelming outrage from veterinary experts who expressed there was no way to maintain animal welfare standards and herd cattle onto ships where they spend weeks at sea wallowing in their own waste. It’s fundamentally cruel and there’s no way to uphold the barest animal standards while exporting at sea,” Abel said.
“They couldn’t get it across the line because New Zealanders didn’t want to see animals suffering in that way.”
A 57,000-strong petition calling for the ban to stay in place was presented to parliament in 2024.
At the time, Hoggard said he wanted the ban overturned by 2025.
In April 2025, Hoggard told RNZ he expected the legislation to go to Cabinet within months, but that a backlog had slowed the work of the Parliamentary Counsel Office in drafting the amendment.
Last month, Livestock Exports NZ chief executive Glen Neal said uncertainty around the bill was unhelpful, but the industry remained hopeful the ban would be overturned.
Parliamentary questions revealed the minister had not received any advice on the plan since mid-2025, despite telling scrutiny week committees the amendment had gone before cabinet in December last year, Abel said.
If the coalition intended to make it an election issue, it needed to tell the public immediately, but Abel believed “the handbrake had been pulled” at the Cabinet level because of the unpopularity of the move.
Green MP Steve Abel.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Ministry for Primary Industries initiated an independent review of live exports in 2020, after the sinking of Gulf Livestock 1, which resulted in the deaths of 41 crew and nearly 6000 cattle.
The vessel, registered to Panama and owned by a UAE shipping company, left Napier in August 2020 bound for China, but sank off the coast of Japan in a typhoon.
At the time, National’s animal welfare spokesperson Nicola Grigg said the ban was disproportionate and ideological, and would hurt farmers and consumers.
The National Party had campaigned on overturning the ban, with a proposal it said would require greater regulation to protect animal welfare and safety, such as purpose-built ships and a certification regime for importers.
Hoggard, who is a former president of Federated Farmers, had previously said reintroducing the trade was one of his top priorities in the portfolio and he wanted to “progress with some haste”.
A 2024, an RNZ investigation revealed industry group Livestock Export New Zealand planned to spend $1 million to ensure the ban was dismantled, including on political lobbying, a “social media counter offensive”, a “trust and understanding” campaign, media training and creating the “gold standard” for animal welfare.
RNZ has approached Minister Hoggard for comment.
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Immigration New Zealand says it is trying to contact nearly a dozen cultural performers from India who are believed to have remained in the country after their visas expired.
The performers travelled to New Zealand last month as part of a group accompanying Bollywood singer Shibani Kashyap for Holi celebrations around the country.
Jeannie Melville, deputy chief operating officer at Immigration New Zealand, said the agency assessed visa applications for a group of 27 Indian nationals travelling under the banner “Community Holi Celebration with Shibani Kashyap”.
“The Indian Consulate in Auckland was the point of contact for the group,” Melville said.
“INZ verified that the event was genuine, including consultation with the Indian Consul General in Auckland who confirmed they were supporting the event,” she said.
“A robust and fair assessment process was applied to the individuals making up this group, including collaboration with our Risk and Verification teams in India.”
Eighteen people from the group arrived in New Zealand. Of those, three have since left the country and 15 remained in the country, according to Immigration New Zealand.
“Four hold valid visitor visas,” Melville said.
Melville said seven applications were initially approved while four were declined due to concerns, including suspected fraudulent documents.
Immigration New Zealand later approved 13 short-term limited visas for the specific purpose of attending the event.
The agency said it had been in contact with the Indian High Commission about the situation and was prioritising efforts to contact those who may now be in the country unlawfully on a case-by-case basis.
The group travelled from India to perform at Holi events around the country, including one held in Pukekohe in February.
Kashyap also visited New Zealand last year and performed at Independence Day events organised by Delhi-based CD Foundation.
Melville said Immigration New Zealand was not aware of similar past cases involving cultural performers from India overstaying their visas, though she noted the agency’s reporting did not record that level of detail.
RNZ has approached the Indian High Commission and the Indian Consulate for comment.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Declining population in West Papua, and critical loss of life through clashes with the Indonesia military raise the question of genocide in a new book by Brisbane writer Dr Greg Poulgrain.
This work, Curse of Gold, published in English by Kompas, as the title indicates traces the roots of subjugation going on in West New Guinea (West Papua) to a cynical grabbing for resources. An Indonesian language edition is forthcoming.
The book is a history beginning with the discovery of huge deposits of gold in 1936, deposits more than twice the gold being mined at Witwatersrand, together with discovery of oil just off-shore.
The Curse of Gold cover.
The principal mine now, with an Indonesian billionaire as main owner, has 560 km of tunnels and produces 50 tonnes of gold annually.
The existence of the gold was kept secret, awaiting investment and development opportunities, held up by war with the Japanese, known just to Dutch interests, the Japanese, and significant for the future, the Rockefeller petroleum company Standard Oil in the United States.
The writer details the operation of a “Third Force” in a chain of political intrigues and manipulation over a half century: the US company, sometimes officers of the US government, and at all times an early player since the first discovery, Allen Dulles, who came to head-up the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Dulles as the lawyer for Standard Oil had already got a petroleum concession in Netherlands New Guinea before 1936, through forming a joint US-Dutch company with majority US interest.
Heyday of CIA operations In the 1950s heyday of CIA undercover operations across the “Third World”, Dulles is depicted here manipulating political events in Indonesia, whether spreading disinformation, concealing information from governments, even setting up mysterious, destabilising armed skirmishes.
The objective given is always the same, to secure ownership of resources and a free hand for American commercial interests. At one point covert government help would be provided through some disingenuous work by Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State to Richard Nixon, and the always interventionist US Ambassador Marshall Green.
For people of West New Guinea the intriguing saga has been a catastrophe, seeing their rights, interests, existence and even human identity denied and ignored in the struggles over wealth and power.
The story is in two phases:
In wartime the occupying Japanese encouraged the Indonesian independence movement, as a block against any return to influence by European colonial powers, and naturally wanted Papuan resources themselves.
A Japanese intelligence operative, Nishijima Shigetada, familiar with the region, is given a key role. He had found out about the gold, and persuaded the Indonesian nationalists to include West New Guinea in their demands for a republic — the better to get the trove out of the hands of “colonial monopolies”.
The second phase of developments saw an ugly turn of events with the 1965 military coup in Indonesia, marked by large scale massacre across the country and coming to power of Suharto as President in 1967.
The new regime determined to build on the campaign by its predecessor, President Sukarno, to take over West New Guinea. In the calculus of Cold War rivalries, President John Kennedy had sought to keep him “on side” and the Russians provided guns and aid, in part to best their Chinese rivals.
Dutch gave in The outcome was that the Dutch who had stayed on in the territory gave in to pressure and pulled out by the end of 1963. It was nominally then put under United Nations trusteeship until an “act of free choice” on independence.
But Indonesian forces moved in, violently put down any Papuan resistance, promulgated theories of an Indonesia Raya, a lost island empire to which all of New Guinea had belonged, and declared the decision on independence would be an issue of “staying” with Indonesia. Neither Kennedy nor Sukarno, who had planned to meet in 1964, is believed to have known about the gold in Papua.
Dr Poulgrain recounts the narrative of bullying and deception, including the sidelining of senior UN representatives, whereby the “act of free choice” became notoriously a series of managed gatherings, no plebiscite of the people ever countenanced. He argues that the “Third Party”, having helped to remove the Dutch, then moved in favour of its own preferred candidate, Suharto, no nationalist from the independence movement, a self-declared friend of US commerce and advocate for untrammelled investment:
“It could be argued that the fiery nationalism so characteristic of Sukarno, the tool that won him the right to enter the harbour of Soekarnopura (Jayapura) on board the Soviet warship renamed Irian, proved to be his own undoing. Under the mantle of Sukarno’s presidency, Indonesia ousted the Dutch from New Guinea, the goal of both Nishijima and the ‘Third Party’, finally bringing an end to the European colonial presence there.
“Only 30 months later, Sukarno was facing his own political demise …”
In case the reader considers this might all be a well-worn path, it should be emphasised there is new material and insight into the origins and enactment of cruelty, appropriation and dishonesty that became the pattern in Suharto’s New Order Indonesia and its captive provinces in West New Guinea.
It is a work of thoroughness and industry, especially where covert activity and actual conspiracy appears; extensive documentation has been provided making the case strong. Much of it is original material, such as diplomatic messaging obtained through libraries, and records of interviews or correspondence with leading figures, viz Nishijima or the former US Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
Well defended The thesis of the book is consistently propounded and well defended:
“This book is about the ownership of the immense wealth of natural resources in Western New Guinea”.
The colonised inhabitants did not get that ownership or any just share of it, with bad consequences for their culture and welfare. It was a bad beginning in 1963 with Indonesia in a dominating frame of mind:
“Papuan culture is the antithesis of life in Java.”
Where the Dutch colonisers are characterised as a very small population hardly penetrating the hinterland, the Indonesians who took over from them have been aggressive with their industry building, immigration and military occupation.
Papuans today make up barely half the population of 5.4-million, steadily outstripped by arrivals. Population growth in the comparable country, Papua New Guinea, since independence in 1975 has been much stronger, now pushing towards 11-million.
Curse of Gold, by Greg Poulgrain (Jakarta, Kompas, 2026). ISBN 978, ISBN 978 (PDF)
The government has warned the country’s oil deliveries are in doubt if the conflict in the Middle East rages on.
The closure of the Straits of Hormuz and damage to infrastructure has triggered volatility, fuelling record oil prices.
Prices hikes have stretched beyond the petrol pump, with Air New Zealand raising fares, suspending its earning guidance and warning it may have to cut flights if oil prices continued to increase.
Associate Energy Minister and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones told Checkpoint the government was not considering rationing, despite the Australian government looking at contingency plans that included fuel rationing.
He said the government had been assured the physical arrival of the fuel was not under threat in coming months.
“But get to May we’re told by the industry unless things change there’ll be big challenges.”
The group is led by Finance Minister Nicola Willis and included Jones, Minister of Agriculture and Trade Todd McLay, Minister of Energy Simon Watts and Minister of Commerce Scott Simpson.
Key inputs for New Zealand’s fertiliser industry such as urea come out of the Middle East, including from Iran, and the government also wanted to keep an eye on any price gouging, Jones said.
The group would discuss options for relief from spiking energy costs.
The minister would not outline what measures were being considering, and warned such actions always had consequences.
The minister said it was a “great worry” a number of countries with refineries were significantly reducing supply.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) data showed the country had 27 days of petrol in the country, and 22 days worth shipped but yet to arrive, 24 days of diesel, with 29 days on the water, and 28 days worth of jet fuel, with 22 days shipped.
Some oil companies had already declared force majeure – a clause that freed companies from contractual obligations due to extraordinary circumstances, such as natural disasters or wars.
Wise Response Society chair Nathan Surendran said levels of damage across multiple countries meant delays could last weeks or months even if the conflict ended quickly, but the threat went beyond delays.
“The force majeure declarations cascading across Gulf and Asian suppliers did not just mean delays to oil supplies, they void contracts, and could see fuel currently headed to New Zealand diverted to nations willing to pay more,” Surendran said.
There were signs this was already happening, with reports of cargoes being diverted from Europe and Africa to Asia.
The government should take a precautionary approach, signalling possible rationing now, before shortages forced it, Surendran said.
“Australian fuel wholesalers were already rationing supplies to retailers despite Australia holding 36 days of reserves and two domestic refineries – New Zealand has neither,” he said.
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Nationals leader David Littleproud has unexpectedly quit his post, declaring he is “buggered” and “out on my feet”.
His announcement came as a shock to colleagues and follows a period of extreme turbulence for his party and the Coalition, which split twice during this term.
Littleproud has been a controversial and, in terms of Coalition relations, provocative, leader. Although the Nationals held their lower house seats at the election, since then two of their high profile MPs have defected. Jacinta Nampijinpa Price went to the Liberals immediately after the election, and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce jumped to One Nation.
Littleproud had a bad relationship with former Liberal leader Sussan Ley and triggered both fractures between the two parties.
He has been much closer to the new Liberal leader, Angus Taylor, under whom relations between the parties have so far been smooth.
The Nationals will meet at 10am Wednesday to replace Littleproud. They need to do so quickly, as they have a candidate running in the May 9 byelection in Ley’s former seat of Farrer. On early indications, the Nationals have almost no chance of winning the seat, which former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer held for them before Ley.
Nationals senator Ross Cadell told Sky News the leadership contenders could be deputy leader Kevin Hogan, former leader Michael McCormack, who served as deputy prime minister, outspoken backbencher Matt Canavan and Senate leader Bridget McKenzie. Littleproud did not endorse a successor.
Sources confirmed McKenzie was likely to stand.
Canavan said he would run. “I believe I have the best chance to help win the battle for an Australia first plan that can deliver a better life for all Australians.”
Littleproud, who did not announce his plan at the Nationals’ regular party meeting on Tuesday, held a news conference after question time with his wife Amelia at his side.
He said he would stay on in his regional Queensland seat of Maranoa, including re-contesting it at the next election. He left open the possibility of serving on the shadow frontbench.
Despite internal and external criticism of his performance, Littleproud’s leadership position did not appear to be under any threat. One of his techniques for retaining support was to take every decision, however small, to the party room.
At his news conference, he defended his record saying, “I am proud of us recapturing our identity, for who we are and what we stand for. For that 30% of Australians who live outside a capital city.”
He said he had done this with the Voice (when the Nationals preempted the Liberals with their opposition) and on other policy areas, including net zero. “It’s not probably since John McEwen has the National Party leader had to stand up and show the courage of their character and […] stand for what their party room wants them to stand for. So I’m proud but I’m tired.”
“It is time for me to feel normal again, it has been a pretty rough road since the election.”
Littleproud was highly critical when asked about working with Ley. He said it was a mistake after the election to “wipe all our policies because all we did was leave a vacuum for someone to walk into.
“I stood and fought for those four policies that meant so much for our party room. […] I wasn’t going to let them go.
“And then [after the Nationals defied shadow cabinet solidarity] I was not going to stand by while my mates got punted for not doing anything wrong.
“Where I come from, if one of your mob gets knocked over and it is not for the right reason, you come swinging back. That is how we operate. The culture of National Party has always been like that. I am proud of that.”
Littleproud said to go on as leader “would be the wrong thing for me to do. I love the National Party. I grew up in it, I’ll bleed, to the day I die, green and gold, I love it, and it’d be wrong for me to say that I’m the right person to continue to lead. That’s tough for me to say, [that] I think someone better can do it, because I don’t have the energy. I’m out of my feet. I’m done.”
Barnaby Joyce, who said Littlepround’s ostracising of him was one reason for defecting, blasted Littleproud. He told The Australian: “Mr Littleproud has to accept responsibility for the existential crisis he left the National Party in.
“When I heard he said he was proud of what he achieved and compared himself to Black Jack [John] McEwen, I didn’t know whether that was pathos or AI interfering with my news.
“We had senior people leave such as David Gillespie, Keith Pitt, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. We had a [Senate] seat that was lost, which was Perin Davey. Two people who basically walked out in myself and Andrew Gee, and Jacinta.”
Taylor described Littleproud as a “committed Coalitionist”.
Nationals federal president Andrew Fraser said: “I congratulate David on his personal strength and conviction that saw The Nationals lead the debate on the Voice and on the development and adoption of an energy and climate policy that will meet our future energy needs and allow Australian businesses to thrive.
“We are not a faction of the Liberal Party; we have a partnership, and David’s leadership never let them forget it.”
