Now a suite of bespoke apartments, the 17th century chapel at 8 Basing Street, Notting Hill in London once housed a recording studio.
Following in the clomping footsteps of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, in the northern summer of 1975, ex-Roxy Music member Brian Eno booked the premises at a daily rate of several hundred pounds to record his third solo album.
Eno came to Basing Street with a very sketchy plan. Essentially, the plan was to not have a plan. At first this approach became an ordeal of crooked paths, blind alleys and generalised straw-grasping.
Three months later he emerged with Another Green World, one of the most sublime and influential records ever made.
A transmission from another galaxy
Eno’s first two post-Roxy Music solo albums – 1973’s Here Come the Warm Jets and 1974’s Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) – hinted that he was primed to cut ties with conventional rock methods and sounds.
Even more telling was his 1973 collaboration with Robert Fripp (at the time cast adrift from his own monolithic prog rock outfit, King Crimson). Their album No Pussyfooting featured extraordinary “mirrored room” cover art and two elongated, gently quavering tracks evocative of American minimalist composer Terry Riley.
Even with these omens, Another Green World arrived like a transmission from another galaxy. It seamlessly merged five (sort-of) conventional rock songs with nine highly-distinctive instrumental fragments.
There had never been anything like Fripp’s coruscating “Wimshurst guitar” solo on the typically atypical Eno song, St. Elmo’s Fire. There had never been anything to resemble the sumptuous, stately drift of The Big Ship (used to great effect in the 2015 film Me and Earl and the Dying Girl).
No ostensible rock artist had ever come up with something like the title track, a snippet of tranquillity that became widely recognised as the title theme to the BBC’s Arena documentary series.
Just as unheralded was the sampling of the distant lilt of children’s voices in a playground, as featured on Zawinul/Lava.
A plethora of influences
Much has been made of Eno’s use of “oblique strategies” cards when making Another Green World. Developed with his artist friend Peter Schmidt, the card system works to encourage lateral thinking and overcome cerebral impasses.
But while this proved valuable in dealing with heat-of-the-moment tangles in the studio, there are more crucial contexts in terms of the music’s provenance.
First is the mindboggling range of influences impinging upon Eno around that time. Steve Reich’s manipulated sound collages, African American doo-wop and gospel music, German bands Can and Cluster, Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu, the Velvet Underground, Sly and the Family Stone, Mondrian’s paintings, cybernetics, avant-garde cinema …
The list is virtually endless.
Brian Eno in the recording studio at Earls Court, London, 1975. Erica Echenberg/Redferns via Getty Images
This broad palette fed into the incredible variety of projects Eno was involved with around that time. He had recently established the Obscure Records label, which introduced composers such as Gavin Bryars, Jan Steele and Michael Nyman to wider audiences. He was also on the cusp of what would be momentous liaisons with David Bowie and Talking Heads.
Then there was Eno’s own Obscure release Discreet Music, which came mere weeks after Another Green World and more or less invented the ambient genre. Arriving in the same absurdly fecund final months of 1975 was the Fripp/Eno album Evening Star (featuring An Index of Metals, a sinister epic which anticipated the rise of the noise and dark ambient categories by a decade).
‘One singular vision’
A further key to Another Green World can be found in its creator’s claimed role as a “non-musician”. Just as punk was emerging as a scruffy, do-it-yourself antidote to bloated classic rock, Eno was revelling in his own self-taught status and upending the inevitable career trajectory foisted upon rock and pop stars.
With no interest in fronting a band or being in the spotlight on stage, by 1975 Eno had begun to see making music as analogous to painting. Another Green World reflects this philosophy. Unlike almost all other rock albums from the period, it is a meticulously constructed collection of studio “atmospheres” that could never be duplicated in a live setting.
With reference to Eno’s oeuvre, critic William Doyle says
Another Green World brings together the strands of Eno’s work that came before it while simultaneously laying the groundwork for everything that he created afterwards, in one singular vision.
Music writer Geeta Dayal takes this even further: she argues that listening to the album, one sees “the pathways of all the electronic music that came before or after it, travelling through that record like so many streams”.
Another Green World finds Brian Eno hovering at the intersection of left-field rock and ambient tranquility. It is a masterpiece of tact, introversion and serenity that has only become more relevant in a 2025 world inundated with ostentation, hubris and bluster.
Dean Biron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Sean Collier from Whangārei says it was a “painfully easy” decision to move to Melbourne two years ago.Supplied / Sean Collier
A 27-year-old says his decision to move from Whangārei to Melbourne was “painfully easy” as it meant a decreased cost of living and massively increased wages.
Far more Kiwis are leaving the country than coming back with the latest Stats NZ data showing nearly 73,000 New Zealanders left the country in the past year, while only 26,000 returned.
Young Kiwis aged 18 to 30 made up 38 percent of those departures, mostly heading across the Tasman.
One of them was Sean Collier, a 27-year-old lawyer and stand-up comedian from Whangārei who moved to Melbourne two years ago.
“It was a no brainer. It was just a large economy and a relatively short distance away from home,” Collier said.
He said in the past year he had seen about half of his friend group from university move to Melbourne.
“It makes me wonder who’s left at home sometimes.”
Accommodation costs were similar to New Zealand but supermarket shopping was a lot cheaper, he said.
“I’d say across the board cost of living decreased, wages massively increased, to be honest it was a pretty painfully easy decision and a lot of my generation have that view.”
Collier said he was relatively reluctant to make the move “but it was driven entirely by economic necessity”.
“I would like to raise my kids in New Zealand one day but at present frankly it’s economically inconceivable for most people.”
Collier said when he was working in New Zealand “it was basically pay check to pay check” and that was without kids and not living in lavish accommodation.
“I can’t even imagine what it’s like for people with like a young child to feed over there at the moment working just a normal job, yeah it’s just not realistic for a lot of people.”
There needed to be a hard conversation in New Zealand about what the country could offer to young people, he said.
In a global environment it was relatively easy for people to move and New Zealand workers were in demand and you could not just expect them to stay, he said.
A major help would be a pathway to home ownership which a lot of people viewed as completely hopeless, he said.
“Things like scrapping the first home buyers grant, the optics of that to my generation are terrible, you know it’s essentially the government saying we also think you’re never going to own property.”
Some kind of student loan forgiveness scheme could attract people back, he said.
“There’s a lot of people that really would like to return but it’s just like why would you take a pay cut like that without some sort of economic benefit to you?”
It would be easier to own a home in Australia as there were more government first home buyer schemes available, he said.
“Just on top of that you just can earn more money here … like I know people that work in a cafe that earn more than my tradie friends back home … it’s outrageous.”
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Daniel Hillier has made a strong start to the season-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai, positioning him for a crack at a US PGA Tour card.
Hillier carded a five-under 67 at the Jumeirah Golf Estates course to be three strokes behind American leader Michael Kim to share sixth place in a 52-man field.
The 27-year-old Wellingtonian carded three birdies on the front nine and two coming home in a flawless round.
Hillier can join compatriot Ryan Fox on next year’s PGA Tour if he finishes high enough on the final leaderboard.
The top ten players on the final “Race to Dubai” World Tour rankings, who are not already exempt, will earn PGA TOUR membership.
Hillier was ranked 12th on that list coming into the $US10 million ($17.6 million) event, in which there are significant ranking points up for grabs.
Provisional points show if the tournament were to finish after the first round, Hillier would be ranked ninth on the all-important list, underlining how much is at stake.
Hillier came into the tournament in good form, having finished fifth at last week’s Abu Dhabi Championship and ninth at the India Championship last month.
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It will be difficult for the government to justify some of its changes to road tolling, lobby group Transporting New Zealand says.
The government this week introduced a bill to expand charges for road users, including allowing Corridor Tolling; tolling on parts of an existing road to fund a new project in the same corridor.
The bill will also introduce new payment options for road user charges (RUCs), moving from a system of matching odometer readings to paper labels on the windscreen to subscriptions through private companies.
Freight group Transporting New Zealand’s policy and advocacy advisor Mark Stockdale told Morning Report that moving RUCs towards a digital system had been “well signalled” and they supported it.
But he said tolling existing roads in an area where there was a new toll road would be “tougher for road users to swallow”.
Mark Stockdale.RNZ / Phil Pennington
“Existing roads have already been paid for and maintained by petrol tax and diesel road user charges. So if they were also to be tolled, you’re basically getting two slices of the pie.”
He said Transporting NZ supported alternative ways of funding roads, but they needed to be rational.
“There is a funding shortfall looming for our road transport network, so we do need to look at other options. Tolling is certainly an option for new roads and also other options like public-private partnerships.”
He said they also disagreed with stopping heavy vehicles from using alternative routes to toll roads if the government deemed it unsuitable.
“That’s prohibiting freedom of choice. There may be reasons why those heavy vehicles need to use the old road, and to force them not to and fine them if they don’t use the toll road, that just seems wrong.”
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Te Pāti Māori MPs Tākuta Ferris and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. (File photo)RNZ
MP Tākuta Ferris, who was expelled from Te Pāti Māori this week alongside Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, says the pair never tried to take over as co-leaders.
Ferris said, in the eyes of Te Tai Tonga, he was still apart of Te Pāti Māori and wanted a meeting with the National Council to put forward his case to the membership.
Party president John Tamihere has accused the ousted pair of plotting a leadership coup.
Ferris told Morning Report, they wrote to the national council last week asking for a meeting, but the letter had been ignored despite being signed by half the caucus.
Both Te Pāti Māori co-leaders were unavailable for an interview on Friday.
In an interview with RNZ on Thursday, Ferris described the expulsion process as a “joke” and underhanded.
He said, in his view, Te Pāti Māori MPs Oriini Kaipara and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi Clarke were now “trapped” in the party which was behaving “way below the line”.
“Our mates, they weren’t told we were getting expelled. They were told by the press release. This is the degree of the conduct, right? It’s way below the line.”
More to come…
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joseph Boden, Professor of Psychology, Director of the Christchurch Health and Development Study, University of Otago
Under recently passed laws, police can now stop any driver, at any time, to screen with an oral swab for four illicit substances: THC (cannabis), cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA (ecstasy).
Police will begin the rollout in Wellington in December, with nationwide coverage expected by mid next year.
Drivers will face an initial roadside swab taking a few minutes; a positive result triggers a second test. If confirmed, the driver will face an immediate 12-hour driving ban and have their initial sample sent to a lab for evidential testing.
Efforts by the previous Labour-led government stalled because no commercially available oral-fluid device met the evidentiary standards required at the roadside.
The government now appears to have what it needs to begin roadside testing. But it remains unclear whether this policy will achieve its goal of preventing truly impaired driving.
The science behind cannabis and driving
The research on cannabis and driving impairment is mixed. Many studies show an associative rather than causal link: people who use cannabis more often tend to report more crashes, but not whether those crashes happened while they were impaired.
Unlike alcohol – where blood-alcohol concentration closely tracks impairment – no such relationship exists for THC. Cannabis is fat-soluble, so traces linger in the body and appear in saliva long after any intoxicating effect has passed, making saliva testing a relatively poor proxy for impairment.
For the other targeted drugs – the stimulants methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA – the connection to driving impairment is also unclear. At lower doses, stimulants can even improve certain motor skills. The risks are instead tied to perceptual shifts or lapses in attention, which a saliva test cannot detect.
Because cocaine and meth remain illegal globally, it is difficult to conduct the
controlled studies needed to link presence and impairment.
The policy’s focus on just four illicit drugs also raises questions of scope. In practice, these are among the easiest and most visible substances to target: the low-hanging fruit.
Yet impairment from prescription medications such as sedatives or painkillers is far more common and remains largely self-policed.
Responsibility falls to individuals and their doctors to decide when it is safe to drive – a much bigger problem than many realise.
Police expect to conduct about 50,000 tests a year – around 136 a day nationwide – compared with more than four million alcohol breath tests annually.
While that’s a modest number, the introduction of roadside breath testing in the 1980s proved transformative. Alcohol consumption, which had been rising for decades, peaked around 1980 and then began to fall after the combined impact of breath testing and public awareness campaigns.
Whether the new drug-testing programme can produce a similar deterrent effect – without that level of visibility or education – remains to be seen.
Even if it does, the overall impact may be small. Drug use and drug-driving are far less common than alcohol use ever was, so the scope for large behavioural change is limited.
The problem of lingering traces
Another pressing question is what happens when the test detects traces of cannabis long after impairment has passed. THC can remain detectable in regular users for up to 72 hours, even though its intoxicating effects last only a few.
That means a medicinal cannabis patient who took a prescribed dose the night before – or a habitual user with high baseline levels – could therefore test positive
while driving safely.
Although the law provides for a medical defence, there is still no clear procedure for proving a prescription at the roadside. Few people carry that documentation, and it’s uncertain whether digital GP records would be accepted.
In practice, some law-abiding drivers will inevitably be caught up in the process simply because of residual traces that pose no safety risk. Conversely, an inexperienced cannabis user may feel heavily impaired yet return a low reading.
This uncertainty reflects a deeper flaw in the system. When the previous government first designed the policy, it intended to test for impairment.
Because no devices could meet the evidentiary standard, the law was amended to test only for presence.
Perhaps the resulting regime’s relatively low-level penalties – such as a $200 fine and 50 demerit points for the confirmation of one “qualifying” substance – will help it withstand legal scrutiny, but they also highlight its scientific limitations.
Other jurisdictions have taken a different path. Many have returned to behavioural
assessments of impairment – the traditional field-sobriety approach of observing
coordination, balance and attention.
In the United States, for instance, officers often rely on such behavioural indicators because the law there still centres on proving a driver was impaired, not simply that they had used a substance.
In the end, a test that measures presence rather than impairment risks confusing detection with prevention – and may do little to make New Zealand’s roads any safer.
Joseph Boden receives funding from the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and the Health Research Council of New Zealand. He is affiliated with the Harm Reduction Coalition of Aotearoa.
He told Morning Report, they wrote to the national council last week asking for a meeting, but the letter had been ignored despite being signed by half the caucus.
Both Te Pāti Māori co-leaders were unavailable for an interview this morning.
In an interview with RNZ on Thursday, Ferris described the expulsion process as a “joke” and underhanded.
He said, in his view, Te Pāti Māori MPs Oriini Kaipara and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi Clarke were now “trapped” in the party which was behaving “way below the line”.
“Our mates, they weren’t told we were getting expelled. They were told by the press release. This is the degree of the conduct, right? It’s way below the line.”
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The tino rangatiratanga haki (flag) outside Parliament on the day of the Treaty Principles Bill introduction.RNZ / Emma Andrews
A growing number of schools across Aotearoa are pushing back against the government’s plan to remove the requirement for school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, saying their commitment to the Treaty will remain unchanged.
The Treaty requirement previously in the Education Act said schools would give effect to Te Tiriti, including by ensuring plans, policies, and local curriculum reflected local tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, and te ao Māori; taking all reasonable steps to make instruction available in tikanga Māori and te reo Māori; and achieving equitable outcomes for Māori students.
The Education and Training Amendment Bill, which passed its third reading on Tuesday, removed this requirement.
Associate Education Minister Penny Simmonds, who moved the bill’s third reading, said it was “unreasonable to expect elected parents, who volunteer their time, to discharge the Crown’s legal responsibilities in respect of the Treaty.”
“This government is relentlessly focused on lifting student achievement and closing the equity gap,” she said.
“Boards will still be required to seek equitable outcomes for Māori students, and to take reasonable steps to reflect New Zealand’s cultural diversity and provide te reo Māori learning if requested.”
Simmonds said the bill “clarifies expectations” and “keeps schools focused on educational achievement as their highest priority.”
But education leaders say the move – made without public consultation – “undermines” boards’ legal responsibilities as Crown entities.
The National Iwi Chairs Forum (NICF), supported by a coalition of national education organisations, also launched a petition against these changes, saying “removing Te Tiriti from the one place every child in Aotearoa passes through… deprives our tamariki of the opportunity to learn about identity, belonging, and partnership in a culturally responsive environment.”
Maori classroom.RNZ / Tom Furley
Kura commit to Te Tiriti
From Whakatāne to Tāmaki Makaurau to Ōtautahi and Invercargill, school boards have issued public statements reaffirming their obligations to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Te Uru Karaka Newton Central School in Auckland said the government’s move “does not change who we are or how we operate.”
“Our commitment to Te Tiriti is deeply embedded in our co-governance model, which is clearly reflected in our school constitution,” the Board of Trustees said.
“This structure ensures shared leadership and genuine partnership between Tangata Whenua Ahi Kaa and Tangata Tiriti. It reflects our identity as a school community and anchors the values that shape our relationships, decisions, and aspirations for our mokopuna.”
In Whakatāne, Allandale Primary School said its direction would remain “unchanged.”
“We will continue to proudly work to support mana motuhake – the right of Māori to determine and shape their own futures including educational pathways,” the board wrote.
“Our kura will remain grounded in te reo Māori, mātauranga Māori, and local tikanga, guided by the aspirations of Ngāti Awa whānau and hapū, and the whānau of our school hapori.”
Nearby Apanui School said Te Tiriti o Waitangi was the foundation of its strategic plan.
“We work in partnership with Ngāti Awa to ensure Māori aspirations guide our curriculum, culture and decision-making,” Alexandra Pickles said on behalf of the school board.
“Apanui School will continue to uphold Māori rights as tangata whenua and to enact Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a living, practical foundation of all we do.”
“This is not only our legal responsibility but also our moral and educational one. We stand firmly in this position.”
In Ōtautahi Christchurch, Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo said the removal of the clause would not change its priorities.
“Our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi remains unwavering,” presiding member Lucy Green said.
“The principles of partnership, protection, and participation are core to our responsibilities and integral to success in our kura.”
Another school in Ōtautahi, Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery, responded to the changes by learning a new waiata Māori for staff and students.
“The Board and staff at Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery would like to reinforce our commitment to valuing our bicultural heritage” the kura wrote on Facebook.
“We will continue to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
In a letter seen by RNZ, the New Zealand Catholic Education Office (NZCEO) also reaffirmed its support for Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Chief Executive Dr Kevin Shore encouraged Catholic schools to continue giving effect to Te Tiriti, embedding tikanga Māori, te reo Māori, and local mātauranga Māori into school policies, curriculum, and daily life.
“Catholic education in New Zealand has a long history of support for tangata whenua and for the inclusion of tikanga and te reo within the culture and practice of our schools,” he said.
The letter outlined practical steps for Catholic schools, including developing community understanding of te ao Māori, recognising Māori as tangata whenua, consulting with local Māori communities, and embedding Māori spiritual and cultural practices into school life.
Lawyer and Māori rights advocate Tania Waikato has been compiling a list of kura who have publicly reaffirmed their commitment to Te Tiriti, and as of 13 November the list had reached 195 schools.
Waikato said this response shows that the government had “failed” to remove Te Tiriti, and she expected the list to grow.
“The people are speaking. Not the politicians, not the activists, the people,” she said.
“They are telling you again, that we will not dishonour Te Tiriti, because Te Tiriti protects us all.”
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Latrell Ah Kiong of Samoa avoids a tackle from Lucas Tranquez of Brazil during the Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 Final Qualification Tournament match between Samoa and Brazil at The Sevens Stadium on 8 November 2025 in Dubai.Christopher Pike / World Rugby via Getty Images
Samoa is a step closer to booking its spot at the 2027 Rugby World Cup (RWC) in Australia after recording a second bonus point victory in the Final Qualification Tournament.
The Samoans defeated Namibia 26-8 at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai early on Friday morning (Thursday, UAE time).
They led Namibia 19-0 at halftime and had Namibia on their back most of the half. The win puts them at the top of the four-team competition with 10 points.
The winner of the round-robin tournament, based on competition points, will qualify for the 2027 RWC.
Manu Samoa had beaten Brazil 48-10 in their opening match on
They will play their final game on Wednesday against Belgium, who are also undefeated with 9 points, after winning both their matches against Namibia and Brazil.
A win against the Black Devils will guarantee their place as the 24th team in the inaugural expanded edition of the men’s 2027 RWC in Australia.
The Samoans defeated Namibia 26-8 at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai early on Friday morning (Thursday, UAE time).Facebook / Manu Samoa
How it happened
The Samoans, with former Wallaby Scott Sio making his debut in the blue jersey, showed a glimpse of their better selves – something they had lacked during the Pacific Nations Cup and their two-Test qualifying series against Chile earlier in the year.
Tries to halfback Johnathan Taumeteine, winger Latrell Ah Kiong and his wing partner Vaafauese Apelu Maliko gave them the advantage on the scoreboard after the first 40 minutes.
Fullback Jacob Umaga added two conversions.
Namibian captain and hooker Louis van der Westhuizen worked tirelessly upfront and stole two turnovers inside his team’s 22 metre zone as Samoa drove hard towards the line.
Having lost to Belgium in their opening game, the Namibians were under pressure to perform, as they chased a win to keep their hopes of returning to another world cup, alive.
Samoa’s starting forward pack featured Sio, Sama Malolo, Tietie Tuimauga, Taleni Seu, captain Theo McFarland, Miracle Faiilagi, Alamanda Motuga and Iakopo Mapu.
The return of their top players and former Wallaby Scott Sio’s experience proved too much for the Namibian pack, who struggled to stake their claim in the battle for possession in the set-pieces.
In the second half, Namibia opened the second half with some promise.
They attacked the Samoan line after winning some quality possession and were on the board with their first points through the boots of flyhalf Cliven Loubser, who kicked a successful penalty conversion over the crossbar.
Samoa responded straight after and drove hard into the Namibian 22 with a lineout with winger Maliko stopped short near the corner flag, as Namibia threw in some big tackles.
That denied Samoa’s possible fourth try and an early bonus point.
A 53rd lineout win after a flat throw from replacement hooker Millenium Sanerivi to captain McFarland saw the Samoan pack drove towards the line, with flanker Motuga diving over for the try.
Umaga converted as the Samoans led 26-3, with a bonus to their name.
Fresh legs called on to the field at the 50th minute mark was timely as that saw a shift in momentum again for the islanders.
Abraham Papali’i, Michael Alaalatoa and replacement halfback Connor Tupa’I added some fire to the Samoans’ go-forward momentum.
On defence, the Namibians also showed some resistance, winning two turnovers inside their 22 again before a break saw them finishing close to the Samoan line, a drop passed ruining what could have been their first try of the game.
Their resistance finally paid off with centre Jay-Cee Nel collecting a bouncing ball from Loubser’s chip ahead to score wide, as Samoa led 26-8.
That was after captain van der Westhuizen had crashed through the Samoan defense to set up an attack inside the Samoan half.
The win gives Samoa 10 points, one more than Belgium, who they will face on Wednesday morning in the winner-take-all final clash.
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Imagine sharing your home with noisy flatmates who party throughout the night and then move into your bedroom.
That is what one Coromandel couple say it has been like living with little blue penguins who have taken to tunnelling under their home and nesting next to their bed under the floorboards.
Tracey and Peter Kendall are at their wit’s end about how to get a good night’s sleep with these rowdy interlopers.
Tracey and Peter Kendall are struggling to sleep.RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod
The Kendalls have enjoyed sharing their home on the cliff above Waitete Bay with penguins for many years.
The penguins would come and nest under their deck and it was a delight for them and their visitors.
Bird and people alike shared their slice of paradise while giving each other space.
“That’s the relationship we really had, which was a very nice, friendly, warm relationship, right up until about two years ago,” Peter Kendall said.
Footage of one of the penguins under the house.Supplied
That is when the penguins decided to make their move.
“They’ve moved from the living area into our bedroom area, we’re at the back of the house, and they have set up camp basically right outside where our bed is in our bedroom,” Tracy Kendall said.
The penguins are not quiet slumber party guests.
“It’s very, very noisy at night, their active period seems to be around six or seven, right through the night until seven or so in the morning.”
RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod
And they do not take a break from their nocturnal penguin activities.
“They’ll go squawking and making lots of penguin sort of noises around every 20 minutes, right through the night,” she said.
Tracy is recovering from an operation and, unable to sleep, things are getting desperate.
Peter said if they did not care for the penguins they could have just picked them up and shifted them off site.
But the couple know the animals are precious and need professional care to move.
“We’re not allowed to move them because they are protected animals, which we totally understand, but you’d need to get a qualified person to do so and we can’t find that qualified person,” Peter said.
The couple have reached out to the Department of Conservation who told RNZ someone from the department would be happy to pop around and give the Kendalls some advice.
But DOC’s principal advisor of biodiversity in Coromandel, Ben Gordon, said nothing can really be done until the penguins themselves decide to move on.
“If you do have birds which are currently nesting, then once they have finished nesting you want to get in there and block off the access points before they come back for the moulting season, because they are creatures of habit,” he said.
Coromandel operations manager for DOC, Nick Kelly, said moving the penguins would do more harm than good.
But he said he empathises with the Kendalls as penguins are “loud”.
“But it really does highlight that we are a part of nature. Probably the best thing that the department can do is really advocate for ways that we can live together in harmony [with nature].”
The Kendalls said, given no other current solution, they have stocked up on ear plugs.
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All Whites training.Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz
All Whites v Colombia
Sunday, 16 November
Kick-off 1pm
Chase Stadium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Live blog updates on RNZ Sport
The All Whites will not have their strongest side for their biggest test of the year but players say belief has been building for years that they can compete with the world’s best.
Sunday’s game against world number 13 Colombia will be the highest ranked opponent the All Whites have played this year and they will be forced to face the challenge of the South Americans without their captain and leading goal-scorer, Chris Wood, as well as five other front-line players who are out injured.
The games against Colombia and Ecuador (19 November) are the last international friendlies the All Whites will play in 2025. There are two more international windows next year, in March and June, before the Football World Cup which kicks off on 11 June. So there is limited time for players to impress enough to secure their spot in New Zealand’s third ever world cup squad.
With injuries, managing work loads and unavailability, All Whites coach Darren Bazeley said during this world cup cycle he has yet to have all of the country’s best players on the park at the same time.
Since qualifying for the world cup in March the All Whites have played six matches for one win, one draw and four losses.
The win against Ivory Coast, a 1-0 victory in June at the Canadian Shield tournament in Toronto, was in some ways a turning point according to winger Eli Just.
“It absolutely gave us confidence but I think at the same time the journey we’ve been on as a team, we are not short of belief,” Just said.
“We’ve been feeling good for a long time and feeling confident.”
Scoring goals was something the All Whites were still working on and not having Wood available was a blow.
“We’ve got plenty of players who can do the job a little bit differently, obviously different profiles,” Just said of replacing Wood.
“In terms of my role, maybe not crossing it into the box as much, especially if it’s someone like Kosta [Barbarouses] in there, but now in general it is mostly the same style of play.
“There is a lot more opportunities with the ball that we need to be turning that good build up into chances, can we get balls into the box, how can we utilise the players we have. So always talking.”
Midfielder Joe Bell did not feel the pressure to be scoring goals in Wood’s absence, but recognised the goals needed to come from somewhere.
“We want to be converting our chances into goals. I think two tours ago, the last time I was on the pitch, we played Australia, we had a couple of really strong performances but we were unable to show that in the score line and we know when we get to the world cup that’s the point where it’s really going to matter.
“In an ideal world I think it’d be great to have some midfielders contributing to the goals… internally we feel like we’re kind of on the edge of clicking over there, we’re hitting a lot of metrics that we want to in terms of creating slightly more chances and especially when we have Woodsy up top and he’s fit and available, it’s a huge threat for us and it’s something that we should be making the most of.
“So it is a point of focus for us going into these games as well, even though we don’t have Woodsy.”
All White Joe Bell against the Socceroos.Photosport
This Football World Cup will be different
The South Americans were the last on the list for the All Whites to tick off this year ahead of next year’s expanded global tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
As one of the first teams to qualify, New Zealand Football were on a mission to get the All Whites playing teams from different confederations in the build-up.
Like all the players on Bazeley’s radar, Bell wants to be in the world cup squad.
He did not play in the last window against European opposition, Poland or Norway, but did get the full 90 minutes against Ivory Coast, Ukraine and twice against Australia.
Bell has played at age-group world cups – under-17 World Cup and twice at the under-20 World Cup – and the pursuit of place in the team for the senior tournament feels a little bit different to the 26-year-old.
“In some regards, yes, because obviously the tournament is the pinnacle of football, but at the same time, no, I think representing your national team at any age group is a huge honour.”
The 2026 world cup would be a “fantastic experience”.
“All the hard work we’re trying to put in now to get us set up for that.”
Bell plays his club football in Norway for Viking FK with the potential to be playing in the Champions League.
If Viking do get into the Champions League Bell said “for personal career that that’s a huge milestone”.
“It’s obviously a big step to take, but I’m really happy to be playing in a team that has those kinds of opportunities to be playing in those kinds of games as well.
“[Fellow All White] Marko Stamenic he’s played a lot of Champions League games now and I think it’s fantastic having more New Zealand players playing in those kind of tournaments and level of games.”
Playing at the top level will work in Bell’s favour with Bazeley.
“There’s been a clear recognition from New Zealand that we want to get more players playing at high levels.”
In the squad for this November window there are All Whites playing club football in 10 different countries.
“I do think having a slightly diverse cultural component to it helps us with understanding and going into these kind of games [against opposition from different regions].”
Bell has worn the captain’s armband for club and country, a role that he has adjusted to.
“I think the leadership stuff definitely comes with time. It takes a long time to find the way that you want to do it and I definitely found myself observing for a long time, but feeling slightly more confident now to take a little bit more voice in both locker rooms here with the national team and also at club too.”
Bell has a good feeling about the world cup and the road the team is taking to get there.
“I think we’re tracking really positively. Although the results have been a little bit up and down, I think we’ve been taking some really strong steps internally and I think that’s the most important thing, recognising that going into the world cup, we want to be the most well prepared.
“You want to be scoring goals, you want to be winning games, but I think there’s a strong feeling within the group that we’re taking steps forward each tour and hopefully that’s something we can replicate this time is around too.”
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The two-day Māori language symposium attracted several thousand people to celebrate, with zones catering for beginners through to experts with the hope of welcoming more speakers on to the waka.
One of the many guests of honour was Sir Timoti Kāretu, who perhaps more than anyone else has seen more of the ups and downs of te reo Māori as the first Māori Language Commissioner, a famed kapa haka composer and one of the founders of Te Panekiretanga o te Reo the Institute of Excellence in Māori Language.
Sir Timoti Kāretu.RNZ / Pokere Paewai
Now in his late 80s, Kāretu had inspired fear in countless students with his philosophy of “ma te hē ka tika” – learning comes through errors.
“Engari kaua e mataku ki te kōrero, ki te mataku koe e kore au e mōhio pēhea rā tō reo. Nā te mea ka taea e au te āwhina, mena kei te kōrero ka hapa, waiho kia mutu tō kōrero ka noho tāua ki te kōrero ki te whiriwhiri he aha ngā mea i hē, me pēnei te whakatika me pērā te whakatika, engari tukuna te tangata kia kōrero.”
While he was famous for his high standards, Kāretu said it is good to show some aroha to te reo beginners, but they would need to turn to speak only in te reo at some point.
Thousands of te reo learners have gathered in Hastings.RNZ / Pokere Paewai
But, he said he was impressed by the amount of reo coming from younger generations of Māori.
“I au e mātakitaki ana i ngā mahi haka i tērā atu wiki i āhua tumeke ahau i te pai o te reo o ētahi o ngā tamariki pakupaku e kōrero ana… i te pātaihia atu ana e whakautu Māori mai ana me taku whakamiharo i te pai o te reo, nō reira he tohu pai tēnei.”
Festival founder and director Dr Jeremy Tātere MacLeod said Toitū te Reo was a dream of Kāretu’s, even though he may not agree with how everything was run.
Going into a te reo only space is a very daunting thing, Dr Jeremy Tātere MacLeod says.RNZ / Pokere Paewai
Going into a te reo only space was a very daunting thing, MacLeod said.
Learners needed to find their own way to overcome the whakamā, the shame of speaking te reo, but Toitū te Reo could offer some inspiration, he said.
“As I sit here and look across at the City Fitness gym which gives me intense anxieties the thought of going in there and the pain it’s going to take, but it’s about trying to create that welcoming space where we can all come together and those who are in the beginning stages of their journey can take something away.”
Dr Jeremy Tātere MacLeod says even non-speakers play a huge part in championing the language.RNZ / Pokere Paewai
The festival was divided into two zones – Rangimamao entirely in te reo and Pūmotomoto entirely in English. MacLeod told RNZ that allowed people to participate regardless of their level of language.
Even non-speakers play a huge part in championing the language, he said.
“The future of the language rests with everyone regardless of your level of proficiency and language champions come in all shapes and sizes and some of those people that championed the language back in the initial stages of the renaissance in the 70s weren’t speakers of the language but they were prepared to die for the language.
Te reo advocate Leon Blake was leading a session on the evergreen topic of the A and O categories of te reo, two small letters that can be a big hōhā for learners.
Te reo advocate Leon Blake.RNZ / Pokere Paewai
The zones were a great addition to the festival because it allowed those still getting used to te reo to understand all the kōrero, he said.
“Kia kaha tātau i roto i ngā piki me ngā heke o te wā, ahakoa ngā raruraru o tēnei wā, koira te ātaahua o tēnei kaupapa, ko tēnei kaupapa kei te whakakotahi i a tātau ko to tātau reo te taura here i a tātau kia kotahi ai tātau i tēnei wā.”
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Imagine sharing your home with noisy flatmates who party throughout the night and then move into your bedroom.
That is what one Coromandel couple say it has been like living with little blue penguins who have taken to tunnelling under their home and nesting next to their bed under the floorboards.
Tracey and Peter Kendall are at their wit’s end about how to get a good night’s sleep with these rowdy interlopers.
Tracey and Peter Kendall are struggling to sleep.RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod
The Kendalls have enjoyed sharing their home on the cliff above Waitete Bay with penguins for many years.
The penguins would come and nest under their deck and it was a delight for them and their visitors.
Bird and people alike shared their slice of paradise while giving each other space.
“That’s the relationship we really had, which was a very nice, friendly, warm relationship, right up until about two years ago,” Peter Kendall said.
Footage of one of the penguins under the house.Supplied
That is when the penguins decided to make their move.
“They’ve moved from the living area into our bedroom area, we’re at the back of the house, and they have set up camp basically right outside where our bed is in our bedroom,” Tracy Kendall said.
The penguins are not quiet slumber party guests.
“It’s very, very noisy at night, their active period seems to be around six or seven, right through the night until seven or so in the morning.”
RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod
And they do not take a break from their nocturnal penguin activities.
“They’ll go squawking and making lots of penguin sort of noises around every 20 minutes, right through the night,” she said.
Tracy is recovering from an operation and, unable to sleep, things are getting desperate.
Peter said if they did not care for the penguins they could have just picked them up and shifted them off site.
But the couple know the animals are precious and need professional care to move.
“We’re not allowed to move them because they are protected animals, which we totally understand, but you’d need to get a qualified person to do so and we can’t find that qualified person,” Peter said.
The couple have reached out to the Department of Conservation who told RNZ someone from the department would be happy to pop around and give the Kendalls some advice.
But DOC’s principal advisor of biodiversity in Coromandel, Ben Gordon, said nothing can really be done until the penguins themselves decide to move on.
“If you do have birds which are currently nesting, then once they have finished nesting you want to get in there and block off the access points before they come back for the moulting season, because they are creatures of habit,” he said.
Coromandel operations manager for DOC, Nick Kelly, said moving the penguins would do more harm than good.
But he said he empathises with the Kendalls as penguins are “loud”.
“But it really does highlight that we are a part of nature. Probably the best thing that the department can do is really advocate for ways that we can live together in harmony [with nature].”
The Kendalls said, given no other current solution, they have stocked up on ear plugs.
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A November 2010 photo showing flames coming out of a ventilation shaft at the Pike River Coal mine near Greymouth.AFP/Pool
Almost 15 years after 29 men were killed in the explosions at Pike River mine, new research shows New Zealand’s health and safety record remains poor, with workers here more likely to die than in Australia or the United Kingdom.
Research by the Public Health Communication Centre identified persistent issues – including weak enforcement, inadequate fines and poor understanding of legal duties among employers and political leaders.
Dr Christopher Peace, the lead author of the research, said while there were changes following the 2010 mining disaster, things were now sliding backwards and there had been no substantive change in the number of work related deaths in the last 15 years.
New Zealand’s workplace fatality rate was now twice as bad as Australia’s and four times as bad as the United Kingdom’s.
“Quite honestly, for a country that thinks it cares about people, for a country that thinks it’s pretty good, I’m afraid we’re doing disgracefully.”
Dr Christopher Peace, lead author of the research into workplace fatalities, 15 years on from Pike River. Supplied
He said it also came at a significant cost – more than $5.4 billion in the last year was spent on compensation, re-training and addressing the psychological harm to family, friends and workmates.
The findings come as the government shifts its work health and safety regulator’s priorities from enforcement to advice, saying it will address concerns about underfunding and a culture of fear.
Peace said the Pike River disaster revealed inadequate legislation and that directors were not doing enough to meet health and safety requirements, or being held to account for those failings.
He said the subsequent Health and Safety at Work Act that was introduced in 2015 was based on the United Kingdom’s legislation, but the outcomes there were better because the law was applied sternly and consistently in workplaces.
“In New Zealand, we’ve gone almost in the opposite direction, we’ve lost the people with experience in WorkSafe, we’ve hired a whole lot of new inspectors, hoping that they will do something in an advisory way that will turn the tide but that isn’t how it works, sometimes you have to be an enforcer.
“Being an advisor really doesn’t get people to understand they’re dealing with risk to people, risks of killing them, seriously injuring them, maybe leaving people incapacitated for the rest of their lives.
Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton died at Pike River, said she was shocked but not surprised there had been little change in the rate of workplace fatalities since then.
“We lobbied the government for stronger health and safety rules and regulations in the workplace, but to find that they’re being watered down at the moment by the government, it just makes me sick to think that another Pike River could actually happen again.”
Anna Osborne holds a photo of her husband Milton.RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
She wants to see health and safety regulations strengthened.
“I’d really like to see heavier penalties, to be honest, like corporate manslaughter, fines that are way higher than what they are now because you look at Australia and they’re doing so much better than what New Zealand is.”
She and Sonya Rockhouse, whose son Ben died in the mine, are meeting the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden in Wellington next week, on the 15th anniversary of the Pike River disaster.
“Hopefully get her to understand that this is not a joke, if your husband or your son or anybody doesn’t return home from work in New Zealand, it’s just not acceptable, people should be able to go to work and come home after their day is done.”
Van Velden said too many people die at work and she has proposed reforms she said would help businesses better manage critical risks.
“The government wants [businesses] to focus on the direct results of the actions they are taking on the ground and identifying which actions could cause death and serious injury, spending less time ticking the box, and more time focusing on critical risk.”
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden.Marika Khabazi
She said a decade after the Health and Safety at Work legislation was introduced, there had been no significant reduction in workplace fatalities and she was confident the proposed changes would result in fewer workplace deaths.
“The whole law and the purpose behind it is that there will be more information given to businesses upfront, there will be [more] inspectors than we have ever had under this government, going out to businesses and letting them know what it is they should be doing right and for prosecutions, we will be focusing on genuine areas of negligence.”
Nigel Hampton KC, who represented some of the Pike families, said he was worried the nation had forgetten the lessons from the disaster, and that another health and safety calamity was inevitable.
“We saw what de-escalation of the regulator looked like in Pike, there was no rigidity of a regulator at all, and indeed it was almost non-existent on the Pike River site.
“A regulator has to be at a distance, it’s got to be objective and it’s got to be prepared to take enforcement action, including prosecutions, if needs be.”
He said the move away from enforcement was concerning, and prescriptive regulation was not about ticking boxes.
“It is ensuring that the health and safety protocols within a particular business are up to scratch and are being applied, and if they’re not being applied, then enforcement notices made by the regulator and then if that fails, then prosecutions are taken.”
Pike families are now waiting for police to reveal whether they plan to lay any criminal charges as a result of the mens’ deaths, with a decision is expected before Christmas.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Imagine sharing your home with noisy flatmates who party throughout the night and then move into your bedroom.
That is what one Coromandel couple say it has been like living with little blue penguins who have taken to tunnelling under their home and nesting next to their bed under the floorboards.
Tracey and Peter Kendall are at their wits end about how to get a good night’s sleep with these rowdy interlopers.
RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod
The Kendalls have enjoyed sharing their home on the cliff above Waitete Bay with penguins for many years.
The penguins would come and nest under their deck and it was a delight for them and their visitors.
Bird and people alike shared their slice of paradise while giving each other space.
“That’s the relationship we really had, which was a very nice, friendly, warm relationship, right up until about two years ago,” Peter Kendall said.
Supplied
That is when the penguins decided to make their move.
“They’ve moved from the living area into our bedroom area, we’re at the back of the house, and they have set up camp basically right outside where our bed is in our bedroom,” Tracy Kendall said.
The penguins are not quiet slumber party guests.
“It’s very, very noisy at night, their active period seems to be around six or seven, right through the night until seven or so in the morning.”
RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod
And they do not take a break from their nocturnal penguin activities.
“They’ll go squawking and making lots of penguin sort of noises around every 20 minutes, right through the night,” she said.
Tracy is recovering from an operation and, unable to sleep, things are getting desperate.
Peter said if they did not care for the penguins they could have just picked them up and shifted them off site.
But the couple know the animals are precious and need professional care to move.
“We’re not allowed to move them because they are protected animals, which we totally understand, but you’d need to get a qualified person to do so and we can’t find that qualified person,” Peter said.
The couple have reached out to the Department of Conservation who told RNZ someone from the department would be happy to pop around and give the Kendalls some advice.
But DOC’s principal advisor of biodiversity in Coromandel, Ben Gordon, said nothing can really be done until the penguins themselves decide to move on.
“If you do have birds which are currently nesting, then once they have finished nesting you want to get in there and block off the access points before they come back for the moulting season, because they are creatures of habit,” he said.
Coromandel operations manager for DOC, Nick Kelly, said moving the penguins would do more harm than good.
But he said he empathises with the Kendalls as penguins are “loud”.
“But it really does highlight that we are a part of nature. Probably the best thing that the department can do is really advocate for ways that we can live together in harmony [with nature].”
The Kendalls said, given no other current solution, they have stocked up on air plugs.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Once upon a time, work was work and sitting down all day to do it was fine. Now, we hear “sitting is the new smoking!” and we’re encouraged to hack our everyday activities to ‘maximise’ our health and fitness.
This might appear to be a good idea – less than half of us meet official guidelines for physical activity of 150 minutes a week of aerobic activity plus muscle-strengthening activities twice a week. But why are we drawn to the latest Insta-trending shortcuts to get us there?
Fitness educator Tracy Minnoch-Nuku says there’s always been an element of trends to health and wellness, just like everything else. Right now, she notes, it’s all about “optimisation. Why just do one thing when you can do five? It feels like we are being really efficient when we do this”.
Fitness educator Tracy Minnoch-Nuku says seeing others jump in on a trend can make a person feel like they’re missing out on some benefits. (File image)
Scroll through social media and you’ll likely find a reel promoting hot cross buns as a good pre-workout snack. Two sports dieticians share their thoughts, along with what and when to eat before exercising.
A leaked memo has led to resignations at the top levels of the BBC, and shaken confidence in media. Henry Nicholls/ AFPHENRY NICHOLLS
From editing error to boardroom exit, how the BBC’s reputation took a blow and what this means for global journalism
Since its inception, the BBC has stood as one of the world’s most trusted news institutions, standing for journalistic integrity, accuracy, and balance.
But this week, that trust has taken a severe blow after a damaging editing scandal, involving President Donald Trump, which has ignited a firestorm of outrage, accusations of political bias, and an existential crisis for the public broadcaster.
The BBC’s top leader and head of its news division have both now resigned, the BBC has issued a rare public apology, and Trump himself threatened a US$1 billion (NZ$1.7 billion) lawsuit, accusing the organisation of defamation.
The controversy centres on a Panorama documentary in which a crucial section of Trump’s speech was misleadingly edited, altering its tone and meaning.
“When media organisations breach the trust they have with their audience, they are in big trouble,” long-time journalism educator Jim Tully tells The Detail.
“It’s crucial our readers, listeners, viewers trust us, and anything we do to undermine that trust is potentially quite harmful to the reputation of the organisation.”
He says the BBC “sees itself as the bastion of impartial and accurate reporting, they have staked their reputation on that since the 1930s. Most people would see the BBC as a trustworthy media organisation”.
But he believes the editing scandal, which follows a string of other controversies, will make it hard for the broadcaster to rebuild and regain public trust.
“I think the resignations of people at that level should send a message to the public that they take matters seriously, and people have obviously fallen on the sword because of the significant damage that is emerging.
“[But] I think it will be much more of a challenge [to rebuild] this time. And it’s going to have a potentially significant effect on the extent to which people think ‘oh yeah, it’s from the BBC, therefore it’s correct and I can rely on it and I can believe in it’.
“Once that goes, it’s very difficult to reclaim.”
For many, the story cuts deeper than just one mistake. It feeds into a growing trust unease about whether any media organisation remains truly impartial in an age of polarisation, algorithms, and instant outrage.
“There are always surveys, annually coming out, in which we don’t figure much ahead of used car salesmen and the like,” Tully says. “It’s become fashionable to clobber the media.”
He says the ethical guidelines for journalists are “pretty clear and widely accepted”.
“You may edit in a way for clarity and conciseness because journalists are not required to report everything that somebody says, otherwise, we would be merely stenographers.
“So, we exercise judgement as to what is interesting and relevant, and that is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
“The issue arises, of course, when in making those edits, you create a situation where the intended message of the interviewee has been disrupted, and you have misrepresented through selected editing what they were saying.”
The BBC has promised a full internal review, tighter editorial checks, and renewed transparency.
Freelance UK correspondent Sean Hogan is in London and tells The Detail that since the scandal emerged, more than 500 complaints have been sent to the broadcaster about the programme.
“I think the general public sentiment is an increased level of scepticism,” he says.
“People are calling it a storm, a crisis, a disaster. It’s quite extraordinary…. some are saying it’s the biggest scandal the BBC has faced in decades.
“Public trust has been continuously eroded, and they’ve got to change the narrative somehow.”
He says the scandal is front page lead news and is showing no signs of going away.
“UK media love to hold a microscope very closely to the BBC. It’s never far from the headlines, so it wasn’t a surprise to see this story splashed all over our screens and front pages, since it broke, and it really hasn’t relented.
“I’ll give you a few of the headlines there’s ‘BBC meltdown’, ‘BBC humiliation’, and ‘The BBC in crisis’. And that’s just a few of them.
“Now, to be fair to the BBC, their own website and channel haven’t shied away from the story and have covered the story extensively.”
The scandal is becoming more than a BBC story.
Jim Tully says there are lessons the entire industry – that in an era where truth is fragile and trust is currency, even the most respected newsrooms are one mistake away from crisis.
Check out how to listen to and follow The Detailhere.
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New Zealand’s Retirement Commissioner is calling for big changes to KiwiSaver to ensure the scheme does not leave anyone behind.
The commission has released its latest three-yearly report into the country’s retirement income systems.
It makes 12 recommendations to government, eight of which it says could be introduced quickly and at little cost.
More support for low-income earners
The report recommends targeting government contributions more squarely at lower-income earners.
They are the group most affected by the government’s recent decision to halve its annual contribution to KiwiSaver accounts.
Previously, people received 50c for every $1 they contributed up to $1042 a year, but that has been cut to 25c.
Commissioner Jane Wrightson said it meant that instead of government contributions forming up to 20 percent of a lower-income person’s KiwiSaver balance at retirement, they might now only form up to 11 percent.
She said the government contribution could be increased for low-income people to give support where it was most needed. That could be funded by phasing out the contribution for higher earners.
Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson.RNZ / Jeff McEwan
People earning up to $49,000 could receive 50c per $1 up to $1000 maximum contribution a year, people earning up to $58,000 could get 50c per $1 on a maximum of $500 contributed and people earning up to $67,000 could get 25c per $1 up to a $500 contribution.
“Although this approach would mean fewer people would receive the government KiwiSaver contribution, they would continue to receive support for their retirement through NZ Super, and through matched and increasing employer contributions to KiwiSaver.
“These actions are designed to improve adequacy, close savings gaps, and ensure the retirement income system remains fair, sustainable and trusted.”
More contributions for people on paid parental leave
Wrightson also called for the government to increase the amount it gives to people on paid parental leave, to $1000, and pay it regardless of whether the person themselves put money into KiwiSaver.
Since last year, the government has contributed 3 percent to KiwiSaver for paid parental leave recipients who make their own contribution of at least 3 percent.
Wrightson said of the 57,635 people who received paid parental leave in the most recent year, 12,390 contributed to KiwiSaver.
“This [$1000 payment] costs around $34 million, would be simple to administer, would help ensure high take-up, and directly addresses gaps in retirement saving. Implementation would require careful coordination with Inland Revenue and KiwiSaver providers.”
Contributions past 65
She said employer contributions should also be mandated for people over 65. At present, employers can stop contributing when their staff reach this age.
She said it should also be possible for people on temporary visas to join KiwiSaver and receive employer and government contributions.
“If we want people to stay here, migrants to stay here, it would be good to give them another incentive, wouldn’t it?”
Sidecar saving
The report resurrects an idea for a “sidecar” savings account to run alongside KiwiSaver to provide help in financial emergencies.
She said this could be an alternative to the big increase in hardship withdrawals seen recently.
People would save a set amount into a sidecar account, and money contributed beyond that would go into their KiwiSaver account as normal.
But any withdrawals would be limited to the sidecar.
“This approach has been trialled in the United Kingdom to reduce reliance on high-cost credit for unexpected expenses and hardship withdrawals from retirement savings. Financial shocks can derail retirement saving, and sidecars could help mitigate this risk by giving people access to funds without undermining their long-term goals.”
She said when someone had a sidecar fund alongside KiwiSaver, if they hit financial difficulty they could access a limited amount of money without digging into their main KiwiSaver savings.
“If we are watching a rise in hardship applications, which we are, there’s two issues.
“Number one, what kind of applications are these? And there isn’t enough data publicly available to know, so we want to encourage some work to be done around that, so we understand what the rise is about.
“If it’s sheer poverty, that’s one thing. If it’s for, I don’t know, overseas health treatments and the rest of it, that starts to get a slightly different and interesting texture. So we need to understand more about it.
“And secondly, particularly for those who are in poverty, giving a kind of mechanism to go in and out of a tiny amount of your KiwiSaver, the sidecar, is a much better way than having repeated applications for full withdrawal.”
Ban total remuneration packages
Wrightson also wants to ban total remuneration packages.
Someone who is paid via total remuneration receives a set salary package, from which both their own contribution and their employer contribution are paid – rather than a salary with the employer contribution on top.
The review said the legislation clearly stated that compulsory contributions needed to be paid on top of gross salary and wages except where parties agreed otherwise.
“The legislation also includes a provision, described as being for the avoidance of doubt, which explains that a duty of good faith applies when parties to an employment relationship bargain for terms and conditions relating to compulsory contributions and associated matters.”
The report said research showed about half of employers used a total remuneration approach for at least some employees and 25 percent used it for all employees.
“The removal of the incentive that is the employer contribution on top of salary or wages goes against the spirit of the scheme.”
Wrightson said many of the recommendations were about making KiwiSaver easier and fairer for everyone.
“Anybody in a secure, well-paid job has an employer contribution. Those who are self-employed don’t. Those who are low-income, those contributions are small. They’re the ones we’re suggesting we need to target.”
The report also called for improved reporting of balances, contributions and withdrawals to allow smarter policy setting, and a nationally consistent decumulation framework to help people manage their money in retirement.
Political agreement
But Wrightson said there ultimately needed to be long-term political accord across all the major parties to provide certainty for future retirees and encourage sound decision-making.
“The trouble with the approach to KiwiSaver in recent times is that it has been quite piecemeal. We just tinker. What we’re trying to suggest is that if we stopped tinkering and looked at all the issues collectively and combined them with issues around New Zealand Super, we will get much more robust and agreed mechanisms which will help New Zealanders better because it will be more secure. What we don’t want is a system that changes through each election.”
The report calls for a Parliamentary working group to set the strategic direction for a “10-year retirement income road map”, and group led by the Retirement Commission to implement it and ensure it addresses KiwiSaver, NZ Super and innovation.
“So when you start going into the NZ Super discussions, if you want to make a systemic change, like, I don’t know, means testing, put the age up, whichever one you want to go for… Firstly, you want to get a broader agreement around that and secondly, you want to understand how to mitigate the harms from that. And thirdly, what will that do to things like government contributions to KiwiSaver, employer contributions to KiwiSaver? These things are interlinked and need to be considered together, and the current system doesn’t easily allow that to happen.”
Starboard’s Mat Brown shows the platform monitoring for subsea cable risks off the UK coast.RNZ / Phil Pennington
An ocean-watching entrepreneur engaged in a trial to assess threats to subsea cables says New Zealand needs to fix its blind spot.
There was “zero” monitoring of the risks even though the cables provided “the lifeblood of our internet, backbones and systems that drive our country”, said chief executive of Starboard Maritime Intelligence, Trent Fulcher.
“We’re hugely reliant on them now, the more that come in we’re going to be even more reliant.
“So, you know, having zero visibility of the risk on top of [that] is a real risk in my view,” Fulcher told RNZ at the opening of Starboard’s new Wellington headquarters on Thursday.
A recently completed trial with the Transport Ministry had found risks from fishing boats getting too close to cables, he said.
“The chances of us getting hit tomorrow with sabotage is probably quite low, but preparing for the future if geopolitical dynamics change is really what we’re talking about.”
Over a million kilometres of subsea data cables power the internet, while lying among them are also gas, power and other pipelines.
Hyperscale datacentre developers like Meta and Google are rolling out thousands of kilometres more of their own cables with ever-larger capacities.
But fears and accusations of sabotage, often aimed at and dismissed by Russia or China, have been growing.
Exploring protection ‘to all critical underwater infrastructure’
The ministry told RNZ some monitoring was done of power and telecommunications cables by Transpower and Southern Cross.
“The ministry is actively exploring how monitoring and protection could be extended to all critical underwater infrastructure across New Zealand,” it said in a short statement on Thursday.
Fulcher said he understood the next step was that a paper would be prepared ahead of government funding to operationalise the monitoring.
The ministry did not provide information to RNZ about that.
Starboard had to also cover off the other half of the equation, Australia, since most local cables land there, Fulcher said.
“So we’re also having conversations with the Australian-equivalent government agencies and those same commercial cable companies about a trans-Tasman protection service.”
Four ministers including the Prime Minister were at the office opening.
Christopher Luxon was briefed on threats to subsea cables and issued a caution about that some months ago.
“Subsea cable protection is really important”, and the firm’s technology could help with that, Luxon told RNZ on Thursday.
The six-year-old Starboard, born with government funding and out of an attempt to set up a space science enterprise in Alexandra that did not quite work out as planned, had just finished the trial with the Ministry of Transport, Fulcher said.
It detected a number of fishing boats trespassing into protection zones around cable landfall.
“We’re able to get on the radio and say, ‘hey, do you know you’re in a cable protection zone?’ And quite often they’re like, ‘no, I’m not. I’m fishing over here.’ We’re like, ‘no, we can see you’”.
‘State-sponsored activity in our waters’
Fulcher said their NZ-built algorithms had become adept at spotting ships “hovering” near cables. Anchor dragging, deliberate or not, is a real threat and has regularly damaged cables in the likes of the Baltic Sea and in waters off Taiwan.
“The main areas that we’ve been looking at and seeing sabotage are in the North Sea and the South China Sea.
“Now, that kind of activity, we don’t see that in New Zealand.
“But what we are seeing is increasingly similar state-sponsored activity in our waters, without naming names.
“So I think some of these state-sponsored actors understand where our assets are.”
Pushed to name names, Fulcher said “sanctioned countries” – Russia, China, “you name it”.
“Now that we understand what that risk looks like, we can be monitoring in New Zealand if that takes place.”
Starboard’s platform is now used in over 30 countries to give a near real-time view from satellites and sensors into software that fuses billions of bits of ship location data daily.
Christopher Luxon talks maritime intelligence with Mat Brown of Starboard.Phil Pennington
“It’s exciting,” said Luxon. “You’ve got a great platform.”
It had been proven against illegal fishing across the Pacific.
Its uses were spreading, which could include “obviously the need for us to protect our undersea cables”, the prime minister said.
Fulcher said the trial had shown there was “100 percent a need” to monitor NZ’s cables, not just the data ones but others.
“We had numerous examples where vessels, mainly fishing vessels, were coming into the cable protection zones, fishing where they weren’t supposed to,” he said.
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Nathan Boulter has a long history of stalking and assaulting ex-partners.NZPA / David Rowland
The country’s chief victims advisor is demanding answers over the killing of a Christchurch woman by a violent repeat offender and says the criminal justice system is not equipped to deal with high risk, obsessive and manipulative criminals.
The woman had been in a brief relationship with Boulter. After she ended it, he harrassed, stalked and threatened her, making nearly 600 calls in two weeks, before hiding outside her home, then stabbing her 55 times with a hunting knife as she arrived home with her children.
Ruth Money called it “one more example of preventable tragedy”.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it – I just do not believe that we have the system right for our highest risk and our highest threat prisoners and offenders.”
These offenders were “absolutely difficult to manage,” Money acknowledged.
“They’re in and out of prison. The way that the parole and probation laws work, it’s very difficult to manage past sentence conditions, so they are complex people to manage from a risk perspective, but other nations do it better than us. And that’s what I have been trying to get to the bottom of with this particular case.
“I think the system is not educated enough around obsessive, high-risk, highly manipulative people. If you look at the Tony Robertson case [who murdered Blessie Gotingco in 2014], the Brider case [who murdered Juliana Bonilla-Herrera in 2022], this case, Tainui [who killed Kimberley Schroder and Nicole Tuxford], there are what we call the one percenters that I just do not think we have got enough expertise and experience and potentially just training even at a lower level for people to actually see the markers.”
Money referred to the findings of the coroner’s inquest into the deaths of Nicole Tuxford and Gary Schroder, which found double murderer Paul Tainui had psychopathic traits which the Department of Corrections missed.
“There was a specialist out of Corrections [at that inquest] talking about psychopathy and the obsession and how to improve the situation where people get used to managing the same person, they get used to the story, right? You need fresh eyes and fresh information all the time.”
There were systemic failings she had seen repeated time and time again.
“This has got to stop. This is just one more example of preventable tragedy within the kind of … obsessive interpersonal relationship space.
“We have to do better.”
In 2011, after a short, violent relationship with Nortessa Montgomerie, Boulter tracked her to her home on Great Barrier Island, brutally assaulting her, dragging her into the bush and holding her hostage for 38 hours. He was released in 2018, despite Montgomerie imploring the Parole Board not to free him.
Montgomerie told Checkpoint she had been “trying for so long to shine light on the fact that this person was really dangerous.”
“My warning to the parole board was if we dont step in and manage this person he is going to take someone’s life. It makes me really emotional to say that because I could see it coming.”
Nortessa Montgomerie was kidnapped, held hostage and assaulted by Boulter.Nathan McKinnon / RNZ
Money said she was enraged victims like Montgomerie felt a burden for their attackers’ actions.
“It actually makes me rage that we are causing more victims and that victims are feeling responsible when they should not be responsible for preventing these people being released into the community.
“They should not feel responsible for ultimately what the offender chooses to do and any system failings that may have enabled that. But invariably, every case, we have exactly that. It’s exactly a replay of Tainui, for example, [and] Brider. There are many one percenters out there like Boulter, and we need to do better.”
Money said she understood multiple reviews were underway by Police, Corrections and other agencies.
She would look at each of the reviews individually, but also from a systemic lens, she said.
“How did it work, or not? How should it have? And do we have the right provisions in the system to do this better and we just simply didn’t? Why not? Or do we need to change the system somehow to make sure that this doesn’t happen again?”
She wants to know why Boulter was not removed from the woman’s home when she informed Corrections he was residing there in early June.
“One of my questions that I have for the review is what on earth was he still doing there? How have Corrections allowed him to be there? Yeah, it’s absolutely one of my questions.”
She had seen better approaches overseas.
“Some other jurisdictions have specialised teams for high-risk individuals. There is also some legislative differences around the ability to monitor people for longer. Judicial decisions are obviously always different, but should this person have been on preventative detention or an extended supervision order? Are there other tools that we need or that could have been applied to help manage this person and ultimately keep people safe?”
Montgomerie was not informed Boulter had been released from jail, something she told Checkpoint was retraumatising.
“I truly believe that informing victims should be the paramount, most important thing to do….withholding information from victims is just crazy to me.
“There were failings I experienced during my time dealing with being a direct victim of Nathan’s that I don’t understand where the ball was dropped, and one of those was finding out he had been released from prison by reading it in a news article, and the emotional and mental fall out of having to deal with that after the fact,” Montgomerie said.
Money said victim notification rules meant Montgomerie would only have been told when Boulter was released from the sentence relating to crimes against her, not from other lags, something she wanted to see changed.
“You’ve got a fine line of the balancing act between the privacy of that survivor of the time that person is serving but you’ve also got the privacy of the offender. I would argue that any victim’s rights come before the offender’s rights in that regard, as well as obviously community and society protection.
“I’m not comfortable and not convinced that we have the settings around notification quite right in terms of community safety and certainly victim and previous victim safety, and that’s something that I’ll be looking at as part of my review,” Money said.
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Two activists, sitting on the floor alongside the grave of Charles Darwin, after they sprayed “1.5 is dead” over it in protest against climate change in action, inside Westminster Abbey in central London.AFP / Just Stop Oil / Jamie Lowe
Climate activists sit by the grave of Charles Darwin inside Westminster Abbey, London after they sprayed “1.5 is dead” over it in protest.
Among the hoopla of the annual COP climate summit – this year being held in Belém in the Brazilian Amazon – there is one fact finally being spoken out loud.
Ten years ago, most of the world’s countries signed up to the central pledge of the Paris Agreement: to limit global warming to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.
Until now, official discussions treated 1.5°C as though it was still live, despite projections showing it was increasingly tenuous. Even after the limit was breached for the first time across a whole year in 2024, scientists said keeping the long-term average to 1.5°C was still technically feasible.
But a new UN Environment Programme report, released just before COP30 started, declared that dream was over, and the best the world could now achieve was to spend as little time above 1.5°C as possible.
Speaking at the summit’s opening, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres spoke plainly: “We have failed to ensure we remain below 1.5 degrees.”
The world needed to face that “moral failure” and do everything it could to limit further damage, he said.
So, what hope is left – and why does 1.5°C still matter?
Why was the limit set at 1.5°C?
The Paris Agreement target built on earlier, more vaguely-worded agreements to limit global warming to 2°C – identified by the scientific community as an absolute ceiling.
But many climate scientists agreed that even warming below that limit would have disastrous consequences, and they were joined by a large group of small island nations who, faced with oblivion, pushed over the years for the world to adopt a lower warming goal.
New Zealand climate scientist Dr Andy Reisinger, who is a climate change commissioner, but spoke to RNZ in his capacity as an independent consultant, said 1.5 is not a black and white dividing line, but there are important ‘tipping points’ – irreversible changes in Earth’s systems – that start kicking in at that level of warming.
“It’s very hard to pinpoint them exactly on a global temperature scale,” Reisinger said.
“Having said that, some tipping points, you know, we’re very confident that they do exist and that they’re not reversible.”
Among the first is the collapse of the world’s coral reefs. “That’s one tipping point where we know it’s at about 1.5 degrees,” he said.
The West Antarctic ice sheet is among major geophysical phenomena at threat of permanent loss if global temperatures keep rising.AFP PHOTO / NASA / HANDOUT
Other points on the scale are less clear, such as the slowing and potential shutdown of ocean circulation that keeps northern regions like Britain and Scandinavia warm enough to sustain their populations and grow crops.
“That shutdown… is something that we desperately want to avoid,” Reisinger said.
“The more we can limit warming to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees, the lower the chances are that such a tipping point actually occurs.”
The same goes for widespread drying in the Amazon.
“[That] would turn large parts of the Amazon rainforest into savannah-dominated ecosystems, which in itself is a massive loss of carbon to the atmosphere, but also huge destruction of livelihoods for indigenous people and of course ecosystems and animal species.”
When will we pass 1.5°C?
The short answer is: very soon.
“The data is showing that we’re getting very, very close to breaching global warming of 1.5 degrees,” Reisinger said.
2024 was the first year in which global average temperatures were more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels – but a single year does not define global warming.
“Global warming is normally understood as the long-term average across multiple years,” he said.
“The long-term warming trend is still below 1.5 degrees, but only just, and we expect that within the next five years or so, global warming, as a long-term average in global temperatures, will start to exceed 1.5 degrees.”
There are always scientific uncertainties present.
“If next year we discover that we got some measurements of global temperature in the late 19th century fundamentally wrong, we might find that we’re actually further away from 1.5 degrees than we think we are… but there’s an equal chance that it will be even more than it is.”
Is there any way to avoid breaching it?
Not really.
“Emissions would have had to fall rapidly from 2020 onwards, and they haven’t,” Reisinger said.
“And so we can’t turn the ship around anymore in the space of five years.”
Even in the late 2010s, it was still possible, but now the very best scenarios place peak global warming closer to 1.7°C – and that is increasing all the time.
“If we wait another five years, the very best scenarios will put us at 1.8 degrees. And so it goes. Time is not on our side in this.”
Why does it still matter?
If the world couldn’t limit warming to 1.5°C, it’s easy to question the point of persevering.
Reisinger said in fact, the world should be doubling down on its efforts, for two reasons.
The first is partly a legal and political one.
“The International Court of Justice has ruled that 1.5 is a central part of the ambition and the obligations that countries have towards maintaining a liveable climate.
“Once you pass 1.5 degrees, you can still get back to it, so it’s still a relevant target.”
The second is that 1.5°C “is not a binary black and white threshold”.
“It’s not like everything’s fine under 1.5 degrees and everything goes to hell in a handbasket above 1.5 degrees,” Reisinger said.
“Limiting warming to 1.6 degrees is better than limiting warming to 1.7 degrees. Limiting warming to 1.7 degrees is better than limiting warming to only 1.8 degrees… The lower we can keep that peak of warming, the better.”
Getting back to 1.5°C would still be better than giving up just because we’ve already breached it, he said.
“Of course, it would have been better if we had managed that, but we haven’t – so how are we going to deal with it?”
What is ‘overshoot’ – and can we get back to 1.5?
Earlier this year, Reisinger attended an event in Austria called the Overshoot Conference – the first global gathering of scientists to discuss the consequences of breaching 1.5°C of warming and the possible pathways to bend the curve back.
Dr Andy Reisinger was among scientists who met earlier in 2025 to discuss ‘overshoot’ scenarios.Supplied / Climate Change Commission
‘Overshoot’, in a climate science context, refers to exceeding the limit but then bringing it back to that level or below, he said.
“It’s not entirely infeasible… in the long run, even while accepting that we will be above 1.5 degrees for a period of time with attendant greater damages, greater harm from climate extremes, greater risk of tipping points.”
However, doing so will mean more ambitious action from governments, businesses and individuals.
“One thing that doesn’t change at all when we exceed 1.5 degrees is the imperative to reduce emissions in the near term as rapidly as possible, as much as possible, and towards at least net zero emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases,” Reisinger said.
That was the “absolute minimum” though.
“The inevitable consequence, once you actually accept it, would be to start talking about long-term net negative emissions – so, a scenario where countries take more CO2 out of the atmosphere than the totality of greenhouse gases they put into it, in order to enable the world as a whole to get back to lower temperatures.”
Would lowering temperatures again fix everything?
If we could achieve net-negative emissions, then the global temperature would come down again, Reisinger said.
“But the question is, would other parts of the climate system also reverse?”
There is much less certainty around that.
“Just because the temperature comes back down again, that wouldn’t turn on the ocean circulation that might have shut down… That would not magically regrow glaciers or the western Antarctic ice sheet.”
Tuvalu is among nations at risk of being irretrievably lost because of rising sea levels.AFP / Theo Rouby
Some geophysical systems, such as long-term sea-level rise, might experience a lag; others could be “irretrievably lost”.
Even so – going past 1.5°C is not the time to give up on mitigation, he said.
“You need to keep on going at the same pace, if not more so.”
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The Northern Territory pay about $130,000 a year for an experienced officer.123RF
A Northern Territory police officer recruiting in New Zealand says the officers he’s spoken to love their jobs but are looking for a different challenge in life.
The Northern Territory Police Force’s recruitment push is underway in Auckland this week, and will also be carrying out interviews in Rotorua, Napier, Wellington and Christchurch over the next few weeks.
Acting superintendent Serge Bouma said they’ve interviewed about 17 candidates in Auckland since Monday – half of which are current serving officers.
He said the officers come from various experience levels, ranging between three to ten years of experience.
Bouma said since 2023, they’ve recruited 87 experienced officers for the Northern Territory, and 60 of them have come from New Zealand.
He said on average, the Northern Territory recruits about 30 officers from New Zealand each year – over two tranches of recruitment drives per year.
Acting superintendent Serge Bouma.Supplied
Bouma said most of the Kiwi officers he’s interviewed are passionate about their jobs.
“We’re really really noticing first off, that there’s not a single police officer we’ve interviewed here or in the past, NZ police officers, who hasn’t said that they love their job, love their organisation, they’re all very very happy in their job, in their organisation.
“A lot of them are looking for a different challenge in their life, they’re looking for new opportunities, a new adventure in a different place, some other rewarding career development opportunities that potentially a smaller policing organisation like ours can provide,” he said.
Bouma said while they offer more attractive pay – about $130,000 a year for an experienced officer, not inclusive of accommodation allowance – he’s interested in candidates who are not just in it for the money.
“I don’t want people where money is their sole motivator, policing is a very tough job, we need people that are passionate about policing and we need people to understand what policing in the Northern Territory is like,” he said.
Bouma said officers need to be prepared to work in isolated areas, where they could be one of two officers in a remote community.
He said they needed to be ready to work in high temperatures, and to respond to natural disasters.
The Northern Territory expected to have numerous cyclones every wet season, and officers at smaller stations would be involved in coordinating evacuations and doing water rescues, Bouma said.
He said they would also need to have an awareness of the cultural considerations in the Northern Territory, where about 30 percent of the population are first nation Australians – the indigenous people of Australia.
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On Monday, the agency sent out an email asking how tenants would like to receive future correspondence.
Kāinga Ora said the tenants’ email addresses were mistakenly entered into the recipients’ line, instead of being blind carbon copied (BCC), which would’ve concealed their inboxes.
“We are providing additional training to help prevent these types of incidents,” said Taina Jones, the regional director for Auckland North and West.
Kāinga Ora said it’d notified the office of the privacy commissioner, and was contacting those who received the email to apologise for any disruption this error may have caused.
Earlier, a tenant told RNZ they’d been continuously receiving responses from other tenants who’d been included in the same email, and that it’d been flooding their inbox.
The tenant said when they clicked on some of the email addresses, they could see people’s numbers as well.
However, Kāinga Ora said no other tenant information was exposed, other than the email addresses.
The privacy commissioner’s office said it expected Kāinga Ora to investigate the breach, and any harm caused.
“OPC can confirm that Kāinga Ora has been in contact with us to talk through their situation,
“We will continue to work with Kāinga Ora as it investigates further the privacy breach, including ensuring they are aware of their legal obligations in relation to a privacy breach that either has caused or is likely to cause anyone serious harm,
“We would expect Kāinga Ora to provide any further detail they would want to share in relation to this,” it said in a statement.
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The tino rangatiratanga haki (flag) outside Parliament on the day of the Treaty Principles Bill introduction.RNZ / Emma Andrews
A growing number of schools across Aotearoa are pushing back against the government’s plan to remove the requirement for school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, saying their commitment to the Treaty will remain unchanged.
The Treaty requirement previously in the Education Act said schools would give effect to Te Tiriti, including by ensuring plans, policies, and local curriculum reflected local tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, and te ao Māori; taking all reasonable steps to make instruction available in tikanga Māori and te reo Māori; and achieving equitable outcomes for Māori students.
The Education and Training Amendment Bill, which passed its third reading on Tuesday, removed this requirement.
Associate Education Minister Penny Simmonds, who moved the bill’s third reading, said it was “unreasonable to expect elected parents, who volunteer their time, to discharge the Crown’s legal responsibilities in respect of the Treaty.”
“This government is relentlessly focused on lifting student achievement and closing the equity gap,” she said.
“Boards will still be required to seek equitable outcomes for Māori students, and to take reasonable steps to reflect New Zealand’s cultural diversity and provide te reo Māori learning if requested.”
Simmonds said the bill “clarifies expectations” and “keeps schools focused on educational achievement as their highest priority.”
But education leaders say the move – made without public consultation – “undermines” boards’ legal responsibilities as Crown entities.
The National Iwi Chairs Forum (NICF), supported by a coalition of national education organisations, also launched a petition against these changes, saying “removing Te Tiriti from the one place every child in Aotearoa passes through… deprives our tamariki of the opportunity to learn about identity, belonging, and partnership in a culturally responsive environment.”
Maori classroom.RNZ / Tom Furley
Kura commit to Te Tiriti
From Whakatāne to Tāmaki Makaurau to Ōtautahi and Invercargill, school boards have issued public statements reaffirming their obligations to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Te Uru Karaka Newton Central School in Auckland said the government’s move “does not change who we are or how we operate.”
“Our commitment to Te Tiriti is deeply embedded in our co-governance model, which is clearly reflected in our school constitution,” the Board of Trustees said.
“This structure ensures shared leadership and genuine partnership between Tangata Whenua Ahi Kaa and Tangata Tiriti. It reflects our identity as a school community and anchors the values that shape our relationships, decisions, and aspirations for our mokopuna.”
In Whakatāne, Allandale Primary School said its direction would remain “unchanged.”
“We will continue to proudly work to support mana motuhake – the right of Māori to determine and shape their own futures including educational pathways,” the board wrote.
“Our kura will remain grounded in te reo Māori, mātauranga Māori, and local tikanga, guided by the aspirations of Ngāti Awa whānau and hapū, and the whānau of our school hapori.”
Nearby Apanui School said Te Tiriti o Waitangi was the foundation of its strategic plan.
“We work in partnership with Ngāti Awa to ensure Māori aspirations guide our curriculum, culture and decision-making,” Alexandra Pickles said on behalf of the school board.
“Apanui School will continue to uphold Māori rights as tangata whenua and to enact Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a living, practical foundation of all we do.”
“This is not only our legal responsibility but also our moral and educational one. We stand firmly in this position.”
In Ōtautahi Christchurch, Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo said the removal of the clause would not change its priorities.
“Our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi remains unwavering,” presiding member Lucy Green said.
“The principles of partnership, protection, and participation are core to our responsibilities and integral to success in our kura.”
Another school in Ōtautahi, Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery, responded to the changes by learning a new waiata Māori for staff and students.
“The Board and staff at Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery would like to reinforce our commitment to valuing our bicultural heritage” the kura wrote on Facebook.
“We will continue to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
In a letter seen by RNZ, the New Zealand Catholic Education Office (NZCEO) also reaffirmed its support for Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Chief Executive Dr Kevin Shore encouraged Catholic schools to continue giving effect to Te Tiriti, embedding tikanga Māori, te reo Māori, and local mātauranga Māori into school policies, curriculum, and daily life.
“Catholic education in New Zealand has a long history of support for tangata whenua and for the inclusion of tikanga and te reo within the culture and practice of our schools,” he said.
The letter outlined practical steps for Catholic schools, including developing community understanding of te ao Māori, recognising Māori as tangata whenua, consulting with local Māori communities, and embedding Māori spiritual and cultural practices into school life.
Lawyer and Māori rights advocate Tania Waikato has been compiling a list of kura who have publicly reaffirmed their commitment to Te Tiriti, and as of 13 November the list had reached 195 schools.
Waikato said this response shows that the government had “failed” to remove Te Tiriti, and she expected the list to grow.
“The people are speaking. Not the politicians, not the activists, the people,” she said.
“They are telling you again, that we will not dishonour Te Tiriti, because Te Tiriti protects us all.”
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Being mobile means people can get access to opportunities and take part in economic and social life. Mobility, in all its forms, is critical for cities to thrive.
Recent studies highlight what most African city dwellers already know: walking is the main way of getting around, and essential for daily life. This is true for people who live in low-income neighbourhoods across the world. When people lack money for taxi, bus or train fares, walking becomes the only option even if the distances are great.
Yet, most African cities and many low-income neighbourhoods globally lack spaces for walking that are safe and appropriate.
While researchers place a lot of emphasis on road traffic, public transport and infrastructure, little attention has been paid to the importance of walking as a daily mobility strategy for low-income communities.
Even less is known about the walking experiences of young men. There often seems to be an assumption they are free to travel wherever and whenever they choose, that they’re invulnerable. But what are the realities they face on the street, and what we can learn from them?
We’re a team of human geographers and anthropologists working in collaboration with an international non-governmental organisation and a group of 12 peer researchers who are walkers: six from Cape Town and six from London. Our study aimed to learn more about the experiences of men like this, aged 18-35, in low-income urban neighbourhoods in South Africa and the UK.
We wanted to better understand issues of access and opportunity for communities that rely on walking. We also wanted to explore the potential of community-based research for improving lives.
Our findings revealed what expected cultural and gender norms often mask: young men in these communities often walk with great fear and trepidation.
The study
Our focus on young men was influenced by findings from an earlier study of young women in Cape Town. That study emphasised the particular concerns women have for the safety of their male counterparts who had to walk back home after accompanying the women to transit points.
We not only set out to foreground the walking experiences of young men; we also wanted to do research differently and with maximum potential impact for those involved. Peer research provides living knowledge, and also a chance to make meaningful change in transforming policy and practice. Peer researchers are, after all, experts in their own lives.
Through a five-day workshop we trained peer researchers in research methods, ethics and data collection. We gained an understanding of their communities through shared mapping exercises. The young men then set out to collect data independently, using mobility diaries. Each of them also interviewed at least 10 other young men in their community.
Although their specific neighbourhoods aren’t named for ethical reasons, the study areas were two township neigbhourhoods in Cape Town and various boroughs in the east end of London. They were strikingly similar when it came to a sense of everyday dangers from high rates of crime, violence and deprivation.
What we found
Young men in our study helped to undermine this myth of male invulnerability. They revealed how fear shapes their daily walking experiences and has an impact on their lives. As one participant said:
I’ve been a victim of crime: at that time I felt useless, weak and vulnerable.
More than this, their stories revealed how they use various tactics and strategies to stay safe. They walk with trusted others. They pay attention to their appearance and avoid displaying things like mobile phones and jewellery. They adjust their routes depending on the weather, darkness and the presence of criminal gangs.
As one participant put it:
I walk in the afternoon to the bus (to get to a job in a distant neighbourhood). It takes 10 minutes. It’s not safe … If I see criminals I pretend I’m tying my shoelace.
Other peer researchers confirmed that even the simple act of appearing to tie a shoelace allows you to survey the street while not looking scared and protecting masculine dignity. If it looks dangerous, they said, you can pretend you’ve forgotten something and run back the way you’ve come.
Our findings illustrate the complexity of daily walks. While mediating danger on the streets and navigating the precarities of urban life, our peer researchers also reflected on the pleasures of walking. They sometimes found joy and relief in walking:
I get to breathe fresh air instead of just sitting in the house … thinking about being unemployed and stuff. I get to see people and be healed.
Encountering the city on foot has benefits for physical and mental health.
Why this matters
Safe, reliable mobility is essential for lives and livelihoods in the city. Our study identified ways that community stakeholders can support safe walking and therefore help with access to economic and social opportunities.
Lifting the veil on men’s vulnerabilities allows community members and policy makers to understand the challenges across the gender spectrum.
But our research also matters because of how we went about it. The potential for change comes in the form of ongoing stakeholder engagement. Findings from the research were presented by the peer researchers themselves to community stakeholders and local government officials, people who have the capacity to improve infrastructure and safety.
Sam Clark and Caroline Barber from Transaid UK and Bulelani Maskiti, an independent South African researcher, contributed to this article.
Bradley Rink receives funding from Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF)
Gina Porter receives funding from Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF)
With much talk this week about the end of the Whitlam government, Liberal conservatives might do well to read Gough Whitlam’s 1967 speech to the Victorian Labor Party, at the start of his climb to power.
Like the Liberals now, federal Labor had been trounced at the 1966 election. Whitlam was the new leader, and he took on Victorian hardliners who put ideology ahead of electability.
“Certainly, the impotent are pure,” Whitlam told the delegates at the conference, in a line that echoed down the years.
The Liberal conservatives’ success in forcing their party to dump its commitment to the net zero emissions reduction target has been a triumph of ideology over pragmatism, worthy of those 1960s Labor zealots.
Walking away from the commitment is ill-judged and politically dangerous. It’s also unnecessary.
Many political players, including in Labor, don’t think net zero by 2050 is attainable. But the timeframe is a generation away. Given that, why is it so urgent to reject the target?
Especially when, as Liberal federal director Andrew Hirst told the party room on Wednesday, among voters net zero has become a “proxy” for action on climate. Hirst did talk about possible arguments that could be mobilised if net zero was dumped. For those listening, however, his message, based on research, was clear: ditching net zero was high-risk politics. The conservatives didn’t care.
But the party, with its moderates, had to be held together. On Thursday, when the Liberal shadow ministers met, the leadership stuck a tiny plaster on the gaping wound. Bottom line: commitment to the target is out, but if net zero happened to be achieved, that would be “a welcome outcome”.
The Liberals are in a dreadful state and a climate and energy policy that’s all over the shop can only worsen things. No one thinks they can return to power in under two elections. Even for that they’d have to pick up a significant number of seats in 2028.
At present, they are on 24% primary vote (in Newspoll). They will never do well with young voters, but to be competitive overall they have to at least make inroads with them. That’s to say nothing of the women’s vote, on which Labor has a stranglehold.
The Liberals have hardly any urban seats and, apart from Goldstein, the formerly Liberal teal seats stayed solidly independent at the last election.
Net zero resonates with young voters, women, urban dwellers and those in teal electorates, whether or not it is pie in the sky. By dropping it, the Liberals have delivered a slap in the face to these voters. They are saying, in effect, “you might have rejected us at two elections, but we still know better than you do”.
A commonsense voice came ahead of Wednesday’s meeting from Gisele Kapterian, who failed by a handful of votes in the traditional Liberal Sydney seat of Bradfield. It went to a teal. In an email to Liberals on Tuesday, Kapterian described herself as “a concerned Liberal, a technology executive, a former international trade lawyer, a millennial, and […] the former Liberal candidate in the most marginal seat in the country”.
She wrote, “In my experience, echoed throughout the most marginal, winnable, metropolitan seats, our party must remain firmly committed to the language of a ‘net zero’ emissions target as part of an energy policy that is differentiated from the ALP. Retreat is an electoral liability.
“My experience on the ground is that a credible, technology-focused climate policy is essential to securing the many discerning voters in key urban and suburban seats.”
What will all these constituencies take out of the new policy? That the Liberals don’t believe in net zero, that’s what. Not that they have found some great ways to bring down power bills.
And who is going to sell persuasively the messy new policy? Not Sussan Ley, who struggled with its contradictions at her news conference on Thursday. Far from being a conviction politician, Ley didn’t even give a personal view to Wednesday’s party meeting. Nor is the affable energy spokesman, Dan Tehan, likely to convince many people. He looks out of his depth.
The divisions in the party will remain obvious. Even if the moderates stay in line, their views are on the record because they have previously been talking their heads off – as have the conservatives.
The loud voices in the Nationals, who’ve had a massive win, leading the Coalition by the nose, will come across as clear and unconflicted. Can anyone miss the irony that Barnaby Joyce, thought to be on his way to One Nation, has had a triumphant hurrah?
To return to Whitlam: he led from the front and imposed himself on his party, even willing to risk expulsion. Ley is at the opposite end of the leadership spectrum.
Despite once having extolled net zero, Ley decided a while ago to go with the flow in the interests of preserving her job. Was there an alternative? A brave (maybe crazy brave) leader might have stepped out and argued for a position.
Yes, given the dominance of the conservatives (including in the party branches), she might have been rolled on the issue and, sooner rather than later, as leader. But at least she would have stood for something, and gone down fighting.
As for losing the leadership, most Liberals see that as inevitable – it’s only a matter of timing.
Some point out it would look bad to bring down the party’s first woman leader. Let it be recorded, however, that a couple of high-profile Liberal women are among those with political knives out for Ley. The front row of the conservative phalanx who marched into the party meeting comprised three women: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Sarah Henderson and Jessica Collins.
The conservatives are in charge of the Liberal Party and, when it suits them, they will install a conservative leader. The problem for him (and it will be a him) is he will be operating in an Australian electorate that is progressive, both now and for the foreseeable future.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese talks to journalist Chris Hedges about her new report that examines how 60+ countries are complicit in Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity demonstrated to the world in a “livestreamed atrocity”.
INTERVIEW:The Chris Hedges Report
After two years of genocide, it is no longer possible to hide complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians. Entire countries and corporations are — according to multiple reports by UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese — either directly or indirectly involved in Israel’s economic proliferation.
In her latest report, Gaza Genocide: a collective crime, Albanese details the role 63 nations played in supporting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians. She chronicles how countries like the United States, which directly funds and arms Israel, are a part of a vast global economic web.
This network includes dozens of other countries that contribute with seemingly minor components, such as warplane wheels.
Rejection of this system is imperative, Albanese says. These same technologies used to destroy the lives of Palestinians will inevitably be turned against the citizens of Israel’s funders.
“Palestine today is a metaphor of our life and where our life is going to go,” Albanese warns.
“Every worker today should draw a lesson from what’s happening to the Palestinians, because the large injustice system is connected and makes all of us connected to what’s happening there.”
The transcript: Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine, in her latest report, Gaza Genocide: a collective crime, calls out the role 63 nations have in sustaining the Israeli genocide. Albanese, who because of sanctions imposed on her by the Trump administration, had to address the UN General Assembly from the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa, slams what she calls “decades of moral and political failure.”
“Through unlawful actions and deliberate omissions, too many states have harmed, founded and shielded Israel’s militarized apartheid, allowing its settler colonial enterprise to metastasize into genocide, the ultimate crime against the indigenous people of Palestine,” she told the UN.
The genocide, she notes, has diplomatic protection in international “fora meant to preserve peace,” military ties ranging from weapons sales to joint trainings that “fed the genocidal machinery,” the unchallenged weaponization of aid, and trade with entities like the European Union, which had sanctioned Russia over Ukraine yet continued doing business with Israel.
The 24-page report details how the “live-streamed atrocity” is facilitated by third states. She excoriates the United States for providing “diplomatic cover” for Israel, using its veto power at the UN Security Council seven times and controlling ceasefire negotiations. Other Western nations, the report noted, collaborate with abstentions, delays and watered-down draft resolutions, providing Israel with weapons, “even as the evidence of genocide … mounted.”
The report chastised the US Congress for passing a $26.4 billion arms package for Israel, although Israel was at the time threatening to invade Rafah in defiance of the Biden administration’s demand that Rafah be spared.
The report also condemns Germany, the second-largest arms exporter to Israel during the genocide, for weapons shipments that include everything from “frigates to torpedoes,” as well as the United Kingdom, which has allegedly flown more than 600 surveillance missions over Gaza since war broke out in October 2023.
At the same time, Arab states have not severed ties with Israel. Egypt, for example, maintained “significant security and economic relations with Israel, including energy cooperation and the closing of the Rafah crossing” during the war.
Francesca Albanese talks to Chris Hedges Video: The Chris Hedges Report
The Gaza genocide, the report states, “exposed an unprecedented chasm between peoples and their governments, betraying the trust on which global peace and security rest.” Her report coincides with the ceasefire that isn’t. More than 300 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel since the ceasefire was announced two weeks ago.
The first major ceasefire breach on October 19 led to Israeli air strikes that killed 100 Palestinians and wounded 150 others. Palestinians in Gaza continue to endure daily bombings that obliterate buildings and homes. Shelling and gunfire continue to kill and wound civilians, while drones continue to hover overhead broadcasting ominous threats.
Essential food items, humanitarian aid and medical supplies remain scarce because of the ongoing Israeli siege. And the Israeli army controls more than half of the Gaza Strip, shooting anyone, including families, who come too close to its invisible border known as the “yellow line”.
Joining me to discuss her report, the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the complicity of numerous states in sustaining the genocide in Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine.
Before we get into the report, let’s talk a little bit about what’s happening in Gaza. It’s just a complete disconnect between what is described by the international community, i.e. “a ceasefire”, the pace may have slowed down, but nothing’s changed.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yes, thank you for having me, Chris. I do agree that it seems that there is a complete disconnect between reality and political discourse. Because after the ceasefire, the attention has been forced to shift from Gaza elsewhere.
I do believe, for example, that the increased attention to the catastrophic situation in Sudan, which has been such for years now, all of a sudden is due to the fact that there is a need for, especially from Western countries and the US, Israel and their acolytes to focus on a new emergency.
‘There is the pretence that there is peace, there is no need to protest anymore because finally, there is peace. There is no peace.’
There is the pretence that there is peace, there is no need to protest anymore because finally, there is peace. There is no peace. I mean, the Palestinians have not seen a day of peace because Israel has continued to fire, to use violence against the Palestinians in Gaza. Over 230 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire, 100 of them in one day in 24 hours, including 50 children.
And starvation continues. Yes, there has been an increase in the number of trucks, but far, far below what is needed with much confusion because it’s very hard to deliver aid. All the more, Israel maintains a control over 50 percent of the Gaza Strip while the entire Gaza population is amassed in small portions, guarded portions of the territory.
So there is no peace. Meanwhile, while the Security Council seems to be ready to approve a Security Council resolution that will create a non-acronistic form of tutelage, of trusteeship over Palestine, over Gaza, the West Bank is abandoned to the violence and the ethnic cleansing pushed by armed settlers and soldiers while Israel jails continue to fill up with bodies to torture of adults and children alike. This is the reality in the occupied Palestinian territory today and so it makes absolutely no sense where the political discourse is.
CHRIS HEDGES: Two issues about Gaza. One, of course, Israel has seized over 50% or occupies over 50 percent of Gaza. And as I understand it, they’re not allowing any reconstruction supplies, including cement, in.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: This is also my understanding. They have allowed in food, water and some essential materials needed for hospitals, mainly camp hospitals, tents. But anything related to sustainability is prohibited.
There are many food items that are also prohibited because they are considered luxurious. And the question, Chris, is, and this is why I harbor so much frustration these days toward member states because in the case of genocide, you have heard yourself the argument, well, the recalcitrance of certain states to use the genocide framework saying — and it’s pure nonsense from a legal point of view — but saying, well, the International Court of Justice has not concluded that it’s genocide.
Well, it has concluded already that there is a risk of genocide two years ago, in January, 2024. But however, even when the court does conclude on something relevant like in July, 2024, that the occupation is illegal and must be dismantled totally and unconditionally, this should be the starting point of any peace related or forward-looking discussions.
Instead of deliberating how to force Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territory, member states continue to maintain dialogue with Israel as Israel has sovereignty over the territory. See, so it’s completely dystopic, the future they are leading Palestinians out of despair into.
But they are also forcing the popular movement, the global movement that has formed made of young people and workers to stop. Because look at what’s happening in France, in Italy, in Germany, in the UK — any kind of attempt at maintaining the light turned on Palestine from Gaza to the West Bank is assaulted. Protests, conferences, there is a very active assault on anything that concerns Palestine.
So this is why I’m saying we are far, far beyond the mismanagement of the lack of understanding, I mean the negligence in approaching the question of Palestine, it’s active complicity to sustain Israel in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
CHRIS HEDGES: Which, as you point out in your report, has been true from the beginning despite a slight change in rhetoric recognising the two-state solution. The UK did this while only cutting back on shipments by 10 percent.
But I want to ask before we get into the report, what do you think Israel’s goal is? Is it just to slow-walk the genocide until it can resume it? Is it to create this appalling, uninhabitable, unlivable ghetto? What do you think Israel’s goal is?
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: I think that now more than ever it is impossible to separate and distinguish the goals of Israel from the goals of the United States. We tend to have a fragmented view of what happens, analysing for example the relationship between Lebanon and Israel, between Iran and Israel, or between Israel and the Palestinians.
‘One of the things that Palestine has made me realise is the meaning of “Greater Israel” because I do believe that what the current leadership in Israel has in mind and it’s supported by many willing or not in the Israeli society, many who are fine with the erasure of the Palestinians.’
In fact, do, I mean, one of the things that Palestine has made me realise is the meaning of “Greater Israel” because I do believe that what the current leadership in Israel has in mind and it’s supported by many willing or not in the Israeli society, many who are fine with the erasure of the Palestinians.
But there is this idea of Greater Israel and for a long time I have been among those who thought, who were wondering what it is, this “Greater Israel” because of course you look at the map by Israeli leaders in several occasions with this Greater Israel going from the Nile to the Euphrates and you say come on they cannot do that, they cannot occupy Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq.
But then everything changes when you look at it from a non-territorial border expansion perspective. And if you think that in fact domination can be exerted, established, other than by expanding the physical borders and through military occupation, but through domination and financial control, control from outside, power domination, you see that the Greater Israel project has already started and it’s very advanced.
Look at the annihilation of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon. So all those who were historically considered not friends of Israel have been annihilated. And the other Arab countries that remain either do not have the capacity to confront Israel and perish the thought they explored the idea of unity among them or with others. And the others are fine with it.
Ultimately, I think that Greater Israel is the quintessential explanation of the US imperialistic design in that part of the world for which the Palestinians remain a thorn in the side not just for Israel but for the imperialistic project itself because the Palestinians are still there resisting.
They don’t want to go, they don’t want to be tamed, they don’t want to be dominated so they are the last line, the last frontier of resistance, both physically and in the imagination. And therefore, you see, the fierceness against them has scaled up, with the US now getting ready with boots on the ground to get rid of them. This is my interpretation of the general design behind Israel-United States, where Israelis are going to pay a heavy price like many in the region, not just the Palestinians.
CHRIS HEDGES:So you see the imposition of American troops in Gaza as another step forward to the depopulation of Gaza.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yes, yes, yes, I don’t trust any promise made to the Palestinians either by Israel or by the United States because what I’ve seen over the past two years shows me, demonstrates to all of us in fact, that they don’t care at all about the Palestinians. Otherwise, they would have seen their suffering.
‘The beginning of genocide has changed my perception of the world in a way, for me personally, it’s the end of an era of innocence when I really believed that the United Nations were a place where things could still be advanced in the pursuit of peace.’
It’s just not like people like us who can really divide their life. Is it pre-genocide? Does it happen to you as well? Are you talking of pre-genocide or after genocide? Because in fact, the beginning of genocide has changed my perception of the world in a way, for me personally, it’s the end of an era of innocence when I really believed that the United Nations were a place where things could still be advanced in the pursuit of peace.
Now I don’t think so, which doesn’t mean that I think that the UN is over, but in order not to be over, in order to make sense to the people, it is to be led by dignity, principles like dignity, equality and freedom for all. And we are absolutely far from that today.
CHRIS HEDGES: And what is it that brought you to this decision? Is it the acceptance of this faux ceasefire on the part of the UN, or was it before this moment?
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: No, it’s before. It’s before. It’s the fact that for two years most states, primarily in the West, but with the acquiescence of other states in the region have supported the Israeli mantra of “self-defence”.
Sorry, it was a mantra because again, self-defence has a very, I’m not saying that Israel had no right to protect itself. Of course Israel had suffered a ferocious attack on October 7. Some say similar to the attacks it had inflicted on the Palestinians. Others say more brutal, say less brutal. It doesn’t matter.
Israel suffered a horrible, violent attack. Israeli civilians suffered a horrible attack on October 7th. But hey, this didn’t give the possibility to Israel to invoke Article 51 of the UN Charter, meaning the right to wage a war.
This is not legal. And on this I can say I’m surprised by how conservative are member states when it comes to the interpretation of international law, except on this, in the sense that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has already set the limits of the right of invoking self-defence for member states.
And it can only be done against states where there is a concrete threat that the state will attack which is not the case here. So yes, Israel could defend itself, but not wage a war. And while the war was clearly identifiable more for its crimes than not its tendency to avoid crimes, member states have continued to say nothing and it was very extreme violence against the Palestinians in Gaza but also against the Palestinians in the West Bank. And for two years they’ve not used their power to stop it.
So I’m convinced that in order to have a political shift vis-à-vis Israel, there must be a political shift at the country level, because governments are completely subdued to the dictates of the US. Of course, if the US wanted, this would stop, but the US with this constellation of figures in the government is not going to stop.
And plus look at how the West in particular has contributed to dehumanise the Palestinians. Even today you hear people saying yes, Palestinians have been killed in these numbers because they’ve been used as human shields when the only evidence that they’ve been used as human shields is against Israel because Israel has used Palestinians as human shields in the West Bank and in Gaza alike.
You see Palestinians have returned to be wrapped into this colonial tropism of them being the savages, the barbarians, in a way, they have brought havoc upon themselves. This is the narrative that the West has used toward the Palestinians. And by doing that, it has created, they have created the fertile ground for Israel’s impunity.
CHRIS HEDGES: Let’s talk about the nations that you single out in your report that have continued to sustain the genocide, either through weapons shipments, but also the commercial interests. I think your previous report talked about the money that was being made off of the genocide. Just lay out the extent of that collaboration and to the extent that you can, the sums of money involved.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yeah, yeah, let me start with introducing generally two components, the military component and the trade and investment ones, which are quite interrelated. And states have, in general, I name 62 states, primarily Western states, but with substantive collaboration of states from the Global South, global majority, including some Arab states.
So they have altogether ignored, obscured and somewhat even profited from Israel’s violations of international law through military and economic channels. So military cooperation through arms trades or intelligence sharing has fueled Israel’s war machine during the occupation, the illegal occupation, and especially during the genocide while the United States and Germany alone have provided about 90 percent of Israel’s arms export.
At least 26 states have supplied or facilitated the transfer of arms or components, while many others have continued to buy weapons tested on the Palestinians. And this is why in my previous report, the ones looking at the private sector, I was shocked to see how much the Israeli stock exchange had gone up during the genocide.
And this is particularly because of a growth in the military industry. On the other hand, there is the trade and investment sector. Both have sustained and profited from Israel’s economy. Think that between 2023, 2024, actually the end of 2022 and 2024, exports of electronics, pharmaceuticals, energy minerals and what is called the dual-use have totaled almost US$500 billion, helping Israel finance its military occupation.
Now one third of this trade is with the European Union while the rest is complemented by North American countries, the US and Canada, who have free trade agreements with Israel and several Arab states that have continued to deepen economic ties.
Only a few states have marginally reduced trade during the genocide, but in general the indirect commercial flows, including with states that have supposedly no diplomatic relations with Israel, have continued undisturbed.
It’s a very grim picture of the reality. But let me add just one extra element. I do believe that in many respects, the problem is ideological. As I said, there is a tendency to treat Ukraine, for example, vis-a-vis Russia, in a very different fashion than Palestine versus Israel. And this is why I think there is an element of Orientalism that accompanies also the tragedy of the Palestinian people.
CHRIS HEDGES:Talk a little bit about the kinds of weapons that have been shipped to Israel. These are, and we should be clear that, of course, the Palestinians do not have a conventional army, don’t have a navy, they don’t have an air force, they don’t have mechanized units, including tanks, they don’t have artillery, and yet the weapons shipments that are coming in are some of the most sophisticated armaments that are used in a conventional war.
And as a leaked Israeli report, I think it was +972, provided, 83 percent of the people killed in Gaza are civilians.
FRANCISCA ALBANESE: Yes, yes. First of all, there are two things that are weapons, what is considered conventional weapons and dual-use. And both should have been suspended according to the decision of the International Court of Justice concerning Israel in the Nicaragua v. Germany case.
Meanwhile, there are two things: there is the transfer of weapons directly to Israel, and this includes aircraft, materials to compose the drones, because Israel doesn’t produce anything on its own, it requires components — artillery shells, for example, cannon ammunition, rifles, anti-tank missiles, bombs.
So these are all things that have been provided primarily by the United States. Germany, which is the second largest arms exporter to Israel has supplied a range of weapons from frigates to torpedoes.
And also, and then there is Italy, which has also provided spare parts for bombs and airplanes and the United Kingdom, who has played a key role in providing intelligence. And there is also the question of the UN. Not everything is easy to track because the United States have traveled … the United States are the prime provider of weapons, also because they are the assembler of the F-35 programme.
So there are 17 or 19 countries which cooperate and all of them say, well, you know, I mean, yes, I know that the F-35 is used in Israel, by Israel, but I only contribute to a small part. I only contribute to the wheels. I only contribute to the wings. I only provide these hooks or this engine.
Well, everything is assembled in the US and then sold or transferred or gifted to Israel. And it’s extremely problematic because this is why I say it’s a collective crime, because no one can assume the responsibility on their own but eventually all together they contribute to make this genocide implicating so many countries.
CHRIS HEDGES: So Francesca, Israel is the ninth largest arms exporter in the world. To what extent do those relationships have? I mean, I think one of the largest purchasers of Israeli drones is India. We’ve seen India shift its position vis-a-vis Palestine.
Historically, it’s always stood with the Palestinian people. That’s no longer true under [Narendra] Modi. To what extent do those ties affect the response by the 63 some states that you write about for collaborating with the genocide.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: So let me first expand on this. Weapon and military technology sale is a core component of Israel’s economy. And since 2024, it has constituted one third of Israeli exports. And of course, there are two elements connected to this, is that these exports enhances Israel’s manufacturing capacity, but also horribly worsens the life of the Palestinians because Israeli military technology is tested on the Palestinians under occupation or other people under other Israeli related military activities.
Now, the fact that the arms export has increased of nearly 20 percent during the genocide, doubling toward Europe. And only the trade with Europe accounts for over 50 percent of Israeli military sales, selling to so many other countries, including in the Global South, the Asia and Pacific states in the Asia-Pacific region account for 23 percent of the purchase, with India being probably the major. But also 12 percent of the weapons tested on the Palestinians are purchased by Arab countries under the Abraham Accords. So what does it tell us?
It explains what you were hinting at in the question, the fact that this is also reflected in the political shift toward Israel that has been recorded at the General Assembly level. If you see how some African countries and Asian countries, including India, are behaving vis-a-vis Israel, it’s 180 degrees turn compared to where they were in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
This is because on the one hand, Israel is embedded in the global economy, but also it’s a global economy that is veering toward ultra liberal, I mean, it’s following ultra-liberalist ideologies and therefore capital and wealth and accumulation of resources, including military power, comes first.
‘It’s very sad, but this is the reality . . . since the end of the Cold War that there has been an increasing globalisation of the system where the common denominator is force.’
It’s very sad, but this is the reality. And it’s important to know because this is a long, as I was hinting before, my sense is that this is a long term trajectory that didn’t start on October 7, 2023. I mean, probably since the end of the Cold War that there has been an increasing globalisation of the system where the common denominator is force.
I mean, there is this, not a common denominator, but the unifying factor for many is force, how the monopoly of force that comes with weapons, capital and algorithms. And yeah, this is where the world is going.
CHRIS HEDGES: Well, we’ve seen these weapons systems which of course are tested. They’re sold as bad. say the term is battle tested without naming the Palestinians, but they are sold to Greece to hold back migrants coming from North Africa. They are used along the border in the United States with Mexico.
And it’s not just that these weapons are “battle tested” on the Palestinians and we haven’t even spoken about these huge surveillance systems, but the very methods of control, the way they’re used are exported through military advisors.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Of course, because in fact, the Israeli population is made almost entirely of soldiers. Of course, there are those who do not enlist in the army for religious reasons or because they are contentious objectors, they’re a tiny minority. But the majority of the people of Israelis go through the army.
And then many of them transfer their know-how or what they have been doing into their next career steps. So the fact that Israel, as I was documenting in my previous report, Israel’s startup economy has a huge dark side to the fact that it’s connected to the military industry and to the surveillance industry.
There is a significant body of Israeli citizens who are going around providing advice, intelligence and training in the Global South both to mercenaries and states proper like Morocco. So there is an Israelisation and Palestinianisation of the international relations or rather of the relations between individuals and states.
And I think the interesting thing, this is why I’m saying Palestine is such a revealer, it’s because, as you say, eventually these tools of control and securitisation have concentrated in the hands of those who are fortifying borders at the expense of refugees and migrants.
So it’s really clear what’s happening here. There are oligarchs who are getting richer and richer and more and more protected in their fortresses where the state is providing the fertile ground to have it, but it’s not states that are benefiting from this inequality, because the majority of the people within states, look at the US, but also in Europe, are not benefiting from anything, in fact.
They’re victims. This is why you equally exploit it. This is why I’m saying it’s another degree of suffering, of course, than the Palestinians. But every worker today should draw a lesson from what’s happening to the Palestinians, because the large injustice system is connected and makes all of us connected to what’s happening there.
CHRIS HEDGES: Well, internally as well. I mean, with Sikh farmers who were protesting Modi were out on the roads, suddenly, over their heads were Israeli-made drones dropping tear gas canisters.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yeah, exactly. Drones are one of the most exported devices from Israel’s technology and they are in use by Frontex to surveil the Mediterranean Sea, as you were saying, the US-Mexican border. But more and more, they’re getting into people’s lives.
Also look at the way certain technologies have been perfected across borders. I remember earlier this summer, this is very anecdotal, I’ve not done research on it, but I knew that we were seeing something quite and horribly revolutionary.
This year, this summer during the protests in Serbia, where students and ordinary citizens were taken to the streets against the government and have been protesting for one year now, people in Serbia. I saw the use of these sound weapons, oxygen-fed weapons.
So there are bombs that produce such a pain in the body who finds itself in the wave that it’s excruciating. And then of course people try to flee, but they also lose senses, et cetera. And I’ve seen this in Serbia.
And now I understand that it’s being used in Gaza as well, where the bomb doesn’t produce fire, it produces a movement of air that causes pain to the body and even to internal organs. It’s incredible. And these are weapons that have been perfected through testing here and there, and Serbia keeps on selling and buying military technology to and from Israel.
CHRIS HEDGES: I just want to close with, I mean, I think your reports, the last two reports in particular, show the complete failure on the part of governments as well as corporations to respond legally in terms of their legal obligations to the genocide. What do we do now? What must be done to quote Lenin?
How, because this, as you have pointed out repeatedly, really presages the complete breakdown of the rule of law. What as citizens must we do?
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: I think that we have passed the alarm area. I mean, we are really in a critical place and I sense it because instead of correcting itself, the system led by governments is accentuating its authoritarian traits. Think of the repressive measures that the UK government is taking against protesters, against civil society, against journalists standing in solidarity with Palestine, for justice in Palestine.
In France and in Italy at the same time, conferences academic freedom is shrinking and in the same days, conferences of reputable historians and military and legal experts have been cancelled owing to the pressure of the pro-genocide groups, pro-Israel groups in their respective countries. People, including in Germany, are being persecuted, including academics, for their own exercise of free speech.
This tells me that there is very little pretense that Western states, so-called liberal democracies, the most attached to this idea of democracy are ready to defend for real. So in this sense, it’s up to us citizens to be vigilant and to make sure that we do not buy products connected or services connected to the legality of the occupation, the apartheid and the genocide.
And there are various organisations that collect lists of companies and entities, including universities that are connected to this unlawful endeavor. BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] is one, don’t buy into the occupation who profits profundo, but also students associations.
‘There is a need to speak about Palestine, to make choices about Palestine and not because everything needs to revolve around Palestine, but because Palestine today is a metaphor of our life and where our life is going to go is clearly evident in this.’
And this is something that has taught me, it’s very touching because it’s really the work of students, faculty members and staff that has mapped what each university does. And I think it gives the possibility to act, everyone in our own domain. Then of course there is a need to speak about Palestine, to make choices about Palestine and not because everything needs to revolve around Palestine, but because Palestine today is a metaphor of our life and where our life is going to go is clearly evident in this.
But also we need to make sure that businesses divest. Either through our purchase power, people have to step away and stop using platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com. I know that Amazon is very convenient, but guys, we might also return to buy books in libraries, ordering books through libraries.
Of course, not all of us can, but many do, many can. On the way to work, buy a book in a library, order a book in a bookstore. We need to reduce our reliance on the tools that have been used, that have been perfected through the slaughter of the Palestinians. And of course, make government accountable. There are lawyers, associations, and jurists who are taking government officials to court, businesses to court. But again, I do not think that there is one strategy that is going to be the winning one.
It’s the plurality of actions from a plurality of actors that is going to produce results and slow down the genocide and then help dismantle the occupation and the apartheid. It’s a long trajectory and the fight has just started.
CHRIS HEDGES: Thank you, Francesca, and I want to thank Thomas [Hedges], Diego [Ramos], Max [Jones] and Sofia [Menemenlis], who produced the show. You can find me at ChrisHedges.Substack.com
Scott Barrett addresses the All Blacks.ActionPress
England v All Blacks
Kick-off: 4:10am Sunday 16 November
Allianz Stadium (Twickenham), London
Live blog updates on RNZ
Scott Barrett will return to lead the All Blacks for Sunday morning’s clash with England at Twickenham. The All Black captain suffered a laceration in his leg in the win over Ireland in Chicago but has been passed fit to take the field for what’s being billed as the side’s toughest challenge on this end of year tour.
His return means Josh Lord drops back to the bench, however his impressive form so far on the tour means Lord will likely get some decent minutes at the back end of the game.
Sam Darry drops out of the squad.
In another change to the forwards, Simon Parker gets the nod at blindside in a not altogether unexpected move.
Parker’s size will be useful against a big English pack, with Ardie Savea and Peter Lakai joining him in the starting loose forwards. Wallace Sititi moves back to the bench and Du’Plessis Kirifi is left out.
Leicester Fainga’anuku moves to the wing, replacing the injured Caleb Clarke. That makes room for Billy Proctor to return to centre, which brings Anton Lienert-Brown onto the bench in what must have been a very tight call.
Rieko Ioane is once again left out, while the backline reshuffle didn’t extend far enough to give Ruben Love a chance, as Damian McKenzie once again takes the 23 jersey.
Billy Proctor fends.Kerry Marshall / www.photosport.nz
Scott Robertson has kept the same front row make up as the last four tests, with Ethan de Groot and Fletcher Newell starting in what will be a crucial scrum battle with the English. Tamaiti Williams and Pasilio Tosi will come on to relieve them in the second half.
The rest of the side is similarly unchanged, with the All Blacks hoping to simply keep all their players on the field after receiving three yellow cards in the win over Scotland.
Team lists
England: 1. Fin Baxter, 2. Jamie George, 3. Joe Heyes, 4. Maro Itoje (c), 5. Alex Coles, 6. Guy Pepper, 7. Sam Underhill, 8. Ben Earl, 9. Alex Mitchell, 10. George Ford (vice-captain), 11. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 12. Fraser Dingwall, 13. Ollie Lawrence, 14. Tom Roebuck, 15. Freddie Steward
Bench: 16. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17. Ellis Genge, 18. Will Stuart, 19. Chandler Cunningham-South, 20. Tom Curry, 21. Henry Pollock, 22. Ben Spencer, 23. Marcus Smith
All Blacks: 1. Ethan de Groot, 2. Codie Taylor, 3. Fletcher Newell, 4. Scott Barrett (c), 5. Fabian Holland, 6. Simon Parker, 7. Ardie Savea, 8. Peter Lakai, 9. Cam Roigard, 10. Beauden Barrett, 11. Leicester Fainga’anuku, 12. Quinn Tupaea, 13. Billy Proctor, 14. Leroy Carter, 15. Will Jordan
The conversation will be re-enacted at the original location, near Kemp House at Kerikeri Basin.Peter de Graaf
A conversation between British missionaries and Ngāpuhi rangatira – including the famous chief Hongi Hika – will be re-enacted on Saturday, exactly 200 years after it took place.
Author Grant Hodgson said the conversation on 15 November, 1825, was remarkable in that it was translated by the young William Gilbert Puckey, who was fluent in te reo, and recorded by fellow missionary Richard Davis.
Hodgson said the conversation offered rare, vivid insights into the thoughts and values of both parties.
Actors from Kerikeri Theatre Company would re-enact the discussion with local hapū Ngāti Rēhia.
The “very interesting conversation”, as Missionary Henry Williams described it at the time, would take place at 10.15am on Saturday at the original location, near Kemp House at Kerikeri Basin.
The conversation formed the basis of a book written by Hodgson, with the help of Ngāti Rēhia’s Kipa Munro, called Rangatiratanga and Gentlemanship.
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A wet and windy day in the Garden City didn’t put off crowds of punters turning out to the first day of Canterbury’s Agricultural & Pastoral show.
An annual fixture in Christchurch, and back with a more prestigious title, the Royal A&P Show is expected to attract more than 100,000 people over three days.
Organisers are promising a return to full strength after last year’s show was scaled back because of financial troubles.
RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Swine groups were dressed up to win with their top hogs at the livestock pavilion on Thursday.
The best commercial boar competition was a lively event where groups wore matching outfits to present their pig to judges.
Boar Breeders Association president Tom Dobson – whose team opted for red checkered shirts with tweed jackets and hats – said it was a popular event with younger farmers.
“This is our 11th year of running it. This year we’ve got about 17 commercial boars being judged by two judges. My team is the Notorious Pigs, we’ve also got Peaky Swinders, names like that so all pig associated,” he said.
“We’ve got a first and second place for the best dressed competition, it’s usually some sort of farmer type dress-up – butchers clothing, tweed jackets, tweed hats, the girls usually wear something bright and pink or blue.
“Some people take it a bit more seriously than others and each year it seems to be getting better and better.”
Boar Breeders Association president Tom Dobson.RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Dobson said the boars this year were being judged on what would suit a butcher the best.
“They’re looking for a nice small, compact pig that’s got plenty of meat on it to feed everyone. We’ll try and win it this year.
“Two years ago we had a bit of an issue with our pig so it didn’t show up on the day but we’ve got it here today so hopefully it’s a winner.”
Alongside the traditional events like wood chopping and dog trials, this year there was a new wool marquee with a number of exhibitors showing off different uses for wool.
Canterbury A&P Association wool committee chairperson Anne Rogers said more than 160 fleeces were entered into a competition.
Canterbury A&P Association wool committee chairperson Anne Rogers.RNZ / Nate McKinnon
“The biggest award is the supreme white wool fleece and that’s out of the 165, it’s a huge win.
“Fleeces are judged on their fineness, their structure and the winning fleece today is a merino fleece,” she said.
Another new feature of the show was a cowboy challenge competition for horses and riders.
Organiser Trish Taylor-Ward said people of all ages got involved.
Trish Taylor-Ward.RNZ / Nate McKinnon
“It’s a really fun sport. Our youngest competitor today is seven and I’m the oldest one here today and I’m 74,” she said.
“There’s 13 obstacles in each course and you and your horse have to negotiate each obstacle. It is a race and the fastest time gets bonus points, but if you do it fast and really unruly you’re not going to get good points, it’s about the combination and how much the horse trusts you and how much you trust your horse.”
The Royal Agricultural Society connected with the Canterbury A&P Association to upgrade the status of this year’s show to Royal.
Association president Brent Chamberlain said this had brought in more exhibitors and livestock entries.
“It’s the premier show of New Zealand especially for the South Island. It’s a real honour,” he said.
Brent Chamberlain.RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The show had attracted more than 400 trade sites and livestock entries were well up on last year, with an increase in dairy cattle to 380, 267 beef cattle entries and more than 700 sheep.
But after a $5 million injection from the Christchurch City Council, and an almost complete overhaul of the board, it was resurrected in a downscaled format by the events company Event Hire.
Cantabrians will be able to catch the A&P Show for two more days on Friday and Saturday before it wraps up for another year.
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What used to be a cheap and cheerful takeaway is now leaving hungry customers with a hefty bill.
The cost of fish and chips has risen 154 percent between September 2005 and September 2025.
But according to Fresco Fisheries owner Eamon Joe, fish and chips are still good value for money compared to other takeaways.
Joe told Checkpoint his costs have gone up “considerably” since Covid, and an increase in labour and compliance costs are having the biggest impact.
“I think it’s the cost of getting things done these days, and in the industry there’s always these added costs which you have to absorb.”
Joe said the increase in cost of staples such as beef, butter, and beef tallow, which is used as a cooking oil, is also contributing to higher prices.
Joe said he switched to using rice bran oil a number of years ago, but is now paying “probably double” for it.
“We have no control over that. We just have to either absorb [the cost] or pass it on.”
Alongside these increases, there is also the rising cost of fish.
Joe said the varying in costs from one fish and chip shop to the next can also be down to portion sizes.
“We don’t have a standard size, but we are all around the same sort of size.
“You go down to your local shop and you’ll get a piece of fish, and he may cut it slightly thinner or thicker than the guy down the road. And then you’ve got different varieties of fish which are available.”
At Fresco Fisheries, Joe said a fish and a scoop of chips was $9.20.
Joe said people will come to his shop, which also sells fresh fish, for certain types.
“They’ll want the cods, or they’ll want the terakihi or the gurnard, and those prices have gone up as well because obviously they are a seasonal fish which are available certain times and available in larger quantities, but when they’re scarce, the price of that goes up.
“Generally, most shops keep their price fixed, so if you’re buying a fish on a daily basis like I am, the price can fluctuate anything between 10 to 30/40 percent on some varieties.”
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Greenpeace has heralded the Cook Islands delay on a decision over whether seabed mining can go ahead until at least 2032 as “evidence of the growing opposition” to the destructive industry in the Pacific.
Greenpeace Aotearoa campaigner Juressa Lee said the decision was “a win for the moana and the Pacific Peoples” and communities fighting against this emerging threat that would risk their way of life.
Resistance to seabed mining in the Cook Islands was strong and persistent, she said in a statement today.
“We are pleased to see that the government is feeling the pressure and acknowledging that a five-year exploration period is nothing more than tokenistic when it comes to understanding this industry’s impacts.
“There is no version of seabed mining that is sustainable or safe.
Lee said that alongside Greenpeace’s allies who wanted to protect the ocean for future generations, the environmental movement would continue to say “a loud and bold no to miners who want to strip the seafloor for their profit”.
The decision that companies wanting to mine in Cook Island waters would now have to apply for a five year extension to their exploration licences was announced today by the Seabed Minerals Authority, the government agency in charge of seabed mining in the Cook Islands.
Current licences expire in 2027.
Raising alarm for years For years, multiple civil society groups in the Cook Islands have been raising the alarm about rushing into seabed mining.
Four protesters in kayaks met the ship, holding banners that read: “Don’t mine the moana”.
In September 2024, civil society groups came together to peacefully demonstrate community opposition to deep sea mining, with 150 people paddling out into Avarua port and floating a giant banner reading “Protect our ocean”.
Greenpeace is calling for a ban on deep sea mining.
“The current Cook Islands government is pushing seabed mining but we know that many people oppose this emerging industry that risks irreversible damage to ocean life,” said Lee.
“We’ve already seen evidence from a test mining site in the Atlantic Ocean that was mined in the 1970s and has never fully recovered.
Not be silenced “Pacific Peoples will not be sidelined or silenced by corporations and powerful countries that continue to try and impose this new form of extractive colonialism where it is not wanted.
“Seabed mining is not welcome in the Cook Islands or the Pacific and we will resist.”
Seabed mining is an emerging extractive industry that has not yet started on a commercial scale anywhere in the world. Miners want to extract polymetallic nodules from the seafloor to extract metals.
Three companies — Moana Minerals Limited (a subsidiary of US company Ocean Minerals), Cobalt (CIC) Limited, and CIIC Seabed Resources Limited (a partnership between Cook Islands government and Belgian company GSR) — currently hold licences for seabed mining exploration in the Cook Island waters.
The $70 million Ngā Huia building is the final part of a $160m upgrade to vet school facilities.RNZ/Jimmy Ellingham
The final stage of a $160 million revamp to New Zealand’s only vet training school is complete.
At Massey University’s Palmerston North campus on Thursday new building Ngā Huia officially opened its doors.
It’s home to state-of-the-art research labs and student facilities for the 750 aspiring vets undergoing their five-year degrees.
Massey vice-chancellor Jan Thomas said it was a “critical piece of national infrastructure”.
The university paid for the upgrade, which included the opening of a new teaching building three years ago.
The previous quake-prone vet tower at the university was demolished. It was built in the early 1970s, not long after the vet school opened.
Universities minister Dr Shane Reti compared today’s facilities with what was available when the school opened.RNZ/Jimmy Ellingham
“Massey’s come a long way since 1963 when the inaugural class of 32 veterinary students began their studies in the Bernard Chambers vet clinic and WWII army mess hubs,” universities minister Dr Shane Reti said at the building’s opening.
“Since then Massey has produced thousands of bachelor of veterinary science graduates.”
Two students who will themselves graduate in a couple of years are 21-year-old Charlotte Cotton and 20-year-old Ryan Smoothy. Both are completing their third year of study.
“It’s really nice being in purpose-built spaces. We started after the old vet tower had been taken down so this is our first time having a big, specific place for vet [studies],” Cotton said.
“We’ve got our labs over in the other building, but it’s really exciting having our own space now.”
Ryan Smoothy and Charlotte Cotton are third-year vet students.RNZ/Jimmy Ellingham
Getting into vet school is competitive – about 400 first-year students are whittled down to 175 to move through the degree.
Cotton said in third year students started looking at specific diseases and the medications used to treat them.
“We’ve progressed more towards understanding what’s normal and how to deal with the abnormal,” Smoothy said.
Both said they wanted to start in general practice before moving into a specialist area.
Vet school research not just about animals
Ngā Huia, which cost $70m, houses modern labs, replacing the previous spaces dating from the 1970s.
“Our research is really focused on delivering what the nation needs, particularly as an island, exporting nation,” head of the school, professor Jon Huxley said.
“Our research strengths tend to be in areas such as epidemiology and food security, pathobiology and infection disease, and animal welfare.”
Head of school professor Jon Huxley says the school has world-leading researchers.RNZ/Jimmy Ellingham
The school’s research went beyond animals, he said.
“Covid was a fantastic example.
“Covid started in animals then then transferred into Man, so of course having the expertise that crosses that space between animal disease and human disease is critically important.
“We’ve got some fabulous research staff that work in that space, both at a national and a global level.”
The vet school is the top ranked one in Asia and Australasia, and is in the world’s top 20 in the QS world university rankings.
But the new facilities are about more than academic performance alone.
Warren Warbrick used the huia as the cultural narrative for the building due to the extinct bird’s nurturing nature.RNZ/Jimmy Ellingham
Warren Warbrick, of Rangitāne in Manawatū, was asked to develop a cultural narrative for the building’s design features.
“During the research I found it hard because a lot of the narratives and concepts and ideas that are traditional are really to do with the eating, preservation or preserving of food, or killing of animals, skinning of animals and using their bits of piece for tools and all kinds of things,” he said.
He came across the story of tupuna Tauto, who would communicate with huia – a bird with a nurturing nature.
“So, we’ve kind of used this nurturing concept to look at the way knowledge holders, or lecturers and teachers, nurture their students.”
Staff are expected to start moving into the new labs next month and students will use the building from next year.
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On Sunday November 2, people in eastern Victoria witnessed a bright streak across the sky followed by a loud sonic boom that felt like an earthquake. The event was captured by security cameras and mobile phones.
Last month, in South Australia, the SA Museum investigated whether a meteorite had struck a moving car, cracking and scorching its windscreen.
Two months earlier, in August, another fireball lit up central Victoria, prompting scientists and volunteers to search farmland near Ballarat and Bendigo for fragments, though none have yet been found.
So meteorites are more common than you might think. But what should you do if you find one?
How often do meteorites land on Earth?
Every day, Earth is showered with more than 100 tonnes of cosmic dust. Every year, hundreds of meteorites fall somewhere on Earth, but most splash unnoticed into oceans or land in remote wilderness.
Only around ten witnessed falls each year are currently recovered. Australia, with its vast deserts and sparse vegetation, is one of the world’s best places to spot and preserve these rare visitors from space.
To date, more than 78,000 meteorites have been identified worldwide. Most originate from asteroids, with some even traced to Mars or the Moon.
Collecting meteorites on Earth is often described as the cheapest form of space exploration. Scientists now have over five times as much Moon rock from meteorites than was returned by the Apollo missions, and with a greater diversity of rock types, providing insights into parts of the Moon that astronauts never sampled.
Famous Australian meteorites
Australia has produced some of the world’s most notable finds. The Cranbourne meteorites (Victoria, described scientifically from 1854 onward), include massive iron specimens and are among the largest recovered in the country.
The Murchison meteorite (1969, Victoria) contains the oldest minerals to form in our solar system, amino acids – the building blocks of life – and “stardust” that formed in exploding stars billions of years before our Sun existed.
More recently, Bunburra Rockhole (2007, Western Australia) was captured on camera by the Desert Fireball Network. The meteorite’s unusual basaltic composition offers rare insights into the diversity of asteroids.
Cranbourne meteorite photographed by Richard Daintree on 21 February, 1862. State Library of Victoria
Today, observation programs such as the Desert Fireball Network track meteors across Australian skies. These help researchers locate and recover new falls such as Murrili (2015, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, SA), Puli Ilkaringuru (2019, Nullarbor Plain, WA) and Pindarri Punju Puri (2025, Lake Hope, WA) meteorites. Australia’s arid regions, particularly the Nullarbor Plain, preserve meteorites exceptionally well, with more than half of Australia’s known meteorites found there.
What to do if you think you’ve found a meteorite
If you stumble on a dark, unusually heavy rock with a smooth, sometimes glossy or dimpled surface – known as a fusion crust – and it looks different from the surrounding stones, it could be a meteorite. Some of the most unusual meteorites, such as Murchison, are not particularly heavy, so don’t rule your possible meteorite out on weight alone.
If you think you might have found one, follow these steps to preserve its scientific value.
Photograph it before touching. Include wide and close-up shots and include something for scale, such a coin.
Record GPS coordinates, date and time. Your phone’s location data is fine.
Don’t clean it. Avoid washing, scrubbing or polishing to preserve delicate minerals and chemical signatures.
Handle carefully. Use gloves and wrap in clean aluminium foil, not plastic.
Note everything. Describe the ground type and any features, including nearby rocks.
Contact your state or territory museum for advice and identification.
Fragment of the Murchison meteorite showing its black fusion crust that fell in Victoria, Australia in 1969. Rodney Start, Museums Victoria, CC BY
When good intentions go wrong
Unfortunately, not all meteorite finds have been handled with care. Over the years, many have been damaged by well-meaning collectors who soaked them in acid, accelerating corrosion. Some have been scrubbed or hit with a sledge hammer, destroying their fusion crust. Still others were removed them from strewn fields without recording their locations.
Some were even sold or exported illegally, putting them beyond scientific reach. These actions have caused the permanent loss of valuable evidence, sometimes the only clues to a meteorite’s cosmic origin.
Who owns meteorites?
In Australia, meteorite ownership is governed by state and territory laws rather than a single national rule, so it depends on where the meteorite lands.
In WA, all meteorites are state property under the Museum Act, while in SA they belong to the Crown and are managed by the SA Museum. The Northern Territory also declares meteorites Crown property under the Meteorites Act 1987. Finders must report discoveries to the relevant museum. Museums may acknowledge the finder, but the specimens remain part of public collections for research and display.
Other states may allow finders to keep meteorites, though it’s always best to check and report the find to your state museum. Export of meteorites from Australia is regulated at the federal level and permits are required.
These rules ensure meteorites remain accessible for scientific study and for the public to see, contrasting with some other countries where ownership often passes directly to either the finder or private landowner, such as the United Kingdom, United States and some Canadian provinces.
Meteorites on display at Melbourne Museum. Ursula Smith / Museums Victoria, CC BY
Australia’s skies are still falling – and you can help
Fireballs continue to light up Australian skies each year. By documenting finds carefully, reporting them, and respecting ownership laws, anyone can contribute to planetary science. And sometimes, the next big discovery might literally fall at your feet.
If you’re in Victoria, please contact the Ask Us team at Museums Victoria to have your potential space rock inspected.
Heather Handley works for Museums Victoria Research Institute. She is affiliated with Monash University.
Dermot Henry receives funding from Australian Research Council.
Oskar Lindenmayer is affiliated with the Geological Society of Australia and the International Mineralogical Association.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley announced on Thursday that the Liberal Party was dropping its commitment to net zero and said a future Liberal government would repeal Australia’s present legislated 2030 and 2050 targets for reducing emissions.
After a meeting of the Liberal shadow ministers, Ley told a news conference: “We are not pursuing net zero, we are pursuing energy affordability and emissions reduction”.
In a fig leaf for the moderates who have fought the dropping of net zero, she said “while it is not our policy […] net zero would be welcome if we can get there with technology, with choice and with voluntary markets”.
The ditching of net zero follows Wednesday’s Liberal Party meeting at which speakers overwhelmingly rejected the 2050 target that the Morrison government signed up to in 2021. Liberal shadow ministers on Thursday discussed and ticked off on the details of the Liberal policy.
Representatives of the Liberals and Nationals will now negotiate to bring the policies of the two parties together before a joint party meeting, held virtually, on Sunday.
It seems certain the Coalition will agree on a common policy. Nationals leader David Littleproud said the Liberals’ decision “gives us great hope that in the coming days that we’ll sit down constructively with them”.
Pre-empting the announcement, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, “The Coalition are choosing to take Australia backwards. They’re walking away from jobs for Australians and investment certainty for business that is so important. And what business has been saying.”
Under questioning, Ley and energy spokesman Dan Tehan could not provide estimates for claims that energy prices would come down under the opposition’s policy.
Ley stressed that under the Liberals’ plan, “affordable and reliable energy will always come first. Our emissions reduction goals will never come at the expense of Australian families and this principle will guide every decision we make.”
The Liberal plan says emissions would be reduced on average, year on year, for every five-year period of Australia’s Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement. They would be brought down “as far and as fast as technology allows without imposing mandated costs on families and industry.”
Ley struggled when questioned about how Australia could stay in the Paris Agreement when the Liberals said they would scrap Australia’s already-registered targets under the pact.
“We will look Australians in the eye and say this is a plan to bring down emissions and to provide affordable energy for you. And if there are reasons why people in Paris or in some United Nations organisation don’t like it, I can deal with that,” she said.
The Liberals’ plan says that unlike Labor, a Coalition government would harness “all available technologies to bring prices down”.
“This includes maintaining baseload power, supporting all forms of generation where it is required, unlocking new gas supply, and lifting the ban on zero emissions nuclear energy, which is already used or being developed in 19 of the world’s 20 richest countries.”
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Picture dusk falling somewhere in the Solomon Islands. A fisher’s skiff glides home using a whisper-quiet electric outboard motor. In the Cook Islands, a big battery steadies the island grid. In Papua New Guinea’s highlands, solar kits bring electric light to homes for the first time.
These aren’t prototypes – they’re already up and running across the Pacific. Put together, these stories of quiet change point to something bigger.
For decades, Pacific island countries have led the global fight on climate change. These nations are highly exposed to the damage from rising sea levels, acidifying oceans and bleached coral reefs. Pacific leaders helped secure the 2015 Paris Agreement and the global goal of holding warming to 1.5°C.
Now the Pacific is leading the way again. Island leaders have a bold plan to become the world’s first region powered entirely by renewables and energy storage.
The move isn’t symbolic. It’s extremely practical. Pacific nations spend an eye-watering percentage of their GDP (10–25%) buying fossil fuels to run power plants, generators and vehicles. Ending reliance on imports and becoming energy independent will bring major dividends. Despite widespread support, the Pacific’s clean energy transition has not yet taken off in earnest due to transport costs and gaps in financing, skills and regulation.
Leaders will formally release a renewable roadmap next week at the COP30 climate conference in Brazil. Pacific nations and Australia are bidding to host the next climate talks in 2026. Island leaders hope to leverage the global summit to attract investment in their own energy transition.
Electric outboard motors, like this one in the Solomon Islands, make it possible for the banana boats common across the Pacific to run without fossil fuels. DFAT, CC BY-NC-ND
Slashing fossil fuel imports will save billions
Right now, Pacific countries spend A$9–14 billion a year importing diesel for generators and fuel for vehicles and boats.
Sharp falls in renewable costs mean solar and battery systems are now clearly cheaper than fossil fuels for electricity generation.
Even with the Pacific’s logistical challenges, installed costs for solar have fallen more than five-fold since 2010. The cost of grid-scale and home batteries is falling quickly.
Replacing diesel generation with solar and batteries would cost an estimated $3–4 billion. These costs would be quickly recouped, given annual savings would be around $610–840 million.
The biggest challenge will be financing for large-scale renewables, grid infrastructure and energy storage. Many outer islands can move ahead faster by replacing diesel generators with solar and batteries. A rapid shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and vessels is also possible. Government incentives have triggered rapid uptake of EVs and hybrids in Fiji. Electric outboard motors are also ready for prime time.
Cost savings would free up funds for essential infrastructure, health, education and climate resilience. Renewables represent a powerful development strategy for the Pacific.
Electric vehicles are slowly appearing on Pacific roads, such as this electric taxi in Fiji. Leaf.Com, CC BY-NC-ND
Global renewable uptake is key to survival for Pacific nations
Individual Pacific countries have set ambitious renewable energy targets in national commitments under the Paris Agreement. Fiji plans to be powered 100% by renewables by 2035, while Tuvalu is aiming to get there by 2030.
These national goals can contribute to a regional target for 100% renewable energy. Pacific leaders have agreed to establish a Pacific Energy Commissioner to coordinate the transition.
Pacific island countries are not major polluters, contributing just 0.02% of global emissions. Cutting the region’s emissions will do very little to limit warming.
The importance of this new plan is showing 100% renewables is now doable.
As Vanuatu climate and energy minister Ralph Regenvanu states:
if we can manage the rapid transition of our energy systems in the Pacific Islands, it can be a beacon for the rest of the globe. Our survival depends on it.
Holding warming to 1.5°C is critical for low-lying atoll nations. Climate resettlement is already under way, as Tuvalu residents enter ballots to move to Australia while Fijian villages are relocating to higher ground.
Two years ago, nearly 200 countries agreed to triple global renewable capacity and accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. Reaching this goal is crucial to keep 1.5°C within reach. Pacific nations can show the way. But their survival isn’t in their hands – it depends on the world following suit.
Plunging costs of battery storage mean running on 100% renewables is increasingly possible. Te Aponga Uira (Rarotonga Power Authority), CC BY-NC-ND
Next year’s climate talks could drive the change
For several years, Pacific nations and Australia have been bidding to host the 2026 COP31 climate summit. But Turkey has a rival bid. A final decision is expected next week.
As Palau President Surangel Whipps has said, hosting COP31 in the Pacific cannot just be about symbolism – it must demonstrate “tangible benefits” to Pacific peoples.
If the joint bid for COP31 gets up, Pacific leaders will be pressing for progress on their 100% renewable plan by seeking investors and technology partners.
The COP talks are more than climate negotiations – they’ve become the world’s biggest trade fair. Thousands of delegates will be looking to invest in renewable energy. More than 70% of investment in renewables in Australia comes from abroad and COP31 could attract finance for both Australia and the Pacific.
Palau will host regional leaders next year at the annual Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting. Whipps, the incoming chair, will focus on building a regional renewable Pacific partnership and is planning an investment meeting next year to help attract international investment ahead of COP31.
Some investment is likely to come from Australia, both private and public. Australia is rapidly replacing coal-fired power with renewables and storage at home and is already supporting Pacific clean energy projects. But Pacific leaders have also called on Australia to “stop approving new gas and coal projects” and stop subsidising fossil fuel production.
The Pacific’s plan to run on clean power makes clear sense on financial, energy security and climate leadership grounds. The question now is – will it happen?
Wesley Morgan is a fellow at the Climate Council of Australia
Scott Hamilton is a Director and Senior Advisor to the not-for-profit organisation Smart Energy Council and the not-for-profit Renewable Energy Council Asia-Pacific, and is an ALP member.
