Kane Williamson with Black Caps fans at the MCG during a test against Australia in 2019.Photosport
The Black Caps will play their first-ever four-test series against Australia when they tour later this year and it will be their first against any opponent in 26 years.
New Zealand’s schedule was released by Cricket Australia on Sunday night, comprising matches in Perth (December 9-13), Adelaide (17-21), Melbourne (December 26-30) and Sydney (January 4-8), making them the main course of Australia’s home summer.
The 25 previous trans-Tasman series have been three tests or less since hostilities began in 1946.
The tour was originally supposed to be three tests but a fourth was squeezed into a hectic schedule for both teams.
The Black Caps host India directly before crossing the Tasman and Australia then are to leave for India almost straight after the series which will be played within a month, with short turnarounds between all four games.
New Zealand won’t have time to play a warmup match ahead of the Perth opener while Australia will come eight white ball matches against England.
Steve Smith reacts as he is caught by Southee off the bowling of Wagner during play on Day 3 of the second cricket test match. ICC World Test Championship, New Zealand Black Caps v Australia, MCG, Melbourne, Australia.Photosport
New Zealand’s last four-test series was their 2-1 win over England in 1999.
Before that, it was a tour of the West Indies, which the powerful host side won 2-0.
Five test series remain off the agenda for New Zealand. They have played in their history but the most recent was against the West Indies in 1972.
History will be against the current world No.5 ranked Black Caps toppling the top-ranked Australians, who have dominated their recent meetings in the longest form.
Australia have won seven of their last eight tests, with the other drawn, including a 3-0 series whitewash when the teams last met in Australia six years ago.
Meanwhile, the White Ferns will also be on Australia’s home schedule next summer, playing six white ball matches in February and March.
There are three T20 matches in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne in late February, followed by three ODI matches in early March.
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While a better result than the 28.4 percent it recorded in the most recent Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll, it still makes grim reading for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who has recorded his lowest personal approval rating yet.
If replicated on polling day, the numbers would leave the country in limbo, producing 60 seats each for the coalition and opposition blocs.
The poll, published Monday, puts Labour in the top spot on 35.6 percent, up 0.6 points from January, while National is down 1.1 points to 30.8 percent.
New Zealand First continues its upward trajectory, climbing 0.8 points to 10.6 percent, its highest score since July 2017.
The Greens are on 10.1 percent (up 0.5 points), ACT is on 7 percent (down 0.6 points), and Te Pāti Māori sits at 3.2 percent (up 0.2 points).
The poll surveyed 1000 eligible voters online between 12-20 March. Half of the respondents, however, were surveyed before 14 March, meaning the result won’t fully reflect the public response to the dispute between Labour leader Chris Hipkins and his ex-wife.
Undecided or non-voters made up 7.1 percent of those polled.
If the results were repeated at a general election, National would win 38 seats, NZ First 13 and ACT nine. On the left, Labour would bring in 44 MPs, the Greens 12 and Te Pati Māori four.
That would make a 60-60 deadlock in a 120-seat Parliament, likely sparking negotiations across the aisle to try secure a majority and prevent an election re-run.
The party vote is reflected in the preferred prime minister measure, with Hipkins leading on 20.7 percent, down 0.4 points.
Luxon has dropped 2.1 points to 17.3 percent, while NZ First leader Winston Peters sits at 13.1 percent, up 0.5 points.
More than 19 percent of voters declined to name a preferred prime minister.
Half of respondents – 50.4 percent – say Luxon is performing poorly as prime minister, compared with 29.8 percent who rate him well.
That gives Luxon a net score of -20.6 (down 6.6 points), his weakest result in the Reid Research series since becoming National leader in 2021. (Note: Reid Research did not run any public polls between November 2023 and March 2025.)
Former National leaders, however, received worse scores while in opposition: Judith Collins recorded a net rating as low as -37.9 in mid-2020 and Simon Bridges dropped to -39 in mid-2019.
Hipkins’ net performance score remains stronger, though it too is trending down.
With 35.9 percent rating him well and 35.6 percent poorly, his net rating has slipped to just 0.3 (down 0.6 points), also his lowest as Labour leader.
The poll also shows worsening public sentiment, with 50 percent (up 3.4 points) of respondents saying New Zealand is heading in the wrong direction, compared with 32.3 percent (down 4 points) who think it is on the right track
That gives a net score of -17.7, down 7.4 points from January.
About 16 percent of voters are undecided, while another 2 percent say they do not know.
National supporters are the most optimistic with a net score of +63.1, followed by ACT supporters on +24.1.
NZ First voters are much more pessimistic, recording a net score of -24.6.
This poll of 1000 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 12-20 March 2026 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.
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The small farming township of Rakaia’s river was once internationally-recognised for its abundant sea-run chinook salmon and other aquatic species, but population numbers have since drastically declined.Steve Terry
It’s hoped a new $1.7 million wetland in Mid Canterbury will improve the once-thriving salmon run in the Rakaia River.
For the past 70 years, Glenariffe Stream – considered a key salmon-spawning site in the braided river – has been diverted to drain farmland.
The stream contributed around 18 percent of the wild chinook salmon that returned to spawn in the river.
For the small farming township of Rakaia, south of Christchurch, its river was once internationally-recognised for its abundant sea-run chinook salmon and other aquatic species, but population numbers have since drastically declined.
Now, three large high country farms have retired hundreds of hectares of land to return the river’s eastern branch to its original course, pre-agricultural expansion.
Forty-four hectares of the wetland habitat have also been restored.
With Fish and Game the project lead, its North Canterbury project manager, Steve Terry, said protecting spawning habitat was one of the few levers available to help the fishery recover.
“Salmon numbers are at historic lows not just in Canterbury but across New Zealand’s East Coast rivers, with unfavourable, warmer ocean conditions among the key drivers of decline.”
He said while the ocean and climate could not be controlled, the efforts would ensure that when salmon do return to the Rakaia to spawn, their offspring have the best possible habitat.
“Glenariffe Stream is one of the river’s most significant spawning tributaries, and for 70 years it simply wasn’t functioning as it should. Getting it back to its natural course is a major step forward for the fishery,” Terry said.
The McIntyre wetland project was named after the late James McIntyre, who bequeathed $550,000 to the project.
Meanwhile, taxpayers fronted $784,000 towards the three-year project under the Ministry for the Environment’s freshwater improvement fund.
Double Hill Station retired 77 hectares of wetlands and waterways, Redcliffes Station stopped farming on 59 hectares of wetlands and native scrub, and a 200-hectare QEII covenant protecting the Hydra Waters for Mount Algidus Station.
For the first time in 40 years, organisers of the annual Rakaia River Fishing competition did not weigh in any fish to allow the fishery to recover.
But Hunting and Fishing Minister James Meager said a range of options to help restore state of the fishery were being considered with Fish and Game.
“We have had some concerns over the stock of the fishery there in terms of sea-run salmon.”
But he said it was all about balancing the economic drivers with environmental outcomes.
Meager said a water conservation order in place here provided guardrails, so farmers could irrigate within safe environmental limits.
He said irrigators had high standards, and he hoped Resource Management Act reform would see consenting for water storage eased.
“It’s all a balance though, of course, because we have to generate enough economic activity in the region, and we know that water is a big part of that in Mid-Canterbury, while balancing that off against the environmental outcomes that we want to achieve,” Meager said.
“So particularly for this project, it reaches a good balance.”
When asked if the economic drivers versus environmental impacts were unbalanced, he said he did not think so.
“If you look at the progress that’s been made over the past 10, 20, 30 years in terms of farming practice, in terms of the awareness of our activity and the impact on the environment, I actually think we’ve come a long way.”
Meanwhile, environmental critics including fish veterinarian Peter Trolove said salmon returns were excellent before the privatisation of public grazing runs, following the High Country tenure review.
Published back at the turn of the millennium, the Glenariffe stream’s tenure review warned that land‑use changes could worsen river sedimentation, water quality deterioration and habitat loss-issues.
The Salmon Anglers Association will hold a meeting about the future of the fishery in Christchurch on Thursday.
The wetland restoration was a partnership with landowners, the Canterbury regional council, Cawthron Institute, Manawa Energy, Rakaia River Fishing Promptions and QEII Trust.
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Gold medalist Tom Walsh after the Men’s Shot Put Final at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, Poland, 2026.ANDRZEJ IWANCZUK / AFP
Tom Walsh has retained his World Indoor shot put title to become the all-time record holder in the event.
Walsh kept his best until last, overtaking American Jordan Geist with his fifth effort and then extending that lead with his final throw of 21.82 metres to collect his fourth indoor gold.
He has now won seven indoor medals, a men’s record.
His winning throw of 21.82m was a season’s best.
No other man has won this title more than three times.
Walsh has now equalled Dame Valerie Adams total in indoor gold medals, the two global shot put greats stand alone in their career dominance of the indoor championship arena.
Walsh has previously won gold in 2016, ’18 and ’25, silver in ’24 and bronze in ’14 and ’22.
The 34 year old is also a former world champion (outdoor), winning the title in 2017.
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Thousands of people seeking to shave a few cents off petrol prices are flocking to a fuel price app – while some are fuelling false information about shortages.
On Sunday morning, the Gaspy app altered its reporting features so people could report shortages directly to the company, and made other changes in an attempt to avoid errors and deliberate misinformation.
The app, which relies on user reports of petrol prices to allow people to compare prices across petrol stations, has gained thousands of users a day as fuel prices surge.
“We’ve had generally between 6 and 10,000 new users every day for the last couple of weeks – that compares to a baseline level of about 700 every day so it’s a pretty massive uptick in new users. In terms of active users on the app, we normally see between 50,000 and 100,000 a day … for the last week and a half, we’ve had over 200,000 active users every day and a couple of days of over 300,000.”
Newton said the surge in new users meant many people were still getting used to how the app worked, which could see them enter prices in the wrong category.
“With that comes some learning. People are figuring out how to enter the prices and sometimes they’re not getting it quite right.”
But he said there was also people entering misinformation about petrol being $4 a litre – potentially as a way to indicate stations had run out, as there was no other way to do so.
The app had introduced a temporary system to allow people to message them directly about shortages, which would then be checked, Newton said.
The company was working on longer term fixes.
“We’d like to put in a much more robust system for handling reporting of shortages, but that’s going to require some dev [development] work, and so it takes a little bit of time for us to turn that around, test it, and get it out to the users.
“We’re also looking at putting AI measures in place … to make sure that our fuel updates are accurate. It could look at a station and go, well, somebody’s getting the diesel price higher than the 91 price, you know, maybe that doesn’t seem right, we should probably just reject that update.
It had also removed the ability to submit a price update from a distance.
“We’ve actually clamped that right down so you have to be next to the station to update prices at the moment … if there were some bad actors out there – and we don’t believe that there are a significant number, they would actually have to drive to a station to be a nuisance, and I just don’t see people going to that effort,” Newton said.
False reporting was not a “massive problem”, and errors were being picked up quickly because there were so many active users at present.
“It’s unprecedented territory – we’ve been running for 11 years, and we’ve never had to deal with widespread shortages before.”
Newton urged users to keep updating prices and notifying shortages given it didn’t look like the conflict in the Middle East or rising fuel prices would be resolved any time soon.
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Three different water bottles, three different health labels.Supplied
Two bottles of sparkling water. One, a Pam’s product has two Health Stars. The other, a Schweppes brand, has 4.5.
It prompted one shopper to email RNZ and ask: What is going on?
Shouldn’t water with the same ingredients have the same rating? And why isn’t water five stars?
Foodstuffs said in this instance, it was a labelling problem.
“The rules changed in 2020 and plain water is now automatically given a five-star rating, while unsweetened sparkling water gets 4.5,” a spokesperson said.
“We can see why this looks confusing at first glance. Health Star Ratings follow a standard approach across New Zealand and Australia. Most products are calculated, but some, like plain water and unsweetened flavoured water, including sparkling, are automatically given high ratings.
“In this case, the rating on our Pam’s sparkling water is out of date following a 2020 update to the rating system. The product hasn’t changed, but the label hasn’t caught up.
“That’s on us, and we’re fixing it, so customers have clear and consistent information.”
But experts say the water situation highlights some of the confusion that still persists about the scheme.
Health Star ratings are set using a standard system that considers the balance of energy, saturated fat, sugar and sodium, offset against protein and fibre. Points are also awarded for fruit, vegetable, nut and legume content.
Consumer NZ senior research writer Belinda Castles said Foodstuffs was quite late in updating its water rating.
But she said, generally, products were displaying the star rating that the calculator suggested they should.
She said the main issue with the scheme was that it was voluntary. “Only 36 percent of the products that it’s intended for have the rating so that’s not particularly helpful.
“Consumers need to be able to look at the food supply as a whole because the consensus is the Health Star rating is useful. We don’t have time to be looking at all the nutrition information panels on the back.”
She said there was concern that some companies were cherry picking their healthier products to have the star.
“They’re going ‘ok we’ve got this five-star product we’ll put the rating on our fours and fives but we’ll leave it off the ones and twos’.”
She said people should also only use it to compare similar products. “The calculator has slightly different calculations depending on what the product is. Like if it it’s a cooking oil, for example versus a dairy product versus a cereal… use it to pick a healthier cereal, don’t use it to pick a cooking oil versus a cereal.”
She said the intended target was for 70 percent of products to have a rating at the end of last year and it was only halfway there.
But Rob Hamlin, from the University of Otago marketing department, said the regime was ineffective when it came to driving consumer choice.
“This disconnect between our legislative powerhouses with regards to nutritional labels and reality has led to some very unfortunate outcomes.
“The Heart Foundation tick is what’s known as a binary cue… It was an image that communicated by being there or not being there… we do know the Heart Foundation tick was effective because it was much more similar to the pictorial nominal cues that the food industry used to effectively communicate with consumers.”
The Heart Foundation tick was discontinued in 2016.
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The market consensus for the six months ended January was for revenue in the order of $11 billion.123rf / Supplied images
Fonterra’s first half result is expected to deliver to expectations, but with a murky outlook as the war in Iran threatens global supply chains, along with rising energy and other costs.
Generate KiwiSaver investment specialist Greg Smith said strong demand for dairy products as well as the low value of the New Zealand dollar would help Fonterra through the ongoing volatility, though there could be some disruption to its cheese exports to places such as the United Arab Emirates, as an example.
“So there are some impacts there, and product that potentially will need to be re-routed,” Smith said.
The market consensus for the six months ended January was for revenue in the order of $11 billion, with an underlying profit of $976 million and a normalised net profit of $445m.
The first half dividend was expected to be about 21 cents per share, in addition to a special Mainland dividend in a range of 14-to-18 cps, following the completion of the sale of Fonterra’s Mainland Group of global consumer and associated business to Lactalis for $4.22b.
Where is the growth coming from?
The company was forecasting growth in its ingredients and food services business to fill any gap left by the sale of the consumer business by the year ending July 2028.
“Unlike other company results, I think the focus this time in particular (will be) less on the numbers… and I think that’s principally reflecting the strategic reset that’s underway,” Forsyth Barr senior equities analyst Matt Montgomerie said.
Two key focuses will be on where Fonterra’s debt levels, following the divestment and how the ingredients and food services businesses were planning to fill the earnings gap left by the sale of the consumer businesses.
Forecasts
FY26 forecast earnings guidance from continuing operations at between 45 and 65 cents per share.
Current season forecast Farmgate Milk Price midpoint $9.50 per kgMS – range of $9.20-$9.80 per kgMS.
Target to close Mainland underlying earnings gap of $300m – FY28 to match FY25.
“Delivery and execution and messaging around that target is the key for the next few years,” Montgomerie said.
Who will lead Fonterra?
Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell resigned this month following a 25-year career with Fonterra, including eight years as chief executive after the resignation of the late Theo Spierings in 2019, who failed to connect with farmer-shareholders and left the company in a poor financial position, with high debt levels to deal with.
Montgomerie said farmers will want to see someone who operates in a similar mode to Hurrell, who was able to relate to farmers on a day-to-day business and deliver on the turnaround strategy.
“The farmers are looking for consistency and continuity. Obviously, change can bring about new perspectives, but I would be surprised if there are any notable changes in strategic direction with the new CEO,” he said.
“It feels like there’s a strong desire to provide sort of an opportunity for someone internally to continue the strategic direction of the business. But I think the key thing is that reliability and trust from a farmer point of view, but then also Fonterra’s customers all around the world.”
Smith said the next chief executive will have “big gum boots to fill”.
“I’m sure there’ll be a swathe of high quality internal candidates put forward but also no doubt there’ll be a global benchmark process,” he said.
“I don’t really think there’ll be a significant change in strategy, given all the effort that has gone into refocusing and simplifying the business.”
The bigger picture?
Smith said the sale of the Mainland business will give the New Zealand economy a much needed boost.
“The Mainland sale is going to inject potentially around $3 billion, if not more into the Kiwi economy,” Smith said.
“So that’s a positive story for the second half of the year, economically.”
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For 17 years, Lori Davis has been sounding the alarm about the challenges facing SPCA animal welfare inspectors. But the hostility is only getting worse, she says.
“I myself have been threatened, you know, ‘get the F off my property or I will do this’. I’ve had a car driven at me in a driveway, like threatening to be run over, a couple of times. I’ve had a man open the door and holding a knife in his hand,” the Auckland regional manager says.
“I’ve had a man pick up a golf club and threaten to hit me with it. I’ve been cornered on a property in between two males.”
Three quarters of visits by an SPCA officer involve some form of abuse or threat.
RNZ / Angus Dreaver
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Responsible investment platform Mindful Money said investments in companies with exposure to human rights abuses rose 43 percent in the past six months.RNZ / Quin Tauetau
Responsible investment platform Mindful Money warns that KiwiSaver investors are increasingly exposed to human rights abuses – but one KiwiSaver manager says the list of companies to avoid is becoming too long to be realistic.
Over the past six months, Mindful Money said investments in companies with exposure to human rights abuses rose 43 percent, reaching more than $3.5 billion. This has been fuelled by both an increase in the number of companies identified as violating human rights and increased investment in those companies.
It said public surveys consistently showed that avoiding human rights abuses was the No.1 concern for KiwiSaver members.
“These findings highlight a growing gap between what New Zealanders want from their investments in terms of human rights and where their money is actually going,” said Mindful Money founder Barry Coates.
In recent years, attention has increasingly focused on the activities of major technology companies, particularly around surveillance, social media harms and their use in conflict situations, he said. Companies identified as raising human rights concerns included Meta, Tesla, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Palantir Technologies.
“KiwiSaver providers need stronger policies to screen out companies linked to serious human rights harms,” Coates said. “New Zealanders deserve confidence that their retirement savings are not contributing to exploitation or conflict.”
Concerns have also grown over investments in companies linked to the conflict in Gaza, the West Bank and Ukraine. KiwiSaver investments in companies providing weapons, surveillance technology or other support linked to these conflicts increased 14 percent between March and September 2025, reaching $856 million.
Companies receiving increased investment during this period included IBM, Booking Holdings, Palantir Technologies, Motorola Solutions and Caterpillar, but Koura founder Rupert Carlyon said the bar was too high.
“We look at a company like Caterpillar, which is on their list of human rights issues, because they supply machinery into Israel.
“It’s also a company that does a huge amount of good in other parts of the world – it’s extremely hard to measure.”
He said clients were most concerned about returns and fees.
“My very strong view is actually, if you really want to make a difference, then you’re going to make much more of an impact, if you don’t support them as a customer than as an investor.
“Airbnb… you’re going to stop investing in Airbnb, because you think there are human rights issues? Does that mean that, you know what, we’re never going to use Airbnb ever again?”
Pathfinder Asset Management founder John Berry said his KiwiSaver funds avoided those companies.
“Based on the approach taken by Mindful Money, they are taking a values-based approach to human rights and other issues, and I think it’s entirely appropriate,” he said. “They disclose their methodology and the approach they’re taking, and they give the managers the opportunity to respond.
“I think that’s a really well-developed and well-thought-out approach.
“I think it’s good that there’s a range of options for, you know, some fund managers may focus primarily on just making money. Other fund managers, like Pathfinder, focus on putting a values-based lens, really strong values-based lens over our investing.”
He said individuals and fund managers should make their own decisions about what they were comfortable with.
“I think the starting point with thinking about human rights, and thinking about it from a fund-manager perspective and an investor perspective, is to think about what is your mission with investing.
“There are two sides to it. One is you can consider human rights from a values-based perspective, that you care for people, planet, animals and you want to sleep at night with your investments.
“The other side is you believe that companies that comply with human rights will deliver better long-term returns, because they will be trusted, they’re good corporate citizens and they will have stronger reputations, so they’ll be financially better.
“I actually believe both those things are true.”
Coates said avoiding problematic companies would likely be more effective than trying to change them.
“These are major global corporations and New Zealand investors have only a small share of their capital,” Coates said. “It is unlikely that fund managers sending letters or voting a few shares will change their practices.
“If companies are linked to human rights violations, fund providers should respect the wishes of their clients and avoid investing in them.”
Aotearoa currently has about 1800 public charge points currently, among the lowest charger-to-EV ratios in the OECD. File photo.ABC News / Brendan Esposito
The government is providing interest free loans of $52.7 million to two companies to boost the number of electric vehicle public chargers around the country.
The zero-interest loans will go to ChargeNet and Meridian Energy, who are investing $60m in capital, and would see 2574 new charge points, 1374 DC fast chargers and 1200 AC chargers.
The move will more than double the country’s chargers, to around 4550.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop said the loans kept the taxpayer’s contribution to a minimum.
“In this case, the average loan per charge point is $20,000, but once repayments are factored in, the net cost to the Crown is around $10,000 per charger, roughly a quarter of what a direct grant would cost.
Bishop said it was a chicken and egg situation, with some electric vehicle charger providers reluctant to roll out chargers until there were more EVs on the road, but concerns about the driving range of electric vehicles and a lack of public chargers was one of the main perceived disadvantages of EVs for potential buyers.
“Many New Zealanders have thought about getting an EV, even before the fuel challenges we’re currently facing. But research shows that the lack of public chargers is holding many back from making the switch to an EV,” Bishop said.
“The private sector is reluctant to invest in charging infrastructure until there’s sufficient demand, but demand won’t grow until the lack of public chargers stops putting buyers off. Just as the previous National-led Government did with the ultrafast broadband network rollout, we’re taking action to break that deadlock.”
He said the below-market interest rate loans were preferable to grants.
“It’s a more commercial model, a more sophisticated model, bringing forward that private sector investment.”
“In this case, the average loan per charge point is $20,000, but once repayments are factored in, the net cost to the Crown is around $10,000 per charger, roughly a quarter of what a direct grant would cost.”
Chris Bishop said work on the grants had been underway for some time, but the timing was “fortuitous” given the increased interest in EVs as fuel costs surged due to the conflict in the Middle East.RNZ/Marika Khabazi
Some requirements were placed on the loans, such requiring an urban-rural split, but exactly where they went was a commercial decision for the companies, Bishop said.
“About half the new chargers will be spread across Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, the Wellington region, Christchurch, and Dunedin, with the other half throughout the regions, so drivers outside the main centres will benefit too,” he said.
“We’re also changing our planning rules to make the installation of public EV chargers a permitted activity under the RMA, meaning in most cases no consent is required – another factor that will help to speed up delivery.”
Work on the grants had been underway for some time, but that the timing was “fortuitous” given the increased interest in electric vehicles in the wake of surging fuel costs caused by the conflict in the Middle East, he said.
“People look at a petrol price of three bucks, three bucks twenty, and potentially going higher, and they say, jeepers creepers, now’s the time to go electric because the running costs are just so much lower,” Mr Bishop said.
The 10,000 chargers by 2030 target was ambitious, he said.
It was on its way to meeting it, but would require additional Crown investment which would be considered as part of the budget process, he said.
Chair of EV lobby group Drive Electric Kirsten Corston welcomed the news, but said much more needed to be done.
She said the government had promised more than $200m to go towards fast chargers several years ago, and this project only accounted for $52m.
“We’re interested to see what the other commitments are going to be.”
It seemed very unlikely the government would achieve its target of 10,000 chargers before 2030, she said.
New Zealand was falling behind other countries in [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/thedetail/586362/the-ev-slowdown-how-government-decisions-changed-the-road-ahead
EV uptake] following a sharp decline in purchases following the government’s cancellation of the clean car subsidy.
EVs accounted for around 27 percent of new vehicle sales in 2023, or at least one in four cars sold. Only one in nine cars sold are electric now.
“And you look at Australia, one in five cars sold are electric. In China, one in two cars sold are electric. The global average is one in four cars sold are electric.”
There had been a three-fold increase of inquiries into second-hand and new EVs in recent weeks, she said.
“The challenge for us, though, is we’ve got a country that is still very dependent on importing fossil fuels and we’ve got a government that whilst this is fantastic to see this investment into charging infrastructure we also need investment into electric vehicles to drive uptake.”
Colston said reducing road user charges – which are the same for electric vehicles as for diesel vehicles – would be one way to do that.
Other levers included a Fringe Benefit Tax for light vehicles such as Australia has, or accelerated depreciation for commercial and heavy vehicles.
Drive EV wanted to see investment in making EVs more accessible to more people, she said.
“At the moment, when the average purchase of a car for a Kiwi is around $7000, yes, they can go and access a Nissan Leaf for $5000 – $10,000. But if they’ve got four kids and they need a 200 kilometre range to get around town for the day, that’s not going to meet their needs.
“So we have to create that second, third, fourth hand market for Kiwis to bring that price down – that’s a really critical piece to make EVs available for everyone in our community.”
Getting more people into electric vehicles promised a huge financial opportunity for New Zealanders, Colston said.
“The average household spends $3000 to $4000 a year paying for their petrol or diesel, and if they could electrify, it would be around $1000 a year.”
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Children in a classroom learning.UnSplash/ Taylor Flowe
Early signs suggest the government’s overhaul of local truancy services is working – at least in some areas.
Most principals contacted by RNZ said it was too early to judge whether their local attendance service provider was doing a better job, but two said theirs were already returning more chronic truants to class.
Last year, the ministry signed 83 new contracts aimed at making providers more accountable and effective at tracking down the most serious truants.
In Whangarei, Hora Hora School principal Pat Newman said the service brought 10-15 children to his school this year who would otherwise be at home.
He said some had never been to school at all.
“What we’re finding is that we’re getting children who have not been attending school or [attending] poorly,” he said. “We’ve got some children who have not been at school, at [age] seven or so attending.”
He said the service approached the problem in the right way.
“What they’re trying to do is to look at what’s stopping a kid coming to school and then looking at where they can get help to take away the problem,” he said.
Other, more punitive options were considered only if the initial help didn’t work.
“I think it’s a damn good model,” Newman said. “It will continue or fail, depending on the resourcing put behind it.”
At Auckland’s Jean Batten Primary School, principal Nardi Leonard said her local attendance service was working better too.
“What we have noticed by the new service is they are more readily available to us,” she said.
“If you reflect back on the old system, a lot of the attendance officers were constantly soaked up into secondary schools and all the high schools, and at the primary level for us, we felt that the resource just didn’t get down to us,” she said.
“The new system, our person actually has less schools and they are primary schools, so we do feel there’s that support directly.”
She said her school had all but given up on the previous attendance service, but under the new system, it had already referred children and had positive results.
“In the short time of five weeks, we’ve made three referrals and we’ve been able to get two back,” she said. “One, we don’t know where that person’s gone, so that’s obviously a hard one, but we have got two children back in school.
“The next challenge is the sustainability of keeping them in school, but we celebrate the small steps and just work towards increasing it day-by-day.”
Leonard said, previously, the school got no response from the attendance service and had pretty much given up using it.
She said the school emphasised the importance of daily attendance and it was good to have the back-up provided by the attendance service.
Other principals told RNZ their local provider was still getting started and they were yet to see how they performed.
Berkley Normal Middle School in Hamilton was part of a group of schools that lost its attendance service contract in last year’s re-organisation.
Principal Nathan Leith said it was too early to tell if the new organisation was doing a better job, but he reckoned schools definitely were.
Leith said many had not realised how bad their attendance was, until they looked carefully at their data.
They now had to put a five-step attendance plan on their websites and have clear plans for what to do after a certain number of days’ absence.
“Those are the things that are perhaps making a bigger difference,” he said.
Leith said schools were dealing with the bulk of poor attenders and occasional truants, while the attendance services would tackle the toughest cases.
He said the service should have funding to tackle social issues, such as lack of money for food or school uniforms, that contributed to truancy and he hoped some of that funding would make it to schools.
Education Ministry figures showed daily attendance averaged a little more than 89 percent so far this year, about one percentage point more than at the same time last year.
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As he looks to his own coming wrestle with One Nation in the May 9 Farrer byelection, Angus Taylor can only take from Saturday’s South Australian result a sense of deep trepidation.
One Nation drove a front-end loader through the conservative vote in the state election, slicing it in half and gathering up a higher primary vote than the Liberals. It is likely to do something similar in the federal New South Wales regional seat.
On early indications, the frontrunners in Farrer are One Nation candidate David Farley, an agribusinessman and former National Party member, and independent Michelle Milthorpe, a teacher who won every booth in Albury at the 2025 election.
At present Liberal candidate Raissa Butkowski, chosen only a week ago, appears to be running third in the seat, which was held for a quarter of a century by former Liberal leader Sussan Ley and has never been out of conservative hands.
There are many weeks to go and things may change. But a looming issue for the Liberals is: if the battle is likely to end up between One Nation and Milthorpe, who would they least like to see win it? In other words (after preferencing the Nationals) will their preferences be directed to Farley or Milthorpe?
The Liberals are running around branding Milthorpe – who like “teals” receives money from Climate 200 – as a “teal”, a tag she rejects with some spirit. In fact she looks much more like a country independent in the mould of Helen Haines, who holds the Victorian seat of Indi, across the Murray River from Farrer, than a city “teal”.
Regardless, from the Liberals’ point of view, would it not be better for them, if they can’t clinch the seat themselves, to have it in Milthorpe’s hands than in those of One Nation?
A One Nation victory would do more than take that party’s House of Representives presence from one (Barnaby Joyce) to two. It would give it another big shot of momentum – just as its South Australian performance has – not least ahead of the Victorian election in November, where Pauline Hanson promises a strong presence.
Angus Taylor can’t make any progress without regaining for the Liberals many voters who have gone off to One Nation. Equally, the Liberals can’t come close to winning a federal election without getting back many voters lost on the progressive side.
The Liberals’ decision on Farrer preferences will be much driven by which flank of alienated voters they are most worried about – and here they are clearly more concerned about the right flank. They are desperate to get some of the “base” back, rather than the centrist voters.
The Liberals will also know if they preferenced against One Nation, that party’s attacks on them would only become more ferocious.
As well, many of the Liberal Party branch members in Farrer (those who haven’t deserted) will expect the Liberals to preference the Hansonite.
So the Liberals are probably likely in Farrer to feed the One Nation beast, even if that potentially carries a longer run cost.
South Australia has shown that One Nation doesn’t need to actually secure many seats to be a major player. In SA it will, at most, win a handful of lower house seats. Its power comes from being a party of grievance and disruption.
Nationals leader Matt Canavan has been taking on Hanson very directly but, on the national polls, Taylor shows little sign of being able to effectively counter her and her party. One Nation out-shouts him in articulating grievances, and undermines the Liberal vote with its disruption.
As election analyst Antony Green puts it, One Nation is on a “search and destroy mission” against the conservative parties. Taylor is in desperate need of a strategy to counter the Hansonites; the South Australian result just underscores that need.
Public transport is experiencing a boom, with commuters flooding onboard while fuel costs soar, and passenger numbers set to tumble.
Last week 91 octane petrol had risen 55 cents a litre since the beginning of the Iran war, with diesel up 90 cents in the same time, hitting personal and commercial budgets amid an existing cost-of-living crunch. And a string of commuters in the main centres told RNZ they were turning to public transport to help cut costs.
Passengers numbers have grown for both buses and trains in Wellington, the Greater Wellington Regional council says.
Prior to this year, there had been a six percent decrease in public transport use year-on-year. But now, both the price of fuel and ongoing major traffic disruption from construction on Lower Hutt’s RiverLink project had turned that around.
It means the Wellington Region is expected to have its highest day ever for public transport use in the next couple of weeks.
The steep trajectory of fuel costs meant the cost of driving 15 kilometres in Auckland reached nearly double the cost of taking public transport last week, Auckland Transport said – without parking costs factored in.
And the Auckland public transport uptick has already reached records, with Tuesday the busiest day since 2019, councillor Richard Hills said.
Passenger numbers were seven percent higher than the previous Tuesday, and had 7000 more trips than the previous busiest day.
“It’s great to see more people choosing public transport and trying it out,” Hills said.
Wellington public transport challenges levelling as demand increases
Wellington “has had a hard road for public transport patronage over the last couple of years”, said the regional council’s transport committee chairperson Ros Connolly.
“We’ve had a number of headwinds, you know. We’ve had working from home, we’ve had quite high numbers of unemployment in the Wellington region, and the cost of living has all meant that our public transport numbers haven’t been as high as we would have liked them to be. So year-on-year we’ve had about a 6 percent year-on-year decrease.
But in recent weeks, “that number has absolutely turned around,” she said.
“We’ve definitely seen the impact of higher fuel prices on people’s transport decisions …So unlike Auckland, we haven’t quite topped our highest day since 2019, but we can say we are getting close, and we’re confident that in the next fortnight, if things continue to track the way they have, that we will see Wellington experience that record number.”
In Auckland, northbound lanes were blocked on the South-Western Motorway, SH20, at Onehunga, on Sunday morning.Supplied/ NZTA traffic camera
Six people have died in 24 hours in crashes in Waikato, Taranaki, Auckland, Southland and Waiohau.
Southland
One person has died in Invercargill after fleeing police.
Shortly before 3am, police signalled for a vehicle to stop on Kelvin Street, Invercargill, but the driver fled the scene.
Police said it was not pursued, but found the vehicle crashed at the intersection of Leet and Kelvin Streets a short time later.
One person died at the scene.
The road was closed while the Serious Crash Unit examined the scene and the matter will also be referred to the IPCA
Any witnesses to the crash, or anybody who has CCTV in the vicinity of Wellesley Avenue, Avenal Street or Kelvin Street, have been asked to get in touch with police.
Another person died in a single-vehicle crash along Winding Creek Road in Southland overnight.
Emergency services were called to the rural road about 12.40am.
One other person suffered moderate injuries.
Waikato
Waikato police said on Sunday morning a person died following a single-vehicle crash on Howden Road, to the west of Hamilton city in Temple View. The crash happened about 8:30pm on Saturday.
Auckland
Meanwhile, blocked lanes on Auckland’s Southwestern Motorway at Onehunga were reopened by 9:30am Sunday, after a collision earlier in the morning. Two vehicles were involved in the crash on the State Highway 20 motorway, police said.
One person was killed and two others moderately injured.
Stratford
Early this evening, police said one person has died after a single vehicle crash on SH43 / Forgotten World Highway in Stratford this morning.
The crash was reported to police at 11.30am, and the road remains closed.
Waiohau
A sixth person died after a single-vehicle crash on Galatea Road, Waiohau, at about 5.15pm.
The sole occupant of the vehicle was found dead.
Police said the road was closed and diversions are in place.
You can’t make this stuff up. The President of the United States, while sitting next to the Japanese Prime Minister in the Oval Office, just celebrated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
When asked by a Japanese reporter on Friday why the US didn’t consult with allies before launching the surprise attack on Iran, Trump said: “One thing you don’t want is to signal too much. We went in very hard — and we didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise.”
Then, turning to Sanae Takaichi, he said: “Who knows better about surprise than Japan?” Moments before, sitting on the plush lemon chair in the gold-encrusted Oval Office, Takaichi had been smiling from ear to ear. Trump wiped the smile off her face with one question:
“Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” By now the Prime Minister was squirming uncomfortably. Trump looked straight at her and said: “Okay, RIGHT? He [the journalist] is asking me, do you believe in surprise?
“I think you much more so than us. And we had a surprise, and because of that surprise, we probably knocked out 50 percent — and much more than we anticipated doing. So if I go and tell everybody about it, it is no longer a surprise.”
For more than 80 years the US has claimed a moral high ground on the basis of its rejection of “sneak attacks”. In one rhetorical flourish Trump exposed the jarring desolation of what the US now stands for.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech was delivered on December 8, 1941, following Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbour the day before.
Responding to ‘unprovoked’ sneak attack Roosevelt, like President Pezeshkian of Iran today, was responding to an “unprovoked” sneak attack. President Roosevelt pointed out that negotiations were ongoing and, for him, the aggressor’s conduct was false, deceptive and below contempt:
“Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
As with President Pezeshkian of Iran today, Franklin Delano Roosevelt drew the obvious conclusion: the nation was facing an existential threat.
“The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.”
Last week, I interviewed US Ambassador (ret) Chas Freeman who emphasised that the Iranians fully understood that the US-Israeli war machine launched against them would not stop unless compelled to do so.
For the Iranians, the goal is nothing less than to drive the Americans out of the region. To understand the intensity of their determination simply hear the words of FDR from 1941:
“No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.”
I would remind US President Donald Trump that in referencing that other sneak attack he might have paused to ask: “Who won that war in the end?”
Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington, New Zealand, and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. This article was first published on his website www.solidarity.co.nz
In Auckland, northbound lanes were blocked on the South-Western Motorway, SH20, at Onehunga, on Sunday morning.Supplied/ NZTA traffic camera
Four people have died and others have been injured in crashes in Waikato, Taranaki, Auckland, Stratford, Waiohau and Southland
Waikato police said on Sunday morning a person died following a single-vehicle crash on Howden Road, to the west of Hamilton city in Temple View. The crash happened about 8:30pm on Saturday.
Meanwhile, blocked lanes on Auckland’s Southwestern Motorway at Onehunga were reopened by 9:30am Sunday, after a collision earlier in the morning. Two vehicles were involved in the crash on the State Highway 20 motorway, police said.
One person was killed and two others moderately injured.
Early this evening, police said one person has died after a single vehicle crash on SH43 / Forgotten World Highway in Stratford this morning.
The crash was reported to police at 11.30am, and the road remains closed.
A fourth person died after a single-vehicle crash on Galatea Road, Waiohau, at about 5.15pm.
The sole occupant of the vehicle was found dead.
Police said the road was closed and diversions are in place.
In recent days, Israel and the United States have expressed outrage over the deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of civilians and civilian residences and infrastructure in Israel and the Gulf by Iranian forces.
They have cited the illegality of such attacks, urged global condemnation, and demanded that human rights organisations speak out.
Having spent years weakening the laws meant to protect civilians, they are now discovering that those same laws are too fragile to protect their own people.
Israeli and US officials seem unaware that the crimes they now condemn are ones they themselves have long justified as legitimate military actions.
Take cluster munitions. Following Iran’s reported use of these indiscriminate weapons on March 9 around Tel Aviv, Israeli officials condemned their use in populated areas.
“The Iranian regime is firing cluster bombs at Israeli civilians. Their deliberate and repeated use against civilians shows that the Iranian terror regime is seeking to maximise civilian deaths and harm,” declared Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which provided an infographic explaining how the weapon — banned by 124 countries — is inherently indiscriminate.
The Pentagon echoed the criticism, with Admiral Brad Cooper, the chief of US Central Command, condemning Iran’s use of “inherently indiscriminate” cluster munitions.
4 million cluster munitions Yet in 2006 Israel fired more than four million cluster munitions into southern Lebanon, turning large swaths of the country into a no-go zone while insisting their use was a military necessity.
Unexploded cluster munitions continue to terrorise Lebanese civilians, maiming and killing at least 400 people as they detonated years after the war. Israel reportedly resumed using cluster munitions in Lebanon in 2025 but would neither confirm nor deny doing so.
Israel’s vast use of these weapons in 2006 helped spur the 2010 Convention on Cluster Munitions, banning them as inherently indiscriminate. Yet Israel and the United States — along with Russia and Iran — have refused to ratify the treaty, insisting they may be used legitimately in wartime.
In 2023 and 2024, the Biden administrationshipped large quantities of cluster munitions to Ukraine despite warnings that unexploded ordnance would endanger civilians for decades to come. The consequences are now clear — having challenged the ban on these weapons, Israel now finds its own civilians under attack from them.
Iranian attacks on Israeli and Gulf civilian infrastructure — from residences to schools to water desalination plants — have drawn similar condemnations as unlawful attacks on civilians, even though such strikes have been preceded or followed by unlawful attacks on Iranian civilians and infrastructure.
On March 8, the United Nations Security Council issued a resolution singling out Iranian attacks on civilians for condemnation, even though Israeli and US forces had also struck a girls’ school, civilian residences, and an Iranian water desalination plant, among other civilian sites.
Even AIPACchimed in, bemoaning that Iran was “killing civilians” in Bahrain following a strike that killed a young woman on March 9.
Condemnations ring hollow These condemnations ring hollow in the wake of Israel’s vast destruction of residential buildings, schools, universities, and agricultural lands in Gaza, leaving the territory buried under 61 billion tons of rubble and largely uninhabitable, and more than 75,000 people, the majority women and children, dead.
For more than three years since its latest war in Gaza, Israel has defended its assault on Palestinian civilians as military necessity, blamed Hamas for “starting” the war, and rejected condemnations as products of bias and antisemitism.
Israeli and US officials have gone further still, at times rejecting very applicability of international law. “I don’t need international law,” asserted President Donald Trump earlier this year; adding “my own morality” is “the only thing that can stop me”.
“Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth has suggested dispensing with international humanitarian law altogether, declaring that the United States should employ “maximum lethality, not tepid legality” and give “no quarter, no mercy to our enemies” — rhetoric that, when applied in an armed conflict, constitutes a war crime.
Such contempt for international law may seem convenient for states that believe their power shields them from consequences.
Weakened rules an invitation But in a world where destructive force is widely distributed, weakening the rules meant to protect civilians invites others to do the same. The result is not greater security but a downward spiral in which every side claims necessity while civilians pay the price.
International humanitarian law was never meant to protect only one side’s people. It protects civilians precisely because it binds all parties equally.
When powerful states defy those rules, they do more than harm their adversaries; they weaken the only framework that can protect their own civilians in return. If governments truly want to safeguard their people, the answer is not selective outrage but consistent compliance — uphold the law, apply it universally, and defend it even when it constrains your own actions. Sarah Leah Whitson is the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now and formerly executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division. Republished from Common Dreams under a Creative Commons licence.
During his state of nation speech, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters addressed his party’s new proposal to split up energy gentailers, the state of the economy, Covid and his party’s aspirations at this year’s election.
He also spent time taking shots at his political rivals, with sections of his speech dedicated to Labour, the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori.
Peters also acknowledged the country was “navigating a chaotic environment” and that New Zealand’s economy “isn’t where it should be”.
Here are some the topics Peters touched on.
Energy sector overhaul
Peters anchored much of his speech on energy, announcing his party would campaign on splitting up the energy gentailers (generators and retailers).
He said the policy would ensure energy gentailers could “no longer control both the power and the price”.
“The big four power companies control almost 90 percent of the electricity generation and then sell it back to themselves,” Peters said.
New Zealand First’s Winston Peters during his state of the nation speech.RNZ/Dan Jones
“It will mean more power stations. More renewable energy. More competition. More resilience.
“It’s time to secure our electricity system for all New Zealanders.”
New Zealand First Minister Shane Jones had already promised the party would look to split up energy gentailers.
New candidate Alfred Ngaro
New Zealand First also announced Alfred Ngaro as a new candidate, who will run for the party at this year’s elections.
Ngaro – speaking before Peters – said NZ First stood for “what is right” and everything he believed.
Alfred Ngaro.RNZ /Dom Thomas
“Right now there is a quiet uncertainty in this country, people are working hard but wondering whether things will get better.
“The best days of New Zealand are not behind us they are ahead of us,” he said.
However several people in the crowd questioned who he was, with Ngaro not introducing himself at the start of his speech.
Fonterra and Air NZ
Peters went on to talk about Fonterra’s proposal to sell Mainland, Anchor and Kapiti.
Fonterra had gone from a “propped-up nationalist company, to a sell-out globalist company”, Peters said.
He also labelled calls for the government to sell its stake in Air New Zealand as “economic neoliberal lunacy”.
“Air New Zealand is our national carrier and a national asset.
“As the majority shareholder, the government should be backing its future rather than dragging it down and hocking it off.”
Covid and Labour failures
Peters said the latest Covid-19 inquiry highlighted failures by the Labour party.
“The report brings questions that need to be answered by Hipkins and Verrall and all those other former ministers,” he said.
“They cannot brush this off… Someone needs to be held accountable.”
Peters claimed Labour wasted billions of dollars and did not “properly advise” the public of the vaccine “risks”, a claim Labour strongly denies.
Speech protests
Protests outside Winston Peters’ State of the Nation speech in Tauranga.RNZ/Dan Jones
Peters hosted the event at the Atrium Conference Centre in the Tauranga suburb of Otūmoetai, where a group of protesters gathered holding Palestinian and Māori flags.
People protesting Shane Jone’s fishing reform were seen holding signs that read: “Shane Jones = Fishy deal” and “Big fishing wins Kiwis lose”.
The New Zealand Herald reported some of the protesters as being Destiny Church members.
Currently, NZ First is trending upward in the polls. In the latest RNZ Reid Research poll, the party sat at 9.8 percent in the party vote, which would result in 12 seats in parliament – four more than what it currently holds.
Peters was third in the preferred prime minister ranking, at 12.6 percent. Labour’s Chris Hipkins was at 21.1 percent, with Christopher Luxon on 19.4 percent.
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ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on March 22, 2026.
One Nation’s surge and Liberal Party’s collapse in SA election reveal tectonic shifts in Australian politics Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Manwaring, Associate Professor, Politics and Public Policy, Flinders University The tectonic plates of South Australian politics have fundamentally shifted. Peter Malinauskas’s Labor government has won a second term with a landslide win. The final count should see Labor win around 33 seats in the 47 seat
The Women’s Asian Cup was a major success for Australian soccer, despite the Matildas’ heartbreaker Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Crawford, Adjunct Lecturer at the Centre for Justice, Queensland University of Technology There was a lot of talk about winning trophies in the lead-up to the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup final, in which the Matildas were narrowly defeated by Japan 1–0 in Saturday night’s final. It
End of the petrodollar? How Iran war is reshaping the global economy Democracy Now! AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh. NERMEEN SHAIKH: Global oil and natural gas prices are soaring after Israel bombed a massive natural gas reserve in Iran, the largest in the world. Iran retaliated by twice attacking the world’s largest liquid natural gas production facility, located in Qatar.
Labor easily wins South Australian election with One Nation beating Liberals into second on primary votes Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne For today’s South Australian state election, The Poll Bludger’s results have Labor winning 31 of the 47 lower house seats, the Liberals four, One Nation one and
Wenda condemns ‘cruel’ arbitrary arrests of West Papuans in Tambrauw Asia Pacific Report An exiled leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has condemned Indonesia’s “cruel and humiliating” arbitrary arrest of 12 West Papuan local farmers in Tambrauw Regency this week and has demanded their release. According to Human Rights Monitor, the arrests took place on March 18, after Indonesia conducted military
The tectonic plates of South Australian politics have fundamentally shifted. Peter Malinauskas’s Labor government has won a second term with a landslide win. The final count should see Labor win around 33 seats in the 47 seat House of Assembly. This result dwarfs the Labor “Rann-slide” of 2006.
The SA Liberals suffered a humiliating and record loss, reduced to single digits, with perhaps as few as six seats in the lower house. The party will need to undergo a significant rebuild if it is to become competitive again.
The key story of the night was the insurgency of One Nation. The right-wing populist party has secured a higher primary vote than the Liberals, with a statewide total of 22% against the Liberals’ 19%.
In regional areas and One Nation’s target seats, the party came first in the primary vote count, and in the seat of Narungga secured 37% of the primary vote. With unpredictable preference flows, the party could secure two lower house seats.
Key battlegrounds
Labor’s landslide came off the back of the Liberal collapse. Labor easily won a suite of metropolitan and suburban seats such as Colton, Morialta, and Hartley, the latter of which saw former Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia lose his seat. Former Liberal strongholds, such as the seat of Unley, fell to a disciplined Labor Party headed by the charismatic Peter Malinauskas.
In the regions, the Liberal vote collapse was exacerbated by the dominant rise of One Nation. In a striking irony, it could be Labor preferences that secure some Liberal holds. The Liberals’ decision to preference One Nation over Labor may also come back to haunt them.
One Nation has a realistic chance in two or three seats, such as Hammond. As Pauline Hanson put it at One Nation’s after party, she has left a series of “landmines” for the premier.
More pressingly, One Nation sees this as a springboard for the Victorian state election and the federal Farrer byelection.
Fractures on the right
The conservative and right side of politics has fractured completely. There might be a temptation to see this as a one-off sugar hit for One Nation. Yet, this result has been coming for quite some time. The implosion of the SA Liberals is not a sudden phenomenon.
On polling data, the One Nation surge began at the start of 2026, in the wake of the December 2025 Bondi terrorist attack. Historically, the party has had limited presence in South Australia, often returning a primary vote of about 4%.
The SA Liberals have been in structural decline for some time, and this has been accelerated by recent events. The Liberal leadership churn has undermined the party’s standing, with four leaders in four years. The party has faced a number of scandals across a range of seats including Mount Gambier, Narrungga, MacKillop and Black.
More telling, and an under-appreciated issue, is that the party is no longer able to retain MPs. Former MPs such as Dan Cregan (Kavel) and Jing Lee (MLC) – both of whom left to become independents – are symptomatic of a party where its members feel increasingly unwelcome.
Liberalism running out of steam
One Nation has taken advantage of the ideological and factional instability of the Liberal Party. The conservative efforts to control the party has undermined unity and discipline. Shortly after Tarzia became leader, Conservative Ben Hood led the charge to ban late-term abortions. It led to an appalling debacle with moderate Liberal MP Michelle Lemsink forced to jump into a taxi to fend off the vote, while on medical leave recovering from cancer treatment.
This incident was a form of payback from conservative Liberals who felt disenfranchised during the Marshall Liberal government (2018-2022), which saw a number of moderate legislative successes.
A key flashpoint on election night was the exchange between moderate Liberal federal Senator Anne Rushton and state Liberal MP Nick McBride. Wearing an ankle bracelet as he faces trial for domestic violence charges (an allegation he strongly denies), McBride argued the Liberals have far more in common with One Nation than they do with Labor. Rushton, in contrast, argued the party should actively pursue its “liberal values”.
Here is the ideological and strategic dilemma that state leader Ashton Hurn and federal leader Angus Taylor face. Conservatives will push the leaders to adopt One-Nation-lite policies to win back regional and former safe seats. Yet, moderates will argue that since the party is no longer in any meaningful sense a party of the city, it needs to radically overhaul its offerings to win back inner-city and more affluent suburban seats.
It’s far from clear what a re-energised Liberal Party could look like. Party leaders may well invoke the ghost of Robert Menzies or the formula of John Howard, but neither of these premierships offer much to a shrunken Liberal Party in a far more fluid and fragmented Australian polity.
It’s highly likely the One Nation insurgency is here to stay.
Steven George of Whangarei won the 2026 edition of the New Zealand National Excavator Operator Competition.Supplied
A Northland contractor has retained his national digger operator crown by successfully slicing a pizza with his excavator.
Whangarei’s Steven George also used the excavator to pour a cup of tea and play a super-sized game of Connect Four.
The three unorthodox challenges proved to be the biggest crowd-pleasers of the 32nd National Excavator Operator Competition held across Friday and Saturday at the Central Districts Field Days event in Feilding.
After winning last year’s competition, the Steven George Contracting owner-operator backed up his previous exploits by overcoming 11 other regional champions.
Supplied
Napier’s Marcus Ingram and Taranaki’s Ryan Prankerd were the biggest challengers, finishing on the podium in second and third place respectively.
Prankerd won the MVP award for his “sterling display of spirit and camaraderie” during the event.
George said it was “bloody good” to win against a number of new competitors this year.
“I came into this weekend not knowing what to expect. There were a bunch of new faces, as well as guys who have done it a few times before,” he said.
Other challenges on the course included slam-dunking basketballs, painting pictures and serving ice cream to the crowd.
Supplied
The digger operating marvel told RNZ the more unconventional tasks were not as difficult as they sounded.
“It wasn’t too bad to be honest. It was a lot easier than you’d think from watching on the sidelines,” he said.
“Those activities are crowd-pleasing ones, they love watching that kind of stuff and watching the machines do that.
“You just take your time, concentrate on what you’re doing and not rush it.”
The more traditional tasks included bulk trenching, digging carefully around underground services, truck loading and health and safety knowledge.
Supplied
Other winners included Rangitikei operator Dean Cave, who won the One-day Job Challenge, which tested competitors’ ability to plan and execute a complex task from start to finish.
Tasman operator Daniel Bruning was awarded the Geoff Duff Memorial Trophy, which recognised the participant who achieved the best scores across the truck-loading challenges.
Civil Contractors New Zealand chief executive Alan Pollard said this year’s competition carried extra significance due to the essential work excavator operators had played in disaster-response efforts across the upper North Island in January.
“The competitors at this year’s event represent the very best of an industry that is more important to New Zealand than ever.
“These people are role models, who not only highlight the expertise and professionalism in our industry, but also inspire others to take up the tools and join the pool of talent required to build the infrastructure that will support the future of New Zealand.”
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The finance minister says New Zealand’s fuel stocks remain at seven weeks worth, including stockpiles.
But Nicola Willis concedes that keeping that buffer was still “dependent on ships like this continuing to turn up”.
Speaking on Sunday afternoon at Channel Infrastructure’s Marsden Point Energy Precinct, Willis said she wanted to provide more information to address peoples’ concerns about delays in that supply.
She said New Zealand had a number of places fuel supplies arrive into the country, but Marsden Point is the largest.
Today’s visit comes amid fears of an energy crisis, with the global price of oil skyrocketing in the wake of the US and Israel’s attack on Iran.
Marsden Point is New Zealand’s fuel import terminal, and until 2022 also had an oil refining facility. New Zealand now relies on imported refined fuels, without a facility to refine raw products.
Willis told Morning Report on Friday price increases were extremely tough and affecting all New Zealanders, but some were feeling it more than others.
“I can’t solve the pain for everyone. The cost of doing that would potentially involve levels of spending that would drive inflation higher, and certainly would put us in a more fragile position in terms of debt.
“So what we are looking at, is there something very targeted and temporary that we could do to assist those workers in particular who are most acutely impacted by these household budget squeezes?”
IRD and Treasury have been asked to come up with a package that could be implemented with urgency ahead of the Budget.
Willis will talk to the media at 2pm – watch it live here.
NZ First is trending upward in the polls. In the latest RNZ Reid Research poll it sat at 9.8 percent, enough for 12 seats in Parliament – four more than it currently holds.
Peters was third in the preferred prime minister ranking at 12.6 percent. Labour’s Chris Hipkins was at 21.1 percent, with Christopher Luxon on 19.4 percent.
Last year, Peters faced disruptions from hecklers during his State of the Nation speech to a packed crowd on a range of topics, including the “war on woke”, diversity targets, water fluoridation and the Paris Climate Agreement.
This year, it was expected Peters would address the cost of living and the state of the economy, as well as make an election policy announcement.
Peters’ speech is scheduled to begin at 2pm – watch it live here.
Marsden Point is New Zealand’s fuel import terminal, and until 2022 also had an oil refining facility. New Zealand now relies on imported refined fuels, without a facility to refine raw products.
Willis told Morning Report on Friday price increases were extremely tough and affecting all New Zealanders, but some were feeling it more than others.
“I can’t solve the pain for everyone. The cost of doing that would potentially involve levels of spending that would drive inflation higher, and certainly would put us in a more fragile position in terms of debt.
“So what we are looking at, is there something very targeted and temporary that we could do to assist those workers in particular who are most acutely impacted by these household budget squeezes?”
IRD and Treasury have been asked to come up with a package that could be implemented with urgency ahead of the Budget.
Willis will talk to the media at 2pm – watch it live here.
In Auckland, northbound lanes were blocked on the South-Western Motorway, SH20, at Onehunga, on Sunday morning.Supplied/ NZTA traffic camera
Two people have died and others injured in crashes in Waikato, Auckland and Southland.
Waikato police said on Sunday morning a person died following a single-vehicle crash on Howden Road, to the west of Hamilton city in Temple View. The crash happened about 8:30pm on Saturday.
Meanwhile, blocked lanes on Auckland’s Southwestern Motorway at Onehunga were reopened by 9:30am Sunday, after a collision earlier in the morning that had prompted police to direct northbound drivers to take another route.
Two vehicles were involved in the crash on the State Highway 20 motorway, police said.
One person was killed and two others moderately injured.
Crashes in Southland also reported
In Southland, Winding Creek Road was blocked following a single-vehicle crash between midnight Saturday and 1am Sunday.
Police said injuries were reported, and the Serious Crash Unit was advised.
“Motorists should avoid the road as emergency services work the scene or delay travel. The road is expected to be blocked for most of the day,” they said on Sunday
And Invercargill’s Leet Street was closed following a single-vehicle crash about 3am on Sunday.
“The Serious Crash Unit has been advised, and the road is expected to remain closed for most of the day while emergency services work at the scene,” police said.
“Diversions are in place, and motorists should account for extra travel time.”
A group of North Auckland oyster farmers are calling for more transparency on how Watercare came to its final calculation on compensation over a sewage spill into the Mahurangi River last year, that contaminated tens of thousands of oysters during the businesses’ peak season.
Wastewater poured into the Mahurangi River for over 17 hours, after a power surge tripped up the pumps at Watercare’s Warkworth Street wastewater plant in late October.
Reviews found that a faulty surge protection component at the plant meant the pumps could not restart, and a critical overflow alarm that was not working had delayed the discovery of the overflow.
It announced on Thursday its last tranche of compensation payment – $750,000 – for Mahurangi oyster famers and the wider aquaculture industry, which came on top of the $2 million already paid to eight affected oyster farms.
It said part of the $750,000 was for a ninth oyster farmer who made a subsequent claim, and part of it would go towards Aquaculture New Zealand (AQNZ) for it to distribute to all impacted oyster farmers.
AQNZ, representing the affected farmers, said the “full and final settlement” did not cover lost income, cancelled sales, reputational harm and ongoing disruption to production.
An AQNZ spokesperson said the organisation was offered half a million in the final round of compensation, but had not accepted the money yet, as it felt Watercare had not made it clear how that money should be used.
Its CEO Teena Hale-Pennington said in a statement that farmers needed to see how Watercare assessed the losses and reached those final figures.
“At this stage, neither AQNZ nor individual farmers have received the independent assessment findings for their farms, nor information outlining the assumptions used in Watercare’s assessment.
“Without access to this material, farmers are unable to fully understand how assessments were undertaken or how conclusions were reached,” she said.
Meanwhile, Watercare maintained that its processes were robust.
“We commissioned an independent loss assessment to understand the financial impact of the October event on oyster farmers, resulting in the farms being shut down by MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries) during a critical part of their harvesting season.
“This process has informed Watercare’s approach to resolving the claims,” said its chief operating officer Mark Bourne, who added that the total compensation covered the losses attributed to the event.
Watercare chief operating officer Mark Bourne.Jessie Chiang
Hale-Pennington said it was frustrating that Watercare’s decision had been described as final, without the agreement of those most affected.
Tim Aitken, whose family business – Mahurangi Oysters – lost a large portion of its 80,000 dozen of oysters following the event, said they had been treated “like muppets” by Watercare.
“They haven’t entered into the conversation in a transparent way, they’ve treated us quite badly, I believe,” he said.
Aitken said he and other oyster farmers have handed Watercare five years’ worth of income and expenditure, in the hope of entering into a transparent negotiation.
Aitken said none of Watercare’s assessors had chatted with him in person about how they came to those compensation figures.
He said the $200,000 he received in compensation was just enough to cover staff wages.
Aitken said the reputational damage and ongoing impacts such as the loss of clients, were not being factored into the compensation.
“We sell weekly to chefs, and we sell fresh oysters, so everytime we get closed we lose a chef, we lose a restaurant because we can’t guarantee supply.
“Our business right now is hanging on, but only just,” he said.
Aitken said these days, they were struggling to sell oysters due to the lost trust by their clients.
“People now talk to us and say ‘we don’t wanna buy your oysters, they’re the ones that are in the shit harbour’.”
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There was a lot of talk about winning trophies in the lead-up to the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup final, in which the Matildas were narrowly defeated by Japan 1–0 in Saturday night’s final.
It was the third time Australia had met Japan in the final and represented the last chance for this golden generation to win a major tournament on home soil.
The result, which mirrored the 2014 and 2018 Women’s Asian Cup finals, was another case of so near yet so far for the Matildas.
The team has won hearts and minds but not since 2010 trophies.
So what did we learn? And where do we go from here?
For the final at Sydney’s Stadium Australia, 74,397 people turned up – the largest crowd in Women’s Asian Cup history.
In making the top four, the Matildas qualified for the 2027 Women’s World Cup to be held in Brazil.
Winning trophies is difficult – hosting was strategic
Australians have high expectations for their sporting teams.
But winning trophies is difficult, as evidenced by the fact major trophies have to date eluded the Matildas’ golden generation.
Understood best in retrospect, the Matildas’ 2010 Women’s Asian Cup win was momentous. It was just the team’s second time competing in the Asian confederation tournament and marked the first time an Australian team – women’s or men’s – had won the trophy.
That early Women’s Asian Cup success – finishing runners-up in 2006 and champions in 2010 – inadvertently sent a message that being crowned Asian champions was a straightforward thing.
But anything less than a trophy does not necessarily equate to a loss.
The Women’s Asian Cup is just one step in the Matildas’ and Australian women’s soccer’s plan, which will benefit not just the national team but girls and women playing at the grassroots.
The strategy
Just one player, Sam Kerr, remains from that 2010 team (Tameka Yallop missed the 2026 tournament with a hamstring injury).
The Matildas have been relying on the golden generation to carry the nation’s hope for more than a decade. Ensuring there will be more Sam Kerrs is crucial.
Which is why Australia’s bid to host the 2026 tournament was strategic.
Continuing to inspire the next generation of girls and women by normalising participating in, attending and viewing major women’s soccer events in integral.
But a post-tournament influx of players and fans is only good if the infrastructure, systems and pathways are in place to accommodate and retain them.
So, in addition to providing a chance for Australia to both compete for a trophy and gain invaluable experience leading into the 2027 Women’s World Cup, bidding to host the Asian Cup represented an opportunity to do three crucial things.
Third, remind us that women’s soccer is playing the long game. Trophies will remain highly sought-after but the rarity of winning them will arguably magnify their value. They’re one piece of the puzzle.
As former Matilda turned administrator Sarah Walsh indicated, the narrow metrics on which women’s soccer are judged are rarely applied to men’s sport.
To focus on bums on seats ignores the systemic and gender inequality women’s soccer faces.
It was no accident Japan was again in the Women’s Asian Cup final. It’s a team that has focused on long-term development and regeneration, including a 50-year plan that concentrates on steadily increasing grassroots participation rates, improving national team rankings and hosting and winning a World Cup by 2050.
Japan’s approach recognises trophies are a byproduct of strategic investment and development.
So while winning silverware would have been great, the Matildas’ second-place finish is still really good.
That is, the Matildas and their impact – encapsulated with the “‘til it’s done” edict that signals the long-term approach it will require – can be considered a work in progress.
Fuel price increases will be felt soon: Diesel is the main source of electricity for the remote Chatham Islands.Vk2cz / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)
Chatham Islands diesel will remain at pre-war prices until mid-April, but pump-prices will soon rise, residents are being warned.
In most parts of New Zealand, diesel has risen to more than $3 per litre since the war on Iran started three weeks ago. But in the Chathams, where diesel is the main source of electricity, it’s still $2.29 a litre.
The Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust owns the archipelago’s infrastructure companies, including providing fuel. Group chief executive Bob Penter says the price of diesel will rise by 15 cents in April. It will then be reviewed again, and another hike is likely in May.
Petrol prices remain the same for now, at $4.50 a litre.
“We’re really trying to soften the sudden price shocks that perhaps we’re seeing elsewhere in New Zealand, and that’s something that we’re able to do as the enterprise trust because we’re essentially operating as a charitable trust,” Penter said.
“So we’re trying to really modify the impact as much as we can.”
Before the Iran conflict began, the Chatham Islands was the most expensive place to buy petrol. There is capacity to store up to 400,000 litres of fuel on Chatham Island.
“What we’ve seen for our purchase price of diesel that we buy and bring over on the Southern Tiare, the ship that supports the Chathams, is that its risen by $1.15, since the Middle East events have taken place,” Penter said.
“So we’re able to absorb this at the moment, but it’s going to start slowly feeding through to the pump price.”
An artist’s impression of a short-tailed New Zealand bat, similar to the new Mystacina nymphe species newly discovered in Otago.Gavin Mouldey / supplied
A palaeontologist studying fossil fragments in Central Otago has identified a previously unknown, but now extinct, bat.
University of New South Wales professor Suzanne Hand has been studying fossil fragments found in Central Otago that are 16 to 19 million years old.
She says the bat has been named Mystacina nymphe, ‘nymphe’ after the Greek word for a forest spirit.
The new nymphe species are related to the modern short-tailed bat, but much smaller, weighing between eight and 10 grams.
New Zealand currently has two living species of pekapeka or bat, including one short-tailed bat (another short-tailed species was last seen in 1967, the Department of Conservation (DOC) says, and thought to be extinct). But working at the St Bathans site in Otago, Hand has found Aotearoa once had at least five different species of short-tailed bat.
“So this was a time when it was much warmer in New Zealand than it is now, probably like a sub-tropical to warm temperate kind of climate … The forests were probably even more diverse … and what we’re finding is that a lot of different animals lived at the time, and one of them was this tiny little bat that we found.”
An interesting collection of reptiles also once lived in New Zealand too, she said.
“Alongside this amazing diversity of bats were also things like crocodiles, and turtles, and swiftlets, and all sorts of animals that are not found in New Zealand today once lived there.
“And it looks like that as the climate changed and things got cooler, and the forest changed and so on, a lot of those animals disappeared.”
The area near where the new short-tailed bat fossil was found, at St Bathans, Otago.Alan Tennyson/Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Short-tailed bats are now found only in New Zealand, but they were once found in Australia too, before becoming extinct there. They filled an important role as pollinators for some plants.
“They’re also known as walking bats or burrowing bats, because they spend quite a lot of time on the ground foraging, not like normal bats … and they’re very distantly related to vampire bats in South America,” Hand says.
“The New Zealand bats are really, really special. Very precious, and very very important in terms of their ecological roles today. And in the past there was a greater diversity of them, so they ranged from these very small ones, eight to 10 grams – so that’s a little bat – up to about 40 grams, which is actually a very large bat.”
Hand says the extinction of her newly found nymphe species was linked to historical cooling of the climate.
Bats were very sensitive to environmental changes, Hand said, and could be an early indicator of environmental stress. New Zealand’s remaining species were under significant pressure.
“Bats are changing, they’re changing their habits, they’re changing their distributions, and so on. At the moment it hasn’t been great, because bats are not evolving fast enough to keep up with … these really fast changes human-induced climate change is bringing.”
File photo.Supplied / Greater Wellington Regional Council
Toxic algae warnings have been issued for Hutt and Wairarapa rivers.
Red alerts are in place for Hutt River at Silverstream, Waipoua River at Colombo Road, and Ruamahanga River at Double Bridges and Te Ore Ore.
Greater Wellington Regional Council advised people not to swim or let their dogs near the water.
The algae is a neurotoxin that acts like snake venom and is extremely harmful to humans and lethal for dogs if ingested.
“Toxic algae lives on the riverbed, where it’s usually out of reach,” Greater Wellington senior advisor integration and insights, Penny Fairbrother said.
“But during a flare-up like this, thanks to warm weather and a lack of rain, the algae lifts off the rocks and accumulates at the river’s edge, where it poses the biggest risk – especially to dogs who seem to love the smell and will try to eat it if given the chance.
“Even a small amount of toxic algae, the size of a 50-cent piece, can be enough to kill a dog.”
People should check the LAWA website for toxic algae warnings and alerts before visiting rivers in the Wellington region.
People who were feeling unwell after being in contact with algae were asked to see a doctor or contact Healthline on 0800 611 116.
Anyone who suspected their dog had swallowed toxic algae should visit the nearest vet immediately.
Greater Wellington was monitoring popular swimming spots weekly. It asked people to check the LAWA website for warnings and alerts before visiting rivers in the Wellington region.
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Traffic was blocked in northbound lanes on the South-Western Motorway, SH20, at Onehunga, on Sunday morning.Supplied/ NZTA traffic camera
One person has died following a crash in Waikato.
The single-vehicle crash was on Howden Road in Temple View around 8.30pm on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a crash has blocked lanes on Auckland’s Southwestern Motorway at Onehunga, and northbound drivers are being warned to take another route.
Two vehicles were involved in the crash on State Highway 20, police said. One person had serious injuries and two were moderately injured.
“Motorists are advised to avoid the northbound motorway at this time, or delay travel,” they said.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) said the Queenstown Road offramp was closed as a result of the crash. Motorists should instead use the Hillsborough offramp.
“Allow extra time for diversions. Please follow the directions of emergency services,” NZTA said.
In Southland, Winding Creek Road in Southland was blocked following a single-vehicle crash between midnight and 1am.
Police said injuries were reported, and the Serious Crash Unit was advised.
“Motorists should avoid the road as emergency services work the scene or delay travel. The road is expected to be blocked for most of the day.”
And Invercargill’s Leet Street was closed following a single-vehicle crash around 3am.
“The Serious Crash Unit has been advised, and the road is expected to remain closed for most of the day while emergency services work at the scene,” police said.
“Diversions are in place, and motorists should account for extra travel time.”
Traffic was blocked in northbound lanes on the South-Western Motorway, SH20, at Onehunga, on Sunday morning.Supplied/ NZTA traffic camera
A crash has blocked lanes on Auckland’s Southwestern Motorway at Onehunga, and northbound drivers are being warned to take another route.
Two vehicles were involved in the crash on State Highway 20, police said.
One person had serious injuries and two were moderately injured.
“Motorists are advised to avoid the northbound motorway at this time, or delay travel,” they said.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) said the Queenstown Road offramp was closed as a result of the crash. Motorists should instead use the Hillsborough offramp.
“Allow extra time for diversions. Please follow the directions of emergency services,” NZTA said.
In Southland, Winding Creek Road in Southland was blocked following a single-vehicle crash between midnight and 1am.
Police said injuries were reported, and the Serious Crash Unit was advised.
“Motorists should avoid the road as emergency services work the scene or delay travel. The road is expected to be blocked for most of the day.”
And Invercargill’s Leet Street was closed following a single-vehicle crash around 3am.
“The Serious Crash Unit has been advised, and the road is expected to remain closed for most of the day while emergency services work at the scene,” police said.
“Diversions are in place, and motorists should account for extra travel time.”
Government Communications Security Bureau director-general Andrew Clark.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) spy agency has taken six times longer than it should have to address questions about lax cyber security identified in a Treasury report.
The report last year mentioned that government data was “being managed or held by unvetted third parties”.
It gave no details, so RNZ sought them.
Director-general Andrew Clark apologised for taking 120 working days to respond, instead of the statutory 20 under the Official Information Act (OIA).
He then refused to answer virtually all of the dozen questions.
The Treasury report said government agencies had continued to raise concerns about the security of third-party vendors’ products and services, including poor security controls and unpatched software.
“Some agencies reported that vendors had offshored some services without their prior approval, meaning government data was being managed or held by unvetted third parties,” said the quarterly investment report for the three months to December 2024. Such reports are released publicly many months after they are done.
New Zealand’s small size as a market was biting it, the report suggested.
“Agencies assess that poor service delivery is likely driven by lower competition and less resourcing for comparably smaller contracts in New Zealand versus larger markets,” it said, under the title ‘Other emerging … issues’.
“Low competition, coupled with poor service delivery from some vendors, has also led to high reliance by many Government agencies on the same few vendors, which creates risk to service delivery across the public sector should those vendors suffer a cyber security incident or event.”
Many government agencies had become increasingly reliant on cloud-computing services from US Big Tech companies.
RNZ asked the GCSB, National Cyber Security Centre and Internal Affairs who the problem vendors were. Clark in his response would not name them or say anything about them.
“Providing this information would likely have commercial implications for these vendors” so that was refused on the grounds of unreasonably prejudicing someone’s position.
What about the government agencies that had raised the alarm?
“I am refusing those parts of your request where you have asked for information that has been provided to the GCSB in confidence by agencies,” was the reply, otherwise it might prejudice the supply of such info in future.
The unvetted third parties were not disclosed, and neither were the risks to service delivery that Treasury had told ministers were in play.
The risks information was refused on the grounds the GCSB “does not hold this information in the manner or format you have requested”.
Work was underway on digital investment and procurement, Clark said.
Asked what measures were taken, he said the National Cyber Security Centre provided a range of advice, and they had recently developed “minimum cyber security standards” to focus on the basics and encourage good practices.
The subsequent three quarterly reports after this one did not mention the threat again.
But other weaknesses did come up in them, and in one case Treasury was called out for them, in the latest quarterly report, to September 2025.
It said many data and digital projects did not include information relating to cyber security management or improvement.
It went on to fault the Treasury’s investment management system because it did not recognise the ongoing cost of cyber security, “making it difficult” to upgrade old systems and move away from on-site hardware to ‘as-a-service’ tech “which we know deliver better security results”.
“The current financing rules and settings around capital and operating expenditure are preventing agencies from modernising and improving their cyber security.”
Agencies’ approach to procuring IT systems or services was called “outdated and fragmented” by the government chief digital officer in the September quarterly report, six years after Treasury told the public sector to take an all-of-government approach to try to cut the IT upgrade bill of multi-billions of dollars.
The long wait for the response to the OIA request was put down by the GCSB to consultation and the “volume of information requested” by RNZ.
Most of Clark’s three-page response was taken up outlining the grounds for refusing the information.
RNZ asked for any report that focused on the threat, but did not get one.
Clark apologised for the wait.
“Our response … did not meet the statutory deadline and I do apologise for that. Thank you for your patience while we completed our response.”
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Traffic was blocked in northbound lanes on the South-Western Motorway, SH20, at Onehunga, on Sunday morning.Supplied/ NZTA traffic camera
A crash has blocked lanes on Auckland’s Southwestern Motorway at Onehunga, and northbound drivers are being warned to take another route.
Two vehicles were involved in the crash on State Highway 20, police said.
One person had serious injuries and two were moderately injured.
“Motorists are advised to avoid the northbound motorway at this time, or delay travel,” they said.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) said the Queenstown Road offramp was closed as a result of the crash. Motorists should instead use the Hillsborough offramp.
“Allow extra time for diversions. Please follow the directions of emergency services,” NZTA said.
Mitch Barnett returned to the Warrior side against Newcastle Knights.David Neilson/Photosport
Analysis – Skipper Mitch Barnett’s comeback from season-ending knee injury has helped inspire his NZ Warriors to their best NRL start in eight years and second-best in history.
After losing three of last week’s starters, coach Andrew Webster was able to pull a few rabbits out of his hat to cover their absences – including two debuts and the return of an old favourite.
In his final season with the Warriors, Barnett, 31, was held out of the opening two games of the 2026 campaign as a precaution, but his arrival onto his old stomping ground of McDonald Jones Stadium helped boost his side when they needed it most.
“Awesome,” Webster confirmed. “He laid on that try for Jacko and it was nice to hear the Knights fans give him a cheer too.
“It was good to have him back. The last three weeks, he’s made life pretty hard for everyone at training, running hard and tackling like crazy.
“He’ll play more minutes in coming weeks and had to move him to edge-back row, where he did a great job.”
Barnett’s addition to the rotation will cause Webster some headaches over coming weeks, as he tries to balance his team’s winning momentum with the inclusion of their spiritual leader.
Here’s what we learnt from the 38-12 win over the Knights.
Best player
Hard to go past Dally M Medal leader Jackson Ford, who must surely take maximum points again from his 100th NRL appearance.
For the second time this season, he led the Warriors in both running metres (236) and tackles (44) – he led them in tackles for the third time – while also scoring his second try of the season.
Ford already paced the competition in post-contact metres, but chalked up 96 more in this performance, while slotting the first goal of his career, with the conversion of Luke Hanson’s last-gasp try.
“I didn’t get to see it, but I hear it was pretty cool,” Webster said. “He’s getting a lot of praise at the moment and he deserves it, but we’ve been celebrating him internally for a long time now.
“I’m glad everyone’s finally seeing it.”
Webster has a selection dilemma on his hand, now that Barnett is back to reclaim his No.10 jersey.
Despite Barnett’s return, Ford never left the field, after logging 70 minutes-plus in the two previous games.
Jackson Ford celebrates his 100th NRL game with ‘Mahi Mark’.David Neilson/Photosport
With a motor that big, maybe you keep Barnett on the interchange, tag-teaming with fellow skipper James Fisher-Harris and keeping the veterans fresh for a late-season charge.
Webster has a similar predicament at halfback, where Tanah Boyd produced another sterling performance, scoring his third try in as many games, laying on two try assists, breaking the line twice and assisting on another linebreak.
Only Ford’s form has robbed Boyd of more Dally M love, as he led his team with 87 Fantasy NRL points, and his dominance will make it hard for Webster to drop him, when Luke Metcalf becomes available next month.
Fisher-Harris continued his fine early-season touch, while lock Erin Clark is back to where he left off last season, when he was Dally M Lock of the Year.
Key moment
With halftime looming, the Warrior only led 12-6, but were on the right side of a heavy penalty count.
Referee Liam Kennedy had warned the Knights for their repeated infringement at the previous kickoff and finally snapped, when fullback Fletcher Hunt strayed offside near his own goal-line.
With Hunt in the bin, the Warriors needed to capitalise on their numerical advantage and did that, when debutant Luke Hanson put makeshift centre Leka Halasima across for a try and an 18-6 advantage at the break.
Last time Halasima appeared at this venue, he broke Knights’ hearts with his last-minute gamewinner – this one almost as important.
Halasima has now scored four tries in three games and doesn’t seem to care where he does it from – off the interchange, from the second row or the midfield.
The Warriors piled on 30 consecutive points, before the Knights could catch their breath, effectively ending the contest with 20 minutes still remaining.
That’s become a bit of trend this season.
Two weeks ago, they were 6-6 with Sydney Roosters, before unleashing 22 points either side of halfway to build an unassailable lead.
Last week, they conceded the first try to Canberra Raiders, before a 40-point avalanche that buried their opponents.
Best try
Again, so many to choose from.
Was it Barnett’s assist to Ford in the latter’s 100th game or Clark’s first for the Warriors in his 29th outing?
Let’s give it to the final flourish, where wing Dallin Watene-Zelezniak gathered a desperate Knights kick after the final siren and offloaded to fullback Taine Tuaupiki, who was a threat every time he touched the ball all night.
Tuaupiki burnt the Knights defence and had the tryline open, but heard the call from Hanson in support and threw a pass that had his mate sidestepping the goalpost to score.
Luke Hanson and Taine Tuaupiki celebrate their last-gasp try against Newcastle.David Neilson/Photosport
Hanson was able to celebrate his arrival in top grade appropriately, with Ford’s conversion the cherry on top.
Should first-grade be this much fun?
Injuries
While Hanson enjoyed a dream debut, the same couldn’t be said for Englishman Morgan Gannon, who lasted less than five minutes, before knocking himself out in a tackle and leaving with concussion.
He will sit out next week, but the Warriors seemed to escape any further casualties.
Hooker Wayde Egan left for a head check midway through the second half, but he was probably due for replacement anyway and returned for the final 10 minutes to close out the game.
There will be a few sore bodies on Sunday and maybe a little concern over Boyd, who was collected in a heavy tackle, as he kicked across the field late. Knights front-rower Trey Mooney was sent to the bin and Boyd walked off what will hopefully prove nothing more than a cork to his leg.
Tuaupiki and Fisher-Harris also stayed down after tackles, and Ford copped an elbow from Dane Gagai to the head, but all remained on the field afterwards.
Barnett seemed to come through 36 minutes without incident, entering the action after 25 minutes and leaving 20 minutes into the second half.
Presumably, fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and five-eighth Chanel Harris-Tavita will be off concussion protocols and available next week, but second-rower Kurt Capewell’s calf will likely keep him sidelined for a few more weeks yet.
Centre Adam Pompey had his attendance record blemished, when he stayed in Auckland on babywatch. He’ll surely be back next week.
Newcastle Knights
Apparently, Knights coach Justin Holbrook was not impressed with the first-half refereeing and the final penalty count was 11-4 against, with two players sin-binned and three on report.
“I’m not a referee and, if that’s the way he sees it, it’s up to us to fix it,” he offered diplomatically afterwards.
“We haven’t had an issue with it until today, we got it wrong and paid the price for it.”
That’s also become a bit of a trend for the Warriors this season.
Two weeks ago, Roosters coach Trent Robinson seethed over the 11-4 count against his team and the NRL refs almost seem to be making up for all those years that the Warriors have suffered from suspect officiating.
Morgan Gannon’s NRL debut ends early with concussion.David Neilson/Photosport
Newcastle were also unbeaten over their opening two games, emulating last season’s start, when they lost their final nine games and ultimately took the wooden spoon.
“It wasn’t good obviously,” reflected Holbrook. “We played two really good games to start the year, but we were poor with the ball today and made some really basic errors.
“Our skill was poor and obviously our discipline, and you make the game really hard against an opposition that did the opposite of that. We had a tough afternoon.”
They have problems without injured stars Kalyn Ponga and Dylan Brown, and may lose more to judiciary next week.
Newcastle face another daunting challenge next Saturday, when they travel to unbeaten Canterbury Bulldogs.
What this result means
Don’t look now, but the Warriors are top of the table, baby!
OK, still only week three, but they have a points differential advantage over Penrith Panthers, while Melbourne Storm’s loss to Brisbane Broncos sees them slide a step behind.
The only team that could have topped them this weekend were – incredibly – Wests Tigers, who needed a 56-point win over South Sydney Rabbitohs. They couldn’t manage that.
This is just the second time in club history the Warriors have reeled off three wins to start their season – they managed five straight to start the 2018 campaign.
One hundred-and-twenty points across three games make them the most potent attack in the competition. That’s also the most they’ve ever scored in their opening three games.
What’s next
Next Friday, the Warriors will host the Tigers, whom they have beaten in their last nine encounters.
After several years of mediocrity, Kiwi legend Benji Marshall has dragged Wests off the bottom of the competition, finishing 13th last season.
They started this season with a bye and a promising 44-16 win over North Queensland Cowboys that convinced many they may be playoff contenders.
On Saturday night, South Sydney Rabbitohs dented that perception, with a thrilling 20-16 win over the Tigers, who also lost halves Jarome Luai and Adam Doueihi to injury.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Winston Peters will be making his State of the Nation address in Tauranga on Sunday, purposely timed after the release of the quarterly GDP figures.
It also comes off the back of heavy questioning by the New Zealand First leader about the previous Labour government’s decisions during the Covid-19 pandemic, following the release of the second phase of the royal commission of inquiry.
Peters has been accusing Labour ministers of not passing on critical vaccine information to the public, which Labour strongly denies.
Currently, NZ First is trending upward in the polls. In the latest RNZ Reid Research poll, the party sat at 9.8 percent in the party vote, which would result in 12 seats in parliament – four more than what it currently holds.
Peters was third in the preferred prime minister ranking, at 12.6 percent. Labour’s Chris Hipkins was at 21.1 percent, with Christopher Luxon on 19.4 percent.
Last year, Peters faced disruptions from hecklers during his State of the Nation speech to a packed crowd on a range of topics, including the “war on woke”, diversity targets, water fluoridation and the Paris Climate Agreement.
This year, it was expected Peters would address the cost of living and the state of the economy, as well as make an election policy announcement.
Recently at Parliament, he said he would not make his State of the Nation speech until after the GDP figures were released. He noted other party leaders were premature making their speeches before this information was available.
On Thursday, Stats NZ data showed gross domestic product (GDP), the broad measure of economic growth, rose an anaemic 0.2 percent in the three months ended December, to be 1.3 percent higher than a year ago. On an annual average basis, the economy grew 0.2 percent over the year.
Expectations were for quarterly growth in a range of 0.2 to 0.5 percent, although the growth of the previous quarter was revised lower to 0.9 percent from 1.1 percent.
Late last year, Peters signalled he was willing to criticise his coalition partners after he savaged National’s suggestion of asset sales as a “tawdry silly argument”, which he said it was falling back on after having failed to fix the economy fast enough.
“Because they’ve failed to run the economy properly, they want to go to the assets of a time when the country was run properly, when we were number two in the world and built up by our forefathers and to start to flog those off … to so-called balance their books,” Peters said.
The recent attack on Iran by the United States and Israel had the government monitoring developments, along with how fuel and supply chains could be disrupted in New Zealand.
And last week the finance minister indicated the worst-case scenario Treasury had outlined was a rise in inflation to 3.7 percent.
Peters will likely address the global instability, and how that will impact New Zealanders.
He will also likely take a swipe at the opposition. In 2024, Peters used roughly half of his State of the Nation speech to criticise the previous Labour government, along with the media and the Green Party, before outlining New Zealand First’s plans for the country.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
With each passing year, Kim Gordon grows more impressive. A fearless talent devoted to the avant garde who refuses to soften her artistic impulses, she’s not just releasing music into her 70s, but music that’s as challenging as her old band Sonic Youth were during their heyday.
There’s no denying Play Me is slight when compared to her 2025 release The Collective (it very much comes off as a collection of b-sides to that album), but it finds its own identity regardless, Gordon again adds vocals to trap and industrial beats, but branching out into motorik tempos and instrumental hooks that border on pop.
She worked with Justin Raisen, who helmed The Collective and has produced music for Charli XCX, Drake, and Lil Yachty, with results lighter and sillier than anything Gordon has done previously, and run through with sardonic wit. Aiming once again at topical targets, but with an even broader approach (which is saying something considering The Collective had a feminist song called ‘I’m a Man’), she holds a mirror up to things like tech bros and government censorship by approaching them at their level.
This video is hosted on Youtube.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Global oil and natural gas prices are soaring after Israel bombed a massive natural gas reserve in Iran, the largest in the world. Iran retaliated by twice attacking the world’s largest liquid natural gas production facility, located in Qatar.
Iran also attacked key energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. At one point, the price of oil reached US$118 a barrel, a 60 percent jump since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran.
In a post online, Trump threatened to blow up the entire South Pars gas field if Iran continued to target the Qatari facility. Trump also claimed the US, “knew nothing” about the Israeli attack on the South Pars gas field, but The Wall Street Journal reports Trump approved the strike to pressure Iran to open up the critical Strait of Hormuz.
AMY GOODMAN: About 20 percent of the world’s oil exports flows through the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump has asked other countries to send warships to help force open the strait, but many nations are rejecting the request.
We’re joined now by Laleh Khalili, professor of Gulf studies at University of Exeter and the author of several books, including her latest, Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy. She also wrote Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula.
Professor Khalili, thanks so much for being with us. Can you start off by talking about the state of the Strait of Hormuz right now, its closure; President Trump, according to Reuters, perhaps sending in thousands of troops, what exactly this means; and the Israeli bombing of the South Pars gas field, the largest in the world?
President Trump said, in a rare rebuke, the US didn’t know. Most people are saying that is highly unlikely, that is probably untrue.
The end of the petrodollar? Video: Democracy Now!
Transcript:
LALEH KHALILI: So, the Strait of Hormuz is one of the most important choke points for oil — a choke point being an area during which, if it’s closed down, you end up getting a major disruption in the flow of global trade.
So, the Strait of Hormuz is one. The Suez Canal is another one. The Panama Canal is another one.
And there are a number of these different choke points all around the world. Now, what’s specific about Hormuz and what’s distinctive about it is that it is the choke point where the quantity of oil that goes through is higher than any other commodity that actually flows across the strait.
As you just mentioned, about 30 percent of the global oil flows through that. And part of the reason for that is, of course, that the world’s biggest oil producers — some of the biggest oil producers are all sitting around the Persian/Arabian Gulf, so Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Abu Dhabi, which all are huge producers of oil in the first place, and then natural gas in the case of Qatar and Iran in second place.
Now, what has been fascinating is that anybody who has one of these apps that you can put on your phone, like MarineTraffic or VesselFinder, you can actually take a look at the flow of traffic, the flow of vessel traffic, flow of ship traffic, through these different seas in the world.
And if you zoom in on the Strait of Hormuz, what you’ll find is that instead of seeing actually a steady traffic of little usually pink or green arrows going through, which indicate tankers, what you end up seeing are major clusters of ships that are bunched up very near ports where oil is produced and usually put on ships.
What that indicates is that, basically, for a number of different reasons — and I’m going to go into that in a minute — the flow of ships, the flow of ship traffic, has basically come to a halt.
Now, the reasons behind this are multifold. Of course, there is, number one, that Iran is attacking a number of the ships that are going through, and the way that it’s attacking them is through the use of very cheap either drones or sea mines, and that means that it’s basically almost impossible to deal with this particular threat, because the drones are produced so extensively in terms of number and they’re so inexpensive that they can basically be replenished even if they are destroyed.
Also being smaller, they’re much harder to target, etc. So, there has been a number of drone attacks against ships carrying oil through the channel, and so, of course, that scares a lot of carriers, a lot of tankers.
The second reason, which I actually think is perhaps even more significant, in part because it is actually not something that either the US or Iran can control, is that the moment something like this happens, the moment that there is a threat against ships, what you end up having is that insurance brokers, primarily situated in London, but there are, of course, some also in the US, China and in Europe, but really the centre for provision of maritime insurance is London, at Lloyd’s, and the ship brokers end up putting a specific war risk premium on ships.
And that means that going from something like 1 percent of the cost of the hull, meaning the ship’s body, or the cargo, meaning what it’s carrying, goes to something like 5 percent, or it goes from one fraction of 1 percent to, say, 5 percent. So that means that suddenly, instead of paying in the hundreds of thousands for insurance for a super tanker, what you’re looking at is millions in insurance, which, of course, increases the cost of the oil that is traveling. So, that’s the second reason.
The third reason is something that the Houthis noticed when they were blockading the Red Sea in support of the Palestinians when Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians. And that is that sometimes the threat alone suffices in getting the ships to stop going through or, indeed, to make declarations that allows for them a degree of protection.
So, the Houthis, when they had blockaded the sea, had asked that any ships that claimed that they were not touching Israel, meaning they were not delivering to or picking up from Israel, could be allowed to go through the canal.
And so, it happened that this automatic identification system that a lot of ships — well, all ships carry — it’s called the AIS system, and the AIS system indicates what ship is in the vicinity of the system, what it’s carrying and what flag it has, meaning which authorities it responds to.
So, now what we’re seeing is that apparently Iran has mentioned that any ship, for example, that is going to China will be let through, or any ship that is not coming from one of these allied states to the US will be allowed through. Of course, there is a lot of variation in what kind of thing they have requested or what is being reported, so it’s a lot harder to see what exactly the AIS systems are being on these ships.
As I said, we are mostly seeing them clustering and waiting in these locations, one of the main ones being the Port of Fujairah, which is actually not in the Persian Gulf. It is in the Gulf of Oman.
And oil from Abu Dhabi, which is on the Persian Gulf side, is shipped to Fujaira through a pipeline. So we’re seeing a cluster of ships near Fujaira.
Iran, of course, also attacked Fujaira port. And then we’re seeing a cluster of ships near Ras Laffan, which is the main gas production and gas lifting port in Qatar. The third is, of course, around the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, a little bit further up the Persian Gulf. And so, these clusters of ships are waiting there and hoping to be able to at some point pick up oil to be carried out.
But we’re not seeing much of that flow anywhere at all.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Professor Khalili, you mentioned that there are — they are looking for, the Iranians, to see which vessels in the Strait of Hormuz — to what countries they’re affiliated, looking at their flags. Chinese vessels have reportedly been permitted to pass through the strait. China imports about 40 percent of its oil from the Middle East and has been one of the largest buyers of Iranian oil. There are also reports that the Iranians are suggesting they’d consider allowing a small number of oil tankers to pass through the strait if the oil cargo is traded in Chinese yuan rather than —
LALEH KHALILI: Yes.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: — US dollars. If you could comment on that?
LALEH KHALILI: This is really fascinating, because, of course, we know that the fundamental basis of the US imperial order since the end of the Second World War has been, on the one hand, petroleum and, on the other hand, the US dollar. The globe’s production and finance worlds are dependent on the petroleum that the US has guaranteed the flow of since the end of the Second World War, and which, until the nationalisation of oil in the 1970s and 1980s, basically controlled something like 60 percent of the world’s oil reserves.
After nationalisation, that percentage dropped dramatically, but the US dollar continues to be, and the financial channels that the US has crafted, continue to be a very significant bolster for the empire.
So, the fact that Iran is actually looking for alternatives to the dollar in order to challenge the petrodollar regime, which is, you know, as I said, one of the fundamentals of the US empire, is a really interesting and quite clever indication of how the Iranians are hoping to influence the crafting of a world post this war, or a new world order post this war, where there’s a multipolar financial system, where, for example, the dollar is no longer a single currency that rules the world and the US is the only channel that controls — or, the only power that controls financial channels, because, of course, the US has used this inordinate power to strong-arm various states, to institute sanctions, to make it difficult for its enemies, for example, to purchase oil.
And, of course, it has used it to coerce a lot of countries, as we see, for example, in the case of Cuba or Iran, or indeed Russia, to do its bidding. So, the fact that Iran is calling for petroyuans to become an alternative to petrodollars is actually quite significant also in indicating that the Iranians are well aware of how extensively the US has used its coercive sanction capabilities, through its control of the financial channels and through its mastery of the petrodollar, and are trying to erode that power.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Professor Khalili, you know, the US is now the world’s largest oil producer, but because oil is a globally priced commodity, the price goes up in the US if the world market price goes up. But —
LALEH KHALILI: That’s right.
NERMEEN SHAIKH:— how important do you think this might be in Trump’s calculation? Because another consideration, another aspect of this, may be that as oil supplies diminish from the Middle East, the US could benefit, because it is the world’s largest oil producer, and the price of its oil will go up, and the demand for its oil.
LALEH KHALILI: Absolutely. What a fantastic question, because, in fact, we have seen that when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began and the Nord Stream gas, natural gas, pipelines to Europe were sabotaged, we now — there are now indications that this may have been done at the behest of the US.and its Ukrainian allies. But nevertheless, when that sabotage happened, it actually translated into massive gains for US natural gas production.
The thing is that there are a number of reasons why oil is not — why the US cannot become the sole oil producer for the whole of the world. One is the question of proximity, for example. The second is the question of capacity that the US has in order to actually replace, for example, the oil that is produced by Saudi Arabia or by Iran or, indeed, by Russia.
But the third factor — and I think that this is the one that I think we should look out for — is that in the last 10 or 15 years, China has actually begun generating an alternative set of fuels, sustainable fuels, and developing technologies, particularly of electric and battery technologies, that will allow for, for example, solar or wind energy to displace fossil fuels.
And the more that the price of oil goes up, which, of course, we’ve seen that happen, as you mentioned earlier — and, in fact, this also translates into major windfalls for US oil companies. This oil prices going up benefits Chevron. It benefits Exxon. It doesn’t benefit the average US citizen at the petrol stations, at the gas stations, but it does benefit the oil companies.
So, it definitely does — that does happen. But the higher the price of oil goes up, the relatively cheaper it becomes to actually have sustainable alternatives, which, of course, that means that it benefits China in a major way, since China is way ahead of the rest of the world in producing these technologies and in producing them cheaply.
The solar panels that are being produced in China are a fraction of the price of solar panels that were being produced something like 15 or 20 years ago. And I think this shift is actually a major long-term concern for the oil companies.
In the short term, they’re taking all the windfall that they can get. But this, again, is — the kind of a postwar order that will likely also have major implications for the kind of energy people are paying to use or people are willing to use, actually.
AMY GOODMAN: We just have 20 seconds. But the effect of the bombing of the South Pars facility, the largest gas facility in the world, what it means for Iran, what it means for the world, and President Trump denying the US had anything to do with, which most do not believe?
LALEH KHALILI: No, absolutely not. There is no way that Israel would have actually done this without coordination with the United States. And, in fact, the channels that deny, for example, that the US coordinated, or report Trump’s denials, are the channels that are often used to feed us the kinds of lies that the administration tells us.
But what is quite significant about South Pars — and I know it’s a very short time left, so I’m going to be very quick about it — is that the South Pars field is actually shared between Iran and Qatar.
The North Dome, which is on the south part of the Persian Gulf, is Qatar’s share of this major field, and Iran’s bit is in the northern part of the Persian Gulf.
And so, the destruction of the infrastructure there will not only have an effect on Iranians’ ability to produce electricity and fuel their various kinds of industries and/or homes, but it will also have an effect on the infrastructures that are used by the Qataris and which the Iranians and Qataris have been using in an extraordinary degree — to an extraordinary degree of coordination since the fields have been used. So, this actually also affects Qatar.
The bombing itself also affects Qatar. And I don’t think that this is a calculation that the rather know-nothing Trump administration has taken into account.
AMY GOODMAN: Laleh Khalili, we want to thank you so much for being with us, professor of Gulf studies at University of Exeter, author of several books, including her latest, Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy. Thanks so much for being there.
