Source: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Shaken commuters may reconsider their use of buses in the wake of a second fatal stabbing in just over a year, a councillor says.

Police have charged a man over Monday night’s incidents on the 76 bus from Glen Innes that ended in the death of a 59-year-old man and serious injuries for a 51-year-old man.

Both the victims were stabbed.

It follows a similar fatal incident in Onehunga in October 2024 during which Auckland woman Bernice Louise Marychurch suffered multiple stab wounds.

Maungakiekie-Tāmaki ward councillor Josephine Bartley told Morning Report people could be deterred from catching buses because of fears over their safety.

She had received many messages raising safety concerns this week and that was “understandable”.

She often caught the same bus around the time of the killing.

After giving some thought to using her car, she caught the same service the next day and observed it was empty. Bartley said she felt nervous and worried because the alleged offender was still being sought.

“The bus route was diverted … my bus stop was one of the bus stops the bus was diverted from because of the investigation [into the two stabbings].”

Public transport safety was a constant topic of conversation within Auckland Council.

She had asked at a transport committee meeting on Tuesday if it was time for transport police to be used and was told by Auckland Transport that some were already deployed, including on the No 76 bus service since the stabbings.

“There’s 13,000 bus services – they can’t have somebody on each one of those services.”

Other safety measures available included a text service (to 4030), CCTV monitoring, and panic buttons at bus stations, she said.

Bartley had decided not “to let fear take over” regarding travelling on the bus.

She said commuters were always focused on their phones but she appealed to them to be more aware of their surroundings.

“You can never know what might happen …”

In the wake of the tragedy, she said the community was trying to support each other.

The site had been blessed and flowers have been left at the scene.

A 36-year-old man is due to appear in the Auckland District Court today facing several charges.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A motorbike and car have collided on west Auckland’s Te Atatū Rd, near the motorway on-ramp heading into the city.

The motorcyclist is reported to be in a serious condition.

A police spokesperson said police were at the scene on Wednesday morning.

One lane of Te Atatū Rd was blocked.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Rat numbers could double by 2090 if climate change gets really bad says the Department of Conservation (DOC), as it hunts urgently for $150 million in extra revenue.

DOC has told MPs it needs this much more per year to “not go backwards”.

Director-General Penny Nelson said the $360m currently spent annually on biodiversity could not cut it faced with the range of the greatest threats to species and ecosystems – wilding pines, goats and deer, and pests and diseases.

“What we’re seeing through some of the research that we’ve done in terms of climate change impacts, under a high-climate scenario, we’re potentially looking at having, I think, rat populations doubling by 2090,” said Nelson during scrutiny week last week.

Modelling showed it would take $2 billion a year to ensure nature would thrive, but that was not realistic, so instead it was having to ruthlessly prioritise spending.

As well, DOC was intent on finding commercial ways to generate more revenue. One NZ was among the companies on board, giving its rangers increased mobile coverage and satellite connections, Nelson said.

“We will go backwards under existing baselines.”

Commercial revenues compared to Crown funding were small. However, DOC’s recreational revenue rose 15 percent to $29m due in part to a jump in Great Walk fee income. The amount it earned from concessions and permits for commercial activities on conservation land rose 10 percent to $30m.

The MPs heard the department had cut over 260 jobs in 12 months, met the public savings target of 6.5 percent, absorbed inflation and still delivered efficiently; it now had better forecasting and for the first time ever a 10-year capital spending plan.

Yet despite all this, it now faced a further $120m-plus of cost pressures up to 2029, Nelson said.

“We are at risk of starting to get into not being able to deliver as many results as we are currently.”

The $150m – $50m for high-priority management (e.g. tara iti, kākāriki karaka, coastal dune systems) and $100 million for urgent ecosystems and species that are currently unfunded (e.g. threatened plants, invertebrates) – would enable “real gains” against threats.

The country’s two million hectares of wilding pines, for instance, would cost $156m to combat over two decades in their prime source of Marlborough. The fight nationally required $30m a year but spending was running at just a third of that.

“If we don’t get that under control that is going to have an impact on both public conservation land and primary sector land.”

On top of that, disasters and fires were draining funds, too.

Eight emergencies had been declared this year, and last month’s fire fight in Tongariro National Park had cost millions.

Nelson said the country needed a change of mindset about nature; economists had put a pricetag on natural capital of $134 billion, she added.

“If we don’t invest in nature-based assets, the country will look vastly different in the next 20 to 50 years…

“If we don’t invest that in the next 10 to 20 years, New Zealand will be really different.”

DOC told RNZ it would soon publish a report on the likely climate change impacts on the demography of ship rats, mice, hedgehogs, rabbits, hares and wasps.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

• Under Australia’s long-standing ‘No Jab, No Pay’ legislation, parents must have kids immunised to qualify for the Family Tax Benefit and subsidised childcare
• Heightened vaccine hesitancy post-Covid makes that ‘tough sell’ in NZ
• Low immunisation rates more about poor access to GPs, doctors say
• Early childhood teachers argue kids shouldn’t pay the price for parents’ vaccine stance.

Penalising families who refuse to vaccinate their children could help boost New Zealand’s low vaccination coverage, but may have “unintended consequences”, experts warn.

Under Australia’s long-standing ‘No Jab, No Pay’ legislation, parents must have their kids immunised to qualify for the very generous Family Tax Benefit and subsidised childcare.

Some exemptions are possible – for example, if a child has had an allergic reaction to a previous dose – but “vaccine objection” is not valid grounds to avoid immunisation.

On top of that, five states – New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia – have ‘No Jab, No Play’ policies, requiring children to be fully vaccinated to even enrol in childcare and early education services.

Māori paediatrician Dr Owen Sinclair, who chaired New Zealand’s National Immunisation Taskforce, said it was “not a bad policy” but this country may have missed its opportunity to introduce it.

“I think in a perfect world (or in my perfect world), there would be some compulsion for people to immunise their children.”

The measles vaccine was so effective, it could eradicate the disease globally – if everyone had it, he said.

“You could save your own child’s life, but also you could save other children’s lives, so we don’t ever have a repeat of the situation that occurred when our low immunisation rate in New Zealand [meant the disease] went to Samoa and killed 83 children there.”

Furthermore, New Zealanders tolerated other mandatory public health measures, he pointed out.

“For example you’re not allowed to smoke in a car with a child, you have to have a child buckled in the seat properly, you have to wear a seatbelt.

“So some of our public health policy is compatible with compulsion.

“But I think this one would be a very hard one to sell.”

In the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic, anything that suggested “mandates” would be unlikely to get any political traction, he said.

The Immunisation Advisory Centre’s medical director, Professor Nikki Turner, said Australia’s ‘No Jab, No Pay’ policy was introduced 10 years ago when that country’s immunisation rates were already rising.

The “stick” also came with quite a lot of “carrot” in the form of supports, education and community outreach programmes.

“It clearly has had some benefit, but it’s very small – like overall there’s probably a less than 1 percent gain in coverage from it, probably more focused on low income families. It does have some benefits, but you do have unintended consequences.”

Imposing ‘No Jab, No Play’ could further erode trust in health providers, hit struggling families in the pocket, and undermine efforts to get more kids into early childhood education.

Australian kids have higher protection

About 90 percent of all two-year-olds in Australia are fully immunised, compared with just 82 percent in New Zealand.

For Māori two-year-olds, rates are even lower, at just 68.4 percent.

By contrast, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children actually have higher rates of coverage than the Australian national average at five-years-old: 94.45 percent vs 93.27 percent. For New Zealand five-year-olds, the national average is 76.7 percent, compared to 67.6 percent for Māori.

Professor Turner said from a high point in 2018 – when about 94 percent of New Zealand two-year-olds were fully vaccinated – resource constraints in the wider health sector were starting to bite, even before the pandemic hit.

“The New Zealand infant programme has taken a significant dive since Covid. We are beginning to see gains slowly, but we have a long way to go.

“Post-Covid when you’ve got this out-of-control social media, alongside a lot of mistrust and people who are fearful after going through Covid, you really have to think about the environment when you put a stick in place.”

Dr Sinclair agreed the GP shortage was a huge barrier to improving immunisation coverage.

“If you made it compulsory, you would have beef up the system that’s failing significant numbers of whānau who are really struggling to access primary care.”

He welcomed the surge in the number of people lining up for the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine with the current outbreak.

Since the current measles epidemic began just over 50 days ago, MMR doses delivered had surged nearly three-fold to more than 60,000.

“But the disheartening thing is, none of those people were actually anti-vax, were they? It’s just because of whatever else is happening in their lives, they haven’t been able to access immunisation services.”

Teachers would not want kids to ‘miss out’ – education expert

Schools and early childhood centres are currently required to keep a record of children’s immunisation records, and during an outbreak, they have the power to exclude unimmunised children.

Early childhood education specialist, associate professor Sue Cherrington – who heads Victoria University’s School of Education, said preschool teachers – particularly those working with under-two’s – were very aware of the importance of immunisation in protecting children.

“They’re probably in a really nice place to have unpressured conversations with families around immunisation.

“But I think most teachers would be more focused on children having access to the early childhood centre as a first principle.”

Early childhood teachers tended to have caring, supportive relationships with families, and were less likely to be seen as “heavy handed” or judgmental, she said.

“You would not want to see parents get upset and take their children away, and then you’re back to square one.”

Not on the government agenda

Associate Education Minister David Seymour, who is responsible for Early Childhood Education, said the government was not considering any form of ‘No Jab, No Play’ policy.

“Early learning services can already set their own conditions for enrolment. This could include immunisation status for example, though I’m told this is rare.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

When residents have a gripe about rain, stray dogs, berm maintenance, or even a tree root, they call their councillor. Today The Detail is calling those councillors, too.

Bryan Cadogan has 27 years of local politics stories up his sleeve, but the 2am phone call from a furious resident takes the cake.

The former Clutha mayor picked up the phone to hear a demand that he do something about the roadworks clamour outside the resident’s house.

“They were absolutely goin’ off at me, calling me all the words under the sun.”

“What the hell’s wrong?” Cadogan asked.

The answer:

“You’re rippin’ up the road right in front of my house at two o’clock in the morning and you – ya useless prick -you told them to do it!” he says the resident yelled.

Roadworks noise is just one of many ratepayer bugbears Cadogan dealt with over the years. In this case it was a state highway, so outside of his control.

Not that the resident apologised. Cadogan says more abuse was hurled at him before the phone call ended.

Most people had genuine complaints that he could help with, but there were also the “frequent flyers that just flew in low and hit hard”.

From blocked drains to stray dogs, The Detail looks at suburbia’s most vexing issues, and how people’s behaviour has changed over the years.

For Horowhenua District councillor Sam Jennings there is one issue that is “bizarrely polarising”.

“Berms. Berms. Lots and lots about berms,” he says.

“Horowhenua made some decisions last year about reducing its level of service around cutting berms, so that’s generated quite a bit of interest and activity and some angst over the last 12 months.

“Some people say ‘it’s your land, take some pride and look after it as the resident in closest proximity to it,’ and then others are like ‘no I pay my rates, it’s absolutely something that the council must do. It’s their land, if they don’t want to do it, I’m going to Roundup it’.”

Jennings says he has learnt a lot about how the council works and responds to these issues, but he’s also learnt about human nature.

People are more likely to take their neighbourhood gripe to a councillor, these days, rather than talk directly to their neighbour about issues like overgrown trees or rubbish bin placement.

“I don’t know whether that’s because people don’t want to have the confrontation or they feel uncomfortable, but I feel like there’s an increase on that reliance on a third party to resolve these small neighbourhood disputes or issues.”

When it rains the queries and complaints come thick and fast to Auckland North Shore councillor Richard Hills.

“People will DM [direct message] me on Facebook or Instagram, or tag me on Twitter, or email me, or phone me, or text me.”

If it’s raining hard he’ll get 20 to 30 tags or messages a day.

“I think it reduces people’s anxiety. The last five or six years with covid and storms and everything else, I think people just want to be reassured that nothing’s going to change dramatically for them and then they can go about their day again,” says Hills.

Other big issues that Hills is asked to tackle are congestion on the T3 lane on Onewa Rd, roaming dogs, parking in narrow streets, demands for yellow lines and residents wanting to be involved in the hunt for the yellow-legged hornet.

“People will just create their own vigilante actions because they want to help, if we don’t empower people,” he says.

New Plymouth mayor Max Brough insists there are no issues in his city.

“We’re a perfect council, I don’t have any problems in my district,” he jokes, before he is reminded about the resident threatened with a $1000 fine in a stoush with the council over her berm.

“It was about a young lady who got a bit stubborn. She didn’t like how policies were working and applied.”

The matter was eventually resolved and Brough says he understands both sides of the argument – but he also admits to a conflict of interest.

That “young lady” is his daughter.

For the first time, his council is setting up a public engagement committee where people can bring their issues forward to a group of councillors, who will decide on the merits of the problem and whether or not to take it further.

“That’s what people want right? That’s why they elect us locally, is to listen to their problems and help work through them.”

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A mayday call in a notorious stretch of water triggers an urgent search and rescue operation in Wellington. Emergency services pull in Coastguard, even a Cook Strait ferry. But a day later, the search is called off. No one was ever reported missing, and no debris was ever found. Who was behind the distress call? Reporter Mary Argue delves into the transcript.

“Beacon Hill. Beacon Hill. Come in. Mayday.”

It’s after 10pm on a Monday, late August, when the distress call crackles over the Wellington harbour radio.

The transcript was released to RNZ by the Harbourmaster’s office.

“We’re f****** getting swamped out here. We’ve lost fuel tanks please advise.”

Mayday calls are rare, rarer still to be heard over the harbour’s working channel. But the operator doesn’t hesitate, swinging into action.

“Mayday. Wellington Harbour Radio. Who is calling? Who is calling? Please identify yourself and your position. Over.”

A long 12 seconds of silence follows.

The operator tries again.

“…Mayday, channel one-four. What is your position? What is the name of your vessel? Over.”

The response is distorted by static, but there’s a location: Three nautical miles from Karori Rock.

An interislander ferry joined the seach for the missing boat. Photo: Supplied

The small boat is in the notoriously dicey Cook Strait off Wellington’s south coast.

“We’re being swamped … I’ve lost the bungs to the back of our boat. We’re swamped.”

Three more times the operator asks for the vessel’s name, the responses are inaudible, punctuated by long pauses.

In total, they’ll ask for the boat’s identity eight times – but they never get it.

“… we’re taking on water, we’re swamped …”

How many people on board? How many people?

Two.

Silence.

Those on the sinking boat are told to tune into channel 16 – the distress frequency – they’re informed that Maritime radio is their point of contact now, and police have been advised.

Behind the scenes an urgent search and rescue operation is launched.

But the flailing boat isn’t heard from again. More than three months on the question remains – did it even exist?

Mayday response ‘exceedingly good’

The mayday on 25 August sparked a desperate search.

Police, Coastguard, and the airport’s fire service flooded the stretch of water near Karori Rock – an offshore lighthouse on the remote southwest coast of Wellington.

Commercial boats – including an Interislander ferry – joined the effort, combing the Cook Strait for several hours.

But no debris – water containers, or chilly-bins – was found bobbing on the surface.

No one was reported missing and shoreline searches for empty trailers at boating ramps yielded nothing.

The next afternoon, the search was suspended.

Police – who led the response – declined an interview, but confirmed an investigation into the mayday has since ended.

The call is often characterised by two words, ‘odd’ and ‘unusual’.

Wellington harbourmaster Grant Nalder says it had “all the elements” of a boat in distress, but it was strange – coming directly to the harbour’s signal station on channel 14.

“The usual for a mayday is [that] you don’t call anyone specific, it’s just ‘mayday’ – that’s the trigger word on channel 16.”

Grant Nalder. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii

It’s the internationally recognised channel for distress and communication, he says, and a mayday on that frequency immediately gets picked up by the national Maritime radio.

Months later, listening back to a recording of the call, he thinks he can hear two different voices on the end of the line.

He says based on their report, ‘mayday’ was entirely appropriate.

“That’s the one that’s used if there’s imminent danger to life. Three miles southwest of Karori Rock’s known for its tide and rough waters.

“If a boat had been … anchored in Oriental Bay and taking on water, it’s not good but it’s probably a swim ashore. Cook Strait, that’s very different.”

Maritime rescue operations. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii

Fortunately, maydays aren’t common and Nalder says the response to this one was “exceedingly good”.

“Our operator kept asking them questions, they confirmed the location … which is really important. You can’t do a search if you don’t know where you’re going.”

He says those details quickly made their way to police and the national search and rescue headquarters – from there, things ramped up.

Calling all ships

Maritime NZ Rescue Coordination Centre (RCCNZ) is housed in Avalon Studios – an incongruous, 10-storey, tower block in Lower Hutt.

It’s a round-the-clock operation on RCCNZ’s floor, with Maritime radio operators working to a backdrop of random static bursts and broadcasts – dials tuned to channel 16.

Down the hall, search and rescue officers rotate in 12-hour shifts in front of screens that blink and flash with real-time information on the weather and locations of boats and planes.

According to RCCNZ’s operations manager, Michael Clulow, the team covers one of the largest areas in the world (top five or six for size), stretching from the South Pole to Tokelau, near the equator

Police’s Lady Elizabeth IV.. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Within the roughly 30 million square kilometres, RCCNZ has the power to pull in whatever resources it deems appropriate to save someone’s life – from the local surf lifesaving club, to the defence force.

Last year, the team responded to about 1500 distress calls. But each year about 50 to 100 are maydays, Clulow says.

Such a distress call can trigger an all-ships broadcast, which demands anyone in the area to stop what they’re doing and help.

Following the mayday on 25 August in Wellington, police asked Maritime radio to do exactly that.

Search yields nothing

Around the same time, Police’s Lady Elizabeth IV and the airport fire service hit the water, as do two boat-loads of Coastguard volunteers who make their way to the choppy waters within the Karori rip.

Maritime’s broadcast has captured both recreational and commercial boats in the area, who are referred to police for instructions.

The Interislander ferry, Kaiārahi, arrives first on the scene.

At the time, ferry passenger Tupoki Wairau-Hunter told RNZ the ship slowed as they approached Wellington and those on board were encouraged to help search under a large spotlight sweeping the water.

The search lasted until the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Michael Clulow. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii

In a statement a few hours later, police confirmed no debris had been found and nothing had turned up in a check of the shoreline and boat ramps.

They “urgently wanted to hear from anyone with information directly related” to the distress call.

Throughout, Maritime’s radio operators were listening on channel 16, but Clulow says they heard nothing further from the swamped boat.

On Tuesday afternoon, police reiterated their plea for information and suspended the search.

Origins of call remain a mystery

So was it a prank call? When put to them directly, both Nalder and Clulow hedge.

“We don’t actually know what the case was with this,” Nalder says, but then cites the lack of evidence pointing to a boat lost at sea.

He says there’s a possibility there was a problem that got resolved, but admits it’s unlikely.

“There’s a lot of people that put up a lot of time for this – it’s not something to be done lightly. But by the same token, we don’t want people to be afraid to call for help if they need to.”

Clulow accepts a hoax is possible, but stresses that such calls are incredibly rare and typically don’t cost a lot (more troublesome, are unregistered personal locator beacons accidentally going off).

Distress beacons. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii

In his more than three years at RCCNZ, he’s only come across two fake calls.

“In that same time, we’ve done 4500 search and rescue incidents. Going and responding to something that isn’t an emergency is a bit of a waste of resource,” he says, and “it’s obviously frustrating”.

“But it happens really infrequently.”

When it comes to cost, the boats wear it – it’s the framework that keeps mariners safe, he says.

A KiwiRail spokesperson says the distress call delayed Kaiārahi’s next sailing by about 90 minutes, and any extra cost is absorbed as part of its “commitment to maritime safety”.

“Under international maritime law, seafarers have a duty to render assistance to those in distress at sea. We take that responsibility seriously and our crews are trained to assist in emergencies.”

A police spokesperson told RNZ the investigation into the mayday call has ended.

“With no persons reported missing or coming forward, we are unable to clarify the origins of the radio message.”

If the call was a fake, and those behind it identified, any charges would need to meet the Solicitor-General’s guidelines for prosecution, they said.

So, is Clulow comfortable that no one’s been left at sea?

“I certainly hope not. We’d move heaven and earth to help those in distress and we throw a lot of resource at it because obviously, it’s the safety of our friends and whānau.

“We’ll always respond to people in need.”

How to stay safe on the water

Clulow says two forms of reliable communication is a must, and recommends a beacon such as an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon).

If a phone is an option, Nalders says go directly to 111, “don’t call your mate, don’t try and find the Coastguard number”.

He’s says ‘mayday’ on channel 16 is an obvious, and the channel can also be used let Maritime radio know about less urgent matters, for example a flat battery or loss of fuel necessitating a tow.

Finally, check the weather, plan the journey, and don’t wait to ask for help.

Nalder says a small issue can escalate from a pick-up and tow to a full-on search and rescue, especially in the dark.

“So, if you’re having difficulties, tell someone.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

One of the country’s top judges commissioned work to see how families in custody battles could be screened for domestic violence, but officials shelved it.

Documents released under the Official Information Act (OIA) show principal Family Court Judge Jackie Moran travelled to Sydney to scope out two programmes effectively screening court participants for family violence to help inform judicial decision-making.

It also revealed the court did not know if people experienced such violence.

Domestic violence survivor Laura (real name withheld for legal reasons) said when she told the Family Court about the abuse her ex-partner inflicted on her, she then had to provide evidence.

“That’s the only context in my life when I’ve gone somewhere looking for help and just automatically not been believed or to have things minimised. When that’s your personal safety or that of your child, that’s really confronting.”

After she left her partner, the Family Court found she had been subjected to abuse by her ex – including surveillance and stalking – but declined her application for a protection order.

Laura said she would have benefited from an independent safety risk assessment for domestic violence, and was disappointed work on such a project stopped.

“Anything would have been helpful. My experience was that I had to do it all on my own so any extra tools would have been very helpful.

‘I’m disappointed, because I think that they’re relying on the existing systems – but the question is, are the existing systems working? Are the existing systems evidence based? We still have some of the worst domestic violence statistics in the world. That to me suggests that perhaps something at the front end isn’t working.”

Backbone Collective advocates for survivors of domestic violence and requested a raft of official information about the risk assessment project.

Manager and co-founder Deborah Mackenzie said the response showed Moran had started the work, but it had been shut down at steering committee level in 2023.

“To see that they had interest and appetite from a very powerful stakeholder, the principal Family Court judge, was just incredible – but then to learn that they just decided that it was too hard, too costly, and they just stopped work on it, it really just ripped any sense of hope away.”

A Ministry of Justice presentation included in the OIA response stated they did not know if people coming to the Family Court had experienced family violence.

“It was breathtakingly bad to read that not only did the policy people know what the issues are in the Family Court they were actually looking at remedies similar to what Backbone and others in the sector had been recommending for many years,” Mackenzie said.

Moran travelled to Australia to learn more about Lighthouse and DOORS – two programmes that helped identify safety risks for those in the family law system to help inform judges’ decision-making.

A few months later, she received a letter from ministry officials advising the Family Violence Sexual Violence steering committee had decided not to progress work on a risk assessment tool.

“The development of a risk assessment and management system would be a multi-year project requiring significant financial investment and changes to I.T. systems and operational processes,” the letter said.

“To be successful, risk assessment would rely heavily on a specialist workforce to support participants in the risk screening process. The family violence workforce, including psychologists, social workers and programme providers is at capacity and struggling to employ adequate numbers of staff.”

The letter said the Family Violence Sexual Violence team recognised “the benefits of a risk assessment system and will remain engaged with the Lighthouse Project team to track their progress”.

Mackenzie was concerned there was no official screening tool in the Family Court for domestic violence.

“It looks to us, from what we have, that they made the decision at a team meeting, that’s what it looks like and then Judge Moran was informed. What a sad missed opportunity that was.”

She was also concerned that the project was shelved after a report recommending sweeping changes for children’s safety in the judicial system appeared to have been buried.

The report was completed in 2022 but never publicly released, even though officials warned that not releasing it looked like it was being hidden.

Ministry of Justice group manager for commissioning and service improvement Lance Harrison said court staff may identify risk factors informally then refer the participant to a support service that must conduct formal risk assessments.

He said family violence response training was also provided to people working in the courts.

“After reviewing Australian models, the ministry found barriers in the New Zealand context that meant the models would not be suitable, including limited specialist workforce capacity and differences in how cases are managed between court jurisdictions,” Harrison said.

“Additionally, significant financial investment would be required and extensive changes to systems and processes would be needed to implement a robust risk assessment process when a large work programme was already underway in the Family Court.”

He said the Ministry of Justice was part of a cross-government work programme aimed at eliminating family violence and sexual violence, guided by the Te Aorerekura National Strategy.

Family law expert and University of Auckland professor Mark Henaghan said having a proven tool to assess court participants’ risk of family violence is crucial.

“It doesn’t surprise me, it more upsets me. I think the Family Court would know that there’s a lot of violence underneath many cases that go through the Family Court and it’s important to be able to pick it up early.”

“That seems a very bureaucratic approach – it could be written to any new system. It’s always going to cost you a bit more, it’s always going to create change.”

Backbone Collective called for the Minister of Justice to fund and champion work to ensure victim-survivors of family violence are offered opportunities to disclose abuse to the Family Court and for those disclosures to be managed by specially trained staff.

University of Auckland associate professor of law Carrie Leonetti said it was incredibly frustrating to learn work on a risk screening tool had stopped.

“It appears that at the end of the day they decided that adopting meaningful screening or meaningful risk assessment was just too hard. My read of the documents is they concluded we’re not trained for this, we’re not resourced for this, we’re not even going to try,” she said.

“The fact that both risk screening and risk assessment are utterly foreign to our family court in cases involving family violence is a gross failure.”

Leonetti is also a professorial lecturer in law at George Washington University’s domestic violence programme.

She said risk screening is the initial step while assessments were more involved and could result in evidence that can be used in court – something she said is lacking for family law in New Zealand.

“The failure to engage in evidence based risk assessment doesn’t just mean our court is flying blind or engaging in a random and arbitrated decision making process, they’re missing risk. They’re labelling as low risk situations that are in fact high risk.”

Moran declined an interview. The Ministry of Justice said she had “nothing to say on the matter”.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

People needing heart bypass surgery in Waikato are leaving hospital with fewer scars, thanks to a specially trained nurse team.

Waikato was the only region in the country where the new procedure was available both in the public and private hospitals.

Waikato Hospital cardiothoracic nurse and surgical assistant Kelsey Abercrombie said the traditional way of taking the vein involved a long cut down the leg to remove the great saphenous vein for use in fixing the heart.

She said taking veins through open incisions came at a physical cost for many patients.

“These long cuts were often very sore and painful for patients and that’s slowed their mobilising after surgery,” she said.

Veins could also be taken from the arm and chest. When Ross Alexander needed to have heart bypass surgery five years ago, he came out of Waikato hospital with some impressive scars.

“I tell little kids I’ve been attacked by a shark, on my leg, and then I show them my arm and say that’s where I was fighting him off,” he joked.

Alexander was stoic about the long scars.

“I don’t mind being scarred if I’m alive,” he said, though he recognised that it could be different for others.

He said any new development in surgery was fantastic news.

Two of the three dedicated Waikato cardiothoracic surgical nurses received a grant from Waikato Heart Trust and travelled to New York’s Stony Brook University Hospital in 2023 to observe endoscopic vein harvesting.

This is a procedure where instead of a long cut down the leg, keyhole surgery is used to access and remove the leg vein.

Jacque Roberts said the research trip was one of the most amazing experiences she has had as a nurse.

“To go over to a hospital that does this routinely for everybody and just see how patients were post-operatively getting up, walking, very little pain when we talked to them, and just realising we would like to bring this to New Zealand,” she said.

Six months of training with a visiting specialist from Australia followed and the procedure was used on the first Waikato patient on 13 May, 2024.

So far 266 patients had benefited from keyhole vein harvesting at the hospital and over 90 percent of Waikato patients needing heart bypass surgery had been able to have the keyhole procedure.

Abercrombie said patients had seen many benefits.

“Patients have far less pain, they are up moving around much quicker and once the scar has healed it is hardly detectable,” she said.

Georgia Miller is the third dedicated cardiothoracic surgical nurse at Waikato Hospital. She was on maternity leave when the new surgery was introduced.

“When I came back the girls had done probably a good six-months of the endoscopic harvesting, so when I came along, I had a steep learning curve,” she said.

But Roberts and Abercrombie were able to train her.

“That was incredible for me,” she said.

Nurse-led endoscopic vein harvesting had been the gold standard for heart bypass surgery overseas for many years, though its availability was limited in New Zealand.

The Waikato team said it could help change that.

“We’ve gone over this steep learning curve and have really honed in on our micro-dexterity skills that it takes to harvest the vein this way, and we would be more then willing to help other centres to provide this kind of care to patients in New Zealand,” Abercrombie said.

Waikato’s private hospital, Braemer, was now also offering endoscopic vein harvesting, becoming the first private hospital in the country to integrate it into its heart bypass surgery.

“It’s a complete game-changer for our patients,” said cardiothoracic surgeon David McCormack, a Braemar specialist from the Heart Surgeon Group.

“When patients need bypass grafts, they’re most often taken from veins in the leg, but this area can often be the most troublesome to heal from. EVH changes all of that.”

For those in Waikato facing the prospect of heart bypass surgery, this advancement aimed to offer hope for a less traumatic, more comfortable surgical experience with better outcomes.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two Whanganui women say what should’ve been a dream fishing trip ended up being a nightmare – one they don’t want anyone else to have to go through.

Patsy Deverall and Selah Weingott, 70 and 69 at the time, booked a trip with South Taranaki Fishing Charters in January 2022.

Crossing the infamous Pātea bar, the women were thrown into the air and landed heavily on the deck, both suffering serious injuries.

Weingott broke her nose and fractured a shoulder, which ultimately required reconstructive surgery, while Deverall injured her back.

Maritime New Zealand prosecuted South Taranaki Fishing Charters for offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act over the incident.

The company was convicted for failing to ensure the safety of those on board in the Whanganui District Court last month and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, court costs of $26,000 and reparations of $17,000 and $13,000 respectively to the women.

South Taranaki Fishing Charter owner Peter Robins deeply regretted two of his five passengers on the day of the incident got injured.

“This should not have happened and we apologise for this.”

The company had learned from the incident and made changes to reflect this, he said.

Deverall said after being cooped up during Covid, on a nice day after lockdown restrictions were relaxed, the women thought why not go fishing.

“We decided, because the sea looks so beautiful, and fairly naively, if you like, I just thought, well, how about we go out on a fishing charter and see what happens?”

She said they didn’t know of the Pātea bar’s reputation, but did warn the skipper in advance they were inexperienced.

“We scarcely had a briefing about safety, but we did have life jackets on, and just before we went over the bar, the skipper said, ‘Oh, it can be a bit rough. You better brace’. So we braced, held on, if you like, to a bar while standing next to him.”

The agreed summary of facts said the passengers were given a “short and sharp” safety briefing, but it was not explained what a bar was or how passengers should use their legs to absorb any impact during the crossing.

They were also not asked to confirm they had understood the safety briefing or if they had any questions before proceeding.

Robins stopped the 7.5-metre runabout ahead of the bar and explained to the passengers they would feel a crash as they went over the first wave and the main thing was to hold on.

Deverall said it was then the women, who paid $200 each for the charter, saw the wave.

“He called out, ‘watch out’. And it was just so dramatic. There were three other guys on the boat, other than the skipper. They were bigger burlier guys, they all held on, but we were flung and yeah, I hit the roof and the floor and hurt my lumbar area, which to this day still gives me trouble.

“And my friend was incapacitated for at least a year and a half afterwards, after needing shoulder surgery. It was fractured in three places in her humerus and shoulder.”

According to the summary of facts, conditions were not unfavourable for a bar crossing and there was no suggestion Robins crossed the bar in an unsafe manner.

After the crossing, the women were helped up and Weingott given first aid, her nose patched up, and later her arm put in a sling.

Neither woman, who the summary of facts acknowledge were in shock, asked to be taken back to shore at that point or afterwards, and the charter continued and everybody fished apart from Weingott.

Deverall said after they returned to shore about five hours later, she drove Weingott to Whanganui Hospital where a doctor, who after seeing the extent of her injuries and hearing of the circumstances of how they were sustained, urged her to contact WorkSafe.

She hoped their experience and prosecution of the charter company would serve as a warning to other operators and people considering paying for a fishing charter.

“I just hope people [charter operators] take more care about who they take out, when they take them out, and that they brief them properly.

“Because there wasn’t a hope in hell of either Selah or myself, who were quite strong people at the time, having held on with such a wave coming.”

Weingott also remembered the bar crossing vividly.

“I was bouncing up and down on the metal, on my nose, and bashing, bashing my arm and shoulder, getting thoroughly bruised. I couldn’t get up. Pete [Robins] actually helped me up, the skipper, and I was traumatised.”

She couldn’t believe the fishing trip continued.

“I was in denial or disbelief, and I just waited for the helicopter, or a lifeboat or something. I didn’t, I just couldn’t believe no one would come and save us.”

Her shoulder was fractured in two places and her arm just above the elbow.

Weingott had surgery about 10 months after the incident.

“There’s a big screw in a plastic shaft that runs through my elbow to my shoulder, and two metal balls replacing my shoulder.

“It’s weak. It’s a weak arm, and I’m kind of alienated from it. I was a very body conscious person before, and quite proud of my fitness. But, you know, it’s just a disaster.”

Weingott wished she’d done more research on the dangers of crossing the Pātea bar, but was also disappointed in the charter company.

“They should check the health and safety of their potential customers and, yes, there were life jackets, but they don’t stop you getting thrown around.”

She said the safety briefing was inadequate.

“You’ve got to hold on. It can get a bit rough. You’ve got to hold on, so that was said a couple of times. That was it.”

Maritime New Zealand’s general manager investigations, Pete Dwen, said charter operators must make sure passengers understood the nature of the trip, were assessed and received tailored safety briefings.

“Passengers should be given clear information about the risks involved in a bar crossing including how conditions can change and the physicality of the crossing.

“Operators also need to check the basic information that helps them assess suitability, such as a passenger’s experience on the water, age, medical or mobility issues, and swimming ability.

“Safety briefings must explain what passengers can do to keep themselves safe including how to brace, what movement to expect, and allowing people to opt out if they don’t feel comfortable.”

Dwen said in this case, those steps were not taken.

“The passengers weren’t told what they were about to encounter during the bar crossing, weren’t given instructions on how to brace, and weren’t asked the questions that would have helped the operator assess their suitability or give them the option to opt out.”

He said people should be able to enjoy their time on the water, but operators must take all reasonable steps to keep passengers safe.

South Taranaki Fishing Charters owner Peter Robins said the company had learned a lot from what happened on 3 January 2022 and as a result of the subsequent prosecution.

“The company is keen to share those lessons with other fishing or small charter boat operators to ensure we are all carrying out our operations in as safe a way as we can.”

Robins said Deverall’s and Weingott’s expectations of the trip and what they – and the charter company – believed they were capable of did not match their actual experience or capability.

The primary lessons the company had learned, and wanted other operators to know, were:

• Provide in advance information about what passengers could expect on a trip. What conditions they might encounter, the hazards and level of strength or capability it might require. Don’t assume they would appreciate these things, even if they knew a bar crossing was involved or had crossed a bar previously.
• Operators should ask about passengers age, health/mobility status and prior experience, and exclude people not equipped to handle a trip because of these factors.
• A safety briefing prior to a bar crossing should include telling and showing passengers how to brace with their legs when the boat encounters a wave. It should be clear the passengers have understood.

Robins said South Taranaki Fishing Charters had made changes to reflect these lessons.

“The company has proudly operated for many years and carried out over 1000 charters. We will continue to operate and strive to ensure we do so in a safe manner.”

According to the agreed summary of facts, South Taranaki Fishing Charters had three prior incidents reported to Maritime New Zealand in May 2010, May 2015 and March 2021 involving passengers who were injured while crossing the Pātea bar.

The May 2010 incident involved a passenger who was over 65 years of age.

The company arranged for Coastguard assistance in respect of the 2015 and 2021 incidents.

South Taranaki Fishing Charters had never previously been convicted of health and safety breaches.

Meanwhile, Weingott regretted ever getting on the charter vessel.

“I’m on pain medication, and I don’t like that much. It changes who I am. And don’t know that there’s a lot of options there. You know, you wake up with this thing.

“I can’t dress myself quickly. I can’t hang things up, it’s difficult getting out of the bath. There’s all sorts of stuff like that, because I don’t really trust my left arm.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government has formally revoked the official notice of its charter school contract with a trust that never existed.

But the sports-focused school in Trentham will still go ahead.

In October, Associate Education Minister David Seymour published a notice in the New Zealand Gazette announcing the Charter School Agency had contracted the NZPAA Charitable Trust to set up a charter school.

But the Charities Register had no records of such a trust and this week Seymour published another Gazette notice revoking the October notice.

“By reason of an error made in the notice, the undersigned revokes the Charter School Establishment notice dated 27 October 2025 and published in the New Zealand Gazette, 31 October 2025, Notice No. 2025-go6168,” it said.

The Charter School Agency said a Gazette notice of a new contract for the school would be posted shortly.

“We do not anticipate any impact on plans for the school to open in February next year,” it said.

The agency previously explained the mistake happened because the school’s sponsor changed its arrangements during the process.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

By Penny Smith

The country’s cyber agency is alerting tens of thousands of New Zealanders that their device has been infected with malicious software.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was sending emails to around 26,000 email addresses on Wednesday warning about the malware Lumma Stealer, which was designed to steal sensitive information like email addresses and passwords.

Some of the stolen passwords were connected to government agency systems and bank accounts.

The NCSC’s chief operating officer, Michael Jagusch, said it was the first time the agency had contacted so many people.

“We have worked with New Zealand government agencies and financial institutions to help protect their affected customers. However, there is a large group of users we are now contacting directly,” he said.

“Malicious software like this is relatively common, but this is a very significant amount of New Zealanders that we know have been impacted by this and that’s why we are doing the outreach at this scale.”

Lumma Steeler was designed to go undetected and typically infected devices using Microsoft Windows operating systems.

“The malware’s purpose is to give these cybercriminals information that might let them gain access to your account and ultiumately these cyber criminals are looking to steal money,” Jagusch said.

“They might also use the information for further attacks … They might be able to create more tailored phishing emails against you and your family.”

Jagusch said it’s unlikely the affected people were targeted.

“These people would have unknowingly downloaded the software by clicking a link within a phising email or downloading the software from a compromised website,” he said.

Jagusch added that Lumma Stealer was available for purchase on the dark web.

“There has been a real commercialisation of the cyber crime industry, meaning that malware like this can be purchased by anyone, anywhere in the world,” he said.

The NCSC was alerted to the attack through an international threat sharing forum.

The agency wanted people who received the email to go to its Own Your Online website for advice on what to look for and how to remove the malware, or to contact an IT provider for help.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Nelson teenager was fleeing police at about 183 kilometres per hour when she lost control of the vehicle and smashed into a tree.

Tieylr Saige Ayrton, 17, died from a head injury sustained in the crash on Rutherford Street in March 2022.

The girl was under the influence of alcohol and driving on a restricted driver licence in the early hours of the morning. Her two passengers suffered serious injuries in the crash.

Coroner Megan Armistead, in findings released on Wednesday, said Ayrton’s death was avoidable and highlighted the dangers of driving while intoxicated and the importance of complying with restricted licence conditions.

The Transport Agency said drivers on a restricted licence were seven times more likely to be involved in a fatal or serious injury crash than other drivers, partly due to inexperience.

Two of the riskiest situations for young drivers were driving at night and carrying passengers, the agency said.

Armistead said excessive speed, impairment from alcohol and driver inexperience were contributing factors in the crash.

“The Toyota was travelling at more than three times the speed limit prior to the crash and more than twice the speed limit at the point of impact,” the coroner said.

Fleeing a police officer heading to another callout

Ayrton was driving north on Waimea Road towards central Nelson in a Toyota Mark-X sedan about 1.30am on 13 March 2022.

At the same time a police dog handler, driving a marked police dog vehicle conducting mobile patrols in Stoke, received a call for assistance with a disorder incident on Bridge Street, Nelson.

The officer decided to provide backup for the incident and drove towards central Nelson from Stoke. He increased his speed and activated his red and blue lights.

Ayrton was travelling about 63 kilometres per hour on Waimea Road before the police car approached.

The police officer attempted to overtake Ayrton on an uphill section of the road near Nelson Hospital. But the teenager increased her speed and did not attempt to pull over or allow the police car to pass.

The officer told the coroner he realised the Toyota’s driver was not going to allow him to pass, so he deactivated his red and blue flashing lights and began slowing down.

Ayrton continued to accelerate and reached 183 kilometres per hour before braking ahead of a left-hand curve into Rutherford Street.

The car was travelling about 112 kilometres per hour as it entered the curve and Ayrton lost contol of the vehicle, crossed the centre line and crashed into a tree on Rutherford Street at approximately 106 kilometres per hour.

The police officer rounded the corner soon after and saw the car on fire.

He stopped, ran to the vehicle and put the fire out before attempting to remove those inside.

Members of the public and the officer were able to free one person from the car.

Firefighters arrived and began working to free Ayrton and the other passenger.

An ambulance arrived at 1.50am but Ayrton was unresponsive and died at the scene. The two passengers were taken to Nelson Hospital.

Crash investigation findings

Police carried out a Critical Incident Review into the circumstances of the Toyota fleeing the police vehicle.

It found the officer was not in pursuit of the Toyota and when he realised the Toyota was fleeing from him he followed police policy and procedure by immediately turning off his lights and siren, slowing down and informing the police communications centre.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority resolutions manager Cath Anyan said it was notified of the crash but did not consider an independent investigation was necessary nor was it considered necessary to oversee a police investigation.

A report from the Serious Crash Unit found no contributing factors relating to the vehicle, environment, the road or its layout and markings.

Investigators analysed the CCTV footage from NZTA cameras, a speed monitoring sign on Waimea Road, data from the airbag control module fitted to the Toyota, independent witness accounts and tyre abrasion markings. They found while crossing over the Van Diemen Street intersection on Waimea Road, the Toyota was travelling at approximately 183 kilometres per hour.

The police car was approximately 580 metres behind and not displaying flashing lights.

Tasman District serious crash analyst Senior Constable Simon Burbery said the bend into Rutherford Street had a critical curve speed (the maximum speed a vehicle could take a curve before losing control) of 65 kilometres per hour but the car was travelling almost 50 kilometres per hour more than that when it entered the bend.

The investigation also found the Toyota’s brakes were engaged on and off from more than 200 metres before the crash site, but the rate of deceleration was low.

Ayrton was barefoot at the time of the crash and Burbery noted a pair of jandals found in the driver’s footwell could have become stuck under the brake pedal while she was driving, which could have prevented the brakes from being fully applied.

Unfortunately, due to damage to the Toyota, the investigators could not carry out further analysis of that matter and the coroner said there was insufficient evidence to establish if it had been a contributing factor.

Ayrton was found to have a blood alcohol reading of 153 milligrams per 100 millilitres – more than three times the limit for drivers over 20. However, drivers under 20 years of age are not allowed any alcohol.

Ayrton had held a restricted driver licence since September 2021. The conditions of the licence meant she was not allowed to carry passengers or drive between the hours of 10pm and 5am.

Tasman road policing manager Inspector Martin Tunley said every fatal crash was a tragedy and police were aware that behind every death on the roads was a grieving family.

“My thoughts are with Tielyr’s loved ones. I’d also like to acknowledge our officer and the members of the public who, arriving moments after the crash, were confronted with this terrible scene and did everything they could to save Tielyr and comfort her friends.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A homicide investigation is under way after an inmate died 10 days after allegedly being assaulted by his cellmate at Mt Eden prison.

The man’s death is the third homicide investigation involving inmates in double-bunk cells at the prison since September last year.

The death comes amid a Corrections review of a risk assessment tool used in deciding whether prisoners are suitable to share a cell, after the two earlier suspected murders.

Mt Eden Corrections Facility (MECF) general manager Dion Paki earlier told RNZ that staff found a prisoner had been injured at 10.40am on 29 November.

Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz

The inmate was assessed by on-site medical and taken to hospital.

“The alleged perpetrator was immediately secured and placed on directed segregation.”

Detective Senior Sergeant Martin Friend told RNZ the victim died in Auckland City Hospital on Tuesday.

Police have continued inquiries since late November, which will now become a homicide inquiry.

“Our thoughts are with the man’s family at this difficult time,” Friend said.

Police inquiries into the man’s death would continue, with results of a post-mortem pending.

MECF acting general manager Edith Pattinson acknowledged the man’s death had been a “difficult and distressing time for his loved ones and our thoughts remain with them”.

“Police are investigating and Corrections is also carrying out a full review into this incident. An investigation by the independent Corrections Inspectorate will also be carried out. If these investigations and reviews identify areas where we need to strengthen our processes, we are absolutely committed to acting on these with urgency.

“We can confirm the victim was in a shared cell and that the suitability of this placement is part of our review into this matter. Understandably, the victim’s family will have questions they would like answered. We have been in regular contact with the man’s family, and once our review is complete we will share the findings of this with them when we’re able to do so.”

Corrections’ review would look into what risk assessments were done such as the Shared Accommodation Cell Risk Assessment (SACRA).

“Our frontline staff manage approximately 10,900 prisoners who are some of New Zealand’s most difficult and dangerous people.

“We take our duty to manage prisoners safely extremely seriously and are acutely aware that there have been several incidents at MECF in the past year alleged to have involved prisoners in shared cells.”

The Not to Double Bunk (NTDB) Policy has been updated in Corrections’ Prison Operations Manual to ensure staff were better supported in making informed decisions around adding, managing, and removing NTDB alerts, Pattinson said. Multi-Disciplinary Team meetings were also now required for reviewing and validating NTDB alerts.

“In addition, Corrections is undertaking a review of the SACRA process across the prison estate to ensure it is robust and as safe as possible. This review is now in its final stages, and again we are committing to acting on any changes needed with urgency.”

RNZ earlier revealed there had been two suspected murders, both involving double-bunked cells, in nine months at the prison.

Corrections use the SACRA tool to review the compatibility of individuals before they were placed in a shared cell.

The SACRA tool identified key risk factors to consider before placing a person in a shared cell.

If a person was deemed not suitable to double bunk, a Not to Double Bunk (NTDB) alert was activated on their profile.

Corrections custodial services commissioner Leigh Marsh earlier confirmed he requested a review of the SACRA process which was under way.

“The review is in its early stages, so we have limited information to provide at this stage.

“However, we can confirm that our Custodial, Pae Ora and Intel teams will be considering the questions asked to inform suitability, the process to determine compatibility, and the review processes relating to SACRA. This will help inform what improvements can be made to the SACRA process.”

Corrections had also taken steps across all prison sites regarding shared cell risk assessments, including instructing that all assessments must be reviewed within 24 hours of completion to check whether any further or outstanding information had been received.

“This is because we often receive people from the courts late in the evening and information can sometimes be limited.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A district court judge has reserved his decision on whether a by-election is needed in an Auckland local body election.

The hearing followed a petition by former Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board member Lehopoaome Vi Hausia, who claimed to have received reports of voting papers being stolen from residents and submitted without their consent.

Dale Ofsoske, an independent electoral officer for Auckland, was the respondent to the petition.

At a preliminary hearing at Manukau District Court in November, Judge Richard McIlraith ordered five ballot boxes containing votes from the electorate to be transferred from Auckland District Court, where they were being kept, to Manukau for scrutineering in the presence of Judge McIlraith, legal counsel for Hausia and Ofsoske, as well as Ofsoske himself.

Seventy-nine voting papers were subsequently identified during examination as having been cast without the rightful voter’s knowledge.

At Monday’s hearing, legal counsel for Ofsoske acknowledged there had been irregularities in some of the ballots cast.

McIlraith said a ruling on the petition would be made before Christmas.

Lodged under the Local Electoral Act, the petition by the former deputy chair of the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board who failed to be re-elected also alleged statistical anomalies in turnout, misuse of ballot papers, irregularities involving special votes, discrepancies in voter records, unlawful campaign activity and systemic weaknesses in the postal model.

Papatoetoe was the only Auckland electorate to record a significant rise in turnout in the latest local body election.

While other Auckland areas saw turnout drop, voting numbers in Papatoetoe increased by more than 7 percent.

None of the previous members were returned. All four seats went to first-time candidates from the Papatoetoe Ōtara Action Team.

The petition argued that the result was inconsistent with historic voting patterns and warranted examination.

Simon Mitchell, legal counsel for Hausia, highlighted the sharp rise in the number of votes in Papatoetoe.

“We say there are 3000 new votes in the Papatoetoe subdivision,” he said on Monday.

“And that is the only subdivision or local board area in the entire Auckland city that has had an increase in voting. Every other local board had a decrease in voting.”

Mitchell argued that the irregularities and unexplained surge in voting in Papatoetoe could only be explained by mass voter fraud.

Judge McIlraith acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations but asked for evidence supporting claims of thousands of unlawful ballots.

Mitchell said one police case had been made regarding theft and argued that a surge in votes was not the consequence of a “sudden interest in democracy”.

He also noted that, had the winning candidates engaged in the process, conclusions might have been drawn from their perspectives about the sudden increase in voting in the area.

No one from the Papatoetoe Ōtara Action Team, which won all four seats in the board’s Papatoetoe subdivision, was present at Monday’s hearing.

Mitchell said the irregularities could undermine public confidence in the electoral system.

Judge McIlraith said that if Mitchell’s allegations were proven, it would confirm “everyone’s worst nightmare regarding the efficacy of the [postal] system had come true”.

David Collins, representing Ofsoske, argued that case law did not automatically justify overturning the election.

He said Hausia lost by roughly 1200 votes, and alleged fraud might not have materially affected the result, according to the law.

Collins also argued there could be several reasons why constituents did not receive their ballot papers that had nothing to do with mass fraud.

Residents could have changed addresses, not have been enrolled in the first place, or the ballot papers could have been collected by someone else.

The hearing concluded on Tuesday.

Andrew Geddis, a law professor at the University of Otago, said the situation was “certainly very worrying” because it called into question the trustworthiness of the postal voting system used in local elections.

“[The petition] highlights some vulnerabilities in that practice and, ultimately, it does raise the question as to the methods that were used to determine the results in the election in question and whether everything that was done in this election was lawful,” he said.

Geddis said such petitions were rare in local elections, as petitioners must convince a judge of potential issues and cover their own legal costs.

Under the Local Electoral Act, a by-election could be called if enough unlawful votes were proven to have changed the outcome.

“The problem here is that the victors of the election won by about 1200 votes,” he said. “So, you would have to prove that there was a very widespread pattern of unlawful voting.”

Geddis said it was unclear whether a judge, if unable to prove whether enough unlawful votes could have changed the outcome, would let the result stand or could void the election due to public distrust in the process.

“I would hope it’s an option that’s available because it would be pretty bad, I think, to have a judicial inquiry that finds, yes, there were widespread irregularities, but the judge just has to let the results stand,” he said. “I think that would be a bad outcome.”

Geddis said by-elections that stemmed from election petitions were rare, and that all candidates were free to run again.

He also said the result of an electoral petition was final.

The Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board has two subdivisions, with the Ōtara having three seats and Papatoetoe four.

None of the previous local board members of the Papatoetoe subdivision were re-elected.

Separately, police have confirmed they are investigating 16 complaints of electoral fraud that had been forwarded to them from Election Services.

Last month, RNZ received a complaint alleging “electoral malpractice” in relation to the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board.

In addition to voting paper theft, it claimed voters were being told how to vote inside polling booths and in public places at a Sikh temple in Papatoetoe.

Speaking to Local Democracy Reporting earlier, Papatoetoe-Ōtara Action Team spokesperson Kunal Bhalla rejected the allegations, describing them as “baseless and politically motivated”.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The NZ Defence Force wants to put in ground terminals next year for its main military satellite system.

It has put out a tender to advise suppliers about 19 projects it is considering over the next year to 18 months.

These range from ground terminals for America’s Wideband Global satellite network, to an infantry training facility, to an emergency management communications system for the Air Force in Auckland.

It noted the projects were not funded yet.

The US has been asking its partners to help pay to add two new satellites worth hundreds of millions each to the 10-strong network. It provides communication links between the Pentagon and combatant commanders, and NATO forces, among others.

New Zealand has put more than $100m into helping build the network since 2012.

A note about the ground terminals said they had been planned for the end of 2025, but this had shifted to next year.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

ACC has backed down on plans to require staff to work in the office three days a week, rather than two.

The agency said following consultation with workers and careful consideration of their feedback, it decided to maintain current settings of two days in the office each week.

Earlier this week, the Public Service Association said it had written to the Commerce Commission, seeking an investigation into ACC for breaching the Fair Trading Act.

It said that in its job ads, ACC promoted working from home three days a week as a key benefit of working there – and was looking to break that promise.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Tongariro National Park’s huts and tracks will reopen on Wednesday, following a major fire.

The blaze that broke out on Monday burned through 296 hectares of vegetation.

Fire and Emergency has since declared the fire completely contained, and the park’s tracks and huts safe.

The Department of Conservation (DoC) said the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, the Northern Circuit, and all walks in and around Whakapapa Village were now open.

State Highway 47 had also re-opened, but was restricted to one lane.

DoC requested visitors use shuttle operators to limit the amount of traffic, as fire trucks were still moving through the area.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

An iwi provider of school lunches in the top of the South Island is withdrawing from the programme, because government funding no longer covers the costs.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rārua first began delivering lunches in 2021 and delivered 1200 meals a day to children in eight schools across Whakatū and Wairau (Nelson and Marlborough) this year.

But pouwhakahaere (chief executive) Shane Graham said the numbers no longer stacked up, in terms of the funding offered and what they could provide.

He said for the past four years, the iwi had worked to provide fresh, locally grown food, prepared by local people, for schools throughout its rohe (region).

“It’s just a simple commercial imperative, you can’t be providing a service that costs you more than what you’re getting in terms of funding.

“It’s uneconomical… We effectively become subsidisers for the government programme, which we can’t do.

This year it has supplied lunches to Victory Primary School, Auckland Point School, Maitai School and Te Kura Kaupapa Tuia Te Matangi in Nelson and Spring Creek School, Mayfield School, Whitney Street School and Redwoodtown School in Blenheim.

It also previously provided lunches for Rai Valley Area School.

The lunches were produced in the Ngāti Rārua premises in Blenheim and at the Nelson Rugby Club rooms in Nelson.

Graham said when it first went for the contract, the Ministry of Education expressed concerns that the organisation would not be able to fulfil it as they were not a commercial provider and the iwi were not successful.

“We sort of took that as a bit of a challenge, the first year of the contract offering we weren’t successful and then things turned around, we got different leadership in play and we were able to prove that we were able to do it because we have a long history of being able to provide kai and food for a lot of people.

“In this case, it has been hundreds of thousands of meals with little or no complaints. It’s been a real privilege to be part of.”

In 2023, then-Education Minister Jan Tinetti said some of the best examples of the lunch programme were those led by iwi.

“There’s one in particular that really stands out for me, and that is Victory School in Nelson and the work that the iwi have done down there to lead that programme, and the difference that it has made to young people’s attendance and engagement in that particular school,” she said at the time.

Graham said it had been a significant and empowering programme and he was very proud of the team who made it happen.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rārua’s contract to provide school lunches will finish at the end of the year and around seven jobs will be affected.

Graham said transitioning those staff into other areas was a key concern and priority for the iwi.

Ngāti Rārua were now looking to consolidate and consider other opportunities. Graham said it would not rule out a return to providing school lunches in the future.

He said the iwi wished the new providers success and said they had a big legacy to live up to.

“If they can provide that, good on them. If they can’t, then I think the schools and the community will be holding them to account on that.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

There have been multiple water-related tragedies at Auckland’s west coast beaches this week.

A 26-year-old man died while swimming at Karioitahi Beach on Monday evening.

The body of a swimmer who fell into a hole at Lake Wainamu at Bethells Beach and did not resurface, also on Monday evening, was located by a police dive squad on Tuesday.

Five lifeguards from Bethells Beach Surf Lifesaving and a police eagle helicopter were unable to find the 23-year-old man on Monday.

Surf Life Saving northern region operations manager James Lea said their lifeguards responded to four separate incidents within close proximity on Monday night, including the two deaths.

One person required hospitalisation after lifeguards pulled them out of the water shortly after patrols finished for the day and gear was being packed up. Beachgoers were being told it was no longer safe to swim.

There was also a mass rescue of four people at Piha at 7:51pm.

Lea said the recent hot weather was attracting more people to beaches after lifeguard patrols closed, usually at about 7pm.

He said last night’s conditions, with low tide when rips were stronger, happened around sunset and created a “perfect storm” in terms of risk to swimmers.

“I think it’s the excitement around summer, the focus is let’s just get in the water and cool down.

“My advice is just take a pause. I’m competent in the water, but when I’m going swimming or surfing, I take a pause and look at the environment I’m going into first. Is it matching my level of competence? Am I going to be safe?”

He said with similar conditions expected tonight, they were trying to increase the number of lifeguards on duty.

“We’re just trying to pump up our resources a bit on our beaches tonight. But a lot of that is our relying on volunteers.”

He said those who decided to swim when lifeguards were not on duty did so at their own risk.

“Our lifeguards aren’t always there. If you’re not familiar with the environment, I’d strongly recommend you swim at the beach between the flags when lifeguards are on.”

He said if people spotted someone in trouble and lifeguards were not around, the best thing to do was to call the police and provide them with their exact position, to get someone there as soon as possible.

He said the death at Lake Wainamu was an unfortunate reminder that people can drown in any body of water.

“By the sounds of it, the person wasn’t confident in the water or a competent swimmer, or able to float. With Lake Wainamu, it drops very quickly. So as soon as they are out of their depth and if they’re unable to float, they will go under in a matter of seconds.”

Surf Life Saving offered sympathies to the whanau impacted by Monday’s incidents.

Karioitahi Beach Incident

Counties Manukau South Area Commander Police Inspector Jared Pirret said at about 7:10pm, police were told there were two men struggling to return to shore.

Lifeguards were able to return one of the men to shore safely.

A Police Eagle Helicopter located the second man in the water.

“Sadly, the man was unable to be revived back on shore and has died,” Inspector Pirret said.

“Our thoughts are with the man’s friends and families for their loss, as well as those responders who did their utmost to bring about a good outcome last night.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Waitaki District Council is again courting neighbouring councils for a joint water services plan after its bid to strike out alone was rejected by the Department of Internal Affairs.

The department turned down the council’s independent plan in October after it backed out of the Southern Waters partnership with the Central Otago, Clutha and Gore district councils.

Officials have appointed Crown facilitator Amy Adams to help the council resubmit its plan by June and carry out a full review of Waitaki’s water assets.

On Tuesday, councillors approved a plan to explore re-joining the Southern Waters group or partnering with Timaru District Council.

In a statement, a council spokesperson said the decision ended Waitaki’s efforts to keep its water services in-house and elected members would receive more information early next year to select a preferred option.

“Under any future model the community will lose nothing but instead gain the most affordable way to have clean water supplied to their homes, and drinking, waste and stormwater networks which meet high quality standards,” they said.

The decision to pursue an independent approach was not backed by Waitaki’s previous mayor Gary Kircher.

In August he told RNZ that could lead to rates rises of up to 40 percent over the next two years.

The Department of Internal Affairs ruled the in-house plan failed to meet regulatory requirements, did not include enough information about the condition of the water services and did not include enough funding to cover the district’s projected growth.

New Waitaki mayor Melanie Tavendale said the council’s mission was to deliver clean, safe water to every home, business, school and hospital in the district and to do so at the most affordable price to the ratepayer.

“We need to ensure that when people turn on the tap, they get clean water delivered through efficient pipework and when they flush the toilet, their sewage gets taken away and treated through a secure wastewater network,” she said.

That would inevitably come at some cost, Tavendale said.

“The infrastructure investment needed over the next two decades dwarfs the $50 million council has invested in its waters in the last six years. It can’t be deferred any more, it has to be done,” she said.

“Water isn’t like roads, it’s not part-paid by the government and the charges for water will not be subject to the proposed rates-cap, so finding the most affordable option is vital for everyone in the district.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

An army corporal who swindled thousands of dollars from her comrades in the touch rugby team she managed has been told she has lost her military career and will be held in detention.

But she has avoided detention for now after instructing her lawyer to appeal against that sentence, and the judge granting bail for health reasons because of the expected eight months it would take an appeal to be heard.

Corporal Jackie Te Weehi pocketed $3422.57 of team member and NZDF funding while organising their participation in 2023 in the Australian Defence Force’s touch championships.

She also falsely told the Chief of Army players had travel insurance when they did not.

Te Weehi pleaded guilty at a court martial at Whenuapai Air Base on Monday to a representative charge spanning months of theft by a person in a special relationship.

She also admitted making a false official document.

On Tuesday, Te Weehi was told dismissal from the NZDF alone would not be enough to deter, denunciate or rehabilitate.

The judge told her that her actions were destructive of the trust that must exist between all members of the armed forces.

The Territorial Force soldier has since paid back the money she stole.

The sentencing

Judge Bill Hastings told Te Weehi, 49, her abuse of trust was an aggravating factor in her offending.

“You were the team manager, you abused the trust of many comrades most of whom were a rank subordinate to yours,” he told her.

“You stole from subordinate ranks, your actions violated in particular the core military values of comradeship and integrity.”

The judge continued to say Te Weehi’s offending was pre-meditated and that this was demonstrated by the number of times she stole money.

Judge Hastings also told her she acted in self-interest and demonstrated a willingness to place her self-interests above the Defence Force.

In considering detention, Judge Hastings said he and the military members deciding her sentence had to consider denunciation, deterrence, rehabilitation and reintegration.

He said dismissal was not enough to achieve these alone and he and the panel were of the view detention was also required.

“We consider the NZDF has an obligation to one of its long-standing members to not cut you loose, but to send you back to the community with better values than when you offended,” he said.

“It also to a great extent provides for your rehabilitation and reintegration into the community.”

Judge Hastings said the sentence of both detention and dismissal held the corporal to account for the harm she had caused and deterred others from doing similar.

Credit was given to Te Weehi for her previously unblemished 27 years of service, her remorse, reparations and an early guilty plea.

Judge Hastings said he and the military members had seen letters of apology she wrote to both the court and the army men’s touch team players she took money from.

“We have read these letters and consider them to be genuine expressions of remorse.”

But the judge said there was no way Te Weehi could stay in the Defence Force.

“We consider it neither tolerable, not realistic for the NZDF to retain your services,” he told her.

“Your offending involved a fundamental breach of trust between members of the NZDF such that they should not be expected to work with you again.”

Judge Hastings told the corporal the extent of her breaches of NZDF values prevent her being retained and demonstrate unfitness to command in the future.

During her court martial, NZDF prosecutors also argued Te Weehi could not reasonably be put in a position of trust again.

Judge Hastings had to decide whether to grant the corporal bail or send her to detention until her appeal was heard.

He said he was granting bail to preserve Te Weehi’s appeal rights and not giving it would make those rights redundant given the time it would take.

She must not travel overseas, must surrender any travel documents and not apply for new ones, and tell Military Police if she moves.

The offending

Defence Force prosecutors Lieutenant Letitia Smith and Sub Lieutenant Angus Graham laid out the case at Whenuapai Air Base on Monday.

It was July 2023 when the New Zealand Army Men’s Touch Team was invited to play in the Australian Defence Force Touch Championship in Australia.

Te Weehi, an acting sergeant at the time, was manager of the team.

She overcharged team members and asked for money that wasn’t used, including asking for donations for the coach’s emergency bereavement flight back to New Zealand.

She took money at various points.

Te Weehi sent a budget to team members on 1 August 2023 saying they needed to pay $635 to cover the trip – $531 for flights, $80 for uniforms and $24 for other costs.

Days later she was told that sponsorships meant flight costs had dropped to $400.

She then told team members they needed to pay $535 in total, when it should have been $504.

Between 27 July and 23 August, team members put money into Te Weehi’s personal bank account.

In all, she got $8726 that was supposed for be for tournament expenses.

Between 15 and 23 August Te Weehi transferred $5600 to another service person who booked flights and then paid $1200 for uniforms.

In total she spent $7200 on the team’s needs.

But she held onto $940 from overcharging each player, asking for money for expenses that were not used and not repaying two players who overpaid.

Another player wanted to take his civilian daughter to the tournament and was told she would need to pay full price for the flight.

But Te Weehi knowingly put her on a seat subsidised by the army and held onto the extra $586, which she used for personal expenses.

Then, she got $3000 of sponsorships from the Army Logistics Regiment that was supposed to be given to team members equally as a reimbursement.

Te Weehi, while distributing the money, told players there were hidden costs and insurance fees when there weren’t, and held onto $939.67 and used it personally.

Money from a manager grant for extra expenses was also paid into her bank account for the likes of sports drinks and washing powder, but was not used for those.

On 18 October she asked players for more contributions, $490 for the team and miscellaneous costs.

She only put $294.70 of it toward those, and held onto the rest.

Then, when the team coach had to return to New Zealand urgently during the tournament for a family bereavement, the flight was charged to an NZDF credit card.

Te Weehi raised $189.60 from donations from four team members but gave none of the money to the coach or the Defence Force.

On 25 October she offered to order new team t-shirts for the team with eight players together handing over $372, but the shirts were never ordered.

On the second charge of making a false official document, she made a document addressed to the Chief of Army saying she had arranged travel insurance for the team.

A later investigation by Military Police found Te Weehi had never got insurance.

“Corporal Te Weehi blatantly lied, this was not spur of the moment offending,” Lt Smith said of the second charge at the court martial.

She also told the judge Te Weehi was not acting in any form other than self interest.

Smith said Te Weehi had “a clear unwillingness” to comply with the ethos and values of the NZDF.

Te Weehi’s defence

When interviewed under caution in October last year, Te Weehi asked to terminate the interview and exercise her right to refrain from making further statements.

At the court martial, Te Weehi’s lawyer, David Pawson, told the military panel it was “absolutely warranted” to have her dismissed.

“No problem with that at all,” he said.

But he argued she should not face detention, and that dismissal was a higher punishment than detention.

“She immediately pleaded guilty, she is remorseful, she’s paid back the donations and she’s written a letter of remorse,” he said.

He also urged the military panel to consider the effect of Te Weehi’s name being published by the media.

“I invite you to consider about being empathetic too, I’m not saying be soft but I’m not saying let’s be harsh either,” he said.

“Because at the end of the day Corporal Te Weehi is toward the end of her long and distinguished service.”

“We’ve all made mistakes,” he told the panel before it considered its sentence.

No victims gave victim impact statements.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Some Akaroa King Salmon products are being recalled because of the possible presence of listeria.

Food Safety NZ says the products affected are 100g packets of Mānuka Cold Smoked Slices and 500g packets of Mānuka Cold Smoked Trim.

Both had a use-by date of 29 December, with the batch number 46780.

They were sold at the Akaroa Salmon Wigram Factory Shop, Beckenham Butchery in Christchurch and Taste Nature in Dunedin.

Food Safety NZ deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said these products should be returned to where they were bought for a refund, or thrown out.

“Listeria differs to other harmful bacteria in that it can grow at refrigerator temperatures, so you have to be very careful about the foods you eat, or provide to others, if you or they are in a vulnerable group,” Arbuckle said.

“It is particularly dangerous during pregnancy because it can cause miscarriage, premature labour or stillbirth, and infection in the new-born baby.”

He said the products were identified through routine testing and there had been no reports of illness.

“As is our usual practice, New Zealand Food Safety will work with Ahi Mokopuna Limited Partnership, to understand how the contamination occurred and prevent its recurrence,” said Arbuckle.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A 26-year-old man has died after drowning at a southwest Auckland beach on Monday night.

Counties Manukau south area commander police inspector Jared Pirret said police were contacted about two men struggling to return to shore at Karioitahi Beach just after 7pm.

Lifeguards were able to return one of the men to shore safely.

A Police Eagle Helicopter located the second man in the water, but he was unable to be revived once back on shore.

Police will refer the 26-year-old man’s death to the coroner.

Surf Life Saving said their lifeguards responded to multiple critical incidents on Auckland’s west coast on Monday.

It said it was increasing staffing on Tuesday night with more risky conditions expected.

Surf Life Saving Kariaotahi posted on social media that local iwi had placed a rāhui in front of the surf life saving clubhouse south to the Waikato River mouth for the next seven days. It includes a restriction on fishing, swimming and recreational activities.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The coalition’s RMA reforms seem far more likely to stand the test of time than what Labour passed shortly before being voted out.

Four government ministers fronted to announce the Resource Management Act replacements to more than 100 reporters, stakeholders commentators and officials at the Beehive on Tuesday afternoon.

They include a Planning Bill and a Natural Environment Bill the government will send to select committee next week, with the aim of passing by the end of next year, presumably before the election.

Given the consultation processes needed, the proximity to that election may echo Labour’s effort in 2023 which was quickly scrapped by the incoming coalition.

But indications from the opposition are that the merry-go-round of RMA reform will finally come to an end.

Labour won’t repeal – Hipkins

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the party was still working through the detail of the roughly 750 pages of legislation, particularly the regulatory relief aspects.

“That is the bit that we’re going to want to get into the detail of, because that could be very, very difficult for future governments, for future lawmaking, in the public interest,” he said.

“If you have to be compensating for every sort of infringement on somebody’s unfettered right to do whatever they want with their property, that has potentially far-reaching implications.”

But he indicated Labour would not return the coalition’s favour and again repeal and replace the legislation – opting instead to make changes.

“I think the repeal and replace cycle needs to end. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be amendments but the old idea of constantly going back and starting all over again has to stop.

“From what I can see there’s a heck of a lot of similarities between what they’re proposing now, and the law that they repealed.”

The Green Party said whatever went through had to protect the environment, community voice, democratic processes and the Treaty.

“This government has shown time and time again that they will pass laws that further erode our environment and our living systems, our habitats and species,” co-leader Marama Davidson said.

RNZ has sought comment from Te Pāti Māori.

Certainty amid ‘tsunami of change’ – councils

Local Government New Zealand was happy to have certainty, saying there would be buy-in from councils and communities alike.

Vice President Rehette Stoltz, who is also Gisborne’s mayor, said she saw an increased workload ahead, it would also be an opportunity for more engagement with central government which had signalled it was open to.

“I think local government is seeing a tsunami of change, but we’re ready for that. We want to serve our communities as best as possible. Yes, there will be more work on local mayors. There will be more work also with local communities, because we will have to lean in, and our communities have to lean in to let us know what’s important to them at that local level.”

LGNZ’s regional sector chair Deon Swiggs, who is also chair of Environment Canterbury, said it was an opportunity to think differently about resource management.

He said the coalition’s version was “straight out” simpler than Labour’s, and he hoped the government would use the expertise of regional councils.

“Regional councils have some really, really good people who know this work [like the] back of their hand. And we do have elected members who have been elected to regional councils who were elected because they wanted to be in the resource management space,” he said.

“How we harness the skillsets of those people into this transition framework as well is going to be critical. So we want to be making sure that we have conversations with the government so that we don’t lose that technical skill, that institutional knowledge.”

Farmers, property professionals, Taxpayers Union back ‘ambitious’ reforms

Federated Farmers said the Resource Management Act had been the single biggest handbrake on growing agricultural productivity and rural economies.

Its resource management spokesperson Mark Hooper said it made sense to use certified Farm Plans instead of needing a resource consent.

“Farm Plans can achieve much of the same environmental outcomes as a resource consent, without the need to fork out tens of thousands of dollars on expensive planners and lawyers.”

However, Hooper said the increase in fines and restrictions on the use of insurance to cover a breach did not strike the balance in the right direction.

“This needs to have more nuance so that when harm is done accidentally, for example an effluent system fails due to poor engineering, this is recognised in the regime.”

The New Zealand Planning Institute said the timeframes for transition to the new system were “ambitious”, but supported the legislation.

“There are plenty of positives in the new system, with a refocus on the value planners bring to society,” NZPI Board Chair Andrea Harris said.

“We’ve been advocating for strategic spatial planning, which considers the long-term needs of society and coordinates the provision of infrastructure and growth within constraints.”

The Taxpayers’ Union said scrapping the Resource Management Act would be “the most meaningful tax relief offered by this government or any government in decades.”

Environmental groups rail against ‘regulatory relief’ effects

Greenpeace said companies being able to claim compensation was an “outrageous” idea, and it “flips the entire principle that polluters should pay on its head.”

Spokesperson Gen Toop said New Zealanders should not be expected to pay compensation to companies causing environmental harm.

“In practice, this means that if regions like Gisborne want stronger rules to stop forestry slash destroying homes and rivers, ratepayers would likely be forced to pay offshore forestry companies ‘compensation’. It’s absurd.”

The Environmental Defence Society also expressed concern at the regulatory relief proposal.

“That will have a chilling effect on councils protecting things. If they protect something, then arguably they have to pay the landowner for that, which is really bizarre and I think is a construct that comes out of right wing ideology,” EDS chair Gary Taylor said.

“Councils will have rate caps, so they won’t be able to afford to pay, so they’ll have weaker controls.”

Forest and Bird general counsel Erika Toleman said putting greater weight on private property rights would ignore harms like destruction of biodiversity on private land, erosion of soils and ecosystem services, and cumulative degradation of rivers and landscapes.

“Big environmental issues, from deforestation to water pollution, happen within property boundaries. Excluding these effects is a recipe for decline,” she said.

Toleman said introducing compensation would make councils fear liability for protecting nature.

Ministers sell the policy

Announcing the new regime, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it would be a “more permissive, consistent and predictable system, that unlocks investment, reduces delays and gives businesses confidence to plan and to grow”.

He said officials estimated up to 46 percent of consenting and permit applications required under the RMA could be removed – between 15,000 and 22,000 consents that would no longer be needed based on 2023/24 figures.

Luxon was flanked by Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Associate RMA Reform Minister Simon Court.

Seymour said it was “an historic and momentous day” because it marked a shift to the principle that “if you own a property and you’re not harming anyone else, you can”.

“We have the best piece of land on the planet but we’ve made it too hard to build an affordable life here, but worst of all we’ve done it to ourselves with planning laws that allowed every Tom, Dick and Henare to say no when people had an idea to make life better.

“It seems that for every person in this country who think they can, there’s a ‘can’t’, who’s empowered by the Resource Management Act to get in the way.”

Bishop said it would mean “less paperwork, less cost, faster and easier progress for those who want to do basic things like putting a deck on a house, building a fence on a farm, or constructing townhouses or even a wind farm”.

“The size of the prize is substantial. The economic opportunities we unlock with these reforms are unbelievably large,” he said.

He said economic growth would begin as soon as the system was set up and would build up over time, unlocking billions in economic value.

“Once this is implemented new Zealanders will be able to go to one website, look at one map, and figure out what they can and can’t do with their property – and in time they may be able to obtain simple consents online within a matter of days by harnessing the power of AI.”

He said councils would no longer be involved in gauging demand or financial viability of projects, retail distribution effects, the negative effects of development on competition.

“Which way your front door faces is an important decision, but guess what, it’s an important decision for you and your family, not for a local council bureaucrat to decide for you.”

Court said the major shift was towards a system with property rights at its centre, “after all, property rights are a core cornerstone of a liberal democracy”.

“Providing for regulatory relief is a critical way to right-size regulation by forcing councils to confront the real cost of these restrictions on private property that for too long have been costless to that council officer holding the highlighter, colouring in people’s property.

“It’s also a way to ensure that when these controls are justified, the property owner can access reasonable relief.”

He said the planning tribunal set to adjudicate when there was disagreement, will hold councils’ feet to the fire.

Bishop acknowledged the new regime had some similarities to Labour’s approach, but said he would “stand absolutely behind the decision” to repeal that law in favour of his own version.

“We started again for a reason and I think we’ve ended up with a with a good outcome. Yeah, I absolutely think that was the right thing to do.”

The third coalition partner New Zealand First did not have a speaker at the announcement, but deputy leader Shane Jones said Māori involvement in the rollout would be key.

“Let’s see how the bill comes out of the Select Committee. But, you know, unless we have development in our Māori rural communities, they’re going to be in strugglers gully,” he said.

“But there’ll be people who disagree, because obviously the debate is ongoing as to how much veto power should Ngāi Tahu, for example, have over the development of the South Island.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Black-billed gulls are once again nesting on the rooftops in Tūrangi town centre.

A large colony of 150 of the threatened birds had nested there in 2023 – leaving a generous layer of guano on cars, rooftops and around businesses.

This year, the Department of Conservation said only 15 had decided to make the town centre their temporary home since November.

Ranger Sarah Tunnicliffe said businesses have had streamers and sprinklers on the rooftops to scare the birds away, so only a few determined stragglers had returned.

However, she encouraged the public not to feed them – either actively or by leaving food unattended – to continue to deter them away.

“Feeding them just encourages them to continue using the town centre, where they cause problems by pooing everywhere and squawking a lot.

“People might not be aware, but even small actions like not feeding birds count as naturing, and help to protect the nature we love.”

Tunnicliffe said the Department of Conservation was hoping for a less eventful season.

“We expect to see hatching any time now, and fledging should start toward the end of January.

“Hopefully none of the hatched chicks wander into the post-shop this time! But if you do come across one of the little fuzzballs wandering the town centre, please contact us on 0800 DOC HOT.”

While she said the community would be pleased to see only a small number of black-billed gulls in Tūrangi, the Department of Conservation was not sure where the rest of the population had gone.

“If you do come across black-billed gulls nesting elsewhere around Taupō, please contact us at turangi@doc.govt.nz.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say the body of a swimmer missing at Lake Wainamu on Auckland’s west coast has been found.

The 23-year-old man was in waist-deep water with three friends at the lake at Bethells Beach on Monday when he got into difficulty.

Police said he had taken a few steps before falling into a hole, and did not resurface.

The Police National Dive Squad searched the lake, helped by lifeguards from the Bethells Beach Surf Lifesaving Club.

The man’s death will be referred to the coroner.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand