Source: Radio New Zealand

The family of French national Antoine Richard is appealing for more help in the search for the 21-year-old who was reported missing in Cromwell on the weekend of 21-22 March.

Richard was last seen on 21 March, around 11.45pm at the Victoria Arms Hotel on the corner of Achil Street and Melmore Terrace.

A statement issued by police on behalf of the family on Wednesday said: “An enormous amount of work has already been carried out by the police, the Search and Rescue team, Carrick winery where he worked, his friends, the Cromwell Rugby Team, local residents, and everyone who has taken part in the search.

“We are infinitely grateful to them.”

The family, Hervé, Marithé, Claudine, Elise, Noémie, Valentin and Corentin Richard, said they were asking for people’s help with these aspects of the case:

• A Croc shoe that had been found
• If you or someone you know owns a property in Cromwell, please check your surroundings, gardens, and outbuildings
• If you have a security camera, please review the footage from after 11:30pm on 22 March
• Anyone who gave a lift to Richard in the early hours of 22 March

“We have been devastated with worry since we heard the news.

“We are writing on behalf of his entire family, his friends, his colleagues in France and New Zealand, and all the people he loves, in the hope of finding him as soon as possible.”

Police are also appealing for residents to check their properties and any CCTV footage which can be uploaded here.

They also want to hear from anyone who may have seen a person matching Richard’s description either hitchhiking or walking in Cromwell in the early hours of 22 March.

Detective Phill Hamlin said searches have been conducted by LandSAR members from throughout the Otago and Southland area, police, Coastguard and many members of the community.

“We remain dedicated and focused on locating Antoine,” he said.

The Police National Dive Squad will also search areas of Lake Dunstan.

Search teams located a grey rubber Croc branded sandal from the shore of Lake Dunstan and would like to speak to anyone who may have seen somebody wearing the footwear.

Richard was last seen also wearing light coloured knee length shorts and a black t-shirt, police said.

Anyone who has seen him or has information regarding his whereabouts, is urged to contact police via 105, using the reference file number 260324/5771.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The housing minister says nothing has fundamentally changed as the government scales back Auckland’s minimum housing target even further.

Auckland Council had been progressing a plan to accommodate up to 2 million homes in the next 30 years. But in February that was reduced to 1.6 million, and on Tuesday that dropped again to 1.4 million homes.

The council opted out of medium-density rules that apply to most major cities on the proviso it set up zoning for 30 years of growth, instead adopting its own process called Plan Change 120. RNZ previously reported this approach was made under pressure from proponents of heritage homes, who raised concerns about further intensification in character areas that were already seeing major development.

Chris Bishop told Morning Report on Wednesday 1.4m was the new legal minimum, but with upzoning around the City Rail Link (CRL) stations and other areas, officials were expecting to settle closer to 1.6m.

“We’re just making sure we can get some certainty into the Parliament and into the community. And I think hopefully – he says, crossing his fingers behind his back – that this will settle the issue once and for all… Nothing’s actually fundamentally changed. It’s still the same process. And actually, what Auckland Council’s doing right now, they can just charge on with because there’s no actual change to any of that.”

In response to a suggestion it was a “bit confusing”, Bishop responded: “Yeah, well, tell me about it.”

“On the margins, the 1.4m will allow the council a bit more flexibility, but I’m told that with all of the legal requirements around the national policy statement, urban development, rapid transit stations, for example, and the CRL, that the practical effect will be the council ends up at about 1.6m, which is a big improvement on the status quo and will make a significant difference to housing and development opportunities in Auckland, which is ultimately what I’m trying to achieve here.”

He said much of the debate around PC120 last year was “not exactly that helpful”, and the original target of 2m homes “became a bit of a lightning rod”.

“Everyone wants Auckland to grow, but we want to make sure it grows in the right places. We want to make sure that there’s a social license and community consensus around density. There’s no point having endless debates without making a lot of progress. And so that’s what I’ve been focused on, actually making progress.”

As for which suburbs might see less or more development under the latest plan, Bishop said that was up to Auckland Council.

“Having made this decision, we are now kicking the issue into Auckland Council’s hands and saying, ‘It’s now over to you. You wanted more flexibility over the medium density standards, we’ve given you that. You wanted to take the number down, we’ve given you that. It is now over to you and Auckland communities and constituents and councillors to work out exactly where density in Auckland happens.’ So it’s now over to the council…

“And 1.6m is a big advance on the current Auckland plan, the Auckland Unitary Plan, which is about 1.2m. So we are making progress in Auckland.”

Mayor Wayne Brown said in a statement on Tuesday the change would give Auckland more flexibility to grow into the city it wants to be, “a global city, not embarrassingly the world’s biggest suburb”.

“This has been going on for years, over successive governments. If we waited for everyone to agree, we’d never get anywhere. It’s time to stop the talk, for Wellington to get out of the way, and let Auckland get on with building Auckland.”

He also noted it would give greater ability to downzone for natural hazards and retain intensification where it makes the most sense, such as along major transport routes and the CRL.

National’s coalition partner ACT wanted fewer homes built if they were not going to be greenfields developments.

“The council has said they don’t want to do that. I think that’s really disappointing. They’ve said that they want most development to be within 10km of Queen Street,” leader David Seymour said.

“That’s their right and their choice as a council, but it’s also caused a change in the target number that the government has set.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

An international start-up has been pushing for regulation changes to allow it to carry out controversial marine carbon storage in New Zealand waters.

The company, Gigablue, says its technology could be game-changing for the climate, with the potential to store ‘gigatons’ of carbon in the deep ocean and create local jobs.

Its latest trial off the Otago coast is underway right now.

But experts in marine science and law are urging New Zealand to proceed with caution, saying that type of technology is hard to prove, hard to measure, and, at worst, unsafe for the environment.

The company says it needs to be able to carry out ocean research to build its evidence base – but wants to be able to generate carbon credits, in order to fund its work.

It says commercial viability is essential but for now it is prioritising the generation of scientific evidence.

Documents released to RNZ under the Official Information Act show that in meetings with the Ministry for the Environment last year, Gigablue proposed changes to marine regulations that would allow it to go ahead without consents.

The company was assisted in its lobbying by former climate change minister James Shaw, who told RNZ the climate crisis was bad “and we should explore all scientific options that might help us to stop it getting even worse”.

Privately, though, officials appeared frustrated as their questions about gaps in the research and evidence base, and how these would be filled, went unanswered for months.

That frustration was shared by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which turned down two applications from the company to carry out research within New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone in late 2025.

It had previously allowed two much smaller sea trials to go ahead.

In documents provided to RNZ, the EPA concluded that Gigablue’s plans to deploy 1000 tonnes of its proprietary particles into the ocean amounted to dumping, which is illegal under domestic and international law.

The agency was also concerned about the environmental effects, and not convinced that the company’s plans amounted to scientific research – for which an exemption can be granted.

However, earlier this year it agreed to “a significantly modified activity”, which began in March and will finish later this week.

Co-founded by four Israeli entrepreneurs, Gigablue says its ‘microalgae carbon fixation and sinking’ (MCFS) technology stimulates a natural cycle where tiny organisms in the water, called phytoplankton, absorb carbon dioxide from the surface ocean through photosynthesis.

When these microalgae die, some sink – taking the carbon into the deep ocean, where slow-moving currents mean it can stay stored for decades, centuries or longer.

In turn, this allows the surface ocean to suck more climate change-inducing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

It is one type of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR), a growing field of research that proponents say could help to limit or even reverse global warming.

The company said its technology had undergone comprehensive scientific review, and was “measurable, scalable, and environmentally responsible”.

It intends to sell carbon credits for the extra carbon it manages to store, and has already signed an agreement with aviation services provider SkiesFifty to sequester 200,000 tonnes of CO2 by 2029.

However, marine and climate scientists and maritime law experts who spoke to RNZ expressed similar concerns to those voiced by officials.

They said that, based on publicly-available documents, the technology was indistinguishable from ocean fertilisation, a type of carbon removal that involves encouraging algal blooms and is currently commercially prohibited under international protocols.

Gigablue said its technology was neither ocean fertilisation nor marine dumping, and that it had the backing of local scientists.

It claims it can “responsibly scale its technology toward gigaton-level impact”.

But experts said that even if the company could legally go ahead, proving that any marine carbon removal technology actually worked was fraught with difficulty.

They also pressed the need for updated regulations, but said efforts should be focused on allowing genuine research, not commercialisation.

“In theory, it can sequester carbon,” University of Tasmania marine biologist Lennart Bach said. “We have lots of model studies that can show that.”

The difficulty was proving it.

“Whenever I hear gigaton, I’d be very careful.

“I think it needs to be shown [for] one tonne, 1000 tonnes, 10,000 tonnes. And if you show a million tonnes is reasonably feasible, then maybe you can start talking about a gigaton.”

Current regulations a ‘hindrance’

Gigablue first began operating in New Zealand in 2024, when the EPA gave it permission to conduct two small-scale ocean trials to test how its particles would drift and then sink.

It chartered a vessel from crown research institute NIWA (now part of Earth Sciences New Zealand) to carry out the second trial and also contracted the institute to review its methodology.

However, by 2025 it was looking for a more permissive way to conduct its activities, with an eye to selling carbon credits to businesses wanting to offset their emissions – known as the voluntary carbon market.

As well as the contract with SkiesFifty, it recently raised US$20 million (NZ$35m) in venture capital.

The company first met with senior MfE officials, including the ministry’s chief of staff, in early March 2025.

In a follow-up letter, Gigablue co-founder and chief technology officer Sapir Markus-Alford said the current regulations were “a hindrance” to marine carbon removal, because it was so new that it was not recognised in New Zealand’s system.

The company’s suggestion was to make it a new type of ‘permitted activity’ under EEZ regulations, meaning Gigablue’s activities would not need a consent. Further regulatory changes could follow in future.

But officials had identified a problem.

What Gigablue was proposing sounded extremely similar to ocean fertilisation, in which iron (and sometimes other nutrients) is added to areas where it’s scarce – including large parts of the Southern Ocean – to encourage more phytoplankton to grow.

Other than for “legitimate scientific research”, ocean fertilisation is prohibited under international law, via a 2013 amendment to the London Protocol, the main international agreement governing marine dumping.

In 2023, a protocol meeting agreed that ocean fertilisation “has the potential to cause deleterious effects that are widespread, long-lasting or severe”, such as harmful algal blooms and affecting marine food chains.

New Zealand has not ratified the amendment, but agreed to it, and is a member of the protocol. Under domestic EEZ laws, marine geoengineering and marine dumping are also not allowed.

“However, marine scientific research is considered a permitted activity,” one official noted. “The EPA has allowed Gigablue to undertake research in line with these requirements.”

Gigablue says there are crucial differences between its methodology, and ocean fertilisation, and gave RNZ a document prepared by Tonkin + Taylor outlining the distinctions.

Instead of adding iron directly to the ocean, it is ’embedded’ in small particles designed to accumulate the microalgae as it grows – therefore containing and controlling that growth.

The substrate is then meant to sink quickly to the ocean floor before the algae can decay or be eaten.

Gigablue says this method will store much more carbon than just encouraging free-floating phytoplankton blooms.

University of Canterbury law professor Karen Scott, who specialises in marine law, said the description was “clearly ocean fertilisation” under the protocol.

The ban remained non-binding, Scott said. “But it is arguably persuasive in terms of how states should respond to it.”

Efficacy evidence ‘top of the list’ – ministry request

In May 2025, MfE officials and Gigablue met for a two-day series of in-person meetings, with Gigablue executives flying in from overseas, joined online by James Shaw and Gigablue’s advisors for Māori engagement.

Personal notes taken by one adviser were punctuated with sceptical remarks about some of the science and environmental claims the company made: “questionable”, “skimmed over” – even “lol”.

Following the meeting, the company provided a summary of the scientific methodology review from ESNZ, along with some studies the company had commissioned from the Nelson-based Cawthron Institute.

After reviewing the documents, the same adviser emailed colleagues with a long list of gaps and assumptions she had identified, for both the environmental effects and for how much carbon would be stored, for how long.

ESNZ had found that the methodology was “scientifically sound and consistent with current scientific understanding of marine carbon dioxide removals”, but stated it had not considered the regulatory framework, environmental thresholds, or the operational scalability, she said.

The Cawthron studies on environmental safety noted “low statistical power” and that the trends should be “interpreted with caution”, she wrote.

There were other ocean-based mCDR start-ups operating overseas, using various different technologies, but they provided “much more public documentation of their methodology and research”, she said.

Not all her colleagues were so sceptical. In emails debriefing the meetings, one senior adviser said she found Gigablue “very inspiring”.

“It’s a cool idea and I found myself very persuaded.”

More emails and phone calls followed, with officials pressing the need each time for further information about existing and planned research.

In early July, a senior official emailed Markus-Alford a page-long list of what the ministry wanted, including high-priority items that officials felt were “unsighted to peer review”.

“The efficacy evidence is top of the list for us,” the official said.

In mid-September, the adviser who had reviewed the initial documents asked her manager if Gigablue had provided “any of the information we requested a few months ago”.

No, he replied. “At this stage until they share anything with us I don’t think we need to be doing anything.”

EPA turned down larger trial

At the same time that Gigablue was engaging with ministry officials, it was also seeking permission from the EPA to go ahead with a much larger trial offshore from Otago, starting in late 2025.

Marine scientific research can go ahead without a consent, but the agency still has to assess whether it meets the criteria for a “permitted activity”.

In Gigablue’s pre-activity notice filed in February 2025, it said the volumes of particles it had used in its two previous field trials – a few tonnes each – had been too small to track into the deep ocean.

This time, it wanted to release up to 1000 tonnes of particles, in five lots.

Modelling showed that by the time the particles made it to the seafloor, they would be “a scant, scattered presence” and were not expected to smother any sea life, the application said.

“Adverse effects on seabirds, fish, zooplankton and marine mammals are also unlikely.”

The authority asked for further information, including a more detailed environmental impact assessment.

The company finally provided a draft summary assessment in late September, but the authority was unmoved.

In a formal notification, the EPA’s compliance manager said the company’s plans – including a second trial it filed details of in August – could not proceed as permitted activities, because the disposal of particles fell within the definition of dumping.

The authority was also concerned the environmental effects were underestimated, and not satisfied that the proposal fell within the definition of marine scientific research.

“That was not the response we were hoping for,” a Gigablue executive wrote back. The planned research would have to stop, “with a significant cost”.

EPA told RNZ its discussions with Gigablue were “ongoing” and the company submitted a “significantly modified activity” in January this year.

That activity was given permission to go ahead, “strictly in accordance with the description provided and that all mitigation measures are fully implemented and adhered to”.

Instead of the 1000 tonnes it proposed releasing last year, the smaller trial involved just 55kg of substrate, contained within ‘pens’ that would drift up to 180km before being collected.

No change – for now

Although it has only so far applied to carry out research, the MfE documents make it clear that Gigablue wanted to start verifying carbon credits.

An early discussion between officials shows some uncertainty about how to define the company’s activities: “Are they still classified as research or have they shifted to commercial?”

In July, Markus-Alford shared its legal advice with officials “to help us understand the legal state of using the data from a scientific experiment activity for the registration of credits”.

In an interview with RNZ, she said all of Gigablue’s planned activities were still research, but it was “essential” to get carbon credits verified to fund voyages, equipment and expertise.

“These are all research activities that need to still be somehow paid [for].”

It was up to New Zealand to decide how to classify that.

“Our conversations with the New Zealand government is to figure out what the regulator in New Zealand will think is most appropriate, and we will follow it.”

James Kerry, a senior marine scientist at European NGO OceanCare and adjunct research fellow at Australia’s James Cook University, said there were plenty of much smaller-scale lab or tank-based studies the company should be doing to demonstrate the basics of its approach before it moved to any kind of open ocean trials.

“It’s certainly possible to begin to gain confidence in your claims or in your expectations without going to what was proposed in one of the requests for a permitted activity, which was to deposit a thousand tons of particles in the ocean.”

An MfE spokesperson told RNZ there was no current work happening to change EEZ legislation or to develop a regime for marine carbon dioxide removal.

There had been communication with Gigablue since October over a proposed visit, and the company had provided some further information, which the ministry was reviewing.

The ministry did not have a position on the efficacy or environmental safety of Gigablue’s technology, nor whether it met the definition of either marine geoengineering or ocean fertilisation, a spokesperson said.

Despite the delayed voyages, the benefit for Gigablue of operating in New Zealand – apart from access to the Southern Ocean – was one of perception.

“We actually came to New Zealand because of its strict environmental approach,” Markus-Alford told RNZ.

Gigablue’s website and public material still lean heavily on the involvement of New Zealand agencies.

The website features photos of the ESNZ vessel at sea during the 2024 voyages, and chief oceans scientist Mike Williams – who declined an interview with RNZ – appears in a promotional video.

A sub-heading says Gigablue’s activities are “Permitted by the EPA”.

Gigablue told officials there were added benefits to New Zealand, too, “including job creation, infrastructure investment, and enhanced global positioning”.

James Shaw told RNZ he saw a clear benefit from allowing Gigablue to continue its activities here.

“If the science proves out … then New Zealand will be well-positioned to take an early lead on removing CO2 from the atmosphere in the ocean as well as on land,” he said.

Why New Zealand?

New Zealand was not the only country that Gigablue was interested in operating in, Markus-Akford told RNZ.

“There are countries out there that promote and even have in place already regulatory frameworks to be able to host those activities and to act as leaders in this space.”

However, the company had found “amazing partners” in New Zealand.

“We found here really a treasure of people and communities that we are really enjoying working with.”

Among them is Cherie Tirikatene (Ngāi Tahu), the Rekohu/Chatham Islands general manager for Māori-led carbon farming organisation Tāmata Hauhā.

Now also Gigablue’s strategic and iwi engagement manager, she got involved when the company sought help consulting with iwi.

What the company wanted to do was “super exciting”, but it was their open and early engagement that won her over.

“I’ve attached my whakapapa to this because I do believe in it and I believe in their authenticity.”

There were huge opportunities from allowing the company to operate in New Zealand, including local jobs and research opportunities for young people, she said.

However, that could all be lost “if this gets too hard”.

“If we were to lose this off our shores and they go to another country to operate, I would be gutted.”

Tirikatene believed the technology was “a game-changer”.

“What we’re proving now is the scale.”

Robust research and monitoring essential – experts

Late last year, in collaboration with the carbon removals monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) company, Puro.Earth, Gigablue published a 170-page methodology for microalgae carbon fixation and sinking.

That would require field-based measurements at each stage of every deployment, Markus-Alford told RNZ.

“The measurement of this technology is based on ground-truth data, not on modelling.”

Helene Muri, a senior scientist at Norwegian climate and environmental research institute NILU, co-authored a European report late last year into MRV for marine carbon dioxide removal.

“We concluded that no mCDR method today has a sufficiently robust, comprehensive MRV system to support safe, large-scale deployment or crediting,” she said.

“We are still in the knowledge-building phase, not in a stage where large volumes of credits from marine interventions can be considered high-confidence climate solutions.”

Gigablue’s contract to deliver 200,000 carbon credits by 2029 was therefore “very ambitious and, from a scientific standpoint, most likely premature”, Muri said.

The ESNZ scientific review and the Puro.Earth methodology were both important steps, but not sufficient on their own, Muri said.

“They are not a substitute for public, peer-engageable evidence, independent third-party verification, and regulatory judgment on environmental acceptability and legal consistency.”

Gigablue has not yet published any research, though it provided RNZ with the same one-page summary of the ESNZ review that was supplied to MfE, together with the unpublished study from the Cawthron Institute.

It also supplied a full version of the environmental impact assessment it gave to the EPA in draft form, which said the adverse environmental effects were “expected to be low to negligible”.

Last month, it presented at the Ocean Sciences Meeting, the flagship conference for ocean sciences, and Markus-Alford said it had a research paper going through the review process.

She said the company agreed with the need for published research – which is why Gigablue wanted to scale up its activities in New Zealand.

“We are really eager to create those evidence-based results, to be in the ocean, and to prove to anyone … that our activity is safe.”

James Kerry said the collaboration with institutions like ESNZ was positive, but the underlying research and reports had not been made available.

“That makes it difficult for the wider scientific community to assess what was actually evaluated, under what conditions, and how far the conclusions can really be taken,” he said

From what he could see, the research so far had been limited to small-scale field trials and a small set of “relatively limited” lab studies, he said.

“Each of these can provide useful insights, but none of them individually or collectively are anywhere near sufficient to demonstrate that the approach works as intended or is environmentally safe.”

What next?

Markus-Alford said for now, the company was able to proceed with its immediate research plans under the current EEZ regulations.

It still wanted to verify carbon credits, but the timeline for that was “a matter of the developments with the regulations”.

Karen Scott said New Zealand should allow mCDR research to take place in its waters, but it should do it in line with the London Protocol.

That provided “quite a robust international framework” for assessing which research activities could go ahead, which New Zealand should follow.

“That’s not to say that you need to ban it altogether, because there is potential within this,” she said.

“But … we’re a very long way from the stage where you could convincingly deploy it.”

Helene Muri said New Zealand and other states should take a “staged and precautionary approach” to any mCDR projects, and resist rapid commercialisation.

Lennart Bach said governments should “constructively regulate” marine carbon dioxide removal.

He believed there was a place for start-ups to be involved, because they were more inclined to test boundaries.

“Working in the space myself academically … we don’t necessarily overthink it, but we also are hesitant to make the next steps,” he said.

The risk was that an “unhinged” start-up could move too fast. “The intent is good. [It’s] the regulation that is missing.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Christchurch City Council staff are backing away from a controversial plan to pump millions of litres of sewage out to sea as councillors prepare to vote on proposals it is hoped will take pressure off the city’s struggling treatment plant.

A plan put forward by the mayor to send partially treated sewage out to sea which prompted concern and condemnation has not been recommended by council staff.

Instead, staff backed a plan to increase aeration in the oxidation ponds, which would be more cost effective, less ecologically damaging, had mana whenua support and was easier to build and operate than the plan the mayor mooted.

Putrid stench plagues city

Residents in the city’s east have been plagued by the stench since a blaze destroyed parts of the Bromley wastewater treatment plant in 2021.

Complaints began to surge in October, with the regional council receiving more than 7600 reports from the east and city centre over summer.

The city council said heavy rain reducing oxygen and algae in the ponds worsened the smell.

In late February, the regional council issued an abatement notice to the city council requiring it to provide a comprehensive plan to comply with its resource consent or face prosecution.

Days later, mayor Phil Mauger proposed pumping around a third of the city’s sewage – between 45 to 55 million litres a day – into Pegasus Bay via the existing outfall pipe.

At the time, the regional council’s director of operations Brett Aldridge said the council was “surprised and concerned” by the comments.

On Tuesday, Aldridge said he was confident the council had now provided all the information required.

The regional council would do “a little bit of due diligence” and have its experts look at the council’s plans, Aldridge said.

“We will leave it to the city engineers to really get into the nitty gritty of what that design is and how it will be implemented.”

Aldridge confirmed the council’s two recommended options were not included in the response to the abatement notice.

The council had signalled longer term options were under development with a wastewater specialist, but did not set out specific options or proposed pathways, he said.

Two recommended options

In its report to councillors, council staff offered six options but said only two were viable and cost effective – increasing aeration to the ponds, or increasing aeration and diverting some partially treated wastewater around the ponds and out to sea.

Staff warned neither option addressed odours caused by excessive sewage loads or chemicals, equipment failures, those caused by extreme rain events or by things other than biological oxygen demand (BOD) – a measure of how much oxygen was needed to break down sewage into CO2 and sludge.

High BOD levels in the plant’s ponds were just one reason for the stench, but were the most significant cause, according to the report.

Increasing electrical supply to power the additional aerators could take four months, and staff proposed using diesel generators in the interim.

Staff costed the recommendations between $7.7 million and $11.2m to add differing levels of aeration, or between $12.2m and $16.6m to add aeration and then divert 400 litres a second of partially treated sewage to sea, either as needed (18 to 60 days a year) or year-round.

The most expensive option, to divert almost 2000 litres a second of partially treated sewage to sea for 243 days a year would cost $18.3m, had a very high risk of failure, and would take five months to implement.

Staff noted the partially treated wastewater would include BOD, enterococci, TSS (total suspended solids) and chlorine which could have effects on the ocean and public health, but that there had not been time to assess the ecological and health impacts.

If councillors backed aeration, the only resource consent needed would be for the temporary diesel generators.

If they chose one of the diversion options, they would need a new consent, which would be processed with priority and under the new wastewater regulations that came into effect in December, Aldridge said.

Two abatement notices in less than a month

In March, the regional council issued another notice over a series of illegal sewage discharges into Whakaraupō Lyttelton and Akaroa harbours.

The breaches prompted Banks Peninsula hapū Ngati Wheke to consider legal action over the failures and lack of communication from the council.

Ecologist Dr Mike Joy said discharging sewage to the ocean, rivers and estuaries was “Victorian”.

“We should be way past this kind of attitude that it’s all right just to dump the waste.”

Terms such as “treated wastewater” needed clearer definitions, he said.

“.. the word treatment can mean anything from just taking the lumps out to completely taking it back to drinking water.”

Assurances about the safety of chlorine did not relate to environmental impact.

“They mean safe in that the chlorine will kill bacteria that are harmful to humans – that doesn’t mean it’s safe for the environment or safe for the ecology of the near shore environments.”

Sewage discharge caused an influx of nutrients which drove algal blooms and potentially cyanobacteria blooms, resulting in “dead zones where the water becomes deoxygenated, and no life in any form can survive without oxygen”.

The idea the sheer quantity of water would disperse sewage was outdated, Joy said.

“This is this old saying when there were a hell of a lot less people on the planet that the solution to pollution is dilution, but it’s not that at all – the solution to pollution is assimilation.”

Nor did he think the council’s altered proposal was much of an improvement.

“It’s just another ambulance at the bottom of the cliff thing. To treat this discharge properly we need to create an industrial-type wetland where you grow flax and raupō and you harvest and compost it.”

Concern over new national wastewater rules

The proposal underscored the increased nutrients and pathogens that could be discharged under the new wastewater standards, Joy said.

“It was a completely backward step, and I think the city council’s trying to take advantage of the weakening of national regulations to allow more stuff to be dumped into the ocean.”

Joy disputed claims the standards would improve performance.

“The only performance that will improve might be the economic bottom line for these councils because they’ll be able to get away with dumping more of the stuff without treating it. It’s quite clear analysis … that much more of these contaminants will be allowed under this new legislation.”

Some bypass events could go on for weeks or months and could go completely unnoticed.

“The actual wastewater treatment plants in many cases are OK, but the infrastructure that feeds into it is old and worn out and has illegal connections so when you get a heavy rainfall event you get a massive increase and they don’t have anywhere to store it.”

Sewerage infrastructure would come under more strain as climate change caused more extreme weather events, he said.

“It’s a massive and growing problem in New Zealand and it’s just another one of these [issues] of lack of spending on infrastructure that’s now coming back to bite us.”

Upgrades urgently needed

Taumata Arowai criticised what it called “[https://www.taumataarowai.govt.nz/home/articles/wastewater-standards-separating-myth-from-fact

misconceptions]” about the rules.

Spokesperson Sara McFall said more than 20 percent of the country’s wastewater plants were operating on expired consents and around half of underground wastewater networks were rated as in poor or very poor condition, so it was important to make the urgently needed upgrades affordable.

The council’s wastewater treatment plant operations manager Adam Twose presented to the Waitai Coastal-Burwood-Linwood community board in mid-March, and was clear the council was only able to consider the diversion plan because the regulations were “significantly more relaxed” than current consent conditions.

“Under the new wastewater standards, there’s the option to go a lot looser, so you’re allowed to discharge more contaminants to the environment,” he told the meeting.

He told the board there was a “high level” risk of the stench increasing if the council did not act, as well as risks to the plant itself, which had been operating “at maximum capacity and minimum redundancy” since the fire.

More oversight, more support

City councillor Yani Johanson said it was obvious the plan to put partially treated wastewater into the outfall pipe was not realistic.

“There are too many risks around it, too much concern around environmental impact, too many unknowns.”

He was frustrated aeration had not been suggested earlier.

“Many of us around the council table have asked for options to address what was going on and what was causing it for years. I welcome the idea that we can do more, but it’s frustrating it’s taken this long to get to that point.”

Johanson wanted better council oversight of the activated sludge plant project, due to be completed in 2028.

“While there’s some things being done, there’s no clear plan that the community can look at to hold us accountable for mitigating the impact on their health and well-being.”

He also wanted staff to prepare a plan to reduce the impact on the community.

This could include free GP visits, a register of vulnerable residents or distributing air purifiers, he said.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The same government that scrapped the Lake Onslow pumped hydro project has put it on the fast-track list. But whether this country can pull off a project of its size is another question.

It was hyped as the answer to the country’s energy anxiety – a giant “battery” in the deep south that could keep the lights on when the lakes run dry.

But when the coalition government was voted in, the project was voted out, deemed too big and too expensive.

Now, the Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme is back – or at least, back in the conversation – thanks to a private consortium group, and somewhat ironically, the government has agreed to refer the scheme for possible fast-tracking.

“There’s a view that the fast-track system makes it a lot easier to consent to a lot of different things, but this is a really big project,” says Newsroom senior political reporter Marc Daalder, who has been covering the story.

“It’s hard to overstate how significant this would be, both in terms of its broader energy system and national economic impact, but also just in terms of the actual size of the thing they are proposing to build.

“And that’s the real question, right? People often say it’s hard to build things in New Zealand. Well, this is a really big thing. Can we build it?

“Recent history would suggest no, not without significant cost overruns and significant regulatory difficulty. The government likes to think that they have tackled those issues. I guess we will find out.”

Today, The Detail looks into the pumped hydro scheme concept, which is deceptively simple: pump water uphill when electricity is plentiful, then release it when it’s scarce, with energy stored at a scale never seen before in New Zealand.

Supporters say it’s exactly what’s needed to tackle the country’s biggest vulnerability – the dreaded “dry year”, when hydro lakes drop, gas runs tight, and coal-fired generation has to ramp up.

The Labour government liked the idea, but when they looked into it, the bill was around $16 billion, with years, likely more than a decade, before anything tangible would be delivered.

So in 2023, not long after being elected, the coalition government pulled the pin.

“The theory was, at the time, that the opposition to Onslow was that it was creating too much uncertainty in the market because it would have a really significant effect on the electricity market,” Daalder says.

“It would basically be buying a lot of power when power prices are low, in order to charge up the battery as it were, in order to pump that water up the hill, and then when power prices were high, it could be used to depress those because you could flick it on, like with the flick of a switch, and generate power.

“So it would bring up the low prices, but cap off the high prices; it would have quite a significant effect on the markets. There were concerns that people weren’t investing in new generation, as a result of that.”

But it turns out the project wasn’t dead in the water, with industry players circling and forming a private planning group. The Clutha Pumped Hydro Consortium includes former Meridian Energy chief executive and Transpower chairperson Keith Turner, former environment minister David Parker, Christchurch lawyer John Hardie, and Reserve Bank board chair Rodger Finlay.

Turner told RNZ’s Morning Report that they estimated their build would cost around $8-10b, and if successful, it could be up and running by 2035. International investors had already shown interest in the project, he said.

And now their plan is being considered for fast-track consenting that could, in theory, bulldoze through years of red tape – thanks to the same government that axed the scheme.

“I asked the Energy Minister, Simon Watts, who has spoken before about the chilling impact that the Lake Onslow project had on the electricity market, whether he was worried about it having a chilling effect,” Daalder says.

“He said ‘no’ but he said it is different because this is the private market, rather than the government making its decisions.

“I don’t know if that logic fully holds. We know that private players in the energy market can have significant impacts on investment decisions, so, for example, we often hear how the uncertainty over whether Tiwai Point would stay or go for five years – between 2019 and 2024 – meant that people weren’t investing in new generation because they thought if the smelter was going to close there would be all this power available.

“It’s hard to see why you would get a different result or a significantly different result, depending on who is actually funding it.”

In limbo

So, where does this leave Lake Onslow? Right now, it’s in limbo. Not quite dead, not quite alive, but very much in the realm of unfinished business with fast-track in its sights.

It was hyped as the answer to the country’s energy anxiety – a giant “battery” in the deep south that could keep the lights on when the lakes run dry.

But when the coalition government was voted in, the project was voted out, deemed too big and too expensive.

Now, the Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme is back – or at least, back in the conversation – thanks to a private consortium group, and somewhat ironically, the government has agreed to refer the scheme for possible fast-tracking.

“There’s a view that the fast-track system makes it a lot easier to consent to a lot of different things, but this is a really big project,” says Newsroom senior political reporter Marc Daalder, who has been covering the story.

“It’s hard to overstate how significant this would be, both in terms of its broader energy system and national economic impact, but also just in terms of the actual size of the thing they are proposing to build.

“And that’s the real question, right? People often say it’s hard to build things in New Zealand. Well, this is a really big thing. Can we build it?

“Recent history would suggest no, not without significant cost overruns and significant regulatory difficulty. The government likes to think that they have tackled those issues. I guess we will find out.”

‘Too much uncertainty’

Today, The Detail looks into the pumped hydro scheme concept, which is deceptively simple: pump water uphill when electricity is plentiful, then release it when it’s scarce, with energy stored at a scale never seen before in New Zealand.

Supporters say it’s exactly what’s needed to tackle the country’s biggest vulnerability – the dreaded “dry year”, when hydro lakes drop, gas runs tight, and coal-fired generation has to ramp up.

The Labour government liked the idea, but when they looked into it, the bill was around $16 billion, with years, likely more than a decade, before anything tangible would be delivered.

So in 2023, not long after being elected, the coalition government pulled the pin.

“The theory was, at the time, that the opposition to Onslow was that it was creating too much uncertainty in the market because it would have a really significant effect on the electricity market,” Daalder says.

“It would basically be buying a lot of power when power prices are low, in order to charge up the battery as it were, in order to pump that water up the hill, and then when power prices were high, it could be used to depress those because you could flick it on, like with the flick of a switch, and generate power.

“So it would bring up the low prices, but cap off the high prices; it would have quite a significant effect on the markets. There were concerns that people weren’t investing in new generation, as a result of that.”

But it turns out the project wasn’t dead in the water, with industry players circling and forming a private planning group. The Clutha Pumped Hydro Consortium includes former Meridian Energy chief executive and Transpower chairperson Keith Turner, former environment minister David Parker, Christchurch lawyer John Hardie, and Reserve Bank board chair Rodger Finlay.

Turner told RNZ’s Morning Report that they estimated their build would cost around $8-10b, and if successful, it could be up and running by 2035. International investors had already shown interest in the project, he said.

And now their plan is being considered for fast-track consenting that could, in theory, bulldoze through years of red tape – thanks to the same government that axed the scheme.

“I asked the energy minister, Simon Watts, who has spoken before about the chilling impact that the Lake Onslow project had on the electricity market, whether he was worried about it having a chilling effect,” Daalder says.

“He said ‘no’ but he said it is different because this is the private market, rather than the government making its decisions.

“I don’t know if that logic fully holds. We know that private players in the energy market can have significant impacts on investment decisions, so, for example, we often hear how the uncertainty over whether Tiwai Point would stay or go for five years – between 2019 and 2024 – meant that people weren’t investing in new generation because they thought if the smelter was going to close there would be all this power available.

“It’s hard to see why you would get a different result or a significantly different result, depending on who is actually funding it.”

So, where does this leave Lake Onslow? Right now, it’s in limbo. Not quite dead, not quite alive, but very much in the realm of unfinished business with fast-track in its sights.

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

You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Explainer – A start-up company wants to carry out marine carbon dioxide removal in New Zealand waters. What is mCDR and why is it controversial?

Earlier this month, a boat chartered by the company Gigablue headed out to sea from Port Chalmers in Dunedin to an area of deep ocean off the Otago coast called the Bounty Trough.

The plan – according to a notice it filed with the Environmental Protection Authority in February – was to lower five circular ‘containment pens’ into the water, grouped around a central ring so the whole thing looked like a five-petalled flower.

The pens would float on the surface, with fine mesh nets hanging under them to contain 55kg of the company’s particles – small balls of cellulose embedded with iron and manganese.

For three weeks, they would drift in the ocean, with water samples taken every so often before the pens and particles were retrieved and taken back to land.

It was a vastly scaled-back version of a trial the company initially wanted to carry out last year, where up to 1000 tonnes of particles would have been put in the water and allowed to sink into the ocean.

Gigablue is one of a number of start-ups and research groups working in the growing field of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR).

There are a range of different mCDR methods that have been proposed, but all of them have the same aim – to draw carbon dioxide out of our rapidly warming atmosphere and store it in the deep ocean.

If mCDR can be proven to work at scale, then it could be a vital tool to help cool the planet.

What Gigablue is doing has drawn particular attention, because its approach resembles a controversial type of mCDR called ocean fertilisation.

Gigablue says there are crucial differences that separate its approach from ocean fertilisation.

But experts RNZ spoke to say, regardless of definitions, all mCDR techniques are in their infancy, and their effectiveness and safety are yet to be proven.

Some say it’s also a big distraction from what the world should really be focusing on: cutting the emissions we produce in the first place.

What is ocean fertilisation?

University of Tasmania marine scientist Lennart Bach says all mCDR is “relatively nascent”, gaining traction in the last decade or so.

“There are start-ups that work in this space and the [academic] research is also really kicking off.”

There are a range of different mCDR methods – Bach’s own research focuses on an approach called ocean alkalinity enhancement.

Ocean fertilisation is another major area of investigation, with experiments dating back 20 years or more.

The premise of both ocean fertilisation and Gigablue’s approach, which it calls microalgae carbon sinking and fixation, is based on a natural cycle that already occurs in the ocean where phytoplankton (a type of microalgae) grow and die.

Just like trees, phytoplankton capture carbon dioxide as they grow, through photosynthesis. Most plankton are eaten, but some fall to the deep ocean as ‘marine snow’ when they die, taking the carbon with them.

Because deep, cold ocean currents take a long time to circulate, the carbon can theoretically stay there for decades, centuries or even millennia before it resurfaces.

As well as light, phytoplankton need nutrients, including iron.

But there are places in the ocean where iron is scarce – including large parts of the Southern Ocean.

Research has shown that if iron is added to the water in these areas, it can trigger phytoplankton growth. More algae equals a greater mass of marine snow, equals more carbon sinking into the deep ocean, and – eventually – less in the atmosphere as the surface ocean absorbs carbon dioxide to replace what’s been sunk.

Does it work – and is it safe?

In theory, ocean fertilisation can sequester extra carbon, Bach says. “We have lots of model studies that can show that.”

In reality, each step in the sequence is exceptionally tricky to measure and prove in reality, he says.

“The problem is that the biology is so complex, there’s so many pathways in which things can go wrong or things can happen unexpectedly.”

Ocean fertilisation takes place in an ‘open system’ – in this case, an unbounded ocean.

James Kerry, a senior marine scientist at European NGO OceanCare and adjunct research fellow at Australia’s James Cook University, says that increases the complexity of observing and measuring any effects – good and bad.

“The ocean is a very dynamic, chaotic system,” he says.

“It is very, very difficult, and we see this with marine CDR in general, to predict how a particle or a substance that you add to the ocean will actually behave.”

To show that ocean fertilisation works, three main things have to be measured: efficacy, additionality, and permanence.

Efficacy requires proof that however you choose to encourage phytoplankton growth actually works – whether it’s on a particle or free-floating blooms in the ocean.

Additionality involves showing that more phytoplankton are growing, and storing more carbon, than if you hadn’t done anything.

Something called ‘nutrient robbing’ is a particular problem here. Adding iron, without adding the other nutrients the plankton need, can ‘rob’ those nutrients from another part of the ocean where plankton might have otherwise bloomed naturally, turning the whole premise into a zero-sum game.

There could be large geographical or time differences involved – making it hard to know what may or may not have otherwise happened.

Permanence is being able to show that the carbon absorbed by the phytoplankton is actually stored, and stays stored.

Many things can interrupt this process – including the fact that phytoplankton are at the beginning of marine food chains. If they’re eaten or decompose in shallower waters, then most of the carbon they’ve absorbed will be rapidly recycled back to the surface ocean and atmosphere.

Even for the small proportion of plankton that sink to the deep ocean, long-term sequestration is not guaranteed. In general, the deeper the plankton sink, the longer the carbon is stored, but research has found that even at depths of 1000 metres most of the carbon returns to the surface within decades.

In the meantime, ocean fertilisation also comes with risks.

There’s potential for creating harmful algal blooms, reducing oxygen in deep ocean ecosystems, and affecting marine food chains.

Helene Muri, a senior scientist at Norwegian climate and environmental research institute NILU, says “much better monitoring” is needed for every single stage of ocean fertilisation and other forms of mCDR.

“Research is still needed on several core questions before specific methods could be considered safe and effective at scale,” she says.

It was hard to distinguish between the effect of something done deliberately and what might have happened naturally anyway, “especially given sparse observations offshore and at depth”.

“Tracking where that carbon goes in the ocean interior, and whether it later resurfaces, is also really challenging.”

What does the law say?

For all these reasons, ocean fertilisation – and marine geoengineering in general – has become a focus for international laws governing the ocean.

New Zealand is among members of something called the London Protocol, which governs marine dumping.

In 2008, London Protocol members agreed that ocean fertilisation is covered by the protocol, and that it should be restricted to “legitimate scientific research”. In 2013 they agreed to an amendment that would heavily regulate all marine geoengineering, with ocean fertilisation the first to be added to a list of techniques.

New Zealand has not ratified the amendment, which remains non-binding, but international convention means New Zealand is expected to still act in line with what it has agreed to.

At home, New Zealand’s own laws governing the exclusive economic zone prohibit dumping, and ‘placement of matter’ unless there are specific exclusions.

That includes marine scientific research – which is why Gigablue has been able to carry out some limited ocean trials to date.

However, the larger trials it wanted to do were found to constitute marine dumping by the EPA, which also had concerns about the environmental effects.

As reported by RNZ, Gigablue was last year seeking changes to regulations that would create an exclusion for marine carbon dioxide removal.

What about companies wanting to commercialise?

The London Protocol amendment says that any ocean fertilisation activities should be designed to answer questions that add to scientific knowledge.

“There should not be any financial and/or economic gain arising from the experiment,” it states.

This creates problems for any company wanting to get carbon credits issued and verified, if its technology fits within the definition of ocean fertilisation.

James Kerry says he believes that is why Gigablue – which already has a contract to deliver 200,000 carbon credits by 2029 – is keen to distinguish its technology as something else.

“The distinction determines which international rules and safeguards apply to the activity that GigaBlue is proposing to undertake.”

Gigablue, for its part, has said it needs to be able to verify credits in order to fund the research that will provide the evidence base for its technology.

Helene Muri says the practice of pre-selling credits for carbon removals is relatively common – especially for proven forms of carbon sequestration like forest planting. However, credits should not be issued before the method is proven, she says.

“If payment helps fund development, but credits are only issued after verified delivery, that can be defensible.”

She, and others RNZ spoke to, support New Zealand ratifying the London Protocol amendment and using its assessment framework to decide which activities can go ahead.

“Fund and permit responsible, open and transparent research to build evidence,” Muri says.

“But resist policies that enable rapid commercialisation until ecological risks are actually bounded and safeguarded, international law compliance is demonstrated, and [monitoring, reporting and verification] is robust.”

Where else is this happening?

Marine carbon dioxide removal research is happening in many other locations, including the US, Canada and Australia, which are considering the same challenges as New Zealand.

A Canadian senate report published last month recommended its government should “create a regulatory framework that enables innovation and balances risks with opportunities”.

However, the report was focused almost entirely on a different type of mCDR that is limited to harbours and rivers, rather than open ocean systems.

James Kerry says the ongoing lack of global regulation has allowed a “broader pattern” of activity to develop, where mCDR approaches are hyped before there’s robust evidence that they work or can be scaled up.

He raises the example of Running Tide, an ocean fertilisation start-up that attracted blue-chip investment from the lies of Microsoft before it closed down in 2024.

“Running Tide dumped around 19,000 tons of matter in Icelandic waters in total in 2023 under a research permit,” he says.

“It’s also worth noting that after Running Tide went bust in 2024, they did not clean up the material they had dumped in the ocean.”

Without careful regulation there was a “real risk” that commercial mCDR activity would move ahead of the science and safety, he says.

He also believes novel tech like marine carbon dioxide removal risks distracting from or delaying actual emissions reductions.

“”You always begin with the narrative, ‘Climate change bad,’ which is true. ‘We need to address the problem,’ which is true.

“And then the third part which comes is, ‘Here’s our solution, which is the one that’s going to work.’ And that’s where I object.”

However, he says that – based on documents released to RNZ – New Zealand agencies have so far “largely” handled the situation appropriately.

Late last year, Earth Sciences New Zealand was awarded an $11 million Endeavour Fund grant to carry out its own research into marine carbon dioxide removal, including ocean fertilisation.

Notably, its research will not actually deploy any mCDR technology, “so avoiding technological, environmental and social-licence barriers”.

Instead, it plans to use naturally-occurring algal blooms to test advanced models and new marine carbon tracking technologies, among other things.

The agency declined an interview about this work for this story.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

David Tamihere’s convictions have been quashed, 36 years after he was found guilty of murdering two Swedish backpackers, but what happens next and could he get compensation from the government?

In a decision released on Tuesday, the Supreme Court directed a retrial but said it was up to the Crown to decide whether one should be held.

The court found there was a fundamental error in Tamihere’s 1990 trial which made it unfair – and the Crown case had changed so “radically” since then that it had not actually been tested by a jury.

Tamihere was convicted of the murder of Urban Höglin, 23, and Heidi Paakkonen, 21, in 1990. The couple was last seen in Thames in April 1989 and Höglin’s body was found in 1991. Paakkonen’s body has never been found.

If the Crown decided not to pursue a retrial for Tamihere, who was now in his 70s, he would be eligible to apply for compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

The decision on whether to hold a retrial rested with Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock.

She said told RNZ on Tuesday that there was now a process to follow.

“It will consider many factors, focussed on what available and admissible evidence remains to meet the Solicitor-General’s prosecution guidelines test and – if there is sufficient evidence – where the public interest now lies,” she said.

According to the Ministry of Justice, a person would be eligible for compensation if their convictions had been quashed and criminal proceedings had finished and they had been imprisoned for all or part of a sentence for that conviction.

Payment of compensation was at the discretion of the government and Cabinet had to be satisfied a person was innocent on the balance of probabilities along with suffering losses that could be compensated and compensation being in the interests of justice.

Tamihere spent 20 years in prison, so if he was eligible for compensation, he could receive an annual amount of $150,000 for each year in prison, an annual amount of up to $100,000 for loss of income for each year, an additional $75,000 a year for time on restrictive bail or parole, up to $50,000 to re-adjust to living in the community, an amount for costs incurred when challenging conviction and an amount for large financial losses between $50,000 and $250,000.

This could mean upwards of $3 million in Tamihere’s case.

The government could also decide to make a public apology or statement of innocence, the Ministry of Justice website said.

If an application for compensation was made, Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith would decide whether the application would be further assessed.

That assessment would focus on whether the person was innocent on the balance of probabilities, whether it was in the interests of justice to pay compensation and how much should be paid.

The minister could also seek independent legal advice on any aspect the application.

Tamihere’s case would be called in the High Court at Auckland on 13 May.

The Crown Law Office said it was likely a decision would have been reached by then but the court date would be pushed back if it had not.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hospital admissions for sepsis have risen steeply in the past 20 years, with new research showing infants, people over 70, Māori and Pacific peoples and those living in areas of high deprivation more at risk.

Sepsis is an acute, life-threatening condition that happens when the body’s immune system has an extreme response to an infection, damaging the tissues and organs.

Globally it was estimated to be responsible for one in three deaths, with more than 166 million cases reported in 2021, and in New Zealand, it was responsible for almost five percent of all deaths – nearly four times as many as car accidents.

The research from the University of Otago, Wellington, titled “Temporal trends in sepsis hospitalisations and mortality in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2000-2019” and published in The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, found hospitalisation rates increased by 78 percent between 2000 and 2019.

There were 217 admissions per 100,000 people in 2000, which increased to 386 admissions per 100,000 people in 2019.

Māori and Pacific peoples were 1.7 and 2.3 times respectively more likely to be hospitalised with sepsis than those of non-Māori, Pacific or Asian descent, and more than one-and-a-half times more likely to die of the condition.

Patients living in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation were twice as likely to die from it than those in the areas of least deprivation.

Lead author Sharla McTavish, a Tangata Tiriti PhD student from the Department of Public Health, said the study was the first to report long-term epidemiological trends for all public hospital admissions for sepsis in Aotearoa.

Sepsis had a large impact on health and wellbeing, she said – in total, it caused about 260,000 hospitalisations and 27,400 deaths over the two decades.

The number of hospitalisations had increased significantly year-on-year, but the number of deaths had remained comparatively stable, with survival rates improving markedly, particularly for those aged over 70, she said.

But she said cases were likely to continue to rise as the population aged and the number of people living with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, increased.

“People living with multiple long-term health conditions are at higher risk of developing sepsis, and where this is combined with inequalities, such as household overcrowding, the risk increases even more.”

Otago public health Professor Michael Baker, another of the study’s authors, said taking action to prevent the condition should be high on the government’s list of priorities.

“Many cases and deaths from sepsis are preventable, but we need to use all the public health measures we have to combat the toll it is taking on New Zealand families.”

Health NZ has been approached for comment.

Sepsis Trust NZ founding trustee Dr Paul Huggan said sepsis created a significant burden for the healthcare system.

“Around one in five sepsis patients require intensive or high dependency care, yet only half receive treatment within the recommended three-hour window, which is well below global best practice, and is putting lives at risk,” he said.

“We have strong international evidence which shows investing in early recognition and prevention will reduce hospital stays, ease pressure and costs on ICU and our ACC system, and deliver strong economic returns.”

HNZ’s national chief quality and patient safety officer, Dr Sarah Jackson, said the agency would read this study with interest and welcomed the opportunity to explore its findings further with Dr Huggan.

The agency recognised that sepsis was a life-threatening condition that could appear suddenly, with signs that were subtle and often under recognised. “New Zealanders can be assured we treat it with the seriousness it demands.”

Sepsis Trust NZ chief executive Ally Hossain said progress was being held back by a lack of coordinated action, and a national sepsis action plan was needed.

“This plan must address sepsis prevention, early recognition and treatment, the careful use of antibiotics and wider public health surveillance, as well as providing equitable and effective wraparound support for sepsis survivors, particularly in the first 12 months following hospital discharge,” she said.

She said New Zealand was already falling behind comparable countries, and it was costing lives.

“We know that millions of dollars would be saved within even the first 12 to 24 months of the action plan’s implementation, let alone the number of deaths it would prevent.”

Cancer and surgical patients were most at risk, she said, so improving their outcomes could reduce hospital stays and lessen pressures on ICUs.

In 2017, the 70th World Health Assembly asked countries to adopt prevention, diagnosis and management of sepsis a priority, and develop a national action plan by 2030. “Comparable countries”, including Australia, Switzerland, parts of Canada, the UK, Belgium, Ireland, and the USA, had already adopted them.

The trust had created resources for use in hospitals to help staff recognise sepsis early, and choose the right treatment. “But as it stands at the moment, this has not been implemented nationwide.”

Hossain said after meeting with the health minister Simeon Brown late last year, he had sent a letter saying he had passed on the trust’s requests to HNZ for consideration, and Hossain said frontline clinicians had been very supportive.

A spokesperson for Simeon Brown’s office said the government was focused on prevention and improving health outcomes for all New Zealanders, including for conditions like sepsis, and encouraged health agencies and stakeholders to work together to strengthen coordination.

HNZ’s Dr Sarah Jackson said consideration of a national sepsis action plan was ongoing.

She said the agency endorsed sepsis pathways and e-learning developed by the Health Quality and Safety Commission and Safety New Zealand, and was developing a national empiric antimicrobial guideline to improve the efficiency and consistency of the use of antimicrobials, which are used to treat sepsis.

“The implementation of e-vitals across hospitals will also help with early recognition of sepsis and response to acute deterioration. This system identifies patients whose condition worsens due to severe infections and sepsis, which triggers a clinical graded response, to bring urgent care quickly to the sickest patients.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Defence Lawyers’ Association does not believe the Crown has the evidence to pursue a retrial of David Tamihere.

Tamihere was convicted in 1990 of killing Swedish tourists Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen on the Coromandel Peninsula.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court quashed the convictions and directed a retrial – a decision that rests with the Crown.

The court found there was a fundamental error in Tamihere’s 1990 trial which made it unfair – and the Crown case had changed so “radically” since then that it had not actually been tested by a jury.

Te Matakahi co-chair and criminal barrister Elizabeth Hall did not believe there was public appetite for a retrial.

“Will the Crown retry Mr Tamihere? I’m willing to bet if there was a public vote on whether that should happen the answer would be a resounding ‘no’.

“Mr Tamihere has paid a very high price, personal price, for our justice system getting something wrong.”

She said the Crown was obliged, however, to consider whether it should try the case again.

“That involves a thorough consideration of the available evidence, the prospects of the prosecution being successful but also really strong consideration of … public interest.

“So, is it in the public interest that a retrial be brought after all of this time? And there are very strong arguments that could be made that the evidence that the Crown would have available to them simply isn’t enough to even get over that first hurdle, nevermind considering whether there are … public interest considerations.”

Hall said if the Crown decided against a retrial, Tamihere had a strong claim to compensation – however, his chance of success was remote.

“Most people who are wrongfully convicted – certainly my clients who come to me and say, ‘Now what? What about compensation?’.

“The reality is you tell them that compensation is almost impossible to achieve in New Zealand.”

Hall said she could count on one had the number of people who had had successful compensation claims.

“Obviously Mr Tamihere would have very strong grounds and … if there is no retrial and he has essentilly been acquitted, and paid that very high price of being wrongfully convicted following an unfair trial – it would be difficult I think to see how he could not be compensated.

“But don’t forget compensation is money, it does not bring back the life he has spent behind bars.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The man who murdered Gurjit Singh at his Dunedin home will be sentenced on Wednesday.

Singh, 27, was found dead on the lawn of the property in January in 2024 after being stabbed more than 40 times.

His 35-year-old killer, known only as Rajinder, was found guilty of murder following a High Court jury trial last year.

During the trial, the Crown said Rajinder left DNA evidence at the scene and lied to police, while Rajinder’s defence lawyer called the evidence flawed and said his client had no motive for murdering his former employee.

Prosecutor Richard Smith said the case was not “rocket science”, with Rajinder’s blood and hair found at the scene, his hair in Singh’s hands, and evidence he had searched for a route to Singh’s house on the night of the murder despite telling police that he did not know where he lived.

Defence lawyer Anne Stevens KC said Rajinder had volunteered to be medically examined and consistently denied murdering Singh, saying DNA presented a degree of likelihood, not a guarantee.

A complicated love triangle was aired during the trial involving Singh, his widow Kamaljeet Kaur and Rajinder.

Smith said Kaur rejected Rajinder’s marriage proposal through a broker in 2022 before marrying Singh the following year, and Singh had also rejected Rajinder’s plan to marry his sister.

He said both rejections were motive for murder, with the killing happening shortly before Kaur was due to arrive from India to live with Singh.

Stevens called the argument a Crown “fantasy”, saying Rajinder was not upset to find out she had married Singh and it was instead Kaur’s family who approached his family twice to pursue a marriage.

She said he had been happily married since January 2023.

Smith said Rajinder lied to police about how he cut his hand, initially suggesting he had a chainsaw accident before changing his story to a bike crash, despite a doctor suggesting the wound was inconsistent with a fall onto gravel.

Instead, he suggested Singh had tried to defend himself and Rajinder had cut himself during the pursuit.

Smith said Rajinder bought a “murder kit” including gloves from Bunnings and a knife and neck gaiter from Hunting and Fishing the day before the murder but did not tell police about the purchases.

Stevens said it did not make sense for her client to buy the items using his own bank account, suggesting they were bought for his work as a fibre-optic cable technician.

In summing up, Justice Dunningham said there was no dispute that Singh was violently attacked but the jury needed to decide whether Rajinder was responsible.

‘He was living a good life’

After the jury’s guilty verdict Singh’s father Nishan Singh said he hoped Rajinder would be jailed for life after ruining their lives.

Through a translator, he said he believed Rajinder might have been motivated by his son’s wife rejecting an earlier marriage proposal.

“He has ruined not just our lives but his family life as well. I just hope he someday he confesses why he did it and that will give me more peace in life,” he said.

His son was hardworking and had been supporting his family, he said.

“He was living a good life.”

A deadly night

On the night he died, Gurjit Singh was hanging out with friends at a pizza party in Helensburgh.

His friends told the court he was in good spirits because his wife would soon be arriving from India to live with him.

They last saw him alive when he left about 10:30pm.

The next morning Dhruval Aery checked on Singh after receiving panicked messages from a mutual friend, arriving to find his unresponsive and bloodied body on the lawn.

Police videos from the murder scene showed signs of a violent struggle inside, with a large broken window and blood stains on the ground, hand rail, furniture and wall.

Singh’s widow Kamaljeet Kaur was preparing to move to Dunedin when she was told her husband had been murdered.

Almost 80 police staff were involved in the murder investigation.

Wife pleads guilty day before sentencing

On Tuesday Rajinder’s wife Gurpreet Kaur admitted getting rid of evidence in the murder investigation.

Evidence of her involvement was suppressed during the trial until she pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at the High Court.

She admitted hiding her husband’s shoes in a bathroom bin after police visited her workplace and told her Rajinder was being charged.

Tiny fragments of glass consistent with a shattered window from the murder scene were found on the shoes.

Gurpreet Kaur will be sentenced in July.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The West Coast polytechnic Tai Poutini will become a campus of the Open Polytechnic next year.

The institute is among the last four polytechnics remaining in super-institute Te Pūkenga.

Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds said the other three, Northtec in Northland, the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki and the joint Wellington region institute Weltec and Whitireia, would become stand-alone institutes from 1 January.

However, they would be placed in a federation with the Open Polytechnic aimed at supporting institutes that were relatively weak financially.

Simmonds said the changes were aimed at creating a strong network of regional-led polytechnics.

“This is a major milestone in rebuilding a vocational education system that is locally led, financially sustainable, and focused on delivering the skills New Zealand’s regions need,” she said.

“It means training can better reflect the needs of local employers, support key industries, and ensure vocational education delivery aligns with workforce demand.”

Open Polytechnic chief executive Sharon Cooke said Tai Poutini would become a regional campus within the polytechnic.

She said it would provide face-to-face learning with the Open Polytechnic’s online and blended-delivery courses.

“This model allows us to bring the best of both worlds – local delivery where it matters most, supported by national scale and expertise,” she said.

She said the change would ensure polytechnic courses continued on the South Island’s West Coast.

Ten other polytechnics became independent institutions at the start of this year.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A grand old dame who survived World War I and emigrated from Europe to New Zealand with a Kiwi solider has made a surprise visit to Te Papa to see an exhibition which tells her story.

Torty the tortoise is well over a hundred years old and had been taken care of by three generations of the same family.

She was brought to New Zealand by Stewart Little, a stretcher bearer who cared for her in Greece after she was run over by a French gun cart. He shipped her home in his rucksack in 1916.

After Stewart Little died, Torty was cared for by his son and daughter-in-law. After their deaths, Little’s late grandson and his wife Christine Little took on caring duties.

On Monday, Christine Little took Torty on an impromptu visit to see Te Papa’s Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War exhibition, which featured a replica of the tortoise.

“We thought we would just pop into Te Papa and see if we could grab a photo with her replica. But she caused quite a sensation, and the next thing we had many staff and lots of members of the public very interested to meet her.”

Torty’s story began when Stewart Little spotted her run over on a road. Christine Little said he was not expecting the animal to survive, so was surprised to see this resilient little tortoise had stood up and was carrying on trying to walk, despite her quite serious injuries.

“And given that obviously he was a man of kindness and compassion, being part of the medical corps, he picked her up and looked after her. I mean, she was, after all, wounded in the war.”

Christine Little’s husband was one of Stewart Little’s grandchildren and she said Torty once lived with Christine Little’s mother-in-law in her rest home.

“It is a complete family affair.”

If Torty could talk, Christine Little thinks she might want to thank Stewart Little for the kindness he showed lifting her out of the mud that day in Greece.

“And I guess that she would have some pretty horrible stories about what she saw during that time in the war. She’s also had a number of adventures along the way, like being stolen in the 1930s and turning up in a circus in Dunedin!”

Now well into older age, Torty still makes school visits and had her Te Papa outing but mostly her days were spent with a regular routine of waking about 8am, eating and sleeping and then bed at 5pm.

“She’ll wander out onto my lawn. She lives out just in my backyard, which I’ve let grow, and it’s grown into a bit of a meadow. And she’ll graze. Just eat until she feels tired and ready for a nap, and then she’ll have a nap. And then she might wake up and have some more to eat, and that’s sort of how her day goes.”

In the next couple of weeks Torty would go into brumation and wake up in September. It’s not known how long she could live for, but the family had a plan for when she passes on.

“A number of years ago we had a discussion about this as a family. It has been decided that when it’s her time, she will come back to the Manawatū and she will be buried with Stewart and his wife, Maud.

“So that’s all been organised with the cemetery and it’s all good and that is what will happen.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Bluebridge says sea trials and final clearance from Maritime New Zealand for its beleaguered Connemara ferry have been delayed.

The ship was side-lined due to a technical fault 10 days ago. Then, on Monday evening, Maritime NZ announced that a “Port State Control Inspection” of the ship conducted ahead of the weekend had led the waterways regulator to detain the ship in berth at Wellington.

Bluebridge had hoped to resume sailings on Wednesday, in its last update.

However, in an email to freight customers, the company announced the morning and mid-afternoon sailings had been cancelled.

It said the Connemara was now scheduled to return to service at 8.30pm Wednesday – subject to successful sea trials and sign off – and asked customers to put their plans on hold, if possible.

“We understand the inconvenience that these changes may cause and sincerely apologise for the disruption. If you are booked on one of the affected sailings, we would greatly appreciate it if you could defer your travel until next week where possible. However, if travel is essential, please contact our freight teams and we will do our best to accommodate you on standby,” it said.

“For all customers who may have flexibility in their plans, we kindly ask that you consider postponing your travel to next week. Your understanding and support during this time are truly appreciated as we work to resume our regular service.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Former Manukau City mayor Sir Barry Curtis – one of the country’s longest serving mayors – has died at the age of 87.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown says Sir Barry leaves “an enormous legacy”.

He led Manukau City from 1983 to 2007 at a time when the city was expanding rapidly.

In a post on the Auckland Council website, Brown said he knew Curtis well.

“He was a hugely influential figure in local politics and a pioneer as Mayor of Manukau City Council for 24 years. He was the country’s longest serving mayor at the time,” Brown said.

“He was known for his booming trademark voice and was a genuine champion of the communities he served over a 40-year career in local government.”

The council post said Curtis was a dedicated public servant who devoted nearly 40 years of his life to serving the people of Manukau and Auckland.

Councillor Alf Filipaia said Curtis was a dear friend and colleague.

“Sir Barry championed an approach dubbed the ‘Manukau Way,’ which balanced economic progress with community welfare and fostered inclusive partnerships, particularly with iwi through early engagement on issues like the Manukau Harbour claim and Treaty of Waitangi responsibilities,” he said.

“From my perspective, part of his legacy will be about uniting diverse communities and ensuring that Manukau plays a significant contribution to Auckland’s economic, social, and cultural advancement.”

Curtis was backed by the right-leaning Residents and Ratepayers Association in his mayoral tenure, but was known for working well with the dominant Labour group on the council.

When he retired he said was proud of his working-class background, Auckland Council said.

“I came from a poor family and my father was a waterside worker. That is why I know how it feels to be born on the wrong side of the tracks. I never forget that,” he said.

Curtis consistently identified health, housing, education and lack of jobs as Manukau’s main problems, and called on the government to take a more interventionist approach.

He was knighted in 1992 for his services to local government and community.

Manukau City was one of four cities in the Auckland region before they merged with the Auckland Regional Council and three district councils to become what was known as the super city in 2011.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two young men allegedly filmed themselves drowning young puppies in the Whakatāne River and posted the video to social media last night.

A 19-year-old man has been charged with cruelty to an animal, and a 17-year-old male has been referred to Youth Aid after the incident.

Senior Sergeant Cam MacKinnon said police were contacted just before 6pm on Monday by members of the public who had seen a video on social media of two males allegedly throwing very young puppies in the Whakatāne River.

“We received information from the public who saw the males take the puppies out of what looked to be a pillowcase and throw them into the Whakatāne River, while filming their senseless activity.”

MacKinnon said the puppies tragically drowned in the river.

“This type of wilful ill-treatment towards animals is unacceptable in any form and is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

“As with this incident or any similar behaviour, we will robustly work to hold these offenders to account for their actions and this includes restrictions on bail during court proceedings.”

Both offenders were soon located by police.

“Police would like to acknowledge the members of the public who contacted and assisted police with this incident,” said MacKinnon.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government’s mega-ministry is backing down from work from home policy a day before the matter was scheduled for court, the Public Service Association (PSA) says.

The union filed legal action last year after a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) policy restricting flexible work arrangements was introduced.

The flexible work policy was intended to align with the government’s directive to restrict flexible work arrangements for public service workers, including reducing days working from home.

The PSA claimed the rules ignored existing provisions under the collective agreement.

MBIE lodged a memorandum on Tuesday with the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) which accepted the PSA’s position.

PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimmons said an ERA hearing set down for Wednesday and Thursday had been abandoned.

“This is great news for workers who argued all along that MBIE had no right to restrict their right to flexible work arrangements under the collective agreement,” she said.

The ERA would issue a consent determination of a resolution the PSA sought, which accepted MBIE’s flexible work policy and procedures were inconsistent with the collective agreement, Fitzsimmons said.

“This is a victory for MBIE workers and shows the power of a union to challenge an employer who threatens worker rights. ACC backed down too last year when it too backed from limiting working from home in the face of the concerns of workers and the PSA,” she said.

“This capitulation is a damning indictment of MBIE which had enforced the policy with some staff since last year. MBIE denied it was in breach, delaying the hearing at the Authority on numerous occasions. It refused to withdraw the policy. It refused to engage constructively. It went through three rounds of failed mediation. And then, on the eve of the hearing, it folded. Workers deserve an apology.”

The PSA said it would raise personal grievances for any worker disadvantaged by the policy.

Fitzsimmons did not rule out further legal action against other MBIE guidelines that breached the collective agreement., including a revised version of its flexible working policy.

“This is just ridiculous. MBIE still fails to understand that the collective agreement enshrines the ‘flexible by default’ approach common across the public sector. ‘Flexible by default’ is an important right, it means employees have a right to flexible work arrangements which suit their individual circumstances unless there is a good business reason not to,” she said.

MBIE has been approached for comment.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Health NZ has changed its advice on Covid-19 vaccinations, saying most healthy people aged 30-64 no longer need regular boosters.

But there were exceptions and anyone who wanted or needed a booster could still have a free one every six months.

Recommendations to get for boosters remained in place for older age groups, Māori and Pasifika people from 50, the immunocompromised and many who had close contact with them.

Health NZ changed the advice in its 2026 Immunisation Handbook, the guide for health professionals.

It noted healthy adults in the age group were at lower clinical risk of severe infection so boosters were no longer routinely recommended.

But it encouraged people to discuss whether they needed one with their healthcare provider or vaccinator.

The Immunisation Advisory Centre’s Nikki Turner was part of the group giving clinical advice to Te Whatu Ora on this year’s handbook.

The change reflected the fact the vast majority of New Zealanders now had some level of immunity from Covid-19 – either from being vaccinated or having had the disease, she said.

It brought New Zealand in line with many other Western countries.

Cost was not a factor in the decision, with people still able to get one free booster a year if they wanted one, Turner said

Rather, it was about making the advice on who should be vaccinated less confusing by tying it to the risk of severe impacts from the disease.

“I think a lot of people were confused about who should be getting Covid vaccines and this general recommendation to suggest everybody, every six months just wasn’t happening,” she said

The changes focused on making sure the most at risk people were encouraged to get boosted.

They still recommended healthy people in the age group who were caring for vulnerable or immunocompromised people got regular boosters.

Worries about long covid

Epidemiologist Michael Baker disagreed with the change and urged Te Whatu Ora to think again.

He worried not being regularly boosted would lead to more people getting long Covid.

About nine percent of New Zealanders had experienced some form of long covid, and many were living with chronic, debilitating symptoms, he said.

“If you look at government statements on this, there is nothing. It’s almost like an invisible condition that we have not accepted at an official level – and I don’t know why,” he said.

The changes were continuing the pattern of ignoring the disease, he said.

Turner said there was no clear evidence that extra boosters protected people from long covid.

But Baker said there were studies that showed they were protective and it was important to keep reviewing the evidence.

While a booster might not help those who already had long covid, it could prevent many more people getting it, he said.

Advice for other age and risk groups

People aged 75 and over were still recommended to get two boosters a year in the latest handbook, as were most severely immunocompromised people, or those over 50 with other conditions on the advice of their doctor.

The National Public Health Service’s clinical director of protection, Christine McIntosh, said that was important.

“Older adults, those adults with increasing frailty, and people with compromised immune systems have a reduced ability both to fight infection and to create lasting immunity, ” she said.

“This puts them at the highest risk from the severe consequences of Covid-19 infection, despite having received multiple doses of vaccine and exposure to the virus.”

Those aged over 80 had a rate of hospitalisation with Covid 10 times higher than those under 60, while people over 70 years accounted for most Covid-19-related deaths, she said.

Those in the 65-74 age group, who were otherwise healthy were recommended to get one booster a year.

The advice for Māori and Pacific between 50 and 74 people had not changed from one booster a year, with the handbook saying that was because they were at higher risk of severe disease at a younger age.

There were some changes around advice for pregnant women.

Te Whatu Ora urged people to check with their doctors or vaccinators to get the best and latest advice.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Crew on the Kaiārahi did not know a passenger was missing until they found his car.

A search is underway for a person that went overboard from an Interislander ferry on the Cook Strait overnight.

A KiwiRail spokesperson said the incident happened from its Kaiārahi ferry.

Do you know more? Email us at iwitness@rnz.co.nz

Police said they were alerted to the incident about 2.20am on Tuesday.

The Maritime Union said crew on board Interislander’s Kaiārahi were shaken by the incident, and did not know the passenger was missing until they found his car.

“What flagged the crew was that the car was left on board with the keys inside,” said the union’s Wellington branch secretary Fiona Mansell.

Mansell said she had spoken to members that were on board the Interislander ferry, which she said had gone between Picton and Wellington.

She said crew members searched around the ship for the man, then after checking the CCTV cameras found he had gone overboard about five hours earlier, while the ship was still crossing the Cook Strait.

Mansell said the crew were understandably shaken by the events.

“They’re feeling okay, a little bit distressed,” she said

She said the union had requested and was ensuring support is available to the crew, with a focus on those who had direct interaction with the passenger.

She said the union was currently awaiting further information as search and rescue efforts continue,

“This is a shocking event, and our thoughts are first and foremost with the family and loved ones of the individual involved.”

Police said while they are trying to locate the person, they’re are not seeking anyone else in relation to this matter.

Wellington District Commander Superintendent Penny Gifford said the investigation and search were continuing.

“As part of our work, we are reviewing timelines and this will include speaking with staff when they come back on shift.”

Ten volunteers from Coastguard Wellington were searching the area aboard rescue vessels Reremoana and Spirit of Wellington.

Coastguard said it was supporting police and Rescue Coordination Centre NZ who were leading the search operation.

“Our volunteers assembled at base at 7.30am and were on the water at 7.54am.”

On Flight Radar, two rescue helicopters were seen flying in a grid-like pattern in the area.

GCH Aviation has confirmed its Nelson/Marlborough rescue helicopter was one of those assisting with the search.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Last remaining doctors at Palmerston North Hospital gastroenterology department to leave
• Concerns expressed about post code lottery for patient care
• Health NZ says it’s filling gaps at the department using staff from around the country, and recruiting new specialists

Doctors at a regional hospital are warning the postcode lottery is still alive in New Zealand’s heath system, after recruitment problems have driven one department to the brink.

Only two doctors remain at Palmerston North Hospital’s gastroenterology service, which focuses on patients suffering from problems with their digestive systems.

Of the two, one is about to finish and, now, the other one said he’s going to leave because of the workload and working conditions.

Health NZ said it’s covering gaps in the service while it recruits replacements.

Workload too much – doctor

Dr James Irwin was one of two gastroenterologists left at the hospital – the other was about to leave for another job.

Irwin, a member of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists union, said that would leave too much work for just one full-time specialist.

“I’ve essentially made the decision that I’ll leave my position at the hospital.

“I’ve worked for Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ for 26 years. It’s not a lightly taken decision. However, I don’t see a future where it’s going to change, so I need to position myself where I’m able to work and have a volume of work that’s manageable.

“The amount of work that falls on me is too much to consider doing in the long term, so I’d need a number of colleagues to manage this.”

The gastro department was funded for 5.6 full-time equivalent positions, according to answers to parliamentary questions asked by Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere, of Labour.

The two doctors there now cover 1.6 full-time equivalent positions. On January 1 there were 3.6 permanent employees.

Last summer there was public outcry when surveillance colonoscopies at the hospital were paused.

They had resumed, but permanent specialists had left, leaving locums to plug the gaps.

Irwin said they could do endoscopy procedures, which were also moved to private providers, but the real gap when he left would be patients requiring care for chronic conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome.

“Postcode lottery’s been a phrase that’s always brought up at election time in New Zealand.

“I think it’s a great term to describe the desire to provide an equitable service regardless where one lives. Over the last five years the postcode lottery has worsened and deepened.”

Irwin had written to Health NZ, pleading for competitive pay and conditions at the regional service, and a manageable workload, so people were attracted to working there.

He was yet to be persuaded that anything would change for the better.

“For me to really muck in and really be part of a recovery I need hope for a recovery, for a future for the department.

“For me it means recruiting people here. It means recruiting New Zealand trainees to Palmerston North. We really have very little likelihood of doing that.”

Saddened by decision to leave

Recruitment to regional areas was hard, as medicine became more international, and Irwin estimated 40 percent of New Zealand trainees didn’t enter the workforce in the country.

“Those things mean that it’s really difficult to recruit and retain gastroenterologists in New Zealand.

“We’ve suffered that, and then not been able to replace people that have become unwell. Those that have remained have realised that it’s not going to change unless there’s a major change in the way health is delivered in our country, and they’ve gone to greener pastures.”

Irwin’s unsure of where to next for him.

It could be private practice work or doing some sessions in the public sector, such as endoscopies, but not having responsibility for referrals, recruitment and retention.

“I feel really sad about it. I’m 51 years old and my life since I was about 20 has been working towards providing healthcare service to the community.

“Since I’ve been in Palmerston North, I’ve worked hard to build a gastroenterology service and deliver good care to the people of the community.

“The way things are now, I can’t do that.”

Health NZ working on recruitment

Health NZ chief clinical officer Dr Richard Sullivan said locums and doctors from other regions were filling the gaps while it recruited more specialists.

For patients with gastric bleeding, Health NZ had developed a plan where doctors from neighbouring hospitals in Wairarapa and Whanganui were called on to work in Palmerston North.

“We’ve got what we call a sub-regional model, where they’re all working together to provide that support on that roster.

“That roster’s currently functioning very well. It’s been in place a couple of months since we started to lose more of our colleague in that space.

“That runs through to the end of May and we’re just working through now to extend it out for another three to six months.”

Sullivan acknowledged the concerns about postcode lotteries, but said being able to call on doctors from other regions showed the benefits of Health NZ’s national focus, rather than the previous regional model.

“We do have a clinician starting in September, so that’s a little light of positivity, and we’re actively recruiting at the moment.

“I believe there’s been two or three interviews of different individuals who are going through the recruitment process.

“The challenge with recruiting senior doctors is that it can take many months until you can get the feet on the ground.”

Sullivan said he was closely monitoring the situation in Palmerston North, as was the entire Health NZ senior leadership, and he was visiting regularly.

He was also working with Irwin to try to work through challenges he and the department were facing, and Health NZ was looking at ways of encouraging more trainees through provincial hospitals, in the hope they would stay there and work.

Three years ago seven specialists worked there, but they’d left due to illnesses, retirements and resignations.

“Inevitably, when you’ve got no team on the ground, you need to find a solution to make sure you deliver care for patients. That’s our key focus.

“We’ll grow the senior doctor workforce and get ourselves back to a sustained environment. But, unfortunately, we’re going to have a period of many months to a year or so where we’re going to have to look for other solutions.”

Sullivan said providing care to patients with chronic conditions was tricky. Virtual appointments were possible.

Compromising care – emergency doctor

Emergency medicine specialist and union branch president Dr Thomas Carter said the hospital had felt the effects of the gastroenterology department losing permanent staff.

“Late-stage cancer diagnosis is one of those things that if we don’t have a functional service, we’re going to see more and more of.

“That’s frustrating because by the time you have a symptomatic cancer, it’s much further along. It’s often metastatic [spread].”

He’s also concerned about patients with gastro bleeds getting quick access to specialist treatment, although Sullivan had detailed the regional plan in place for this.

“With any upper or lower GI [gastrointestinal] bleeds, they can become wildly unstable,” Carter said.

“Especially with the fuel crisis right now, it becomes incredibly important that you can treat them locally.”

If that option isn’t available medical staff would have to organise a helicopter or transport to nearby hospitals – still hours away.

Carter said the emergency medicine team had faced struggles in the past year to get specialist help for gastro bleeding.

“If there is not someone available locally, then some of the patients are going to perish.

“As much as that is hard to talk about, it’s the truth, and it’s why doctors talk about moral injury and talk about having to deny care.”

Denying care to chronic patients would mean dramatic falls in their quality of life.

Carter agreed with Irwin that this was an example of the postcode lottery, as specialists were effectively incentivised to work elsewhere, where pay and conditions were better.

‘Needs to be sorted, now’

Utikere said it was always challenging to attract people to regional centres, but Palmerston North Hospital had long been aware of the shortages in the department.

“That is deeply concerning for residents in Palmerston North. As a regional hospital it needs to be fully staffed.

“I’ve asked local management at the hospital about this and they tell me that this is the most serious threat to Palmerston North Hospital.

“It needs to be sorted and it needs to be sorted, now.”

Malcolm Mulholland, of Patient Voice Aotearoa, said health authorities needed to be upfront with the community.

“Why has this happened when we knew there was a lack of staff in gastroenterology almost a year and a half ago?

“Everyone saw this coming, everyone that is apart from MidCentral, Health New Zealand, and the government – those who are in charge of our health system.

“The time has come to have a meaningful conversation with a plan to get us out of this mess. Without it, people will die,” Mulholland said.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

When Everybody’s Theatre in Ōpunake put out an emergency call after its projector broke down, it appears “everyone” wanted to help out.

With a repair bill of $18,000, the coastal Taranaki cinema faced months out of action – but the community was not having that.

Everybody’s Trust member Aretha McAdams opened up the theatre when RNZ came to visit.

“This is the entranceway with the lovely chandeliers and the ticket sales are over to the left and here we have the shop where we have snacks and drinks for sale when we are operational.

“And if you keep coming through down here… we’ve got all the couches.”

The couches are a throwback to when the building was being earthquake strengthened between 2012 and 2016.

The donated couches were able to be removed from the auditorium during the working week and dragged back in to allow film screenings at weekends.

“Apparently it was absolutely freezing and that’s how the blankets started as well.”

The crocheted blankets and couches are now fixtures, but don’t be thinking you can grab a blanket and just sit down on any old sofa.

“There are people who have their favourite sofa and they get quite distressed if someone else is sitting on it.”

There is also an upstairs section.

“So, the upstairs here is more traditional cinema seating. The middle section is all new seating and on the side sections – they wanted to keep some of the nostalgia – so there’s the original seating of the theatre. It’s all been made more comfortable and recovered.”

Everybody’s seats a total of 135 guests, with about 80 on the couches and the rest upstairs.

The theatre started life as a general store in about 1912 – before local businessman Boss Whiting converted it into a cinema in 1921.

His son Bruce ran it until 1980, when he wanted to retire.

“Of course, in the 80s TV had taken over and no-one wanted to buy it, but the community didn’t want to lose this asset,” Adams explained.

“So, people rallied around and all of the community put in to save the theatre and they purchased it and formed an incorporated society and a charitable trust. Hence the name Everybody’s Theatre.”

Trust chair Kim Gatenby said the community had also dug deep for the earthquake-strengthening and again come to the party for the projector, running garage sales, raffles, making donations and everything in between.

“We have been gobsmacked actually. We couldn’t believe it within two days the public were offering to help us with all sorts of things.

“We had people coming up to me in the street saying ‘hey, we’ll give you a loan of $18,000 if you need it’. So that’s very unusual.”

Gatenby said the cinema was a cherished part of coastal life.

“If you’ve grew up in Ōpunake a lot of people have fond memories about the place and if you didn’t grow up in Ōpunake – like myself – you walk in here and it’s the way the movies used to be many years ago.

“Everyone’s friendly, everyone’s helpful, everyone wants to see Everybody’s Theatre succeed that is the biggest thing in Ōpunake.”

‘It’s just magic for the town’

Brook Melody, the owner of the Four Square across the road, provided a hamper to raffle off for the theatre.

“It’s a big draw piece for the community, you know, it brings people into the area,” said Melody.

“This is small close-knit community and you’ve got to be willing to support each other, so if someone needs a helping hand and we’re able to give that helping hand to them we do.”

Farm Source manager Carol Dodunski was also on board and had donated a wheelbarrow full of goods.

“It’s a special building. It’s just magic for the town. It draws people to our town and you’ve got to go to a movie to see it. It’s really special.”

Trust member Rachael Hughson-How said the $18,000 was raised in double-quick time, but Everybody’s was still carrying on with the fund-raising drive for now.

“We’ve got ongoing costs even while we are closed. We’ve got the power, the insurance, the Eftpos machine. All those little things add up.

“We’re struggling like every other theatre, so we just need to keep on top of that to keep us sustainable, especially since we’ve been closed the past couple of weeks.”

Hughson-How said the projector issues had probably setback plans for the theatre to install solar panels on the building in an effort to reduce power bills.

With parts for the projector on their way, Everybody’s Theatre was hopeful of getting up and running again over the Easter break.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A new whare for whānau and residents has opened at Barnardos’ Christchurch care residence.

Te Poutama Ārahi Rangatahi offers therapeutic care for up to eight boys aged between 12 and 17 who are in state care.

But now residents and their families will have a place to meet, learn and heal outside of the facility’s chain link fence.

The whare – named Te Ao Mārama – opened on Tuesday.

Barnardos chief executive Matt Reid said having a place for the boys and their whānau outside the wire was important.

“Can you imagine being a 13-year-old boy going straight through the wire, through a couple of locked doors as your first experience. Rather they will go into this very safe space surrounded by identity and culture, they will be able to come out here to do their learning and healing,” Reid said.

“Importantly, too, it’s a space for their whānau, whether it’s mum or dad, uncle, aunty, grandad, grandma can come and stay.”

He said it provided an environment for the boys to receive what they really needed – aroha.

“Most of the young ones we’re working are carrying some trauma and because of that they have gone on to have some at-risk behaviours and what we’re about is … learning to manage that trauma,” Reid said.

“We are about aroha. Everyone deserves aroha and I think we should be judging ourselves on how we look after our most vulnerable, and some of these young people are our most vulnerable so let’s wrap that aroha around them.”

A focus for Te Poutama Ārahi Rangatahi is kotahitanga – or unity and collective action – and it took a real display of kotahitanga to get the whare built.

A team of 20 volunteers gave up two weeks of their time to come to Christchurch from across New Zealand and work 12 hour days.

Pete Walker, a firefighter and the leader of the volunteer team, said it was easy to find helpers.

“We took away far more than what we gave,” Walker said.

“It doesn’t make sense in today’s economy but if you haven’t ever volunteered, if you haven’t had a chance to give something back, give it a go and you’ll be amazed at the result of it all.”

Some of the boys from the residence worked on the build with the volunteers, he said.

“We wanted to have an open work space with as many opportunities as the young folk could be a part of it,” Walker said.

“They would often come across at lunch times and sit and talk and we would have a chance to interact and it gave us real motivation.”

The idea for Walker’s volunteer army to build the whare came about after a chance meeting in a coffee shop between him and Reid.

Barnardos had only had to raise about $350,000 to pay for what could have cost well over $700,000 due to the efforts of volunteers and donors.

The idea of a whare for the boys and their whānau was first floated by the late Matua Whare Tamanui.

Ben Huriwai, who works as a team leader in the residence, said the idea had been around since before he started working for Barnardos a decade ago.

“It’s hard to put into words,” he said, when asked what it meant to him.

“This is just a massive day for us as Barnardos, a massive day for the rangatahi we support, and for our communities as well. All the work throughout the years to get to where we are, all the ‘noes’, all the hurdles that were put in the way. Getting to this space and being able to be part of it is just massive.”

Resident manager Anaru Baynes said the whare was the product of true kotahitanga.

“This is a game changer for us,” he said.

“You can try and have whānau therapy … but unless there’s something specifically built for it, you’re probably going to find that a challenge. At the moment we have a care residence that was designed to keep people safe and contained, what we have now is a place rangatahi whānau can visit, they can stay and we can sure up those relationships and the harm that’s be done we can help process that with the young person and their whānau.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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