Dame Julie Chapman, Sir Richard Faull and Sir Rod Drury have been named as the 2026 finalists for New Zealander of the Year.RNZ
Kiwis who reflect the “heart and soul” of Aotearoa have been named as finalists for New Zealander of the Year.
Thousands of people were nominated but the choice came down to three individuals who stood out for the judging panel.
They are Dame Julie Chapman, Sir Richard Faull and Sir Rod Drury.
Pet Refuge founder Dame Julie Chapman.Supplied
Dame Julie leads organisations Kidscan and Pet Refuge, while Sir Richard is a neuroscientist whose expertise have helped better understand the human brain.
Sir Rod is the founder of Xero and works to “shape Aotearoa New Zealand’s technology landscape through innovation, investment, and mentorship”.
Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards patron Miriama Kamo said the three finalists “reflect the heart and soul of Aotearoa over the past twelve months – people leading with purpose, courage and heart”.
“Across every category, we see service, innovation and kaitiakitanga in action: protecting people and the planet, strengthening communities,
advancing equity, and shaping bold solutions for the future.
Neuroscientist Sir Richard Faull.Sonia Sly/RNZ.
“Together, they remind us that real leadership is grounded in compassion – and that when we care deeply and act bravely, we can change lives.”
Kiwibank chief executive Steve Jurkovich said the finalists were leaders who were shaping the future of New Zealand in very different ways.
“From protecting our most vulnerable tamariki (children) and whānau (family), to driving innovation and backing the next generation of Kiwi enterprise, to advancing life changing neuroscience research.
Xero founder Sir Rod Drury.XERO
“Their impact reaches from our local communities to the global stage.”
Jurkovish said it was a privilege to celebrate the finalists.
Finalists for six other categories have also been announced.
The awards will be held on 19 March in Auckland.
Go Media Young New Zealander of the Year
Harlem-Cruz Ihaia
Léon Bristow
Lucy Blakiston
Ryman Healthcare Senior New Zealander of the Year
Alan and Hazel Kerr
Dame Claudia Orange
Stewart Bull
2degrees New Zealand Innovator of the Year
Craig Piggott
James Hayes
Jonathan Ring and Leatham Landon-Lane
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu New Zealand Sustainability Leader of the Year
Mike Casey
Russel and Teresa Trow
Valerie Marie Ngaoa Teraitua
Tower New Zealand Local Hero of the Year
Dr Jeremy Tātere MacLeod
Māhera Maihi
Terri Middleton
Mitre 10 New Zealand Community of the Year
Hōhepa Hawke’s Bay
Rei Kōtuku Charitable Trust – Children’s Palliative Care Service
Safeguarding Children Initiative
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Hutt City Council has sought assurances from Wellington Water over its Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant (pictured) after the catastrophic failure at Moa Point.RNZ / REECE BAKER
Hutt City Council wants assurance that its own sea-side sewage treatment plant will not suffer the same disastrous failure as Wellington’s Moa Point plant.
It has asked Wellington Water whether the Seaview plant, near Petone, has the same equipment as Moa Point which flooded a room the size of an Olympic swimming pool 3-metres deep with sewage on 4 February.
The facility has been sending tens of millions of litres of raw sewage into Cook Strait each day since and an independent inquiry into the failure has been signalled from central government and Wellington City Council.
For years the Lower Hutt Seaview sewage plant has been an issue for locals particularly due to its odour, with it being reported in January 2024 that $40,000 worth of fines were dished out to the facility’s owners.
A week after the Moa Point failure Hutt City Council chief executive Jo Millar penned a letter to Wellington Water chief executive Pat Dougherty which requested the pair to meet.
Millar wanted to know how frequently the Seaview Wastewater Treatment plant and its 17-kilometre sewage outfall pipe were being inspected and monitored.
She also wanted Wellington Water to explain the processes it undertook to verify that Veolia’s maintenance and operational obligations were being met.
The council head also asked if similar equipment to Moa Point had been installed at Seaview in recent years, what that would be and whether it held any responsibility for what had happened at Moa Point.
She called for Wellington Water to outline its and Veolia’s plan if a similar failure happened.
“Including if this would lead to additional discharges into the Waiwhetū Stream and if an environmental assessment has been done on this including addressing the scale of any event.”
Hutt City Council told RNZ that the information had not yet been provided but a meeting between the two leaders was scheduled.
“Once council has received that briefing, elected members will be briefed, and we will then be in a position to respond further.”
It could not say when that meeting would be.
A Wellington Water spokesperson told RNZ it was entirely appropriate for Hutt City Council to request these assurances from the water company – particularly following an incident of the magnitude of Moa Point.
“Wellington Water welcomes the opportunity to engage with the council on this matter.”
Veolia referred RNZ to Wellington Water for comment.
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Liberty Consulting Group Limited in Rosedale, Auckland.RNZ / Gill Bonnett
An immigration adviser took thousands of dollars from a migrant, in a “subterfuge” where he would pay for a fake job at her husband’s firm, a tribunal has heard.
It upheld complaints by six customers of Qian Yu, also known as Heidi Castelucci.
The Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal said it was considering cancelling her licence and preventing her from reapplying when it ruled on sanctions next month.
Qian Yu/Heidi Castelucci has a provisional licence.Immigration Advisers Authority
She continued to work as an advisor after she was suspended in April last year, failing to submit a work visa for a Chinese man, who paid more than $1500.
“At the relevant time, she was engaged by Liberty Consulting Group Ltd trading as Liberty Immigration, of Auckland,” said the decisions. “She was also a contractor to New Zealand Language Institute and Foreign Exchange Program Ltd, of Hamilton and Auckland. Ms Yu’s husband, Toby Scott Castelucci, is a director and shareholder of both companies.”
Richard Wu, who worked for her and recorded Yu offering him residence in return for money after the company sacked him in 2024, paid an unlawful premium for his job.
The tribunal said he had paid about $22,000 which would be “extraordinarily high” if it was an immigration fee. She suggested he get paid cash-in-hand jobs alongside the fake job to hide what they were doing.
Façade
“She further told him about the subterfuge as to the paperwork of her husband’s company (in terms of the pay checks issued, which was money he was actually paying to her himself). She told him to pay his own tax, an obligation the agency had as his employer. The Tribunal finds that Ms Yu knew this advice was unlawful.
“The employment presented to Immigration NZ was a façade. There was no genuine job. It was a mechanism designed to obtain a work visa for the complainant (and ultimately residence) and hence a substantial premium for Ms Yu and her husband.”
Another client called and sent messages to her dozens of time, and unwittingly became an unlawful overstayer.
One woman had been applying for visitor visas for her relatives and said “the fraud had caused great loss to the family”.
“Ms Yu has not denied any of the allegations made against her,” said tribunal chair David Plunkett.
“As a professional person, she has a responsibility to engage in a disciplinary process. The tribunal draws an adverse inference from her failure to engage with either the authority or the tribunal. She has provided no explanation for the serious wrongdoing alleged against her.”
The tribunal heard she forged the signature of a client and fabricated an INZ letter, concealing decline decisions and not following up on information requests.
The Registrar of Companies has initiated action to remove Liberty Consulting from the register.
Qian Yu registered Global Pathways Consulting as a new limited company in February, with her husband Toby Castelucci as director and sole shareholder.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Between 9 July 2025 and 21 February 2026, bailiffs scanned 147,740 number plates and identified 2866 people with overdue court fines or reparations.
Of those identified, 600 people paid on the spot, 295 established some form of payment arrangement, 236 cars were seized and 120 cars were clamped.
The rest were either issued with a warning or no action was taken due to their situation, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said.
“Eighty of the cars have already been sold at auction, with another 20 soon to go under the hammer. Ninety-eight people paid to avoid their car being sold.
“Overall, more than $708,621 has been recovered, and due to its success, the trial was expanded.”
Goldsmith said 40 number plate scanners had been in operation on streets and at some police breath testing stations since December 2025.
“This increase means all bailiffs across New Zealand have access to a device ahead of a possible permanent rollout.
“The message is simple: pay your court fines, or you will be walking home.”
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French Senators have endorsed a Constitutional amendment text regarding New Caledonia’s future political status.
Two-hundred and fifteen senators (mostly an alliance between right and centre-right parties) voted in favour, and 41 voted against.
The four-hour sitting was marked by a lengthy address by French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who supported the text, saying a status quo on New Caledonia was “not a viable option”.
He said to leave things as they were would amount to “abandoning France’s republican ideals, social progress and the renewed construction of peace” in the French Pacific territory.
“This [Bougival] agreement is not perfect”, Lecornu conceded, “but it is the best we have collectively come up with in four years of negotiations.”
The French Senate vote in favour of New Caledonia Constitutional Amendment Bill on Tuesday night. Image: nat_jpg/RNZ
New package, conditions During the same address, Lecornu also outlined a new financial package for New Caledonia, in the form of a “refoundation pact” amounting some 2 billion euros (NZ$3.9 billion) over a five-year period.
Lecornu said the extra package contained some sizeable chunks dedicated to “strengthening (New Caledonia’s) attractiveness” (330 million euros) through the creation of trade free zones, tax exemptions for future investing businesses and another 500 million euros dedicated to support the crucial nickel mining and processing industry.
But not without conditions.
“A credible transformation plan was currently in the making,” Lecornu explained.
“To support and accompany, yes, but to fund losses indefinitely, no.”
The vote comes almost two years after unrest and riots in May 2024, leaving 14 dead and more than 2 billion euros in material damage, as well as hundreds of businesses looted and destroyed.
Since then, New Caledonia has struggled to put its economy (which suffered a reduction of its GDP by 13.5 percent) back on its feet.
Trigger issue The main triggering factor for the 2024 riots was a legislative process before the French Parliament in a bid to modify conditions of eligibility for New Caledonian citizens at local elections.
These elections are important because they determine the members of the three provinces (North, South and the Loyalty Islands), membership of the territory’s Parliament (Congress), and members of New Caledonia’s government and its president.
The process was eventually aborted after initially peaceful protests (organised by one of the main components of the pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) — Union Calédonienne, and its Field Action Coordinating Cell — degenerated into riots.
During the same sitting, French Senators have also endorsed another amendment that once again postpones the date of New Caledonia’s provincial elections to 20 December 2026 at the latest.
The crucial poll has already been postponed three times since its initial scheduled date of May 2024.
The Senatorial vote is only the first step in a longer legislative path for the text on New Caledonia, based on the transcription of talks that were held in July 2025 and in January 2026.
The meetings, which respectively resulted in texts dubbed “Bougival” and “Elysée-Oudinot”, were initially endorsed by a large majority of New Caledonia’s parties represented at its local Congress.
But since August 2025, the FLNKS has withdrawn its support, saying the proposed agreements do not represent a credible path to the full sovereignty they demand.
Over the past few weeks, intense lobbying has taken place both in New Caledonia and Paris, both on the pro-independence and the pro-France side of the political chessboard, in order to win over French MPs.
FLNKS members with “No to Bougival” banners in Nouméa. Image: FLNKS /RNZ
‘Don’t repeat the errors of the past’ – Kanak Senator Speaking during the Tuesday sitting, New Caledonia’s pro-independence (Union Calédonienne) Senator Robert Xowie, in a direct reference to the May 2024 riots, also warned the French government “not to repeat the errors of the past”.
“Kanaky-New Caledonia has already paid a heavy price because of the [French] government’s stubbornness,” he told senators.
The text tabled in the French Parliament proposes to establish a “State of New Caledonia” within the French realm, as well as a correlated New Caledonian “nationality” (tied to a pre-existing French nationality), as well as a new process of gradual transfer of powers from Paris. But at the same time it rejects any future use of referendums (an instrument regarded by Paris as “divisive”).
Between 2018 and 2021, as prescribed by the 1998 Nouméa Accord, three referenda have been held regarding New Caledonia’s self-determination. They resulted in three rejections of independence, even though the last poll — in December 2021 — was widely boycotted by the pro-independence movement.
New Caledonia’s first pro-independence Senator Robert Xowie speaking before the French Senate last year. Image: Screenshot/Sénat.fr/RNZ
“It is because of these three votes, which say ‘yes’ to the French Republic, that this very republic must deploy its economic and social ambition, regardless of the future outcome of political talks”, pro-France Les Loyalistes leader Sonia Backès commented on social networks.
Another prominent pro-France politician, New Caledonia’s MP at the National Assembly, Nicolas Metzdorf, said Tuesday’s vote was “a first step”.
But the text, just like in 2024, also touches on the conditions of eligibility to gain the right to vote at local elections.
Until now, under the ageing Nouméa Accord (1998), the right to vote at local elections is “frozen” to a special roll that includes people born in New Caledonia or residing there before 1998, among other conditions.
“Unfreezing” the electoral roll would mean allowing some 12,000 more people born in New Caledonia and another 6,000 people who have been residing for at least an uninterrupted 15 years.
‘Waiting for stability’ Opponents to the project, just like in 2024, argue that this opening would contribute to diluting the indigenous voice at local political elections.
The other Senator for New Caledonia, Georges Naturel (regarded as pro-France, Les Républicains party) abstained because “deep inside, I know this Constitutional reform will unfortunately not bring the stable and long term political solution New Caledonia needs”.
Socialist and Green Senators also abstained, saying any future comprehensive agreement has to include everyone, including the FLNKS.
Otherwise, “there is no lasting solution to ensure peace, stability and development”, Socialists leaders argued last week in an op-ed in national daily Le Monde.
The move, already announced last week by the Socialists, was designed to give the government “the opportunity to suspend debates on the text and call for provincial elections at the end of May or beginning of June 2026, instead of the now re-scheduled December 2026).
According to this scenario, this would then be followed by a new round of discussions, involving newly-elected members of New Caledonia’s Congress.
French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou reacted to the Senate’s vote, saying New Caledonians “have gone through tiring months and are now waiting for stability and useful decisions regarding their day-to-day lives”.
Moutchou admitted the proposed process and associated calendar was “very imperfect and in parts very unsatisfactory . . . but it is indispensable. To stop this constitutional bill now would mean to close the door to the ongoing process since Bougival [talks],” she told a French Senate committee on 17 February 2026.
“We have to give this imperfect process a chance because it has the merit of providing visibility to local stakeholders,” she said.
France’s Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou . . . admits the proposed process is “very imperfect and in parts very unsatisfactory . . . but it is indispensable.” Image: Assemblée Nationale/RNZ
Uncertain support for future sittings After this relatively comfortable vote, further down the legislative process, the text is to be tabled at the other House of Parliament, the National Assembly (Lower House), starting from 31 March 2026.
In the Lower House, opposition ranks are much stronger and therefore debates and process are expected to be much rockier, with the open support of large blocks of opposition, including far-left LFI (La France Insoumise, Unbowed France).
Another significant and openly declared opponent is the far-right Rassemblement National (RN).
Others include the Socialists, the Greens, the Communist Party, according to latest reports.
Later, since this is a Constitutional Amendment, both Houses of Parliament are expected to be summoned and to be endorsed validly, the Constitutional Bill needs to receive the support of three fifths of the joint sitting (called a Congress, held in the city of Versailles).
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr on her way to a century during the White Ferns vs Zimbabwe Women T20 match.PhotoSport / DJ Mills
The White Ferns have defeated Zimbabwe in their Twenty20 International series-opener in Hamilton.
The White Ferns posed an imposing score of 202/1, with captain Amelia Kerr top scoring with 101 – reaching her century in just 51 balls.
Isabella Gaze was also not out on 66 off 50 balls, while Georgia Plummer scored a rapid 32 runs.
After losing several early wickets, the Zimbabwe team were unable to lift the run rate and fell well short of NZ’s total, reaching 110/4. Beloved Biza top scored with 49 not out.
New Zealand are playing the tourists in three T20 matches – all in Waikato – before the three-match ODI series gets underway in Dunedin on 5 March.
See how the game unfolded with our live blog:
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Dunedin police say they shot at a man as he drove his vehicle towards officers and their patrol car while trying to avoid arrest.
Police were looking for the man in relation to a series of offences in the Otago coastal area over recent days.
Officers involved in an operation to locate the 46-year-old saw him at a commercial premises on Kaikorai Valley Road at about 6pm and tried to apprehend him.
Superintendent Jason Guthrie said the man drove his car towards the patrol car in an effort to avoid arrest and in response police fired one shot.
“No other shots were fired in the incident, and nobody was injured,” he said in a statement.
The man then fled in the vehicle but was later found in Brockville where police successfully deployed road spikes, he said.
The man fled into the bush but was found soon after by a police dog team in the Fraser’s Gully area, he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, police had asked the public to keep clear of Three Mile Hill and Brockville as officers searched the cordoned area.
Cordons were still in place at 9pm on Wednesday but were expected to be lifted shortly, Guthrie said.
The incident will be referred to the Independent Police Conduct Authority as is standard procedure when a police firearm is used.
An Oriental fruit fly on a piece of fruit.Supplied / Biosecurity NZ
A biosecurity operation is under way in the Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe following the discovery of a single male Oriental fruit fly in a surveillance trap.
Biosecurity New Zealand commissioner North Mike Inglis said the fruit fly was identified on Wednesday evening.
“We will be ramping up trapping and inspections in Papatoetoe. As a precautionary measure, Biosecurity New Zealand will put in place legal restrictions on the movement of fruit and vegetables out of the area where the fruit fly has been found.
“Over the next 24 hours, we will issue details about these controls and the exact areas affected,” he said.
In the meantime, it was important that people who lived and worked in the suburb not take any whole fresh fruit and vegetables out of their property.
Biosecurity staff would be out on Thursday providing the local community with information, Inglis said.
Biosecurity’s most recent eradication was a single male Queensland fruit fly in Mount Roskill, which wrapped up last week after six weeks of intensive fruit fly trapping and the inspection of more than 230 kilograms of fruit.
“The Oriental fruit fly find in Papatoetoe is unrelated to the Queensland fruit fly in Mt Roskill,” Inglis said.
The fruit fly poses no human health risk, but there would be an economic cost to the horticulture industry if it were allowed to establish here. Adult flies lay eggs into fruit, where the maggots feed and cause the fruit to rot.
A single male Oriental fruit fly has been discovered in a surveillance trap in Papatoetoe.Supplied / Biosecurity NZ
How to identify the fly
Adult flies are a little larger than a housefly (6mm to 8mm long); have a dark “T” shaped marking on the abdomen (the part behind the waist); usually have a bright yellow and orange abdomen (but can vary); have clear wings. The female fly has a pointed “sting” to lay eggs inside fruit (but she can’t sting or bite people). The male fruit fly is a similar size but is reddish-brown.
Biosecurity New Zealand says if people who think they’ve found a fruit fly should photograph it, capture it if possible, and call MPI on 0800 80 99 66.
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Yesterday’s evacuation of the prime minister from the Lodge has been linked to the Chinese dance troupe Shen Yun. In a bomb threat emailed to the group, the sender said explosives would be detonated if Australian performances by Shen Yun proceeded.
This is just the latest controversy surrounding Shen Yun. But this use of a security threat as a prop to achieve other goals exposes a deeper and increasingly consequential struggle over culture, representation and political voice in the transnational Chinese world.
At stake is not a dance performance, but a deeper question: who gets to represent “Chinese culture” on the global stage?
What is Shen Yun?
Shen Yun, short for Shen Yun Performing Arts, literally translates to divine rhythms.
Shen Yun markets itself as a revival of “traditional Chinese culture” and “China before communism”. Based in New York and touring globally, the classical Chinese dance and music company was established in 2006 by the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
Their productions combine high-production dance, orchestral music and digital backdrops with narrative elements that often depict the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Falun Gong is a new religious movement, established in 1992, rooted in traditional Chinese qigong meditation practices with moral teachings from Buddhism and Daoism. It has been banned by the Chinese government as an illegal organisation since 1999.
Shen Yun is one of Falun Gong’s media and culture outreach organisations, alongside The Epoch Times newspaper. Shen Yun regularly tours across 36 countries, mostly in elite cultural venues.
The dance company is best understood as a hybrid cultural-political formation. It is simultaneously a cultural performance enterprise, a diasporic religious movement, a political messaging vehicle, and cultural diplomacy from exile.
What criticism has Shen Yun faced?
Shen Yun has been highly criticised by officials from the People’s Republic of China. They call the group an “evil religion” and a “cult” with great destructive power, and a political vehicle presenting a distorted version of Chinese culture.
The group also has its critics outside of China. A 2024 report in the New York Times detailed poor treatment of injured dancers, and one dancer brought a lawsuit against Shen Yun, calling it a “forced labour scheme” which exploits young dancers.
But the Chinese government’s sensitivity to Shen Yun reflects a broader strategic concern.
Since the early 2000s, Beijing has invested heavily in cultural soft power, from Confucius Institutes to state-sponsored media expansion. These efforts rest on the implicit premise that the Chinese state is the primary custodian and legitimate representative of Chinese civilisation and cultural rejuvenation.
This also can be seen in the “Chinese dream” narrative of President Xi Jinping: a message of patriotism, reform and innovation, with the goal of making China a dominant power on the world stage.
But Shen Yun disrupts the premise that Xi and the Chinese government can define Chinese culture.
How does Shen Yen use cultural diplomacy?
For their supporters, Shen Yun preserves authentic Chinese heritage and the true Chinese spirit, despite the Chinese government’s long-running campaign of repression of Falun Gong practitioners beyond its borders.
Traditionally, cultural representation and cultural diplomacy have been the domain of nation-states. Cultural diplomacy initiatives are state-led, via ballet companies, orchestras, sports, festival celebrations and cultural institutes (such as Confucius Institutes) projecting soft power abroad.
Shen Yun inverts this model. It is a non-state actor using dance to advance a narrative in direct contest to the Chinese state’s definition and representation of Chinese culture.
The company is not interested in the official Chinese “positive energy”. Instead, Shen Yun shares a story about struggle and survival, repression and resistance, highlighting their version of classical Chinese culture.
Shen Yun is not simply performing culture. It is contesting China’s cultural authority. In Shen Yun’s performances, cultural authenticity is not created by the state. Instead, cultural authenticity is created by the diaspora and the people.
A new geopolitics
Shen Yun is especially keen to spread their values in the Western liberal cultural marketplace.
The performances are staged in mainstream theatres, marketed as high culture (tickets in the current Australian tour range from approximately A$100–$300), and protected under norms of artistic freedom. Yet these spaces have become the theatre where geopolitical tensions are performed.
The bomb threat – even though authorities found no evidence linking it to the Chinese government – illustrates how quickly cultural performance can become entangled with national security anxieties.
The Shen Yun controversy is a symptom of a new geopolitical condition, rather than merely an isolated dispute.
Culture, religion and political legitimacy are increasingly entangled across borders. Australia, like many liberal democracies, will likely see more of these disputes in the years ahead.
In an era of transnational media and diaspora mobilisation, cultural performances can carry significant political weight – even in the form of classical dance and music.
Shen Yun’s success depends on its hybridity. It is a performing arts company, a diasporic religious movement operation, a commercial entity and a political messaging platform, all at once.
The Shen Yun case illustrates the fragmentation of cultural sovereignty. Competing actors are engaged in ongoing struggles to define what counts as authentic Chinese culture and who represents it.
Western cultural venues – and today, the Lodge – have become key battlegrounds in this contest.
Assistant Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs minister Julian Hill has warned Australia needs to strengthen the “bridging social capital” that holds our diverse society together, or risk further fragmentation.
In a speech on Wednesday to the McKell Institute canvassing the challenges to Australia’s multiculturalism, Hill has also floated a proposal to ensure children attending faith-based schools or home schooled would mix outside their faith groups throughout their education.
Based on a policy operating in Singapore, it would be driven by state governments and local authorities, and bring together the children in sporting, social and other activities.
Hill said Australians’ rights to express their cultural heritage and identities were not absolute, but came with obligations.
“Obligations for everyone include: one, a shared and unifying commitment to Australia first and foremost; two, acceptance of the basic structures and principles of Australian society including the constitution, tolerance, parliamentary democracy, equality and English as the national language; and three, accepting the right of others to express their views and values”, Hill said.
In a strong message to his own side of politics Hill, who is from the Left faction, said:
“One challenge for the progressive Left with our instinctive values-based focus on rights, is to remember that there are limits to cultural expression, and to champion the obligations that come with being Australian”.
He said it was a myth for people to claim most migrants did not integrate. “They overwhelmingly do. But the trap for progressives is to fail to acknowledge that concerns are real, and to act when genuine issues arise”.
Many decent people had attended the “Marches for Australia”, protesting against the level of immigration, or may vote for One Nation, and good people were peddled lies on social media, Hill said.
“They deserve to be listened to, rather than dismissed: the economic concerns of frankly ‘pissed off’ people or worries about integration are real.”
“Progressives must also not be scared to call out unacceptable cultural practices or expressions that breach core tenets of modern Australian multiculturalism,” he said.
These included, for example, extremely culturally conservative gender segregation in pockets of newly arrived communities, and forced marriages.
“To be clear, this is not religious, these are cultural issues against Australian values. Women have the right to participate freely and be seen and heard in every part of Australian society.”
Abuse of gay children in some schools by some newly arrived migrants from multiple countries and faith groups “is completely unacceptable,” Hill said. “Queer Australians have the same rights as anyone else, and gay kids should be free to be themselves without fear of abuse.”
Hill said that aside from such specific examples of unacceptable behaviour, “a systemic risk is that super-diverse societies may break into separate groups.
“Diversity alone in modern Australia is not and cannot be a sufficient goal. Successful multiculturalism means cherishing communal identities, building bridges between diverse groups and celebrating things we all have in common.
“It is social distance, misinformation and polarisation that create a lack of empathy and vulnerability to hate and extremism, not diversity itself.”
Hill distinguished between two categories of social capital: “bonding” and “bridging”. The former was found within groups or communities, while “intercultural thinking” is all about bridging social capital.
“Overemphasising communal identities risks atomising society and degrading the links between people and groups as well as the things Australians have in common.
“Hence we need to critically reflect and intentionally focus on the relational dimension between groups in Australian society – the intercultural piece – to enhance empathy and mutual respect.”
Hill said that in some areas, institutions and systems militated against intercultural connections and deeper social cohesion.
One big question was the growth in faith-based schools, and home schooling. “It is increasingly possible to grow up in Australia from Prep to year 12 without ever really mixing outside your faith or even ethnic group.”
Over the last seven years the proportion of students attending a school with a religious affiliation had reached nearly 34%. Meanwhile home schooling grew in the last five years by 116% in New South Wales, 85% in Victoria and 232% in Queensland.
Hill stressed he was not arguing against faith-based schools but said it was “worth reflecting on the implications and whether systemic responses are needed to strengthen bridging capital”, such as the Singapore scheme.
“Singapore is strongly focused on building and renewing intercultural and inter-religious trust, understanding and communication. Aiming to safeguard economic growth in a labour-scarce city with a high migrant workforce, and to prevent social fragmentation and inter communal tensions which could undermine stability and progress.
“Not all aspects of course of Singapore’s approach are relevant to Australia, but it’s an interesting case study to reflect on.
“Done well, intercultural initiatives will resonate with Australians, and over time should foster reduced prejudice and social polarisation, stronger integration and trust between communities and institutions, and greater resilience to hate-based violence and misinformation.”
Hill said that in the past most multicultural societies were autocratic, and most democracies monocultural.
“So in a sense we are a recent experiment in how to make a remarkably diverse democracy work. And we have absolutely made it work.
“Indeed, our human diversity is modern Australia’s defining characteristic and surely our greatest strength. But Australia cannot ever take our social cohesion or success for granted. Cohesion is not an end state; it is a dynamic process that requires constant attention, work and investments.”
Fire and Emergency says a large grass fire in Central Otago has now been contained.
FENZ was called to a large grass fire that was threatening structures in the Springvale area near Clyde before 3.30pm.
About 18 fire crews responded along with four helicopters and at least eight properties were evacuated.
Fire and Emergency said the helicopters had now been stood down.
A large grassfire was threatening structures in the Springvale area near Clyde in Central Otago.Kaden Campbell
The fire was 400 metres by 400 metres initially, but a spokesperson earlier said it was spreading quickly through grass and pine trees.
Aimz Hemming said they were able to smell the smoke from their street a few kilometres away.
“When the alarm went off, all the sirens were go,” Hemming said. “It was a wee bit scary.”
* Are you in the area? Contact RNZ at iwitness@rnz.co.nz
Earlier a spokesperson said it was unknown if any properties had been damaged at this stage and crews had also moved livestock out of paddocks that were under threat.
Fire and Emergency is working with police to close Springvale Road.
The fire is in the Springvale area, near Clyde.Supplied / Facebook
People were urged to stay away from the area and to be extra cautious as a lot of crews were tied up fighting to contain this fire, the spokesperson said.
Fire and Emergency also said the fire was producing a lot of smoke which was drifting towards Alexandra.
“If you are in the vicinity of the smoke, please stay inside with windows closed.”
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The Southland Regional Council report said in some places the nitrate concentrations in groundwater exceeded the New Zealand drinking water standard of 11.3 mg/L.123RF
A report has exposed increasing nitrate contamination in Southland’s groundwater, sparking a call from Greenpeace for a nitrate emergency to be declared in the region.
It pointed to the intensification of dairy farming as a key cause of growing nitrate levels.
The report said nitrate concentrations in groundwater frequently exceeded 3.5 mg/L and in some places exceeded the New Zealand drinking water standard of 11.3 mg/L.
More than half of Southland’s domestic drinking water supply wells were estimated to have nitrate concentrations above 3.5 mg/L.
The Ministry of Health considers the current maximum acceptable value (MAV) for nitrate appropriate, although some public health experts argue the drinking water limit is too high and potentially puts people at risk of pre-term birth and bowel cancer.
Greenpeace freshwater campaigner Will Appelbe said the findings were alarming.
“It’s made clear what many of us have known for quite some time, that nitrate contamination is a real crisis in Southland and the main cause of that contamination is the intensive dairy industry,” he said.
“At a bare minimum it’s time that Environment Southland declared a nitrate emergency. Environment Canterbury declared one last year for very good reason, it’s clear that Southland has a drinking water crisis on its hands and it’s a result of nitrate contamination.”
The report said the region’s dairy boom had coincided with a decline in water quality and the region’s groundwater was vulnerable to contamination.
Between 1990 and 2022, Southland’s dairy herd increased by 1668 percent from 38,000 to 668,000 cows.
Otago University research fellow Marnie Prickett said Southland needed to reduce its dairy herd, and she was also calling for an independent inquiry into the regional council’s land-use rules.
“Southlanders need Environment Southland to chart a really robust path out of this. It can’t be tinkering around the edges it has to be driving confidently forward about what they’re going to do,” she said.
The report said 44 percent of domestic supply wells (612) and 45 percent of registered public drinking-water supplies (18) were located within areas classified as having “high vulnerability to nitrate contamination”.
“here may be approximately 1,530 people on private supplies and 13,632 on public groundwater supplies at risk of exposure to high concentrations of nitrate in drinking water,” the report said.
A graph from the Nitrogen Contamination in Southland Groundwater 2026.Supplied
Environment Southland general manager science Karen Wilson said although the report did not present new data, it brought together a range of information to give an integrated view of groundwater quality, nitrate sources, and health risks.
“This science formed the basis of the Southland Water and Land Plan, which was accepted by the Environment Court. The plan was the first step in responding to Southland’s groundwater nitrate challenges,” she said.
Federated Farmers Southland president Jason Herrick said declaring a nitrate emergency would be an overreaction and unhelpful.
“Nitrates aren’t a new issue for Southlanders at all, and it’s not just dairy, as a society and as a people we’re all responsible for our challenges that we had. This is a long-standing challenge that the community have been aware of and working on for quite some time now,” he said.
The report said 71 percent of groundwater sites had shown increasing nitrate contamination over the past two decades.
Hotspots included Balfour/Waimea Plains, Wendonside Terrace, Five Rivers/Castlerock, Edendale, Knapdale, Mabel Bush/Woodlands, Central Plains/Waimatuku, and Otahu Flat.
Southland Regional Council freshwater principal scientist Ewen Rodway said the council was working to deal with the problem.
“We’re continuing to monitor groundwater quality across the region, identifying these high-risk areas and using those to focus efforts such as focusing farm plans, and working with catchment groups to reduce nitrogen losses in those vulnerable areas,” he said.
Rodway said a decision about declaring a nitrate emergency sat with councillors.
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Christchurch Hospital resourced bed occupancy reached 99 percent at one point on Wednesday.RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The Nurses’ Organisation says Christchurch Hospital is reaching capacity, with some elective surgeries cancelled on Wednesday.
Allister Dietschin, a healthcare assistant and Nurses’ Organisation delegate, said the hospital was “heaving” and it had been “madness” for some days.
Earlier on Wednesday resourced bed occupancy in the hospital reached 99 percent. Dietschin said some elective surgeries had been cancelled as a result of the high demand.
He said as well as a high volume of patients, they were also short staffed.
Christchurch Hospital “often” had high volumes of patients and not enough staff. It was a problem the union had been asking for that to be addressed, Dietschin said.
He said the complexity of the patients they were dealing with was also through the roof.
“It’s diabolical really.”
Dietschin said traditionally they had less demand over summer, but that had not been the case this year. He was worried what that would mean for the colder months ahead.
“We’ve had huge demand over the summer period, and now with winter coming on, it’s just going to get even busier.”
Health New Zealand says 10 planned elective surgeries were deferred over the past two days at Christchurch Hospital due to a high number of acute trauma patients who required immediate care.
“As I am sure you will be able to appreciate, patients who require life saving care will always be prioritised,” a spokesperson said.
“We are not anticipating any further deferrals for elective surgery, and patients will be re-booked as soon as possible. To be clear this is unrelated to staffing or hospital capacity.”
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Victorians faces a state election late this year, with the Labor government pitching for a fourth term. A key issue will be the government’s failure to deal with thuggery and corruption in the building industry, centred on the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU).
After its hand was forced by years of reporting in The Age, in 2024 the federal government appointed an administrator, Mark Irving, to clean out the union’s construction sector.
An explosive report prepared for the administrator by Geoffrey Watson SC documented the union’s decline into lawlessness and how it exploited Victoria’s Big Build infrastructure program.
In a section of his report that Irving withheld, Watson – a specialist in anti-corruption law – conservatively estimated the CFMEU overcharged Victorian taxpayers A$15 billion. He concluded much of that money “poured directly into the hands of criminals and organised crime gangs”.
The Allan government has since reacted furiously to Watson’s criticism.
Watson joins us to talk about his investigation, the state government’s response – and what should happen next.
The need for a royal commission
Watson says the CFMEU hadn’t been equally corrupt across Australia, saying if you measured crime and corruption on a scale of zero to 10, “New South Wales is about a two or a three, Queensland’s about a five, and Victoria’s about 1,000. It’s insane.”
That’s why Watson is backing calls for a royal commission in Victoria into the scandal.
They do need something in the nature of a royal commission in Victoria. A body which is set up with the resources, with the powers to compel evidence, the powers of a royal commission. And then you can get to the bottom of it.
But Watson says that inquiry shouldn’t be done by the state’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC).
IBAC’s already got enough on its plate. It’s looking at corruption across the state of Victoria, including local government and the like. Now I’ve worked within these organisations and I know how thin their resources are spread […] IBAC would then probably need to suspend all of its important work in all of the areas where it’s looking at public sector corruption.
So no – there should be a standalone inquiry, with the powers of a royal commission. And it should be properly designed and thought through to move rapidly, and to try and see what went wrong in Victoria, and why, and how you can prevent it occurring again.
Asked about what more the federal government could do, Watson says bringing back the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) wouldn’t help.
The CFMEU was getting further out of control during the era of the ABCC. I think the Fair Work Ombudsman is doing a very good job.
[…] Also, I can assure you, recent statistics have shown that since the administration [of the CFMEU] things have been brought under control. There have been very, very few disruptions on sites which have led to prosecutions. No, I wouldn’t bring back the ABCC. I think we’re better off without it.
Counting the cost of corruption
Watson explains how he came to his estimate that CFMEU corruption had cost Victorian taxpayers $15 billion.
I used conservative numbers. $100 billion is being spent on the civil work making up the “Big Build”. So I went to the old-time civil contractors, the people who used to let the contracts in the [Australian Workers Union (AWU)] days and then who had to deal with the CFMEU.
And one after another, they said the costs exploded immediately. Nearly all of them told me it was by 30%. Some of them said 20%. Some of them said 15%. I think one said 10%.
[…] I applied that percentage increase in the cost to the “Big Build” projects after the CFMEU had pushed the AWU out. And I came up with 15%, a conservative number in the range that I’ve just given you.
That means $15 billion, taking the conservative $100 billion estimate. I don’t see what’s wrong with the figure. I might say this, since I’ve given the report, I’ve received numerous calls from people complaining that it was too conservative, people who would know […] I double-checked it by speaking privately to some people who I’ll just say were in the bureaucracy. So it wasn’t a silly number. I confirmed it time and time again.
On coming under fire for his work
On the response from the Victorian government, Watson said not a single government MP had been in touch about his investigation.
Do you know, not one Victorian politician contacted me. Everybody knew that I was conducting this investigation. Nobody spoke to me. After the report was handed out, and before they came out and attacked it, did any of them ring me and say, ‘how did you arrive at these figures, or what is going on here? Tell us, talk to us’? No, no contact at all before they launched their attack on the report and me.
Watson said he had been surprised how personal some of the government’s criticism of him had been.
I’ve been doing this anti-corruption work now for a couple of decades. It’s come at a considerable personal cost to me, both personally and financially.
[…] I’ve strong credentials in this area. But they’ve dismissed me and they’ve said ‘oh no, it’s just florid ramblings’, as though I’d made it all up. They really attacked my integrity. And as I say, it’s pretty weird that somebody would say my figures were reckless. I’ll tell you what’s reckless: dismissing them without saying why, without looking at how I calculated it, or without coming up with an alternative figure.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vivienne Milligan, Honorary Professor of Housing Policy and Practice, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
Finding and affording adequate housing is a challenge many Australians face, but few more so than First Nations people. New national research shows unmet housing need among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households is double the rate of other Australians.
Indigenous people have long been recognised as particularly at-risk of experiencing poor housing. Ensuring “appropriate and affordable” housing is one of the key outcomes under Closing the Gap.
While Australia is in the middle of major housing reform, with significant new funding committed through multiple government initiatives, it won’t be enough to change the situation for First Nations people. Our new study, released today, shows that without fundamental change, current reforms will not close the gap.
The housing gap is large — and growing
Using 2021 census data, we estimate around 45,700 low-income Indigenous households had unmet housing need. That’s about one in eight Indigenous households.
Unmet need – measured by rental affordability stress, severe overcrowding and substandard housing or homelessness – differs by place.
In urban areas, rental stress dominates. In remote communities, overcrowding and poor housing persist.
Worryingly, the problem is projected to grow significantly by 2041 both because of the growing Indigenous population and the housing crisis.
Many of these households require social housing now or in coming years. Yet social housing is flat-lining at 4% of all housing. This is a social policy failure.
Our research found reporting on housing outcomes is imprecise and inconsistent. Accountability, particularly to Indigenous communities, is weak. Governance arrangements change frequently.
Despite endeavours to promote shared policy-making, such as the Housing Policy Partnership, governments continue to operate largely in “business as usual” mode.
If Closing the Gap is to succeed, Indigenous housing cannot remain dispersed across unaligned programs and hampered by unreliable short-term funding. A coherent national strategy and long-term investment plan is required.
The unfulfilled promise of self-determination
Over the past five years, all Australian governments have committed to shared decision-making and strengthening the Indigenous community-controlled sector.
But genuine and meaningful power-sharing remains limited. In most jurisdictions, Indigenous housing organisations are very small and financially constrained.
Outside Victoria, governments have been reluctant to transfer housing title to these organisations, limiting their autonomy and capacity to leverage finance and grow.
Governments have been reluctant to transfer housing title to Indigenous-controlled organisations.Esther Zheng/Unsplash, CC BY-SA
Community-controlled services consistently deliver culturally safer and more effective outcomes in areas such as health and child protection. Housing should be no different.
Unless this sector’s scale and capacity are improved, self-determination will remain symbolic.
Another consequence of an underfunded community sector is that it’s too small to make a big impact.
We found registered Indigenous community-controlled housing organisations manage only 13% of Indigenous social housing tenancies nationally. The rest are managed by governments or mainstream community housing providers. There is currently no national growth plan.
If governments are serious about strengthening this sector, they must commit to transferring large amounts of properties over into their control. Governments should also fund these organisations to provide new housing supply and develop their workforces.
An inappropriate system
Indigenous Australians have much lower home ownership rates than other Australians, although ownership rates have steadily increased over the past two decades.
For many in Indigenous communities, housing security is less about capital gain and more about intergenerational security and protecting collectively owned land. Policy settings rarely accommodate these preferences.
Innovative ownership models – including shared equity and community land trusts – offer potential options aligned with cultural and collective ownership traditions.
But policy support for innovative solutions has not been forthcoming.
First Nations organisations must be funded to provide housing in both urban and remote areas.Aaron Bunch/AAP
And despite increased housing investment overall, there is limited transparency about how much funding reaches Indigenous households and organisations.
Operating and construction costs are higher, especially in remote areas. Maintenance needs and tenant support needs are often greater. Yet funding formulas rarely reflect these realities.
If housing programs are to meet Indigenous need equitably, funding must be explicitly calibrated to that need, not assumed to trickle down. This funding needs to allow for organisations to work in both urban and remote areas, and to support both buyers and renters.
A better way forward
Based on our research, we propose a framework for a National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Strategy. This is built around four pillars:
strengthening governance and accountability
sufficient long-term investment
growing the Indigenous community-controlled housing sector
enhancing tenure security and choice.
A future strategy along these lines should be jointly developed by governments and Indigenous leaders. It would need to be anchored in legislation to ensure continuity beyond electoral cycles.
Most importantly, it must be guided by the principle articulated by the Indigenous housing leaders who oversaw our research: “our housing in our hands”.
The gap in Indigenous housing outcomes will close only when their housing is treated as a national priority – and when Indigenous people are entrusted with shaping its future.
A third of those surveyed said they planned to quit in the next year.Unsplash / Amie Johnson
More than a third of hospitality and tourism workers say they have been pressured into working while sick, not taking holidays or going without other minimum protections.
More than a third reported harassment or bullying at work with customers being the main culprits, according to a study commissioned by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Almost 1000 workers in the sectors were surveyed and results showed many workers enjoyed and were passionate about what they did but increasing numbers did not think they were paid fairly and more than a third of workers planned to quit in the next year.
The two industries differed with about 40 percent of hospitality workers planning to leave compared to 31 percent for tourism workers.
More than half of workers earned below the living wage at the time of $28.95 with only 48 percent feeling they were paid fairly, down from 57 percent in 2024.
About one in 12 workers reported being paid below the minimum wage.
Tourism workers said they had greater access to training, better career opportunities and more supportive pathways for development – 69 percent compared to 58 percent of hospitality workers.
The study concluded many workers did not appear to leave the industry because they disliked the work but because conditions no longer appealed.
“Low pay, long or unsustainable hours and limited career progression are the strongest drivers of exit even among workers who enjoy hospitality and tourism,” the report said.
Indicators of burnout remained high with two thirds of workers reporting they felt tired due to their work and about 43 percent reported feelings of hopelessness associated with working with customers.
But worker commitment, skill confidence and workplace dignity were strong.
“Hospitality and tourism are not constrained by worker motivation but by the conditions that enable sustained participation,” the report said.
“Retention and productivity are shaped by progression, training quality, pay adequacy, workplace dignity and safety, not by individual resilience or passion alone.”
The study recommended employers should encourage workers to remain in the industries by offering more training initiatives, pay progression and career development, and setting clear expectations for customer behaviour with zero tolerance for abuse.
Employers not doing enough to protect their employees – researcher
AUT and lead researcher, Professor David Williamson told Checkpoint the survey had been undertaken for the last five years and it was worrying to see that the rates of negative experiences in the workforce were increasing.
The percentage of those surveyed who reported bullying and harassment was 35 percent this year up from 23 percent the year before, he said.
The study found that last year in about half of the cases where hospitality and tourism workers were harassed or bullied customers were the perpetrators, that’s up from 26 percent in 2024.
Williamson said workers were having to deal with physically or verbally abusive customers, as well as drunk customers.
Asked why the figures had become worse, Williamson said it was important to look at the background of bullying and harassment in the sector.
Many staff working in hospitality were young and often it was their first job which made it difficult for them to deal with poor customer behaviour, he said.
“I think perhaps as well we’re seeing the result of Covid and economic pressure resulting in perhaps customers being more abusive than they have been pre-Covid.”
The survey indicated that employers were not doing enough to protect their employees, he said.
“When we look at the qualitative comments coming back from employees they’re talking about not being protected, not being supported, and again we can see the link to younger managers who either themselves haven’t been trained effectively or who are just too young to really know how to deal with those situations.”
When asked why they intended leaving hospitality, survey respondents gave bullying and harassment and low pay as the top two reasons, he said.
“It’s the combination between not being paid enough to put up with a very difficult work situation.”
The report had made a number of recommendations, he said.
“It’s about capturing that early career retention, making sure you’re addressing the young workers who are coming in that you’re training your managers so you have a safe working environment, that they’re not being harassed, that you’re training them well, that you’re also linking promotion opportunities to that training so as you become more skilled you can see a career progression and you know setting zero tolerance abuse standards across the whole industry so this will not be tolerated from customers or co-workers.”
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The format, the contenders, the history, the ambassadors, plenty of highlights ahead of golf’s New Zealand Open.
The tournament
New Zealand Golf Open, 26 February – 1 March 2026.
Millbrook Resort, Queenstown.
It’s that time of the year, where 156 professionals, and the same number of amateurs, flood into Queenstown for what will be the 105th New Zealand Golf Open. The tournament will feature the same format as previous years, with play on both courses at Millbrook Resort. All players will split their first two rounds on Coronet 18 (designed by Scott Macpherson and Greg Turner) and Remarkables 18 (designed by Sir Bob Charles). The top 60 plus ties will play the final two rounds over the weekend.
The total purse of the tournament is once again NZ$2 million, with the winner taking home approximately $360,000 and earning a spot at The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in mid-July. The forecast is for rain/showers for day one and cloudy skies for the remaining three days, with temperatures hovering between 16 to 20 degrees.
History
Our national open has a rich history. It was first played in 1907, when amateur Arthur Duncan won in Napier. Some famous names have triumphed down the years, including two of Australia’s finest players. Peter Thomson won it nine times, including three times in a row between 1959-1961, and Kel Nagel, who won six titles, also winning three in a row, 1967-1969. In the 1980s, American Corey Pavin, was a well-known name, to twice win the title. He would go on to win the US Open in 1995.
And, plenty of great New Zealand players have won the title, including major winners Sir Bob Charles (four times) and Michael Campbell (who won in 2000). Michael Hendry was the last New Zealand winner in 2017.
Tiger Woods (R) with caddie Steve Williams, at the New Zealand Open in 2002.PHOTOSPORT
Arguably the most famous New Zealand Open though was in 2002 at Paraparaumu Beach, when Tiger Woods came to New Zealand. That edition of the tournament was won by Australian Craig Parry. In recent years, Australians have dominated the winners’ list, with West Australian Ryan Peake the defending champion. Seven other former New Zealand Open winners are also competing.
Local hopes
Twenty-eight New Zealanders will feature this year. While our highest ranked player Ryan Fox, isn’t here due to his PGA Tour commitments, our two players on the DP World Tour, Daniel Hillier and Kazuma Kobori, are competing. Hillier, in particular, has made big strides in recent times, and is arguably the best hope for local success. His world ranking is exactly 100, after making a cracking start to the year. He’s had three top 10 finishes in his last five tournaments (Australian Open, Dubai Invitational, Bahrain Championship), and is fifth on the order of merit.
Daniel Hillier, while competing in Dubai in November 2025.GIUSEPPE CACACE
The Japanese born Cantabrian Kobori, also comes to Queenstown in solid form, after finishing in a tie for ninth at his last tournament, the Qatar Masters earlier this month. Ben Campbell, who plays on the LIV tour, is also back, along with the in form Steven Alker, who has won 10 times on the PGA Tour Champions. Five New Zealand amateurs are featuring, with 17-year-old Cantabrian Cooper Moore, one to watch. Moore finished runner up at the NZ PGA championship last week, at Paraparaumu Beach.
Overseas contenders
Australians dominate the field with Lucas Herbert, who finished last year’s LIV tour ranked 15th and Anthony Quayle, who plays on the DP World Tour, having solid credentials. 2025 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion, Kazuki Higa, the world number 123, is back again. He finished tied for second at last year’s New Zealand Open, alongside South African Ian Snyman, who has also returned. Wang Wei-Hsuan, from Chinese Taipei, is another to keep your eye on after three top-five finishes on the 2025 Asian Tour.
Eleven Americans are also teeing it up, including former PGA Tour winners Kevin Na, Nick Watney and Kyle Stanley. Chase Koepka, younger brother of multiple major winner Brooks, is also in the field.
The ambassadors
One of the big features of the tournament in recent years has some superstars from other sports playing as amateurs. This year, two names stand out from the pack. Kelly Slater, widely regarded as the greatest surfer of all time, is here. He is an 11-time world champion, and is teaming up with German Dominic Foos in the pro-am. Three-time grand slam tennis champion, Ash Barty, is also here. She won the French Open in 2019, Wimbledon in 2021 and the Australian Open in 2022, before retiring at the age of just 25.
Ash Barty celebrates her win at Wimbledon in 2021.PHOTOSPORT
Both Slater and Barty are handy golfers. Barty plays off a four handicap, while Slater’s been given a two handicap for the event. New Zealand sporting stars Israel Dagg, Jeff Wilson, Stephen Fleming and Tom Abercrombie are also playing, alongside former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting and American actor Michael Pena.
Kelly Slater, American surfing legend.Supplied: Piha Pro
What they said
Ben Campbell: “There’s a couple of holes where I’m going to hit 3-wood this year. It will definitely help with the scores. Hopefully the greens get nice and fast and with some good solid rough like that, I think probably the scores won’t quite be where they have been in the last couple of years.”
Defending champion Ryan Peake on laying the 18th in practice: “I got a bit emotional walking down there. Maybe I took too many emotions in, or something like that, or I just got that realisation of how much it actually changed my life.”
Daniel Hillier, who got married on Sunday is looking forward to another big week: “It would mean the world obviously if I could cap it off with my name on the Brodie Breeze Trophy. I speak for all Kiwis. It is our childhood dream.”
Kazuma Kobori said he leans on the likes of Hillier for support: “When we are on tour, we are isolated a little bit and we move within the golfers. I’ve learned a lot from the likes of Dan over the past year. It has been good to learn from him and see what he does and what he doesn’t do as well. We have a good thing going out there. If I don’t win then it would be nice for a Kiwi to win but it is obviously not controllable. I am just going to go out there and do my job and see what happens.”
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Last year, Auckland Council alone received almost 17,000 reports of roaming dogs and more than 1300 reports of dog attacks on people.
In Te Puna, Wilson said residents had been wrestling with an increasing number of aggressive dogs for years.
“I walk around the road with my trusty four-iron.”
Nick Monro
Wilson said he had been forced to hit dogs.
“I’ll give them a good club and with my tokotoko. I’ll smack them… yeah I actually punched a dog in the face because that was the only way to get it to back off.
“It was just coming too close and snarling, baring the teeth, not looking cool. And I’m sure everyone can tell you a dog war story in this town.”
While Checkpoint was visiting Te Puna, a big dog wandered across the rugby club field, past our cameraman and up to a nearby playground where two mums were chatting with three young children in tow.
One mum pulled a toddler close and the other – carrying a baby – gave the dog a wide berth as it wandered around the playground before eventually trotting off in the direction it had come.
It was unclear who or where the dog’s owner was.
Nick Monro
Wilson said he was not the only one to carry a weapon while out walking. He said a neighbour carried a large tokotoko (ceremonial walking stick).
“He refuses to stop walking. He’s one of the bravehearts and I see him walking all the time but he’s ready.”
Wilson worried he could only fend off one aggressive dog at a time with his golf club and feared for anyone caught unprepared.
“It’s when there’s more than one dog. That’s the problem and I’m reasonably fit even though I’m a koro, how does a little four, five, six-year-old child fend themselves off against one dog or a mother or an old kuia, a grandmother – they’ve got no show.”
Nick Monro
While there were no dogs on Te Puna Beach, where Wilson said dogs roamed in packs, there were dozens of paw prints.
“You can see, look, there’s dog prints there, dog prints there. If it’s just one set of footprints it’s okay but if you see more than a set of footprints it’s usually time to u-turn and go back and go home.”
Wilson questioned the need for aggressive dogs as he pointed out a number of known roaming dogs.
He believed they were partly owned to guard against crime.
Wilson, who grew up in Te Puna and moved back to the area to raise his children, said when they were young they “free-ranged” around the town.
However, he said it was different now and his moko did not feel safe walking alone.
He said they were driven to school – which was not the local one – and would not walk 300 metres to their local marae because they were scared.
“(There’s) usually a big bad dog sitting outside here. He’s okay for the people that live close but he’s the one that chases and bites our car tyres and our kids are totally freaked out by him – he’s huge.”
Te Puna School principal Neil Towersey said wandering dogs sometimes appeared in the playground.
“Some of the children are terrified. I get a patter tennis bat and a cone or something noisy – go out and give it a bit of a clatter and a bang and do my best impression to scare them off and they usually take off with their tail between their legs.”
Te Puna School principal Neil Towersey.Nick Monro
He said hunting dogs were particularly intimidating for the children.
“Some of them have had bad experiences with dogs. We’ve got a little boy at the moment who’s absolutely terrified of dogs so it’s something we’re a little bit mindful of.”
Towersey said that boy had been bitten by a dog.
He said the school had taught children about dog safety and he believed the Dog Control Act “needs tightening up”.
At the town tennis courts, a German Shepherd wandered about while opposite the chapel, a dog sat and watched from afar before retreating home.
Jade, who did not want her surname used, had four dogs in her care at the town rugby field.
She said she did not live in Te Puna but went there regularly and never usually encountered aggressive dogs.
“We’ve come across some dogs that don’t look very friendly but I can call mine back and they just come straight back and I’ve never had any dog attacks or dog attack me out here so that’s promising, touch wood.
Jade said she fostered rescue dogs for a charity and the four dogs with her were not hers.
She was unsure what breeds they were.
Nick Monro
Jade said it was not a dog’s fault if it was aggressive and it was up to owners to raise and socialise their dogs responsibly.
She recommended anyone who came across an aggressive dog should not run away or show fear.
Wilson said he wanted a community effort to change attitudes, incentivise responsible dog owners and support struggling owners to provide appropriate care for their dogs.
“Let’s not leave it up to the people who don’t care. We care and we want to do something about it.
“Hey, why should the dogs have the best beach in the world? How about us? We want our beach back.”
Western Bay of Plenty councillor and Te Puna resident Graeme Elvin said there was no doubt roaming dogs were a problem in Te Puna.
However, he believed it was a localised issue and said it had to be solved by a change in behaviour.
“It isn’t solved by throwing a whole lot of money at the problem.”
Elvin said he met with the council’s dog control officers on Tuesday to discuss the concerns and was impressed with their efforts.
Nick Monro
Council general manager of regulatory services Alison Curtis declined a interview, but in a statement said during the past six months the council had received 19 complaints about roaming dogs in the area, and two complaints about dog attacks – one involving a person and one involving another dog.
She said both attacks were minor.
“Based on general observations, these numbers are low to average, compared with the rest of the district.”
Curtis said some of the complaints related to dogs roaming on the sports fields.
“In response, animal services officers visited the fields several times over a two-week period in November and December, while the fields were in use.
“As a result of these visits, one dog was impounded.”
Curtis said since then the council had only received three reports of roaming dogs in the area, which made up part of the 19.
“Council can only act on issues we are made aware of, so we ask people to please report any concerns by calling us on 0800 926 732.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kath Albury, Professor of Media and Communication and Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society, Swinburne University of Technology
Gay and bisexual people in Australia are being targeted in violent attacks facilitated through dating and social media apps.
A recent investigation by the ABC revealed several hate crimes involving Islamic State sympathisers bashing gay and bisexual boys in Sydney, including some they had met on Wizz, which markets itself as an app for connecting young people, including minors.
This is just one of many examples. As of October 2024, Victoria Police had arrested 35 people in relation to similar incidents in which offenders had used fake profiles on Grindr and other dating apps to connect with gay men, before assaulting them.
So what do dating apps do to vet users? Could they be doing more? And how can users protect themselves?
What do dating apps do to protect users?
As anyone who has used a dating app will know, it’s very easy to set up an account. Generally all you need to do is to enter your email, password and date of birth. Then you’re free to make your profile and start looking for a match.
This can make it easy for offenders to set up fake profiles to target unsuspecting victims.
A number of dating apps (including Grindr) are signatories to the Australian Online Dating Code of Practice. The code commits apps to adopting a range of measures to mitigate the risks of “online-enabled harm” for users, such as prominently displaying reporting mechanisms and implementing processes to block or remove harmful content.
Wizz is not a signatory, but requires users to verify their identity by uploading a selfie, which is then assessed by AI age assurance software. Age assurance technology has well-documented shortcomings which allow some users to circumvent it. As of December 2025, Wizz has been included in Australia’s social media platform restrictions for people under 16.
In response to previous attacks, Grindr started providing pop-up safety messages for users, warning them of the risk of violence and providing tips to stay safe.
Could dating apps do more?
There have been suggestions apps should make users provide 100 points of ID to verify their profile.
But this brings with it new risks, especially for minority communities. Researchers have found that marginalised groups – including Indigenous women and LGBTQIA+ people are more likely to be targeted by technology-facilitated abuse.
As recent breaches of online chat platform Discord’s identity data have shown, these groups have good reason to distrust increased data collection and surveillance on dating platforms.
Additionally, while platforms having databases that contain the “real names” of users may make it easier for victims to report crimes after the fact, they cannot guarantee would-be violent offenders will not misrepresent themselves on the apps.
While many apps in Australia (including those that are signatories to the code of practice) already cooperate with law enforcement agencies and share relevant data if a crime is committed, there is less transparency about whether they have consulted with marginalised users – including survivors of online abuse – about what they need.
How can LGBTIQ+ users protect themselves on these apps?
As this shows, most current initiatives focus on responding to online-enabled harm, not prevention. Online platforms also don’t possess tools to moderate people’s conduct once they meet offline.
For example, it’s advised to have a short video call with a person you intend to meet in real life in order to help you confirm their identity. This is especially important as perpetrators of hate crimes can create profiles that seem legitimate.
There are also guidelines for checking in with friends such as sharing your location with a trusted friend when you go to meet a new person, and reporting abuse to the police or Crimestoppers.
It is important to emphasise that members of minority communities are not responsible for hate crimes, and individual risk mitigation can never be foolproof.
Recent Australian history demonstrates that where discrimination and exclusion of LGBTQIA+ people is normalised in public life, offenders are empowered to rationalise and normalise violence.
If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
For information and advice about family and intimate partner violence contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732). If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, contact 000.
You may have noticed a plethora of reels and posts on social media claiming cortisol “spikes” are harmful. Some warn against drinking coffee on an empty stomach or even doing certain exercises lest they “spike” your cortisol levels.
As an endocrinologist, I live and breathe hormones. I can reassure you cortisol spikes are not something healthy people need to fear.
In fact, cortisol rhythms – which involve some ups and some downs – are an essential part of what keeps your body well.
Remind me, what is cortisol?
Cortisol is an essential hormone that regulates our metabolism, immune system and cognitive/emotional processes.
Cortisol regulation is complex.
While cortisol release comes from your adrenal glands that sit just above your kidneys, it is under direct control by another hormone released by the pituitary gland, or “master gland” at the base of our brain.
Cortisol production follows a strong daily rhythm.
There is a sharp rise in cortisol levels in the first hour after waking up, called the “cortisol awakening response”.
Over the course of a day, cortisol levels fall gradually and are naturally very low in the evening, designed to bring on sleep.
Overlying this background rhythm there are regular cortisol pulses throughout the day, when your body is faced with challenges such as a tough workout, a stressful deadline or an infection.
These cortisol rises are protective. They help you stay focused, maintain your blood pressure and release more energy when needed.
So, what about coffee on an empty stomach?
Cortisol levels are affected by many factors including gender, age and genetics, as well as food, exercise, stress, light and illness.
Understanding the effect of a simple cup of coffee in the morning depends on the intricate and complex nature of these dynamics.
Importantly, there have been no randomised controlled studies comparing coffee consumption on an empty stomach to having it after food.
However, particularly in regular coffee drinkers, the effect may be negligible.
Interestingly, it might be more about the timing of coffee drinking rather than whether it is consumed with or without food.
In the study of habitual coffee drinkers, morning caffeine intake was not shown to meaningfully disturb the cortisol rhythm, whereas drinking coffee later in the afternoon did seem to contribute to higher cortisol levels over the course of the day.
This also may have relevance to when we exercise – some studies have shown that people exercising earlier in the day have a steeper cortisol decline after waking and lower evening levels. This might mean it is easier to get to sleep.
Don’t worry about ‘spikes’
Rather than being concerned about cortisol “spikes”, it is sustained elevations over the course of a day that are linked to adverse health outcomes.
Chronic stress states (meaning persistent and extended period of exposure to one or more stressors, such as prolonged work stress or relationship difficulties) and long-term use of cortisol-like medications (such as the corticosteroid prednisone) might be problematic. They expose the body to high cortisol levels without the natural rise and fall over a 24-hour period.
Rare conditions like Cushing’s syndrome (a consequence of tumours of the pituitary or adrenal gland in most people) cause chronically elevated cortisol levels.
Although some smart watches can monitor your “stress” levels, this is done indirectly via measurement of heart rate variability – not by measurement of cortisol levels.
Measuring high cortisol levels requires sophisticated testing that might involve urine, saliva, as well as a variety of blood tests; so don’t be too worried about cortisol based on what your watch is telling you.
If you are concerned about cortisol, you should consult your doctor. If abnormalities arise, a referral to an endocrinologist may be needed.
India has formally joined the United States’ flagship international alliance on artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain security: “Pax Silica”. Officials from both countries signed the Pax Silica declaration on the sidelines of a major AI summit in New Delhi last week.
This initiative seeks to bring together US “allies and trusted partners” to lead the global AI race. Australia was a founding member.
While Taiwan looks set to keep dominating advanced AI chip manufacturing, it relies on a complex international supply chain, with critical aspects dominated by China.
When essential elements come from a narrow set of suppliers, even minor disruptions can ripple globally. Diversity matters. That’s why Australia and India now have an opportunity to become essential international players.
Why Washington is building an alliance
AI is rapidly becoming a foundational resource of the 21st century across manufacturing, logistics, finance, healthcare, drug discovery and defence.
The Pax Silica alliance recognises different countries play distinct and critical roles in building the tech that powers AI.
South Korea produces a small but important slice of the world’s AI computer chips. But the biggest chip maker by far is the tiny island nation of Taiwan.
Healthcare AI robots at an exhibition at the India AI Impact Summit.AP
These firms overwhelmingly depend on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). This remains the only manufacturer that can produce the world’s most cutting-edge chips at scale.
And their advantage extends beyond making chips. TSMC also possesses unique advanced packaging capabilities that integrate AI accelerators with high-bandwidth memory chips.
This is essential for achieving the tight coupling of “compute” and memory demanded by modern AI workloads. TSMC is not just dominant – it is a single-point-of-failure in the AI ecosystem.
Taiwan can’t do it alone
Despite this dominance, TSMC still relies on a global network of partners across Japan, the US, France and Germany to supply ultra-pure materials derived from mineral inputs (such as silicon, copper, tungsten, and rare-earth elements).
Among these, the rare-earth inputs are critical in polishing wafers to the near‑atomic‑scale flatness needed.
Rare-earth magnets are also indispensable in fabrication equipment that demands sub‑nanometre positioning accuracy. (A nanometre is one millionth of a millimetre.) These materials have no alternatives at present.
China has a near-total dominance in rare-earth refining, and magnet manufacturing. This significantly narrows TSMC’s options in securing these inputs. It also creates a major chokepoint within the chip supply chain.
One company – TSMC – dominates global chip manufacturing.Chiang Ying-ying/AP
Australia’s mineral strength
Australia has relatively rich rare earths deposits among other semiconductor raw materials such as silica, gallium, germanium, antimony, copper, and gold.
Right now, however, we don’t have the domestic capability to process these. Most materials are exported to China for processing them to semiconductor-grade purity levels. This locks Australia into the lowest segment of the value chain.
Australia can partner with advanced refiners, such as Japan or South Korea, but that will only preserve Australia’s current role as a supplier.
If Australia wants to move up the value chain (that is, produce more than just the basic raw inputs), it needs to partner with a country that can help it build out a refinement pipeline together. Some parts of the process here, some somewhere else.
This is where India enters the equation.
Turning minerals into materials with India
India has large-scale speciality chemicals capability — including rare earth processing facilities. Trade agreements already enable the movement of Australian critical minerals and metals into India’s manufacturing ecosystem.
However, right now, India does not have the capability to refine raw inputs into semiconductor grade materials. To get there, other members of the alliance, such as the US and Japan, would need to transfer their purification standards and quality assurance systems.
Building semiconductor-grade refinement facilities will not be quick or cheap. Advanced chipmakers have strict quality requirements. Getting qualified to supply global chipmakers is a slow and exacting process. It can take years before materials are approved for volume supply.
Why the world will be watching
If Australia and India cooperate to set up a stable semiconductor minerals pipeline, then that won’t be just another policy initiative. It will be about whether future chip supply chains are fragile and concentrated, or diversified and resilient.
How this all plays out could shape the affordability of consumer products such as electric vehicles, the cost of renewable energy, the availability of AI-enabled devices, and broader economic security.
Pax Silica is an opportunity for Australia and India to emerge as trusted suppliers of semiconductor-grade minerals and materials – and a much-needed alternative to China.
MediMap is used by some health providers in aged care, disability, hospice and the community to accurately record medication doses and pharmacists say it going offline has caused “significant disruption”.RNZ/Calvin Samuel
Pharmacies are falling back on their emergency back-up plans to distribute medication, and doing a lot of unpaid leg-work in the process, following the MediMap hack.
The prescription portal is used by many aged care, disability, and hospice providers to track medication, but it’s been offline since Sunday when it was discovered patient information had been changed – details like names, dates of birth, allergies, even marked some patients as deceased.
For nurses in care homes, MediMap going offline had meant a return to pen and paper, meaning it was taking a lot longer to get things done.
The same is true for pharmacists.
James Westbury, owner of Westbury Pharmacy and Unichem Kilbirnie Pharmacy in Wellington, said they supported about 5000 people in aged care, hospice and supported housing.
He said it had been “incredibly difficult” and caused “significant disruption” – with the digital system offline, pharmacists had downed tools to get a new manual system underway.
That involved going back through people’s dispensing histories and charts to make sure they were up to date, and in many cases, getting extra sign-off from a prescriber to be able to dispense medication.
“Unfortunately pharmacies get paid on dispensing, and when you’re not dispensing you’re not making money, so at the moment this is all done for the love of patient safety.”
Was it posing a risk to patient care? He said it added complexity, but it was manageable.
“The systems that we’ve got in place at the moment, I feel quite comfortable that care will be maintained at a safe level, particularly for regular prescribed and PRN [meaning, as needed] medication,” he said.
“The only real concern is where it’s short course [prescriptions] where it’s a little bit more difficult. We can still produce the data to provide safe continuity of care, it’s just a lot more challenging to get that information out – but it’s the art of the possible.”
Pharmacists had been forced to get a new manual system underway due to MediMap being offline.123RF
Westbury said communication from MediMap had been “appalling”.
Pharmacists had been assured there was a digital backup in place should MediMap fail, called MediMap Go, he said. But that appeared to have been affected by the same hack, and was also offline, leaving pharmacists to scramble a new system into place.
Kesh Naidoo-Rauf, president of the Pharmacy Guild, said members were coping, but it had come at a bad time.
“We’re already struggling and facing workforce pressures, so it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the sector, in all honesty.”
But the priority was patient safety.
“We are trained for exactly these types of situations, so we’ve got our strong checks and balances in place to maintain safe dispensing processes. So it is still safe, but it is a lot slower.”
MediMap has declined multiple interviews with RNZ, but on Wednesday put out a statement saying it was heading to court to seek an injunction to stop anyone accessing, using, copying or sharing information from its systems.
It’s still unclear how many people have been caught up in the breach.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
The Brumbies and Waratahs both sit above the kiwi sides after two rounds of Super Rugby.Jeremy Ward / www.photosport.nz
After two rounds, the Aussies lead the pack.
The Brumbies and Waratahs are setting the pace with New Zealand-based sides occupying spots three to eight.
The lowest placed of those six sides was the defending champion Crusaders.
For the first time since the turn of the century, the Brumbies came to the Christchurch fortress and left victorious.
It leaves the traditional powerhouses with no wins from their first two games, and things don’t get any easier as they head to Hamilton to play the unbeaten Chiefs. It’s been a brutal beginning for Jonno Gibbs’ men, who face a third consecutive derby to kick off their campaign.
The Highlanders head across the Tasman to Brisbane after their heartbreaking loss to the Chiefs in Dunedin.
Following their captivating rise in 2025, and a stunning round one win over the Drua, it’s been a rough week for Moana Pasifika. Having been soundly beaten in the capital at the hands of the Hurricanes, Moana returned home to the news that once again they would not be playing in the Pacific Islands in 2026. They get their first home game against the Force, who are searching for their first wins of the season.
The Hurricanes, meanwhile, will enter the Lautoka cauldron against the Drua, who return to the fortress which was breached in round one after being whacked by the Waratahs last weekend.
The Blues round out the weekend’s action as their Australian tour continues in Canberra after a gutsy win in Perth, with skipper Daltan Papali’i to raise his bat in his 100th Super Rugby appearance.
Selection notes
The Hurricanes are churning through their first five stocks, with Callum Harkin handed the ten jersey for the trip to Fiji. Wallaby midfielder Lalakai Foketi will earn his first cap with the Chiefs from the bench, while All Black Wallace Sititi returns and Xavier Roe plays his 50th. Sam Darry returns for the Blues after sitting out round two with a concussion, while Moana prop Abraham Pole becomes just the second player from Moana Pasifika to notch fifty caps.
Injury ward
Chiefs hooker Brodie McAlister is out of action with a hand injury and should be back by round five.
The Hurricanes have a full casualty ward with Brett Cameron awaiting a specialist review, Du’Plessis Kirifi a week away with a calf complaint, and Ruben Love still recovering from an ankle injury.
The Blues are also without several frontliners from their pack, with Cameron Christie, Joshua Fusitu’a and Patrick Tuipulotu all sidelined.
Finn Hurley remains unavailable for the Highlanders, still another six weeks from a return. Cullen Grace’s return is unknown as he battles a knee injury, while All Black hooker Codie Taylor also has no timeline on when he will be back.
Team lists
Moana vs Force
Kick-off: 7:05pm Friday February 27
Navigation Homes Stadium, Pukekohe
Live blog updates on RNZ
Moana:
1. Tito Tuipulotu. 2. Millennium Sanerivi. 3. Chris Apoua. 4. Tom Savage. 5. Allan Craig. 6. Miracle Faiilagi captain. 7. Semisi Paea. 8. Semisi Tupou Ta’eiloa. 9. Jonathan Taumateine. 10. Patrick Pellegrini. 11. Solomon Alaimalo. 12. Ngani Laumape. 13. Lalomilo Lalomilo. 14. Tevita Ofa. 15. Glen Vaihu.
Impact: 16. Samiuela Moli. 17. Abraham Pole 50th Super Rugby cap. 18. Lolani Faleiva. 19. Ola Tauelangi. 20. Tupou Afungia (debut.) 21. Melani Matavao. 22. Jackson Garden-Bachop. 23. Tevita Latu (debut).
“It’s only a loss if you don’t learn from it. We don’t have time to dwell on mistakes. It’s just about us getting better each week, trusting our game, and making sure we play what we train.” – Moana Pasifika coach Tana Umaga
Reds vs Highlanders
Kick-off: 9:35pm Friday February 27
Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Live blog updates on RNZ
Highlanders
1. Ethan de Groot. 2. Jack Taylor. 3. Rohan Wingham. 4. Will Stodart. 5. Mitch Dunshea. 6. Te Kamaka Howden. 7. Sean Withy (cc) 8. Lucas Casey. 9. Adam Lennox. 10. Cameron Millar. 11. Jona Nareki. 12. Timoci Tavatavanawai (cc) 13. Jonah Lowe. 14. Caleb Tangitau. 15. Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens.
“We’re working hard on the small details that will help us deliver a more complete 80‑minute performance. We’ll need that level of accuracy and intensity if we’re going to get the job done on Friday.” – Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph
“We’re looking forward to the challenge. We know what we’re walking into with their home record, certainly in Lautoka and it being a day game.” Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw.
Chiefs vs Crusaders
Kick-off: 7:05pm Saturday 28 February 2026
FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton
Live blog updates on RNZ
Chiefs:
1. Jared Proffit 2. Samisoni Taukei’aho 3. George Dyer 4. Josh Lord 5. Tupou Vaa’i (vc) 6. Simon Parker 7. Kaylum Boshier 8. Luke Jacobson (c) 9. Xavier Roe 10. Josh Jacomb 11. Leroy Carter 12. Quinn Tupaea (vc) 13. Daniel Rona 14. Emoni Narawa 15. Etene Nanai-Seturo
“We’ve got a healthy squad, so that helps with the consistency in selections, but the players are making it really tough to pick the team – which is great.” – Chiefs coach Jonno Gibbs
Crusaders:
1. Tamaiti Williams. 2. George Bell. 3. Fletcher Newell. 4. Antonio Shalfoon. 5. Jamie Hannah. 6. Dom Gardiner. 7. Ethan Blackadder. 8. Christian Lio-Willie. 9. Noah Hotham. 10. Taha Kemara. 11. Sevu Reece. 12. David Havili (c) 13. Leicester Fainga’anuku. 14. Chay Fihaki. 15. Will Jordan.
“We can’t focus on one element too much because we’ll end up getting stung in another area. Any team that beats the Chiefs have to have a complete performance.” – Crusaders coach Rob Penney
Brumbies vs Blues
Kick-off: 9:35pm Saturday 28 February 2026
GIO Stadium, Canberra
Live blog updates on RNZ
Blues:
1. Ofa Tu’ungafasi. 2. Kurt Eklund. 3. Marcel Renata. 4. Laghlan McWhannell. 5. Sam Darry. 6. Anton Segner. 7. Dalton Papali’i (c) 8. Hoskins Sotutu. 9. Finlay Christie. 10. Stephen Perofeta. 11. Caleb Clarke. 12. Pita Ahki. 13. AJ Lam. 14. Cole Forbes. 15. Zarn Sullivan.
“The Brumbies are well organised and have started their season well. They will be tough competitors, particularly at home, but we are up for the challenge.” – Blues coach Vern Cotter.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
MediMap is used by some health providers in aged care, disability, hospice and the community to accurately record medication doses and pharmacists say it going offline has caused “significant disruption”.RNZ/Calvin Samuel
Pharmacies are falling back on their emergency back-up plans to distribute medication, and doing a lot of unpaid leg-work in the process, following the MediMap hack.
The prescription portal is used by many aged care, disability, and hospice providers to track medication, but it’s been offline since Sunday when it was discovered patient information had been changed – details like names, dates of birth, allergies, even marked some patients as deceased.
For nurses in care homes, MediMap going offline had meant a return to pen and paper, meaning it was taking a lot longer to get things done.
The same is true for pharmacists.
James Westbury, owner of Westbury Pharmacy and Unichem Kilbirnie Pharmacy in Wellington, said they supported about 5000 people in aged care, hospice and supported housing.
He said it had been “incredibly difficult” and caused “significant disruption” – with the digital system offline, pharmacists had downed tools to get a new manual system underway.
That involved going back through people’s dispensing histories and charts to make sure they were up to date, and in many cases, getting extra sign-off from a prescriber to be able to dispense medication.
“Unfortunately pharmacies get paid on dispensing, and when you’re not dispensing you’re not making money, so at the moment this is all done for the love of patient safety.”
Was it posing a risk to patient care? He said it added complexity, but it was manageable.
“The systems that we’ve got in place at the moment, I feel quite comfortable that care will be maintained at a safe level, particularly for regular prescribed and PRN [meaning, as needed] medication,” he said.
“The only real concern is where it’s short course [prescriptions] where it’s a little bit more difficult. We can still produce the data to provide safe continuity of care, it’s just a lot more challenging to get that information out – but it’s the art of the possible.”
Pharmacists had been forced to get a new manual system underway due to MediMap being offline.123RF
Westbury said communication from MediMap had been “appalling”.
Pharmacists had been assured there was a digital backup in place should MediMap fail, called MediMap Go, he said. But that appeared to have been affected by the same hack, and was also offline, leaving pharmacists to scramble a new system into place.
Kesh Naidoo-Rauf, president of the Pharmacy Guild, said members were coping, but it had come at a bad time.
“We’re already struggling and facing workforce pressures, so it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the sector, in all honesty.”
But the priority was patient safety.
“We are trained for exactly these types of situations, so we’ve got our strong checks and balances in place to maintain safe dispensing processes. So it is still safe, but it is a lot slower.”
MediMap has declined multiple interviews with RNZ, but on Wednesday put out a statement saying it was heading to court to seek an injunction to stop anyone accessing, using, copying or sharing information from its systems.
It’s still unclear how many people have been caught up in the breach.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
At least eight houses have been evacuated in Central Otago as a quick moving fire threatens properties.
Fire and Emergency says it was called to a large grassfire that was threatening structures in the Springvale area near Clyde before 3.30pm.
The fire was 400 metres by 400 metres initially, but a spokesperson says it’s spreading quickly.
Crews from across Central Otago and as far afield as Dunedin have been called in to fight the fire, including four helicopters.
The spokesperson says it’s unknown if any properties have been damaged at this stage and crews have also moved livestock out of paddocks that were under threat.
Fire and Emergency is working with police to close Springvale Road.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
A university researcher who tracks the amount of ultra-processed products and ingredients coming into New Zealand is calling for stronger regulations around marketing, especially to children.
Ultra-processed foods are not just junk food, but anything full of chemical based preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, and artificial colours and flavours.
A US attorney is suing some of the biggest food manufacturers, accusing them of deliberately designing products to be addictive – despite the harm they are known to cause. David Chiu says with products from all companies involved in the lawsuit also available in New Zealand, it should be a worry here.
A selection of common foods considered processed to different degrees.RNZ/Marika Khabazi
In 2023, ultra-processed foods made up 23 percent of New Zealand’s imports, compared to only 7 percent in 1990, says Dr Kelly Garton from the University of Auckland.
She told Checkpoint it was time for the government to step in, because consumers were influenced in ways they could not control.
A major step would be better labelling and restrictions around packaging directed at children.
“I would love for our labels to give much clearer indication to consumers and what’s in their food. Getting rid of any of those misleading claims around healthiness or environmental friendliness, for example, as well as not allowing ultra-processed foods to have marketing packaging that’s targeting kids.”
Dr Kelly GartonRNZ/Marika Khabazi
Garton said much of the marketing was currently targeted at young people, along with their parents.
“A lot of these products will have colours, shapes, or flavours or textures that are meant to appeal to children and younger people. And so obviously that’s meant to sell more product.
“A lot of the marketing is targeted at parents. It might have a certain amount of health washing, you know, a good source of protein when maybe it’s a protein derivative that’s been added back in. not necessarily a healthy whole protein that you could be consuming otherwise.”
But marketing was only one of the reasons that ultra-processed foods were so prominent in New Zealanders diets.
“We are now reliant on these products in many ways that we can’t control, these are the products that are by and large the most available and affordable, and they’re heavily marketed to us.
“Also in terms of our social and economic circumstances, many of us, most of us are time poor. Many of us are financially constrained. We’re overly reliant on foods that are cheap, shelf stable, and very convenient. Added to that, fresh fruit and veg is absurdly expensive these days.”
RNZ/Marika Khabazi
Alongside Checkpoint, Garton examined a number of ultra-processed products to decipher the contents.
She said flavourings were often a warning sign.
“These flavours or natural colourings are put there to emulate or to mask or enhance flavours that whole foods would have. So they’re inherently manipulating our sense receptors.”
However, just because something falls under the ultra processed category did not mean it had to be avoided.
“These products would fall under the ultra-processed classification. Not all of them are going to be bad for us. Some of them, especially those that give us a lot of fibre and low in sugar, can be absolutely part of a healthy diet, especially given the constraints that we’re under these days.”
But if possible, Garton said the less processed option was always preferable.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
As kids, many of us are told that if we go outside with wet hair, we’ll catch a cold. And as adults, we might spend an extra few minutes drying our hair before stepping out.
Many tall buildings in Anglo countries don’t label the 13th floor, while buildings in East Asia often skip floor four.
If a player I barrack for is having a winning streak, and a commentator mentions it, I might feel like the player is “jinxed” and their winning streak will end.
These are all common superstitious and traditional beliefs (that used to be called “old wives’ tales”). And no matter how science-literate our society is, they persist. Let’s look at why, and whether there’s any harm in them.
Origins in older belief systems
The belief about catching a cold from wet hair has roots in ancient Greek and Chinese medicine. Health was based on balance and harmony, with the temperature of our bodies and our environment playing important roles.
Now we know viral exposure is the crucial factor.
Some recent research does show the respiratory tracts of mice appear more vulnerable to viruses in colder environments. But even if we’re more vulnerable to viruses when cold, it doesn’t mean wet hair is specifically risky.
Why do superstitions persist today
The psychology of “sense making” – how we make sense of the world and our lives – helps explain our behaviour. Throughout human history, people have come up with explanations for the origins of the universe, their lives, and why things are the way they are.
Some claim the drive for sense making is a fundamental motivation, similar to hunger or loneliness. But having a drive to explain the world doesn’t guarantee our explanations will be accurate.
The knowledge we draw on at any moment typically isn’t rigorously based on evidence and sound logic. It’s more like little puzzle pieces, stored in disorganised piles in the backs of our minds.
We may keep some pieces from science class in one corner, alongside a pile of information passed down from our grandparents. When we need to explain something, we quickly try to put those pieces together.
How science and the supernatural can fit together
We can be quite creative in how we assemble information, in ways that are totally incompatible with science.
Research from rural South Africa a few years after the peak of the AIDS crisis revealed how human minds do this. Before public health education to fight the spread of the HIV virus, people often believed AIDS was caused by witchcraft.
After these education programs, the idea of a sexually transmitted virus did not supplant the role of bewitchment. Instead the two fit together. Someone might believe witchcraft caused the attraction that lead to sex with someone carrying the virus, for example.
The researchers called this “explanatory coexistence” because scientific explanations (the virus) and supernatural explanations (here, witchcraft) happily coexist in our minds.
When it comes to catching colds, while I know a virus causes the cold, my knowledge doesn’t go much deeper. So it may not be too hard to convince me of some phoney but science-ish explanation or treatment.
Early in the COVID pandemic, for instance, people took the idea that bleach and sunlight can kill bugs and wrongly applied this to COVID. Myths that drinking bleach or sitting in the sun could clear a COVID infection spread among family and friendship groups, as well as social media.
We trust others to form our beliefs because we believe they may know more about that topic than we do, whether they be doctors or our grandparents. Anecdotes have a big influence on our judgements, even when we are presented with evidence to the contrary.
Should I rein it in?
To work out if it’s a problem to mix scientific beliefs with the supernatural and superstitious, we have to consider what behaviours it leads to.
There’s no harm drying your hair before going outside or getting mad at a sports broadcaster after your team blows their lead. There may be safety benefits in avoiding walking under ladders, or opening umbrellas indoors.
If it’s just a bit of fun, like doing tarot readings at a party, it’s not something you need to worry about. But if you won’t go on a date with someone you really like because you’re a Scorpio and they’re a Gemini, it might be worth rethinking your position.
Interrogating your beliefs – and why you believe something – is a good way to start. By understanding what you don’t know and trying to fill your knowledge gaps with credible sources, you will improve your collection of puzzle pieces, and develop better ways of fitting them together.
A sudden increase in wind speed caused the Black Foils to lose control of their boat moments before their high-speed crash with Team France in this month’s SailGP regatta in Auckland, an investigation has found.
The horrifying crash, which unfolded just 15 seconds after the start of the third race on day one, left two sailors hospitalised, and significantly reshaped the seasons of both teams, with the two boats suffering extensive damage.
Black Foils grinder Louis Sinclair sustained compound fractures to both legs in the incident, while France strategist Manon Audinet suffered internal abdominal injuries after the French F50 catamaran ploughed into the out-of-control Kiwi boat at speeds approaching 90 km/hour. Both sailors have since left hospital and are recovering at home.
SailGP officials on Wednesday released the findings of its technical review of the incident, revealing its engineers had found “no evidence of system malfunction”.
Alex Reid, SailGP’s director of performance and engineering, said the incident occurred after the Black Foils’ boat Amokura hit a gust of wind as it charged towards the first mark at 90 km/h. The extra wind pressure caused the foiling catamaran to accelerate rapidly and lift higher out of the water.
That increased “ride height” proved critical.
Black Foils SailGP Team and DS Automobiles SailGP Team France collide during Race 3, on Race Day 1.Simon Bruty for SailGP
As the hull rose, the leeward hydrofoil pierced the surface – a phenomenon known as ventilation – destabilising the boat. What followed was, according to Reid, “a very fast chain of aerodynamic and hydrodynamic events” that unfolded within seconds.
Data from onboard telemetry, high-rate performance systems and simulator recreations show the F50 began to sideslip, generating lift in unintended ways. Despite control inputs from flight controller Blair Tuke, the boat could not be brought down quickly enough.
As the crew fought to regain control – increasing rudder angle while trying to avoid nearby boats – the rudder briefly lost effective flow. The windward bow then dipped, the boat rounded sharply into the wind and decelerated hard.
Immediately behind, the French F50 was travelling at roughly 86km/h. At those closing speeds, there was no time or room to avoid impact.
“There is no evidence of a system malfunction or structural failure prior to the incident,” Reid said.
“What we see in the data is a very fast chain of aerodynamic and hydrodynamic events that pushed the boat beyond its controllable envelope at that moment.”
A penalty review has upheld the on-water decision that New Zealand breached rule 14 (avoiding contact) handing the Black Foils an eight-event-point penalty. France was deemed to have had no reasonable opportunity to avoid the crash.
Black Foils driver Peter Burling and team are expected to be off the water for some time after the crash caused significant damage to Amokura.Alan Lee/Photosport
“We started off race three and were going down reach one to windward of the Italian boat. We ended up high on the foil and ended up sliding sideways.
“We hit a system limit, which drastically escalated that situation, and had to take quite drastic action to avoid the Italian boat to leeward, which resulted in us touching down. Obviously, the incident followed that.”
Both teams have since been ruled out of the upcoming Sydney Sail Grand Prix as repairs continue.
SailGP says it is now examining potential mitigations to help crews better manage similar gust-driven scenarios in future regattas.
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The vehicle of interest in the Sharlene Smith investigation.Supplied / NZ Police
Police investigating the death of a grandmother whose body was found at a Hawke’s Bay worksite earlier this month have identified a likely route taken by a vehicle of interest.
Police have issued a fresh appeal for help from the public in the investigation into the death of Sharlene Smith, 64, from Rotorua.
Police earlier described the incident as the “tragic and avoidable death of a much-loved mother, grandmother and sister”.
In a statement released this afternoon, Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Kris Payne said police had identified a likely route taken by a vehicle of interest.
“We know this vehicle was used on the day Sharlene’s body was left at the worksite, and officers have carried out extensive work to locate and review CCTV footage from the relevant timeframe.”
The route taken by a vehicle of interest in the Sharlene Smith murder investigation.Supplied / NZ Police
Anybody who saw a white 2005 Mazda 3 sports hatchback between 8am and midday on Sunday 1 February 2026, – travelling from the Awatoto area, through Taihape Road/Omahu Road and the Fernhill area, and into Marewa, Napier – is urged to contact police.
“We are asking anyone who saw this vehicle, or who has home, business, or dashcam CCTV footage from those areas during that time, to please contact Police if not already spoken to,” said Payne.
Two items belonging to Smith are believed to have been discarded along the same route: a handbag and a Samsung Galaxy A06 mobile phone.
A handbag that is being sought as part of the Sharlene Smith murder investigation.Supplied / NZ Police
Anyone with information can contact police by calling 105 and referencing file number 260203/9739. Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.
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Meridian Energy says households could face power bill increases of up to seven percent this year, mostly due to lines and transmission charges.
The country’s biggest power generator returned to profitability in the half-year ended December, posting a bottom-line profit of $227 million, compared to the previous year’s dry-year-driven loss of $121m.
Chief executive Mike Roan said “unfortunately” some cost increases would be passed through to households again this year.
“I had assumed they might be in the order of around 5 percent earlier as we came back from Christmas,” he said.
“But the lines and transmission component has come in higher than expected, so my 5 percent has lifted to more like 7 [percent].”
Lines and transmission cost increases are regulated by the Commerce Commission, and they have been increasing to fund infrastructure improvements.
“The energy component of those increases is just above the rate of inflation, so we are doing a good job of limiting the increases in price driven by electricity costs, but that lines and transmission component is challenging, and it will flow for the next few years through consumers’ bills.”
Roan acknowledged it was “really tough” for customers to hear.
Asked whether companies the size of Meridian could cushion the impact on households, Roan said it did cushion households when it came to energy prices.
“That was evident materially last year given our result where we did buy a whole lot of insurance to protect the electricity system, but we try to pass through those line charges to consumers,” he said.
Meridian has remained competitive in the household market, with the company recording a 12 percent increase in retail sales volumes from a year ago.
LNG will help dry-year risk but no ‘silver bullet’
Mike Roan said the government’s move to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) would help the energy system during dry years.
“The combination of the Huntly strategic reserve, the big demand response agreement we’ve got with the Tiwai aluminium smelter down south, and LNG, will help us navigate future droughts successfully as a country,” he said.
“There’s no question about that.”
Roan said early indications showed forward pricing had also moved lower following the government’s LNG announcement and various power companies’ results.
“Interestingly – and there aren’t many coincidences in financial markets – is those forward prices have come off over the last couple of weeks and since that announcement,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those prices have started to think about the amount of investment that’s coming to market because we’ve just been through the interim announcements by ourselves and our competitors.”
Roan said forward prices had fallen by around $10 a megawatt hour.
Along with the country’s other major generators, Meridian has extensive projects underway to build new electricity generation.
Meridian said it continued to move at pace towards its goal of having seven generation projects in construction ready by 2030.
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Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, a 1955 play by Ray Lawler is as canonical an Australian play as you can get. On its premiere, it was credited with ushering a new era of assuredness in Australian theatre: telling Australian stories, with Australian accents.
Barney and Roo work as cane cutters for seven months of the year. In the off-season, they travel to Melbourne to spend time with working class women Olive and Nancy.
This summer, in the 17th iteration of the layoff, Nancy has unexpectedly entered into a conventional marriage. This causes the remaining characters to reconsider their own roles in this unique ménage à quatre.
Daringly, Lawler figured these layoffs as periods of sustained pleasure and emotional fulfilment for the men, while also highlighting Nancy and Olive’s agency and independence in their paradoxically proto-feminist act of electing to be their layoff gals.
The “doll” of the title does not refer to the women, but to a novelty item first purchased at the Luna Park fair ground. Each year, as a sign of his renewed commitment, Roo bestows one on Olive. The uncanny kewpie dolls eventually festoon the living room of their shared boarding house, more characters in the on-again, off-again performance of domesticity.
In the mid 1970s, Lawler wrote two additional plays – prequels to the Doll, crafting a trilogy of stories set over 17 years: Kid Stakes, set in the first summer of their relationships, and Other Times, set at the conclusion of the second world war.
The Doll remains the most popular of the three plays, and is typically staged alone. The trilogy of works have not been staged together since 1985, but now Red Stitch Theatre is playing them in repertory, including a marathon Saturday session that lasts nearly 11 hours (with breaks).
A kewpie doll is bestowed every year, to eventually festoon the living room of their shared boarding house.Chris Parker/Red Stitch
The fact that the plays were not written in chronological order, and the two ealier-set plays came 20 years later, underscores Lawler’s interest in memory, how we sustain ideas over time and how we contend with loss and change.
The same quartet of performers play the characters as they progress through the cycle, a unique acting challenge. Here Ngaire Dawn Fair, playing Olive, and Emily Godard, playing Nancy (and, in the final part, Pearl), do an especially fine job of ageing before the audience’s eyes.
The revival is well-plotted, lavishly acted, beautifully lit and features stunning costumes.
I had the experience of seeing the three shows run together on a sunny late summer day in Melbourne, where the audience spilled out onto a lawn and garden surrounding the theatre, almost as if we were stepping into the Carlton back garden the characters enter when they leave the stage.
Spending that length of time together with other spectators creates a strong feeling of camaderie and led to good-natured jokes at times about how hard we, the audience, were working, and whether or not we would be able to bear up.
The nature of work
Across the three works, Melbourne itself is a central character: its pubs, restaurants, parks and beaches. The city serves as a resource that sustains the interior lives of the characters, albeit without providing for their material needs (at least in Roo and Barney’s instance).
Instead, the characters in the play rely on an infusion of outside capital – eerily prescient from the perspective of our era of drastic cuts to arts funding. And so the central element of a play comes into view: its relationship to work.
Barney and Roo are itinerants, performing the role of husband or suitor but without also adopting that of provider.
The work that the men do in the cane fields rhymes with the experience of jobbing actors or musicians, who can’t rely on steady employment. Actors know firsthand the experience of unreliable, precarious work and the havoc it wrecks on relationships.
The violence and raw emotions of the final play are all the more striking thanks to the time we’ve spent with the characters.Chris Parker/Red Stitch
And yet, the characters in the Doll have somehow found a way to build enduring connections and find meaning and satisfaction in a world that is always subject to change.
The trilogy invites us to think not just about our relationship to the period it depicts from the late 1930s to the mid 1950s, but about temporality and timescapes more generally.
By the time we reach the ultimate play, the violence and raw emotions it showcases are all the more striking thanks to the time we’ve spent with the characters.
The audience viscerally shares in the sense of brokenness and interruption Nancy’s departure has caused, and keenly feel the disillusionment and uncertainty of the characters left behind.
If anything, the 70 years that have passed since Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’s first performance should serve as a powerful vindication of the optimism felt by the younger characters in the play.
But Australia’s sustained postwar economic miracle and its growing artistic and cultural legacy aside, The Doll Trilogy at Red Stitch comes at an ambiguous and fearful time. Climate change threatens the health of the cane fields that Roo and Barney rely on, and rapid technological advances threaten to put us all out of work.
Lawler’s plays, by reordering the social contract – especially around marriage and work – suggests that the old model might not be worth mourning much. In that respect, these old classics offer a strikingly bold vision for the future.
The Doll Trilogy is at Red Stitch, Melbourne, until April 11.
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on February 25, 2026.
What is a ‘cancer gene’? How genetic mutations lead to cancer Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) An estimated 170,000 Australians were diagnosed with cancer in 2025. Many people know the causes of cancer are partly genetic. But how do your genes, which contribute
Extreme weather is transforming the world’s rivers. We need new ways to protect them Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Tonkin, Professor of Ecology and Rutherford Discovery Fellow, University of Canterbury In the summer of 2022, extreme heat and unprecedented drought drove parts of the world’s third largest river, the Yangtze, to dry up. The impacts for hydropower, shipping and industry in China were severe, immediate
AI companies promise to ‘fix’ aged care, but they’re selling a false narrative Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barbara Barbosa Neves, Senior Horizon Fellow, AI and Ageing, University of Sydney Australia’s Royal Commission into Aged Care found a broken system. Now, technology companies are promising artificial intelligence (AI) will fix everything, from staff shortages to older people’s loneliness. This is known as agetech, an industry
How ‘smart’ rainwater tanks can help keep platypus habitat healthy Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Russell, Research Fellow, Urban Stream Geomorphology, The University of Melbourne A growing number of new housing developments feature a little known but powerful bit of tech: smart rainwater tanks. That’s where the rainwater tank next to each house is fitted with a little computer to open
Trump’s plan for strikes on Iran carries major risks – and the US military knows it Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Gawthorpe, Lecturer in History and International Studies, Leiden University As the US continues to assemble military assets in the Middle East and Europe ahead of a possible strike against Iran, Donald Trump is running up against two problems that have plagued American presidents before him. The
Michelangelo hated painting the Sistine Chapel – and never aspired to be a painter to begin with Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Swartwood House, Associate Professor of Art History, University of South Carolina When a 5-inch-by-4-inch red chalk drawing of a woman’s foot by Michelangelo sold at auction for US$27.2 million on Feb. 5, 2026, it blew past the $1.5 million to $2 million it was expected to
Pauline Hanson’s no ‘good’ Muslims comment shows how normalised Islamophobia has become in Australia Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ali Mamouri, Research Fellow, Middle East Studies, Deakin University One Nation leader Pauline Hanson made headlines last week following an interview with Sky News in which she suggested there are no “good” Muslims. The comment was outrageous by any measure, but the response relatively muted, reflecting a
Ivermectin was touted as a cure for COVID, now it’s being tested for cancer. But what can it actually treat? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nial Wheate, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Ivermectin was originally celebrated as a revolutionary treatment for parasitic disease in humans and animals. It has since evolved into a focal point of misinformation and heated debate. During the early part of the COVID pandemic, it was
Climate change is drying out the ‘forgotten rivers’ that keep the Murray-Darling alive. We need a new plan Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Avril Horne, Research fellow, Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne If you stand beside Seven Creeks in Victoria or Spring Creek in Queensland, they might seem small and unremarkable. But these creeks flow into the mighty Goulburn and Condamine Rivers, and punch far above their
Victorian public school teachers want a 4-day week trial. What could this mean for schools? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Longmuir, Senior Lecturer – Co-leader Education Workforce for the Future Impact Lab, Monash University When we think about jobs you can do from home, you may not immediately picture a school teacher. But as Victoria debates a new right to work from home, the state’s teachers
China’s dancing robots are a wake-up call for Australia on policy and productivity Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Yue Zhang, Associate Professor, Technology and Innovation, University of Technology Sydney Chinese state television rang in the Year of the Horse with humanoid robots doing kung fu, comedy sketches and mass choreography. They made complex martial arts choreography look easy. Social media was flooded with memes
Brontë’s Heathcliff wasn’t white. Jacob Elordi is. Is that a problem? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ellie Crookes, Lecturer in English Literatures, University of Wollongong The race of Heathcliff, the brooding antihero of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, is a much-discussed element of the classic tale. Brontë variously describes him as “a little lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway”; “that gipsy
New police powers to ‘move on’ rough sleepers only mask NZ’s deeper homelessness problem Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brodie Fraser, Senior Research Fellow in Housing and Health, University of Otago The government’s plan to empower police to “issue move-on orders as a tool to deal with disorderly behaviour in public places” will effectively apply to people as young as 14 who are experiencing homelessness and
‘I am the enemy of death’: Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir is a remarkable tale of survival Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Kevin, Associate Professor in Australian History, Flinders University Gisèle Pelicot’s compelling and moving memoir begins with the day she learned that over the course of at least nine years, she had been raped by her husband Dominique and around 80 other men, while she was drugged
The Palestine Chronicle: Roger Fowler’s legacy – a Palestinian tribute The Palestine Chronicle New Zealand activist Roger Fowler, a longtime Gaza solidarity organiser and Palestine Chronicle contributor, who died last Saturday, leaves a legacy of principled resistance. Roger Fowler was a beloved figure in the global solidarity movement and a steadfast advocate for justice in Palestine. He leaves behind a legacy defined by courage, compassion,
West Papuan filmmakers expose Merauke rainforest destruction in ‘siege’ doco Pacific Media Watch A world premiere of a new documentary revealing the devastation of rainforest in the southeastern part of West Papua is one of two films being screened in Auckland next month. Billed as “Sinéma Merdeka: Stories from West Papua”, the programme is showing the heart of a hidden Pacific conflict and will be
Science knows of 21,000 bee species. There are likely thousands more Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong It’s a question that has sparked the curiosity of scholars and bee lovers for decades: how many species of bees are there in the world? This might, at first, seem like a silly question. But it is
How Tourette’s causes involuntary outbursts – and what people with the condition want you to know Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Licari, Senior Research Fellow in Child Disability, The University of Western Australia Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson has explained he left the British Film and Television Awards (BAFTAs) ceremony early on Monday night, aware his outbursts were causing distress. Davidson was attending the ceremony to support
High-speed rail from Sydney to Newcastle is a step closer. But what about Sydney to Melbourne? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Laird, Honorary Principal Fellow, University of Wollongong The federal government will spend A$230 million towards a high-speed rail line between Newcastle and Sydney, promising the project will be “shovel ready” for a final decision on construction in 2028. The government also released a partly redacted business
Punch the monkey isn’t the first lonely zoo animal to capture our hearts – or raise troubling questions Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruby Ekkel, Associate Lecturer in History, Australian National University For weeks, the story of Punch the monkey has tugged at heartstrings around the world. Videos of this lonely baby monkey at Japan’s Ichikawa Zoo have triggered global outpourings of empathy, grief and outrage. Abandoned by his mother,
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Many people know the causes of cancer are partly genetic. But how do your genes, which contribute so much of what makes you you, change what they do and cause a cancer?
Where do these “cancer genes” come from? And are they ticking time bombs?
Cancer is caused by DNA mutations
DNA is called the “instructions for life”, but what does it do? Your cells can read DNA like an instruction manual, and use those instructions to make proteins. The section of DNA with the instructions for a particular protein is called a “gene”.
A cell is like a tiny machine, and proteins are the cogs and gears that keep everything running smoothly – that is, keeping your cells healthy and functioning normally. There’s a protein for every job in a cell.
But what happens if there is a mistake in the instruction manual – a DNA mutation?
Incredibly, cells have proteins whose job it is to identify and fix DNA mutations. But if a DNA mutation can’t be repaired, a cell might make too much or too little of a certain protein, or maybe a protein that doesn’t actually work.
So, a common pathway to cancer is when a protein responsible for fixing DNA mutations is itself non-functional – its gene is mutated.
One of the most famous (or infamous) of these repair proteins is BRCA1. If you have a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, and your cells stop making BRCA1, other DNA mutations you get won’t be repaired properly. If you got another DNA mutation, you’d be stuck with it.
One mutation might be manageable, but maybe you get another. And another.
And then, one day, a cell that started with a BRCA1 mutation has ended up with a mutation in a gene that makes it divide faster than all your other cells, as well as a mutation in a gene that would normally kill the cell if it started being abnormal.
Now your cell can’t die, can’t stop dividing, and keeps getting more mutations – it’s a cancer.
While the genes involved can differ, this example illustrates how most cancers arise. Accumulated DNA mutations, acquired either over time (ageing naturally leads to some DNA mistakes) or from carcinogen exposure (such as UV radiation, dangerous chemicals, cigarettes and alcohol), push a cell over the edge.
There are two main kinds of DNA mutation: those in the cells that produce eggs and sperm (germline), and those in any other cell type (somatic). It’s an important distinction, because only germline mutations found in eggs and sperm will be inheritable – that is, able to be passed on to children.
Inheriting a gene mutation
If you have bad luck, and a BRCA1 mutation spontaneously occurs in a regular cell, that’s still only one cell with a BRCA1 mutation. But what if one of your parents had a germline BRCA1 mutation, and you inherited it?
In this scenario, every single cell in your body would have one copy of a busted BRCA1. (Your cells have two copies of every gene – one from each of your parents.)
Of course, every single cell will also have one copy of functional BRCA1, which can still repair proteins. But still, over the trillions of cells in your body, the odds of something going wrong will be much bigger.
For example, by the time a woman with an inherited mutation in BRCA1 reaches 70 years of age, there is a 65% chance she will have breast cancer and a 39% chance she will have ovarian cancer. In contrast, only 9%-12.5% of women with no family history of breast cancer will develop breast cancer by age 75.
Women with mutations in another DNA repair gene called BRCA2 face similarly poor odds.
Men with mutations in either gene also have higher cancer risks, particularly for breast cancer and prostate cancer.
Scientists have discovered dozens of “cancer genes” like BRCA1. Another example is a gene called TP53, which usually helps kill abnormal cells.
Inherited TP53 mutations are associated with perhaps the highest cancer risk. Inheritance of a TP53 mutation is the cause of Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which gives a person a 90% chance of developing some kind of cancer by age 60.
What can we do about these cancer genes?
You can’t change your genes. If you inherit or acquire a mutated form of a so-called cancer gene, you simply face a higher risk of developing certain cancers than someone who does not.
The best thing you can do is lead a healthy lifestyle. Don’t smoke, avoid alcohol, exercise regularly, eat a balanced diet, and stay safe in the sun.
If you have a family history of cancer, you should consult your doctor. They can direct you to genetic testing and counselling if necessary.
If you do have an inherited genetic mutation, you may be advised to participate in cancer screening programs at an earlier age than the general population or, in more extreme cases, undergo preventative surgeries. As with all cancers, catching them early, when treatment is most effective, is key.
NZ First’s Shane Jones and National’s Tama Potaka.RNZ
New Zealand First has hit out at National after its coalition partner promised to campaign on stronger fishing protections in the Hauraki Gulf.
National’s conservation spokesperson Tama Potaka laid out the position his party would take to the election campaign over the weekend.
He said the coalition’s decision to allow commercial fishing in two of the 12 High Protection Areas (HPAs) in the gulf had caused “widespread concern” from the public.
Last year, the government passed legislation establishing 12 HPAs, where most commercial and recreational fishing were prohibited, and five sea floor protection areas.
At the time, the opposition criticised the government for a late-stage amendment allowing commercial ring-net fishing operators exclusive access to two of the HPAs.
“National will look to reinstate the ban on all fishing in the High Protection Areas,” Potaka said over the weekend.
“A further decision, to allow bottom trawling in some designated trawl corridors in the Gulf has also been controversial so we will review that also.”
‘Who will pay for it?’ – Shane Jones
New Zealand First’s deputy leader Shane Jones said National’s decision risked $250 million worth of property rights secured in a major treaty settlement more than 30 years ago.
“Any suggestion that commercial fishing has to be terminated and trawling has to be outlawed in the Hauraki Gulf almost certainly lead to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property rights being cancelled.”
Jones said National’s policy would “lead to the unravelling” of the 1992 Sealord Deal – a significant fisheries settlement that gave iwi 50 percent of the Sealord company and a substantial quota of fish caught through the Quota Management System.
He said everyone weighing into the debate needed to bring a “level of even handedness” to discussions to avoid a massive taxpayer bill.
“We can float what we like as politicians in the election campaign but at some point in time, manifesto ideas will meet the sheer cold reality of who will pay for it.
“People who want to terminate commercial fishing in the Hauraki Gulf need to take account of who will bear the costs because we’re not a communist country that goes around summarily cancelling property rights.
“The advocates for terminating commercial fishing in the Hauraki Gulf are essentially saying they want to terminate property rights. Well, we’re not Venezuela.
“If you want to terminate property rights then you have to deal with compensation and no one who proposes the termination of fisheries is willing to explain or justify why a quarter of a billion dollars should be spent on turning the hierarchy golf into a mill pond.”
Potaka said National could protect the Gulf while also respecting fishery settlements.
“High Protection Areas were always intended to provide genuine protection, and if elected we will restore that integrity in a way that upholds our obligations and respects existing fisheries settlements.
“New Zealanders expect clarity and consistency in how marine protections are applied, and we are being clear that safeguarding the long-term health of the Hauraki Gulf is the responsible course for its future and for the country.”
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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon previously said the plans helped create momentum and drive focus.RNZ / Nathan McKinnon
The government appears to have scrapped its quarterly action plans, after not releasing one so far this quarter.
At the start of the term, the Prime Minister released the things the government planned to do in its first 100 days.
Once that was completed, the government moved to quarterly plans, starting in April 2024.
“Having a clear plan with specific actions and timeframes for delivery creates momentum and drives focus,” Christopher Luxon said at the time.
Each plan would contain about 30 to 40 actions within the government’s three pillars of ‘rebuild the economy and ease the cost of living,’ ‘restore law and order,’ and ‘deliver better public services.’
Its most recent one [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/575209/the-33-things-the-government-plans-to-do-before-the-end-of-year
from October 2025], for example, contained actions to introduce the planning legislation that will replace the Resource Management Act, pass the legislation to enable time of use charging, and release the English and Maths curriculum for Years 0-10.
Some commitments in the plans were more vague, such as “take policy decisions” around legislation that would appear in a future plan, or “raise the energy” of international relationships to signal Luxon would be taking an overseas trip.
Others were simply a product of timing, such as “deliver a Budget,” which happens the same time every year.
With the release of each subsequent plan, the government would also say which of the actions on its previous plan it had not achieved or which were still in progress.
On Monday, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the plans were “slightly absurd” and had become “an exercise in managerialism” rather than setting the direction for the country.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
In the summer of 2022, extreme heat and unprecedented drought drove parts of the world’s third largest river, the Yangtze, to dry up.
The impacts for hydropower, shipping and industry in China were severe, immediate and well-documented. Less visible were the ecological consequences for the many species that depend on the river.
The Yangtze is not an exception. Around the world, rivers are no longer changing gradually.
Rather, they are being increasingly transformed by extreme climatic events such as floods, droughts and heatwaves. Our newly published global review finds these events are pushing ecosystems beyond their limits and eroding biodiversity and core functions.
In bringing together global evidence, our research sets out a roadmap for how science and management can respond to these mounting ecological pressures.
When impacts cascade
Because rivers are connected systems, impacts rarely remain localised. Extreme climatic events can send impacts cascading through entire river networks, affecting communities far from where they begin.
Recovery is often uneven and incomplete, with some species lost and communities permanently changed, especially where rivers are fragmented and species cannot escape to refuges or are lured into traps.
The consequences can be profound: extreme events can push ecosystems past tipping points, after which full recovery is unlikely and systems may follow new paths instead of returning to their past states.
In some cases, even the most ambitious restoration efforts of recent decades may struggle to reverse biodiversity loss if the frequency of extremes continues to rise.
Our review also shows that when extreme events happen together or in sequence – known as compound events – their impacts can be catastrophic for people and river biodiversity.
Whether that’s a flood following a drought, a drought and heatwave operating in unison, or a flood falling on saturated ground, the impacts of these compound events can multiply.
The Yangtze drought and heatwave collapsed plankton communities, while in New Mexico in 2011, wildfire followed by heavy rain damaged water quality in the Rio Grande far downstream. Repeated extremes were shown to have altered invertebrate communities in Alaska’s Wolf Point Creek for more than a decade.
In Europe’s Rhône River, a major heatwave in 2003 brought an increase in invasive species, which was amplified by damaging floods that followed. In California’s Klamath River, a wildfire and intense rain in 2022 led to widespread river failure and a long fish kill zone.
Importantly, the severity of ecological impacts aren’t always proportional to that of the event that causes them. Instead, it is the order of events and existing stresses that often drive outsized impacts that are hard to predict and manage.
Dead fish lie in the Oder River during an environmental disaster in 2022, thought to have been caused by an algal bloom.Patrick Pleul/Getty Images
Moving from reactive to proactive
While extreme events are stretching the resilience of river ecosystems, they are also exposing gaps in the science needed to design lasting ecological solutions.
Right now, studying the effects of these events is challenging for researchers because they tend to strike without warning. As a result, the evidence base remains limited and also unevenly spread around the world.
For water managers, this creates real uncertainty about how to prepare river biodiversity for extreme events.
One common idea is to protect safe havens, such as cold streams, deep pools or shaded tributaries, which can offer species short-term relief from heat and drought.
Because of this, safeguarding these refuges is widely seen as a key part of river management. Nevertheless, questions are emerging about whether these refuges will persist or remain viable during extreme events.
Simply put, compounding extreme heatwaves and drought not only warm rivers, but also undermine the processes that create thermal refuges for freshwater species.
But better preparation for extreme events will require more proactive approaches, guided by adaptive frameworks such as the widely-used “resist-accept-direct” strategy.
A mix of nature-based solutions and hard engineering will be needed. Approaches that restore connectivity and protect groundwater recharge zones are increasingly seen as some of the most effective ways to tackle the linked ecological challenges ahead.
Whatever tools are used, the bigger shift must be from local, reactive fixes to catchment-scale, resilience-focused strategies that anticipate extreme events rather than respond to them after the fact.
Rivers support billions of people but remain among the least protected parts of the natural world, and we urgently need to prepare them for a more extreme future.
MediMap, the hacked health portal, is heading to court to try to block people accessing and using the data that has been breached.
It was breached on Sunday, and the company has now taken the platform offline while it investigates.
It’s used for prescribing and giving medication in places like residential aged care, hospices, disability services and community health.
In a new statement on Wednesday, it said it was urgently seeking an injunction to protect the information of impacted people.
“This injunction would prohibit anyone from accessing, using, copying, sharing, or publishing any MediMap data that may have been unlawfully obtained, and would seek to limit any further spread of that information online,” it said.
MediMap said it also sincerely apologised for any distress the hack may have caused.
“We understand this situation is concerning for residents, patients, their families, and healthcare providers.”
It said its own investigation into what it called alleged unauthorised access and data modification was ongoing, and that the company was working to find any personal information that may have been accessed by an authorised third party.
“Once this process is complete and we have verified the facts, we will contact affected customers directly regarding any necessary next steps,” its statement said.
According to information sent by MediMap to care providers in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and seen by RNZ, fields that were changed included patient name, date of birth, location within the facility, assigned prescriber or pharmacy, allergy or intolerance information or discharge or deceased status.
Providers with the portal offline have told RNZ medication was now being organised the old-fashioned way – on paper.
A Nurses Organisation member at George Manning Lifecare and Village in Christchurch told RNZ they needed double the number of registered nurses on each shift just to give out medication.
Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin said every care home had a “disaster” plan to fall back on in case of something like a system outage.
“Basically, they had to switch back to paper-based.”
She understood it was not having an effect on residents, who were all still receiving medication, but some facilities might have needed to bring in extra staff who were qualified to double check the medication, before it was given to residents.
“It certainly takes longer, it’s certainly more painful than the efficiencies that you get through a digital system,” Martin said.
Most of the questions being asked were: “Is my mum still getting her medication?” and “How are you making sure that she gets what she needs?”
“With regard to somebody being marked as deceased or not? Well, our facilities have got the person there, so they know they’re not deceased. So while from a system perspective that is really interesting and needs to be sorted, from a real-life perspective, that individual’s still there, still being cared for.”
FAQs released by MediMap
Among the information sent from MediMap care providers were lists of frequently asked questions those companies might be getting, and how to respond to them, along with a draft email providers could use as a template to inform patients, residents and families.
MediMap said it was working with external cyber security and forensic specialists, Health NZ, and relevant authorities to identify which facilities and resident records had been affected, and passwords were being reset across all users “as a precautionary measure”.
“Importantly, we have been advised that there is currently no evidence that medication charts or medication administration records have been altered,” it said.
“Has resident data been exposed? – At this stage, we cannot confirm whether any resident data has been accessed beyond viewing, extracted, or exposed externally. The investigation is ongoing.”
“When will our facility be brought back online?– Facilities will be restored in phases. Facilities where current resident information has not been modified will be restored first following internal validation. Facilities where resident information may have been impacted will be contacted directly by MediMap to confirm current resident details prior to restoration.”
“Why are discharged or deceased residents being reviewed?– Some resident status information may have been incorrectly modified. Historical records will be reviewed following restoration of current residents.”
What is the health agency saying?
Health New Zealand, while supporting the company’s investigation, said MediMap, as a privately owned company, was solely responsible for its security and it needed to do everything it could.
Its digital services acting chief information technology officer Darren Douglass said New Zealanders expected companies involved in healthcare to secure systems and platforms so private information was safeguarded.
Privacy commissioner says New Zealanders expect better
The privacy commissioner told Midday Report changing people’s information was as much of a breach of privacy as stealing it.
With the system offline, he said, patients are now “relying on the professionalism of the health sector” to ensure they got the right medication.
Michael Webster said New Zealanders rightly expected companies with sensitive information to have higher standards of privacy and protection than any other area.
“The expectation out there from New Zealanders is increasingly, this information has to be protected, and has to be seen to be protected as well as any information – and better.”
He said it was not yet known how many people had been affected.
The commission was working with MediMap to understand the scale of the hack, Webster said, and he expected to receive updates as that work progressed.
MediMap has declined an interview with RNZ, but has again been approached for comment.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
