Source: Radio New Zealand

A Citizens Advice Bureau report based on more than 10,000 requests for assistance has revealed what it calls “a growing crisis in welfare support”.

It said people from all walks of life, and all ages and ethnicities, were struggling to meet basic living costs.

The report, which was released on Thursday, said government policy changes such as benefit sanctions, tighter emergency housing criteria and cuts to community services had all exacerbated hardship.

Minister for Social Development Louise Upston acknowledged many New Zealanders were finding things tough, but said the government had been focusing on fixing the basics to begin to ease the cost of living.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A seven-year-old Hamilton boy who went missing after going to visit his friends has been found safe, his mother says.

His mother on Thursday morning told RNZ he had been returned to his family by a teacher.

Police had earlier issued an ‘amber alert’ after the boy left his home on Anderson Road in Deanwell at 4pm,

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Record keepers are warning an amendment bill before Parliament will usher in the destruction or loss of vital public evidence such as from military operations overseas.

They also voiced alarm at a parliamentary select committee on Wednesday morning that public records could be privatised, citing the historical case of Ministry of Works records sold years ago to an engineering company, and no longer accessible to people.

Former chief archivist Richard Foy told MPs that three amendments in particular would weaken the Public Records Act and create loopholes.

Their most urgent worry was the move to let an agency such as the Defence Force get an exemption if it was in a multinational force that did its own record keeping, Foy, president of the Archives and Records Association of NZ, said.

“We think that allowing such exemptions risk creating the conditions for unauthorised destruction and loss of evidence.

“So accountability does not stop at the border. We don’t think the Public Records Act should either.”

Foy was a member of the Operation Burnham inquiry panel that castigated the NZDF last year for poor military record keeping about operations in Afghanistan. The Defence Force has since been trying [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/519234/nzdf-urgently-looking-to-move-crucial-information-from-obsolete-systems-documents

to update its information management systems].

Burnham was a strong case of “not necessarily destruction of records, but the poor management of them, and therefore the lack of access to evidence”, Foy said.

The exemption amendment would let the Chief Archivist grant an exemption to a public entity in an “arrangement” with another country or international organisation if they controlled or managed all or part of the record keeping. So, the NZDF in a NATO force or a US-led force could leave it up to NATO or the US.

The archivists’ association also opposed a change to let the minister have a say in destroying public records, Foy added. This would undermine the independence of the chief archivist, who currently had the full say.

As for a third amendment to remove the public status of any records sold, “this single change compromises custody, preservation and public access and risks institutionalising the loss of New Zealand’s public history”, Foy warned the governance and administration committee.

He gave the example from when records were less protected and the functions of the Ministry of Works and Development were privatised in the 1980s.

“Many of its records were sold to Opus. Those records are now largely inaccessible to the public, effectively lost to researchers and to people seeking information under the Official Information Act.

“Public accountability cannot be privatised.”

Records should be assessed by the Chief Archivist and copied if warranted before they were sold, Foy said.

Operation Burnham cited

Chief Ombudsman John Allen warned the best interests of the country could be undermined by introducing an exemption for multinational operations.

He cited Operation Burnham in Afghanistan, too.

“Some records were held by other international parties and, in fact, made it more difficult for NZDF to prove that our military had, in fact, complied with international law because the access to those records, or indeed the knowledge of those records, was not easily retained or understood by NZDF,” Allen told the lawmakers.

The Ombudsman proposed changing the bill to add some guidance to the Chief Archivist – and possibly the minister who the NZDF or other agency could appeal to – on how to exercise their discretion over granting any exemption; and secondly, to specify the agency maintained awareness of which records were being controlled by who.

But as it was the amendment bill was not aligned with the recommendations of the Operation Burnham inquiry, Allen said.

“At the moment, it is completely unwritten, therefore, it is extraordinarily broad, and we are concerned that as a consequence of that, decisions will be made that are not in the long-run in the best interests of this country.”

His office also told MPs the Public Records Act as it stood was very clear that making records accessible was a priority, so any move to make records less accessible should have to be “fleshed out”.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are cutting back what they tell a privately-run surveillance system about suspects, over concerns about who might see the information.

RNZ inquiries show Customs also wants to use the system, but might be able to see what police are telling retail stores about suspects.

“Customs may become a user of Auror, which may expose police information entered into the retail crime side of the platform,” said an internal memo in March, newly released to RNZ under the Official Information Act.

Police and Customs do not have an agreement to share data through another platform in this manner.

It would be a “significant issue” around security and privacy, the memo from the police’s technology watchdog said.

Police access the system of automated number plate recognition (ANPR) run by Auckland company Auror more than 200,000 times a year.

The widespread police use of ANPR is being legally challenged at the Court of Appeal, which lawyers expect will have wide ramifications for how this – and other surveillance technology – is used.

In official surveys, more New Zealanders say they worry about who can access and use their personal information.

Internal documents show an alarm went up in March at police, especially around officers inputting identifications into Auror of criminal suspects from CCTV images gained from shops through Auror.

“Due to the integrated nature of Auror’s platform, Customs will also have access to the retail crime side of the software,” the March police memo said.

Customs’ view “may include sensitive information such as nomination of offender identities”.

“This raises several concerns for NZ Police, particularly regarding information security and privacy.”

The problem was not just Customs, but also other potential future customers of Auror “with access”, a report said.

‘Police also aimed to reduce the amount of police information on Auror’

Customs has been quietly moving this year towards signing up with Auror.

It told RNZ it ran a trial for a year in 2022-23 to test ANPR within investigations and intelligence gathering, and “recognises the potential benefits… in law enforcement and border security”. It did not yet have a contract.

A police review of Auror usage in July told police to take more care what information they put in to the system.

“Police need to ensure on a case-by-case basis that any information visible to other parties is shared on a lawful basis.”

They did not stop the practice.

“No, police did not stop entering suspect information into Auror platform,” National Criminal Investigation Group director Detective Superintendent Keith Borrell told RNZ this week.

“Instead of ceasing the practice, police provided training and clear communication to police staff to ensure compliance with the Privacy Act Principles.”

This “emphasised that some Auror nominations may contain incorrect details, so thorough accuracy checks are required by police staff”.

“Police also aimed to reduce the amount of police information on Auror while maintaining operational effectiveness,” Borrell said in a statement.

This aligned with recommendations in a report in July.

His group was talking to Customs and Auror to ensure police information was protected.

The March memo said Auror had suggested warning boxes – or blanking out bits of the screen – but that was “likely insufficient”.

“This was never an unresolved issue,” said Borrell on Tuesday. “This approach is proactive and precautionary, not reactive to any breach or failure of Auror platform.”

Police told RNZ no records of any decisions made about this at a senior level existed.

‘It’s a beast’

A few pages of emails released under the OIA showed Customs began asking police for advice about ANPR in February.

“I’m leading Customs project to engage with and develop our ANPR capability, first with Auror, and then all going well SaferCities,” the unidentified Customs staffer wrote on 19 February to Inspector Adrian Ross.

“Suffice to say this has been a rather slow project due to the various risk and public perception concerns held by our chief executive.”

In March, they wrote about a complex security assessment set by Internal Affairs.

“I’m hoping to avoid that if I can as it’s a beast!”

They ended up doing it.

In April they asked police if there was a certain number of searches that constituted “live tracking activity”, because Customs’ lawyers wanted a figure.

“We pushed back on that, had to give staff ownership of their searches, and give them the space to make good decisions without being too prescribed.”

Police officers only live track a few hundred times a year, and it requires special authorisation.

In May 2025 the Customs staffer wrote to police: “I managed to get approval for Auror usage over the line with our Executive Board, so now the hard work begins!”

By August, the staffer was working as “a one-man band, managing the training materials, the contracts”, the standard operating procedures, the privacy impact assessment and all the certification and accreditation.

Public-private bond

Customs told RNZ the 2023 trial showed protocols, restrictions and processes were needed, and it was working on those.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said it was aware of the matter, but would not comment on it, although it noted the court challenge against police.

For police, sharing suspect identifications is a problem – but not sharing them is also a problem, the reports showed.

“If police staff do not enter suspect nominations in Auror this will impact the ability for the Auror retail community to identify suspects for subsequent and linked offending which currently benefits Police,” said one. If no one was identified through Auror, the police file would get less priority.

The public-private bond over ANPR surveillance extends back over a decade to a police trial and other support for Auror.

But the private side of this has acted to limit what information can be gained about the system, by the media and even at the Court of Appeal level, where a judge in September noted: “We don’t know how pervasive this system is.”

When Customs was asked in 2023 under the OIA – not by RNZ – about its interactions with Auror, it withheld information and several reports including an Auror presentation and an Auror independent privacy review, on the grounds of commercial sensitivity or it getting the information in confidence.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Warning: Some images may be distressing.

A Christmas Eve swimming and fishing trip turned to a bloody disaster in 2022, when two women were struck by a spinning boat propeller.

Both were seriously injured and needed hospitalisation.

On Wednesday in the Thames District Court, skipper Travis Whiteman was sentenced and fined for careless operation of a vessel under the Maritime Transport Act 1994.

On 24 December 2022, the two victims, Whiteman, and another friend crossed the Tairua Bar before proceeding out towards the Alderman Islands.

The four young people, aged 21 to 23, consumed food and alcohol that they had all taken on board.

Judge Arthur Tompkins said it was clear Whiteman had been drinking.

A police breath test of Whiteman three hours after the incident occurred returned more than 250 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath, the limit for driving on New Zealand roads. There is no alcohol limit for skippers on the sea in New Zealand.

“During the day, he had drunk a reasonable amount of alcohol – that seems extraordinary,” the judge said.

At one point the two victims went for a swim.

Judge Tompkins said the alcohol-affected Whiteman, not seeing where the victims were, put the boat into reverse and hit the two women with the propeller of the outboard motor.

Both victims have name suppression.

One victim had three permanent scars and said in her victim impact statement she genuinely thought she was going to die from the bleeding on the hour-long trip back to the mainland.

“I find myself wondering how differently things might have gone if help had been called straight away,” she said.

She said she continued to have ongoing psychological effects from the trauma and avoided water-based activities now.

The other victim also spoke of visible scarring and physical, emotional and practical impacts from her injuries.

“Both of us were terrified,” she said.

She said the skipper discarded alcohol bottles from the boat when he should have been calling emergency services.

Whitman’s lawyer said that this point in the victim impact statement was incorrect and ambulances were waiting for the boat to arrive back on the mainland which indicated an emergency call was made. He also questioned the seriousness of the victims’ injuries and raised the fact they had also been drinking.

Judge Tompkins wasn’t having it.

‘That’s coming very close to victim-blaming, Mr Wood,” he responded.

Both victims said Whiteman had shown no remorse or taken any responsibility. He entered a late guilty plea on the morning his judge alone trial was due to begin.

Judge Tompkins said Whiteman was the only one responsible for skippering the boat.

He fined the defendant $3600 for each of the two charges and also ordered him to pay $4000 reparations to each victim.

Waikato Regional Council took the prosecution against Whiteman and compliance manager Patrick Lynch was in the court to hear the sentencing.

“This should have been a fantastic day for those four young people, and it was near tragedy, and completely avoidable,” he said.

Outside the court, the mother of one of the victims said the girls would not have gone on the boat if she had known the skipper would be drinking.

“Boys, drinking, and big boats don’t mix, it should be like cars, no drinking,” she said.

The problem was that in New Zealand there were no rules against drinking while skippering a boat.

“We need to change legislation to make sure that happens, boating and drinking shouldn’t occur,” she said.

Lynch also thought that a change to the legislation was long overdue.

Recreational harbourmaster for Waikato, Hayden Coburn, was also at court and said even if it was not against the law his message to skippers was clear.

“There’s to be no drinking by the person responsible for the vessel and for the crew and their safety on board the vessel,” he said.

And he said that should be for the whole time of the planned trip.

“That’s the preparation before they go out, that’s during the boating, and that’s the follow up.”

Lynch hoped the prosecution served as a warning.

“We want to send a very specific deterrence to this skipper about his behaviour on this occasion, and we want to send a general deterrence to other skippers who are thinking about drinking and skippering,” Lynch said.

In the meantime, the victim’s mother said healing continued for the two young women.

“The girls are recovering but obviously the phycological scars take longer than the physical scars,” she said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A family violence specialist says she is regularly contacted by women who say their abusive partner has shared custody of their kids and they wish they never left.

It comes as newly released information reveals officials shelved work to see how families in custody battles could be better screened for domestic violence.

Debbs Murray is a survivor of domestic violence and now heads Eclipse, a service that aims to prevent family violence and train those working in the sector.

She said it breaks her heart to hear from women who say their abusive ex-partners are given unsupervised custody of their children.

“I get emails from women who say I should’ve just stayed because the Family Court has allowed my children to go unsupervised to a known family violence abuser and if I’d stayed at least I would’ve had eyes on.”

Murray said every case in the Family Court needs to be screened for violence, but they are not.

She is often contacted by women who want to have a formal risk assessment conducted by an expert.

“That’s part of why I’m contacted as well, because they want someone anyone to be able to present the risk that they are experiencing into the judicial space.”

Backbone Collective advocates for survivors of domestic violence and received a raft of information from the Ministry of Justice about introducing a formal risk assessment for those embroiled in family law proceedings.

The response showed Family Court Principal Judge Jackie Moran had started the work but it had been shut down at steering committee level in 2023.

A Ministry presentation included in the official information response stated they did not know if people coming to the Family Court have experienced family violence.

Backbone’s manager and co-founder Deborah Mackenzie said that’s a big gap and puts a lot of responsibility on the court-appointed psychologists and lawyers who assess such situations.

“What we know from everything victim survivors and children have shared with Backbone is that the reports they’re giving to Family Court judges often minimise the violence and abuse or they don’t believe protective parents and children when they disclose violence and abuse.”

She said it’s putting some people – mostly women and children – at risk.

“The judiciary are making decisions that force children into unsupervised care and contact with abusive parents as a result.”

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

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

University of Auckland associate professor of law, Carrie Leonetti, said the Family Court accepts evidence of domestic violence only from court-appointed psychologists and lawyers.

“Women go to places like Shine and they go to places like Women’s Refuge and they get an evidence based risk assessment done,” she said.

“That evidence based risk assessment says this child is not safe in the care of the other parent or it is not safe for this person to have shared legal guardianship with the perpetrator it will put them at risk and the Family Court won’t accept the evidence.”

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

At times she is approached to do risk assessments.

“I’ve had women come to me and want to contract, privately, reports from me and I’ve had to say to them they won’t take it in evidence. The court won’t consider anything an expert in domestic violence has to say they won’t even admit the evidence. They only want to hear from their court psychologist.”

She says it is out of keeping with international practice and does not have to be that way.

Leonetti believed it comes down to the Family Court’s interpretation of section 133 of the Care of Children Act – which enables the court to hire psychologist to assess a child’s best interests.

“For years not the Family Court has interpreted section 133 of the Care of Children Act to mean that they won’t take evidence from any psychologists or any social workers or any psychiatrists other than the ones that they appoint and assign to the case.”

Backbone Collective is calling for the Minister of Justice to fund and progress work to ensure victims of family violence are identified and not put at further risk in custody disputes.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

With tourism numbers back to pre-Covid levels, New Zealanders are getting ready for a swarm of tourists. Experts say tourists – local or not – should be ready for some changeable weather.

Tourists chasing the classic Kiwi summer of bright blue skies and postcard-perfect beaches are being warned to prepare for a season that could serve up everything from scorching heat to sudden downpours – sometimes in the same afternoon.

Earth Sciences New Zealand principal scientist and meteorologist Chris Brandolino warns that tourists are often unprepared for the strength and unpredictability of Kiwi weather.

“People coming from overseas, they probably don’t have a full appreciation of our weather and climate, particularly the strength of the sun – how stinking strong the sun is in December and January and how quickly you can get a sunburn … and just how quickly the weather can change once you gain altitude and put yourself in a mountainous environment, how darn quickly that can change,” Brandolino tells The Detail.

“So, I think that’s something that people [visiting New Zealand] may not fully appreciate.”

From the alpine peaks of Queenstown to the golden beaches of the Coromandel, summer favourite spots are preparing for a season that may be busier and more unpredictable than usual.

Brandolino says for those who want warmer temperatures, the upper North Island is “your best bet, but if you don’t mind a bit of uncertainty, running the risk for cooler temperatures, the South Island is the place to be”.

And he’s quick to point out, when it comes to forecasting the long-term summer holiday weather, it comes down to “one woman”.

“With these three-month outlooks, what we are trying to do is predict mother nature’s personality.

“A weather forecast? That’s mother nature’s mood, and most times if you get the personality right, the mood will be aligned with that, but there can be some days where it doesn’t.”

He strongly encourages tourists to use local weather apps daily, especially when crossing mountain passes or going hiking, due to how rapidly conditions can change.

“The mountains are notoriously difficult to forecast for; they can create their own sort of environment sometimes, it seems like.

“You can hop in your caravan … and it’s expected to be a hot day, but you get to the mountain, you start gaining altitude, and it all changes quickly. Temperatures drop fast, the wind picks up, and hypothermia becomes a real thing.”

‘People are coming again’

Tourists are encouraged to check both heat and rain – even on the same day – and to check forecasts every morning and afternoon, protect themselves from UV year-round, be cautious on mountain hikes, stay updated on road conditions, have a backup plan for any outdoor activity, and never underestimate a river, track, or coastline.

And it’s likely there will be a lot of tourists to heed this advice this summer – international tourism numbers have bounced back close to pre-Covid levels, with expectations they’ll hit the 2030 goal of five million a year and worth of $55 billion.

Lincoln University associate professor of parks, recreation and tourism Dr Stephen Espiner says grand ambitions for a tourism reset after borders were closed during Covid have not been fulfilled.

“People are coming again, they’re getting into the national parks, they’re visiting places like Tekapo and Te Anau and Milford Sound in numbers as great as before and some of those have well exceeded the pre-pandemic numbers already,” he says.

“Many of the very same impacts that were beginning to be problematic in 2019 are with us today.”

One of Espiner’s specialities is hazard management and communication, and getting the message to tourists. As the country faces more extreme weather events, he says it is an area of growing interest among councils and agencies like Department of Conservation which want to understand more about how visitors can stay safe, “whether that’s from natural hazards to do with rockfall or avalanches or to do with forest fires as we’ve seen in the media recently,” Espiner says.

DOC closes tracks and bridges if they are deemed unsafe but visitors don’t always comply with messages or warning signs. Espiner cites the popular Cathedral Cove in the Coromandel as an example.

“The track was closed for nearly two years after storm damage and the public compliance around that signage was a long way from perfect.

“People went anyway, especially locals and New Zealand domestic visitors, they make their own assessment and decide, “oh it doesn’t look too bad to me’ and they’ll have a crack anyway.

“It was certainly frowned upon by the authorities and caused some stress for those managing the place.”

Espiner says as the country grapples with more extreme weather events, getting the message out will be crucial, starting in schools and on outdoor education courses.

The sign at the site of the closed bridge or track should be the last reminder.

“It’s your last chance to convince.”

Espiner suggests push messaging has potential as a method for warning people about hazards.

“With each of us carrying a mobile device these days, there is opportunity to warn people of particular hazards, as we well know, through things like tsunami alerts and earthquakes.

“You could use similar things presumably with wildfires or with weather events.

“If you were ever going to go and do the Heaphy track and if one thing you decided to do was to sign up to some sort of push notification service, it could be very useful to you to be warned of a heavy rainfall event or a track closure or some other incident.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Over the years, Christine Fernyhough has built an extraordinary private collection of New Zealand objects, spanning everything from the 1860s through to the 1970s. Now, in her new book The Albino Kiwi & Other Rarities, she’s selected 75 remarkable pieces to showcase. Among the highlights are a rare albino kiwi specimen, cherished Maori artefacts, quirky vintage collectibles, a 10-million-year-old crab and “Molly,” the stout-legged moa.

Listen to Christine Fernyhough talk with Jesse Mulligan here.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Potential new owners for Wellington’s historic Erskine Chapel have until Thursday afternoon to put in their bids to buy the chapel.

The building which is part of the former Erskine College is being sold by developers The Wellington Company.

The French Gothic-style chapel which was built in 1929-30 is listed as a Heritage New Zealand Category 1 Historic Place and recognised in the Wellington City Council Heritage List.

The chapel sits on the site of the former Erskine College in Island Bay and was designed by John Sydney Swan.

The chapel is considered to be New Zealand’s finest French Gothic-style chapel, influenced heavily by a chapel in Alsace Lorraine, France. It features a soaring vaulted ceiling and an interior of Italian Carrara marble.

The Wellington Company purchased the buildings in disrepair in 2000.

In 2018 the Environment Court ruled the company could demolish the school buildings, but not the chapel – which had to be saved and strengthened.

It has since been restored to the tune of $7 million and is now an event space.

Venue manager Kate Spencer said the chapel had hosted all sorts of events from weddings and funerals through to a recent fashion show, Christmas parties and choir performances.

But although the star of the show, the chapel only made up part of the building.

“We also have the nunnery where the nuns lived which is next door to the chapel and downstairs we have the ballroom which was the library for the girls’ school,” Spencer told RNZ during a tour of the building.

Spencer said movies such as The Frighteners had also been filmed there.

For any potential buyer, one of the considerations will be the building’s heritage status.

Jamie Jacobs director central region for Heritage New Zealand said the building was protected in two ways.

He said it was scheduled in the Wellington District Plan as a heritage building.

Under the Resource Management Act, the site, he said was also under a heritage protection order that was held by the Save Erskine College Trust.

He said as such any major changes or work to the building would have to go through both the council and the trust.

The Wellington Company director of property Sam Hooper said there had been around 60 expressions of interest in the building since it went on sale.

“The way I’ve always sort of seen who might pick this up will be someone who either has been part of the chapel, either an old girl from the school … someone from Island Bay who’s seen it growing up, or someone who’s into events, weddings, looking, creating really cool spaces, or philanthropists who just love sort of heirloom assets.”

He said there was also opportunity for a church to take it over again.

“It is deconsecrated at the moment, but it can be reconsecrated,” he said. “We are in discussion with a couple of churches who are certainly looking at it.”

Meanwhile, in a statement the Save Erskine College Trust said it was hoping for a successful transition of guardianship.

“Erskine College remains a vital part of the Island Bay and wider community, including Erskine Chapel and the remnant Reverend Mother’s Garden. Along with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and Wellington City Council, we hope for a successful transition in ownership and kaitiakitanga.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

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Source: Radio New Zealand

In the balmy greenhouses of Rainbow Park Nurseries, orchids bloom in perfect rows – a picture of calm that hides how close the operation came to crisis.

The South Auckland business – which grows houseplants and trees for major retailers – has just finished a $2.5 million project to get off natural gas. An army of industrial heat pumps now feed two giant hot-water tanks, keeping the glasshouses at up to 28°C through winter nights.

Manager Andrew Tayler is blunt: without public money, it would not have happened.

“We were very lucky we got the funding,” Tayler says. “If we didn’t, we probably would have thrown waste-oil burners on the front of the boilers and walked away.”

Rainbow Park was one of the last companies to receive a major grant from the government Investment in Decarbonising Industry (GIDI) fund before new rounds were frozen and the scheme was branded “corporate welfare” by the coalition. EECA covered roughly a third of the cost – about $880,000 – with the nursery borrowing and doing much of the installation work itself.

With no local examples to learn from, the company relied heavily on the advice of suppliers and consultants – and a lot of hope.

“Bolting 32 heat pumps together and putting them into two enormous hot-water tanks… it was a leap of faith,” Tayler says. “But if we hadn’t, we’d still be in the cycle of sweating every year about the gas – are they going to supply us, what is the price going to be, how is that going to affect our business?”

Rainbow employs more than 90 people. Doubling gas prices, he says, would have “hamstrung” the business. Instead, the nursery now buys certified zero-carbon electricity and uses the savings on its gas bill to pay down the new system.

“We’d have to do what some other businesses are doing – curtailing production, turning the heat off in some compartments, maybe laying off staff, changing what we grow,” Tayler says.

“I do feel like some of the guys that didn’t have the opportunities we have will be finding it very tough.”

Since Rainbow Park switched, the bottom has truly fallen out of New Zealand’s gas market. Supplies are collapsing faster than expected. Long-term contracts have become scarce and expensive.

Factories that rely on gas now find themselves in a strange limbo – unable to secure long-term supply, facing steep price rises, but with little guidance or public funding to help them make massive, costly decisions about their energy future.

The result, energy experts and businesses warn, is a “forced transition”: a messy, unmanaged exit from fossil fuels that risks shuttering plants, hollowing out regional economies and pushing up prices for everyone else.

“Energy transitions work better when people have time to see the signals and make informed decisions,” says energy analyst Richard Hobbs, a partner at Boston Consulting group. “When shocks arrive unexpectedly and timeframes are short – that’s when you get the really bumpy situations.”

‘We’ve been backed into a corner’

In Bay of Plenty, Whakatāne Growers heats four hectares of capsicum and chilli glasshouses with a mix of coal and gas. The plan had been to get off coal and move fully onto gas – cleaner and easier to run, with captured CO₂ helping lift yields by up to 20 percent.

Instead, site manager and co-owner Michael Simpson is stuck.

A year and a half ago, the company went to renew its gas contract. Their existing supplier could not even offer one. Two other offers came back – at 40-50 percent higher prices.

“There’s two main issues,” Simpson says. “Supply – it’s never a good thing to not know how the future is going to look – and cost. Gas prices have just exploded, and no one’s had the opportunity to make the best decisions for their business. You’ve got to rush now.”

Whakatāne Growers still runs its gas boiler, but has had to dial back temperatures, focus on efficiency and lean harder on coal.

“We never really stopped using coal, but we didn’t go any further with transitioning away from it – more or less because we didn’t have any option,” he says.

The business has looked seriously at geothermal paired with heat pumps. The numbers were “insane”.

“The capital required was absolutely mind-blowing,” Simpson says. “And with electricity prices going up as well, the running costs were going to be the same, or more. You’re kind of between a rock and a hard place.”

With clear signals and a runway, he says, they could have plotted a path.

“Ten years would have been a lot. If there’d been a clear signal: ‘By this date, you won’t be able to run on gas,’ we could have planned. Instead it feels like gas prices have just exploded with little to no warning.”

Without support, many growers and manufacturers, he says, are simply absorbing the costs, passing some on to consumers and hoping something changes.

“Ultimately, if New Zealand businesses have been backed into this corner, to stay productive and operating we’re going to need some help to transition,” he says. “It’s all good and well to say you’ve got to transition. But if the capital outlay is going to kill half the businesses in the country – and the gas prices kill the other half – what are we going to be left with?”

No silver bullets here

New Zealand’s exit from gas was meant to be more orderly than this.

Under the previous government, officials had started work on a Gas Transition Plan, consulting on how to phase down gas while keeping the lights on. The idea was to map out which uses should be prioritised, when new supply would taper off, and how to avoid simply swapping gas for coal when shortages hit.

Alongside it, the GIDI fund helped pay for the hardware needed to switch: electric boilers, high-temperature heat pumps, biomass boilers, and efficiency upgrades in factories, schools and hospitals.

The goal was not only to reduce dependence on a fuel in decline – it was to cut emissions. Gas is one of the biggest sources of industrial climate pollution, and GIDI was designed to help firms shift, to help meet our climate goals.

That has now flipped: decarbonisation has become the bonus, with the driver keeping businesses running as supply worsens.

That dual purpose – climate and energy security – is what a “managed transition” was meant to balance.

The current government parked that process. It had its own plan: the idea of “market-led” transition: where the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and price signals will, over time, make fossil fuels too expensive and clean alternatives more attractive. Ministers have argued that public subsidies distort markets, and say a market-led transition will deliver lower costs over time.

The problem is, since they made that decision none of the markets involved have been behaving the way textbooks say they should.

Gas prices for industry have already doubled on average over five years, but new supply is still shrinking and exploration is yet to restart. At the same time, electricity prices are historically high, and security margins are tightening as gas-fired stations age and new renewables lag demand.

Further, the ETS carbon price has slumped, with multiple auctions failing to clear, weakening the incentive to invest in lower-emissions technology.

“There’s enough evidence already to show that the market is demonstrably not working,” Optima energy consultant Martin Gummer says. “If the market was right, then as prices have gone up there’d be more gas coming on stream. The opposite is happening.”

In that context, a “market-led” transition risks becoming no transition at all.

And as a result, the country faces the worst of both worlds: emissions stay high while businesses face shortages and huge energy bills.

‘The bottom has fallen out of the gas market’

The scale of what might yet happen if New Zealand can not get its energy crisis under control was laid out last month in “Energy to Grow”, a report by Boston Consulting Group for the four main gentailers.

Some of the facts are now well-trodden: New Zealand’s gas supply has fallen around 45 percent in six years. Domestic production now sits below underlying demand. But BCG did future projections too, finding the gas gap is set to worsen rapidly. In one scenario, demand exceeds available gas by roughly 10 petajoules (PJ) in 2026, and double that in 2027.

Even if big users such as Methanex and Ballance curtail production or exit entirely by 2027, their 28 PJ of demand is not enough to restore balance later in the decade. The market is still short.

In a dry year, the picture is worse. Gas-fired power stations need more fuel to back up hydro lakes, soaking up any spare supply that might otherwise go to industry. BCG warns that without better planning, “industrial demand destruction” – companies shutting or relocating because they can’t secure fuel – could begin as early as 2026.

Earlier advice to ministers from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the Electricity Authority (EA) underlines how tight it has become. In July, officials were asked by Resources Minister Shane Jones whether New Zealand could burn more coal at Huntly so gas could be diverted to struggling factories.

On paper, yes: Huntly can run more on coal. In practice, both agencies say, doing so would push up power prices and increase the risk of shortages, especially in a dry winter. The “spare” coal units at Huntly are not spare at all; they are the emergency reserve that keeps the system stable when lakes are low or gas plants fail.

In other words – any extra gas for industry has to come from somewhere else.

“This is a serious and complex problem,” Gummer says. “You can’t just pull one lever and think it will be a silver bullet. The government has to pull all the levers it possibly can.”

Fear of the unknown: Businesses don’t know when, or how to jump

For many businesses, the result of the gas shortage has been a state of paralysis.

In a survey of 66 industrial gas users earlier this year, consultancy Optima found strong concern about future availability and pricing, with “low ability to transition in the short term”. Twenty-five percent of respondents had already raised prices to pass on fuel costs; 14 percent had reduced production; eight percent had cut staff.

Of 55 firms, 28 believed they could fully or partly replace their gas use within about three years – but only with help on consents and capital. Together, they could cut demand by about 4.8 PJ a year. The combined capital bill was estimated at $532 million; most said some co-funding would be needed to make the numbers stack up.

The remaining 23 businesses said they could not get off gas within five years and needed a longer runway of up to 15 years.

The Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority (EECA) commissioned qualitative research with 25 small and medium gas users – coffee roasters, brewers, pet-food makers, plastics moulders, hothouse growers and others.

It found many run specialist equipment with no cheap, like-for-like electric alternative.

Transitioning often means ripping out perfectly functional gas technology, investing heavily in heat pumps or biomass boilers, and in many cases – like at Rainbow Park – paying for expensive grid upgrades just to get enough power to their site.

The single biggest barrier those businesses identified was uncertainty: about how long gas will be available, if there will be rationing, how high prices will go, whether exploration will restart, whether a promised investment into LNG will arrive, and what happens if they jump early and the government later props the gas market up.

“We never considered the risk to the business of not actually having natural gas,” one participant said. “We always expect that the price could fluctuate… But we never anticipated maybe having no gas coming from the pipeline.”

“What is the priority of the gas supply going to be?” another asked. “If supply is limited, which it already is, how is energy going to be allocated? Who gets it first? Who gets it last?”

EECA chief executive Dr Marcos Pelenur says many firms feel they are being pushed into “make-or-break decisions”: absorb higher costs, invest millions in new plant, or close.

“Gas has declined much faster than most people expected,” he says.

Crucially, however, he does not expect a return to “the good old days”.

“I think it is very likely that we will not have cheap, abundant gas,” Pelenur says. “There are businesses out there hoping gas prices will go back to what they were ten years ago. I do not think that’s going to happen.”

It is far more likely that the nation will have abundant renewable energy instead, Pelenur says.

His message is that businesses should act now on efficiency – EECA’s walk-through assessments often find 10-30 percent savings – and start planning fuel switches, even if the big projects will take years.

But without a national strategy or substantial funding, that planning sits largely on individual firms: and eventually comes back to the issue of money.

The devil and the deep blue sea

For many manufacturers, the choice is not between cheap gas and slightly dearer electricity. It is between paying hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to replace perfectly functional gas equipment – or taking their chances and hoping the fuel keeps coming.

“Most businesses are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,” Gummer says – unable to afford the capital cost of transition, yet unable to rely on increasingly volatile and uncertain gas supply.

“It’s painful,” one business owner told EECA’s researchers. “The economics don’t work out on our current return on investment.”

Some talked seriously about shutting rather than transitioning. Others said they are passing costs on to customers, but worry those customers will simply go offshore – a wider risk of deindustrialisation.

Major employers such as pulp and paper mills, wood processors and food plants are deeply woven into local economies. If they close, the knock-on effects hit ports, trucking firms, engineering workshops, schools and shops. Once those jobs are gone, they are hard to replace.

Green Building Council chief executive Andrew Eagles says leaving it to the market is an unnecessary risk.

“You’ve either got a considered transition or a disruptive one that will damage people’s lives – kids leave schools, people move towns, regional economies shrink,” he says. “This isn’t about abstract ideas – it’s real people’s lives.”

BCG estimates that once big users like Methanex and Ballance have exited, every petajoule of additional gas demand destruction hits GDP harder and harder – about $400m for the first PJ, up to $700m for the tenth. Losing 5 PJ could wipe out around $3b of GDP a year; 10 PJ, around $7.3b, or nearly two percent of total GDP.

By contrast, the report suggests that with about $200m of co-funding, New Zealand could displace 10-20 PJ of industrial gas use over the next decade by helping firms switch to electricity and biomass.

“$200 million is a one-off,” Hobbs says. “The cost of not managing the transition is in the billions every year. The benefits to the economy outweigh the costs by quite some margin.”

Effectively, they’re arguing to restart some form of GIDI, which co-funded dozens of projects at an effective support level of around $1.10 per gigajoule saved spread over 15 years.

RNZ asked Energy Minister Simon Watts whether the Government would consider supporting businesses with some kind of transition grant. Watts said he was “aware of the challenges” industrial gas users have been facing with increased costs and difficulties securing contracts”, and outlined several initiatives underway.

The most significant is the procurement process for a liquefied natural gas import terminal, which the minister says is intended to bolster security of supply in dry years, support electricity generation during peak periods, and “potentially act as a fuel source for industrial users”.

Alongside exploration incentives, the minister said work was underway to “remove barriers” to growing biogas and biomass as alternative fuels.

Watts also highlighted broader financing tools that businesses could access – such as bank sustainability loans – and said the Government was working to “de-risk investment in thermal fuel and capacity”, including by improving transparency in the gas market. He did not directly address further questions about demand-side support.

The path ahead

The analysts argue New Zealand does not have to chart such a difficult path.

Other countries facing gas shortages have taken a more deliberate approach both for businesses and in residential areas. When the gas crisis hit in Europe during the Russia-Ukraine war, there was a rapid push on energy efficiency, leading to major technological leaps.

In Victoria, Australia, where about 60 percent of homes use gas, the state government has moved to stop new gas connections in subdivisions and require electric hot-water heat pumps when systems are replaced.

But New Zealand has no equivalent national framework to either stop new demand locking into a fuel that is already running out, or managing the current demand.

Instead, the government has only intervened on the supply side – investigating LNG imports and putting money on the table to extend gas drilling – while demand-side tools have stalled.

“If the government is prepared to look at co-funding LNG and more drilling, they should be prepared to look at co-funding transition for industry,” Gummer says. “You need several strategies – that’s how you disperse risk.”

The experts are clear: the transition is coming any way you look at it.

They say the argument is not about pipes and boilers, or heat pumps and hot water. It is about who carries the costs and risks of an inevitable shift away from fossil fuels.

For Rainbow Park, an early grant and willing partnership from lines companies and power providers turned a looming risk into a triumph of innovation.

For Whakatāne Growers, and dozens of other firms trying to read the tea leaves, the story is very different.

“It’s pretty daunting,” Simpson says. “You’re always thinking about it. Always working on it at home. But without some certainty, there’s not much point making big investments – you don’t know what the right thing to invest in is, or when the right time is.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A University of Auckland study has found that more than 10 percent of secondary school students have had unwanted sexual experiences, with rates highest among Māori and Pacific teens, gender-diverse youth, and those in the poorest schools.

The research, which has been published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, reviewed answers about unwanted sexual experiences from a representative sample of 7374 students aged 12 to 19 years from the Youth19 survey.

It found sexual violence remained widespread among teenagers in New Zealand with one in eight (12.4 percent) reporting unwanted sexual experiences.

Nineteen percent of girls, compared with 5.7 percent of boys, agreed with the question, “Have you ever been touched in a sexual way or made to do sexual things you didn’t want to do (including sexual abuse or rape)?”.

The survey found teenagers in the poorest schools were about 60 percent more likely to experience sexual violence than those in the wealthiest schools, with 15.3 percent compared with 9.4 percent.

Around 15 percent of Māori and Pacific students reported experiencing sexual violence, compared with about 11 percent of European students and around 10 percent of Asian and other ethnicities.

Meanwhile 31.9 percent of nonbinary and transgender students reported experiencing sexual violence compared with 18.6 percent for cisgender females and 5.5 percent for cisgender males.

“It is incredibly concerning that 12.4 percent of our secondary school students are reporting some type of sexual violence, and we know there are some groups who are more vulnerable,” said School of Nursing professor and Cure Kids Professorial Chair in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Terryann Clark.

The overall figure of 12.4 percent in 2019 is up from 9.5 percent in 2012 and 10.8 percent in 2007, but down from 17 percent in 2001.

Clark said addressing sexual violence was going to take a whole range of solutions including both at the family and school levels.

“This is going to take all of us,” she said.

“We need to make sure that young people are well equipped, they’ve got the right information, and we’re having explicit conversations.”

Clark said sexual violence was often difficult to talk about and disclose, and people who did needed to be believed.

“We know that, from our research, Māori, Pacific and sexually diverse young people, and poor young people, have the hardest time getting the services they need. They are also less likely to be believed or feel like people will do something.

“So, the combination of those factors means those young people are often not disclosing what has happened to them and they aren’t getting the support, treatment and care they need.”

Lead researcher Dr Rachel Roskvist, who is also a specialist GP and forensic medical examiner for people who have experienced sexual violence, said the increase between the 2012 and 2019 surveys may indicate a real rise or greater willingness to disclose.

More granular and up-to-date information was urgently needed, she said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A seven-year-old Hamilton boy is missing after going to visit his friends on Wednesday afternoon.

Tyrese left his home on Anderson Road in Deanwell at 4pm. Police issued an ‘amber alert’ at 1.30am on Thursday.

They said Tyrese regularly walked to his friends’ houses on his own, but did not return home as usual on Wednesday, and wasn’t at the addresses of known friends. He had no nearby family members and there were no local parks in the immediate area.

Tyrese was expected to attend school tomorrow, making his absence “unusual”, police said, noting he had a medical condition that did not require medication.

They described him as 1.3 metres tall, Māori, of medium build, with brown eyes and medium-length black hair.

He was last seen wearing bright orange shorts, a black T-shirt featuring a blue dragon design on the front, and turquoise Croc shoes.

Police urged anyone who had seen Tyrese or had information about his whereabouts to contact them immediately on 105, quoting event number: P064746386.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

• People are surviving longer after cancer diagnosis – but New Zealand is not improving as fast as other high-income countries.
• Māori around 1.6 times more likely, and Pacific peoples 1.4 times more likely, to die from cancer than Pākehā /other ethnicity.
• Up to half of all cancers “preventable”: improved prevention efforts could see between 8000 and 14,000 fewer cancer diagnoses each year.

The number of New Zealanders diagnosed with cancer each year is set to skyrocket by 50 percent in the next two decades to more than 45,000.

That is according to a snapshot of the State of Cancer report over the last five years, released on Thursday by Te Aho o Te Kahu | Cancer Control Agency.

The agency’s chief executive, Rami Rahal, said the projected increase – from about 30,000 new cases this year, to over 45,000 by 2044 – underscored the need for ongoing investment to ensure the health system was ready.

“We cannot respond to this big increase in demand by doing more of the same,” he said.

“We need new and innovative ways of delivering care and preventing cancers.”

Since the first State of Cancer report five years ago, there had been “encouraging progress” in key areas of prevention, early detection and treatment, he said.

“The chance of surviving cancer has improved over the last 20 years. Smoking rates are declining across all ethnicities, and our national screening programmes are becoming more effective and accessible.

“However, much work is still needed.”

That included the need for “sustained, targeted action” on reducing ethnic disparities: Māori were around 1.6 times more likely, and Pacific peoples 1.4 times more likely, to die from cancer than people of European/other ethnicity.

“Addressing inequities must remain a system-wide priority,” Rahal said.

“Everyone in New Zealand deserves the same access to treatment and chance of cure.”

The Cancer Control Agency was currently working with the sector to update the New Zealand Cancer Action Plan 2019-2029, which was set to be published early next year.

Other findings from the report:

• Most-diagnosed cancers in New Zealand: prostate, breast, bowel, melanoma and lung cancer.
• Cancer incidence rates have dropped in the last 20 years, but only by 5 percent overall – and that decrease has levelled off over the past decade.
• ive-year net survival for all cancers has improved by 15 percent in the last 20 years – probably due to screening and advances in treatment.
• However, obesity rates, harmful alcohol consumption, poor nutrition and physical inactivity – which all increase risk of cancer – are either worse or no better than 20 years ago.
• Between 2018 and 2022, the rate for uterine cancer was over five times higher for Pacific females than for females of European ethnicity and almost twice as high for wāhine Māori.
• For breast cancer, wāhine Māori and Pacific females have a higher rate of diagnosis than females of European – rate of diagnosis among Pacific females, increasing by more than 50 percent between 2001 and 2022.

Prevention better than cure

Up to half of all cancers could be prevented by eradicating tobacco use, limiting alcohol intake and healthy nutrition, physical activity, sun protection and infection-prevention measures.

The report noted that people’s risk of developing cancer often depended on where they lived, and their levels of power, money and resources, and “access to culturally safe care”.

“For example, in many socioeconomically deprived areas – where more whānau Māori and Pacific families live – there is a higher density of fast-food and alcohol outlets, making healthy choices harder to access.”

Cancer prevention was the most “cost-effective” approach to controlling some cancers.

“As the New Zealand population ages and increases in size, along with cancer incidence, ‘treating our way out’ of the significant increase that is forecast will not be possible,” according to the report.

“Prevention must be prioritised – improved prevention efforts could see between approximately 8000 and 14,000 fewer cancer diagnoses each year.”

Currently, only one in 10 adults eat the recommended amount of vegetables and just one in 17 eat the recommended amount of both fruit and vegetables.

For children, only one in 12 eat the recommended amount of vegetables, and daily breakfast consumption is declining.

Workplace exposures to carcinogens cause nearly one-third of work-related harm and roughly 650 deaths annually from cancer and respiratory diseases.

The New Zealand Carcinogens Survey, commissioned by WorkSafe New Zealand in 2021, found that 58 percent of workers were exposed to at least one carcinogen at work, with Māori, Pacific peoples and males facing higher exposure.

The next best thing to prevention: Early detection

Almost 1600 deaths per year could be avoided if all people diagnosed with late-stage bowel cancer were diagnosed at an early or mid-stage, when it could be treated more successfully.

About half of all European and Asian people with lung cancer were diagnosed following an emergency hospital admission.

For Māori, this proportion was far higher at 68 percent and for Pacific peoples higher still (73 percent).

Palliative care also needed critical attention and much better funding, particularly given predictions that, by 2038, the number of people needing palliative care would increase by more than 50 percent compared with 2015 levels, and by 90 percent by 2068.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The Public Health Communication Centre says children exposed to asbestos contained in coloured play sands should be regularly monitored to ensure the best chance of successfully treating cancers – which could take decades to emerge later in life.

Hundreds of schools have been tested – with nearly 40 forced to temporarily close – following the discovery of naturally occurring asbestos, tremolite, in coloured play sands last month.

At least nine children’s activity products containing coloured sands were recalled over the last month after testing in Australia revealed the presence of the carcinogen in products.

Illnesses could take decades to emerge

University of Canterbury toxicologist, Professor Ian Shaw, said it could be decades before any illnesses related to the exposure emerged as symptoms.

“Mesothelioma, which is the cancer which is most likely to be caused by asbestos, tends not to be diagnosed early. The reason is that you don’t notice the symptoms – they’re the sort of things that you might just pass off.

“In kids that we know have been exposed, we would then want to monitor them – say, yearly – for many years so that if they did contract mesothelioma we could detect it really early and have a greater chance of treatment success,” Shaw said.

He said testing needed to be done to better understand the risks associated with exposure to the products.

“We need to know not only how much they’re breathing in – in terms of the concentration in air – but how long they’ve been breathing it because the higher the concentration, the longer the exposure, the greater the risk.

“It’s immensely complex but it’s really important because we’ve got kids exposed and what we do know about chemicals that cause cancer is that they tend to have a greater effect in children than adults. The reason for that is that kids are growing, their cells are dividing more frequently and cancer-causing chemicals generally only affect cells that are dividing. So there’s more chance of them affecting dividing cells in kids,” Shaw said.

Shaw said not everyone who breathed in asbestos would necessarily develop cancer.

“Even if somebody breathes a whole load of it for a long period of time they might not develop cancer. We mustn’t be thinking that everybody’s going to get cancer in this case ’cause they’re not,” Shaw said.

University of Auckland professor of commercial law Alex Sims said that in order to support the monitoring of children exposed to the chemical, the voluntary Asbestos Exposure Register – which stopped accepting new entries in 2023 – should be reinstated and expanded to include people who may have suffered exposure in a wider variety of environments.

“It was mainly to do with workplaces so if employees had been exposed to potential asbestos they could be on that register and it would allow for greater monitoring.

“Australia has one and – with the coloured play sand incident – people are being told to register there.

“As we’ve seen – with the coloured play sand – asbestos issues are far broader than just employees so that would be really useful,” Sims said.

Enforcement of importing regulations lacking

Sims said importing regulations meant it was currently illegal to import products that contained asbestos without a permit but little was being done to back up the legislation.

“The problem is that there is no requirement to test products before they come into New Zealand so we’re just relying on people to test products but there’s no one checking to see whether anything has been tested.

“If people are importing things into New Zealand [and] if there’s a risk that a product could contain asbestos then testing should be carried out but, as we’ve seen, you can’t rely on importers to do this, so instead you need a government body – say, for example, MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) – to arrange for the testing and to do that at the importer’s cost,” Sims said.

Sims said consumers should consider choosing children’s products that had simpler, more natural, elements to avoid the risks associated with chemical contamination or poor manufacturing standards.

“We have product safety laws about toys – for example [you] can’t have loose batteries and other things – but we do rely on importers and suppliers following the law and they don’t always.

“When it comes to enforcement, the MBIE and Commerce Commission can’t be everywhere, it’s only when reports are made and sometimes reports come after harm’s been suffered.

“The law and the government can’t protect everybody and it’s very much up to people to take care and if you’re looking at something, just go ‘no that doesn’t look safe’ and don’t buy it. Just because it’s sitting on a shelf it does not mean to say that it’s safe.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The family of man killed by a sand dune that collapsed and swallowed him on a West Auckland beach say losing him has left a hole that nothing can fill.

In findings released on Thursday, the coroner sounded a warning to beachgoers after probing the death in August of Kane Watson.

Watson, 28, his partner and children were at Muriwai Beach on 23 August.

He had been digging into dunes and tunnelling into the sand bank, and was almost entirely engulfed by the collapsing sand.

“Only his feet remained visible as he tried to kick himself free,” Coroner Ian Telford said in his findings on Thursday.

“It was immediately clear that the tunnel created by digging had collapsed and buried him.”

His partner started digging desperately to try to get to him, and bystanders joined the effort.

Police, volunteer firefighters, ambulance crews and a rescue helicopter all rushed to the beach.

Watson, when he was finally freed, was unresponsive.

Rescuers managed to restore circulation, and Watson was airlifted to Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition.

But it became clear he could not survive his injuries despite the lengthy resuscitation and advanced medical care, the coroner said.

Watson had his breathing tube removed and died two days later surrounded by his family.

“Kane wasn’t just my younger brother, he was my first love in life,” his sister Shaquille Thoumine said in a statement to RNZ shortly before the release of the findings.

“He was the person I grew up with, the one who knew me inside and out, the one you imagine will always be there.

“Your sibling is meant to be your forever person, you expect to grow old together, to watch each other’s lives unfold,” she said.

The coroner had ruled Watson’s death accidental, and that he died from complications from cardiac arrest caused by being asphyxiated and trapped in the sand.

“The weight and pressure from the sand can also prevent the lungs from expanding properly,” Telford said.

“Without enough oxygen, the heart can stop, and once the heart stops pumping, vital organs quickly become damaged,” he said.

His findings said that this led to swelling in Watson’s brain, which then caused harm to his liver and kidneys and reduced his heart function.

“This was a tragic accident leading to the death of young man,” the coroner said.

“My engagement with his family during this inquiry has made clear just how deeply he was loved and how greatly he is now missed.”

Coroner’s warning

Coroner Telford said Watson’s death brought attention to a danger that may not be immediately apparent to some beachgoers.

“Sand dunes can become unstable without warning,” he said.

“Even small tunnels or cavities may collapse leading to serious injury or death.

“As we approach the summer season it is important that beachgoers – especially those supervising young children – are aware of these risks, avoid digging into dunes, and seek emergency assistance immediately if anyone becomes trapped,” he said.

Watson was digging in the dunes with his children before the collapse, but they lost interest and he kept digging on his own before the accident.

“Losing him has left a hole that nothing can fill. Moving through life without him is incredibly hard, because everything reminds of the bond we shared,” Thoumine said.

“He was funny, loving, protective and had the most beautiful heart. He meant everything to me, and I miss him more than words will ever explain.”

Thoumine also told RNZ their mother Arlene had been left completely heartbroken by Watson’s death.

“Kane was her baby, her best friend, and the centre of her world. Watching her grieve her son has been devastating for all of us,” she said.

After Watson’s death, University of Auckland senior civil engineering lecturer Dr Colin Whittaker called for more public education about the dangers of sand dunes.

It was crucial to realise that just because the sand was still, that did not mean it was stable, he said.

In 2023, a dune collapsed on two boys aged 12 and 14 who were also digging tunnels during a family picnic on Aotea Great Barrier Island.

Levi Sonchai Golaboski, 12, was taken off life support days later.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Police records show fugitive father Tom Phillips‘ firearms licence was suspended just weeks after his first disappearance in 2021, and later revoked when he was deemed “not a fit and proper person” to hold a gun.

The information, released to RNZ under the Official Information Act (OIA), is among the only new details police have been willing to release about Phillips’ interactions with authorities ahead of a public inquiry into the case.

Phillips died on 8 September following a shootout with police, after nearly four years in the bush with his children.

The disappearance was his second – he first went on the run with the children in September 2021. His Toyota Hilux was found abandoned at Kiritehere Beach, keys under the mat, car seats in the back, parked below the high tide mark and being pummeled by waves. Authorities searched land, air and sea but found no trace.

On 30 September, Phillips and the children reappeared in Marokopa, claiming they had camped in dense bush for the 19 days they were missing. He disappeared again in December that year.

Police suspended and later revoked his firearms licence

According to the documents, police suspended Phillips’ licence on 11 October 2021 and formally revoked it on 5 January 2022. The decision was made on the grounds that he was no longer considered fit and proper.

Phillips had first received his firearms licence in 2003, and renewed it in 2013.

Police would not release any information about the reasons behind their decisions to suspend, then revoke the licence, the risk assessments that informed them, or any related notices or internal communications.

All such material was withheld under section 9(2)(ba) of the OIA, which protects information provided in confidence “or which any person has been or could be compelled to provide under the authority of any enactment”.

It is also unclear what action was taken around any firearms, ammunition or licensing materials Phillips may still have held after the revocation. Documents relating to attempted seizure or follow-up were also withheld.

The response illustrates the significant constraints on what is currently known – or can be made public – about agencies’ handling of Phillips before he spent nearly four years on the run.

Police said they were required to comply not only with active investigations into Phillips’ death and disappearance – including an ongoing investigation into whether he received outside support – but also with wide-ranging suppression orders imposed by the High Court and Family Court. Those restrictions limit the release of any information relating to the children or to court proceedings involving them.

Police said it did not want to prejudice the investigations by the premature release of relevant information.

Inquiry to examine agencies’ actions and information-sharing

The Attorney-General confirmed last month that a public inquiry would examine whether agencies “took all practicable steps” to protect the safety and welfare of the Phillips children, and whether government agencies responded appropriately and in a timely way to locate the children once they disappeared.

The inquiry was directed to inquire into the nature and extent of the involvement government agencies had with Phillips and the children, before and after their disappearance. It would also look into how Phillips obtained and maintained a gun licence, weapons and ammunition.

However, its scope would not include decisions made within the Family Court – despite the terms of reference noting there had been “extensive litigation” in that forum concerning the children, some of which remained ongoing and under appeal.

The government has directed the inquiry to “respect the independence of the courts, and not comment on or inquire into judicial decisions concerning the children, including suppression orders made in respect of the children”.

Some experts have critiqued that decision, saying the court should not be exempt from scrutiny.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Teaching Council’s governing board says appointing one of its members as interim chief executive does not breach a rule prohibiting board members from serving as CEO.

In a statement, the council said the interim chief executive Tom Gott had stepped away from his governance role and it had double-checked the legality of the move with the Education Ministry.

Gott was appointed because the council’s chief executive Lesley Hoskin was on agreed leave while the Public Service Commission investigated the council’s handling of conflicts of interest and procurement.

Sensitivity over the Teaching Council is running high because of the investigation and because of the government’s recent decision to strip the council of responsibility for initial teacher education and teachers’ practising standards, and to reconstitute its board next year so that a majority of members would be ministerial appointees.

Gott was one of six ministerial appointees on the now-12-member board and the issue of his appointment was raised with RNZ anonymously by people concerned the council was acting unlawfully.

The Education and Training Act 2020 said the council may appoint a chief executive but that person “may not be a member of the Teaching Council”.

Council chair David Fisher told RNZ it made sure Gott’s appointment was legal.

“Out of an abundance of caution and to satisfy any concerns that our decision was unlawful, prior to Mr Gott being appointed as interim CEO, the Teaching Council consulted with the Ministry of Education about the interim arrangements,” he said.

“The Ministry guided us that, in the circumstances, it was appropriate for Mr Gott to act as CEO while remaining on the Board, provided he steps back from all governance work during this time, which he has.”

Fisher said there was no co-mingling of executive and governance functions.

“Mr Gott is not attending any Governing Council meetings (other than in his capacity as interim CEO), receiving any Governing Council emails (other than emails that the CEO would receive), nor being paid for his position on the Council.

“Mr Gott will not participate in any governance decision making and has no voting rights. Mr Gott is very clear, as are we, that he is Acting CEO of the Council and as such has stepped away from his governance role.”

The Post Primary Teachers Association said it believed the appointment breached the rules and the ministry’s interpretation was incorrect.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police received a call just after midnight on Wednesday morning reporting that a masked offender brandishing a firearm approached bar staff at Quinns Post bar on Ward Street and demanded cash.

“The offender then fled on foot along Ward Street towards Heretaunga College,” Detective Senior Sergeant Martin Todd said

“Bar staff involved were shaken, but not injured, and are being provided Victim Support. There were no patrons in the bar at the time.”

Hutt Valley Police investigating the armed robbery of an Upper Hutt bar are seeking help from the public.

Police are asking for anyone who was in the Ward Street and Fergusson Drive areas of Upper Hutt at the time (before and after midnight) and saw any suspicious people or vehicles, or who has any information relating to the robbery, to come forward.

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