Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Kiwi author included in a billion-dollar US settlement over the illegal downloading of books to build an AI chatbot says she hopes the case will be a warning to the AI industry.

But the Society of Authors said the authors of millions of titles used to build the tools will miss out on compensation as they are not registered for copyright in American territories.

Anthropic AI has agreed to pay out up to $1.5 billion (NZ$2.6b) to settle claims it used millions of pirated books to train its large language models, in a class action in Californian courts.

Award-winning author Catherine Chidgey said she received an email saying her books Remote Sympathy, The Wishchild and The Transformation had been identified as being caught up in the case.

She said authors were being offered a payment of US$3000 (NZ$5240) for each title accessed by the company.

“On the one hand I’m grateful that they’re being held to account. The works they accessed were from two websites that held pirated works so they weren’t accessing them legally. It’s not like they went out and paid for them.

“I imagine this will serve as a warning to others out there who are hoovering up intellectual property without asking. This has been going on for a while now it’s just that [Anthropic] are the first company that’s been held to account for it,” Chidgey said.

She said the money offered to authors paled in comparison to the toil behind creating the works.

“It’s not really enough – if you think about the years of effort I’ve put into writing those books – but I’m glad that there has been a line drawn in the sand,” she said.

‘A slap on the wrist’

RNZ AI commentator Peter Griffin said the ruling did not counter the use of intellectual property for training AI models without permission.

He said instead the settlement had pivoted on Anthropic’s use of two book pirating websites (Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror) to source the content.

“This boils down to basically a fine for using dodgy websites and – in the scheme of things – $1.5 bil is not a lot for a company like Anthropic. That’s a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket.

“Fundamentally the things that [the AI companies] were terrified about was a ruling saying you cannot use this material under copyright law – this is not ‘fair use’. That what’s really scared them and that did not happen.

“Ultimately it says to the AI companies, ‘fill your boots, you can still use all of these texts to inform AI training models but if you’re ever caught doing that through dodgy pirate websites – or peer to peer file sharing networks – you’re going to face repercussions’,” Griffin said.

He said companies recognised the need to move quickly to distinguish themselves in the rapidly evolving field.

“Many of these companies take the view – in the famous words of Mark Zuckerberg – ‘move fast and break things’.

“They needed to get a model up quickly that would wow the world – that would be really useful – so they just hoovered up anything that they could get their hands on. Now there’s this sort of rearguard action by content owners and publishers to try and scramble to retain some of that value,” Griffin said.

However Griffin said the need for AI tools to be continuously trained on new data could still “draw a line in the sand” for AI use of intellectual property in the future.

“It’s going to be a very difficult process and I don’t think publishers and authors will get anywhere near what they deserve to get but at least now there is a precedent that ‘sure, it may be fair use but you have to legitimately obtain those copyrighted texts’.

“The only way they can really do that at scale is to strike a deal with the publishers so they can really get that done in a legitimate way,” Griffin said.

Thousand of authors ineligible for compensation

New Zealand Society of Authors chief executive Jenny Nagle says while thousands of New Zealand titles may have been used by the company it was likely only dozens of local authors would be eligible for compensation.

“I have records of about 3500 New Zealand titles that formed part of that data set that was uploaded. However the settlement in the US courts decreed that only books registered with the US copyright office were eligible to be part of the settlement. This was appealed by lawyers from the Society of Authors from around the world because books from all countries, all copyright jurisdictions and languages, are part of this data set [but] it was denied by the US courts.

“My understanding is there was about 7.5 million books in this pirated library and about 1.5 million will be eligible for compensation through this settlement,” Nagle said.

Nagle said the society was encouraging members to ensure their books were registered through the US copyright office for future claims.

“This is but the first settlement of scores of court cases that are in train for this issue. Nearly all of the larger language models have been trained by pirated libraries. They’ve been trained by copyright theft.

“If you are a producer of a product generally you pay for the ingredients of your product and in this case the AI developers have said ‘fair use, we can scrape whatever we want and we don’t have to pay’ but this is people’s property,” Nagle said.

Nagle said the government needed to act quickly but the current review of the Copyright Act was unlikely to address issues around AI until its second stage in 2027.

“It is more urgent than that. The Australian government has just moved to say that data mining and scraping ingestion is not a fair use – or fair dealing copyright – and needs licensing and we would really look to the government to do something about this.

“This is a rapidly evolving space, of course, but really we do need legislation and regulation because the development is just the wild west at the moment,” Nagle said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Christchurch principal says Food Safety officers saw video proof that mouldy meals served to students weren’t left at her school from the previous week.

Students at Haeata Community Campus were served mouldy mince meals through the government-funded school lunch programme, which some of them ate before realising they were off.

NZ Food Safety has said it was more than likely that some lunches provided by Compass Group last Thursday remained at the school and were not refrigerated.

It said school staff then accidently re-served the food alongside fresh meals on Monday.

But Principal Peggy Burrows said investigators watched security camera footage showing that all of the containers holding the hot meals delivered last Thursday were taken away by Compass.

She said the school had no facility to heat lunches, and would not serve cold meals.

New Zealand Food Safety didn’t confirm whether it saw the footage, but blamed the issue on human error by the school.

Deputy director-general Vince Arbuckle said NZFS had a team onsite at the school and Compass on Tuesday investigating the affected meals.

“We have considered all possible causes.

“We think it is more than likely that the affected meals at the school had been delivered the previous Thursday, remained at the school without refrigeration, and then were accidentally re-served to students alongside fresh meals delivered on Monday. This would explain the deterioration of the meals.”

In a statement, Paul Harbey – a spokesperson for the School Lunch Collective, which represents Compass Group – said one of the heated containers the meals were kept in was left behind at the school on Thursday.

“There were nine Cambro [food storage] boxes of the savoury mince and potatoes meal delivered to Haeata Community Campus on Thursday 27th November, however records show only eight were returned to us.

“One Cambro box has sat at ambient temperatures at the school since that date.

“[On Monday] more than 73,000 lunches of the same recipe were served nationwide, with no concerns raised by any other school.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A year on from taking the reins as the country’s top cop, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers sat down with National Crime Correspondent Sam Sherwood to discuss his first fraught year in the job and how he plans to rebuild trust and confidence in police.

Sitting in an office on the 8th floor of Police National Headquarters, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers reflects on his first year as the country’s top cop.

“I love my job,” he begins.

“This year has been tough, no doubt about that. I found myself dealing with a lot of things, but I always knew that that’s the job that the commissioner has.”

For Chambers, the “at times chaotic” year began two days before he took on the role when he was briefed on an investigation into allegations of sexual offending by then Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.

A month later came another briefing – child sexual exploitation and bestiality material had been found on McSkimming’s work devices.

And then, before the year was out the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) released a scathing report into police’s handling of allegations made about McSkimming, finding serious misconduct at the highest levels of police – including former Commissioner Andrew Coster.

In a wide-ranging sit-down interview with RNZ, Chambers discusses the last 12 months including the scrapped controversial retail crime thresholds, about 130 police officers under investigation for falsely recording breath tests and how he plans to rebuild trust and confidence.

‘I just wanted to be a good policeman’

It was late last year when two men underwent the final interviews for police commissioner, Jevon McSkimming and Richard Chambers.

Both held high ambitions, and both men had taken different routes to the interview table.

For Chambers, he says he joined police in January 1996 as he “just wanted to be a good policeman”.

“(I) always wanted to join the police from the time I was a young lad, nothing’s changed…

“I never set out to aspire to be the commissioner, but I felt that I had something to add. I’m quite determined to make sure we focus on the right things for our country, and for my workforce. So I decided, yeah, I’m going to give this a go.

“And when I turned up for my interview here in Wellington I put on the table what I stood for, what I understood the priorities needed to be, and gave the choice to other people, and I’m the lucky one.”

In November last year it was announced that Chambers had been appointed as the commissioner, taking over from Coster.

Chambers didn’t officially begin the job until 25 November. However, two days beforehand he was given a briefing from a detective superintendent about allegations involving McSkimming from a former non-sworn employee who he had an affair with.

“I was advised that there was an investigation underway, that they had just put the right processes in place, the right structure around that, and that that investigation was focused on a complaint that had been received some time ago.”

Chambers says he was assured that the right people were involved, including “very capable specialists”.

“Even with what I was briefed back then, I was gutted to think that this was something that would ever occur.”

The following month, during police’s investigation into the allegations they discovered child sexual exploitation and bestiality on McSkimming’s work devices.

Chambers was briefed.

“To receive a call to say that this had been found, albeit very early days, was just inconceivable, unbelievable.

“I feel for the 15,000 plus men and women of New Zealand police who do a great job day and night across the country to have this sort of thing found within any part of the organisation, particularly within the most senior levels, is appalling.”

‘The worst thing for any police colleague’

Chambers spent New Year’s Eve alongside some of his colleagues in Tauranga and Tokoroa policing festivities.

He then went back to where he was staying with his family in Taupo. About an hour later he was woken by a phone call. Two police officers, Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming and Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay, had been struck by a vehicle while on foot patrol in central Nelson.

“I knew it was not good. I said to my wife, ‘I’ve got to turn the light on, iron my police shirt’ and drove to Wellington.”

By 9am, Chambers was in Nelson. Later that day it was announced that Fleming, who had been in police for 38 years, had died.

“The loss of Lyn … was, without question, the toughest thing that I’ve dealt with this year in my first 12 months,” Chambers says.

“It is the worst thing for any police colleague to ever have to deal with. But, you know, five weeks into my time as the commissioner, it was pretty tough, actually, but it’s always going to be tough, that sort of tragedy.”

Chambers says that on day one of the job he made it clear that one of his priorities was supporting the frontline, which included their safety.

“Every day, I get messages telling me about staff on the front line who are assaulted, and I’ll make a point of reaching out to as many as I can, just to acknowledge some unpleasant circumstances.”

Then, in September, while in Australia attending the funerals of two Victorian police officers who had been shot while on duty, Chambers received a call to say Tom Phillips was dead and a police officer had been shot multiple times.

“I felt a bit helpless actually because I couldn’t get home quick enough… I got home as quickly as I could, and then went to the Waikato where I supported my staff and of course, our colleague who had been shot, who is incredibly lucky to have survived that, because it was incredibly close, too close.”

‘That’s not the New Zealand Police service that I want to be leading’

Another one of Chambers’ priorities when he became commissioner was retail crime.

In May, RNZ revealed a directive was sent to staff about not investigating retail crime below certain thresholds.

The directive said “nationally standardised value thresholds” were to be applied when assessing theft and fraud files. The value thresholds were: General theft $200, petrol drive off $150, shoplifting $500, fraud (PayWave, online, scam etc) $1000, and all other fraud $500.

Following the revelations and a significant backlash Chambers canned the directive, which he called “confusing and unhelpful”.

Looking back, Chambers says he was “disappointed” when he first heard about the existence of the order, after RNZ’s story.

“I expect better than that… that report to me said that we might have thought about doing what was easy for us, but we aren’t in this job for what’s easy for us.

“We are in this job to provide a service to New Zealanders, and that includes the retail community and so members of that community, you know, if they have a view that police don’t take their complaints seriously, and that’s not the place that I want an organisation to be in. So I said, ‘no, that isn’t happening’.”

Chambers said he had been “very clear” that retail crime was an “absolute priority”.

“We are getting fantastic results as a consequence of that focus. Our resolutions are increasing. We’re holding people accountable. That memo and those thresholds that some thought were going to be helpful, no, I got rid of that because that’s not the New Zealand Police service that I want to be leading.”

Then, in August, a new mapping feature to analyse breath testing data identified an anomaly that led to the discovery of more than 30,000 “falsely or erroneously” recorded tests involving about 130 staff.

Chambers says he was “disappointed” when he was informed about the discovery.

“Integrity matters, and trust and confidence in police is critical, and it’s those sorts of events that are most unhelpful.

“But I hope that coming out of it is that there’s an awareness that we will continue to do audits, we will continue to review performance and where expectations don’t meet what they need to be, then we’ll act on it.”

Asked what he had been told about what rationale had been given by the staff involved, Chambers said he did not know.

“We were meeting our targets … we had done incredibly well in terms of our road policing delivery, so none of that was necessary.

“It’s hard to understand what was driving it, because we were doing well…. if we were in a situation where we weren’t quite meeting our targets, then we get out there and we do more breath testing. We don’t manipulate a device to tell a story that’s not true.”

The c-words

Last month, the IPCA released its report into police handling of allegations of sexual offending by McSkimming.

Before it was released publicly, copies of the report were sent to a small group of people, including relevant ministers and Chambers.

Chambers said the one word he’d use to describe his initial reaction after reading through the entire report was “anger”.

“New Zealanders deserve better from the most senior levels of New Zealand police, and so do people across my organisation. They want to be able to believe in their leadership. They want to believe that their leadership is competent and focused on working really hard on the right things.

Chambers says he was “shocked” when he read about the concerns from senior police at the time that the allegations could harm McSkimming’s chances of being commissioner.

“Anyone who deserves to be the commissioner of New Zealand police must get the role on merit by being focused on the right things, and to think that people put their career pathways before you know, integrity and leading 15,000 people for our country is beyond belief.

“There’s no other way to describe it, then they were clearly, as the IPCA report says, very focused on someone’s career pathway and aspirations to be the commissioner of police. Thank heavens that never happened.”

Within minutes of the report being released Chambers says he called the woman’s lawyer and expressed his disappointment in what he had read and apologised on behalf of police about the treatment she had endured and that she was not taken seriously.

Chambers wants to reinforce that what happened involved a small group of the most senior leaders of police, and did not reflect the rest of the organisation.

Several c words have been used to describe the IPCA report, from collusion, to cover-up and corruption.

Asked where he stood, Chambers said everyone had their own opinion.

“The word corruption is a very strong word, but, you know, I have heard a number of people use that word to describe this. I want to be able to move on from using certain words that might describe this behavior.

“I want to focus on leading the organisation forward and doing the right thing being positive about what we are doing. We’ve already made significant changes. I want this chapter, if there’s a c word, I want that chapter to be book ended, and then we can move forward and do all the things that the public expect us to be doing as senior leaders and as an organisation and working hard for victims, which has always been a priority. I said that on day one, and this chapter is one that has led a lot of people down.”

The IPCA report recommended employment investigations against three staff, former Assistant Commissioner Paul Basham, Detective Superintendent Chris Page, and Angela Brazier, the executive director of the Firearms Safety Authority.

Chambers said he had engaged a King’s Counsel to lead the investigations and anticipated some findings before Christmas.

The year ahead

Chambers readily concedes that his first 12 months has felt “at times chaotic”.

“I haven’t had a break yet. I have not had a day off.”

Asked how he navigates dealing with such a high-pressure job, Chambers says over his career he’s developed a better understanding of what strengthens his resilience.

“For me, there’s a range of things. I love to go for a run, I look after my diet as best as I can. I do my best to spend time with my wife and children. I try and get a decent amount of sleep. That’s probably my biggest work on at the moment.

“I try and find time to do things that I enjoy doing, whether it’s fishing or mountain biking or whatever it is… but for me, I felt my running in particular this year, and the support of my family has helped a huge amount.”

Despite feeling like he’s put out more fires than he’d anticipated, Chambers says he’s also “really pleased” with the progress made on a number of fronts including restructuring the police executive that he felt was “too big, too expensive” and putting savings into frontline policing.

He also points to progress on retail crime and the gang legislation and says he’s hopeful police will meet the target of 500 extra staff next year.

“I’m really, really pleased with the progress that we have made, and the feedback that I get from my staff across the organisation and also the public is really, really encouraging.

“So whilst, yes, put out plenty of fires, the balance to that is that we have made a lot of progress, and I’m really pleased about that.”

Chambers says he’s only in Wellington one or two days a week. The rest of the time he’s around the country, while also travelling overseas for international obligations.

“I work really hard to be as visible as I can.”

Over summer he will spend a couple of days at Rhythm and Vines in Gisborne working alongside frontline staff and will be working in Nelson on New Year’s Eve.

“I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that I’m the same person who applied to join New Zealand police in the late 90s. I’m still a policeman. I’ve still got a contribution to make to the operational environment, and I know that my staff enjoy me being out and about with them, because it sends a very clear message that I’m working hard to understand the world that they are in day and night.”

On Tuesday Chambers announced the focus for 2026 was on the four priorities he outlined a year prior: core policing, supporting the frontline, leadership and accountability, and fiscal responsibility.

Specifically, he had set specific goals around service, safety and trust, including getting trust and confidence up from 69 percent to 80 percent.

The other benchmarks included getting satisfaction for services to 80 percent from its current 71 percent, a 15 percent rise in resolutions for retail crime, and a 15 percent reduction in violence in public places.

He also pointed to a 20 percent increase in Māori at police over the past five years.

He says his first priority is to get a new leadership team in place, which he was hopeful would be announced in the next few weeks.

“Then I’ll have the opportunity to reinforce my expectations and the priorities that we as a senior leadership team will focus on…”

A year ago as he stood at a press conference alongside Police Minister Mark Mitchell, Chambers told media he didn’t talk about policing by consent, a popular phrase under Coster’s leadership.

“I talk about trust and confidence,” he said.

“It’s fundamentally important that the police have a trust and confidence of the public, and we’ve got some work to do at the moment.”

Chambers told RNZ on Tuesday that there weren’t too many people he’d come across who understood what policing by consent meant.

“Let’s focus on doing the basics well. We all understand what trust and confidence means, whether that’s internally or externally,” he said.

“We have moved up a couple of percentage points around external trust and confidence, which is good, but recent events like the IPCA report and other things have a potential impact on that. So we’ve got to learn from those situations. We’ve got to make some changes, and we’ve got to keep trying real hard, and I’m determined to ensure that we return to the high levels of trust and confidence that New Zealand Police has had, albeit quite a few years ago, but there’s no reason we can’t do it again.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

ASX-listed Bitcoin treasury business is moving to the NZX in pursuit of a faster pathway to growth than that offered by the Australian stock market.

Locate Technologies is the first company to quit the ASX in favour of the NZX and the first NZX-listed firm to adopt Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset.

Locate Technologies chief executive Steve Orenstein said using Bitcoin as a reserve asset was a sticking point with the ASX, but not with NZX.

“The NZX immediately understood what we’re building and the scale of the opportunity,” he said.

“After engaging with exchanges globally, it was clear the NZX is forward-thinking and aligned with our vision.

We are proud to call New Zealand our new listed home.”

The company was transitioning its listing from the ASX to the NZX through a ‘top hat’ arrangement that transferred all shares into New Zealand while keeping operations, management and strategy unchanged.

The shares would begin trading at 11am on 3 December at 7.5 cents a share.

“This is a milestone not just for Locate Technologies, but for the NZX and for investors who want safe, regulated exposure to digital assets,” Orenstein said.

Locate Technologies was based in New South Wales and operations would continue to be headquartered there.

However, he said the company would have an executive office in Auckland, with New Zealand-based Easy Crypto co-founder Janine Grainger appointed to the board.

Grainger said it made sense to choose New Zealand over other overseas options, “particularly when the NZX can provide that access in a regulated and trusted way.”

Orenstein said the company was focused on combining financial innovation with disciplined governance and shareholder stewardship.

Why Bitcoin?

“By anchoring our strategy in Bitcoin and combining it with disciplined governance, we are confident we can deliver enduring value and position New Zealand at the forefront of this global financial shift,” Orenstein said.

Bitcoin was the world’s most durable monetary network, he said.

“I believe Bitcoin is going to be better to hold than traditional currency.

“Bitcoin has a limited number of supply. It’s independent of any individual, any government, any corporation.

“And so there’s some really great characteristics around why Bitcoin is very likely to become a much more stable currency in the future, versus holding traditional fiat currency.”

Investors in Locate would get long-term exposure to Bitcoin, he said.

“Aligning our balance sheet with this standard is not about speculation – it is about resilience, discipline and long-term value creation.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Critics of a second Mt Victoria tunnel in the capital have launched a campaign against the plans, saying the project is too expensive, too disruptive and too focused on cars.

Green MPs Julie Anne Genter and Tamatha Paul hosted a public rally in Mount Victoria on Tuesday night, where former and current councillors also spoke out against the project.

Expected to cost between $2.9-3.8 billion, the proposals included building a second tunnel at Mount Victoria and The Terrace, and would see traffic moving in both directions around the Basin Reserve.

Changes would be made in Te Aro, with three lanes on Vivian Street and Karo Drive, as well as a widening of Ruahine Street and Wellington Road in Kilbirnie on route to the airport.

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) said the changes could save commuters up to 10 minutes from Ngauranga Gorge to Wellington Airport.

Genter said the consultation period had been insufficient for such a major proposal.

“The reason we decided to hold this meeting, is because the New Zealand Transport Agency announced limited details on a proposed roading project. The consultation – it’s not really a consultation – the feedback period, it’s only four weeks.”

She said the project was hugely expensive for lanes in each direction, and questioned what the average savings on travel time would be – saying that was not clear from the information provided by NZTA so far.

“You can’t build your way out of congestion, even the current transport minister has said that.

Chair of Wellington regional council’s public transport committee, Ros Connelly, said a bus rapid transit scheme through Wellington to the airport would save 11 minutes, and cost less money.

“Why on earth are you going to do this over other public transport projects that would deliver better time savings and cost a whole lot less money. Is it because this government loves roads at the expense of doing what is best for Wellington residents?”

A loud burst of applause came for city councillor Jonny Osborne, who said the proposals were “irresponsible” for dedicating billions to car travel.

“This project completely and utterly ignores the reality of climate change.”

Former city councillor Chris Calvi-Freeman was one of the few speakers to identify some advantages to widening routes near the airport.

“The regional benefits in terms of people being able to access the regional hospital and the airport, but there are also, at the other end of the scale, benefits for the people in the eastern suburbs, who want to escape the city – for whatever reason – or come into the city.”

Calvi-Freeman said it’s a matter of when, not if, a second Mount Vic tunnel goes ahead.

But Save the Basin co-convenor Iona Pannett said she’s “100 percent certain” the campaign would stop the project.

“I’m confident Wellingtonians are going to mobilise to stop this highway, and we’re going to mobilise around public transport, and walking and cycling.”

Pannett said the plan would cause disruption to residents and schools in the suburbs affected.

NZTA said it’d identified 176 properties it might need to buy, and another 146 properties where it might need to buy below-ground land, for the construction of the two tunnels.

It also said some town belt land might be affected by the proposal.

Friends of the Town Belt chairperson John Bishop said that concerned him.

“It’s a major facility of the city, it has been for 150-odd years … The citizens of Wellington have fought very hard to retain all the elements of the Town Belt and get it back to as pristine a condition as possible.”

Both NZTA and the Transport Minister Chris Bishop rejected criticism the consultation period was too short.

Bishop said in advance he would not attend the Greens’ political rally, saying he hoped people were using NZTA’s public consultation sessions to find out information and give feedback.

“There is a four-week consultation (closing Sunday, December 14) so the public can give feedback on the proposed design. There have also been many other consultations and feedback processes on this project over the past few years, and those have been incorporated.”

Bishop said he backed the project, and included that it would reduce congestion, travel times, create better walking and cycling links and speed up movement through Wellington city.

“This project has been talked about for decades, and I am pleased to see it finally coming to fruition under this government.

“It will cut peak travel times by up to 10 minutes, improve travel time reliability by 40 percent, deliver better walking and cycling links – including a new separated shared path through the Mt Victoria tunnel, and mean 20 percent less traffic on the Harbour Quays, enabling increased use of buses.”

Bishop has previously said there’s a good case for the investment in the project, which he said would bring strong benefits.

A spokesperson for NZTA said the agency was running a “thorough and wide-ranging” public engagement process, including several public information days around Wellington, as well as an online survey running from mid-November to 14 December.

About 500 people had attended one of the four information sessions held so far, the spokesperson said.

Two information sessions remained, one on Wednesday at All Saints Church Hall in Haitaitai, and one this Saturday at Mt Cook School Gym.

“Extensive engagement is also continuing with councils, iwi, landowners, and other key stakeholders.

“All of the feedback we receive will be taken into consideration and help to inform the next design phase of the project.”

The spokesperson said the transport proposals were “significant”, and could have “a major impact on Wellington’s transport infrastructure”.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Police have arrested a man in Invercargill after he fled when they tried to speak to him about a driving concern.

A chase was authorised at about 5pm, but abandoned after the man’s driving became dangerous.

Southland Area Commander Inspector Mike Bowman said police co-ordinated their response, and “allowed other units to get into place ahead of the vehicle”.

Those police laid spikes across State Highway 6, south of Winton, near its intersection with McKenzie Road, causing the car to crash into a water table shortly afterwards, he said.

“Thankfully the male suffered only minor injuries and two other people in the vehicle were uninjured.”

SH6 remains closed and diversions are in place while the Serious Crash Unit carries out an investigation.

Enquiries are ongoing and charges are being considered, police said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

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Source: Radio New Zealand

One person has serious injuries after a car crashed into a river off State Highway 2 near Whakatāne.

Police were called to White Pine Bush Road, Taneatua, at 6.05pm.

The highway, which goes over the one-lane Pekatahi Bridge, is blocked between Foster and Taneatua Roads and is likely to remain closed for several hours.

The Serious Crash Unit has been notified.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The government has not ruled out legal action, after a court ruling made defence veterans eligible for billions of dollars in further support.

The landmark High Court ruling backed a claim by the late Sir Wira Gardiner over his exposure to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.

The government is facing an extra $1.4 billion liability, according to the latest estimate.

Minister for Veterans Chris Penk was pushed at a parliamentary scrutiny hearing on Tuesday afternoon on whether the government wanted to reduce this.

“We’ve been considering as a government if, and if so what, we should respond in some way, which hypothetically at least could include a legislative response, but we need to understand clearly what the implication of the ruling was,” Penk said.

Labour MP Greg O’Connor asked Penk if the possibility of a legislative response was due to him having conversations with the Finance Minister about reducing the liability.

Penk said that any diligent minister had to keep other ministers briefed.

“There are a number of possibilities but I don’t want to preclude any of those or prejudge particularly what may prove in the real world than the actual analysis.”

The percentage of claims accepted by Veterans Affairs has risen from 75 to 98 percent – but only 13 percent of those eligible have made any claim.

Veterans’ whānau may also be eligible.

“‘There’s an awful lot of room in scheme for veterans to make more claims,” Veterans Affairs (VA) acting chief executive Alex Brunt told the committee.

A backlog of claims – which stood at 2000 mid-year – had now dropped to about 1600 people.

Penk said there was a lot of uncertainty about how many people might make a claim.

Brunt said there were implications from the court ruling, not just for VA, but for ACC and the public health system that also delivered services to veterans.

His agency’s advice to the minister was focused on how to support veterans.

“There is an element of what are the fiscal implications of that but the fiscal implications are not driving the advice in any way,” said Brunt.

“We’re interpreting the law as it stands and we have sufficient liability to cover claims that are made.”

The questions for the government were more about what support vets needed, and who should provide those and how.

O’Connor pushed to know if VA was involved in any legal work that could reduce the liability.

“That is one scenario of many,” Brunt responded, but he added the minister had not asked for advice about how to reduce the cost of the court case, but on its implications and how best to support vets.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

It once was lost, but now it’s found.

The parishioners of St Paul’s Church in Paihia are celebrating the mysterious return of a historic stolen candlestick, but they would dearly love to have the other one back as well.

Priest Chris Williams said the pair of solid brass candlesticks and a wooden cross were stolen from the altar in March 2022.

He said parishioners had always been hopeful they would some day be recovered, but it still came as a surprise when one was handed in to Paihia Library a few days ago.

The librarian was too busy at the time to get the person’s name, but he said he was part of the wider Williams family.

At the time of the theft the church was open day and night, Chris Williams said.

“We didn’t anticipate people would take things. It was something we’d never thought of, really. We thought people would respect the church and come in for silent prayer.”

The landmark building – known to many Paihia residents simply as the Stone Church – was now open only during the day in spring and summer, and security cameras had been installed inside and out.

The candlesticks were not just used during every service, they were also a tangible link to Paihia’s past and to the Williams’ family.

The recovered candlestick was engraved with a dedication to Percy Williams, Chris Williams’ grandfather and the priest at the time the church was consecrated in 1926.

Percy Williams was also the grandson of the pioneer missionary Henry Williams, to whom the church is dedicated.

The candlestick which remained missing was engraved ‘In Memoriam Eila Mabel Reed’.

Chris Williams said he hoped the person who kindly delivered the candlestick to Paihia Library would come forward, in case he knew the whereabouts of the other one.

If someone else had its twin, he hoped that person had “the conscience and the respect for sacred things” to ensure it was also returned.

“We would just be so grateful for the candlesticks to be together again. If that person wanted to be forgiven, then I would be very happy to forgive and forget.”

Chris Williams said he used the returned candlestick in his homily on Sunday, which, being Advent, was on the theme of hope.

“We had all hoped the candlesticks would come back. One has and now we hope that the second will come back. We have confidence that will happen because of the conscience of the person who has it. And also because our Lord looks over these things and mysterious things happen.”

St Paul’s Church, the fifth church on the Marsden Road site, is a Category I heritage building.

According to Heritage New Zealand, St Paul’s has the second-oldest hand-pumped organ in the country and a graveyard dating back to 1826.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested following an aggravated robbery of a Christchurch dairy.

Three people robbed the store on Opawa Road about 6.40am, during which the owner was stabbed and seriously injured.

The three fled in a car, taking the till and other items, according to police.

Christchurch District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill said that shortly before 4pm a 14-year-old boy was arrested at a Woolston address.

He faces serious charges and is due to appear in the Christchurch Youth Court on Wednesday.

“This morning’s attack on an innocent person is shocking, but I hope this arrest brings some comfort to our community,” Hill said.

“We know other people were involved in this incident and we need to hear from people in the community if they have information that could help us locate the offenders.”

Police are asking the public for information about a silver Toyota MarkX, with the registration number NRP221 which they say was used in the robbery.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The boss of a Southland RSA is not pulling his punches, after thieves stole burial plaques off soldiers’ graves at an Invercargill cemetery.

Police believe they were stolen from the St Johns Cemetery sometime between 28 October and 22 November.

The brass plates marked the graves of World War One and Two veterans, and those who served in the Korean War.

Awarua RSA president Ian Becker told Checkpoint he was gutted by the theft, which he said showed a complete lack of respect.

“All they’re interested in is getting their grubby little hands on some easy cash, but I think they might finding they’re now holding onto a wasp’s nest and somebody, somewhere, is going to tell us who it was.”

Becker said he had done a bit of digging since the plaques was stolen and had found out one of them belonged to “one of their own”.

“It belonged to Rose Hinchey, who was born in Bluff, her father was a mayor of Bluff, and she attended Bluff school.

“She trained as a nurse in Invercargill… and joined the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service from 1937 to 1949, serving during the Second World War. Then she was in the Queen Alexandra Royal Army nursing core 1949 to 1965 and served in Korea.”

Hinchey’s plaque was one of nine that has been stolen.

“I just feel gutted that some person just felt they had a bigger, a stronger need to take away somebody’s identity.

“She’s a real person and she’s one of ours.”

Becker said the brass plaques are issued by Veterans Affairs, and recorded the persons rank, regimental number and the conflict they were involved in.

“It’s the last official recognition that they gave up their youth for the service of their country.”

He said he had been in touch with Veterans Affairs to see if all nine plaques can be replaced.

Becker said the whole affair has made him both upset and angry.

“Why would you steal someone’s identity?”

He said he was aware of similar thefts that have occurred previously in other parts of the country, and believed the thieves were looking to make some money off the plaques.

Becker was now appealing to them to drop the plaques back.

“Anywhere, even if it’s a service station, a milk bar, just hand it back. It’s no good to you, It’s no good to anyone else. Give it back so we can reinstate the person, give them back their identity and give them back the ability to sleep peacefully.

Acting area prevention manager Inspector Mel Robertson said Invercargill Police were investigating the theft of a number of burial plaques from grave sites at St Johns Cemetery.

She said several of the stolen plaques were taken from the graves of Returned Service personnel who served in the First and Second World Wars, making this a particularly distressing crime for families and the wider community.

She urged anyone with information regarding the stolen plaques to contact Police via 105 and quote event number 251125/6603.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A hearing challenging extensive court orders that prevent media from publishing certain details related to the Tom Phillips investigation has concluded.

Phillips died after a shootout with police in the early hours of 8 September.

Justice Layne Harvey reserved his decision, following a two day hearing in the Hamilton High Court.

It comes after lawyer Linda Clark filed an urgent injunction on behalf of Tom Phillips’ mother, hours after Tom Phillips was shot.

The injunction prevented media, police and Oranga Tamariki from publishing certain details related to the case.

Media are only permitted to report the fact of the hearing and that it involves challenges to existing restrictions including those ordered by the Family Court.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Advanced tracking technology from the Netherlands to trace hornets back to their nests is set to be introduced by Biosecurity New Zealand in the next phase of the eradication project.

More than half of the 30 queen hornets found by Biosecurity New Zealand on Auckland’s North Shore showed evidence of having a nest.

But the Ministry of Primary Industries will soon be able to turn the pests’ insatiable desire to build nests against them.

North commissioner Mike Inglis said high tech tracking technology from the Netherlands has arrived after advice from international and domestic experts.

In the latest update on Tuesday, 19 of the 30 confirmed queen hornets were found with either developed nests or evidence of nesting while seven worker hornets were found in nests.

Inglis said the tracking strategy will focus on male worker hornets.

“What happens over the next sort of four to six weeks, if we’re starting to find males, we can put traps out which actually catches the male hornet.

“We then put this tracking technology on the hornet and what we can do is then follow it back to the nest. We then go to the nest and destroy it.

“It’s like a small tracking device with a small antenna on it, which can go onto the male hornet and again, we then trace that back at particular times of the day or night back to the nest.”

Inglis said the tracker had been extremely effective and successful in the United Kingdom.

He said the timing was also important, with the nest making behaviour of the hornets to change in the coming weeks.

Biosecurity NZ will also look to start using a bait poison called Vespex.

“The next stage will be this, as they start to develop the secondary nest, it will get slightly bigger and be found in higher trees.

“So it is important that we utilise this technology as well as part of that is putting out more protein traps and we will also use a product called Vespex in terms of protein bait.”

“That will also potentially, if the males pick that up, take it back to the nest, that will also destroy the inhabitants of the nest too.

“So it’s a mixed approach, we make sure that we’re belt and braces, so a bit of trapping, a bit of surveillance, the electronic sort of tagging of the hornets as well as doing the work that we’re doing all guided by that technical advisory group and scientific evidence.”

Spreading the message

Inglis said Biosecurity NZ has had an excellent response from the public, with nearly 4400 notifications received to date.

Tomorrow he will be speaking at a forum hosted by Tauranga Moana Biosecurity Capital (TMBC), bringing together national experts to discuss the ongoing yellow-legged hornet response.

Inglish said it was important to spread messaging not just within Auckland, but across the North Island.

“I’ve spent my time also in Northland speaking to Northland Council’s biosecurity team going into Tauranga.

“Just expanding that as we’ve been doing over the period. Again, we’ve been really pushing in terms of that message and out there. The website and the Facebook hits have been incredible.

“If you’ve got a photograph, then send it in to us and we’ll send our expert team. So it is important that we’re in this together, that members of the public, our beekeepers are all involved in terms of that active surveillance as we all together try and ensure that we eradicate this hornet.”

The Bay of Plenty group – which was launched in 2018 – aims at leading a co-ordinated community response to biosecurity risks and advocating for better biosecurity protections.

TMBC comms and event manager Natalie Rutene said the group played an important role in ensuring members and the wider community stayed informed about biosecurity risks like the yellow-legged hornet.

“As a neighbouring region to Auckland, we are closely following all information, guidance, and updates released by MPI regarding the yellow-legged hornet, and we continue to share relevant advice to support a coordinated, informed response.

“TMBC will host an online Partners Forum focused on this issue, providing an overview of the current operational response, discussion of potential impacts on apiculture, horticulture, communities, and wider industries, and guidance on how individuals and organisations can support early detection and rapid reporting.

“Attendees will also have the opportunity to ask questions and hear directly from leading experts,” said Rutene.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

• Man who defrauded $1.8 million of Covid-response funding jailed
• Fraudster says he wants to serve community as a priest
• First, he’ll serve two years and eight months behind bars
• Judge says offending a serious breach of trust

A former district health board employee who says he wanted to be priest is instead off to jail for fraudulently obtaining just more than $1.8 million of government Covid-19-response funding.

Alister Thorby said he gave some of the money to Māori wardens, but he also bought a property, vehicles, a motorhome and overseas travel.

The 28-year-old was arrested in July 2022 at Auckland Airport as he was about to leave New Zealand.

He said that was funded by a Lotto win, but his fraud was real as he double dipped on the taxpayer.

In the Palmerston North District Court today he was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail, as Judge Bruce Northwood declined defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC’s plea for a sentence of home detention.

Thorby had previously admitted and was convicted on one charge of obtaining by deception.

Invoices for made up companies

The offending happened between March and June 2022.

Thorby was employed by the Capital and Coast and Hutt Valley district health boards between October 2021 and June 2022 to provide services, such as security and logistics, at MIQ sites.

Among the invoices he submitted were false ones under his company Moutoa Māori Wardens for security he never provided.

He also submitted invoices under the names of two made-up companies, Te Awahou Cleaning and Horowhenua Motorhome Rental, again for work he did not provide.

When he was arrested, he was heading to Brisbane, and claimed to be travelling with district health board staff.

Judge Northwood said Thorby had a long history of community work, including with Māori wardens, and was well thought of.

He aspired to be a Rātana and Catholic priest and to service his community through the priesthood.

However, there were inconsistencies raised in Thorby’s pre-sentence report from probation, although Mansfield said the probation officer was working from an old version of the summary of facts.

“You said you understood that the dishonestly obtained money had been repaid, but this of course is contradicted by a reparation report from the Crown,” the judge told Thorby.

Judge Northwood made a reparation order for the full defrauded amount.

Mansfield said about half of that had been frozen so would soon be released back to Health New Zealand.

Archbishop pleads for slap on hand

Judge Northwood gave Thorby discounts on his sentence for his guilty plea, remorse, previous good character and prospects of rehabilitation.

The judge said he read through impressive references.

“I’ve read of an interesting and varied carer both in the aviation and other areas. Clearly you’re a man of skill. Clearly you’re well thought of … It seems to me you’re well placed to put this offending behind you,” the judge told Thorby.

Among those references was one from an arch bishop, who urged the judge to give Thorby a slap on the hand and not limit his potential.

However, Judge Northwood said during the Covid-19 pandemic there was chaos and the government built a system to quickly get funds into the community that relied on trust.

Thorby betrayed that and swiftly came up with a plan to make money.

Mansfield had said the money didn’t go on a lavish lifestyle, but Judge Northwood disagreed.

The judge also said there was no proof he’d given money to the Māori wardens.

‘A sad day’

Mansfield noted the support Thorby had in court, and his great promise. However, he was presented with an opportunity he had exploited.

“This is a very sad day for Mr Thorby,” Mansfield said.

“It’s a significant fall from grace from a young man who was seen and treated as a leader in the community.”

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