Climate Change Commission chief executive Jo Hendy.RNZ / Dom Thomas
Relying on trees to offset New Zealand’s emissions years into the future is putting “a significant number of eggs in one basket”, the Climate Change Commission chair has warned politicians.
New trees would need to be “in the ground” within a couple of years and could still be destroyed by forest fire or extreme weather events – wiping out their carbon savings.
Appearing before Parliament’s environment select committee on Monday, commission chief executive Jo Hendy was questioned about the “significant risks” the commission identified earlier this year when it came to meeting the country’s emissions budgets.
They establish the total net emissions the country can produce over a five-year period and still keep its domestic and international climate goals on track.
In its annual emissions monitoring report released earlier this year, the commission said there were risks to meeting the second budget (2026-30) and third budget (2031-35).
One of those risks was relying on forest removals of carbon dioxide to meet nearly half of the 2031-35 emissions budget.
Green Party climate change spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
In response to questioning from Green Party climate change spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick, Hendy said there were two main implications of that approach.
“The first implication is you need those forests in the ground quickly for that carbon to then start sequestering,” she said.
“The other is risks around things like fires and storms – you know, another Cyclone Gabrielle taking a big hit out of that forestry. Then you’ll be faced with a difficult situation where you might not be able to meet the budget.”
Researchers have started to warn that many of the natural carbon sinks that society relies on to soak up emissions are now sometimes releasing more carbon than they absorb.
Swarbrick asked Hendy if she could explain the commission’s remarks that “the reliance on forests for a large proportion of emissions reduction is likely to increase the long-term cost of meeting the 2050 target and increase impacts on future generations”.
That was because using forestry to offset emissions created less of an incentive for businesses and communities to limit the amount of greenhouse gases produced in the first place, Hendy said.
“As a result, we don’t get as much decarbonisation in the economy.
“When you don’t get as much decarbonisation in the economy – what we’re talking about is electrification of industry, for example – you are missing out on those economic benefits of reduced costs.”
The commission has long recommended that New Zealand “decarbonise where possible”.
“Relying heavily on forestry might help Aotearoa meet its 2050 emissions reduction targets but it would make maintaining net zero long-lived emissions beyond that date more difficult,” it told the previous government in 2021.
“It would delay people taking actions that reduce gross emissions, lead to higher cumulative emissions and push the burden of addressing gross emissions on to future generations.”
Tougher methane target was feasible, affordable, achievable
The committee also asked Hendy about the government’s decision to revise New Zealand’s 2050 methane emissions target.
In October, the government said it would scrap previous plans to introduce agricultural emissions pricing by 2030, and would pass legislation to lower the 2050 methane target from a 24-47 percent reduction from 2017 levels, to a 14-24 percent reduction, in line with a ‘no additional warming’ policy.
National MP Grant McCallum.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
National MP Grant McCallum, a Northland beef and dairy farmer, asked what the impact would be on the rural sector if the current target was retained, if there was no technology available to help farmers reduce their methane emissions.
“One of the key considerations when we do our scenario work for emissions budgets is impact on rural communities,” Hendy said.
“We found that it was a feasible and affordable and technically achievable, in our previous emissions budget advice at the end of last year.”
The upper end of the range could be achieved with new technologies, while the 24 percent low end of the range was based on technology that was already available, and changes to farming practices.
There was a “good pipeline” of methane-inhibiting technology, she said.
“The key point will be making sure that it can be deployed on farms.
“Not necessarily every tool will work on every farm. It’s really about making sure that farmers are enabled to work with the tools that work for them.”
McCallum asked Hendy and commission chair Dame Patsy Reddy twice about whether New Zealand should remain a signatory to the Paris Agreement.
“Does the commission have a view or has it given any consideration to the cause of some people who think we should pull out of the Paris Accord [sic]?”
Part of the commission’s mandate was based on the agreement, Dame Patsy said.
“It’s not our place to have a view.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has repeatedly said the government was committed to the Paris Agreement and New Zealand’s emissions targets, despite a push from coalition partner ACT to leave the pact.
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The battlelines have been drawn in Biosecurity New Zealand’s war against the yellow-legged hornet, but there’s some suggestion they should be widened before a population takes hold.
Currently, trapping has been extended out to a five kilometre radius around the concentration of the hornet detections in Auckland’s Glenfield and Birkdale, using a combination of carbohydrate and protein traps.
To date, there have been 29 confirmed queen hornets found (based on specimens), according to Biosecurity New Zealand.
The agency said 19 of the 29 confirmed queen hornets were found with either developed nests or evidence of nesting.
Additionally, seven worker hornets were found in nests.
Northland conservationist Brad Windust said authorities need to look at casting the net wider to 30km ahead of summer.
He said the coming months were pivotal for the goal of eradication and the prevention of the hornets spreading to other regions.
“We need to give out thousands of traps to people in a 30km radius with clear instructions and bait.
“It will only take two queens to fly outside the current 5km radius monitoring area they have at the moment and we would have lost it because each queen after she makes her nest drops hundreds of queens in the autumn and they can disperse up to 28km.
“We also want them to give out Vespa catch traps to all the beekeepers and orchardists in the North Island as a monitoring tool, because there’s a real chance that some of these hornets got moved while they were hibernating in the winter last year.”
Biosecurity New Zealand north commissioner Mike Inglis said the fact they were finding more hornets showed surveillance efforts were working.
He said they’d adjust their hornet response activities, including extending the trapping radius, where required based on their technical advisory group (TAG) advice alongside the input of our own experts.
“The 5km tapping radius was decided on based on advice from the TAG. It is a multi-prong scientific approach to trapping, as guided by our international experts with actual on-the-ground experience managing the pest. However, our public awareness push extends throughout the country.
“We have a national advertising campaign in the market urging the public to report suspected sightings. We are asking residents to check their properties for any hornets or nests and providing information where to look, including how to make and monitor your own trap.
“We are also working closely with the bee industry, including enhanced hive surveillance and we have produced a series of key documents for beekeepers around trapping, surveillance and reporting. All of that information is also available on our website.”
Inglis said on-the-ground surveillance was an important tool for detecting hornets and had been expanded since the beginning of the response.
“We have increased the number of traps by more than five times from the early numbers, to more than 600 and we are adding additional traps as more hornets are found. We are also doing property-by-property searches within 200 metres of confirmed finds. We’ve done more than 2200 property checks for hornets and nests and that number grows every day,” he said.
Inglis said genetic testing indicated the hornets were closely related, suggesting a small, contained population.
Victoria University entomologist Phil Lester said Biosecurity New Zealand were acting appropriately with their action around trapping and searching areas for ground nests.
“I think the ground teams that are working from MPI are doing a really good job. So clearly they’re finding this, they’re putting a lot of effort into it.
“They’ve increased the amount of people that are on the task and are doing well, but I think we probably need to have more people out there, more boots on the ground to be able to look for these hornets and get them while we can.”
Lester said authorities will need to change tact ahead of the summer months.
“Having traps out, having people looking for nests and workers is awesome.
“In addition, at that stage let’s do the hunting for nests up the top of trees and that sort of thing where they’ll be at that time. So the tipping point really comes at, well, we’ve got to spend, hopefully get them all this summer.”
Lester said it was difficult to know just how far the pests may have travelled since arriving in Auckland.
He said the 5km radius advice at the moment is based on international advice that Biosecurity have had.
“There’s lots of work overseas that is looking at how quickly does an invasion front move, so that work is where the 30km to 80km to 100km comes from and that’s where you’ve got a whole bunch of nests that are sending out new queens every autumn that are going some distance.
“We’re not in that situation. So we’re in a situation where we’ve probably got one nest that sent out some queens last autumn.
“So how far have they moved? That’s the big sort of question that is kind of unknown.”
He said even if authorities were unable to complete eradication this summer, it’s not too late.
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In October the Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) filed High Court proceedings against the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones over the set net ban, which it said failed to protect hoiho from the risk of extinction.
Jones announced in mid-September the set net fishery around the Otago Peninsula would close for three months, with public consultation on long-term bycatch measures to protect hoiho carried out during the closure period.
The three-month emergency closure extended the existing four nautical mile set net ban, which was in place to protect dolphins, out to eight nautical miles.
However, the extension only applied to waters surrounding the Otago Peninsula, leaving other key hoiho habitats unprotected, ELI argued.
Those habitats included North Otago and Stewart Island.
Monday’s judicial review at the High Court in Wellington came in the wake of a hoiho being caught near Stewart Island over the weekend.
David Bullock, representing the charity, said the nub of his case was that the minister was not told about limitations with the studies given to him by officials when considering the September ban.
Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Bullock made the argument officials could have told Jones that whilst they had focused on the Otago Peninsula, he may wish to consider a wider area due to a lack of data and given it was known the hoiho had been caught in other areas.
Justice David Boldt noted the government workers had to give their advice in a condensed time period and the minister made the decision when he did in September because it was the hoiho’s breeding season.
The crown was represented by Nicholai Anderson, who told the court that the ban was put in place in a hurry and was a temporary measure while a long-term solution was sorted out.
He said the modelling the minister did recieve was highly sophisticated and was limited only because it related to adult penguins and not juvenile birds.
The hearing continues.
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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, centre, with (clockwise from top right), former prime ministers Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins, Mike Moore, David Lange, Bill English and John Key. Many have faced leadership challenges or chose to resign and hand over to a successor.RNZ file images / 123rf
Explainer – ‘Tis the season for political speculation, as pundits attempt to predict the future of National and Labour party leaders.
What happens when political parties decide it’s time to launch a challenge against their leadership? As one expert describes, it can trigger a “Shakespearean” battle for power.
To be clear, there’s been absolutely no sign there will be a leadership change for National or Labour at this moment in time.
But persistent murmurs about Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s leadership have increased in recent weeks, with senior MP Chris Bishop having to deny he was plotting to roll Luxon, while the Sunday Star-Times on the weekend featured a story by national affairs editor Andrea Vance calling recent actions by Bishop a “failed coup”.
Chris Bishop, left, has dismissed rumours he sought Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s job.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
But does that all actually add up to a possible leadership challenge before next year’s election?
New Zealand history is filled with dramatic moments when confidence in a party leader has dropped and a leadership challenge is held. They’ve even happened to sitting prime ministers.
Here’s how leadership challenges tend to work.
Christopher Luxon was named National Party leader in late 2021.Supplied / National Party
How does a leadership change happen?
It’s as simple as a member of the party caucus calling for a no-confidence vote in its leader. If the party heads up the government, that could mean a change in prime minister if the vote succeeds.
For the National Party, it’s a straightforward majority rule vote by the party’s MPs.
“Formally, in the case of the National Party the decision rests with the caucus (which the party’s constitution refers to as the ‘Parliamentary Section’), which can move at any time to replace the leader (who must then be approved by the board),” Massey University professor of politics Richard Shaw said.
The Labour Party caucus also can directly vote for its new leaders, but if it doesn’t make a decision within seven days, it gets turned over to their electoral college – a combination of the caucus, party members and unions – to decide.
Prospective leaders must also get a two-thirds majority in the Labour caucus vote, or it’s also off to the electoral college.
The caucus room vote totals in leadership elections are generally not made public.
“Any member of caucus could go to a caucus meeting and in theory give notice that they’d like to move that the caucus has no confidence in a leader,” said Chris Eichbaum, adjunct professor at the School of Government at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington.
“If you were in a splendid isolation of one that wouldn’t last long,” however, he noted.
A successful leadership challenge is all about building up the votes.
This process can play out in the media – witness how many columns and hot takes have been published in the past few months speculating about the prospects of Chris Bishop, Education Minister Erica Stanford or Finance Minister Nicola Willis – but it also plays out behind the scenes at Parliament, said Eichbaum.
“It is incredibly Shakespearean – it is covert, it’s behind the scenes, there’s speculation, and then something will happen to turn speculation into substance. And if it’s a serious challenge, that’s where people start doing the numbers.
“It tends to be part of the choreography of it that once it becomes known that there is a move afoot to unseat then essentially it’s a matter of the candidates, the incumbent and the challenger sort of doing the votes.
“… One of his allies or it could even be one of the party whips, they may present the prime minister with a list saying: ‘Prime minister, you simply don’t have the votes.’”
Prime Minister Jim Bolger.AFP
Has a sitting prime minister ever been rolled?
Several New Zealand prime ministers have resigned after facing leadership challenges, although the last time it happened was nearly 30 years ago when Jenny Shipley mounted a challenge against the late Prime Minister Jim Bolger in 1997. Bolger resigned before a vote was taken, a tactic which has generally proven to be the case instead of prime ministers being forced out by a vote.
Other prime ministers in relatively recent times who stepped down include Sir Geoffrey Palmer, who resigned and was replaced by Mike Moore prior to the 1990 election, or David Lange who resigned in 1988 after unsuccessful challenges to his leadership.
Eichbaum worked in the Beehive as an executive assistant at the time that Sir Geoffrey faced a challenge by his Cabinet, and then went on to work as a senior advisor for Helen Clark.
“Palmer went about six weeks out from the 1990 election,” he said. “But the issue was never taken to the caucus – where he may well have enjoyed majority support – because essentially, reflecting polling that indicated some Cabinet members were at risk of losing their seats, he was told that he didn’t enjoy the confidence of his cabinet or sufficient of them. His erstwhile senior colleague Mike Moore made no secret of his willingness to assume the role.”
Mike Moore, Geoffrey Palmer and David Lange being sworn into cabinet, 1984. All three would become prime minister for a time.Supplied
And then there’s leaders who stood down after losing an election like Helen Clark, or resigned for other reasons like Sir John Key and Dame Jacinda Ardern.
“Clark stepped aside because she had lost an election, and Key and Ardern left because they had calculated that their parties stood a better chance of the next election without them,” Shaw said.
“A leadership change can occur for all sorts of reasons, some of which are internal to a political party and its sense of momentum and/or the need for a new sense of energy and direction.”
Luxon isn’t the only party leader who has been subject to leadership speculation.
Former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has remained Labour’s leader after losing the 2023 election and made no indication he plans to leave before next year’s election, although there has still been media speculation about what a change at the top might mean for Labour’s chances.
Of course, there have been heaps of leadership changes to parties outside government – the National Party went through a run of four leaders after Key resigned in 2016 until Luxon became leader in 2021, including Todd Muller’s mere 53 days at the helm, while Labour also went through four leaders between Clark and Ardern.
In Parliament on the day David Lange, left, stepped down as Prime Minister, with Geoffrey Palmer sitting beside him, 1989.National Library / Ray Pigney / Dominion Post
Do different parties have different rules?
There’s no overall guideline for leadership challenges in New Zealand politics, which are left to parties to set the rules.
For instance, the Green Party allows leadership challenges to be put forward by party delegates, such as a series of unsuccessful challenges in 2021 and 2022 to former co-leader James Shaw’s co-leadership.
The Labour Party has changed how it allows votes a few times, and from 2012 to 2021 it allowed party members, the caucus and unions to decide every leadership vote. That could result in clashing priorities, as with 2014’s leadership election, Eichbaum said.
“The most recent case involved Andrew Little and Grant Robertson, where the MPs’ preferred candidate was not the person that became the party leader.
“That was the case with Grant Robertson who was preferred by his caucus but because the broader party had basically a vote in the proceedings by dint of the arrangements they have, Andrew Little was able to come in over the top.”
Of course, facing grim polling, Little himself stepped down in 2017 just seven weeks before an election, and Deputy Leader Ardern went on to become New Zealand’s 40th prime minister.
Jacinda Ardern with Andrew Little.RNZ / Dom Thomas
What can trigger a leadership change? Is it just about the polls?
Parties can roll their leaders in disagreements over policy, and it’s been known to happen.
“Polling/public sentiment can, of course, be major drivers, but there have also been instances – and I think the 1996-1998 National/NZ First government was a case in point – in a party where a caucus and a cabinet will feel that a change is due regardless of the public’s views,” Shaw said.
But these days, a lot is still driven by how they’re doing in the polls. Blame the influence of American presidential-style politics and the increasing spotlight shown on leadership – polls now typically include preferred party vote side-by-side with preferred prime minister picks.
“It’s polling twinned with a presidentialisation of politics,” Eichbaum said. “Leadership has always been important, but it’s been elevated now.
“Because of the frequency of polling around leadership, the nature of the polling going into the attributes of the leader just becomes much, much more salient. There’s a machine out there and the raw material is what we think about a leader.”
Jacinda Ardern with Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson in 2021.
But polls still aren’t the only factor, Shaw said.
“While polling and public sentiment are clearly important, there are institutional filters – including the party organisation, caucus and cabinet – which mean that the line from opinion polls to a leadership change is neither straight nor straightforward.”
While being removed as leader could be seen as humiliating, Eichbaum said leaders often have a fair bit of leverage in the process.
“There’s an element of decorum and dignity quite often which is unusual in politics. At times, they say: ‘Okay, what’s in the best interest in the party in this situation?’
“He or she may well say ‘All right, I will resign, but I want these things to occur,’” he said.
Leaders could also be heavily involved in tapping their preferred successor, such as when Sir Bill English replaced Key.
How a prime minister manages their caucus – particularly if it’s large – also matters. Every vote counts in a leadership race, whether it’s a senior MP or an obscure back-bencher.
One of the roles of a prime minister is “basic HR,” Eichbaum said.
“A very, very good prime minister will make a point of staying very close to his or her caucus and also meeting with backbenchers on a regular basis.”
Luxon told reporters recently he had “no concerns” for those National MPs who could lose their jobs on current polling, explaining he was confident all its MPs would return after the election.
Still, fears for marginal seats or list MPs can also play a role in being rolled. “If you’re one of those (at-risk) MPs, how do you feel?” Eichbaum asked, describing the “creeping incremental insecurity” that has emerged to fuel previous challenges.
Prime Minister Jenny Shipley with Winston Peters.AFP
What happens if the government is a coalition and the leader is rolled?
The nature of a coalition requires cooperation. In the 1996-1998 National/NZ First government, the coalition crumbled in 1998 when Prime Minister Jenny Shipley sacked Winston Peters from cabinet. Peters and NZ First had gone into government with Bolger, who was rolled by Shipley. Only a small group of independent MPs held the government together until the 1999 election.
“The interesting thing about what happened with Bolger, and I think this raises issues in the current context, is how its coalition partner reacted to Bolger being rolled,” Shaw said. “I don’t recall there being a significant public outcry, but there certainly was a significant response from NZF.”
The current three-headed Coalition of NZ First, ACT and the National Party could also create issues if Luxon were replaced.
“Hypothetically, therefore, were the National Party to seriously entertain removing Luxon as party leader, the fact that he is also the prime minister gives the ACT and NZF parties some stake in the issue as well,” Shaw said.
“In other words, in cases of coalition government the issue of the party leader is necessarily an issue for the government’s constituent partners.
“Any destabilisation of a coalition government’s major player, it’s going to be of deep interest to the coalition’s minor players.”
The current coalition government consists of National, ACT and New Zealand First.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Don’t the public get any say in these things?
We elect our local electorate MPs and choose our preferred party when we vote, but the public doesn’t get to choose what might happen inside the Beehive after Election Day.
Still, how the public may react to leadership changes is key.
“The optics of these things are also important and that’s a consideration,” Eichbaum said.
For instance, Australia went through five prime ministers in 10 years in a series of leadership spills creating what was called “a decade of disposable prime ministers.”
“Is the party going to get a bump in the polls as a result of a person going? What’s it doing to the perception or the perception of the party as the kind of viable governing force if we are seen as a house divided against itself and we can’t hold on to a prime minister?”
And of course, there’s also this factoid – any time in the past 50 years or so that a prime minister has resigned mid-term, their party has gone on to lose the next general election.
Eichbaum said current talk about leadership challenges is largely fuelled by the media, but in the end, it really all comes down to what happens inside party caucuses.
“A very well-executed leadership spill of course – this is where Shakespeare comes back in – you know, you’re not going to see it coming.”
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Traffic experts have run their numbers and expect crowds of up to 20,000 a day, with a 40-minute crawl on the nearby motorway and another 40 to find a car park.
Ikea’s three-storey blue box consumes a whole block at Mt Wellington, with 544 carparks, close to 37 bike racks and 28 motorbike bays – for those not taking home the flat packs.
Just a few doors down, Cloud 777 Cafe manager Vicky John is expecting local roads to be a jam.
“I know it’s going to be hectic around this little area, it’s already crazy as it is. With Ikea opening it’s just going to create more traffic jams.”
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
She starts work at 5am and is worried traffic will be bad when she finishes mid-afternoon.
They’re already serving customers who work at Ikea, who describe the 34,000 square metre store as gigantic.
“It’s next level off the charts. A lot of the staff that are working in there are my customers, so the builders, the electricians are coming in and they’re already telling me it’s next level.”
A strip of retailers across the road from the new-comer are preparing to guard their customer carparks – Ikea’s carpark opens at 8.30am on Thursday, the store opens at 11am.
An extra carpark will be available to manage overflows in Ikea’s parking lot to accommodate another 400 vehicles nearby, on Carbine Road.
Ikea said it’s not possible to camp in their carpark and anyone attempting an overnighter will be moved on.
Computer Lounge sales director Alex van der Linde said he’ll be leaving home at least an hour earlier than usual to try to beat traffic.
“We’re all prepared to be coming in early and just accounting for the additional traffic, I anticipate that the majority of Carbine Road is going to be on gridlock for most of the day.”
Supplied/IKEA
He said they hope to get a boost in business from Ikea customers.
“We expect that we’ll have a lot more eyes on our business as people are driving past, even though they’re obviously going to Ikea. We’re doing what we can to expose ourselves a little bit more to the street, working on signage, that sort of thing.”
Next door, Rock Shop branch manager Michael Greenwood said he’ll still drive to work.
“I’ll be allowing myself quite a bit of extra time to get to work, especially in the first week of it opening when there will be a lot of people wanting to go have a look, everybody at the same time.
“In terms of how it will effect our business, we don’t really know. It may impact us for a period of time but it will also, in the longer term, benefit us.”
Auckland Transport’s operations centre will be a hive of activity when Ikea opens and manager Claire Howard said anyone heading to Ikea’s opening should expect delays.
“Around that Mt Wellington area it is already a very busy area. We’ve been planning for a large amount of congestion and traffic delays around that Mt Wellington Highway, and around Ikea especially where people are coming into the car parking and coming out.”
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The motorway interchange at Mt Wellington will be a pinch point.
“Worst case scenario we’re looking at potentially 40 minutes to get off the motorway… and people could spend up to an hour trying to get parking.”
She said they’ve learned from Costco’s opening – and expect Saturdays to be busiest.
Even though she’s a few doors down, John said she won’t be going near Ikea this week.
“It’s just going to be too crazy and being a Thursday, one of our busiest days, and with that opening next door to me there’s just no way we’re going to go.”
Auckland Transport is encouraging people to bus or train to Ikea to avoid traffic delays.
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Australia led 23-21 after the first quarter and remained ahead by two at half-time.
Sam Mennenga then took control of the third period and helped the home side to a 62-57 at three-quarter time.
Both sides then traded blows in the final quarter and New Zealand led by one until Hickey’s final shot stole the game for the visitors.
“Very proud of the efforts of our guys. We had our chances, we know that it actually took a shot at the buzzer to beat us,” Flavell said afterwards.
Australia won the opening game 84-79 in Hobart on Friday.
Tall Blacks captain Finn Delany was also proud of his side’s efforts.
“I felt like we did enough to put ourselves in a position to win, but yeah, just couldn’t get over the line.”
“Extremely proud of the group. I think we got a lot of growth in and very short amount of time and pushing the programme forward and it’s bigger picture stuff. But on that side I’m extremely proud of Judd and the management and the boys that chose to be here.”
Tall Blacks after loss to Australia, Wellington, 2025.Marty Melville / PHOTOSPORT
Mennenga finished with 16 points and six rebounds.
The team’s focus will soon shift to February window where the team will travel to the Philippines and Guam for their next round of qualifying.
“As we start to build, and it hurts now, but these experiences will help us grow,” Flavell said.
“Our goal is to try to keep as many guys connected as possible as we look forward to the Philippines who we know very well and are going to be a tough outfit.
“There’s so much growth and development left as a team, so it’s exciting for the Tall Blacks in the future and what that looks like.”
The Philippines had two big wins over Guam in their opening games.
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But at the agency’s annual review before Parliament’s Education and Workforce Select Committee, outgoing chief executive, Jane Lee, said in September there were 427 students across eight schools.
“We have schools that have a range of in-between 30 right through to over 100 students and what we see, because we do collect attendance and enrolment data, what we can see is a trajectory of increased rolls,” she said.
Lee said most of the schools would reach the number of students agreed in their contracts.
“At the end of this year most of those schools, if not all, will be at their establishment rolls.”
Lee appeared before the committee on her final day of work as the agency’s establishment CEO.
She said information about students’ achievement and attendance would be published in May next year.
“We have collected interim data and what we can see from that interim data is that most students have made sufficient rates of progress and in some cases accelerated rates of progress,” Lee said.
Earlier, Lee indicated there was nothing to stop a repeat of the situation faced recently by Kelston Boys High.
Lee said applications for conversion had to demonstrate to the Charter School Authorisation Board that they had community support.
“During that application process, Kelston could demonstrate that they had support from parts of their community, which the authorisation board took into account,” she said.
“The next part of that process… was to undertake their own consultation process and that is one of the stop measures to ensure there is full community backing. If there isn’t full community backing it is very unlikely that the authorisation board would approve the applicant to come to contracting.”
“When the authorisation board approved the sponsor for contracting there was an error through the contracting process where the trust changed its name so it was an administrative error,” she said.
“Therefore we contracted with an entity that did not exist because they had changed their name part-way through.”
Lee said the agency had since introduced “further robust processes” to ensure the contracting sponsor was the sponsor all the way through the contract process.
Agency staff told the committee the schools’ sponsors received $10.9 million in 2024/25 including $6.3m in one-off establishment funding, and $4.6m in operational funding.
It said much of the operational funding was based on the schools’ “establishment roll”, which was the number of students they expected to have after five school terms of operation.
The agency said charter schools were given just a year to set themselves up, whereas some state schools were funded for establishment for three years.
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New Zealand Nurses Organisation strike on 28 November.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Health NZ has accused nurses of failing to honour their commitment to provide so-called “life preserving services” during a partial strike.
However, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation is blaming Health NZ for rejecting a plan for dedicated on-call staff to cover gaps during their two weeks of “working to rule”.
For the last two weeks, 37,500 thousand nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants employed by Health NZ have been refusing to do extra hours or to be redeployed to other areas.
Whangārei Hospital nurse Rachel Thorn, a union delegate, said before the strike, nurses offered to have a pool of on-call staff available in each region to deliver life-preserving services if required.
That included urgent diagnostic procedures, crisis interventions or treatments.
Instead Health NZ opted for an “emergency plan”, which meant that if all other options had been exhausted, managers had to call a union rep, who would then ask members to volunteer.
“So it was a very sketchy, and I would say pretty dangerous, plan which obviously didn’t work as well as they hoped in some areas, and to be honest, that’s their responsibility.”
It was hard to say why Health NZ had decided not to take up the union offer, Thorn said.
“I can only conclude it was to do with budget, because they would have had to pay people to be on-call. But it wasn’t much, we’re talking $8 a hour.
“They believe – or at least they choose say – that there are enough nurses in the system and we know there aren’t.
“There are so many gaps being plugged by nurses doing ‘goodwill shifts’ to support colleagues and keep patients safe.”
Health NZ manager Robyn Shearer said the agency respected union members’ right to take lawful strike action, “but any refusal to undertake life preserving services creates serious patient-safety risks”.
“We did not support union’s request of having a dedicated pool of members for life preserving services as there is no way to predict staff skills needed for life-preserving services, and the nature of the partial strike action meant that all staff would be on site and available to deliver care.”
“A dedicated pool would also reduce the number of staff available to care for patients and require the cancellation of all elective surgery and outpatient appointments for each shift for a two-week period.”
Because Health NZ and the union were unable to reach agreement, they took the “unprecedented” move of asking the chief medical officers to adjudicate the arrangements for life-preserving services in each district.
Health NZ had also raised concerns with the union about “an unusually high number of staff taking sick leave in some districts”, Shearer said.
Thorn claimed management’s entire plan for the strike relied on the goodwill of nurses – “or business as usual”.
“I would say the sick call increase is nurses feeling exhausted and burned out, and the emergency plan didn’t work out how Health NZ wanted it to. But that’s because they refused to negotiate with us about a safe plan.”
It was “a bit rich” of Health NZ to complain about nurses refusing to plug the holes in its roster during the strike, she said.
“Funnily enough, that’s what the strike was about: to highlight the gaps and not fill them so that Health NZ could actually see where those gaps are. And it’s certainly highlighted the chronic short-staffing.”
In Northland, those gaps were particularly evident in the rural hospitals, the orthopaedic ward, the emergency department, surgery and post-operative care, as well as the neonatal ward, she said.
Health NZ “abusing” nurses’ goodwill – union
Nurses organisation industrial adviser David Wait said the adjudication laid out how Health NZ could request life-preserving services – but it did not trump the right to strike.
“And they knew beforehand that they couldn’t compel members to do that. So they were really abusing the goodwill of nurses by putting in life-preserving services request that undermined the right to strike.”
Wait said Health NZ management had also tried to require nurses calling in sick for one day to produce a medical certificate, which the union overturned.
Meanwhile, the contract dispute drags on, with no more dates for talks set currently.
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The consequences of chronic methamphetamine use are already visible in hospital wards, and it’s about to get worse, an emergency department doctor says.
Dr Paul Quigley told a symposium on reducing drug harm on Monday the country was facing an impending health crisis on par with smoking-related lung disease.
“We are seeing the chronic effects of drug use, that’s often in terms of mental health – so people developing ongoing forms of schizophrenia – [but] we are now seeing the hard effects of long-term methamphetamine use.
“We’re seeing people with cardiomyopathies, heart failure.” Dr Paul Quigley.
RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Quigley told RNZ methamphetamine was particularly “cardio-toxic”, affecting the heart in two key ways through accelerated ageing and exhaustion.
He said the ageing heart meant heart disease was showing up 10 to 15 years earlier than expected.
“So we’re seeing people in their mid-40s who are regular methamphetamine users having heart attacks as if they’d be in their 60s.”
He said meth also increased people’s heart rate and blood pressure, and sustained use literally “exhausts the heart” resulting in cardiomyopathy (a type of heart failure) and in extreme cases, heart transplants.
Quigley said those most at risk of heart disease weren’t “your weekend warriors”, but almost daily methamphetamine users who’d been using for more than a decade.
He said data showed acute meth use in New Zealand was on the rise and the major concern was the impending burden on the healthcare system and society – a cost already seen in countries where meth use was high.
befunky.com
“You should look at this like smoking. People smoked in the 40s and 50s … then later we had this terrible burden of lung disease from the effects of smoking. And it’s going to be the same.
“If we have increased meth use now, we should be looking at, ‘Well, what’s going to happen in 10 to 15 years time?’
“We’re going to have this much larger population of patients with these heart conditions … and it’s affecting parts of our society that are already struggling.”
The Reducing Drug Harm in Aotearoa Symposium – hosted by the Public Health and Forensic Science Institute – featured a range of experts from the frontline of festival drug checking and wastewater analysis, to the police’s drug intelligence office and international experts on early warning systems for new and harmful drugs.
National Drug Intelligence Bureau analyst Kylie Collins spoke to current and emerging drug trends in New Zealand, highlighting a spike in meth consumption in July 2024 that almost doubled methamphetamine use nationally – and has continued.
Collins said the vast majority of New Zealand’s supply came from overseas and the increased use had coincided with a drop in price for the drug.
She said alongside increasing seizures of the drug, meth-related hospitalisations had also been on the rise.
“However, many hospitalisations stem from chronic or very heavy use. So with the recent increases in meth consumption we expect to see even bigger increases in hospitalisations in years to come.”
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On the morning of his final NCEA exams, while most students flick straight to page one and start scribbling, Year 13 Hutt Valley High School student Toby Ireland begins by feeling the test.
His right hand hovers over rows of tiny raised dots; his left flies across a compact keyboard-like device. It’s a rhythm he’ll maintain for six hours —three for accounting, three for statistics — reading each question in Braille and typing his answers into a word processor and spreadsheet. When asked to ‘draw’ diagrams, he uses Braille Lego to create tactile versions, which are photographed and added to his answer sheet.
Every printed page of questions usually becomes three in Braille. Fixing a mistake or going back to check an answer means retracing every line on his device.
Toby Ireland can use Braille Lego to create tactile versions of diagrams.
The price of Bitcoin has fallen significantly after a volatile year.CFOTO / NurPhoto via AFP
Falls in Bitcoin’s value are typical of the cryptocurrency’s high levels of volatility, experts say, but having a proponent in the White House is likely to put a floor under its price.
In mid-October it hit a record of more than NZ$214,000 but it has dropped sharply since then, back to levels last seen in April. Prices are now about 7 percent lower year-on-year and down 20 percent in a month.
“It’s been a pretty bouncy road this year for Bitcoin, post Trump coming in,” Rupert Carlyon, founder of Koura KiwiSaver said. Koura offers a crypto fund.
“Twelve months ago, Trump came in, it all got quite frothy and then it kept on building.
“This time, with all the nervousness in the last couple of weeks around, is the US Fed actually going to continue with the cutting cycle, is AI massively overblown, is the tech sector overblown? … When the stock market has a sneeze Bitcoin catches pneumonia and that’s a bit what we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks.
“Is it existential? No. Is this very similar to what we’ve seen repeatedly over the last couple of years? Yes. Why would this time be different? There’s nothing that I can see which says this is going to be different.”
He said liquidity could be a risk to the cryptocurrency.
“The big thing with Bitcoin now is the liquidity trade. What that means is how much spare money is sloshing around.
“And I think with the combination of the US shutdown, with some concerns around the direction of where the US Fed are likely to go and how easy they’re going to make money through conditions, probably the big risk factor is does liquidity dry up? But that goes counter to absolutely everything that Donald Trump wants to do. And he’s going to bully his way, I think, to get the opposite impact. So that’s why I remain confident.”
Trump has been a supporter of cryptocurrencies since he took office again.
“From a markets perspective, I remain confident that Donald Trump will do everything in his power to boost global, to boost financial markets, whether that be the stock market, whether that be Bitcoin. He’s got a real desire and he sees that the financial markets are a true kind of judgement on his presidency. And that gives me confidence that the White House will continue to step in as and when necessary.”
Experts say having a Bitcoin proponent in the White House is likely to put a floor under its price.AFP / Jim Watson
Muhammad Cheema, a senior lecturer in finance at Otago University, said Bitcoin was originally promoted as a safe haven asset but had never behaved like one.
“In fact, Bitcoin has proven to be even riskier than the stock market. For instance, in one of my papers … we find that ‘Bitcoin moves in tandem with stock market losses and does not serve as a safe haven during Covid’. During the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bitcoin lost almost 46 percent of its value on a single day – March 12, 2020, while the S&P 500 fell by about 10 percent on that day. This clearly shows that Bitcoin is an extremely risky and speculative asset.
“Like most speculative assets, Bitcoin’s price is driven primarily by investor sentiment. Traditional assets such as equities have fundamental value because they represent ownership in firms that generate income. Bitcoin, by contrast, has no underlying cash flow; its value depends almost entirely on market perception. Many investors implicitly rely on the greater fool theory – the belief that an asset can be sold at a higher price to someone else. Investor sentiment is currently weak due to economic uncertainty, geopolitical risks, trade tensions, and broader market volatility.”
Alex Sims, a professor in the University of Auckland law school, said Bitcoin’s price was still up significantly over a longer period.
“The current price is actually just under what it was a year ago. But in the past 12 months it fell, then rose and now has fallen again. However, Bitcoin is significantly higher than it was two years ago. These price movements are typical of Bitcoin.”
Single women are turning to reverse mortgages as a way to get more cash flow in retirement.UnSplash/ Cade Martin
Single women are turning to reverse mortgages as a way to get more cash flow in retirement – and some commentators say it may sometimes be because the adjustment to a “single” pension rate is too tough.
Professor Graham Squires from Lincoln University has conducted research on reverse mortgages in New Zealand.
“This research has not been conducted in New Zealand before, and it is timely given the trajectory of our ageing population and the financial pressures retirees face,” he said.
He said while reverse mortgages were relatively niche, only offered by Heartland Bank and Southland Building Society, they could become more common.
“Reverse mortgages can be useful, but they come with sensitivities around debt and intergenerational wealth,” he said. “If someone remortgages their house later in life, this can affect the level of debt a person holds, potentially passing it on to their children. Our research aimed to provide an objective understanding of how these loans are actually used.”
He said the average amount borrowed was just under $50,000 and 95 percent were voluntarily repaid before the borrower died.
The typical applicant was a 72-year-old single woman.
He said New Zealanders appeared more cautious than Australians, who often borrowd up to the maximum permitted amount.
“Here in New Zealand, the market is highly regulated to help protect financially vulnerable people – those who are struggling financially and repayments may be difficult to make. I believe this research shows that New Zealanders are sensible by not taking out large loans in their retirement years, and that appropriate safeguards are in place. What is vital in the future is the need for people to be financially literate, so they understand what financial options are available to them and what the most appropriate might be.”
Ralph Stewart, whose business Lifetime Retirement Income offers Lifetime Home, a different model that allows people to sell a stake in their house in return for ongoing income, said his clients were also commonly single females.
“They’re sort of left alone in the household by themselves with the house with maybe 20 years to run.”
People who were widowed or separated would find their pension dropped from the married rate of $828 a fortnight each to the single rate of $1076.
“The amount of discount to NZ Super is not proportionate to your expenses,” he said.
Claire Matthews, a banking expert at Massey University agreed being widowed could be a catalyst for people to look at other options.
“It would make it more challenging to remain in the family home. But that should also affect widowed men, although the gender difference would reflect the higher rate of women being widowed. However, I wonder to what extent it also reflects the known gender gap in retirement savings – if women have lower levels of savings, they may have a greater need to access the equity in their home.”
Liz Kohm, founder of Enrich Retirement, said New Zealanders had a conservative approach to reverse mortgages.
“Perhaps too conservative. Current retirees are part of a generation who believe that it is not good to take on debt, especially in retirement.
“This is despite the fact that the debt does not have to be repaid during their lifetime. It would be interesting to know the reasons why the mortgages are voluntarily repaid before death. Possible reasons include selling the home to move into a retirement village – where reverse mortgages are not permitted or family members repaying the debt to avoid erosion of their inheritance. In my view there is scope for retirees in New Zealand to be more relaxed about reverse mortgages and to take better advantage of the opportunity to improve their standard of living. There is a balance to be struck between spending money/wealth on oneself versus leaving more money/wealth behind for family members to spend.
“My observation is it is mostly people who have separated or divorced. Women usually end up worse off than men after a relationship breakdown – probably due to lower earning power and also psychological issues.”
The Leopard family decided to take time out to go on a 15-month camping trip in 2021.
But the allure of life on the road was such they’re still going strong, travelling the country towing an off-grid caravan.
Mike and Sophie Leopard and their three children, Jade, 13, Riley, 12, and Toby, 10, were living the “good life” in Rotorua when the plan came to fruition, Mike Leopard told RNZ’s Nine to Noon.
The Leopard family’s off-grid caravan.
Mike Leopard
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
A coroner has found the death of a driver who crashed into a school bus could have been prevented had he not driven while tired.
Scania Rangi Te Whare, 27, had driven from his home in Te Kuiti on 31 October 2022, leaving about 7.30pm to start his night shift at BidFood in Hamilton.
He typically worked night shifts from 9pm to 7am.
The coroner noted Te Whare would sometimes sleep in his car or at a friend’s house rather than driving home.
As he drove home about 7.30am the next day, Te Whare crossed the centre line of the road and hit a school bus travelling in the opposite direction.
Te Whare died at the scene, while the bus driver suffered minor injuries.
None of the students on board the bus were injured.
A post-mortem detailed the injuries Te Whare suffered in the crash, including a severe head injury, a ruptured aorta and lacerated lungs.
Coroner Rachael Schmidt-McCleave found his death could have been prevented had he not been driving in a likely fatigued state.
Te Whare had been putting in large amount of overtime at work in the weeks before his death.
Coroner Schmidt-McCleave made a number of recommendations after his death.
She wanted the public to take heed of advice from the NZTA around driving with fatigue.
“The NZTA advises that fatigue does not just mean falling asleep at the wheel,” she said.
“That is an extreme form of fatigue. Fatigue can also mean tiredness, weariness or exhaustion and a driver can be fatigued enough for it to impair driving long before the driver ‘nods off’ at the wheel.”
Being tired at the wheel could cause a driver to drift in and out of sleep without knowing it, called microsleep, the Coroner said.
“These naps can last between three and five seconds and are the main cause of fatigue-related crashes where the driver runs off the road.”
Coroner Schmidt-McCleave said lifestyle changes should be considered to make sure drivers get enough sleep.
“Measures such as drinking caffeine, getting out of the vehicle to stretch legs, opening the window or turning up the radio volume do not work and will refresh a driver only for a short while,” she said.
“Once fatigue has set in, no amount of willpower will keep a driver awake. The only answer is sleep and the driver should stop for a short nap or seek assistance to get home.”
NZTA said drivers should prepare properly before driving, and plan where to take a safe break, Schmidt-McCleave said.
A short nap of no more than 15 to 30 minutes could also help, she said.
“Not being tempted to keep driving when tired just because a destination is close.
“Many tiredness-related collisions occur close to home because the driver has relaxed, and the body takes this as a signal that it is ok to fall asleep.”
The Coroner noted shift workers were a recognised category of drivers more likely to suffer from driver fatigue, because they were more likely to have their sleep patterns disrupted.
NZTA’s warning signs for fatigue
Beginning to blink
Not being able to stop yawning
Having trouble keeping head up
Eyes closing for a moment or going out of focus
Having wandering, disconnected thoughts
Not remembering driving the last few kilometres
Missing a gear
Missing a road sign or exit
Slowing unintentionally
Braking too late
Drifting over the centre line or onto the other side of the road
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Track and field star Anna Grimaldi celebrates after winning bronze in the women’s 100m T47 final at the 2024 Paralympics.GETTY IMAGES
New Zealand’s Olympic and Paralympic movements could be on the brink of a historic shift, with the two organising bodies formally exploring the possibility of becoming a single organisation.
The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) and Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ) have launched a “Synergy Review” – a feasibility project that could pave the way for a merger and a new era of inclusive representation in elite sport.
The review is being led by organisational strategy specialist Susan Strawbridge, with oversight from a governance group that includes delegates from both boards and executives, and Sport NZ.
Representatives from the NZOC and PNZ declined to be interviewed about the review while it was still in the early stages, but in a joint statement said the decision to explore a merger was based on increasingly close cooperation and a growing sense that a more formal alliance could amplify their collective impact.
“NZOC and PNZ share a common purpose of supporting athletes and inspiring Aotearoa New Zealand through sport. We already work closely together, and this process is about exploring if there is an opportunity to build on that strong foundation to improve the possible impact for athletes and the sector,” the statement said.
While speculation about a merger had been bubbling within the sector, officials stressed that nothing had been decided.
“There is no pre-determined outcome,” the statement said. “It is a proactive step to explore potential opportunities to create greater impact, guided by each organisation’s kaupapa and strategic plans.”
The early phase of the project has involved consultation with staff of each of the organisations, national sporting bodies, athletes’ commissions, and major sector stakeholders. Their feedback would now be weighed by both boards over the coming weeks.
The statement said any final decision would be made jointly by both boards, and only if they agreed it was in the best interests of athletes and the sporting community.
The review would also likely consider optics. While the NZOC and PNZ operated as separate entities, many New Zealanders assumed the Olympic and Paralympic teams fell under the same organisation.
That confusion had often led to criticism of the NZOC and its partners during Paralympic campaigns, with the public mistakenly believing the Olympic body was failing to support disabled athletes. A unified structure could reduce that friction and present a clearer message about how athletes were funded and supported.
Internationally, Olympic and Paralympic structures varied widely. Most countries maintained separate bodies, but several – including Team USA, one of the largest and most influential teams in world sport – operated under a single organisational umbrella.
A number of other nations were currently weighing similar options, although NZOC and PNZ noted that national context was always the deciding factor.
It is not yet known if any merger would result in job losses. The NZOC is the larger, more well-resourced of the two organisations, with more than 30 fulltime employees and an annual turnover of nearly $23 million, according to its 2024 annual report.
PNZ’s total revenue for 2024 was $5.4 million.
Should the two organisations elect to join forces, it was likely a formal merger would not take place until after the LA 2028 Olympic cycle due to existing broadcast and commercial arrangements.
Last month Sky announced a long-term partnership with the International Olympic Committee for the broadcast rights to the Olympic Games from next year’s Winter Olympics through to Brisbane 2032.
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The Helen Clark Foundation is calling for better laws to protect victims of sexual violence in New Zealand, labelling current practices “inadequate”.
A report released today by the foundation has highlighted four areas that it says will create “practical, meaningful and lasting change”.
In a press release, the Helen Clark Foundation said Ministry of Justice figures show sexual violence was one of the most “pervasive and damaging” forms of offending in the country – with 24 percent of adults reporting they had experienced it in their lifetime.
It said about 209,000 sexual assaults happen every year and affect 82,000 victims.
Just 10 percent of those assaults are reported to police and children, young people, Māori, sexual and gender minorities, and disabled people are disproportionately affected, it continued.
Former New Zealand prime minister and foundation patron Helen Clark said research showed New Zealand’s laws and practices remain “inadequate” despite many governments attempting to tackle the issue.
Former New Zealand prime minister and foundation patron Helen Clark.RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
“Sexual violence, in its many forms, causes deep harm, not only to individual survivors, but also to whānau, communities, and society as a whole,” Clark said.
“New Zealand will never have a fair, inclusive society while so many New Zealanders, especially women, are subject to sexual violence.
“Our research identifies several important gaps in New Zealand law that we must close to increase access to justice for victims and reduce offending. We owe it to the nearly one in four New Zealand adults who have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime to take action.”
The areas for change identified in the report Addressing Sexual Violence in New Zealand are:
Closing the gaps in the justice system to reduce underreporting of sexual violence and increase the number of cases continuing to resolution
Updating the definition of consent in law to an affirmative ‘yes means yes’ consent model
Addressing the harm caused by sexually-explicit deepfakes
Eradicating the practice of ‘virginity testing’ in New Zealand
The foundation said these changes could be made within existing law or would have potential for support from multiple parties for changes in the law.
Closing the gaps
The foundation recommended the increased reporting of sexual violence and reducing the number of cases that don’t continue to prosecution, trial or verdict.
The press release said the report made a number of suggestions for making it easier to report sexual crimes to police and provide necessary information and support to survivors.
Only ‘yes’ should mean yes
The press release said current laws only allows for assumed consent in some cases and didn’t define consent.
“Today’s report recommends adopting an affirmative consent model in law, to define when sexual consent is or is not given, in line with today’s modern society.”
Ban deepfake abuse
“The foundation recommends the adoption, with a small modification, of the Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill (2025), which modifies the Crimes Act and the Harmful Digital Communications Act to include AI-generated imagery in the definition of ‘intimate visual recording’.”
Eradicate ‘virgin testing’
The press release said ‘virgin testing’ determines whether a woman or girl has had sex.
“Despite being inaccurate and harmful, it continues to be practiced throughout the world and is likely occurring in New Zealand. Today’s report calls for the New Zealand government to eradicate the discriminatory and inhumane practice.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Auckland’s mayor has hit out at the government’s rates cap, saying the strategy “won’t work” .
The government is setting a target range of 2 to 4 percent increases – with councils having to appeal to a regulator if they want to go higher.
The cap would take effect from 1 January 2027.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown took aim at the policy.
“How else does the government think we’re going to pay for what Auckland needs and for things like the City Rail Link – which were the result of decisions made by previous governments and councils?
“Councils are faced with making decisions that involve significant investment and should not be restricted by government telling us what we can and can’t do,” Brown said.
He said imposing a rates cap on councils ignored the insight local government had on their own budgets and infrastructure needs.
“I’m an advocate for getting value for money for Aucklanders. That means knowing the problem we’re fixing before we fix it. Putting a cap on rates isn’t going to solve anything. It will just defer it for a couple of years then ratepayers will be paying even more,” Brown said.
The mayor’s criticism came on the back of his proposal for the 2026/2027 Annual Plan, which included a 7.9 percent residential rates increase, calculated primarily, Brown said, to fund the operation of the city’s new City Rail Link (CRL).
“The main reason rates will go up next year is because we have to pay for the City Rail Link – a project the government is jointly responsible for. If they want a rates cap, we’ll end up with a CRL with no trains or drivers,” Brown said.
He said the cap would inhibit council’s ability to adjust rates in response the tri-annual property revaluations.
“A better solution is for government to provide us with the ability to transition in rates increases or decreases resulting from rating valuation.
“Or perhaps the government could start paying rates on their own properties,” Brown said.
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The School Lunch Collective told RNZ it was investigating a “food quality issue” after mouldy mince was served up to students at Haeata Community Campus on Monday.
The Collective represents Compass Group, who were contracted to provide government-funded lunches for the Christchurch school.
The school, which had students from Years 1 to 13, said a teacher noticed Monday’s lunch was off after they had been distributed to a number of children.
Parent Kalah Balir said her 12-year-old daughter ate half of the meal before realising it was bad.
“She said I was hungry, so I got through half of it, and it was yuck, so I threw it away.
“I’m angry, I’m disgusted, it’s just sick that was served to children. It’s dangerous.
“I don’t hold any fault with the school, as soon as they were alerted to the problem, they did try to fix it, of course, but the meals are sealed for safety reasons.
“The government just needs to do better, our kids do not deserve this.”
Rebecca McKenzie’s daughter also stopped eating the meal because it “tasted disgusting”.
“I was annoyed, disgusted, and disappointed that this could happen to our kids,” she said.
“I have four kids at home, two of them go to Haeata. We as a family rely on those school lunches, but I’m actually very hesitant about letting them eat them from now on.”
“A lot of parents rely on school meals to help them out, because rent is sky-high, food is sky-high. To have this happen is like a kick in the teeth, really.”
She said the lunches had overall been a let-down this year, but Monday’s had been the worst yet.
“They’re not very nice at all. Some of them I wouldn’t even give to my dog.”
Both parents said their children did not feel sick after eating the meal, but they were watching for food poisoning symptoms.
The Coroner has found the death of a driver who crashed into school bus could have been prevented had he not driven while tired.
Scania Rangi Te Whare, 27, was driving from his home in Te Kuiti on Halloween 2022. He had left home at about 7.30pm to start his night shift at BidFood in Hamilton.
He typically worked night shifts from 9pm to 7am.
The Coroner noted Te Whare would sometimes sleep in his car or at a friend’s house rather than driving home.
As he drove home at about 7.30am the next morning, Te Whare crossed the centre line of the road and hit a school bus travelling in the opposite direction.
Te Whare died at the scene, while the bus driver suffered minor injuries.
None of the students on board the bus were injured.
A post-mortem detailed the injuries Te Whare suffered in the crash, including a severe head injury, a ruptured aorta and lacerated lungs.
Coroner Rachael Schmidt-McCleave found his death could have been prevented had he not been driving in a likely fatigued state.
Te Whare had been putting in large amount of overtime at work in the weeks before his death.
Coroner Schmidt-McCleave made a number of recommendations after his death.
She wanted the public to take heed of advice from the NZTA around driving with fatigue.
“The NZTA advises that fatigue does not just mean falling asleep at the wheel,” she said.
“That is an extreme form of fatigue. Fatigue can also mean tiredness, weariness or exhaustion and a driver can be fatigued enough for it to impair driving long before the driver ‘nods off’ at the wheel.”
Being tired at the wheel could cause a driver to drift in and out of sleep without knowing it, called microsleep, the Coroner said.
“These naps can last between three and five seconds and are the main cause of fatigue-related crashes where the driver runs off the road.”
Coroner Schmidt-McCleave said lifestyle changes should be considered to make sure drivers get enough sleep.
“Measures such as drinking caffeine, getting out of the vehicle to stretch legs, opening the window or turning up the radio volume do not work and will refresh a driver only for a short while,” she said.
“Once fatigue has set in, no amount of willpower will keep a driver awake. The only answer is sleep and the driver should stop for a short nap or seek assistance to get home.”
NZTA said drivers should prepare properly before driving, and plan where to take a safe break, Schmidt-McCleave said.
A short nap of no more than 15 to 30 minutes could also help, she said.
“Not being tempted to keep driving when tired just because a destination is close.
“Many tiredness-related collisions occur close to home because the driver has relaxed, and the body takes this as a signal that it is ok to fall asleep.”
The Coroner noted shift workers were a recognised category of drivers more likely to suffer from driver fatigue, because they were more likely to have their sleep patterns disrupted.
NZTA’s warning signs for fatigue
Beginning to blink
Not being able to stop yawning
Having trouble keeping head up
Eyes closing for a moment or going out of focus
Having wandering, disconnected thoughts
Not remembering driving the last few kilometres
Missing a gear
Missing a road sign or exit
Slowing unintentionally
Braking too late
Drifting over the centre line or onto the other side of the road
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Vinzons is a quiet coastal town in the eastern Philippines province of Camarines Norte in Bicol. With a spread out population of about 45,000. it is known for its rice production, crabs and surfing beaches in the Calaguas Islands.
But the town is really famous for one of its sons — Wenceslao “Bintao” Vinzons, the youngest lawmaker in the Philippines before the Japanese invasion during the Second World War who then took up armed resistance.
He was captured and executed along with his family in 1942.
One of the most interesting assets of the municipality of Vinzons — named after the hero in 1946, the town previously being known as Indan — is his traditional family home, which has recently been refurbished as a local museum to tell his story of courage and inspiration.
“He is something of a forgotten hero, student leader, resistance fighter, former journalist — a true hero,” says acting curator Roniel Espina.
As well as a war hero, Vinzons is revered for his progressive politics and was known as the “father of student activism” in the Philippines. His political career began at the University of Philippines in the capital Manila where he co-founded the Young Philippines Party.
The Vinzons Hall at UP-Diliman was named after him to honour his student leadership exploits.
Student newspaper editor He was the editor-in-chief of the Philippine Collegian, the student newspaper founded in 1922.
At 24, Vinzons became the youngest delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention and six years later at the age of 30 he was elected Governor of Camarine Norte in 1941 — the same year that Japan invaded.
In fact, the invasion of the Philippines began on 8 December 1941 just 10 hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbour in Hawai’i.
The invading forces tried to pressure Governor Vinzons in his provincial capital of Daet to collaborate. He absolutely refused. Instead, he took to the countryside and led one of the first Filipino guerilla resistance forces to rise up against the Japanese.
His initial resistance was successful with the guerrilla forces carrying out sudden raids before liberating Daet. He was eventually captured and executed by the Japanese.
The bust of “Bintao” outside the Vinzons Town Hall. Image: Asia Pacific Report
The exact circumstances are still uncertain as his body was never recovered, but the museum does an incredible job in piecing together his life along with his family and their tragic sacrifice for the country.
One plaque shows an image of Vinzons along with his father Gabino, wife Liwayway, sister Milagros, daughter Aurora and son Alexander (no photo of him was actually recovered).
A family of Second World War martyrs . . . their bodies were never recovered. Image: Asia Pacific Report
According to the legend on the plaque:
“Wenceslao Vinzons with his father disappeared mysteriously – and were never see again. The Japanese sent out posters in Camarines Norte expressing regret that on the way to Siain, Quezon, Vinzons was shot while attempting to escape. ‘So sorry please.’
“The remains of the body of Vinzons, his father, wife, two chidren and sister have never been found.”
The Japanese Empire as portrayed in the Vinzons Museum. Video: APR
Imperial Japan showcase One room of the museum is dedicated as a showcase to Imperial Japan and its brutal invasion across a great swathe of Southeast Asia and the brave Filipino resistance in response.
A special feature of the museum is how well it portrays typical Filipino lifestyle and social mores in a home of the political class in the 1930s.
The tourist author, Dr David Robie (red t-shirt) with acting curator Roniel Espina (left), Tourism Officer Florence G Mago (second from right) and two museum guides. Image: Asia Pacific Report
When I visited the museum and talked to staff and watched documentaries about “Bintao” Vinzons’ life, one question in particular intrigued me: “Why was he thought of as a ‘forgotten hero’?”
According to acting curator Espina, “It’s partly because Camarines Norte is not as popular and well known as some other provinces. So some of the notable achievements of Vinzons do not have a high profile around in other parts of the country.”
Based at the museum is the town’s principal Tourism Officer Florence G Mago. She is optimistic about how the Vinzons Museum can attract more visitors to the town.
“We have put a lot of effort into developing this museum and we are proud of it. It is a jewel in the town.”
The Vinzons family home . . . now refurbished as the town museum under the National Historical Institute umbrella. Image: Asia Pacific Report
Fall marks the start of Iran’s rainy season, but large parts of the country have barely seen a drop as the nation faces one of its worst droughts in decades. Several key reservoirs are nearly dry, and Tehran, the nation’s capital, is facing an impending “Day Zero” – when the city runs out of water.
The situation is so dire, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has revived a long-debated plan to move the capital from this metro area of 15 million people.
Previous administrations have floated the idea of moving the capital but never implemented it. Tehran’s unbridled expansion has created a host of problems, ranging from chronic water stress and land subsidence to gridlocked traffic and severe air pollution, while also heightening concerns about the city’s vulnerability to major seismic hazards.
This time, Pezeshkian has framed relocation as a mandate, not a choice. He warned in November 2025 that if nothing changes, the city could become uninhabitable.
How Iran got to the point of water bankruptcy
Drought has been a concern in this part of the world for millennia. A prayer by the Persian King Darius the Great that was carved in stone more than 2,000 years ago asked his god to protect the land from invaders, famine and lies.
However, today, Iran’s escalating water and environmental problems are the predictable outcome of decades of treating the region’s finite water resources as if they were limitless.
Iran has relied heavily on water-intensive irrigation to grow food in dry landscapes and subsidized water and energy use, resulting in overpumping from aquifers and falling groundwater supplies. The concentration of economic activity and employment in major urban centers, particularly Tehran, has also catalyzed massive migration, further straining already overstretched water resources.
Those and other forces have driven Iran toward “water bankruptcy” – the point where water demand permanently exceeds the supply and nature can’t keep up.
As water resource and environmental engineers and scientists, including a former deputy head of Iran’s Department of Environment, we have followed the county’s water challenges for years. We see viable solutions to its chronic water problems, though none is simple.
Falling water reserves leave Iran vulnerable
Experts have been warning for years that the lack of foresight to tackle Iran’s water bankruptcy problem leaves the country increasingly vulnerable to extreme climate conditions.
Iranians are again seeing those risks in this latest drought.
Precipitation has been well below normal in four of the water years since 2020. That has contributed to a sharp decline in reservoir levels. Fall 2025 has been the hottest and driest fall on record for Tehran since 1979, testing the resilience of its water system.
The city faces mounting stress on already diminished groundwater reserves, with little relief in sight without significant rainfall.
Shrinking snowpack and shifting rainfall patterns make it harder to predict how much water will flow in rivers and when. Rising temperatures make the problem worse by boosting demand and leaving less water in the rivers.
There is no quick fix to resolve Tehran’s water emergency. In the near term, only significantly more rainfall and a reduction in consumption can offer respite.
Panicky moves to increase interbasin water transfers, such as the Taleqan‑to‑Tehran water transfer to pump water from the Taleqan Dam, over 100 miles (166 km) away, are not only inadequate, they risk worsening the water supply and demand imbalance in the long run. Iran has already experimented with piping water between basins, and those transfers have in many cases fueled unsustainable growth rather than real conservation, worsening water problems both in the donor and recipient basins.
The exposed shoreline at Latyan Dam shows significantly low water levels near Tehran on Nov. 10, 2025. The reservoir, which supplies part of the capital’s drinking water, has seen a sharp decline due to prolonged drought and rising demand in the region. Bahram/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
At its core, Tehran’s predicament stems from a chronic mismatch between supply and demand, driven by rapid population growth.
Whether relocating the political capital, as suggested by Pezeshkian, could meaningfully reduce the city’s population, and hence the water demand, is highly doubtful.
The sparsely populated Makran region in the country’s southeast, along the Gulf of Oman, has been mentioned as a potential option, touted as a “lost paradise,” though details on how much of the city or population would move remain unclear.
Meanwhile, other major Iranian cities are facing similar water stresses, highlighting the fact that this is a nationwide threat.
Agricultural water consumption can be reduced by producing higher-value, less water-intensive crops, taking into account food security, labor market and cultural considerations. Any water savings could be used to replenish groundwater.
Becoming more open to global trade and importing water-intensive crops, rather than growing them, would also allow Iran to use its limited agricultural land and water to grow a smaller set of strategic staple crops that are critical for national food security.
That’s a transition that will be possible only if the country moves toward a more diversified economy that allows for reduced pressure on the country’s finite resources, an option that seems unrealistic under economic and international isolation.
Kaveh Madani discusses the drought stress Iran is facing.
Urban water demand could be reduced by strengthening public education on conservation, restricting high-consuming uses such as filling private swimming pools, and upgrading distribution infrastructure to minimize leaks.
Taken together, these measures require bold, coordinated action rather than piecemeal responses.
Renewed talk of relocating the capital signals how environmental stresses are adding to the complex puzzle of Iran’s national security concerns. However, without addressing the root causes of the nation’s water bankruptcy, we believe moving the capital to ease water problems will be futile.
Nothing to disclose.
Mojtaba Sadegh receives funding from the US National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Joint Fire Science Program.
Amir AghaKouchak and Kaveh Madani do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
He said his proposal for the 2026/2027 Annual Plan would “stay the course” of settings outlined in the 2024-2034 Long-term Plan with a focus on savings and financial efficiency.
“We are going to stick to the plan that’s working, this is our contract with the community, and it is important that we keep our side of the agreement.
“The rates increase primarily pays for the additional costs of CRL. While that cost has been enormous, once it’s open we will see huge economic benefits – it will transform Auckland.”
Work began on the $5.5 billion CRL in 2017 and was expected to nearly double the city’s rail transportation capacity when it opened in the latter half of 2026.
Deputy Mayor and Value for Money Committee Chair Desley Simpson said an “unwavering focus on savings and financial efficiency” would continue as the city braced for the costs of operating the massive transport infrastructure upgrade.
“Having worked to achieve over $1b in financial benefits in the last six years, my commitment to Aucklanders is to continue strongly with that focus on financial efficiencies. Given the costs of operating CRL that we are expecting, it is vitally important we keep our focus on opportunities for revenue growth and continued savings,” Simpson said.
Deputy Mayor and Value for Money Committee Chair Desley Simpson.RNZ / Nick Monro
The plan upped the city’s savings target by an additional $20 million on 2025/2026 bringing the total goal to $106 million.
Brown said his proposal was focused on delivering smarter services and faster progress to strengthen communities and businesses – promising better use of public spaces, particularly the waterfront.
“We must also make sure Auckland is a vibrant, clean, safe and welcoming city centre that is open for business.
“The government has started working more closely with me on this, but we must remember where responsibility lies here: we do places, they do people,” Brown said.
He said he would prioritise transport reform with a focus on the new Public Transport council controlled organisation (CCO).
“The intention of CCO reform was to bring decision-makers closer to these decisions so they make sense alongside each other.
“We’re looking at transport investment that is cheaper and less annoying than currently under Auckland Transport. Land-use planning must sit alongside transport planning if we’re going to transform Auckland.
“We are now setting out the nuts and bolts of how Auckland Transport will become the public transport service provider alone, which they’re actually pretty good at, and all the other parts must be done better and will be within the council. I’m asking councillors to think regionally here, not just about their own patch,” Brown said.
A workshop to discuss the draft Mayoral Proposal for the Annual Plan 2026/2027 will be held this week and, if approved, public consultation is scheduled to take place early next year.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Tall Blacks Flynn Cameron (L) with Australia Jaylin Galloway during the FIBA World Cup Qualifier – New Zealand Tall Blacks v Australia Boomers at TSB Arena, Wellington, on 1 December 2025.Marty Melville / Photosport
A buzzer beater finish by the Boomers has left the Tall Blacks heartbroken, but a technical issue meant some fans missed out on the tense final moments.
Australia beat New Zealand 79-77 in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers on Monday night at the TSB Bank Arena.
A last minute play by 26-year-old guard Davo Hickey banked in a tough trifecta from the wing just before time expired, helping the Boomers complete the escape after finding themselves staring at a 67-57 deficit early in the final period.
However, some fans on the edge of their seats missed the exhilarating final moments.
Viewers reported coverage cut out on ESPN channel 60, Sky and Disney+, with one commenting on social media the live stream on Sky Sport went to ads, “then to some guys in a boat”.
On its TikTok channel, ESPN Australia/NZ acknowledged the mishap: “We are aware that due to a technical issue at the end of the game was not seen for some viewers. We are investigating the cause and deeply apologise for the issue.”
But as one fan put it, the blunder “saved us from watching NZ choke again”.
As activist groups around the world observe December 1 — flag-raising “independence” day for West Papua today marking when the Morning Star flag was flown in 1961 for the first time — Kristo Langker reports from the Highlands about how the Indonesian military is raising the stakes.
SPECIAL REPORT:By Kristo Langker in Kiwirok, West Papua
While DropSite News usually reports on, and from, parts of the world where the US war machine operates, in this story, the weaponry in question is made by a multinational French weapons manufacturer and Chinese manufacturer.
However, you will see the structure is the same — the Indonesian government using drones and helicopters to terrorise and displace the people of West Papua, while the historical reason imperial interests loom over the region stems from a US mining project in the 1960s.
The videos in this story are well worth watching — exclusive interviews with the guerilla group fighting off the drones and airplanes with bows and arrows.
A still from a video of Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano bombing and strafing the mountains of Kiwirok on October 6, 2025. Video: Lamek Taplo and Ngalum Kupel, TPNPB
On 25 September 2025, Lamek Taplo, the guerilla leader of a wing of the West Papua National Liberation Army (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat, or TPNPB), left the jungle with his command to launch a series of raids on Indonesian military posts.
Indonesia had established three new military posts in the Star Mountains region in the past year, according to NGO Human Rights Monitor, with sources on the ground telling Drop Site News that nearby civilian houses and facilities — including a church, schools, and a health clinic — had been forcibly occupied in support of the military build-up.
5 Indonesian soldiers shot Despite being severely outgunned, the command shot five Indonesian soldiers, killing one, while suffering no casualties themselves, according to Taplo and other members of his group.
The raids continued for three more days. The command shot the fuselage of a helicopter and burned five buildings that Taplo’s group claimed were occupied by Indonesian security forces.
Taplo was killed less than three weeks later by an apparent drone strike. During an October 13 interview a week before his death, Taplo, a former teacher himself, told Drop Site why TPNPB targeted a school:
“It’s because they (Indonesian military) used it as their base. There’s no teacher — only Indonesians. I know, because I was the teacher there, too . . . Indonesia sent ‘teachers’. However, they’re actually military intelligence.”
School building set on fire by the TPNPB on September 27, 2025. Image: Ngalum Kupel/TPNPB
Indonesia has laid claim to the western half of New Guinea island since the 1960s with the backing of the US. For the past year, the Indonesian military has ramped up its indiscriminate attacks on subsistence farming villages, especially those that deny Indonesian rule.
The military presence has been growing exponentially after the October 2024 inauguration of President Prabowo Subianto, who is implicated in historic massacres in Papua from his time as commander of Indonesia’s special forces — called Komando Pasukan Khusus or “Kopassus”.
According to witnesses interviewed in Kiwirok and its surrounding hamlets, and documented in videos, there are now snipers stationed along walking tracks, and civilians have been shot and killed attempting to retrieve their pigs.
Indonesian retaliated Indonesia immediately retaliated against TPNPB’s September attacks by sending two consumer-grade DJI Mavic drones, rigged with servo motors, to drop Pindad-manufactured hand grenades.
One drone targeted a hut that Taplo claimed did not house TPNPB but belonged to civilians.
No one was killed as the grenade bounced off the sheet metal roof and exploded a few meters away. The other drone flew over a group of TPNPB raising the Morning Star flag of West Papua but was taken down by the guerrillas before a grenade could be dropped.
Ngalum Kupel TPNPB celebrating the capture of a drone. September 28, 2025.
Holding the downed drone and grenade, Taplo likened the ordeal to Moses parting the Red Sea for the escaping Israelites: “It’s like Firaun and Moses . . . It was a miracle.”
Then joking: “The bomb (grenade) was caught since it’s like the cucumber we eat.”
Lamek Taplo holding a downed DJI Mavic drone and Pindad grenade on 28 September 2025. Image: Ngalum Kupel/TPNPB
Over the next few weeks, a series of heavier aerial bombardments followed.
Video evidence Videos taken by Taplo show two Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano turboprop aircraft darting through the air, followed by the thunderous sound of ordnance hitting the mountains.
Despite the fact that thousands of West Papuans have been killed in bombings like these since the 1970s, Taplo’s videos are the first to ever capture an aerial bombardment from the ground in West Papua, owing to the extreme isolation of the interior.
In fact, many highland West Papuans’ first contact with the outside world was with Indonesian military campaigns.
Ostensibly a counter-insurgency operation against a guerrilla independence movement, these bombings are primarily hitting civilians — tribal communities of subsistence farmers.
The few fighters Indonesia is targeting are poorly armed lacking bullets, let alone bombs — and live on ancestral land with their families. The most ubiquitous weapon among these groups remains the bow and arrow.
Taplo told Drop Site the bombings began on Monday, October 6.
“Firstly they (Indonesia) did an unorganised attack: they dropped the bomb randomly . . . they just dropped it everywhere. You can see where the smoke was coming from.
“Even though it was an Indonesian military house, they just dropped it on there anyway. That was the first one; then they came back. The first place bombed after was a civilian house; the second was our base.”
Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano bombing and strafing the mountains. October 6, 2025
Former Dutch colony West Papua was a Dutch colony until 1962, when Indonesia, after a bitter dispute with the Netherlands, secured Washington’s backing to take over the territory.
Just three years after Washington tipped the scales in favour of Indonesia in their dispute with the Netherlands, the nationalist Indonesian President Sukarno was ousted in a US-backed military coup in 1965.
Hundreds of thousands of Indonesian leftists (or suspected leftists) were killed in just a few months by the new regime led by General Suharto.
Indonesia’s acquisition of West Papua is often treated as an event peripheral to this coup, yet both events held a symbiotic relationship that would become the impetus for many of the mass killings perpetrated by Indonesia in West Papua.
Forbes Wilson, the former vice-president of US mining giant Freeport, visited Indonesia in June 1966, and in his book, The Conquest of Copper Mountain, he boasts that he and several other Freeport executives were among the first foreigners to visit Indonesia after the events of 1965.
Wilson was there to negotiate with the new business friendly Suharto regime, particularly regarding the terms of Freeport’s Ertsberg mine, which was set to be located under Puncak Jaya — the tallest mountain in Oceania.
This mine eventually became the world’s largest gold and copper mine and Indonesia’s largest single taxpayer. The mine’s existence was one of the primary reasons Indonesia gained international backing to launch a vicious Malanesian frontier war against the native and then-largely uncontacted Papuan highlanders.
The “war” continues to this day, though it is largely unlike other modern conflicts.
Like frontier ‘wars’ Instead, the concerted Indonesian attacks are most comparable to the US and Australian frontier wars. Indonesia, one of the world’s largest and most well-armed militaries, is steadily wiping out some of the world’s last pre-industrial indigenous cultures and people.
West Papuans have fought back, forming the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, or OPM) and its various splinter armed wings, whose most prominent one is the TPNPB.
Due to the impenetrable terrain of the mountain highlands, the Indonesian military has difficulty fighting the TPNPB on the ground, often instead resorting to indiscriminate aerial bombardments.
The TPNPB’s fight is as much about West Papuan independence as it is an effort by localised tribal communities and landowners using whatever means to prevent Indonesian massacres and land theft.
“No army has ever come to protect the people. I live with the people, because there’s no military to protect my people,” Taplo said in a video sent just before his death.
“From 2021 until this year 2025, I have not left my land; I have not left the land of my birth.”
In October 2021, the Indonesian military launched one of these bombing campaigns in the remote Kiwirok district and its surrounding hamlets in the Star Mountains — deep in the heart of the island of New Guinea.
Little information Because of this isolation, very little information about these bombings trickled out of the mountains — save for a few images of unexploded mortars and burning huts.
Only a handful journalists, including the author of this article, have been able to visit the area, and it took years and multiple visits to the Star Mountains for the full scale of the 2021 attacks to be reported.
It was eventually revealed that the Indonesian assaults included the use of most likely Airbus helicopters that shoot FZ-68 2.75-inch rockets, designed by French multinational defence contractor Thales, and reinforced by Blowfish A3 drones manufactured by the Chinese company Ziyan.
These drones boast an artificial intelligence driven swarm function by which they litter villagers’ subsistence farms and huts with mortars improvised with proximity fuzes manufactured by the Serbian company Krušik.
A largely remote, open-source investigation by German NGO Human Rights Monitor revealed that hundreds of huts and buildings were destroyed in this attack. More than 2000 villagers were displaced, and they still hide in makeshift jungle camps.
“The systematic nature of these attacks prompts questions of crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute,” the report noted. Additionally, witnesses interviewed by this author gave the names of hundreds who died of starvation and illness after the bombings.
With little food, shelter, weapons, or even internet to connect them to the outside world, many of the thousands of Ngalum-Kupel people displaced since 2021 are displaced again — likely to die without anyone knowing — mirroring countless Indonesian campaigns to depopulate the mountains to make way for resource projects.
Long-term effects The impact of the latest wave of attacks in October 2025 is likely to be felt for years, as the bombs destroyed food gardens and shelters and displaced people who were already living in nothing more than crowded tarpaulins held up by branches, while having already been forced to hide in the jungle after the 2021 bombings.
“It is the same situation with Palestine and Israel — people are now living without their home,” said Taplo.
Lamek Taplo (standing) in jungle camp on 15 October 2025. Image: Ngalum Kupel/TPNPB
On 6 October 2025, Indonesia retaliated further, deploying two aircraft that aviation sources confirmed to be Brazilian-made Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano turboprops. These planes were filmed bombing and strafing the mountains.
Drop Site confirmed that some of the shrapnel collected after these attacks is from Thales’s FZ 2.75-inch rockets — the same rockets used in the 2021 attacks.
Shrapnel from Thales FZ rockets on 6 October 2025. Image: Ngalum Kupel/TPNPB
In January this year, Thales’s Belgium and state-owned defence company, Indonesian Aerospace, put out a press release titled: “Indonesian Aerospace and Thales Belgium Reactivate Rocket Production Partnership,” which boasted the integration of Thales designed FZ 2.75-inch rockets with the Embraer Supertucano aircraft.
Though these were not the only ordnance deployed, some of the impact zones measured over 20m, and the shrapnel found in these craters was far heavier and larger than that from the Thales rockets.
Shrapnel ‘no joke’ “It’s no joke. It was long and big. It could destroy a village . . . ” said Taplo before picking up a piece of shrapnel around 20cm long.
“This is five kilograms,” he said, weighing the remnants.
Inspecting Impact zone from bombings on 6 October 2025.
A former Australian Defence Force air-to-ground specialist told Drop Site that the large size of the shrapnel and nature of the scarring and cratering indicate that the bomb was not a modern style munition. It was most likely an MK-81 RI Live, a variant of the 110kg MK-81 developed and manufactured by Indonesian state-owned defence contractor Pindad.
“This weapon system is unguided, and given the steep terrain, it is unlikely that a dive attack could easily be used, providing the enhanced risk of collateral damage or indiscriminate targeting given the weapons envelope,” the specialist said. Pindad did not respond to Drop Site’s request for comment.
Shrapnel from MK-81 bombs on 12 October 2025. Image: Ngalum Kupel/TPNPB
Photos from a February Pindad press release about the development of the MK-81 RI Live show these bombs loaded on an Indonesian Embraer Supertucano.
An Indonesian Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano loaded with the Pindad MK-81 RI Live in February, 2025. Image: PT Pindad Public Relations Doc
A week later, Indonesia hit again. At around 3am, on October 12, a reconnaissance aircraft flew over the camp where Taplo’s command and their families were sleeping, waking them just in time to evacuate before another round of bombs were dropped == again, most likely the MK-81 RI Live.
Bomb strike on video Taplo captured the bomb’s strike and aftermath on video. Clearly shaken, he makes an appeal for help, saying “UN peacekeeping forces quickly come to Kiwirok to give us freedom, because our life is traumatic . . .
“Even the kids are traumatised; they live in the forest, and seek help from their parents, ‘Dad help me. Indonesia dropped the bomb on the place I lived in.’”
On the morning of October 19, a drone dropped a bomb on a hut near where Taplo was staying. Initially, the bomb didn’t detonate, leaving enough time for civilians to evacuate the area.
After the evacuation, Taplo and three men returned to remove the ordnance, which then detonated and instantly killed Lamek Taplo and three others — Nalson Uopmabin, 17; Benim Kalakmabin, 20; and Ike Taplo, 22.
The bodies of slain TPNPB members on October 19, 2025. Image: Ngalum Kupel/TPNPB
Speaking to Drop Site just hours after Taplo was killed, eyewitnesses say the drone was larger than the DJI Mavics deployed earlier and were similar in size to the Ziyan drones from 2021.
Photos taken of the remnants of the bomb show the tail of what was most likely an 81mm mortar.
“The presence of drones — similar to that of DJI quadcopters and [with] improvised fins for aerial guidance — have been employed [just as] ISIS used those weapons systems in Syria,” the former Australian Defence Force air-to-ground specialist told Drop Site.
The mortar piece that killed Commander Lamek Taplo and three others. October 20, 2025. Image: Ngalum Kupel/TPNPB
Plea to Pacific nations On October 26, civilians in Kiwirok sent an appeal to the government of Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island nations. So far, there has been no response, despite these bombings occurring on Papua New Guinea’s border.
The last communication Drop Site received from Kiwirok indicated that the bombings were continuing and the mountains still swarmed with drones — limiting any chance of escape.
Pictures posted on social media in November by members of Indonesian security forces, those stationed in Kiwirok, give some insight into the level of zeal with which Indonesia is fighting this campaign.
An Indonesian soldier can be seen wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a skull wearing night vision goggles, a gun, and a lightning bolt forming a cross behind it. The caption reads “Black Zone Kiwirok.”
A “Black Zone Kiwirok” T-shirt on 19 November 2025. Souurce: Instagram post by Indonesian soldier
Another photo shows soldiers sitting in front of a banner which reads “Kompi Tempur Rajawali 431 Pemburu” — a reference to the elite “Eagle Hunter” units set up in the mid 1990s by then-General Prabowo Subianto to hunt down Falantil guerillas in Timor Leste.
As there has been no record of these units being deployed in Papua — nor of an “Eagle Hunter” unit made up of soldiers from the 431st Infantry Battalion — it is unclear whether these banners are just Suharto-era nationalism on display, or if they signify that these units have been revived.
A “Kompi Tempur Rajawali 431 Pemburu” regimental banner on 19 November 2025. Source: An Instagram post by Indonesian soldier
On his final phone call with the outside world, just before the signal cut out, Taplo vowed to continue the TPNPB’s fight: “We will fight for hundreds of days . . .
“We will fight . . . This war is by God. We have asked for power; we have prayed for nature’s power. This is our culture.”
Defence Minister Richard Marles has confirmed Australia is monitoring a flotilla of Chinese Navy ships currently in the Philippine Sea but with its destination unknown.
Marles volunteered the information while announcing a shakeup that will establish a new Defence Delivery Agency designed to improve military acquisition and sustainment operations.
The agency will be headed by a national armaments director, who will advise the government on strategies for acquisitions and the delivery of projects after they have been approved. The government says it is the biggest reform in defence organisation in half a century.
Marles, who is acting prime minister while Anthony Albanese is on his honeymoon this week, went out of his way to say the Chinese ships were being tracked, after a report about them in the Australian Financial Review last week.
He told a news conference the government did not yet have a sense of where the task group was going. “But we continue to monitor it as we monitor all movements until we know that the task groups are not coming to Australia.”
According to some sources, the Defence Department had alerted the government to that flotilla, but the government had decided not to say anything publicly, only to be thrown onto the back foot when the issue blew up. The flotilla later sailed around Australia.
Marles said on Monday:
We’re not about to give a running commentary on the movements of all Chinese Navy vessels, but in light of the report that was made on Thursday, we thought that it was important to make these statements and to make them in the proper context. So that Australians can be assured that we are monitoring our areas of interest and we are monitoring the movements of the Chinese Navy.
The change to acquisition advice and oversight is a reflection of discontent over a long period with the Defence Department. Defence projects have been notoriously behind time and over budget.
Marles said the new agency would be independent. It will report directly to the ministers of defence and defence industry.
It will begin operations on July 1 when three existing groups will be merged – the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordinance Group, and the Naval Shipbuilding and Sustainment Group. The new independent entity will then become the Defence Delivery Agency on July 1 2027.
Marles said the establishment of the new agency “will see a much bigger bang for buck for the defence spend. And that is at the heart of the decision that we have made. It puts a focus on delivery and will ensure that it is much more sharp in the way in which it is undertaken.
“It will mean advice comes to government much earlier in the process about the challenges that are facing any particular program, any particular project, so that we can ensure those projects are delivered on time and on budget.”
Opposition defence spokesman Angus Taylor said the announcement was a matter of moving bureaucrats around. There was no increase in funds, he said.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The end of the year means holiday celebrations, summer breaks … and for us, one important thing: best books lists. We asked 35 expert readers for their favourite picks, ranging from novelists to anthropologists, scientists to criminologists – and experts in politics, publishing and philosophy. The only rule? The book had to be published this year.
And the Books & Ideas team are sharing our own best books of 2025.
Books & Ideas editor Suzy Freeman-Greene’s best book is Arundhati Roy’s memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me (Penguin Random House). Don’t be put off by the cheesy title – Roy re-enchants the genre, eyeing her dysfunctional parents and her political struggles with wit and poetic verve. (Honourable mention: Hasib Hourani’s charged book-length poem, Rock Flight).
Senior deputy editor Jo Case’s standout was The Transformations (Picador), Andrew Pippos’ big-hearted ode to the dying days of print journalism. It follows a wary, wounded, deeply kind subeditor as newspapers shrink and his solitary world widens to let people in – inviting rich complications. (Honourable mention: Olivia De Zilva’s blazingly original, smart-funny-sad debut autofiction, Plastic Budgie.)
We’d love to hear your best books of 2025 too – please share them in the comments at the end of this article.
Fiona Wright
Josephine Rowe’s Little World (Black Inc.) is a surprising, deft and quietly moving book: a novella about outsiders and exiles, told in triptych. It opens with the startling image of the incorruptible body of a child-saint arriving – in a horse float – at a remote desert property, before stretching out across time and space. Its characters are all relics of a kind, all struggling with contrition and connection. It is a technically brilliant, elegant work – one that has stayed with me all year.
Fiona Wright was the 2024-2025 Judy Harris Writer in Residence, Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney.
Sandra Phillips
So much spoke to me in Angie Faye Martin’s debut crime novel, Melaleuca (Harper Collins). Martin is of Kooma, Kamilaroi, and European heritage. A writer and editor, she delivers a clever insider understanding of racialised Australia, with a speciality in small-town cop culture. Melaleuca has staunch and loving Blakfella characters – and not one, but two crimes to solve. Sad at times, funny at others, it is intricate and well-paced in plot and subplot. Right up until the very end, it’s a thrilling read.
Sandra Phillips is associate dean, Indigenous and professor of publishing and communications, University of Melbourne.
Andrew Pippos
The title of Dominic Amerena’s debut, I Want Everything (Summit Books), neatly specifies the farcical ambitions that poison its characters. The interplay between the book’s two narrative strands is an impressive achievement: the Brenda Shale chapters carry a sober emotional weight, while the contemporary framing is playful, biting and fast-paced. This is a comic novel with serious things to say about art and gender.
Andrew Pippos is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Technology Sydney.
Vijay Mishra
Heart Lamp (Scribe) by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, was originally written in Kannada, a “minoritarian” language spoken by over 65 million people in India. This collection of 12 stories offers an extraordinary tapestry, principally of the quotidian lives of anxiety-driven Indian Muslim women under the unwavering sign of patriarchy. Written in near-minimalist prose, the collection offers delicate accounts of cultural practices, from the rituals of worship, marriage, childbirth and circumcision, to the desire for a funeral shroud dipped in the holy Zamzam waters of Mecca. Deepa Bhasthi’s uplifting and aesthetically accomplished translation transforms Banu Mushtaq’s stories (phenomenal as they are in their source language) into a great work of art.
Vijay Mishra is emeritus professor of English and comparative literature, Murdoch University.
Emma Shortis
Less than a year into the second Trump administration, I am haunted by a line written by Canadian songwriter Rufus Wainwright: “I’m so tired of you, America.” We are all of us, I think, tired. Writing a book on the history of the US that cuts through the tiredness is always a Herculean task; this year, of all years, it should have been impossible. Somehow, with The Shortest History of the United States of America (Black Inc.), Don Watson has done it.
Emma Shortis is adjunct senior fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University.
Intifar Chowdhury
After watching the Netflix adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club, I was hooked by its fresh, witty take on ageing, friendship and crime. So, when Richard Osman’s latest book in the series dropped, I couldn’t resist diving back into the world of Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim. The Impossible Fortune is everything from quirky clever to utterly heartwarming. A wedding guest with a dangerous secret vanishes, pulling the club back into a whirlwind of mystery and unexpected twists. Osman delivers a page-turning thriller that balances suspense with humour and tenderness. It’s a story about loyalty, resilience and the thrill of chasing answers – even when life insists on slowing you down.
Intifar Chowdhury is lecturer in government, Flinders University.
Carol Lefevre
I read Joan Didion’s posthumous Notes to John (Fourth Estate) with enormous guilt for the invasion of privacy. But guilt aside, Notes reveals a new side of Didion. It documents a woman struggling amid the complex fallout of adoption, a mother who lives in daily terror that her adopted daughter will be lost. It explains the fear of loss that haunts Didion’s fiction, and shows the raw material she worked from in the more poetic Blue Nights. Didion may not have given her blessing to this book, which is an account of her sessions with a psychiatrist, but those who ushered Notes into the world did a good thing for those of us who adore her. It may be a source of solace, too, for many engaged in ongoing struggles with adoption.
Carol Lefevre is visiting research fellow, English and creative writing, University of Adelaide.
Peter Mares
Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling (Columbia Global Reports) is a vivid case study of the harms wrought by online sports betting in the United States after the Supreme Court greenlit the industry in 2018. A landmark parliamentary report chaired by the late Peta Murphy MP documented similar damage in Australia. Yet two years on, the government has not acted on its bipartisan recommendations. Sometimes it helps to understand your own mess by studying someone else’s, so this is the book Australian politicians should read over summer.
Peter Mares is adjunct senior research fellow, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University.
Elizabeth Finkel
Ian McEwan is my go-to writer for portraiture. In What We Can Know (Jonathan Cape), his canvas widens to civilisations – our current “deranged” one, hurtling eyes wide shut to imminent ecological collapse and AI-triggered nuclear wars – and the archipelago civilisation that follows, where scholars rely on electronic texts, rife with disinformation, to know (and ache for) the prelapsarian world. The title holds the key to the book: a meditation on the inherent murkiness of human knowledge, made infinitely worse by 21st-century tech.
Elizabeth Finkel is adjunct senior research fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University.
Jumana Bayeh
Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (Text Publishing) is confronting to read for a range of reasons. Some will see themselves in the heartache and confusion Akkad outlines. Others – perhaps most – will see themselves uncomfortably reflected in the complacency that caused Akkad his heartache. Providing insights into what it means to confront the genocide as an Arab in the West, this book outlines how liberal responses to the decimation of Gaza and its inhabitants are experienced by people like Akkad as betrayal, harmful silence and pain.
Jumana Bayeh is associate professor, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University.
John Quiggin
“Enshittification” is the process by which once-useful parts of the internet, like Google, are degraded by the corporations that control them. It was Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2024. Cory Doctorow, who coined the term, has now written the definitive book on this disease, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It (Verso), describing its pathology, epidemiology and possible cures.
John Quiggin is professor of economics at the University of Queensland.
Joëlle Gergis
Few writers are skilful enough to articulate the complexity of the turbulent times we are living through. Even fewer provide genuine hope. There’s barely a page of Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There (Granta) that I haven’t flagged to revisit her wisdom and insight. Solnit’s nuanced view of social change reminds us that every chapter in human history has challenged our moral integrity. These lyrical essays are inspiration for world-weary readers who know that giving up isn’t an option.
Joëlle Gergis is honorary associate professor of climate science at the University of Melbourne.
Tony Hughes-d’Aeth
My favourite book published this year was Evelyn Araluen’s The Rot (UQP). I’m tempted to call the book a fever dream, yet there is also something icily cold in the vision of these poems. The “rot” appears in the world as cascading injustice, from the bloodied rubble of Gaza to the escalating misery of the housing crisis. But the rot is also intimate and interior. Once we would have called it our soul.
Tony Hughes-d’Aeth is a professor and chair of Australian literature at the University of Western Australia.
Alice Grundy
Salvage (Picador) by Jennifer Mills is the perfect book to read on your summer holidays. It’s pacey and keeps you turning the pages, while you reflect on how you’re cooking on a heating planet. Salvage is a new genre for Mills, but it has the visceral descriptions readers will remember from her earlier novels, Dyschronia and The Airways, and characters you would love to road-trip with.
Alice Grundy is visiting fellow, School of Literature, Language and Linguistics, Australian National University.
Nick Haslam
“We are not getting sicker,” writes Suzanne O’Sullivan, author of The Age of Diagnosis (Hodder) – “we are attributing more to sickness.” A neurologist working at the clinical coalface, the author of this powerful book argues that over-diagnosis is rampant. Ranging from autism to ADHD to cancer screening, she finds our tendency to pathologise is doing more harm than good. Bracing without being polemical, The Age of Diagnosis pushes back against our diagnostic culture, offering practical remedies for health professionals and the wider public.
Nick Haslam is professor of psychology, University of Melbourne.
John Long
Goliath’s Curse by Luke Kemp (Viking) is both a sobering and utterly engaging account of the historical rise and fall of states. “Goliath States” succeed through violence or threatening it. Inequality leads to autocracy, which fuels Goliath States. Today, 71% of the population lives under autocracy, with more countries heading towards it. The conclusion is that the world will succumb to nuclear war or environmental collapse, unless more states become democratically governed and collaborate to avoid the apocalypse.
John Long is strategic professor in palaeontology, Flinders University.
Melanie Saward
Weaving Us Together (Hachette) is the Blak, queer coming-of-age story I wish I’d had as a teenager. The story follows shy Aboriginal teen, Jean O’Reilly, as they adjust to life in a small, northern New South Wales town. Lay Maloney’s beautifully written novel (which won the 2022 blak&write! fellowship), somehow manages to be a gentle, safe place to land for young people exploring gender, sexuality and identity, while not shying away from inter-generational trauma, stolen children, police violence and racism. A must-read for schools, educators and young people.
Melanie Saward is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Queensland.
Jindan Ni
Without any hesitation, my favourite book for 2025 is Ocean Vuong’s second novel, The Emperor of Gladness (Jonathan Cape). In the fictional US town of “East Gladness”, no one is “glad”. Along with the protagonist Hai, a college drop-out whose attempted suicide is interrupted by an elderly lady with dementia, Vuong compels readers to witness the vulnerable lives of many disadvantaged people. Yet despite their deep precarity, solace and love are generously provided beyond family ties. A heart-wrenching story with an incredible healing power.
Jindan Ni is senior lecturer, global and language studies, RMIT University.
John Woinarski
My best book this year was Nicolas Rothwell and Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson’s Yilkari: A Desert Suite (Text Publishing). There is mystery and meaning in the Australian landscape. Most of us are outsiders in this country, seeing only its superficialities, blind to its spirit, poorer for that lack of connection. At a glance, the western deserts are featureless, inhospitable, best travelled through on the unbending Gunbarrel Highway. Here, accompanied by quixotic guides and encumbered by the gift and genius of western high culture, a narrator recounts his quest to find the essence of this country, to fit into the land. The result is a haunting dream about our nature.
John Woinarski is professor of conservation biology, Charles Darwin University.
Sophie Gee
James Baldwin was a literary provocateur and also a crowd-pleaser; a Black radical and activist who loved Dickens and Dostoevsky; a gay man who lived in Paris, and a public voice for American civil rights. Nicholas Boggs’ extraordinary new biography of one of America’s greatest writers, Baldwin: A Love Story (Bloomsbury Circus), captures all these aspects of Baldwin’s life and writing, giving us a deep and moving account of a person whose life was riven by violence and filled with joy and glamour.
Sophie Gee is vice chancellor’s fellow, English literature, University of Sydney and professor of English at Princeton University.
Euan Ritchie
“Nature is not the backdrop to our lives; it is our lives.” This sentiment and insight from the preface of Nature’s Last Dance (Affirm Press) perfectly frames the strength and vital importance of Natalie Kyriacou’s book. The natural world is under siege, and Natalie describes heartbreaking examples. But ultimately, this book inspires – through thoroughly entertaining, sometimes joyous, well-researched examples of the extraordinary wonders and complexity of nature. Practical advice for readers to enact personal changes of their own fosters hope and empowerment. Bravo.
Euan Ritchie is professor in wildlife ecology and conservation at Deakin University.
Mia Martin Hobbs
Sunil Amrith’s The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years (Penguin) tells the story of how humanity has changed the planet we call home, untangling the environmental costs of empire, war, revolution and “progress” and revealing the devastating effects for the world’s poorest and most marginalised. Amrith shows how the human desire to control nature has, ironically, made our world less safe. The historical craft here is extraordinary: mind-bending and kaleidoscopic, The Burning Earth traverses the sweeping effects of colonisation, resource extraction, agriculture and development across every corner of the globe – while retaining individual stories of suffering and survival in the face of monumental environmental changes. Amrith’s work generates an urgent call to action to recognise the “crisis of life on Earth” before it is too late.
Mia Martin Hobbs is research fellow and historian of war and conflict, Deakin University.
Alexander Howard
Pierre Guyotat was one of postwar France’s most radical writers. Associated with the Tel Quel group and known for dense, hallucinatory prose that stretched language to breaking point, he made his name with Eden, Eden, Eden (1970) – a violent and apocalyptic text composed of a single, unbroken sentence running across 163 pages. At first glance, Idiocy (New York Review Books), his prize-winning coming-of-age memoir newly translated into English, seems formally restrained. However, a closer look reveals it to be just as intense and uncompromising. Spanning the years 1958 to 1962, the book traces his formative time in Paris and his experiences as a soldier in Algeria, where he was imprisoned for inciting desertion. Bearing witness to the atrocities of colonial conflict, Guyotat’s book feels disturbingly relevant right now.
Alexander Howard is senior lecturer, discipline of English and writing, University of Sydney.
Lynda Ng
Can we call it a genocide? Who was there first? Are we allowed to talk about this? In a year when Gaza dominated the headlines and yet public discussion was decidedly curtailed, Pankaj Mishra’s The World After Gaza (Fern Press) made a fearless foray into Zionism and the question of Palestine. Mishra’s decision to tell the history of Israel as a settler-colonial state has been highly contentious. By defamiliarising Middle Eastern politics, he forces us to reflect on how the legacy of European colonialism continues to play out in the world today.
Lynda Ng is lecturer in world literature (including Australian literature), University of Melbourne.
Eve Vincent
The Seal Woman (Giramondo), republished in 2025, was originally published the
same year as the Mabo decision: 1992. Dagmar, a Dane, is the novel’s protagonist. Living in a Victorian coastal town, Dagmar is filled with grief, desire and an obsessive interest in Norse mythology. She also undergoes an awakening about Aboriginal relations to ancestral Country. Beverley Farmer’s prose is incredibly focused and intricate. Reading of rockpools, seaweed, caves, spiders in the house, duplicity and selkies nourished and enlarged my imagination.
Eve Vincent is associate professor, anthropology, Macquarie University.
Tom Doig
Luke Kemp (originally from Bega, now based in Cambridge) has written an epic, sobering account of how and why human societies fall apart in Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse. Drawing on an exhaustive data set of 324 collapsed states, synthesising archaeology with psychology and political economy, he concludes that inequality, caused by corrupt elites, is the uniting feature. Any lessons for the present moment? Um, yep. While I’m usually sceptical of brief-history-of-everything books, Goliath’s Curse is a genuine joy to read. Pity about the ending (for us).
Tom Doig is a creative writing lecturer at the University of Queensland.
Juliet Rogers
Plestia Alqaad’s book Eyes of Gaza is not an easy read. It’s sad, painful and sometimes excruciatingly so. It is a book as witness; documenting the moments of trauma and violence in Gaza in the 45 days after October 7 2023. It shows this world through the eyes of a 23-year-old Palestinian journalist, describing a devastated landscape with nuance, with care and with the eye of someone who can read more than pain on people’s faces. Alqaad tells us of the occupation and the genocide but also the stories of camaraderie, of care, of collaboration between those who had lost everything. How can you share when you have nothing? It seems you can. Space, warmth, love and sometimes laughter are generated in proximity, even among terrible loss.
Juliet Rogers is a professor in criminology and director of the law and justice minor at University of Melbourne.
Natalie Kon-yu
Home – its myths and impossibilities – was at the heart of Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, and is also the knotted centre of Mother Mary Comes to Me. In this memoir, Roy reveals the slippages that occur between fiction and nonfiction in writing a life. Roy’s mother, her country and her self form a set of nesting dolls that cannot nest, but cannot be understood without one another. A beautiful, generous book.
Natalie Kon-yu is a teaching and research associate professor in creative writing and literary studies.
Edwina Preston
My best book of 2025 is Shokoofeh Azar’s The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen (Europa). Azar’s second novel filled me with wonder and horror, and gave me entry to a strange, beautiful and wondrous world: that of the ancient Zoroastrian culture as it butts up against the murderous modern regimes of Ayatollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei. A profoundly beautiful and harrowing work.
Edwina Preston is a novelist and PhD candidate in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne.
Julian Novitz
I Want Everything (Summit Books), Dominic Amerena’s blackly funny and acutely well observed satire of Melbourne literary life, struck close to home for me this year. I Want Everything explores Australian literary history and contemporary writing lives with an uncompromising eye as Amerena’s unnamed narrator attempts to extract material for an “eminently fundable” book from his chance encounter with a famously reclusive and mysterious author. Brilliantly funny, it develops the pace and tension of a thriller, as gambits and deceptions start to pile up. Best debut and best novel of 2025 for me.
Julian Novitz is senior lecturer, writing, Swinburne University of Technology.
Jen Webb
My pick is Omar Sakr and Safdar Ahmed’s The Nightmare Sequence (UQP). In a year marked by global levels of violence, both discursive and physical, Sakr and Ahmed use poetry and graphic art to express anger, truth-telling and tenderness. They remind readers that we humans are all in this together – and though “History is an angel with seven faces / All of them are turned away from us”, we can turn towards each other.
Jen Webb is distinguished professor emerita of creative practice, University of Canberra.
Matthew Sharpe
Most people are happy enough to accept the latest gadgets coming to us from Silicon Valley without asking too many questions about what the people who run the companies might think. Science journalist Adam Becker is not one of those content to “wait and see what happens”. In More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity (Basic Books), he probes the ideas of the “techbros” and their cheerleaders. And the news is not comforting. Claiming the mantle of science and backed by billions of dollars, these ideas are often troubling melanges from sci-fi, futurism and racist pseudoscience, whose implications for life as we know it are far from beneficent.
Matthew Sharpe is associate professor in philosophy, Australian Catholic University.
Allanah Hunt
Moonlight and Dust (Allen & Unwin) by Jasmin McGaughey is a fantasy novel that’s enticing from its first page with its dark academia and ecological themes. Set in stunning Cairns, the author’s strong voice weaves together a mystery about a young Torres Strait Islander girl who comes to life in the words, along with her endearing family.
Allanah Hunt is lecturer, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland.
Wanning Sun
In Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future (Allen Lane), Dan Wang gives you a new lens through which to view China and US-China competition. Conceptualising China as an engineering state and America as a lawyerly society, Wang shows that China’s strengths are as impressive as its weaknesses are disturbing. But Wang does not take sides: Breakneck argues China has learned from the West, and now the West should learn from China. Whether or not you agree with him, it is likely to be a thought-provoking – even eye-opening – read.
Wanning Sun is professor of media and cultural studies, University of Technology Sydney.
Julienne van Loon
A yoga teacher, a poet and a long-time reader of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, Antonia Pont has delivered us an idiosyncratic and delightful new non-fiction book. With A Plain Life: On Thinking, Feeling and Deciding (New South), Pont advocates for plainness. That is, for a stance in which we decide for ourselves “that one’s life is intrinsically ‘enough’”. It’s a book about expectations and about capacities, including “unlearning meanness” in the context of our neoliberalist age. I believe the best books become not just an accompaniment, but a living companion: this is one such book.
Julienne van Loon is associate professor in creative writing, University of Melbourne.
Police at the location of one of the campsites just off the Te Anga Road near Waitomo where Tom Phillips had been hiding for the last four years.Dean Purcell/New Zealand Herald via Getty Images
A hearing challenging extensive restrictions that prevents the media from publishing certain details related to the investigation into Tom Phillips is under way.
Phillips died following a shootout with police after they were called to reports of a burglary in the early hours of 8 September.
On 8 September lawyer Linda Clark, acting for Tom Phillips’ mother, went to the High Court in Wellington seeking an urgent injunction.
The injunction – which prevented media, police and Oranga Tamariki from publishing certain details related to the case – was granted by Justice Helen Cull.
A further hearing was held in the Hamilton High Court on Monday.
Media are only permitted to report the fact of the hearing, which continues on Tuesday, and the fact that it involves challenges to existing reporting restrictions including those ordered by the Family Court.
Last week, the government announced an inquiry into the handling of the case by authorities and whether all “practicable steps” were taken to ensure the safety and welfare of the Phillips children.
Attorney-General Judith Collins said the decision to establish a public inquiry “reflects the significant public interest and concern for the children’s welfare over the almost four years they were missing”.
“It is important that we establish the facts and determine whether agencies could take steps to prevent, or resolve similar situations more quickly and effectively in the future,” Collins said.
Attorney-General Judith Collins.Nick Monro
The terms of reference had been developed with the privacy and welfare of the children in mind. The inquiry would therefore be conducted in private and without public hearings.
A spokesperson for the Phillips family released a statement to RNZ.
Collins said the inquiry must also respect the independence of the courts and would not include findings on judicial decisions.
Police have also welcomed the announcement of the inquiry, saying they “recognise the significant public interest in this matter and the decision that a robust and independent review is required”.
The Honourable Justice Simon Moore, KC, has been appointed as the sole member of the inquiry, with a final report and recommendations to be delivered by 21 July 2026.
Family court injunction
A second injunction was granted in the Family Court in Hamilton on 15 September.
A redacted version of Judge Garry Collin’s judgement was earlier released to RNZ.
Judge Collin said there was a “great deal of public interest in the Phillips’ children”, which he said was reflected in media reports and posts on social media.
“It is not in their short or long-term welfare that their experiences are subject to public curiosity or scrutiny.
“They should not be the subject of speculation, nor is it in their welfare and best interests that any information is released.”
He said the media and “public appetite” must be subject to the children’s right to privacy, their protection as vulnerable young victims, and their ability to integrate back into society “without everyone knowing their story”.
“Their views, and rights to participate in the making of decisions about what is written and said about them, needs to be respected. The children need to be able to do this in private, and in their own time.”
Judge Collin said the court was the “guardian of the children”, and had responsibilities “akin to those of a parent”.
“A responsible parent would resist the publication of private sensitive information unless for good reason they considered it to be advantageous.
“In the modern age, information does not disappear with time. What is published may never be removed and may follow these children throughout their lives.”
He said without the children, “there would have been no more than a passing interest in Mr Phillips”.
“This story is not about Mr Phillips but about his children. They were young children when they went in and were young children when they came out. Currently no child in New Zealand is likely to be more vulnerable than they are.”
He understood no-one in the family consented to any further information about the children being published.
Judge Collin said although there may be jurisdictional issues which were better resolved by the High Court, he made interim injunction orders.
He said there may be an issue as to whether he could grant an injunction when the High Court had already done so, or make a restraining order “on more restrictive terms” than made by the High Court.
“These are not issues I intend to deal with today because I do not have the time, and they are in my view, more rightly determined by the High Court.
“Consequently, I intend to make wide ranging restrictions on publication and leave it to the High Court to resolve any jurisdictional issues that exist when the proceedings are next called, or by way of judicial review.”
He made several orders, including an appointment of the court as the guardian of the children to remain, and an interim injunction.
The injunction included restraining anyone from the publication of any documentary, film, or book that referred to the children.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a pardon in his long-running corruption trial – a move that has set off alarm bells among his critics that he’s trying to circumvent the rule of law.
In a video message, Netanyahu says Israel’s current “security and political” situation makes it impossible for him to appear in court several times a week.
His request for a pardon from Israel’s president is just the latest twist in a case that has dragged on for years. It could have significant implications for Israel’s legal system – and Netanyahu’s political future, with elections due next year.
What charges does he face?
Netanyahu is indisputably the most important political figure of modern Israeli politics. He was first elected prime minister in 1996 and is now in his sixth term.
He has been indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, related to investigations that date back to 2016. There are three cases now known by numbers – Case 1,000, Case 2,000 and Case 4,000. The trial began in 2020.
In Case 1,000, Netanyahu is alleged to have received some US$200,000 (A$305,000) worth of gifts, including cigars and champagne, from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer.
Case 2,000 is related to alleged meetings Netanyahu had with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of the prominent Yediot Ahronot newspaper. Prosecutors say Mozes offered Netanyahu favourable coverage in exchange for restrictions being imposed on one of his rival newspapers.
And the final case, Case 4,000 is related to a communications conglomerate, Bezeq. The attorney-general alleges another reciprocal agreement: Netanyahu would be portrayed positively on the online platform, it’s alleged, in exchange for him supporting regulatory changes that would benefit Bezeq’s controlling shareholder.
Netanyahu has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the cases, saying he’s a victim of a “witch hunt”. In 2021, he characterised the charges as “fabricated and ludicorous”. When he took the stand in 2024, he said:
These investigations were born of sin. There was no offence, so they found an offence.
Experts have pointed out that a pardon can only be given once someone’s been convicted of a crime. But Netanyahu is not offering to admit any responsibility or guilt in the case, and he likely never will. He’s simply asking for a pardon, so that he can get on with his job.
Independence of Israel’s judicial system
Since the trial began in 2020, many witnesses have testified in the case, including some former Netanyahu aides who entered into plea bargains and became state witnesses. So, there’s been some pretty damning material brought against Netanyahu.
But he’s been extremely savvy and politically intelligent to use other issues – particularly the Gaza war – at every opportunity to try to postpone or interrupt the proceedings.
And after the Hamas attacks of October 2023, the number of trial days was limited because of security. According to media reports, Netanyahu has frequently requested his hearings be cancelled due to his handling of the war.
Netanyahu’s supporters don’t seem to have a problem with his request for a pardon, but it is shining a light on broader questions around the independence of the Israeli legal system.
In early 2023, the Netanyahu government put forth plans to overhaul the judicial system, which critics said would weaken the Supreme Court and Israel’s system of checks and balances. Netanyahu wasn’t involved in the effort because the attorney-general said it would be a conflict of interest due to his corruption trial, but other ministers in his cabinet were pushing it.
Massive protests happened on a regular basis throughout Israel in response to this move. Critics saw this as a frontal attack on the basic foundations of the Israeli legal system.
The request for a pardon is now part of this wider story, even though the two issues are not formally linked. Netanyahu’s opponents say it’s yet another indication of him and his coalition having a fundamentally different conception of the rule of law.
Netanyahu’s political survival
This is all about Netanyahu’s personal and political survival. He was re-elected leader of the Likud Party this month and he has declared his intention to run again for prime minister in next year’s elections – and that he expects to win.
The Israeli Basic Law suggests Netanyahu couldn’t run if he’s been convicted of a serious offence, though it’s not clear if he would actually be blocked at this point.
Media reports have suggested Netanyahu wants to move up the elections from November to June in the hopes he’ll be able to secure deals to normalise relations with both Saudi Arabia and Indonesia by then. This fits a pattern of him trying to use foreign policy gains to offset his domestic problems.
With elections coming, he’s now trying every possible manoeuvre to improve his position – and the pardon is just one of them. It’s likely the only option he has now to make the case go away because the trial has gone on for so long and at some point the court will have to make a decision.
Michelle Burgis-Kasthala does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Those wanting to chart who’s in the prime minister’s inner sanctum need go no further than the political guests invited to his Saturday wedding.
The list of about 60 attendees for The Lodge nuptials of Albanese and Jodie Haydon included a modest but notable batch of political heavyweights (and their spouses), who form overlapping circles of the prime minister’s inner cabinet, political intimates and praetorian guard.
Perhaps not since the March 2013 marriage of Jim Chalmers, who had just moved from the office of then-treasurer Wayne Swan, and Laura Anderson, adviser to then-prime minister Julia Gillard has a wedding guest list sent such interesting political messages.
But in a dramatic contrast in circumstances and atmospherics, the Chalmers’ wedding, held near Byron Bay, came when a Labor government was spectacularly falling apart. The guests were visibly at sixes and sevens, and the seating plan had to be redone to keep things under a semblance of order.
On Saturday, the only sign of angst seems to have come from Albanese’s dog Toto, apparently reluctant to follow down the aisle. Of skittish disposition, Toto may have also been in revolt against her owner’s decision to put her in a white dress.
At the Chalmers nuptials, Gillard held a “council of war”, repairing to a room to draft a new ministry. One of those reportedly in the room was Penny Wong, who is now at the very heart of Albanese’s circle of intimates. Wong was finance minister at the time of the Chalmers’ wedding and is now foreign minister.
There was no intrigue on Saturday. But if they’d wanted. they could have held a slimmed-down meeting of the expenditure review committee on the sidelines, its membership was so well represented. Chalmers was there (with Laura), as were Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, Wong, Health Minister Mark Butler and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles.
As well as Wong, Butler and Gallagher are among Albanese’s closest confidants.
Those looking into the distant future might have noted that the guest list showed no favouritism on the matter of leadership succession. All three frontrunners had invitations: Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, as well as Chalmers and Marles.
Albanese’s factional back is always well-covered, even on his wedding day. Apart from Burke (from the new South Wales Right), on The Lodge lawns were Don Farrell (the man they nickname “the godfather”, from the right), and Industry Minister Tim Ayres (a close Albanese mate from the New South Wales left who was promoted to cabinet after the election).
Labor’s national secretary, Paul Erickson, a key player in Albanese’s re-election, certainly deserved reward and received an invitation.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Tonga Island Marine Reserve in the Abel Tasman National Park.Unknown
A boat has been seen fishing in a marine reserve off the coast of the Abel Tasman National Park as newly released data shows similar offences spike during summer.
The two reserves in Tasman Bay featuring prominently in the data on marine reserve rule breaches.
Motueka-based Department of Conservation (DOC) marine ranger Stew Robertson said a boat was seen off the Abel Tasman coastline on 16 November inside the Tonga Island Marine Reserve.
A member of the public alerted DOC to the black 6.5 metre Stabicraft, with a distinctive blue trim, whose occupants were seen catching fish about 12.45pm.
A 14-metre white launch was also seen anchored in the Horoirangi Marine Reserve, near Nelson on 5 November.
It was detected on a recently installed camera which monitors the marine reserve, anchored for 90 minutes, which Robertson said was unusual and suspicious boating activity in this particular reserve.
Fishing is banned in marine reserves. Taking and damaging marine life, removing natural materials, polluting and feeding fish are also prohibited.
Roberston has urged for the skipper of either vessel to make contact, or for anyone who saw them in the marine reserve to get in touch with DOC. Information can be provided anonymously and is treated confidentially.
He said there were now more people keeping an eye on the two marine reserves, through the launch of a new Coastwatch group comprising staff from several central and local government agencies and local residents.
Anyone who sees or suspects illegal activity in a marine reserve should call 0800 DOC HOT. Information valuable to DOC includes details of any fishers on land, or any boat involved, descriptions of those aboard, where and when it was seen – and the nature of the alleged activity. Any information offered by the public is valuable, including photographs and videos.
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A 19-year-old Canadian man has been arrested after Customs officers found 15.17 kilograms of methamphetamine in his luggage at Auckland Airport on Sunday.
Customs said the man was identified as a ‘risk passenger’ during its standard pre-arrival screening. Upon arrival from Vancouver, he was taken questioning and a baggage check.
Fifteen vacuum-sealed packages containing a crystal-like substance, which tested positive for meth, were found hidden among clothing in his suitcase.
Customs estimated the potential retail value of the meth was $4.55 million.
The man appeared at Manukau District Court on Monday morning, charged with importing a Class A Controlled drug.
Auckland Airport acting customs manager Ben Wells said customs had robust processes in place to catch drug couriers.
“Customs uses several tools including intelligence and passenger targeting through data and the use of sophisticated technology to identify high-risk passengers such as this individual. Further questioning and a search by front-line officers at the airport clearly indicated that something was not right.
“As we head into the summer season, with higher traveller volumes, every intercept customs officers make further feeds our intelligence and targeting mechanisms to help ensure that only legitimate travellers can pass through, closing the door on opportunities for criminal behaviour.”
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Local Government vice president and Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz.RNZ / Angus Dreaver
The national voice for local councils is relieved that the government is taking a more flexible approach to capping the amount local councils can increase rates.
The government announced on Monday that its long-awaited rates cap law would be a variable target band.
From 2027, councils would not be able to increase rates beyond the upper end of the government’s set range without permission.
The cap was expected to start with a maximum increase of four percent.
Local Government interim chief executive Scott Necklen said it was somewhat reassuring that the government had chosen a more flexible rates model.
But he wanted assurance that the policy would not affect local councils’ ability to invest in core services like roads, bridges and public transport.
“We need a common-sense, fast-track process for exemptions that enables investment in key infrastructure in economic growth in the regions, or when responding to natural disasters.”
Local Government vice president and Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz said keeping rates low was a priority for all local councils.
But she said several councils, including the Gisborne District were rebuilding infrastructure after multiple severe weather events.
“Our community’s expectation is also that we deliver the critical infrastructure and services they rely on in a timely way.
“These are the sorts of considerations we will be working with the government to implement.”
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On Monday, media were given a first look inside the 34,000sqm store which had been in the works for seven years.
What is it like?
IKEA is well known for its bright colours and staged home environments – both of which could be found in the Auckland store.
Customers will be greeted by multiple rooms set up including lounges, kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms and even patios. Each room was adorned with artwork and furnishings down to fake vegetables in the fridges and fake meat on a barbecue.
The colours of IKEA.RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Everything in the rooms has price tags along with the Swedish name for each item.
After wandering through the showrooms, shoppers would come across the restaurant – complete with IKEA’s famous Swedish meatballs.
Customers were advised to download the IKEA app which would help them navigate the store which was across two levels and hep them find where to pick up flatpack items.
What will the roads be like?
Motorists have been told to expect 40-minute queues in the area along with potential hour-long waits for carparks.
Auckland Transport and NZTA have encouraged road users to plan ahead for the day and allow plenty of extra time for their journeys.
Auckland Transport Operations Centre (ATOC) Manager Claire Howard said substantial crowds were expected at IKEA for weeks or even months which would have a substantial effect on the transport network across Auckland.
“Surrounding streets in Mt Wellington will also be busy, with forecast delays of up to 40 minutes on Mt Wellington Highway in peak traffic.”
ATOC – a joint Auckland Transport and NZTA venture for managing the network in real time – has been working with the retail giant to ensure their traffic management plan minimises the traffic impact as much as possible. It would be actively managing light signals and diverting traffic where possible as congestion levels increase.
Congestion was expected to be at its worst during peak hour during the week and on Saturdays between 1 and 4pm – particularly heading northbound from South Auckland toward Mt Wellington.
Staff would be on the ground at Sylvia Park Train Station to help direct people to the store who were travelling by train.
IKEA’s NZ manager Johanna Cederlöf, said for anyone who wasn’t in Auckland or who wanted to avoid the opening day crowds, they could shop online from midnight as a way to beat the crowds.
A place to park the kids.RNZ / Marika Khabazi
In terms of when traffic in the area would ease, Cederlöf said she hoped the crowds at the store would not die down for “quite a while”, but it usually took a couple of months for the initial excitement to die down.
Shelf after shelf of flatpack all ready to go.RNZ / Marika Khabazi
She urged anyone travelling to the store to try taking public transport.
Fans of the IKEA meatballs can buy bags to take home.RNZ / Marika Khabazi
What time does the store open?
Cederlöf said the store would open at 11am on Thursday and the carpark would not open to shoppers until 8.30am.
Anyone who arrived earlier than 8.30am would be asked to leave and come back to make sure everyone stayed safe.
“We chose to open at 11am so that we avoid the morning traffic,” Cederlöf said.
The iconic blue shopping bag is also for sale.RNZ / Marika Khabazi
“Normal work traffic should be already gone and then you can hopefully, conveniently, come to IKEA and we will monitor the situation.”
The regular IKEA opening hours from 5 December onwards would be 9am to 9pm, seven days a week. The carpark and queue would open daily at 7.30am.
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It was a “bittersweet” moment when Melissa Stokes learned she was to be the new lead presenter of TVNZ’s 1News at Six.
“Because my mum died two years ago and she would have loved to have known that I’d got the job.”
He family knew when she found out, but were on strict orders to keep it under wraps until the official announcement, she told RNZ’s Afternoons.
“My Dad was quite keen to tell the Bowls Club but there was a very, ‘no Dad, no, we’ve got to keep this tight’.”
Dallow warned her to be prepared when the announcement was made, she says.
“Simon had said to me, we had a really nice talk on the phone on the Friday before the Monday it was announced, and he said to me, ‘you need to be braced’ and I, probably in my typical way, was like, ‘oh yeah, whatever, I’ll be fine’.
“But it was on the day a little bit overwhelming.”
Dallow has had a formative role in her career, Stokes says.
“I talked to Simon or Wendy [Petrie] down my earpiece for many years as a reporter. And then when I wanted to get into presenting, Simon was the person that I went to because I believe he’s the best at it.
“He’s the best at the craft of news reading and I wanted to learn from the best.”
Breaking news still excites her, Stokes says.
“I really enjoy having to think on my feet or feeling like I’m treading water underneath, but being very still and composed at the top, and that’s important.”
While she’s calm at work, her home life is a different story, she says.
“I’m in a flap quite often. I’m very flappable. But behind the desk, you know, I know what I’m doing. I’m in control.”
A traditional TV news bulletin still has a valuable place in the media landscape, she says.
“You turn to 1News when you want good, fair, balanced and factual reporting. You’re not getting that from your TikTok feed or your Facebook feed.
“I guess when you watch the 6 o’clock news, you’re seeing a product that many eyes and many ears have looked at and have decided what is the most important things of the day and what you need to know.”
Stokes has been with TVNZ for more than two decades, including a stint as Europe Correspondent. She has been presenting 1News at Six on the weekends since 2019.
She will anchor the TVNZ’s main bulletin five nights a week from Sunday to Thursday.
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Two former police houses were unexpectedly taken from a Shannon property after a miscommunication involving government departments.
Ngāti Whakatere, the local iwi, had offered to fix up the old homes as part of a land banking application in a Treaty claim.
Instead, without warning in May this year, the houses were trucked off the land.
Te Meera Hyde, who had applied on behalf of the iwi to land bank the properties, said he only learned they were being removed by chance when a visitor dropped by his house.
“I’m like, you’re joking. And yeah, I just jumped in my car, come straight up here (to) have a look.”
Te Meera HydeMATA
It started with ‘pene raupatu’
The story dates back to 1865, when the land the houses would later be built on was lost to iwi by “pene raupatu” – confiscation by pen.
Under the Native Land Act, the whenua was carved up into small parcels held by just one or two owners, undermining Ngati Whakatere’s collective rights.
Years later, the Manawatu Wellington Railway Company took over the land. The company acted like “speculators for the government,” says Hyde.
“That’s how that land was initially moved from Māori ownership to European ownership.”
Part of the block was later acquired under the Public Works Act and two police homes were built in 1989.
But in 2016 it was decided the town didn’t need a full-time police officer anymore and the homes were vacated. The empty houses fell into disrepair.
Divesting the properties proved a long process, but in July 2024, they were finally listed by the office for Māori Crown Relations Te Arawhiti, (now Te Tari Whakatau) as surplus land and invited Ngāti Whakatere to register their interest in land banking the properties.
In October 2024, Hyde did just that, applying to have the whenua returned to Ngāti Whakatere.
“As part of the application I suggested that our iwi would be prepared to help bring [the houses] up to spec and that they would be made liveable. That was in my application, and you can read all of that, it’s all clear,” Hyde says.
But then in May this year, Hyde rushed to the site after hearing of the house removals. One was already gone and the other was being prepared for relocation.
Hyde says a workman told him they were surplus government houses for demolition.
“He said to me that there’s a crowd of people who are house movers that they regularly have contact with and they said then that they have a list of prospective buyers. So they told me they were on-selling them to this other crowd.”
Precisely what happened next isn’t clear.
The more damaged of the two homes now sits down the road in Shannon township. A local house mover on site told Mata Reports he acquired both houses from the demolition company. He said: “The other one is sitting in our yard… I’ve got a block of land over in Pahiatua that that one might end up on.”
Mata Reports asked how much a house like this would cost. The response was: “Ah, this one was about 60 or 70 grand I think.” He had bought them from a demolition company which had ended up shifting and selling them.
The demolition company says no money changed hands between them and the removal company.
None of the companies involved have acted improperly. But it does raise the question: how did houses that should have been land banked for a Treaty claim end up being onsold at the taxpayer’s expense?
Police director of property and fleet Brian YankoMATA
A costly ‘misunderstanding’
Police told Mata Reports it paid around $138,000 for the houses to be demolished. The process involved at least four different companies – the demolition company says it received only a portion of that amount. Saving the houses from landfill reduced overall costs, the company says.
It appears police only became aware of the houses being on sold instead of demolished after the iwi and locals began asking questions.
Police director of property and fleet, Brian Yanko, says it was a complete surprise that the houses had ended up being sold to private owners.
Police were under “time pressure” with it being the end of the financial year and neighbours had been complaining about the properties being in a state of disrepair and vandalised, Yanko says.
A police report into the divesting of the houses blamed “a communication misunderstanding, Police did not appreciate that there was iwi interest in the property.”
Yanko acknowledges Police made a mistake and he takes personal responsibility for it.
Te Tari Whakatau declined to be interviewed but in a written statement said it gave advice to the Police’s property agent about the process that needed to be followed due to the land banking applications.
“We also asked that they notify us if they decided to remove the houses, so we could let the applicant know before any work commenced. Ultimately, we did not proactively inform the applicant that the houses were being removed, because we were unaware of this ourselves.”
Whatever the cause of the misunderstanding, many in Shannon are upset that two state houses that could have housed whanau wound up sold off.
Sharon WilliamsMATA
Community disappointment
The whole saga has angered Sharon Williams, the community navigator for Hapai Te Hapori. In 2021, Williams called for the houses to be restored and rented out because there was and is a shortage of housing in Shannon.
“We’re not happy at what’s happened. We’re not happy about the way that the Iwi have been treated, especially in the process,” Williams says.
“We need housing here in Shannon. We need available housing. We need affordable housing. And we the iwi to be respected and due process to be followed”.
Te Meera Hyde says they have since received an apology from Te Tari Whakatau.
“We apologise to you for what has occurred. The site has now been cleared and the bare land will be considered for land banking in June.”
A decision about Ngati Whakatere’s land banking application is expected soon, and Hyde is still optimistic for the future.
“We’re always hopeful, we’re always looking for tino rangatiratanga, put it that way,” he says.
“We know who we are, we know where we are and we have whanau that know where we should be going. Prosperity, tino rangatiratanga, kotahitanga”
Hundreds of empty state-owned houses
A survey of agencies by Mata Reports found there are hundreds of state-owned houses sitting empty, in addition to those owned by Kāinga Ora. Of the agencies contacted, at least 400 vacant houses in state ownership were reported, even as families wait for homes.
Land Information New Zealand has 175 vacant houses and 24 earmarked for demolition.
Ministry of Education has 89 vacant homes.
Police has 52 vacant houses.
Corrections has 5 vacant homes.
Oranga Tamariki has 6 empty homes with 1 set for demolition.
Fire and Emergency has 4 empty homes.
MBIE has 7 portable and 29 cabins sitting idle, held for Civil Defence emergencies.
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The city’s 150-odd parks and reserves had been hit hard by damages.RNZ / Calvin Samuel
The damage caused by the storm that swept through Invercargill in October has cost the local council about $2.4 million, but it expects much of that cost will not be able to be recovered through insurance.
A local state of emergency was declared when gales caused widespread damage and thousands of power outages in October, downing trees, power lines and tearing roofs off buildings.
The Invercargill City Council reviewed the initial financial impacts report at a recent meeting, saying it was focused on the recovery efforts in the wake of significant damage.
In a report tabled at the meeting, the council said it was working with insurance assessors to confirm how much coverage it had.
Council chief executive Michael Day said the current cost estimates were expected to change once more assessments were completed and the sale of timber was finalised.
“The amount of damage inflicted on some of our facilities and infrastructure was significant and, unfortunately, completely outside of our control,” he said.
“We know how important these spaces are for our community, and it’s critical that we undertake substantial repair efforts to get Invercargill and Bluff back to normal.
“The costs associated with undertaking this work are unavoidable, as we need to ensure our community’s safety is prioritised.”
The council expected much of the cost would not be recoverable from insurance so it would likely to debt-fund the shortfall through a five-year loan, Day said.
The city’s 150-odd parks and reserves had been hit hard with an estimated $930,538 price tag that did not include the cost of tree replanting, he said.
Close to $300,000 needed to repair damage to street lights and traffic signals with a further $294,687 earmarked to damaged roofs and windows at council-owned buildings including Splash Palace.
“These facilities are a real lifeline for many people in our community, so we are working as hard and as fast as we can to carry out the repairs they need,” Day said.
Between the 23 October, when the wind struck, and 7 November, when the state of emergency was lifted, council employees had tallied up 525 hours of work at Emergency Management Southland.
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It’s only the first day of summer but already a code brown is casting an unwanted shadow over Auckland’s beaches.
Sewage overflows from thunderstorms over the weekend have impacted water quality at beaches across the central city, with swimmers being warned to stay out of the Waitematā – or risk a nasty bug.
At Auckland’s Herne Bay Beach, friends Chris and Lauren were making the most of their day off.
But danger lurked under the surface. The beach was one of 13 to be marked black by Auckland Council on Monday, denoting a wastewater overflow.
Dozens more were marked red, meaning poor water quality.
Chris was relieved they hadn’t been swimming.
“[We] just wanted to enjoy the sun at the beach on our day off,” she said.
“I had no idea. I think I’m not going to swim right now, actually. I think we’re going to have to maybe drive further down to be able to swim in the sea.”
Lauren said she preferred to keep her distance from faeces, but she had seen a lot worse.
“I have very sensitive skin, especially with like folliculitis and like skin irritations, so water quality is important to me,” she said.
“I did yoga training in Bali and there was literal trash and like faecal matter in the water and I wouldn’t want to do that again. Wouldn’t recommend it.”
RNZ/Felix Walton
Thunderstorms over the weekend had filled Auckland’s wastewater infrastructure to the brim and spilled out into the harbour.
Victoria University freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy told Midday Report the warming climate would cause more frequent spills over time.
“You’ve got climate change, which means warmer temperatures, which means more growth of, you know, dangerous bacteria, but also more extremes in weather,” he said.
“So we get these flooding events and high rainfall events.”
He said the ageing wastewater infrastructure across New Zealand couldn’t handle the volume.
“Huge amounts of water that shouldn’t be in a sewage system that gets in through, you know, old broken infrastructure plus illegal connections, meaning massive flows, you know, additional flows coming into wastewater treatment plants and they just can’t handle it,” he said.
“They don’t have storage. They open the gates and let it out.”
At Sentinel Beach in Herne Bay, beachgoer Michael wished he could just go for a swim without ending up waist deep in waste.
“Yeah, I think that’s pretty bad… It would be nice to be able to like come down here, have a swim and know it’s safe without checking,” he said.
Auckland Council’s SafeSwim technical lead Dr Martin Neale said swimmers risked catching a nasty bacterial infection.
“The source of the contamination is pathogens in the water. So, that’s the risk you’re exposing yourself to,” he said.
“Generally, those will manifest as either respiratory or tummy upsets. But sometimes if you have a cut or something like that, it can infect the cut.”
He warned of similar interruptions throughout the rest of summer.
“During summer is when we get these sort of intense thunderstorm situations like we had yesterday, there was thunderstorm warnings out and we’ll see them in summer,” Neale said.
“We don’t know how many, but when those things do happen, we would encourage people to check out SafeSwim.”
Neale expected the contaminated waters to clear over the following two days.
In a statement, Watercare noted that it was already investing in upgrading wastewater infrastructure to reduce spills.
“We are investing $8 billion in new and upgraded wastewater infrastructure in the next decade, which includes $4.8b specifically in wastewater networks to reduce overflows,” head of wastewater Jon Piggot said.
“For Herne Bay and St Marys Bay, the real results will come around 2028 when we finish the Herne Bay Collector tunnel.”
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Football Fern Annalie Longo will end her international career against the Matildas in Adelaide.www.photosport.nz
Football Ferns legend Annalie Longo knew the end of a career spanning nearly 20 years at the top was coming this year and she is thankful to walk away on her own terms.
Longo will retire from international football after Tuesday’s match against Australia’s Matildas at Coopers Stadium in Adelaide.
The midfielder will finish her Football Ferns career on 144 caps, the fifth-highest total in the team’s history, and 15 goals.
Longo made her senior international debut as a teenager, before appearing at five FIFA Women’s World Cups, including the home tournament in 2023, and four Olympic Games.
Scoring her first goal against Japan to level the game in 2013, the 2012 Olympics where the Football Ferns won their first match at a Games and winning the opening game of the 2023 Football World Cup in Auckland, were among the highlights from a senior career which began in 2006.
The decision to hang up her boots follows her retirement from professional club football with Wellington Phoenix in April.
“It comes with mixed emotions. I can proudly say I have given everything for the Fern and this team,” she said.
“Football has shaped who I am.”
Longo said entering the senior national team as a 15-year-old she was “full of dreams and hopes that I would get to represent my country”.
“The journey it has given me and the memories and experiences and the rollercoasters its given me, it’s been part of my life for so long so obviously a tough decision but when I look at the future of the team and what they need going forward I think it’s the right time to step away.”
Longo was “tempted” to stay with the national team with the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup on the horizon but said there were several reasons why it would be better if she did not.
“When I look at my heart, I think if I’m still around playing in 2027 we’ve got a bit of a disservice to the system we’re growing in New Zealand. So, I have to look at it both ways and what’s best for the team and if I continued to stay around, just with my age and the toughness that it is to play professional football and the stage of my career, also where my body is at, a number of factors that kind of play into the decision I think the best thing for the team is that they get ready and work towards that 2027 campaign.”
Football Ferns head coach Michael Mayne was not ready for Longo to retire when she stepped away from the Phoenix so he asked her to fill a role with the national team this year.
“It’s been a challenge to work hard and not have a professional team but I try, as I have always done throughout my career, to keep my standards high and do whatever I can to be on that pitch,” Longo said.
“Timing-wise it felt right being able to build and create some structures in the way we want to move forward under Mayne so it was a privilege and I’m grateful to have that opportunity.”
Longo was emotional in recognising the likes of former captain, Ali Riley, who did not get to leave football on their own terms.
Riley retired in October after a prolonged battle with a chronic nerve injury.
“I know not everybody who has been part of the Ferns has had the perfect send-off… I hope [her experience] is set in stone of what it should be and when players retire, who have committed so much to the Ferns, that we can celebrate the amazing legacy that past Ferns previously maybe didn’t get the opportunity to do.”
Football will still be a big part of Longo’s life. She is already in a player development role with New Zealand Football and she was looking forward to dedicating more time to “inspiring and growing” the next generation.
She said coaching was a route she wanted to pursue.
Mayne said the link to former Ferns was important and he planned to keep in touch with Longo into the future.
“You can see everything you need to know about her by looking at her journey in the shirt. She has seen and experienced it all, but throughout her career she has always played her role, put the team first, and promoted excellence for herself and the side,” Mayne said
“Having seen Annalie come through the coaching pathway and where she is at in that, I think between her role, the coaching, there is no doubt in my mind the character she is and belief in our country, the drive for things to be better – all those things line-up to someone who can have a massive impact in the next phase of her career and life and that’s what we need more of going forward.
“That’s probably a gap I’ve seen for different reasons where we can do a lot better.
“That’s part of my belief system in this role is how do we put things in place to make sure we’re retaining good people and people that can shift the game because we need more than what we’ve got at the moment. So, I will be definitely be a regular still talking to her and picking her brain because you can’t just let experience and knowledge disappear in our system we don’t have the luxury to be able to do that.”
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More than 900 people are dead, thousands more missing and millions affected by a band of cyclones and extreme monsoonal weather across southern Asia. Torrential rain has triggered the worst flooding in decades, accompanied by landslides. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia have been hit hardest. The death toll is likely to rise significantly.
Normally, cyclones don’t form close to the equator. But Cyclone Senyar formed just north of the equator in the Malacca Strait. It triggered lethal flooding in Sumatra and peninsular Malaysia last week.
It wasn’t alone. Other tropical cyclones formed along a zone of converging trade winds north of the equator. Typhoon Koto caused severe flash floods and landslides in the Philippines before weakening as it neared Vietnam. Tropical Cyclone Ditwah devastated Sri Lanka. One reason Sumatra was hit by such severe flooding was due to the unusual interaction between Typhoon Koto and Cyclone Senyar, which has now weakened.
The near-simultaneous emergence of these intense storms isn’t unheard of, and equatorial cyclones are rare but known. But the devastation is extraordinary. Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake described the floods as the “most challenging natural disaster” in the country’s history. Is there a climate link? We don’t know yet, but we do know climate change is projected to trigger fewer cyclones overall, but with higher intensity.
Why are cyclones rare near the equator?
Cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes are different names for the same strong, spinning tropical storms. These storms form over large expanses of warm water – but not usually on the equatorial seas.
This is because there’s not enough Coriolis force from Earth’s rotation at the equator to spin storms into their classic cyclonic structure.
The closest cyclone to the equator was the 2001 Tropical Storm Vamei which formed at just 1.4°N. Cyclone Senyar formed at 3.8°N.
While tropical cyclones can form in any month, they’re more common between July and October in the northwest Pacific and North Indian oceans. Cyclone Senyar and Typhoon Koto formed in the Northwest Pacific Basin, which has the largest, most frequent and most intense tropical cyclones in the world. Several devastating typhoons have hit the Philippines and parts of southern China this year.
One reason these cyclones have caused widespread damage is because they have hit countries where cyclones are rare, such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
Tropical cyclones are often smaller and much less common in the North Indian Ocean, including the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. But Cyclone Ditwar tracked directly down Sri Lanka’s east coast, magnifying the damage.
Is there a climate link?
As the world’s oceans and atmosphere warm at an accelerating rate due to the rise in greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, tropical cyclones are expected to become more intense.
This is because cyclones get their energy from warm oceans. The warmer the ocean, the more fuel for the storm.
We can’t immediately say climate change made these storms worse, as it takes time to pinpoint any link.
What does this mean for Australia’s cyclone season?
Many Australians will wonder whether these devastating cyclones across Asia are a warning for northern Australia’s monsoon season.
The wet season has started with a bang in northern Australia, after Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina caused damage and disruption across the Top End and Kimberley last week. It was very early for a cyclone in the south Pacific and Indian oceans, as the season runs November to May.
Last week also saw the most damaging spring storms in more than a decade in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. Giant hail and destructive winds did major damage, costing one insurer an estimated A$350 million.
This doesn’t mean a bad cyclone season is guaranteed. It’s not possible to predict individual tropical cyclone events far in advance.
All indicators point to a mixed wet season across the north this year, with below-average rainfall across much of the northwest and average to above-average rainfall across the northeast.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has just declared a La Niña in the Pacific. La Niña typically bring cooler, wetter weather to northern Australia and a stronger monsoon and higher risk of cyclones. This La Niña is likely to be relatively weak and short-lived, which is why rainfall predictions are largely average.
Across most of the Coral Sea, sea surface temperatures are up to 2°C above normal. This unusual warmth increases the risk of cyclone formation as well as more intense monsoonal rains and flooding in coming months.
The Bureau of Meteorology recently ended seasonal cyclone forecasts as it’s no longer possible to do so reliably. Until now, meteorologists have used historic data to reasonably accurately model the total number of cyclones in a season. But the climate is now changing so fast it’s no longer possible to do this. As rescue attempts continue in many countries in the region, it’s clear we are now entering uncharted territory.
Steve Turton has previously received funding from the Australian and Queensland governments.
The government’s long-awaited rates cap will be a variable target band, and would be enforced by a new regulator.
Likely starting with minimum increases of two percent and a maximum of four percent, the cap would take effect from 1 January 2027.
It was not clear from the initial written statement how often the target might change, or exactly how it would be calculated, only that this could include “indicators like inflation at the lower end and GDP growth at the higher end”.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts said councils will need to seek permission from a new regulator to go above the maximum, and that permission would only be granted in “extreme” circumstances.
Water charges and other non-rates revenue will be exempt from the target range, but all general rates, targeted rates and uniform annual charges would be subject to the limits.
Watts indicated the ranges would likely start at between 2 percent and 4 percent per capita, per year, based on analysis.
“This means rates increases would be limited to a maximum of 4 percent,” he said.
Local Government Minister Simon WattsRNZ/Mark Papalii
Consultation on the changes announced at the post-Cabinet briefing on Monday opened immediately, and set to close in February 2026 with the legislation expecting to be passed by the end of that year.
The target would begin from 2027, with the “full regulatory model” in place by 1 July 2029.
The announcement follows last week’s unveiling of the government’s plan to abolish regional councillors, replacing them with panels of mayors from city and district councils.
In a statement, Watts said rates increases that recently had been in double digits was “unsustainable and is only adding to the cost of living for many Kiwis”.
“Ratepayers deserve councils that live within their means, focus on the basics and are accountable to their community. The Government’s decision to introduce a cap on rates will support that ambition and protect local government’s social license for the long term,” he said.
“A minimum increase is necessary so councils can continue to provide essential services like rubbish collection, council roads maintenance and the management of parks and libraries.
“From 2027, councils will be required to consider the impact of rates caps on their long-term plans and report on areas of financial performance, like the cost of wages and salaries, council rates as a percentage of local house prices and estimates of local infrastructure deficits.
“The full regulatory model will take effect by 2029. However, officials will be monitoring rates rises nationwide as soon as the legislation is enacted. Where councils propose increases beyond the proposed cap, this may present grounds for intervention under the Local Government Act.”
He said councils should not wait for the full enactment of the rates capping model before controlling rates increases for their constituents.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
