Source: Radio New Zealand

The Education Review Office says it is introducing new, simpler reports about schools next month.

It says from term two ERO reports will include a summary that gives families an at-a-glance understanding of the performance of their children’s school.

The office says the new reports will have more focus on children’s progress to show how well schools are improving their pupils’ achievement.

They will also include a visual representation of how each schools is performing across a number of areas.

Education Minister Erica Stanford is in Auckland where she is announcing the overhaul.

ERO chief review officer Ruth Shinoda said the new reports would lift education standards by providing parents with clear, useful and accessible information about schools.

“Crucially, they are more sharply focused on the things that make the biggest difference to learner success and wellbeing – including attendance, progress, achievement and assessment.

“Parents and whānau will be able to clearly see what’s working well in a school, and what needs attention – and they will be able to see the clear pathway for schools to follow to lift student outcomes.

“Equally, the reports are a critical document for school leaders – so they know what to focus on to lift student success,” Shinoda said.

Shinoda said the they would provide a roadmap for improvement to enable schools to make changes and get support they need, and would also celebrate progress schools had made.

“Ultimately these changes will drive improvement for education for every learner in New Zealand,” she said.

Education Minister Erica Stanford is announcing the overhaul. Watch live at the top of the page.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A Tauranga school was put into lockdown this morning after reports of someone with a weapon.

Police were called to Cameron Road at about 8.50am.

“A nearby school was advised to be placed into a lockdown, however this has since been stood down,” Police said.

“The person alleged to have a weapon was located, where Police found a knife in their possession, and taken into custody.”

Police say they’re continuing to make enquiries.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Residents of Blockhouse Bay in southwestern Auckland were dismayed to learn early last year that their local Woolworths supermarket was earmarked to close.

While the Donovan Street store wasn’t the largest supermarket in the area, many living nearby treated it as an extension of their household refrigerators, popping down to the neighbourhood hub on a near-daily basis to pick up grocery supplies.

Rumours started circulating that a large chemist chain had taken over the lease or, worse still, that the 2,200-square-metre site had been sold to developers who wanted to build a block of apartments on it.

So it was with some relief that locals learned the lease had been taken over by grocery chain Golden Apple, with plans to open a fully functional Asian supermarket in August this year.

But the recent tenancy changes at the heart of the village in this quiet residential Auckland suburb represent more than just a straight retail swap from a mainstream supermarket giant to an emerging rival.

It mirrors Auckland’s wider demographic changes as an increasing number of residents claim Asian heritage.

‘Little sleepy village’

Eileen Rusden was born in Blockhouse Bay almost a century ago, living there with her parents until she was about 20 years old.

When the 93-year-old first started school in 1939, she recalled the area being a “little sleepy village”.

“When I was here, there were probably only about five shops in the village,” she said.

Rusden said her school classmates were overwhelmingly English-speaking, most of them being children of European settlers who had arrived in New Zealand in the 1920s.

She recalls Blockhouse Bay being a happy place to grow up.

However, she noticed the suburb beginning to change after she married and moved away in 1953.

“That was when the housing started after World War II,” Rusden said. “The big farms and large sections were developed, and I missed all of that. That was when the village got more shops.”

By the time she returned to Blockhouse Bay in 2001, it looked little like the suburb she had once known.

But as more families have moved in, new businesses opened and the area continued to grow, Rusden said she had come to value the suburb’s diversity.

“I think it’s marvellous,” she said. “You go into all the shops now and you get such a lovely welcome.”

Mary Marshall, president of the Blockhouse Bay Historical Society, was born and raised in Blockhouse Bay.

The 70-year-old has watched the suburb change over the decades.

Marshall’s parents were British immigrants who arrived in New Zealand in 1949 after World War II and settled in the suburb soon after.

“Blockhouse Bay was a very different place at that time,” Marshall said.

In pre-European times, the headland at Blockhouse Bay Beach was the site of a Māori pā.

Indeed, the rocky outcrop still known as Te Whau Point and is regarded as an important archaeological site today.

“It had become very much a place in the early half of the century where people would come for picnics,” Marshall said.

“They’d go down to the beach. Companies would hold their summer picnics there and do everything.”

Marshall’s parents ran a dairy in the area, one of the few businesses at the time.

After World War II, more houses went up and the local shopping strip began to expand, she said.

However, Marshall said most dramatic demographic shift occurred after Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to China when a wave of migration from Asia changed the character of the suburb.

“You had all the British people coming through, obviously,” she said. “A lot of Chinese people immigrated to New Zealand, and the population changed tremendously then.”

A growing Asian population

Stats New Zealand’s 2023 Census showed that 3426 households resided in Blockhouse Bay.

The suburb’s estimated population in 2025 was 14,650.

By ethnicity, 55.8 percent of Blockhouse Bay residents claimed Asian heritage.

Of those, 28 percent identified as Indian and 16.5 percent as Chinese.

European residents made up 33.5 percent of the local population, Pacific 10.9 percent and Māori 6.1 percent.

The figures sit within a broader shift across Auckland, where the proportion of individuals claiming Asian heritage is projected to make up 44 percent of the city’s population by 2043.

Krystene Vickers, a committee member of the Blockhouse Bay Historical Society who also lives in the suburb, said the local grocery store had always been the beating heart of the community.

Vickers, 63, said the first grocery store in Blockhouse Bay opened in 1949, when the local Winchcombe family converted its shop into a Four Square self-service store.

It remained the village’s main grocery destination until 1973, when Foodtown, a much larger supermarket chain, opened on the same site that will eventually be occupied by Golden Apple.

In a detail she described a fitting, Vickers said Foodtown’s rise also had connections to Auckland’s Chinese community.

Tom Ah Chee, an entrepreneur of Chinese descent from a successful family of produce merchants, helped establish the Foodtown chain across Auckland with several business partners.

Foodtown’s impact on Blockhouse Bay extended beyond being a place to shop.

Even after Blockhouse Bay Foodtown became a Countdown store in 2011, Vickers said the old name never quite disappeared.

“What’s funny is even with the rebranding over the years, staff pretty much remained the same,” she said.

“Our children grew up knowing them and often the kids worked stocking shelves … so it was very much part of the community as well.

“We never stopped calling it Foodtown,” she said.

Vickers agreed that Blockhouse Bay had been demographically diverse for several decades.

“Since I arrived [in 1989], that’s diversified out to much more encompass people from India, Pakistan, the Middle East, China and [South] Korea,” she said.

“It’s lovely. It’s just built this whole layer upon layer of culture and history that everyone brings.”

That diversity is now clearly visible in Blockhouse Bay’s town centre, where the mix of shopfronts reflects the suburb’s changing communities.

Stats New Zealand’s business data shows 1271 business locations in Blockhouse Bay in 2025.

Trevor Andrews, chairman of the Blockhouse Bay Business Association, said the local business landscape had shifted over time, expanding from an overwhelmingly European focus to include more Asian-run businesses, which he said had helped strengthen the community.

“It makes the community – the business community – a very vibrant community of different nationalities and different people,” Andrews said.

“Each business owner brings in its own different types of customers as well,” he said.

“We do get a lot of variety of people – a lot of different faces – coming to Blockhouse Bay.”

‘Feeling of belonging’

Shirley Browne, who has run a fashion store bearing her given name in Blockhouse Bay for more than three decades, said she had long been drawn to the suburb’s unique and calm character, even though she lived in nearby Titirangi.

Browne said she had built a loyal customer base over the years, and that getting to know newer Asian customers had also been rewarding.

“Some of the Asian people are a little bit more reserved perhaps,” she said.

“But in time they’ll smile and give you a wave and eventually come into the shop. So that’s been rewarding.”

Olwyn Andrews, owner of Floriculture, has run her business in Blockhouse Bay village for more than five years.

The flower shop owner said the local commercial mix had shifted from retail toward more service-based businesses.

At the same time, changes in the suburb’s population have altered the rhythm of her work.

“We’re seeing a much broader demographic of people, and a lot of younger families moving in,” she said. “We’ve really watched our customer base change, and it’s been a good change.

“It’s good to learn about new cultures and their different preferences, including what they like and dislike in flowers.”

Kevin He, branch manager at Ray White Blockhouse Bay, lived in the suburb for about 15 years before moving elsewhere.

He said the number of Asian families living in Blockhouse Bay had grown steadily since 2015.

“Our customer base is quite broad,” he said. “In terms of ethnicity, roughly 70 percent are of Asian descent, including Koreans, Chinese and Indians. Relatively speaking, about 30 percent are Chinese and 40 percent are Indian.”

He said many new migrants chose Blockhouse Bay as a place to settle because the community offered a sense of belonging.

“You have the feeling of belonging here,” he said.

“In some areas, you might feel, ‘Oh, this place doesn’t have any Asian faces,’ and you might feel a bit lonely. But when you come to this area, you feel welcomed.”

Bharat Patel and his wife have run Domain Dairy for about 20 years in Blockhouse Bay.

The shop, built around 1927 by a landowner named Fowler, was the third in the area.

Patel said the dairy had been sustained by strong support from the local community.

“A lot of people from Asia are coming, Indians and Chinese too,” Patel said. “Some Pākehā have moved away. Still, people are good here. Pākehā customers support the dairy a lot.”

Although the dairy had changed hands many times, Patel said its place in the suburb’s collective memory had remained intact.

“Sometimes Pākehā people come here to visit and say, ‘When we were kids, we used to buy from this dairy,’” he said.

Patel is considering retiring next year.

But after roughly 35 years in New Zealand, he was proud to be carrying forward a business that had nearly 100 years of history.

Eleena Kujur, manager of Indian restaurant Ricksha, said she had found Blockhouse Bay a safe and welcoming place to live and work.

As a migrant, she said her relationship with customers often felt less like a transaction and more like friendship.

“We haven’t had any customers who don’t treat us like family,” she said. “They don’t even call the restaurant number. They call us directly and ask, ‘Can you book our table?’”

‘It makes us richer’

After more than 13 years in the florist industry, including running flower shops in various parts of Auckland, Andrews said the changes in Blockhouse Bay reflected Auckland’s broader evolution as a more diverse city.

“I do think Auckland has become more diverse,” she said. “I’ve seen the change since I was a teenager at Lynfield College to where I am now.

“I do think it’s a good change. We learn so much from other people, from other cultures, from other walks of life. It makes us richer to have those experiences.”

Marshall agreed, saying the demographic changes were not confined to Blockhouse Bay but were visible across the country.

“New Zealand has been a land where immigrants came,” she said.

“Here have always been different waves of migrants that changed the ethnicity of the place and the diversity.

“All of those different groups of ethnicities brought new things with them.

“That’s what I think is fantastic about those changes and the diversity that comes through happening all over Auckland, all over New Zealand.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Emergency services are at the scene of a four-vehicle crash in Palmerston North this morning.

The crash was reported at about 8.25am at the intersection of Rangitikei Line and Flygers Line in Cloverlea, police said.

Two people are being taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Motorists are advised to use alternative routes while the scene is cleared.

But the road is expected to reopen shortly.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A specialist police force will be needed to patrol deep below Auckland’s streets on the new City Rail Link, says a city councillor.

Transport officers and Māori wardens currently patrol public transport, but do not have the power to arrest anyone – which is why some have called for a dedicated police force.

But the police said there were no plans for such a move.

Manukau ward councillor and former police officer Alf Filipaina said with Auckland’s billion dollar transport project opening later this year, safety needed to be a priority.

“What happens when the police have been called to a serious incident somewhere else, and there’s a serious incident in the tunnels? That’s what I want to make sure – that the conversation be had.”

The City Rail Link will have three new underground stations: in the Auckland CBD, Karangahape road and Mount Eden.

Transport officers, like private security guards, had no special powers to arrest suspected criminals.

They have a role to play in policing the new train stations, but they could only do so much, Filipaina said.

“If you haven’t got the ability to arrest and you’re in the tunnel, you just need to wait for the police. Sometimes you don’t have that time or opportunity to do that.”

Auckland Transport incident and experience manager Mike McCann said transport officers provided a visible presence on public transport and checked for people trying to get a free ride, but could only respond to anti-social behaviour by observing and reporting it to the police.

National coordinator of the public transport users association Jon Reeves said his group had been calling for a dedicated transport police force in Auckland for years, and with the City Rail Link close to opening it was more important than ever.

“We’re going to have a mass increase over the next two years of users onto public transport, and that includes users who don’t actually want to get on there and be good New Zealand citizens.

“There’s some that want to do some things which are a little untoward and could be very bad and so that’s why we do need to have some action now.”

Tramways and Public Transport Employees union president Gary Froggatt agreed.

“It would provide more protection, more security, safety. They’d also have the ability to monitor fares, etc. Currently there’s thousands and thousands of dollars lost in the system through people not paying their fares.”

But Police Association president Steve Watt did not support the idea.

“At the end of the day, the police have a limited number of staff which they can deploy to deal with situations, and if police permanently based someone on the Auckland Transport network that means something else has got to give.

The City Rail Link stations may pose extra risk, but police would be able to manage that under the current beat policing approach, he said.

“By its very nature in being underground, obviously there will be some difficulties in potentially reaching certain areas, but I’m sure that between Auckland Transport and police they’ll be able to work those out.”

Auckland City crime prevention manager Inspector Grant Tetzlaff said police would continue to focus on being highly visible in high profile and busy public spaces including the City Rail Link.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are again appealing for anyone who knows anything about the death of Abdulhassan Nabizadah to come forward.

It’s been a year since the 63-year-old was assaulted, robbed and left critically injured on Camperdown Road in the Wellington suburb of Miramar.

The offenders, who stole nothing more than his car keys, then left him bleeding and unconscious on the footpath.

Despite best efforts, Nabizadah’s head injuries were unsurvivable and he died in hospital the next day.

Police previously told RNZ they think Nabizadah was “set up” to be robbed, but it took a violent turn.

“We know the people responsible will have talked about the death with friends and family,” Detective Senior Sergeant Tim Leitch said on Tuesday.

Police are encouraging those people to come forward.

Earlier, Leitch said the Nabizadah family didn’t have closure and needed to move on.

“Nabizadah was a husband, father, and grandfather, who brought his family to New Zealand from Afghanistan seeking a better life. Instead, his life was taken in a violent and senseless way.”

Anyone with any information is asked to call 105, referencing numbers 250317/6324 or Operation Celtic. Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Families with disabled children are facing reductions in support under new rules that include income from boarders in assessments for accommodation supplements or income-related rent in public housing.

Before 2 March, only income from three or more boarders was included.

Minister for Social Development Louise Upston said, when the change was announced in the 2024 Budget, it was simplifying inconsistent treatment of board and rent payments.

It was expected that of the 8200 households who received the accommodation supplement and have boarders, about 7000 would have a reduction in support, of an average $100 a week.

About 6200 social housing households receiving board payments were expected to be affected, with an average rent increase of $132 a week.

Some families said that boarding situations were commonly used when adult children were living at home – sometimes because they could not move out.

“I’ve got a daughter with special needs who will never move out because she’s not capable of doing anything for herself,” one mother, Cheryl said.

“She’s fully dependent so now with the new laws because she’s 18, she gets her own benefit, her board money is now considered an income for me.

“Thankfully we live in the middle of nowhere so our mortgage is cheaper than what people are paying in rent. But people that are paying more would be affected drastically … my girl is non verbal … she’s under 50kg.

“Although she pays rent it mostly goes on food to try and fatten her up and get her over 50kg. It’s not really spent on a roof over her head.”

The potential for disabled people and young people to be more affected was highlighted in a supplementary analysis report by MSD.

University of Auckland associate professor Susan St John said the change had happened with “remarkably little scrutiny”.

She said people who were hosting homestay students would also be affected.

“It’s one of those changes that have been rushed through and was designed to save a paltry amount of money, $160 million over four years.

“We don’t know even whether it’s going to save that because of the behavioural change. People will just find it is not worthwhile to take on boarders … it’s a very complicated, punitive, discouraging kind of policy.”

Green Party spokesperson Ricardo Mendendez March said the policy made it harder for people who were already struggling.

“This is why this policy was never about fairness, but about finding ways to save money, which is explicitly named in the government budget as basically a cost-saving measure.

“Our concern is that at a time of high unemployment, at a time of a cost of living crisis and the fuel crisis bout to make life harder for everyday people, that we’re about to see people whose ability to make ends meet will be made a lot harder due to their inability to claim the full amount for the accommodation supplement as they would have been able to do so previously.”

Upston said in a press release at the time the change was announced that it supported the Government’s aim of making public services fiscally sustainable and effective.

“We believe that those who have a genuine need should be able to get the help they require while ensuring consistency across MSD payments,” Upston said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The government has announced that hospitals will get hundreds more staff and extra beds as the health system prepares for winter pressure.

Health Minister Simeon Brown said Health New Zealand would invest an extra $25 million to boost hospital capacity and staffing across the country ahead of the colder months.

The funding would provide up to 378 additional full-time staff across nursing, medical, allied health and support roles and 71 extra winter hospital beds.

The beds would be added at four hospitals – 25 at Waikato, 20 in Christchurch, 14 at Middlemore in Auckland and 12 in Wellington.

The government said $16.8 million, around two-thirds of the funding, would going to the most pressured areas including Capital Coast and Hutt Valley, MidCentral, Auckland’s Te Toka Tumai, Counties Manukau, Waikato and Christchurch.

It’s also funding up to 567 short-stay beds in aged residential care to help free up hospital space, and is expanding the “Hospital in the Home” services to allow patients to leave hospital sooner.

Brown said emergency department visits continued to rise as the population grows and ages, putting increasing pressure on hospitals during winter.

“Despite these challenges, Health New Zealand has seen emergency department performance improve since the reintroduction of the government’s health targets, with more patients now being seen sooner, reversing several years of declining performance,” he said.

“While hospitals undertake seasonal planning each year as part of normal operations, winter demand still places significant pressure on services and frontline staff. That’s why strengthening capacity early, ahead of the winter months, is critical to ensuring patients receive timely care.”

Brown said he had made it clear to the Health New Zealand Board that he expected a plan to prepare hospitals for winter to be in place early.

“This gives New Zealanders confidence that the system is getting ready to support them heading into winter,” he said.

“Hospitals will still face high levels of demand this winter. But by planning early, expanding capacity, and supporting our frontline teams, we are giving them the tools, resources, and flexibility they need to better manage pressure, reduce delays, and deliver care for New Zealanders.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Papers show that Health New Zealand faces the “extreme risk” of not having enough of the workers it needs to push through the government’s order to decentralise rapidly.

Health Minister Simeon Brown last November ordered the agency to “rapidly devolve decision-making to its four regions and 20 districts” to improve healthcare.

A new devolution committee has been set up and last month was presented a report assessing the “current state” across the board.

RNZ has seen papers from the report.

“People capability is an extreme risk,” it said.

“Workforce has the lowest capability rating identified across regions and their districts with critical resourcing gaps.”

The “most common” gaps were around staff to handle infrastructure, procurement, health and safety, planning, finance and analysis.

Brown had pushed for speed, but the assessment said there was “a feeling that basics need to be in place first”.

“The transition back to a devolved model too quickly may remove the current controls and undermine the effective oversights that have been put in place.”

That included around finances, it said.

Health NZ told RNZ on Monday it was working to address the workforce gaps and capability issues identified.

The papers showed gaps in devolution resources in areas where the centralised agency in the last two years cut jobs and accepted hundreds of voluntary redundancies.

“The highly centralised organisation structure has led to a loss of experience” in making organisational, operational and strategic decisions in districts, the assessment said.

Even at national senior leadership level there were big gaps – “all interim apart from one role”.

‘As quickly as possible’

The government two years ago castigated Health NZ for loose financial controls, sacked its board and under a reset the new commissioner Lester Levy embarked on a $2 billion savings plan.

The goverment then embarked on rolling back large parts of the centralisation reforms of 2022.

“We want a nationally and regionally planned system, but one that has strong clinical input and buy-in at the hospital level,” said Brown last November.

He gave HNZ a New Year’s Eve deadline to come up with a devolution policy in his letter of expectations.

“This reinforces my expectation that regional accountability, production planning, and local decision-making is embedded as quickly as possible,” his letter said.

“Local districts and regions should be empowered to manage within their allocated budgets, including hiring decisions.”

On Monday a spokesperson for Brown said the government had had to stabilise and turn around a system Labour had restructured during a pandemic “without a plan”.

It “cannot simply be switched off” and must still deliver more care to more patients, faster, and a key to that was moving health decisions closer to communities, they said in a statement.

The report – the second one done on devolution by consultants Deloitte – offered a glimpse of how devolution had been going.

The senior doctors’ union, the ASMS, in principle supported devolution but warned against districts having to take on more responsibility without the resources.

“The chatter that we’re picking up from around our regular set of meetings with the districts is a massive concern that this is just pushing responsibility onto districts without any realistic means of achieving what needs to be done in terms of providing health care,” said executive director Sarah Dalton.

‘Carefully managing the transition’

The assessment said some areas like in strategy and finance showed progress.

But it varied alot. What it called ‘People and Culture’ would be hugely impacted by devolution and was rated the worst, with ‘low’ assessments across all six measures; it was especially weak in the South Island and central North Island from Taranaki to Bay of Plenty.

“Regional and district finance and operational capacity remain concentrated at national level and many local teams are under-resourced in financial management,” it said.

The solution? “Build capability across the organisation.” The districts had lost key roles, now they needed them back.

A chart showed 12 categories – such as budgeting, analysis and auditing – and rated nine of them as less than fully effective. Three were only partially effective – the second-to-lowest rating – including HNZ’s savings programme and its internal audit programme.

Among the other gaps was technology. Key devolution changes were predicated on AI that was not yet in place, and so manual “workarounds” persisted.

Health NZ executive national director of strategy performance improvement Jess Smaling said the current state assessment report was to support “carefully managing the transition back to frontline decision making”.

It came only after HNZ had addressed the first priority of fixing the financial crisis and improved performance, she said in a statement.

“We are committed to ensuring our districts are ready, able and most of all supported, to have more autonomy over their clinical decisions and operational budgets.”

‘Not driven by … cost savings’

Health system commentator Ian Powell had long called for devolution but said that required the right capabilities.

“And we’ve lost that through short-sighted restructuring.”

He did not see signs in the assessment that the topdown command culture was being overhauled. “That’s the missing bit.

“Overwhelmingly on the management side of Te Whatau Ora, both regionally and nationally, there’s a high level of job insecurity, and that is a terrible environment to actually to have to work in, and it guarantees a destabilised organisation.”

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora subsumed all 20 of the old district health boards – DHBs – almost four years ago. Its establishment cost tens of millions of dollars including large sums in consultant fees.

Brown in his letter of expectations to the board chair late last year said it was “clear to me that Health NZ is too centralised”.

“Too many decisions are made by people who are removed from the problems that frontline clinicians are trying to solve.

“While the final devolved structure may result in a smaller national office than in recent years,

this change is not driven by restructuring or cost savings.”

The driver instead was to embed local clinicians in budgeting and planning services, and set up straight lines of accountability everywhere, Brown said.

But the papers the committee looked at last month indicated that districts might struggle with budgeting.

“Staff churn and the absence of robust costing systems and processes has created knowledge gaps, making it difficult to form an accurate bottom-up budget based on cost of services delivered, paticulary in H&SS [Hospital and Specialist Services].”

It talked about reducing some of the risks by adopting a devolution “timeframe” that allowed regions and districts to get critical activities in place to take on more autonomy.

‘Trade-offs and risks’

It sounded other notes of caution, too.

“While there is a desire to accelerate the devolution process, HNZ recognises that there are trade-offs and risks involved,” said Deloitte’s assessment.

This could lead to “lack of control, poor decision-making, duplication of effort, inconsistent reporting and accountability gaps”.

The solution was good planning.

But this appeared a long way off.

“The desired end state has not yet been clearly defined, including the [transition] from a national to a regional structure,” it said.

The “scope, sequence and pace” of devolution all needed defining.

Dalton said while 2022’s centralisation had caused “chaos” by distancing clinicians from decisionmaking, devolution had to be resourced and the minister would be wise to taihoa.

“I mean, it really does smack of trying to come up with what looks like some quick wins in an election year, and that’s no way to run a health system.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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A little bit of eggshell still clings to the slick feathers of the newly hatched brown kiwi chick.

Only a few hours old, it is already able to crouch on its small strong legs in the little heated chamber that will be home for its first two days of life at the National Kiwi Hatchery. Its round belly is full of the yolk that was part of the large egg – food to sustain it for the first few days while it learns to forage for bugs.

A safe start in life

Kiwi chicks are precocious, explains National Kiwi Hatchery manager Emma Bean. This means that, in contrast to human babies who need a lot of post-natal care, kiwi chicks tend to leave the nest, and warmth of their dad’s brood patch, within a week.

Emma says, “Whilst everything’s instinctive, they’ve essentially got chopsticks on their face that they need to just hone their skills, so they know what they’ve got to do… and they just need dad for a couple of days to keep them warm while their feathers dry off and fluff up and they learn to thermoregulate.”

In the hatchery this transition is facilitated by hutches with an angled heating plate, and food sources for the new chicks to search for.

Initially the chicks lose weight, as they use up that yolk. Once they have regained their hatch weight, they are microchipped and then graduate to crèche – either at a project site or at the onsite purpose-built facility at the hatchery.

At this stage, it’s a well-oiled machine.

Started in a shed at Rainbow Springs in 1995, the National Kiwi Hatchery celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, having moved to its new location and facilities in 2023. In total over 2600 North Island brown kiwi chicks have been hatched so far.

The hatchery is part of Operation Nest Egg, a conservation programme that takes kiwi eggs from the wild, then hatches and raises them during their vulnerable first few months of life, before returning them to where they came from.

The goal is to grow the chicks to a ‘stoat-proof’ weight of 1kg. Without this, or effective predator control, the survival rate of a kiwi chick in the wild is about 5 percent. Released at match-ready weight their chances increase to 65 percent.

Combining conservation and eco-tourism

A bus load of visitors pulls up and starts to unload in front of one of the small buildings that make up the hatchery, here for an hour-long tour. Inside they are greeted with information about the different kiwi species, the impact of predators, and facts about kiwi mating, eggs and embryo development.

A key attraction is the nocturnal house – where night and day have been switched and behind a pane of glass a pair of kiwi are up and about looking for food amongst the rotten logs and leaf litter that has been provided for them.

But it is the sight of the chicks that is often elicits the most emotion, says tour guide Rebeca Bothamley, “I’ve noticed when they see a chick or an egg they get really excited … I’ve had a few people cry when they’ve seen a couple chicks.”

The one-hour tour costs $75 per adult with a behind-the-scenes exclusive tour priced at $1250 for up to four people. If visitors want to sponsor a chick and name it, that’s $2787 – the estimate of how much it costs to hatch and rear a kiwi here.

Only a fraction of this is charged to the conservation projects, says Emma. As a Ngāi Tahu owned charitable trust, the idea is that conservation and eco-tourism go hand-in-hand, with the visitors’ contributions supporting the cost of the mahi.

‘The cherry on the top’

While the ultimate conservation goal is a future where Operation Nest Egg is no longer needed, that is not likely any time soon, says Emma. Plus, she sees the advocacy and education aspect of the hatchery as an important part of their work.

It is not the only captive kiwi rearing facility, with others spread across both the North and South Islands, some working with different kiwi species.

The National Kiwi Hatchery collaborates with about 15 different conservation projects around the North Island that monitor males to find nests and eggs, and control predators in their project areas to help kiwi survival after release.

Across their three decades they’ve learned a lot, says both Emma and long-time kiwi keeper Carole Dean. When Carole started in 1998 there was a lot of initial trial-and-error and learning on the job.

“We just had so much passion to learn and get better and obviously share that knowledge as we learnt it with other facilities.”

Today they know more about the development, physiology and embryology of kiwi, which enables them to make better decisions about things like when and how to assist a hatching chick. Plus, they have learned a lot about the husbandry, Carole says, in their onsite kiwi creche.

“What we do now compared to how we did it 15 or even 10 years ago, we’ve come in leaps and bounds with looking after our enclosures and keeping it really healthy up here to maintain healthy birds.”

When she started, there used to be a bit of sadness when a kiwi graduated back out to the forest because “they were such important little creatures to us” but these days, Carole celebrates when they are ready, “Get them out …they need to go home and be a real kiwi in a real forest.”

The ‘cherry on the top’ for her is the fact that chicks that have hatched with them are reproducing, and Carole has since been looking after second and third generations of hatchery chicks.

“That’s really cool … job done”.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are seeking help from the public after a woman went missing in Auckland.

In a statement, police said 65-year-old Jane was last seen in Saint Johns on Monday afternoon.

She had brown hair and was wearing a white patterned T-shirt and black leggings.

“Police, and her family, have concerned for her wellbeing.

“Anyone with information is asked to contact police as soon as possible.”

People can call 111, 105 or report any information online using reference number 260316/7192.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

It’s being billed as the data centre that changes everything – but hopefully that doesn’t include the price of your power.

It will be the country’s second biggest user of electricity after the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.

A $3 billion data centre in Southland that, as the marketing says, “changes everything”….

“…delivering the most significant upgrade to New Zealand’s digital infrastructure in a generation. We’re doubling national data capacity and opening up a high-growth gateway to Asia-Pacific’s booming cloud and AI economy.”

Multiple resource consents have been granted by three local authorities to get Datagrid’s huge AI data storage project in Makarewa off the ground, and to land a high-speed internet cable from Australia coming up at Oreti Beach near Invercargill.

But where will all the power come from? The likely answer is the Manapōuri hydro-electric power plant, which also powers Tiwai.

But if there’s a shortage, say in a drought, what will the data centre’s requirement for constant electricity do to the market – and our power bills?

That’s what niggles Newsroom’s South Island editor, David Williams, who speaks to The Detail today after six years of keeping tabs on the project.

Datagrid has told him it won’t be answering his questions until it issues a news release later on – possibly this week.

For its international clients, the fact that the centre will be using clean energy is a big selling point, but is there enough of that energy to go around?

“It’s not like a data centre can just power down,” says Williams.

“The advantage of Tiwai is that they can say, ‘ok, well, we’re not going to put on this particular potline. We will close down for a while, and that’s part of our contract, and we’ll get paid by the country if you like, to shut down because that’s good for New Zealand Inc.’

“Data centres need continuous power. If they power down… that’s why they have these backup generators… if they power down, it’s actually damaging to their units or their processing centre. It needs to be a constant supply.”

Fast Track approval has just been given for a large Contact Energy wind farm just 50 kilometres away from the centre’s site, so that could be a piece of the puzzle.

Williams says this is “not your usual Southland development, I would have thought”.

“The scale of this is quite something.”

Not only does it involve building six data halls, but it is also flanked by 12-metre-high noise control barriers over 9.5 hectares on a 48-ha property. There will be 84 emergency generators, each with a 10,000 litre diesel tank and a 15m high exhaust stack.

The construction phase will offer the most lucrative economic return to the region, with up to 550 workers expected to be on site, but once it’s finished, it will only require about 50 staff to keep it going.

The main transmission line practically runs over the top of the site, and Datagrid will build its own substation and upgrade the grid exit point.

Williams says the company has done well to consult with neighbours, iwi, and anyone else affected, all of whom seem to be on board with the mitigations it’s planning.

Southland mayor Rob Scott has told him, “these people have done it right”.

“They’ve talked to people, they’ve consulted the community, but more importantly, they’ve listened,” he says.

“They’ve taken account of the things that they’ve said, and they’ve tried to change things.”

Measures included noise mitigation from the 24-hour hum of servers and concerns answered over water, required in great quantities for cooling.

“Most of the people who live around them have given their written approval for what’s going on,” he says.

Williams says given the Amazon data centre debacle in Auckland, where billions of dollar’s worth of building and employment were promised but never eventuated, people are right to be sceptical. But he says this project has emerged differently, starting small and getting bigger.

“But I do note,” he says, “with this particular project, the consent approval announcement was not made by the Prime Minister. So maybe that’s a good sign.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Doctors say the new AI scribe rolling out in EDs around the country is saving them up to 10 minutes per patient, and is particularly helpful for slow typers.

The tool, known as Heidi, was trialled in Hawke’s Bay Hospital’s ED, before the government announced it was being rolled out to all hospitals earlier this month.

The senior doctors’ union, ASMS, said in an update to members there had been no reported resistance from patients and senior medical officers had reported it eased cognitive pressure.

Health New Zealand (HNZ)’s director of digital innovation and AI, Sonny Taite, said clinicians were consistently reporting it reduced the time associated with clinical documentation, allowing them to focus more on patient care.

“Early qualitative feedback from senior medical officers indicates this has helped ease documentation pressure during busy shifts, and there has been no reported resistance from patients to its use in emergency settings.”

But with formal evaluation work ongoing, Health NZ was not attributing specific time savings percentages or quantified burnout outcomes at this stage.

Emergency physician Dr John Bonning said doctors in EDs were finding it “very helpful”, with its main benefit “speeding up those that are slow typists”.

It would normally take 15 minutes to see one patient and write up their notes, Bonning said, but one colleague had reported writing notes for three patients in 11 minutes – less than four minutes per patient.

Bonning himself had trialled the software a couple of times and was planning to incorporate it more into his work, and feedback among his colleagues had been mostly positive, with only about 10 percent deciding it was not for them.

“We do ask [patients’] consent before every use,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had anybody say no, because it helps you do your job, and it helps you be more efficient.”

The app could summarise a handover with a paramedic, for example, which could then be turned into a referral letter or later on, a discharge note.

The notes could be quite wordy, and did need to be “very carefully edited, and occasionally it hallucinates and puts in false information, but not too much”, Bonning said.

Hallucinating, or adding false or illogical information to a response, is a known phenomemon among many types of AI. Tech giant IBM described it as “similar to how humans sometimes see figures in the clouds or faces on the moon”.

HNZ’s Taite said feedback from 40 clinicians surveyed showed a need to “further improve accuracy and reduce editing effort, which would enhance trust and preserve time savings, particularly for senior clinicians”.

“Many also saw clear gains from smoothing workflow and device integration and better tailoring functionality to the realities of ED consults. Alongside this, there was interest in clearer guidance, templates, and training to support safe, confident use while reinforcing clinical reasoning and governance.”

Security features include encryption, two-factor authentication

Following hacks at both MediMap and ManageMyHealth in recent months, security is a topic front-of-mind for many in the health sector.

Taite explained Heidi operated as a secure cloud service and had been assessed against Health NZ’s privacy, security, and contractual requirements. “Appropriate safeguards are in place as part of the rollout,” he said.

Yass Omar, head of legal and regulatory affairs at Heidi, explained all data within Heidi was encrypted and de-identified, and the app used two-factor authentication.

Data was stored in the cloud, rather than in the device, unless it was waiting for an internet connection – and in those cases, it was stored in the app’s secure sandbox (that is, an isolated part of the app not accessible to anybody else) before being uploaded straight to the cloud once it reconnected.

The information collected by listening in to conversations was transcribed and summarised in the app, and then able to be copy and pasted into the patient’s notes in the hospital’s own IT system, where patient notes had always been stored.

“So you can imagine that [someone] finds an unlocked phone, they see the Heidi app, they press on it, it prompts them for 2FA [two factor authentication], they can’t pass that. And then the next step would be, oh, can I find some files? No, because they’re not actually stored on the phone.”

Heidi had worked with NAIAEAG, Health NZ’s AI group, to make sure its security features were up to scratch, which Omar said was “an exceptionally high bar” to meet in terms of security.

None of the information fed into Heidi was used to train its AI. “Everything we do is about data minimisation,” he said. “We don’t collect any more data than we have to.”

Currently the encrypted, de-identified data was stored in a cloud-based server in Australia, but opening a server in New Zealand was on the cards.

“That’s something that is high in our priority for 2026,” Omar said. “The only thing that limits us is the availability of suitable infrastructure. At the scale that we are, we can’t just kind of use any cloud provider. We have to find ones that can cope with the volume of traffic that we push through.”

Study shows trust in AI will be difficult to repair if broken

According to a new paper, titled “Maintaining patient trust as artificial intelligence’s role in healthcare grows” by Rosie Dobson, Melanie Stowell and Robyn Whittaker, trust around AI could be built and maintained through transparency and good governance – “but if broken or lost, it will be difficult to repair and will have wider implications”.

Through interviews with patients and healthcare workers, the researchers found a few common threads when it came to their concerns:

• The primary benefit of sharing AI data should be to the New Zealand public – not private companies or those overseas
• Strong data protection needed to be in place
• Patients needed choice and to give consent on when to share their data
• AI should not replace the “human touch” of health professions
• There should be Māori representation in work to develop AI tools, and governance over their use
• Universities and New Zealand-based organisations were seen as more trustworthy AI development partners than commercial companies or overseas institutions

The authors recommended there be a culture of transparency, with health well-educated on how their tools work so they could explain it to patients. There also needed to be good governance, with the input of patients and healthcare workers.

GP says patient diagnosis the next step for AI in healthcare

Richard Medlicott, Wellington GP at Island Bay Medical Centre, said the future of AI in healthcare was as a tool for advice, not just a scribe.

Right now, among GPs, AI tools listened to consultations and made notes, which could then be copy and pasted or even automatically fed back into the GPs own patient notes system.

His practice used IntelliTek Health, a company which Medlicott himself had a stake in, rather than Heidi, but any AI software would have the effect of reducing ‘cognitive load’.

“At the end of a consultation, we might have to remember three or four things that were talked about in that fifteen minutes, and then get them all down,” he said.

“I find that quite fatiguing, and the use of scribes over the last two years has been really helpful in that regard.”

He said the scribe also meant he was verbalising more during consultations – “oh, your chest sounds clear, or your tummy’s nice and normal, no signs of an enlarged liver” – for the benefit of the scribe, but which patients appreciated.

And for doctors who preferred to type notes throughout the consult rather than afterwards, it meant they were more present in the conversation rather than at the keyboard, which patients said they appreciated.

It was saving GPs anywhere between two and five minutes per consultation, he said.

The future of AI would move beyond clinical scribes. Around the world already, AI was being used to look at medical records and give medical advice.

“I think we’ll get there, but AI sometimes hallucinate terribly, and just get things wrong,” he said. “That is the next stage, it’s happening now, but it is higher risk than AI scribes.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A controversial plan to pump millions of litres of partially-treated sewage into the Christchurch coastline is leaving community leaders feeling uneasy and sceptical.

Earlier this month, Mayor Phil Mauger floated the idea of pumping around a third of the city’s sewage into the ocean in an effort to lessen the stench from the fire-damaged wastewater plant at Bromley.

The sewage would be partially treated and have chlorine added before being pumped out via the existing outfall pipe into Pegasus Bay.

The announcement came days after the Canterbury Regional Council issued an abatement notice to the city council over the plant’s “objectionable and offensive odour”, which had worsened over recent months resulting in almost 6000 complaints since late January.

The proposal had been met with fierce criticism in some quarters, with Fisheries Minister Shane Jones labelling the idea “ridiculous”.

The city council had until this week to comply with the abatement notice, including providing details on how it would mitigate the stench.

The Waitai Coastal-Burwood-Linwood community board was briefed on the plan on Monday.

Wastewater treatment plant operations manager Adam Twose told members the “multi-million dollar” plan was under consideration because recently-introduced wastewater regulations were more relaxed.

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

The proposed sewage bypass would not meet the plant’s existing resource consent conditions, Twose said.

There also remained several unresolved matters, including total cost, timeframes and environmental impacts.

At the meeting, board chair Paul McMahon admitted he felt uneasy about the proposal.

“Given the potential environmental impact and lots of other unknowns. But I do think that it needs to be investigated fully,” he said.

The briefing also raised further questions over the plant’s overall resilience which had been operating at maximum capacity, meaning essential site maintenance had been put off.

Twose said if pressure on the plant was not eased, odours could become more frequent and more severe.

“[Our plan] was to see how long we could keep everything going until the new activator sludge was going in. But it’s become obvious that we need to act,” he said.

Councillor Yani Johanson also questioned whether the plan was viable.

“Is there a risk that we spend all this time and effort looking at this option and we don’t get progress on it to fix the problem ahead of when the new solution’s in place.

“If we spend a whole bunch of money doing something that’s not going to be ready in time, what have we achieved.”

The city council was planning to replace the plant’s fire-damaged trickling filters with an activated sludge reactor.

The project was due to completed in late 2028.

The regional council’s director of operations Brett Aldridge said it had received the city council’s plan.

“Our wastewater specialist will work alongside [Canterbury Regional Council] staff to assess the information provided with urgency to ensure it meets the expectations set out in the abatement notice. Depending on the complexity of the material submitted, this may take some time to complete.

“If the plan submitted today is not satisfactory, Christchurch City Council may face additional enforcement action from the regional council.”

Greens’ local government spokesperson Mike Davidson said the city council could be locked into a long-term committment for what was essentially a short-term fix.

“I think the council are genuine in trying to make it temporary, but it will give them a 35-year consent.

“We’ve seen things that were supposed to be temporary last very long, you just have to look at how long this debacle has taken to get to this point.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

It’s being billed as the data centre that changes everything – but hopefully that doesn’t include the price of your power.

It will be the country’s second biggest user of electricity after the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.

A $3 billion data centre in Southland that, as the marketing says, “changes everything”….

“…delivering the most significant upgrade to New Zealand’s digital infrastructure in a generation. We’re doubling national data capacity and opening up a high-growth gateway to Asia-Pacific’s booming cloud and AI economy.”

Multiple resource consents have been granted by three local authorities to get Datagrid’s huge AI data storage project in Makarewa off the ground, and to land a high-speed internet cable from Australia coming up at Oreti Beach near Invercargill.

But where will all the power come from? The likely answer is the Manapōuri hydro-electric power plant, which also powers Tiwai.

But if there’s a shortage, say in a drought, what will the data centre’s requirement for constant electricity do to the market – and our power bills?

That’s what niggles Newsroom’s South Island editor, David Williams, who speaks to The Detail today after six years of keeping tabs on the project.

Datagrid has told him it won’t be answering his questions until it issues a news release later on – possibly this week.

For its international clients, the fact that the centre will be using clean energy is a big selling point, but is there enough of that energy to go around?

“It’s not like a data centre can just power down,” says Williams.

“The advantage of Tiwai is that they can say, ‘ok, well, we’re not going to put on this particular potline. We will close down for a while, and that’s part of our contract, and we’ll get paid by the country if you like, to shut down because that’s good for New Zealand Inc.’

“Data centres need continuous power. If they power down… that’s why they have these backup generators… if they power down, it’s actually damaging to their units or their processing centre. It needs to be a constant supply.”

Fast Track approval has just been given for a large Contact Energy wind farm just 50 kilometres away from the centre’s site, so that could be a piece of the puzzle.

Williams says this is “not your usual Southland development, I would have thought”.

“The scale of this is quite something.”

Not only does it involve building six data halls, but it is also flanked by 12-metre-high noise control barriers over 9.5 hectares on a 48-ha property. There will be 84 emergency generators, each with a 10,000 litre diesel tank and a 15m high exhaust stack.

The construction phase will offer the most lucrative economic return to the region, with up to 550 workers expected to be on site, but once it’s finished, it will only require about 50 staff to keep it going.

The main transmission line practically runs over the top of the site, and Datagrid will build its own substation and upgrade the grid exit point.

Williams says the company has done well to consult with neighbours, iwi, and anyone else affected, all of whom seem to be on board with the mitigations it’s planning.

Southland mayor Rob Scott has told him, “these people have done it right”.

“They’ve talked to people, they’ve consulted the community, but more importantly, they’ve listened,” he says.

“They’ve taken account of the things that they’ve said, and they’ve tried to change things.”

Measures included noise mitigation from the 24-hour hum of servers and concerns answered over water, required in great quantities for cooling.

“Most of the people who live around them have given their written approval for what’s going on,” he says.

Williams says given the Amazon data centre debacle in Auckland, where billions of dollar’s worth of building and employment were promised but never eventuated, people are right to be sceptical. But he says this project has emerged differently, starting small and getting bigger.

“But I do note,” he says, “with this particular project, the consent approval announcement was not made by the Prime Minister. So maybe that’s a good sign.”

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

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

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Public Service Association (PSA) says a group of 2500 Te Whatu Ora staff it represents have ratified a new collective agreement.

The PSA said its members working in policy, advisory, knowledge and services – known as PAKS – voted overhelmingly in favour of the deal.

The PAKS agreement covered those employed in digital services, infrastructure, operations, communications, finance, people and capability, procurement, service design and planning, analytics and research, and policy.

The ratification was the result of 11 months of bargaining, mediation and industrial action.

Health workers covered by the collective would receive a pay increase of 2.5 percent effective from 1 December last year, with a further 2 percent in December this year.

Workers would each receive a $500 lump sum payment prorated for full-time equivalent hours worked.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Papers show that Health New Zealand faces the “extreme risk” of not having enough of the workers it needs to push through the government’s order to decentralise rapidly.

Health Minister Simeon Brown last November ordered the agency to “rapidly devolve decision-making to its four regions and 20 districts” to improve healthcare.

A new devolution committee has been set up and last month was presented a report assessing the “current state” across the board.

RNZ has seen papers from the report.

“People capability is an extreme risk,” it said.

“Workforce has the lowest capability rating identified across regions and their districts with critical resourcing gaps.”

The “most common” gaps were around staff to handle infrastructure, procurement, health and safety, planning, finance and analysis.

Brown had pushed for speed, but the assessment said there was “a feeling that basics need to be in place first”.

“The transition back to a devolved model too quickly may remove the current controls and undermine the effective oversights that have been put in place.”

That included around finances, it said.

Health NZ told RNZ on Monday it was working to address the workforce gaps and capability issues identified.

The papers showed gaps in devolution resources in areas where the centralised agency in the last two years cut jobs and accepted hundreds of voluntary redundancies.

“The highly centralised organisation structure has led to a loss of experience” in making organisational, operational and strategic decisions in districts, the assessment said.

Even at national senior leadership level there were big gaps – “all interim apart from one role”.

‘As quickly as possible’

The government two years ago castigated Health NZ for loose financial controls, sacked its board and under a reset the new commissioner Lester Levy embarked on a $2 billion savings plan.

The goverment then embarked on rolling back large parts of the centralisation reforms of 2022.

“We want a nationally and regionally planned system, but one that has strong clinical input and buy-in at the hospital level,” said Brown last November.

He gave HNZ a New Year’s Eve deadline to come up with a devolution policy in his letter of expectations.

“This reinforces my expectation that regional accountability, production planning, and local decision-making is embedded as quickly as possible,” his letter said.

“Local districts and regions should be empowered to manage within their allocated budgets, including hiring decisions.”

On Monday a spokesperson for Brown said the government had had to stabilise and turn around a system Labour had restructured during a pandemic “without a plan”.

It “cannot simply be switched off” and must still deliver more care to more patients, faster, and a key to that was moving health decisions closer to communities, they said in a statement.

The report – the second one done on devolution by consultants Deloitte – offered a glimpse of how devolution had been going.

The senior doctors’ union, the ASMS, in principle supported devolution but warned against districts having to take on more responsibility without the resources.

“The chatter that we’re picking up from around our regular set of meetings with the districts is a massive concern that this is just pushing responsibility onto districts without any realistic means of achieving what needs to be done in terms of providing health care,” said executive director Sarah Dalton.

‘Carefully managing the transition’

The assessment said some areas like in strategy and finance showed progress.

But it varied alot. What it called ‘People and Culture’ would be hugely impacted by devolution and was rated the worst, with ‘low’ assessments across all six measures; it was especially weak in the South Island and central North Island from Taranaki to Bay of Plenty.

“Regional and district finance and operational capacity remain concentrated at national level and many local teams are under-resourced in financial management,” it said.

The solution? “Build capability across the organisation.” The districts had lost key roles, now they needed them back.

A chart showed 12 categories – such as budgeting, analysis and auditing – and rated nine of them as less than fully effective. Three were only partially effective – the second-to-lowest rating – including HNZ’s savings programme and its internal audit programme.

Among the other gaps was technology. Key devolution changes were predicated on AI that was not yet in place, and so manual “workarounds” persisted.

Health NZ executive national director of strategy performance improvement Jess Smaling said the current state assessment report was to support “carefully managing the transition back to frontline decision making”.

It came only after HNZ had addressed the first priority of fixing the financial crisis and improved performance, she said in a statement.

“We are committed to ensuring our districts are ready, able and most of all supported, to have more autonomy over their clinical decisions and operational budgets.”

‘Not driven by … cost savings’

Health system commentator Ian Powell had long called for devolution but said that required the right capabilities.

“And we’ve lost that through short-sighted restructuring.”

He did not see signs in the assessment that the topdown command culture was being overhauled. “That’s the missing bit.

“Overwhelmingly on the management side of Te Whatau Ora, both regionally and nationally, there’s a high level of job insecurity, and that is a terrible environment to actually to have to work in, and it guarantees a destabilised organisation.”

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora subsumed all 20 of the old district health boards – DHBs – almost four years ago. Its establishment cost tens of millions of dollars including large sums in consultant fees.

Brown in his letter of expectations to the board chair late last year said it was “clear to me that Health NZ is too centralised”.

“Too many decisions are made by people who are removed from the problems that frontline clinicians are trying to solve.

“While the final devolved structure may result in a smaller national office than in recent years,

this change is not driven by restructuring or cost savings.”

The driver instead was to embed local clinicians in budgeting and planning services, and set up straight lines of accountability everywhere, Brown said.

But the papers the committee looked at last month indicated that districts might struggle with budgeting.

“Staff churn and the absence of robust costing systems and processes has created knowledge gaps, making it difficult to form an accurate bottom-up budget based on cost of services delivered, paticulary in H&SS [Hospital and Specialist Services].”

It talked about reducing some of the risks by adopting a devolution “timeframe” that allowed regions and districts to get critical activities in place to take on more autonomy.

‘Trade-offs and risks’

It sounded other notes of caution, too.

“While there is a desire to accelerate the devolution process, HNZ recognises that there are trade-offs and risks involved,” said Deloitte’s assessment.

This could lead to “lack of control, poor decision-making, duplication of effort, inconsistent reporting and accountability gaps”.

The solution was good planning.

But this appeared a long way off.

“The desired end state has not yet been clearly defined, including the [transition] from a national to a regional structure,” it said.

The “scope, sequence and pace” of devolution all needed defining.

Dalton said while 2022’s centralisation had caused “chaos” by distancing clinicians from decisionmaking, devolution had to be resourced and the minister would be wise to taihoa.

“I mean, it really does smack of trying to come up with what looks like some quick wins in an election year, and that’s no way to run a health system.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

It’s feasible that petrol prices could reach $4 a litre, economists say.

Ongoing conflict in the Middle East has pushed up oil prices, taking petrol prices with them.

Over March, the average price of 91 has risen about 50c a litre, according to price monitoring app Gaspy. On Monday it was just over $3 on average across the country.

Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold said if the crisis were to continue, the price of oil could hit US$200 a barrel, which would take retail petrol prices past $4.

Westpac noted last week that refining margins had already lifted from US$20 ($NZ34) to around US$35 a barrel, which amplified the effect on retail prices for petrol in New Zealand.

“Refining margins will go quite high because there’s the supply chain that’s going from the Middle East to the refiners in Asia who are overwhelmingly reliant on crude oil coming out of the Middle East, with a three-week lag, maybe a month if you want to be generous.

“Those refiners in Asia are already considering reducing production because they don’t want to shut down a refinery. They would prefer to run it at a lower level because if you shut it down it’s really expensive and hard to start back up again.

“What that will mean is that there’ll be increasingly reduced supply of refined products around Asia and that will obviously be an important input into petrol and diesel here … $4 petrol prices are eminently feasible if you end up in some of those quite negative scenarios.”

Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said oil prices at around US$150 a barrel would mean $4 a litre for motorists.

Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said with oil prices at around US$100, petrol should be at about $3.27.

“We’re pushing towards that … if you had another US$35 a barrel on top of that, US$135 on a sustained basis, you could be pushing $4. I’ve seen people talking risks around $150.

“I think Westpac came out with $185 and others are talking $200 …. you look at some of those numbers and you’re talking well north of $4 potentially.”

He said every US$1 increase in the oil price added about 2.2c but Eaqub said as long as the refining crack spread remained the same it could be about 1.2c. Westpac estimated a US$10 increase in the price of oil added 11c a litre.

Murat Ungor, at Otago University, said the market was very sensitive to price movements

“If crude oil were to reach US$130 to US$140 per barrel and stay there for three to four weeks, petrol prices could quickly move into the $3.50-$3.70 range.

“To break the $4 barrier, we would likely need a combination of extreme factors, such as crude sustained at US$140-US$170 per barrel, matching or exceeding the record highs of 2008, or such high prices combined with a weaker New Zealand dollar and higher shipping margins.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Leslie Parr was spiralling.

It had been 27 years since he’d killed his ex-partner Fiona Maulolo, stabbing her repeatedly with a chisel before beheading her.

Following his first killing he was made a special patient under the Mental Health Act after a jury found him not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

From about 2012 he was back in the community and in 2021 he had his status change to being a patient under the Mental Health Act.

But by early 2024 his mental health was rapidly declining, he was having troubles with his relationship and he was using cannabis. In May 2024 he was admitted to a mental health facility after an altercation with a relative. About a week later he was released back into the community.

Then, five days later he killed “the most important thing to him” – his mother Heather Condon. Once again, he would be found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

The case was shrouded in secrecy until RNZ revealed it last year.

On Monday, the Supreme Court dismissed Parr’s application for leave to appeal a decision declining name suppression, allowing RNZ to reveal the full details of the killing.

RNZ has obtained court documents including statements from those who knew him best that lift the lid on Parr’s life, his mental health battles and his family’s anger with the mental health system.

“How can someone who has previously killed another person be able to remain free when the warning signs are right there for all to see?” his father wrote.

‘Cold and sinister’

Leslie Raymond Parr was born in 1974. He was the youngest of four siblings, and a year after he was born the family moved to Whanganui.

Parr’s father Harold Parr would later tell police the children were “all good kids”.

“My boys and I would do lots of things together like hunting, fishing and I coached their school rugby team.”

Wanting the best for his sons, Harold Parr sent them to St Stephen’s secondary school in Auckland.

After finishing school, Leslie Parr returned home. His parents soon separated and Harold Parr moved to Taupō before going to live in Wellington.

Leslie’s troubles were first expressed in 1995 when he developed insomnia, with a decrease in appetite over several months.

He was admitted to a psychiatric unit under the Mental Health Act in August that year after attempting suicide. On admission he was overheard saying “Satan will kill us all. Here to save you”.

A psychiatrist found he was suffering from a disorder of the mind.

“I can only say, most emphatically, that Mr Parr should remain in a psychiatric hospital as an involuntary patient. He is really very ill and is at risk of suiciding. I fear the type of schizophrenia he has is one that is associated with impulsive and often successful suicide attempts, usually based on concealed delusional thinking.”

Parr was then made the subject of a Compulsory Treatment Order. After responding well to medication he was released.

Harold told police about “episodes” Leslie had while living with him.

“I knew he was suffering from something serious because he was so dark and cold when he had an episode.

“I noticed it mostly in his eyes, they were just cold and sinister looking.”

‘I had to kill her’

Leslie met Fiona Maulolo in 1996 and the pair soon moved into a property in the Hutt Valley.

Soon after meeting Maulolo, Leslie stopped taking his antipsychotic medication regularly and had an “episode” which led to him being admitted to Porirua Hospital.

Parr was described as a man who was “depressed and delusional”, thinking that his father was Satan. He was predicting the end of the world in the year 2000, and said he heard voices telling him to kill himself.

When his medication was reintroduced he began to deny psychotic symptoms.

On the day he was due to be discharged from hospital he seriously assaulted a police officer who was visiting the same ward.

Parr told a psychiatrist he didn’t believe he was to blame “because the constable had looked at him”.

Parr was then made a compulsory inpatient for six months under the Mental Health Act.

However, he was released nine days later, on 28 March 1996. He was not seen again by mental health services until 15 April 1997 after he was found semi-conscious in a carport at Maulolo’s property.

He was transported to Hutt Hospital by ambulance and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. He later regained consciousness and underwent a psychiatric assessment before he was discharged into his father’s care.

Three days after he was admitted to hospital his father and another person went to collect some clothes for him from Maulolo’s home. On arrival they found Maulolo’s daughters and a relative who had not heard from Maulolo for a week.

They forced their way into the home and found Maulolo’s body in the bath. Police were then called.

Maulolo had been decapitated with her head found in a plastic bag in a clothes dryer. Forensic evidence revealed Parr had driven a chisel multiple times into her heart before decapitating her.

He went on trial for murder in 1998. At trial police said Parr and Maulolo’s relationship was “volatile” with neighbours describing constant verbal arguments and fights between them. There was a suggestion Maulolo was looking to end the relationship.

He told police he killed her because he believed she was Satan.

A jury found Parr not guilty by reason of insanity. A judge ordered he be detained in a special secure unit and not freed without the health minister’s authority.

A coroner later said Parr’s treatment had been seriously deficient.

There had been no ongoing assessment of Parr’s mental health state, or monitoring of his medication needs between when he was discharged and when the murder occurred.

Parr’s hospital file showed that a clinical review of his mental health had been carried out by his responsible clinician, Dr Linda Astor.

She claimed she had examined Parr and “consulted with other health professionals” involved in the treatment and care of him, and that she had taken their views into account when assessing the results of her review of his condition.

She said he was fit to be released from compulsory status, nine days into what was supposed to be six-months as a compulsory patient.

There was, however, no evidence Dr Astor ever saw Parr or consulted with other health professionals involved in his treatment and care.

Astor later fled the country and was unmasked as a bogus psychiatrist.

‘He was very loving and caring’

Parr was transferred to Te Awhina, an inpatient acute mental health service, to be closer to his family in 2000. He was put on a different medication and his mental health “improved a lot,” his father said.

In the coming years he started doing day visits accompanied by a nurse and even got a job.

Once he was released eventually released from Te Awhina he started going by the name Zac.

At first he lived with his mother, before finding his own place. Harold said Leslie looked after his mother and grandfather including doing their lawns.

In 2021 the special patient order was removed.

In 2023 Leslie met a woman Rachel (not her real name) via online dating, by September they were in a relationship.

The woman told RNZ Leslie, who told her his name was Zac, seemed “perfectly fine”.

“He was very loving and caring and treated me incredibly well.”

She would later tell police Leslie was “always helping his family”.

“Especially his mum and as far as I knew he was a good person, a kind person.”

Harold told police that Leslie spent several years working at a local freezing works but left after people found out about Maulolo’s death. He went on the benefit for a few years before getting a job at a milk factory cleaning trucks.

In March 2024, the work “dried up,” his father said and Leslie was laid off and went back on the benefit.

Harold said he visited his son days before his birthday in April to help as he was having a party.

“When I arrived, Leslie was there with a friend, and they were bouncing off the walls. It was obvious him and his friend had used drugs.”

The following day Harold told Leslie to get off the drugs or he would call the police.

The pair did not have much contact after the incident as they were “both annoyed at one another”.

It was not until May that Leslie told Rachel he killed his former girlfriend in 1997.

“I laughed and thought he was joking but he had a dead-pan face and I eventually realised he was not joking, and I screamed and told him to leave.”

After he left, she looked him up online and read about what happened to Maulolo.

“At the time I thought it had been years earlier and he wasn’t well at the time and the case had not been handled well, lots of mistakes involved.

“So, I believed it was a one-off thing due to all the circumstances and not likely to happen again.”

Leslie also sat down with her and said he was on the wrong medication at the time and claimed he begged them not to let him go because he knew he wasn’t well.

The admission

In May 2024, following an altercation with a relative he was admitted to a mental health facility.

Rachel said after the admission she became “very scared and very terrified”.

He was released after about a week on 30 May. Following his release, he became preoccupied with the loss of keys to his ute which he could not find.

Harold told police his son did not sleep for four nights, worried about his ute.

“He was so agitated about his keys and seemed really scared and stressed,” he said.

“I could tell how much it was affecting him and he just wouldn’t let it go.”

Leslie visited his father’s home on 3 June. He did not go inside, and just sat on the back doorstep.

“He started to remind me of how he behaved in Wellington when the other incident happened.

“Leslie had those dark eyes and wasn’t present. The biggest thing I notice when he’s like that is you can’t reason with him. He talks so fast and frantic that you don’t even have time to answer.”

Rachel’s concerns were also growing.

“I started to see a side to him I didn’t like.”

He started becoming delusional and irrational which appeared to coincide with his consumption of marijuana increasing a lot higher than she had noticed before.

“He said some weird things to me about his mum not being a human and that she was a Demi-God.”

When she heard he was going to be released from the mental health facility she worried “maybe he’s gonna come for me”.

“But I didn’t want to come tell the police because I thought I needed to try get out of it quietly, because I thought if I piss him off, you know you can get protection orders, you can get that but it’s just a piece of paper they can still kill you.”

A day after he was released Leslie messaged Rachel and said he did not love her anymore and wanted to break up.

The following morning, about 4.30am, Rachel woke up to tapping on her ranch slider. She got up and he was standing outside. He said he had been drinking with his friend all day and night and he had been sick and then drove to her place. He ended up staying the night.

Two days later she was mowing her front lawn when she saw him sitting in his car on the road watching her. Rachel asked him what he was doing, and he replied: “Oh, I love you and I want to be with you.”

She told him he was stalking her and was being “creepy”. He took off, but she then saw him again about an hour later across the road. She told him to go away, and she would see him later on.

The next night he visited her home after repeatedly asking to come over. The couple were arguing back and forth in her bedroom.

Rachel said she told him she did not think the relationship was working and he needed to leave.

He refused to leave and asked her what she was going to do about it. She threatened to call the police and then he left.

A second killing

The following morning, the day of the second killing, Parr called Rachel to say he needed someone to pick him up as he had driven out of town and his car broke down in Bulls. Rachel said she was reluctant to help him but eventually relented.

However, when she got there he was not there. Rachel then called Heather and said she could not find him.

Heather said she wondered if he was testing her.

“I said to her, ‘Yeah, he’s been acting very, very strange’ and she started to get upset and said, ‘Yes, I’m very worried about him and he’s been saying that he can’t trust anybody, that he can’t trust me, he can’t trust his dad and he only trusts you and that he only feels safe with you’.”

Shortly after Leslie called Rachel and said his phone had gone flat and he got a lift with someone else.

Leslie had also been calling his father earlier in the day. Leslie’s sister called Harold shortly before 1pm saying she was concerned about her brother and wanted him to go and stay with her to relax about his ute.

“I told her it was better for him to be in Whanganui near the pysch unit and where there are more cops in case something happened”.

Harold then drove around to Leslie’s home. He was not there, but just as he was leaving Heather arrived.

The pair talked about how their son was behaving, including his worries about his keys and his drug use.

About 20 minutes later he got a call from Heather once she was home to say Leslie was at her home when she got there.

“Heather said they had an argument because he was angry at her for calling [Rachel] and getting her involved.

“She said Leslie told her he needed the car, so she threw him the keys and he took off.”

Harold tried calling Leslie to see where he was but he did not answer.

About 1.45pm Leslie called Harold and they talked about hiring a trailer to pick up his ute.

Harold then picked Leslie up from Heather’s home and headed towards the hire centre.

“When we got there Leslie changed his mind about picking up his car.

“We had a heated discussion about picking up his car and mucking around, but he still didn’t want to go get it, so I dropped him back at his mother’s.”

Harold then went to the supermarket. While there he called Leslie’s sister and spoke about Leslie. She said Leslie had been talking about everyone being out to get him.

“[She] said she could hear in his voice that he didn’t seem well but insisted she could help.

“I told [her] we should call Police and try get him back to the hospital.”

He then called Leslie’s nurse to get and get his doctor’s number.

He claimed the nurse told him Leslie went to get this “shot” around 1pm and was “very cagey”.

“I asked [the nurse] if she drug tested Leslie, but she didn’t because she thought he might think she was picking on him and make him angry.”

The nurse said she would call Leslie’s doctor and tell him how he was behaving and express the family’s concerns.

At 4.53pm Harold received a call from Leslie asking for help. He said he was at his mother’s home and the mob was after him.

“He was puffing and was out of breath like he had been fighting or running.”

At 5.35pm Leslie phoned again and said the same thing about needing help, but he was now at his home.

Court documents reveal that between 4.50pm and 5.39pm there was an incident between Leslie and his mother at her home.

Armed with a knife, Leslie fatally stabbed his mother before leaving the address and arriving at an associate’s home about 6.20pm.

He walked into the address and sat on the doorstep asking his associate “cuz do you know where to get a gun?”

Leslie said he needed the gun because the Mongrel Mob was after him.

He then called his sister and a plan was made to go to Raetihi.

Leslie got into his associate’s car and while they were travelling he said “cuz I’ve killed mum”.

Asked why, Leslie said “Mum’s possessed, Mum’s possessed. I had to do it.”

The associate got out of the car and walked away. Leslie then drove off. The associate eventually drove to the Whanganui Police Station and told them what Leslie had said.

About 5.30pm, Leslie arrived at Rachel’s home. He made himself a chicken sandwich and about 7pm they went to bed.

Meanwhile, Leslie’s family were becoming concerned as they were unable to get hold of him or Heather.

They thought she may have gone to mass, but it was “out of character” for her not to have her phone. Harold drove to her home but there were no cars outside.

He then went and checked the laundry and shops, but could not find her.

At 8.25pm police found Heather dead in the garden beside the porch.

Harold told police that as soon as he was told about Heather’s death he became concerned for Rachel and her daughter.

“I didn’t know any details of what happened to Heather, but I immediately thought Leslie was the only one capable of doing that and given how he had been behaving it was likely.”

About 1am Rachel woke to get some water when she saw lights coming from outside.

“I woke him up and said ‘there’s all these lights and things’ and he just got up and shot out, and then suddenly there’s armed offenders squad and dogs and guns being pointed and stuff like that.”

Rachel went and spoke with the police and asked what was going on.

Leslie was told he was under arrest for murder and he replied:

“Yes, I know.”

The following day, Rachel was told what had happened.

“I was in disbelief, I was sickened and distraught.”

Heather was “the most important thing to him,” she said.

“This is where it is so hard to believe what he’s done to her because he would talk to her every day, if not multiple times a day.

Harold told police Leslie “loved his mother” and did anything for her.

“When he’s well he’s such a caring person.

“Leslie wasn’t well though and he is capable of anything when his mental state is unstable.”

Mental health system ‘failed everybody’

In April last year in the High Court at Whanganui Justice Karen Grau said there was no question Parr was responsible for his mother’s death, but that he was “legally insane” at the time he caused her death.

“I am satisfied, based on the reports of the experts, that it is clear Mr Parr suffered from a disease of the mind, a relapse in his longstanding schizophrenia, at the time he killed his mother.

“It is not the case that he did not understand the nature of his actions, but as the experts have concluded, and with which I agree, he was incapable of understanding his acts were morally wrong, and they were driven by his delusional beliefs.”

He was ordered to be detained as a special patient under the Mental Health Act.

Justice Grau said the case occurred “against a backdrop of apparent significant failures in the mental health system”.

Harold Parr wrote to Justice Grau as part of proceedings, requesting name suppression for both his son and Heather.

He said he had attended “countless appointments” and meetings relating to his son’s mental health over the years.

“I have met his doctors and psychiatrists and have a good understanding of the mental health system, what services are provided and some of its failings.”

He referenced Maulolo’s killing, saying the details of which were “too horrific to repeat”.

He wrote his son’s release by Dr Astor was “unlawful and improper” and said Leslie “should never have been let out”.

“If the proper procedures were followed Fiona would not have been killed in 1997.”

He also referenced the allegations that on the day Leslie killed for a second time he was supposed to be drug tested but wasn’t because he was “acting cagey” and the staffer didn’t want him to feel he was being “picked on”.

“This is a so-called health professional who observed unusual behaviour from a person with severe mental health issues and they didn’t do anything about it. She didn’t test him and basically allowed him to leave. A few hours later Heather was dead.”

Harold wrote the build-up to Heather’s death was “predictable”, adding his son was “on a downward spiral”.

“The health system is not aggressive enough to make decisions. They pussy foot around because they don’t want to hurt people’s feelings or upset them. But the consequence of them being indecisive is the reason that we find ourselves in this predicament now. Heather is dead and it could and should have been prevented,” he said.

“There are more questions than answers. The health system had Leslie in their custody and released him. A health professional saw Leslie on the day he killed Heather, described him as being cagey, did not do the blood test and let him go without anything. How? Who is accountable? How can someone who has previously killed another person be able to remain free when the warnings signs are right there for all to see?”

Speaking to RNZ, Rachel earlier said Leslie should not have been released from the mental health facility five days before the killing.

“I don’t know how they couldn’t have noticed how he was unwell unless he put on a really good show.”

She believed there had been a “massive failure” in the mental health system.

“It failed him, it failed everybody twice.”

Rachel often wondered whether Leslie may have killed her as well. She was in therapy and said she was “a mess”.

“I feel sad. I feel sad for the victims, I feel sad for him. I feel it’s just sad all around really. He was unwell, and he just wasn’t given the care that he should have been given.”

Reviews under way

Health New Zealand (HNZ) national director of mental health & addictions enhancement, Phil Grady, said on Monday the case was an incredibly tragic event.

“Our thoughts remain with the family, friends and communities affected. On behalf of Health New Zealand, I extend our heartfelt sympathies to everyone impacted,” Grady said.

“It is completely understandable that people feel let down and are seeking answers. We acknowledge those concerns and want to approach them with openness and respect, while recognising the deep impact this has had on both victim’s loved ones, the wider community, and the staff involved in Mr Parr’s care.”

Grady said HNZ also recognised that questions had been raised about aspects of Parr’s care and the decisions made at the time.

“These were complex clinical decisions based on the information available, and the external review has carefully examined those concerns.

“Where the review has identified areas that could be clearer or stronger, such as expectations around drug screening, information sharing, and clinical oversight, we are acting on those findings to improve consistency and strengthen practice across the service.”

Health NZ reviewed every serious adverse event that occurs within its services, and were committed to learning from them, he said.

“An external review of the care Mr Parr received leading up to this event is currently being finalised, led by senior Health NZ staff from outside the Central Region to ensure independence.

“We are committed to implementing any recommended changes so that we continue to strengthen the quality and safety of the care we provide.

“Events of this nature are incredibly tragic, but when they occur, we take them extremely seriously. The learning from this event is already informing improvements across the service, including strengthening clinical leadership, improving information sharing, clarifying clinical protocols such as drug screening, and enhancing whānau engagement and staff training.”

Mental health care in the community was complex, and risk could never be removed entirely, he said

“Especially in the case of serious mental illness, but these improvements are designed to strengthen safeguards and provide reassurance to the people we care for, their whānau, and the wider community.”

The Ministry of Health also extended its deepest sympathies to the families, friends and communities affected.

Following Parr’s second killing, Health New Zealand commissioned an external review into the care provided to the individual.

“Health New Zealand has already made changes since the incident, and I support their work,” Director of Mental Health Dr John Crawshaw said.

He said the external review was being led by an external expert panel and is near completion.

“Once the external review is available, I will carefully consider whether any further actions are required.”

Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said in a statement his thoughts were with the families impacted.

“I have made it very clear to HNZ that patient and public safety must always be paramount, clearly situations like this are not good enough. New Zealanders deserve to have trust that when people are in the care of mental health services, the appropriate care is being taken to ensure patient and public safety is at the forefront of all decisions,” he said.

“As minister, my focus is on ensuring agencies put in place all necessary changes to prevent tragedies like this from occurring again. I have made it very clear to Health New Zealand that they must move quickly to implement the findings of the reviews and make all necessary changes to prevent this from happening again.”

Doocey was awaiting the Director of Mental Health’s decision on whether he was satisfied with the review and whether any further action needs to be taken.

Chief Victims Advisor Ruth Money said the case was “heartbreaking and preventable”.

When RNZ first revealed the case she called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into forensic mental health facilities.

On Monday she said she stood by those calls.

“Given that unbelievably this is not the only recent case where someone in forensic mental health ‘care’ has gone on to kill twice.

“An inquiry that has mandated recommendations is the only way the system will improve, as opposed to Health NZ continuing to mark their own homework every time a tragedy such as this occurs. These victims and the community deserve infinitely better.”

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