Pilot Tim Brown and guide Sean Roach have been named as the pair who died in a helicopter crash in Mt Aspiring National Park.

The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350 B3, belonged to The Alpine Group, which is owned by the Wallis family.

In a statement, The Alpine Group confirmed one of its helicopters was involved in the crash in the upper Te Naihi River in South Westland on Sunday morning.

A company spokesperson said the men were was taking part in a guided hunting operation in clear and calm conditions.

“We are devastated to confirm that both pilot Tim Brown and guide Sean Roach were tragically killed. Both were highly experienced and valued members of a close-knit team,” they said.

“Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with their families and loved ones during this difficult time.”

The company says it will cooperate fully with transport investigators to determine exactly what happened.

Cromwell detective sergeant Sarah Waugh said police received reports of the crash at 9.50am on Sunday.

“The helicopter was a chartered craft, and the occupants were on a hunting trip,” she said.

“Three others from the hunting group were located on the ground and taken to safety.”

The helicopter wreckage would be removed in the coming days and taken to Wellington for further analysis.

“We have confidence in those investigations and will cooperate fully to determine exactly what happened,” the Alpine Group spokesperson said.

The company is run by brothers Toby and Jonathan Wallis, sons of the late aviation pioneer Sir Tim Wallis.

The group thanked police, Rescue Coordination Centre, Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter Trust, the Queenstown Alpine Cliff Rescue team and emergency services for their response to the crash.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are investigating the crash.

Two of Sir Tim’s sons, Matthew and Nick, died in separate helicopter crashes in 2018.

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

The government will spend $131 million on improving students’ reading, writing and maths in this year’s budget, the Education Minister Erica Stanford says.

Stanford made the pre-Budget announcement alongside Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at Boulcott School in Lower Hutt on Monday.

Another 12 initiatives as part of primary and intermediate school education reforms would boost achievement and close the equity gap, Stanford said.

“[Children] will see more resources in their hands, more tutoring catch ups, more time with intervention teachers, and more help with a teacher at the front of the class who knows how to teach maths, reading and writing best practice.”

The new maths initiatives included:

• Maths hubs to improve teacher confidence and capability
• Hands-on maths resources and games for all Year 0-8 classrooms
• 36 additional Maths intervention teachers
• A new times table and division check at Year 5

The new literacy initiatives included:

• New writing workbooks for Year 4 and 5
• A digital writing tool for all Year 6-8 students
• New “decodable” books for older learners in Year 3-10
• A 12-week structured literacy programme for those who are struggling
• A new Year 2 Literacy Check, covering reading, comprehension, writing, spelling and basic punctuation (joining the existing Year 2 Maths Check)
• Guidance for teachers to improve the teaching of literacy, with supporting videos and resources.

There would also be a new reading action plan called Read to Succeed – joining the Make it Count maths plan and Write it Right writing plan.

Asked whether teachers would be overloaded with so many extra workbooks, Stanford said she had been asking schools what would make the biggest difference.

“This is coming directly from the sector themselves, and we are delivering it,” she said.

“Nothing is compulsory, but at least we’re making it free of charge.”

The initiatives would contribute to the government’s target of seeing 80 percent of Year 8 students achieving the expected curriculum level for their age in reading, writing and maths by December 2030, Stanford said.

“Parents will have more information at each step of their child’s journey about how they are doing at school and students will be better set up for success when they enter high school.”

Very early signs reforms are working – minister

Stanford said fresh data released on Monday showed “very early signs” of success with last year’s maths and literacy curriculum changes.

“No one is claiming mission accomplished just yet,” she said.

“But these early results give us optimism and confidence that our reforms are moving in the right direction.”

Stanford said the investments would “level the playing field, reducing costs for schools and backing evidence-led reforms”.

There were early signs the government’s education reforms were already working, she said.

The latest Curriculum Insights and Progress Study looked at student achievement in late 2025 – three terms into previous reforms – and the results “surpassed expectations”, she said.

“A statistically significant improvement of 5 percent in writing and 6 percent in mathematics for Year 6 students between 2024 and 2025 interrupts New Zealand’s long-term decline in achievement between Year 4 and Year 8 and will better set these students up for success at high school.”

The minister credited teachers for that improvement.

Achievement in other areas and year groups was flat, which is what the government expected as the new curriculum was bedded in, Stanford said.

She expected to see “accelerated progress” over time.

The package would be funded from a mixture of new and reprioritised money, but Stanford would not reveal further details before the Budget.

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

America’s Cup winner and Olympic gold medallist Blair Tuke says the government should scrap its Fisheries legislation.

Tuke was speaking to the Primary Production select committee on behalf of the Live Ocean Foundation alongside ultramarathon swimmer Jono Ridler in response to the Fisheries Amendment Bill.

The bill makes changes to catch limits and the handling of on-boat monitoring footage with the aim of growing exports.

Several environmental groups have called for the bill to be stopped, while fishing companies say it helps modernise a system that has worked well for New Zealand for decades.

Tuke said New Zealand was responsible for the fourth-largest ocean space in the world, but the legislation would further entrench bottom trawling and fail to protect habitats – many of which could take centuries to recover.

“For a country surrounded by the moana, when it comes to ocean stewardship we are not leading – in fact, if it was sport, I would say we don’t even rank.”

Ridler said that while the bill did not specifically promote bottom trawling, the amendments “in aggregate prioritise short-term, bulk harvesting over broader ecosystem impacts”.

“It prioritises economic gain and bulk harvesting, including bottom trawling, while reducing safeguards to protect the environment. This increases the pressure on at-risk species and vulnerable habitats.”

He said their second concern was a weakening of environmental safeguards.

Fishing company opposes public access to boat footage

Moana New Zealand general manager Mark Ngata said New Zealand’s largest Māori-owned seafood company would be open to having an independent officer of Parliament review boat footage, but it should not be made public.

He said the company had begun using on-boat cameras eight years before it became mandatory, and having the ministry check footage was “more than sufficient”.

“We have always had the view of transparency, but also collecting information, otherwise you can’t make good decisions on what’s happening out there … it’s very important to maintain the privacy of our fishermen.

“We believe that having an organisation like the ministry out there that’s that watchdog, if you like, we think that’s more than sufficient.”

When questioned by New Zealand First’s Mark Patterson about whether an independent officer of Parliament could do that job instead, he said “trust comes from working together and solving problems … something like that could be considered”.

Overall, he said the bill was an important step for modernising fisheries management, improving responsiveness, efficiency, and certainty.

“We consider the bill to be a natural evolution of the quota management system reflecting advances in monitoring, reporting, and data availability.”

Canterbury council fears for biodiversity

Speaking for Canterbury Regional Council, councillor Genevieve Robinson said it had “serious concerns” that the proposed law risked undermining the council’s ability to meet its obligations to protect biodiversity and threatened species.

“Canterbury has the largest coastal marine area jurisdiction of any regional council in this country. More than 40 percent of our jurisdiction is coastal marine area, and that includes nationally significant ecosystems.”

“Several aspects of this bill move fisheries management away from ecosystem-based management. In particular, the council is concerned about the narrowing of the total allowable catch considerations, the reduced transparency around the onboard cameras, and the increased flexibility around annual catch entitlement carrying forward.”

She said catch limits should be set on an ecosystem-wide basis, and footage from fishing boats should be publicly accessible.

“This bill should not weaken its ecosystem safeguards, reduce transparency, or undermine our own regional councils’ ability to protect under the New Zealand coastal policy statement.”

A flotilla of crafts, from fishing boats and yachts to kayaks and stand up paddle boards, surrounding a floating ‘ban bottom trawling’ banner at Mission Bay in Auckland, New Zealand in a show of opposition to bottom trawling in the Hauraki Gulf marine park (file image).

Greenpeace

Speaking for Greenpeace, Ellie Hooper said the current balance of protection versus profit for New Zealand’s waters was “drastically off kilter” and extractive industry had been prioritised.

“It’s extremely clear that this bill, if it was passed, would take ocean policy in this country further in that wrong direction, prioritising extraction and removing the very few environmental checks and balances that exist in the Fisheries Act to stop further decline.”

She said the bill was “rotten and must be rejected in its entirety”.

“The idea that the minister would be able to disregard the environmental principles currently in the act as if fishing happens in a vacuum and doesn’t have an impact on other species or habitats is kind of non-sensical to us.”

She said they opposed the introduction of five-year catch limits, shortened judicial review timeframes, and exemptions for fishing camera footage from the Official Information Act.

“We note the issues with privacy from the industry, but there is surely a way that we can rectify this with blurring all the releases of segments of footage. This industry does have a large impact on the ocean environment, and locking up that footage from public view is not going to rebuild trust in the commercial sector’s activities.”

“Having a fine that could potentially be five times higher for somebody releasing evidence of environmental damage versus someone who actually did that damage in the first place, we think is pretty egregious.”

Young Ocean Explorers

Steve Hathaway from marine educational charity Young Ocean Explorers said the waters around New Zealand once had abundant crayfish, snapper and other stocks – but things have changed.

“Our goal is to ensure we have a thriving ocean for future generations, and we’re on the coalface with Kiwi kids. We’ve personally given presentations to over 150,000 kids around Aotearoa and we’re hearing regularly that this generation of kids are really concerned about the planet and the ocean they’re inheriting.

“Most of New Zealand is actually ocean, about 93 percent of it, and it’s thought over 80 percent of our natives live there … a very old friend of mine told me that he wouldn’t stop to have a fish at 90-Mile Beach until he saw the ocean was pink, where he knew there’s enough snapper that he would get a good feed. These days are long gone.

“I’ve seen crayfish and scallops in abundance, and something we thought would never run out. They should be our God-given right as Kiwis to harvest, but now our Northlands were not allowed to take either of them, as numbers are so diminished. How has it been so poorly managed that it’s got to this place?”

He said New Zealand needed an ambitious goal for the future of its oceans.

‘Minor updates and modernisations’ – Fishing company

Fishing company Solander Group’s managing director Paul Hufflett said many of the other submitters were making “a lot of noise” and talking “off subject”.

“What we’re dealing with is effectively an update to a piece of legislation that has served New Zealand incredibly well for the better part of 30 years,” he said.

“Really we’re just talking about some relatively minor updates and modernisations of a robust piece of legislation that’s put New Zealand in an excellent position to go forward for another 30 years.”

He said they supported the minister having the power to make five-year Total Allowable Catch decisions, supported excluding boat footage from the OIA, opposed the 20-day time limit on judicial review, opposed the introduction of alternative deem values for inshore and deep water bycatch, and strongly supported allowing fish to be returned to sea.

Ngāti Porou settlement body was not consulted

Whangaokena ki Onepoto Takutai Kaitiaki Trust spokesperson Keryn Goldsmith said the trust was not consulted over the bill.

She said the Crown was obliged to engage with them on any Fisheries legislation that affects regulations in the area under their settlement.

“We’re not opposed to the fisheries reform, rather our submission supports improvements to the fisheries system, provided those changes operate consistently with the statutory and deed-based recognition arrangements already provided and agreed between Ngāti Porou and the Crown.”

She said the Ngā Rohe Moana o Ngā Hapū o Ngāti Porou Act and the deed to amend the deed of agreement 2017 were binding on the Crown.

“They establish a bespoke framework that must be taken into account whenever fisheries decisions or decision making affects our Rohe Moana. Those obligations apply throughout the legislative development, not just at implementation, and they are not displaced by generic public consultation processes.

“As drafted, the bill would reduce scrutiny. It would compress participation time frames, concentrates discretion with decision makers, and limits accountability. Considered together, these changes risk narrowing the practical space in which hapū are able to exercise their authority and responsibilities that parliament has already recognised from a kaitiaki perspective.”

She said the Crown’s obligation was to engage with Ngāti Porou hapū on any amendment to fisheries legislation that affected the recognition and fisheries mechanisms.

“That consultation did not occur prior to the introduction of this bill. This is not merely a procedural irregularity, it is a breach of statutory and deed-based obligations owed to Ngāti Porou hapū. The Crown cannot meet those obligations by treating Hapu as one voice among many in a generic public submission process.”

Goldsmith said they did not oppose the reforms, but they must proceed in a way that honours existing commitments.

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The off-season coaching turnover in the Australian NBL reached new heights when two more teams joined the recruitment process for a head coach in recent weeks.

The New Zealand Breakers have been working to secure a replacement for Petteri Koponen since late February, when it was announced the Finn would be departing the club.

In his two seasons with the Breakers, Koponen won the Ignite Cup, but twice finished near the bottom of the 10-team league.

Koponen said he was after a new challenge.

The Auckland-based club has yet to announce who will take the reins but it is an increasingly competitive market with the Cairns Taipans and more recently Melbourne United and Adelaide 36ers also seeking a new coach.

The Taipans parted ways with Adam Forde in the coaching role in February but he remains with the club in a remote role.

Former Breakers coach Dean Vickerman left United after nine seasons to head to Japan, where he will replace another former Breakers coach, Mody Maor, at Nagasaki Velca in the inaugural B.League Premier next season.

A day after Vickerman’s announcement 36ers coach Mike Wells exited the NBL to return to the United States for family reasons. Wells had signed a contract extension through 2028 with the 36ers a week before changing his mind.

Wells has since signed with an American college as an assistant coach.

The drawn-out search appears more a reflection of the competitive coaching market than any lack of urgency from the Breakers.

Tall Blacks coach and Breakers assistant, Judd Flavell, had the experience to be considered for the top job after 17 seasons in an NBL assistant coaching role across two clubs, but he was another coach snapped up by Japanese basketball with the Shinshu Brave Warriors.

Reports out of Australia suggested the Breakers were close to getting Canada’s national team coach Gordon Herbert, considered to be “one of the most accomplished coaching figures in international basketball.”

Herbert had coached Bayern Munich in the EuroLeague for a year and a half before a mutually beneficial parting of ways in December. The club was on an eight game losing streak when Herbert left.

But five days after first reports of Herbert’s links to the Breakers the same Australian publication was saying the deal was off was with the Breakers.

The Breakers have had nine head coaches in 23 seasons and president of basketball operations Dillon Boucher said the next coach would come from a global search and would need to be capable of taking the Breakers to the top of the NBL rankings.

Despite not having a coach locked in, the Breakers have signed four players since Koponen’s departure and already had three players – import Parker Jackson-Cartwright and New Zealanders Izayah Le’Afa and Reuben Te Rangi – on the roster from last season.

Star forward Sam Mennenga re-signed with the club on a two-year contract in March, two-time NBL champion Dejan ‘DJ’ Vasiljevic was signed on a one-year deal in April from the Adelaide 36ers, guard Preston Le Gassick was signed from the NBL1 in May and days later Tall Black small forward Carlin Davison re-signed with the club on a new one-year contract after coming up through the ranks of being a development player with the Breakers.

“We will integrate our homegrown talent with international player depth and experience, to provide the competitive edge needed to bring more silverware home to Aotearoa,” Boucher said.

The Breakers have a recent history of making coaching changes late in the off-season.

Koponen joined the Breakers in July 2024, three months before the season tipped off, after Maor quit in May 2024.

Maor took the top job in May 2022, stepping up from an assistant role after Dan Shamir quit with a year left on his contract.

As the countdown to the 2026-27 NBL season continues, new coaches will arrive at clubs with either a couple of roster spots to fill, or in the case of Cairns nearly a whole roster to build.

The tip off details for the upcoming season is expected to be released next month.

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New Zealand First might want the government to buy back BNZ and meld it with Kiwibank to create a banking competitor to take on the Australian big banks – but there’s limited evidence that it would work.

NZ First leader Winston Peters said at the weekend that the decision to sell the bank in the 1990s was a disgrace.

The bank encountered problems in the 1980s when it expanded into corporate lending after market deregulation.

The Crown coughed up not once ($634 million) but twice ($720m, with the help of another investor) to save it, before it was eventually sold to National Australia Bank, which still owns it.

Speaking at a campaign event at the Trusts Arena in West Auckland, Peters said the new entity – to be known as “National Bank of New Zealand” – would be commercially run and designed to compete more aggressively with the major Australian-owned banks operating in New Zealand.

He estimated buying the bank would cost “$7.5 billion upwards”.

Government-owned Kiwibank has struggled to have an impact in the sector and has been described as a “one-armed boxer” hampered by a lack of capital.

University of Auckland emeritus professor Tim Hazledine said improving banking competition was a worthwhile goal but reducing the number of major brands was unlikely to achieve it.

“Rather than buying back the Bank of New Zealand and merging it with Kiwibank, the government should use its ownership of Kiwibank to position it as a ‘fighting brand’ and reduce interest rate margins,” he said.

“That could put pressure on the big four Australian-owned banks to follow suit.”

Sam Stubbs, founder of Simplicity, said purchasing BNZ would require a willing seller.

“There isn’t one there. That means the price is likely to be high which will limit the ability of the bank to offer cheaper mortgages and higher term deposits. Even if it did work and demand grew, the government of the day would need to spend more taxpayer money to expand, we need that money spent on hospitals.”

He said he could understand a desire to go back to the “good old days” of state-owned banks.

“But I suspect a better and much cheaper for the taxpayer way to achieve the same thing is for Kiwibank to be renamed the National Bank of NZ and listed with only NZ shareholders and let KiwiSaver funds provide the billions required to make it a serious, publicly owned bank.

“Public ownership does not have to mean government ownership. If only New Zealand investors can own shares a listed Kiwibank would be publicly owned, we would be selling the family silver to the family.”

Other sectors in which the government has a strong ownership stake include power – where it owns 51 percent of three of the country’s four major electricity gentailers – and airlines, where it owns 51 percent of Air New Zealand, have their own challenges.

The government bought back KiwiRail in July 2008.

University of Auckland senior finance lecturer Gertjan Verdickt said there was “ample” evidence that NZ First’s plan was not a good idea.

“I have an entire paper on the railway industry in the 1930s: we show that governments are more likely to give money to politically connected railways, not those in economic need.

“Interestingly enough, it doesn’t change profitability, you see employment growth down, but wages of current employees go up. In other words, it doesn’t help the railway, it helps employees, especially the c suite. Also, the chances of those railways going bankrupt actually goes up. So, all in all, bad idea.”

He said there had also been an international study looking at how government ownership and involvement in a banking system affected performance between 1989 and 2004.

“They uncover an interesting pattern of changing performance differences between state-owned and privately-owned banks around the Asian financial crisis. They find that state-owned banks operated less profitably, held less core capital, and had greater credit risk than privately-owned banks prior to 2001. Again – troubles in paradise.”

He said there was some evidence that consumers would benefit if a Government bought a bank. After a bailout, there were lower loan spreads, longer maturities for loans and less collateral held.

“Overall lending goes up but if you see which type of lending, it is politically driven. This to me doesn’t outweigh the risks.”

Kōura founder Rupert Carlyon said in the energy market, the companies had underinvested in generation to keep prices high.

“It is also telling that the government couldn’t put money into KiwiBank and then the private sector were unwilling to, due to its low profitability.

“Let’s figure out where the problems lie and then we can go from there. In my mind, really good regulation is needed and solves the problems.”

He said it would help to have good regulation requiring banks to minimise costs for customers, such as with an annual review of customers’ accounts to ensure they were set up efficiently, and an annual fee letter setting out what fees, interest payments and other relevant sources of revenue applied so customers could compare what they were paying to what they would be charged at other banks.

“Around small business lending and risk appetite, I am not sure there is a huge amount that can be done here – this is the one place where increased competition would be very helpful but we need to let banks set their own risk appetite. SME banking is the issue here. But the government owning BNZ and telling them to relax their credit criteria is not the answer either. Maybe the answer is that we need to instruct KiwiBank to focus primarily on SME banking and give up on corporate and retail banking.”

Kernel founder Dean Anderson also said there was no evidence.

“I think the commentary on government intervention and forced acquisitions raises serious concerns for investors and global relations. Maybe too much time in the Trump sphere.”

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

An Auckland police officer has been charged in relation to an alleged family harm incident.

Court documents seen by RNZ claim the 38-year-old police officer assaulted a person he was in a family relationship with in October 2025.

Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz

Auckland City District Commander Superintendent Sunny Patel confirmed to RNZ a current member of staff had been charged in relation to the incident.

“The member has been on restricted duties since the event was reported to police.

“The 38-year-old man has since been charged with assault on a person in a family relationship. As the matter is before the court, police is unable to comment further at this time.”

Where to get help:

• Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends
• Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202
• Samaritans: 0800 726 666
• Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
• What’s Up: 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787. This is free counselling for 5 to 19-year-olds
• Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, and English.
• Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254
• Healthline: 0800 611 116
• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
• OUTLine: 0800 688 5463
• Aoake te Rā bereaved by suicide service: or call 0800 000 053

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

Family Violence

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The government will spend $131 million on improving students’ reading, writing and maths in this year’s budget, the Education Minister Erica Stanford says.

Stanford made the pre-Budget announcement alongside Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at Boulcott School in Lower Hutt on Monday.

They revealed 12 initiatives as part of the government’s “generational reforms” in primary and intermediate school education.

The new maths intiatives included:

• Maths hubs to improve teacher confidence and capability
• Hands-on maths resources and games for all Year 0-8 classrooms
• 36 additional Maths intervention teachers
• A new times table and division check at Year 5

The new literacy initiatives included:

• New writing workbooks for Year 4 and 5
• A digital writing tool for all Year 6-8 students
• New “decodable” books for older learners in Year 3-10
• A 12-week structured literacy programme for those who are struggling
• A new Year 2 Literacy Check, covering reading, comprehension, writing, spelling and basic punctuation (joining the existing Year 2 Maths Check)
• Guidance for teachers to improve the teaching of literacy, with supporting videos and resources.

There would also be a new reading action plan called Read to Succeed – joining the Make it Count maths plan and Write it Right writing plan.

The initiatives would contribute to the government’s target of seeing 80 percent of Year 8 students achieving the expected curriculum level for their age in reading, writing and maths by December 2030, Stanford said.

“Parents will have more information at each step of their child’s journey about how they are doing at school and students will be better set up for success when they enter high school.”

Stanford said the investments would “level the playing field, reducing costs for schools and backing evidence-led reforms”.

There were early signs the government’s education reforms were already working, she said.

The latest Curriculum Insights and Progress Study looked at student achievement in late 2025 – three terms into previous reforms – and the results “surpassed expectations”, she said.

“A statistically significant improvement of 5 percent in writing and 6 percent in mathematics for Year 6 students between 2024 and 2025 interrupts New Zealand’s long-term decline in achievement between Year 4 and Year 8 and will better set these students up for success at high school.”

But the early improvement in some areas needed to translate to more consistent improvements over time, with more students achieving and fewer needing additional support, Stanford said.

She said the government is delivering on its promise to continue investment in education reforms.

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High Court jurors have been told they need to be sure the man who killed a Nelson police officer had murderous intent when he drove at her to find him guilty of murder.

Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming and Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay were on foot patrol in Buxton Square in the early hours of New Year’s Day last year when they were hit by a car driven by Hayden Tasker.

Tasker, 33, was on trial in Christchurch for murdering Fleming and seriously injuring Ramsay. The jury retired to consider its verdict shortly before 12.30pm on Monday.

Tasker’s defence argued he was drunk and depressed and crashed into the officers in a failed attempt to take his own life.

The Crown argued Tasker was motivated by anger towards the police and intentionally used his car as a weapon to mow them down.

In summing up, Justice Cameron Mander told the jury to put emotion aside in reaching a verdict.

“Feelings of sympathy for the deceased and her family are inevitably aroused but you must simply put such feelings to one side,” he said.

“Similarly you need to put aside feelings of prejudice or shock that may have been engendered in you from in some respects being eyewitnesses to Senior Sergeant Fleming’s death as a result of viewing the CCTV and other video footage.

“Any negative feelings or for that matter sympathetic feelings you may have for Mr Tasker’s living situation or the way he was living his life at the time similarly need to be put to one side.”

Over two weeks the jury heard from more than 40 witnesses including members of the public and police officers who were in the central Nelson car park at the time of the crash.

Mander told jurors they needed to be sure Tasker had murderous intent when he hit Fleming with his car.

“It is not disputed that Senior Sergeant Fleming’s death resulted from Mr Tasker driving his vehicle in a dangerous manner,” he said.

The Crown and the defence gave their closing arguments on Friday.

A ‘grandiose fantasy’

Crown prosecutor Jackson Webber told the jury Fleming was “senselessly and needlessly” killed when Tasker deliberately used his Honda Odyssey as a weapon, accelerating as hard as he could towards the officers at an estimated speed of 45km/h, shortly after 2am.

“Hayden Tasker sitting in his car, drinking wine saw the two police officers. He watched them. He was angry at the police and he made a series of conscious decisions. To start his car, to leave his headlights off, to pull out of that parking space and manoeuvre his car around to the south, then to the west to accelerate, to drive straight into Lynn Fleming and Adam Ramsay,” he said.

Webber said the pair had done nothing to provoke or antagonise Tasker, apart from the fact that they were police officers in uniform.

“They were on duty, doing their job, keeping others safe and ironically, one of the risks that they had been considering that night was the risk of a vehicle intrusion attack,” he said.

Webber said Tasker’s actions did not fit the claim that he did not intend to hurt or kill the officers but wanted to take his own life.

“[He] didn’t stop, he didn’t jump out to see what had happened or to check on the people he had just hit,” he said.

Tasker’s behaviour during and after the collisions was inconsistent with a suicide attempt, he said.

“It was going to be glorious, like a movie. It was a rather grandiose fantasy that he might talk about, but had no real intention of ever carrying out,” he said.

‘Despicable’ behaviour doesn’t make Tasker a murderer – Defence

Defence lawyer Marcus Zintl said the crash was a “terrible, terrible, terrible tragedy” that “should not have happened”.

Tasker had already admitted three charges of dangerous driving.

Zintil said Tasker was driven by a desire to end his own life in a police chase rather than intending to kill or hurt police.

“He was suicidal, he was on medication for depression, he was living in his car,” Zintl told the jury.

“He was alone, he had no close family support and virtually no actual friends.”

Zintl said Tasker’s father died when he was 16. His long-time girlfriend had recently dumped him, he was unemployed, on a benefit and had nothing going for him.

“He wanted to end the painful, pointlessness and pitifulness of his life that he was experiencing at that time, which is why he wanted to end up himself in a police chase,” he said.

Zintl said Tasker “drank himself silly” with a bottle-and-a-half of red wine, he was three-and-a-half times over the breath alcohol limit and filled his car with petrol before arriving in the car park that night.

The first collision, when Tasker drove into Fleming and Ramsay, happened six seconds after he started his car.

The second collision, when he rammed the white police patrol car, was around 26 seconds later in what Zintl said was a moment of madness, desperation, stupidity and empty-headedness.

The court was earlier played footage of Tasker’s first police interview around 11 hours after the crash.

Zintl said Tasker’s state of mind could be ascertained from his admission to police in that interview.

“I didn’t think of the consequences. I was in a bad headspace but that doesn’t give me an excuse,” Tasker said.

The jury saw how he broke down in tears and vomited during that interview after learning Fleming had died.

Tasker said it “should have been me that died that day”.

“I never thought I’d kill anyone… didn’t really think it through,” he said in the interview.

Zintl told the jury Tasker’s actions were “despicable, deplorable and dreadful” but that did not make him guilty of murder.

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

Utilities and airport software firm Gentrack’s first half net profit is down 29 percent, though growth in recurring revenue was expected to continue to grow.

The net profit for the six months to March was $5.1 million, with revenue down 1.7 percent to $110.1m, with two unexpected delays in sales of utilities services contributing to the drop.

However, Gentrack chief executive Gary Miles said recurring revenue rose nearly 17 percent to $85.3m, which was expected to continue to grow as AI changed the dynamics of software integration.

“This is definitely a transition that we’re trying to make in a very positive way that’ll affect the dynamics of our revenue,” he said.

“The other thing that’s happening with AI is when you have an out-of-the-box-stack and then you can start to run interoperability with tangential systems, the cost to deploy these systems also goes down.

“So that’s just part of the journey that the industry is on that we think will make a lot of sense for both the industry and for us.”

He said the drop in revenue and bottom line profit was unexpected, with an unforeseen delay in settling two deals.

“The long sales cycles, and two unexpected new client delays, have had an impact on our results this first half, but does not change our confidence in our medium-term growth targets of more than 15 percent compound annual growth.”

However, he said sales of airports software Veovo had been “exceptional” over the first half.

Miles said the company would be investing more in AI, which would drive software development and sales.

Acquisitions

Gentrack also announced it had an agreement to buy New Zealand-based software as a service firm Prospero Energy (trading as Factor) serving the energy retail sector, as part of its utilities division transition to an increasingly distributed energy system.

The latest deal followed last month’s agreement to buy Dubai-based airport technology and services provider Dubai Technology Partners as part of Gentrack’s expanding airport business.

Gentrack also reaffirmed its full year guidance issued on 5 May, but Miles it was too early to provide guidance for FY27.

While the board decided not to pay an Interim dividend, it still intended to undertake a share buyback up to $20m, depending on market conditions.

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Kiwi forward Briton Nikora will make his State of Origin debut next week after being named in the Queensland team.

Nikora is the first Kiwi international to be allowed to play in rugby league’s biggest showpiece after a change in eligibility rules.

The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) announced the amendment in February.

Players were previously required to represent Australia or a tier two nation as defined by International Rugby League to be eligible for Origin.

This ruled out players who had represented the Kiwis or England.

The updated rules remove this restriction, allowing players who who meet the traditional State of Origin criteria and represent tier one nations to be eligible.

That criteria includes being been born in New South Wales or Queensland, residing in either state prior to their 13th birthday, or if a players father played State of Origin.

Nikora has played 15 tests for new Zealand, though qualifies for Queensland having moved to Brisbane at the age of nine.

He has played his senior career exclusively for the Cronulla Sharks, playing 168 NRL games since 2019.

Two Warriors will also play in Origin I- Co-captain Mitch Barnett for New South Wales and second rower Kurt Capewell for Queensland.

Team lists

NSW Blues squad

1. James Tedesco (Sydney Roosters)

2. Brian To’o (Penrith Panthers)

3. Stephen Crichton (Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs)

4. Kotoni Staggs (Brisbane Broncos)

5. Tolutau Koula* (Manly Warringah Sea Eagles)

6. Mitchell Moses (Parramatta Eels)

7. Nathan Cleary (Penrith Panthers)

8. Addin Fonua-Blake* (Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks)

9. Reece Robson (Sydney Roosters)

10. Mitchell Barnett (Warriors)

11. Hudson Young (Canberra Raiders)

12 Haumole Olakau’atu (Manly Warringah Sea Eagles)

13. Isaah Yeo (c) (Penrith Panthers)

14. Cameron Murray (South Sydney Rabbitohs)

15. Victor Radley* (Sydney Roosters)

16. Jacob Saifiti (Newcastle Knights)

17. Blayke Brailey* (Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks)

18. Ethan Strange* (Canberra Raiders)

19. Casey McLean* (Penrith Panthers)

20. Dylan Lucas* (Newcastle Knights)

Coach: Laurie Daley

* Yet to play for NSW

QLD Maroons squad

1.Kalyn Ponga (Newcastle Knights)

2. Selwyn Cobbo (Dolphins)

3. Robert Toia (Sydney Roosters)

4. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (Dolphins)

5. Jojo Fifita (Gold Coast Titans)

6. Cameron Munster (Melbourne Storm)

7. Sam Walker (Sydney Roosters)^

8. Thomas Flegler (Dolphins)

9. Harry Grant (Melbourne Storm)

10. Tino Fa’asuamaleaui (Gold Coast Titans)

11. Reuben Cotter (North Queensland Cowboys)

12. Kurt Capewell (Warriors)

13. Max Plath (Dolphins)^

14. Briton Nikora (Cronulla Sutherland Sharks)^

15. Lindsay Collins (Sydney Roosters)

16. Patrick Carrigan (Brisbane Broncos)

17. Trent Loiero (Melbourne Storm)

18. Ezra Mam (Brisbane Broncos)^

19. Gehamat Shibasaki (Brisbane Broncos)

20. Kulikefu Finefeuiaki (Dolphins)

^ Potential debutant

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

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission has opened an inquiry into a fatal helicopter crash in Mt Aspiring National Park involving a company owned by members of the Wallis family.

The two people who died in the crash on Sunday morning were the only occupants of the helicopter, with three other members of the hunting group on the ground escorted to safety.

The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350 B3, belonged to The Alpine Group, which is owned by the Wallis family.

Its aviation branch Alpine Helicopters is run by brothers Toby and Jonathan Wallis, the sons of late aviation pioneer Sir Tim Wallis, who founded the Warbirds over Wanaka Airshow in 1988.

Cromwell detective sergeant Sarah Waugh said police received reports of the crash at 9.50am on Sunday.

“The helicopter was a chartered craft, and the occupants were on a hunting trip,” she said.

“Three others from the hunting group were located on the ground and taken to safety.”

A transport commission spokesperson said a team was travelling to Queenstown on Monday to interview the operator and collect evidence from the mountain.

The helicopter wreckage would be removed in the coming days and taken to Wellington for further analysis.

The deaths have been referred to the coroner and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Two of Sir Tim’s sons, Matthew and Nick, died in separate helicopter crashes in 2018.

Matthew Wallis, 39, died in July 2018 when the Robinson R-44 he was flying crashed into Lake Wānaka.

The commission found that turbulence and flight speed led the rotor blade to slice through the cabin.

In October 2018, pilot Nick Wallis, 38, and DOC rangers Paul Hondelink, 63, and Scott Theobold, 59, died after the helicopter they were in crashed shortly after take off from Wānaka Airport.

The commission found a door had opened shortly after take-off and a piece of loose clothing was sucked into the tail rotor.

In November 2019, the CAA laid two charges against The Alpine Group Ltd in relation to the accident, under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

The Alpine Group pleaded guilty and was fined $315,000 and ordered to pay $64,000 in legal costs at the Queenstown District Court.

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A third deputy chief executive at Corrections is under scrutiny with concerns raised about their leadership.

RNZ earlier revealed deputy chief executive Leigh Marsh was under investigation over allegations of bullying.

It was then revealed another deputy chief executive’s behaviour was being assessed in relation to the “tone and instructions” contained in a Microsoft Teams message. The same deputy chief had earlier apologised to another staffer about how they spoke to them.

RNZ has since learned other concerns were raised about another deputy chief executive at Corrections. The organisation has eight in total.

In response to questions from RNZ, Corrections acting chief executive Rachel Leota confirmed that in March, the former chief executive received concerns regarding leadership, governance and decision making within a business group.

“Corrections is conducting an internal review of the concerns raised in order to provide a substantive response. There is no current investigation underway.

“As one of the concerns related to decision making in a recruitment process, we have appointed an independent, external reviewer to make inquiries and provide Corrections with a report on their findings.”

Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz

Leota said she was “committed to ensuring Corrections continues to have a culture where we all act with integrity, staff feel comfortable speaking up, and that when staff do raise concerns, we look into these fairly and impartially for all parties involved”.

Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell said he was aware of the matter.

“I have respect for the culture that Corrections have built where people are encouraged and feel comfortable raising issues and concerns.

“Staffing matters are for Corrections to manage, and I am confident they do this professionally and appropriately.”

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Thieves after fuel targeted a vegetable stall and a mechanic’s workshop around the rural Southland township of Winton within a 12-hour period last week.

New Zealand Police are investigating if the two fuel theft reports on Great North Road on Wednesday evening and another, fewer than 10 minutes drive south on State Highway 6 on Thursday morning, were connected.

It came amid soaring fuel prices as a result of the US-Israel war in the Persian Gulf, with brent crude oil up to $109 USD a barrel on Friday.

Wilson’s Vege Stall co-owner David Wilson said an offender used a power drill to bore a hole in the vegetable truck’s fuel tank to collect its diesel.

“I got to work in the morning, and could smell the smell of diesel. They’d taken the diesel cap off,” he said.

“I had a look under, and all the diesel had poured out of the tank. They’d bored a hole in the bottom of the tank.”

Wilson said the shop’s security cameras picked up the offender arriving in their vehicle around 6.45am.

“This road is really busy with people going past at that time in the morning,” he said.

“We’re just hoping somebody’s seen them. Like, there are lights in front of the shop, so the lights would be shining on their vehicle as well, so they’ve been pretty brazen to have a go at it.”

Wilson said most of the diesel was spilled onto the ground in the car park.

He said the truck’s damaged fuel tank would have to be replaced, and he would likely have to seek insurance.

“That’s a real pain in the bum because now I’ve got to get the tank fixed.

“It’s the inconvenience.”

For the farm side of the business, Wilson said one of the ways they were working to conserve fuel was by doing shorter trips.

“But hey, it’s sort of disappointing when someone dumps your fuel on the ground.”

Wilson said a local mechanic experienced a similar theft recently too, where the vehicle’s fuel tank was drilled into.

Police confirmed it received another report of a fuel theft from a vehicle at a premises on Great North Road in Winton at 9.30pm on Wednesday evening.

“Enquiries are underway to determine if these incidents are connected,” acting sergeant Daniel Munro of Otautau said.

He said anyone with information could contact police on 105 quoting file number 260514/1519.

“If people have information or footage that may assist with our enquiries, we would appreciate hearing from them.”

Police said it was taking a hard line against fuel thefts and associated offences.

“Overall we are not noticing a particular change in rural fuel theft but this is a timely reminder for everyone, especially those in rural communities, to look at their security, especially around fuel.”

Wilson and his wife Kathy Wilson had ran the vegetable stall and farm shop for more than 35 years.

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Winston Peters’ threat to nationalise a major Australian-owned bank would send a “bad signal” to potential foreign investors, a veteran economic analyst says.

Peters’ party NZ First said if re-elected in November it would merge BNZ and Kiwibank under state ownership. BNZ was sold by the state in 1992 and is owned by National Australia Bank (NAB), which has not indicated it is looking to sell the profitable subsidiary.

Peters on Monday morning said the price would likely be “$7.5 billion upwards”, and if its owner was not keen to sell, “they always face the prospect of nationalisation”.

“I blanched at that point,” Michael Reddell told Midday Report. Reddell has more than 30 years’ experience in economic analysis, including stints at the Reserve Bank, Treasury and the International Monetary Fund.

“I mean, as a country, we’re supposedly keen on encouraging foreign investment – perhaps New Zealand First not so much – but generally across the parties, across the economic advisers, we’ve said over the years that we’ve actually made it too hard for foreigners to invest here.

“If you go down a nationalisation route, even if you pay a fair price, it seems a pretty bad signal.”

Peters claimed Australia was in a recession, making this a good time for New Zealand to make an offer.

“Contrary to what the minister said, I mean, Australia is not in a recession at the moment,” Reddell said. “There’s no reason to suppose that NAB would be particularly interested in selling unless we paid an over-the-top price. And if we pay an over-the-top price, what’s in it for the taxpayer?”

Peters’ intention was for the new entity, which he dubbed the National Bank of New Zealand, to be commercially run and designed to compete more aggressively with the major Australian-owned banks operating in New Zealand.

Reddell noted that merging two of the five biggest banks in the country would mean fewer banks competing with each other.

“The argument, I suppose, would be that the motivation of a government entity was different than a private entity. But the way we set up [state-owned enterprises] in this country over multiple decades has been that we expect them to operate on a commercial basis. So you’d hope that this new bank would operate commercially successfully.

“The risk is that it wouldn’t, and the political imperatives would drive it. And what’s happened with too many government banks over the years is without the market discipline of being listed on the share market, they take bad credit risks and they end up coming a cropper and costing the taxpayer a lot when that bad stuff happens.”

Instead, Reddell said it should be easier for foreign firms to set up new banks in New Zealand.

“Those are the sort of people that we should be looking to get into the market – private entities taking risk for their shareholders, not getting the government back in the business of banking in some throwback to the 1970s.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, whose party National is in coalition with NZ First at present, dismissed the idea and said it would cost far more than Peters thinks.

“That would be $30 billion of more borrowing that we don’t have. And, you know, that sounds like a Labour or a Greens policy, frankly… that just doesn’t make sense, you know, to borrow more money to buy a private company for the government to own.”

Peters predicted any potential coalition partners after the votes were counted would “cave in” and go ahead with the plan.

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

One NZ is investigating a partial outage of its mobile networks across the country.

On its website, One NZ said the incident began shortly after 12.30pm on Monday.

Customers reported having issues with making or receiving calls.

A third party website, Downdetector, was reporting a sharp increase in the number of people with problems.

It was showing close to 200 outage reports in just over an hour.

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