Source: Radio New Zealand

Central Auckland is bearing the brunt of the rain this morning, MetService says.

Orange heavy rain warnings are in place for Northland, Auckland and Great Barrier Island (until 2pm), Waitomo, Waikato and Taupō (until 6pm), Bay of Plenty (until 11pm) and Tongariro National Park (until 10pm).

MetService meteorologist Samkelo Magwala said all those areas had received a “decent amount” of rain overnight.

It was heaviest in Auckland, particularly in the central city, he said.

“Some stations in Auckland have recorded about 15.5mm of rain in the period of an hour, some even as high as 21mm of rain,” he said.

There was a possibility of flooding with that amount of rain, Magwala said.

The band of rain would move eastwards throughout the day, easing before another band was due to ramp up again in the afternoon.

Gisborne was not under a weather warning, but the rain was heading that way later this afternoon, he said.

After Wednesday, high pressure would begin to build, Magwala said, “giving us some more settled weather for a couple of days”.

Taumarunui and Taihape north of Ohakune, as well as Taranaki are also under heavy rain watches until Wednesday.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A nursing student says he’s “disappointed, but not surprised” by delays in announcing job offers to graduate nurses.

Graduating student nurses were notified on Tuesday they would not hear results of job applications the following day as expected.

Applications for jobs were made through the Advanced Choice of Employment (ACE) process, which matched nurses to positions in the health system.

An email sent to students sitting their final examinations this week said job offers would be pushed back to 28 November.

“We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, but the extra time will be used to consider additional positions across Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora,” ACE organisers wrote.

National Student Unit (NSU) chair Davis Ferguson said he was excited to find out on Wednesday where he might be placed when he started work.

He said he was aware of controversy surrounding Health NZ plans to hire more graduate nurses on part-time hours, but had to hope that the health agency was acting in good faith.

“It’s a very powerless situation, because I can’t have any control over how many jobs there are going to be in nursing, so you’ve got to take it at face value,” Ferguson said. “There’s nothing you can really do about it.”

He said watching the changes in the health system had “been a rollercoaster” during his last three years of study.

“From when I first started – hearing students are pretty much guaranteed a job – to this year, where only 45 percent of nursing graduates got jobs in the mid-year intake.”.

He said the state of the health system had “strengthened my resolve” to make a difference in his future role.

“We go into nursing, because we want to help.

“I think it’s made a lot of people disheartened and more likely to go over to Australia, or seek other employment in places that they never considered, but I think everyone is doing the best they can at the moment.”

He hoped any additional positions uncovered in the delayed process would offer enough hours to properly support the nurses.

“I hope this delay leads to better quality jobs for nursing graduates. We’re wanting to be looked after by good quality jobs, so we can be the best nurses for our patients.

“Making sure that new grad nurses can put food on their table and a roof over their head, so we can provide a quality healthcare for our New Zealand public.”

Health New Zealand people, culture, health and safety executive national director Robyn Shearer would not comment on the reasons behind the delay.

She said the organisation was committed to “assisting graduate nurses into jobs across the health system”.

Shearer said HNZ was working to place as many graduates as possible into employment.

“We expect to be in a position to make offers by the end of this month.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Fifty tiny, yellow songbirds have been released in a corner of Mount Aspiring National Park that hasn’t heard their chirps in years.

Conservationists hope the at-risk mohua can set up a new foothold in the Matukituki Valley, west of Wānaka, after years of intensive predator-control work by passionate locals.

Also called yellowhead, the birds were once among the most abundant species in South Island forests in the 1800s, but now number fewer than 5000.

To revive the population, the Department of Conservation has seeded populations on predator-free offshore islands, then returned small groups to carefully managed mainland sites.

Southern Lakes Sanctuary Matukituki hub co-ordinator Scotty Bewley said the valley’s new arrivals were delivered by helicopter from Anchor Island in Dusky Sound on 14 October.

“It just gives the species the opportunity to hopefully rebuild itself in a natural environment to become stronger, to become more resilient to the challenges that we face as the world changes and for people to enjoy them in multiple areas,” he said.

Southern Lakes Sanctuary staff carried out a census last week to see how the newcomers had settled and spotted a dozen birds across three sites – a result Bewley described as heartening, after a stretch of stormy weather.

“For 12 birds to be found in the first census over two days is quite encouraging,” he said. “It shows that the birds have survived through a pretty turbulent weather period, but also stayed in the area and haven’t found the need to vacate.

“They’ve found suitable habitat.”

For Bewley, watching three mohua flitting around the forest canopy on Monday near Cascade Hut, a kilometre from the release site, was a particularly special moment.

“It’s fantastic for the Mohua Recovery Group and the Department of Conservation to feel as though they can be released here,” he said.

“They’re a beautiful native bird. They were here at one point and now we have the opportunity to enjoy them again.”

Years of community work

Much of the Matukituki Valley’s predator control has been driven by locals, who refuse to watch their backyard fall silent.

Geoff Marks, a trustee with the Matukituki Charitable Trust, said residents noticed kea numbers slipping in 2013 and felt compelled to step in.

“Derek and Gillian Crombie, who set up the trust, walked into a Department of Conservation office and said, ‘What can we do to help?’” he said.

“While the translocation of mohua was never an original objective, we were hopeful that one day we might be able to translocate other species.

“This is just the culimnation of incredibly hard work by lots and lots of volunteers, and many, many hours of getting sweaty in the hills, and coming home stinking of dead rats and stoats.”

Southern Lakes Sanctuary came on board in 2021, helping co-ordinate the valley’s work, as part of a wider regional effort.

Bewley spent hours each week on steep trap-lines, testing new devices for rats, stoats, possums and feral cats.

Nearly 1000 traps are scattered across the valley, he said, from experimental stoat designs backed by Predator Free NZ to AI-enabled devices that powered down, whenever a curious kea hopped too close.

Many of the traps were on Mt Aspiring Station, which covered much of the valley floor.

Co-owner Sally Aspinall said letting conservation groups in was an easy decision.

“Getting rid of pests and predators is beneficial for everyone,” she said. “This is a special place.

“We farm it, but we want it to be in a better state when we leave it than when we arrived.”

Kererū numbers had surged in recent years, Aspinall said – she counted 22 in a single paddock not long ago – and birdlife in general had become noticeably more present.

“They’ve done a good job. We’ve definitely been noticing a lot more birdlife around the farm.”

A previous success story

Conservationists hoped the mohua would follow the same trajectory as the South Island robin.

Twenty-two robins were released into the valley in 2008 – that population had since ballooned to about 500.

Southern Lakes Sanctuary chief executive Paul Kavanagh said this year’s beech mast meant even more vigilance was required.

“We’ll be ramping up protection work, because with a beech-mast also comes an increase in rats and stoats,” he said. “This work has to continue in perpetuity to make sure they’re safe.

“It’s one thing getting the birds returned to that area, but now we have to make sure they’re as safe as possible.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Health NZ says another 10,000 people have been immunised against measles, but experts warn more coverage is needed to help those with immune deficiencies.

The National Public Service’s Nikki Canter-Burgoyne said 10,847 people were vaccinated against Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) last week.

It comes after an immunisation drive earlier this month which saw an extra 15,000 people vaccinated.

There are 19 confirmed cases in the current measles outbreak.

“It’s heartening to see continued interest in people protecting themselves and their tamariki from measles a week after Immunisation Week finished,” Canter-Burgoyne said.

The national childhood vaccination rate in New Zealand is at 82.6 percent. Coverage of 95 percent in the community is required to prevent outbreaks and protect populations, The World Health Organisation said.

Health New Zealand also has the target of 95 percent of two year olds being fully vaccinated.

Dr Nikki Turner, from the Immunisation Advisory Centre, said it was vital to reach community immunity when some people couldn’t get the vaccine.

She said as a live vaccine, MMR could pose risk for those with significant immune deficiencies, including people on medications for Crohn’s disease, arthritis, people undergoing chemotherapy, or those with HIV. It also cannot be given to those who are pregnant.

“MMR is what we call live attenuated, so it doesn’t cause measles, but when you give the vaccine it can replicate inside you, so that if you have a significant immune problem, it can replicate quite vigourously inside you, and cause what looks like measles.”

Turner said those with immune deficiencies were at higher risk of developing severe complications from measles – including pneumonia, brain inflammation or death.

“We do not want these people to get measles.”

Associate professor Andrew Harrison, medical director at Arthritis New Zealand, said this was an issue for a significant proportion of the population.

“I know it’s caused a fair amount of concern”.

He said a decision needed to be made on a case by case basis for patients with arthritis who did not have immunity to measles.

Harrison said the MMR vaccine could be given to people with certain lower-level treatments for inflammatory arthritis, whereas advice for those on heavy immunosuppressants – such as TNF inhibitors – was that they stopped medications if they needed the vaccine.

“If they carry on with their treatment – the risk is that the live vaccine will expand and proliferate in their bloodstream and tissues, and cause an infection, which can be harmful.”

He said guidelines differed between Health NZ’s Immunisation Handbook and guidelines from the American College of Rheumatology.

“The best approach is to tailor the advice for the individual patient according to their circumstances, and to balance the risks of developing measles against the risk of vaccine-related syndrome.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A resident of a Far North town says it was “about time” the water watchdog stepped in, after being under a boil notice for more than 10 years.

Kāeo’s water supply has been under the management of private companies for 25 years, after it was sold by the Far North District Council.

Since then, a decade-long boil water notice has been in place, the water supply owner has been trespassed from the treatment plant and water hasn’t been running for the past month.

Now, for the first time, the water services authority – Taumata Arowai – has placed the town’s supply under statutory management and appointed the council to take care of it.

Local resident Anna Valentine told RNZ it was about time the community had change.

“It’s a relief for sure, but it seems like a lot of effort has gone in to get somebody to take notice of it.”

Valentine said getting information out of the private water company about their issues had been difficult.

“It has been like living under that Mad Max character that is like the lord of the water, and has turned it on and off at whim.”

She wanted accountability for what the town had gone through.

“What’s happened to all the money the town’s paid to the supplier, if he couldn’t even put a filter in or maintain the plant? That seems to have not happened, because the boil-water notice never got taken off.”

Taumata Arowai operations head Steve Taylor said the issues were unacceptable and went on for too long.

He said the Far North District Council would now need to consider how it managed the water, both short and long term.

Te Runanga o Whaingaroa pou arahi Rainera Kaio said his iwi organisation would like to be part of that work.

“We’re keen to work alongside Far North District Council to co-design something.

“Whether that looks like – a joint model situation or whether we look to other members of the community, or other contractors in the community that could take this on.”

Far North District Council was approached for comment.

Wai Care Environmental Consultants declined to comment, beyond saying it supported Taumata Arowai’s statement.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Pike River families are still waiting to hear if police will lay criminal charges, as a result of the disaster that left 29 men dead 15 years ago.

Bernie Monk, whose son Michael died in the mine, said it was outrageous to still be waiting for a prosecution.

“They owe this to the country to do the right thing and I can’t understand why we’re still here, still battling for the same thing.”

To honour the anniversary, Monk said families would meet at the memorial site in Atarau on Wednesday morning, before heading up to the mine in the afternoon.

“We’ll all gather at approximately the time of the explosion and have a roll call, so every member is remembered by individuals. If their families are not there, we still have their names recorded and then we have a minute silence.

“That’s a vigil that we’ve had every year since the day it’s happened and we’ll continue to do that, until the government, the police and the Crown see sense in bringing charges and possibly getting the men out.”

The 15th anniversary also comes after the release of the Pike River feature film, which has brought the families’ ongoing fight for justice back into focus.

Recently released research shows New Zealand’s health-and-safety record remains poor, with workers here more likely to die than in Australia or the United Kingdom.

The Public Health Communication Centre research identified persistent issues with workplace health and safety, including weak enforcement, inadequate fines, and poor understanding of legal duties among employers and political leaders.

Anna Osborne, whose son Milton died in the mine, and Sonya Rockhouse, whose son Ben was also killed in the disaster, are in Wellington to meet with Workplace Safety and Relations Minister Brooke van Velden.

Osborne said she was shocked, but not surprised there had been little change in the rate of workplace fatalities in the last 15 years, and she wanted to see health-and-safety regulations strengthened.

“We lobbied the government for stronger health-and-safety rules and regulations in the workplace, but to find that they’re being watered down at the moment by the government, it just makes me sick to think that another Pike River could actually happen again.”

Osborne said people dying at work and not returning home to their families was unacceptable.

“I’ve lived through losing my husband and it’s a nightmare. It’s an emotional rollercoaster and life just is not the same.

“I just hate the thought of any loved one not returning home after their day at work, so if I can help in any way to push these laws to make them stronger and make it safer, I’m going to do that.”

Osborne said she felt she owed it to the people of New Zealand, who had been so kind in supporting the Pike families, to keep fighting for safer health-and-safety regulations in the workplace.

A police spokesperson said they were still working with the crown solicitor and considering whether to lay charges over the Pike River Mine disaster.

They could not provide a timeframe for when a decision would be made on the matter.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

An Auckland mother of three says it makes her sad to see her children accepting there could be no presents this Christmas.

Anau Fangupo’s two teenagers have come to understand their parents cannot afford gifts – but her 12-year-old still hopes for a surprise.

“This year they’re not asking for a present, I think they understand. Only my little one, I try my best to get him the present that we can afford.”

Their Christmas tree goes up the week before the celebrated day but no gifts are placed underneath.

“I only put it there so the kids see it’s a Christmas tree because sometimes we have a present, sometimes don’t have a present for the kids.”

Social services are warning this would be a tough Christmas for many families already struggling to put food on the table.

Variety’s survey of households linked to the charity shows nine out of 10 would be unable to put on a Christmas spread and buy gifts for their children.

Others, including the Salvation Army, warn demand for support is on track to outstrip last year as rising unemployment and the cost of living widen financial hardship.

Fangupo’s husband works, they live in a state house in Auckland and their three children are sponsored by Variety.

She budgets $200 a week for groceries and, with budding sportsmen in the family, her kids fill up on noodles and bread.

“In my plan for Christmas this year, whatever we have, that’s our Christmas. We go to church then come home and if there’s chicken and noodles we’ll have that for Christmas.”

Fangupo said it is hard not to be able to buy her children presents but she is teaching her children to be humble.

Variety’s recent survey of caregivers receiving support or on the wait list found more than 89 percent of caregivers would struggle to feed their children at Christmas, while even more – 92 percent – wouldn’t be able to buy presents.

Its chief executive Susan Glasgow said rising unemployment and the increased cost of food, power and rent was creating further hardship.

“It’s definitely harder for caregivers this year in comparison to last year and I think that’s simply because the economic climate is so much worse. Power’s more expensive, food’s more expensive, rent’s more expensive so where caregivers are making really tough choices, food or rent, they’re choosing to keep a roof over their child’s head.”

Variety aims to raise $500,000 in its Christmas appeal to be able to give children on the waitlist for sponsorship a gift voucher.

“Children who are living in households where they experience daily poverty, they know not to ask their parents for the things they need,” Glasgow said.

“More often than not, what we receive are letters from older siblings asking for a gift on behalf of their younger sibling. The older ones can deal with their lack of toys or lack of food but they know that the younger ones don’t often know why they’re not receiving something from Father Christmas.”

She said for many struggling families, Christmas became a time of dread and humiliation.

“If you can’t afford to give your kids a lovely Christmas Day meal or a gift, then this time of year can be unbearable for parents,” Glasgow said.

“There’s also the pressure of providing enough food for their kids during the school holidays, when their appetites are strong and they’re always hungry. Nearly all our caregivers say they won’t be able to feed their kids adequately because of cost, which should be of great concern to New Zealanders.”

The Salvation Army provided Christmas support to 3700 households last November and December.

Its corps officer in Newtown, Andrew Wilson, said just a few weeks into this month they’d amost reached that number, helping 3400 households, with no sign demand would slow down.

“We’re expecting that this Christmas we’re going to be needing to support more families than we did last year,” he said.

“Our big concern this year is that the level of demand that we’re seeing outpaces that which we can meet under our own steam so we really rely on the support and generosity of our communities right across the country to support us at this time of year.”

Wilson said households needed basics and their foodbanks had been under pressure all year.

“Quite often at the end of the week you’ll go into our food banks and see shelf after shelf bare because of how great the need has been and so especially coming into the Christmas time where that demand increases for a range of reasons, this is the time of year that we really rely on our community to get behind us.”

The Salvation Army has launched its Christmas appeal and also welcomed donated gifts and food at its churches.

“We know it’s been a hard year. We’ve been fighting for support, whether it’s homelessness or the rising cost of living, so we know Kiwis across the country are doing it really tough.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand has tumbled in an international climate-change league table, with authors now ranking it as “low-performing”.

The country fell three places to 44th in the Climate Change Performance Index, after already falling seven places last year.

The report’s authors said New Zealand’s continued slump was mainly due to a series of policy changes that amounted to “backsliding” on climate action.

The index, which has been compiled by international non-governmental organisations Germanwatch and NewClimate Institute every year since 2007, ranks 63 countries and the European Union.

Countries are rated across four categories – greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use and climate policy.

Co-author Thea Uhlich, from Germanwatch, said no country was ranked in first, second or third place.

“Like in the last years, the first three ranks are empty, because across all four categories… no country manages to be very good or good enough to be in the top three positions.”

Denmark was the first country to be ranked, followed by the UK and Morocco.

Saudi Arabia, Iran and the US rounded out the bottom three places in the rankings.

“The USA has suffered a particularly remarkable decline – ranking third to last in the overall standings, just behind Russia,” Uhlich said.

“The largest oil and gas-producing countries are virtually among themselves, and show no sign of departing from fossil fuels as a business model.”

New Zealand-based experts and activists who contributed to the report said New Zealand had a “relatively robust policy framework”, which had been largely stable since 2019.

“The political consensus has been a strength of the scheme, but this is being eroded by the current government, which announced in October 2025 that it will amend the 2050 target’s methane component.” the report said.

The government signalled the target would drop from a 24-47 percent emissions reduction by 2050, from 2017 levels, to a 14-24 percent reduction.

This change prompted climate activists at the annual COP climate summit, currently taking place in Brazil, to award New Zealand ‘Fossil of the Day’.

Uhlich said there were other contributors to New Zealand’s lower ranking.

“New Zealand’s climate action is backsliding,” she said. “For example, we see that they have a rollback on the ban on new offshore oil and gas fuel exploration, which is again focusing on fossil fuels and not on renewables.”

However, she said New Zealand’s high rating for renewables – which make up more than 80 percent of electricIty supply – was a “spark of hope”.

The report noted that previous progress on developing further renewable supply had stalled.

David Tong, a New Zealander who works as a campaigner for Oil Change International, has contributed to the index for a decade.

The report could not take into account some of the most recent policy changes, such as this week’s announcement that the government would further loosen clean car standards.

“New Zealand could expect an even worse rating, if the Climate Change Performance Index were re-assessed today,” Tong said. “A lot has happened in the last four weeks, even since we provided the draft.”

The latest changes would be taken into account in next year’s report.

Climate Change Minister Simon Watts is in Brazil for the second week of talks at COP and did not respond to RNZ’s request for comment on the ratings.

World Wildlife Fund NZ chief executive Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, whose organisation also contributed to the index, said the index received international attention, when it was released each year.

“It is seen as respected and authoritative analysis, and to see New Zealand plummet down the rankings in the last two iterations is pretty depressing and rather shameful.”

New Zealand was risking its “very credible role” in the Pacific, a region that was becoming increasingly strategically important.

“Pacific leaders, leaders throughout our region, have repeatedly pleaded with governments, both Australia and New Zealand, to take meaningful climate action, not to restart offshore oil and gas exploration.

“Embracing the role of climate pariah is not going to advance New Zealand’s interests with our Pacific partners.”

The effects went beyond reputation, she said.

The policy changes were “setting up future generations of Kiwis to shoulder a relatively unconscionable burden, in terms of the cost of dealing to future climate-related weather”.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Unions are calling on the government to support a corporate manslaughter law on the anniversary of the Pike River Mine disaster.

Fifteen years have passed since an explosion ripped through the remote mine on the South Island’s West Coast, killing 29 men.

New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) president Sandra Grey said New Zealand needed a corporate manslaughter law.

“Corporations should not be above the law,” she said. “If they are responsible for workplace deaths, they must be held criminally liable.

“We are today releasing a policy that calls on the government to introduce a new crime of corporate manslaughter.

“This would hold corporations guilty for acts of culpable killing, and give the public confidence that corporations and their managers will be held to account.”

Grey said work to implement a new law had already been done through a member’s bill – the Crimes (Corporate Homicide) Amendment Bill – in Labour MP Camilla Belich’s name.

“This law would mark a paradigm shift in how health and safety is recognised and enforced at every level,” she said. “It would ensure that the most extreme breaches of health and safety obligations result in criminal liability.

“Tragedies such as the Pike River Mine disaster demonstrate that corporations can and do kill workers. It is past time that our law is updated to ensure justice for victims.

“New Zealand has a terrible record. One worker dies every week on the job and 17 more from work-related illnesses.

“Every single death is preventable.”

Grey said the NZCTU acknowledged campaigners, including Sonya Rockhouse and Anna Osborne, who had fought for justice.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Two members of the police’s senior leadership team, including former Deputy Police Commissioner Tania Kura, visited Jevon McSkimming while he faced charges of possessing child sexual exploitation and bestiality material.

McSkimming pleaded guilty earlier this month

A report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority released last week found serious misconduct at the highest levels, including Kura, in relation to how police responded to seperate allegations of sexual offending by McSkimming.

Speaking at a press conference in the Beehive after the report was released, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers alluded to a meeting he had with Kura when he became aware that she had visited McSkimming while he was facing the objectionable material charges.

“I explained quite clearly that it fell well short of my expectations,” he said.

McSkimming was arrested on 27 June.

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

In response to questions from RNZ, Chambers said he became aware Kura visited McSkimming in July.

“When I found out about that from concerned colleagues, I asked Tania Kura for an explanation and I expressed my disappointment in her,” Chambers said.

“To me it showed a total lack of judgement and very bad decision making. It was inappropriate for an executive member and a statutory deputy commissioner.”

Asked what Kura’s response was, Chambers said “she seemed surprised that I saw it as a problem”.

Chambers said it was for Kura to say why she visited McSkimming.

“However, it was my view there was no reasonable explanation.”

Asked whether it led to Kura’s retirement, Chambers said that was not discussed.

“A short time later, Ms Kura did announce she was retiring from NZ Police.”

RNZ approached Kura for comment on why she visited McSkimming, and whether it had anything to do with her retirement.

RNZ also asked her if she had any response to the IPCA’s report.

She replied, “sorry … not at this point. However for balance you could check how many other people have done the same”.

In response, Chambers said he was aware another member of the “wider senior leadership team” visited McSkimming along with Kura.

“I did speak to that person and expressed my disappointment at the decision making and lack of judgement.

“Mr McSkimming also had regular contact with a member of my leadership team appointed by me as a welfare point of contact, as is the usual process with Police.

“That was in an official capacity and was appropriate. That person did not visit his home and did not meet with him in person after charges had been laid.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A dozen people are injured in Invercargill, after a crash involving three vehicles, including a van.

St John says one person in a serious condition and another in a moderate condition have been taken to Southland Hospital.

Ten more have minor injuries and are also on their way to the hospital.

Police said the three vehicles crashed at the intersection of Yarrow Street and Isabella Street just after 8pm.

Fire and Emergency says the van was carrying 10 people, but nobody was trapped and they all managed to get out quickly.

Three fire crews rushed to the scene of the crash and helped everyone out of the vehicles.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The wife of a Dunedin man stabbed to death has revealed she rejected a proposal from the man accused of his murder.

Gurjit Singh was found dead on the lawn of his home in January last year after being stabbed more than 40 times.

A 35-year-old man, known only as Rajinder, is on trial for murder at the High Court.

His defence lawyer said Rajinder had no reason to kill Singh and there was no animosity between the two men.

Speaking through a translator, Singh’s wife Kamaljeet Kaur told the court she rejected Rajinder’s profile from a marriage bureau in India around 2022 because she was already in contact with Singh.

“I was not interested,” she said. Her parents said no to Rajinder’s proposal.

She said she told Singh about his approach the same day.

Kaur and Singh met online in 2021 and married in India in May 2023. The couple waited for a partner visa in order for Kaur to move to New Zealand in 2024.

Kaur said her bags were packed and she was preparing to leave India when she found out Singh had been killed.

She travelled from India to Dunedin to give evidence for the prosecution at Rajinder’s trial.

Kaur confirmed her sister married one of Rajinder’s relatives.

She also described overhearing a conversation on speaker phone where she found out Rajinder’s sister wanted her brother to marry Singh’s sister but Singh rejected the idea because she was too young.

Singh had moved to Dunedin as a result of Rajinder’s job offer and had mentioned him a few times when he was his boss, Kaur said.

Kaur said Singh later struck out on his own and was very successful.

The couple was in contact daily, with Kaur last receiving a photo from Singh as he drove home from a pizza party the night before he was found dead.

Her husband would normally contact her in the morning, so she was worried when she did not hear from him and calls and messages went unanswered.

Kaur said she asked friend Tarsem Singh to check on her husband and when another mutual friend did so at his request, Singh was found dead.

Defence questions wife Kamaljeet Kaur

In response to questions from defence lawyer Anne Stevens KC, Kaur said it was normal for profiles to be sent to a bureau to arrange a marriage.

She said she had never met Rajinder and had refused other proposals the same year because she wanted to study and did not want to marry.

She told Stevens that she was not aware of any difficulties between Rajinder’s family and her own because of her rejection and Singh had never mentioned any difficulties in his relationship with Rajinder.

Kaur said her husband had accepted Rajinder’s job offer because it would improve his chance of becoming a New Zealand resident.

She told Stevens it was possible that discussions could take place with matchmakers without family knowing.

Asked whether the term proposal meant matchmaker negotiations, rather than an actual marriage proposal, Kaur said yes.

Family tried to find Rajinder a wife for two years

Rajinder’s sister Harmeet Kaur said Kamaljeet Kaur’s family sought a marriage to her brother twice and it was her family that had rejected the proposal.

Her family had tried to find her brother a wife for about two years and were using a marriage bureau, she said.

The first proposal had been rejected by her mother.

The marriage broker forced them to reconsider Kamaljeet Kaur a second time, but Rajinder was not interested, Harmeet Kaur said.

She and her father got him to look at her photos before making a decision and a video call was lined up so Kamaljeet Kaur’s father could speak with Rajinder.

But she said the other woman’s family decided not to progress the match as the woman had recently got a good job and did not want to leave India.

Rajinder also asked Harmeet Kaur to ask Singh if his sister would marry him, but Singh rejected the idea, saying she was too young and wanted to study abroad.

She told the court a mutual friend of Singh had told her she was upset at Singh for telling her he was going to Australia when he went to India and got married instead.

The friend told her Singh had been asking for her help to arrange a marriage with her cousin, Kaur said.

When she told her brother about the marriage, “he was surprised”.

Neighbours, residents called to stand

Neighbours and nearby residents were also called to the stand on Tuesday.

Hilary St resident Alan Richardson recalled hearing a lot of breaking glass about 10.50pm on the night before Singh was found dead, thinking it might have been someone hitting a recycling bin.

He later recalled hearing what sounded like someone shovelling it up and what appeared to be a car driving away.

Another resident Taylor Wyllie called police about a suspicious man who appeared to “intent” on Singh’s home a few days before the murder.

He saw the man with a rough beard and wavy hair looking into the house before staring off into the distance when they noticed Wyllie watching.

The trial is set down for three weeks.

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The complainant in a court martial of a solider accused of assaulting his former partner has been honest and upfront, even offering damaging information about herself, the prosecution says.

The army corporal, who has interim name suppression, is facing two charges of male assaults female.

The charges were downgraded this morning from two counts of strangulation.

Judge Tini Clark told the military panel on Tuesday morning that the prosecution had amended the charges due to a discrepancy around the date of the accusations.

During cross-examination on Monday by defence lawyer Andrew McCormick, the complainant conceded she was unsure whether the events happened in 2018 or 2019.

A specific charge of strangulation was introduced into law at the end of 2018.

It carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ jail, compared to two for male assaults female.

In his closing address, prosecutor Captain John Whitcombe said the woman’s evidence had been truthful and consistent throughout, including about her own bad behaviour.

He said when being cross examined by the defence the woman was asked about hitting the accused.

“Her answer immediately was – with a glass. She volunteered that she had hit him with a glass. She wasn’t trying to minimise that or hide her actions on that evening. She was honest and upfront about what she had done,” said Whitcombe.

He said the complainant’s evidence was straightforward and consistent throughout.

However the lawyer for the soldier said the woman had concocted a story when her future in the military was threatened.

Defence lawyer Andrew McCormick said in his closing address that the woman claimed, without evidence, she had marks on her neck on both occasions after being strangled.

“She conceded that her neck would have been visible all week when these marks, she says, were there. But no one said anything.”

He said her evidence was that people did see the marks, but did not want to say anything to her about them.

McCormick said it was more likely that no one mentioned the marks because the incidents did not happen.

On Wednesday morning Judge Tini Clark will give her summing up, before the military panel makes their decision on the case.

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The changing way people shop and the sheer volume of products is making product safety harder to police, says Consumer NZ.

It says the recall of coloured sand products over asbestos fears shows product safety rules for kids toys and craft materials are not fit for purpose, with the rise in giant e-commerce retailers.

Several coloured sand products have been recalled, including a 14-piece sand castle building set and containers of blue, green and pink magic sand sold at K-Mart, and the Educational Colours rainbow sand and creatistics coloured sand, which was sold by half a dozen retailers.

Several schools that use the products have closed while they worked out what kind of cleanup is required.

Anybody who has the sand at home is urged to immediately stop using it and check the MBIE and Worksafe websites for details of what to do next. It should not be thrown in a rubbish bin, or vacuumed up.

Consumer NZ head of research and advocacy Gemma Rasmussen told Checkpoint that by law, all products should be covered by the Consumer Guarantees Act and one of the guarantees within that Act is that products must be of an acceptable quality, meaning they must be safe.

But she said one of the fundamental issues with product safety was the speed and amount of products coming into the country

“I think we are entering a completely different landscape. If you look at the way product safety used to operate in New Zealand, there were things that were deemed high risk like prams, nightwear, things like that, and then we have product safety standards to regulate the market. And products would be coming into the market at such a slow rate that we were actually able to keep on top of that.

“Now we’ve got retailers like Temu and Shine that are pumping out products at such a fast rate and I think retailers in a way need to compete, they need to be offering more products. And with the cost of living, people are often wanting things to be cheap and fast and affordable, and I think this is a bit of a conundrum for regulators.”

She said the amount of money that the government was putting towards product safety did need to be escalated, “because this is an issue that is only going to continue to grow”.

Rasmussen said there needed to be global online product safety registers.

“So as soon as a product is deemed to be unsafe and whether that’s on an international online platform or through a local marketplace, as soon as a product is flagged to be a risk, that means that other countries can have an understanding and put out that recall notice. Because the way in which we’re working at the moment, is it’s getting onto the shelves and then people can be affected and we have to go through the recall notice, and really, you want it to be happening at a point where it’s before it’s reached the shelves.”

Who pays for the clean-up?

The cost of getting rid of asbestos contamination could potentially run into tens of thousands of dollars, and Rasmussen said the responsibility for those costs ultimately laid with the retailer.

“They have the obligation to sell you a product that is fit for purpose, so as your first step you can go through the disputes tribunal and show the costs that have been incurred, and that would be capped at about $30,000 in terms of the amount you’d be able to get back.”

She said it could cost more than that for businesses and classrooms, and they may need to get a lawyer and take it to the district court to get compensation.

But an asbestos removal expert said people worried about contaminated sand should have samples tested before committing to a costly and disruptive clean-up.

Asbestos Removal Association president Chris Saunders told Checkpoint it was best to have tests done first before committing to anything.

He said just because the products had been recalled, it did not necessarily mean every bucket was contaminated.

He said tests may come back negative and save owners a lot of money, but stressed it was still early days.

“The initial alarm bells have certainly worked to raise awareness, but in terms of determining what the appropriate response is, it is very site specific and that really is led by sampling and testing of the product.

“Testing costs are not that expensive, but if you end up needing to do a full decontamination procedure, that can be a very expensive exercise, in the tens of thousands.”

He said things like carpet and drapes may need to be stripped out, and these would all have to be replaced, adding to the costs.

Testing was just the first step, but he advised people to be patient, as the laboratories were currently backed up with a large number of samples.”

“So it’s taking a while to get a result… but if you get three positive responses, that’s going to tell you it’s a big problem.”

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An antibiotic-resistant superbug with two confirmed separate outbreaks at Christchurch Hospital causes one in 10 people to become sick, an infectious diseases researcher says.

Health New Zealand has stepped up precautions after new break-outs of the infection known as antibiotic-resistant enterococci or VRE. Two different strains of VRE had been identified on one ward.

Health New Zealand said there were fewer than 10 patients with the infection, but many were asymptomatic carriers.

The bacteria is difficult to treat due to its antibiotic-resistance, and in some cases can be potentially life threatening.

VRE can spread within healthcare settings through surfaces, patient equipment and from a person’s hands that have not been properly cleaned.

Health New Zealand’s website said there had been an increase in the hospital patients colonised with VRE in some regions.

It was advising that all patients who stayed overnight at Waikato, Thames, Tauranga or Lakes Hospital, or been day patients in their renal or oncology wards, be screened and isolated while awaiting results.

Infectious diseases researcher at the University of Auckland, associate professor Mark Thomas, told Checkpoint VRE was a bacteria that lived in the intestines.

He said 90 percent of people didn’t have a problem, however the bacteria targeted people who were sick or vulnerable.

“About one in 10 people become sick,” he said.

“[Health New Zealand] are trying to prevent the organism spreading widely in New Zealand, the fact is, it’s very very hard once it’s establish in a hospital to get rid of it.

“It’s been in Waikato and Bay of Plenty hospitals for some years now, and I don’t know that they are getting rid of it.”

There was an opportunity to get rid of the bug when numbers were low, Thomas said.

He said the bacteria had become resistant to antibiotics because of both overuse and misuse of the drug.

Thomas said antibiotic resistance was a growing issue, but New Zealand hospitals were “cautious” when treating with antibiotics.

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For the first time in its history, the national water authority has taken control of a private supply and ordered the local council to operate it.

The move comes after the Far North town of Kāeo clocked up 10 years under a boil-water notice and after 30 days – according to residents – with no running water at all.

Taumata Arowai chief executive Allan Prangnell said it was the first time the authority had taken such a step and it had not been done lightly.

“The community has been dealing with a poor water supply for too long and there is a serious risk to public health relating to a drinking water supply,” Prangnell said.

“In this case, we consider there are sufficient grounds for action, in light of the 10-year boil-water advisory and the more recent inability of the supplier to provide any water.”

Prangnell said the authority had placed the Kāeo drinking water supply, previously operated by Wai Care Environmental Consultants, under statutory management and appointed the Far North District Council to manage it.

Privatised in 2000, the scheme supplies water to about 30 homes, businesses and public facilities along Kāeo’s main road.

Residents told RNZ the water supply stopped working abruptly on 18 October.

Almost two weeks later, the Far North District Council stationed a tanker on the main street in early November, so residents could fill containers with drinking water.

RNZ previously revealed Wai Care operator Bryce Aldridge had been trespassed from the town’s water treatment plant and could visit it only under police escort.

Wayne Mighorst – who owns the land on School Gully Rd where the plant is located – said he had issued the trespass notice, because the water company had not paid rent for seven years.

Aldridge told RNZ he had a document showing he did not need to pay rent, but that was disputed by the landowner.

Meanwhile, Prangnell said the water authority had worked with the supplier since early this year to find both immediate and long-term solutions to Kāeo’s water woes.

The authority convened formal discussions between the supplier and the council on 22 October, but they were unable to resolve the immediate supply issues.

That led the authority to invoke section 83 of the Water Services Act 2021 for the first time, making the council responsible for the supplier’s functions and duties.

“The Water Services Act provides a 90-day period to put in place statutory management,” Prangnell. “However, following conversations with Far North District Council and the supplier, it was agreed that the council would immediately step in to take over the supply.

“We are pleased that the council can step in with the support of the supplier, and would like to acknowledge both the work of the supplier and of the council to make this happen.

“From here, our focus shifts to supporting Far North District Council to turn the supply back on and then working with the community on a cost-effective, long-term solution by March 2026.”

Kāeo is located on State Highway 10, about 30km north of Kerikeri.

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Sending teenagers to polytech for the day will be a central part of the government’s secondary school overhaul.

Education Minister Erica Stanford told the Vocational Education and Training Research Forum in Wellington the Trades Academy system was her “north Star” as the government developed industry-driven “vocational subjects” for secondary schools.

Trades academies are tertiary providers, often polytechnics, that take secondary school students for the day.

Stanford said she was evaluating the various vocational or trade training programmes offered by schools, but trades academies would certainly continue under the new system.

“There’s a range of different pathways. There’s so many of them. So we’re looking at the moment what does each one serve. What are the outcomes for each one. Which ones can we can we keep and retain. But trades academies is essentially what we are trying to to continue and build out because they’re massively successful,” she said.

“Trades Academy is is our North star. That’s what we’re trying to achieve.”

Stanford agreed it was important to give students a taste of different options and subjects before they made subject choices in the senior secondary school.

She said the government wanted vocational subjects to be valued as highly as academic subjects.

Aotearoa Foundation Skills and Pathways Association co-chairperson Karen Dobric said the new vocational subjects needed to be set at a level of difficulty that would not shut students out.

“We’re looking at a a situation now where students on the whole, many students, can access unit standards-based subjects, but in the future what we’re looking at is industry-led subjects that will be at a higher level of difficulty.

“We need staircasing that’s going to prepare students for those subjects, but also have alternatives if students can’t actually manage to achieve those subjects, so that all students can remain in secondary school.”

Piet van der Klundert from training provider The Learning Place said the shift to vocational subjects would require a massive increase in resources to ensure students in every school including those in remote areas, teen parent units and Te Kura the correspondence school, could access them.

“We’re going from a really small cohort of learners that are engaged in vocational education currently to potentially opening this up to 150-plus-thousand students in year 12 and 13 across our secondary schools, so it is a massive undertaking, but a massive opportunity as well.

“We’re going to need more vocational education, focused teachers and providers delivering provision into their secondary schools, and we need the funding to be able to support it.”

Wellington College head of transition and careers Hamish Davidson said the new system should retain the flexibility that ensured students could try out a subject without being locked into it.

“One of the things that needs to be retained is the flexibility we currently have for students to explore and experiment before they commit to a long-term qualification or pathway within an area and so some of our existing programmes, like the Gateway programmes, give students that opportunity to try before you buy if you like.”

Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation director Greg Durkin said it had a long history of developing programmes for use in schools and the government’s reforms would make it easier for other industries to do the same.

He said vocational subjects needed parity of esteem with academic subjects.

Durkin said the curriculum needed to give students the basic skills and knowledge they needed to go on to study any trade or qualifiation.

Craig Dyason from the Careers and Transitions Education Association said students would need to be able to mix academic and vocational subjects so they were not trapped in one track or the other.

He said schools loved Trades Academies, which essentially allowed students to be polytechnic students for a day, and would be happy to hear the minister’s endorsement of them.

But he said schools should also retain Gateway, a programme that helped them provide work experience for students and worked well in tandem with Trades Academies.

“It’s that work experience, that exposure to those vocational pathways, which is super important so both programmes in schools we feel are vital for any student,” he said.

Technology Education NZ chairperson Hamish Johnston said Trades Academies worked well, but not all schools used them.

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Chipseal is cheap seal – that was the message to council, as Pāpāmoa residents continued their campaign against chipseal road resurfacing.

After an RNZ story last week, Tauranga City Council acknowledged residents’ concerns, which included changing some streets from asphalt to chipseal.

The council said it was committed to listening to the community and, on Tuesday, it got a chance to do just that, when Pāpāmoa Residents and Ratepayers Association chair Philip Brown presented at the council meeting’s public forum.

“The current [council] maintenance plan to resurface all hotmix roads with chipseal will result in a citywide downgrade of all street surfaces,” he told councillors.

“This change will lead to a range of negative consequences for residents, including increased road noise, a rough surface texture, chip migration, tar bleed, inconsistent appearance due to shoddy workmanship, stones being tracked into homes, and the necessity for frequent resealing – every 6-10 years – with additional chipseal coats.”

Brown said he understood that, since the 1990s, all housing subdivisions in Tauranga had asphalt roads.

“The hotmix debate is citywide – it is not just Pāpāmoa,” he said. “It’s Pāpāmoa now, it’s Bethlehem next.”

Brown said the issue had severely compromised the council’s relationship with the community.

“Retaining hotmix surfaces on our roads would unequivocally demonstrate to the community that the mayor and councillors are progressive leaders, committed to maintaining the highest standards and best practices for suburban roads in Tauranga,” he said.

Brown also told councillors that residents in affected Pāpāmoa streets were dismayed by the lack of consultation over what they perceived as a downgrading of their road surfaces.

Last week, the council said formal consultation on resealing of roads was not required, as it was a part of its annual maintenance programme.

Deputy mayor Jen Scoular chaired the council meeting and invited questions on the issue from councillors.

Pāpāmoa ward councillor Steve Morris asked, if it was possible to provide residents an option to pay a targeted rate or similar to retain asphalt roads.

Asphalt cost about five times more than chipseal, and the council only replaced like-for-like where high traffic volumes or heavy vehicles justified the cost.

Tauranga City Council operations and infrastructure general manager Reneke van Soest said the council had investigated how residents could pay for the asphalt, but there would be issues to work through and timing was tight, as the resealing crews were already working.

“We can defer for a year, however, we have assessed all roads [to be resealed] as starting to show early signs of failure.”

Brown took issue with the question and answer, and said focusing on ways Pāpāmoa residents could pay to keep their street surface missed the point.

“We’re talking about high-level policy here, which is going to affect the whole city,” he said. “It’s not isolating a couple of Pāpāmoa streets and pitching resident versus his neighbour, whether he wants to pay extra.”

Brown’s solution was a citywide targeted rate to allow every road to be resealed in asphalt.

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The wife of a Dunedin man stabbed to death has revealed she rejected a proposal from the man accused of his murder.

Gurjit Singh was found dead on the lawn of his home in January last year after being stabbed more than 40 times.

A 35-year-old man, known only as Rajinder, is on trial for murder at the High Court.

His defence lawyer said Rajinder had no reason to kill Singh and there was no animosity between the two men.

Speaking through a translator, Singh’s wife Kamaljeet Kaur told the court she rejected Rajinder’s profile from a marriage bureau in India around 2022 because she was already in contact with Singh.

“I was not interested,” she said. Her parents said no to Rajinder’s proposal.

She said she told Singh about his approach the same day.

Kaur and Singh met online in 2021 and married in India in May 2023. The couple waited for a partner visa in order for Kaur to move to New Zealand in 2024.

Kaur said her bags were packed and she was preparing to leave India when she found out Singh had been killed.

She travelled from India to Dunedin to give evidence for the prosecution at Rajinder’s trial.

Kaur confirmed her sister married one of Rajinder’s relatives.

She also described overhearing a conversation on speaker phone where she found out Rajinder’s sister wanted her brother to marry Singh’s sister but Singh rejected the idea because she was too young.

Singh had moved to Dunedin as a result of Rajinder’s job offer and had mentioned him a few times when he was his boss, Kaur said.

Kaur said Singh later struck out on his own and was very successful.

The couple was in contact daily, with Kaur last receiving a photo from Singh as he drove home from a pizza party the night before he was found dead.

Her husband would normally contact her in the morning, so she was worried when she did not hear from him and calls and messages went unanswered.

Kaur said she asked friend Tarsem Singh to check on her husband and when another mutual friend did so at his request, Singh was found dead.

In response to questions from defence lawyer Anne Stevens KC, Kaur said it was normal for profiles to be sent to a bureau to arrange a marriage.

She said she had never met Rajinder and had refused other proposals the same year because she wanted to study and did not want to marry.

She told Stevens that she was not aware of any difficulties between Rajinder’s family and her own because of her rejection and Singh had never mentioned any difficulties in his relationship with Rajinder.

Kaur said her husband had accepted Rajinder’s job offer because it would improve his chance of becoming a New Zealand resident.

She told Stevens it was possible that discussions could take place with matchmakers without family knowing.

Asked whether the term proposal meant matchmaker negotiations, rather than an actual marriage proposal, Kaur said yes.

The trial is set down for three weeks.

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Otago Regional Council is investigating a series of failures at Wanaka’s wastewater treatment plant.

Queenstown Lakes District Council says heavy rain hit last month while the Project Pure Wastewater Treatment Plant was operating at reduced capacity due to a major upgrade, leading to a spike in nitrogen levels and treated wastewater to flood disposal fields and run off.

The district council’s property and infrastructure general manager Tony Avery said the situation was unfortunate and would be unwelcome to many.

“There was always a risk that some parts of the facility’s treatment process would be negatively impacted while carrying out these significant upgrades. To reduce as much risk as possible, works were carefully planned to take place during low flow periods and operational teams implemented several mitigation strategies,” he said.

Queenstown Lakes District Council acknowledged the compliance issues in a media release on Tuesday.

It comes after recent compliance problems at the district council’s Hāwea and [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/563664/queenstown-lakes-district-council-must-fix-issues-with-shotover-wastewater-plant-court

Queenstown treatment plants].

Mayor John Glover said he wanted to share the information proactively with the public.

“As governors, we will need to review what has happened to fully understand why and especially in the context of regulatory compliance failures at Shotover and Hāwea treatment plants,” he said.

Avery said while the issues at the Shotover plant also related to the disposal field, the system at Project Pure was different.

The council did not expect any long-term issues, he said.

“Project Pure’s fields have been operating successfully for approximately 15 years now, have more modest loading rates and discharge through free-draining soils well above groundwater,” he said.

Upgrade work was now complete and the plant’s performance was improving, the council said.

Queenstown Lakes District Council said it referred the performance issues to the regional council immediately and expected to receive its investigation findings shortly.

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Police have confirmed they are now treating the fatal incident in Sanson on Saturday – where three children and their father died – as a homicide.

Police are continuing to comb through the scene of a house fire in Manawatū on Saturday, where the children and their father died.

Manawatū Area Commander Inspector Ross Grantham said the post mortem examination of the adult male has been completed and the three children are expected to undergo a post mortem tomorrow.

– more to come

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University of Auckland students and a food upcycling company have turned old loaves of bread back into flour and then back into homestyle baking.

While the flour is a product of Rescued Kitchen, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering senior lecturer Febelyn Reguyal told Morning Report that the students analysed the environmental impact from the raw materials extraction of the leftover bread.

“They collect the leftover bread at the supermarkets, and then what they do is put it in a dryer, mill it, and then eventually you will have your bread flour.”

The drying process is very energy intensive, so the students recommended to the upcycling company that improvements could be made, Reguyal said.

Bread is one of the most wasted foods in the world, according to a study in the US National Library of Medicine, which estimated 24,000 tonnes of manufactured bread was binned each year.

The bread that was used in the experiment had to be of a certain standard – therefore mouldy bread was off the cards.

“That’s one of the requirements for the Rescued Kitchen because it has a short life, and sometimes we also overproduce the bread. We cannot use the bread that has already been consumed at home as the leftover bread, it has to be the clean and unused ones.”

The students presented their life cycle assessment reports to Rescued Kitchen co-founders Diane Stanbra and Royce Bold.

The reports concluded that rescued flour offered major environmental benefits compared to regular flour – using less water, land and fossil fuels, and producing much lower carbon emissions.

Rescued Kitchen’s bread flour has a shelf life of two years, freeze-thaw stability and complete substitution potential. And its capabilities have already been put to the test.

“Rescued Kitchen has already made some recipes and they also brought some products to the university and shared them with students. They had sweets as well as savoury muffins,” Reguyal said.

“They’re amazing. And I think all the students, including myself, I enjoyed the food brought by Rescued Kitchen.”

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