Catherine, Princess of Wales and Prince William, Prince of Wales, arrive at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards in London, on 22 February, 2026.Jaimi Joy / POOL / AFP
‘One Battle After Another’ US singer-songwriter and actor Teyana Taylor.AFP / Adrian Dennis
‘Bugonia’ US actress Emma Stone.AFP / Adrian Dennis
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ and ‘Stranger Things’ US actress Sadie Sink.AFP / Adrian Dennis
‘Sinners’ US actor Michael B. Jordan.AFP / Adrian Dennis
‘Marty Supreme’ French-US actor Timothée Chalamet.AFP / Adrian Dennis
‘Adolescence’ British actress Erin Doherty.AFP / Adrian Dennis
‘The Woman in Cabin 10’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ British actress Hannah Waddingham.AFP / Adrian Dennis
‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ US actress Glenn Close.AFP / Adrian Dennis
‘Bugonia’ US actor Jesse Plemons and ‘Roofman’ US actress Kirsten Dunst.AFP / Adrian Dennis
‘The Bride!’ US actress Maggie Gyllenhaal.AFP / Adrian Dennis
‘One Battle After Another’ US actor Leonardo DiCaprio.AFP / Adrian Dennis
Nigerian-British actress Wunmi Mosaku poses with the award for best supporting actress in the film ‘Sinners’.AFP / Justin Tallis
‘BOONG’ Indian film director Lakshmipriya Devi and Indian film producer Ritesh Sidhwani pose with Paddington The Bear and the award for best children and family film.AFP / Justin Tallis
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
The redundancies were forced on Health NZ by government cuts, says the PSA.RNZ
Spending millions on redundancy payouts for non-clinical staff at Health NZ is a “disgraceful waste of money”, says the PSA union.
Te Whatu Ora made nearly $58 million in redundancy payouts between late 2023 and 2025.
In total, $57.91 million in payments for voluntary redundancies and early exits for non-clinical staff were made between 1 November 2023 and 31 December 2025, according to figures released under the Official Information Act to the PSA union.
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimmons said the union estimated the agency let go about 2800 workers through cuts and voluntary redundancies during this time.
She said the non-clinical staff such as IT experts and administrators were still desperately needed in the public health system.
“We’ve lost administrators, we’ve lost IT experts, we’ve lost analysts, we’ve lost people that support training of health professionals – all people who played a critical role in our health system, who have more to give and who will be missed.”
Fitzsimmons said the $58 million in payouts was a “disgraceful waste of public money”, that will have “costs on our health system for years to come”.
“Everyday, we’ll see the cost of these departures in IT failures, in longer waiting lists, and in clinicians needing to do more of their own administrative and clerical work at the expense of seeing patients.”
Health Minister Simeon Brown said the government’s priority was ensuring more resources are directed to frontline care, rather than “back-office bureacracy”.
He said fewer New Zealanders were waiting for elective surgery or a first specialist assessment than at the start of last year, emergency department wait times are improving, along with childhood immunisation rates.
“This progress is being supported by significant workforce growth, including around 2000 additional nurses and hundreds more doctors employed by Health New Zealand since 2023.”
A Health NZ spokesperson said voluntary redundancy was a choice staff could make based on their own circumstances.
“Changes that have been made within Health NZ are part of an ongoing effort toward a more sustainable future for healthcare.
“We want to ensure our resources and people are organised to strengthen and support the front-line so more New Zealanders get the right healthcare when and where they need it.”
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And yet, as the war following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 enters its fifth year, the attitude of the Russian public remains difficult to gauge: Just over half of Russians, according to one recent poll, expect the war to end in 2026; yet a majority say that should negotiations fail, Moscow needs to “escalate” with greater use of force.
As observers ofRussian society, we believe this ambiguity in Russian public opinion gives President Vladimir Putin the cover to continue pushing hard for his goals in Ukraine. Yet at the same time, a deeper dive into the Russian public’s apparent support for the war suggests that it is more fragile than the Russian president would like to believe.
Putin’s social contract
From Day 1 of the conflict, Western strategy has been predicated on the belief that economic sanctions would eventually cause either the Russian elite or its society to persuade Putin to abandon the war.
This, in turn, is based on the assumption that the legitimacy of Putinism rests on a social contract of sorts: The Russian people will be loyal to the Kremlin if they enjoy a stable standard of living and are allowed to pursue their private lives without interference from the state.
The Russian economy has been struggling since 2014, so many analysts believed that this social contract was coming under strain even before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, after four years of war, the combination of exclusion from European markets and a tripling of military spending has led to economic stagnation and mounting pressure on living standards.
One problem with the social contract approach is that it tends to downplay the role of ideology.
It is possible that Putin’s “Make Russia Great Again” propaganda resonates with a significant part of the Russian public. Polling has consistently placed Putin’s approval rating above 80% since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict.
Of course, the validity of the results of polls in an authoritarian society at war cannot be taken at face value. Yet, one shouldn’t rule out that some of that support is genuine and rests not just on a stable economy but also on popular endorsement of Putin’s pledge to restore Russia’s power and influence on the world stage.
Some scholars point to a “rally around the flag” effect. There was an apparent surge in Putin’s approval rating after the use of military force against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.
It is hard to tell whether the surge in support for Putin reflects a genuine shift in opinion or just a response to media coverage and what people perceive as the acceptable response.
That leaves open the question of whether the “Putin consensus” will break down at some point in the future if the costs of the war start to hit home for a majority of Russians.
The problem with polls
The consensus view among observers is that a small minority of Russians oppose the war, a slightly larger minority enthusiastically support the war, and the majority passively go along with what the state is doing.
There are still some independent pollsters conductingsurveys in Russia that report a high level of support among respondents for the “special military operation” against Ukraine, with figures ranging between 60% and 70%.
A number of researchers have pointed out the difficulty in getting an accurate snapshot of Russian public opinion, given that the polling questions might make the respondent fearful of being accused of breaking laws that penalize “spreading fake news” and “discrediting the army” with a lengthy prison sentence.
The Levada Center, which is still regarded as an independent and relatively reliable pollster, conducts its interviews face to face in people’s homes but has a very low response rate. Polls conducted online, in return for monetary rewards, can try to find demographically balanced respondents, but the problem of wariness about giving answers that are critical of the regime remains. In Russia’s current political environment, refusing to answer or giving a socially acceptable response is a rational strategy.
Some scholars, such as those associated with the Public Sociology Laboratory, which looks at public sentiment in post-Soviet states, still conduct fieldwork inside Russia, sending researchers to live incognito in provincial towns and observe social practices involving support for the war.
Their ethnographic research finds little evidence for a “rally around the flag” effect in provincial Russian society. Other analysts have turned to digital ethnography of social media as an alternative source of insight. But analysts unfamiliar with the local and digital context risk mistaking performative loyalty for genuine belief.
‘Internal emigration’
Most Russian citizens try to avoid political discussion altogether and retreat into what is often described as “internal emigration” – living their own lives while keeping interactions with the authorities to a minimum.
This practice dates back to the Soviet period but resurfaced as political repression increased after Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012.
There is no doubt that there are many fervent war supporters in Russia. They are quite vocal and visible because the state allows them to be – such as the military bloggers reporting from the front lines.
Apart from looking at opinion polls and social media, one can also probe the level of genuine support for the war by looking at everyday practices. If popular support for the war were enthusiastic, recruitment offices would be overwhelmed. They are not.
Instead, Russia has relied heavily on financial incentives, aggressive advertising, prison recruitment and coercive mobilization. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of men have sought to avoid conscription by leaving the country, hiding from authorities or exploiting legal exemptions.
Symbolic participation follows a similar pattern. State-sponsored Z symbols continue to dominate public space – the letter Z is used as a symbol of support for the war, in slogans such as “Za pobedu,” which translates to “for victory.” But privately displayed signs of support have largely disappeared.
Humanitarian aid to be sent to soldiers on the front lines or occupied Ukraine is often collected through schools and churches, where participation is shaped by social or administrative pressure. But many participants frame their involvement as helping individuals rather than supporting the war itself.
Reality vs. lived experience
High-profile propaganda products frequently fail to resonate. Music charts and streaming platforms in Russia are dominated not by patriotic anthems but by an eclectic mix of songs about personal relationships, such as Jakone’s moody ballad “Eyes As Wet As Asphalt,” songs in praise of “Hoodies” and even a catchy Bashkir folk song.
Book sales show strong demand for works such as George Orwell’s “1984” and Viktor Frankl’s Holocaust memoir “Man’s Search for Meaning,” suggesting that readers are searching for ways to understand authoritarianism, trauma and moral responsibility rather than celebrating militarism.
Putin’s campaign to promote what he sees as traditional values appears not to be cutting through. Divorce rates are among the highest in the world – and birth rates continue to fall.
Heading into the Ukraine war’s fifth year, the gulf between the Kremlin version of reality and the lived experience of ordinary Russians remains. It echoes a pattern we have seen before: In the final decade of the Soviet Union the Kremlin became increasingly out of touch with the views of its people.
History will not necessarily repeat itself – but the masters of the Kremlin should be conscious of the parallels.
Much has been done, by way of interviews and Instagram reels, to market Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights as a tale of ferocious passion and untameable desire. The question of precisely whose passion we see play out onscreen is a crucial one.
Fennel says the film reflects her personal reading of Emily Brontë’s arresting tale of generational trauma, possession and violence. I had a different experience when I first read Wuthering Heights. I became immersed in a decidedly unsexy story of abuse, and had “bad dreams in the night” over Heathcliff’s brutal nature.
Nowhere is Heathcliff’s brutality more explicit than in his treatment of Isabella Linton, who becomes his wife. Isabella is the sister (or, in Fennell’s interpretation, ward) of Edgar Linton, Heathcliff’s rival for Catherine (Cathy) Earnshaw’s affections.
Heathcliff and Isabella’s marriage is marked by severe domestic and sexual abuse. In Brontë’s novel, Isabella chooses to flee Heathcliff’s tyranny and construct a life for herself independent of him. As the literary scholar Judith E. Pike notes, this was a radical transgression of historical norms, in which Victorian morality would expect her to endure such treatment for love of her husband.
Isabella is presented as a young, unworldly girl who is extremely childlike.Warner Bros.
Returning to the novel recently, I was struck once more by Isabella’s decimation of her husband’s propensity towards cruelty. I believe any retelling of Wuthering Heights should be faithful to, as opposed to a taming of, its radicalism. Yet when faced with Fennell’s Isabella, I encountered not the daring figure of the source text, but a doglike submissive.
Dogged desire
The words of writer Katherine Angel came to my mind upon exiting the cinema. In her work Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again, Angel argues that, in the wake of #MeToo, a heavy burden has been placed on women to “say what we want, and indeed know what we want” when it comes to sex and desire. It was Angel’s bold question, “Why must the secrets of desire be uncovered?” that reared its head in me after seeing Isabella on all fours.
As Angel contends, “context is everything” when it comes to desire. At first glance, Isabella (portrayed by Irish actress Alison Oliver) is the epitome of the “born sexy yesterday” trope: a female character who is at once physically mature and attractive, but has the mental faculties of an innocent, naive child. Only just coming into the world in her preliminary scenes, Isabella is a lover of dolls and ribbons, elaborate dresses and hairstyles.
It is this infantilised state, to the point of absurdity (in one scene, she unknowingly creates a scrapbook with flowers and mushrooms evoking genitalia), that makes Isabella’s sudden yearning for Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) all the more jarring. Capitalising on established fantasies of Elordi as the “I can fix him”“ archetype, Fennell renders Heathcliff the key to unlocking Isabella’s secret desires.
The violence Isabella experiences in her marriage is transformed from abuse to consensual sexual play in Emerald Fennell’s adaptation.Warner Brothers
And yet, it is only when Heathcliff is spurned – after Catherine has (finally) put an end to their trysts – that the duty of sexually satisfying him falls to Isabella. From the moment he breaks through her bedroom window, he discloses all of his ill-intent towards Isabella.
Heathcliff not only desires her virginity (“Do you know what comes next?”) but her hand in marriage, all in the name of spiting Cathy. He repeats the refrain, “Do you want me to stop?” as he makes Isabella aware of the brutality he will bring down upon her. As he derides and undresses her, she clutches her crucifix and shakes her head to say, “No, go on.”
Deviating from Brontë’s story, Fennell’s Isabella is rendered a sexual submissive, a consenting party to her own abuse.
Making no attempt to leave him (as she does in the novel), Isabella relishes being the dog, literally leashed by Heathcliff. Rather than giving credence to Isabella’s words as they appear in the book – “The single pleasure I can imagine is to die, or to see him dead!” – in Fennell’s adaptation, Isabella’s deviant sexual desires are read through the words of her abuser: “I’ve sometimes relented, from pure lack of invention, in my experiments on what she could endure, and still creep shamefully cringing back!”
Fennell’s “uncovering” of Isabella’s secret desires helps the audience to decide, as posited by Angel, “whether a man’s actions were justified”. In order to realise her desires for Cathy and Heathcliff onscreen, Fennell’s Heathcliff must be exonerated. And he is, most grievously, through Isabella desiring to be his sexual submissive. Only then could the film’s ending play out: Heathcliff exudes Romeo as he lays beside a dead Cathy in her “skin room” tomb.
So Isabella’s desire is invoked, in accordance with Angel’s theory, as “proof that violence wasn’t, in fact, violence”. Fennel’s Heathcliff is not cruel and abusive, but a communicative and intentional dominant partner in a BDSM (bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism and masochism) relationship which Isabella, as a submissive, enthusiastically consents to.
It is deeply troubling that the drive of Brontë’s Isabella, a survivor of domestic abuse, has been reread to dramatically absolve her abuser. The girl sobbing behind me as the credits rolled attests to the success of this exoneration. Really, she should be crying over the scripting of violent abuse as consensual play.
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Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has upped its full year revenue and profit guidance on the back of “good growth” in its full range of hospital products.
“We have continued to see good growth across the full range of our hospital products so far during our second half,” managing director Lewis Gradon said.
“While relative seasonal respiratory hospitalisations in the northern hemisphere winter may continue to impact the second half result, our performance to date suggests pleasing progress in our efforts to change clinical practice.
“Continuous improvement activities and other efficiency gains are also contributing to improvements in our gross margin and operating margin.”
23 February 2026 guidance* versus 29 November 2025
Net profit $450m – $470m vs $410m – $460m
Revenue $2.30b vs $2.17b – $2.27b
Assumes US exchange rate of 60 US cents vs 57 US cents
Does not incorporate any potential refund of US tariffs paid to date during the 2026 financial year.
Update on US tariffs
The company updated its view on US tariffs following a US Supreme Court decision invalidating tariffs imposed by the US administration under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
“There are still a number of uncertainties regarding the implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling for companies that import into the United States,” it said.
“The company continues to work through the complexities associated with the US court rulings, refund processes and application of free trade agreements and the Nairobi Protocol to its products, and will provide an update on tariff impacts with its full year results at the end of May.”
The company continued to view the current and proposed tariff structures in the context of cost increases that will be mitigated over time by the company’s long-standing continuous improvement activities.
“As such, the company does not currently believe these matters have any material impact on the company’s long-term direction, strategy or sustainable profitable growth.”
F&P declined to comment further.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Mounjaro is now available by prescription in some New Zealand pharmacies.Christoph Reichwein / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP
A newly approved weight loss drug could improve competition but will still be costly for patients, an obesity doctor says.
Mounjaro is a self-administered injection which received regulatory approval for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and chronic weight management in December last year.
It is now available by prescription in some New Zealand pharmacies.
Obesity doctor Dr Chaey Leem told Morning Report the drug targeted two hormones when Wegovy, a weight-loss medication already on the market, only targeted one.
“You can kind of think of the medication unlocking two doors instead of one in your body’s metabolism,” he said.
Leem said that increased the drug efficacy.
“At the maximum doses of Mounjaro, patients on average have lost 22 percent of the initial weight in the trail, compared to 15 percent on the maximum dose of Wegovy.”
The cost of the drug was a barrier for some patients, he said.
Mounjaro is pricier than Wegovy, ranging from $430 to nearly $900 a month.
“Competition will hopefully help improve the situation for many patients, however, in fact there still might be a long way to go,” Leem said.
“The drugs are very expensive, and I do feel for the patients who need it the most but aren’t able to afford a really great option that’s available.”
Leem said there was a lot of stigma against obesity, which he hoped could be reduced through treatment.
“Once we have the tools to fight them and treat patients, hopefully the stigma towards obesity goes down, and in turn we can look into other options like bariatric surgery, which is usually much more cost effective from a public health perspective,” he said.
Leem had patients he believed would benefit from the new medication, if price weren’t a factor.
“There’s risks and benefits to everything, but for the many, many patients, the benefits greatly outweigh the risks that the medications can impose.”
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The business outlook seems to be improving, Amova Asset Management’s head of equities said. (File photo)123RF
The last week of the corporate reporting season is underway with more than 20 companies yet to report their results to the December 31 balance date.
The past week saw reports from some of the biggest companies including Auckland Airport, Spark, Fletcher Building, SkyCity and A2 Milk, which met or beat market expectations, with positive outlooks.
Amova Asset Management head of equities Michael Sherrock said the sentiment was helped by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand holding the official cash rate at current levels and indicating it would hold steady for the rest of the year.
“We are reassured in the fact that things aren’t getting worse. The outlook is improving,” he said.
“And so I think there’s no sort of lush lawn growing. It’s just starting to sprout. And all of the bits and pieces are in place for a recovery as we move through the year ahead.
Contact Energy kicked off the reporting season last week with a positive outlook, with plans to raise more than half a billion dollars to invest in three large scale renewable energy projects.
Sherrock said the rest of the three big power companies Meridian, Mercury and Genesis, were also expected to report strong results this week, in line with Contact’s.
He said the market was also expecting to see strong results from the agricultural sector, following a positive update from apple exporter Scales, which lifted its full year underlying profit to between $61m and $62m.
He said Sky TV would be watched to see if it delivered on plans to pay a 30 cents a share dividend this year.
Other companies yet to report included tourism firms, Tourism Holdings, Air New Zealand, industrial and infrastructure services sector companies, Port of Tauranga, Channel Infrastructure and Chorus.
In addition to Scales, agri-sector firms PGG Wrightson and T&G Global will be reporting, along with manufacturing firms Vulcan Steel and Steel & Tube,
The market would also see results from property firms Property for Industry, Precinct Properties and Summerset Retirement Villages, and others representing a number of sectors including banks Heartland and KiwiBank, healthcare and petfood firm EBOS, media firm NZME, tech firm Vista Group and many others.
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More than double the planned number of primary care nurses will begin advanced training this year, following strong demand for the government’s new scholarship.
Health Minister Simeon Brown said the government had originally committed to funding 120 primary care registered nurses each year for four years to undertake advanced education through its new Registered Nurse Primary Care scholarships, and become registered nurse prescribers – but this year, it would fund 235.
Brown said there had been a “very high level of demand”, and the extra places could be offered within existing funding.
Placements would begin from the week of 23 February.
Of those 235 – who were registered nurses already working in primary and community healthcare settings – 147 would work towards a postgraduate diploma in prescribing, and 88 would undertake a master of nursing.
Nurses who completed those qualifications could prescribe from an approved list of medicines for common and long-term conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, respiratory conditions, and menopause symptoms.
Health Minister Simeon Brown.RNZ / Mark Papalii
The health minister said this additional training capacity came at an important time following the recent expansion of prescribing rights announced in December.
Te Whatu Ora national chief nurse Nadine Gray said it would improve access to prescriptions for New Zealanders, with more healthcare workers able to see patients and prescribe.
She said these nurses would train at a number of universities across the country, undertaking a mixture of pharmacology post-graduate papers and completing clinical hours under supervision.
Gray said nurse prescribers could go on to become nurse practitioners, who through a masters degree, would have the ability to see, diagnose, prescribe, treat and manage patients as independent practitioners without the need for GP oversight.
“Some nurses probably applied for scholarships or funding through the old DHBs or their districts, but this is far greater than what we’ve had before,” she said.
The scholarship covered course fees and clinical supervision requirements, being released to be able to study – “it’s a real wrap-around supportive scholarship so the nurse is successful”.
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Australian students are returning to university campuses for the start of the academic year. They do so amid highly charged debates around racism and antisemitism.
Australian universities have been accused both of failing to protect freedom of speech and academic freedom, and failing to protect the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students and staff.
A new Australian Human Rights Commission study found more than 90% of religious Jewish students and staff had experienced racism at university. High rates were also reported for secular Jewish, Middle Eastern, Indigenous and Asian students.
The study noted how universities
face the challenge of creating respectful learning environments while allowing some discomfort in engaging with difficult ideas.
I research academic freedom and freedom of speech. As we begin semester one, how can universities balance the need to protect students, teachers and staff with the need to encourage robust and proper debates?
Academic freedom and freedom of speech
Academic freedom concerns speech or work related to teaching, study or research. Freedom of speech relates to activities on university land or in connection with the university, but not related to teaching, study or research.
Legislation requires Australian universities to safeguard freedom of speech and academic freedom and to have policies upholding these freedoms. All university enterprise agreements also contain provisions around academic freedom.
The main practical framework for universities is a voluntary model code for academic freedom and freedom of speech. This was developed by former High Court chief justice Robert French in 2019 at the federal government’s request. It is set up to “ensure” freedom of lawful speech and academic freedom, subject to other “restrictions”.
New report cards
In 2026, universities will also need to demonstrate they have taken meaningful steps to regulate antisemitic speech. They will be assessed via a report card, with grades A through to D.
This was a recommendation from the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism’s report last year. The report cards will focus on university policies, complaints processes and antisemitism awareness. Greg Craven, a former vice-chancellor of Australian Catholic University, is leading the assessment process.
Universities will be given a chance to respond and improve their performance if there are issues. The first round of reports is due in May, adding to the focus on how universities handle these issues.
How can unis respond?
Universities can take several steps if there is antisemitic speech in classes or on campus.
They can take disciplinary action (including sacking or expulsion) against unlawful speech. Unlawful speech includes incitement of violence or hatred toward “protected groups”. These are groups distinguished by a certain characteristic, including race, religion or nationality. It is also illegal to display prohibited symbols or perform the Nazi salute.
Universities can also take action against speech that disrupts its teaching and research activities or prevents it from fostering the wellbeing of students and staff. This might include derogatory slurs in classrooms, protesters coming into classrooms or chanting outside libraries and lecture halls.
There are also protections against threatening, humiliating or intimidating behaviour. This is distinct from something that is merely offensive, shocking or insulting.
This distinction can be difficult to pin down and may require universities to take detailed legal advice. But the model code can be used to protect student and staff safety, while upholding freedom of speech and academic freedom
What does this mean in 2026?
This year, universities need to demonstrate they have taken meaningful steps to regulate antisemitic speech, but without contravening freedom of speech or academic freedom.
It should mean students can debate and take opposing sides about Israel and the conflict in Gaza in an international law class, for example.
If they do this in a biology class, this would not be academic freedom. It may be freedom of speech, but could also be seen as disrupting teaching activities – and so subject to disciplinary action.
If students use derogatory slurs against each other at that time, universities may decide this not only disrupts teaching but is threatening, humiliating or intimidating and so may take disciplinary action.
What about outside classes?
Universities will need to ask similar questions if derogatory slurs, personal attacks or loud aggressive arguments or chanting occur in university corridors or elsewhere on campus.
Although the students or staff would still be exercising their rights to freedom of speech on campus, the manner of this speech can be regulated. Is aggressive chanting disrupting teaching or research? Is it threatening, humiliating or intimidating students on campus?
Under the model code, universities can ban visiting speakers if a speech is likely to be “unlawful”, “prejudice the fulfilment by the university of its duty to foster the wellbeing of staff and students” or,
fall below scholarly standards to such an extent as to be detrimental to the university’s character as an institution of higher learning.
All this shows universities face a delicate balancing job ahead. They need to make sure they remain places of robust debate. And students and staff feel safe to study, work and participate in these debates.
When most people hear the word radiation, their mind jumps straight to nuclear disasters, such as at Chernobyl or Fukushima.
But radiation is everywhere. In fact, right now, as you read this, you are being exposed to radiation from the ground beneath your feet, the air around you, and even your own body. Radiation is not inherently bad: what matters is how much you are exposed to.
To this end, my team and I have built the first radiation map of our home town, Sydney. This map provides a new perspective of the city, showing that the ground beneath the city is constantly emitting a small amount of natural radiation. Spoiler: it’s nothing to worry about.
Radiation dose rate map for metropolitan Sydney.Author provided., CC BY-NC
What is radiation?
At its most basic level, radiation is energy travelling through space.
In nature, it is often produced by radioactive elements – atoms that are unstable and so prefer to convert into other elements by releasing energy, ending up in a more stable state. This process is called radioactive decay.
When Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago, it contained radioactive elements, such as uranium, thorium and potassium. Some radioactive elements decay in a fraction of a second; others decay so slowly they are still present today.
For example, natural uranium has a half-life of about 4.5 billion years. That means it takes 4.5 billion years for half of a given amount of uranium to decay, eventually turning into lead, which is stable.
Uranium, thorium and potassium dominate natural background radiation because they combine two key features: they were abundant when Earth formed, and they have half-lives comparable to, or even longer than, the age of Earth. Many other radioactive elements either decayed away long ago or were never present in significant amounts.
Because of this, these elements are everywhere. They are found in rocks and soil, taken up by plants, eaten by animals, and ultimately end up in our bodies. That is why we are, in a very literal sense, mildly radioactive.
We said that radiation is energy. But if you zoom in far enough, that energy starts to look like it’s being carried around by tiny particles: alpha particles (helium nuclei), beta particles (electrons or positrons), and gamma rays – photons, just like light, but far more energetic.
The key difference between the types of particle is how far they manage to travel. Alpha and beta particles don’t get very far before they run out of steam. A bit of air, clothing, or skin is usually enough to stop them. For that reason, they are mostly a concern when the radioactive material ends up inside the body – for example if it is inhaled, as can happen with radon gas.
Gamma rays, on the other hand, travel easily through air and out of the ground.
That makes them more relevant for external exposure, but also extremely useful: they escape from rocks and soil and reach our detectors. This is why gamma radiation is the type we can use to map what is happening beneath our feet.
When most people hear the word radiation, their mind jumps straight to nuclear disasters, such as at Fukushima in Japan.Kimimasa Mayama/Pool/EPA
Measuring Sydney’s radiation
When I moved from Abu Dhabi to Sydney in 2024, I observed something unexpected. The natural radioactivity I was measuring around the city with a small handheld gamma-ray detector was about five times higher than what I had been used to in the United Arab Emirates.
That raised two questions: why was natural radiation higher in Sydney than in Abu Dhabi? And was it safe?
Australia does have national radiation maps. But these are mostly based on surveys carried out from aircraft flying tens of kilometres apart. They are excellent for understanding broad geological patterns, but far too coarse to tell you how radiation varies from one neighbourhood, park or suburb to the next.
My students Tengiz Ibrayev and Matilda Lawtong and I set out to build the first high-resolution, ground-based map of natural gamma radiation for metropolitan Sydney. We carried out a radiation survey across a 10 by 10 kilometre region of the city, dividing the area into a grid and visiting almost every square on foot.
At each location – usually in public parks or open green spaces – we placed a gamma-ray detector on the ground and let it measure radiation for several minutes.
This gave us reliable averages rather than quick snapshots.
We also took measurements over open water in Sydney Harbour on a ferry. Water blocks radiation coming from the ground, so this let us measure cosmic radiation from space – high-energy charged particles originating from the Sun and deep space that constantly hit Earth). We then subtracted this background radiation, so we could focus on the radiation coming from the ground.
To understand why radiation levels changed from place to place, we also collected soil samples at selected locations and analysed them in the laboratory using very sensitive gamma detectors. This allowed us to measure how much uranium, thorium and potassium were present in the soil – the elements responsible for most natural radiation.
Sampling locations and rock types of the study area in Sydney. The red and yellow circles represent the gamma dose rate measurements on land and water, respectively. The black shovels correspond to the soil sampling locations.Author provided, CC BY-NC
The pattern follows geology
Radiation levels across the city do vary, but not randomly. Areas built on sandstone and shale tend to show higher natural radiation than areas dominated by younger sediments.
In other words, the pattern follows geology, not human activity.
Radiation exposure is usually measured in units called millisieverts (mSv). Your own body contributes about 0.03mSv each year, mainly from potassium naturally present in your tissues.
Across the part of Sydney we mapped, the average terrestrial gamma radiation from the ground is about 0.24mSv per year. Even the highest values we measured are well within the range of natural background radiation seen worldwide.
We are hoping to expand this work to other cities around Australia through citizen science in schools. Doing so helps us turns something abstract and invisible into something we can measure, compare and understand.
Measuring radiation replaces fear with context. It doesn’t make the world more dangerous – it makes it clearer.
Since October 2023, Israel’s war in Gaza has caused mass human suffering. But it has also brought devastation to the cultural heritage of the Palestinian people.
In our recent article in the International Journal of Heritage Studies, we documented the extent of heritage destruction in Gaza and analysed the strikingly limited response by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
We argue that UNESCO’s failures have consequences beyond Gaza, as they weaken deterrence of attacks on heritage sites globally and risk normalising impunity for these types of crimes in conflict.
Heritage destruction in Gaza
Gaza has a rich and layered heritage, with archaeological traces dating to at least 1300 BCE. It has long sat at the crossroads of many cultures, and has been controlled by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.
Gaza is also home to historical sites important to the three main faiths of the region – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Much of this cultural heritage now lies in ruin. UNESCO’s Gaza damage assessment list includes 150 sites that have been damaged or destroyed since the war began.
Some of these are globally significant sites. Two are on UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List:
Other damaged or destroyed sites include:
the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrios Church, which dates to 425 CE and is sometimes referred to as the third-oldest church in the world
the seventh-century Great Omari Mosque, thought to be the first mosque in Gaza, along with its 13th-century library containing rare Islamic manuscripts
the Qasr al-Basha, a fortress also known as Pasha Palace, which was built in the mid-13th century by the Mamluk sultanate and had been turned into an archaeological museum
Apart from creating this list, UNESCO has been relatively muted in its response, compared with the role the agency has played in other conflicts.
This doesn’t mean it’s been completely silent. It has issued several statements condemning the destruction in Gaza and calling on “all involved parties to strictly adhere to international law”.
It has also elevated one heritage site to its List of World Heritage in Danger – the Saint Hilarion Monastery. Taking this step strengthens the protections around the site, with potential penalties for intentional damage.
Yet, despite these efforts, we question whether UNESCO has truly met the moment. Our analysis identifies a pattern of omission and understatement that is difficult to reconcile with UNESCO’s own mandate and the legal architecture that exists to protect cultural property in armed conflict.
For example, UNESCO has failed to publicly invoke the 1954 Hague Convention in relation to Gaza, which aims to protect cultural sites during conflict. The agency has cited it in virtually every major conflict since its ratification.
It also didn’t seek urgent action from the UN Security Council or the UN General Assembly to protect cultural sites. The agency did this in response to the Islamic State’s acts in Syria and Iraq (including the desecration of the World Heritage site of Palmyra). In 2017, for instance, the security council passed a resolution backed by UNESCO that laid out a number of steps to help protect cultural heritage in conflict.
Similarly, UNESCO has not worked with the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice to initiate proceedings against Israel or Israeli officials for the destruction of heritage in Gaza. The agency did this after conflicts in the Balkans and Mali. These trials established the intentional destruction of cultural property during conflict as a war crime.
Finally, UNESCO has not taken its usual approach of explicitly naming Israel as the perpetrator of cultural destruction in Gaza. It has taken this step in many recent conflicts. This includes Ukraine, where is has frequently named and condemned Russia as the perpetrator.
Why has UNESCO been so cautious?
One explanation offered by critics is geopolitical constraint. UNESCO has increasingly been criticised for an overdependence on voluntary state contributions. This can make the agency reluctant to confront powerful countries for fear of alienating supporters.
This dynamic is certainly evident in UNESCO’s long and strained relationship with Israel and the US. Both formally withdrew from UNESCO in 2019 because the agency had described Israel as an occupying power in Gaza and the West Bank, and condemned its destruction of Palestinian heritage.
But we argue there’s something more troubling occurring – the erosion of UNESCO’s willingness and capacity to activate the legal and normative tools it helped build.
Once a mighty advocate for the protection of culture worldwide, UNESCO has slowly withered into a largely ineffective and technocratic agency that sidesteps complex issues and is hamstrung by internal division.
UNESCO’s response
In response to the arguments raised here, UNESCO sent a detailed email explaining its actions on heritage protection in Gaza. These are some of the points raised by a UNESCO spokesperson:
On citing the 1954 Hague Convention:
Across different conflicts, UNESCO sometimes explicitly cites the 1954 Hague Convention […] and in other instances use the broader formulation “international law”.
UNESCO also communicates with the concerned Member States bilaterally […] This has been done on several occasions through correspondence addressed to the authorities of Israel, for example to remind Israel of its obligations under the 1954 Hague Convention.
On explicitly naming Israel as a perpetrator:
UNESCO is not a judiciary body, therefore its role is not to assign responsibility. In specific case of Ukraine, there are several Security Council and/or UNESCO governing bodies decisions that may explain specific statements.
On the lack of willpower to use its tools and resources on Gaza:
UNESCO activates its legal, normative and programmatic tools within the remits of its mandate and available funds. The needs are enormous, and we take this opportunity to renew UNESCO’s call in support of the people of Gaza.
Why Gaza matters
UNESCO’s limited response to the destruction in Gaza matters. Heritage protection is not only about salvaging damaged sites and trying to rebuild them. It’s also vital for defining unacceptable conduct and deterring future violations.
When the world’s foremost body on the protection of cultural heritage limits itself to cautious generalities, it fosters a permissive environment. It allows this destruction to be treated as regrettable collateral damage of war, rather than an actionable crime. This undermines UNESCO’s credibility.
It can also set a dangerous precedent. If the large-scale destruction of heritage occurs in full view of the world, with no repercussions, future belligerents may believe the costs of heritage crimes will be tolerated.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toni Pikoos, Adjunct Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology; Federation University Australia
If you walk into a cosmetic surgeon’s office, you probably wouldn’t expect to be asked about your recent break-up or how you cope with stress.
But in Australia, that has been standard practice for nearly three years.
That’s after the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency introduced mandatory mental health screening before cosmetic procedures. This includes cosmetic surgery, like a facelift, and non-surgical procedures including cosmetic injections and laser treatments.
This decision was part of a series of reforms designed to help keep patients safe. But it has also made the Australian cosmetic industry one of the most tightly regulated in the world.
So how effective have these reforms been, almost three years on? And are patients any better off?
Cosmetic medicine is booming in Australia
Each year, Australians spend more than A$1 billion on more than 500,000 cosmetic procedures. That means we spend more money on cosmetic medicine per capita than the United States.
In 2023, more than a third of Australians were considering having cosmetic surgery in the next decade. Interest is particularly strong among young women, with 54% of young Australian women considering cosmetic surgery at some point in their lives. Most people seeking surgery hope these elective procedures will improve their appearance or self-esteem.
After having cosmetic surgery, about 80–90% of patients are satisfied with the results. Many also report feeling better about their appearance up to five years after the procedure. Some studies also show cosmetic surgery improves patients’ mood and quality of life.
However, some patients may regret a cosmetic procedure or feel worse afterwards. This is why identifying vulnerable patients, especially those considering irreversible procedures, is crucial.
So, what’s the link between cosmetic surgery and mental health?
Research shows examining patients’ mental health before any cosmetic procedure affects how they feel after an operation. People with heightened symptoms of psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression, are more likely to be dissatisfied with the results of a cosmetic procedure. They are also more likely to find their recovery challenging and even experience more physical complications after surgery.
Certain psychological conditions have a greater impact on patients’ mental health after surgery. One example is body dysmorphic disorder, where people often obsess over perceived flaws in their appearance. These so-called flaws can be subtle or not apparent to others. As a result, these patients may look to cosmetic surgery as a way to fix their perceived flaws.
A 2022 review of related studies found up to 20% of patients requesting cosmetic procedures had body dysmorphic disorder. And our 2025 study shows about 12% of Australian cosmetic patients either have unrealistic expectations of cosmetic surgery or show symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder or psychological distress.
Many patients with body dysmorphic disorder still feel dissatisfied with their appearance after cosmetic treatment. This is because they often focus on the same perceived flaw or a completely different one. This can negatively impact their mental health and, in some cases, may lead patients to take legal action against surgeons for not delivering the desired result.
The reason for screening
Nearly three years ago, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency changed its guidelines about cosmetic procedures.
As a result, doctors who perform cosmetic procedures must screen patients for psychological conditions, such as body dysmorphic disorder. They can do this by conducting interviews or using tools such as a written questionnaire.
If doctors identify any concerns, they must refer patients to a psychologist, psychiatrist or GP before proceeding with treatment.
However, a recent national survey suggests the cosmetic industry is not embracing these reforms. This research shows 84% of plastic surgeons referred fewer than 5% of patients. This is far less than our research would indicate have body dysmorphic disorder. About 70% of plastic surgeons interviewed say they would not continue screening if it were not mandatory.
From a patient’s perspective, mandatory screening may mean they can’t undergo cosmetic surgery. In our 2025 study involving more than 8,000 Australian cosmetic patients, we found people were much more hesitant to report mental health symptoms in a cosmetic clinic, compared to when completing the same questionnaire anonymously for research. This is likely because they felt they needed to “pass” psychological screening tests to receive cosmetic surgery. So, the self-reporting element of current questionnaires is a major limitation.
So, is psychological screening necessary?
The purpose of screening was never to exclude people from cosmetic treatment. Rather, it was designed to help practitioners and patients make informed decisions.
Almost half of people considering cosmetic procedures report mental health concerns. For most, this does not make them unsuitable candidates. But in certain cases, they may benefit from delaying a cosmetic procedure. This would give them time to seek additional psychological support or talk to a practitioner about what they should expect from cosmetic surgery.
Importantly, screening tools should not be used alone. Instead, they should be part of a broader assessment of a patient’s motivations, goals and overall wellbeing. This includes a discussion of how cosmetic surgery may positively or negatively affect their mental health.
But researchers, like ourselves, are working on new screening questionnaires to help surgeons more accurately assess a patient’s mindset and identify any psychological concerns before they have a cosmetic procedure. But we need more research to know if these will improve outcomes for patients and practitioners.
Yes, talking about your mental health with a cosmetic surgeon may feel uncomfortable. But it helps ensure any decision to change how you look comes from a place of stability, not distress.
What do coffee, sugar, wheat, soy, eucalypts and paperbarks all have in common?
They are all susceptible to parasitic rust diseases caused by fungi. Plant rust disease can easily be spotted by the characteristic orange or yellow spores that cover plant leaves, making them look rusty.
The spores are easily transferred to your skin by touch or carried by the wind to other host plants.
Despite their symptomatic similarities, each species of rust fungus is restricted to a single type of plant host.
Farmers and nursery managers often use fungicide to tackle plant rust disease, but we need to find ways to decrease our reliance on fungicide treatment. Otherwise, we risk fuelling fungicide resistance.
Could treating with natural beneficial fungi be a viable alternative?
What we did and what we found
To find out, we grew 143 species of fungi that were living in association with the leaves of the Australian native scrub turpentine tree, a species now considered critically endangered due to the effects of myrtle rust disease.
Myrtle rust disease, cause by the exotic fungus Austropuccinia psidii is a type of plant rust disease, and it’s a huge problem. At least 380 Australian native plants are susceptible to it.
Myrtle rust threatens trees and shrubs in the Myrtaceae family of plants. This is Australia’s largest plant family in Australia, and includes tea tree and eucalypts. It also threatens several rainforest tree species.
The recent arrival of this disease into Australia, in 2010, means little is known about how we may feasibly control it within natural ecosystems.
Our research found that of the 143 species of fungi we grew, nine of them naturally stopped the germination of the myrtle rust spores in the lab.
This suggests native plants may already harbour beneficial fungi that could protect them from this deadly disease.
How? Our research shows one way beneficial fungi can protect the plant from the rust disease is by producing chemicals that attack the disease and prevent it from infecting the plant.
It’s like a biological machine, producing microscopic amounts of fungicide directly onto the rust as it grows.
Other ways these fungi can protect the plant are through competition for nutrients or by stimulating the plant’s immune system to protect itself.
One advantage over fungicides may be that if the fungi establishes a symbiotic relationship with the plant, repeated applications may not be necessary.
So far, we’ve only shown this in the lab. More research is clearly needed.
Now, we need to make sure the fungi can effectively do their job in the environment on our most susceptible plants. We may even one day be able to incorporate these fungi into our plant conservation breeding programs.
A growing body of research
A similar study of myrtle rust disease in Hawaii found that adding multiple beneficial fungi to the leaves of the native Hawaiian Koʻolau eugenia or nioi plant increased the effectiveness of the beneficial fungi over using a single strain alone.
This highlights that we have a lot to learn about how beneficial fungi can protect plants.
Our previous research also identified that fungi can protect crop plants such as wheat, barley and oats from rust disease.
Similarstudies around the world have found fungi can also protect against coffee rust and soybean rust, among others.
Despite many successful lab studies, there remains a gap between lab studies and field applications. And even if it could be proven to work in the field, then we’d need to find efficient ways to get the beneficial fungi onto the plants that need it.
That said, it’s worth persevering. If we want strategies to reduce fungicide usage on farms and in the environment we must continue to learn more about beneficial fungi and how we can best use them to our advantage.
The extreme weather events and resulting destruction that have hit New Zealand this summer are not only signs of a changing climate. They also highlight the now indispensable role of remote sensing satellite technology.
Broadly, remote sensing involves gathering information about Earth from a distance – most often from satellites equipped with sensors that measure different forms of electromagnetic energy.
Operating across multiple wavelengths, these instruments can function at night and capture conditions over large areas in a single pass. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites detect ground movement and flood extent even during heavy rain and thick cloud.
Optical sensors capture detailed imagery showing building damage, blocked roads, sediment plumes and coastal change. Thermal sensors identify heat patterns and temperature anomalies that signal hotspots or stressed environments.
Together, these systems provide a reliable, real-time picture of ground conditions, especially when severe weather renders traditional monitoring impossible.
But despite this technological progress, the framework that controls access to satellite data is alarmingly fragile, leaving a disaster-prone country like New Zealand vulnerable.
Better emergency response and risk mapping
For affected communities, satellite sensing technologies can be transformative. When rivers overflow, bridges collapse and extreme weather prevents response teams from entering affected areas, satellites continue operating uninterrupted.
Authorities can use the information to rapidly determine which communities are at risk, where landslides have destabilised slopes, and which roads or bridges have failed. It sharply reduces the time between impact and emergency response.
Instead of relying on scattered reports, responders can prioritise resources, guide evacuations, plan helicopter drops and coordinate rescue operations using a shared, high-resolution map of evolving hazards.
Remote sensing remains equally valuable long after the immediate crisis. Satellite data supports damage assessments for insurance and government relief, informs the reconstruction of roads, river systems and stormwater infrastructure, and helps refine hazard models for future storms and floods.
In remote areas such as the West Coast, East Coast and alpine South Island – where monitoring networks are sparse and terrain is difficult – satellite imagery is often the only wide-area information source.
Over months and years, repeated imagery helps scientists and planners understand how landscapes are changing: whether slopes are weakening, rivers are shifting course, or coastlines are retreating under rising seas and intensifying storms.
Stronger global agreements needed
Rapid access to satellite data is supported by the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, which coordinates satellites from different agencies and companies to provide free imagery and disaster maps when activated.
New Zealand is not a member but the National Emergency Management Agency secured “user status” in 2024.
Since participation is voluntary, some experts worry there is no guarantee satellites will be tasked appropriately, no assured access to archives, and no obligation for members to respond to every request.
The legal framework around remote sensing remains sparse. Outer space law states that space activities should benefit all countries but offers little detail.
The United Nations Remote Sensing Principles encourage cooperation and “reasonable” access, but lack enforcement and set no minimum standards for timely data sharing.
As well, many high-value satellites are privately owned. Outside voluntary emergency arrangements, access depends on commercial licences, pricing and national security restrictions. These constraints can delay critical information when it is needed most.
Commercial operators refusing to provide imagery can be a major challenge. With no binding international obligations on private companies, New Zealand cannot compel access during emergencies without pre-existing contracts.
Refusals can delay situational awareness, reduce mapping accuracy and leave dangerous gaps in response planning. So it is heartening that the New Zealand Space Agency is taking steps to address the gaps in international arrangements, and ensure more reliable access to commercial satellite data.
AI can rapidly detect floods, classify landslides, and evaluate building and road damage. But when errors occur, accountability becomes unclear. Does it lie with the data providers, the analytics companies that process the imagery, or the public agencies relying on the outputs?
Ensuring reliability requires transparent documentation of models, inputs, thresholds and uncertainties. Robust cybersecurity safeguards are also needed to prevent deliberate attempts to alter data streams or mislead machine‑learning models (which could distort analysis during a disaster).
But no binding rules require human oversight of AI-derived remote-sensing products, leaving governments to determine how much human review is necessary for safety-critical decisions.
To strengthen national resilience, New Zealand needs to advocate for clearer international data-sharing rules, and embed privacy, transparency and human oversight in public sector workflows.
It must also treat the satellite-to-ground data chain as critical infrastructure, with built in redundancy, security and rapid incident reporting. Remote sensing is now core national infrastructure.
The extreme weather of the past months emphasises why. When storms intensify too quickly for traditional systems to cope, satellites and AI-enabled analytics help provide a rapid, scalable view of unfolding risk.
Strong agreements, responsible AI governance and resilient data pipelines ensure New Zealand gets the right data – fast – when communities need it most.
Then on Saturday, three people were injured after two dogs attacked people in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr.
The attacks have sparked calls for an overhaul of the Dog Control Act – with Te Rore being the fourth person killed by dogs in the past four years.
Speaking to Morning Report, Auckland Council general manager of licensing and compliance Robert Irvine said the council had been calling for change for almost a year.
The issue of roaming dogs – with a number of attacks on young kids – was “really, really bad and it just keeps on getting worse”, Irvine said.
In Auckland alone, Irvine said there were 17,000 reports of roaming dogs every year – putting the community at risk.
“We want people to be out and about, enjoying our parks, going for walks and having the fear of being attacked by a dog is not something that we want.”
Mihiata Te Rore, 62, was killed by three dogs after entering a property in the Northland town of Kaihu on 17 February 2026.Supplied
The Dog Control Act was nearly 30 years old and very outdated, Irvine said.
“We’ve been calling for change on this for almost a year and the key things we are looking at is changing it to be more proactive.
“We need greater powers for those that just aren’t actually listening to the current rules. So things like getting on top of the problem, more powers around desexing – we need more dogs desexed out there and we need the dog control act to give us that power to do that.”
Irvine said the council impounded about 10,000 dogs per annum – releasing most of them – and being able to desex them before release was a power the council wanted to help control the issue of breeding.
The council also wanted the power to cease dogs if necessary. He said in one case, more than 20 dogs were found on a residential property and it had no power to take them – having to go through a “lengthy” process before it could disqualify the owner for having too many.
“Up to now, we’ve been told the changes aren’t on the government’s agenda but we’re hoping after, sadly, these tragic events that the government will now actually step in and make some changes.”
Auckland Council had upped its dog control spend by about $10 million last year – needing extra animal management officers among other initiatives – meaning its spend was now about $25m per year.
But its initiatives were not enough – and changes were needed to the Act, Irvine said.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts previously said he was seeking advice on how central government could respond to the attacks and the Dog Control Act.
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Trade Minister Todd McClay. (File photo)RNZ / Mark Papalii
As the world grapples with US President Donald Trump’s latest move raising global duty on imports into the United States to 15 percent, Trade Minister Todd McClay says how it will impact New Zealand businesses remains to be seen.
Over the weekend, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that after a thorough review of the Supreme Court’s ruling that emergency tariffs were illegal, the administration was hiking the import levies “to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15 percent level.”
But what will this mean for New Zealand businesses?
Trade Minister Todd McClay told Morning Report, exports to the US by value had increased recently, albeit not across the board.
He said now there would be a little bit of “wait and see” as to what would happen.
“Looking at other markets we’ve seen our exports to the EU going up.”
McClay said he was not presently speaking to the Trump administration about the tariff situation, but there had been ongoing conversations with them about the tariff rate.
“But ultimately, they haven’t come down below 15 percent for any country that has a surplus against them. There’s no evidence anywhere else in the world they’re dropping below that.”
So far for New Zealand exporters, the products that were sold to the US were still wanted and in demand despite tariffs, McClay said.
“What we’re doing is making sure they’ve got options elsewhere, which is part of why the India free trade agreement is so important for us.”
He said New Zealand also had agreements with other countries including the EU, Uk, China and Japan which were important.
“It’s not a plan B – you can sell to America and you can sell to the others if you want to.”
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Gore’s iconic statue is no longer with-trout a name
The brown trout statue has been proudly leaping in the Southland town since 1989 after being locally designed, built and fundraised.
Trevor was officially announced at the On The Fly Festival on the banks of the Mataura River on Sunday afternoon.
The Gore District Council teamed up with Hokonui FM to name the famous fish, asking for name suggestions before public voting this month – yes, Trouty McTroutface was floated.
The five finalists were Trixie, Scout, Trevor, Gordon or Finn.
But council senior events coordinator Florine Potts said Trevor was a clear winner after receiving more than a third of votes.
“People from far and wide come to Gore, come and take a photo with the trout. We see it happen every single day. Buses full of tourists stop here and they come and grab a photo and people love it and now we can all embrace Trevor the trout,” she said.
Gore District Council senior events coordinator Florine Potts said Trevor was an icon.Tess Brunton/RNZ
The Gore Lion’s Club gifted the statue to the town to celebrate its 25th anniversary with lots of fundraising to make it happen, she said.
“Like a celebrity cocktail party with some big names coming to Gore, a fishing race with little fish going down the Mataura River.”
Fly fishing guide Shelen Boyes was showing people how to fly fish at the festival.
Fly fishing guide Shelen Boyes was delighted to see more women and younger people getting involved in the sport.Tess Brunton/RNZ
There were a lot of moving parts to make the magic happen, she said.
“You’re having to not only cast a rod with a really light fly on the end of it, have accuracy, deal with the wind, deal with the elements, and then also have to pretty much hook it yourself and reel it in yourself without losing it,” she said.
“So yeah, it’s quite a lot.”
It was a great way to bring people together, was quite meditative and encouraged people to think about river health, she said.
Fly fishing in the Mataura River at the On The Fly Festival.Tess Brunton/RNZ
The Mataura River was a wonderful place to take people, Boyes said.
She described the Mataura as a “gold medal, blue ribbon fishery”.
“It’s got 700 fish per kilometre. You can easily spot fish all over the river system.”
Fly fishing has been Mike Weddell’s career and passion – he has been flying fishing for more than 60 years.
He was been showing people how it was done at the festival.
Mike Weddell said fly fishing has been both his career and passion.Tess Brunton/RNZ
“It’s a fantastic sport. What you used to see in the village back home, all the kids that fished all the time never got into trouble, except for coming home too late at night, he said.
Trevor will have an official naming ceremony later this year.
Rainbow trout on show at the On the Fly Festival. They are not the same as what are in the Mataura River.Tess Brunton/RNZ
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An Auckland councillor is calling them draconian and heartless, the advocacy group for retailers doubts they will work long term, and a man on the streets says it’s bullying.
But the government says its move-on orders announced on Sunday are part of reclaiming main streets and town centres.
The orders target people as young as 14 and give Police powers to move on rough sleepers, disorderly people or beggars for up to 24 hours.
Breach an order, and it risks a fine of up to $2000 or three month jail term.
“We understand that in certain cities around New Zealand it is a significant problem,” Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said.
“There’s antisocial behaviour and a lot of drug taking and drinking, and it’s pretty unpleasant and it’s quite difficult for people to want to come into the city.”
She welcomes new tools for police, but doubts their long term usefulness.
“The problem we see with it is that if you move someone on, you’re moving them to just another area where they’ll be a problem for somebody else,” she said.
“The move-on orders are for 24 hours, they may just come back again the next day, the question is how many times will it take to move them on before we break the cycle and give relief to those businesses in that region and then it’ll be the same problem somewhere else.”
Young said without wider social support, Retail NZ didn’t believe they would make a difference in the long run.
“And we know that the police do a really great job and they are already stretched, and so it’s hard to know how this is a solution,” she said.
“It’s probably a break in the circuit… it’s how often do you have to break the circuit before you’ll change behaviours.”
Some people on Auckland’s streets who spoke with RNZ after the announcement also had doubts.
“It’s a bully tactic,” Kenneth Dahl said.
He’s 50, and has been on and off the streets since he was 18.
“It’s pushing people into a corner… and as for them moving us into accommodation, they’re forcing us to live in places we do not want to live,” he said.
“It’s a bully tactic right there.”
Dahl currently has provided motel accommodation.
“But I choose not to be there because as soon as I look out the window all I see is grey and white, there’s no greenery whatsoever, nothing, no vegetation or anything around, it’s not a home, it’s a cell or a prison cell.”
The streets, he said, were where he felt most at home.
Benny Ngata was with him in the central city and expected the orders to lead to more crime.
“And they’re trying to move them out of the town to make themselves look better or something… but when it comes to it, how about help those people to advance themselves and give them a place, because the government’s housing is lacking, that’s why people are on the street,” he said.
“And not only that, people who live on the street, those who have mental illnesses or with addictions, so then how about help them… not by kicking them away.
“Because at the end of the day, that’s going to cause more trouble,” he said.
Ngata said it would just end up costing the government money to put people in jail.
“So at the end of the day, the government is going to lose,” he said.
“If you want to be a government, work with the people… how about get off your fat arse and help them.”
Ngata was asked if help was there at the moment.
“No, there’s nothing there, that’s why people are sleeping on the streets, that’s why people are homeless, because the government doesn’t care.”
Auckland councillor Richard Hills posted on Facebook it was earlier government changes that had dramatically increased homelessness.
File photo. Auckland councillor Richard Hills.Alexia Russell
“These heartless, draconian ‘move on orders will not deliver positive outcomes for people, but they will make the Govt look tough in an election year,” he wrote.
Community Housing Aotearoa said Police were not equipped to assess what health support rough sleepers need.
Chief executive Paul Gilberd said it shouldn’t be the job of officers.
“Often these people are very unwell both physically and in terms of mental health and sometimes substance abuse, so I feel for the police being put in a very awkward situation where they’re being required to make these judgements and I think there’s a strong argument for much better coordination between services,” he said.
Wellington’s City Missioner Murray Edridge said the government earlier signalled any laws to move on rough sleepers would come with support.
“And we heard the Prime Minister early in this conversation say we wouldn’t just move people on and not do anything to help them,” he said.
“Well, I’m still waiting to see what the help is going to look like.”
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s office said it’s been made very clear police are expected to connect people given move-on orders with the support they may need.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Back in Auckland, Queen’s Arcade property manager Ian Wright said the orders put the icing on the cake after more security, policing and social support.
“I don’t see it as displacement of the problem, that’s not a solution, it’s very much about holding people to account, drawing a line in the sand and saying we’ve actually got a right to be here too, the people, our visitors, and we want it to be safe and secure and I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
But Aaron Hendry, who works with at-risk young people, is worried about the orders applying to people as young as 14.
“The support structures are not in place to adequately respond to these children’s needs and so, look, it’s concerning to us, we are concerned around what is looking like a really clear streets to prison pipeline with the lack of resources invested in to ensure that people are looked after,” he said.
The orders will be part of an amendment to the Summary Offences Act, meaning it still has to go through the legislative process.
Paul Goldsmith said there would be a chance for the orders to be scrutinised, but the government also wanted to get them in place as soon as possible.
The government will amend the Summary Offences Act to give police the power to issue move-on orders to people who are displaying disorderly, disruptive, threatening, or intimidating behaviour.
They will also apply to people who are obstructing or impeding someone entering a business, breaching the peace, begging, rough sleeping, or displaying behaviour indicating an attempt to inhabit a public place.
The orders will require someone to leave for a specified time – up to 24 hours – and distance determined by the officer.
When the order is issued, the person will be warned it is an offence to breach it, unless they have a reasonable excuse for being there.
The penalty for a breach would be a maximum fine of $2,000 or up to three months imprisonment.
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Trees fell on power lines (file image).Supplied / Caleb Gordon
More than 300 homes in Wellington are still without power a week after being hit by a southerly storm.
Wellington Electricity said the extremely gusty nature of last week’s storm appeared to have made it extra damaging, and it was taking longer than expected to restore power.
The lines company apologised to the 260 customers across Wellington and Porirua, and 70 in the Hutt Valley, who have now gone without electricity for a week.
The number was down from the approximate 700 homes on Friday that still had no power, when Wellington Electricity said it would donate $10 to KidsCan Charitable Trust for every customer who wouldn’t be reconnected that day.
Have you been affected? Get in touch at: hamish.cardwell@rnz.co.nz
Wellington Electricity chief executive Greg Skelton said the sheer scale of the damage that fallen trees and windblown branches have caused meant they were behind schedule.
“From initial assessments we thought we were going to get power restored in the Hutt Valley on Saturday evening.
“However, in many jobs we discovered greater damage than we could initially see after trees were cleared and sites made safe to work at. It’s been very frustrating. As of this morning there are about 70 customers still without power in the Hutt Valley. We expect to get power restored to them today.”
He said power should be restored to the 260 homes across Wellington and Porirua by Tuesday night.
Some repairs would be temporary, requiring further work.
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An aerial view of the reserve, the water ponds, and the Barker’s blocks and factory.Supplied
The Barkers jam maker is already in trouble with its neighbours over stinky wastewater ponds, and now it wants to dump the waste onto DOC land.
With the backdrop of the Southern Alps and a pristine river running by the famous jam-maker, Barker’s factory tells the ideal story of a successful New Zealand business.
What’s not captured in that idyllic image is the stench of its wastewater ponds and the company’s solution, that involves spraying five olympic-sized pools of liquid onto nearby conservation land.
“This is a lovely New Zealand story,” says Newsroom’s David Williams of the food-making business, started by the Barker family in Geraldine in 1969.
“Everybody wants something to be started in a cowshed, don’t they? And to be innovative and to try something on the side. It’s this iconic story associated with this iconic brand.”
The business flourished, its jams, pickles and sauces are a Kiwi favourite. French food giant Andros bought a majority stake in 2015 and took complete ownership two years ago. Recently it opened a $60 million expanded factory on the outskirts of Geraldine, employing 300 locals.
But not a month goes by without a story about the South Canterbury factory’s wastewater woes.
A screenshot from Barker’s website shows the idyllic location of the factory, as well the company’s ethos about the land.Supplied
“There’s been a bit of a shift in recent years and people around the factory haven’t been entirely happy with the way that Barker’s is behaving,” says Williams, who’s been investigating the company and its clashes with the environment regulator ECan and the Department of Conservation.
In the latest development, Barker’s has applied to the Department of Conservation (DOC) to spray 12,000 cubic metres of wastewater from its two ponds onto the neighbouring Hae Hae Te Moana River Conservation Reserve. DOC will decide by 5 March.
Williams says the story is about more than one company trying to come up with a solution for its industrial waste.
“This is about how regulators act when they have information and what they do in the face of companies pushing back. You know, this is one case but you would argue, is this the case of regulators up and down the country?”
The Timaru Herald’s Federico Magrin has also been digging into Barker’s wastewater practises and found it has been in tense discussions with ECan and DOC over it for months.
He reported in December that hundreds of emails, released under the Official Information Act, reveal exchanges between ECan, DOC and Barker’s over 18 months, “in a battle of cease-and-desist orders, claims and counter-claims”.
Magrin has looked into Andros, also a family company, famous for its Bonne Maman preserve. He compared its wastewater practices in France with New Zealand and found stark differences.
At its industrial site in France, its waste goes into a bioenergy plant next door and the highly treated wastewater is discharged into the neighbouring river.
“That is industrial France, whereas New Zealand this company is using the land as a treatment station, kind of. There is a very striking difference between how they treat wastewater in France and New Zealand even though one is in an industrial area and one is sitting next to a reserve with people living around the factory,” Magrin says.
His investigations also found that the rules for Andros in France are “extremely different” to Environment Canterbury’s regulations for Barker’s here.
“For the French factory there’s a limit for the amount of organic pollution it can discharge that ends up going into the water and what Barker’s is allowed to do is 32 times more than their French counterpart,” he says.
Williams says it is not the first time that Barker’s has sprayed wastewater onto the DOC reserve. Previously, DOC did not renew its license after the spray damaged the land.
“I don’t know why they let them discharge onto the reserve in the first place but when they’re faced with an application from anyone they have to consider it and they have to make sure there’s enough information for them to make a decision. I guess the public may judge them by whatever they decide goes on here.”
Listen to The Detail to hear how Barker’s has responded to the stories, why neighbours are nervous about the factory’s discharge plans for the DOC reserve and future plans to spray the wastewater on a pine forest block the company bought recently.
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Wellington East Girls College associate principal Anna Wilson.John Gerritsen/RNZ
Schools say a Rotary Club-funded scheme that pays for counselling within 24 hours is making a huge difference for their students.
The programme called Lifting the Lid runs in several parts of the country and started in Wellington in 2022.
Schools say it helps them cope with a rising tide of mental health problems among young people.
David Shackleton, chair of the Wellington Lifting the Lid committee, said the programme originated in Australia and was introduced to the city by the Port Nicholson Rotary Club.
Since then Rotary clubs in areas including Hutt Valley and Kapiti had adopted the programme for their local schools, he said.
Shackleton said the Wellington scheme allocated funding to 14 participating schools – 10 secondary schools and four intermediate schools – to use as they wished.
He said the schools decided what was best for each child and sent a form to Lifting the Lid requesting approval, which was granted within 24 hours.
Shackleton said the Wellington programme had supported more than 1700 sessions for about 160 students since it began.
He said demand was growing at an alarming rate.
“We meet three times a year with the principals and the school counsellors and during that time we get their feedback on how the programme is going and what kind of demand they are seeing in their schools – consistently we hear that demand is increasing almost term by term,” he said.
Shackleton said it appeared social media including cyber-bullying was a major driver of mental health problems among young people.
He said the club and donors raised $100,000 for the Wellington programme for this year’s work – enough to put some aside for next year.
Rongotai College deputy principal Geoff Hall said the school was one of the first to join the scheme.
“It was a no-brainer for us. The well-being of kids is really, really important and one of the issues is just getting the funds to support those kids,” he said.
Rongotai College deputy principal Geoff Hall.John Gerritsen/RNZ
Hall said prior to joining the scheme the school used in-house expertise, sometimes including teachers who did not have counselling backgrounds, or waiting for appointments with external providers because the school did not have the money to pay for private sessions.
“This has allowed us to access external providers quickly and efficiently without that added burden of ‘where are we going to find the cash’. We can go to the ministry and in most cases the ministry actually do provide you with the money, but there’s a process and a long process to actually be able to access that,” he said.
Hall said the scheme helped the school be proactive and arrange sessions that equipped groups of boys with skills to improve their mental health.
“We’re giving the boys the tools to deal with their own wellbeing,” he said.
“Life as a teenager is a lot harder now than what it was when I first started teaching in 1990. These kids need a lot more explicit teaching of the skills to be able to deal with their own wellbeing.”
Hall said schools involved in the scheme met regularly to share their experiences and it was clear demand for counselling was increasing.
Wellington East Girls College associate principal Anna Wilson said Lifting the Lid ensured help for students was not delayed by lengthy waiting lists.
“Last year, we were able to have some students have educational psychologist assessments, which give us a really good understanding of why they’re not able to engage in their lessons and what’s going on for them,” she said.
“The families themselves couldn’t afford that and through the public system they would take a long time to get a referral from their GP to see a paediatrician or psychologist.”
Wilson said demand for mental services was high.
“This funding pool could be grown for us five to 10 times and we could still use it,” she said.
“The wait lists are extreme outside of school. We’ve got a team of two-and-a-half counsellors here at our school and we still have a wait list for the kids that want to see them.”
Wilson said it was clear from meetings with participating schools that anxiety and problems arising from social media were common.
She said Lifting the Lid relieved pressure on the school’s finances.
“A full educational psychological report for us would be around $1700, the equine therapy course was a similar cost… so that’s really awesome to have that funding to use,” she said.
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But farmland has replaced the psychiatric hospital, whose buildings have gone, and all that remains from the time is a water tower.
On Saturday a memorial was unveiled at the site paying tribute to those who never left Lake Alice and those whose lives were scarred forever.
‘It’s about the children of Lake Alice’
Unit survivor Robyn Dandy came up with the idea for the memorial.
“It’s important to remember all those who have gone before us, way way too soon. They should have lived long and happy lives, and never did.
“It’s about the returned servicemen who were dumped in here. It’s about the children of Lake Alice who are still with us today.”
Lake Alice survivor Robyn Dandy organised the memorial and intended to pay for it herself.RNZ/Jimmy Ellinghm
She was going to fund the memorial herself until the local council took on that responsibility and with and iwi, Ngāti Apa, made sure it happened.
More than 400 children – including many with no psychiatric illnesses – went through the unit, where they were given electric shocks and paralysing drugs under the watch of Dr Selwyn Leeks, and raped.
“It’s not about anybody in particular,” Dandy said. “It’s about everybody that was involved in Lake Alice and sadly a lot, like my own brother, went very young in life.
“It’s about remembering them. They couldn’t be here for this, but I’m sure they’re watching down today.”
The house Dandy was renting was badly damaged in last week’s storm and she urgently needs to find another home.
“The water’s only just come on today. The electricity is half on. I need somewhere safe for me and my animals now. I’m getting a bit long in the tooth for running around looking for properties.
“If anybody out there’s got a nice little country cottage around the Manawatū-Rangitīkei district, preferably – I’m a good tenant.”
Affinity with fellow survivors
Lake Alice unit survivor Sherab Palmo was among those who delivered moving speeches to the roadside gathering of about 40 people.
She said she was a clever child, who wanted to be a vet, only for Lake Alice to rip that away. Now though, aged 63, she’s qualified as a midwife.
“I really wanted to meet some people that I’ve been here with, more than anything. It’s like having this whānau that you didn’t see for a long time.
“I’ve connected with a few over the years. And then also just meeting the ones who I have met here today – it’s like having an affinity with someone that you know has survived something that you have.”
Halo raised the alarm about what was happening at Lake Alice by writing notes in Niuean to his family on drawings sent home. He made sure the figures in those drawings were smiling, so not to raise suspicion among Lake Alice staff.
Journalist Aaron Smale, who has for a decade exposed state malfeasance to do with the Lake Alice unit, also paid tribute to a recently deceased survivor – Rangi Wickliffe.
Decades of cover up
The minister in charge of the response to the Royal Commission into state abuse, Erica Stanford, spoke about the wrongs not only of the unit, but of the state covering up what happened for decades.
“I have been meeting with Lake Alice survivors since almost day one. Being here was extremely important to acknowledge what happened here,” she told RNZ.
“[I’m here] to say the words that I’ve said to them privately, that I’ve said in public – but to say them here at this place, in the shadow of the tower, to acknowledge that the state over 50 years has actively worked against them.”
Many of the horrors of the Lake Alice unit were exposed during royal commission hearings overseen by retired judge Dame Coral Shaw, who travelled from her Waikato home for the unveiling.
Dame Coral Shaw says it was important that she attend the memorial unveiling.RNZ/Jimmy Ellinghm
“I felt here’s an opportunity to remember and to mark, and to do something tangible for the memory of those who’ve passed and the survivors of Lake Alice, who continue to live with their trauma.
“For me it’s a very important part of this long journey.”
She heard weeks of harrowing evidence from survivors and the commission produced the Beautiful Children report into abuse at the Lake Alice unit.
“Before I came I sat down and just went through it again because I wanted to make sure that I had it alive in my mind, and it hurt.
“It hurt to read again and to relive that, but it’s important that we do, that we keep the memories alive, because it we don’t we can’t promise that it won’t happen again.”
Rangitīkei mayor Andy Watson said he had no hesitation in deciding the council should pay for the memorial.
Rangitīkei mayor And Watson says Lake Alice is a stain on the community.RNZ/Jimmy Ellinghm
He described what happened at Lake Alice as a stain on the community.
When he was growing up, he remembers going there to play sport and having no idea what patients were going through.
“Lake Alice was groomed, it had many groundsmen, and we thought as kids that everything was okay. We didn’t know.
“Maybe that’s part of the tragedy. There should have been people who raised the flag earlier and said, ‘Things are not okay.’”
Survivor Karilyn Wildbore said she applauded Dandy for making the memorial happen.
“We all knew driving down this road when we were kids it was going to be horrific.
“Now, we can come back here and we can actually see that it’s not there any more.”
The Lake Alice unit closed in 1978 and the wider facility 20 years later.
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Trees fell on power lines (file image).Supplied / Caleb Gordon
More than 300 homes in Wellington are still without power a week after being hit by a southerly storm.
Wellington Electricity said the extremely gusty nature of last week’s storm appeared to have made it extra damaging, and it was taking longer than expected to restore power.
The lines company apologised to the 260 customers across Wellington and Porirua, and 70 in the Hutt Valley, who have now gone without electricity for a week.
The number was down from the approximate 700 homes on Friday that still had no power, when Wellington Electricity said it would donate $10 to KidsCan Charitable Trust for every customer who wouldn’t be reconnected that day.
Have you been affected? Get in touch at: hamish.cardwell@rnz.co.nz
Wellington Electricity chief executive Greg Skelton said the sheer scale of the damage that fallen trees and windblown branches have caused meant they were behind schedule.
“From initial assessments we thought we were going to get power restored in the Hutt Valley on Saturday evening.
“However, in many jobs we discovered greater damage than we could initially see after trees were cleared and sites made safe to work at. It’s been very frustrating. As of this morning there are about 70 customers still without power in the Hutt Valley. We expect to get power restored to them today.”
He said power should be restored to the 260 homes across Wellington and Porirua by Tuesday night.
Some repairs would be temporary, requiring further work.
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The New Zealand Breakers do not want to get left behind in the Australian NBL as other cashed up teams lock in tested talent and inject rising stars into squads to chase championships.
The dust had barely settled on Dillon Boucher’s first season back with the Breakers when the president of basketball operations turned his attention to where improvements needed to be made for next season.
Finishing seventh in the 10 team league in the 2025/26 season was not what Boucher and the new ownership had in mind when they linked up with the organisation in March last year.
Reaching the final of the Ignite Cup was a bright spark in the season and they secured the prize money by winning a close game, something that the team struggled to achieve during the regular season.
A “rebuild” and “trying to bring in a level of professionalism and standards that we want to live by” was what the club had set out to achieve, but for anything they had improved off the court, the club was ultimately judged by what happened on the court.
“I would be lying if I said we didn’t want to be in the playoffs this year and I believe we should have been and could have been. So from that perspective it’s disappointing,” Boucher said.
“We’re already starting to have one eye on next year and how we’re going to build for next year and where we fell short.
“We’ll do a lot of off-season strategy on working out where we failed this season and where we need to get stronger.”
Boucher said every area of the organisation – front office, support staff, coaching staff and players – would be under scrutiny.
The missing margins
Breakers coach Petteri Koponen in the huddle.www.photosport.nz
The Breakers won big and lost big in the 2025/26 season and had a habit of capitulating in the close ones.
Across the season the Breakers won three games by 29 points or more, including a 42 point victory over the Illawarra Hawks in October.
They lost three games by 30 points or more including a 41 point loss to Sydney in January.
In the close ones the Breakers lost six games by four points or less.
Second season head coach Petteri Koponen acknowledged consistency was problem.
“We showed some really good stretches throughout the year, we had some upset wins and some bad heartbreaking losses…we improved from the last year but at the same time I think the league got better also.”
Koponen said they needed to find the “margins” for improvement on and off the court if the Breakers were to contest the post-season next season.
It was a sentiment echoed by NBL Most Improved Player nominee Sam Mennenga.
Mennenga averaged a career-best 17.2 points per game and 6.8 rebounds in a season when the Breakers relied heavily on the big man who spent a stint sidelined with a wrist injury.
“There’s always things you want to change,” Mennenga said.
“I think that there is a lot of improvement that can be made and there is lessons that can be learnt.
There is a lot that we can take away to progress and improve, even just the day to day principles and standards that you set to win.”
Boucher was also on the same page.
“We’ve shown week in, week out that although we haven’t been consistent, we’ve been able to challenge teams and push teams and certainly compete.”
Is NZ first the right path?
New Zealand players, captain Reuben Te Rangi and Tukaha Cooper.Blake Armstrong/Photosport
A focus on bringing New Zealand talent home was part of the ownership’s direction when they took over.
“We will always try and recruit New Zealand talent, but at the same time made it really clear that we are there to win and we need to win games,” Boucher said.
“So if there’s better talent that’s outside of New Zealand, then 100 percent we’ll be talking to talent outside of New Zealand.
“We always want to try and develop within, give opportunities to New Zealand players, but those players have to be able to fill the role better than someone else from, say, across the ditch or overseas somewhere else.”
Including development players the Breakers had 11 New Zealanders involved with the roster of varying experience levels in the NBL.
Koponen’s future after two seasons at the club is not yet decided. Neither are the contracts of the majority of the playing roster.
The 37-year-old coach was coy before the final regular season game about whether he would return for another stint in the NBL.
“Everything is always open in this job but we’ll see. After the season we sit down and see what is the plan moving forward and how we can progress as a club,” Koponen said.
Boucher said all coaching staff appointments would be reviewed in the off-season and whether they returned would depend if the coaches wanted to return and if the club “had the ability to bring them back”.
Only three players – including import Parker Jackson-Cartwright – were under contract for next season and between now and when free agency began in two months Boucher wanted to have a couple more players locked in.
“At the moment we don’t have a huge number back next season, but it’s almost purposely done to be able to start again from scratch.
“Some of the players are on existing contracts that were there before we started. Some are brand new contracts. So for us, it’ll be what are the key pieces we need to be stronger next season.
“Some guys really put their hand up towards the end of the season knowing that their contracts are going to be up for renewal. And some guys seal the fate for themselves with either performances or how they behave and things like that.”
The next Next Star
Next Star Karim Lopez set a high standard for the next player to join the Breakers.Brett Phibbs
Part of running a fine-tooth comb through the roster and deciding where improvements could be made was a decision about getting another Next Star.
Mexican teenager Karim Lopez spent two seasons with the Breakers under the NBL’s Next Stars programme and will be part of the NBA draft in May.
Lopez is a hot commodity, predicted to go high in the draft, but he also left a good impression on the club that helped him develop as a professional player.
The forward ended the 2025/26 season with an average of 11.9 points per game and 6.1 rebounds.
“Definitely wouldn’t say no to a Next Star and certainly looking at what’s out there at the moment.
“We’ve been able to get great service out of Kareem and I think if we could have someone of his ability, again, put in front of us, then I would certainly be open to looking at what that looks like.”
Having a Next Star on the roster allowed a club to have 12 contracted players rather than 11.
“So it is one extra player, and that’s great when you’ve got injuries to have 12 players, but also to be able to keep 12 players happy and being able to play them on a regular basis is really difficult for a coach to do.
“Some teams load up their starting five and their bench is not so strong and they can come undone when you have injuries. And then you sometimes have a really deep bench of seven guys that can really play ball and they’re all pretty even, but unfortunately in a game someone has to miss out on some minutes here and there.
“Those pieces are really hard to try and juggle and for us right now, what we can control is where we think we need to improve, and then it’ll be going to market and seeing like how we can improve, what players are available, who are free agents, those sorts of things are really important.”
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The scene of Saturday’s dog attack in Christchurch.Sam Sherwood / RNZ
A veterinary specialist says it is shocking to see another serious dog attack, days after a woman was mauled to death in Northland.
Three people were injured after two dogs attacked people in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr on Saturday.
One person was critically injured, another seriously injured, and a third treated for minor injuries at the scene.
Association of Professional Dog Trainers president Dr Jess Beer, said the frequency of the attacks right now is “distressing”.
“It’s multi-factorial when it comes to aggression in dogs. It’s not a personality, it’s a combination of lots of different reasons, and every case is individual.
“But it is concerning to be seeing so many instances where aggression has been reached in that relationship between the human and their dog.”
On Tuesday 62-year-old Mihiata Te Rore was killed by dogs while visiting a home in the Northland town of Kaihu.
The attacks have sparked calls for an overhaul of the Dog Control Act – with Te Rore being the fourth person killed by dogs in the past four years.
In Christchurch, the city council has said the two dogs have been impounded pending an ongoing police investigation.
Beer said she did not know what caused the Christchurch attack, but said “backyard breeding” was causing concern generally.
“An animal is under-sexed, a roaming dog, they get pregnant, large puppies produced and it’s just a question of finding a home for them.
“I know if you speak to any of the rescues around New Zealand they are absolutely flooded with a lot of abandoned dogs.”
Beer said there was not enough information about de-sexing rates around the country, the levels of breeding going on, or where dogs were coming from.
“We need better management of what dogs are pro-creating, so there is a genetic predisposition that certain individual [breeds] will pass on a genetic trait to be prone to aggressive behaviours.”
There also appeared to be fewer dog owners seeking dog training before a problem occurred, Beer said.
She urged people to reach out to a dog trainer if they saw their dog display worrying behaviour.
“It is much harder to resolve these problems and help these dogs when they are already displaying bite activity towards people or other species.”
Local Government minister Simon Watts has previously said he is seeking advice on how central government can respond to these attacks, and on the Dog Control Act.
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In a letter to parents, the school said it had been told to close by the Ministry of Education and specialist contractors.
“We are moving to online learning for the week of Monday 23 February to Friday 27 February for all students,” the school said.
Students should not come to school, it added.
A fire broke out at the Northcote College sports pavilion on 20 February 2026.RNZ / Marika Khabazi
There would be limited supervision given for students who could not stay home, but they would not be taught any lessons.
It also cautioned against “unhelpful” speculation about the fire’s cause, saying it was still under investigation.
Online learning would allow for the the safe demolition of the pavilion, its removal and clearing of the site, the school said.
“Property records show that there is asbestos (Class B) in some of the cladding around the base of the damaged building which will require appropriate management as it is removed,” the school had written to parents.
The fire at Northcote College on Auckland’s North Shore on 20 February 2026.Finn Blackwell
It also was not able to run heating, ventilation and air conditioning in its new K Block where half of its timetabled classes were.
“We have also been advised to keep all people off the fields and away from the gym and pool during the demolition and removal process.
“With these restrictions, online learning for the week is the safe and sensible option.”
Northcote College said air tests taken over the weekend for reassurance had all come back clear.
“Monitoring will continue this week,” it said.
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File photo. Young people the most affected by rise in e-scooter injuries.RNZ / Dom Thomas
Newly-released ACC data shows claims for e-scooter injuries are on the rise, with children and young people among the most affected.
It’s prompted an ED doctor to call for helmets to be made compulsory while riding.
ACC figures provided to RNZ indicate that of all new claims involving an e-scooter from the start of 2026 to early February, about half are for people under the age of 25.
Between 2022 and 2024, about 40 percent of new e-scooter-related claims each year were for under 25s, rising to 47% in 2025.
Part of the rise is being driven by large increases in claims for 10- to 14-year-olds. The age group recorded 203 new e-scooter claims in 2022, tripling to 605 by 2025.
The figures show the number of new e-scooter injury claims for under 25s last year had risen 85 percent since 2022. For all age groups, new claims involving the scooters have climbed 55 percent in the same time period.
ACC said it relied on people’s own reports of their injuries for this data, and that it counted claims using the date it was registered rather than when the injury occurred. The data also didn’t describe the severity of injuries, how they occurred, and who was affected (for example, the e-scooter rider or a pedestrian).
RNZ has asked Health NZ for further details on the injuries.
Dr Stuart Dalziel, a paediatric emergency medicine specialist at Starship Hospital, told RNZ the numbers married up with what he’d been seeing.
When they turn up to ED, Dalziel said some people’s injuries could be “relatively easy to sort out”, though others could be debilitating if it affected the head or face.
“For a small number of people, these e-scooter injuries are life-threatening.”
ACC’s data shows soft tissue injuries to muscles, ligaments, or tendons – like sprains or bruises – are most common when it comes to e-scooter incidents. This is followed by lacerations and punctures, then fractures and dislocations.
Dalziel said New Zealand should consider making helmet use compulsory with e-scooters. Currently, they are only “strongly recommended”.
He also called for a public health campaign encouraging safe scooting – similar to messages for safe cycling – and separating scooters from other road users.
“Obviously, scooters can do damage to pedestrians when they’re going at 30 kilometres an hour, but also if you fall off your e-scooter into a car.”
National MP Catherine Wedd is leading a campaign to take e-scooters off footpaths and into dedicated bike lanes whenever possible, with changes expected by mid-2026.
Current NZ Transport Agency rules say they can be used on the footpath or the road, though not in designated cycle lanes that form part of the road.
The responsibility for safety was a balance between individuals’ responsibility and the rules the Government set, Dalziel said.
“If you think about cycling as an example, we actually have a lot more controls around cycling than we do around e-scootering. The controls that we actually have around cycling do not stop people enjoying their bikes and going out and riding their bikes on the road.
“So it makes common sense that we actually have those same compulsory safety messaging around e-scootering,” he said.
“With regards to the e-scootering companies, there are some companies that have helmets attached to the e-scooter. I think that really is a good example of what companies can do in order to improve the safety of these scooters, but not all companies do that.”
Dalziel said it was difficult to know why young people were increasingly over-represented in ACC’s e-scooter claim statistics.
“I think predominantly, the cause is probably that people are using them more – and this will be both people using the scooters you can rent, but also people buying these products,” he said.
“We saw a spike in injuries when e-scooters were introduced to the country in 2018. That settled quite dramatically with the lockdowns associated with Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021, and it’s steadily increased since then.”
ACC paid out almost $16 million for scooter-related injuries in 2025, an increase of about 10% on the year prior. Just over $1.2 million had been paid out in January 2026.
The cost of all road injury claims – which include active, private, and public modes of transport – was $766 million last year.
ACC said e-scooter riders could consider these tips:
If you’re new to e-scooters practice in a quiet place away from traffic and other people until you get to grips with them
If you’re pretty experienced, give the scooter you’re using a little test before travelling on it – is it as responsive as it should be, does it slow down/brake well etc.
Start slow and ease into it – they can go pretty fast/gain speed quickly
One person at a time
Wear a helmet
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
An Auckland councillor is calling them draconian and heartless, the advocacy group for retailers doubts they will work long term, and a man on the streets says it’s bullying.
But the government says its move-on orders announced on Sunday are part of reclaiming main streets and town centres.
The orders target people as young as 14 and give Police powers to move on rough sleepers, disorderly people or beggars for up to 24 hours.
Breach an order, and it risks a fine of up to $2000 or three month jail term.
“We understand that in certain cities around New Zealand it is a significant problem,” Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said.
“There’s antisocial behaviour and a lot of drug taking and drinking, and it’s pretty unpleasant and it’s quite difficult for people to want to come into the city.”
She welcomes new tools for police, but doubts their long term usefulness.
“The problem we see with it is that if you move someone on, you’re moving them to just another area where they’ll be a problem for somebody else,” she said.
“The move-on orders are for 24 hours, they may just come back again the next day, the question is how many times will it take to move them on before we break the cycle and give relief to those businesses in that region and then it’ll be the same problem somewhere else.”
Young said without wider social support, Retail NZ didn’t believe they would make a difference in the long run.
“And we know that the police do a really great job and they are already stretched, and so it’s hard to know how this is a solution,” she said.
“It’s probably a break in the circuit… it’s how often do you have to break the circuit before you’ll change behaviours.”
Some people on Auckland’s streets who spoke with RNZ after the announcement also had doubts.
“It’s a bully tactic,” Kenneth Dahl said.
He’s 50, and has been on and off the streets since he was 18.
“It’s pushing people into a corner… and as for them moving us into accommodation, they’re forcing us to live in places we do not want to live,” he said.
“It’s a bully tactic right there.”
Dahl currently has provided motel accommodation.
“But I choose not to be there because as soon as I look out the window all I see is grey and white, there’s no greenery whatsoever, nothing, no vegetation or anything around, it’s not a home, it’s a cell or a prison cell.”
The streets, he said, were where he felt most at home.
Benny Ngata was with him in the central city and expected the orders to lead to more crime.
“And they’re trying to move them out of the town to make themselves look better or something… but when it comes to it, how about help those people to advance themselves and give them a place, because the government’s housing is lacking, that’s why people are on the street,” he said.
“And not only that, people who live on the street, those who have mental illnesses or with addictions, so then how about help them… not by kicking them away.
“Because at the end of the day, that’s going to cause more trouble,” he said.
Ngata said it would just end up costing the government money to put people in jail.
“So at the end of the day, the government is going to lose,” he said.
“If you want to be a government, work with the people… how about get off your fat arse and help them.”
Ngata was asked if help was there at the moment.
“No, there’s nothing there, that’s why people are sleeping on the streets, that’s why people are homeless, because the government doesn’t care.”
Auckland councillor Richard Hills posted on Facebook it was earlier government changes that had dramatically increased homelessness.
File photo. Auckland councillor Richard Hills.Alexia Russell
“These heartless, draconian ‘move on orders will not deliver positive outcomes for people, but they will make the Govt look tough in an election year,” he wrote.
Community Housing Aotearoa said Police were not equipped to assess what health support rough sleepers need.
Chief executive Paul Gilberd said it shouldn’t be the job of officers.
“Often these people are very unwell both physically and in terms of mental health and sometimes substance abuse, so I feel for the police being put in a very awkward situation where they’re being required to make these judgements and I think there’s a strong argument for much better coordination between services,” he said.
Wellington’s City Missioner Murray Edridge said the government earlier signalled any laws to move on rough sleepers would come with support.
“And we heard the Prime Minister early in this conversation say we wouldn’t just move people on and not do anything to help them,” he said.
“Well, I’m still waiting to see what the help is going to look like.”
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s office said it’s been made very clear police are expected to connect people given move-on orders with the support they may need.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Back in Auckland, Queen’s Arcade property manager Ian Wright said the orders put the icing on the cake after more security, policing and social support.
“I don’t see it as displacement of the problem, that’s not a solution, it’s very much about holding people to account, drawing a line in the sand and saying we’ve actually got a right to be here too, the people, our visitors, and we want it to be safe and secure and I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
But Aaron Hendry, who works with at-risk young people, is worried about the orders applying to people as young as 14.
“The support structures are not in place to adequately respond to these children’s needs and so, look, it’s concerning to us, we are concerned around what is looking like a really clear streets to prison pipeline with the lack of resources invested in to ensure that people are looked after,” he said.
The orders will be part of an amendment to the Summary Offences Act, meaning it still has to go through the legislative process.
Paul Goldsmith said there would be a chance for the orders to be scrutinised, but the government also wanted to get them in place as soon as possible.
The government will amend the Summary Offences Act to give police the power to issue move-on orders to people who are displaying disorderly, disruptive, threatening, or intimidating behaviour.
They will also apply to people who are obstructing or impeding someone entering a business, breaching the peace, begging, rough sleeping, or displaying behaviour indicating an attempt to inhabit a public place.
The orders will require someone to leave for a specified time – up to 24 hours – and distance determined by the officer.
When the order is issued, the person will be warned it is an offence to breach it, unless they have a reasonable excuse for being there.
The penalty for a breach would be a maximum fine of $2,000 or up to three months imprisonment.
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You might not have performed at Auckland’s Spark Arena or have had a film made about your journey reclaiming te reo Māori, but you probably can relate to the idea of taking a break “for a wee while” or having “a cup of tea and a lie down”.
Those were the quaint plans suggested by award-winning singer-songwriter Marlon Williams this week when he announced a break from public life. The news follows a big year for Williams, who released what is arguably the most consequential album of his career in 2025, his first in te reo Māori. A documentary about the album’s creation was also released.
In his statement announcing the unknown length of rest, Williams spoke of the toll his work took on him.
There’s no concrete answer as to when to give up or adjust a life goal, but staying stuck on something you’re struggling with can have a detrimental impact on your wellbeing, experts say.
Just under 35,000 students received some form of financial assistance under the student allowance scheme in the first quarter of last year. File photo.Tri Wiranto/Unsplash
International student Huda Jamali says studying in Palmerston North is a bit cheaper than in other parts of the country – but she was still surprised by how pricey it could be.
She says a non-catered spot in the university halls is about $230 a week. “I don’t recommend living in halls. I don’t think it’s worth the price for the halls I’ve seen here in Palmerston North.”
She is paying $270 for a room in a house while she finishes her animal science studies. “I think it’s worth it because it’s bigger and more comfortable.”
She said she had been particularly surprised by the cost of food. “Our groceries are very expensive as well. Fresh produce is crazy. It’s very expensive and it’s so hard to eat healthy just because of the expensive fresh produce.”
Darcy Nelson found studying in Dunedin very expensive, too. She said rent was “ridiculously expensive”, “especially considering what you’re getting for it. Rent in my second year was $205 and then rent in my third year was $220. It’s really crazy for what you’re paying for – it’s a room in a very, very cold mouldy house.”
She said she looked for work for a long time but was not able to get one. “It’s really difficult to get a job down there.”
She ended up borrowing more on her student loan to pay for living costs. “My parents were helping with rent in my second year because $300 [in student loan support] for rent, food, power… you can’t do that. One of my best friends who was in my house both years didn’t have any help from her parents, she got the full loan out and she was skimping by truly eating pasta just all the time. She couldn’t afford anything, it was crazy.
Nelson said she had a falling out with flatmates over the power bill because it was so hard to save money. “You just can’t because the house isn’t properly insulated, you’ve got broken windows, you’ve got a dryer going… I think the biggest power bill between seven girls got to $900.”
Rent went up every year, she said.
“Especially on Castle St in Dunedin. The rent goes up by $15 a year, or $20. I know the girls who moved into our house this year are paying $250 or $260 a week each compared to our $220.”
She has moved back to Auckland to be able to live with her parents and work while she studies.
“I did two years there and two years is enough. I’ve got a couple of papers to complete and I’ll do it from Auckland, save my cash, save my money.”
Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said the cost of being a student had increased significantly.
“In 2005, the average student could just about make it work. A weekly student allowance of $160 against essential costs of $140 left a slim $20 buffer. Not comfortable, but survivable. Rent was $86, food $42, electricity $11. You could manage, especially if you had a part time job too.
“Fast forward to 2025 and that buffer has flipped into a deficit. Student support has risen 86 percent, but the cost of essentials has increased more – by 220 percent. Rent is now $193. Food $96. The $20 surplus is now an $8 weekly shortfall, before you’ve bought a textbook, caught a bus or bought a beer. You need over $300 a week just to live.”
Ministry of Social Development data shows that in the first quarter of last year, just under 35,000 students received some form of financial assistance under the student allowance scheme.
That was up 5.2 percent on the year before. On average, they received $1882 in payments in the quarter, which was down 3 percent.
The maximum after tax for a student under 24 living with parents was $277.72 a week. For those away from home it was $323.33.
How much people can get from the allowance depends on their own income and that of their partner, if they are over 24, and their parents’ income if they are under 24.
Someone under 24 whose parents’ joint earnings are more than $69,935.32 a year before tax will have the amount they can receive in the allowance reduced.
There is no student allowance available for them if their parents own over $127,701.81 and they live at home, or $137,187.86 if they do not.
Students who do not qualify for an allowance can borrow more money for living costs on top of their student loans but this has to be paid back.
They can borrow up to $323.43 a week, an amount that is adjusted with inflation each year.
Eaqub said Dunedin and Palmerston North rents were 60 percent of AUckland pries in 2015 but that had risen to now more than 80 percent.
University tuition fees were up 113 percent and polytech fees up 60 percent.
“To pay for tuition and living costs – I hope not for other things – the median student loan balance has increased from $10,000 in 2005 to $24,000 in 2023.”
He said it was also less clear that students were getting a payoff for their studies.
“Post GFC, between 2009-2014, graduate incomes held up even as more people entered tertiary education. Pre-Covid, income premiums started flattening, and post-pandemic, returns have become dispersed and uncertain, with 25-34 year olds facing declining returns and stiffer competition than the cohorts before them.
“A qualification still helps. But the field you study and the sector you enter now matter far more than whether you have a piece of paper at all.”
Earlier, RNZ reported data from Education Counts showed higher-level qualifications had traditionally brought earning benefits over a person’s working life.
It said wages would generally increase as people gained work experience, but higher levels of education seemed to mean that people’s income grew at a faster rate. Getting a degree gave more of a wage benefit to European workers than it did for other groups.
“For those with a Level 4-6 tertiary qualification, they’ve been around 10 percent more. Adults with no qualifications, on average, have received around 20 percent less in weekly income, and 12 percent less in hourly earnings, when compared to those with school qualifications only.”
For employed adults, the hourly earnings of those with a degree have been around 35 percent more than for those with school qualifications only.
But Eaqub said people were being asked to take on significant debt and live in weekly deficit with the increasing uncertain hope that their income would pay off on the other side.
“Some will make it work. Many will be squeezed in ways that shape their financial lives for decades. Delaying homeownership, limiting savings, starting careers already behind, or getting ahead because of parental support.”
Indexing student support to living costs would help, he said, as would redirecting KiwiSaver subsidies to young people at birth to help them build up an account to help with education costs.
The housing problem also needed to be addressed he said, and the student loan scheme reimagined.
“Income-contingent repayment already exists, which is good. But with balances now averaging $24,000 and incomes more volatile, could there be a case for repayment smoothing, such as repayment holidays, when income drops, or maybe bonded or time-limited debt forgiveness for fields with demonstrable public benefit – teaching, nursing, social work, – where forgiveness is earned only after verified service. “
He said young people now were being asked to take on debt, work a lot or rely on their parents. “We want our young people to have access to affordable and high quality education. They are the future of our country.”
While the world has focused on the atrocities in Gaza, Israel continues its support of illegal settlements, hostility and apartheid in the West Bank. Asia-Pacific specialist journalist Ben Bohane reports from Bethlehem for Michael West Media.
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ben Bohane
We are no more than 5 minutes out of Bethlehem on a crisp December morning when my Palestinian driver — let’s call him Ahmed — stops and points to a curl of smoke rising in the valley below, near Beit Jala.
“That’s a local restaurant the Israeli’s are burning since last night. They demand permits even when it is on family land. Israel then gives demolition orders, and no one can stop them.”
It’s the day before Christmas. I’m in the West Bank and Israel for a month to see the situation for myself, to try and understand how this comparatively small area continues to hijack history and our news agenda.
Photojournalist and producer Ben Bohane . . . “Israel has killed more journalists in the past three years than any other government in history.” Image: BB/MWM
The international Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) states 249 media personnel have been killed so far by Israel in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Israel and Iran since the Gaza war began.
Israel has killed more journalists in the past three years than any other government in history,
assassinating more than all media personnel killed in all the wars of the 20th century combined.
Israel has also now banned many reputable international NGOs from operating there. In late January, the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) finally acknowledged the death toll tally compiled by Palestinian health authorities as accurate, saying it believed 71,000 people had been killed so far — the death toll is now more than 72,000.
I’ve come to the other front, the West Bank, as Israeli settlers and the IDF establish new illegal settlements and make life difficult for Palestinians just trying to eke out a living.
While I’m there, Israel announces 19 new settlements, bringing to 69 the number of new settlements approved in the past few years.
They are slowly circling and strangling Palestinian towns by taking the high ground on hilltops, establishing their own roads to link up with other settlements, and destroying ancient olive groves which locals have long relied on for a meagre income.
Some of these trees are many hundreds of years old, and their desecration seems somehow symbolic of Israel’s attempts to change history and geography.
“We are trapped here”, says Ahmed. “Ever since October 7, Israel has closed off our access to Jerusalem and the rest of Israel. A lot of businesses are struggling to survive after 5 years of shutdowns — first it was covid, and then the Gaza war. No tourists for years.”
Unless they are employed in one of a handful of jobs, such as in hospitals or working for a Christian organisation, Palestinians in the West Bank can’t leave. Denied both Palestinian statehood and Israeli citizenship,
West Bank Palestinians are caught in a limbo where they can’t travel into wider Israel or beyond.
“Israel controls all our movements, all our water, and controls our petrol supply”, says Ahmed. “The only thing they don’t control is the air we breathe, and if they could control that, they would.”
Bulldozer warfare We visit a home recently bulldozed by settlers and fields uprooted because they were considered too close to the expanding nearby Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit. As locals lose access to their olive orchards, the only trees safe are those within towns or around their homes.
I see a young boy with a wheelbarrow full of seedlings and uprooted olive saplings moving towards a nearby field. Ahmed translates:
“The boy says that part of their resistance is to immediately replant the olive trees when settlers chop them down. The olives aren’t just an income for us, they are part of our identity on this land.”
We have to be quick when visiting the contested edges of these towns and fields, as settlers are always watching from nearby hilltops and the IDF can be on the scene in less than 5 minutes. On two occasions, my driver yells to get us back in the car for a hurried exit when he spots settlers driving down to intercept us.
Returning to Bethlehem, the annual Christmas parade is underway. Hundreds of Palestinian, Arab and Armenian Christians in uniforms march along roads leading to Manger Square in the heart of Bethlehem.
Palestinian Authority police guard the route and churches, including the Orthodox Basilica of the Nativity, first begun by Emperor Constantine’s Christian mother Saint Helena in the 4th century. Under this Byzantine church is a grotto where Jesus was supposedly born.
This is the first time in two years that Christmas celebrations, including a huge Christmas tree, have taken place. With few foreign tourists, shops in Bethlehem are happy to see many Muslim families from across the West Bank visiting with children to see Santa and the holy sites. It’s a peaceful time with Christian and Muslim families celebrating together.
I met Father Issa Thaljieh, a Palestinian (Greek Orthodox) priest overseeing the Basilica.
“Issa” is the Muslim name for Jesus. He says the number of Christians continues to dwindle, from 10 percent of the Palestinian population during the British mandate period 100 years ago, to around 1 percent today. Most live overseas now, with Israel incentivising their departure.
Apartheid One thing I hadn’t known until I came here is that Israelis are forbidden from entering any West Bank towns. At the entrance to many towns I visited, including Jericho and Bethlehem, are large road signs in red warning Israeli citizens not to enter.
Although usually framed as a security measure to prevent kidnapping, it has the additional impact of preventing ordinary Israelis and Palestinians from mixing together and stops Israelis from really understanding what is going on across the West Bank. It underlined the sense of apartheid, along with the long winding separation wall that snakes between Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the rest of the West Bank.
Always interested in art and graffiti as forms of resistance, I cruise a length of the wall, near two refugee camps inside Bethlehem and come across artist Banksy’s “Walled Off” hotel, which had only reopened the week before after 5 years of closure.
Upstairs is a gallery supporting local artists, downstairs a museum about the wall and “occupation”, along with a chintzy piano bar styled like a frontier saloon.
The hotel faces a section of the wall emblazoned with graffiti and promises “the worst views in the world”. The wall began construction substantially in 2002, runs for 810 kms and is Israel’s biggest infrastructure project. Banksy’s museum quotes the man put in charge of the build, Danny Tirza:
“The main thing the government told me in giving me the job was,
to include as many Israelis inside the fence and leave as many Palestinians outside as possible.
Down the road, a number of local stores have popped up selling cheap Banksy merch, and apparently, Banksy is fine with all the rip-offs.
Other days are spent visiting Jericho and Hebron with its shrine containing the tomb of Abraham, patriarch of all the monotheistic faiths.
It is a town often at flashpoint between Palestinians and hardcore Israeli settlers who have moved right into pockets of the town, protected by IDF soldiers. A day trip to Ramallah is aborted when my driver says that Israeli forces had entered that morning to destroy dozens of shops and shot two people.
“It’s too dangerous today to visit, and besides, it would take us 5 hours to get through the checkpoints instead of one hour as normal,” he says.
Every day across the West Bank, Palestinians must navigate security challenges, declining business and hungry families. Given the impunity with which Israel operates in Gaza, Palestinians across the West Bank are still standing their ground, but without much hope that the international community will stop Israel’s encroachment.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government wants to extinguish any hope of a two-state solution, but Palestinians will not cede their homes — or their olive trees — easily.
Ben Bohane is Vanuatu-based photojournalist and producer who has reported for global media for more than three decades on religion and war across the world, mainly in the Asia-Pacific region. His website. Republished with permission,
Roger Norman Fowler: 12 September 1948 – 21 February 2026
Roger Fowler, an activist legend of social justice solidarity movements from Bastion Point to resisting apartheid and racist rugby tours and freedom for Palestine, has died after a long illness. He was 77.
Described by some as a “true Tāne Toa”, his protest warrior courage and his commitment to a bicultural and cross-cultural vision for Aotearoa New Zealand, was perhaps best represented by his “Songs of Struggle and Solidarity” vinyl album launched last year.
The first of 14 tracks on the album produced by Banana Boat Records, was “We Are All Palestinians”, which has become an anthem for the Gaza solidarity movement for the past 124 weeks of protest against the Israeli genocide.
Roger Fowler and his wife, Dr Lyn Doherty, with whānau and friends at a community concert in his honour in November 2025. Image: Hone Fowler
Ironically, this was sung yet again by a group in Te Komititanga Square yesterday within hours of his death.
It was written by Fowler after the Viva Palestina solidarity convoy from London to Gaza in 2010.
Tigilau Ness and Roger Fowler at the launch of his album last September 2025. Ness recorded his version of “We Are All Palestinians” here. Image: APR
Fowler led the Kia Ora Gaza team of six Kiwis who drove three of 135 aid-packed ambulances – funded by New Zealand donations — into the besieged enclave. This was followed later by two other land convoys and three Gaza Freedom Flotillas.
In April 2026, a massive new siege-breaking Sumud Flotilla to Gaza with 100 boats and carrying some 1000 activists is being planned.
Gaza solidarity rallies In spite of failing health in recent months, Fowler was frequently seen at Gaza rallies, speaking and singing in his rousing voice.
Close comrade and friend, John Minto, co-chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA), paid tribute to his contribution in a statement today.
“Roger has been a legend of the solidarity movement for many decades as the founder and co-cordinator of Kia Ora Gaza which delivered aid to the besieged Gaza strip by land and by sea,” he said.
“He was a man of great integrity and character with passion for justice. He will remain a guiding light for the solidarity movement here.”
The Palestinian community presenting Roger Fowler an award at the launch of his album last September 2025. Image: APR
Co-chair Maher Nazzal presented Fowler an award for his contribution to Palestinian solidarity last September.
Another comrade, especially during Fowler’s activism in the 1960s and 1970s, Tony Fala, recalls his “dauntless courage, tireless optimism, boundless energy, and vast strategic capacity was profoundly inspiring.”
“Roger was one of the humblest and kindest people I have ever met. He could build coalitions and strengthen community bonds with ease. He sought what brought people together, not what kept them apart.
Belief in ordinary people “He believed in ordinary people and possessed a deep, instinctive understanding of justice. He was strong yet carried no ego.”
Fala praised Fowler’s commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to Te Ao Māori community life, describing him as a “born oral historian”.
“He gave selflessly to every cause he committed himself to and would move mountains to achieve victory for the struggles he served.”
“We are all Palestinians.” Video: Banana Boat Records
In the weeks before his death, he and his whanau were working hard to complete a history of the socialist Ponsonby People’s Union, “Struggle and Solidarity”, due to be published soon. Fowler met his future wife, Dr Lyn Doherty (Ngati Porou and Ngāpuhi), then while they were activists campaigning to stop landlords evicting tenants.
Activist author Dean Parker once described Fowler as “the Great Helmsman of the legendary Ponsonby People’s Union, brave hero of so many struggles”.
Fowler had lived for almost four decades in Mangere East, a multicultural quarter of South Auckland.
He was manager of the Mangere East Community Learning Centre and an executive member of Out of School Care Network.
The “Free Palestine” photo on the Roger Fowler album launched in September 2025. Image: Banana Boat Records
Impressive community tribute In 1999, he was a recipient of the Queen’s Service Medal for his “services to community” and the people of Mangere East paid an impressive tribute to him with a daytime concert last November.
One of his best remembered local campaigns was the community coalition in 2010 that saved Mangere East’s Postshop.
A one-time bus driver, Fowler strongly campaigned for public transport.
He was also involved with amateur theatre for several decades, including Auckland Light Opera, “The Aunties” children’s theatre and Manukau Performing Arts.
Fowler was a founding member of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign in the 1970s and he was part of the anti-apartheid movement for 15 years.
In 1969, along with a large group of activists — including Alan Robson, Pat Bolster and Graeme Whimp — he opened the first Resistance Bookshop in Queen Street and he was co-director for a time.
During his lifelong protests, he was arrested and jailed four times and with colleagues he set up a free prison visiting service in 1972 for Paremoremo and Waikeria.
The last track on Fowler’s album is titled “The Final Song” but his music will be long remembered as the hallmark of the life of an extraordinary community and political activist.
• Roger Fowler’s life will be celebrated at Ngā Tapuwae Community Centre, 255 Buckland Road, Mangere, 10-2pm, Wednesday, February 25.
Asia Pacific Report’s David Robie and Del Abcede with Roger Fowler in November 2025. Image: Tony Fala
Doug Allan has travelled the world filming wildlife, often with legendary nature documentarian Sir David Attenborough.
When the crew is observing a fight between predator and prey, he says, every effort is made to let nature take its course.
“It might be the best ending in the world for the animal to somehow escape, especially if you’ve built up empathy from the way it’s edited. But some animals eat other animals in order to make a living, and as such, you shouldn’t interfere… You are there as a privileged observer,” Allan tells RNZ’s Saturday Morning.
After getting a degree in marine biology, Allan was working as a deep-sea diver in the Antarctic when Sir David Attenborough turned up with a BBC film crew.
On the side, Allan had started taking still photos of the local wildlife and while giving Attenborough and his crew a tour of places to view animals, he got to see that they were “great fun.”
“They all took the job seriously, but at the same time, they had great respect for each other. No big egos involved. It was just so hopelessly romantic. I thought, boy, what a job. Who wouldn’t want to get into that profession?”
Although he’d never picked up a movie camera before, Allan thought it was something he could learn to do. The next time he went to the Antarctic as a diver, he took a movie camera, filmed some emperor penguins, and sold the footage to the BBC.
“That was it. I was off on a freelance full-time career as a wildlife cameraman.”
Of all the animals Allan has interacted with in the wild, he says the most exciting encounters have been with are polar bears – very clever although on the ice with them you are “potentially a prey item” – and beluga whales – who’ll swim close if you make yourself “acoustically interesting”.
Both polar bears and whales – as well as dogs and horses- are our fellow mammals, and when asked Allan names our warm-blooded vertebrate group his “favourite animal”.
While protecting ourselves and our fellow mammals against the effects of climate change will be an “uphill battle”, the 75-year-old says, we can all do “small random acts of kindness” to support the natural environment.
“We can do lots of acts of kindness, not necessarily random, but thoughtful acts of kindness for the planet. That comes down to choosing where you get your electricity from, making sure it’s a renewable supplier. Where is your money in the bank? Is it with an ethical bank, which doesn’t take your money and invest in fossil fuels? It can come down to what kind of car you own, where you go on holiday, a whole lot of things.”
Thanks to human effort, things are changing, Allan says, and predictions for temperature increase are much lower today than they were 10 years ago.
“The big change is the renewable transformation that’s happening around the world. That is having a big effect. And if we carry on doing that, then the damage will not be as bad as it might be if we did nothing.”
Doug Allan is currently taking his Life Behind The Lens tour around the South Island, giving talks in Glenorchy, Wānaka, Queenstown, Blenheim, Kaikōura, Dunedin, Christchurch and Te Anau.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Last week, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said Aotearoa’s immigration settings were “no way to treat our Pacific cousins”.
“All Pacific people want is a fair go, equivalent to what other nations are getting, and they’re not getting it,” he said outside Parliament.
While Peters’ comments were made in the context of the Pacific Justice petition, the concept of the Pacific as “family” has become a common rhetoric used by politicians and leaders across New Zealand.
In 2018, former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern spoke on such issues facing the Pacific.
“We are the Pacific too, and we are doing our best to stand with our family as they face these threats,” she said during a talk at the Paris Institute.
At the Pacific Islands Forum last year, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said: “This is the Pacific family and we prioritise the centrality of the Pacific Islands Forum.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the 2025 Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting . . . “This is the Pacific family.” Image: RNZ Pacific/Caleb Fotheringham
But is Aotearoa doing enough to live up to this “Pacific family” rhetoric in the face of daunting and life-changing threats, such as climate change, continues to reshape the region?
Discussions and comparisons continue to arise off the back of Australia’s Falepili Union Treaty, which saw the first group of Tuvaluan migrants relocate towards the end of 2025.
Australia’s implementation of the treaty has sparked criticism over whether New Zealand is failing its Pacific neighbours when it comes to climate-related migration.
‘Increasingly perilous situations’ For Pacific Islanders hoping to move to Aotearoa, there is a pathway.
Under the Pacific Access Category (PAC) ballot, 150 people from specifically Kiribati and 250 from Tuvalu — two of the most vulnerable nations at the forefront of climate impacts — can gain residency every year.
Applicants must pay $1385, pass health checks, meet English requirements, be under 45, and secure a job offer.
Dr Olivia Yates has spent years researching climate mobility from Kiribati and Tuvalu.
University student Olivia Yates at the Auckland march. Image: RNZ/Kate Gregan
She said the tension around climate mobility sits not in a lack of awareness, but in the design of the system itself.
“I think the main takeaway is that New Zealand’s current approach to climate mobility, or at least for the last five years — things are starting to change now — but initially — we do a lot of research, get a lot more information, and leave immigration systems as they are,” she said.
She said Pacific neighbours islands are facing “increasingly difficult” circumstances.
“Disasters are becoming more frequent … the access to food and to water is being challenged because of these creeping impacts of climate change. So as the New Zealand government takes one step forward, I feel like climate change is sort of a step ahead of us,” Dr Yates said.
“It sounds very doom and gloom, but the other thing I would say is that our Pacific neighbours, fundamentally and primarily, want to stay in place. Nobody wants to have to leave.”
In the meantime, people are moving, often through pathways never intended to respond to climate pressure.
“People are using these laws to come to the country and their laws that were not really set up to address climate change and the movement of people in response to climate change,” Dr Yates said.
“They’re primarily economically motivated, and so this creates a whole bunch of issues that are the downstream consequence of using a system for something that is not what it was designed for.”
She said that PAC ballot, created in 2001, has effectively become “the de facto pathway for people from Kiribati and Tuvalu to move here for reasons related to climate change”.
While many migrants cite work, family or opportunity as the primary motivations, these distinctions are becoming blurred.
“It’s kind of becoming increasingly difficult to separate climate change drivers from these factors,” Dr Yates explained.
NZ’s immigration laws are being used in a way that they were not designed for, says Dr Yates. Image: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
And the consequences can be significant. When visas hinge on employment and strict eligibility criteria, families can find themselves vulnerable if those circumstances shift.
“Our current immigration laws are being used in a way that they weren’t designed for, and this is having really negative consequences on people, specifically from Kiribati and Tuvalu,” she said.
“On the other side of that, those that wish to stay, whether because they choose to or because they can’t afford to leave, that visas aren’t available to them, and they start to face increasingly perilous situations that breach their rights.”
Lacking a plan Kiribati community leader Kinaua Ewels, who works closely with Pacific migrants settling in Aotearoa, said the system’s rigidity has left many feeling excluded and unsupported.
She does not believe New Zealand is set up to deal with the realities of climate migration
“I’m hoping the New Zealand government could help the people who are able to move on their own, using their own money, but when they get here, they can actually access work opportunities,” she said.
Kinaua Ewels . . . the PAC still feels restrictive. Image: mpp.govt.nz
Ewels said the PAC still feels restrictive, and lacks a plan to help new arrivals adapt or secure employment.
“They pressure them to look for their own job. There’s no plan for the government to help them settle very easily, to run away from climate change and their life situations back on the island,” Ewels said.
“More can be done.”
According to Ewels, the families who do arrive with the hopes of safety and stability, end up struggling to navigate basic systems, such as healthcare and employment, and get no formal support.
“It’s very restricted in the way that it’s not supportive to the people from the Pacific Islands,” she said.
NZ govt ‘not ready to bring climate refugees’
Ewels said that while New Zealand spoke of the Pacific as “family,” those words continued ringing hollow for communities who saw little practical support.
“They use the family name, which is a very meaningful and deep word back home, but the process is not done yet,” she said.
“In reality, the government is not actually ready to bring people over here in terms of climate refugees or people needing to move because of climate change.”
Ewels said if New Zealand truly viewed the Pacific as family, that connection would extend itself into some meaningful collaboration with Pacific community leaders here in Aotearoa, who could help them navigate the complexities of this situation.
“If the government talks about family, they should work with us, the community leaders, so we can help them at least make sure people are warmly welcomed and supported when they come here,” Ewels said.
Dr Yates said the government was making efforts, but warned the the pace of policy was struggling to keep up with the pace of change happening in the world today.
“I would say that the New Zealand government is trying. But as the government takes one step forward, climate change is starting to outpace us.”
Pacific sea levels have risen by as much as 15cm over the past three decades.
There are predictions that around 50,000 Pacific people across the region could lose their homes each year as the climate crisis reshapes their environments.
In the past decade, one in 10 people from Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu have already migrated.
Kiribati dancers performing at the opening ceremony of the Wellington Pasifika Festival. Image: RNZ Pacific/Tiana Haxton
Kiribati community leader Charles Kiata told RNZ Pacific in October last year that life on the Micronesian island nation was becoming increasingly difficult, as it was being hit by severe storms, with higher temperatures and drought.
“Every part of life, food, shelter, health, is being affected and what hurts the most is that our people feel trapped. They love their home, but their home is slowly disappearing,” Kiata said at the time.
Crops are dying and fresh drinking water is becoming increasingly scarce for the island nation.
Kiata said Kiribati overstayers in New Zealand were anxious they would be sent back home.
“Deporting them back to flooded lands or places with no clean water like Kiribati is not only cruel but it also goes against our shared Pacific values.”
In 2020, Kiribati man Ioane Teitiota took New Zealand to the United Nations Human Rights Committee after his refugee claim, based on sea-level rise, was rejected.
The committee did find his deportation lawful, although ruled that governments must consider the human rights impacts of climate change when assessing deportations.
The term “climate refugee” remains unrecognised in binding international law. It is a term Dr Yates has previously told RNZ was always flawed.
“Climate change is this unique phenomenon because what is forcing people out of their countries comes from elsewhere,” she said.
“At face value, the idea of being a refugee didn’t fit.”
Many communities suffering at the hands of climate change do not want to leave their home, their culture, their land, their community.
Dr Yates said the term “climate mobility” was a better fit — describing it as a spectrum that recognises the desire for communities to have options.
Australia’s Falepili Treaty v NZ’s climate pathways In late 2025, the first Tuvaluans began relocating to Australia under the Falepili Union, a bilateral treaty signed with Tuvalu in 2023.
The agreement creates a new permanent visa for up to 280 Tuvaluans each year, allocated by ballot. Applicants do not need a job offer, there is no age cap, nor disability exclusion.
The treaty has led debate on online platforms around why New Zealand does not offer a similar pathway.
Australia and Tuvalu signing the Falepili Union Treaty in Rarotonga in 2023. Image: Twitter.com/@PatConroy1/RNZ
International law expert Professor Jane McAdam is cautious against simplistic comparisons between New Zealand and Australia.
“It has been mislabelled in a lot of the international media as a climate refugee visa when it’s nothing of the sort,” Prof McAdam said.
“There’s often nothing in this visa that requires you to show that you’re concerned about the impacts of climate change in the future,” she said.
Professor McAdam pointed out that New Zealand had never been viewed as “totally useless” in climate-related migration of Pacific peoples.
“Historically, New Zealand has been seen as leading the way when it comes to providing pathways for people in the Pacific to move,” she said, noting the PAC visa and labour mobility schemes as examples.
“New Zealand has been leading the way globally in recognising how existing international refugee law and human rights work,” she added.
That includes influential tribunal decisions examining how climate impacts intersect with refugee and human rights law, even where claims ultimately failed.
New Zealand has been seen as leading the way when it comes to providing pathways for people in the Pacific to move, says Professor McAdams. Image: RNZ Pacific
In 2023, Pacific leaders endorsed the Pacific Regional Framework on Climate Mobility, the first regional document to formally acknowledge climate-related migration and commit states to cooperate on safe and dignified pathways.
Dr Yates said New Zealand was “furiously involved” in shaping the framework.
“The framework is the first time, put down on paper, that people are migrating because of climate-related reasons,” she said.
However, the document is non-binding.
“It means our government is ready to take this seriously. But I wouldn’t say they are taking this seriously, yet.”
She added a dedicated, rights-based climate mobility visa is needed that can account for a wide-range of people, including those with disabilities and others disproportionately affected.
RNZ Pacific approached the Immigration Minister Erica Stanford’s office for comment on whether New Zealand immigration law does explicitly recognise climate change or climate-induced displacement as grounds for special protection or a dedicated visa category.
We were advised Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was the appropriate person to comment on the issue.
However, a spokesperson for Peters told RNZ Pacific the specific issue “would be a question for the Minister of Immigration, or the Climate Change Minister”.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The government has confirmed it will give police powers to issue move-on notices.Nick Monro
The government insists move-on orders are just one tool in the toolkit, as it seeks to curb anti-social behaviour and rough sleeping in city and town centres across New Zealand.
Opposition parties have slammed the proposal, however, describing it as “cruel” and “despicable.”
The government has confirmed it will give police powers to issue move-on notices.
The notices will apply for disorderly or threatening behaviour, as well as for begging or rough sleeping.
It will be left to the individual officer to decide exactly how long the order lasts, with a limit of 24 hours, the distance the person needs to move away from, and what support the person needs, if any.
Officers will have to make it clear to the individual that a breach will be an offence, with maximum penalties of fines up to $2000, or up to three months imprisonment.
At the announcement, justice minister Paul Goldsmith insisted the government was not criminalising homelessness.
“What we’re criminalising is a refusal to follow a move-on order,” he said.
Justice minister Paul Goldsmith.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Goldsmith said a ‘reasonable distance’ would mean different things in different parts of the country, and denied it would simply shift the problem elsewhere.
“If you’re told to move on and you go up the road and you start doing the same behaviours again, well then you’ll be subject to another move-on order until the message gets through that society doesn’t tolerate these activities.”
Police minister Mark Mitchell said police use discretion “thousands of times a week,” and there was a range of options available to them.
He said the move-on orders filled a “gap” in the police response.
Police minister Mark Mitchell.RNZ / Mark Papalii
“We’ve got something that will formalise it, that will actually hopefully get them engaging with those services and actually fix those issues, and at the same time we won’t have people living on our streets. I don’t think any fair-minded Kiwi in our country wants to see people out living on our streets.”
Mitchell said the “default setting” would be to work with someone, to try and find whether the solution was a health, mental health, or housing response.
But some simply did not want to listen to police.
“Many of the people that choose to come in and set up and live on the streets and cause the social problems that we see are also vulnerable themselves.”
Minister for Auckland Simeon Brown said he had met with non-government organisations and government agencies across Auckland, as well as the council, to see what actions could be taken to improve safety.
Welcomed by business
Auckland’s central business association Heart of the City had lobbied for social and economic needs to be addressed, and while there had been improvements, anti-social behaviour continued to cause concern.
Its chief executive Viv Beck said she was pleased the government had “listened” in terms of bringing in additional police, a new downtown police station, a housing and outreach ‘action plan,’ and now the move-on orders.
Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck.Supplied / HOTC
Beck said Auckland was an “aspirational city,” which meant ensuring people were housed and looked after.
“This is another, if you like, another tool in the kit to be able to ensure that we are really ready to capitalise on now, after ten years of disruption for a whole variety of reasons, that our city can actually grow, we can continue to attract investment, and that we’re aspirational so people are looked after if they’re in need but that it’s a really safe, welcoming place for everyone.”
Ian Wright, property manager of the Queen’s Arcade in downtown Auckland, said there was no use creating a “beautiful place” if it was unsafe outside.
He said the council and Heart of the City had started to bring in guards, and the government had allowed for more police on the beat, which had made a difference.
“We’re not where we need to be. But I think this is very much another key tool in the toolbox that will greatly facilitate the change process and just put the icing on the cake to where we’ve been,” he said.
Wright said it was mostly “recidivist offenders” engaging in intimidation, harassment, and general unsocial behaviour.
“We had a gentleman that was around living on the street on Commerce Street, around the corner. He was there for months, and he wouldn’t accept help, but now he’s accepted help, and he’s obviously been taken back into care and he’s getting the care he needs.
“So I don’t see it as displacement of the problem. That’s not a solution. It’s very much about holding people to account, drawing the line in the sand, and saying we’ve actually got a right to be here too. The people, the visitors, we want it to be safe and secure. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
‘Punch-down politics’ – opposition
Labour was concerned the policy would not just be a tool, but the go-to tool.
Deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni said the policy was cruel.
“This is another instance of the government oversimplifying a problem, trying to sweep it under the carpet, acting like it’s just a law and order issue, when the reality is it’s so much more complex than that,” she said.
Labour deputy leader Carmel SepuloniRNZ / Angus Dreaver
“The government need to be investing in mental health. They need to be building the homes that New Zealanders need. They need to be investing in addiction services. They need to be supporting and resourcing the social and health services that work with so many of the people that we’re seeing on our streets. They’re not doing any of that. Instead, they’re saying that they’re going to criminalise these people and then effectively saying that it will become the police’s responsibility.”
Goldsmith said the government had put additional resources into housing, with 300 extra spots for homeless people, and not all of them were being taken up.
The move-on orders, he said, were to deal with those who refused to take up that extra help.
Green Party co-leader and Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick, said the policy was some of the most “despicable, bottom of the barrel, punch-down politics” she had seen from the government.
“You are not solving a problem if you are simply trying to move it out of sight and out of mind,” she said.
Green Party co-leader and Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick.RNZ / Reece Baker
Frontline police she had spoken to had made it “pretty abundantly clear” they did not have the resources to solve the issues either.
“If the government wants to deal with the issue of homelessness, I have a very clear solution for them: provide housing and the necessary wrap-around support for people to be able to stay in that housing. Unfortunately, the government has decided to do the complete opposite of that, shredding the necessary resources for our communities to thrive.”
Advocate fears ‘street-to-prison pipeline’
Aaron Hendry, director of youth development organisation Kick Back, was particularly concerned the orders could be used on people as young as 14.
His organisation worked with tamariki as young as 9 who were experiencing homelessness, often coming from complex situations where their whole family needed support.
“The idea that police will just be moving children on without intensively providing support to these kids is really concerning,” he said.
“We are concerned around what is looking like a really clear street-to-prison pipeline, with the lack of resources invested to ensure that people are looked after.”
He said social service providers had made it clear to ministers that the resources were not there, and that the move-on orders would not solve the problem and could cause more harm.
“Whānau that are sleeping rough in the city centre are often reaching out to Work and Income for support, being denied support, and as a result are ending up on our streets. That’s a real clear decision the government’s making to criminalise whānau for experiencing homelessness, as a consequence of the decisions they have made to restrict access to shelter and support.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
The place of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, former prince and brother of the king, in the line of succession to the British throne appears to be under threat in the United Kingdom.
Currently, Mountbatten-Windsor is eighth in line (after the families of princes William and Harry) to the Crowns of the United Kingdom and Australia. This makes it extremely unlikely he would ever become monarch, but his removal is more a symbolic act of repudiation.
Is it possible to remove him? The short answer is yes – but it would most likely be a time-consuming process involving many parliaments passing legislation.
Does the same line of succession apply to the British and Australian Crowns?
At the time of Australia’s federation in 1901, the British Crown was described as “one and indivisible”. Queen Victoria exercised constitutional powers over all her colonies, acting on the advice of British ministers.
That changed after the first world war, due to a series of Imperial Conferences, with the self-governing “dominions” (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Free State and Newfoundland) having separate Crowns by 1930. This meant the Australian prime minister could advise the monarch about the appointment of the governor-general of Australia and other federal (but not state) Australian matters.
However, the rules of succession to these separate Crowns remained the same. They are a hotch-potch of English laws, including common law rules of inheritance and statutes, such as the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701.
These laws became part of Australian law in the 18th century, but for a long time Australian parliaments had no power to alter them. This changed in 1931 with the enactment of the Statute of Westminster. It gave the dominions power to repeal or alter British laws that applied in their country.
However, recognising this could cause havoc in relation to succession to the Crown, a clause was included in the preamble to the statute, making it a convention that “any alteration in the law touching the Succession to the Throne” shall require the assent of the parliaments of all of the dominions and the United Kingdom. Section 4 of the statute continued the power of the UK parliament to legislate for a dominion, but only if it gave its request and consent.
In 1936, when King Edward VIII abdicated, the UK parliament enacted a statute to alter the rules of succession to the throne, to exclude any children he might have. Australia assented to the British parliament extending its law so it applied to Australia too.
That option is no longer available since the enactment of section 1 of the Australia Act 1986. It says that no act of the UK parliament shall extend as part of the law of the Commonwealth, or a state or territory. Any changes made to the operation of the laws of succession to the Crown of Australia must be made in Australia.
How could Australia change the law of succession?
When the Commonwealth Constitution was enacted, the Crown was still “one and indivisible”. This meant no one inserted a section giving the Commonwealth parliament power to make laws about succession to the Crown. However, the framers of the Constitution were clever enough to insert a mechanism to deal with such unanticipated developments.
Section 51(xxxviii) of the Constitution says the Commonwealth parliament may exercise a power, at the request or with the concurrence of all the states directly concerned, which only the UK parliament could have exercised at the time of federation. This means the Commonwealth and state parliaments can cooperate to change the rules of succession to the Crown of Australia.
This issue arose in 2011, when the various realms (being countries that retained Queen Elizabeth II as head of state) agreed to change the rules of succession so that males would no longer be given preference over females, and heirs would no longer be disqualified for marrying a Catholic.
The UK parliament enacted the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 to give legal effect to this change. However, it delayed commencing the act until other realms had enacted their changes too. The British act only made the change with respect to the Crown of the United Kingdom.
The 2013 changes to the line of succession mean that Princess Charlotte is now third in line to the British throne.Dave Shopland/AP/AAP
Some realms accepted they needed to change the law in relation to their own Crown. Others concluded they didn’t need to act, because their Constitution makes their sovereign the same person who is king or queen of the United Kingdom. Legislation was ultimately enacted in Australia, Barbados, Canada, New Zealand, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
In Australia, each state enacted the Succession to the Crown Act 2015. The Australian process took a long time, due to different legislative priorities and sitting periods, and the intervention of state election periods.
Australia was the last to enact its law, after which the alteration in succession was brought into effect simultaneously across all the realms.
How would the process operate today?
If it were proposed to remove Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession today, the UK government would probably first seek the agreement of all the realms. While not legally necessary, it is important if a shared monarch is to be retained for all realms to be consulted.
The UK parliament would then prepare its own bill, providing a template for other jurisdictions. This means the changes are uniform across the realms. The bill would probably also specify whether Mountbatten-Windsor’s exclusion affects his heirs, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and their children. Under the old law, a person who married a Catholic was treated as “dead” for the purposes of succession, so that their exclusion from the succession did not affect the hereditary position of their heirs. The same approach might be taken in relation to the exclusion of Mountbatten-Windsor.
The same parliaments that enacted laws in relation to the last change of succession (apart from Barbados, which is now a republic), would also need to enact an equivalent law, if they wish to maintain symmetry in such rules across the realms. Putting such a bill before a parliament runs the risk that other issues will be raised, opening broader questions concerning the role of the monarchy in different realms.
Could Australia make such a change on its own?
While Australia could unilaterally enact a law to exclude Mountbatten–Windsor from succession to the Crown of Australia, it is unlikely it would do so. There are two reasons for this.
First, it involves a lot of legislative hassle, getting seven parliaments to enact a law that will probably have no substantive effect, given how far Mountbatten-Windsor is down the line of succession.
Second, covering clause 2 of the Commonwealth Constitution says that references to “the Queen” in the Constitution shall “extend to Her Majesty’s heirs and successors in the sovereignty of the United Kingdom”.
There is considerable disagreement about whether this is just an interpretative provision about updating references, or whether it has a substantive effect.
Keeping Australia’s rules of succession in sync with those of the United Kingdom avoids opening that potential Pandora’s box.
A teacher who was experiencing a manic episode of bipolar disorder accessed pornography at school, swore at students and made inappropriate comments to other staff members.
The man had only been teaching in New Zealand for a week, and had told the school about his condition, but had little support and ended up in hospital under a compulsory treatment order after his mental health deteriorated significantly.
The Teaching Council then opted to charge him for serious misconduct, despite acknowledging that the incidents occurred because he was seriously mentally unwell.
The man wasn’t provided any training, had no local family or medical support and had told the school’s principal about his disorder before he started teaching there.
After the series of incidents, the school made a referral to the Teaching Council, which then opted to press charges of serious misconduct against the man, who had returned to his home country and was no longer teaching in New Zealand.
According to a ruling by the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal made last year but only released this week, the teacher was trained overseas and arrived in New Zealand in March 2023.
Because of delays with his visa he’d only been in the country five days before he started teaching, and had no formal training in the New Zealand education system.
The teacher had a history of Bipolar Affective Disorder and received regular treatment overseas, including hospitalisation. He disclosed this to the principal of the school where he was to be working.
However, he did not have appropriate accommodation or a psychiatric care plan in place to manage his bipolar condition and while he was still taking his prescribed mood stabiliser on a daily basis, he did not augment this with antipsychotic medication to appropriately manage the heightened stress of transitioning to a new country.
Over seven days of teaching at the new school, his mental health deteriorated, and there were a series of incidents that led to the Teaching Council charging him for misconduct.
According to the summary of facts, the teacher was found drinking beer on school grounds, swore at students, made inappropriate comments about a student’s mother, and similar comments to two female teachers, as well as sharing information about his personal life that made staff feel uncomfortable.
The man also made comments about violence as well as other homophobic comments, removed his shirt to show people his back tattoo and accessed pornography on his personal cellphone using his school account, during school hours.
At the instigation of school staff, the teacher was assessed by the Mental Health Crisis Assessment Team and underwent a period of inpatient treatment under a compulsory treatment order.
The school filed a report to the Teaching Council and subsequently dismissed the man, who has since returned overseas.
‘Overbearing, aggressive and reckless’
The teacher admitted the charges against him but noted that the “homophobic comments do not reflect his views on the LGBT community when he is stable”.
He also said that while he had accessed pornography at school, he’d done so inadvertently when he opened his internet browser for the first time during the day.
A report was prepared by a clinical psychologist for the Teaching Council, which found that the man was insightful about what factors contributed to his manic episode, and that he were to work in teaching again he would need appropriate therapeutic support.
A Complaints Assessment Committee appointed by the Teaching Council to lay charges against the teacher before the tribunal said that his behaviour exhibited a pattern that was “overbearing, aggressive and reckless” and met the criteria for sexual misconduct.
The committee said that the swearing at students, drinking alcohol in front of them and viewing pornography at school could have had an impact on student wellbeing.
Overall, the committee said that the teacher had failed to manage his disorder and had “a tendency to act aggressively, inappropriately and impulsively towards a student and staff”.
The tribunal found that the teacher was guilty of serious misconduct, but noted that the incidents occurred in the context of his deteriorating mental health.
“The tribunal does not have the evidence or the expertise to determine whether the respondent was aware that he was about to experience a manic episode or the extent to which he then was competent to control his disinhibited behaviour,” the tribunal said.
“Fundamentally, managing personal factors including health issues is necessary to show due regard for maintaining professional relationships with students and working respectfully alongside colleagues.”
The tribunal ordered that the teacher be censured, and if he returns to teach in New Zealand must tell any prospective employer about the finding against him. He was also ordered to pay $6500 in legal costs.
In a statement to NZME, a spokesperson for the Teaching Council said the teacher was granted a provisional practising certificate, which meant he would have been mentored for two years before becoming fully registered.
“A disclosure of a mental health condition such as bipolar disorder does not automatically prevent someone from being registered or certificated,” the spokesperson said.
“The key consideration in the decision-making is whether the diagnosis impacts a person’s ability to teach safely and effectively. Each case is assessed individually, with careful consideration given to fitness to teach and the safety and wellbeing of learners.”
Under the current requirements for teachers to become registered, applicants must declare their commitment to the code and standards and confirm they are physically and mentally able to carry out a teaching role safely and satisfactorily.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
