Source: New Zealand Police
Mount Smart Road, Onehunga, is closed following a crash that has brought down power lines.
The single vehicle crash was reported to Police at 5.15am.
There are no injuries.
Crews are onsite repairing the lines.
Cordons are in place between Arapuni Ave and Curzon Street.
Motorists should avoid the area and expect delays while emergency services work at the scene.
ENDS.
Amanda Wieneke/NZ Police
Source: Radio New Zealand
An example of the Education Review Office’s new reports about schools which it will introduce in April. Education Review Office
A group of Auckland principals say new reports which rate schools performance are unfair on those in poorer areas, and are a one size fits all model.
The Education Review Office recently revealed a colour-coded, four point scale for its reports which would start from term two this year, saying it would be easier for families to understand.
An example of the new reports. Supplied
Principal at Pakuranga’s Edgewater College, Louise Addison said ERO’s new style of reports would not give an accurate picture of learning at her school.
“We think our families deserve information that tells the real story about their school and not some colour-coded traffic lights that we think will unfairly judge communities.”
Under the new-look reports, schools would be graded as excelling, doing well, working towards or requiring improvement across 14 different areas, including achievement, attendance and teaching.
Another example of the new reports. Supplied
Addison said schools like hers faced challenges which were out of their control but influenced achievement and attendance.
“Housing, income, health, especially in the current economic climate. I think our families are doing it incredibly tough and those circumstances are not a reflection of the quality of teaching or the leadership that’s happening in their local school.”
Addison was part of a group of ten principals from lower socio-economic schools who wrote to the Education Minister and the Education Review Office raising significant concerns about the new reports.
The letter said the reports were already being promoted online by parents as a tool for choosing “good or bad” schools.
Principal of Papakura High School Simon Craggs, who also signed the letter, said schools like his would be unfairly judged.
“When parents go to look at the report for Papakura High School, and they see attendance, achievement are low – then that’s going to unfairly label us. When we might actually be actually adding massive value to our students compared to another school who adds very little value but has a higher baseline of achievement.”
Chief review officer at ERO Ruth Shinoda said the changes were a response to concerns from parents that its reports were too difficult to understand.
She disagreed the new versions were oversimplified, pointing out there were 14 different categories that schools were judged on.
“What they’re really good at, what they’re working on, and setting out really clearly why. So we’re thinking we’re providing clear information and that’s what parents and schools have told us, but not bringing it together in the oversimplification of a single judgement.”
ERO had created separate categories for achievement and progress so that schools with unique challenges were recognised, Shinoda said.
“So it’s hard for them to get to high achievement, but they show great progress – now our reports will say that school’s got excelling progress, it’s got excelling teaching, excelling curriculum, great leadership… recognising that some schools definitely have more challenging circumstances.”
The ten principals wanted the term two rollout of the new reports to be paused and an urgent review carried out.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Defence Minister Judith Collins. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
A briefing shows former Defence Minister Judith Collins met US defence technology powerhouse Palantir in February on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to talk about an ongoing “partnership”.
Palantir had become the go-to tech company for the Pentagon and its AI technology had been key for targeting missiles in the war in Iran.
But the government here on Wednesday said the NZ Defence Force had “no existing plans” to use the company’s emerging technologies.
Collins’ meeting was revealed in a one-page briefing released under the Official Information Act to AUT law lecturer Dr Marco de Jong.
Collins met Palantir’s international president Laurence Lee, a former senior official in the UK’s defence and intelligence agencies.
The meeting on 13 February was an “informal discussion”, her office told RNZ on Wednesday.
The briefing to her ahead of the meeting suggested two “key messages” from Collins – who is also space and spy agency minister – to Lee.
The first was blanked out while the second said: “I acknowledge the importance of an ongoing effective partnership.
“Do you see any upcoming opportunities of interest for New Zealand in new technologies and emerging capabilities in this sector.” [sic]
Several paragraphs of ‘background’ were blanked out.
Collins’ office passed questions about the partnership with Palantir on to Chris Penk who was taking over her portfolios soon. She did not address what if any “opportunities” she discussed with Lee.
Penk on Wednesday told RNZ, “The New Zealand Defence Force has no existing plans to use Palantir in the emerging technologies space.
“The NZDF uses Palantir as an analytics platform to aid with planning. The Government’s ongoing partnership with Palantir is led by the GCSB.”
Emerging technologies featured in the Defence Capability Plan to spend $12 billion by 2029.
The Palantir meeting did not appear in Collins’ ministerial diary because individual meetings overseas often changed so were not recorded, her office said.
A prototype of Palantir’s AI-powered truck for smart targeting, delivered under a $300m contract to the Pentagon. Palantir
The US and Israel launched surprise airstrikes on Iran on 28 February.
Many of the thousands of targets hit were selected from a list produced by Palantir’s technology called Maven “after it analyzed information from drones, satellite imagery and other sources”, the New York Times reported.
On 21 March, Reuters reported that Maven was being adopted by the Pentagon as a “core US military system”.
Another report a few days ago by Defense Scoop said Maven would become the “cornerstone” of a fused network of battlefield sensors and weapons cross air, land, sea and space.
The network was called Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control or CJADC2, where “Combined” stands for US partners and allies. The NZ Defence Force had been helping build the network.
For instance, the NZDF had been helping plan the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise, RIMPAC 2026, where tech would be tested under Project Overmatch, the US navy’s core contribution to CJADC2, a navy report said.
At Munich, Collins also met with cloud computing giants Amazon Web Services (AWS) and with German multinational SAP, a separate 80-page briefing showed.
It said SAP’s latest “suite” of defence and security products “represents a timely and essential upgrade for the NZDF that will improve our organisational readiness and interoperability”.
It also said public agencies were increasingly using Amazon – they spent $16 million with it last year – and though the NZDF’s partner was Microsoft, “this does not preclude the use of other suppliers, including AWS”.
Collins met with another Pentagon favourite, drone-and-software-maker Anduril, last July as Defence began work on its new capability plan. Drones were key to it, however defence leaders told MPs recently that most vital in future would be the data-synthesising software behind defensive and offensive weaponry.
Last month the Pentagon consolidated its AI projects with Anduril into a 10-year contract worth up to $34b.
Palantir’s partnership with the US government has been widely reported for years, especially since the firm co-founded in 2004 by NZ citizen Peter Thiel – who helped bring vice president JD Vance to power – in 2017 turned its powerful surveillance technologies to data crunching for the Pentagon.
Much less information was publicly available about the NZ-Palantir partnership. It was reported in 2018 the US firm got a contract in 2012 with the Defence Force covering software, hardware and training 100 staff. Its hardware was still in use by NZDF in 2024, an annual review showed. During Covid, Palantir pitched its pandemic-tracking software to the Ministry of Health.
The defence ministry last month told de Jong its strategic leadership team had not had any meetings in the last year with Palantir, or with Anduril, or with other major defence contractors L3 Harris and Hirtenberger, or with NZ drone maker Syos.
A view of the Palantir building is seen in 2026, in Davos, Switzerland. AFP / LAURENT HOU
Maven was central to Palantir’s fortunes and the firm and the Pentagon liked to show off online what it could do, outmatching the work of thousands of military analysts.
With NATO last year also acquiring the platform, critics have voiced fears the speed and scale of its target analysis would take the place of critical thinking.
Palantir said in 2024 that Maven provided the cloud infrastructure, software capabilities and AI that powered some CJADC2 initiatives.
The NZDF takes part in experiments and testing run in parallel by the US navy, army and air force’s CJADC2 projects.
New Zealand and its Five Eyes intelligence partners signed up 18 months ago to the US navy’s Project Overmatch.
Overmatch had been setting up a new US-based Cooperative Project Office that NZ personnel were expected to help man, alongside a “coalition lab” for testing shared tech, the navy reported.
“The coalition network enables resilient communication and network connectivity amongst the ‘Five Eyes’ (FVEY) in a distributed environment to close kill-chains and enable long-range fires,” it said.
The US Marines recently set up their own CJADC2 project, Project Dynamis.
The NZDF was embracing emerging tech underwritten by a much expanded budget at the same time its core partners Australia, the UK and the US had streamlined sharing military tech between themselves, and as US President Donald Trump had been issuing directives to speed up arms transfers and trade under ‘America First’ policies.
Many militaries were stressing the need for speed like never before.
Defence’s annual review to Parliament last month said, “There was a need to move to a different ‘risk appetite’ to keep up with quickly evolving technology, placing a higher value on speed of delivery” even if this involved a “fast fail, rather than be slow to act and left behind”.
The NZDF had $26m set aside to boost this including adding to its badly depleted workforce.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
A long-promised project to shift Stewart Island to solar power could be underway within months and operational by Christmas, officials say.
Rakiura’s 480 residents currently rely entirely on diesel for power generation, and are bracing for a steep rise in prices due to the conflict in the Middle East.
Southland Mayor Rob Scott said officials were looking at ways to speed up progress on the planned solar farm, which secured a $15 million government loan last year.
Stewart Island Rakiura is fully reliant on diesel to keep the power on. RNZ / Mark Papalii
The council was about to apply for consent and, under the Resource Management Act (RMA), was seeking to classify the project as emergency works to be carried out in exceptional circumstances, he said.
“This is certainly an exceptional circumstance … so we’re currently exploring Section 330 of the RMA, which would enable us to get started while going through the consenting process,” he said.
The aim was to begin construction in June, and it could not happen soon enough, as far as Scott was concerned.
The solar farm would reduce diesel consumption for electricity by about 75 percent, he said.
“I guess the project’s kind of proven its value now. One of the reasons why we’ve done it is not just to address the high power prices that residents on the island were already paying, but to take out some of this vulnerability, the susceptibility to high diesel prices which we’re experiencing right now,” he said.
Sharon Ross RNZ / Mark Papalii
Long time resident Sharon Ross said she was setting aside cash in preparation for this winter’s power price hikes – and she dreaded finding out just how much of an impact global fuel price surges would have.
In a normal year, her household spent between $500 – $800 per month on electricity, she said.
Ross, who is also the co-owner of the island’s only petrol station, said fuel at the pump had gone well over the $4-a-litre mark.
“We are expecting this winter is going to be a lot harder than other winters have been for us,” she said.
Southland District councillor Jon Spraggon. RNZ / Mark Papalii
Southland District councillor Jon Spraggon, from the Rakiura ward, said the council-owned power station had issued a warning to residents to conserve electricity where they could.
“It’s worth noting the price of diesel for the council for the power supply went up 45 percent in the last week, so that’s going to have to be passed on somehow,” he said.
There were limitations on how quickly the council could raise the price, but residents could expect a few “short steps” up in their power bills, he said.
“There’s no way we can hold the power price down, and people are going to have to look at the amount of power that they actually use.”
Fuel at the pump has gone well over the $4-a-litre mark. RNZ / Mark Papalii
Spraggon said he was optimistic the solar farm could be running by Christmas.
“The community board chair and I are spending a lot of time trying to get this through as fast as we can,” he said.
Local business owner Helen Cave said the power bills for her hotel and fish processing business were already more than $10,000 a month each.
Local business owner Helen Cave. RNZ / Mark Papalii
The potential for further price hikes this winter had prompted her to explore alternatives, she said.
“I’d rather pay more than not have it, but I have ordered some solar panels,” she said.
Resident Morgan Bellworthy Hamilton said he, too, was looking at ways to reduce his own reliance on the grid, even with the promise of an island-wide transition.
“We’ve been talking about solar, and I think it probably is the best option for us, as a house, to get solar,” he said.
Resident Morgan Bellworthy Hamilton. RNZ / Mark Papalii
Snuggery Café co-owner Simon Moir, who used solar to offset his power bill by about 30 percent, said he was excited for the whole-island upgrade but wary it would not be a silver bullet.
Rakiura’s climate made it a difficult place to rely on the sun for electricity, he said.
“I’m pretty excited for it, but I don’t know how much it’s actually going to fully cover and what sort of price reduction that will truly create … we don’t have a lot of sunshine here just because of where we’re positioned in the world, and we get a lot of cloudy days,” he said.
“But I’m really grateful that our Southland mayor has finally taken the true steps to get it across the line and get the money from the government to pursue this.”
Snuggery Café co-owner Simon Moir. RNZ / Mark Papalii
Stewart Island’s solar project follows a mooted hydro scheme and a failed wind farm.
Ross said when it came to switching the island off diesel, there had been years of false starts.
“When we moved here 14 years ago, we seemed to be in the exact same conversation. And they kept on doing studies, and they would revisit these studies, and nothing happened. And we’re thinking, if this is the third, well, probably fourth time that it’s been reviewed, and nothing is going to come of it again, it would be so incredibly frustrating,” she said.
RNZ / Mark Papalii
Scott said while there were still hurdles to work through, residents could be assured that this time was different.
“I don’t accept failure and I’ve given the island my word that this project’s going to go ahead,” he said.
The volatility of global oil markets was another reason to make the project happen as soon as possible, he said.
The solar farm would not bring prices down to mainland levels, but would help lower bills and make them more predictable, he said.
“We do need to factor in the maintenance and the replacement of the solar farm. So the prices are still going to be relatively high, but they are going to be certain and stable,” he said.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Nighttime. A dim and dingy car park. Woefully inadequate fluorescent lights flicker and buzz overhead. Two men stand in half-shadow. One is barely visible, his face almost entirely swallowed by darkness. His voice is low and gravelly:
“The list is longer than anyone can imagine. It involves the entire US intelligence community. FBI, CIA, Justice. It’s incredible. The cover-up had little to do with Watergate. It was mainly to protect the covert operations. It leads everywhere. Get out your notebook. There’s more.”
The other man is lost for words. He just stands there, mouth slightly open and eyes wide, trying to make sense of what he’s hearing. The exchange ends with a warning: his life, along with that of his colleague, in is grave and immediate danger.
Robert Redford in a scene from All the President’s Men.
WARNER BROS
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Foodstuffs North Island has introduced the first battery electric truck and trailer unit to its long-haul fleet. Supplied / Foodstuffs North Island
A total lack of public charging infrastructure, high upfront costs and strict weight regulations are behind sluggish uptake of EVs in New Zealand’s heavy fleet, operators and advocates say.
Some trucking firms say their fuel bills have more than doubled as the cost of diesel skyrockets past $4 per litre.
But steep hurdles are preventing many of them electrifying their fleets, with full battery EVs making up less than three percent of new heavy vehicle registrations since 2021.
Drive Electric advocacy group chairperson Kirsten Corson said heavy vehicles only make up four percent of New Zealand’s total fleet, but account for 20 percent of transport emissions.
“It’s quite staggering, so it’s really one that we need to look at some mechanisms to increase the electrification, because right now we can see the vulnerability with fuel prices as they are.”
Rubbish collection company Waste Management was among early adopters, introducing the first electric truck to its fleet a decade ago.
Senior project engineer Ashley Davenport said the company’s heavy EV fleet had since grown to 60, most of them mid-sized bin collection trucks.
“We’ve just completed three million kilometres,” he said. “Two million litres of diesel was saved but that equates to 5000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, so that’s a big win, in our eyes.”
Hutt City Council staff with one of Waste Management’s 60 electric bin collection trucks. Elias Rodriguez / © Mark Tantrum
The drivers loved the trucks, too, he said.
“Once we get them in an electric truck we find it very hard to get them out of it. They enjoy [that] it’s smooth and quiet.”
The road to electrification had not been straightforward, though.
There were no off-the-shelf models available when Waste Management first introduced EVs to its fleet, and even today, most were conversions.
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) delivery and partnerships manager Richard Briggs said many more models, with updated technology and long-range batteries, were becoming available, but cost was among the hurdles for many operators.
“Many operators in this industry are in survival mode, and so it makes uptake of new technology like these trucks much harder, even if it makes sense.”
EECA’s low emissions heavy vehicle fund, announced in the 2024 Budget, had so far co-funded 120 full battery electric heavy vehicles and four hydrogen hybrid conversions.
“That’s probably less than we would have liked to have seen at this time,” Briggs said.
“It is growing rapidly – the last couple of months there’s been quite a spike in applications to the fund, which is quite interesting to see but not surprising given the rise in diesel price.”
About $3.5 million from the fund had been spent so far, with $24.2m remaining.
The availability and cost of charging infrastructure was the other side of the financial equation.
“One of the main barriers to the uptake of the low emissions heavy vehicle fund was the lack of charging, particularly journey charging,” Briggs said.
There were no dedicated public charging stations for heavy vehicles in the entire country, he said.
To help with that, EECA had just launched a $10m pilot fund to assist with setting up charging hubs, either at shared depots or at key points along highways.
Waste Management’s Ashley Davenport said charging was an important consideration as businesses scaled up their electric heavy fleets.
“Most sites would be able to support one or two trucks but, as you scale up from there, it would be really good to see the sector have a little more support.”
There were good examples from overseas of partnerships between companies that charged their vehicles at different times of day, Davenport said.
“They’ve actually made charging hubs where several companies will charge at the same site… and that really helps to spread the load of that initial upfront capital [cost].”
Foodstuffs North Island sent its first long-haul battery-electric truck and trailer unit out on the road two weeks ago, just as diesel prices started to crunch.
Fleet safety compliance officer Chris King said the truck slotted into a run that a diesel vehicle used to do, starting with a morning trip from Palmerston North to Kāpiti before returning to charge up.
“Whilst that’s being charged up we’re able to load the trailer and we do a PM run which goes down to… our depot in Grenada in Wellington, and it’s a full load of milk that goes down there.”
In order to operate the truck though, Foodstuffs had to seek an exemption from Waka Kotahi, as the extra battery weight pushed it above normal axle weight limits.
The weight limits exist to limit the damage to roads from heavy freight, but were “a bit of a bone of contention” for operators wanting to go electric, King said.
“We’re relatively lucky [because] we don’t cart extremely heavy loads. Other operators that might cart a lot of heavy freight… that would be a real constraint for them.”
Heavy vehicles are subject to restrictions on the weight they can carry over axles. RNZ / Tracy Neal
Briggs said those restrictions – known as the vehicle dimensions and mass rule (VDAM) – were a problem many operators had encountered.
“They either have to have a smaller battery, which then reduces the range, or carry a smaller payload, which then obviously reduces the revenue for each trip.”
Kirsten Corson said the UK and Europe had increased their limits slightly to accommodate heavy EVs, and her organisation supported operators’ calls for New Zealand to do the same.
“The government could look at a business-as-usual exemption… and put that in place now until they get time to review that, because there’s trucks that could come into New Zealand if we could review those VDAM rules faster.”
She also wanted to see the road user charge exemption for heavy EVs, which is due to end on July the first next year, extended out to 2030.
“[Operators] are buying their trucks with a 10, 20-year total cost-of-ownership model. So having some certainty around RUCs is super-important because we aren’t seeing significant growth in our heavy transport sector.”
In a written response, Transport Minister Chris Bishop said Cabinet has already decided the RUC exemption would end because all road users should contribute to maintaining the network.
Axle weight limits were already on the work programme, and the government was considering whether aspects of that programme could go ahead more quickly, he said.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Kids who exercise — running or otherwise — have a reduced risk of childhood obesity, improved heart health, better mental health and a greater chance of being active in adulthood, says Hunter Bennett, a senior lecturer in sport science at Adelaide University.
While there is no hard and fast rule about when kids can start jogging or running longer distances, Dr Bennett says there are some considerations to determine if they’re ready.
Movement in play-based running is more varied which allows for development of qualities like muscle strength, power, bone density and social skills, experts sa. (file image)
Unsplash / Getty Images
Source: Radio New Zealand
123RF
Motorcyclists are putting their bike registrations on hold in protest at what they say are unfair increases to ACC levies.
Levies are paid as past of registration. From July this year, motorbikes would be classified into three sizes depending on their size.
Large diesel motorcycles, over 750cc, would be charged the highest annual ACC levy of $638.36 and petrol bikes of that size would pay $624.93. Motorcyclists who completed advanced rider training may be able to access a 25 percent discount.
Medium motorcycles, classed as 251cc to 750cc would pay about $450, and small motorcycles $311.70 for petrol and $325.13 for electric or diesel.
In the previous year, petrol bikes over 600cc had been charged $428.19 a year and diesel or electric $441.87. In the 2024/2025 year, someone with a 500cc motorcycle would have paid just under $300.
All motorcycles were also charged an additional $25 motorcycle safety levy.
The increases were part of wider changes to ACC levies that were announced in 2024.
Motorcycle Advocacy Group spokesperson Richard Tohu said the cost of registration was on track to increase by 68 percent by 2026.
“It’s just a lot of money. Everybody is feeling the crunch and they can’t justify the increases.”
He said there was not sufficient information to back up claims that it was reflecting the risk involved in motorcycles.
The group had asked to meet with officials to talk about the data that was being used, but it had not happened, he said.
His Facebook group protesting the increases was on track to hit 9000 members, he said. “A couple of weeks ago we were 5000 members. Since our protest ride on the 28th, it’s just taken off.
“It’s not that we just want to get away with not paying money, we need to see that it’s justified. Show us the data. You’re saying it’s risk. We all know the bigger the engine does not equal higher risk … They won’t talk to us, nobody will meet with us. So we are advising our members to put your vehicles on hold and stop paying them. We need to try and get them to come to the table.”
He said it was likely people were still riding their bikes without a current registration. “If you ride an unregistered, unlicensed vehicle and you get caught, it’s a $200 fine plus demerit points. If you’re faced with paying $600 [for registration] there is going to be a lot of people out there that will take that risk.”
Legally, people whose vehicle registrations were on hold could not drive it at all.
“We don’t condone riding your motorcycle while it’s not legally registered to be on the road … but we can’t be responsible for what thousands of people are already doing and might choose to do.”
VINCENT-ANA/ ONLYWORLD.NET
NZTA data showed there was a 9.8 percent decrease in motorcycle registrations between the March 2025 year and March 2026.
That reflected first-time registrations for the time periods, not vehicles already on the road.
But over the same period there was a 2.7 percent increase in passenger car registrations.
ACC deputy chief executive corporate and finance Stewart McRobie said it respected people’s right to protest and express their views.
“ACC forecasts the lifetime cost of motorcycle injuries at around $266 million per year in the current levy cycle. While motorcycles make up 4 percent of the vehicle fleet, motorcycle accidents represent 25 percent of the cost to ACC of all injuries from road crashes.
”Through the levy system, motorcycle owners currently pay 28 percent of the total cost to support people recovering from motorcycle accidents. The remaining 72 percent is paid for and therefore subsidised, by the levies collected from other vehicle owners.
”ACC has heard from owners of other vehicles that motorcyclists should contribute more towards the cost of injuries. Prior to the current levy round which covers the years from 2025 – 2028, levies for motorcycles have not increased since 2014.”
McRobie said police data showed 37 percent of injury claims from motorcyclists were from single-vehicle accidents where the motorcyclist’s actions contributed to the crash.
“The increase to motorcycle levies aligns the proportion of levy contribution from motorcyclists to the proportion of motorcycle crashes that only involved the motorcyclist – single vehicle crashes.
“It’s important that ACC levies are fair and that the amount contributed by levy payers reflects the level of risk. To keep things fair, the amount motorcycle riders contribute is increasing, to better reflect the risk. Additionally, accidents involving motorcycles often also result in more severe injuries, which are more costly to treat.”
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Source: Radio New Zealand
The predicted path of Cyclone Vaianu. The cone of uncertainty as it heads south is still quite large. Zoom Earth
MetService staff will be casting their eyes over the latest weather models on Thursday to try to get a clearer picture of what path Cyclone Vaianu could carve.
At the moment it was too soon to say, with the various models still showing different tracks.
The information MetService did have so far was enough for it to put the entire North Island under a strong wind watch for Sunday.
“I believe this is the first time that we have done this,” forecaster Brian Mercer told RNZ.
“And that is just to reflect the fact that this is a very significant storm.”
Mercer said although different tracks were being shown in modelling, it was very likely somewhere in the North Island would get strong winds and heavy rain.
The watches in place now were to give people a heads-up for risk throughout the entire island, he said.
“Model runs come in two or three times a day depending on which model it is, and as we get a little bit closer we’re going to be looking at those and we will certainly be or very likely be issuing warnings, very likely orange warnings and potential red warnings,” Mercer said.
“However, those are discussions that we have to have as we see the progress of the cyclone and as we have discussions with Civil Defence and local authorities in the relevant areas.”
The uncertainty meant it was also too early to say when the existing warnings would be upgraded.
“So people need to prepare, they need to make certain that the gutters are clear, they need to make certain that, for example, trampolines and so on are not in a situation where they could fly away, they need to do all the normal things they do when there is a storm approaching,” Mercer said.
“And it is a very high impact event, and so we have taken this step of actually issuing this initial phase earlier than we normally would and for a larger area.”
Trees downed in Fiji by Cyclone Vaianu. Facebook / Fiji Roads Authority
Mercer said expert forecasters would be going over the new models as they rolled in to see how they had changed from earlier ones.
They would also be tracking the cyclone’s actual movements to see how it compared to tracking shown in modelling, he said.
“We can see that cyclone very clearly on the satellite imagery and we have a very close picture of where it currently is.
“And so as we see the later models come in, we’ll see how they are developing with that,” he said.
“And from there, they are going to have discussions with regional councils, with Civil Defence, and issue further warnings with more details.
“We will issue the warnings when we have sufficient certainty that we’re not going to be crying wolves.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Wednesday that agencies were on “full notice” over the system.
“This is shaping [up] to be a very significant and damaging weather event, and I just think obviously with big impact on the North Island, particularly around Sunday, it’s a great opportunity to remind New Zealanders to do everything they can.
“Stock up, get their supplies in order, get items that may be loose in their backyards tied down and in secure storage.”
He said it was important people did everything they could to prepare.
Acting Emergency Management Minister Chris Penk told RNZ a nervous watch was being kept on the cyclone.
He said preparations were being made for a worst case scenario, which included the Defence Force beginning preparations for possible deployments.
“The Defence Force are making plans to respond in the areas that they may need to respond,” Penk said.
“Of course, the obvious challenge is that we don’t know where and when the situation would arise, we can probably narrow down as the weather system gets closer to New Zealand what kind of timing might be at play, but the benefit of the Defence Force involvement would be that through its air assets in particular,” he added.
“So they are on some form of standby and that will be formalised when it gets closer to the time of knowing where and when such assistance would be needed.”
Penk said MetService, NEMA and Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups, the New Zealand Defence Force, Police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand are closely monitoring Cyclone Vaianu, and NEMA stood ready to coordinate support if needed.
Acting Emergency Management Minister Chris Penk. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
When he spoke with RNZ, Anaru Cook south of Kaitāia was on his roof strapping it down.
It had been two weeks since the last severe storm battered the top of the country.
That storm sent floodwaters through Cook’s property as he was trying to rescue his wife’s lifetime collection of weaving.
“And now to get this news that a cyclone is coming through, I’m just looking around shaking my head, going ‘is this our future?’,” he said.
“I’m not about to lose this house, we just saved it from a flood, the storm is not going to take this house, I’m adamant in that.”
A flood-damaged van and debris piled up at the Cooks’ property by the 26 March storm. Supplied
Northland Civil Defence chairperson Colin Kitchen said recurring storms were taking their toll on residents across the region.
“People are feeling it up here, we had a beautiful summer, and then next thing ‘bang’ and we got hit, and hit again, and it looks like it’s going to come again so people are getting a little anxious and exhausted, and with that going on and also this bloody cost of living crisis, all that sort of thing, it does affect our people out there.”
Lines company Top Energy was resting crews ahead of the cyclone, and making sure enough are on hand for when it arrives.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: Radio New Zealand
Nearly 40 percent of public-sector physiotherapists want to leave their jobs, according to a new study. 123RF
Nearly 40 percent of public-sector physiotherapists want to leave their jobs, according to a new study out of Otago University.
Published in the New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy, the study provides what the authors believe is the first detailed picture of the public health physiotherapy workforce in Aotearoa.
Lead author Gillian Watson, PhD candidate in the School of Physiotherapy, said it highlighted a pressing workforce stability issue for the sector.
“Our results show that we have a skilled and experienced workforce. However, many are under pressure and considering leaving. This has implications for costs and continuity of quality of care across the public healthcare sector,” she said.
The research was based on a survey of more than 570 physiotherapists – 46 percent of Health New Zealand’s physiotherapy workforce of about 1200.
The results were then weighted to be representative of the whole workforce.
It found 39.6 percent of respondents intended to leave their jobs, and 19.4 percent had at least considered leaving the profession.
Watson said that was “concerning, but not entirely surprising”.
“There have been ongoing signals within the sector that retention is an issue, both in New Zealand and internationally. What this study does is put some numbers around that concern and highlights the scale of the challenge.”
Watson said this showed public-sector physiotherapists were working in “complex and demanding roles”.
“These aren’t the physiotherapists you find in private clinics or on the sports field,” she said.
“These are clinicians who work in and around hospitals, and so they support people across their health journey from intensive care to rehab to at home and in the community.”
They worked with anyone from neonatal babies to older people with complex health issues, including stroke, serious injury, respiratory illness, cancer, and other long-term conditions.
She said the research highlighted the importance of retaining clinicians, as it directly impacted quality-of-care.
“Strategies which strengthen recruitment, support, and retention of physiotherapists within the public health system are urgently needed. Prioritising these efforts will ultimately improve health outcomes for communities.”
The study was supported by a Health Research Council of New Zealand Clinical Training Fellowship.
Watson had worked for years as a physiotherapist herself. “I spent many years working on call overnights and being called into intensive care,” she said.
“These are complex environments like intensive care, stroke and spinal units in the emergency department, and you can’t replace that experience overnight.”
Health New Zealand spokesperson Sarah Mitchell said the study would help the agency understand opportunities for further support.
She said they were already working with Allied Health leaders and physiotherapy clinicians on retention.
In October last year, the government announced an expansion of the Advanced Clinical Practice Physiotherapist workforce, and Health NZ was now recruiting an additional 15 full-time roles, on top of the 21 supporting orthopaedic services delivering first specialist assessments (FSAs) across the country.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand