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February 20, 2026

Largest ever reduction in District Court criminal backlog

Source: New Zealand Government

Courts Minister Nicole McKee is welcoming the largest ever reduction in the District Court’s criminal backlog, with a 22 percent drop over the past year – the equivalent of 1,562 fewer cases waiting to be heard.

“The Government’s focus on fixing what matters is working for victims,” says Mrs McKee.

In December 2024 there were 7,133 cases in the backlog. By December 2025, that number had fallen to 5,571.

“This means at least 1562 fewer victims waiting for their day in court to see justice delivered,” says Mrs McKee.

“The turnaround reflects a whole-of-justice-sector effort, including collaboration between the judiciary, court staff, the legal profession, and agencies such as police and corrections.

“I want to thank everyone across the sector who has worked hard to achieve this result. Their focus on timeliness is making a tangible difference for victims and communities.

“The improvement demonstrates the continuing impact of the justice sector’s timeliness initiatives, first introduced in the Auckland metro courts and now reflected in national performance.

“Key improvements include changes led by the judiciary to rostering and scheduling, which have enabled judicial resources to be prioritised to District Court locations with the largest backlogs. We are also seeing better trial preparedness by parties and fewer unnecessary adjournments.

“Additionally, we have strengthened performance reporting and sharpened our focus on timely justice across the criminal jurisdiction.

“There is still more work to do, but this result shows the approach is working. We are focused on practical changes that make a real difference for victims.

“The Family Court backlog has also improved, with a 9 percent decrease in the same period, equivalent to around 850 applications.

“Upcoming legislative reform will further support faster justice, including expanding the powers and number of Community Magistrates, encouraging greater use of remote participation in court, and improving jury selection processes.

“Delivering the largest ever reduction in the criminal backlog is a significant milestone, but the real measure of success is what it means for victims.

“For victims, delays can mean prolonged stress, uncertainty, and trauma. Fixing what matters means reducing that wait and restoring confidence that the system will respond promptly when harm is done.”

February 20, 2026

Major delays as crash blocks lane on SH2 in Wellington

Source: Radio New Zealand

X/NZTA

A crash on State Highway 2 between Wellington city and Petone is causing delays for motorists.

The Transport Agency said the northbound lane is blocked just before the Petone off-ramp.

There are reports of long queues.

A police spokesperson said a truck hit the median barrier just before 8am on Friday.

No one has been injured.

Police said people should avoid the area if possible.

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

February 20, 2026

One person injured following assault, Cannons Creek

Source: New Zealand Police

Attribute to Kāpiti-Mana Area Commander, Inspector Renée Perkins:

One person has received moderate injuries following an assault in Cannons Creek this morning.

Emergency services were called to Dido Place just before 7:40am.

Nearby schools were placed into lockdown while Police enquiries were made. Those lockdowns have since been lifted.

An investigation into the incident is underway.

A number of Police staff remain at the scene and some are armed as a precaution.

ENDS

Issued by Police Media Centre

February 20, 2026

Lane blocked, SH 2, Petone

Source: New Zealand Police

One lane on State Highway 2, northbound, Petone, is blocked following a crash this morning.

Police were called to the single-vehicle crash, where a truck has hit the median barrier, around 7.50am.

Thankfully, no injuries have been reported.

Motorists are advised to avoid the area where possible, and expect delays.

ENDS

February 20, 2026

Wellington residents clean poo spray off houses after severe weather, failed Moa Point sewage spill

Source: Radio New Zealand

Faecal spray on a home on the Esplanade in Wellington. RNZ/Charlotte Cook

A film of toxic poo spray has coated homes around Wellington’s south coast after nearly a billion litres of raw sewerage have been dumped in the marine reserve.

Strong winds and severe weather have made an already feral problem worse, forcing locals to clean faecal spray off their homes, fearing a public health hazard.

“It’s been an absolute shit show,” resident Roger Young said.

“Sorry about the pun, but it’s been disgusting.”

Roger Young. RNZ/Charlotte Cook

Roger Young has lived in Houghton Bay for decades. His house is 100 metres back from the shore and was still tainted by Monday’s storm.

“The swell was seven metres rolling in on Monday morning, and the sea foam is carrying right across Houghton Bay, Princess Bay, Lyall Bay, probably Island Bay as well, and probably contaminated faeces all the way through it.”

He said his windows were filthy with what’s likely to be more than just salt and sand.

Island Bay resident Chris owns a house on the Esplanade. It was once cream, but despite three attempts with the hose, a brown smear remains.

“It’s slimy grime. When you run your finger along it, you get these brown marks of this residue that’s on there and that’s certainly not from salt.”

So what is it?

“Poo”, he said.

Despite three attempts with the hose, a brown smear remains on Chris’ house. RNZ/Charlotte Cook

“It’s residue from all that sewage that’s floating up and down the coast.

“I’m going to have to fully scaffold the house and wash it down. It’s now a health hazard to my tenants.

“It’s totally unacceptable that we’ve got to put up with this.”

Residents weren’t the only ones taking a hit. Popular Lyall Bay food stop Puku Pies was seeing the effects too.

Manager Rylee said most mornings, the windows are covered with a gritty, smelly sludge.

“The other day, when the Monday storm happened… we couldn’t even see out of the windows,” Rylee said.

“So we had to do that as soon as we got here in the morning and clean them off and yeah. We’re having to do it like at least every second day. It’s disgusting.”

Popular Lyall Bay food stop Puku Pies was seeing the effects too. RNZ/Charlotte Cook

Young is furious that in the midst of it all, Wellington Water chair Nick Leggett has legged it and resigned, leaving apologies unsaid.

“How can this happen in 2026? And how can we have the head of Wellington Water, Nick Leggett, just resign and think he’s just going to walk away from this?” Young said.

“People need to be held accountable and heads need to roll, seriously.”

Young said his son broke down crying because he couldn’t use the water for a couple of months.

“I just started crying, too. I’m going holy hell, this is our backyard and this has happened.”

Chris said he would be billing Wellington Water for his time washing the houses if the toxic seaspray continues to plague the coast.

The alternative was a $900 quote to have it professionally washed.

“Perhaps the chief executive might want to get out of his comfortable chair and come and have a look at what’s really happening around the district,” he said.

“I’m absolutely pissed off.”

A health warning sign on a beach in Wellington after the sewage spill. RNZ/Charlotte Cook

Wellington Water was still unsure what caused the Moa Point failure and how long the plant would be out of action.

It was not conducting sampling on private properties, but is instead conducting sampling in the sea around Wellington’s south coast to understand the impacts of the Moa Point discharge on the area. It was the National Public Health Service’s role to assess whether any public-health risks arise from environmental conditions and to provide health advice where required.

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

February 20, 2026

Three men arrested after several hurt in gang-related robbery in Christchurch

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ / Keiller MacDuff

Three men have been arrested after four people were injured during a gang-related robbery at a home in Christchurch.

Emergency services were called to an address on Hoani Street in Northcote at about 9.30pm on Wednesday.

Police cars, vans and mobile units crowded into the quiet Papanui street. Armed scene guards stood at the first of several cordoned areas, with a large tent visible beyond several strings of police tape.

One person was in a critical condition, and another suffered serious injuries. The two other people were in a moderate condition.

Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves said the robbery was a gang-related incident and was targeted towards parties at this address. Police also believed a gun was shot during the robbery.

RNZ understood the incident was believed to involve members of rival gangs Black Power and Mongrel Mob.

Superintendent Tony Hill said in an update on Friday morning that three men had been arrested.

The men, aged 19, 31 and 40, have been charged with aggravated wounding and aggravated robbery. Two of the men are due to appear in the Christchurch District Court today, and the 40-year-old is due to appear in Dunedin.

Police are not seeking anyone else in relation to the incident, Hill said.

“This was a coordinated effort focused on one clear outcome: holding those responsible to account and protecting our community,” Hill said.

“We will not tolerate this type of offending. If you choose to commit serious violence, we will act swiftly.

“Incidents like this understandably concern people. Please be reassured this was a contained incident, and there is no ongoing risk.”

He said residents can expect to see police at the Hoani Street address again on Friday as a scene examination continues.

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

February 20, 2026

Writing an adoption memoir helped Sue Watson find Cynthia

Source: Radio New Zealand

“I just want to smell you. You’re so beautiful,” were the first words Sue Watson heard when she met her birth mother ‘Lizzy’.

Watson had always known she was adopted. She grew up as part of a happy family in West Auckland.

It wasn’t until she was in her 20s, in the 1980s, that she got a letter from her birth mother asking to meet, she told RNZ’s Nine to Noon.

Sue Watson with her son Max, lake Taupo.

Sue Watson

. A brown envelope, stamped OHMS, as they were in the day, arrived in the letterbox. I didn’t even have to open the envelope. I knew that that was going to be my birth mother knocking on my door.”

It was not something she had sought, she says.

“I hadn’t chosen to deny her the opportunity to be able to have contact with me, which adopted children could do under that Adult Adoption Information Act. So, I guess I’d had a vague sense that it might happen but hoped it wouldn’t. And suddenly there it was.”

Lizzy fell pregnant as a young woman in the 1960s when she was training to be a nurse in Wellington. She didn’t know who the father was, she was involved with two men at the time, Watson says.

“And she told neither man. She simply ran away, basically. She ran away to Auckland, where she was picked up by the Motherhood of Man.”

That was an organisation that took in unwed pregnant women, she says.

“Effectively as domestic slave labour, frankly, to a family where they could hide their pregnancies or they’d be kept inside.”

When Lizzy later gave birth to Watson in hospital, she wasn’t allowed to hold her baby, Watson says.

Sue Watson’s sister Wendy holding her as a baby at their home in Auckland.

Sue Watson

“When I was birthed, they said, you can’t touch or see that baby. You’ve given it up for adoption. And they took me away. And she was never allowed to touch me.”

But Lizzy, who didn’t even know if it was a boy or girl, was determined, to see her child, she says.

“She told me that they held me up behind the glass window in the nursery. And she said, ‘unwrap her hands and feet’. And she counted that I had ten toes and ten fingers. And that I was, in inverted commas, normal.

“And that meant that she could leave because she felt that I would have a good chance of being adopted.”

Watson, who has written about her experiences in the memoir Finding Cynthia Winters, stayed in touch for a while, exchanging letters, before she decided to end contact with her birth mother.

“It was just, I felt it was too much for me. And I was very protective of mum and dad. I felt like I’ve got my parents. I don’t need another mother. I have an amazing mother.”

Wendy and Sue at Mum Cicely’s 80th birthday.

Sue Watson

Lizzy had a raw need connection, Watson says, “which I just didn’t feel equipped to give her”.

Later, when she learned Lizzy was dying, she went to see her.

“And it was this deeply, of course, profound moment of seeing this woman who I hadn’t seen for more than 20 years, as I describe her, a frail scrap of a person because the cancer had been incredibly damaging to her.

“And it was the first time in her life that she said to somebody in public, in fact, it was one of the nurses, this is my daughter, Susan.”

They had a short time together reconnecting, Watson says.

“She was extremely unwell and she was literally on her deathbed. But it was a time where I felt that there was an unspoken, deep acceptance and love for each other.”

Letters to Sue Watson from Lizzy.

Sue Watson

The process of writing about her life has given her compassion for Lizzy and for herself, she says.

“And of course, the person I’ve met, and I only found her a year ago, is Cynthia, and that’s me. That’s the baby. So, I was given a name by Lizzy, which I only found out a year ago when I got my original birth certificate.”

At the launch of her memoir somebody asked Watson if she felt lighter having written the book.

“And I said, ‘I feel lighter, but more substantial’, because I feel like there’s two of me now. There’s this dear little baby Cynthia, and all she knew was abandonment, and she’s been with me this whole time.

“And now it’s my turn to look after her, because she’s been trying to look after me for more than 60 years now and to keep me safe.”

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

February 20, 2026

Higher KiwiSaver contributions may mean lower pay rises

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ

You might be going to get a bigger contribution to your KiwiSaver this year – but will it be at the expense of your pay rise?

The first step in the increase in KiwiSaver contribution rates takes effect on April 1, for people who do not opt out.

The default rate rises to 3.5 percent from both employer and employee – so many employers will be contributing an amount equal to an additional 0.5 percent of their wage bill from that date.

This only applies for employers who have structured KiwiSaver contributions in the traditional way, where an employee contribution is matched by an employer contribution on top of their pay. People who are paid by total remuneration will have to cover the full increase themselves.

When the change was announced, Treasury said it expected 80 percent of the employer cost to be met by lower than expected pay rises.

Kelly Eckhold, chief economist at Westpac, said it was likely that all else being equal, pay rises this year would be lower.

“In the end, employers will pay a total level of remuneration in line with prevailing supply and demand trends in the market. Changing the allocation of what employees do with that remuneration is not likely to change that assessment. Having said this it will be impossible to know the counterfactual as we can only observe what employees are paid as opposed to what they might have been paid.”

Catherine Beard, director for advocacy at Business NZ, said businesses had to consider the total cost of employing someone.

“ACC charges, potentially fringe benefit tax, you’re going to have training costs, you might have uniforms… as someone who is hiring you think about what is the total cost to me and my business. So over time, any cost of employment does end up being factored into how much it costs to hire someone… superannuation KiwiSaver will be part of it.”

Apparel sector retailers example of hard times

Carolyn Young, chief executive of Retail NZ, said it was still a tough environment for retailers.

“Consider a retailer in maybe the apparel sector. They’ve been heavily hit over the last 12 months.

“Last year apparel monthly sales were down 5 percent in January, 9.1 percent in February, down 8.5 percent in March, down 7.8 percent in April, down 4.4 percent in May, down 1 percent in June… the whole year was really tough.

“They’re really running by the skin of their teeth – there’s no fat in the business… we do know that increasing KiwiSaver … is a place where as a country we need to head.

“The real difficulty is, it’s so challenging right now for retail to navigate increasing costs.”

She said until the economy clearly improved, the contribution increase was likely to mean smaller pay rises.

“It’s definitely a tricky time and definitely a space where employers will have to navigate their budgets really carefully around how they can recognise and reward staff alongside other increases that have been put in place.”

Craig Renney, who is Council of Trade Unions chief economist and policy director and also a Labour candidate in the upcoming election, said it was likely to mean that more low-income people opted out of KiwiSaver. “If you’re struggling with the cost of living, 1 percent on your salary is quite a lot.”

He said a better solution would be an Australia-style system where it was up to the employer to cover the cost of superannuation savings and employees who did not take it up missed out, rather than receiving it in their pay packets.

Meanwhile, a survey by ANZ showed a third of KiwiSaver members intended to stick with the new 3.5 percent default rate when it took effect. Another 21 percent would contirbute more if their employer matched it.

Only 10 percent intended to request a temporary reduction.

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

February 20, 2026

Liam Lawson completes Formula 1 preparation with top 10 finish

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand F1 driver Liam Lawson. ERIC ALONSO / AFP

New Zealand driver Liam Lawson has completed his official testing ahead of the new Formula 1 season.

Lawson spent the first few hours of his final Bahrain pre-season test in the garage before his Racing Bulls team was able to get their new 2026 car out on the track.

He then managed to get through 106 laps, the fourth most of the day.

The 24-year-old was 10th fastest, 1.7 seconds behind the quickest, Kimi Antonelli in a Mercedes.

In last week’s first testing session, Lawson [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/586732/issues-for-liam-lawson-at-f1-testing-something-i-haven-t-mastered-yet admitted to some struggles in the new specification car, but this week did say that he was more comfortable and happy with the progress they were making.

The McLaren of Oscar Piastri was second quickest, followed by Max Verstappen, who got through the most laps today with 139.

New Zealand F1 driver Liam Lawson during testing in Bahrain, 2026. ALBERTO VIMERCATI / AFP

Lawson’s team-mate Arvid Lindblad will have use of the car on the third and final day of testing in Bahrain.

Aston Martin and new team Cadillac struggled with pace today.

There are significant changes in 2026 with the cars smaller and lighter and no longer running DRS, while half of their power is now electrically generated.

The first round of the 2026 championships is in Australia on 8 March.

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

February 20, 2026

Police seek help as 5-year-old boy found dead in water

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are continuing to appeal to the public for information as they investigate the “water-related” death of a five-year-old boy in Napier.

The boy went missing around the Westshore area on Thursday, 5 February, between 6pm and 8.30pm.

He was found dead in the water off the Esplanade at Westshore, at around 1.30am on Friday, 6 February.

Police said they want to hear from anyone who saw an unattended child.

“We are particularly seeking a group of four people, who were riding bikes and walking, near the corner of Fenwick Street and Fergusson Avenue at approximately 7.30pm,” Detective Sergeant Kate Hyde said.

“If this was you, or if you have any information that could assist us in our investigation, please contact us online at 105.police.govt.nz, or call 105, and use the reference number 260206/9567.”

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