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MSD claw backs will ‘financially cripple’ state abuse survivors, advocate says

Source: Radio New Zealand

Minister for Social Development Louise Upston. RNZ / Mark Papalii

A state abuse survivor is sickened she may have to repay welfare supports that kept her afloat while she was waiting for ACC compensation.

It comes as a lawyer and researcher flags his concerns the government is not meeting its own standards set in the Regulatory Standards Act.

The coalition, with Labour’s support, is changing the law so the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) can legally claw back payments once someone has been backpaid for an ACC claim.

The government has made the case the amendment will clarify the law and uphold fairness, ensuring people were not double-dipping on different supports for the same time period.

Survivor Victoria Bruce had since contacted RNZ to express her shock she and other survivors would be caught up in this change.

Bruce was currently applying for ACC’s Loss of Potential Earnings (LOPE) payments – weekly compensation payments available to anyone unable to work due to a mental injury arising from childhood sexual abuse.

The solo parent said she had also, over the years, claimed supplementary welfare supports from MSD like accommodation supplements and the winter energy payment.

“It isn’t about double dipping, not at all. Hardship support keeps you afloat when you’re struggling, but compensation recognises permanent injury and lost earning capacity.

“They essentially serve two different purposes, and treating them as interchangeable turns this concept of redress, of compensation, into an accounting exercise instead of real, genuine restoration.”

The minister in charge Louise Upston had made it clear that historic claims payments were unaffected by this change.

But Bruce said many survivors like herself would still find themselves in debt once MSD clawed back welfare payments when they had been paid out by ACC.

“It will be an absolute shock. I travelled to Wellington with my daughter, stood shoulder to shoulder in the government public apology and I did feel hopeful,” she said.

“I did feel that it was a turning point, that it was an apology, an attempt to set things straight and so in good faith, I engaged with the processes.

“I came forward, I lodged my historic claim with MSD, as I was requested to. I engaged with ACC, as suggested. I’ve been very open about how this abuse in care as a young child affected me and I feel I’ve engaged in full good faith.”

Bruce said it was a “disbelief” that the government would be pushing through legislation that was going to “damage” people.

“Not only damage people, but financially cripple people who are already emotionally crippled. It’s pretty sickening.”

Upston’s office said the minister expected MSD would continue to engage constructively with clients around their individual circumstances and explain the next steps and any obligations.

‘The government is not meeting its own standards’ – lawyer

Lawyer and researcher Warren Forster. RNZ / Ian Telfer

Lawyer and researcher Warren Forster said the coalition’s approach to the law change, prompted by a signficant High Court decision, was problematic.

Late last year, Justice Grice ruled MSD could not require people to pay back welfare supports once they had been back-dated compensation from ACC.

“They’re basically saying, we’re going to have retrospective legislation; we don’t like what the court did so we’re just going to insert this really complicated bit of law that no one can actually understand, and the effect of that’s going to be we get to ignore the court decision.”

Forster said he also had concerns the government’s law change would not meet its own standards of good law making, set out in the Regulatory Standards Act.

“They can’t have it both ways. If they want to have a set of standards about making law they can but they need to follow them.

“It’s completely inconsistent to say there’s one set of rules when we’re making law that we like and there’s another set of laws when we’re making laws that we don’t like so there needs to be consistency here and we have a very vulnerable group of people.”

He added the change was also unfair.

“Everyone who’s in this position has a disability and they’ve been denied ACC help for a long period of time, months, years, decades, and they’re not in a position where they can fight against MSD or ACC,” he said.

“They’re stuck in a system and they’re not getting rehabilitation that they actually would have been entitled to, they’re not getting the help that they should have got from ACC, and when it comes time to try and fix this what they’re saying now is, well, actually, we’re going to claw back everything we can.

“The law doesn’t actually say you have to pay that out of someone’s entitlement. If ACC wants to repay MSD, it can, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of the person who’s injured and has been stuck in that system, fighting.”

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Hicks Bay businesses fear for survival after being cut off for weeks of peak tourist season

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hicks Bay locals are worried how their businesses will survive after being cut off for weeks. Supplied

Hicks Bay locals are worried how their businesses will survive after being cut off for weeks of the peak tourism season and still facing a major clean up.

On Thursday, three weeks since heavy rainfall and flooding brought down multiple slips, closing the road between Pōtaka and Te Araroa, the section of State Highway 35 from Pōtaka through to Hicks Bay and around to Te Araroa reopened.

The road which will open daily between 7am and 7pm is still in a fragile state with reduced speed limits and traffic management in place.

Maree Brownlie, who owned the Twilight Coffee Garden, said the biggest immediate positives of having the road reopen was reconnecting friends and family between Te Araroa and Hicks Bay.

She said it also meant locals now had access back to local shops and schools.

She was not so convinced the road reopening would have business booming with some still in clean up mode following the floods.

“It’s not going to make a great deal of difference to small business there, particularly over the summer.”

She said the road was currently not really fit for town cars to drive on either.

With peak season nearly over, Brownlie said most tourism was unlikely to return until next summer.

“This will be another year that’ll be difficult for businesses around the 35.”

“[For] small businesses, like myself, it’s going to be, can you hang in there till next summer?”

Brownlie said since Covid there had been many catastrophes in a row for the community.

“It’s been really hard for everyone on the 35 to keep their head above water, basically, literally.”

Damage at 35 Eat Street. Supplied

One of those businesses in clean up mode was 35 Eat Street which was based in Te Araroa Holiday Park.

Owner Nina McClutchie said her caravan had suffered water damage and silt had surrounded the premises.

She expected it would not be open for another four to eight weeks.

“We’re facing a really huge clean-up here.

“Tourists are not going to come here, we feel, for quite a while until they see, a substantial clean-up that’s happened.

McClutchie said the impact on her business was “massive”.

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Landlords, tenants grapple with new pet rules

Source: Radio New Zealand

A new law means tenants can have a pet unless the landlord does not consent on reasonable grounds. Unsplash / Sarah Adatte

A Christchurch woman whose landlord tried to end her tenancy because of the state of her property has been allowed to continue to live in it – and discovered the law is on her side for her cat, thanks to new rules.

The Tenancy Tribunal gave her notice that she would need to improve the state of the house if she was to remain, but she was allowed a pet.

“Regardless of whether and on what terms that consent [for a cat] was given, the new section 18AA RTA now provides that a tenant may have a pet unless the landlord does not consent on reasonable grounds,” the adjudicator said.

“The landlord has consented to the tenant keeping one adult cat at the premises provided the tenant pays a pet bond of two weeks’ rent or $1300.

“The tenant has agreed to remove the kittens from the property and to clean the carpet to remove the smell of cat urine.”

It is one of 2379 pet bonds lodged so far with Tenancy Bond Services, since the rule changed to allow them on 1 December.

Landlords are now required to allow pets, unless there are reasonable grounds to refuse.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said landlords could charge a pet bond of up to two weeks’ rent in addition to the existing bond with clear rules for the tenants’ pet damage liability. Only one pet bond could be charged regardless of the number of pets.

“Tenants do not need to ask their landlord again for pet consent for existing pets that were lawfully kept as part of a tenancy before 1 December 2025,” MBIE said in a statement.

“A pet bond cannot be charged for these pets, but tenants will be fully liable for any pet related damage above fair wear and tear caused after 1 December 2025.”

But parts of the industry were proving slow to catch up with the rules.

David Pearse, managing director of Pukekohe Rental Managers, said he had a rush of inquiries but most tenants did not realise they still had to go through an application process.

Pukekohe Rental Managers managing director David Pearse. Supplied / Pukekohe Rental Managers

“Property managers are struggling with owners that do not want pets and working within the stated exemptions. I believe that there will be a host of Tenancy Tribunal hearing decisions that will need to be held to start to give a clear picture of what is acceptable or not.

“An interesting side issue is that while many like the idea of a pet the cost of ownership has not been carefully considered, and with the bond required, has made many have second thoughts about getting a pet.”

Property Brokers general manager David Faulkner said Trade Me had recently changed its advertisements to say “pets by consent” because many property management companies were still advertising saying “no pets” without realising it could breach the new rules.

Sarina Gibbon, director of Tenancy Advisory, said she had seen instances online where people within the industry were advising tenants not to disclose their animals until they had confirmed a tenancy.

“There are cynical players trying to game the system. My general view is that unless the economic model of renting to tenants with pets shift and unless we have more pet-friendly champions from the landlord side stepping forward to show leadership, we are always going to have to grapple with bad faith dealing.”

Joanna Pidgeon, a director of Pidgeon Judd and a member of The Law Association’s Property Law Committee, said any landlords who said they would not allow pets outright were likely to be breaking the rules.

Joanna Pidgeon, a director of Pidgeon Judd. Supplied / Pidgeon Judd

“We have heard anecdotally that people are finding that they are discriminated against in terms of obtaining a tenancy when they disclose that they have a pet.

“It is very hard to prove that it is discrimination because maybe that there is a better tenant out there that has a better credit record or better references. But people with pets are still finding it very hard to locate tenancies when they disclose that they have pets.

“We are hearing anecdotally that people are feeling discouraged from disclosing it up front, whereas you can, once you have a tenancy, request to have a pet and then the law obviously applies that you can’t unreasonably withhold that consent.

“If a landlord did withhold that consent unreasonably, then you’d be able to prove there was a problem and you could take action and say go to the tenancy tribunal about it.

“Whereas if you just don’t get picked to be a tenant, if there’s a shortage of rental properties, it’s very easy for landlords to pick someone else and very hard for a tenant to prove that it was because they wanted to have a pet that they weren’t chosen as a tenant.”

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Wairarapa residents assess damage after this week’s storm

Source: Radio New Zealand

The unprecedented flooding at Whāngaimoana Beach has laid-waste Mellisa Tipene’s veggie garden.

The small settlement on Wairarapa’s south coast became a lake when a trickle of a creek burst its banks on Monday, infiltrating low-lying homes and leaving behind a layer of smelly sludge.

What was Mellisa Tipene’s garden. Mellisa Tipene

Having lived there for 11 years, Tipene said the place was great, when it was not flooded, but right now she just wanted to “sell up and leave”.

Torrential rain earlier this week caused havoc across Wairarapa, knocking out power and cutting off access to rural and coastal settlements, with hundreds isolated on the south coast after floodwaters took out two bridges.

The bridge over the Turanaganui River on Lake Ferry Road reopened on Wednesday night and access was restored at the ‘Banana Bridge’ over the Hurupi Stream on Cape Palliser Road on Thursday afternoon, with restrictions.

Although residents in Whāngaimoana were no longer trapped, many were still there when RNZ visited on Thursday – getting stuck into the clean-up.

Flood-hit kūmara due to be harvested at Matariki will now go to the pigs. RNZ / Mary Argue

After being unable to work for days, both Tipene and her partner Jason Statham were forced to take another day off to sort the mess.

“We haven’t stopped since we flooded. When it nearly came inside we moved all the furniture higher, and then realised it was subsiding and brought the furniture back.

“We’ve been in here [the garage] for two days. We’re like, furniture removals.”

The Lake Ferry bridge repair. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Statham said they just needed to finish the job.

“The last thing we want to do after a day’s work is deal with this. So, we just thought bugger it, we get today, get it sorted and then we can start normal tomorrow.”

He said the water came up quickly, one minute they were “good as gold” the next it was like looking out on a lake.

The septic tank overflowed into the floodwaters, destroying Tipene’s labour of love – the garden.

“We’re just going through cleaning up, pulling it all out because obviously you can’t eat it. We had kumaras, potatoes, kamokamo, pumpkin, carrots – all of it – tomatoes, and now it’s all gone.”

Adam Mazzola’s home was half a metre underwater in some parts during the peak of Monday’s flooding. Adam Mazzola

The water stopped just shy of entering the home, but neighbour Adam Mazzola was not so lucky.

The creek which was still low on Sunday night rose quickly the next morning, and before he knew it water was entering the 100-year-old, low-lying bach.

Flooding at Adam Mazzola’s home. Adam Mazzola

“From 7-8am … it just thumped through and it probably raised up 4-500mm.

“I think they had about 450mm [of rain] in the Aorangis … so everything kinda came from [the] east.”

He said the house was “written off” and he and his 13-year-old son were currently staying at a farmhouse in Pirinoa.

Damage at Adam Mazzola’s home. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

A Givealittle page to raise funds for Mazzola said his home had been hit by a “catastrophic flood” leaving it unliveable.

“Sadly living in a coastal area means insurance … won’t come to the party which sucks.”

Adam Mazzola looks at damage to his home. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

It said Mazzola was “an incredibly generous person” who was always there for others, and now needed help.

Mazzola told RNZ living at the coast came with the risk of flood and oddly, the last major one hit on the same day 22 years ago – 16 February, 2004.

Whāngaimoana resident Terry Shubkin says the response from agencies during and after the storm has been amazing. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Terry Shubkin, another resident of Whāngaimoana Beach Road, said she bought her place a year before the 2004 floods.

“We were told they were a once-in-a-50-year storm, it seems to be much more frequent now.”

Shubkin thought about half of the properties on the lower section of the road had been flooded and inundation depended on whether the home was raised, or not.

“The ones that got flooded, it’s been pretty bad. So we’ve ranged from a couple inches to – I’ve heard stories of at least a foot of water going through the house.

“At least one house I’ve been into you can see … the mud that’s leftover, because it’s really disgusting muddy slime that goes up about a foot of the furniture.”

The repair to Hurupi Bridge. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Shubkin said the response from agencies during and after the storm had been amazing.

“We’ve had Civil Defence out here since Monday doing door-knocking when it was really bad. We’ve had EMO (Emergency Management Office) on the phone with us a couple of times a day.

“We’ve had Search and Rescue come bring us cookies, we’ve had food drops, medicine drops. Red Cross came out here earlier today, so we’ve been well supported.”

The community, like many others around Aotearoa in the wake of severe weather, had also rallied.

“That’s the silver-lining. You realise what a good community we have out here,” she said.

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Banks Peninsula locals frustrated by flood clean-up response from authorities

Source: Radio New Zealand

Community-led cleanups are continuing in flood-damaged Banks Peninsula, but nagging frustration remains over the response from local authorities.

The peninsula was still under a state of emergency as efforts to restore access to isolated properties continued, almost 72 hours after the region was hammered by a merciless storm.

Although State Highway 75 had reopened and telecommunications restored, some properties remained cut off with multiple local roads still blocked.

The Christchurch City Council’s response teams were using helicopters to get into areas inaccessible by road.

A total of seven local roads remained shut with another eight roads restricted to residents and emergency services.

RNZ / Nate McKinnon

Helicopters could be regularly seen and heard over Okuti Valley on Thursday.

Meanwhile, business owners previously cut off were getting on with the recovery, helped by overdue sunshine and 28 degree temperatures.

Little River Campground owner Marcus Puentener said this week’s flooding was the worst he had seen in 30 years.

Two days earlier he awoke to the nearby Okuti River pouring through the campground, washing away an on-site bridge and leaving a trail of debris.

Puentener said a task-force of volunteers would help with the clean up in the coming days.

Little River Campground owner Marcus Puentener. RNZ / Nate McKinnon

“We’ve got our services up and running again. We’ve got toilets, showers and kitchen area all usable, so we are open,” he said.

“However the drive into the camp is a bit rough. We’re mainly looking at ground works at the moment, clearing the river, putting shingle down on the drive to make it a little bit safer for people to drive in.”

Assistance with the clean up was needed with the campground on Okuti Valley Road due to host multiple events, including a wedding in two weeks.

Although community support for affected property owners remained a prominent feature, the response from authorities had room for improvement, Puentener said.

Damage in Little River. RNZ / Nate McKinnon

“People have got water, people have got food, that’s the main thing. But people are trapped in their properties,” he said.

“This is where it gets slightly frustrating. We’ve had a lot of clip boards and not many foot soldiers on the ground. The clipboard-to-digger ratio is all wrong.”

The resilience of Okuti Valley locals had been bolstered by a community-led emergency radio network to communicate during emergencies when power, internet and cell coverage was down.

Okuki Valley Rd resident Rennie Davidson said the nearby community hall stored essential supplies, including a generator, batteries, gas canisters, a cooker and first aid kits.

Rennie Davidson. RNZ / Nate McKinnon

“Some of the older people in the community find the ability to communicate really reassuring, that we are working as a community and we are,” he said.

“We’ve just been organising water for someone’s toilet that can’t flush. There’s a whole heap of stuff that we can do which doesn’t cost a lot of money, but supports people that otherwise might be struggling.”

The network was self-organised into eight “clusters”, arranged by location.

The community was still largely reliant upon Civil Defence during significant weather events, Davidson said.

Dave Harvey, who lived on State Highway 75 in Coopland east of Little River, admitted he was one of “the lucky ones”.

Apart from a snapped tree that protruded over his next door’s neighbours section, he mostly evaded the brunt of the deluge.

“We had a bit of inundation in the shed. Other than that this whole valley survived pretty well. Obviously I’m devastated for the neighbours further down the river who have been gravely impacted.”

Council local controller Anne Columbus said roading crews had been prioritising known communities to restore roading access to those affected.

“With the reinstatement of communication channels on the Peninsula [on Thursday], we are now starting to form a clearer picture about the damage to properties and infrastructure,” she said.

“The assessment of damage will continue over the next few days as our ground crews gain access to affected areas.”

Two rubbish skips had arrived in Little River, which residents could use to dispose any flood-damaged waste.

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Emergency services at scene of reported chemical leak at Alliance Group’s Levin plant

Source: Radio New Zealand

Firefighters are at the scene. (File photo) RNZ / Nate McKinnon

The number of patients being treated at an industrial site in Levin has risen to 22.

Hato Hone St John ambulance, police and Fire and Emergency were called to Hamaria Road at around 6:30pm, after a chemical incident.

Firefighters set up decontamination gear at Alliance Group’s meat processing plant after reports of a gas leak.

Five ambulances, three rapid response units, two operations managers and a St John Major Incident Support Team were called to the scene.

A fire crew from Otaki has also been called in to help Levin firefighters and a specialist fire unit arrived from Palmerston North.

A spokesperson for Alliance Group confirmed processing at the plant had suspended after a chemical incident at the site led to a “gas reaction”.

St John says while it’s not yet know whether any of the patients is badly injured, no one has been taken to hospital yet and no further ambulances have been requested.

Police have cordoned off the area.

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Lower Hutt man ‘left with nothing’ after large slip hits family home

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Lower Hutt man whose family was forced to flee their home when a large slip fell away from beneath the building says they will be “left with nothing”.

Aaron Pahl said time appeared to go into slow motion when a 10 by 30 square metre expanse of his back yard slid away on Monday – leaving the deck and the rear foundation hanging exposed.

“I was outside and I heard it start cracking, like all the trees just start cracking and crunching. So I pretty much screamed out to my kids ‘get your arses up here now!’ and I watched the whole thing just slide down the bank,” Pahl said.

Pahl said nearly 16 years of saving and hard work had gone down the drain as he, his partner and three children salvaged what they could from the building and sought advice as to what options they had following the slip.

“I don’t see a light. I don’t know, I honestly don’t know. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody man. It’s just like another test, I guess, but it’s not one that I was in any shape or form prepared for,” Pahl said.

The view from Stokes Valley painter Aaron Pahl’s house after a slip left the house uninhabitable on Monday morning. Supplied

The family’s home was issued with a dangerous building notice following the slip.

Pahl said he’d been told re-stabilising his property with retaining walls could take years but demolishing the home would exhaust practically all of his insurance for property.

“The reimbursement from my insurance company would be enough to cover the remainder of my mortgage and then the demolishing fee.

“I was talking to one of the engineers and he’s like ‘if they were to demolish it you’re looking at a couple of hundred thousand dollars. There wouldn’t be much left from that’.

Stokes Valley painter Aaron Pahl says he shouted to his children to get to safety when a large slip fell away from the base of his home – leaving the house uninhabitable -on Monday morning. SUPPLIED

“I’ve worked for the last 16 years to provide this for my family. To get to where I am today and I’m literally going to walk away with nothing. It’s just painful,” Pahl said.

Pahl said his insurance company had agreed to provide just under $12,000 in an accommodation supplement but the money was only likely to house his family for the next three or four months.

Until they could find a place the family of five – with two pets – were staying at Pahl’s father in law’s three bedroom home in Featherston.

Pahl said he was hugely grateful but the small space and extra distance to work and his children’s schools were adding to the family’s burdens.

“It’s added three hours plus a day just to get the kids to school and get myself to work and get my wife to work and it’s breaking man. The two younger one’s are sharing a double bed. They had their own rooms and stuff at home and they’ve just been crammed into a room and ‘that’s where you sleep’,” Pahl said.

He said he’d barely slept since the slip and – while he had some friends he could talk to – the events of the last week were weighing heavily on his shoulders.

“I work for myself and I’ve not been able to work since this happened because I’ve had so much to deal with and [I’m] just watching everything just crumble.

“I’ve got some really good friends and they’re always there to lend and ear. But I still feel like this is my problem and I’ve got to deal with it. I’ve always been that type that is like ‘you carry the shit that’s on your shoulders mate’. I’m tradesman that’s what we do,” he said

Pahl said the family had started a give-a-little page under the heading Help Support Our Family After Stokes Valley Landslide.

“I didn’t want to at first. I didn’t want to ask but, it’s like, if we don’t we’re absolutely screwed. They always say it’s going to get worse before it gets any better but I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel,” Pahl said.

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Backyard invention turns into hot property

Source: Radio New Zealand

A jerry-rigged backyard invention has turned into sizzling hot property for a retired farmer turned entrepreneur.

Alan Dyer has worked out a way to brown sausages evenly, ensuring they don’t roll around on the barbecue.

Using piece of wire, he shaped a device that keeps snags in place while they brown and then helps to roll them all over in an orderly fashion to crisp up the reverse side.

And so, the Sossbosser was born.

Having refined the culinary accessory, it’s now attracting international attention.

Dyer told Checkpoint that coming up with the Sossbosser was a light bulb moment.

“When I first had that unruly sausage floating around the barbecue, misbehaving, and I fashioned this U shape out of a piece of number 8 wire, yeah it was quite a ‘gotcha’ moment to see that renegade rollaway finally under control.”

Dyer said he got annoyed that he couldn’t put the sausage where he wanted it to go because it kept rolling back onto the side that was already cooked.

After he promoted the device on social media there was some international interest, he said.

After appearing on a Chicago TV channel and with the help of some viral videos, the number of people ordering Sossbossers skyrocketed, he said.

“At one stage there we had to actually shut the website down because we couldn’t handle it and I was a bit concerned about taking money off people and not being able to provide them with product … but anyway we got through that.”

One of the videos “baited the Aussies a bit”, he said.

“We told them, you know we’ve invented this and we invented the flat white and we invented a few other things and they kind of took a bit of umbrage at that.”

But that worked out because people engaged with the post and it ended up getting several million views, he said.

To cook a good sausage you need to cook it slowly so that it hardly sizzles at all and to cook it gently all the way around so it’s totally brown, he said.

“Do not pierce the skin because you want to retain all that juice in there, I mean that’s the flavour that the butcher’s gone to all that trouble to put in there.”

There should be no white stripes or “zebra sausages”, he said, because that meant they were only semi-cooked.

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Government ‘listened to Aucklanders’ by weakening housing intensification rules, Character Coalition says

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government agreeing to lower the maximum number of houses in Auckland shows they have been listening to Aucklanders, a heritage group says.

Cabinet agreed to lower the maximum number of houses in Auckland from 2 million to at least 1.6 million, it was announced on Thursday.

Auckland Council had been progressing a new plan to accommodate up to 2 million homes in the coming decades.

The council opted out of medium-density rules that apply to most major cities on the proviso it set up zoning for 30 years of growth.

The council’s Plan Change 120 set out the process for doing this, but the government had since come under pressure from proponents of heritage homes who raised concerns about further intensification in character areas that were already seeing major development.

Devonport Historic Society chairperson Margot McRae said the decision was the best-case scenario for them. 123RF

John Burns from the Character Coalition said two million zoned sites was always an unrealistic and unnecessary target.

“We’re also pleased it will leave it to the council to decide which areas are going to be removed from intensification. We do hope the council will consult with communities this time round before making any decisions.”

He was still concerned about character housing in Mount Eden and Kingsland after the minister said the council should prioritise intensification near the city’s rail network.

“We agree growth around stations generally is a good thing, but there’s plenty of zoned land around Maungawhau, Kingsland, and Morningside stations, and we say there’s no need to destroy these few surviving reminders of our heritage.”

Devonport Historic Society chairperson Margot McRae said the decision was the best-case scenario for them.

“Very relieved that finally common sense has prevailed. Chris Bishop and this ridiculous Plan Change 120, it was always just completely wrong-headed.”

She said the government had pushed Plan Change 120 onto the council and Aucklanders.

“Auckland Council has professional planners, and they’ve always said that Plan Change 120 was terrible. It was not the plan they would’ve written, it was imposed on them by central government.”

“Now they’re backtracking, thankfully, but what a waste of money, resources, time, and anguish that people all around Auckland have put into this. Thousands of people have submitted, and now they’ll have to re-submit. It has been a disaster and proves central government should not get involved in local city planning matters.”

Roughly 10,000 submissions were made on the proposal by organisations and members of the public.

McRae said many people’s opposition to Plan Change 120 was not just about protecting heritage buildings, but building more houses in places Aucklanders actually wanted them.

“The council will now have the right to decide which areas will be intensified, and we all know there are areas that can be intensified and they will be, and lots of areas in Howick, Belmont, and Milford, all of these places were going to be possibly ruined by high-rise buildings.

“It’s not just people wanting to protect the old houses. It would’ve affected every part of Auckland.”

Council would ‘stick with the two million and carry on’ – mayor says

Wayne Brown at the housing intensification announcement. RNZ / Marika Khabazi

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown fired a warning shot after the announcement that he would not be dictated by Cabinet.

Act leader David Seymour said the reduced number is a decision in principle and still needed legislation passed.

“The government will now await Auckland Council producing a summary of how the zones will change before legislating,” Seymour said.

But Brown suggested otherwise.

“We’re not doing this in order to go to the government and to the Cabinet and ask for their approval,” he said.

“I mean, the Cabinet mostly don’t even live in Auckland, so that’s not going to happen.”

The council would “stick with the two million and carry on” if it had to do that, he said.

On the whittling down from two million homes, Brown said people were focused on the wrong thing.

“And that was, we weren’t going to have two million houses, and it was just a concept that was beyond the thinking of most people.

“If it calms down some worried elderly residents in Epsom, then that’s done its job.”

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

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Firefighters at scene of reported chemical leak at Levin industrial site

Source: Radio New Zealand

Firefighters are at the scene. (File photo) RNZ / Nate McKinnon

Firefighters are at the scene of a reported chemical leak at an industrial site in Levin.

Firefighters from Otaki and Levin and a specialist crew from Palmerston North were at the scene on Thursday evening.

An ambulance was also at the scene with more on the way.

It’s not yet known whether anyone had been injured.

MORE TO COME…

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