Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

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Wellington and Lower North Island still without power days after weather bomb

Source: Radio New Zealand

This Wellington Electricity map shows the extent of area where individual homes remain without power SUPPLIED

People are still without power across Wellington and the lower North Island, days after destructive winds and heavy rain tore through the region.

Wellington Electricity puts the current outages at over 1000, and expects most properties to have power back on by tonight.

It says crews have restored power to most customers, but have discovered secondary faults on some lines which are taking longer to restore.

The winds that struck Wellington on Sunday and Monday were the strongest in a decade, tearing down power lines down across paddocks, roads, and over people’s vehicles.

A tree had fallen on power lines on Hornsey Road in Wellington on Monday. Supplied / Caleb Gordon

Is your power still out? Contact ellen.odwyer@rnz.co.nz

Manawatū-Whanganui was also affected, with Manawatū district mayor Michael Ford saying PowerCo crews were trying to remove trees blocking roads so crews could get to the power lines.

As of this morning, 1,632 homes and businesses in Powerco’s area were still without power, including 679 in Manawatū, 638 in Whanganui, and 315 in Wairarapa.

Trees blown down on Mondayin the Wellington suburb of Brooklyn. RNZ / Pokere Paewai

Elliot Childs, an RNZ employee, said his family had been without power for two full days – and it had only just been restored this morning.

Childs said his house in Ranui, Porirua, lost power just before 5 am on Monday morning, and was restored mid morning today.

He said the outage had been “frustrating” without being able to cook anything, and use hot water for washing and showers.

“I’m lucky enough that work has let me borrow one of the big power banks that we’ve got here – so I managed to power the freezer off of that for a little bit – but yeah, it’s been very frustrating, and quite difficult.”

He said he was “very relieved” the power was now back on.

Wellington Electricity has been approached for comment on remaining outages.

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

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Do you recognise these people?

Source: New Zealand Police

Bay of Plenty Police are seeking to the public’s help to identify the three people pictured in these images.

We believe they may be able to assist us with our enquiries into a breach of the Mount Maunganui landslide cordon on Wednesday 11 February and Sunday 15 February.

If you are one of these people, or you recognise them, please update us through 105 either online or over the phone.

Please use reference number 260217/6366.

Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.

ENDS

Issued by Police Media Centre

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Events

Source: Privacy Commissioner

Events are a great way for us to promote privacy issues, and answer questions. Our people speak to a range of audiences across New Zealand about privacy issues. The Commissioner is often asked to be a keynote speaker at conferences. 

Privacy Week speaker applications are now open

During May each year we run Privacy Week, a series of free webinars that promote privacy awareness regardless of how much you already know. Applications for speakers for this year’s event opened on Wednesday 18 February.

Apply now using our form. Applications close Friday 20 March. 

Contact us at privacyweek@privacy.org.nz if you have questions.

About Privacy Week

Privacy Week is held in conjunction with Privacy Awareness Week, an initiative by the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) network. Find out more about APPA and Privacy Awareness Week.

Privacy Week 2025
Privacy Week 2024

Previous years’ webinar recordings can be watched on our YouTube page.

Request a privacy speaker

If you’d like to request a speaker please fill in our speaker request form.
 
We meet every two weeks to discuss requests for speeches and will accept or decline the request soon after that. Declines are almost always owing to resourcing – we are a very small office. If you have questions please email our communications team at  commsteam@privacy.org.nz

Sir Bruce Slane Memorial Lecture

The Sir Bruce Slane Memorial Lecture is delivered every two years by an invited guest, and always on a topic of privacy law. Sir Bruce Slane was New Zealand’s first Privacy Commissioner. Read more about his life.

2025 lecture (happening in 2026)
This year’s lecturer is Justice Christian Whata who will speak in February about the concept of privacy through a tikanga lens. Sign up to watch the webinar online via Teams.

2023 lecture
Professor Nicole Moreham
Balancing privacy and other interests in the social media age

(Regular lectures interrupted by COVID-19 pandemic).

2018 lecture
Hon Justice Helen Winkelmann
Privacy law at a cross roads: can the courts provide

Right to Know Day

Right to Know Day is on 28 September each year and promotes the legal right all New Zealanders have to see the information that organisations hold about them. Under the Privacy Act, you have the right to ask for personal information about you. You can do that using our About Me tool. 

Personal information can include simple details such as your name, address and your pay slips. It can also include any sensitive records such as medical test results and notes.
Download a Right to Know factsheet.

Watch us on YouTube

Our recorded events and webinars can be watched on our YouTube channel. 

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Tower expects rise in weather-related claims to nearly halve profits

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tower insurance chair Michael Stiassny says some progress to tackle the impacts of extreme weather events had been “haphazard, inadequate and painfully slow”. RNZ

  • Tower paid out $12m already in bad weather claims, expects more
  • Company has $45m fund for big events, a quarter already spent
  • Full year underlying profit will be almost halved if events fund exhausted
  • Chair criticises lack of action on climate change as “costing lives and money”

Local insurance company Tower expects a rise in weather-related claims will nearly halve its profits this year, as its chair criticised the lack of action to confront climate change.

The company’s annual meeting heard it had already used about $12 million of its budgeted $45m to cover large events, and expected more costs from the storms of the past week.

“This includes the October windstorm, the Timaru hailstorm in November, and the late January nationwide storm,” chief executive Paul Johnston said.

“Claims from the stormy weather across New Zealand over the past few days are still being assessed and at this early stage, Tower expects costs to exceed its … large events threshold.”

It forecast its full year underlying profit would be between $55m-$65m from a record $107m in 2025 if it used all of its large events fund.

Johnston told the meeting the first part of the year has been steady with growth in house policies, premium growth, and adding new customers.

The company said its risk based pricing meant it building a less vulnerable business, while its technical upgrades have sped up the processing of claims with more motor claims were being referred directly to repairers.

Climate change costing lives and money

The retiring chair, business veteran Michael Stiassny, said too little progress was being made in tackling climate change.

“In the wake of the tragic events at Mount Maunganui, Papamoa and Warkworth, we face a chilling reality. Climate change is here, and it’s costing lives and money.”

He said some progress to tackle the impacts of extreme weather events had been “haphazard, inadequate and painfully slow”.

Stiassny said three years after Cyclone Gabrielle there had been no decisive action to prevent loss of life, prevent building on flood plains, active measures to protect against floods from more frequent and severe rain events.”

“Are we confident that our infrastructure is resilient and will cope with large storms that are no longer anomalies? The answer is a resounding no.”

Insurance review questioned

Stiassny also questioned the planned review of the insurance industry ordered by the government earlier this month from financial regulators to look at the high cost of insurance and growing evidence that some companies are refusing to insure certain towns or parts of towns.

“The rate of premium increase is either on par with the sum insured increase or much lower. In short, premiums have not climbed as much as some Ministers have said,” he said.

“The real issue when it comes to insurance affordability is the cost of living more generally for Kiwis. With costs of all goods and services spiralling up significantly more than incomes, it is inevitable that some people are unable to afford insurance.”

He said levies for Fire and Emergency and Natural Hazards Insurance made up about 40 percent of premiums, over which it had no control.

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

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Weather live: Evacuations as landslip narrowly misses homes in Dunedin

Source: Radio New Zealand

Follow our live blog at the top of this page for updates.

Banks Peninsula remains cut off by road after widespread damage from flooding and slips.

Canterbury’s civil defence controller Duncan Sandeman says the focus on Wednesday will be opening roads and restoring communications.

The peninsula was pelted by ten times the monthly average rainfall in the last 48 hours. Part of State Highway 75, the main road from Christchurch to Akaroa, was closed overnight.

Follow our live blog at the top of this page for updates.

Roads damaged after floods in Akaroa. Nathan McKinnon

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

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Police sent to Auckland school after ‘threats towards students’

Source: Radio New Zealand

Western Springs College’s principal says there was an “altercation” last week and a threat made on social media. RNZ / Lauren Baker

Police have been posted at an Auckland school after what it says were threats from another school.

“Last Thursday, a group of students from another school made threats toward our students during the school day,” Western Springs College principal Ivan Davis said.

“While nothing occurred on school grounds, an altercation took place later that afternoon at the Great North Road bus stop.”

The principal, in a post on the school’s Facebook, said there was then another threat made on social media.

That resulted in an increased police presence at the school on Tuesday.

“Our staff and involved whānau have been working tirelessly to contain the situation,” Davis said.

The school was getting strong support from police, he added.

“Please speak with your child and reiterate the importance of not leaving school without permission.

“It is vital that students do not put themselves in potentially dangerous situations by exiting the gates during the day or engaging with external groups,” Davis said.

Police have been approached for comment.

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

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The ‘sausage sensei’ who says his snags are art

Source: Radio New Zealand

If you’ve ever wanted to craft the perfect sausage, Texan Bill Dumas could make your dreams come true.

Known as the Sausage Sensei, Dumas is on his second visit to New Zealand for two sausage-making workshops.

And while sausages are a beloved barbeque staple in many parts of the world, for Dumas, they’re much, much more.

The sausage sensei’s creations.

Supplied

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

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The truth about energy: Why your 40s feel harder than your 20s, but there may be a lift later on

Source: Radio New Zealand

Some of us remember having more energy in our 20s. We could work late, sleep badly, have a night out, recover quickly and still feel capable the next day. By our 40s, that ease has often gone. Fatigue feels harder to shake. It’s tempting to assume this is simply the ageing process – a one‑way decline.

The truth is that the 40s are often the most exhausting decade, not because we are old, but because several small biological changes converge at exactly the same time that life’s demands often peak. Crucially, and optimistically, there is no reason to assume that energy must continue to decline in the same way into our 60s.

Midlife is often a time of maximum cognitive load.

Unsplash

Do women really need more sleep than men?

Energetic 20s

In early adulthood, multiple systems peak together.

Muscle mass is at its highest, even without deliberate training. As a metabolically active tissue, muscle helps regulate blood sugar and reduces the effort required for everyday tasks. Research shows that skeletal muscle is metabolically active even at rest and contributes substantially to basal metabolic rate (the energy your body uses just to keep you alive when you’re at rest). When you have more muscle, everything costs less energy.

At the cellular level, mitochondria – the structures that convert food into usable energy – are more numerous and more efficient. They produce energy with less waste and less inflammatory byproduct.

Sleep, too, is deeper. Even when sleep is shortened, the brain produces more slow‑wave sleep, the phase most strongly linked to physical restoration.

Hormonal rhythms are also more stable. Cortisol, often described as the body’s stress hormone, melatonin, growth hormone and sex hormones follow predictable daily patterns, making energy more reliable across the day.

Put simply, energy in your 20s is abundant and forgiving. You can mistreat it and still get away with it.

Exhausting 40s

By midlife, none of these systems has collapsed, but small shifts start to matter.

Muscle mass begins to decline from the late 30s onwards unless you exercise to maintain it. This in itself is a top tip – do strength training. The loss of muscle is gradual, but its effects are not. Less muscle means everyday movement costs more energy, even if you don’t consciously notice it.

Mitochondria still produce energy, but less efficiently. In your 20s, poor sleep or stress could be buffered. In your 40s, inefficiency is exposed. Recovery becomes more “expensive”.

Sleep also changes. Many people still get enough hours, but sleep fragments. Less deep sleep means less repair. Fatigue feels cumulative rather than episodic.

Hormones don’t disappear in midlife – they fluctuate, particularly in women. Variability, not deficiency, disrupts temperature regulation, sleep timing and energy rhythms. The body copes better with low levels than with unpredictable ones.

Then there is the brain. Midlife is a period of maximum cognitive and emotional load: leadership, responsibility, vigilance and caring roles. The prefrontal cortex – responsible for planning, making decisions and inhibition – works harder for the same output. Mental multitasking drains energy as effectively as physical labour.

This is why the 40s feel so punishing. Biological efficiency is beginning to shift at exactly the moment when demand is highest.

Hopeful 60s

Later life is often imagined as a continuation of midlife decline; however, many people report something different.

Hormonal systems often stabilise after periods of transition. Life roles may simplify. Cognitive load can reduce. Experience replaces constant active decision‑making.

Sleep doesn’t automatically worsen with age. When stress is lower and routines are protected, sleep efficiency can improve – even if total sleep time is shorter.

Crucially, muscle and mitochondria still adapt surprisingly well into later life. Strength training in people in their 60s, 70s and beyond can restore strength, improve metabolic health and increase subjective energy within months.

This doesn’t mean later life brings boundless energy, but it often brings something else: predictability.

Good news?

Across adulthood, energy shifts in character rather than simply declining. The mistake we make is assuming that feeling tired in midlife reflects a personal failing, or that it marks the start of an unavoidable decline. Anatomically, it is neither.

Midlife fatigue is best understood as a mismatch between biology and demand: small shifts in efficiency occurring at precisely the point when cognitive, emotional and practical loads are at their highest.

The hopeful message is not that we can reclaim our 20-year-old selves. Rather, it is that energy in later life remains highly modifiable, and that the exhaustion so characteristic of the 40s is not the endpoint of the story. Fatigue at this stage is not a warning of inevitable decline; it is a signal that the rules have changed.

Michelle Spear is professor of anatomy at the University of Bristol.

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

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Willis calls $9 Auckland crossing toll a ‘completely hypothetical scenario’

Source: Radio New Zealand

Finance Minister Nicola Willis RNZ / Mark Papalii

National’s Nicola Willis says the government has not given any consideration to putting a $9 toll on both the Auckland Harbour Bridge and a new crossing, calling it a “completely hypothetical scenario”.

And Labour says any such move would have to be “thought through very carefully” given the cost of living.

The Infrastructure Commission this week suggested twin $9 tolls as way of funding a tunnel or a second bridge across Waitematā Harbour.

In response, Transport Minister Chris Bishop said any new crossing would be tolled, but the government was still seeking advice regarding the existing bridge.

Speaking on Morning Report‘s political panel, Willis played down the $9 figure.

“I just want to be really clear that that is a completely hypothetical scenario in the Infrastructure Commission’s plan. It’s not something that the government has given consideration to.”

Willis said both National and Labour faced a challenge in paying for the “essential” multi-billion dollar project as no funding had been put aside.

“How do you pay for it? And what the experts and advisers always say is, you should make sure that the users of roads are contributing the cost to them.

“And actually, that’s a road that would have so many vehicle movements a day that actually a toll to help pay for it would mean you could deliver it sooner.”

Labour’s deputy Carmel Sepuloni said her party was “not completely opposed” to the notion of tolling but said they needed to be “thought through very carefully”.

“For someone like me who doesn’t go over the the Harbour Bridge very often, and perhaps is in a better position to be able to pay the $9, it’s not a big deal, but for someone who’s travelling over that bridge every day and going to work and perhaps not on the highest income, that becomes quite a big deal.”

Sepuloni said the government needed to think about ways to ensure any tolls were affordable given the pressures of the cost of living.

“We need to make sure that any measure, including tolls, are fair and equitable.”

Willis said both political parties had made decisions in recent years to keep petrol taxes a bit lower, meaning that road funding had had to be topped up from general taxation.

But she said that also raised questions of fairness: “we used to have the concept that those who use the roads pay for them”.

Greater Auckland editor Matt Lowrie had told Morning Report that the estimated revenue from the toll is between $7 and $9 billion, while the projected costs of the crossing could exceed $20b.

He said while a second crossing is needed to provide more capacity, other payment options could be considered.

Lowrie agreed that tolling both crossings was necessary because just tolling the new one meant people would simply continue using the existing bridge, however he suggested a lower toll be implemented to see the impact of it.

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

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Photographer invites you to become part of living archive

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Canterbury photographer, who has a project that turns portraits into time capsules, is inviting new faces into his lens at a Christchurch studio next week.

For more than a decade, Charlie Fox has been creating time-lapse portraits. The full-size versions are a towering 1.2 metres-tall and rendered at a staggering 150 megapixels. The detail, in full on his website, is to the point out that viewers can see skin follicles.

“I encourage people to put their noses up against the paper and just drink in the quality,” Fox told Nights.

“The eyes of the images especially, you can see the reflection of me in the catch light. That’s the level of detail that we’re playing with…

“I think the subjects are very brave to participate because they’re shown in such extreme levels of detail and quality that I haven’t really seen it anywhere else.”

The project, Panochron, began in 2013 and has since captured 30 people, including 12 repeat participants.

Fox hopes to reconnect with his earliest subjects and photograph them again, building what one friend described as a “longitudinal study” of the human face.

Some participants under 18 return annually, which Fox hopes will serve as a mini-movie of their journey into adulthood.

“In life, you have a lot of choice about things, but you don’t have any choice at all about the passage of time, that’s just a steady fact.”

Alongside the portraits, he now records brief interviews, asking subjects what they would say to their younger selves and inviting them to leave a message to be heard in a decade’s time.

“Some really interesting conversations will be had between them with themselves, I think, through this.”

Fox, who has spent 25 years behind the camera, traces his fascination with this portrait style back to a black-and-white 35mm portrait that first captivated him.

“Ever since then, I’ve just been sort of driven to keep capturing images in this style.”

Bookings with Fox for Sunday and Monday are available through the Photosynthesis Studio website.

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