Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Radio New Zealand

The family car is filled with petrol and packed with supplies and go bags for a hasty escape.

But for now, a New Zealand family living in Qatar’s capital, said they would stay where they were while loud booms could be heard in the distance.

Since Israel and the United States launched an attack on Iran on Saturday, a number of countries in the Middle East have been hit by missile strikes including Qatar.

“If you’re calm and prepared, that’s probably the best thing that we can do,” Kathryn Rush said her Doha home.

She and her husband were oil and gas lawyers, meaning Doha was somewhere with work in their field.

Rush and their two children, Nick who’s 11 and 9-year-old Emily, moved over from Wellington at the end of December.

But now things had changed.

“It’s very reminiscent of Covid,” Rush said.

“We’ve spent the first few months getting ourselves into dance classes and bits and pieces, football clubs and things like that.

“So all of that’s now on hold as everyone has to stay at home as much as they can, my husband is working from home, the kids are home-schooling,” she said.

“Things are happening, you don’t know if it’s going to happen to you or not, and you’re just waiting and try to stay positive in the meantime.”

Rush was trying to stay positive for her young children too.

“The booms, you hear the booms and some of those sound closer than others… so they can be relatively loud,” she said.

“I popped outside and my daughter was on a trampoline tonight just to say ‘oh, do you want to come inside, those were quite loud’ and she said ‘yeah and there were some flashes in the sky too but I want to do some more trampolining’.”

Rush felt it was important to acknowledge with her children what was happening, “but not to be freaked out by it”.

“My 11-year-old is quite smart and quite onto it and is relatively are of what’s going on, but he’s settled in really nicely to school here, he’s got friends from all sorts of different countries and I think they probably talk about it a little bit as well,” she said.

For now, Rush felt comparatively safe – their house was among about 100 in a compound and all were low-rise.

They’re also to the north of Doha’s centre and airport, in the opposite direction to the American base further south.

For now, it felt like an added layer of safety, she said.

“We’re in an older compound… and the villas are really sturdy… so I don’t feel that we’re in as much of a target zone as perhaps some of the other areas.”

New Zealand’s advice to citizens remained to shelter in place but Rush said they would strongly consider leaving if the advice was upgraded.

“It would probably have to get a lot worse, I think, before we’d feel like we desperately wanted to get out,” she said.

The only real option was to drive to Saudi Arabia.

“I feel safer on the ground at the moment than I would in the air.”

Rush was sleeping fully clothed in case she had to quickly move in the night.

She and her neighbours regularly check on each other, but she said it felt like there was not much to check during the ongoing waiting for whatever happened next.

“It feels a bit probably like a Covid lockdown, except for the sound of the occasional loud boom.

“The car is full of petrol and packed with effectively camping gear and the usual kind of go back scenarios like water and that kind of thing, sunscreen, so you know we are prepared – if we have to go we have to go – but where that would be going is a little uncertain.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Southern Cross Health Insurance says ADHD and autism are once again covered under its policies, after an earlier decision to exclude them.

RNZ reported last month families were blind-sided by the decision, which left them without funding for treatment.

At the time, the insurer said it was not a change in policy, but a “clarification” – as ADHD and autism were considered mental health conditions, they came under the mental health exclusion and were therefore not covered.

But now, after a review of its diagnostic classification system, it told RNZ they were, in fact, classified as neurodevelopmental conditions, not mental health conditions, and accordingly the mental health exclusion did not apply.

Regan Savage, chief sales and marketing officer for Southern Cross Health Insurance, said they undertook a review after feedback from clinicians, members and sector stakeholders highlighted uncertainty about how that November guidance to providers was being interpreted in practice.

“That feedback informed a more detailed review to ensure our guidance is clear, consistent and aligned with both clinical understanding and our policies,” he said.

“We appreciate the constructive engagement with our members and specialists that helped inform this review, and we are currently reviewing any claims that may have been affected.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The family car is filled with petrol and packed with supplies and go bags for a hasty escape.

But for now, a New Zealand family living in Qatar’s capital, said they would stay where they were while loud booms could be heard in the distance.

Since Israel and the United States launched an attack on Iran on Saturday, a number of countries in the Middle East have been hit by missile strikes including Qatar.

“If you’re calm and prepared, that’s probably the best thing that we can do,” Kathryn Rush said her Doha home.

She and her husband were oil and gas lawyers, meaning Doha was somewhere with work in their field.

Rush and their two children, Nick who’s 11 and 9-year-old Emily, moved over from Wellington at the end of December.

But now things had changed.

“It’s very reminiscent of Covid,” Rush said.

“We’ve spent the first few months getting ourselves into dance classes and bits and pieces, football clubs and things like that.

“So all of that’s now on hold as everyone has to stay at home as much as they can, my husband is working from home, the kids are home-schooling,” she said.

“Things are happening, you don’t know if it’s going to happen to you or not, and you’re just waiting and try to stay positive in the meantime.”

Rush was trying to stay positive for her young children too.

“The booms, you hear the booms and some of those sound closer than others… so they can be relatively loud,” she said.

“I popped outside and my daughter was on a trampoline tonight just to say ‘oh, do you want to come inside, those were quite loud’ and she said ‘yeah and there were some flashes in the sky too but I want to do some more trampolining’.”

Rush felt it was important to acknowledge with her children what was happening, “but not to be freaked out by it”.

“My 11-year-old is quite smart and quite onto it and is relatively are of what’s going on, but he’s settled in really nicely to school here, he’s got friends from all sorts of different countries and I think they probably talk about it a little bit as well,” she said.

For now, Rush felt comparatively safe – their house was among about 100 in a compound and all were low-rise.

They’re also to the north of Doha’s centre and airport, in the opposite direction to the American base further south.

For now, it felt like an added layer of safety, she said.

“We’re in an older compound… and the villas are really sturdy… so I don’t feel that we’re in as much of a target zone as perhaps some of the other areas.”

New Zealand’s advice to citizens remained to shelter in place but Rush said they would strongly consider leaving if the advice was upgraded.

“It would probably have to get a lot worse, I think, before we’d feel like we desperately wanted to get out,” she said.

The only real option was to drive to Saudi Arabia.

“I feel safer on the ground at the moment than I would in the air.”

Rush was sleeping fully clothed in case she had to quickly move in the night.

She and her neighbours regularly check on each other, but she said it felt like there was not much to check during the ongoing waiting for whatever happened next.

“It feels a bit probably like a Covid lockdown, except for the sound of the occasional loud boom.

“The car is full of petrol and packed with effectively camping gear and the usual kind of go back scenarios like water and that kind of thing, sunscreen, so you know we are prepared – if we have to go we have to go – but where that would be going is a little uncertain.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The primary teachers’ union wants to take stalled pay talks to urgent facilitated bargaining.

The Educational Institute Te Riu Roa says mediated bargaining last week failed to reach a settlement of the primary teachers’ collective agreement.

Negotiator Liam Rutherford told RNZ the Education Ministry made an offer which was only slightly different from the offer the union’s members rejected in December last year.

He said it fell well short of what members had told the union they wanted prior to mediation.

“I think it’s fair to say that teachers didn’t get the outcomes from that they went into it with and as a result, we’ve called for urgent facilitation from the Employment Relations Authority. We’re really hoping that might be the circuit breaker to get the government to come to the table and for us to get this settled,” he said.

The December offer would have provided a pay rise of 2.5 percent at the end of January and a further 2.1 percent a year later.

Secondary teachers accepted a similar deal last year.

The Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche warned earlier this week that primary teachers were missing out on increased pay and benefits because they had refused to settle.

Roche said since the end of January, primary teachers at the top of their pay scale were missing out on about $50 a week before tax they would have received had they settled last year.

He said the sums were even larger for the 60 percent of primary teachers who had management units for extra duties.

Under the December offer, a teacher at the top of the scale with one unit was missing out on around $63 (before tax) per week, and those with two units were missing out on around $76 (before tax) per week, Sir Brian said.

“Teachers know there are no lump sums or backpay available in this bargaining round.

“Every week without settlement is money teachers aren’t receiving.”

Rutherford said NZEI members understood what they had rejected.

“Teachers are well aware that if they had accepted the offer, they would be getting the pay increases on offer. But I think that more points to the strength of the issues that we’re facing in the sector,” he said.

Rutherford told RNZ the government’s curriculum changes were a big factor in teachers’ expectations of a better pay offer.

“What came through more strongly than we ever have is this absolute avalanche of curriculum change that people have found themselves in at the start of 2026,” he said.

“I think it’s been one of those areas where people have known that it’s coming, but to be in 2026 and to look at not just the size, but the speed of the ambition of the Minister of Education to implement this, lots of people are feeling like they’re drowning.”

Rutherford said the union advised the Education Ministry on Tuesday that it wanted facilitated bargaining.

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