Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Radio New Zealand

Bluebridge passengers have been left stranded or out of pocket after several cancelled sailings due to a ramp fault on the Connemara ferry.

A problem with the winch that controls the stern door led to 200 passengers being stuck for 15 hours on Thursday, and subsequent sailings of the Cook Strait ferry have been cancelled, leaving many passengers having to be rebooked or refunded.

Gemma and her family were due to sail on the Connemara Friday morning.

The Christchurch family had driven down to Wellington from Whangamatā before finding out their trip was cancelled.

Gemma said they could not get on another sailing until the end of January and could not take that much time off work.

“It really [left] us with not much option.”

She said they instead scrambled to get flights, a task made more difficult by the fact they had to get a crate for their dog.

“It took us in total four days to get home,” she said.

“Our van is still in the North Island,” she said. “It’s got a trailer with our jet ski, we’ve got our motorbike up there, there’s our mountain bikes, all of our gear.”

Gemma said while they were able to leave their belongings in the care of family, they were now without a lot of their summer gear and another trip would be needed to get it home.

Gemma estimated that they had spent more than $1000 to get home. She hoped Bluebridge compensated them for the flight cost.

Greg from Northland was also unable to get rebooked for weeks.

He had been travelling the South Island in a RV and was trying to get to Wellington.

Greg said the cancellation had effectively left him “stranded” in the South Island and that came with a lot of knock-on costs, from accommodation to activities he had already paid for.

He said he had raised that with Bluebridge.

“I was told pretty curtly that that’s not how their refund process works, and it’s reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and we would be remiss to try to get any compensation out of those sorts of knock-on effects.

Greg felt the ferries were getting off light in terms of accountability, compared to some other modes of transport.

“I would expect them to be the ones working out a plan to get us home and in the interim, providing some sort of accommodation or place to stay while they worked this out, very similar to airlines.”

In New Zealand, if a flight is cancelled or delayed, and it was the airline’s fault, consumers were entitled to reasonable compensation for any additional loss suffered up to 10 times the cost of the flight, along with any refund, rebooking or credit.

Consumer NZ said if a ferry was cancelled due to an event within the operator’s control, such as a mechanical issue, consumers have rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act.

“In addition to getting a refund or being rebooked on a later sailing, consumers are also entitled to claim compensation for reasonably foreseeable costs (such as car hire, accommodation, flights etc). If Bluebridge denies liability, consumers can lodge a claim at the Disputes Tribunal,” a spokesperson said.

Consumer NZ said anyone who felt they had been misled could lodge a complaint with the Commerce Commission.

In 2024, the Commerce Commission warned Bluebridge about potentially misrepresenting consumers’ rights to compensation when sailings were delayed or cancelled after the Commission found its terms and conditions contradicted what was in the Consumer Guarantees Act.

In a statement, StraitNZ Bluebridge spokesperson Will Dady said the company was working with passengers to reschedule, refund or recompense where appropriate.

“We have added additional capacity where possible – for example an extra sailing last Saturday – and are looking forward to returning to our regular schedule by this evening.”

He said the majority of people affected had been allocated to alternative sailings or chosen to travel by other means.

“We’d like to thank everyone for their patience and apologise again for the disruption caused. We’re working as quickly as possible to liaise with those impacted but it does take time,” Dady said.

“It’s the most difficult time of year to experience a mechanical issue such as this with already heavy demand for sailings but we want to reassure our passengers we’re doing our best to assist getting them across Cook Strait to their destination as quickly as possible,” he said.

Bluebridge did not respond to RNZ’s questions around what compensation it was offering passengers.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are asking the public to take care in the water after two separate drownings on the North Island’s East Coast in 24 hours.

A man died in the water near Wainuiorangi Road in Mahia at about 9.20pm Sunday.

On Monday a woman was pulled from the water unresponsive near Whangara Road, Okitu at about 11.40am.

Both deaths would be referred to the Coroner.

Eastern District commander, Superintendent Jeanette Park, said water safety was often overlooked by most, but extremely important especially at this time of the year.

“As the temperatures continue to soar, more people are looking to cool off in the water.

“We’re asking everybody to be aware of their surroundings and capabilities while participating in water-related activities.”

Park said police wanted people to enjoy the weather safely.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

There’s a large police presence in Palmerston North’s Higbury after a “serious incident” at an address on Pioneer Highway.

Police confirmed officers were called to the area at 3.15pm due to the incident.

Cordons had been put in place around Pioneer Highway between Cardiff St and Botanical Rd.

A police spokesperson urged the public to avoid the area.

They said further information would be given soon.

MORE TO COME

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

An overnight urgent care provider in Hawke’s Bay was closed last night and for a number of other days in January due to staffing issues.

The service was closed on Sunday, as well as from New Year’s Day to January 4.

The same reason caused it to close for six nights in December and four nights in November.

The Health Minister confirmed in March 2025 the government would invest in the overnight urgent care service for Napier.

• Have you been affected? Contact iwitness@rnz.co.nz

The service was a nurse-provided overnight urgent care service at Napier Health, run through Health New Zealand, operating between 8pm and 8am, seven days a week. It was put in place following the closure of Napier Hospital in 1998.

Health New Zealand had proposed removing the overnight urgent care service and replacing it with a telehealth option, but Simeon Brown announced in March that it would be retained following consultation.

The proposal had sparked community backlash, and a protest had been planned, according to Hawke’s Bay Today.

In a report leaked to Hawke’s Bay Today in January 2025, Health New Zealand wrote workforce shortages have made it “increasingly difficult” to keep these services fully staffed, “resulting in the service sporadically closing early”.

Napier MP Katie Nimon said there had been ongoing issues due to a low number of staff.

“And then, as soon as you have an unplanned absence, which happens in any organisation, you know, one staff member not being able to do a shift that they were already going to be doing, it means that the overnight service is forced to close,” she said.

“There’s no backup plan.”

Nimon understood it had closed about once a fortnight throughout 2025.

The community had to travel 15 kilometres to the hospital in Hastings, or use the telehealth service, she said.

She added Health New Zealand had been working hard to find an alternative, and had told her closure was the last option.

RNZ approached Health New Zealand for response.

Nimon said she had also been working with Simeon Brown and the Ministry of Health to find a long-term solution.

“Sometimes these things are really unavoidable, and you can’t double your staffing just in case of emergencies, but we need to make sure these services are resilient.”

Previously, Brown said Health New Zealand would consider contracting the service back to a private provider.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government says bringing in Open Electricity could save you $360 a year through improved competition.

Energy Minister Simon Watts was talking up the prospect of having the services available in New Zealand as early as September.

Watts said the framework was put in place as part of the government’s Customer and Product Data Act passed last March, with Open Electricity designated by the government as the next suite of regulations after introducing Open Banking in December.

It was already in place in Australia and the UK, and would enable consumers’ electricity usage data to be shared with third parties – including competing electricity retailers – to allow them to recommend better power price deals.

“Energy companies hold a huge amount of data about people’s usage… when used to be able to compare within some of these third party apps, can identify some pretty significant savings of people being able to move to a more appropriate plan than what they’re on.

“Our estimates are that the average household who looks at moving to the most the plan that’s most suited to them could be looking at savings in the region of $360 a year. So it’s not insignificant.”

The law would require a power company to share the data, if their customer requested it.

Competing power companies and other third-party organisations would then be able to use the data to provide recommendations on the best energy plan based on the customer’s individual requirements.

Watts said with nearly 15,000 plans available around New Zealand, “it’s basically pretty much impossible for someone to be able to do that themselves”.

“You’re not restricted on who you can share your data with, you know, if you choose to do so, and… multiple different apps to find out what the best plan is. And that’s up to you. It’s your data.

“The challenge is that the data has to be in a standardised format, it has to have all the correct aspects, and the energy companies need to release that data and do so in a timely manner. And all of those things are not standardised at the moment, and that’s what we bring in to enable those changes.”

The changes would be made via regulations by the middle of the year, he said, and energy companies would then have 12 months to be fully compliant.

But while mid-2027 was when the regime would be fully in place, he said services allowing the sharing and comparison of the data could be available as early as September, and definitely from early next year.

Watts said the legislation included privacy protections with “really stringent requirements” requiring the companies to comply with the Privacy Act.

However, once a customer had signed off on having their data shared, it would be up to those companies receiving the data how they used it.

With concerns raised over the Privacy Act’s protections in light of the recent Manage My Health data breach, some may prefer to keep their data to themselves.

Watts was confident only the data customers were authorising or approving for release would be shared.

Other usages could extend to having the data fed into AI systems or used for research, he said.

“What third party providers look to do in terms of building into their technology is going to be with them,” Watts said.

“No doubt, their use of AI is already being used by a number of third party app providers in regards to supporting decision making.

“At the end of the day, we’re removing a bottleneck that’s stopping New Zealand consumers from being able to get in and access these type of services really easily. We want to make it easy for Kiwis to get on the best plan possible.

“Some of the broader options may be to see and provide some summary advice around the broader industry, but this is really focused about individual consumers giving permission for their data to be used so they they can get advice.”

The government expected it could benefit nearly 2 million households and 165,000 small businesses, he said.

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