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More funding for weather hit communities

Source: New Zealand Government

The Government is providing further contributions to Mayoral Relief Funds to help communities impacted by recent severe weather events, Minister for Emergency Management Mark Mitchell announced today.

“The impact of the weather events in January and February has been significant, and we want to make sure communities have the support they need,” Mr Mitchell says.

“The government has agreed to provide additional contributions to the Mayoral Relief Funds established by Whangārei District Council, Thames-Coromandel District Council, Gisborne District Council, Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council. These $100,000 top-ups follow the initial contributions made to those funds in January. 

“We are also providing $100,000 to each of the Ōpōtiki District Council, Ōtorohanga District Council, and Waipa District Council Mayoral Relief Funds and $30,000 to the Christchurch City Council Mayoral Relief Fund.

“These contributions will help local authorities tackle the most immediate areas of need within their communities, while the broader recovery efforts get underway.

“Local communities and councils understand where the immediate needs are and how to help. Mayoral Relief Funds help local communities to support individuals, families, community organisations and marae after an emergency.

“Mayoral Relief Funds have previously been used for activities such as cleaning septic tanks, filling water tanks, and clearing debris from properties.”

Associate Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Chris Penk says the government is working to ensure the recovery is well supported at the national level.

“We have established a National Recovery Office within the National Emergency Management Agency to ensure there is a joined-up approach across government agencies and the impacted regions.

“A wide range of government agencies are involved with the recovery efforts, such as the Ministry for Primary Industries who are supporting growers and farmers through Rural Support Trusts, Te Puni Kōkiri who are supporting marae to strengthen resilience and emergency preparedness for community responses to future events, and the Ministry for the Environment who are helping local authorities clear emergency waste.

“There can be a long tail to these events in recovery, but I am committed to ensuring any barriers are addressed quickly and effectively so impacted people, businesses and communities can get back on their feet as quickly as possible.”

Note to editors

Government contributions to Mayoral Relief Funds are intended to help fill gaps quickly where an immediate need exists. It’s not a replacement for insurance and costs covered by other funding sources. 

The contribution is not intended to cover recovery costs which may already be the responsibility of central government agencies or local authorities. It is a fund that allows Mayors and councils the discretion to dispense relief where there is urgent need and other assistance is not available.

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New Zealand Rugby League chief executive Greg Peters steps down

Source: Radio New Zealand

Greg Peters said it has been an honour and privilege to lead NZRL. PHOTOSPORT

New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) chief executive Greg Peters is stepping down after eight years at the helm.

Since his appointment in 2018, Peters has overseen a 30 percent increase in revenue, doubled player numbers from 22,000 to 45,000 and helped re-establish regular test matches for both the Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns in New Zealand.

Peters said it has been an honour and privilege to lead NZRL.

“I’m incredibly proud of what my small and very committed team has achieved over the past few years. And I am in awe of, and want to pay tribute to, the thousands of people who toil at the grassroots of the game and drive the growth and development week in week out with very scarce resources,” he said.

NZ Rugby League will always have a big place in my heart and I look forward to watching the game reach new heights in future years.”

NZRL chairperosn Justin Leydesdorff said Peters was instrumental in establishing the Pacific Championship competition as well as constitutional changes which saw Aotearoa New Zealand Māori Rugby League becoming a voting member of NZRL, with a permanent board seat.

“On behalf of the board and our members, I want to acknowledge and thank Greg for his outstanding contribution to the game.

“We have been extremely fortunate to have had one of the country’s top sports administrators lead the sport over eight years. Greg successfully combined his love for the grassroots game with the commercial complexities of running an NSO and leaves the code significantly better off than when he took over.”

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

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Deep-sea whale strands on central Auckland beach

Source: Radio New Zealand

Project Jonah marine mammal medics and Department of Conservation staff respond to a Beaked whale stranded in St Heliers. Supplied / Project Jonah

A whale has stranded on St Heliers Beach in Auckland.

Project Jonah, alongside the Department of Conservation, responded after a Shepherd’s beaked whale was spotted late this morning.

Spokesperson Louisa Hawkes said Shepherd’s beaked whales lived in the deep sea, and only came up to shore if something was wrong.

Massey University’s Cetacean Ecology Research Group had done an initial assessment of the whale, but needed to assess it further.

Hawkes said volunteers had put the whale on an inflatable set of pontoons in order to take it back out to deep water, rather than waiting for the tide to come in.

Stranded, injured or dead whales should be reported to the DOC emergency hotline 0800 DOC HOT (0800 362 468).

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

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Update: Serious crash, Meremere

Source: New Zealand Police

Northbound lanes have now reopened following an earlier crash on State Highway 1, Meremere this afternoon.

Emergency services were called at around 1.45pm after receiving reports of a crash between a car and a motorbike.

One person received moderate injuries and was transported to hospital in a stable condition.

Police would like to thank motorists for their patience while the scene was cleared.

ENDS.

Amanda Wieneke/NZ Police

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Opinion: without law change, more fatal dog attacks will occur

Source: Auckland Council

As published by NZ Herald in February 2026

By Councillor Josephine Bartley, Chair of the Regulatory and Safety Committee

Like most people, I was extremely sad to read about last week’s fatal dog attack in Northland – the fourth in the country in four years.

In my role as the chair of Auckland Council’s regulatory and safety committee, I hear about vicious dog bite injuries from our staff regularly: toddlers who will never smile in the same way again, adults whose limbs are so badly mauled they require amputation and older people whose bodies won’t heal like they used to. I know how brutal dog attacks can be and the trauma they leave on victims.

I also felt frustration. Just hours before the news broke, our staff received a letter from the Department of Internal Affairs. It was a response to yet another plea from the council to work with us on updating New Zealand’s 30-year-old dog control laws – changes that could help prevent attacks like the one that killed Mihiata Te Rohe.

Escalating problems in Auckland 

In Auckland, we have not yet lost a life to a dog attack, but our Animal Management staff fear getting that call every day. Since 2021, the number of roaming dogs and reported attacks has climbed steeply – a flow-on effect of Covid lockdowns, when there was a boom in puppy ownership and a corresponding lack of desexing and socialisation. Throw in a cost-of-living crisis and we are left with a large population of dogs whose owners lack either the means or the will to care for them properly.

The council is doing everything it can to keep our region safe. In the past year, we have invested an extra $10 million into tackling dog-related issues: expanding shelter space, bringing on more staff and standing up an in-house vet service to ramp up free desexing of dogs in high-risk areas. These initiatives go well beyond the council’s core remit as a regulator, but the council is doing its best to reduce the risk to our communities with the tools available.

Last year, Auckland Council impounded a record 10,000 dogs, only half of which were claimed by owners. And while council staff, along with many rescue groups, are doing their best to rehome dogs where possible, many dogs have significant behavioural issues that mean they cannot be safely rehomed. There are also many more dogs than there are people willing to adopt. High euthanasia rates are the last thing our staff of dog-lovers want to see happening, but there is literally nowhere for these dogs to go.

Efforts not enough to curb trends

Despite the staff doing all they can, our streets still aren’t safe. Every day, Animal Management gets around 100 requests from the public for help with dog-related issues, most related to roaming dogs, which carry the risk of turning into attacks. I hear about people in our communities being scared to walk to school or the shops, and those experiencing blindness being unable to access guide dogs because the risk to them is too high. I’ve even witnessed my own senior shih tsu, Milo, being badly injured in an attack while I was walking him in Glen Innes.

As challenging as the situation in Auckland is, we are fortunate to be relatively well resourced compared with other regions across the country. There are councils facing the same pressures with far less capacity to respond, and that is why we are leading the charge for national reform. Introducing a local bill (as has been suggested) is not the right solution as these issues are not unique to Auckland. Nor do we need additional guidance or reporting. We need law change.

Law reform must come next

The Dog Control Act 1996 has not had a substantial review in almost 30 years and is no longer fit for purpose. Auckland Council has carried out significant policy work, backed up by years of data, and come up with clear, practical changes that could be enacted quickly – measures people might be surprised to learn are not already in place. Allowing councils to desex roaming dogs that pass through shelters, for example, or to require owners of dogs that repeatedly roam to install secure fencing.

We also need stronger powers to detain or seize dogs that pose a threat. Under current law, it is very difficult for councils to seize dogs, or to detain claimed dogs past a seven-day holding period, even when it is clear they’re going to offend again. Even after attacks, in many cases, they must give the dogs back to their owners, the alternative being a lengthy and costly prosecution process that can take years to go through the courts.

Despite last week’s letter, we are hopeful that the Government is now reviewing this position. I was pleased to hear the Prime Minister’s comments on RNZ on Monday morning – which followed three more people being critically injured in Christchurch in a dog attack over the weekend – when he said the Government will do what it can to give councils more powers.

As well as the loved ones of Mihiata Te Rohe and the wider Kaihu community, I feel for our neighbours at Kaipara District Council. I know they’ll be gutted that they couldn’t have done more to prevent Tuesday’s death. But here’s the hard truth: until we overhaul our outdated dog control laws, there will be an increasing number of tragedies like this one. The kind our officers can often see coming and still lack the power to stop.

Read original article on NZ Herald (Premium). 

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Enough fertiliser to cover autumn, Ravensdown says

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fertiliser prices will rise due to the conflict but by how much and for how long is not known. 123rf

Ravensdown says it has enough fertiliser in the country or on the way to cover autumn – so any price impacts due to the war in the Middle East won’t be felt immediately.

The Middle East is a significant player in fertiliser trade with about 40 percent of nitrogen fertilisers coming from the region.

It’s also a major producer of liquid natural gas which is used to manufacture fertilisers.

Ravensdown chief operating officer Mike Whitty said fertiliser prices will rise due to the conflict but by how much and for how long is not known.

“We saw last year in June when there was conflict with Israel, the US and Iran that prices for energy and nitrogen increased reasonably rapidly, by about 15 percent, but then they came down just as fast about two weeks later – so it really depends how long this conflict is going to continue for really.

“We are expecting a significant spike in prices, we are watching the price daily and everyone is waiting to see what happens in the straight because a lot of the worlds fertiliser trade travels through there.”

Whitty said farmers shouldn’t panic.

“The important thing is we have enough fertiliser in the country or on the water coming here to cover all our autumn needs, so it won’t be an issue until later in the year but that’s only if the conflict continues.”

Another complicating factor in fertiliser trade at the moment is China another major producer of nitrogen is not exporting – every now and then it stops sending product offshore in order to protect domestic supply.

Whitty said Ravensdown is well versed in dealing with geo-politics and has solid relationships with suppliers.

He said there are other options to source nitrogen fertiliser if the Middle East war is prolonged – including Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and some countries in Africa.

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

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Baby Poseidyn’s injuries unlikely to be accidental, inquiry hears

Source: Radio New Zealand

Starship Children’s Hospital. RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

A coronial inquiry into the death of 10-month-old Poseidyn Hemopo-Pickering has entered its second day.

Poseidyn was rushed to Middlemore Hospital and then taken to Starship Children’s Hospital on the evening of 5 September, 2020, after being found unresponsive at his Manurewa home.

He died in hospital the following morning.

Anthony Simon Pickering was acquitted of murdering his son in 2022 after a jury trial, and no one has been held responsible for the baby boy’s death.

The purpose of the coronial inquiry is to determine how Poseidyn died and the circumstances leading up to it, not criminal or civil liability.

At the Coroner’s Court in Auckland on Tuesday, Professor Colin Smith, a neuropathologist who examined a scan of Poseidyn’s brain, gave evidence as part of the inquiry. He appeared via audio-visual link from the UK.

Earlier in the inquiry Dr Fiona Miles – on duty at Starship Hospital’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit when Poseidyn arrived – said the hospital was told he fell and hit his head on a windowsill. But the severity of his injuries raised concern that they were non-accidental.

Smith also said Poseidyn’s injuries being caused by an accidental fall from a short distance did not seem plausible.

“It’s not uncommon for the toddler age group to fall over and hit their heads against the edge of tables or chairs and get a nasty bump, and they may get a skull fracture associated with it, but they don’t have a fatal head injury from that.

“In my opinion, there is no evidence to suggest this is a reasonable explanation for the severity of the head injury in this case.”

He said Poseidyn’s injuries would have required a greater force to inflict – and appeared to have suffered a serious skull fracture, a laceration of the brain and a blood clot in the brain.

He said this would have caused “extreme distress”, and it would have been obvious to those around Poseidyn that something was seriously wrong.

He said he would expect loss of consciousness either immediately or within a few minutes.

The inquiry continues.

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

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Car and motorbike crash closes part of SH1 south of Auckland

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ / REECE BAKER

Part of State Highway 1 at Meremere, south of Auckland, is closed after a crash between a car and motorbike.

It happened at 1.45pm and police say there are early reports of serious injuries.

The road is closed for north-bound traffic from Hampton Downs Road.

Police are warning of delays and asking drivers to avoid the area.

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Rugby: Lions back Anthony Watson admits to cheating concussion test against All Blacks

Source: Radio New Zealand

All Black Sonny Bill Williams (R) shoulder charges Lions winger Anthony Watson. photosport

British and Irish Lions back Anthony Watson says he found a way to circumvent concussion testing after Sonny Bill Williams was shown a red card in a pivotal moment during the 2017 series.

Watson shone some light on the flashpoint incident early in the second test in Wellington, which the Lions went on to win 24-21 to level the series 1-1.

The tense series was ultimately squared after a 15-15 draw at Eden Park a week later.

In a BBC documentary focusing on concussion in sport, Watson revealed he cheated the head-injury assessment after suffering a heavy blow from a Williams shoulder charge.

Anthony Watson receives medical attention during the second test against the All Blacks in 2017. photosport

He appeared unsteady on his feet and admitted he was feeling hazy as he entered a room under the grandstand where testing was carried out.

Watson said he memorised a series of five words to pass a recall section of the test.

“At that stage I knew the protocols – they give you five words to remember, so it is ‘elbow-apple-carpet-saddle-bubble’. That is what I had.

“I managed to get through the walking tests and all of that, and then when it came to the words, I knew it off by heart – so I knew I was going to get straight back on.”

Watson finished the game, and also took the field for most of the Eden Park test.

Nowadays, the recall part of the assessment used a random sequence of words, rather than a set list.

Watson, who retired last year, told the BBC he had no regrets.

“That night I had a pretty mental headache.

“But if I could go back to then I wouldn’t do anything different – it was the second Lions test. If I report a concussion there, I might rule myself out for next week and then wait four years to potentially do it again.”

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Biosecurity NZ confident fruit fly will be eradicated, again

Source: Radio New Zealand

An Oriental fruit fly on a piece of fruit. Supplied / Biosecurity NZ

Biosecurity staff are out in South Auckland after finding more Oriental fruit flies in Papatoetoe on Monday.

Biosecurity NZ widened its surveillance area after it found three more fruit flies on Monday, bringing the total to four.

All of the flies were male, reassuring staff they had not been breeding.

“We’re putting extra signage up, and obviously because we’ve extended the zone we’ve got staff on the ground issuing pamphlets telling them what the public needs to know, what they can and can’t do,” northern commissioner Mike Inglis told RNZ.

“As well as traps, we’re collecting fruit to cut up and examine and as at this point there’s no evidence of any breeding population.”

He said staff were also meeting with businesses that sold fruit and vegetables.

“We’ll be engaging with what we class as high-risk businesses, and that’s those businesses that deal in fresh produce. Over the course of the last few days those local businesses have been fantastic too.”

Inglis said he was confident his team could eliminate the flies, as they had done many times before.

“We’ll continue to manage this. We’ve got vast experience alongside the public and community of eradicating this over 15 times in the last few years, so we’ll continue to do what we’re doing.

“[We’re] very confident in terms of experience over the years. I’m very conscious though that we need the support of the community, and I know there’s an inconvenience, and we try and mitigate that as far as is practical.”

He warned residents of Papatoetoe may have to put up with the restrictions for several weeks.

“Generally it’s between four and six weeks that we’ll make that decision. We’ll continue to make sure we’re updating the public.”

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