Category: MIL-OSI

Source: Radio New Zealand

There’s widespread support for the government’s new action plan to combat methamphetamine use, with the Drug Foundation commending its “health focused interventions”.

A mental wellness provider from northland is also welcoming the news, saying it’s a “fantastic start,” and the Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational and Organised Crime saying it was positive that multiple ministers were involved in order to address the issue in its “totality”.

On Sunday, the government announced what Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith called a “comprehensive action plan to combat methamphetamine harm in New Zealand.”

It’s the result of the Prime Minister’s ‘meth sprint team’ made up of the Ministers for Justice, Police, Customs, Courts and Mental Health, who were tasked with tackling the issue.

That came after a drastic rise in consumption of methamphetamine last year. RNZ investigated what community providers needed in response, which was largely more funding for grassroots solutions.

Paul Goldsmith said yesterday methamphetamine was something “we’ve been fighting for 20 years, and it’s been getting worse in the last little while.”

“We know that meth is a scourge on society.”

He pointed to parts of New Zealand who had been particularly affected, like Northland, where “communities have been blighted by meth.”

“Those communities are desperate for us to fight back, and that’s why we’re taking these extra steps to turn up the dial of our response.”

The response included a nationwide media campaign that will launch in the next few months, paid for by the proceeds of crime fund, that will raise awareness about the issue and the drugs harm.

An extra $30m over four years from the Mental Health and Addiction budget will go to front line services, increasing the services available to the hardest-hit communities.

Police will be able to intercept communications and search for electronically stored evidence with new enforcement powers, and an additional anti-money laundering unit will be set up.

It will also see more focus on disrupting supply chains in the Pacific Ocean, with Customs, the GCSB and the Defence Force conducting a series of maritime operations. There would also be consultation on strengthening border security.

Customs Minister Casey Costello said there was “a lot of risk” through South East Asia and South America, “but we are getting intercepts from all over the place.”

“We just had an arrest last weekend at the airport, 30 kilos of meth from citizens from the US trying to bring methamphetamine into the country.

“So it is coming at us from everywhere and we just need to be tighter across all of it.”

RNZ spoke to providers in Northland earlier this year about the spike in consumption.

Rākau Ora managing director Vanessa Kite told RNZ following the announcement she “absolutely” welcomed it.

“I don’t think we’ll ever have enough bloody money, to be honest. But right now it’s a fantastic start.”

She said the need was “huge” in Te Tai Tokerau, and it was “growing in a different way”, with younger people affected and more complex cases presenting.

What was required to tackle it was “long-term” and “sustained” investment, rather than the short term boosts they’d been getting, she said.

Kite welcomed the focus on meth as a social health issue, rather than an enforcement one.

“Prevention is everything,” she said. “We really need to be putting a lot of money into prevention, but also, education, support and connections.”

She suggested what was needed was more detox beds, and residential rehab options. She also wanted to see more focus on lived experience community providers.

“We’re often seen as the first port of call and the priority in meth help, and we’re paid the worst. In fact, many are doing voluntary work.”

Kite said at a community and grassroots level, she believed they had the solutions, “we just need the support to scale them up.”

The Executive Director at the New Zealand Drug Foundation Sarah Helm said she was “particularly pleased” with the health focused interventions.

“It’s good to see some emphasis on health approaches and additional investment that’s being made, because we know we can’t arrest our way out of the issue.”

What’s needed, Helm said, was treatment and assistance both earlier on in somebody’s journey, but also closer and more accessible to their lives.

She said it wasn’t about waiting until somebody’s experiencing the worst harms before they are offered help.

In order for the nationwide campaign to be effective, it would need to focus on destigmatisation, and promote the option of seeking help she said.

“Those communities who already experience the worst methamphetamine harms already know how negative the impact can be.

“So really grounding that campaign in what they’re experiencing and helping them to get information and support quickly will make that as effective as it possibly can be.”

Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational and Organised Crime Steve Symon told RNZ many of the planned actions were consistent with the recommendations made in the MAG’s reports.

Overall, he said the announcement is great, provided it is part of the solution to organised crime, not the whole solution.

“Methamphetamine is certainly an important issue, but it’s a subset of the bigger organized crime issue.”

The focus on health was also welcomed, because “as we’ve said in the reports, we don’t think locking people up is necessarily the solution,” said Symon. The government should be tough on those committing this crime and addressing that, but it wasn’t the only way to deal with it.

Looking at cutting off the supply coming into the country was important too, as well as “working on our customer base”, he said, “working on how many New Zealanders are willing to consume these drugs.”

The coalition government parties had campaigned on being “tough on organised crime” he said, and it was about understanding “what tough means.”

“It’s not just building more prisons and locking more people up.

“It’s certainly locking those up who need to be locked up because of the crimes that they’ve committed, but it’s also looking the broader social problem of how our country has been willing to consume twice as much methamphetamine as we did last year.”

Symon suggested being tough on crime could be possible by removing the customer base.

Ultimately though, what was missing was the coordination to pull it all together, “how to be accountable” he said, which was why the MAG had recommended a single minister in charge of responding to organised crime.

But he thought it was possible multiple ministers had come together to look at the issue of meth.

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

“Bloody minded road vandalism.” That’s how many residents in Papamoa have reacted to news their previously asphalted roads are going to be resurfaced in chip seal.

Residents said they would rather their streets had no resealing work and were left as they were.

However, Tauranga City Council said roads were only scheduled for resealing if they were showing early signs of surface deterioration and leaving a road to deteriorate further would result in higher costs.

In October RNZ reported on the surprise many residents had when their roads were resealed with a different surface and a general public preference for asphalt.

Papamoa Residents and Ratepayers Association chair Philip Brown said residents of Santa Monica Drive, Montego Drive, Santa Barbara Drive, Checketts Place, Sovereign Drive and The Gardens Drive were not consulted by the council before discovering their roads were to be resealed this summer. All the roads were going from asphalt to chip seal.

He said the residents did not think there was a need for the resealing to happen at all.

“There is nothing wrong with the roads as they are now,” he said. “They look good, they are quiet, they are just nice stable roads, there are no engineering problems with them, council has never produced an engineering document saying that the roads are having a problem and they are just that well-built .”

Brown said the council should save money and just leave the roads alone.

“We cannot understand why they want to do the chip sealing.”

Tauranga City Council general manager of operations and infrastructure Reneke van Soest said each road was individually inspected before going on the maintenance schedule.

Van Soest said that depending on the condition of each individual site it might be possible to delay treatment for one or two years, but the Papamoa sites that had been selected for resealing were showing early signs of failure.

“If we do not address that deterioration, we risk significant damage to the structural layers beneath the road surface, which would result in greater repair costs and inconvenience for everyone,” she said.

Council said the most cost-effective way of maintaining a road was to intervene before potholes, cracking and other quality issues occur.

“So that we can prevent damage to the underlying road layers. [Road] repairs or rehabilitation are much more expensive maintenance processes, which can be managed by timely resurfacing to waterproof the road foundations,” van Soest said.

One of the issues was that Tauranga had many roads in residential areas that were surfaced in asphalt by subdivision developers. Developers likely know that people prefer asphalt which would be a motivation for using it.

“Those roads are progressively reaching the end of their serviceable surface life and maintenance is becoming a priority,” van Soest said.

The New Zealand Transport Agency funds 51 percent of local roads but for NZTA to co-fund resurfacing in asphalt, councils must show NZTA that asphalt was worth the investment as it was five times more expensive. This case was often unable to be made for suburban streets and so council would have to fund 100 percent of the road renewal if it went with asphalt.

“Using the example of Santa Monica Drive, the cost difference between chip seal and asphalt is almost $400,000.

“If that additional cost is divided by the number of households served by the road, resurfacing with asphalt would require each household to contribute approximately $3000 to make up the funding shortfall,” van Soest said.

The Papamoa Residents and Ratepayers Association had started a survey online of residents and Brown showed some of the feedback to RNZ. It was overwhelmingly against the resealing work.

One resident who had lived on the street for 20 years said they had already written to the council regarding the matter.

“There is nothing wrong with the road, there are far more urgent road resurfacing works that need doing!”

Another questioned how it would affect their children.

“My kids enjoy riding their scooters on our street and have recently purchased a skateboard too. If the street is covered with chipseal then they will lose this area to play outside.”

“I feel that the footpaths need more urgent attention than the road surface,” said one resident.

Brown said asphalt lasted longer so the cost may even out over time. He thought it would last 30-plus years.

NZTA told RNZ the longevity of asphalt was dependent on a range of factors, for example heavy trucks and electric buses would wear the surface much faster than a light vehicle. However, generally they would expect it to it last for approximately 12 years.

Brown said the association had reached out to council to ask them to hold a community meeting next week to work through the issues.

“Continuing on regardless would show a lack of care for the community.”

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

A wall of smoke from the Tongariro National Park fire is providing a spectacular but worrying vista for a central plateau village.

The blaze has burned through up to 2500 hectares and is 20 percent contained.

Whakapapa Village was evacuated on Sunday, and the fire has forced the evacuation of trampers and closed lodges. All tracks and huts within the Tongariro National Park are closed, and State Highway 48 leading to Whakapapa Village and State Highway 47 at the intersection with State Highway 4 at Waimarino are also closed.

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

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Residents and business owners in Auckland’s Point Chevalier are feeling optimistic as shoplifting is finally brought under control.

It comes just over a year after the local supermarket started closing early over safety concerns.

On a main thoroughfare parallel to Auckland’s north-western motorway, the Point Chevalier shops are nestled between two worlds.

Despite being the de facto town square for one of Auckland’s more expensive suburbs, the strip has had a troubled history of crime and antisocial behaviour.

Residents like Bob have long lamented the closure of the Point Chevalier library, which was shuttered in late 2022 due to a leaky ceiling.

But a new interim library finally opened its doors to visitors on Saturday.

“I think losing the library for such a long time was a big deal because it was kind of part of the package. It was for me anyway, so it’s nice that it’s come back,” Bob said.

Margi Watson, the newly elected local board chair, said the library’s absence had been felt throughout the community.

“You know, when the library was closed off and the town square was all fenced off, there were some safety concerns,” she said.

“Now we’re hoping that the library’s open, the town square’s open, there’s less concerns from people about security.”

Last year, in response to brazen shoplifting and harassment, Woolworths Point Chev restricted its hours and boosted its security.

Since then, new high-density apartments, a competing New World supermarket, and the much-anticipated reopening of the local library have given residents and businesses hope.

Lotto shop owner Chirayu Patel said he hadn’t encountered shoplifters in some time.

“Better than last year. Like, yeah, the cops also coming and visiting here twice a week. And then Auckland Council security guys also visiting. Yeah, so it’s better than last year,” he said.

However, another shopkeeper who asked not to be identified told RNZ shoplifting was still a common occurrence at his store.

A spokesperson for Woolworth’s said its security measures had paid off, with a steady reduction in shoplifting over the past year.

“In line with our $45 million investment over three years, announced in 2023, we have put in place a number of both covert and overt security measures across our stores, including Pt Chevalier,” they said.

“We have seen an improvement and we will continue to work with Police, community groups and other retailers in our communities.”

Workers First Union retail secretary Rudd Hughes, who represented supermarket staff, said Woolworth’s deserved credit.

“What they’ve done is that they’ve actually now put on properly trained security people. Those security guards are able to stop shoplifters. They have two security guards on at the peak times, which is something that we asked for,” he said.

“So to be fair to Woolworths, they’ve picked up their game around this.”

He said other improvements had made the supermarket safer for staff and customers alike.

“They’ve changed the configuration at Point Chev a little bit, so there’s only one door for customers to exit,” he explained

“And the other thing is they’ve got the shark-teeth doors fixed and the trolley lock in place. So all those things have meant that verbal abuse, physical abuse and the shoplifting has calmed down in that store.”

Margi Watson hoped safety improvements and the new library would attract more people to the suburb.

“The new library will go back to a full-service library where there’s books, where there’s activity, there’s events like Wriggle and Rhyme for children, where there’s printing and computers to access. So it’ll become the heart of the community again.”

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

• Another serious assault at North Shore Hospital mental health unit
• The PSA says staff had been pleading for help
• Health NZ says it added extra workers before it opened five new beds last month.

A mental health worker was strangled by a patient a day after their colleagues pleaded for extra staff, but Health New Zealand has rejected the idea that short-staffing played any part in the incident.

Workers at North Shore Hospital’s He Puna Waiora secure mental health unit have been protesting for months about the violence, alleging they are bullied if they speak up.

Health NZ has confirmed there was a “serious assault” on 18 October.

This occurred just after the unit added five extra beds, and while HNZ was looking into a previous assault where a staffer was injured after hitting their head.

“On the 18th October there was another serious assault involving strangulation,” said PSA union national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons, adding this was partly due to being overstretched.

“Just the day before, our staff said they were pleading for staff numbers to be increased,” the union said in a separate statement.

“Their request for extra staff was only acted on for two shifts – staffing had decreased again at the time of the assault.”

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora group director of operations for Waitematā Brad Healey said the unit had added seven new positions this year before the 18 October assault.

“There is no evidence linking this incident to the recent bed increase, as it occurred in the high-care area of the unit, where no bed or staffing changes were made.

“At the time, the unit was fully staffed,” he said in a statement to RNZ.

He added the assault was “managed appropriately, with immediate support provided to those affected”.

The secure unit had five beds added in mid-October, making a total of 40 beds.

Healey said the beds were opened following extensive preparation and recruitment.

“The unit has been funded and staffed for this level of capacity for some time, with an increase of seven FTEs [full-time equivalents] this year prior to the opening of the beds.”

Fitzsimons pushed back: “This is wrong.

“We stand by our previous statement – there have been no additional staff recruited to cover the additional beds.

“There was a consultation period, but we disagree it was extensive. The PSA was not provided the documentation needed to do meaningful consultation, and Health NZ consistently misled both PSA officials and members of staff on what the process would look like.”

Healey responded: “We acknowledge we have more work to do to further improve our communication with staff and intend to raise this at the next meeting with staff and PSA.”

Fitzsimons said the core problem was the unit’s minimum safe staffing levels were too low, saying this illustrated why healthcare workers were striking nation-wide.

The latest violence came while the two sides were preparing to meet to talk about violence and a half dozen other problems listed in a safety notice in September that 50 of the staff had signed.

That meeting would now take place on 17 November.

The problems had mostly not been resolved and it would ask at the meeting for staff to be increased, the PSA said.

Part of the problem was four elderly patients that staff said they were not equipped to deal with, and who should be moved to a specialised facility. HNZ rejected moving them.

The unit lacked equipment to work with them, and staff lacked the training, the PSA said.

Healey acknowledged that training was “an area for improvement”. About a quarter of staff had been trained, and that was set to rise to a third by the end of the year.

Another problem – bathroom drains that regularly got blocked and flooded the unit, sometimes with faeces – had been fixed.

Health NZ had previously acknowledged that staff suffered “real and valid” trauma from witnessing another worker hitting their head when restraining a patient a few weeks ago.

That case and the strangulation have sparked internal reviews.

The September notice raised the “increased risk of physical violence; high likelihood of serious injury” at He Puna Waiora.

The secure unit has a troubled history, including a 2020 inquiry into two patient suicides, and critical Ombudsman reports in 2019 and 2022, including about staff shortages.

The government last week announced $60m of mental health funding over four years, including $7m a year for 40 more front-line clinical staff nation-wide and two new 10-bed acute services so fewer people would need to be admitted as inpatients.

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 Education Review Office wants tougher action on struggling schools that do not improve.

In its annual report the office criticised the lack of support for under-performing schools and called for “stronger consequences” for those that did not demonstrate progress.

It told RNZ that could see high-performing schools provide intensive mentoring for the leaders of schools that did not improve.

It said school principals were the key to lasting improvement.

The report said ERO was involved with 168 “schools of concern” and published reports for 54 of them in 2024/25 year, recommending statutory intervention or Education Ministry support for 32.

The report said review office staff had increased their engagement and support for struggling schools but “results are mixed”.

Only one-third of schools receiving support had improved, a third got worse and a third did not change.

“Too many schools are not turning things around fast enough. There is a real need for a stronger, system-wide approach,” the report said.

“In particular, we need to provide better and more sustained support for school leaders, since strong leadership is key to making lasting improvements in schools and helping all learners succeed.”

“ERO’s view is that schools of concern will benefit not only from ongoing support, but also from stronger accountabilities placed on them as part of the education system. Clear expectations, regular and rigorous follow-up, and robust mechanisms should be in place to monitor progress.

“Schools that do not demonstrate the necessary shifts in practice and outcomes should face meaningful and timely consequences.”

The review office told RNZ in a statement that underperforming schools had low regular student attendance, a large proportion of students who were regularly and chronically absent, low student achievement, and a significant number of students leaving school without NCEA qualifications.

“These schools face complex challenges, including around health, safety and wellbeing, leadership and teaching capability – which impacts the ability for the school’s leaders to turn things around and drive the necessary improvements,” it said.

The office said the school system already provided support for struggling schools, but more was needed for their principals.

“As a system, we haven’t invested deeply enough in leadership capability. Investing in leadership development, targeted professional learning for teachers, and robust support systems for learner wellbeing is critical to narrowing the equity gap and ensuring every student achieves and can thrive,” it said.

“We need to wrap around our school leaders better than we have in the past, so they are set up to meet the unique challenges that their school is facing – turning things around, so that every child gets a quality education.”

Asked what “meaningful and timely consequences” should be applied to schools that did not improve, the review office said its approach was educative, not punitive.

“Where traditional intervention has not been able to shift the dial for these schools, we have to think differently. This could be intensive mentoring for school leaders and boards by leaders from high performing schools – sharing their insights, strategies and successes,” it said.

It also said higher-level interventions, like replacing boards with commissioners, needed “more vigour and fidelity”.

“Interventions need to be carefully targeted, better planned in relation to improvement actions signalled in ERO’s reports, tightly monitored with more resources and stronger accountability for everyone involved,” it said.

It’s not the first time the review office has criticised the support provided to struggling schools.

It made similar warnings in its briefing to then-incoming Education Minister Erica Stanford in November 2023 when it said the process for turning around the worst-performing schools was too slow and needed immediate attention.

In its 2022 annual report, the review office said responsibility for improving schools was shared across multiple agencies including ERO and was not a problem teachers and principals should deal with on their own.

Most schools on track to meet government goals

The report said ERO reviewed 745 schools in 2024/25.

It said most schools were not meeting government targets for regular attendance or achievement against new reading, writing and maths curriculums, but most were on track to improve.

But about a third were not doing enough.

It said only 29 percent of schools visited in the 12-month period were yet to see improvement in attendance and 33 percent were not making sufficient progress in reading, writing and maths.

The report said most schools, 92 percent, were offering “sufficient or rich opportunities to learn across the breadth and depth of the curriculum” but academic achievement was a complex challenge.

“While 13 percent of almost all schools are considered high performing in achieving learner success and wellbeing, over one-third of schools (35 percent) are not yet meeting expected standards for learner success and wellbeing.”

The report said a large portion of schools had not yet embedded student wellbeing and engagement practices and their leadership and strategic planning might lack the coherence to drive sustained improvement.

“These figures signal a significant systemic concern. When over one-third of schools are not yet meeting expected standards for learner success and wellbeing, it reflects a widespread vulnerability in the foundational conditions that support learner achievement and equitable outcomes.”

The report said overall the education system was making progress but it needed to be more widespread and urgent.

“High compliance with government directives, such as close to 100 percent of schools implementing “phones away for the day” and 98 percent delivering daily literacy and numeracy instruction, shows that schools are responding to clear expectations for urgent improvement and a stronger system.”

It said 14 of the schools it reviewed were not meeting the requirement for an hour-a-day of reading, writing and maths.

The report said ERO had monitored 517 schools over two years.

It found in that time teaching and learning improved at a quarter of the schools, but declined in 16 percent.

Teachers key to good early childhood education

The report said ERO completed 1260 ECE reviews in 2024/25.

It said the reviews included 567 stand-alone early childhood services and 53 percent of those met or exceeded the quality threshold, up from 36 percent in the previous 12-month period.

Results were less good for governing bodies that oversaw multiple early childhood services.

It said a sample of 14 governing organisations which were responsible for 545 services showed 58 percent were below ERO’s quality threshold and 42 percent were above.

The report said the figures indicated “system-level changes and leadership development are still required”.

The report said trained teachers were important.

“Well trained teachers foster rich learning environments leading to better cognitive social and emotional development. Centres with a strong professional learning culture show a better learning environment for children. This needs to be at the heart of early childhood education. It helps teachers stay current with best practise,” the report said.

“ERO finds high quality services encourage reflective practise and shared learning through professional learning development. Teaching in these services often work as a team around the child taking a collective responsibility for the child’s learning and development.”

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

Climate scientists and advocates say the government needs to come clean on how New Zealand plans to meet its first international climate target.

A decade on from the Paris Agreement, and as a New Zealand delegation heads to the annual UN COP climate summit, the government says its climate ambition has not changed.

But it is yet to commit any funding, or announce detailed agreements, to purchase the estimated billions of dollars of offshore carbon credits it needs to meet New Zealand’s Paris obligations by the 2030 deadline.

Failing to act could soon start to jeopardise free trade agreements and leave New Zealand vulnerable to an international legal challenge, climate experts say.

The previous government pledged to slash net greenhouse gas emissions to half of 2005 levels by 2030, as New Zealand’s contribution to the Paris Agreement.

The overarching goal of the agreement is to limit warming to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and well below 2°C, and countries are required to present their pledges – known as nationally determined contributions – every five years.

The current government has confirmed it would continue to pursue New Zealand’s first nationally determined contribution.

It will also present its update contribution at this year’s COP30 summit, which starts today in Belém in the Brazilian Amazon.

New Zealand will put forward an updated target of a 51-55 percent reduction in overall emissions by 2035 – criticised as “shockingly unambitious” when it was first announced at the start of this year.

But first the 2030 target must be met – and climate experts say the government is rapidly running out of time to say how it will be achieved.

When it was first announced, then-Climate Change minister James Shaw said domestic emissions would not be enough to meet the target and New Zealand would have to purchase offshore credits to make up the shortfall, at a cost of about $1 billion a year.

An official tracking report submitted by New Zealand last year found the gap had narrowed, but still projected a shortfall of 84 million tonnes of emissions, taking into account all planned domestic reductions.

The amount is roughly equivalent to a full year’s emissions.

Lawyers for Climate Action executive director Jessica Palairet said successive governments had failed to act on offshore mitigation and it was time to commit.

“For the government to just remain in a state of indecision, she’ll be right, we’ll work it out nearer the time, my view is that is contrary to international law.”

An International Court of Justice opinion released earlier this year made it “very clear that we have to make best efforts to use all means at its disposal to achieve our [targets]”.

“Save some extraordinary technological advance that no one sees coming having effect by 2030, I think avoiding offshore mitigation is next to impossible.”

By insisting it was committed, but not explaining how it would actually meet the target, the government was “dancing on the head of the pin”, Palairet said.

Climate change minister Simon Watts and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon have both affirmed New Zealand’s international target.

However, their coalition partners are opposed to offshore mitigation, and they also face opposition around the Cabinet table: forestry and agriculture minister Todd McClay told Morning Report last year that the concept was not “palatable” to New Zealanders.

Watts confirmed to RNZ that that there was no current Cabinet decision or agreement to purchase offshore credits and the focus was on domestic emission reductions.

“When we came in, the gap was 149 [million tonnes] or so, it’s now down to 84,” he said.

“Our emissions reduction plan does highlight that there is a gap and that is a significant challenge for us as a country, but the point that we’re optimistic around … is that, particularly in agriculture, there’s quite a lot of work underway that does have a material impact on [domestic] emissions reduction.”

The shortfall was continuously monitored and the government would keep re-assessing the situation, Watts said.

“It’s not cross your fingers and hope.

“We’ve got to do everything we can domestically … and as time evolves, as it will, more things are coming on to the plate.”

But independent climate change and carbon market expert Christina Hood said the government should be laying out a “really clear plan” right now for how it would meet the Paris target.

“These [offshore] emission reductions have to occur by 2030 in order to be able to count, so we really need to get our skates on. The key issue is that the government is not committing any real money to do this.”

Despite pushing for international carbon markets at successive COPs, New Zealand had done very little beyond signing a handful of “very high level agreements around just a general willingness to cooperate”, Dr Hood said.

“Other countries that are going to be needing international cooperation to meet their targets, like Japan, like Switzerland, have been really active for a number of years already, not just setting up partnerships, but they’re actually been establishing projects and getting emission reductions happening.”

Watts said there were no agreements at all in place when he came to office, and the cooperation agreements signed since then had been on his watch.

In February, Watts told a meeting of farmers that there was no financial liability on the government’s books if it failed to meet the target.

“No one sends you an invoice,” Farmers Weekly reported him saying.

Jessica Palairet said although that was true, there were plenty of other consequences.

“One is that we have free trade agreements with the European Union [and] with the United Kingdom that require us to effectively implement the Paris Agreement. So if we are seen to fall foul of that, it opens New Zealand up to the possibility of trade sanctions.”

That was not far-fetched, she said.

“Internationally, New Zealand is actually getting some pretty bad headlines for its backsliding on climate and you could see countries wanting to make an example of us.

“We know that the EU likes to … try to use their influence to shape international law and international trade norms.”

New Zealand could also face international legal challenges if it was perceived to not be genuine about trying to meet its targets, Palairet said.

“The International Court of Justice also opens the door to the possibility of one state bringing legal proceedings against another state if it is seen to be breaching its international obligations.

“You could imagine some of our Pacific partners, for example, looking at decisions being made in New Zealand and being really quite unhappy with those.”

There were wider reputational consequences to consider, too, she said.

“What side of history do we want to be on as a country?”

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

It’s 6am in Pukehina – a rural community down the coast from Tauranga. Leaves are rustling against the gentle breeze as tyres crunch through the gravel driveway.

The basketball court – surrounded by kiwifruit orchards and dairy farms – is getting busy.

The sun is not yet up, but car headlights cut through the darkness.

Tuesday is women’s bootcamp, an hour-long workout session run by Moses Mohi Beckham.

He expanded the bootcamp to the community after starting with friends in 2020.

“It was just myself and a vet and another farmer, we just started running around in a paddock doing push-ups, then it just evolved from there and we were probably getting up to 10 to 15 dudes a couple of times a week.”

After moving to Pukehina, two locals asked him to start one for women.

“We just started with just doing squats out in the paddock there and then a court was built, then just kind of evolved from there.”

Now, Mohi runs four bootcamps a week – two for men, two for women.

After bootcamp, Mohi works in many jobs, one of them being a facilitator for the Rural Support Trust, which he calls “have a cup of tea”.

The job has given Mohi insights into the mental health challenges faced by the rural community.

And he says it’s not all about having the right answers.

“[It’s about] sit and listen, and if you can carry some of that stress off them, especially if they’ve got no one to vent to, and if it’s been bottled up so long, it probably can be pretty tough. It’s weird, the more you listen, things just seem to kick in and words come out and seem to work.

“If I give them a hug by the end of it, I think I’ve cracked it.”

The 44-year-old says after going through a dark period in his own life, bootcamp was a way to boost not only physical health, but also mental health.

“We’ve developed friendships. When we first started, they were quite awkward, some of these fellas they wouldn’t even shake your hands, but now a hug is a normal thing.

“I’m just trying to break through that and actually yarn about the good stuff, the real things, like family. And once you start chewing the fat after the workout, then people start talking about anything. Farmers will have problems, but they may hold it to themselves, but once they share it out, someone may have a way to get around it, or someone knows someone that could help, and it kind of works out from there.”

He says rural living can mean “a lot of isolation”, making mental health a challenge, but the smaller community compared to cities means once they open up a space, it can be easier to support each other.

Mohi runs the bootcamp for free and has paid for equipment himself. But seeing how it’s bringing the community closer, he says all is worth it.

Cathryn Wattam has been coming here for three summers. While life as a dairy farmer and kiwifruit orchardist is busy, she says the group exercise keeps her body and mind strong.

“Mental health – it’s about getting out, having conversations with people that aren’t your husband, just having fun and just creating a community.”

This summer, she’s bringing her 14-year-old daughter to bootcamp.

“The alarm goes off and you get your clothes out the night before and you just make it happen. You just gotta get up. You gotta go.”

Hypnotherapist Tania Vinson recently moved to Pukehina for the beach life, and she says the bootcamp is a good way to get to know the community.

“Well, I haven’t died yet, so that’s good. I was a little bit sore, but a good sore.”

It’s her second time at the bootcamp, and she says she will be coming for the third.

Parents sometimes bring their kids, so the workout is designed for a range of fitness levels.

Mohi says even though men’s and women’s sessions run separately, it’s the same challenge.

“I do the exact same workouts with the men. I just say it differently, but they all have to do the same bloody thing. If you think about it, everything’s all based around the core, the groin, the hips. Because men are not very flexible, they think they’re tough, but some of these dudes can’t even tie their shoelaces up. Whereas for the women, most of them are the opposite. So across the board we try to do a bit of everything.”

And at the end of the morning, making sure everyone’s included is what matters most. Mohi says his trick is to always end on a round of high-fives.

“It’s just a finish, especially the new ones there and try to get them included.”

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