Category: Politics

Source: Radio New Zealand

Explainer – Elon Musk’s X has been in the line of fire over Grok AI deepfakes – with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s office calling them “concerning.”

What’s going on? And is there any role New Zealand should play in how it uses X to disseminate information?

Recent non-consensual adult content created by X’s AI chatbot Grok has led some to call for a boycott of using X.

X announced on Thursday it would make changes to its AI chatbot after the UK joined many countries in planning to investigate the company.

However, the reputational damage X has been accumulating during Musk’s takeover of the company may be lasting.

It’s still a popular forum for many New Zealand politicians and public agencies to use, but some left-leaning political parties have mostly abandoned it. A human rights group has called for greater regulation of X in New Zealand, while the Free Speech Union is calling that censorship.

Here’s what’s got people concerned about X and Grok, and where New Zealand politicians stand on it.

What is Grok AI doing exactly?

Formerly Twitter, the social media platform X was bought by the world’s richest man Musk in 2022.

X launched its AI chatbot Grok in late 2023, and recently it came out that users could edit an image to create deepfake nude or partially clothed images.

At some points earlier in January, hundreds – perhaps thousands – of requests were coming in to change photos of women to put them in bikinis and other suggestive poses every hour, separate analyses by Bloomberg News, Reuters and The Guardian all found.

The company soon said it limited the image function to paid subscribers, although NBC News and others have reported that the standalone app and the Grok section of X is still able to generate the deepfake images.

Hundreds of examples of non-consensual Grok AI creations have since come out, and the chatbot has been blocked by Indonesia and Malaysia and under investigation in the UK.

The company now appears to be altering course after the backlash.

“I have been informed this morning that X is acting to ensure full compliance with UK law,” UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told parliament today, adding that the government would take further measures if needed.

Musk posted on X today that Grok will always comply with the law of the countries in which it operates, and also said that he was “not aware” of any naked underage images created by Grok: “literally zero”.

“When asked to generate images, [Grok] will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle for Grok is to obey the laws of any given country or state,” he said.

Musk has not yet made further statements about how exactly Grok will be changed.

New Zealand has been described as “lagging behind” on policing deepfake content and needs enforceable standards, an organisation working to prevent child sexual exploitation told RNZ earlier this week.

Auckland media commentator and journalist Russell Brown said the recent “undressing” posts on X crossed a line.

“It strikes me it’s only a couple of months ago that these ‘nudify’ apps were regarded as totally marginal and now it’s a front and centre service available from X’s flagship product, which is Grok.

“The fact that the company could entirely withdraw that part of the service and say, ‘no undressing app,’ and they’ve made it clear that they won’t do that, it really should raise some questions.”

ACT MP Laura McClure’s member’s bill to criminalise non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes was pulled from the ballot last year and will be considered by Parliament in the future.

There have been calls to remove Grok from app stores, while Musk himself claimed it was the number one app in New Zealand in a recent post.

Grok hits #1 in New Zealand https://t.co/RPoQilXMnU

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2026

Are NZ politicians still using X?

World politicians often use X to make announcements and statements, and New Zealand is no different.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon regularly communicates on X, as well as many other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

In a statement to RNZ on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s office said Luxon was aware of concerns about Grok.

“The use of Grok in this manner is concerning. We are actively monitoring developments.”

Many official agencies such as MetService, NZTA and NZ Defence Force still use X.

Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins does post on X, although the official Labour X account hasn’t posted since May 2025.

“Political parties and MPs use a range of social media platforms,” said Reuben Davidson, Labour’s spokesperson for media and digital economy.

“The Labour Party has chosen to prioritise channels where we can engage constructively with New Zealanders and reach the audiences we are focused on.”

The ACT party is also a frequent user of X, but in a statement posted Wednesday condemned deepfakes, while also saying regulating companies or the technology was a step too far.

“The harms are very real, and the problem is not limited to X,” the party’s official account posted on X. “New Zealand law should target the individuals who are engaging in abusive behaviour.”

“We should target abusers directly, rather than shutting down tools used legitimately for news or satire.”

Explicit deepfake abuse is rife, the harms are very real, and the problem is not limited to X.
New Zealand law should target the individuals who are engaging in abusive behaviour.

— ACT New Zealand (@actparty) January 13, 2026

NZ First leader Winston Peters is also a regular user of X, as is the party’s official account.

The Green Party’s official account hasn’t posted since 2024, while Te Pāti Māori last posted in June.

Many other politicians post announcements or statements regularly on X, including Wellington Mayor Andrew Little and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown.

X-slash-Twitter has wielded a heavy influence on social media over the years, despite its relatively smaller user base than other social networks.

It’s difficult to find precise figures, but research by Meltwater/We Are Social for 2025 showed Twitter was only the 11th most used social platform, with just 23.8 percent of internet users on it, while DataReportal said it estimated 15.2 of eligible audience (those over 13) used it.

In InternetNZ’s 2024 Internet Insights report, X was among sites like Discord and Mastodon that it lumped in with the description “most New Zealanders have never used these social media platforms”. It found 73 percent of New Zealanders never used X.

“Most New Zealanders would agree that the creation and distribution of non-consensual or abusive AI-generated images is utterly unacceptable and raises serious questions about the responsibility of platforms to create a safe online environment,” Labour’s Davidson said.

He said he has proposed a member’s bill that would hold platforms more accountable for harmful content, although it has not been pulled from the ballot.

In addition to McClure’s deepfakes bill, Education Minister Erica Stanford has also promised regulatory changes over social media harm in response to calls for a minimum age of 16 to access social media similar to what Australia has recently instituted.

Has X gone too far?

Brown said that X has lost its usefulness to many people and that some New Zealand accounts have been leaving the platform.

“That’s the tragedy of it. The old Twitter had come to fill a kind of important niche for those kind of institutional accounts and it was a way to reach the public quickly with information. And now you’re asking the public to wade through a sewer to get there. It’s broken now.”

“I think the discussions are being had” about leaving X, he said. “I think there are public groups who are on X who are having the discussion, I think.”

Free speech and human rights groups are also staking out sides on whether to rein in X.

Rights Aotearoa put out an open letter to Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith calling for regulation of X, while the Free Speech Union blasted the rise of “censorship infrastructure.”

Rights Aotearoa said it was “deeply concerned” about X’s Grok tool.

“This represents a serious and immediate threat to human dignity, privacy, and safety,” its chief executive Paul Thistoll said. He said Grok’s image generation raised concerns about image-based sexual abuse, child safety and gendered and identity-based harm.

“The non-consensual creation and potential distribution of intimate imagery constitutes a form of sexual violence with severe psychological and reputational harm to victims.”

However, Free Speech Union chief executive Jillaine Heather condemned calls to block X by the UK and warned New Zealand against doing the same.

“Today it’s X for failing to police Grok. Tomorrow it’s any platform a government decides is insufficiently compliant. Australia already banned everyone under 16 from social media last month. Not from illegal content. From platforms entirely. Safety rhetoric, expanded control.

“Attempts to use child safety as a pretext to ban, restrict, or de-platform X would represent a serious breach of free expression and would be met with determined resistance. If the New Zealand government joins this international suppression effort, it will have a fight on its hands.

“Free speech is not a privilege granted by governments when it suits them,” Heather said. “It is a fundamental right and it will be defended.”

But Rights Aotearoa’s Thistoll said before today’s announcement that the government should act.

“The technology exists. The harm is occurring,” Thistoll said. “The government has both the power and the responsibility to act.”

Brown said what has happened to X is also part of a wider shift away from platforms like Facebook and broad concerns about “enshittification” of the internet and the polarisation of politics sweeping across all platforms.

“I think a lot of people are moving away from social media altogether, and exactly what solution they’ve found for keeping in touch with people I think varies from person to person.

“With what’s happened with Grok and these non-consensual undressing apps, I think we actually have reached the point where decisions need to be made.”

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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 Ministry of Defence is looking to companies and experts for advice on a potential plan for surveillance drones to scour the Pacific.

As part of New Zealand’s Defence Capability Plan released last year, it said there would be a greater focus on uncrewed technology such as drones.

The purpose of the aircraft would include persistent maritime surveillance to protect the sea under New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone and support Pacific partners.

The Ministry of Defence has put out a tender for advice from companies and academics regarding the technology.

In a statement to RNZ, the ministry said the work was attached to its long-range drone project in the capability plan which had an indicative cost of between $100 and $300 million.

However, the ministry said drones might not be the only option for the surveillance work.

“This project falls within the indicative investment of long-range remotely piloted aircraft outlined in the 2025 Defence Capability Plan, although there may be other solutions.”

Information from the workshops would help to develop an indicative business case for the project later this year.

They were set to be held at the end of this month.

Defence Minister Judith Collins declined to comment.

In April last year, the government announced it would spend $12 billion over the next four years for a “modern, combat-capable” New Zealand Defence Force.

It was also announced New Zealand’s defence spending would lift from just over one percent of GDP to more than 2 percent in the next eight years.

Defence spending was last at two percent of GDP in the early 1990s.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

RBNZ governor Anna Breman is one of the international central bankers who have signed a letter supporting US counterpart Jerome Powell, the Reserve Bank has confirmed.

Powell has been back to maintain the Federal Reserve’s independence after being served criminal charges by the Justice department.

President Donald Trump has been pushing for the central bank to drop cash rates.

The letter signed by 14 central bankers so far says Powell has served with integrity and the independence of the bank is a cornerstone of economic stability.

More to come..

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Uncertainty around compensation payments for the HMNZS Manawanui marine disaster in Samoa is growing, with the paramount chief of one of the affected villages questioning whether money from the New Zealand government should be distributed at all.

Atanoa Tusi Fa’afetai, the paramount chief of Maninoa village in the district of Si’umu, has repeatedly stated that the sum of SAT$10 million (NZD$6 million) paid by New Zealand to his government over its sunken navy vessel off the south coast of Upolu was insufficient. Other residents and matai (chiefs) also believe this.

Following details revealed in letters between the Samoa and New Zealand governments, Atanoa has said returning the sum may be a better option so the Samoa government – in collaboration with affected communities like his – can put together a comprehensive compensation claim.

The Manawanui ship crashed into Tafitoala reef in October 2024 and spilled diesel and pollutants into the water. Residents from Maninoa, and neighbouring villages like Tafitoala in the Safata district, watched as it burned and eventually sunk less than 2km from their homes. It remains on the reef today.

Details disclosed in a diplomatic exchange between New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Samoa’s former prime minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa show her government requested a payment of SAT$10 million (NZD$6 million) to its counterpart over the incident last May. The letters, released under the Official Information Act, also show both governments agreed the payment was made “without reference to questions of liability”

The letters said the payment resolved all issues arising from the sinking of the HMNZS Manawanui between the two governments “other than issues in relation to the anticipated wreck and reef assessments”. It also said the Samoa government would not seek further payment from New Zealand “in relation to these resolved matters” and that the payment is in the “context of friendship between New Zealand and Samoa”.

Atanoa was deeply disappointed at the agreement.

He believed Fiame’s government had let people down by signing off on the agreement. Fiame is now an independent MP in parliament following her party’s loss at the September general election.

“We didn’t know anything about what the government has been doing to represent us,” Atanoa said.

“We are the people that really live in and [are] affected with the impact of this potential hazard.”

He said as details had emerged over what the previous Samoa government had agreed to, it became clear those directly impacted hadn’t been consulted.

“I don’t really blame New Zealand for agreeing to what’s being done because the government represents us. But in order to have full representation of our district, we need to collaborate and deliberate on the matters, to make sure that our intentions are being voiced and our perspective as well.

“I feel really, you know, offended about the whole situation here from the previous administration.

“So I will stand firm not to distribute the money, because they’re still questioning this whole thing.”

Fagailesau Afaaso Junior Saleupu, a matai from the neighbouring village of Tafitoala in the Safata district, also criticised the conduct of the former government.

He said a recent meeting with government officials over the compensation process revealed the population records they’d used for the district were from 2003.

Like Atanoa, he did not believe the SAT$10 million payment was enough, particularly as he believed the wreckage of the ship should be removed. Atanoa also believed it should be removed.

Both men rejected comments from Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, the previous government minister in charge of the Manawanui response, who said the wreck should be turned into a dive attraction.

“The solution from our village [is that] we know we need to remove the wreck from there because we are thinking of the future,” Fagailesau said.

He said since the disaster, locals had noticed a significant decline in fish and marine life they depended on for food and income.

“The problem is because the decision-making is by the people who are not affected and the information they collected is not necessary for what exactly happened.”

Fiame previously told RNZ Pacific she signed off on what was recommended by her officials.

At the end of last year, prime minister Laaulialemalietoa Polataivao Schmidt – who took over from Fiame in September – said the government intended to make payments to affected people by early this year.

However, both Fagailesau and Atanoa said the government had told leaders in each of their districts there will be more meetings over the process.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Local Government New Zealand wants to ensure there’s financial support to help some communities meet proposed emergency management standards.

The government has introduced a new Emergency Management Bill following the review of the 2023 North Island severe weather events.

It proposes a higher minimum standard of emergency management for councils around the country to respond to bad weather.

Local Government New Zealand supported the change, but its president, Gisborne mayor Rehette Stoltz, said for some parts of the country it could be difficult financially.

“Some regions might need some government support to get them there and that is something we will raise in a submission to the government.”

Stoltz said some regions were not as prepared as others due to not having faced significant weather events.

She said there was concern in the lobby group about the effect rates caps could have in responding to natural disasters.

“That is a concern we will raise with the government, they have said that there would be possibilities for an exemption in severe weather events.”

Infometrics data Stoltz cited said last year New Zealand experienced 72 days with a region under a state of emergency – the third longest period in the past 25 years.

“Those events are happening more and more and communities are paying for it emotionally, but mostly financially.”

Submissions on the new Emergency Management Bill close 3 February.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Charismatic, gregarious, exuberant, a joker, a showman, a larrikin: such are the epithets for long-serving mayor Tim Shadbolt, who died age 78 last week.

His public funeral service was due to be held in Invercargill on Friday January 16, 2pm at the Civic Theatre.

He would be remembered there not only for a life of service to the community but for his own style, charisma and upbeat charm.

A mayor for about 32 years – split between two cities and three incumbencies – Sir Tim was a dedicated champion of local politics, but was perhaps remembered more for his colourful life and antics.

Coming to prominence as a young anarchic Vietnam war protester, he was confident the movement would have a lasting legacy as an examination of colonialism.

As an activist he was famously arrested 33 times – including for refusing to pay a $50 fine after using the word ‘bulls…’, and spending 25 days in Mt Eden.

This was allegedly when he wrote his first published book, Bulls… and Jellybeans, published in 1971 independently by Alister Taylor – who was working for the publishing house that previously rejected it.

The student activist soon became something of a political butterfly, running for both New Zealand First and the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, and for mayoral, council or government roles in multiple locations.

Richard King worked with Sir Tim as Invercargill council’s chief executive for 20 years, but first knew him in those student days, having gone along to his rallies, saying they were “quite boisterous”.

He related a tale his friend told him from when he first moved from activist to politician, appearing in court on “various charges”.

“The judge looked up and said ‘you again, Shadbolt’, and he’d just been elected mayor of Waitematā, so the judge said ‘I suppose I’m going to have to call you Your Worship now’.

“Tim looked at him and said ‘tell you what, I’ll Honour you, and you can Worship me’. And the case didn’t go that well for him.”

Having worked as a concrete contractor, in the ’80s Shadbolt celebrated that first successful election by towing a concrete mixer behind his mayoral car in the annual Christmas parade.

He later repeated the stunt as mayor of Invercargill, this time towing his mixer behind a mobile green couch for charity – and later swapped the mixer for electric scooters in the southern Christmas parade.

But perhaps his most well remembered media appearance was in cheese ads in 1994, where an increasingly manic Sir Tim – then simply mayor Shadbolt – repeated back the line ‘I don’t mind where as long as I’m mayor’ – a self-deprecating dig, perhaps, at his shift from Auckland to the less tropical climes of Invercargill.

That kind of humour was a trademark of his – and was to his benefit on Dancing with the Stars in 2005, where he came third despite a couple of tumbles.

“I might have had a little lie down and a cup of tea,” he said of one of those falls.

The man certainly had a way with words.

At 30, he secured the Guinness world record for the longest political speech on a soapbox.

Some 35 years later in 2012, he set another Guinness world record – for the longest TV interview by successfully reaching his goal of 26 hours on the regional TV freeview channel CUE, across from interviewer Tom Conroy.

Topics covered included his cameo on The World’s Fastest Indian and supposedly meeting Sir Anthony Hopkins’ “leg double” and “big toe double”, but after reaching 26 hours – about 2am – the mayor was cut off.

Speaking to RNZ the next day – mere hours after also launching New Zealand’s Got Talent he credited the Guinness official’s advice with keeping his vocal chords up to scratch.

“He said ‘you’ve got to crush up fresh pineapple’, he said ‘that’s the way, that’ll get you through it’, and it seemed to work, so that was a lucky break.”

The marathon chat in 2012 raised more than $10,000 for St John Ambulance – one of the mayor’s many charitable efforts.

But big personalities often clash, and Sir Tim also had his share of rivalries and public clashes. Despite occasional acrimony, he clearly wanted to continue championing hard workers, underdogs, and the South.

As an example, criticising his own deputy mayor Neil Boniface in 2009 for a drink driving incident – and on the eve of a chilly trip to Norway – Sir Tim called Invercargill, by comparison, “a paradise, the mediterranean of the South Pacific”.

In 2021, he claimed his deputy Nobby Clark and chief executive Clare Hadley had refused for years to have the council pay for a smartphone worth more than $300 because he was “considered unable to fully use all the features”.

They appeared on paper to relent in 2020 with a $951.20 iPhone 8+ with accessories, but the mayor claimed he never received it – and the council refused to confirm or deny if it was delivered to him.

The council also refused that year to pay for Shadbolt’s annual mailout of Christmas cards on the ratepayer’s dime – despite having done so since the 1980s.

The council argued the auditor-general would find that year’s card – featuring a smiling Tim Shadbolt – inappropriate to fund as it could be interpreted as promoting an individual, rather than the city.

In an email, Sir Tim described the disagreement as “existential”. The compromise eventually arrived at was an e-card, with the savings going towards the mayor’s Christmas dinner.

He was ousted as mayor the following year, after tensions at the council – apparently stemming from his increasing inability to carry out duties.

His driver’s licence had been suspended and he was mostly refusing media interviews, but he remained the confident charmer.

Already New Zealand’s longest-serving mayor at the time, he admitted ahead of the election his “golden years” may be over and he wasn’t enjoying the job like he used to – but if he won again he could “probably do another three or four terms”.

But it wasn’t to be, with former deputy Nobby Clark taking office as mayor on October 15, beating a field of nine other candidates and Sir Tim coming in fourth.

Longtime colleague and friend Richard King, who remembered Sir Tim as having “oozed charisma”, said in the end the man was “crushed by the bureaucracy and political opposition, but he really had a good run”.

“He was the sort of person who could walk into a room without knowing anybody and five minutes later 95 percent of them were eating out of his hand.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Comedian Gary McCormick, a lifelong friend of Sir Tim Shadbolt, says the mayor was fearless but armed with “a landmark smile and laugh” that won people over.

The former Invercargill and Waitematā mayor, who was also an activist and student radical, died on Thursday at the age of 78.

McCormick told Summer Times it was a sad day for New Zealand.

He said he was sitting looking at photos of Sir Tim who did some 60 shows with McCormick around the country.

“He had that landmark smile and laugh. It was impossible for him to be depressed, whether he was in jail, arrested by the police or undergoing the rigours of a council meeting.”

McCormick said Sir Tim had a rare gift for leadership.

“He led by example, he was charismatic and he cut through the nonsense,” he told RNZ. It was a style befitting a man who had been in trouble as a student for using the word “bullshit”.

“There was no bullshit about him. He had a strange kind of fearlessness. He was not awed by people in high positions, whether that was police or anyone else. In jail, everyone liked him.”

McCormick met Sir Tim at a protest in front of Parliament when both were arrested by police in the mid-1970s.

“I was the first into the paddy wagon. My parents were deeply shocked, watching on TV at home in Titahi Bay. Tim was next in. We spent the day in the cells and became friends. We were eventually let go by a wise magistrate who thought if you can’t protest at Parliament, where can you protest.”

‘One of the great characters of his generation’

Sir Tim was one of the “characters of his generation”, former prime minister Helen Clark says.

Speaking to RNZ, she said Shadbolt would have a go at anything and do it fearlessly and in good humour.

“I think we miss some of the characters now in politics, that humour – it has all got a bit more pedestrian.”

Clark remembered Sir Tim from his days as a student activist on the Auckand University campus in the late 1960s. He had formed a political party calling itself the Auckland University Society for the Active Prevention of Cruelty to Politically Apathetic Humans – or AUSA POCPAH

“They used to dress in big capes, looking like the Wizard of Christchurch, and he had an alsatian dog.

“You could never forget him, with his look and capes and dog.

“He was a very good humoured guy who did crazy things.”

Clark said he would take on any cause or role fearlessly.

“When he stood for the mayoralty of Waitakere council, I think a lot of people were probably aghast. But he formed ‘Tim’s Team’ and it did very well for a while.

“And while his last years at Invercargill may not have been great for him, he always had the courage to give things a go. He was one of the great characters of his generation.”

Huge influence on Southland’s fortunes

The former chief executive of Invercargill City Council says Sir Tim Shadbolt was central to efforts to turn around the city’s fortunes.

Richard King met Sir Tim at a rally in his student activist days, and later worked with him for more than 20 years.

He told Morning Report Invercargill was once the fastest-declining city in Australasia, but Sir Tim helped attract jobs and people, in part by championing free tertiary fees.

“That had a huge boost to the city. You had more students spending money, you had people coming like outside investors, buying up houses so they could rent them to the students, and many students decided to stay,” he said.

Sir Tim loved people and was the kind of man who would “give you the shirt off his back.”

He could connect with anyone within minutes, King said.

“He was the sort of person [who] he could walk into a room without knowing anybody – and five minutes later, 95 percent of them were eating out of his hand,” he said.

“When he came to Invercargill, people really rallied around and supported him big time.”

Although political opposition later took its toll, Sir Tim had a good run, King said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A patient is shocked to find that more than two years after her GP ended its contract with Manage My Health, it has continued to receive her new medical records.

The patient health information portal will today begin contacting thousands of patients whose private medical information has been caught up in a ransomware attack.

Rachel – who is enrolled at one of The Doctors Medical Centres in Auckland – was emailed by her clinic in November 2023 to say it was switching to a new in-house app and that Manage My Health was “no longer available”.

“I assumed (foolishly) that meant my data had been migrated and deleted.”

However, after hearing the news that former users may also have had data stolen, she checked her old log-in.

“Sure enough it worked,” Rachel said.

“But it gets worse. When I log in, not only can I see pre-November 2023 data, but my medical records continued to be uploaded to MMH after my GP moved providers.

“There were still lab results, multiple lab results, that were being uploaded.”

Rachel said she had received the same results via the new app, so it was not clear whether the GP was still receiving results from the lab via Manage My Health, or the systems were still integrated in some way.

Green Cross, which owns The Doctors, has been approached for comment.

Manage My Health said it hoped to finish notifying all affected patients by “early next week”.

“Notifications will be sent initially through email to the address that was used to register the account.”

The email notifications would include an 0800 number that impacted individuals could call to get “support and assistance should they require”.

“We continue to work around the clock and closely with authorities and agencies to respond to this incident and resolve the matter for patients and general practices.

“We sincerely apologise for the pain and disruption that this incident has caused to our providers and patients as a result of this criminal activity against our systems.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand is an active participant in the Coalition of the Willing – but sending troops to support a ceasefire in Ukraine would need cabinet sign off, the Foreign Ministry says.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed to RNZ that New Zealand was represented at the meeting in Paris overnight by the ambassador to France Caroline Bilkey.

The meeting resulted in a joint declaration setting out that that Britain, France and European allies would deploy peacekeeping troops in Ukraine if a ceasefire with Russia was secured.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this would include the UK and France establishing military hubs, which could also store weapons and military equipment.

The declaration was hailed as “more than just words” by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, who named New Zealand and Australia in his speech.

The ministry said New Zealand welcomed progress made towards negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.

“We welcome recent progress made towards negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.

“Any lasting peace will require robust security guarantees for Ukraine which was a key focus of the discussions at the latest meeting held in Paris. New Zealand supports the ongoing efforts of the Coalition.

“New Zealand is an active participant in the Coalition of the Willing discussions but contributions to post-conflict security efforts would require a Cabinet decision.”

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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 Public Service Association says the Health Minister is blaming officials for slow Official Information Act (OIA) responses when his government’s cuts are at fault.

The Ombudsman stepped in over official documents slated for “proactive release” for an official information request first made in March. The final documents related to the request were not released until November.

Simeon Brown’s office has demanded improvement from officials, telling the Ombudsman the delays were in part caused by the volume of OIA requests.

“The delays in this case have been in part due to a higher number of OIAs on the Government’s health reforms causing resourcing pressures,” the Ombudsman’s office said.

“The Minister’s office has advised that the Minister directed officials to prioritise improvements to the proactive release programme so that future publications are timely, accurate and better supported.”

However, the PSA’s national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons told RNZ the minister should be taking responsibility instead.

“It shouldn’t take the Ombudsman stepping in for Health NZ to provide information to the public, but really this does come back to the minister. He can’t keep demanding savings and then blame officials when the impacts of cuts are felt,” she said.

“Health NZ has lost over 2000 roles either through early exits, voluntary redundancies, or vacancies not being filled. This includes teams that support official information requests. They’ve lost critical expertise.”

She said it was no wonder the public wanted information when the government was making such cuts, and the minister, his office, and health agencies should have seen it coming.

“This government is undermining the Official Information Act. It plays an absolutely critical role in enabling the participation of the people of New Zealand in public administration, but also in holding ministers and officials to account.”

‘This is not a one off’

Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni said it was a case of the government not doing its job.

“We’re concerned this is not the exception, this is not a one off, we’re seeing this more and more with health in particular, but across many of the government agencies,” she said.

She said Labour bore no responsibility for its health reforms increasing pressures on officials, and cuts would have had an effect, she said.

“They’ve stated openly those cuts would mostly be made to the back office, well we know that many of the people … needed to respond to Official Information Act requests are back-office workers.

“Now they’re in a position that they can’t respond to what they’re legally required to respond to in the period of time stipulated in the law.”

Sepuloni said New Zealand was well known for its transparency and timely official information responses were an important part of that, “but that has been compromised by this government”.

In a statement, Minister Brown said the agency had advised him it was appropriately resourced to fulfil its OIA obligations, “and knows that is my expectation”.

“Health NZ has been working to improve processes around the proactive release of information as well as regularly updating publicly available data,” he said.

“I’m advised Health NZ has had discussions with the Office of the Ombudsman around the work it is doing to ensure it complies with its obligations.”

Months of delays

RNZ had first requested documents about the government’s just-announced 24/7 telehealth service in March 2025.

That request was rejected, with Health NZ claiming it held no such procurement or planning information that would not impact commercial negotiations.

That was despite Health NZ not using a competitive process, instead inviting specific providers that were already offering such services to join its subsidy-based online portal.

That unusual approach was revealed in the first tranche of documents released in a late response to a second request made in early July after the service launched, with Health NZ promising the remaining documents would be released “as soon as possible”.

A follow-up in September asking when the remaining documents would be released was treated as another official information request.

Three of the five documents in the second tranche were released in mid-October, the remaining two were released in November.

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