Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Department of Corrections says a sharp rise in allegations of sexual assault by prisoners against staff is largely due to the introduction of a digital complaints function on in-prison kiosks.

However, a prisoner advocacy group says the increase reflects longstanding issues that were only now becoming visible.

Figures released to RNZ under the Official Information Act show there were 615 allegations of sexual assault made by prisoners against staff in the 2024/25 financial year, with the highest numbers recorded at Auckland Prison (152) and Mt Eden Corrections Facility (127).

However, Corrections said the “overwhelming majority” of those complaints were not substantiated.

Of the total, 343 were recorded as entered in error, 82 were withdrawn by prisoners and 99 were referred to alternative complaints processes because they did not relate to staff misconduct. The figures show 91 were not upheld, while just three allegations were upheld and one resulted in Police charges.

So far in the 2025/26 financial year, 153 allegations had been recorded, with similar trends in outcomes.

Corrections attributed the increase in complaints since 2023 to a new feature added to prisoner kiosks, allowing inmates to directly submit allegations against staff.

The President of the Corrections Association, Floyd Du Plessis, described the kiosks as fixed, wall-mounted touchscreen terminals available to prisoners in day rooms.

“They’re similar to an iPad-type system,” he said. “They’re bolted to the wall, and prisoners can access them during the day.”

Through the kiosks, inmates could communicate with case managers, request to speak with staff, access information, order canteen items and lodge complaints.

The complaints function covered a wide range of issues, from prisoner rights and general concerns to allegations about staff conduct, Du Plessis said.

Corrections said the kiosks also included a free-text field, which the department said had shown many complaints categorised as sexual assault were not, in fact, allegations of that nature.

Du Plessis said in his view many of the complaints were “malicious” or stemmed from misunderstandings of routine prison procedures.

He pointed to examples where prisoners had made sexual assault allegations following standard rub-down searches, which were part of daily safety protocols.

“There’s nothing sexual in that … it’s just a duty staff have to perform,” he said.

“While we do have a small number of these complaints that do come through, it is very small, and most of the allegations that do come through end up having no result because there’s no substance or basis to it,” he said.

The union wanted a limit on the number of complaints a prisoner could file each day.

“At this point, removing the complaints wouldn’t be reasonable … but potentially limiting the number of complaints a prisoner can make on any day – absolutely,” he said.

Du Plessis said complaints were initially assessed by senior officers, with further action depending on their seriousness. In some cases, staff could be reassigned or suspended while investigations were carried out.

He said access to CCTV footage often allowed incidents to be reviewed quickly.

“If it’s blatantly malicious, then it can very quickly be resolved and the staff member is not affected,” he said.

‘Kiosks didn’t cause the problem’ – advocate

However, People Against Prisons Aotearoa spokesperson, Dr Emmy Rākete, rejected the suggestion that kiosks were behind the rise in allegations.

“The introduction of digital kiosks has allowed the full extent of this problem to finally be visible for the first time,” she said.

“The kiosks didn’t cause an increase to occur. They’re just letting us get a clearer view at how many people in prison feel that they’ve been sexually violated by Corrections staff.”

Rākete said her organisation’s advocacy work with prisoners meant the figures were “not surprising”.

“It’s broadly in line with what incarcerated people have been telling us … that this is a problem, that this happens and that when it does happen, there are very few avenues to address it.”

Rākete also questioned Corrections’ interpretation of the data, particularly the high number of complaints that were withdrawn or not upheld.

“To point to every complaint that didn’t end in an investigation or charges being placed and say that it was frivolous, that doesn’t really hold a lot of weight with us,” she said.

She said prisoners’ dependence on staff could influence whether complaints proceeded.

“People in prisons are totally dependent on the institution … they are totally vulnerable to people running these institutions.”

Rākete said withdrawals should not be taken at face value.

“If I was raped in prison by a prison guard and I finally had an anonymous means to place that complaint and someone came knocking on my door … I can think of a lot of ways that I could be compelled to withdraw that complaint.”

She called for stronger independent oversight of complaints.

“There needs to be clearer external means of investigating and protecting the rights of incarcerated people.”

Private prison data missing

Corrections noted that the figures did not include Auckland South Corrections Facility, which was operated by Serco New Zealand under a public-private partnership and maintained a separate complaints system.

Rākete said that raised serious concerns about transparency and accountability.

“People have a right not to get raped … the Crown can’t subcontract out work that violates people’s rights to private contractors and wash its hands of the situation.”

She said the public had a right to know how many allegations were being made in privately run prisons.

Rākete said the spike in complaints following the introduction of kiosks should be treated as a warning sign, not dismissed.

“The fact that as soon as Corrections provided a more anonymous means of reporting sexual violence … there was an immediate uptick in reports … should be very concerning.

“That to me indicates that there is a problem here that this new system has made visible for the first time.”

The Department of Corrections was approached for comment.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Finance Minister Nicola Willis might be being optimistic if she thinks inflation at 3.7 percent is a “worst case scenario”, one economist says.

Willis told media on Monday that in the event of a prolonged conflict in Iran, lasting until the end of the year, inflation could hit that level, as modelled by Treasury.

Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said that seemed light.

Data on Tuesday showed food prices up 4.5 percent over a year, alcohol and tobacco up 0.2 percent month-on-month and electricity up 1.6 percent month-on-month, a bigger jump than expected. Domestic airfares were up 12.8 percent compared to January and more than 10 percent over a year.

“It just makes me a bit nervous in terms of how realistic it is to expect inflation to moderate through the course of this year.

“There are so many little bits you can look at and go oh there’s issues there … which suggests it’s going to be perhaps more difficult to get it back down to 2 percent than the Reserve Bank might have been anticipating.”

He said he would be redoing forecasts over the next couple of weeks and would increase his expectations.

“My instinctive reaction to the number from the Finance Minster yesterday of 3.7 percent being a worst-case scenario … it felt too light to be a worst-case scenario.”

At ANZ, senior economist Miles Workman said the bank’s had updated its forecast.

“The Middle East conflict is no longer shaping up to be a short, sharp shock.”

It now thinks inflation will peak at an annual rate of 3.6 percent in the third quarter of the year, with oil prices hovering around US$100 a barrel for some time yet before falling again towards the end of the year.

“Base effects, together with the assumption that oil prices eventually normalise, see annual inflation troughing at 1.4 percent in Q3 2027 before stabilising around 2 percent over the medium term. There are risks on both sides of this.”

Westpac said it now did not expect inflation to get below 3 percent until the end of the year.

Mike Jones, chief economist at BNZ, said it would be the second quarter data on for inflation that bore the full brunt of the direct effect of rising fuel prices, although there would be some impact on the March month of the first quarter.

“Things are clearly still moving around but we recently bumped up our Q1 inflation forecast to 2.9 percent , with Q2 rising to 3.6 percent.

“As always there are overs and unders to balance [from Tuesday’s data] … But we’re left with a bit of upside risk on that 2.9 percent forecast for Q1. We didn’t see quite the extent of seasonal declines in fresh fruit and vegetable prices we’d factored in.”

ANZ said it did not think the change to the outlook for inflation would affect its official cash rate predictions yet.

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– 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

Hundreds of speeding fines issued on a single day in Lower Hutt have been cancelled and refunded, after NZTA Waka Kotahi decided road signs had created confusion about the speed limit.

The transport agency issued 279 fines for speeding captured by a mobile safety camera on Rata Street on 16 November.

Motorists had received fines for driving above 30km/h on that day. Some had even been issued multiple fines for the same day.

Locals complained online and to the agency, saying road signs did not make a 30km/h limit clear.

A variable speed limit sign near Rata Street School, which caps the speed at 30km/h during school drop-off and pick-up times, created confusion as to what the speed limit was outside of these times.

Another sign further down the street signals a 30km/h limit but has a ‘Kura/School’ warning on it, implying there is another school zone, despite not being near a school.

Nikki Anglesey was fined $170 for going 51km/h down the road, which she thought had a limit of 50km/h, as there were no schools near where she was driving and it was a Sunday during the summer school holidays – well outside of school pick-up and drop-off times.

“It’s the first time I’ve had a speeding ticket in forever. I was kind of shocked because of the amount.”

She originally “shrugged it off” but decided to challenge the fine because she thought the signs were “really not clear”.

After Anglesey’s appeal was rejected, she requested more details about where the camera was and on what basis the fine was issued.

“I got very vague responses to that,” she said.

Anglesey consulted the NZTA’s website to find out the speed limit on Rata Street, but was given conflicting answers.

“If you click on the street, it will say 30[km/h], but if you put in your address, it will say 50[km/h].”

She decided to apply to go to court. But the case never got that far.

Following a review by NZTA, the transport authority decided on a blanket reversal of all fines for that day, acknowledging that signs had “created a genuine uncertainty”.

“NZTA acknowledges that the speed limit signage in place at this site was not clear,” it said in a statement.

“Concerns were raised by affected drivers that the different signs caused confusion about the time period that the 30 km/h speed limit was enforceable. We accept this situation was confusing for drivers and this is why we rescinded the infringement notices we issued.”

Anglesey found the letter notifying her of this decision “interesting”.

“They don’t give you much detail, but they said: ‘we’ve changed it because of public feedback’. That’s kind of weird. Shouldn’t you change it because the signage is not right? Or because no one still knows what the speed is on the street?

“Somebody, whoever’s in charge, needs to make a decision on what the speed actually is and whether that’s consistent for the whole street.”

Anna Chinn, an RNZ staffer, received three fines for that Sunday, when her partner had been driving.

“I have had maybe in my entire adult life two speeding tickets. That’s news to us that it’s 30[km/h] all the way on Rata Street.”

Chinn was ecstatic when she found the fines had been cancelled or were being refunded.

“Getting three speeding fines refunded is just like three Christmases coming at once.

“I’m grateful to everybody who had the capacity and went the whole hog and made sure that NZTA refunded those tickets.”

Speed limit changes causes confusion

Rata Street had a 50km/h speed limit outside of the school zone up until 2024, when the limit on the street was reduced to 30km/h.

In January 2025, the central government required local councils to reverse all speed limits lowered since January 2020 back to their previous limits by 1 July and introduce variable speed limits outside schools during pick-up and drop-off times.

Outside Rata Street School, the speed limit is 30km/h at all times.

The council is rolling out speed limit reversals near schools in batches, with Rata Street School in the third and last one.

Streets with schools in the first batch had speed limits outside of drop-off and pick-up times revert to 50km/h in January. Those in phase two are currently implementing changes.

A Hutt City Council spokesperson said: “There are variable speeds on Rata Street and motorists need to be vigilant especially when driving past the schools on this street.

“We are making some changes that will make things clearer for motorists and we have been in touch with the community about this.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Firefighters are still battling a blaze at a large distribution warehouse in the central North Island.

The fire in Milson, Palmerston North was first reported at 6.32pm on Tuesday.

A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said the first crew was on the scene by 6.39pm and found the building “well ablaze”.

Everyone was safely evacuated from the building, the spokesperson said.

More than a dozen crews have been working through the night to bring the blaze under control, with resources being pulled in from Wellington.

“Twelve fire appliances and about seven support vehicles from the Manawatū area are attending. Further fire trucks from Whanganui, Paraparaumu and Porirua are also attending.”

The fire was now “largely contained”.

“It’s too early to determine a cause of the fire, however a fire investigator is in attendance,” the spokesperson said.

In an update on social media at 4am on Wednesday, the Palmerston North Fire Brigade said the fire was proving hard to control.

It said “high fuel loading of various types, large industrial shelving and the type of building construction making it difficult to reach the main areas of fire”.

It asked people to avoid the area during their morning commute, saying JFK Drive would be shut for some time between Rangitikei Line and Fairs Road in both directions.

“Reminder if you’re down wind of smoke to shut your windows and leave air conditioning off and if you feel at danger to please call 111.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Seven Oranga Tamariki workers are accused of bashing two teens – or failing to stop them being bashed – in a tiny phone room at Korowai Manaaki in Wiri.

Prosecutors said the staff had gratuitously assaulted the boys after the teens had barricaded themselves in the two-by-1.5 metre room for more than an hour.

When the staff eventually got the door open, the six male defendants “stormed the booth in quick succession” and when they emerged, the teens appeared slumped over and injured.

But defence lawyers said the staff were using legal restraint to keep themselves and the teens safe in a high risk situation where the boys were destroying the booth, setting off sprinklers and flooding the unit.

Joseph Kirifi, Tapu Brown, Aidan Va, Quentin Schmidt, Susana Sofara, and two others with name suppression are on trial at the Manukau District Court and today pleaded not guilty to two charges of ill treatment or neglect of a child on 23 May 2023.

The crown told the jury that the charge meant each defendant had either assaulted the young people themselves, or failed to take reasonable steps to stop others hurting them.

Crown prosecutor Katie Karpik said the 16- and 17-year-old boys, who have name suppression, had been refusing to come out of the booth on the day in question, setting off the sprinklers.

They both had convictions for violence, were difficult to managed and one had escaped onto the roof before, she said.

When staff were finally able to open the door, the staff were frustrated and “elevated”, she said

“Despite there being only two youths in that small phone booth room they became significantly outnumbered by the defendants, she said.

“All seven defendant were in the room at one stage….and all six male defendants were in it for three minutes with two youths.”

Witnesses in the following days noticed black eyes and other injuries, she said

“The crown suggests such injuries are the result of gratuitous assaults and not necessary and reasonable levels of force.”

One of the defendants, Aidan Va, already had a conviction that for harming a boy at Korowai Manaaki about a month earlier, she said

He had arranged and filmed a one-on-one fight between two boys, she said.

She noted that did not mean he was guilty of the latest charges.

Relating to today’s case, he had sent a text to a friend saying he had “f***ed up” two boys and it was “crack up,” Karpik said.

The investigation that led to today’s charges was not sparked by a complaint from the boys, but other case workers had noticed their injuries.

When asked about them, the boys had lied and blamed them on things like falling off a chair, she said.

“They appreciated snitching was not the done thing,” she said.

No solid evidence, says defence

Each defendant has their own lawyer, and many wanted to make clear each defence was likely to be unique.

But most pointed out that, under law, the justice facility staff are entitled to use force against young people as long as it is reasonable.

They noted their clients were well trained and had used known, safe tactics to restrain the boys.

Joseph Kirifi’s lawyer Rasyad Ismail said his client was responding to a fast past situation that had escalated in the unit.

“Staff had no choice but to force entry into the room,” he said.

“The situation unfolded in a custodial environment where staff are sometimes required to intervene quickly to manage behaviour and to maintain safety,” he said.

Each of the boys had a long history of serious violence, including escaping custody, he said.

Several of the lawyers noted prosecutors did not know what happened in the booth – so, they could not separate who was alleged to have done the assault and who was alleged to have allowed it.

Shannon Withers, defending one of the men with name suppression, said the Crown case was “inferences at best, guesses and speculation at worst.”

He noted there were a lot of small people in a very small space where the boys had been destructive. That meant there could have been accidental injuries.

Emma Priest, for another with name suppression, noted the text messages the Crown was relying on for some of its case should be taken with a grain of salt.

They could be black humour among friends, she said, noting the use of emojis.

The trial is likely to take several weeks.

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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 New Zealand citizen living in Dubai says they feel abandoned by the government as conflict intensifies, describing constant missile activity, shortages and a lack of clear evacuation support.

Speaking anonymously, the expat told RNZ that conditions on the ground were far worse than portrayed publicly.

“Everything is not normal. It’s absolutely not business as usual,” they said.

“We’re getting constant alerts on our phones to take shelter. You can hear missiles being fired and intercepted. From my balcony I can see drones and fighter jets.”

The New Zealander described waking to “waves of bombs” and ongoing air defence activity in residential areas.

They said essential services were under strain, with supermarkets facing shortages and rising prices and hospitals unable to admit patients for non-critical care.

“I took a friend to the emergency department and they needed surgery, but they were turned away because hospitals are saving beds due to the conflict.”

The resident also described a crackdown on documenting events, saying authorities had warned people not to take photos or videos under any circumstances.

“Even if it’s your own apartment, even if a drone flies into it, you can be arrested for taking a photo.”

They alleged spot checks were being carried out, with officials reportedly searching phones and detaining people found with images of incidents.

“There’s no real explanation anymore. It’s just: don’t do it, or you’ll be arrested.”

‘I feel abandoned’

The expat said they had been monitoring the SafeTravel website prior to the conflict affecting Dubai, but no timely warning was issued.

“There was no early indication this was coming. The communication has been really patchy,” they said.

The resident described repeated failed attempts to contact New Zealand consular services during an emergency.

“I called the emergency number and it went to voicemail. I didn’t hear back for two days.”

Compounding the situation, the New Zealander said they lost access to their finances after a cyberattack coincided with a web service outage.

“My account was being drained and I couldn’t stop it. The banking systems were down. Even my bank manager said he couldn’t do anything.”

Despite reporting the cyberattack and theft, they said no assistance was provided.

“I contacted the consulate and got nothing. I’m sitting here with a drained account, waiting for my next payday.”

Confusion over evacuation flights

The resident also raised concerns about the lack of clarity around evacuation efforts.

They said New Zealanders were asked to register interest in evacuation but were not given details about timing, destinations, or costs.

“At one point we were told the flights would just drop us somewhere and we’d have to make our own way home,” they said.

“There was never a clear plan.”

They also questioned reports that evacuation flights were under-utilised.

“The next thing we heard was that planes were flying home empty because there wasn’t enough interest. But people here are saying they were never properly offered a seat.”

Commercial flights remained an option, but the expat said prices were prohibitively high and conditions unpredictable.

“People are paying thousands for tickets, but then the airport shuts, or roads are blocked, and they can’t get there… and they don’t get refunds.”

Others were attempting to leave by road, despite legal and logistical barriers.

“People are buying cars just to try and drive across borders. But the advice we’re getting doesn’t match reality. In some cases you can’t even legally do what’s being suggested.”

The New Zealander said what many expatriates wanted most was clear, direct guidance.

“I asked them: should we leave? And they wouldn’t say yes.

“If they had said, ‘leave now, here’s the plan,’ I would have gone immediately.”

Instead, they said many feel left to make life-or-death decisions with limited information.

The New Zealander said they felt others lacked sympathy for expats as they believed that those living in Dubai were wealthy or insulated from hardship.

“I’m not an influencer. I’m just trying to support my kids through university,” they said.

They said other New Zealanders in the region had shared similar concerns.

“Everyone feels the same. We feel like we haven’t been given enough information or support.”

“It’s really scary and I’m definitely not the only one who feels abandoned.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was approached for comment.

Its Safe Travel website continues to warn against travel to the United Arab Emirates, due to the deteriorating security situation in the Middle East and the current risk posed by military strikes and armed conflict.

“We encourage you to monitor local media for updates and follow the advice of local authorities.”

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