Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Bay of Plenty kiwifruit worker remains in hospital following a workplace accident yesterday.

Riverlock Packhouse General Manager Blair Simm says the worker was injured while undertaking a routine plant cleaning process.

They were airlifted to Waikato Hospital in a serious condition.

The packhouse, near Ōpōtiki, is not operating today.

The company is working with authorities and Mr Simm says it is focused on supporting the injured staff member, their family and the wider Riverlock team.

Worksafe is investigating the accident.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Another group of West Auckland homeowners – including young families and a single mum – have been blindsided by the council telling them that front and backyards of their newbuilds do not meet resource consent requirements, more than a year after they purchased the homes.

Faced with a much delayed council inspection and a liquidated developer, owners say they have been unfairly left to pay thousands for the landscaping work that should’ve been done when the homes were sold.

Auckland Council said its environmental monitoring team was stretched and struggling to keep up with the increasing workload from housing intensification.

It was unable to tell RNZ how much backlog of sold properties with unclosed resource consents it was dealing with, after a declined OIA request and multiple follow ups.

Since RNZ’s reporting on a group of new homeowners in Massey, who said they were misled into buying homes with unclosed resource consents, more homeowners in similar situations are speaking up.

Ten townhouses on Purapura Lane in a Kumeu development do not have the fences, or trees in the original resource consent plans. Where there was meant to be soil and plantings, there is concrete and live cables underneath.

The developer – Treasure North Limited – owes more than $1.6 million to creditors, and RNZ has not been able to reach them after an unsuccessful attempt trying to reach them through their liquidator and doorknocking director Qingmiao Liu’s address.

Auckland Council said it issued an abatement notice to the developer in late 2023, and had followed up five times.

Four families who are affected told RNZ that none of their lawyers or real estate agents warned them about the abatement notice or the unclosed Resource Consent, and agents had told them they could do what they wanted with the front and back of their homes.

Owners feel let down by the developer, agents, lawyers and council

Christine O’Conner, who purchased her home in early 2024, said she was shocked to be told by council last month that her house did not comply with its resource consent.

The mum of three was first told that her deck – which came with the house – was not the correct dimensions, and that she needed to replace an area of concrete in front of her home with soil and trees,

“There’s live cables under a slab that the environmental monitoring unit are telling us to rip up,” she said.

O’Connor said the council backtracked five days later, saying that she doesn’t need to make the changes and that they’ll let her meet the requirements, only to revert back a few days later to say that she still needs to make the changes.

O’Connor said she does not have the money for the work needed, or to take legal actions against anyone.

“I’m a single mum, I don’t have the funds to go up against a real estate agent, a liquidated developer or a lawyer, like to me it’s just in the too hard basket, I just want to get something resolved with the council,” she said.

“I think that they need to look at each property individually and say well we’ve actually done our landscaping, which actually fits quite nicely into the environment, well lets just stick to that,” she added.

Since RNZ’s queries to Auckland Council, O’Connor has received another email this week saying she and her neighbours no longer needed to replace the concrete area.

The email said after consulting an engineering specialist to review her concerns about the electrical cables beneath the concrete area, they’ve decided that the concrete are area can remain in place across the 10 homes.

O’Connor said she bought her property based on it being completed, and did not understand why the law allows the homes to be sold in the first place.

“Why should a developer sell a property when there’s an abatement notice, they shouldn’t be allowed to do that , how’s that fair for people that are purchasing a property, how do we know there’s issues with the developer, it’s absolutely disgusting, this country needs to… there needs to be something sorted,” she said.

The current Resource Management Act (RMA) does not stop a property being sold while an unresolved abatement notice is in place.

Properties can also be legally sold without having passed council’s final inspection for resource consent compliance.

O’Connor’s neighbour Dhruval Gosai, who also purchased on Purapura Lane more than a year ago, had done her own landscaping, but estimated it would cost her more than $10,000 to make changes to meet consent standards.

“We are a young couple, who are hardly earning anything, and we are just paying our mortgages… there’s no way we can pay,” she said.

Gosai said she felt deceived by the developer, and ripped off by her lawyer and her real estate agent who failed to disclose the unclosed consent.

She said the council’s environmental officer has told her that if she asked more questions, they will need to charge her for their time.

“Councils and environmental officers are being paid for what they’re doing – they just need to do their jobs, this need to be paid by council not customers,” she said.

Auckland Council said the RMA allowed them to recover reasonable costs of monitoring resource consents, and that it was not covered by general rates because they relate to activities that benefit individual property owners.

It said monitoring officers typically charge $198 per hour.

Gosai said this experience has made her lose confidence in New Zealand and the council.

“I think New Zealand is not even a developing country, that’s what I feel now by Auckland Council.

“I’m basically from India, so India is one of the developing countries, by the looks of it, when we are buying house back in our country, we know what we’re doing actually, and we know how councils in India work, but Auckland Council is shit,” she said.

Auckland Council admits inspection delay but says resources are limited

Auckland Council environmental monitoring manager Robert Laulala said he understood the frustration, but that he had limited tools and staffing to work with.

“Our priority is ensuring compliance and protecting the environment, but current legislation limits the tools available to us,

“We continue to use every option within the law and advocate for stronger enforcement powers to hold developers accountable.

He said in the Kumeu case, the developer failed to advise the council when works were completed, which was a key step in triggering the final inspection.

“Without this notification, the council is unaware that the site is ready for sign off,” he said.

Earlier Laulala told RNZ it could take anywhere between a month to seven months for the final resource consent checks to be done after the building is complete.

However RNZ has been sent news tips from owners who have been sent abatement notices three years after they purchased their homes.

RNZ has sent an OIA requesting data on the average number of days it takes for homes to have their final Resource Consent inspection signed off after the builds are completed, and the backlog of homes that have been waiting for sign-off for more than a year.

RNZ has also requested how many non-compliance with resource consent notices the council has issued for new builds this year.

Auckland Council declined the request after more than 20 working days, saying it could not provide the information without substantial collation.

It also declined when RNZ asked if any figures could be provided to show the extent of the backlog of unclosed consents on sold homes.

“Developers hold the responsibility for closing out resource consents, so the council does not track this process, and is not required to,” Laulala said in a statement.

Laulala said they’ll continue to talk to developers and the real estate industry about the issues.

Local MP wants to see pragmatic work-around

Northwest Auckland MP Chris Penk said the problem with unclosed resource consents had been a long-standing area of difficulty.

Penk said he hoped council can be more accommodating towards homeowners, in terms of the consent requirements and timelines.

“If there are ways they can find to be pragmatic, and not impose strict deadlines in accordance with the current law, then that will give people breathing space until we can sort out this whole area,” he said.

Penk said council needed to be wary of the irresponsible developers.

“The sooner that we can crack down on them from a regulatory point of view, but also in terms of council, you know, being suitably cautious about approving any further applications, the better off everyone will be, including the good operators in the system at the moment,” he said

Resource Management Minister Chris Bishop said he could not comment on the experience of the Kumeu owners, as these were “private sales agreements”.

When asked if he would considered making changes to the RMA to put more pressure on developers to close resource consents before they sell, he said work to replace the RMA 1991 will intend to have a greater focus on compliance and enforcement.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Mayors of city and district councils would take over the duties of regional councils, in a coalition proposal pitched as the biggest shake-up of local government in three decades.

The mayors would form 11 Combined Territories Boards (CTBs), which would meet regularly and – on top of handling the business of regional councils – would tasked with coming up with a “Regional Reorganisation Plan” for reorganising how their councils are structured in the long term.

The CTBs would also have responsibility under the government’s RMA reforms for developing the region-wide spatial plan chapter, and a national environment plan chapter, to be included in combined regional plans.

The changes are now out for consultation, which remains open until 20 February, with the resulting legislation expected to be introduced mid-next year and passed in 2027.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop announced the moves on Tuesday, releasing the details at 5pm to avoid spooking the markets due to regional councils’ ownership of port companies around the country.

“Local government is meant to serve communities, not confuse them, but right now the system is tangled in duplication, disagreements and decisions that defy common sense,” Bishop said.

He said he expected the changes would put “downward pressure” on rates.

“The government’s belief is that local government has lost the social license and that New Zealanders have lost faith in local government – this is borne out by the fact that over half don’t bother to vote in local elections.”

He said it was clear to many the current structure was no longer fit for purpose, and the “status quo is not an option”.

Bishop said he could not guarantee the current elected regional councillors would stay in those roles for their full three-year term, only saying “it’s an option”.

“I think most New Zealanders, fair minded people, look at our current local government system and say we need change,” he said.

The government’s impending replacement of the Resource Management Act would mean a reduced role for regional councils, he said, with fewer plans and fewer consents – and presented a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to “reset” the structure of local government.

“Change is hard, and actually this government was elected to make tough decisions.”

Mayors would likely have a set number of votes on these boards based on population, but adjusted to ensure smaller communities still had a voice – although this was one of multiple options proposed.

A discussion document released alongside the decision gave three options for filling out the Combined Territories Boards with Crown Commissioners, to ensure the system “works in practice” by giving the government a stronger role.

These included:

• Observer only – the Crown Commissioner has no vote
• Veto power – the Crown Commissioner can override CTB decisions
• Majority vote – the Crown Commissioner has more than half the votes on the CTB with the remaining votes distributed among mayors

Watts said a “fair and balanced voting system” would ensure both regional and urban interests were represented in decisions about land and water.

The change would mean more efficient services, greater accountability, and smarter use of ratepayer funds, he said.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It is a framework for regions to design what works best for them with clear expectations that the outcome must be better than what exists today… crucially, it is also not about centralising power. This is about empowering local leaders to lead their own reform.”

“It’s not a power grab,” Bishop said. “This is about making local government fit for purpose.”

As well as taking on the roles of Regional Councils, the boards would have two years from establishment to produce their Regional Reorganisation Plans (RRPs) which would then be assessed against “clear national criteria” before approval by the Local Government Minister.

“Importantly, ministerial approval does not bypass community input,” the discussion document said. “Public consultation by the CTB is required before any plan is finalised.”

The document said the alternative would be to hold a referendum which were “costly and slow” and typically had low voter turnout and a tendency to favour the status quo.

New Zealand has 11 regional councils tasked with resource management including flood protection and air quality, public transport, pest control, civil defence and more.

They were set up as part of the 1989 local government reforms to replace more than 700 local boards and the roles of the former county councils.

The regional councils are separate from the 67 “territorial” authorities – city and district councils – which handle roads, water services, waste and recycling collection, parks and libraries, public safety bylaws.

New Zealand also has six unitary authorities which combine the powers and responsibilities of both a regional council and a territorial authority.

Bishop said the reorganisation plans may end up leading to more unitary authorities. He said there was a “strong lobby” for having more unitary authorities, and many in the local government sector had been calling for local mayors to simply be given the responsibilities of regional councils.

Watts said the changes were “absolutely” consistent with National’s rhetoric around localism and devolution, as the different layers of local governments were often in competition with each other and it would instead mean more streamlined services and more accountability.

Treaty of Waitangi settlement obligations would be carried over.

Existing unitary authorities would have the opportunity to also produce Reorganisation Plans, but would not be required to.

Regional and district boundaries would remain unchanged, at least until further decisions were made under the RRPs.

However, some districts like Rotorua and Taupō have populations in more than one region – so the government proposes two options:

• to either have those areas “adopted” into a neighbouring district, with an option to have those districts able to vote on which neighbouring mayor would represent them
• give these districts a voting share in each of the regional groups they are covered by, with proportionate votes and possibly with local ward councillors to represent them instead of the mayor

The discussion document also noted regional constituencies “including Māori constituencies and general constituencies, would no longer exist”.

“This is because regional councillors themselves would be replaced by the mayors in the region … the mayor of the city or district council would represent voters from the Māori and general rolls.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police have recovered the bodies of an internationally-recognised mountain guide and their client who died in an overnight fall on Aoraki Mt Cook.

The climbers were in a party of four, roped together in pairs, climbing from Empress Hut to the summit when the two fell from the mountain’s west ridge.

Canterbury Aoraki area commander inspector Vicki Walker said the group included two New Zealand mountain guides and two foreign nationals.

She said their bodies were found about 7am and had since been recovered from the mountain with the help of the Department of Conservation.

“We’re working under the jurisdiction of the coroner to return them to their loved ones. Police are contacting the next of kin. Until that process has been completed we won’t be releasing any further information,” she said.

“Most importantly our thoughts are with the clients’ families and friends in the community at this difficult time.”

Police were alerted to four climbers needing help late on Monday night after the two survivors used a device to alert the Rescue Coordination Centre, they said.

Two helicopters were dispatched to begin the search, with the survivors flown from the mountain at 2.15am.

Mountain Safety Council chief executive Mike Daisley said it was a busy mountaineering season.

“Recent fine weather has drawn many mountaineers to the high alpine, with multiple guided and recreational teams summiting Aoraki Mt Cook over the past week,” he said.

“Current conditions on the mountain are considered ideal for mountaineering, with firm overnight snow conditions and well-filled glaciers following early spring snowstorms.”

New Zealand Mountain Guides Association (NZMGA) president Anna Keeling said the guide, who was yet to be formally identified by police, was a respected and valued member.

“They were an integral part of our guiding community. NZMGA’s focus is now on those most affected and our priority is supporting the family, including their partner and children, as well as our wider guiding community during this extremely difficult time,” she said.

A formal investigation would take place, Keeling said.

“There will be an opportunity for the NZMGA to understand and share more about what happened in this tragic accident,” she said.

Three climbers – 56-year-old guide Kurt Blair, 50-year-old Carlos Romero from the United States and an unnamed Canadian guide – died while climbing Aoraki Mt Cook in December 2024.

Daisley said their bodies have not been recovered.

“These mountaineering fatalities are a reminder of the high-consequence environment of our alpine mountains, especially our highest peak,” he said.

“Mountaineering has very little margin for error. Even the most qualified professionals cannot eliminate all risk.”

Police said the two survivors were being offered support.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade directed inquiries to police.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington City Council could save tens of millions of dollars through cost-cutting, such as reducing staff, according to a new report.

In August, the then-new council chief executive Matt Prosser commissioned independent analysis from Deloitte of the council’s processes, and find opportunities to improve its performance and rates affordability.

That report was revealed on Tuesday afternoon, and highlighted issues such as the council’s aging technology, double-handling and ambiguity around the council’s roles and how it differed from central government.

It said through “right shaping” the council workforce and optimising spending through better governance, contract compliance and strategic sourcing, the council could save up to $79 million over three years.

Prosser said some of Deloitte’s recommendations were at odds with the wishes of the community and decisions previously made by the council.

“It’s important we don’t get ahead of the democratic decision processes at the heart of local government.

“We will critically assess everything in the report against the needs and aspirations of our communities.”

He said in the short-term the council would be focused on finding cost savings and making operational improvements.

“Throughout this process our staff will be kept informed, and we will seek their views on the initiatives raised in the report. As is council’s practice, we will also be engaging with the unions.”

The council had removed 58 roles over the past few months, he said.

“We’ve also kicked off a programme to improve our delivery across a number of areas including contract management, procurement and asset management.”

The report said the council had 330 more staff than it should, based on the number of full time employees per 1000 households.

It found that would result in a 18.5 percent reduction in employees and on an average it would save $33.9 million.

‘A flimsy PowerPoint presentation’ – PSA

PSA national secretary Duane Leo said the report was “fundamentally flawed”.

“This is a flimsy PowerPoint presentation that lacks any depth, rigour or even a basic understanding of what the Council’s role is.

“Hidden in the fine print, the report notes that its assumptions need to be validated and shouldn’t be relied upon for decision-making.”

Leo said it was based on crude benchmarking that ignored Wellington City Council provided services many other councils don’t such as social housing, city housing and addressing homelessness.

He said it also did not include that an extra 22,000 people come into the city every day for work.

“You cannot remove one in five positions without serious impacts. Building consent times will blow out. Libraries will have reduced hours. Parks will be less well maintained. Council has already removed 58 roles this year and staff are stretched thin.”

The Deloitte report made note that the council should make more use of AI for tasks such as triaging general enquiry’s from the public, creating reporting on project management and automate workflows.

Leo said the union was concerned about the proposed use of AI.

“Deloitte is assuming AI can deliver productivity gains of up to 50 percent but they haven’t done the work to show replacing experienced staff with ChatGPT would actually deliver those results.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Several flights to and from Tauranga have been cancelled on Tuesday due to volcanic ash from Whakaari – White Island.

GeoNet has the volcano at Alert Level 3, denoting a minor volcanic eruption, and images show a plume of steam and ash reaching over a kilometre high.

Earth Sciences NZ says it’s normal activity and isn’t suggestive of a larger eruption.

At least seven flights to Tauranga that were scheduled to depart from Auckland Airport have been cancelled throughout the day.

Steam from Whakaari also disrupted flights last week.

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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