Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say they are looking to identify a second man as part of the Ruatiti homicide investigation, as the hunt for Mitchell Cole continues.

Friends of sheep farmer Brendon Cole and wife Trina said they were found dead at their Murumuru Road property on 13 December.

Son Mitchell Cole, 29, has been named as a person of interest by police.

Central District CIB field crime manager Detective Inspector Gerard Bouterey said police were trying to identify a man who was seen near the intersection of Pukekaha Rd and Rautiti Rd at about 6pm on 13 December.

He said the man had been described as being in his late 20s or early 30s, 1.83m (6ft) tall and clean shaven, with a lean athletic build.

He was last seen wearing a singlet, shorts and a baseball cap.

Police also want to speak with anyone who was in or around Ruatiti Road at the time.

Police have advised the public not to approach Cole and to call 111, if they see him.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

State Highway Three is shut in southern Hamilton, after a crash involving a vehicle and a pedestrian.

Emergency services were called to Ohaupo Road just after 6pm Saturday.

Police say there are reports one person has serious injuries.

The route was shut near Mount View Road.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

As Christmas nears, MetService forecasts a mixed bag of weather for much of the country.

South Island

MetService’s early weather forecast suggests it’s a good idea to hold the celebrations indoors, with the South Island facing a bit of rain.

Meteorologist Silvia Martino said the West Coast faced the worst of it.

Further east, Christchurch and Dunedin should be mostly fine with some clouds.

It was still too early for an accurate weather forecast and conditions could change, she said.

North Island

MetService also warns Aucklanders and Northlanders to have a back-up plan, with inconsistent weather expected on Christmas Day.

The early weather forecast is still taking shape, but early indications suggest rainclouds will emerge over the upper North Island in the afternoon.

In the lower North Island, Martino expected good conditions in Wellington.

“It’s not looking too bad for Wellington, might be a bit windy, but we’re used to that.

“From about Auckland northwards, we’ve got some showers later in the day.”

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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 former Gloriavale member says leavers should be involved in helping families adjust to alternative schooling options.

The secretary for education has confirmed the registration of Gloriavale Christian School will be cancelled.

The school’s board said it would challenge the Ministry of Education’s decision, dubbing the move “unjust”.

The ministry said it had outlined a range of options for parents, and had just started working with families, community and other schools.

Virginia Courage, who left the community with her family in 2019, said Gloriavale families would need ample support.

“There needs to be a lot of discussion with the parents, and it actually might take input from leavers to just help them and re-assure them through the process.”

After leaving the West Coast Christian commune, the most daunting issue facing Courage and her husband was the education of her children, she said.

When they departed Gloriavale, seven of their 10 children were still in school.

“We were more concerned about that than where we were going to leave, what kind of Christianity or religion we were now going to be a part of, what we were going to wear,” Courage said.

“Gloriavale people are filled with so much fear about the education system, other than the Gloriavale system.”

Secretary Ellen MacGregor-Reid wrote to Gloriavale’s private school in October, advising that she was considering deregistering the school, after a second failed Education Review Office (ERO) audit in as many years.

July’s ERO report found Gloriavale Christian School had not met three of eight registration criteria, and was not a physically and emotionally safe space for students.

Gloriavale Leavers’ Trust spokesperson Liz Gregory said families that had home-schooled their children had also failed ERO reviews.

Courage was concerned about the potential for “heavier” indoctrination tactics outside school hours, if children were educated outside Gloriavale.

“I think that’s a real issue that needs to be considered. How much are those little children going to hear – even more now – talk about the fact they’re going outside into this worldly school and these people are going to teach them terrible things?

“No child should be suffering through that.”

Gloriavale children’s’ eyes will be opened – lawyer

Lawyer Dennis Gates was part of the legal team that represented former Gloriavale residents at the Employment Court. He said the closure of the school would have knock-on effects for the children inside the commune.

“With these kids going into public schools, they’ll get unimpeded access to the internet. They’ll see how the rest of the world lives, and then go back and see what squalor they’re living in, and ask the question why.”

Gates called on the government and its applicable ministries to put Gloriavale through a “forensic examination”.

“They signed off a child welfare policy with Howard Temple, who has now been convicted of child sexual abuse, and all the factors in that child welfare policy that indicate sexual abuse are still there on Saturday.”

Temple – the 85-year-old former Gloriavale overseeing shepherd – was last week sentenced to 26 months in prison for indecently assaulting young women and girls over 20 years.

Children’s Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad told RNZ the transition of Gloriavale children into other schooling options would need to be carefully managed.

“No matter what the new educational environment looks like for the children of Gloriavale, it’s going to be really important that there’s continued oversight of that to ensure there’s high quality education, and that it is safe and inclusive for all of the children of Gloriavale.”

The cancellation was due to take effect from 23 January.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Human remains have been found on an island off the coast of Northland.

On Saturday afternoon, police said they were discovered on Coppermine Island (Mauipane), east of Whangārei.

They have begun a formal identification process and said it was unclear how long they might have been there.

Police said identifying the remains was “expected to take some time” and not other information was available.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

One person has been seriously injured and a section of State Highway 2 has been closed in Manawatū, after a three-vehicle crash.

The highway was closed near Piripiri Road, just north of the town, after the crash was reported about 2.40pm Saturday.

“One person is believed to have sustained serious injuries, a further four people have moderate injuries,” police said.

NZTA said the crash was blocking the road and motorists in the area should follow the instructions of emergency services at the site.

Drivers should avoid the area and expect delays.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Organised crime networks are escalating their activities in New Zealand, Associate Minister of Police Casey Costello says, announcing a new cross-agency plan to combat them.

“New Zealand and our Pacific neighbours are being increasingly targeted by organised criminal groups, who are using new technologies and new ways of operating,” she said. “We need a different, stronger and more cohesive response.”

• The Detail: Changing the future for organised crime

Many New Zealand agencies have some level of responsibility for dealing with organised crime, but more work was needed to enable them to work together more effectively, Costello said on Saturday.

The change would mean better use of resources, powers and information that agencies collectively possess, and better accountability of efforts to combat organised crime.

• ‘Organised crime is organised. We are not’, ministers told

Organised crime taking place in New Zealand included drug trafficking, scams, migrant exploitation and money laundering, harming individuals and families, legitimate businesses and the broader New Zealand economy, she said.

“The illicit drug trade alone is estimated to cost the country around $1.5 billion in social harm.

“The key thing I think we need to recognise is that organised crime is a business that will do anything it can to make a profit. They are agnostic about commodity – whether it’s people, whether it’s tobacco, whether it’s drugs, whether it’s money laundering, whether it’s scamming – whatever they can do to make money, they will do.

“We need to be pivoting and responding in a far more flexible and responsive way than we currently are.”



Some of the almost 14kg of methamphetamine and $360,000 of cash seized by police from a Mexican man posing as a tourist in Auckland. NZME / Supplied / NZ Police

A ministerial advisory group on organised crime has published a series of reports on the vulnerabilities in the country’s response to transnational crime, including revealing that government agencies typically avoid the risk of sharing data and work was needed to address the problem.

“Organised crime is organised, we are not”, and it should be recognised as the greatest threat to national security, the report, released earlier said.

It recommended urgent action, including one minister tasked with responsibility for the government’s organised crime response, an overhaul of strategy and a charter that would hold agencies accountable. It also warned the government that a “smaller, scaled back option” taken from its full recommendations, would “not achieve the results we need”.

What the newly announced plan includes:

• Exploring the idea of one agency responsible for transnational and serious organised crime
• Developing new methods for sharing information and data between agencies
• Putting into action a package of actions on methamphetamine harm
• Strengthening communities and addressing harm through ‘Resilience to Organised Crime’ initiatives.

“It’s about better accountability,” Costello said. “It’s about focusing our resources where they most need to be.

“Sometimes we get swallowed up with keeping busy and forget to identify what the outcomes are. We really want to get some strong outcomes, because organised crime effectively needs organised government to respond to it.”

However Aotearoa had some advantages when it came to tackling organised crime, she said.

“We are the envy when I go around the world and talk to other agencies. We don’t have state boundaries – we have one jurisdiction.

“We have one border. We have very straightforward legislation.

“We have a good judiciary, so we have that cohesion that should make us the very hardest border to penetrate and the easiest to enforce law in this space.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Manta rays visiting New Zealand are under threat from pollution and boat strikes.

The Department of Conservation has assigned manta rays the threatened status after a new report found numbers were dwindling.

Their status is now ‘Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable’ when they were previously ‘Data Deficient’.

“This change represents a greater level of concern for the species than previously held,” DOC said in a statement.

The manta rays are one of 113 species who were assessed by an independent panel for the latest conservation status report about New Zealand’s chimaeras, sharks and rays.

Senior Science advisor Dr Karen Middlemiss said manta rays spend about six months in New Zealand waters each year when it’s warm.

But DOC staff often find them injured.

“In New Zealand waters the sorts of things that we find impacting them are pollution in the waters, habitat degradation, disturbance in key aggregation sites, and vessel activity can also play a role, Middlemiss said.

“We often find animals that have got evidence of boat strikes.”

Middlemiss said current estimmates suggest there are just a few thousand manta rays in New Zealand – but further data is needed to confirm this.

“We know very little about our manta ray population size, age structure, and regional connectivity with other Pacific populations.”

Meanwhile, Basking and Plunket’s sharks are now considered ‘Threatened – Nationally Critical’ – the last status before extinction.

“The disappearance of the basking shark from New Zealand’s shores is very concerning, and we don’t know exactly why this has happened,” Middlemiss said.

“Urgent research is required to better understand population pressures – both human induced and environmental – to inform conservation management decisions for both basking and Plunket’s sharks.”

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