Category: Public Media

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Police response to Jevon McSkimming shows why victims afraid to come forward – advocate

Source: Radio New Zealand

Former Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming. RNZ / Mark Papalii

A victims’ advocate says the police treatment of a woman who accused a former top cop of sexual offending is the very thing most complainants are terrified of.

A highly critical report from the Independent Police Conduct Authority has found serious misconduct at the highest levels, over how police handled allegations against former Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.

The claims arose from an affair between McSkimming and the woman, who at the time was a junior non-sworn police employee.

The authority said the police simply accepted McSkimming’s view that she was a woman scorned and she was charged over the more than 300 harassing emails she sent.

The charge was later withdrawn.

Advocate Claire Buckley said victims feared being disbelieved and dismissed by police.

“What’s the first thing that happens to this poor woman? She’s not believed.

“And then take it another level, we’re going to pursue her to try and protect ourselves because this is one of our cop buddies. It just screams 1980s Louise Nicholas, all over again.”

Buckley said the woman had been treated appallingly, and it undermined trust in police, but she urged victims not to be deterred from speaking up.

“The only way we’re ever going to get rid of the rot is if we keep pointing to it and saying, ‘Look, this needs to go and the rot needs to be cut out’.

“And the only way that’s going to happen is if the victims of that rot come forward.”

Buckley said cases like this were not only traumatising for the person at the centre of it, but for anyone else who’d had unsatisfactory dealings with police.

National sexual violence survivor advocate, Louise Nicholas was disgusted by the police’s handling of sexual offending complaints against McSkimming.

Nicholas made rape accusations against police officers in the 1980s. The detective who initially handled her complaints was convicted of a cover-up in 2007.

“I won’t use the swear words I actually want to use,” she said, referencing the IPCA’s latest report.

“I was absolutely, saddened and disgusted to see that this has happened again.”

Nicholas said the woman’s first complaint should have triggered an investigation, but instead it was swept under the rug.

“This woman has disclosed this offending and has gone to the right people, but the people that should have helped her decided that their mate was actually more important.”

However, she didn’t want people to be discouraged from reporting sexual offences.

“You can’t put it on the police that do the amazing job that they do with our survivors, you can’t tar them with the same brush.”

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Why the current housing market is working for first-home buyers

Source: Radio New Zealand

Lower interest rates may be saving first-home buyers more than $480 a month. RNZ

Lower interest rates may be saving first-home buyers more than $480 a month, and helping more people into the property market.

Cotality and Westpac have released their latest First-Home Buyer Report, which shows first-time buyers accounted for 27.7 percent of property purchases nationwide in the September quarter.

That is a record, up from a previous high of 26.9 percent in December.

In the wider Wellington region, they were responsible fort 36 percent of property purchases in the first nine months of the year. Rotorua was another area where they were strong, at 32 percent.

The data shows they are buying houses with smaller deposits. Westpac said the average loan-to-value ratio for first-home buyers was 79 percent, up from less than 75 percent three years ago.

Cotality New Zealand chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said there were a number of factors on first-home buyers’ side, including more houses for sale to choose from and easing loan-to-value rules.

Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said falling interest rates had been a big help to allow people to enter the market sooner, with smaller deposits.

“It’s meaning the housing market is now a lot more affordable for New Zealanders looking to get their first home.

“We’ve seen a lift in lending to first home buyers, with activity now at its highest level in more than three years. Lower interest rates mean some FHBs won’t need to raise as much equity, given that the same cash outflow will now service a larger loan.

“Compared to this time last year, one-year fixed mortgage rates are nearly 150 basis points lower, while two-year fixed mortgage rates are around 250 basis points lower than in 2023.

“The fall in the one-year mortgage rate over the past year shaved around $485 off the average FHB’s monthly minimum mortgage payments. That’s a saving equivalent to 4 percent to 5 percent of the average first-home buyer’s monthly income, based on the median price of $700,000,” he said.

The average age of a first-home buyer has increased to 36, from about 34 pre-Covid.

First-home buyers had paid a median price so far this year of $700,000, just above the $695,000 paid last year.

They favoured standalone houses.

Davidson said a typical first-home buyer was not purchasing the cheapest properties in the market. The lower-quartile price across all buyers is $585,000.

They made up 35 percent of purchases in the cheapest 30 percent of the market. But activity was rising across all price brackets.

Ranchhod and Davidson said conditions should remain favourable for first-home buyers in the near term.

“House prices may well start to rise again in 2026 but the pace should not be so strong that first-home buyers fall behind,” Davidson said.

Ranchhod agreed their strength in the market should continue.

“We’re still expecting to see another reduction in the official cash rate from the Reserve Bank and importantly we’ve had big interest rate cuts over the past year and we haven’t seen the full impact yet. As that ripples through the economy and the jobs market that will support a pickup in the housing market including first-home buyers.”

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‘Most deteriorated’ – NZ plummets in global tobacco control ranking

Source: Radio New Zealand

NZ has plummeted from second in the world in 2023 to 53rd in the 2025 Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index. File photo. Unsplash / fotografierende

New Zealand has been labelled “most deteriorated” in an international study assessing the interference of the tobacco industry.

The country has plummeted from second in the world in 2023 to 53rd in the 2025 Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index.

The report, produced by the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control, has been released every two years since 2019 and now ranks 100 countries.

The main factors damaging New Zealand’s standing are the repeal of the smokefree generation laws, the tax break benefiting tobacco giant Philip Morris and the movement of staff between politics and the lobbying industry.

Vape-Free Kids, an advocacy group, said the “staggering drop” of 51 places in two years was the most dramatic fall of any country in the history of the report and an “international disgrace” for the government.

“New Zealand has become an international embarrassment and an example of how quickly a government can be corrupted by the tobacco industry,” Vape-Free Kids co-founder Charyl Robinson said.

But Associate Health Minister Casey Costello has labelled the index “ridiculous” saying what matters is rates of smoking not the “strange view, that what really matters is how much you criticise the tobacco industry”.

Costello said New Zealand’s smoking rate had more than halved since 2015 and was now 6.9 percent – one of the lowest in the world.

“I haven’t seen this year’s index, but the last one had Brunei at No.1 and France at No.3. Brunei’s smoking rate is around 17 percent – well over double NZ’s rate. In May, France’s smoking rate was 23 percent – more than three times NZ’s rate,” she said. “That illustrates how ridiculous this index is.”

In 2024 the government scrapped laws which would have slashed tobacco retailers from 6000 to 600, removed 95 percent of the nicotine from cigarettes and banned sales of cigarettes to anyone born after 2009.

Costello also cut the excise tax on Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs) by 50 percent, despite health officials saying there was no strong evidence they worked to stop smoking or were significantly safer than cigarettes.

Associate Health Minister Casey Costello. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

The report lists New Zealand and Kazakhstan as two countries which cut taxes for HTPs and says Ecuador, Georgia, Madagascar, Türkiye and Uganda also offered tax breaks to the tobacco industry.

“Tax increases are among the most effective tobacco control measures, yet more than 60 countries, often due to industry influence, did not raise taxes, delayed implementation of tax increases (or) lowered tax rates.”

Costello cut tax on HTPs to encourage smokers to switch to a safer alternative.

Treasury officials, however, told her the tax break would largely benefit Philip Morris, as they held a monopoly on the product in New Zealand.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins told the RNZ interview show 30 with Guyon Espiner that Labour would repeal the tobacco tax cuts.

“That was a tax break to the tobacco companies on the basis of some very, very questionable advice that isn’t going to be better for New Zealand’s health as a country,” he said. “It’s one tobacco company that, by and large, has got the vast bulk of the benefit from that, and that is going to change.”

The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index report is also critical of New Zealand’s unregulated lobbying industry and links between the tobacco industry and decision makers.

“In New Zealand, there is no requirement for the TI (tobacco industry) and affiliated entities to register with the government, and it is unclear how the relationship between the TI and the government is moderated.”

Two corporate communication staff at Philip Morris previously held senior roles with NZ First.

RNZ has also reported on a leaked document from tobacco giant Philip Morris which said the company should target political parties, including NZ First and the Māori Party, to win favourable regulation for HTPs.

Uruguay, Maldives and Palau were the most improved countries in the index and New Zealand the most deteriorated.

“New Zealand recorded the most deterioration in industry interference. Besides repealing strong tobacco control policies, citing industry arguments as rationale, the current government implemented several TI-friendly policies,” the report says.

The section of the report focusing on New Zealand was written by the New Zealand Cancer Society and looked at policy making between March 2023 and March 2025.

Cancer Society head of advocacy and public affairs Rachael Neumann said “a number of revolving-door connections” between the government and the industry contributed to New Zealand’s decline.

“This report has found that New Zealand’s score has significantly dropped since the 2023 report, and that there has been an increase in tobacco industry interference in New Zealand during this time.”

Neumann said there was a “high level of industry participation” in New Zealand’s tobacco policy development and “a whole range of unnecessary interactions” between the government and the tobacco industry.

“Every year, even now, 5000 people die from tobacco and tobacco related diseases,” she said. “We really know that tobacco industry interference and repeal of these laws leads to more smoking, more addiction, and we’re deeply concerned because this leads to more cancer.”

But Costello said protections against tobacco industry interference had not weakened in the past two years and New Zealand continued to be guided by international protocols on how officials engaged with the industry.

She said the tobacco industry had no involvement in the government’s smokefree and health policies.

“I would have thought that the Cancer Society would actually care about reducing smoking and reducing cancer,” she said. “Instead, they’ve brought into a very strange view, that what really matters is how much you criticise the tobacco industry.”

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Lotto jackpot: What to do if you find yourself $45 million richer on Wednesday

Source: Radio New Zealand

Winners with a physical ticket can take it to a shop they bought it from and fill out a form, or go to the Lotto head office in Auckland. Supplied / Lotto NZ

Lotto has jackpotted to $45 million for Wednesday’s draw – but what would you do if you won it? While you might have a wishlist of houses, cars, travel and shopping, one financial adviser who has previously advised winners says there are a few things you should know.

Tim Fairbrother, of Rival Wealth, said people who won were often in a state of disbelief initially.

If you win when you’re playing online, you will be sent a prize claim form.

  • What do I do if the bubble bursts? [ https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/no-stupid-questions/2025/What-do-I-do-if-the-bubble-bursts Listen to No Stupid Questions with Susan Edmunds]

Winners with a physical ticket can take it to a shop they bought it from and fill out a form, or go to the Lotto head office in Auckland.

In most cases, Lotto staff try to meet in person with winners to talk to them about what will happen (there is champagne offered).

Winners are given a booklet that proclaims on the front “This is not a dream”.

In it, it offers tip on how to handle a life-changing amount of money.

Secure the ticket

Fairbrother said many people spent some time carrying the ticket around before they claimed their win, because they almost could not believe it had happened.

“If you’re telling everyone that you won but you haven’t’ secured your ticket then that can be a bit of a problem – perhaps if the ticket is suddenly not in the place you thought it was going to be.”

If you aren’t going straight to claim, keep the ticket somewhere very safe.

Deposit the money into a savings account

Lotto advises that the money should be paid into an interest-earning account while you work out your next steps.

If you win Powerball, it says, it can give you the details of the person at your bank who can help you with depositing the money.

Some people do not want this to go through heir local branch.

Think about who to tell

Lotto said people should carefully consider who they wanted to tell about their win.

Fairbrother agreed. He said if it became common knowledge, the money could change people.

“Especially big amounts of money. It might not be you, it might be the people around you who suddenly have their hands out thinking ‘man, this is going to be good for me’.”

People were likely to encourage winners to invest in various things, or spend their money in certain ways – he said these should be approached with caution.

Have a plan

Lotto advises that people think about what they want to do with their money, have a plan and list of goals and check in on it regularly.

Fairbrother said people could work with an adviser to talk through their ideas and come up with a strategy.

“Make sure you have got the right accountant and lawyer so that you’re getting your structure right for tax and optimising what that looks like.”

He said those discussions would usually involve talking to people about what was important to them.

“What are your overarching goals now you’ve won this money? It might be a million dollars, which is amazing. But it might be $44m, which is epically life-changing, isn’t it?

“If you’re living in a $600,000 home you might want to go and extend the house, build a tennis court and swimming pool, or sell it altogether.

“How much do you want people to know this has happened to you? If you go and sell your $600,000 house and buy a $4m house, people are going to start asking questions.’

An investment portfolio would be structured according to a person’s wishes, he said.

Some might want to invest in commercial property, or a residential development including a number of homes.

“Or it might be saying I don’t want to deal with any of that, I’m just going to put it into a managed portfolio,. It’s going to be a mix of those things and it’s going to be a steep learning curve. You don’t need to go about it quickly, there’s no point rushing and doing things fast.”

Some purchases would be investments and others would depreciate, he said.

Knowing the difference would help to make wealth last.

“I knew of someone many years ago before I was a financial adviser, who a significant amount in Lotto and basically within three years he had got rid of it all by buying expensive cars and not understanding those expensive cars are going to be depreciating assets.

“By the time you drive it off the lot it loses 20 percent or whatever, then two or three years later it is down 60 percent.”

Pay off debt

If you win a smaller amount than $44m, it usually makes sense to use it to pay off debt.

Fairbrother said people with a mortgage would usually want to pay that off. “That puts them in a whole different financial position going forward into the future where they’re now able to save each month as opposed to paying the bank for their mortgage.”

Be careful with gifting

Many people wanted to give money to others, Fairbrother said, particularly to help their kids buy houses.

“If you want to give it, it’s better to do what they call an interest-free loan payable on demand.

“That means if there are problems in the future with their own relationships or whatever they might be, you can ask them to pay the money back. If you give a couple $100,000 then as soon as it goes into their account it becomes relationship property whereas if you loan it to them then you can ask to have to back again in the future.”

Write a will

Fairbrother said as soon as people had that much money to their name, they needed to do some estate planning.

A will would be essential to avoid disputes if something happened to them.

“You’re not going to end up with your children arguing over the fact you promised them more for any particular reason.”

Tax

Lotto winners do not have to pay tax on their price, as in some other countries.

But they also cannot have it paid as an annual income, it has to be a lump sum.

You don’t have to declare it as income if you’re getting a benefit unless you receive the accommodation supplement, temporary additional support or special benefit.

But any income you make from your money will reduce your eligibility for support.

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Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, but what about the companies booming from it?

Source: Radio New Zealand

GORODENKOFF PRODUCTIONS/SCIENCE

More and more, finance experts are predicting that the AI bubble is getting ready to pop – so what does that mean for Kiwi investors, and for our economy?

It took the United States 40 years to build its interstate roading network. The same amount of money spent on that network – inflation adjusted – has been spent in just three years on building Artificial Intelligence data centres.

Fisher Funds’ Harry Smith uses the comparison to illustrate the size and pace of growth of AI and its future demands for infrastructure.

He points to five of the famous tech companies – Meta, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle – which together plan to spend US$3 trillion over the next five years on AI infrastructure, specifically the data centres which store the information, called the cloud.

The trouble is, says Smith, their combined revenue is US$1 trillion, excluding Amazon’s retail side, and many are beginning to ask how they will fund the massive infrastructure builds.

At the same time, their share prices have been soaring as investors bet on the potential of the companies in the future, leading to record valuations in the likes of chipmaker Nvidia. It became the first company in the world to break through US$5 trillion valuation but has see-sawed in a volatile market.

“The amount of money that the market expects to be generated over the next five years is quite huge and that’s where a lot of the bubble chat is really coming from,” says Smith.

The bubble chat he’s talking about came to a head a week ago when Michael Burry, who inspired the book and movie The Big Short announced he was short selling on chip maker Nvidia and data analytics company Palantir. By short selling, he was taking a bet that their share price will drop.

Burry has been called a “tireless perma-bear”, a contrarian investor who predicted the 2008 financial crisis.

Not all bubbles are the same

He isn’t alone with his warnings about market mania. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Open AI’s Sam Altman have also cautioned about the overblown stock prices alongside the Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England.

Smith, who runs a global equity portfolio at Fisher Funds, says it is important to separate the hype from the technology when trying to understand what is happening to AI shares.

The technology is very real, he says and is already in use in the medical profession with diagnoses and medicines.

“Further on, we’re seeing developments around AI being used in drug development … the creation of new drugs and trials.

“When I’m talking about hype, people are saying ‘hey the earnings in these companies are going to be massive in the future, so we’re going to buy the share price’ and that’s when the bubble comes into question because [other] people are saying ‘no, the expectation of the earnings growth that these companies are going to deliver is too great and therefore we are in a bubble in this cycle.

He uses Open AI as an example of a company with big investment plans and comparatively small revenues.

“They currently have about $US13b in revenue this year, they currently have commitments of US$1.5 trillion of investment that is going to be needed to be built. So on the US$13b, albeit it is growing really quickly, but they are losing money at one of the fastest paces ever in Silicon Valley,” says Smith.

But Smith says not all bubbles are the same. Banking bubbles are bad and cause society a lot of pain, as seen in the 2008 global financial crisis. Industrial or technology bubbles can benefit society when the dust settles.

“This whole question around AI is what is the return on investment because we know the investment is huge, we know that the revenue or profits that are currently generated are very small and so it is about trying to find a path to that return.

“How quickly can revenue and profits grow from these AI businesses to support the investment that is currently being made? That is the crux of the question around whether or not there’s a bubble.”

RNZ business editor Gyles Beckford says the way investors have been behaving with AI shares is the same as 25 years ago with the dot-com boom and bust.

“There’s the same irrationality that attends all these things. You have the studious people who do their homework, who believe that they’ve crafted the right strategy, that they’re in the right stocks and they will go with it and will be there for the long term.

“They’re the survivors, I shudder to use the word cockroaches but they will come through the explosions. There are those who suffer from FOMO, fear of missing out.”

They are the ones making spur of the moment, irrational decisions, he says.

“History tells us that when you have surges like this in particular assets, particular stocks or commodities, there is a cleanout.”

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Am I too late for a prime camping spot this summer?

Source: Radio New Zealand

Bad news if you’re still to book a camping getaway: many of New Zealand’s most popular sites are already heavily – or fully – booked for the summer holidays.

“We’ve got 49 properties around the country and they all have slightly nuanced peaks, but from Boxing Day till about the 10th or the 11th of January, you would either have to be very lucky or very flexible to get something at this point,” says David Ovendale, CEO of Top 10 Holiday Parks Group.

He says many people even book for the next year as they leave a site in January.

Motueka TOP 10 holiday park.

Supplied

Can pets suffer from carsickness?

Pets

“There will still be limited availability in some places, but you will have to be open-minded and flexible to make it fit. It’s not that there are no sites at all, but the majority of places will be fairly heavily booked, and it’ll be harder to get exact dates.”

Bougie or budget?

So if you can still get a booking, what will camping cost you in 2025?

The range is enormous. A stay at the popular Lake Taupo Holiday Resort, with its thermally heated pools, hydroslides, tennis courts and swim-up bar, could set you back up to $182/night for a powered tent site (two adults and two children just after Christmas), while you’ll pay $30/night for the same family in some DOC sites – obviously minus the pool and hot tub situation, and sometimes minus a flushing loo too.

Pricier campsites are often closer to the beach, as many Kiwis see daily ocean dips as an essential part of a camping holiday.

Hahei Beach in the Coromandel is a perennial favourite, with a non-powered site costing around $139 a night for a family of four. In Motueka, the Top 10 will set you back $129 per night for two adults and two kids at peak time with facilities including a heated swimming pool, hot tub, free Wifi, jumping pillow and more. Costs also vary in many places depending on dates and length of stay.

Hahei beach, Hahei, Coromandel Peninsula.

AFP

DOC campsites often provide a more traditional, basic camping experience, which is reflected in their affordability. Standard sites can cost as little as $10 per adult per night, while basic campsites (which may only have toilets and water from a nearby stream) are often free or require a gold-coin donation. You’ll often pay around $20 per adult for a serviced campsite.

DOC sites are often in some stunning locations – like the crystal-clear waters of Matai Bay in Northland, White Horse Hill Campground in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park or Tōtaranui beach in Abel Tasman National Park (one of the busiest campsites in the country).

There are other options outside the big holiday park groups and DOC, like private campsites and council or region-run sites, including freedom camping spots that can’t be booked in advance.

Each region runs differently. For example, bookings for Auckland Council sites can only be made six months in advance of the date you want to go.

Paddy Compter and her family go to Tawharanui Regional Park most years.

“It is pretty low-fi, just running water and long drops, but it is actual paradise, so you have to book well in advance to get a spot. Usually right on the six-month mark at midnight when they open up bookings, which is what we do.”

Tawharanui Regional Park.

Auckland Council website

Am I too late?

It’s still possible to go camping this summer, especially if you’re happy with a shorter break, aren’t fixed on a specific location, or are planning to head away later in January.

While many of the popular campsites are fully (or almost fully) booked during that peak period, there’s still availability in other lesser-known spots if you get organised soon and stay flexible with your dates or length of stay.

Some DOC campsites – like Waikari River Mouth in Hawke’s Bay, Robin Hood Bay near Blenheim, and St Bathans Domain in Central Otago – can’t be booked at all, so it’s worth trying your luck.

Robin Hood Bay, near the entrance to Te Whanganui/Port Underwood

Kennedy Warne

Of the 325 DOC sites on the website, only 200 are marked ‘bookable’, which means plenty remain up for grabs.

“There are definitely sites that you can’t book in advance, so those are all first-come first-served,” says DOC booking services manager Cam Hyland.

“People have all sorts of different ways of doing that. Sometimes they take the chance but have a backup plan, sometimes they call us and ask what it’s looking like.

“While we can’t predict the future, we can sometimes say things like ‘It’s full today and people don’t look like they are leaving soon’ or ‘there’s quite a bit of space right now, but we don’t know about tomorrow’.”

Thinking ahead

If you’ve got your heart set on the perfect patch of grass for next summer, it might not be so far-fetched to book at the end of this one (you can always ask about their cancellation policy if you want to change your mind later).

Anton Trist at the incredibly popular Camp Waipu Cove recommends that people looking for the best chance of a site there should go to their website on 7 March (their general booking day), as soon as it opens at 7am.

Camp Waipu Cove.

Supplied

“It can be hard to get in over Christmas and New Year’s as we have very few sites that don’t get rebooked each year (people who have booked a week the previous year get first option to have that same site again the following).

“Every year, we even have a handful of people who actually turn up physically on site, waiting for the office to open on that day, to give them the best chance of getting a booking, even if it’s not a total guarantee.”

David Ovendale, CEO of Top 10 Holiday Parks Group.

Supplied

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Fire and Emergency aircraft experts withdraw labour in long-running pay dispute

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Tongariro National Park wildfire, as seen from an aircraft on 10 November. Fire and Emergency NZ

Experts in using planes and choppers to fight fires like the Tongariro blaze have withdrawn labour in a pay dispute that dates back years.

This reduced the after-hours backup Fire and Emergency (FENZ) could call on for the 2800ha blaze in Tongariro National Park – but it said it made no difference.

The fire had up to 15 helicopters and five planes waterbombing it.

“This withdrawal of labour associated to backpay involves three personnel and this has not impacted our overall capability for air attack,” Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The dispute revolves around some of FENZ’s most experienced aviation firefighters in its small airdesk support group, that since 2021 has helped run national air firefighting operations.

In 2022, the group’s head, Stephen Bishop, asked FENZ for “formal recognition of the work and critical service the air desk support group provides – including remuneration for duty roster and calls as per other FENZ managers – fair and equitable”.

On Monday, Stiffler told RNZ, “The on-call arrangements required to provide aviation support after hours are still being negotiated.”

She added the support function itself was under review.

FENZ was discussing backpay remuneration for the support team and “while this is happening their support is not currently active after-hours”, she said on Tuesday in a separate statement.

“We have aviation operations as normal to respond as required, as we have had at Tongariro this week. We had no issue with having the right capability on the Tongariro incident with no impacts to operations.

“The successful operations confirm the depth of our capability.”

A senior firefighter who is not in the airdesk support group but had details of the problems, described it as a dispute going back at least 18 months. RNZ agreed not to name them.

Their information aligned with internal emails between the airdesk support group and FENZ management in late 2022, released under the Official Information Act.

In one of those emails, Bishop had told a Communications Centre manager Brent Dunn: “I know you agree that the support group is a critical part of the safe, effective function of FENZ national air desk, providing aviation expertise and oversight …

“We are called on many times throughout the year for advice, provide 24/7 roster all year for the team, monitor all aviation requests and dispatches and contact is always there when needed.”

Bishop remains FENZ’s senior specialist in aviation and heavy machinery.

The email trail showed his group plugged a staffing “crisis” at the South Island comms centre that Dunn said was leading to his comms staff “burning out”, and unable to cover the extra duties around dispatching aircraft.

“So we head into the 2023 fire season badly understaffed to manage the airdesk as it was originally intended,” Dunn wrote.

The shortage forced Bishop’s then five-person (now three-person) team to step in, doing the dispatching “pretty much on a daily basis”, tied to a desk for up to 12 hours at a time.

“This additional work is impacting on existing BAU [business-as-usual], fatigue and family time,” Bishop told the agency in late 2022.

In one week, his team did 63 hours on dispatch.

“Given we are now in October and seeing increased aircraft requests which will increase heading towards summer, I am extremely concerned that we will have to continue taking over air desk and that this is not sustainable – the air desk support group runs on good will and passion.”

He then asked for “suitable remuneration for each hour we cover for air desk despatch, I would suggest overtime”.

Dunn told Bishop he appreciated the “weight of pressure” on his team.

“Crazy to think that’s where we are, after the hype and success of last year.”

This was in reference to the national airdesk being embedded into Southern Comms in March 2021.

Eight communications staff got extra training to do air dispatching.

However, by late 2022, Bishop had to get nine more trained up as a temporary stopgap. “This is incredibly disappointing and such a contrast to the hugely successful 18mths [sic] we have just experienced with the air desk,” he emailed management.

FENZ’s new air set-up faced its biggest challenge in Cyclone Gabrielle in early 2023, when it helped send out 3000 flights on 6000 tasks over just a few days, in what was later assessed as a “highly successful aviation operation”.

Wildfires are different from storms – the goal is putting out a fire – but are similar, too, in requiring expert decisions around when and where to use choppers or (usually less expensive) planes, and how to make the airspace safe for them.

Stiffler said on Tuesday that at the Tongariro fire, an incident controller had ensured the right air support and that everyone was safe, and aviation safety was coordinated by “air attack” and air support supervisors on site.

“We are reviewing how we respond to incidents using aircraft and how the incident controller is supported to use aircraft effectively,” she said.

“This review commenced prior to the Tongariro incident.”

FENZ also said it was recruiting six extra air dispatchers “to increase staffing resilience within the dispatch function”.

The senior firefighter told RNZ that a recommendation around on-call allowances for the airdesk support group had been sent on to the deputy chief executives several weeks ago, but they had not made any decision.

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Economy strangled by lack of competition, policy makers ‘captured’ – campaigner

Source: Radio New Zealand

Three of the big four Australian-owned banks have reported large profits in the past week. RNZ / Dom Thomas

The New Zealand economy is dying a death of a thousand cuts from the vice-like grip of monopolies in key sectors, according to a leading competition campaigner.

Monopoly Watch leader Tex Edwards said the large profits reported by three of the big four Australian-owned banks in the past week highlighted the power of a handful of companies, and the inability of policy markers to bring them to heel.

“When we look at why the economy is underperforming, it’s almost death by a thousand cuts, or in this case death by 10 or 20 cuts, because there 10 or 20 monopolies that are extracting monopoly rents.

“Supermarkets, electricity companies, airports, insurance companies, and banks are under scrutiny and what we’re seeing is a continued amount of tinkering and pampering instead of structural reform.”

Over the past week ANZ, BNZ, and Westpac reported full year results, with collective profits for the three of them of about $5.2 billion.

More regulation needed

Edwards said the banking sector needed further regulatory intervention to bring benefits for consumers, but he said various select committee inquiries, a Commerce Commission banking study, and regulator scrutiny had achieved little.

He said the large banks had been adept in selling the message that they were bringing capital into the country, paying significant taxes, supporting economic activity, and supporting increased competition in a sector that they had more than 80 percent of.

“They’ve used this to confuse politicians and policy makers as to how competition would evolve.”

Edwards said the banks had surrounded themselves with PR and policy lobbyists, who had effectively “captured” policy makers, politicians, and regulators.

He said comments by politicians that they hoped the big banks would pass on Reserve Bank rate cuts more quickly were “naive”.

He said the big four had also slowed the introduction of open banking, which would allow third party financial businesses to offer competing financial services, by taking time to modernise their technical systems.

“New Zealand banks have delayed open banking, because it would lower margins and lower profitability.”

He advocated that Payments NZ, which managed the payments system that settled transactions between banks, should be taken out of the control of the eight banks which own it.

Previously, Monopoly Watch has also called for ANZ to be forced to divest the National Bank of NZ, which it was allowed to take over in 2003, and was fully merged in 2012.

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All Blacks v England: Why this one has an extra edge

Source: Radio New Zealand

All Blacks Cam Roigard and Wallace Sititi celebrate at full-time after George Ford of England misses a drop goal attempt at the final whistle during All Blacks v England. Bob Martin/ActionPress

England v All Blacks

Kick-off: 4:10am Sunday 16 November

Allianz Stadium (Twickenham), London

Live blog updates on RNZ

The All Blacks head to one of rugby’s most daunting venues this weekend, although it is one that where they tasted dramatic success just last year.

Here are some key talking points as we await Scott Robertson’s team announcement on Thursday night NZT.

Rematch or revenge

Will Jordan of New Zealand celebrates after scoring against England at Twickenham 2024. PHOTOSPORT

Much was made about the rematch in Chicago, nine years on from Ireland’s historic victory. But really, this game at Twickenham is the more important rerun of a test fixture, after the three times the All Blacks played England last year.

All three were incredibly tight, with the last one at Twickenham coming down to a late Mark Tele’a try and sideline conversion by Damian McKenzie.

A new English era

England forward Chandler Cunningham-South takes on the All Blacks in the first test in Dunedin. Photosport

Steve Borthwick has been heavily criticised for a seemingly inflexible set of game plans over the last two seasons, but he does have a few of the most exciting names on his books right now. Flanker Henry Pollock has a massive amount of hype around him, while we got a good look at fellow loosie Chandler Cunningham-South and first five Fin Smith last year.

Outside back Henry Arundell’s return from playing in France has been seen as a real positive for the English system, while lock Alex Coles and blindside Guy Pepper are ones to watch for the future.

How have England been going?

Players react on the field after the Autumn Nations Series international rugby union match between England and Fiji at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, in south-west London on 8 November 2025 AFP / GLYN KIRK

Admittedly, all of those players contributed to a not particularly convincing performance against Fiji last weekend. England eventually won 38-18 but were only ahead by one point at halftime and only pulled away at the end.

They did have a very good Six Nations earlier this year, winning four games and having a chance to win it on the last weekend, before France took the championship by one point.

Is this the biggest test of the tour?

England winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso celebrates a try against the All Blacks at Twickenham. Photosport

You’d think so, given how close tests have been at Twickenham lately. While England haven’t won there since 2012, there’s been a draw and a two point win for the All Blacks in their last two meetings.

Twickenham does still hold quite the reputation as a formidable venue, no matter how England are playing it is still the largest purpose-built rugby stadium in the world and is always at its 82,000 capacity when the All Blacks come to town.

Is fatigue going to affect the All Blacks?

All Blacks captain Scott Barrett v Ireland, Chicago, 2025. www.photosport.nz

Maybe. This is the 12th of 13 tests this year and while they’ve had decent breaks after the July series and Rugby Championship campaigns, they are looking pretty banged up. Scott Barrett should hopefully return this weekend, but brother Jordie is back in New Zealand already, while there’s a host of players who never even got on the plane in the first place.

They’re not exactly limping home, but this has been a very long season that’s taken quite a physical toll.

What’s the motivation like to get a win this weekend

The England Rose. PHOTOSPORT

It’s the Poms, so of course that’s enough to get the All Blacks fired up as it’s a team they despise losing to more than any other. Then there’s the slightly dubious ‘Grand Slam’ achievement that’s on the line.

But really, the main driver will be to just keep stringing good performances together after the up and down Rugby Championship campaign. The All Blacks have now won four tests in a row, all in differing fashion, so another couple will put a lot of minds at ease as we head into summer.

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‘So relieved’: Gun control advocates on Arms Act rewrite

Source: Radio New Zealand

Gun Control co-founder Philippa Yasbek Supplied

Gun control advocates have breathed a sigh of relief after the coalition unveiled its long-awaited overhaul of the Arms Act.

The rewrite contains many changes, though most are relatively minor that either tweak or tighten existing gun regulations.

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee fought to widen access to military-style semi-automatic (MSSAs) firearms but failed.

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has been working to rewrite the Arms Act. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

“The proposal that I took to Cabinet included very strict rules and regulations over who could operate large capacity magazines and semi-automatic firearms under strict range conditions but it still was rejected by my Cabinet colleagues.

“I tried, I’m disappointed too, but I wasn’t prepared to hold up the entire Arms Act, to fight over it, when there’s a good win for everybody in it.”

Police Minster Mark Mitchell said National did not want to widen access to semi-automatic guns, even for competitive shooting.

“It is a public safety issue and we don’t see that there needs to be a wider or a broader availability around military-style semi-automatic weapons.”

The ACT Party has invoked the ‘agree to disagree’ clause over the stand off, [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/560619/act-invokes-agree-to-disagree-clause-over-firearms-registry-review

as it did over the firearms registry in May.]

Gun Control co-founder Philippa Yasbek said news the effective ban on military-style semi-automatic firearms had survived the overhaul was a relief.

“McKee has built her entire political career on wanting to get rid of the registry and bring back semi automatic firearms and she’s basically failed on both of those goals.

“So this is quite a big relief and I don’t think there’s any chance of her ever managing to change it again. Souffle’s don’t rise twice.”

Federation of Islamic Association chairperson Abdur Razzaq welcomed the rewrite and said he hoped gun law reform would not be revisited for several decades.

“It seems the trajectory is right. The government has balanced the safety consideration and also the usage of the arms of the licence holders. We are particularly pleased about the MSSAs.”

Federation of Islamic Association chairperson Abdur Razzaq welcomed the rewrite. RNZ/Jessie Curran

“One of the key legacies of the 51 shahada was to make New Zealand safe, particularly from the menace of the semi automatic killing machines and it’s good to see that the ACT Party has finally realised, and of course the Prime Minister and Winston Peters, that this is the right way to go.

Council of Licenced Firearms Owners spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack said it was disappointing the effective ban on semi-automatics remained intact, though he backed the Minister’s efforts.

“When it comes to semi-automatics, we can understand that there’s no need for the wider New Zealand firearms community to have those but some exceptions for competitive sport shooters or individuals who use firearms for pest control but are not professionals…would be very helpful.”

“We can’t know what happened inside that Cabinet room to know how hard [McKee] fought for this so it’s really hard to comment on her efforts, but knowing that she is an expert in firearms, as well as a former educator, we as a community have to have faith that she did what she could and that they’ve invoked this agree to disagree clause for a reason.”

The legislation will be introduced to the House before the end of the year.

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