Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

State Highway 73 in Canterbury is blocked due to a serious crash.

Emergency services were called to the crash involving a ute and a truck between Kirwee and Darfield about 8am on Monday.

Police said there appears to be serious injuries.

The serious crash unit has been advised and the road is expected to be closed for some time.

Motorists are asked to avoid the area or expect delays.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

There’s widespread support for the government’s new action plan to combat methamphetamine use, with the Drug Foundation commending its “health focused interventions”.

A mental wellness provider from northland is also welcoming the news, saying it’s a “fantastic start,” and the Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational and Organised Crime saying it was positive that multiple ministers were involved in order to address the issue in its “totality”.

On Sunday, the government announced what Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith called a “comprehensive action plan to combat methamphetamine harm in New Zealand.”

It’s the result of the Prime Minister’s ‘meth sprint team’ made up of the Ministers for Justice, Police, Customs, Courts and Mental Health, who were tasked with tackling the issue.

That came after a drastic rise in consumption of methamphetamine last year. RNZ investigated what community providers needed in response, which was largely more funding for grassroots solutions.

Paul Goldsmith said yesterday methamphetamine was something “we’ve been fighting for 20 years, and it’s been getting worse in the last little while.”

“We know that meth is a scourge on society.”

He pointed to parts of New Zealand who had been particularly affected, like Northland, where “communities have been blighted by meth.”

“Those communities are desperate for us to fight back, and that’s why we’re taking these extra steps to turn up the dial of our response.”

The response included a nationwide media campaign that will launch in the next few months, paid for by the proceeds of crime fund, that will raise awareness about the issue and the drugs harm.

An extra $30m over four years from the Mental Health and Addiction budget will go to front line services, increasing the services available to the hardest-hit communities.

Police will be able to intercept communications and search for electronically stored evidence with new enforcement powers, and an additional anti-money laundering unit will be set up.

It will also see more focus on disrupting supply chains in the Pacific Ocean, with Customs, the GCSB and the Defence Force conducting a series of maritime operations. There would also be consultation on strengthening border security.

Customs Minister Casey Costello said there was “a lot of risk” through South East Asia and South America, “but we are getting intercepts from all over the place.”

“We just had an arrest last weekend at the airport, 30 kilos of meth from citizens from the US trying to bring methamphetamine into the country.

“So it is coming at us from everywhere and we just need to be tighter across all of it.”

RNZ spoke to providers in Northland earlier this year about the spike in consumption.

Rākau Ora managing director Vanessa Kite told RNZ following the announcement she “absolutely” welcomed it.

“I don’t think we’ll ever have enough bloody money, to be honest. But right now it’s a fantastic start.”

She said the need was “huge” in Te Tai Tokerau, and it was “growing in a different way”, with younger people affected and more complex cases presenting.

What was required to tackle it was “long-term” and “sustained” investment, rather than the short term boosts they’d been getting, she said.

Kite welcomed the focus on meth as a social health issue, rather than an enforcement one.

“Prevention is everything,” she said. “We really need to be putting a lot of money into prevention, but also, education, support and connections.”

She suggested what was needed was more detox beds, and residential rehab options. She also wanted to see more focus on lived experience community providers.

“We’re often seen as the first port of call and the priority in meth help, and we’re paid the worst. In fact, many are doing voluntary work.”

Kite said at a community and grassroots level, she believed they had the solutions, “we just need the support to scale them up.”

The Executive Director at the New Zealand Drug Foundation Sarah Helm said she was “particularly pleased” with the health focused interventions.

“It’s good to see some emphasis on health approaches and additional investment that’s being made, because we know we can’t arrest our way out of the issue.”

What’s needed, Helm said, was treatment and assistance both earlier on in somebody’s journey, but also closer and more accessible to their lives.

She said it wasn’t about waiting until somebody’s experiencing the worst harms before they are offered help.

In order for the nationwide campaign to be effective, it would need to focus on destigmatisation, and promote the option of seeking help she said.

“Those communities who already experience the worst methamphetamine harms already know how negative the impact can be.

“So really grounding that campaign in what they’re experiencing and helping them to get information and support quickly will make that as effective as it possibly can be.”

Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational and Organised Crime Steve Symon told RNZ many of the planned actions were consistent with the recommendations made in the MAG’s reports.

Overall, he said the announcement is great, provided it is part of the solution to organised crime, not the whole solution.

“Methamphetamine is certainly an important issue, but it’s a subset of the bigger organized crime issue.”

The focus on health was also welcomed, because “as we’ve said in the reports, we don’t think locking people up is necessarily the solution,” said Symon. The government should be tough on those committing this crime and addressing that, but it wasn’t the only way to deal with it.

Looking at cutting off the supply coming into the country was important too, as well as “working on our customer base”, he said, “working on how many New Zealanders are willing to consume these drugs.”

The coalition government parties had campaigned on being “tough on organised crime” he said, and it was about understanding “what tough means.”

“It’s not just building more prisons and locking more people up.

“It’s certainly locking those up who need to be locked up because of the crimes that they’ve committed, but it’s also looking the broader social problem of how our country has been willing to consume twice as much methamphetamine as we did last year.”

Symon suggested being tough on crime could be possible by removing the customer base.

Ultimately though, what was missing was the coordination to pull it all together, “how to be accountable” he said, which was why the MAG had recommended a single minister in charge of responding to organised crime.

But he thought it was possible multiple ministers had come together to look at the issue of meth.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

“Bloody minded road vandalism.” That’s how many residents in Papamoa have reacted to news their previously asphalted roads are going to be resurfaced in chip seal.

Residents said they would rather their streets had no resealing work and were left as they were.

However, Tauranga City Council said roads were only scheduled for resealing if they were showing early signs of surface deterioration and leaving a road to deteriorate further would result in higher costs.

In October RNZ reported on the surprise many residents had when their roads were resealed with a different surface and a general public preference for asphalt.

Papamoa Residents and Ratepayers Association chair Philip Brown said residents of Santa Monica Drive, Montego Drive, Santa Barbara Drive, Checketts Place, Sovereign Drive and The Gardens Drive were not consulted by the council before discovering their roads were to be resealed this summer. All the roads were going from asphalt to chip seal.

He said the residents did not think there was a need for the resealing to happen at all.

“There is nothing wrong with the roads as they are now,” he said. “They look good, they are quiet, they are just nice stable roads, there are no engineering problems with them, council has never produced an engineering document saying that the roads are having a problem and they are just that well-built .”

Brown said the council should save money and just leave the roads alone.

“We cannot understand why they want to do the chip sealing.”

Tauranga City Council general manager of operations and infrastructure Reneke van Soest said each road was individually inspected before going on the maintenance schedule.

Van Soest said that depending on the condition of each individual site it might be possible to delay treatment for one or two years, but the Papamoa sites that had been selected for resealing were showing early signs of failure.

“If we do not address that deterioration, we risk significant damage to the structural layers beneath the road surface, which would result in greater repair costs and inconvenience for everyone,” she said.

Council said the most cost-effective way of maintaining a road was to intervene before potholes, cracking and other quality issues occur.

“So that we can prevent damage to the underlying road layers. [Road] repairs or rehabilitation are much more expensive maintenance processes, which can be managed by timely resurfacing to waterproof the road foundations,” van Soest said.

One of the issues was that Tauranga had many roads in residential areas that were surfaced in asphalt by subdivision developers. Developers likely know that people prefer asphalt which would be a motivation for using it.

“Those roads are progressively reaching the end of their serviceable surface life and maintenance is becoming a priority,” van Soest said.

The New Zealand Transport Agency funds 51 percent of local roads but for NZTA to co-fund resurfacing in asphalt, councils must show NZTA that asphalt was worth the investment as it was five times more expensive. This case was often unable to be made for suburban streets and so council would have to fund 100 percent of the road renewal if it went with asphalt.

“Using the example of Santa Monica Drive, the cost difference between chip seal and asphalt is almost $400,000.

“If that additional cost is divided by the number of households served by the road, resurfacing with asphalt would require each household to contribute approximately $3000 to make up the funding shortfall,” van Soest said.

The Papamoa Residents and Ratepayers Association had started a survey online of residents and Brown showed some of the feedback to RNZ. It was overwhelmingly against the resealing work.

One resident who had lived on the street for 20 years said they had already written to the council regarding the matter.

“There is nothing wrong with the road, there are far more urgent road resurfacing works that need doing!”

Another questioned how it would affect their children.

“My kids enjoy riding their scooters on our street and have recently purchased a skateboard too. If the street is covered with chipseal then they will lose this area to play outside.”

“I feel that the footpaths need more urgent attention than the road surface,” said one resident.

Brown said asphalt lasted longer so the cost may even out over time. He thought it would last 30-plus years.

NZTA told RNZ the longevity of asphalt was dependent on a range of factors, for example heavy trucks and electric buses would wear the surface much faster than a light vehicle. However, generally they would expect it to it last for approximately 12 years.

Brown said the association had reached out to council to ask them to hold a community meeting next week to work through the issues.

“Continuing on regardless would show a lack of care for the community.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A wall of smoke from the Tongariro National Park fire is providing a spectacular but worrying vista for a central plateau village.

The blaze has burned through up to 2500 hectares and is 20 percent contained.

Whakapapa Village was evacuated on Sunday, and the fire has forced the evacuation of trampers and closed lodges. All tracks and huts within the Tongariro National Park are closed, and State Highway 48 leading to Whakapapa Village and State Highway 47 at the intersection with State Highway 4 at Waimarino are also closed.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Residents and business owners in Auckland’s Point Chevalier are feeling optimistic as shoplifting is finally brought under control.

It comes just over a year after the local supermarket started closing early over safety concerns.

On a main thoroughfare parallel to Auckland’s north-western motorway, the Point Chevalier shops are nestled between two worlds.

Despite being the de facto town square for one of Auckland’s more expensive suburbs, the strip has had a troubled history of crime and antisocial behaviour.

Residents like Bob have long lamented the closure of the Point Chevalier library, which was shuttered in late 2022 due to a leaky ceiling.

But a new interim library finally opened its doors to visitors on Saturday.

“I think losing the library for such a long time was a big deal because it was kind of part of the package. It was for me anyway, so it’s nice that it’s come back,” Bob said.

Margi Watson, the newly elected local board chair, said the library’s absence had been felt throughout the community.

“You know, when the library was closed off and the town square was all fenced off, there were some safety concerns,” she said.

“Now we’re hoping that the library’s open, the town square’s open, there’s less concerns from people about security.”

Last year, in response to brazen shoplifting and harassment, Woolworths Point Chev restricted its hours and boosted its security.

Since then, new high-density apartments, a competing New World supermarket, and the much-anticipated reopening of the local library have given residents and businesses hope.

Lotto shop owner Chirayu Patel said he hadn’t encountered shoplifters in some time.

“Better than last year. Like, yeah, the cops also coming and visiting here twice a week. And then Auckland Council security guys also visiting. Yeah, so it’s better than last year,” he said.

However, another shopkeeper who asked not to be identified told RNZ shoplifting was still a common occurrence at his store.

A spokesperson for Woolworth’s said its security measures had paid off, with a steady reduction in shoplifting over the past year.

“In line with our $45 million investment over three years, announced in 2023, we have put in place a number of both covert and overt security measures across our stores, including Pt Chevalier,” they said.

“We have seen an improvement and we will continue to work with Police, community groups and other retailers in our communities.”

Workers First Union retail secretary Rudd Hughes, who represented supermarket staff, said Woolworth’s deserved credit.

“What they’ve done is that they’ve actually now put on properly trained security people. Those security guards are able to stop shoplifters. They have two security guards on at the peak times, which is something that we asked for,” he said.

“So to be fair to Woolworths, they’ve picked up their game around this.”

He said other improvements had made the supermarket safer for staff and customers alike.

“They’ve changed the configuration at Point Chev a little bit, so there’s only one door for customers to exit,” he explained

“And the other thing is they’ve got the shark-teeth doors fixed and the trolley lock in place. So all those things have meant that verbal abuse, physical abuse and the shoplifting has calmed down in that store.”

Margi Watson hoped safety improvements and the new library would attract more people to the suburb.

“The new library will go back to a full-service library where there’s books, where there’s activity, there’s events like Wriggle and Rhyme for children, where there’s printing and computers to access. So it’ll become the heart of the community again.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

• Another serious assault at North Shore Hospital mental health unit
• The PSA says staff had been pleading for help
• Health NZ says it added extra workers before it opened five new beds last month.

A mental health worker was strangled by a patient a day after their colleagues pleaded for extra staff, but Health New Zealand has rejected the idea that short-staffing played any part in the incident.

Workers at North Shore Hospital’s He Puna Waiora secure mental health unit have been protesting for months about the violence, alleging they are bullied if they speak up.

Health NZ has confirmed there was a “serious assault” on 18 October.

This occurred just after the unit added five extra beds, and while HNZ was looking into a previous assault where a staffer was injured after hitting their head.

“On the 18th October there was another serious assault involving strangulation,” said PSA union national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons, adding this was partly due to being overstretched.

“Just the day before, our staff said they were pleading for staff numbers to be increased,” the union said in a separate statement.

“Their request for extra staff was only acted on for two shifts – staffing had decreased again at the time of the assault.”

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora group director of operations for Waitematā Brad Healey said the unit had added seven new positions this year before the 18 October assault.

“There is no evidence linking this incident to the recent bed increase, as it occurred in the high-care area of the unit, where no bed or staffing changes were made.

“At the time, the unit was fully staffed,” he said in a statement to RNZ.

He added the assault was “managed appropriately, with immediate support provided to those affected”.

The secure unit had five beds added in mid-October, making a total of 40 beds.

Healey said the beds were opened following extensive preparation and recruitment.

“The unit has been funded and staffed for this level of capacity for some time, with an increase of seven FTEs [full-time equivalents] this year prior to the opening of the beds.”

Fitzsimons pushed back: “This is wrong.

“We stand by our previous statement – there have been no additional staff recruited to cover the additional beds.

“There was a consultation period, but we disagree it was extensive. The PSA was not provided the documentation needed to do meaningful consultation, and Health NZ consistently misled both PSA officials and members of staff on what the process would look like.”

Healey responded: “We acknowledge we have more work to do to further improve our communication with staff and intend to raise this at the next meeting with staff and PSA.”

Fitzsimons said the core problem was the unit’s minimum safe staffing levels were too low, saying this illustrated why healthcare workers were striking nation-wide.

The latest violence came while the two sides were preparing to meet to talk about violence and a half dozen other problems listed in a safety notice in September that 50 of the staff had signed.

That meeting would now take place on 17 November.

The problems had mostly not been resolved and it would ask at the meeting for staff to be increased, the PSA said.

Part of the problem was four elderly patients that staff said they were not equipped to deal with, and who should be moved to a specialised facility. HNZ rejected moving them.

The unit lacked equipment to work with them, and staff lacked the training, the PSA said.

Healey acknowledged that training was “an area for improvement”. About a quarter of staff had been trained, and that was set to rise to a third by the end of the year.

Another problem – bathroom drains that regularly got blocked and flooded the unit, sometimes with faeces – had been fixed.

Health NZ had previously acknowledged that staff suffered “real and valid” trauma from witnessing another worker hitting their head when restraining a patient a few weeks ago.

That case and the strangulation have sparked internal reviews.

The September notice raised the “increased risk of physical violence; high likelihood of serious injury” at He Puna Waiora.

The secure unit has a troubled history, including a 2020 inquiry into two patient suicides, and critical Ombudsman reports in 2019 and 2022, including about staff shortages.

The government last week announced $60m of mental health funding over four years, including $7m a year for 40 more front-line clinical staff nation-wide and two new 10-bed acute services so fewer people would need to be admitted as inpatients.

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