Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

In the 1970s the Lake Alice child and adolescent unit near Marton was a place of horror for the children tortured there.

But farmland has replaced the psychiatric hospital, whose buildings have gone, and all that remains from the time is a water tower.

On Saturday a memorial was unveiled at the site paying tribute to those who never left Lake Alice and those whose lives were scarred forever.

‘It’s about the children of Lake Alice’

Unit survivor Robyn Dandy came up with the idea for the memorial.

“It’s important to remember all those who have gone before us, way way too soon. They should have lived long and happy lives, and never did.

“It’s about the returned servicemen who were dumped in here. It’s about the children of Lake Alice who are still with us today.”

She was going to fund the memorial herself until the local council took on that responsibility and with and iwi, Ngāti Apa, made sure it happened.

More than 400 children – including many with no psychiatric illnesses – went through the unit, where they were given electric shocks and paralysing drugs under the watch of Dr Selwyn Leeks, and raped.

“It’s not about anybody in particular,” Dandy said. “It’s about everybody that was involved in Lake Alice and sadly a lot, like my own brother, went very young in life.

“It’s about remembering them. They couldn’t be here for this, but I’m sure they’re watching down today.”

The current government has apologised to victims of state abuse and introduced a compensation scheme for Lake Alice survivors.

But for many, life remains tough.

The house Dandy was renting was badly damaged in last week’s storm and she urgently needs to find another home.

“The water’s only just come on today. The electricity is half on. I need somewhere safe for me and my animals now. I’m getting a bit long in the tooth for running around looking for properties.

“If anybody out there’s got a nice little country cottage around the Manawatū-Rangitīkei district, preferably – I’m a good tenant.”

Affinity with fellow survivors

Lake Alice unit survivor Sherab Palmo was among those who delivered moving speeches to the roadside gathering of about 40 people.

She said she was a clever child, who wanted to be a vet, only for Lake Alice to rip that away. Now though, aged 63, she’s qualified as a midwife.

“I really wanted to meet some people that I’ve been here with, more than anything. It’s like having this whānau that you didn’t see for a long time.

“I’ve connected with a few over the years. And then also just meeting the ones who I have met here today – it’s like having an affinity with someone that you know has survived something that you have.”

Before unveiling the memorial, Dandy paid tribute to Hake Halo, who died last year.

Halo raised the alarm about what was happening at Lake Alice by writing notes in Niuean to his family on drawings sent home. He made sure the figures in those drawings were smiling, so not to raise suspicion among Lake Alice staff.

Journalist Aaron Smale, who has for a decade exposed state malfeasance to do with the Lake Alice unit, also paid tribute to a recently deceased survivor – Rangi Wickliffe.

Decades of cover up

The minister in charge of the response to the Royal Commission into state abuse, Erica Stanford, spoke about the wrongs not only of the unit, but of the state covering up what happened for decades.

“I have been meeting with Lake Alice survivors since almost day one. Being here was extremely important to acknowledge what happened here,” she told RNZ.

“[I’m here] to say the words that I’ve said to them privately, that I’ve said in public – but to say them here at this place, in the shadow of the tower, to acknowledge that the state over 50 years has actively worked against them.”

Many of the horrors of the Lake Alice unit were exposed during royal commission hearings overseen by retired judge Dame Coral Shaw, who travelled from her Waikato home for the unveiling.

“I felt here’s an opportunity to remember and to mark, and to do something tangible for the memory of those who’ve passed and the survivors of Lake Alice, who continue to live with their trauma.

“For me it’s a very important part of this long journey.”

She heard weeks of harrowing evidence from survivors and the commission produced the Beautiful Children report into abuse at the Lake Alice unit.

“Before I came I sat down and just went through it again because I wanted to make sure that I had it alive in my mind, and it hurt.

“It hurt to read again and to relive that, but it’s important that we do, that we keep the memories alive, because it we don’t we can’t promise that it won’t happen again.”

Rangitīkei mayor Andy Watson said he had no hesitation in deciding the council should pay for the memorial.

He described what happened at Lake Alice as a stain on the community.

When he was growing up, he remembers going there to play sport and having no idea what patients were going through.

“Lake Alice was groomed, it had many groundsmen, and we thought as kids that everything was okay. We didn’t know.

“Maybe that’s part of the tragedy. There should have been people who raised the flag earlier and said, ‘Things are not okay.'”

Survivor Karilyn Wildbore said she applauded Dandy for making the memorial happen.

“We all knew driving down this road when we were kids it was going to be horrific.

“Now, we can come back here and we can actually see that it’s not there any more.”

The Lake Alice unit closed in 1978 and the wider facility 20 years later.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

More than 300 homes in Wellington are still without power a week after being hit by a southerly storm.

Wellington Electricity said the extremely gusty nature of last week’s storm appeared to have made it extra damaging, and it was taking longer than expected to restore power.

The lines company apologised to the 260 customers across Wellington and Porirua, and 70 in the Hutt Valley, who have now gone without electricity for a week.

The number was down from the approximate 700 homes on Friday that still had no power, when Wellington Electricity said it would donate $10 to KidsCan Charitable Trust for every customer who wouldn’t be reconnected that day.

Have you been affected? Get in touch at: hamish.cardwell@rnz.co.nz

Wellington Electricity chief executive Greg Skelton said the sheer scale of the damage that fallen trees and windblown branches have caused meant they were behind schedule.

“From initial assessments we thought we were going to get power restored in the Hutt Valley on Saturday evening.

“However, in many jobs we discovered greater damage than we could initially see after trees were cleared and sites made safe to work at. It’s been very frustrating. As of this morning there are about 70 customers still without power in the Hutt Valley. We expect to get power restored to them today.”

He said power should be restored to the 260 homes across Wellington and Porirua by Tuesday night.

Some repairs would be temporary, requiring further work.

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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 veterinary specialist says it is shocking to see another serious dog attack, days after a woman was mauled to death in Northland.

Three people were injured after two dogs attacked people in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr on Saturday.

One person was critically injured, another seriously injured, and a third treated for minor injuries at the scene.

Association of Professional Dog Trainers president Dr Jess Beer, said the frequency of the attacks right now is “distressing”.

“It’s multi-factorial when it comes to aggression in dogs. It’s not a personality, it’s a combination of lots of different reasons, and every case is individual.

“But it is concerning to be seeing so many instances where aggression has been reached in that relationship between the human and their dog.”

On Tuesday 62-year-old Mihiata Te Rore was killed by dogs while visiting a home in the Northland town of Kaihu.

The attacks have sparked calls for an overhaul of the Dog Control Act – with Te Rore being the fourth person killed by dogs in the past four years.

In Christchurch, the city council has said the two dogs have been impounded pending an ongoing police investigation.

Beer said she did not know what caused the Christchurch attack, but said “backyard breeding” was causing concern generally.

“An animal is under-sexed, a roaming dog, they get pregnant, large puppies produced and it’s just a question of finding a home for them.

“I know if you speak to any of the rescues around New Zealand they are absolutely flooded with a lot of abandoned dogs.”

Beer said there was not enough information about de-sexing rates around the country, the levels of breeding going on, or where dogs were coming from.

“We need better management of what dogs are pro-creating, so there is a genetic predisposition that certain individual [breeds] will pass on a genetic trait to be prone to aggressive behaviours.”

There also appeared to be fewer dog owners seeking dog training before a problem occurred, Beer said.

She urged people to reach out to a dog trainer if they saw their dog display worrying behaviour.

“It is much harder to resolve these problems and help these dogs when they are already displaying bite activity towards people or other species.”

Local Government minister Simon Watts has previously said he is seeking advice on how central government can respond to these attacks, and on the Dog Control Act.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Students from the Auckland school that had its century-old, heritage listed sports pavilion gutted by fire are learning from home for the week.

The building at Northcote College was razed on Friday.

In a letter to parents, the school said it had been told to close by the Ministry of Education and specialist contractors.

“We are moving to online learning for the week of Monday 23 February to Friday 27 February for all students,” the school said.

Students should not come to school, it added.

There would be limited supervision given for students who could not stay home, but they would not be taught any lessons.

It also cautioned against “unhelpful” speculation about the fire’s cause, saying it was still under investigation.

Online learning would allow for the the safe demolition of the pavilion, its removal and clearing of the site, the school said.

“Property records show that there is asbestos (Class B) in some of the cladding around the base of the damaged building which will require appropriate management as it is removed,” the school had written to parents.

It also was not able to run heating, ventilation and air conditioning in its new K Block where half of its timetabled classes were.

“We have also been advised to keep all people off the fields and away from the gym and pool during the demolition and removal process.

“With these restrictions, online learning for the week is the safe and sensible option.”

Northcote College said air tests taken over the weekend for reassurance had all come back clear.

“Monitoring will continue this week,” it said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

By Irra Lee, Morning Report producer/reporter

Newly-released ACC data shows claims for e-scooter injuries are on the rise, with children and young people among the most affected.

It’s prompted an ED doctor to call for helmets to be made compulsory while riding.

ACC figures provided to RNZ indicate that of all new claims involving an e-scooter from the start of 2026 to early February, about half are for people under the age of 25.

Between 2022 and 2024, about 40 percent of new e-scooter-related claims each year were for under 25s, rising to 47% in 2025.

Part of the rise is being driven by large increases in claims for 10- to 14-year-olds. The age group recorded 203 new e-scooter claims in 2022, tripling to 605 by 2025.

The figures show the number of new e-scooter injury claims for under 25s last year had risen 85 percent since 2022. For all age groups, new claims involving the scooters have climbed 55 percent in the same time period.

ACC said it relied on people’s own reports of their injuries for this data, and that it counted claims using the date it was registered rather than when the injury occurred. The data also didn’t describe the severity of injuries, how they occurred, and who was affected (for example, the e-scooter rider or a pedestrian).

RNZ has asked Health NZ for further details on the injuries.

Dr Stuart Dalziel, a paediatric emergency medicine specialist at Starship Hospital, told RNZ the numbers married up with what he’d been seeing.

When they turn up to ED, Dalziel said some people’s injuries could be “relatively easy to sort out”, though others could be debilitating if it affected the head or face.

“For a small number of people, these e-scooter injuries are life-threatening.”

ACC’s data shows soft tissue injuries to muscles, ligaments, or tendons – like sprains or bruises – are most common when it comes to e-scooter incidents. This is followed by lacerations and punctures, then fractures and dislocations.

Dalziel said New Zealand should consider making helmet use compulsory with e-scooters. Currently, they are only “strongly recommended”.

He also called for a public health campaign encouraging safe scooting – similar to messages for safe cycling – and separating scooters from other road users.

“Obviously, scooters can do damage to pedestrians when they’re going at 30 kilometres an hour, but also if you fall off your e-scooter into a car.”

National MP Catherine Wedd is leading a campaign to take e-scooters off footpaths and into dedicated bike lanes whenever possible, with changes expected by mid-2026.

Current NZ Transport Agency rules say they can be used on the footpath or the road, though not in designated cycle lanes that form part of the road.

The responsibility for safety was a balance between individuals’ responsibility and the rules the Government set, Dalziel said.

“If you think about cycling as an example, we actually have a lot more controls around cycling than we do around e-scootering. The controls that we actually have around cycling do not stop people enjoying their bikes and going out and riding their bikes on the road.

“So it makes common sense that we actually have those same compulsory safety messaging around e-scootering,” he said.

“With regards to the e-scootering companies, there are some companies that have helmets attached to the e-scooter. I think that really is a good example of what companies can do in order to improve the safety of these scooters, but not all companies do that.”

Dalziel said it was difficult to know why young people were increasingly over-represented in ACC’s e-scooter claim statistics.

“I think predominantly, the cause is probably that people are using them more – and this will be both people using the scooters you can rent, but also people buying these products,” he said.

“We saw a spike in injuries when e-scooters were introduced to the country in 2018. That settled quite dramatically with the lockdowns associated with Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021, and it’s steadily increased since then.”

ACC paid out almost $16 million for scooter-related injuries in 2025, an increase of about 10% on the year prior. Just over $1.2 million had been paid out in January 2026.

The cost of all road injury claims – which include active, private, and public modes of transport – was $766 million last year.

ACC said e-scooter riders could consider these tips:

• If you’re new to e-scooters practice in a quiet place away from traffic and other people until you get to grips with them
• If you’re pretty experienced, give the scooter you’re using a little test before travelling on it – is it as responsive as it should be, does it slow down/brake well etc.
• Start slow and ease into it – they can go pretty fast/gain speed quickly
• One person at a time
• Wear a helmet

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

Source: Radio New Zealand