Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two people are injured after a firearm was discharged in Gore this evening.

The injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Police said they were called to the scene on Aparima Street just before 8pm, and have cordoned off the street.

Police do not believe there is any risk to the public, but they have been asked to avoid the area.

“Police are in attendance and making enquiries to determine the circumstances surrounding this incident.”

St John earlier confirmed it dispatched ambulances and helicopters to the scene.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Some parents are turning to the gift of a so-called dumbphone this Christmas to limit their children’s access to social media.

That’s a phone that you make calls and send texts on, but they can’t hook up to the internet.

The Government ban on kids using cell phones at school started in Term Two this year, but some students have found work arounds.

Checkpoint found that primary and intermediate kids were using their smartphones and their email accounts to bypass school online security and access internet sites they shouldn’t.

Now Checkpoint is aware of a school that is banning all smartphones and smartwatches on campus because students are out smarting the ban.

It is now going dumbphone only.

One Auckland mum was keen to get her kids an old-school phone, but was hoping for the look of a modern smartphone so they would blend in with their friends.

She said it was harder than she thought it would be.

“I was looking for the basic phone; calls, texts, they can keep in touch with their friends.”

“They’re at the age now where most of their friends all have smartphones, and they are feeling like it’s social suicide and they’re getting left out.”

She said she went to three different shops in her hunt, all of which only had one option out of hundreds of phones.

In the end she ordered one that looks like the real deal from Australia.

Challenge to dumb down

Emma Planicka, who teaches digital safety to schools and parents told Checkpoint there had been a definite recent rise in dumbphones.

“Especially as there are such concerns around children’s mental health, access to social media and that really key importance of keeping our children safe online.”

With the rise in demand, Planicka said it was important for parents to understand what options are out there so they can make a decision that works best for their family.

“It is challenging unless you are understanding the different specifications.”

“Some of the dumbphones are advertised as dumbphones but they still have internet browsers built within them. These browsers are slower and harder to use, and obviously on a very small screen, but you still do have the internet access.”

While other models are just for calling and texting, and don’t have internet access, these are often harder to find.

“Whether you are confronted with a knowledgeable person in a store that has that information and can lead you in the right direction, or whether you’re capable of sorting that information out online, it can be a real challenge.”

Other options include buying a regular phone and implementing parent controls, but Planicka said that again depends on parents having sufficient knowledge on how to do this.

With some schools considering enforcing dumb phones, Planicka believes community consultation should take place to decide on preferred and recommended device options, to ensure kids don’t end up feeling left out from their peers.

She said it’s clear phone companies are catching onto demand, as more of the phones come into the market

“We’re also seeing companies that are actually importing dumb phones from overseas because of the demand. We are seeing that there are different campaigns that are launching and there are resources that are coming out and are more readily available to support.”

Planicka said it was important for parents to consider what was age appropriate for their children, and that buying devices should be like riding a bike, beginning with training wheels and moving up from there.

“When they’re younger we’re really providing secure supports around them with things like screen time and managing that and making sure they’re safe and they don’t have that access to the internet. Then as they are getting older, having really simple things like a digital agreement, a weekly plan.”

While there will always be bumps along the way, Planicka believes slowly implementing technology is a great way to make a difference in setting children up for success.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Multiple ambulances and helicopters are responding to an incident in Gore.

Police are attending a report of a firearm being discharged in Gore.

St John has confirmed it has dispatched ambulances and helicopters to the scene.

– more to come

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tens of thousands of teenagers are expected to descend on Wānaka’s lakefront for one of the country’s biggest informal New Year’s Eve gatherings, with police warning parents they could face charges if they supply alcohol to minors.

Police, paramedics and volunteers are concerned about the number of unsupervised young people who arrive with alcohol in a town that is more than three hours’ drive from the nearest hospital.

According to harm-reduction organisation Red Frogs, Wānaka has become a hotspot for Year 11 and 12 students in recent years.

National director Raymond Thompson said more than 60 volunteers would work in Wānaka and Queenstown from 29 December, handing out water and food, and helping anyone in distress.

“I’m cooking pancakes, handing out water down on the lakefront and, towards the end of the night, will be helping young people, if they need more support, holding their hair back as they vomit,” he said.

Authorities ramped up their presence, after the infamous Ruby Island party in 2016, when hundreds of young people were escorted back to the mainland by emergency services.

Thompson said parents should have “frank conversations” with their children before New Year’s Eve and make a plan, in case they wanted to come home early.

“Don’t pin $200 to your young person’s jersey, give them a bottle and send them six hours down the road with no support,” he said.

“You can either engage in an awkward alcohol-and-drug-harm conversation with your young person, utilising your experience – both good and bad – and giving your advice, or you can allow your teenagers to get advice from TikTok,” he said.

DJs and bands will play on the Wānaka waterfront on 31 December, with an alcohol ban in place between 24 December-6 January.

Otago Lakes Central police area commander inspector Paula Enoka said parents should also remember the legal consequences of supplying alcohol to minors.

“If they are underage, as in under 18, please don’t send them here with alcohol, because the next person we will contact will be the parent [to find out] how they have actually provided them the alcohol,” she said. “There is provision for prosecution and that’s not where we want to go.”

Wānaka senior sergeant Darren Cranfield said an extra 25 police officers would be deployed to the district from centres including Dunedin and Invercargill.

“We have other resources that we drag from other stations, so we do have big numbers, but we have big numbers for a reason.”

Behaviour had improved in recent years, Cranfield said.

“If we go back probably 3-4 years, there used to just be alcohol everywhere, bottles everywhere.”

St John area operations manager David Baillie said alcohol and drug use was a reality every New Year’s Eve, and the consequences were often serious.

“Every year, I have to make a phone call to someone’s parents – 15, 16, 17, 18-year-old girls and boys – who have had far too much alcohol or too many drugs, who are now unconscious, unresponsive,” he said.

His message to parents was to “take a minute to think what it would feel like for me to ring you on New Year’s Eve, because this does actually happen”.

Knowing what substances were taken and how much could be crucial, when someone’s life was on the line, Baillie said.

He urged people to look up drug-testing services like Know Your Stuff.

“The other thing I ask you to do is that you respect our staff. We are there to help you, your family, your friends.

“We do need you to respect us, so that we can do our job to support you.”

Queenstown Lakes District Mayor John Glover said the region was used to welcoming visitors, but the New Year brought added challenges.

“We want everyone to come have a great time and leave having had a great time,” he 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

A Hamilton woman has been sentenced to 11 months home detention for exploiting three migrant workers and failing to pay them thousands of dollars in wages.

Sneha Patel owned and operated several Hamilton and Auckland based businesses and pleaded guilty last year to nine charges including exploiting illegal or temporary employees.

She has been ordered to pay the three victims just under $50,000 in reparation.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said the sentencing was a result of a complex five-year investigation.

It uncovered that Patel had failed to pay approximately $41,000 under the Minimum Wage Act and about $9000 for entitlements under the Holidays Act to three employees over an eight-month period in 2018.

MBIE national manager immigration investigations Jason Perry said Patel knowingly employed and helped a person to remain unlawfully in the country, intentionally mistreated and misled her workers, and provided false or misleading information to Immigration for a visa application.

The employees were required to work long hours and one had to sleep in a work vehicle or on the floor of a storeroom.

Patel either did not pay the employees at all, or at a rate less than the minimum wage for the hours they worked.

“While failing to pay her workers according to their statutory minimum entitlements, Patel chose to purchase and open a further two businesses. Employers and individuals who think they can take advantage of unlawful or temporary workers for their own financial gain should know this will not be tolerated – they will be investigated and held to account,” Perry 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

• Mother of man named in online privacy breach linking him to abuse in state care fears it could cause further trauma
• Five abuse survivors named in OIA document still don’t know about breach
• Ministry of Social Development says it’s working on next steps with the law firm representing the five
• The law firm says the government department is washing its hands of responsibility.

This story discusses graphic details of abuse.

A woman fears her son could be severely traumatised, if he finds out the Ministry of Social Development published information linking his name to his application for compensation for abuse in state care.

He’s one of five people whose names were visible in an MSD Official Information Act document that was online for three months.

None of the five abuse survivors have yet been told about the breach, and there’s disagreement between MSD and the survivors’ lawyers about how they should be informed.

Breach ‘feels like punishment’

The mother of one of the five still can’t believe her son’s name appeared online in relation to a sensitive claim for compensation.

“I was in shock,” said the woman, who RNZ is not naming. “It’s almost like the more he tries to protect himself and keep himself safe, the more determined the government is to punish him for speaking out and trying to protect himself.

“This feels like punishment.”

MSD has apologised unreservedly for the breach, but the woman worries what could happen, should her son find out.

He has complex post-traumatic stress disorder, due to abuse he suffered when in the care of MSD.

His mother fears that, if he knew he was named on the internet in relation to this abuse, he could lose the ability to communicate or function.

“He spends every day trying to negotiate his way towards an ordinary life, but that’s overshadowed all day, every day by the constant triggers of reminders of what he suffered in the past.”

The woman found out about the breach from her son’s lawyer.

MSD said only three people viewed the document in the three months from its publication on 20 August until it was notified of the breach by Wellington human rights law firm Cooper Legal on 21 November.

However, Cooper Legal said many more people could have seen a cached version. MSD analytics don’t pick up how many views that had.

The woman whose son was named said, however many it was, the fact the names were published was problematic.

“How could it possibly be that only three people would view it in three months?” she said. “The other thing is, why should three people view it – it was nobody else’s business.

“Why should anybody know about what was happening, what he has experienced and what he is trying to hold MSD accountable for?”

Communication breakdown

MSD general manager Anna Graham said Cooper Legal made it clear the ministry shouldn’t directly approach the five named people to apologise.

She said the ministry remained concerned the five survivors hadn’t yet received a direct apology and it was working with Cooper Legal on what to do next.

“We wrote to Cooper Legal on 2 December about this matter and proposed resolution, including that contact and our apology be made through them,” Graham said. “We have letters of apology drafted.”

Graham said MSD had waited for a reply from Cooper Legal, receiving communication at the end of last week.

However, Cooper Legal principal lawyer Lydia Oosterhoff said the firm hadn’t kept MSD waiting and she was waiting to hear back from the ministry, after replying to its 2 December correspondence.

“That is a complete falsity,” she said of the MSD claims.

“MSD sent us one letter saying, ‘Cooper Legal can deal with it, Cooper Legal can tell the clients, we’ll wash our hands of it…. this is all we’re doing to do’.

“It’s absolutely, honestly perplexing.”

Meanwhile, the five people named remain unaware their privacy was breached.

“No, we haven’t told the survivors, because we don’t think we should be the ones to tell them,” Oosterhoff said.

“MSD said it was going to work with us to inform survivors about this breach in a trauma-informed manner and MSD hasn’t done that. It’s simply sent us a letter saying, ‘You tell them’.”

The five needed to be told in a way that recognised their vulnerability, and the sensitive nature of the breach and their abuse, she said.

At first, MSD proposed writing directly to them, but Oosterhoff said this wasn’t good enough.

“These are some of our society’s must vulnerable people and they’ve been made even more vulnerable by the state – the state that abused them in the first place.

“The state has now abused their privacy and the state is now not taking accountability.”

Call for compensation

Oosterhoff said she was looking into what compensation the five survivors should receive, something the woman whose son was named online said must happen.

“The reason why he’s got the [sensitive] claim is because there needs to be redress for what they’ve done to him, so further harm for breaching his privacy needs to be redressed as well,” she said. “It just adds on the harm they caused.”

Asked about the issue of compensation, MSD said it was discussing a proposed resolution with Cooper Legal.

Where to get help:

• Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends
• Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202
• Samaritans: 0800 726 666
• Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
• What’s Up: 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787. This is free counselling for 5 to 19-year-olds
• Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, and English.
• Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254
• Healthline: 0800 611 116
• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
• OUTLine: 0800 688 5463
• Aoake te Rā bereaved by suicide service: or call 0800 000 053

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hospitals and public health services across the country have been asked to find more than half-a-billion dollars in “efficiencies” to re-invest in patient care.

In a response to written parliamentary questions from Labour’s health spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall, Health Minister Simeon Brown confirmed Health NZ’s four regions had been set “efficiency targets” of between 2-4.9 percent.

Reducing “waste” in back-office and procurement functions could free up up about $510 million, which could be “re-invested straight back into patient care” and government health targets, without reducing clinical staff, Brown said.

However, Verrall questioned how Health NZ could identify specific “efficiency targets”, but not specify exactly what should be cut.

“Five-hundred-million dollars is a massive amount to cut from health services, and to say they’ll do this without any accountability about where it’s coming from or where it’s going is absolutely outrageous.”

According to the document, efficiency targets by region are:

• Northern 3.7 percent ($170m)
• Midland 2 percent ($55m)
• Central 4.1 percent ($124m)
• South Island 4.9 percent ($161m)

The efficiency targets are applied to “other operating cost” budgets, which do not include staffing budgets.

However, the senior doctors’ union said so-called “back office” cuts already made it difficult for clinicians to care for their patients.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said the constant cost-cutting did not make sense and, in some cases, cost more money in the the long-run.

“On the one hand, they’re saying they spending more money on health,” she said. “On the other, they’re constantly demanding savings, which they claim will not impact front-line care.”

More of the health budget seemed to be spent on locums to fill the gaps left by staff shortages, outsourcing to private hospitals, and paying external consultants to do work that could and should be done by permanent staff, Dalton said.

The minister said the budget was the budget and it did not change, but the targets were simply about “making that budget go further for patients in their respective regions”.

The targets would not be used to meet the projected 2025/26 deficit of $200m, he said.

Examples of efficiencies already realised this year included saving $6m in insurance premiums, reducing unused office space and improved purchasing of medical supplies.

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