Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

More university students are getting into financial trouble because they are being bombarded by sports betting companies, the Problem Gambling Foundation says.

Stories were emerging of flats of students gambling rent money and student allowances on sporting fixtures.

PGF Services, also known as the Problem Gambling Foundation, was launching a campaign and claimed gambling was becoming increasingly embedded in sport, with young men being increasingly targeted and exposed to betting promotions.

Health promoters from the foundation would be visiting university campuses around the country during O-week.

Director of Advocacy and Public Health Andree Froude told First Up young people were being lured in before they began their tertiary studies.

“We’ve even heard of school students on a bus in uniform talking about the bets they were going to place on sports teams. We’ve heard stories of them openly gambling on their laptops when they’re walking between classes at university,” she said.

“It seems almost like a rite of passage that when they turn 18 they put the Betcha app on their phones.”

There had been examples of students watching games during classes to see if students had been successful with their bets, Froude said.

“Gambling in flats, one person might place the bet but others might be watching and egging them on. There’s a peer pressure element there,” she said.

“Losing rent money, gambling away student allowances. Unfortunately, we’ve heard it all.”

Parents, who were often unaware of the seriousness of the problem, were urged to have conversations with their adult children before they left for university.

“It’s really easy for them to get hooked into it. Once they do become addicted, it can become problematic really quickly,” she said.

Froude said tougher restrictions needed to be introduced on largely unregulated gambling advertising.

“[Students] are being bombarded with ads.

“We would like to see gambling advertising banned but there certainly needs to be much tougher restrictions,” she said.

“They’re being offered inducements to open accounts. There’s ‘live play betting’ which is really harmful as well. There’s things that can be done to protect students and it needs to happen.”

Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour told First Up whilst he had some sympathy for his former employer PGF Services, “personal responsibility” also needed to be underlined.

“We’re talking about university students who are receiving a huge amount of taxpayer money, on the basis that they’re smart and have a future that we should invest in as taxpayers,” he said.

“Casting them as victims incapable of making better choices doesn’t help either.”

Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden was due to introduce gambling legislation to the house this week, Seymour said.

The law would seek to block overseas websites and license a restricted number of online gambling sites, including regulations on advertising.

“[Students] can make choices too. They should know about gambling and that the house always wins. If it didn’t the house would no longer be in business and they wouldn’t be gambling with them.”

Seymour said that although addiction should not be taken lightly, it was not impossible to overcome.

“It almost sounded as though [university students] are completely hapless victims. That’s not how I see New Zealanders.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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It sounds like an impossible task – eradicating all stoats, rats and possums from more than 110,000 hectares of South Westland and keeping them out.

But that’s the aim for Predator Free South Westland, a collaborative project with these three pests in its crosshairs.

Its ambitious goal is now nearing completion, and it could provide a template on how to approach large pest removal projects in Aotearoa.

Backcountry beginnings

The project area stretches from the Tasman Sea to the crest of the Southern Alps and is bounded by the Whataroa and Waiau rivers. It covers shoreline, nature reserves, farmland, townships, and lots of rugged, remote backcountry.

But there’s only one way to eat an elephant, and the first ‘bite’ was the Perth Valley. It was here that the project began in 2018.

Tackling its target pests in this rugged backcountry terrain involved 1080 toxin aerial drops. Once that was done, mopping up stragglers and continuous monitoring for reinvasion became key.

It is remote and challenging terrain, further complicated by the West Coast weather, but it became like a second home for field rangers such as Chad Cottle.

“There’s a lot of ephemeral creeks that can come up out of nowhere if you’re not aware of them,” he says.

“So we got used to the ones that came up and weren’t crossable after some rain and ones that went down really quickly. So we know where our boundaries were if we were going out during a rain day we’d know we better not cross that one because we won’t be able to get back across it if it keeps raining.”

Those early days involved chew cards and trail cameras, with rangers then classifying camera images in the hut at the end the day, but along the way the project has embraced new technology.

Now a network of 1200 AI cameras are spread across the project area. These were developed by Zero Invasive Predators, one of the project partners, alongside the Department of Conservation (DOC) and the Next Foundation.

The thermal-sensing cameras are trained to identify the three target species and alert the team by email when one is spotted. Pests are lured to the area using mayonnaise, dispensed automatically from a system that creates its own hydrogen gas to put periodic pressure on a plunger. In practical terms, these technological advances mean fewer trips to the backcountry, and therefore lower costs.

Once a pest is spotted, the team jumps into action. Decision-making on how to respond depends on what has been sighted, and where. A breeding population of rats in the backcountry would likely trigger an aerial drop. A possum could be hunted down by a species dog and dispatched with a rifle, or a live capture cage could be set for it. A stoat might be targeted with toxic rat bait.

But the backcountry is only one part of the project area. Around the small towns of Whataroa, Ōkārito and Franz Joseph the team is also working with private landowners, with a very different approach.

The end in sight

Following its early work in the Perth Valley the project area was divided into large distinct blocks of land to tackle one by one. Now it is down to the last section – around 10,000 hectares of farmland around Whataroa – which it aims to complete this year.

Here aerial toxin drops are not an option, so bait stations and trapping become key tools.

Pouri Rakete-Stones, the rural elimination team lead, has been working with farmers and landowners in the community, answering questions about what the project operating on their land would mean for them. And though many of the conversations often start with scepticism, Pouri says in general people are on board with what it’s trying to achieve.

“Most people can’t believe, they don’t believe that we can do it. First thing they say, you’re never going to get rid of rats. You know, there’s too many rats. You might be able to do it with possums, you’re never going to do it with stoats,” Pouri says.

“So trying to have that conversation about what tools we use, what techniques we do, how we go about work.

“We are elimination, we’re not suppression. So we are looking at targeting the last one. Having that conversation, telling those stories, getting them comfortable around what we can do. And then once we get on the ground and start doing the work, they can see the results pretty quickly.”

Maintenance

The project area was carefully chosen for several reasons. A high proportion of conservation land, a region home to several threatened native species, and geographical features that would help the mission.

While pests like possums have at times been spotted at surprising altitudes, the peaks of the Southern Alps seem to be forming an effective barrier against reinvasion.

The Whataroa and Waiau rivers also allow some protection, but roads and bridges across these are weaker points. Pest-proof gates have been installed on the swing bridges in the back country, but low river flow, or perhaps rat stowaways in vehicles mean that reinvasions continue to occur.

The area is thought of as having a ‘core’ that is free of targeted pests, with a buffer zone around it, into which rats, stoats and possums will stray.

Rapid AI camera recognition and response are how it deals with such incursions, but in addition, having identified the rivers as the weak point, the team is now running targeted operations on the other side of the rivers, to limit pest numbers there.

The goal now is to make this maintenance phase as affordable as possible. Nate St Hill, operation coordinator for Predator Free South Westland, says it is close to $30 a hectare, so an annual bill of $3 million (it has cost $50m to do the eradication). The agreement is that the maintenance will be supported by DOC through the Tomorrow Accord. It will continue to work to get that cost down, says Nate, by further embracing technology, thereby reducing labour time, and helicopter costs.

Seeing changes

While rats, stoats and possums are not the only introduced pest mammals in the project area, getting rid of those targeted three is leading to positive changes. Those working on the project for several years, as well as local eco-tourism operators, are reporting increases in both bird and plant life.

More kākāriki and kea have been sighted in the back country, there are reports of large flocks of kererū, and the only natural population of rowi, New Zealand’s rarest kiwi, are now starting to move beyond the Ōkārito Kiwi Sanctuary.

Dion Arnold is managing director of White Heron Sanctuary Tours, which operates in Waitangiroto Nature Reserve, near Whataroa.

The reserve is home to country’s only white heron kōtuku breeding ground, and Dion has been working here for almost three decades.

In recent years, Dion says, native species have been flourishing in the absence of pests.

“Just seeing those regenerating plants on the forest floor, areas that would have looked like a lawnmower had been through the forest in the past, in the last few years has come back with growth all across it,” he says.

“And the same with the bird life all around us. We’re hearing tūī and bellbird, grey warblers, the fantails and tomtits are around. And to see the number of those birds about having flocks of 30 or 40 of them in the trees above us is just incredible.”

The family-run business has been trapping in the area for a long time, but he says the intensive work to get rid of pests in the surrounding region means its traps are mostly for education now.

“Now we can go months and not have a catch in any of our traps out around here. It’s fantastic.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington’s mayor can’t say if ratepayers in the broader Wellington region will foot the bill for the failure of the Moa Point wastewater plant.

It could be months before the plant returns to full operation after nearly 80 percent of its equipment was damaged by a backflow of sewage.

Wellington Mayor Andrew Little met with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Local Government and Energy Minister Simon Watts on Monday night. Little said they both agree an independent inquiry into the failure of the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant was needed as soon as possible.

Little told Morning Report that he agreed any review needed to be independent.

Wellington Water manages the region’s water infrastructure on behalf of Wellington, Hutt Valley, Porirua and South Wairarapa district councils.

Tiaki Wai Metro Water, the new water services entity for the Wellington metropolitan area, is set to take over from Wellington Water on 1 July 2026. Little said the new entity won’t pick up liability if Wellington Water is found culpable.

Little said the Moa Point plant is a Wellington City Council asset. He said it will deal with who pays once the plan to get the plant back online is in place.

In the meantime, the council would foot the bill.

“If there’s been a breach of obligations, a breach of duties, then that, to me, has to be sorted out between the parties. In the meantime, the critical thing is to get the [plant] recovered, fixed and back operating. The Wellington City Council will no doubt underwrite that cost,” Little said.

“We want to know what went wrong, where the responsibility lies and if we can recover any costs, then obviously we want to do that.”

Wellington Water chief executive Pat Dougherty told Morning Report on Monday there’s been under-investment over a long period at the Moa Point plant and backs an investigation.

Dougherty said there have been a couple of incidents over the last few months that he suspects may have been early indicators. He also backs an independent investigation into the failure.

“I worry that there may have been some early warning signs that there were troubles with the discharge and we missed those. But everything needs to be on the table,” he said.

Little said he wasn’t aware that early signs may have been missed, adding that was “concerning” to hear.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Auckland train services on both the Southern and Western lines are being restored after a fault was found between Waitematā and Newmarket.

The Parnell rail tunnel was closed overnight after deficient track repairs were carried out over Waitangi Weekend.

Auckland Transport said the fault has now been fixed and that all train services are running as normal.

“The track issues found overnight between Waitematā and newmarket staions has been fixed.

“All trains will operate as normal from the start of services.”

Replacement buses are no longer required.

The Eastern line was also operating to Waitematā as normal.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Olympics feature Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling and Japan is famous for sumo – but in South Taranaki it is schwingen that rules supreme.

Dozens of competitors clad in special canvas hosen have been grappling for New Zealand’s default national title at the Taranaki Swiss Picnic in Kaponga.

Schwingen – derived from the German to swing – is a national sport in Switzerland also known colloquially as hosenlupf or breeches lifting which perhaps better describes the action.

Thomas Werder was in charge of the sawdust ring.

“The idea is you put on these kind of lack old sack shorts, you hold on [to your opponent’s shorts] with your two hands and one wrestler has to have one hand on at all times or else you restart the match.

“If you go off the sawdust you restart the match and if two shoulders [of your opponent] hit the sawdust the match is over instantly.”

Schwingen was a professional sport in Switzerland, but here it was for allcomers.

“I grew up as a five year old competing in it and I really enjoy it. I think even for the little kids it helps build confidence and getting out there.

“In Switzerland it’s very serious, but here we try and make it as much fun as possible. Some people here don’t even have Swiss line in their family but they have a Swiss connection somewhere and that’s what is really cool, everyone is welcome.”

Taranaki Swiss Club president Othmar Hebler said it was a special occasion for the community.

“Today is the annual Swiss Picnic which has been held since 1953 and there’s probably around 400 people here today and we have Swiss music, Swiss wrestling and we’ve got Alphorn and we’ve also got shot put and bottle-fishing and pony rides for the kids.”

Hebler said the first Swiss arrived in Taranaki in the mid-1800s before a later surge.

“Back in the 1930s and 40s a lot of farmers from Switzerland – because they had small farms – they came to New Zealand and they settled around here in Taranaki and mainly around the southern side of the mountain and that’s why there’s the big community here. So we’ve got second, third and fourth generations of Swiss now in our club.”

The picnic – as the name suggests – was not all about music and sports.

Leo Danz was in charge of the high-end sausage sizzle.

“That’s wiener and it’s just got a bit more taste than a Kiwi sausages have. I don’t really know the recipe of the things but that’s veal mainly and veal and pork. No bread in it. They’re quite spicy, salty and this is cervelas [the national sausage of Switzerland] and bratwurst they call it. One is completely beef and the other veal and pork too.”

Pauline was suitably impressed.

“My dad and my uncle Don used to make them years ago when we were kids, but these are the best they’ve had here for the last couple of years. More spicy and yummy. They’re very good on a BBQ actually better on a BBQ. Normally you just heat them up in hot water. You don’t actually boil them, but they’re actually better on the BBQ.”

It would not be a Swiss get-together without a bit of alphorn.

Taranaki Alphorn Group member Alan Beck said it took him three months to get the first note out of his instrument.

“Since then the attraction has grown like gravy pouring off meat. As people have a go and find that it’s not that hard they then get captured by the ability to make beautiful music harmonies and when you hit it you know and if you know you know.”

For the record, up and coming rugby talent Shay Smith-Luond could now lay claim to being New Zealand’s schwingen champion.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A Northland couple denied Earthquake Commission (EQC) cover for their landslip-damaged home finally got a payout after bringing in their own expert three years later.

Even so, they came close to losing out entirely when engineers hired by EQC, now called the Natural Hazards Commission, backed its original call that it was not landslide damage.

But those engineers had not visited the site and after being told to do a visit by the commission changed their decison.

A newly released ruling from the Chartered Professional Engineers Council unpacked what went on and the lessons for engineers and home owners.

It was not a trival matter, said the ruling – the situation “had the potential to create an outcome in which insured homeowners were deprived of their entitlement to damage repair”.

“The respondent ought to have either undertaken a site visit or ensured that the report was caveated, identifying its limitations on that basis.”

It took three years for the home owners to reverse EQC’s original decision, and get some cover.

Their expert, Whangārei geotechnical engineer David Buxton, spent another couple of years over his official complaint against the engineer who oversaw the report that backed EQC’s original decision.

“Imagine your house is badly damaged and EQC says it is not landslide damage without the engineer coming to look at it,” he told RNZ. The stakes were too high to not be more careful, he said.

The complaint has now been finally dismissed for a second time on the grounds the engineer had retired, the industry could learn from the case and “the alleged misconduct is insufficiently grave to warrant further investigation”.

‘Widespread cracking of gib’

Home owners have cover for the first $300,000 of landslide damage from the commission.

In Northland, the unidentified couple noticed cracks and movement around their home near Whangārei in 2018.

They lodged a claim a year later but EQC knocked it back within a week, saying it was not damage from natural hazards.

Initially they accepted this, and got some drainage work done.

But more damage occurred, and in 2022 Buxton visited and concluded it was landslide damage.

EQC reopened the case, and its own senior assessment specialist took photos and records of the damage.

“Main part of house is causing widespread cracking of gib and ceiling from centre of house to the east end of house,” the specialist recorded.

“Driveway has pulled away from the curb … outside decking is buckling up.

“Ongoing slippage will require extensive home site land stabilization [sic] and extensive repairs/replacement of pilings.”

EQC called in private consultant engineers WSP; it had two or three firms at the time it relied on to do a lot of assessments.

At WSP, an unnamed senior engineer took charge. He handled all “specialist service requests” from EQC at the time, and in the Northland case, reviewed the work of a more junior geotechnical engineer.

He was sent the specialist’s photos.

However, while his workplan allowed for a site visit, no visit was made, the November ruling said.

In June 2022, he signed off on a two-and-a-half-page draft report that rejected landslide as the cause.

“The homeowners were living in a stressful situation,” the ruling noted and “had been presented a report that could have greatly undermined their confidence in the engineering profession”.

A spokesperson for WSP told RNZ it acknowledged the ruling, that it regularly reviewed its technical and quality assurance practices, and had further strengthened its processes since this period.

“The complaint regarding the engineer involved was dismissed, and there has been no finding of professional misconduct by WSP or its staff,” it said in a statement on Monday.

“The case does, however, underline the importance of robust assessment processes where natural hazard damage is complex or disputed.”

The Natural Hazards Commission, formerly EQC, on Monday defended its processes as robust and fair, while providing for accurate and fast decisions on claims.

“If the evidence clearly suggests a landslide, an onsite assessment would generally be required,” it said.

“However, in this case the cause of the land damage was not initially clear, including whether it resulted from a sudden landslide event, which may be covered under the EQC Act, or from a slow moving land movement, which is not covered.”

‘The damage to the property is landslip damage’

The Chartered Professional Engineers Council’s ruling in November said it appeared the supervising engineer was of the opinion that long-term subsidence exacerbated by a high groundwater table was to blame.

“There is evidence to suggest that this was not a sound conclusion to have been reached, or at least reached unequivocally, given the documentation available,” it said.

Buxton challenged the engineer’s draft report immediately in mid-2022.

“They can decline all insurance cover. So that means this is when they should be the most careful to take a look at it,” he told RNZ this week.

EQC told WSP to do a further report.

“EQC instructed WSP to undertake a site visit,” the ruling issued in November 2025 said.

The new report issued in September 2022 was 10 pages long, had additional sections on property damage following the site visit and did not get the geology of the site wrong as the June 2022 report had.

It also reversed the finding: “Concludes that the damage to the property is landslip damage as defined by the EQC Act.”

What the home owners had contended back in 2019 had been upheld, and the site visit was key.

A comparison of the June and September 2022 reports “is demonstrative of the difference that undertaking a site visit made to both the quality of the assessment and the conclusion reached”, the ruling said.

‘Careful and competent manner’

But Buxton was not finished.

He had “concerns about the flaws in the WSP June 2022 report. In particular, the use of the term ‘subsidence’ and failure to undertake a site visit”, the ruling said.

“Visiting a site provides an understanding that is not readily possible from written reports and photos,” Buxton told adjudicators.

He laid an official complaint in 2023 with Engineeering New Zealand (ENZ), questioning what went on and the reasons for it and seeking to confirm the supervision at WSP was adequate.

ENZ’s investigating committee dismissed his complaint, saying the case was about a “difference of engineering opinion”, among other reasons. It resisted Buxton bringing up technical evidence.

The committee chair considered the WSP overseeing engineer “acted in a careful and competent manner; and that he carried out the work required” and EQC accepted his report.

Buxton appealed that dismissal to the Chartered Professional Engineers Council.

Its ruling in November 2025 said, “The appeal panel is not in the position of determining whether the opinion formed and the report content was the standard expected but considers there is sufficient substance to the allegation it fell short through either negligence or incompetence.”

However, it was far from conclusive.

“Stepping back, the Appeal Panel sees this as a matter in which an otherwise experienced CPEng [chartered professional engineer] appears to not have adequately supervised and reviewed another engineer’s work,” said the ruling.

“There is evidence to suggest that his actions or inactions were below the standard expected and, without intervention of EQC and the appellant, [Buxton] could potentially have had significant consequences for the homeowner.

“However, there also appears to be the possibility of explanations being available that mean his conduct would not be seen as conduct worthy of sanction.”

‘Fair, accurate natural hazard assessments’

WSP’s spokesperson told RNZ the firm was “committed to high professional standards and fair, accurate natural hazard assessments”.

“Since the period relevant to this case, internal guidance and peer review have been further strengthened to support assessments that are appropriate to the circumstances and agreed scope of work, and to ensure professional judgement is clearly documented.

“Site visits are an important assessment tool, but whether they are required depends on the specific circumstances of each claim, the information available, and the scope agreed with the client. There is no single approach that applies in every situation, and professional judgement is used to determine the most appropriate methodology.”

The Natural Hazards Commission’s (NHC) chief recovery officer Kate Tod said in the Northland case, it had no privacy waiver so she could not speak in detail, but that the initial decision in 2019 rejecting the claim was based on the information provided at the time.

“When the homeowner provided new information, we sent a qualified engineer onsite to carry out an assessment,” she said in a statement.

All claims were assessed with “significant input” from experts either based on information from home owners, or “if it was complex” the agency might send an engineer onsite.

Asked if it had looked back at any other assessments following this case, Tod said the NHC had a “comprehensive claims quality assurance programme that monitors and reviews technical assessment quality”.

“Based on this, we have not identified wider issues in past assessments,” she said.

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