Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police have closed off a street in the Wellington suburb of Newtown after a suspicious item was found.

Cordons are in place on Riddiford Street near Constable Street.

Police said members of the public are advised to avoid the area.

– more to come

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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 government is halting new prescriptions of puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria, saying “a precautionary approach” is needed while evidence remains uncertain.

In a statement published on Wednesday afternoon, Health Minister Simeon Brown said Cabinet had agreed to the new settings until the outcome of a major clinical trial in the United Kingdom, expected in 2031.

The drugs – known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues – would remain available for people already using them for gender dysphoria, as well as for medical conditions such as early-onset puberty, endometriosis, and prostate cancer.

Brown said the new rules – taking effect on 19 December – would give families confidence that any treatment was “clinically sound and in the best interests of the young person”.

“These changes are about ensuring treatments are safe and carefully managed, while maintaining access to care for those who need it.”

Existing youth gender services would stay in place, with information brought together into one national online hub, Brown said.

In a post on social media website X, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said his party was the only one to campaign on stopping the use of puberty blockers in children.

“It is commonsense to put a pause on these unproven and potentially damaging drugs for children until we assess the results of the clinical trials in the UK once it’s completed.”

The ACT party’s children’s spokesperson Karen Chhour also issued a statement, declaring a victory for science, evidence, and the safety of children.

“I believe young people should be supported to love themselves, not change themselves with experimental medication.”

Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March told RNZ the government was “buying into imported culture wars” and targeting trans people on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance.

“We know from queer people that gender affirming healthcare can be life-saving,” he said. “The government should focus on addressing the core issues that our health system faces… rather than waging culture wars on trans people.”

The coalition’s move mirrors a major shift in the UK following the Cass Review – a four-year investigation commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS).

That review, spearheaded by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, concluded that the evidence base for gender-affirming medicine was “remarkably weak”, with study results misrepresented by people on all sides of the debate.

Cass also recommended a formal clinical trial to properly test whether puberty blockers, which delay the onset of puberty by suppressing oestrogen and testosterone, were safe and effective for young people. That trial was due to run until 2031.

In response, the NHS stopped routine access to puberty blockers for new patients. Other countries, including Sweden, Finland and Norway, had already tightened access and guidelines.

The Cass Review split opinion among clinicians and academics worldwide. While some endorsed the call of higher evidence standards, others criticised the report’s methodology and warned it downplayed the risk of denying treatment to young people.

At the time, the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA) criticised the review as irrelevant to New Zealand and said it ignored the global medical consensus.

“The final Cass Review did not include trans or non-binary experts or clinicians experienced in providing gender affirming care in its decision-making, conclusions, or findings,” PATHA president Jennifer Shields said.

“Instead, a number of people involved in the review and the advisory group previously advocated for bans on gender affirming care in the United States, and have promoted non-affirming ‘gender exploratory therapy’, which is considered a conversion practice.”

Youth health specialist Dame Sue Bagshaw also said she believed puberty blockers were safe and reversible and warned against any “moral panic”.

However, public health expert and Otago University emeritus professor Charlotte Paul said the British approach should give New Zealand clinicians “pause for thought”, saying some had abandoned “normal standards of informed consent for children”.

New Zealand’s Health Ministry last year also released a report finding “a lack of high-quality evidence” on the benefits or risks of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Daily smoking numbers have plateaued at 6.8 percent as the country looks down the barrel of its Smokefree 2025 goal.

In the year to July 2025, the latest New Zealand Health Survey showed the prevalence for daily smoking had dropped just a fraction from 6.9 to 6.8 percent, while the prevalence of daily vaping had increased slightly from 11.1 percent last year to 11.7 percent this year.

The estimated number of daily vapers this year was 509,000 in 2024/25, up from 33,000 in 2015/16.

Vaping was highest in the 18 to 24 age-group, with more than one in four vaping every day.

Meanwhile, the estimated number of daily smokers has nearly halved since 2011/12, decreasing from 572,000 to 294,000.

Has Smokefree 2025 gone up in smoke?

Vape Free Kids said the data shows New Zealand has failed to achieve the Smokefree 2025 goal, falling far short of the estimated 82,000 people needed to quit smoking in the last year to achieve the goal.

But Associate Health Minister Casey Costello and Action on Smoking and Health group (ASH) say that’s not the case.

Costello said the data is only to the end of June 2025, so the entirety of the year’s data won’t be known until the next survey.

Ruth Bonita, an Emeritus Professor of Public Health and ASH spokesperson, said she believes it is possible New Zealand could reach the under 5 percent goal of Smokefree 2025 by next year.

Costello and Bonita also both noted that under 25s were already a “smoke-free generation” with smoking rates of around 3 percent.

“This is a real success story,” Bonita said.

Small decrease a ‘predictable pattern’, focus on getting older long term smokers to quit

Bonita said the data shows the country is on the right track, and it’s to be expected that smoking rates are no longer declining rapidly.

“As prevalence gets lower and lower [it’s] harder to make a bigger impact on it.”

Costello said the data very clearly shows the 45 to 64 age group is the demographic of long term addicted smokers that more still needs to be done to reach.

“The progress New Zealand has made means that those who currently smoke cigarettes are mostly older, long-term smokers and since the start of the Smokefree work, they have been the most difficult group to get to quit,” she said.

“All of the tools, supports and approaches that have worked so well over the last few years are still in place. We need to build on these and target the key populations – older smokers and especially Māori and Pacific peoples. Māori and Pacifica smoking rates have fallen significantly over the last five years, but this trend has to continue.”

She said the Government’s approach was to take practical steps to provide smokers the tools to quit and stay quit.

“I want to ensure we are making the best use of the resources in this area, including getting people to engage with quit smoking providers and I’m looking at further regulatory change to ensure we have a regime that reflects the harm of products and has appropriate controls on the market.”

Concern about young people vaping

Vape Free Kids are concerned about youth vaping rates.

The group said the youth vaping rate has increased for 15 to 17 year olds from 10.3 percent to 13.6 percent.

They said this means an additional 4000 young people are living with a daily vaping addiction.

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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 jury in an Auckland slavery trial has been told they have to decide whether a man treated two young people as if they were his property.

Moeaia Tuai, 63, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of dealing in slaves, two rapes and assaults, and other sexual offences.

Justice Wilkinson-Smith, summing up the case, said the prosecution say Mr Tuai’s actions were the ‘very definition of slavery’, in exercising rights of ownership over the complainants.

“It can include conduct such as restricting freedom of movement – where a person can go, restricting freedom of association – who they can spend time with, restricting freedom of communication – who they can contact and talk to, using actual or threatened violence for breach of rules, retaining income and denying access to money, threatening consequences such as deportation to ensure compliance, restricting access to education to maintain control.

“All of these things can be used to control a person in a way that is tantamount to possession.”

The jury had to decide whether that happened, she said.

She said most prosecutions in New Zealand courts could only be for offending which happened here.

“Slavery is different. It captures alleged offending both in and out of New Zealand. So, the charge of slavery relating to both [complainants] covers the time period and the events that are alleged to have occurred in Australia as well as in New Zealand.”

The Crown alleges Tuai kept their passports, bank cards and wages, forcing one to take out a loan, and threatening both with deportation if they spoke out.

Tuai’s lawyer Tua Saseve told the jury at the High Court at Auckland that the defendant did not take unreasonable or excessive expenses from the young people’s wages, and safeguarded their bank cards and passports.

He was also not a ‘puppetmaster’ who forced the female complainant to make a previous, false allegation of rape against another man.

The jury is now considering its verdicts.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Northland’s roaming dog epidemic has turned a Whangārei grandmother into a prisoner in her own home.

Tracy Clarke says she loves walking, but has not ventured even to the corner of her street in three years, after a series of close calls with rushing dogs.

If it was not for a courier driver who saved her during one particularly frightening incident, she was convinced she would not be alive today.

“I just walked around the corner of the street. I really had nowhere to go. This dog just came flying out a couple of metres in front of me, it was heading straight for me, and I just froze,” she said.

“Then I heard a lady scream at me, and I literally dived into her van, slammed the door shut, and this dog’s mouth was up at the window.”

Clarke’s walking days ended there and then.

Dogs were constantly roaming her neighbourhood, she said.

She praised the efforts of the council’s animal control officers, but said they were hamstrung by ineffective and outdated laws.

She knew of one especially aggressive dog that had been wandering her street for more than three years – but every time it was picked up, the council was required to give it back.

Clarke has now organised a petition, calling on Parliament to tackle the crisis.

“People have had enough of the situation. They want to see the government step up and rectify it, sort it out, and rewrite laws that were actually written way back in the 1980s.”

New measures could include mandatory desexing, a three-strike rule for owners of roaming dogs, fence height requirements and steeper fines for irresponsible owners.

Her petition did not target responsible owners – she said it could actually benefit them.

Responsible dog owners currently carried much of the cost – collected through registration fees – of fixing the problems created by bad owners.

Clarke said she had received high-powered backing in recent days with the SPCA urging its supporters to sign the petition.

The SPCA said roaming dogs were a serious risk to animal welfare and public safety.

“Dogs that roam are at risk of being injured or killed in traffic, becoming involved in dog attacks, transmitting disease, wildlife predation, fouling and becoming a community nuisance. Many dogs that roam are often not desexed, contributing to unwanted litters.”

Fixing those problems required a combination of education, enforcement and legislative reform, the SPCA said.

Further north, Bay of Islands dog advocate Leonie Exel agreed the situation was “out of hand”.

“As the economy worsens and people get poorer, it’s getting worse because people don’t have the money to fence, they don’t have the money to feed their dogs properly. People are exhausted so they let their dogs wander. All these factors come into play, it’s a very complicated issue,” she said.

Exel said the current law did not serve communities well, and led to inconsistencies in the ways councils around the country approached the roaming dog problem.

She said mandatory desexing – except for dogs belonging to registered breeders – would help, but the “absolute key” to changing owners’ behaviour was community education about how to care for dogs and be safe around them.

“A happy dog is not often a dangerous dog … We need to have lots of loved dogs, not wandering on the streets killing cats or getting into people’s rubbish and driving them mad, or biting people, or making people afraid to walk their own dog. Until we do community education, de-sexing, and have really effective animal control, we’ll keep having the same problem.”

Far North Mayor Moko Tepania said his council would explore its options when the dog control bylaw came up for renewal next year.

The problem was huge, he said.

“In the Far North, we have around 8000 dogs registered annually and 12,000 dogs on record. But the probable reality is that we’ve got more than 20,000 to 30,000 dogs across the district,” he said.

Tepania agreed the current law needed to change.

He supported a push by Auckland Council for greater powers to de-sex roaming dogs when they were picked up, so they did not carry on breeding once they were returned to their owners.

New figures from ACC showed the dog problem was also hitting New Zealanders in the back pocket.

In the year to the end of October, dog-related ACC claims totalled more than $15.6 million, on track to break 2024’s record of $18.5m for the full year.

That was a roughly 80 percent increase from the total of $10.6m five years ago.

In Northland alone the cost was $1.1m for the year to the end of October, more than double the 2020 figure of $509,000.

The number of dog-related injury claims to the end of October was just under 12,000, with 750 of those in Northland.

Tracy Clarke said politicians had allowed the problem to escalate for too long.

“All I want is to be able to walk down to the dairy to get my milk, or walk up the road to wait for the bus. In three years I haven’t walked to the corner, which is probably about 100 footsteps away.”

However, Clarke said the petition was not just for herself.

It was for everyone who had been affected by poorly cared-for dogs, or those who had lost their lives, such as Elizabeth “Effie” Whittaker in Moerewa in 2023 and Neville Thompson in Panguru in 2022.

“This is about the Nevilles from Panguru. It’s about the people whose animals have been killed, it’s about the kid down at the park you see on the news who’s just suffered a dog bite. It’s about the old lady who’s too scared to take her little chihuahua for a walk. All those scenarios we’re just seeing way too many of,” she said.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts said he understood and shared community concerns about roaming dogs.

Watts said he and Andrew Hoggard, the minister responsible for animal welfare, had asked the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) to “explore non-regulatory approaches to support better dog control”.

That included improving the quality and consistency of dog-related data, he said.

The DIA told a Parliamentary Select Committee last month that the Dog Control Act was “increasingly not fit-for-purpose” but the government had no plans to amend it at this time.

Clarke’s petition on the Parliamentary website closes on 25 November.

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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 West Auckland School has confirmed a small number of coloured sand samples tested for asbestos have come back positive.

Several coloured play sand products have been recalled after tests found a naturally occurring asbestos.

About 40 schools and early childcare centres have closed, or planned to, because of the contamination fears.

The product has been sold in both New Zealand and Australia and is subject to multiple safety recalls.

Matipo School in Te Atatu Peninsula originally told parents they did not have any of the recalled sand products, but was testing other types of sand used for art activities as a precaution.

The school set out steps including independent testing, isolating and temporarily closing affected class rooms, and ensuring there was no access to the sand until it was confirmed safe.

However, Principal Jonnie Black wrote to members of the school community to say a small number of samples tested had returned positive results.

“I want to reassure our community that there is no immediate risk, and we are following all recommended Ministry of Education and health and safety procedures,” he said.

“Affected classrooms have been temporarily relocated while we complete air-quality testing and arrange professional decontamination of those spaces.”

Students were safe, well supervised and settled in alternative learning areas, he said.

Black said they had asked the families of specific classes to seal and return any sand-based artwork, so it could be disposed of safely and appropriately.

“This step is part of the national precautionary process to ensure full compliance with safety guidelines.”

The school understood how unsettling the situation was, Black said.

“Please be assured that the safety and wellbeing of our tamariki and staff remains our highest priority.”

Meanwhile, in Nelson, Enner Glynn School principal John O’Regan told Checkpoint they had to close four classrooms due to the potentially contaminated sand. The children have been sharing classrooms or moved to another space such as the library.

“It’s certainly been disruptive,” O’Regan said.

He said the tests for three of the classrooms have come back negative, while they are still awaiting the results of the fourth classroom.

However, O’Regan said despite having negative results back, they are advised not to send children back into those spaces.

“We are still waiting to have the all clear to open those classes.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are responding to an incident in Waikanae on Kāpiti Coast.

Emergency Services were called to Kakariki Grove just before 3.30pm.

A police spokesperson says officers are at the scene and people are asked to avoid the area.

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