Category: Public Media

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Diesel spill from fuel truck crash closes Aotea Quay in Wellington

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ / REECE BAKER

A diesel spill has closed Wellington’s Aotea Quay.

Police were notified of a single-vehicle crash involving a fuel truck about 2.45am on Tuesday.

The on-ramp heading northbound was blocked, but motorists could still get off State Highway 1 via the off-ramp.

Police said it will remain closed throughout the morning, and Wellington City Council warn that ferry access and egress would also be impacted.

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Auckland held to draw but extend A-League lead

Source: Radio New Zealand

Lachlan Brook of Auckland (third left) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal. DAN HIMBRECHTS

A-League leaders Auckland FC have been held to a 1-all draw by Macarthur FC last night in Sydney with the hosts extending their unbeaten run to six matches.

The result was the first ever draw between the two sides and lifted Macarthur to third in the A-League standings, level on points with second placed Sydney FC, with Auckland now two points clear at the top of the table.

Auckland had the first real chance to score when midway through the first half but Logan Rogerson’s shot was saved by Macarthur defender Walter Scott.

Not long after the hosts had their first opportunity on the counterattack but Luke Vickery’s shot went wide.

Auckland broke the deadlock as halftime loomed with Lachlan Brook scoring his fourth goal of the season after running on to a nice through ball before beating Macarthur goalkeeper Filip Kurto one on one.

Auckland could have scored again early in the second half but the header from Nando Pijnaker hit the post and a follow up header went over the crossbar.

Macarthur also missed some prime opportunities to score before Tomi Uskok levelled the ledger after a set piece move.

Neither side could find the match winner with the game finishing in the first ever draw between the two sides.

“A little bit disappointing not to get the three points. I feel like we controlled the game for the majority of it. We had chances, myself included, to finish it off,” Brook said after the match.

“I think it was just missing chances. I had a few that I should have buried as well and I think if one of those go in we can see out the game comfortably.

“It’s obviously not an ideal goal to concede either. I thought we were controlling the game so, on that front, disappointing, but at the end of the day, a point away from home, it’s not the end of the world.”

Auckland remain on the road for their next match against Brisbane Roar on Friday.

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Hobson Bay residents fed up with sewage overflows

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hobson Bay in central Auckland. Supplied / Shaun Lee

Residents of a central Auckland suburb are fed up with frequent sewage overflows ruining what should be a picturesque coastal view.

A community group in Hobson Bay, just east of the city centre, says the council is responding too slowly to the flood of faeces.

Rain or shine, local woman Margot Nicholson said sewage was a regular sight.

“We have dry weather spills, which are from broken pipes and blockages and things. Those are happening almost all the time,” she said.

“In wet weather, the phrase we use is: if it’s wet enough for your hair to get wet … there will be spills.”

Margot Nicholson, right, says sewage is a regular sight in Hobson Bay. Supplied

Hobson Bay and the neighbouring Judges Bay had been haunted by frequent wastewater spills for several years.

Much of the surrounding residential area still used combined waste and stormwater pipes that were over 100 years old and prone to leaks.

Most recently, the 2023 storms broke the wastewater pipeline in Judges Bay necessitating a $13 million repair that is still ongoing.

Nicholson, who serves as a spokesperson for community group Hapua Thrive, had to warn people not to swim in faeces.

“I was going for a walk and there was a woman there with her little boy racing across the mud flats, very excited to get into the water, and I had to say to her: ‘look, do you know what the situation is?'”

Wastewater biologist Gemma Tolich Allen said the amount of sewage flowing into the bays was extreme.

“When there are high flows into the harbour, the bacterial levels are extremely high and they’re the sort of levels that I would see entering a wastewater treatment plant,” she said.

“We’re actually seeing the harbour doing the treatment of the sewage waste that should actually be going to a wastewater treatment plant.”

Allen said Hobson and Judges Bay were effectively acting as an open-air treatment plant, which wasn’t fair to ratepayers.

“When we’re charged on our wastewater bill … when you have large volumes of water not being treated, expecting the local environment to treat it, then you’re actually short changing the community.”

Nicholson said enough was enough and it was time for council to do something about it.

“I don’t believe they are doing enough. They’ve known about this forever, they’ve got the projects there, and there are fixes available. There’s been a lot of work in monitoring, which is great, but they know the problem, they know what they need to do, and they need to get on and do it,” she said.

“I don’t think our clean, green reputation is deserved … it’s not okay for Hobson Bay to be effectively a wastewater treatment plant.”

Auckland Council’s Watercare had invested $8 billion into upgrading and repairing Auckland’s wastewater system over the next decade.

The centrepiece of that work was the Central Interceptor, which head of wastewater planning Andrew Deutschle claimed would reduce overflows in the western isthmus by 80 percent.

Hobson Bay is in the east and wouldn’t benefit directly, but Deutschle said the $1.6b project would help ease the load.

The benefit it provides for Hobson Bay, for Judges Bay, and for other parts of the eastern isthmus is it takes some of the load off our Orakei Main Sewer,” he said.

“By taking a load off that, that allows other sources in the eastern isthmus to better utilise that asset.”

The Central Interceptor was due in late 2026, but Nicholson had her sights set on a different project.

The Newmarket Gully was originally promised for 2016, but still hadn’t left the feasibility stage almost ten years later.

“There was a plan that there would be a tunnel, or a storage tank, that would reduce the overflows in this area by 50 percent. That still hasn’t been done, that’s still in the planning process,” she said.

That project would redirect overflows to a storage tunnel to reduce leakage into Hobson Bay.

But Deutschle said it wouldn’t be completed until 2033.

“The current timing for the Newmarket Gully project is working towards completion by 2033, with our large-scale complex projects we find that they often take some time and we need to really carefully consider or sometimes reassess options.”

Gemma Tolich Allen had witnessed frequent spills into Judges Bay over multiple decades and said work on the Newmarket Gully had been too slow.

“I believe, as a wastewater biologist, that the environmental cost can be reversed…. but when you’re looking at 40 years of Judges Bay still being contaminated, that’s a whole generation of people who have been unable to use it,” she said.

Watercare said it planned to eventually replace all of the old combined waste and stormwater pipes with separate lines, but the process would take decades.

Until then, projects like the Central Interceptor and Newmarket Gully would reduce the frequency of spills, and Watercare would prioritise areas that were at a higher risk of overflows.

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What do Kiwis think about going barefoot in public?

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand has a global reputation as a country that is pro-barefoot. Many a traveller has commented in wonder – and disgust – at seeing barefooted persons in areas where shoes are typically worn: the grocery store, a cafe and on urban streets that are far from sand and water.

An unscientific survey at my kid’s school assembly drove the point home. On one of the coldest days of the year, the deputy principal asked for a show of hands of those not wearing shoes (it’s not uncommon for parents and grandparents to tell their Kiwi kids that going barefoot is better for their feet, which does have a grain of truth to it, but more on that later).

At least 100 out of a possible 800-plus students proudly raised a hand.

A breakdown of your no bra summer

“That’s how you know you’re at a school in New Zealand,” he said, or something to that effect.

But scratch below the surface, and individual opinions of New Zealanders on the matter are far more nuanced. Some are avowed barefooters in almost any circumstance, while others have hard and fast rules that are far more restrictive.

Rodney Featherstone is one of those people who has a clear rule that he can easily articulate.

“From the beach to the main road where the town is. Past the main road? No, always have to have jandals. But between the main road and beach? Easy,” he says when approached for comment by RNZ in Auckland’s CBD.

“It’s like the togs/undies, but a slightly different take on it,” he adds.

How about a grocery store or a pub?

“Dirty. Your feet would come out black.”

Kelly Ah Kiau is strongly “pro-foot” but was having a rare day when she was wearing jandals (city streets with questionable levels of cleanliness are too much for even her).

“For me, going barefoot is how we remain [connected] to Papatūānuku, our Earth Mother…”

Barefoot on sand and grass is a must, but manmade surfaces are not so great.

“I guess it becomes a health and safety issue.

Ah Kiau credits Peter Jackson, the Academy Award-winning director who created the Lord of the Rings movie series, for establishing New Zealand’s global barefoot reputation. He attended a major movie fan event for the franchise in 2013 sans shoes. She recently graduated from a college, and some of the students decided to accept their diplomas barefoot.

​Foot specialists recommend allowing your feet and legs to adapt gradually to a barefoot lifestyle by increasing shoeless stints over several months, according to National Geographic.

Pexels

“I thought it was really beautiful…”

In October, Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara triggered praise, criticism and headlines when she delivered her maiden speech in parliament without shoes.

Growing up in Turkey, Cuneyd Onat rarely went without shoes, with his parents citing injury prevention and improved hygiene as the main reasons. However, the 16 years he has been in New Zealand have swayed him.

“It doesn’t make sense to me at all. What were they thinking?”

“…It’s a good feeling. You are touching the earth.”

Recently, he noticed how his own practice has changed slightly. It was raining hard, so he decided to take his shoes off and walk down the street barefoot.

But how about grocery stores? No. Restaurants? No. However, it doesn’t bother him if others opt for shoelessness in those places.

Zoey Singh grew up in south Auckland, which she says is a hub for barefoot kids. However, going without shoes in grocery stores and cafes is too much for her.

“For me, I’m just, yeah, I’m going to hurt myself on something. I don’t know. I’m quite clumsy, so I usually, you know, fall a lot,” she says, as to why she would wear shoes.

However, perhaps surprisingly, wearing minimal footwear can improve balance and reduce the risk of falls, according to a 2021 study. The foot strength of study participants who were in the minimal footwear cohort also increased by more than 50 percent over six months.

New Zealand has a global reputation as a country that is pro-barefoot.

Unsplash

The impact isn’t just physical. A 2024 study found that walking barefoot improved cognitive speed and concentration while decreasing brain stress in teenage boys.

It is true that the feet of those who don’t often wear shoes develop differently from those who do. Regular barefooters typically have splayed toes rather than the toes of shoe-wearers that sit closer together. This can impact gait and the way their foot strikes the ground when they walk and run.

However, if you’ve grown up in shoes, it isn’t a good idea to instantly start doing everything without shoes. When it comes to running, the shape of your feet, whether you grew up wearing shoes, and your experience as a runner will impact how beneficial running without shoes will be, according to Justin Fernandez, a professor of engineering science and biomedical engineering at the University of Auckland.

​Foot specialists recommend allowing your feet and legs to adapt gradually to a barefoot lifestyle by increasing shoeless stints over several months, according to National Geographic.

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Get your finances sorted in 2026: Save money

Source: Radio New Zealand

Whether you’re cringing when you look at your bank statements or just want to put aside a bit more next year, there are a few ways you can save. @heyjasperai

Is organising your money life on your New Year’s resolution list in 2026? In this five-part series, money correspondent Susan Edmunds guides you through the basics. Catch up on Day One: Set a Budget. Next up: Saving money.

Saving money is probably near the top of people’s New Year’s resolution lists.

We’ve just got through Christmas, when children’s present wishlists tend to stretch even the most lenient of budgets, and there’s the extra costs associated with Christmas parties and maybe catering for friends and family on the day.

Whether you’re cringing when you look at your bank statements or just want to put aside a bit more next year, there are a few ways you could do it.

Channel your inner Marie Kondo

Sorted’s personal finance spokesperson Tom Hartmann says people should think about the home organisation guru Marie Kondo if they’re looking for ways to save.

Kondo talks about only holding on to things that “spark joy”.

“We can do the same thing with the things we spend money on,” Hartmann said. “For example with your subscriptions – there’s no way you get the same level of happiness from all the things you subscribe to. For me Spotify is up the top, I’d rate that a five out of five but Netflix is lower down.”

He recommends rating the things you spend your money on between one and five out of five and cutting or reducing the things that are a two or a one.

“It makes it easier to cut things back and you don’t end up feeling deprived because you keep the things that really give you joy – ice creams for the kids, for me that’s way up high.

“Often it’s the cheap and cheerful things that end up staying in the budget.”

Match your spending with saving

This requires a bit more money, but can be really effective.

The idea is that if you spot something you want to buy, you only make the purchase if you can put the same amount of money into investments or savings.

If you want some jeans for $200, you have to also put $200 into Sharesies, for example.

This slows your spending a lot but also means you have some saving happening at the same time.

Pay yourself first

Don’t decide you’ll wait until the end of your pay cycle and save whatever is left over. Put the money into savings as soon as it arrives in your account.

“Set up an automatic transfer to take money out of your account each payday and put it in an account that is not shown on your internet banking. Send it to an account in a different bank to keep it even more out of sight. You will be surprised at how even a small amount saved each week will quickly grow,” said financial coach Liz Koh.

It’s that aspect of paying yourself first that makes KiwiSaver so successful. If you can channel that same “out of sight, out of mind” approach into other savings, you might be surprised at how fast the balance can grow.

Emma Heaps, financial wellbeing programme manager at Westpac, said people should not be afraid to start small.

“If you’ve found it a challenge to put savings away regularly, start small instead of trying try to start big. Even if it’s just a dollar a day for a week or a month, if you keep that up you’re creating a habit that will most likely stick, and over time you can increase the amount and frequency you’re putting money into saving.

“Do that for about 90 days and that habit will stick around for long time.”

BNZ general manager of everyday banking Louisa Powell said people should consider a term deposit if they would not need their money immediately.

“While you’ll have limited access to these funds, you could earn more interest than in a regular savings account – it’s about making your money work as hard as you do. Another great tip is to choose compounding interest on your term deposit so you can earn interest on you interest.

“Consider your savings across different accounts based on your goals. Having separate accounts for different timeframes – like short-term expenses versus longer-term savings – means you can choose accounts with features that match each purpose.”

Round up

Your bank might offer you the ability to round up your transactions and put the difference into savings.

You can often choose how much you want to round up, whether that’s to the nearest $1, $2 or more. That might mean if you buy a coffee for $5.50, for example, the transaction is rounded to $6 and the difference saved. Even small amounts add up this way.

There are other apps, such as Feijoa, which automate “rounding up” by sending the difference to your KiwiSaver account.

No spend

If you’re feeling really motivated you might choose to have a “no spend” month, week or even day of the week. This means that for that period of time, you resolve to not spend anything. This could take some planning – but it’s not effective if it just means you shift your spending to other times.

There are Facebook groups that provide support and tips for people working on these challenges. That could be a good place to start if you need more motivation.

Don’t forget to track your success and celebrate milestones along the way – it can help you stay motivated.

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Manage My Health data breach ransom deadline arrives

Source: Radio New Zealand

The hackers, calling themselves ‘Kazu’, posted on Sunday morning that unless the company paid a ransom within 48 hours, they would leak more than 400,000 files in their possession. Supplied

The deadline has arrived for the ransom being demanded after hundreds of thousands of medical files were stolen from the country’s largest patient portal.

Manage My Health is still grappling with the massive data breach affecting more than 120,000 of its users.

Health Minister Simeon Brown said the government had a long-standing position that ransoms should not be paid.

Manage My Health said late on Monday, ahead of the deadline, that any ransom demand was a matter for Police.

It said it would not be making any comment about a ransom while an investigation was ongoing.

The platform said it was sincerely sorry for pain and anxiety caused to health providers and patients.

“We acknowledge we could have done a better job at communication,” it said in a statement.

“However, our priority was to secure patient data and work on the accuracy of all information before providing it to practices and patients.”

It said it would be publishing daily updates with all the information it was able to share.

Simeon Brown, speaking after announcing an urgent review into the breach, said he had raised communication with the platform.

“I spoke to the CEO last week, made my expectations incredibly clear around the need for Manage My Health to be clear and transparent with its communications to the public and its users and to work closely with agencies and to make sure that they are following their advice,” he told RNZ.

Brown described the data disappearing as “pretty unacceptable”.

Health Minister Simeon Brown. RNZ / Mark Papalii

Luke Hogan, a senior technical manager who works at Intellium, said he could not see Manage My Health recovering.

“I don’t know how they’re going to come back from this, it’s a bit tough,” he said.

“For me it’s really, really disappointing that basic cyber security has not been taken seriously.

“From my perspective, health data is right up there with financial data, some of the most critical data that needs to be protected,” he said.

“It’s just very, very disappointing and a little bit shocking as an IT professional to hear that this has happened”.

Will ransom be paid?

While Manage My Health would not be drawn on the ransom, a former intelligence officer said in general they should not be paid.

Antony Grasso had also worked at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the United Kingdom’s intelligence, security and cyber agency.

He himself was a Manage My Health user.

“I personally would advise not to, even if it was my own data that was going to get released, which it may be,” he said.

“It’s a tough call without giving the full context but the general rule is not to pay the ransom, that’s the general rule.

“I mean, you’re bargaining with effectively criminals or thieves, and there’s no honour amongst thieves, we know that, and they may release it anyway and it also means we’re a soft touch.”

Grasso said he had not seen Manage My Health take many tangible actions after the breach.

“You know, just as a general bod on the street, I don’t feel like they will necessarily have had a good plan for the response,” he said.

“I haven’t seen a lot of transparency and I haven’t seen a lot of action that I would expect for a company that’s holding that much private information.”

Grasso hoped security companies used by the platform would be dumped and have nothing to do with it in the future.

“Because clearly, somebody’s dropped the ball.”

‘Rumours for some time’ – Deputy Privacy Commissioner

Deputy Privacy Commissioner Liz MacPherson told RNZ she believed issues had surfaced in the past.

“As I understand it there have been rumours for some time but the issue we’ve got is that there are white knight hackers and others out there who do raise these issues, quite often it’s very difficult to know whether these people are actually hackers themselves or whether they are white knights, so it’s difficult to police,” she said.

A white knight is a hacker who acts with good intentions to get vulnerabilities fixed.

“So as I understand it, these issues have been drawn to Manage My Health in the past and I think to some media outlets as well,” MacPherson said.

Liz MacPherson. RNZ / Dom Thomas

She said the Office was irked by widespread complacency around cyber security.

“The frustration for us at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner is that we continue to see complacency from, and this is across the board… a continuation of the ‘it’ll happen to somebody else, not to me’ type approach,” she said.

“And you have to ask the question, is the lack of a penalty regime part of that?”

MacPherson said fines in Australia used to be around $3.3 million but had risen significantly.

“So the major breaches risk fines of up to greater than $50m AUD, which is three times the financial gain from the breach, or 30 percent of the company’s turnover.

“I guess what I’m saying to you is that we didn’t even have the lower level fines that they had, which were around 2 to $3 million,” she said.

“We don’t have any penalties, we do not have a civil penalty rating.”

What Manage My Health says

Manage My Health, in its latest update, said it wanted to reassure the public that its team had been working tirelessly through the holiday period.

“Secondly, we have been working as part of a cross-sector group to implement processes to begin communication with affected practices and patients,” it said.

“We acknowledge that this delay has been a cause for concern.”

The platform said it welcomed the review launched by the Health Minister and it would fully cooperate.

It said its international team was monitoring known data leak websites and was prepared to issue takedown notices immediately if any stolen information was posted.

It had also obtained a High Court injunction preventing third parties from accessing data posted as a result of the cyber attack.

The High Court in Wellington has confirmed to RNZ it received an application for an injunction.

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The Housemaid is dark, sexy and seriously satisfying

Source: Radio New Zealand

Based on a bestselling novel by Freida McFadden, The Housemaid is a dark, sexy and satisfying thriller with plenty of twists to enjoy along the way.

Millie (Sydney Sweeney) applies for a job as a housemaid for the wealthy Winchester family.

We first meet her as she pulls up to the grand Winchester house in her run-down car – a gated mansion with echoes of the sinister and mysterious Manderley in Hitchcock’s Rebecca. What secrets might be contained behind these gates? Millie is about to find out.

This video is hosted on Youtube.

What to Watch: Disclaimer

She is interviewed by Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), an eccentric and over-familiar housewife who is so taken with Millie that she immediately offers her the job on a live-in basis.

An alarmingly artificial family portrait looms large in this early scene, suggesting that the Waspy Winchesters are more artist’s impression than reality.

Millie is given a bedroom in the attic – a strange place to lodge a housemaid, considering the enormity and grandeur of the Winchester mansion. The attic is stark, claustrophobic and loaded with gothic literary connotations that the story knowingly leans into.

Millie uncovers sinister secrets in the Winchester’s gated mansion.

YouTube screenshot / Lionsgate

Also part of the Winchester household is Nina’s charming and sensitive husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and their cold and at times creepy daughter, Cecelia (Indiana Elle). Sklenar expertly plays all the right notes as Andrew – the heartthrob husband, doting dad and even Millie’s patient confidant, routinely apologising for his wife’s erratic behaviour.

He grows even more compelling as the film gains momentum. Directed by Paul Feig of Bridesmaids and Spy fame, The Housemaid is a thriller tinged with comedy. Its best, darkly funny moments are often delivered by Sklenar in climactic scenes where his lines land with perfect timing.

Cecelia, meanwhile, is an archetypal creepy kid, often found tinkering with a rickety old doll’s house that uncannily resembles the Winchester mansion, or spouting cryptic and ominous messages. That said, she serves her purpose of dropping narrative breadcrumbs as we piece together the family’s secrets.

In the role of Nina Winchester, Amanda Seyfried’s notably expressive style of acting comes powerfully into play.

YouTube screenshot / Lionsgate

Sweeney is adept at portraying the enigmatic housemaid, Millie. Early on, Millie confesses to us via voice-over that she has lied on her resume: she is under-qualified, sleeps in her car and washes in public restrooms.

She is desperate to hold on to this job, no matter what. Sweeney excels in playing a character who seems broken and desperate, without veering into melodrama. Even in the most high-stakes moments, there is a captivating sense of control and subtlety to her performance.

Seyfried’s troubled housewife is the foil to Sweeney’s mysterious housemaid. It’s here that Seyfried’s notably expressive style of acting comes powerfully into play. Excessively warm but with sharp edges, Nina, too, is something of an enigma. From her interactions with so-called friends – a shallow coterie of Stepford-wife types who gossip about her the moment she leaves the room – we learn that Nina’s life is far from perfect.

Eccentric and over-familiar housewife Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) with her housemaid Millie (Sydney Sweeney).

YouTube screenshot / Lionsgate

The Housemaid is an adaptation of McFadden’s hugely successful novel. She has been dubbed the “queen of crime fiction” on BookTok (the TikTok subculture dedicated to discussing fiction) due to the immense popularity of her work among influencers.

As this origin story suggests, The Housemaid is an unapologetic crowd pleaser. It doesn’t reach the intellectual heights of a thriller like Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, which straddles genre and literary fiction. In fact, when I asked a friend why she’d read the novel, she said she’d googled “What’s the easiest book to read?”

The Housemaid has less to say than Gone Girl about the complexity of gender roles and relationship dynamics, and I’d be surprised if any of the performances receive the kind of critical acclaim Rosamund Pike earned for her iconic turn in David Fincher’s adaptation. But let’s be clear: The Housemaid is a hell of a good time at the cinema.

Harriet Fletcher is a Lecturer in Media and Communication at Anglia Ruskin University.

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Top spots to take a dip around Aotearoa

Source: Radio New Zealand

If you could choose anywhere in Aotearoa to have a swim, where would you pick? For Nicola McCloy, author of Jump In – An Insider’s Guide to New Zealand’s Best Beaches, Lakes, Rivers, Pools and Hot Springs, the answer is easy.

Hands down her absolute favourite place to go for a swim is Te Hāwere-a-Maki – Goat Island, McCloy told RNZ’s Summer Times.

Located within Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve, about 80km north of Auckland, Goat Island is thought to have been the first gazetted marine reserve in the world, she says.

“It all came about because Auckland University set up a marine laboratory up there in the 1960s and recognised that, because there’s so many different marine environments within that small area, recognised the degradation that was happening and decided that the best way to study the area was to protect it,” she says.

Goat Island north of Auckland.

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Coroner wants internet restrictions, after teen dies imitating online acts

Source: Radio New Zealand

Australia has recently imposed a social media ban for under-16 users. RNZ

A coroner is calling for restrictions on the internet, after a teenager accidentally died, while imitating acts he saw online.

An inquest by coroner Michael Robb found the Bay of Plenty teen had become interested in violent pornography and had made “troubling” internet searches the day before his death in 2024.

He was found dead, after disappearing overnight, and Robb believed he had attempted to imitate what he had seen on the internet.

“I consider he [was] in some way endeavouring to mirror what he had seen in the internet searches in some kind of experimental or exploration context,” Robb’s report said.

The coroner referenced Australia’s recent decision to ban children under 16 from accessing social media platforms and that the New Zealand government was discussing a similar bill.

“It does not appear to have been his accessing or ability to access social media platforms, but rather the open access to the internet that is available to any person, child or adult, who has access to any internet-enabled device.”

Robb said the teen’s death “highlights the need for internet access restrictions being imposed, where a youth might access the internet” and that parental controls on residential modems didn’t go far enough.

“While controls can be applied to the device, the risk remains that tech-savvy youth can work around this,” he said.

“I acknowledge it can be difficult to imagine what the potential harms are, what might be searched, what might spark interest in the young, but in my view, [the teenager’s] avoidable death represents an example of the dangers of open internet access.

“It represents the reality that the consequences can ultimately lead to the preventable loss of a young life.”

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2026 ‘the year of rebuilding confidence’ in housing market, economist predicts

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ

Property values continued to dip last year, but lower mortgage interest rates and signs of an economic recovery point to a possible change of direction for 2026.

Despite gains early in 2025, house values fell in seven of the past nine months, falling 1 percent nationwide according to property data firm Cotality NZ’s latest Home Value Index (HVI).

The median house price is now $808,430 – only a slight change from a year ago, but a drop of -17.6 percent from the 2022 peak, HVI figures showed.

Kelvin Davidson, Cotality chief property economist, said it had been a “year of conflicting forces”, with multiple factors pulling in different directions to leave values broadly flat.

Increased property listings and the weak economy offset lower mortgage rates, while increased housing stock further moderated values, he said.

Some areas reached new peaks, especially in provincial markets – Southland hit record median values in December, and places like New Plymouth and Queenstown saw increases, reflecting wider economic factors including strong farming returns, he said.

“Property in provincial towns and cities … has been more resilient. I wouldn’t say it’s booming, but it definitely hasn’t fallen as far as other parts of the country and it perhaps showed a bit of renewed growth.”

Auckland and Wellington ‘subdued’

Auckland and Wellington’s markets remained weak, with the decline from the heady highs of 2022 exceeding 20 percent.

“What goes up must come down. There were big booms in Auckland and Wellington – and elsewhere too, of course, but housing affordability did get pretty stretched in those markets.”

Prices fell by 0.2 percent nationally last month. Auckland remained sluggish (down 0.6 percent), as part of an overall drop of 2.6 percent for the year. Hamilton was down 0.7 percent (a 1.2 percent annual change), Wellington fell by 0.4 percent in December, a 2 percent annual drop.

Meanwhile, Christchurch recorded a modest 0.2 percent rise in December and an annual increase of 2.6 percent, while Tauranga, New Plymouth and Dunedin all increased by 0.5 percent in December (1 percent, 0 percent and -0.3 percent annual change respectively).

The supply of townhouses had dampened prices to an extent in Auckland, while the impact of large scale job losses in the public service resonated in Wellington, with the underlying economy “subdued” in both cities, he said.

“Wellington’s still got that public sector malaise going on. You walk around central Wellington and the mood’s perhaps a bit downbeat – reflecting public sector cutbacks, tight budgets – the central city is battling along.”

The median house price in Auckland was $1,047,044, followed closely by Tauranga on $935,174, Wellington’s median was $785,790, Hamilton’s $717,495, the median value in Christchurch was $683,360 and Dunedin’s $612,171.

Auckland remained “a key weak spot”, with each of its sub-markets underperforming the national average.

North Shore, where values had dropped 18.4 percent since 2022, was the only part of Tāmaki Makaurau where median values had fallen less than 20 percent since the peak.

Wellington’s sub-markets, such as Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kāpiti Coast, also took steep hits, dropping 23 percent or more from the 2022 peak.

Election year uncertainty around regulation – including loan-to-value and debt-to-income ratios – and talk of a capital gains tax could see prices remain muted, Davidson said.

Cotality chief property economist Kelvin Davidson. SUPPLIED

Provincial prices prove punchier

Prices in the provinces and the southern reaches of the country were more resilient.

The Southland region’s three districts had seen median values peak in December – Southland was up by 0.5 percent to an average median house price of $597,000, Gore was up 0.6 percent to $448,432, and Invercargill increased 0.5 percent to $520,464.

Parts of Canterbury also edged to new records.

Davidson said there was not a dramatic split between property value performance in main centres versus the provinces, but “there’s no doubt that the general vibe is still stronger in say Invercargill or New Plymouth versus Auckland or Wellington”.

The proposed overhaul of the Resource Management Act could reinforce a shift in supply, with the townhouse construction pipeline ramping up in some areas, he said.

While there could be pockets of oversupply, mostly increased supply was reducing pre-existing shortfalls.

“It’s not caused us to go into oversupply, it’s really just reducing under-supply … we need more dwellings of all different types to cater for changing societal needs, smaller households and those sort of things.”

Further, intensification and increased supply in Auckland and Christchurch were helping to keep a lid on prices, he said.

Cautious optimism as cost of living stifles confidence

Davidson said the outlook for this year was cautiously optimistic – the report forecast a potential 5 percent rise in property values, as people refixed mortgages and the economy showed signs of recovery.

“You’re looking at 40 to 50 percent of mortgages going to see a rate change pretty shortly and it should be downwards – that cash will start to come through.

“On the other side, you have to acknowledge inflation. The rate of change of prices might have slowed down, but that doesn’t mean prices are falling or things are suddenly cheaper – it still costs a lot to live.

“It takes a little bit longer to feed through into growth in the overall economy, because people are battling to keep up with day-to-day necessities.”

Davidson was confident the economic recovery would eventuate, with the September quarter showing 1.1 percent GDP growth.

The “largest macro headwind” was the sluggish labour market.

A drop in unemployment would do the most to give people more confidence, as even those unaffected by redundancies were likely to be cautious about spending if those around them were losing their jobs.

“All in all, 2026 may well be a stronger year for the housing market than 2025 – despite the headwinds. It’s the year of rebuilding confidence,” Davidson said.

In 2024, prices dropped by 3.9 percent on the previous year.

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