Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

Rainbows, fire engines and Christmas trees are popular themes for the Sky Tower as patients at Starship Children’s Hospital take control of the colour scheme.

The children leapt at the chance to light up the landmark as part of an effort to support those spending Christmas in hospital, Starship Foundation chief executive Jo Simon told Morning Report.

“It’s so exciting when you’re a little person and you’ve got control of such a large landmark.”

She said it was a simple process for the children to make their selection and see the lights change from their beds using an iPad.

“These children, particularly in the oncology and orthopaedic wards, are quite sick children, so it has to be as easy as possible.

“SkyCity has this great control iPad – the children just go on to the iPad and there’s a number of themes they can choose from to light up the tower right in front of them.”

It was the second year SkyCity had handed the control over to Starship patients, who have a front seat view of the tower from their hospital beds.

There had been a real focus on rainbows this year, along with fire engine related colours – “lights and sparkling” – and one child chose a Christmas palette, turning the 328 metre tower into the biggest Christmas tree in Auckland.

It was important to give the children a feeling of control at a time when they often feel they have none, Simon said.

“Some of these children are really sick. They’ve been through all sorts of things during the day, so having the opportunity in the evening to have a bit of fun is wonderful.”

Other festive events included ward decorating competitions, and a special delivery of more than 2500 toys gifted by donors.

“We have volunteer elves who put the toys into packs targeted at the different age groups, then Santa delivers the parcels to all the children at the hospital, bringing some magic to those that can’t see Santa in other places.”

The Foundation’s Christmas fundraising effort, the Empty Chair campaign, was symbolic of the children who can’t be home for Christmas, Simon 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

One person has died following a single vehicle crash near Flemington south of Waipukurau on Wednesday night.

Emergency services received reports of the crash on Ngawaka Road at around 11:10pm.

The sole occupant of the vehicle died at the scene, police said.

The road was closed while a scene examination was carried out, and the death has been referred to the Coroner.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say two people have suffered injuries after a gun was fired in the Southland town of Gore.

Police said the pair were airlifted to hospital, one with serious injuries and one with moderate injuries.

Emergency services were alerted to the incident near Aparima Street shortly before 8pm on Wednesday and St John said it dispatched multiple ambulances and two helicopters to the scene.

Inspector Mike Bowman said the offenders had fled before police arrived and have still not been found.

“We know there will be people in the community who know who did this, and we’re asking them to help us,” he said in a statement.

A scene guard remained at the property overnight and a scene examination would be carried out this morning, Bowman said.

Police do not believe there is a risk to anyone else in the community, 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

Police officers have been spat at and called paedophiles, child abusers and kiddie fiddlers since Jevon McSkimming’s offending became public, their union says.

The Police Association says officers are tired in the wake of the disgraced former Deputy Commissioner’s case as its president detailed the abuse they’ve had hurled at them.

Steve Watt says officers now face a long process to regain trust from the public “piece by piece”.

McSkimming pleaded guilty in November to three representative charges of having objectionable publications of child sexual exploitation and bestiality.

He was sentenced to nine months’ home detention on Wednesday.

The judge began with a starting point at sentencing on Wednesday of three years’ jail.

Reductions were given for McSkimming’s early guilty plea, rehabilitation efforts, prior good character and remorse and steps taken to prevent reoffending.

His offending included 2945 images – about 1900 searches for material of a sexual nature, 432 of which were intended or highly likely to return objectionable material.

Police Association president Steve Watt told Morning Report the case had been tiring for officers.

“They’ve been spat at, we had one member reported walking past the construction site where they yelled out to him calling him Jevon and asking him if he’d interfered with animals recently. You know, it’s not right and it’s not fair on our members,” he said.

“And the reality is that our members are having to pick up that public reassurance piece by piece by getting out there, doing what they do best and responding to crimes, dealing with victims, you know, dealing with assault files.

“But it’s going to be a long process in order to gain that trust and confidence back from the public,” Watt said.

More scrutiny needed on jail time for ex-cops

He said the union realised the courts would face difficulty sending a former top police officer to jail for fear of violence.

“Sometimes the depravity of certain situations, that needs to be overlooked,” he said.

“I think there are a number of issues that obviously the court have to take into consideration, and sometimes those are perhaps overlooked because of the position that’s being held, and that just needs to be looked at a bit more closely.”

Watt said there would also be consequences from the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s scathing findings into how police, at the highest levels, mishandled a complaint against McSkimming.

“It’s going to have some pretty big ramifications for our members, particularly in the disciplinary and employment space,” he said.

“We’re still working through what those ramifications are going to look like and come the new year, we’re going to be working pretty closely with police just to gain a better understanding of it and work with police on the processes that are going to be put in place.”

The Police Association said officers also felt let down by [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/580740/andrew-coster-breaks-silence-after-resigning-from-social-investment-agency

a recent interview with former Commissioner Andrew Coster].

“Look, it was a fairly compelling interview, but the reality is it didn’t take full responsibility really for the issues,” Watt said.

“And that was disappointing for members. They wanted to see, an open, full and frank ‘this was my fault’, and that was disappointing.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

ASB and BNZ have joined the Westpac and ANZ in pushing some of their fixed home loan interest rates higher.

BNZ said it would increase its fixed terms by between 19 basis points, for an 18-month fix, and 30 for a three-, four- and five-year fix.

It will slightly reduce its six-month rate.

That takes its two-year rate to 4.69 percent.

ASB was increasing the same rates, by between 20 basis points and 30 basis points.

Its two-year rate has lifted to 4.75 percent.

Banks have blamed higher funding costs for the increase.

Markets had priced in another OCR cut before the latest monetary policy statement. But when the Reserve Bank indicated that was less likely, they adjusted.

The two-year swap rate lifted from 2.54 percent in October to 3.09 percent on 15 December, although it has softened slightly since then.

Neither bank has changed its one-year rate. The one-year swap rate also lifted but has since fallen more meaningfully.

“While today’s adjustments reflect the reality of higher funding costs, the change in market conditions is good news for some of our savers with term deposit rates increasing by up to 35 basis points” said Adam Boyd, ASB’s executive general manager personal banking.

ANZ, the country’s biggest bank, said it had seen more customers wanting to switch from a floating rate to a fixed one in recent days.

Some economists have said it could prove that the swap rate reaction was too extreme, and rates could fall a little again.

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