Category: Public Media

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Weather: Dry, fine and sunny weekend for New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Sun and swimmers out in Mission Bay, Auckland. RNZ / Jordan Dunn

New Zealand is in for a sunny weekend across the motu, forecasters say.

MetService said it was a “tale of two islands” overnight with North Island experiencing significantly warmer temperatures than the south.

Although temperatures will be warm this weekend, they will be a little bit cooler than last weekend, with highs in the 20’s for much of the country.

MetService is forecasting a dry, fine and sunny Saturday across the country with some cloud around the eastern coast and some showers in the South Island.

It is forecasting a high of 26C for Auckland, 18C for Wellington and 20C for Christchurch.

“The high-pressure system moves atop the country on Saturday, likely resulting in a very pleasant day across the country, excellent if you have some washing to do,” MetService said.

For Sunday, it should still be nice for most people, but northerlies build over the South Island, heralding a new front approaching the country from the west to kick off Monday, it said.

MetService is forecasting a high of 25C in Auckland, 22C in Wellington and 23C in Christchurch on Sunday.

It comes after sweltering hot temperatures last weekend, with many regions experiencing temperatures in the high 20s and early 30s.

On Monday, a heat alert was issued for Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne with temperatures reaching 34C at Napier Airport and 32C in Wairoa.

MetService said it was an unusually warm start to December.

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Fast and fudged: Crimes bill omits crimes

Source: Radio New Zealand

VNP/Louis Collins

The government’s plan for Parliament’s final full week of the year moves 12 different proposed laws through 32 stages of parliamentary approval.

Included in the plan is fixing an error made by tired government MPs during the previous long week of urgency, when they voted for an opposition amendment and, even when prompted, failed to notice the error. This week’s urgency revealed another, bigger error caused presumably by too much haste and not enough care.

Judging by submissions and responses in Parliament’s rules committee, governments’ use of urgency may be losing favour. Vanushi Walters noted in debate on House on Thursday that the House has spent 30.4 percent of this Parliament sitting under urgency, compared to 15.7 percent of the previous Parliament. The previous Parliament used a fair bit of urgency. This Parliament has almost doubled that. Fast Track Legislation is not just the name of a bill.

Speed can be useful, and can be necessary, but it increases the likelihood of errors. On Thursday the House saw significant evidence of this when they debated the wide-ranging Crimes Amendment Bill, from the Minister of Justice, Paul Goldsmith.

His opening speech in the debate can’t have been fun. First he alerted MPs to his intention to give extra instructions to the Select Committee who would look at the bill (more on that below). Then he began listing the things included in the bill but ran out of steam when he reached items he apparently expected, but that were not there.

“This bill is a wide-ranging one. It amends the Crimes Act to ensure criminals face longer penalties for coward punches, attacking first responders, retail crime, human trafficking, and – uhm – further retail crime.”

His problem-some of the broad range of measures promoted as highlights of the bill had been omitted. They had also been listed in his answers during Question Time. Presumably, at some point someone asked where those much-praised law-changes could be found – and the government discovered they were missing.

This was not a misplaced comma or an omitted clause. It was an entire chunk of the legislation, a level of failure that is both extraordinary and embarrassing for the government.

The minister was forced to ask the Select Committee to consider adding the missing items to a bill that was only made public on Tuesday.

A ‘hotchpotch’ of a bill hides an error

Other than unseemly haste, another reason for the screw-up may be the bill’s jumble of disconnected provisions. All were crime-related, but for a muddle of different categories of crime.

This government has been very busy on crime and punishment. Bills considered so far this Parliament included 22 related to crime, or punishment for crime. A couple of those were Members bills – one of these was rolled into this new Crimes Amendment Bill. Most of those crime-related bills have been more focused. Not this one.

Labour’s Ginny Andersen began her response to the bill saying “in all my years working on justice policy as a public servant, as an adviser, [never] have I ever seen such a hotchpotch of different measures all jammed into one bill.” She imagined Paul Goldsmith being told by the Prime Minister that he was behind on his “deliverables” and as a response “sweeping his desk of all the work he was meant to do over the course of the year and putting it into one bill.”

The bill changes the rules around citizen’s arrest, and around property defences (both static and mobile property). It changes offences and penalties around human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and slavery. It creates new offences for assaults on first responders or corrections officers. There are also new offences for punching someone in the head or neck if they don’t see it coming. There is even an offence that the bill describes as theft undertaken in an “offensive, threatening, insulting, or disorderly manner.”

Once the missing measures are added in, it will be possible to give summary fines to shoplifters. Although, as Lawrence Xu-Nan pointed out, those missing provisions don’t relate to the Crimes Act that this bill amends, but instead to the Summary Offences Act.

The jumble of provisions meant there was also a jumble of debate. Opposition MPs could all find things they loved about the bill, and things they were appalled at. The most popular changes related to human trafficking and slavery offences. The least popular were for citizen’s arrest, and the subsequent holding of arrestees.

According to Labour’s spokesperson on the subject, Ginny Andersen, it is not only the opposition who find these measures problematic.

“Officials, both from the Ministry of Justice and from Police, have warned the government that this is a dangerous piece of legislation. They say, in advice, that it would escalate low-level theft into more violent situations and potentially endanger the lives of those people who were the business owners. It even suggests, in some of the police advice that we received, that there will be a situation-if a business owner had detained and restrained an alleged offender, and if they were there for a period of time, that business owner might even be able to be charged with kidnapping if they were held in certain ways.”

On the government side most MPs gave very short speeches indeed, mostly about being hard on crime or focusing on victims. Rima Nakhle, for example, defended the use of urgency on a bill, parts of which won’t come into effect until six months after it passes into law.

“What saddens me to my core”, said Nakhle, “is that we’re having philosophical conversations across the House about the use of urgency. There is urgency for victims, and that’s the reason why this bill is what it is, and that’s the reason why we’re talking about it in urgency: because, to us, the rights of victims and protecting them is absolutely urgent. I commend this bill to the House.”

That was her entire speech, the shortest of a short bunch. The entire first reading debate on the bill took well under an hour.

Once the first reading debate was complete, the responsible minister, Goldsmith returned to seek permission for the Select Committee to consider his amendments to the bill. Amendments to correct the missing provisions, which required a further debate. Oddly, given that the purpose of a first reading is to consider whether the content of a bill is worth considering, MPs were not allowed to debate the content that would be added, only whether the committee should consider adding it.

Opposition MPs were not kind about the missing content.

“Look, this is a disgrace.” said Kieran McAnulty. “They should not have had to rush things through urgency. If they weren’t so focused on getting things through so quickly, I reckon they wouldn’t have made this mistake.”

*RNZ’s The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament’s Office of the Clerk. Enjoy our articles or podcast at RNZ.

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Another bank lifts home loan rates

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ

Another bank has increased its fixed home loan rates, as pressure continues on wholesale rates.

Although the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate at its most recent review, it was firmer than the market expected in its view that further reductions were unlikely.

That has prompted attention to turn to when rates might start to rise again, and wholesale interest rates to rise, which affects bank funding costs.

The one-year swap rate has lifted from 2.4 percent in late November to more than 2.7 percent.

The two-year rate has lifted from 2.5 to more than 3.1 percent.

Westpac increased some of its fixed home loan rates earlier in the week.

Now the Co-Operative Bank has said it will increase its two-year rate from 4.49 percent to 4.79 percent, its three-year rate from 4.79 percent to 5.09 percent, its four-year rate from 4.99 percent to 5.29 percent and its five-year rate from 5.19 percent to 5.49 percent.

Co-Operative Bank. Supplied/Co-operative Bank

“Longer term fixed-rate mortgages are influenced primarily by wholesale interest rates and the future rate outlook, as opposed to the current OCR. The two- to five-year interest wholesale rates available to banks have increased by 0.5 percent to 0.6 percent since the last OCR change on 26 November, so people should expect longer term fixed rates to increase,” chief executive Mark Wilkshire said.

“As long term wholesale rates have risen quickly in recent weeks, on the expectation we are around the bottom of the interest rate cycle, we have had to start to increase our longer-term fixed home loan rates. However, we’ve reduced our short-term six-month rate.

“We’ve balanced these changes by also increasing term deposit rates, benefiting savers,” he said.

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How to avoid buying unsafe toys for little kids

Source: Radio New Zealand

Every year in New Zealand, children three and under experience around 1,250 toy-related injuries, according to new ACC statistics.

To keep babies and young kids safe, it’s important to remember that some toys bought second-hand and from overseas retailers may not meet New Zealand’s product safety standards, says Plunket nurse Keli Livingston-Filipo.

She urges people shopping for Christmas gifts for little ones to first check out their 6-point toy safety checklist, which includes warnings related to sharp edges, too-long strings and small batteries.

In New Zealand, imported products which don’t meet our safety standards are “falling through the cracks”, Rasmussen says.

“Often, the enforcement and recall is happening once something’s landed on our shelves. We’re sort of in a model where, until something goes wrong, there’s not really a lot that’s happening. That’s quite a dangerous model because it means potentially someone is getting hurt.”

Toys which have small parts that can easily be removed, broken pieces that create sharp edges or built-in button batteries or small magnets can pose huge risks to babies and young children, Keli Livingston-Filipo says.

If you’re shopping around for second-hand toys on TradeMe or Facebook Marketplace, she recommends making sure they don’t contain any magnetic parts or batteries, she adds.

“Normally, you would see those in soft toys that can do stuff like hold hands or connect to another toy. You’ve also got the magnets of alphabet letters that can go on the fridge.

“As we know, children are very inquisitive, and if there’s a little [battery or magnet] to be found and pulled out, they’re going to find it.”

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New Zealand exporters ‘coping’ six months into US tariffs – report

Source: Radio New Zealand

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs were suspended on beef and fruit in November. (File photo) AFP / RNZ Composite

New Zealand exporters appear to have coped with the first six months of the US government’s tariffs, according to a new report.

Westpac and the International Business Forum have looked at the impact of the tariffs on the country’s annual $9.3 billion export trade to the US, New Zealand’s second biggest market, and found they have been manageable.

Westpac senior economist Darren Gibbs said the tariffs were clearly unhelpful but the impact had been manageable.

“Strong demand – and high commodity prices – are shielding most primary goods exporters from the negative impact of reciprocal tariffs where applicable.”

About 70 percent of New Zealand exports to the US had been affected by the 15 percent reciprocal tariffs, which were imposed on top of any other existing quotas and tariffs.

Different impact on different sectors

The report assessed the impact on the main goods, beef, dairy, fruit, wine, wood, and mechanical machinery.

“The good news, for the most part, has been the continuation of high export prices, we have seen decline in the dairy field as a result of some very good supply conditions rather than any drop off in demand, and we’re still seeing very good prices beef and lamb, and likewise for kiwifruit and apples,” Gibbs said.

He said the US decision to suspend the tariffs on beef and fruit in November had further helped those commodities, and for some products the US was less important to them while for others the US was more significant.

“The most notable decline is in exports of mechanical machinery. Exports of beverages are also tracking slightly below year earlier levels, while some other categories – such as meat and electrical machinery – are seeing slowing rates of growth.”

Gibbs said many exporters had also been successful in getting the US importer to bear the tariff cost.

“Those that have been most successful are those selling commodity products currently in high demand with few near-term substitutes and those selling high-tech and somewhat unique manufactured goods with no substitutes.”

But exporters were also being advised to look at finding other markets, strengthening their supply chains and US links, and innovate products to make them more desirable and special for US consumers.

World trade disrupted not destroyed

Gibbs said initial fears that the global trade system would be derailed by the tariffs had not come to pass.

“We’re progressively seeing consensus forecasts of global growth being revised higher over the second half of the year, back in April the fear was that the tariffs might be the trigger for a broader trade war… if that had happened the growth impacts would undoubtedly been much larger than we have seen to date, tariffs have definitely dropped down the list of global worries.”

However, the tariffs had seen changes in trade policies and behaviour by China, the world’s second largest economy.

Gibbs said tariffs would remain an area of uncertainty, and if US growth slowed and consumer spending fell that would have consequences for trade, as might the case currently before the US Supreme Court about the legality of the tariffs.

“It is possible the current set of tariffs is ruled illegal and if that is the case there would be a renewed period of uncertainty because it’s not clear what the White House would do in response to that.”

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Warning issued over shellfish in eastern Bay of Plenty after high levels of biotoxins found

Source: Radio New Zealand

Mussels in Te Kaha were found to have high levels of biotoxins. (File photo) Suppled/Kura Paul-Burke

NZ Food Safety is warning people not to eat shellfish from eastern Bay of Plenty due to high levels of biotoxins.

Tests on mussels from Te Kaha have shown the level of paralytic toxins are more than double the safe limit.

“The warning extends from Opape near Ōpōtiki, to East Cape,” Food Safety’s deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said.

“Please do not gather and eat shellfish from this area because anyone doing so could get sick… Cooking the shellfish does not remove the toxin, so shellfish from this area should not be eaten.”

He said the toxin appeared to originate from algal bloom.

“We are monitoring an algal bloom in the Bay of Plenty region, which appears to be spreading,” he said.

“This type of algae produces a dangerous toxin and, when shellfish filter-feed, these toxins can accumulate in their gut and flesh. Generally, the more algae there are in the water, the more toxic the shellfish get.”

Symptoms of paralytic shellfish poisoning included numbness, dizziness, nausea, diarrhoea, difficulty swallowing or breathing and in severe cases death.

NZ Food Safety said pāua, crab and crayfish could still be eaten but only if the gut has been completely removed before cooking.

If the gut isn’t removed, it says the contents could contaminated the meat.

“NZFS is monitoring shellfish in the region and will notify the public of any changes to the situation,” Arbuckle said.

He noted commercially harvested shellfish in supermarkets were subject to strict water and flesh monitoring programmes to make sure they were safe to eat.

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Ngāi Tahu set to take 33% stake in Milford Sound Tourism

Source: Radio New Zealand

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Kaiwhakahaere Justin Tipa and Milford Sound Tourism chief executive Haylee Preston. Supplied

Mana whenua are set to take a major role in running Milford Sound, with Ngāi Tahu joining Milford Sound Tourism as a shareholder.

From 31 March, Ngāi Tahu Holdings and several Papatipu Rūnaka are set to take a 33 percent stake in the company that owns and operates Milford Sound’s key infrastructure and visitor services.

Milford Sound Tourism chief executive Haylee Preston said the move would help protect Piopiotahi for future generations, with talks over the past six months creating a strong foundation for the future.

“We’re delighted to partner with mana whenua. We all share the same goal, ensuring this special place is respected, protected and valued by our community and visitors for generations to come,” she said.

The partnership was announced in Queenstown on Friday morning, with a formal ceremony planned for March in Milford Sound.

Milford Sound Tourism, funded largely through a levy on cruise tickets, was currently 49 percent owned by RealNZ and 49 percent owned by Skeggs Group, the owner of Southern Discoveries.

The company managed the harbour, wharves, visitor terminal, parking, staff accommodation, Eglinton Valley Camp, Knobs Flat visitor centre and the area’s wastewater, rubbish and recycling systems.

Representatives from Ngāi Tahu, Papatipu Milford Sound Tourism, Skeggs Group, Real NZ and Southland District Council marking the new partnership. RNZ / Katie Todd

Awarua Rūnaka chairman Barry Bragg, who represents one of the eight Kāi Tahu Papatipu Rūnaka with interests in Piopiotahi, said the move would strengthen Ngāi Tahu’s long-term stewardship of a place deeply significant to the iwi.

“Kāi Tahu welcome the opportunity to become the third equal shareholder and play a greater role in decision-making for a special place that holds deep significance to our people. This is an investment in the future of Piopiotahi and strengthens our commitment to its long-term care,” he said.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Kaiwhakahaere Justin Tipa hoped the iwi would have a more visible presence in Piopiotahi.

“Having the opportunity to be formally part of the tourist operations in Milford is significant. It allows us to exercise our kaitiakitanga obligations in a way that has been difficult in the past,” he said.

“Our journey in tourism began several decades ago as a way for us to invest in our takiwā, tell our own stories, and share our heritage with the world. We look forward to strengthening how Kāi Tahu history is shared and understood by all who visit Piopiotahi.”

Southland District Council would sell its two percent shareholding as part of the deal.

Chief executive Cameron McIntosh said it was a significant but appropriate move to bring the council’s involvement to an end.

The council was glad to be part of a transaction that let Ngāi Tahu have more of a say in Piopiotahi, he said.

“The future for Piopiotahi under this arrangement is very positive and I look on with interest to see how it goes. I’m very confident that this is a good step forward,” McIntosh said.

Preston said she did not expect any immediate changes to the way Milford Sound was run.

In the long run, the partnership with Ngāi Tahu was for the best, she said.

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How can I cool down my house in summer?

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fans will help you feel more comfortable in hot weather. 123rf

Explainer – If you’re starting to swelter as temperatures around the country rise, you might be wondering how best to cool your house.

Does using the heat pump mean a big power bill? Is there a trick to using fans for best effect?

RNZ asked the experts what you need to know.

Heat pumps

EECA lead adviser on energy efficient appliances Gareth Gretton said heat pumps working as air conditioners would cost about the same as they did when used to heat. They would be a bit less efficient than when used for heating “but roughly speaking it’s pretty similar”.

“They will use less energy in summer on a higher temperature setting.

“In the summer you want to be reaching for 23, 24, 25 degrees … ideally, you’re using different temperature settings from winter to minimise the cost.”

Watch your windows

Gretton said, in most houses, the biggest problem was sun streaming into the windows over a long afternoon.

“A lot of people think north-facing glazing is a problem but actually north-facing glazing is really good because in the middle of the day, the sun is really high in the sky and not so much of it is beaming into your house.

“The problem you have is with more east, and especially west, facing glazing the sun will be coming straight in. For those houses where you’ve got a lot of sun coming in you’ve basically got a lot of heat you’re trying to get rid of.”

He said on a sunny afternoon that heat could be equal to half-a-kilowatt per square metre.

“So if you think of having quite a big ranch slider or something, that could easily be four square metres – easily more. So that means you’re going to have at least two kilowatts of heat coming in and more in some situations. That’s heat you’re just constantly trying to get rid of.

“The only way you can really solve that problem is by having external shading which is basically going to block the sun coming in. That means shutters, essentially, at the design stage … it’s quite common in other parts of the world and I think with our changing climate it’s actually the solution we ought to be reaching for in most situations.”

But if that is not something you can do, there are still options.

“Curtains and blinds of different types can block out varying amounts of heat so it does help. The best thing is you can actually have the windows slightly open behind the blinds or curtains because what’s happening then is that the sunshine is coming through the glass, it’s going to be warming up the curtains or the blinds and they could potentially get quite warm and if you’ve got your windows open at that point the heat is able to escape before it starts to diffuse into the room.”

Phaedra Applin, head of architecture at WSP, said people could add shade sails or plants to shield the light.

“Planting is also really great for that feeling of kind of wellbeing as well. So it’s sort of a double bonus if you like.”

Consumer product test leader James le Page said another option was to apply film to windows.

“A film’s solar heat gain efficient (SHGC) tells you how much solar radiation will pass through it – so 0.8 means 80 percent will pass through. Look for the film with the lowest SHGC. The downside to films is they can distort the colours you see outside, making things look darker than they are.”

Fans

Gretton said fans were all fairly similar in performance.

“They’re not going to make the air temperature any colder. They are just going to make you feel more comfortable.”

Le Page said they generally worked well. He said pedestal fans were generally better at moving air around a room but they were not as attractive as the tower variety.

“Most plug-in fans have a small electric motor (50-60W), so power usage is miniscule. For example, a 60W fan running eight hours a day costs about $4 a month. However, if you start chucking fans in every room and running them non-stop, you could be in for a shocking power bill. They don’t cool you down when you aren’t in the room, so make sure they’re switched off when you leave.”

He said pointing a fan at a window at night would help.

“The idea is to push the hot air from your room, leaving space to draw in the cooler night air from outside.”

Good design

Applin said the best way to stop houses overheating was to consult an architect at the outset.

If you are building your house, you have options to keep it cool.

“It’s really about sort of thinking about those design decisions. At the outset, smart passive design such as orientation, shading, ventilation, insulation, window size, that sort of thing. So you’re making those correct design decisions at the outset, which can really help to prevent overheating in homes.”

She said problems arose when standardised designs were used without thought for the conditions of a site.

“Even from the outset, it’s thinking about the orientation of the building and where you’re placing those windows.

“And also making sure that you’ve got windows on either side so that you can have cross ventilation. And essentially then, if you’re thinking about those sorts of design considerations and the depth of the roof, eaves and overhangs, if you can have some external shading, then it means that you’ve actually got the building doing most of the work for itself, rather than having to put in air conditioning afterwards.”

She said the problem was becoming more well known as more townhouses and apartments were built.

“Think about the distance that you’ve got between them and make sure that you’ve got enough room for planting and enough shade … enough space so that you can get air flow through. Again, design quality is really the key to keeping those high density homes cool … compact doesn’t have to mean overheated, but it does require deliberate attention to sunlight, cross ventilation, privacy and planting to make the homes liveable and and that people can enjoy.”

Other quick wins

If you can open windows on opposite sides of the house, you might be able to create a cross breeze.

“It will flush all that warm, sticky air from the house. And even if it just drops the temperature by half a degree, that will actually make a big difference to how you feel,” le Page said.

Avoid using the oven or stove if you can, and don’t turn on the dishwasher until later in the evening.

“These appliances will heat up your kitchen. If you want to cook, you won’t heat the kitchen as much if you use an air fryer.”

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Aussie band quits Spotify in protest, AI doppelgänger steps in

Source: Radio New Zealand

Imagine this: a band removes its entire music catalogue off Spotify in protest, only to discover an AI-generated impersonator has replaced it. The impersonator offers songs that sound much like the band’s originals.

The imposter tops Spotify search results for the band’s music – attracting significant streams – and goes undetected for months.

As incredible as it sounds, this is what has happened to Australian prog-rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.

Fans have taken to social media channels to vent their frustration over the King Gizzard imposter.

Reddit

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Rising production and employment sees manufacturing sector expand

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ

  • Manufacturing activity expands marginally in November
  • Four of five sub-indexes in expansion – employment first since April
  • Manufacturing expands five months in a row
  • Points to broader economic recovery

The manufacturing sector expanded for a fifth consecutive month in November, led by rising production and employment.

The BNZ-Business New Zealand Performance Of Manufacturing Index (PMI) for October rose by 0.2 points to 51.4 from 51.2 in October, but is still below its long-run average of 52.4. A reading above 50.0 indicates expansion.

The sector has been gradually recovering from the mid-year slump when the economy stalled.

BNZ senior economist Doug Steel said the PMI has settled into growth territory, but he is hoping for bigger improvements in the months ahead.

“We want to see more upbeat out turns from this survey and the Performance of Services Index, to provide us with some comfort that the expected lift in Q3 GDP can be sustained into Q4.”

Steel said manufacturing was struggling to gain momentum, and its current activity was nothing to get excited about.

However, the survey attracted fewer negative comments from manufacturers, with the proportion of negative comments falling to 45.6 percent, down from 54.1 percent in October and 60.2 percent in September.

BusinessNZ’s director of advocacy Catherine Beard said in the current economic climate, any move higher was a welcome step.

“Manufacturers reported a lift in demand driven by seasonal Christmas activity, improving economic conditions and rising customer confidence.”

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