Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

A seven-year-old Hamilton boy is missing after going to visit his friends on Wednesday afternoon.

Tyrese left his home on Anderson Road in Deanwell at 4pm. Police issued an ‘amber alert’ at 1.30am on Thursday.

They said Tyrese regularly walked to his friends’ houses on his own, but did not return home as usual on Wednesday, and wasn’t at the addresses of known friends. He had no nearby family members and there were no local parks in the immediate area.

Tyrese was expected to attend school tomorrow, making his absence “unusual”, police said, noting he had a medical condition that did not require medication.

They described him as 1.3 metres tall, Māori, of medium build, with brown eyes and medium-length black hair.

He was last seen wearing bright orange shorts, a black T-shirt featuring a blue dragon design on the front, and turquoise Croc shoes.

Police urged anyone who had seen Tyrese or had information about his whereabouts to contact them immediately on 105, quoting event number: P064746386.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

• People are surviving longer after cancer diagnosis – but New Zealand is not improving as fast as other high-income countries.
• Māori around 1.6 times more likely, and Pacific peoples 1.4 times more likely, to die from cancer than Pākehā /other ethnicity.
• Up to half of all cancers “preventable”: improved prevention efforts could see between 8000 and 14,000 fewer cancer diagnoses each year.

The number of New Zealanders diagnosed with cancer each year is set to skyrocket by 50 percent in the next two decades to more than 45,000.

That is according to a snapshot of the State of Cancer report over the last five years, released on Thursday by Te Aho o Te Kahu | Cancer Control Agency.

The agency’s chief executive, Rami Rahal, said the projected increase – from about 30,000 new cases this year, to over 45,000 by 2044 – underscored the need for ongoing investment to ensure the health system was ready.

“We cannot respond to this big increase in demand by doing more of the same,” he said.

“We need new and innovative ways of delivering care and preventing cancers.”

Since the first State of Cancer report five years ago, there had been “encouraging progress” in key areas of prevention, early detection and treatment, he said.

“The chance of surviving cancer has improved over the last 20 years. Smoking rates are declining across all ethnicities, and our national screening programmes are becoming more effective and accessible.

“However, much work is still needed.”

That included the need for “sustained, targeted action” on reducing ethnic disparities: Māori were around 1.6 times more likely, and Pacific peoples 1.4 times more likely, to die from cancer than people of European/other ethnicity.

“Addressing inequities must remain a system-wide priority,” Rahal said.

“Everyone in New Zealand deserves the same access to treatment and chance of cure.”

The Cancer Control Agency was currently working with the sector to update the New Zealand Cancer Action Plan 2019-2029, which was set to be published early next year.

Other findings from the report:

• Most-diagnosed cancers in New Zealand: prostate, breast, bowel, melanoma and lung cancer.
• Cancer incidence rates have dropped in the last 20 years, but only by 5 percent overall – and that decrease has levelled off over the past decade.
• ive-year net survival for all cancers has improved by 15 percent in the last 20 years – probably due to screening and advances in treatment.
• However, obesity rates, harmful alcohol consumption, poor nutrition and physical inactivity – which all increase risk of cancer – are either worse or no better than 20 years ago.
• Between 2018 and 2022, the rate for uterine cancer was over five times higher for Pacific females than for females of European ethnicity and almost twice as high for wāhine Māori.
• For breast cancer, wāhine Māori and Pacific females have a higher rate of diagnosis than females of European – rate of diagnosis among Pacific females, increasing by more than 50 percent between 2001 and 2022.

Prevention better than cure

Up to half of all cancers could be prevented by eradicating tobacco use, limiting alcohol intake and healthy nutrition, physical activity, sun protection and infection-prevention measures.

The report noted that people’s risk of developing cancer often depended on where they lived, and their levels of power, money and resources, and “access to culturally safe care”.

“For example, in many socioeconomically deprived areas – where more whānau Māori and Pacific families live – there is a higher density of fast-food and alcohol outlets, making healthy choices harder to access.”

Cancer prevention was the most “cost-effective” approach to controlling some cancers.

“As the New Zealand population ages and increases in size, along with cancer incidence, ‘treating our way out’ of the significant increase that is forecast will not be possible,” according to the report.

“Prevention must be prioritised – improved prevention efforts could see between approximately 8000 and 14,000 fewer cancer diagnoses each year.”

Currently, only one in 10 adults eat the recommended amount of vegetables and just one in 17 eat the recommended amount of both fruit and vegetables.

For children, only one in 12 eat the recommended amount of vegetables, and daily breakfast consumption is declining.

Workplace exposures to carcinogens cause nearly one-third of work-related harm and roughly 650 deaths annually from cancer and respiratory diseases.

The New Zealand Carcinogens Survey, commissioned by WorkSafe New Zealand in 2021, found that 58 percent of workers were exposed to at least one carcinogen at work, with Māori, Pacific peoples and males facing higher exposure.

The next best thing to prevention: Early detection

Almost 1600 deaths per year could be avoided if all people diagnosed with late-stage bowel cancer were diagnosed at an early or mid-stage, when it could be treated more successfully.

About half of all European and Asian people with lung cancer were diagnosed following an emergency hospital admission.

For Māori, this proportion was far higher at 68 percent and for Pacific peoples higher still (73 percent).

Palliative care also needed critical attention and much better funding, particularly given predictions that, by 2038, the number of people needing palliative care would increase by more than 50 percent compared with 2015 levels, and by 90 percent by 2068.

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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 Public Health Communication Centre says children exposed to asbestos contained in coloured play sands should be regularly monitored to ensure the best chance of successfully treating cancers – which could take decades to emerge later in life.

Hundreds of schools have been tested – with nearly 40 forced to temporarily close – following the discovery of naturally occurring asbestos, tremolite, in coloured play sands last month.

At least nine children’s activity products containing coloured sands were recalled over the last month after testing in Australia revealed the presence of the carcinogen in products.

Illnesses could take decades to emerge

University of Canterbury toxicologist, Professor Ian Shaw, said it could be decades before any illnesses related to the exposure emerged as symptoms.

“Mesothelioma, which is the cancer which is most likely to be caused by asbestos, tends not to be diagnosed early. The reason is that you don’t notice the symptoms – they’re the sort of things that you might just pass off.

“In kids that we know have been exposed, we would then want to monitor them – say, yearly – for many years so that if they did contract mesothelioma we could detect it really early and have a greater chance of treatment success,” Shaw said.

He said testing needed to be done to better understand the risks associated with exposure to the products.

“We need to know not only how much they’re breathing in – in terms of the concentration in air – but how long they’ve been breathing it because the higher the concentration, the longer the exposure, the greater the risk.

“It’s immensely complex but it’s really important because we’ve got kids exposed and what we do know about chemicals that cause cancer is that they tend to have a greater effect in children than adults. The reason for that is that kids are growing, their cells are dividing more frequently and cancer-causing chemicals generally only affect cells that are dividing. So there’s more chance of them affecting dividing cells in kids,” Shaw said.

Shaw said not everyone who breathed in asbestos would necessarily develop cancer.

“Even if somebody breathes a whole load of it for a long period of time they might not develop cancer. We mustn’t be thinking that everybody’s going to get cancer in this case ’cause they’re not,” Shaw said.

University of Auckland professor of commercial law Alex Sims said that in order to support the monitoring of children exposed to the chemical, the voluntary Asbestos Exposure Register – which stopped accepting new entries in 2023 – should be reinstated and expanded to include people who may have suffered exposure in a wider variety of environments.

“It was mainly to do with workplaces so if employees had been exposed to potential asbestos they could be on that register and it would allow for greater monitoring.

“Australia has one and – with the coloured play sand incident – people are being told to register there.

“As we’ve seen – with the coloured play sand – asbestos issues are far broader than just employees so that would be really useful,” Sims said.

Enforcement of importing regulations lacking

Sims said importing regulations meant it was currently illegal to import products that contained asbestos without a permit but little was being done to back up the legislation.

“The problem is that there is no requirement to test products before they come into New Zealand so we’re just relying on people to test products but there’s no one checking to see whether anything has been tested.

“If people are importing things into New Zealand [and] if there’s a risk that a product could contain asbestos then testing should be carried out but, as we’ve seen, you can’t rely on importers to do this, so instead you need a government body – say, for example, MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) – to arrange for the testing and to do that at the importer’s cost,” Sims said.

Sims said consumers should consider choosing children’s products that had simpler, more natural, elements to avoid the risks associated with chemical contamination or poor manufacturing standards.

“We have product safety laws about toys – for example [you] can’t have loose batteries and other things – but we do rely on importers and suppliers following the law and they don’t always.

“When it comes to enforcement, the MBIE and Commerce Commission can’t be everywhere, it’s only when reports are made and sometimes reports come after harm’s been suffered.

“The law and the government can’t protect everybody and it’s very much up to people to take care and if you’re looking at something, just go ‘no that doesn’t look safe’ and don’t buy it. Just because it’s sitting on a shelf it does not mean to say that it’s safe.”

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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 family of man killed by a sand dune that collapsed and swallowed him on a West Auckland beach say losing him has left a hole that nothing can fill.

In findings released on Thursday, the coroner sounded a warning to beachgoers after probing the death in August of Kane Watson.

Watson, 28, his partner and children were at Muriwai Beach on 23 August.

He had been digging into dunes and tunnelling into the sand bank, and was almost entirely engulfed by the collapsing sand.

“Only his feet remained visible as he tried to kick himself free,” Coroner Ian Telford said in his findings on Thursday.

“It was immediately clear that the tunnel created by digging had collapsed and buried him.”

His partner started digging desperately to try to get to him, and bystanders joined the effort.

Police, volunteer firefighters, ambulance crews and a rescue helicopter all rushed to the beach.

Watson, when he was finally freed, was unresponsive.

Rescuers managed to restore circulation, and Watson was airlifted to Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition.

But it became clear he could not survive his injuries despite the lengthy resuscitation and advanced medical care, the coroner said.

Watson had his breathing tube removed and died two days later surrounded by his family.

“Kane wasn’t just my younger brother, he was my first love in life,” his sister Shaquille Thoumine said in a statement to RNZ shortly before the release of the findings.

“He was the person I grew up with, the one who knew me inside and out, the one you imagine will always be there.

“Your sibling is meant to be your forever person, you expect to grow old together, to watch each other’s lives unfold,” she said.

The coroner had ruled Watson’s death accidental, and that he died from complications from cardiac arrest caused by being asphyxiated and trapped in the sand.

“The weight and pressure from the sand can also prevent the lungs from expanding properly,” Telford said.

“Without enough oxygen, the heart can stop, and once the heart stops pumping, vital organs quickly become damaged,” he said.

His findings said that this led to swelling in Watson’s brain, which then caused harm to his liver and kidneys and reduced his heart function.

“This was a tragic accident leading to the death of young man,” the coroner said.

“My engagement with his family during this inquiry has made clear just how deeply he was loved and how greatly he is now missed.”

Coroner’s warning

Coroner Telford said Watson’s death brought attention to a danger that may not be immediately apparent to some beachgoers.

“Sand dunes can become unstable without warning,” he said.

“Even small tunnels or cavities may collapse leading to serious injury or death.

“As we approach the summer season it is important that beachgoers – especially those supervising young children – are aware of these risks, avoid digging into dunes, and seek emergency assistance immediately if anyone becomes trapped,” he said.

Watson was digging in the dunes with his children before the collapse, but they lost interest and he kept digging on his own before the accident.

“Losing him has left a hole that nothing can fill. Moving through life without him is incredibly hard, because everything reminds of the bond we shared,” Thoumine said.

“He was funny, loving, protective and had the most beautiful heart. He meant everything to me, and I miss him more than words will ever explain.”

Thoumine also told RNZ their mother Arlene had been left completely heartbroken by Watson’s death.

“Kane was her baby, her best friend, and the centre of her world. Watching her grieve her son has been devastating for all of us,” she said.

After Watson’s death, University of Auckland senior civil engineering lecturer Dr Colin Whittaker called for more public education about the dangers of sand dunes.

It was crucial to realise that just because the sand was still, that did not mean it was stable, he said.

In 2023, a dune collapsed on two boys aged 12 and 14 who were also digging tunnels during a family picnic on Aotea Great Barrier Island.

Levi Sonchai Golaboski, 12, was taken off life support days later.

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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 records show fugitive father Tom Phillips‘ firearms licence was suspended just weeks after his first disappearance in 2021, and later revoked when he was deemed “not a fit and proper person” to hold a gun.

The information, released to RNZ under the Official Information Act (OIA), is among the only new details police have been willing to release about Phillips’ interactions with authorities ahead of a public inquiry into the case.

Phillips died on 8 September following a shootout with police, after nearly four years in the bush with his children.

The disappearance was his second – he first went on the run with the children in September 2021. His Toyota Hilux was found abandoned at Kiritehere Beach, keys under the mat, car seats in the back, parked below the high tide mark and being pummeled by waves. Authorities searched land, air and sea but found no trace.

On 30 September, Phillips and the children reappeared in Marokopa, claiming they had camped in dense bush for the 19 days they were missing. He disappeared again in December that year.

Police suspended and later revoked his firearms licence

According to the documents, police suspended Phillips’ licence on 11 October 2021 and formally revoked it on 5 January 2022. The decision was made on the grounds that he was no longer considered fit and proper.

Phillips had first received his firearms licence in 2003, and renewed it in 2013.

Police would not release any information about the reasons behind their decisions to suspend, then revoke the licence, the risk assessments that informed them, or any related notices or internal communications.

All such material was withheld under section 9(2)(ba) of the OIA, which protects information provided in confidence “or which any person has been or could be compelled to provide under the authority of any enactment”.

It is also unclear what action was taken around any firearms, ammunition or licensing materials Phillips may still have held after the revocation. Documents relating to attempted seizure or follow-up were also withheld.

The response illustrates the significant constraints on what is currently known – or can be made public – about agencies’ handling of Phillips before he spent nearly four years on the run.

Police said they were required to comply not only with active investigations into Phillips’ death and disappearance – including an ongoing investigation into whether he received outside support – but also with wide-ranging suppression orders imposed by the High Court and Family Court. Those restrictions limit the release of any information relating to the children or to court proceedings involving them.

Police said it did not want to prejudice the investigations by the premature release of relevant information.

Inquiry to examine agencies’ actions and information-sharing

The Attorney-General confirmed last month that a public inquiry would examine whether agencies “took all practicable steps” to protect the safety and welfare of the Phillips children, and whether government agencies responded appropriately and in a timely way to locate the children once they disappeared.

The inquiry was directed to inquire into the nature and extent of the involvement government agencies had with Phillips and the children, before and after their disappearance. It would also look into how Phillips obtained and maintained a gun licence, weapons and ammunition.

However, its scope would not include decisions made within the Family Court – despite the terms of reference noting there had been “extensive litigation” in that forum concerning the children, some of which remained ongoing and under appeal.

The government has directed the inquiry to “respect the independence of the courts, and not comment on or inquire into judicial decisions concerning the children, including suppression orders made in respect of the children”.

Some experts have critiqued that decision, saying the court should not be exempt from scrutiny.

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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 Teaching Council’s governing board says appointing one of its members as interim chief executive does not breach a rule prohibiting board members from serving as CEO.

In a statement, the council said the interim chief executive Tom Gott had stepped away from his governance role and it had double-checked the legality of the move with the Education Ministry.

Gott was appointed because the council’s chief executive Lesley Hoskin was on agreed leave while the Public Service Commission investigated the council’s handling of conflicts of interest and procurement.

Sensitivity over the Teaching Council is running high because of the investigation and because of the government’s recent decision to strip the council of responsibility for initial teacher education and teachers’ practising standards, and to reconstitute its board next year so that a majority of members would be ministerial appointees.

Gott was one of six ministerial appointees on the now-12-member board and the issue of his appointment was raised with RNZ anonymously by people concerned the council was acting unlawfully.

The Education and Training Act 2020 said the council may appoint a chief executive but that person “may not be a member of the Teaching Council”.

Council chair David Fisher told RNZ it made sure Gott’s appointment was legal.

“Out of an abundance of caution and to satisfy any concerns that our decision was unlawful, prior to Mr Gott being appointed as interim CEO, the Teaching Council consulted with the Ministry of Education about the interim arrangements,” he said.

“The Ministry guided us that, in the circumstances, it was appropriate for Mr Gott to act as CEO while remaining on the Board, provided he steps back from all governance work during this time, which he has.”

Fisher said there was no co-mingling of executive and governance functions.

“Mr Gott is not attending any Governing Council meetings (other than in his capacity as interim CEO), receiving any Governing Council emails (other than emails that the CEO would receive), nor being paid for his position on the Council.

“Mr Gott will not participate in any governance decision making and has no voting rights. Mr Gott is very clear, as are we, that he is Acting CEO of the Council and as such has stepped away from his governance role.”

The Post Primary Teachers Association said it believed the appointment breached the rules and the ministry’s interpretation was incorrect.

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