Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A firefighter clambered on to the side-roof of a burning building at Taupō’s largest school after the ladder-truck that hoses down fires from height broke down.

The fire that gutted a two-storey block of classrooms at Taupō-nui-a-Tia College resulted in arson charges laid against two young people.

After the first ladder-truck – called an ‘aerial’ – from Rotorua broke down as it set up the hose on its boom, another large ladder-truck was rushed in from Hamilton almost two hours away.

In the meantime, “firefighters successfully used other tactics to contain the fire to the building of origin and protect all neighbouring structures”, Fire and Emergency said.

The Professional Firefighters’ Union said such a delay mattered at fires of this scale.

A video posted online showed the firefighter on the roof hosing through the second-storey classroom windows for about a minute as flames billowed out and began to consume the roof at the other end, before he got down on a ladder held by another firefighter.

Taupō retiree Les Wills was watching.

“It didn’t look very safe at all,” he said.

“I think other people around me were thinking pretty much the same sort of thing.”

He’d seen online commentary he agreed with, that it was “dumb but brave”.

FENZ deputy national commander Megan Stiffler said firefighters were trained to use various tactics.

“Firefighters can apply a range of tactics, including using hoses at height to direct water onto a fire,” she said.

“Doing this from an aerial appliance or from a roof are both tactics which an incident commander may consider, depending on the circumstances, the type of incident and the resources available.”

They also applied the so-called safe person concept and dynamic risk assessment.

“If one particular type of fire truck is unavailable, they can adapt their tactics to the resources that they have.”

Des Chan who was on the Rotorua truck said they got some water to the boom but not enough, and had to adopt a tactic that was “very much” less safe.

He was not referring to the firefighter on the roof, which he did not know about, but having to get very close-in to the flames.

“We were trying to stop the fire spreading to the library next door just across a little gap.

“With the aerial [ladder] we would have contained it completely, as it was we had to stand there, right underneath,” Chan, the union’s Rotorua local secretary, said.

‘The angst, the anguish, the frustration’

Wills had watched the Rotorua ladder-truck crew set up the boom to get their hose in the air, amid other smaller fire trucks and their crews.

“The water came out from behind the cab of the truck and simply flooded the ground. There was a very thin trickle of water came out of the boom itself onto the fire.

“I think what struck me more than anything else was looking at the angst, the anguish, the frustration, if not the actual anger on the faces of the firefighters who had just driven from Rotorua to assist putting out a huge fire and their equipment failed on them.”

Union spokesperson in Waikato, Jay Culhane said the boom would have allowed the high hose to penetrate deeply into the burning classroom in a way that ground-based hoses could not.

Stiffler said a sticking valve was the problem, and they had learned this had happened before but not been reported for repairs, and it was “critical” firefighters reported faults.

But Chan said two previous times the boom did not work, the firefighters had checked then restarted it and it had been okay. To report all such faults meant mechanics would be getting a lot of reports, he added.

Culhane said the Hamilton ladder-truck had to be nursed on its emergency run down to Taupō as it regularly overheated and was often laid up for repairs.

FENZ confirmed a second breakdown on Sunday, of the emissions control system in a command-unit truck coming down from Greerton station in Tauranga.

“As a command unit from Rotorua was already at the scene, this second command unit was not required,” Stiffler said.

The agency’s network approach enabled relief vehicles to be called on “whenever and wherever they are needed”, she added.

“All our trucks are maintained in a fully operational condition regardless of age. We have a proactive servicing regime for all trucks and replace any worn parts as required to keep them at an operational standard. These are large, complicated vehicles but they are well maintained, safe, certified, and legally compliant.”

FENZ was spending over $20m annually over the next three years on its fleet and $12.5 million on new aerials. Contracts were in place “although we acknowledge this will take some time”.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A two-week salvage operation has begun to recover the wrecked Black Cat Cruises boat from Akaroa Harbour on Banks Peninsula.

More than 40 people were rescued from the catamaran when it ran into trouble at Nikau Palm Valley Bay in the Akaroa Marine Reserve on 31 January.

The Canterbury Regional Council said work to recover parts of the tourist boat from the beach and the sea could take two weeks, depending on the conditions.

The boat was carrying 2240 litres of marine diesel fuel and around 120 litres of other oils in sealed containers and engines combined.

The catamaran was stuck on rocks near the heads but swells last week dislodged part of the boat, leaving it broken up on shore.

Regional on-scene commander Emma Parr said safety was a top priority.

“Recovery activities will only be undertaken when conditions are safe for crews and any potential environmental impacts have been minimised. This includes pre and post wildlife surveys and hydrocarbon testing of water, sediment and shellfish,” she said.

The salvage team will first dismantle the top of the boat and remove debris from the beach.

The council said the work would involve cutting up and removing the wreckage using a barge and crane over about five days.

Sections of the submerged hull and other debris will then be removed from the sea.

Parr said a 200-metre exclusion zone remained in place about the boat.

“The exclusion area is critical to keeping people safe while complex recovery work is underway. We ask the public to please respect all signage, on-water restrictions and advice from response crews,” she said.

“Removing the vessel and debris from this sensitive area is a priority and all parties involved remain committed to completing the recovery as safely and efficiently as possible.”

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) is investigating the grounding.

Several agencies are working together on the recovery effort with the council, including the Department of Conservation, Maritime New Zealand, TAIC, Wildbase and NZ Defence Force.

The tour operator has previously said the grounding was the first incident of its kind in more than 40 years.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A panel of three senior military officers have retired to deliberate on the verdict for a senior navy officer accused of encouraging a junior officer to kiss them on the cheek at a bar during an overseas operation.

The senior officer pleaded not guilty to a charge of doing an act likely to prejudice service discipline, which is an offence punishable by up to two years in prison.

Under the Armed Forces Discipline Act, this includes any act likely to bring discredit on the service of the Armed Forces.

The military hearing has been sitting at the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland this week.

Judge William Hastings declined an application for interim name suppression from the accused, but their name is still suppressed pending an appeal.

On Monday, a former junior officer gave evidence on the alleged interaction during an operation in Fiji in March 2023, when officers were given leave for a few days and were drinking at a bar in town.

He said the senior officer first caught the attention of him and another junior officer when they tapped on a glass pane and gestured for a kiss through the other side of the glass, and later gestured for them to come inside the bar and tapped on their cheeks to gesture for a kiss.

The officer said he obliged and kissed them on the cheek, as he felt it was expected.

He conceded during cross-examination by the accused’s lawyer that he “downplayed” the interaction and didn’t tell the whole truth when first approached by the military police in August 2024, as he didn’t think he’d be taken seriously and that he was worried his career would be affected if he spoke up.

The accused senior officer also gave evidence and said they did not encourage the junior officer to kiss them.

Under questioning by their own lawyer, they told the court the interaction didn’t happen, and if it did, it wouldn’t have seemed out of ordinary for an officer to kiss them as “people kiss me on the cheek every day”.

Another navy officer, who said they were with the accused senior officer during the majority of the evening of the alleged interaction, said they didn’t see the senior officer interacting with the junior officer that night.

Judge Hastings told the military panel during his summing up of the case on Tuesday, that they need to be sure on whether the crown has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the senior officer encouraged the junior officer to kiss them, and if so, did they intend to encourage him, did they know they were acting improperly, and was the conduct in the circumstances likely to prejudice service discipline.

Judge Hastings said the answer would need to be yes to all the questions for a member to return a guilty verdict.

In a court martial, all three members of a military panel must agree unanimously on a verdict.

More to come…

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say they recovered a body from the Waioweka River on Tuesday morning after a search for a man who was swept downstream after falling from a boat in the Bay of Plenty town of Ōpōtiki last month.

Inspector Nicky Cooney, Eastern Bay of Plenty Area Commander, said the body was recovered from the river at about 9am.

“This has been a long slow search, hindered at times by the weather as well as impacted by the slips on SH2,” Cooney said in a statement.

Police earlier said that they were called out at about 5.30pm on Friday 23 January after reports that a man had fallen from a boat and a search of the area was carried out with a vessel found nearby.

Cooney thanked all those who assisted in the search efforts including Land SAR volunteers, local jet boat and helicopter operators, the Police National Dive Squad and iwi whose knowledge of the river and surrounding terrain had been invaluable.

The formal identification process is underway, and the man’s death has been referred to the Coroner.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Multiple fire crews are battling a blaze that’s engulfed a workshop in Eskdale, north of Napier.

Emergency services were called to the rural Seafield Road property about 1.20pm.

Fire and Emergency says it has five fire trucks and two water tankers working in the building that is about the size of a three bay garage.

It could not say whether anyone was injured.

St John confirmed it was at the scene.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two Auckland students are in Starship Hospital after being struck by cars before school on Monday.

Police said one intermediate-aged student was hit by a car at about 8.15am while crossing Whangaparāoa Road in Stanmore Bay.

In a statement, Whangaparāoa College confirmed one of its students was hit.

It said the student was receiving medical treatment and would make a full recovery.

Police said another intermediate child was hit by a different car on Onewa Road in Northcote at 8.26am.

St John said both children who suffered moderate injuries were taken to Starship in ambulances.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A rule change that electrical inspectors say elevates the risk of people being electrocuted is being reviewed.

The change – made late last year – lifted a ban on inserting a switch, circuit or fuse into mains power earthing systems in houses and businesses.

The Electrical Inspectors Association wrote to the government a week ago, asking it to intervene with Worksafe.

Energy Minister Simon Watts said he took feedback from stakeholders seriously.

“The regulatory amendment lays the foundation for future measures to ensure electric vehicle charging meets safety expectations, and allow for improved disaster resilience,” Watts said in a statement.

WorkSafe’s Energy Safety team had commissioned an independent review by an international expert to provide assurance on their advice to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which instituted the rule change.

Worksafe issued initial guidance to the industry and had said it was working on further technical guidance on protective earth neutral conductor (PEN) switching.

The inspectors’ letter on 29 January said they had failed to persuade Worksafe.

“The PEN conductor is the single most important wire in any electrical installation,” they wrote.

If it was broken or ‘switched-off’, the installation’s earth moved up toward a phase voltage.

“This is very dangerous and can result in multiple fatalities. Now, a compliant New Zealand electrical installation with no faults present can now be lethal.”

They offered to provide a tabletop demonstration of this and for Worksafe to demonstrate the converse if it could.

“Please use independent thought and guidance when replying to this issue as we believe WorkSafe is in ‘cover-up’ mode,” association president Warren Willets wrote to Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden, who transferred it to Watts.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The defence for a District Court Judge accused of disrupting an NZ First event has told a judicial conduct panel the affair has been blown “out of all proportion”.

Judge Ema Aitken was appearing before the panel in Auckland on Tuesday, accused of disrupting a function at Auckland’s exclusive Northern Club in 2024.

She was accused of shouting that NZ First leader Winston Peters was lying.

Judge Aitken said she did not shout, did not recognise Peters’ voice when she responded to remarks she overheard and did not know it was a political event.

Her lawyer, David Jones, KC, opened his case by praising the judge’s career, describing her as diligent and a judge of principle.

He explained why the judge continued to fight the allegations.

“She is a judge of principle, and she is a judge of integrity, and she is not going to resign over something that she did not do,” he said.

Jones maintained Judge Aitken did not know it was Winston Peters speaking at the Northern Club, and that she was unaware of the political context when she made her comments.

Jones raised the concern of handing the acting attorney-general a ‘loaded gun’ if they found consideration of removal was justified.

Special Counsel Tim Stephens, KC, had said on Monday final say on removal of the judge fell with acting Attorney-General Paul Goldsmith.

Jones pointed to the fact that Goldsmith was a politician.

“Now, it’s been said, well, the attorney-general has to act lawfully,” he said.

“We have the very real political context of the complaint generated by, it seems, a political situation, and all of the issues that have been raised about the reports in the media, they are all political issues,” he said.

“So, this is a politicized situation, not of the judge’s making, but of others, and what you have is a situation where in the current climate, for example it’s an election year, we have coalition issues that obviously are going to be concerning some people, and the attorney-general, if he gets the loaded gun from the panel, what considerations will come into play there?”

Jones said the emphasis of the panel had to be on fairness, natural justice, and fitness for office.

Comments ‘rude’, justifies consideration of removal

Presenting the allegations of misconduct to the panel, Stephens said the panel was responsible for reporting on the judge’s conduct, finding the facts, and ultimately recommending if the judge should be removed.

He continued his opening from Monday, addressing the allegations Judge Aitken faced, and what happened on that night in 2024.

He started by providing political context on leading up to the alleged disturbance, leading with a complaint made by lawyer Gary Judd, KC, over compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students.

The complaint was supported by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters who said teaching tikanga was “cultural indoctrination”.

A select committee largely rejected a complaint in April last year.

The next piece of context Stephens gave was the haka that broke out in Parliament following the vote for the Treaty Principles Bill.

Stephens referenced NZ First MP Casey Costello, who at the time had said NZ First would only support the bill to first reading.

Minister Costello is expected to be called as a witness before the judicial conduct panel.

On the night in question, Stephens said Judge Aitken had been attending a function for district court judges, while at the same time, a NZ First event was taking place in another part of the Northern Club.

Stephens said part of Winston Peters’ speech at that event mentioned both the teaching of tikanga at law school, as well as the party’s position on the Treaty Principles Bill.

“The allegations that I make or that I present are that while the deputy prime minister was speaking, Judge Aitken interrupted him in the New Zealand First dinner by heckling the deputy prime minister, accusing the deputy prime minister of lying and being a liar, saying that the deputy prime minister’s comments were disgusting…”

In the wake of the incident, Stephens said Judge Aitken wrote to NZ First apologising for what happened.

He told the panel a key fact finding part of their job would be determining when the judge realised the speaker at the event was Peters and if she knew it was a NZ First event.

It was Stephens submission that Judge Aitken’s behaviour was rude, and brought the judiciary into conflict with the executive branch of government.

“I will submit that even if the judge didn’t know that the speaker was the deputy prime minister at the exact point in time or prior to when she made her comments, my submission will be that her conduct seen in the round still justifies consideration of removal,” he said.

Disclosure issue clarified

The second day of the hearing begun with the panel addressing concerns from David Jones, KC, about what he described as undisclosed evidence claimed from Special Counsel.

Lead panellist Brendan Brown, KC, explained they had received an application from Judge Aitken just before Waitangi weekend, seeking disclosure of witness material.

The panel directed Special Counsel to disclose relevant documents to the judge, which Stephens stated he had already made all such disclosures.

The panellist also defined what the word ‘document’, and the reference to a ‘document authored’ meant, as raised by Jones on Monday.

Brown said the purpose of his clarification was to comply the rules of natural justice.

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