Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A person has been critically injured after a scooter and vehicle crashed in central Auckland on Wednesday morning.

Police are at the intersection of Mayoral Drive and Cook Street.

The injured person has been taken to hospital.

Cordons are in place on Mayoral Drive near the intersection of Greys Avenue and Cook Street, as well as at the intersection with Hobson and Cook Streets.

Police say motorists should avoid the area if possible.

The Serious Crash Unit will attend, with a scene examination and crash investigation to begin.

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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 Department of Corrections says a sharp rise in allegations of sexual assault by prisoners against staff is largely due to the introduction of a digital complaints function on in-prison kiosks.

However, a prisoner advocacy group says the increase reflects longstanding issues that were only now becoming visible.

Figures released to RNZ under the Official Information Act show there were 615 allegations of sexual assault made by prisoners against staff in the 2024/25 financial year, with the highest numbers recorded at Auckland Prison (152) and Mt Eden Corrections Facility (127).

However, Corrections said the “overwhelming majority” of those complaints were not substantiated.

Of the total, 343 were recorded as entered in error, 82 were withdrawn by prisoners and 99 were referred to alternative complaints processes because they did not relate to staff misconduct. The figures show 91 were not upheld, while just three allegations were upheld and one resulted in Police charges.

So far in the 2025/26 financial year, 153 allegations had been recorded, with similar trends in outcomes.

Corrections attributed the increase in complaints since 2023 to a new feature added to prisoner kiosks, allowing inmates to directly submit allegations against staff.

The President of the Corrections Association, Floyd Du Plessis, described the kiosks as fixed, wall-mounted touchscreen terminals available to prisoners in day rooms.

“They’re similar to an iPad-type system,” he said. “They’re bolted to the wall, and prisoners can access them during the day.”

Through the kiosks, inmates could communicate with case managers, request to speak with staff, access information, order canteen items and lodge complaints.

The complaints function covered a wide range of issues, from prisoner rights and general concerns to allegations about staff conduct, Du Plessis said.

Corrections said the kiosks also included a free-text field, which the department said had shown many complaints categorised as sexual assault were not, in fact, allegations of that nature.

Du Plessis said in his view many of the complaints were “malicious” or stemmed from misunderstandings of routine prison procedures.

He pointed to examples where prisoners had made sexual assault allegations following standard rub-down searches, which were part of daily safety protocols.

“There’s nothing sexual in that … it’s just a duty staff have to perform,” he said.

“While we do have a small number of these complaints that do come through, it is very small, and most of the allegations that do come through end up having no result because there’s no substance or basis to it,” he said.

The union wanted a limit on the number of complaints a prisoner could file each day.

“At this point, removing the complaints wouldn’t be reasonable … but potentially limiting the number of complaints a prisoner can make on any day – absolutely,” he said.

Du Plessis said complaints were initially assessed by senior officers, with further action depending on their seriousness. In some cases, staff could be reassigned or suspended while investigations were carried out.

He said access to CCTV footage often allowed incidents to be reviewed quickly.

“If it’s blatantly malicious, then it can very quickly be resolved and the staff member is not affected,” he said.

‘Kiosks didn’t cause the problem’ – advocate

However, People Against Prisons Aotearoa spokesperson, Dr Emmy Rākete, rejected the suggestion that kiosks were behind the rise in allegations.

“The introduction of digital kiosks has allowed the full extent of this problem to finally be visible for the first time,” she said.

“The kiosks didn’t cause an increase to occur. They’re just letting us get a clearer view at how many people in prison feel that they’ve been sexually violated by Corrections staff.”

Rākete said her organisation’s advocacy work with prisoners meant the figures were “not surprising”.

“It’s broadly in line with what incarcerated people have been telling us … that this is a problem, that this happens and that when it does happen, there are very few avenues to address it.”

Rākete also questioned Corrections’ interpretation of the data, particularly the high number of complaints that were withdrawn or not upheld.

“To point to every complaint that didn’t end in an investigation or charges being placed and say that it was frivolous, that doesn’t really hold a lot of weight with us,” she said.

She said prisoners’ dependence on staff could influence whether complaints proceeded.

“People in prisons are totally dependent on the institution … they are totally vulnerable to people running these institutions.”

Rākete said withdrawals should not be taken at face value.

“If I was raped in prison by a prison guard and I finally had an anonymous means to place that complaint and someone came knocking on my door … I can think of a lot of ways that I could be compelled to withdraw that complaint.”

She called for stronger independent oversight of complaints.

“There needs to be clearer external means of investigating and protecting the rights of incarcerated people.”

Private prison data missing

Corrections noted that the figures did not include Auckland South Corrections Facility, which was operated by Serco New Zealand under a public-private partnership and maintained a separate complaints system.

Rākete said that raised serious concerns about transparency and accountability.

“People have a right not to get raped … the Crown can’t subcontract out work that violates people’s rights to private contractors and wash its hands of the situation.”

She said the public had a right to know how many allegations were being made in privately run prisons.

Rākete said the spike in complaints following the introduction of kiosks should be treated as a warning sign, not dismissed.

“The fact that as soon as Corrections provided a more anonymous means of reporting sexual violence … there was an immediate uptick in reports … should be very concerning.

“That to me indicates that there is a problem here that this new system has made visible for the first time.”

The Department of Corrections was approached for comment.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Finance Minister Nicola Willis might be being optimistic if she thinks inflation at 3.7 percent is a “worst case scenario”, one economist says.

Willis told media on Monday that in the event of a prolonged conflict in Iran, lasting until the end of the year, inflation could hit that level, as modelled by Treasury.

Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said that seemed light.

Data on Tuesday showed food prices up 4.5 percent over a year, alcohol and tobacco up 0.2 percent month-on-month and electricity up 1.6 percent month-on-month, a bigger jump than expected. Domestic airfares were up 12.8 percent compared to January and more than 10 percent over a year.

“It just makes me a bit nervous in terms of how realistic it is to expect inflation to moderate through the course of this year.

“There are so many little bits you can look at and go oh there’s issues there … which suggests it’s going to be perhaps more difficult to get it back down to 2 percent than the Reserve Bank might have been anticipating.”

He said he would be redoing forecasts over the next couple of weeks and would increase his expectations.

“My instinctive reaction to the number from the Finance Minster yesterday of 3.7 percent being a worst-case scenario … it felt too light to be a worst-case scenario.”

At ANZ, senior economist Miles Workman said the bank’s had updated its forecast.

“The Middle East conflict is no longer shaping up to be a short, sharp shock.”

It now thinks inflation will peak at an annual rate of 3.6 percent in the third quarter of the year, with oil prices hovering around US$100 a barrel for some time yet before falling again towards the end of the year.

“Base effects, together with the assumption that oil prices eventually normalise, see annual inflation troughing at 1.4 percent in Q3 2027 before stabilising around 2 percent over the medium term. There are risks on both sides of this.”

Westpac said it now did not expect inflation to get below 3 percent until the end of the year.

Mike Jones, chief economist at BNZ, said it would be the second quarter data on for inflation that bore the full brunt of the direct effect of rising fuel prices, although there would be some impact on the March month of the first quarter.

“Things are clearly still moving around but we recently bumped up our Q1 inflation forecast to 2.9 percent , with Q2 rising to 3.6 percent.

“As always there are overs and unders to balance [from Tuesday’s data] … But we’re left with a bit of upside risk on that 2.9 percent forecast for Q1. We didn’t see quite the extent of seasonal declines in fresh fruit and vegetable prices we’d factored in.”

ANZ said it did not think the change to the outlook for inflation would affect its official cash rate predictions yet.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hundreds of speeding fines issued on a single day in Lower Hutt have been cancelled and refunded, after NZTA Waka Kotahi decided road signs had created confusion about the speed limit.

The transport agency issued 279 fines for speeding captured by a mobile safety camera on Rata Street on 16 November.

Motorists had received fines for driving above 30km/h on that day. Some had even been issued multiple fines for the same day.

Locals complained online and to the agency, saying road signs did not make a 30km/h limit clear.

A variable speed limit sign near Rata Street School, which caps the speed at 30km/h during school drop-off and pick-up times, created confusion as to what the speed limit was outside of these times.

Another sign further down the street signals a 30km/h limit but has a ‘Kura/School’ warning on it, implying there is another school zone, despite not being near a school.

Nikki Anglesey was fined $170 for going 51km/h down the road, which she thought had a limit of 50km/h, as there were no schools near where she was driving and it was a Sunday during the summer school holidays – well outside of school pick-up and drop-off times.

“It’s the first time I’ve had a speeding ticket in forever. I was kind of shocked because of the amount.”

She originally “shrugged it off” but decided to challenge the fine because she thought the signs were “really not clear”.

After Anglesey’s appeal was rejected, she requested more details about where the camera was and on what basis the fine was issued.

“I got very vague responses to that,” she said.

Anglesey consulted the NZTA’s website to find out the speed limit on Rata Street, but was given conflicting answers.

“If you click on the street, it will say 30[km/h], but if you put in your address, it will say 50[km/h].”

She decided to apply to go to court. But the case never got that far.

Following a review by NZTA, the transport authority decided on a blanket reversal of all fines for that day, acknowledging that signs had “created a genuine uncertainty”.

“NZTA acknowledges that the speed limit signage in place at this site was not clear,” it said in a statement.

“Concerns were raised by affected drivers that the different signs caused confusion about the time period that the 30 km/h speed limit was enforceable. We accept this situation was confusing for drivers and this is why we rescinded the infringement notices we issued.”

Anglesey found the letter notifying her of this decision “interesting”.

“They don’t give you much detail, but they said: ‘we’ve changed it because of public feedback’. That’s kind of weird. Shouldn’t you change it because the signage is not right? Or because no one still knows what the speed is on the street?

“Somebody, whoever’s in charge, needs to make a decision on what the speed actually is and whether that’s consistent for the whole street.”

Anna Chinn, an RNZ staffer, received three fines for that Sunday, when her partner had been driving.

“I have had maybe in my entire adult life two speeding tickets. That’s news to us that it’s 30[km/h] all the way on Rata Street.”

Chinn was ecstatic when she found the fines had been cancelled or were being refunded.

“Getting three speeding fines refunded is just like three Christmases coming at once.

“I’m grateful to everybody who had the capacity and went the whole hog and made sure that NZTA refunded those tickets.”

Speed limit changes causes confusion

Rata Street had a 50km/h speed limit outside of the school zone up until 2024, when the limit on the street was reduced to 30km/h.

In January 2025, the central government required local councils to reverse all speed limits lowered since January 2020 back to their previous limits by 1 July and introduce variable speed limits outside schools during pick-up and drop-off times.

Outside Rata Street School, the speed limit is 30km/h at all times.

The council is rolling out speed limit reversals near schools in batches, with Rata Street School in the third and last one.

Streets with schools in the first batch had speed limits outside of drop-off and pick-up times revert to 50km/h in January. Those in phase two are currently implementing changes.

A Hutt City Council spokesperson said: “There are variable speeds on Rata Street and motorists need to be vigilant especially when driving past the schools on this street.

“We are making some changes that will make things clearer for motorists and we have been in touch with the community about this.”

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