Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

File photo.

Four people have been taken to Gisborne Hospital, after a vehicle crashed into a tree in Whatatutu.

Police said they were notified of single vehicle crash on Mangamaia Road at about 3.40pm Sunday.

The crash occurred on private property, with police on site reporting the vehicle hit a tree.

St John said two patients in a moderate condition and two patients in a minor condition were transferred to Gisborne Hospital.

Four ambulance vehicles responded to the crash.

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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 Green Party is calling on the government to abandon boot camps, after ‘Scrutiny Week’ questioning revealed another intake of the controversial programme is planned for early next year.

During their appearances at Parliament’s Scrutiny Week committees, Minister for Children Karen Chhour and Oranga Tamariki officials were asked if they would move forward with another boot camp or military-style academy (MSA), before the law making it a sentencing option was passed.

The minister denied decisions had been made, but officials later said another camp with a new design was planned for the early new year.

Oranga Tamariki confirmed to RNZ it planned to run a further voluntary programme in March 2026.

The Responding to Serious Youth Offending Amendment Bill, introduced in November last year, would give judges the sentencing option of a MSA for repeat serious offenders.

The discrepancy between the minister’s statements and those of officials was “what Scrutiny Week is actually about – digging into what ministers and officials are saying, compared to what they are doing, and this was a big red flag”, Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter said.

While passing the legislation may take another six months, job vacancies for the next iteration of the MSA were already advertised, she said.

Carter accused the government of putting the cart before the horse.

“We have a minister and ministry officials saying there are no definite decisions being made, but they are actively recruiting before legislation is in place.”

The “tough on crime” rhetoric came amid rising poverty, hefty cuts to community programmes working with youth and other policies affecting vulnerable families, she said.

“We’ve got a government who is pushing through with cancelling emergency housing, cancelling access to emergency food parcels and bringing in benefit sanctions. All of these things are key indicators of outcomes for children.”

The minister was using young people as a political football to push a tough-on-crime rhetoric, Carter said.

The next boot camp appeared to have been devised without strong evidence on the success of the pilot.

The minister had “cherry-picked” information from the independent evaluation and Carter believed another review was pending.

“My understanding is that the review has been commissioned, but they’re moving forward without it being complete, which just looks like one failed boot camp experiment to the next, without legislation, without making the changes that are needed, without investing in the communities and the people who have been doing this mahi for decades.”

The move also conflicted with the wishes of survivors of abuse in care and recommendations of the Abuse in Care Royal Commission, Carter said.

The Green Party wanted to see the plan ditched in favour of more funding for programmes that worked with young people in their communities. Boot camps were a failed experiment, she said.

“History has shown us – like in the royal commission of inquiry – that doesn’t work. What works is wrapping support around those kids and making sure we’re taking a holistic view of their lives.

“That’s where things like housing, poverty, having food on the table, education, vocational training, comes into it – where [there are] opportunities for them to participate fully in society.

A ministry evaluation of MSAs held in 2009 and 2010, and sent to Oranga Tamariki staff in March 2024, before the pilot programme, underscored many of the same criticisms found in the independent evaluation of last year’s pilot.

The earlier camps were found to have insufficient screening of staff and participants, lack of clarity around roles, inadequate information, training and resources, and required better engagement with whānau and a need to involve iwi services.

The evaluation of last year’s pilot noted “meaningful and positive change” for the young people, but named challenges like rushed implementation, challenging transitions, a lack of continuity around therapeutic support, a lack of capacity in the residential phase, the need to engage with mana whenua earlier and belated support for whānau.

It also found the pilot was too small to provide any meaningful data.

During the pilot, participants ran away, one was kicked out of the programme and another was killed in a three-vehicle crash. Seven of the 10 young men involved re-offended, according to Oranga Tamariki.

Critics said the government was recycling old failures, pushing ahead with an already failed model, but Oranga Tamariki said it had integrated lessons from the earlier programmes.

Groups, including Save the Children, the Law Society and the Children’s Commissioner, have urged the government to abandon the scheme.

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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 21-year-old man has been charged with murder, after the death of a man in the Auckland suburb of Mt Wellington on Friday.

The injured man turned up at a medical centre on Lunn Avenue with critical stabbing wounds.

He died in hospital. Police said he had earlier been involved in a fight.

One man faces murder and other charges, and will appear in court tomorrow.

Police are still looking for others they believe were involved.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Biosecurity New Zealand urges Aucklanders to be on the lookout for yellow-legged hornets or nests, as numbers of the pest keep climbing.

Thirty-three Queen Hornets have so far been found in the Glenfield and Birkdale areas of the North Shore – two more since Friday – 21 with developed nests or signs of nests.

Biosecurity NZ north commissioner Mike Inglis said the hornets had not spread yet from Glenfield and Birkdale.

Officials have put up signs within one kilometre of where the hornets were initially found, including in the suburb of Milford, alerting people to the invasive insect.

Inglis said that was just to raise awareness of the issue, rather than to signal the hornets had spread.

“All we are doing is continuing to engage the public, get some signage up.

“If you spot one, take a picture of it – if it’s a nest, take a picture of it. Don’t disturb it, contact our hotline and our expert staff will be out to deal with it.”

Inglis said teams had set more than 617 traps to eradicate the invasive insects, which were nearly twice the size of the common wasp and could wipe out bee colonies.

Trapping has already been extended out to 5km from the hornet detections, with a combination of carbohydrate and protein traps.

Inglis said staff would consult the technical advisory group overseeing the issue over extending further.

He said tracking technology from the Netherlands had arrived, which focused on worker hornets and tracked those hornets back to the nest.

There were signs of worker hornets operating and more were likely to appear over the next 4-6 weeks, he said.

“We’ll start to find some worker hornets as well, in terms of they’re going out and building a secondary nest, they go foraging generally within the same area.”

He said Biosecurity NZ had received more than 4860 messages from the public so far about the hornets.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Several new locations of interest in the spread of measles have been identified – including two central Auckland bars – and anybody who may have been exposed is asked to urgently contact Healthline.

There were no new cases of measles reported over the weekend, but Health New Zealand is concerned about several new locations, where people are considered close contacts and are at higher risk of infection.

The new locations include two bars on Karangahape Road in central Auckland and several Queenstown retail outlets:

• BP Connect Richmond, Queen Street, Nelson: 16 November, 1.15-2.15pm
• Eagle Bar, Karangahape Road, Auckland: 29 November, Midnight-2.30am
• G.A.Y Club, Karangahape Road, Auckland:  29 November, 1.15-2.45am
• Eagle Bar, Karangahape Road, Auckland: 30 November, 1.45-3.55am
• G.A.Y Club, Karangahape Road, Auckland: 30 November, 2.45-4.25am
• Hikari Teppanyaki, Grant Road, Frankton: 1 December, 6-8.45pm
• Dunedin Public Hospital, Emergency Department: 2 December, 1-2.30pm
• OPSM, Grant Road, Frankton: 2 December, 2.10-3.40pm
• Chemist Warehouse, Queenstown: 2 December, 7.50-9pm
• Carters, Glenda Drive, Queenstown: 2 December, 2.45-4.15pm
• The Ballarat, Queenstown: 2 December, 8.05-10.30pm

Health NZ said anybody who was at those locations on the days and times listed must call Healthline urgently on 0800 611 116.

“You could be at risk of developing measles and spreading it to others.

“Attendees at those locations or events that occurred on or before 30 November could be at risk of spreading measles to others from today, so these people also need to stay at home and avoid seeing others, until they’ve phoned Healthline and received advice.”

Thirty cases of measles have now been reported in New Zealand in recent weeks, including 11 in Auckland and eight in Wellington.

Vigilance encouraged ahead of the holiday season

Health NZ said with retailers, events, travel providers and airports all identified as recent locations where people could have been exposed to measles, it continued to urge everyone – especially people travelling or attending busy public places or large events – to protect themselves and others as we head into the busy holiday season.

It encouraged anyone with overseas travel plans over the holiday period to check their immunisation status and to catch up on any missed MMR vaccination as soon as possible before leaving New Zealand. 

“Measles can have a long incubation period and is highly contagious, so anyone planning to travel, either internationally or within New Zealand, is strongly encouraged to check their immunisation status and get vaccinated if needed.”

Public health specialist Dr Matt Reid said, in the 50 days since 18 October – the first case of this outbreak – 60,808 MMR doses had been delivered, compared to 22,000 in the 50 days before the outbreak.

“Immunisation is the best protection against measles,” Dr Reid said.

“The more people who are immune to measles, the better, as high community immunisation coverage protects those people in our whānau who can’t be immunised – babies under 12 months of age, people who are pregnant or people who are immunocompromised.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

One person has been injured in a housefire just north of Picton, near Waikawa.

The fire was reported just after 1pm Sunday.

Fire and Emergency said the fire was contained to the top floor of the two-storey house.

The fire was extinguished later in the afternoon, with one appliance kept on site to dampen any hot spots.

A FENZ spokesperson said they understood one person was injured.

FENZ also attended a fire in a paddock and along a hedge-line in Broomfield, near Amberley.

The fire was understood to be a burn-off that got out of control.

A FENZ spokesperson said the fire was reported just before 3pm Sunday.

Two helicopters and crews from six stations attended to get on top of the fire fast, given the hot windy conditions in the area.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Two people have been hospitalised, after a crash at the New Zealand Jetsprint Championship in Wairarapa.

The NZ Jetsprint Association confirmed the crash happened during the opening round in Featherston on Sunday morning.

The event was being held at Tauherenikau Racecourse.

Wellington Free Ambulance said two patients were transported to Wairarapa Hospital in a moderate condition, after the incident in the Tauwharenīkau River on Sunday morning.

Police said they received reports of a crash at the river, near Tauherenikau Racecourse Road, at about 10.45am Sunday.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Former Kiingitanga spokesperson Ngira Simmonds challenged Te Pāti Māori’s leadership, questioning whether they were the right people to unite the party.

He referenced Parliament as the house of lions, but queried who the real lion was, attacking certain members of the party.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi reminded those listening that there was only one enemy – the government.

The pōwhiri at Waiatuhi marae in Rotorua concluded and a slimmed-down version of Te Pāti Māori’s AGM had about 200 people in attendance on Sunday.

On Friday evening, an email was sent to members highlighting the high court ruling temporarily re-instating Mariameno Kapa-Kingi as a party member and stating how it would impact the AGM.

The email said, to uphold the court ruling, the AGM would be limited to receiving reports from the leadership and electorates. It said no other matters would be addressed or resolved, including any resolutions or motions outside of the reports.

The closed-door AGM comes after months of turmoil that led to the expulsion of two of their six MPs – Tākuta Ferris and Kapa-Kingi – the latter of whom attended, following the court ruling.

During the pōwhiri, many speakers addressed the issue of disunity within the party and spoke of the need to stop biting each other’s backs – “ngau tuara”.

Simmonds said he stood up to speak because of the depth of his sadness and frustration, as well as the depth of support the late Māori king had for Te Pāti Māori.

In te reo Māori, he spoke of the pain the membership felt, along with te ao Māori more widely, at the turmoil that had taken place this year.

He spoke of Kiingi Tuheitia’s call for kotahitanga (unity) in 2024 and the way meetings were then held around the country, and the call was picked up by Te Arikinui Nga wai hono i te po.

Simmonds said he travelled to Parliament recently and spoke to the six MPs, and the party president and found the party wasn’t of one mind.

He asked who should unite the party now.

Simmonds referenced the saying that Parliament was the house of lions – “ko taua whare te whare o ngā raiona” – but said, if they were being honest with themselves, the question was who the lion was that had “ngau” (bit or attacked) Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, Tākuta Ferris and Oriini Kaipara.

He said the truth was the party was attacking them, but as he made the comments, he acknowledged he was staunchly still in support of Te Pāti Māori.

Simmonds said everyone was responsible for what had taken place – there was no single person at fault.

He challenged party president John Tamihere, and the party co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, asking if they were the right people to unite the party and the people.

Simmonds said he had huge belief and support in the co-leaders, but the people were hurting and the party was hurting too.

He questioned who determined there were now only four Te Pāti Māori MPs and challenged the news that Tāmaki Makaurau had supported the decision.

Simmonds, who has been supporting the newest Te Pāti Māori MP, said she never agreed to expel party members, despite her Tāmaki Makaurau electorate voting in favour of the motion.

His final comments addressed how the pōtiki (the youngest) had been the leader through all this and acknowledged Hana-Rawhitit Maipi Clarke.

He said many people had voted for Te Pāti Māori and the support was available to them, but they felt the supporters weren’t being heard.

There was one pathway forward. He called for the party to hold meetings around the country and hear from its constituents.

He finished by echoing Kiingi Tuheitia’s final declarations around kotahitanga and mana motuhake.

Kaipara then rose to start his waiata tauotoko, Purea Nei, where Kapa-Kingi stood too, along with Naida Glavish, Selwyn Parata, Potaka Maipi (Maipi-Clarke’s father) and John Tamihere.

Waititi responds

Co-leader Rawiri Waititi was the final speaker and he began by acknowledging Te Arawa for hosting the event.

He then referenced the AGM during 2024, where only 20 people arrived, but this year, now there were issues, everyone came along, he said.

He said he heard the comments that had been made during the pōwhiri. He asked how they might all soften their hearts.

He agreed with Simmonds, acknowledging that it wasn’t only six MPs paddling the waka – everyone must help by picking up a paddle.

He acknowledged the pain te ao Māori were feeling, particularly in terms of the cost of living or homelessness, and yet here the members were biting at each other – “e ngaungau nei i a tatou”.

He said the focus must be turned to the correct enemy, which wasn’t each other, but the government.

He called for people to stop taking their gripes to social media and was frustrated that people wrote on Facebook, but didn’t speak to them face-to-face.

This meeting was called for the people, not for the six MPs to debate each other. It was for the people to decide, he said.

The load was heavy for the six MPs at Parliament, then they returned to their people, and they were attacked by Māori and Pākehā alike.

He said it was a “double whammy” – the government was attacking the party and Māori were attacking the party.

His comments weren’t to disparage or criticise Māori, but to awaken them.

The media and the courts weren’t going to resolve this – they had to resolve it themselves, he said.

He called for supporters to be strong and to look ahead to the future through working together. He concluded by acknowledging those who had passed in the various electorates.

Party leadership was expected to address the media at the end of the AGM.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says he had “absolutely no idea” about allegations staff were instructed to redirect emails about Jevon McSkimming from the Minister of Police’s office.

On Wednesday, RNZ revealed Coster had resigned as chief executive of the Social Investment Agency, after the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s damning report into police’s response to allegations of sexual offending by former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.

Coster has not responded to several interview requests from RNZ.

In an interview with TVNZ’s Q+A on Sunday, Coster was asked about comments made by Police Minister Mark Mitchell, who earlier said 36 emails containing allegations about McSkimming were sent to his office, but he never saw them.

A protocol had been put in place for police staff in Mitchell’s ministerial office to forward the emails directly to then-Commissioner Andrew Coster’s office, and not share them with Mitchell or his political staff, he said.

On Sunday, Coster said the first he heard of the allegation was after the IPCA report was released.

“I had absolutely no knowledge of that whatsoever. I can’t validate whether that was, in fact, a protocol that was in place, but what I can say is there’s no way in the world that agency employed staff in a minister’s office are able to prevent the minister or the minister’s staff from seeing email coming in on the minister’s email address.

“The role of the agency staff is to have emails given to them by the minister’s own staff to prepare responses for the minister through the agency, there’s just, there’s just no way that police staff in Minister’s office could, could somehow intercept.”

Coster said he had seen a file note that was prepared by police in recent weeks, which said there was a conversation between the head of ministerial services – who is not in the minister’s office – and the director of Coster’s office about emails that came through in late 2023 and early 2024.

“It was ‘there are these emails. What do I do with them?’… the file note says the direction was send them through to Deputy Commissioner Tania Kura, who was overseeing the process.”

Coster did not know why the “retrospective note” was created.

“I imagine there will have been some concern across more than one Minister’s office about … where did all these emails go, and who saw them and and I assume that this paperwork was created in response to those conversations.”

On Sunday, chief operating officer Andrea Conlan said police could confirm a handwritten file note was made at the time of a discussion with the director of the office of the former commissioner on 17 January, 2024, regarding the processing of emails to the minister’s office.

The manager of Ministerial Services was asked to speak with the minister’s office staff on 11 November, 2025, to outline how the emails sent to the office were handled.

“The handwritten file note was typed up by the manager after that conversation (and some detail added from memory). This was to make a digital record in parallel with the email the manager was asked to provide the minister’s office confirming the earlier conversation (and the process followed) in writing.

“Nobody asked for the file note to be prepared, but a confirmation email was requested by the minister’s office following the conversation on the morning of 11 November.

“Following the 17 January, 2024 conversation, at the request of the director of the office of the (former) commissioner, the manager of Ministerial Services provided hard copies of the emails to the (former) commissioner’s office.”

The manager also spoke to the staff member in the minister’s office to convey the director’s instruction.

“This was not included in the file note, but these actions corroborate what was documented in the manager’s original handwritten file note.”

Mitchell had previously also defended the police staff in his ministerial office, saying they were put in an “awful situation” by the protocol, which he was unaware of.

Coster fronts

On Wednesday, RNZ revealed Coster had resigned as Social Investment Agency chief executive, after the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s (IPCA) damning report into police response to allegations of sexual offending by McSkimming.

Coster has not responded to several interview requests from RNZ. In a statement on Wednesday, he said his resignation was “a result of my acceptance of full responsibility for the shortcomings” identified in the IPCA’s report.

In an interview with TVNZ’s Q+A on Sunday, Coster said there were ministers who knew more than they admitted.

He said he briefed the then-Minister of Police Chris Hipkins in 2022, as he felt it was important Hipkins knew what he knew.

Coster said he told Hipkins that McSkimming told him he had an affair with a “much younger woman” and that the relationship “soured badly”, and she was now emailing “all sorts of people with allegations about him”.

He said the briefing was in the back of a car, while the two men were travelling in the South Island. He said he was unable to prove the conversation occurred.

“It’s simply my account.”

He said a big reflection for him was to take better notes, adding he wrongly assumed people would not “run for the hills”.

He also disputed that Mitchell was not aware of the allegations before November last year.

“There is no way I was only just telling him about this in my last couple of weeks in the job,” he said. “We had discussed this informally through 2024.”

He did not have the exact date, but said it was an “informal conversation” in the same terms as his conversation with Hipkins.

Asked why Hipkins and Mitchell would deny that, he said: “You would have to ask them. All I can say is no-one wants to be close to this.”

Coster said he was not saying others acted inappropriately, but that they knew more than they have admitted.

“There doesn’t appear to have been a full disclosure of the conversations.”

Asked why he should be trusted, Coster replied: “I acted honestly, I acted in good faith. My judgements were wrong, and I accept that.”

Politicians reject Coster’s claims

Responding to Coster’s allegations, Mitchell said it was “disappointing that, following his resignation, that came with an apology to police less than a week ago, Coster is trying to deflect and relitigate matters”.

“I firmly stand by all my statements and facts presented in relation to the IPCA report. Coster’s recollections are wrong.

“I want to make very clear that Coster never briefed me, either formally or informally, about Jevon McSkimming and [the woman had had an affair with] prior to 6 November, 2024. I would note his recollections of disclosures in the IPCA report were often found to be inconsistent and unreliable.

“If Coster’s focus is on relitigating matters, there are legal resources available to him and, if he truly believes what he is saying, nothing prevents him pursuing those.”

Mitchell said that, as a government, the focus was on “implementing the recommendations of the IPCA report to ensure this cannot happen again”.

Hipkins also denied Coster’s allegations.

“I was never briefed on Jevon McSkimming’s relationship with [the woman] during my time as minister of police or prime minister. Had I known what has now been detailed in the IPCA report, Jevon McSkimming would never have been appointed to the role.”

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