Source: Radio New Zealand
If you’re at the beach and a child gets in trouble in the water or someone collapses near you, would you freeze or would you know exactly what to do?
St John’s Three Steps for Life delivery lead Mia Noyes shares life-saving actions for when the unexpected happens — from allergic reactions and cardiac arrest to choking and drowning.
A person can have an allergic reaction from various things like food, medication, venom or chemicals.
St John’s Three Steps for Life delivery lead Mia Noyes.
RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
What to look for: Swelling, a rash, nausea, dizziness, diarrhoea, or trouble breathing.
Help them to take their allergy medication – if they have one. If they don’t improve, use an EpiPen (or you can administer it for them) and call 111 for an ambulance. Or if you are unsure, call the 0800 Healthline.
If you get a bee sting, first remove the stinger with tweezers, your fingernails or scrape over it using a plastic card from your wallet.
RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
How to use an EpiPen: Pull off the safety release at the top. Stab the pen into the thigh for three seconds then remove and set aside.
ProCare clinical director Allan Moffitt says the two conditions differ – heat exhaustion is dehydration through excessive sweating, while heat stroke is overheating. Both can lead to unconsciousness and cardiac arrest if untreated.
What to look for: Sweating, agitation, feeling thirsty and dehydrated.
What to do: If someone’s overheating, move them to a shaded spot, loosen or remove clothing on their chest, fan them, and get them water. Dr Moffitt warns against ice baths as they trap heat in the skin. Instead, wipe them down with a wet towel and let the water evaporate off the skin.
ProCare clinical director Allan Moffitt.
Supplied / Gino Demeer
For heat exhaustion, Dr Moffitt recommends drinking electrolytes because the body absorbs them quicker than water.
If they become unconscious, call an ambulance.
A cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating.
A person having a cardiac arrest will:
What to do: Call an ambulance. The call handler will guide you. If they confirm it’s a cardiac arrest, they’ll ask you to start CPR.
Place your hands in the centre of the chest (one over the other and lining your wrist with their nose), keep arms straight, and push hard and fast — 30 compressions. If you are comfortable doing rescue breaths, blow two mouth-to-mouth breaths while pinching their nose after every 30 pushes.
RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
Dr Moffitt says the chances of CPR success increases with a defibrillator. The AED Locations app locates the nearest Automatic External Defibrillator to your current location.
Defibrillators contain instructions and sometimes come with a speaker that communicate the steps for you.
For infants: If a baby becomes unresponsive and stops breathing normally, call 111.
Lay them flat on a firm surface, clear the airway if possible with your pinky finger, and check for breathing. If there’s one breath or none in 10 seconds, use your thumbs in the centre of their chest to do 30 compressions, followed by two gentle breaths (covering their nose and mouth with yours). Then repeat.
RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
Surf Life Saving coastal safety manager Tom Kearney says it’s crucial to swim between the red and yellow flags at patrolled beaches.
If you see someone in trouble, call 111 and ask for police. They’ll connect with lifeguards and Coastguard right away.
If you can, throw or get a flotation device to the person — a life jacket, chilly bin, rugby ball or one of the public rescue tubes at beaches. You need a floatation device for you and the person in trouble.
“If you can’t swim, obviously don’t get in the water with that bit of equipment,” Kearney says.
“Attach the equipment to yourself, swim out to that patient, create some space between you and that patient, and make sure you’re putting that flotation in between you and the patient. Make sure they hold on to the flotation, calm them down, and then essentially wait until further help arrives.”
Surf Life Saving has been installing Public Rescue Equipment at surf clubs all over the country in time for summer.
Supplied / Surf Life Saving
Trying to pull someone back to shore instead of waiting can put you both in danger, he says.
Once the person’s back on shore, check if they’re responsive. If emergency services haven’t arrived and the patient is not breathing normally, roll them briefly onto their side to let water drain, then start CPR. Keep going until help arrives.
Check if someone is choking by asking. If they are, they won’t be able to respond by voice or cough. Call 111 for an ambulance.
What to do: Start with five firm back blows between the shoulder blades. If that doesn’t work, do five chest thrusts: wrap your arms around them from behind, make a fist in the middle of their chest, and pull sharply inwards. Alternate between the two until the blockage clears.
RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
If the person is taller than you, ask them to lean over a chair so you can deliver the blows.
If the person becomes unresponsive, start CPR.
For babies, call an ambulance immediately. If the baby is limp or not breathing, support their head, turn them over and give five back blows between the should blades using the bottom of your palm.
Check after each one. If nothing comes out, turn them face up and give five chest thrusts using your thumbs in the middle of the chest. Keep alternating until the object comes out — or start CPR if they go unresponsive.
Dr Moffitt says significant injuries on the beach – say from a stingray barb – may require a clinic visit, if you can’t control the bleeding. (Also see St John’s guide on insect and jellyfish bites.)
But if it’s a minor shell cut, for example, wash out the sand using soapy water or an antiseptic solution then dry and cover the wound. If infection is a worry, use an antiseptic cream, he says.
“Keeping it covered makes it heal quicker, and it stops bugs from getting into it or dirt.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: Radio New Zealand
File photo. 123RF
Credit card reward schemes are predicted to continue to become less generous, as the Commerce Commission clamps down on card fees.
Since 1 December, domestic Visa and Mastercard payments have been subject to new caps on interchange fees, which are paid to the card issuer for each credit or debit card transaction processed. Caps for foreign-issued cards come in next May.
It is the second stage of changes to the rules for these fees. The first step, in 2022, led to a reduction in credit card rewards schemes and this latest move is already having similar effects.
BNZ said it had reviewed its credit card rewards programme to ensure it was sustainable under the new interchange fee caps. Customers will have to collect more points to redeem rewards.
From 3 February, its cashback rate drops from $1.28 per 200 points to 94c.
Kiwibank also dropped its Airpoints partnership this year. It said increased costs and changes to the interchange fee regulations affected the value and viability of the reward programme.
“The alternative to closing the products would be to reduce the rate at which points are earned or to pass on increased costs through higher interest rates – options we believe are neither fair nor in customers’ best interests, as it would mean that customers who do not repay their balance in full every month would further subsidise rewards for those who do,” said Kiwibank’s chief customer officer of retail, Mark Stephen.
Claire Matthews, a banking expert at Massey University, said she expected more pressure to come on credit card rewards.
“The rewards have to be paid for from somewhere, and the interchange fees have been the primary source – to an extent, the rewards were a reimbursement of a portion of those fees to cardholders. If the fees are lower, the funds available to cover the cost of rewards will be lower, and therefore the rewards have to be reduced.”
David Cunningham, chief executive of Squirrel and former chief executive of The Co-Operative Bank, said the biggest problem with credit cards was that interest rates were still high and had not moved a lot compared to the OCR.
“Those who pay off their balance every month are subsidised by those who don’t. The best option is a low-rate card if you use it as a debt instrument, but those cards don’t have rewards.
“Having a low-rate card if you don’t pay off your balance, or a rewards card if you do pay off your balance, is the best option. Sometimes you have both – one for each purpose.”
Consumer NZ said its analysis showed that credit card reward schemes were only benefiting big spenders who used their cards frequently and paid off the balance in full every month.
“People would generally need to spend $25,000 on their cards over two years, and not pay interest on it, to make a rewards scheme worth the fees that the cards charged.
“Low spenders, and those with interest-bearing debt, don’t benefit from rewards and are effectively subsidising high spenders. We don’t think this is fair, so we have supported the regulation of interchange, knowing this would likely result in card issuers scaling back rewards programmes, increasing card fees or cancelling schemes altogether,” a spokesperson said.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Australia beat England by eight wickets in the second Ashes test in Brisbane on day four on Sunday to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Australia, who won the series-opener in Perth by eight wickets, need only draw the next test in Adelaide to retain the urn.
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Joe Root and Ben Stokes DAVE HUNT
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Artist Jacqui Madelin is walking 12km a day to raise money for Project Island Song, a pest-free wildlife sanctuary spanning seven islands in the eastern Bay of Islands.
But there’s a twist, Madelin is completing each day’s walk, for the first 12 days in December, dressed head-to-toe in pieces from her extensive vintage wardrobe.
One outfit is an Edwardian swimming suit, she says.
Jacqui Madelin has been walking 12 kilometres every day to fundraise for Project Island Song, a charity working on pest eradication in the Bay of Islands.
Supplied
“It’s a navy blue, all-in-one with a sailor collar that goes down to the elbow, goes down to the knees and has a skirt to button over it.
“So you unbutton the skirt and dash into the sea before anyone sees your legs and then you come back out again and quickly button the skirt around your middle,” she told RNZ Nights.
While to top is vintage, she went for more practical options on her feet.
“I don’t normally walk that far so I figured it would be crazy to wear fancy shoes. My feet would expire on day one, so I have some hiking boots that are pretty elderly.
“They’re leather and I bought them on Trade Me for not very much but they’re very, very comfortable.
“So, from mid-calf upwards I’m extremely fancy and from mid-calf downwards it’s all practical.”
Another outfit getting an airing in her charity walk is a navy and pink suit from the 1940s that she had to do considerable remedial work on, she says.
“It was being sold with pieces of the skirt apparently and possibly for use only as a pattern so I thought, well, it didn’t cost much so I bought it and it had over 200 moth holes in it
“But other than that it was in really good condition so I just spent evening after evening after evening darning hole after hole after hole and when I finally finished I went into the fabric upcycle and I got the expert darning lady in there to see if she could spot all my darns and she spotted some from the first couple of days and after that I’d got better.”
Her cause is Project Island Song, a group of 267 volunteers working to clear seven offshore islands of pests
“They’ve cleared all of the introduced animal pests from seven of our offshore islands and are now working on the introduced plant pests and slowly they’re reintroducing species that are endangered elsewhere and some of them haven’t been seen in the Bay of Islands for over 100 years.”
Once a month volunteers visit the islands with pest detection dogs to make sure that no, rats or stoats have swum across, she says.
“I think it’s amazing, absolutely amazing what largely volunteer labour can do on the smell of an oily rag.”
Donations can be made on Project Island Song’s 12ks of Christmas on Givealittle page.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Folk-rock luminary Suzanne Vega, now 66, has just released her first album in eleven years, Flying with Angels.
New York has yet to recover from the Covid lockdowns, she tells RNZ’s Sunday Mornings.
Singer/songerwriter Suzanne Vega performs at RNZ’s Auckland studio, Tuesday 7th Auckland 2018
RNZ/Luke McPake
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Daniel Hillier. GIUSEPPE CACACE
Danish golfer Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson has claimed the Australian Open, winning by just one shot over home favourite Cam Smith.
Kiwi Daniel Hillier shared sixth place with rising Spanish golfer Jose Luis Ballester.
Neergaard-Peterson, 26, carded a final-round 70 to prevail in a tight finish at Royal Melbourne.
Smith was denied a maiden title with a bogey on the last hole, while Neergaard-Peterson sank an impressive up-and-down putt to secure victory.
Hillier came within touching distance of the leaders during his final found, sitting just two shots back on the 16th.
The Kiwi unleashed four birdies in his Sunday round and looked poised for a strong payday, but a double-bogey on the 18th proved costly.
He had started the day in sixth, four shots off the lead, and finished five back on 71.
New Zealand’s Ryan Fox was further down the leaderboard in 14th.
– RNZ
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Four patients were transferred to Gisborne Hospital. St John
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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Source: Radio New Zealand
The facility for the government’s military style academy pilot for youth offenders in Palmerston North. RNZ / Rachel Helyer-Donaldson
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.
Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter. VNP / Phil Smith
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.
Minister for Children Karen Chhour. VNP / Phil Smith
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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Source: Radio New Zealand
More yellow-legged hornets are being found in Auckland. Biosecurity NZ
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.
Biosecurity NZ north commissioner Mike Inglis. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
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.
The insect traps hanging from trees around some locations in Auckland. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
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
Police cordon off the scene on Harris Road, Mt Wellington, after launching a homicide investigation. RNZ / Felix Walton
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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