Category: Radio New Zealand

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Hantavirus ‘contact’ case quarantined in Pitcairn after transit in Tahiti

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hantavirus is typically spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings. AFP

A hantavirus “contact” case has been quarantined in Pitcairn after a short transit in Tahiti over the weekend, French Polynesia’s local government says.

Arriving from San Francisco, the passenger, described as a US citizen, had briefly transited in Tahiti and Mangareva on 7 May 2026 (local time) “without neither local authorities nor the French State being informed”.

When local authorities became aware of the situation, French Polynesia’s government said they held an emergency meeting.

“The person concerned does not present any (hantavirus) symptom and is presently isolated in quarantine in Pitcairn,” the government said in a statement on Monday.

“She will not leave Pitcairn Island to transit via French Polynesia as long as she presents a potential risk to others.”

The statement said the government would continue to closely monitor the situation over the next five days regarding the evolution of the person’s condition.

  • What exactly is the hantavirus outbreak and how worried should we be?

    • Meanwhile, French Polynesia and France stand “ready to support Pitcairn in the coming days, should the need arise”.

    Pitcairn Island, located East of French Polynesia, is a British Overseas Territory in the Pacific, with an estimated population of less than 50.

    Most residents are descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers who settled there in 1790.

    Returning from a cruise that started on the southernmost tip of South America [Ushuaia (Argentina) to Cape Verde], the passengers were transferred by boat to the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on 10 May.

    Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers (who left the cruise ship MV Hondius before the outbreak was declared) have been confirmed to have been infected with hantavirus.

    One of five French people flown back to France is showing symptoms of hantavirus, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Monday.

    The infected case has since developed symptoms that later required intensive care, but have since stabilised.

    “One of them showed symptoms in the repatriation plane,” Lecornu posted on X.

    “These five passengers have immediately been placed in strict isolation until further notice …They are getting medical treatment and will undergo tests and a medical check-up.”

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended that people evacuated from the cruise ship should quarantine for at least 42 days either at home or in hospital and undergo daily health checks.

    WHO said the actual quarantine process is being managed by each individual country.

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

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Truckometer data points to rising fuel costs keeping more drivers off the road

Source: Radio New Zealand

The ANZ Truckometer shows the heavy traffic index – a real-time measure of economic activity. RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

The rising cost of fuel appears to keeping more drivers off the road, with light traffic down 1.7 percent last month, though still up on the year earlier by 2.4 percent.

The latest ANZ Truckometer shows the heavy traffic index – a real-time measure of economic activity – was holding up a bit better with a drop of 1.2 percent in April over March, but was still trending higher with a 2.6 percent year-on-year rise.

ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said the light traffic index tends to be a predictor of economic activity six months ahead, though the fuel crisis had created some uncertainty about the outlook.

“Higher fuel prices is bad for activity more generally. It’s not just about driving less, it’s about people shopping less as well,” she said.

“We can certainly see that in our card spending pack, and we’ve also seen a sharp drop in business and consumer confidence. So it’s obviously going to reduce driving, but it’s reducing broader economic activity as well,” she said.

Zollner said the heavy traffic was still holding up quite well, with support from the agriculture, construction and manufacturing sectors.

However, she said the activity could be a sign of some stockpiling of critical goods, as businesses may be concerned about the potential for supply chain disruptions, as seen during the Covid pandemic.

“There’s a lot of talk about how this isn’t just fuel, it’s plastics and other chemical inputs as well.

“So maybe there’s a bit of front loading going on, but the anecdote would certainly suggest that the economy is taking quite a hit in terms of activity. So it wouldn’t be surprising to see that start to turn-up in the heavy data. But for now, it’s holding up.”

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Police seek identity of man after Taupō crash left pedestrian injured

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are asking for help identifying the person riding the dirt bike. Supplied / NZ Police

Police want the public’s help identifying the rider of a dirt bike after a crash in Taupō that left a person badly hurt.

A pedestrian was taken to hospital with serious injuries after a crash with a vehicle on Taharepa Road on Monday.

Police have released photos of a man in a blue hoodie and black pants riding a blue dirt bike.

They are asking anyone who knows him, or has information about the crash, to contact Police 105 or call Crime Stoppers.

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Grace Millane-inspired play to tour NZ schools

Source: Radio New Zealand

British writer Julia Grogan penned her first play, based on the “deeply upsetting” Grace Millane case, on the Notes app on her phone in between bar shifts.

Grogan, then in her 20s, was an out of work actor, feeling lost and confused when she read about the tragic case of backpacker Millane, who was murdered by a man she met on Tinder in Auckland in 2018.

“Her story, I read about it at a time where I was feeling quite lost and confused about what I wanted to do … with my life,” Grogan told RNZ’s Saturday Morning.

This video is hosted on Youtube.

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Will Richie Mo’unga tour South Africa?

Source: Radio New Zealand

Richie Mo’unga has been playing in Japan since the 2023 World Cup. photosport

Will Richie Mo’unga tour South Africa? It’s the question every All Black fan has been asking, and we now have an answer.

Richie Mo’unga will not be included in the first All Blacks squad of the year, and most likely will not travel to South Africa for the historic tour.

Dave Rennie was making no secret of his desire to have the rules reassessed, but had conceded Mo’unga’s selection for the tour.

“He’s not available to come to Africa and he’ll play NPC. My thinking would have been we wouldn’t have used him in July, but Richie would be in the group getting his head around how we’re going to play the game, then include him in the squad to Africa and probably play him against the Stormers first game and let him earn the right to fight for a test spot. But you know, obviously the criteria means he can’t do that.

Rennie threw a spanner in the works at his very first press conference, declaring his hope to get Brodie Retallick back in black.

But neither Retallick nor Mo’unga would feature in the republic.

“We’re still hoping to get him (Mo’unga) in so he can get his head around things and you know maybe if there are injuries there’s an option to bring him in but he’s got his head around it, he’s prepared to go play the NPC. We’ve accepted that situation and understand New Zealand Rugby’s mindset around it, So we’ll just get on with it now.”

Though Rennie had accepted NZ Rugby’s stand on Mo’unga, had Retallick made himself available, Rennie may have fought for an exemption.

“Brodie is unavailable to do a lot of long distance travel. He wasn’t excited about six weeks in Africa. I think even Razor had had that conversation with him 12 months ago, we’ve got 150 odd days in hotels this year, so that wouldn’t excite the big man.

“But I guess we’ll continue to have discussions around whether there’ll be any versatility or flexibility around a guy like Brodie who played 12 years of test rugby, 12 years of super rugby. He’s made a massive contribution to the rugby here and I reckon he’s earned the right if he was available, if the system allowed and if he was playing good enough to potentially be available next year.”

After putting the incumbents on notice by stating he would be picking on form and not loyalty, Rennie said his squad was not far from completion.

“There’s a number of guys who we’ll definitely pick, assuming they’re injury-free. But the next few weeks will decide the fate of some guys.

“This is where you want to see it guys who can function under pressure.”

Rennie said there would not be wholesale personnel changes to the 2025 squad.

“I’m not sure about big changes. There’s been a lot of players used over the last few years and so I think the game we want to play, the players are here within the country.”

As for the issue of losing those players in their prime to offshore contracts, Rennie understood the realities of modern rugby.

“It’s tough. I mean, it’s going to happen. There’s massive money out there in Japan and in Europe. And so guys are going to make decisions based on what’s best for them and their family. And you’ve got to respect that.

“Our job’s obviously to try and communicate well with them. Let them know that there’s a pathway here. But guys will still go. I think just the fact that in the old days, guys weren’t at the end of their career. And now there’s maybe there’s a little less patience and an opportunity for guys to go away early and maybe some think they can come back in time. So ideally we want everyone to stay here but it’s unrealistic to think that’ll happen.”

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

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Auckland charity Painga Project aims to boost children’s eye care

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tamariki receiving eye exams onboard Celia Painga Project

An Auckland charity is aiming to address what it calls a significant and ongoing gap in eye care for children.

The Painga Project aims to put 7000 pairs of glasses on the faces of children in high equity index schools each year, through its purpose-built mobile optometry clinic, a mini-bus called Celia.

Celia is named after social justice advocate Celia Lashlie.

Painga Project chief executive Sarah Corson told Morning Report often children don’t realise they have any vision issues until they put on a pair of glasses.

“They don’t know that they can’t see because as children, that’s all they’ve known.

“They just think that’s how vision is. So it comes as quite a shock to them when they put on a pair of trial lenses or get their glasses and realise that this is how the world looks.”

Painga Project has screened more than 18,000 children in the past four years across high equity index primary and intermediate schools, with a quarter of those requiring a full optometry

assessment, of those children, around 80 percent go on to need glasses.

Celia, the mobile vision clinic Painga Project

The project’s pilot also showed that 17 percent of pre-school children screened were requiring a full optometry assessment.

Corson said teachers notice the change in the students’ attitudes once their vision issues have been.

“They’re often astounded because they’ve never picked up that a child can’t actually see that well, and sometimes they’re a bit embarrassed.

“They can fully engage in their education, so they’re more settled, and especially the younger you are.

“If you’re trying to put glasses on middle aged children, they’re a bit reluctant, because they’ve learned to cope. But, seeing the look on a five-year-old’s face when they start to do their learning in class and can settle, it’s amazing.”

Celia has so far been funded through donations from organisations such as the Ted Manson Foundation, however it will need additional funding to continue.

“This is where the real impact sits. We have built the model, proven the need, and now we need partners to help us scale this so more tamariki across Aotearoa can access the care they need,” Corson said.

Celia the optometry bus cost $500,000 including the equipment and fit out. However, the aim now is to secure the $700,000 per year it costs to operate the service.

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People attacked, one critically injured, after being lured on dating app in Southland

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ / Angus Dreaver

Two people have been injured, one critically, after being attacked in a public park by people they met on dating apps in Invercargill.

Southland acting Inspector Mel Robertson said a person was in critical care after being attacked on 8 May, while another sustained serious injuries in an attack in the Queen’s Park area on 10 May.

“In both incidents reported to police, it appears people are using these apps to lure people to secluded locations late at night with the intention to attack them,” she said.

“Not only are they taking advantage of people’s trust but they are planning these attacks with the intention to seriously injure these people.

“We urge anybody who is planning to meet someone from a dating app to choose a location which is public, or well-lit at night, as well as letting someone trusted know your plans and movements.”

Police were keen to hear from anyone who had information about the assaults or anyone who was in the Queens Park area between 6pm and 4am from Friday 8 May to Sunday 10 May.

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NZ, Australian businesses report higher costs, more risks due to Middle East conflict

Source: Radio New Zealand

Nearly half of New Zealand respondents reported shipping disruption. Alex Cairns

Businesses on both sides of the Tasman are reporting widespread economic damage caused by the Middle East conflict.

A survey of nearly 700 members by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) indicates 80 percent of businesses were seeing increased costs with 60 percent reporting heightened risk and uncertainty in decision-making.

“This is not a distant crisis. It is landing on Australian and New Zealand businesses right now, and our members are seeing it firsthand across every sector of the economy. CA ANZ represents 140,000 finance professionals. What they are telling us matters, and government needs to listen,” CA ANZ chief executive Officer Ainslie van Onselen said.

“The findings reflected a defining economic challenge for both countries.”

The survey of chartered accountants included finance leaders across industries with broad visibility, including manufacturing, retail, agriculture, logistics and healthcare in New Zealand and Australia.

About one-in-five businesses indicate they would raise prices, with New Zealand at 24 percent and Australia at 17 percent.

About 6-in-10 reported their organisation was directly exposed to the conflict’s economic effects, with greater impact in New Zealand (68 percent) than Australia (55 percent). A further 21 per cent said it was too early to assess the full impact.

Of those exposed, higher energy costs were the most common concern (77 percent), followed by supply chain disruption (46 percent), higher production costs (40 percent), shipping and freight delays (40 percent) and exchange rate volatility (36 percent).

New Zealand businesses were more exposed to shipping disruption, with 48 percent reporting freight delays compared to 32 percent in Australia.

CA ANZ chief economist professor Richard Holden said the pain was unlikely to be short-lived.

“Higher energy prices don’t just hit at the bowser, they push up the cost of food, freight, manufacturing, meaning everything increases in price. Businesses and households are already under pressure. This makes it worse.”

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Do we need to invest more into health planning?

Source: Radio New Zealand

Health planning looked at gaps between services. (File photo) RNZ

Health planning helps the medical system figure out what needs were most important to New Zealanders, but ongoing budget constraints were proving challenging, a doctor says.

Good health data was key to protecting the health and safety of the community, Dr Gary Jackson from Health New Zealand’s population health team told Nine to Noon, but more investment was needed.

The population health team was made up of public health doctors, analysts, demographers and advisors and Jackson said evidence from health data could be powerful when used well.

The health system collected a lot of data, he said, and helped think about the gap between services that were being provided and services that could be provided and trying to plan around that.

He said there were always tight budgets and it was “quite a trick” to work on how you could get into the prevention space of diseases.

The data the team looked at was collected from all over the health system, he said including from patients at hospitals and laboratory test results. The data was anonymous, he said, but had an identifier so data sets could be linked together.

“[We’re] trying to paint a picture for the country about what is the most important needs, where should we be putting our efforts the most.”

Jackson said there were always a number of areas that were trying to be improved and the whole system was “running very tight”.

“[The] actual money that New Zealand public has invested in the public health system has been flat since 2010… The health system is constantly trying to live within its means while we’re still getting new technologies, new medications… life expectancy has kept increasing in that time.”

It was a “constant battle” to keep money, Jackson said, while the national public health service was protected, some of the more clinical pathways seemed to have that constant battle.

He said health planning had been “very successful” in treating people and keeping people alive, but it did create extra demand on the health system.

“If those people died they wouldn’t be using health services, so the success of the system is a success that adds to the burden.”

Jackson said there had been good evidence of impact prevention programs both with type two diabetes and weight management, along with looking at the standardised intervention rates across the country.

“We got some good data to show some of these specialist services are actually quite well spread across the country.”

But the biggest funding constraint was around data and digital, Jackson said, and he wanted to see more investment in that.

He was also worried the data was not being collected around the communities, housing and incomes of people with less means who were more likely to need health services.

Some people were avoiding health services, Jackson said, which made it hard to track.

He said the easiest way to save the health system money was by people maintaining a healthy weight, exercise and not smoking.

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Tourism operators worry trans-Tasman flight cuts to impact last-minute bookings

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ / Nate McKinnon

Cuts to trans-Tasman flights due to higher fuel costs have tourism operators worried on the impact it will have on last-minute bookings.

Last month, Qantas said it would cut domestic flights as it flagged as much as NZ$966m in extra fuel costs.

It said it had reduced domestic capacity by about 5 percentage points in the fourth quarter.

In March, Jetstar said it would axe a number of flights – including some international between Auckland and Sydney and Auckland and Brisbane.

Regional Tourism New Zealand chair Andrew Wilson told Nine to Noon the impact hadn’t been felt yet, but feared it would implications on customers after late bookings.

“The frequency of service and the ability for people to be able to book probably last minute or to try and find something that meets a really specific kind of time frame,” he said.

“If people have got a narrow window to travel, that’s really the biggest worry around it.”

Wilson said there was still plenty of uncertainty in the industry over how long the impacts would be felt.

He said airlines would be cognizant in terms of wanting to make sure that it maintained services across the Tasman and into the long-haul markets.

“We’re pretty optimistic that the work we’ve done over the last couple of years to really kind of boost international arrivals, and in particular Australian arrivals, puts us in a good position,” Wilson said.

“I think demand for travelling to New Zealand is still really strong, but we certainly can’t afford to take our foot off the gas in terms of making sure that international visitors know just how incredible our country is.”

Wilson said consumer confidence had taken a dip in Australia, but he was encouraged by the number of arrivals to New Zealand.

He said while tourism operators in Queenstown and Christchurch would be nervous heading into the winter season, he was optimistic there was capacity for flights.

“I’m fairly confident there’ll still be sufficient capacity on those routes to get plenty of Australian skiers across the Tasman when we kind of head into the winter season,” Wilson said.

“We’ll all be looking out for that first good dump of snow down south, and I’m sure that’ll drive pretty significant kind of bookings at that point.”

Wilson still expected a slightly quieter winter season than usual.

The airlines wouldn’t want to be an airline operator at the moment in terms of balancing pricing and fuel costs with demand, he said.

“I think they’re doing a really good job in terms of trying to match enough flight services to meet the demand that’s there,” Wilson said.

“I think when we look forward through winter, we’re all feeling pretty comfortable in terms of there will be enough capacity on those routes.”

He said it was really the uncertainty of beyond the next summer season, where fuel prices would sit, and what that would mean for the tourism industry.

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