Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Bluebridge ferry passengers are feeling deflated and frustrated by ongoing disruption to sailings, with one ferry out of action and the other running four hours behind schedule.

Sailings on Connemara have been canned for the eighth day in a row due to a technical fault, which is causing issues for its remaining service, Livia.

• Have you been affected? Email mary.argue@rnz.co.nz

Connemara, which usually sails up to four times daily between Wellington and Picton, hasn’t been running since the fault was identified almost a week ago.

Sailings on the ship had also been cancelled for Saturday.

StraitNZ Bluebridge spokesperson, Will Dady apologised “unreservedly” for the disruption but didn’t elaborate on what the fault was, just that it was taking longer than anticipated to fix.

Maritime NZ confirmed it would undertake its own inspection of the vessel to ensure safety standards were being met, but did not provide a timeframe.

On Friday, Bluebridge issued an alert on its website informing passengers Livia was running four hours behind schedule due to re-accommodating Connemara passengers.

“All affected customers will be kept up to date with email and text notifications with revised sailing and final check in times,” it said.

Grace and John, who travel from the South to the North Island for work, said it wasn’t the first time they’d been caught up in a ferry cancellation or delay.

“Not only do we have to deal with increased fuel costs to drive up the South Island to the ferry, now we have to tolerate an appalling service from an essential transport network.”

They said they were booked on Friday’s 7.15pm Livia sailing and had just been told there was a four hour delay – it would now depart after 11pm.

In their opinion, “technical issues” was an insufficient explanation for the delays and cancellations.

“The New Zealand public deserves better.”

Another passenger, who was meant to be sailing on Connemara on Friday, said he was exhausted after spending a night trying to rebook on another service.

The man, who didn’t want to be named, said he was told late on Wednesday the crossing had been cancelled.

“The car was fully loaded, the cat was in the cattery and we were about to drive up from Dunedin to Picton. I feel like if they knew about this problem on Saturday why did they give us such little notice.”

He said the trip north to visit elderly parents came after a year of hard work saving up money and annual leave and the “last-minute contact” meant there was no time to recoup costs on pre-booked accommodation.

“I stayed up all night [on Wednesday] refreshing Bluebridge’s and Interislander’s websites and managed to book the Sunday night sailing and feel lucky to do so, but still feeling pretty deflated,” he said.

Dady said the company was doing everything it could to get the Connemara up and running again as soon as possible and that from time-to-time things went wrong “with large, complex ships sailing multiple times a day”.

“We are extremely aware [of] how disruptive this is for our customers, many of whom are long term and very loyal, and we apologise unreservedly to all of them.

“We want to reassure everyone that our team of engineers are working around the clock to return the ship to service.”

Maritime New Zealand said it was StraitNZ Bluebridge’s responsibility to repair Connemara.

“StraitNZ needs to work with the ship’s Classification Society (a non-government organisation that establishes and maintains technical standards) and flag state (Bahamas), to ensure the repairs are carried out and approved to their satisfaction.”

Following this, Maritime NZ would be informed and could either accept the approved fixes or make further enquiries, a spokesperson said.

Maritime NZ had also scheduled its own inspection of Connemara to confirm the operator was meeting safety standards.

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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 have not yet started investigating what technologies they might need to implement intelligence-gathering powers contained in a new bill that would give police new powers to move and detain.

They also said public consultation on the policing amendment bill would happen at the Justice select committee where it was sent after its first reading this week.

The bill delivered new powers to police to move or detain someone, but just how far it went would now be decided in select committee.

There was no public consultation on it until now, with a regulatory impact statement saying the time pressure had been to enact the changes as soon as possible after a Supreme Court ruling almost a year ago, “given the impact on daily policing activity”.

Two official inquiries and a Supreme Court ruling almost a year ago, challenged police’s understanding of how they could collect general intelligence and, the bill said, narrowed the law.

This came after police photographing people indiscriminately was ruled unlawful, and police storage of tens of thousands of images was exposed for the first time as so haphazard they still had not been able to locate them all.

Police missed a mid-2025 deadline to find a way to identify and delete all the photos.

Their updates to the Privacy Commissioner over several years showed that while they stopped the practice, and taking youths fingerprints unlawfully too, they failed to find or afford technology to destroy the pictures, or to flag them if they cropped up in a current investigation.

The tech gap was raised in the debate over the bill’s first reading this week by Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen.

A digital evidence management system had been presented as a solution, she said.

“We have a right to know how long those photographs or video recordings or sound recordings are being held for and where they are being stored,” Andersen said.

“It’s important to know that there is a system in place within police for this to be done responsibly, and it’s also important for us to know if this is funded, because we know… there’s been inadequate funding for the development and implementation of a digital evidence management system.

“Had they had that, police would have stored and identified photos and linked them to specific cases, which would have also meant [that] staff would have documented the lawful purpose for taking the photo.”

In mid-2024 a project to build such a system was put on hold for lack of money.

RNZ would seek an update from police.

Tim Anderson, Assistant police commissioner for iwi community and partnership said on Friday, “as this bill has only just begun going through the parliamentary process, police has not yet commenced work to [sic] investigating supporting technologies that may be required in preparation for implementation.”

Police began a push for a law change around general intelligence powers in 2022 soon after being taken to task in inquiries by the Privacy Commissioner and Independent Police Conduct Authority.

The government said the new bill sought to correct that and restore their powers but critics say it expands their powers without adequate safeguards.

The lack of consultation before the bill was introduced extended to Māori.

Police said on Friday they would continue to consider and give effect to their obligations to Māori and the Treaty “including ways in which any disproportionate impacts to Māori can be appropriately mitigated”.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Woolworths New Zealand has been fined $33,000 for failing to properly deal with a rat infestation at its South Dunedin supermarket.

The store was closed for almost three weeks in February 2024 to eliminate the pests with more than 20 rats caught and old nests found in the walls.

The company pleaded guilty in December last year to breaching the Food Act after a lengthy investigation by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

Judge David Robinson imposed the fine in the Dunedin District Court on Friday.

Woolworths’ failure to act quickly had the potential to expose customers and staff to illness over about four months, Robinson said.

The company failed to escalate the issue to its food safety team with staff treating the infestation as a maintenance issue instead of a food safety matter until a rat chewed through the wires of a forklift, he said.

The company had a pest management plan in place with more than 110 rat sightings in the company’s register between October and December with 10 caught during a similar period, Robinson said.

There was a lack of understanding among staff about who should escalate the issue and he said the company was responsible for ensuring its staff knew what to do.

Woolworths’ lawyer Joe Edwards acknowledged the company made an error in not escalating the problem earlier and accepted there were systemic issues, saying it was not seeking to pass the blame onto staff.

The company apologised and had taken steps to analyse its policies and procedures to reach a “gold standard” for preventing and responding to future pest problems, he said.

Rats were first detected in the Andersons Bay Road store in late 2023 and a photo of a rat perched among bacon products went viral in November that year.

One customer told RNZ she saw a huge rat “living its best life in there”, running through the wine bottles while she was shopping with her children.

Ministry for Primary Industries confirmed an investigation was launched in January 2024 after receiving complaints.

Woolworths New Zealand responded saying it had a comprehensive pest management plan in place and was ramping up cleaning procedures, adding more bait stations and getting daily visits from a pest control contractor.

The company confirmed it would close the store for 48 hours the following month so pest controllers could tackle the furry problem. Woolworths claimed it was told rodents were not nesting in the store.

Pest controllers caught 13 rats over the weekend and the closure was extended with reopening subsequently pushed back several times.

New Zealand Food Safety then confirmed Woolworths had uncovered evidence of rats nesting.

The store finally reopened 19 days later after no rat activity was found for 72 hours. But there were mixed reviews from customers with some planning to stay away and others happy to keep shopping there.

Two more rats were found at the supermarket by April 2024 but New Zealand Food Safety said it was satisfied Woolworths was focused on pest management.

The food safety regulator charged Woolworths New Zealand for breaches of the Food Act last September and the company pleaded guilty in December.

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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 Conservation is investigating the poisoning of 10 black-billed gulls in Te Anau.

Five of the native birds were found sick on the foreshore in January and were euthanised. Another five had already died.

Department of Conservation Te Anau operations manager John Lucas said testing later revealed the black-billed gulls/tarāpuka had ingested alphachloralose, a toxic chemical used for bird control.

The department was appealing to members of the public and local businesses for information about the use of alphachloralose, or products containing the chemical, in the Te Anau area in mid-January.

The deaths were a disappointing blow for the Te Anau population of an often unfairly maligned species, Lucas said.

“Tarāpuka are New Zealand’s only endemic gull and their numbers are in rapid decline, especially in Southland,” he said.

“People may be used to seeing colonies ranging in the hundreds and thousands but with introduced predators, habitat loss and changes in land use these avian fixtures of the south are in serious trouble with some studies estimating up to 80 percent decline in Southland over the past 30 years.”

Black-billed gulls were a protected species under the Wildlife Act and it was an offence to hunt, kill or catch them without authorisation, he said.

“Like kiwi and kākā, tarāpuka are only found in New Zealand and are part of what makes New Zealand special. If you saw or heard anything while out naturing on the Te Anau waterfront this summer that may help us get to the bottom of this please get in touch,” Lucas said.

People could report any information to 0800 DOC HOT, using the case reference CLE-11463. Information could be offered anonymously.

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