Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Worksafe will revist an Auckland aquatic centre after a boy smashed his front teeth while on a hydroslide – the second recent injury involving the same slide.

A man was injured at the Mt Albert Aquatic Centre in late December, losing his finger when a ring caught on a bolt inside the slide, the NZ Herald reported.

Worksafe was notified following the incident.

Less than a week later, the 12-year-old boy was injured.

According to the NZ Herald, the boy was thrown around inside the slide, knocking his front two teeth on its inside joiners on 2 January.

The boy’s mother told the media outlet an emergency dental appointment the next day showed he had hit a nerve on the tooth and it “could be problematic the rest of his life”.

She said the tooth would now be “covered under ACC for life”.

WorkSafe said improvements had been made when its inspector visited the centre two days after the man was injured. But a spokesperson said an inspector would go back to the aquatic centre this month following the boy’s injury.

Auckland Council said the slide had been inspected twice within the last six months.

Head of service partner delivery, Garth Dawson, said the council would continue to work with operator Community Leisure Management and the slide manufacturer to ensure it was safe.

Community Leisure Management’s director Kirsty Knowles said it was improving signs at the hydroslide.

The NZ Herald reported the man’s finger was able to be reattached by a surgeon.

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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 person has been taken to hospital in a critical condition after a fall from Christchurch’s central Tūranga library.

Emergency services were called to the building near Cathedral Square shortly before 11am on Tuesday.

Three fire trucks worked to free the person.

The library is closed for the day.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A work safety group says a new bill before Parliament is likely to increase harm to people and cause cost blowouts from accidents.

The amendment bill is the first big change proposed in a decade to health and safety laws brought in after the Pike River disaster.

The bill sets out to cut death and injury rates, and compliance costs, by focusing on the most serious critical risks and reducing confusion.

But the Institute of Safety Management said this ignored the fact most workplace harm was not at the critical end.

“All of the back injuries, the psychological harm, violence and aggression, all of the things that are the most common, the most costly and overall the most harmful, wouldn’t meet the definition of critical risk,” spokesperson Mike Cosman told RNZ on Tuesday.

The bill would increase compliance costs for firms that would need to keep checking if they qualified as “small” enough under the law to avoid managing many risks, he added.

The bill adds a new definition of critical risk and businesses would be responsible for checking if it applied to them.

The official disclosure about the bill said the law in place since 2016 put too many duties on to businesses, and the “broad nature … has led to confusion and overcompliance” with many finding it difficult to prove to regulators they were complying.

“Focusing the system on critical risks is designed to direct attention and resources towards preventing serious workplace harms and away from more minor issues,” it said.

The government aims for the bill to enable stronger approved codes of practice (ACOPs) within particular high-risk industries to help tamp down on risks. The forestry industry recently launched a new ACOP.

Cosman retorted that the bill should not take an “either-or” approach.

Most businesses wanted to do the right thing but “the clear message is if you’re a small firm, you don’t have to provide instruction, training, supervision, even PPE for your workers … unless it’s in relation to a critical risk”, he said.

“So for those firms who are looking for a way out, this will provide it.”

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has talked about dealing to the “huge culture of fear” around Worksafe by changing it to prioritise education over punishment.

However, a common theme of criticism for years had been that Worksafe was too soft and, for instance, did not go after company directors and executives enough.

Cosman said the bill reflected a dogma that compliance costs were inherently bad, rather than reflecting accurately the submissions to a nationwide roadshow and review that van Velden fronted.

“We see this as a significant missed opportunity to improve New Zealand’s patchy record on health and safety,” he said in a statement.

“These changes are likely to increase harm to workers, families, businesses, communities along with cost blowouts for the Government books in ACC, health and welfare.”

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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 are examining a central Christchurch property where a man was critically injured in a stabbing.

Emergency services were called to the two-storey block of flats in Fitzgerald Avenue at 12:20pm on Monday, where they arrested a person.

A scene guard remained at the units overnight.

Police did not believe there was a threat to public safety.

The property remained cordoned off on Tuesday morning, where blood stains and chalk could be seen on the driveway.

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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 have “grave concerns” for a woman who has not been seen for six months and are considering the possibility she may have been the victim of foul play.

They say her children want their mother back and the family are desperate for answers.

Rowena Walker was reported missing by her mother on 22 October.

In an interview with RNZ, Detective Senior Sergeant Jo Carolan said the 39-year-old’s last confirmed sighting was in Christchurch on 14 August last year.

“It appears that her last digital footprint, social media, phones, etc, was on the 15th of August 2025, she’s also had no contact with any of her children since around that date, which is very out of character for her.”

Carolan said the fact Walker had been missing without any trace for six months was “hugely concerning”.

“We’re really worried about her and have grave concerns for her safety, that she may no longer be alive is a possibility that we have to consider, but we’re exploring all the possibilities in detail,” she said.

“Rowena is a vulnerable person in the community, and we have to consider the possibility that she’s been the victim of foul play. We are keeping an open mind and exhausting all lines of inquiry, including that possibility. Rowena’s mother is caring for some of her grandchildren, and it’s really important that those kids have an answer as to where mum has gone.”

Asked if police had any persons of interest, Carolan said police were “talking to a number of people” and following every lead available.

“I won’t go into specifics of that, but it is fair to say that we’re sticking to everybody who is made known to us.”

Carolan said Walker was “reasonably transient” and was known to have family and associates all over the country.

“We don’t want to rule out any region of New Zealand, if there’s, if there’s somebody who would like to talk to us, who knows something about what has happened to her, we will speak to anybody from anywhere in the country,” she said.

“We have conducted a number of inquiries with people throughout Tasman, some Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Christchurch areas, and that is going to continue for as long as necessary.”

She said the last six months had been “very hard” on Walker’s family, particularly her mother and children.

“They haven’t seen mum now for six months and don’t understand why that is, they very much want to have mum back.

“They had almost daily contact with her, and now they don’t. And it’s it’s very sad situation. We just want to find out what’s happened to Rowena, so that we can let her family know”

Carolan said there will be someone out there who knows what happened to Walker.

“We are looking for more information, and we’re interested in hearing from anybody in the community who has anything to provide, whether they think it might not be very significant. We’d rather hear about it and make that assessment for ourselves. So we appeal to everybody in the community to come forward with any information that they have.”

She said the “best case scenario” was that Walker was alive and well.

“And for whatever reason, keeping herself to herself, and I would say to her that she’s got family and friends who are extremely worried about her and kids who miss her very, very much. And if that is the case, we would appeal to her to please, reach out to somebody.”

Carolan said despite the time between her last sighting and when police were notified, detectives had “really strong lines of inquiry” with a “significant number of staff” working on the investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to please contact Police online through 105.police.govt.nz or call 105, referencing file number 251022/9026.

Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.

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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 former Education Ministry staff member says the government’s curriculum rewrite ignored the views of many subject experts and teachers.

Waikato University academic Claire Coleman told Nine to Noon she worked on the curriculum until the middle of last year and said it was chaotic and politicised.

“There were changes, not following processes around procurement of the members of newly-appointed writing groups, getting rid of entire contributing groups and replacing them with people that had previous relationships with the minister, had conflicts of interest… being told ‘we’re not going to write this down because we don’t want people to know… so it’s not OIA-able’, essentially, that kind of behaviour,” she said.

Coleman made similar allegations during a submission to the Education and Workforce Select Committee on the government’s Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill recently.

She told Nine to Noon she started working for the ministry on a rewrite of the Arts curriculum in 2022, but that was paused in late 2023 following the change of government.

“By the time that I left in the beginning of 2025, it was evident that none of the work that we had done was going to be used and they weren’t really interested in any of our expertise,” she said.

Coleman agreed a change of government could bring a change of direction for the curriculum, but she said the process was inappropriate and the public should be concerned.

She said she assumed government ministries would follow good-faith practices involving rigourous debate but that was not the case with the curriculum rewrite.

“What I saw was a case of ‘we’re not interested in talking to the people who know, this is what we want to do and we’re going to do it regardless’ and it’s a sort of ‘my way or the highway’ approach,” she said.

Coleman said the government should have listened to a wider range of views on the curriculum.

“You need a diverse range of opinions. You need to work through all of the nuances that are in education. It is a complicated space and you need to know enough to know what you don’t know and to bring in the right people into those conversations and to rely on the expertise and that’s, I think, the point of having a ministry,” she said.

“Regardless of which direction you want this to go in or regardless of what policy you want, you draw on the best people and the best evidence that you’ve got to make that a really solid piece of work.”

Coleman said proposed law changes would give future education ministers the power to rewrite the curriculum again, but that work should be left to education experts.

Education Minister Erica Stanford was asked to comment and her office referred Nine to Noon to an Education Ministry response supplied following Coleman’s select committee appearance.

It said the ministry was responsible for writing the curriculum and worked with a wide range of local education experts, teachers and other stakeholders.

“The curriculum-writing process is rigourous and includes multiple cycles of review and refinement. It combines evidence, insights, and experiences over the last 20 years with formal feedback and input from a wide range of groups from across the education sector,” the statement said.

“Ministers have always been responsible for the curriculum sign-off as part of the process.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

NZ Post says the volume of British passport applications is causing delays to them being sent to the UK.

A new requirement for dual nationality citizens to use a British passport to travel there took many travellers by surprise last month.

And with the deadline for the change only a fortnight away – 25 February – applications surged.

PostShop staff told customers they had to use an express service, which cost $121, to send their applications. But some people, following their packages’ progress using online trackers, noticed the applications were being held up at an Auckland mail centre before being sent to the UK.

One customer said her package was waiting In Auckland for nearly two weeks, without anyone contacting her to say there was an issue.

The tracker now showed ‘air transport planning is underway’.

NZ Post last week said incorrect customer declarations were responsible for delays.

But it has now apologised and said it was working to overcome the hold-up.

“Due to the increase in the number of passport applications being sent to the UK at the moment, it is taking a bit longer than usual for some of these items to move through their journey,” said a spokesperson. “We’re sorry for the delay and can assure customers that we are working as fast as possible to get these important items where they need to be.”

Staff checked that each item had complete information on its customs declaration, she said.

“This is a manual process and is taking a bit longer than usual due to the increased number we are receiving. We can assure customers that we are working through these as quickly as possible, including contacting individual customers who have missed some information off their Customs Declarations. We’re actively working on a solution to help speed this process up and get these items moving as fast as we can.”

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