Category: Radio New Zealand

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High petrol prices: Cost of public transport ‘still a significant barrier to people’

Source: Radio New Zealand

Auckland had its busiest day on public transport since 2019 last week, and the capital has seen 10 percent more passengers on the train in the past month. File photo. Supplied / Environment Canterbury

A cheaper bus or train fare would be far better than working from home to avoid rising fuel prices, say commuters, despite the local government minister ruling it out.

Simon Watts says the government is not looking at any change or incentive model in regards to public transport.

“Public transport usage by New Zealanders has already increased, we’ve seen that flow through in our major urban cities,” he said.

“That’s obviously a result of Kiwis making the conscious decision to take public transport versus driving their vehicle and that’s what you’d expect with prices at the pump being higher.”

He said it should be up to New Zealanders to make their own decisions, based on their own circumstances.

But petrol has sky-rocketed by more than 83 cents a litre and diesel has shot up $1.33 since the US and Israel began attacking Iran.

Auckland Transport, Greater Wellington, and Canterbury Regional Councils are asking the government to encourage people to use more buses, trains, and ferries – rather than work from home.

People RNZ spoke to in central Auckland on Monday said they would prefer that.

“I do like working from home but working in the office is also really nice, it’s more collaborative,” said one commuter.

“I would prefer to have cheaper public transport,” said another.

Shay Peters from Robert Walters Recruitment Agency said a lot of jobseekers preferred to work from home.

“As we’re in tougher economic times, people are probably erring on the side of caution and will like to be in the office but I know a number would also like the opportunity on balance to be able to just save cash and be working from home at the moment.”

Last Tuesday was Auckland’s busiest day on public transport since 2019, and the capital has seen 10 percent more passengers on the train – and six percent on the bus – within the past month.

Greater Wellington Regional Council Public Transport Committee chair Ros Connelly would also like to see subsidised fares.

“There’s no doubt in my mind and from the surveys and customer feedback that we receive that the cost of public transport still is a significant barrier to people. Obviously since we’ve seen the fuel crisis, comparatively the cost of public transport has decreased but still it is extremely expensive.”

She said the train from Masterton to Wellington can cost up to $22.50 each way, per day.

“That is a barrier for many people and so they will look at other options. Working from home is definitely popular but if there was an increased subsidy we’re really confident that we would see more people on public transport and as fuel prices increase this is one way that the government can ensure that people get to work.”

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said it was a no-brainer to make public transport free.

“Fares have gone up by as much as a third in Canterbury, by a quarter in the Manawatū-Whanganui region and Auckland also has seen fare increases in the realm of 15 to 20 percent over the last three years. We need to remove those barriers to access and also be reserving fuel supply for those who actually need it and don’t currently have the option.”

Stacey van der Putten from Auckland Transport would welcome that.

“We’re monitoring it daily so there will be adjustments that are needed but the system does have flex to be able to support it.”

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Canterbury leads ASB’s rankings as Auckland rebounds and Wellington finishes last

Source: Radio New Zealand

ASB said Canterbury secured its third quarterly win of 2025. RNZ / Nate McKinnon

ASB’s latest Regional Economic Scoreboard shows Canterbury leading New Zealand’s regional growth, Auckland making strong gains, and Wellington slipping to the bottom of the rankings.

Canterbury scored back-to-back economic wins in ASB’s latest regional economic survey.

Canterbury finished the final quarter of 2025 on a strong note, once again topping ASB’s Regional Economic Scoreboard as the country’s best‑performing regional economy.

Otago and Waikato tied for second place, while Auckland jumped from seventh to fourth.

ASB said Canterbury secured its third quarterly win of 2025, outperforming the rest of the country in employment, retail spending, housing activity and population growth.

Chief economist Nick Tuffley said the South Island continued to lead New Zealand’s multi‑speed recovery.

“Canterbury has delivered back‑to‑back wins to close out the year, supported by strong dairy incomes, steady jobs growth, resilient consumer spending and the recovery of the tourism sector,” he said.

Otago’s ranking was boosted by a strong tourism rebound, while Waikato benefited from a robust primary sector and an improving labour market.

ASB expects the upcoming Fonterra capital return from the sale of Mainland to further lift dairy farming regions through increased spending and investment.

Auckland’s rise was driven by gains in retail spending, construction activity and consumer confidence, although its labour market remains subdued.

Tuffley said Auckland’s move up the rankings showed the economic upswing was widening beyond the regions that led earlier in the cycle.

At the other end of the table, Wellington finished last, weighed down by ongoing weakness in the housing market, construction activity and discretionary spending, despite relatively strong employment growth.

Tuffley said Wellington’s economy should improve, helped by low interest rates, but emerging challenges could slow the pace of recovery.

Nationally, ASB said the economy showed signs of growth in the final quarter of 2025 as lower interest rates lifted retail spending and employment indicators stabilised.

However, Tuffley warned the conflict in the Middle East would pose fresh headwinds through higher energy costs and rising inflation.

“The situation and extent of any impact to growth and inflation is highly uncertain and will depend on how long the conflict goes on for,” he said.

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Flu vaccine in a spray: ‘Many, many people are just not keen on needles’

Source: Radio New Zealand

The FluMist vaccine is taken in the form of a nasal spray. File photo. 123RF

Bringing a needle-free flu vaccine to New Zealand would be a good way to boost the country’s vaccination rates, says a vaccine expert.

FluMist has long been used in the northern hemisphere and started being used in Australia this year.

The vaccine is taken in the form of a nasal spray, bypassing the need for an injection.

Immunisation Advisory Centre principal medical advisor Professor Nikki Turner is calling for pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to bring FluMist to New Zealand, saying needles are “way more of a barrier than we realise”.

“Many, many people are just not keen on needles, so you put off doing things because you really don’t want the needle,” she said.

“So it’s important we recognise that and respond to that, and this is one useful way to do that.”

She said FluMist had only recently become available in the southern hemisphere, because each hemisphere had slightly different flu strains.

“The reason why it’s not well established in the southern hemisphere is that each year you have to change the formulation in the flu vaccine to match the circulating strains, and so they’ve done that for the northern hemisphere but the company haven’t really been in a position to do that for the southern hemisphere [until recently],” she said.

Since the vaccine had been approved for use in Australia, Professor Turner expected it would be easy for the company to get approval in New Zealand.

But she said it was up to AstraZeneca to pitch the vaccine to Medsafe.

“The company has to present it to Medsafe for licensure. That should be pretty straightforward, but it has to be presented by the company to Medsafe and for the company to do that they’d want to know they would get decent sales,” she explained.

“So we want to say this would be great for the New Zealand market, we have a significant burden of flu on our young children and we think this would be a great vaccine to have available to move away from injectible vaccines.”

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Fuel cost crisis: Govt to unveil ‘targeted and temporary’ support tomorrow

Source: Radio New Zealand

The finance minister will reveal “targeted and temporary” support for hard-hit families on Tuesday, as fuel costs continue to rise.

Nicola Willis gave notice of the announcement at Monday’s post-Cabinet media briefing, alongside Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones.

Jones also announced plans to align New Zealand’s fuel standards with that of Australia, allowing the import of fuel destined for Australia to New Zealand instead.

Willis said the decisions on support had been taken at Cabinet, and while some of the details were still being worked out, that would not affect how quickly families could get it.

“This conflict is impacting just about every New Zealander, it has pushed up the price of petrol, diesel and jet fuel and those increases are already hurting our people and our businesses. Unfortunately the government is not in a position to mitigate that impact on everyone,” she said.

“The approach we are taking is consistent with the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the response to the Covid pandemic, which highlighted the damage that can be done by untimely, untemporary and untargeted spending.”

It was unclear when the support would be rolled out, with Willis saying that would be made clear when it was announced.

Motorists should fuel up as and when they needed to, she said, with the government’s solution set to target income rather than fuel prices.

‘No concerns’ about fuel supply

For now, there were no concerns about fuel supplies in New Zealand, she said.

“To date, all shipments have arrived as scheduled and fuel importers have not raised any concerns about shipments that are due here in future.

“It remains the case that we have to be prepared for the possibility of disruptions in the medium to longer term, particularly because the refineries in Southeast Asia from which we import more than 90 percent of our fuel may have challenges getting the feedstock crude oil that they need.”

Luxon said the country had at least enough fuel for the next seven weeks, although the government was preparing in case of long-term further disruption.

“If you are someone who has just faced a 30 percent increase in your fuel bill or a 60 percent increase in your diesel bill since the actual crisis, since this conflict has commenced, it’s real.

“We cannot do the Covid learnings and mistakes, which was just spray a heap of money around that has short term gain but long term pain – massive long-term pain – and equally we’ve got to find a way to get people support in a temporary, targeted kind of way.

“The reality is that we are not going to be able to alleviate the pressure of rising prices for everyone, but what we’ve been clear about are the parameters for any support that we provide, which is that it must be targeted, it must be timely, and it must be temporary and not drive inflation or debt higher.”

The latest data from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment showed stocks for about 47 days of fuel, including about 50 days worth of petrol, 46 days of diesel, and 45 of jet fuel.

The data, accurate to last Wednesday, marks about two days fewer than was reported last week.

One new fuel shipment arrived on Sunday, and two more – carrying between them another 20 days of each kind of fuel – are expected to arrive in the next fortnight.

The next update is due on Wednesday, but the ministry says New Zealand is not yet experiencing the kind of sustained disruption that would justify emergency measures under the national fuel plan.

Luxon said nothing had changed about New Zealand’s position on the Iran conflict, but that Iranians “holding hostage a whole bunch of ships to bring fuel and critical supplies … that’s not acceptable”.

“What we want to see is a quick resolution to this conflict and that means that actually respecting civilians and civilian infrastructure is really important … we think the best thing is de-escalation.”

Willis confirmed some consideration had been given to which industries could be prioritised if fuel rationing was needed, but this would not be revealed until a later date.

“We will not be having to hit the button tomorrow, but we will outline what our proposed phasing of response is … we recognise that it’s useful for people to understand what could be coming under a range of scenarios,” she said.

She noted the high prices would also naturally limit fuel use.

“It is pinching people’s pockets already and that is changing people’s choices. So Auckland transport have reported they had their biggest day of public transport use in seven years, I think that’s people deciding to use their cars a little bit less because it’s pretty expensive right now.”

‘Anzac pact’ in fuel and other standards

Jones outlined the government’s plan to temporarily allow fuel that meets Australian specifications to be supplied to the New Zealand market for up to a year.

Fuel companies had said this could allow them to secure shipments more quickly, and from a wider pool of suppliers.

Jones said long-range vessels typically carried about 120 million litres, and New Zealand consumed about 24 million litres of fuel a day – with about 47 percent of that being diesel, about 35 percent being petrol, and the remainder being aviation fuel.

“Should such a vessel be on its way to Australia then we would have the ability to also benefit from such a vessel.”

He said fuel refined to Australian standards was compatible with New Zealand vehicles, and met safety and quality expectations, pushing back on the suggestion it would allow dirtier fuels than under current standards.

“It’s unkind of us to refer to our Aussie compatriots as dirty,” he said. “There’s two things – whether or not fuel used in a high-temperature northern Australian environment, we are advised that a lot of that fuel is suitable for the North Island … with the South Island the fuel importers assure us that they will have the optionality to service both of those markets.”

He said officials had spoken to Australian counterparts.

“We pushed the idea that at some point in time we should explore and ANZAC pact and I would say to you this is the first step that we’re taking to join forces.

“It’d be fair to say that I’ve got a fair degree of support in our Cabinet to actually move towards permanent harmonisation of not only these standards but a variety of other standards in the economy.”

Willis and the associate ministers of finance would make further improvements, he said.

The government would not follow Australia’s lead in relaxing standards to allow higher-sulphur fuel, he said, at least not yet.

“At this stage it’s not our intention to do so, however, we will take advice should the situation change – and that could be an option that expands our supply.

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As it happened: Oil prices rise as fall out from Middle East crisis continues

Source: Radio New Zealand

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the government will reveal in the next few weeks how it will support New Zealanders struggling with skyrocketing fuel prices.

He says the country has healthy fuel stocks, and the government’s doing everything it can to secure them.

Oil prices have risen as the fall out continues from the Middle East crisis; Brent Crude oil rose about US$1 to be just above US$113 a barrel in early Asia trade.

It comes after US President Donald Trump vowed to ‘obliterate’ Iran energy facilities if it doesn’t open Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Auckland Transport is calling for the government to encourage more people to use public transport.

Follow what happened today in our liveblog below:

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Police seek boat last seen in Northland bay

Source: Radio New Zealand

The 25-foot vessel ‘JAGMEN’. Supplied

Police are appealing for sightings of a boat last seen in Taurikura Bay on Sunday night.

The 25-foot vessel – named ‘JAGMEN’ – was last seen leaving the bay about 8pm on 22 March, said police.

“Police would like to speak with an occupant believed to be onboard, to ensure their safety.”

Anyone who has any information about the whereabouts of the boat and its occupant is urged to contact police.

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Dion Nash quits NZ Cricket board after Twenty20 decision

Source: Radio New Zealand

Former Black Cap Dion Nash was elected to the NZ Cricket board in 2024. Elias Rodriguez

The first signs of fallout from New Zealand Cricket’s decision to pursue a new franchise-based Twenty20 competition have emerged, with board member Dion Nash resigning just hours after the announcement.

NZC confirmed on Monday morning it will back the proposed NZ20 league as the preferred model for its domestic T20 future.

The board had been weighing up whether to support the NZ20 model or instead pursue a plan to enter a New Zealand-based team into Australia’s Big Bash League – a process that had already exposed deep divisions within the sport.

By the afternoon, the former Black Cap had stepped down from the board, saying he could no longer support the organisation’s direction.

“Ultimately, I reached a point where I felt it was the right time to step aside,” he said.

Elected in 2024, Nash’s departure lays bare the divisions at the top of the game, with debate over the future of T20 cricket having already contributed to significant governance upheaval in recent months.

The debate traces back to last year, when a consortium of players, investors and administrators put forward a pitch for a privately owned franchise league aimed at modernising the game and attracting global investment.

Scott Weenink stepped down as NZ Cricket chief executive days before Christmas after finding himself at odds with key stakeholders in the game. Photosport / RNZ composite

At the same time, NZC was considering its own options for the future of the domestic game, including a proposal to field a New Zealand team in Australia’s Big Bash League – an option understood to have been favoured by backed by former chief executive Scott Weenink.

The national body commissioned Deloitte to assess the various pathways, but what began as a strategic review quickly hardened into a fundamental dispute over the direction of the sport, ultimately pitting the CEO and key stakeholders across the game.

Weenink stepped down from his role before Christmas, citing the the fundamental differences with the game’s stakeholders as the driver.

NZC chair Diana Puketapu-Lyndon acknowledged Nash’s exit, thanking him for his service.

“We thank Dion for his dedicated service and valuable contributions,” she said.

“We wish him well in his future endeavours.”

In a statement released earlier on Monday, Puketapu-Lyndon said the board’s decision in favour of NZ20 wasn’t a final commitment, and was subject to reaching key commercial and structural measures.

She said the board thoroughly debated the two options and said several changes to the original NZ20 proposal would need to be negotiated before a final decision was made.

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Two people dead after crash blocks SH57 in Levin

Source: Radio New Zealand

File photo. A serious crash blocked State Highway 57 in Levin on Monday morning. RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

A serious crash that closed State Highway 57 in Levin today has claimed two lives.

Emergency services were called to the two-vehicle crash on Arapaepae Road about 2.30am on Monday.

Police said two people were pronounced dead at the scene.

The road is still closed while the Serious Crash Unit carry out a scene examination.

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2025 confirmed as one of the hottest years on record

Source: Radio New Zealand

An ‘addiction’ to fossil fuels is driving climate change, the UN Secretary-General says – leading to ever-more severe weather including floods, droughts, and damaging storms. MUHAMMAD FAROOQ

Last year was among the hottest on record, as the world’s “addiction” to fossil fuels continues to drive global warming, new data shows.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) confirmed the average global temperature last year was 1.43°C warmer than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.

2024 remains the hottest year on record, but 2025 was the second- or third-hottest, across the nine major global datasets.

The organisation said the global climate was more out of balance than at any other time in observed history, as greenhouse gas concentrations reached their highest levels in at least 800,000 years.

Most of the trapped heat was stored in the ocean, which is warming at an accelerating pace.

Together with melting sea ice and glaciers, that was driving global sea level rise – which projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show will continue for centuries.

Arctic sea-ice hit a record low in some satellite datasets last year.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the planet was being pushed beyond its limits.

“Every key climate indicator is flashing red.”

Current major conflicts were exposing another truth, Guterres said.

“Our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilising both the climate and global security.”

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, after the country was attacked by Israel and the US, has spiked oil and gas prices and prompted fears of global inflation.

The WMO’s State of the Climate report said increasingly severe weather, driven by climate change, was already affecting agricultural production and displacing people from their homes.

“The cascading and compounding impacts of multiple, sequential disasters severely limit the ability of communities to prepare for, recover from and adapt to shocks,” the report said.

That was especially true in places that were already experiencing conflict or other types of insecurity.

In New Zealand, inflation-adjusted data published by the Insurance Council showed that since 2019, insurance companies had paid out nearly $6 billion for extreme weather-related events in New Zealand.

That did not include pay-outs for severe weather at the beginning of this year, which killed six people in a landslide at Mount Maunganui, cut off entire communities, and closed major roads.

Victoria University professor of climate science James Renwick said the science of climate change had been understood for a century or more now.

“We know what we have to do to stop it,” he said. “Stop burning fossil fuels.”

Policymakers had been given that message for decades but emissions just kept increasing, he said.

He hoped the latest report “moves the dial”.

“The costs of inaction are already astronomical, let’s not make them overwhelming.”

Last week, the High Court in Wellington heard a case taken by two environmental NGOs against the government over its emissions reductions plans, which the organisations argued were risky and unlawful.

The Environmental Law Initiative and Lawyers for Climate Action told the court that the government broke the law when it dismantled dozens of climate policies soon after the election, before it had consulted the public.

The current plan relied overwhelmingly on offsetting emissions by planting forestry, rather than tackling emissions at their sources, the organisations said.

The court has reserved its decision.

Similar cases in the UK succeeded in forcing the government there to re-write its own emissions plans.

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Shane Jones labels critics of fisheries bill as ‘noisy voices’

Source: Radio New Zealand

Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has called critics of his Fisheries Amendment Bill “a range of noisy voices” and invited them to have their say at the select committee.

The bill, which is scheduled to have it’s first reading on Tuesday, has been welcomed by the commercial sector but condemned by recreational fishing groups.

Fishing Host Matt Watson – probably the country’s most famous recreational fisher – is dismayed by the proposals in the fishing amendment bill.

He told First Up the bill’s “designed purely to prioritise the profits of the seafood industry”.

“If these go through unchecked, it is disaster. It’s beginning of the end for our fish stocks, and that’ not over dramatising it.”

Among Watson’s concerns is the proposal to remove the minimum size limits for commercial fishers from a number of popular species, including snapper.

He said it wouldn’t encourage commercial fishers to avoid undersized fish and would decrease overall fish stocks.

The current recreational size limit for snapper is between 25cm and 30cm depending on location, while the commercial size limit is 25cm.

Minimum size limits are imposed to ensure fish can reach sexual maturity before being caught.

“If you start killing fish before they’ve had a chance to breed, you’re going to run out of fish and you don’t need to be a genius to figure that out,” Watson said.

Fishing Host Matt Watson. Facebook

Jones argued that allowing the commercial sector to land and sell undersize fish would prevent wastage.

Currently commercial fishers must dump undersize fish dead or alive, and it doesn’t count against their quota.

“The new provision is that if you catch them, you pay for them,” Jones said.

“With the commercial industry, we know every single kilo that they take and their conduct is now captured by cameras.”

But if Jones’ bill passes, the footage taken by cameras on board commercial boats can no longer be accessed under the official information act, effectively making it off limits to the public.

Anyone who leaks the footage faces a $50,000 fine.

“If you’ve got nothing to hide, why on earth would you behave like that,” Sam Woolford of recreational advocacy group Legasea said.

“When cameras on boats were introduced, we know that the rate of discarding, or notified discards, went up about 46 percent. For snapper and kingfish, it was closer to 1000 percent.”

Jones, a self described apostle of industry, brushed off the concerns about snapper stocks, telling First Up the “amount of snapper in our waters is almost biblical in its profundity”.

“You can almost walk on the water we’ve got so many snapper.”

Coalition support means the Fisheries Amendment Bill should easily pass it’s first reading, but Labour’s fisheries and Oceans spokesperson Rachel Boyack said she would make her concerns heard at the select committee stage.

She said her party would do their “best to make changes to the bill so that it’s not as bad as what it could be.”

Although with commercial fishing a strong feature of her Nelson electorate, Boyack was choosing her words carefully .

“It creates jobs in my local community and it’s important that we are able to produce fish for food and for export, but we also have to ensure that the fishery is sustainable”.

Conservation Minister Tama Potaka’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment, but in a facebook post Northland MP Grant McCallum said he met with Legasea and the sports fishing council over the weekend and would strongly represent the views of the recreational sector in the party’s caucus this week.

Seafood New Zealand’s Inshore Policy Manager Tamar Wells said the commercial sector was trying to make the industry more sustainable.

“Fishers do change their methods. In terms of their selectivity of their nets, they’ll have larger mesh to let smaller fish out.

“There’s also new methods coming in, like Flowmo, which is a type of net that can keep fish kind of contained underwater so they have a higher survivability.”

The Fisheries Amendment Bill won’t require commercial fishers to change their methods though and Jones said there was no plan to outlaw trawling.

“It’s evident to me that the vast majority of the activists opposed to trawling are really seeking to undo the Māori fisheries settlement and terminate the commercial fishing industry and that’s just never, ever going to happen for as long as I’m in politics, and I look forward to being in politics for a long, long time.”

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