Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tens of thousands of teenagers are expected to descend on Wānaka’s lakefront for one of the country’s biggest informal New Year’s Eve gatherings, with police warning parents they could face charges if they supply alcohol to minors.

Police, paramedics and volunteers are concerned about the number of unsupervised young people who arrive with alcohol in a town that is more than three hours’ drive from the nearest hospital.

According to harm-reduction organisation Red Frogs, Wānaka has become a hotspot for Year 11 and 12 students in recent years.

National director Raymond Thompson said more than 60 volunteers would work in Wānaka and Queenstown from 29 December, handing out water and food, and helping anyone in distress.

“I’m cooking pancakes, handing out water down on the lakefront and, towards the end of the night, will be helping young people, if they need more support, holding their hair back as they vomit,” he said.

Authorities ramped up their presence, after the infamous Ruby Island party in 2016, when hundreds of young people were escorted back to the mainland by emergency services.

Thompson said parents should have “frank conversations” with their children before New Year’s Eve and make a plan, in case they wanted to come home early.

“Don’t pin $200 to your young person’s jersey, give them a bottle and send them six hours down the road with no support,” he said.

“You can either engage in an awkward alcohol-and-drug-harm conversation with your young person, utilising your experience – both good and bad – and giving your advice, or you can allow your teenagers to get advice from TikTok,” he said.

DJs and bands will play on the Wānaka waterfront on 31 December, with an alcohol ban in place between 24 December-6 January.

Otago Lakes Central police area commander inspector Paula Enoka said parents should also remember the legal consequences of supplying alcohol to minors.

“If they are underage, as in under 18, please don’t send them here with alcohol, because the next person we will contact will be the parent [to find out] how they have actually provided them the alcohol,” she said. “There is provision for prosecution and that’s not where we want to go.”

Wānaka senior sergeant Darren Cranfield said an extra 25 police officers would be deployed to the district from centres including Dunedin and Invercargill.

“We have other resources that we drag from other stations, so we do have big numbers, but we have big numbers for a reason.”

Behaviour had improved in recent years, Cranfield said.

“If we go back probably 3-4 years, there used to just be alcohol everywhere, bottles everywhere.”

St John area operations manager David Baillie said alcohol and drug use was a reality every New Year’s Eve, and the consequences were often serious.

“Every year, I have to make a phone call to someone’s parents – 15, 16, 17, 18-year-old girls and boys – who have had far too much alcohol or too many drugs, who are now unconscious, unresponsive,” he said.

His message to parents was to “take a minute to think what it would feel like for me to ring you on New Year’s Eve, because this does actually happen”.

Knowing what substances were taken and how much could be crucial, when someone’s life was on the line, Baillie said.

He urged people to look up drug-testing services like Know Your Stuff.

“The other thing I ask you to do is that you respect our staff. We are there to help you, your family, your friends.

“We do need you to respect us, so that we can do our job to support you.”

Queenstown Lakes District Mayor John Glover said the region was used to welcoming visitors, but the New Year brought added challenges.

“We want everyone to come have a great time and leave having had a great time,” he said.

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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 Hamilton woman has been sentenced to 11 months home detention for exploiting three migrant workers and failing to pay them thousands of dollars in wages.

Sneha Patel owned and operated several Hamilton and Auckland based businesses and pleaded guilty last year to nine charges including exploiting illegal or temporary employees.

She has been ordered to pay the three victims just under $50,000 in reparation.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said the sentencing was a result of a complex five-year investigation.

It uncovered that Patel had failed to pay approximately $41,000 under the Minimum Wage Act and about $9000 for entitlements under the Holidays Act to three employees over an eight-month period in 2018.

MBIE national manager immigration investigations Jason Perry said Patel knowingly employed and helped a person to remain unlawfully in the country, intentionally mistreated and misled her workers, and provided false or misleading information to Immigration for a visa application.

The employees were required to work long hours and one had to sleep in a work vehicle or on the floor of a storeroom.

Patel either did not pay the employees at all, or at a rate less than the minimum wage for the hours they worked.

“While failing to pay her workers according to their statutory minimum entitlements, Patel chose to purchase and open a further two businesses. Employers and individuals who think they can take advantage of unlawful or temporary workers for their own financial gain should know this will not be tolerated – they will be investigated and held to account,” Perry said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

• Mother of man named in online privacy breach linking him to abuse in state care fears it could cause further trauma
• Five abuse survivors named in OIA document still don’t know about breach
• Ministry of Social Development says it’s working on next steps with the law firm representing the five
• The law firm says the government department is washing its hands of responsibility.

This story discusses graphic details of abuse.

A woman fears her son could be severely traumatised, if he finds out the Ministry of Social Development published information linking his name to his application for compensation for abuse in state care.

He’s one of five people whose names were visible in an MSD Official Information Act document that was online for three months.

None of the five abuse survivors have yet been told about the breach, and there’s disagreement between MSD and the survivors’ lawyers about how they should be informed.

Breach ‘feels like punishment’

The mother of one of the five still can’t believe her son’s name appeared online in relation to a sensitive claim for compensation.

“I was in shock,” said the woman, who RNZ is not naming. “It’s almost like the more he tries to protect himself and keep himself safe, the more determined the government is to punish him for speaking out and trying to protect himself.

“This feels like punishment.”

MSD has apologised unreservedly for the breach, but the woman worries what could happen, should her son find out.

He has complex post-traumatic stress disorder, due to abuse he suffered when in the care of MSD.

His mother fears that, if he knew he was named on the internet in relation to this abuse, he could lose the ability to communicate or function.

“He spends every day trying to negotiate his way towards an ordinary life, but that’s overshadowed all day, every day by the constant triggers of reminders of what he suffered in the past.”

The woman found out about the breach from her son’s lawyer.

MSD said only three people viewed the document in the three months from its publication on 20 August until it was notified of the breach by Wellington human rights law firm Cooper Legal on 21 November.

However, Cooper Legal said many more people could have seen a cached version. MSD analytics don’t pick up how many views that had.

The woman whose son was named said, however many it was, the fact the names were published was problematic.

“How could it possibly be that only three people would view it in three months?” she said. “The other thing is, why should three people view it – it was nobody else’s business.

“Why should anybody know about what was happening, what he has experienced and what he is trying to hold MSD accountable for?”

Communication breakdown

MSD general manager Anna Graham said Cooper Legal made it clear the ministry shouldn’t directly approach the five named people to apologise.

She said the ministry remained concerned the five survivors hadn’t yet received a direct apology and it was working with Cooper Legal on what to do next.

“We wrote to Cooper Legal on 2 December about this matter and proposed resolution, including that contact and our apology be made through them,” Graham said. “We have letters of apology drafted.”

Graham said MSD had waited for a reply from Cooper Legal, receiving communication at the end of last week.

However, Cooper Legal principal lawyer Lydia Oosterhoff said the firm hadn’t kept MSD waiting and she was waiting to hear back from the ministry, after replying to its 2 December correspondence.

“That is a complete falsity,” she said of the MSD claims.

“MSD sent us one letter saying, ‘Cooper Legal can deal with it, Cooper Legal can tell the clients, we’ll wash our hands of it…. this is all we’re doing to do’.

“It’s absolutely, honestly perplexing.”

Meanwhile, the five people named remain unaware their privacy was breached.

“No, we haven’t told the survivors, because we don’t think we should be the ones to tell them,” Oosterhoff said.

“MSD said it was going to work with us to inform survivors about this breach in a trauma-informed manner and MSD hasn’t done that. It’s simply sent us a letter saying, ‘You tell them’.”

The five needed to be told in a way that recognised their vulnerability, and the sensitive nature of the breach and their abuse, she said.

At first, MSD proposed writing directly to them, but Oosterhoff said this wasn’t good enough.

“These are some of our society’s must vulnerable people and they’ve been made even more vulnerable by the state – the state that abused them in the first place.

“The state has now abused their privacy and the state is now not taking accountability.”

Call for compensation

Oosterhoff said she was looking into what compensation the five survivors should receive, something the woman whose son was named online said must happen.

“The reason why he’s got the [sensitive] claim is because there needs to be redress for what they’ve done to him, so further harm for breaching his privacy needs to be redressed as well,” she said. “It just adds on the harm they caused.”

Asked about the issue of compensation, MSD said it was discussing a proposed resolution with Cooper Legal.

Where to get help:

• Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends
• Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202
• Samaritans: 0800 726 666
• Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
• What’s Up: 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787. This is free counselling for 5 to 19-year-olds
• Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, and English.
• Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254
• Healthline: 0800 611 116
• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
• OUTLine: 0800 688 5463
• Aoake te Rā bereaved by suicide service: or call 0800 000 053

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 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

Hospitals and public health services across the country have been asked to find more than half-a-billion dollars in “efficiencies” to re-invest in patient care.

In a response to written parliamentary questions from Labour’s health spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall, Health Minister Simeon Brown confirmed Health NZ’s four regions had been set “efficiency targets” of between 2-4.9 percent.

Reducing “waste” in back-office and procurement functions could free up up about $510 million, which could be “re-invested straight back into patient care” and government health targets, without reducing clinical staff, Brown said.

However, Verrall questioned how Health NZ could identify specific “efficiency targets”, but not specify exactly what should be cut.

“Five-hundred-million dollars is a massive amount to cut from health services, and to say they’ll do this without any accountability about where it’s coming from or where it’s going is absolutely outrageous.”

According to the document, efficiency targets by region are:

• Northern 3.7 percent ($170m)
• Midland 2 percent ($55m)
• Central 4.1 percent ($124m)
• South Island 4.9 percent ($161m)

The efficiency targets are applied to “other operating cost” budgets, which do not include staffing budgets.

However, the senior doctors’ union said so-called “back office” cuts already made it difficult for clinicians to care for their patients.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said the constant cost-cutting did not make sense and, in some cases, cost more money in the the long-run.

“On the one hand, they’re saying they spending more money on health,” she said. “On the other, they’re constantly demanding savings, which they claim will not impact front-line care.”

More of the health budget seemed to be spent on locums to fill the gaps left by staff shortages, outsourcing to private hospitals, and paying external consultants to do work that could and should be done by permanent staff, Dalton said.

The minister said the budget was the budget and it did not change, but the targets were simply about “making that budget go further for patients in their respective regions”.

The targets would not be used to meet the projected 2025/26 deficit of $200m, he said.

Examples of efficiencies already realised this year included saving $6m in insurance premiums, reducing unused office space and improved purchasing of medical supplies.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Warning: This story discusses graphic details of sexual abuse

A judge has told jurors in the trial of a man accused of sexually abusing a boy into his teenage years that their deliberation will depend on the reliability of key witness evidence.

Michael Ian Mclean has been on trial in the Auckland District Court, facing 33 charges, including performing indecent acts on a person under 16, grooming and sexual violation.

His defence call the allegations nonsense, claiming they never happened.

Judge Simon Lance summed up the case on Wednesday. He took the jury through their function in deciding on a verdict, as well as guiding them through a recap of arguments on both sides.

Judge Lance pointed jurors to evidence given by Mclean and his alleged victim, who could not be named.

“Your deliberations and your ultimate verdicts will – I suggest, as is often the case in trials as such as this and subject to the legal directions I give you – depend largely on what you make of the credibility and the reliability of these two critical witnesses,” Lance told the jury.

He reminded jurors of the evidence given by both Mclean and the complainant.

Lance noted the detail in the complainant’s evidence and how, when cross-examined by Mclean’s defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC on if he was lying, he said he could not make up that level of detail.

In Mclean’s evidence, he said the allegations were not true and that the physical acts alleged did not happen, Lance told jurors.

“Mr Mclean was cross-examined and, during that cross-examination, he maintained his position, he maintained his stance that these things simply did not happen.”

Jurors were taken through material about the misconceptions of sexual abuse, something the judge alluded to at the beginning of the trial.

“You will recall that, at the very start of the trial, given the nature of it – that is, it involves allegations of sexual offending – I gave you a generic direction about there being no such thing as a typical sexual offence, no such thing as a typical offender, no such thing as a typical person who is offended against,” Lance told jurors.

The jury has retired for deliberation.

Sexual Violence

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Isolated, lonely and far from support networks – that’s what people who are homeless say it’s like living in Auckland’s suburbs.

An Auckland Council audit found more than 400 people were living without shelter in September last year. In May this year, that number was more than 900.

A Salvation Army and Community Housing Aotearoa report released on Tuesday found homelessness in Auckland has more than doubled in the year to September.

But these figures don’t capture all the people sleeping rough in suburban areas; living in their cars, abandoned buildings or couch surfing.

Experts are calling for more funding to find out the true extent of the problem… as the government ponders introducing move-on orders to get rough sleepers out of the CBD.

Along the Onehunga foreshore early on a Tuesday morning, 15 cars were parked up, frost coating their windshields.

Blankets, duffel bags and bags of groceries could be seen through the windows.

The occupants there said that before seven o’clock in the morning, there were 30 cars with people sleeping in them. They had since left for work – some even had full time jobs.

One man Checkpoint spoke to was even working multiple jobs, but was sleeping in his car to avoid paying rent.

“It’s pretty hard, to be honest, it feels like you’re being isolated but I kind of like it in a sense just for my own peace of mind and solitude.

“But at the same time, there’s not really much of a community out here.”

He had been living in his car for about a year.

“Early mornings and then head out to work, come back when it’s nighttime and before the gates close. They have shower facilities here and there’s a nearby swimming pool.”

The man said he had been applying for full-time jobs but hadn’t had much luck. He said he thinks it’s partly because of his criminal record from a few years ago.

“There’s so [many] factors that [are] kind of holding me back from getting work. For me, inexperience and a criminal record from a long time ago.”

Families with ‘nowhere else to go’

On nearby State Avenue, what is now an abandoned lot was once a row of abandoned houses.

Auckland Councillor Josephine Bartley said before they were demolished, a family of four was living in one of them.

“Late at night they’d come back, and they’d go through the barriers and slip into the house, because they had nowhere else to go.”

She said homelessness in Auckland’s suburbs has become more noticeable.

“It’s not public, but you can tell because you can see the cars in the parks in the morning, you can see that there’s blankets, you can see it all around.

“Then you’ve also got people who are couch surfing and older people.”

Kildare Peterson has been supporting rough sleepers for several years. He said homelessness in the suburbs is rife.

“They’d rather buy food to feed their kids and instead of paying the rent and they can’t afford the power.

“They said it’s a lot easier to live out on the streets or live in their car, because all they have to pay for is petrol, but then they can’t afford to pay their warrant or rego.”

Delphina Soti, general manager of Onehunga St Vincent de Paul’s said she’s seeing overcrowded households reaching out for support.

“When we do our food parcels, it’s for a family of 10, a family of 12, a family of 14, four-bedroom house, garages used up.

“It’s still a significant problem; there’s still not enough houses out there.”

Calls for more research funding

Professor Deidre Brown, a director of MĀPIHI, the Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre said more research is needed to discover the true the extent of homelessness in Aotearoa.

“The hidden nature of this homelessness will only be exacerbated by a lack of data around this.

“It’s already hidden when people are couch surfing and living in garages.

“But when we don’t have people going out and finding the extent of the problem and whether or not that issue is growing, we really can’t make good decisions around housing provision in the future.”

But she said there currently isn’t the funding.

“It concerns me that the changes in the research funding landscape that the current coalition government have instigated over recent years makes it even more difficult to obtain the funding to undertake that research.”

Homelessness in Auckland more than doubles since the year to September

The National Homelessness Data Project was created by The Salvation Army and Community Housing Aotearoa, with Kāhui Tū Kaha, Christchurch Methodist Mission, Housing First Backbone, Wellington City Mission, Downtown Community Ministry.

The project’s latest six-monthly survey showed homelessness in Auckland has more than doubled from 426 to 940 people in the year to September.

It found homelessness is spreading beyond city centres into suburbs and people are being moved from one place to another.

Women and older people are being increasingly impacted, with four out of five homeless women identifying as Māori.

Welfare changes hitting hard

A Citizens Advice Bureau report released last week found because of welfare changes, people are losing the cars they live in and are struggling meet basic living costs.

The report, Mana Āki – Dignity for All, is based on over 10,000 requests to the Citizens Advice Bureau. It calls for the welfare system to accommodate for the complexity of people’s real-life circumstances and to treat people with dignity.

It found government policies such as benefit sanctions, tighter emergency housing criteria and cuts to community services had worsened hardship.

In September this year, the government funded an extra 300 social homes through Housing First and put $10 million towards support services for people sleeping rough.

Ministry of Social Development staff were also told to use greater discretion when looking at emergency housing applications.

Meanwhile, Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith is currently seeking advice on additional measures to enhance safety in Aotearoa’s CBDs, including the potential use of move-on orders for rough sleepers.

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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 investigating the homicide of a Rotorua man are urging residents near where he died to check their properties for items the offender may have left behind.

Nicholas Patrick Mitchell, 37, was found dead in a vehicle on Ford Road in the city shortly before 8:30pm on Friday.

Police said inquiries suggest his injuries are not consistent with a crash.

Senior Sergeant Mark Van Kempen is asking residents around Ford Road to check their properties for possible evidence.

He said it’s possible the offender discarded clothing, weapons or other items while fleeing the scene.

Police are following a number of leads.

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