Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two more police staff’s internet usage is being “assessed” for potential misuse, RNZ can reveal.

A rapid review of staff internet usage was sparked by the resignation of former deputy commissioner Jevon McSkimming after child sexual exploitation and bestiality material were found on his work devices.

RNZ recently revealed a senior police staffer’s internet usage was “under assessment” following an audit of senior staff and leaders.

On Tuesday, Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers told RNZ in a statement two new cases of potential misuse were currently being assessed.

“In total, police have now investigated 22 cases following audits of internet use.

“To date, 12 have been resolved through disciplinary action or performance management. Four staff have resigned through the process.”

Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz

Three staff remain under investigation for potentially objectionable and inappropriate searches. Three staff have been stood down.

No charges have been filed to date.

RNZ earlier revealed that the police’s executive leadership team (ELT) had agreed to look at internet usage for staff in senior leadership positions over a 12-month period.

RNZ earlier obtained a series of emails in relation to the audit of senior leaders under the OIA.

This includes an email from Police Commissioner Richard Chambers to senior leaders on 1 December last year.

In the email, Chambers said the ELT had agreed to additional internet usage checks over all existing staff in senior leadership positions.

“This will include myself as Commissioner, Assistant Commissioners, Executive Directors, District Commanders, Directors, and the leadership of the Firearms Safety Authority and Next Generational Critical Comms (NGCC).

“These audits will check staff internet usage and search histories on police devices for the past 12 months.”

Those who were in contention to be Deputy Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners had already undergone an “extensive audit” as part of the selection process, Chambers said.

Police chief of staff Cassandra Anderson earlier told RNZ the audit of senior staff and leaders had concluded.

“There were no concerns about the usage of the executive leadership team, the senior leadership team, and District Commanders.”

However, two “matters of potential concern” were identified among the “wider cohort of senior staff who were included in the audit”.

“One matter relating to potential misuse is under assessment.

“The other was a minor issue which was investigated and has been resolved.”

No other usage of concern was identified across senior staff, Anderson said.

“Ongoing regular checks of all staff device use, including leaders, will continue and have been implemented as part of NZ Police’s routine practice.”

Checks on staff seeking promotion to the ranks of Superintendent or above would also be conducted, in line with the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s recommendation.

“The Commissioner is confident the tighter controls implemented after the Rapid Review and the use of alerting and regular auditing has greatly strengthened our ability to quickly detect instances of inappropriate content and misuse of police devices.”

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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 an 11-year-old Hamilton boy who had been missing since last Wednesday has been found safe and well.

The boy was last seen in Glenview on 29 April but police say he has now been located.

Earlier police had said that they and his family were concerned for his wellbeing.

Police thanked all those who provided information which helped to locate the boy.

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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 ACT party is proposing to ease pressure on GPs by getting pharmacists to treat more everyday conditions, have them manage long-term medication and conduct skin checks.

ACT leader David Seymour announced the party policy at the Northern Club in Auckland on Tuesday.

Seymour was speaking at a Health Innovators’ Summit hosted by health insurer nib and supported by the New Zealand Initiative.

Calling himself the “medicine guy”, Seymour also briefly outlined some of the focus he’s had as Pharmac minister.

He then discussed what he called a tangible step toward making better use of the talent in healthcare.

As announced in April Seymour said from June this year pharmacists can treat things like head lice, scabies, and oral rehydration.

Seymour wanted this extended to chest infections, ear infections, skin infections and acute pain.

He said if a pharmacist can treat the condition directly, the patient gets a good result, and it saves a number of appointments in another part of the system.

He indicated some patients would still need a GP and some symptoms would still need urgent medical attention, but that was “exactly how triage works”.

The second part of the party proposal was managing long-term medication.

Seymour said for many people their main interaction with the health system was ongoing management for a condition. He said they might know their medication is working and “simply need it renewed”, or they need a blood test to check the dose is right.

“But instead of a quick, practical interaction with a trained health professional, they are sent back into the GP queue.”

He said ACT would allow pharmacists to manage that for appropriate patients, including ordering blood tests where needed, while GPs would retain the overall clinical visibility and responsibility.

“Results would be integrated into the shared health record. Pharmacists would manage routine monitoring and identify when a patient needs to be referred back to their GP.”

Not all patients would be suitable, but a large number of stable patients could have “routine medication reviews” managed more conveniently through their local pharmacy he said.

The last proposal was to allow accredited pharmacies to provide skin lesion triage and monitoring.

Under this proposal, the pharmacist would use a dermatoscope and an approved AI risk-assessment tool to assess a lesion, Seymour explained.

He said it wouldn’t be a diagnosis, but a “triage” in which there would be two possible outcomes.

“If the lesion is above the risk threshold, the patient would be referred to a GP or specialist,” he said. The dermoscopic image would be attached, meaning the next clinician receives useful information “rather than starting from scratch.”

“If the lesion is below the risk threshold, the image would be securely stored, and the patient would be scheduled for longitudinal recall,” he said.

They would then receive a reminder to come back and get another check.

Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Seymour was asked if this would just transfer the pressure from GPs to pharmacies. He said pharmacies don’t have to take on the extra work but the experience currently was that people can see their pharmacist quicker for a vaccination then they can see their GP.

Seymour said they hadn’t done “mathematical modelling” to give an absolute indication of how much sooner people might be able to see their GPs due to the policy, “but the things we know for sure is that it’s going to be more affordable, more efficient and faster than cramming everyone into a GP for minor ailments.

“How big that benefit is? We can’t say right now, but we believe there is a benefit, and that’s a good reason to do it.”

Asked about Labour’s policy to deliver three free GP visits for people, Seymour said it was a “soundbite policy for political reasons rather than an actual sensible approach to healthcare economics.”

He said Labour’s policy would see more people seeing a GP when their problem could have been solved another way, but the party wasn’t providing the additional money or training additional doctors to serve it.

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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 student pilot “misjudged the landing” and his plane’s propellor struck the ground at Whanganui Airport on Tuesday afternoon, causing some damage and leaving the student shaken up.

New Zealand Airline Academy director and head of training Celroy Mascarenhas said a student was practising take-offs and landings on a solo flight, when he “misjudged the landing”.

The student is safe, Mascarenhas said, but “shaken up a little bit”.

The airplane had small amounts of damage, and was being assessed.

He said the student would receive “a bit of remedial training to fix the propeller technique”.

The student was flying solo in a small two-seater plane, which he had done about five times prior and successfully landed, Mascarenhas said.

“We don’t want these things happening. It’s rather unfortunate, but it’s learning for us.”

FENZ told RNZ it had received reports about an incident at the airport.

However, a spokesperson said “on arrival the crews were stood down”.

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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 waste management company has been charged after an employee was killed at Te Anau transfer station last May.

WorkSafe has been investigating the death of Southland woman Lynda Kelly at the transfer station operated by WasteCo.

WasteCo has confirmed it has been charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

The company said it continues to support those affected and remains focused on its ongoing health and safety reset across the business.

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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 teacher on a fatal school caving trip says he didn’t consider waiting out a flood in a higher passage because at that time he believed the safest option was to get out of the cave.

The teacher, who was cross-examined on Tuesday in an inquest into the 2023 Abbey Caves tragedy in Whangārei, said when he decided to cut the trip short the main risk was that the students could roll their ankles in the knee-deep water.

At the time – based on his many visits to Organ Cave, including after heavy rain – he didn’t believe flash flooding was a risk.

He knew the two other caves in the area, Middle Cave and Ivy Cave, did flood.

The teacher said there was light drizzle as the Year 11 group entered the cave, but the colour and level of the water at the entrance was normal for the time of year.

He noticed the water rising – he put it at “2 to 3 inches” – and decided the safest thing to do was to exit the cave, regroup outside, have some food, and go back in to continue exploring an area known as The Squeeze if conditions allowed.

If they had decided to wait in the upper passage, the group had limited light, no food, and no idea of how long they would have to wait.

The teacher was also aware heavy rain was forecast that afternoon.

He said it was only when the group passed an area called The Rockfall and got close to the exit that the water started rising with alarming speed.

He described the water as going from knee deep to neck deep in a period of, at most, two minutes – but possibly as little as 30 seconds.

The teacher told the court he still could not understand why the water rose so quickly, and said he had not seen anything like it in all his years of caving.

He had thought about it often and wondered whether part of the cave had been blocked by debris, or if a blockage upstream had suddenly burst.

“It almost came in like a wave, which is not what caves do … That’s still a mystery to me.”

Ellie Harrison, lawyer for the family of Karnin Petera, the 15-year-old who died, quizzed the teacher about why he did not consider staying in the upper passage.

The teacher said he had hopped into the water to check the level in the main passage and found it was only knee-deep.

Had the flash flood hit minutes earlier, they would have stayed in the upper passage, he said.

Harrison also asked about the group’s lack of emergency communication.

She said Karnin’s father, Andre Petera, had called the school twice to raise concerns about flooding in Whangārei city, but the receptionist had “brushed him off”.

Even if the receptionist had tried to pass on those concerns, there was no way of contacting the group because there was no cellphone coverage beyond the Abbey Caves car park.

The lack of another form of communication had also caused a delay in raising the alarm, with some of the boys having to run to a nearby house to call 111, she said.

However, the teacher said having a satellite phone would have made little difference, because it was only a short distance uphill to reach cellphone coverage.

In any case, he would not have had a chance to make a satellite call because he was still inside the cave rescuing students when the alarm was raised.

The second adult on the trip would to start giving his evidence this afternoon.

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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 searched the property and bank accounts of a farmer missing for over four months.

Kevin Belling, 62, was last seen at his Motu Rimu farm on Friday 9 January and was reported missing on 18 January.

Detective sergeant John Kean said police were continuing their investigation, and had completed extensive searches of Belling’s property.

Officers also checked his bank accounts and phone records, but it failed to shed light on his possible whereabouts, Kean said.

“We continue to appeal to anyone who has any information that could help us find him,” Kean said.

“Police urge the community to be vigilant and check their rural properties for any signs of Kevin.”

If you have information that could assist in the search to locate Belling, contact police online at 105 or call 105, using reference number 260118/6964.

Information could 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

Police now say a door found on a beach near Wellington’s Ōwhiro Bay was a “marketing stunt”.

A woman out for a walk on the city’s south coast had told RNZ she was surprised to come across what appeared to be part of a door from a plane.

Catherine* took pictures and video, with them showing a cream coloured curved panel with a small broken window wedged under a driftwood log, surrounded by yellow tape.

The police told RNZ on Monday they knew nothing about the object.

RNZ followed up with police on Tuesday to ask if there were any updates and a spokesperson replied they had now found the case.

“A plane door situated on the beach at Owhiro Bay area is found to be a marketing stunt,” they said.

“It was placed on the beach on 30 April encompassed in emergency tape and was to remain there for 1-3 days.”

Do you know more? Email sammy.carter@rnz.co.nz

Catherine had shared her images and video on social media, as did another person separately, with the posts sparking dozens of comments from people trying to work out what the object was.

“I thought it was very strange, my first thought is it looked like it was from a plane because of the shape of the window,” Catherine told RNZ.

The mystery sparked dozens of comments, with some saying its numbered markings seem to indicate it was from a plane.

“(I) haven’t heard of anything happening in this area, so when I saw it, I assumed it maybe had washed up from overseas.”

* RNZ has agreed to not use her full name.

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