Radio New Zealand – Page 719

Nelson MP Rachel Boyack opening the new AGB factory in Tasman. RNZ/Samantha Gee

A New Zealand stone fabricator is calling on manufacturers and consumers to end the use of potentially deadly crystalline-silica engineered stone.

About 1000 workers are thought to have been been exposed to high concentrations of respirable crystalline-silica dust while working with engineered stone slabs during the past 15 years.

The product has been banned in Australia and while the New Zealand government considers tighter controls, AGB Stone – one of the country’s largest fabricators – has already made the switch to zero-silica engineered stone and is calling on others to do the same.

The company has been manufacturing bench tops for 18 years and has now opened the country’s first zero-crystalline-silica engineered stone fabrication factory in Tasman.

Co-owner Cam Paranthoiene said the business was no longer using high silica engineered stone after the ban in Australia.

“We went to investigate zero-silica [products] commercially because we lost a big contract, but once we found out the impact on the staff in Australia, we knew that we had to do the same thing for our staff here. We’ve proven that this product works, so why have that risk?” Paranthoiene said.

Zero-silica products now made up 60 percent of AGB’s orders and the plan was to convert the company’s six other factories to zero-crystalline-silica over time, he said.

“This is a milestone day for our industry, that we can run a zero silica engineered stone plant. So, where are the governance people? Where are the people that are trying to solve silicosis in New Zealand? Why aren’t they standing right here going ‘well done’?”

AGB Stone co-owner Cam Paranthoiene. RNZ/Samantha Gee

How many people have been affected by working with engineered stone?

Engineered stone used in benchtops and flooring has a high silica content. Those working with it may be exposed to respirable crystalline-silica (RCS) dust while cutting, grinding, sanding and polishing the stone. Exposure can lead to a progressive respiratory disease called accelerated silicosis.

An ACC spokesperson said since 2019 the Ministry of Health, WorkSafe and ACC had advised people who had worked with engineered stone for six months or more in the last ten years to have a health check at their GP or medical provider, who could refer them for tests to assess for accelerated silicosis.

An ACC claim could then be lodged on the basis of exposure, not diagnosis.

Data from ACC showed there had been 253 claims lodged as of 15 August for assessment of accelerated silicosis since the corporation’s assessment pathway came into effect in September 2020.

Of those, 30 were accepted for cover and most were for simple or complex silicosis, not accelerated silicosis.

But research published in March by the Public Health Communication Centre found in past 15 years about 1000 NZ workers had been exposed to high concentrations of RCS dust while working with engineered stone slabs.

It said, applying Australian data, 250 of the 1000 New Zealand workers who had fabricated engineered stone in the past 15 years would develop silica-related diseases.

AGB has opened the country’s first zero crystalline silica engineered stone fabrication factory in the Tasman District. RNZ/Samantha Gee

What are we doing about it?

The government is reviewing options to control the health risks associated with engineered stone.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) consulted on various control measures – including a potential ban – while WorkSafe NZ lowered the workplace exposure standard for silica dust and updated guidance for businesses.

The Employers and Manufacturers’ Association, The Council of Trade Unions and MinEx – the national health and safety council for New Zealand’s extractive sector – had advocated for it to be banned.

MBIE sectoral health and safety policy manager Nita Zodgekar said it received 68 submissions from businesses and organisations during public consultation on options to control the risks from engineered stone and other sources of exposure to respirable crystalline silica.

It had now provided advice to Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden.

Zodgekar said any workers who came into contact with RCS were potentially at risk of developing health issues, with approximately 80,000 workers experiencing probable high levels of exposure.

That included a range of industries such as construction and demolition and activities like cutting and grinding concrete products.

It estimated between 600 and 900 workers in engineered stone fabrication were significantly exposed to an elevated risk of silica-related disease.

Van Velden said the government needed to used an evidence-based approach when making decisions around engineered stone.

Several initiatives had been established to encourage businesses to improve their risk management practices, she said.

WorkSafe had conducted inspections in workplaces fabricating engineered stone since 2019, published information for businesses and workers on RCS and silicosis, and reduced the workplace exposure standard for RCS in 2019 and again in 2023.

Inspectors reported businesses were now more aware of the risks of exposure to RCS and overall were managing those risks more effectively, van Velden said.

She was considering the advice from MBIE and would report back to cabinet on the proposed policy direction in due course.

Industry leading the change

Paranthoiene said major industry players should support the safer zero-silica product even though engineered stone products had not been banned in New Zealand.

AGB has opened the country’s first zero crystalline silica engineered stone fabrication factory in the Tasman District. RNZ/Samantha Gee

AGB had spent the last 15 years instigating safer processes to manage the risks of silicosis.

It phased out high-crystalline silica products in 2023 and then introduced zero-crystalline silica engineered stone last year.

“If you’re a good fabricator with really good disciplined systems and controls, you’re okay, but not everyone is okay and that’s the problem,” he said.

“We have to look at this as being about the lowest common denominator in our industry. It’s not the best people, it’s the bottom end and generally the bottom end comes with the most vulnerable workers as well. So you get this double whammy of toxic product, poor systems and then poor application of those systems.”

AGB had worked with kitchen hardware supplier Archant to find zero-silica stone products after the ban across the ditch and sales director Sefton Clare said now that was all they sold.

“We’re just seeing the volumes of the zero-silica product increase going from strength to strength, it’s really a no brainer,” he said.

“When Australia banned engineered stone we just took the simple route and said that anything that’s banned over there, we’re over it, we’re not going to continue with it.”

Archant sales director Sefton Clare. RNZ/Samantha Gee

New Zealand should also ban the product, Clare said.

“We obviously don’t know what the New Zealand government is going to do in this situation, but from a risk adverse perspective it just makes no sense at all to continue with products that they’ve got a cloud over them now, it’s a much safer, easier choice to go for zero.

“One person with silicosis is one too many.”

Nelson MP Rachel Boyack officially opened the new factory in Tasman on Monday and said it was good to see industry taking action where the government had not.

“We know that these products can cause silicosis for workers and that’s devastating for them, so to have a zero-silica engineered stone factory – the first of its kind in New Zealand – operating here in Nelson, sends a really strong signal to the market.”

Nelson MP Rachel Boyack opening the new AGB factory in Tasman. RNZ/Samantha Gee

New Zealand needed to do more to keep people safe at work, Boyack said.

“Likewise customers actually need to take some responsibility in terms of the products that they’re choosing to purchase. There has been publicity around these products so when you’re making your purchase you should be checking what is the silica quantity within the product and ideally choosing a zero silica product.”

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

November 17, 2025

IT system at Wellington Hospital a ‘constant risk’ to patient safety, says union

Source: Radio New Zealand

There have been performance issues and recurring outages with the IT system at Wellington Hospital. RNZ / REECE BAKER

The union for senior doctors says an IT system introduced this year at Wellington Hospital is a “constant risk” to patient safety.

The system was very slow and crashed all the time, Sarah Dalton – head of the Association Of Salaried Medical Specialists – told Midday Report on Monday.

Health New Zealand said there were “performance and stability issues” but it had safeguards in place to ensure patient information was not lost.

It would “keep pushing until the system is stable and reliable”.

RNZ has seen one email from the hospital front line that said: “Wellington’s IT disaster has become so bad that some specialists are now cancelling/cutting back their clinics as they can’t get through all their patients.”

Dalton said they had been trying for months to get a meeting with Health NZ about this, which they now expected to be in a week or so, as what Health NZ had called “teething” problems got worse.

“We now believe the failure of the system is a constant risk both to efficiency but more concerningly to patient safety,” she said.

It took two to three minutes to load a screen with a patient’s information – for example, what medications a sedated patient was on – then regularly crashed when multiple screens were needed.

“It’s pushing back to paper-based workarounds to try and care safely for patients.”

Health NZ chief information technology officer Darren Douglass said performance problems arose in March, and they set up a team to fix them, including working with the supplier, replacing older hardware and improving remote access.

Dalton said the system would be very useful in linking all sorts of medical specialists, if it worked.

She understood any fixes would likely take months.

This was linked to the government and Health NZ stripping $100m and key roles – mislabelled back office, said Dalton – from data and digital teams.

“We can see here a direct negative impact on patient care.”

The Public Service Association echoed that line: “We warned the government last year that cutting IT staff at Health NZ Te Whatu Ora was playing with fire.”

Health NZ’s Douglass said clinicians had processes in place to ensure critical information was not missed.

“While the system is still working, it can be slow to access functions and open clinical documents, especially during busy times,” he said in a statement on Monday.

“This performance issue and recurring outages have made it harder for clinicians to access patient information quickly.

“While the risk is low, any disruption is taken seriously and safeguards are in place to ensure critical patient information is not lost.”

Patient safety remained the top priority and urgent care was prioritised.

“While these issues can add time to some tasks, we are working hard to minimise any impact on wait times.”

The PSA called on the privacy commissioner to investigate.

“The privacy commissioner refused our request to investigate privacy risks to patient data last year,” national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said in a statement on Monday.

“We say he needs to think again – before patients are harmed and confidential health information is compromised.”

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

November 17, 2025

World’s largest indigenous education conference kicks off in Auckland

Source: Radio New Zealand

Pōwhiri for the start of four-day WIPCE 2025 conference. Tamaira Hook

The world’s largest indigenous education conference has kicked off in Auckland, bringing with it thousands of indigenous educators from around the world.

About 3000 people were welcomed by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei for the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education 2025 (WIPCE) with a pōwhiri at the city’s waterfront on Sunday.

Around 3800 delegates are expected to attend the conference at the Aotea Centre over the week.

Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is hosting the event which is set to be the largest academic conference hosted in New Zealand this year.

WIPCE 2025 attendees fill out Auckland’s Cloud for the beginning of the conference. Tamaira Hook

WIPCE 2025 Co-Chair and AUT Vice-Chancellor Damon Salesa said it was an honour to host such an extraordinary range of speakers.

“Each kaikōrero brings their unique perspectives and knowledge. This conference is an opportunity to listen, learn and be inspired by those who continue to lead and shape Indigenous education across the world,” he said.

WIPCE 2025 co-chair Damon Salesa (right) at the conference opening. Tamaira Hook

The four-day conference features keynote presentations from a number of Māori academics including educator Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, linguistic and cultural revilitalists Professor Leonie Pihama and Raniera Proctor, legal academic Eru Kapa-Kingi and Māori movie star Cliff Curtis.

There are also a number of break out sessions, guest speakers and panels discussions featuring academics from around the world.

Professor Meihana Durie WIPCE 2025

WIPCE 2025 Co-Chair Meihana Durie said the gathering comes at a pivotal time for indigenous education and indigenous rights more broadly.

“We are immensely grateful for the pōwhiri yesterday hosted by iwi manaaki, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, which highlighted the sheer importance of those themes within the unique dimensions of Indigenous ceremony, language and ritual.”

“WIPCE is the only educational platform designed specifically for native peoples from around the world to come together to share our stories, our challenges and our successes with each other.” he said.

Tamaira Hook

Outside of the conference is the Te Ao Pūtahi, a free, public festival with live performances from Māori artists inlcluding kapa haka rōpu Ngā Tūmanako, Sons of Zion, Corrella, Jackson Owens and Betty-Anne and a number of food and gift stalls.

Tewnty-one cultural excursions named Te Ao Tirotiro will also be held across the city including an onboard waka sailing demonstration and a hāngi.

The conference ends on Thursday.

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

November 17, 2025

Heavy rain, humidity and warm nights to hit parts of the country

Source: Radio New Zealand

Heavy rain warnings and watches have been set over parts of the country as a warm air mass approaches the country. MetService/Screenshot

An active warm air mass will be “rung out like a sponge” over parts of the country this week, bringing heavy rain warnings, humidity and warm nights.

MetService issued orange heavy rain warnings for the next two days over parts of the North Island including Tauranga, Rotorua and Coromandel and a heavy rain watch over Hamilton, Taupo and New Plymouth.

Some of the South Island’s West Coast also received orange warnings with parts of Southland including Te Anau being on a strong wind watch.

Most of the warnings are set to be active from Tuesday and continue to Wednesday.

️ Heavy rain will begin in the western South Island tonight and continue through Tuesday night

With high terrain likely to receive 200-300 mm or more in about 24 hours, streams and rivers in the West Coast will rise rapidly and may end up well above normal or extremely high pic.twitter.com/leNCtlBfJp

— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) November 17, 2025

MetService meteorologist Alec Holden said the rain warnings and watches were due to different reasons for each island.

“For the South Island, we have a very large frontal feature that is crossing the island over the next couple of days,” he said.

“Ahead of it, it is directing a large, very moist and warm air mass almost straight from the tropics down over the top of the North Island. . . we’re expecting that to be wrung out like a sponge.”

The Bay of Plenty was a particular area of concern which currently had an orange warning, but there was a moderate chance of it turning into a red warning.

Although there was no warning set in place for Auckland, Holden said that could change as they were monitoring the area closely.

He also said with heavy rain warnings there was the risk of flooding and in parts of the North Island there was also a risk of thunderstorms developing in the “very energetic tropical air mass”.

The warm air mass, which acts similarly to an atmospheric river, would be coming to the North Island from the northeast of the country.

It is set to bring not only rain, but higher humidity and warm temperatures especially at night.

Holden said temperatures during the day would be within the average for this time of year, however, night-time temperatures are expected to be warmer than usual.

“Places like Auckland, for example, they only have like a four degree difference between their maximum daytime temperature and their minimum nighttime temperature over the next couple of days.”

Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be wet, but as the system starts to move away towards the end of Wednesday, a ridge of high pressure would give most of the country a “reprieve from the wet weather”.

Although heavy rain is forecasted for a majority of the country, Christchurch and the East Coast of the South Island are the places to be.

Holden said warm temperatures would hit those parts of the South Island, but very little rain is expected.

“There’s always the chance of something sneaking over, but it looks like they will, if they get anything, they will be quite unlucky.”

Earth Sciences New Zealand meteorologist Chris Brandolino said the weather activity forecasted over the next couple of days was not uncommon during a La Niña cycle.

“It’s consistent with La Niña, so La Niña has emerged in the pacific and La Niña tends to increase the odds for these types of air flows which increase the odds for impactful rainfall events”

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

November 17, 2025

Hundreds to commemorate loss of ancestors on Waerenga-A-Hika 160 years ago

Source: Radio New Zealand

Shaan Te Kani

Hundreds of people will this week commemorate the loss, arrest and deportation of their ancestors in a siege that took place 160 years ago on Waerenga-A-Hika near Gisborne.

Over five days, the pā was flattened, 71 Māori living at the pā and 11 government soldiers were killed and many more including elderly, women and children were captured, arrested and deported to the Chatham Islands.

The lands were partitioned and given to soldiers whose families today are sixth generation farmers, orchardists and viticulturists.

Artist, iwi historian and Gisborne District Councillor Nick Tupara’s five times great-grandfather was killed in the battle, he was a carver and teacher of the arts.

“His loss marks the total destruction of that school and the removal of our mātauranga and our knowledge and that weighs very heavily on the family,” he said. “From that point we took the name Kerekere from a reference to te Pōkerekere a deep intense darkness and not only a darkness because of the loss of ancestors land but also the loss of that ancestral knowledge.”

This years commemorations begin on Tuesday evening with the opening of the Waerenga-a-Hika exhibition at the Tairawhiti Museum, it features a collection of historic pieces including taonga from the battle and contemporary artworks.

On Saturday, there will also be a commemoration at the battle site.

Tupara said that by 1865 when the pā was attacked the East Coast was the only area that was untouched by war between the Crown and Māori.

“Colonial settlement was occurring pretty rapidly across the whole of the country and the Tairāwhiti was the last of all of that and eventually war was going to come here in some form or another.”

Waerenga-a-Hika was established where it was because it was a fertile area, whare wānanga that taught carving and weaving were also based there, he said.

“It was a place where people could feel safe and settled… it’s probably the last place I would classify as being a fortress or a place of military action, we have far stronger examples of that in our rohe, but this place was a place to gather, grow kai.”

Waerenga-ā-Hika pā in ruins after it was attacked in 1865. Alexander Turnbull Library Reference: 1/2-008137; F

Tupara said local iwi were well connected with the settler communities, many tīpuna had been baptised in the church and many had also married settlers.

The principle reason given for the attack on Waerenga-a-Hika was a clash between followers of the Pai Mārire religion and Europeans and Māori who opposed the religion, he said.

“My personal view on that is that was a tool to instil fear and anxiety amongst the settlers, to create significant worry to justify the intervention of troops.”

Tupara said another motivating factor was to clear the land for settlement.

With the exile of a large number of people to the Chatham Islands the land was surveyed and parcelled out to settlers, he said.

Tupara said he is hopeful that the commemorations can raise the consciousness of the battle among the local community.

“It’s remembered rather poorly, it’s remembered by the families who lost ancestors, it’s remembered by the hapū and the iwi who lost their land and their resources.”

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

November 17, 2025

Man jailed after using fake identities to gain NZ residence

Source: Radio New Zealand

He was sentenced to three years in prison. RNZ

A man has been sentenced to three years in prison for using false identities and forged documents to obtains visas and residence in New Zealand.

Immigration NZ said the man, aged 50, and his 44-year-old partner arrived using the identities of Hungarian nationals.

Over the next five years, they submitted a series of fraudulent visa applications, including visitor, work, resident and citizenship applications, using forged documents and false declarations.

The couple admitted 16 charges of immigration and identity fraud when they appeared in the Auckland District Court.

The woman was sentenced to 11 months home detention.

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

November 17, 2025

IT system at Wellngton Hospital a ‘constant risk’ to patient safety, says union