Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A senior police officer is facing an employment investigation relating to a complaint that was laid nearly a year ago.

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said he has previously expressed concerns about matters involving employees taking too long to investigate and set an expectation that employment matters be resolved within 60 days.

RNZ can reveal a complaint about the senior police officer was made last year. It’s understood the complaint is from a female staff member and does not involve allegations of sexual misconduct or criminal offending.

A spokesperson for the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) confirmed to RNZ it was overseeing the case, which was received on 15 May 2025.

“As stated, we have oversight of the matter which is still being progressed by Police.”

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

A police spokesperson confirmed an employment investigation into the senior police officer was under way.

“While the case remains under internal investigation, with oversight from the IPCA, it is not appropriate to provide further details or comment at this time.”

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told RNZ in a statement he was not aware of the details relating to the senior staffer.

However, he said that last year he set an expectation that employment matters should be resolved within 60 days and criminal matters involving staff slightly longer.

“While some issues might require a longer time frame, it should still be completed as promptly as possible.

“As far as I am aware NZ Police has not set timeliness targets for this in the past, but I was concerned many of the matters we deal with were taking too long, and unnecessarily so. That has a significant impact on all of those involved.”

Chambers said a timeliness target set a “clear expectation”.

“The Police Executive have been monitoring overall employment and criminal investigation timeliness.

“We have made progress on this overall. I have set this as a priority because we needed to be doing better than we have been.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

People in the settlement of Clarkville, north of Christchurch, are worried someone could be seriously hurt or killed by gravel trucks pounding their narrow residential roads.

Gravel is being extracted from the Waimakariri River in preparation for the new $1 billion Woodend Bypass motorway.

When locals heard that extraction work, which began in summer, was set to resume again on Monday, they blocked the road – with themselves – in protest of trucks using it to haul thousands of cubic metres of gravel.

Rugged up on a cold Autumn morning, about 20 people stood in a line across Baynons Road.

Resident Sarah Manning said they had been dreading the work starting up again.

“When the trucks were going before and after Christmas it was incessant, there were sometimes five trucks on about a kilometre worth of road, and they all pass each other and they were speeding, there were rocks falling, it was extremely unsafe,” she said

“We had letter in our mailboxes saying it would start today and that their hours would be 7am to 5pm Monday to Friday.”

Leonie Ward lives on Baynons Road and said people were worried about someone being seriously hurt or killed.

“My partner in fact had a rock come through his windscreen. It was about the size of one and a half golf balls and what happens was the rock fell off the truck and bounced off the truck and hit his windscreen. He said if he had been on a bike or walking that would’ve killed him,” she said.

“We are firmly of the belief this work should be halted until the issues can be resolved.”

Canterbury Regional Council granted consents almost two years ago for up to 90,000 cubic metres of gravel to be extracted from the Waimakariri and Ashley Rivers for the Woodend Bypass.

Baynons Road resident Juliet Edwards said people were not given any notice that their roads were part of the haulage route.

She said trucks had been pounding past their front gates, the local school and through a horse riding reserve.

“Everytime a truck comes past our house shakes like a miniature earthquake. And when that’s happening every five minutes, and because I work from home, it’s awful it’s so distracting. It actually affects your mental health in the end,” she said.

Edwards had stopped riding her horses.

“We actually moved here because of this road because it’s lovely and quiet and it was actually a safe place to ride our horses. We can’t now when the trucks come, it’s terrifying and we just don’t want to risk it,” she said.

Edwards said locals had been raising concerns with the Waimakariri District Council for months but felt like they had not been heard.

She said there was a safer river-haul road that gravel trucks could be using instead.

The trucks did not arrive on Monday, and the Waimakariri District Council said it would consider whether it should look at an alternative haulage route at a meeting on Tuesday.

The council said it had been working closely with locals and contractors to ensure concerns around safety, behaviour and disruption were understood ahead of works starting.

Initial works would be taking place between May and September.

“While these works are to enable the Woodend Bypass, they are removing elevated shingle levels within the riverbed which present a significant flood risk that needs to be addressed,” a council spokesperson said.

“The removal of material from the riverbed is necessary and will help reduce the risk of flooding for nearby properties as well as the wider community downstream.”

The council said mitigations had been put in place including a maximum speed of 40km/h for all trucks and operations limited to weekdays only.

Edwards said residents would be ready if the gravel trucks did return.

“We’ll do everything we can to stop them. If the powers that be can’t stop them then it’s up to us to stop them, we will be lying across the road if that’s what it takes. We will be linking arms and we will be in their way. We’re not going to let them do this,” she said.

Transport agency and council responds

New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said it was aware of the concerns of residents, and contractors would work to reduce any disruption to the locals.

Canterbury Regional Council regulatory implementation general manager Paul Hulse said gravel extraction in the Waimakariri River was vital for reducing flood risk.

“For this consent it was assessed, given the mitigations (including conditions of consent) and limits of what was proposed, that there were no grounds for notification under the Resource Management Act 1991,” he said.

“In terms of the haulage routes, our role is limited to determining where contractors can access the river and remove gravel. The location of these access points depends on a range of factors, including a site’s proximity to the roading network, existing tracks within the riverbed, other vehicle movements/activities, the sensitivity of surrounding environment with an aim to minimise nuisance where possible.

“Once the trucks leave the regional park land which is owned by us, it’s up to local councils to manage the traffic effects.”

Hulse said there were no available alternative access points within the regional park that would not affect a similar number of residents and park users.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– 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 caving trip has described how he was convinced he would die as he tried to push students to safety while he was fully submerged in a raging torrent.

The man, who is subject to a non-publication order and cannot be named, was one of two teachers on a fateful Whangārei Boys’ High School outdoor education trip to Abbey Caves on 9 May 2023.

He gave evidence on Monday in a Coroner’s inquest into the death of 15-year-old Karnin Petera, who drowned after his group was caught in a flash flood.

The other 16 boys and two adults managed to get out alive.

The teacher said the trip – one of many he had led through the caves on the outskirts of Whangārei – had started normally, with the boys excited to be underground and enjoying the spectacle of glow worms on the cave walls.

MetService had issued an orange heavy rain warning for Northland but the local forecast for Whangārei indicated only light rain that morning.

A band of heavy rain was expected that afternoon so the trip started earlier and was limited to one cave, Organ Cave, instead of the usual three.

The teacher said he had explored Organ Cave after Cyclone Gabrielle, to learn how it was affected by heavy rain, and had found the water to be only knee deep.

He said there was only drizzle when the Year 11 group entered the cave.

The boys had been about to try to make their way through a tight point known as The Squeeze when the teacher noticed the stream rising and the sound of water running through the cave growing louder.

He decided to cut the trip short but as they neared the cave entrance, the stream became a torrent.

It went from waist deep to neck deep “within seconds” and was moving “incredibly quickly”, he said.

The force of the water through the cave made it extremely difficult to get out.

The teacher used his body to block part of the flow and lifted any students swept towards him over his shoulder so they could climb out.

The first few got out with ease but the others were struggling to pull themselves up over a large boulder at the entrance, which he described as “near impossible”.

He grabbed one boy and held him up by his overalls to keep his head above water.

“The others were pushing each other under the water and fighting to get on top of the boulder in sheer panic. I yelled at them just to hold onto the rocks and not push each other under … another five or so students then came down the river and basically crashed against me and each other. Many students panicked at the exit and were pulling down on each other as they tried to get their heads above the water.”

By then, the water was up to the teacher’s neck and had started lapping across his face.

He was pushing boys up so students who were already outside the cave could pull them to safety.

One boy was completely underwater with only the top of his helmet showing.

“I tried to reach my arm down to push him but my leg gave way and I was pulled under the water. I tried to find some holds or something to try and pull myself back to the surface but had no luck,” he said.

“I was completely out of breath and thought I was going to die. I tried to calm my mind. I had all kinds of vivid memories coming into my mind from childhood and then a strong image of my wife and children came into view.”

At that point, he saw a gumboot beside him.

“I thought that if I could grab this leg and push off the bottom I may be able to get the student’s head out of the water and in a position where he could be pulled up by others.”

It worked, and he also managed to wedge his foot into a crack and push himself out of the water for a deep breath of air.

“I managed to get both arms out of the water and onto a boulder. At this point I had nothing left in me but I was safe.”

The teacher pulled himself out of the cave, then climbed back in along the wall to rescue two more boys trapped on a ledge.

He said the students were shaken, exhausted and cold, and he was vomiting due to the amount of water he had swallowed.

They gathered partway up the hill to do a headcount and realised Karnin was missing.

“At this point I completely broke down,” he said.

The teacher described himself as “extremely risk averse” and said he did everything in his power to ensure the students were safe given the circumstances.

“What happened on this day has devastated me and shaken me to my core,” he said.

The teacher had since learned that the rainfall intensity reached 30mm per hour after the group entered the cave, far above the 0.5-1.7mm/h forecast that morning.

“I’ve never seen a river in a cave rise like this, even in heavy rainfall.”

The teacher said he had first visited, and fallen in love with, Abbey Caves as a 16-year-old.

That experience had convinced him to pursue a career that would allow him to share his love of the outdoors with others.

He was, however, no longer working in outdoor education, which he found “deeply saddening”.

Trauma was one reason, but another was that he no longer felt he could rely on weather forecasts to keep outdoor activities safe.

“I’ve made the decision to not return to outdoor education, not because I lost my passion for it, but because of the growing unpredictability of extreme weather events,” he said.

“We’re seeing flooding occur with little or no warning, alongside instances where conditions appear safe despite official weather alerts.”

He hoped students would still have opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, but safely, even as the climate changed.

“I’ve always believed that if we don’t see, touch, feel and experience the natural world, we risk losing our connection to it.”

The teacher addressed Karnin’s whānau, saying he hoped the inquest would bring some degree of closure as they continued to “hold tightly to the memories of your beautiful son”.

The teacher gave the court his own list of changes he wanted to see as a result of the tragedy.

They included:

• Clear, standardised EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) documentation free from ambiguous wording;
• An EOTC coordinator to check all trip documentation on the day, with authority to cancel if justified;
• A single, nationally recognised weather forecaster for outdoor education to ensure consistency and reduce the risk of conflicting information;
• Clear, consistent forecasting, with education for staff on how to accurately interpret weather data;
• Flexibility in schools’ EOTC planning so outdoor education activities can be rescheduled;
• Outdoor education programmes to be led by properly qualified and experienced staff;
• Class sizes and supervision ratios to be standardised and strictly adhered to;
• Clear rules for when EOTC should not go ahead due to weather. For example, an orange rain warning could be an automatic trigger to cancel any water-related activities.

The inquest, before Coroner Alexander Ho in the Whangārei Courthouse, will continue on Tuesday with evidence from the other teacher on the caving trip.

Also due to give evidence this week are a representative of the school’s Board of Trustees and a district council health and safety manager.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A microbiologist says it’s crucial to discover the source of a suspected rare virus that’s hitting passengers on a cruise ship.

Three have died in what was thought to be an outbreak of hantavirus on a ship that was now anchored off the coast of west Africa.

Another passenger, a 69 year-old man, was also in intensive care and the company operating the cruise ship said it was confirmed he had the virus.

Oceanwide Expeditions said there were a further two passengers still on board who were symptomatic.

The ship was on a journey from Argentina to the Canary islands, carrying 150 tourists.

WHO is aware of and supporting a public health event involving a cruise vessel sailing in the Atlantic Ocean. To date, one case of hantavirus infection has been laboratory confirmed, and there are five additional suspected cases. Of the six affected individuals, three have died… pic.twitter.com/SqMAAZzoID

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 3, 2026

Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles told Checkpoint the virus was caught from excretions from infected rodents.

“People tend to get infected either by breathing in dust that has this material on it, or by touching it, then touching their face, or by being bitten by a rodent,” Wiles said.

“So it’s not the sort of thing that you expect on a cruise ship.”

She said the cruise company needed to figure out if the infection came from a rodent infestation on the ship, or from infected food, or some other source.

Wiles said human to human transmission was rare, but the virus was spreading through the air, and passengers should be wearing masks to protect themselves and stop its spread.

Symptoms started with common virus ailments such as fatigue and muscle aches, then victims ended up with a serious lung disease which could be deadly in two to four out of every 10 people who get it, she said.

“The interesting thing is whether one person was exposed and is transmitting it to others, or whether lots of people have been exposed,” Wiles said. “Understanding how they’re catching it will help to stop the spread.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Nelson Hospital has had its second power outage within six months.

Health New Zealand says Nelson Hospital lost power for eight minutes this morning, though the Uninterrupted Power Supply was able to restore power immediately to critical areas.

The hospital also lost power in October, and on that occasion the back-up generator failed.

Health New Zealand’s spokesperson Jo Gibbs said there was no impact on patient safety and no patients had to be transferred, but a small number of procedures had to be postponed.

“We have robust protocols in place to manage ongoing emergency care during these kinds of events,” said Gibbs.

“We extend our apologies to any patients and their whānau who may have been impacted today and thank our staff for following plans quickly and calmly to ensure the safest possible outcome for patients.”

Health NZ will now do an incident debrief to identify the cause and extent of the outage, and potential opportunities to improve its systems.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hayden Tasker was drunk, annoyed about life and motivated by anger toward police before he drove into two officers in Nelson, killing one and critically injuring another, a court has heard.

Tasker, 33, is on trial at the Christchurch High Court for the murder of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2025.

The Crown argues Tasker had murderous intent when he drove at police, while his defence lawyer told jurors the tragedy was a result of Tasker trying to take his own life.

The jury was played CCTV footage of the night Fleming and colleague Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay were struck by Tasker’s white Honda Odyssey.

The pair had been on foot patrol in Buxton Square in central Nelson.

Crown prosecutor Mark O’Donoghue told the jury that Tasker had murderous intent when he hit the police officers, his vehicle dragging Fleming across the carpark for around 20 metres, causing unsurvivable injuries.

“The Crown case in a nutshell is that Mr Tasker intentionally drove into those two police officers. He appreciated that death was a likely consequence of accelerating as hard as he could and driving into them and he showed that he was willing to run the risk of causing their death by driving into them all the same.”

Ramsay was thrown into the air, resulting in a dislocated shoulder a deep cut on his head and multiple other cuts and abrasions.

O’Donoghue said Tasker had been living in his car in Motueka. On New Year’s Eve he bought several bottles of wine and spent time with friends, before driving into central Nelson and arriving in Buxton Square.

“During this time he drank about half a bottle of wine, he drank rapidly, he sculled it, as he put it, and he was ruminating and brooding on his personal life circumstances,” he said.

While sitting in his car, O’Donoghue said Tasker’s thoughts turned to anger towards the police.

A short time later, Tasker started his car and with the lights off, turned around and “accelerated as hard as he could”, driving straight towards Fleming and Ramsay and hitting them, causing other members of the public to leap out of the way.

“To use his own words, he f***ing planted it,” O’Donoghue said.

O’Donoghue said Fleming suffered catastrophic, unsurvivable head injuries.

“She had to be resuscitated at the scene and she was taken to Nelson Hospital by ambulance. There she was placed on life support until her family could gather to say goodbye,” he said.

Ramsay was thrown about eight metres and landed beside a police car.

O’Donoghue said Tasker then turned his lights on and looped back to drive towards the officers, ramming a police car and leaving the officer inside concussed.

The car was shunted forward, injuring a member of the public who had gone to Ramsay’s aid.

Tasker admitted three charges of dangerous driving at the beginning of the trial. He was three times over the legal blood alcohol limit.

Defence lawyer Josh Lucas said Tasker was drunk, homeless, unemployed and suffering from depression at the time of the crash.

“Mr Tasker made a failed suicide attempt, which went wrong from the moment it started,” he said.

Lucas said it was a tragedy that Fleming was killed and Ramsay and others injured and it was something Tasker would have to live with for the rest of his life.

“He regrets what happened. He is sorry for the loss and harm he caused. As he said to the police when interviewed, ‘it should have been me who died that night’,” he said.

Lucas told the jurors they would need to review all of the evidence, including what Tasker told the police shortly after he was arrested, the length of time between when he first began to drive towards the police car and when he hit them, the effects of alcohol on his state of mind that night in determining his intent.

A jury of six men and six women are hearing the trial, which is set down for three weeks.

More than 40 witnesses are expected to be called.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A minutes-old baby, who died on his mother’s chest while she was sutured up following his birth, should have been checked more regularly by the midwife tasked with their care, the Health and Disability Commissioner has found.

According to a decision released on Monday by deputy commissioner Rose Wall, the midwife in question breached protocol by failing to check the baby – known as Baby A throughout the report – herself in the hour after his birth.

The incident occurred in August 2019, when the mother – known in the report as Ms A – gave birth at 38 weeks to Baby A at 11.16am with no complications. Baby A was healthy, and placed on his mother’s chest for breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact.

But Ms A had sustained a second-degree perineal tear during labour, which required suturing. The midwife who had been assisting during labour. Midwife A, left the room following the birth of the placenta, and Ms A’s partner also left the room to make a phone call.

Ms A said the second midwife, Midwife B, also briefly left the room to collect equipment for suturing, returned, and checked Baby A before she began perineal suturing.

Suturing began at 12.05pm, and the midwife estimated that the procedure was finished within 20 minutes.

Ms A was provided nitrous oxide gas for pain relief, and Baby A lay skin-to-skin with Ms A throughout.

The commissioner notes from Midwife B’s position at the end of the bed, she was unable to see Baby A’s face while she was suturing.

She said she recalled checking with Ms A twice during the procedure about Baby A’s condition – if he was warm enough and what he was doing – to which Ms A replied that he was warm and that he was sleeping.

When suturing was completed, the midwife briefly left the room to turn on the shower for the mother, and at 12.30pm, she lifted Baby A up to complete a full postnatal check.

But upon picking him up, Midwife B realised he was unresponsive and had stopped breathing.

Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. The Coronial post-mortem report found that the probable cause of Baby A’s death was accidental asphyxiation.

A group called Action to Improve Maternity, in advice to the commissioner, said the midwife should have made her own observations of Baby A’s condition, and it was inappropriate to rely on Ms A’s opinion as she may have been experiencing side effects from the nitrous oxide gas.

Ministry of Health’s guidelines say all mothers and their babies must receive “active and ongoing assessment in the immediate postnatal period” and “the mother and baby should not be left alone – even for a short time” within the hour after birth.

The commissioner finds: “It would have been appropriate for RM B to remove Baby A from skin-to-skin contact for the duration of the procedure or to delay the suturing until another person was available to appropriately monitor him. I am therefore critical of RM B’s failure to adhere to the guidelines for supervision of mother and baby following birth.”

The midwife told the commissioner she accepted she had breached protocol, and provided a letter of apology for forwarding to Baby A’s whānau.

She had since retired from midwifery practice, and the Council had confirmed she did not renew her practising certificate when it expired on 21 March 2022.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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