Radio New Zealand – Page 80

Supplied / Farrel Music / Leo Baron

There is more discord in the music industry over the government helping fund two Robbie Williams concerts.

It has contributed an undisclosed amount from its $70 million Major Events and Tourism Package, $40 million of which is to secure large-scale international events that will attract international visitors.

But some in the industry say it is corporate welfare and believe commercially viable big-name acts would still come here without the funding.

Rob Warner, who has been involved in the local music industry for over 30 years, told Checkpoint the government is being taken for a ride by big players.

“It should worry both taxpayers and anyone who likes live events or values music culture. The schemes, as happened in Australia, have taught the biggest promoters they can hold events to ransom and the minister and MBIE apparently don’t recognise they’re being taken for a ride. Or they’re more concerned about looking good in the lead up to this year’s election.”

Dion Brant is CEO Of Frontier Touring, the company bringing Robbie Williams.

He told Checkpoint the money would not go directly to the popstar but instead make it viable to put on two Aotearoa shows, contributing to around half of what the freight to and from Australia and New Zealand will cost.

He did not disclose how much the government had put towards the shows, and said it was commercial in confidence.

While he said the money wasn’t paying Williams directly to come and play, the money makes it “worthwhile” for the star to play in New Zealand.

“Robbie Williams has a lot of places he can go and play concerts around the world, and these major concerts generate a really big economic impact for the cities and the places they play.

“He’s popular in a lot of places around the world. He has to prioritise that time, and he has to work out where he can get the best return for the machine that is Robbie Williams.”

Brant said putting on the show came with many costs, and the government contribution was a way of ensuring the costs don’t outweigh the returns.

He could not confirm whether Williams would have been able to play the shows without the funding but said it would have been “touch and go”.

“It certainly helps make the balance or the ledger look better, then when we put the options in front of Robbie, it allows him and his people to make a decision.

“[It’s] a way in which the returns on the incredible cost to get there and play there and for the infrastructure is able to be recouped without relying on lots of people buying lots of really expensive tickets.”

Brant said the benefit returned the taxpayer with the livelihood international shows bring to Aotearoa’s shores.

“Cities are alive when these shows are on. You can’t sit in the foyer of a hotel, you can’t sit in a cafe, you can’t walk around the shops without seeing, you know, hundreds of people wearing a T-shirt and dining in the restaurants and eating in the cafes and catching the Ubers and the taxis.”

While each show was expected to bring a $3.50 return for every $1 invested, Brant said he didn’t have any numbers reflecting how much of this would come from international visitors.

Attracting international visitors with big events is a key part of the fund’s purpose.

Brant said Frontier pitched the Williams concert to the government using results from past concerts.

“[What the] audience profiles were like at those concerts, and the budgets for these concerts. So therefore, what we’re projecting in terms of audience, sales, costs.”

Frontier will report back to the government after the two shows.

“We’ll report back who’s come to the shows, where they’ve come from, there’ll be some surveys on how long they’ve spent in the city, if they’re from out of the city.”

Splore Festival producer Fred Kublikowski applied for event funding through the Major Events and Tourism Fund but was denied.

Kublikowski told Checkpoint there needs to be more transparency around the fund.

“I think when taxpayer money is involved and it’s going into a pool that’s going to, international interests, if there’s no clarity around that, people ask questions.”

Kublikowski said there have been a countless number of successful international shows both in and outside of New Zealand without the government funding.

While it was hard to say whether the government was being influenced by these multinational promoters, Kublikowski said similar things had occurred in Australia.

“There’s been examples where funding’s been made available and it’s easy for large conglomerates to access that.

“Certainly easier than local homegrown events without the resources or the backup of that kind of admin facility.”

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

March 19, 2026

Tough breeding season for tara iti – one of New Zealand’s smallest birds

Source: Radio New Zealand

Supplied / Darren Markin

One of New Zealand’s smallest birds remains in big trouble after a tough breeding season saw a third of the eggs or newly hatched chicks eaten by predators.

There were 29 tara iti, or fairy tern, eggs laid across the country, but only 11 chicks survived.

Despite the majority of eggs not fledging, Department of Conservation (DOC) tara iti recovery programme lead Alex Wilson told Checkpoint she remained upbeat about the numbers.

“We’re feeling pretty positive about the season. We did lose quite a few this year, but we ended up with 11 chicks fledging this season, which is a good result for us.

“A bad year in the past, we could have gotten one to three chicks that might have fledged.”

Wilson said predators remained the biggest issue for the tara iti, and DOC put a lot of effort in to ensure the chicks have every chance of survival.

Supplied / Darren Markin

The Mangawhai site had a “rat problem”, and the Kahu, or Australasian Harrier, took out some of the chicks as well, Wilson said.

Wilson described the monitoring of the nests as “very intense”, and said the breeding sites are monitored around the clock during the breeding season, which runs from September to February.

DOC staff and volunteers share the duties keeping an eye on the sites, and Wilson said they are looking for risk of predators, human disturbance, and any other threats like the tide and storms that might come in.

“If we perceive a threat, that’s when we do things like collecting the eggs and taking them to safety.”

WIlson said when the eggs need to be moved, they switch the real egg with a hand-painted 3D printed egg.

Fairy tern / tara iti egg (left) and 3D printed dummy egg (right) used in the nest protection programme. Supplied / DOC

The real eggs are transported to either another safe nest, or to Auckland Zoo.

This season, 10 eggs ended up at Auckland Zoo, and a number of companies chipped in with fish to help feed the hungry chicks.

“They support us by providing us live fish, so trout and salmon, and the birds eat a lot so they can eat, when they’re little, up to 70 fish a day. More than their own body weight,” Wilson said.

DOC have also started tracking the birds, and after receiving some “cool results” last year, Wilson is hopeful the tracking will provide new insights into the birds.

Wilson said five birds have been fitted with satellite transmitters or “little mini backpacks”, and DOC hopes to track them for a year.

“The information last year we’d never seen before, so it gives us insight into where they’re going and areas that we might need to protect and other things that might be threatening them.”

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

March 19, 2026

Pioneering Māori broadcaster and journalist Moari Stafford dies

Source: Radio New Zealand

Pioneering Māori journalist Moari Stafford. Moari Stafford

Pioneering Māori broadcaster and journalist Moari Stafford, who cultivated opportunity and empowered generations of Māori journalists for more than 20 years, has died.

He was 74.

Hailing from Waikato, Hauraki, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Apakura and Ngāti Te Wehi, Stafford spent much of his life in Kawhia situated on the east coast, under the shadow of Maunga Pirongia – the tallest peak in Waikato.

Stafford grew up speaking te reo in a community that recognised the language as a tāonga that must be preserved and protected.

He joined Te Karere as a reporter in 1987, the year te reo Māori was recognised as an official language in New Zealand.

At a pivotal time in history, he became part of a generation that championed Māori journalism through challenging times.

Veteran broadcaster Tini Molyneux worked closely with Stafford for many years in broadcasting and said it was a challenging time but his dedication to te reo was relentless.

“He didn’t pursue a career in broadcasting but had a calibre of reo that was becoming hard to find at the time, so he was encouraged to get involved,” Molyneux said.

“Throughout his career he prioritised te reo in his decision making which created opportunities for people who didn’t fit the status quo of mainstream journalism.”

Stafford was appointed editor of Te Karere in 1991 and over the next 20 years he played a vital role in launching the careers of award-winning journalists and broadcasters.

Māori broadcaster and journalist Mihingarangi Forbes remembers Stafford as an “incredible boss” and respected figure in the newsroom.

“I started at Te Karere in 1994, we were the last of the cadetships for Te Karere… we were so excited and we had a whakatau in the marae there at Māori and Pacific programmes. There would have been about 50 people who worked there at the time,” Forbes said.

“Moari was an incredible boss, so supportive: mātanga reo, mātanga tikanga, mātanga kawa. He had a huge heart, he believed in people.

“He would always see something in us. He would guide us through our hapa and our mistakes that we made which, when you work at Te Karere and Te Ao Māori, making a mistake can be fatal. He would always guide us through that and pull us out the other side.”

Forbes said Stafford would travel between Kawhia and the TVNZ office in Auckland weekly – a distance of around 200 kilometres.

“He was an amazing family man”, she said.

“He’d always bring us kai Māori, rewana bread or a boil up or any kind of Māori kai that he’d bring from home, kai moana, and he’d share it with everybody.”

“I’ll dearly miss him. I’ll miss his texts. He kept in touch with me for my last 32 years, encouraging me every time he saw me out there or doing something good, he’d let me know.”

Another veteran Māori broadcaster to work under Stafford was Julian Wilcox who, alongside Māori media mogul Bailey Mackey, joined Te Karere as a reporter in the late 1990s.

Wilcox told RNZ Stafford was a “quiet and humble” man whose time working manual jobs gave him a dogged work ethic.

“Moari just was worried about filling the half hour that we had on Te Karere… but he got into the gig because of, I found out later on, the encouragement of one of the great tohunga of Tainui, Henare Tuwhangai, who was a main orator for Te Arikinui Te Ataarangikaahu in his time, and one of the great tohunga of Māoridom,” he said.

“It was always about doing the gig, filling the half hour, making sure you had a kaupapa, and turning that kaupapa into a story, filling it out for two and a half minutes – which I know is a long time in news – but that was the average story length for Te Karere… he had that kind of discipline.”

Wilcox said Stafford was always interested in the voices of those the mainstream would leave out of the regular 6pm bulletin.

“How I figured out to please Moari was that if I could get kaumātua and kuia that people often didn’t see in news, particularly in mainstream, talking about news of the day, whatever it might have been at that time, the happier he’d be.

“I’d always turn up to work, and he would always say, ‘What’s your story?’ and I would tell him, ‘Well, I’ve got this kuia…'”

“He’d say ‘Kapai! Go get it’,” Wilcox said.

Stafford was part of a cohort of some of the first Māori broadcasters and journalists to appear regularly on New Zealand television screens like Hinerangi Goodman, Martin Rakuraku, Whai Ngata, Derek Fox, Tini Molyneux and Hirini Henare.

Wilcox remembers them all as “icons”.

“These were people who grew up watching… he was a cool, lovely, lovely man and [without] him I probably wouldn’t have a media career. We owe him a lot and we’re going to miss him.”

Former Te Karere journalist Dean Nathan joined Te Karere in the early 2000s. He told RNZ he met Stafford much earlier life as boy when Stafford worked in Forestry around the small, isolated town of Te Kao in the Far North.

“Who would have thought you would have met a forestry manager in television, right? Editing a national programme and obviously with turning over news it’s a demanding job and the team’s got to be out there and, you know, on the ball every day,” he said.

“I remember him as a really supportive editor and producer, a beautifully natured man.”

Nathan said Stafford gave him huge work opportunities.

“I’m grateful for Moari because he supported me and that was pretty much the starting of my career in television. He was the first editor to send me to repot internationally in America and North America, Canada and Hawaii and all over the South Pacific.

“Those are opportunities that really broadened my my skills and ability and I’m really grateful for that. I love Moari,” Nathan said.

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

March 19, 2026

Oyster farmers get final payment over October Mahurangi River sewage spill

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wastewater poured into the Mahurangi River in October. Supplied

Watercare has announced its final tranche of compensation payment for oyster farmers North of Auckland, after an estimated 1200 cubic metres of sewage flowed into the Mahurangi River last October.

Watercare said a power surge at its Lucy Moore Memorial Park pump station tripped the pumps, and was compounded by an alarm and monitoring system that wasn’t operating as it should be – leading to delays in the response.

Wastewater poured into the Mahurangi River between the afternoon of 29 October, and the next morning.

One Mahurangi oyster farmer told RNZ that much of their 80,000 dozen oysters had to be dumped.

Watercare’s final payment brings the total payout to $2.75 million for the nine oyster farms.

Previously, a payment of $1 million was made in the immediate weeks following the spill and another $1 million at the end of last year.

Watercare chief operations officer Mark Bourne said the payment decision followed independent assessments of the financial impact resulting from the October event.

“We sincerely apologise to the oyster farmers affected by this incident and recognise the impact it had on their livelihoods and on the wider Mahurangi Harbour aquaculture industry,

“We commissioned an independent loss assessment to understand the financial impact of the October event on oyster farmers, resulting in the farms being shut down by MPI during a critical part of their harvesting season. This process has informed Watercare’s approach to resolving the claims.”

Watercare said independent reviews into the cause of the overflow has now been completed.

It said the reviews found that the incident resulted from “a unique chain of events involving technical and operational factors” at the newly commissioned station at Lucy Moore Memorial Park.

“We have taken the findings of the reviews seriously and have already implemented improvements to strengthen our systems and processes,” said Bourne.

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

March 19, 2026

Queenstown Lakes District Council seeks 35-year consent to pump wastewater into Kawarau River

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ / Nate McKinnon

Queenstown Lakes District Council has voted to seek long-term approval to pump treated wastewater into the Kawarau River.

Councillors agreed on Thursday to lodge a 35-year resource consent application for discharge from the Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant, while staff keep looking for alternative solutions to the region’s wastewater woes.

The decision comes one year after the council first diverted wastewater to the Shotover River under emergency powers, following persistent performance issues at a disposal field on the Shotover Delta.

The temporary plan prompted community backlash, with some locals saying the river was at risk and the council had not been transparent.

QLDC retrospectively applied for consent in May, then sought for the case to be handled by the Environment Court.

Separately, the Environment Court ruled the council needed to fix the issues long-term, and lodge a long-term resource consent application by 31 May.

Under the $77.5 million plan supported by most councillors on Thursday, the council would install advanced filters at the treatment plant, and build a 1.4km pipeline to carry the treated wastewater to a rock outfall structure on the Kawarau River.

It was the option recommended by council staff as the most technically feasible and cost-effective pathway, designed to handle the district’s projected growth through to 2060.

However, the plan was strongly opposed by Ngāi Tahu.

RNZ / Nate McKinnon

Iwi representatives stated that the direct discharge of human waste to natural water was “abhorrent” and contrary to tikanga, because water classified as waikino (polluted water) should not be mixed with other categories of water, council documents showed.

Assessments showed the Kawarau River’s high energy and flow would provide rapid dilution, meaning the environmental effects were “no more than minor”.

The volume of wastewater requiring disposal from the Shotover plant was projected to more than double by 2060 to to 26 million litres per day, council documents showed.

On Thursday, councillors debated asking the Environment Court for an extension to the consent deadline – a move council staff had warned could be risky and costly.

Ultimately, an alternative option put forward by councillor Gavin Bartlett – to apply for the consent, but also direct the chief executive to undertake further investigations into long-term disposal options – was approved.

Councillor Jon Mitchell described it as a pragmatic but inclusive option.

“This will expedite getting us out of the current situation we’re in, into something marginally more acceptable. With an open mind to pursuing what other options might be available,” he said.

Councillor Nicola King said it was a difficult decision, but it would be costly and without “real reason” to delay the decision.

“We just have to make sure it’s not our long-term solution,” she said.

Mayor John Glover abstained from voting, and councillor Niki Gladding voted against it.

Once the council selected the most cost-effective option, it would be difficult to justify looking at anything else, she said.

“If you’re a developer and you’ve paid development contributions towards it, you’re not going to be wanting to pay twice for a second solution,” she said.

“Once we’ve done this, we’ve done it… we’ll have lost the opportunity to set the direction that we don’t want our wastewater just pouring into the Kawarau.”

RNZ / Nate McKinnon

Community urges caution

Earlier in the meeting, during a public delegation, Queenstown Lakes Community Action founder Nikki Macfarlane urged the council to pause – in part because there had not been a “full environmental assessment clearly setting out the risks of each option” nor “meaningful engagement with the community”, she said.

“Once that pathway is set, it’s difficult to reverse,” she said.

“We’re asking you to request an extension from ORC and the Environment Court so you have the time and the necessary information to make a decision that you can stand behind with confidence.”

Andrew Davis, a Queenstown resident of 20 years, said the council should look at options to improve the quality of the wastewater.

“We are privileged to live in an environment with pristine water bodies, whereas many of the comparative plants are discharging into highly degraded environments,” he said.

Other options on the table

In the lead-up to Thursday’s vote, council staff also looked at adding a wetland to the Shotover Delta, hybrid schemes trialling partial disposal via deep boreholes, or shallow soakholes at Frankton Flats, or a high-cost land-only irrigation scheme on the Crown Terrace.

The council held a series of drop-in sessions in December and January for community members to learn about the options, but skipped full public consultation to meet the May deadline.

Councillors agreed to direct the chief executive to keep looking at “reasonably practicable wastewater options, including land-based and hybrid land-water options that may minimise the extent of the discharge of treated effluent to water”, and report back by March 2027.

The council also agreed to seek further hui with Kā Rūnaka leaders, and undertake further community engagement.

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

March 19, 2026

Oyster farmers to get another $2.75 million compensation over Mahurangi River sewage spill