Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

All Huw Horgan wants for Christmas is a geological core sample.

For the third year running, Huw and the team of scientists he now co-leads are on a quest that takes them to the farthest reaches of Antarctica, hundreds of kilometres from any base.

On the inner edge of the Ross ice shelf, where it meets the main West Antarctic ice sheet covering this part of the continent, they’ll set up camp.

And then they’ll drill.

What they’re after is not minerals, or the fossil fuels driving climate change, but a sediment sample that lies below hundreds of metres of ice.

What it contains will help answer the question of when, and how drastically, the West Antarctic ice sheet might collapse as the climate keeps warming – releasing up to five metres of sea level rise as it goes.

Plenty of cores have been collected from Antarctica over the years, but extracting one this deep, this far from a permanent base, has never been done.

They’ve already tried twice, but equipment failures have forced the team to abandon the attempt two seasons running.

“What we’re trying to do is difficult, right?” Horgan says. “It’s difficult and it’s a harsh environment. It’s a long way from any support. So we’ve had two attempts prior to this from which we’ve learned a lot.”

This year is not third time lucky. “I think it’s third time really well prepared.”

“It would be really lovely to have a bit of geological core for Christmas down there.”

Unlocking the secrets of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Over the decades, the work of climate scientists has helped to build an increasingly accurate picture of climate change-driven sea level rise, and what we might expect in the coming years.

But there are some crucial gaps.

“If we look at sea level rise estimates up to the end of the century, they range anywhere between about 30 centimeters and about a metre, or even, with some estimates, double that,” Horgan says. “A lot of the uncertainty in those estimates come from the West Antarctic.”

At the moment, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is protected by ice shelves – floating layers of ice formed by the ice sheet flowing off the Antarctic continent.

Without them, the flow of ice into the ocean will accelerate, meaning the potential collapse of the entire ice sheet.

Some of these smaller shelves could collapse within years, but the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest of them, is still stable – for now.

Whether that will remain true as the climate warms, and the ocean with it, is one of the uncertainties.

Before the team could even start drilling, an advance team towing the rig and freight containers of equipment had to complete a 1100km traverse across the Ross Ice Shelf – dodging crevasses – to reach their field camp and drilling site.

Antarctic Research Centre director Rob McKay – who will be offering support from New Zealand – says it’s clear from ice sheet models that ice loss can rapidly accelerate.

“We just don’t know under what threshold, what temperature change that would occur under. Is it 1.5°C, 2°C, as defined by the target of dangerous climate change, by the Paris Climate Agreement?”

That’s where the expedition – formally known as SWAIS2°C (Sensitivity of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to 2°C) – comes in.

“We’re trying to drill to find, when was the last time it was those temperatures and did we lose completely the West Antarctic ice sheet?” Rob says.

“That will help us fine-tune those models … that are predicting future sea level loss.”

A finely tuned machine

A few weeks ago, an advance crew set out on an 1100km journey across the Ross Ice Shelf, using snow vehicles to lug tents, provisions, and a huge drilling rig; navigating crevasses as they went.

They were heading for Crary Ice Rise, this season’s sampling location, where hundreds of metres of ice sits directly on top of bedrock.

With a rudimentary camp set up and a runway on the ice cleared, the rest of the 29-strong team will gradually assemble, flying first to Scott Base and then on to Crary to continue building up the site.

Horgan is one of this year’s two co-chief scientists on the ice.

“It’s not a town, but it’s certainly a small neighborhood of tents,” he says. “So there’ll be a couple of weeks of preparation, a very large drill tent has to be put up, all of the hot water drilling system has to be installed in that tent, and then the deep drilling system has to be installed.”

The drill system itself is a traditional drilling rig of the same type that’s used in mining, and the irony is not lost on Rob McKay.

“Rather perversely, we’re looking for climate change, but we’re using extractive industry technology to get these climate records that are preserved in the sediment.”

Once everything is in place, the team will have a window of about 10 days to complete the drilling.

First up is the hot water drilling team, whose task is to get through more than 500m of ice.

“That’s no small undertaking,” Horgan says. “The hole they make is about 35cm wide, right down to the base of the ice sheet.”

From there, the rock drilling team takes over, with the aim of extracting up to 200m of sediment from beneath the ice sheet.

The whole time they’re drilling, the hole through the ice will be threatening to close over.

“It’s cold, and it’s pressing in from the side, so we continuously have to be feeding hot water down through the system,” Horgan says. “And the rock drilling team is spinning their drill down at the base and pulling up geological core three metres at a time.”

For the first two seasons, the team was drilling at a different site, where there was an ‘ocean cavity’ – a layer of sea water between the bottom of the ice sheet and the sediment layer.

At the new site, there’s no water – the ice sheet sits directly on top of the rock.

McKay says while that means the team doesn’t need to contend with the ice sheet shifting with the tides, it creates a different technical challenge.

“When the ice is actually sitting on the ground, that ground ends up being frozen. So what we want to make sure is that that drill pipe is spinning fast enough and there’s enough heat going down the hole that it doesn’t actually freeze and stick in the hole.”

They also don’t know whether they’ll encounter chunks of ice encased in the sediment layer, which could add to the challenge.

“It’s what we call frontier science,” McKay says. “We’ll find out only when we’re drilling.”

Try – and try again

During both previous attempts, the bad news landed in late December like a lump of coal.

“I’ve destroyed one Christmas Eve dinner with the first news, and then I think it was the 23rd of December last year.”

Unlike the team on the ice, though, Rob had the “luxury” of being surrounded by family.

“I know it sounds romantic being in a tent in Antarctica and the adventure of all that, but when you invest so much of your life into this and then you have to sit there for two or three weeks after not achieving your objectives… their disappointment far outweighs mine.”

Different things have gone wrong in each season, Huw says.

The team that headed down in 2023 were using a novel fibreglass drill tube, which would have had great pay-off if it had worked. But it didn’t behave as expected at extremely cold temperatures, and they were forced to abandon the drilling.

Next season they headed back with more conventional steel equipment, but the main drive shaft – “the part that never breaks” – broke.

Despite that, Horgan says they’re sticking with steel. “There’s been a great deal of work, a great deal of testing, and some great failsafes, some redundancies built into it, giving us more confidence.”

There is no question of giving up the project. “We don’t do it because we think it’s fun. We do it because it’s important.”

Huw Horgan’s co-chief scientist on the ice, Molly Patterson, says it’s always disappointing when something doesn’t work.

“But … those setbacks and challenges are really a part of this process of success that maybe we don’t talk about in science enough.”

She’s been encouraged by how the drillers and engineers have responded in the intervening year. “That’s actually what gives me a lot of confidence going into this season.”

She pays “enough” attention to climate politics to really want the project to succeed this year, though. “I guess that might be the best way to say that. I think science just needs a win right now.”

What they find could have huge implications for communities.

“Globally, there’s about 68 million people that live near coastlines and are going to be exposed to these hazards that are caused by sea level rise,” Patterson says.

Seas are already rising, and some Antarctic melt is inevitable.

“We see our job as helping to determine sort of how much and how fast sea level is going to rise,” Huw says. “That’s where we have to hand it over to policymakers and to engineers and to our coastal communities so they can then use that knowledge to adapt and prepare in the best way fit.”

There is no time to hesitate, she says.

“These systems can move quickly, they can move in unexpected ways. On one level that doesn’t scare me, but to have that knowledge and to not act on it, that scares me.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Ombudsman is investigating the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s role in the post-cyclone buyout scheme after a number of complaints were made.

The council was responsible for putting thousands of properties into categories 1, 2 and 3 after Cyclone Gabrielle hit in 2023. It meant hundreds of people left the areas of Esk Valley, Tangoio and Pakowhai.

Category 3 is essentially a ‘red zone’ as the council deemed the risk to life ‘intolerable’ and created a buy out scheme for residents, although some people refused to leave and have remained living there.

“We are currently investigating complaints from 11 individuals about the Hawkes Bay Regional Council’s land categorisation process,” a spokesperson for the Ombudsman said.

The Ombudsman’s office told RNZ that the Chief Ombudsman, John Allen, was required by law to keep his enquiries confidential, so he was “unable to comment in any more detail about them at this stage”.

“In August, during an engagement visit to the region, Mr Allen also met with some of the residents with concerns about the land categorisation and buy-back scheme. He also talked to local authorities. The purpose was to listen to the different perspectives and to understand the issues.”

The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) told RNZ it “welcomes the Ombudsman’s involvement”, and that there are “a very small number of complaints remaining”.

“For those complaints that Council was unable to resolve, we encouraged the complainants to direct their concerns to the Office of the Ombudsman so an independent party could assist with resolution.

“We acknowledge and respect the role that the Ombudsman plays in supporting Councils and their communities to navigate complex issues of this nature,” a spokesperson said.

The council said it was confident the land categorisation process was carried out correctly and fairly.

“Council considers it administered the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Land Categorisation Process and Framework appropriately.”

‘I’m angry, why put everyone through all that?’

In November, HBRC announced it was phasing out the land categorisation labels, saying once it upgraded flood hazards maps the Category 3 land would no longer be classified this way.

Tangoio landowner Jennifer Gibson disagreed with HBRC. Her family owned a section by the beach where they were planning to build a home, but then after the cyclone it was classified as Category 3.

“It was about the beach dream, working hard to finally realise our dream just to have it taken away,” she said.

The family eventually accepted a buyout offer from the council, but Gibson told RNZ there was a lack of consultation and the decision felt forced on them.

“It really was a disastrous time with a whole lot of back and forth emails and phone calls trying to stop it from happening – it all came to nothing and now they are changing their minds. It’s pretty frustrating.

“I’m angry, why put everyone through all that? There was a lot of money spent on the categorisations, lot of people put a lot of effort and time into it. What a waste of ratepayer money,” she said.

Gibson said if she had known the council was going to phase out Category 3 then she would not have taken its buyout offer.

“I’d like the option to have my land back. The council owns my land. I wanted to buy back the title off them and not build on it ever, but just have a little garden reserve where I can camp in summer. But they refused to let me do that,” she said.

While the regional council was in charge of categorising the land, Hastings District Council (HDC) was responsible for the buy-out policy in Category 3. A spokesperson told RNZ they felt the process was fair, transparent and robust.

“The buyout offers were voluntary, all the information was shared with all property owners and all followed the same process, ultimately assessed by an independent panel. In addition all property owners had the opportunity to carry out independent valuations.

“When these owners sold their land to HDC through the buyout process a covenant was placed on the title which permanently restricts the ability to use the land for temporary or permanent residential purposes,” said the spokesperson.

HDC said although HBRC’s Category 3 terminology may be phased out when updated flood risk modelling is completed, “it does not remove the risk to life in these locations”.

The regional council said with respect to land categorisation, which HBRC was responsible for, property owners had considerable opportunity to participate in the process over the past two years via notification of provisional categorisations, public meetings and opportunities for individual reassessment.

“The intention has always been to retire land categorisation once updated flood modelling had been completed, and when all properties have moved out of Category 2C to 1.”

The council said it was talking to some Category 3 property owners who wished to have their categorisation removed.

“We remain open to considering additional information, not previously available to Council’s experts, regarding their properties and the property owners may also obtain their own independent expert opinion that supports their view on risk which Council will consider.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

As the year draws to a close, The Detail looks back at 12 months of deep dives, sharp analysis, and the kinds of conversations that helped New Zealanders make sense of a turbulent, fast-moving world

If 2025 had a national soundtrack, it would be a layered mix of money worries, power struggles, climate shocks, consumer battles, and sporting turbulence.

And The Detail has spent the year listening to each beat, producing a full deep-dive look at each genre, offering not just a record of what has happened but a guide to understanding how – and why – it matters.

The team – Alexia Russell, Amanda Gillies, Davina Zimmer, Gwen McClure, and Sharon Brettkelly – has worked to slow down the news cycle just enough to understand it.

We have gone to the experts – economists, environmentalists, journalists, CEOs, lawyers, doctors, among others – to untangle the complexities of financial policy, to reveal the human stories behind climate change, to hold those in power to account, and to examine sporting wins and losses – and, boy, those losses on the world stage have hurt.

We have tried to guide listeners through the wide-ranging ripple effects of the cost-of-living crunch that has refused to ease, and to tap into the growing frustrations of New Zealanders trying to navigate both online scams and advances.

We have explored why environmental decisions have become some of the most decisive – and divisive – political flashpoints.

Sharon Brettkelly also travelled to Taiwan, interviewing locals about what it is like to live in the shadow of China and to face a possible invasion.

Once a year in Taiwan, she discovered, air raid sirens ring out in a warning to residents to take cover against an attack. Locals know the drill because [https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/10/06/not-if-but-when-taiwan-waits-for-china-to-leap/

it has been going on for years].

And while she was there, she caught up with Mark Hanson, a Taiwan-based New Zealand journalist, about the onslaught of disinformation, looking at claims that mainland China uses influencers, television stars, offshore “content farms” and generative artificial intelligence to swamp the island state with disinformation.

Her international travels also took her to Jordan, where the tourism industry propping up the country’s economy has been all but decimated by the war in neighbouring Israel.

It may have been peak tourist season during her visit, but visitor numbers were “very weak”, hurting everyone from Bedouin guides to the horse and donkey owners whose livelihoods are in ruins.

A 2025 highlight for Brettkelly was her interview with the young heroes behind a mercy dash to Antarctica to rescue a patient who needed urgent medical care. Brettkelly delved into the life and death decisions made, and what happens when you get beyond the point of safe return, and the weather turns bad.

Amanda Gillies covered the long and chaotic Tom Phillips saga that captured a global audience and ended in a hail of bullets.

The morning after the wanted father was shot dead by police, she spoke to Stuff journalist Tony Wall, [ https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/10/the-confused-and-chaotic-legacy-of-tom-phillips/

who’s followed the story since day one], and who was on the ground in Marokopa just hours after the fatal shooting, making his way there via a goat track after roads were closed off.

It was The Detail’s most listened to podcast for the year, by quite some distance.

Gillies also took the country’s political temperature, a year out from the next general election, revealing New Zealand is feeling restless and tired, not just of politics, but of politicians.

The public mood is “one of disillusionment with a lot of the political scene, frankly”, former political editor turned RNZ investigative reporter and host Guyon Espiner told Gillies.

Her sporting episodes ranged from the All Blacks’ evolving identity and the resurgence of women’s sport, to match fixing and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), described as a silent killer – a dark and devastating side of contact sport that is only revealed after death. https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/01/the-silent-killer-of-kiwi-sport/

Among those who spoke to Gillies were top sports journalists and commentators Suzanne McFadden, Rikki Swannell, Dana Johannsen, Dylan Cleaver, Phil Gifford, Elliott Smith, and Jamie Wall.

Alexia Russell tackled a subject most people don’t want to talk about – their death and post-mortem wishes. But as she pointed out, there are so many reasons to have that conversation, and to write a will.

She spoke to a couple who learned the hard way what happens when you don’t have a will, and to the Public Trust about the [ https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/07/14/why-you-should-write-a-will-now/

costs, procedures, and pitfalls] involved when drawing up – or putting off – a will.

‘Funding a good death’ was the headline on Russell’s story on the woefully underfunded palliative care system.

Yes, she said at the time, it was “another story about the stretched New Zealand health service”, but it affects 89 percent of us who will die naturally and will require nursing at the end of their lives.

She revealed why the palliative care sector, much of it provided through the efforts of volunteers, has felt under attack.

And Russell wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty for a podcast on stormwater solutions lying in the soil.

She spoke to an industry expert in water-sensitive design – who had a spade in hand for the interview – about raising awareness of how we treat the most fundamental rain sponge in our cities – soil.

Natural disasters, including Auckland’s Anniversary weekend floods in 2023 and the Christchurch earthquakes, have prompted some regions to rethink flooding issues.

On a lighter note, Russell caught up with Kiwi actor Bruce Hopkins, who played Gamling in The Lord of the Rings, and who gave her an exclusive insight into the mateship among the cast behind this ground-breaking and loved trilogy.

With a tape recorder in hand, he reunited with most of the core cast at a fantasy fan convention in London and told Russell he was blown away 25 years ago by the camaraderie on the original set, and those bonds are still in place. Fans were delighted.

Just weeks before Christmas, Gwen McClure looked at the terror under the tree – the toys that can kill.

In the wake of the asbestos-contaminated sand, toy recalls, and children’s products failing safety tests, she asked how to shop for your kids this festive season.

With the cost of living sky-high, McClure appreciated that there is temptation to turn to cheap international e-commerce sites. But Gemma Rasmussen, Consumer NZ’s head of research and advocacy, gave her one piece of advice on that for listeners: don’t.

Consumer New Zealand and McClure also examined sunscreen brands, highlighting 16 of 20 tested products that came back lower than their SPF labels.

Yet, it didn’t lead to them being pulled from New Zealand shelves.

The episode explained the laws around sunscreen and where enforcement falls short, and what consumers can do to ensure they’re getting good protection from their sunscreens.

Another podcast by McClure delved into the health crisis being pushed by a drug crisis in Fiji.

A growing HIV outbreak there is being driven by a methamphetamine crisis, and an expert told McClure that the country could become a semi-Narco state.

When Davina Zimmer did a [ https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/11/18/nzs-child-sexual-exploitation-crisis/

podcast episode about how Customs tries to stop child sexual exploitation material ] at our borders, listeners were in touch, wanting to know what happens to the perpetrators.

So she talked to two experts about the next steps, after the material is found, and what needs to change in New Zealand’s approach to handling the crisis.

Zimmer also looked into burnout, which she found out is increasingly becoming the norm, with a multitude of factors pushing New Zealanders across the country to breaking point. Think job insecurity, tight economic times, and pressure to always be on the clock.

But one expert says the tide is changing with a new generation entering the workforce, who are prioritising health and wellbeing.

Turtles, the pet turned pest, were another one in Zimmer’s file this year.

She spoke to the head of Natural Environment Specialist Services at Auckland Council, and revealed that turtles are disturbing native wildlife, muddying waterways, and killing the occasional possum, cat, or rabbit along the way.

And that brings to an end the snapshot of our “news year” soundtrack. It had a little bit of everything, with a blended thump of household budgets, the clash of politics, the swell of environment stories, the sting of consumer pressures and the roar of sport.

The team thanks every person who gave up their time to share their knowledge and insight for a podcast this year; it’s always appreciated. A special shout-out to guest podcast hosts Connor McLay, Susana Lei’ataua, and Jimmy Ellingham, and also to the journalists at Newsroom, who were regular guests.

The Detail was honoured to be named the best news and current affairs podcast at the 2025 NZ Radio and Podcast Awards, and to receive Gold for Best Current Affairs Podcast at the 2025 NZ Podcast Awards.

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.

You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A multinational cement company says local seafaring jobs will suffer if it cannot transport its product around New Zealand on a foreign-flagged ship.

Holcim said it had entered a time charter with Swiss-based NovaAlgoma Cement Carriers (NACC), which had agreed to provide a temporary ship for three years while Holcim built a replacement for its ageing vessel.

But on Wednesday, Associate Transport Minister James Meager declined NACC’s application for authorisation to operate a coastal shipping service in New Zealand waters.

“The minister’s decision has chosen road transport over coastal shipping,” Holcim said in a statement.

“This prevents a temporary coastal shipping solution while Holcim sought a purpose-built vessel as a replacement for the inefficient and costly 27-year-old MV Buffalo.”

Meager told RNZ Holcim’s bid did not meet maritime law requirements.

Coastal cargo can generally only be carried by a New Zealand ship unless authorisation to carry coastal cargo under section 198(2) of the Maritime Transport Act is given.

Meager said while foreign ships could carry coastal cargo in certain situations, he did not believe Holcim’s application met the intent of the law, aimed at protecting New Zealand coastal shipping for local commercial interests.

“Generally, those authorisations are very short, if not one-off cargo movements to fill a gap or where a vessel is not immediately available. After careful consideration, we made the decision that the application did not meet that threshold.

“I appreciate that there has been a high degree of interest in the outcome of the application. The public should have confidence that all authorisations to carry coastal cargo align with the intent of section 198 of the Act, and that has been my priority throughout this process.”

Holcim said that with the NACC unable to commit to a locally flagged vessel for the short-term charter, and no other local vessels capable of meeting the supply of cement required to keep up with demand, it had no choice but to spend millions of dollars pivoting to road transport.

“This is an undesirable, but now necessary, decision. We have to ensure the continuation of cement supply to our customers across both the North and South Islands. Approximately 15,000 additional tonnes of bulk cement must now be hauled in over 500 trucks on roads every month.

“Creating a much larger road transport supply chain will cost Holcim millions of dollars. There will come a point where the significant investment in the road network will make a return to coastal shipping unviable.

“The Minister has blocked our credible alternative, so to claim his decision protects local shipping capacity is incorrect. It reduces it. We have viable solutions, including the continued use of coastal shipping, and had hoped the Minister would be open to discussing them, but he would not meet with us.”

Meager said Holcim could work with the Transport Ministry to find a solution for transporting cement around the country.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The disgraced former leader of Gloriavale will be sentenced on Friday morning for sexual offending against girls and young women in the community.

Howard Temple initially denied 24 charges of sexual offending against girls and women over a period of more than 20 years.

However, three days into his trial in July, he pleaded amended charges.

The 85-year-old admitted five counts of indecent assault, five of doing an indecent act and two of common assault.

Some of the charges were representative, meaning they related to repeated offending.

Temple was the West Coast Christian community’s so-called Overseeing Shepherd from 2018 when its founder Hopeful Christian died.

He resigned in August about a fortnight after pleading guilty to the offending.

Five of the nine complainants gave evidence over the first two days of the trial, describing a culture of fierce patriarchy, where women and girls were at risk of being deemed rebellious or worldly for anything from tying the belt on their uniform incorrectly, to allowing too much hair to be visible under their headscarves.

The women said there was no way to refuse Temple, nor to report his actions to anyone, in the context of the complete control Gloriavale’s leaders wielded over members.

The women told the court they were too scared to say anything because they knew women were always blamed in similar circumstances, and risked being branded as flirts or whores, being hauled into a “servants and shepherds” meeting and berated for not following the bible, ostracised by the community, or prevented from marrying.

“He had the power to change the trajectory of your life,” one woman said.

The women described Temple taking advantage of the domestic duties they performed to touch, caress and grope them, such as during meal times, when they would be serving large, heavy jugs of non-alcoholic cider or hot drinks to tables of 50 or more. One woman said she was left without “any hands free to protect myself”.

The women said it was common practice to attempt to arrive early so they could be allocated to any table except Temple’s.

The only space to pour would be at his side at the head of the table, which allowed him to grab the young women around the waist, caressing them from their calves to their lower backs or grabbing them around their waists.

In January, Temple made a public apology to victims of historic sexual abuse at the community following the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.

The apology was one of the inquiry’s recommendations, however, former members rejected it as insincere.

About 600 people are believed to live at Gloriavale’s compound at Lake Haupuri, about 60 kilometres from Greymouth.

The group, which began in 1969 as the Springbank Christian Community near Rangiora, was founded by Australian evangelist Neville Cooper, who would later be known as Hopeful Christian.

Christian was himself jailed in the 1990s for sexually assaulting a young woman in the community.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Half New Zealand’s cardiology workforce nearing retirement by 2039
• NZ needs 38 percent more specialists to match Australia
• Wait times continue to increase
• More “flexibility” needed to attract and retain staff.

More than half the country’s heart specialists are over 50, and nearly one in five is older than 60, a new study has found.

The paper published in The New Zealand Medical Journal on Friday is based on a survey sent by the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand last year to all its members working in public hospitals.

Lead author Dr Selwyn Wong said of the 154 Health NZ-employed cardiologists, over half were over 50, and 35 percent were over 55 – including 18 percent who were older than 60.

“So, while it’s a blunt tool, the expectation is that some of those older ones might be leaving the profession. And we’ve seen some examples of that, people leaving the public system and going into private practice towards the end of their careers, or leaving the profession completely.”

Dr Wong, who has worked at Middlemore Hospital for 25 years himself, said the workload on cardiologists had got increasingly intense over time, with more referrals, sicker patients – but fewer resources.

“Over the years we’ve seen more resource constraints, not just in cardiology but right across the hospital.

“More and more is being squeezed out of the workforce, so you’re ending up doing more and more work, with less down time.”

The survey found 14 percent of cardiology positions were vacant.

Dr Wong said, however, that was just the “funded” positions – not an indication of the true number of specialists needed to deal with increased demand.

“We have one cardiologist per 35,000 people, while Canada and Australia have one cardiologist per 25,000 people, and I think in Sydney it’s one per 15,000.

“So if we want to match those places, we’d need to go from 154 to 213: an extra 60 cardiologists, or a 38 percent increase on what we have now.”

Furthermore, cardiologists were not evenly distributed across the country.

In the five districts with the highest proportion of Māori and Pacific peoples (who had the worst rates of heart disease) the ratios of specialists to population exceed the national average: Tairāwhiti 54,000; Counties Manukau 38,000; Lakes 61,000; Northland 52,000; Hawke’s Bay 47,000.

A separate study published in The New Zealand Medical Journal on Friday showed after half a century of heart attacks trending down, progress had stalled – with a widening ethnic disparity for Māori and Pacific people.

Dr Wong said specialist assessment referrals and the wait times for those appointments were rising, along with delays for cardiac ultrasound and cardiac catheterisation.

The shortfalls were exacerbated by demands and employment patterns during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The staffing might be acceptable if everyone is at work, but not everyone is at work because people are allowed leave or they get sick or they’re at conferences.

“We’ve calculated that in our department most of the time there are two people away out of a staff of 16 or 18.”

The survey found about 73 percent of cardiologists working in New Zealand were trained in this country.

Dr Wong said, however, other internationally-trained cardiologists and New Zealand trained specialists now working overseas could be encouraged to take up jobs here, if they had access to the kind of resources they were used to.

“Some more flexibility would help, and that would also help retain those older specialists we have in the system now, for whom being on call so often is increasingly burdensome.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Two aircraft with a combined 42 people on board came within 41 seconds of a head-on collision over Northland, a report from the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) has revealed.

TAIC put the near-miss down to failures in the way New Zealand’s airspace is managed.

The Commission found there had been no review of Whangārei airspace for more than a decade, despite increasing air traffic and a rule that airspace should be reviewed every five years.

Also alarming was the finding that no agency in New Zealand had responsibility for conducting such reviews, an omission the commission said needed to be addressed urgently.

According to the report, which was released on Friday morning, an Air New Zealand Q-300 with 40 people on board was flying south from Whangārei to Auckland on the morning of 28 August 2023.

Around the same time a flying school’s Beech Duchess, with two people on board, was heading north from Ardmore to Whangārei using the same flight path.

The report stated the air traffic controller instructed both aircraft to descend into “uncontrolled airspace” and pass each other there.

That meant responsibility for avoiding a collision passed from air traffic control to the two pilots.

That was at the time a commonly used work-around, due to air traffic control workload and the limited amount of controlled airspace available for keeping planes apart.

The Q-300 was flying in cloud at 6000 feet when the Beech descended to the same altitude in front of it.

Over the Brynderwyn Hills the Q-300 crew received an alert from the plane’s airborne collision avoidance system (ACAS), described in the report as a “last line of defence”.

Moments later an alert also showed up on the air controller’s radar and the Q-300 was given clearance to climb to 8000 feet, above the approaching Beech.

The Beech did not have, and was not required to have, an ACAS system.

At the closest point the aircraft were 8km from each other – or just 41 seconds apart at their 700km/h closing speed.

“Closing speed” describes how fast two objects are approaching each other.

TAIC chief commissioner David Clarke said no one was hurt and no damage resulted, but it was too close.

“It happened because the controller or flight service officer hadn’t provided sufficiently timely traffic information after sending both flights into uncontrolled airspace,” he said.

“This left each crew flying in cloud, unable to see the other plane, unaware of the immediacy of potential conflicts, and the crew of the Beech poorly placed to coordinate their own avoidance actions.”

Clarke said the 42 crew and passengers ended up in that risky situation due to long-standing weaknesses in the design of the Whangārei area airspace.

“Despite recurring concerns raised by pilots, controllers and the aerodrome operator, the North Sector airspace hasn’t had a comprehensive review since 2014, even though reviews are required every five years.”

Nor was the problem limited to Whangārei.

“It’s a nationwide issue because New Zealand needs clear responsibility for conducting comprehensive airspace reviews,” Clarke said.

The Commission made a number of urgent recommendations as a result of the near-miss.

They included that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) carry out a full review of lower-level airspace around Whangārei and act on the findings.

The Commission also called on the Ministry of Transport to clarify which agency was responsible for ongoing nationwide airspace reviews, and ensure that agency identified any emerging risks before they led to more serious events.

In its response to the Commission, the CAA said it was working with Whangārei airspace stakeholders on safety improvements.

There had also been initial engagement with Kerikeri airspace users.

Throughout 2026 the CAA would carry out reviews of uncontrolled airspace at Timaru, Hokitika, Whakatāne and Kāpiti Coast aerodromes.

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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 19-month-old Canterbury boy who was strangled by loose strapping hanging from slats under an unsafe bed sold by The Warehouse died in a preventable accident, a coroner has ruled.

Coroner Ruth Thomas said the boy’s death in May 2021 was a “tragic illustration of a latent hazard”.

In findings released on Friday, the coroner said the boy’s slat bed from The Warehouse was not inherently safe, nor is the updated model of the Living & Co bed currently for sale.

The boy’s grandmother bought the pine wood single slat bed from The Warehouse in January 2021, which was the same bed she had previously bought for the boy’s older brother.

About two weeks before his death, the boy’s bed was moved from a shared bedroom with his brother to his own room.

In the May accident, he was found unresponsive under his bed with a strap from the slats wrapped tightly around his neck and could not be revived.

Coroner Thomas ruled the boy died from ligature strangulation after a loose strap from the bed caught around his neck when he crawled underneath.

She described his death as a tragic accident.

“[He] was in his own bedroom, the room which should have been the safest room in the house for him to sleep, and to play,” she said.

“There is no evidence about what time of the night or morning [he] got under his bed.

“There is no evidence about whether his death may or may not have been prevented if [he] had been checked on earlier that morning. It is unknown whether he got caught in the loose strapping during the night, the early hours of that morning, or in the minutes before he was discovered at 10am.”

The 19-month-old was described by his father as an “energetic and curious little boy who liked to run around a lot”.

A police inspection found the packaging box and instruction manual that came with the slat bed in 2021 did not include warning labels about the fabric straps or the risk of strangulation and diagrams in the manual did not show the fabric straps at all.

After The Warehouse was notified of the boy’s death the company removed the bed from sale in its stores and online.

The coroner said the product was then updated and put back on the market.

“Since being notified of [the boy’s] death in 2021, the Warehouse Group have improved the bed assembly manual to instruct the strapping is oriented on the topside of the slats, included a red warning sticker, and increased the number of staples attaching the straps to the slats. These changes have improved the amount of weight the strapping could withstand before failing,” she said.

Thomas was not persuaded that the changes were sufficient.

“The most effective way to prevent the risk of strangulation from the straps attached to the bed slats is to design the problem out of existence,” she said.

“[The boy’s] bed was not, and the updated model of his bed currently for sale, is not inherently safe. Parents want to know the products they place in their children’s bedrooms are safe.”

The coroner recommended The Warehouse Group redesign the Living & Co slat bed to completely remove fabric strapping from the product and providing warnings with the product about the risk posed by loose fabric strapping on slat beds.

In the coroner’s report, The Warehouse Group said it did not necessarily agree with the statement that the updated model currently for sale was not inherently safe but it said it would work with its supplier to remove the strap from the bed design.

Coroner Thomas also recommended developing public safety messages for parents who might have never considered the hazard posed by loose straps under their children’s slat bed frames.

“I acknowledge that The Warehouse Group are now working to remove the strap from the bed design,” she said.

In a statement provided to RNZ, The Warehouse chief merchandise officer Carrie Fairley thanked the coroner for her report.

“Our hearts are with the family today. When this tragedy happened in 2021, our team acted immediately to enhance the bed and assembly instructions. Recently, the coroner shared further recommendations, and we’re taking these on board to make sure something like this can never happen again,” she said.

“None of us ever want these types of accidents to happen, and we encourage everyone to check that their beds are assembled correctly and strictly according to the instructions provided.”

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