Blog

Source: New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF)

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has joined 18 other nations for a large French-led multinational training exercise scenario of a hypothetical cyclone striking the islands of Wallis & Futuna.

Exercise Croix Du Sud was based in New Caledonia, about 1900km southwest of Wallis & Futuna, and involved about 2000 personnel.

New Zealand Army Captain Zoe Williamson and a small number of Kiwi staff officers bolstered the exercise headquarters.

“This has been a great opportunity allowing us to work with our partner nations in a likely humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) scenario, developing relationships and an understanding of how we work individually but are able to come together as a whole,” she said.

Source: CTU

This Thursday 15 May at 8am a delegation of working women and their whānau will attend a multigenerational pay equity forum at Parliament to share the impacts on their lives of the Government’s decision to gut the Equal Pay Act.

The event will be hosted by Labour and the Greens in the Labour Party Caucus Room. One of the families will be available to speak with media.

“Pay equity is about ending pay discrimination for working women and lifting the wellbeing of whānau. We’re so grateful that some of the most impacted families have agreed to share their pay equity stories with MPs,” said NZCTU Secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges.

“We will keep fighting to ensure the voices of working women stay front and centre in the campaign to protect pay equity,” said Ansell-Bridges.

Source: UNICEF

Wednesday 14th May 2025 – New Zealand has ranked fourth lowest out of 36 OECD and EU countries for child well being in a new report just released by UNICEF.

For mental wellbeing, New Zealand was the lowest ranking country, in 36th place out of 36 countries with available data.

New Zealand showed the single highest youth suicide rate in the analysed countries during the reporting period – almost three times higher than the average for high-income countries.The report cites suicide as the fourth most common cause of death globally among adolescents aged 15-19 years.

The latest in a UNICEF Innocenti research series spanning 25 years, Report Card 19: Fragile Gains – Child Wellbeing at Risk in an Unpredictable World uses globally comparable datasets to provide critical insight into child wellbeing in the world’s wealthier countries between 2018-2022. While it is encouraging that recent domestic statistics on suspected suicide indicate that rates may be slightly decreasing, New Zealand is still a notable outliercompared to other countries and our rates are much too high.  

The report also shows where Aotearoa is falling behind on other key issues facing children – including physical wellbeing, where New Zealand has the third highest percentage of overweight children, and bullying, where the percentage of bullied children is the second highest.

UNICEF Aotearoa CEO Michelle Sharp says the data should be a wake-up call and the upcoming Budget is an opportunity for the government to create positive change.

“Too many children in Aotearoa are missing out on their childhood. We’re calling on the government to direct funding towards addressing these problems and to shift the dial, so New Zealand is not ranked so alarmingly close to the bottom of the table when it comes to child wellbeing. The government can act now, and act quickly to make positive impacts if it chooses to,” she says.

UNICEF Aotearoa is deeply concerned about what the report tells us on children and young people’s wellbeing in our country, and the trajectory this continues to take since 2022.Recent data captured in the Government’s own Annual Report on the Child and Youth Strategy, as well as the most recent child poverty data from Statistics NZ, indicates that on major themes relating to poverty and mental wellbeing, the data has not improved in the last two years.

Food security, affordable housing, hospital admissions and material hardship all continue to show negative trends.  

Faced with this stark data, UNICEF Aotearoa is calling on the government to address economic inequality and to prioritise funding for suicide prevention in the upcoming Budget, particularly for Māori and Pacific youth, who are disproportionately represented in negative statistics.    

UNICEF Aotearoa Director of Advocacy and Programmes Teresa Tepania-Ashton saysthere are several measures that could be implemented quickly.

“Immediately expanding eligibility for the Best Start payment to all children up to the age of five and laying out a roadmap for expanding eligibility up to the age of 18 would help tackle economic inequality and make a positive difference to many whānau in Aotearoa who are doing it really tough at the moment,” she says.

“We also support calls for the government to address food insecurity by fully funding an expanded Ka Ora Ka Ako healthy school lunches programme, ensuring that all children across every school and early childhood centre have access to nutritious meals, thereby tackling food insecurity quickly”.

Sharp says child wellbeing in New Zealand is a political choice.

“The quality of life being experienced by the tamariki and rangatahi in this country is down to political choice, and we urge our decision-makers to make the right choices and directly invest in children in the imminent Budget and beyond”.  

Sharp says child wellbeing in New Zealand is a political choice.

“The quality of life being experienced by the tamariki and rangatahi in this country is down to political choice, and we urge our decision-makers to make the right choices and directly invest in children in the imminent Budget and beyond”.

Source: NZ Music Month takes to the streets

Frontline attendance services will receive a significant funding boost so they can support more schools and reach double the students, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says.

Budget 2025 includes a $140 million package to improve attendance over the next four years. This includes around $123 million for the delivery of a new attendance service and almost $17 million to support and strengthen frontline attendance services.

“Frontline attendance services will be more accountable, better at effectively managing cases, and data driven in their responses. To achieve this, they will soon have access to a new case management system and better data monitoring, and their contracts will be more closely monitored,” Mr Seymour says.

“In 2024 the Education Review Office (ERO) completed a report into attendance services which found that the system designed to get students back in school was ineffective and required substantial reform. For example, the current system fails to consistently improve student attendance because funding varies between providers. Many services are under resourced and cannot meet demand.

The 2024 ERO report made four recommendations for a successful new attendance service:

• Having effective targeted supports in place to address chronic absence
• Increasing the focus on retaining students on their return
• Putting in place an efficient and effective model
• Strengthening how we prevent students becoming chronically absent

“The new attendance services model addresses the first three recommendations. The wider attendance action plan, which includes the requirement for schools to have their own attendance management plan, aligned with the Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) in place by Term 1 of 2026, will address all four,” Mr Seymour says.

“Service providers will work with families, local communities and social agencies to deliver comprehensive services. The level of service provided will depend on the need. It will range from advice and support to schools, to intensive case management of students.

“Schools with the highest numbers of chronically absent students will be able to apply for funding for an in-school service. The schools in this bracket tend to be ones in higher Equity Index (EQI) groups, facing the most socio-economic barriers.”

Transitioning to the new Attendance Service will begin at the end of this year and the new services will become fully operational from early 2026. The Ministry of Education will work with providers to ensure the transition is smooth, and that students continue to receive the services they need during this period.

“Attending school is the first step towards achieving positive educational outcomes. Positive educational outcomes lead to better health, higher incomes, better job stability and greater participation within communities. These are opportunities that every student deserves,” Mr Seymour says.

Please find ERO’s report here: Left behind: How do we get our chronically absent students back to school?

Source: Secondary teachers question rationale for changes to relationship education guidelines

A two-year-old child sustained life-threatening injuries in a horrific dog attack in March 2024.

The young boy was mauled by two dogs while playing in the front yard of his south Auckland home. The unprovoked and sustained attack left him with several serious wounds to his neck and head, and a fractured shoulder blade, requiring multiple surgeries and a prolonged hospital stay.

The dogs, two American Bulldogs roamed freely into the child’s yard and attacked him without warning.

Despite heroic efforts by bystanders and the victim’s mother, who physically lifted her child to safety, the dogs continued to attack. CCTV footage confirmed the brutality of the attack, which ended only when the dogs were forcibly removed and driven away by the owners’ relatives.

On 30 July 2024, the Auckland Council commenced a criminal prosecution against the owner, laying two charges for owning dogs that attacked a person causing serious injury.

Last week in the Manukau District Court, Judge Moala sentenced the owner, Ms Janna Faumui who had pleaded guilty to the charges, to 150 hours of community work and ordered her to pay $2,000 in emotional harm reparation to the victim’s family.

Judge Moala considered that where the victim of a dog attack has suffered near-fatal injuries, the starting point for sentence is likely to be one of imprisonment.

However, the Judge did not consider imprisonment was appropriate in this particular case given the defendant’s lack of criminal history and there being no indication she was a danger to the community. The defendant was given credit for her early guilty pleas, her lack of conviction history and the remorse she had shown for the offending. 

Chair of the Regulatory and Safety Committee, Councillor Josephine Bartley expressed heartfelt concern for the toddler.

“It is not okay for dogs to be roaming or uncontrolled. The trauma and injuries inflicted on this child were horrific and entirely preventable,” she said.

“Dog owners must understand their responsibilities. This is not optional. If they fail in those duties, we will not hesitate to prosecute.”

Auckland Council’s General Manager of Licensing and Compliance, Robert Irvine, says this is another devastating example of the serious consequences of roaming dogs in our city.

“We commend the bravery of the bystanders who tried to intervene in the attack,” said Mr Irvine.

“No one should ever have to witness such violence, especially a parent.”

“We have increased the number of Animal Management Officers and their proactive patrolling in high-risk areas, and we are doing all we can to prevent incidences like this from happening, but we can’t be everywhere all the time. We need dog owners to take responsibility for their dogs, keep them contained and not allow them to roam,” adds Irvine.

The council has confirmed both dogs were voluntarily surrendered and euthanised following the attack.

Auckland Council urges all dog owners to ensure their pets are secure, well-trained, and never allowed to roam.

“One moment of negligence can result in a lifetime of pain,” says Mr Irvine.

Further case highlights dangers of careless dog ownership

In a separate case in the Manukau District Court, Maxine Hona was sentenced to 100 hours of community work and ordered to pay $200 in emotional harm reparation after her dog, Otis, seriously attacked a visitor in her home in March 2024.

Despite Ms Hona’s attempt to contain her dog before allowing the victim inside, it escaped and launched a persistent attack, injuring both the visitor and Ms Hona herself.

The court rejected arguments that this was an exceptional incident and made an order for the dog’s destruction.

Judge Patel stressed that even one-off failures to control dogs can have devastating consequences.

This case reinforces Auckland Council’s message: pet ownership comes with absolute responsibility. There is no margin for error when it comes to public safety.

More information about responsible dog ownership is available on the Auckland Council website. 

Source: Green Party

The Green Party has launched its plan for Free GPs as part of its Green Budget.

“Healthcare isn’t a luxury, it’s a human right we can afford to provide to all,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson.

“In the last election, we campaigned on providing free dental for all. Today, we’re expanding that to ensure nobody is priced out of receiving the care they need, whether that is from the dentist or the doctor.

“Successive Governments have failed to invest in the health of our communities, resulting in more and more people falling through the cracks and being left behind. A shocking 44 percent of Māori have an unmet need for primary care.

“This is just common sense. Free GP visits will reduce the pressure our hospitals are under by stopping small issues becoming big ones that need emergency treatment.

“Our approach will make sure communities right across the country have access to the care they need with our Community Health Service. We will create community care clinics in the highest need areas first, such as South Auckland, which has an estimated shortage of about 127 GPs.

“Community not-for-profit primary care providers, such as kaupapa Māori providers, will also be funded to provide free GP and nurse visits alongside the Community Health Service.

“We will build the workforce we need to support our communities and ensure everyone has access to a GP by maximising the medical student caps at both Auckland and Otago University. This will begin to close workforce gaps and ensure we have what we need to meet increased demand.

“Rather than leaning on private healthcare and leaving thousands out in the cold like the current Government, we can take control and build a health system that supports all of us and leaves nobody behind,” says Marama Davidson.