NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government has committed millions of dollars in extra spending to support polytechnic courses in Northland and on the South Island’s West Coast for the next five years.

Figures provided by Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds showed how the government would address concerns about the financial viability of polytechnic provision in both regions.

Simmonds announced earlier this week that the West Coast’s Tai Poutini would leave super-institute Te Pūkenga at the start of next year to become a campus of the Open Polytechnic, while NorthTec would become a stand-alone institute but within a federation model aimed at saving costs.

She said the Open Polytechnic would receive $2 million next year for its take-over of Tai Poutini, and a further $1m a year from 2028-31 to support its operations on the coast.

“This funding is intended to offset the high costs of delivery in a region with low learner demand and to ensure that essential workforce training remains available on the West Coast,” Simmonds said.

“As a condition of this funding, the Open Polytechnic must retain physical operations in the region.”

Simmonds said the polytechnic would also receive $3.1m this year and at least $2m next year from the Strategically Important Provision Fund for maintaining courses in areas where they were needed but might not be viable.

NorthTec would also receive money from the same fund – $3.6m this year, $2.75m in 2027 and a further $1.3 million per year from 2028-2031.

“While NorthTec has faced viability challenges in the past, significant progress has been made over the last year to strengthen its financial position and establish a pathway to sustainability,” Simmonds said.

She said the institute would receive $4.7m in ring-fenced reserves it had when it became part of Te Pūkenga, a further $4.5m for property consolidation, and “in-principle investment” of $34.7m for a new tertiary hub in central Whangārei, subject to a business case.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

It’s 9am on a Thursday as the rain hammers rooftops and a strong wind shakes down leaves.

Inside, Tasha Langi is busily preparing an order and chatting away with an audience of 64 on her phone screen.

“Do you still work with BBM? We don’t work with them, but we always see them,” she answered a question from one viewer.

“Nice and easy this morning. My baby wanted me to just sit with him last night, so I had to start the bulk orders a little bit later than usual,” she said as she gave the viewers a glimpse into her life.

Tasha is among a growing group of Kiwis who are turning to TikTok livestreams to promote their businesses.

According to TikTok, two million people watch livestreams across Australia and New Zealand, but exactly how many Kiwis are broadcasting their lives live remains unclear.

Tasha and her husband, James run a protein dessert company, Fit Prepp, from Manurewa.

James said they were social media savvy, but livestreaming was a new territory.

“We’ve only done live streaming for two weeks now and we’re still learning, but we enjoy it. When you’re putting your face and who you are behind (the business) it builds another relationship. It builds something better.”

They started going live after customers suggested it, and it’s already paying off with new orders and memorable interactions.

Tasha said recently, a customer and her father visited them after watching their content.

“She came down with her dad and got our tubs and that was really nice. She said her and her dad had been watching us for months and months. He’s been cheering us on from afar. And then she sent me a heartfelt email because she just felt like we were a part of her family in the way we just brought her into our home and expressed our gratitude.”

Palmerston North-based artist Emilie Geant who livestreams her art making process has a theory why livestreaming is different from other social media promotions.

“The issue with social media is everyone is only showing the shiny part of being an artist. I like that on TikTok that’s a little bit less shiny. People are a bit more real and genuine. I think people need to understand that running an art business, it looks really cool, but it’s actually a lot of work, a lot of admin work.”

She said showing the “less shiny” part of her work broke down the barrier between an artist and the customer.

“It’s not just a painting, it’s a person behind the painting. (In my livestreams) I’m explaining why I’m doing what I’m doing, why I’m making the choice visually. So people get attached more emotionally and I had more followers thanks to the livestreams, and also more sales online.”

And livestreaming itself has become an important revenue stream for some creators.

Lower Hutt musician Charles Humphreys has been livestreaming since 2022, showcasing his work up to five times a week.

“It’s multi-level rewarding. I will get paid from the TikTok stream. I will get rewarded by people listening to my original music, which is out there. I will get rewarded by the fan base growing. I’m also making great connections with other artists around the world.”

While most days he has an audience in the hundreds, one Tuesday he hosted a crowd of 9000 for 12 minutes.

His livestreams are so popular that they attracted the attention of TikTok, who asked him to be the opening act for this year’s TikTok Live Fest in Las Vegas.

Humphreys said some times, he can make close to $10,000 a month, while he made very little on others.

But he prepares for each streaming session equally with a full suit, professional sound equipment, and a studio filled with neon lights.

“I’m not there playing a game. I’m absolutely there 100 percent to perform. One day you got an audience of 100 and you make $6000. And another day you might find that you’re talking to some place in the world where money’s not so good. But you still perform anyway because they deserve it as well.”

Livestreaming has helped him reach audiences from all over the world, all walks of life. “Some of them can’t go anywhere. Some of them just feel like, you know what, I’m never going to make it to a concert hall. I can’t afford $200 to go and see whoever the artist is, but I can afford to give a little bit of time on TikTok to Charles. And he makes me feel like there’s a little bit of hope in the world and there is a place where I can be happy and we can have a laugh.”

And if you are aching to showcase your talent, Humphreys has a piece of advice.

“So if you’re one of those people who feels like they’d like to share something about themselves, just do it. Forget the intimidation, forget the feeling of not being able to or not being capable. Just do it.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Pharmac needs more staff and a bigger operational budget to speed-up decisions on drug funding, say patient advocates.

In a report released today, the agency has been criticised for a focus on cost efficiency over health outcomes, and for slow decision-making and backlogs.

The report – written by Patient Voice Aotearoa and Medicines New Zealand and titled “Valuing Life – Medicines Access Summit 2025 Report” – is based off the findings of a two-day hui at Parliament in October last year.

Hosted by Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Health responsible for Pharmac David Seymour, the event brought together 180 people, including patient groups, clinicians, government officials, academics, and pharmaceutical industry representatives for a series of panels and workshops.

The report highlighted progress and persistent gaps in the country’s medicines system, noting “while some progress has been made, delivery remains uneven” and several foundational reforms “have not been started or addressed fully”.

Key findings highlighted in the report include:

• Progress is fragile without political leadership and accountability
• New Zealand continues to lag behind OECD peers
• Pharmac continues to be greatly underfunded
• Patients’ groups and clinicians are calling for a system that values timeliness, transparency, and lived experience
• Global pressures are reshaping medicines access
• A call for partnership and long‑term reform

Patient Voice Aotearoa chair Dr Malcolm Mulholland said two thirds of those recommendations had seen progress made since the summit, but a third were yet to see action.

Mulholland is also the chair of the consumer and patient working group, which was set up last year to work alongside Pharmac’s board overseeing a 12-month reset programme currently underway, which is aimed at making Pharmac more open and responsive.

“[Pharmac] are going to need a bigger a bigger operations budget to do a lot of the work around the health technology assessment,” he said.

“If we’re looking to speed it up, ultimately they are going to need more staff in those positions, so that’s why the operations budget is so important.”

Finance Minister Nicola Willis referred questions to Seymour’s office.

Seymour said while it was still a work in progress, for the first time in years Pharmac was “genuinely moving in the right direction”.

“We’ve given patients a stronger voice, appointed a consumer working group, and made Pharmac more transparent. We will continue to push Pharmac in the direction the patient community wants.

“Five years ago many of the Medicines Summit attendees would have been picketing outside Pharmac. This year, they were having genuine conversations with each other and Pharmac’s leadership about how to deliver the best service for Kiwis.”

This government had allocated a budget of $6.294 billion over four years, and a $604 million uplift.

“With that money, Pharmac has made 133 decisions to fund or widen access to medicines. This includes decisions on 46 cancer medicines. Over 200,000 patients have benefited.”

Pharmac chief executive Natalie McMurtry said Pharmac had appreciated the opportunity to attend the summit for the past two years, and it had provided an invaluable opportunity to hear first-hand from patients, advocates, suppliers and clinicians.

Since then, they had recruited more health economists to increase Pharmac’s capacity to assess funding applications, she said, and were trailing faster, more efficient assessment pathways which were showing early signs of success.

“We are also exploring how adopting a societal perspective can help us better demonstrate the value of new treatments, particularly when considering significant investments.

“Recently, we launched a review of our Exceptional Circumstances Framework, which allows Pharmac to consider funding medicines for certain individuals in special or exceptional clinical situations.”

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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 return trip between Auckland and Whangārei could cost drivers $14.20 in tolls, if a proposal for the planned Northland Expressway goes ahead.

That means commuters travelling daily between Northland and the country’s biggest city would pay around $3400 a year in tolls.

The NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi is currently consulting on tolls for the planned Warkworth to Te Hana section of the Northland Corridor, which is to be built as a public-private partnership (PPP) under the government’s Roads of National Significance programme.

The proposal is for two electronic toll gates on the 26km stretch of expressway, the southern one charging $3 and the northern one $1.50.

The Northern Gateway motorway, from the North Shore to Pūhoi, already charges a toll of $2.60.

Added to the new tolls, that would make a total of $7.10 each way or $14.20 return between Auckland and the Northland border.

Trucks would pay $6 and $3 on the new expressway and $5.20 on the Northern Gateway, adding up to $14.20 each way or $28.40 return.

For Anna Giddens – who lives in Mangawhai but works four days a week at the University of Auckland, it could mean around $2600 a year in tolls – if she had to pass through all three electronic gates.

If she could avoid the northernmost toll gate she would still pay $2100 a year.

“Obviously it’s an added cost. It just seems like everything keeps going up, it would be added on top of everything else.”

Giddens said she would have to absorb the extra cost herself, but it would not be “a deal breaker” that would force her to quit her Auckland job.

“It’s not ideal, but I could cope with it. But I can imagine it could affect some people more.”

She said it would also affect businesses using the highway, which would have to pass the extra costs onto customers.

Giddens questioned the equity of requiring Northlanders to pay tolls while other recently completed roads – such as the Waikato Expressway and Transmission Gully, both of which cost more than $2 billion – were toll-free.

“I understand that the cost of this is incredibly high. It’s probably the highest cost for a road construction project in this country ever, and I guess we don’t have the money. But it does seem disproportionate that the North is being tolled, compared to other parts of the country.”

Giddens said the answer for her would be to find work closer to home, but that was not easy in the current job market.

In any case, she did not have to worry about paying the extra tolls anytime soon – work on the first section of the expressway was due to start at the end of this year, and was expected to open around 2034.

The consultation document showed the new tolls could be levied for either 35 or 60 years.

Automobile Association senior policy analyst Sarah Geard said equity was one of the issues members raised most often about the tolling proposal – especially given Northland’s low median income.

Only two other roads were currently tolled in New Zealand, both in Tauranga.

“A point to make here is that in 2024 the government instructed NZTA that they do need to consider tolling on every new road … so we expect that will be the norm from this point.”

Geard said the AA was open to tolling if it meant new roads would be built sooner.

“And that means people who choose to use the road will benefit earlier than they otherwise would. I also note that under legislation, there must always be a feasible, untolled alternative route available to people who don’t want to use the toll roads, so that’s always an option,” she said.

“But we’re very mindful that tolls do mean extra cost to motorists, and we recognise there is already a toll road between Auckland and Whangārei.”

Geard said the AA had yet to decide its position on the Warkworth to Te Hana proposal.

The organisation was still working through information from NZTA to understand why the proposed toll was $4.50, why it was split into two tolls of differing amounts, and how the tolls would affect the number of vehicles using the new road.

New Zealand’s trucking industry also supported tolling if it sped up roading projects – but had reservations about the details of the Warkworth to Te Hana plan.

Paula Rogers, commercial transport specialist for the National Road Carriers (NRC), said about 1000 heavy trucks travelled between Auckland and Northland every day, transporting everything from food and fuel to logs and building materials.

She said the industry was pleased the new route would bypass Dome Valley, which was notorious for crashes and delays.

If tolling brought forward the project and its safety and efficiency benefits, that was a positive for all road users, Rogers said.

However, NRC had concerns about the methodology used to arrive at a toll of $9 for heavy vehicles.

Including the existing toll, that added up to $28.40 per return trip.

“Given the high frequency of freight movements along this corridor, these cumulative costs become significant for transport operators and are ultimately passed through to customers and the wider economy.”

Rogers said NRC wanted greater transparency around how NZTA had arrived at the proposed tolls, and whether the cumulative impact of multiple tolls on freight costs had been considered.

According to the NZTA’s consultation documents, the new Warkworth-Te Hana road would shave 7-10 minutes off travel times compared to the existing road.

It would also reduce the number and severity of crashes, especially in the Dome Valley, which was known for its “safety and resilience challenges”.

NZTA said tolling would allow the PPP to get started sooner, and free up money for other roading projects.

The reason for proposing separate toll points north and south of the Wayby Valley interchange was to make it fairer – motorists would pay according to how much of the new road they used – and to prevent congestion caused by large number of drivers diverting onto free local roads.

The new road would run west of and parallel to Dome Valley, before crossing the existing State Highway 1 and passing east of the notorious summer chokepoint at Wellsford.

It would rejoin the existing highway at Te Hana, just south of the Northland border and about 20km south of the Brynderwyn Hills.

The existing section of State Highway 1 would be reclassified as a local road and would be free to use.

Eventually two more sections of Northland Expressway would be built, from Te Hana over the Brynderwyns to Port Marsden Highway, and from Port Marsden Highway to Whangārei.

Each section was expected to have its own tolls.

The tolls being consulted on are based on 2025 prices, so could be adjusted for inflation.

NZTA documents show the Northern Gateway, which opened in 2009, is expected to be tolled until about 2045.

Public consultation on the Warkworth to Te Hana proposal runs until 15 April.

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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 section of a central Auckland street has been blocked after a car caught fire.

The blaze in a hatchback vehicle happened outside the ferry terminal building on Wednesday evening.

Firefighters had extinguished the flames and were monitoring the car.

Video from the scene showed flames and smoke billowing from the car.

A reporter at the scene said the car had been “destroyed” by the fire.

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