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Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say a cyclist has died following a crash with a vehicle in Upper Hutt on Tuesday.

Emergency services received a report of the crash, involving a vehicle and a cyclist, about 4pm.

The intersection of Messines Avenue and Seddul Bahr Road in Trentham were closed while the Serious Crash Unit made enquiries.

The death will be referred to the Coroner.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Manawatū community starts user-pays school bus after cancellation of ministry-funded service.
• Parents and guardians take loans and use savings to pay for it.
• Ministry has cancelled 13 services after a review it says is routine.

Manawatū parents and caregivers are dipping into their savings and even taking out loans to fund a bus service to get their children to school.

This comes after some school buses that used to run into Palmerston North were axed as a result of a Ministry of Education review into more than 250 routes nationwide.

One high school reports that 300 of its students are affected by the changes.

‘Just not fair’

Rongotea is one of the areas affected by the changes, where high school students have a 15-minute ride into Palmerston North.

Families now have to pay for the bus that was previously free for decades.

Nikita Walker has helped lead efforts to organise the user-pays service for children, at a cost of more than $500 a term per child.

“I’ve had to ask family members to help me come up with funds to pay for my daughter’s term pass because we are a one-income family and we just can’t pull that off, and I don’t see it being able to be pulled off for future terms,” she said.

“It’s causing hardship for a lot of us and it’s just not fair.”

The ministry has reviewed routes to ensure compliance with its policies, including that students must go to their closest school.

Since then it has cancelled 13 services, including the one that used to run from Rongotea and Tangimoana into Palmerston North, which fell foul of these rules but had been in place for as long as residents can recall.

Walker’s daughter Jasmine would be eligible for a bus to Manawatū College in Foxton, rather than Palmerston North Girls’ High School, where she attends – but she said changing schools with her two senior years remaining was not an option.

“I honestly wouldn’t go. I really would not go. Honestly, I’d probably just get homeschooled.”

Nikita said while about 30 students caught the user-pays bus, not everyone could afford it.

“They are currently stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“Some of them are managing to do carpooling. I’ve had families reach out to me that are saying, ‘Well, we might actually have to quit our jobs and relocate’, and sell their homes because they just can’t manage this.”

Loans and savings pay for service

Other parents and guardians in Rongotea have found ways to pay for the bus, for now at least.

“My boss is actually paying for it. I actually have to pay that back otherwise my daughter wouldn’t be going to school because I cannot afford that, being a single-income family.” said Stacey Monks.

“At the moment I’ve had to go into my savings to get the teenager who’s at [Palmerston North school] QEC, just for the term, to get him to school,” said a Rongotea grandmother, who asked not to be named.

“We’ve already started saving for next term because that’s another bill that has to be there, but at this time of the year you’ve got a high school uniform that needs to be paid for and you’ve got devices and stationery and all the rest of it. It’s just a cost that’s just unfair for our rural communities,” said Jess Greene, who is also leading the charge to stand up for affected families.

Review is routine – ministry

Ministry group manager, school transport, James Meffan said reviewing school bus routes was routine, as the location and number of eligible students constantly changed.

Last year it looked at 265 routes, out of more than 1400.

As well as the 13 cancelled routes it added 13 new ones, merged 23, lengthened 73 and shortened 114.

Meffan said it would put on buses in places such as Rongotea if enough students were enrolled at their closest school.

The ministry did not review bus routes with the intention of saving money.

School ponders user-pays buses

At Palmerston North Boys’ High School, rector David Bovey said more than 300 students were affected by the changes, and the school was thinking of putting on its own user-pays services.

“A number of young men who were due to come here in year nine this year, who are from surrounding areas, decided not to because they can’t get in here on the bus,” he said.

“We’ve had some of the senior boys who have been trying to make their own way here, but it’s been a real issue for a number of parents. We had a couple of boys who couldn’t start on time, at the same time as everyone else, because they had to organise transport.”

Education Minister Erica Stanford said bus routes weren’t for her to decide.

“The school bus rules and regulations have been in place for over 100 years and have never been changed and at some point in the future we’ll need to take a look at them, but it is an operational job for the ministry so ministers don’t get involved.”

For now, parents such as Nikita Walker were hoping the ministry does a U-turn – something that has happened before, when services were under threat in the 1990s.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Residents in the Far North community of Ahipara are arming themselves with sticks to protect against roaming dogs in their neighbourhood.

Local father Tyrone Biddle and his young daughters witnessed a pack of dogs attacking another neighbourhood dog last week.

“At first it looked like they were just playing, and then just within seconds it just turned to something like just really violent. So five of those dogs turned on one dog and just started mauling her,” he told Checkpoint.

“My four-year-old, I recall her just screaming and crying, because the dog that was getting mauled was a dog that was known to us. So my four-year-old screaming out this dog’s name, my seven-year-old just screaming ‘stop, stop’.”

In a statement, Far North District Council’s Hilary Sumpter said it had received 1087 reports of roaming dogs across the district at large during the last financial year, with 396 impounded.

Biddle said many parents in Ahipara were scared to let their kids walk to school on their own, and some residents had taken to arming themselves.

“This is the first time we’ve kind of seen that pack mentality kind of take effect, but my girls have been chased previously by dogs, people now walk around our community with weapons, with sticks, because they’re too scared to kind of go walking without one,” he said.

“There’s a school at the end of Ahipara that a lot of the tamariki go to, parents don’t let them walk or ride to school because of fear of all these dogs.”

Biddle said it wasn’t fair for residents to feel unsafe.

“This can’t be out of our control. This can’t be a situation in which we are kind of prisoners [in] our own community and can’t just go for a walk or let our kids experience the outdoors,” he said.

“This isn’t an anti-dog thing. This is just anti-irresponsible owners, people that choose to have dogs but don’t choose the responsibility of what comes with owning the dog.”

He criticised the council for what he viewed as a reactive approach.

“When I called the council about these dogs, they said, ‘yeah, we’re aware of these dogs.’ So if you’re aware of these dogs, what is it that you’re waiting for? What is currently happening is just not good enough for our community,” Biddle said.

“I’m just scared that the worst case scenario is that this thing getting mauled is not a dog and it’s one of our tamariki or our kaumātua or whoever it might be, because that is where I see this going.”

Sumpter said the council was taking proactive actions to prevent future issues.

“The council is currently working with the SPCA on a programme to provide dog de-sexing services in high-need communities,” she said.

“We are also actively following up on lapsed registrations. About 800 infringements have been issued district-wide in last two weeks for non-registration. Getting more dogs registered and on record means we can identify owners when their dogs are picked up. More infringements will be issued in coming weeks.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are working with Australian counterparts on an investigation into a satanic child sex abuse material ring with alleged links to New Zealand.

New South Wales police announced last week that detectives from their Sex Crimes Squad had charged a sixth man and were referring a further 145 suspects to international law enforcement agencies following an investigation into a satanic child sex abuse material ring as part of an operation called Strike Force Constantine.

Police said investigators had identified offenders from New Zealand, USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, and South East Asia.

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

RNZ asked New South Wales police for information on the New Zealand-based suspects and how many there were.

A spokesperson said any questions needed to be directed to New Zealand police.

RNZ asked police what work was being done by New Zealand officers in relation to the investigation, what co-operation there had been with overseas authorities and how many suspects were based in this country.

Detective Inspector Stuart Mills said New Zealand Police were “working with the New South Wales Police on this matter and will support them as requested”.

“We are not in a position to comment further at this time.”

New South Wales police said last week that Strike Force Constantine was established by State Crime Command’s Child Exploitation Internet Unit to investigate the online distribution of child sexual abuse involving ritualistic or satanic themes.

“During the investigation, detectives uncovered a Sydney-based paedophile network actively involved in possessing, distributing, and facilitating this material through a website administered internationally.”

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