NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

A recount has confirmed the outcome of a closely contested seat in Porirua’s local election.

Parirua Māori Ward councillor Kylie Wihapi, who was deputy mayor last term, has been confirmed winner by nine votes over candidate Jess Te Huia.

A recount in the Porirua District Court on Thursday disallowed two special votes which had previously been allowed, a Porirua City Council spokesperson said.

The recount was overseen by a Judge of the District Court, and scrutineers appointed by Te Huia, the recount applicant.

Wihapi received 934 votes, Te Huia 925 votes, Raniera Albert received 319 votes and Rawinia Rimene received 208 votes.

The council has not been able to hold its first meeting or swear in its councillors due to the recount process. Te Huia lodged a recount application in the Porirua District Court on 21 October.

Mayor-elect Anita Baker said she was “ecstatic” the council could now get started on its business.

“I’m ecstatic, we can now move forward, we’ve got a swearing in date of Tuesday the 25th.”

She said a full council on the 11 December would embark on a “huge amount of business” for the city.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Keen stargazers could be in for another glimpse on an aurora that lit up skies at the southern end of the country on Wednesday night.

Send us your photos: iwitness@rnz.co.nz

Tūhura Otago Museum’s director Dr Ian Griffin told Midday Report the aurora was likely to be visible in the lower South Island again this evening.

Last night’s display was particularly spectacular, he said, as two coronal mass ejections from the sun collided on their way to earth.

“[It] really boosted the visibility of the aurora last night,” he said. “So those of us who were lucky enough to have clear skies, we got a pretty amazing display that pretty much went on from sunset, all the way through to the early hours of the morning.”

Under clear skies in Middlemarch, he said he was lucky enough to see beams converging overhead in what’s known as an “aurora corona”.

“Really worthwhile going out and looking at it,” he said. “There’s a good chance if the skies are clear tonight you might see another.”

Te Whatu Stardome astronomer Josh Aoraki in October told RNZ aurora could often be caught on camera, even when they were not visible to the naked eye.

“We’re currently in a pretty high activity period with our sun, and the aurora is a direct result of solar activity interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field.”

The further south you went – place like Twizel, Southland and Otago – the better the view. Spots with less light pollution worked best.

He said aurora were notoriously hard to predict in terms of how bright they would be, but people could keep an eye on the space weather forecast on the NOAA website. It was possible the lights could be seen again on Thursday night.

Many keen starspotters shared their photos of Wednesday’s light show with RNZ.

Meanwhile, Transpower on Wednesday issued a grid emergency notice ahead of the G4 geomagnetic storm – which is the force behind the aurora – and took some South Island electricity transmission lines offline as a precaution to prevent damage to equipment.

Transpower said this kind of action was standard when space weather reached a particular level. A plan had been developed over several years through work with Otago University, international space agencies and others in the electricity industry.

Last week, the National Emergency Management Agency and other affected agencies ran through a test scenario of a solar storm response in the Beehive’s bunker, to make sure they are adequately prepared.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Emergency crews already rescuing two people have had to rescue a third who was taking photos of the ordeal.

Police were called about 8.30am to the Whiritoa blowhole in Coromandel where the first two people got caught by the incoming tide and big surf.

One of them had a suspected broken leg.

But while that person was being winched out of the blowhole, another man taking photos from the rocks got washed into the surf.

“While we were winching the injured man out of the blowhole we heard about someone else who was watching the rescue,” Sergeant Bradley York said.

“He’d been taking photos from rocks nearby then been washed off ​​into the surf,” he said.

“We had to divert away from the initial rescue, and shift to the more urgent situation where he was in the sea.

Rescue crews went back to the first scene to rescue the remaining man after winching the bystander from the water.

Police, Fire and Emergency, Surf Life Saving and the Auckland rescue helicopter were all involved.

“This was a good reminder to members of the public to exercise caution near the sea as conditions can change rapidly,” York said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fire and Emergency has confirmed a “controlled burn” in the vicinity of the massive Tongariro wildfire was not the cause.

A spokesperson said there was a controlled burn in the area at around 1.30pm on Saturday.

“This was attended by the National Park Volunteer Fire Brigade to ensure it was under control. Once they assessed everything was under control they left it with the landowner.

“It was not linked to the later fire.”

FENZ was first alerted to the wildfire, the cause of which remains under investigation, at around 3.15pm Saturday.

In a statement, the Department of Conservation, which had now taken over management of the fire ground, said rain was dampening down the impacted land with the park.

Overnight 27mm fell, with more rain predicted on Thursday and Friday.

DOC said ground crews and drone surveys had identified no new fire activity.

“With more precise mapping we have now got updated figures revealing fire has affected 2935 hectares of Tongariro National Park. This is over varied terrain including, sub-alpine scrub, alpine scrub, wetlands, frost flats and pockets of kaikawaka forest.”

After a tough few days, some DOC firefighters are being stood down.

“The situation will continue to be managed by the local DOC office, with out-of-town DOC firefighter crews heading home. The local office will continue to ensure appropriate fire containment and safety assessments occur as they start to look towards recovery and restoration of the impacted area.”

DOC staff were still assessing damage to tracks and structures.

“It will take some time for us to get the full picture of damage. Some structures have been significantly damaged or destroyed, while others have emerged entirely unscathed.

“Our initial understanding is that Mangatepopo Hut, the only hut in the affected area, is in good condition, but services like water supply have been affected.”

DOC said it expected to give an update on access and track conditions on Sunday 16 November

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing and tracks in the vicinity of Whakapapa Village remain closed until at least Monday.

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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 North Dunedin bottle store in the student quarter has agreed to close an hour earlier after facing backlash.

Bottle O Cumberland originally applied to increase its off-licence hours to 9am until 10pm each day.

Currently, its hours vary from 10am to 8pm on Monday and Tuesday, 10am to 10pm on Wednesday to Saturday and 10am to 6pm on Sunday.

The Dunedin City Council’s district licensing committee held a hearing on the application on Thursday, receiving opposition from the University of Otago Proctor, police, a Ministry of Health delegate, the Chief Licensing Inspector, and a member of the public.

They raised concerns about the extended hours might undermine the Local Alcohol Policy’s aim to reduce alcohol related harm

Acting Sergeant Chelsea Didham said the student population was regarded as a vulnerable community to the effects of alcohol harm.

“Statistically, the peak hours for alcohol related harm astronomically skyrocket after 9pm and don’t slow down until about 3am the following day,” Didham said.

“It’s widely known that the student quarters are a hive for alcohol-related activities, which brings with it a high proportion of alcohol-related harm.”

Company director Brendan McCarthy told the hearing that he agreed with their evidence that harm spiked after 9pm in a high risk area, saying there were definitely more people denied service closer to closing.

He amended his application to close at 9pm instead.

“The change resolves all agencies concerns and also creates a safer outcome for the community as a reduction from the current licence which permits 10pm closing on four nights a week, which I deem are the more harmful nights of the week,” McCarthy said.

He sought to extend the closing time on Sundays because local customers kept complaining the store closed too early, he said.

The police submission also questioned the suitability of applicant’s shareholders Patricia and Kenneth McCarthy who previously failed to have their off-licences renewed due to non-compliance.

The submission said Patricia McCarthy was also discharged without conviction last year after pleading guilty to one charge of selling alcohol to an unlicensed person. She was also fined $20,000 earlier this year for the unjust dismissal of an employee and upheld a personal grievance that she bullied and harassed them.

Didham said that when the application was made, Patricia McCarthy was a director and shareholder of the company Kitt Enterprises, but she was removed as a director in August and replaced by her son, Brendan McCarthy, Didham said.

Police were notified in October that Patricia and Kenneth McCarthy would not exercise any control or authority in decision making or trading, she said.

Brendan McCarthy said he had been the sole operator of the store over the past 20 years and the only things the shareholders, his parents, had done for the company was payroll which he had already taken over more than a year ago.

Public submitter Scott Stücki said McCarthy never would have asked for the initial extended hours if he understood the vulnerabilities of the community.

In North Dunedin, alcohol related harm was extremely common and the harm was commonly extreme, he said.

Stücki urged the committee to remember its responsibility to minimise the harm this vulnerable community faced.

Chief Licensing Inspector Tania Morrison told the hearing she was pleased to see the proposed change in hours, but questioned why the store sought to open an hour earlier at 9am.

“Given the locality of students, I would be surprised if there was an influx of customers that early in the morning,” she said.

She confirmed that a site visit earlier this year, checking the incident log and touring the store including the back areas where there was an extensive security system in place.

“We’re quite impressed with the systems in place and the knowledge of Mr McCarthy at the time,” she said.

Medical officer of health delegate Aaron Whipp agreed that the amended trading hours supported the minimisation of harm, but raised concerns about the extended Sunday trading hours.

The committee reserved its decision.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Prime Minister says a homegrown maritime surveillance platform might help in the fight against meth.

Starboard Maritime Intelligence’s technology is already being used to combat pirates as well as the sabotage of vital subsea cables.

Four government ministers and Wellington’s new mayor Andrew Little helped open the firm’s new headquarters in the capital on Thursday morning.

On a big screen at the opening, the story played out of the system earlier this month detecting pirates boarding a fuel tanker, the Hellas Aphrodite off Somalia. It showed the tanker changing course after being boarded. The crew took refuge in a safe room and were later let out, safe, when a Spanish warship saw off the pirates.

Christopher Luxon said the value of a platform using satellites to monitor swathes of ocean in near real-time could be taken further.

“When we see submarines or ships that are coming in with huge supplies of meth because they think it’s more attractive to sell into Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, tools like this can pull that information together and actually help us all in a fight like that,” the prime minister told RNZ.

Starboard began six years ago with government funding and a first contract with MPI to monitor ships that might pose a biosecurity pest threat.

Now it provides subsea cable monitoring in the North Sea, and Singapore had just deployed it against drug trafficking and transnational crime, the company said.

Luxon said this sort of tech could help build out a new domestic defence industry.

About 800 local companies supply to the Defence Force – but their industry body, the NZ Defence Industry Association which represents 200 of those, said this was a step short of having an actual “defence industry” in the country.

Luxon said the $12 billion in the defence capability plan could move the dial.

“We actually want off the back of that to create a defence industry here in New Zealand that can plug into our partners and friends and their defence acquisition programmes, whether that be in Europe, whether that be in North America or Australia as well.”

The country had to make sure it was “incredibly well positioned” in what was becoming a more volatile, power-based world order, he said.

Starboard was one of over 100 companies that registered to get briefings from the Defence Ministry in Wellington in May and Auckland in June, on what the defence capability plan was looking for.

These included massive US defence contractors like Boeing and Lockheed, and their tech cousins Amazon and Microsoft, as well as small local aerospace-oriented firms and ones building underwater drones.

Several companies also opted to have one-on-one meetings with Defence officials on 20 May, an Official Information Act response said.

Starboard said its platform was getting a lot of interest from governments as oceans became ever more strategic.

“Did you know that the US Navy is using Starboard to monitor North Korean sanctions compliance right now?” company chair Jonty Kelt asked the assembled dignitaries, including Associate Defence Minister Chris Penk.

‘Warfare is fast moving’

Demand is ramping up, along with the pace.

Defence Industry Association chair John Campbell said the government’s strategy was a “great step forward and what we want to see now is just the meat on the bones”.

The next six months were the real test.

“Today’s warfare is fast moving, it is faster than it’s ever been,” said Campbell.

“We can’t afford to have a system that takes two to three years to get to contract.

“The whole of industry needs to see it speed up – how they do that, it’s up to them [but] if we’re not careful industry will outpace defence.”

Militaries worldwide are notorious for being slow to get going.

The US is trying to upend that, with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth just last Friday giving an order to prioritise speed over cost when buying weapons. “We’re looking to inject urgency,” a Pentagon chief said.

Hegseth said US allies would benefit from getting arms orders on time, as quoted by Politico, which called it America’s arms sale shakeup.

Kelt said “speed is a necessity”, adding he was “very impressed” with the decisions the NZDF was making.

A widespread view is that start-ups and small tech firms like Starboard have an edge in this speed-first environment over the big contractors.

Luxon said he was already taking defence companies with him in delegations around the world.

“It’s already happening.”

Starboard just raised $23 million in a private sector funding round, however, the prime minister put government contracts in the mix.

“The government getting in behind and actually negotiating and doing its own deals and being a customer of the company like this, is really kind of important.”

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