NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

An engineering issue on a Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Nelson has forced the plane to return to Auckland.

Fire and Emergency said they were called to the airport shortly after 3pm on Thursday, after being told there’d been an “engine shutdown” on the flight.

Nine fire trucks and more than 30 firefighters were on standby at the airport.

St John ambulance also sent more than a dozen ambulances and its major incident support team.

Air New Zealand said the flight landed safely, and its maintenance team will now inspect the aircraft.

It said the plane had an “engineering issue”.

“We regret the inconvenience this has caused our customers travelling to Nelson this afternoon and we are working to get them to their destination as quickly as possible,” said its chief safety and risk officer Nathan McGraw.

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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 Queenstown Lakes District Council has received two abatement notices following a series of failures at Wānaka’s wastewater treatment plant.

Heavy rain hit last month while the Project Pure Wastewater Plant was being upgraded and working at reduced capacity, causing nitrogen levels to spike and treated wastewater to flood disposal fields and run off.

The Otago Regional Council has since issued the two notices calling for the district council to stop discharging treated wastewater to land without complying with its consent.

One of the abatement notices described effluent flowing down an access road, into a nearby property and forcing grazing stock to drive through it to access other paddocks.

Five of the last 12 consecutive sample results for total nitrogen were “very high”, and at least three of them breached the consented limit this year.

District council property and infrastructure manager Tony Avery said the council was fully cooperating and trying to address the issues to become fully compliant as quickly as possible.

But he acknowledged the situation was disappointing.

“With the recent upgrade work now complete, and all three reactors operating as expected, we’re already seeing material improvements in the treated wastewater quality,” Avery said.

“We will continue to keep the community informed while we work through these issues.”

The Otago Regional Council warned that enforcement officers might do inspections to check compliance.

The district council also reported three wastewater ponding incidents between August and early October.

Another ponding incident was reported on 28 October following the heavy rain and a mechanical failure that reduced the capacity of the plant.

The abatement notice said staff diverted process wastewater to the disposal field.

“However, the disposal field was inundated and could not cope with the volume, causing ponding and the overland flow of wastewater down an access road,” the notice said.

When enforcement officers checked the plant on the same day, they estimated effluent to be about 80 millimetres deep throughout the disposal field zones, sludge with the ponded effluent, an odour on occasions and effluent flowing about 300 metres down an access road.

Some of that was discharging through a culvert and onto an adjacent property.

The effluent runoff flooded an access road to a property, forced stock from grazing areas to drive through the effluent to access other paddocks, contaminated silage and concerns were raised about the impact on the health of people, animals and the paddocks, the notice said.

The council did not rule out prosecution under the Resource Management Act if the district council did not comply.

The latest abatement notices followed a spate of recent compliance issues with two of the district council’s treatment plants.

In June, the Environment Court ruled that the council must fix the issues with its Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant after it was issued with 10 infringement notices and two abatement notices over about a year and half.

The district council has a permit for its Wānaka treatment plant to discharge no more than 26,400 cubic metres of wastewater to the disposal field per calendar day.

The groundwater quality in the bores sampled are not meant to exceed 11.3 grams per cubic metre of nitrate nitrogen.

It also has conditions requiring no ponding or surface run off of treated wastewater and does not allow the discharge of sludge to land or water apart from to an approved landfill.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Feral cats will be added to Predator Free 2050’s hitlist, a sharp change of policy announced by Conservation Minister Tama Potaka.

Describing feral cats as “stone cold killers”, Potaka told RNZ they would “join their buddies, stoats, ferrets, weasels – mustelids, rats and possums” on the official list for eradication.

The move appears to be a sudden change of tack after RNZ’s reporting this week pointed out Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had promised during a 2023 election debate to add feral cats but failed to do so.

A proposal recently circulated by the government suggested feral cats should continue to be excluded from the strategy and Potaka made no mention of including them when approached by RNZ earlier this month about Luxon’s campaign promise.

But today, Potaka said it had been decided a couple of weeks ago to include them. He would not say why it was announced today.

It marks the first change to the list of species since the target’s inception in 2016, when then-Prime Minister John Key announced the predator free goal.

* See RNZ’s special report on the advance of destructive wild cats across NZ’s native heartland

‘We’ve got to get rid of these killers’

Potaka said feral cats were “stone cold killers”, responsible for killing birds, bats, lizards and insects.

“In order to boost biodiversity, to boost heritage landscape and to boost the type of place we want to see, we’ve got to get rid of some of these killers.”

The number of feral cats in New Zealand is unknown, but estimates range from 2.4 million upwards. They’re apex predators, which have been linked to the extinction of several native bird species. They also hunt bats, lizards, frogs and even insects such as wētā.

The announcement comes ahead of the results of a review of the Predator Free 2050 strategy due to be publicly revealed early next year.

The review included a proposal the public was invited to give feedback on. The proposal suggested feral cats be excluded at present, saying eradication wasn’t feasible. However, it did ask for public feedback on the benefits and risks of not including them.

The decision to not include them in the review drew criticism from conservationists, who said it was a “misread of the room” and the dial had shifted on the public’s understanding and acceptance of the issue.

Potaka said the proposal generated a large number of submissions and the majority called for feral cats to be included in the target species list.

The U-turn on feral cats inclusion, announced today, was welcomed by conservation groups. Chief executive of the charity group Predator Free New Zealand Trust, Jessi Morgan, said she’d been hoping for the inclusion for years.

“I can’t believe it really, I’m thrilled that decision has been made and I think it’s the right decision for New Zealand and I think New Zealand is ready.”

She said public opinion had shifted on the topic.

“There’s understanding that feral cats are a completely different kettle of fish to the cats that are sitting on your lap at night watching Shortland Street with you.”

What will this mean?

Potaka said the inclusion will drive an increased focus on eradication of feral cats.

This could involve investigating different ways to target them through poisoning, such as sausage baits laced with poison, or “spit” based methods where a poison is sprayed on the cat.

“There may be other options in the future, like genetic options or genetic solutions that can help reduce and eliminate any of these predators. Those are yet to be found, of course”

Potaka said scientist Sir Peter Gluckman had been in touch with him on possible scientific advancements which could be implemented.

Potaka didn’t specify what funding would be put behind eradicating feral cats, but said money from the International Visitor Levy was already going toward predator eradication.

Revenue from the levy has emerged at the same time as Jobs for Nature funding came to an end, and the company set up under Key to spearhead Predator Free New Zealand was wound up earlier this year to save $12.6m over three years.

The functions of the company were handed to the Department of Conservation (DOC). Costs for managing the company’s existing projects and contracts fell to DOC, which got no extra money earmarked for Predator Free 2050 other than a transfer of $2.3m already allocated to Predator Free 2050 Ltd.

Morgan, from Predator Free New Zealand Trust, said the inclusion of cats would send a strong message to councils that feral cats are now in the hit list.

“It will impact, hopefully, the policies that regional councils are putting out there to include better measures around feral cats,” she said.

What is a ‘feral’ cat?

The inclusion on the predator hit list has the potential to drive other changes.

Feral cats are wild cats, which survive without human help, and are the only cats targeted for eradication. But the challenge of including a common pet species in the predator free line up could mean pet cats will need protection.

This may come in the form of regulations, such as registration and microchipping. Potaka said he couldn’t confirm if this would happen.

“That’s for another day, and I’m sure that our government, at some stage will look at that more intensely,” he said, adding that it was a hot topic for National MP Barbara Kuriger.

Kuriger and Green MP Celia Wade-Brown have a member’s bill calling for compulsory microchipping and registration of companion cats. Currently, the bill would need to be drawn from a ballot in order to be considered, although the government could also adopt it. Kuriger and Wade-Brown could also get the support of 61 backbench MPs across Parliament for it to be advanced for a first reading.

Potaka said he’s a cat person himself, and owns two rescue cats, Haku and Scout, which has only three legs. He said as a cat lover he has no qualms about cats being added to Predator Free 2050.

“No, I don’t but I want to make sure my cats have their relevant microchips , which they do, and they’re looked after and there’s a very clear distinction between companion cats and feral cats.”

See more about New Zealand’s growing feral cat problem in Feral, a special RNZ investigation]

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

An Auckland dentist accused of treating patients while his license was suspended can now be named.

Dr Jacob Goldenberg and his company, Total Health Dentistry in Ponsonby, face 21 charges under the Health Practitioners Competence and Assurance Act 2003 and the Fair Trading Act 1986.

The charges, filed by the Ministry of Health, alleged he worked as a health practitioner without holding a current practising certificate and falsely claimed dental services were being supplied by a registered dentist.

Goldenberg has not entered any pleas to the charges.

He had his practising certificate suspended by the Dental Council in March 2023, pending the completion of an investigation.

His practice was put into liquidation in April 2024.

He was granted temporary name suppression when initial charges were filed against him by the Ministry of Health in 2024, after previously being named by RNZ in its investigation of Goldenberg’s practice.

But at the Auckland District Court on Wednesday morning, Judge Kevin Muir denied Goldenberg’s request to keep name suppression until a verdict was delivered.

Speaking to Judge Muir in court, Goldenberg argued that he should not be named until he could give evidence because he considered the allegations against him to be inaccurate.

“The clinical facts won’t support the charges,” he said.

Judge Muir said there was no evidence that publicly naming the dentist would cause him extreme hardship and that the public had a right to know about the proceedings.

He said Goldenberg was given “ample time” to file an application in support of his bid for name suppression, which he did not do.

RNZ also opposed name suppression on the basis that publication might assist in alerting other people who might be affected to come forward.

Judge Muir decided Goldenberg’s name suppression would lapse at 4pm on 20 November, to allow him an opportunity to obtain legal advice.

Goldenberg is due back in court in January when a trial date is expected to be set.

Judge Muir urged Goldenberg, who has chosen to represent himself, to get legal representation.

He said standby counsel would be appointed to assist Goldenberg during the trial.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

About 10,000 insurance claims have been lodged as a result of the wild weather that battered New Zealand last month.

Severe wind and heavy rain warnings were issued for much of the South Island and the lower North Island.

A wind storm on 23 October cut power to tens of thousands of homes, tore off roofs, and downed trees and fences, leading to a state of emergency being declared in Southland and Clutha.

The Insurance Council said about 70 percent of claims were from Southland and Otago.

“Most of the claims received to date are for wind-related damage, and insurers are working with customers to assess and progress these as quickly as possible,” a spokesperson said.

FMG – the country’s biggest rural insurer – said it had received more than 3000 claims from severe wind on 23 October that were expected to cost more than $28 million.

“Of these claims, approximately 1,500 are from Southland and 700 are from Otago,” a spokesperson said.

“We had over 650 claims for Canterbury and over 80 of those related to irrigators.

“We’re not expecting the number of claims to change significantly now. We’re continuing to work to resolve claims as quickly as possible – with 10 percent of claims closed and over $1.5m already in communities.”

FMG had also received about 350 claims from severe wind on October 21 with about 100 coming from Canterbury.

Tower’s head of natural disaster response Lisa Maxwell said Tower received 850 claims from the storm.

“260 of these are from our customers in the Southland region and 150 from our customers in Otago,” Maxwell said.

“The majority of claims are for minor damage, for example, fences, roofing and damage from debris.”

An IAG spokesperson said its AMI, State and NZI brands had received more than 4300 claims from 23 October.

“More than 3,000 of those claims were received from customers in Southland and Otago regions,” the spokesperson said.

“Most of the strong wind damage caused smashed windows and doors, flying roofs and sheds, and also spoiled food as a result of the power outages.

“Additionally, the hailstorm affecting Timaru and South Canterbury on 15 November has prompted more than 1,000 claims.

“At this stage, it’s too early to put a cost to these events.”

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