Source: New Zealand Police
Police can confirm one person has died following a crash in Mount Eden this morning.
The crash, on Dominion Road, was reported at around 10.18am.
Sadly, one person died at the scene.
Dominion Road has since reopened and an investigation into the cause of the crash remains ongoing.
ENDS.
Holly McKay/NZ Police
Source: Radio New Zealand
Broken glass and other items can be seen in the gutter. RNZ / Marika Khabazi
A person who saw a crash between two buses and a car in Auckland’s Glen Innes says he thought a bus was going to crash into nearby shops.
Emergency services were at the scene of the crash on Apirana Avenue, which was reported just after 9am.
Police said one person had been taken to hospital in a moderate condition.
Apirana Avenue was closed between Taniwha Street and Delwyn Lane while the scene was cleared.
Dom Nash. RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Dom Nash told RNZ he was in the butchery when he heard loud bangs.
“I saw a bus hit another bus, then a car driving up the road swerved towards us, which I thought the bus was going to come into the shop, all of a sudden it hit the brakes, and yeah, chaos everywhere.”
Nash said the road was cleared shortly after 10:30am.
Diversions were in place and motorists were told to expect delays.
The scene in Glen Innes. RNZ / Marika Khabazi
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Source: New Zealand Police
Good Police work has swiftly ended the plans of four alleged youth offenders in Auckland on Tuesday.
Two investigation teams were tasked with enquiries into a series of aggravated robberies reported across Waitematā in recent days.
Detective Senior Sergeant Ryan Bunting, Waitematā West Area Investigations Manager, says there were four separate reports of intimidating behaviour and assault over a two-day period.
“These alleged offenders confronted their victims, assaulted them, and took multiple items including a gold watch, cash, cell phones, and a scooter,” he says.
“With the help of CCTV, investigators were able to identify a person of interest linked to the series of offences. Officers from the Youth Crime Team located and arrested that person shortly after.”
The alleged offender was also identified as being involved in multiple instances of disorder, trespass, and shoplifting in West Auckland over the past two weeks.
“Once we identified one member of the group, the other three were located and arrested within three hours,” Detective Senior Sergeant Bunting says.
“We are pleased to have stopped the harm these alleged offenders were causing in our communities.”
A 14-year-old female has been charged with multiple counts of aggravated robbery and will appear in the Waitākere Youth Court today. She has also been referred to Youth Aid for the other alleged offending.
Three males, aged 12 and 13, have been referred to Youth Aid for aggravated robbery.
ENDS.
Amanda Wieneke/NZ Police
Source: NZ Ministry for Primary Industries
Fisheries New Zealand fishery officers caught 2 divers with 369 undersize pāua at Sponge Bay in Gisborne yesterday.
Officers discovered the pair when they were patrolling the coast and inspected their catch.
“The divers were preparing to leave the area when they were stopped for a routine check of their catch. It was very disappointing to find they had 369 undersize pāua, the smallest pāua was only 56mm,” says Fisheries New Zealand district manager, Gisborne/Whakatane, Jordan Cooper.
Officers returned the pāua to the sea and seized their vehicle and diving gear. Fisheries New Zealand is considering next steps, including prosecution.
“When we find evidence of people deliberately breaking the rules – we will hold them to account. The rules are there for a reason – to keep our shared fisheries sustainable into the future.
“The daily limit per person for gathering pāua is 5 with a minimum size of 125mm and we would strongly encourage anyone who is unaware of the rules to download the free NZ Fishing Rules mobile app which will provide you the latest rules, including closures and gear restrictions for any area you intend to fish,” Jordan Cooper says.
We encourage people to report any suspected illegal activity through the Ministry for Primary Industries’ 0800 4 POACHER line (0800 476 224).
For further information and general enquiries, call MPI on 0800 008 333 or email info@mpi.govt.nz
For media enquiries, contact the media team on 029 894 0328.
Source: Radio New Zealand
Rēkohu-Wharekauri-Chatham Island waka excavation site Supplied/Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Interim radiocarbon dating on a partially excavated waka in Chatham Islands has revealed the waka arrived on the islands in the mid 1400s.
A previous report concluded the waka, unearthed by father and son Vincent and Nikau Dix, was of pre-European construction and likely from a time before significant cultural separation between Aotearoa and the Pacific.
Lead Archaeologist Dr Justin Maxwell, from Sunrise Archaeology, said recent archaeological research has suggested that the first arrival of people on Rēkohu occurred between 1450 and 1650 AD.
“Additional evidence from ancient peat samples shows that significant changes to the environment began after 1500 AD.”
The newly obtained dating results show:
Radiocarbon dates obtained from wood can be much older than the event we are interested in, Lead Archaeologist Dr Justin Maxwell says. Supplied by Maui Solomon
This is the first known bottle gourd, also known as calabash or hue in te reo Māori, found in an archaeological site on Chatham Island, Maxwell said.
“Short-lived local plant materials tested are of similar age and suggest the cultural layer surrounding the waka was formed shortly after its arrival.
“Testing short-lived plant materials is important to get accurate dates for a find such as this. We don’t want to date the timbers because trees can live for a long time.”
“Radiocarbon dates obtained from wood can be much older than the event we are interested in – which is when this waka was in use.
“Together, these findings point to the arrival of the waka on Rēkohu Wharekauri Chatham Island between 1440 and 1470 AD. It is important to note that nearly all dated samples from the waka were on short-lived materials, such as cordage that may have been replaced over time. Some materials were older, suggesting the main components of the waka itself could be considerably older than the dated items,” Maxwell said.
Pou Mataaho o Te Hua Deputy secretary delivery and investment, Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Glenis Philip-Barbara, said the interim radiocarbon dating results had been released ahead of the final archaeological report.
“The final report released by February 2026 will provide finalised radiocarbon results with further analysis and context. These interim results mark a significant milestone in understanding the early settlement and cultural history of Rēkohu Wharekauri Chatham Island.”
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Education Minister Erica Stanford
A government bill will stop schools opting out of international maths and reading tests and speed up intervention in failing schools.
It will also give a new property agency the power to force schools to spend money on building works.
The Education and Training (System Reform) Bill was introduced to Parliament this week.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said the bill would ensure the education system supported the government’s priorities.
She said a key aspect was raising the quality of initial teacher education.
That part of the bill would enable changes to the Teaching Council announced earlier in the month.
They included shifting the council’s responsibility for teacher education and teachers’ professional standards to the Education Ministry, and changing the make-up of its governing body to include only three representatives elected by teachers and four to six ministerial appointees.
The bill would require the Education Review Office to notify the ministry and minister within two working days if it decided a school “may be of serious concern”, followed within 28 working days by a report and recommended statutory interventions.
It would establish a new Crown agency, the New Zealand School Property Agency, to manage school property.
The agency’s powers would include recovering costs for maintenance and repairs and requiring boards to take action.
The bill would require the Education Ministry to review curriculum areas on a rolling basis and allow different curriculum statements to be made for different groups of schools.
It would remove the requirement for school boards to consult their communities about the health curriculum – something the Education Review Office recommended last year.
The bill would remove the ability of state, charter and private schools to opt out of studies such as the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment – a change apparently responding to a high refusal rate in the 2022 tests.
The Educational Institute, Te Riu Roa, warned the bill was a bulldozer that significantly increased ministerial control over the school system.
It said the bill would politicise education.
“What we are seeing is what we’ve seen in the curriculum changes – a government hell-bent on making a one-size-fits-all education system and controlling it in its entirety, without thought for the diversity and needs of our tamariki and our communities. We cannot see in any of the proposed changes a world where tamariki, kaiako or their whānau will be better off,” it said.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
An aerial appliance. FIRE AND EMERGENCY NZ / SUPPLIED
Operators of the country’s largest fire trucks with the longest ladders are going to get a bigger say in a long overdue national strategy.
“I have invited specialist aerial frontline firefighters to provide those insights and they are scheduled to start meeting in early December 2025,” deputy national commander Megan Stiffler told RNZ.
Fire and Emergency was told five years ago to come up with a plan for what type of big trucks it needs and where to put them, but has not.
A big-ladder truck, called an aerial, had to travel two hours from Auckland to a big fire on Tuesday at Port Whangārei.
The Professional Firefighters’ Union said a strategy was crucial to answer questions like whether Northland needed its own aerial, or Tauranga, given both had ports and industry where the extra reach of an aerial to fight a fire can be crucial.
“Probably the most important [thing] is how are those aerials going to be staffed. Because if we’re adding extra trucks there, it may be that we need to add extra firefighter positions,” union national vice-president Martin Campbell said.
The inquiry into the 2019 Auckland international convention fire told FENZ to hurry up with a strategy for replacing aerials.
“Here we are, six years, still not done,” Campbell said.
“Now… Megan Stiffler has come and joined the organisation and recognised that what they’ve been working on wasn’t fit for purpose, so it’s pretty much having to go back to the drawing board.”
FENZ only revealed its change of tack late on Wednesday after RNZ asked why the strategy had been in draft form for at least six months.
“Fire and Emergency New Zealand recognised the draft strategy needed further consultation with frontline operators to ensure insights and contributions captured operational needs and experience,” Stiffler said in a statement.
The meeting with operators had been pushed back to next month at the unions’ request, to allow firefighters to have input to FENZ’s proposed mass restructure, she said.
Campbell said Stiffler asked him two months ago about which experts to include.
“To her credit, she has taken up that advice and has shoulder-tapped some of those people,” he said.
“Hopefully it doesn’t mean we’re going to have to sit and wait for another five years before something’s produced.”
Lock the right people away and they could produce a strategy in two months, he said.
However, the restructure had meant everything that was “not critical has been put on the back burner”.
On Tuesday, FENZ said a draft of the aerial strategy was under active development, which was the same thing it had said in May.
It refused to release the draft on the grounds that was likely to inhibit officials working on it, and “could compromise the quality of the final advice and decision-making process”.
Later, it said it was going back to the operators.
“At least now, Megan has recognised the need for operational input from firefighters,” Campbell said.
Campbell said a working group that included firefighters had input to an initial aerial strategy draft.
“Unfortunately, it seems those recommendations weren’t acted upon.”
The union last saw the draft two years ago, when it told FENZ it was not fit for purpose, he said.
He had since made multiple Official Information Act requests to get a copy but had been refused.
There were already five new aerials on order, however, FENZ said they were a year late – instead of getting them in mid-2025 it would now be mid-2026.
Together worth over $11m, the five have been on order since at least the Loafers Lodge fire in 2023, and since last year had been getting bodywork and lockers done in Wellington and Brisbane.
Only the main centres that already had an aerial would get one of the new ones: Auckland the one with the longest 45m ladder; and Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin would each get a new 32m-ladder truck.
In addition, various brigades had trucks with 17m ladders (about 20 trucks all up).
The 29 larger-ladder trucks are on average 20 years old – the newest 12 and oldest 39 years old. Some may be retired when the five new ones arrive.
The union had protested since at least 2018 that a lack of aerial trucks and the old ones breaking down, were putting lives at risk, which FENZ had routinely disputed.
The readiness of the country’s whole fire truck fleet had been a feature of the ongoing industrial dispute between the two sides.
Earlier this month FENZ said it had inherited an ageing fleet in 2017 but had a fleet programme that had replaced 317 fire trucks, with 78 more in the pipeline, including heavy aerial trucks. Many of the others were smaller utes.
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Source: New Zealand Transport Agency
State Highway 1 Transmission Gully will be fully open this weekend, with a planned southbound road closure now postponed by one week.
The next southbound closure will be in place between 10 am Friday, 28 November and 4:30 am Monday, 1 December.
Mark Owen, Regional Manager Lower North Island / Top of the South says there has been a full review of what happened last weekend and how it affected the public.
“We realise the congestion on Sunday afternoon and evening caused lengthy delays and frustration for drivers. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
“We are working through the key causes of last weekend’s problems so that we can make improvements. While the work we have planned this summer will be disruptive and cause delays, we want to minimise it as much as possible,” Mr Owen says.
He says revised plans are being developed and the public will be updated soon on expected improvements to reduce congestion and delays on the State Highway 59 detour route.
“Works continue throughout the summer period, so people must prepare for delays to travel in the upcoming months. Currently, there are lane closures in place in both northbound and southbound directions, and these will be in place 24/7 until mid-February, weather permitting.”
We want to return the road to full operation as soon as we can. This is so it is ready for expected peak traffic volumes immediately before Christmas,” Mr Owen says.
Contractors backfilling concrete next to the southbound lane after drainage has been installed.
Mr Owen says Friday afternoon northbound traffic will be congested on Transmission Gully during peak hour, so where possible, people should try to travel earlier or later in the afternoon and evening.
“On Saturday, there is a Wellington Phoenix game scheduled, so people should be prepared for delays on Saturday afternoon heading into Wellington city.”
“With Metlink bus replacements in place for the Kāpiti rail line on Sunday, people can also expect more traffic than normal,” Mr Owen says.
He also says people must be aware that Sunday afternoon is typically a busy time for southbound traffic, particularly around Raumati.
“We expect southbound traffic in the morning peak to be congested, as well as northbound traffic in the afternoon peak, Monday to Friday.”
“Please follow the posted speed limits, merge like a zip and be patient with other drivers and the crews on site,” Mr Owen says.
State Highway 59 remains a recommend alternative route while work on Transmission Gully continues. Drivers are encouraged to check Journey Planner regularly for information before they travel and follow NZTA/Waka Kotahi social media channels for updates.
Source: New Zealand Police
An 18-year-old woman has died following a crash in Manawatū on Tuesday 18 November.
The crash, involving a car and a truck, occurred at the intersection of Kairanga Bunnythorpe Road and Roberts Line at around midday.
The young woman was critically injured in the crash and tragically has subsequently passed away in hospital.
Enquiries into the circumstances of the crash are under way.
ENDS
Issued by Police Media Centre.
Source: Radio New Zealand
Ashik Ali was sentenced to three years in prison for manslaughter. Kim Baker Wilson / RNZ
A truck driver whose dodgy and unregistered truck fatally ploughed into an Auckland roadworker has been jailed for three years.
Ashik Ali was sentenced for manslaughter at the High Court in Auckland over the killing of Jonathon Walters in Remuera, May 2024.
Walters was taken to hospital in a critical condition and died two days later.
Ali’s truck, laden with 20 tonnes of roading material, rolled backwards towards the roadworkers when the brakes failed, hitting Walters and running over his legs and pelvic area.
Its last Certificate of Fitness was in 2019, and it had a non-operation order issued in 2021.
Walters’ death was preventable, the Crown said.
Ashik Ali. Kim Baker Wilson / RNZ
“Mr Ali’s truck was in such a poor state of repair it should not have been on the road,” prosecutor Clare Antenen told Justice Graham Lang.
“Mr Ali’s truck had been stopped on many occasions by Police vehicle safety teams, the truck had been inspected and had been found to have very serious safety defects including an air leak to the breaking system,” she said.
She said a non-operation order had been issued against the truck and there was a history of non-compliance stretching from 2018 to 2022.
The truck had also been given “at various times” either pink or green stickers.
“In any event, the truck was driven by Mr Ali on more than one occasion completely disregarding the orders by the Police in relation to the truck,” Antenen said.
“The Crown submits the death of Mr Walters is a direct result of Mr Ali refusing to comply with the orders he was given to maintain a roadworthy truck, to keep his truck in a state where it would not cause injury to others on the road,” she said.
The Crown’s comments came after tearful victim impact statements from whānau were given in court.
Walters sister, Karin Fraser, was in anguish as she explained how she never got to Auckland before her brother died
“He had already passed, I did not get a chance to say goodbye,” she said.
“Being denied that has caused long-standing mamae that I will carry for the rest of my life,” she said.
Fraser said her brother was a loving father and devoted uncle and a steady presence for the whānau’s tamariki.
“His absence has left a painful gap for our younger whanay and our younger generationm” she said.
Fraser said she since has had deep concerns for other family members doing the same work.
“Because of your actions, I now carry a consistent anxiety that they too may go to work one day and not return to their whanau,” she told Ali.
Walters’ niece, Aliyah Tautahi-Fraser, said his mokopuna have been robbed of a life that includes him.
“How we can we ensure the safety of these whanau members to make sure that this doesn’t happen again?” she asked.
Ali’s lawyer, Ron Mansfied, KC said he was in a financial bind and desperate.
Ron Mansfield KC was Ali’s lawyer. (File photo) Stuff/Chris McKeen
“He couldn’t afford to keep the truck roadworthy and he also couldn’t afford to turn away work and it was that sense of desperation that has let to the truck not being repaired and roadworthy and him accepting the job which was offered,” he said.
Mansfield said Ali feared he would not be offered work again.
He said Ali made a grave mistake that had resulted in a terrible loss.
“He never contemplated this… he never wanted it, he should have thought it through, he didn’t but certainly this was not offending he intended or envisaged.”
Justice Lang, before jailing Ali, told him his financial pressures did not justify using the truck and putting others at risk.
His actions fell well short of what would be expected of a reasonable person, Justice Lang said.
Justice Lang said Walters’ death has had catastrophic consequences for his family and workmates.
The National Road Carriers Association earlier said it was systemic failure that killed Walters.
It was a call the NZTA rejected at the time, when it said an individual was to blame and not a system.
“NZTA had applied the regulatory levers available to identify the poor state of the vehicle and to address the immediate risk to public safety,” it earlier told RNZ.
“Regardless, an individual subsequently made a decision to illegally drive this unregistered and unsafe vehicle after it had been ordered off the road.”
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