NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Charter School Agency signed a charter school contract with a trust that did not exist.

In October, Associate Education Minister David Seymour posted a notice in the New Zealand Gazette that the agency had entered a contract with the “NZPAA Charitable Trust” to set up the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa as a charter school.

But no such trust or trust with a variation of that name existed or exists in the Charities Register.

The secondary school is to be established in Trentham next year with a focus on young athletes in Years 11-13.

It would be based at the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport, which hosts organisations including the Wellington Phoenix Football Club and the Wellington Hurricanes rugby team.

Charter school opponent John O’Neill from the Aotearoa Educators Collective spotted the problem.

He said he investigated the school’s sponsor – the organisation that owns and sets up a charter school – because he did not understand why public money should be spent on a specialist school for sports.

He said it was only after he began asking questions that a limited company, the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa, ultimately owned by Welnix the owners of the Wellington Phoenix, was registered. That happened last week on 6 November.

O’Neill told RNZ he was surprised the charter school agency signed a contract with a non-existent organisation.

“I started asking myself, how on earth could this have happened given the great attention given to due diligence processes that are supposed to surround these applications and consideration and approval of applications to be a charter school,” he said.

O’Neill said he wanted to know how two parties could have entered into a contract when one of them didn’t exist and how could the Charter School Authorisation Board have recommended approval of the application.

In a written response to RNZ, the agency said:

“The Charter School Agency received an application from a proposed sponsor seeking approval to operate a new charter school.

“During the application and contracting process, the proposed sponsor indicated it would establish a separate entity to contract with the agency. This resulted in a complication around the name used in the contract. We are working with the sponsor to resolve this. This is not expected to impact on plans for the school to open in February next year.”

Asked if the contract with the non-existent trust was valid the agency said in a statement: “The Charter School Agency is seeking advice on the existing contract. It is unable to comment until this advice has been received.”

Wellington Phonenix general manager David Dome told RNZ he could not go into whether the contract was valid.

“I’m not comfortable talking about that because there’s sort of legal issues there now,” he said.

Nor would he talk about why the agency thought it was signing a contract with a trust.

“During the the contracting process we were always going to set up a separate contracting or business structure to run the school and we’re doing that with the agency now,” he said.

However, he said the issue would have no effect on work to set the school up and nor would setting the school up with a limited company rather than a trust as the sponsor.

He said he fully expected the school would be operational by February next year.

Dome said he expected the school would start with 100 students.

“The kids in the Phoenix Academy would obviously have some interest in it, but it’s really open to any student who wants to pursue an education that has a sports inclination. It’s open to anybody,” he said.

He said the school would offer more than just a physical education-heavy curriculum.

“It’s not just PE. It is everything to do around sports and sports development. So there will be mental skills, sports preparation, life after sports, nutrition, strength and conditioning. So there’s a whole lot to it,” he said.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour did not explain what action he had taken over the matter or whether it had affected his confidence in the agency.

Instead, he said in a statement that he understood “there was a complication with a changing name which the sponsor and the agency are working together to resolve”.

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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 woman who accused former Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming of sexual offending remains before the court on charges of harassing another police officer and his wife.

A damning report released this week by the Independent Police Conduct Authority found serious misconduct at the highest levels, including former Commissioner Andrew Coster, over how police responded to the allegations.

The claims arose from an affair between McSkimming and the woman, who at the time was a junior non-sworn police employee.

The woman was charged in May last year with causing harm by posting digital communication in relation to over 300 emails she allegedly sent to McSkimming’s work email address between December 2023 and April 2024.

The emails included abusive and derogatory language directed towards McSkimming and other people.

The charge against the woman was withdrawn in the Wellington District Court in September because McSkimming did not wish to give evidence.

However, a suppression order on McSkimming’s identity as a complainant remained until it was lifted on Tuesday.

The woman remains before the court on two charges of causing harm by posting a digital communication.

RNZ has asked police whether they had any comment on charges she still faced and whether police would now drop them.

Speaking to Checkpoint on Wednesday, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said the IPCA report’s findings were “incredibly disappointing”.

“It’s a kick in the guts for New Zealand police, and frankly for our country, because New Zealanders deserve better.

“We had very sound systems and processes in place to deal with those types of complaints, that was not followed, they departed from it and they took control of it themselves. Group-think and self interest were issues here.”

He said he was keeping an “open mind” about compensation being paid to the victim.

“I have reached out to counsel to express my apology on behalf of NZ police, I did that yesterday afternoon, he was happy to hear from me and I see that no doubt there would be a further conversation because I would like to personally apologise to his client.”

In a statement to RNZ on Tuesday, the woman’s lawyer Steven Lack, said police “failed my client”.

“Over a period of years, she attempted to report allegations of serious physical, psychological and sexual offending by Mr McSkimming, then one of the most senior Police Officers in the country. Instead of being heard, she was dismissed and ultimately prosecuted for speaking out and raising her concerns.

“At every stage, the Police had the opportunity to engage with her, to properly assess what she was saying, and to investigate her allegations. They could have viewed her as a traumatised victim. They chose not to. They accepted Mr McSkimming’s denials without meaningful inquiry and placed the full weight of the criminal justice system on my client for more than a year until the charge against her was withdrawn. Understandably this has had a devastating impact on her.

“The way her complaints were handled should alarm all New Zealanders. It suggests that the Police were more focused on protecting Mr McSkimming’s career and advancement than on properly assessing serious allegations of offending against him.”

Lack said the police were an organisation “entrusted by the community to protect and serve”.

“In my client’s case, they did neither.”

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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 east Christchurch suburb of South Brighton are unhappy that emergency housing apartments may be built on a reserve in their quiet cul-de-sac.

A housing trust has been given the green light for a peppercorn lease on Blake Street and to build up to 10 relocatable homes for “single people who are living rough or hard”.

Some Blake Street residents had expressed concern over the project, arguing the location was unsuitable.

South Brighton Residents Association chair Hugo Kristinsson lives directly opposite to the 81 Blake Street reserve.

He feared “rising crime, parties and nuisance”.

“People that the trust [would pick] for this, they have typical needs, they have typical behaviour,” he said.

“These are not single women or anything like that. These are people…males in their 40s or 50s, and some with mental problems. Is there any suburb that you know of that would welcome these people?”

The East Christchurch Housing Trust was approved to lease the land off the Christchurch City Council at a nominal cost in September.

A larger piece of red-zoned land on Admirals Way, New Brighton was also proposed by the trust during a presentation to the council earlier this year.

Kristinsson said the reserve, situated at the edge of the South Brighton estuary, was in a flood-risk area with inadequate ground conditions.

Instead, he felt the reserve should be developed into a community garden.

“You could build 15 houses for what you can build 10 houses for here. And they are much more permanent, at much lower flood risk, and they will be much more durable,” he said.

“It doesn’t make sense putting this sort of project in such a wrong area.”

The section had previously been used for a 24-unit social housing complex.

It was demolished after sustaining damage during the Canterbury earthquakes.

Seamus O’Cromtha, who lives next door to Kristinsson, said Blake Street was too far from key amenities, like shops and healthcare providers.

“It would be bad for the people involved to be moved here, to be in collective units.

“If they’re alcohol dependent there would be the danger of them swapping alcohol or procuring alcohol, if they’re drug dependent the same thing would apply. So you wonder who is this going to benefit?”

Helen also lives on Blake Street.

The 80-year-old said she had delivered food parcels in the past and was saddened that more people were living rough.

But she said housing them on her street was not the answer.

“It’s not that we don’t care about these people, it’s just what are they bringing into our street.”

A young woman from a neighbouring street told Helen that she would no longer walk down Blake Street if emergency housing was there, she said.

A case of NIMBYism?

Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger said some in the community were thinking about worst case scenarios.

“People are worried about what could happen rather than what will happen,” he said.

Another social housing development in Spreydon had proven the concept was effective, Mauger said.

“We’ve got to help these people go somewhere. They’re all one bedroom [units] so people won’t get into too much strife.

“The trust I’m sure will look after it because they wont want to see all their stuff smashed up.”

RNZ asked Mauger if concerns were an example of NIMBYism (‘Not in my back yard’).

“There’s possibly a bit of that,” he replied.

Census data showed housing deprivation in Christchurch had increased.

As of May 2025, there were at least 1500 people on the social housing register awaiting placement.

East Christchurch Housing Trust chairman David Close said uneasiness among the community was misplaced.

“One cannot control anyone who lives in a street. For all I know there could be a great criminal person living in the street,” he said.

“A person is entitled to live somewhere. These people are good people who are homeless and I don’t see why they should be discriminated against.”

Like other community housing developments, Close expected support service providers would manage tenants at 81 Blake Street, on the trust’s behalf.

The trust was planning to commission a geotechnical assessment of the site, to check the location’s viability.

Funding for the project also needed to be finalised.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Technology, rather than taxing methane emissions, will be what brings New Zealand’s agricultural emissions down, the climate change minister says.

It was “not economically rational” to bring down emissions by reducing the herd size, Simon Watts said.

Watts made the remarks ahead of travelling to Brazil later this week to attend the high-level portion of COP30, the annual global climate summit.

A former climate change commissioner and internationally respected climate scientist, James Renwick, says banking on agritech alone was “risky”. The government should be heading to the summit with a strengthened emissions target, not a weakened one, he said.

The government announced last month it would lower New Zealand’s methane emissions target, from a 24-47 percent reduction by 2050 to a 14-24 percent reduction, after a review found that was sufficient to meet a ‘no additional warming’ goal, advocated for by industry.

The government has also ruled out a tax on agricultural methane. The 2050 net-zero carbon target remains in place for now, with the government due to respond this month to advice from the Climate Change commission to shift to a net-negative target.

Watts said he was prepared to explain the rationale for the new methane target at COP, which is being held in Belém in the Amazon.

“What we will be outlining is the work that we’ve done around the resetting of our targets in that area based on the scientific assessment that we’ve undertaken.”

However, he expected most of the interest would come from countries with similar challenges to New Zealand with agricultural methane emissions.

“If we get questions around that, which will potentially be the case, particularly from other countries that have pastoral farming systems, then we’ll be dialoguing on that.”

Unlike carbon dioxide, which warms the atmosphere for centuries, methane is a short-lived gas but has huge warming potential while it exists.

Reducing methane has attracted growing attention as a way to temporarily curb warming while the world works on technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and remove them from the air.

A ‘Methane Summit’ supported by the COP30 presidency was held in Brazil just before the main summit started, calling for the “climate emergency brake” to be pulled by drastically reducing methane emissions from the fossil fuel sector.

Unlike many other countries, though, New Zealand’s methane emissions – which make up half our overall emissions – mostly come from agriculture, where methane reductions are harder-won.

Watts said COP30 would be a chance for New Zealand to share the work it was doing to reduce on-farm methane emissions.

“For example, India has the largest dairy herd in the world. And so they’ll be looking for opportunities to decarbonise their herd as well.”

The government and industry itself was investing significantly in agritech, Watts said.

“That’s why we’re confident that we don’t require a pricing mechanism.”

Among the tech the government is banking on is a New Zealand-developed bolus, or small metal capsule, that delivers a slow-release dose of methane-suppressing medicine in a cow’s body.

The bolus has been delayed but the latest estimate from Ruminant Biotech, its developer, is that it will be available to New Zealand farmers from 2027.

Other technologies, such as vaccines and genetic advances, were also in the pipeline.

Asked if it was a gamble to rely solely on technology, Watts said there was “a risk for anything”.

“The bigger risk that I’m concerned about is not having any options available that reduce emissions and only having a pricing mechanism, because the only way, therefore, to reduce emissions is to reduce the herd size tangibly, and that’s just not an economically rational place to be at.”

There was still a financial incentive for farmers without a methane tax, he said.

“The majority of these interventions increase productivity as well as reduce emissions and that is the best shot that we have of increasing uptake, because farmers want to increase productivity because we’re an export country.”

But James Renwick, who was among dozens of scientists who signed an open letter earlier this year urging against a weaker methane target, said he did not expect other countries at COP would be impressed with New Zealand’s new approach to methane.

“Countries are supposed to show up in Belém with stronger emissions targets to what they had before, and we are not doing that.

“It matters in terms of our international stature, our voice on the global stage being diminished. And it matters for our trade relationships as many countries are looking for ‘green’ imports, so we may be shut out of markets over time.”

Officials from the Pacific have already criticised the weakened target.

New Zealand should not be relying on unproven future technologies alone, Dr Renwick said.

“One or several may work at scale in the paddock. But we cannot say right now if that will happen.

“Banking on this as the solution to agricultural emissions is risky. In the meantime, some reduction in farming intensity would definitely reduce emissions.”

The other risk from New Zealand’s lower target was that it gave permission to other countries with similar economies to follow suit, Dr Renwick said.

“Obvious candidates are Ireland and Uruguay as they have similar reliance on agriculture, but several others may follow.”

While at COP, Simon Watts said he would also support Australia and Pacific Island nations’ joint bid to host COP31 next year.

The Australia-Pacific bid faces a rival bid from Turkey, and COP’s consensus decision-making process requires one or the other to be withdrawn.

If both parties refuse to yield, then hosting will revert to Bonn in Germany.

“I … anticipate to spend quite a bit of time with our Pacific and Australian counterparts to hopefully lock down Australia’s hosting for COP next year, which will have a Pacific focus,” Watts said.

COPs were an important moment “in the context of geopolitical fragmentation”, he said.

“[It’s] the single biggest opportunity for governments and business to come together to discuss and look at opportunities in the area of climate change, and so it’s important for me to be part of that.”

The New Zealand delegation will also include Labour’s climate change spokesperson Deborah Russell. Green Party climate spokesperson and co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick attended alongside Watts last year.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

An attack on a satellite can take modern life offline, affecting everything from basic communication to banking. But international law is lagging, and an expert warns we risk turning the final frontier into the next frontline.

The next battleground for global security may not be on Earth, but above it.

As satellites control everything from navigation and banking to weather forecasting and military operations, experts warn that space is now a target for terrorism – and say we aren’t prepared.

“It’s no longer a question whether space terrorism occurs, but how we, as an international community, respond when it does,” says Anna Marie Brennan, a law lecturer at Waikato University, who has been researching outer space law and governance for the past seven years.

“If we don’t have those clear rules, if we don’t have accountability mechanisms, corporate strategies between states and also between states and space companies, do we actually run the risk of turning the final frontier into the next battlefield?”

Satellites, she says, have already been caught in the crossfire of cyber attacks and espionage.

In March 2022, Network Battalion (NB65), a group affiliated with Anonymous, allegedly hacked the Russian civilian space agency Roscosmos in protest of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

More recently, in September this year, the navigation system of a plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen was disrupted due to suspected Russian interference.

It’s alleged that the “GPS jamming” happened while the European Commission president was about to arrive in Bulgaria, forcing the pilot to use paper maps to land safely.

“We are seeing a number of incidents emerging where very quickly us experts are starting to realise that we need a legal framework to try and combat it,” Brennan says.

“It’s very much a problem that is on the rise worldwide … but our laws are not catching up at all, and there is a considerable vacuum. We are reaching the point now of no return.

“If we don’t adopt laws, if we don’t have some sort of mechanism at the international level to ensure accountability, to engage in monitoring, we could see quite a severe attack on space infrastructure.

“And, of course, this infrastructure is vital for everyday life on earth – from climate and environmental monitoring to giving us a heads-up if there is a bad weather front on the way to our business and finance communications, even to us monitoring and responding to disasters. We need satellites to do all these activities,” she says.

“If we don’t have that legal framework, if we don’t have those protections in place, what experts fear is a rise in terrorist activities against this infrastructure.”

Modern life interrupted

So, in a world increasingly dependent on space-based systems – “there are about 10,000 satellites in orbit around us and that number is growing year on year” – she tells The Detail that a single disruption could ground flights, cripple stock exchanges or cut off communications for millions.

Even some of the most basic conveniences of modern life would be interrupted.

“If you are somebody like me, who really needs the Sat-Nav in their car to try to get from A to B, if a key satellite to provide that service is knocked out, you’d really struggle.”

Brennan says there are “currently five outer space treaties at the international level, but these were crafted at a time when only a handful of states had access to orbit”.

“Countries like New Zealand have a very strong legal framework. If you want to launch anything … you have to have a license from the minister. But not all countries have that legal framework.

“So, experts over several years will be trying to explore how to support states to craft laws to address space terrorism, how do we prevent this from happening, firstly, and how do we hold those to account who engage in this type of activity and criminal behaviour.

“How do we define an act of terrorism in space, how do we establish protocols for instant reporting, and determining liability for attacks on commercial and civilian infrastructure?”

She says as humanity expands its footprint beyond the planet, so too does the threat. And without clear international rules, the final frontier could become the next front line.

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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 email addresses of more than a thousand Kāinga Ora tenants were mistakenly shared in a group email sent by the agency.

Kāinga Ora’s regional director for Auckland North and West, Taina Jones, said in a statement that they were aware of an error that occurred on Monday.

“The email addresses of more than 1000 customers were mistakenly shared in a group email.

“No other personal information or data was released,” she said.

Jones said they took incidents like this very seriously and had rigorous processes in place to protect customer information.

“We have notified the Office of the Privacy Commissioner about the incident and are contacting those who received the email to apologise for any disruption this error may have caused,” she said.

A west Auckland tenant, who didn’t want to be named due to privacy concerns, said the email from Kāinga Ora asked how they wanted to receive future correspondence – by mail or by email.

They said after they replied to Kāinga Ora, they’ve been continuously receiving responses from other tenants who’d been copied in the same email.

“You can see the numbers, the emails, their replies as well, and also [them] asking for homes and that, you know, people that have had issues with them, that are talking personally about their stuff,” the person said.

The tenant said they were concerned that everyone’s private information and affairs was being exposed, and inboxes were getting clogged.

“People’s email boxes are being filled up in blocks, so we can’t actually receive our normal everyday emails that we need to for pay our bills or whatever,” the tenant said.

Their Kāinga Ora case manager contacted them on Tuesday to apologise.

The tenant said they were told by the case manager that Kainga Ora was trying to stop people from replying to that email chain by making changes from within the system.

Kāinga Ora has been approached for further comment.

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