Winter began on a mild and soggy note across much of New Zealand, according to Earth Sciences New Zealand’s (formerly NIWA) latest monthly climate summary for June 2025.
Temperatures were above or well above average for most of the country, especially across the North Island, Tasman, Otago, eastern Southland, and Fiordland, says Earth Sciences New Zealand climate scientist Gregor Macara. “The nationwide average temperature of 9.4°C was 0.7°C above the June normal, making it the 16th-warmest June on record since 1909.”
Rainfall was well above normal in many regions including Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Taranaki, Wellington, and much of the South Island. In contrast, dry conditions persisted in northern Northland, eastern Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, and Wairarapa.
Soil moisture levels reflected the rainfall pattern, says Macara. “Drier-than-normal soils remained in Hawke’s Bay, while soils were wetter than normal across much of eastern South Island, from Marlborough to Dunedin.”
The highest temperature in June was 23.2°C at Whakatu in the Hawke’s Bay, while Aoraki Mt Cook Airport recorded the lowest temperature of -12.9°C. Milford Sound took the title for the highest one-day rainfall in June with 151 mm on 25 June (that’s more than halfway up a Redband gumboot), while another regular in climate summaries, east coast headland Cape Turnagain, between Hawke’s Bay and Cook Strait, recorded the strongest wind gust at 191 km/h on the 1st of June.
Among the main centres, Auckland was the warmest, Tauranga the wettest and sunniest, Christchurch the coolest and driest, and Dunedin the least sunny.
The sunniest four locations in 2025 so far are Taranaki, Bay of Plenty, Auckland, and wider Nelson.
On 1 July, GNS and NIWA merged to become Earth Sciences New Zealand.
As a WorkSafe prosecution comes to a close, two workers overcome by fumes from a toxic gas pit have for the first time told of their experience of narrowly dodging death.
The men were doing an excavation, to try to fix the smell of rotting plasterboard at the Taylorville Resource Park near Greymouth in August 2023. The smell was hydrogen sulphide and the workers were not told of dangerously high levels of the toxic, colourless gas measured weeks before at the contaminated waste facility.
The excavator operator went into the pit to clear a pump blockage but as he was climbing out fell unconscious and face down into black liquid at the base of the pit, known as leachate. His supervisor saw this from above and twice fell unconscious while trying to rescue him. He eventually managed to climb out and call for help.
The pit at Taylorville Resource Park where two men were overcome by hydrogen sulphide.
WorkSafe found inadequate risk assessment and planning for the excavation work, workers not being advised of the risks of hydrogen sulphide, and no gas monitors available on site. Two companies were prosecuted for health and safety failures and have now been sentenced in the Greymouth District Court.
Both survivors have permanent name suppression. The supervisor suffered from toxic gas exposure and now lives with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“Every night for the first six months after the incident and now once a week, I wake up suffering flashbacks thinking I am still in the pit, not being able to breathe, and thinking I am going to die,” says the 64-year-old who has not been able to work since.
Although the man has been left “in a dark financial situation” he says there have been other losses too.
“My entire social circle consisted solely of my workmates so when I lost my job, I suddenly lost my social network and became socially isolated and alone… losing my social circle has probably been my biggest loss.”
“This incident has taken away my life, all my goals and aspirations can no longer be achieved. The mental, physical, and financial impacts have had a profound impact in every area of my life and will continue to do so for a long time.”
The operator suffered chemical burns to his eyes, chemical pneumonitis, atrial fibrillation, and seizures. He is now 38 and has returned to work. He has no memory of the incident, although he says he “feels bad for what happened” to his colleague “and the stress he had to go through when he pulled me out of the leachate”.
WorkSafe’s role is to influence businesses to meet their responsibilities and keep people healthy and safe.
“We salute the courage it has taken for these two survivors to stay strong throughout our investigation and prosecution,” says WorkSafe’s Inspectorate Head, Rob Pope.
“The experience these men have gone through was both terrifying and completely avoidable. It’s only by sheer luck that both survived. Businesses must manage their health and safety risks, and when they do not we will hold them to account.”
Taylorville Resource Park Limited and Paul Smith Earthmoving 2002 Ltd were sentenced at Greymouth District Court on 4 July 2025.
Taylorville Resource Park was fined $302,500 and Paul Smith Earthmoving $272,250. Reparations of $81,256 were also ordered.
Both entities were charged under sections 48(1) and (2)(c) and s 36(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
Being a PCBU having a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers who work for the PCBU, while the workers were at work in the business or undertaking, namely carrying out the excavation and associated work to access the base of Cell C (the excavation work), did fail to comply with that duty, and that failure exposed workers to a risk of death or serious injury.
The maximum penalty is a fine not exceeding $1.5 million.
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Te Whatu Ora is refusing to address calls to prioritise patient safety by adequately resourcing safe staffing levels, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōputanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says.
A new offer from Te Whatu Ora to NZNO members has failed to include measures to address staffing concerns despite it being raised continually throughout the bargaining process.
NZNO Chief Executive Paul Goulter says an earlier offer from Te Whatu Ora committed to acting on safe staffing research the two organisations had agreed to do together.
“Te Whatu Ora has removed that from their latest offer without explanation. This demonstrates their focus is on cost cutting, not patient safety.
“A survey of our members shows nurses have grave concerns that continued understaffing is putting their patients at risk. Overworked staff are unable to give patients the care they need and leads to staff burnout,” Paul Goulter says.
Despite claiming there is no nursing shortage, Te Whatu Ora continues to understaff shifts. NZNO has received staffing figures under the Official Information Act for 631 wards using the safe staffing Care Capacity Demand Management programme (CCDM).
“These figures show from January to October last year almost half (or 47.1%) of all wards were understaffed 20% of the time. That means nurses and health care assistants are working in understaffed wards at least one shift a week,” Paul Goulter says.
“We are also continuing to see acute levels of understaffing in emergency departments, mental health, women’s health and children’s wards.”
Paul Goulter says Te Whatu Ora Acting Chief Executive Robyn Shearer claimed this morning that clinical need “isn’t an easy thing” to resolve through collective bargaining.
“It is concerning that Robyn Shearer isn’t aware CCDM has been in the Te Whatu Ora/NZNO collective agreement since 2010,” he says.
Paris, 4 July 2025— Mass atrocities are underway in Sudan’s North Darfur region, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned in a report today, urging the warring parties to halt indiscriminate and ethnically targeted violence and facilitate an immediate large-scale humanitarian response. MSF is extremely concerned about the threats of a full-blown assault on the hundreds of thousands of people in the state capital of El Fasher, which would lead to further bloodshed.
As the conflict has intensified in the area since May 2024, civilians have continued to be the main victims. The report Besieged, Attacked, Starved, outlines a desperate situation for civilians in and around El Fasher that requires immediate attention and response. “People are not only caught in indiscriminate heavy fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their respective allies – but also actively targeted by the RSF and its allies, notably on the basis of their ethnicity,” says Michel Olivier Lacharité, MSF head of emergencies.
Based on MSF data, direct observations and over 80 interviews conducted between May 2024 and May 2025 with patients and people who were displaced from El Fasher and nearby Zamzam camp, the report exposes systematic patterns of violence that include looting, mass killings, sexual violence, abductions, starvation and attacks against markets, health facilities and other civilian infrastructures.
“As patients and communities tell their stories to our teams and asked us to speak out, while their suffering is hardly on the international agenda, we felt compelled to document these patterns of relentless violence that have been crushing countless lives in general indifference and inaction over the past year,” says Mathilde Simon, MSF’s humanitarian affairs advisor.
Besieged, Attacked, Starved also details how the Rapid Support Forces and their allies conducted a large-scale ground offensive in April on Zamzam displacement camp, outside of El Fasher, causing an estimated 400,000 people to flee in less than three weeks in appalling conditions. A large portion of the camp population fled to El Fasher, where they remained trapped, out of reach of humanitarian aid and exposed to attacks and further mass violence. Tens of thousands more escaped to Tawila, about 60 kilometers away, and to camps across the Chadian border, where hundreds of survivors of violence received care from MSF teams.
“In light of the ethnically motivated mass atrocities committed on the Masalit in West Darfur back in June 2023, and of the massacres perpetrated in Zamzam camp in North Darfur, we fear such a scenario will be repeated in El Fasher. This onslaught of violence must stop,” says Simon.
Several witnesses report that RSF soldiers spoke of plans to ‘clean El Fasher’ of its non-Arab community. Since May 2024, the RSF and their allies have besieged El Fasher, Zamzam camp and other surrounding localities, cutting communities from food, water, and medical care. This has contributed to the spread of famine and debilitated the humanitarian response.
Repeated attacks on healthcare facilities forced MSF to end our medical activities in El Fasher in August 2024 and in Zamzam camp in February 2025. In May 2024 alone, health facilities supported by MSF in El Fasher endured at least seven incidents of shelling, bombing or shooting by all warring parties. Indiscriminate airstrikes conducted by the SAF had devastating consequences, as a 50-year-old woman highlights: “The SAF bombed our neighborhood by mistake, then came to apologise. SAF planes sometimes bombed civilian areas without any RSF [presence], I saw it in different places”.
The harrowing level of violence on the roads out of El Fasher and Zamzam means that many people are trapped or take life-threatening risk when fleeing. Men and boys are at high risk of killing and abduction, while women and girls are subjected to widespread sexual violence. Most witnesses also report increased risks for Zaghawa communities. “Nobody could get out [of El Fasher] if they said they were Zaghawa,” says a displaced woman. Another man tells us that RSF and its allies were “asking people if they belonged to the Zaghawa, and if they did, they would kill them.”
“They would only let mothers with small children under the age of five through,” recalls a woman about her journey fleeing to eastern Chad. “Other children and adult men didn’t go through. Men over fifteen can hardly cross the border [into Chad]. They take them, they push them aside and then we only hear a noise, gunshots, indicating that they are dead, that they have been killed […] Fifty families came along with me. Not even one boy of 15 years old or above was among us.”
The catastrophic nutritional situation continued deteriorating as the siege tightened: “[Three months ago] in Zamzam, we sometimes had 3 days a week without eating,” one man tells our teams. “Children died from malnutrition. We were eating ambaz [residue of peanuts ground for oil], like everyone, although usually it’s used for animals,” says displaced woman. “Zamzam was completely blocked,” another displaced person tells us. “Water wells depend on fuel and there was no access to fuel, so all of them stopped working. Water was very limited and very expensive.”
MSF urges the warring parties to spare civilians and respect their obligations under International Humanitarian Law. The RSF and their allies must immediately stop ethnic violence perpetrated against non-Arab communities, lift the siege of El Fasher and guarantee safe routes for civilians fleeing violence. Safe unrestricted access to El Fasher and its surroundings must be granted for humanitarian agencies to provide critically needed assistance. International actors, including UN institutions and member states, and States who provide support to the warring parties must urgently mobilise and exert pressure to prevent further mass violence and allow emergency aid delivery. The recent unilateral announcements of a possible local ceasefire have not yet been translated into concrete change on the ground, and time is running out.
MSF is an international, medical, humanitarian organisation that delivers medical care to people in need, regardless of their origin, religion, or political affiliation. MSF has been working in Haiti for over 30 years, offering general healthcare, trauma care, burn wound care, maternity care, and care for survivors of sexual violence. MSF Australia was established in 1995 and is one of 24 international MSF sections committed to delivering medical humanitarian assistance to people in crisis. In 2022, more than 120 project staff from Australia and New Zealand worked with MSF on assignment overseas. MSF delivers medical care based on need alone and operates independently of government, religion or economic influence and irrespective of race, religion or gender. For more information visit msf.org.au
Hamilton Police are following solid lines of enquiry in their investigation of a recent violent aggravated robbery.
About 1:40pm on Saturday 28 June, two men armed with a firearm entered a bar on Liverpool Street.
The offenders presented the firearm at the sole worker in the bar and demanded cash before leaving the scene in a stolen vehicle.
The offenders dumped the stolen car on Islington Street and fled in a waiting Toyota Surf, which was later dumped in Te Awamutu.
Both vehicles used in the robbery have been recovered by Police and are undergoing forensic testing.
Hamilton CIB Detective Sergeant Johnny O’Byrne says, thankfully, the victim of this incident was unharmed.
“However, they are understandably shaken and are receiving support.
“A dedicated team of detectives are currently following very strong lines of enquiry to locate the offenders and hold them to account,” he says.
“There is no place in our community for this type of violence against innocent people just going about their work, the use of firearms is of particular concern.”
‘Waikato Police would like to reassure the community that we will continue to work hard to hold these offenders to account, and we are asking members of the public with any information regarding this offending or the locations of the offenders to reach out to us,’ Detective Sergeant O’Byrne says.
Anyone with information can contact Police via 105 quoting file number 250628/3013 or anonymously provide information via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
We publish information on the performance of tertiary education organisations (TEOs) based on agreed educational performance indicators (EPIs). We publish information on the performance of tertiary education organisations (TEOs) based on agreed educational performance indicators (EPIs).
Educational performance indicator reports Our educational performance indicator (EPI) reports are designed to help TEOs manage and monitor their own performance and to deliver on their agreed tertiary education services. Provider-based EPI interactive charts Provider-based educational performance indicator interactive charts For Te Pūkenga, universities, wānanga and private training establishments the provider-based interactive charts provide information about the educational performance of individual TEOs. They include performance information for:
first year retention rate cohort-based qualification completion rate course completion rate progression rate.
You can view these EPIs through provider-based interactive charts, which allow you to select and display data across various filters (eg, gender, ethnicity, TEO, part-time/full-time). Note that EPIs for work-based learning are currently unavailable to view as interactive charts. These are available as EPI reports (detailed below). EPI reports – current methodology Educational performance indicator reports – current methodology For providers who deliver work-based learning, the EPI reports provide information about the educational performance of individual TEOs. They include performance information for:
first year retention rate for apprentices cohort-based programme completion rate credit achievement rate.
EPI reports – previous methodology Educational performance indicator reports – previous methodology For providers who deliver work-based learning, the EPI reports using our previous methodology provide information about the educational performance of individual TEOs. They include performance information for:
programme completion rate credit achievement rate
For Te Pūkenga, universities, wānanga and private training establishments, the EPI reports using our previous methodology provide information about the educational performance of individual TEOs across four EPIs:
The EPI reports also show information about learners at the TEO. Methodologies Current methodologies The documents below describe the methodology for calculating EPIs that were introduced in 2015 and 2016. TEOs reporting through the SDR:
TEOs reporting through the ITR:
Previous methodologies The documents below describe the previous methodologies for calculating the EPIs we used from 2009 until 2016.
EPIs for SAC-funded organisations (October 2014): Educational Performance Indicators: definitions and methodology – Student Achievement Component and Youth Guarantee funds reported through the SDR – version 8 (PDF 491 KB) EPIs for Youth Guarantee-funded organisations (Oct 2014): Educational Performance Indicators: Definitions and methodology – Student Achievement Component and Youth Guarantee funds reported through the SDR – version 8 (PDF 491 KB)
Educational performance indicator (EPI) reports for work-based learning providers reporting in the industry training register (ITR) are now available for the 2024 reporting year. Educational performance indicator (EPI) reports for work-based learning providers reporting in the industry training register (ITR) are now available for the 2024 reporting year.
This page relates to EPI reports using the current methodology. You can also view the EPI reports for individual TEOs using our previous methodology. More detail about what each of the indicators show is also available on our Educational performance indicators for TEOs page. Viewing the reports Use the dropdown boxes below to look up the EPI report for each TEO. Reports are available for TEOs arranging industry training from 2016 to 2024. Note that EPI reports are also available for TEOs reporting in the SDR for reporting years 2015 to 2017 only. From 2018 onwards the EPIs of TEOs reporting in the SDR are found in the Provider-based Education Performance Indicator interactive charts below. Select an organisation and year Something went wrong. Please try again. Organisation type Organisation Year
Provider-based Educational Performance Indicator interactive charts For universities, Te Pūkenga, wānanga and private training establishments, EPIs can be viewed through interactive charts (2018 onwards). You can decide what data to view and how to display it. Note: The EPI report data for TEOs arranging industry training is currently unavailable to view as interactive charts. Where to go for additional information The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and the Academic Quality Agency for New Zealand Universities (AQA) undertake external reviews of the quality of tertiary providers and publish review reports on their websites.
We publish information on the performance of tertiary education organisations (TEOs) based on agreed educational performance indicators (EPIs). Our EPI reports are designed to help TEOs manage and monitor their own performance and to deliver on their agreed tertiary education services. We publish information on the performance of tertiary education organisations (TEOs) based on agreed educational performance indicators (EPIs). Our EPI reports are designed to help TEOs manage and monitor their own performance and to deliver on their agreed tertiary education services.
This page relates to EPI reports using our previous methodology. You can also view the EPI reports for individual TEOs using our current methodology. The information in the EPI reports provides a snapshot of selected performance indicators and does not give a comprehensive picture of a TEO’s overall performance. What funds are reported on The information published here is based only on tertiary education funded by:
the Student Achievement Component funds – SAC Levels 3 and above, SAC Levels 1 and 2 (competitive) and SAC Levels 1 and 2 (non-competitive) Youth Guarantee the Industry Training Fund.
Note that the effects of the Canterbury earthquakes may have had an impact on student performance for Canterbury-based TEOs. More detail about what each of the indicators show is also available. Viewing the reports Use the dropdown boxes below to look up the EPI report for each TEO. Note. We have completed the upload of all remaining EPI reports (covering 2009 to 2016) to this page. Select an organisation and year Something went wrong. Please try again. Organisation type Organisation Year
2016 educational performance for individual tertiary providers The two Excel reports below provide a summary of 2016 performance information for Student Achievement Component (SAC) and Youth Guarantee (YG) for individual tertiary providers, broken down by:
grouped qualification register level Tertiary Education Strategy priority groups of Māori and Pasifika students students under 25.
2016 SAC EPI summary by individual tertiary provider (XLSX 101 KB) (XLS, 103 Kb) 2016 YG EPI summary by individual tertiary provider (XLSX 56 KB) (XLS, 58 Kb) Where to go for additional information New Zealand Qualifications Authority and the Academic Quality Agency for New Zealand Universities (AQA) undertake external reviews of the quality of tertiary providers and publish review reports on their websites. Note about EFTS Where an organisation is funded for fewer than five Equivalent Full Time Students (EFTS), there is no individual data available for them. This is to ensure individual students cannot be identified. Where an organisation has fewer than 30 EFTS at a level of study, no information will be available for that level of study. This is to ensure statistically robust sample sizes that allow for comparison.
The Government is backing innovation to grow New Zealand’s high-value aquaculture exports, with a $455,000 investment from the new Primary Sector Growth Fund to support the development of specialised feed for King salmon, Agriculture, Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay announced today.
The $1.2 million project—led by global aquafeed company Skretting—will design feed tailored specifically for New Zealand’s King salmon, supporting the growth of open ocean farming and helping reduce costs for local producers.
“This funding comes from the Primary Sector Growth Fund, announced in Budget 2025 to support forward-leaning, high-impact projects that will drive productivity, innovation and export growth across the sector,” Mr McClay says.
“Feed is the biggest cost for salmon farmers. Getting it right is essential if we want to scale production and lift farmgate returns.”
“This is part of our plan to grow aquaculture into a $3 billion industry. With the launch of Invest New Zealand this month, we’re also making it easier for world-leading innovators like Skretting to invest and grow here.”
The initiative comes as New Zealand’s first open ocean salmon farm—Blue Endeavour—receives final resource consent. Once operational, it is expected to produce 10,000 tonnes of salmon annually and generate up to $300 million in export revenue each year.
“This is about backing technology and expertise to lift productivity and strengthen the global competitiveness of our salmon industry,” Mr McClay says.
Research will focus on optimising feed for King salmon in New Zealand’s unique conditions—supporting sustainable, low-impact farming while boosting returns at the farm gate.
“This is another practical step in our wider plan to double the value of New Zealand’s exports over the next decade. We’re backing sectors with high growth potential and supporting the science that will help get them there,” Mr McClay says.
A teenager who allegedly attempted to steal a car from the Sunnyvale park-n-ride had the brakes put on his plans after Police showed up.
Waitematā West Area Prevention Manager, Inspector Kelly Farrant, says officers were out patrolling yesterday morning at local park-n-rides due to recent reports of vehicle and number plate thefts.
While in the area, a report of a person breaking into a vehicle came through.
“Officers responded immediately, blocking in the vehicle in question and taking the young person into custody.”
Inspector Farrant says a 13-year-old male was arrested and has been referred to Youth Aid Services.
“It was fantastic work by our local staff, patrolling recent hot spots and acting quickly to hold those responsible to account.
“Thanks also to the public and our partners for calling 111 when they saw suspicious activity.
“Police take all crime seriously and work hard to be in the right place at the right time to prevent crime and harm.”
Threatened-Nationally Vulnerable shortjaw kōkopu are found only in Aotearoa. As juveniles, they are one of six species known as whitebait.
Over the past year, DOC Ranger Suze Harris has inserted 12.5 mm-long PIT (passive integrated transponder) tags under the skin of 41 shortjaws living in a tributary of Kaniere River, Hokitika.
The inserted PIT tags allow her to track individual fish via a detector blue-toothed to her phone.
“We need to know the females’ spawning time so we can track down nesting sites. This helps us target conservation efforts such as trapping – since rats eat shortjaw kōkopu eggs. We can also make recommendations under the Resource Management Act on the timing of activities, like earthworks, that sometimes occur along stream margins.”
Suze also says although the West Coast remains a shortjaw stronghold, with enviable populations compared to the rest of the country, some streams with previously strong populations are being claimed by other whitebait species – and the shortjaws have either significantly decreased or gone altogether.
“The usual freshwater monitoring methods, like electric fishing, don’t work well on shortjaws. Their preference for deep rocky pools and their flitty behaviour makes them hard to survey.
“PIT tagging the fish means I don’t have to keep recapturing them. Instead, when I’m monitoring in the field, my phone might ping, I’ll look at a summary of the fish on my phone and think, ‘oh, that’s Charlie Brown, who is male – I’ll leave him alone because I’m looking for females at the moment’.”
Shortjaw reproduction occurs in late autumn, with males producing milt (sperm) and raring to go earlier than females.
“Males dominate the Hokitika site. We still haven’t managed to tag a female – they’re so elusive. But tagging males helps because their presence indicates the right conditions for spawning, meaning females are likely to show up soon.
Suze was granted animal ethics approval to tag up to 50 shortjaws. She tagged a total of 41 in February 2024 and 2025. Of those, 39 are giving signals from live fish.
New Zealand’s native species, like shortjaw kōkopu, are unique and special, with 88 per cent of our fishes found nowhere else in the world. DOC freshwater rangers throughout the country are identifying populations of shortjaw kōkopu so DOC can work with iwi, hāpu, councils, landowners and community groups to protect them.
Background information
Shortjaw kōkopu are a migratory galaxiid species (named for their skin which looks like a galaxy of stars). Their largest populations are in Northland, Taranaki, Wairarapa, Tasman, Marlborough and the West Coast.
PIT tags are the same technology used to microchip dogs and cats, with a variety of sizes as appropriate for the animal.
As the fish being tagged are adults, and it is the juvenile fish which are eaten as part of the whitebait catch, there is no chance of a PIT tag being eaten by a human.
Threatened-Nationally Vulnerable shortjaw kōkopu are found only in Aotearoa. As juveniles, they are one of six species known as whitebait.
Over the past year, DOC Ranger Suze Harris has inserted 12.5 mm-long PIT (passive integrated transponder) tags under the skin of 41 shortjaws living in a tributary of Kaniere River, Hokitika.
The inserted PIT tags allow her to track individual fish via a detector blue-toothed to her phone.
“We need to know the females’ spawning time so we can track down nesting sites. This helps us target conservation efforts such as trapping – since rats eat shortjaw kōkopu eggs. We can also make recommendations under the Resource Management Act on the timing of activities, like earthworks, that sometimes occur along stream margins.”
Suze also says although the West Coast remains a shortjaw stronghold, with enviable populations compared to the rest of the country, some streams with previously strong populations are being claimed by other whitebait species – and the shortjaws have either significantly decreased or gone altogether.
“The usual freshwater monitoring methods, like electric fishing, don’t work well on shortjaws. Their preference for deep rocky pools and their flitty behaviour makes them hard to survey.
“PIT tagging the fish means I don’t have to keep recapturing them. Instead, when I’m monitoring in the field, my phone might ping, I’ll look at a summary of the fish on my phone and think, ‘oh, that’s Charlie Brown, who is male – I’ll leave him alone because I’m looking for females at the moment’.”
Shortjaw reproduction occurs in late autumn, with males producing milt (sperm) and raring to go earlier than females.
“Males dominate the Hokitika site. We still haven’t managed to tag a female – they’re so elusive. But tagging males helps because their presence indicates the right conditions for spawning, meaning females are likely to show up soon.
Suze was granted animal ethics approval to tag up to 50 shortjaws. She tagged a total of 41 in February 2024 and 2025. Of those, 39 are giving signals from live fish.
New Zealand’s native species, like shortjaw kōkopu, are unique and special, with 88 per cent of our fishes found nowhere else in the world. DOC freshwater rangers throughout the country are identifying populations of shortjaw kōkopu so DOC can work with iwi, hāpu, councils, landowners and community groups to protect them.
Background information
Shortjaw kōkopu are a migratory galaxiid species (named for their skin which looks like a galaxy of stars). Their largest populations are in Northland, Taranaki, Wairarapa, Tasman, Marlborough and the West Coast.
PIT tags are the same technology used to microchip dogs and cats, with a variety of sizes as appropriate for the animal.
As the fish being tagged are adults, and it is the juvenile fish which are eaten as part of the whitebait catch, there is no chance of a PIT tag being eaten by a human.
Property values in Aotearoa New Zealand ticked up by +0.2% in June, reversing two minor monthly falls of -0.1% apiece in April and May, according to Cotality NZ’s latest hedonic Value Index (HVI).
At $815,389 in June, property values remain -16.1% down from the January 2022 peak, however they have managed to edge up by a total of +1.1% since September last year and by +0.6% in 2025 so far.
Values around the main centres were either flat in June or up slightly. Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington were stable, but there was a +0.2% rise in Ōtepoti Dunedin, +0.3% in Kirikiriroa Hamilton, and +0.6% each in Tauranga and Ōtautahi Christchurch.
Cotality NZ (formerly CoreLogic) Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson said the result emphasised the current variability of the market.
“On one hand, mortgage rates have come down a long way, and that benefits borrowers whether they’re in Whangārei or Winton. But the normal upwards influence this would tend to have on sales volumes and property values is currently being dampened by other forces.”
“In particular, the abundance of listings on the market means most buyers aren’t in a rush and can be quite tough when it comes to price negotiations.”
“The subdued labour market remains an important factor, too. After all, it’s not only the direct job losses that are problematic, but a reduction in security for those who have kept their jobs will also be weighing on the property market.”
“Of course, problems for some are opportunities for others, and a soft market is providing plenty of scope for first home buyers.”
“Mortgaged multiple property owners also remain on the comeback trail, particularly at the smaller end – those buying their first rental investment, or perhaps their second.”
National and Main Centres
Region
Change in dwelling values
Month
Quarter
Annual
From peak
Median value
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
0.0%
-0.4%
-1.0%
-20.9%
$1,079,747
Kirikiriroa Hamilton
0.3%
0.5%
2.0%
-10.0%
$752,125
Tauranga
0.6%
0.1%
-1.1%
-16.5%
$915,657
Te-Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington*
0.0%
-1.0%
-5.0%
-24.6%
$797,457
Ōtautahi Christchurch
0.6%
0.8%
2.5%
-4.5%
$678,364
Ōtepoti Dunedin
0.2%
0.2%
-0.4%
-10.7%
$614,656
Aotearoa New Zealand
0.2%
-0.1%
-0.7%
-16.1%
$815,389
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland June was another variable month for the sub-markets across Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with Papakura down by -0.7%, and North Shore, Rodney, Waitakere, and Manukau also recording modest falls. By contrast, Auckland City recorded a +0.3% rise and Franklin was up by +0.5%. Most of these areas remain lower than three months ago as well, although Auckland City has edged higher by +0.2% since March.
Mr Davidson said: “There have been hints in the past few months that the stock of listings available on the market in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland has started to drop slightly. But listings remain high, and, as with many other parts of the country, this means buyers still have the upper hand.”
“In this environment, it’s not surprising to see continued patchiness in values around the super-city.”
Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington
Generally speaking, June was also another subdued month for property values in the wider Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington area.
Indeed, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt edged down by -0.2%, Wellington City and Kāpiti Coast were flat, while Porirua and Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta Upper Hutt managed modest increases of +0.1-0.2%. Only Kāpiti Coast has shown a (small) rise since March.
“Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington’s previous sharp downturn in property values seems to have come to an end, no doubt reflecting the influence of lower mortgage rates. But values are yet to show any clear upwards trend, and alongside high levels of listings, the uncertainty around public sector employment is likely to remain a restraining factor in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington too,” said Mr Davidson.
Regional results Outside the main centres, property values were a mixed bag in June.
For example, Rotorua was down by -0.7%, with Tūranganui-a-Kiwa Gisborne, Whanganui, and Heretaunga Hastings all dropping modestly. But Whangārei, Te Papaioea Palmerston North, Waihōpai Invercargill, and Tāhuna Queenstown saw rises in June of least +0.4%.
“It’s always difficult to cast a wide net over every region and conclude that any one factor is driving provincial housing markets. At present, for example, lower mortgage rates are obviously a common factor, while some will be faring better than others off the back of a strong dairy sector.”
“Ultimately, the wider economic uncertainty we’re currently seeing and a subdued labour market still seem to be causing property market variability from month to month in a number of regions,” added Mr Davidson.
Property market outlook Looking ahead, Mr Davidson suggested that ‘caution’ remains a key word.
“In this environment where buyers have the upper hand and economic sentiment remains subdued, it’s hard to see these ‘flat’ housing market conditions suddenly turning around within a month or two.”
“The Reserve Bank’s upcoming official cash rate decisions, including a probable hold next week on Wednesday 9th, aren’t likely to sway the housing market too much.”
“One factor that has been getting attention lately is the potential boost to the economy and property market that might be provided as existing mortgage-holders reprice from a current average rate of around 5.9% down towards prevailing interest rates of 5% or less. But some might save that extra cash or even keep their repayments the same and reduce the term of the loan.”
“In other words, for every upwards influence on the housing market at present, you can probably find a downwards factor. All in all, given that values have only risen by less than 1% over the first half of 2025, a modest calendar year gain in the range of 2-3% now seems on the cards, rather than anything stronger,” Mr Davidson concluded.
Notes: The Cotality Hedonic Home Value Index (HVI) is calculated using a hedonic regression methodology that addresses the issue of compositional bias associated with median price and other measures. In simple terms, the index is calculated using recent sales data combined with information about the attributes of individual properties such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, land area and geographical context of the dwelling. By separating each property into its various formational and locational attributes, observed sales values for each property can be distinguished between those attributed to the property’s attributes and those resulting from changes in the underlying residential property market. Additionally, by understanding the value associated with each attribute of a given property, this methodology can be used to estimate the value of dwellings with known characteristics for which there is no recent sales price by observing the characteristics and sales prices of other dwellings which have recently transacted. It then follows that changes in the market value of the entire residential property stock can be accurately tracked through time.
Immediately after killing Fernando Pereira and blowing up Greenpeace’s flagship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, several of the French agents went on a ski holiday in New Zealand’s South Island to celebrate.
Such was the contempt the French had for the Kiwis and the abilities of our police to pursue them. How wrong they were.
A new prologue by former prime minister Helen Clark and a preface by Greenpeace’s Bunny McDiarmid, along with an extensive postscript which bring us up to the present day, underline why the past is not dead; it’s with us right now.
Written by David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report, who spent 11 weeks on the final voyage of the Warrior, the book is the most remarkable piece of history I have read this year and one of those rare books that has the power to expand your mind and make your blood boil at the same time. I thought I knew a fair bit about the momentous events surrounding the attack — until I read Eyes of Fire.
Heroes of our age The book covers the history of Greenpeace action — from fighting the dumping of nuclear and other toxic waste in European waters, the Arctic and the Pacific, voyages to link besieged communities across the oceans, through to their epic struggles to halt whaling and save endangered marine colonies from predators.
The Rainbow Warrior’s very last voyage before the bombing was to evacuate the entire population of Rongelap atoll (about 320 people) in the Marshall Islands who had been exposed to US nuclear radiation for decades.
This article is the first of two in which I will explore themes that the book triggered for me.
Neither secret nor intelligent – the French secret intelligence service
Jean-Luc Kister was the DGSE (Direction-générale de la Sécurité extérieure) agent who placed the two bombs that ripped a massive hole in the hull of the Warrior on 10 July 1985. The ship quickly sank, trapping Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira inside.
Former colonel Kister was a member of a large team of elite agents sent to New Zealand. One had also infiltrated Greenpeace months before, some travelled through the country prior to the attack, drinking, rooting New Zealand women and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that led all the way to the Palais de l’Élysée where François Mitterrand, Socialist President of France, had personally given the order to bomb the famous peace vessel.
Robie aptly calls the French mission “Blundergate”. The stupidity, howling incompetence and moronic lack of a sound strategic rationale behind the attack were only matched by the mendacity, the imperial hauteur and the racist contempt that lies at the heart of French policy in the Pacific to this very day.
Thinking the Kiwi police would be no match for their élan, their savoir-faire and their panache, some of the killers hit the ski slopes to celebrate “Mission Accompli”. Others fled to Norfolk Island aboard a yacht, the Ouvéa.
Tracked there by the New Zealand police it was only with the assistance of our friends and allies, the Australians, that the agents were able to escape. Within days they sank their yacht at sea during a rendezvous with a French nuclear submarine and were evenually able to return to France for medals and promotions.
Two of the agents, however, were not so lucky. As everyone my age will recall, Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart, were nabbed after a lightning fast operation by New Zealand police.
With friends and allies like these, who needs enemies? We should recall that the French were our allies at the time. They decided, however, to stop the Rainbow Warrior from leading a flotilla of ships up to Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia where yet another round of nuclear tests were scheduled. In other words: they bombed a peace ship to keep testing bombs.
By 1995, France had detonated 193 nuclear bombs in the South Pacific.
David Robie sees the bombing as “a desperate attempt by one of the last colonial powers in the Pacific to hang on to the vestiges of empire by blowing up a peace ship so it could continue despoiling Pacific islands for the sake of an independent nuclear force”.
The US, UK and Australia cold-shouldered New Zealand through this period and uttered not a word of condemnation against the French. Within two years we were frog-marched out of the ANZUS alliance with Australia and the US because of our ground-breaking nuclear-free legislation.
It was a blessing and the dawn of a period in which New Zealanders had an intense sense of national pride — a far cry from today when New Zealand politicians are being referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes associated with the Gaza genocide.
The French State invented the term ‘terrorism’ I studied French History at university in France and did a paper called “La France à la veille de révolution” (France on the eve of revolution). One of the chilling cultural memories is of the period from September 1793 to July 1794, which was known as La Terreur.
At the time the French state literally coined the term “terrorisme” — with the blade of the guillotine dropping on neck after neck as the state tried to consolidate power through terror. But, as Robie points out, quoting law professor Roger S. Clark, we tend to use the term today to refer almost exclusively to non-state actors.
With the US and Israel gunning down starving civilians in Gaza every day, with wave after wave of terror attacks being committed inside Iran and across the Middle East by Mossad, the CIA and MI6, we should amend this erroneous habit.
The DGSE team who attached limpet mines to the Rainbow Warrior did so as psychopathic servants of the French State. Eyes of Fire: “At the time, Prime Minister David Lange described the Rainbow Warrior attack as ‘nothing more than a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism’.”
Don’t get me wrong. I am not “anti-French”. I lived for years in France, had a French girlfriend, studied French history, language and literature. I even had friends in Wellington who worked at the French Embassy.
Curiously when I lived next to Premier House, the official residence of the prime minister, my other next door neighbour was a French agent who specialised in surveillance. Our houses backed onto Premier House. Quelle coïncidence. To his mild consternation I’d greet him with “Salut, mon espion favori.” (Hello, my favourite spy).
What I despise is French colonialism, French racism, and what the French call magouillage. I don’t know a good English word for it . . . it is a mix of shenanigans, duplicity, artful deception to achieve unscrupulous outcomes that can’t be publicly avowed. In brief: what the French attempted in Auckland in 1985.
Robie recounts in detail the lying, smokescreens and roadblocks that everyone from President Mitterrand through to junior officials put in the way of the New Zealand investigators. Mitterrand gave Prime Minister David Lange assurances that the culprits would be brought to justice. The French Embassy in Wellington claimed at the time: “In no way is France involved. The French government doesn’t deal with its opponents in such ways.”
It took years for the bombshell to explode that none other than Mitterrand himself had ordered the terrorist attack on New Zealand and Greenpeace!
We the people of the Pacific We, the people of the Pacific, owe a debt to Greenpeace and all those who were part of the Rainbow Warrior, including author David Robie. We must remember the crime and call it by its name: state terrorism.
The French attempted to escape justice, deny involvement and then welched on the terms of the agreement negotiated with the help of the United Nations secretary-general.
A great way to honour the sacrifice of those who stood up for justice, who stood for peace and a nuclear-free Pacific, and who honoured our own national identity would be to buy David Robie’s excellent book.
I’ll give the last word to former Prime Minister Helen Clark:
“This is the time for New Zealand to link with the many small and middle powers across regions who have a vision for a world characterised by solidarity and peace and which can rise to the occasion to combat the existential challenges it faces — including of nuclear weapons, climate change, and artificial intelligence. If our independent foreign policy is to mean anything in the mid-2020s, it must be based on concerted diplomacy for peace and sustainable development.”
You cannot sink a rainbow.
Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz
Immediately after killing Fernando Pereira and blowing up Greenpeace’s flagship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, several of the French agents went on a ski holiday in New Zealand’s South Island to celebrate.
Such was the contempt the French had for the Kiwis and the abilities of our police to pursue them. How wrong they were.
A new prologue by former prime minister Helen Clark and a preface by Greenpeace’s Bunny McDiarmid, along with an extensive postscript which bring us up to the present day, underline why the past is not dead; it’s with us right now.
Written by David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report, who spent 11 weeks on the final voyage of the Warrior, the book is the most remarkable piece of history I have read this year and one of those rare books that has the power to expand your mind and make your blood boil at the same time. I thought I knew a fair bit about the momentous events surrounding the attack — until I read Eyes of Fire.
Heroes of our age The book covers the history of Greenpeace action — from fighting the dumping of nuclear and other toxic waste in European waters, the Arctic and the Pacific, voyages to link besieged communities across the oceans, through to their epic struggles to halt whaling and save endangered marine colonies from predators.
The Rainbow Warrior’s very last voyage before the bombing was to evacuate the entire population of Rongelap atoll (about 320 people) in the Marshall Islands who had been exposed to US nuclear radiation for decades.
This article is the first of two in which I will explore themes that the book triggered for me.
Neither secret nor intelligent – the French secret intelligence service
Jean-Luc Kister was the DGSE (Direction-générale de la Sécurité extérieure) agent who placed the two bombs that ripped a massive hole in the hull of the Warrior on 10 July 1985. The ship quickly sank, trapping Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira inside.
Former colonel Kister was a member of a large team of elite agents sent to New Zealand. One had also infiltrated Greenpeace months before, some travelled through the country prior to the attack, drinking, rooting New Zealand women and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that led all the way to the Palais de l’Élysée where François Mitterrand, Socialist President of France, had personally given the order to bomb the famous peace vessel.
Robie aptly calls the French mission “Blundergate”. The stupidity, howling incompetence and moronic lack of a sound strategic rationale behind the attack were only matched by the mendacity, the imperial hauteur and the racist contempt that lies at the heart of French policy in the Pacific to this very day.
Thinking the Kiwi police would be no match for their élan, their savoir-faire and their panache, some of the killers hit the ski slopes to celebrate “Mission Accompli”. Others fled to Norfolk Island aboard a yacht, the Ouvéa.
Tracked there by the New Zealand police it was only with the assistance of our friends and allies, the Australians, that the agents were able to escape. Within days they sank their yacht at sea during a rendezvous with a French nuclear submarine and were evenually able to return to France for medals and promotions.
Two of the agents, however, were not so lucky. As everyone my age will recall, Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart, were nabbed after a lightning fast operation by New Zealand police.
With friends and allies like these, who needs enemies? We should recall that the French were our allies at the time. They decided, however, to stop the Rainbow Warrior from leading a flotilla of ships up to Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia where yet another round of nuclear tests were scheduled. In other words: they bombed a peace ship to keep testing bombs.
By 1995, France had detonated 193 nuclear bombs in the South Pacific.
David Robie sees the bombing as “a desperate attempt by one of the last colonial powers in the Pacific to hang on to the vestiges of empire by blowing up a peace ship so it could continue despoiling Pacific islands for the sake of an independent nuclear force”.
The US, UK and Australia cold-shouldered New Zealand through this period and uttered not a word of condemnation against the French. Within two years we were frog-marched out of the ANZUS alliance with Australia and the US because of our ground-breaking nuclear-free legislation.
It was a blessing and the dawn of a period in which New Zealanders had an intense sense of national pride — a far cry from today when New Zealand politicians are being referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes associated with the Gaza genocide.
The French State invented the term ‘terrorism’ I studied French History at university in France and did a paper called “La France à la veille de révolution” (France on the eve of revolution). One of the chilling cultural memories is of the period from September 1793 to July 1794, which was known as La Terreur.
At the time the French state literally coined the term “terrorisme” — with the blade of the guillotine dropping on neck after neck as the state tried to consolidate power through terror. But, as Robie points out, quoting law professor Roger S. Clark, we tend to use the term today to refer almost exclusively to non-state actors.
With the US and Israel gunning down starving civilians in Gaza every day, with wave after wave of terror attacks being committed inside Iran and across the Middle East by Mossad, the CIA and MI6, we should amend this erroneous habit.
The DGSE team who attached limpet mines to the Rainbow Warrior did so as psychopathic servants of the French State. Eyes of Fire: “At the time, Prime Minister David Lange described the Rainbow Warrior attack as ‘nothing more than a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism’.”
Don’t get me wrong. I am not “anti-French”. I lived for years in France, had a French girlfriend, studied French history, language and literature. I even had friends in Wellington who worked at the French Embassy.
Curiously when I lived next to Premier House, the official residence of the prime minister, my other next door neighbour was a French agent who specialised in surveillance. Our houses backed onto Premier House. Quelle coïncidence. To his mild consternation I’d greet him with “Salut, mon espion favori.” (Hello, my favourite spy).
What I despise is French colonialism, French racism, and what the French call magouillage. I don’t know a good English word for it . . . it is a mix of shenanigans, duplicity, artful deception to achieve unscrupulous outcomes that can’t be publicly avowed. In brief: what the French attempted in Auckland in 1985.
Robie recounts in detail the lying, smokescreens and roadblocks that everyone from President Mitterrand through to junior officials put in the way of the New Zealand investigators. Mitterrand gave Prime Minister David Lange assurances that the culprits would be brought to justice. The French Embassy in Wellington claimed at the time: “In no way is France involved. The French government doesn’t deal with its opponents in such ways.”
It took years for the bombshell to explode that none other than Mitterrand himself had ordered the terrorist attack on New Zealand and Greenpeace!
We the people of the Pacific We, the people of the Pacific, owe a debt to Greenpeace and all those who were part of the Rainbow Warrior, including author David Robie. We must remember the crime and call it by its name: state terrorism.
The French attempted to escape justice, deny involvement and then welched on the terms of the agreement negotiated with the help of the United Nations secretary-general.
A great way to honour the sacrifice of those who stood up for justice, who stood for peace and a nuclear-free Pacific, and who honoured our own national identity would be to buy David Robie’s excellent book.
I’ll give the last word to former Prime Minister Helen Clark:
“This is the time for New Zealand to link with the many small and middle powers across regions who have a vision for a world characterised by solidarity and peace and which can rise to the occasion to combat the existential challenges it faces — including of nuclear weapons, climate change, and artificial intelligence. If our independent foreign policy is to mean anything in the mid-2020s, it must be based on concerted diplomacy for peace and sustainable development.”
You cannot sink a rainbow.
Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) is advising drivers that critical safety barrier repairs and other maintenance work on State Highway 2 in Upper Hutt will begin on Sunday 13 July, weather permitting.
One-week of night closures for various sections of State Highway 2 are planned, for Sunday, 13 July to Thursday, 17 July between 9 pm and 4 am.
State Highway 2 will be closed overnight between Silverstream and Whakatiki Street on Sunday 13 July and Monday 14 July.
State Highway 2 will be closed overnight between Whakatiki Street and Gibbons Street on Tuesday 15 July night.
State Highway 2 will be closed overnight between Gibbons Street and Totara Park Road on Wednesday 16 July and Thursday 17 July.
Three sections of wire rope barrier and one section of roadside barrier require repairs. Because the barriers are next to live traffic lanes, road closures are required to keep road crews safe.
Resurfacing patches and line marking will also take place to make the most of the road closure. These works will make the state highway safer and more resilient.
Roxanne Hilliard, Wellington Alliance Manager, says the work is essential because safety barriers can literally be the difference between life and death.
“Median barriers virtually eliminate head-on crashes and reduce deaths and serious injuries from run-off-road crashes by around 40 to 50 percent.
“For the safety of all road users it’s vital that we repair barriers after they are struck and damaged. Investing in repairs helps reduce crash risk and the chance of people being hurt or killed. The sooner we do it, the safer road users will be.” Ms Hilliard says.
“NZTA understands that the delays for road users while repairs are carried out are inconvenient, but serious crashes cause even greater delays and can see roads closed for hours,” Ms Hilliard says.
Works schedule and detour routes
13 July and 14 July, 9pm to 4am
SH2 closed between Silverstream and Whakatiki Street
Local road detour via Silverstream bridge, Fergusson Drive, and Whakatiki Street
Residents of Riverstone Terraces will have access at all times when travelling northbound. Residents travelling southbound will need to take the detour south, then travel back north to Riverstone Terraces.
15 July, 9pm to 4am
SH2 closed between Whakatiki Street and Gibbons Street
Local road detour via Whakatiki Street, Fergusson Drive, and Gibbons Street
16 July and 17 July, 9pm to 4am
SH2 closed between Gibbons Street and Totara Park Road
Local road detour via Gibbons Street, Main Street, Fergusson Drive, and Totara Park Road
Northland Police investigating a spate of suspicious fires in the area are appealing to the public for information.
Detective Sergeant Paul Overton says Police and Fire and Emergency services responded to reports of a fire on on Pataua North Road, Whareora on the morning of 20 May.
“At around 7am, about 15 T8 Traffic Control cones were taken from a stretch of road under maintenance, stacked in the middle of the road, covered in diesel and set alight.
“A second set of stacked cones were set alight further up the road.”
Detective Sergeant Overton says in the past seven months Police have also received a number of reports in relation to suspicious bush and scrub fires in the Matapouri, Tutukaka, Ngunguru and Pataua areas.
“We encourage anyone who was in these areas or has any information about any of these fires to get in touch.”
If you have any information that could help our enquiries, update us online now or call 105.
Please use the reference number 250520/3428.
Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.
The Government is strengthening trespass laws to make them more effective and practical for businesses, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee say.
“We know our trespass laws are no longer fit for purpose. They’re difficult to enforce and often criminals take no notice. They return with impunity and just continue to rob businesses of their livelihoods,” Mr Goldsmith says.
“Our plan to restore law and order is working, but there’s still more work to be done. Trespass laws are an area we know will make a world of difference to the community.
“Businesses need extra tools to better protect their properties, keep offenders away, and stop them from coming back.”
The proposed changes to the Trespass Act are:
Increasing the maximum trespass period from two years to three years.
Allow businesses, such as franchises, to trespass individuals from multiple locations.
Increase the maximum fine for anyone refusing to leave when asked, or returning when trespassed from $1,000 to $2,000.
Increase the maximum fine for anyone refusing to give their name and address when requested, or giving false information, from $500 to $1,000.
“For too long, offenders have treated trespass notices like a joke. These changes send a clear message: enough is enough. If you threaten retail workers or steal from businesses, don’t expect to walk back in like nothing happened,” Mrs McKee says. “Every New Zealander deserves to feel safe at work, especially our frontline retailers. These reforms aren’t just about fines and paperwork; they are about making retail spaces safer and giving businesses the respect they deserve.”
“I want to thank Sunny Kaushal and the Retail MAG for engaging with retailers across the country and for their recommendations on how to modernise the Trespass Act, so it better upholds retailers’ business and property rights, while keeping customers and staff safe,” Mr Goldsmith says.
“Our goal before the Bill is introduced is to explore how best to support retailers when distributing notices to those who refuse to engage.”
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) will soon begin construction of two sets of average speed safety cameras to improve safety in Bay of Plenty.
Average speed safety cameras are being used by NZTA to reduce serious crashes along high-risk corridors and roads. The technology is internationally proven to be highly effective at reducing deaths and serious injuries on longer sections of road. The cameras work by calculating a vehicle’s average speed over a length of road between two cameras.
One pair will be installed on State Highway 2 (SH2) Pacific Coast Highway between Ōtamarākau and Matatā and the other on State Highway 5 (SH5) Explorer Highway, Tumunui south of Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty. Work will begin at both sites on Monday 14 July, and take three to four weeks to complete.
NZTA Head of Regulatory Strategic Programmes Tara Macmillan says speeding has a very real and devastating impact on communities.
“The types of crashes that happen, and are likely to happen, the volume of traffic, and driver behaviour all tell us that there is a serious risk of people being killed or seriously injured in crashes on these roads. We also know that risk can be significantly reduced if more people drive to the speed limit. By installing safety cameras, we can reduce the chance of people being killed or seriously injured in crashes on these roads.”
SH2 Matatā
In June 2024, NZTA undertook a speed survey on this stretch of road that showed around 45 percent of drivers were speeding.
A new camera will be installed on SH2 near Herepuru Road (by Murphy’s Holiday Camp). The existing safety camera near Ōtamarākau on SH2 will be converted to an average speed camera.
SH5 Tumunui
In June 2024, NZTA undertook a speed survey on this stretch of road which showed around 47 percent of drivers were speeding.
One camera will be installed at approximately 126 Thermal Explorer Highway (SH5 – Rotorua end) and the other near 2028 Thermal Explorer Highway near Waimangu.
When installed, each pair of cameras will work together, measuring the average speed drivers travel between them. Drivers will only be ticketed if their average travel speed over the entire distance between a pair of cameras is over the limit – they aren’t ‘pinged’ by a single camera or at a single point where they are over the speed limit.
Initial construction works include installing underground power supplies, completing foundation works and installing metal barriers that will protect maintenance workers and any vehicle that leaves the road in a crash.
The poles and cameras will not be installed until later this year. Before the cameras begin operating ‘Average speed camera area’ signs will be installed, giving drivers a reminder to check their speed and slow down if needed.
NZTA is expecting to begin operating its first average speed safety cameras on SH1 at Matakana Road, Warkworth, later this year, and will progressively bring other average speed safety cameras online, including in the Bay of Plenty, in the following months.
“If you’ve been impacted by severe weather and are concerned about your finances, please call us.”
That’s the message for customers from BNZ Head of Branch for the Lower North Island and top of the South, Christine Jones.
BNZ is offering a targeted assistance package to affected customers in Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough.
Available immediately, the assistance package includes:
Ability to review home lending facilities on a case-by-case basis.
Access to temporary personal overdrafts to support customers who require access to funds urgently while they await insurance pay-outs. Standard interest rates and credit criteria applies.
Access to temporary overdrafts of up to $10,000 with no application fee for Small Business customers. Standard interest rates and credit criteria applies.
Access to temporary overdrafts for Agri, Business, and Commercial customers up to $100,000, with no application fee. Standard interest rates and credit criteria applies.
“We understand that some of our customers may be facing unexpected challenges to their homes, businesses and communities as a result of the severe weather events,” says Christine.
“We are offering practical support to help relieve some of the pressure during this time, so people can focus on the clean-up and recovery.
“We also have a range of other options available, especially for customers who are facing hardship, so I encourage people to get in touch so we can see how we can help,” says Christine.
To discuss support options, business and agribusiness customers should reach out to their BNZ Partner. Small business owners can call 0800 BNZSME, while personal banking customers can access support through BNZ’s digital platforms or by calling 0800 ASKBNZ.
BNZ PremierCare Insurance customers who need assistance can call IAG NZ on 0800 248 888 or submit an online claim https://iagnz.custhelp.com/app/bnz.
Headline: Ripyl® Named Best Startup at EDUtech 2025
Ripyl®, the innovative platform redefining business and commerce education, has been named Best Startup at EDUtech 2025 after winning the prestigious Shark Tank Competition. Recognised for its proven impact across 11 countries, Ripyl stood out for delivering curriculum-aligned, teacher-driven resources that empower students with real-world skills. The award cements Ripyl’s commitment to keeping educators and learners at the heart of EdTech, ensuring practical, relevant learning experiences that build critical and entrepreneurial mindsets for tomorrow’s leaders.
Overly rigid insulation rules are being removed to ease costs for designers, builders and homeowners, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced. “I’ve heard clearly from the industry that the current one-size-fits-all approach to insulation requirements is needlessly driving-up costs. “The most prescriptive compliance pathway currently available for insulation – known as the Schedule Method – doesn’t allow for design trade-offs that can affect a home’s energy efficiency, like adjusting window size. “This has led to designers and homeowners having to over-insulate in certain areas to achieve Building Code compliance, offering little extra energy efficiency benefit at a significant cost. “To address this, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) will remove the current Schedule Method in favour of more flexible alternatives.
“Smarter online tools now let us take a balanced, whole-of-home approach to energy efficiency – enabling builders and designers to measure a home’s total heat loss instead of being locked into prescriptive requirements. “Using adaptable Calculation and Modelling Methods is shown to cut the cost of an average new build by up to $15,000. “The government will now work closely with the sector to ensure a smooth transition before the change takes effect. “The Schedule Method will be removed from the Building Code’s Acceptable Solutions and Verification Methods for Energy Efficiency by the end of the year, followed by a 12-month transition period to give the sector time to adjust. “I’ve also directed officials to explore designating the Far North as a separate climate zone under the Building Code, responding to calls from local leaders to ease insulation rules in the region. “The Far North District Council made a strong case in its energy-efficiency review submission, highlighting that the region’s warmer climate and need for affordable housing allow for a more tailored approach. “I’ve heard from the district council that building costs in the Far North are approaching $5,000 per square metre. They’re pushing for change to deliver more homes for locals at a reasonable price – an ambition I fully support. “In my view, recognising Northland’s unique climate with a separate zone is a sensible step that could lower costs and unlock much-needed housing supply. “MBIE will consult on any proposed changes to the region’s climate zone designation before final decisions are made, and I look forward to hearing feedback from the public.
“This Government is committed to making commonsense changes and cutting construction red tape to make building easier and more affordable – putting more roofs over Kiwi heads, while ensuring those homes stay safe and dry for our families.”
Note to editors:
In the context of thermal performance in buildings, insulation refers to materials that reduce heat transfer by acting as a barrier between two areas. This includes products like fibreglass, wool, and glazing.
Updated documents with the Schedule Method removed are expected to be published in November 2025. A 12-month transition period will run thereafter, so designers can continue using the old documents with the Schedule Method.
MBIE will support the sector with guidance on how to use the more flexible Calculation Method to demonstrate compliance with the Building Code.
Work is back underway on Dunedin’s new inpatient building, marking a major step forward in the Government’s commitment to delivering this critical health project, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.
“It’s great to be back in Dunedin to see physical works now underway again on the former Cadbury site. This visible progress clearly demonstrates our commitment to delivering this vital project.”
The early construction phase will see 134 pile caps installed, made from steel-reinforced concrete. Around 4,300 cubic metres of concrete will be poured across the site, with approximately 490 tonnes of reinforcing steel used in total.
“This work will take about six months and includes detailed inspections of every pile to ensure the facility is built to the highest design and safety standards.”
The next major construction phase is the substructure, which is expected to begin in early 2026, with contract awards due soon following strong market interest.
“This phase will prepare the site for base isolators and IL4 foundations – ensuring the hospital can keep functioning after a major earthquake or natural disaster. That’s essential for the people of Dunedin and the wider region.”
The inpatient building will be the largest single health facility in New Zealand, covering approximately 70,000 square metres.
“We’re delivering a hospital that’s not only future-proofed for changing models of care and technology but also built to grow with the population. The design allows for flexibility, scalability, and high-quality care delivery for decades to come.
“Significant progress has also been made on the outpatient building, which will begin delivering care to patients in a modern, purpose-built facility from next year.
“Our Government is committed to delivering both buildings and ensuring the people of Dunedin and surrounding Otago and Southland region have a fully operational, modern hospital.
“By 2031, Dunedin will have a resilient, fit-for-purpose health facility that will serve the city and wider region for generations to come. We are getting on with the job – and today’s progress is further proof that this Government is delivering,” Mr Brown says.