The death earlier this month of a 26-year veteran of the US Army from the Micronesian island of Kosrae, who was an ardent advocate for healthcare benefits for island veterans, highlights the ongoing lack of promised US healthcare support for those who served in the US armed forces.
Kosraen Robson Henry, who died earlier this month at age 66 in Kosrae, spent nearly half his life in the US military and was part of the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.
A huge issue for Marshallese, Micronesian and Palauan members of the US Armed Forces is that once they get out of the military and return home, there are no Veterans Administration health services available to them as there are in the US and other international locations for American veterans.
To access medical care, island veterans must fly at their own expense to Honolulu, Guam or the US mainland where VA hospitals are located.
Despite the US Congress in the past several years adopting increasingly explicit legislation directing the US Veterans Administration to initiate systems for providing care to the hundreds of veterans of these three US-affiliated island nations, services have yet to materialise.
The Compact of Free Association (COFA) that became part of US law in 2024 “included provisions to have this healthcare available in our islands — as this Congress emphasised in November’s Continuing Resolution and December’s National Defense Authorisation Act,” Marshall Islands Ambassador to the US Charles Paul told a US House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Subcommittee on Health hearing in January.
However, he said the Department of Veterans Affairs had not acted to make the healthcare available.
‘Actively advocating’ “Robson has been actively advocating to extend veteran benefits to COFA citizens since at least 2008-09, when I first met him,” said filmmaker Nathan Fitch, who directed the award-winning film Island Soldier that tracked the lives of Kosraeans in the US Army — from Middle East war zones to their isolated and tranquil island home in the North Pacific.
Fitch said the Kosraean veteran had been active for the longest time advocating for services for veterans.
“Any progress on benefits for COFA veterans has to be part of Robson’s legacy,” Fitch said.
Still, despite ongoing advocacy by veterans like Henry and Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Kalani Kaneko, a 20-year veteran of the US Army, services mandated by US Congressional legislation remain in limbo.
Henry was also one of the first Micronesians to join the US Army when he entered on 13 October 1987 — just a year after implementation of the first COFA that allowed citizens of the three freely associated states to join the US military.
Henry stayed in the Army until October 2013, a total of 26 years, through which he was posted to locations around the world and saw tours of duty in various Middle East battle zones.
His story is not atypical, as many islanders who join the US military remain in the US armed forces for decades.
Higher enlistment The US military “enlists our citizens at rates that are higher than the enlistment of US citizens in most US States,” noted Paul in his testimony at the hearing in Washington.
Paul told the House Veterans Committee members that healthcare for returning military veterans “was a major issue in the renegotiation of our free association, which culminated in the enactment of the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2024. The law was intended to resolve the issue”.
But he said the Veterans Administration “has acted contrary to what we negotiated, and Congress has said is the intent of the law. The government of the Marshall Islands, therefore, strongly supports the enactment of legislation to ensure that our veterans can receive the care if they return home.”
Meanwhile, a small section at the end of the over 3000 page National Defense Authorisation Act passed by the US Congress in December sets out a timetable for action by the Veterans Administration.
The US Defence spending law requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide the US Congress with updates within 30 days of the passage of the law and monthly thereafter on the implementation of provisions relating to services for military veterans in the freely associated states.
The defence law includes provisions requiring the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop plans and costs for providing health services for veterans from the freely associated states. This includes the requirement of:
Engagement with the three island governments;
A projected timeline for island veterans to receive hospital care and medical services; and
An estimate of the cost to implement these services.
‘Served honourably’ “For many years, Marshallese and other Freely Associated States veterans have served honourably in the United States Armed Forces, often at higher per capita rates than many States, yet without full and equal access to veterans’ benefits,” Foreign Minister Kalani Kaneko was quoted by the Marshall Islands Journal in its January 9 edition.
“Addressing that inequity has always been about fairness, dignity, and recognition of service not politics.”
Kaneko said that while the language of the US legislation passed in December is “encouraging . . . the most important phase now is implementation.”
He said the Marshall Islands government is ready to “work constructively with US agencies to support that process. This moment represents progress, but it is also a reminder that our partnership works best when commitments made in law are carried through in practice”.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Here is another example of utterly irresponsible journalism from the BBC on News at Ten.
Diplomatic correspondent Caroline Hawley starts the Thursday edition by credulously amplifying a fantastical death toll of “tens of thousands of dead” from recent protests in Iran — figures provided by regime opponents.
Contrast that with the BBC’s constant, two years of caution and downplaying of the numbers killed in Gaza by Israel.
The idea that in a few days Iranian security forces managed to kill as many Iranians as Israel has managed to kill Palestinians in Gaza from the prolonged carpet-bombing and levelling of the tiny enclave, as well as the starvation of its population, beggars belief. The figures sound patently ridiculous because they are patently ridiculous.
Either the Iran death toll is massively inflated, or the Gaza death toll is a massive underestimate. Or far more likely, both are intentionally being used to mislead.
The BBC pushes the case for an illegal war on Iran with even bigger lies than Trump’s.
The BBC has a political agenda that says it is fine to headline a made-up, inflated figure of the dead in Iran because our leaders have defined Iran as an Official Enemy.
While the BBC has a converse political agenda that says it’s fine to employ endless caveats to minimise a death toll in Gaza that is already certain to be a huge undercount because Israel is an Official Ally.
Stenography for the West This isn’t journalism. It’s stenography for Western governments that choose enemies and allies not on the basis of whether they adhere to any ethical or legal standards of behaviour but purely on the basis of whether they assist the West in its battle to dominate oil resources in the Middle East.
Notice something else. This news segment — focusing the attention of Western publics once again on the presumed wanton slaughter of protesters in Iran earlier this month — is being used by the BBC to advance the case for a war on Iran out of strictly humanitarian concerns that Trump himself doesn’t appear to share.
Trump has sent his armada of war ships to the Gulf not because he says he wants to protect protesters — in fact, missile strikes will undoubtedly kill many more Iranian civilians — but because he says he wishes to force Iran to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme.
There are already deep layers of deceit from Western politicians regarding Iran — not least, the years-long premise that Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb, for which there is still no evidence, and that Tehran is responsible for the breakdown of a deal to monitor its civilian nuclear power programme.
In fact, it was Trump in his first term as president who tore up that agreement.
Iran responded by enriching uranium above the levels needed for civilian use in a move that was endlessly flagged to Washington by Tehran and was clearly intended to encourage the previous Biden administration to renew the deal Trump had wrecked.
Instead, on his return to power, Trump used that enrichment not as grounds to return to diplomacy but as a pretext, first, to intensify US sanctions that have further crippled Iran’s economy, deepening poverty among ordinary Iranians, and then to launch a strike on Iran last summer that appears to have made little difference to its nuclear programme but served to weaken its air defences, to assassinate some of its leaders and to spread terror among the wider population.
Collective punishment Notice too — though the BBC won’t point it out — that the US sanctions are a form of collective punishment on the Iranian population that is in breach of international law and that last year’s strikes on Iran were a clear war of aggression, which is defined as “the supreme international crime”.
The US President is now posturing as though he is the one who wants to bring Iran to the negotiating table, by sending an armada of war ships, when it was he who overturned that very negotiating table in May 2018 and ripped up what was known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The BBC, of course, makes no mention whatsoever of this critically important context for judging the credibility of Trump’s claims about his intentions towards Iran.
Instead its North America editor, Sarah Smith, vacuously regurgitates as fact the White House’s evidence-free claim that Iran has a “nuclear weapons programme” that Trump wants it to “get rid of”.
BBC’s North America editor Sarah Smith . . . coolly laying out the US mechanics of attacking Iran – the build-up to war – without ever mentioning that such an attack would be in complete violation of international law. Image: JC/BBC screenshot APR
But on top of all that, media like the BBC are adding their own layers of deceit to sell the case for a US war on Iran.
First, they are doing so by trying to find new angles on old news about the violent repression of protests inside Iran. They are doing so by citing extraordinary, utterly unevidenced death toll figures and then tying them to the reasons for Trump going on the war path.
The BBC’s reporting is centring once again — after the catastrophes of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere — bogus humanitarian justifications for war when Trump himself is making no such connection.
And second, the BBC’s reporting by Sarah Smith coolly lays out the US mechanics of attacking Iran — the build-up to war — without ever mentioning that such an attack would be in complete violation of international law. It would again be “the supreme international crime”.
‘Weakened leadership’ Instead she observes: “Donald Trump senses an opportunity to strike at a weakened leadership in Tehran. But how is actually going to do that?
“I mean he talked in his message about the successful military actions that have definitely emboldened him after the actions he took in Venezuela and earlier last year in Iran.”
Imagine if you can — and you can’t — the BBC dispassionately outlining Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans to move on from his invasion of Ukraine into launching military strikes on Poland.
Its correspondents note calmly the number of missiles Putin has massed closer to Poland’s borders, the demands made by the Russian leader of Poland if it wishes to avoid attack, and the practical obstacles standing in the way of the attack.
One correspondent ends by citing Putin’s earlier, self-proclaimed “successes”, such as the invasion of Ukraine, as a precedent for his new military actions.
It is unthinkable. And yet not a day passes without the BBC broadcasting this kind of blatant warmongering slop dressed up as journalism.
The British public have to pay for this endless stream of disinformation pouring into their living rooms — lies that not only leave them clueless about important international events but drive us ever closer to the brink of global conflagration.
Jonathan Cook is a writer, journalist and self-appointed media critic and author of many books about Palestine. Winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. This article was first published on the author’s Substack and reepublished with permission.
“Media like the BBC are adding their own layers of deceit to sell the case for a US war on Iran.” Image: JC/BBC screenshot APR
PSNA says for once the New Zealand government has made a good decision for Gaza by refusing to join Trump’s Board of Peace.
But PSNA also says New Zealand must continue to push for complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, full resumption of humanitarian aid and a realisation of the basic human rights for Palestinians everywhere, including a right of return.
Co-Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa, John Minto says a complete absence of any elected Palestinians in implementing the Gaza Peace Plan doomed it from the start.
“But then Trump mission-crept his Board of Peace into a personal global fiefdom, as an alternative to the United Nations. His claim to bring peace to the whole world, sounds as imbecilic as a speech from a Miss World contestant.”
Minto says the New Zealand government must at last realise that the Israeli government is only interested in destroying Palestinian resistance so it can ethnically cleanse Gaza.
“Netanyahu admits the October peace agreement, which the Board of Peace is ostensibly founded on, is ‘largely symbolic’.”
“Israel has re-expanded its area of control to up to three-quarters of the entire Gaza Strip and its ministers are saying Israel will never withdraw, whether the Board of Peace likes it or not.”
“Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has just stated Israel will not permit reconstruction to start in Gaza until he is satisfied Hamas has completely disarmed and surrendered.”
“The IDF has continued to bomb and shoot Palestinians in Gaza almost every day. It is bombing Lebanon, despite a peace agreement there too.”
“According to theIndependent, Israel is also recruiting and arming Palestinian gangs ‘running rampant’ in Gaza to attack Hamas.”
Minto says perhaps the most important issue the New Zealand government must consider is that achievement of Palestinian rights can’t be isolated to Gaza, but must include, in particular, the West Bank, where instances of killings of Palestinians by illegal settlers are surging.
“Every previous attempt in the past nearly 50 years, and Israel made sure they all failed, from Camp David onwards, was ostensibly based on a comprehensive and universal achievement of Palestinian national rights.”
“Real peace can only occur if these are realised, and not subject to Israeli whim and veto,” Minto says.
“Trump’s plan for his ‘Riviera of the Middle East’, is built on top of the bones of at least seventy thousand Palestinians, a number that even Israel now admits is true.”
“If they are lucky, living Palestinians will get to be janitors and bellhops.”
“New Zealand has wisely chosen to walk away from this madness. But nonetheless our government can’t use this decision as an excuse to walk away from Palestine in order to wash its hands of complicity with a continuing genocide.”
A large flash that lit up the night sky over Wellington was captured by a live feed camera and has prompted speculation it could have been a meteor.
The bright light was seen by people facing south at 11.25pm on Friday night, and travelled from east to west on an almost horizontal trajectory.
A PredictWind.com live feed camera (at timestamp 23:25:26) at the Heretaunga Boating Club, facing over Wellington Harbour from Petone, captured the ‘shooting star’.
It showed a circle of light with a long bright tail behind it entering view over the Eastern Hutt Hills from about a 10 o’clock bearing. The ‘head’ of light then flared brightly to a much bigger size – producing a wider and brighter trail behind it and at least two small bursts of light directly below it – then disappeared, leaving the brightest part of the trail to fade slowly.
“I live in Petone and it lit up my room,” one person said on a Lower Hutt Facebook group.
“I saw it in Tītahi Bay,” another person said. “From my point of view it looked like a green line shooting across the sky,” another said.
Supplied/ PredictWind.com
Several social media commenters asked if it could have been a meteor.
“Watched from my window in Ngaio. Most fantastic streak of blue/teal. Would have burnt up in the atmosphere,” a Redditor said.
Supplied/ PredictWind.com
A MetService spokesperson said sometimes their weather monitoring does pick up things like this, but in this case, while forecasters had checked their radars and other monitoring systems on Friday night, nothing had showed up.
The International Meteor Organisation posted online that data from the US Space Force indicated space debris had been observed re-entering the atmosphere 800km south of New Zealand – but later in the night, at 1.39am NZT(12.39pm UTC).
That was from a “massive (11 tons) second stage of a Chinese rocket, launched on December 3, 2025.”
Teenager Karim Lopez came alive in the closing minutes as the Breakers upset Melbourne United 97-95 in Auckland to keep their NBL playoff hopes alive.
The rising Mexican star scored 14 of his game-high 32 points in the last five minutes as the home side pulled ahead to secure a much-needed upset win.
It was a career-high haul for Lopez, whose deeds helped the Breakers overturn an eight point deficit with five minutes to play.
Victory lifts them to seventh (11-17) and one win behind the Jackjumpers (11-18), who hold down the sixth and final playoff spot, with the two teams to meet in a crucial contest in Tasmania on Sunday.
After that, the Breakers have just four games remaining as they launch a bold bid for a post-season berth, knowing they’re without the services of injured big men Rob Baker and Sam Mennenga for the rest of the campaign.
Lopez stepped into the void, the 18-year-old showing why he is regarded as a potential NBA player.
His scoring was complemented by eight rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
Robert Loe of the Breakers drives to the basket.photosport
Guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright finished with 23 points while centre Rob Loe’s 10 points were mixed with five rebounds, three assists and three blocks.
The Breakers shot exceptionally to open up a 17-8 lead but fourth-placed Melbourne edged the middle stages, led by 23 points from Jesse Edwards.
Former Breakers player Tom Abercrombie.David Rowland
After the match, former Breakers player Tom Abercrombie was honoured by having his jersey retired.
A four-time NBL champion, Abercrombie played from 2008 to 2024 and notched a club-record 429 games.
He addressed the crowd as his No.10 jersey was hung from the rafters at Spark Arena.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
ERO is unable to tell RNZ if it’s making more recommendations for support or intervention in schools than in the past.Unsplash/ Taylor Flowe
One in five schools recently scrutinised by the Education Review Office needs external support or intervention.
Twenty-one of the 100 most recently-published reviews of state or integrated schools said they needed or should continue to have statutory managers, a commissioner, or guidance for improving things like attendance and student achievement.
The recommendations were made in review reports signed off between early January and mid-November.
One principal spoken to by RNZ said reviewers who visited their school told them the school was doing excellent work, but “moderation” of their report resulted in only some mention of the school’s positive work and a recommendation that the school needed help.
The principal warned that ERO’s approach would discourage competent principals from taking on challenging schools in poor communities.
They also said schools with moderate results would get away with cruising or even declining results so long as their achievement and attendance figures were not in the danger zone.
ERO was unable to tell RNZ if it was making more recommendations for support or intervention than in the past.
“The Ministry of Education is the agency responsible for delivering support and is best placed to provide you with information on how many schools receive support,” it said.
However, it said it was “building a tracker” to indicate what types of support or intervention it recommended most.
Asked what common problems reviewers saw across schools, ERO said: “There are a range of common issues and can include us identifying schools that have low regular student attendance, a large proportion of students who are regularly and chronically absent, low student achievement and a lack of progress, and a significant number of students leaving school without NCEA qualifications,” it said.
Among the 21 review reports recommending support or intervention, 17 called for new action and five recommended continuing existing measures.
Eleven of the 21 schools had high equity index numbers placing them in the 14 percent of schools facing the most socio-economic barriers to achievement.
Eight were in the next most challenged group of schools, described as facing “many” barriers to achievement.
Just one of the schools was classed as facing “average” socio-economic barriers to achievement.
The office recommended dissolution of Herekino School’s board and appointment of a commissioner in order to improve leadership and student attendance and achievement at the Northland school.
It recommended appointment of a limited statutory manager at Te Kura a Iwi o Pawarenga to manage the relationship between the board and tumuaki and support strategic planning and teaching.
It also recommended a limited statutory manager for Randwick School in Lower Hutt to improve leadership, action planning and assessment and attendance.
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Wellington Phoenix have squandered a two-goal advantage and missed a late penalty in a roller-coaster 2-2 home draw against Melbourne City.
Wellington’s 500th A-League match result was exactly the same as their first, having drawn 2-2 with Melbourne Victory in their inaugural competition fixture in 2007.
Coach Giancarlo Italiano was in no mood to reminisce, believing his side deserved the three points, paying a heavy price for defensive lapses late in the match.
“I don’t know what to make of that game to be honest,” Italiano told media.
“I’m disappointed. I feel as though if we play that game 20 times, that won’t be the result.”
The result doesn’t help the ninth placed home side in their bid to climb into the top six, with Brisbane and Melbourne City both still two points ahead of them in sixth and seventh respectively on a congested table.
Striker Ifeanyi Eze scored once in each half to put Wellington in control but the visitors scored twice in a five minute period, with their second coming via a dreadful mistake in possession from Bill Tuiloma.
Seasoned All Whites international Tuiloma was composed in his first match for the Phoenix but his error was highlighted by Italiano.
“The second goal was just comical. I’m not going to sit here and blame anyone for it. Bill [Tuiloma] got caught in possession, but I thought he was outstanding for the rest of the game.
“I thought with the ball he gave us a different dimension, especially in the first half under pressure.”
Manjrekar James had a chance to win the match for the Phoenix in stoppage time but his penalty was saved.
“But the penalty isn’t the reason we ended up drawing, it was that five minutes where we should have just done a little bit better,” Italiano said.
Wellington face another crucial home match on Friday, against the eighth-placed Melbourne Victory.
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Got questions? RNZ has a podcast, Got questions? RNZ has a podcast, [https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/no-stupid-questions No Stupid Questions, with Susan Edmunds’.
We’d love to hear more of your questions about money and the economy. You can send through written questions, like these ones, but – even better – you can drop us a voice memo to our email questions@rnz.co.nz
I own one very small house on my own. If I can’t sell it (the market is terrible right now), then I will need to make the move to my new city anyway and rent there.
To pay that rent, I will have to rent out my own house, because I can’t afford both rent and mortgage payments.
It doesn’t make sense to me that I can’t claim the rent I’m paying elsewhere, as a tax-deductible expense against the rent I receive on my house.
From my perspective, the rent I pay in my new city is the cost of making my house available for an income-earning activity (ie, renting it out).
Do you know why this is the case? Is there any way to avoid ending up in a situation where I’m unable to pay rent in my new city because of the tax I’m having to pay on rental income?
To answer your question, I talked to Robyn Walker, who is a tax partner at Deloitte.
She said, while taxpayers earning income can generally claim tax deductions for the costs associated with earning that income, there are some limitations to that.
“In particular, it is not possible to claim costs which are capital in nature (ie you cannot expense the cost of buying a new fridge for your rental property, albeit you will be able to claim a depreciation deduction) and also it is not possible to claim costs which are of a private nature.
“The cost of renting and running a home that you live in to facilitate renting out the home you own is a private expense and cannot be deducted.”
She said it would still be possible to claim other costs associated with the rental property, such as interest, rates, insurance and maintenance costs.
This could reduce the income you earn to a much lower amount, reducing the tax you have to pay on the rent you receive.
“It is also worth noting that New Zealand has residential rental ring-fencing rules which essentially prevent a taxpayer from being in a tax loss position for rental properties; so even if the rent on a property you were living in was an available deduction, which it isn’t, then the deduction might also be effectively denied because of ring fencing rules.”
You might be able to improve your cash flow by making your mortgage payments interest-only. A mortgage adviser or your bank could help you look at whether that is appropriate.
I am unsure of who would pay if a parent dies and has no money (at all) to cover their funeral costs?
Both of my parents are divorced, in their early 80s and both are on pension only money, and one has multiple health issues, so it’s something I need to think about.
It’s usually the job of the person who is the executor of the estate to organise the funeral.
Citizens Advice Bureau advises that banks will release money from the person’s account to pay for one without probate or letters of administration. If the estate doesn’t have the money to cover the cost, the executor or the person who organises the funeral generally becomes liable.
You might be able to apply for a Work and Income Funeral Grant, which provides up to just over $2600 to help with the costs. From what I have seen, this is unlikely to cover it all.
You also might be able to apply for a withdrawal from your KiwiSaver fund if the cost is going to put you into significant financial hardship. I would use this as a last resort, though.
I turn 65 in May. A friend told me I will get less on the pension as I have $85,000 in KiwiSaver. I see there is a limit of $8000 you are allowed to have?
For the last few years all I read is you must save for your retirement. I made a lot sacrifices to get my KiwiSaver balance where it is. Now it appears the government penalises you?
I am now thinking of moving overseas when I retire. That is possible as long as you return every six months?
I think there’s a misunderstanding here. The $8000 threshold is only to apply for the accommodation supplement. You can get NZ Super no matter how much money you have in KiwiSaver.
If you’re moving overseas, it’s a good idea to talk to the Ministry of Social Development before you go to make sure you know how your pension will be treated. If you don’t and you stay away for more than six months, you can end up having to pay back the whole amount you were paid in that time.
My father-in-law is married but for the past 15 years his wife hasn’t been living with him she’s lives with her boyfriend, she keeps getting her mail sent to his address.
Now it’s coming to crunch time and she wants money out of the house, is she still entitled to half of his house?
Probably. If they were married and had children and so on, she’s likely to be entitled to a share of anything that can be deemed relationship property, even if it’s taken a while for them to get to the point of formally separating it. They will both need independent legal advice.
Canterbury celebrates the wicket of Adi Ashok of the Auckland Aces during the Super Smash Elimination Final, Canterbury Kings Vs Auckland Aces, at Hagley Oval in Christchurch, on Friday.photosport
Canterbury will contest a sixth consecutive Super Smash T20 men’s final after trouncing Auckland in their knockout clash in Christchurch.
The Cantabrians will take momentum into Saturday night’s decider against top qualifiers Northern Districts.
The home side’s disciplined bowling attack proved too much for Auckland, who crumbled to be all out for 106 in 18.4 overs at Hagley Oval.
Captain Cole McConchie returned three for 20 and Fraser Sheat three for 13 while in the chase, marking his 100th T20 match for Canterbury. Opener Chad Bowes powered to an unbeaten 59 off 31 balls, with 9.3 overs to spare.
Canterbury get another crack – under lights – at winning a competition they haven’t won since its inception in 2005/06.
Saturday afternoon’s women’s final will see Wellington Blaze play the Auckland Hearts, also at Hagley Oval.
Auckland knocked out Northern Districts, led by a fine all-round showing from captain Maddy Green.
Wellington are chasing a women’s three-peat, having qualified for a ninth successive final.
A pro-Palestine protest in Auckland’s CBD in 2025 (file image).Nick Monro
Traffic delays should be expected in Auckland’s central city with two protests planned today, police say.
The organisers of Toitū te Aroha are calling for unity in response to what they say is rising harassment and intimidation of migrants, faith groups and rainbow communities.
It comes the same day as the Destiny Church-affiliated Freedom and Rights Coalition plan to rally in Victoria Park, after having their bid to march across the Harbour Bridge denied.
Toitū te Aroha spokesperson Bianca Ranson said the aim was to stand in solidarity with diverse communities across Aotearoa.
Inspector Jacqui Whittaker said they were expecting large numbers of people to take part in a Palestine solidarity rally at Te Komititanga Square at about midday.
The group, led by Toitū Te Aroha, also planned to march down Queen Street to Myers Park.
“We expect numbers to grow around Te Komititanga Square from mid-morning, with those taking part expecting to disperse from Myers Park in the afternoon,” Whittaker said.
“Police will be monitoring the hīkoi as it progresses up Queen Street, and our focus is on ensuring this is completed safely.
“Our focus is on ensuring those taking part can exercise their right to peaceful protest, while balancing minimising disruptions as much as possible.”
She said police were also aware of another unrelated protest near the Harbour Bridge.
Superintendent Naila Hassan told RNZ police have offered to help the Freedom and Rights Coalition find another venue, but they haven’t responded.
Extra police are on duty to stop anyone getting onto the motorway today.
Hassan said from now on, no protesters will be allowed to walk on the bridge.
Detours would be in place for all bus services that travel to or through the city centre for several hours from 11am on Saturday.
Transport and safety
In a media statement, Auckland Transport (AT) and New Zealand Transport Agency said motorists were advised to plan ahead, allow extra travel time, and check Google Maps for road closures and recommended detours on Saturday.
Commuters should expect significant delays to Auckland’s city centre, bus services, and the wider Auckland Transport network and detours will be in place for all bus services travelling to or through the city centre from approximately 11am, which could last several hours.
Customers using buses, trains, or ferries should allow extra time accessing Waitematā Station (Britomart) and the Downtown Ferry Terminal.
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Recent IT outages at hospitals come on the heels of controversial IT staff cuts and the beginning of a project to improve Health NZ’s IT systems – but with uncertain future funding.RNZ / REECE BAKER
An IT failure that forced some public hospitals to rely on pen and paper for 12 hours overnight Wednesday follows closely on the government setting up a new centre to try to fix the plethora of weak old systems.
This week’s technical failure was at a commercial datacentre – yet Health NZ’s plan has been that the use of exterior datacentres would help stabilise its systems.
The Centre for Digital Modernisation of Health began work on 1 December, with $19.5 million in funding.
An Official Information Act response showed that funding was only till June.
“An internal funding case will be developed to identify future funding options for the centre,” Health NZ told the senior doctors’ union, the ASMS, in the OIA, in December.
On Friday it repeated that the centre had confirmed funding to 30 June.
“Funding for the centre and its programmes will be progressed through Health NZ’s budget process,” said Health NZ acting chief IT officer Darren Douglass.
The centre is an addition to the agency’s digital and data ranks, after masses of cuts to it through two big restructures that put paid to hundreds of jobs and IT projects.
Staff at the time warned in internal feedback the cuts would worsen the outages.
It was a technical failure in “part of our network infrastructure in one of our datacentres, commercial datacentre that we host a number of our systems on”, Douglass told Morning Reporton Friday.
Yet Health NZ’s new 10-year fixit plan calls for more reliance on the datacentres. It said that critical clinical apps would be moved out of old, at-risk servers in individual hospitals to the ‘cloud’ in a “secure, modern national data centre”.
“This immediately reduces the risk of failure from ageing hardware or local power outages,” it said.
The outage that ended Thursday morning was the fourth hospital IT outage this month.
All four outages were technical issues, and three were due to “third-party vendor issues”, said Health NZ.
The new modernisation centre featured third-party vendors or “delivery partners”.
Health Minister Simeon Brown.RNZ / Mark Papalii
‘Reliable digital tools’
The centre was a “collaboration between Health New Zealand and delivery partners that brings together global innovation capabilities, artificial intelligence expertise, and world-class process engineering to coordinate critical investments,” said Health Minister Simeon Brown when he launched both the centre and the 10-year fixit plan at the same time last November.
Asked by RNZ about funding, Brown did not mention it.
His focus to fix the old system they inherited from the last government was on building “reliable digital tools for staff and patients”.
The phased approach was to first put governance and capability in place, then investment cases and then move into delivery using proven international best practice, Brown said.
He did not respond to a question whether, after the four IT outages in January, he would consider boosting the centre’s funding.
Douglass said the first phase of the 10-year plan – delivered by the new centre – was to stabilise the IT system across common platforms: “The centre is addressing this through bringing together in one team digital delivery expertise and disciplines.”
The plan made stabilisation one of three focus areas: “This means less time dealing with IT outages, and more time with patients,” it said.
Senior doctors said the Auckland outage caused chaos.
University of Auckland computer scientist Dr Ulrich Speidel on Friday questioned why any hospital IT system would have a single point of failure and no back-up.
Douglass had told Brown’s office in mid-2024 that relying on the old tech would lead to “ongoing security vulnerabilities and associated breaches, more frequent service outages”, emails released previously showed.
A chief IT officer late that year told staff they could not afford to have “anything other than … one vanilla-flavoured brown-bag common cheap solution per problem” and that continuous improvement demanded failing “early, fail often, succeed over time”.
‘We are under-invested’
Health NZ has been working on an IT fix since it was set up in 2022.
However, it had also cut data and digital roles and put the brakes on scores of IT upgrade projects to save $100m during 2024’s financial meltdown.
Some projects were considered crucial. Others have carried on or been newly initiated, such as Brown’s ‘Accelerate’ programme to digitise patient records and end the use of paper notes for two-thirds of hospitals.
“Modernising a system this complex takes time,” Brown said at the time.
The modernisation centre had an interim director appointed last month. Recruitment for a permanent director was underway, Douglass said.
Asked what it had achieved so far and about its plans, he said: “Design of the centre has been completed and communicated, detailed processes for delivery are nearing completion and the approach to assurance has been defined.”
Business cases to develop programmes in the 10-year plan were being worked on.
The centre’s funding is from a Vote Health appropriation for “enabling health system transformation”. It is unclear if that is additional to baseline funding.
Douglass said on Friday: “We need investment, we are underinvested.”
However, he also said they had enough staff and had spread that expertise nationally.
“That isn’t removing expertise from our system, that’s making sure the experts we have can lend support where it’s needed.”
They had responded to the Auckland outage within 30 minutes, but it was intermittent so proved hard to fix, taking 12 hours.
The ASMS senior doctors’ union responded that there was “no meaningful investment … the public deserves to know what’s going on”.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand