Category: AM-NC

Source: Radio New Zealand

The mother of a child who died after becoming caught in a window blind cord is asking how many other children have to die before mandatory safety regulations are introduced.

Courtney Cambie said her youngest daughter Tilly was a joy to be around.

“Tilly was your typical three-year-old, adventurous, loved climbing and adored her big sister Lainey. They were best friends. She loved dressing up and putting on different necklaces and bracelets and bangles, and was a very, sparkly, shiny little girl, and very happy.”

It was her then five-year-old sister Lainey who discovered Tilly hanging in the cords in the family’s lounge in Hāwera on 1 January 2023.

Tilly’s father Ryan Cambie began CPR and ambulance officers were able to revive her before she was taken to Waikato Hospital by helicopter, but her condition deteriorated and given her poor prognosis, she was taken off life support and died later that day surrounded by family.

Courtney Cambie said window cords should be designed to break under pressure and come with safety clips – which keep the cords under tension on the window frame.

Tilly – who had a history of playing with the cords – had left Lainey and her father watching a movie in the master bedroom when the accident occurred.

Cambie still wrestled with guilt over the tragedy.

“We were only supplied a YouTube clip to install ours. We were in that situation. If I could go back in time I would’ve done the lounge at the same time as I did her bedroom and it’s just one of those things where I have instant mother guilt that it didn’t happen.”

The couple installed clips for the cords in the bedroom on their own account – they did not come with the blinds – but had yet to do the lounge.

Cambie said the loss of Tilly was too raw for the couple to submit to a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment consultation document on “options to address safety risks of corded window coverings” which closed 31 March 2023.

The consultation followed the death of six New Zealand children due to cords on blinds since 2009.

The government of those times’ preferred option was to introduce mandatory standards.

Cambie said reading Coroner Bruce Hesketh’s report into Tilly’s death – which was released on Thursday – had been tough.

“To read that the coroner feels exactly the same towards the fact that this is something (regulation) that’s been in play in other countries for years and years and we’ve just not adopted it because we haven’t got the number, the cases.

“I agree completely with the coroner that Tilly is that case and it was something that should’ve been changed a long time ago.

“It’s sad that it probably won’t be until it’s someone in their family that is impacted by this that they understand the impact of it and I just feel if they don’t how many more children are they willing to sacrifice if they don’t make that change.”

Hesketh found Tilly’s death had been a tragic accident.

She suffered a non-survivable hypoxic brain injury due to accidental neck compression.

In his findings, Hesketh lent heavily on the previous recommendations of Coroner Mary-Anne Borrowdale and Coroner Heather McKenzie, who had investigated similar deaths.

In 2021, Borrowdale reported on the death of a 19-month-old child from accidental asphyxiation from a roman blind cord.

She noted that New Zealand differed from comparable major jurisdictions in having no product regulation designed to ensure the safe supply and use of corded blinds.

Although efforts to educate consumers about safety were laudable “the incidence of window cord fatalities in this country, and the availability of preventative devices, to my mind readily make the case for mandatory regulation to address the risks”, Borrowdale said.

Hesketh made no new recommendations, but noted the MBIE consulted on the safety risks of corded window coverings in 2023, but little change had been forthcoming.

“Sadly New Zealand still lacks mandatory regulations for corded window coverings, despite the number of deaths increasing. MBIE continues to consider the introduction of standards to prevent child strangulation deaths from the options above and I would encourage MBIE to make progress sooner rather than later.”

There have been two further deaths since the consultation period in ended in March 2023, one of which was Tilly.

MBIE general manager commerce, consumer and business policy Andrew Hume acknowledged the tragic death of Tilly.

“My deepest sympathies are with the family and friends.”

Hume confirmed MBIE had consulted on options to address safety risks of corded window coverings in 2023.

“Our role is to provide advice and options for product safety regulation to the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister. At this stage, the government is not considering introducing regulations for corded window coverings.”

Hume said non-regulatory options to improve safety, such as public information and education campaigns, played an important role in increasing awareness for parents and caregivers and that since Coroner Borrowdale’s report in 2021, MBIE had taken a number of steps to address safety issues with corded window coverings.

“In light of this tragic event, MBIE strongly encourages anyone with corded window blinds to inspect them, review the material on our website and take action where necessary to minimise the risk of corded blinds becoming a danger in the home.”

Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Scott Simpson also offered his thoughts and sympathies to Tilly’s family.

“I will consider the Coroner’s report, however I am not currently looking to introduce regulations.”

Simpson said education campaigns played an important role in increasing awareness about the risks associated with corded blinds and MBIE runs had developed information for businesses to make corded blinds safer.

That was of little comfort to Cambie who wanted New Zealand to adopt similar standards to Australia.

“Option 4a was to adopt exactly as Australia has and make sure the cords break free under pressure. So, the cords we had were metal chains, they should only supply plastic ones that break and that all suppliers must supply the clips.

Education could only go so far, she said.

“As a parent you can’t watch your child every minute of the day, they like to play and how do you explain to a three year old the hazards – in their entirety – of corded blinds.”

Consumer NZ head of research and advocacy Gemma Rasmussen supported the call for regulation.

“If you look at other jurisdictions like Australia, the UK and Canada, they all have standards in place for corded window coverings. This seems like a really straightforward thing to do, particularly when you’re considering what the ramifications are when things go wrong.

“We’re talking about babies, toddlers and children dying. You know, we have a number of product safety standards that are set by regulation under the Fair Trading Act and these standards are created to reduce the chance of accidents.”

Rasmussen said it was relatively straightforward to introduce a new standard compared to legislation.

“We see this as a disappointing example of the minister not prioritising product safety and it’s an example of where we’re really behind the eight ball when you compare ourselves to other jurisdictions.

Rasmussen said Consumer NZ would like to see a product safety standard created so that when blinds with cords were installed, it would be mandatory that there would be a fastening over them so that chains or cords wouldn’t be able to come loose and pose a safety risk.

She said education programmes alone were not enough.

“Often when parents are setting up blinds and other things in their homes, they’re tired, there’s a number of different things they need to do and we can’t be assuming that they’re going to go to a website to be reading safety guidelines.”

MBIE initiatives on corded window blinds safety include:

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/12/how-many-children-have-to-die-for-safety-regulations-for-corded-window-blinds-mother-asks/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A child is in hospital after being hit by a bus while bike riding in Auckland.

Emergency services were called to the crash on Te Atatu Road around 6.30pm on Wednesday.

Police said officers responded to reports of a vehicle versus a cyclist on Te Atatu Peninsula, while Hato Hone St John dispatched one ambulance and a critical care unit.

A spokesperson for St John said one patient with moderate injuries was taken to hospital.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/11/child-hospitalised-after-being-hit-by-bus-while-riding-a-bike-in-auckland/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Life is returning to a Far North bay once compared to an underwater desert, eight years after local hapū declared a fishing ban that makes up for its lack of legal clout with tikanga and staunch local support.

A no-take rāhui was declared at Maitai Bay in December 2017, covering the popular cove on the Karikari Peninsula and most of neighbouring Waikato Bay.

Annual monitoring since then has shown growing variety, numbers and size of fish, with a seven-fold increase in snapper leading the resurgence. In the past few years, crayfish have also started to reappear.

Te Rangi-i-Taiāwhiaotia Trust chairwoman Kataraina “Kui” Rhind said alarm about the state of the bay came to a head around 2014.

“We had a couple of whānau who’d spent their lives swimming in this bay and started realising there was absolutely no sea life left in here. It had become a kina barren.”

Rhind said over many decades all the bay’s big crayfish and snapper had been fished out, leaving the kina, or sea urchins, with no natural predators.

As kina numbers exploded, the creatures ate every last bit of kelp, leaving reef fish with nowhere to live.

The result was a kina barren, or bare rock populated only by hungry kina.

Rhind said local hapū Te Whānau Moana and Te Rorohuri held a series of hui to discuss what could be done.

At first, locals considered calling on the Ministry of Primary Industries to protect the bay, with an official marine reserve for example, but they soon had second thoughts.

“We had a vision ourselves of what we wanted to achieve and it didn’t include being told what we can and can’t do by MPI. So we decided we’d carry on by ourselves. We don’t have the law, but we have tikanga.”

That meant the no-take rāhui could not be enforced by way of warnings, fines or prosecutions.

However, Rhind said signs had been put up in prominent locations around the bay, pamphlets were handed out to campers, and locals kept an eye on the water.

A gate to neighbouring Waikato Bay, used in the past for launching boats, had been locked by the land owner over separate concerns about vehicles hooning on the beach.

Rhind said it was hard for would-be fishers to escape the sharp eyes of local kids.

“We’ve got our children, all our mokos, along the beach, and if they see anybody fishing they say, ‘Hey, we got a rāhui in here’. And sometimes these people say, ‘It doesn’t matter, we’re taking’. That’s really sad for our mokos. We’re trying to teach them how to rejuvenate, how to restore this place. And then you’ve got arrogant people who just think they’ve got the given right to take whatever they want.”

The hapū took an “education over enforcement” approach, explaining to would-be fishers why the rāhui was in place rather than trying to physically stop them.

Despite some setbacks, Rhind said most visitors and locals backed the rāhui.

“I would go as far as saying 95 percent of the community totally support this kaupapa. They love the fact that they can come to the beach and go for a dive and see fish. Fish come up to them and are nearly kissing them.”

Rhind said people had started comparing Maitai Bay to Goat Island, a long-standing marine reserve at Leigh, north of Auckland.

“There was nothing here, but as the years progress with the rāhui it’s changing. What’s happening is immense.”

That was confirmed by diver Rhys Spilling, who said he had been coming to Maitai Bay since he was a boy.

Now living at nearby Rangiputa, he had seen big changes since the rāhui came into effect.

“The main thing I’ve noticed is the fish aren’t scared of you at all. They’re fine just swimming next to you, and that’s pretty cool. And there’s also much bigger numbers, much bigger fish as well.”

Diver Sofia Koch, from Mount Maunganui, was bubbling with excitement as she emerged from the bay.

“We saw lots of really friendly snapper. You could pretty much touch them by hand which is really cute. You can pat them. We saw moray eels, octopus, a little jellyfish, an eagle ray, and some really colourful fish.”

Koch fully supported the no-take rāhui.

“Like all the animals, they sometimes need protecting. We take so much. I think it’s a good thing.”

Samara Nicholas, founder of Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust, started taking school groups snorkelling at Maitai Bay in the early 2000s, as part of the trust’s Experiencing Marine Reserves programme.

There they would see the bay’s near-lifeless kina barrens before heading to Goat Island, so they could compare it with a healthy marine ecosystem.

“So the kids were able to see the difference, and they were completely blown away by all the fish they could see at Goat Island.

And one of the hapū members approached me and said, ‘It’d be great to do something like this, you know, not a marine reserve, but we’d like to make a no-take area under traditional authority”.

Nicholas said the role of the trust since then had been to help the hapū set up their own trust and achieve their aspirations.

Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust also provided training for local rangatahi [youth] so they could help monitor marine life in the bay.

Nicholas said the changes since 2017 meant Far North schoolchildren could now see a thriving underwater environment without having to travel all the way to Goat Island.

“This is really about restoring the balance and restoring our underwater forests by protecting these predators that eat the kina, then the kelp forest can recover. And that makes much more habitat for reef fish that we’re now seeing. The end goal is that there is more fish for the community to harvest in the future as well.”

Nicholas said the Maitai Bay no-take rāhui had been a success because of its simplicity – some marine protection attempts had been overly complicated, with different rules for different species or types of fishing.

Ecologist Vince Kerr, of Whangārei, said he had led monitoring of Maitai Bay, on behalf of the hapū, since 2018.

During the past four years in particular he had observed increasing fish numbers across all age classes.

“That trend is the really important part. It means restoration is underway, and it’s significant. It’s not just a one-off blip in snapper numbers.”

He had been concerned by the absence of crayfish for the first five to six years but they, too, were starting to return.

“Snapper and crayfish are really the keystone predators that control the joint. They dictate what happens, because they’re the ones that control kina as the primary grazer. So their role is super-important.”

His most recent report described 2025 as “a turning point” with snapper biomass now seven times higher than in 2017.

Kerr said it was reasonable to expect that trend would continue until the Maitai Bay figures were comparable to, or even higher than, those at Goat Island, due to habitat quality in and around Maitai Bay.

However, Kerr said populations of reef fish such as red moki and butterfish remained low, suggesting the kelp forests would need to regrow before they returned.

Rhind said the rāhui was originally supposed to remain in place only until 2020 but the hapū soon realised that “didn’t even touch the sides”.

It was then extended to 2025, and had since been extended indefinitely.

Rhind said restoration efforts had stepped up in the past year with volunteer divers now culling kina, giving kelp forests a chance to regenerate.

The trust was also planning to build a matauranga pokapu, or education centre, for use by school groups and researchers. It would include a classroom, lab, museum and kitchen.

Rhind said the trust had held initial discussions with a major funding provider and hoped to open the centre in early 2028.

Long-term, she hoped the bay would act as a fish nursery for the surrounding area, repopulating waters right around the Karikari Peninsula.

Her dream was one of abundance, both for marine life and for future generations to be able to take the food they needed.

“If we do well within the bay, that will feed out all around the peninsula. You can’t ask for anything better than that, eh?”

Hapū member and keen diver Whetu Rutene was a key driver of the rāhui in 2017.

At the time he said concerns about declining fish numbers were not new, but the rapid spread of kina barrens gave the rāhui urgency.

He said Maitai Bay was not the only place in Northland with kina barrens but it was ideal for a rāhui because it was sheltered with water depth ranging from 1 metre to almost 100m, and it could be easily monitored.

Reaction to the rāhui had been for the most part ”very respectful”.

Before the rāhui, he saw spearfishers and kayak fishers in the bay almost every day, but within a month there were almost none.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/11/sea-life-returns-to-maitai-bay-eight-years-after-local-hapu-declares-unofficial-fishing-ban/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A deadly crash involving a car and a school bus has devastated the town of Wairoa, says the local mayor.

The crash – at about 3pm on Tuesday – closed the intersection of Black Street and Archilles Street on State Highway 2.

Only minor injuries were reported from the driver and two passengers on the bus.

But a person in the car was killed, and two others critically injured.

Mayor Craig Little believed the people in the car were all from the same family.

“Wairoa’s a pretty unique place, we all get on, we all know each other,” he said.

“The families probably all know each other who have been involved, the first responders, my hat goes off to them, they would have come across something horrendous.

“The town was really quite sad yesterday and probably still is,” he said.

Police say the death will be referred to the coroner and that they would continue to investigate.

The mayor said that in itself would be a horrible job.

“No-one wanted this on anybody,” he said.

Little had been speaking with relatives who were struggling to cope.

“I don’t think they are, simple as that, you just will never ever get over something like this,” he said.

“Everyone is grieving, really.”

The Ministry of Education said it had engaged a traumatic incident team to work with the school that had its students on the bus.

“This support will be available for as long as it’s needed,” it said.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/11/everyone-is-grieving-fatal-wairoa-crash-devastates-community/

Source: Radio New Zealand

• The Office of the Auditor-General has found no issue with the wait list numbers for first specialist appointments at Nelson Hospital.
• It comes after two unions raised concerns about placeholder clinics being booked for patients, who had not been seen. They still want to know why “dummy clinics” are being used.
• Health NZ welcomes the findings, which it says shows its administration approach had not affected first specialist assessment health target reporting.

The Office of the Auditor-General says it has found no evidence of wait list numbers being misrepresented at Nelson Hospital, but the unions which raised concerns say it does not explain why “dummy clinics” were set up to manage patients.

Last July, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation flagged that people at Nelson Hospital were possibly being removed from the waiting list despite not having been seen by a specialist.

At the time, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said the hospital was booking “ghost appointments” to make it look like their targets were being met.

Assistant Auditor-General Russell Bates said it looked at the issue as part of its annual audit of Health NZ and found patients had been removed from the waiting list only when they attended a specialist appointment, or for another valid reason.

He said the Nelson Marlborough District had allocated 24 patients, who had been on a wait list for more than two years, to a “dummy clinic” with a “do not contact” marker.

It served as a holding code while actual additional clinics were arranged.

Bates said the explanation was that it changed the status of patients from “unbooked” to “booked” but it had found patients remained on the waiting list until seen, or until they were removed for another valid reason.

“We can confirm that all 24 patients allocated to a dummy clinic were still included in the first specialist assessment waiting list as at 31 March and 30 June 2025, and the ‘referral date’ had not been altered. These patients are removed from the waiting list only when they attend a specialist appointment, or are removed for another valid reason.

“In other words, the process of setting up a dummy clinic was an administrative action that did not affect patients’ waiting list status for the purpose of reporting on the health target.”

Health NZ said it welcomed the Office of the Auditor-General’s finding that there was no misrepresentation of waiting list numbers and its administration approach had not affected first specialist assessment health target reporting.

It had contracted consulting firm EY to conduct an independent review of the accuracy of the first specialist appointment health target reporting.

Unions still seeking answers

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton questioned why “dummy clinics” had been used and if other hospitals were also using them to manage patient numbers.

“Effectively they’re still explaining themselves by saying this is a way of grouping patients together who need to be seen, who are breaching the waiting times and who we can’t see because we’re not properly staffed and resourced to do this in a timely fashion.

“It doesn’t really matter what you call it. If people are still waiting somewhere on a list and there’s no ability to see them because of resource and constraints, and we know that’s the case at Nelson, they’re rationing access to care.”

She said that was not the fault of the clinicians but a decision made by the health system and the way it was funded and organised and that some people were missing out on care, or waiting “way longer” than was clinically advised.

Waiting lists were matters of public interest and decisions made by Health NZ on how they were managed should be open for public scrutiny, she said.

The Office of the Auditor-General said Health NZ had contracted EY to conduct an independent review of the accuracy of the first specialist appointment health target reporting and the union was yet to see a copy of it.

It is said to address some of the administrative challenges encountered by Health NZ arising from variations across districts.

“If you look at the distribution of access to care for certain conditions around the country, it’s not equitable, it’s not fair. There is further disadvantage if you’re a woman, if you’re Māori, if you’re Pasifika, if you live in a smaller centre, if you live rurally, your access to care is not as good,” Dalton said.

“We still don’t have any kind of a plan or answers from Health New Zealand about how they plan to properly staff and resource all of their hospitals so that people can access care in our public health system within a reasonable time frame.”

Dalton said she understood work was underway to improve wait times and access to care in Nelson and Marlborough, but there was still a lot to be done.

“Although there is some positive change, such as an uptick in numbers of junior doctors being employed at Nelson, there is a long way to go.”

NZ Nurses Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter said its members had raised the issue out of concern for their patients.

“Using an internal code of ‘do not contact’ with five minute appointments didn’t pass the sniff test and concerned the Office of the Auditor-General enough to investigate,” he said.

“It still makes little sense and Te Whatu Ora has yet to explain why Nelson Hospital had to set up ‘dummy clinics’ to establish additional clinics.”

Goulter said NZNO would continue to support its members to advocate for their patients.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/11/audit-finds-no-evidence-of-some-wait-lists-being-misrepresented-at-nelson-hospital/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A much-loved and long-running Auckland secondhand bookshop will live to write another chapter, having saved itself from closure.

Hard to Find Books was struggling to find a new location for its hundreds of thousands of titles after its landlord – the Catholic Church – decided to sell the famous former convent where the shop has traded for eight years.

Following months of hunting the shop has finally found a home, but as other secondhand bookshops close their doors it’s still facing a tough fight for survival.

After spending the past five months lugging hundreds of heavy boxes and sliding thousands of books on to the new shop’s shelves it is hard to believe that Warwick Jordan still wants to buy more.

It’s lucky, then, that Hard to Find’s new location is only a hop across the road, tucked away in the basement of Auckland’s vinyl haven – Southbound records – in Eden Terrace.

“If we don’t buy them who will? There’s less and less second hand bookshops out there and the ones that are out there, a lot of them aren’t buying at the moment because things are really hard. But I’m obsessive I’ll just keep going into debt or whatever and carry on.”

The huge new basement space can house about 250,000 books allowing Jordan to empty out shipping containers full of titles he couldn’t display at the current shop.

But despite its size, Jordan worries it will not be the same as the grand, 120-year-old convent provided by Catholic church eight years ago in what he hailed as a ‘miracle’ – when the shop left its Onehunga location due to steep rent rises.

“It’s got so much character and it’s got history. There’s the confessional which is the children’

s room, there’s little fittings in the walls where the nuns would get holy water before they’d go in for communion in the chapel. Just sort of the vibe of the place, it’s just a beautiful, amazing building.”

Despite the new space lacking these character features, Jordan is thankful to have somewhere to house his passion.

He said without the support built over the shop’s 43 years he was not sure it could have survived the uncertain times.

“I did debate about do I just take this as a hint of shut up and go away, but there was so many people who didn’t want us to close down. I mean there’s hardly any secondhand bookshops left, and we are a dinosaur and I know it’s not a very sensible economic model and all the rest of it, but I decided the amount of community support was kind of such that I’ve got to keep going.”

In the past three years two of Auckland’s longest-standing secondhand bookshops have closed their doors.

In 2023, Herne Bay’s Dominion books shut down after 37 years when new landlords put up the rent.

Jason Books, in the city centre, closed after 55 years at the end of 2024.

Rachel Lynch – the manager of the Open Book, an oasis of pre-loved novels in Ponsonby – agreed that running a secondhand bookshop is hard work.

“It’s not easy, I mean just straight up money is difficult, we try and pay our staff fairly and foot traffic especially in this particular part is quite difficult, especially on those poor weather days the money is just not there at all.”

Lynch said it was lucky to have generous owners.

“Basically our goal is to break even, ideally, but basically the shareholders, the owners are really enthusiastic about having a bookshop that stays open and serves the community and sometimes that requires extra input from the shareholders.”

With hundreds of kilometres of shelving to shift, along with hundreds of thousands of books, Jordan said the backing of the community and donations to a Givealittle page played a large part in making Hard to Find’s move happen.

“For example we had to paint the floor because it was concrete, we couldn’t have afforded to paint it if it hadn’t been for give a little, and the shelving, we’ve had to get a lot of shelving.”

With the shop now once again safe from closure Jordan hopes the new, slightly harder-to-find location can thrive within a tough retail climate.

“I just hope they’ll like it. Where we are is iconic, where we were before that was iconic. Can I do iconic again, that’s kind of a big ask, I would hope I create something that people like, and want to come back to and get a buzz out of.”

The shop is expected to open at its new location around mid-March.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/11/auckland-secondhand-bookshop-owner-saves-store-from-closure-finding-new-location/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A panel investigating the behaviour of a judge accused of disrupting an NZ First event has heard from its first witnesses today, members of the NZ First party.

District Court Judge Ema Aitken is before a Judicial Conduct panel over allegations she yelled at party leader Winston Peters, calling him a liar, and saying comments he made were disgusting, during an event at Auckland’s Northern Club in 2024.

The judge said she did not shout, did not recognise Peters’ voice when she responded to remarks she overheard, and did not know it was a political event.

The Judicial Conduct Panel was responsible for reporting on the judge’s conduct, finding the facts, and ultimately recommending if the judge should be removed.

On Wednesday, the panel heard from NZ First party secretary and deputy chief of staff Holly Howard, who provided details on the night in question and who allegedly blocked the judge from entering the event.

Later in the afternoon, panellists heard evidence from Dorothy Jones, an NZ First board member and the person who organised the event.

She spoke not only about the disruption not just of a “woman in yellow” yelling, but also that of Auckland lawyer Michael Reed KC.

In a video played to the panel, Reed can be seen trying to film inside the NZ First event, despite being told numerous times it was not allowed to.

At one point in the video, Reed cautions those trying to stop him they shouldn’t touch him, else they ‘be sued for a lot of money’.

Jones rang the Northern Club the following day to report the disturbances of the night prior.

“Primarily, it was in relation to Mr Reed wasn’t it […] because you understood him to be a litigious man,” asked Aitken’s lawyer David Jones KC.

“Hostile,” Dorothy Jones replied.

Aitken’s lawyer asked if Reed was the main concern for the party over what had happened that evening.

“Correct,” Jones replied.

Jones also recalled seeing a woman at the door of the event, yelling.

“I recalled the woman yelled words to the effect that the speaker was a liar, ‘how could you let him lie,’” she said.

“At this point Holly and I managed to escort the woman away from the doors.”

Dorothy Jones said she and Howard had been tried to usher the woman away at the event.

Jones KC pressed the witness on whether she and Howard put hands on the woman.

“We didn’t physically do anything, we just asked her to leave and we escorted her with our open arms,” Dorothy Jones said.

Jones KC asked what she meant by open arms.

“As in we were [ushering],” she said, “not touching.”

Jones KC scrutinised the witnesses recollection of events, where people were standing and the timelines of the evening.

He asked about a report of the incident made by NZ First to the Northern Club following the incident.

Jones KC said mention of the woman who yelled wasn’t in the Northern Club report, despite the witness saying she had mentioned it.

“Did you raise that with the Northern Club, ‘hey the report isn’t accurate because I mentioned these other things as well,’” he asked.

“No, I didn’t,” Dorothy Jones responded.

“Is that because the incident so called with the woman in the yellow dress was really a nothing,” Jones KC said.

Dorothy Jones denied that, to which Jones KC did suggested she hadn’t mentioned it because it wasn’t important enough to actually say.

“I did mention it,” she reiterated.

Dorothy Jones said she had privacy concerns for the donors present at the event.

“Not physical safety,” David Jones KC asked.

“No,” said Dorothy Jones.

The inquiry continues tomorrow.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/11/video-of-michael-reed-kc-being-asked-to-leave-nz-first-event-played-at-probe-into-judge-ema-aitken/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Children’s Minister Karen Chhour is yet to front questions on a scathing coroner’s report into the death of Malachi Subecz.

Coroner Janet Anderson report found everything possible went wrong for the 5-year-old in the last six months of his life.

Senior Cabinet Ministers have expressed shock at the report; Child Povery Reduction Minister Louise Upston taking a series of questions on it before Question Time this afternoon.

Chhour, who has responsibility for Oranga Tamariki, has declined requests for a short interview on the coroner’s report today.

RNZ first contacted her office to arrange an interview this morning, given the minister does not walk through reporter scrums at Parliament due to hearing issues.

In response to a follow-up query a few hours later, a spokesperson said they were “struggling to find even a free 2 mins in the Minister’s diary”.

Chhour was seen at a promotional event, showcasing the red meat sector for National Lamb Day, on the Speaker’s Lawn about lunchtime.

When that was raised with her office, the spokesperson replied: “Sorry she needed to eat”.

Anderson’s report highlighted serious concerns about the pace at which Oranga Tamariki has improved its system in response to Malachi’s death.

“They are not happpening fast enough,” she said.

She pointed out a previous system-wide review, led by the late Dame Karen Poutasi, recommended Oranga Tamariki run a public awareness campaign to help anyone identify possible signs of abuse and how to take action – but that had still not happened.

“It is hard to understand why this has not yet happened given the Oranga Tamariki Chief Executive’s statutory duties, and the previous recommendations that have been made about this matter, including by Dame Poutasi over three years ago.”

She recommended Oranga Tamariki prioritise and roll out an awareness campaign, and that “it must no longer be delayed”.

Chhour’s office provided a statement just before 6pm Wednesday night.

“I agree with Coroner Janet Anderson assessment that Malachi Subecz was the victim of unspeakable cruelty and deliberate evil, which no child should ever have to endure.

“My heart goes out to everyone who loved and cared for Malachi, for whom today’s findings will be incredibly painful.

“The Centre for Family Violence and Sexual Violence Prevention (the Centre) and Oranga Tamariki are supporting the work being led by MSD to implement recommendations from Dame Karen Poutasi’s report into the death of Malachi Subecz.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/11/childrens-minister-too-busy-to-front-on-malachi-subecz-report/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Gore’s famous giant brown trout statue is angling for an official name.

The sculpture – designed by local artist Erroll Allison and built by a local engineering firm – has proudly stood in Gore for almost 40 years.

The statue, capturing a trout mid-leap, is finally getting a name as part of a competition to promote the Southland town’s On The Fly Festival on the Mataura River later this month.

Gore District Council senior events co-ordinator Florine Potts told Checkpoint that there had been “heaps” of suggestions, with Trouty McTroutface one of the first to come through – “Someone had to do it.”

Potts said the list of initial names had been slimmed down to five finalists – Trixie, Scout, Trevor, Gordon or Finn.

“Voting has only opened on Monday, so people still have a lot of time to vote.

“Everyone can vote, they can go on our socials or text our local radio station. If you come to Gore, you can have an opinion on it.”

Potts said they were hoping other towns with giant statues of local animals and produce will follow suit and name their own statues.

She said locals were looking forward to being able to stop referring to it as just “the trout”, but said whatever the name, it would always be a true Gore icon.

“People come and visit and take photos with the trout. Everyone knows the trout.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/11/finn-diesel-trixie-or-trevor-name-sought-for-gores-iconic-giant-trout/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Teaching Council needs to focus more on children’s safety and less on being liked by teachers, according to an independent review.

The review of the teacher registration body has called for significant transformation and more emphasis on its role as a regulator.

It has been published while the council’s chief executive Lesley Hoskin is on leave during a Public Service Commission review of the council’s procurement and conflict of interest practices, and amid widespread opposition to a government overhaul of the council.

The document – provided to RNZ by the council – said the council’s current statutory purpose was “to ensure safe and high-quality leadership, teaching, and learning in early childhood, primary, and secondary education through raising the status of the profession”.

It said the government was moving to cut the reference to raising the status of teaching and the review was aimed at establishing future opportunities in light of wider education reforms.

The report said those opportunities included shifting the council’s mindset “from the current focus on promoting respect for the profession and being liked by the profession to a prevention and stewardship mindset, focussed on improving child safety and the quality of teaching, and growing public trust and confidence in the profession”.

“The current focus on the mana of teachers and the profession must be properly balanced with the council’s’ statutory responsibilities to protect children from the sorts of competency and conduct breaches that create lifelong harm and trauma,” the report said.

“The council needs to lead the education sector to improve performance in preventing incompetence or misconduct while simultaneously shifting its focus from managing the consequences of misconduct to addressing the causes.”

Education Minister Erica Stanford told the Education and Workforce Select Committee on Wednesday the review vindicated the government’s moves to overhaul the council and take greater control over teacher education.

The review said the council appeared to have the culture of an advocacy body rather than of a regulatory or membership body.

“While there may be times when the council advocates for the profession, these must be balanced with its other roles and functions,” the report said.

“In spite of the statutory requirement to have regard to the policy of the government of the day, the agency does not appear to see itself as part of the wider state sector, within which the teaching profession sits.”

The review said the council should use its rich data about teachers to identify patterns and help tackle negative trends and risks.

“For example, the council’s registration teams can see the current trend towards increasing numbers of foreign trained teachers, which if extrapolated, will see up to 30 percent of the workforce foreign trained by 2035. They might also see patterns about where in the system probationary teachers are not reaching the standards required for permanent registration, or where leaders may appear to be ‘tick boxing’ certification applications.”

The report expressed concern that the council had recently lost qualified teachers and expert investigators from its staff.

It said the council had a strongly mission-driven and committed culture, but there were signs of dominant cliques that might “freeze out” those who did not agree with it.

“The executive has sometimes appeared, to some interviewees, to prioritise pliability over relevant experience and technical expertise,” it said.

The report warned that the level of change required at the council was significant and would need careful planning and management.

Last year the council’s acting chief executive [. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/581901/teaching-council-interim-ceo-resigns-from-board-for-avoidance-of-doubt-chair-says resigned his seat] on the council’s governing board after RNZ inquiries into the legality of the dual roles

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/11/teaching-council-too-focused-on-being-liked-by-the-profession-review/