Category: AM-NC

Source: Radio New Zealand

Chatham Islands diesel will remain at pre-war prices until mid-April, but pump-prices will soon rise, residents are being warned.

In most parts of New Zealand, diesel has risen to more than $3 per litre since the war on Iran started three weeks ago. But in the Chathams, where diesel is the main source of electricity, it’s still $2.29 a litre.

The Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust owns the archipelago’s infrastructure companies, including providing fuel. Group chief executive Bob Penter says the price of diesel will rise by 15 cents in April. It will then be reviewed again, and another hike is likely in May.

Petrol prices remain the same for now, at $4.50 a litre.

• Isolated communities grappling with rising fuel costs

“We’re really trying to soften the sudden price shocks that perhaps we’re seeing elsewhere in New Zealand, and that’s something that we’re able to do as the enterprise trust because we’re essentially operating as a charitable trust,” Penter said.

“So we’re trying to really modify the impact as much as we can.”

Before the Iran conflict began, the Chatham Islands was the most expensive place to buy petrol. There is capacity to store up to 400,000 litres of fuel on Chatham Island.

“What we’ve seen for our purchase price of diesel that we buy and bring over on the Southern Tiare, the ship that supports the Chathams, is that its risen by $1.15, since the Middle East events have taken place,” Penter said.

“So we’re able to absorb this at the moment, but it’s going to start slowly feeding through to the pump price.”

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/22/fuel-price-increases-held-off-for-chatham-islands-for-now/

Source: Radio New Zealand

By Madleine CarrWhite, Massey Journalism Student

Toxic algae warnings have been issued for Hutt and Wairarapa rivers.

Red alerts are in place for Hutt River at Silverstream, Waipoua River at Colombo Road, and Ruamahanga River at Double Bridges and Te Ore Ore.

Greater Wellington Regional Council advised people not to swim or let their dogs near the water.

The algae is a neurotoxin that acts like snake venom and is extremely harmful to humans and lethal for dogs if ingested.

“Toxic algae lives on the riverbed, where it’s usually out of reach,” Greater Wellington senior advisor integration and insights, Penny Fairbrother said.

“But during a flare-up like this, thanks to warm weather and a lack of rain, the algae lifts off the rocks and accumulates at the river’s edge, where it poses the biggest risk – especially to dogs who seem to love the smell and will try to eat it if given the chance.

“Even a small amount of toxic algae, the size of a 50-cent piece, can be enough to kill a dog.”

People should check the LAWA website for toxic algae warnings and alerts before visiting rivers in the Wellington region.

People who were feeling unwell after being in contact with algae were asked to see a doctor or contact Healthline on 0800 611 116.

Anyone who suspected their dog had swallowed toxic algae should visit the nearest vet immediately.

Greater Wellington was monitoring popular swimming spots weekly. It asked people to check the LAWA website for warnings and alerts before visiting rivers in the Wellington region.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/22/toxic-algae-warnings-issued-for-hutt-and-wairarapa-rivers/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A palaeontologist studying fossil fragments in Central Otago has identified a previously unknown, but now extinct, bat.

University of New South Wales professor Suzanne Hand has been studying fossil fragments found in Central Otago that are 16 to 19 million years old.

She says the bat has been named Mystacina nymphe, ‘nymphe’ after the Greek word for a forest spirit.

The new nymphe species are related to the modern short-tailed bat, but much smaller, weighing between eight and 10 grams.

New Zealand currently has two living species of pekapeka or bat, including one short-tailed bat (another short-tailed species was last seen in 1967, the Department of Conservation (DOC) says, and thought to be extinct). But working at the St Bathans site in Otago, Hand has found Aotearoa once had at least five different species of short-tailed bat.

“So this was a time when it was much warmer in New Zealand than it is now, probably like a sub-tropical to warm temperate kind of climate … The forests were probably even more diverse … and what we’re finding is that a lot of different animals lived at the time, and one of them was this tiny little bat that we found.”

An interesting collection of reptiles also once lived in New Zealand too, she said.

“Alongside this amazing diversity of bats were also things like crocodiles, and turtles, and swiftlets, and all sorts of animals that are not found in New Zealand today once lived there.

“And it looks like that as the climate changed and things got cooler, and the forest changed and so on, a lot of those animals disappeared.”

Short-tailed bats are now found only in New Zealand, but they were once found in Australia too, before becoming extinct there. They filled an important role as pollinators for some plants.

“They’re also known as walking bats or burrowing bats, because they spend quite a lot of time on the ground foraging, not like normal bats … and they’re very distantly related to vampire bats in South America,” Hand says.

“The New Zealand bats are really, really special. Very precious, and very very important in terms of their ecological roles today. And in the past there was a greater diversity of them, so they ranged from these very small ones, eight to 10 grams – so that’s a little bat – up to about 40 grams, which is actually a very large bat.”

Hand says the extinction of her newly found nymphe species was linked to historical cooling of the climate.

Bats were very sensitive to environmental changes, Hand said, and could be an early indicator of environmental stress. New Zealand’s remaining species were under significant pressure.

“Bats are changing, they’re changing their habits, they’re changing their distributions, and so on. At the moment it hasn’t been great, because bats are not evolving fast enough to keep up with … these really fast changes human-induced climate change is bringing.”

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/22/tiny-extinct-bat-found-in-nz-fossil-record/

Source: Radio New Zealand

One person has died following a crash in Waikato.

The single-vehicle crash was on Howden Road in Temple View around 8.30pm on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a crash has blocked lanes on Auckland’s Southwestern Motorway at Onehunga, and northbound drivers are being warned to take another route.

Two vehicles were involved in the crash on State Highway 20, police said. One person had serious injuries and two were moderately injured.

“Motorists are advised to avoid the northbound motorway at this time, or delay travel,” they said.

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) said the Queenstown Road offramp was closed as a result of the crash. Motorists should instead use the Hillsborough offramp.

“Allow extra time for diversions. Please follow the directions of emergency services,” NZTA said.

In Southland, Winding Creek Road in Southland was blocked following a single-vehicle crash between midnight and 1am.

Police said injuries were reported, and the Serious Crash Unit was advised.

“Motorists should avoid the road as emergency services work the scene or delay travel. The road is expected to be blocked for most of the day.”

And Invercargill’s Leet Street was closed following a single-vehicle crash around 3am.

“The Serious Crash Unit has been advised, and the road is expected to remain closed for most of the day while emergency services work at the scene,” police said.

“Diversions are in place, and motorists should account for extra travel time.”

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/22/multiple-crashes-block-lanes-one-dead-several-hurt/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) spy agency has taken six times longer than it should have to address questions about lax cyber security identified in a Treasury report.

The report last year mentioned that government data was “being managed or held by unvetted third parties”.

It gave no details, so RNZ sought them.

Director-general Andrew Clark apologised for taking 120 working days to respond, instead of the statutory 20 under the Official Information Act (OIA).

He then refused to answer virtually all of the dozen questions.

Clark said they had to keep incidents and vulnerabilities confidential or people would not share with them, and they needed that information to counter threats.

The Treasury report said government agencies had continued to raise concerns about the security of third-party vendors’ products and services, including poor security controls and unpatched software.

“Some agencies reported that vendors had offshored some services without their prior approval, meaning government data was being managed or held by unvetted third parties,” said the quarterly investment report for the three months to December 2024. Such reports are released publicly many months after they are done.

New Zealand’s small size as a market was biting it, the report suggested.

“Agencies assess that poor service delivery is likely driven by lower competition and less resourcing for comparably smaller contracts in New Zealand versus larger markets,” it said, under the title ‘Other emerging … issues’.

“Low competition, coupled with poor service delivery from some vendors, has also led to high reliance by many Government agencies on the same few vendors, which creates risk to service delivery across the public sector should those vendors suffer a cyber security incident or event.”

Many government agencies had become increasingly reliant on cloud-computing services from US Big Tech companies.

RNZ asked the GCSB, National Cyber Security Centre and Internal Affairs who the problem vendors were. Clark in his response would not name them or say anything about them.

“Providing this information would likely have commercial implications for these vendors” so that was refused on the grounds of unreasonably prejudicing someone’s position.

What about the government agencies that had raised the alarm?

“I am refusing those parts of your request where you have asked for information that has been provided to the GCSB in confidence by agencies,” was the reply, otherwise it might prejudice the supply of such info in future.

The unvetted third parties were not disclosed, and neither were the risks to service delivery that Treasury had told ministers were in play.

The risks information was refused on the grounds the GCSB “does not hold this information in the manner or format you have requested”.

Work was underway on digital investment and procurement, Clark said.

Asked what measures were taken, he said the National Cyber Security Centre provided a range of advice, and they had recently developed “minimum cyber security standards” to focus on the basics and encourage good practices.

The subsequent three quarterly reports after this one did not mention the threat again.

But other weaknesses did come up in them, and in one case Treasury was called out for them, in the latest quarterly report, to September 2025.

It said many data and digital projects did not include information relating to cyber security management or improvement.

It went on to fault the Treasury’s investment management system because it did not recognise the ongoing cost of cyber security, “making it difficult” to upgrade old systems and move away from on-site hardware to ‘as-a-service’ tech “which we know deliver better security results”.

“The current financing rules and settings around capital and operating expenditure are preventing agencies from modernising and improving their cyber security.”

Agencies’ approach to procuring IT systems or services was called “outdated and fragmented” by the government chief digital officer in the September quarterly report, six years after Treasury told the public sector to take an all-of-government approach to try to cut the IT upgrade bill of multi-billions of dollars.

The long wait for the response to the OIA request was put down by the GCSB to consultation and the “volume of information requested” by RNZ.

Most of Clark’s three-page response was taken up outlining the grounds for refusing the information.

RNZ asked for any report that focused on the threat, but did not get one.

Clark apologised for the wait.

“Our response … did not meet the statutory deadline and I do apologise for that. Thank you for your patience while we completed our response.”

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/22/government-data-being-held-by-unvetted-third-parties-treasury-report/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A crash has blocked lanes on Auckland’s Southwestern Motorway at Onehunga, and northbound drivers are being warned to take another route.

Two vehicles were involved in the crash on State Highway 20, police said.

One person had serious injuries and two were moderately injured.

“Motorists are advised to avoid the northbound motorway at this time, or delay travel,” they said.

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) said the Queenstown Road offramp was closed as a result of the crash. Motorists should instead use the Hillsborough offramp.

“Allow extra time for diversions. Please follow the directions of emergency services,” NZTA 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/2026/03/22/crash-blocks-lanes-on-aucklands-southwestern-motorway/