Unemployment is at its highest in more than a decade, but an economist says that could actually be an early sign of economic strength, as more people return to the workforce.RNZ
New Zealand’s unemployment rate is the highest in a decade, but a leading economist is cautiously optimistic about the country’s economic outlook
There was a feeling of “cautious optimism” at a business breakfast in Auckland this week, after warning signs began flashing in the jobs market.
The latest figures, from Stats NZ, have revealed unemployment has risen to its highest level in more than a decade – 5.4 percent – with more people chasing work than jobs being created.
A total of 165,000 people are now unemployed – that’s a rise of 4000 on the previous quarter and 10,000 on a year ago.
When looking to the country’s future economic and employment outlook, Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold, the guest speaker at the breakfast, tells The Detail that he’s “cautiously optimistic” – a phrase he had on repeat.
“You know, in the last couple of years it’s been tough, hasn’t it?” he says. “We had a couple of years where things looked quite good as we went through the summer period in the early part of the year, only to find the economy sag in the middle of the year.
“And even though we have good reasons to be optimistic about this year, you have to be conscious that that could happen again, particularly given it’s an election year.”
He says the recent spike to 5.4 percent in unemployment is a complicated number. Yes, it’s higher than expected, but he says there’s also been a bump in the number of people wanting jobs.
“They survey New Zealanders to try to ascertain how many of us are actually looking for work, because not all of us are for various reasons. And the surprise last time was that jobs grew, but actually the number of New Zealanders thinking they wanted to be in the workforce grew as well.”
He believes this could be “early evidence of economic strength”.
“Often this relationship works in reverse – when the economy is weak, then people drop out of the labour force, they go ‘well, there’s not very many opportunities anyway, or the pay’s not going to be any good’, so they think about other alternatives, study or training for example.
“And when the economy picks up, people think ‘there are options out there now, I can actually go out there and get an interesting opportunity, I can get more income,’ and you tend to see people attracted into the workforce during these periods.”
He says hiring remains strong in government-related sectors, such as health and police, but construction is hurting.
“But we are starting to see some better signs … as lower interest rates filter through, although it is early days.”
Peak point
He believes the unemployment rate has peaked – “it should fall next quarter, modestly” – which is a sentiment echoed by Shay Peters, CEO of the Australia and New Zealand umbrella of Robert Walters, a recruitment firm. He hosted the business breakfast.
“I think what we will be seeing and what everyone will be forecasting over the next 12 months is for that unemployment rate to drop,” Peters tells The Detail.
He points to the 76 percent of businesses surveyed for the company’s latest Salary Guide who say they are planning to hire this year, up from 66 percent last year.
“Our labour market is showing a renewed sense of optimism, but caution remains.”
He says, “unfortunately”, New Zealand continues to be a victim of the brain drain to Australia.
“That is probably my biggest concern, around the level of individual that’s gone to Australia … they are the productive ones. They are there, they are productive, they are doing the job.
“They are the ones who we see leave New Zealand with their families and buy houses in Australia.
“Will these people come back? It’s highly unlikely. Will we be able to import talent from other offshore resources? I don’t know, it’s a tough one.”
When asked about the role of AI in New Zealand’s job market, he says, “I think there is a nervousness about AI taking people’s jobs, but we aren’t seeing it play out en masse yet”.
But, he says, AI is working overtime for those chasing a job.
“A great example is one of our clients, who said to us [that] when AI was just starting to be implemented by job seekers … they received 12 cover letters that were exactly the same from 12 different people. Clearly, they put it into the same bot, they put in the same job description in and it spat out the same cover letter.
He says “authenticity” is what sets candidates apart. And in a tough market, anything and everything helps.
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NZEI President, the head of the country’s largest education sector union.NZEI supplied
Education union NZEI Te Riu Roa is questioning why the consultation period on a draft Māori curriculum is only half as long as its English counterpart.
“It’s pretty much an impossible deadline, really. I mean, you cut the deadline in half, we’ve got till April to respond,” president Ripeka Lessels said.
The Ministry of Education opened the draft Te Marautanga o Aotearoa framework and Year 0-10 wāhanga ako (Pūtaiao, Waiora, Toi Ihiihi, Hangarau, Ngā Reo, and Te Reo Pakeha) for consultation from 28 January until 24 April 2026.
However, consultation on the Year 0 to 10 draft New Zealand Curriculum opened three months earlier in October 2025. The consultation period closes at the same time as Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.
Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, alongside the New Zealand curriculum, make up the national curriculum statements, Lessels said.
The shorter consultation timeframe would impact on teachers, who would have less time to digest and respond to the changes, she said.
“It’s gonna be a challenge, unless [teachers] have subject specific association members beside them to actually take them to go through and read through that stuff, so that they can, you know, download it all and be able to respond appropriately.”
Lessels said the government and ministry had prioritised speed over experience and it would lead to less kaupapa Māori embedded in the curriculum.
“I think this is the only chance that most of the sector will get, is to respond in this time frame … but that’s true also of the New Zealand curriculum, there’s been very little consultation with the subject association around curriculum development since the beginning of this government.”
This curriculum would also apply to the majority of Māori students who were not in Māori medium education, but who Lessels said had a right to be taught in their language regardless of their choice of school.
“What’s good for Māori is good for everybody … tamariki Māori are still part of the education system in Aotearoa New Zealand and we still, and the government, still have an obligation to improve education, as they are trying to do, improve education for all tamariki Māori.”
Lessels said the previous curriculum documents had a lot of input from Māori in the education sector, but input on the new draft had been limited.
“I’ve been going through the Te Reo Rangatira document, and, you know, it reads very much like the Pākehā document, and that’s because this minister has pretty much demanded what it should look like, and that they should be the same. You can see that, it’s in the document, you can see that in the Te Reo Rangatira document, the step stages and phases in that document kind of mirror the New Zealand curriculum, the Pākehā document.”
In a statement the Ministry of Education said it was its intent to release the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa side by side.
“We decided that further work was needed on the draft framework and Years 0-10 wāhanga ako of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, to make sure we released the best possible version for New Zealanders to consider and provide feedback on. This is an important milestone in Māori-medium education, and we needed to get it right.
“We recognise that kura and schools using Te Marautanga o Aotearoa have a shorter consultation time period than those using the New Zealand Curriculum, so we are making it possible for kura, schools and whānau to provide feedback through multiple avenues. In addition to the feedback forms for the framework and each wāhanga ako, we are also:
– holding webinars that anyone can attend and provide feedback at
– arranging workshops through Kahu Pūtoi to discuss the drafts, and
– holding local workshops through the Curriculum Advisory Service.
“The final National Curriculum is expected to be released in mid-2026, and we intend the final versions of both curricula to be available together at that time.
“We believe the three-month consultation period, supported by multiple feedback opportunities, provides enough time for kura and schools to engage with the draft Te Marautanga o Aotearoa and provide feedback. The consultation closes on Friday 24 April 2026.”
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University of Otago law professor Andrew Geddis said the proposal was basically dead now.
“Ironically, it’s dead because the government has run out of time which is the very thing that governments say they need more of and which is why they’re so keen to actually get a four year term if they can get the public to agree to it.”
The select committee that considered the bill had recommended it progress to second reading without the ACT Party’s proviso a longer term came with greater checks and balances on the government of the day.
New Zealand and Australia are outliers in having three-year parliamentary terms; four or five year terms are far more common.
The arguments for a longer term include that there three years is too short for a government to accomplish its goals, with the first year settling in and the third year all about gearing up for another campaign.
Those wary of allowing longer terms argue New Zealand lacks certain checks and balances on government power other countries have, such as a supreme court that can strike down legislation or an upper house like the Senate in Australia and the United States or Britain’s House of Lords.
Geddis said MPs clearly had concerns about the uncertainty the legislation might bring.
“The original legislative proposal, which was an ACT Party move, was that four year terms would only happen if the government agreed to give opposition parties control [of] the select committee and that would be written into the legislation.
“The worry about that was you never actually knew whether you’d have a three year or four year parliamentary term until the government made the decision as to whether to let opposition have select committee power.
“Putting that into the legislation itself could create future uncertainty down the track. So the select committee said it would be better to have a simple vote on whether to have a three year term or four year term with no extra complications put into the legislation.”
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said a four year term was something a future government might look at.
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The increase showed the job market in 2026 was on “much stronger footing”, according to SEEK. (File photo)123rf
Job ads rose for the eighth month in a row in January, showing the job market was on a “much stronger footing” than a year ago, according to SEEK.
The latest SEEK NZ Employment Report shows job ads increased 1.3 percent in January, while December’s result was revised up to a 1.5 percent rise from an initially reported fall of 0.3 percent.
SEEK NZ country manager Rob Clark said New Zealand’s job market had entered 2026 on a “much stronger footing” than a year earlier.
“Nationally, annual growth is at its highest in over three years and monthly volumes have been ticking up since the middle of 2025,” Clark said.
Gisborne led monthly growth with a 3.9 percent lift in job ads, followed by Manawatū, Otago and Taranaki.
Wellington rose 1.5 percent, driven by a 3.3 percent increase in Government & Defence roles.
In Auckland, small gains in large industries – including Information & Communications Technology and Trades & Services – pushed ad volumes 1.1 percent higher.
On an annual basis, the South Island continues to outperform the North Island.
Otago and Southland both recorded job ad growth of more than 23 percent, led by demand for construction and trades workers.
Nationally, the construction and industrial sectors remain the strongest performers, with annual job ads up 20.1 percent and 16.5 percent respectively.
Meanwhile, applications per job ad were unchanged in December, signalling a stabilising job‑seeker market, though competition for roles remains elevated.
Clark said persistent strength in construction, agriculture, trades, logistics and the ICT ecosystem over the past year was “welcome news after such a long period of decline”.
He said the market was now characterised by “gradual but consistent expansion rather than rapid swings”, reflecting growing employer confidence.
Property experts say there are a few things that can happen to influence a property’s value – some within the owner’s control and some not.RNZ
House prices aren’t moving much in many parts of the country – but what could cause the value of your place to drop?
Property experts say there are a few things that can happen to influence a property’s value – some within the owner’s control and some not.
Messy neighbours
Property economist Ed McKnight said having neighbours who did not look after their house could be a problem.
“If your neighbour’s property looks like a mess – overgrown lawns, rubbish piling up, cars on the front lawn – that could make it harder to get a premium price for your property. It’s hard to quantify this in data.
“But buyers tend to pay premium prices for the dream home. If next door makes it seem more like a nightmare, then the price premium will fall.”
More neighbours
There has been a townhouse boom around parts of Auckland but work in neighbouring sections can make your house less valuable – at least in the short term.
McKnight said he visited a house in Ōrākei, Auckland, where the owner was grappling with this.
“Just as this owner was trying to sell, the neighbour was bulldozing their house and knocking up a five-storey apartment building. It was hard to get someone to pay a premium price for a property when there’s going to be noise and disturbance next door for the following three years.
“The tricky part is that most of this is outside your control. You can have the best-maintained property on the street, but if next door is a disaster, you’re wearing some of that cost.”
Property economist Ed McKnight.Supplied / Ed McKnight
Cotality chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said many people valued privacy and having sunlight.
“Putting townhouses up next door potentially reduces that. But I think it’s just the world we’re in at the moment, the government is pushing hard on intensification, infill housing.”
But Vanessa Williams, a spokesperson for Realestate.co.nz, said in an area with a lot of finished townhouses, having a place with a garden and garage could be worth more.
Flooding
Recent weather events have drawn more attention to potential flooding, and properties that could be in a flood zone.
Williams said it was something that many buyers should research before they bought a house. A property in a risky area could have a lower value. Some owners might not realise they were affected until they went to sell.
Power pylons
McKnight earlier said a house that was less than 250 metres from a power line could be worth up to 20 percent less than the same property not near the lines.
“The further away you are the less impact. Once you get over 250m away, there was no discernible difference.”
But he said if they were blocking an otherwise nice view, that could cut a property’s price by 27 percent.
McKnight said lamppost cell towers and simple monopole towers made no impact. But armed monopoles could add about a 10 percent discount for houses very close to them.
Flight paths
Davidson said anywhere that had planes flying closely overhead at regular intervals could face challenges.
But an Airways and Auckland Airport report in 2018 said a new flight path over parts of Auckland did not impact property prices, media reported at the time.
An earlier study in Brisbane said aircraft noise only had a minimal impact on property prices.
Davidson said homes next to correctional faciilties could also face a stigma.
A UK survey showed 36 percent of people would live by a prison but half would expect a discount in price of almost a third to do so.
Apartments near Auckland’s Mt Eden Correctional Facility are valued at about $860,000, a similar price to some a few streets away. But in areas where there is less employment, the arrival of a prison can mean more work.
Shaun Johnson and coach Andrew Webster at Warriors training.Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
NRL pre-season: Warriors v Dolphins
Kickoff: 8pm Friday, 20 February
Leichhardt Oval, Sydney
Live blog updates on RNZ
An old, familiar face made a rare appearance at NZ Warriors training this week, as coach Andrew Webster faced early test of depth among his halves to start the coming NRL season.
Club legend Shaun Johnson, who retired to a media career last year, was throwing his weight around without actually putting his TV face at risk with any contact drills.
“We sent an SOS out, but I think he brushed us,” Webster quipped. “He just wanted to come and watch – I didn’t see him tackling those boys on the pads today.
“It was good to have an old boy around – he would say not so old. He’s obviously a big part of our path and done so much for our club.
“Any time he wants to come, he’s welcome.”
Webster could use some Johnson magic right about now, with an injury crisis among his inside backs just two weeks out from round one against Sydney Roosters.
As it stands, Luke Hanson may be winning a battle of attrition for his first-grade debut, as he lines up alongside Tanah Boyd – a combination that guided the Warriors reserves to glory last year – for their second pre-season trial against the Dolphins on Friday.
Last year’s incumbents – Luke Metcalf and Chanel Harris-Tavita – are both nursing niggles that could impact their availability during the opening weeks of the schedule.
Metcalf is still rehabbing from knee surgery that ended his 2025 campaign midway through and will likely miss a couple of months of the coming season. Harris-Tavita – along with second-rower Marata Niukore – has picked up a calf complaint that has kept him out of the pre-season.
Luke Hanson in action for the Warriors against Manly Sea Eagles.Kerry Marshall/Photosport
“They’re minor, but they haven’t progressed as quickly as we’d like,” Webster explained. “I’m assured they’ll be up for selection for round one, but that could change.
“They will have to tick every box from here, but they’re only light injuries.
“The reason we haven’t announced them as injuries is, at a push, they could have played, but there’s no point in risking it.”
Meanwhile, the Warriors have suffered a major blow, losing utility Te Maire Martin for 12-14 weeks with a broken leg suffered during his stint with the Māori All Stars on Sunday. While he was used as a Swiss Army Knife off the bench last year, Martin is primarily a half and would have been third or fourth on the pecking order.
“He’ll get operated on tomorrow,” Webster said. “Really frustrating.
“As we’ve learnt with fractures, they’re really slow early and we’re not going to know when he’s back until we start seeing big chunks of improvement.”
Up-and-comer Jett Cleary – son of former Warriors coach Ivan and brother of Penrith Panthers star Nathan – was another bolter, but has had to deal with his own health challenges during the off-season.
“Jett’s just completed his first full session with the squad,” Webster said. “He had osteitis pubis [inflammation of the pubic joint] over the break and a long recovery.
“He did warm-ups the last couple of weeks, 80 percent of the session today and he’ll start progressing over the next two weeks to get ready for round one. He’s not available for selection this week.”
The other bolter is former Newcastle Knights junior Jye Linnane, who is also returning from anterior cruciate ligament knee surgery last year.
Jett Cleary at Warriors training.Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
Boyd stepped into Metcalf’s vacant spot for the latter stages of 2025 and, with 76 first-grade games to his name, will probably start the season in the No.7 jersey.
Hanson was signed from the Penrith system two years ago and has played 35 games for the Warriors reserves, playing a key part in their NSW Cup and NRL State Championship triumphs last season.
The ‘other’ Luke seemingly has his nose ahead of the pack right now.
“He’s going to play big minutes this week,” Webster said. “We’ve got options and people will stand up.
“We’ve got faith in those guys and Luke Hanson has had a great pre-season. He just keeps doing his job each day and putting himself one step closer.”
Repaired Lake Ferry Road at Turanganui River bridge.Supplied
The South Wairarapa District Council is delivering supplies by helicopter to more than 200 people still cut off on the southern coastline.
The bridge to Lake Ferry was reopened Wednesday evening, freeing roughly 70 people who had been cut off by storms.
Wairarapa emergency management controller Simon Taylor estimated another 200 people were still cut off in Ngawi, and another 30 were stuck in Whāngaimoana.
“We’re actually using helicopters to get the food in, and some of it is just estimates because we’re talking to people within these areas but there are a couple of areas, like Whāngaimoana, that I believe don’t have mobile coverage at the moment,” he told RNZ shortly after helicopters had left to deliver food on Wednesday evening.
“We’re just trying to get in there and start the process of understanding their welfare needs, but we are bringing food with us.”
Once council staff got into the cut off areas, he expected the number of damaged properties to spike.
“While the number seems small at the moment, we’re talking less than a dozen [damaged homes], we still haven’t had access to a number of our communities and that’s where we believe the number is going to increase,” he said.
“We’re still concerned there’s a number of homes that are damaged but we just can’t get to them.”
Taylor said an engineer had visited the bridge to Ngawi and the council was waiting on a report.
“We had an engineer in [Wednesday morning] looking at the bridge leading in Ngawi … We are still waiting just to confirm the structural integrity of the bridge before we can make a decision on whether it reopens or not,” he said.
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Transport Minister Chris Bishop said a quarter of a million cubic metres of rocks and soil came down in the Punaruku slip, and workers had shifted 25,000 cubic metres of it to restore access.
“While there have been multiple slips along this stretch of state highway, the focus has been on two particular areas – the Waikura slip between Pōtaka and Hicks Bay, and the largest slip of all, the Punaruku slip, closer to Te Araroa.”
The Transport Agency confirmed the section of SH35 from Pōtaka through to Hicks Bay and around to Te Araroa would be open daily between 7am and 7pm, starting on Thursday.
Outside of those hours, crews would continue work on repairs.
“We know how important this is for medical appointments, to replenish supplies and reconnect with family and friends,” Bishop said.
The road remained fragile, and work would continue for some time.
“People travelling through will need to remember to take extreme care – the journey will take longer, the road will be down to single lane in multiple locations, and lower speeds and traffic management will be in place,” Bishop said.
Te Araroa Civil Defence said to expect 45-minute delays, and the road was not suitabe for truck and trailer units, or any vehicle over 18 tonnes on the Pōtaka to Hicks Bay section.
However, there were no restrictions on weight or length on the section between Hicks Bay and Te Araroa.
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The Chief Victims Advisor says there needs to be an independent investigation into historical allegations of sexual abuse at St Bede’s College.
The Christchurch boys’ school is conducting its own investigation, but Ruth Money says that is like marking its own homework.
A man who was sexually abused by a priest at the school says he doesn’t see how the college can conduct its own internal investigation.
RNZ earlier revealed that former priest Rowan Donoghue had admitted sexually abusing four boys at the school between 1996 and 2000.
On Wednesday, RNZ revealed that another priest, former rector Fr Brian Cummings, was also accused of abuse by three different complainants in 1996, 2014 and 2023. Cummings, who died in 2022, “strenuously denied” the allegations.
* Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz
The school has confirmed to RNZ it is investigating what was known historically and how the matters were addressed. That work is being led by the current board and rector Jon McDowall.
Chief Victims Advisor Ruth Money told RNZ there should be an independent investigation.
“What concerns me the most is the fact that people do not take this issue seriously, and they continue to think that they can investigate themselves.
“There should be a specialist investigation with safeguarding principles applied, not me marking my own homework.”
She said the school had “lost the trust and confidence of the community and certainly the victims and survivors.”
“There should be sexual violence experts involved to help the community through it, as well as the school through it.
“For me, as the Chief Victim Advisor to the government, I see this time and time again in education, and this is what I am worried about at a system level.
“Sexual violence is an epidemic, and we need to do whatever we can to prevent it as a community, and that’s my concern… certainly best practice is that an expert is involved. It is independently investigated, but also support for the survivors, for the ex pupils and current pupils, for the school community, that needs to be done by experts, and that is not the school’s job.”
A man who was sexually abused by Donoghue told RNZ he also believed there should be an independent investigation.
“Due to the information that has come out in the media over the last few weeks, I can’t see how either St Bedes or the Society of Mary believe they have the remit to conduct their own internal investigation.
“If they had a genuine commitment to supporting the victims, as they’ve stated in every single comment they’ve released, then I would expect nothing less than an external inquiry. I personally wouldn’t believe any of the findings from an internal investigation, and doing so would no doubt discourage other potential victims who’ve not yet come forward, from doing so”.
RNZ asked McDowall for comment on the calls for an independent investigation.
He said he understood why there were “strong views about how this should be addressed”.
“Trust in this process matters.
“I was not at the College when these matters arose and had no involvement in the decisions of that period. That allows me to approach this work independently. My highest priority is ensuring we fully understand what occurred, support those impacted, and respond appropriately.”
The college has, for many years, had established processes for responding to complaints concerning clergy at the college, McDowall said.
“Some of those matters are subject to ongoing legal proceedings, and we are therefore limited in what we can say publicly.
“It is important to me that anyone who may have been impacted feels heard and supported. I have written directly to our Old Boys and publicly extended an open invitation for any person who may have been affected to contact me personally. Concerns raised will be addressed in accordance with school policy.
“Any form of abuse and any failure to address it is simply wrong. As Rector of St Bede’s, I continue to invite anyone who is impacted by this matter, or who has concerns, to contact me directly.”
A Society of Mary spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday it had records of three complaints of sexual abuse against Cummings from three complainants.
“They were received in 1996, 2014 and in 2023; the third came after he had died. All related to his time at St Bede’s College. Cummings strenuously denied the accusations in 1996 and 2014.
“The first two complaints were investigated by police and the Society of Mary. Police took no action on either complaint. The third complaint was investigated by the Church.”
McDowall earlier told RNZ the school was aware of allegations against Cummings.
“Those allegations are working through a process and we are not able to offer any further comment at this time.”
He said he found the matters “distressing”.
“Any form of abuse is unacceptable, regardless of when it occurred or whether it involved one individual or many.
“I was not in this role at the time these matters arose. My responsibility now is to ensure we respond with clarity, care and integrity.”
He said work was under way to understand what was known historically and how those matters were addressed.
“That work is being led by the current boards and myself.
“Some historical allegations were previously subject to investigation. Where new information comes to light, we encourage it to be brought forward and addressed through the appropriate channels.
“What matters most is that anyone impacted feels supported and heard. We are committed to ensuring concerns are addressed appropriately, with care, integrity and accountability.”
He said the school today operated with “clear safeguarding expectations, strong oversight, and a culture where student well-being comes first”.
“Abuse has no place at St Bede’s – past, present or future.”
New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott reacts in the snowboard women’s slopestyle final run 3 during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park, in Livigno (Valtellina), on February 18, 2026.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has won silver in the women’s Snowboard Slopestyle event, in a final run that left viewers on the edges of their seats.
The win secures New Zealand’s third medal of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy.
After topping the qualifying round, Sadowski-Synnott was up last in the line-up of 12 women. Her run one score of 73.01 immediately took her to third place, despite coming off early on one of the rails.
She dropped to fourth during round two, where she remained after her 77.61-scoring run when, despite some impressive jumps, she again came off early on the second rail.
However, the 24-year-old managed to turn the competition around in her last attempt, with a clean run bringing her up to second place with a score of 87.48 – just 0.35 points behind Japan’s Mari Fukada, who took home gold.
The win marks Sadowski-Synnott’s fifth Olympic medal.
New Zealand’s Dane Menzies falls as he competes in the snowboard men’s slopestyle final run 2 during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park, in Livigno (Valtellina), on February 18, 2026.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Earlier, Dane Menzies missed out on a medal in the men’s Snowboard Slopestyle final.
The 20-year-old from Wanaka was also 12th in the line-up after placing first in the qualifier, and got off to a strong start.
Run one earned him a solid score of 76.10, his best in the event, but run two saw him drop to fifth place with a score of 21.03.
Menzies was unable to up his score with a clean run on his last attempt, scoring 34.61, leading to a seventh place finish.
He only needed another three points to crack the top three.
China’s Su Yiming won the event with a top score of 82.41.
New Zealand has now secured three medals in this year’s games.
New Zealand’s Dane Menzies falls as he competes in the snowboard men’s slopestyle final run 2 during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park, in Livigno (Valtellina), on February 18, 2026.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Dane Menzies has missed out on a medal in the Snowboard Slopestyle final at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy.
The New Zealander was 12th in the line-up and got off to a strong start.
Run one earned him a solid score of 76.10, but run two saw him drop to fifth place.
Menzies was unable to up his score with a clean run on his last attempt, leading to a seventh place finish.
He only needed another three points to crack the top three.
The women’s Snowboard Slopestyle final, where Zoi Sadowski-Synnott will bid for another medal, is due to kick off at Thursday 2.30am NZT.
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Designed as the next milestone in Infinix’s flagship journey, the NOTE 60 SERIES elevates the brand’s signature NOTE line with a sharper focus on flagship-class performance, expressive design, and immersive everyday experiences that go beyond expectations.
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 18 February 2026 – At its annual flagship showcase, Infinix today unveiled the NOTE 60 SERIES, featuring the NOTE 60 Pro and NOTE 60—demonstrating a new chapter in delivering premium technology experiences to global users.
Infinix NOTE 60 Pro
Advancing design and performance within its class, the NOTE 60 Pro marks a significant milestone as Infinix’s first smartphone built on the Snapdragon® 7s Gen 4 Mobile Platform, delivering exceptional responsiveness and seamless multitasking that befits flagship-level performance.
It further elevates everyday experiences with an avant-garde Active Matrix Display that stays invisible when inactive, yet transforms into a dynamic interface for personalized interactivity, intelligent notifications, and on-screen entertainment—expanding what a smartphone can do in everyday life. Paired with a fluid 144Hz 1.5K Ultra HDR Cinematic Display and immersive SOUND BY JBL, the NOTE 60 Pro sets a new benchmark for premium multimedia experiences within its segment, proving that exceptional technology can be both powerful and pleasurable.
“NOTE 60 SERIES is our annual flagship showcase—an ‘all‑out’ blockbuster created with industry leaders,” said Tony Zhao, CEO of Infinix. “Embracing a whole-series 5G strategy, we are bringing together the best of performance, design, and entertainment—from our first NOTE powered by Snapdragon from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., to premium design craftsmanship with Pininfarina, and immersive SOUND BY JBL. This ensures we deliver a pleasurable, fun experience that lets our global consumers actively enjoy the best modern technology.”
Performance Without Compromise with Snapdragon
The NOTE 60 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon® 7s Gen 4 Mobile Platform, delivering robust multitasking and exceptional gaming efficiency with up to 75%¹ faster CPU performance and 210%¹ improved GPU rendering compared to the NOTE 50 Pro. Infinix and Qualcomm Technologies have collaborated for the NOTE 60 Pro, integrating Infinix’s proprietary performance engine to fully harness the hardware’s capabilities. These optimizations deliver up to 25%¹ enhancement in multitasking performance, significantly faster app launch speeds, and a smoother, more stable experience when switching between apps during heavy use.
Powered by its strong Snapdragon chipset, the NOTE 60 Pro takes gaming performance even further, delivering smooth high‑frame‑rate gameplay across popular titles. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Honor of Kings run up to 120 FPS, ensuring ultra‑responsive, fluid action even during intense team battles. To maintain consistent performance, the NOTE 60 Pro also introduces an upgraded 3D IceCore Vapor Chamber cooling system featuring a 0.36 mm copper sheet that directs heat from the chipset to the vapor chamber, reducing temperature by up to 3 °C¹ during intense gaming for stable, sustained performance.
Active Matrix Display: Functionality Through Design
Featured on the back of the NOTE 60 Pro, the all-new Active Matrix Display represents a major design innovation for the NOTE SERIES.
This miniature, interactive LED interface stays invisible until activated, then instantly lights up to show smart notifications, animated pets, or mini-games. It enables at-a-glance information, versatile alerts, and moments of playful interaction. Users can personalize it with custom signatures, emojis, or dynamic patterns, giving users a creative outlet to express their personality and emotions, and turning the phone into a more emotionally connected personal companion.
Built around a robust one-piece frame of high-strength aluminum alloy with a refined micro-matte texture, the NOTE 60 Pro delivers a sophisticated, high-end feel while offering durable practicality and dependable IP64 protection² against dust, splashes, and everyday wear. Infinix NOTE 60 SERIES introduces multiple practical functions on the robust middle frame, including the new One‑Tap Button providing instant, customizable activation of Silent Mode or tools like the flashlight. It also features an industry-exclusive Advanced Health Monitor, providing proactive wellness tracking of key vitals like heart rate, blood oxygen, and long-term HRV to deliver actionable health insights.
Immersive Entertainment: A Stunning 1.5K Display Paired with SOUND BY JBL
The NOTE 60 Pro is engineered for an immersive, all-day comfortable audiovisual experience. It features a vivid 1.5K display with ultra-slim bezels, reaching 4500 nits peak brightness for visibility in any light and a 144Hz refresh rate for ultra-smooth visuals. The display is designed for extended viewing comfort, featuring motion sickness prevention technology, which helps users stay comfortable while reading, watching videos, or gaming when commuting or traveling. Last but not least, NOTE 60 Pro is protected by durable Corning® Gorilla® Glass 7i, and this visual excellence is complemented by a high-fidelity stereo sound system with SOUND BY JBL, to complete a truly compelling entertainment experience.
Capture Anything, Day or Night: The Pro-Grade Camera Setup
At the core of the Infinix NOTE 60 Pro’s imaging system is the exclusive 50MP OIS Night Master Camera, engineered to deliver crystal-clear photos and stable videos even in low light. Paired with a 112° ultrawide sensor, the system effortlessly captures everything from expansive landscapes to group portraits.
The device marks a major leap in imaging with Infinix’s first Ultra HDR pipeline, enabling full-chain HDR imaging, from capture and processing to display for brilliant, true-to-life photos. This high-end shooting mode preserves details in shadows and highlights that standard shots often miss, resulting in greater dynamic contrast range and rendering everything from daylight to neon with perfect clarity. Complementing this, the new Live Photo mode captures life as it happens and turns every photo into a vivid, pocket-sized memory.
Rounding out the professional imaging suite are intelligent features like 2x Lossless Portrait Zoom for studio-quality framing, 4K Ultra-Steady Video recording³ with creative filters, and the Infinix AI Studio for effortless, intelligent editing.
All-Day Power, Intelligent Care
The NOTE 60 Pro features a battery capacity up to 6500mAh⁴, a substantial 25%¹ increase over its predecessor. This provides ample power to support all-day browsing, messaging, and gameplay. To ensure power and performance are maintained in the long run, Infinix combines the increased energy density with an industry-first active healing system that automatically repairs internal battery materials in the long term, extending the battery longevity up to 200 cycles over time and ensuring at least 6 years of effective, hassle-free battery performance. The NOTE 60 Pro keeps you charged with 90W wired and 30W wireless⁵ charging. For the fastest wireless experience, an Infinix MagCharge phone case⁵ is included to guarantee perfect alignment. This gives you both the speed and the flexible convenience to power up seamlessly throughout your day.
Infinix NOTE 60: Flagship Implementation with Greater Accessibility
A design similar in high-end refinement to the NOTE 60 Pro’s graces Infinix NOTE 60, another 5G phone featuring a premium metal frame, a 1.5K Ultra HDR display at up to 144Hz, and exceptional battery capacity with advanced charging and longevity management. It’s built around the ultra-efficient MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Ultimate 5G mobile platform and delivers true 5G performance. The NOTE 60 sports many of the quality features common to the latest NOTE lineup, including Active Halo notification lighting, highly optimized system-level software, and the 3D IceCore Vapor Chamber cooling system. It retains the 50MP OIS Night Master Cam and Live Photo mode of NOTE 60 Pro, promising fun memory capture, editing, organization, and sharing with family, friends, and more.
Beyond “Pro”: Expanding the NOTE 60 SERIES
As a key step in its flagship journey, Infinix also previewed the NOTE 60 Ultra, marking a bold move into the premium segment. Designed by Pininfarina, the NOTE 60 Ultra introduces breakthroughs in form and delivers comprehensive upgrades in imaging, performance, and connectivity—representing the pinnacle of performance and experience within the NOTE 60 SERIES. More details about the NOTE 60 Ultra will be announced at a later date.
Demonstrating Infinix’s commitment to long‑term user support, the entire NOTE 60 SERIES comes equipped with the upgraded XOS 16, offering three generations of XOS platform upgrades and five years of security patches⁶. In addition, the whole series also supports eSIM connectivity⁷, providing users with greater flexibility and convenience in managing their mobile network experience.
Product availability
NOTE 60 Pro is available in five colors:* Mist Titanium, Solar Orange, Deep Ocean Blue, Mocha Brown, Frost Silver, Torino Black (Design by Pininfarina)*
It will be available in three variants:* 8GB + 128GB, 8GB + 256GB, 12GB + 256GB
NOTE 60 is available in five colors:* Mist Titanium, Rose Gold, Fizz Blue, Midnight Black, Mocha Brown
It will be available in two variants:* 8GB + 128GB, 8GB + 256GB
*Availability may vary by country/region. The Turino Black (Design by Pininfarina) will be released at a later date. Please consult local retailers and third-party shopping websites for more purchasing options.
*Available storage and RAM are less than the total memory due to storage of the operating system and software pre-installed on the device.
Price and availability vary between markets and sales channels. Please refer to the Infinix Official website for product availability and detailed regional sales information.
Disclaimer
Snapdragon is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.
¹All data comes from Infinix laboratories. The testing data may vary slightly between different test versions and testing environments.
²The phone is dustproof and splash-proof under normal use. Under controlled laboratory conditions, its performance can reach IP64 level under IEC 60529 standard. Differences exist between real-life scenarios. Any damage caused to the phone by immersion in liquid is not covered under the warranty.
³Record at up to 4K 30 fps, with ultra-steady stabilization and a wide range of creative filters.
⁴Battery capacity and configurations may vary by market.
⁵MagCharge requires using the Infinix-branded magnetic attachment phone case.
⁶The specific XOS upgrade plan for each model will be announced separately. Please note that availability of this upgrade may be limited in certain countries.
⁷eSIM availability is carrier and region-dependent; it may not be supported in all countries.
Hashtag: #Infinix
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
The peninsula remained under a state of emergency although State Highway 75 from Christchurch to Akaroa reopened on Wednesday afternoon and telecommunications were restored after widespread outages.
About 120 properties remained without power and at least 15 local roads were closed because of slips and flooding.
Kinloch farmer Tom Power said the “mental” rain caused the worst flooding he had ever seen.
Kinloch Road farm in Little River was flooded.Nathan Mckinnon
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It was predicted to be 100 millimetres or so and we ended up tipping out 430 millimetres in this catchment. It was chaos,” he said.
“I’ve never seen anything through Little River like that before and even up Okuti Valley, properties up there. It’s so widespread, it’s unbelievable.”
Power was dealing with stock losses as paddocks remained under water, with troughs and fences swept away and debris strewn across the property.
“We moved a lot of stock away to traditionally high areas that we’ve never seen go under water. We spent hours doing that beforehand and we were prepared for a lot of it, it was just the severity,” he said.
Flood damage in Little River.Nathan Mckinnon
“We’re still trying to get our head around what the damage is, to be fair, until the water goes away you don’t really know.
“People’s livelihoods have been well and truly affected by this, which is a crying shame.”
In Little River, Déjà New Preloved Goods owner Lisa Ashfield had cleared mud and silt from her shop with the help of firefighters – the second time her business had flooded in 12 months.
Flood damage at Deja New in Little River.Nathan Mckinnon
“I imagine this is probably the end of the shop,” she said.
“All of my furniture, my bookshelves, my storage units, people’s home-made jewellery, toys, books, clothes, furniture. Everything is just a mudbath,” she said.
“I was flooded in May last year, about 300 millimetres, over the top of your gumboots kind of level. This flood, unfortunately, was thigh-deep. All the preparation we did on Monday, raising everything off the floor, just wasn’t high enough,” she said.
Déjà New Preloved Goods Little River owner Lisa Ashfield said she’d been flooded twice in 12 months.Nathan Mckinnon/RNZ
Ashfield was now sorting through stock to work out what to throw in a skip.
Little River Cafe & Store owner Cameron Gordon also spent the day shovelling mud and silt from the building after water gushed in on Tuesday.
He said food from the chiller had to be thrown away and fridges and freezers would need replacing but he hoped to open the store by the end of the day and the cafe by the weekend.
Little River Cafe and Store.Nathan Mckinnon
Gordon was heartened by the support of locals who were helping to clean up the mess.
“They’re pretty keen to get the shop back going and get us up and running again. We got a lot of calls, a lot of messages overnight with people offering help, a lot of tools brought down, water blasters, squeegees and brooms and random people I haven’t met before. It’s great,” he said.
Gordon said the cafe had flooded five times, most recently last May when a foot of water washed through some businesses, but he had never seen flooding so bad in his 20 years living in the settlement.
He said water in Little River drained away quickly once Lake Forsyth was opened to the sea on Tuesday afternoon.
Outside the shop on Wednesday.Nathan Mckinnon
“If it was opened before this I think we would have had a lot less damage and probably a lower level through the building,” he said.
“[The council] seem to have their rules and their guidelines about how they monitor all that but it doesn’t seem to work for us. It seems to be the same story every year, with the same excuses every year as well.”
Living Streams Community Nursery co-ordinator Nicky Steinmetz said raging floodwaters had left a layer of silt over the plants, leaving a months-long clean-up job.
“Most of our volunteers will be really upset about what they see. It’s the small seedlings that will be most impacted, rather than the bigger plants. We’ll be able to wash those down, but it’s going to take forever,” she said.
Flood damage at Little River nursery.Nathan Mckinnon
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell and Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger visited Little River on Wednesday.
Mitchell told RNZ the flooding was worse than in May 2025.
“They’re in the middle of their summer season so we’ve got to do everything we can to support them and get them back on their feet as quickly as we can,” he said.
Boil water notices remained in place for Little River and Wainui.
Mauger said the water supply in Wainui was “absolute toast”.
The clean up inside the Little River Cafe and Store.Nathan Mckinnon
The council had sent Starlink WiFi devices to Akaroa and Wainui, although Chorus found and fixed a damaged fibre cable on a bridge that restored cell tower connections on Wednesday afternoon.
Students on two school trips who were stuck at Wainui and Ōnuku Marae had returned home.
Provisional figures from Earth Sciences New Zealand showed 243 millimetres of rain was recorded at its site in Akaroa in the 24 hours to 9am on Tuesday morning.
That was the highest 24-hour rainfall total for Akaroa in the month of February since records began in 1977, the organisation said.
Earth Sciences said Akaroa had received 316 millimetres of rain so far this month, making it the wettest February on record.
A Wellington family has been forced out of their home after a large branch flattened their roof in this week’s vicious storm.
William Ray, an RNZ employee and Johnsonville resident, said his family were lucky to leave when they did, with the branch now precariously leaning against his house.
Ray said his neighbours have five big macrocarpa trees standing at the property’s boundary, and about six branches snapped in fierce winds on Sunday night or Monday morning.
The winds that struck Wellington were the strongest in a decade, tearing down power lines down across paddocks, roads, and over people’s cars and houses.
Wellington resident William Ray said a massive branch flattened the roof of his house during this week’s storm, forcing his family to evacuate.SUPPLIED
Ray said throughout the night he heard the branches overhanging his roof “smacking down” against the house.
“It was like having a machine gun constantly banging against the roof, and I was just lying awake, getting more and more nervous.”
He moved his wife and newborn into the lounge, fearing damage. Thirty minutes later, one massive branch came down.
“There was just this huge crash when it hit the house, the whole house shook.”
Ray said he considered escaping the house with his family during the night, but looked outside to see branches lying either side of the car, realising it would be too dangerous to even run to the car.
The branch went through the roof of the home.SUPPLIED
Waking on the Monday morning Ray found the big branch had flattened the roof over the bedroom, smashing up eaves on one side, and ripping off all the guttering.
Branches were still coming down as Ray inspected the house – including one lying on his front doorstep.
“It very nearly squished me, it was pretty spooky to see.”
An arborist he called in the aftermath inspected the tree and informed Ray the family can’t stay there while it was unstable.
The family would be out of their house for at least a few days.SUPPLIED
Ray said the family was likely out of their house until Monday, and while the incident had been disruptive with a five-month-old, he was thankful to be able to stay with family.
Insurance would likely cover the damage to the house, though Ray was still trying to confirm what would happen with the macrocarpa trees.
“I don’t really know how things work with tree law, I’ve been doing a lot of tree law googling, recently.
“It’s a shame to see the trees go, they’re lovely, beautiful trees but I’m not prepared to get squished by them.”
New integration adds data-centric protection to Temenos Transact, streamlining compliance, secure modernization, and AI analytics.
WIESBADEN, GERMANY – EQS Newswire – 18 February 2026 – comforte AG, a global leader in data-centric security, and ITSS Global, a premier Temenos delivery partner, have announced a collaboration to help retail, commercial and private banks using Temenos Transact eliminate the risks associated with clear-text personally identifiable information (PII) and payment data across core banking systems and their connected environments. As banks accelerate digital transformation and data-driven programs such as fraud prevention and AI, exposure of sensitive data across systems has become a growing concern. Regulators and industry standards worldwide are also raising the bar for how banks protect sensitive data and prove control across connected environments, including PCI DSS, privacy requirements, and resilience expectations. The comforte and ITSS collaboration addresses these challenges with a co-developed solution that extends data protection into Temenos Transact environments without complex customization. Delivered by ITSS as part of its Temenos services, the integration leverages comforte’s TAMUNIO technology for centralized policy management, tokenization, and controlled de-tokenization, keeping sensitive data protected across environments while still supporting reporting, analytics, and downstream processing, including fraud detection workflows and AI-driven insights built on Transact data.
Turning Security into an Enabler “The modern threat landscape demands a shift from securing systems to securing the data itself,” said Henning Horst, CTO at comforte. “Today’s regulators and auditors expect readable data to stay out of places it doesn’t belong. Together with ITSS, we help banks prove that control and move faster on analytics, fraud initiatives, and AI programs using protected data.”
Safe Implementation into Temenos Transact “As banks modernize their Temenos environments, the real security challenge is no longer the perimeter. It is protecting sensitive data as it moves across core systems, analytics platforms, and the cloud,” said Somasundaram M, Regional Sales Director, MEA at ITSS. “Through our partnership with comforte, we enable Temenos clients to embed data-centric tokenization directly into their transformation journeys. This significantly reduces breach exposure, supports compliance with evolving regulatory mandates such as PCI DSS 4.0 and GDPR, and allows banks to adopt cloud, analytics, and AI-driven use cases without compromising data sovereignty or performance.”
To learn more or request a briefing, visit comforte.com. You can alsocontact us via email: sales@comforte.com / marketing@ITSSglobal.com.
Hashtag: #comforteAG
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Artist’s visualisation of a second Mt Victoria Tunnel in Wellington.NZTA / Waka Kotahi
The Transport Minister says holding off on a second Mount Victoria tunnel is something under consideration, if congestion charging shows it is not needed.
But the Finance Minister insists the project is “all go,” with work already underway.
A second tunnel through Mount Victoria was a key 2023 campaign promise from National, and the project made its way into the Roads of National Significance programme.
A second Terrace Tunnel has also been proposed, reserved solely for southbound traffic, while the existing three-lane tunnel would become a dedicated route for northbound traffic only.
The New Zealand Transport Agency estimated the costs of the new tunnels, along with removing parking on Vivian Street, would cost between $2.9 billion and $3.8 billion.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop says a question on whether the Mount Victoria tunnels would be tolled was “complicated” by potential time-of-use pricing.RNZ/Mark Papalii
The National Infrastructure Plan, released on Tuesday, said time of use charging for congested urban networks would encourage people to travel during less congested times or take public transport.
This, the plan said, would reduce delays and improve network performance, but also “defer the need for expensive capacity expansions”.
The government has legislated to implement time-of-use charging, establishing a framework to allow councils to set up a congestion charging scheme.
The plan said New Zealand ranked fourth to last in the OECD for asset management, or the practice of looking after existing infrastructure.
The commission said better understanding of existing assets would help avoiding diverting maintenance spending into new capital investment, to the cost of future generations.
“Reform is needed to better align transport investment with what users can fund, supported by clearer and
more independent oversight to ensure spending is focused on maintaining existing networks and delivering new projects only where they respond to demand and provide clear value for money.”
Transport Minister Chris Bishop said a question on whether the Mount Victoria tunnels would be tolled was “complicated” by potential time-of-use pricing.
“Which is why I’m not getting ahead of any of that. There’s a variety of quite complicated issues around tolling and time-of-use pricing in both Auckland and Wellington, which we’re working our way through, and any decision on that is a long time away.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis says the tunnel has not been cancelled.RNZ / Mark Papalii
Asked whether time of use charging should be used first before committing funds to two tunnels, Bishop said it was an option under consideration and he would have more to say soon.
“I’m not cancelling the tunnel, but we are giving active consideration to what time-of-use pricing might do to our transport projects. You have to factor these things in, because thay are a mechanism for demand management and making more efficient use of our infrastructure, which is exactly what the commission says.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the tunnel had not been cancelled.
“Mount Vic Tunnel is all go. And in fact, work is already underway on that project, which is to say there’s around I think $150 million of geotechnical work underway already, which has involved drills and spades in the ground.”
Willis was more ambiguous when asked whether the second Terrace Tunnel “all go” as well, referring questions back to Bishop.
She said the point the Infrastructure Commission was making was that when deciding how to prioritise, sequence, fund, and finance projects, one of the things to consider was the role of different financing tools like petrol taxes, tolls, and congestion charging.
Wellington mayor Andrew Little said the Mount Victoria tunnel was always the government’s project, so it decides what happens.
“From Wellington’s point of view, what matters most is we have good infrastructure that means people can move around and across the city,” he said.
“What we need most of all is certainty about what the government is doing so that the council and residents can plan with confidence.”
The head of Wellington’s new water entity says it’s still unclear how its takeover of the barely-functional Moa Point wastewater treatment plant will work.
Tiaki Wai replaces Wellington Water from 1 July, inheriting council-owned water assets including the Moa Point plant.
For two weeks, raw sewage has been spewing into the sea after a massive failure at the facility, which is extensively damaged and cannot treat wastewater.
It’s unclear what happened, and when the plant will be fixed. Officials say they can’t give much information, citing the impending Crown review and insurance processes.
During an “Introduction to Tiaki Wai” briefing to Wellington city councillors on Wednesday afternoon, Tiaki Wai chair Will Peet mentioned Moa Point within the first minute and a half of his address.
“The catastrophic failure of the plant is very significant for us as an organisation,” he said, adding that he looked forward to the Crown review.
“We’re very much supportive of getting some interim reporting as the inquiry progresses, I think we want to hear what we can do, and when we can do it.”
Councillor Ray Chung questioned whether Tiaki Wai would hold off taking over Moa Point “until we’ve solved all the problems”.
But Peet said that had not been top of mind.
“The main job is dealing right now with the response and immediate recovery steps, we’ve got four months to work through the particulars.”
Peet said he was confident Tiaki Wai had the “financial ability to work it through”, and he would continue to work with the mayor and council chief executive on a “sensible approach to that”.
“The main thing is that nobody should win or lose based on a change of ownership,” Peet said.
There was little discussion of Moa Point during the meeting – but at the beginning chairperson Nureddin Abdurahman had reminded councillors it was not the focus.
“Today’s focus is on Tiaki Wai, and if you want to ask any question beyond that, be aware of some of the ministerial inquiries that we have as well.”
The public was excluded for the second half hour of the meeting, because commercially sensitive information was being discussed.