Category: DJF

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government is changing KiwiSaver laws so first-time farm buyers and other workers with ‘live in’ job residences can use their accounts to buy a first home.

For more than a decade, people have been able to withdraw from their KiwiSaver accounts to purchase a first home, so long as they live in the home they buy.

Minister of Finance Nicola Willis said the rules had unfairly prevented people with jobs that require them to live in provided housing from getting on the property ladder.

“Workers in service tenancies, such as farm workers, rural teachers, country cops, and defence personnel, have effectively been locked out of first home withdrawal because their jobs require them to live in employer-provided housing,” she said.

“[That’s] not fair, so we’re making a technical change to the KiwiSaver Act to ensure workers in service tenancies aren’t denied the opportunity to put a foot on the property ladder.

“The change will allow service tenancy workers to use their KiwiSaver for a first home purchase without having to live in it.”

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson said the law would also be changed to allow first-time farm buyers to put their KiwiSaver balances towards the purchase of a farm through a commercial entity they majority own, where it will be their principal place of residence.

KiwiSaver rules currently allow the purchase of a farm under a KiwiSaver member’s name – so long as they intend to live on it – though in practice most farms are purchased through a company or trust, he said.

“This reflects the commercial reality of modern farm ownership. Most farms are purchased through companies or trusts. Until now, that has prevented aspiring farmers from accessing KiwiSaver in the same way as someone buying a house in town.”

“The reforms deliver on the Government’s commitment to back rural New Zealand and remove unnecessary barriers. These are targeted, practical changes that maintain KiwiSaver’s core purpose, while making the scheme fairer for rural communities,” Simpson said.

Legislation giving effect to the changes will be introduced to Parliament in the middle of the year.

The changes reflect the ideas put forward in a member’s bill in the name of National MP for Rangitīkei Suze Redmayne.

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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/2026/03/01/kiwisaver-laws-changing-to-help-farmers-buy-first-homes/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Health New Zealand has started working on a national plan for the troubled pathology lab sector.

Pathology labs are vital but a choke point in processing virtually all the samples of patients from hospitals and doctors.

The sector has been marred by strikes over low private lab versus public lab pay, quality control issues and critics say its fragmentation harms patients.

Health NZ said its new national strategy and plan would take a 10-year view and be finished in the second half of this year.

The plan was about “providing direction for system-wide change to improve patient experience, for example by improving consistency of service across the country”, it said in a statement.

It would be looking at patient and referrer needs, capacity need, capability requirements responding to both new medical advances and technology advances, along with workforce planning.

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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/2026/03/01/health-nz-works-on-national-plan-for-troubled-pathology-lab-sector/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The lightest fully electric double decker bus to hit the road in New Zealand will officially join Metro’s fleet in Christchurch next week.

Developed by global automotive innovator Geely and bus operator Kinetic, the bus is the first electric double decker bus not to require a weight permit.

Canterbury Regional Council chair Deon Swiggs said in an urban environment not needing a weight permit meant less wear and tear on the road surface.

“A number of councils are worried about heavy vehicles on inner city streets or urban streets. It’s a very real concern.

“Now we’re getting the technology to make sure that we don’t go into heavy vehicles on streets where people are living, but we can also now have double-decker buses, which increases the amount of people we can get into those public transport vehicles and still have them underweight.”

Swiggs said not having to go through the permit process meant they were also able to get the bus on the road quicker.

The bus was built with aerospace-grade aluminium technology, similar to that used in the Airbus A380, giving it a stronger and lighter frame than traditional steel construction – reducing road wear, tyre and brake use, and energy consumption.

More than 30 engineers were involved in the project

“It took almost two years to perfect this bus – this is the fourth version Geely made. The intense development and testing of this vehicle demonstrates how cutting edge it is,” said Swiggs.

Earlier prototypes did not meet New Zealand’s road weight requirements to operate without a permit.

The bus could take up to 95 customers including 14 standing downstairs and had a customer loading screen on the ground level to indicate how many seats were left upstairs.

Cameras located on the upper level would also allow the driver to see who was deboarding, so they could wait the appropriate amount of time for customers to hop off once the bus had come to a stop.

The bus was intended to start on the Route 7 Halswell-Queenspark service and would be tested on several of Metro’s busier routes.

The double-decker was the first electric version in Metro’s fleet, and its second double-decker.

It brought Metro’s total number of electric vehicles to 71, with the company aiming to have a fully electric fleet by 2035.

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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/2026/03/01/countrys-lightest-electric-double-decker-bus-to-hit-christchurchs-roads-next-week/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Pakistan Association of New Zealand is fearing that the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan will affect the relationship between Pakistani and Afghan New Zealanders.

Pakistan bombed cities in Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul, on Friday.

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared an “all-out confrontation” with the Taliban.

“Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us,” he said.

The Pakistan Association of New Zealand president Dr Asif Saeed Khan told RNZ that it was very unfortunate, and very much unexpected.

“They are very close to each other in terms of culture, religion, and all that.”

Khan said Pakistan and Afghanistan shared a border of more than 2500 kilometres, with people of Pashtun ethnicity living in both countries.

Pakistanis had supported Afghans for nearly 50 years, since the Cold War, Khan added.

“The war is a kind of a confusion in this regard.”

However, the relationship between the Taliban-led Afghanistan and Pakistan has been volatile.

The latest violence erupted after Pakistan’s airstrikes on Afghan territory last weekend triggered Afghan retaliatory attacks along the border, escalating long-simmering tensions over Pakistan’s claim that Afghanistan shelters Pakistani Taliban militants, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Afghanistan denies this.

Pakistanis believed there was no other option but to stop the conflict, Khan said, especially as it was during the month of Ramadan.

Ramadan, in Islam, is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar – from 17 February to 19 March in 2026.

“The month of Ramadan is usually the month of peace… so it is a violation of that tradition… we are fighting, and we are creating havoc on each other,” Khan said.

He also feared that it would also cause conflict between Pakistani and Afghan New Zealanders if it did not stop.

“There is a kind of situation which is very dangerous in this land, that this will definitely impact their relationship as well.

“The Pakistanis living in New Zealand, and the Afghanis living in New Zealand, they are definitely creating a kind of a bad feeling and a mistrust kind of thing, because obviously, all those things which happen overseas, they have got an overlapping effect.”

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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/2026/03/01/worries-war-could-affect-relationship-between-pakistani-afghan-new-zealanders/

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/01/by-the-end-of-the-year-theyre-making-their-own-clothes/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere

Crackhead

Marshals / The Madison

Ghost Elephants

Scarpetta

Hyundai Country Calendar

Extra viewing

Rooster

Track Stars

Young Sherlock

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/01/local-addicts-yellowstone-expands-and-louis-theroux-mans-up-marchs-best-tv/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A woman’s 14-year-old grandson was nearly mowed down by her neighbour’s car, while her son was threatened with a machete.

Now an elderly Tongan woman has gone to the Tenancy Tribunal, after Kāinga Ora refused to terminate her tenancy, despite the woman living in “constant fear” of the family next door.

The woman, who has name suppression, had lived at the Kāinga Ora property since 2019.

A female tenant lives at another Kāinga Ora property next door with her male partner and their children.

According to a recently released decision, the woman claimed that, during the tenancy, abuse was constantly shouted out at her over the fence, her daughter and son had been challenged to fights, rubbish had been thrown over the fence, and loud music had been played for long periods into the night on a boombox being carried up and down the road.

She’d also been sworn at in her driveway, had rocks thrown at her and her family, and was harassed when she called the police.

The police had been called for three separate incidents – one on 4 February, 2024, when the male neighbour was reported as being hostile and shouting threats, while standing at the tenant’s front gate.

A second incident occurred on 2 March, 2024, when the male neighbour was reported as standing outside the tenant’s front gate, making threats, while holding a machete.

The most volatile experience came when they had threatened to kill her son with a machete on 10 June last year.

The son said the male neighbour was working in the garden with a shovel and a machete, and started to abuse him and his son, and threatened to kill them.

The man was charged with threatening to kill, but was convicted of a lesser charge in relation to the weapon.

The woman’s daughter also provided a written statement to the authority and gave evidence at the hearing about an incident in which her 14-year-old son was walking home from school, when the male tenant was returning home in a car.

She said the male tenant chased her son in the car, driving onto the grass verge, and that her son was only able to escape by hiding behind a boat situated on a grass verge. The police were called, but attended the next day.

‘Lives in constant fear’

The woman said she “lives in constant fear” of the neighbouring tenants and will often stay inside her home, because she is too afraid to venture outside. On occasion, she had stayed with her daughter, because she couldn’t cope with being at home.

She had health issues that impacted her mobility and sight, and recently had a stroke.

She and her son had reported the behaviour to Kāinga Ora numerous times during the tenancy, but their response had always been to tell her and her family to keep to themselves, and not engage with the neighbours.

She said she initially wanted the neighbour to move, so she could live in peace, but now that she had health issues, she wanted to leave the tenancy.

Kāinga Ora did not dispute that the tenant had reported ongoing issues with this tenancy, and was well aware of the tenant’s complaints of shouting, abuse and loud music.

It confirmed that the organisation had been notified of the three police incidents, but said the issue was complex, because on some occasions, there was aggression on both sides, including a physical altercation between the male neighbour and the tenant’s son, which resulted in an antisocial notice being issued to both.

Kāinga Ora said it had considered whether it could terminate the neighbour’s tenancy under section 55A of the Residential Tenancies Act (termination for assault), following the machete incident, but ultimately determined it could not do so, because the neighbouring tenant herself was not home and the male at the address was not a listed tenant, and had threatened this tenant’s son and not the tenant herself.

The organisation was also unable to apply to terminate the tenancy for antisocial behaviour, as there had not been three incidents within a 90-day period.

Tribunal adjudicator Melissa Allan said the tenant had been “left in a very difficult situation”.

“She has not felt free to move about her property, often remains inside, and has been subjected to unreasonable levels of noise, rubbish being thrown, screaming and yelling, and threats being made to her family members.

“The landlord should have filed an application to terminate the neighbouring tenancy. It is not necessary for criminal charges to be proven or even laid.

“The landlord only needed to prove, to the civil standard, that the tenant has been interfering with the reasonable pace, comfort and privacy of the tenant, and that the breach is of such a nature and of such an extent that it would be inequitable to refuse to make an order terminating the tenancy.”

By failing to take steps, the landlord had breached its obligations, she said.

Kāinga Ora was ordered to pay the tenant $5000 in compensation for breach of landlord’s obligations and was looking to transfer the tenant to a tenancy that is more suited to her current health needs.

* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/28/tenant-wins-5000-payout-after-kainga-ora-fails-to-act-over-machete-threats/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are following “strong lines of enquiry”, after an Auckland shooting on Saturday left a man with moderate injuries.

Officers were conducting patrols in the Clevedon Road area in the suburb of Papakura on Saturday morning, when they heard what was believed to be gunshots at about 11.20am.

A short time later, a man was transported to hospital in a moderate condition with a gunshot injury.

A police spokesperson said they were following “strong lines of inquiry” into what had occurred.

“Initial indications are that the victim and the offenders are known to each other, and there is no risk to the wider community.”

Officers, including the Armed Offenders Squad, had been conducting enquiries at a Grove Road address on Saturday afternoon, but no arrests were made.

Cordons that had been in place in Grove Road were stood down.

The spokesperson said Clevedon Road and Grove Road residents could expect to see a continued police presence on Saturday evening, as officers continued enquiries.

They asked that anyone with information that might assist their investigation contact them via 105.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/28/police-continue-to-investigate-after-papakura-shooting-leaves-man-in-moderate-condition/