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MetService is warning you may need to keep your raincoats handy as the warm weather the North Island is experiencing may take a turn this weekend.

A low-pressure system is lining up a soggy weekend, bringing warm, humid air and the risk of heavy rain, especially for parts of the North Island still recovering after January’s floods.

MetService meteorologist, Mmathapelo Makgabutlane told Morning Report the next few days will be warm and humid for the North Island.

Muggy overnight temperatures on the way for the second half of the week as a warm-moist airmass pushes over us

Parts of the upper North Island will have overnight low temperatures around 20°C.

Meanwhile, Southland could have maximum temperatures in the high 20s on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/GexGcCsgyY

— MetService NZ (@MetService) February 10, 2026

Makgabutlane said there are a couple of weather systems on the way this weekend.

On Friday, a front is expected to move across the South Island, bringing a period of heavy rain and strong winds.

However, it’s the weather system moving onto the North Island on Saturday that Makgabutlane said was the one of interest.

A trough over the northern Tasman Sea is likely to move onto the North Island, bringing very humid conditions with scattered showers and possible thunderstorms on Saturday through to Monday.

“The two main things to look out for with the system is that intensification. How deep that low-pressure system is will be one thing that tells us how strong or how much rain we will see,” Makgabutlane said.

“The other thing is the location of that weather system. So, if it forms a couple of hundred kilometres to to the east of us, [it’s] probably going to be a lovely weekend for most of us, but even if it forms just a little bit closer to us, then we could be in for quite a wet weekend.”

As things stand, it does look like it will be a wet couple of days ahead, she said.

At this point, the areas that look the most likely to bear the brunt of the weather are most of the North Island on Saturday, and the lower and eastern parts of the North Island on Sunday and into Monday.

“Over the next coming days, I would say certainly keep an eye out for those [weather] watches because they do look likely,” Makgabutlane said.

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

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/metservice-forecasts-wet-weather-on-the-way-this-weekend/

February 12, 2026

Investment Boost driving real investment, lifting productivity

Source: New Zealand Government

The Government’s Investment Boost is already changing investment behaviour, bringing projects forward, increasing scale, and lifting productivity across the economy, Minister for Economic Growth Nicola Willis says.

New Inland Revenue survey data shows the policy is working, tipping investment decisions early, increasing scale, and bringing capital forward.

“Among firms that invested in new assets and were aware of Investment Boost, 40 per cent say it increased their investment spending over the past year, including 11 per cent reporting a significant increase directly because of the policy,” Nicola Willis says.

“Looking ahead, the impact is even clearer. Nearly half of firms planning to invest over the next five years say Investment Boost is positively influencing those plans, with 14 per cent expecting a large increase in investment as a result.

More than half of firms surveyed report changing the timing, scale or type of investment they are making, including bringing projects forward and shifting toward productivity-enhancing assets.

“Inland Revenue modelling shows the policy reduces the effective marginal tax rate on new capital investment by around five to six percentage points on average, making previously marginal projects viable and encouraging more investment to proceed.”

This data underlines the importance of policy certainty to long-term growth.

“When it was launched, Inland Revenue estimated that Investment Boost would lift New Zealand’s GDP by 1 per cent, wages by 1.5 per cent and capital stock by 1.6 per cent over the next 20 years, with around half of those gains expected in the first five years – todays data shows we are well on track to reaching those marks.

“The Government has been clear it backs ownership, investment and stable productivity-enhancing tax policy.

“New Zealand does not grow by taxing more and investing less. It grows by backing ambition, rewarding success, and giving businesses the confidence to invest for the long term.”

Notes to editors:

Investment Boost changes are already visible on the ground:

A Dunedin manufacturer, United Machinists, has brought forward investment in robotics and automation rather than phasing it over several years;
Foot Science International in Christchurch has accelerated investment in automation and renewable energy infrastructure, while;
Vynco is investing in advanced manufacturing equipment to lift efficiency and expand capacity.

MIL OSI

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/investment-boost-driving-real-investment-lifting-productivity/

February 12, 2026

Kāinga Ora’s Turnaround Plan is working

Source: New Zealand Government

One year on from the announcement of Kāinga Ora’s Turnaround Plan, the agency is getting its books back in order and improving performance – delivering lower build costs, a strong renewals programme, less rental debt, and higher tenancy satisfaction, Housing Minister Chris Bishop, and Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka say.

“Kāinga Ora’s turnaround is an excellent example of our Government’s drive to fix the basics and build the future,” Mr Bishop says.

“When we came into Government Kāinga Ora was out of control, with debt on its balance sheet rising from $2.3 billion in 2017/18 to $16.5 billion in 2023/24. Kāinga Ora’s 2023 Board-approved budget also showed debt forecast to grow to $24.8 billion by 2026/27. That’s about 20 Transmission Gullies or 12 New Dunedin Hospitals.

“The previous government threw billions into Kāinga Ora, but they had little to show for it. From 2017 to 2023, the social housing waitlist grew from around 7,000 to over 26,000 applicants at its peak in 2022. Labour also deteriorated the social licence for social housing by doing nothing about anti-social behaviour.

“That situation was unsustainable. Every dollar Kāinga Ora failed to manage properly was a dollar that could not go toward providing good outcomes for New Zealanders who need social housing,” Mr Bishop says.

“In February 2025, the refreshed Kāinga Ora Board released the Government-endorsed Turnaround Plan, focused on reducing debt, improving portfolio and build management, and getting the agency back to its core purpose of being a good social housing landlord.”

Reducing debt

“In 2024/25, Kāinga Ora had an operating savings target of $41 million compared to the previous Financial Year, but with hard work and strong cost controls, they exceeded this target and delivered $211 million in operating cost reductions,” Mr Bishop says.

“Kāinga Ora’s strong focus on cost control and efficiency has also flowed through to a reduction in debt.

“Before the Turnaround Plan, Kāinga Ora’s peak debt was forecast to be $29 billion in 2032/33, the Plan brought this down to $21.3 billion, and now – a year into the Plan – debt is expected to peak earlier in 2029/30 at $19.5 billion. That’s a total reduction in peak debt of $9.5 billion, so far.

“These improvements in financial performance have occurred while Kāinga Ora is improving its operational performance – delivering a strong renewals programme, lower build costs, less rental debt, and higher tenancy satisfaction.”

Strong delivery programme

“The Minister of Finance and I made our social housing delivery expectations to Kāinga Ora clear: get your books back in order, get build costs down, then we will consider additional places”, Mr Bishop says.

“To be clear, this Government is still delivering social housing places that New Zealanders need. In Budgets 2024 and 2025, we funded over 2,000 additional Community Housing Provider (CHP) places for delivery from July 2025 to June 2027.

“But when it comes to Kāinga Ora – for now – the agency is focused on keeping its stock at around 78,000 homes while improving the quality and location of those homes through its renewals and retrofit programme.

“To help fund this programme, Kāinga Ora is selling old, expensive to maintain, and unsuitable properties such as multimillion-dollar, 1920s villas. By 2030, around 11,500 older homes are expected to be renovated or replaced.

“It’s a no-brainer to sell homes that are unsuitable for social housing and to reinvest that money into warmer, drier homes that are the right size and in the right locations,” Mr Bishop says.

“In 2024/25, Kāinga Ora delivered a total of 3,456 new homes and 874 upgraded homes. The agency also added 2,564 net new homes to its housing stock, exceeding its target of 2,230.”

Lower build costs

“In 2022/23, Kāinga Ora’s average build cost per square metre was $3,433. I even recall a 9-unit social housing development in Auckland that cost taxpayers around $11 million just to build – that’s $1.2 million per apartment, which quite frankly is a national embarrassment,” Mr Bishop says.

“The previous government assumed Kāinga Ora would deliver housing more cheaply than the private sector through economies of scale. They were wrong: Kāinga Ora’s build costs were 12 per cent higher than the private sector.

“Following the introduction of standardised housing designs and better procurement practices, Kāinga Ora’s build costs are now trending down, with build cost per square metre averaging $3,290 in the first quarter of 2025/26. The agency is also on track to meet its $2,980 per square metre target by June 2026.”

Better outcomes for tenants and communities

“In addition to improving its finances, updating its housing stock, and bringing down build costs, Kāinga Ora is also delivering better outcomes for whanau and communities,” Mr Potaka says.

“Tenancy satisfaction is rising, vacancy rates are lower, fewer tenants are in rent arrears, and Kāinga Ora is doing a better job of managing its tenants to support safe, respectful communities.

“In 2022/23, around 80 per cent of tenants were satisfied with their homes and 70 percent felt safe in their homes and communities. Now, 87 per cent of tenants are satisfied and 90 per cent feel safe.

“More whanau are also making use of Kāinga Ora homes as vacancy rates have dropped from 5% in late 2023 to 2% in December 2025.

“In June 2024, around 8,600 tenants were in rent arrears. As of December, only 5,500 tenants were in arrears – a drop of around 3,000. This reflects clearer expectations, better enforcement, and stronger frontline tools.

“As for the wider community, the previous government effectively did nothing about anti-social tenants, with only two tenancies ended for disruptive behaviour in 2022/23.

“This Government takes anti-social behaviour seriously, allowing Kāinga Ora to take a harder line when needed. In 2023/24, 12 tenancies ended due to disruptive behaviour, and in 2024/25 75 ended.

“Moving tenants on is a last resort and is done in the long-term interests of the wider community, the household, and other people in need on the Housing Register. At some point, enough is enough.

“Kāinga Ora is also doing a better job at taking action and resolving complaints. At the end of 2023, it took Kāinga Ora 72 days on average to resolve a disruptive behaviour compliant, leaving hundreds of Kiwis feeling distressed and ignored. As of December 2025, it now only takes 10 days on average,” Mr Potaka says.

“While there is more work to do, it is clear that Kāinga Ora is getting back on track”, says Mr Bishop.

“Kāinga Ora is now focused on its core purpose of being a good social housing landlord and is delivering better outcomes for tenants and communities, while also delivering better value for taxpayers.

“Ministers would like to thank the Kāinga Ora Board and staff for their hard work in achieving these positive results.

“The Turnaround Plan shows that clear direction and discipline can deliver significant improvements quickly. Th is Government will continue to hold Kāinga Ora to account.”

MIL OSI

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/kainga-oras-turnaround-plan-is-working/

February 12, 2026

Review finds Teaching Council’s penalties too light, incompetent teachers going under radar

Source: Radio New Zealand

The report highlights multiple short-comings in the disciplinary process and calls for improvements, including enforceable financial penalties. RNZ / Richard Tindiller

The Teaching Council’s penalties for dodgy teachers may be too light, an independent review says.

It also warned that incompetent teachers might be going under the radar.

The review commissioned by the council’s governing board and provided to media this week called for a major overhaul of the organisation with a greater focus on child safety and quality teaching.

The council registers teachers and also receives complaints about their conduct, many of which end up before a disciplinary tribunal.

The report highlighted multiple short-comings in the disciplinary process and called for improvements, including enforceable financial penalties.

The review was highly critical of the practice of asking teachers to agree not to teach if there were risks associated with continuing in their job or they might come into contact with complainants.

It said asking for a voluntary undertaking to stop teaching was troubling.

“Either the matter is such on its face that the teacher warrants formal suspension or not, pending the investigation. Once such an undertaking or suspension is in place, one would also think that these high risk cases would be fast tracked. It is not clear to me that this is consistently the case,” the report said.

It also questioned whether the penalties imposed by the Disciplinary Tribunal were too light.

“…some interviewees were not certain that the penalties being applied in some cases were proportionate to the risks or harm entailed. Some wondered if the rehabilitative view that guides competency decisions leaked into the conduct work,” the report said.

It warned that serious child predators were “manipulative, skilled at going under the radar and almost never rehabilitated” and suggested an audit of recent cases to check its decisions aligned with those made in courts.

“Such an audit should encompass both conduct and competence, and should also test all stages of the Council’s processes for compliance with relevant legislation and with child safeguarding principles.”

The report said interviewees spoken to during the review criticised the high cost to the council of the disciplinary process and its slow progress.

They also said support for victims and complainants seemed to be ad hoc and vary by investigator.

The review said not all of the council’s investigators were formally trained and the proportion of police-trained investigators had dropped.

It said that was not appropriate, especially in situations involving vulnerable victims.

“I would instead see formal training and external experience as mandatory, giving the sensitivity of the matters under investigation and the risk of traumatisation to vulnerable children or witnesses,” the report said.

It said the Disciplinary Tribunal’s penalties appeared to be unenforceable and appeared in the council’s accounts as doubtful debtors at a rate of 80 percent.

“In summary, there are significant opportunities to improve the targeting to risk, urgency, efficiency and timeliness of the conduct process. Justice delayed is very often justice denied.”

Incompetent teachers

The review recommended the council investigate whether schools are failing to report incompetent teachers.

It said the council received an average of 30 competence complaints a year, which seemed too few given the size of the teaching workforce.

“This appears to be an area of significant under reporting, in that principals and leaders may performance manage these cases out, or teachers may resign when competence is called into question,” the review said.

“Anecdotally, respondents suggested that such is the current teacher shortage, some of these teachers can dodge accountability by shifting between schools. ‘Some schools are just desperate’ one said, ‘…and they can’t afford to look too closely at performance’.”

The report said if schools were under-reporting, it would be of considerable concern.

It suggested the council engage with schools and agencies such as the Education Review Office to evaluate the size of the problem and possible treatments.

“The purpose of the competence process is to support teachers to build in an area they are not meeting. Unlike the discipline area, the competence process is designed primarily to be rehabilitative,” the report said.

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

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/review-finds-teaching-councils-penalties-too-light-incompetent-teachers-going-under-radar/

February 12, 2026

Pest cull at Auckland’s Western Springs Lake using electrocurrents

Source: Radio New Zealand

Usually, there are only calm currents at Auckland’s Western Springs Lake.

But this week, electrocurrents are being used to stun pest fish and turtles so they can be scooped up, brought to land and killed.

Associate Professor in Biodiversity and Ecology at the University of Waikato’s School of Science, Nicolas Ling, is one of the specialists scooping up hundreds of koi carp, including goldfish and brown bullhead catfish, on New Zealand’s only electrofishing boat.

He said no native species would be harmed by the electrofishing process.

“It puts a pulsed electric current into the water, and it temporarily stuns the fish, which means we can recover them. The native species, we can recover those, and we can put them back in the lake unharmed, and the pest species, we can humanely euthanise them.”

Ling said catfish were most likely released into the lake more than a hundred years ago. Koi were believed to have been introduced into New Zealand in the 1960s.

But he said most of the goldfish and turtles in the lake were people’s unwanted pets.

“People think they’re doing the right thing, you know, when they don’t want their pet anymore, they go and release it into the local lake. And it’s actually the worst thing you can do. If you want to take on a pet, then take it on for the course of its natural life.”

He said they were also removing red-eared slider turtles from the lake.

“Again, these are pets that people have released when they no longer want them. The problem with the turtle is, if you take that on as a pet, it’s a 50-year commitment. It’s a multi-generational pet. They get huge and it becomes very expensive to provide the habitat for an adult turtle. And so people just go and release them, which is a sad thing.”

Associate Professor in Biodiversity and Ecology at the University of Waikato’s School of Science Nicolas Ling. Nick Monro

All of the pests collected were brought back to shore to be killed and then taken off-site to be turned into compost or rendered down to produce natural gas.

While killing the pests was not a pretty sight, Ling said it was necessary.

“These particular species are known to cause negative impacts on water quality. The lake should be nice and clean, but it’s not, and the fish are definitely contributing to that. They stir up the bottom sediments, and that resuspends nutrients back into the water column, which can cause increases in algal growth and bacterial growth.

“The koi and the goldfish eat the plants in the lake, which also take out nutrients.

“Those challenges with water quality mean that it makes it potentially unsafe for recreation around the lake. You don’t want to be touching the water.

“There’s fantastic bird life around here. When the water quality is really poor, they can suffer from a disease called avian botulism.

“And of course, they’re competing with the native species as well. There are lots of eels in the lake, and that’s good to see. There are also īnanga, which are key whitebait species. There’s common smelt in the lake as well.”

The lake was home to three native eel species: the short-finned eel, the long-finned eel, and the Australian long-finned eel, and there are plans to declare the lake an eel sanctuary.

The Waikato University specialists would be at the lake for one week ending on Friday, 13 November, with the council saying there were plans for them to return in the near future to continue the pest removal operation.

Auckland Council Senior Freshwater Advisor Matthew Bloxham. Nick Monro

Auckland Council Senior Freshwater Advisor, Matthew Bloxham, said the council had previously tried other techniques to remove pests from the lake, but this was the first time they had brought in an electrofishing boat.

He said so far it had been a success.

The team at Western Springs had caught Koi weighing up to 14kg. The largest Koi ever caught in New Zealand weighed 15kg.

Invasive fish are being caught and eliminated in Western Springs. Nick Monro

“Not many people realise that they get so large,” Bloxham said.

We’ve found quite a few diseased goldfish in here recently. So, putting them in here doesn’t necessarily give them a better life. It’s actually passing on the problem to somebody else, in this case the environment.

“It’s far better to repurpose that goldfish or re-home it, reach out and see whether anybody’s prepared to take it on and there will be people out there, you know, people love goldfish, they are attractive things after all, but they’re a nuisance when they’re released into the wild.”

It was costing the council $20,000 to rent the electric fishing boat from Waikato University.

“The cost of this operation is not cheap. We’d prefer not to be spending the targeted rate on controlling pests. We’d rather spend it on direct biodiversity outcomes, such as planting trees, but it’s a necessary evil. We have to maintain these fish at really low numbers.”

“It only takes two fish, a male and a female, to breed up and to produce the sorts of volumes that we’re seeing here now. We’ve been fishing all week, and so far we’re just under 300 kilograms of fish. That’s hundreds of fish.”

Auckland Council Senior Freshwater Advisor Matthew Bloxham says eradication is the goal, but that won’t happen if people keep putting their goldfish in the lake. Nick Monro

Bloxham said eradication was the goal, but that wouldn’t happen if people kept putting their goldfish in the lake.

“If ever we do achieve eradication, and we’d really like to, that is our end goal, it’s so easily undone by somebody otherwise well-mannered person who thinks they’re doing their gold fish a favour and then just quietly, surreptitiously emptying them into the lake, and suddenly we’re back to square one.

“The big message that we’re trying to get out is that if you’re contemplating, you’ve reached the end of the year, and you’ve got a pet, you don’t know what to do with it, don’t release it into your waterway.”

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

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/pest-cull-at-aucklands-western-springs-lake-using-electrocurrents/

February 12, 2026

All Whites to take on England

Source: Radio New Zealand

England captain Harry Kane Pressinphoto / PHOTOSPORT

The All Whites will play England as a part of their final preparations for this year’s FIFA World Cup.

The two sides will meet in Florida on 6 June, five days out from the start of the tournament.

England, who went through World Cup qualifying with a perfect sevens wins in their European group, are currently ranked four in the world and New Zealand 85.

The game will see the All Whites face their highest-ranked opponent in 17 years and they will clash with England for just the third time in history.

New Zealand last faced England in 1991, losing two friendlies in Auckland and Wellington.

“Our strategy over the last year has been to take on top-ranked sides to ensure we are in the best place to perform at the tournament, and this match gives us a final opportunity to really test ourselves against one of the favourites,” All Whites coach Darren Bazeley said.

“England are a great side with big names all over the pitch, but we want our players to face that type of challenge so we can work collectively to find solutions against top teams.

“This match should be a great occasion but also a critical part of our final preparation before we face Iran in Los Angeles at the FIFA World Cup 2026.”

Captains shake hands, Stuart Pierce (England) and Malcolm Dunford (All Whites), All Whites v England, Athletic Park, Wellington. 1991. Troy Restieaux / www.photosport.nz

Prior to departing for the World Cup the All Whites will play two home games in March against Finland and Chile as part of the FIFA Series 2026.

At the World Cup, New Zealand play Iran, Egypt and Belgium in group G, while England will face Croatia, Ghana and Panama in Group L.

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://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/all-whites-to-take-on-england/

February 12, 2026

Raw sewage still pouring into Wellington waters raises questions, and anger

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Breaker Bay local with a long history of fighting for clean water in Wellington explains why the sewage dump is so catastrophic, for health, history, and the environment.

Ray Ahipene-Mercer with his jar of 24-year-old water from Moa Point sewage treatment plant. Sharon Brettkelly

Ray Ahipene-Mercer keeps a jar of 24-year-old water in his refrigerator, labelled ‘Moa Point Final Effluent’.

“It looks like a glass of water, hasn’t got a single bug in it, no discolouration, nothing,” he says.

It is a memento of the new sewage plant which he battled over for years as the co-leader of the Wellington Clean Water Campaign.

But nearly 30 years after that successful campaign to stop the dumping of raw sewage in the sea, it is happening again.

Since last Wednesday, more than 600 million litres of untreated sewage have poured into the water off the south coast after a catastrophic failure of Moa Point, the city’s main treatment plant.

On a sparkling summer day Ahipene-Mercer looks out from his Breaker Bay home just around the corner from the plant and the bays are empty.

“I’m looking at the water about 50 metres away, it’s beautiful and yet underneath it there is this darkness. There is not a person walking the dog, having a walk, swimming, surfing, nothing,” he tells The Detail.

The former city councillor is angry, not just about the health risks to humans, but the damage to the environment and risks to the kororā, and to historic Māori sites.

“Toilet water is now brushing up against historic sites at Tarakina Bay. One of the reasons this campaign in the 80s was so successful, we married Māori concerns and Pākehā concerns together and that’s why we won that campaign,” Ahipene-Mercer says.

“I’m very angry, because of all this work we did. It’s not in vain however because Wellingtonians have responded magnificently.”

After a catastrophic failure last Wednesday at Moa Point, Wellington’s main treatment plant, more than 600 million litres of untreated sewage has poured into the water off the south coast. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

The plant failed early last Wednesday morning during a bout of heavy rain. With the threat of more bad weather this weekend, there are fears the situation could get worse.

‘It’s going to get smellier’

The Post journalist Tom Hunt has been writing about Wellington’s wastewater woes for years and is experiencing first-hand the effects of days of raw sewage flowing into the sea.

“It gets worse the longer it’s there and it’s apparently going to get smellier as well,” he tells The Detail.

“I live not far from the tip and it was a still night last night and I could pick up a faint smell,” he says. “They’ve got these tanker trucks that Wellington’s quite familiar with because in covid time there was another pipe failure and they’d take the wastewater to the tip and they were called ‘turd taxis’. They’re just back and forth ferrying all the stuff out of the olympic-sized swimming pool room and just clearing that out and taking it to the tip.”

Wellington Water chief executive Pat Dougherty broke the news last Wednesday that a room in the plant was three metres deep in sewage, blowing the electrics and badly damaging or destroying equipment.

In the immediate aftermath raw sewage was flowing through a short outfall to five metres off the coast but it is now going through a longer 1.8 kilometre pipe.

“But it is still untreated sewage … and for the foreseeable future we will have effectively raw sewage being pumped off the south coast very near a marine sanctuary not far from a nesting area,” Hunt says.

It could be months before the sea on the south coast is safe for walking, swimming and collecting kaimoana.

It brings back memories for Hunt, who grew up around the south coast of the polluted waters in the 1980s.

“That was a different time when the south coast was not a desirable place to be.”

He says now they’re “back in that for a mystery reason, we still don’t know what caused it.”

Hunt explains the numerous reports of warnings and abatement notices issued to the operator, French-owned Veolia which is paid roughly $17 million a year by Wellington Water to run the plant.

He says it is too soon to say who is at fault and a full inquiry will impel people to give evidence.

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.

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

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/raw-sewage-still-pouring-into-wellington-waters-raises-questions-and-anger/

February 12, 2026

New ‘cheeky and playful’ take on Swan Lake

Source: Radio New Zealand

Swan Lake was ripe for reinterpretation, says the leader of Australia’s premier circus company.

Circa’s latest production Duck Pond blends the classic ballet and Ugly Duckling stories into a high-energy, acrobatic visual feast.

“Somewhere in the back of my fetid imagination, it got melded into the story of The Ugly Duckling, both tales of birds and emerging into identity,” Yaron Lifschitz told RNZ’s Nine to Noon.

Circa is bringing its version of the classic ballet Swan Lake to the Auckland Arts Festival next month.

Pia Johnson

.

“There’s not a lot of people who come out of a performance of Swan Lake and go, geez, I wish that was longer.

“So, I want to make theatre that doesn’t bore audiences. It’s one of my obsessions.”

Circa is bringing its version of the classic ballet to the Auckland Arts Festival next month.

The production pays due respect to the traditional art form, he says.

“I wanted us to get under the hood of ballet, to understand some of what it was doing, to pay homage to it. This is great music. It’s an amazing performance tradition.

“And then from inside to learn how to be joyous, but also cheeky and playful.”

Audiences can expect plenty of athleticism in Duck Pond, he says.

“It’s got acrobatics in it. So, you know, ballet’s got plenty of lifts, but we do the lift and the throw and the catch on the other side.”

This however is no ballet parody, he says.

“I think we would be remiss if we didn’t pay homage to and respect to the deep traditions and the long traditions of this form, both its basis in fairy tale, Tchaikovsky, ballet practise, these are beautiful things, but that doesn’t stop us being contemporary.”

Duck Pond is demanding on the 30-plus ensemble performing it, he says.

“Because it needs a maximum of control, precision and kind of abandon at the same time, and those two things can very often get confused.”

Lifschitz who has been at the helm of Circa for more than 20 years, wants to create performances that move beyond traditional circus tropes, he says.

“People stand on each other’s shoulders, they jump off, they catch each other. They hang on trapezes, they tumble improbably, they bend into weird pretzel shapes.

“But what we’re trying to do is convert that into something that’s thrillingly deep. So, something that brings you in touch with ideas, with feelings, that takes you on a journey.”

If theatre is a team sport, circus is even more so, he says.

“In a company of ten acrobats, you have 100 toes. If one of them is sore, it affects everything you do.

“So, you are absolutely mutually interdependent and reliant, and I think that’s part of the real joy of what we do.”

Circa’s production of Duck Pond.

Pia Johnson

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

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/new-cheeky-and-playful-take-on-swan-lake/

February 12, 2026

Government wants to bypass fast-track process for proposed liquefied natural gas terminal

Source: Radio New Zealand

A proposed liquefied natural gas terminal will bypass the fast-track process, documents show. RNZ

A proposed liquefied natural gas terminal will bypass even the fast-track process in order to be built in time for winter next year, documents show.

The government plans to rush through as many of the required approvals as possible ahead of the election, “to give the preferred supplier greater policy certainty that New Zealand is committed to developing the facility”, a Cabinet paper said.

A critic of the proposal says pushing the entire process through so quickly is unwarranted and the public and local communities should be properly consulted.

Energy Minister Simon Watts said this week that the government would proceed with plans to commission a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility in Taranaki, with whole-of-life costs spread across all electricity users through a levy.

Watts said it would result in overall savings to households, because it would help to lower electricity premiums during dry years when hydro lakes ran low.

The Cabinet paper, released after the announcement, noted that “timing is very tight” to get the facility up and running in time for winter 2027.

“An LNG terminal will require regulatory consents and approvals if it is to be operational ahead of winter 2027, and the existing Fast-track Approvals Act 2024 processes are unlikely to be sufficient,” Watts wrote.

“I propose developing an Enabling Liquefied Natural Gas Bill to provide the necessary consents, approvals, levy power and any modifications to existing legislation to enable the preferred LNG facility to be built and operational ahead of winter 2027.”

Energy Minister Simon Watts. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

That would protect against the risk of late project delivery, the paper said.

The paper also warned that a future government might not proceed with LNG, and recommended signing contracts by the middle of this year to lock the concept in.

Expediting consents through special legislation would also help, it said.

“Our objective is to provide as many of these approvals as possible before the election.”

There were still risks even with a rapid consent process.

“LNG import facilities are highly technical in nature,” the paper said.

“Further, New Zealand does not have an ideal location (large deep-water port close to the main gas pipeline) to locate an LNG import facility, meaning that the technical challenges of importing LNG here are more significant than in some other countries.”

The government should carry out further technical analysis before proceeding with a preferred proposal, and “be prepared not to proceed with an accelerated proposal should further analysis suggest that the proposal(s) is/are unworkable”.

That could include considering options that might not be up and running until late 2027 or early 2028.

However, any construction and delivery delays could mean “substantial industry exits”, the paper warned.

During the 2024 energy crisis, several industrial users paused operations while others closed completely.

2027 not ‘a magical winter’

Environmental Defense Society chair Gary Taylor said the LNG proposal and the timeframe “sounds like another rushed project, redolent of the [Interislander] ferry fiasco”.

Environmental Defense Society chair Gary Taylor. Supplied

“Good policy, particularly when it involves significant capital investment, should not be rushed like this,” he said.

“I don’t see why the winter of 2027 is a magical winter. If time is constrained, then let’s go for winter 2028 and do it properly.”

Claims of more industry exits if a dry year occured in the meantime were just that, he said.

“Those with vested interests do tend to wave shrouds to support their cause.”

Instead, additional time could be used for a more considered analysis of the proposal and its alternatives, along with more meaningful engagement during the political process.

“It would enable much better consideration than you’re going to get through a rushed select committee process if this proposed bill is put through the House under urgency,” Taylor said.

Multiple reports, including one commissioned by the government, have warned that imported LNG should only be considered as a last resort.

An annex to the Cabinet paper, comparing LNG to alternatives such as diesel peakers, concluded LNG could be brought online faster than any other option – though it gave a timeframe as late as 2029 to get a facility operational.

No substantive consideration was given to grid-scale battery storage systems, or rooftop solar.

Large-scale battery technology had not progessed enough to cover “long-duration cover needs”, while rooftop solar would not provide enough additional energy during winter, when supply was most likely to be a problem, the annex said.

Cabinet proposal mirrors independent report details

Much of the detail in the Cabinet paper mirrored the findings of an independent report commissioned from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) last year by the four gentailers – Contact, Genesis, Mercury and Meridian.

That report recommended LNG only as a fuel of last resort and recommended a $2 per megawatt hour (MWh) levy across all gas and electricity users to make it economically feasible.

The Cabinet paper referenced the BCG report several times, including its estimate of a $10/MWh saving on electricity prices.

A spokesperson for Watts’ office said the $10/MWh was “estimated by MBIE based on Concept Consulting modelling and MBIE’s analysis”, but said it was also consistent with the BCG estimate.

That $10 figure – together with the final proposed levy of between $2 and $4 – appeared to be the basis of the government’s claim that households would save an average $50 on their annual power bills.

A net $8/MWh saving – if it were passed on in its entirety – would translate to between $56 for an average household using 7MWh of electricity a year.

Watts’ spokesperson did not confirm whether that calculation was the same one the government had arrived at.

A natural gas rig in Taranaki. Supplied

The Cabinet paper underscored the importance of not creating an ongoing dependency on LNG, which it said would risk an overall increase in power bills.

“Put simply, LNG should function as an insurance product: available when required but used only infrequently. Perhaps counterintuitively, LNG provides the greatest benefit when it is available as back-up and rarely used.”

BCG partner and report author Richard Hobbs said having LNG as a stand-by option in that way broadly made sense, but BCG had made many other recommendations.

“In and of itself, it’s not a silver bullet. There are a lot of other things that need to be done.”

The government needed to keep up the pace of renewables development, and address domestic gas supply and demand.

That included focusing on extracting what remained in existing gas fields – not exploring for new fields that could take a decade or more to come online.

The major gap was “really around the demand side, where there is not a programme to support users to transition from gas to electricity or biomass”, Hobbs said.

His report had recommended a $200 million fund to assist that transition.

The government scrapped the Labour-led government’s Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry (GIDI) fund, which served a similar purpose.

The Cabinet paper noted the need to “continue efforts to strengthen domestic gas supply and ensure alternatives like biomass and electrification continue in parallel, to create optionality, not dependency [on LNG]”.

It noted the BCG recommendation to set up a transition fund but did not endorse or suggest such a policy.

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February 12, 2026

‘Stop the supply’: NZ needs to stop seeing smoking as an individual problem, expert says

Source: Radio New Zealand

A tobacco control advocate says getting the country back on track towards its smokefree targets will require a policy shift away from focussing on individuals. 123RF

At the end of 2025 New Zealand missed its smokefree target and a tobacco control advocate says getting back on track will require a policy shift away from focussing on individuals towards whole system change.

The target was to reach smoking rates of below 5 percent for all population groups. According to the latest NZ Health Survey, 6.8 percent of the total population were daily smokers, but rates for Māori remained stubbornly higher at 15 percent.

The government released a revised Smokefree Action Plan at the end of 2024.

Associate professor at the University of Otago and co-director of Aspire Aotearoa Anaru Waa (Ngāti Hine) told RNZ that reaching a Smokefree Aotearoa might require a rethink of the goal, moving away from thinking of it as a problem of too many people using nicotine towards a problem of tobacco industry exploitation.

“I think the big thing is to achieve the goal, we’ve got to stop focusing on individuals. I mean, we need to support people to quit … it’s vital, but actually the focus should be on the industry and where they sell their products. And so the only way to get to an end game is to stop the supply.”

However, the goal of a smokefree Aotearoa was still achievable, he said.

University of Otago associate professor Anaru Waa (Ngāti Hine). Supplied / University of Otago

“When you can buy cigarettes or vapes at any corner store, at service stations and so forth, that’s the problem. So I think it’s entirely achievable, in fact we could achieve it within two years if we wanted to, if we had a government that was committed to it.

“In fact, I think we need to have a fairly close time frame, because I’m worried that the longer we take to achieve the goal, the more time we give the industry to adapt.”

Waa said any revamped smokefree plan would need to have tailored measures to support Māori, although he said tailored measures would not achieve the goal alone.

“In Aotearoa, it started in the 80s, our tobacco control programme largely focused on individuals and the assumption was that individuals need resources to do what we want them to do, either quit smoking or not start smoking. We know that those resources aren’t the same throughout society, so some people have more social support, are less exposed to retailers, we know that there’s more vape retailers in poorer communities … [if we] run with the assumption that if we focus on individuals, what we do is we get slow change and we get inequitable change.

“So the only way to make the change fair and equitable is to have big, wide-ranging measures that affect everybody in the same way. Therefore, getting rid of our smoked tobacco is a really good start, addressing other nicotine products to make sure they’re only there as therapies, if at all, and that’s the best way to do it.”

Associate Minister of Health Casey Costello said New Zealand had made great progress in reducing smoking rates – especially since 2018 when vapes became widely available. The gains had been particularly noticeable for young people and for Māori, she said.

“When the NZ Health Survey began in 2011/12, more than 37 percent of Māori were daily smokers. In the latest survey that figure was down to 15 percent. Since 2018, Māori smoking rates have halved and the latest stats show 118,000 Māori have quit smoking in the last five years.

“These reductions are really significant; no other country is making this sort of progress.

“But of course we still have a way to go – we want to stop people smoking to reduce the health impacts and there’s a particular focus on supporting Māori and Pacific populations where rates are higher. The official target we’re working towards is to reduce smoking rates below 5 percent for all population groups.”

Costello said the Smokefree Action Plan 2025 covered a range of actions across four key areas: reducing smoking uptake, increasing quit attempts, improving access to quit support, and supporting people to stay smokefree.

“To reach the 5 percent goal, health promotion campaigns, community mobilisation activities and stop smoking services need to be targeted and appropriate for the communities and population groups they are trying to reach.

“For example, Health New Zealand’s Breakfree to Smokefree social media campaign is targeted at Māori and Pacific smokers and government-funded Kaupapa Māori quit smoking programmes across the country support Māori to quit in a culturally appropriate way.”

Associate Minister of Health Casey Costello. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

But Waa called the plan a “rehash” of what had been done in previous decades.

“[The plan] was about, you know, focusing on young people to stop picking up smoking, some measures around disposable vapes which was important, and supporting people to quit smoking. But we know these measures, like I said, have a small incremental change over time, but they’re inequitable.

“So it was a rehash of what we already know, while important, wasn’t going to achieve the goal at all. And in fact, I’d also argue that they probably had less resource to do what they had previously. So it was a bit of a window dressing.”

Costello said because most who were still smoking were older, long-term smokers, it was important to provide access to less harmful products that could help people quit smoking and to encourage people to get help as stopping smoking was not easy.

“People are around four times more likely to quit smoking by using a stop smoking service, than by trying on their own.”

In the lead up to the election in November, Waa said he would be looking closely at each party’s policies around tobacco, although he noted the repeal of the Smokefree Act was not in National’s manifesto heading into the last election in 2023.

“Let’s be clear, the repeal of the Act means that a lot of people are going to continue to smoke. And we know that a lot of those people who continue to smoke are going to die or have, you know, really large harm. So there’s a huge harm on society, which this government has caused.”

Waa said he would also like to see efforts to curb tobacco industry influence and lobbying.

Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verall has proposed a member’s bill “to protect New Zealanders’ health from the influence of big tobacco and shed light on their links to decision-makers”.

“We definitely need stronger measures because as we close the door on tobacco, it’s not as if the industry isn’t thinking about what they’ll do next. What they’ll do next is get more people addicted to vapes,” Waa said.

Waa said whatever the approach to reaching a Smokefree Aotearoa, it could not be a piecemeal one – it is a system and needed to be addressed as a whole system.

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February 12, 2026

Wellington Water quiet on Moa Point plans, cites upcoming inquiry

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington Water staff are now able to enter the failed Moa Point treatment plant. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Wellington Water staff are now able to enter the failed Moa Point treatment plant but they cannot provide details of the work being done or who is involved.

Nearly 80 percent of the equipment inside the plant was damaged when it was flooded by a backflow of raw sewage last week.

At the peak of the equipment failure, 3300 litres of untreated wastewater went into the sea every second.

Since then a stretch of the Capital’s south coast had been off limits for swimming and gathering sea food.

Wellington Water expected it could be months before the plant was returned to full operations.

It said cleaning work was continuing, with fresh water flushed through the biological treatment areas of the plant to reduce levels of hydrogen sulphide, which made the interior of the plant hazardous to enter.

On Wednesday the water entity said it had “begun a closely managed entry” to the plant.

But it could not confirm specifics regarding who was now able to access the site, the conditions inside, what was being done to ensure the people’s safety or what was being revealed now that access had been acheived.

Earlier this week, Wellington Water chief executive Pat Dogherty said, initially, a room at the bottom of plant, the size of an Olympic Swimming Pool, was 3 metres deep in wastewater.

RNZ’s requests for information regarding the access to the site were put to Wellington Water at the beginning of the week in response to interviews with Dogherty where he said Monday would be the first day staff could safely go into the building to assess the damage.

On Wednesday, a statement from Dogherty said Wellington Water would be stepping back from making public statements about “aspects of the Moa Point incident and response” following an announcement from Wellington Mayor Andrew Little that the government would look to establish an independent inquiry into the plant’s failure as soon as possible.

“Now the inquiry has been signalled, it is important we allow that process to run its course. This means that we are unable to provide any further public statements regarding aspects of the Moa Point incident and response that may be included in the inquiry,” Dogherty said.

At the begining of the week, Little said Wellington City Council and central government would work together to ensure an inquiry was independent and had the right powers to make sure a similar problem never happened again.

Little said a ministerial inquiry would meet his preferred criteria of having independence, the right expertise and the power to access information.

“A ministerial inquiry has all that. It is more formalistic and does take a longer period of time to get the appointments up, get the terms of reference sorted out and then get it going. For me it is about having those criteria met but doing something that is as quick as possible. Those are the things that we are talking through,” Little said.

A spokesperson for Wellington Water said it hoped to provide more details of the work being done in the plant on Thursday.

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February 12, 2026

Schools accused of giving illegal scholarships to foreign students

Source: Radio New Zealand

Photosport

One of two schools that illegally gave scholarships to foreign students who played in their top sports teams says it only happened because a sponsorship deal fell through.

The other has not responded to RNZ’s questions.

School sport leaders say they do not believe the cases are symptomatic of a wider problem, but an auditor told RNZ he doubts many of his peers know to keep a lookout for scholarships to foreign students when they review schools’ finances.

The Office of the Auditor General brought the https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/541873/schools-spending-money-on-gyms-family-travel-for-principals-auditors-say breaches to light in reports published in February and December last year, covering audits of school annual reports for 2023 and 2024.

“We highlighted that two schools breached legislation by meeting the costs of an international student through a scholarship. Legislation requires schools to charge fees for international students that at least cover the estimated costs of providing tuition and capital facilities,” the most recent report said.

The Office of the Auditor-General told RNZ the schools were Westlake Boys’ High School and Howick College and RNZ understands in both cases the students represented the Auckland schools in top-level sport.

The Howick College annual report for 2023 showed the breach related to two foreign students.

“Without modifying our opinion, we draw the reader’s attention to a breach of legislation. The School enrolled and met the costs of two international students, including homestay and other school fees in the year ended 31 December 2023 through scholarships,” the auditors wrote.

“This is a breach of section 521(1) of the Education and Training Act 2020 which requires state schools to charge fees for international students that are not less than the estimated costs of providing tuition to a student in the relevant subject, course, or programme, including the provision of capital facilities, plus any other fees prescribed for international students.”

The Westlake annual report for 2024 had a similar comment but for one international student.

RNZ understands a third party alerted the firm that audited both schools’ accounts that it was illegal for state schools to subsidise the education of foreign students.

The firm did not respond to an RNZ request for comment.

Former Deloitte auditor Priyesh Ramesh told RNZ he doubted many auditors knew scholarships for foreign students were forbidden and it was unlikely they would check whether a scholarship in a school’s accounts was for a domestic or foreign student.

However, principals told RNZ the rules prohibiting schools from waiving or otherwise covering foreign students’ tuition costs were clear and the cases did not represent part of a wider problem.

The Education Ministry’s handbook of financial information for schools said scholarships must be open to every student at a school unless the giver of the scholarship has created a special trust.

Its website said international students not on a ministry-approved exchange programme must be charged fees that cover the cost of tuition and access to facilities.

Westlake headmaster Paul Fordham said the situation preceded his tenure as principal but it appeared the school helped a student after a sponsorship arrangement fell through.

“It certainly wasn’t a scholarship situation,” he said.

“It was a situation where a sponsorship had fallen through and the school essentially stepped in to meet the costs.”

Fordham said the school worked with auditors and the ministry to understand the breach and resolve it.

He said in the second year, 2024, the school found sponsorship that would cover what it believed were the student’s tuition and capital costs.

“We’ve tried to meet the rules but it’s a tricky situation when you’re dealing with a person.”

He would not confirm details about the student or the sport they played.

Fordham said he had not previously heard of third parties providing scholarships or sponsorships for foreign school students.

“It does seem unusual and I don’t know if it’s a generally-used practice. It’s certainly a one-off from what I could establish at Westlake,” he said.

Asked if schools were aware that they could not waive international students’ fees, Fordham said common sense suggested they should not do that.

“Money that’s given to schools for operational needs and facilities etcetera certainly isn’t given for the purposes of subsidising international students’ costs,” he said

Fordham said Westlake had 200 foreign students and some represented the school in sport.

He did not believe foreign students’ participation in school sport was creating problems.

School Sport New Zealand chief executive Mike Summerell said schools could have no more than two international students in any teams competing in School Sport championship events.

He said in the past some schools recruited top foreign athletes for short periods to bolster their teams and the rules were designed to prevent that from happening.

Summerell said School Sport redeveloped its eligibility rules extensively in 2025 and would review them, including those covering the inclusion on non-domestic students, this term.

Summerell said it was difficult to track how many foreign students were playing in top teams.

“There’s not necessarily an outcry by schools to say that international students are filling up these spaces, but I would hazard a guess that there are certainly international students taking opportunities at these championship events for a lot of schools and that’s not necessarily a problem.

“Whether that leads to success for those schools is really not something I have the data to comment on.”

Summerell said he did not know how well schools understood the ministry’s rules prohibiting the use of school funds to cover foreign students’ fees.

He said School Sport rules forbade offering sport scholarships.

“If there was evidence that schools were providing scholarships… that weren’t publicly-available, and by that I mean that’s on their website that there’s a scholarship for X and it’s contestable, then there’s provision under the School Sport New Zealand eligibility rules and our integrity framework to look at that and investigate whether that’s fair,” he said.

However, Summerell said it was extremely difficult to prove if a school had provided scholarships that broke the rules.

College Sport Auckland chair Tim O’Connor said many schools had foreign students in their sports teams and Education Ministry rules about their fees were clear, as were the School Sport New Zealand rules on participation.

O’Connor agreed that though schools were prohibited from waiving or subsidising foreign students’ fees, there was nothing to stop third parties providing scholarships or sponsorships and that should be monitored in case it became a problem.

He said sport was an extra-curricular activity and the primary purpose of schooling, including for international students, was to provide an education.

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February 12, 2026

Health experts call on Pharmac to fund female-specific testosterone

Source: Radio New Zealand

A woman applies post-menopause hormone gel. COLLANGES / BSIP via AFP

An endocrinologist says more than half the women she sees on testosterone for low libido are taking too high a dose, and she and her colleagues are calling on Pharmac to finally fund a female-specific product.

Pharmac is set to consider funding AndroFeme 1 on Thursday, which unfunded costs anywhere between $150 and $250 for a three-month supply, depending on the pharmacy.

To avoid that cost, many women are prescribed a funded alternative, called Testogel, which is formulated for men.

Testosterone is usually thought of as a male hormone, but it is also found in women. It is prescribed to treat low libido, also know as Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), in women who are postmenopausal.

Women’s health advocate and director of Cala Clinic, Jenna Scullin, explained: “Similar to males, women’s testosterone levels decline gradually over their lifetime.

“By the time a woman is at a menopausal age, it has often halved.”

Men who needed a boost of the hormone had the choice of four funded products, whereas women had no funded options.

Pharmac has twice declined to fund AndroFeme 1, first in 2024, saying the eligibility criteria (“postmenopausal women with HSDD”) was not appropriate and posed significant barriers to equitable access for women – particularly for women who, for cultural reasons, did not wish to undergo aspects of an HSDD diagnosis.

It also considered there was an “uncertain health benefit” in using AndroFeme 1 over the unapproved, or off-label use of Testogel, saying that if equivalent doses were administered, there should not be a significant difference in their effect.

At that stage, the discussion document showed there were 2300 people dispensed Testogel between February and November, and approximately 46 percent of those identified as female.

In 2025, the decision was reassessed, and the result was “no formal recommendation” which meant the previous decision stood – but this time Pharmac noted there was a need to fund a product with an appropriate dose for women, to minimise potential harm.

Endochrinologist Dr Anna Fenton from Oxford Women’s Health explained there was no research on how testosterone was metabolised by the female body.

Endochrinologist Dr Anna Fenton from Oxford Women’s Health. Supplied / Oxford Women’s Health

“Women are being prescribed this without the appropriate baseline testing without, often, follow-up blood testing to make sure the level is appropriate.”

And it could be difficult for women to work out the correct dose of Testogel when it came out of the pump bottle, she said.

“It’s very hard to titrate the dose of a blob of gel, which is what you get from the pump dispenser, into something that is a quarter or a fifth of that dose, which is possibly what’s appropriate for women.”

Fenton said more than half of the women she treated who had been prescribed Testogel were showing testosterone levels that were too high.

“I had a woman the other day who had 12 times the upper end of the female range, so it was well into the male range.”

Side effects included greasy skin, acne or extra body hair growth, but at the extreme end, it could lead to changes in voice or enlargement of the genitals – and those effects were permanent, Fenton said.

New Zealand had “the bare minimum” available when it came to hormone replacements, which included things like oestrogen patches, trailing behind the likes of Australia, the UK, US, and Canada.

She, along with fellow endocrinologists Dr Megan Ogilvie, Dr Sylvia Rosevear, Dr Susannah O’Sullivan and Dr Sasha Nair, have made a joint submission to Pharmac ahead of its meeting, endorsed by the Australasian Menopause Society, urging it to prioritise “evidence-based, female-specific therapies” and fund AndroFeme 1.

“We urge Pharmac to refrain from normalising the use of male-formulated testosterone products in women.”

The company behind Testogel, Pharmaco, has made no claims of its safety for women.

It supplied RNZ with a statement, saying: “Testogel is a prescription medicine specifically formulated and approved to be used by men with low testosterone levels. The relevant data sheets and Consumer Medicine Information clearly state that the medicine should not be used by women.”

Pharmac director for advice and assessment David Hughes confirmed AndroFeme’s application was on the agenda for the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) meeting on Thursday.

“PTAC gives Pharmac clinical advice to help us make decisions about how to use our funding,” he said in a statement. “The committee reviews the evidence behind funding applications and looks at how strong and reliable that evidence is.”

He said a recently-received a submission would be discussed at the meeting.

Pharmac would aim to publish the provisional recommendation online within 30 days of the meeting, although that could be subject to change.

Female testosterone deficiency ‘more than just a low libido’ – health advocate

Scullin said one in three women between the ages of 40 and 64 experienced the effects of reduced sexual desire.

“It’s more than just a low libido, we see that it affects women’s mental health, it affects their social functioning, their relationships, their confidence and their overall wellbeing.

“There’s this view sometimes that a woman’s sexual function is not essential,” she said. “But when a man comes forward with needing assistance, there’s one of four funded options accessible to him.”

She said while some GPs and specialists were comfortable prescribing Testogel to women despite the lack of safety data, a number were not, “so it’s not just that we’re asking for a female-formulated option, but in many cases we’re actually asking for an option for women”.

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February 12, 2026

Inquest into death of Nicholas Kahotea, soldier who fell from helicopter during training

Source: Radio New Zealand

Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea, of the 1st NZSAS Regiment, who died in a training accident in South Auckland on 8 May. Defence Force / Supplied

An inquest into the death of a special forces trooper during a training exercise in south Auckland hopes to find out what went wrong.

Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea fell to his death in May of 2019 while training to dismount from a Blackhawk helicopter onto the edge of a building.

Kahotea was leading his SAS regiment through what should have been a routine training exercise.

The men were excited to perform their first bump landing, a helicopter manoeuvre meant to get soldiers onto the roof of a building as quickly as possible.

It was part of a joint exercise with the United States military, using its top-of-the-line Blackhawk helicopters to train for counter-terrorism operations.

One of Kahotea’s fellow soldiers, whose identity is suppressed and can only be referred to as call sign 63, said the team was enthusiastic.

“I’m not sure whose decision it was but we were told the next [exercise]’s going to be a bump landing. And we were pretty excited about it,” he said.

“When we got told we were going to do a bump landing at nighttime it didn’t matter to us, we do training at night all the time. We were excited to get another skill under our belt.”

A bump landing involves setting just one wheel on the edge of a building and hovering steady while the troops step off.

Call sign 63 was first off the helicopter.

“I could see the dispatcher giving me the signal to go … I looked down and confirmed it was safe for me to drop,” he continued.

“I simply managed to step onto the roof, no worries.

“As the first man off the helicopter my job is to ensure the area at the front is clear and protect the people still on the helicopter. The threat to me and my team is out to my front. In this training exercise my main threat was the stairs off the roof, so that’s where I was looking.”

Two more soldiers dropped from the helicopter, and the exercise continued as call sign 63 moved to the stairs.

“When I got to the stairs I felt a tap on my shoulder, this indicated to me we were ready to proceed,” he said.

“I can’t recall if the next thing I heard was over the radio or if it was one of the guys behind me. It was saying man down, man down. No duff. One of your men is down on the other side of the building. No duff means it’s a serious situation.”

CCTV footage of the exercise shows the helicopter sway, as the gap between it and the roof inches wider.

That gap was the distance between life and death.

Kahotea fell several metres, sustaining catastrophic injuries. He later died in hospital.

This week, almost seven years later, a coronial inquest will recount the tragic event in detail and make recommendations to avoid similar accidents in the future.

Kahotea’s partner, Dr Sophie Walker, criticised the Defence Force’s approach to the exercise.

“A bump insertion is not a static or benign manoeuvre,” she said.

“This is a dynamic and inherently unstable balance. From a physics perspective, the Black Hawk’s mass means very small changes in altitude create very large force transfers that promote tail movement.”

She hoped the inquest would lead to answers and accountability.

“Our hope is that the findings of this inquest will ensure no other family will encounter the consequences of systemic risk assessment failure,” she said through tears.

“Loss is not something that just happened in May of 2019 … It is something that I wake up to every day. It is having to accept over and over that this is my life.”

Defence Force lawyer Sally McKechnie admitted it did not fully appreciate the risks of the manoeuvre at the time.

She said the NZDF had thoroughly investigated its processes since Kahotea’s death and had made improvements.

The inquest will continue through to Friday.

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

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/inquest-into-death-of-nicholas-kahotea-soldier-who-fell-from-helicopter-during-training/

February 12, 2026

Golf: Hope that Asia-Pacific tournament will inspire girls to take on the world

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand golfer Eunseo Choi at the 2025 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. DAVID CANNON / AFP

Golf New Zealand believes this week’s Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific championship has the opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for the game here.

Eighty-four players from 25 countries will take part in the tournament at Royal Wellington with a career-changing opportunity for the winner.

Current world number one Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand won the inaugural tournament in 2018 with the champion receiving invitations to play a number of key tournaments around the world, including three majors.

New Zealand has 10 players taking part, while many others, not quite at that level, will be on course to see the best amateur players in the region.

The growth of boys golf in New Zealand is on a high and while the interest in the girls game is also on the increase, Golf New Zealand would like to see more.

There are more than 2000 under-19 female players registered in New Zealand, an increase of 450 in the past year.

Golf New Zealand’s talent development manager, Liz McKinnon, said hosting the Asia-Pacific women’s tournament here for the first time provided a great opportunity to showcase the women’s game and to help young players in New Zealand.

“There is the obvious impact for our players that are participating, but also for our girls that aren’t at that level yet about the awareness of the event being here. The exposure and the opportunity to watch the event and see the best players from the Asia-Pacific region.”

Wellington golfer Elise Barber. Supplied / WAAP

Many eyes will be on 13-year-old Wellington player Elise Barber who got a late call-up to the event.

She joins a strong New Zealand contingent that includes top-ranked Kiwi Eunseo Choi, who finished 13th at the 2025 championship, and Vivian Lu, who will make her sixth WAAP appearance.

Elise is a Royal Wellington member and WAAP (Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific) Academy graduate and will be the youngest player in the field.

The Queen Margaret College year 9 student, who plays off a +2.3 handicap, had a strong 2025 season including winning her age division at the Australian Junior Championships. She also helped Wellington secure third at the New Zealand Women’s Interprovincial Tournament.

Glenda Swan, who managed Wellington’s interprovincial team and has watched Elise’s development, believes she could be the next big star.

“She has a really well rounded game for her age and what separates her from others her age is her consistency and composure … she is now thinking her way around the course.”

Swan has also been involved in organising the 353 volunteers needed to help the tournament run smoothly.

While the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) has control of the running of the tournament and the financing of of the players, Royal Wellington club members and the volunteers are those on the ground helping the players and the hoped-for 10,000 spectators enjoy their experience.

Swan said volunteers (aged from 11 to 87) had come from all over the country to help from traffic management to kitchen helpers, scorers and caddies.

Royal Wellington hosted the men’s equivalent tournament in 2017.

New Zealand has 10 players taking part – Eunseo Choi, Vivian Lu, Emma Zheng, Darae Chung, Caitlin Maurice, Juwon Kim, Chloe So, Cherry Lee, Teresa Wang and Elise Barber.

Jeneath Wong of Malaysia will defend her title, while there is a strong contingent from Singapore, China and Australia.

Royal Wellington Golf club house. Marty Melville / PHOTOSPORT

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

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/golf-hope-that-asia-pacific-tournament-will-inspire-girls-to-take-on-the-world/

February 12, 2026

Ready-mixed concrete: December 2025 quarter – Stats NZ information release

Source: Statistics New Zealand

Ready-mixed concrete: December 2025 quarter – information release

11 February 2026

Ready-mixed concrete statistics provide an indicator of construction activity.

Key facts

In the December 2025 quarter, the actual volume of ready-mixed concrete produced was 971,383 cubic metres, up 0.4 percent compared with the December 2024 quarter.
In the year ended December 2025, 3.64 million cubic metres of ready-mixed concrete was produced, down 4.6 percent compared with the year ended December 2024.
In seasonally adjusted terms, the volume of ready-mixed concrete rose 2.4 percent in the December 2025 quarter, following a 3.0 percent rise in the September 2025 quarter.

Visit our website to read the full information release:

Ready-mixed concrete: December 2025 quarter

For media enquiries contact: Media team, Wellington, media@stats.govt.nz“>media@stats.govt.nz, 021 285 9191

The Government Statistician authorises all statistics and data we publish.

Ngā mihi,
Publishing
Stats NZ

MIL OSI

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/12/ready-mixed-concrete-december-2025-quarter-stats-nz-information-release/

February 11, 2026

Dead possum found in Roxburgh reservoir triggers boil water notice for area

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ / Nate McKinnon

A dead possum in the Roxburgh reservoir has triggered a boil water notice for the area.

The Central Otago District Council (CODC) said the possum was found during an unrelated inspection on Wednesday, and it’s not known how long it’s been in the water.

It has since issued a boil water notice for Roxburgh and the Lake Roxburgh Village, which would remain in place until the network had been flushed.

CODC said three times a week sampling hadn’t indicated degraded water quality, and a full investigation was underway to find out how the possum got inside the reservoir.

It said the reservoir which would remain isolated until it had been fully disinfected and any possum entry points addressed.

CODC’s Julie Muir said the notice could be lifted as early as Thursday.

Two water tankers would be available at Roxburgh School and Lake Roxburgh Village Hall on Wednesday evening.

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

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/11/dead-possum-found-in-roxburgh-reservoir-triggers-boil-water-notice-for-area/

February 11, 2026

Housing support working for rough sleepers

Source: New Zealand Government

The Government is making steady progress expanding Housing First support for people sleeping rough, with 199 lease agreements signed since actions were announced in September last year, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says.

The additional leases are enabling more social housing places for the Housing First programme, which supports people experiencing chronic homelessness into permanent housing with tailored, wraparound support.

So far, 168 new Housing First tenancies have commenced across Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

“We know Housing First Works and that is why we are backing the programme with funding for the additional 300 homes announced in September last year,” Mr Potaka says.

“It’s encouraging to see delivery well underway, with well over half of that additional capacity already achieved.

“Housing First providers have also tenanted a further 105 homes on top of the 168 tenancies as a result of existing Housing First funding.”

Mr Potaka says the Government has provided $10 million in additional funding for proven support services for people sleeping rough.

“This additional funding is focused on services that are already established and working well. Agencies are working with trusted providers to make sure it was directed where it would have the greatest impact,” Mr Potaka says.

That funding is now fully contracted, with outreach and support services operating in the major urban areas to help connect people sleeping rough with housing and wider support.

“We are focused on getting the right homes, in the right places, with the right supports for people sleeping rough, and keeping momentum going.”

Note to editors:

Since these short-term actions began, MSD has worked with 478 people through its operational tactical plan across Auckland, Waikato, Wellington and Christchurch. Of those, 296 people were identified as rough sleepers.
Outcomes for those 296 people include:
- 66 granted emergency housing
- 87 referred to transitional housing
- 144 placed on the public housing register
Work is also underway to improve the efficiency of transitional housing, including ensuring places are located where demand is highest, reducing turnaround times between tenants, and speeding up placement into transitional housing.
Two short-term actions led by MSD, strengthening staff guidance on the use of discretion when assessing emergency housing grants, and the redirection of benefits have now been implemented and rolled out nationwide.

MIL OSI

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/11/housing-support-working-for-rough-sleepers/

February 11, 2026

New satellite imagery shows recent storms triggered more than 11,000 slips on East Cape

Source: Radio New Zealand

A new satellite map has revealed the scale of devastation across the East Cape following a January storm. Supplied / Dragonfly Data Science

Recent severe storms have triggered more than 11,000 slips on the East Cape, according to satellite imagery.

Heavy rainfall caused widespread damage and flooding in parts of the North Island in January, with Te Araroa and Hicks Bay some of the hardest hit areas on the east coast.

The communities remain isolated from one another, with multiple landslides blocking State Highway 35, which remains shut to the public between Pōtaka and Te Araroa.

The Transport Agency said the ground was still moving, and further slips have been reported over the weekend near a large landslide at Punaruku – estimated to be 250,000 cubic metres.

Dragonfly Data Science said its before-and-after satellite imagery of the East Cape revealed the scale of the devastation, with comparisons providing a large-scale snapshot of where the land had moved.

It identified more than 11,000 landslips and silt damage covering 900 hectares.

The Wellington-based company said the recent storm caused significant, but concentrated destruction along the coastal northern end of the East Cape.

Dragonfly’s director Finlay Thompson said the map clearly illustrated what happened.

“It provides a birds-eye view of the area following an intense and highly localised storm event such as this, and offers an effective way of assessing how widespread and severe the damage is.”

The company developed a similar map following Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023, and Thompson believed such tools were crucial for understanding the “true scale” of such disasters.

He said these types of storms highlighted the gap between disaster response and long-term climate preparedness, and said better tools were needed to plan ahead.

“While this map isn’t a predictive tool on its own, it is an important first step. By linking storm impacts with rainfall and terrain data over multiple events, we could begin to build models that help predict where slips and flooding are most likely to occur in future.

“People’s livelihoods are at stake. While response and recovery efforts are critical and effective, the reality is that communities are living through significant disruption and loss in the meantime – and that’s something we can’t afford to treat as normal.”

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

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/11/new-satellite-imagery-shows-recent-storms-triggered-more-than-11000-slips-on-east-cape/

February 11, 2026

Lease agreement for Kawerau site a major step forward for integrated biomass manufacturing facility

Source: Foresta Group Holdings

Message: Plans to build New Zealand’s first integrated biomass manufacturing facility to produce pine-based chemicals and low emissions fossil-free fuel to replace coal, have moved a step closer with the signing of a lease at a site at Kawerau.

ASX-listed Foresta Group Holdings Limited (“FORESTA”) has executed a formal lease with the local Māori land trust Putauaki Trust following satisfaction of the conditions precedent under the previously announced Agreement to Lease for a 9.6 ha site at Kawerau.

The lease will officially commence on 1 March 2026 for an initial term of 30 years with an option to extend the lease for another 20 years.

“This is another important milestone for the company that brings us significantly closer to breaking ground on this project which represents the first step in our vision to establish sustainable, pine chemicals and low-emissions fuel production across New Zealand,” said Foresta Executive Chairman Henry Cheng.

FORESTA’s state-of-the-art integrated biomass manufacturing facility is expected to directly employ more than 70 people as well contributing to employment in the region for businesses supporting the manufacturing facility. FORESTA intends to begin earthworks over the next summer period.

FORESTA’s directors, Executive Chairman Henry Cheng and Executive Director Dr Maurizio Fabiani, were present for an official signing ceremony on 9 February 2026 to formally execute the lease together with Putauaki Trust Chairman Tiaki Hunia and CEO John O’Brien.

The signing ceremony was hosted in the Beehive by The Hon. Shane Jones MP – Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Resources and Associate Minister for Energy.

FORESTA is set to revolutionise the energy landscape in New Zealand by manufacturing torrefied wood pellets – an eco-friendly replacement for coal, producing 90% fewer emissions. The innovative manufacturing process also generates renewable pine chemicals, which can substitute petrochemicals derived from fossil fuels in a variety of everyday products, from car tyres to cosmetics. All wood feedstock will be sourced from renewable Forest Stewardship Council-certified forests.

“By processing and adding value to local wood resources, we aim to drive economic growth in the region and contribute to New Zealand’s climate emissions targets by providing a renewable energy source that can be used in existing coal boilers,” said Henry Cheng.

“We are proud that our project has received recognition by the New Zealand Government as a project of regional and national importance, allowing us to fast-track resource consents and approvals.”

FORESTA’s scalable manufacturing process allows for the establishment of additional facilities close to forests across New Zealand, which have the potential to eliminate the need for coal to be burned domestically and have surplus production available for export to Asia.

MIL OSI

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/02/11/lease-agreement-for-kawerau-site-a-major-step-forward-for-integrated-biomass-manufacturing-facility/

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Ready-mixed concrete: December 2025 quarter – Stats NZ information release

Dead possum found in Roxburgh reservoir triggers boil water notice for area

Housing support working for rough sleepers

New satellite imagery shows recent storms triggered more than 11,000 slips on East Cape

Lease agreement for Kawerau site a major step forward for integrated biomass manufacturing facility

Source: Foresta Group Holdings