Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Saturday is Caturday at a south Auckland animal shelter, where a bumper crop of kittens are in desperate need of forever homes.

The SPCA has more than 30 kittens available for adoption at its Māngere Centre, where it says the 40-year-old building is crumbling and part of the cattery floods when it rains.

The organisation has seen a surge in cats needing to be adopted across the country, and it hopes its Caturday events will see people heading home with a new family member in tow.

At the Māngere shelter, Michaela Foggin has a cat-lover’s dream job.

“I am a senior feline attendant so my job during the day is caring for the cats, feeding them, cleaning them, medicating them, making sure they get all the love and attention possible.”

She will be helping to adopt out the bumper crop of kittens.

“We’ll do walk-ins and they can come through, look at all the kittens we have available for adoption, meet some, cuddle some and they usually pick you so it can be pretty easy when you’re coming in to meet and adopt a kitten.”

More than 30 kittens are available for adoption at the Māngere shelter, where vet Nathan Wong has worked for five years.

“We’re inundated with cats and kittens at this time. The reason for that is with the warmer weather they always want to have babies at this time of year which is really cute,” he said.

“There’s more cats than we’ve got cages to deal with so Caturdays is one of those things where we try to adopt out as many cats as we can because the more cats we adopt out, the more we can take in.”

The decades-old shelter is falling apart, riddled with asbestos and rust.

The SPCA said the buildings would need to be vacated this year – a new purpose-built centre is being built in Wiri, due to be finished in November.

Graeme Ford manages the Māngere shelter and said the run-down buildings were risky for both staff and the animals.

He said a worker recently tripped and broke their wrist and thumb – and part of the cattery flooded when it rained.

“We’ve got 18 pens here and nine of them flood, every time we’ve got rain and it’s not heavy rain anymore now it’s just any rain.”

The pens flood deep enough to fill the cats’ water bowls – there are platforms in each pen the cats can safely jump to.

“It’s not ideal for the animals and it’s not ideal for the staff who’ve got to come in the next morning and think this is what they’ve got to take an hour or two out of their day to clean up the mess from the flood.”

Ford said some of the dog kennels were rusting and asbestos had been found in parts of the buildings.

“There’s a lot of asbestos on site. It is stable and it is marked where it is but it’s not ideal especially as the building starts to show some deterioration, we wouldn’t want the deterioration to be shown around the asbestos and put anyone at risk.”

The SPCA’s new shelter in Wiri is due for completion in November and will be a much larger hub, it’s still fundraising for $10 million.

“We need someone with some deep pockets to try and help out and get us there and get these cats and dogs into a better space,” Ford said.

The Māngere centre cared for more than 5500 animals last year and bigger buildings at Wiri will allow an additional 2000 animals to be helped.

Meanwhile, Ford said they also needed more foster parents to take animals home for short stays and relieve pressure on their kennels and pens – animal food and any medications are provided.

Roma Timpson is a vet nurse and seasoned foster parent, the day RNZ visited she was taking home two kittens, one had an eye removed, the other a leg amputated.

“It doesn’t have to be forever, it is really hard giving them back but knowing that you’ve done your part to help, you can send them off just knowing they’re ready to go to homes.”

The SPCA said anyone ready to give some T-L-C to some four legged friends can check online when Caturdays are held in their region.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/13/more-than-30-kittens-available-for-adoption-at-south-auckland-animal-shelter/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington Water says it is monitoring wet weather forecast for the capital this weekend as its Moa Point plant continues to leak raw sewage.

The sewage plant melted down last week, flooding the building with waste and sending raw sewage into the nearby south coast.

Nearby beaches remained off limits due to tens of millions of litres of screened but untreated sewage flowing out the plant’s 1.8-kilometre outfall pipe each day.

The water company said it may have to use its outfall pipe nearby the beaches at short notice due to increased water flows.

It said if that happened a clean-up crew would be sent to the shoreline.

MetService was forecasting rain and large swells up to seven metres in size on Sunday and Monday in Wellington.

Wellington Water said removal of sewage from the plant and cleaning its rooms were ongoing.

It was also working on understanding the state of the plant’s equipment and operations.

“This assessment will take some time, and we still expect there will be an extended outage at the plant.”

Sewage spill raises bird strike fear at Wellington Airport

Wellington Airport says it has noticed increased bird activity near its runway this week, and it is taking safety measures for planes following the Moa Point failure.

Wellington Airport’s location is very close to Moa Point.

With the risk of bird strike for aircraft in mind, its head of operations, Matthew Palliser, told RNZ they were monitoring the animals.

“We are keeping a close eye on bird activity around the airport and have noticed some increased activity at times this week, but we are always prepared for this.”

Palliser said the airport had regular patrols checking the runway and that they worked closely with the Airways control tower.

“When required, we use a range of tools to scare birds off, including different noises.

“We also have a full-time Wildlife Officer who monitors bird activity.”

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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/2026/02/13/wet-weather-may-force-use-of-outfall-pipe-near-wellington-beaches/

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/2026/02/13/its-appalling-the-auckland-academic-who-appears-in-the-epstein-files/

Source: Radio New Zealand

It took firefighters 30 minutes to respond to a callout in downtown Auckland on Friday afternoon, amid strike action.

The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union walked off the job for one hour from 12-1pm on Friday.

A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said two fire trucks arrived 30 minutes after a report of smoke coming from the top floor of Auckland’s Downtown ferry terminal was made at about 12.30pm.

The Waitakere and Laingholm Volunteer Brigades, both 30 minutes away from Auckland CBD, were the first at the scene.

Crews from Parnell and Silverdale arrived at just after 1pm.

A fire commander did arrive just after 12.40pm and was the first on site.

A Fire and Emergency spokesperson told RNZ that after gaining access to the building, their crews confirmed at about 1.30pm that there was no fire, and the smoke was from a chimney working normally.

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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/2026/02/13/firefighters-take-30-minutes-to-respond-to-callout-amid-strike-action/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The terrorist who massacred 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques is in prison because he committed the crime, not because of a coerced guilty plea, the Crown says.

Australian Brenton Tarrant wants the Court of Appeal to overturn his convictions and sentence for the March 2019 shootings at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre.

The 35-year-old now claims he was “forced” to plead guilty to 92 charges because he was irrational as a result of torturous and inhumane prison conditions.

On Friday, Crown solicitor Madeleine Laracy told the court the terrorist was where he was always going to end up.

“Mr Tarrant made an informed choice in circumstances where he was between a rock and a rock,” she said.

“If he pleaded, he was certain of conviction. If he went to trial, the Crown says a conviction was a certainty.

“This is more than an overwhelming case so we say there was a certainty of conviction either way and either way, he would spend the rest of his life in prison likely without parole. He knew all of that.”

Laracy said the terrorist’s appeal lacked substance and had no merit.

“My learned friend said yesterday that this is one of the most difficult cases. Certainly, it is one of the most terrible and despicable but in terms of looking at this as an appeal, the Crown would disagree,” she said.

“It is not a legally difficult appeal because the evidence to support the argument is not there and the law is clear.”

The terrorist’s pleas also had no impact on his prison conditions because he would remain subject to very restrictive conditions for as long as he posed a risk to himself and others, Laracy said.

On Thursday, Tarrant’s lawyers claimed their client’s guilty pleas were not voluntary and were the result of the “oppressive” conditions in which he was held.

They argued the terrorist suffered a “complete destruction of his identity” because of the isolation, constant surveillance, deprivation and harassment of his prison conditions.

Crown solicitor Barnaby Hawes said the records and reports from the time showed the terrorist was not suffering from any mental illness and raised no issues about his capacity or fitness to plea.

On 31 July 2019 the terrorist decided he wanted to plead guilty to all charges.

The decision became so advanced that paperwork was prepared in anticipation of the pleas being entered in court.

Four days’ later he changed his mind again, only minutes before he was due to appear before the High Court.

In March 2020 the terrorist appeared via audio-visual link and formally pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of committing terrorism.

Hawes said the terrorist spoke to forensic psychiatrist Dr Jeremy Skipworth in August 2020 ahead of his sentencing.

“Crucially, Dr Skipworth says that Mr Tarrant was fit to plead when he did,” he said.

“At this point, Dr Skipworth is interviewing Mr Tarrant. Mr Tarrant said he was sleeping well. Dr Skipworth says that Mr Tarrant was affable, engaged, polite. He was an intelligent man who enjoys debate.

“No thought forms or disordered thinking was noted. No delusions or perceptual abnormalities. No psychotic disorder either now or in the past.”

Earlier reports and records showed the terrorist felt the “need to uphold the honour of his movement” in May 2019 and that caused him distress and anxiety.

In August 2019 concerns were raised about his depressed mood.

The terrorist told clinicians at that point that he “had been doing a lot of thinking and thinks the attacks may have been a waste of time, a complete waste of time”, Hawes told the court.

“So there’s early evidence there of that type of thought being expressed, whether it is a true reflection of his thoughts at that point or not is perhaps something that will never be known.

“That was around the time that Mr Tarrant had first indicated that he was going to plead guilty and then changed his mind.”

The following month it was reported that the terrorist’s mood had improved after he was allowed to review his manifesto.

In May 2020 he threatened to kill himself but reported his mood had improved after a good sleep and it was noted his recent guilty pleas would have increased his anxiety and stress.

The following month he was again referred to clinicians because he was showering in his gown and did not want to go to Christchurch for sentencing.

Hawes said the records were clear and did not show the extreme mental decline and impairment that the terrorist now claimed was happening at the time.

“If the contention is that he was experiencing the levels of impairment, distress to call into question the guilty pleas the contemporaneous record should show it,” he said.

“There is a picture of fluctuating mood and behaviour but that is brief, it’s situational and it’s responsive to external stressors without a sustained mood disorder or psychosis being identified.

“There are no indications of breakdown signs or clues as to what’s suggested.”

Hawes said lawyers who acted for the terrorist from late March 2019 until June 2020 had also called into question their former client’s claims.

Shane Tait and Jonathan Hudson told the court on Tuesday that once the terrorist indicated an intention to plead guilty, he maintained it from then on and only wished to control when the pleas were entered.

The pair had no reason to distort the record from that time and acted in the terrorist’s best interest and with real care, Hawes said.

“There are direct aspects that he says that he told his lawyers or the way that he was, which they simply refute,” he said.

“That’s of significance, not only in terms of the treatment of Mr Tarrant’s evidence, but also when looking at other evidence and whether it can be accepted or not.”

Hawes said the terrorist’s case boiled down to his word against all others who dealt and interacted with him at the time in question.

“Mr Tarrant is an unreliable witness and his evidence and his narrative should be treated with great caution,” he said.

Crown submissions would continue on Friday before the terrorist’s lawyers were allowed the right to respond.

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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/2026/02/13/christchurch-terrorist-had-certainty-of-conviction-regardless-of-plea-crown-says/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A homegrown scientific discovery from the South Island acclaimed worldwide for its wasp control is now taking on a deadly invader.

The specially formulated protein insecticide bait, which honey bees will not touch, will soon be at the forefront of yellow-legged hornet control on Auckland’s North Shore.

Called Vespex, it was developed by a Nelson-based entomologist.

Richard Toft was working at the then Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in Nelson during the 1980s. He arrived in Tasman as common wasps were swarming South Island beech forests, and he set to work in his lab.

The discovery of the fiprinol-based protein bait provided a valuable new tool for controlling common and German wasps, designed to be used at a key point in their breeding cycle.

Vespex was around 25 years in the making, and Toft’s work was honoured overseas with a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Conservation Innovation Award in 2015. The accolade recognised the significant breakthrough in conservation, helping protect native forests, insects and birdlife from invasive wasps.

The bait has been used extensively by the Department of Conservation to control wasps.

Now building on that success, Biosecurity New Zealand was analysing data to pinpoint the best time to feed it to the hornets.

At this stage of the breeding cycle, wasps and hornets have shifted their diet to more protein-based food sources.

Biosecurity NZ’s Scott Sinclair explained it could be a critical time window.

“The Vespex bait works by either wasps or hornets rolling it into small balls at the bait station and then taking it back to the nest,” he said.

“It’s distributed around the nest to feed the growing colony.

“During that process that fiprinol-based bait gets ingested by a whole lot of either other hornets or wasps in the nest, and a large proportion of that nest [die] off.”

While it had become an extremely valued tool for the control of common and German wasps, Biosecurity was not sure how well it would work for controlling hornets.

Some work in France had suggested they would find it attractive.

“The protein-based baits are going to be more effective against the hornets later in the season,” Sinclair said.

“We’re trying to still determine exactly when we’re going to deploy based on our dissections on the hornet nests that we’re finding, because that allows us to understand how our population is developing. The likely window is in the coming weeks.”

To date, there have been 51 confirmed queen hornets found and 61 nests on Auckland’s North Shore.

Vespex was now manufactured and sold by Nelson company Merchento, of which Toft was the director.

What is Vespex?

Vespex is a protein-based bait formulation that contains 0.1 percent fipronil (a neonicotinoid insecticide) deployed in specialised bait stations. It is designed to be highly attractive to wasps, which take it back to the nest, resulting in the destruction of the nest. It is specifically designed to not impact bees or native insects and birds.

Where was it developed?

Vespex was developed by the Nelson-based company Merchento. Toft, a member of Biosecurity NZ’s Technical Advisory Group and a well-known entomologist in New Zealand, developed the product.

It had been used extensively in New Zealand, including by the Department of Conservation, in both small and large-scale wasp control programmes.

Why is it being used at this part of the breeding cycle?

The timing of the deployment of Vespex in the yellow-legged hornet Response is due to both:

• a) the point in the life cycle, as earlier in season yellow-legged hornets favour more carbohydrate/sugar-based food sources, shifting to more protein-based food sources later in the life cycle
• b) the need for us to have live hornets in the environment to facilitate our best shot at eradication. We need healthy, live hornets to track back to nests so that we can destroy the whole nest (including the queen) in one go. Vespex too early in the season may weaken these nests making them more difficult to detect.

What’s the latest with the hornet?

Ground operations are working to find and destroy nests. To date, there have been 51 confirmed queen hornets found and 61 nests on Auckland’s North Shore.

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