Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Bunnings Warehouse will introduce facial recognition technology (FRT) in its stores across the country in a bid to crack down on high-value theft and serious harm.

From next month, two Hamilton stores will set up the technology to test safeguards are working properly, and it will then be rolled out across the country.

Bunnings manager Melissa Haines said the scale of retail crime was growing, particularly when it came to threatening behaviour by repeat offenders, and showing no sign of stopping.

“Our number one priority is keeping team and customers safe, and we believe that FRT can play an important role in helping to protect people from violence, abuse and intimidation in our stores by repeat offenders.

“The scale of retail crime in New Zealand is accelerating and shows no signs of stopping.”

She said the company had “undertaken a thorough assessment process, with privacy, safety and community expectations at the forefront, and we are taking a phased approach to get this right”.

“FRT gives us a proactive warning when a serious repeat offender enters the store, so we can act before something happens. It adds one more layer to the safety tools we are already using, such as security guards, team member training, body-worn cameras and serious incident response processes.”

Last year three Christchurch supermarkets began trialling FRT, like Bunnings citing regular offenders. Operator Foodstuffs South Island said it would not be used on teenagers, despite people under 18 making up more than half of those deemed a problem.

A study in 2024 found it reduced serious harm in supermarkets by 16 percent.

The Privacy Commissioner in 2025 said facial recognition technology in retail outlets had potential safety benefits, despite raising significant privacy concerns.

Police have been using the technology for years.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/07/bunnings-to-trial-facial-recognition-tech-in-hamilton-stores/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Coast Road, Karitane is blocked due to a crash south of the Otago township.

Emergency services were called to the two-vehicle crash just south of Marks Road about 9.25am Saturday.

Police said early indications were the crash had caused serious injuries.

The Serious Crash Unit has been advised.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/07/road-blocked-in-otago-due-to-crash/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130J Hercules is set to depart from Auckland’s Whenuapai air base on Saturday morning for the Middle East to help any New Zealanders who may be stranded by the US-Iran conflict.

Minister of Defence Judith Collins said the government’s immediate priority is supporting New Zealanders in the Middle East.

“New Zealanders in the region are still being advised to shelter in place, or take any safe and practical opportunities to leave.

“We are preparing a range of contingencies should evacuation operations become possible.”

Collins said Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular staff and two Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130J aircraft are being pre-deployed so they “can respond quickly when conditions on the ground allow”.

One of the C-130J Hercules aircraft will depart from Whenuapai on Saturday morning, and is joining another Hercules which Collins said is already in Asia and is being “re-tasked to support this effort”, and is being moved to an “on-going staging location”.

Collins said for security reasons she could not provide specific routes, timings or destinations, but said the aircraft were being positioned to ensure they were ready to assist with any evacuation operations should conditions allow.

Collins also urged New Zealanders in the Middle East to register with Safe Travel to stay updated on evacuation options.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/07/defence-force-plane-leaves-for-middle-east-to-help-new-zealanders-stranded-by-conflict/

Source: Radio New Zealand

One person is dead and another has moderate injuries after a single-vehicle crash in Paparoa, Kaipara District.

Emergency services were called to the intersection of Paparoa Valley Road and Franklin Road at 12.35am on Saturday, after a vehicle had gone down a bank into a stream.

Police said a member of the public performed CPR before emergency services arrived, but one of the car’s occupants died at the scene.

The other was taken to hospital in moderate condition.

The Serious Crash Unit is investigating.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/07/person-dies-in-single-vehicle-crash-in-kaipara/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fieldays are one of the few events farmers will get off paddock for, but a new form of gathering aims to add more life to their work-life balance.

The Underground Festival, which took place on 18-19 February, is a multiday event which combines regenerative farming talks with glamping, music and “mean feeds”.

It’s the brainchild of Tokoroa-raised Fran Bailey, who got the idea after working at the Groundswell festival in the UK.

“It was at a time where there was, sort of, a lot of negativity around farming and climate change.

“I just thought, farmers care about the land and not enough people know about this, so I just, sort of, put a stake in the ground to help tell their stories.”

Bailey found herself working at Groundswell, which takes place annually at Lannock Farm in North Hertfordshire. She eventually brought the idea back home, running a pilot of the Underground Festival in 2025.

One year later, and the vineyard at Greystone Wines was covered in tents and teepees, with 400 farmers making the trip to Waipara with their families.

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On the education front, a number of guest speakers ran talks in the large gathering tents. Topics ranged from biochar to soil health, to moths and butterflies.

Mangaroa Farms kickstarter Jules Matthews spoke on inspiring other farmers to take up the regenerative torch.

“This community is always very embracing, and it’s such a safe environment,” she said.

She attended the test festival last year, and was thrilled by 2026’s crowd size.

“It seems like people are really engaged, and each one of the tents has a good turnout of people.”

The event was as much a celebration of food as it is farming, according to chef Max Gordy. He came down from Wellington to join the Base Food by Fire team in serving up some kai.

Gordy’s ‘eat local, waste less’ ethos aligned with the festival perfectly.

“I’m not going to use processed stuff,” he said. “If you don’t know where your food’s coming from, you’re doing it wrong.”

Slow-cooked beef, roasted zucchini, bread made with local flour – it was all there, and well appreciated by attendees.

“We’re cooking for a bunch of farmers that really appreciate the soil, so they’re probably the most chilliest clientele we could possibly have.”

Bailey hoped this year’s successful run would encourage a bigger turnout in 2027.

“I would just love to see it continue to grow in quite an organic way.”

• Discover more about the Underground Festival here.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/07/country-life-inside-aotearoas-regenerative-farming-festival/

Source: Radio New Zealand

On 16 acres in Poukawa, south of Hastings, once-bare paddocks have been transformed into a thriving interconnected place for growing.

Kahikatea Farm is a permaculture farm with an established food forest covering just over a hectare, as well as two hectares of silviculture and more recently what’s known as a paddock paradise horse track system.

At the heart of the farm though is the certified organic nursery growing more than 400 different types of permaculture plants.

“They all have at least one main function, and hopefully several other functions as well,” permaculture teacher and gardener Jo Duff explained.

“So they attract pollinating insects, they’re nitrogen fixing, medicinal herbs, they’re edible leaves, they’re perennial vegetables. Yeah, they’ve got to have a use. We don’t grow what we call roundabout plants.”

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Jo and her husband Aaron established Kahikatea Farm almost 20 years ago, taking its name from the Kahikatea Forest which would have stood at the site long ago, before it was converted to grazing farmland.

The Duff family had a vision of working with nature.

They created swales – water harvesting ditches which follow the contour of the rolling hills – to plant the first fruit trees which now form the upper canopy of their established food forest.

Near the start of summer when the surrounding farmland is already golden brown, this part of the farm was an green oasis, layered with fruit-bearing plants.

They established their own permaculture garden to feed them and the many helpers on the farm, including volunteers and those keen to learn from Jo about permaculture principles – earth care, fair share, and people care.

“The vegetable garden supports our family and anybody else who’s staying here at the time,” Jo told Country Life.

The organic nursery was their main business. She said the certification process was relatively straight forward as they grew everything in a potting media that was bought in and pre-certified.

“The potting mix has got fertiliser to last it a good wee while. That’s based mostly on seaweed, compost, and then a trichoderma, which is a friendly micro-organism, which aids with root development and just the basic health of the plant.

“Most things are out the door before really we need to give them an extra feed, and if we do, that’s a seaweed fertiliser.”

Where the organic nursery really shined though was in its feathered friends who helped with pest management, targetting larger snails and slugs which threatened the plants.

They had three different groups of chooks – Rhode Island Reds, Black Orpingtons, and Bantams – and two different types of ducks – Indian Runner ducks and Cayugas – performing different functions in different parts of the farm.

Since introducing the birds, Jo said it had “completely changed” the nursery.

“Everyone who works here really loves having them around. It makes you slow down, because you just stop and watch what they’re doing or have a laugh at some antics, and every spring comes around and you go ‘oh my God, those ducklings are so cute’ and the novelty never wears off.

“We’re so busy in spring, it’s so nice to have that lovely distraction and yeah, it does make you slow down.”

• Find out more about Kahikatea Farm here.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/07/country-life-lessons-in-permaculture-at-kahikatea-farm/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Kiwi pilot Henry Phelps has gone from wilderness flying in New Zealand to helping combat Australia’s devastating bushfires.

Working with his brother to control the fires from the air has been an “amazing” experience, he told Country Life.

When not flying for Sounds Air, Phelps has been commuting to Melbourne for the past few months to pilot a small fixed-wing plane as part of an aerial surveillance team, helping to track the bushfires and relay information about their path.

A major heatwave across Australia’s southeast stoked the fatal fires this summer, forcing hundreds of rural residents to evacuate and burning more than 400,000 hectares in Victoria alone.

Phelps joined his brother Edward, already working in Melbourne as a helicopter pilot, for the bushfire season in September last year.

The brothers piloted their craft over the fires while an operator in the rear took images using specialised photographic equipment “gathering real time intelligence and sending that to the ground crews in terms of mapping the fires and getting a good grasp of the size of them, the hot spots and where best to attack from the ground”, Phelps said.

In Victoria the fires have laid waste to swathes of farmland, killing 45,000 farm animals at last count. Two farmers were killed in Western Australia trying to fight the fires there.

“Because we’re at such a high altitude, it’s really hard to get a proper grasp of the sheer scale of it.

“But as soon as that fire grows, you can see the smoke obviously lifting up into the atmosphere, and the smoke spreading, you know, for miles, hundreds and hundreds of kilometres.”

The 26-year-old, who has been flying a Pilatus PC-12 – a single-engined turboprop – in the fire zones, says it has been a rewarding job knowing the data he helped collect, assisted people on the ground.

“It’s pretty incredible to see the maps come to life, especially once you’ve flown the routes.

“This fire may, because of the westerly, may be moving more so to the east and so you see the outlines grow and for us as fire scanners to see it in real time, then you know, once you’ve finished and see it on the emergency app, it gives you a pretty rewarding sense of this is actually pretty, pretty cool.”

At times, he was aerial scanning the same fire as his brother, who has also been doing aerial intelligence work but at a much lower altitude.

“There was one specific time where we were both on the same fire in the middle of Victoria, and it was just us two on it and talking together and that was pretty special for me.”

Phelps started his commercial pilot career flying tourists over Fiordland, and he said he was used to “tricky” flying.

“The weather changes in a split second, so that is definitely a big part of the challenge, and also with the high terrain, just being very aware of having exit strategies and knowing what you can and can’t do and knowing what the aircraft capability is as well.”

The son of cropping farmers, he got interested in flying when helicopters came to spray the crops.

“I spent a lot of time in those Hughes 500s as a kid, and I just really loved it.”

• Learn more about aerial fire mapping technology used in Australia here.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/07/country-life-young-kiwi-pilot-helps-map-and-fight-victorias-devastating-bushfires/

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/07/pene-pati-watched-himself-in-new-doco-god-this-kid-is-stubborn/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The centre of New Plymouth has been taken over by street artists, musicians, and a whole lot of spray paint this week.

The Get Up Festival is back in town for the first time in more than a decade and 26 graffiti artists are transforming the CBD into a living gallery.

Event co-founder Cam “Oddjobs” Shennan said the Get Up Festival was designed as a celebration of street culture.

“The festival is all about a community buzz I think, bringing good people together and now my kids are all grown up that’s why I’m re-doing it now.

“I tried doing [it] during Covid but Covid happened and I tried doing it with another couple of people, but they didn’t have the same enthusiasm as me, you know, I believe you need to be in the scene to do these festivals really.”

Originally from the UK, Shennan had expanded the festival offering to include workshops, exhibitions, live music and even a graffiti battle.

“Like anything out of the hip hop scene you’ve got the rap there’s always a battle, DJing you’ve got the DJing and scratch battles and then you’ve got the graffiti battles.

“So, this time we’re going to do it. We’ve got a wooden wall and I’m going to make an X cross-section and four artists are going to paint on an internal corner with 13 cans of the same colour and one and a half hours painting the same word and there’s going to be a public vote for the winner.”

Raglan artist Theo Arraj was working on a large-scale mural from a hoist in Huatoki Plaza when RNZ visited.

“I’m kinda making [it] up as I go it’s open to interpretation and I think everyone is seeing their own thing in there. I don’t really like to explain my art too much, you know, it’s in the eye of the beholder as they say.”

Arraj was in two minds about his piece still being there once he had left town.

“It’s like a double-edged sword knowing that your art is going to stick around on the wall for a long time because most artists will look at their own work and see all the things they could’ve done better.

“So, it’s nice but then at the same time I’ll probably come back here in a couple of months’ time and be like hmmm I should’ve this and should’ve done that.”

In a lane nearby, Wellington fine arts student Sheldon Morehu aka “Rytem” was more in an old school style.

“This is just a big wall of like graffiti everyone else is doing the murals sort of like full on detail big scale sort of thing, but we’re just sticking to the OG original style of graffiti big words, letters, like massive letters and I guess some of them are readable and some of them you can’t read.”

He hoped the work would help change some people’s perception of graffiti.

“This is pretty much a tag just an extended version an abstract version whatever you want to call it. This is were it leads to what we are doing now big bright colourful words.”

Morehu was grateful to be able to showcase his work.

“It’s giving us the opportunity so [the] public can see what we do and see that it’s not all the ugly stuff they don’t like. And it’s art definitely.”

Tucked away on Church Lane, Venus Hoy was plotting out another mural.

“I do a lot of work around surrealism and the inner mind landscape, so my piece is pretty centred around that it’s this dreamy landscape of a woman in space with a few little bits and bobs.

“It’s just a piece centred around recognising what a beautiful gift it is to be here on earth.”

She loved the ethereal natural of street art.

“I hope the artworks don’t last too long because that’s a thing that I love about street art and murals is that they are constantly changing. I love places like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for that and I hope they keep evolving, so I hope people enjoy it for a little while and then it changes to something else equally beautiful.”

Shennan meanwhile hoped the festival’s legacy would hold for a while yet.

“This is a festival that actually stays all year round it doesn’t roll into town and roll out again.

“Hopefully it will bring some more people into town because I know town is kind of dying a little bit, so get art tours happening and make it into a bit of an art destination and education as well.

“That’s why I keep the graffiti side of it because people think graffiti is damage, but to me it is a letter form.”

The Get Up Festival wraps up on Monday.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/07/get-up-street-art-festival-returns-to-new-plymouth/

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand’s love affair with property could be in the break-up stage, with no shortage of houses and investors turning to the share market.

It’s been a national obsession for decades – buying property and creating wealth through soaring capital gains.

But the days of making huge, untaxed profits on such investments are likely over.

The Reserve Bank’s chief economist says we may be seeing a “structural change” in the housing market; there are too many empty townhouses failing to sell; prices are going sideways; and the prospect of a capital gains tax being introduced is becoming more certain.

First home buyers are making a comeback.

But is it too early to say we’re seeing the end of the housing crisis?

On this episode of The Detail we look at where we’re sitting, with experts saying while there’s no shortage of homes available now, that doesn’t necessarily make them affordable.

There are several factors behind the shift.

Younger investors who know they can’t afford to get a foot on the property ladder are turning to KiwiSaver and managed funds – they’re the “Sharesies” generation. The ASB’s latest Investor Confidence Survey says traditional property investment is losing ground to options that provide better returns.

New intensification rules have seen developers replace traditional single-home sections with townhouses – so much so that the market is now awash with them.

Rents are falling – it’s now a tenants’ market – meaning returns on property are less certain. Rock bottom interest rates, which encouraged debt, are unlikely to ever return.

And the ANZ’s chief economist, Sharon Zollner, says there’s an inevitability of new taxes that would dent profit margins in property.

She says maybe a Capital Gains Tax is not on our doorstop, but it will come eventually.

“How long can New Zealand really remain such an outlier internationally, and refuse to have that conversation?” she says.

“I do wonder if people are starting to think that perhaps there’s an inevitability around tax change.”

Zollner says first home buyers have got the field to themselves and some of them are taking advantage of it.

“But then the immediate question is – why have they got the field to themselves? Where are the investors? And I think that’s where it gets interesting.”

She says investors seem to be wary. Adding to the uncertainty has been a very strong outflow of Kiwis to Australia, and they are putting their own houses on the market.

“While interest rates have come down a long way, they’re nowhere near the lows we saw in the boom, and now it’s a question of when they’ll be hiked.”

But Zollner says there are bigger structural issues.

“Can we expect similar returns from the next 10 years say, in the housing market, that we’ve seen over the last decades? And there I think more people are realising, probably not.”

BusinessDesk property editor Maria Slade believes we are on the cusp of a change.

“Perhaps people are starting to see houses as something you live in, and not necessarily an investment,” she says.

“Successive governments have tightened the rules around property investment. It’s not quite as attractive as it used to be. And also the costs have made it less attractive – insurance has gone up, rates have gone up … you’ve got to be getting pretty good rents to get a good yield out of an investment property now. So that’s also, I think, changed the mindset a wee bit.

“I think the tide has turned in terms of how New Zealanders are looking at property.”

Slade says that’s a good thing.

“We have way too much wealth tied up in property – it’s unproductive wealth, it just sits there on a 700 square metre section … it’s not doing anything for the country.

“We definitely need to get over that one if the country’s going to become more prosperous going forward.”

As an example of change, Slade has been looking at what commentators are saying is a glut of townhouses, and the consequences of that. Some are sitting on the market for so long they’re no longer considered ‘new builds’, which means favourable lending for first home buyers doesn’t apply.

In spite of the stagnant market, new data from Infometrics shows consents for townhouses grew by 14 percent from the year to January.

In today’s podcast, Slade talks about some possible reasons for that, including a possible move away from cookie-cutter style homes without car parks to less crowded buildings.

Kelvin Davidson, the chief Property Economist at Cotality, hedges his bets when asked if the housing crisis is over.

“It depends what you mean by ‘housing crisis’,” he says.

“I suppose what people think about … over the past 20 or 30 years is an affordability crisis where house prices have been too high in relation to incomes and it’s been a stretch for people to get onto the housing ladder.

“I don’t think it’s ever been easy to buy your first house. It’s been a challenge through time.

“So is that crisis over? Maybe.

“I think we may be reaching a turning point in the market now, where the mindset is shifting and people are starting to realise that actually, ever-rising house prices isn’t necessarily the best thing for a country.”

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/07/the-great-property-breakup/