Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Content warning: This story contains graphic violence, which some readers may find upsetting

How a random and deadly stabbing on a bus began with a search for methamphetamine has been revealed in court documents.

Bernice Louise Marychurch was killed in October 2024 after she was stabbed roughly 20 times on the Number 74 bus in Onehunga.

There were nine other people onboard the bus at the time.

The man charged with her murder, 38-year-old Kael Leona, handed himself in to police shortly after.

He previously plead not guilty on grounds of insanity but at a hearing at the High Court in Auckland on Wednesday, Leona entered guilty pleas to murder and strangulation.

He was expected to go to trial in a matter of weeks, but would now be sentenced in May.

Court documents released to RNZ detailed the brutal extent of the murder.

Leona and Marychurch met outside of a Woolworths in Onehunga on the morning of October 23, 2024. The pair did not know each other before then.

They boarded a bus to Panmure, in search of methamphetamine. When neither of them could find the drugs there, they and an associate went to Point England where they ultimately found someone to sell them a point bag of meth.

They consumed it soon after before travelling to Glen Innes.

Leona boarded a bus just after 2pm at the same time as Marychurch, who sat down in the left rear corner of the bus while Leona followed her, sitting at the right rear corner.

Court documents said Leona was agitated, “continually rocking backwards and forwards, from left to right,” and tried at times to speak to Marychurch.

Marychurch was on her phone, with headphones on, for the majority of the bus ride and did not respond.

As they travelled along Church St in Onehunga, court documents said Leona became increasingly more agitated.

Just before 2.30pm, he drew a knife from his bag.

Leona moved across the seat to Marychurch and began stabbing. He pulled her to the right and “plunged the knife into her upper back.”

She fell to the floor, where Leona stabbed her a number of times.

Her face was slashed, cutting her ear in half and causing a deep wound down the left side of her face to her lower jaw.

Passengers yelled at the bus driver to stop and open the doors.

“Some passengers, fearing for their safety, exited the bus,” documents said.

Marychurch tried to defend herself by raising her knees to her body, before Leona pushed them aside and drove his knife into her stomach.

She also suffered wounds on her hands trying to block the knife strikes.

Marychurch was stabbed roughly 20 times.

She was taken to hospital where she died of her injuries.

A summary of facts said Leona twisted the knife around while stabbing.

As he left the bus stepping over Marychurch’s “prone” body, Leona focused on another passenger, following him for roughly 100 metres before the passenger evaded him.

Leona then made his way to a family address, where a relative took him for a walk.

He went to the property of a family friend, knocking loudly on the door and demanding keys to their car.

When the family friend refused, Leona ripped the screen door off its frame and threw it. He grabbed the friend and said “I will kill you” before putting his right hand over their nose and mouth, impeding her breathing.

The family friend managed to break free, when other members of Leona’s family arrived and told him to stop.

He was caught on CCTV around Mount Wellington afterward.

The next day, Leona changed clothes at a store in the central city, leaving without paying, and caught a bus to North Shore where he handed himself in to police.

In a social media post following the murder, Marychurch was described as a loving, beautiful and devoted mother.

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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/2026/02/26/woman-murdered-in-random-attack-on-an-auckland-bus-was-stabbed-roughly-20-times/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A cycling group is praising a government proposal to allow children under the age of 12 to ride their bikes on the footpath.

The idea was floated by Transport Minister Chris Bishop, along with others including allowing E-scooters in cycle lanes and requiring drivers to leave at least a one metre gap when passing cyclists.

Bike Auckland co-chairperson Karen Hormann told Morning Report, letting children ride their bikes on the footpath made sense.

“Having young kids in 50kph traffic is not the way forward. Ideally these younger kids won’t be travelling very fast and hopefully parents and caregivers are helping them to understand how to be considerate.”

Hormann acknowledged there were some concerns about pedestrian safety, but said there were already many shared paths around Auckland and cyclists and pedestrians would need to work together to make the change work.

Motorists would also need to take extra care when coming out of driveways, Hormann said.

“You’re going to have to look threes time, maybe more, just to make sure.”

Hormann also welcomed the proposed change to allow E-scooters in bike lanes, saying vehicles travelling a similar speed should be kept together.

The AA earlier said the plans to update some transport rules reflected the changing times.

Chief policy and advocacy officer Simon Douglas said the AA would consider the detail over the next month, but was supportive for the most part.

He said allowing scooters on cycleways was common sense.

The chief executive for Age Concern, Karen Billings-Hensen said while some of the proposals on rules were good, they key issue would be the impact on pedestrians.

She said there should be consideration around the speed children were cycling and whether they were riding two abreast.

It needed to be clear children need to give way to pedestrians, she said.

Consultation on the proposals would be open until March 15.

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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/2026/02/26/bike-group-praises-government-proposal-to-let-under-12s-cycle-on-footpaths/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Several people have been rescued from Waikato River while clinging onto a tree on Wednesday evening.

Police were alerted at 7.20pm that four men had entered the water to float from the control gates down to Hipapatua Reserve.

With only basic inflatables and no life jackets, the group lost buoyancy and called for help.

A nearby tour group jumped into the river to assist the men, but also had no flotation devices.

When police had arrived, all seven were in distress and, and contacted the coastguard and harbourmaster.

They were able to rescue them using a jetboat and a jetski by 8pm.

Senior Constable of Taupō Police Barry Shepherd said the incident could have had a far more serious outcome.

“We want people to have fun and enjoy the outdoors but there’s a safe way to do it.

“While its admirable that people tried to help, we don’t want any dead heroes.”

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/26/several-people-rescued-from-waikato-river-after-tour-group-gets-stuck-trying-to-help/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are making enquiries into a sudden death in Taupaki near Kumeū on Wednesday night.

At around 9pm, officers attended the incident on a shared driveway off Nixon Road.

Detective Senior Sergeant Megan Goldie, of Waitematā CIB, said a man in his 50s had been riding his motorbike before he was found dead lying beside his motorbike.

“While there are no suspicious circumstances, police will make further enquiries to establish how the man has died and whether he had been involved in a crash.”

A post mortem examination will be carried out as part of these enquiries.

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/26/police-probe-death-of-rider-found-beside-his-motorbike-at-auckland-property/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Is it time to abandon postal voting for local elections?

Several Auckland councillors think so, with voter turnout in the region continuing to decline.

Less than a third of Aucklanders voted in the 2025 local elections. Twenty-nine percent or 345,004 registered electors voted, even fewer than in the previous two elections, where 35 percent voted.

This week, the Auckland Council released data on who is voting, and who is not.

The data reflects a lot of what we already know about local elections, including that young people are less likely to vote, and that voter turnout generally increases with age.

In Auckland, the number of 18 and 19-year-olds participating in local elections dropped from 31,691 in 2019 to 20,791 in 2025, a 34 percent decrease.

Voting had increased for most age groups over 25 in that time. But there was a decline in voter turnout for those aged 61 to 75 in 2025. In 2019, 54 percent of electors in that age group voted, compared to 44 percent in 2025.

As seen in previous elections, in 2025, voter turnout was the lowest in what the council identified as socio-economically deprived neighbourhoods, particularly in southern and western Auckland.

Whau ward councillor Sarah Paterson-Hamlin said the data was “depressing but not surprising”.

“It’s really upsetting, and what’s particularly gutting about it is that the trends are getting worse, and it shows around the local board tables and council table in terms of what lived experience is being represented and what’s being discussed.”

She supported a change to in-person voting for local elections.

“Postal voting isn’t helping. Central government elections have a turnout that’s really enviable, but our local elections don’t. One of the reasons for that has to be that one is postal and one isn’t.

“The fact that it’s all done by postal vote means it takes a lot of effort to change your electoral details when you move, and if you’re renting, you’re possibly moving quite frequently. It’s another thing that increases the lack of representation from people in lower socio-economic areas.”

She suspected postal voting was also a barrier for voters with disabilities, although the council did not collect data on that demographic.

Manukau councillor Alf Filipaina agreed more should be done to increase the number of people voting in his area.

“We need to change the system and hopefully engage more people, particularly the young.”

He said several years ago, Manukau City councillors and staff would visit local schools and talk to students about issues with roaming dogs, rubbish, and wastewater and stormwater.

“I know it was taken up by most of the high schools. When we explained what the council actually does it surprised quite a few of them.

“I think that’s one way to get rangatahi engaged.”

He believed there were a lot of issues with postal voting, and that it made sense to explore other options.

His fellow Manukau councillor Lotu Fuli said voting in Auckland had reached a new low.

She described postal voting as “archaic” and she strongly supported moving away from it.

She said postal voting was also “vulnerable to tampering by those seeking to undermine democracy” as seen in Papatoetoe in the last elections.

Associate professor in politics at Victoria University of Wellington, Dr Lara Greaves, said: “It’s a concern that pretty much every local election we talk about voter turnout being a really big problem. There have been multiple reviews now saying this. But we are seeing government after government not doing very much to change anything.

“Hopefully, at some point central government does something to value local government and make it a bigger part of people’s lives, perhaps making it more efficient and investing in ways to make democracy better.

“A lot of people argue that if the Electoral Commission brought in their mandate and was funded to do so, they would run local government elections in a more efficient way than the private companies who are contracted by local councils. But there’s not a lot of information about how these companies operate in the public domain.”

She said the government needed to seriously look at whether postal voting was still suitable.

“There has been a decline in New Zealand post services across the country, and certain groups, especially lower socio-economic groups and younger people, are more likely to move house.

“Perhaps it’s time to rethink postal voting. Having more in-person voting locations is one thing that has often been promoted.”

She said people not knowing enough about candidates or the role of local government was also known to deter voters.

“Many components of local government and democracy could do better to explain what local government is.

“But the public aren’t necessarily crying out for more stories or information about local government, and therefore journalists and local government people don’t provide that. It becomes a bit circular and quite impossible to solve.”

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has been contacted for comment.

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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/2026/02/26/is-it-time-to-abandon-postal-voting-for-local-elections/

Source: Radio New Zealand

If you want to catch a tiny bird and move it to a new home, you need expert help and your car’s aircon on.

Overheating is a threat to the rifleman.

And buzzing cicadas can get in the way of finding them in the first place as a group rounding up riflemen at the Wainuiomata water catchment area found out.

Behind four locked gates and among a gazillion buzzing cicadas, 30 volunteers intent on capturing up to 40 of the country’s tiniest birds unpacked on a bush road at the weekend.

They tested their radios, gathered together tent poles to spread out their so-called ‘mist’ nets – because they have such a fine mesh – and tested the half-a-dozen calls on the phone app they would play through speakers to lure the birds in.

Jim O’Malley laid out the high stakes to the three capture teams.

O’Malley helped set up the years-long Kotukutuku Ecological Restoration Project to move 40 or so birds north to a restored forest near Paraparaumu.

“The thing with riflemen is that they’re time critical,” he told them.

“After four hours, their mortality rate from stress goes up a lot. So we’re working in a window of three and a half hours from capture to release at Kāpiti.”

Only trained people would get to handle the birds.

Greg Sherley would lead the banding team – he did his doctorate in the rifleman or tītitipounamu.

“Ornithologists will say there’s a ‘giz’ about a bird, a G-I-Z, which is talking about the essential nature of a bird,” Sherley said.

“And rifleman males are green mainly on the top, and in the light, they glow … they glow a green. If you get them in the right sunlight … [it’s] very very much like green pounamu.”

Morag Fordham had this take on the birds.

“They look like wee squeaky brussel sprouts,” Fordham laughed.

They are the country’s smallest but do not rate in the world’s top 10 tiniest, dominated by humming-birds (the smallest bee hummingbird is a third of the weight of a rifleman).

It had taken years and a 150-plus-page report to get the permits for the project – that was “the most frustrating part,” said Sherley – but now they were here.

Fordham would lead one of the three capture teams.

Another team walked in with Simon Fordham – the Fordham pair from Auckland between them have caught over a thousand of the birds (though Morag is more a kōkako specialist).

However, it was evident from the word go there was going to be a problem. The crunch of our footfalls on the gravel road was muffled by another sound.

“We’re trying to find any birds, and so we do have a problem today with cicada noise,” Fordham said.

“That not only makes it harder for us to hear where birds are, but also birds need to be closer to hear the calls that we play.”

The keen ears of Victoria University ecology students proved crucial – Ryan and Harry, who studies the North Island robin, were both on their first bird hunt but seemed especially good at hearing the super-highpitched squeak of riflemen.

A squeak heard, the team I am in set up the net, 4m high and 7m long, along the gravel road and hung the speakers in branches either side.

After an hour waiting we have had no luck and were about to move on.

“I haven’t heard any,” said Simon Fordham. “Emma has.”

Then suddenly, we spot a bird in a tree. It flies into the net, and Fordham and a trained volunteer hurry in, then quietly and calmly get it out.

We radio in the day’s first catch to the banding station.

“Woo-hoo, that’s awesome, great work … we’ll see your rifleman soon,” they radio back.

At this point the three-and-a-half hour countdown to get the bird to Kāpiti began, from the net, to a small soft drawstring bag, to a volunteer to walk it back to the banding station on a fold-out picnic table.

Then into a wee box with a takeaway meal.

“Sometimes you’re lucky if you’re standing by the boxes, you’ll hear this ‘tu, tu, tu, tu, tu’ – it’s the wee riflemen are picking up the mealworms,” said Morag Fordham.

Paddy and Gill get the job of driving the first bird to Kāpiti, the aircon on full.

“No smoking, no talking, no stereo in the car, no phones, no slamming doors … no coffee stops,” they go through the rules.

“It was a silent, freezing trip for an hour,” Paddy said.

“It felt much longer,” Gill said.

It turns out to be the only bird caught on Saturday.

On Sunday morning, coordinator Jen Andrews updated the teams.

“I thought I would mention the bird that was caught yesterday, we heard from Peter the release went really well – he arrived safe and happy, shot out-of-the-box.

“So today we’re really hoping to catch some friends, so he’s not quite the loneliest rifleman in Kāpiti.”

As it turned out, the wee male won’t be.

Sunday was earlier, greyer and the cicadas were a little quieter. It paid off.

Nine birds were caught. I got to walk one out for banding.

Morag’s team ended up catching six of Sunday’s nine.

“Phew,” she said looking down at a juvenile female in her hands. “Hello sweetheart.”

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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/2026/02/26/how-to-catch-and-move-the-countrys-tiniest-bird/

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealanders’ biometric information and other sensitive data may be handed over to the United States government under a new border security agreement between the countries.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed officials were in talks with the US on the requirements and scope of an Enhanced Border Security Partnership (EBSP).

The US has given the 42 countries in its Visa Waiver Program – a reciprocal agreement that allowed citizens to visit for up to 90 days without a visa – until the end of the year to conclude EBSP negotiations or risk losing visa-free travel status.

Any information handed over to the US may end up with the country’s controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement border force – or ICE as it is commonly known – and concerns have been raised about the opaque process, data sovereignity and surveillance overreach.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) refused to clarify what safeguards were being considered to protect New Zealanders’ private information or if it was aware of any ICE personnel stationed in New Zealand at present.

Biometric sharing programmes already exist between Five Eyes countries (New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom) as part of Migration Five arrangements but typically operated on a ‘hit/no-hit’ basis where initial biometric checks provided minimal information, and further data requests were considered on a case by case basis.

But EBSPs could provide full automated access to other countries’ national databases, according to critics and minutes from European Union member state negotiations.

The US Department of Homeland Security’s own privacy assessment noted biometric information could be used to vet any individual “encountered” during border inspections or immigration investigations.

European regulators warned this could extend to minors, victims or witnesses to crime.

The New Zealand government had not stated what information might be shared, what safeguards would apply, or whether parliament or the public would be consulted before any agreement was finalised.

MFAT offered RNZ a one-line statement regarding the negotiations: “New Zealand officials continue to discuss the requirements and scope of an Enhanced Border Security Partnership with the United States.”

However, the ministry refused to respond to follow up questions including when negotiations began, what privacy impact assessments had been undertaken, what safeguards were being considered, and what limitations would apply to collection and use of data.

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters’ office also declined to respond.

Green Party foreign affairs spokesperson Teanau Tuiono criticised the lack of information on the negotiations.

He wanted to see parliamentary oversight and public scrutiny of the agreement.

The government should also disclose details of any privacy assessments it had carried out, he said.

Aotearoa needed to urgently reassess its relationship with the US, Tuiono said.

“We are seeing that alarm right across the world with the direction the US is going under the Trump administration. This is not a time for us to be seeking closer engagement and relationships with the US,” he said.

Council of Civil Liberties chair Thomas Beagle said the proposed scheme was much more invasive than existing data-sharing arrangements and officials should consider the Trump administration’s approach to immigration during negotiations.

“The US is obviously struggling at the moment with the rule of democracy and rights-based society. They have government-sponsored gangs of people wearing masks who refuse to identify themselves disappearing people off the streets,” Beagle said.

“This is seriously in the direction of heading towards fascism – the idea that we’re then going to give these people access to our private data and even the private data of people associated with travellers is very, very concerning.

“Some people are still locked in the past where the US was a reasonably benign ally of New Zealand, and that’s becoming less and less true.

“We wouldn’t give other countries like China or Russia full access into our police and biometrics databases, would we?”

New Zealand’s regulations included the right to have data held by public agencies corrected if it was wrong and the disposal of data after a certain time.

“Once this data passes out of our control, we don’t have that ability anymore. It’s going to be there for five or 10 years and could come back and bite you years later.”

The risk also applied to New Zealanders living in the US, who could get caught up in “trawling expeditions”.

Beagle urged the government to be more forthcoming about the agreement.

A report by the European Data Protection Supervisor – the European Union’s independent data protection watchdog – emphasised the unprecedented nature of such an agreement.

It would be first providing large-scale sharing of personal and biometric data with a non-EU country, and would have a significant impact on privacy rights and the protection of personal data, supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski said.

He called on European Union negotiators to narrow the agreement’s scope to just travellers and require clear justifications for every query, among other protections.

The report warned sharing sensitive data could lead to the detention or imprisonment of individuals.

Māori data sovereignty expert Dr Karaitiana Taiuru said there were specific concerns for Māori in relation to DNA, which is considered a taonga.

“For Maori and for many other indigenous peoples, our DNA is sacred to us. It’s not just this generation’s knowledge, it’s our previous generations and our future generations, so it’s very sacred,” he said.

Sharing police databases raised particular concerns given the overpolicing, profiling and surveillance Māori were subject to in Aotearoa, he said.

“We know from reports over decades there has been an institutional racism issue in the past with the New Zealand Police. So automatically, that data is going to be biased, it’s going to be racist,” he said.

“There’s going to be some very sensitive information in those police files. What happens if someone has been proven innocent by the police? Would that data show up if it’s shared overseas, for example. What about survivors and victims of abuse? They’re entitled to privacy as well.

“Some major questions need to be asked about people’s privacy and our own laws.”

A spokesperson for New Zealand’s Privacy Commission declined to answer questions on whether it had been consulted, what safeguards or limitations were or should be in place and whether a Privacy Impact Assessment had been carried out.

They said the Privacy Act and the new Biometric Processing Privacy Code contained rules around the collection, retention, sharing and security of personal information, including sending material overseas, however, other legislation could take precedence.

Saira Hussain, senior staff attorney at US digital civil rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said there had been a marked change under the Trump administration about how much and what type of data agencies were collecting at the border on “threadbare justifications”.

There was a “let’s grab everything first and ask questions later approach, which is really, really concerning about how that information may end up being used, where it’s being stored, the retention period”, she said.

It increased the possibility of infomation being breached, shared with other goverments or used for unintended purposes, Hussein said.

She was “exceedingly concerned” about what information was changing hands, how US officials would be able to query databases, for how long, and if it was restricted to people who were traveling to the US, “which in and of itself is a very large ask, but the fact that it may be open to others beyond those traveling is seriously alarming.”

Auckland University law professor Gehan Gunasekara questioned how the information would be used.

“If it’s retained for border protection and visa status, that’s fine, but if it’s been shared for other ulterior purposes, maybe with ICE so that they can go after relatives of the people that are traveling or … to build up profiles of people who have relatives in the United States who may be then imperiled that’s where we need to get safeguards,” he said.

While he would like to see more scruntiny of the agreement, New Zealand was not in a strong position to assert itself in negotiations.

“Unfortunately, that’s the reality when you’re dealing with powerful government agencies, especially foreign ones,” Gunasekara said.

“It’s only the very large, powerful trading blocs like the European Union that are in a position to negotiate some kinds of safeguards and we know there’s been perennial conflict between the United States and the European Union when it comes to personal data.”

New Zealand’s intelligence agencies had oversight in the form of the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, Gunasekara said, referencing a highly critical 2018 report that criticised the agencies over a lack of transparency and possible breaches in the way information was collected.

“At that point, safeguards were adopted, and some checks put on that in terms of the intelligence agencies,” he said.

“So if the intelligence agencies can be made to have certain kinds of checks put in those kinds of situations, then one would expect other government agencies to be even more robust in the controls and checks they have – but it seems either that’s not happening or we haven’t been told what those safeguards are.”

The UK has neither confirmed nor denied finalising a deal, but in 2022 US Department of Homeland Security representatives told the European Union home affairs committee three EU member states and the UK had signed on.

Israel signed an agreement in March 2022, entering the programme in 2023.

A DHS press release touted the signing of an agreement with Bahrain in late 2025, which it said would allow for “the automated exchange of biometric data”.

In December, the European Union formally approved negotiations for an overall framework, which allowed member states to negotiate their own agreements beneath the overarching framework.

Australia has not publicly announced negotiations, but has not denied them when asked.

Late last year, the Trump administration announced plans to require visitors from visa waiver countriesdisclose five years of social media history, email addresses from the past decade, five years of phone numbers, personal details of family members, face, fingerprint, DNA, iris and other data when using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization process – an automated system visa-waiver members use instead of applying for a visa.

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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/2026/02/26/government-deciding-whether-us-should-get-access-to-new-zealanders-biometric-data/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fire and Emergency (FENZ) has had to be reminded it is not allowed to order up search and rescue helicopters off its own bat.

Papers released under the Official Information Act show St John told FENZ in 2024 to stop trying to directly order an air ambulance chopper for search-and-rescue (SAR) operations, with Health NZ doing the same last year.

Internal e-mails have showed tensions on the front line about how the situation has been playing out.

RNZ has obtained five e-mails related to one rescue – and four dealing with another rescue – involving up to 15 people, from the FENZ front line up to the head office.

Lines rescue teams and their managers at FENZ complained to headquarters in Wellington last year about having to go through police to access the helicopters, and also sometimes having to wait to be called on to help.

“This is a further instance where we have been delayed,” said one in Waikato in January.

“This has become a recurring issue,” emailed another in Auckland in June.

Others who worked in other parts of search-and-rescue echoed those comments.

“This is taking far too long now,” one told RNZ about a delay in getting police to authorise a helicopter.

Another said a team could have got to a rescue in December “a lot sooner” but “the big cogs” had to turn. “The police are the ones that make those decisions.”

But police said they were the lead authority for local SAR operations and “well equipped to make informed decisions on the use of aviation assets”.

FENZ had not raised any concerns with police, and the agencies regularly discussed incidents, they said.

“Any systemic issues are raised through the appropriate governance forums.”

FENZ told RNZ: “There are no communication challenges between our agencies, and we work well together.”

‘Are we able to reach agreement with the police?’

The rescue side of search-and-rescue is facing greater demands, as big storms become more frequent.

The co-ordination required across multiple agencies and volunteers is key, and most of that responsibility sits with police.

But a lot of co-ordination is left to FENZ. On 13 February – when a man in a ute died in floodwaters near Otorohanga – a volunteer fire crew asked for either “a chopper or Hamilton lines rescue team”, and a FENZ swift water team was sent.

The team have to go by road, with their raft.

But some on the front line have now begun questioning if the system was fast and flexible enough.

They are asking if police should be in charge so much of most SAR operations, when police’s strength was in “search” while FENZ’s strength was in “rescue”, when a person’s location was known.

This has crystallised around who authorises the use of helicopters, in particular air ambulance helicopters (AAH) – the most useful and most expensive choppers.

After a mistake by police at a cliff rescue of a girl at Hahei in January 2025 – where police thought the girl was dead, so forced a lines team to drive by road instead of fly in – a senior FENZ manager wrote to his headquarters.

“The use of AAH resources is essential as most of the helicopters available through our air desk do not have the ability to fly at night or in bad weather.

“Are we able to reach agreement with the police that if we use an AAH for a rescue, then we will pay for it, as cost seems to be the reason our requests get declined?”

‘To try head off any further requests’

While Fire and Emergency has lines rescue teams ready to be deployed quickly – and recently added swift water rescue teams that travel by road – it has much less ability than police to get helicopters for them.

In the Hahei incident, fire-fighters knew the girl was alive, but had to pass their chopper request through St John to police, who admitted they failed to ask enough questions.

FENZ did not sign up to a 2022 agreement between police, ambulance and other SAR agencies, which made it clear that police were in charge of co-ordination.

“Previously, co-ordination agencies contacted providers directly,” Health NZ told RNZ.

The 2022 agreement talks about being flexible while heading off any “sub-optimal” responses or “duplication”.

“The agency receiving that [initial] notification should take initial action with the aim of preserving life, and then must immediately contact the agency with responsibility,” it said. That agency is usually the police.

Health NZ said the routing of all air asset requests through the SAR lead agency – usually police – ensured clear command, effective risk management, and oversight of personnel in “often high-risk operations”.

But two years later, fire-fighters were still trying to order up choppers themselves to carry lines rescue teams.

In April 2024, St John sent FENZ a memo “to try head off any further requests putting the [St John] team in an awkward position of having to decline the AAH to a fellow emergency agency”.

Health NZ followed this up at a May 2025 meeting with FENZ, the OIA showed.

“The issue of cost and scarcity of rotary wing air ambulances was raised [in May 2025] because there are alternative helicopter options for SAR,” HNZ told RNZ.

The ambulance choppers were “the most expensive helicopter option and should be reserved for when their capability is essential to the SAR operation”.

‘Delays of up to one hour or more’

There were two flurries of e-mails within FENZ either side of that May 2025 meeting, concerning the Hahei rescue and another in June 2025 at Musick Point, near Bucklands Beach in Auckland.

At the Musick Pt rescue, a badly injured woman who fell on to rocks was flown out by rescue chopper without lines rescue getting involved – but the FENZ crew were upset at being sidelined, according to e-mails. There was no evidence of the rescue being delayed.

A manager discussed with St John a procedure for getting an early heads-up in event their expertise came in handy.

They also raised it with local police, and said police had acknowledged that fire-fighters’ lines rescue was ready to go quickly, while police SAR were “usually on-call having to come from home or off the road, prepare and load gear, then respond to the incident which could have delays of up to one hour or more, depending on the location”.

In December, non-FENZ responders raised questions after police twice stood down air ambulance choppers already alerted by St John, at Lake Taupō and at Whangaparāoa.

In the Lake Taupō case, a teenager had leapt off a burning boat.

When the chopper was reactivated after a 20-minute stand-down, it spotted him in the water. The teen was not injured.

Meanwhile, police had been talking about helping with the rescue with a non-AAH chopper company, based alongside the AAH one at Taupō airport.

“Cost was not a factor,” they told RNZ. “Depending on the nature of a call and which emergency service receives it, police will also consider local aviation assets, which may be able to deploy faster, with operators who know the area, and any associated risks, well.”

‘The AAH was stood down’

At Whangaparāoa after Christmas, St John’s national airdesk was ready to send out an air ambulance on behalf of police for a man trapped on rocks as big waves came in, but police stood it down.

“Police advised via phone call that they did not need an AAH response, therefore the AAH was stood down by the national air desk and returned to base.”

When RNZ asked why, police said: “Given the information was that there was a person in immediate distress, a Category 1 rescue was initiated, with Auckland Maritime assuming incident control.

“Staff in the Police Eagle helicopter, which was responding, observed that the person was stuck on rocks, not otherwise in further distress. A surf lifesaving jetski assisted in bringing the man to shore.”

The Eagle is usually a surveillance helicopter, not a rescue chopper.

‘Prioritises preservation of life’

When police approve a chopper for a search and rescue operation, they pay for it.

Police told RNZ their response to all emergency calls “prioritises preservation of life above all else”.

They routinely debriefed after rescues and regularly discussed operational matters in a leadership group that included FENZ, St John and NZDF. Maritime NZ’s Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC) – which co-ordinates the bigger rescues – was also part of that.

But a source with experience of air ambulances and SAR told RNZ the system was “a bit of a mess” and “fragmented”.

In the Musick Pt e-mails – which circulated among 15 FENZ lines rescuers and managers in June 2025 – they talked about “recurring” problems swiftly getting the right chopper when they needed it.

After Hahei, a group manager asked headquarters “that our process is promptly reviewed, clearly clarified and cemented for all involved so when we are called upon to rescue and save lives, it isn’t delayed and declined by others out of our organisation due what is perceived to be cost”.

FENZ national manager of response capability Ken Cooper – in a 2025 e-mail – said he would meet partner agencies “with the intent on resolving the matter”.

‘No patch protection’

Cooper told RNZ this month FENZ’s standard procedure for a technical rescue was to pass all information to police to co-ordinate.

It had “reaffirmed” that police were responsible for “requesting our assistance” in a SAR operation, he added.

After Musick Pt, a FENZ assistant commander’s e-mail said there was “no patch protection, no animosity, everyone pitching in together for the best result of the customer”.

Two front-liners expressed alarm that their bosses seemed happy for police to have more say over lines rescue.

“If police were to wrestle the [lines rescue] capability from Fire’s hands ultimately there will be poor outcomes for the public,” one wrote.

RNZ approached most of the people in the FENZ e-mail chain. While the majority did not respond four did – two said they were not aware of wider problems like this, while two said it was very much an ongoing, wider problem.

Health NZ is another gatekeeper in its role commissioning air ambulance choppers, including for ACC.

Because the country had no dedicated search-and-rescue fleet, AAH choppers spent about four percent of their time on SAR operations, it said.

The constraint on who can order one for a rescue was a legal one reinforced by the 2022 agreement to ensure “all assets attending SAR incidents are under the oversight of the SAR co-ordinator”.

The rising cost of air ambulance choppers and how to co-ordinate them efficiently has been an issue for years.

“These aircraft are scarce and high-cost resources, so their deployment is carefully managed to ensure they are used where the greatest clinical benefit can be achieved,” Health NZ said.

Maritime NZ, which runs the RCC, said it was not involved in the rescues that sparked concerns. “Questions on processes and systems relating to specific SARs should be directed to the agency that co-ordinated the response,” it said.

The NZ Search and Rescue Council said it had no mandate over operational matters or co-ordinating operations.

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Residents of Wellington’s Lyall Bay fear a neglected property in the seaside suburb‘s Queens Drive is in such a bad state it is a danger to people passing in front of the building.

Those fears had heightened since a severe storm struck the city more than a week ago, tearing roofing iron from the two-storey building and breaking windows and weatherboards.

Residents said the house had been the subject of multiple complaints over many years and now looked like it was just one wind-gust away from collapse.

At ground level the more than 100-year-old house is boarded up – with windows and what may have been shop frontage covered in painted plywood.

On the second level glass-less windows left the building open to elements and extensive graffiti could be seen across the internal walls.

On the building’s frontage a veranda – blackened with dirt – hung above the pavement. Beneath it a supporting pillar bulged outward at its base.

Emma Dee said the sight of the dilapidated structure made her “hands shake” because her Rongotai home was struck by roofing iron from a different house during the recent storms.

“We had a neighbour – who lived five houses down from us – lose their roof and it took out part of our house while we were in there with with our kids. It’s so amazing to me that nobody was injured by shrapnel or killed or worse.

“I’m shaking. There’s a little bit of PTSD there,” Dee said.

‘One gust of wind away from falling down’

Michelle, a Lyall Bay resident for the last 20 years, said she was surprised the building survived the recent gales.

“There was previous storms where the fire brigade had been called and they had commented on how rickety the roof was when they went up to secure the tiles.

“I was kinda surprised to see it still standing though because over the last six to 12 months the centre beam in the shop window has started to bow quite badly. So surprised that the veranda’s still there but it’s quite dangerous. I really think that council should be looking at stopping people walking underneath it in case an accident happens.

“It’s not somewhere you’d dawdle around under now. It’s one gust of wind away from falling down I’d say,” she said.

Neighbour Jo Maunder said the structure’s deterioration over the last two years had heightened concerns about hazards on the property.

“It’s a safety thing for the community that worries me. There’s so many people going past that building everyday to get their coffee or go to the beach and lately there’s been young people using it as a bit of a club house I think – coming and going – and the police have been involved in trying to secure it better.

“We keep an eye out. We’re just worried about their safety and the safety of anyone else ’cause sooner or later that [beam’s] going to go,” Maunder said.

Several times a year people knocked on her door keen to contact the owners with a mind to purchasing the property but, as of yet, nothing had changed.

“Doesn’t it seem mad that a property like that would sit empty? The building’s gone to rack and ruin but what a great place to live. It upsets me because we need more housing and, you know, it just seems mad,” Maunder said.

Beside the building rope and hastily-nailed planks held together a sagging fence in front of a small garden swamped with six-foot-high weeds.

Maunder said the garden had become so overgrown someone had started stashing stolen items in the overgrowth.

“We just thought ‘what’s all that noise?’ one day and there were all these police cars outside. [They] were going into the property and pulling out brand new bicycles and tyres and kegs of beer,” Maunder said.

Wellington police confirmed they had been called to the house at least five times in the last two years over problems with people entering and damaging the building.

They said they had been in contact with a relative of the owners and had provided “routine prevention advice”.

The home is listed as being owned by Eva Shue and Jan Meng Shue.

RNZ had attempted to contact the Shue family but had not received a response.

Property records showed the Shues were also listed as the owners of a property in Newtown’s Millward Street which burnt down in suspicious circumstances in 2013.

At the time of the fire that house had also been unoccupied for some time – although Detective Sergeant Glenn Barnett said there was evidence of people “dossing down” in the building illegally.

Complaints date back nearly three decades

In a statement Wellington City Council said it had been receiving complaints about the condition of the Lyall Bay building since 1997.

It said – following complaints about the building’s veranda between 2002 and 2006 – an engineer advised that the structure was not dangerous.

The council made further attempts to contact the owners and their son in 2017 and, following additional complaints, between 2022 and 2025.

“The Building Compliance and Building Resilience teams have continued to attempt to engage with the owner with no response. A requirement to undertake maintenance work under the veranda bylaw has been requested with a due date of May 2026. It is important to note that on no occasion has council received any response or communication from the owner,” the council said.

The Building Act 2004 defined a building as dangerous if it was likely to cause damage to other buildings or injury or death to any persons in it or on another property – whether by collapse, in the event of fire or otherwise.

“Council has access to very few powers until a building has reached this high threshold. Once it has reached the threshold of Dangerous or Insanitary there are a number of provisions under the Building Act that council could consider – noting that no matter which path council pursues all we can require of the owner is to address the dangerous or insanitary elements of the building. We cannot require a building owner to renovate the building, or even get it to a habitable state again,” the council said.

The council said compliance officers made regular monitoring visits and said “the building remains secure”.

Another resident in the area – who did not want to be named – said he had made multiple complaints to the council about the building over the last six or seven years.

He said his partner had spoken to a man who regularly accessed a nearby building on Rua Street understood to be owned by the same family, but he had reacted defensively and told her the structure was safe – a statement he took with a grain of salt.

“I don’t feel safe walking under the veranda and I purposely avoid it. Because I just don’t know how long it’s going to hold out.

“It’s very windy in the area and I can just imagine in a hot summer day – if a fire was to go on – it would definitely catch the neighbouring houses,” he said.

Council’s interpretation of Buildings Act may be impeding action – property lawyer

Property lawyer Kristine King said it could be a challenge to balance owner’s property rights against health and safety issues and neighbourhood concerns.

She said it was up to local councils to determine how they interpreted the definitions of an Insanitary or Dangerous structure under the Buildings Act.

“We’ve got these definitions – which are fairly broad – [but] it’s the policies, their own internal policies of how they’re interpreting that and then how they’re applying it in practice.

“It’s interesting that council is saying that’s a ‘high’ threshold when the definition of ‘dangerous’ just includes ‘injury’. It says ‘injury or death’. I understand entirely if their definition required ‘death’, that’s a very, very high standard, but ‘injury’ in of itself is a far lower bar so I think it comes back to council’s interpretation and their own policies and whether we need to be looking at some measure to get them to revisit their approach,” King said.

The owners/occupants of the buildings have been approached for comment.

Wellington City Council said it would respond to a request for comment about recent storm damage to the building under the terms of the Official Information Act.

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