AM Edition: Top 10 Politics Articles on LiveNews.co.nz for April 7, 2026 – Full Text

Source: Radio New Zealand

A former government statistician is sounding alarms about our ditching of the five-yearly census, saying we risk losing a rich seam of information.

It’s getting harder and harder to nail down the numbers when it comes to collecting statistics.

People are increasingly wary of filling out surveys, data is becoming politicised and the results are becoming harder to follow.

In the last several weeks, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has struggled to produce accurate figures on fuel shipments; the health ministry has had to sort out confusion over Covid death figures; and the chief holder of information, Stats NZ, has bungled the food price index.

“We certainly endeavour to make no mistakes,” says the Government Statistician, Colin Lynch.

“That’s the ambition – everything’s 100 percent correct – and you need to put that in context of 270-plus releases every year and hundreds of thousands of series.

“But for the food price index, we did get it wrong. I did what I think was right which was to be transparent about it. And it didn’t have any impact, nor would it have had any impact on the CPI or GDP or any other macro-indicators. I have a review underway so that we do completely understand what happened … and we actively learn [from] the error and what underlying causes we might need to change in our systems to make sure we don’t repeat that mistake.”

He says trust is at the centre of everything they do, and he’s very focused on it.

Lynch denies the department’s seven percent budget cut has affected the quality of information gathering or public distribution of statistics.

“We’re unapologetically focused on delivering value for money for New Zealanders,” he says.

While the head count has reduced in recent years (media estimates suggest by about 300 people) he’s confident they have the right people in the right roles in the right places.

Former government statistician Len Cook says Stats NZ’s website is “almost impenetrable for an ordinary person to use” and Lynch replies to that by saying it’s being rebuilt.

He says the world is increasingly complex and increasingly AI-led.

“My focus is ensuring New Zealanders and others can get access to that information in that world. So with that in mind we are rebuilding our website because what we’ve discovered, I’m sure like many others, is that more and more people are consuming our data through AI search or AI-related tools. We’re seeing less individual visitors to our website because we know that AI’s the main source of information, with AI searches.

“We will have a new website by early next year and we’re also looking that all our data tools that are on that website are up-to-date and AI-enabled.

“People will still be able to visit the website and get what they want directly, but we also need to make sure that when people put a search for GDP in AI they get high quality Statistics New Zealand official statistics.”

There’s a huge change coming with the way we collect those statistics – the traditional five-yearly, knock-on-every-door census is going. There’s an amendment bill going through Parliament now (it’s passed its first reading) that would get rid of it in favour of an administrative data-first approach.

Stats NZ has done a Regulatory Impact Statement on the change, including warnings that it would mean some reductions in data accuracy, detail and coverage, especially initially for groups such as disabled people, rainbow communities and small ethnic communities.

But it also points out that there’s growing public resistance to complete census forms, and rising costs – the 2023 census cost about $326 million dollars to carry out.

“What’s changing is the way we collect the census,” says Lynch.

From 2030, yearly surveys of about five percent of the population would be run alongside the collection of data from government departments, such as prison numbers from the Justice Department, welfare figures from WINZ, car registration numbers from NZTA, etc.

Lynch says it will mean richer data available for New Zealanders.

But Len Cook is raising alarm bells about the move, including that no independent expert has been asked for advice.

He’s sent a 10-page list of concerns to MPs and anyone who might be thinking about making a submission on the amendment bill. Among those concerns is that data will be of lower quality and leave gaps – including of society’s ‘invisible’ people, such as caregivers for relatives, new stay-at-home parents, the disabled, religious groups, small communities and Māori.

And he says we’re making the change in the midst of a population storm, when, for example, there’s a huge outflow of young New Zealanders. This has repercussions for the projected tax take, housing planning, education and much more. Cook worries that there will be turmoil if decisions are driven by political instincts rather than sound statistics.

New Zealand isn’t the only country making changes around the census but Cook says in many of them, there’s also been a move towards national ID cards to keep track of the population – something that New Zealanders aren’t keen on.

Also on today’s podcast we speak to two journalists who’ve had head-banging moments when it comes to obtaining official statistics, Newsroom’s Jonathan Milne and The Detail’s own Amanda Gillies.

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

You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fifty years ago, the trial of Bill Sutch on charges of breaching the Official Secrets Act rocked the nation. Historian Sarah Gaitanos says evidence that was withheld from court gives us an insight into his work as an alleged agent of the KGB. That evidence is published here for the first time.

Bill Sutch could be extremely persuasive. An influential and self-assured intellectual, he could give an impressive account of himself.

In his many books his accounts of his epic solo trek in 1932, around the Arctic Ocean, across the Soviet Union and over the mountains of Afghanistan into India became more extravagant with every telling. Publishers, readers, even his wife Shirley Smith, believed them. Decades after his death, Smith was shocked to discover that it was mostly a fantasy.

Sutch had spent only two weeks in Russia. But that trip – and those two weeks in Soviet Russia – was nevertheless the start of a true story that culminated in his arrest in 1974.

In February 1975, Dr Bill Sutch was tried under the Official Secrets Act. The Act dealt with what was loosely known as spying and wrongful disclosure of communication of official information for a purpose that prejudiced the safety or interests of the state. Sutch, it was said, had been using his position of influence close to the government to gather sensitive information and pass it on to the Soviet Union – an enemy of the state in the Cold War era.

Sutch had been a senior economist in the public service, head of the Department of Industries and Commerce until his forced retirement. Since then he had worked as a consultant. He was an influential public speaker and author with a devoted following.

Over five decades since his trial, accounts of the circumstances surrounding the case have diverged depending on who is telling the story. Those who hold that Bill Sutch was a patriot who would never have betrayed his country shrug off the evidence that he was a KGB agent and point to the lack of evidence of what he was actually doing for Soviet intelligence.

But two documents that NZSIS officers found in Sutch’s office safe do provide direct insight into his activities and relationship with the KGB.

Both written in 1970, the first is a report with classified information on a Cabinet decision about Japanese fishing rights in the Pacific. It shows that Sutch, though no longer a public servant, had access to top level sensitive information. His report, apparently prepared for his KGB handler at the time, gave the Soviet Union an edge in their negotiations for fishing rights in New Zealand waters, potentially compromising the New Zealand Government’s efforts to police their relations with the USSR.

The second – the focus of this article – is a document made up of six short profiles of senior civil servants. It shows a different aspect of the role of a KGB agent.

Attorney General Sir Martyn Finlay, who had the responsibility of deciding whether the case should proceed to court, would later acknowledge that the profiles had ‘tipped the scales’ in his decision to prosecute Dr Sutch, adding that their ‘possible effects in one way or another’, had caused him the greatest anxiety.

This raises intriguing questions. The prosecution went to lengths to determine how to present them in the trial but in the event they were kept secret. The profiles remained classified until 2008 and have not been published until now.

Listen now to The Agency, a new podcast detailing the story of a Kiwi spy who was close to the Sutch case before spending six years in cover for the CIA

I came to the Bill Sutch story as the biographer of his wife (human rights campaigner and trailblazing lawyer) Shirley Smith. Sutch and Smith were married for over 30 years and after his death in 1975, she spent another 30 years defending his reputation. In private, she was more circumspect.

I examined her marriage, her responses to revelations about her husband that continued to emerge, her agonizing doubts and confusion, what she knew and didn’t know about his activities. She would say that her husband didn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story but decades after his death she was still discovering how far he had deceived her. Her discovery of letters Sutch sent to his mother revealed the simpler truth of his travels as a younger man.

She had been shocked, too, to learn of Sutch’s arrest on the night of 26 September, 1974 after agents picked him up on the way to a meeting with Dmitri Razgovorov, First Secretary of the USSR Embassy in Wellington.

The two had been observed meeting in obviously clandestine circumstances, following standard spy craft procedures known as ‘Moscow rules’.

After he was brought in, Detective Colin Lines urged Sutch to come clean and get ‘off the hook’ with the Russians. Sutch at one point asked what would happen to him if he did?

The primary purpose of the joint operation between Police and Security Service was to get Sutch’s cooperation, but Sutch refused to talk to anyone from the SIS and the police had not been sufficiently briefed as to how the matter would be hushed up. In return for his full co-operation, a full and frank account of his association with the Russians, Sutch was to be given immunity. He would have received the knighthood he longed for. His public reputation would have been left intact.

Not knowing this, Lines could only reply to Sutch that it would be a better outcome for him. Sutch considered this before replying that there was no hook.

This testimony, along with evidence of Security Service surveillance of Sutch’s clandestine meetings with Razgovorov, was presented in court.

Whether or not the jury would have returned a different verdict had the report on Japanese fishing rights and the profiles been presented as evidence, one cannot say. Sutch cut a frail figure in court and there was little desire to see him sent to jail. (He would die of liver cancer months later.) According to Smith, a juror told her that they wanted to acquit him and realised they didn’t have to give a reason.

While his acquittal did not end public debate, the profiles were kept out of the discussion until former Attorney General Sir Martyn Finlay was interviewed about them almost 20 years later. What exactly they contained was still not disclosed.

To recap, the profiles refer to a document found in a file labelled ‘Foreign Affairs’ in the safe in Sutch’s office. The document was headed ‘Memo for File’, dated 20 October 1970, and was made up of short pen portraits describing the personal experiences, aptitudes and ambitions of six civil servants, their interests and relationships with their wives.

In four of the six, their attitude towards the Soviet Union is indicated.

The subjects were Tom Larkin and Charles Craw of Foreign Affairs, Geoff Easterbrook-Smith, Geoff Datson and Harold Holden of Industries and Commerce, and Jack Lewin, Department of Statistics. Lewin was Sutch’s closest friend. None of these men were ever suspected of spying for the Soviet Union.

You can read the profiles at the bottom of this article, along with the accompanying SIS analysis.

The SIS analyst who examined the subject, written style, nature and scope of the comments concluded that they were written by a single author, a man with a ‘good working knowledge of Foreign Affairs and Industries and Commerce personnel, and of I & C departmental activities and postings reaching many years back.’

The author wrote familiarly about his subjects as if they were inferior to him. It was noted that Sutch’s background of employment, his general status and degree of influence over the years, fitted him for the part.

The profiles seemed to have been intended for a third person who had asked for information of this sort, the analyst concluded. The first five men were all dealt with in a similar way while the comments on Lewin were more specific.

The analyst wrote a hypothetical brief that the author might have been given:

Prepare brief notes on some of the more senior offices in Industries & Commerce and Foreign affairs Depts. known to you, who hold liberal left-wing political views. I attach a list of points to be covered in your consideration of the men. At the same time, include some comments on LEWIN with respect to his political views, his relationship to the NZ Labour Party and his family interests.

1 Age

2 present job/special expertise

3 Overseas postings

4 Experience and ability

5 Political views (general)

6 Political views during youth

7 Attitude to Soviet Union

8 Intelligence/intellectual ability

9 Interests/hobbies

10 Wife’s attitudes

11 Openness/talkativeness

12 Response to socials/dinners/parties

13 Vulnerabilities/weaknesses/ambitions

The analyst prepared this brief without reference to the Canadian Royal Commission Report of 27 June 1946 (the Gouzenko Report) which outlined criteria Soviet military intelligence used for recruiting agents, based on a document provided by GRU defector, Igor Gouzenko.

Subsequently the analyst studied that report and compared the similarities. He concluded that the ‘memo for file’ was written by Dr Sutch for a trained Russian Intelligence Officer seeking personality information on senior officers in the New Zealand Government Service, specifically in areas where they would expect to have access to classified information and to travel abroad on Government postings.

Crucially, this could then be used by the Soviets for recruitment.

The profiles offer the kind of information that enables an intelligence officer to assess a target: an individual’s likely career path, how to make a friendly approach based on mutual interest, vulnerabilities that might offer leverage, and so on.

The recruitment of foreign government officials is highly prized by intelligence agencies because it allows access not simply to information, but also to people elsewhere in the hierarchy. If the target is recruited in place and remains well placed, the connection can remain open and fruitful over many years.

Intelligence and defence officials are prime targets; after them, foreign affairs.

The profiles were therefore seen as significant supplementary evidence. The Crown Counsels, Solicitor General Richard Savage and Paul Neazor, decided early on to call an expert witness who could explain the methods and information targets of Soviet intelligence agencies. They considered calling a New Zealand intelligence officer to give such evidence, then decided it would be preferable to call an officer from another Service. They approached MI5 but the British were unhappy about one of their officers appearing in court in New Zealand.

Reverting to their original proposal, on 20 December, the prosecution gave preliminary notice of their intention to call additional evidence along with an officer of the New Zealand Service to explain it.

When Bungay showed the profiles to Sutch, he denied all knowledge of them and said they must have been a plant. Smith later told him that wouldn’t sound likely.

Sutch’s former sister-in-law Gladys Brown, who had been his typist in 1970, told police that she hadn’t typed them and didn’t know anything about them but according to an unsent letter to Martyn Finlay among Smith’s papers, Brown confirmed that they were typed on the office typewriter. An SIS search for the typewriter was unsuccessful. It left a question as to whether all of this would amount to evidence in the law.

The decision not to present the profiles in the trial surprised Finlay. He later asked for an explanation. Neazor wrote on 21 July 1975 that it was decided ‘there could be an argument about its probative value not sufficiently outweighing its prejudicial effect, and that it was not of sufficient value to the case as framed to warrant the diversion it would cause.’

The ‘diversion’ resonates with Finlay’s later comment about their ‘possible effects in one way or another’ that caused him such anxiety. They possibly had political repercussions in mind.

The report on the Japanese fishing rights was also not given in evidence. And at the last minute before the trial, the judge decided that cryptic entries from Sutch’s diaries that recorded times and places of clandestine meetings with his handler for years before 1974 were inadmissible because they predated the time-frame of the charge.

All this evidence was analysed by Chief Ombudsman Sir Guy Powles in his [https://www.nzsis.govt.nz/assets/NZSIS-Documents/News-supporting/SutchOmbudsmanReport.pdf

investigation of NZSIS after the Sutch trial], following allegations against them. He found the allegations were without foundation but noted that Sutch’s association with the Russians had lasted for a period of years before his meeting with Razgovorov on April 18, 1974.

Other circumstantial evidence that came to public attention was the wealth Sutch had accumulated, exceeding anything he could have earned legitimately in his career as a public servant, a consultant or as an author (even if his claim that his book Poverty and Progress sold 100,000 copies was true).

Attempts to put a figure on Sutch’s wealth have been based on some of his properties and holdings in New Zealand but not overseas. Smith discovered only in the late 1980s that his estate included a property in the Bahamas. His various overseas funds that could not be known include those in his Swiss bank account.

Sutch’s attempt to hide his wealth was made public after his death when the New Zealand Gazette named him as an evader of taxes estimated at $47,241 between 1966 and 1974, the second highest for any individual among about 650. His undisclosed income during that period was estimated to be about $100,000.

The first evidence that the package Sutch gave Razgovorov in Holloway Road on the 26 September 1974 had reached the Soviet Embassy came from Moscow after the Cold War was over. In 1993, New Zealand journalist Geoff Chapple tracked down Alexei Makarov, who had been Chargé d’Affaires of the Soviet Embassy in Wellington in 1974.

Makarov decided that with the breakup of the USSR and its secret police he had nothing to fear from giving his account of the Sutch affair. He recalled the circumstances of how he received the package of KGB material that Sutch had given to Razgovorov.

Makarov tracked down Razgovorov, who was living in retirement in Moscow. Besides recalling his meeting with Sutch in Holloway Road and how he delivered the package to his driver, Razgovorov told Makarov that he had ‘inherited’ Sutch from the KGB officer he had replaced in Wellington.

In 2014, evidence emerged from the Mitrokhin Archive in Cambridge, England, that Dr Sutch had been recruited to the Soviet intelligence service in 1950.

The Mitrokhin Archive comprises notes of KGB foreign intelligence files hand-copied secretly by archivist Vasili Mitrokhin, who had spent most of his working life in the KGB foreign intelligence archives. Disillusioned by the Soviet system and sympathetic towards dissidents, his chance came to do something in 1972 when he was given the job of overseeing the transfer of KGB foreign intelligence archives to new headquarters.

Mitrokhin secretly wrote summaries of the files, smuggled them out of the building and hid them under the floor in his villa. Over the ten years it took to complete the transfer, he accumulated six trunks of material.

In 1992 Mitrokhin approached British MI6, who then arranged for him, his family and his archive to be brought to the United Kingdom. As copies of original documents, the files have no direct evidential value, but their value in terms of intelligence proved immense. They include the following short entry under a codename: ‘Maori’ – Englishman, born 1907, New Zealand citizen, doctor of philosophy, former high-level bureaucrat in government service, retired in 1965, recruited in 1950, contact with him via Drozhzhin.

The biographical detail fits Sutch exactly and an extensive search proved it fitted him uniquely. After establishing the identity, the significant information is ‘recruited in 1950’.

‘Recruited’ in Russian has a specific meaning in Soviet intelligence, signifying that the subject knows, is tasked and will respond. Mitrokhin later published a KGB dictionary in which he defined ‘agent recruitment’ as ‘the covert involvement as agents of individuals who have opportunities to carry out intelligence tasks at the present time or in the future’.

Transactions were formally recorded. From the moment a KGB agent was on the payroll, he was ‘on the hook’.

Mitrokhin’s entry was written in the early 1970s, before Sutch’s arrest and trial. Mitrokhin names Drozhzhin as Sutch’s contact, confirming Razgovorov’s claim that he had inherited Sutch from his predecessor.

Yuri Timofeyevich Drozhzhin, First Secretary at the USSR Legation and the leading Soviet Intelligence officer in Wellington before Razgovorov, was regarded as a master spy. The pen portraits were written by Sutch for him.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government is lending $18 million to a controversial dam project in Central Hawke’s Bay.

The Tukituki Water Security Project, formerly the Ruataniwha Dam, is currently undergoing a $6.8m pre-construction feasibility study funded by businesses, water uses and the government.

The new $18 million loan is from the government’s Regional Infrastructure Fund, and will be spent on the next phase of work running through to 2027.

It includes detailed engineering and design, and financing and commercial work with a final investment decision expected in 2028.

The proposed project would see a dam built on the Makaroro River, a tributary of the Tukituki River, and the flooding of 22 hectares of conservation land. The dam would be about 83m high in the Makaroro River and create a reservoir of approximately 93 million cubic metres, about seven kilometres long, and with a surface area of approximately 372 hectares.

The Ruataniwha plan was scuppered in 2017 by the Supreme Court, when it deemed a land swap unlawful.

But that could be overridden by the government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill.

Opponents of the dam launched a campaign in 2025 to stop the project, calling the rebranded project “the same pig, but with lipstick on”.

Tukituki Water Security Project chair Mike Petersen previously told RNZ the cost of the new project would not be known until a feasibility study was carried out.

A 2016 Regional Council report indicated the construction cost of the Ruataniwha dam could be $333m, with possible investment cost to farmers an additional $556m* taking it to more than $900m.

Associate Minister for Regional Development Mark Patterson is announcing the new funding loan in Central Hawke’s Bay this morning.

Petersen said the case for water storage in Hawke’s Bay was both urgent and well-evidenced.

“This announcement moves us from asking whether this project is feasible, to answering whether it is viable,” he said.

Petersen noted that the Hawke’s Bay Regional Water Assessment report found that even with significant improvements in water use, efficiency and conservation, by 2040 the region could experience a shortfall between demand and supply of freshwater of nearly 25 million cubic metres.

“Water storage is not a silver bullet when it comes to solving water security, however it must be part of the solution alongside other water efficiency measures. Without improved resilience, our environment, our communities and our economy will all suffer,” he said.

The group plans to lodge its Fast Track application mid-2026, which will include a land exchange with the Department of Conservation, which Petersen said will “both enlarge the area of conservation land and improve ecological values”.

The reservoir would release about 20 million cubic metres with an irrigation footprint of approximately 20,000 to 30,000 hectares.

New NZIER modelling shows the project could increase annual regional GDP by up to $693 million, and up to $452 million a year in additional household spending across the region.

Petersen said it was estimated the dam project will support 200 to 300 jobs during construction, and more than 1800 new permanent jobs once operational.

*The project was slated to get water to the farm gate, with farmers needing to invest in installing additional infrastructure.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government is lending $18 million to a controversial dam project in Central Hawke’s Bay.

The Tukituki Water Security Project, formerly the Ruataniwha Dam, is currently undergoing a $6.8m pre-construction feasibility study funded by businesses, water uses and the government.

The new $18 million loan is from the government’s Regional Infrastructure Fund, and will be spent on the next phase of work running through to 2027.

It includes detailed engineering and design, and financing and commercial work with a final investment decision expected in 2028.

The proposed project would see a dam built on the Makaroro River, a tributary of the Tukituki River, and the flooding of 22 hectares of conservation land. The dam would be about 83m high in the Makaroro River and create a reservoir of approximately 93 million cubic metres, about seven kilometres long, and with a surface area of approximately 372 hectares.

The Ruataniwha plan was scuppered in 2017 by the Supreme Court, when it deemed a land swap unlawful.

But that could be overridden by the government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill.

Opponents of the dam launched a campaign in 2025 to stop the project, calling the rebranded project “the same pig, but with lipstick on”.

Tukituki Water Security Project chair Mike Petersen previously told RNZ the cost of the new project would not be known until a feasibility study was carried out.

A 2016 Regional Council report indicated the construction cost of the Ruataniwha dam could be $333m, with possible investment cost to farmers an additional $556m* taking it to more than $900m.

Associate Minister for Regional Development Mark Patterson is announcing the new funding loan in Central Hawke’s Bay this morning.

Petersen said the case for water storage in Hawke’s Bay was both urgent and well-evidenced.

“This announcement moves us from asking whether this project is feasible, to answering whether it is viable,” he said.

Petersen noted that the Hawke’s Bay Regional Water Assessment report found that even with significant improvements in water use, efficiency and conservation, by 2040 the region could experience a shortfall between demand and supply of freshwater of nearly 25 million cubic metres.

“Water storage is not a silver bullet when it comes to solving water security, however it must be part of the solution alongside other water efficiency measures. Without improved resilience, our environment, our communities and our economy will all suffer,” he said.

The group plans to lodge its Fast Track application mid-2026, which will include a land exchange with the Department of Conservation, which Petersen said will “both enlarge the area of conservation land and improve ecological values”.

The reservoir would release about 20 million cubic metres with an irrigation footprint of approximately 20,000 to 30,000 hectares.

New NZIER modelling shows the project could increase annual regional GDP by up to $693 million, and up to $452 million a year in additional household spending across the region.

Petersen said it was estimated the dam project will support 200 to 300 jobs during construction, and more than 1800 new permanent jobs once operational.

*The project was slated to get water to the farm gate, with farmers needing to invest in installing additional infrastructure.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Schools that use diesel for heating are locking up their fuel tanks and preparing for big bills when they return from the April holidays.

They were expecting the Education Ministry would help cover the extra cost if the fuel crisis kept prices high, but no details had been confirmed or made public.

Meanwhile, some schools reported teachers and parents car-pooling to keep costs down.

At the South Island’s biggest secondary school, Burnside High, the principal, Scott Haines, said most of the school was heated by diesel boilers and the price of diesel would have a direct but manageable effect on the school’s budget.

“We burnt 77,000 litres of diesel last year at Burnside High School to heat the campus. So the quantum is large,” he said.

Haines said Burnside last year spent $108,900 on diesel and one of the first steps the school took in response to the fuel crisis was to improve security around its 10,000-litre diesel tank.

“Now it’s locked in a cage with external lighting and CCTV infrastructure on it,” he said.

Haines said Burnside purchased diesel through an all-of-government contract so the price was relatively good and the Education Ministry was working on a fuel-support allowance for schools with diesel boilers.

“Anything they can give us there will help offset the additional payments the school’s making but beyond that, frankly, it’s just a cost of doing business, isn’t it?” he said.

“It simply means that our heat, light, water component, that budget line is going to blow out pretty handsomely. But in the scheme of things, in terms of the wider school budget … it’s not a huge figure.”

Haines said fuel prices did not appear to be affecting student attendance but there appeared to be more bicycles in the school’s bike-stands and some teachers were car-pooling.

At another Christchurch school, Addington Te Kura Taumata, principal Donna Bilas said about half the school relied on a diesel boiler for heating.

Bilas said it normally cost $2500-3000 to fill the school’s diesel tank and she expected that bill would be a lot higher this year.

“Normally our diesel use, we do two to maybe three fills in the winter months so we’re looking at being well over budget in terms of what we get from the ministry for heating, lighting, and water,” she said.

Bilas said the school already had a full tank of diesel, but if prices remained high it would have to cut back on other parts of its property spending to cover the increased cost.

However, she said the ministry was collecting information from schools about last year’s spending on diesel and she hoped that was a strong indication it would provide some funding support.

Bilas said the school had not noticed any effects of the fuel crisis, but it was considering allowing teachers to stay home if they had release time and had taken stock of the number of pupils who were driven to school.

Oropi School principal and president of the Rural Schools Association, Andrew King, said schools in rural areas were probably seeing more impact from the fuel crisis than urban schools.

He said teachers were car-pooling as were parents who were not confident about putting their five-year-olds on school bus services.

“The parents like to bring them to school and don’t have them on the bus straight away until they’re a bit older and so we’re seeing families come together to look at carpooling instead of one family driving up the road,” he said.

King said schools were providing the ministry with examples of increased costs due to the fuel crisis and hoped it would result in financial help.

“Hopefully down the track there might be some relief and support for schools so that they don’t need to cut back,” he said.

“Rural schools are always already cutting back on many things because of additional costs.”

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the government was still taking stock of the situation and planning for each phase of its fuel response plan.

“All schools are being contacted so that we can understand their needs and provide timely, targeted, temporary support. We are also exploring potential scenarios and a range of options, should the need arise,” she said.

The Education Ministry said a small number of schools used diesel boilers.

It said the information gathered from schools would inform its planning and decision-making.

“Any support provided will be considered carefully to make sure it is tailored, targeted, and responsive to circumstances on the ground, with the ability to adjust our response as circumstances change,” it said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Eight patients in forensic and intellectual disability units were in seclusion for more than 45,000 hours combined in one year, a report reveals.

The patients, who made up only 1 percent of all people secluded in mental health inpatient services, accounted for approximately 36 percent of all seclusion events and about 43 percent of total seclusion hours.

Five of the patients, who were in intellectual disability services, spent on average the equivalent of 283 days of the year in seclusion.

The three forensic service patients spent 160 days on average in seclusion.

Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz

The director of Mental Health and Addiction Services Dr John Crawshaw said in his regulatory report the individuals experienced “prolonged and/or frequent” periods of isolation.

“This raises significant issues around trauma, dignity and human rights, and the impact these experiences have on people and their recovery.”

He has commissioned a review to understand the circumstances of the individuals.

The report also revealed that during the same period a total of 1085 electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments were administered to 105 people who did not have capacity to consent. One person had capacity to consent but refused to consent, and was administered 12 treatments of ECT after an independent psychiatrist provided a second opinion.

The Office of the Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services regulatory report covering 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 was released online on the Ministry of Health’s website on Tuesday with no announcement by authorities.

Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey told RNZ he had spoken to Dr Crawshaw about the report and “raised the issue of the delay in its publication”. He also said seclusion was an issue he had been closely looking at “and one I care strongly about addressing”.

The report said it collated data on the use of compulsory assessment and treatment legislation in New Zealand under the Mental Health Act. It also contained data on “related activities” under the Intellectual Disability Care Act and the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Dr Crawshaw said in his role he was responsible for the “general administration of the relevant compulsory assessment, care and treatment legislation” under the direction of the Minister of Health, the Minister for Mental Health and the Director General of Health.

He said overall the data in the report showed the rates of use of compulsory assessment and treatment “remained steady in 2023/24, compared with previous years”.

“The total number of people who have been secluded and the total hours people spend in seclusion have decreased from 2022/23, which are positive trends.”

The report said legally seclusion could only occur under the Mental Health Act or the Intellectual Disability Act.

Dr Crawshaw cited Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard as defining seclusion as “a situation where a service user is ‘placed alone in a room or area, at any time and for any duration, from which they cannot freely exit’”.

His analysis of the data for the report revealed that eight patients from three Health New Zealand regional facilities experienced “prolonged and/or frequent periods of isolation”.

The figures revealed that the eight patients were secluded for a combined 45,531 hours across 985 seclusion events.

Three of the patients were from forensic services and were secluded for a total of 11,509 hours across 71 seclusion events.

Five were in intellectual disability services and were secluded for a total of 34,022 hours with 914 seclusion events.

The eight individuals represented just over 1 percent of all people secluded in mental health inpatient services (there were 763 patients secluded in total), but based on the data they accounted for approximately 36 percent of all seclusion events and about 43 percent of total seclusion hours.

Dr Crawshaw said in his report there must be a “clear focus on identifying and addressing the factors that sit behind these experiences in order to ensure the safety and dignity of people in the care system”.

“The Office of the Director of Mental Health is undertaking deeper analysis of the circumstances and factors that led to these prolonged or frequent periods of seclusion and the interventions in place to address them. The Office will work with Health New Zealand on this initiative.”

The individuals were subject to compulsory care under mental health, intellectual disability, or criminal procedure legislation.

Dr Crawshaw said inquiries would look at confirming the accuracy of reported seclusion data, assurances the individuals had safeguards in place to protect their rights and that services were meeting the expected standards for seclusion.

There would also be a focus on getting assurances that services were taking “active measures to reduce and eliminate seclusion”, and the reasons for the extended seclusion hours.

“After receiving the information, the Director will ensure it is reviewed and will consider recommendations for action by the service providers and any areas that require escalation to other agencies.”

In total, across the overall mental health inpatient services 73 percent of seclusion events lasted under 24 hours, with 16 percent lasting over 48 hours.

In adult inpatient services there had been a 24 percent decrease in hours spent in seclusion since 2022/23 and a 73 percent decrease since 2009. There had also been a 48 percent decrease in the number of people secluded since 2009.

The report also looked at ECT, a “therapeutic procedure that delivers a brief pulse of electricity to a person’s brain to generate a seizure while they are under anaesthesia”.

Dr Crawshaw said ECT could be an effective treatment for depression, mania, catatonia and other serious neuropsychiatric conditions.

“It can happen only if the person receiving it consents or in carefully defined circumstances without their consent.”

In the 2023/24 period nearly 300 people received ECT, with services administering more than 3500 treatments of ECT.

Dr Crawshaw said that under the Mental Health Act, a person could be treated with ECT if they consented in writing or if an independent psychiatrist appointed by the Mental Health Review Tribunal considered the treatment to be in the person’s interests.

Nearly 1100 treatments were administered to 105 people who did not have the capacity to consent.

“One person had capacity to consent but refused to consent, and was administered 12 treatments of ECT after an independent psychiatrist provided a second opinion.”

The report said that in total, nearly 11,500 people were subject to the Mental Health Act in the 2023/2024 period. Of those using specialist mental health and addiction services, 93.5 percent engaged voluntarily.

“About 5883 people were subject to either compulsory assessment or compulsory treatment under the Mental Health Act on the last day of the 2023/24 year.”

Dr Crawshaw acknowledged that the report, which looked at data nearly two years old, had been delayed in being published.

He said there were two main reasons.

“First, the data is complex. Second, some regulatory data are still reported to the Ministry via manual processes, which creates further time lag for receipt and quality assurance processes.”

In response to questions from RNZ, Doocey said he had spoken with Crawshaw about his report and had “raised the issue of the delay in its publication”.

“New Zealanders rightly expect that mental health services are being monitored so we can provide assurance that people undergoing compulsory assessment, care and treatment are receiving the right support.

“This monitoring occurs regardless of whether a report is being finalised, and I would expect any urgent issues identified to be addressed promptly rather than waiting for the report to be completed.”

He said seclusion was an issue “I care strongly about addressing”.

“Each individual case is a clinical decision, and I expect that the appropriate processes and assessments are followed.

“I am clear that seclusion should be used only as a last resort. The Mental Health Bill currently before Parliament seeks to make changes to reduce its use. This includes requiring the person in charge of a service to report annually to the Director-General on the steps taken to eliminate the placement of people under compulsory care in seclusion.”

In relation to ECT, Doocey said he had sought assurance from Crawshaw that the decisions around its use were the “right clinical decisions to make”.

“The Mental Health Bill also seeks to introduce stronger safeguards around the use of ECT, including ensuring that the second opinion that’s needed, would be required to have expertise in ECT.”

In response to questions from RNZ, a Ministry of Health spokesperson said Dr Crawshaw was “concerned” about the data regarding seclusion and had commissioned a review.

“To understand the circumstances relating to each of these people, including ensuring rights protections, and verifying that services meet the required standards.

“As part of the review, all individual treatment planning and circumstances will be scrutinised, and the Director of Mental Health will consider recommendations or escalate concerns to other agencies as appropriate.”

The review would also examine the reasons behind the extended seclusion hours and identify any barriers to reducing and eliminating seclusion.

This work was expected to be completed by 31 May.

In relation to ECT, the spokesperson said it could be an effective treatment for serious neuropsychiatric conditions.

“The current use of ECT differs substantially from the electric shock treatment that was used in the past. In New Zealand, it can happen only if the person consents in writing, or in carefully defined circumstances without their consent.

“For ECT to take place without consent, an independent psychiatrist must provide a second opinion on the treatment plan and consider the treatment to be in the person’s interest.”

RNZ also asked about the delay in the report being published.

The spokesperson said the data relating to mental health and addiction services and treatment was “complex and requires thorough analysis and review to ensure it is correct”.

“This process takes time. Some data is still reported manually which requires additional review, and creates a further delay to publishing.

“The data is representative of private information relating to the care and experiences of individuals. It’s important that we treat the information with care and integrity and take the time to fully understand and assess the data provided to us.”

Health New Zealand (HNZ) national director of Mental Health and Addictions Phil Grady said in a statement to RNZ that HNZ “welcomes” Dr Crawshaw’s report.

“Which highlights whilst there has been an overall reduction on seclusion there are also a small group of people who experience seclusion for extended periods of time. We will fully support any further reviews Dr Crawshaw wishes to undertake following the publication of the report.”

HNZ expected seclusion to be only used as a “last resort and after careful consideration of all available options of care”.

“As such, the process to minimise the use of seclusion in our facilities is ongoing and we continue to have close oversight of this practice, including having up to date seclusion use data via a dashboard, focusing on how we improve our environments and importantly, how we train and support our staff.”

In relation to ECT, Grady said it was an “effective short-term treatment” for severe depressive illness, and certain other forms of serious and potentially life-threatening mental illness.

“People offered this treatment often are extremely unwell, at high risk of harm to self or high risk of extreme neglect leading to life threatening consequences after a full clinical assessment.”

He said people could choose to have ECT treatment on a voluntary basis and it could also be provided compulsorily under the Mental Health Act.

“In addition, if the person is not competent to consent or the whānau are not supportive of ECT and it is considered a life-preserving intervention, a second medical opinion is sought from a Mental Health Act Tribunal-approved psychiatrist.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand has reached a “tipping point” with more people switching to electric cars and solar as Meridian Energy’s weekly app registrations increase by 214 percent, it says.

Rising oil prices have put pressure on prices across New Zealand, pushing an upward trend and interest in EV alternative vehicles.

Waka Kotahi data shows monthly registrations of full battery EVs last month jumped nearly four-fold from recent levels, from an average of 800 a month in the last two years, to 3100.

Registrations of plug-in hybrid vehicles almost tripled.

Meridian’s head of energy, Richard Sanford, said there has been a significant jump over the past four weeks.

“The last month has definitely seen a boost in interest towards EVs and home solar.

“It does feel like a tipping point, as more and more Kiwis see how moving away from a reliance on fossil fuels – where they can – would make financial sense.”

He said Meridian had long believed in what EV’s could offer to the country and was encouraged by the new interest.

Certain areas were seeing more interest than others.

“Across our Zero network we’ve seen a 16 percent increase in users and 20 percent increase in sessions over the last month, with the three most popular charging stations on the Zero network being Auckland Airport, Twizel and Culverden.

“That continues a trend towards more EV uptake, with our weekly app registrations increasing by 214 percent and weekly active users by 80 percent over the last six months.”

Sandford said Meridian was continuing to invest in EV public charging sites.

There are currently just over 1800 public charge points in New Zealand with more on the way according to the government.

In March, Transport Minister Chris Bishop and Energy and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced the number of electric vehicle (EV) public chargers around New Zealand would more than double thanks to $52.7 million in zero-interest loans from the government and co-investment from ChargeNet and Meridian.

He said New Zealand had one of the lowest charger-to-EV ratios in the OECD.

With the new investment the national total would be around 4550.

“The government is working towards 10,000 charge points by 2030, roughly one for every 40 EVs,” Bishop said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is set to face questions about Iran, fuel prices and National’s poll numbers after a meeting of the government’s top ministers.

Luxon is expected to speak about 3pm. You can watch the livestream at the top of this page.

It follows an eventful week in politics, including the latest Taxpayers’ Union/Curia poll put National slightly up but still below 30 percent.

Fuel prices have continued to surge, with no sign yet the US, Israel and Iran will stop fighting – US President Donald Trump instead threatening to take out civilian infrastructure and send the country to “hell”.

Luxon earlier on Tuesday called Trump’s comments “unhelpful”.

Also up for discussion perhaps will be Luxon’s Cabinet reshuffle, which saw an apparent demotion for a senior minister who was rumoured to have considered a leadership challenge late last year; the lifting of Easter alcohol restrictions; diplomacy with the US; and the banning of greyhound racing.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Families trying to find rest homes for their elderly relatives have been shocked to discover that they must pay anything from $10 to $85 a day for care, even when they qualify for the government subsidy.

That is because rest homes are permitted to charge surcharges any time a room is not “standard” – and many providers are no longer building or offering standard rooms.

Tracey Martin, chief executive at the Aged Care Association, said it was a known problem and reflected the fact that government funding did not cover the cost of building, maintaining and upgrading facilities.

“As cost pressures have grown and funding has not kept pace, providers have had limited options to sustain operations and maintain quality environments. This has led to a greater dependence on premium charges to cross-subsidise the cost of care and infrastructure.”

People were seeking care when they were in a more frail state than in previous generations, she said, and requiring more assistance.

“Across New Zealand we are seeing a reduction in care beds, at rest home, hospital level, dementia and even psychogeriatic. We are seeing a reduction in care beds that are able to be provided for just the amount of money that the state has said they should get.”

“For a hospital level bed that’s on average $353 a day. That’s what they are allowed to charge for care because that’s what the state has decreed.”

“But they are allowed to put a premium charge on top of that if the accommodation has something different or extra, and that’s what the premium charges are for.”

Who pays what?

People who are going into a rest home can access a government subsidy for care, if they meet the asset test. This requires that single people needing care have assets below $291,825, or a couple with only one person needing care has assets of $291,825 or $159,810 plus their home and car.

The government then takes all of the pension except from about $57 a week, then tops up the difference, to $352 a day for hospital level care.

Not-for-profit providers offer about 60 percent of the country’s rest home care and tend to charge lower premium rates, or, in some cases, standard rooms. But they were facing large costs and many were having to add large premiums to break even, Martin said.

“It’s really impacting on New Zealand families. They just cannot find a place for their loved one to be. It’s also backing up emergency departments. We’ve got seniors in hospital who need to come into residential care and they can’t find a residential care bed so they can’t discharge them from hospital, so they can’t put people out of ED up into the wards.”

No standard rooms being built

Good Shepherd community financial well-being advocate Bruce Smith said he had recently been through the process for his mother.

“Anybody will need to pay for what is known as a premium room and that is a room with ensuite or attached bathroom. Cost seems to start around $25 per day for the added luxury. If they don’t have a standard room available and the family can’t afford to pay for the premium room then they will need to shop around at other rest homes.

“We were very fortunate in Timaru to use Glenwood which is a charitable trust-owned home where a jack and jill bathroom was considered standard and no additional cost.”

But another woman, who sought care for her father in Wellington, said it had seemed almost impossible to find a room that did not have a surcharge. Her father had had to move out for renovations and was told that after that happened there would be no rooms that met the standard rate requirements.

Another said she had been quoted $35 to $85 a day on top of the subsidy, depending on whether it was a shared room.

Ryman said in many newer or redeveloped villages, all rooms would exceed the minimum standard. Metlifecare said it, too, did not offer standard care rooms.

Logan Mudge, head of communications at Summerset, said it had been converting standard rooms into premium rooms or care occupation right agreements since 2024.

“Situations where a resident’s family could pay may happen, however if family were unable to assist, they would need to look for availability of a standard room with another aged care provider, which would more likely be a facility in the not-for-profit sector.”

Karen Billings-Jensen, chief executive at Age Concern, said in some smaller centres around the country there could be more standard rooms available because the sites might be older.

Government acknowledges reform needed

The Ministry of Health said aged residential care providers could charge residents more when they offered things like an ensuite, more space or garden access.

“Aged residential care providers are required to admit a person without charging them a premium if the person requests a standard bed and there are no standard beds at the right care level available within a 10km radius, and that facility is their preferred choice.

“This requirement applies regardless of what type of rooms providers are building.”

The spokesperson said the Government recognised that there needed to be a more sustainable system.

“While New Zealanders generally have good access to a range of aged care services, reviews have identified a range of challenges, including that the way services are funded is outdated and that access to the right services can be inconsistent and inequitable.

“The Government has established the Aged Care Ministerial Advisory Group to provide expert advice on long-term reform of the system.”

The scope of that work would include includes reviewing funding models and mechanisms to support sustainable services, including a sustainable supply of standard aged care beds.

“It is also looking at how costs are shared between those receiving care and the Government.”

The spokesperson said the group was expected to provide advice and recommendations by mid-2026.

It said the government was also increasing funding by 4 percent for aged residential care and had included a a $44 million increase for home and community support services in Budget 2025, plus a $24 million allocation for regional initiatives to support timely transfers from hospitals to other forms of care.

Martin said her association wanted a shift to a split funding model similar to Australia’s.

“Our argument is that the clinical care that this individual has been assessed as needing is the responsibility of the government.

“Because whether you’re 90 or 19, if you need some clinical care, you can go to hospital and get it for free.

“So why are 90-year-olds in this country having to pay, in the first instance, for their clinical care? And then we want the accommodation split out and the living expenses split out because New Zealanders know they’ve always had to pay for their accommodation, either through mortgage or rates or rent, right?

“And New Zealanders have always understood that they’ve had to pay for their food, their power, their toothpaste, all of that.

“So we want to see a more transparent approach to a funding model so that New Zealanders can see what they are paying for and the government can be shown up for what they are paying for.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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