AM Edition: Top 10 Politics Articles on LiveNews.co.nz for April 19, 2026 – Full Text

Source: Radio New Zealand

Parliament’s grounds in Wellington are a knoll of relative peace in a dense governmental zone that includes cathedrals, courts, the National Archives and National Library, university schools and numerous government office blocks.

Imaging how it once was is not easy.

Elizabeth Cox is the author of Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street , which uses an astoundingly detailed 1890s map of Wellington to anchor details of life in the Victorian city. It is a beautiful and fascinating insight into the early and often ugly days of Wellington.

The House chatted with Cox about what the Parliamentary neighbourhood was like in the 1890s. You can hear the conversation at the link above, and read a little about that and earlier times below.

To set the scene, let’s first go back in time just a few decades further.

Pre-colonial Wellington

Before Europeans flooded in, Pipitea (where Parliament is now) was close to the sea, looking down on mudflats and streams that wended down from Tinakori Hill. The area was a centre of Māori habitation and food production.

Parliament’s own little hill had ponds and two creeks running down to a small beach, just a stone’s throw away.

The stream’s Māori names are not appealing. Waipiro stream (meaning putrid, stinking water) ran right through where Parliament House now stands.

Tutaenui stream (great amounts of excrement) ran down what is now Bowen Street (alongside the Beehive). Make of that what you will.

The hill rises up along Molesworth Street. It was known as Kaiota (unripe, food of dubious quality).

The pallisaded Pipitea Pā was a block or so east of Parliament, alongside the Pipitea stream. The pā had been established in the 1820s by Ngāti Mutunga, but by 1840, was occupied by Te Ātiawa, who had been pushed south out of Taranaki by the expansion of Waikato tribes.

A 2021 cultural impact assessment for a new Tenths Trust office development on Molesworth Street noted “the pā extended over much of the flat known as Haukawakawa [later Thorndon Flat] with extensive gardens spreading to what is now Parliament grounds and up to what is now the Wellington Botanic Garden. Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga also had kāinga/villages at Tiakiwai [now off 191 Thorndon Quay] and Raurima, near the corner of Hobson Street and Fitzherbert Terrace”.

There were also kāinga at Kumutoto stream, which is now Woodward Street off Lambton Quay.

When the somewhat unscrupulous rake Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s Wellington Company sold off parcels of Wellington it didn’t really own, he took some prime acres for himself – including on the beach at the far northern end of Lambton Quay, and between Hobson Street and the beach at Thorndon Quay (about where the Australian High Commission is now).

The small hill the Beehive sits on was set aside by the Wellington Company for government. This was the centre of things, where they put the provincial government, and later the governors’ house.

Nowadays, the area is the seat of Parliament and government.

Mr Ward’s map

Fifty years after 1840, almost everything about Wellington had changed radically. The coastline had been pushed back a few blocks through reclamation, the beaches were gone, streams were culverted, the forested hills were bald, and peppered with sheep and cattle, and both Europeans and buildings were thick on the ground.

The city had already spread through Newtown, and was stretching rapidly into Berhampore and Kilbirnie.

Cox met me at Parliament to wander the area and imagine what Parliament’s neighbourhood was like by the 1890s. There was a lot to take in.

We know a lot about Victorian Wellington because of an outrageously detailed map drawn by Thomas Ward.

“Thomas Ward was a surveyor and an engineer,” says Cox. “He approached the city council to say, ‘How about I make a map for you?’, because he was disgusted by the quality of all the maps that were around Wellington at the time.

“Originally, he was just going to draw the town acres and the subdivisions and the roads, but about four months later, he approached the council again and said, ‘I’ve had this fabulous idea, how about I draw all the buildings as well?’, so he drew every single building in Wellington.

“Every outbuilding, every outdoor toilet, every shed, every commercial building, every house and then he went further. He also told us what the walls of every building were made of, what the roof was, and then how many rooms every house had and how many floors there were, but it’s even more valuable, because for the next 10 years, he was updating the map.”

That map, and its additions and annotations are a treasure trove for historians and anyone vaguely curious about the past.

Victorian Pipitea and Parliament

Inside Parliament’s own boundaries, only one building from the period remains – the Parliamentary Library, opened in 1899 and built in part with bricks made by prisoners at the Mount Cook Jail (on the current site of Wellington High School).

The building’s plan was downsized halfway through construction in an effort to save money. As a result, architect Thomas Turnbull demanded his name be removed from the foundation stone.

There are two statues in Parliament grounds. Both are of premiers who died in office – John Ballance and Richard Seddon.

Seddon was a racist, sexist, populist and popular politician, who lived just up Molesworth Street, after spurning Premier House. His influence on Parliament and its neighbourhood was strong.

The library building was built after Seddon demolished part of the former provincial chamber without first asking permission from the MPs. Within eight years, the wooden buildings on either side had also burned down, leaving just the library.

The current marble edifice known as Parliament House was constructed during World War I and it too was downsized during construction, when money ran short.

In the 1890s, Sydney Street ran right across Parliament’s lawn and through the space that is now Parliament House. It began at Thorndon Quay and joined up with what is now upper Bowen Street, towards Tinakori Road.

It was later cut in half and renamed.

The southern side of Sydney Street, where the Beehive now is, was not part of Parliament. Government House, where the governor lived with his family and staff was “an incredibly public place to live”, says Cox.

“The wives and kids and staff would wander around in the garden, and kind of be on public display.”

The Governors were all minor English nobility sent to administer the colonies. They weren’t always keen to be here.

Lord Onslow arrived in the middle of one of Wellington’s regular typhoid epidemics (spread via poor sewerage). After his eldest son and an aide-de-camp fell ill, the family made themselves largely absent and their snub made them unpopular.

New Zealand didn’t have a locally born governor general until Arthur Porritt in 1967. (The title changed from governor to governor general in 1917).

Governors general now live in relative seclusion in Mount Cook, near the Basin Reserve, on grounds that Ward’s map marked as reserved for an “asylum”. Make of that what you will as well.

The Pipitea neighbourhood

To the north of Parliament is Hill Street, which now has two competing cathedrals, cheek by jowl. The Anglicans arrived later, but Catholics were already there in 1890 (although their first cathedral burned down in 1898).

Alongside the cathedral was a convent, a presbytery, a residence for priests and a fee-paying academic girls school. The Sisters of Mercy also ran the large St Joseph’s Orphanage and Industrial School.

The word ‘school’ is a misnomer.

“It was not a very pleasant place at all, I should think,” says Cox. “It was sort of like an orphanage, but you didn’t necessarily have to have your parents [die] to end up there.

“Sometimes, if your mother just wasn’t coping or if your father left the family, and… your mother couldn’t afford to look after you, they would take your children off you and put you in one of these industrial schools. Even from seven-years-old, they were learning how to work, they were learning how to knit and sew to become good wives and good domestic servants.

“It was a lot of focus on training them up to be domestic servants.”

Behind Parliament is Museum Street, named because, at the time, it was the location for the national Colonial Museum. It was set up by James Hector in 1965, as a reference museum of New Zealand’s natural history, geology and mineral resources.

Hector was then director of the Colonial Survey. He was also chief scientist, head meteorologist and looked after the botanical garden, ran the precursor to the Royal Society and was the university chancellor as well.

Cox reports that, as it was a reference museum, there are descriptions of it as “being an incredibly boring place to visit” and that was in spite of there being “massive whale skeletons hanging up and stuff like that”.

To the east of Parliament is Molesworth Street, which runs down a gentle slope to what was once the beach at Lambton Quay. It has a few shops and apartments today, but is busy with government buildings.

In the 1890s, it was “lined with small shops, commercial buildings and businesses, including herbalists, drapers, bootmakers, coal dealers, fishmongers, a horse bazaar, butchers, a dairy selling milk, cabinet makers and a number of Chinese fruit sellers. Many shop owners lived above their shops”.

Behind the shops on the eastern side was a dense neighbourhood of tiny dwellings, described at the time as a “rookery” and, as the Evening Post described it then, “a hotbed of vice, a place where people of the most depraved character flaunted themselves in broad daylight”.

That densely packed slum was sandwiched between Parliament and the then-Anglican Cathedral (now Old St. Paul’s on Musgrave). On the Anglican side was Thorndon Flat, where the wealthy lived along Musgrave and Hobson streets.

“There were lots of very unkind jokes about how convenient it was that for all these prostitutes that they were living between the Anglican Cathedral and Parliament, how handy it was,” says Cox.

The community of tiny lanes and smaller houses was more than a slum. It included the poor, working single women and ethnic communities.

“There was a really interesting mix of people living in those blocks,” says Cox. She notes one example.

“At the time, they were often called in the newspaper ‘Syrians’, but they were actually Lebanese Christians. There’s a quite wellknown Lebanese Christian community that lived in Dunedin [at that time], but I found a whole group of them living here in this poverty stricken area.

“[Another] group of people that were living there were lots and lots of prostitutes, there were lots of brothels. Ward, as well as drawing the massive great big parliament buildings, he would come along and actually draw every single tiny little house.

“He would draw a two-roomed house – not two bedrooms, but two rooms in total – and its outdoor toilet and everything, so you could see how incredibly packed those blocks were.”

Those lanes no longer exist. The poor were chased away and their homes demolished, with no plan for where they might go instead.

“The city, particularly under pressure from Seddon… started to do this thing called ‘street widening’, which was sort of a euphemism for pulling all the buildings down. They built Aitken Street and a whole bunch of the other streets around here in order to justify pulling down those slums.”

Reading Elizabeth Cox’s engrossing Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street and pouring over its detailed maps, you might notice mirrors for modern news, some eerily specific and others just typically human.

Government buildings demolished by populist leaders without permission, developers naming things after themselves and their families, landmarks named for questionable people, fly-tippers, crazy fads, bad housing, poor planning, suburban development across the most productive land, and a failing city sewerage system and resultant disease… and they say history never repeats.

All the tragedy, comedy, glory and absurdity of a city. A marvellous read.

You can find out more about Elizabeth Cox’s book here and here.

You can compare Thomas Ward’s 1890s map to present day Wellington at the Council’s Historic Map Viewer.

You can read about Parliament’s own history here.

*RNZ’s The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament’s Office of the Clerk. Enjoy our articles or podcast at RNZ.

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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 Green Party is calling for a national plan to electrify homes, transport and industry with natural energy, as a response to the fuel crisis.

Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have delivered their ‘State of the Planet’ speeches in Wellington.

The annual address is the Greens version of the sweeping ‘State of the Nation’ speeches delivered by leaders of other political parties.

First to speak, Davidson said the Middle East war was a human catastrophe and New Zealand’s dependence on unpredictable global fossil fuel markets needed to end.

“What is happening in the Middle East is, first and foremost, a human catastrophe,” she said. “Civilians are being killed and injured, livelihoods are being destroyed, international law is being broken.

“The warnings about fossil fuel dependence, about food sovereignty, about what happens when a small country ties its fate to extractive, corporate and ultimately unstable global systems… those were not abstract concerns. They are what families across this country are living through right now.”

She said households were feeling the brunt of the fuel crisis’s economic impacts.

“The cost of food, of energy, of rent keeps climbing, while wages stay flat. Communities that were already struggling are being hit hardest by rising price, by wars they did not start, by a global fossil-fuel economy that treats ordinary people as an afterthought.

“These crises do not sit apart from each other. This is not a theory, it is people struggling to cover the weekly shop.”

Swarbrick spoke about the party’s call for a National Electrification Plan to build energy security.

“We must electrify everything we can,” she said. “We need homegrown, sustainable resilience in our energy system, powering everything we do.

“We don’t need to depend on expensive fossil fuels hauled from the other side of the planet. We have everything we need here, at home.

“No-one is hoarding, attacking, or starting wars over sun, wind, water and geothermal energy. They don’t come through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We can immediately harness the power of our sun to power our homes, schools, farms and marae.”

She said such an electrification plan would cut household power bills and build energy security.

“There is no trade-off between fixing the cost of living, addressing the fossil-fuel crisis and climate crisis. They are the same problem, all driven by the same rules that prioritise profit over people and planet,” Swarbrick said.

“We can lower the cost of living by rolling out rooftop solar and batteries for all homeowners, renters, marae, schools, farms.”

The Green Party is also calling for the government to boost funding for public transport networks it had previously declined.

“It would have cost $150 million to expand the networks, just three quarters of just one of the subsidies the Luxon government is instead dishing out to support fossil-fuel dependence.”

As for leaders’ input on the global stage, Davidson said the Green Party believed New Zealand should take independent, principled stances.

“We believe in building an international rules-based order that protects the environment, upholds human rights and supports enduring peace-building work,” she said.

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Source: Green Party

The Green Party has used its 2026 State of the Planet address to set out a vision for a resilient, independent Aotearoa and to call on the Government to create a National Electrification Plan.

Co-leader Marama Davidson spoke about the middle-east crisis, the case for an independent, principled foreign policy, and the Green Party’s consistent stance on getting off fossil fuels. 

“What is happening in the Middle East is first and foremost a human catastrophe. Civilians are being killed and injured. Livelihoods are being destroyed. International law is being broken,” says Green Party Co-leader, Marama Davidson. 

“The warnings about fossil fuel dependence, about food sovereignty, about what happens when a small country ties its fate to extractive, corporate and ultimately unstable global systems, those were not abstract concerns. They are what families across this country are living through right now.” 

Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick set out the Green Party’s call for a National Electrification Plan as the practical response to the fossil fuel crisis on top of the Party’s previous calls for free public transport and measures to ease the cost of living.  

The plan would electrify homes, transport and industry, ending New Zealand’s dependence on unpredictable global fossil fuel markets, cutting household power bills, and building real energy security at home. 

“There is no trade-off between fixing the cost of living, addressing the fossil-fuel crisis and climate crisis. They are the same problem, all driven by the same rules that prioritise profit over people and planet,” says Green Party Co-leader, Chlöe Swarbrick. 

“If we want a resilient economy, we’ve got to power it with homegrown sun, wind, water and geothermal energy. That doesn’t need to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.” 

“We can lower the cost of living by rolling out rooftop solar and batteries for all, homeowners, renters, marae, schools, farms.” 

Swarbrick called for the Government to immediately support the Ratepayers’ Assistance Scheme, an initiative backed by groups such as Rewiring Aotearoa. 

“It’s simple, fast, and it cuts the upfront cost barrier for thousands of New Zealanders. We know this will save the average household a $1000 on their power bill,” says Swarbrick. 

The speech also called for boosting funding for public transport networks across the country that were previously rejected by the Government.

“It would have cost $150 million to expand the networks, just three quarters of just one of the subsidies the Luxon Government is instead dishing out to support fossil fuel dependence.” 

The Party called for the Government to work towards a National Electrification Plan. 

“The same arguments that have made sense forever – cleaner air, cheaper living, less congestion, easier ways of getting people around – make even more sense when we also need to conserve the fuel for those who don’t yet have another option,” says Swarbrick. 

“We need an industrial strategy electrifying freight and production, which requires Government to put its hands back on the wheel of the economy, not leave the fate of our country to bets in boardrooms.” 

Marama Davidson said, “our government should work for the people and the planet, not for the greed of corporations, their faceless boards and shareholders. Together we can reverse the damage that has been done and make decisions for the good of everyone.” 

MIL OSI

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has admitted that the costs of running the government’s fast-track process are ”well in excess” of what it expected.

The agency was granted a $10 million Crown loan for the set-up costs associated with running the process.

The loan term was for five years and the EPA had said it would need 50 applications a year until 2029 for it to pay the loan back.

A Select Committee review of the EPA reveals that, between December 2024 and December 2025, 49 applications were lodged.

The report said that ongoing operational costs were recovered by charging applicants a levy and application fee.

”The intention is for the regime to be cost-neutral, so that operational costs are entirely recovered from applicants. Applicants cover actual and reasonable costs incurred by government agencies, local authorities, panel conveners, and expert panels.”

The EPA told Select Committee members that that operational costs were “well in excess of what we first modelled”.

“‘The EPA said that, initially, costs incurred by agencies, local authorities, and expert panels for each application were projected to be around $250,000, whereas now it estimates some applications to incur costs of more than $500,000.”

Some Select Commitee members had heard that some councils felt unable to pass the application fee on to applicants.

“Consequently, councils have absorbed some of the costs. The EPA commented that it has seen councils taking time to adapt to the fast-track regime, and that they are often still approaching applications as if they were under the Resource Management Act 1991,” the report said.

“The EPA told us it has had “reasonably tense” conversations with some councils encouraging them to pass costs on.”

The EPA was approached for comment.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The Defence Force has taken part in a wargame with the United States based on a Russian nuclear blast aimed at taking out satellites.

The classified exercise was run by the American space warfighting agency, alongside 60 companies.

About the same time, the government put out a new NZ-US space dialogue that aimed to expand commercial and military space co-operation.

New Zealand had also signed up to “accelerating defence industrial cooperation” through a US-led 16-nation group in the Indo-Pacific.

The US partners of the NZDF – its Space Command and US Space Force – had also released a vision of space in 2040 that imagined China developing an AI-driven ‘Supermind’ that could strike with “unmatched speed and lethality”.

In the here-and-now, the force’s leading general told US lawmakers recently that space systems were critical to the ‘Epic Fury’ war in Iran.

‘Forced us to prepare’

The desktop wargame in March focused on a “worst-case” scenario of weapons of mass destruction in orbit.

“Reporting about Russia’s plans to launch such a weapon… has forced us to prepare,” said the general in charge, US Space Command head Stephen Whiting.

Exactly what went on remained secret, but participants, including the NZDF and more than 60 companies, “shared innovation, courses of action, and new and interesting ideas on how to deter the use of nuclear detonation in space”.

Whiting has designated 2026 the “Year of Integration” of the US Space Force, with both commercial partners and America’s ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence group partners.

NZ is part of Five Eyes and also a member of the elite US-led Operation Olympic Defence space security group.

The wargrame was the first of four in Space Command’s new ‘Apollo Insight’ commercial integration series.

“These partnerships are not symbolic,” Whiting said. “They accelerate innovation, expand warfighting capacity and increase operational tempo that government alone cannot achieve.”

‘Overwhelming American firepower’

The US warned allies two years ago that Russia might put a nuclear weapon in space.

Last month, Senate Armed Services Committee chair Republican Roger Wicker said he was particularly concerned that the current US space and nuclear strategy “does not address space and nuclear threats with anywhere near the urgency they deserve”.

Since the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty’s (New START) nuclear weapons limits expired in February, there was now no verifiable agreement to cap nuclear arms for the first time since the early 1970s. Last year, US President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to resume testing nukes, in place of simulations, for the first time in 33 years.

After Wicker’s call to up their game, the US Space Force this week put out a report on what 2040 might look like.

The 2040 report stressed how vital integration with allies was across surveillance, warning and targeting and stated, “Success means that the Space Force dominates the domain in the long tradition of overwhelming American firepower.”

‘Accelerating defense industrial collaboration’

RNZ asked the NZDF what benefits New Zealand gained from taking part in the Apollo wargame and if it gave any undertakings to the US.

On 20 March, New Zealand re-affirmed its commitment to “accelerating defence industrial cooperation” through the US-founded 16-member group PIPIR (Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience).

In late 2024, RNZ revealed NZ had joined this group and, earlier, that America had unilaterally inserted New Zealand into its defence-related national technology industrial base or NTIB.

“We agreed that PIPIR continues to make tangible progress toward addressing barriers and accelerating defense industrial collaboration to promote a stronger, more resilient, more integrated, defense industrial base,” a joint statement from the group’s second annual meeting said.

The group was working on getting more drone motors and batteries made, and a support hub in Australia for P-8 Poseidons, which the NZDF flies.

Expanding ‘space situational awareness’

Also last month, the US and New Zealand governments signed a new space dialogue that mentioned the military directly once.

“Both sides also discussed opportunities for further cooperation to address space-related threats to shared security interests, including military space cooperation and managing the risks to ground-based space infrastructure.”

It had more to say about the commercial side, such as, “They decided to work closely together to address regulatory constraints that hinder effective cooperation, commercial engagement, and mutual benefits.”

It also talked about expanding “space situational awareness, launch and re-entry”. While satellites were already key to missile defence and targeting systems – and to the Trump administration’s Golden Dome – defence documents showed that another key was space situational or domain awareness monitoring systems which include one the NZDF runs for the US in Auckland that produces unclassified reports on satellite movements.

Recently, the Senate Armed Services Committee talked about the threat from China and recommended expanding the Pentagon’s commercial space-or-ground-based monitoring systems.

On rocket launches, the dialogue said the partners “acknowledged New Zealand’s geographic advantages have enabled frequent and responsive launches”. Responsive is a term used for rapid launches.

US lawmakers got a report last month looking in part at what spaceports in other countries it could use for military and spy launches. It had not been made public, although RNZ has sought a copy.

‘Diversified spaceports’ and ‘select niche competencies’

The report on what 2040 might look like said China would remain the No.1 threat.

Its “vision for victory” said allies and partners would operate as “integral nodes within the decision lattice… preserving the continuity of Joint All-Domain Command and Control”. Command and Control or C2 is central to data-integration partnerships the NZDF now has with each of the US navy, army and air force.

The NZDF told MPs recently that the data-crunching software in military platforms would dictate how good weapons were in future.

New Zealand has signed up to the US army’s Project Convergence; it also has the NGC2 (Next Generation Command and Control) battlefield tech system, and had to report back to lawmakers by 31 March on NGC2 with details about how it was mandating “interoperability with NATO and Indo-Pacific allies as a requirement in its new command and control software program”, a congressional report said.

This month as part of these data-powered-military moves, the US army launched a new data operations centre, called ADOC. The NZDF was scheduled to join a US army exercise with emerging technology in mid-2026.

The 2040 report Saltzman had put out envisaged allies offering “rapid launch and diversified spaceports”.

“Allies in the Indo-Pacific will seek to contribute through geography and select niche competencies,” it said.

It emphasised a future where US and allies’ systems were integrated with each other, and human decisionmaking integrated with machine speed, to break adversaries’ “long range kill chains”.

Whiting’s fellow space general, Chance Saltzman, released the 2040 report this week in a speech at US Space Force’s largest space symposium in Colorado. Last year, Defence Minister Judith Collins gave the keynote speech there, but successor Chris Penk was not there this week.

Saltzman talked about bringing “commercial services to the fight”.

“Today, the Department of War is implementing new initiatives to unshackle our industry partners and continue putting our space industrial base on a wartime footing,” the head of US Space Force said.

‘Bodyguard’ satellites

The second Apollo Insight wargame – otherwise known as a ‘Campaigning with Commercial Partners’ tabletop exercise – in June 2026 would focus on manoeuvre warfare.

“Participants will explore how commercial, industry and allied partners can enable these approaches, and help challenge traditional methods of operating in space,” said Space Command.

It was worried about China building “bodyguard” and “inspector” satellites that, unlike traditional ones, were not fixed in space, conserving fuel, but moved around.

Whiting used his Colorado symposium speech to warn that China’s first experiment in refuelling a satellite in low earth orbit had shifted space “from a relatively permissive environment into one where US satellites could be tracked, targeted or interfered with during a conflict”.

In response, US and partner satellites had to be built to move more, he 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

A visiting Australian law professor says government regulations covering AI and other technology issues matter, because they matter to the global tech companies.

Monash University Professor Chris Marsden said New Zealand was a small country but how it regulated advances in technology was closely watched, along with Australia and Singapore.

In a keynote speech to the inaugural University of Auckland conference on law, technology and government, he said there was a real risk the AI investment bubble will burst this year.

Marsden said there were signs history was repeating itself, drawing on the collapse of the dot-com-bubble that developed in the late 1990s and ended with a spectacular global crash 26 years ago.

He said the pattern of investment in AI technology was similar to that, with the warning signs clear to see, drawing on a presentation loaded with slides offering historical context.

“So let’s take digital regulatory history seriously, and let’s think about where we might go next when the inevitable collapse of the bubble happens,” Marsden said.

He said the New Zealand government had a role to play in setting out a legal framework to regulate the big AI companies.

“Countries the size of New Zealand can have outsized impacts on regulation,” Marsden said, noting that Singapore was similar in size to New Zealand.

“Singapore’s regulation is very important to these companies… Because they take note of the fact that there is an alternative model that can be used, whether you agree with the model or not.

“And the Christchurch call was a really good example of where New Zealand was exerting a significant influence on how these companies moderate speech.”

He said tech companies and officials in Washington and Brussels paid attention to New Zealand and Australia because the countries were English speaking and made good test markets, given their location and trusted status as members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

However, Marsden said government regulations would only be effective if they were enforced, which was often not the case where fast-moving technology developments were concerned.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Marlborough locals are being asked if they should pay Port Marlborough’s $110 million share of the Picton ferry redevelopment.

The work in Picton is estimated to cost $531m and is part of the $1.867 billion Cook Strait Ferry Replacement Programme.

The Marlborough District Council is proposing to borrow the money from the Local Government Funding Agency, with Port Marlborough to repay the loan in full, including interest, while also paying its annual dividend to the council.

The council previously agreed to borrow money from the Local Government Funding Agency on the port’s behalf to go towards the iReX upgrades, which has since been canned.

Marlborough Mayor Nadine Tayor said the community had fought for many years to keep the ferries in Picton, and Port Marlborough had successfully negotiated a 60-year commercial agreement to cement Picton’s role in the Cook Strait crossing.

“We have been here before of course, with public consultation in 2021/2022 to finance Port Marlborough’s contribution towards the previous ferry redevelopment programme. Since then, the government stopped the previous programme to replace the ageing Interislander fleet and progressed a revised approach, including different vessels and a new ownership model for infrastructure assets at Port Marlborough.

“Under the Local Government Act, Council is required to consult the public once again. This consultation proposal is for council to borrow the same $110 million through the Local Government Funding Agency at a favourable rate, to on-lend to Port Marlborough to pay for its share of the ferry infrastructure.”

Taylor said the port’s business plan had been through a rigourous governance process.

“The financial principles and risk mitigations have been considered and approved by the boards of Port Marlborough and MDC Holdings, both of which have independent directors. The proposal has also been endorsed by councillors.”

She encouraged everyone with an interest in the project to read the statement of proposal document carefully, to attend one of the public meetings and to make a submission.

Public information meetings are being held on 13 May at the Port Marlborough Pavilion (1-3pm and 6-8pm) and at Lansdowne Hub, Blenheim on 14 May (6-8pm).

Submissions open tomorrow and close on 19 May and submitters can also choose to speak at hearings scheduled for 20 and 21 May, with a final decision to be made at council meeting on 26 May.

To make a submission, go to the online form at https://links.marlborough.govt.nz/haveyoursay

Queries can be emailed to portconsultation@marlborough.govt.nz

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Source: New Zealand Government

Minister for Social Development and Employment Louise Upston, welcomes new figures out today showing more New Zealanders moved off benefit and into work over the year to March 2026, even as economic conditions remain challenging. 

“5,580 more people left the benefit for work during the year ending March 2026 compared to the same period the year before,” Louise Upston says.

“Quarterly comparisons are also positive, with 24,615 exits from a main benefit into work during the March 2026 quarter – up 1,347 from the March 2025 quarter.

“We’re facing tough economic conditions, both at home and internationally, but these numbers matter – they represent lives turned around for thousands of New Zealanders.”

The latest benefit figures also show a decrease in the number of people receiving a working age main benefit. 

“We also saw the number of people receiving Jobseeker Support decrease by 8,289 – or 3.7 per cent alongside the number of working age people on a main benefit drop by 17,661 – or 4.1 per cent – from the December 2025 quarter,” Louise Upston says.

“The Government’s welfare reset is shifting the dial, helping jobseekers to be work ready and proactive about seizing opportunities when they arise.

“After the introduction of our Traffic Light System in mid-2024, jobseekers are more aware of their job search responsibilities. 

“MSD’s Kōrero Mahi seminars continue to help jobseekers understand their work obligations and take practical steps toward sustainable employment through targeted employment support – including advice about finding the right job, CV support, or being referred to job vacancies, training, or case management.

“Many New Zealanders are doing it tough, but our government is committed as ever to fixing the basics and building the future while supporting job and income growth and providing practical support to help get jobseekers into work.” 

MIL OSI

Source: New Zealand Government

New Zealand’s Warrant of Fitness (WoF) and Certificate of Fitness A (CoF A) light vehicle inspection requirements will soon be significantly reformed, saving Kiwis time and money, Transport Ministers Chris Bishop and James Meager say.

“Compared to other countries, New Zealand has very frequent inspections for light vehicles. Modern light vehicles are significantly safer and more reliable, but our rules haven’t kept pace, imposing unnecessary costs on motorists. Other countries including Ireland, Germany, Japan, and Australia inspect every one to two years or at ownership change and achieve comparable or better safety outcomes,” Mr Bishop says.

“The Government’s changes mean that most light vehicles under 14 years old will move to two-yearly WoF inspections (up from yearly), and new vehicles will go four years before their second WoF. Older vehicles, motorcycles, and light rental vehicles will move from six-monthly to yearly inspections.

“These simple changes will deliver massive benefits for Kiwis. The cost-benefit analysis shows the changes are expected to deliver between $2.6 billion and $4.1 billion in net benefits over 30 years through reduced inspection fees, less time spent on compliance, and fewer unnecessary repairs.

“I know many people will welcome these changes, especially when many households are feeling pressure due to high petrol and diesel prices due to the conflict in the Middle East.

“Overall, the Government’s changes align inspection effort with actual safety risk, meaning fewer unnecessary inspections, lower costs for vehicle owners, and less time spent jumping through administrative hoops – while still ensuring the cars on our roads are safe to drive.

“The Government consulted on these changes last year, with 74 per cent of respondents in support of reducing inspections for lower-risk vehicles.”

Under the new settings, changes will come into effect in two stages. Implementation is subject to the completion of the Order in Council process.

From 1 November 2026:

• New light vehicles will require their second WoF after four years instead of three.
• Light vehicles over 14 years, and motorcycles registered before 1 January 2000, will move to annual WoF inspections (up from six‑monthly for some vehicles).
• Light rental vehicles will move from six monthly to yearly inspections.
• WoF and CoF A inspections will be expanded to include certain Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) features.
• Light vehicles aged 4-14 years, and registered on or after 1 November 2019, will transition from annual to two yearly WoF inspections

From 1 November 2027:

• Light vehicles aged 4-14 years, and registered on or after 1 November 2013, will transition from annual to two yearly WoF inspections.

“The changes mean that compulsory inspections will be focused where they make the biggest difference to safety – older and higher-risk vehicles. Data on safety risk shows an increase in crashes where vehicle factors were recorded for vehicles from about 15 years of age,” Mr Meager says.

“We’re confident that the changes will not come at the expense of road safety. Inspections are being expanded to include modern safety systems, and the Government will also strengthen penalties for non-compliance and increase public education.

“Modelling conservatively suggests there could be an estimated 0.6 to 1.3 per cent increase in defect-related crashes. However, New Zealand crash data shows defects identified during inspections contribute to a small proportion of death and serious injury crashes (3.5 per cent), far less than other factors like speed, alcohol and drugs (23 per cent and 34 per cent respectively).”

These changes deliver on commitments under the Government’s Land Transport Rules Reform programme, which is focused on modernising outdated rules, reducing red tape, and supporting a safer, more productive transport system.

MIL OSI

Source: Radio New Zealand

Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced a replacement for outgoing Health New Zealand board chairperson, Lester Levy.

The board was axed and Levy installed as commissioner in 2024, and then, when it was re-established in July last year, he again took on the role of chairperson.

But from May 1, Mark Darrow would begin a three-year term as chairperson.

The minister said Darrow was an experienced board chairperson and director, bringing expertise in finance, audit, risk, and assurance, which Brown said would be critical to driving performance and accountability.

Two other board members had also been announced – former ProCare director and interim HealthAlliance chief executive Michael Schubert, and prominent primary care leader Dr Bryan Betty.

They, too, take on three-year terms, with Schubert also starting on May 1, and Betty on July 24, following the expiry of Roger Jarrold’s term.

Continuing board members were Dr Andrew Connolly, Dr Frances Hughes, Parekawhia McLean, Peter McCardle and Terry Moore.

According to Brown, Schubert was “a professional director experienced in supporting organisations with financial stewardship, audit and risk, and organisational change. He had governance experience in complex, highly regulated environments, including in health”.

“Dr Betty is a specialist general practitioner who is well-respected as a sector leader and who has considerable governance experience. He will bring additional clinical and health system expertise to the board, particularly in relation to primary care, which is a key priority for the government.”

“I want to acknowledge the contribution of outgoing Chair Professor Lester Levy,” Brown said. “Through his leadership, first as Commissioner and then as chair, Health New Zealand strengthened its financial performance and made meaningful progress against the government’s health targets.”

Levy had agreed to offer support over the transition period to come, as from July 1, decision-making shifted closer to patients, communities and frontline services.

“I expect the board to maintain its focus on strong governance and accountability, ensuring Health New Zealand operates efficiently, transparently, and with patients at the centre.”

Te Whatu Ora chief executive Dr Dale Bramley paid tribute to Levy.

“Since his early days as chief executive at Middlemore Hospital and South Auckland health services through his transition into DHB and regional governance roles, Lester has always been in it to put the interests of patients first.”

Under his chairmanship, HNZ had seen improved access for patients, and a significant turnaround in financial performance. “We owe him a debt of profound gratitude.”

“We also thank Roger for this hard work and support to improve our sustainability. His contribution is reflected in the progress we have made over the last two years to significantly improve our financial position.”

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