Work on one of the largest flood resilience investments by the Regional Infrastructure Fund is underway in Mataura, Southland, with Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson on site today to mark the occasion.

“The Mataura River flood resilience infrastructure upgrade is about safeguarding the long‑term prosperity of the region. That’s why the Government is backing this critical project with a $10.8 million loan from the Regional Infrastructure Fund,” Mr Patterson says.

“The works here will strengthen flood protection for neighbouring towns Mataura and Gore, both of which are on the banks of Mataura River. The river poses significant risks to these communities when heavy rain causes the river to rapidly rise.”

The project will increase flood protection for more than 7000 people, over 1500ha of productive land, and around $803m in capital assets including homes and businesses. It will also protect key local infrastructure including transport links and schools.

Environment Southland is co-funding $7.2m of the $18 million project.

“Southland is familiar with the devastating impacts that flooding can have, from the major events of 1984 to the widespread evacuations due to flooding in 2020. Those experiences reinforce why investing in resilience is so important,” Mr Patterson says.

The project works include building rock walls and new stopbanks, strengthening and extending existing stopbanks, and riverbed gravel works across Mataura River through both towns. 

It is estimated the project will create up to 37 fulltime roles during construction.

Since the Regional Infrastructure Fund was launched, $18.5 million has been allocated to Southland to support five flood resilience projects:

• Ōreti River Catchment Flood Protection Upgrade Project, $3 million
• Aparima Catchment Flood Protection Scheme Upgrade, $300,000 (completed)
• Te Anau Basin Catchment Flood Management Project, $300,000
• Mataura River flood protection improvements (Gore and Mataura), $10.8 million
• Invercargill and Ōreti flood resilience stopbank upgrades, $4.1 million

MIL OSI

MIL OSI

The scrap for playoff spots is well and truly on.

Super Rugby Pacific enters its 13th round and things are looking very good for New Zealand.

The top four spots are occupied by the Hurricanes, Blues, Chiefs, and Crusaders – with a diet of derbies on the menu in the coming month.

Australian sides which threatened to close the trans-Tasman divide have fallen off badly, the Brumbies in particular a shadow of their early season selves.

After blowing away the defending champions, the Hurricanes declared themselves favourites to break their decade long title drought, and get the chance to rotate their squad against the struggling Moana Pasifika, whose future remains in limbo.

The Chiefs head to Brisbane to meet a resurgent Reds outfit, while the Highlanders stuttering season hangs by a thread as they host the Waratahs in Dunedin.

The match of the round comes under the roof at Te Kaha, where to competition’s biggest rivals go to battle once again.

The Crusaders and Blues have waged some famous wars over thirty seasons, and the bad blood between the sides still runs deep.

Selection notes

The Blues have made the bold call to bench Beauden Barrett for their crucial clash in Christchurch.

Fresh off return from injury, Stephen Perofeta gets the nod at ten, with Dalton Papali’i, Ofa Tu’ungafasi and Bradley Slater all returning to action.

Taking on bottom of the table Moana, the Hurricanes have opted for seven changes, two of which were injury enforced.

The Canes will be without their star playmakers Cam Roigard and Ruben Love, with Ere Enari and Lucas Cashmore handed the reins for Albany. Clark Laidlaw has also switched his front row, while Jone Rova gets a rare start in the midfield with Jordie Barrett rested.

Taha Kemara is out for the Crusaders with Rivez Reihana to get the start at first five and Cooper Grant coming on to the pine.

Jamie Hannah replaces Tahlor Cahill at lock and Sevu Reece returns to the right wing for the red and blacks.

Anton Segner who will play his 50th for the Blues while All Black George Bower brings up a century of games for the Crusaders.

The Highlanders welcome back one of their top strike weapons in Caleb Tangitau, who has been missing due to a nasty knockout against the Blues.

Argentine Tomás Lavanini returns to the second row with livewire halfback Adam Lennox back in the number nine jersey.

Issac Hutchison gets another chance at fullback for the Chiefs, Kyle Brown and Kyren Taumoefolau making for a young and exciting backline.

Manu Samoa midfielder Faletoi Peni earns his first start at home for Moana Pasifika.

Injury ward

Highlanders fullback Finn Hurley is nursing a hamstring complaint and will sit out for at least another three weeks.

The Hurricanes have key players sidelined with Cam Roigard’s calf to keep him out of action for a month, however Ruben Love should be back next week.

The Blues are without some of their big boppers with Ben Ake and Marcel Renata missing, while halfback Taufa Funaki continues to recover from a shoulder injury,

The Chiefs are down a bit of firepower with All Blacks Samipeni Finau, Emoni Narawa and Leroy Carter not travelling to Brisbane.

Moana may have the worst rate of casualties as Jonathan Taumateine, Julian Savea, Lalomilo Lalomilo, Monu Moli, Ngani Laumape, Niko Jones, and Patrick Pellegrini all remain unavailable.

The Crusaders meanwhile eagerly still await the return of Will Jordan.

Key stats

Fehi Fineanganofo needs one more try to equal Ben Lam and Joe Roff’s season try scoring records of 16.

The Waratahs are on a 12-game losing streak in New Zealand.

Beauden Barrett has kicked on 44% of his total receipts, the highest percentage of any player.

Fraser McReight has hit 124 defensive rucks, at least 49 more than any other player in the competition

The Hurricanes have won six of seven against Moana.

Moana Pasifika are on a 10-game losing streak

Crusaders v Blues

Kickoff 7.05pm, Friday, 8 May

One NZ Stadium, Christchurch

Live blog updates on RNZ

Crusaders: 1. George Bower 2. Codie Taylor 3. Fletcher Newell 4. Antonio Shalfoon 5. Jamie Hannah 6. Ethan Blackadder 7. Leicester Fainga’anuku 8. Christian Lio-Willie 9. Noah Hotham 10. Rivez Reihana 11. Macca Springer 12. David Havili (c) 13. Dallas McLeod 14. Sevu Reece 15. Johnny McNicholl.

Bench: George Bell, Jack Sexton, Seb Calder, Tahlor Cahill, Dom Gardiner, Kyle Preston, Cooper Grant, Kurtis Macdonald.

“We need the crowd. If the red and black supporters can come along and be loud, it makes this a really difficult place to play. That’s something our boys feed off,” Crusaders coach Rob Penney said.

Blues: 1. Ofa Tu’ungafasi 2. Bradley Slater 3. Sam Matenga 4. Patrick Tuipulotu (c) 5. Sam Darry 6. Malachi Wrampling 7. Dalton Papali’i 8. Hoskins Sotutu 9. Sam Nock 10. Stephen Perofeta 11. Caleb Clarke 12. Pita Ahki 13. AJ Lam 14. Kade Banks 15. Zarn Sullivan.

Bench: James Mullan, Mason Tupaea, Flyn Yates, Laghlan McWhannell, Anton Segner, Finlay Christie, Beauden Barrett, Xavi Taele.

“They’re a side that prides themselves on their physicality and accuracy, and our focus has been on staying connected to ensure we are at our best for the full 80 minutes,” Blues coach Vern Cotter said.

Reds v Chiefs

Kickoff 9.35pm, Friday, 8 May

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

Live blog updates on RNZ

Chiefs : 1. Ollie Norris 2. Tyrone Thompson 3. George Dyer 4. Josh Lord 5. Tupou Vaa’i 6. Simon Parker 7. Luke Jacobson (c) 8. Wallace Sititi 9. Xavier Roe 10. Damian McKenzie 11. Liam Coombes-Fabling 12. Quinn Tupaea 13. Kyle Brown 14. Kyren Taumoefolau 15. Isaac Hutchinson.

Bench: Samisoni Taukei’aho, Jared Proffit, Reuben O’Neill, Fiti Sa, Seuseu Naitoa Ah Kuoi, Cortez Ratima, Josh Jacomb, Lalakai Foketi.

“They are a difficult opponent. they have a good identity around how they play. It’s going to be a tough battle, in the air, the challenge around the breadown,” Chiefs coach Jonno Gibbs said.

Highlanders v Waratahs

Kickoff 4.35pm, Saturday, 9 May

Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin

Live blog updates on RNZ

Highlanders: 1. Ethan de Groot (co-c) 2. Jack Taylor 3. Angus Ta’avao 4. Tomas Lavanini 5. Mitch Dunshea 6. Te Kamaka Howden 7. Lucas Casey 8. Nikora Broughton 9. Adam Lennox 10. Cameron Millar 11. Jonah Lowe 12. Timoci Tavatavanawai (co-c) 13. Jona Nareki 14. Caleb Tangitau 15. Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens.

Bench: Soane Vikena, Daniel Lienert-Brown, Saula Ma’u, Oliver Haig, Sean Withy, Folau Fakatava, Taine Robinson, Xavier Tito-Harris.

“We’re not looking past the Waratahs, we need to get this perforamnce right, and then we’ll look at the table,” Highlanders coach David Kidwell said.

Moana Pasifika v Hurricanes

Kickoff 7.05pm, Saturday, 9 May

North Harbour Stadium, Auckland

Live blog updates on RNZ

Moana Pasifika: 1. Malakai Hala-Ngatai 2. Millennium Sanerivi 3. Atu Moli 4. Allan Craig 5. Veikoso Poloniati 6. Miracle Faiilagi (c) 7. Semisi Paea 8. Semisi Tupou Ta’eiloa 9. Augustine Pulu 10. William Havili 11. Tuna Tuitama 12. Faletoi Peni 13. Solomon Alaimalo 14. Israel Leota 15. Glen Vaihu.

Bench: Mamoru Harada, Abraham Pole, Lolani Faleva, Jimmy Tupou, Sam Tuitupou Ah-Hing, Siaosi Nginingini, Jackson Garden-Bachop, Tevita Latu.

“We don’t want to go out on our backs, we want to make sure we’re walking proud in everything we do. That’s something we talk about a lot,” Moana Pasifika coach Fa’alogo Tana Umaga said.

Hurricanes: 1. Pouri Rakete-Stones 2. Vernon Bason 3. Pasilio Tosi 4. Caleb Delany 5. Isaia Walker-Leawere 6. Brad Shields 7. Du’Plessis Kirifi (c) 8. Brayden Iose 9. Ereatara Enari 10. Lucas Cashmore 11. Fehi Fineanganofo 12. Jone Rova 13. Billy Proctor 14. Josh Moorby 15. Callum Harkin.

Bench: Asafo Aumua, Xavier Numia, Siale Lauaki, Hugo Plummer, Devan Flanders, Jordi Viljoen, Bailyn Sullivan, Kini Naholo.

“Having picked up a few injuries in the Crusaders game, it’s an opportunity for the squad to use its depth, and we expect the boys who are coming in to play well,” Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw said.

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

A major report highlighting the risks of climate change to almost every facet of New Zealand life is a “big wake-up call”, climate researchers say.

One is calling for a war-time approach to climate adaptation, saying partisanship must be removed from crucial decisions about costs.

The Climate Change Commission’s national risk assessment, released on Thursday, highlighted what it said were the 10 biggest climate-related risks for the country.

Threats to buildings, road and rail, and the country’s “degraded” water infrastructure were all on the list, but it also included social and community wellbeing, emergency management, funding and decision-making.

There were “extreme” shortfalls in policy for many of the risks, and too much money was being spent reacting to events instead of building resilience, the commission said.

Earth Sciences New Zealand principal climate scientist Nick Cradock-Henry said since the previous risk assessment was published in 2020, the urgency of the climate risk was now clear.

“The speed and scale, the speed of onset of these risks, is increasing almost in real time,” he said.

“We’re having extreme weather events from once every few years to almost monthly – that is a dramatic acceleration in just a few years.”

Risks that had previously been hypothetical, like insurance retreat, were now a reality in some places, Cradock-Henry said.

“We are seeing already then in the absence of a comprehensive strategy to deal with climate change, insurers are waking up to the fact that there’s no plan.

“There is increasing exposure and there is an unwillingness in the part of insurers to bear the costs of that.”

Responding to the report’s release, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts said adaptation to climate change was “a key priority” for the government.

“That’s why last year we released a National Adaptation Framework and are progressing a range of work across the planning system, emergency management, and local government to give us an enduring system that prepares New Zealand for the impacts of climate change, while keeping costs to our society as low as possible,” he said.

The commission’s report would help the government to “better understand the urgency and severity of climate risks so we can sequence and prioritise action”.

Cradock-Henry said the government’s framework was “skeletal” and local councils needed much more clarity and support.

“They are on the front lines of managing this and they are under-resourced and are in many ways essentially flying blind,” he said.

“We need a Climate Adaptation Bill.”

University of Canterbury political science professor Bronwyn Hayward said the report had been released at the “worst time politically”.

“We’re going into a highly partisan election, we’ve got a rushed ultimatum to local government for restructuring, we’re restructuring the key agencies that are responsible for delivering responses to risk, particularly the Ministry for the Environment, and all of this almost chaotic change is really putting at risk our ability to move thoughtfully, inclusively, and transparently in not just planning, but actually implementing action.”

Politicking needed to be put aside so that lasting decisions could be made about how to share the costs of adaptation.

“We’ve seen it occasionally at times of great crisis,” she said.

“In World War II, we actually had ministers that were appointed from the opposition as well as from government. During Covid, we had a select committee that was led by the opposition.”

In the meantime, there was no “coherent plan”.

“We’re leaving individuals to respond to risk and to inform themselves, and we’re dealing with events as if they are one-off emergencies each time that we face them.”

Climate Prescience director and researcher Nathaneal Melia said from a scientific perspective, the report was “a big wake-up call” but likely still underplayed the risks.

It should be treating the massive costs to the economy and society from the North Island weather events in 2023 as the current “best worst-case scenario”.

“Come, say, 10 years’ time, you’re going to get another event like that, that’s going to be worse. And then the one 10 years day the line is going to be worse than that,” he said.

“So, are our systems robust enough to cope with these ‘black swan’ events that are coming?”

The government now has two years to respond to the risk report with a new adaptation plan.

Climate Change minister Simon Watts has previously said that no decisions about cost-sharing will be made until the next term of government.

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

The Royal New Zealand Air Force’s (RNZAF) No. 3 Squadron has wrapped up a busy 20 days in Papua New Guinea (PNG), finishing with two days of trooping and air sniper training with PNG and Australian militaries.

The activities were carried out with the Papua New Guinea Defence Force’s (PNGDF), 1st Battalion Royal Pacific Islands Regiment and 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment but had to be delivered after some unexpected pressing tasks which the squadron was called on to carry out.

Two NH90 helicopters and crew arrived in Port Moresby on 15 April via HMNZS Canterbury to carry out a training programme with PNGDF and Australian Defence Force personnel, but at the request of the PNG government changed tack to deliver much-needed aid and essential supplies to areas damaged by Tropical Cyclone Maila.

They also transported New Zealand Defence Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel and equipment to Bougainville to destroy two Second World War bombs following a request from the Autonomous Bougainville Government.

Air Component Commander, Air Commodore Andy Scott, said the deployment of the helicopters had been planned to coincide with Canterbury’s visit to Singapore for scheduled maintenance.

It meant they were in the right place at the right time to assist with the cyclone and bomb disposal tasks.

“We departed for Port Moresby to carry out training activities and ended up delivering real world support with our NH90s and a C-130J Hercules from No. 40 Squadron, which also moved aid and transported personnel and equipment to support these tasks.”

More than 50 tonnes of disaster relief supplies were delivered to East New Britain province including Palmalmal, Lamarain and Open Bay, and Bougainville including Buka, Arawa, Torokina and Bruin, and also to Milne Bay province, with the C-130J flying into suitable airfields and the NH90s doing last-mile deliveries where access was limited.

“Although the mission ended up being completely different to that originally planned, it highlighted the utility of our NH90 and C-130J fleets and the importance of being present in the region,” Air Commodore Scott said.

MIL OSI

Moana Pasifika are stuck in limbo.

The club’s long-term position remains unclear amid ongoing discussions over investment and ownership, after last month’s shock announcement the franchise would disband at the end of the season unless a new ownership group could be found.

The process has played out publicly over the past few weeks, with Kanaloa Rugby – a consortium of former players and administrators – pursuing a proposed takeover of the franchise. The group has claimed politics are plaguing attempts to save the club from demise, taking aim the Pasifika Medical Association (PMA) – the current owners of Moana. The PMA contends it is NZ Rugby, as the licence holder, that is managing the process.

The competing claims, rumours and uncertainty are all taking a toll on the players and staff.

Halfback Augustine Pulu stressed that if no deal can be made, livelihoods will be be lost.

“That’s what really breaks my heart, seeing the young guys breaking down into tears because these are the opportunities that we’re not going to get anywhere else. We’ve got to provide for our families. God willing, that there’s another opportunity to carry on.”

Coach Fa’alogo Tana Umaga said he was doing what he could to keep Moana’s morale.

“I’ve learned a long time ago not to believe everything you read, everyone’s got their slant of what should happen and how they think. That’s just noise on the outside that really we can’t control, it’s a waste of time worrying about it.”

Umaga expressed frustration at a lack of transparency coming from the top of the organisation.

“We don’t know the facts, until we get the real facts and see what happens, we’re just trying to worry about what we can control. There must be a reason why those things aren’t going through. Everyone is waiting to hear from someone, we’re at the bottom of it, there’s probably reasons for that.”

He said the hope can hurt.

“These things hang over us quite heavy. We can’t think that it’s not affecting our people. There’s a little bit of light, a glimmer of hope, but we have to be realistic. The tough thing is that uncertainty and waiting for something that, we don’t know is going to happen.”

Pulu said the cultural connections within the team allowed players to keep coming to work with a smile.

“They’re still fighting for it. If this was any other franchise, I don’t know if they could come out and carry on performing the way the boys have been going, this is something that we’re used to as our people. We’re resilient in what we do and we’re going to carry on giving back as much as we can.”

Speaking after NZ Rugby’s annual general meeting in Wellington on Thursday, NZ Rugby chairperson David Kirk said it would be “sad” to see Moana unable to continue, but acknowledged the financial reality facing the franchise.

“We need a powerful one step below All Black level competition, Moana Pasifika have made a really meaningful contribution to that but you cant fight reality, if they are financially unable to continue, we have to work with them to have a managed off ramp, and it is what it is.”

He added that NZ Rugby had already been in discussions with a range of interested groups looking to save the franchise, but no concrete proposal had yet emerged.

“We have had interactions with a range of groups and we are very encouraging of them pulling together something that will work for the competition, that is the role we find ourselves in. we are just maintaining the support for all the Super Rugby teams including Moana Pasifika, we have supported them, and that will be there for someone else if they think they can put together a team, but its not our job to do that.”

On a 10 match losing streak, Moana’s rough run doesn’t get any easier as they get set to host top of the table Hurricanes in Albany on Saturday night.

“We don’t want to go out on our backs,” Umaga said.

“We want to make sure we’re walking proud in everything we do. There’s a glimmer of hope and I think that’s what we’ve got to hang onto. It’s another chance for these players to show the best of themselves, if anyone’s watching, you know, for the future.”

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

MIL OSI

MIL OSI

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 7 May 2026 – The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has achieved outstanding results in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, released on 25 March, further cementing its position as a global leader in research and academic excellence. Ten CUHK subjects have secured the top position in Hong Kong, and 21 subjects rank among the top 50 worldwide. These outstanding results reflect CUHK’s sustained commitment to research impact and the calibre of its scholars, whose work continues to advance the collective understanding of the world’s most pressing challenges.

CUHK’s Academic Excellence and Global Research Impact

Ranked among the world’s top 50 universities, CUHK ascended to 32nd place globally in the QS World University Rankings 2026, marking a four-place rise that reinforces its role as a hub for rigorous inquiry, and a dynamic environment where students are empowered to pursue meaningful research and knowledge exchange. This trajectory is supported by 17 CUHK researchers recognised on the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list by Clarivate Analytics, and 431 academics listed among the world’s top 2% scientists by Stanford University. Among them, 47 scholars were ranked within the global top 100 in their respective fields. Notably, three scholars, including Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, have earned positions within the global top 10, a distinction that highlights the remarkable depth and excellence of CUHK’s research community.

CUHK’s The Nethersole School of Nursing: Nurturing Research Innovation and Global Talent in Nursing

Among CUHK’s strongest performers in this year’s rankings, the Nethersole School of Nursing has been ranked #1 in Hong Kong and Asia, and #6 worldwide. Reflecting on the academic environment, Pham Nhat Vi DO, a Vietnamese PhD student in Nursing, shared: “My PhD journey at CUHK has transformed my research abilities, critical thinking, and leadership skills. Through CUHK’s outstanding faculty support, I have accessed diverse academic resources and gained invaluable hands-on experience, building a strong foundation for my future career.”

Vi’s research focuses on colorectal cancer survivorship using cutting-edge technology. As the first Vietnamese researcher adopting this approach, her work reflects CUHK’s strength in empowering students to break new ground.

CUHK’s Geography and Resource Management: Advancing Student Research on Pressing Climate Challenges

CUHK’s Department of Geography and Resource Management has also earned notable recognition in this year’s ranking, placing #4 in Asia and #21 worldwide. Arati POUDEL, a Nepali PhD student, highlighted the University’s research ecosystem as a key defining aspect of her experience. “CUHK exceeds expectations through outstanding research facilities, supportive faculty, and comprehensive professional development opportunities. The prestigious Belt and Road Scholarship has also enriched my research journey in this beautiful campus environment.”

Supported by CUHK, Arati’s research investigates how adaptation to climate extremes—particularly water scarcity and excess—are being addressed, and the pivotal role played by communities and civil society in leading these responses.

Through the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, CUHK continues to demonstrate the impact of its research and scholarship. These achievements underscore the University’s growing influence on the global academic stage and its steadfast commitment to addressing complex global challenges through innovation, insight, and collaboration.

Hashtag: #CUHK

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

The Green Party says today’s National Climate Change Risk Assessment from the Climate Change Commission confirms Luxon’s failure to act on climate is driving up the cost of living for New Zealanders.

“Luxon likes to talk about preparing New Zealand for a rainy day. The Commission is clear that he is refusing to invest in an umbrella,” says Green Party Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.  

“This independent, expert assessment shows that Luxon’s climate adaptation ‘plans’ are mere window dressing.” 

“The numbers are sobering: 97 per cent of government spending on natural hazards goes on responding to disasters, and only 3 per cent on building resilience.” 

“Luxon’s Government has actively chosen to stay in react-and-recover mode, deciding at Cabinet in October last year to delay any meaningful investment in resilience, planning or cost-sharing until after the election.” 

“The Commission is telling us that the choice is whether New Zealanders keep paying to clean up the same damage over and over again, or we put that money into building resilience now.” 

“Luxon’s Government has chosen the first option. They have cut flood protection spending almost in half while climate disasters become more frequent and severe.” 

“The Commission says the need for guidance on how communities will pay for climate adaptation is ‘urgent’. Yet, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts has confirmed cost-sharing decisions will not be made until the next term of Government.” 

“New Zealanders are already facing more disruption from storms, rain, landslides, drought and sea-level rise. Every dollar we fail to invest in resilience now is a dollar communities pay back many times over when the next event hits.” 

“New Zealanders deserve an honest Government that does the real work to fix the climate and cost-of-living crises,” says Swarbrick. 

MIL OSI

Urgent, decisive action is needed on how communities will pay for the costs of adapting to climate change, a major new report says.

Climate-driven severe weather events were already causing “long-lasting hurt, grief and fear”, and tens of thousands more people would likely be exposed to hazards by 2050, the Climate Change Commission said.

However, there were “extreme” shortfalls in policy to address some of the biggest risks, including vital decisions about how to fund and guide adaptation and relocation.

Commission chief executive Jo Hendy said that had left the country in “react and recover” mode where too much money was spent cleaning up after events, instead of on proactive measures to limit damage and build community resilience.

The commission’s National Climate Change Risk Assessment, released on Thursday, identified what it said were the 10 biggest risks to the country from climate change.

Threats to buildings, road and rail, and water infrastructure are all on the list, but it also includes social and community wellbeing, emergency management, funding and decision-making.

The country’s “degraded” water infrastructure would be at extreme risk by 2050, hundreds of thousands of buildings were already exposed to coastal or inland flooding hazards, and the current emergency management system “lacks the capacity or capability to deal with significant, complex, widespread events impacting multiple regions at once”.

The report repeatedly highlighted the lack of clarity about how climate adaptation would happen and who would pay for it.

That was especially true for communities that needed to move, in whole or part.

“The need for guidance and funding options for communities to work together on planned relocation is urgent,” the report said.

Successive governments had failed to find a way forward, it said.

The current government’s National Adaptation Framework, published late last year, did not even address displacement of people or communities.

“Neither is it clear about how action led by communities or local government can be funded.”

Legislation the government promised last year, that would require councils to develop adaptation plans for high-risk areas, had not yet made it to Parliament, the report noted.

Councils and communities that had proactively developed their own plans also had no way to progress.

“Some councils are building adaptation plans with communities that set out what would work in the local context, but these cannot be put into action without additional funding.”

Others had developed possible funding solutions, but needed central government assistance or a legal mandate to go ahead.

“Many councils lack the funding or borrowing capacity to directly implement the changes they have identified,” the report said. “This delays resilience building and increases future costs.”

There were “high human and financial costs when people are forced to move”, and uncertainty about a community’s future could erode people’s sense of safety and belonging.

The prospect of relocation might be a necessary solution in some places, but could “break relationships, divide communities and undermine trust in institutions”.

Well-planned and managed relocation could reduce those risks but that required “long lead times’, the commission said. “It is important to start as soon as possible.”

In pressing for urgent action, the commission was aware of cost-of-living pressures and constraints on government budgets, Hendy said.

“The point is that we’re actually already paying …every time we react.”

The choice was not between funding climate resilience or paying for other things the country needed, she said.

“The choice is whether we stay paying to clean up the same disruption over and over again, or we move to actually put that money into building resilience.”

Climate Change Minister Simon Watts has said that decisions about cost-sharing will not be made until the next term of government.

An expert working group commissioned by the previous government published a lengthy report in August 2023, that set out how planned relocation could take place, including suggested levels of compensation.

However, its report came too late to be picked up by the previous government.

In 2025, an independent reference group commissioned by the current government recommended handing over adaptation planning to local councils. It did not spell out cost-sharing arrangements, but said adaptation measures should largely be “beneficiary-pays”, and compensation limited to hardship support.

The extremes New Zealand will face

Since the first national climate change risk assessment was published by the Ministry for the Environment in 2020, the 2023 North Island severe weather events had become the most severe and destructive in recent history, the new assessment said.

“This was demonstrated again in the summer of 2026, when a string of extreme events occurred over four weeks, with loss of life and widespread distress and damage from Banks Peninsula to the Far North.”

Hendy said there was now “much more lived experience” of climate-related extreme weather.

“People are experiencing increasing disruption from storms and floods right now, and that’s really ramped up.”

The latest climate projections showed that weather extremes of all kinds would continue to increase in intensity and frequency throughout this century, the report said.

“This includes extreme rainfall (and the inland flooding and landslips that result), very hot days and high winds, drought and wildfires, and sea-level rise and coastal inundation (flooding).”

The number of people exposed to coastal flooding could rise from 32,000 to about 50,000 by 2050, and 94,000 by 2090 if little was done to limit global warming.

The rainiest days are projected to be five percent wetter by 2050, and up to 10 percent wetter by 2090. That would increase the risk of inland flooding and landslips, affecting thousands more people, buildings and pieces of infrastructure.

Already, 793,000 people were exposed to inland flooding. Up to 107,000 more people would be exposed by 2090, depending on how fast the climate warmed.

By 2090, 1.5 million people could experience an extra 10 very hot days (above 30°C) every year, with risks for human health.

Recent research has highlighted an increased risk of stroke, among other health conditions, as extreme heat from climate change increases.

Drier, hotter conditions in some regions would also mean large amounts of production land would be drier by 2050, and wildfires were increasing in both number and scale, the assessment said.

It also highlighted the risk of compounding climate hazards – such more intense rainfall and sea-level rise combining to increase the frequency and severity of coastal flooding.

Although the report focused on adapting to risks, it was crucial not to lose sight of the other part of the climate change response, Hendy said – limiting New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“It really is in our best interests to support and contribute to global efforts to curb emissions, to stop the problem getting significantly worse.”

“There’s actually only so far we can adapt our way out of this,” she said.

“While we don’t directly control global emissions … we should be doing what we can to help make that happen.”

The 10 biggest risks

Overall, the assessment identified 37 different climate-related risks to New Zealand.

It chose 10 as the most significant because of the effect they were already having, or would soon have, on people, and because they were risks where addressing them soon could have a big influence.

The report also focused on the way risks affected each other and “cascade through”, Hendy said.

“For example, when a slip closes a road then services can’t get in to fix the powerlines and communication towers.”

Many of the risks had the potential to affect the wider economy, she said.

“When you look at roads, they are the networks that keep people connected and goods flowing.”

Water infrastructure

Climate change would put pressure on “every part of this system”, the Commission said.

Infrastructure was already degraded and under strain, meaning this would be the first risk to reach an “extreme severity level” – within 25 years.

“Drinking water pipelines are exposed to river and surface flooding, and drinking water supplies face increasing stress from drought, declining water quality, and higher temperatures. Rising seas, coastal flooding and more frequent and intense rainfall events threaten wastewater and stormwater networks.”

The ‘Local Water Done Well’ reforms underway “present an important opportunity to plan for and embed resilience to climate hazards”, the report said.

Buildings

Approximately 556,000 buildings are already exposed to inland flooding. The financial implications were “far-reaching”, the commission said.

On top of that, most buildings in New Zealand had not been designed with higher temperatures in mind. “Under future climate conditions, this could make them at times unliveable, posing acute health risks.”

Poorer households would find it hard to strengthen their homes, voluntarily relocate or afford higher insurance costs. “Insurance retreat appears to have already started for some properties at high risk.”

The National Adaptation Framework sent important signals, but many measures were at the early stages and were not translating into practical action.

Road and rail networks

A quarter of roads and a third of rail lines are exposed to surface, coastal and river flooding – putting them at risk of both short-term disruption and long-lasting damage, the commission said.

Extreme heat could soften asphalt, create potholes, and buckle bridges and railway lines.

“Climate change is expected to reduce the reliability and service levels of road and rail networks in a variety of ways, from more frequent closures, delays, and speed restrictions to higher maintenance and repair costs, and more frequent emergency works,” it said.

“The consequences are especially severe for rural and isolated areas, where alternative routes are limited and sometimes non-existent.”

Social and community wellbeing

This was one of the most significant risks “because of the high human and financial costs when people are forced to move, and when climate-related distress, grief, discontent and uncertainty go unchecked,” the commission said.

Uncertainty about housing and livelihoods could erode people’s sense of safety and belonging. The prospect of relocation might be a necessary solution, but it “can break relationships, divide communities and undermine trust in institutions”.

Planning and managing relocation well, and working together with the affected communities, could help reduce those effects. The need to set up national guidance and funding options for communities was “urgent”.

“It takes a long time to set up processes that fairly address all needs, and there are communities already trying to navigate these choices.”

Emergency management

Strong emergency management will save lives and livelihoods, the report said. However, the current system “lacks the capacity or capability to deal with significant, complex, widespread events impacting multiple regions at once”.

The government had introduced an Emergency Management Bill in December 2025 and an Emergency Management System Improvement Plan, it noted. “These ongoing reforms are promising, though it is too soon to tell how successful they will be.”

Local response networks such as coastal and riverside marae were themselves vulnerable to climate change. Some communities had strengthened their own responses, the report said – highlighting the example of Ngātiwai in Northland, which had equipped its marae with solar, petrol generators and satellite internet.

Ngā mea hirahira o te ao Māori – risks in the Māori world

For Māori, climate change was not just a physical or economic problem, the report said.

Many sites of cultural significance were now highly exposed to climate hazards, while extreme weather and more gradual environmental changes were affecting taonga species, habitats, and harvesting practices.

Climate change was also compounding structural inequalities – many at-risk locations had higher Māori populations, and the incidence of heat-affected health conditions like respiratory and cardiovascular disease was higher.

Ecosystems and biodiversity

“Increasing land and marine temperatures change the environmental conditions species live in, while extreme weather events and wildfire cause shocks to ecosystems,” the report said.

Under more severe scenarios, the combined effects of climate change and existing pressures could, within decades, “push some systems past a point where they can recover”.

“These changes could disrupt food production, increase damage from extreme weather and impact health and wellbeing.”

Forestry

Planting trees was “central” to New Zealand’s current plan to reach net zero emissions. However, extreme weather, drought, wildfire, and new pests and disease could all threaten this strategy, along with the economic benefits from forestry.

“Damage to these forests reduces not only their capacity to absorb carbon dioxide and the sector’s economic contribution, but also exposes waterways and downstream communities to devastating sediment and debris flows,” the report said.

There was no coordinated government and industry approach to directly address climate risks.

Central and local government funding

Climate change was putting growing pressure on central and local government finances, the report said.

Climate disasters such as Cyclone Gabrielle were costly and hard to budget for. They could also affect government revenue because of their wider economic effects. At a local level, many councils had constrained budgets or had reached their debt limits.

Since 2010, 97 percent of government expenditure on natural hazards had been on responding to and recovering from disasters, with just three percent spent on things that reduced risk and increased resilience.

The government’s National Adaptation Framework signalled that costs would be “shared across society and over time”, the commission said.

“While helpful for the government to signal this, the National Adaptation Framework does not include detail of when or how decisions will be made around how costs will be shared.”

Decision-making and delivery

“The demands of climate change are putting Aotearoa New Zealand’s ability to plan, decide and act together under increasing pressure,” the report warned.

Decision-makers needed to “drive forward” on adapting to climate change. “Delays leave the country facing spiralling costs – including for central and local government – without effective ways of planning and acting together. Decisive action is needed now.”

The consequences of failing to manage the overall climate response would land hardest on people who were already the most exposed, the commission said.

“This can be the people who live in areas that get hammered by the weather events that are becoming more frequent and more intense – especially the areas with smaller, rural councils with lower rates income. Or it can be population groups where the impacts are disproportionate, such as for iwi/Māori.”

‘Ones to watch’

As well as the 10 most significant risks, the commission also highlighted agriculture and horticulture as “ones to watch”.

“These risks were rated at minor severity at present, but they are expected to move to major by 2050,” the assessment said.

“This step change is anticipated because drought and extreme weather events are expected to affect both horticultural crop yields and feed supplies for livestock, the impacts from soil erosion and coastal inundation on the pastoral sector may become irreversible, increased temperature extremes and pest pressure could substantially affect yields, and the increased frequency of extreme events will shorten recovery periods in both sectors.”

The government now has two years to develop a national adaptation plan that responds to the risks raised by the report.

The commission will provide its progress review on the current adaptation plan, adopted in 2022, later this year.

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

Several edits have been made to this story for clarity and to include the developer’s reply on claims kiwi are present in the area.

A developer is calling on the Upper Hutt City Council to let it build what it believes to be a crucial road, so it can construct 1600 homes.

Guildford Timber Company (GTC) wants to build the road through an area of council-owned land known as the Silverstream Spur, home to a number of native bird species.

It had been looking to develop 330 hectares of its own land for the homes in Silverstream, a 30-minute drive from downtown Wellington’s, since 2007.

It wanted to establish a link road between its sites on the ridgeline and valley floor, saying the “the best access available” was through the Silverstream Spur.

In 2024, Upper Hutt City Council decided to rezone the Spur as a natural open space, which would not allow for the development of a road on the land.

GTC appealed the decision in the Environment Court, on the grounds that the rezoning had intended for a provision to allow for infratsructure, such as a road. A date for the hearing has yet to be set.

Matt Griffin, a project manager whose family co-founded GTC, said a road through the Spur was necessary for the development.

“We were looking at other access routes, they just don’t tick those same metrics from our point of view and potentially pull the development out of the heart of the local community,” he said.

GTC said the road would link the development to train and bus networks, reducing car dependency.

“We want ideally a way that people can walk or ride their bike and connect into the local train station and for it to become a vibrant part of Silverstream and Pinehaven,” Griffin said.

However, the idea of a road through the Spur has garnered vocal opposition.

‘Wildlife corridor’

Forest and Bird applied to be party to GTC’s Environment Court proceedings. Regional Conservation Manager Amelia Geary said the organisation is defending the council’s decision to zone the Spur as a natural open space.

She said Forest and Bird did not oppose GTC’s development, but a road would be “incompatible with the purpose of the zone”.

She argued that a road would remove the forest’s ability to regenerate and become a “wildlife corridor”.

“We say that Silverstream Spur is too important ecologically for a road to be enabled and to bulldoze the values that are there.”

Locals echoed her worries. Pinehaven resident Debbie said: “We are truly blessed to be living here, surrounded with trees and nature, native bush. And with that native bush comes the wildlife –Tuis, wax eyes, bellbirds, morepork, kaka parrots, and now also the kiwi.”

“I have a really heartbreaking concern that if these houses are built, then that forest is gone forever. There’s no coming back from that. And we know that the wildlife will suffer.”

The developer denied that kiwi were present.

“But in time we want to make this area safe enough through intensive predator control that they can return,” GTC said in a statement. “The whole point of the project is to transition the forest from pine to natives, paid for through the development. It is a huge ecological gain that locals will get to experience themselves.”

GTC stressed that a road would only take up a small part of the Spur – about a tenth of the area.

“I think there’s a misconception in New Zealand that just because an area is bush, it must have ecological merit and is somehow surviving by itself, and frankly that’s not the case. You know, land needs to be managed and it takes resources and people to do that,” Griffin said.

‘No-complaint covenants don’t work’

However, a tenth of the area was too much land to give up for Jason Durry, the operations manager of Silver Stream Railway, who also joined the Environment Court proceedings.

“We’re not talking about a little, minor, narrow road up the hill. It is going to be quite a major road.”

Durry said the Spur had been acquired by the council as a reserve and there should not be any provisions to allow for a road to go through it. He challenged whether GTC needed to have a road go through the Spur.

“They don’t need it. They have numerous other access points that they own already that they can use.”

He also worried about reverse sensitivity – which considers how existing infrastructure might negatively impact the development’s future residents.

Durry argued that residents could complain about noise and smoke from the heritage railway, which may constrain operations. “We’ve worked to preserve New Zealand’s railway history and consider ourselves an important part of the Upper Hutt community. We operate along a section of former railway line that turned 150 years old this year.”

He was not reassured by GTC’s assurances that their development would have no-complaints covenants, which in theory would stop residents from complaining about disruption from nearby infrastructure, such as the railway or the landfill.

“No-complaint covenants don’t work. We’ve got other property that we have sold in the past to developer. And part of that [had] a no-complaints covenant on it. The residents have still occasionally complained.”

Hutt City Council commissioned a report which found that noise and odours from Silverstream Landfill may be too objectionable for future residents of the proposed development and so could jeopardise its operational license. This would have knock-on effects on the council resulting in possibly higher council rates.

GTC disputed this, stressing that it had been in communication with the landfill to manage any impacts from the development. It said it also commissioned a report into reverse sensitivy from its development to inform design and mitigation measures.

“We don’t want to cause any issues for the operation of the landfill as we agree with Hutt City that it is critical infrastructure. So our design captures that and ultimately we will only build where those effects can be managed, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to sell the homes,” the company said.

Flooding ‘misconceptions’

GTC said it wanted to clear up “misconceptions” about the development causing more flooding or slips – arguing it would strengthen the area’s flood resilience..

Several Pinehaven and Silverstream locals told RNZ they worried that building houses and deforestation were worsening stormwater run-off and erosion

One resident, Debbie said: “We know that Guildford Timber have, over the last five years or so, removed a lot of pine from up on those hills. And in the two floods that we’ve had this year already, the water’s coming more quickly. The water is filled with silt.”

But a GTC spokesperson rejected this. “It’s actually the opposite. Through a development you actually control and direct water flows, so once this project is complete the risk will have been permanently reduced compared with current land use,” they said.

However, lobby group Flooding Us Director Steve Pattinson said extra run-off from a development was “inevitable”, as forest was replaced by “hard surfaces like roads, roofs, driveways”.

He doubted that the developer could mitigate extra run-off . “Mitigation relies entirely on the reliability of the modelling. The modelling is not reliable.”

Pattison argued that flood maps for the area were overestimating potential flood risks. GTC countered that more conservative estimates would only allow for better protection.

‘Vehicles all over the place’

GTC has run into other zoning issues with its development. Its land is classed as a general rural zone, which limits the density and scale of the homes it can build.

Upper Hutt City Council proposed rezoning the area in 2023 as a general residential zone, which would remove these limitations.

But the council withdrew the proposal in December last year after receiving a majority of submisisons that opposed to the project.

Hutt City Council, the Greater Wellington Regional Council and New Zealand Transport Agency provided submissions against the zone change.

NZTA’s submission read: “No evidence or information has been provided to understand the transport effects of this proposal. In particular NZTA is concerned about what (if any) improvements would be required to the local road/SH2 intersection as a result of the increase in traffic movements.”

On local community Facebook groups, residents of Pinehaven and Silverstream said they were concerned roading infrastructure would not be able to accommodate more cars.

Silverstream resident William told RNZ the transport network was unsuitable for the current population, and said there were already “vehicles all over the place”.

However, GTC said traffic could be managed, especially when accounting for planned upgrades to the area. It added that it had budgeted for minor roading upgrades.

Griffin joked that the concern was not unique to this development.

“I think everybody in every town in New Zealand sort of is frustrated with how their local roundabout or traffic lights do or don’t work,” he said.

In order to rezone its land, GTC has applied for Fast Track Approval. The Silverstream Forest development was listed as a Fast Track project in 2024.

‘Exciting potential’

Alongside the concern, the project has also aroused support in the local population.

Property manager Veronica Watson said she was “surprisingly impressed” by GTC’s proposal.

She learnt about the project from a neighbour petitioning against it. “I went into it expecting this is going to be another sort of [project to] cram houses on the tiny little sections, no concern for the environment, no care for the neighbours.”

Watson liked that GTC addressed the development’s ecological impacts and wanted to preserve the area’s special character.

“Rather than having rows and rows and rows of Coronation Street houses, [GTC] actually had properties designed to be sympathetic with the environment.”

Griffin said his family had been involved in the community for more than 100 years.

“It’s something we’re really proud of. We consider ourselves guardians of this amazing landscape and we’re really passionate about doing something unique.”

He said GTC was “passionate about ecological outcomes” and that the development would provide resources to support wildlife and pest control.

“Some people still believe we plan to strip the forest and replace it with homes. But in reality we’re talking about using 30 to 35 percent of the land for development, which includes roads, with the remainder being green space,” the company said.

Patrick McKibbin, head of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, said he had been keeping a “keen eye on the project”, hoping it would pour money into the Hutt Valley.

“The potential for our businesses, to create jobs, to create opportunities, to grow, to be as successful as possible is very, very significant if this project goes ahead. The potential of this is very, very exciting.”

He estimated that the project could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars over a decade or so. He added that there had probably never been a project of this size undertaken in one go before in the area.

McKibbin added that the area needed more housing to keep up with a growing population.

Upper Hutt City Council estimated that its population would grow from 46,000 to 70,000 by 2051.

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

A developer is calling on the Upper Hutt City Council to let it build what it believes to be a crucial road through native bush, so it can construct 1600 homes.

Guildford Timber Company (GTC) wants to build the road through an area of council-owned land known as the Silverstream Spur, where “tuis, wax eyes, bellbirds, morepork, kaka parrots, and now also the kiwi” live.

It had been looking to develop 330 hectares of its own land for the homes in Silverstream, a 30-minute drive from downtown Wellington’s, since 2007.

It wanted to establish a link road between its sites on the ridgeline and valley floor, saying the “the best access available” was through the Silverstream Spur.

In 2024, Upper Hutt City Council decided to rezone the Spur as a natural open space, which would not allow for the development of a road on the land.

GTC appealed the decision in the Environment Court, on the grounds that the rezoning had intended for a provision to allow for infratsructure, such as a road. A date for the hearing has yet to be set.

Matt Griffin, a project manager whose family co-founded GTC, said a road through the Spur was necessary for the development.

“We were looking at other access routes, they just don’t tick those same metrics from our point of view and potentially pull the development out of the heart of the local community,” he said.

GTC said the road would link the development to train and bus networks, reducing car dependency.

“We want ideally a way that people can walk or ride their bike and connect into the local train station and for it to become a vibrant part of Silverstream and Pinehaven,” Griffin said.

However, the idea of a road through the Spur has garnered vocal opposition.

‘Wildlife corridor’

Forest and Bird applied to be party to GTC’s Environment Court proceedings. Regional Conservation Manager Amelia Geary said the organisation is defending the council’s decision to zone the Spur as a natural open space.

She said Forest and Bird did not oppose GTC’s development, but a road would be “incompatible with the purpose of the zone”.

She argued that a road would remove the forest’s ability to regenerate and become a “wildlife corridor”.

“We say that Silverstream Spur is too important ecologically for a road to be enabled and to bulldoze the values that are there.”

Locals echoed her worries. Pinehaven resident Debbie said: “We are truly blessed to be living here, surrounded with trees and nature, native bush. And with that native bush comes the wildlife –Tuis, wax eyes, bellbirds, morepork, kaka parrots, and now also the kiwi.”

“I have a really heartbreaking concern that if these houses are built, then that forest is gone forever. There’s no coming back from that. And we know that the wildlife will suffer.”

GTC stressed that a road would only take up a small part of the Spur – about a tenth of the area.

“I think there’s a misconception in New Zealand that just because an area is bush, it must have ecological merit and is somehow surviving by itself, and frankly that’s not the case. You know, land needs to be managed and it takes resources and people to do that,” Griffin said.

‘No-complaint covenants don’t work’

However, a tenth of the area was too much land to give up for Jason Durry, the operations manager of Silver Stream Railway, who also joined the Environment Court proceedings.

“We’re not talking about a little, minor, narrow road up the hill. It is going to be quite a major road. And the route where it wants to smash through is some of the best bits, with the best native vegetation on it.”

Durry said the Spur had been acquired by the council as a reserve and there should not be any provisions to allow for a road to go through it. He challenged whether GTC needed to have a road go through the Spur. “They don’t need it. They have numerous other access points that they own already that they can use.”

He also worried about reverse sensitivity – which considers how existing infrastructure might negatively impact the development’s future residents.

Durry argued that residents could complain about noise and smoke from the heritage railway, which may constrain operations. “We’ve worked to preserve New Zealand’s railway history and consider ourselves an important part of the Upper Hutt community. We operate along a section of former railway line that turned 150 years old this year.”

He was not reassured by GTC’s assurances that their development would have no-complaints covenants, which in theory would stop residents from complaining about disruption from nearby infrastructure, such as the railway or the landfill.

“No-complaint covenants don’t work. We’ve got other property that we have sold in the past to developer. And part of that [had] a no-complaints covenant on it. The residents have still occasionally complained.”

Hutt City Council commissioned a report which found that noise and odours from Silverstream Landfill may be too objectionable for future residents of the proposed development and so could jeopardise its operational license. This would have knock-on effects on the council resulting in possibly higher council rates.

GTC disputed this, stressing that it had been in communication with the landfill to manage any impacts from the development. It said it also commissioned a report into reverse sensitivy from its development to inform design and mitigation measures.

“We don’t want to cause any issues for the operation of the landfill as we agree with Hutt City that it is critical infrastructure. So our design captures that and ultimately we will only build where those effects can be managed, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to sell the homes,” the company said.

Flooding ‘misconceptions’

GTC said it wanted to clear up “misconceptions” about the development causing more flooding or slips – arguing it would strengthen the area’s flood resilience..

Several Pinehaven and Silverstream locals told RNZ they worried that building houses and deforestation were worsening stormwater run-off and erosion

One resident, Debbie said: “We know that Guildford Timber have, over the last five years or so, removed a lot of pine from up on those hills. And in the two floods that we’ve had this year already, the water’s coming more quickly. The water is filled with silt.”

But a GTC spokesperson rejected this. “It’s actually the opposite. Through a development you actually control and direct water flows, so once this project is complete the risk will have been permanently reduced compared with current land use,” they said.

However, lobby group Flooding Us Director Steve Pattinson said extra run-off from a development was “inevitable”, as forest was replaced by “hard surfaces like roads, roofs, driveways”.

He doubted that the developer could mitigate extra run-off . “Mitigation relies entirely on the reliability of the modelling. The modelling is not reliable.”

Pattison argued that flood maps for the area were overestimating potential flood risks. GTC countered that more conservative estimates would only allow for better protection.

‘Vehicles all over the place’

GTC has run into other zoning issues with its development. Its land is classed as a general rural zone, which limits the density and scale of the homes it can build.

Upper Hutt City Council proposed rezoning the area in 2023 as a general residential zone, which would remove these limitations.

But the council withdrew the proposal in December last year after receiving a majority of submisisons that opposed to the project.

Hutt City Council, the Greater Wellington Regional Council and New Zealand Transport Agency provided submissions against the zone change.

NZTA’s submission read: “No evidence or information has been provided to understand the transport effects of this proposal. In particular NZTA is concerned about what (if any) improvements would be required to the local road/SH2 intersection as a result of the increase in traffic movements.”

On local community Facebook groups, residents of Pinehaven and Silverstream said they were concerned roading infrastructure would not be able to accommodate more cars.

Silverstream resident William told RNZ the transport network was unsuitable for the current population, and said there were already “vehicles all over the place”.

However, GTC said traffic could be managed, especially when accounting for planned upgrades to the area. It added that it had budgeted for minor roading upgrades.

Griffin joked that the concern was not unique to this development.

“I think everybody in every town in New Zealand sort of is frustrated with how their local roundabout or traffic lights do or don’t work,” he said.

In order to rezone its land, GTC has applied for Fast Track Approval. The Silverstream Forest development was listed as a Fast Track project in 2024.

‘Exciting potential’

Alongside the concern, the project has also aroused support in the local population.

Property manager Veronica Watson said she was “surprisingly impressed” by GTC’s proposal.

She learnt about the project from a neighbour petitioning against it. “I went into it expecting this is going to be another sort of [project to] cram houses on the tiny little sections, no concern for the environment, no care for the neighbours.”

Watson liked that GTC addressed the development’s ecological impacts and wanted to preserve the area’s special character.

“Rather than having rows and rows and rows of Coronation Street houses, [GTC] actually had properties designed to be sympathetic with the environment.”

Griffin said his family had been involved in the community for more than 100 years.

“It’s something we’re really proud of. We consider ourselves guardians of this amazing landscape and we’re really passionate about doing something unique.”

He said GTC was “passionate about ecological outcomes” and that the development would provide resources to support wildlife and pest control.

“Some people still believe we plan to strip the forest and replace it with homes. But in reality we’re talking about using 30 to 35 percent of the land for development, which includes roads, with the remainder being green space,” the company said.

Patrick McKibbin, head of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, said he had been keeping a “keen eye on the project”, hoping it would pour money into the Hutt Valley.

“The potential for our businesses, to create jobs, to create opportunities, to grow, to be as successful as possible is very, very significant if this project goes ahead. The potential of this is very, very exciting.”

He estimated that the project could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars over a decade or so. He added that there had probably never been a project of this size undertaken in one go before in the area.

McKibbin added that the area needed more housing to keep up with a growing population.

Upper Hutt City Council estimated that its population would grow from 46,000 to 70,000 by 2051.

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

MIL OSI

A front will bring heavy rain to parts of the South Island from later today with up to 400 millimetres predicted in some areas.

️Severe Weather Update️

1️⃣️The first of two weather systems in the next few days is tracking onto the bottom of the South Island today. The heaviest rain is set to fall about the ranges.

2️⃣️A brief reprieve for the west coast before the next system starting Friday.… pic.twitter.com/T5AFsyHd2x

— MetService NZ (@MetService) May 5, 2026

MetService has issued orange heavy rain warnings for Tasman District northwest of Motueka, Buller, Westland and Fiordland north of Doubtful Sound.

Up to 400 millimetres of rain could fall on the ranges in the Tasman District with peak rates of between 20 to 30 millimetres an hour.

Buller and Westland could also expect between 200 and 300mm of rain, with chances of thunderstorms.

MetService said the warnings meant streams and rivers might rise rapidly, and there could be surface flooding, slips and difficult driving conditions.

Heavy rain watches were also issued for the Richmond and Bryant ranges, Grey District, and the Canterbury and Otago headwaters.

There was a high change of Richmond and Bryant ranges upgrading to a warning, while a moderate chance for other areas.

MetService warned that more heavy rain and possible gales were expected to hit the South Island on Friday and Saturday due to the low pressure system.

It will bring a change to strong southwesterlies as we moved into the weekend, with large swells possible for western coastlines, MetService said.

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MIL OSI

Minister for the Environment Nicola Grigg has announced two new appointments and one reappointment to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) board.

Lisa Tumahai, CNZM, and Professor Nicola Shadbolt, ONZM, have each been appointed to the EPA board for three-year terms.

Lisa Tumahai has extensive governance and leadership experience in iwi, commercial, and public sector organisations. The current Deputy Chair of the Climate Change Commission, she brings deep knowledge of climate change, environmental protection, and Treaty of Waitangi considerations.

Professor Shadbolt has over 30 years’ governance experience spanning government, industry, and commercial boards. A former Climate Change Commissioner, she brings strong expertise in the primary sector, agribusiness, and regulation, alongside internationally recognised governance credentials.

“Together, these appointments bring a strong mix of governance, regulatory, scientific, and climate expertise to the EPA.”

Current board member Mary Anne Macleod, who was first appointed in 2019, has been reappointed for one year and will serve as Deputy Chair from 1 July 2026. 

“I would like to thank the outgoing Deputy Chair, Paul Connell for his contributions to the EPA Board over the past seven and a half years,” Minister Grigg says. 

Lisa Tumahai’s term began on 4 May 2026, and Professor Shadbolt’s term will commence on 1 July 2026. 

MIL OSI

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

A teacher on a fatal caving trip has described how he was convinced he would die as he tried to push students to safety while he was fully submerged in a raging torrent.

The man, who is subject to a non-publication order and cannot be named, was one of two teachers on a fateful Whangārei Boys’ High School outdoor education trip to Abbey Caves on 9 May 2023.

He gave evidence on Monday in a Coroner’s inquest into the death of 15-year-old Karnin Petera, who drowned after his group was caught in a flash flood.

The other 16 boys and two adults managed to get out alive.

The teacher said the trip – one of many he had led through the caves on the outskirts of Whangārei – had started normally, with the boys excited to be underground and enjoying the spectacle of glow worms on the cave walls.

MetService had issued an orange heavy rain warning for Northland but the local forecast for Whangārei indicated only light rain that morning.

A band of heavy rain was expected that afternoon so the trip started earlier and was limited to one cave, Organ Cave, instead of the usual three.

The teacher said he had explored Organ Cave after Cyclone Gabrielle, to learn how it was affected by heavy rain, and had found the water to be only knee deep.

He said there was only drizzle when the Year 11 group entered the cave.

The boys had been about to try to make their way through a tight point known as The Squeeze when the teacher noticed the stream rising and the sound of water running through the cave growing louder.

He decided to cut the trip short but as they neared the cave entrance, the stream became a torrent.

It went from waist deep to neck deep “within seconds” and was moving “incredibly quickly”, he said.

The force of the water through the cave made it extremely difficult to get out.

The teacher used his body to block part of the flow and lifted any students swept towards him over his shoulder so they could climb out.

The first few got out with ease but the others were struggling to pull themselves up over a large boulder at the entrance, which he described as “near impossible”.

He grabbed one boy and held him up by his overalls to keep his head above water.

“The others were pushing each other under the water and fighting to get on top of the boulder in sheer panic. I yelled at them just to hold onto the rocks and not push each other under … another five or so students then came down the river and basically crashed against me and each other. Many students panicked at the exit and were pulling down on each other as they tried to get their heads above the water.”

By then, the water was up to the teacher’s neck and had started lapping across his face.

He was pushing boys up so students who were already outside the cave could pull them to safety.

One boy was completely underwater with only the top of his helmet showing.

“I tried to reach my arm down to push him but my leg gave way and I was pulled under the water. I tried to find some holds or something to try and pull myself back to the surface but had no luck,” he said.

“I was completely out of breath and thought I was going to die. I tried to calm my mind. I had all kinds of vivid memories coming into my mind from childhood and then a strong image of my wife and children came into view.”

At that point, he saw a gumboot beside him.

“I thought that if I could grab this leg and push off the bottom I may be able to get the student’s head out of the water and in a position where he could be pulled up by others.”

It worked, and he also managed to wedge his foot into a crack and push himself out of the water for a deep breath of air.

“I managed to get both arms out of the water and onto a boulder. At this point I had nothing left in me but I was safe.”

The teacher pulled himself out of the cave, then climbed back in along the wall to rescue two more boys trapped on a ledge.

He said the students were shaken, exhausted and cold, and he was vomiting due to the amount of water he had swallowed.

They gathered partway up the hill to do a headcount and realised Karnin was missing.

“At this point I completely broke down,” he said.

The teacher described himself as “extremely risk averse” and said he did everything in his power to ensure the students were safe given the circumstances.

“What happened on this day has devastated me and shaken me to my core,” he said.

The teacher had since learned that the rainfall intensity reached 30mm per hour after the group entered the cave, far above the 0.5-1.7mm/h forecast that morning.

“I’ve never seen a river in a cave rise like this, even in heavy rainfall.”

The teacher said he had first visited, and fallen in love with, Abbey Caves as a 16-year-old.

That experience had convinced him to pursue a career that would allow him to share his love of the outdoors with others.

He was, however, no longer working in outdoor education, which he found “deeply saddening”.

Trauma was one reason, but another was that he no longer felt he could rely on weather forecasts to keep outdoor activities safe.

“I’ve made the decision to not return to outdoor education, not because I lost my passion for it, but because of the growing unpredictability of extreme weather events,” he said.

“We’re seeing flooding occur with little or no warning, alongside instances where conditions appear safe despite official weather alerts.”

He hoped students would still have opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, but safely, even as the climate changed.

“I’ve always believed that if we don’t see, touch, feel and experience the natural world, we risk losing our connection to it.”

The teacher addressed Karnin’s whānau, saying he hoped the inquest would bring some degree of closure as they continued to “hold tightly to the memories of your beautiful son”.

The teacher gave the court his own list of changes he wanted to see as a result of the tragedy.

They included:

• Clear, standardised EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) documentation free from ambiguous wording;
• An EOTC coordinator to check all trip documentation on the day, with authority to cancel if justified;
• A single, nationally recognised weather forecaster for outdoor education to ensure consistency and reduce the risk of conflicting information;
• Clear, consistent forecasting, with education for staff on how to accurately interpret weather data;
• Flexibility in schools’ EOTC planning so outdoor education activities can be rescheduled;
• Outdoor education programmes to be led by properly qualified and experienced staff;
• Class sizes and supervision ratios to be standardised and strictly adhered to;
• Clear rules for when EOTC should not go ahead due to weather. For example, an orange rain warning could be an automatic trigger to cancel any water-related activities.

The inquest, before Coroner Alexander Ho in the Whangārei Courthouse, will continue on Tuesday with evidence from the other teacher on the caving trip.

Also due to give evidence this week are a representative of the school’s Board of Trustees and a district council health and safety manager.

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Explainer – Could government planning reforms lead to more development in the Waitākere Ranges? Here’s why locals are concerned.

The Waitākere Ranges are one of the jewels of Auckland, encompassing thousands of hectares of dense coastal forest hills and beaches.

But many in the community are concerned that the impending replacement of the Resource Management Act (RMA) may loosen longstanding protections for the area.

“You can’t have growth at all costs,” said Waitākere Ranges Local Board deputy chair Greg Presland, who has organised a petition to amend the RMA reform legislation currently before a parliamentary select committee.

Here’s what the debate is about.

Why are people concerned?

The Waitākere Ranges cover about 27,000ha of public and private land nestled in the hills, foothills and coast around West Auckland, including the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park which takes up about 60 percent of the land. Its borders include communities like Titirangi, Piha, Laingholm, Oratia and Karekare and it’s a home to threatened kauri trees.

It’s a place people are passionate about, and a variety of groups including Forest & Bird, Environmental Defence Society, The Tree Council, the Waitākere Ranges Protection Society and others are wanting to ensure the ranges are explicitly protected in RMA reforms.

In 2008, the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act was put into place. It’s meant to address concerns about the effect of development and preserve the natural character and cultural heritage of the area. That legislation cross-references the soon to be replaced 1991 Resource Management Act – which also specifically mentions the Waitākere Act and the similar Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000.

But neither one of those acts is referred to in the replacement Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill, which Presland has written “would render large parts of the Heritage Area Act meaningless”.

The Planning Bill will lay out how land can be used and developed including planning for housing growth, while the Natural Environment Bill will lay out the rules for managing the use of natural resources and protecting the environment.

Without the Heritage Area Act being specifically mentioned in the new legislation, many Waitākere locals and groups are concerned it could lead to creeping changes.

In its submission to Parliament, the Waitākere Ranges Local Board said leaving the Waitākere Ranges outside of the RMA reform “would strip consent processes, Regional Spatial Plans and Land Use Plans of their duty to protect the ranges”.

“In short: the ranges could be weakened by a thousand cuts. Subdivision of the ranges would be more likely and decision makers would not have to have as one of their guiding principles the protection of the ranges.”

A petition to Parliament Presland started, ‘Save the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area’, had nearly hit its goal of 6000 signatures as of Monday.

“My impression is that the vast majority appreciate and support the Heritage Act,” he said.

“I live in the area and want it protected,” one person wrote in signing the petition, while another said, “I want future generations to be able to feel that same connection and find the same peace of mind in the Waitākeres: it is a good antidote to the madness of the modern world!”

Around 150 people also turned up at a recent local community meeting about the issue, Presland said.

Sir Bob Harvey, a former mayor of Waitākere City, told that meeting, “I never believed we would have to save the Waitākere Ranges all over again.”

Presland said the exclusion of the ranges from the proposed legislation may not be intentional, but the response indicates how important the ranges are seen to many in Auckland.

“I think [it’s an] omission – the government doesn’t have enough people working on these particular reforms. But it’s crazy that it’s got this far without it being addressed.”

What does the government say?

The gist so far from the government is that they’re aware of the concerns and will consider it as the legislation progresses.

In official transcriptions of Question Time in Parliament last week, Housing and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop, who is also the minister responsible for RMA reform, acknowledged the 2008 act.

“To maintain the intent of the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act under the new planning system, consequential amendments will be needed, and the Environment Committee will be considering that as part of its scrutiny of the bills,” he said.

Bishop said “around 100” consequential amendments would be required for the RMA reforms legislation.

“It’s not just about the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act, it’s about 100 other pieces of legislation that require consequential amendments, which the select committee will be considering.”

Presland said, “They’ve acknowledged there’s a problem,” and said the public campaign has drawn a lot of engagement.

“I’ve heard that their email boxes have been filled up,” he said of ministers and MPs.

Te Pāti Māori MP for Tāmaki Makaurau Oriiini Kaipara asked Bishop during Question Time, “What assurances, if any, can he give to the people of Tāmaki Makaurau that his RMA reforms will not impact the protection of the Waitākere Ranges?”

Kaipara referred to “strong opposition from local communities and mana whenua” and pushed Bishop to answer “what specific safeguards, if any, will remain to prevent irreversible environmental degradation” in the ranges.

Bishop referred to previous discussion on the legislation and responded to Kaipara, “If she was listening, she would find out that that’s not what I’m doing.”

What about property owners and their rights?

“When this act was designed, we had this basic mantra was people could keep their existing rights,” Presland said.

However, Auckland councillor for Waitākere Ward Ken Turner wrote on social media recently that while he does support the RMA reforms specifically including references to the Heritage Act, he also believed it is currently difficult for some locals to make changes to their private properties and called for more relief support for homeowners.

“Is the protection of the Waitākere Ranges under threat because of changes to the RMA,” he wrote. “No! Because it is not the rules and regulations of a few politicians and bureaucrats that protect the Waitākere Ranges. It is the respect and effort of the many Aucklanders who love, live in, and visit the area.”

Turner wrote that he supports establishing a regulatory relief process – which the government defined by saying, “A council must provide for regulatory relief when a proposed plan includes certain kinds of rules that are likely to significantly impact a landowner’s reasonable use of their land.”

That compensation could include things like cash payouts, rates relief, bonus development rights, land swaps or other methods.

Turner described “a complex tension between ‘character’ and ‘use’ across the 10,500 hectares of private land within the heritage area”. He said that some rules have been set aside for public projects such as the estimated $1 billion-plus expansion of the Huia Water Treatment Plant or trail walkways and infrastructure in the area.

“For local people, who are the backbone of Waitākere Ranges protection, undertaking even the smallest types of improvements to their private properties, like building a deck or adding extra car parking space, comes with consenting processes and costs designed to prohibit,” Turner wrote.

During the Question Time in Parliament, ACT leader David Seymour asked if the changes would permit long-awaited developments for some locals.

“Is there any chance that these changes might allow families with a horse paddock in Henderson, where they’ve been trying to build homes for decades, to actually provide those homes that would do a lot more for mana whenua and many others complaining than any of the carping we’ve heard in this question so far?”

But Presland called the idea of introducing regulatory relief a “significant concern”.

“Most of the Heritage Area is covered by a significant ecological area overlay and if compensation was demanded by landowners this would be a significant liability on the part of council.

“As a concept it is retrograde and would lessen the action that council could take to protect the environment. It suggests that financial considerations could top environmental considerations and it ignores the collective benefit that a healthy environment provides us all.”

How does current legislation protect the ranges?

The 2008 act came into place at the request of the former Waitākere City Council and “puts in place a number of measures to ensure that the core nature of the area is protected”.

Under the act, monitoring reports are issued every five years on the state of the heritage area’s environment.

“It’s been indicating that it’s been working as planned,” Presland said. “I think there’s been 700 or 800 new dwellings in the area since the act started, so it’s progressing as practical.”

Last year, the Waitākere Ranges Deed of Acknowledgement was also signed, which “gives practical effect” to the rights of tangata whenua laid out in the 2008 legislation.

That deed aims to create a framework for closer collaboration between Te Kawerau ā Maki, Auckland Council, the Department of Conservation and local communities, although it was also criticised by NZ First’s Shane Jones and ACT leader David Seymour who had concerns over “co-governance”.

Are there broader fears for the Waitākere Ranges and development?

“The heritage area fulfils a number of functions,” Presland said.

It’s also a major water catchment area with five large water supply dams. “We get 17 percent of the city’s water from it,” he said.

It was also hit hard by the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Weekend flooding, Cyclone Gabrielle and other recent storms, with roads destroyed and many homes damaged or lost in landslips.

“Titirangi, you can see after the last storm, it’s very fragile. There’s a real practical reason to stop further development here.”

Presland said he has heard a lot of concern about possible “boundary creep” into the heritage area.

“The boundary is the place where the biggest issues are. You hold that line or if you don’t hold that line it’s just going to keep happening and it’s death by a thousand cuts.”

Presland said there is a benefit to the entire community for landowners to keep their properties forested and in good health.

“A landowner may insist on their right to cut down trees but this may affect the stability of neighbouring properties let alone their own. This is one of the primary reasons why the significant ecological area overlay was established.

“To require council to pay compensation in a situation where protection needs to be enhanced could have a direct effect on neighbours and communities.

“Protecting the environment is not only preserving a nice to have. It is ensuring that people in communities do not have their local areas degraded.”

Auckland has been grappling with housing intensification plans which would add more than a million homes in the next 30 years. Presland said those plans should focus on central suburbs like nearby Glen Eden.

“We’ve seen significant intensification around Glen Eden for instance. If you want a compact city that’s growing, that’s the way you do it. …You intensify around the rail stations and you protect your countryside.”

Presland also expressed concern that the new legislation would give too much power to the minister responsible.

Clause 204 of the Planning Bill notes that ,”The Minister may direct a local authority to take any action that the Minister considers necessary to achieve an outcome specified by the Minister in the direction.”

“From what I can see there is no comparable RMA power,” Presland wrote in the local board’s submission on the bill. “The level of ministerial power is on the face of it is extreme and the local board does not understand the justification for this power.”

“We never anticipated a minister would have that sort of power when the act was designed,” Presland told RNZ.

During his remarks in Parliament last week, Bishop said he has seen a lot of feedback on the Waitākere Ranges.

“It is true that I have had a number of emails around the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act seeking that it be entrenched in law,” Bishop said.

“I’ve also had emails from people who actually live there who wish to do simple things with their property, like subdivide to put another house on, who find themselves unable to do that.”

In her remarks in Parliament last week, Kaipara asked Bishop whether he would accept any responsibility for “irreversible damage” to the ranges if protections are weakened.

Bishop responded by saying the overall RMA reforms would create “the prosperity that we have been denied as a country because of the straightjacket of the RMA.”

“If the government’s planning reforms work as intended, I will take responsibility for the abundant development opportunities that will land in this country.”

What’s next?

The select committee’s report is due to be presented on 26 June. The next step is a second reading of the bill and possible further amendments could then be considered.

Presland said the community response shows the keen interest in the future of the Waitākere Ranges.

“I’ve been really impressed, actually. People have shared the hell out of the petition on social media and everyone’s talking about it.”

Presland said the completed petition would be presented soon, and other meetings are also scheduled with ministers.

“We’re trying to figure out the optimal time. So the select committee are going through reviews now, probably next week or two is the optimal time to present it to them.”

In the House last week, Bishop maintained that the select committee will consider all possible amendments before the legislation moves forward.

“What’s important is that the select committee … work its way through that, consider the consequential amendments made, and I look forward to the report back to the House.”

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Farmers need to be paid to start using methane-busting technology in their herds and on their land, agri-climate leaders say.

Their comments follow earlier warnings from industry and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment that, without penalties or incentives, there are few reasons for farmers to invest in some of the tools.

Climate Change Minister Simon Watts said the government would work with farmers to “maximise the emissions reduction innovation underway” but would not be drawn on whether the government was looking at subsidies or other incentives.

Last year, the government scrapped its previous plans to put a tax on agricultural methane by 2030 and weakened the country’s 2050 methane emissions reduction target.

Instead, it opted for a market- and industry-led approach, with Watts saying that widespread uptake of the new mitigation tools would be “critical”.

The government-industry partnership AgriZeroNZ had so far invested $78 million into developing methane-inhibiting technologies such as vaccines and genetics.

Some, such as low-methane sheep genetic selection and effluent pond treatments, were available now, while others are still in much earlier stages of development.

Overall, the government has committed $400m to accelerate development and commercialisation.

At the annual Agriculture and Climate Change conference in Wellington last week, AgriZeroNZ chief executive Wayne McNee said some of the technologies had a commercial benefit because they also improved animal productivity.

However, many – including a methane-inhibiting capsule or ‘bolus’ being developed by New Zealand company Ruminant Biotech – did not.

“In the absence of productivity improvement, which is often quite hard to prove, there will need to be an incentive,” he said.

Speaking to RNZ afterwards, he said there were already some industry incentives available for the lowest-emitting dairy farmers.

“But to get broader-scale adoption, there’ll need to be a reason for farmers to use them,” McNee said.

“If there’s a productivity improvement, great, that”ll be a key driver. If there’s not, there’ll need to be some sort of payment to the farmer to take the technology up.”

Other countries had used direct subsidies, or made use of voluntary carbon markets.

AgriZeroNZ was “looking at all options”.

“It’s part of our role to get the tools available, but also part of our role to work with farmers and others to get them used.”

Methane – which is a short-lived gas but has a huge warming effect while it exists in the atmosphere – makes up roughly half of New Zealand’s emissions.

Almost all of it comes from farms, especially the burps and breaths of ruminant animals like cows and sheep.

Only 40 percent would use methane vaccine – survey

A 2025 survey of farmers by the Bioeconomy Science Institute (formerly Manaaki Whenua Landcare) found only seven percent of dairy farmers who responded said reducing their emissions would be a major focus in the next two years.

Only 40 percent of respondents planned to use a methane vaccine, if it became available.

Ruminant Biotech market access director George Reeves told the conference that New Zealand risked losing its global competitiveness unless it developed a “robust, long-term, scalable incentive for methane abatement”.

He told RNZ that did not necessarily have to be taxpayer-funded.

Instead, New Zealand could use voluntary carbon markets, or set up a scheme similar to one being developed in Australia, where farmers could earn carbon units by reducing their emissions intensity.

Ruminant Biotech planned to launch its bolus for certain types of beef cattle later this year and expected that “early adoption is going to be okay”, Reeves said.

However, he wanted to see a broader incentive scheme in place by 2028.

AUT industry fellow and climate economist David Hall said a direct government subsidy scheme for deployment of some tools would make sense while they were still new and did not have general buy-in.

“In the economics of innovation, that’s recognised as a justified and reasonable cost.”

Once the tools had a market foothold, that direct support could be withdrawn, and a low-level price on emissions introduced to keep driving uptake, he said.

Incentive to use potential methane vaccine removed

In a speech to a DairyNZ forum in March, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton raised concerns about both the timeframe and uptake of some promised technologies.

He pointed out that the government’s baseline emissions projections relied on at least 37 percent of dairy cattle receiving a methane vaccine – which were still at ‘proof-of-concept’ stage – by 2030.

“I personally find this assumption heroic,” he said.

“Not only do we not yet have such a vaccine, but the government’s decision to abandon a price on methane removes the incentive to use one should it materialise.”

Significant taxpayer funding was being invested into vaccines and other technologies.

“Taxpayers are entitled to ask why this outlay should continue if the vaccines are not going to be adopted,” he said.

Subsidies could be a pragmatic approach, “but the quid pro quo has to be uptake”.

In a submission on the amended emissions reduction plan last year, industry group DairyNZ also called the assumptions about uptake “ambitious”.

“DairyNZ has consistently encouraged government to be cautious when making assumptions on technology availability, efficacy and uptake.”

Incentives were essential, but the tools also needed to be practical to implement, and must not affect food safety or threaten overseas trade, the organisation said.

In a written statement, Watts said the government had “increasing confidence in the technology pipeline” and expected to see the first tools that AgriZero had invested in available this year.

“While emission predictions inherently carry some uncertainty, the government is committed to working with the agriculture sector to boost productivity while lowering emissions,” he said.

There would be ” range of opinions” on any new technology, he said.

“However, I have heard from many in the sector who support the development of new methane inhibitors and other incentives that increase production while reducing emissions.”

He did not answer questions about whether any policy work had been commissioned on an incentive or offset scheme, or what would drive uptake in the absence of any productivity gains.

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Fire and Emergency New Zealand has axed the only paid role on Aotea Great Barrier Island.

Documents seen by RNZ show the new arrangement – sending staff from the mainland — will cost the fire service more than retaining an officer on the island.

Aotea Great Barrier Island is home to around 1250 residents, 50 of whom are volunteers in the local fire brigade.

The island’s voluntary chief fire officer, Wayne Anderson, says volunteers have been supported by a paid, part-time, person on the island since 2000, when the role was funded by Auckland City Council.

In 2017, that position transferred to Fire and Emergency, which ended the contracted role on April 24.

Going forward, staff from Counties Manukau will provide support for the island, a FENZ spokesperson said.

Aotea Great Barrier local board chair, Izzy Fordham, said the community was “pretty devastated” by the decision to cut the on-island role.

“To me, it just doesn’t make sense, and it’s not making sense to our volunteer fire committee, and it’s certainly not making sense to the community,” she said.

“It’s a really vital role for the island, and there seems to be some thinking within the higher management of FENZ that it can be run from the mainland… but that’s not really going to work that well.”

A FENZ spokesperson said the organisation looked at keeping the on-island role, taking into consideration the workload, existing district support, and incident data.

That data showed, on average, crews attended five medical call outs and two structure fires each year.

Mr Anderson said those figures didn’t reflect the times volunteers dealt with floods, or supported the island’s sole paramedic.

However, the low call-out numbers reflected years of fire prevention work which was now at risk, he said.

“It’s going to affect our risk reduction plans definitely because they’ll be flying someone over who nobody knows. We’re a small community, everyone knows everyone, and respect is big, but a stranger going to a house, putting in a smoke alarm, is not going to happen.”

Mr Anderson said that due to the island’s isolation, it needed to be well-resourced, but it was being abandoned.

“Especially in a severe weather event or a tsunami, we’re going to be on our own for quite a few days,” he said.

“In (Cyclone) Gabrielle, the airport was closed for two days. and we had no ferry for a week. The island was cut off into four pieces because of landslides and flooding.

When things escalate, where are these resources, how are these resources going to get here?”

Internal FENZ advice seen by RNZ showed that flying staff to the island would cost more, be less practical than keeping the on-island role, and impact support for mainland stations.

Travel to the island was not straight-forward, Mr Anderson said, and the ongoing impact of rising fuel prices on flight costs and frequency was unknown.

FENZ staff travelling to Aotea from Auckland would “spend a lot of time at the airport,” he said.

“… we do get a lot of cancellations because of weather, and sometimes you’ve spent a long time in the airport waiting for the fog to clear, waiting for the rain to clear.”

According to FENZ, the contract for the on-island support officer was put in place in 2022, with an agreement to review “its ongoing need against broader organisational priorities”.

“This decision to not appoint a permanent role was not made due to cost,” a FENZ spokesperson said.

“Currently a group manager visits the island approximately four times a year. The future arrangement will see the island supported by specialists, including risk reduction advisors, community readiness and recovery advisors and volunteer support officers. These arrangements will have a more regular schedule, likely to be monthly.”

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A state-of-the-art upgrade at the national Maritime Operations Centre is expected to boost its response to mayday calls.

“When somebody gets in trouble and they call up and they want someone at the other end of the line, that’s us,” said Kordia chief executive Neil Livingston.

Manned 24/7 by communications network Kordia, the Lower Hutt-based MOC provides meteorological information, navigational warnings and ionospheric predictions. But it also acts as the first port of call for those in distress.

It covers about 30 million square kilometres – an area that extends from the mid-Tasman Sea to halfway to Chile and from the South Pole almost up to the Equator.

It’s one of the largest search and rescue regions in the world.

MOC manger Brendan Comerford said over the past 30 years they’d answered about 27,000 calls for assistance involving over 90,000 people.

That network is now nearly halfway through an upgrade to make it more resilient and future-proof it for the next decade.

“It’s a full upgrade, everything from the communications network to the electronics through to the tools that the operators use,” said Livingston.

“It’s very state-of-the-art.”

Upgrade includes AI

Livingston said the upgrade, which included AI, would “really enhance the service”.

“One of the brilliant things that AI does, is it can monitor and when you’ve got hundreds or even thousands of alarms happening, it can condense all those in two or three, which are the really important ones that the operators can focus on.”

But he was very clear AI would not be replacing their operators any time soon.

“It’s assisting the human, it’s not replacing the human. That’s a very core fundamental of how we use AI in these kind of environments.”

Increased resilience

Comerford said just about every element of the network was being replaced.

“You’re going to have new radios on every VHF site. You’ve got a new platform that will be supported into the future. You’ve got a full refurbishment of our long-range, high-frequency sites in the middle of the North Island, including the major antennas,” he said.

“That will give us another good 10 plus years of resilience in the network.”

Livingston said part of the upgrade was also about lifting capacity.

He said during events like Cyclone Gabrielle the Kordia network, which has towers that use microwave radio links rather than fibre, was still able to run, using generators.

He said the upgrade would build on that capacity.

Comerford said in the event of a disaster they would also be able to quickly relocate the centre of operations if required.

“In the event that there’s a major civil emergency in New Zealand, we could basically shift the centre to, for instance, a motel conference room.”

Livingston said for the person calling mayday there won’t be any noticeable difference between the upgraded system and the legacy one.

“They themselves won’t see or hear anything, but what it does is it gives our operators more information to be able to help them more effectively and efficiently. So the outcome is going to be better.”

The upgrade is expected to be completed by June 2029.

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Title credentials tested and passed.

The Hurricanes have keep their spot at the top of the Super Rugby Pacific ladder with a gritty 38-31 win over the defending champion Crusaders at home.

Wing Fehi Fineanganofo again crossed the chalk, as he looked to etch his name in competition history, while the Crusaders were unable to find a late strike to force extra time.

Leicester Fainga’anuku was again outstanding at flanker, kicking off the night’s scoring with another powerful burst from close range, but after several kicking duels and an exchange of penalty goals, the ‘Canes went bang-bang to demoralise the visitors before the break.

Halfback Cam Roigard played a hand in both strikes, setting one up for wing Josh Moorby, while finishing another, as the home side took a 24-10 lead at the break.

A try by halfback Noah Hotham offered hope for the visitors, as he sniped in from the base of a scrum, with a big dummy and sprint, but after hooker Raymond Tuputupu ran the perfect line off Roigard, the gate appeared to be shut.

The competition’s leading tryscorer produced some more magic for his 15th of the season, moving to within one of Joe Roff and Ben Lam’s record to give the hosts a buffer.

Then late drama, as flanker Dom Gardiner rumbled over, replays showing he lost the ball in scoring, but the points stood to set up a bumper finish in Wellington.

The Crusaders fired away for a late equaliser, but second-five David Havili ended his 150th appearance with the forgettable decision to kick the ball away and the Hurricanes hammered it into touch to bring curtains on a cracker in the capital.

Follow the live action here:

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The tabletopping Hurricanes host the fourth-placed Crusaders at Hnry Stadium in Wellington.

The sides will face off for the first time this Super Rugby Pacific season.

Kickoff is at 7.05pm.

Hurricanes: 1. Xavier Numia 2. Asafo Aumua 3. Pasilio Tosi 4. Caleb Delany 5. Warner Dearns 6. Brayden Iose 7. Du’Plessis Kirifi (co-c) 8. Peter Lakai 9. Cam Roigard 10. Ruben Love 11. Fehi Fineanganofo 12. Jordie Barrett (co-c) 13. Billy Proctor 14. Josh Moorby 15. Callum Harkin.

Bench: Raymond Tuputupu, Siale Lauaki, Tevita Mafileo, Isaia Walker-Leawere, Brad Shields, Devan Flanders, Ereatara Enari, Jone Rova

Crusaders: 1. George Bower 2. Codie Taylor 3. Fletcher Newell 4. Antonio Shalfoon 5. Tahlor Cahill 6. Ethan Blackadder 7. Leicester Fainga’anuku 8. Christian Lio-Willie 9. Noah Hotham 10. Taha Kemara 11. Macca Springer 12. David Havili (c) 13. Braydon Ennor 14. Dallas McLeod 15. Johnny McNicholl

Bench: George Bell, Kershawl Sykes-Martin, Seb Calder, Jamie Hannah, Dom Gardiner, Kyle Preston, Johnny Lee, Rivez Reihana.

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