Source: Eastern Institute of Technology – Tairāwhiti
Serious crash, Saddle Road, Woodville
Source: New Zealand Police (District News)
Police are responding to a serious crash on Saddle Road, Woodville.
Emergency services were alerted to the two-vehicle crash near the Hope Road intersection at around 11.10am.
Initial indications suggest there are injuries.
The Serious Crash Unit has been advised.
The road is closed, and motorists are advised to avoid the area and follow diversions.
ENDS
Mining Sector – Business costs can’t increase to modernise DoC – Straterra
Source: Straterra Inc
The mining industry is encouraged to see Conservation Minister Tama Potaka say he aims to lower costs to businesses as the Department of Conservation (DoC) looks to modernise its processes, says Straterra chief executive Josie Vidal.
“In our submission on the discussion document Modernising conservation land management we note this important point, outlined in the foreword as one of the Minister’s two bottom lines,” Vidal says.
“There is no doubt the many layers of processes DoC has to provide access and concessions for the conservation estate needs modernising and we support this aim. However, there is a danger of over-simplifying and we have concerns about, and do not support, the proposed class approach to concessions. Instead, we prefer a case-by-case approach where each application is assessed on its overall merits.
“Getting a mine up and running is costly and business and miners already pay numerous charges for access arrangements and concessions. These include activity, management, and monitoring fees, industrial intrusion charges, and various other charges. This complicated and oblique charging system means that in aggregate, the payment miners make to the Government is substantial.
“There is a strong case for removing the requirement for concessions for mining operations. This could be achieved by allowing mineral permits to cover all land that is required for the mining and associated activities, such as roads and processing plants, and not just the mining of the mineral.
“We support more flexibility for the Government to exchange, transfer, or dispose of parcels of conservation land. This can benefit both miners and the DoC with enhanced conservation outcomes, as well as wider benefits for society.
“The conservation estate is one-third of New Zealand’s land and DoC doesn’t have the resources to manage that.
“Enabling land to be exchanged or disposed of can raise funds for conservation purposes (e.g. pest control) and/or ensure the land is being held by an owner best able to optimise the conservation value. Miners are often better placed than DoC to do this and miners on the conservation estate are engaged in pest control, kiwi breeding programmes, and other conservation projects.
“The aim of more flexible land exchange and disposal settings should be to support all Government priorities, including economic, while still providing a net conservation benefit and safeguarding vulnerable biodiversity.
“Mining tourism should be part of the enhanced tourism on conservation land goal in the discussion document. This would also help dispel the many myths and misinformation about mining on conservation land. There is already some mining tourism activity in New Zealand.
“We do not support giving the Minister of Conservation power to approve the National Conservation Policy Statement (NCPS) and area plans because of the risk of an ideologically driven minister rejecting perfectly acceptable uses of conservation land,” Vidal says.
– Exploration and mining currently occurs on conservation land excluding National Parks and Schedule 4 land. The Government and industry are not seeking to change the current settings in relation to this.
– Mining on conservation land is infrequent and the footprint is small because mineral resources are hard to find and strict hurdles have to be navigated before approval to mine is given. Only about 3,500 hectares or 0.04% of the conservation estate has been disturbed by mining. This is after more than 40 years of mining on conservation land.
– Not all exploration on conservation land leads to mining as the exploration phase may rule out mining.
– The status quo works well where exploration and mining applications are considered on their merits against the conservation values of the land in question. This case-by-case approach is a more versatile and superior approach than one based on land categorisation because it doesn’t rule out potential opportunities before they are considered.
Local News – Pump track planned for Porirua’s Postgate Park
Source: Porirua City Council
An under-utilised Porirua green space is to be transformed into a pump track for riders of all ages.
The southern end of Postgate Park in Whitby has been set aside for the 1000 sqm asphalt track, where bikes, scooters and skateboards can be ridden over jumps and turns.
This track is the brainchild of Whitby dad Daniel Heath, through Mana Cycle Group, and he has been responsible for fundraising the full amount needed to build the track so there is no burden on ratepayers. He says the location makes it accessible from walkways across Whitby, the eastern Porirua suburbs and Bothamley Park.
“This is going to be a world-class track built by Velosolutions, who are global experts in this type of construction, with other tracks they’ve built used for regional and national competitions,” Daniel says.
“We love it when kids are off their devices and outside, and a pump track promotes physical activity, skill development and fun. But it’ll be for older kids too – I know plenty of adults who will be hanging out to give this a go!”
Daniel says the idea for a pump track in this part of Porirua has been around since the Covid lockdowns and it’s been a challenge to fundraise and get to this point. While Porirua schools have built bike tracks, they don’t have the resources or space to build something with challenging elements like a pump track, he says.
“I felt as a community we could do better and the schools can save their valuable play space, and funds, for other things. There is plenty of space at Postgate Park and even with the track at one end, there will still be a lot of the park space still available.”
Porirua Mayor Anita Baker says a facility like this is a win-win for the Porirua community.
“It’s going to be an asset for our residents, and visitors,” she says.
“It makes perfect sense for Porirua City Council to be in partnership with Mana Cycle Group to use a part of Postgate Park, and I congratulate Daniel and Mana Cycle Group team for all the heavy lifting they’ve done to get the project to fruition.”
Construction is set to start in mid or late April and take six weeks.
Release: PSA survey proves Govt’s cuts are hurting patients
Source: New Zealand Labour Party
The National Government’s decision to cut jobs and freeze recruitment of health care workers is hurting frontline services and harming patients.
“The PSA’s health workforce survey shows 81 percent of health workers believe the cuts and restructuring they’ve been subjected to over the last year have hurt the services they deliver,” Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said.
“Our healthcare workers are enduring job cuts, underfunding and a hiring freeze, and they can see every day the impact that it’s having on their ability to help people in need.
“The survey of almost 1300 health workers shows that cuts and hiring freezes result in longer waiting lists and burnt out staff, both of which can contribute to poorer health for patients.
“Cuts to services mean people can’t get the care and treatment they need to help their condition improve right now. Their condition can also worsen long-term creating greater cost to the health system and lower quality of life for patients in the future.
“National talked a big game during the election campaign, promising both tax cuts and improved health services, but now we’re seeing New Zealanders paying the price.
“This government is failing to deliver what they promised and is taking New Zealand’s health system backwards,” Ayesha Verrall said.
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Govt urged to rule out any involvement in AUKUS
Source: Green Party
The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to rule out joining the AUKUS military pact in any capacity following the scenes in the White House over the weekend.
“President Trump’s appalling treatment of his Ukrainian counterpart is a clear warning that we must avoid AUKUS at all costs,” says the Green Party’s Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Teanau Tuiono.
“Aotearoa must stand on an independent and principled approach to foreign affairs and use that as a platform to promote peace.
“What we saw in the White House at the weekend laid bare the volatility and danger of the Trump leadership – nothing good can come from deepening our links to this administration.
“Christopher Luxon should read the room and rule out joining any part of the AUKUS framework.
“We believe Aotearoa New Zealand should steer clear of AUKUS regardless of who is in the White House, but Trump’s transactional and hyper-aggressive foreign policy makes the case to stay out stronger than ever.
“Our country must not join a campaign that is escalating tensions in the Pacific and talking up the prospects of a war which the people of our region firmly oppose.
“Advocating for, and working towards, peaceful solutions to the world’s conflicts must be an absolute priority for our country,” says Teanau Tuiono.
Northland News – No major changes for NRC Annual Plan
Source: Northland Regional Council
With no significant changes to its work programme for the coming year, Northland Regional Council won’t be consulting on its Annual Plan for 2025/26, says Chair Geoff Crawford.
“The work programme we set out in our Long Term Plan last year – and consulted on widely – sets us in good stead for the upcoming financial year.”
“As a result, we’re not planning to consult on our Annual Plan, as it’s not expected to contain any significant changes to what’s in that Long Term Plan.”
“We think it’s better for our ratepayers to save the expense of re-consulting on things and continue looking for cost-savings where we can.”
He says the council is still required to develop an Annual Plan for 2025/26, and through that process council is working hard to get rates lower than what was originally projected for the coming year. The final plan and reduced rate increase will be confirmed and publicly available mid-year.
Meanwhile, Chair Crawford says despite its decision not to consult on its Annual Plan, the council will be seeking feedback on its Draft User Fees and Charges for 2025/26.
He says the council reviews its user fees and charges each year to make sure they’re fit for purpose and keep up with changing costs.
“This year, in addition to a baseline 3.1% inflationary increase, we’re proposing some updates to wording and changes to three specific fees – for oil spill contingency plans, the initial charge for extension of consent period, and the purchase of hard copies of our proposed regional plan.”
Chair Crawford says the council is also making some updates to reflect legislative changes since last year.
“Our Draft User Fees and Charges 2025/26 document outlines the proposed updates we’re seeking feedback on – you can read the document at www.nrc.govt.nz/userfees .”
Feedback can be made until Friday 28 March.
Serious Crash, Whitemans Road, Silverstream
Source: New Zealand Police (District News)
Police are responding to a crash involving a vehicle and a pedestrian on Whitemans Road near Gard Street, Silverstream, Upper Hutt.
The crash was reported around 9:50am.
Initial indications suggest there are serious injuries.
The Serious Crash Unit has been advised.
The road is blocked and motorists are advised to take an alternate route.
ENDS
Issued by Police Media Centre
Economy – RBNZ Stats Alert Business Expectations Survey: Concluding development update ahead of regular publication
Source: Reserve Bank of New Zealand
3 March 2025 – We would like to thank all the businesses taking part in the development of the new Tara-ā-Umanga Business Expectations Survey as we build a representative sample survey of New Zealand businesses.
Following a successful development phase, we plan to commence ongoing quarterly publication in mid-May 2025 (for the June quarter) in advance of the 28 May Monetary Policy Statement, in line with the timing of our other expectation surveys.
This new survey includes several hundred businesses from different sectors around the country, from small to large firms. It is separate from the existing Survey of Expectations including expert forecasters and economists, and industry leaders (Table M14, 1987 – onwards), which will continue.
Business Expectations Survey, final testing:
We completed our development of Tara-ā-Umanga Business Expectations Survey with a fourth pilot survey in January 2025. The testing phase has allowed us to test the survey methodology over multiple waves, build the sample size over time, and creates a one-year span of quarterly data. A public consultation on the survey was undertaken during March 2024.
Tara-ā-Umanga Business Expectations Survey: Concluding development update outlines our lessons learnt from the latest testing activities and resulting design decisions.
The achieved sample size has built to 389 responding businesses in pilot 4 (383 in pilot 3, 251 in pilot 2 and 68 in pilot 1).
We maintained consistent design decisions and survey weighting methods from pilot 3. Additional data analysis, using pilot 4 data, provides confidence that these choices are suitable for a high-quality ongoing survey. (ref. https://govt.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd316aa7ee4f5679c56377819&id=1c3701d2d8&e=f3c68946f8 )
While the pilot survey results are experimental, the new series are already demonstrating the value of a large representative sample survey. For example, by facilitating estimates of expectations broken down by business size and industry. It should be noted that while this survey represents a significant uplift in our expectations data, more observations are needed to enable us to estimate the relationship between these data and ultimate inflation outcomes.
Background information
Inflation expectations are important because households and businesses reflect their expectations in their price- and wage-setting decisions. Improving the quality of our expectation surveys is part of the wider response to our 2022 review of how we formulate and implement our monetary policy. In this review, we identified several areas where better data could support high quality monetary policy decision-making.
For further information please see Tara-ā-Umanga Business Expectations Survey: Survey design and development: https://govt.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd316aa7ee4f5679c56377819&id=84645fcafe&e=f3c68946f8
For the latest Monetary Policy Statement see Monetary Policy Statement February 2025: https://govt.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd316aa7ee4f5679c56377819&id=81002ac320&e=f3c68946f8
Higher meat export prices boost terms of trade – Stats NZ media and information release: International trade: December 2024 quarter
Source: Statistics New Zealand
Higher meat export prices boost terms of trade – 3 March 2025 – Export prices increased more than import prices in the December 2024 quarter, which led to a 3.1 percent rise in the terms of trade, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.
The terms of trade represent the ratio of export prices to import prices. They can be interpreted as a measure of New Zealand’s purchasing power on the international stage and as an indicator of the relative strength of the New Zealand economy.
The total export price index rose 3.2 percent and the import price index rose 0.1 percent in the December 2024 quarter, compared with the September 2024 quarter.
Export prices for meat products, which are New Zealand’s second largest export commodity by value, rose 6.8 percent in the December quarter. Lamb prices rose 7.0 percent, while beef and veal prices rose 6.1 percent.
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