Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

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More New Zealanders turning to Quitline for help to quit vaping

Source: Whakarongorau Aotearoa

Every day could be a smokefree day
World Smokefree Day might fall on 31 May – but for thousands of New Zealanders, every day is a chance to quit.
That’s the message from Whakarongorau Aotearoa, New Zealand’s national telehealth provider which runs Quitline.
Last year, Quitline supported close to 16,000 people across phone, text, online chat and web. The data shows a clear shift: more people are seeking support to quit vaping – including people who have never smoked.
  • 10,900 e nrolments (66%) in Quit Smoking
  • 4,000  enrolments (25%) in Quit Vaping
  • 1,500  enrolments (9%) in Vape to Quit programmes
Demand for Quitline remains strong, with over 100 contacts every day. Importantly, the service is reaching communities most impacted by smoking harm:
– Māori make up 23% of enrolments (versus 17.8% of the population), reflecting strong engagement and the impact of Quitline’s culturally responsive support
“Quitting isn’t just about willpower – it’s about managing a habit,” says Quitline Advisor Dave Lowe. “And the reality is, you’re way more likely to succeed if you get support. Approximately a third of people who enrol in a Quit Smoking programme with Quitline, are smokefree at 4 weeks.”
Quitline provides free, non-judgemental support for people at every stage of their journey – whether they’re:
– ready to quit smoking
– using vaping to move away from tobacco
– or wanting to quit vaping altogether
“No judgement. No pressure. Just support that works,” says Dave Lowe.
For many, the motivation to quit comes back to one thing: whānau. Whether it’s for family, health, money or control – or all four – the decision to quit is deeply personal.
But staying quit takes more than motivation. Dave Lowe’s top advice? “Plan for your cravings before they hit.”
“Cravings come and go quickly, but they can feel intense in the moment. Having a plan – what you’ll do instead of smoking or vaping – makes all the difference.”
This World Smokefree Day, the message is simple: you don’t have to do it alone. You don’t have to do it today either. When you’re ready – text 4006, call 0800 778 778, or visit www.quit.org.nz to connect with Quitline. 
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Economy – RBNZ Governor connects with Hawke’s Bay on Monetary Policy

Source: Reserve Bank of New Zealand

29 May 2026 – On Friday 29 May, Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor, Dr Anna Breman, spoke to rural and primary sector leaders in the Hawke's Bay discussing insights from the May 2026 Monetary Policy Statement.

The lunchtime event was hosted by Grasshoppers Hawke's Bay, an organisation representing a diverse network of farmers, growers, processors, and rural professionals across the region.

Speaking to key themes from the May 2026 Monetary Policy Statement, Dr Breman discussed the Monetary Policy Committee's decision to hold the OCR at 2.25 percent in the May 2026 MPS.

“The global economic backdrop remains uncertain, with supply chain disruptions and higher input costs weighing on the outlook,” Dr Breman said.

“Overall, New Zealand and our trading partners are likely to see weaker growth alongside higher near-term inflation in response to the Middle East conflict.”

She said domestic conditions reflect subdued confidence and uneven performance across sectors with some business, such as those within the primary sector, still performing well while other sectors are struggling.

“Business feedback and survey data point to overall weaker confidence and spending, with rising costs continuing to squeeze margins and weigh on investment and hiring decisions.”

Dr Breman highlighted ongoing uncertainty around inflation pressures.

“Expectations of higher costs could keep inflation elevated, but weaker demand and higher unemployment are expected to dampen pressures over time,” she said.

“The Committee remains focused on ensuring inflation returns to target while avoiding unnecessary volatility in the economy. On balance, the OCR is likely to increase sooner and by more than previously signalled.”

This visit marked Dr Breman's third regional engagement, following earlier visits to Christchurch and the Waikato. During her time in the Hawke's Bay, Dr Breman met with local council leaders and agencies involved in Cyclone Gabrielle recovery efforts, along with iwi representatives, horticulture producers, industry bodies, and rural advocacy groups.

Discussions from these engagements provided practical, on-the-ground insights into regional challenges, including recovery and resilience as communities continue to navigate the impacts of severe weather events, and how organisations are responding to current economic conditions.

These perspectives support the RBNZ's mandate by providing a clearer understanding of how economic disruptions and regional differences influence the broader economy and financial system stability, helping to inform well‑grounded monetary and financial policy decisions.
 

More information

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Acquisitions – Completion of TYCO New Zealand and Red Wolf Acquisitions

Source: Intelligent Monitoring Group Limited (“Intelligent Monitoring”, “IMG” or “the Company”) (ASX: IMB)

COMPLETION OF BLUESKY HOLDCO ACQUISITION

On 11 December 2025, Intelligent Monitoring Group announced it had entered into a binding agreement to acquire all shares in BlueSky Holdco Limited from Johnson Control Luxembourg European Finance S.a.r.l, a subsidiary of Johnson Controls International plc (Acquisition).  The Acquisition includes the purchase of Tyco NZ and Red Wolf Security, two of New Zealand's leading fire protection service and high-end security providers. The Acquisition adds more than 300 staff and 12 branch locations to the Company's portfolio, extending its footprint across New Zealand, now with more than 500 local staff.

IMG is pleased to advise that completion of the Acquisition will occur in New Zealand today. The purchase price is NZD45m plus customary adjustments for working capital and cash on hand, funded through the proceeds of an Acquisition Facility via the Company's NAB banking arrangements, and cash flow.

MANAGING DIRECTOR COMMENTS

At the time, Managing Director Dennison Hambling commented:

“This acquisition represents a highly strategic opportunity for IMG to materially expand its commercial footprint and service capability across New Zealand through the acquisition of two established, market-leading service providers with strong recurring revenue profiles, long-standing customer relationships and exposure to critical infrastructure markets.

The transaction significantly enhances IMG's scale and customer reach in New Zealand, while also providing a strong platform to support future organic growth initiatives, including the progressive expansion of IMG's Video Guard and advanced video monitoring solutions into the commercial market.

Given the businesses' historic alignment within the JCI ecosystem alongside ADT, IMG expects a low-risk integration process with minimal operational disruption. This acquisition is another significant, accretive step forward in building IMG into a serious industrial company with significant profitability, a strong balance sheet and material growth prospects across Australasia”.

About Intelligent Monitoring Group Limited

Intelligent Monitoring Group Limited (ASX: IMB) helps provide monitored security and IOT solutions that ensure the safety and protection of Australian businesses, homes, and individuals 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Company operates with the highest security accreditation from its two-significant monitoring centres.

For more information please visit: https://intelligentmonitoringgroup.com

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Budget 2026: Did the Government listen? – Hapai Te Hauora

Source: Hapai Te Hauora

Ahead of Budget 2026, Hāpai Te Hauora called for a budget that listens. A budget that responds to what communities have already been saying over the last year: that prevention matters, warm homes matter, safe sleep matters, and Māori-led solutions matter.
Following yesterday’s Budget announcement, Hāpai Te Hauora acknowledges some much needed investment into areas including frontline services and climate resilience. 
However, questions remain around whether long term prevention and Māori-led solutions are being invested in at the scale communities continue to call for. 
While we acknowledge the fiscal pressures facing Aotearoa New Zealand, we remain concerned that this Budget continues to focus more heavily on responding to crisis than preventing them in the first place. 
This government characterises this budget as responsible economic management. But it feels like tough fiscal austerity. 
Aggressive spending cuts in the name of rebuilding our economy while its people suffer hardship only redistributes who pays the price. 
Communities across Aotearoa continue to carry the weight of rising living costs, housing stress, stretched health systems and climate-related emergencies. 
In many cases, whānau and local communities are stepping in long before systems do.
Hāpai Te Hauora CEO Jacqui Harema says this Budget was an opportunity to invest earlier rather than continuing to respond once people are already at breaking point.
“Solutions already exist and communities across Aotearoa are leading them every day” says Harema.
“What's missing is a Budget that will back them.” Ahead of the Budget, Hāpai Te Hauora called for:
  • greater investment in safe sleep support and kaupapa Māori antenatal wānanga
  • healthier and warmer homes for whānau
  • Māori-led climate resilience and emergency preparedness
  • continued support for healthy school lunches
  • long-term investment in Māori-led community wellbeing initiatives
Hāpai Te Haupra also acknowledges the extension of funded postnatal stays for new māmā as a positive step, and an important opportunity to strengthen early support for whānau through things like safe sleep planning, breastfeeding support and kaupapa Māori antenatal education.
The continuation of healthy school lunches was also a positive to see, particluarly at a time when many whānau continue to face financial pressure and food insecurity. At the same time, there is still room to improve the quality, nutrition and portion sizes to better support growing tamariki and rangatahi.
However, while some progress was made, Budget 2026 still leaves significant questions around long-term prevention and Māori-led solutions.
We heard about investment in frontline services. But critical gaps remain. Without funding the preventative measures that keep people out of those services in the first place, what is being treated is symptoms, not causes. The Government has acknowledged pressures on our primary health system but has missed the mark once again in addressing the root causes driving that pressure. Prevention works. Ignoring it is short-sighted.
Aotearoa is experiencing the worst homelessness crisis in recent history, yet this Budget still falls short of the urgency needed by communities who are experiencing hardship on the ground. The numbers are alarming. At a time when more whānau are being pushed into insecure and unsafe housing, this Budget does not go far enough. The proposed social housing response may help in time, but it does not meet the urgency of the crisis facing communities right now.
“Budgets reflect priorities,” says Harema.
“If prevention, whānau wellbeing and Māori-led solutions are continually under-prioritised, communities feel that in very real ways.” “We cannot continue expecting whānau to carry the consequences of decisions that fail to invest early and support solutions communities are already leading.”
Hāpai Te Hauora remains committed to advocating for long-term investment in prevention, whānau wellbeing and Māori-led approaches that strengthen before crisis point. 
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Budget 2026 – Plunket funding coalition promise forgotten in Budget 26 – NZNO

Source: New Zealand Nurses Organisation

A coalition promise to “ensure Plunket is funded to do their job properly” was forgotten in Budget 26, NZNO says.
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO national delegate and Plunket nurse Hannah Cook says Budget 26 papers show the promise was an outstanding commitment between the National and NZ First parties from their 2023 coalition agreement.
“Most newborn babies get their best start in life with assistance from a Plunket nurse. We see about 80% of all newborn babies in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“However, I don’t think anyone would say Plunket has the funding it needs to do our job properly. Whānau Āwhina Plunket runs on the smell of an oily rag. In some parts of the country, local fundraising still supports our services.
“Plunket nurses are paid considerably less than our hospital-based colleagues. This was exacerbated by having our pay equity claim scrapped last year when we were just weeks away from submitting it.
“NZNO calls on the Coalition Government to keep its promise and fund Plunket properly. This would keep nurses from leaving Plunket for better paid hospital jobs and result in more of our pēpē being seen by a skilled and experienced Whānau Āwhina Plunket nurse,” Hannah Cook says. 
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Arts – Congratulations to the talented student writers awarded NZSA Youth Mentorships for 2026!

Source: NZ Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc)

Four secondary school students selected for mentorships will each be matched with a professional writer/mentor in their genre, as part of the NZ Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) 2026 Youth Mentorship Programme.

The young writers will hone their writing skills and develop their craft through the year, working on their chosen writing project. We congratulate them on their success.

2026 Youth Mentorships have been awarded to:

  • Dorothy Baricuatro – Trinity Catholic College (Ōtepoti | Dunedin)
  • Payton Blackburn – South Westland Area School (HariHari)
  • Meisha Rose Kitto – Dunstan High School (Clyde, Ōtākou | Otago)
  • Bleys Robertson – Mairehau High School ( Ōtautahi | Christchurch)

The judging panel of award-winning authors Convenor Cristina Schumacher and Ruby Porter, said: ‘This year’s panel encountered young writers with strong imaginative potential and thematic engagement, and the mentorship initiative will play an important role in nurturing and refining their emerging voices.’

Congratulations also to the highly commended student writers: Molly Marjoribanks from Michael Park School (Tāmaki Makaurau | Auckland), and Jacob Prewer from Cambridge High School (Kemureti | Cambridge)

The NZSA Youth Mentorship Programme was established in 2010 to foster and develop emerging writing talent around Aotearoa New Zealand with the support of established authors. NZSA Chief Executive Jenny Nagle says ” Over the last 30 years NZSA's mentor programmes have proven themselves to be a valuable development pipeline for emerging writers. Mentorship by a senior writer, one-on-one, provides a significant opportunity to develop their work and their future writing skill. We wish these writers well with their projects this year.”

Youth Mentorship is one of The New Zealand Society of Authors successful mentoring programmes for writers and is made possible with the support by Creative New Zealand.

For further information: www.authors.org.nz
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Budget 2026 overlooks struggling general practice sector – GenPro

Source: General Practice Owners Association (GenPro)

The General Practice Owners Association (GenPro) says Budget 2026 is a major missed opportunity to strengthen the front line of New Zealand’s healthcare system, with general practice ignored despite growing pressure on clinics, doctors and patients.

GenPro Chair Dr Angus Chambers said the Budget contained significant new health spending, but virtually none of it was directed toward supporting the country’s struggling network of general practices.

“Primary healthcare barely gets a mention in this Budget, and general practice is absent altogether,” Dr Chambers said.

“The Government talks about improving access to healthcare and reducing wait times, but none of that is possible without properly supporting the family doctors and practice teams who are the foundation of the health system.”

Health spending will rise by more than $3 billion under Budget 2026, including funding for cost increases, hospitals, ambulance services, Pharmac, cancer care and digital health initiatives.

However, there is no meaningful investment in the sustainability of general practice, despite rising demand, workforce shortages and increasing financial pressure on clinics across the country.

“This neglect will cost our country a lot more in the long run. Every day general practice is managing more complex patients, more chronic illness and more demand, while dealing with severe workforce shortages and rapidly increasing costs,” Dr Chambers says.

“General practice is the most cost-effective part of the health system. When patients can’t get timely access to a GP, they end up in emergency departments and hospitals, which puts even greater pressure on the wider system.”

The Government’s focus on increasing hospital treatments and emergency department capacity failed to recognise that many health issues could be prevented or managed earlier through better investment in community-based care.

“You cannot build a sustainable health system while neglecting the front door of healthcare,” he said.

“The Budget includes targets for 53,000 additional general practice enrolments, yet there is no direct investment to help practices absorb those patients or expand capacity. It simply does not add up.”

Dr Chambers said GenPro supported investment in areas such as child health, cancer care and ambulance services, but said long-term health improvements would remain out of reach unless primary care was properly funded.

“General practice is where prevention happens, where long-term conditions are managed, and where most New Zealanders first access healthcare,” he said.

“If the Government is serious about improving health outcomes and reducing pressure on hospitals, it must stop treating general practice as an afterthought.”

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Budget 2026 – Budget spend on school lunches short-sighted: Health Coalition Aotearoa

Source: Health Coalition Aotearoa

Many children will continue to struggle without permanent funding for Ka Ora, Ka Ako, the Healthy School Lunch Programme, says Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA).
Budget 2026 provides $212.4 million to extend the current school and ECE lunches programmes for another calendar year, which HCA says does not go far enough.
“The Child Poverty Report released as part of today’s Budget shows the number of kids living in material hardship is unchanged at 14.3 percent with no chance of meeting legislative targets,” says Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Professor Boyd Swinburn from Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.
Health Coalition Aotearoa is calling for permanent funding for a ‘3.0 version’ of the programme, combining the best features of the original Ka Ora Ka Ako model and the current low-cost model.
Permanent funding enshrined in law would allow both local providers and children to thrive.
Health Coalition Aotearoa estimates that only about 40 percent of children living in food-insecure households are now receiving free school lunches and this needs to be increased urgently.
“It is good that the Healthy School Lunch programme has not been stopped because it is a powerful tool for improving food security, child nutrition and educational outcomes,” Swinburn says.
“Kicking the can down the road on permanent funding is bad news for schools and food providers. Not investing in the programme for the long-term means that the programme’s full potential cannot be realised.”
Some schools are keen to innovate by linking the lunch programme with the curriculum or local growers but this is stifled by the uncertainty created by year-by-year funding. Similarly, some efficiencies which could come from investing in upgraded equipment or regional industrial-scale composting will only come with long term programme certainty.
Professor Lisa Te Morenga (Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Te Uri o Hua, Ngāpuhi and Te Rarawa), Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair and professor of Māori health and nutrition at Massey University says that, while it is positive the Government is extending the school lunch programme, it is a mean and cynical offering.
“The lunches are so bad that tamariki say it’s embarrassing to be seen to be desperate enough to eat them,” Te Morenga says. “Yet, bad as they are, plenty of students are asking, in private, at the end of the school day, to take the leftovers home.
“I just wish this government would treat our tamariki with the dignity and care that they deserve. You don’t grow an economy by starving its future workers.”
The lunches need to be more nutritious, appealing and larger for growing children and teens, the co-chairs say.
Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA)
HCA is a coalition of health NGOs, professionals and academics with an unwavering commitment to reduce harm from tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy food and advance public health equity.
Together with its four expert panels – alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy food and public health infrastructure – HCA is a powerful collective voice for preventative health in Aotearoa. Find out about HCA: https://www.healthcoalition.org.nz/
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Employment indicators: April 2026 – Stats NZ information release

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Budget 2026 – Prostate Cancer Foundation disappointed by continued failure to fund screening pilot

Source:  Prostate Cancer Foundation

The Prostate Cancer Foundation says the Government’s failure to provide funding in Budget 2026 for a prostate cancer screening pilot is another missed opportunity to save Kiwi men’s lives.

Foundation President Danny Bedingfield said the organisation was disappointed that a relatively modest investment had again been overlooked despite years of advocacy and strong support from clinicians and health experts.

“We have now been talking to successive governments for more than three years about funding two regional pilots for the early detection screening of prostate cancer at an approximate cost of only $6.4 million over four years,” Mr Bedingfield said.

“In the context of a multi-billion-dollar health budget, this is a drop in the bucket for the Government, but a kick in the guts for Kiwi men and their families.

“And it goes against what ordinary Kiwis want. Independent polling of 1,000 eligible voters found that 84% of New Zealanders support the development of a prostate cancer screening programme. This strong level of support cuts across gender, age, region, and political affiliation.

“The Government continues to say it is committed to improving cancer outcomes, yet once again prostate cancer has been left behind. Everyone acknowledges that the earlier cancer is detected, the better the clinical outcomes and the better the survival rates.”

Mr Bedingfield said the Foundation was struggling to understand why prostate cancer screening continued to face delays when more than 4,000 New Zealand men are diagnosed with the disease every year and more than 700 die from it annually.

“These are fathers, husbands, brothers, sons, workmates and friends. Their lives matter, he says. “We have two simple questions for the Government — why does cancer specific to men continue to be overlooked, and what exactly is the barrier to finally getting a prostate cancer screening pilot underway?”

Mr Bedingfield said the case for action was overwhelming. “The clinical support is there, the need is there, and the cost is modest. What appears to be missing is the political will to act.

“If funding a pilot programme is considered a bridge too far for Health Minister Simeon Brown, then we urge the Minister to direct officials to urgently identify other practical measures that could reduce the toll prostate cancer is taking on New Zealand families.

“We cannot continue talking about improving cancer outcomes while ignoring the cancer that kills more than 700 Kiwi men every year.”