Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Prostate Cancer Foundation New Zealand

2 September 2026

The Prostate Cancer Foundation says the expansion of free cervical screening reinforces the value of early detection in saving lives.

The Foundation is urging Ministers to apply the same evidence-led approach to prostate cancer through a proposed $6.4 million four-year pilot screening programme for Prostate Cancer.

“The Government's decision to fund free cervical screening is a positive step for women's health and reflects the importance of finding cancer early, when treatment is most effective,” says Foundation President Danny Bedingfield.

“We wholeheartedly support that investment. Screening programmes save lives, improve outcomes for patients and families, and deliver significant long-term benefits for the health system.

“The same evidence-based logic should now be applied to prostate cancer.”

The pilot would focus on Tairāwhiti and Waitematā, helping identify the most effective approaches to early detection, engagement with at-risk men and the use of modern diagnostic technologies.

“The Government has expanded breast and bowel screening, launched a lung cancer pilot and made cervical screening free for all women. We welcome these decisions.

“But with more than 4,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer every year and more than 750 deaths annually, it's fair to ask: how about one for the blokes, Minister?

“A four-year pilot would lay the groundwork for an eventual national screening programme which would save lives and reduce the heavy toll of the most commonly diagnosed cancer in New Zealand men.”

Source: Federated Farmers

Federated Farmers is urging the Government to keep moving forward with promised KiwiSaver amendment legislation before the House rises for the election.

“These changes are long overdue and will make such a meaningful difference for young farmers across the country,” Federated Farmers dairy chair Karl Dean says.

“It’s great to see progress with the KiwiSaver (First Home or Farm) Amendment Bill being added to the Order Paper this week – but the Government needs to go further.

“Farmers don’t want to see these important changes stall now. The legislation needs to have its first reading before the House rises so it can progress to Select Committee.”

The Bill would allow farm staff and others living in service tenancies like rural teachers and country cops to use their KiwiSaver to buy a house without immediately moving in.

Federated Farmers felt this change was so important the organisation included it in their list of 12 policy priorities for this term of Parliament.

“The Government said they were going to make these changes, and we plan to hold them to that promise on behalf of our members,” Dean says.

“It’s been an incredibly busy term of reforms for the coalition and House time is at a premium as the election looms, but this would only take 40-minutes to progress.

“We urge the Government to make this a priority and to progress these important changes to Select Committee – and for the Opposition to support it.”

KiwiSaver changes are not just for the benefit of young farmers and farm workers, but anyone who lives in a service tenancy as part of their employment.

This includes military personnel, rural teachers, country cops, and tourism staff.

Dean says the Bill will allow them to use their savings to purchase a house – a withdrawal right available to anyone else to help get them on the property ladder.

The Bill also allows first-time farm buyers to use their KiwiSaver towards a farm bought through a company, trust or partnership they majority own and control.

“Current rules only allow it if the farm is in the buyer's own name. That’s an impractical technicality that needs to be changed,” Dean says.

“It’s been clearly signalled that changes are on the way, but progress has been slow. Young farmers have been waiting to secure their long-term financial futures.

“They’ve been incredibly patient, but they shouldn’t have to wait any longer. That’s why we’re really urging the Government to make these changes a reality.”

Source: Cotality

Wednesday 2 September 2026 – Commentary by Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson

Today’s decision to raise the official cash rate by 0.25% to 2.75% was in line with expectations, reflecting the ongoing need to bring inflation back down to the 1-3% target band but also hints from the Monetary Policy Committee that the economy will be strong enough to absorb the hit. Fixed mortgage rates may not react too much in the near term.

Looking beneath the surface, the economy certainly isn’t racing away, but there have been a few more encouraging signs recently. In addition, while inflation hasn’t perhaps spiked as much as might have been feared given the scale of fuel price increases (and a weaker exchange rate), it’s still too high, and the risk of second-round price effects hasn’t disappeared yet. This all tends to justify a measured or cautious approach to further monetary policy tightening.

Indeed, today’s decision from the Committee was unanimous and the associated commentary pointed to further OCR rises to come. But reading between the lines, the tone suggested that the next rise may not necessarily be on 28th October if the incoming data between now and then has a softer flavour.

For the housing market, there’s nothing much here to alter the broad expectation for a further sideways trend in both sales volumes and property values. The mood amongst buyers and sellers certainly remains fairly cautious, and those with mortgages will be wary of the recent interest rate increases on popular terms such as the two-year fix.

That being said, although floating rates may well shift higher to some extent after today’s OCR rise, it’s arguably already been priced in to prevailing fixed rates, so they might not show too much movement in the coming days. Of course, looking out over the next few months, there still seems a greater likelihood of higher mortgage rates rather than flat (or down).

The resilience of employment (even though greater labour supply is lifting the unemployment rate) will tend to offset the housing effects of higher interest rates to a degree. But the looming election is another key factor at the moment, especially for property investors as they wait any indications from the opposition about interest deductibility.

Source: United Nations Environment Programme

A new spotlight report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) finds that as global temperature rise gets set to cross 1.5°C, pushing climate risks and impacts to dangerous new heights, the world must strive to return to below 1.5°C as soon as possible and simultaneously reduce the vulnerability of societies, communities and economies to climate impacts.

Journalists are invited to join a media briefing with the UN Environment Programme Executive Director, Ms. Inger Andersen and Prof. Debra Roberts, one of the report's lead authors.

• Date: 1 September 2026
• Time: 8:00AM EDT / 2:00PM CEST / 3:00PM EAT
• Registration Link: Register for the briefing

The report, Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return, finds that the world can achieve this goal by acting now to get on an 'overshoot, peak, and decline' pathway.

Source: Federated Farmers

Federated Farmers is welcoming new emergency management laws that will make sure rural communities have a voice when disasters strike.

“The needs of rural communities should never be an afterthought when we’re planning for, or responding to, emergencies like floods, earthquakes and cyclones,” Federated Farmers adverse events spokesperson Sandra Faulkner says.

“The Government’s Emergency Management Bill makes it clear that New Zealand’s 16 regional Emergency Management Co-ordinating Executive Groups (CEGs) must have at least one member with knowledge, experience or expertise in the interests and needs of rural communities.

CEGs report to Emergency Management Committees, which under the new laws are required to ensure the CEG rural representative has the resources, information and administrative support needed to effectively perform their role.

“Feds pushed hard for this guaranteed place at the CEG table and we’ve over the moon that the Government, and those on the select committee who helped shape the legislation, have heard our calls.”

Faulkner says some regions saw the light long ago and have been harnessing that rural lens in emergency planning and response for everyone’s benefit.

“But in other places it’s been ad hoc and uncoordinated, leaving some isolated farms and communities to fend for themselves in emergencies for far too long.”

Decisions on road closures, access, resource prioritisation, and communication are often made without understanding exactly who is isolated, what critical rural activities are occurring, and the risks to animals and livelihoods.

“That lack of formal or mandated rural representation has repeatedly led to inconsistent and, at times harmful, outcomes,” Faulkner says.

“Rural communities need to be represented from the start, providing that knowledge of how many people live down a long country road, what equipment they have, and any alternative access points.”

Farmers also have knowledge and resources to help the wider district in response and recovery – tractors, front end loaders, chainsaws – and the ability to use that sort of equipment.

The Emergency Management Bill, which passed its third reading in late August, will also improve how animal welfare is managed during and after emergencies, including through a new power allowing authorised emergency management responders to enter premises where animals need help.

The Bill also expressly requires rural communities to be consulted when the national emergency management strategy is made.

“There’s more work to do in honing our emergency planning, and in the response and support aftermath when the proverbial hits the fan, but this new legislation is a giant step forward,” Faulkner says.

Source: Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi

The PSA is calling for a more sustainable funding model for local government organisations after a damning report released today revealed the systemic leadership and communication failures leading to the catastrophic failures at Moa Point.

“What we saw at Moa Point, and what this report has confirmed, is that outsourcing our public services to private companies just doesn’t work,” Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi national secretary, Duane Leo, says.

“The drive for smaller, cheaper public services over the past thirty-odd years has meant that our councils and other local government organisations have been forced to outsource public services – often to the lowest bidder.

“The in-house expertise on managing assets like Moa Point is drastically reduced from councils, leading to systemic, decades-long failures like the ones revealed today.

“The only people that benefit from this are the private companies, who are motivated by profit, not the local public good.

“At the end of the day, the rest of us are left holding the bill – in this case, for the environmental and economic impact of flooding Wellington’s South Coast with sewage.”

Leo says the incoming rates-capping legislation will likely see more outsourcing from councils.

A report from the Standard & Poors Agency said that reducing councils’ ability to raise rates would likely result in credit downgrades, negatively impacting on councils’ ability to borrow and driving up interest costs.

“What we’d like to see is a complete rethink of how councils are funded, so that they can sustainably and effectively deliver the public services New Zealanders expect and deserve.”

The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand's largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.

Source: Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi

• Proposal to cut 12% of workforce, axing 47 FTEs
• National Library and Archives NZ admit services will be hit

The key custodian of our nation’s history, the National Library and Archives NZ is again being savaged by Government spending cuts, with a proposal to shed 12% of its workforce.

A restructure unveiled to staff today proposes 47 roles being axed which would mean, if adopted, the total workforce will soon be 15% smaller than it was two years ago with 350 staff. And more cuts are coming as Archives Library NZ, as it is officially known, faces a government demand to cut 10% of spending.

The agency admitted to staff today the cuts 'will likely have impacts on service levels.’

“Let that sink in. You don't often see a department admit in writing that its own cuts will hurt the public – normally they talk about being more efficient, but the truth is laid out in black and white and that is on the Government,” said Duane Leo, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

“This is an attack on our precious taonga, simple as that, and all for an ideological obsession with smaller government. Our dedicated archivists, researchers and others are paying the price for that when they have more to give, and more valuable work to do for all of us as collections grow. It makes no sense.”

The PSA represents workers there and will strongly oppose the cuts in its submissions.

Workers say this plan impacts across the organisation, making it more likely it can only do the bare minimum of its critical work required under legislation. It will take longer for every part of it to function, putting at risk access to and preservation of millions of precious items that speak to our history.

Specifically, workers fear:

• the cataloguing backlog will grow, meaning people like families, historians and genealogists will face delays accessing items or won’t be able to find items at all.
• researchers won’t have the same capacity to assist people to find what they need to research family histories, write books, or understand the past.
• critical information from many government agencies like Police, Courts, and Health that Archives is required to store may take longer to transfer and record, impacting people’s ability to access their own records.

“How can we understand our past and learn the lessons of history, if the Government is kneecapping the very organisation charged with protecting it?” said Leo.

“The Government promises AI will fill the gap. AI won’t be able catalogue the ever-growing collection of material donated to Archives. AI won’t be able to help people navigate millions of records. AI won’t be able to guide school groups through He Tohu, the permanent exhibition of our iconic constitutional documents like Te Tiriti.

“This will only get worse with the agency signalling more spending cuts and restructures to come, just like everywhere in the public service with this government’s reckless plan to axe another 9,000 jobs.

“Remember the Government’s loud and repeated promise – ‘we are getting rid of fat; no services will be impacted’. Once again, today we are seeing more evidence of how the Government is misleading New Zealanders – cuts today and worry about the consequences tomorrow.

“That’s why the PSA is calling for a public good test to force agencies to stop and properly weigh up the impact on services, on workers and on the communities who rely on them, before ploughing ahead with a restructure, not after the damage is done.

“That’s why come 7 November, we need to change the government, to one that properly values public services like the National Library and Archives NZ.”

Recent statement on public good test

1 September Enough is enough: public good test needed to stop Govt's reckless restructures

Background on NLANZ proposed cuts – to take effect 30 November

The proposed cuts impact staff across offices in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin. For example:

• Preservation team focused on preservation and conservation work reduced by 16%.
• Digital preservation team cut by 19%
• Collection description librarians and specialist roles disestablished – 22% cut to team
• Music access service axed
• Research archivist, research librarian and librarians reduced by 18%
• The literacy and learning capability team reduced by 36%, staff helping develop curriculum, moving away from in-person support to school libraries to on-line support.
• Future exhibitions may be reduced to long term static displays

The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand's largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.

Source: Aktive

Aktive has appointed Laura Menzies as its new Chief Executive.

An experienced senior leader, board member and strategic advisor, Laura Menzies brings more than 20 years of leadership experience across sport, government and the not-for-profit sector in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. She has extensive experience leading organisational change, building strategic partnerships and delivering meaningful outcomes for communities.

Laura joins Aktive from Northern Region Football, where she has served as Chief Executive since 2021, leading one of New Zealand's largest Regional Sport Organisations, through a period of huge change and growth. The Federation delivers football and futsal to more than 42,000 participants across Auckland and Northland. During her tenure, Laura led the successful merger of Auckland and Northern Football Federations, with a strong focus on community impact, equity of access and organisational sustainability. She has previously led the development and delivery of the Girls and Women in Sport and Recreation Strategy and National Disability Plan at Sport New Zealand Ihi Aotearoa and was Head of Community Netball for Netball New Zealand, including the launch and roll out of the FutureFERNS programme.

Aktive Board Chair Jason Shoebridge says Laura’s experience, values and leadership style make her well placed to lead the organisation into its next chapter.

“Laura is a highly respected leader with a proven ability to bring people together around a shared vision. She combines strategic thinking with a deep commitment to community outcomes and equitable access to sport and recreation.

“Aktive plays an important role in supporting participation, strengthening sector capability and advocating for the spaces and places Aucklanders need to be active. Laura's experience, values and collaborative approach make her well placed to lead Aktive through its next phase.”

Laura Menzies says she is looking forward to joining an organisation known for its collaborative approach and community impact.

“Aktive has a proven history of bringing partners together to improve the wellbeing of Aucklanders through sport and physical activity.

“I’m excited to join Aktive's team, working alongside partners, funders and the wider sector to build on that strong foundation, strengthen participation opportunities and continue to strive for the ambitious goal of making Auckland the world’s most active city.”

Laura Menzies will commence as Chief Executive on 2 November 2026.

Source: New Zealand Nurses Organisation

Following on from the 'state of emergency' declared by North Shore Hospital's emergency nurses last week, a meeting to demand an end to chronic understaffing and underfunding in our health system takes place at the Barfoot & Thompson Netball Centre in Northcote tomorrow.

Patients, whānau, and frontline health care workers are all feeling the impact of an unsafe and underfunded workplace. Joined by North Shore residents in a meeting chaired by faith leaders, health workers will be relating their stories and asking political representatives to respond to the stark realities facing patients and staff in all sectors of the health system.

Representatives from the Labour, Greens, Opportunity and NZ First parties have been confirmed to attend the event.

Where: Barfoot & Thompson Netball Centre (Netball North Harbour) – Gibson Room, 44 Northcote Road, Northcote, Auckland

When: 6.30pm – 8pm, 3 September 2026

This event will be livestreamed on the NZNO Facebook page.