Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

The General Practice Owners Association (GenPro) welcomes the final approval from Te Whatu Ora to establish thePHO, marking a major step forward for a more streamlined, patient-focused primary care system in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The decision follows provisional approval granted in December and confirms that thePHO will proceed to establishment, with operations expected to begin later this year.

Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora contracts primary health organisations (PHOs) to provide primary health services such as general practice across New Zealand. Primary health organisations play a vital role in connecting funders with front-line providers, shaping how care is delivered in communities: thePHO aims to simplify this structure while strengthening support for general practices.

GenPro Chair Dr Angus Chambers says the final approval provides certainty for practices and patients alike.

“This is an important milestone for primary care. Final approval from Te Whatu Ora confirms confidence in a model designed to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and ensure more funding reaches front-line patient care,” Dr Chambers says.

“The level of interest from general practices to join thePHO has been extremely strong, reflecting a clear appetite for a PHO that is leaner, more responsive, and better aligned with the needs of both patients and providers.”

Dr Chambers says the focus now turns to implementation and supporting practices through the transition.

“We are working closely with the establishment board to ensure thePHO is set up for success from day one. The priority is a smooth transition that maintains continuity of care for patients while delivering on the promise of a more efficient system.”

GenPro has backed the establishment of thePHO because it aligns with its commitment to sustainable, high-quality, and accessible primary care. However, thePHO will remain operationally independent of GenPro, allowing GenPro to continue its advocacy work on behalf of general practice owners without conflict.

“The is not the GenPro PHO, it is a PHO for GenPro members. Ultimately it is about improving outcomes for patients and creating a system that better supports the clinicians delivering care every day,” Dr Chambers says.

The discovery of a genetic cause for young people's sudden cardiac deaths discovery will bring relief to the families and clinicians who will have information to prevent further deaths.

A New Zealand family and two Australian families, who lost young people to sudden cardiac death, finally have answers thanks to contemporary genetic testing.

Up to 90 unexplained sudden cardiac deaths are reported per year in Aotearoa New Zealand in people under 40 and in around a third of cases, no cause has been found.

“This new finding has been made possible by the technology we have available now,” says lead researcher Dr Polona Le Quesne Stabej from Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.

“In 2001, an international consortium of scientists sequenced the entire human genome at a cost of more than two billion dollars. Now the University can sequence an entire genome for between one and three-thousand dollars.”

The family, who have asked for privacy, had earlier agreed to standard genetic testing, but that failed to find a cause.

They have been supported from early on by clinicians from the national Cardiac Inherited Diseases Group (CIDG), which was founded in 2000 by Professor Jon Skinner to coordinate care for whānau.

Skinner says it was heartbreaking to be caring for the whānau and terrible to not understand what was going on. This discovery will bring relief to the families and clinicians who will have information to prevent further deaths.

“Parents who have lost a child often carry an irrational sense of guilt, and it has been a powerful motivator for me and the team when a parent says, ‘Thank you doctor, I don’t have to blame myself any more.’”

The value of this sort of research is it immediately translates into improved care for impacted families, Skinner says.

In 2024, the family agreed to participate in the new research project led by Pūtahi Manawa, a centre of excellence for heart research at the University. See European Heart Journal.

The research team made the discovery using long-read DNA sequencing, an advanced technique capable of analysing large, complex regions of the genome.

By applying long-read sequencing to historical DNA samples, the researchers were able to identify genetic changes that had previously gone unnoticed.

The whole genome testing results were analysed by bioinformatician Dr Zoe Ward, who discovered the genetic abnormality, called a ‘repeat expansion’, in the DMPK gene.

These repeat expansions can be difficult to detect using standard genetic testing.

This genetic abnormality is known to cause myotonic dystrophy type 1, an inherited condition that leads to muscle weakness and other symptoms, including sometimes affecting the heart.

“Our findings suggest this genetic change may be an overlooked cause of sudden cardiac death in young people, especially when standard tests find no answer, and we recommend checking for this DMPK repeat in unexplained cases,” says Le Quesne.

The University’s $11 million Precision Medicine Initiative supports this and related research with funding and advice.

Researcher Professor Cris Print, who works with the initiative, says new long-read genome sequencing has allowed scientists to understand the biology of sudden cardiac death much better.

“This increase in biological understanding, allows clinical practice to change and saves lives,” Print says.

The New Zealand research was confirmed by Associate Professor Richard Bagnall, a leading expert in inherited heart diseases, at the Centenary Institute in Australia.

Bagnall identified the same genetic expansions in several Australian young people who died suddenly of cardiac causes.

All this makes a strong case for including DMPK in any genetic screening for sudden cardiac death, the authors say.

Data sovereignty important for Māori

A Māori advisory group, or Kaitiaki Rōpu, has steered the New Zealand project to ensure it is culturally safe for participants, as the family at the centre is Māori.

The rōpu ensures whānau consent to DNA being used and have input to how it is disposed of after the genetic testing, including use of specific karakia.

“DNA is one of the most taonga substances – everything about us, about our whakapapa is in our DNA,” says Saraya Hogan (Ngāti Hako), a rōpu member who is a genetic counsellor and medical laboratory scientist who worked on the project.

Print says working with the Kaitiaki Rōpu improves data governance for all New Zealanders. “We learn from Māori how to do this really well.”

Pūtahi Manawa is a large collaborative research centre focused on closing the gap in heart health for Māori and Pacific People in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Read about the University of Auckland’s Precision Medicine Initiative: http://www.aaha.org.nz/precision-medicine-initiative/

21 April 2026 – Amnesty International calls on states to stop predatory, anti-rights order from taking hold in pivotal moment for humanity

Predatory attacks on multilateralism, international law and civil society marked 2025
The alternative on offer is a racist, patriarchal, unequal and anti-rights world order
Protesters, activists and global bodies are working to resist, disrupt and transform

The world is on the brink of a perilous new era, driven by powerful states’, corporations’ and anti-rights movements’ assaults on multilateralism, international law and human rights, Amnesty International warned today upon launching its annual report, The State of the World’s Human Rights. States, international bodies and civil society must reject the politics of appeasement and collectively resist these attacks to prevent this new order from taking hold, the organization said in its assessment of the human rights situation in 144 countries.

“We are confronting the most challenging moment of our age. Humanity is under attack from transnational anti-rights movements and predatory governments determined to assert their dominance through unlawful wars and brazen economic blackmail,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard.

“For years, Amnesty International has denounced the gradual disintegration of human rights in every part of the world, warning of the consequences of flagrant rule-breaking by governments and corporate actors. We’ve also demonstrated time and again how double standards and selective compliance with international law have weakened the multilateral system and accountability.

“What marks this moment as fundamentally different is that we’re no longer documenting erosion around the system’s edges. This is a direct assault on the foundations of human rights and the international rules-based order by the most powerful actors for the purpose of control, impunity and profit.

“The spiralling conflict in the Middle East is a product of this descent into lawlessness. Following the initial unlawful US-Israeli attacks in violation of the UN Charter, which triggered Iran’s indiscriminate retaliation, the conflict has quickly morphed into an open warfare against civilians and civilian infrastructure, exacerbating the already catastrophic suffering of people across the region. It is now engulfing countries around the world, impacting populations everywhere, and threatening the livelihood of millions. This is what happens when the norms, institutions and legal framework painstakingly built to safeguard humanity are hollowed out for the purpose of domination.”

“Amnesty’s 2025 annual report moves beyond warning of imminent breakdown to documenting a collapse now underway, and exposing its devastating consequences for human rights, global stability and the lives of millions in 2026 and beyond. It calls on states around the world to urgently reject the politics of appeasement embraced in 2025, overcome fear, and resist in words and actions the construction of a predatory world order.”

Predatory attacks are accelerating the destruction of international law

The State of the World’s Human Rights, and Amnesty International’s documentation so far this year, detail pervasive crimes under international law and mounting attacks on the international justice system, which are gravely harming the foundations that underpin human rights globally.

Israel has maintained its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, despite the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, and its system of apartheid over Palestinians, while accelerating the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and taking steps toward annexation. Israeli authorities have increasingly allowed or encouraged settlers to attack and terrorize Palestinians with impunity, and prominent officials have praised and glorified violence against Palestinians, including arbitrary arrests and the torture of detainees.

The United States of America has committed over 150 extrajudicial executions by bombing boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and carried out an act of aggression against Venezuela in January 2026. Russia has intensified its aerial attacks on critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, while Myanmar’s military used motorized paragliders to drop explosive munitions on villages last year, killing dozens of civilians, including children.

The United Arab Emirates has fuelled the conflict in Sudan by providing advanced Chinese weaponry to the Rapid Support Forces, who seized control of El Fasher last October after an 18-month siege of the city and committed mass civilian killings and sexual violence. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the M23 armed group, with the active support of Rwanda, captured the cities of Goma and Bukavu and unlawfully killed civilians and tortured detainees.

In early 2026, the USA and Israel’s unlawful use of force against Iran, in violation of the UN Charter, has triggered retaliatory Iranian strikes on Israel and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, while Israel has escalated its attacks on Lebanon. From the killing of over 100 children in an unlawful US strike on a school in Iran, to the devastating attacks by all parties on energy infrastructure, the conflict has endangered the lives and health of millions of civilians and threatens to inflict vast, predictable and long-term civilian and environmental harm, impacting access to energy, healthcare, food and water across an already turbulent region and beyond.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban escalated its predatory policies against the female population, with further bans prohibiting them from education, work and freedom of movement, while in Iran, the authorities massacred protesters in January 2026, in what was likely the most lethal such repression for decades.

The USA, Israel and Russia further undermined international accountability mechanisms, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in particular, last year. The Trump administration enacted sanctions against ICC staff, collaborators and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, while Russian courts issued arrest warrants against ICC officials. Several other states withdrew or announced their intention to withdraw from the Rome Statute and treaties banning cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines.

The vast majority of states have been unwilling or unable to consistently denounce predatory acts by the USA, Russia, Israel or China, or to chisel out diplomatic solutions. The European Union and most European states appeased US assaults on international law and multilateral mechanisms. They have failed to take meaningful action to stop Israel’s genocide or end the irresponsible arms and technology transfers fuelling crimes under international law around the world. They have also been unwilling to enact blocking statutes to protect the targets of US sanctions, including on ICC judges and prosecutors. Italy and Hungary declined to arrest individuals subject to ICC warrants in their territory, while France, Germany and Poland implied they would do the same.

“World leaders have been far too submissive in the face of attacks on international law and the multilateral system. Their silence and inaction are inexcusable. It is morally bankrupt and will bring nothing but retreat, defeat and the erasure of decades of hard-fought human rights gains. To appease aggressors is to pour fuel on a fire that will burn us all and scorch the future for generations to come,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Some may be tempted to dismiss the system built over the last 80 years as nothing but an illusion. This is to ignore the hard-fought achievements towards the recognition of universal rights, the adoption of multiple international conventions and national laws protecting against racial discrimination and violence against women, enshrining the rights of workers and trade unions, and recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is to forget the poverty addressed, the reproductive rights strengthened and the justice delivered when states chose to uphold the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  

“The political and economic predators, and their enablers, are declaring the multilateral system dead not because it’s inefficient but because it’s not serving their hegemony and control. The response is not to proclaim it an illusion or beyond repair, but to confront its failures, end its selective application and keep transforming it so that it’s fully capable of defending all people with equal resolve.”

Ramped-up assaults on civil society spread around the world

The proliferation of attacks on civil society and social movements deepened in 2025, with sustained efforts to silence and disempower human rights defenders, organizations and dissenters spreading to almost every part of the world.

Authorities in Nepal and Tanzania were particularly brazen in their unlawful use of lethal force to repress protests expressing political and socio-economic grievances. The governments of Afghanistan, China, Egypt, India, Kenya, the USA and Venezuela, among others, also violently repressed protests, criminalized dissent through counterterrorism and security laws, or used abusive policing tactics, enforced disappearances or extrajudicial executions.

In the United Kingdom, authorities proscribed Palestine Action, a direct-action protest network primarily targeting Israeli arms manufacturers and their subsidiaries, under overly broad counterterrorism laws and arrested more than 2,700 people for peacefully opposing the ban. The UK High Court ruled this unlawful in February 2026. The government is appealing the decision.

Turkish authorities detained hundreds of peacefully protesters after the arrest of Istanbul mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is among over 400 people facing politically motivated prosecution under alleged corruption charges.

US authorities launched an unlawful clampdown on migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, committing unnecessary and excessive use of force, racial profiling, arbitrary detention, and practices that amounted to torture and enforced disappearance. In Latin America, states such as Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela adopted or reformed legal frameworks that impose disproportionate controls on civil society organizations directly impacting their ability to operate, access resources, support communities and defend human rights.

Many governments, facilitated by corporate actors, used spyware and digital censorship to restrict freedom of expression and the right to information. US authorities used AI-powered surveillance tools to target foreign students expressing solidarity with Palestinians with arrest and deportation. Serbia’s government used spyware and digital forensics tools against student protesters, civil society and journalists. Kenyan authorities systematically deployed technology-facilitated repression tactics, including online intimidation, threats, incitement to hatred and unlawful surveillance, to suppress youth-led protests.

The USA, Canada, France, Germany and the UK, among others, announced or enacted sweeping cuts to international aid budgets, despite knowing they would likely result in millions of avoidable deaths, and in several cases while committing to massive parallel hikes in military expenditure. This has had a catastrophic impact on NGOs’ efforts to advance press freedom, climate resilience, and gender justice, to protect refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, and to provide healthcare and sexual and reproductive rights.

Many states continued to resist reining in the aggressive tax avoidance and evasion by billionaires and corporate giants while weakening further restraints on corporate power. In the USA, strategic lawsuits against public participation had a chilling effect on civil society, with one such lawsuit resulting in a court ordering Greenpeace to pay a fossil fuel company $345 million (reduced from an initial $660 million).

In a context dominated by the US president describing climate change as a “scam”, governments did nowhere near enough to address climate displacement, equitably transition away from fossil fuels, or adequately ramp up finance for climate action – even as the UN Environment Programme warned that the world is on track to reach 3°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

“What alternative do the bullies and predators offer to the imperfect global experiment they’re so intent on destroying? The world order they propose is one that mocks and discards racial, gender and climate justice, treats civil society as an enemy, and rejects international solidarity. It is built on silencing dissent, weaponizing the law and dehumanizing those deemed ‘others’. Their vision of the world is predicated not on respect for our common humanity, but on military force, trade domination and technological hegemony. It is, ultimately, a vision with no moral compass,” said Agnès Callamard.

Protesters, civil society and international bodies lead efforts to resist, disrupt and transform

Undeterred by adversity, millions around the world are resisting injustice and authoritarian practices.

Gen Z protests swept over a dozen countries in 2025, including Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Nepal and Peru, and around 300,000 people defied Hungary’s ban on Budapest Pride to defend LGBTI rights. Throughout early 2026, demonstrators from Los Angeles to Minneapolis have organized street by street and block by block against violent and highly militarized US immigration enforcement raids.

Mass demonstrations against Israel’s genocide spread around the world last year and humanitarians from over 40 countries launched flotillas to show solidarity with Palestinians. Global activism against the flow of arms to Israel expanded, with dockworkers in France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Sweden seeking to disrupt arms shipment routes. Activism and legal pressure also led several states to restrict or ban arms exports to Israel.

While many governments appeased attacks on international justice, several states and bodies bucked this trend by demonstrating their commitment to multilateralism and rule of law. A growing number acknowledged that Israel was committing genocide and several states joined the Hague Group, a collective committed to holding Israel accountable for violations of international law, and contributed to South Africa’s case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The Philippines handed former president Rodrigo Duterte over to the ICC to face charges of the crime against humanity of murder, and the court issued warrants against two Taliban leaders for gender-based persecution. The Council of Europe and Ukraine agreed to establish the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, and a hybrid court in the Central African Republic convicted six former members of an armed group for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The UN Human Rights Council established an independent investigative mechanism for Afghanistan and a fact-finding mission and Commission of Inquiry on Eastern DRC, and expanded the mandate of its fact-finding mission on Iran. Significant progress was made toward a binding UN tax convention and a Crimes Against Humanity Convention, and the ICJ and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued landmark advisory opinions affirming state human rights obligations to respond to climate damage.

More states have started speaking out against authoritarian practices and attacks on the rules-based order in 2026, with the Spanish government notably taking principled stands, but such calls must be backed up with decisive and sustained action.

“From city streets to multilateral forums, 2025 brought powerful displays of resistance and solidarity from protesters, diplomats, political leaders and many others around the world. We must build on their example and courage and forge bold coalitions to reimagine, rebuild and re-centre the global order around human rights, the rule of law and universal values,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Let 2026 be the year we assert our agency and demonstrate that history is not merely something imposed upon us; it is ours to make. And for the sake of humanity, the time to make history is now.”

Consumer NZ analysis of the April 1 electricity price rises shows large differences around the country, and those getting hit the hardest can least afford it.

“The impact of the increases vary across the country,” says Paul Fuge, Manager of Powerswitch.

“In the Far North we found annual cost increases in the range of $140 to $420. While in Wellington, the same household can expect an annual increase of $102 – $305,” says Fuge.

Kerikeri currently has amongst the highest average electricity prices in the country, around 20% above the national average and 32% higher than Wellington. Even before the latest increases, households in the Far North were paying hundreds of dollars more each year.

“Unfortunately, the biggest increases are often landing in areas where prices were already high and incomes are lower, worsening energy hardship,” says Fuge.

Residential power prices increased by around 12% in 2025 and are rising again by an average of 5–10% nationally this year, but what households see on their bills can vary more than that.

“There is no single ‘power price increase’. Our analysis of the Powerswitch pricing data reveals very different impacts for similar household types across the country with many people unknowingly paying much more than they need to.”

Consumer NZ analysed 936 of the most common electricity plan types across 14 retailers and multiple pricing regions. We found that annual increases ranged from around 4% to 12%.

“Headline averages hide what really matters, which is what happens on your own power bill,” says Fuge. “And the differences between plans and regions are far bigger than most people realise.”

For a typical household consuming the average amount of electricity, this means an increase of between $115 and $344 per year.

Despite the rises, Consumer NZ says households can still take action. Prices may be going up, but how much more you end up paying is not out of your control. The key is making sure you’re on the right plan – and the easiest way to do that is by checking Powerswitch. (ref. https://consumernz.cmail19.com/t/i-l-zdlutkd-ijjdkdttjk-y/ )

With around 12,500 pricing plans tracked on Powerswitch, switching can significantly reduce costs.

“Don’t wait for a winter bill shock,” said Fuge. “Check Powerswitch now! Just a few minutes could save you hundreds of dollars a year.”

About Consumer

Consumer NZ is an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to championing and empowering consumers in Aotearoa. Consumer NZ has a reputation for being fair, impartial and providing comprehensive consumer information and advice.

Today’s celebration of Chinese Language Day is a good time to remind people that New Zealand Chinese Language Week is early this year. New Zealand Chinese Language Week will run from June 29 to July 5 2026.

NZCLW Trust chair Jo Coughlan says the last week of the second school term is a less crowded environment than the last week of the third school term. Holding the week earlier will avoid some clashes with school activities.
 
“NZCLW has become a fixture in the calendar now, and there are a lot of activities planned around the country to celebrate and encourage the learning of Chinese language.”
 
Information about New Zealand Chinese Language Week can be found at: www.nzclw.com
 
United Nations Chinese Language Day is observed annually on April 20 to celebrate the cultural and historical impact of the Chinese language, one of the six official UN languages.
 
The date was chosen to honor Cangjie, an ancient historian who created Chinese characters, with the date coinciding with the “Grain Rain” (Guyu) solar term.
Language Days at the United Nations seek to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization. Under the initiative, UN duty stations around the world celebrate six separate days, each dedicated to one of the Organization's six official languages.

20 April 2026 – Inland Revenue's Long Term Insights Briefing on the future of New Zealand's tax system has been welcomed as recognising the need for more government revenue, but it is short on meaningful solutions to solve the problem, says tax reform group Tax Justice Aotearoa (TJA).

“IRD draws attention to the fiscal challenges arising from an ageing population, but does not really come to grip with the many other factors that are going to require government intervention and expenditure in the coming years, such as climate change mitigation and response, our growing inequality and declining infrastructure and public services,” says Glenn Barclay, spokesperson for TJA.

“It is good that they recognise there is a real problem and that we need to grow government revenue, but we are concerned that the solutions they offer are limited and potentially regressive,” says Glenn Barclay.

“IRD appears to be arguing that existing tax bases (mainly GST and income tax) are not enough, but they also seem to be saying that adding a new base, such as a capital gains tax, is too difficult. We already rely too heavily on GST, which asks too much of ordinary working people, yet IRD seriously floats an increase in this tax as a way forward.”

While IRD says there are ways of making GST less regressive, through the use of rebates, TJA thinks there are better ways of doing this. TJA's own Tax Policy Statement, which was released last week sets out a more thorough, equitable and progressive set of measures to address our fiscal challenges.

“Our Tax Policy Statement shows that a tax system that works for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand is possible,” says Glenn Barclay. “We need to move away from our reliance on taxes that impact most on ordinary working people and ensure that the wealthy and big corporates are paying their fair share. While we welcome IRD's contribution to the tax debate, they are not offering any real solutions for people in Aotearoa already struggling with the cost of living.”

TJA's Tax Policy Statement sets out practical changes we can make to our tax system to catch-up with other developed countries' investment in public goods, services and infrastructure, to tackle inequality and to support a more productive and resilient economy. The proposed changes would close the gaps in tax on big corporates and ensure the wealthiest are paying their fair share, and include:

Tax surcharge on big corporates, for example a levy on major banks (as in the UK and Australia), a surcharge on sectors managing vital infrastructure or where there is a lack of competition, like supermarkets and gentailers.
Excess/windfall profits taxes, for example, on big corporates to discourage price gouging and excessive profits arising from the current fossil fuel crisis.
Taxing Big Tech and other multinationals by enforcing existing tax obligations and changing the law to require these corporate giants to be more transparent about the profits they're making, like the Public Country-by-Country Reporting adopted in Australia.
Close the shareholder loans tax loophole, to prevent tax avoidance and reduce financial risk to small and medium size businesses (e.g. using the UK model).
Tax wealth more, not work, through a comprehensive capital gains tax (as in most OECD countries), high-wealth tax, trusts tax, and wealth transfer tax (as in Ireland).
Adjust income tax settings to better reflect ability to pay, by introducing a tax free band, making tax bands more progressive and raising the tax rate on the highest income earners. Most workers would pay less or the same tax under this proposal.
Addressing the impact of GST on the least well off, by reducing the rate of GST or introducing rebate system for people on low incomes (like in Canada).