Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

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Government’s reckless forestry rollback a slap in the face to cyclone-hit communities

Source: Greenpeace

Despite most submitters opposing the Coalition Government’s proposed changes to commercial forestry rules, the Coalition has confirmed yesterday that they will be stripping Gisborne Council – and all Councils – of their ability to set stronger local rules on where pine and other forestry can be planted.
The Government will also be restricting Council's broad discretion to set tougher controls on forestry slash and erosion, allowing them to do so only for the most extreme erosion risks.
Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop says the proposals are a “slap in the face” for communities whose homes, livelihoods and waterways have been devastated by forestry slash and erosion.
“It is reckless and dangerous to weaken forestry rules when communities in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay are still picking up the pieces from slash and erosion tearing through homes, rivers and infrastructure.”
Cyclone Gabrielle is estimated to have cost the country $14.5 billion in clean up costs, and had devastating effects on freshwater and marine ecosystems.
“These changes serve the profits of primarily offshore forestry companies at the expense of our communities who foot the bill to clean up the damage to their land, waterways and coastlines,” says Toop.
The Coalition Government is also proposing further changes through the RMA reforms that could force councils to compensate forestry companies if they try to bring in stronger local rules, in a scheme it's calling “regulatory relief”.
“Devastating and expensive cyclones are becoming more intense and frequent. Making it harder for councils to prevent forestry slash and erosion right now is a major leap backwards that New Zealand simply cannot afford,” says Toop.
“The Government must back down on these forestry changes and abandon its corporate compensation plans in the new RMA. Councils should never be forced to give public payouts to corporations for local environmental protections.”
As part of the changes announced last night, the Government is also repealing fencing regulations so that beef cattle and deer can now access and graze in wetlands that support threatened species. Again, most submitters were opposed to the changes.
“What country in 2026 decides to get rid of fencing rules and let cattle trample their last remaining wetlands and the rare species that depend on them? It’s environmental vandalism.”
There are less than 10% of wetlands remaining in Aotearoa. If Councils want to protect local wetlands by retaining the fencing rules they would likely be forced to hand over ratepayer money to affected farming companies under the proposed “regulatory relief” scheme.
“This is real bottom of the barrel stuff from the Coalition Government. Fencing livestock out of wetlands is literally the bare minimum,” says Toop.
“Rolling back these fencing and forestry protections puts fragile ecosystems and species at risk and it's yet another nail in the coffin for the clean green image that New Zealand trades on.”
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Advocacy – Time for NZ government to call-in Israeli ambassador after bashing of NZ citizens

Source: Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA)

PSNA has demanded the government follow through its demands that Israel complies with international law, after New Zealanders were captured in international waters in the Mediterranean and beaten by the Israeli military.

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa Spokesperson Rinad Tamimi says the New Zealand government was very explicit in its recent warnings to Israel that New Zealand did not expect a repeat of Israeli forces brutally capturing New Zealanders in international waters while they were trying to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

“Anyone who has seen the pictures of Invercargill resident Julien Blondel’s face or the reports of Jay O’Connor suffering from concussion and a likely broken rib will know that once more Israel has called the New Zealand government’s bluff.”

“The Global Sumud Aid Flotilla’s sole intention is to deliver aid to Palestinians still under Israeli attack and starvation in Gaza,” Rinad Tamimi says.

“The world is looking at the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Iran.  But the situation for Palestinians in Gaza is no less dire than when the ceasefire there was meant to have started last October but Israel continues its daily killing of mainly women and children”

“The volume of food is insufficient and lacking nutrition.  It is incredibly expensive.  Promised tents haven’t arrived.  Medicine has run out. Reconstruction hasn’t started. Israel is still expanding its Yellow-Line no-go zone.”

Rinad Tamimi says she knows the New Zealand government has already proved it doesn’t care about Palestinians in Gaza.  But she says our government cannot avoid its responsibility to protect New Zealanders going about lawful business.  

“The government can’t simply opt out of its duties to its citizens by telling them it’s too dangerous to try helping Palestinians in Gaza.”

“Israel has killed people on flotillas before.  It has captured New Zealanders and brutalised them previously.  Now it has done it again.”

Rinad Tamimi says the least step New Zealand can do is issue a formal rebuke by calling-in the Israeli ambassador.

“The ambassador has been informed of our government’s stated concerns, and New Zealand’s bluff has been called.”

“The ambassador should be expelled as far as I’m concerned.  But if it was good enough for John Key’s government to reprimand Israel through a formal rebuke, then why can’t Winston Peters do at least the same.”

Rinad Tamimi
National Spokesperson
PSNA

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Events – The world’s best nature images revealed as Wildlife Photographer of the Year comes to Auckland Museum this June

Source: Auckland Museum

The world-renowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, now in its sixty-first year, will open at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum on Sunday 28 June. On loan from the Natural History Museum in London, the exhibition features exceptional nature photography from across the globe.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is the most prestigious photography event of its kind. Launching in 1965, today the competition receives more than 60,000 entries from 113 countries and territories worldwide. The exhibition showcases 100 images selected by an international jury, highlighting artistic composition, technical innovation and powerful storytelling about the natural world.

The exhibition shines a light on powerful and fascinating images that capture hidden animal behaviour, spectacular species, and the breathtaking diversity of the natural world. Using photography’s unique emotive power, the images share stories from around the world and encourage audiences to reflect on and advocate for the planet.

Ahead of its arrival in Auckland, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Nuveen People’s Choice Award 2026 was announced last month. Austrian photographer Josef Stefan has been named the People’s Choice winner for his image Flying Rodent, capturing a playful Iberian lynx in Spain – following a record-breaking 85,917 public votes worldwide.

The exhibition features the top award-winning images announced late last year, including Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner Wim van den Heever for his powerful image Ghost Town Visitor, a haunting yet mesmerising image of a rare brown hyena visiting the skeletal remains of a long-abandoned diamond mining town in Kolmanskop, Namibia.

Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year was awarded to Andrea Dominizi, aged 17, whose image After the Destruction tells a poignant tale of habitat loss. Framed against abandoned machinery, the image spotlights a longhorn beetle in the Lepini Mountains of central Italy, an area once logged for old beech trees.

Auckland Museum Director of Audience Engagement Victoria Travers says, “It’s a privilege to bring Wildlife Photographer of the Year back to Auckland and share some of the most compelling photos taken of our natural world today. It’s an opportunity to see both the beauty of our planet and the challenges it faces.”

Dr Doug Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum, says, “Now in its sixty-first year, we are thrilled to continue Wildlife Photographer of the Year as a powerful platform for visual storytelling, showing the diversity, beauty and complexity of the natural world and humanity's relationship to it. With the inclusion of our Biodiversity Intactness Index, this year’s exhibition will be our best combination of great artistry and groundbreaking science yet, helping visitors to become inspired to be advocates for our planet.”

The exhibition at Auckland Museum is a chance to view these stunning photographs, beautifully illuminated, up close and in person from Sunday 28 June to Sunday 23 August 2026.

Entry is included with Museum admission, which is free for Aucklanders. Museum Members can see the exhibition first at their Members’ Preview on Saturday 27 June.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London, and supported by local exhibition partner Lindblad Expeditions.

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Federated Farmers message to provinces: seize your destiny

Source: Federated Farmers

Federated Farmers is welcoming the much-needed reform of local government announced today, and says councils should get cracking.
The Government has given councils a three-month window to put forward proposals to simplify and strengthen local government in their regions.
Sandra Faulkner, Federated Farmers local government spokesperson, says that’ll be music to farmers’ ears.
“New Zealand’s local government structure simply isn’t working for farmers, or any Kiwis really.
“It’s contributing to rising costs, infrastructure pressure, and declining civic engagement.
“Ratepayers up and down the country have completely lost confidence in a system that doesn’t recognise how our communities have evolved across the last 30 years,” Faulkner says.
“We’ve long advocated for reform, so we’re very pleased the Government has now asked councils to get on with it.”
The announcement today offers councils a chance to fast-track their own reform proposals and bypass the Combined Territory Board model.
Federated Farmers encourages elected councillors to put aside parochialism and engage in open discussions on reform that will work.
“The clear message to councils from Government is to seize the initiative and find more efficient structures that work better for ratepayers and communities.
“If councils don’t front-foot this, Government will make the decisions for them.”
Faulkner says Federated Farmers will only support reforms that lock in strong representation for provincial communities.
“Our consistent view has been that metropolitan and provincial areas have very different needs and priorities.
“We took the initiative early this year by publishing a proposal for reform, promoting the case for unitary councils, which would combine the responsibilities of current regional and district councils.
“We’d like to see metropolitan unitary councils centred on cities of around 50,000-plus, and provincial unitary councils that merge the district councils.”
That model could see the current 78 councils reduce to less half that number.
“Our model achieves the streamlining, economies of scale and capability to shoulder the regional spatial planning the Government wants,” Faulkner says.
“Representation is key – having confidence that those elected to make the decisions understand, and are accountable for, the needs of their ratepayers.
“By structurally separating metropolitan and provincial governance, we would ensure councils reflect genuine communities of interest and have more consistent geography, land use, and rating bases.”
There’s a lot of work and discussion to happen in a relatively short timeframe.
“Federated Farmers urges councils to get on with it and be transparent with their communities as they make these important decisions.
“And if they’re not sure where to start, go and read our carefully thought-out proposal.” 
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Defence News – Samoa’s banana-funded Spitfire fuels emotional Anzac service for NZ officer

Source: New Zealand Defence Force

The New Zealand Army’s Brigadier Esther Harrop has attended 31 Anzac Day services in uniform around the world but this year’s ceremony in Samoa, and the story of sixpence per crate of bananas and her grandfather’s Spitfire, brought her to tears.

Following the service, Brigadier Harrop presented a Second World War photo of her grandfather, then Flight Sergeant Andrew Kronfeld, to the local Returned and Services Association.

The image is of him sitting in the cockpit of the Royal Air Force Spitfire Mark Vb named Western Samoa, which had been bought with the £5,723 Western Samoa’s banana farmers raised by contributing six pence per crate of exported bananas.

The aircraft was gifted to 485 New Zealand Squadron and Flight Sergeant Kronfeld, whose family came from Lotofaga on the south coast of Upolu, was chosen to fly it.

Brigadier Harrop said she loved sharing the “amazing” story of Samoa’s contribution to the Second World War.

“The president of the RSA, Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio, who was formerly the deputy prime minister of Samoa, had not heard this story at all.

“They did not know they had a Samoan Spitfire, let alone that there was a New Zealand-Samoan pilot.

“I was so proud. The reaction from the people who hadn’t heard this story was so cool… they wanted to celebrate this.”

Brigadier Harrop never met her grandfather but found out about the Spitfire and bananas story in about 2015.

Flight Sergeant Kronfeld was one of two Polynesian faces in his tranche when 90 Commonwealth pilots trained in Winnipeg in Canada, and he was the top graduate.

He flew the Spitfire in Europe and shot down a German Messerschmitt Bf 109 over France. He survived the war but the aircraft, which was transferred to an American volunteer unit, was later destroyed.

In 1941 he went to Calcutta, now Kolkata, in India where he met his wife, and their daughter (Brigadier Harrop’s mother Sandy Harrop) was also born there.

Brigadier Harrop said the Spitfire symbolised Samoa’s direct and voluntary contribution to the Allied war effort, and its enduring bond with New Zealand service personnel.

“We are incredibly proud of his service, and it was particularly special to represent the NZDF and my family on Anzac Day in our ancestral home of Samoa.”

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Councils must work with unions and communities in fast-track reform – PSA

Source: PSA

Local government agencies are being urged to consult thoroughly with staff and local communities before being rushed into a plan for reform, the union for local government workers says.
“Three months is an incredibly tight window for councils to turn around a comprehensive plan for large-scale reform,” Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi national secretary, Duane Leo, says.
“We expect to see councils work closely with unions to make sure staff can be heard on their views and managed through the process. No-one knows a local community better than the people on the frontlines.
“We’re asking councils to prioritise their people in this moment precisely because local government is already under a lot of pressure to deliver on concurrent reforms with the Resource Management Act and rates capping.
“PSA members at councils are already worried about capacity and rushed timelines on their existing workload.
“It’s worth remembering that Auckland’s Super City reforms took three years of formal planning before its launch in 2010, and some of their systems are still being merged and worked through.”
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.
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Business – Simplifying local government will make it easier to do business – EMA

Source: EMA

Today’s announcement by Local Government Minister Simon Watts and RMA Reform & Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop to make it easier for local authorities to voluntarily amalgamate will remove a layer of complexity for businesses.
EMA Head of Advocacy and Strategy Alan McDonald says businesses often mention the difficulties of navigating multi-layered local government structures. They want systems that are simpler, more cost-effective, and better aligned with how regions actually function economically.
“This is a pragmatic step that will help to reduce red tape and give councils the confidence to reorganise,” McDonald says.
“While not everyone is a fan of the amalgamated Auckland Council, few would argue for going back to the previous fractious system.
“The massive legal bills incurred as Auckland City Council and Auckland Regional Council fought each other in court were one of the key drivers behind the amalgamation.
“At one of our recent CEO member events in Whangārei, it was clear the local government representatives in the room were well down the path of working together at a regional level. Many other councils are also heading in that direction.
“Some aren’t ready, but the Government’s proposal to enable councils to voluntarily move towards consolidated regional arrangements, when they are ready, is a welcome move.
“It also makes sense to align this nationally with the RMA reforms, where regional local governments drive the plans that are integral to the new Planning Bill.”
From a business perspective, McDonald says the changes should help reduce costs and improve decision-making.
“Fewer layers of governance and clearer regional coordination should translate into lower costs and more coherent infrastructure and planning decisions,” he says.
“Not every region will want or need the same structure, and that’s exactly why enabling legislation is the right approach.”
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Northland Regional Council media briefs – 5 May 2026

Source: Northland Regional Council

Last chance to apply for the Northland Regional Council’s Tū i te ora Scholarships
Are you studying to help the environment thrive? There is still one week left to apply! A total of four scholarships is up for grabs valued at $5000 each to help with study costs plus a paid work experience opportunity over summer.
Applications close Monday 11 May. Apply at www.nrc.govt.nz/scholarship  
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Education – Whitireia and WelTec Graduation ceremony celebrates the future of information technology, engineering, business, creative and hospitality

Source: Whitireia and WelTec

With whānau and friends cheering them on, graduates proudly crossed the stage at last Thursday’s whakapōtaetanga (graduation) ceremony held at the Lower Hutt Events Centre. This milestone recognised Whitireia and WelTec graduates from information technology, business, engineering, creativity and hospitality, each bringing their own stories to the stage.
Across their programmes, graduates learned through hands-on experience – from designing new concepts and testing techniques, to mastering technologies and bringing creative ideas to life, they developed practical skills that translate directly into the workplace.
For Bachelor of Information Technology graduate Joshua Glasgow, graduation marked more than earning a qualification – it represented confidence gained and a belief that he belonged in tertiary education. Mr Glasgow said beginning with the New Zealand Certificate in Information Technology (Level 4) gave him a strong foundation and helped shape his success. “I’ve always been interested in IT, and starting at Level 4 helped me build confidence in my abilities and showed me this was the right path,” he said. “It proved I was capable of progressing further.”
While study was sometimes overwhelming, encouragement from classmates and kaiako (tutors) made a big difference. He said the practical, supportive learning environment at Whitireia and WelTec had a lasting impact. “The hands-on approach really suited me. Using real tools and systems helped me understand how IT works in the real world, and the tutors’ industry experience made learning feel relevant and achievable.”
He encouraged future ākonga (students) to seek advice early. “If you’re unsure about your study pathway, talk to a tutor or programme manager about what’s possible. That support allowed me to move from the New Zealand Certificate in IT Essentials (Level 4), to the New Zealand Diploma in IT Technical Support (Level 5), and finally to the Bachelor of IT.”
Bachelor of Information Technology graduate Adya Sinha moved to Aotearoa from Navi Mumbai, India, after completing Year 12. Studying at Whitireia and WelTec was her first experience living independently in a new country. “Moving on my own was a big step, but Whitireia and WelTec felt very welcoming,” she said. Although the transition was initially challenging, early support from kaiako helped her settle in, build confidence and explore different IT specialisations before choosing one aligned with her interests.
Ms Sinha also valued the programme’s hands-on approach, which helped her apply theory to real-world tasks and prepare for industry work, and she enjoyed the diversity of the student community. “It created an open and collaborative learning environment,” she said. “I had opportunities to grow outside the classroom, including being involved in the Student Leadership Council, which helped me make connections.”
Her advice to future ākonga was simple: “Be open to learning, ask questions and step outside your comfort zone.”
Hutt City Mayor, Ken Laban, said it was a pleasure to attend this year’s Whitireia and WelTec whakapōtaetanga and celebrate a talented and diverse group of graduates. “This milestone reflects not only the hard work of ākonga, but also the dedication of tutors, teachers, and support staff, alongside the support of their whānau.”
“As graduates take their next step into the workforce, they carry with them resilience built through challenge, lessons gained along the way, and a commitment to keep doing their best in whatever comes next”, he said.
The 30 April ceremony followed recent graduations for Health, Pacific Health, Social Practice and Te Wānanga Māori, as part of Whitireia and WelTec’s 2026 graduation programme. Later this year, another milestone will be marked with the inaugural graduation of the Bachelor of Nursing Māori ‘Matariki’ cohort at Waiwhetu Marae on 10 September.
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Privacy Commissioner – Free programme of webinars announced for Privacy Week 2026

Source: Office of the Privacy Commissioner

New Zealand’s annual week of privacy education and awareness is set to happen from 11-15 May with a programme of free webinars.

The event, run by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, helps people better understand how privacy applies to them and their organisation, what their rights are, and what their obligations are.

“This year there’s a lot of high-value sessions for businesses and organisations looking to better understand AI across global boundaries,” says Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster.

“We’re also talking about cybersecurity, why privacy breaches are still happening when we have so much technology to help us, and who is responsible when your business is using third-party providers.

“A special session for not-for-profit groups will step through the principles of good privacy practice in a way that’s realistic for charities, schools, and others. The speakers will break down the legal requirements, explain governance while keeping it practical, and give an honest view about managing privacy and risk when capacity is limited,” said Mr Webster.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is also opening the (virtual) doors and asking about what guidance New Zealanders want the Office to be writing that would support them and their work.

Many of Privacy Week’s speakers are experts in their fields. They include Dan Solove, one of the world’s foremost privacy experts and former Wellington mayor Tory Whanau amongst other local business owners and privacy specialists.

Privacy Week is free and runs from 11-15 May 2026. Find more information and register for webinars at: www.privacy.org.nz/privacy-week