MIL Email Publisher (NZ)

11 December 2025 – IHC and the Ministry of Education have settled a landmark litigation case to enable the New Zealand education system to work better for disabled students.

The settlement resolves a claim filed by IHC under the Human Rights Act 1993 in 20012 alleging that Government education policies led to disadvantage for disabled students in local schools.

IHC Chief Executive Andrew Crisp says disabled students have not had an equitable opportunity to enjoy a meaningful education in New Zealand, and this settlement is part of fixing that.

“This is a strong starting point for long-term improvements to how the government supports disabled students learning at their local school,” he says.

“Families, teachers and principals have told IHC over several decades that government policies led to exclusion for disabled students in local schools. With the stories and data contributed by those experts and people with lived experience, IHC put forward nine action areas for change.

“The Government's commitment is to implement that Framework for Action. This means that over time those students’ support and learning needs will be better understood and they will have what they need to thrive at school and beyond, just like their non-disabled peers.

“Discussions with the Ministry have been detailed and collaborative and IHC is satisfied that these changes can remove barriers and lead to long-term positive outcomes for disabled students. We now need to engage with people in the education and disability sectors to talk about what this means and how we can all contribute.”

Secretary for Education Ellen MacGregor Reid says: “The Ministry has committed to a Framework for Action proposed by IHC that addresses education system barriers for disabled students. We will work with a stakeholder group including representatives from the disability sector, Māori and Pacific representatives and whānau to ensure lived experience informs the Ministry’s work”.

“The investment of $750 million into learning support in Budget 25 is already significantly increasing early intervention and ongoing funding for disabled students, among other measures.

“We’re happy to have brought this long-standing litigation to a resolution, and we are looking forward to working with IHC and the disability community to deliver a better education experience for children and young people with disabilities.”

The Framework for Action requires the Ministry to investigate several areas of education and consider how they could be improved to support all learners, including those with disabilities, such as data collection and reporting, access to specialist support services, infrastructure and curriculum.  The Framework for Action can be found on the Ministry’s website here: https://communications.cmail20.com/t/i-l-zaitjk-tjiltkjdiu-r/

 and IHC’s website here: https://communications.cmail20.com/t/i-l-zaitjk-tjiltkjdiu-y/

Source: Antarctica New Zealand

An international team has set up a remote camp on the ice 700 km from the nearest base (New Zealand’s Scott Base) to attempt to drill for mud and rocks holding critical insights about the fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in our warming world. 

The vast West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds enough ice to raise global sea level by 4-5 m if it melts completely. It is protected on one side by the Ross Ice Shelf, the world’s largest floating ice mass, that serves as a buttress slowing the flow of glaciers and ice streams towards the sea. As our climate warms, the Ross Ice Shelf is becoming increasingly vulnerable, but there is uncertainty around what global temperature increase will trigger unsustainable melting of the shelf, and the subsequent loss of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Retrieving a geological record to provide direct evidence of this temperature tipping point is the challenge driving the SWAIS2C (Sensitivity of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to 2°C) project, a collaboration between 10 countries (New Zealand, the United States, Germany, Australia, Italy, Japan, Spain, Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) involving more than 120 scientists. Earth Sciences New Zealand, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington and Antarctica New Zealand are at the helm leading project management, drilling operations, and logistics.

An ‘on-ice’ team of 29 scientists, drillers, engineers and Antarctic field specialists have embarked on the project’s third attempt to drill for a 200 m sediment core – a series of cylindrical samples of mud and rocks – from the bedrock deep beneath 500 m of ice at the Crary Ice Rise on the Ross Ice Shelf.

Along with a relatively recent geological record, the core is expected to contain layers of sediment laid down within the past 23 million years, containing periods in Earth’s history when temperatures were warmer than they are today.

“We’ll analyse the samples to collect environmental data about how the Ross Ice Shelf responded in these past times of warmth. This record from the past will help us build a much clearer picture of what temperature will trigger the retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and significant sea-level rise,” says Molly Patterson, SWAIS2C Co-Chief Scientist from Binghamton University, USA.

They’ll search for tiny microfossils of marine algae in the sediment, organisms that need light to survive. Their presence suggests open ocean conditions and the retreat of the Ross Ice Shelf.

No one has ever successfully obtained such a deep sediment core so far from a base and so close to the centre of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. SWAIS2C has spent the past two Antarctic summers attempting to drill at KIS3, a site around 260 km from Crary Ice Rise, but both attempts were thwarted by technical issues with the custom-designed drilling system.

“This is Antarctic frontier science, and what we’re trying to do is complex and hugely challenging, from an engineering and logistical perspective as well as being world-leading science. We’ve made great progress towards our goal over the first two seasons and have modified the drilling system for success this year,” says Huw Horgan, SWAIS2C Co-Chief Scientist from Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington and ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Crary Ice Rise is a ‘pinning-point’ for the Ross Ice Shelf, a place where the seabed below the floating ice shelf is elevated and meets the base of the ice, anchoring the ice shelf and resisting the flow of the ice away from the continent. The researchers will analyse the sediment to learn more about the recent history of the ice rise and the role it plays in stabilising the ice shelf. There are indications that the ice at this site has become pinned and unpinned over the past 1100 years.

“Pinning points can play a critical role in stabilising the ice shelf. By examining the underlying geology, we can better understand how this pinning point might behave in the future. This is particularly key as our climate continues to warm, and the ice shelf becomes more at risk of retreating inland,” says Patterson.

SWAIS2C’s third season is underway with an even greater sense of urgency. 2024 was the first calendar year in which the average increase in Earth’s annual surface temperature exceeded the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement.

“We are well on track to permanently cross this warming threshold in the next 5 to 10 years unless we curb global emissions. The information we’re seeking about when and how much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet we will lose is vital to help the world better adapt and prepare for sea-level rise, especially for the 680 million people living in low-lying coastal areas,” says Horgan.

An extreme polar road trip followed by eight weeks living in tents on the snow

Drilling in the deep field so far from the nearest base requires a large amount of equipment, both for the drilling itself and the operations of the camp, which must be set-up from scratch.

The six member Antarctica New Zealand traverse crew departed New Zealand’s Scott Base on 8 November – operating a convoy of PistenBully polar vehicles towing the load of fuel, science and drilling equipment, and supplies to sustain the camp for the approximately eight-week season. Their 1100 km journey over the Ross Ice Shelf required the use of a Ground Penetrating Radar to help them detect and avoid treacherous crevasses.

Arriving at Crary Ice Rise, the traverse team created a ‘skiway’ on the ice for ski-equipped aircraft, allowing the drillers and scientists to fly in (700 km ‘as the crow flies’). The team will live in tents on the snow, and work in shifts around the clock to make the most of the limited time at this hard-to-reach location.

New Zealand’s ability to launch assistance to its Pacific neighbours in the event of a disaster has been tested at Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Base Auckland, where several agencies strengthened their readiness for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations in the region.

Led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), the day-long activity last week brought together personnel from MFAT, the National Emergency Management Agency, Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ), Urban Search and Rescue (USAR), New Zealand Police, the New Zealand Medical Assistance Team (NZMAT), the New Zealand Army’s Joint Movement Control Office and the RNZAF’s Air Movements team.

The exercise focused on how agencies plan, prioritise, pack and load essential relief supplies, and how they work together when a real-world deployment is needed at short notice.

Participants worked alongside RNZAF air movements specialists to practise packing relief stores, verifying items against manifests, and understanding the constraints of loading a C-130J Hercules.

Flight Sergeant Sam Collis, Load Controller for Air Movements, said the visibility was crucial.

“Working with our partner agencies helps us all start speaking the same language. They get to see what their equipment looks like once it’s built for airlift, what our limitations are, and how we make decisions around weight and space.”

The C-130J can carry up to eight pallets and roughly 19 tonnes of combined fuel, passengers and cargo. Depending on complexity, building a full HADR load can take six to eight hours.

The Army’s Joint Movement Control Office personnel were also on site to demonstrate how they consolidate, check and document freight before it is handed over to Air Movements, mirroring what happens during an actual deployment.

Throughout the exercise, real-time “injects” simulated the pressures of an actual crisis: shifting priorities, last-minute manifest changes, and new coordination requirements.

These scenarios helped agencies practice rapid decision-making while reinforcing the importance of strong interagency networks.

Flight Lieutenant Denzel Williams, a C-130J co-pilot, said exercises like this directly supported the crews who may be deploying at short notice.

“When a HADR call-out comes, we need to build a full picture fast – weather, runway condition, fuel, cargo weight, and what the host nation needs. Sometimes the runway’s damaged, shortened, or the information is changing by the hour. These planning exercises get everyone ready for that.”

He added that New Zealand’s location makes readiness essential.

“The Pacific is our priority for HADR assistance. With an increasingly unstable climate and events that can happen at a moment’s notice, we need to be ready to respond, and we’re often the first aircraft able to get there.”

FENZ, USAR and NZMAT representatives said the exercise gave them valuable insight into how their equipment is handled once it leaves their depots.

The exercise provided agencies with a shared understanding of relief supplies, “NZ Inc” deployable gear, aircraft loading constraints, and the documentation chain, from initial packing to aircraft departure.

It also strengthened the national network of responders who may be working together in the first hours after a disaster in the Pacific.