MIL Email Publisher (NZ)

Source: deVere Group

July 28 2026

Investors chasing the AI trade need to look past the trillion-dollar figures and ask a much harder question, warns the CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organizations.

Nigel Green of deVere Group’s comments come as a global sell-off in semiconductor stocks deepened on Tuesday, with investors growing increasingly uneasy about whether the AI boom can sustain itself. South Korea’s Kospi index dropped as much as 8.1%, its lowest level since April 20, as memory giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each slumped more than 9%. Japan’s chip-heavy Nikkei 225 fell 4%.

New mapping of the AI industry’s biggest players shows chipmakers, cloud giants, and AI labs increasingly investing in one another and buying from one another in the same closed loop, while Chinese rivals close the technology gap at a fraction of the cost.

“Today’s rout in Seoul and Tokyo is no random wobble. The market is finally pricing the circularity risk it has been ignoring for months,” notes the CEO of deVere.

“When Samsung and SK Hynix can lose close to a tenth of their value in a single session, that tells you how fragile the confidence underpinning this entire sector has become.”

He continues: “Nvidia funds OpenAI. OpenAI pays Oracle and Microsoft for cloud capacity. Oracle and Microsoft turn around and buy Nvidia chips with the proceeds.

“The same dollar gets counted as revenue three times on its way around the loop. This is not demand. It’s an accounting trick wearing a growth story as a costume.

“Nvidia is valued at $4.5 trillion and has committed up to $100 billion to a company, OpenAI, that is on track to lose roughly $14 billion this year,” says Nigel Green.

“Would any bank underwrite that loan on those terms? Of course not. But dress it up as an AI investment and Wall Street applauds.

“Oracle is sitting on a backlog north of $500 billion, built heavily on commitments from a customer that has already admitted, in public, it may not be able to pay for the computing power it has ordered,” says Nigel Green.

“This isn’t a rounding error. It’s the fault line running under the entire AI infrastructure trade.”

Nigel Green says the bigger danger for Western portfolios is not inside the loop, it is outside it.

“While Silicon Valley recycles the same capital between five companies, Chinese labs are shipping frontier open-source models trained on domestic chips, at a fraction of the cost, and developers are already voting with their traffic,” explains the deVere CEO.

“China is not playing catch-up anymore. In several places, it’s setting the price and the pace, and Silicon Valley is reacting to it.”

“China is going to win parts of this race. Say it plainly, because pretending otherwise does investors no favours,” says Nigel Green.

“Every major technology shift in history has produced winners, losers, and brutal new competitors. Electricity did it, the internet did it, and AI will be no different.”

Nigel Green stresses: “None of this means investors should run from AI.

“It means they should stop investing in the story and start investing in the balance sheet.

“The companies that win will be the ones with real customers paying real money, margins that don’t depend on their own supplier lending them the cash to buy the product, and tech that still works if the financing dries up.”

“Periods exactly like this one, loud, leveraged, circular, are what separate durable companies from fragile ones.

“History rewards the investors who spot the difference early and punishes the ones who mistake the noise for the signal,” says Nigel Green.

He concludes: “The test for any AI holding right now is simple: run three checks. Where does the revenue actually originate?

“Would the customer still be a customer if the supplier stopped funding them?

“And how much of that company’s edge survives a Chinese competitor delivering 80% of the performance at a fraction of the cost?

“The reward goes to the investors doing the work now, not to the ones still cheering the circularity as though it were growth.”

deVere Group is one of the world’s largest independent advisors of specialist global financial solutions to international, local mass affluent, and high-net-worth clients. It has a network of offices around the world, more than 80,000 clients, and $14bn under advisement.

Source: oToBrite

Hsinchu, Taiwan – oToBrite, a provider of automotive-grade Vision AI and camera solutions for unmanned vehicles, off-highway machines, and robotics, today introduced the GMSL2 Repeater, a compact device that doubles rugged camera-to-SoC transmission to 30 meters on large machines. A single repeater regenerates the GMSL2 signal at the midpoint of the link, doubling the roughly 15-meter reach of a standard GMSL2 connection without changing the camera architecture or the location of the compute unit.

Source release

Large machines place cameras far from the compute unit. Trailer-rear, boom-arm, harvesting-head, and perimeter cameras routinely sit outside the reliable range of a standard GMSL2 link over automotive cabling. Reaching those positions has required either relocating the compute unit or redesigning the cable architecture. The GMSL2 Repeater removes both steps.

Signal Regeneration Extends the Link to 30 Meters

The repeater installs inline between the camera and the host. It recovers the incoming GMSL2 signal in full, then retransmits a clean copy across a second link. This full recovery, rather than analog signal boosting, extends the link to a full 30 meters and adds under 1 microsecond of latency. The device has one GMSL2 input and one GMSL2 output on FAKRA Type Z connectors, runs at 6Gbps, and draws power over the same coax as the camera, requiring no separate power supply.

IP69K Rating and a Compact Body for Permanent Outdoor Use

The GMSL2 Repeater measures 34.6 by 36 by 19 millimeters and installs permanently on the machine. It carries an IP69K rating when its FAKRA connector is mated to a cable connector rated to the same standard, supporting high-pressure washdown. The device operates from minus 40 to 85 degrees Celsius and draws up to 1.3 watts, excluding camera power.

Backed by a Decade of Automotive and Autonomy Programs

For more than a decade, oToBrite has supplied automotive-grade cameras and Vision-AI systems for production vehicle programs and autonomous machine fleets, working with global automotive, off-highway, and robotics companies across the United States, Japan, and Europe.

Applications Across Heavy Machinery and Autonomous Platforms

Primary applications include heavy construction, mining, agricultural, and forestry equipment, along with long-haul trucking. Outdoor autonomous mobile robots and unmanned ground vehicles are a further application as those platforms grow larger and move into harsher environments.

A Single Source for the GMSL2 Camera Chain

The repeater extends the reach of oToBrite's GMSL2 cameras, which the company offers from 1 to 8 megapixels along with plug-and-play adapter kits that connect them to NVIDIA Jetson platforms. That lets a system builder source the cameras, the compute connection, and the long-distance link for a large machine from a single automotive-grade supplier.

Availability: August 2026.

Full specifications and the datasheet are available at https://www.otobrite.com/product/gmsl-repeater/category#gmsl2-repeater.

Key Specifications

• Interface: GMSL2, one input and one output
• Connectors: FAKRA Type Z
• Data rate: 6Gbps
• Power: 10.5 to 17 volts DC over Power over Coax, 1.3 watts maximum, excluding camera power
• Operating temperature: minus 40 to 85 degrees Celsius
• Storage temperature: minus 40 to 95 degrees Celsius
• Ingress protection: IP69K when the FAKRA connector is mated to an IP69K-rated cable connector
• Dimensions: 34.6 by 36 by 19 millimeters
• Added latency: under 1 microsecond
• Extended reach: 30 meters with a single repeater, validated over 24 hours with zero frame loss

About oToBrite

oToBrite is a Vision AI company that brings automotive-grade cameras and perception to autonomous vehicles and robots. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, it manufactures in an IATF 16949-certified facility and its cameras have been adopted in OEM programs in Japan, Germany, and the United States, including heavy-duty off-road vehicles. For more information visit https://www.otobrite.com.

Source: Reserve Bank of New Zealand – Council of Financial Regulators

28 July 2026

The Council of Financial Regulators (CoFR) held its quarterly meeting on 27 July 2026.

The meeting was co-chaired by Financial Markets Authority Chief Executive Samantha Barrass and Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Anna Breman.

Heads discussed the current economic and regulatory environment, including ongoing global uncertainty, developments in financial markets, consumer outcomes, and the resilience of New Zealand's financial system. Agencies shared updates on emerging risks and priorities across their respective mandates.

CoFR also discussed work underway to support the Government's broader economic agenda, including initiatives relating to capital markets development, payments, and the future of financial services in New Zealand. Heads noted the importance of ensuring New Zealand's regulatory settings can support innovation while maintaining confidence.

Heads considered a range of longer-term developments, including technological change and innovation in financial services, and discussed opportunities for continued collaboration across agencies on these issues.

Heads also reviewed progress across CoFR's existing work programme and discussed opportunities to strengthen engagement with industry and other stakeholders as this work progresses.

Source: Oxfam Aotearoa

• Top six fossil fuel corporations expect Q2 profits to nearly double Q1 levels. Annual profits for 2026 are set to exceed the previous 21 months combined.
• Emissions from five fossil fuel corporations were enough to cause about 1 in 4 heatwaves between 2000 and 2023, which would have been virtually impossible without climate change.
• A tax on the richest oil and gas corporations could raise up to $400 billion in its first year, enough to cover annual climate adaptation costs in low- and middle-income countries.

The world’s six biggest fossil fuel corporations are expected to nearly double their combined net income in the second quarter of 2026, jumping from $23 billion in the previous quarter to $45 billion, reveals new Oxfam analysis ahead of their earnings announcements. New data also finds that the emissions of these corporations have significantly magnified the frequency and severity of heatwaves this century.

The projected full-year profits of BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies amount to $147 billion, more than their combined profits over the previous 21 months (Q2 2024 to Q4 2025). Among the biggest winners, Chevron is expected to report that it has quadrupled its profits to $1,200 a second in the last three months, while ExxonMobil’s profits are expected to have tripled to $1,800 a second.

Oil and gas corporations share an outsized responsibility for the climate crisis. New Oxfam analysis of academic data published in Nature finds that the emissions from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies were sufficient to cause around 1 in 4 heatwaves reported globally between 2000 and 2023 – heatwaves that would have been virtually impossible without human-made climate change. Using S&P Capital Trucost data, Oxfam estimates that Big Oil was responsible for $60 billion in environmental damage last year.

The findings come as record-breaking heatwaves scorch South Asia, Europe and North America, killing tens of thousands of people. Meanwhile, West African countries are struggling with devastating monsoons and floods that have upended thousands of lives and destroyed vital infrastructure across the region.

Yet rather than scaling back fossil fuel production and accelerating the transition to renewable energy, the six largest fossil fuel corporations plan to increase oil and gas production by 14 percent by 2030 compared to 2024 levels, equivalent to pumping an additional 2.5 million barrels of oil a day.

“Fossil fuel corporations are making a killing, literally and figuratively. As extreme heat, floods and storms devastate communities across the world, the industry is preparing another bonanza of profits. Families are paying the price three times over: through destroyed homes and harvests, through soaring energy prices, and through a cost-of-living crisis worsened by dependence on fossil fuels. Big Oil’s greed is incompatible with a livable planet and unless governments rein it in, they will make a mockery of international climate targets,” said Oxfam’s Climate Policy Lead Mariana Paoli.

Oxfam estimates that a tax on the profits of the largest fossil fuel corporations could raise up to $400 billion globally in its first year, enough to cover annual climate adaptation costs in the Global South. An additional excess profits tax on all corporations could generate up to $681 billion globally.

“While Big Oil fuels extreme weather events, rich countries are refusing to increase the public climate finance that poorer countries urgently need to cope with the climate crisis,” said Paoli. “Until governments make the richest polluters pay, fossil fuel corporations will keep driving us deeper into climate chaos. Taxing the richest polluters could help close the gap in funding for climate adaptation and speed the transition towards renewable energy. Fossil fuel corporations must feel the heat, not us.”

Political momentum for taxing the richest polluters is growing. Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Austria have called for a new windfall tax on energy profits. In Australia, where Oxfam research found that one in three coal, oil and gas corporations are paying no corporate income tax, many members of Parliament are speaking out in support of a 25 percent export tax on gas, with strong public support.

Research in 60 countries found that 28 percent of them have implemented a temporary windfall tax on excess profits from fossil fuel companies in recent years, with a further 13 percent supportive. Just 12 percent are explicitly against the measure.

Oxfam Aotearoa’s Advocacy and Policy Lead, Nick Henry, said, “Fossil fuel companies have a global responsibility for climate change. The New Zealand Government should be holding these rich polluters to account and making them pay the cost of their climate damage.”

Oxfam’s research is based on S&P Capital IQ’s consensus estimates compiled from financial analysts’ forecasts. The six largest fossil fuel corporations are due to publish their second-quarter earnings over the coming week. The projected surge in profits reflects the sharp rise in oil prices following the unlawful US and Israel war against Iran.

Methodology note

Comprehensive investigation

Peer-reviewed analysis

Heatwave deaths and West African flooding

Oxfam estimate

UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2025

Oxfam’s rich polluter profit tax model

EU finance ministers’ letter

Oxfam Australia’s Freeloaders report

Government-support country mapping

Source: Save the Children

Two thirds of children across Western Europe [1] were exposed to extreme heatwaves between 1 January and 14 July this year, according to new data from Save the Children as temperatures soar and record wildfires ravage parts of Europe. [2]

The child rights organisation said that the number of children impacted by extreme heatwaves during that six-and-a-half-month period was already three times the figure from the whole of 2025 – and more than any entire year since 2003.

Save the Children analysed satellite imagery of surface temperatures covering every part of the world. The aid agency defined an extreme heatwave as three consecutive days experiencing a temperature in the top 1% of all those recorded in that location in the previous 30 years.

The data is particularly stark given the majority of the time period in the analysis covers winter and spring in Western Europe, when temperatures are lower. This suggests that findings for the entire 12 months of 2026 will be even more severe, Save the Children said.

In Germany, the number of children exposed to extreme heat in the first six months of this year was larger than the past five years combined. [3]

In the UK, 10 million children – three quarters of the child population – have been exposed to extreme heat in the first six months of this year. This is more than the total for any single year in the past 30 years. [4]

Children already affected by inequality or discrimination – such as those living in poverty, refugees or children with disabilities or underlying health conditions – are at a unique disadvantage, Save the Children said.

Zainab, 16, a child campaigner with Save the Children UK, said:

“For many people, particularly those living with chronic illnesses, this heat is not simply uncomfortable, it is dangerous. For some, a heatwave means an ice cream, a day in the park or turning on a fan. For others, it’s dehydration, exhaustion, dizziness and pain. Medication can become harder to manage. Existing illnesses becoming more severe.

“I know that because I live it. I have lived with Type 1 diabetes for most of my life. When temperatures rise, managing my health becomes harder. My body does not get to experience extreme heat as a minor inconvenience. The climate crisis does not stay outside my window. It enters through my body. Climate change does not affect everyone equally, but when the temperature rises, inequality rises with it.”

Human-induced climate change is making extreme weather events like heatwaves, drought and wildfires more frequent and severe. Save the Children’s findings reveal that across the globe, extreme heatwaves now reach substantially more children than a generation ago. In the 1990s and 2000s, around one in 10 children worldwide [5] were exposed to an extreme heatwave each year. In the 2020s so far, that average has increased to one in seven children [6]. Two of the four worst years since 1990- the start of the period examined – were in the past three years.

A report by Save the Children and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel last year found that almost a third of the world's children born in 2020 – about 38 million – would be spared a lifetime's “unprecedented” exposure to extreme heat [7] if we can meet the 1.5 degrees C warming target by 2100.

The health risks of dangerous heat to young children are acute, due to their ongoing physical development and lower capacity for body temperature regulation. During heatwaves, children are at a high risk of electrolyte imbalance, fever, respiratory disease, and kidney disease. [8]

This kind of unprecedented heat is also disrupting children's education. In June, schools in France and the UK were forced to close or alter timetables to protect children from dangerous heat as temperatures surged.

Matilde Angeltveit, Senior Advisor and Global Climate Advocacy Lead at Save the Children, said:

“Over the past few months, we have seen the climate crisis unleash unbearable heat on children and families across Europe. Heat like this damages children's health, disrupts their sleep and schooling, and brings basic services to a standstill. We also fear that crops will fail and food prices surge due to the heat at a time when families are already struggling to cope.

“Children are disproportionately vulnerable to extreme heat, yet they have done the least to contribute to the climate crisis. We know by now that we urgently need to adapt to this situation – but children need us to put their lives, rights and needs front and centre.

“While we need this today, ultimately, in order to safeguard children's futures, we need to see a rapid phase out of the use and subsidy of fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy in an equitable and fair way. We know that this is in our power, and if we do it in the shrinking time window available to us, children's exposure to these dangers will be curbed dramatically.”

Save the Children is calling for the recognition of children’s unique vulnerabilities to climate change, the delivery of high-quality, affordable funding to lower-income countries, including financing to cut emissions, and the urgent phase out of the use and subsidy of fossil fuels.

As the world’s leading independent child rights organisation, Save the Children works in over 100 countries, tackling climate change across everything we do and putting children at the heart of climate action.

Notes:

More information available here on 28 July.

[1] Countries included in Western Europe in data set: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK

[2] Methodology available here – full data available on request

[3] Full data available on request

[4] Methodology available here – full data available on request

[4] an average of 200 to 230 million children

[5] 360 million children

[6] For the research in the Born into the Climate Crisis 2 report by Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Save the Children, scientists have defined a heatwave as: when the daily Heat Wave Magnitude Index of that year exceeds the 99th percentile of pre-industrial Heat Wave Magnitude Index distribution for the specific climate model grid cell. The Heat Wave Magnitude Index measures how intense a heatwave is during a year. It looks at the hottest stretch of at least three days in a row when temperatures are much higher than what was normal before industrial times. The higher the number, the more extreme the heatwave.

[7] Born into the Climate Crisis, Save the Children and Vrije Universiteit Brussel

About Save the Children NZ:

Save the Children works in 120 countries across the world. The organisation responds to emergencies and works with children and their communities to ensure they survive, learn and are protected.

Save the Children NZ currently supports international programmes in Fiji, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Areas of work include child protection, education and literacy, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, and alleviating child poverty.

Source: Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi (PSA)

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is today supporting a bill that will cut annual leave entitlements for tens of thousands of working New Zealanders as it moves through the Committee of the Whole House in Parliament.

“Christopher Luxon wants to take a holiday: yours,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi. “It is disgraceful that he is advancing a law that will steal people’s time – their well-deserved holidays and the time they need to recover from sickness.

“It casts his parental leave announcement over the weekend in a very hypocritical light.”

Luxon, along with his National colleagues and ACT and NZ First coalition partners, is progressing the Employment Leave Bill, which will reduce annual and sick leave for anyone whose hours vary from week to week, who is off work because of an injury, or who works shorter shifts on public holidays.

The bill, which would replace the Holidays Act, would introduce a system where workers accrue annual and sick leave for “standard” hours they’re required to work under their employment agreement.

Overtime and extra hours would not accrue leave, so anyone regularly working those extra hours would get less leave than they do under the current law, which guarantees at least four weeks annual leave and ten days sick leave a year.

“Workers will be getting less leave for the same amount of work – passing this bill would be deeply unfair, especially in in a cost-of-living crisis,” said Fitzsimons.

Workers would also not accrue leave while getting compensation from ACC, and people working shorter shifts on public holidays will no longer receive a full day in lieu to compensate.

“This heartless law does not recognise the disruption caused to family life and personal time by working on public holidays,” said Fitzsimons.

The PSA represents many of the people who would be worse off, including those working in hospitals, those caring for mental health patients, corrections officers, and care and support workers looking after our most vulnerable.

Last week the PSA also revealed analysis that the bill would cut the pay of over 200,000 New Zealanders. The PSA also gave all MPs the opportunity to pledge to oppose any changes that will leave workers worse off – only Labour, Green, and Te Pāti Māori MPs signed.

“Working people deserve holidays, and they deserve to be paid properly for them. We will be fighting for the repeal of this bill and for a government that respects working people,” said Fitzsimons.

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: Island Innovation

27 July, 2026: The Virtual Island Summit (VIS), the premier free online conference for island communities worldwide, will return on 15-17 September 2026.

Now in its eighth year, VIS marks a significant shift from previous editions. The three-day event will follow a narrative arc, with each day building on the last and programming spanning time zones from the Pacific to the Caribbean so audiences everywhere can join live at times that work for them.

• Day 1, Adapt to Change, looks at how island communities are responding to conditions that have already shifted, from decarbonising marine transport and adapting to coastal erosion, to the generational knowledge and ocean governance practices that have sustained island communities for decades.
• Day 2, Transform Systems, examines the models and mechanisms already reshaping island futures: rethinking tourism before pressures become irreversible, turning waste into a circular local economy, reviving indigenous languages, and building food sovereignty in the face of import dependence.
• Day 3, Mobilise Action, turns to what moves people, capital and political will: the funding structures, coalitions and leadership approaches that turn plans into results.

The event is free to attend and open to the public, continuing the Summit's commitment to accessible, Zero-Carbon knowledge sharing between islanders and global partners alike.

“The Virtual Island Summit is our flagship online event and we are proud to deliver a high-level knowledge-sharing platform that puts islands at the heart of global discussions,” said James Ellsmoor, Chief Executive Officer of Island Innovation. “The Summit highlights islands not simply as places facing shared challenges, but as places developing practical solutions with relevance far beyond their own shores. This year we are evolving the format to reflect how island communities actually work through challenges: understanding the problem, finding what works, and mobilising the resources to scale it. We want attendees to leave VIS 2026 with a clearer sense of where islands stand and what comes next.”

The first confirmed speakers for VIS 2026 include heads of government and senior policy leaders such as:

• Lourdes Leon Guerrero, Governor of Guam;
• Feleti Penitala Teo, Prime Minister, Government of Tuvalu;
• Cora Richardson-Hodge, Premier of the Government of Anguilla;
• Albert Bryan, Governor of the US Virgin Islands
• Jache Adams, Minister of Public Works and the Environment, Government of Bermuda;
• Hannah Mary Goodlad, MSP for Shetland Islands & Minister for Public Finance, Scottish Government;
• Chris Lee, Senator, Hawaii State
• Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā, Chief Executive Officer, Hawai'i Green Growth
• Rachel Kyte, UK Special Representative for Climate;
• Chris Elmore, MP and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Multilateral, Human Rights, Latin America and the Caribbean at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
• Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis, President of the Corsican Assembly & President of the Islands Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR)

They are joined by researchers, educators and sector experts including:

• Dr Dai-Yeun Jeong, Director of the Asia Climate Change Education Center;
• Maria Ackrén, Director of the Stefansson Arctic Institute;
• Laurie Brinklow, Chair, Institute of Island Studies, University of Prince Edward Island, University of Prince Edward Island;
• Peter Van Aert, Researcher and Teacher at the Institute of Culture, Society and State, National University of Tierra del Fuego;
• Chalapan Kaluwin, Director of Momis Ocean and Climate Research institute & Dean of School of Sustainable Resources Management & Business Studies, PNG University of Natural Resources and Environment;
• Olly Newton, Executive Director of The Edge Foundation.

Additional speakers will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Previous editions have brought together heads of state, ministers, and senior practitioners from over 500 island communities across the Caribbean, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and beyond, drawing more than 10,000 attendees.

All sessions will be available free of charge. Registration is now open at islandinnovation.co/events/virtual-island-summit-2026.

Source: Greenpeace Aotearoa

In protest over the Conservation Amendment Bill, Greenpeace climbers have hung an eighteen square-metre banner from a giant rimu tree in an ancient West Coast forest.

The activity recreates one of New Zealand's most iconic environmental protests – the Native Forest Action tree occupation and campaign that helped to successfully end logging of native forest on public land.

Nearly three decades later, on World Conservation Day, Greenpeace says New Zealanders are being called on to defend the forests previous generations fought so hard to save.

Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop says, “The forests, wildlife and waterways that define Aotearoa are under attack from this Coalition Government’s despicable Conservation Amendment Bill.”

“Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders spent decades fighting to protect native forests and establish the conservation estate and National Parks we know today. This Government is now trying to dismantle those hard-won protections.”

“Today, on World Conservation Day, we remember all those people who stopped the chainsaws, blockaded the logging roads and defeated all the previous governments that have tried to destroy native forests before.”

Logging of native forest on public land was finally brought to an end in 2002 after decades of public campaigning, including high-profile actions in the podocarp forests of the West Coast, kauri forests of Pūketi, and giant rimu forests of Pureora and Whirinaki-Te Pua-a-Tāne.

The image of the late Pat McNamara suspended high in the forest canopy during a five month long occupation of the Charleston Forest in 1997 by Native Forest Action (NFA) became a defining image of that campaign and inspired people around the country.

The campaign ultimately won an end to native forest logging and saw 130,000 ha of native forest on the West Coast transferred into protection under the Department of Conservation.

Greenpeace says if the Coalition Government's Conservation Amendment Bill passes it would unravel decades of conservation progress. It proposes to reverse the purpose of the country’s Conservation law from protection, to commercial exploitation “to the greatest extent practicable”, potentially opening conservation land up to logging once more.

Dean Baigent-Mercer, one of the original group who occupied Charleston Forest in 1997, says, “Many native forests only stand today in Aotearoa because people defended them, generation after generation. People who refused to accept their destruction. It’s time for us to do it again.”

The banner unfurled by Greenpeace today reads ‘Toitū te Taiao. Join Us. Defend Nature’.

Toop says, “The generations that came before us fought hard battles, marched, petitioned, occupied trees and never gave up in defence of nature. Today, we inherit that same responsibility to defend these forests for the generations that will come after us.”

“We’re calling on all those who respect the forests, waters and lands of Aotearoa, to join us and defend them from this Government's Conservation Exploitation Bill.”

Greenpeace is inviting people to join a Nationwide Day of Action on 15 August to say Hands off Conservation Land. The organisation has also teamed up with Forest and Bird and are together inviting people to ‘March for Nature’ down Auckland’s Queen Street on September 19.

Background

• The Native Forest Action campaign to end logging of native forest on the West Coast endured from 1997 till 2002. Helen Clark and the Labour Party committed to a ban prior to the 1999 election. On the first day they were sworn in after the 1999 election they signed an order to stop logging of native forest on public land.
• In May 2001, 130,000 ha of public land was transferred to the conservation estate. About 18,000 ha went to National Parks, Westland Tai Poutini, Kahuranagi and Paparoa, the latter of which increased in size by nearly 25%. Notable and rich additions to the conservation estate included North Ōkarito, Ianthe, Ōpārara, Mokihinui and Saltwater.
• The campaigns to protect the forests of Aotearoa, including NFA’s campaign are documented in the book Fight for Forests by Paul Bensemann.
• Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling for a national day of action on Saturday 15 August to protect the forests of today. People around the country will organise their own actions against the Conservation Amendment Bill. More information is available at binthebill.nz.
• Greenpeace Aotearoa with Forest & Bird and allied groups are coordinating a March for Nature. At 1pm on Saturday 19 September 2026 people will come together in Auckland to say ‘hands off conservation land’. More information is available at marchfornature.nz.

Source: Northland Regional Council

Concerns over high-powered LED lightbars and spotlights have prompted a plea for Northland boaties to display the correct lights from sunset to sunrise and in restricted visibility conditions like rain and fog.

Northland Regional Council Deputy Harbourmaster Peter Thomas says the Harbourmaster’s office has noticed an increasing number of boats are failing to display the correct light patterns at night.

“Of particular concern is the use of high-powered LED lightbars and spotlights used as a type of headlight to illuminate the water in front of a boat while it is underway.”

“One might say it's ‘blindingly’ obvious why you shouldn’t do this, especially if you have experienced a light like this coming toward you at night.”

Mr Thomas says the bright lights render people on other vessels unable to determine any red or green navigation lights, compromising everyone’s safety.

“Properly displayed lights enable other people to help identify the type of vessel and the direction you are travelling in to help prevent collisions and accidents.”

“There are many potential hazards out there that require good nighttime vision and awareness; ruining the dark adaptation of your eyes can give a false sense of security.”

He says correct lighting displays for different size vessels can be found in the council’s boating book and other maritime publications.

“It’s also an offence under the council’s maritime rules and bylaws to display an incorrect light pattern.”

“The current fine is $200 so check your lights before heading out and make sure they are compliant.”