Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police attended 7370 fewer mental health-related requests in the year to June, a result of the deliberate plan to wind back on responding to calls for help.

The department expects to respond to even fewer calls this year as it enters phase three of that plan.

Under phase three, which kicked off on Monday:

• Non-emergency mental health-related requests will be assessed against updated guidance to determine if police assistance is required. This includes requests for assistance under legislation, requests for assistance from in-patient mental health units and other requests from mental health services to police;
• Reports of missing persons with mental health concerns (including those who have left mental health facilities and services or EDs) will be assessed against updated guidance to determine the appropriate police involvement.

The phased approach began a year ago and has so far involved police limiting the time spent with someone in an emergency department, raising the threshold for transport of someone with a mental illness, and tightening rules around where mental health assessments can take place.

Police maintain they will attend calls if there has been an offence committed or if there is a risk to life or safety.

Police Assistant Commissioner Mike Johnson told Nine to Noon they were comfortable with the roll-out of phases one and two and were now ready to move to the next level.

Health NZ director of specialist mental health and addiction Karla Bergquist said mental health practitioners in particular were being given much clearer guidance about when it is appropriate to seek police assistance.

“The other thing that has been happening in the background as we prepare for this phase is making that much more consistent across the country and helping our staff to communicate what’s needed very clearly to police so that they can make good decisions about their involvement.”

But while police were rolling back their attendance, they would still respond when situations met their updated guidelines.

Johnson said on the first day of the phase three roll-out they had an example of a non-urgent request for transport which was granted.

“We had a request in Gore down south on Monday where mental health services reached out for a transport. We did an assessment and sent some police staff to assist.”

Johnson said the process for responding when people were missing with mental health concerns had been streamlined and training for both police and health staff updated.

“We want to make sure that where it’s required we will absolutely get our police staff there, but that’s not in all cases.”

The fourth and final phase, which Johnson said was scheduled for early next year, would see 15-minute ED handovers, and police lifting the threshold for welfare checks where there is not believed to be a risk of criminality or safety.

In emergency situations both the public and health practitioners were still advised to call 111.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

It is estimated that more than a million Syrian refugees have returned home since the fall of the Assad regime nearly a year ago.

For many it has been a difficult decision to leave life in refugee camps and return to the unknown, a country badly scarred by war.

Aotearoa NZ chairperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Tim Mahood, is just back from one such camp, the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.

He told RNZ’s World Watch that while many Syrians have left, the situation in the camp for those remaining is extremely difficult.

Mahood said the Zaatari camp’s population is down to 45,000 from 55,000, but there is just one doctor at any given time.

”If that doctor has to transport someone to the local hospital, then there’s just no doctor on duty.”

He said the situation is quite dire.

“But the one thing that struck me is how positive everyone is there.”

Mahood said those who have returned to Syria, or are thinking about it, face serious issues.

“It depends on who you believe. Syria is now apparently stable so people can go home, but there’s been a civil war raging there for over a decade. There are large parts of it that have been absolutely destroyed and large swathes of the country resemble Gaza.

“So people going back there are going back to potentially no home.”

Mahood said buildings have been destroyed, so as well as no home, they are facing no services, education and an uncertain future.

He said most of the Syrian refugees want to go home, but there is not a lot of infrastructure there.

If they decide to go, it is a one way ticket and UNHCR supports their transition home.

“The problem is that if they go home they find that their family is struggling and effectively they have no home to go to.”

Mahood said once the refugees go home they lose their refugee status and they cannot come back.

“It’s a catch-22. Do you go in circumstances or do you stay and have perpetually this sinking lid of support available within Jordan?”

Mahood said even with less funding for UNHCR, much can still be done for the refugees.

“There are people around the world who really need your help and are so much worse off than people in New Zealand.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, was the sole no vote against releasing government records on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

It comes after President Donald Trump changed his position, after months of opposition to opening the case file tied to one of the US’ most notorious scandals.

“I’m a vote against,” Higgins earlier told CNN.

“My understanding and I’ve looked into it extensively is that the president didn’t like that guy, he had no friendly relationships with him. You can’t control who takes a picture with you,” he said.

In a post on X, Higgins further explained his vote, saying he has “been a principled “NO” on this from the beginning. What was wrong with this bil three months ago is still wrong today”.

“If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt. Not by my vote.”

I have been a principled “NO” on this bill from the beginning. What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses,…

— Rep. Clay Higgins (@RepClayHiggins) November 18, 2025

More to come….

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Silia Vailala and Lavelua Tui have been waiting to get gas for two hours at a petrol station in Nuku’alofa.

They’re second in line, with at least a dozen vehicles behind them. It’s mid-afternoon, and the sun is beating down.

The pair have gone from the heat of their car, to sitting in the shade of the shopfront next to the petrol station. For now, they’re resting on a cheap plastic mat they’ve bought at the shop. Just behind them, on a camping chair, is the woman whose car is first in the queue.

None of them are moving until they get fuel.

“This has been happening for the last four months in a row,” Vailala said.

Today, it’ll be another four hours before the pumps are back in action. And right now, more cars are joining the queue, because, as Vailala said, they’ve all just heard that by 7pm, the tanker would have refilled the empty pumps.

The frustration is palpable.

“It’s the uncertainty of it,” she said.

“We can’t do anything. We can’t function because we need fuel to get around. And we don’t hear anything – we’re not given any information as to what’s happening.

“Even the petrol station – they’re going to open but there are no signs. There’s no information. So, we have no idea what we’re doing. We’re just desperate, waiting, sitting.”

Both women want the government to step up and find a solution.

It’s been long enough, they said.

“My workers need that [fuel] as well to run the work site,” Tui said.

“I do wish…[for] better changes and better planning.”

Emergency fuel supplies coming

The pleas, and the queues at petrol stations, are being noticed right at the top.

On Monday, caretaker prime minister Dr Aisake ‘Eke called a press conference on the issue.

He told media that emergency fuel supply ships were already en route, and that Tonga’s two main suppliers – Total Energies and Pacific Energy – were working together on distribution problems.

In a separate interview with PMN he also revealed the depth of the problem.

Eke said it’s been months in the making, with Total Energies and Pacific Energy deciding last year the companies’ fuel storage facilities needed upgrading.

The ongoing maintenance resulted in a reduction in overall fuel storage capacity, which means there simply isn’t enough fuel on-hand to meet Tonga’s demand.

Additionally, any disruption to supply ships sharpens that shortfall in fuel. Pacific Energy country manager Paula Taufa told Matangi Tonga last week that the company’s next shipment had been delayed due to technical problems with their tanker.

Vailala reckoned the solution is more than just sorting fuel supply problems.

She wants the government to be more ambitious and find ways to reduce the population’s reliance on fuel.

“It’s such a small island, and there’s too many cars on the road.

“I’ve seen maybe one or two buses full of school students, but there’s no public transport.

“The government maybe should think about having some public transport, some buses for locals to travel back and forth that will minimise the cars on the road and the fuel consumption.”

Balancing tradition and accountability

That desire for more ambitious, future-looking policy goes beyond the day-to-day challenges people need addressed.

It extends to discussions among Tonga’s policy wonks, keen to assess how well the Kingdom’s constitutional arrangements are working and how that affects policies ultimately targeted at improving everyone’s lives.

Malakai Kolo’amatagi, the registrar of Tonga National University, wrote a long opinion piece earlier this month assessing how representative parliament is, particularly since the country’s significant 2010 constitutional reforms.

Koloamatangi highlighted shortfalls in women’s representation in parliament, which staunch women’s rights advocates like Ofa Guttenbeil-Likiliki have raised repeatedly over the years, as well as potential changes in electoral rules.

In celebrating 150 years of the country’s constitution, he asked Tongans to consider what further democratisation of the constitution could practically look like – a particularly contemplative question given how entrenched the monarchy is in Tonga’s constitution and society.

A former political advisor, Lopeti Senituli, was far less reflective about the status quo.

He pointed to the role of Crown Prince Tupouto’a Ulukalala in Eke’s government and said it epitomises the ambiguity in the current constitutional set-up.

Eke appointed the Crown Prince to Cabinet from outside parliament at the beginning of the year, which according to the Constitution, he’s permitted to do.

The prime minister is in fact allowed to appoint up to four Cabinet members from outside parliament.

Foreign Affairs and the Crown Prince

Since then, the Crown Prince has gone on to oversee the country’s foreign affairs portfolio through the department of His Majesty’s Diplomatic Services.

Parliament passed a law in August to create the department and replace the previous Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Tonga parliament said in a statement the department aimed to regulate “the conduct of diplomatic and consular relations” and manage immigration services in accordance with the national interest “as determined by His Majesty and Cabinet”.

Senituli said the arrangement effectively created a two-tier system, where the Crown Prince and his portfolios – which also includes defence – sit outside Cabinet processes.

“That position is in-between the King and the Prime Minister. So, the question of accountability is doubtful,” Senituli said.

“Is he accountable to the King and Privy Council or is he accountable – like the other ministers – to the Prime Minister and Cabinet?”

He said that set-up, which could continue under the next government, only works if the Crown Prince is willing to hold himself to a higher standard than other parliamentarians. because he effectively holds a different rank as both Crown Prince and Cabinet minister compared to the other regular government ministers.

“He has to be more open to the public,” Senituli said.

Eke’s predecessor Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni reportedly clashed with King Tupou VI over key ministerial portfolios that were traditionally held by the monarchy.

The key players

Both Hu’akavameiliku and Eke are being touted as key players for the position of prime minister again.

While each of the men have not publicly stated outright that they want the top job, Eke has only had nine months in the role, while Hu’akavameiliku’s tenure ended prematurely when he resigned in December 2024 in the face of a second motion of no confidence in his leadership.

Two nobles are also in the race, according to PMN’s interview with Lord Vaea.

Vaea said both the speaker of parliament Lord Fakafanua and former Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakano want to be prime minister.

At just 40 years of age, Lord Fakafanua is among Tonga’s younger parliamentarians. He entered parliament at age 24, and at 27 was elected speaker – the youngest ever to hold the position.

Lord Tu’ivakano brings a lot more experience. He’s a previous speaker of parliament and was the first prime minister after the 2010 constitutional reforms.

The position of prime minister will be voted for by Tonga’s 26 elected representatives (17 people’s representatives and nine noble representatives) once they’ve been confirmed following Thursday’s polling day. The Prime Minister then names their cabinet after they’ve been selected.

The process for prime minister is separate to the general election and is run by parliament, rather than the Electoral Commission.

In regard to the general election count, the Supervisor of Elections, Pita Vuki, said they are hoping to announce the results of the count on Thursday evening.

“When they close the voting at four, they will do the counting at their polling stations,” Vuki said.

“They will announce the results of those polling stations there, and then they will come back with their election report.

“And we just take them and put them on the result template that we have prepared for each constituency, and hopefully, on the night of the election, we will be able to announce the results.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand has tumbled in an international climate-change league table, with authors now ranking it as “low-performing”.

The country fell three places to 44th in the Climate Change Performance Index, after already falling seven places last year.

The report’s authors said New Zealand’s continued slump was mainly due to a series of policy changes that amounted to “backsliding” on climate action.

The index, which has been compiled by international non-governmental organisations Germanwatch and NewClimate Institute every year since 2007, ranks 63 countries and the European Union.

Countries are rated across four categories – greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use and climate policy.

Co-author Thea Uhlich, from Germanwatch, said no country was ranked in first, second or third place.

“Like in the last years, the first three ranks are empty, because across all four categories… no country manages to be very good or good enough to be in the top three positions.”

Denmark was the first country to be ranked, followed by the UK and Morocco.

Saudi Arabia, Iran and the US rounded out the bottom three places in the rankings.

“The USA has suffered a particularly remarkable decline – ranking third to last in the overall standings, just behind Russia,” Uhlich said.

“The largest oil and gas-producing countries are virtually among themselves, and show no sign of departing from fossil fuels as a business model.”

New Zealand-based experts and activists who contributed to the report said New Zealand had a “relatively robust policy framework”, which had been largely stable since 2019.

“The political consensus has been a strength of the scheme, but this is being eroded by the current government, which announced in October 2025 that it will amend the 2050 target’s methane component.” the report said.

The government signalled the target would drop from a 24-47 percent emissions reduction by 2050, from 2017 levels, to a 14-24 percent reduction.

This change prompted climate activists at the annual COP climate summit, currently taking place in Brazil, to award New Zealand ‘Fossil of the Day’.

Uhlich said there were other contributors to New Zealand’s lower ranking.

“New Zealand’s climate action is backsliding,” she said. “For example, we see that they have a rollback on the ban on new offshore oil and gas fuel exploration, which is again focusing on fossil fuels and not on renewables.”

However, she said New Zealand’s high rating for renewables – which make up more than 80 percent of electricIty supply – was a “spark of hope”.

The report noted that previous progress on developing further renewable supply had stalled.

David Tong, a New Zealander who works as a campaigner for Oil Change International, has contributed to the index for a decade.

The report could not take into account some of the most recent policy changes, such as this week’s announcement that the government would further loosen clean car standards.

“New Zealand could expect an even worse rating, if the Climate Change Performance Index were re-assessed today,” Tong said. “A lot has happened in the last four weeks, even since we provided the draft.”

The latest changes would be taken into account in next year’s report.

Climate Change Minister Simon Watts is in Brazil for the second week of talks at COP and did not respond to RNZ’s request for comment on the ratings.

World Wildlife Fund NZ chief executive Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, whose organisation also contributed to the index, said the index received international attention, when it was released each year.

“It is seen as respected and authoritative analysis, and to see New Zealand plummet down the rankings in the last two iterations is pretty depressing and rather shameful.”

New Zealand was risking its “very credible role” in the Pacific, a region that was becoming increasingly strategically important.

“Pacific leaders, leaders throughout our region, have repeatedly pleaded with governments, both Australia and New Zealand, to take meaningful climate action, not to restart offshore oil and gas exploration.

“Embracing the role of climate pariah is not going to advance New Zealand’s interests with our Pacific partners.”

The effects went beyond reputation, she said.

The policy changes were “setting up future generations of Kiwis to shoulder a relatively unconscionable burden, in terms of the cost of dealing to future climate-related weather”.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand