Teen charged after car crashed into Kumeū house
RNZ/Calvin Samuel
A teenager has been charged after a car
crashed into a house
in the north-west Auckland suburb of Kumeū in June.
A passenger in the car, Elliot New, 16, was critically injured and died in hospital on 1 July.
Waitematā District Commander Superintendent Naila Hassan says the alleged driver of the car has been charged with a range of offences.
The 18-year-old has been charged with:
He is due to appear in the North Shore District Court on 20 August.
More to come...
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7 hours ago
- RNZ News
'Organised crime is organised. We are not', ministers told
Guns, drugs and cash seized by the police during operations in Christchurch and Auckland in 2023. Photo: Police / supplied A ministerial advisory group is calling for a nationwide information sharing network, or "data lake", along with a new sharing framework to help combat organised crime. The group says government agencies typically avoid the risk of sharing secure data, but a more proactive sharing approach could help target crime groups. They want a tech company to build the new "data lake" - a secure platform that would allow agencies like police and Customs to share the data they already collect with each other, in a usable format. It would automatically reformat encrypted data to make it standardised and usable by enforcement agencies, and would be hosted in a secure government-controlled cloud platform with data partitioned to ensure only those with appropriate clearance could access it. Artificial intelligence could also be used, helping identify patterns across things like financial transactions, travel records, corporate structures, and identity data to potentially help map criminal networks, match people with aliases, and provide real-time alerts. "This architecture can be scalable, privacy-conscious, and legally compliant. It creates a future-proof platform for secure and governed information sharing, enabling agencies to act with a unified view of organised crime," the report said. Ministerial advisory group chair Steve Symon says information needs to get to the right places. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro Chair Steve Symon told RNZ most of the data involved was already collected by various government agencies, so it would mostly be a tool to help use that data to find international criminals. "We don't want a situation where we we open up the floodgates of information sharing, but we do want to make sure the information is getting [to] the right places," he said. "Whether that be information by Customs about travel movements or information held by the companies office about companies or how companies have been registered, there's a variety of different pieces of information that are currently held by government agencies. "The idea of the data lake is to bring together those bits of data that might assist with tackling organised crime, and then have some oversight in terms of who can access that data and for what purpose." The group found government agencies typically avoided data sharing, as it was seen as risky - what the report described as an "extreme level of risk aversion" - but this needed to be changed to keep up with organised crime making more use of technological advances. "Organised crime is organised. We are not," the report said. The group had looked at potential costs of getting a data lake set up, he said, but that was all subject to commercial sensitivities and he refused to give an estimate. "There have been discussions and we have been aware of an approach that might be made, but we can't discuss it because, of course, we don't want to prejudice the outcome of those discussions. "It is a difficult one for me to answer without prejudicing the communications that the government would have to have with a provider like Microsoft." He said the decision on whether to proceed given the potential cost would be made by the government. A 150 kilogram haul of cocaine seized by Customs in Tauranga last month. Photo: Customs NZ/Supplied He said the group wanted to strike a balance between privacy and the rise of organised crime in New Zealand, which it had highlighted in another report in March - pointing to rising drug use showing up in wastewater testing and increasing levels of cyber fraud. The group also wanted more cooperation with other countries - particularly Pacific Islands - and with businesses like airports, ports, banks and telecommunications companies for tracking things like fraud and drug smuggling. Symon said he saw first-hand the extent of the drug problems affecting Fiji a couple of weeks ago on a trip with Associate Police Minister Casey Costello. "A lot of those drugs are destined for New Zealand or Australia ... there is a lot of information, a lot of data we could use and work with them to share, to help them in their fight which wouldn't be a significant privacy concern for New Zealanders." The group also suggested government agencies working more closely with the private sector - businesses - in specific high-risk areas - like an airport having problems with baggage handlers . He said in that example, information shared between the airport, the private businesses working within the airport, and enforcement authorities could identify things like when staff had called in sick but their access cards were still being used. "We see it in border areas such as airports, our sea ports, we also see it in high-risk in industries such as banks and telcos in the respect that they hold critical data which would be relevant to the fight against organised crime." The report noted that businesses wanted to be involved, and would benefit from being able to avoid effects of organised crime, like fraud. "That is the carrot ... there also needs to be a stick - a legislative mechanism for requiring the less than willing segment of the private sector to come to the table." The group suggested making the failure to report certain suspicious activities to the police commissioner an offence. Other suggestions for cooperating with businesses included creating dedicated liaison roles within Customs, police and other relevant agencies to deal with the groups involved in the data sharing, as well as encouraging the establishment of organised crime prevention roles within businesses themselves. Another option would be an "organised crime supply chain rating system" which would rate and accredit businesses based on their organised crime resilience and information sharing maturity, to encourage good behaviour. A haul of more than three tonnes of cocaine intercepted from a vessel in the Pacific Ocean in 2023. Photo: NZ Police / Supplied Symon said the aim would be to ensure zero data breaches. "We're not naive. There have been occasions where for example police officers have accessed [data] for inappropriate reasons and those have been publicised and dealt with, but what we are talking about here is data held by enforcement agencies. "The benefit of a data lake would be that you would have that information held in one repository, and you could have controls and information about who accesses that data and when, and have a electronic paper trail." He acknowledged there were risks with sharing sensitive data with an AI tool, but said the options for protecting that data would need to be examined in commercial negotiations. The report also called for a minor legislative change to the Privacy Act which would aim to simplify the process of information sharing between agencies. It would mean that when information was shared for the purposes of tackling organised crime, the agency requesting the data would be held responsible, rather than the agency providing the data. "This would simplify the process, ensure that the relevant belief is held by a person who holds sufficient information to make that belief properly informed and it would transfer the privacy risk from the provider to the requestor (usually an enforcement agency)," it said. If the model proved workable and valuable, however, it could be expanded. "If there is success with that sharing, and we can show the public and the gain public confidence in the way we're approaching it, then it's certainly something where you could explore going further," Symon said. The report highlighted a plan to also set up a new legal framework to help support more data sharing. "Under current settings, there is no clear and transparent framework that authorises the sharing of sensitive information with private sector partners," the report said. "For example, in the border security space, there is no clear and transparent framework that enables the two-way sharing of sensitive information between Customs and private sector partners such as operators of Customs Controlled Areas and other supply chain partners." The framework would: Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Combating organised crime: Call for government and businesses to pool data
Guns, drugs and cash seized by the police during operations in Christchurch and Auckland in 2023. Photo: Police / supplied A ministerial advisory group is calling for a nationwide information sharing network, or "data lake", along with a new sharing framework to help combat organised crime. The group says government agencies typically avoid the risk of sharing secure data, but a more proactive sharing approach could help target crime groups. They want a tech company to build the new "data lake" - a secure platform that would allow agencies like police and Customs to share the data they already collect with each other, in a usable format. It would automatically reformat encrypted data to make it standardised and usable by enforcement agencies, and would be hosted in a secure government-controlled cloud platform with data partitioned to ensure only those with appropriate clearance could access it. Artificial intelligence could also be used, helping identify patterns across things like financial transactions, travel records, corporate structures, and identity data to potentially help map criminal networks, match people with aliases, and provide real-time alerts. "This architecture can be scalable, privacy-conscious, and legally compliant. It creates a future-proof platform for secure and governed information sharing, enabling agencies to act with a unified view of organised crime," the report said. Ministerial advisory group chair Steve Symon says information needs to get to the right places. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro Chair Steve Symon told RNZ most of the data involved was already collected by various government agencies, so it would mostly be a tool to help use that data to find international criminals. "We don't want a situation where we we open up the floodgates of information sharing, but we do want to make sure the information is getting [to] the right places," he said. "Whether that be information by Customs about travel movements or information held by the companies office about companies or how companies have been registered, there's a variety of different pieces of information that are currently held by government agencies. "The idea of the data lake is to bring together those bits of data that might assist with tackling organised crime, and then have some oversight in terms of who can access that data and for what purpose." The group found government agencies typically avoided data sharing, as it was seen as risky - what the report described as an "extreme level of risk aversion" - but this needed to be changed to keep up with organised crime making more use of technological advances. "Organised crime is organised. We are not," the report said. The group had looked at potential costs of getting a data lake set up, he said, but that was all subject to commercial sensitivities and he refused to give an estimate. "There have been discussions and we have been aware of an approach that might be made, but we can't discuss it because, of course, we don't want to prejudice the outcome of those discussions. "It is a difficult one for me to answer without prejudicing the communications that the government would have to have with a provider like Microsoft." He said the decision on whether to proceed given the potential cost would be made by the government. A 150 kilogram haul of cocaine seized by Customs in Tauranga last month. Photo: Customs NZ/Supplied He said the group wanted to strike a balance between privacy and the rise of organised crime in New Zealand, which it had highlighted in another report in March - pointing to rising drug use showing up in wastewater testing and increasing levels of cyber fraud. The group also wanted more cooperation with other countries - particularly Pacific Islands - and with businesses like airports, ports, banks and telecommunications companies for tracking things like fraud and drug smuggling. Symon said he saw first-hand the extent of the drug problems affecting Fiji a couple of weeks ago on a trip with Associate Police Minister Casey Costello. "A lot of those drugs are destined for New Zealand or Australia ... there is a lot of information, a lot of data we could use and work with them to share, to help them in their fight which wouldn't be a significant privacy concern for New Zealanders." The group also suggested government agencies working more closely with the private sector - businesses - in specific high-risk areas - like an airport having problems with baggage handlers . He said in that example, information shared between the airport, the private businesses working within the airport, and enforcement authorities could identify things like when staff had called in sick but their access cards were still being used. "We see it in border areas such as airports, our sea ports, we also see it in high-risk in industries such as banks and telcos in the respect that they hold critical data which would be relevant to the fight against organised crime." The report noted that businesses wanted to be involved, and would benefit from being able to avoid effects of organised crime, like fraud. "That is the carrot ... there also needs to be a stick - a legislative mechanism for requiring the less than willing segment of the private sector to come to the table." The group suggested making the failure to report certain suspicious activities to the police commissioner an offence. Other suggestions for cooperating with businesses included creating dedicated liaison roles within Customs, police and other relevant agencies to deal with the groups involved in the data sharing, as well as encouraging the establishment of organised crime prevention roles within businesses themselves. Another option would be an "organised crime supply chain rating system" which would rate and accredit businesses based on their organised crime resilience and information sharing maturity, to encourage good behaviour. A haul of more than three tonnes of cocaine intercepted from a vessel in the Pacific Ocean in 2023. Photo: NZ Police / Supplied Symon said the aim would be to ensure zero data breaches. "We're not naive. There have been occasions where for example police officers have accessed [data] for inappropriate reasons and those have been publicised and dealt with, but what we are talking about here is data held by enforcement agencies. "The benefit of a data lake would be that you would have that information held in one repository, and you could have controls and information about who accesses that data and when, and have a electronic paper trail." He acknowledged there were risks with sharing sensitive data with an AI tool, but said the options for protecting that data would need to be examined in commercial negotiations. The report also called for a minor legislative change to the Privacy Act which would aim to simplify the process of information sharing between agencies. It would mean that when information was shared for the purposes of tackling organised crime, the agency requesting the data would be held responsible, rather than the agency providing the data. "This would simplify the process, ensure that the relevant belief is held by a person who holds sufficient information to make that belief properly informed and it would transfer the privacy risk from the provider to the requestor (usually an enforcement agency)," it said. If the model proved workable and valuable, however, it could be expanded. "If there is success with that sharing, and we can show the public and the gain public confidence in the way we're approaching it, then it's certainly something where you could explore going further," Symon said. The report highlighted a plan to also set up a new legal framework to help support more data sharing. "Under current settings, there is no clear and transparent framework that authorises the sharing of sensitive information with private sector partners," the report said. "For example, in the border security space, there is no clear and transparent framework that enables the two-way sharing of sensitive information between Customs and private sector partners such as operators of Customs Controlled Areas and other supply chain partners." The framework would: Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Mahurangi oyster saga: Watercare reveals vandalised pipe
An oyster farm in Mahurangi Harbour. Photo: Nick Monro The latest episode in the ongoing battle between oyster farmers in northern Auckland and Watercare has revealed an engineered overflow point may have been vandalised. Ten marine farms have been in a seven-year dispute with Watercare to stop sewage overflowing into the Mahurangi Harbour and contaminating their oyster crops. After each overflow, oyster harvesting was put on hold for 28 days to allow for testing for pathogens like Norovirus. The marine farmers have been unable to sell any locally grown oysters from the Mahurangi Harbour since Christmas, leaving them on the brink all year. This week about 40 people who work across the oyster industry in the Mahurangi Harbour, worth nearly $10 million, were let go. In a statement titled "Vandalism" in response to questions around potential tampering of pipes in Warkworth, Watercare provided RNZ with a photo of the pipe in question which showed a blockage which they claimed was from expanding foam. "In early July we found that the engineered overflow point into the Mahurangi River near Elizabeth St had been blocked with expanding foam which caused overflows from nearby manholes. "This was removed by our crews. We have also found bolts missing from a manhole on Elizabeth St and last week replaced the manhole lid with one that is lockable and has a rubber seal," it said. RNZ put this information to some of the marine farmers in Mahurangi Harbour, who said they did not know who was responsible for the expanding foam or the missing bolts but did not believe it was a fellow oyster farmer. "Personally, I don't know of anyone that's blocked the pipe, and that's the honest truth," said Tom Walters of Matakana Oysters. He said there had been rumours circulating in Warkworth someone had been tampering with manholes and pipes. "I can imagine they think it was probably us that did it, but it doesn't matter, because it still goes into the river, it still flows downhill, and we're still gonna get closed because of it." Jim Aitken of Mahurangi Oysters said the culprit could be identified considering the engineered overflow point was in front of a local police station with CCTV. "I'd be very shocked and surprised if someone went out there to intentionally make the problem worse. If someone's just doing it because they're sick and tired of an organisation not doing their job, that's another thing entirely. "All I can really say is it sounds like instead of fighting, rushing to address and resolve this issue in a timely manner, Watercare is looking at every possible excuse to not fix it. "They're looking for every possible excuse to not accept fault, to not take on the responsibility they're supposed to be upholding to the ratepayers and they're now just looking for any sort of excuse to shift claim because if that is sabotage, it's an overflow point," said Aitken. Tom Walters of Matakana Oysters said despite the blockage being cleared and a temporary solution being applied to the overflow site on Elizabeth Street, it had not stopped the wastewater issue. "When it overflowed early in the morning last Friday, it was only about nine mils. "I turned up there at eight o'clock in the morning, a Downer guy is spraying the manholes because there was sewage that had come up from them. Not very much, but enough and they were spraying disinfectant around it. "So it still occurs, regardless of it being blocked or no," Walters said. Watercare has maintained it is being compliant in Warkworth. "Watercare is permitted to discharge wastewater at the Elizabeth Street overflow site under the Regional Network Discharge Consent (NDC), which allows for an average of 20.5 wet weather discharges per year (based on a five-year rolling average). "Watercare remains compliant with the consent. This reflects that we are on a journey to reduce overflows to an average of two or less per year at Elizabeth Street by investing in new infrastructure," a spokesperson said. A long-term solution to the piping problem on Elizabeth Street in Warkworth is not expected until 2026. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
