Pacific News In Brief For 1 July
A round-up of news from around the region, including Niue government announcing its budget for 2025.
Niue – budget
Health, education, social welfare and government salaries have receives a boost in the Niue government's new NZ$12.5 million (US$7.6m) deficit budget.
Last week, the island's finance minister announced the largest expenditure of the government is to cover the salaries of its workforce and the cost of social services.
TV Niue reported the health department gets the highest increase in this budget of more than $880,000, a 26 percent boost.
Cook Islands – firearms
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown has announced several new initiatives aimed at enhancing firearm regulation and safety across the Pa Enua (outer islands).
Cook Islands News reported this includes the resumption of police-issued ammunition and plans to simplify the driving licensing process for tourists.
Speaking in parliament, Brown confirmed that the Cook Islands Police has reinstated its role as the official supplier of ammunition to the Pa Enua.
The move is expected to assist island communities in managing issues such as wild animal control.
Papua New Guinea – chicken
East Sepik Governor Allan Bird has raised concerns over a drop in chicken sales nationwide.
Bird said the government banned the importation of frozen chicken from Australia and New Zealand with the pretext of protecting the Papua New Guinea industry from foreign competitors and diseases.
He said it was a short-sighted decision and now as imported chicken stock runs out, the impact is being felt around the country.
He said imported chickens retail at about 22 kina ($US5.33) per kilo, while locally produced chickens retail at about 40 kina.
Bird said local chicken production will remain expensive because the chicken feed is imported and 80 per cent of the cost of producing a chicken is the feed cost.
Samoa – festival
A large Samoan festival – the Teuila Festival – has been cancelled this year.
The festival, which features cultural performances and the Miss Samoa pageant, has been cancelled to avoid a timing clash with Samoa's general election.
The Miss Samoa pageant has been rescheduled, to run from 27 October to 9 November.
Fiji – ICC
Fijian Nazhat Shameem Khan has been elevated to the topmost prosecutorial position at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Fiji Times reported the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC has announced that deputy prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan and Mame Mandiaye Niang have taken over leadership, following prosecutor Karim Khan KC's temporary leave of absence.
In May Khan, who is British, stepped aside pending the outcome of a United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services investigation into alleged misconduct.
Nazhat Shameem Khan is a Fijian diplomat and former judge.
Fiji/PNG – anniversary
Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka is poised to attend Papua New Guinea's 50th independence anniversary celebrations in Port Moresby on 16 September.
Local media reports Rabuka praising his PNG counterpart James Marape for his leadership in strengthening the region and expressed Fiji's commitment to maintaining strong diplomatic ties with PNG.
Fiji and PNG established diplomatic relations in 1975 and continue to build on their traditional, political, and economic partnership.
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Newsroom
an hour ago
- Newsroom
Humans vs robots: Stuff winning early audience battle
New Zealanders are increasingly favouring Stuff over the site for online news, coinciding with the Herald's move to have AI choose its home-page content. The latest Nielsen monthly audience numbers, for May, show Stuff stretching out to a 570,000 average readership lead over the Herald, with RNZ now looming behind the Herald site as a feasible contender in the future to vie for second. While Stuff has edged its leading audience number up from around 2.2m a year ago to 2.33m, the Herald has dipped by hundreds of thousands in that same period from around 2.1m to 1.75m. Since March this year the gap has widened to between 300,000 to 570,000. And, though it's early days, some of that Herald drop-off and the growth in Stuff's dominance has come after the Herald moved early in the year to having almost all of its home page curated by artificial intelligence. At times just three spots for news items were to be selected by staff. Stuff's main news section at the top of its home page is all human-curated. It adopts automated selections for sub-sections below its Editor's Picks strip further down. So could the AI, or colloquially, robot-edited Herald page be contributing to its audience downturn? Theoretically, the AI decision-making ought to precisely reflect readers' interests, interaction and engagement with content on the site. The site ought to maximise its appeal beyond what a desk of human editors could achieve and allow highly personalised menus of stories. But regular readers might have noticed oddities, including stories lingering in spaces high up on the site, certain themes securing prominence almost irrespective of the news agenda, local yokel articles from NZME papers, and a surfeit of regional crime, court and catastrophe. At the same time, when the Herald newsroom laid off 30 senior journalists and digital editors in March, it made clear its remaining staff would seek to produce fewer, better stories. So the volume of new material is likely to have dropped. Interestingly, the daily statistics via Nielsen for page views were almost even throughout last year between the Herald and Stuff, and the Herald led at weekends, but now Stuff can have a substantial lead regularly across the seven days. RNZ, though slightly down in May to a 1.43m average audience, is now in the rare zone of closing in on the falling Herald monthly number. RNZ has risen greatly over the past 24 months, from about 880,000. But its daily page views, which measures stories looked at, are nowhere near as close to the Herald, falling at times behind 1 News' site which is fourth, at 708,000 on the monthly unique reader metric. The Herald is not solely focused on the total audience number for its site because, unlike Stuff, it also has a large paying subscriber base, which brings in millions in revenue. Balancing the levels of 'quality' news held behind a paywall for subscribers and fast-twitch and high appeal content for attracting eyeballs for the open website is a constant challenge for the Herald. However, the overall slippage at the Herald has not gone unnoticed. One staffer told Newsroom: 'There's been a lot of consternation among staff about story numbers dropping since AI took over the homepage.' The Herald has also pivoted some of its editorial effort to the new video offering Herald Now, with new hirings taking up some of the gaps left by outgoing text journalists and editors. The video project is directed at raising advertising revenue from the open site through content attracting high numbers of eyeballs, so in a sense competes with Herald Premium's subscriber goal. When Stuff's owner, Sinead Boucher, announced the May Nielsen results, she emphasised how far ahead her site was over 'its nearest competitor'. 'Stuff Digital's singular focus on user experience and relevant content has seen three months of significant growth with more than half a million more Kiwis choosing for their news than any other news brand.' The Stuff audience performance will be music to the ears of TradeMe executives, who on Wednesday confirmed their purchase of 50 percent of Stuff Digital had settled and TradeMe Property ads and real estate stories would start to appear on the site. Herald journalists have a chance to hear from editor-in-chief, Murray Kirkness at an all-hands meeting set for next Tuesday, and from chief executive Michael Boggs at a quarterly NZME update the next day, July 9. AI to write stories One topic that could be discussed next week is a new Herald 'editorial futures working group' to address the use of AI, proposing to extend the deployment of automation from curating the home page to directly writing stories. The Herald had an awkward false start last year with AI-driven content when the paper's editorial – notionally the editor's daily viewpoint – was shown to have been produced using AI. Kirkness told RNZ 'more journalistic rigour would have been beneficial' and the Herald had fallen short in that instance. Staff were to be reminded of its standards. The NZME-owned BusinessDesk uses AI to create stories off NZX market information releases, and Stuff processes police, emergency and other one-source official releases using a form of AI, checked by an editor before publication. Both the Herald and Stuff have policies available to readers on their sites. Now, Herald staff have been told the site needs to look at using AI for content generation as well. In an email jokingly entitled 'The Robots are Coming Here,' (sic) Matt Martel, the managing editor of Audience and Platform, tells journalists 'We need to operate at speed to take advantage of the possibilities that Al tools offer. 'In the past 18 months, we have built First Gen tools (First Look, First Cut, etc) concentrating on production efficiency. We are now turning toward content generation. 'The risks if we get this wrong are fundamental. 'Our competitors, such as Stuff, are already using Al to generate news articles, and we need to work out the Herald way to do this, and how we will declare what we are doing,' the memo says. 'We're setting up an editorial working group looking at how we quickly advance our use of Al, including for content generation. This could start with processing media releases from official sources in the way that BusinessDesk processes NZX announcements.' Stuff tells Newsroom its views on AI use are set out in this article. Editor-in-chief Keith Lynch: 'Essentially we use AI to process simple press releases (for example police PR) to generate first takes of stories that are then edited by human editors before being published to Stuff. This is to ensure that everything published fully aligns with our code of ethics and high standards. 'Using AI for this type of work frees up our reporters from 'turning around press releases' and allows them to focus on delivering unique journalism – the kind of reporting AI cannot do.' No word yet on the editor's new advisers NZME board director and substantial shareholder Jim Grenon. Photo: NZME While the Herald's editorial futures working group gets into its work, the much-awaited Editorial Advisory Board that emerged during the Jim Grenon-led shareholder push against NZME's board is yet to take shape, much less be publicly announced. The board would in theory advise Kirkness and other editors on editorial strategy. Grenon, a centre-right advocate and a critic of Herald journalism since Covid days, has promised more quality content but also suggested measuring its political leanings, possibly by AI. One of the advisory board members is set to be the former blogger, lawyer and ZB Plus founder Philip Crump, who in the board fight wash-up did not make the cut for the senior directorships. The E Tū union, representing Herald journalists, dismissed Crump's suitability for the editorial advisory role. 'Having worked in the same newsroom as Philip Crump, we do not believe he has the experience, ability, or mana to take on what would be an influential role.' Crump counters that his career in elite law firms overseas and in the area of governance makes him a good fit for the advisory board. As NZME works out what it wants its advisory board to do, and considers the views of Kirkness and others on appropriate nominees, the union has nominated journalist Simon Wilson for one seat. Wilson, an experienced writer and columnist, would be seen by many to be a counterpoint to the centre-right worldview of Crump (and Grenon). Former Herald Premium editor Miriyana Alexander, who drove the hugely successful launch and development of the site's digital subscriptions before resigning last year, is also said to be in the frame for a possible seat. She would likely be warmly received by former newsroom colleagues, including Kirkness, as an editor relentlessly focused on quality journalism. RNZ comings, goings and cuts Incoming RNZ head of AI, Patrick Crewdson. Photo: RNZ Meanwhile, AI is also a top focus at RNZ, with the appointment of senior Stuff executive Patrick Crewdson as the public broadcaster's first director of AI strategy & implementation. Crewdson, a 20-year veteran of Stuff and its allied newspapers who rose to editor in chief of the site, was most recently head of product development. RNZ said: 'Patrick brings a great range of AI skills and knowledge. However, as importantly he understands the pressures of a newsroom and will be able to guide our adoption of AI in a way that follows our deeply held ethical and journalistic standards.' In another major personnel change at RNZ, Martin Gibson, the editor who has led its Morning Report programme on RNZ National for more than 25 of its 50 years on air, will leave in October. Gibson's exit comes as RNZ faces stubbornly declining radio audiences (Morning Report has fallen way behind Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking Breakfast) and pressure from the Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith to boost its listenership and trust. RNZ has repeatedly pledged to act to restore RNZ National audiences but each GfK audience survey brings more bad news. It has suffered badly with the Auckland market and though its online audience (see above) is performing strongly, and on-demand and podcast listenership grows, the radio ratings are an almost intractable challenge. RNZ announced a cost-cutting round after the Budget's $4.6m annual reduction in funding, including an offer of voluntary redundancies and likely falls in external commissions, a health-related payment and marketing bills. One area not expected to be hit is its classical music station, RNZ Concert. Asked by MP Rachel Boyack during Parliament's Scrutiny Week if he could guarantee Concert would be safe from cuts, Paul Goldsmith said: 'I cannot make absolute guarantees because the board is responsible for these decisions,' but cuts were 'certainly not my expectation'. Goldsmith also believed an RNZ proposal not to replace one of two West Auckland AM radio transmitting towers, which could affect a number of community radio stations, would be resolved. 'We're concerned about that. I'm interested in that and certainly in discussions with the RNZ board about that.'
Techday NZ
2 hours ago
- Techday NZ
Swyftx acquires Caleb & Brown to target wealthy US investors
Swyftx has entered into an agreement to acquire US-based crypto brokerage Caleb & Brown in a move targeting high-net-worth investors in the United States. The acquisition follows Swyftx's earlier purchase of New Zealand crypto exchange Easy Crypto, as the group continues its recent expansion across markets in Australasia, North America, and beyond. Major acquisition According to Swyftx, the transaction constitutes the largest crypto acquisition in Australasian history and signals the group's ambition to address the needs of affluent digital asset investors, particularly in the United States, where the company seeks to access the world's largest crypto market. Jason Titman, Chief Executive Officer of Swyftx, highlighted the strategic nature of the acquisition and noted its intended impact on both the US and New Zealand markets. He said high-value customers currently represent approximately 30 percent of Easy Crypto's user base in New Zealand, but are responsible for about three-quarters of total trading volumes. Titman reported a significant increase in high-net-worth activity: "Titman says they have recorded a 25 percent increase in wealthier clients over the past year, signalling strong and growing demand for tailored crypto services." "What we know about this segment of the market is that they're often older, looking for more than just low fees and they're not interested in crypto's meme-culture. "Many of them are business owners or professional investors who are used to personalised financial services. This acquisition gives us the platform and expertise to meet those expectations. "Caleb & Brown has quietly established one of the most impressive brokerage offerings in the world, with a heavily differentiated private client service. We see enormous growth potential. "Swyftx has the resources to build on Caleb & Brown's competitive advantages and peel off high net worth clients from the largest exchanges. There are polished and well-respected platforms operating in the US but a lot of the new breed of wealthy investors want a service that is ultra client-centric, with round-the-clock access to broker expertise. It is the kind of relationship management they get in traditional finance. "Over the next couple of years, we'll look to significantly grow Caleb & Brown's network of relationship managers so that we can target more wealthy clients from the big US exchanges on their home turf. We see this as an underserved market," he says. Expanding global reach Titman described the deal as "the largest crypto acquisition in ANZ history" and said that it "gives Swyftx access to the world's leading digital assets market at a time when the US has sought to position itself as the 'crypto capital of the planet'. The US currently accounts for around a quarter of all global trade volumes in cryptocurrency." Swyftx has expanded significantly in recent years, now serving over 1.2 million customers across the group. The acquisition of Caleb & Brown will extend Swyftx's reach to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States, with the group projected to employ just under 300 staff members upon deal completion. Caleb & Brown background Caleb & Brown, established by Rupert Hackett and Dr Prash Puspanathan in 2016, provides crypto brokerage, asset management, and research services to private clients across the US and Australia. The company reportedly oversees over AUD $2 billion in digital assets and employs 64 team members between Australia and the United States under the leadership of Equal Partner and Chief Executive Officer, Jackson Zeng. Zeng commented on the significance of the acquisition and its alignment with the company's approach to client service: "We're excited to join the Swyftx Group. It is the fastest-growing exchange in the ANZ region and shares our client-centric approach." "This deal is a testament to the strength of our brokerage and its differentiated offering. Swyftx has the resources to help us scale faster, diversify our product offering and expand our geographic reach," he says. The acquisition places Swyftx among the largest players in the region's digital asset brokerage sector, with strengthened capabilities to serve high-net-worth individuals seeking bespoke crypto services across multiple continents. Follow us on: Share on:
Otago Daily Times
3 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Oyster farmers' 7-year battle with Watercare
By Victor Waters of RNZ A group of oyster farmers in the north of Auckland have reached breaking point over sewage overflow and want the government to intervene. The 10 marine farms have been in a seven-year battle with council-controlled organisation Watercare to stop sewage overflowing into the Mahurangi Harbour, which contaminates their oyster crops. Watercare provides water and wastewater services to the people of Auckland. At least one farmer is having to close their business, while many fear they will not survive the year, despite a pipe upgrade in September that will provide a short-term fix. At this stage, a long-term solution to the piping problem in Elizabeth St in Warkworth is not expected until 2028. Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones said Watercare had "failed in their statutory duty of care to the Mahurangi oyster farmers". "They are solely responsible for the collapse of the infrastructure that has ruined the businesses of the Mahurangi oyster farmers. "I am astounded that this colossus will not step up to the plate and offer financial compensation to these marine farmers, who through no fault of their own are now penalised because of the failure of water care." Jones said he was looking into what levers the government had over Watercare. "There are many areas where the Auckland City Council wants the assistance of central government. The Auckland Council is in control of Watercare, and it seems extraordinary that we're expected as central government to deliver positive outcomes for the Auckland City Council, yet one of their organisations is driving local marine farmers to penury and offering no assistance, no relief whatsoever. "Watercare is a well-heeled organisation, they're not short of capital. What they're short of, though, is corporate responsibility and obviously, don't place any importance on the maintenance of a social licence to continue to operate. "Their organisation should be renamed Zero Care. But more importantly, this is a comment on their culture," the minister said. "They know and they've known for a long time about how weak the piping system is around Mahurangi. They've chosen to find every excuse in the world to delay fixing it up and now the oyster farmers are the casualties of this corporate delinquency." According to the farmers, the pipe network was originally scheduled to be upgraded in 2021 but never was. Watercare says it had expedited repairs to the wastewater overflow. Chief executive Jamie Sinclair told RNZ's Morning Report programme today it had to build a new wastewater treatment plant and pump station, but will make a short-term fix by September. "The first part is expediting what I'd call an interim solution, which is an over-pumping solution, which will be in place by the end of August, which will reduce those overflows by about 50 percent. "That's not the end solution, there will still be overflows. For the final outcome, we have reorganised our programme - the previous timeline was 2028 - we are now looking to have the outcome, an almost full reduction in overflows by the end of 2026. "So I know that that that's still time. There's still pressure today on on the oyster farmers and their businesses, but that is that is our priority is to fix this issue as quickly as possible." Sinclair said he felt for the affected farmers, their families and livelihoods, but would not comment on whether they could sue Watercare for lost business. "We've been investing for the last six years in this community. We'll be spending about $450 million. And it's really this final piece of the puzzle which will alleviate the overflows at that particular location." The issue of wastewater overflowing into the Mahurangi Harbour has been ongoing since 2018, when farmers first raised it with Watercare. Because oysters are filter feeders, they help remove the pollution in the harbour but by doing so, there was a high risk of food poisoning if they were eaten. Mahurangi Oysters farmer Jim Aitken said his own health working the oyster farms was also at risk. "Yeah, we're cleaning up their mess and we're not receiving any support for literally working in human waste. "This farm is the exception, but most of these farms, you are in knee-deep in mud, waist-deep in water, getting cut on sharp oysters, nails, all kinds of things, and now we have to worry about potentially getting quite serious infections from sewage. "When we get 9mm of rain - which is happening almost weekly - that should not be triggering a spill so easily, and consistently too. Like it's not a random thing, and we're told that the pipes that are connecting storm to wastewater have been disconnected, which should never have been connected in the first place. "But the increase has tripled, so far it's on track to quadruple the number of spills because we've already doubled what we did last year, what they did last year for spills, it's pretty astounding that there isn't even an increase in rainfall compared to last year." "We're wondering what's going on here, why has it suddenly increased so dramatically, is another question too, what we're trying to figure out," Aitken said. Lynette Dunn from Orata Marine Oysters said she had not been able to sell any locally grown produce since Christmas and had to approach Work and Income for financial support. She said MPs needed to take action to save the estimated $8 million oyster industry in Mahurangi Harbour. "They need to start hammering the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, telling him we need some action. The government's the only person, or the only identity that's going to take Watercare on." Dunn's family business has run for 30 years and has overcome many adversities, but she said this has been the toughest period. "Every day I've been crying, you know? I think to myself, like, I'm not going to cry today... Because it's not our fault, it's their fault - and they're not doing anything about it. "You wail awake at night time, thinking, 'okay, how much sewage is going to go into the harbour'". "We used to have, like, 5 or 10 mils of rain, and we'd be closed for fresh water, or 50 to 60 mils of rain, we'll get closed for 10 days for fresh water, but now we're getting closed 28 days constantly on 5 mils of rain. "In some instances, there's no rain and there's sewage spills, but this last one was 670 cubic metres of sewage pumped into the harbour on Thursday. You know, like, the water in the streets of Warkworth, running down their pipes are overflowing and sewage coming out," she said.
