Gloriavale leaders refuse to apologise to former member
Gloriavale leaders have refused to deliver a personal apology to a former member for abuse at the Christian community, despite publicly offering to say sorry to victims who ask for one. Leavers say that's exposed their pledge as a PR stunt, as Jean Edwards reports.
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RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Why wasn't PM told about police investigation into senior press secretary Michael Forbes?
The Prime Minister's deputy chief press secretary, pictured back left, has resigned. Photo: RNZ/Marika Khabazi The sudden resignation of one of the Prime Minister's senior press secretaries is raising questions about why Christopher Luxon's office was not told about the police investigation last year. Michael Forbes left his job on Wednesday and has apologised after accusations he recorded audio of sessions with sex workers, and had intrusive photos of women in public and footage shot through windows at night. Police said they got a complaint from a Wellington brothel last July after images were found on a client's phone, but decided the case did not meet the threshold for prosecution. Michael Forbes was working for Social Development Minister Louise Upston at the time. She and the Prime Minister's office said they knew nothing about the complaint until Tuesday night. He resigned before he could be sacked. Ministerial Services said it is in contact with Police and was working urgently to find out why details of the investigation were not passed on. An advocate for the sex workers who accused Forbes said they were not surprised police did not charge him. The Wellington co-ordinator for the NZPC Aotearoa Sex Workers' Collective, Cherida Fraser, said it would have been hard for police to prove the footage that was on the phone, showing women getting changed through a window, was filmed illegally. "I can see that it was complex ... to identify those women would have been difficult and to ensure they weren't consenting to being filmed." Michael Forbes has offered an apology for the harm his actions caused to women. Photo: LinkedIn/Michael Forbes A Stuff investigation revealed that Forbes, a former journalist, allegedly recorded audio of multiple sessions with Wellington sex workers, and amassed a gallery of women working out at the gym, shopping and filmed through a window getting ready to go out. A Wellington sex worker told Stuff she realised while Forbes was in the shower that his phone's voice recorder was allegedly activated back in July 2024. She told the outlet she and other sex workers working that night asked Forbes for his phone PIN code. They claim to have found multiple audio recordings of sessions with sex workers, albums full of photos of women, and videos of women getting ready to go out, filmed through a window at night. Forbes, who was press secretary for Minister of Social Development Louise Upston at the time, has offered an apology for the harm his actions caused to women. "I want to offer my sincerest apologies to the women I have harmed," he said in a statement. "In the past, I was in a downward spiral due to unresolved trauma and stress, and when confronted with the impacts of my behaviour a year ago, I sought professional help, which is something I wish I had done much earlier. "What I failed to do then was make a genuine attempt to apologise. Instead, I tried to move on without offering those I had harmed the acknowledgement, accountability, or amends they deserved. I recognise how wrong that was." Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's deputy chief press secretary Michael Forbes shaking hands with India Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: Youtube/Narendra Modi Forbes said he spent the past year "reflecting on how I may have affected these women's sense of safety and ability to go about their lives and work". "No one should ever feel violated, unsafe, or disrespected, especially in spaces where they should feel secure, and I am truly sorry for contributing to an environment where women may have felt otherwise," he said. "The therapy I've received over the past year has helped me to understand the roots of my behaviour and begin addressing the patterns that led to it. This is a long-term commitment to change that I take very seriously. "I understand that my past actions may have undermined the trust people place in me. So, I have resigned from my job to focus on the work I need to do." The Prime Minister is expected to address media at Parliament on Thursday. A spokesperson from his office said they were informed at 4pm on 3 June. "The matters were immediately raised with Ministerial Services and the prime minister was informed that evening. The allegations were serious and concerning. They were discussed with the staff member on the evening of June 3 and it was clear their employment was untenable," the spokesperson said. "It was agreed that the staff member was stood down that evening and they resigned the following morning. Had the staff member not resigned, we expect their employment would have been terminated after a short investigation." Michael Forbes pictured during Christopher Luxon's visit to India. Photo: RNZ/Marika Khabazi The office of Forbes' former boss Upston said: "The Minister was not aware of any allegations before they were raised with PMO yesterday. Minister Upston has nothing further to add to the PMs statement on this." When asked by RNZ why the minister, her office, the prime minister, or the Dignitary Protection Service were not informed of the police investigation into Forbes, Ministerial Services said any questions about the investigation should go to Police. It also did not answer whether there were any typical thresholds that would see Ministerial Services informed by police of an investigation into an employee. Deputy secretary partnerships and commissions Hoani Lambert said this was a "serious and concerning matter" for the department. "We were made aware of this matter late on 3 June and met with the employee that evening. The individual concerned is no longer employed by the Department. We are working with urgency to thoroughly understand what has happened. This includes further engagement with the NZ Police. As the employer, DIA has important obligations to provide a safe workplace and ensure people are held accountable for their behaviour. We are taking this matter seriously, we are moving quickly and ensuring accountability. We will not comment further at this time." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Fibreboard manufacturer fined $12k for large wastewater spill
A section of Saltwater Creek, which was polluted by the spill. Photo: Supplied / Google Maps The company responsible for a wastewater spill that killed thousands of fish in a North Canterbury creek has been convicted and fined $12,000. Fibreboard manufacturers Daiken New Zealand had pleaded guilty to the charge late last year, which carried a maximum penalty of $600,000. The company is wholly owned by major Japanese multinational conglomerate Daiken Corporation but is not associated with air conditioner manufacturer Daikin Industries. The charge - brought by the Canterbury Regional Council under the Resource Management Act - was of discharging of a contaminant onto or into land in a manner that resulted in the contaminant entering water, after wastewater spilled from the medium density fibreboard (MDF) factory into Saltwater Creek, a tributary of the Rakahuri/Ashley River. The spill, which happened overnight on 31 August 2023, saw wastewater contaminated by substances used in the MDF refining processes, including paraffin, urea, formaldehyde, resin, bacteria, and surfactants, as well as a small amount of treated human waste. The court heard the spill was caused by a failure in piping waste from one part of Daiken's wastewater system to another. Daiken's wastewater system was made up of an oxidation pond, an aerated pond, storage lagoons and a partially suspended lagoon (PSL), which is about 30 metres from Saltwater Creek. Recently installed Venturi manual pumps operated continuously to keep the PSL at a constant level. When a Daiken employee noticed the outlet tube of first of the new pumps was vibrating, he fixed a custom-made brace to it. But when two other pumps were installed shortly before the spill, their tubes were left unsecured. One of the tubes broke overnight, resulting in about 1500-1700 m3 of wastewater spilling onto land and into Saltwater Creek. The Daiken New Zealand Ltd factory in Ashley, near Rangiora. in 2023, wastewater was discharged to land after a pipe broke, and into the adjacent Saltwater Creek, seen here to the bottom of the company's wastewater ponds. The Ashley River/Rakahuri is less than a kilometre from the storage ponds. The company was fined $12,000 in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday. Photo: Google maps Lawyers representing Daiken said the employee who secured the pipe on the first tube was away when the other two were installed. In his absence, the company's mechanical co-ordinator contracted another company to install pump supports, and another to attend to the commissioning of the pumps. Neither installed braces. A senior representative of one of the companies told his counterpart at Daiken he was happy with the installation, and not concerned with "a little bit of movement". On the basis of that advice, and after organising for another contractor to complete the bracing the next day, Daiken's co-ordinator left the pumps running overnight. The judge described the person involved as a reliable senior employee with about 50 years experience, and classed the incident as a "one off lapse of judgement". Regional council officers at the scene after the spill recorded the creek as a "very turbid light brown" with a "strong odour of MDT effluent". Council reports and subsequent scientific analysis found the discharge resulted in "a severe and rapid drop in dissolved oxygen concentrations", with the decline in water quality persisting through most downstream river reaches for at least ten hours, and likely extended to the estuary - even with dilution - resulting in at least four to 10 hours of "severe and extensive degradation of water quality", Judge Hassan said. "Thousands of aquatic fauna would have perished, including likely the total downstream populations of some taxa including inanga, brown trout and bully" mostly by suffocation, with those left alive suffering "acute stress". Saltwater Creek is made up of a myriad of spring fed channels, and provided habitat for several threatened and endangered species, including the kana kana or pouched lamprey, long and short fin eels, inanga (whitebait), blue gill and giant bullies. Whitebait spawn in the river margins and wetlands of Saltwater Creek between autumn and winter, and surveys prior to the discharge identified declines in kākahi - fresh water mussels - which have a threat status of at risk. Other species included common smelt and black flounder. Te Aka Aka/Ashley estuary is classified as an area of significant natural value in the Regional Coastal Environmental Plan, and as an wetland of ecological and representative importance by the Department of Conservation, Judge Hassan said. The discharge coincided with the opening of the annual white-bait season. Anglers and whitebaiters were told to avoid the area, landowners and water users were warned of the risk to stock, and Te Whatu Ora was notified. The regional council's lawyers suggested a starting point of $130,000, while the company's legal counsel suggested a conviction and discharge would be appropriate, and, if not, a starting point of $130,000 was supported by precedent. On Wednesday, Judge Hassan convicted the company, and fined them $12,000. Judge Hassan found Daiken's offending to have caused a temporary severe environmental consequence, with experts predicting it would have taken 12 months for the ecology to recover, as well as cultural harm and harm to the wider community. Daiken had a commendable history of "responsible local environmental stewardship," the judge said, noting a wetland restoration project on the company's land in conjunction with the Waimakariri Biodiversity Trust. Judge Hassan said he considered the nature of the environment affected, the extent of harm inflicted, deliberateness and attitudinal factors, and found Daiken's culpability to be low. Through a restorative justice process, Daiken committed to pay $15,000 to Waimakariri Biodiversity Trust, and $15,000 to the Sefton Saltwater Creek Catchment Group, and agreed to contribute at least $20,000 towards consultants to carry out assessments and baseline exploratory work across the wider catchment. The company also proactively engaged with Te Runanga o Ngāi Tahu and Te Ngāi Tuahuriri, committing to work together on enhancing the health of the creek, including providing regularly monitoring and improvement updates, Judge Hassan said. The terms of these payments were set out in an enforcement order, which requires Daiken make the payments by specified dates. After adopted a starting fine in the range in the order of $80,000, Judge Hassan discounted it for Daiken's guilty plea, good character and remorse, then accounted for the other financial commitments, resulting in the final fine of $12,000. The Rangiora company is wholly owned by Japan's Daiken Corporation, which made 210 billion yen (NZ$2 billion) in revenue and 3.9 billion yen (NZ$45m) in profit in the 2023/2024 financial year. Daiken New Zealand's revenue over the same period was NZ$185.5 million, and its profit after tax was $19.9m. Environment Canterbury compliance manager Jennifer Rochford said the fine was lower than the council expected, but it respected the decision of the court.
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Dogs attacks could lead to lack of guide dogs in South Auckland.
Blind Low Vision New Zealand is now reluctant to place guide dogs in South Auckland due to roaming dog attacks. File photo. Photo: 123RF Sight-impaired people living in the Southern Auckland could miss out on a guide dog after a savage attack on a handler and his guide dog. Blind Low Vision New Zealand said there had been several incidents, including a roaming dog attack last year that saw one of its clients taken to hospital and the guide dog relocated out of Auckland. It is now reluctant to place guide dogs in South Auckland. Blind Low Vision head of guide dogs Pete Hoskin told Checkpoint it was having a significant impact on the independence of their clients. "This has been an increasing problem over the last two years with no real trigger that we're able to put it down to, but what we're experiencing on a daily and weekly basis is a number of events that are causing us to redeploy our resources across different parts of Tamaki Makaurau." A handler and dog were attacked last year, he said. "He subsequently ended up being in hospital and as a result of the treatment had an allergic reaction to the medication. That was a result of the infection from the dog bite and subsequently spent eight weeks in the hospital requiring a couple of blood transfusions. "The dog still is working and is working very well, but that's not to say that if it was ever put in a situation where it was sprung by another dog, that it would be able to work effectively after that." He said the situation was made worse for clients, as they could not necessarily see or identify the risk before it was right before them. "The incidents that are occurring to able bodied people within Tamaki-Makaurau, one yesterday in the botanical gardens, a four-year-old killed a couple of months ago, they've got the benefit of being able to see and hear. "The vision impaired community don't have that benefit so they're not able to mitigate or minimise that risk." Clients who were deaf and blind were also vulnerable, he said. "[It] just exponentially creates that problem even further for them in the sense that they can't hear any dog approaching them." He said with trainers, there had been seven incidents related to roaming dogs. "Recently, we had one trainer [who] had two incidences in one week where other dogs have physically jumped out of moving vehicles down the main street and then chased them along the street where they've had to then jump into a shop." Blind Low Vision were now reluctant to place dogs in South Auckland, he said. "We do unfortunately have a client in South Auckland that we have said no to placing a dog to due to the severe risk of the environment that the community that the client is in." He said the person had already been attacked twice in the area, while walking with a guide dog. "With no reduction in the amount of dogs in that area and the increase in attacks in that area, that risk is too severe to place a dog." They were investigating potential solutions with AI, although it was in its infancy, he said. "I think there's a couple of things before technology. [We] fully support the release with the SPCA and the council around desexing. "We [also] strongly advocate for some personal accountability. As owners of these dogs, ensuring that their dogs are secure at all times, whether that's in a vehicle or in their home environment, to prevent them from getting out into the community and causing this chaos." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
