First public hearings into Covid-19 response begin
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RNZ News
9 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Blind woman hits out at accessibility of MSD for disabled people
Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King A blind woman on the Supported Living Payment says the Ministry of Social Development should be embarrassed at how inaccessible it is for people with disabilities. The comments come after RNZ reported on a neurodiverse man reliquishing his benefit because he found the ministry's demands so overwhelming. Holly, who's legally blind, told Morning Report the move to the online MyMSD portal put her at a serious disadvantage. "You can't really talk to a human anymore." She said the standard wait time to speak to someone on the phone was two to three hours, with a message repeating every 20 seconds urging her to use the portal. "That puts me at a real disadvantage to get even the simplest thing done, as everything I have to wait three hours to do with a data entry assistant, you could do in the portal, but I can't." Going into an office was very difficult unless MSD "summoned" you, she said. When she has gone to an MSD office to drop off documents she had been "stopped at the door by rather large security men who despite [me] wearing my blind badge demand I take my sunglasses off and produce a driver's licence for ID - which if you take two seconds to think about it, I'm unlikely to have." Holly said she has had payments cancelled because she did not respond to digital messages she could not see. "When I got to the bottom of it it was over a rounding error of literally one cent - they had decided to round my payments down to the nearest cent when they had been rounding them up to the nearest cent, and that set off a cascade of cancelling every different part of my accommodation supplement, my disability support, my base assisted living payment one by one, because in their words, 'something had changed'. "They did put it back, but not without the default fees at the bank, the rent not being paid, and so forth. "The process of negotiating all that is a disadvantage - I feel like they should be a little bit embarrassed having absorbed Whaikaha Ministry of Disabled People into their oversight that this is continuing to happen. "Their own policy documents sound very nice when they're ferrying them back and forth at a middle management level, but really nothing at all on the ground has made even the simplest nod to improving accessibility," she said. Ministry of Social Development spokesperson Graham Allpress said the ministry recognised there was more work to do to continue to make services as accessible and available as possible. He said it had 130 sites across the country so people could talk to staff in person, and could receive support through an agent or advocate acting on their behalf. There was also a Deaf Services team to assist people who had an impairment.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Federated Farmers' comments on police 'not helpful', district commander says
District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill. Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers Police are accusing Federated Farmers of scaremongering over a proposed restructure in rural Canterbury. But the farming lobby group is furious about a proposal it says will see local police services cut in favour of hubs in Rangiora and Rolleston. North Canterbury Federated Farmers' president Bex Green told Morning Report on Tuesday she understood the proposal would mean some areas would have reduced policing and others would see the local rural police officers changing to rural liaison officers working office hours, while Arthur's Pass and Culverden would have no local officers at all. But District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill told Morning Report the restructure, which had been 18 months in the making, only proposed closing the sole-charge station at Arthur's Pass. Other stations would remain open but with a different model of policing that would reflect current demand, he said. Hill said the proposal was a "refocusing" rather than a reduction in sworn officers. Some roles would be disestablished, but those officers would be encouraged to apply for other roles. "What we're proposing is that if their current role is a rural role... we are proposing standing up road policing roles in the area for that very purpose. "We know for places like Culverden almost two-thirds of their calls for service are actually about policing on the roads. "Hurunui's a classic example. Seven people died on the roads there last year - that's a horrific number and we want to see some change in it." A new rural liaison officer role would be created. Hill said he believed it was a model that would help the police "manage demand effectively into the future". "Actually, I think it probably reflects what the community's needs are." Federated Farmers should have come to the police to confirm the details of the proposal, Hill said. "What's not helpful is they haven't come to us for opinion before they've jumped into the media and shared their views on it. "We encourage anyone who would like to know more about this to come directly to us instead of drumming up particularly scaremongering in the community." Federated Farmers is furious about a proposal it says will see local police services cut. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson But Green said Federated Farmers was disappointed to have learnt of the changes through the media, and would have liked to see community consultation. "We want some answers, we want to know and understand how [the proposal] is going to work." She said most of the communities in the area would have reduced policing under the proposal. "The police live in our community, they know the people and understand the community. A lot of what they do here is crime prevention and proactiveness - that is really huge for our community, if we lose that, it is going to be really difficult." Green said the nearest police stations to Culverden were in Hanmer Springs and Waikari, 30 minutes' drive from Culverden. "Should one of them be on leave or attending another call, we are left with one police officer." To bring someone back up from Rangiora would take more than an hour. "In an emergency, every second counts - if you need help, you need it now, not an hour later." She said the cuts hurt given the government's promise of more frontline police . "I think that is probably happening in the cities, but taking away the rural presence… is not the way to go about it." Public meetings would be held at the Amuri Area School Gym, Culverden and the Leeston Rugby Club Hall at 6pm on Wednesday night. In a statement, Hill said the district restructure proposal went out to all Canterbury staff for feedback last week, with consultation closing next week. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Could Northland's Marsden Point be NZ's first 'Special Economic Zone'?
'I'm on top of the world!' Regional Development Minister Shane Jones descends from the top of a 27-metre-high fuel tank. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf A 'Special Economic Zone' at Northland's Marsden Point could supercharge the region's - if not the country's - economy, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Jones and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters visited Marsden Point on Tuesday to inspect a jet fuel storage project , while also promoting their vision for encouraging investment around Northland's main port. Peters said the area could "easily" become New Zealand's first Special Economic Zone . It had New Zealand's best deep-water port, was closest to international shipping lanes, and had plenty of land to build on. "These zones go a step beyond fast-track legislation. The zones will also have tax regimes that appeal to investors, local and international alike." Jones said Special Economic Zones already operated in Ireland, Singapore and Croatia. He said increased depreciation, tax "holidays" in which companies initially paid no tax, and attractive regulatory regimes could be used to attract large-scale investment in specific areas. Jones admitted the plan was "unorthodox" and would not say if it was supported by the party's coalition partners - but he believed bold moves were needed because current efforts to grow the economy were not working. "The Ruth Richardson bare austerity approach … it's not delivering the economic growth we need. Unless we have these kinds of bespoke initiatives, with tax incentives and self-consenting powers, I fear we're just going to be stuck in a rut talking about the same things year after year … and that's not good enough." Only a small degree of contortion is required for the Regional Development Minister Shane Jones to enter the nation's equal-biggest jet fuel tank. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf He said the party wanted to table Special Economic Zone legislation in the coming year, or take the policy to the next election. Jones was typically provocative when describing how consenting in a Special Economic Zone might work. "When the zone is created any conditions of an environmental resource management character should be written into the zone. And then, my view is, you just have a couple of engineers in a tin shed somewhere, they can quickly consent things. This business of constipating and protracting all these resource consent processes is making the country broke." The Marsden Point zone, if created, could incorporate the former oil refinery site, the proposed Northport extension, and a planned dry dock facility for servicing large vessels such as Navy ships and Cook Strait ferries. Z Energy chief executive Lindis Jones and corporate affairs general manager Haley Mortimer with Regional Development Minister Shane Jones (centre) in the 18-metre-deep jet fuel tank. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf A rail link between the port and Northland's existing railway line was also vital for the development of Marsden Point, Jones said. Meanwhile, the aviation fuel tank the ministers came to inspect was being constructed by Channel Infrastructure on the former Marsden Point oil refinery site. Jones said it would boost New Zealand's resilience at a time of increasing geopolitical instability. Channel chief executive Rob Buchanan said the 30-million-litre tank had previously been used for crude oil and was being adapted for jet fuel at cost of up to $30m, in partnership with Z Energy. It would hold enough fuel for 10,000 flights between Auckland and Wellington. Once complete it would increase total storage of jet fuel, petrol and diesel at Marsden Point to about 300 million litres. Channel Infrastructure chief executive Rob Buchanan and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones atop a 30-million-litre jet fuel tank. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Buchanan said it was not the only project bringing life back to the site where oil refining ended in 2022. "One of the projects we're working on very actively at the moment is repurposing the old refinery into a biorefinery, which could produce diesel and jet fuel. That's with some international partners because it would be a very significant amount of capital investment. It'd be really exciting to bring back manufacturing capacity," he said. Buchanan would not say what would be used as the raw material, citing business confidentiality. A decision as to whether the biorefinery would go ahead was expected next year. Both Jones and Peters expressed disappointment at the oil refinery's closure , but with the cost of reopening it estimated at $5-7 billion, Jones accepted that was not going to happen. "We're over that chapter and we have to support new industry and new investment," he said. Regional Development Minister Shane Jones with Channel Infrastructure chairman James Miller, chief executive Rob Buchanan and operations general manager James Stewart inside the 30-million-litre jet fuel tank. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Peters said the Marsden Point rail project, which was part of the coalition agreement, was continuing to make progress. Almost all the land required had been bought and KiwiRail had completed the design work. The 19 kilometre rail spur between Oakleigh, south of Whangārei, and Northport had initially been estimated to cost $1 billion. Peters said he would not accept such a high cost. In the coming weeks KiwiRail would share its designs, on a confidential basis, with other potential builders, he said. "We're going to get value for money. And if we don't get it from New Zealanders we'll get it from international competition. That's why I can guarantee you we're not talking about a billion dollars or anything like it." Construction had originally been due to begin in late 2026 or early 2027 but Jones said that had been delayed. The other major project planned for Marsden Point was a dry dock expected to cost $400-500m. Jones said it would be a public-private partnership part-funded by the Regional Infrastructure Fund. Shortlisted companies had until May to submit Requests for Proposal. Jones said the government was "getting closer" to choosing a successful bidder. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
