Latest news with #1News
1News
11 hours ago
- 1News
Officer injured after stolen vehicle rams police in Auckland's Manurewa
Police are hunting for the driver of a stolen vehicle that struck and injured a police officer before fleeing in Auckland last night. The stolen vehicle was spotted parked near Southmall in Manurewa at around 11.30pm on Tuesday. Detective Inspector Karen Bright said two police units arrived on scene and signalled for the vehicle to remain stopped. "As police approached the vehicle on foot , the vehicle fled, hitting a police constable and collided with a patrol vehicle." St John said one ambulance responded to the incident. ADVERTISEMENT "One person was assessed at the scene and transported to Middlemore Hospital in a moderate condition." Bright said the officer had been discharged from hospital. "The vehicle was later located abandoned in Manurewa. This vehicle will undergo an examination and enquiries are underway to locate the driver," she said. "Investigators will now be working to locate this individual, and we suggest doing the right thing and handing yourself in at the nearest police station." Anyone with relevant information should contact police on 105. Police being rammed every second day A police car which was "repeatedly rammed" in Auckland's Mount Wellington earlier this month. (Source: NZ Police) ADVERTISEMENT An internal police document released to 1News earlier this year revealed the number of intentional rammings of police staff and vehicles amounted to one every second day across the country. Deputy Police Commissioner Tania Kura said offenders were more brazen than ever when fleeing police. "People who've got stolen vehicles or evidence in their vehicle that they don't want to be caught. Sometimes people actually just want to hurt us because we are police." Police Association president Chris Cahill said: "An officer a month is hospitalised because of an injury in a ramming — that's not minor injuries — this is hospitalised." Nelson officer Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming was hit and killed by a vehicle on New Year's Day. A trial date for the accused has been set for May 2026.
1News
15 hours ago
- Health
- 1News
Nurses across the country strike over 'dire' staffing situation
Close to 36,000 nurses, midwives, and healthcare workers have begun a nationwide 24-hour strike today. From 9am, members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation walked off the job. Those in the public health sector were overworked, under-resourced, and understaffed, the union said. Health New Zealand said that despite today's strike, hospitals and emergency departments would remain open. The latest mediation talks between the union and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora broke down, leading to the strike. NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter told Breakfast mediation fell through because 'the gaps were just big'. ADVERTISEMENT 'It seems that the staffing claims we have in front of them, they couldn't meet that. He said the issue of staffing was a 'serious' and 'long-term' problem within the sector and believed the Government was not prepared to fund to levels the union believed were safe. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including UK set to recognise Palestine, fire closes another Auckland supermarket, and Australia's plan to clamp down on YouTube access. (Source: 1News) Goulter wanted Health NZ to enforce the existing staffing model. 'They've just, in our view, walked away from it. They're saying, 'you've got a model in place, it says how many staff you're going to need on any particular shift or any particular ward, staff up to it'," he said. 'And they can't do or won't do that.' He said staffing levels on the ground had led to nurses retiring 'fatigued, worn out, angry, frustrated, and distressed'. Thatmeant patients were not receiving the care they needed and were often handled by other staff members, such as healthcare assistants. 'It looks like nurses are not being able to spend the time that they were trained to do with patients, and all that leads up to a pretty dire situation.' ADVERTISEMENT Nurses go on strike in Greymouth. (Source: 1News) Nurses across the country gathered outside hospitals, chanting and waving flags. In Greymouth, duty nurse manager Michelle Gunn said the strike was needed to alert the public to "a desperate need for safe staffing". "We are chronically short in there and it's just getting worse and worse. People are leaving, they're going overseas, they are leaving for all sorts of reasons and they are just not being replaced. "Ultimately, we are here for our patients," she said. In Dunedin, nurse Robyn Hewlett said there was a good turnout from members, which showed 'everyone is supporting the strike'. 'This just shows how deeply we feel about safe staffing.' ADVERTISEMENT Near the rally in Christchurch, one man was taken into custody by police after he and another man acted in a "threatening manner" towards the protesters. According to Stuff, the man had a knife and threatened nurses, claiming his grandmother was "dying" in the hospital and they weren't working. Health NZ said hospitals would remain open during the strike, and emergency care would continue to be provided. All emergency departments would be open, and all serious services would be there for those who needed them. All deferred appointments would be rescheduled to the next available opportunity. Health NZ said those with an appointment, who had not heard otherwise, should turn up as usual. Health NZ estimated 4300 planned procedures and specialist appointments would need to be postponed due to the strike. Striking nurses protest in Wellington. (Source: 1News) Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, acting chief clinical officer at Health New Zealand, said all hospitals were facing an 'awful lot of pressure' during the winter months, and today's strike would make things 'particularly tricky'. 'What we're asking people is, remember, if you're not sure if this is truly an emergency or not, there are other options before you turn up to ED.' ADVERTISEMENT She recommended that people call Healthline or their GP if they were unsure whether it was an emergency. If it was still an emergency, she urged people to go to the emergency department, but to expect some delays. 'Waits may be longer, and we'd ask you to bear with us, and please don't take it out on our staff who are there.' Striking nurses hold a rally in Dunedin. (Source: 1News) On strike itself, Dame Helen said the organisation respected the union's right to take industrial action, but said it was 'clearly' disappointing. She urged the union to come back to the negotiating table. Responding to the union's concerns of staffing, she said Health NZ took safe staffing 'very, very seriously'. "Everyone is working incredibly hard with the resources we've got to provide the best possible care."
1News
15 hours ago
- Business
- 1News
Last-minute change puts oil and gas cleanup decisions in ministers' hands
The government is set to repeal the oil and gas ban this week, after a significant 11th-hour change handing discretionary powers to two ministers. A 25-page amendment was published at 5pm on Monday, leaving opposition MPs less than 23 hours to prepare for the debate. The change largely deals with the rules for decommissioning oil and gas fields, and who is responsible for paying for the cleanup. Taranaki's Tui oil field was abandoned in 2019 after its Malaysian owner Tamarind Taranaki went bust, costing taxpayers a total $293 million to clean up, with work concluding just last month. The government initially set aside up to $343.4m for the project. The Labour government in 2021 introduced a law to prevent the government being lumped with such costs again in future. ADVERTISEMENT Resources Minister Shane Jones has vowed to restart the oil and gas industry. He said the aim of the amendment was to close a loophole in that 2021 law. "It did not seem correct or moral that the Crown should be left with that liability and the people [at fault] - with some very shrewd manoeuverings of script - would escape liability. We have solved that problem," he told the House. The changes replace the process of going through the list of previous permit-holders to figure out who pays for decommissioning, instead putting that decision in the hands of the Resources Minister and the Finance Minister. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including UK set to recognise Palestine, fire closes another Auckland supermarket, and Australia's plan to clamp down on YouTube access. (Source: 1News) The amendment also removes several clauses from a previous amendment the minister made to the bill, which itself amends the Crown Minerals Act. Labour's Energy and Resources spokesperson Megan Woods led the 2021 law change in response to the Tui Oil Field debacle, and told the Parliament the changes showed the government capitulating to the industry's wishes. ADVERTISEMENT "They have bowed to the suggestions of the oil and gas companies and done what they wanted. They have further bowed to the interests of the oil and gas companies in taking eight months to sit with them, find out what they wanted and then bring a bill back to the House. This is not a government that is putting New Zealand first." Labour's Deborah Russell pointed out the Regulatory Impact Statement referred to consultation with affected stakeholders. pointed out the Regulatory Impact Statement referred to consultation with (Source: 1News) "Those consulted preferred ministerial discretion to the current act and approach in the bill. In other words, these shadowy participants in the oil and gas industry - a dying industry - who we don't know who they are, much prefer to be able to lobby a minister." Jones was unapologetic about those he consulted with. "Why would you not engage with the stakeholders, the risk-takers, the providers of what precious little gas we have, ruined by the cancel culture." He was unapologetic about a lack of consultation with others, including iwi. ADVERTISEMENT "So in the future the engagement will happen. This highly technical matter was not the subject of consultation in a detailed way, it was dealt with with a great deal of confidentiality. And in terms of providing a Māori dimension, I interviewed myself." The amendment passed with the coalition parties in support, with the opposition parties opposed. The third reading, which would see the oil and gas ban repealed, is expected on Thursday. A gas company warned investors would be cautious about coming back to New Zealand without broad political consensus - and with the opposition parties currently staunchly opposed that consensus seems vanishingly unlikely. The government also has a $200m fund set aside in this year's Budget to allow the government to co-invest in new gas fields. It last month pulled out of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, an international coalition for phasing out fossil fuels, in a move the local World Wildlife Fund called an "international embarrassment". That was despite the Climate Minister, Simon Watts, previously saying New Zealand would not need to exit the group.
1News
15 hours ago
- Automotive
- 1News
Person dies in three-car crash near Auckland Airport
One person has died and another was seriously injured following a three-vehicle crash near Auckland Airport this morning. Police said the crash on George Bolt Memorial Drive, near the intersection with Tom Pearce Drive, was reported about 4am. Shortly after 8am, police confirmed one person died in the crash. "A second occupant of the same vehicle has sustained serious injuries and has been transported to hospital," a police spokesperson said. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including UK set to recognise Palestine, fire closes another Auckland supermarket, and Australia's plan to clamp down on YouTube access. (Source: 1News) ADVERTISEMENT Auckland Airport said Northbound and southbound lanes which had been impacted on George Bolt Memorial Drive had since reopened. It said traffic was flowing normally again on the main road in and out of the precinct. Meanwhile, breakdowns and nose-to-tail crashes caused delays for traffic heading north, west of the Victoria Rd on-ramp, on the Waikato Expressway. "Emergency services began receiving reports at around 6:50am."
1News
18 hours ago
- Business
- 1News
Air New Zealand names new chief executive officer
Nikhil Ravishankar has been announced as Air New Zealand's next chief executive officer. In March, the company announced Greg Foran would step down after five years in the top job. He is due to leave the airline in October. Today Air New Zealand announced the appointment of Nikhil Ravishankar, the airline's current chief digital officer, as Foran's successor. "In the nearly five years that Nikhil has been at Air New Zealand he has gained a deep understanding of the aviation sector, and the airline. He has also led major advances in the airline's technology backbone, loyalty programme and customer proposition," the airline said in a statement. Air New Zealand Board chairperson Dame Therese Walsh said the appointment marked the beginning of the next chapter for the airline, "reflecting the strong momentum underway and a new generation of leadership for the future". ADVERTISEMENT The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including UK set to recognise Palestine, fire closes another Auckland supermarket, and Australia's plan to clamp down on YouTube access. (Source: 1News) "Across Air New Zealand we are very clear on what matters most - connecting our communities and country to each other and the world, delivering value and excellence, and running a world-class airline that all Kiwi are proud of." "Nikhil brings the mindset and contemporary leadership we need to build on our strong foundations and focus on the future." Prior to Air New Zealand, Nikhil was chief digital officer at Vector and managing director of Accenture. "I'm both thrilled and humbled to be given this opportunity to lead Air New Zealand," he said. "This airline is an institution with a deep legacy but also a fantastic future. It's a privilege to step into the chief executive role and take on that responsibility for our people, our customers, and our country. Ravishankar will officially take over as chief executive on October 20, 2025.
