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Otago Daily Times
30-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Believe in yourselves, inductee tells students
Vietnam War veteran Lox Kellas (left) and former Blackcap Ken Rutherford stand in front of the King's High School Wall of Fame yesterday. PHOTO: LINDA ROBERTSON A Vietnam War veteran and a former Blackcap have been honoured by their secondary school in Dunedin. Lox Kellas and Ken Rutherford were inducted into King's High School's Wall of Fame at an assembly yesterday. Mr Rutherford, who attended the school from 1979 to 1982, said it was remarkable to be recognised among his peers. His message to the King's students was "you've just got to keep going". "There's a lot to be said about reacting well to life's experiences when they perhaps don't go the way they're intended to and to have a real confidence in yourself that you can still achieve lots." Two years after Mr Rutherford left school, he was facing one of the most feared fast bowling attacks in the world in West Indies' Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding and Joel Garner. He got three ducks in his first four innings and was subsequently dropped from the team. However, he worked his way back into the international side after scoring runs in domestic cricket and made 107 not out against England in Wellington in the 1987-88 tour. Mr Rutherford was now the Northern Districts Cricket Association chief executive. Mr Kellas, who attained the army rank of major, said the honour took him by surprise. "There are a lot more former pupils out there that have done a lot more than I've ever done," the Vietnam War veteran said. He recognised a few of the names on the King's Wall of Fame and did not expect to see himself on it. "Life's full of challenges and if you accept those challenges and do it well, that's the reward." Mr Kellas, who attended the school from 1961 to 1966, was awarded a Queen's Service Medal in 2007 for services to New Zealand Police. He was involved in the community through a variety of initiatives and organisations including as the Returned Services Association Otago and Southland district president, a founding member of the Dunedin Coastguard and a Otago Peninsula Community board member. Mr Kellas said he kept his remarks to the King's students very short and addressed them as "tomorrow's leaders". He offered them a Gaelic quote which translated to "lead but serve". King's principal Nick McIvor said it was great to celebrate the fascinating lives and remarkable achievements of former students. Alongside Mr Kellas and Mr Rutherford, Geoff Thomas, Philip Craigie, Al Fastier, Graham Fortune and Tony Merriman were also inducted into the Wall of Fame.
Otago Daily Times
22-05-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Deputy mayor keen to continue council work — but not as mayor
Waitaki District deputy mayor Hana Halalele. PHOTO: JULES CHIN Waitaki district deputy mayor Hana Halalele has ruled out a tilt at the mayoralty but says she will continue her "big passion" for building better communities. The former Waitakian of the Year and Queen's Service Medal recipient (for services to Pacific health and community) became the first Pasifika councillor for the Waitaki District Council in 2019. She is also general manager for Oamaru Pacific Island Community Group (OPICG) and is serving her first term as deputy mayor and a second term as a councillor. Cr Halalele has announced she will not be running for mayor in October's local body elections, but she will stand again as a councillor for the Oamaru ward of the district council. There was "synergy" in her two roles, she said. "It's something that I've been weighing up just in terms of my capacity, because I'm so busy here with my work with the trust, but it's a really great correlation in terms of both of my roles. "There's a strategic opportunity at council. I can feed into what the community needs are because I work in that space and it makes sense." The trust was in the early stages of building a "learning hub" in the old Literacy Aotearoa building in Coquet St that would provide educational workforce development opportunities, she said. Cr Halalele also continues health outreach in the community with a nurse-led clinic supporting the OPICG team from a clinical perspective. "We employ a nurse one day a week [doing] screenings, immunisations, diabetes and heart, cardiac checks." Another trust focus was helping families into affordable housing, whether it was social, community housing or home ownership, Cr Halalele said. "We brought [rugby star] Mils Muliaina down with his team to help put Pasifika people into their own homes. In the last year, we've put about 19 families in their first own homes." Supporting "inter-generational changes" to help sustain and provide opportunities for Pasifika and the wider community was the trust's goal, as part of a national Pacific collective. Cr Halalele's commitments also include being a social work lecturer part-time at the University of Otago. "It is a juggle, you know, but it's a good juggle. "It's around where I can make the biggest impact, just to advocate and lobby for the changes that the community needs to see." Her entire career in community development was about ensuring social services were well-supported, she said. Cr Halalele values the "privilege" of being at the council table as a Samoan woman with 17 years' experience as a corrections officer and a registered social worker. "I bring a different lens to it. There's a cultural capacity and capability that is there that I know no-one else on the table will have. For example, when we're looking at developing different forms of policies or procurement policy or what the social return on investment and the broader outcomes are — and how is that going to impact on Maori, Pacific and migrant communities." Cr Halalele said meeting the diverse needs for the "growing migrant community" was something she loved contributing to, and the broader needs of the community. "I love the strategy work that we can do at local level and then how we can amplify that at regional and national levels."
Otago Daily Times
16-05-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
'Stressful, burnt out' Christchurch health workers meet to share their struggles and horror stories
By Rachel Graham of RNZ Spinal patients having to wait for specialist care, psychiatrists struggling to keep up with the workload and student nurses eyeing up Australia before they are even fully trained - these were just some of the stories shared at a meeting about the health system in Christchurch. The meeting was organised by the Nurses Organisation, as a chance for people to come together and talk about the pressures they are facing. After 18 years working as a district nurse, union delegate Maree Vincent said she has never seen conditions so bad. "Stressful, burnt out nurses, huge patient loads, pay inequities, no pay parity, and funding not being dropped down to the primary health to keep going." She said one of the joys of her role was getting to know her patients, but that was harder when workers were increasingly short on time. Trainee nurse and the national student representative for ARA polytech, Dawn Blyth said student nurses were also feeling the stressed, with many struggling with the high cost of living while doing unpaid clinical placements and no certainty of a job at the end of their training. "Even last year in our first year, a lot of students in our cohort were talking then - I'm going to go to Australia, because the pay is better and there are more jobs over there," said Blyth. Carin Conaghan is a psychiatrist at Christchurch's Hillmorton Hospital and a delegate with the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. She said her sector, too, was under more pressure than ever. "Our staff are having increased workloads," Conaghan said, "in terms of the number of people they are managing. The people that we are seeing are coming in more unwell. And that is impacting on staff's well being." She said more psychiatrists were leaving the public sector each year than joining it. Conaghan said in the past, people accepted that the pay in New Zealand was less than in countries such as Australia or the UK, but the working conditions were the draw card. But that was no longer the case. She said psychiatrists were getting paid up to 60% less in New Zealand than in Australia. Andrew Hall, national programme manager of the New Zealand Spinal Trust, said the problems within the health sector for people with spinal injuries could feel overwhelming. "Waitlist to get into the spinal service, two spinal unit(s) in New Zealand both of which have long waitlists," Hall said. "New acutes are waiting in the acute hospitals to come across to the units because of a lack of space. And some innovative things having to be done to manage people in private hospitals, for people who would normally be in care in the spinal units." Health administrator and PSA delegate Nancy McShane said she and others fought for 13 years to get pay equity for administration and clerical workers, which was settled in 2022. In 2023 McShane received a Queen's Service Medal for Services to Women and Equal Pay for that work. She said the recent changes to the pay equity system will have a terrible impact on the health system. "I think about the care workers in particular. This really angers me. They had a claim before us. They opened the door to all the other pay equity claims, and now they have had the rug pulled out from under their feet," McShane said. She said rest home care was already in crisis, and the changes to the Equal Pay Amendment Act will only make the situation worse.
Otago Daily Times
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Community always came first for former Canterbury mayor
Being expelled from high school did not stop the late Bill Woods from giving years of his life to his Canterbury community. He died on Good Friday aged 82. Daniel Alvey reports A kind and gentle man who fought for the little guy is how former mayor Bill Woods is remembered. Bill died on Good Friday after spending six weeks in hospital care at Mayfair Home following a short and unexpected illness. One of his daughters, Carmen Nolan, and a close friend were by Bill's side when he passed. 'He was a very good father and a very good man,' Carmen said. She said her father was always known as Bill, but to the family he was Woodsie. Bill was mayor of Selwyn from 1992 to 1995 and also served several terms as a councillor between 1989 and 2004. He also spent some time on the Malvern Community Board and was an Environment Canterbury councillor. Only a one-term mayor, Bill stood for the role in multiple elections after being voted out. 'His view on it was he didn't necessarily want to become mayor, but he wanted to give people an alternative person to vote for,' Carmen said. Bill made several unsuccessful attempts to enter national politics between 1978 and 2014, first as a candidate for Labour in the Selwyn Electorate between 1978 and 1982 and then later as a list MP for NZ First in 2011 and 2014. Deputy mayor Malcolm Lyall was a first-term councillor when Bill was elected mayor and described himself as Bill's 'right-hand man'. 'Very interesting character was our 'Willie' Woods. He always fought for the underdog,' Lyall said. During the three-year term, Lyall said he helped Bill restructure the council, which was still adjusting from the 1989 amalgamation of Ellesmere, Malvern and part of Paparua (west Christchurch) to form the Selwyn District Council. 'In doing that, we upset a lot of people and it became a split council. There was a vote of no confidence in Bill and all sorts of things,' Lyall said. In 1995, Bill lost the mayoralty to Michael McEvedy. Lyall recalled often having Bill over for dinner to help support him after his wife Linda died in 1992. 'If he was over this way (in Prebbleton), we'd invite him in and make sure he would get a square meal.' He recalled Bill's slightly scruffy appearance. 'I was always on him to buy a bloody suit. He had these blue trousers and a black jacket that never really meshed properly. 'At Christmas time, he had a tie with Santa on it that flashed at you,' Lyall recalled. Many remembered Bill for his involvement in community groups and in 2022, he received a Queen's Service Medal for his many contributions. He served with numerous organisations including the Sheffield Waddington Township Committee, Malvern St John, the Glentunnel Museum, and the Hororata Historical Society. In 1998, Bill joined the Summit Road Society board as the council representative and was later elected as an individual. He was president of the society from 2009 until late 2023, but remained a board member and last year was granted honorary life membership. His biggest contribution to the society was donating $600,000 towards the purchase of Tussock Hill Farm in the Port Hills. The land was named the Linda Woods Reserve, in honour of Bill's late wife. Bill was born in Avondale, Auckland, the eighth of Vi and William Woods' nine children. Expelled from Avondale College, he started working on the railways with his brother Alan. Bill trained as an engine driver and by 17 was New Zealand's youngest qualified steam train driver. In 1962, the railways offered Bill a chance to move to Springfield, living in the single men's accommodation near the railway station. He was a frequent visitor to Hoglands Store, where a certain young woman worked. The woman was Linda, who would later become his wife. 'He proposed to Linda with a very romantic 'there's a posting available in Otira with a house, for a married couple',' Carmen said. In 1967 they moved to Otira as a married couple. The couple later had two daughters, Carmen and Angela. Carmen recalled a funny story from her father's railways work. 'In the 1960s, dad and (his friend) Stevie were on a train. It was a hot day, so they stopped the train and skinny-dipped in a pool near the line about Cass. 'The train started to move, so these two naked, barefoot young men had to sprint for the train through scrub and scramble on to stop it.' In 1969, the couple returned to Springfield, buying the Springfield Poultry farm in 1971. Bill left the railways in 1973 and worked as a general handyman for the Watson family at their horse stud for many years. In 1983, Bill and Linda bought the Springfield Store so it could remain open for the locals. 'This was the start of decades of community support and involvement,' Carmen said. 'Woodsie physically helped build the Sheffield Pavilion, the St John Ambulance garage in Darfield and was involved in many fundraising activities.' After the store, the Sheffield Garage was Bill and Linda's next project, owning the business until Linda's death in 1992. In 2012, Bill, along with Taege Engineering, rebuilt the Springfield Donut after the original was badly damaged by arson. Springfield Community Association chair Graeme Dawson said Bill was always a tireless advocate for Malvern. 'He was passionate about what he believed in.' In recent years, Bill helped Templeton residents fight the Fulton Hogan-run Roydon Quarry and continued to hold the construction company to account once the quarry began operations. 'He was an eco warrior and activist right to the end and always put the community first,' Carmen said.
RNZ News
28-04-2025
- RNZ News
Flaxmere's biggest champion: Henare O'Keefe
Henare O'Keefe is adamant that Flaxmere is on the up, and his part in that is no small matter. The Hawke's Bay town has had a reputation for crime and violence, but that hasn't stopped Henare from promoting it as a place of opportunity. Late last year a major new housing development of 500 homes was announced, while another development between the Government and Hastings District Council will see a new senior housing development built in the southwest corner of Flaxmere's town centre. Getting more housing into Flaxmere to meet a growing population has been one of Henare's focuses, and he has become the face of one of the new housing developments. He is renowned for his hands-on approach to addressing violence and empowering the disadvantaged, whether through his work in prisons or setting up the marae-based Māori youth court in Flaxmere. Serving as a Hastings District Councillor for 15 years, Henare was honoured with the Queen's Service Medal in 2011 for all of his community work. Henare talks to Kathryn about his life's work. Taneshia Gill with Henare O'Keefe, a former Hastings District Councillor. Photo: Lauren Crimp / RNZ
