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RNZ News
14 hours ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
'Dumb decision' to increase Nelson highway speed limit reversed
Nelson's Clifton Terrace School students protested over the speed limit changes in February. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee A section of highway north of Nelson will remain at 60km/h after a strong community campaign against the government rollback of speed limit reductions. The 1.8-kilometre stretch of State Highway 6, north of Nelson, was set to increase to 80km/h from July, until Waka Kotahi / New Zealand Transport Agency agreed to publicly consult on the proposed change. The stretch of road through Marybank at Atawhai passes Clifton Terrace School and many residential properties. The community launched a strong campaign in opposition to the government's speed limit reversal plan , writing to the transport minister with their concerns. Waka Kotahi said it received strong feedback that people did not want the stretch of road to revert to higher speed limits. Of 1787 submissions, 76 percent wanted the speed limit to remain at 60km/h. Respondents showed a desire to keep children safe on the road, especially those travelling by foot or bike to Clifton Terrace School. Parents for Active Transport's Emily Osborne said it was a relief to learn the speed limit would remain at 60km/h. The group was formed in the hope of achieving safety improvements on the cycleway alongside the state highway so parents felt more comfortable with their kids riding to Clifton Terrace School, but Osborne said they had spent the last six months campaigning to ensure the speed on the highway remained the same. "It just reaffirms that this is a battle that we shouldn't really have had to fight because it was just a dumb decision [the government] made." She said claims the previous government was slowing the country down were not true, when the speed limit was previously reduced from 80km/h on that section of SH6 because it was unsafe. Waka Kotahi said its safety and technical data aligned with submissions said children were safer when travelling by foot or bike to and from school, and residents also reporting it was safer to cross the state highway with the traffic at 60km/h. "There are not many people around who think that going faster through that stretch is a good idea," Osborne said. She said the decision was "a little bit bittersweet" as it came on the back of speed limit increases on SH6 between Nelson and Blenheim, which reverted to their former limits on Monday. She anticipated that there would be more serious crashes and deaths on that section of highway, as was the case before the speeds were reduced in 2020. "We drive over it all the time as do all our family and friends and stuff and it's just not safe." Another "urban connector" section of road on SH6, north of Wakefield, was due to have its speed increased but was consulted on, with the decision also made for it to stay at 60km/h. Of 633 submissions, 49 percent wanted the speed limit to remain at 60km/h. Labour MP Rachel Boyack. Photo: Max Frethey / LDR Nelson's Labour MP Rachel Boyack said there had been a huge pushback from the community when the government announced the speed increases and she was delighted that their views had been taken into account. She said the blanket decision to reverse all of the speed limit changes had been made without looking at the evidence. "People have been advocating for lower speed limits in some of these areas for years and years off the back of fatal crashes, lots of incidents where children have been unsafe getting to school." She said the decision to retain the lower speed limit was a result of the hard work done by many to ensure Waka Kotahi heard the views of the community. "This didn't have to happen. If the government's rule had been written in a more flexible way at the very beginning, we wouldn't have had to go through this long-winded and expensive consultation process." Boyack said there was another section of SH6, further north at Hira, where the road ran past a school and the speed had been increased, despite strong community feedback against it. "The indication is that future speed management reviews could be made there, but it's just such a waste of time and money to be going back and forth between different speed limits. We need a robust system that looks at both the evidence and the views of the local community." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Nelson paramedics desperate for bigger ambulance station
By Samantha Gee of RNZ Paramedics in Nelson are in desperate need of a new station, with Hato Hone St John staff split between four sites as they work to provide life-saving services in the community. The organisation has purchased a 4000sq m section in Richmond, but needs to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to build a new station. St John Nelson Tasman area operations manager Anne-Maree Harris said the team's base is a small station in Richmond that operates 24/7, that was first built as a temporary solution for the rapidly growing district. "It's what I would call a three-bedroom home that we utilised 15 years ago into an ambulance station." Harris said on her first shift in the region, 25 years ago, there was a conversation about the need for a new headquarters. Now, more than two decades on, ambulance staff and their managers work from different locations. The Richmond Station lacked adequate space for staff and volunteers to rest, practice clinical skills and safely debrief after complex callouts and there was not enough room to securely store its ambulance fleet, she said. "We're beyond capacity, we have a responsibility to provide rest areas for our staff on night shift to make sure that they're safe and they can drive safely... as well as providing them an opportunity to have office space to do their admin or further studies and clinical work." Staff are split across four sites in Richmond, Nelson City, Stoke and Tāhunanui. "We don't have our managers under the same roof as our duty crews at the moment. They are currently based in Stoke, so that we lose the opportunity to be able to monitor the well-being of our staff... we become more reactive than proactive." She said the crew made it work, but being located in one building would make a big difference to its operations. "We see harm, we see some horrific things and part of that is how we come back to station and we allow our team to talk in a safe environment about their feelings, their emotions, and we discuss what went well, what can we do differently, how can we improve and we've got no privacy to do that on this site." Critical care paramedic Jon Leach was involved with the Richmond Station when it was first built, and recalled that the plan was for it to be moved to a smaller centre in the region, to make way for a larger facility within five or so years. He said since then, there had been significant growth in the surrounding district, which included the increase of an ageing population. In the 25 years he had been a paramedic, there had been huge changes in the issues people presented with, the workload and the care that was administered. "When I first started, we were pretty much load and go and like give you some Entonox (pain medication) and now we're making massive differences here pre-hospital, the paramedic skill set is amazing." Leach said there were several dedicated pathways to support patients when it came to falls prevention, strokes, palliative care and severe heart attacks, several of which Nelson had been at the forefront of, and a dedicated facility would enable more of that work to continue. Data showed frontline ambulance crews responded to more than 450,000 incidents around the country in 2024 and in the past decade, demand for services had increased nearly 90%. Hato Hone St John are aiming to raise $4.5 million to rebuild 10 ambulance stations around the country, including the Nelson station, with proceeds of its annual appeal this month going toward the new builds. The other new stations are located in Whangārei, Waihī, Cambridge, Morrinsville, Palmerston North, Akaroa, Oamaru, Riversdale and Invercargill. It also has plans to renovate or repair the stations in Kawakawa, central Auckland and Rangiora.
RNZ News
29-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Councils compete to see who has best tasting tap water
The North Island and South Island are going head-to-head in a competition to see which region has the best tasting tap water. Four New Zealand district councils are vying for the coveted title, including the reigning champions, Rotorua Lakes District Council. Samantha Gee was at the grand final in Nelson. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
Scoop
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu Farewells Staff
Article – RNZ An independent evaluation of the agency's direct social investment model hailed it as an 'outstanding exemplar of an organisation delivering public services that actually work'. Samantha Gee, Nelson Marlborough / Te Tauihu reporter South Island iwi have been celebrating the successes of Whānau Ora commissioning agency Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu, as they farewell staff at a series of events around the South Island. As of the end of June, the organisation will no longer provide Whānau Ora services after a change in Government direction, with Te Puni Kōkiri opening the contracts to other providers. It means around 40 staff will be without jobs, and it's expected another 100 jobs from the partner navigator network will go. Six poroporoaki (farewell events) have been held across the South Island, where staff and whanau have spoken of their devastation at the agency's closure, and celebrated the many success stories that resulted from its mahi. Whānau Ora was created in 2010 by the late Dame Tariana Turia in an effort to improve social and health services for Māori. Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu general partnership board chair Tā Mark Solomon said the agency worked on behalf of eight South Island iwi to determine the best ways to support whānau development. Solomon recalled when he first heard about Whānau Ora, at a meeting with Dame Turia in Christchurch more than a decade ago. 'I stood up at the end and asked her, if I could get all the tribes of Te Waipounamu to come together, could we put in a bid for the Whānau Ora commissioning agency? 'She gave a bit of a giggle and said yes, if you think you can get the tribes together by all means.' Solomon said two meetings later, they were united. He said it was the first time in history that all the tribes of Te Waiponamu had come together to work collectively. They put in a bid for the contract and were successful. An independent evaluation of the agency's direct social investment model hailed it as an 'outstanding exemplar of an organisation delivering public services that actually work'. The evaluation demonstrated that the most conservative impact implied an economic benefit of $2.40 for every $1 of investment. It also found that across 83 funded initiatives, almost 5000 Māori were positively impacted, with the value of increased life satisfaction combined put at $7.2m. 'Proud is an understatement. I'm absolutely in awe of what has been done and the good that it has brought to Te Waipounamu,' Solomon said. In the last five years, Te Pūtahitanga navigators had worked with 14,973 whanau and more than 8,000 people had been supported into employment within communities across the South Island. The new provider, Solomon said, was working under a 'totally different' framework. 'Whānau ora to me is families themselves determining what they need and what goals they need to set to change their life, it's not to be dictated by a government policy.' Te Taumata, the iwi shareholder council of Te Pūtahitanga, co chair and Ngāti Kuia representative Hina-i-te māra Moses-Te Kani said the poroporoaki in Ōtautahi on Thursday was an emotional celebration. She said for the last 11 years, it had been given the opportunity to celebrate mana motuhake, self determination, with funding from the Crown. It had supported countless business ideas through Tūātea, the social investment fund that gave whānau the agency to realise their own aspirations. 'Whānau would come to us with their dreams and aspirations and we had coaches and support people and champions who supported them to set up their organisations in the right way, to live the dream that they wanted to live… one of the outcomes was getting more people into jobs and we created thousands of jobs in this kaupapa.' Many of those businesses were focused on hauora, health and fitness, rongoā Māori, hospitality, art and design. 'We had a 12-year-old who wanted to be the leading poi manufacturer in the world and she achieved that at 14.' She said research showed that the agency had developed one of the most successful international indigenous commissioning models in the word, supporting whanau intergenerationally. 'It's one of the key celebrations for us – this is intrinsically kaupapa Māori all day, every day.' She was still in disbelief at the Government's change in focus, which was now directed at deprivation instead of self-determination. 'How could such a successful life-changing model – moving whanau from deprivation without even focusing on that – how could it be seen as not the right model?' Moses-Te Kani said the iwi alliance across the South Island remained strong and the whanau ora movement created in Te Waipounamu would continue to shine through. 'I think that the legacy from Te Pūtahitanga will morph into something new and something brilliant and we won't completely disappear. What we have created here is like a beautiful flowing awa across the whole of Te Waipounamu and the next brilliant thing will turn up, maybe it'll be international money, or maybe it'll be somebody else's money that will support the kaupapa that we're doing.' Whānau Ora Minister Tama Potaka announced earlier this month that four new community-based Whānau Ora commissioning agencies will replace the three agencies that have led the scheme since its inception. The South Island contract has been awarded to Te Tauraki Limited, a subsidiary of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. He said the agencies were selected to deliver on the government's focus to provide better public services, which were moving in a 'refreshed direction'.
Scoop
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu Farewells Staff
Samantha Gee, Nelson Marlborough / Te Tauihu reporter South Island iwi have been celebrating the successes of Whānau Ora commissioning agency Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu, as they farewell staff at a series of events around the South Island. As of the end of June, the organisation will no longer provide Whānau Ora services after a change in Government direction, with Te Puni Kōkiri opening the contracts to other providers. It means around 40 staff will be without jobs, and it's expected another 100 jobs from the partner navigator network will go. Six poroporoaki (farewell events) have been held across the South Island, where staff and whanau have spoken of their devastation at the agency's closure, and celebrated the many success stories that resulted from its mahi. Whānau Ora was created in 2010 by the late Dame Tariana Turia in an effort to improve social and health services for Māori. Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu general partnership board chair Tā Mark Solomon said the agency worked on behalf of eight South Island iwi to determine the best ways to support whānau development. Solomon recalled when he first heard about Whānau Ora, at a meeting with Dame Turia in Christchurch more than a decade ago. "I stood up at the end and asked her, if I could get all the tribes of Te Waipounamu to come together, could we put in a bid for the Whānau Ora commissioning agency? "She gave a bit of a giggle and said yes, if you think you can get the tribes together by all means." Solomon said two meetings later, they were united. He said it was the first time in history that all the tribes of Te Waiponamu had come together to work collectively. They put in a bid for the contract and were successful. An independent evaluation of the agency's direct social investment model hailed it as an "outstanding exemplar of an organisation delivering public services that actually work". The evaluation demonstrated that the most conservative impact implied an economic benefit of $2.40 for every $1 of investment. It also found that across 83 funded initiatives, almost 5000 Māori were positively impacted, with the value of increased life satisfaction combined put at $7.2m. "Proud is an understatement. I'm absolutely in awe of what has been done and the good that it has brought to Te Waipounamu," Solomon said. In the last five years, Te Pūtahitanga navigators had worked with 14,973 whanau and more than 8,000 people had been supported into employment within communities across the South Island. The new provider, Solomon said, was working under a "totally different" framework. "Whānau ora to me is families themselves determining what they need and what goals they need to set to change their life, it's not to be dictated by a government policy." Te Taumata, the iwi shareholder council of Te Pūtahitanga, co chair and Ngāti Kuia representative Hina-i-te māra Moses-Te Kani said the poroporoaki in Ōtautahi on Thursday was an emotional celebration. She said for the last 11 years, it had been given the opportunity to celebrate mana motuhake, self determination, with funding from the Crown. It had supported countless business ideas through Tūātea, the social investment fund that gave whānau the agency to realise their own aspirations. "Whānau would come to us with their dreams and aspirations and we had coaches and support people and champions who supported them to set up their organisations in the right way, to live the dream that they wanted to live... one of the outcomes was getting more people into jobs and we created thousands of jobs in this kaupapa." Many of those businesses were focused on hauora, health and fitness, rongoā Māori, hospitality, art and design. "We had a 12-year-old who wanted to be the leading poi manufacturer in the world and she achieved that at 14." She said research showed that the agency had developed one of the most successful international indigenous commissioning models in the word, supporting whanau intergenerationally. "It's one of the key celebrations for us - this is intrinsically kaupapa Māori all day, every day." She was still in disbelief at the Government's change in focus, which was now directed at deprivation instead of self-determination. "How could such a successful life-changing model - moving whanau from deprivation without even focusing on that - how could it be seen as not the right model?" Moses-Te Kani said the iwi alliance across the South Island remained strong and the whanau ora movement created in Te Waipounamu would continue to shine through. "I think that the legacy from Te Pūtahitanga will morph into something new and something brilliant and we won't completely disappear. What we have created here is like a beautiful flowing awa across the whole of Te Waipounamu and the next brilliant thing will turn up, maybe it'll be international money, or maybe it'll be somebody else's money that will support the kaupapa that we're doing." Whānau Ora Minister Tama Potaka announced earlier this month that four new community-based Whānau Ora commissioning agencies will replace the three agencies that have led the scheme since its inception. The South Island contract has been awarded to Te Tauraki Limited, a subsidiary of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. He said the agencies were selected to deliver on the government's focus to provide better public services, which were moving in a "refreshed direction".
