Category Archives: New Zealand

Wednesday, 18 May 2022, 10:25 amPress Release: Shudder

Offseason AShudder Exclusive

Upon receiving a mysterious letter that hermothers grave site has been vandalised, inOffseason, Marie (Jocelin Donahue,Doctor Sleep) quickly returns to the isolatedoffshore island where her late mother is buried. When shearrives, she discovers that the island is closing for theoffseason with the bridges raised until Spring, leaving herstranded. One strange interaction with the local townspeopleafter another, Marie soon realises that something is notquite right in this small town. She must unveil the mysterybehind her mothers troubled past in order to make it outalive. Starring Jocelin Donahue, Joe Swanberg, RichardBrake, Melora Walters and Jeremy Gardner. Writtenand directed by Mickey Keating (CarnagePark).

Mad God A ShudderExclusive

Mad God marks thefeature directorial debut for visionary and Oscar and EmmyAward-winning stop-motion animator and special effectssupervisor Phil Tippett, the creativepowerhouse involved in such classics as RoboCop, StarshipTroopers, Jurassic Park, and Star Wars: A NewHope and The Empire Strikes Back. MadGod is an experimental animated film set in aworld of monsters, mad scientists and war pigs. A corrodeddiving bell descends amidst a ruined city, settling downupon an ominous fortress guarded by zombie-like sentries.The Assassin emerges to explore a labyrinth of bizarre,desolate landscapes inhabited by freakish denizens. Throughunexpected twists and turns, he experiences an evolutionbeyond his wildest comprehension. A labour of love that hastaken 30 years to complete, Mad Godcombines live-action and stop-motion, miniature sets andother innovative techniques to bring Tippett's wholly uniqueand grotesquely beautiful vision to life. Winner - MostGroundbreaking Film, Fantasia International Film Festival.Winner - Jos Luis Guarner Critic's Award - Best Film &Best Visual Effects, Sitges Film Festival. Winner Nocturno Nuove Visioni Award - Best Film, TriesteScience+Fiction Festival. Written and directedby PhilTippett.

Revealer A ShudderOriginal

Tensions rise when a stripper and religiousprotester are trapped together in a peep show booth and mustcome together to survive the apocalypse in 1980s Chicago.Starring Caito Aase (Black Mold) and Shaina Schrooten(Scare Package II: Rad Chads Revenge).Written by popular comic authors Tim Seeley(Hack/Slash, Revival) and MichaelMoreci (Barbaric, The Plot) anddirected by Luke Boyce.

What Keeps YouAlive

On the eve of their one-yearwedding anniversary, Jules and Jackie become embroiled in amerciless fight for their lives when they find themselvespitted against the most unexpected of adversaries: eachother.

V/H/S

In thisfound-footage anthology, a gang of thieves find a stash ofscary home videos, each different in genre and tone.Highlights include David Bruckner's (The Signal)"Amateur Night" about three bros who bring the wrong girlhome for sex; Ti West's (The Innkeepers) "SecondHoneymoon" about a stalker menacing a couple on a road trip;and Joe Swanberg's utterly chilling "The Sick Thing ThatHappened to Emily When She Was Younger" which may freak youout for days.

From the innovativeminds that brought you V/H/S comes V/H/S/2, anall-new anthology of dread, madness, and gore. Searching fora missing student, two private investigators break into hisabandoned house and find a collection of mysterious VHStapes. In viewing the horrific contents of each cassette,they realize there may be terrifying motives behind thestudents disappearance.

Available for the first time on SVOD,cult favorite creature featuresAlligator (1980)and Alligator II: TheMutation (1991) come to Shudder instunning new prints scanned from the original cameranegatives.

Alligator

Fromdirector Lewis Teague (Cujo) and screenwriter JohnSayles (The Howling) comes an unstoppable thrillerwith bite. A family returning from Florida decides their petbaby alligator is too much to handle and flushes him downthe toilet. Meanwhile, Slade Laboratories is conductingsecret experiments with animals and disposing of them in thesewer. The alligator, fending for itself, begins to feed onthe dead animals, and grows. Now, twelve years later, afterseveral mysterious murders, David Madison (Robert Forster,Jackie Brown) is on the case to find out who ... orwhat ... is killing people.

Alligator II:The Mutation

Deep in the sewers beneaththe city of Regent Park, a baby alligator feeds on theexperimental animals discarded by Future ChemicalsCorporation. Nourished by the toxic growth hormones andother mutating chemicals, the gator grows immense in size... and voracious in appetite. Now, it must kill to survive!It's a classic confrontation between man and beast. Thissequel stars Joseph Bologna (Transylvania 6-5000),Steve Railsback (Lifeforce), Dee Wallace (TheHowling), Richard Lynch (Bad Dreams) and KaneHodder (Jason X).

Under the Skin

Analien of unknown origin arrives on Earth in search of humanprey. Taking the form of the perfect female specimen (playedby Scarlett Johansson), she prowls the streets looking formen to lure into her otherworldly lair. Her victims areseduced, stripped of their skin, and never heard from again.But as time passes, she grows too comfortable in herborrowed skin, placing her very survival atrisk.

P2

It's ChristmasEve. The last employee to leave her office, ambitiouscorporate climber Angela (Rachel Nichols) arrives in thedeserted parking garage only to discover her car won'tstart. She's relieved when Thomas (Wes Bentley), a seeminglyfriendly security guard, comes along and offers to help.Unable to get the engine to start, he invites Angela toshare a small Christmas meal with him. She laughs off theinvitation, but it quickly becomes clear her situation is nolaughing matter. Angered by her refusal, the psychopathicThomas knocks her out and ties her up in his office. Comingto, Angela realizes that the only way she will live to seeChristmas morning is to find a way to escape fromP2.

Wake Wood

A grievingcouple are given the chance to resurrect their daughter inthis Irish horror film starring Aidan Gillen of Game ofThrones fame. After Alices accidental death, herparents move to a quaint village to make a fresh start. Butwhen a local offers to perform a ceremony that willtemporarily bring their daughter back, they cant resist.But when Alice returns, she isnt quite herself, ofcourse.

The Woman inBlack

Based on the classic ghost story,The Woman in Black tells the tale of ArthurKipps(Daniel Radcliffe), a lawyer who is forced to leave hisyoung son and travel to a remote village to attend to theaffairs of the recently deceased owner of Eel Marsh House.Working alone in the old mansion, Kipps begins to uncoverthe towns tragic and tortured secrets and his fearsescalate when he discovers that local children have beendisappearing under mysterious circumstances. When thoseclosest to him become threatened by the vengeful woman inblack, Kipps must find a way to break the cycle ofterror.

The Void

Ablood-soaked man limping down a deserted road is rushed byofficer Carter to a nearby hospital with a skeleton crew.Trapped inside by hooded figures, Carter discovers that thepatients and staff are transforming into somethinginhuman.

TheFreakmakerProfessor Nolter, a collegescience professor who believes it is man's destiny tosurvive an uncertain future by evolving into a hybridplant/human mutation. To test his theories, Noltersupervises the abduction of young co-eds and fuses them withmutant plants he has developed in his laboratory, placinghis rejects in a neighboring freak show (which stars suchreal-life oddities as the Alligator Lady, the Frog Boy, theHuman Pretzel, the Monkey Woman, the Human Pincushion andthe unforgettable"Popeye".

Oculus

Itsbeen ten years since the lives of siblings Tim and KaylieRussell were shattered and Tim was convicted of murderingtheir parents. Now released from a mental institution, Timwants to move on, but his sister has other plans. Kaylieblames their childhood nightmare on the Lasser Glassanantique mirror with a grisly history which she intends todestroy by any means possible, even as the mysterious entitycontinues to cast sinister spells on anyone who gazes intoit.

Wolf Creek 2

Inthis follow up to outback horror, Wolf Creek 2,deranged serial killer, Mick Taylor (John Jarratt),continues his search for fresh victims in the Australianwilderness. When unsuspecting British tourist, Paul,inadvertently rescues Taylors next victim, the two becomeembroiled in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Will Mick beable to survive another day? Wolf Creek 2 focusesmore heavily on the exploits of Mick Taylor than in itspredecessor, creating a darkly funny tale that explores theinnate prejudices found in the Australian outback. Containsstrong language, violence and gore.

TheBye Bye Man

When three college studentsmove into an old house off campus, they unwittingly unleashea supernatural entity known as the Bye By Man, who comes toprey upon htem once they discover his name. The friends msuttry to saveeach other allthe while keeping the Bye ByeMans existence a secret to save others from the deadlyfate.

House ofWax (2005)

A group of friends falls preyto a pair of murderous brothers in an abandoned small town.The friends discover that the psychotic siblings haveexpanded the area's main attraction--the House of Wax--andcreated an entire town filled with the wax-coated corpses ofunlucky visitors. Now the group must find a way out beforeits members also become permanent exhibits in the House ofWax.

Ghost Ship

In aremote region of the Bering Sea, a boat salvage crewdiscovers the eerie remains of a grand passenger linerthought lost for more than 40 years. But once onboard theeerie, cavernous ship, the crew of the Arctic Warriordiscovers that the decaying vessel is anything but deserted.It's home to something more deadly and horrific thananything they've encountered in all their years atsea.

Queen of theDamned

After a decades-long slumber, thevampire Lestat becomes a rock star whose music awakens thequeen of all vampires, Akasha, who embarks on a mission tomake Lestat her king. But a young London woman with a giftfor the occult falls in love with Lestat and wields a fargreater power than the vampiresexpect.

Cooties

Clint(Elijah Wood) has just started a new substitute teacher joband hopes to inspire his kids with the beauty of the writtenword. But he doesnt get far before tainted chickennuggets turn his students into savages who gleefully pullthe principals guts out. Now Clint must lead his oldcrush and her colleagues to safety and find a way to reversethe effects of those nasty nuggets before its too late.Jack McBrayer (30 Rock), Jorge Garcia (Lost),Rainn Wilson (The Office) and Alison Pill (TheNewsroom) round out the cast of this gruesome horrorcomedy.

Scoop Media

Become a member Get our free pnui

Read the rest here:

What's Streaming This June On Shudder In New Zealand | Scoop News - Scoop

Founder of Cure Our Ovarian Cancer Jane Ludemann said they recently surveyed 54 biomedical researchers in New Zealand and 42 percent didn't know of a single person researching ovarian cancer in the country.

"The positive take from this is that 44 percent of the respondents said they'd consider

researching ovarian cancer if there was dedicated funding," Ludemann said.

When asked why they didn't choose any of the ovarian cancer research to fund, the HRC said that with the budget available they are often only able to fund the highest-ranking proposals.

"It does not mean the other applications are not of high quality, but that the available budget can only extend to the top-ranked proposals," the council said.

Most women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in stage three or four, which means the cancer has already spread - and it is sometimes too late.

Researching the disease is urgent to find a solution for two main problems. Unlike being able to get screened for breast cancer using mammography, there is no screening

exam to diagnose ovarian cancer at an early stage.

Treatment is also scarce. A combination of two chemotherapy is the only treatment available for all types of ovarian cancer, but it doesn't usually have the same results on the various mutations of the disease.

Hayley Smith has suffered for years. The 55-year-old caregiver used to lay on the floor on her back to find some sort of relief for her pain.

The scene was repeated for years. One week before her period, the acute abdominal pain would start, usually followed by diarrhoea, vomiting and sometimes fainting.

The mother of two teenagers went to several doctors and the diagnosis was always PMS, premenstrual syndrome or menopause.

Even though the symptoms of PMS matched with what Smith felt, she was intrigued because the doctors had already found two cysts on her ovaries over the years.

The first was removed, but the referral for an oncologist to analyse the second was declined and the cyst was left there.

"For several years I've been calling out and trying to get attention,'' Smith said.

In November 2021, Smith called her GP. Her abdomen was strangely bloated and hard to touch.

She went straight to the hospital and after a few exams she received the diagnosis of ovarian cancer - and it had already spread to her stomach, appendix and lungs.

Ovarian cancer is diagnosed via a pelvic exam, ultrasound and a CA-125 blood test, which was never required from Hayley.

"If they say no, you go and find another doctor,'' Smith said.

The caregiver had surgery to remove the tumours and finished the first phase of chemotherapy.

"They will give me a rest for four months. Put me back in the machine and see if it has come back," Smith said.

"I'll just continue with the chemotherapy until my body gets into a point that is too much."

More here:

Ovarian cancer: The least researched and one of the deadliest in New Zealand - Newshub

Nine months after the tragic suspected suicide of New Zealand cycling talent Olivia Podmore, a damning report has uncovered a litany of problems with the sporting organisation where the 24-year-old Olympian spent her entire adult life.

The long-awaited independent inquiry into Cycling NZ (CNZ) found its high-performance system prioritises medals over wellbeing, the inquirys co-chair Mike Heron QC said on Monday.

Heron said the report found CNZ was an organisation of people who were passionate about cycling and had made changes before and after the review, but there was significant room for improvement, according to the New Zealand Herald.

The independent inquiry was commissioned by CNZ on August 19, 2021 and was co-chaired by Mr Heron and Massey University Professor Sarah Leberman with other panel members including former Silver Fern Dr Lesley Nicol and Olympic rower Genevieve Macky.

The full report was released at a press conference in Auckland fronted by the report panel, High Performance Sport NZ (HPSNZ) chief executive Raelene Castle and CNZ chairman Phil Holden.

Among the most alarming findings in the report, was athletes fear of reprisals for raising issues with coaches and management, a centralised high performance base in Cambridge that carries a risk for athlete wellbeing, a lack of transparency with selection at CNZ, and a funding model at odds with wellbeing.

The inquiry also found a lack of appropriate womens health support and a reliance on traditional male networks particularly within the coaching environment where there is a lack of women and diversity and a lack of support for athletes entering and leaving the CNZ high performance system.

The recruitment of CNZ coaches on the basis of their technical knowledge of competition and too little emphasis on personality, EQ, soft skills and integrity received scrutiny and censure in the report.

It also found a concerning use of non-disclosure agreements to deal with athlete and staff disputes, in a seemingly closed culture within CNZ and HPSNZ.

With the reports release, CNZ put out a statement to acknowledge they accepted the inquirys findings and, for the first time, chairman Mr Holden offered a direct apology to the Podmore family on behalf of the organisation.

The most important finding is that a number of people have unresolved trauma from events that Cyclings High-Performance Programme in 2016 and subsequently, he said.

Olivia Podmore was clearly part of that group. We apologise to the Podmore family for their loss and the hurt and grief they continue to experience.

Mr Holden also apologised to others in the 2016 programme for the trauma it caused, and said the organisation needed and would like to be part of a process to address the trauma, if the athletes allow.

We are starting to turn a corner...but we have a long way to go, he said.

We are going to review everything. Its all on the table. We are not going to rest. We want this to be the last cycling inquiry.

It is the second inquiry after a similar one in 2018, also conducted by Mr Heron, which revealed a lack of accountability and leadership throughout CNZ and a reluctance to raise issues, including bullying.

That 2018 review stemmed from an incident which Podmore actually first reported to Cycling NZ management during a training camp in Bordeaux in the lead up to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

After an intimate relationship between then-coach Anthony Peden and an athlete was exposed at Bordeaux, Cycling NZ management pressured Podmore to lie about it. Podmore was not the athlete in the relationship.

This pressure on Podmore extended up until the 2018 Heron Report which outlined its own raft of recommendations to improve the culture at Cycling NZ.

Despite naming Podmore seven times, the report explicitly distanced itself from reporting on her experiences of CNZ or HPSNZ due to the ongoing coronial inquest into her death.

Eric Murray on inquiry findings: Sh** like that has to change

Olympic rower Eric Murray said it was important that the report wasnt a witch hunt over his friend Podmores suspected suicide.

I dont think a lot of this situation caused Olivias death. Theres never just one thing [with suicide]. There was a lot going on in her life and this was a big part of it because cycling was a big part of her life, Murray said.

But it wasnt the straw that broke the camels back. There were a lot of straws.

Murray endorsed the ongoing work and proposals around having a body that represented athletes, which the report said needed to be independent in funding and organisation from the sporting bodies.

When I was a young athlete you didnt want to rock the boat. You didnt want to be looked upon as the troublemaker even though youre not being the troublemaker.

He said athletes were worried about raising issues because of concern it was going against your name or affecting your career.

Sh** like that has to change. Thats not acceptable in this day and age.

Murray said there wasnt a single headline issue to emerge from the report but so many different bits and pieces that pointed to a massive disconnect between those running the organisations and the athletes.

It just points to the chief executive and High Performance (Sport NZ) having a big disconnect.

He said it was a very complex organisation keyed to getting medals.

- Additional reporting by Georgina Noack

Original post:

Report sparked by Olympians tragic death highlights culture of medals over wellbeing - Fox Sports

It was a marathon, not a sprint, he said.

"On the other hand, people who have had COVID, we know that reinfection is an issue, we know that new variants evade immunity from ... infection of previous variants.

"It almost becomes a game of many people are going to get COVID, you'd like to get it as few times as possible. It's not just a case of once and done, it's once and then potentially a few months later, again."

People who didn't take precautions after infection were likely to get COVID again, O'Neale said.

He said it may not be a case of needing tougher restrictions but needing better messages about the restrictions we do have.

"Maybe that might mean a little bit of support and help for people to follow some of those restrictions.

"Take mask wearing as an example of something that's relatively low cost, it's low impact, it's something that as individuals we're all able to do. There are a lot of people out there who are wearing masks, a lot of them aren't wearing them that well - they're wearing them over their mouth, they're not wearing them over their nose for example."

Messaging to explain that COVID is an airborne disease and that a masks needed to be worn in a way that filters the air, was needed to help people to stay safe, he said.

"We've been dealing with a pandemic for a long time, it is going to be fatiguing. On the other hand, something that is fatiguing is recovering from COVID and people havinglong COVID and post viral syndromesare a classic disease that leaves people fatigued."

"If you think the fatigue's bad from wearing a mask, imagine what it is from that post viral syndrome."

RNZ

See the original post here:

Coronavirus: Modeller believes around half of New Zealand's population has been infected with COVID-19 - Newshub

NO SECTOR CAN yet say it is doing enough to fight the climate crisis, according to a climate ambassador from New Zealand.

Kay Harrison, Climate Change Ambassador at New Zealands Department of Foreign Affairs, has said that Ireland and New Zealand must collaborate on solutions to fight the climate crisis.

She said that island countries like Ireland and New Zealand that have traditionally relied on agriculture are now examining the sectors role in climate change before other, more industrialised countries.

In an interview with The Journal at the Dublin Climate Summit, Harrison said that overall, if you look at the world, and you look at climate change, and you look at any sector, could you honestly say any sector was doing enough?

Im not sure that we can ever sit back and say, yeah were doing enough on anything, because we havent done enough for the last 30 years on anything.

Agriculture has got its own particular challenges but I think the rest of the world is going to turn to New Zealand and Ireland in a few years time when theyre finished with their clean energy revolution and say, have you got agriculture sorted, what do we do? Harrison said.

Weve been given this opportunity and challenge perhaps ahead of others and we need to get on with it.

On Thursday, Ireland and New Zealand launched ajoint initiativeto support research into climate and agriculture.

The initiative is open to research proposals that would study how to improve the accuracy of greenhouse gas emission inventories from the agriculture sector and technologies for the selection of low-emitting cattle and sheep.

Agriculture is the sector with the highest greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland, much of which comes from cattle.

The Climate Change Advisory Council has advised that reducing the number of cows in Ireland would substantially help to reduce emissions in a sector that has emphasised carbon budgets as challenging.

Polling last year by Ireland Thinks for The Journal found that 23% of people thought the number of cows in Ireland should be limited to the current level and 22% felt it should be reduced.

However, 39% believed there should be no limit and that farmers should be allowed to determine their herd.

In New Zealand, the number of sheep has fallen from over 70 millionin the early 1980s to 26 million as of 2019.

During the same period, beef cattle fell from 50 million to 38 million (with a low of 35 million in 2016), while dairy cattle increased from just under 30 million to 62 million.

Asked whether a reduction in herd numbers is something she believes Ireland and New Zealand should be implementing, Harrison said: I think its not a simple reduce the numbers.

Our Climate Change Commission suggested that probably weve maximised the number of animals that we can sustainably hold on our land, but there are different pressures in different parts of the country as well in terms of whether or not thats the best use of land there.

We see numbers probably levelling off, but these are private decisions by private landowners that are constrained by what local communities through resource management will accept.

Kay Harrison addressing the Dublin Climate Summit Source: Lauren Boland/The Journal

Since Russias invasion of Ukraine, the EU has been clamouring to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels, which are a major source of energy for many European countries, particularly former Soviet states.

At the same time, it must avoid backtracking on efforts to reduce emissions and consequently put the planet in further peril.

I think the first challenge to focusing on climate was Covid and the second challenge is this most recent situation [in Ukraine], Harrison said.

#Open journalism No news is bad news Support The Journal

Your contributions will help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you

What Ive consistently heard out of Europe is this is a reason to double down on renewables, this is a reason to double down on investment in the kind of technology and innovation that we need for the future.

Meanwhile, New Zealands neighbour Australia has been listed amongseveral countries with the biggest expansion plans for oil and gas production.

New Zealand has specifically said it will not issue any further permits for offshore oil and gas, Harrison said.

We think its really important to send those kinds of signals to investors and also to level the playing field so that the kind of clean energy that we need to take over is as adopted.

As the climate crisis threatens countries around the world, Harrison said that the strongest hope that we have is in collaboration and cooperation and in this recognition that we are confronting so many of the same things.

Were going to be much, much stronger than the sum of our combined parts by working together.

Read more from the original source:

Agri-reliant countries must pave way for cutting agriculture emissions, says New Zealand expert - TheJournal.ie

Skipjack tuna is the most abundant of the major commercial tuna species and takes just four years to reach maturity. Photo / Greg Bowker

OPINION

Seamounts are undersea mountains that rise at least 1000m off the seafloor. Collectively, they form the largest wildlife habitat on Earth, covering more of the Earth's surface than rainforests, deserts or tundra.

Fish congregate on the slopes of seamounts, as do corals and crustaceans. These are regions of high productivity due to ocean currents flowing up the seamount and bringing nutrients upwards from the depths of the ocean towards the warm surface.

People have trawled for fish in these areas for a very long time, using nets that run over the seafloor.

This method, while necessary to catch fish, makes it tough for coral and others to live where the nets run.

Two weeks ago, Sealord proposed that 89 per cent of known seamounts in New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) should be placed into conservation.

The plan would protect 127 of New Zealand's 142 known seamounts from all bottom trawling.

The proposal is an unprecedented commitment to protecting life on the seabed, in tandem with the ongoing protection of providing fish within the fixed Government quota limits.

Some may wonder why we should want such a thing.

Primarily it's because Sealord values sustainability. We want to do it for the same reason New Zealand has fishing quotas: to preserve abundant marine life on the seafloor so the population remains healthy.

12 May, 2022 05:00 PMQuick Read

11 May, 2022 05:00 PMQuick Read

10 May, 2022 05:00 PMQuick Read

9 May, 2022 05:00 PMQuick Read

This plan is what we all understand as living sustainably; to conserve the marine environment and continue fishing at a level that allows marine life to keep regenerating.

Sealord has worked out that it only needs to fish 11 per cent of seamounts to catch enough to contribute to the 700 million fish meals that deep-sea trawling produces annually. These meals feed New Zealanders, employ locals and earn export dollars the country uses to buy things from overseas, such as electric vehicles.

Currently, about 50 per cent of seamounts (71 of 142) are protected from bottom trawling through Benthic Protection Areas (BPAs) and Seamount Closure Areas (SCAs). Of the remaining 71 seamounts, 56 have never been trawled.

That leaves 15, or 11 per cent, that are trawled, and where the seabed is already disturbed.

This proposal is sustainable and achievable because it locks in the present practice and locks away the rest in a conservation envelope.

Some activists are campaigning for a ban on the fishing of all seamounts. This has been timed to coincide with a Government-led process that is working out what level of seamount fishing is sustainable.

The campaigners responded to our proposal, saying New Zealand needs to shut down all seamount fishing because there is an "extinction crisis". No studies show an "extinction crisis" on the seafloor. It seems very unlikely that fishing only 11 per cent of seamounts would cause the extinction of any species.

The campaign has shrewdly enlarged the things it wants banned. It now claims there are 800 seamounts, not the 142 mapped by Niwa of mountains over 1000 metres high. The features being talked about are undersea hills and knolls. These can be protected, and many are.

Sealord is open to discussing more protection once we conclude the seamount discussion.

The campaigners do not explain what will be achieved by banning fishing. That's because there would only be a small percentage increase in the volume of coral, crabs and other seafloor dwellers.

That's a good thing, but there would be no significant improvement in the quality of the ecosystem.

The unique species down there, and some of them might be native to this region, survive and thrive under our plan almost as much as they would under total conservation.

The opposition to our proposal reveals the contrast between New Zealanders' ideas of sustainability and activists' ideas of conservation.

Harvesting food, from the wild or farms, always damages something. The aim of sustainability is that the damage we cause in order to live does not overwhelm other species and ecosystems.

New Zealand trawls just 2-3 per cent of its EEZ seabed each year, returning to the same fishing grounds. Only 8 per cent of the entire EEZ has ever been trawled.

It is remarkable that most of our domestic fish supply is caught by trawling in such a small area, compared to the proportion of land New Zealand uses for food production.

The campaign against seamount fishing is designed to make you feel bad. It is not bothered by the consequences of stopping access to a valuable food source. This approach, extended across all land and seafood production, is a recipe for human starvation.

You should not be made to feel bad for eating fish or anything else taken from the land or water, if it is done sustainably.

We all know sustainability is the answer. It is the approach we take to the marine environment with the quota system, now 30 years old and internationally acclaimed for keeping fish stocks healthy.

It is also the approach we should take for life on the seabed.

Doug Paulin is CEO of the country's largest deepsea seafood company Sealord.

Go here to see the original:

Sealord plan to close seamounts in New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone - New Zealand Herald

A recent report suggests New Zealanders are under-insured by hundreds of billions of dollars. Sharron Botica from AIA New Zealand explains why its so important to make up the shortfall.

If you were suddenly unable to work, how long could you keep up your lifestyle? Do you have a mortgage to pay? Kids to take care of? What about if you passed away would your family be financially taken care of?

These questions are understandably hard to think about. Theyre confronting, and for many people, especially those with families and children to care for, seriously considering the outcomes of these scenarios can impose a huge mental load.

But the alternative not considering them at all is costing New Zealanders millions of dollars every year. In insurance, we talk about the protection gap the shortfall that households would experience if the main earner was unable to continue work. A protection gap can occur when a person doesnt have insurance, or when someone doesnt have enough insurance cover.

In 2020, New Zealands protection gap was reported at around $670b. The report found two thirds of New Zealand households had a protection gap. And its expected to grow over the following decade.

Both aspects of that gap how its happened and how we can close it are complex.

While car insurance, home insurance and contents insurance are considered essential for so many, theres a disconnect that happens when it comes to insurance covering our less-tangible assets. But why dont we value our own lives, and our essential incomes, as we do our cars?

Thats a question insurers around the world have been asking as the global protection gap also grows.

AIA wants to help New Zealanders begin their insurance journey by offering simple and affordable insurance cover. By launching three new basic, digital-only plans, they believe they can help more New Zealanders get better protected.

Customer insight work carried out by AIA has told us that people often feel protected against death, illness and other physical circumstances because they feel they can lean on whnau and community to help out. But this isnt always realistic, and it can be a dangerous mistake that could leave that support network severely and unexpectedly cost-laden.

According to a Financial Services Council NZ report from 2020, 71% of New Zealanders are under-insured when it comes to life insurance. A similar study from 2011 found that 54% were under-insured in this same category that drastic rise is cause for concern.

The 2020 report described a mismatch between the reality of the risk of death, accidents and illness in New Zealand compared with the money smart solution to assess, manage, pool and offset the risks, and protect against them. Basically, this means we drastically underestimate how much financial pressure is created when a household loses half of its income.

Many New Zealanders also wrongly perceive what adequate levels of cover are, according to the report. So even for those who are insured, when the worst happens and they have to claim on their policy, theyll receive far less than they realistically need.

In 2018, the retirement commissioner Diane Maxwell said the New Zealand shell be right attitude could be playing a part. That attitude has major consequences and leaves your loved ones to carry a heavy burden. When something bad happens you want to be looking after your people and your wellbeing, not stressing about how much money youre going to need to repair the damage, she said.

While relying on savings is a common plan in case of a significant event causing a loss of income the proverbial rainy day fund you need to have savings to use. Data from Stats NZ showed New Zealanders typically dont have great savings, with just 0.4% of income being saved over the quarter ending March last year.

Theres also the assumption that ACC will protect people against medical costs or time off work. But while they do help in many situations in the case of accidental injury, theyll cover up to 80% of lost income there is a longer list of things they do not cover. Most crucial is the loss of income from being out of work due to illness, something not covered at all by ACC.

We know that insurance can be a costly undertaking. Once you add up the car, home, contents, life, and health cover it can feel like a large cost. And for many people, long-term spending isnt considered as important as their immediate needs. Until its too late.

So how do we start to close that protection gap? We make insurance more affordable, easier to access, and provide information so people feel empowered to make insurance decisions for themselves. Closing the gap is about getting people to understand the importance of insurance, and about addressing the disconnect between how much cover people think they need and how much they actually do.

Shifting the focus of insurance from a luxury for those with extra disposable income, to a necessary expense to protect our own incomes is key.

Not closing the gap could mean thousands more New Zealanders face financial hardship at a time when they need support the most. We need to make sure that when those situations arise, those affected can take the time they need to recover with the financial security to do so comfortably.

To find out more and to protect your most valuable asset you visit the AIA website now.

See original here:

The problem with New Zealand's protection gap - The Spinoff

Stormy weather to hit parts of the country. Video / Weather Watch

New Zealand's first wintry blast will be pushed in by a storm that is expected to hit near Tasmania tonight.

By the end of the week, the storm is expected to unravel near New Zealand and temperatures are set to plummet, especially in the South Island.

On Friday, WeatherWatch reported that Dunedin's high is expected to be no more than 7C and around midday, the city's wind chill temperature would feel like 2C.

The chilly weather will be a result of a large Antarctic southerly sitting over the country.

"We haven't seen this so far this year," said head weather analyst of WeatherWatch, Phillip Duncan.

Duncan said the weather event won't cause major problems but there may be some alpine issues on highways and up to a few hundred metres of snow flurries in the South Island.

Blustery winds are also expected to accompany the cold temperatures on Friday night and Saturday morning, particularly around the Otago peninsula which could record gusts between 80-110km/h.

On Saturday, the cold weather will track further up the North Island and there would also be more rain across the country.

"Southland your drought problems are very quickly fading and we're hopeful that Waikato will get 40-60mm (of rain) over the next two weeks so that is also some good news," said Duncan.

Later today, rain is expected to sweep across near Mount Taranaki and the Waikato, where farmers are bearing the brunt of a drought.

Tomorrow, it is set to get windy in the South Island as the low-pressure system of the storm moves towards New Zealand.

The southerly is followed by a high-pressure system which means the country's first winter cold snap will be brief and temperatures would warm up again at the end of the weekend.

Read more:

Weather: Storm over Tasmania pushing in cold and blustery winds to New Zealand - New Zealand Herald

For the past few years, we have been responding to aCourt case brought against Vodafone NZ by the CommerceCommission about the historicmarketing from 2016 to March 2018 of our HFC service (whichuses fibre-optic and copper cabling). At that time, we weremarketing the service to customers under the brand name ofFibreX.

A fine of $2.25 million has been handed downfor this historical marketing. The Judges findings andsentence relate to the historical marketing of FibreX from2016 to March 2018. We are very disappointed with theoutcome and respectfully disagree with the Courtsdecisions.

While we would rather be focusing onproviding great service to current and future HFC customersand inviting customers to decide for themselves about theperformance of this product, the Commission has advised usthat it will appeal the fine handed down. Accordingly, wemust respond and will be appealing both the conviction andthe fine. Our appeal will set out our strong belief thatthere are several errors with the original convictiondecision and that there are aspects of the FibreX judgmentthat simply misunderstand the services we sell and are notin the best interests of consumers or futurecompetition.

Vodafone NZ has spent over $25 million onimprovements to HFC, and the service is a well-performing,price-competitive product. The March 2022 CommerceCommissions independent SamKnows broadband measurementreport noted that 100% of HFC Max plans were all able tostream 4 simultaneous UHD Netflix streams, offering anequivalent experience to Fibre to the Home plans in thisrespect.

In addition to its outstanding performance,HFC is not subject to potential input cost rises from localfibre companies, so is good value for money. As these 3rdparty fibre input costs are projected to increase, HFC isoffering customers in eligible areas real choice and theability to access a fantastic service at an excellent pricepoint.

HFC is a remarkable broadband solution,offering high-speed internet at a lower price than Fibre tothe Home with an easy installation process. As the CommerceCommission noted in its annualtelco monitoring report in March 2021, HFC was thecheapest ultra-high user plan and we think this is agreat broadband option for consumers where its available in Kapiti, Wellington and Christchurch.

We believehealthy digital infrastructure competition and maximisingcustomer choice should be welcomed, to offer New Zealandersa wider range of broadband internet access types dependingon what they value most. As this matter is now before thecourt, Vodafone NZ will not be commenting further at thistime.

Scoop Media

Become a member Get our free pnui

See the article here:

Vodafone New Zealand Disappointed In FibreX Judgment And Intends To Appeal Both Conviction And Fine | Scoop News - Scoop

Leaving aside the odd season of injury comebacks, it's been 15 extraordinary years since James Anderson last went into a home summer as anything other than England's attack leader. You have to go way back to the India series in 2007, when his second Test five-for at Lord's hinted at the bowler he was about to come, for the last time Anderson was genuinely out to prove his worth, rather than cement the credentials he had already established.

And so it was an oddly cagey Anderson who faced the media in Leicester on Monday, at the behest of the Test sponsors LV= Insurance, but before he'd had any cast-iron assurances that his name will be back in the frame for another Lord's appearance, when the squad for the first Test against New Zealand is announced on Wednesday.

"Until that squad's picked I'm not counting on anything," he said. "My job's to try and prove that I'm in good form, take wickets for Lancashire and help them win games. That's all I'm bothered about, and then we'll see what happens whenever the team is announced."

Chicken-counting aside, however, Anderson's return for his 170th Test appearance, and 96th on home soil, is a given. Not only has he proven his form and fitness on the county circuit - including with the eye-catching dismissal of his former England captain, Joe Root, in last week's Roses clash - he and his long-term sidekick Stuart Broad are just about the only capped England seamers available to Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum as they prepare to begin their captain-coach alliance in a fortnight's time.

Saqib Mahmood and Matt Fisher, both of whom debuted in Anderson's and Broad's absence in the Caribbean, have succumbed to stress fractures, the same complaint that Sam Curran is currently returning from, while Craig Overton and Chris Woakes - who shared the new ball in Antigua in March - are labouring with knee injuries. Jofra Archer and Mark Wood are coming back from elbow operations, and Ollie Robinson - the man who ought to be in possession - has been a fitness concern since struggling through the Hobart Test in January.

Anderson and Broad, on the other hand, just keep rumbling on. "I don't know, it's just luck I guess," he said of their longevity. "We still love playing, we're really hungry to take wickets, and still love that feeling you get from it. I've spoken to Stuart a lot over the last few months, we still feel like we've got a lot to give the game, whether it's for Notts or Lancashire, or for England."

Nevertheless, Anderson admitted that, with his 40th birthday approaching in July, his omission for the West Indies tour had caused him to reassess his priorities as he enters his 20th season as an international cricketer.

"I definitely questioned it, yeah," he said. "I talked it through with my family as well, and they saw it as I did, that I feel like I've got more to give to the game. The longer time went on, the more I was with the Lancs lads doing pre-season training. I was still doing the gym work, and I wasn't bored of it. I wanted to be there doing it, irrelevant of what was going to happen in the summer.

"If I play the whole season for Lancashire, then great. If I get a Test call-up then brilliant, but at the minute I'm really enjoying playing cricket. It did come into question, I guess - do I want to do I want to carry on? But in my head, I quickly decided I did want to see what happened this year."

James Anderson attended a #Funds4Runs community initiative in LeicesterLV= Insurance/#Funds4Runs

And if there were any residual doubts, then they were emphatically quashed by the 11th and most recent of his first-class wickets this season - the uprooting of Root's off and middle stumps at Headingley on Sunday, as Anderson's typically frugal figures of 15-7-17-2 briefly set Lancashire up for a final-day victory push against Yorkshire.

"I did enjoy that one, it was nice to get a player of Joe's quality out," Anderson said. And it was doubtless all the sweeter given that Root had still been England captain for the Caribbean tour, and therefore was at least complicit in Anderson's controversial omission.

Did he say anything to Root when he got him out? "Absolutely not, no. Didn't need to. Just pick the two stumps off the ground," Anderson said. "We do talk. We've not fallen out or anything. Yeah, we chatted. I spoke to him before he announced that he was stepping down. There's still a huge amount of respect between the two of us so there's no animosity.

"The biggest thing for me [on Sunday] was that we were pushing for a win," Anderson added. "Obviously he got 140 in the first innings; we know how good a player he is. A few of our guys were seeing him up close for the first time and realising how good a player he is; they all commented on it. It was fruitless in the end, but we were pushing hard for that win, and he was the best player so it was nice to get the best player."

Three months after the event, Anderson says he hasn't had a full explanation for his omission from the Test squad, and still doesn't know whether there was a perceived issue with his attitude in Australia, where his eight wickets at 23.37 couldn't prevent a 4-0 series loss. However, with his focus now back on adding to his England-record tally of 640 wickets, his thoughts are firmly fixed on the coming summer, as he hopes to help the new team hierarchy pick the performances up after a torrid 12 months.

"It's gone now. It's history. I'm not bothered about what's gone in the past," he said. "All I can control is what I do in the future. I've got to try to prove that I'm still good enough to play international cricket and keep my fingers crossed that the selectors and the captain think so as well.

"I don't think from a performance point of view my confidence would have taken a knock. I felt like I bowled well in Australia and since I've been bowling back in England I've felt like I'm in good shape and bowling well. So from that point of view I feel like I know what I'm doing and I don't think that will change, really.

"I guess you do start questioning other things when that sort of thing happens - is it something I've done around the group or whatever else? I guess that's the one thing that you start thinking about. But when it comes to cricket I'm pretty confident that I'm doing okay."

Anderson will be reassured too by the vote of confidence he received from Stokes after his accession to the Test captaincy, and is ready to return the compliment after seeing glimpses of his leadership style during the Ashes campaign.

"He's a natural leader and the lads all look up to him in the dressing-room," Anderson said. "When he's had the opportunity to be captain I think there was maybe an hour in Australia, and you could see he's got a real good tactical brain on him. He's the hardest trainer in the group and sets the example of how to be an international cricketer.

"We're at quite a low point at the minute as a Test side. Where we are in the Test championship, we're going to have to do something serious to be able to turn it around and get back up towards where we want to be, towards the top. I don't think that necessarily happens overnight. But with Brendon and Ben, we're never going to take a backward step. It could be a really exciting time for English cricket."

Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket

More:

James Anderson has 'more to give to the game' as he targets England Test recall - ESPNcricinfo