u/OddityModdity

Six people were killed. They were Maclennan, Maccanico, Furse-Kee and three others who were also in the amenities block, Susan Knowles, Jacqualine Wheeler and Måns Loke Bernhardsson.

On Wednesday, an external review by retired high court judge Hon Paul Davison KSO KC, commissioned by the Tauranga City Council, was released.

The report said information identifying a risk to life was received, filed, discussed, forwarded - and then left.

"The failure was not the fault of any one person; it was the failure of a system that enabled an identified risk to life to remain unowned, un-escalated and unmanaged."

The prime minister and social development minister have offered an apology to thousands of pensioners who did not receive their Winter Energy Payment this year, after an error in a law change meant people who were supposed to get the payment missed out.

The law change, passed under urgency last year, has meant beneficiaries receiving certain payments like the Supported Living Payment, Accommodation Supplement, and Disability Allowance have had to re-confirm their circumstances at least once every 52 weeks, to confirm whether they are still eligible.

However, the Winter Energy Payment, which is supposed to be automatic for superannuitants, veterans, and people receiving a main benefit, were not excluded from the legislation, meaning some people who would have expected to receive the payment did not.

A Manurewa Local Board member is calling for an independent investigation into allegations surrounding the 2025 local election, while Election Services says it remains confident in the declared result.

Raewyn Bhana says residents deserve confidence that their votes were collected, handled and counted lawfully.

Auckland Council has received a formal complaint and lodged information with police.

The allegations, first reported by the New Zealand Herald, centre on photographs provided by a whistleblower that purport to show bundles of voting papers stolen from letterboxes during last year's election.

It is alleged the papers were taken to a Manurewa office, opened and completed before being resealed and returned to Election Services. The allegations remain unverified.

National MP Erica Stanford says her decision to stay silent on if she backed Christopher Luxon this week "didn't work out that well," as she called an impromptu media conference to shut down what she described as "frenzied" media speculation.

Stanford said she had backed Luxon "a million times", declared her support "100%", and insisted she wanted only to stay in her portfolios - a barrage of reassurance that came after a week of speculation she was a prime contender to replace him.

She insisted she had taken no part in the failed challenge against Luxon instigated by minister Chris Penk, who she still suggested was a "great loss" to the party.

"No, I've already ruled myself out. I want to be the Minister of Education and Immigration, mostly education, for the next nine years. I love my job, and I've got so much more to do," she said when asked if she would stand if Luxon lost the election.

Tauranga City Council is prosecuting owners of dogs allegedly involved in recent high-profile attacks in Pāpāmoa.

The most recent incident was an attack on a horse on the beach, while the other involved people and cattle being bitten.

Both owners appeared before the council's Regulatory Hearings Panel on 20 July seeking to have their dogs released from the pound. The panel's decisions were confirmed this month.

A new voter opinion poll suggests Opportunity is in the front row seat to determine the next government, with the latest numbers suggesting neither the left nor right political blocs would be able to command a majority without them.

The poll obtained by The Post from Anacta/Talbot Mills, which also does polling for Labour, had Opportunity on 5.2%, up from 4.7% in July and crossing the threshold to get into the house.

Labour were on 34% up 1 percentage point, National were on 29%,down 2 points, NZ First rose 1 point to 13%, the Green Party was down a point at 8% , ACT was unchanged on 7% and Te Pāti Māori was steady on 3%.

Translated to seats in the house National (35), ACT (8), and NZ First (16) would hold 59 seats while Labour (41), the Greens (10) and Te Pāti Māori (4) would have 55, with neither bloc getting the 61 needed to be in the Beehive.

Senior National MPs are considering going to the Prime Minister to tell him to resign, 1News understands.

The frustration comes over what the MPs believe is a set of "own goals" by Christopher Luxon in recent weeks and what they describe as his poor political radar.

This evening, some Cabinet ministers, including Education Minister Erica Stanford and Auckland-based MP Simon Watts, have refrained from showing support for the Prime Minister when asked by media, choosing to stay silent.

Others, such as National's Southland MP Joseph Mooney and Coromandel MP Scott Simpson, have backed Luxon.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has categorically ruled out working with New Zealand First if elected in November.

The move comes after New Zealand First leader Winston Peters launched an anti-China tirade against Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan in Parliament nearly two weeks ago.

“I ruled out working with New Zealand First at the last election, and I've consistently said that that was highly unlikely to change,” he said.

“I can absolutely confirm today that it's not going to change. New Zealand First and Labour will not be working together.

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Peters, who already ruled out working with Labour, responded by saying “Chris Hipkins has severe learning difficulties.”

Minister Chris Bishop has repeatedly promised that the coalition's replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA) will be passed into law before the election.

• The country's more than 100 council plans will be cut to just 17 regional combined plans.

• A new controversial system of regulatory relief would also ensure restrictions could not be placed on properties without some form of compensation to the landowner.

• Cabinet also decided that existing council agreements giving iwi a formal role in planning decisions - known as Mana Whakahono ā Rohe agreements - will not carry over into the new system.

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Changes to the leave and holiday pay system passed third reading last week, intending to simplify the notoriously complicated leave entitlement rules that have plagued employers, payroll providers and workers for the better part of two decades.

Rewriting the Arms Act was also part of the National-ACT coalition agreement, with regulations giving effect to the changes in the bill coming into force on September 23. The remaining provisions will come into force progressively by February 23.

The Crimes Amendment Bill passed its third reading this week, delivering a suite of long-promised changes agreed by National and NZ First in their coalition deal. The bill creates new offences for attacks on first responders and coward punches, brings in tougher penalties for retail crime, and expands citizens' arrest powers.

The Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill was also making its way through Parliament, blocking New Zealanders from taking civil court action against corporate polluters over climate change damage.

The Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Amendment Bill was also being advanced, creating a young serious offender declaration and a new military-style academy order in a bid to curb repeat youth crime.

Meanwhile, the NZ–India Free Trade Agreement Bill has only passed its first reading in June, and still has to clear select committee and its remaining readings.

My tablet got bricked so I downloaded software to try and flash it on 31st of July in the evening.

After that, discord was hacked and posting that Mr Beast stuff. Then they tried Insta, Snapchat, and my gaming accounts like Xbox and Ubisoft.

Everything has been recovered and all my passwords are changed from my mobile and other/new tablet. Passkeys and 2FA added along with revoking any sessions. The desktop was disconnected from the internet after running malwarebytes on the 31st and it has only been reconnected now to remove and uninstall everything. Chrome was desynced and removed.

So far I have used:

• ESET Online Scanner
• Hitman Pro
• Rkill
• Emsisoft Emergency Kit
• Adw Cleaner
• MalwareBytes

Hitman Pro and RKill along with Malware got all of it as nothing else is returning any hits after they were done, but Reddit sent me "your account has been locked due to suspicious activity", so I want to make sure I got everything.

The antivirus will not let me download SecurityCheck no matter how hard I try and it said it was corrupted from BleeingComputers so I haven't included it.

Lastly, I absolutely cannot reinstall Windows due to the work on here which is why every antivirus was run.

And after looking at the log, the times and dates are weird as my desktop refuses to sync to the correct time zone when its switched off now.

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FRST

• keyword: quick-switch
• channel: general

Addition

• keyword: amber-horizon
• channel: general

The report claims the short-list to buy MediaWorks is now down to two. They are Nova Entertainment, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s successor, his elder son Lachlan Murdoch, and Sports Entertainment Group, which owns sports radio business SEN.

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If Nova were successful, it would mark a return to New Zealand by the Murdoch family which previously owned The Dominion and The Evening Post, before divesting their New Zealand assets in the early 2000s.

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Among the Murdoch family’s best known media outlets are Fox News, the popular UK Sun and the New York Post, and the more up-market Wall Street Journal, Times of London and The Australian.

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MediaWorks owns local radio stations including More FM, the Breeze and The Rock, and formerly owned TV3. It also operates the digital streaming service Rova.

• Unemployment rises to 5.6% from 5.4%

• About 5000 jobs added in quarter, but workforce growth nearly three times that

• Underutilisation rate worsens to 13.8%; Long term and youth unemployment rises

• North Island unemployment 6%, South Island 3.7%

• Annual wage growth remains at five year low of 2 percent

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Unemployment rose to its highest level in nearly 11 years as the growth in the workforce outpaced the number of jobs being created.

Stats NZ said the unemployment rate rose to 5.6 percent in the three months ended June, from a revised 5.4 percent in the previous quarter.

A total of 171,000 people were unemployed, a rise of 7,000 on the previous quarter and 13,000 higher than a year ago.

Winston Peters has refused to apologise for his attack on a Chinese-Kiwi MP despite the prime minister and others describing his comments as "racist".

The Foreign Affairs minister attracted a firestorm of criticism last week after telling the Greens' Lawrence Xu-Nan to "go back to where you've come from" during a tirade in Parliament.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon raised the matter with the New Zealand First leader on Monday in a private meeting, after earlier condemning the remarks. Luxon, however, refused to reveal any details about the exchange.

Addressing reporters for the first time since that meeting, Peters also declined to divulge what was said behind closed doors. "We had a meeting with the prime minister. It's private and that's the end of it," he said on Tuesday.

Asked whether he would apologise, Peters instead doubled down, arguing his conduct was justified given Xu-Nan's heckling during his speech in Parliament. "I was talking about a critical shutdown and cover-up to do with the Covid inquiry, and all the people [who] are going to suffer as a consequence. He was jeering and shouting from my side. I'm not apologising for them, most certainly not. I'm not apologising on behalf of all those people who are victims."

The official transcript of the Parliamentary debate noted that Xu-Nan interrupted Peters' speech by shouting, "Are you vaccinated?"

Asked whether he had embarrassed New Zealand with his conduct, Peters ended questions and marched off into the debating chamber.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he has had a conversation with Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, following his tirade towards a Chinese-born MP in Parliament last week.

New Zealand First's leader responded to heckling in the House on Wednesday last week by attacking the Greens' Lawrence Xu-nan, telling him to go back to his own country.

Earlier Monday morning, Luxon confirmed to Morning Report he had not yet spoken to Peters directly, but said the comments were racist.

Speaking at the post-cab media conference on Monday afternoon, Luxon said he had spoken to Peters, but refused to outline what exactly was discussed, nor would he say whether he expressed disappointment in his foreign minister.

"My conversation will stay between Winston and me," said Luxon.

New Zealand First wants more people to have babies - and would pay them to do it.

The party also confirmed former Defence Minister Ron Mark was returning to the party, and will stand in the election.

At a public meeting in Masterton, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said New Zealand was facing a "population precipice," and the rate of New Zealand citizens having children had fallen dramatically.

"We need more Kiwis having more children, and one way to do that is to substantially lower the main barrier most are facing, that is the cost," he said.

The party's Kiwi Kids Grant would seek to arrest that fall, by paying parents $5000 a year for the first three years, and for up to three children.

To qualify, one parent would need to be a New Zealand citizen.

"New Zealand needs to get our birthrate increasing before it's too late," Peters said.

Peters said the tax-free payment would be administered through the Inland Revenue Department.

The policy, which the party had costed at $400 million a year by the time it was fully up and running, would be funded through operating baselines.

Winston Peters and Shane Jones have refused to back down from Peters telling Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan to "go back to your own country" in Parliament yesterday, with Jones going further and saying Xu-Nan "should know his place". The New Zealand First leader, who is also Foreign Minister, made the original remark responding to heckling during a speech in the House on Wednesday.

"I know you just came here five minutes ago. Go back to your own country," he said.

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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, in a statement attributed as "National Party leader", condemned Peter's comments, saying they were a continuation of Peters' "long track record of inappropriate attention seeking", while Xu-Nan said New Zealand First was "scapegoating" migrants.

Speaking ahead of Question Time this week, Peters characterised his comments as "defending New Zealand's democracy" and dismissed accusations of racism as "drivel."

"I'm defending our democracy, and I'm proud of it."

A man accused of threatening to carry out attacks on two Auckland schools and destroy public buildings allegedly said that he wanted to kill more people than the Christchurch mosque terrorist.

Tiedan Huo is on trial in the Manukau District Court, facing a raft of charges relating to a manifesto he allegedly distributed threatening to kill people at Waiuku and Rutherford colleges. He also allegedly threatened to destroy or damage two police stations and buildings at Parliament.

The man has also been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of explosives and possession of objectionable material.

Huo denies all the charges.

In a statement, Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong said his position was “indicative of where politics is at in New Zealand”.

“It’s old-fashioned tribalism that we have to get beyond. Kiwis expect our political parties to leave ideology at the door, and work constructively together to make progress on the big issues,” she said.

“We are ready and willing to work with parties across the political spectrum. We will maintain that position, and we're here to talk whenever National is ready.”

Port Taranaki has reassured nearby residents that initial assessments of a proposed LNG import terminal indicate it is unlikely "risk management zones" will impact on the community or popular recreational areas like Ngāmotu Beach and Breakwater Bay.

In a letter sent to hundreds of local properties, port chief executive Simon Craddock confirmed both shortlisted proposals involved a ship being moored alongside the Main Breakwater.

Opponents of the project argue Port Taranaki is the wrong place for a liquid natural gas (LNG) import facility.