Bill Hickman16:21, Jun 01 2021
Robert Kitchin/Stuff
A wet, blustery start to the day but showers should be clearing by afternoon.
Good afternoon. Brittany Keogh taking over from Bill Hickman with all the breaking news in Wellington.
4pm Skies clearing for the evening Showers are expected to start clearing, and strong southerlies easing and then dying out, bringing a fine evening.
2.30pm Bus strikes on hold Wellington bus strikes are on pause as NZ Bus tries to hash out a last-minute deal with Greater Wellington Regional Council and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. Tramways secretary Kevin O’Sullivan said on Tuesday that the union “agreed to put any industrial action on hold” for at least a week. More on this story from infrastructure reporter Joel Macmanus.
RNZ
Auckland has exited its three day lockdown, based on the advice of Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall says she has confidence contact tracing is finding any chains of transmission.
A good contact tracing system is an essential weapon in New Zealand’s arsenal for keeping Covid-19 from its shores. But is it up to scratch? Brittany Keogh reports. Calls from experts to improve the country’s contract tracing system, which could potentially eliminate the need for lockdowns and save the economy millions, are growing louder as questions are raised about the response to February’s Covid-19 cluster.
The land around Waiwhetu Marae was wrongly taken by the Government in 1939 and never properly returned.
Te Āti Awa received very little compensation when the Crown confiscated land belonging to mana whenua in Lower Hutt. Now properties in the area sell for more than $700,000. Brittany Keogh reports. Teri Puketapu spent much of the first decade of his life growing up on a farm. He and his nine siblings would look after piglets their father caught on hunting trips in the Wainuiomata bush, and help plant corn and potatoes on whānau land, in Lower Hutt’s Waiwhetu. “We had our house cow, a couple of hundred chooks, 20 ducks in the Awamutu stream that ran past our house and the property,” Puketapu, now aged 81, says.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins speaks to Stuff about the rollout plans for the vaccine.
“When will we get a vaccine for Covid-19?” It has been the question on everyone’s lips for nearly a year. As an increasing number of countries have started immunising their citizens, Brittany Keogh investigates when and how the roll-out will happen in New Zealand. The phone rings at the Immunisation Advisory Centre. As a staff member picks up, the caller introduces themselves as a medical practitioner. They want to know where their patients can get vaccinated against Covid-19. People keep asking them over and over, they say. The worker tells the caller what she has told several others who have asked the same question: there are no such vaccines available in New Zealand yet.
Kris Bartley, founder of Sweet Release, sometimes bakes for people who have made racist comments to her, Bartley, who runs the vegan cafe Sweet Release on Wellington s Manners Street, may have a strong New Zealand accent now at age 35, but when she first moved to Christchurch from the Philippines as a child, she spoke barely a word of English. Classmates would tease her for being different. Unfortunately, it’s an experience relatable for many Asian-Kiwis. The Human Rights Commission has seen a three-fold increase in reports of racist comments being made against Asian people since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.