Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Wellington Water has again failed to meet fluoridation targets.

The water provider says there's been a drop in fluoride levels across the region over the past four months, so it has been unable to meet targets 95 percent of the time.

It's blaming equipment issues, treatment plant outages and workplace health and safety improvements.

Chief Executive Tonia Haskell says there's been maintenance issues at a couple of plants.

"We put the new kit in Gear Island treatment plant- it was over Covid and it wasn't up to the level that we wanted, but we needed something in there in a hurry. We're now going to have to go back and buy something good, that's coming from Germany."

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After 27 years, a new rival has overtaken Tauranga as New Zealand's fastest growing city.

New data shows that in the year to June 2023, Hamilton grew by 3.4 percent while Tauranga only grew by 2.5 percent.

Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate says a new uptick in migration and high birth rates have contributed to this population boom.

"We're a very young city, our median age is 33. So families are choosing to put down roots and stay here."

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An Australian crime expert says a ban on gang patches across the ditch has had benefits.

In New Zealand, legislation will soon be introduced to Parliament banning gang insignia in public places, letting police issue dispersal notices, and courts issue non-consorting orders.

It'll be in force later this year.

Queensland University of Technology's Mark Lauchs says a similar law in Queensland had a clear impact.

"When the patches disappeared, when you didn't have 100 Harley-Davidsons riding down the road together, the level of perception of safety went way up."

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The Education Minister has blamed her predecessor over school project cost overruns.

The Government promised to launch a Ministerial Inquiry to investigate the problems with the school property system.

Minister Erica Stanford says the previous Government has created a 'pipeline' of projects they were unable to deliver on.

"Here I am, as a new Minister trying to get on with curriculum, and pedagogy and assessments and making sure our kids are achieving at school and turning up- and I have a pipeline of 350 schools that the Ministry are not able to deliver on."

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Over in Australia, NSW police have laid out a timeline relating to the disappearance of Sydney couple, Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.

Police have accused 28-year-old constable, Beau Lamarre-Condon, of murdering them in Baird's home, then making multiple trips to a rural property.

It's now being scoured for the missing pair.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says police have had to widen their search over the past few days.

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World Rugby insist they've set the correct threshold in the men's game for a head acceleration event that requires an off-field assessment.

Triggers set off via newly sanctioned smart mouthguards saw Chiefs midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown and Crusaders lock Quinten Strange undergo an HIA in the opening Super Rugby match of the season.

Both players appeared to question the need for them to leave the field.

Sportstalk host Jason Pine explains the extent of the confusion.

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Student accommodation costs have never been higher, as first year students struggle to make ends meet.

Auckland University Student Association president, Alan Shaker, says he knows many students who need to work full-time, on top of studying full-time.

He says their most expensive room is $510, up from $470 last year- a significant increase in their accommodation fees.

The weekly student allowance gives eligible students $360 dollars and a living cost loan of just over $302.

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I'm finding it quite amusing listening to the critics line up to tell us all the reasons why the Government's ban on gang patches won’t work.

Clearly, they don't remember what happened in Whanganui.

Ultimately, the Whanganui gang patch ban hit the same trouble that this Government's gang patch ban might also hit, which is the Bill of Rights Act.

But before it hit that trouble, it actually worked. There was a 15 percent drop in the number of serious patched gang members living in Whanganui in the first 9 months of the bylaw

The reason for that is because they were either locked up, or they left town to get away from it. And that’s exactly what's happened in Australia as well.

Queensland was the first to ban the gang patches in around 2016. As a result, a bunch of gang members left the state. The number of patched gang members ended up, at one stage, as low as 139.

After that, a bunch of other states followed.

So in the end, it seems the gangs have ended up in Canberra because they know the bleeding hearts there will never do something as harsh as banning gang patches

And as a result, they have a huge number of shootings in Canberra now.

Now, our trouble is that we can't drive the gang members into another state.  If we have a nationwide gang patch ban, it applies everywhere.

But I reckon what might happen is that gangs will move from areas that are well policed, where they get grief for their patches- to areas that are not well policed where they can march around freely with their patches on.

And that’s not ideal, because actually you want to get rid of them altogether.

But it’s an improvement on the current situation, where they are everywhere with their patches on.

So I think this is a case of ignoring the critics. If this plan gets across the line, it’ll work. It already has in the past.

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A Tauranga commissioner says they've been given a mandate to make Long Term Plan decisions.

The city's commissioner's have been criticised for doing that, before a council election in July.

Proposals include rent increases of 240 percent for charities and not-for-profit organisations.

This has come under fire.

Commissioner Anne Tolley told Heather du Plessis Allan making Long Term Plan decisions wasn't their call.

She says it was the decision of the Minister who extended their time and gave them instructions to put the plan in place.

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All three IVF providers in the US state of Alabama have now suspended their services after the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that an embryo is a child with all the rights of a child.

IVF providers who are now worried they're going to be in legal trouble for discarding these embryos.

Andrew Murray is group medical director of Fertility Associates.

He told Heather Du Plessis-Allan that this is the beginning of a worrying trend in the US

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