Waatea News: Māori Radio Station

A proposed $21 million-a-year investment in Māori-led skills training is being welcomed as an opportunity to rebuild pathways into skilled employment, but Māori workforce development advocate Ben Kingi says training must ultimately connect people with real employers and real jobs.

Labour has pledged to establish a new Māori-led training programme if elected, with marae, iwi trusts and Māori providers able to develop programmes responding to the workforce needs of their own communities.

The policy comes at a critical moment for vocational training, with apprenticeship participation falling sharply as economic conditions make employers increasingly reluctant or unable to take on new trainees.

Official Education Counts figures show apprentice numbers fell 14 percent during 2025 to 59,720, while the number of new apprentices entering training plunged 24 percent. Overall workplace-based learning fell 12 percent to 108,315 learners.

The figures reinforce a bigger question facing the next Government: if Aotearoa needs more builders, electricians, infrastructure workers and skilled tradespeople, where will the next generation actually come from?

Labour’s Backing Māori into Skilled Work policy would invest $21 million annually through a contestable fund available to Māori providers.

The proposal would allow marae, iwi trusts and Māori organisations to design and deliver training around the needs of local employers and communities.

It would combine practical skills and recognised qualifications with mentoring and support designed to help participants enter employment and remain there.

The programme would be open to Māori of all ages, including people entering employment for the first time, workers wanting to retrain and those seeking to move into higher-skilled and better-paid jobs.

Labour says the programme would begin as soon as possible after Budget 2027, funded through reprioritisation and existing baselines.

Māori development spokesperson Willie Jackson has indicated as many as 3,000 Māori could benefit.

For Māori workforce development advocate Ben Kingi, the significance of Māori-led trades training is its ability to connect skills development with whānau, community and employers.

But the real measure of success cannot simply be how many people enrol in courses.

It has to be how many emerge with qualifications, apprenticeships and sustainable employment.

That distinction is increasingly important when Māori unemployment remains significantly higher than the national average and rangatahi Māori continue to face major barriers entering employment.

A training programme that produces qualifications without jobs simply shifts the problem further down the road.

What employers need and what Māori trainees are taught therefore have to connect.

Labour is pointing to its previous Māori Trades and Training initiative as evidence that a Māori-led approach can work.

According to Labour, 2,978 people participated in the previous programme before it ended, with 72 percent in employment by September 2024.

Nearly three-quarters of those who found work were in permanent employment.

Labour also says more than 80 percent of participants reported improvements in their ability to manage health and wellbeing, while more than 90 percent reported a positive impact on their whānau.

Construction was the largest employment sector for participants, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing, and health and social assistance.

That broader range is important because trades and vocational training increasingly extend beyond the traditional image of building sites and workshops.

The immediate problem is that New Zealand’s apprenticeship pipeline is moving in the opposite direction.

The number of apprentices fell by about 14 percent in 2025, with thousands fewer people continuing training and thousands fewer starting.

Education Counts says the decline reflects the relationship between workplace training and the wider economy.

When businesses are growing and have strong forward workloads, they are better positioned to employ apprentices.

When economic activity slows, employers have less capacity to take on inexperienced workers who require supervision and training.

That means fixing apprenticeship numbers cannot simply be achieved by encouraging more young people to become tradies.

Somebody has to employ them.

For small and medium-sized trade businesses, taking on an apprentice represents an investment.

An apprentice earns while learning but also requires supervision from experienced workers.

During an economic downturn, when construction pipelines are uncertain and margins are squeezed, that investment can become harder for smaller businesses to make.

That creates a dangerous cycle.

Employers stop taking apprentices because there is insufficient work.

Young people cannot get the experience required to qualify.

Then, when construction and infrastructure activity eventually accelerates, the country discovers it does not have enough qualified tradespeople.

The result can be labour shortages, higher costs and greater reliance on workers recruited from overseas.

Labour is also proposing changes beyond its Māori-specific programme.

Its 2026 election platform includes an expansion of Apprenticeship Boost, including extending employer payments, adding five additional trades and providing a $1,000 toolbox grant.

The party says employer support would eventually extend across two years rather than the existing one-year arrangement.

That wider policy matters because Māori-led training can prepare people for employment, but there still needs to be an employer on the other side ready to offer the apprenticeship.

The two parts of the system have to work together.

The distinctive element of Labour’s $21 million proposal is putting greater control into Māori hands.

A programme operating in Te Tai Tokerau may need to respond to a different labour market from one operating in Taranaki, Tairāwhiti or Murihiku.

Iwi, marae and Māori providers can work directly with local businesses to identify where jobs are emerging and then design programmes around those opportunities.

They can also provide support extending beyond classroom learning.

Transport, whānau responsibilities, confidence, literacy, mentoring and navigating employment can all determine whether somebody completes training.

Labour’s argument is that kaupapa Māori providers understand those barriers and are often better placed to help whānau overcome them.

The economic potential extends further.

Every Māori electrician, builder, plumber, engineer, forestry worker or infrastructure specialist who qualifies has the potential to eventually become an employer themselves.

That creates a pathway from training to employment, employment to qualification, qualification to business ownership, and business ownership to intergenerational Māori economic development.

For rangatahi, seeing Māori businesses and qualified Māori tradespeople in their communities also changes what a career pathway looks like.

It makes the opportunity visible.

The apprenticeship numbers should therefore be treated as an economic warning.

New Zealand faces enormous long-term requirements across housing, water infrastructure, electricity networks, transport, renewable energy and climate resilience.

All of it requires people with practical skills.

Yet the pipeline producing those workers is shrinking.

Labour’s $21 million Māori-led proposal is one answer being put before voters.

Kingi’s challenge is ensuring investment translates into qualifications and sustainable mahi rather than simply another training scheme.

Because the real measure will not be the number of programmes created or dollars announced.

It will be whether a rangatahi Māori looking for their first opportunity can find an employer willing to open the door.

If Aotearoa wants thousands more skilled workers tomorrow, it has to start training — and employing — them today.

#BenKingi #MaoriTradesTraining #MaoriWorkforce #MaoriEmployment #Apprenticeships #ApprenticeshipCrisis #TradesTraining #SkilledTrades #RangatahiMaori #MaoriJobs #Jobs #Employment #WorkforceDevelopment #SkillsTraining #VocationalTraining #Construction #Infrastructure #Tradies #ApprenticeshipBoost #LabourNZ #WillieJackson #Election2026 #PakihiMaori #MaoriBusiness #MaoriEconomy #Whanau #Iwi #Marae #KaupapaMaori #EconomicDevelopment #TeAoMaori #Aotearoa #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea

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The Prostate Cancer Foundation NZ says the Government’s decision to expand free cervical screening provides an opportunity to ask an equally important question for Kiwi men — why not test whether a targeted prostate cancer screening programme could save lives too?

Foundation Chief Executive Peter Dickens is pushing the case for a prostate cancer screening pilot, arguing New Zealand needs an evidence-based pathway towards earlier and more equitable detection of the country’s most commonly diagnosed cancer among men.

The Foundation wants the Government to invest $6.4 million over four years in a targeted pilot in Tairāwhiti and Waitematā, designed to establish whether an organised screening approach could ultimately be expanded nationally.

The call follows the Government’s move to make cervical screening free for eligible people aged 25 to 69 from March 2027 and comes as New Zealand continues investing in breast and bowel screening and developing a lung cancer screening pilot.

For Dickens, the issue is not about competing with investment in women’s health.

It is about applying the same principle of prevention and early detection to men’s health.

The numbers behind the Foundation’s campaign are confronting.

More than 4,000 New Zealand men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, while more than 750 die from the disease annually.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among New Zealand men.

Yet unlike some other cancers, there is no organised national population screening programme.

That leaves much of the responsibility for early detection sitting between individual men and their health professionals.

For men who rarely visit a GP, do not recognise symptoms or are reluctant to talk about their health, that can mean opportunities for earlier diagnosis are missed.

The Foundation is not simply calling for every man in the country to immediately receive a PSA blood test.

Prostate cancer screening has historically been complicated by concerns about overdiagnosis and overtreatment.

Some prostate cancers grow slowly and may never become life-threatening, meaning detecting every abnormality can potentially lead to unnecessary investigations and treatment.

But diagnostic technology has changed.

PSA testing can now be combined with risk assessment, imaging and more targeted diagnostic approaches to identify which men require further investigation.

That is one of the reasons the Foundation is proposing a pilot first.

A controlled programme would allow New Zealand to test participation rates, diagnostic pathways, health outcomes, costs and equity before deciding whether national screening is justified.

The proposed locations would also provide an opportunity to understand how screening performs across different communities.

Tairāwhiti has a significant Māori population and presents different health access challenges from metropolitan Auckland.

Waitematā provides a large urban population and a different health service environment.

Together, they could provide valuable evidence about whether an organised programme reaches men who are currently missing out.

That equity component will be critical.

A screening programme is only successful if the people most likely to experience poor outcomes can actually access it.

For tāne Māori, the conversation needs to go further than simply making another medical test available.

Cost is one barrier.

But so are access to primary care, transport, time away from mahi, trust in the health system and whether services are delivered in ways that work for Māori men and their whānau.

A successful pilot in Tairāwhiti would therefore need Māori providers, iwi and communities involved in its design and delivery from the beginning.

That could mean taking screening and health information beyond traditional clinics and into places where tāne already are.

Marae, workplaces, sporting clubs and community events can all potentially play a role in changing the culture around men’s health.

The goal should not simply be more tests.

It should be earlier diagnosis and fewer preventable deaths.

One of the persistent challenges in men’s health is getting men to engage with health services before something goes seriously wrong.

Too often, the first serious conversation happens after symptoms become impossible to ignore.

That approach can have devastating consequences when dealing with diseases where earlier diagnosis provides more treatment options.

The Foundation’s argument is that an organised screening pathway could shift prostate health from something men have to initiate themselves towards something the health system actively encourages them to participate in.

That matters particularly for men who otherwise consider themselves healthy and rarely see a doctor.

At $6.4 million over four years, the Foundation’s proposal is relatively modest compared with the wider costs of cancer treatment and the Government’s overall health budget.

But the purpose of the pilot would be to establish whether a larger investment is justified.

If the evidence demonstrates earlier detection, better outcomes and an ability to reach high-risk communities without generating unacceptable levels of unnecessary treatment, the case for a national programme would become considerably stronger.

If it does not, policymakers would have New Zealand-specific evidence on which to base future decisions.

Either way, Dickens argues the question deserves to be properly tested.

The timing of the campaign alongside free cervical screening could easily be framed as asking why women receive one service while men do not.

But that risks missing the point.

Expanded cervical screening is designed to prevent illness and save lives.

Breast screening saves lives.

Bowel screening saves lives.

And the development of lung cancer screening reflects the same movement towards detecting serious disease earlier.

The Foundation’s case is that prostate cancer deserves to be considered within that same preventative health framework.

Good cancer policy does not require choosing between wāhine and tāne.

It requires identifying where evidence-based screening can reduce avoidable deaths and then making those services accessible to the people who need them.

Prostate cancer is commonly discussed as a men’s health issue.

But when a father, grandfather, brother, uncle or partner becomes seriously ill, the consequences reach across an entire whānau.

There are hospital appointments, treatment, time away from work, financial pressure and the emotional impact of serious illness.

When a life is lost, that loss extends far beyond an individual patient.

That is why earlier detection is ultimately a whānau issue as much as a men’s health issue.

Dickens and the Prostate Cancer Foundation are not asking the Government to announce a nationwide screening programme tomorrow.

They are asking it to fund the work required to determine whether one should exist.

The proposed four-year pilot offers a way to answer that question with evidence rather than assumption.

New Zealand has made significant commitments to screening for other major cancers.

Now the Foundation says it is time to investigate whether prostate cancer should join them.

More than 4,000 diagnoses and 750 deaths every year represent thousands of fathers, brothers, partners, kaumātua and whānau confronting prostate cancer.

The question Peter Dickens is putting before the Government is therefore a simple one:

If earlier detection can save more of those lives, isn’t $6.4 million worth finding out?

#ProstateCancer #ProstateCancerNZ #ProstateCancerFoundation #PeterDickens #MensHealth #MensHealthNZ #TaneMaori #TaneHealth #MaoriHealth #HauoraMaori #Cancer #CancerScreening #ProstateScreening #PSATest #EarlyDetection #CancerPrevention #HealthEquity #MaoriHealthEquity #Tairawhiti #Waitemata #WhanauHealth #Kaumatua #Fathers #MensCancer #PreventativeHealth #HealthNZ #CancerCare #Aotearoa #TeAoMaori #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea

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One of Taranaki’s biggest industrial employers is preparing to stop production after more than 40 years, prompting E tū to demand an urgent Just Transition plan to prevent hundreds of skilled workers and their whānau carrying the cost of a changing energy economy.

Methanex has confirmed it expects to indefinitely idle its New Zealand methanol production facilities during the first quarter of 2027, putting around 300 jobs at risk and potentially sending further shockwaves through contractors, suppliers and businesses across Taranaki.

The Canadian-owned company is New Zealand’s only methanol manufacturer and has operated in Taranaki for more than four decades.

For E tū Director Mat Danaher, the announcement should now trigger an urgent conversation about what happens to the workers, their whānau and the wider regional economy when a major industry disappears.

His message to the Government is clear: sympathy will not be enough.

Methanex has entered into an agreement to sell substantially all of its remaining contracted New Zealand natural gas entitlements from the first quarter of 2027 through to the end of the decade.

The company says declining domestic gas availability and the absence of a clear pathway to significant new supply means continuing production in New Zealand is no longer sustainable.

Methanex intends to keep operating its Motunui facilities over the coming months before idling and preserving the plant, leaving open the possibility of a future restart should circumstances change.

But for its workforce, that longer-term possibility provides little certainty.

E tū says approximately 300 workers are employed by Methanex in New Zealand, many in highly skilled and well-paid industrial roles.

The impact is also unlikely to stop at the plant gates.

Engineering businesses, electrical and instrumentation specialists, contractors, transport operators and other businesses have developed around Taranaki’s energy sector over decades.

New Plymouth Mayor Max Brough has also warned that the consequences will extend into those supporting industries.

Danaher says the closure represents the end of an industrial era for Taranaki and argues workers cannot simply be left to navigate that transition alone.

E tū wants central government working alongside unions, iwi, industry and the wider Taranaki community on a coordinated Just Transition.

That means identifying new industries capable of providing good jobs, investing in retraining before workers become unemployed and ensuring the skills developed within Taranaki’s energy sector are retained in the region wherever possible.

The concept of a Just Transition is based on a straightforward principle: when major economic or technological change eliminates established industries, the workers and communities that built those industries should not be abandoned.

For Taranaki, that question is no longer theoretical.

The transition is happening.

Methanex’s decision has not come without warning.

The company mothballed its Waitara Valley plant in 2021 before reducing operations to a single Motunui plant in 2024, when around 70 jobs were lost.

The latest announcement takes that process considerably further.

Methanex has been one of New Zealand’s largest consumers of natural gas, accounting for about 40 percent of national gas use, while approximately 95 percent of its production has been exported into Asia-Pacific markets.

Its departure therefore has implications extending beyond employment.

It changes the dynamics of the domestic gas market and removes one of the largest industrial gas consumers from the New Zealand economy.

The consequences are also expected to be significant for Port Taranaki, where Methanex has been its largest customer.

The port is already forecasting several difficult years as declining oil and gas activity combines with Methanex’s expected departure.

Port Taranaki says it expects total trade to fall to around 2.3 million tonnes annually for the next several years, compared with 4.7 million tonnes in 2023 and 5.5 million tonnes in 2020.

That demonstrates why E tū is framing the Methanex decision as a regional economic issue rather than simply a company restructuring.

When hundreds of well-paid jobs disappear, the lost wages flow through local shops, housing, hospitality and service businesses.

The effect can multiply quickly.

The region nevertheless retains something enormously valuable: its people.

Taranaki has generations of experience in engineering, energy, fabrication, infrastructure, logistics and highly technical industrial work.

A successful transition would seek to transfer those skills into emerging industries rather than allowing workers to leave the region or disappear into lower-paid employment.

Renewable energy, offshore wind, electricity infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and other industrial developments could potentially provide pathways for some of that workforce.

Port Taranaki itself says it wants to develop into a broader energy and logistics hub, supporting traditional and emerging energy opportunities including offshore wind.

But those opportunities need investment, projects and jobs — not simply transition slogans.

E tū is also using the Methanex announcement to criticise the Government’s decision affecting Ara Ake, Taranaki’s energy innovation centre.

Danaher argues the decision looks increasingly short-sighted when the region urgently needs organisations capable of helping develop its next generation of energy and industrial opportunities.

For the union, the question is not whether Taranaki’s economy will change.

It already is.

The question is whether that change is actively managed or workers are simply expected to absorb the consequences.

A Just Transition in Taranaki also has an important Māori dimension.

Iwi and hapū are not peripheral stakeholders in the future of the region.

They are landowners, employers, investors and kaitiaki with a direct interest in what replaces industries that have shaped Taranaki for generations.

New investment in energy and infrastructure also raises questions involving whenua, environmental impacts, workforce development and long-term regional prosperity.

E tū’s call for iwi to be involved alongside workers, government and industry therefore matters.

If billions of dollars of new investment eventually flow into the next generation of energy infrastructure, Māori should be participants in designing, owning and benefiting from that transition — not simply consulted after decisions have already been made.

Methanex says its immediate priority is supporting its employees through the transition and safely operating the facilities before production stops.

But the scale of the economic challenge extends far beyond what one employer can solve.

Around 300 workers now face an uncertain future.

Contractors and suppliers face lost business.

Port Taranaki is preparing for significantly lower trade.

And an energy region that has powered industries and supported the national economy for generations is confronting a fundamental transformation.

For Danaher and E tū, that makes Methanex a test case.

A Just Transition cannot simply mean acknowledging that economic change will happen and helping people after their jobs disappear.

It means acting before the gates close — retraining workers, securing investment, developing new industries and creating replacement jobs capable of supporting whānau.

Taranaki has until early 2027 before Methanex expects to stop production.

The clock is now running on whether New Zealand can turn the end of one industrial era into the beginning of another — without leaving hundreds of workers and their whānau behind.

#Methanex #MethanexNZ #Taranaki #Motunui #Waitara #ETu #MatDanaher #JustTransition #Workers #NZJobs #JobsCrisis #Manufacturing #EnergySector #EnergyTransition #TaranakiEnergy #RenewableEnergy #OffshoreWind #AraAke #PortTaranaki #NaturalGas #Methanol #RegionalEconomy #RegionalDevelopment #SkilledWorkers #EngineeringJobs #WorkerRights #Unions #Whanau #WhanauMaori #Iwi #Hapu #MaoriEconomy #PakihiMaori #Employment #EconomicDevelopment #Election2026 #Aotearoa #TeAoMaori #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea

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ACT is heading into the 2026 election campaigning to scrap preferential Māori and Pacific entry pathways into medical school, even as the Government review intended to assess those programmes remains out of public view.

The debate goes directly to one of the most persistent challenges facing the health system — whether Aotearoa has enough Māori and Pacific doctors to serve communities that continue to experience significant health inequities.

The National-ACT coalition agreement committed the Government to reviewing the University of Auckland’s Māori and Pacific Admission Scheme, known as MAPAS, and the equivalent pathways at the University of Otago to determine whether they are achieving their intended outcomes.

Ministry of Health documents confirm the review was a specific coalition commitment and that Māori and Pacific medical student organisations had raised concerns about its potential impact.

But with ACT now taking a clear election position against preferential entry, the findings of the review itself have yet to be publicly released.

At the heart of ACT’s position is its longstanding argument that ethnicity should not determine preferential access to public institutions.

The party wants medical-school admissions based on individual achievement rather than ethnicity and is campaigning to remove Māori and Pacific preferential pathways.

That sets up a significant election-year debate over what equality and equity actually mean inside a health system where outcomes are far from equal.

Supporters of equity pathways argue treating everybody identically at the admissions door ignores the historical, educational and socioeconomic barriers that have contributed to Māori and Pacific people remaining underrepresented within parts of the health workforce.

ACT’s position challenges that approach.

The University of Otago explicitly describes its admissions policy as a mechanism for developing a health workforce that better represents the communities it serves.

Its current admissions framework includes equity groups for Māori, Indigenous Pacific peoples, people from refugee backgrounds, socioeconomic disadvantage and rural communities.

The university says increasing workforce diversity and cultural competence is intended to contribute to more equitable health outcomes.

For entry into medicine, applicants considered through equity pathways still face academic and programme requirements.

At Otago, Health Sciences First Year applicants must pass the required papers with at least a 65 percent average, while domestic applicants must also meet specified UCAT thresholds. Equity applicants must additionally satisfy requirements establishing their eligibility for the relevant group.

That distinction matters because describing the programmes simply as reserved medical places can obscure the fact that students still have to meet academic and professional requirements.

For Māori, the argument reaches well beyond university admissions.

The fundamental question is whether the health workforce reflects the population it serves and whether increasing the number of Māori health professionals contributes to better access, trust and outcomes for whānau.

That is particularly important when health services are attempting to address entrenched inequities in areas including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health and access to primary care.

A Māori doctor is not automatically a better doctor for every Māori patient, just as ethnicity alone cannot determine clinical competence.

But representation, cultural understanding and the ability to build trusted relationships with communities are legitimate considerations in workforce planning.

Otago’s own policy is explicit that its equity approach is designed around creating a workforce representative of the communities it serves.

There is also a broader issue sitting behind the political argument: New Zealand simply needs more doctors.

Medical-school admission is fiercely competitive.

Otago recorded 1,141 applications for its 2026 medical programme and 347 admissions, compared with 1,003 applications and 293 admissions in 2022.

For 2027, Otago says approximately 322 domestic places are available across its admissions categories.

Meanwhile, the Government has been considering expanding domestic medical training, including through the proposed University of Waikato medical school.

Ministry advice has already highlighted another major constraint: finding enough clinical placements for increasing numbers of medical students.

That means the bigger health workforce challenge is not simply about who receives the existing places.

It is also about how many doctors New Zealand trains, where they train, where they eventually practise and whether communities with the greatest workforce shortages benefit.

That brings the argument back to the Government’s review.

If MAPAS and Otago’s pathways were reviewed specifically to establish whether they are achieving their intended outcomes, then those findings are highly relevant to any decision about their future.

If the evidence shows the programmes are ineffective, that evidence should be available for scrutiny.

If it shows they are successfully increasing the number of Māori and Pacific doctors and contributing to a more representative health workforce, that should equally form part of the political debate.

The Ministry’s own briefing confirms that student organisations NZMSA and Te Oranga had expressed opposition to the review and asked for engagement with Māori and student leaders.

With ACT now campaigning for the programmes to go, questions about transparency become increasingly important.

The issue is shaping up as another clear ideological divide heading towards the November election.

ACT sees ethnicity-based preference as fundamentally inconsistent with equal treatment.

The opposing argument is that equity policies exist precisely because decades of formally equal treatment have not produced an equitable health workforce or equitable health outcomes.

For Māori, there is also a Te Tiriti dimension around participation in the health workforce and the ability of Māori communities to develop Māori health capability.

There is a legitimate political debate to be had about whether current university pathways are the best mechanism for achieving those goals.

But that debate should be informed by evidence.

If the Government commissioned a review to determine whether Māori and Pacific medical pathways are working, then before New Zealand decides whether to scrap them, the obvious question is: what did the review actually find?

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Aotearoa’s waka ama whānau are celebrating an extraordinary international campaign after two weeks of racing at the 2026 IVF World Sprint Championships in Singapore, with Waka Ama Aotearoa Chief Executive Lara Collins praising the performances, commitment and collective spirit of every team that represented the country.

The championships brought together some of the world’s leading va’a paddlers at Marina Bay, with Aotearoa crews competing across multiple age groups, elite divisions, club races and adaptive competition.

After two demanding weeks on the water, Waka Ama Aotearoa summed up the campaign with a simple message of pride — Kātahi ngā wiki whakahirahira kua taha ake nei! — acknowledging what an incredible few weeks it had been for the entire Aotearoa contingent.

With racing now complete, the organisation has celebrated not only those who returned home with gold, silver and bronze medals, but every paddler and team that earned the opportunity to represent Aotearoa on the world stage.

The scale of the campaign went well beyond the final medal tally.

Crews spent two weeks navigating demanding conditions, intense competition and the pressure that comes with racing against the strongest paddling nations in the world.

Waka Ama Aotearoa says every team that travelled to Singapore contributed to the success of the campaign, regardless of whether their final race ended on the podium.

The organisation has now published the results of its teams across their respective finals, providing a snapshot of just how widely Aotearoa was represented throughout the championship programme.

Behind those results sit years of training, early mornings on the water, club competitions, national championships, fundraising and enormous support from whānau.

For Collins and Waka Ama Aotearoa, that collective effort is central to the kaupapa.

The results underline the international strength of the Aotearoa programme.

New Zealand claimed major world titles during the championships, including gold in the Elite Men’s V12 500 and Elite Women’s V12 500, while Aotearoa’s junior men also took the world title in the Elite Junior Men’s V6 1000.

There were further medals throughout the elite, junior, adaptive and club programmes, demonstrating that Aotearoa’s strength extends across generations and categories.

The margins at world championship level were often tiny, reinforcing just how demanding international waka ama has become.

Against powerhouse paddling nations including Tahiti, Hawai’i, Canada, Australia, the United States and New Caledonia, Aotearoa crews repeatedly demonstrated they belonged among the world’s best.

One of the great strengths of the Singapore campaign was the representation from communities across the motu.

Paddlers from Tairāwhiti, Nelson and numerous other rohe travelled to compete, while clubs including Horouta, Pineula and Te Toki were among those producing significant performances.

That regional depth is important.

Waka ama provides a pathway capable of taking somebody from their local awa, moana or club training session all the way to a world championship final.

For tamariki and rangatahi watching from home, seeing paddlers from their own communities standing on international podiums provides powerful evidence that the pathway is real.

While gold, silver and bronze medals provide the most visible measure of sporting success, Waka Ama Aotearoa’s message following Singapore has deliberately extended beyond the podium.

Every crew had to qualify.

Every paddler had to prepare.

Every team carried the expectations and support of clubs and whānau thousands of kilometres from home.

And every Aotearoa representative contributed to the country’s growing reputation within international va’a.

That is why the final medal tally tells only part of the story.

The campaign was also about the coaches, managers, volunteers, supporters and whānau who helped get those paddlers to Singapore in the first place.

At the heart of the campaign sits an important kaupapa: Waka Ama, mā te katoa — mō ake tonu.

Waka ama is for everyone, forever.

Few sporting movements demonstrate that philosophy as clearly.

Competition extends from junior paddlers through open and elite racing and into masters divisions, allowing people to remain involved across generations.

Tamariki can paddle alongside a wider whānau where parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins and kaumātua may all have their own connection to the waka.

That creates something much larger than a conventional sporting pathway.

It creates community.

For Māori, the waka also carries significance that cannot be measured by a stopwatch.

Waka connect Aotearoa to histories of navigation, migration, whakapapa and relationships with the moana.

Modern international racing may involve high-performance programmes, world rankings and medals, but the cultural foundations remain visible.

For many paddlers, representing Aotearoa means carrying their whānau, club, hapū, iwi and tūpuna with them onto the water.

That connection between sporting excellence and cultural identity has helped waka ama become one of the great Māori sporting growth stories.

Now the Singapore campaign is over, its impact returns to communities across Aotearoa.

World championship paddlers return to their clubs.

Coaches bring international experience home.

Rangatahi have new role models.

And the knowledge gained from racing the world’s strongest crews feeds directly back into the development of the next generation.

That may ultimately prove just as valuable as the medals themselves.

For Lara Collins and Waka Ama Aotearoa, Singapore 2026 has again demonstrated what happens when elite performance, whānau and kaupapa move together.

Two weeks of racing may be over, but the legacy of the campaign will continue on the awa and moana of Aotearoa long after the medals have been counted.

Kātahi ngā wiki whakahirahira kua taha ake nei. Waka Ama, mā te katoa — mō ake tonu.

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A major change to cervical screening is being welcomed by general practitioners, with the Government moving to fund screening through general practice from 2027 — but the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners says turning that promise into better health outcomes will depend on getting the implementation right.

Medical Director Dr Prabani Wood says removing the direct cost of cervical screening in general practice has the potential to eliminate an important barrier for thousands of women and people with a cervix.

For Māori, the change could be particularly significant.

Persistent inequities in cervical screening participation and cervical cancer outcomes mean affordability, accessibility, trust and continuity of care remain critical issues for whānau.

The announcement therefore represents more than a change to who pays for a test.

The real measure of success will be whether more people who are currently missing out are actually reached.

From 2027, the Government intends to fund cervical screening delivered through general practice.

That recognises the central role GP clinics already play in prevention, early detection and ongoing healthcare.

For many patients, their general practice is where screening histories are held, reminders are generated, results are followed up and conversations about prevention take place.

Dr Wood welcomes the decision, but says implementation will matter.

Funding the screening itself is one part of the equation.

Practices also need the workforce, administrative capability, appointment capacity and systems necessary to identify patients who are overdue and support them through screening and any subsequent care.

Cost has long been one of the practical barriers affecting access to primary healthcare.

For households juggling food, rent, power, transport and other expenses, even relatively modest healthcare charges can result in appointments being postponed.

Preventative healthcare can be particularly vulnerable because someone who feels well may decide another household expense is more urgent.

That is dangerous when dealing with a disease where screening can identify potentially serious changes before cancer develops.

Making cervical screening accessible without the patient facing the usual general-practice screening charge could remove one reason people delay or avoid participating.

But free does not automatically mean accessible.

The policy will carry particular importance for wāhine Māori, who have historically experienced poorer cervical cancer outcomes and barriers to screening.

That means the programme cannot be judged solely by the total number of screens delivered.

It should also be measured by whether inequities are narrowing.

For some whānau, barriers can extend beyond the cost of the screening itself.

Transport, time away from work, childcare, access to appointments, previous experiences of the health system and whether services are culturally safe can all influence participation.

The growth of HPV self-testing has already created another pathway by giving many eligible people greater choice over how their screening sample is collected.

Combining easier testing options with funded access through primary care provides an opportunity to reach people who have previously remained outside regular screening.

The announcement also arrives while primary care continues to face significant workforce and capacity pressures.

GPs have repeatedly warned about increasing patient demand, workforce shortages and the difficulty many New Zealanders face securing timely appointments.

That creates a practical challenge.

A funded programme will only deliver its full potential if practices have enough capacity to provide it.

If funding increases demand without supporting the infrastructure required to deliver additional screening, clinics already under pressure could struggle.

Dr Wood’s caution about implementation therefore goes to a much broader issue confronting the health system.

Governments can announce new services, but somebody still needs to deliver them.

One of the biggest opportunities created by the change will be proactively identifying people who are overdue or have never been screened.

That is where general practice can play a particularly important role.

Primary care teams often have longstanding relationships with patients and whānau. Those relationships can help practices identify who needs screening, make contact and provide information about available options.

But outreach itself takes time and resources.

Sending reminders is relatively straightforward.

Reaching somebody who has been disconnected from healthcare, addressing their concerns and supporting them into screening can require considerably more effort.

For Māori and Pacific communities, kaupapa Māori, iwi and community health providers will also remain crucial to reaching people who may not engage easily with mainstream services.

There is another important consideration.

Finding an abnormal result is useful only if the health system can respond quickly.

A successful screening programme therefore depends on the entire pathway — from invitation and screening through laboratory testing, communication of results, further investigation and treatment where required.

Any delays further along that pathway risk undermining the benefit achieved by improving access at the front door.

That makes coordination between general practice and the wider health system essential.

Despite those challenges, publicly funding cervical screening through general practice represents a significant opportunity.

Prevention is one of the areas where relatively early intervention can avoid considerably greater human and health-system costs later.

Every person reached before cancer develops represents more than a successful screening statistic.

It can mean treatment avoided, lives extended and whānau spared the impact of a preventable cancer diagnosis.

For Dr Prabani Wood and the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, the direction is welcome.

The challenge now is ensuring the policy works beyond the announcement.

If the Government gets the funding, workforce, outreach and follow-up right, free cervical screening through general practice could become an important tool for reducing preventable cancer and closing longstanding health inequities.

But 2027 cannot simply mark the year screening became free.

Success will be measured by whether the people who have been hardest to reach finally receive the care they need.

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One of Aotearoa’s oldest Māori organisations is being forced to fundamentally reset its operations, with Te Arawa Lakes Trust warning that almost two decades of systemic underfunding have made its current responsibilities increasingly unsustainable.

Chair Wallace Haumaha says the Trust is confronting difficult decisions about its future, including the prospect of job losses, despite carrying significant responsibilities for some of the country’s most important freshwater taonga.

The situation raises a much bigger question about the Te Arawa Lakes Settlement itself: whether the Crown has adequately resourced the organisation expected to help protect and restore the lakes nearly 20 years after the settlement was enacted.

The financial pressure comes as the Te Arawa rohe continues to confront major environmental challenges, including invasive species such as gold clams, declining water quality, biosecurity threats and the long-term restoration of its freshwater ecosystems.

For Te Arawa, these are not simply environmental assets.

The lakes are bound to whakapapa, identity, mātauranga Māori, mahinga kai, recreation and the exercise of kaitiakitanga.

The current Te Arawa Lakes Trust emerged from the settlement of Te Arawa’s historical claims relating to the Rotorua lakes.

The Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Act 2006 represented a significant milestone, recognising the relationship between Te Arawa and its lakes and establishing the modern framework within which the Trust operates.

But the organisation now says nearly two decades of systemic underfunding have left it unable to sustainably fulfil the responsibilities established through that settlement.

That is a significant warning.

Settlement legislation may recognise rights, relationships and responsibilities, but meaningful kaitiakitanga requires people, scientific expertise, monitoring, administration, environmental programmes and long-term investment.

If those responsibilities grow while the resources available to fulfil them do not, eventually something has to give.

Te Arawa Lakes Trust says it has now reached that point.

The reset could have real consequences for the organisation and its workforce, with potential job cuts looming as the Trust examines how it operates.

That creates an uncomfortable contradiction.

At precisely the time environmental pressures across the rohe demand more attention, the organisation responsible for advocating for and exercising Te Arawa interests in the lakes could be forced to reduce its capacity.

The question will be whether restructuring merely allows the Trust to operate within its available resources or whether it ultimately means less capability to undertake the environmental, cultural and advocacy mahi expected of it.

For whānau employed by the organisation, there is also the immediate uncertainty surrounding jobs and livelihoods.

The funding crisis is occurring against a backdrop of growing environmental threats.

The arrival and spread of invasive gold clams has become another biosecurity challenge for freshwater environments, demonstrating how quickly ecological risks can emerge and how expensive they can become to manage.

For Te Arawa, protecting the lakes requires much more than responding to a single pest.

It involves water quality, biodiversity, restoration, invasive species, climate impacts, recreational pressures and maintaining the cultural health of waterways central to generations of Te Arawa whānau.

Those responsibilities require sustained investment rather than short-term responses whenever another environmental crisis emerges.

The financial crisis is particularly significant given the history of the organisation.

Te Arawa Lakes Trust traces its origins to the Arawa Māori Trust Board, established in 1924, making it the oldest Māori trust board in Aotearoa.

Its establishment followed the longstanding relationship and negotiations between Te Arawa and the Crown over the Rotorua lakes.

The organisation reached another milestone in 1995 when Dr Cathy Dewes became the first woman elected to the Trust Board.

Following ratification of the historical lakes claims and the Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Act, the organisation transitioned into a private trust and became Te Arawa Lakes Trust in 2005–2006.

In 2024 it celebrated its centenary, marking 100 years of guardianship and advocacy associated with the 14 lakes within the Te Arawa rohe.

Now, just two years after celebrating that milestone, the organisation is being forced to reconsider what it can sustainably deliver.

The situation also raises broader questions about the durability of Treaty settlements.

Settlements are often described as creating foundations for a new relationship between iwi and the Crown.

But transferring or recognising responsibility without ensuring organisations have the long-term resources necessary to exercise that responsibility can create another form of inequity.

Environmental management has also become considerably more complex.

Climate change, freshwater degradation, invasive species and biosecurity threats require increasingly specialised expertise and sustained intervention.

The cost of kaitiakitanga has not stood still.

Neither have community expectations.

Yet Te Arawa Lakes Trust says the funding available to carry out its responsibilities has failed to keep pace.

If that assessment is correct, the current restructure should not simply be viewed as an internal financial problem for Te Arawa.

It becomes a question for the Crown about whether the framework created following settlement has been adequately funded to succeed.

For Wallace Haumaha and the Trust leadership, the immediate challenge will be balancing financial sustainability against responsibilities that cannot simply disappear because funding is tight.

Reducing expenditure may strengthen the organisation’s balance sheet, but reducing capability carries its own risks when the lakes themselves remain under pressure.

There will also inevitably be difficult conversations with staff, beneficiaries, iwi and hapū about priorities and what work can realistically continue.

The Trust will need to demonstrate that its reset protects the organisation’s long-term viability while retaining the expertise required to fulfil its core kaupapa.

But the Crown should also expect questions.

If Te Arawa was given responsibilities through settlement, were sufficient resources ever provided to carry them out?

And if almost 20 years later the answer is no, then restructuring the Trust may treat the financial symptom without addressing the underlying problem.

For generations Te Arawa has fought to protect its relationship with its lakes.

That relationship existed long before Crown legislation, trust boards or settlement deeds.

What has changed is the complexity and cost of protecting those taonga in the modern environment.

The current reset therefore represents more than an organisational restructure.

It is a test of whether the promise embedded within Treaty settlements is matched by the practical resources necessary to make those settlements work.

Kaitiakitanga carries responsibilities — but it also carries costs.

After almost two decades, Te Arawa Lakes Trust is signalling that those costs can no longer simply be absorbed.

And with environmental threats continuing to mount across the rohe, the question is no longer whether Te Arawa can keep doing more with less.

It is whether the Crown is prepared to ensure one of Aotearoa’s oldest Māori institutions has the resources required to protect its lakes for the next 100 years.

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ACT leader, Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Health Minister David Seymour is sharpening his Election 2026 pitch around a simple proposition — government should be smaller, taxpayers should keep more of their money, businesses should face less red tape and politicians should find solutions without automatically reaching for another tax.

(This article includes a summary of announcements)

Fresh from defending ACT’s proposals to abolish the Climate Change Commission and reconsider New Zealand’s approach to its Paris Agreement commitments, Seymour is widening the argument into a broader assault on the size and cost of government.

At the same time, ACT is pushing employment law changes designed to make it easier for employers and workers to negotiate an agreed exit when an employment relationship breaks down, while Seymour has rejected Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s push for a visitor levy or bed tax.

Taken together, the policies provide an increasingly clear picture of the platform ACT intends to take to voters: fewer government agencies, tighter spending, greater flexibility for business and no new taxes.

Seymour has attacked Labour’s approach to the public service, arguing protecting government jobs should not become an end in itself.

ACT says the fundamental question should instead be whether taxpayers are receiving sufficient value from each position and government agency.

Seymour argues New Zealand has accumulated too many ministers, departments and layers of administration and wants savings to begin at the top.

ACT is proposing a government consisting of 18 ministers and 19 departments, compared with what Seymour says is the current structure of 28 ministers and 39 departments.

The party argues comparable countries operate with leaner government structures and believes New Zealand can do the same without sacrificing essential public services.

The political argument will inevitably turn on where efficiencies end and service reductions begin.

For Māori, that distinction is particularly important.

Whānau frequently interact with government through health, housing, education, Whānau Ora, disability support, social development and regional services. Reducing administrative duplication may have appeal, but reductions that remove frontline capability could have considerably different consequences.

Seymour is also targeting Labour’s economic credibility, claiming the opposition has a $10.4 billion annual gap in its spending plans.

That figure is ACT’s political calculation and will be contested through the election campaign, but Seymour is using it to argue Labour will eventually face three options — higher taxes, additional borrowing or spending reductions.

ACT’s position is that government expenditure should be constrained rather than taxpayers being asked to contribute more.

It is part of an increasingly important Election 2026 argument over the size and role of the state.

Labour is likely to argue strong public services require adequate investment.

ACT is making the opposite case: more spending does not automatically produce better outcomes, and government should be forced to demonstrate value for every dollar collected.

ACT is also turning its attention to employment law.

Small Business spokesperson Laura McClure is promoting a Member’s Bill introducing what ACT calls protected negotiations between employers and employees.

The proposal is intended for situations where an employment relationship is no longer working and both sides may prefer to negotiate an agreed departure rather than allow the dispute to escalate.

Under ACT’s proposal, an employer and employee could discuss ending the employment relationship by mutual agreement, including an agreed compensation payment, without the employer automatically exposing themselves to a personal grievance simply by initiating that discussion.

McClure argues the current system can discourage early conversations because employers fear that raising the possibility of separation could itself become evidence in subsequent employment proceedings.

ACT is pitching the reform particularly strongly towards small businesses.

For a large corporation, an employment dispute may be handled by dedicated human resources and legal teams.

A small Māori business, trades operation, retailer, café or whānau-owned company may have no such infrastructure.

A prolonged personal grievance can involve legal expenses, management time and months of uncertainty.

ACT argues its model could allow both parties to reach an agreement before that happens.

Importantly, the proposal would not mean an employee had to accept an offer to leave.

ACT says workers would retain the ability to refuse an agreement, while the protected-negotiation framework would provide a safer environment in which both parties could discuss whether separation was the best outcome.

The party points to similar provisions operating in the United Kingdom as evidence such a framework can work.

National has indicated support for the Bill, while ACT says New Zealand First has moved away from supporting it.

The proposal will nevertheless face scrutiny from unions and employment advocates.

The central question will be whether the power relationship between employer and employee allows negotiations to genuinely remain voluntary.

A worker sitting opposite the person who controls their employment and income may not necessarily experience a proposed exit discussion in the same way an employer does.

That becomes especially significant for low-paid workers and people with limited alternative employment opportunities.

For Māori workers, the debate matters because Māori remain heavily represented in industries dominated by small and medium-sized employers.

The challenge for Parliament will therefore be determining whether protected negotiations can reduce unnecessary legal disputes without weakening protections against unjustified dismissal or creating pressure on employees to accept compensation and leave.

Seymour is simultaneously fighting another battle in Auckland.

He has rejected Mayor Wayne Brown’s calls for a visitor levy, maintaining ACT’s position against introducing new taxes.

Seymour argues a so-called bed tax would not simply fall on wealthy international tourists.

Domestic travellers account for a substantial share of accommodation nights, meaning New Zealand families travelling around their own country could also end up paying.

ACT’s broader concern is that once a new taxing mechanism exists, future governments and councils can increase it.

That is why Seymour is promoting a different approach.

Instead of allowing Auckland or other councils to impose another levy, ACT is proposing a Local Tourism Dividend.

Under the policy, central government would transfer $1 to a council for every commercial accommodation night recorded within its territory.

Seymour says Auckland would receive around $7 million under the model, which ACT argues corresponds with the amount previously identified by the city as necessary to meet tourism-related pressures.

Rather than collecting another tax from travellers, the money would effectively redistribute some existing central government revenue back towards the councils dealing with tourism infrastructure.

ACT points to GST and the International Visitor Levy as examples of revenue generated from tourism that primarily flows to central government even though many of the costs associated with visitors fall on local authorities.

The party says tourism operators estimate the sector generates around $5 billion in GST.

Seymour has also left open the possibility of debating whether the proposed $1-per-night payment should be higher.

The line he is unwilling to cross is creating another tax.

The issue has particular significance for Māori tourism businesses and destinations.

Some of Aotearoa’s most heavily visited areas are also places where iwi and hapū carry substantial responsibilities for protecting whenua, waterways and culturally significant sites.

Rotorua, Taupō, Northland, Queenstown and other tourism centres all face infrastructure pressures as visitor numbers grow.

For Māori tourism operators, the question is whether ACT’s model would genuinely put enough money back into host communities to maintain roads, waste systems, public facilities and environmental infrastructure.

There is also a broader question around whether iwi and mana whenua organisations carrying kaitiakitanga responsibilities would see any direct benefit from the additional funding.

ACT’s attack on government bureaucracy extends directly into climate policy.

The party wants to abolish the Climate Change Commission, transferring necessary monitoring and reporting functions elsewhere rather than retaining a standalone Crown entity.

It is also questioning New Zealand’s approach to meeting its international climate commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Seymour’s argument is not that New Zealand should ignore environmental challenges, but that climate policy should be measured against affordability, economic impact and whether taxpayers are receiving value.

Critics will inevitably ask whether removing an independent commission risks weakening scrutiny of government climate performance.

For Māori, the stakes run in both directions.

Iwi and Māori businesses have major interests in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism and energy that can face significant costs from emissions policies.

But Māori communities are also exposed to coastal erosion, flooding, drought, freshwater degradation and climate impacts on marae, whenua and infrastructure.

Any reconsideration of climate commitments will therefore need to answer not only what it saves today, but what environmental and economic costs could be transferred into the future.

Taken together, ACT’s latest policies reveal a much broader political philosophy rather than a collection of isolated announcements.

Fewer departments.

Fewer ministers.

Less regulation.

Greater flexibility for businesses.

No new bed tax.

A smaller climate bureaucracy.

And tighter scrutiny of government spending.

For Seymour, these policies are different expressions of the same argument: New Zealand cannot tax, regulate and bureaucratise its way to prosperity.

His opponents will argue that government agencies, worker protections, climate institutions and adequately funded public services exist for reasons that cannot simply be measured as lines on an expenditure spreadsheet.

That is the debate ACT appears increasingly eager to have.

And as Election 2026 approaches, the question for voters will not simply be whether government costs too much.

It will be how much government New Zealand actually needs — and what happens to communities, workers and whānau when the state becomes smaller.

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Former All Blacks captain and successful businessman Taine Randell is swapping the rugby field and boardroom for the political arena, standing for New Zealand First in Tukituki as he argues Aotearoa needs to restore the ability of ordinary families to work hard, build businesses and get ahead.

Randell, 51, enters the 2026 election campaign with a profile built well beyond rugby. After captaining the All Blacks, he moved into international business before returning to Hawke’s Bay and helping build Freeze Dried Foods New Zealand into a major export operation.

Now he wants to take that experience into Parliament, standing for New Zealand First in his home electorate of Tukituki.

Randell says his decision to enter politics was shaped partly by watching his own children move into adulthood and questioning whether the opportunities available to previous generations remain achievable for young New Zealanders.

His eldest son, now working in finance in Auckland, became an example of that concern.

Despite having a strong education and securing a professional career, Randell believes the cost of housing means even young people doing everything traditionally expected of them can face years before home ownership becomes realistic.

That experience appears to have sharpened his focus on the cost of living, housing affordability and whether younger generations can build the same economic security their parents and grandparents were able to achieve.

It is a concern that will have particular resonance in many Māori households where home ownership, employment, wages and the ability of rangatahi to remain in their own communities have become major election issues.

Randell says New Zealand First’s emphasis on regional development and reducing cost-of-living pressures was among the factors attracting him to the party.

He has also identified greater supermarket competition and energy costs as issues he wants addressed.

His focus on the regions could become particularly relevant in an electorate such as Tukituki and across Hawke’s Bay, where agriculture, horticulture, tourism, Māori enterprise and export industries play significant roles in the local economy.

For Māori, regional economic development also intersects with some of the biggest questions facing iwi and whānau — whether rangatahi can find skilled employment close to home, whether Māori businesses can expand and whether communities can retain their people rather than watching another generation leave for Auckland, Australia or further afield.

Randell’s name remains closely associated with the All Blacks, but his post-rugby career is likely to become a significant part of his political pitch.

He studied law and commerce at the University of Otago before professional rugby changed the direction of his career.

After leaving the All Blacks at 28, Randell and his wife Joanne Edwards moved to London, where he worked across oil, emissions trading and financial exchange while continuing his rugby commitments.

The family returned to New Zealand in 2008.

Randell, Edwards and her father subsequently developed Freeze Dried Foods NZ, growing the company into a major Southern Hemisphere producer exporting into markets including North America and Asia.

The business was eventually sold to a multinational company in 2023.

That background gives New Zealand First a candidate able to speak from direct experience about exports, wages, staffing, electricity costs and the pressures involved in running and expanding a New Zealand business.

Captaining the All Blacks comes with pressure few New Zealanders experience.

Running a business employing people and competing internationally brings another form of leadership.

Politics, however, is a different game again.

Randell will now have to demonstrate that sporting and commercial success can translate into public policy.

Voters will want to know where he stands on more than economic development.

For Māori voters in particular, questions around Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori health, housing, freshwater, whenua, education, rangatahi employment and the future relationship between Māori and the Crown will matter.

New Zealand First has taken strong positions on several of those issues during the current parliamentary term, meaning Randell will inevitably be asked how his own views align with those of party leader Winston Peters and the wider party.

Being a celebrated former All Black may open the door.

What he says once he walks through it will determine whether voters believe he belongs in Parliament.

Randell was not searching for another career.

After decades in professional sport and business, he could have chosen a considerably quieter life in Hawke’s Bay.

Even his decision to stand did not initially receive universal enthusiasm at home, with Randell acknowledging his wife and daughter were less than thrilled about the prospect of politics entering family life.

But at 51, he has decided this is the moment to put himself forward.

That means accepting something professional rugby prepared him for particularly well — public scrutiny.

Every policy position, interview and political decision will now be examined in a way very different from a rugby performance or commercial deal.

New Zealand politics has never been short of candidates arriving from outside Parliament promising to bring real-world experience into Wellington.

Some thrive.

Others discover quickly that success in one field does not automatically translate into another.

Randell nevertheless arrives with an unusual combination of experiences.

He has led the country’s most scrutinised sporting team.

He has worked in international financial markets.

He has helped build a New Zealand company into an international exporter.

And he has experienced firsthand the pressure of meeting wages, managing staff and keeping a business competitive.

Now the former All Blacks captain wants voters to give him another leadership role.

This time there is no scoreboard, no halftime break and no final whistle.

The test will be whether Taine Randell can turn a lifetime of leadership in rugby and business into policies capable of convincing Tukituki voters that he should represent them in Parliament.

#TaineRandell #NZFirst #NewZealandFirst #WinstonPeters #Election2026 #Tukituki #HawkesBay #AllBlacks #AllBlacksCaptain #NZPolitics #MaoriPolitics #MaoriVote #RegionalDevelopment #RegionalEconomy #MaoriEconomy #PakihiMaori #MaoriBusiness #Rangatahi #RangatahiMaori #HousingAffordability #HomeOwnership #CostOfLiving #Supermarkets #EnergyCosts #BusinessNZ #Exports #Jobs #Leadership #Whanau #Aotearoa #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea

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A leading New Zealand climate adaptation scientist is warning that the world is now increasingly likely to push beyond the critical 1.5°C warming threshold, meaning Aotearoa must urgently move from talking about climate resilience to actually building it into our farms, cities, infrastructure and communities.

Dr Nicholas Cradock-Henry, Principal Social Scientist at Earth Sciences New Zealand, says the evidence is becoming increasingly stark: reducing greenhouse gas emissions remains essential, but countries must simultaneously prepare for climate impacts that can no longer be avoided.

Cradock-Henry is also a Lead Author for Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Seventh Assessment Report, which is assessing climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.

His warning follows new international analysis of the growing risk of the world overshooting 1.5°C, with the consequences likely to reach far beyond higher average temperatures.

For years, international climate policy has centred on efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

But Cradock-Henry says it is now almost certain that warming will move beyond that level, requiring both dramatic reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to consequences already becoming unavoidable.

That does not mean the 1.5°C target suddenly becomes irrelevant.

How far temperatures rise, how long any overshoot lasts and how quickly emissions fall will all influence the severity of future impacts.

But for governments and communities, the message is increasingly clear.

Planning based on the climate of the past is no longer enough.

Climate change beyond 1.5°C is not simply about adding another fraction of a degree to the temperature.

Cradock-Henry warns that departure from historical climate conditions will affect rainfall, temperatures and both the frequency and severity of extreme events.

Those changes can exceed the ability of existing social and economic systems to cope.

Agriculture, food security, freshwater availability, human health and livelihoods are among the areas exposed.

And climate impacts rarely occur neatly in isolation.

A severe weather event can damage roads and electricity networks, disrupt food production, isolate communities, affect businesses and create additional pressure on health and emergency services at the same time.

That potential for compounding and cascading impacts is one reason resilience needs to be considered across the whole economy rather than treated solely as an environmental issue.

New Zealand’s geographic isolation will not shield the country.

As an internationally connected trading nation, Cradock-Henry says Aotearoa remains vulnerable to global supply-chain disruption, changing marine ecosystems and geopolitical pressures intensified by climate change.

Those effects can ultimately flow through to the New Zealand economy.

For an export economy dependent on agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and forestry, changing weather patterns can also have direct consequences at home.

Earth Sciences New Zealand research has found that changing land use can become an important adaptation strategy, but decisions are difficult because they involve uncertainty, long lead times and substantial investment.

A farmer or grower cannot necessarily transform a business model after the next drought, flood or major storm arrives.

Those decisions may need to begin years beforehand.

The climate adaptation challenge carries particular significance for Māori.

Cradock-Henry warns that globally the consequences of climate change will not be distributed evenly, with marginalised, Indigenous and vulnerable populations among those facing disproportionate impacts while often having fewer resources available to respond.

In Aotearoa, climate resilience also intersects directly with whenua, whakapapa and kaitiakitanga.

Marae and papakāinga in flood-prone or coastal locations cannot simply be treated as buildings on a risk map.

Whenua Māori cannot always be approached as an ordinary commercial asset that can simply be sold when environmental conditions become difficult.

For iwi and hapū, climate impacts can affect wāhi tapu, mahinga kai, awa, coastal ecosystems and places carrying generations of cultural significance.

Adaptation therefore needs to recognise not only economic value, but cultural, intergenerational and community values when decisions about land and infrastructure are made.

Recent New Zealand research involving Cradock-Henry reinforces that point, finding land-use adaptation decisions are shaped by the interaction of values, rules and knowledge, rather than technical information alone.

One of the biggest problems confronting New Zealand is not necessarily a shortage of information.

It is turning knowledge into action.

Cradock-Henry leads the five-year Accelerating Adaptation to Climate Change: From Decisions to Action research programme, backed by nearly $12 million through the Endeavour Fund.

The programme starts from a blunt assessment: New Zealand understands many of the risks posed by rising seas, changing rainfall and more intense storms, but is struggling to respond at the speed and scale required.

Previous research has similarly identified an adaptation implementation gap, where information about likely climate impacts exists but concrete pre-emptive action remains difficult.

That gap becomes increasingly dangerous as warming continues.

The warning has major implications for decisions being made right now.

Roads, bridges, housing developments, water infrastructure, hospitals, electricity networks and coastal protection built today may still be operating decades from now.

Designing them around historical climate conditions risks creating expensive vulnerabilities for future generations.

Cradock-Henry argues adaptation planning must account for the possibility of more extreme outcomes, including interconnected failures across infrastructure and economic systems.

That does not necessarily mean attempting to predict precisely what the climate will look like in every community decades into the future.

It means building flexibility into decisions so communities have options as conditions change.

There is also an important distinction.

Preparing for climate change is not an alternative to reducing emissions.

The two need to happen together.

Previous IPCC work has found the effectiveness of adaptation is itself constrained by the speed of global emissions reductions and the capacity of natural, social and political systems to respond.

The hotter the world becomes, the more difficult and expensive adaptation can become.

Some impacts may eventually move beyond what communities or ecosystems can realistically adapt to.

That means mitigation remains essential even while governments prepare for warming already locked into the system.

Cradock-Henry’s message ultimately reaches well beyond climate scientists and environmental agencies.

Climate resilience will require decisions from central and local government, iwi and hapū, farmers, businesses, infrastructure providers, insurers, banks and individual communities.

It also raises difficult questions about who pays.

Should homeowners carry the cost of defending vulnerable properties?

Should councils?

Should central government?

And how does Aotearoa ensure communities with the least financial capacity — including vulnerable Māori and rural communities — are not left carrying the greatest burden?

Those questions will become increasingly difficult to avoid.

The climate debate is no longer only about preventing a future problem.

The future being warned about is beginning to arrive.

For Aotearoa, the challenge now is to cut emissions while simultaneously preparing communities, infrastructure, businesses and the environment for conditions increasingly different from those upon which modern New Zealand was built.

And beyond 1.5°C, resilience is no longer something to plan for eventually — it becomes something Aotearoa needs to build now.

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The post Beyond 1.5°C: Climate Scientist Warns Aotearoa Must Prepare Now for a Hotter, Harder Future appeared first on Waatea News: Māori Radio Station.