Author: Press Room

Hāwera GP Keith Blayney earns less than his receptionist these days – but claims it is better than relying on the government’s “flawed” capitation funding system.Under capitation, practices are paid an annual fee by the government for every enrolled patient – no matter how many times they visit the doctor – and patient fees are capped.When the system was introduced back in 2001, he and his wife Shirley – the practice manager – decided against joining. He said this was because they could see it was “doomed to failure”, due to the ageing population with ever-growing health needs.”The determinants of…

No final decisions have been made in the case of a New Zealand-born 18-year-old facing deportation to a country he’s never visited, the Associate Immigration Minister says.Daman Kumar, 18, was earlier told to leave the country or face a deportation order. His parents have lived in New Zealand for about 24 years as overstayers. Kumar would face being deported to India — a country he’s never been to.The teen’s case has been extensively covered in the media over the past several days. A spokesperson for Chris Penk, the minister responsible for the final case decision, said in an update today…

An Auckland man has been sentenced to community detention for tax fraud after he applied for Covid-19 relief money under the names of two people who had left the country in 2013 and 2017.Vaibhav Kaushik was charged with using a document to claim a pecuniary advantage — more than $23,000 —and was sentenced in the Auckland District Court on February 13.The Government announced a new small business cash flow loan scheme to support businesses adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.There were several criteria, including that the business be viable and ongoing and the loan must be used for the business…

Mandating Whangārei District Council fluoridation is being slammed as a “despotic Soviet-era disgrace” by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.Director-General of Health Dr Diana Sarfati is requiring Whangārei District Council (WDC) fluoridates its drinking water for 80,000 people by March 28.WDC this week reaffirmed its November 28 refusal to fluoridate — in spite of Sarfati’s sternly written email to the council on January 30 indicating “potentially heavy penalties upon any conviction by a court” for refusing the order.In her letter, Sarfati said it was an offence under the Health Act 1956 for a local authority to contravene a direction.Sarfati on…

MetService says heavy rain is forecast for areas in both the North and South Islands. The forecaster said a low to the north of the country is directing a humid subtropical flow over New Zealand, bringing heavy rain to parts of the North Island during Monday. A front moving east towards southern NZ is also expected to bring heavy rain to parts of the South Island late Monday and during Tuesday.Orange heavy rain warnings were in place for Coromandel Peninsula and the Kaimai Range, and Gisborne/Tairawhiti north of Tolaga Bay from 9am today into this evening. Up to 90mm of…

Six Wellington City Council social housing complexes that are home to more than 300 people have been deemed earthquake prone.The council recently commissioned seismic and risk assessments for their council blocks which showed that parts of the properties are below the 34% of the New Building Standard.The complexes affected are the Berkeley Dallard apartments in Mount Cook, the Daniell Street apartments in Newtown, the Hanson Court apartments in Newtown, the Kōtuku apartments in Evans Bay, the Whare Ahuru Flats in Thorndon and the Pukehinau flats in Aro Valley.Te Toi Mahana, which managed the tenancies at the properties, had informed tenants…

From odd fingers to weird text, AI generated images always leave tell-tale traces. And as fake content floods social media, spotting it is more important than ever. ADVERTISEMENTFake images generated with artificial Intelligence (AI) are rapidly swarming social media, flooding feeds with a new type of spam: useless “AI slop” designed to farm clicks in the form of interactions. Although the first generative AI (GenAI) programmes were released in 2022, reports suggest that over 15 billion AI-generated images are already circulating online. OpenAI’s latest data shows that users create more than 2 million images daily with DALL-E 2, its image-generation…

A surgeon has apologised to a patient after removing the wrong part of the the man’s lung during surgery.A decision released by the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) today found that the doctor breached the man’s rights by failing to provide services with reasonable care and skill and failing to obtain the patient’s informed consent.The patient, a man in his 60s at the time, had a family history of cancer and arranged for a routine screening at a hospital for his own lung health in July 2020.He was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a type of lung cancer that forms in the…

Brazil has been Oscar nominated for Best Picture this year. Could the country win the Berlinale’s top prize before the Academy dish out theirs? Early signs look mighty promising with the stunning ‘The Blue Trail’ in Competition. ADVERTISEMENTBrazilian cinema has been doing well of late, especially this year with the country’s first Best Picture Oscar nomination with Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, which premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival in Competition.Director Gabriel Mascaro (Neon Bull, Divine Love) does his fellow filmmaker and country proud by playing in Berlin’s Competition this year with O último azul (The Blue Trail).Taking place…

The 2025 BAFTA’s red carpet was a fashion feast, with stars like Ariana Grande channeling Wicked with a pink-inspired look, and Timothée Chalamet keeping it sleek in all black. ADVERTISEMENTThe crème de la crème of the film industry descended upon London’s Royal Festival Hall for the 2025 BAFTAs – the most anticipated night in British cinema – and, as always, the red carpet became a catwalk for celeb fashion moments. While there were no outrageously wild surprises like Kanye West and Bianca Censori head-turning stunt at the recent Grammys, there were still some seriously stunning looks. Here are all the…