News

新闻 / WIHIRI NIUHI

NEXUS

A freak tornado has damaged up to 50 homes in the town of Levin.

Around 6:30am last last Friday, the tornado tore through the Horowhenua district and saw roofs lifted off houses, powerlines and trees ripped out of the ground, and a subsequent gas leak causing nearby SH1 to close. In addition to the tornado, Metservice reported 12,000 lightning strikes over the course of the morning, and a hail storm in nearby Ōhau was so powerful it caused dents in resident’s cars.

The Horowhenua District Council reports that around 250 volunteers helped out over the weekend with clean up efforts, and so far, seven houses have been rendered uninhabitable - although that probably still wouldn’t stop Lodge from trying to rent them out for $700 a week.

Scientists predict that with global temperatures rising due to climate change, weather events will be more extreme and happen more often.

10,000 health workers across the country walked off the job last week as part of a strike for ‘fair pay and conditions.’

At the moment, many of our most crucial hospital and healthcare workers are being paid just over the minimum wage - much less than any middle-manager at Waikato DHB, and certainly much less than they deserve for keeping people alive. It has been an incredibly rough few years for our healthcare workers on the frontline dealing with COVID-19, and the Public Service Association believes that now is the best time to push for change before DHBs around the country get absorbed in to new entity HealthNZ on July 1st. After declining a ‘completely inadequate’ pay offer from DHBs, the PSA union is now ‘calling for negotiations to be handed over to HealthNZ… as we have lost confidence in the Ministry of Health.’ Who hasn’t, tbh.

Small Town Short News

Jared Ipsen (He/Him)

Sometimes, small town Waikato is full of quaint stories of beloved sheep going missing, bonfires made out of human shit, and illegal raw milk sales - other times, the best thing that happens is the Putāruru over 60s team wins the bowls tournament. What do you want me to do? I’m doing my best out here.

Powerco has backed down from plans to run power lines through Pokaiwhenua Stream and Duxfield Reserve.

Over 1600 residents signed the petition to prevent six 20 metre electricity poles running through the popular Putāruru swimming hole, which would provide a backup connection to the national power grid for over 10,000 south Waikato homes. Locals claimed that an extra $6m spend on the $43m project was the only thing preventing Powerco from running the power lines underground, which the electricity distribution company were initially unwilling to do as overhead poles are more ‘cost-effective.’ Petition organiser Lesley Fitzgerald told Stuff that they ‘have gained some good concessions, but not all we set out to achieve,’ as Powerco now plans to build the giant poles directly beside the reserve instead.

Waikato’s battle against koi carp rages on as authorities plead for residents to nark out sites where the pest fish congregate.

Koi carp, which are known for the prolific damage they do to our waterways, were almost single-handedly introduced to Aotearoa by the late ‘eco-terrorist’ Stewart Smith, who smuggled thousands of them in from the UK over the 1900s. Last week, the Waikato Freshwater Society urged locals to report sites where koi carp have been spotted in an effort to remove them before spring. This initiative is backed by DoC, who have received almost a milli in funding for their four year koi-killing project.

The ‘gentle, sweet and handsome’ young lamb has been missing for weeks after he mysteriously broke out of his paddock, and has yet to return to his loving whānau. Owner Megan Corin describes the situation as ‘so heartbreaking,’ saying there hasn’t been any word of him from residents in the area.

The coastal town of Matatā has been forced to retreat inland to prevent ‘high loss of life’ caused by extreme weather events.

The area has been identified as being at risk from torrential downpours, after a flood in 2005 kind of fucked the whole town up with debris destroying 27 homes.

Whakatane District Council has been purchasing properties inside of the ‘risk zone,’ but some residents have been pushing back, claiming the Council isn’t offering them enough money, or simply just wanting to stay on their doomed properties. Environmental consultancy agency Tonkin and Taylor predicts that there is a 63% chance that the town will flood again within the next century. Climate change rules!

Lastly,

for those who are following the story, Bob the Sheep is still missing from his Kihikihi property.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, and here at Nexus we hope that he’s just chewing on some grass somewhere or whatever it is that sheep do.