Waitaki Community Recreation Centre manager Diane Talanoa says she is “really stoked” to receive $80,000 from the Otago Community Trust.The trust announced the allocation of $555,653 in grants for its July funding round, with $92,600 being directed towards the Waitaki district.The money going to the Rec Centre will help kick start a major project plan to future-proof it, Di says.“Currently a lot of the exterior panels on the building are damaged and so the plan is to replace the exterior cladding. “This is a significant project and we are applying for funding from a range of sources. OCT has granted us around 20% of the cost of the project,” she says. Although the plans are under way for the new Waitaki Event Centre, there is still a need for the Rec Centre and future-proofing it means it will continue to be an important community facility, Di says.There is a lot of “user support” for the centre and she is optimistic about securing more funding. “We’re able to clearly demonstrate a really wide range of user groups and activities that take place here, many of which will continue into the future,” she says.Di is hopeful work on the project will get under way next year, once more funding is secured.Other Waitaki groups to receive grants from the Community Trust for July, are Ardleigh Golf Club in Palmerston - $8000 (greens mower upgrade), Maheno Bowling Club - $1600 (boom sprayer), Awamoa Bowling Club - $3000 (top board and rubber), and the Waitaki Valley Community Society - $3175.00 (Kurow Wetlands Restoration Plan).The trust says its allocation of grants reinforces its commitment to supporting strong, vibrant communities throughout the Otago region.The grants fund a range of projects, many of which are aimed at enhancing community well-being, preserving local heritage, and promoting environmental conservation, a statement said.

The expectation that if you're getting a jobseekers' benefit you should be looking for work is perfectly reasonable - until you step into the chaotic lives of some beneficiaries To middle New Zealand, or someone who's never been stuck on a benefit before, it may seem fair enough that people who survive on taxpayer-funded cash should at least be making an effort to look for work. Listen: Questions of evidence over new benefit sanctions regime And if they don't do that, surely it's not unreasonable to apply sanctions to them?That's only fair to the hard-working New Zealanders who are helping them out. These were the words being pounded out by Prime Minister Chris Luxon - "right and fair"; "we're not asking much"; "not difficult obligations"; "responsibility to do the minimum" - as he announced the government's new benefit sanction regime. The traffic light system of punishments for transgressions is already in place; there are other measures which will come into effect next year. "It's not rocket science," Luxon told Morning Report. But it is social science, and experts in this field who've spent their lifetimes working with beneficiaries say there's no evidence that the new regime will work. Journalist and inequality and poverty researcher Max Rashbrooke has spent a large part of the last decade interviewing people living in poverty about their situations."I think there's a big problem that this government has come to power making a big play of the idea that its policies are going to be much more evidence-based than the previous government's were, and it's spent a lot of time touting social investment, which is supposedly at least going to be an evidence-based approach whereby only the things that work are funded and the things that don't work are de-funded."And the problem here is that there's not a huge amount of evidence, to put it mildly, to support the idea that a much more punitive approach to the benefit system actually works." Rashbrooke says poverty and welfare are both very complex issues, and people who are receiving benefits are a complex population. He says it's typical of National governments that a benefit crackdown will happen once it gets into power - "the classic suite of policy options", as Rashbrooke calls them. Paula Bennett did much the same in 2010; Jenny Shipley did it in the late 1990s. "The approach is to essentially imply that a lot of beneficiaries are lazy and need a kick up the backside, so it's important to have more sanctions for them. I guess what's a little different this time is there's a greater focus on, rather than just cutting people's benefits, sanctions like maintaining the level of people's benefit but removing their power to manage it. So, having MSD manage their money on their behalf, or forcing them to do community service." Rashbrooke says there's room for a range of views here."There's never any one story that's absolutely true," he says. "If you want to believe that being punitive, that being tough on beneficiaries works, you can always probably find some examples of people who are abusing the system. And you can probably find a small number of examples where getting tough on people has worked. So there can be a very limited evidence basis for a National Party that wants to do this kind of thing. "But I think also living at quite a fundamental distance from the lives of a lot of beneficiaries means that a lot of people in the National Party just don't understand what is going on in that end of the spectrum. "There was a survey done about 10 years ago that suggested the majority of National supporters don't know anybody who lives on a benefit... so it becomes very easy to imagine that everyone on a benefit is lazy and exploiting the system. "And I think that's true even though someone like Louise Upston, who's the minister in charge (of Social Development) here, has previously been on a benefit herself... the same was true of Paula Bennett... even then that seems to lead to a desire, as Louise Upston has put it, to make sure that no one is on a benefit if she can possibly help it." Rashbrooke also says that research commissioned by the last Labour government found that people who were forced off benefits during the 2013 - 2014 reforms often went to low paid, low quality, temporary or casual jobs - and 18 months later only about half of them were still off the benefit. He says making things harder for people at WINZ is also one of the ways that benefit numbers typically come down - people disconnecting from the system, or the introduction of hoops that make it harder to get into the system in the first place. "What I don't think the government recognises sufficiently is there may be a lot of actually quite reasonable reasons why people who are on benefits wouldn't be able to do something superficially simple like turn up to a job interview. And I don't think that taking a punitive approach to that actually resolves any of the real problems that are going on in those people's lives."Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.  You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter. 

Police are sending out a warning to the public about scam phone calls from police impersonators. Southern Districts Operations manager, Inspector Matt Scoles, is urging people across the wider district to be alert to the scam, after reports in other districts have emerged about people receiving scam phone calls from someone claiming to be a police officer.The "officer" will claim to be from a particular department, say the target has been a victim of fraud or a scam, and try and obtain further financial information from them, he says.People have then been directed to go to the bank and withdraw money for evidence of the supposed scam.This itself is a scam – no legitimate police officer will ever ask for money, for any reason.Insp. Scoles says to establish if an officer who makes contact is genuine, ask for their full details, hang up, contact 105 and request somebody to check for you.Older members of the community are particularly being targeted and police urge anyone with older, vulnerable relatives or friends to make them aware of the risk.Since early August, police have had several instances of this being reported, with arrests made in Auckland and Wellington, and three people before the courts.One of these, a 26-year-old UK national, has since been convicted of cheating victims out of more than $330,000.People need to be vigilant because inquiries into reports of such scams are ongoing.New Zealand Police will also never contact people and ask for their bank details, card numbers, Pins, or passwords, Insp Scoles says.There are instances where legitimate police officers will make contact as part of their duties, but they will never ask you to withdraw money.He urges people to trust their instincts, and if something feels wrong, or feels too good to be true, it probably is.If somebody is a victim of a scam, they are encouraged to contact police.For further information and tips to avoid scammers, visit Netsafe

Whaikaha, the Ministry of Disabled People, will be restructured - losing responsibility for delivering support services and the move to a new approach put on hold.The government has announced the move after a critical review, which says the ministry is not set up to effectively manage the scale and nature of its funding and has inadequate budget controls.The ministry will become a standalone - no longer sharing back-office functions with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) - tasked with strategic policy advice, advocacy and monitoring. The transfer will be managed by a taskforce, and the move to a standalone agency will be done through an Order in Council in October.All support services will be moved to MSD, with the rollout of the Enabling Good Lives approach put on hold "to make sure access to support is fair and based on need, not location".Funding levels for residential facility based care will also be kept at current levels, with no increases to keep up with inflation. The government will also bring back indicative budgets and monitoring of Needs Assessment and Service Coordination organisations.Social Development Minister Louise Upston. Photo: RNZ / Samuel RillstoneWatch: Disability services to move from Whaikaha to MSD In a statement, Minister for Disability Issues Louise Upston said the shift of support service delivery to MSD was "significant but necessary"."MSD has the controls and capability already in place to better manage this funding. This will also solve the conflict of the Ministry of Disabled People - Whaikaha having both advocacy and service provision roles, making it a representative and powerful voice in government for disabled New Zealanders."She said the government was committed to supporting disabled people, "which is why we provided a record $1.1 billion funding boost to disability support services in this year's Budget".How did we get here?Changes to the way disability services were funded were rolled out in March with little notice and announced via the ministry's social media, not long into the coalition's term.The moves were a surprise to those using the services, and community groups rallied in opposition to them, and then-minister Penny Simmonds admitted inadequate communication.She had said the changes were the result of cost overruns at the ministry.Cabinet then put a closer lens over changes at the ministry, and Simmonds was later dumped from the portfolio.About a quarter of New Zealanders has some sort of disability. Disabled people often make heavy use of the health system but the constraints placed on disabled people by society extend far beyond health to things like employment, housing, transport, education and more.Whaikaha Ministry of Disabled People chief executive Paula Tesoriero Photo: RNZ / Samuel RillstoneThe creation of the ministry, Whaikaha, was announced by the then-Labour government in 2021, promising it would be a single point of contact for disabled people.The government also promised a nationwide rollout of the Enabling Good Lives approach to disability support services, which focuses on giving disabled people more choice in how they can spend the funding allocated to them. However, the portfolio changed hands a few times and funding for that approach has long been a concern.Those decisions followed the Heather-Simpson-led Health and Disability review which, despite its name, failed to meaningfully consult disabled people, and barely mentioned or examined disability, accessibility, or related support services.Disability was not even mentioned separately until page 150.Advocacy groups had for decades been calling for support to be shifted out of the health system, saying disability was not solely a health issue - and disabled people were often being passed between government departments, with different levels of support based arbitrarily on the cause of a disability rather than need.The huge disparity between the support offered to disabled people through ACC, compared to those who access it through DHBs, has also been a major concern.ACC has also been shown to be biased against women, Māori and Pasifika, and disabled people who needed help because of an injury had to juggle the ACC and welfare systems at the same time.

Work on a new car park for the Cape Wanbrow reserve is expected to begin next week.An area on Test Street, at the bottom entrance to the reserve, will get 10 new parking spaces, after members of the community had raised the lack of parking as an issue, Waitaki District Council parks and recreation manager Lindsay Hyde says. The car park work is part of ongoing improvements in the area, involving rabbit control and removal of ageing ponderosa pines, before native planting takes place.Rabbit control in the form of pindone poisoning began last month, and more information will be circulated about night shooting when that begins, he says.The implementation of the entire Cape Wanbrow concept plan has been budgeted at $170,000. Specialised Services Group will carry out the work on the car park, and while it is under construction, the community is being asked to avoid using the Test Street entrance and obey any directions or signage from contractors, Lindsay says.Some mountain bike tracks nearby will be temporarily closed during the work, and there may be changes to layouts once the car park is complete.Work is expected to be finished by the end of August.

Benefit sanctions are set to ramp up next yearThe government believes the welfare system has become a "drag net," with people staying on Jobseeker Support for too longThe opposition says there is no evidence that sanctions will work, and the government is kicking people while they are downExplainer: The government has confirmed its long-signalled changes to the welfare system, with a scaled up sanctions regime due to kick in next year. So how will they work?Jobseeker Support recipients will be required to re-apply every six months, as opposed to every year, and any blips will stay on their record for two years, instead of one.First-time failures to meet obligations, such as someone not demonstrating they are actively looking for work or attending seminars, could result in a new sanction like enforced community work, or a money management card.Opposition parties have pointed to an expert advisory group report which stated sanctions would not work, and the government was engaging in beneficiary bashing at a time where jobs were hard to come by.It comes as a new traffic light system comes into play, which the government hopes will make the consequences clearer for people who fail to meet their obligations.Red light, green lightThe traffic light system was canvassed during the election campaign, and came into play on Monday.It applies to recipients of Jobseeker Support, Jobseeker Support Student Hardship, Sole Parent Support, and the Supported Living Payment.At green, a client is complying with all of their benefit obligations.At orange, the client has failed an obligation and has five days to make contact with the Ministry of Social Development to dispute the failure, or arrange how they will meet their obligation again.And at red, payments have been reduced or stopped, and the client is yet to re-comply.On Monday, the Social Development Minister, Louise Upston, admitted she was "not sure" what happened to people once their benefits got cut.How much do people receive at the moment?On Morning Report on Tuesday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was unable to say how much people were receiving on a benefit.But later on that morning, he had read up on the numbers."In the heat of an interview, I don't want to go off and not have time to actually explain how it actually all works, because it's not as simple as just a single number as was being framed in that question," Luxon said.Christopher Luxon had to do some homework today on how much beneficiaries are paid. Photo: RNZ / Reece BakerEssentially, the amount of support someone receives varies depending on their circumstances, such as their age or whether they have dependent children.A single person aged 20-24 on Jobseeker Support or Jobseeker Support Student Hardship receives $307.87 net weekly, increasing to $353.46 for those aged over 25. Married couples without children receive $300.73 each a week, those with children get $317.55 each.A single person aged 18+ on the Supported Living Payment receives $402.84 weekly, while married couples without children receive $342.24 each, and those with children get $359.07 each.The Sole Parent Support is $494.80 net weekly.The rates are reviewed every year, and changes come into place every 1 April.What the government has already doneIn February, the government announced a ramping up of sanctions which kicked in in June.The Ministry of Social Development would begin "work check-ins" for jobseekers who have been on a benefit for at least six months.At the start of August, Upston announced an additional $9.45 million would be spent on expanding community-led employment programmes for 18-24 year olds from 5400 places to 7500.Upston said 97 percent of the sanctions the government has applied have been on Jobseeker Support recipients, with the main reason being because someone did not attend an appointment or failed to prepare for work.What's coming next yearWhile the traffic light system has already started up, the main changes and sanctions will not come into place until next year.The period of time where a failure to meet an obligation will be marked against their record will be extended from 12 months to two years.Jobseeker Support recipients will also have to re-apply every six months, rather than every year.They will be required to set up a Jobseeker profile which lists their work experience, qualifications, driver's licence status, and the kind of employment they would like to move into.First-time obligation failures will have the option to get a sanction without having a direct cut to the benefit.A community work experience sanction will require a benefit recipient to find and complete work experience for a specified time period, before the sanction is lifted.The government will also introduce a money management sanction, which will put 50 percent of someone's benefit onto a payment card, which can only be used in approved shops and spent on 'essential' items.The card already exists for recipients of the Youth Payment, but Upston wants to see it extended.A similar scheme was abolished in Australia last year, after the Australian National Audit Office found the Australian government could not demonstrate it was meeting its intended objectives.There are also concerns about the restrictions people may face if their rent is more than 50 percent of their benefit, or if the card will be enough to buy the essentials it has been ringfenced for."Louise Upston's making a huge range of assumptions on people's lives and circumstances, and the work-for-dole type schemes are a reheated, failed approach that didn't work in the '90s and won't work now," the Greens' social development spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said.The annual inflation rate was at 3.3 percent in the three months ended June, and Upston said the government was focused on bringing that number down, to ensure the money management sanction did not become too punitive, while still being made to feel like it was having an impact.Coalition partner ACT wanted the policy to go further, and for the money management sanction to also apply to people who kept having children while on a benefit."If you continue to have children while on a benefit, or if you stay on a benefit for a large amount of time, then the money should be received in the form of money management, an electronic card that can be used for purposes to ensure the money actually goes to the children," ACT leader David Seymour said on Monday.Luxon said the government plan was what it would implement "this term" but did not rule out going further in future terms.The government expects to introduce the legislation by November.David Seymour, left, and Ricardo Menéndez March have opposing views on the sanctions. Photo: RNZWhere are the jobs?Labour's primary criticism of the scaling up of sanctions is that there are fewer jobs for people to go into."Sanctions don't get people off benefit and into work if there aren't jobs for them to go to, and at the moment there aren't jobs for them to go to," leader Chris Hipkins said on Monday.The unemployment rate rose to 4.6 percent in the three months ended June, with the Reserve Bank predicting it will rise to a peak of 5.1 percent in mid-2025.Upston told Checkpoint on Monday that beneficiaries would not be sanctioned for not getting a job."What we do want to see is that people are taking the steps to improve their chances of finding a job. There is no sanction because you can't find a job, it's if you're not taking the steps and you're not taking your work obligations seriously."She said MSD would work with people to help them upskill or retrain, to improve their chances of work.What's the evidence for sanctions?The prime minister insists he has seen enough evidence to justify ramping up sanctions, saying the number of people on JobSeeker benefits increased by about 70,000 under Labour, with 40,000 receiving it for a year or more.At the same time, the number of sanctions applied decreased from 60,588 in 2017 to 25,329 in 2023.But a Welfare Expert Advisory Group set up by the previous government found there was little evidence to show sanctions worked.In 2019, the WEAG's report said the application of sanctions was "problematic," with no evidence they changed behaviour, instead contributing to more hardship.Opposition parties have referenced the report to say there is no evidence sanctions helped people get into a job, and the government was "beneficiary bashing" at a time when people were doing it tough."None of those interventions have shown to actually work to help people into employment, and the government at the same time has shown little ambition or interest into addressing things like child poverty," Menéndez March said.Hipkins said: "They like to pick on people on benefits rather than actually focusing on creating jobs, growing the economy, and getting people into good, well-paid work. They don't have a plan for that so they've just resorted to kicking people when they're down."In government, Labour removed some sanctions, such as the Subsequent Child Policy sanction, which placed obligations on parents to look for work and return to work earlier if they had an additional child while receiving a benefit.But other sanctions still remained under Labour, like a warrant to arrest sanction, which cut someone's benefit if they had an outstanding arrest warrant.In its final year in government, Labour started work on reviewing the warrant to arrest sanction, concerned at the impact it was having on children.While Labour kept the ability to sanction beneficiaries who did not meet work obligations, the Ministry of Social Development was applying a lighter touch in response to Covid-19.

Consultation is now open for the initial proposal of the Waitaki District Council’s Representation Review for the next two rounds of local body elections.The consultation runs until 11.59pm on Wednesday, 4 September, a council spokesperson says.Every six years, by law, the council must review its representation arrangements to ensure the best set up to represent people fairly and equally. The last review was in 2018.The initial proposal is to keep things as they are for the 2025 and 2028 elections, meaning Waitaki voters will elect a mayor, councillors, and community board members under the same arrangements as the 2022 election.Currently, the average population to councillor ratio is 2,436. This varies from ward to ward.Oamaru Ward has six councillors who represent 2,483 people each, while Corriedale Ward has two representing 2,460 people each, and Waihemo Ward has one councillor for 2,500 people.The Ahuriri Ward, which has one representative for around 2,040 people, (a -16.26% difference from the quota for an elected member) is outside the range of  Local Electoral Act requirements of plus or minus 10%, the spokesperson says.While that difference has shrunk from a -21.95% difference in 2018 as a result of tourism and economic development in the area, the council still needs an exemption for the ward and to have it recognised as “an isolated community of interest that requires an elected member and a community board to ensure effective representation”.The initial proposal is available in the consultation document, and online at Let’s Talk Waitaki. Consultation documents will also be available at Waitaki District offices in Ōamaru and Palmerston, and Waitaki District Libraries.

By David Pomeroy and Lisa Darragh* ofAnalysis - The government's recently announced plans to "transform maths education" have set off a heated debate over how the subject is taught in classrooms.Primary and intermediate schools will now have a new maths curriculum starting in 2025 - a year earlier than initially planned - based on "structured maths".Unlike structured literacy, which has a broad research base, structured maths is not a recognised teaching method.From what Education Minister Erica Stanford and her ministerial advisory group have said, it's likely structured maths will include teachers directly explaining maths to children before they practise it, children repeating maths techniques until they have mastered them, and more rote memorisation of basic facts like times tables.During last year's election, National campaigned on a policy to "teach the basics brilliantly". Students are now required to have one hour of maths per day in Years 1-8 and twice-yearly standardised maths tests in Years 3-8 from 2025.But the government's latest announcement has a new tone of urgency - which raises some questions.Misleading numbersPrime Minister Christopher Luxon called recent Year 8 maths results "appalling" and a "total system failure". Stanford told media "those statistics tell us there's no time".The government justified the changes using a study that found just 22 percent of Year 8 students, and just 12 percent of Māori students, were at the expected curriculum benchmark for mathematics. Taken out of context, these figures clearly paint a grim picture.But in reality, they show a change in curriculum and a new benchmarking process introduced by the previous government in 2023, rather than a change in achievement.As explained by Charles Darr, one of the lead researchers involved in the study quoted by the government: "We've been tracking student achievement in mathematics at Year 8 for more than ten years, and in that time, there has been no evidence for improvement or decline. We do have a new draft curriculum, however, and the provisional benchmarking exercise we carried out indicates it requires a higher level of proficiency than the 2007 curriculum."The Aotearoa Educator's Collective has called the government out on this misleading use of statistics.The problem with rushing changePrimary maths education has been neglected for decades and does need support. But the government appears to be manufacturing a crisis to justify rushing the changes.The structured maths curriculum and teaching resources are still being developed and time is running out.Having these resources in teachers' hands in time for 2025 will mean important processes, including consultation, quality control of resources and teacher professional learning, will be very rushed - if they happen at all.This pace is concerning. Teachers are already under pressure to implement other mandatory changes in assessment and literacy.Educators need resources directly connected to the curriculum and relevant to the children in Aotearoa New Zealand. Rushing the process means neither of these are likely to be the case.Stanford is in commercially sensitive negotiations with existing providers to create these resources, yet these providers will also be operating on a rushed time frame.They may not be able to provide something that is deeply connected to the curriculum, perhaps instead reframing existing material that is only superficially related.Another option the minister might consider is to import overseas resources. This approach is also problematic. Resources made outside Aotearoa New Zealand do not reflect the diversity of our classrooms. For mathematics to be relevant for all children, resources should be locally focused.Lack of research for new curriculumAt a surface level, the proposed new maths teaching methods have appeal. But research supporting this change is limited and underdeveloped. Even the ministerial advisory group concedes the research base for structured maths is "not as clear cut as the research for literacy".According to a report from the advisory group, "applying general principles from cognitive psychology to mathematics suggests that these (structured maths) practices will improve teaching". But general principles suggesting an approach might work do not justify a rushed system overhaul.Of course cognitive psychology, which includes topics like repetition and memory, is relevant to maths learning. However, cognitive theories of learning are only one part of the complex activity of classroom teaching.Time to slow downThe limited evidence for structured maths stands in stark contrast to the broad base of research showing how to engage children in cognitively rich, creative and culturally-relevant maths.While the government's crisis narrative is unhelpful, there is a need and a political mandate for more support in maths education.But what the country requires is a slow and considered response that is likely to work for the children and teachers it serves.Rushing through a model with a weak evidence base only adds to teachers' workloads, without guaranteeing to deliver the "brilliance" teachers and parents have been promised.* David Pomeroy is a senior lecturer in Mathematics Education at the University of Canterbury and Lisa Darragh is a lecturer in mathematics education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau- This story was originally published by The Conversation.

Is it possible the internet actually made something better?That might be the case for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Moments that in another era might have gone virtually unnoticed were instead spun into days of memes and memories like we were one big, funny family in on a joke or a touching moment.These Olympics gave us some unlikely heroes and unearthed sports that are often overlooked. When did we ever show so much interest in pommel horse? And who now wants to take up pistol shooting?Let's reminisce through the athletes (plus Snoop Dogg) who are forever in our hearts:Snoop Dogg and Martha StewartNBC, the US Olympic broadcaster, stuffed their coverage with cameos from every NBC connected celebrity you could think of. Rapper Snoop Dogg was a torchbearer during the opening ceremony and then took up duties as an NBC correspondent.Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart at the equestrian. Photo: TT/HENRIK MONTGOMERY via RNZOne of his standout moments was at the equestrian with old friend Martha Stewart. Both were dressed appropriately for the occasion with riding hats and tailed coats, and Snoop was typical Snoop just with horses.French BaguetteFrench pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati didn't get a podium finish but he might have secured another prize - biggest bulge, or at least the most talked about. On one of his attempts, Ammirati appeared to almost clear the bar only for his junk to well and truly clip it on the way down.The word pole is in his sport. He is French so, naturally, baguette comes to mind. The internet just couldn't help itself.Anthony Ammirati's famous and failed pole vaulting attempt censored for good taste. Photo: SuppliedPorn site Camsoda offered Ammirati USD $250,000 to disrobe. In a now-deleted post on TikTok, Ammirati seemed to lament there is more buzz for his pole than his performance.Raygun the Australian b-girlAustralia's womens breaking athlete (yes, it is an Olympic sport for the first and maybe last time) Rachel Gunn, aka Raygun, received zero points from the judges. She hopped like a kangaroo and wore a tracksuit reminiscent of the character Kath from Aussie TV series Kath and Kim.Rachel Gunn, aka Raygun challengers a competitor in breakdancing at the Paris Olympics. Photo: Odd Andersen/AFP via RNZAt first, Gunn was largely criticised for what seemed like a bizarre performance compared to the more break-dancey moves of her competitors.But, that was yesterday and now more people, including those in the breakdance community, are applauding her unique choreography and confidence to just do her thing.The boss pistol shootersSouth Korea's Kim Yeji looked like a spy assassin with futuristic eyewear. Turkey's Yusuf Dikeç looked like a dad - baggy track pants, t-shirt, glasses, hand casually in pocket - about to take out his daughter's bad boyfriend.South Korea's Kim Yeji. Photo: Charles McQuillan / Getty Images via RNZDifferent looks, same results. Both athletes became viral sensation for their cool demeanour, giving the sport of shooting a rare centre stage.But this tale of immediate internet fame is a cautionary one. After returning to South Korea, Kim Ye-ji fainted at a press conference. Representatives cited exhaustion following the Olympics.Pommel Horse GuyThe US's Stephen Nedoroscik appeared to be asleep for much of the men's gymnastic team event while waiting for his discipline. Then, like a Clarke Kent transition to Superman, he took off his glasses, approached the pommel horse and dominated, securing a bronze medal for his team.Stephen Nedoroscik Photo: JAMIE SQUIRE / AFP / GETTY via RNZThe internet has delighted in getting to know Nedoroscik more. The self-confessed nerd seems like a genuinely nice guy who likes Rubix cubes, video games and gymnastics' oddball discipline, pommel horse.For good measure, he went on to win bronze in the individual pommel horse event.The Muffin ManNorway's Henrik Christiansen weighed up between competitive swimming and theatre. Swimming won, but he really chose both thanks to his muffin-focused TikTok account.Norway's Henrik Christiansen, aka, Muffin Man. Photo: Tiktok/@henrikchristians1 via RNZNumerous and hilarious videos have Christiansen showing off the oozy chocolate muffins in the Olympic village, often with half of it ending up on his face.Christiansen didn't medal so instead we will remember him as the self-declared "Muffin Man" of the Paris Olympics.Hot Sleeping Italian SwimmerThomas Ceccon is hot in more ways than one. Firstly, Ceccon is very good looking with a killer set of abs. Secondly, he sounded a little like Goldilocks: the Olympic Village was too hot (to his credit, there was no air conditioning) and the beds were too hard (they had a cardboard-based and were allegedly sex-proof).Thomas Ceccon taking an afternoon nap. Photo: Supplied via RNZThis all lead to him taking an afternoon nap on the grass next to a park bench in the Olympic village. Another athlete snapped a photo of him and the rest is history.Ceccon still managed to grab gold in the men's 100m backstroke and a bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay.Love storiesParis lived up to its name as the city of love. There was the tennis doubles team who were a real life couple before they broke up to focus on their sport. Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac went on to win gold together, potentially rekindling their romance.Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac Photo: Getty Images via RNZAlice Finot missed out on a medal in the 3000m steeplechase by one place, but straight after the race she dropped to one knee and proposed to her boyfriend, Spanish triathlete Bruno Marinez Bargiela.Olympic long jump gold medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall and her husband, paralympian Hunter Woodhall, turned the world into a bowl of mush with a video that showed what it is to be a supportive partner. "You're the Olympic champion," Woodhall yelled, as Davis-Woodhall jumped into his arms trackside.Queen AndradeFor the first half of Paris, it seemed like there was only one gymnast anyone could talk about - Simone Biles, America's most decorated female gymnast who famously withdrew from the last Olympics in Tokyo. Brazil's Rebeca Andrade challenged Biles for gold in the all-around final, but came out with a silver.Rebeca Andrade won gold. Photo: AFP / Gabriel Bouys via RNZWhen Andrade finally won gold in the floor, Biles, who won silver, and bronze medalist Jordan Chiles bowed to Andrade while she stood on the podium.

The decision between wearing a raincoat and a beanie, or shorts and a t-shirt will be tough this week, with MetService forecasting changing winds, which will in turn bring fluctuating temperatures for the week ahead.Strong Winds were felt along the eastern coast of North Otago on Monday, and have been forecast further north, with a wind warning issued  from Kaikoura northwards to Wellington and up to Hastings. An intense cold front, known colloquially as a ‘southerly buster’, is making a quick journey northward.MetService Meteorologist Clare O’Connor says a ‘southerly buster’ is a particularly strong cold front, “characterised by blustery wind changes and a large drop in temperatures”. “A drop of 10°C in a matter of minutes and winds suddenly gusting 90km/h is not unusual with the passage of these fronts,” she says.A risk of thunderstorms with hail is also forecast for some eastern areas, which all adds up to a rather dramatic Monday afternoon and evening in the east.The aftermath will be felt into Tuesday, with heavy swells of up to six metres forecast off the east coast of the North Island and the Chatham Islands. Tuesday should be the beginning of the calm after the storm as high pressure builds over the country. And while Wednesday wakes to a cold morning, the snap is short-lived with above-average temperatures expected from Wednesday afternoon, as milder westerly winds develop about the lower half of the South Island, then spread northwards over Thursday, Clare says.However, another swing to the lower end of the temperature scale, and a burst of heavy rain could be seen over the weekend.

A section of Beach Road will be closed from next week until December as part of Project Reclaim.Project Reclaim is a Waitaki District Council-funded project aiming to relocate waste from three contaminated sites in danger of slipping into the sea. Fulton Hogan has removed 35,000 tonnes of waste from the former Hampden Landfill and transported it to a new landfill cell in Palmerston, constructed by Waste Management.The work in Hampden should be completed by late-August, then the focus will shift to two Beach Road sites near Awamoa Road, council solid waste manager Steve Clarke says.Unlike Hampden, these were not municipal landfill sites, but have been identified as significant historic fly-tipping sites which pose a similar threat to the coastal environment.Excavation work should begin at the Beach Road from late August, the closed areas and surrounding roads are signposted.The landfill cell in Palmerston, where the Hampden waste is being moved to. Photo: suppliedBeach Road will be closed from the Old Bones Lodge to the corner just before the North Otago Golf course from next Monday (19 August). Awamoa Road will also be closed from 404 Awamoa Road to the Beach Road junction.“We’re on track to cleaning up some of the mistakes of the past, keep our coastlines safe and remind people that fly-tipping can have long-term and damaging consequences for the environment,” Steve says.The road is expected to be closed until December, although that will depend on the progress of excavation and the remediation work needed following that, he says. The closure points have been chosen to enable safe turning points for vehicles.Parts of Beach Road and Awamoa Road (marked in red) will be closed from next Monday (August 19) for further rubbish removal.

The very idea of Pharmac presents a conundrum for the minister in charge, Act leader David Seymour.His mum was a pharmacist, but in a Venn diagram of Seymour and Pharmac the circles would barely overlap.For Act the market is king, subsidies are evil and success is spending as little taxpayer money as possible.Pharmac was established in 1993 to stand in the way of the market. It's a monopoly drug buyer, using taxpayer money to fund medicines.Pharmac is exempt from the Commerce Act, which encourages competition. The pharmaceutical industry in New Zealand opposed that, taking it all the way to the Supreme Court. Pharmac won.Listen: David Seymour hopes for major Pharmac reform duration 3′22″ The exemption was something that in 2006 Act tried, unsuccessfully, to overturn. Its deputy leader Heather Roy told Parliament the exemption was neither necessary nor justifiable."It denies choice for doctors and patients, limits public access to new medicines, and discourages research and development," Roy said."Without the Commerce Act exemption, patients would be able to access the medicine that best treats them, often at a lower cost, instead of being limited to whichever medicine Pharmac bureaucrats have endorsed."Seymour also commits Act party sacrilege by wanting to increase government spending on Pharmac - while much of the state sector shrinks.In recent months $2.4 billion has been mainlined into Pharmac, including $600 million to rescue National's faltering promise to fund new cancer drugs.In fact it was Seymour who stood strong to defend the (the anti-market) Pharmac model, after National got itself in a pickle by promising to fund 13 specific cancer drugs in the 2023 election campaign.That created a schmozzle because Pharmac is supposed to be independent of meddling ministers and also because it relies on secrecy about which drugs it wants to fund so it can haggle with 'Big Pharma'.Seymour told RNZ that National's Finance Minister Nicola Willis set out the options to get the promise over the line."One would be to just direct Pharmac - and technically, legally, we could do that - but I said 'that's a non-starter,' that would have undermined their integrity."Option two was to create a separate drug buying agency just to fund the cancer drugs, which he says would have created "crazy consequences" and two agencies with different riding instructions.Seymour went with option three: tip money into Pharmac to allow National to meet its promise."The byproduct of that is that the amount of money that went in was over twice as much as they had anticipated." Instead of the 13 cancer drugs National promised, Pharmac had the money for 26 cancer drugs and 54 new medicines overall."We went as close as you could to breaching the integrity of the model," Seymour admits. He didn't ask Pharmac to reveal its secret ranking list of drugs it wants to buy (the 'Options For Investment' list)."But just give us an idea of what it would take to be able to, hand on heart, say we've fulfilled the promise - and they said well, about this much."But how can he regard it as a success to spend twice as much money as a promise necessitated?"Fair enough," Seymour concedes with a chuckle, before laying out why he thinks Pharmac is different. "It's true that in just about every area, Act is in favour of the government spending less but I've never said that about pharmaceuticals. I've always believed that we under invest in pharmaceuticals."He also works his argument around - and this is important because it's at the core of his plan to reform Pharmac - to claim that, with medicines, governments can save money by spending money.Like many electorate MPs it's something Seymour hears from constituents."If the medicine was funded, not only would it be good for the constituent but it would probably increase their ability to work and pay tax, reduce the need for benefits, reduce their admission to hospital and save money in a bunch of other ways."Clinicians have long shared this frustration. In a 2019 investigation into Pharmac RNZ quoted Brandon Orr-Walker, an endocrinologist at Middlemore Hospital, lamenting the medicines available for Type 2 diabetes. "We're working with a pharmaceutical kete which looks like the same one that you would use in a third world country. But the moment you slip into kidney failure, you will have first world provision of dialysis services."While it may sound like homespun wisdom - a stitch in time saves nine, as the proverb says - what Seymour is proposing would be a radical transformation of Pharmac.He wants the 'whole of society' impacts of funding (or not funding) a medicine to be evaluated, rather than just the upfront cost.In fact, it's that or bust.Photo: RNZIf the 'whole of society' model doesn't get across the line, Pharmac is unlikely to get any more money in the next Budget."I think that's almost certainly going to be the case. Not unless we do that whole of society costing," Seymour says. "We're going to be pretty tapped out in terms of further increases unless we can show their savings elsewhere."When he first got the keys to the Pharmac medicine cupboard he found it bare."When I became the minister, Pharmac said: 'On our current budget track, we are going to have to start (saying) which medicines no more patients can be admitted to and then we may have to de-list some medicines that patients are currently receiving'. And I looked at Nicola Willis, and I said: 'Well, we've got no choice here'."The government handed over $1.8 billion in April and then $600 million more to meet National's cancer drug promise."But having given in total now about $2.4 billion more than was promised under the Labor budget in 2023 it is going to be challenging for me to persuade other ministers that even more money should go to medicines."Seymour says unless he can convince ministers to adopt a whole of society costing approach, New Zealand will languish at the bottom of the medicine league tables."If this was rugby and we were the worst in the world, there would be a national outcry and we would take a good hard look at ourselves. We've been sort of the Romania of the 'Medicines World Cup' for quite some time, and people have had to put up with it."Changing to a 'whole of society' model probably won't require a law change - "we're open to changing legislation if we need to" - but could be achieved by Pharmac collaborating more closely with the pharmaceutical industry.Hang on. Pharmac - which guards against price gouging by 'Big Pharma' - is going to lie down with the enemy?"It's about starting to work more closely with the pharmaceutical companies," Seymour says. "They have good data from foreign trials of what their medicines are able to do for people, and then getting good at the kind of mathematical modelling so I can credibly go to the other ministers and say, 'look, here's the money that we think we can save based on good data'."Playing nice with the industry is part of a culture shift he wants to see at Pharmac.When Pharmac was set up in 1993, New Zealand was broke and desperately trying to rein in spending (even more so than now).He says the culture has developed as Pharmac "have had the job of saying no to desperate and dying people" and "then their other job is to go toe-to-toe with 'Big Pharma'"."So you can imagine what being treated like that - and then saying, 'here's your capped budget, good luck' - has done to their culture and I think that needs to improve."He wants Pharmac to see itself as a partner to clinicians, pharmaceutical companies and patients."Ultimately, their job is to get bang for buck for the taxpayer. But it doesn't always have to be, knives drawn, pistols at dawn, kind of stuff. There may be better ways to do this."Seymour's wish for a less adversarial Pharmac lines up with the wishes of the drug companies. 'Big Pharma' submissions to the 2022 Pharmac Review, obtained by RNZ under the Official Information Act, show the companies complained about its tough negotiating style."Pharmac senior management and Therapeutic Group Managers can sometimes adopt an adversarial and litigious engagement style with suppliers," Johnson & Johnson said.The drug giant also argued for Pharmac to split its roles of assessing drugs and negotiating prices."All international jurisdictions separate out the functions of pharmaceutical assessment," it said. "The scientific assessment phase of the assessment should be separated from the pricing and reimbursement decision."Seymour, in his Letter of Expectations to Pharmac board chair Paula Bennett, has asked Pharmac to consider that."Would New Zealand's needs be better served by a clear delineation of the role of value assessment and procurement in the area of medical technologies," Seymour asked in his letter to Pharmac.So what's the answer? "It's a provocation for them," he tells RNZ. "I'm just putting up the provocation that they need to get good at doing their way or we'll look at another way."Steve Maharey, a former senior Labour Party minister, was the previous chair of Pharmac's board. Photo: RNZIt's fair to say that the name Pharmac does not send warm thoughts of love and appreciation through the neurons of the collective consciousness.The standard media story goes like this: A patient needs a drug to stay alive. Pharmac says it can't afford to fund it. How could they be so heartless?Among the 300 pages of communications between Pharmac and its PR firm Draper Cormack, released to RNZ under the OIA, was evidence of just how poorly Pharmac is perceived.The Kantar Public Sector Reputation Index for 2022 ranked Pharmac third lowest out of 58 agencies.Steve Maharey, who chaired the Pharmac board from 2018 to 2023, knows all about this."Part of the myth about Pharmac is that somehow the people in there are not concerned about what they're doing, they're just treating it like an economic exercise. The way they make judgments is not like that," he says. "It is a very emotional thing."He concedes not enough money was put into Pharmac during his time."I think that there was too little spent on medicines, and it's likely that will continue because it's a never ending stream of new options that are out there and people will want to get access to them."Maharey says there should be more focus on the profits 'Big Pharma' are making."The evidence around the world, and the concern that governments have about pharma companies is that people are seeing them as gouging - as getting rates of return that seem to be impossible."He accepts that pharma companies spend a lot on R&D but says they often pick up research from universities and then develop it.America has discovered what happens to drug prices when the state doesn't intervene.A study by Rand Health Care found that in 2022 prices for drugs in the US were nearly three times as high as the average in 33 other high income countries.Cancer drugs are huge earners. According to a University of Calgary study, annual revenue from cancer drug sales increased by 70 percent among the world's ten largest pharma companies over the past decade.The weight loss wonder drugs Ozempic and Wegovy illustrate the treasure trove a pharma company can open when it hits the jackpot.Novo Nordisk went from a low profile maker of diabetes drugs to a company with a market value of about $870 billion - bigger than Tesla. The Danish company is now worth more than the entire Danish economy.Prices for insulin, which type one diabetics inject daily to stay alive and which some type two diabetics use to manage the condition, have increased 1200 percent in the last 20 years.After Frederick Banting and John Macleod won the Nobel prize for the discovery of insulin in the 1920s they sold the patent to the University of Toronto for $1 because they believed everyone should have access to it.They'd be turning in their graves at the cost of medicines today.The website FiercePharma has a list of the top ten most expensive drugs in the US - and seven of them cost the patient more than $1 million a year.Hemgenix, made by CSL Behring to treat the blood clotting disease haemophilia B, tops the list at $3.5 million per dose, making it the most expensive drug in the world.Vanessa Gascoigne, the New Zealand director of multinational drug company Merck Sharpe and Dohme Photo: RNZYou don't often hear from the chiefs of 'Big Pharma' in New Zealand.Almost all the pressure has been on why Pharmac doesn't buy their hugely expensive drugs, rather than why they charge so much.Drug companies have their own lobby group, Medicines New Zealand, which issues reports saying how stingy Pharmac's budget is and how slow it is to fund medicines.But Vanessa Gascoigne, director of the New Zealand arm of the multinational Merck Sharpe and Dohme (MSD), does front up.She arrives at the RNZ studio on her own, fully prepped and ready to put her case.Gascoigne says the $604 million funding boost for Pharmac is a "phenomenal announcement" and a "massive advance for cancer care".But New Zealand is still a laggard, she says, spending about six percent of its health budget on medicines, less than half the OECD average. Slice it another way and New Zealand spends about 0.5 percent of GDP on pharmaceuticals while other OECD countries spend about 1.5 percent.Gascoigne says the government's focus on cancer drugs was justified."When you look at Pharmac's wish list - the drugs that they want to fund if they had the money to do so - 40 percent of them are cancer medicines, and of those 90 percent of those are funded in Australia."Of course MSD is heavily invested in Pharmac buying more of its products - largely the immunotherapy drug Keytruda.Keytruda is already funded for some types of non-small cell lung cancer and for late stage melanoma. Keytruda for cancers of the head and neck, breast, bowel, bladder and blood are on the Pharmac waitlist.Gascoigne says hundreds of New Zealanders are self-funding Keytruda.In 2021, MSD said it had capped the price of Keytruda at $60,000 a year but Gascoigne won't comment on price at all now."That's commercially confidential, the price. I can't say that. However, we do everything we can to make it as affordable as possible for patients," she says."Like all companies, we do need to make a profit and by making a profit that allows us to be a functional business that can then go and invest in developing new medicines."Gascoigne says, globally, MSD put about half of its revenue into R&D in 2023, knowing that 90 percent of attempts to develop new drugs will fail.In New Zealand MSD has 38 clinical trials involving Keytruda and 50 cancer trials all told - treating 500 patients, who get the drugs for free.MSD is a big fan of Seymour's plans for a 'whole of society' approach to drug funding and a big critic of Pharmac's capped budget - a spending ceiling (currently nearly $1.7 billion) it cannot breach."We're the only country, I believe, that has a capped budget and the only country that sits with a wishlist of medicines that we've said we want to fund, they've been recommended to be funded, they're cost effective at the price given - we just don't have the money to fund them."Drug company Bristol Myers Squibb also took aim at the capped budget in its submission to the 2022 Pharmac Review, obtained by RNZ under the OIA.It said the fixed budget was "a significant factor driving the inequity of access to new medicines that New Zealand patients face when compared to patients in other countries".Sanofi chimed in too, saying the capped budget "results in decisions which are definitely not in the interest of patients or the health sector".It said patients would benefit from a "more collaborative" process which took into account "the full scope of the benefits that an intervention delivers to the patient, their family, the health care system and the broader society".The drug companies are on board with Seymour's whole of society approach then, and the Labour party is too.Ayesha Verrall, Health Minister in the last Labour government and now health spokesperson, supports the 'whole of society' model and says it "sounds an awful lot like the Labour government's wellbeing budgeting approach".Verrall says Labour increased the Pharmac budget by 45 percent and funded 75 new medicines, including Trikafta for cystic fibrosis, but there is always more to do."New Zealanders need and deserve better access to medicines than currently enjoy," she says. "We do need to spend more to get there."

When Arrow Koehler started with us, we asked her to do a series, introducing each member of the team. We couldn't ask her to write about herself so our head of news, Ashley Smyth, wrote about her in anticipation. What Ashley wrote captured our experience of Arrow beautifully. This is the person we came to know and in recognition of her contribution, we want to share it with you. Cara and Alex.As the newest addition to the Waitaki App team, Arrow Koehler's energy, in addition to her photography and writing skills were an asset from day one.Arrow’s name came from the Khalil Gibran poem On Children:   “. . . You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far . . .Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;For even as He loves the arrow that flies,so he loves also the bow that is stable."She was born in Temuka, grew up in Hampden, and went to Hampden School, Ōamaru Intermediate, then Waitaki Girls’ High.In her final year at high school, Arrow honed in on her love of photography, and did some work experience at The Ōamaru Mail and Otago Daily Times.She successfully applied for a year-long cadetship at the newspaper which ended in February this year, and the Waitaki App happily scooped her up. Rather than specifically wanting to be a journalist when she grew up, it had more “kind of fallen into place”, she said.“One of the things I was really adamant about throughout school was, I didn't want to go to university. So, the cadetship was kind of my way to avoid that, avoid a student loan.”A self-portrait Arrow took to be used alongside her byline for the Waitaki App.While staying in Ōamaru had not been high on the 19-year-old’s priority list, she said working in the town had made her appreciate the community more.“You realise how much goes on. You meet a whole lot of people, you realise actually what makes a community work, which I think is really special.“I learnt a lot that year. Coming straight out of school, I'd never seen a council document in my life. So things like that . . . and just like, the absolute diversity of people was kind of what surprised me. Sort of like, from interviewing priests to six-year-olds, and that was kind of cool.”She particularly liked writing about artists and musicians.“They're always interesting and have something weird to say.” Outside of work, Arrow had a love of all things crafty.“I love painting, sewing, anything creative. If I can make weird stuff with it, I'll probably be doing it.”Her current favourite thing was sewing, and she made a lot of her own clothes - although, by her own description, most were not “work appropriate”.“I have a bit of an obsession with pockets. So I make pants with an absurd amount of pockets.”Arrow was looking forward to a new challenge working part-time for Waitaki App.She liked the immediacy of it being digital, and the ease with which she could share stories she had written. Also the flexibility of having no official deadline.“I can put on a whole heap of photos . . . it's always convenient, I quite like that aspect of it. Also just the freedom of it . . . I get to go out and see the sunlight in winter, which I really like . . . so yeah, just the benefits of feeling a bit more human.”Fun fact about Arrow - over the past two years she had taken more than 50,000 photos“And probably only 200 of them have ever been seen by somebody other than me."Arrow will be missed.

Ōamaru company McLeod Nutrition hopes the latest product it has unleashed on the market will have a positive effect on canine wellness.The company’s first two products, released late last year, are Whey Protein Concentrate and a prebiotic soluble fibre called Prebiolax.The target market for these supplements is the elderly and people with health challenges, who need extra attention paid to their nutritional needs, but they have always been suitable for pets as well, McLeod Nutrition founder Andrew McLeod says."Everybody can benefit from good nutrition when they're ill."However, Paw Shakers is a range of three supplements created exclusively for dogs and designed to help with joint health, gut health, and skin and coat health.“We also have a fourth one under development for anxious dogs. So that's taken a little bit longer because MPI (Ministry of Primary Industries) needs to be reassured that it's not a medicine, it's a dietary supplement,” Andrew says.The idea of the Paw Shakers came after his daughter and son-in-law adopted a retired racing greyhound, Petal.They were trying to help her ailing joints with green-lipped mussel powder, but it was a messy process.“She said to me, ‘oh, it's so gross, Dad, you've got to put your hand into the bag and pull it out all covered . . . it'd be nice if we could do something like that, but have it in a form that is easy to use’.“So we came up with the idea of doing them in a sprinkle form that you can sprinkle over the top of your dog's food - wet food or if you have kibble, sometimes people put water with the kibble then you can sprinkle it over that.”And although it’s early days - the products have been on the market just over a week - and Andrew thinks judging from the pre-trials, dogs (and their humans) will be lapping them up.“[Petal] wanted it every meal. She looked forward to it. She would happily eat all the kibble and drink all the water and lick the bowl clean. “So we thought, ‘wow, we're onto something here’, because the dogs really like it.” Dogs are the first port of call, because they’re less fussy than their feline counterparts, but cats won’t be left out in the cold and there are already products under development for them, Andrew says.“Our cat, our ginger Tom, he's very particular about what he likes and doesn't like . . . So we spent a lot of time working on a flavouring that cats seem to like and so that's been successful and we’re now moving on to the next stage for cats.”Trials are now being carried out, and Andrew expects the cat supplements to be out in the next four to six months.Ingredients for the Paw Shakers are all South Island sourced, and the blends are created here in Ōamaru at the former NZ Pet Foods factory in Orwell Street.Joint Health contains freeze-dried greenlipped mussels and fish bone powder, Gut Health is made with a yeast prebiotic and De-Oderase (yucca plant extract), and Skin & Coat contains vitamin E, zinc and has a hoki base, so is ideal for dogs sensitive to beef and chicken.The products have been almost two years in the making. During trials some owners, whose pets had allergies, were trying to avoid beef and chicken, so changes were made to the Skin & Coat to accommodate that, Andrew says.“So I did a major reformulation at that point . . . which is good, that was a big deal for everybody.”The “biggest and best response” was to the Joint Health and the fourth product - Calm. “The Calm one, people were raving about it. It's got things like ashwagandha, valerian, passionflower . . . “So, we'd like to launch it, but . . . we're going to have to work through with MPI about how you describe the ingredients and how you describe the conditions it can help with on the label. We'll get there.”Andrew is using the same rationale with his pet products as the human ones: “they have to be delicious, nutritious, and innovative”. It's better if a consumer enjoys a product, whether it's a dog or a person, he says.Paw Shakers are available online and through NZ Pet Foods' Ōamaru and Timaru stores, with plans to expand into vet clinics, dog groomers and other pet stores.Photo: suppliedMeanwhile, impressive results are being seen in rest homes with McLeod Nutrition’s initial product Whey Protein Concentrate, Andrew says.“They've found that it works when people who are elderly, frail, ill, are given the whey protein, especially in a rest home setting, their chronic wounds that have been struggling to heal, are healed.” Patients at Ross Home in Dunedin, Ranui Home in Alexandra, Iona Home in Oamaru, and Strathallan in Timaru have shown that with the extra protein added to their diet, persistent wounds such as pressure sores are healing more quickly.“It went from being just an observation with one patient to now, it's becoming a standard sort of process,” Andrew says.The whey is given to the residents in a four tablespoon dose in 200mls of milk. “They shake it up and they have it at breakfast time without any flavouring or sweetening. They say it reminds them of how milk was when they were a child, you know. It makes it creamier. "They've had no problems with compliance, and the results are amazing.”The findings are going to be the subject of an article to be submitted to the New Zealand Medical Journal by the dieticians, doctors and nurses involved in the care of these people, to help inform other health professionals, he says.“People know that good nutrition helps with healing, but they don't really know it that profoundly, and oftentimes nursing staff tend to be putting things on wounds, you know, the sort of dressing and antibiotics that are needed, but if you're not well nourished, your body doesn't have the building blocks to heal itself, right?”Not only are the wounds healing faster, but the skin around them is also healthier, and stronger, he says.“So it's a whole body effect. You're going to get stronger muscles, heal up wounds, and also have stronger skin to prevent injuries in the first place.”A recent business win for McLeod Nutrition is the whey and Prebiolax are now being distributed by ProPharma, a pharmaceutical wholesaler, and are gradually being stocked in more pharmacies as word spreads, Andrew says.Find out more about the background of McLeod Nutrition, and how it began in Ōamaru here.

WorkSafe is reinforcing quad bike safety messages after four farmers have been killed in quad bike accidents in the past three weeks.WorkSafe is investigating all four fatalities, the first of which occurred on 18 July in Wairarapa. It was followed by another on 22 July in Canterbury, one on 26 July in Southland, and most recently in Northland on 30 July.All four incidents coincided with the start of lambing and calving season.And on 15 July, two people in the Tasman District were injured after a quad bike rolled on a farm in Mahana.Read more: What the review of NZ's workplace safety rules must get rightWorkplace fatalities, injuries cost NZ $4.4b a year - reportBusiness leaders slam 'disgraceful' lack of workplace health and safetyWorkSafe principal inspector Graham Bates said their sympathy was with every family and community mourning these sudden deaths."Although our investigations are in their early stages, the trend is worrying enough for us to sound the alarm already."Sloped surfaces and steep terrain can be especially problematic and have, sadly, been a factor in some of the recent cases."Bates said doing a risk assessment of terrain and tasks must be the top priority for farm workers before getting on a quad bike - especially at this time of the year."Farm vehicle incidents are one of the top two causes of workplace deaths in Aotearoa, which is why agriculture is a priority sector under WorkSafe's new strategy."We are targeting the biggest risks and working with the sector to improve health and safety in agriculture."WorkSafe's messages to reduce harm on farminstall a crush or rollover protection device on quad bikeschoose the right vehicle for the job and ensure that the driver is competentalways use a seatbelt and helmetconsider quad bike trainingprioritise maintenance, including attachments, tyres and brakesremember tired people make mistakesensure the vehicle is safely stopped and brakes engaged before getting offseek help when needed - neighbouring farmers are always more than willing to lend a hand.

Concerns are being raised new maths requirements for primary school teachers will deter applicants and don't make sense.The government has announced it is bringing forward the 'Make It Count' maths curriculum for years 0 to 8 that will now begin in Term 1 2025.It was brought forward over concerns about achievement rates.Prime Minister Chris Luxon said recent data showed around 50,000 children in Year 8 did not meet their expected benchmarks in 2023. Although the opposition has questioned his figures.The changes included going forward, any candidates for teacher training programmes would need to pass NCEA Level 2 maths.In a snap hui between the Teaching Council and ITE providers on Tuesday, a number of issues were raised, including:That NCEA level 2 maths was not the mathematics knowledge required for primary teaching. The assumption that this maths knowledge would make any difference to what and how primary teachers teach maths was not based on any evidence.This requirement exceeds the University Entrance requirement of 10 credits in maths at Level 1 or above. This requirement would have an impact on enrolment numbers and would likely deter otherwise sound teaching candidates from applying or gaining admission to teacher education.This requirement assumed that secondary school students would have decided on a teaching career by the end of Year 11 and would thus have more than the UE entry requirements in maths.Teacher Education Forum executive chair Dr Rosina Merry said the changes did not make any sense."The kind of notion around having a higher entry level will then mean, you know, accumulate into better outcomes for graduate teachers doesn't really make that much sense, there is not a lot of evidence that shows that it will make a difference."Merry said the changes could actually deter good candidates from applying in the first place, which would only exacerbate the current staffing shortage."Based on our current entry criteria, which is still very robust, and there are many applicants that don't get through, if we lift the level even more, it would pretty much decimate a lot of Initial Teacher Education programmes in the primary sector, it will definitely have a huge impact on the teaching workforce." she said.TEFANZ said evidence from Ireland and Australia suggested this kind of change did not increase the quality of mathematics teaching, but rather significantly and negatively impacted teacher diversity.It also had concerns about the speed of change and the limited time and opportunity for robust consultation.Education Minister Erica Stanford has been approached for comment.

It’s Janet Frame’s 100th birthday this month, and while she isn’t here to celebrate, a celebration will still be had.The Janet Frame Eden Street Trust is planning a special day of free public events in Ōamaru on August 24, to remember the celebrated author, who spent most of her childhood here.Janet Frame lived at 56 Eden Street, Ōamaru with her family, from the age of six until finishing her schooling at Waitaki Girls’ High School.The Eden Street house is now a Janet Frame museum.The August 24 events will mark almost exactly 100 years since Frame’s birth on August 28, 1924.An open day will be held at the museum 2pm to 4pm on the Saturday, and people can visit the historic house and garden free of charge, enjoy some light refreshments and learn more about Frame’s time in Ōamaru, Janet Frame Eden Street Trust chair Chloe Searle says. Meanwhile, the same evening, a group of award-winning New Zealand writers will gather for Writers Celebrate Janet Frame. Also free, the event will be held in the Waitaki Girls’ High School auditorium from 7pm to 8.30pm.Pip Adam, Emma Neale, Michelle Elvy and Rachel Fenton will share readings from Frame’s work and discuss the impact she had. The event will be run by fellow author Kate Camp.Chloe says the event is as much for those just discovering the celebrated author, through to die-hard fans and she is “delighted” to be marking the occasion in Ōamaru. “Our trust knows the impact that Frame’s writing and life have had on so many people and it is a pleasure to acknowledge this in Ōamaru in time for the centenary of her birth.”Frame’s childhood became one of the best known of any New Zealander, after she wrote of its joys and sorrows in her best-selling autobiography, which was immortalised in the celebrated film An Angel at My Table.By the time of Frame’s death in Dunedin in 2004 she had published more than 20 titles of fiction, poetry, and memoir, and was regarded as a New Zealand icon. Progress with the planned visitor centre for the Eden Street museum is also being made. Fundraising efforts last year, supported by people across New Zealand and beyond, mean next steps can now be taken, including removing the existing garage from the site.

The confusion was almost immediate."Why didn't the New Zealand crew go when the gun went off?" quizzed a member of the international press as heat one of the men's C2 500m event got under way on the Vaire-sur-Marne course in Paris.While their rivals charged off the line in a brutal display of power, the Kiwi duo of Max Brown and Grant Clancy appeared to be struggling to even get going.And that was the last that was seen of the pair - in television coverage anyway. In farcical scenes, they went on to finish more than 46 seconds - or around 200 metres - behind the winners of the 500m race.The New Zealand crew weren't just off the pace in the men's field - their time of 2:22.09 would have placed them last by more than 10 seconds in the women's C2 500m.The Kiwi pair were soon a distant last. Photo: Iain McGregor / www.photosport.nz via RNZThey returned later for the quarterfinal race and were again well off the pace. By this stage, the sizeable crowd packed in for day one of the canoe sprint programme had got behind the Kiwi combination, offering generous applause and cheers in scenes reminiscent of 'Eric the Eel' - the Equatoguinean swimmer, whose 100m freestyle time at the Sydney Olympics remains the slowest in history.But these were not athletes from a developing nation getting the opportunity to compete on the biggest stage. Canoe Racing NZ (CRNZ) received high performance funding to the tune of more than $2.5 million per year.That money has been used to build a strong flatwater kayak racing programme. The event Brown and Clancy were racing in on Tuesday was much different.In a kayak, the paddler is seated and uses a double-bladed paddle pulling the blade through the water on alternate sides to move forward. In a canoe, the paddler kneels and uses a single-bladed paddle to propel the boat forward.It's a discipline New Zealand has no pedigree in, and it is rarely seen at club level around the country.A means to an endHow New Zealand came to be racing in an event that it had no hope of being competitive in lies in the quirks of the international body's qualification rules for the Olympics.At the start of the Olympic cycle, Canoe Racing NZ (CRNZ) circled the men's K4 as the event it wanted to prioritise for these Games.The only problem was, New Zealand did not manage to directly qualify the four-man boat for Paris at last year's world championships.CRNZ had hoped to secure two K2 Olympic quota spots - which would have allowed it to select four athletes - at the Oceania Championships in Sydney, but only gained one via Kurtis Imrie and Max Brown.So the national body went to plan C - or plan C2. At the Oceania event, a further two quota spots were up for grabs in the canoeing discipline, so long as there were a minimum of three boats in the race.New Zealand narrowly won the race against a Samoan combination and a hastily thrown together local Australian crew made up of a 70 year-old and a 60-something.CRNZ then used those four quota spots to form a K4 crew.In short, this boat was a means to an end.But some within the canoe racing community and media on the shores of the Vaires-sur-Marne course have questioned the ethics of CRNZ's qualification strategy.The tactic of manipulating the quota system to prioritise a boat that failed to qualify through the conventional route was also raised in the Sports Tribunal, after CRNZ turned down its quota spot in the K1 1000m earned by Quaid Thompson.The men's K4 - Max Brown, Grant Clancy, Kurtis Imrie and Hamish Legarth - in their heat at the Vaires-sur-Marne course near Paris on 6 August. Photo: Iain McGregor / www.photosport.nz via RNZThompson appealed CRNZ's decision, but it was dismissed by the tribunal in April.Brown accepts the way CRNZ went about it was "a little bit different", but believes the team's results in the K4 on Tuesday, when they secured a place in the semifinal, proves New Zealand deserves to have a big boat at the Olympic Games."We used Kiwi ingenuity to qualify the K4 that we were so close to at the world champs, and it always comes back to that," said Brown, who competed in four races on Tuesday."In the end, no rules have been broken. We've followed the process the whole time."I think we proved in our quarterfinal of the K4 that New Zealand deserved to have a K4 here. And so it has always come back to that - I'm doing the C2 so that we can have our chance in the K4."A completely different sportHaving had just three months to learn the difficult discipline before racing in front of a global television audience on sport's grandest stage, Clancy and Brown were relieved to have completed the course twice without any mishaps.Clancy, who steered the canoe at the back, described the canoeing discipline as "a completely different sport" to kayaking."The main challenge we've found going from kayak to canoe is that there is no rudder, so the hardest part is actually steering. It's all done with the paddle and you don't have those skills in kayak because you just use the rudder to steer … so that was our biggest challenge, staying in our lane."Brown said it is also tough on the body."When I got out of the boat at the end of that last race, I couldn't feel my right leg and I actually fell over, it was so numb. That's the hardest part, it's so one-sided, whereas kayak is really symmetrical. So it's been really tough on the legs, my poor booty - I've been working really hard in the gym to make it strong enough."Having had a big workload on the opening day of racing on Tuesday with four races - two each in the C2 and K4 - Brown said he was looking forward to a rest on Wednesday before they are back in action in the semifinals for the K4.Brown and Clancy also have one further appearance in the C2 500m to come in the B final on Thursday.

There will be 324 more Clued Up Kids this week, after a two-day programme at the Waitaki Recreation Centre.Clued Up Kids has been running for more than 10 years, and this year involved 11 different organisations or agencies that have key safety messages, Public Health nurse and event coordinator Fiona Stratford says.“So the messages or the objective for the kids is to become more aware of their personal safety and learn how to react in any dangerous situation. Then they know what their role is and the role emergency services play in the community.”Waitaki District Council road safety coordinator Carrie Hamilton talks to Ardgowan School pupils about keeping safe around buses. Photos: Ashley SmythYear 6 pupils from as far away as Omarama and Otematata, and from Glenavy to Hampden, took part on Tuesday and Wednesday (August 6 and 7) this week, and Fiona says it also allows the children to learn who the key people and agencies are in an emergency, and helps to foster relationships.Each school attends a half-day session, and the event is funded by Emergency Management Otago (EMO), Health New Zealand/Te Whatu Ora, and Network Waitaki.The other groups involved this year are Police, Sport Waitaki, Vetlife, Waitaki District Council Animal Management, Engage Safety (gun safety advocates), Five Forks Young Farmers, Enhance (occupational therapy), St John, Waitaki District Council Road Safety and Waitaki Irrigators Collective. Other years Fire ad Emergency and Surf Life Saving have also been involved.Megan Holden of St John In Schools, talks to Pembroke School pupils about CPR and how to use a defibrillator. “Lots of people are in paid employment, but we rely on volunteers too. So there's a handful of volunteers too that donate their time and expertise,” Fiona says.Each station has a key message which is “drummed into the kids” and at the end of their session they are asked to recall and yell them out, she says.Matt Parsons from Five Forks Young Farmers Club talks bike and farm safety to Pembroke School pupils.