Two a penny

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A rugby referee has been king-hit by a spectator holding a baby, after a controversial end to a game in Auckland.

The attack happened during a Samoan United Rugby Shield game between the Auckland Eagles and Laulii Liona at Williams Park in Mangere at the weekend.

Tournament organiser Moe Mata’afa said the event happened after the Eagles scored the winning try in injury time before one of the Laulii players made a late tackle.

Auckland rugby referees manager Mike Elliott confirmed the incident and said it was being investigated by the disciplinary committee.

Mr Mata’afa said that, soon after, as the referee stood in the officials’ tent talking to some of the players, the man – understood to be a spectator – entered the tent and punched the referee from behind.

As the referee spoke with the Laulii captain after he awarded the Eagles a penalty, he was allegedly abused by one of the Laulii team’s support staff and ended the game. . The man then fled…”

“But it wasn’t a real [bad punch] because he had a baby in one hand. they were talking to him in the tent and someone just from nowhere punched the referee.

Mr Mata’afa said they had called police but the unidentified man had already fled.”

He believed the incident was sparked by the referee’s decision to end the game won by the Eagles 14-12, early.

The tournament is played following the regular rugby season and consists of teams made up by players from the same villages in Samoa.

He said the incident was the first of its kind in the tournament’s six-year history.

Mr Elliott said the referee had not suffered any serious injuries and would referee again this weekend.

It was made up of Auckland and Counties Manukau club and secondary school rugby players.”

Otahuhu Senior Sergeant Laurie Culpan confirmed the assault but said they had not located the offender.

“We would like to find the culprit but a member of the public is pretty hard to find when they disappear into the woodwork.

Mr Culpan said since it was not a serious assault, the enquiries were being left to the Auckland Rugby Union, with police to act on any information provided by them.

“Police were called but obviously by the time we got there the spectator had disappeared, which is fairly common for these sort of things,” he said.”

He said the rugby union had measures they could take such as bans on individuals or standing clubs down in order to get the person to come forward.

“As you can imagine from our perspective, everybody’s gone, there are that many lines of inquiry for a minor assault, it would chew an inordinate amount of police time.

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A Masterton man who achieved a degree of fame through a near-death experience last year was today convicted of assaulting his former partner.

John Edmonds’ heart stopped beating for 25 minutes after a collapse in November.

After his recovery he fielded requests to share his story from a United States radio show, an author and the New York Times.

He was now a illness beneficiary, and the only way he could make money was by capitalising on the interest generated by his survival, she said.

At sentencing in Wellington District Court today, lawyer Louise Elder pressed for Edmonds to be discharged without conviction.

But Judge Stephen Harrop said Edmonds had three previous convictions dating back to 1986, including one for assault.

A conviction could prevent him travelling to interviews or speaking engagements overseas. .

He was also convicted of intentional damage to his former partner’s paintings and fined $1200 reparation.

He convicted Edmonds and sentenced him to six months supervision for assault with intent to injure and fined him $500 in emotional harm reparation.

The pair were getting along until Edmonds received text messages from one of his former partners, Judge Harrop said.

On August 5 this year, Edmonds had visited the home of his on-again off-again partner Sarah Alexander, 33, an amateur artist.

She snapped the phone – which Edmonds had borrowed – and this made him snap as well, Judge Harrop said.

Ms Alexander asked to look at his phone and was annoyed to see who the messages were from.

“You got very angry and you punched one of her paintings two or three times.

“You got very angry and you punched one of her paintings two or three times.”

Ms Alexander told police Edmonds had kicked her about four times in the legs as she collapsed under his blows.

“You then punched her a number of times in the head and face.

She said Edmonds was a high profile member of the community and other cases like his were heard every day and went “entirely under the radar”.

Edmonds’ lawyer, Ms Elder did not hide her contempt for “the press”, telling the court a Wairarapa Times-Age interview with Ms Alexander following the attack, which ran on the front page, had been “a huge punishment in itself”.

Since his heart attack, Edmonds could no longer work in the fitness industry and was now a illness beneficiary, she said.

It had a huge impact on Edmonds, and his teenaged children had received a barrage of text messages “which destroyed them”, Ms Elder said.

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Judge Harrop noted a discharge without conviction was opposed by police and by Ms Alexander who, in her victim impact statement, said she felt “gutted” by Edmonds’ continued denial of what happened and the lack of an apology

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Three New Zealanders have been confirmed as killed in the Pacific tsunami, with another presumed dead and grave concerns held for two others.

The only New Zealander so far identified isMary Ann White, 54, of Raglan, whose family was trying last night to get her body home.

The injured are being accompanied by six family members, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. .

Acting Prime Minister Bill English said earlier today that three Britons and two Germans who were also injured would also be evacuated.

They are expected to arrive at Auckland’s Whenuapai Airport early tomorrow morning and will then be transported by a fleet of ambulances to local hospitals for treatment.

There were initially reports that a two-year-old Auckland boy had been officially identified as one of those killed.

The confirmed death toll from Wednesday’s tsunamis, caused by an 8 magnitude undersea quake, stood at 149 in Samoa, 31 on American Samoa and nine on neighbouring Tonga.

The toddler was swept out to sea as he was playing on the beach with his parents at Lalomanu when the 6m wave came ashore on Wednesday. This is incorrect, and it is understood he remains missing, presumed dead.

MFAT earlierconfirmed it was providing support to the toddler’s parents. His parents swam to safety.

The husband and wife, originally from Britain, now live in Auckland.

They were taken to hospital yesterday with minor injuries and later discharged and are staying at the New Zealand High Commission in Samoa. Tsunami warnings were given and they were trying to escape to higher ground when the waves struck. The family was holidaying at a resort close to the village of Lalomanu.

GRAVE CONCERNS

MFATsays grave fears are held for two New Zealanders who had been staying at the Taufua Resort, Lalomanu.

Plans are underway to medi-vacinjured New Zealanders on a RNZAF plane to New Zealand as soon as possible.

However, the Martin family of Wardville, outside Matamata, was this morning preparing to fly out to Samoa in search of their two daughters who flew to Samoa on Monday for a holiday. The ministry has not released details of the pair.

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The sisters, Petria, 22 and Rebecca, 24, were holidaying with their cousin, a Hamilton travel agent and her friend, and had been due back tomorrow

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MPs found guilty of serious criminal offences will lose their travel perks, a decision sparked by Taito Phillip Field’s recent conviction for corruption.

The former Mangere MP was last month found guilty of bribery and obstruction of justice after being found to have accepted work on properties in return for immigration assistance.Under the Electoral Act, an MP convicted of serious criminal offences must vacate their seat.An amendment to the rules would require MPs convicted of serious criminal offences to give up their travel privileges, Speaker Lockwood Smith announced today.However, they are not required to give up travel entitlements available to former MPs .”I have followed a process that included consultation in arriving at my final decision.”I felt it was appropriate that the travel privileges of former members be stopped where someone was convicted of an offence that would require them to vacate their seat in Parliament,” Dr Smith said. .The decision would apply to travel entitlements available to former MPs who entered Parliament before 1999.The amendment was expected to take effect by the end of next month, Dr Smith said.He could also have claimed a 90 percent discount on international travel, as long as it did not exceed the cost of a return business-class flight to London on Air New Zealand – about $10,000.Having entered Parliament in 1993, Field could have claimed up to 12 free domestic return air fares a year.

.Former MPs have come under fire for the ir travel expenses after they were revealed last month

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New Zealand is ready to assist Indonesia after a large earthquake killed at least 46 people and injured hundreds more, the Prime Minister said.

Wednesday’s 7.

A newly married Rotorua couple who were rushing home after learning of a family death were caught up in the powerful earthquake.0 magnitude earthquake sent terrified residents rushing out onto the streets of the capital, Jakarta and in towns and villages closer to the epicentre in West Java.Mr Key said he was concerned to hear about the earthquake and saddened at the loss of life. Government agencies said the death toll was likely to rise, as some affected coastal areas remained out of contact.”To my knowledge New Zealand has not been asked for assistance by the Indonesian Government, but (we) stand ready to consider any requests that might be made.”The New Zealand post in Jakarta has been busy checking the wellbeing of all New Zealanders registered with the embassy, but at this stage there is no reason to believe any New Zealanders have been killed or injured,” Mr Key said.Forty-two people were listed as missing in landslides triggered by the quake. .0 quake struck the Indonesian capital on Wednesday afternoon (local time).

Mike Jonathan, 35, and his Indonesian wife, Cinzia Puspita Rini, were in Jakarta when the 7.

The couple had been on honeymoon in Bali but cut their trip short and travelled to Jakarta yesterday en route to New Zealand after learning that Mr Jonathan’s sister had passed away suddenly. At least 42 people have died and thousands have been forced to flee their homes.

The filmmaker said they were about to lie down for a rest when the house they were staying at began to shake and his wife told him to get out.

They arrived in Indonesia last Friday and had planned to stay for another two weeks but cancelled their trip to rush home for the tangi in Taumarunui today.

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He said the houses were all built of concrete so they couldn’t take shelter under the doorway as you are told to in New Zealand

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Frustrated AC/DC fans have had to deal with Ticketek blunders today which saw many buyers ending up with more tickets than they wanted and others struggling to buy any at all.

But the Ticketek country director said it had been a successful day and the problems that some people experienced were not large-scale faults and were to be expected with large customer demand.

Many customers have expressed their frustrations at Ticketek, the agent for AC/DC concert ticket sales in Wellington, saying they experienced website problems earlier today.

“I was pretty frustrated earlier today,” he said.

Weta Digital visual artist Dave Abbott was one of the people affected by the meltdown.

“The cornerstone of their business (should be) making sure that that whole stuff is flawless but it just completely fell apart under pressure.

While he had managed to finally get tickets, at least six other people in his office experienced the same problem, he said.”

Though the website had said not to book any more tickets and to ring to check whether his purchase had been successful, he had spent half an hour trying to get though only to have an automated message tell him the phone lines were overloaded, he said.”

Ministry of Health analyst Brett Lousich wanted five tickets but ended up with 15 – costing him $2,700 in what he called an “absolute debacle”.

“I tried to (book tickets) twice so potentially I could’ve spent $700 on tickets.

He said when he finally got though to Ticketek he was told he had ordered five tickets successfully but a call to his bank showed he had paid for 15 tickets and been charged $2,700 worth of charges.

He said he had thought his efforts to buy tickets had been aborted twice before a message told him not to buy any more after his third attempt and to call them to see whether his order had gone through.

“I guess the thing that annoys me is they haven’t put anything on the website explaining at all what’s gone wrong.

“Even to this point in the day I still haven’t received any confirmation that my order’s gone through via email,” he said. They could have emailed all the people that have had issues,” he said. They could have emailed all the people that have had issues,” he said. .

He said there had been such high demand that problems were inevitable.

“I now have 12 bloody tickets when I only wanted two.

A number of comments from readers expressed frustration at the issue. Their system obviously couldn’t handle that many people on the site. Ticketek is completely useless.

. And I can’t get hold of them for refunds,” said a poster called Tom

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At least 15 people were killed and 50 injured overnight in Italy when a freight train hauling liquefied petroleum gas derailed and exploded as it passed their homes, officials said on Tuesday.

About 1000 people were evacuated following the blast just before midnight on Monday, which shook people from their beds in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio, about 350km north of Rome.It was Italy’s most deadly rail accident since 17 people were killed in January 2005, when a passenger train collided with a freight train near the northern city of Bologna.Thirty-seven people were injured, seriously or very seriously, rescue workers said, including a 2-year-old who was badly burned and was being transferred to a hospital in Florence.GATX Rail Europe, a unit of the US-based GATX Corp, which owns the rail cars – each one made of a gas tank attached to a wagon – told it did not know the cause of the explosion and was gathering information from news reports.Firefighters battled overnight to contain blazes started by the explosion and, as a precaution, were emptying liquefied petroleum gas from other, unexploded tanks in the wrecked train.Television showed the fire spreading down city streets, setting cars and nearby buildings alight.Chief Financial Officer Werner Mitteregger said the tanks being transported on the Italian railways were new.At least two children were among the dead, officials said. Rescue workers set up along the roadside to provide first aid to burn victims.Rescue workers pulled bodies from the rubble of damaged buildings.”Let me see him! Let me see him!,” screamed one man trying to see his grandson, who was among the dead, ANSA news agency reported.State railways said the accident occurred when one carriage derailed, pulling another four with it. ANSA said two nearby buildings collapsed. . Liquefied petroleum gas escaped from a tank on one of the carriages and caught fire

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Auckland’s legendary transport problem has become a national issue now that all of New Zealand is being asked to foot the bill for fixing it – but where should the city start?

Auckland’s legendary snarl-ups are driving the locals crazier than ever. Time-wasting traffic jams and hour-long commutes are the reason many people quit the city, and why others choose not live there. And for most Aucklanders who don’t have a reliable train or bus going their way there’s no way they can get out of their car any time soon. Two weeks ago, Transport Minister Stephen Joyce scrapped the regional tax that would have paid for $710 million of rail, bus and ferry improvements, then announced that instead $500m for electric trains would come from smaller increases in national fuel taxes.

Auckland’s transport mess has now become everyone’s problem. The changes have been slammed by the Auckland Regional Council, Labour and the Greens who last week revealed that even cabinet thinks Auckland will lose financially if the planned transport improvements don’t go ahead.

It’s become a case of too little, too late, the critics say. A report from its business committee shows if you leave in $110m of “niceties” station upgrades, integrated ticketing, real time information you get $3-$4 back over 25 years.

But now that rescuing the commercial capital from an infrastructure disaster is a national issue, the Sunday Star-Times has asked three leading international transport gurus and an Auckland expert to identify where the city needs to go and quickly. Remove them and get $1 back per $1 spent over 40 years as fewer people use public transport, resulting in money lost from fares and workers sitting in traffic.

Investing in the future

A cabinet paper, released to the Green Party under the Official Information Act, shows Auckland would have got back $3-$4 for each $1 spent on a $110 million package of public transport “extras”. One of the more controversial solutions is to take away free parking and to charge developers who build car parks.

This is because without the “extras” ferry wharf upgrades, smart card integrated ticketing, and real time information for buses and ferries fewer people will want to use public transport, which means higher congestion costs and loss of fares. By comparison, spending $500m on rail electrification alone the only public transport funding the government pledged after scrapping the regional fuel tax means Auckland will get back just $1 for each $1 spent. Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimmons accused the government of “penny pinching”. Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimmons accused the government of “penny pinching”.

If rail isn’t upgraded, 130km of roads would be needed at a cost of $3. The total $860m public transport rollout planned by the Auckland Regional Council would have cut 18,000 car journeys during morning and afternoon peaks, and reduced congestion costs to motorists by $200m a year. Transport Minister Stephen Joyce said the ARC could ask the New Zealand Transport Agency to help plug the funding gap, or raise the money itself.8 billion to cope with anticipated demand. Activist academic, author and past president of Melbourne’s Public Transport Users Association

Auckland has spent more on roads, per head, than any Australian city and look at the results, Mees says.

AUSTRALIA: Paul Mees

Senior lecturer in transport planning at RMIT University, Melbourne. Auckland has that, and yet it has worse traffic congestion than larger cities that don’t have it.

“There’s nothing remotely comparable to Spaghetti Junction in any Australian city nothing on the scale of that. Putting bikes and buses in the same lanes is crazy, says Mees.”

He recommends a halt on new or extended motorways until a proper rail system is in place, and high-quality buses as feeders to rail stations.

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Auckland has 1.4 million people; the same population as the city and suburbs of Zurich, in Switzerland. Aucklanders made 52 million trips last year; Zurich residents made 542 million. Around 6% of Aucklanders take public transport to work; 42% of Zurich residents do.

“Auckland’s population density is a little over half of Zurich’s, so maybe you shouldn’t aim quite this high, but 1.3 million people is more than enough to support a viable public transport system,” Mees says.

“If you live in Auckland you don’t appreciate what an extreme case it is, but it’s had the most unbalanced transport policies of just about anyone in the world. Even in Los Angeles they put a bit into public transport eventually. There’s been very little road building going on in LA for the past 20-30 years.

They’ve stopped, but in Auckland you’d think it was the 1950s, from the way the road lobby and the government carry on.

“I actually use Auckland in some of my books on the basis that it’s one of the most extreme cases in the world of a city that’s spent 50 years putting all of its eggs in the motorway basket. It isn’t reasonable for someone to say Auckland should have invested more in motorways, because there’s no one who’s invested more in motorways, relative to its populaton in income, more than Auckland.”

CANADA: Paul Bedford

Former chief city planner of Toronto, Canada. Influential in developing a $C90 billion transport plan for greater Toronto.

Bedford says Auckland should stop spending on roads and vastly improve public transport. When he visited in August he hardly saw a bus outside of the central city.

“One person per car clogging up the roads doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense in terms of how you allocate limited road space. A bus holds 40-50 people so you’re taking 40-50 cars off the road.”

He would put on more buses; have more suburban trains connecting to Britomart; and bring back trams to the central city and to nearby shopping and eating main streets such as Ponsonby and Parnell roads.

Auckland’s central business district doesn’t have the population density to justify subways, but trams would be great. “They’re quiet, they go through the heart of the city, they’re clean.” Where trams ran, they would take priority ahead of motorists “a very tough political decision”.

There’s no point spending money on expensive trains if you don’t concentrate development around key transport points, so he would have taller buildings clustered around rail stations in suburban centres, resulting in more people travelling to homes or offices on public transport.

He says there is no magic bullet as long as politicians and drivers have expectations that traffic gridlock can be solved by playing around with road capacity.

“The reality of expressways is that they fill up and there is generally no more room to widen the road. Even if you did, it fills up almost immediately. .”

SCOTLAND: Professor George Hazel

Chairman of transport consultancy company MRC McLean Hazel, Edinburgh. Former director of development in Edinbugh, awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for services to transport, wrote Making Cities Work (published 2004).

Start with a backbone of good public transport whether it’s busways, light rail, heavy rail, or a combination of the three, supplemented by feeder buses. In rural or more remote suburban areas, public bodies could subsidise taxis off-peak, when they’re sitting empty. People would pay the equivalent of a bus fare to get a taxi. What it cost to subsidise taxis, transport authorities would save by not running buses.

Fast-forward to the future where there is one electronic transport card, like the Oyster card in London or Octopus card in Hong Kong, or phone device, that does everything pays for petrol, parking, taxis, tolls, transit, bike hire, food at shops next to stations. People store money on it, paying a percentage on each transaction which they don’t mind because they don’t have to queue.

The device could give loyalty points for using public transport off-peak.

“That’s much more deliverable than road pricing [congestion charging], which is extremely difficult politically. [The device] is very sellable politically because everybody will like the concept of this joined-up transport, because people want the one ticket that will do everything. Suddenly you’ve opened up a device that generates a lot of money,” says Hazel.

IT companies are developing the technology and see it as a big business opportunity, he says. “So a business model for the future might well be to say to the Siemens or IBMs of this world, you handle this device for us, we’ll give you a franchise for the value-added services, and you pay for the infrastructure to put it all in.”

AUCKLAND: Stuart Donovan

Transport engineer at MRC’s Auckland branch. Advises the New Zealand Transport Agency, Auckland Regional Council and Auckland Regional Transport Agency.

Donovan says parking is transport’s silver bullet. “If you provide a whole lot of free parking, it’s very likely that people won’t catch public transport.”

More people on public transport means more revenue, which can be spent improving services. He says free parking in suburban shopping areas should be abolished, and meters installed. Already, developers don’t have to provide free parking in parts of Auckland’s central business district, which is where public transport works.

Developers and businesses should not be forced by local councils to provide parking spaces when building homes and offices. Instead, they should pay a levy for each parking space, with revenue spent on local roads. Perth already does this.

Donovan says companies would probably provide as many parking spaces as they could afford, but fewer than they do now.

Who would pay the biggest levy? “Big box” retailers, which generate a lot of traffic. Companies might find it cheaper to develop land for retail or other business activity. They might give staff a bus pass instead of a free car park.

He would also lower fuel taxes and make up the difference in “road pricing” (also known as congestion charging). He likes Stockholm’s system where drivers buy “smart sensors” which sit in their cars and pick up signals as they enter the central city. Instead of a flat fee, as in London, people pay more to drive in the height of the peak hour, and less earlier or later.

He’d replace flat fees for toll roads with on- and off-peak fees meaning cheaper travel for holidaymakers and commercial vehicles, and more expensive trips for commuters.

“If you look at congestion, it’s caused by commuters, and they’re best suited to public transport.”

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Outdoor workers’ health at risk from sun, study finds

By MARK HOTTON – Thursday, 26 February 2009

Outdoor workers are at risk of eye disease and skin cancer because of overexposure and under-protection in the sun, a University of Otago study has found.
The problem of high UV-radiation exposure was made worse with less than a third of the 77 workers in the study applying sunscreen and only 5 per cent wearing a wide-brim hat.
Unless adequately protected, all of them would have received more UV radiation than the recommended level of 1.
The workers in the study, conducted by postgraduate student Vanessa Hammond, included construction, horticultural and road workers employed at 14 Central Otago workplaces.
An exposure of about 1.08 SED (standard erythemal dose).0 SED could cause sunburn to someone with unprotected fair skin.5 to 3.3 SED between 11am and 4pm. The average daily summer exposure of the workers was 5.
Study co-author Dr Tony Reeder, director of the university's Cancer Society social and behavioural research unit, said employers had an important role in protecting their workers from the sun.
Hammond said any opportunity to work in the shade could make a real difference in reducing the risk of a worker developing skin cancer. .
Outdoor work between 11am and 4pm needed to be undertaken in either natural or constructed shade in summer, he said.
"It all sounds very nice but there'd be a big cost with it.
However, Amalgamated Builders health and safety manager David Baker, of Dunedin, said movable shade structures were impractical given the scale of building sites.
"You can provide but it's up to the guys to use the stuff," Baker said."
The company supplied personal protective equipment such as wide-brim clip-on hat options and sunscreen, but it was up to each employee whether they used it.
"I've just put a lid on [the tractor] for that reason.
Gore farmer Hamish Smith said he had taken steps to address his exposure to the sun. But it can just get too hot. There was always sunscreen in the tractor and that was used too.
Builder Barnaby Lamb, who was wearing a sleeveless top on a Queenstown building site yesterday, said sunscreen was supplied on site and he regularly applied it."
Work was started early to avoid the day's heat and a hat was essential.

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Roll up! It’s Miss Universe Levin

Friday, 20 February 2009

/The
PROVINCIAL BEAUTY: Miss Horowhenua Priyani Puketapu in Levin, the new home of the glamorous Miss Universe New Zealand contest.

Theglamorous Miss Universe New Zealand final is swapping the bright lights of cosmopolitan Auckland for the provincial charm of heartland Horowhenua.
National director Val Lott said that befitting this year's theme of "small-town charm", Levin would host the final, in April.
In a surprise move, the hotly-contested celebration of feminine beauty is ditching the Sky City Tower, Harbour Bridge and Viaduct Basin, for the delights of Levin's A&P Showgrounds, public bars and tree-lined main street.
Horowhenua has traditionally been a beauty pageant stronghold last year's Miss Horowhenua, Samantha Powell of Paraparaumu, scooped the Miss Universe New Zealand title.
The decision reflected the town's positive community spirit and the fact Horowhenua and Manawatu staged the only regional competitions this year.
After a five-year absence, Miss Universe was relaunched in New Zealand in 2006 and had been staged in glitzy Auckland ever since.
"We are really looking forward to holding it in Horowhenua it is a wonderful opportunity for lots of people to see many beautiful spots in the area I did not even know about," Mrs Lott said.
The competition had not escaped the effects of the recession.
However, in earlier years, the show had toured the country even being held in Levin's once-regal Regent Theatre in the 1960s. Some contestants are finding it hard to find sponsors because their regions did not hold competitions," Mrs Lott said.
"Things have been tough this year. . "We desperately need two or three sponsors.
"This will be huge for the community and hopefully we will have a lot more Wellington and Horowhenua entrants and more local sponsors on board.
The move to Levin was welcomed by reigning Miss Universe New Zealand title holder, Ms Powell.
Kapiti-Horowhenua was also chosen as the launching pad for the comeback of classic Kiwi television game show It's In The Bag, shot in Otaki the previous month."
Mayor Brendan Duffy said it would be great exposure for the district and he would be sending an invitation to Miss Universe's owner, Donald Trump.