Wednesday, 30 June 2021, 11:59 am
New Zealand’s environmental regulator is marking a
decade since its creation by looking far, far ahead in
time.
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)
came into being on 1 July 2011. Its responsibilities cover
hazardous substances and new organisms, activities in the
waters around New Zealand, climate change, and resource
management. There’s not much our work doesn’t
touch; it extends from the ozone layer, to the seabed, and
right across the land. What we do at the EPA has an impact
on the everyday lives of all New Zealanders. Our role
involves carefully balancing environmental, safety,
economic, and cultural factors to protect our way of life
Wednesday, 30 June 2021, 11:41 am
“Labour’s push for co-governance of our water assets
is another small step towards a Partnership State where a
small number of New Zealanders have greater rights under the
law,” says ACT Leader David
Seymour.
“Co-governance should not be the priority;
the priority should be fixing the pipes. We have sewage on
the streets in Wellington and yet at local and central
government level the priority is honouring the
Treaty.
“Nanaia Mahuta’s water reforms will mean
mana whenua have equal rights with councils in governing
water assets.
“People shouldn’t have a seat at the
table just because of who their ancestors were.
Wednesday, 30 June 2021, 10:26 am
Research on kea in the eastern South Island is revealing
new insights into the impact of stoats and feral cats on
this endangered endemic parrot.
Kea, a taonga species
for Ngāi Tahu, are found throughout South Island mountains
and forests and are in decline where threats from predators
are not managed.
A Department of Conservation (DOC)
five-year study aims to shed light on why kea populations
are declining faster on the eastern side of the Southern
Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana than on the west, to improve
predator management.
Researchers have monitored a
sample of 45 kea between Arthur’s Pass and Lewis Pass east
Associate Minister of
Health
Changes to how community midwives are
paid, will better recognise the time and travel required in
more remote parts of New Zealand - and the service provided
to mothers and whānau with complex needs.
“The
Primary Maternity Services Notice has been upgraded, to
better fund care for women and whānau in rural areas, and
those with complex clinical or social needs,” says
Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall.
The
Notice sets out how self-employed primary maternity care
providers are paid, and remunerates midwives for services
provided from the beginning of pregnancy until six weeks
helps
businesses deploy a digital assistant to their
website
Vodafone NZ today announced an exclusive
partnership with Ambit to bring their enterprise grade
chatbot platform underpinned by AI and natural language
processing, designed to deliver 24/7 personalised customer
service, to its contact centre customers across
Aotearoa.
Ambit is a kiwi start-up success story,
founded in 2017 and a 2018 graduate of Vodafone’s Xone
accelerator programme. It works with many well-known brands
across New Zealand to provide digital customer
service.
Glenn Johnstone, Head of ICT Vodafone said:
“We’re delighted to be partnering with Ambit, a company
we clearly know well, to offer our customers an automated