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The
Government is stopping the five-yearly State of the Environment
report.
Put
together by the Ministry of the Environment, the report is the
largest stock-take of trends relating to land, water, air, plants and
animals.
The
next report was expected in December, but the Government has decided
instead to look at the basic data for each area.
Environment
Minister Amy Adams said the ministry is continually tracing
environmental performance using 22 core indicators and the change is
to ensure new information is released as it comes to hand.
Parliamentary
Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright said that is not good
enough, because the data is not compiled, analysed, or compared.
Dr
Wright also said she was unaware the report was being scrapped.
Green
MP Eugenie Sage said the Government is just trying to keep New
Zealanders in the dark about environmental problems.
Personal
files sent to wrong people by IRD
The
Inland Revenue Department sent the personal information of 6300
people to the wrong person in the past year.
Revenue
Minister Peter Dunne said most of those affected will never know
because the breach was not considered serious enough to contact them
But
in the most serious cases, 638 people had details like their
addresses and tax numbers released, making them vulnerable to
identity fraud.
Mr
Dunne said the affected people have been contacted and the problems
were due to human error.
Youth
suicide rate high in north
Youth
suicide rates in the far north have exceeded the region's road toll
for the first time.
Te
Rarawa signed a Treaty settlement package in Kaitaia on Sunday worth
about $70 million.
Haami
Piripi said a priority for new iwi social programmes that will flow
from the settlement is to halt the numbers of young people killing
themselves.
But
he said it is extremely difficult to know how to tackle the suicide
rate without giving the issue a profile among young people that might
worsen the problem.
Dotcom
posed no security risk - SIS
The
Security Intelligence Service has confirmed its investigation into
Kim Dotcom found he posed no security risk to New Zealand.
In
response to an Official Information Act request, the SIS says it was
asked to investigate the internet entrepreneur, by Immigration New
Zealand in 2010.
Mr
Dotcom is fighting extradition to the United States to face charges
of internet piracy and fraud, and the Government Communications
Security Bureau has admitted it illegally monitored him.
The
SIS says it was not involved in that surveillance.
However,
it did pass on a request in October 2010 from the FBI to the police
about conducting a joint investigation into Mr Dotcom's activities.
About
two weeks later, the SIS told Immigration it had no security concerns
about Kim Dotcom.
Funding
cuts are forcing Polytechs to cut foundation courses that would help
young people into employment
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