Govt keen on making EV chargers smart
Most EVs are charged at home on a simple 3 pin plug into the wall. But that limits line companies' control over energy draw, as they do with hot water to manage load on the network, and means households can't charge their cars when power is cheapest. MBIE is consulting on the proposed changes.
Kathryn speaks with Drive Electric chair Kirsten Corson and Moonis Vegdani chief network and digital officer for Counties Power the lines company for South Auckland.
Electric car charging.
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RNZ News
11 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Billboard camera footage used by transport agency to spot cars and trucks
NZTA Waka Kotahi has used privately-owned automated number plate recognition cameras to identity number plates. File photo. Photo: 123RF Footage from cameras in billboards at city intersections have been secretly used by the NZ Transport Agency for the first time to spot cars and trucks. NZTA Waka Kotahi's trial started in February, and is designed to combat fraud by illegal garages issuing warrants of fitness to cars, or passing trucks. Two sources close to the vehicle inspection industry say the move is surprising and questioned why the agency would do it, especially with using third-party technology systems. Police already tap into privately-owned automated number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to identity number plates hundreds of times a day. But this is the first known use of that power by another state agency. "The ANPR donor cameras in the trial are not being used 'to spy on mechanics issuing warrants', nor would they be capable of being used for that purpose," NZTA told RNZ. "These cameras are typically located in billboards at urban intersections. "The trial is simply looking at the potential for using images gathered by these cameras to be used as proof of the location of a particular vehicle at a point in time." An inspector who claimed they had checked a car in Auckland at a certain time could be exposed if the car was spotted at a Christchurch intersection at that time, it said. It "could be of benefit in supporting investigations into specific cases where fraudulent or illegal activity is suspected". A well-connected industry source told RNZ: "Yeah, that has been a bit secret." NZTA might not have wanted to tip people off, the source said. "For the purpose the agency is stating, I don't have much issue with that, but the way they have gone about it is what alarms me. Especially because it's third-party [cameras and ANPR system]. "What else might they use them for?" NZTA Waka Kotahi said it was not using the images in any actual fraud investigations, but only as a test for potential future use. The test is separate from how the agency is taking over many speed and red-light-runner cameras from police, and replacing some with higher-tech models, which it will own. A second source active in the industry was appalled by the move. "Oh my god," they said. "It is part of your right to know the audit process you go through. You can't sabotage your process because of a trial." Months of inquiries by RNZ in 2018 showed up mass deficiencies in NZTA's oversight of how truck certificates of fitness were being issued. The systems were reviewed and changed. There have been further reports of inspectors anonymously recounting examples of how they feel they have been subject to unfair targeting by the agency. "You have got layers and layers of issues here," said the second source. "What's the limit [of surveillance]?" They questioned why was the camera sting even needed when fraud would "show up in paperwork. There will be tons of other evidence that can be used against people". Many supermarkets, petrol stations, other businesses and councils have a total of thousands of cameras that link into ANPR software systems run by two Auckland companies - Auror and SaferCities. The new trial uses SaferCities vGrid system , NZTA said. Its system covered electronic billboard operators such as LUMO, which had built-in cameras with ANPR software, and CCTV operators including councils, individual businesses and car park operators, the agency said. Police accessed the vGrid system more than 400,000 times last year. "NZTA only has access to still images from ANPR donor cameras whose owners have specifically agreed to our usage," Waka Kotahi told RNZ in the OIA response. "Currently, this only includes LUMO and more recently, Hamilton City Council." RNZ approached LUMO for comment. As of 2022, the country had at least 1400 digital billboards and screen-posters, many of them with smart technology and ANPR cameras . The police tapped the ANPR systems 700,000 times last year. In October, two district court judges dismissed legal challenges to the police using them so much without a warrant, though it is expected there will be at least one appeal against that finding. The fraud camera trial comes at the same time Waka Kotahi is reviewing the WOF-COF system to reduce how often collectors of old vehicles, and motorhome users, have to get a warrant. The agency has been increasing a lot of the fees it charges motorists since 2023. Another batch of rises is due next January that are expected to push up total fees collected by $10m to $264m . Camera footage could be used where it was suspected that WoFs or CoFs had been issued to vehicles which had not been inspected at the time or place recorded by a vehicle inspector, the transport agency said. It gave a hypothetical scenario to RNZ: "If NZTA was investigating a vehicle inspector suspected of fraud, and if the inspector had issued a WoF to a vehicle which was recorded as having been inspected at a WoF garage in Auckland at 2pm on 1 July, 2025, and we were able to access a still image from a donor camera of the same vehicle driving past a billboard located in Christchurch at 3:30pm on 1 July, 2025, this could potentially be used as evidence to prove that the WoF had been issued fraudulently, because the vehicle was not in Auckland at the time of the recorded inspection." This would not be a part of regular compliance monitoring, it said. Regular compliance monitoring included scheduled reviews where compliance officers visited inspection sites, as well as 'mystery shopper' activity. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
15 hours ago
- RNZ News
Calendar Girls strip clubs forced to take down posts about women involved in employment dispute
By Ric Stevens, Open Justice reporter of The owners of the Calendar Girls strip clubs have been forced to take down posts identifying dancers suing the firm. Seven women are currently pursuing an application in the Employment Court for a declaration of their employment status. A non-publication order was issued in May, suppressing their identities, after they raised concerns about their safety and damage to their reputations, due to the stigma attached to the work they had been doing. One of the women has now returned to court, alleging breaches of the order by Calendar Girls NZ Ltd, the company named as the defendant in their case. Chief Employment Court Judge Christina Inglis hastily scheduled a hearing this week to hear the woman. "I accorded urgency to the application, given the nature of the alleged breaches and the concerns that had underpinned the making of the orders of non-publication in the first place," the judge said in a recent judgement. The urgent hearing was set down for Thursday, but was cancelled, after lawyers for both sides agreed non-publication orders should be respected. "The defendants confirm that they have removed all offending posts," Judge Inglis said. However, her judgement did not detail what was in the posts. The seven women are seeking a declaration that they were employees of Calendar Girls NZ Ltd under the Employment Relations Act 2000. Being an employee, rather than a contractor, gives entitlement to a wider range of legal protections, including minimum conditions, protection from discrimination, health and safety, and the ability to bargain collectively. In 2023, dancers from the Wellington Calendar Girls club attempted to bargain collectively, after being offered a contract that they said was "manipulative". Nineteen were told to clear out their lockers and not come back to work through a Facebook post, after asking for changes to the way they were paid. In seeking non-publication orders in the current case, filed in the Wellington Employment Court, the seven women raised several concerns about having their identities made public. Women in the clubs use a professional name while working there and are instructed not to give their real names to customers. Chief Employment Court Judge Christina Inglis. Photo: NZ Herald / George Heard However, their case in the Employment Court has been taken using their real names. The women involved in the case feared publication of their identities would "severely impact" their employment and housing prospects, and their ability to travel. They said the stigma attached to their work at Calendar Girls had already led to judgements about their morality and respectability. The women are all young, and fear damage to their reputations and the impact on their families. They also said they had safety concerns about former clients and members of the public. One of the women is a member of a church and worries about others in the congregation finding out. Others have had tenancy applications declined and another woman said she was dismissed from a government agency, when it became known she had worked in the sex industry. Judge Inglis has now ordered Calendar Girls not to disclose the names, identifying particulars or photographs of the seven women who have taken the case. She said this applied to "all forms of communication, including oral, written, electronic and any other medium". The substantive case has been scheduled for a five-day fixture in February 2026. Calendar Girls NZ Ltd is a Christchurch-based company that operates clubs in Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown. This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
RNZ News
17 hours ago
- RNZ News
NZTA has not developed national tolling plan
State Highway 16 full of slow moving morning traffic as the sun rises. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly The New Zealand Transport Agency / Waka Kotahi says it has not developed a national tolling plan but is working on a strategic network assessment. On government orders, the agency will be using tolls more to pay for roads. Internal documents in April said managers were going to develop a National Tolling Plan for the agency's board. But Waka Kotahi, in a response to a request under the Official Information Act, said no plan existed, and instead it briefed the board last month about being more strategic. "We are changing our tolling assessments to cater for a broader system network perspective... to provide decisionmakers with a more strategic, system-wide consideration of tolling the network," said the update in June. It was doing tolling assessments of all dozen or so roads of national significance in the works, including the Northland corridor to Whangārei, Mill Road in west Auckland and Tauriko West near Tauranga. "Due to data and modelling complexities associated with modelling tolling proposals for each section of the Northland Corridor, a proposal will be made to the board on the whole corridor" by the end of this year. An expensive overhaul of tolling technology had been going on for several years, however, the national manager of system design told RNZ an update on tolling tech has not been presented to the board.
