Libby Robertson has been sober for six and a half years. Photo / Supplied
Bay of Plenty Times is looking back at the stories of 2022. Here’s what made headlines in July:
The Bay of Plenty Times is looking back at the stories of 2022. Here’s what made headlines in July.
July 1:
A judge urged people who work with children to speak up if they suspect abuse is happening, after 5-year-old Malachi Subecz was murdered by his carer.
Malachi died from injuries inflicted by Michaela Barriball in Te Puna in November last year (2021), after months of violent beatings and neglect. He had been placed in Barriball’s care at the request of his mother, who was in prison.
In June, Barriball was sentenced to life imprisonment for her offending and would spend a minimum of 17 years in prison before she becomes eligible for parole. The sentence is one of the longest for a female offender in New Zealand history.
High Court Justice Paul Davison spent more than an hour in the sentencing hearing in Rotorua detailing the abuse Malachi suffered, also offering his own view on the important lessons that must be learned from the case.
“The tragedy of Malachi’s death provides some strong and clear lessons to everyone involved in the care of children,” Davison said.
July 2:
Libby Robertson had hit rock bottom in the literal sense - sprawled on her back on concrete, after jumping from a two-storey window.
“Was she dead?”, the self-described party girl asked herself.
No, she couldn’t be. After all, she could feel blood on her head and she was wearing a neck brace.
She was sobering up and trying to piece together “what the f*** was going on”.
When her parents arrived at Wellington Hospital, she discovered she’d had yet another drunken fight with her boyfriend, Dane, and jumped out of a window in their home. Neighbours called the police.
A mental health nurse wanted to know “what are you going to do?” and Robertson, who now lives in Pāpāmoa, saw two options: “I don’t know, or yes, you know: I can never drink again.”
Like Robertson, interviewees in this article for Dry July gave up booze only when they’d suffered serious consequences from drinking, and they’re the tip of the iceberg given that an estimated 5 per cent of Kiwi drinkers aged 16 and older experience alcohol abuse or dependence in a 12-month period.
July 8:
Building work on a nearly $5 million business “hub” in a new mixed-use development in Pāpāmoa was given the green light.
Tauranga City Council approved a consent valued at $4.9m for the base build of a 24-unit commercial development called The Hatch at Pāpāmoa Junction in Pāpāmoa East.
It was the biggest consent approved for June and was part of 194 issued for the month, totalling $54,880,159.
July 9:
Ngāi Te Rangi more than doubled its value to about $60 million in five years as iwi around the country build business empires and develop a Māori economy worth tens of billions of dollars.
Future developments Ngāi Te Rangi is investigating include a multi-complex Mount Maunganui site which could feature a hotel and a supermarket, as it looks to cement its financial future.
Former New Zealand Māori Council executive director Matthew Tukaki estimated the national Māori economy was worth $60 billion to $70 billion and could grow to $100b in 10 years.
Ngāi Te Rangi chief executive Paora Stanley said Māori organisations had become a force to be reckoned with and were “economic legends” that nobody talked about.
‘’They are a power in their own right and have made some really smart business decisions.’’
July 10:
Millions of dollars are being lost on pokies across the Bay of Plenty, a region with some of the highest gambling spending in the country.
In a bid to tackle the harm the addictive pastime has on communities a new Government investment was announced. Health Minister Andrew Little and Tauranga-based Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti announced $76 million in funding for the Strategy to Prevent and Minimise Gambling Harm.
In its announcement of the investment, Little said gambling harm was a serious public health issue that could have a devastating effect on the wellbeing of individuals, whānau and communities.
July 13:
A beachfront property on Mount Maunganui’s sought-after Oceanbeach Rd sold for a Tauranga record-breaking $11 million.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom beachfront home, which is set on an 838sqm section, sold last month for almost double its 2021 rateable value of $5.96m.
The sale trumps an earlier record set last year by Sir Colin Giltrap when he https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/sir-colin-giltraps-mount-maunganui-penthouse-apartment-sells-for-102m-to-sir-paul-adams/5QT3POLJMMXJSMOMR62QF3M2EI/’ target=’_blank’>sold his five-bedroom penthouse in the Eleven apartment complex on Maunganui Rd for $10.2m.
Bayleys Mount Maunganui agent Sharon Hall, who marketed the Oceanbeach Rd home, said properties of its calibre were rare. “They are like fine artworks.”
July 19:
Bay Dreams is back in 2023 with festival organisers making their first announcement of acts.
The popular summer festival will be held at Trustpower Baypark in Mount Maunganui on January 3, and at Trafalgar Park in Nelson on January 5, after this year’s festivals were cancelled due to MIQ uncertainty for international artists.
Ten-time Grammy-nominated artist Diplo will feature at the 2023 edition as well as Sticky Fingers, Hybrid Minds, Denzel Curry and others.
July 23:
A healthcare provider has apologised after a 71-year-old paraplegic was left alone “in a wet bed with blood in it” because her support worker did not show up.
Tauranga woman Kathryn Harland is paralysed from the sternum and requires 24/7 care.
But a HealthCare New Zealand support worker has failed to turn up “multiple” times because, in Harland’s view, there is a “severe” staffing shortage.
Harland lives with her husband, but says, however, “I need to have someone that is trained to look after me 24 hours”.
She was also concerned for her support workers - one of whom she believed worked 130 hours in one week.
July 30:
A man described as a “monster” for brutally raping and murdering British backpacker Monica Cantwell on Mauao 33 years ago is about to be released into the community.
A New Zealand Parole Board decision released confirmed its recommendation to release Charles John Coulam, 52, on August 29, with special conditions. Coulam was 19 years old when he attacked Cantwell on the summit of Mauao on November 20, 1989.
Mauao Trust member and local iwi representative Buddy Mikaere, who each year held a service on the mountain acknowledging Cantwell’s death, was disappointed by the decision and said, in his view, Coulam was a ‘’monster’'.
Cantwell, 24, was on the northern summit track looking out to Matakana Island https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/monica-cantwell-murder-the-day-mount-maunganui-lost-its-innocence/3DFLUJPZ7AXWCZ7YV4JYKVATMI/’ target=’_blank’>when Coulam grabbed her from behind, dragged her into the bushes and raped her. She was strangled to death and her cold, semi-naked body was found in the bushes three days later.
