Bay of Plenty Times is looking back at the stories of 2023. Here’s what made headlines in May
May 1
Emotions spilled over as people spoke out against a proposed $220.2 million stadium at the Tauranga Domain during a Tauranga City Council meeting on Monday.
Members of sports clubs affected by the proposal spoke in the meeting’s public forum and were supported by around 20 people in the public gallery.
This was ahead of the commission being presented with the preliminary business case for the Tauranga Community Stadium.
The “people’s stadium” would provide 7000 permanent seats with the provision for an additional 8000 temporary seats.
May 4
A Tauranga business owner fuming after a “hacker” gained access to her Meta advertising account and made more than $9500 in unauthorised transactions is sharing her story to warn others.
The incident is being investigated by Meta, ANZ and the police, while the Banking Ombudsman says financial scams involving social media are on the rise.
Jorgi Lee said she and her father jointly owned Shape Studio in Brookfield and regularly used an advertising account with Meta, which owns Facebook, for the business over the past 18 months without incident.
On April 20, however, Lee’s father went to pay bills online and noticed several large unauthorised transactions to Meta totalling $9578 had come out of the business’ bank account on April 19 and 20.
These included five separate $1250 payments on one day and $781.60 worth of Meta invoice payments pending.
May 5
More than 28,000 Kiwis have moved to Australia in a year – a net migration loss of 10,200 and the biggest exodus since 2014.
The lure of higher wages, better job incentives and a generous superannuation scheme are major attractions. Combine these with a new direct pathway to citizenship, and wine corks are popping over the Tasman.
Carmen Hall spoke to New Zealanders who made the move across the ditch over the years about how their lives changed.
May 11
A “dire shortage” of teachers has forced some Bay of Plenty high school principals to hire “unqualified” educators and one to cancel a class.
Those teachers held a Limited Authority to Teach (LAT), which the Teaching Council said enabled a person without a teaching qualification to teach in positions requiring specialist or hard-to-find skills.
It comes as teachers begin a new round of strikes, and after a Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) annual staffing survey found 48 per cent of 127 secondary principals nationwide had to appoint “untrained or unqualified” teachers because they could not find qualified or trained staff.
The Ministry of Education would not comment on the survey but said some subjects had long been hard to staff and nationally, the teaching workforce was in a “good position”.
May 17
A 97-year-old woman is fighting plans to have her son’s ashes and memorial seat dug up to make way for a $5.67 million boardwalk in Mount Maunganui.
Joy Rudsits paid $2000 for the ocean-facing seat and a plaque dedicated to her son Kim Rudsits, who died aged 51 in 2005, after a brain tumour.
The seat is on Marine Parade, near Sutherland Ave, and holds a special place in Rudsits’ heart. She said she buried some of Kim’s ashes beneath the seat, after being given permission at the time it was installed in 2006.
The ashes, seat and plaque, however, now sit in the way of Tauranga City Council’s new Marine Parade Coastal Path and Rudsits says she has been told they will be dug up.
May 12
Four cancer treatments in three years: $132,775.
Bay of Plenty mother-of-three Debbie Robins says this is what she has had to pay for drugs to prolong her life as she fights incurable ovarian cancer.
Of this, she has paid nearly $20,000 in GST and thousands more to get a drug administered privately.
Now, the 46-year-old is calling on the Government to remove GST on privately-funded medication or to allow it to be administered in public hospitals.
“What happens to people that can’t afford it? If you can’t afford it, you die.”
A spokesperson for the Minister of Finance said there were no plans to change GST and there were better ways the Government could help target people’s needs. Te Whatu Ora – Health NZ said it was responsible for delivering publicly-funded healthcare and was not usually able to subsidise the administering of privately-funded medications.
May 18
An Ōmokoroa mum fed up with worsening traffic delays on State Highway 2 to Tauranga is putting her new house up for rent and looking for something closer to town.
Another mum from the peninsula has moved her child to a daycare in town so she can get to work on time.
They are among many motorists growing increasingly frustrated with traffic delays on the stretch of highway used by more than 25,000 vehicles a day.
Both local councils, as well as the transport agency, say they were aware of the frustrations the congestion was causing.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and Tauranga City Council are carrying out separate roading projects between Ōmokoroa and Bethlehem and have warned delays would continue for some time.
May 29
The rental market in one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing cities is so competitive landlords are being offered more money, pet bonds and gifts by desperate renters wanting a home.
Working families are holed up with whānau and one tradie says he is living in his van because he can’t find a home for him and his two dogs.
The average rent for a three-bedroom home in Tauranga is now $690 a week, according to one property manager – more than TradeMe’s $650 median price for Auckland.
May 30
Eleven elder housing units have been evacuated and a group of tradies trapped after floods in Waihī Beach today.
Emergency services were called to “widespread flooding” at the small beachside town and “multiple evacuations” took place this afternoon.
Highways in the Bay of Plenty and Coromandel were also hit, with State Highway 29 over the Kaimai range and SH30 near Manawahe closed due to slips. SH29 has since reopened with one lane in each direction.
Western Bay of Plenty District Council civil defence duty controller Peter Watson said 11 of its 19 elder housing units had flooded and residents had been evacuated.
OPINON: It has been a big six months and there's plenty more to come.