News briefs: Corrections staff take industrial action; house fire suspicious

Whangārei probation officers and other Community Corrections staff protest outside the Department’s office after taking industrial action over pay and workloads. Photo / Tania Whyte

Corrections industrial action

Whangārei probation officers and other Community Corrections staff joined around 2000 of their colleagues across the county in industrial action after nine months of negotiations failed to get a deal on pay and workloads. A union organiser said the Community Corrections staff employed by the Department of Corrections are the lowest-paid public servants in the country, and some are living on “poverty wages”. The Public Service Association (PSA) members walked off the job for two hours on Thursday afternoon and planned to do so again on April 20 and 27. Community Corrections staff manage offenders subject to sentences or court orders in the community, including those on home detention, community detention, supervision, parole and doing community work.

Destructive fire suspicious

The fire that destroyed a house on Kāeo’s main street earlier this week is thought to have been deliberately lit, a fire investigator says. Multiple fire trucks, from as far away as Kerikeri and Mangōnui attended the blaze at about 7.50pm on Monday. The house, on Leigh St, near the primary school, was burning fiercely when they arrived. Fire and Emergency NZ investigator Jason Goffin said the fire was being treated as suspicious. The house was unoccupied at the time and no one was hurt. The investigation was continuing. It’s understood the house had been vacated about two weeks earlier.

Hundertwasser art auction

Austrian artist Hundertwasser’s connections to Northland are well known - buildings constructed in his unique style are in Whangārei and Kawakawa - and now Northlanders can bid for some of his rare works in a fundraiser to repair his famous boat Regentag. On Friday a rare and special art auction will be open to bidders from around the world, for the benefit of the heritage-listed Hundertwasser ship Regentag (meaning Rainy Day), now anchored in the Danube, Austria. The Regentag was based in the Bay of Islands for many years. The auction will be conducted by the international auction house imKinsky in Vienna at 3am Friday NZ time. The Viennese auction has 97 selected original prints or graphics (artist proofs) and objects from the archives of the Hundertwasser non-profit foundation including Hundertwasser-designed coins in gold, silver and bronze; ceramics and silk-screened works. The proceeds will be used exclusively for the below water-line renovation of Regentag - which is under the monument protection of the Republic of Austria and financed by the Hundertwasser Foundation. For more information go to https://imkinsky.com/en/online-catalogue/900/759/2

Chainsaw used to free motorist

Firefighters had to use a chainsaw to free a woman whose car slid off State Highway 10 and ended up on its roof in mangroves. The accident occurred at about 8.50am on Wednesday as the vehicle hit freshly laid gravel between Oparihi Rd and Waterfront Dr, Mangōnui. The woman was trapped inside the car but freed about 20 minutes later by Mangōnui volunteer firefighters who used a chainsaw to cut vegetation around the vehicle. She suffered only minor injuries but her car was extensively damaged.