The Front Page Podcast: IPCA finds Wally Haumaha 'aggressive' and 'intimidating'

Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Each weekday The Front Page keeps you up to date with the biggest news in New Zealand. Today it's calls to sack one of our country's top cops, tobacco use is down but not for everyone, a slow-down for our economy, and a retail giant answers the call to come to New Zealand. Hosted by Frances Cook.

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A damning IPCA report into police deputy commissioner Wally Haumaha has called his behaviour inappropriate, and unprofessional.

But it's not quite bullying.

A report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority, released today, found the behaviour could be described as bullying, as commonly understood, but did not meet the workplace definition which requires "persistence".

The IPCA found Haumaha asserted his authority "aggressively" in an argument with one of the women by putting his leg on the chair in front of her, which was intimidating "whether it was designed to be or not".

He's the second most senior police officer in the country, and the report noted he also acted improperly by approaching staff for support when the Herald started investigating the bullying allegations.

The IPCA found those staffers felt they could not refuse the request without fear of repercussions for their careers.

National Party leader Simon Bridges says the Prime Minister should sack Haumaha.

But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has taken advice from Crown Law, which told here there is not a clear and proper basis to remove Haumaha from his position.

Ardern says she's accepted that advice - but is not pleased.

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Meanwhile, two Government departments also failed to meet current State Services Commission standards when staff raised concerns about the workplace behaviour of Deputy Police Commissioner Wally Haumaha.

The review by State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes found a number of problems with how the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Corrections responded to three staff working on a joint project with the police.

Three women - two senior policy analysts from Justice and one from Corrections - walked out of Police National Headquarters in June 2016 and refused to return because of Haumaha's alleged verbal bullying.

Two of the women laid formal complaints with the police this year after the Herald broke the story in August.

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Interim reports into two helicopter crashes near Wanaka show evidence of mast bumping and highlight the major risk of loose items in cabins.

Nick Wallis was one of three people killed in a helicopter crash near Wanaka Airport on October 18 this year.

The incident came less than three months after his brother and fellow pilot Matthew Timothy Wallis was killed in a helicopter crash on July 21 this year.

The report into the July crash showed the teeter stops for both main rotor blades were crushed, indicating the Robinson R44 helicopter experienced mast bumping at some point during the accident.

The Commission has previously raised concerns about the number of accidents in New Zealand in which Robinson helicopters have experienced mast bumping.

Mast bumping is contact between an inner part of a main rotor mechanism and the main rotor drive shaft.

It usually results in the helicopter breaking up in flight, which is fatal for those on board.

It's worth noting the Commission is yet to complete its inquiry into the accidents, and the information contained in its final reports may differ from the information in the interim reports.

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Increasing the price of tobacco continues to be the single most effective tool for reducing tobacco use.

That's the result of a report for the Ministry of Health, by EY, evaluating the impact of tax increases and how close we are to the Smokefree 2025 goal.

However, it notes the most deprived households are choosing tobacco over essentials such as food and rent.

The report says even though price is the single most effective tool for reducing smoking, multiple interventions working together were necessary.

It also pointed to shortcomings in reaching Māori and Pasifika, and the deprivation high tobacco prices are creating for low-income families.

The proportion of adults using tobacco had reduced from 18.3 per cent in 2006/7 to 13.8 per cent in 2016/17.

But it's different for Māori and Pasifika – the number of Māori smokers is 2.7 times higher than non-Maori.

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The New Zealand economy is growing at its slowest pace in five years.

New GDP figures show it slowed sharply in the three months to September 30th.

Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.3 per cent in the September 2018 quarter, down from 1.0 per cent in the previous quarter

StatsNZ says it's the lowest quarterly growth rate since December 2013.

Most economists had been expecting it to come it at 0.5 per cent, while the Reserve Bank had forecast 0.7 per cent.

Primary industries grew 2.2 per cent, while growth in service industries slowed to 0.5 per cent.

The goods-producing industries fell 1.0 per cent, which dragged down the overall figure.
Construction activity is falling as repair work winds down on roads damaged in the Kaikōura earthquake. However, residential and non-residential construction continued to grow steadily.

But the biggest problem is the slowdown in manufacturing, with food manufacturing down significantly.

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An innocent man's photo was wrongly posted next to a paedophile's details by the Sensible Sentencing Trust.

The hardline law-and-order group has been labelled "negligent and cavalier" over the mix-up, after its online offender database listed the man's picture with the description of a convicted paedophile with a similar name for almost two years.

The convicted paedophile had the same first and last names as the man, but their middle names were different.

The trust has now deactivated the database and is checking all of the offenders' records.

The blunder was only discovered after the innocent man received a call from one of his customers saying he would no longer work with him.

The man immediately notified the Sensible Sentencing Trust, and later complained to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards says the Trust's had a "continuously negligent, cavalier, and dangerous approach to privacy".

Edwards says the innocent man's has faced backlash for his business, and on social media.

The Trust was updating the database using the work of volunteers without any privacy training.

Sensible Sentencing Trust founder Garth McVicar says they've taken every step they can to make amends - including taking the database down to verify every photo.

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The Crown will not appeal a sentence of home detention imposed on a teenager who killed young Air Force cadet Nathan Kraatskow in a hit-and-run.

Rouxle Le Roux had been drinking wine and smoking cannabis before she got behind the wheel of a Mercedes and hit and killed Nathan as he was cycling home.

She was sentenced to 11 months' home detention, 250 hours of community work and disqualified from driving for two-and-a-half years.

The Crown Solicitor did refer the case to the Solicitor-General's office to consider whether an appeal should be filed.

But Nathan's mother Charlene Kraatskow received the call this morning that there would be no appeal.

She was told there were no grounds to appeal.

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The country's largest bank is warning people to be vigilant after seeing a more than 200 per cent increase in the number people falling victim to scams this year.

ANZ chief operations officer Mike Bullock says it's worth being particularly alert now, as fraud tends to rise at this time of year with all the buying and selling across the world.

He says ANZ has seen a spike in the 'catch the hackers' scam where people received a call supposedly from their telecommunications company technician who says their computer or modem has been hacked.

Bullock says the criminals running the scams operate as part of big international businesses, which go so far as researching the way legitimate companies communicate with their customers, so that they can imitate it.

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The International Statistic of the Year has been announced, and it's slightly depressing.

The statistic is 90.5 percent - that's the amount of plastic produced that's never been recycled.

That's seven trillion full plastic bags, stacked end-to-end that's enough to go to the moon and back almost six thousand times.

The statistic is chosen by the Royal Statistical Society, to shed light on a pressing global issue.

The chair of the judges and Royal Statistical Society president, Sir David Spiegelhalter, says it's concerning that so little plastic has ever been recycled and, as a result, so much plastic waste has leached out into the world's environment.

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After years of speculation, it's finally been confirmed: Swedish furniture store Ikea is opening in New Zealand.

The company is now hunting for a location, with a source telling the Herald developers are eyeing up a greenfields site of over five hectares.

That's bigger than most malls.

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If this news is music to your ears, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters reckons you should be thanking him.

He says it's all down to the Government's decision to open a New Zealand embassy in the Swedish capital Stockholm.

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That's the Front Page for today, Thursday December 20, making sure you're across the biggest news of the day. For more on these stories, check out The New Zealand Herald, or tune in to Newstalk ZB.

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcasts here, iHeartRadio here, and Stitcher here.

If you like to stay up to date on social media, you can find host Frances Cook on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.