Ex-Lotto host's 5-year paid suspension from Govt job amid criminal case; Jim Grenon must pay costs over 'wholly unsuccessful' TVNZ defamation case; Ombudsman 'disturbed' by Wakari Hospital ward
Ex-Lotto host was paid by Justice Ministry for five years during criminal case
A "shocked" Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is demanding answers after learning a former Lotto presenter accused of money laundering was suspended on full pay from his public sector job for five years, right up until he pleaded guilty.
Russell Harrison continued to draw his Ministry of Justice salary throughout the suspension, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, until his employment was terminated.
The 56-year-old delivered six bars of gold bullion to the Comancheros in Türkiye and was among hundreds arrested in a 2021 global FBI sting.
Jim Grenon must pay costs over 'wholly unsuccessful' TVNZ defamation case
Billionaire Jim Grenon has been ordered to pay costs "jointly and severally" to TVNZ after he was revealed as the backer of a defamation case against the broadcaster on behalf of Julian Batchelor.
Batchelor, the organiser of a "stop co-governance" roadshow, attempted to sue TVNZ and researcher Sanjana Hattotuwa for defamation over an August 2023 news item on the 1News 6pm bulletin and its website.
The claim was dismissed in March, and it emerged during the hearing that Grenon, the largest shareholder of media company NZME - the publisher of the NZ Herald newspaper and website - had been funding Batchelor's legal costs.
'Worst we've seen': Ombudsman 'disturbed' by Wakari Hospital ward
Chief Ombudsman John Allen says he is "disturbed" by what inspectors had found at Wakari Hospital’s 10A ward – highlighting an urgent need for agencies to show greater commitment to the safety and dignity of "the most vulnerable people in their care".
The ward, in the northwest of Dunedin, is an inpatient forensic unit for adults with intellectual disabilities.
Allen said inspectors visited in March this year and found "compelling evidence" of "punitive and coercive treatment" of people in the ward.
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Four arrests were made, with some of the children found covered in human waste.
ONE NEW VOICE
Google is rolling out a new voice in New Zealand’s version of Maps that will speak English with a Kiwi accent and be able to properly pronounce te reo Māori names for the first time.
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