The Front Page: The week’s top stories - Dickason conviction, recycling fraud claims, health crisis, Waiwera Wasteland and political retirement

Lauren Dickason as the jury delivered a majority verdict finding her guilty of murdering her three children. Photo / George Heard

Every weekday at 5am, the New Zealand presents The Front Page, a daily news podcast covering the biggest stories of the day. Here’s a rundown of key stories that made headlines across New Zealand this week, from the end of the Lauren Dickason trial, the kick-off of valedictory speeches in Paliarment, and the demise of one of the country’s favourite waterparks.

Lauren Dickason convicted

After a month-long trial and three days of deliberation, the jury this week returned a verdict of guilty in the Lauren Dickason trial at the High Court in Christchurch.

“In New Zealand, life is life,” senior journalist Anna Leask told The Front Page.

“She will spend the rest of her life in prison, unless the parole board – and only the parole board – deem her safe enough to release and not be a threat to anyone in the community.”

This conviction may have marked the end of a heart-wrenching trial, but conversations are likely to continue on what drove this woman to take the lives of her three young children.

Recycling a fraud, really?

Waste Management New Zealand chemical engineer Timothy Brake ruffled feathers this week by telling BusinessDesk reporter Cecile Meier that recycling is “essentially a fraud”.

He expressed the view that only a small fraction of our rubbish is recycled and when it is, it’s often a mere delay to it ending in landfills.

Comments on recycling sparked controversy this week. Photo / Getty

This has sparked an important discussion about what recycling can and can’t do – and it has also demanded some self-reflection from those who believe separating our trash will avert the climate crisis.

“It’s important because if we understand that recycling is not the golden solution we think it is, then we might focus more on producing waste in the first place,” Meier said.

However, the CEO of Plastics NZ, Rachel Barker, told The Front Page the claims are “misinformation”.

Are our hospitals safe?

A damning report of the Hawke’s Bay radiology department has suggested patients may have been harmed by a system failure that meant scan results were sometimes incomplete or went missing.

So how widespread is this problem and is undermining the safety of our hospitals?

NZ Herald investigations editor Alex Spence has been investigating this issue and says there have been some dire consequences. “One case that the Health and Disability Commissioner investigated was of a patient, a man in his 70s, who went in for a CT scan,” says Spence. “The scan found a possible malignancy, but the report didn’t make its way back to the doctors who requested it, so that wasn’t picked up for 16 months. And by that time this patient had cancer that was out of control and he died soon after.”

So are we at risk at other hospitals around the country? And what’s being done to address these issues?

Waiwera wasteland

The splash of water and the laughter of children has been replaced by post-apocalyptic scenes at the site that once housed the Waiwera Thermal Resort. After years of attempting the resurrect the park, the owners of the land have now decided that demolition is the only option left.

Not such an attractive frog, at Waiwera Thermal Resort as it stands today. Photo / Supplied

“Urban Partners has always said that they’re not in the business of running a resort. So they wanted someone else to come in,” Anne Gibson told The Front Page.

“Various international leisure resort businesses talked at various times, but no deals were ever struck.”

Listen to full episode for more on how this tourism hotspot fell into such disrepair, what the future holds for the site, and what other business owners and developers could learn from this demise.

Parliamentary farewell

The National Party’s Jacqui Dean, who has held the Waitaki electorate since 2008, and the Green Party’s Jan Logie, who has been a list MP since 2011, will not be campaigning for this election, opting to step away from politics.

They sat down with The Front Page to talk about the hard slog that goes into a political career and also suggested that a few things might need to change.

“When I first came in, I think I had 12 portfolios - and I really struggled with the sense of responsibility to people,” Logie says.

Retiring Green MP Jan Logie. Photo/ Mark Mitchell

“There are myriad issues that may come up in one portfolio, and I was working until one in the morning on a regular basis, and then I’d be back in Parliament by 7am or 7.30am the next morning. I was easily working a minimum of 80 hours a week and still feeling as if I was letting people down, because [you] actually just can’t do it all.”

Dean is equally frank in talking about the need to reconnect with her family after years of focusing on politics.

A major dropout on State Highway 2 between Napier and Waikare, one of more than 100 sites of slips, washouts and other damage in Cyclone Gabrielle in February. Photo / NZME

Six months since Cyclone Gabrielle

One of the most destructive storms New Zealand has ever seen struck six months ago this week.

While Cyclone Gabrielle has passed, the destruction remains for many parts of the North Island, particularly along the hardest-hit East Coast.

Chris Hyde, editor of Hawke’s Bay Today, says there remain “significant pockets of devastation” across the region, particularly in rural Hawke’s Bay where some people remain completely cut off.

“I think it’s really challenging for the people that are in that situation, because most people have moved on and with their lives, but these people can’t, they are stuck in a long, long process to get back to normality if they ever can get back to normality.”

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am.

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