By RNZ A petition calling for Wānaka to become the centre of its own district council area has almost gained enough signatures to trigger a Local Government Commission investigation.Local mechanic Dean Rankin started the…

A Wellington charity for former refugees says many are fearful the New Lynn supermarket terror attack will have negative repercussions for them and their communities. ChangeMakers Resettlement Forum general manager Jacqueline Wilton…

Experts are amplifying calls for an alert level 2.5, dubbed 2-plus, which could enable all Kiwis not in Auckland to exit alert level 3 in the coming days. It comes as alert level settings for the country, except for Auckland, are…

A legal expert says it was not possible for the Lynn Mall terrorist to be detained using the Mental Health Act because he had refused a psychological assessment.”It would be difficult to apply the provisions of the Mental Health…

A man has died after being bitten by a shark at a beach on the NSW North Coast this morning.

Emergency personnel were called to Emerald Beach, Coffs Harbour, just before 11am today after reports a man in his 30s had suffered a shark bite to the arm.

READ MORE: 'Shark rider' recovering after attack off WA island

Emergency crews were deployed onto the scene via helicopter in an attempt to to resuscitate the man, however he later died as a result of significant injuries, a spokeswoman for NSW Police said.

New Zealand's daily COVID-19 case numbers provided by the government continue to provide good news as the nation looks ahead to start stepping down alert levels.

At the 1pm update on Sunday, delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson and Director General of Heath Dr Ashley Bloomfield there were 20 new cases in the community, all in the Auckland region.

There are 30 cases so far unlinked to a current cluster, down from 59 a week ago.

READ MORE: 'Heroic' victim came face-to-face with terrorist as he saved wife

Thirty-eight people are in hospital, six are in an ICU and four are being ventilated.

Of the 20 cases, six were infectious while in the community.

There were no unexpected results in wastewater testing reported.

Overall for this cluster the Government has identified 38,120 contacts, 90 per cent of which have had at least one test result.

READ MORE: NSW records 1485 new COVID-19 cases, three further deaths

There were more than 77,000 vaccine doses administered on Saturday.

The Government said that it would be putting further measure in place this week to boost testing across Auckland, after there were only a bit over 9200 tests reported across the country.

"I would like to stress the importance of sustaining good levels of testing, to help give us further confidence that we are finding any cases of COVID-19 out," Dr Bloomfield said.

"As we saw with our first case, it takes only one person to have the virus and silently transmit it over the course of a week for Delta to get out of control," Mr Robertson said

"This is why we want to see testing numbers in Auckland, increase. We need to make sure that we've got the confidence that between the 20 cases that are reported today, for example, are the only 20 cases out there."

On Monday, Cabinet will decide on alert levels for the rest of the country outside of Auckland. At this stage Auckland will remain in level 4 lockdown until midnight Monday, September 13.

The decision will be announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at 4pm on Monday.

This story originally appeared on stuff.co.nz and has been republished with permission

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Steve Brodie and his wife were doing their weekly shopping on Friday afternoon when a terror attack unfolded right in front of them.

Moments later, the 77-year-old former Salvation Army counsellor came face-to-face with the Isis-inspired terrorist as he held shut a perspex door, so his wife could run to safety. His son, John Brodie, described his father's actions as "heroic".

The 32-year-old terrorist entered the Countdown supermarket in New Lynn, Auckland, on Friday afternoon and stabbed multiple people, leaving three in a critical condition, with a knife picked up from the store's shelf.

READ MORE: 'Extremist' shot dead after stabbing six people in Auckland terror attack

Mr Brodie's son, John Brodie, said his parents were doing their weekly shopping in separate areas of the supermarket when his father saw the stabbing unfold.

"Mum was somewhere else in the supermarket so he yelled out to get her to come to him so they could get out. They exited out the back, but the guy actually went for my dad, and my dad went behind the door and held it and let my mum escape out the back."

John Brodie said his father came "face-to-face" with the terrorist as he held the door.

"The terrorist was yelling out something …. and stabbed through the door, and it ripped dad's shirt. He got just a little scratch. Dad just let this yell out back, and the guy backed off."

Shortly afterward, John Brodie received a message from his parents saying there had been a terrorist attack, but they were ok.

"I couldn't believe it, and the fact my dad saw some people get stabbed… it's absolutely terrifying."

He said his father was "a bit shaken up".

"It wouldn't have sunk in, I think until probably about now. He's doing well considering, it's hard to tell how any of us would feel in that situation."

READ MORE: New terror laws in New Zealand after Auckland attack

John said his father was "heroic".

"There's no other word for it."

On Saturday, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster referenced Steve Brodie's survival.

"This man narrowly avoided more serious injury when he evaded the attacker," MrCoster said.

Steve Brodie declined to comment. He left South Canterbury after 32 years in 2017 and headed to Auckland to be closer to his children and grandchildren.

He was a pastor at Elim Church and St Peter's Church, manager at Radio Rhema, a workplace support counsellor, and a school chaplain at Marchwiel Primary School, before a 16-year stint with the South Canterbury Violence Intervention Project.

On Saturday, Mr Coster said three people remained in Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition, and two others remained in a stable condition at Auckland City and Middlemore hospitals. Another person remains in moderate condition at Middlemore.

One victim had suffered a dislocated shoulder.

The victims are four women aged 29, 43, 60 and 66, and three men aged 53, 57 and 77.

"Our thoughts remain with the victims of this horrific attack and their loved ones, who will be suffering great anguish," Mr Coster said.

The terrorist had been under 24/7 surveillance by police, and officers, within minutes, shot the man dead. He was a supporter of the extremist ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), a designated terror group.

This story originally appeared on stuff.co.nz and has been republished with permission

The ACT has recorded 15 new local COVID-19 cases overnight as the capital marks its fourth weekend in lockdown.

Of these, seven were in the community while infectious. Thirteen are linked to known cases and two are under investigation.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said one person remains in intensive care, but there is some "good news" in a reduction in the number of people requiring urgent medical care.

READ MORE: NSW records 1485 new COVID-19 cases as state marks vaccine milestone

The ACT has passed the 70 per cent first dose milestone for those over the aged of 16.

Mr Barr said the capital is edging close to 50 percent aged 16 above fully vaccinated, and it will cross that trend in a week.

Year 12 students will begin to be vaccinated tomorrow in order to sit end of year exams.

Mr Barr said compliance across the territory was "good" and the community was largely adhering to the lockdown measures.

He said, however, there were issues with businesses continuing to operate without adequate PPE requirements.

"The issues that we've talked about for several days now though still remains the most common reasons why businesses are not compliant and that is staff not wearing face masks properly," he said.

"So just a reminder that wearing a mask properly is that it has to cover your nose and your mouth."

Mr Barr said there is no intent yet to ease restrictions.

"We obviously have checkpoints and the settings that are in place are likely to remain, people should work on that basis," he said.

"We will signal in advance when we next update so people have a bit of notice and they can expect there can be some changes but for the foreseeable short term I would advise the current settings are going to stay."

Victoria has recorded another 183 new cases of COVID-19 in the last day, as authorities push for higher testing rates.

There were 48,000 tests conducted yesterday and 29,000 jabs administered across the state.

There are now currently 1417 cases attributed to the latest Delta outbreak.

READ MORE: Victoria records 190 new cases of COVID-19, warning peak yet to come

https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1434286614633582598

Victoria's COVID-19 Response Commander Jeroen Weimar said the state is seeing the Delta strain as having a "high attack rate".

"What we are seeing is a very high attack rate, and a message to those who continue to operate the essential businesses that we are maintaining, it is so important that your COVID-safe protocols are as strong as you can possibly make them," Mr Weimar said.

"We are seeing levels of community transmission that we have not seen for a long time, you need to make sure your workplaces are as safe as they can be.

"There are literally thousands of people on the ground dealing with this COVID response across Melbourne in particular, and of course in other parts of our Victorian community."

READ MORE: NSW records 1485 new COVID-19 cases

Mr Weimar also urged Victorian to take care of payments that support workers while they wait for the results of their COVID-19 test.

"There are $450 test isolation payments available and I'm pleased to confirm that over 6000 people a day are applying for those test and isolation payments," Mr Weimar said.

"If you need that extra bit of support to get tested because you can't afford to miss a day of work, you can't afford to miss a shift, you need the extra income, please get tested, knowing that 6000 people a day are applying and getting those payments."

READ MORE: Queensland avoids lockdown as one local case of COVID-19 detected

The worst is 'yet to come'

Yesterday, officials warned residents across the state must prepare for higher case numbers, saying that the worst has yet to come.

Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton that number are likely to bounce around, and that a one day decrease in number is not a trend in the right direction.

"One day is not a trend," he said. "We can't say for sure when case numbers will peak.

"The trend over seven-day periods has been incremental increasing and I expect that to happen until we get higher vaccination coverage.

"Professor Sutton said cases may have surged due to more incursions of the virus from Sydney that went undetected, insisting "we got our arms around that earlier outbreak".

READ MORE: Western Australia deems Victoria 'high-risk', with tougher testing for interstate truckies