One person has been taken to hospital in critical condition after being struck by a vehicle on Hills Road, Ōtara.
The incident occurred yesterday evening at about 6.50pm.
“The vehicle involved left the scene and inquiries are ongoing to locate it,” said police.
“Hills Road is closed while police conduct a scene examination, and motorists should avoid the area.”
A Mate Ma’a Tonga player has received a notice after he was found guilty over a hammer attack on a tradesman that occurred on November last year in Australia.
The St George Dragons five-eighth ‘Amone Talatau Jr, 21, was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, stalking or intimidation and destroying or damaging property.
The Wollongong Local Court found Amone and his father guilty and sentenced Amone to a two-year intensive corrections order and 300 hours of community service.
He was also fined $1000 by the court for a charge of destroy or damage property and ordered to pay compensation to the victim.
The verdict came after Amone was charged with reckless grievous bodily harm in company, destroy or damage property and stalking or intimidation with intent to cause fear of physical or mental harm over the matter in Warrawong.
Police allege Amone was involved in an incident that saw a tradesman attacked with a hammer, while a car roof and windscreen was also damaged with the tool.
It says, the NRL have responded to the verdict by issuing the playmaker with a notice, which has thrown Amone’s future into doubt.
He was expected to cop a lengthy suspension from the league and be unavailable at least for the start of the 2024 season.
However, he may now miss the upcoming campaign completely and be forced to reapply for registration with no definitive time frame attached to this process.
St George Illawarra released a brief comment regarding the matter last week ahead of the possible sanctions from the NRL.
“The Dragons acknowledge the two-year Intensive Corrections Order that was handed down to player Talatau Amone,” the statement said.
“The club will now work closely with the NRL Integrity Unit to determine the appropriate next steps.”
By rnz.co.nz and is republished with permission
New Zealand boxer Joseph Parker has revived his professional career with an emphatic points win over American big-hitter Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia.
Parker was a firm underdog for the clash of two former world champions but he dominated from the outset against his listless 38-year-old opponent and nearly produced a knockout in the eighth round.
The judges unanimously scored the 12-round contest in Parker’s favour, which potentially opens the door to another world title shot.
Parker was already dominating the fight when he caught Wilder with a flurry of punches late in the eighth round, sparked by a wild right hand that connected with his back-pedalling opponent.
The three judges scored it 118-111, 118-110, and 120-108 to Parker indicating they had him winning virtually every round.
Parker shouted “I’m back!” after receiving the decision.
The Aucklander said his preparation had been spot on.
“I have a lot of respect for WIlder but we trained very hard for this. Everyone had plans but this is God’s plan,” he told broadcaster DAZN.
“The strategy was to be really fit, stay calm, stay relaxed. Maybe inactivity played a big part (for Wilder).”
* See how the bout unfolded with RNZ’s live blog.
It’s Parker’s fourth win of the year after a points victory over Jack Massey and knockout wins over Faiga Opelu and Simon Kean.
In 2022 he suffered a massive setback when he was stopped in 11 rounds by another Briton Joe Joyce, but has had a stellar year which he attributes to working with Tyson Fury’s camp.
New Zealand’s Junior Fa fought on the opening fight of the card but was well beaten by undefeated Cuban Frank Sanchez.
Fa, 34, defended Sanchez’s attacks well through the early rounds but was caught in the seventh by the 31-year-old before the referee called off the contest, handing him a third career defeat.
Also on the card, British heavyweight Daniel Dubois stopped unbeaten American Jarrell Miller in the tenth and final round while Dmitriy Bivol defended his portion of the world light-heavyeight title with a wide 12-round points victory over England’s Lyndon Arthur.
A Tongan singer and guitarist with an impossibly high-pitched voice had spent one of his last days sharing how he really missed his friends and acoustic group band players because of his chronic illness.
Taukatelata Vakalahi died in Australia last week in what appeared to be a heart related disease, according to his close friends.
In a streamed video recently uploaded to Facebook, the former police officer in Tonga said he was overcome with acute nostalgia for his days with his friends at kava sessions.
He said his illness had prevented him from joining them again but he hoped he would soon sing and play together with them again.
He said he was unwell and he was looking forward to receiving medical treatment.
“Fai e ki’i ta’elata. Ngaahi feohi’anga ko ē ne u anga ai ‘ikai ke toe hoko”, he said in Tongan.
He said he was going to dedicate a song to his friends.
The love song was Taumaiā which was composed by the late famous Tongan song writer and singer Mrs Tu’imala Kaho.
Tributes are being paid to the singer with many describing him as gifted with a “distinctive voice”.
“May you continue to sing in heaven with your beautiful voice”, a commenter wrote.
“God bless u with your lovely voices see in Heaven ofa atu moe hufaki”, another commenter wrote.
“I don’t believe it’s his talent your voice is clean and clear like a woman amazing”.
Brisbane Police have been granted an order to obtain blood samples as soon as possible from a woman charged with murder so they can be tested for the presence of drugs.
Dorothy James Downie, 55, is accused of fatally stabbing Tongan woman ‘Ana Afā Fesimaka Moimoi, 43, also known as ‘Ana Fa Lavaka, in the Brisbane suburb of Hamilton on Thursday.
She has also been charged with enter with intent.
Police responded to reports of a disturbance at an address on Oxford Street in Hamilton about 8.45am on Thursday, where the mother-of-one was stabbed several times including in the chest before dying of her injuries in hospital.
Downie was charged by police on Thursday with her matter briefly heard in the Brisbane Arrests Court on Friday, where police sought an urgent forensic order to secure blood samples.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Tara Williams said the urgency was in relation to whether there were prescription or non-prescription drugs in her blood at the time of the attack.
“My submission is if it’s not dealt with today there is a potential loss of evidence,” the court heard.
“Over time, the longer that it takes to deal with this application the levels are going to change … it’s going to result in incomplete information for the prosecution and for defence to consider.”
Daniel Hannay, representing Downie, said his client had a history of delusions of grandeur and psychosis, and still needed to be seen by a mental health nurse.The order was granted by magistrate Andrew Hackett.
Downie was remanded in custody with the matter adjourned until February 14.
A Tongan woman has died in Australia on Thursday after allegedly being stabbed to death by her neighbour.
‘Ana Afā Fesimaka Moimoi, 43, was given first aid then taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, where she died.
Police told local media they were called to a unit complex on Oxford Street in Hamilton about 8.45am after reports of a disturbance.
They found Moimoi in her unit with stab wounds.
Police said they had charged her 55-year-old neighbour with one count each of murder and entering with intent.
She is due to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday.
The women both lived in the unit complex on Oxford Street, which police said “may be operated by Public Housing”.
Detective Inspector John Mison from the Gateway Crime Group said there was no information to suggest it was a domestic violence incident, and nothing to suggest forced entry to the unit.
He said police had attended the unit complex before, and there had been previous reports of disturbances there.
Mison appealed for public help with the investigation “to determine the exact timeline of what occurred”.
“A team of detectives are out at the scene conducting door knocks and speaking to witnesses … to obtain the complete picture in relation to what occurred this morning,” Mison said.
“We’ve got scientific officers down at the scene conducting an investigation.
“They’ll be doing a search looking for the weapon. I can’t confirm if that’s been seized.”
Tonga police are looking for suspects after three brothers and a friend had been allegedly attacked with a machete during a brawl outside a bar.
The police said one of the brothers sustained a serious injury to his wrist which required him to remain in hospital for further medical assistance.
A police statement said the police attended the brawl at around 11.41 pm on Saturday, 16 December 2023 outside one of the bars at Taufa’ahau Rd in downtown Nuku’alofa.
It said the victims are three brothers aged 25, 31, and 38 from Havelu and a friend from Ha’ateiho.
“They were visiting the bar when a dispute arose between them and others leading to a brawl just outside the bar”.
The Police also said a witness claimed that one of the attackers appeared to be holding a machete that he swung against the victims causing serious injuries to the left wrist of the 31-year-old brother.
“He now remains at the Vaiola hospital for further check-ups while the 25 and the 38-year-old brothers and the friend, who also suffered injuries during the attack, have been discharged.
“Meanwhile, Police investigations and searching for suspects are underway.
“Police Commissioner, Shane McLennan is urging the public to be more careful during this festive season, especially when out drinking or partying to avoid causing unnecessary harm to yourself and or others”.
By Nat Wallace of https://9now.nine
An unlicensed tradie with a “history longer than religion” when it comes to dodgy building jobs has gone to work on his new image while spending time behind bars.
Tevita Ungounga, who A Current Affair first exposed in 2021, has launched a charitable website where you can buy a ticket, and the first prize is cash or a house built by him.
Ungounga is currently facing more than 50 charges from fraud to illegal work, and was recently put behind bars for breaching his bail by doing more unlicensed and uninsured jobs.
The devout churchgoer appears as the founder of his latest project – AKA Newlife – which promises to help build “a better life for the Tongan Community.”
It describes Ungounga, who was even jailed in Hawaii, as an “expert in construction, micro finance, political systems and the laws of many countries”.
“How can he keep scamming?” asked Jo Wong, whose house resembled a war zone after Ungounga worked on it for over six months.
The mother of two said Ungounga, who’d been working on other properties in the same street, knocked on her door offering to build a retaining wall.
“He portrayed himself as someone who wanted to help, even on a Sunday he’d show up to my place in a nice clean shirt after he came from the church,” she said.
“He scammed an old couple in our neighbourhood and someone put it on Facebook ‘beware of this person’, and yeah my heart just sunk.”
Wong and her husband confronted Ungounga, who they say had taken $120,000 to do the job.
He left the backyard in such a state the house was in danger of sliding off a hill, with the couple given a quote of $300,000 to fix the damage.
A giant boulder was also dropped in their driveway before being moved to a precarious position outside their son’s bedroom.
“At one stage he starts threatening us, ‘if you don’t pay more I won’t do this for you, I won’t clean up for you,” Wong said.
Ungounga had previously been given a 14-month intensive corrections order after taking $235,000 from a pensioner and leaving his house a shell with no running water.
“He’s a pig, a disgusting pig,” Ian O’Connor said at the time.
When A Current Affair confronted Ungounga over that incident he told us that he “never takes the money” and described his victims as liars.
Ungounga has done an interview promoting his latest venture AKA Newlife – it’s unclear if any transactions have taken place but most payment options on the website are currently disabled.
NSW Fair Trading is aware of Ungounga’s involvement with the website.
David Ross, a reputable business owner who is listed as AKA Newlife’s Director of Finance, confirmed Ungounga was the “owner”.
“It worries me a lot,” he replied when asked if Ungounga being in jail concerned him.
“I’m a consultant.
“I don’t know what he’s doing with the bank accounts.”
Mr Ross, despite seemingly not knowing the extent of Ungounga’s offending, described him as a “victim”.
“He did the work and he didn’t get paid,” he said.
A court heard Ungounga had “a history longer than religion” when it came to doing dodgy building work.
A Tongan man was denied parole for the first time after being jailed for stabbing an Oamaru, NZ mother of four in front of her family.
The parole board heard 30-year-old Manu Hausia had recently been reclassified as a high-security prisoner after accruing eight misconducts.
Manu Hausia told the Parole Board he wanted to return to Tonga. He came to New Zealand on an interim visitor visa, before the incident happened in February 2021.
He was jailed for six-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to four charges.
A court summary of facts said Hausia’s first victim was a solo mum with five children who met him at a rugby game in Auckland at the start of the year.
They began a relationship and started living together a short time later in Oamaru.
At about midnight on June 19, Hausia was at their place in Oamaru waiting for the victim to return home from church.
When she got home, the court heard, he confronted her, requesting to see her phone.
While he was checking her phone, she went to take a shower.
But when she came out and laid down on her bed, Hausia attacked.
He punched her in the head with full force, causing her to scream and raise her a
As she lay there, he continued to rain punches down on her head and body, causing her to lose consciousness.
The woman’s 1-year-old son was 2m from the bed and started crying, distracting Hausia from the assault.
She regained consciousness and crawled into her 11-year-old son’s bedroom where she blacked out again.
The summary says that he was still angry as he followed her.The young boy tried to stop the assault on his mother and phoned the police.
Hausia fled the property and was later found in Ashburton.
The victim was admitted to Oamaru hospital, suffering severe swelling to her face, upper body, arms, bleeding from her ears, and concussion.
When police spoke to him, Hausia admitted punching her numerous times as there had been a “misunderstanding”.
Hausia, who has no previous convictions, declined to be interviewed by police and gave no explanation for his actions.
The Prime Minister’s dealing with the nurse’s proposal to increase their pay appears to show that he has two opposing policies.
One policy seems to be to easily approve the Prime Minister’s demands from the budget and the other appears to be to hinder civil servants from asking for money from the public purse.
Nurses in Tonga staged an early morning strike today as a result of their disappointment with the Minister of Health’s handling of their proposal for a pay rise.
Hon. Saia Piukala attempted to downplay the situation by repeatedly saying he had held meetings with the nurses about their proposal. However, at one stage, he admitted that he was unhappy when he found out the nurses had marched to the king with their proposal this morning.
In Tongan Hon. Piukala said: ““Me’apango toki mahino ia he pongipongi ni kuo fai ‘enau laka mo e tohi tangi ki He’ene ‘Afio”.
Hon. Piukala said during a press conference this afternoon he and his chief executive officer had proposed some changes to the nurses in some of their meetings to make their proposal look good (“’hā lelei”).
He said some of the changes he suggested included the percentage the nurses demanded the Cabinet approve for their pay rise.
He also said they had agreed on all the changes and he was awaiting the final draft so he could submit it to the Cabinet for a decision. He said he was surprised when he heard about the strike, but respected their decision as they have the rights to approach the king.
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He said the Ministry quickly mobilised staff to relieve the strikers this morning.
He said the nurses had told the chief executive they would return to work after submitting their proposal to the royal palace office.
The peaceful march without banners was led by the Vaiola Hospital Matron Sr ‘Akesa Uili Halatanu followed by about 100 nurses.
The proposal
Broadcaster Katalina Tohi told the Minister the nurses had been disappointed because they failed to reach an agreement with him despite several meetings.
Tohi said the nurses were also upset after being forced to work extra shifts after many nurses left to take up jobs overseas. She said the nurses had to work up to 12 hours and they did not get enough rest.
The Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku said he had yet to receive the nurses’ proposal, but he has to consider the “affordability” of the pay rise demanded.
He said there was also a need to consider the rest of the civil servants when dealings with the proposal.
He also said the cabinet has approved cost of living allowance worth $11 million for all civil servants to start in January.
Criticisms against PM
Critics have blasted the Prime Minister, labelling his response as being two-faced. They accused Hon. Hu’akavameiliku of increasing the budget without going through Parliament as required by the law.
Hon Hu’akavameiliku had been accused of increasing the government’s overseas travelling budget by TP$8 million from TP$13 million to TP$21 million.
As Kaniva News reported previously, MP Piveni Piukala claimed this was unlawful because the law says the government can only make an increase of 10 percent, or TP$1.3 million. Any changes to the budget that is more than that must be submitted to Parliament.
The Prime Minister had also been accused of falsifying the budget to hide the investment of millions of pa’anga on Lulutai airlines and the continuing appointment of Cabinet ministers as members of the Lulutai board of directors, despite the law saying they can only be members within one year. Lulutai airlines was incepted in 2020.
Commenters on Democratic supporters Facebook groups questioned the Prime Minister’s response and compared it to the Parliament’s recent pay rise which was only approved through a circular savingram being circulated around MPs to tick a yes or no answers.
“Funny how the government increased the traveling budget by $8 million without considering people’s other needs now they told the nurses they have to consider other civil servants before making decision on their proposal”, a commenter wrote.
“Nurses should not return to work until their petition is dealt with”, another wrote.
