NEW Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), a government/Crown research institute established in 1992, has been beating the climate change drum endlessly, telling Kiwis their sheep burps and carbon emissions are turning the climate wild.
But like so much “climate research” it is mere modelling tainted with the underlying necessity to prove that so-called climate change is a real threat to humanity that must be addressed. It has also become evident that the researchers have given in to the temptation to fudge or ignore historical temperature and rainfall figures. This has also happened within the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
The mainstream news media has worked in concert with these researchers, uncritically reporting their “scary findings” about the alleged dire threats facing the planet. This can be as subtle as re-colouring TV weather maps to show normal warm summer spells as “bright-red heat” ominously covering the nation.
But independent journalist and publisher Ian Wishart, has been systematically exposing the figure-fudging claims of “record rainfall” or “record temperatures” that are frequently made by the compliant mainstream media.
He made an official complaint against TV1 for claiming that the city of Dunedin experienced it’s highest 24-hour rainfall in a century in October 2024, and provided official records showing the highest rainfall day was back in 1935. His complaint was rejected.
Wishart raised similar complaints against Radio New Zealand and NIWA for misrepresenting heat wave data and ignoring or suppressing historical data. RNZ chose not to amend their story even when confronted with contradictory evidence.
Wishart has also debated Auckland University Emeritus Professor Ralph Cooney who cites “studies by distinguished scientists” to make the claim that there will be “a billion climate deaths” over the next 100 years.
Wishart’s ongoing campaign against climate change hysteria and the media’s response prompted him to release a statement on social media last week.
“To all the news media who’ve been pearl-clutching about my challenges to the climate change “orthodoxy”, consider yourselves schooled, yet again,” he wrote.
“(Science, Innovation and Technology) Minister Shane Reti needs to stage an urgent “intervention” at the newly-merged NIWA MetService, because these kind of basic fundamental errors are being caused by the “missing data” that your predecessor Judith Collins assured NZ “wasn’t missing” because the nice Sir Humphreys at NIWA Obi-wan Kenobi’d her, “there’s nothing to see here, Minister…those are not the records you are looking for”.
“Last week’s storm (in Christchurch) damaged more than cars and houses, it ripped away what little credibility the newly merged NIWA MetService had left on climate change. What do I mean by that?
“A change in climate can only be measured against a known baseline. If you don’t know the baseline, then your claims that the climate has changed are meaningless.
“The phrase “pre-industrial climate” is thrown around earnestly by climate scientists and the media, but here’s the thing: in NZ, neither NIWA nor the media have a clue about our pre-industrial climate.
“Proof that NIWA/MetService don’t know what they don’t know rained down in buckets last week in Christchurch.
“Christchurch experienced its wettest April day since MetService records began in 1943,” reported The Press, “and was in the top five wettest days recorded all year round, meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said.
“Between 9am Wednesday and 9am Thursday, Christchurch recorded 80.2mm of rain, nearly double its April average of 44mm. The city’s wettest day on record was in January 1980 when 110.4mm fell,” the meteorologist reported.
Wishart said that figure was wrong. Christchurch’s 1980 record from 3 January was 150mm, not 110mm.
He quoted the Christchurch Press as reporting on 4 January 1980: “In Christchurch, 150 mm of rain fell in the 24 hours to 9 a.m. yesterday; This was the highest rainfall since records were first taken in 1940. The previous high was slightly more than 124 mm, in April, 1974.”
“Now, the sharp-eyed amongst you may be asking the question when did MetService rainfall records begin in Christchurch? 1943 or 1940? That naturally creates even more questions,” he said.
– Why is NIWA/MetService missing the first three years of Christchurch rain records?
– Why do the NIWA/MetService records in 2025 wrongly record a 110mm rainfall back in 1980 when reports at the time clearly state it was 150mm and compared it to the previous record of 124mm from 1974?
– Why does NIWA/MetService not have a record of 124mm in 1974, if their records are not missing any data?
– How does any of the above reconcile with the assurance of previous Science Minister Judith Collins that: “As the Minister of Science, Innovation, and Technology, I take your suggestion that NIWA has misled Parliament very seriously. I have had my officials engage with NIWA to ascertain the facts. My officials inform me, based on the explanations provided by NIWA, that they do not believe Parliament has been misled. This is on the basis that: No historical climate records have been lost…I accept these explanations. Accordingly, I confirm that I continue to have confidence in NIWA and its board.”
– How many strikes does NIWA get before the board and management are out for misleading their Ministers? Three strikes? Nine lives?
“All good questions, and in my view, they point to irrefutable evidence that our climate agencies are flying blind on our past climate,” said Wishart.
“These kinds of inaccuracies are creeping into the media – and therefore public consciousness and the official record – with virtually every single weather event these days.
“The saddest thing, however, is that you still haven’t heard the full scale of how much NIWA doesn’t know what it doesn’t know.”
