National debt tops half trillion
Kava and the rest of group missed the moment the boat went under the Harbour Bridge.
No matter. It would be there on the return, and they would have a feed while enjoying the view.
Kava was on the top deck, but sticking to the middle — he was afraid of heights and, as he told a few people, he couldn’t swim.
“I think he was nervous, because he made a couple of jokes about it.”
The music was pumping but there was bad static on the top deck. Kava didn’t seem too worried though.
He was growing in confidence, Tuvae says.
“He was doing his Snapchat. He’d just got into it. He did a couple of 360 degree spins and selfies.”
On board there was a cash bar, but the brothers had brought chicken nibbles, meat patties and sausages to cook on a barbecue at the stern, next to the ramp they had crossed to board.
Two men were manning the barbecue when Kava decided to join them, around 9.20pm. The boat was off Island Bay, although no one i s quite sure where, Tuvae says.
Neither of those on the barbecue saw what happened next, but Tino Mona — sitting in an area above them — did. She hasn’t slept well since.
Mona didn’t know Kava well, but they had chatted earlier in the evening, she says.
“The whole night he just mentioned that he couldn’t swim, [ he said that] quite a few times.
“He said ‘ oh man, I hope I don’t fall off the boat. I can’t swim’.”
Playing on his party’s Mafia theme, Carl Tuvae had bought cigars and given them to friends.
After he went down to the barbecue, Kava turned to Mona and asked if she had a lighter. And then he was gone.
“He kind of just leant back a little and he just went down. It happened real quick. You kind of just blinked and he was gone.”
Since the accident, Mona has been replaying, in her mind, the look on Kava’s face.
“That look won’t go away. . . he just had this look in his eyes, this look of shock, and maybe two seconds after he fell I couldn’t see him at all.”
Kava had disappeared into the darkness.
alerted the others on the boat that something was terribly wrong.
“I just kept screaming ‘ stop the boat, stop the boat’.”
The skipper turned back, but it took too long, Mona claims.
Tuvae reckons they were about 50m away by the time the boat turned.
“One of my sisters said ‘ your friend went overboard’. Once she said it was Dave I ran to the back of the boat.”
A friend had to physically stop him from jumping in.
“I know I’m not a good swimmer . . . [ I wanted to jump in] because I’m the one that brought him.”
As the emergency services scrambled, those on the boat began searching, but that brought its own drama.
One of Tuvae’s cousins fell overboard from the same place as Kava; his life was saved by another cousin jumping from the top deck.
“He said he just put his hand on the ramp [ and fell in],” Tuvae says.
Red Boats is owned by Andrew Somers, who says he can’t comment on what happened until an investigation by Maritime New Zealand is completed.
“All we can say at this point is our hearts go out to Tevita’s family.”
But earlier this week, Somers told the Herald the ramp wasn’t broken and staff had since tested it.
Kava was in an area at the back of the vessel which was off- limits to patrons, with only one person meant to be in the area for the barbecue.
“The ramp is locked and tied in place. I’m unsure as to how it was unlocked and untied.”
There has never been an i ssue with the ramp in the 20 years the company has owned the boat, Somers says.
The boat was carrying half its capacity and lifejackets were on board, but people were only told to wear them in an emergency.
He’s confident his staff followed the correct man- overboard procedure — a drill was done the same afternoon as the tragedy, he says.
“We are devastated.”
Tino Mona
is more than some get, but Kava has likely still been cruelly short- changed on life.
For those who loved him, there’s a heartbreaking sense of what might have been. But there is also a gratitude for who he was.
“He was the most humble, beautiful person of all heart that I’ve ever met,” Easthope says. “I don’t think I’ll ever meet another David.” Our national debt has topped half a trillion dollars and is still rising, despite signs that the pace of borrowing is starting to ease.
The Weekend Herald has tallied the country’s total gross debt — combining household, business, agricultural, central and local government debt.
The grand total of $ 528.7 billion is up 7.3 per cent from a year ago.
The latest Reserve Bank figures ( for the year to April 30) show household debt has topped $ 250b, driven by rising property prices and an increase in consumer borrowing.
That’s an increase of more than 60 per cent in 10 years.
But, while household debt remains at levels that worry the Reserve Bank and leaves us vulnerable to the risk of a housing market crash or international financial crisis, there have been signs of improvement in the past year.
Crown debt has stabilised as the Government looks to reduce its debt to 20 per cent of GDP by 2020.
The cooling of the housing market, particularly in Auckland, saw the rate of credit growth ease in the first four months of the year.
In terms of housing credit growth, things “have definitely improved”, Deputy Reserve Bank deputy governor Grant Spencer told the Weekend Herald.
The overall ratio of net debt to GDP — a key measure for economists and ratings agencies — has fallen as economic growth and improved savings offset total volume of debt.
Dairy prices have also improved, taking the cashflow pressure off debtladen farmers.
“This loss of momentum in the housing market has seen the rate at which we’re accumulating debt slow down over the past year,” said Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod. However, the risks remain high. For New Zealand households, the ratio of debt to income has now reached a record — 168 per cent, well above the pre- financial crisis peak of 159 per cent.
As well as continuing vulnerability to international shocks, New Zealand now faces a risk to economic growth as the borrowing trend slows, Ranchhod says.
“With interest rates set to continue gradually rising over the coming years, we expect house price inflation will remain modest through 2017 and 2018. That’s likely to continue dampening credit growth, and will weigh on spending and economic activity more generally.”
The slowdown in debt accumulation and house price inflation makes it less likely that we’ll see a tightening of Reserve Bank policy in the near term, Ranchhod says.