{"id":247000,"date":"2026-01-23T00:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/247000\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T00:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:39:06","slug":"doc-forced-to-release-report-into-kiwi-whistleblower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/247000\/","title":{"rendered":"DoC forced to release report into kiwi whistleblower"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An investigation into a privacy bungle revealed a cascade of missteps by the Department of Conservation.<\/p>\n<p>The department commissioned a series of reports into the disastrous summer of 2016\/17 during which 25 kiwi died at a privately owned wildlife creche, Cape Sanctuary, in Hawkes Bay. The ultimate report into the incident, penned by former chief censor David Shanks, was released publicly in 2023, and was the subject of a <a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.co.nz\/2023\/11\/27\/deaths-at-the-cape-evidence-ignored-says-whistleblower\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">two<\/a>\u2013<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.co.nz\/2023\/11\/28\/deaths-at-the-cape-little-spotted-kiwi-neglected\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">part<\/a> story by Newsroom.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tSubscribe to continue reading<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center newspack-sign-in\" style=\"font-size:13px\">Already have an account? <a href=\"#signin_modal\">Sign In<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Unlimited access Newsroom Pro articles<\/p>\n<p>Bonus subscription for a friend or family member<\/p>\n<p>Exclusive subscriber-only emails <\/p>\n<p>Access to post and read comments on articles<\/p>\n<p>A daily morning email of news and insights curated by Newsroom Pro editorial team<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.co.nz\/newsroom-pro-subscription\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Corporate subscriptions also available<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.co.nz\/author\/david-williams\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Avatar photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/W5grs6108rgouXpBikaH-80x80.png\"  class=\"avatar avatar-80 photo\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Williams is Newsroom&#8217;s environment editor, South Island correspondent and investigative writer.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.co.nz\/author\/david-williams\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by David Williams\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investigation into a privacy bungle revealed a cascade of missteps by the Department of Conservation. The department&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1389,111,43,7439,139,69,8780,147,11219,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-247000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-conservation","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newsroom-pro","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-premium","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-sustainable-future","17":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}