It has been his way for a while IME. Had colleague denied boarding at the gate using her mpass, others had flown the morning and had the return BP. Previous flight was cancelled so NZ was moving pax to other flights so must have waitlisted some and as we went straight from city to the gate, normally we would have been at airport earlier and at the KC but meeting ran over and roadworks meant we were very tight for time.
I also remember when they introduced online check in for the first time. Flights were often late departing as pax had checked in, available from time of booking, but no show however system said "checked in" so flights were held.
It seems NZ may be going back to tight check in cut off times to improve OTP.