Author: Press Room

A debt collector and his company have been ordered to pay $115,500 in fines and emotional harm reparations.Director John Stuart Campbell and his company Law Debt Collection pleaded guilty in the Manukau District Court to making misleading representations when collecting debt after a prosecution by the Commerce Commission.Campbell had previously been warned by the commission in 2019 for likely harassment, coercion and misleading representations when he was an account director with Twenty Five Station Limited. That company went into liquidation.In the latest case, the commission said Campbell and Law Debt Collection misled debtors by lodging or threatening to lodge credit…

Finance Minister Nicola Willis will be asking dairy giant Fonterra about the high retail price of butter in New Zealand. Willis told RNZ’s First Up programme this morning it didn’t seem quite right that butter seemed to be cheaper in Australian supermarkets. The price of a block of butter is now 120%  higher than it was a decade ago, according to Stats NZ. In the year to June, it was up 46.5% to $8.60 for a 500g block. At her regular meeting with the co-operative this week she would be discussing what gets added to the cost by retail brands,…

Australian sex worker Madison Ashton has asked to give evidence at the inquest into the death of Auckland health manager Pauline Hanna.Hanna, who managed the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine as an executive director at Counties Manukau Health, died in her Remuera home on April 5, 2021.Her husband, former Auckland eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne, was found not guilty of murdering her after an eight-week trial last year.The Crown argued Polkinghorne killed his wife after a possible violent struggle, while he may have been under the influence of methamphetamine.Pauline Hanna, Philip Polkinghorne and Madison Ashton. (Source: 1News)The defence maintained Hanna died…

Consumer NZ wants the government to crack down on what it calls a systemic problem of misleading supermarket prices. The consumer organisation said shoppers were too often being stung at the checkout and paying more than the advertised shelf price for items. New World and Pak’n Save owner, Foodstuffs said it took pricing accuracy seriously and had invested in systems and staff training to reduce errors. RNZ has approached Woolworths for comment. Consumer NZ chief Jon Duffy said pricing errors might seem small for individuals but the practice was costing New Zealanders tens of millions of dollars a year. He…

By Krystal Gibbens of RNZ Working a four-day week reduces burnout and improves job satisfaction, a large-scale new study has found. The research from Boston College in the United States tested the effect of reducing employees’ hours to a four-day week with no reduction in pay. The study held six-month trials reducing the working hours for 2896 employees across 141 organisations in New Zealand, Australia, Canada,  the United Kingdom, Ireland and the US. Outcomes of the trials were then compared with 12 control companies that did not transition to the shorter work week. Researchers found that employees with a reduction of…

The death of Malcolm-Jamal Warner at just 54 was mourned by fans and admirers of the actor, who played the only son of Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable on the landmark series The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1992 and also starred on the UPN sitcom Malcolm & Eddie with Eddie Griffin.Warner died Sunday (local time) in an accidental drowning at a Costa Rica beach, authorities there said Monday (local time).Actor Tracee Ellis Ross, who later played Warner’s wife in the BET sitcom Reed Between the Lines, wrote that her “heart is so, so sad.” Magic Johnson said, “Every time I…

The man killed in an altercation in Hamilton early on Sunday morning was celebrating his upcoming birthday, police say. The 20-year-old died in hospital after he was critically injured during the fight on Alexandra Street shortly after midnight. The incident, described by police yesterday as a “senseless act of violence”, is believed to have involved two groups of people. Police said three other people were treated for moderate and serious injuries at the time. Police said today they had since been discharged from hospital. A forensic examination of the street was completed on Sunday afternoon.Detective inspector Daryl Smith said police…

Police have seized $6000 worth of counterfeit cash and arrested a 26-year-old man following an investigation into fraudulent Facebook Marketplace transactions in Auckland.Sergeant Pam Dravitski said police received reports of offending where a man would allegedly arrange to purchase items off the platform with an offer to pay in cash.”There, the offender would allegedly use counterfeit cash to make the sale and take off with the goods.”Similar reports were collated and further inquiries led police to an Ōtara address last week.Dravitski said around $6000 in counterfeit cash and equipment used to manufacture the notes were located when a search warrant…

By Anan Zaki of RNZ  Sky TV has agreed to fully acquire TV3 owner Discovery New Zealand for $1. Discovery NZ is a part of United States media giant Warner Bros. Discovery. NZX-listed Sky said the deal would be completed on a cash-free, debt-free basis, with completion expected on August 1. Sky expected the deal to deliver revenue diversification and uplift of about $95 million per year. It expected Discovery NZ’s operations to deliver sustainable underlying earnings growth of at least $10m from the 2028 financial year. Sky chief executive Sophie Moloney said it was a compelling opportunity for the…

Sky TV has agreed to buy Discovery NZ, which owns Three, for $1, the company announced this morning. The move was announced to the NZX, and would see US television giant Warner Bros Discovery leave New Zealand’s free-to-air television market. Under the deal, Sky would take control of all TV3 brands, including Three, Bravo, Eden, Rush, HGTV, and the network’s streaming platform, ThreeNow. The sale was made on a cash-free, debt-free basis and was expected to be completed on August 1. The deal also included a multi-year commercial agreement for the continued supply of Warner Bros Discovery’s premium content to…