Author: Press Room
Inland Revenue has pulled in almost $12 for every dollar it has spent on chasing money it is owed in the last year, its latest annual report says – and its efforts have included arrest warrants and prosecutions.The tax department has been stepping up efforts to pull in overdue tax, which is estimated to have reached $10 billion.Its methods include making direct deductions from bank accounts and using third-party debt collectors.IRD said it had issued 88,367 deduction notices for overdue debt in the course of the year.It had also made 17,940 visits to business premises and worksites, opened 7641 audits,…
Wesley College has announced it will close its boarding hostels amid ongoing safety concerns and allegations of violent beatings and sexual abuse. The closure, due in December, is the second in three years. It comes after a year-long 1News investigation in 2022-2023 into the Methodist School, sparked by a tip-off regarding “serious concerns” found in its boarding hostels. The tip-off also claimed the Education Ministry had briefly revoked the Auckland school’s hostel licence. By January 2023, ERO said five of the school’s six hostels now had “appropriate overnight supervision” and it was “satisfied” they had met the regulatory requirements. In November…
By Euronews Published on 20/10/2025 – 17:08 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT A peace settlement in Ukraine “will require compromises that not everyone will like”, former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wrote in an exclusive op-ed for Euronews. “This war produces no winners, only losers on both sides. Budapest offers the opportunity for a peace settlement that will enable both sides to break this impasse,” Kurz said. “The task of politics is to find solutions, not to manage conflicts,” he added. The US and Russian presidents announced on Thursday that they plan to hold talks on Moscow’s war in Ukraine in Budapest, possibly in the…
Eight youths – all too young to drive – have been rounded up after fleeing police in a stolen Toyota in the early hours of this morning. The incident began on State Highway One in Massey when the youths, aged between 12 and 15, failed to stop for police.The group instead took off along the South-Western Motorway towards Blockhouse Bay. Instead of pursuing by car, a Police Eagle helicopter and a Delta Dog Unit were brought into the effort to catch the teens.Acting Senior Sergeant Bartlett said: “The vehicle was successfully spiked on State Highway 20, near the Hillsborough off-ramp”.Three…
ADVERTISEMENT The European Union has begun making overtures to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico ahead of a high-stakes summit on Thursday to push him toward lifting the veto he has imposed on a new round of sanctions against Russia. Fico has no objection to the package itself, which targets Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil infrastructure, the “shadow fleet” and cryptocurrency platforms, as well as the movements of Russian diplomats across the bloc, but has raised a series of unrelated grievances about energy prices, the car-making sector and competitiveness. These issues, he said, should be discussed “substantially” at the level…
Parents at a Christchurch school are being offered financial incentives if their children meet attendance targets.The Government has set a target of 80% of students being in class 90% of the time by 2030.It said attendance has risen every term since it was elected.In term two of this year, slightly more than 58% of students attended school regularly, compared to nearly 40% in term two of 2022.Te Kōmanawa Rowley Primary School has set a slightly lower target than the Government, in a bid to boost attendance.Students who turn up for 80% of the time in term four will get a…
ADVERTISEMENT Nearly three-quarters of Dutch political parties running in the upcoming October elections include at least one proposal in their programmes that violates the rule of law, claims a fitness check by the national association of lawyers published Monday. The Dutch Bar Association, NovA, examined the political programmes of the 15 parties currently represented in parliament and scored the programmes from green – those ideas that strengthen the rule of law — to yellow and red — those that are against the constitution. The far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD) contains the most concerning proposals: 33, followed by Geert Wilders’ Freedom…
Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi has hit back at the allegations of “major overspending” from her own party last week, insisting her electorate budget has never been overspent.She has not addressed questions about the appropriateness of hiring her son Eru Kapa-Kingi in her office.In a late-night email last Monday, Te Pāti Māori’s leadership levelled a number of claims about Kapa-Kingi and her son, including that Parliamentary Services had warned she was on track to overspend her office budget by up to $133,000.In an post on social media this afternoon, Kapa-Kingi said she had taken “some time” to decide how…
Published on 20/10/2025 – 11:58 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT A bus driver was killed when Sebastiani basketball ultras threw stones and bricks at a coach carrying Pistoia supporters along the Rieti-Terni motorway Sunday evening, in one of the most violent incidents involving Italian sports fans in recent years. Around 40 Pistoia fans were travelling home after their team’s A2 match victory in Rieti when several attackers hiding behind motorway guardrails near the Contigliano junction launched the assault, fatally striking one of the two drivers sitting up front. Police are questioning about 10 Rieti supporters, though no arrests have been made. Investigators confirmed…
An Auckland man controlled two teenagers “as if they were his property”, put them to work and kept their money, a jury has been told.Moeaia Tuai, who is 63, is standing trial on two charges of dealing in slaves.He is also accused of two rapes, eight charges of indecent assault, six of sexual violation by unlawful connection and assault with a statue and a broom.”The modern-day charge of dealing in slaves might not match the picture of slavery you might have in your mind, perhaps, or the ball and the chain and someone holding a whip,” Chis Howard, prosecuting, told…