Author: Press Room

The Government will stop building open-plan classrooms, the Minister of Education announced today. In a statement, Education Minister Erica Stanford said she had received “overwhelming feedback” from schools that the classrooms were not meeting the needs of students. “While open-plan designs were originally intended to foster collaboration, they have often created challenges for schools, particularly around noise and managing student behaviour.”Modern Learning Environments (MLEs), which utilise flexible layouts, fewer walls, and at times have multiple classes and teachers, were introduced by the Ministry of Education in 2011 under John Key’s National Government. They were designed to promote collaboration and flexibility.…

The Commerce Commission has moved to lower interchange fees paid by businesses to accept Visa and Mastercard payments. The regulator has issued a final decision, saying the cost was too high, and their decision would save businesses around $90 million a year. It said the average business would save around $500 each year in lower fees, but individual businesses could save more or less, depending on the mix of transactions they accept. The commission put the overall cost of interchange fees at about $1 billion for businesses, which were often passed on to customers through surcharges and higher product costs.…

The Government is putting the brakes on “pricey, pointless” council planning work ahead of its major shake-up of resource management laws.Speaking in Christchurch, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop described the move as a “kind intervention” designed to relieve pressure on councils’ resources.He said many councils were still spending time and money reviewing plans under the existing Resource Management Act (RMA) – even though the entire regime would be replaced by 2027.”There is little point in progressing long and costly hearings on a plan change that will be incompatible with the new planning system, or probably won’t even be complete by…

A patched Barbarian Stormtrooper gang member has been charged after allegedly speeding on the wrong side of the road near Kawakawa – narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a police car.Two police patrol cars were travelling along Ruapekapeka Rd just after 3pm yesterday when “out of nowhere a small hatchback appeared and was allegedly travelling at speed, on the wrong side of the road, and narrowly avoided hitting one of the units”, Senior Sergeant Mark Barratt said. “Staff quickly radioed in the job.”The patrol cars turned around and caught up with the hatchback. “A traffic stop was carried out and…

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ  The price of a block of butter is now 120% higher than it was 10 years ago, and increases in dairy prices in general helped pull up food prices in June, according to Stats NZ. Food prices lifted 4.6% in the 12 months to June 2025, official figures show.  Stats NZ spokesperson Nicola Growden said dairy prices were a continued driver of the increase. Milk was up 14.3% for the year to $4.57 for two litres, butter was up 46.5% to $8.60 for a 500g block, and cheese was up 30% to $13.04 for a 1kg block.…

Auckland Council has suspended its proposal to compulsorily acquire 172 hectares of farmland near Waimauku for a new cemetery after facing opposition from local hapū and the private landowner.Waikūmete Cemetery in Glen Eden is at full capacity and Auckland Council has been urgently working to find a new location for burials.The sizeable land block in Waimauku — a small township 30km from Auckland’s CBD — was earlier identified as the most suitable site for compulsory acquisition after the Waikūmete Cemetery in Glen Eden reached capacity. (Source: 1News)The council had begun pursuing the land at 1080 State Highway 16, Reweti, under…

Backstreet Boys singer Brian Littrell says a local Florida sheriff’s office isn’t doing enough to protect his multimillion-dollar beachfront property from trespassers and is asking a judge for an order commanding deputies to do so.The petition filed last month by Littrell’s company in a Florida Panhandle county touches on a perennial tug-of-war between usually-wealthy oceanfront property owners and beach-loving members of the public, especially in Florida, which has more than 1300km of sandy beaches.Under Florida law, any sand on a beach below the high tide water mark is public. Many homeowners own the sand down to the average high-water line,…

A licensed immigration adviser with an “extensive history of wrongdoing” has had her licence cancelled and has been ordered to repay $58,500 following a string of breaches of the law. Tzu-Tong Jane Ma has previously had 51 breaches of her obligations, involving advice provided to five clients referred against her, upheld by the Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal. It included six counts of dishonesty involving provision of false information and documents to Immigration New Zealand as well as other serious breaches of the Licensed Immigration Advisers Code of Conduct 2014, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said.In…

Christchurch Hospital workers are sleeping in their cars before work to try to secure a car park, mayor Phil Mauger says.Christchurch City councillors have voted to consider making overnight car parks available at Parakiore Recreation and Sport Centre when it opens in October — and to potentially provide free transport to and from the building and the hospital a few hundred metres away.Hospital workers had been pleading for better parking because of unaffordable fees at nearby car park buildings and due to staff safety concerns.Mauger told a council meeting on Wednesday that it was clear the problem had not gone…

An investigation has found a police officer engaged in sexual activity with a member of the public while on duty.The Independent Police Conduct Authority oversaw a police investigation into the conduct of two officers after it received information about “inappropriate activity” between them and a civilian on duty. The findings of the investigation were released on Wednesday.The officers, referred to as Officer A and Officer B, were working a night shift when the incident occurred.In the early morning on an undisclosed date, the officers conducted a routine traffic stop of a woman, identified as Ms Z, and queried her in…