Author: Press Room

Annual electricity price increases are at their highest since the late 1980s, as Stats NZ reveals inflation has risen to 3.0% — now sitting at the top of the target band.The latest consumer price index figures show inflation to the September quarter sitting at the top of the Reserve Bank’s target band after four quarters comfortably within it. The household essential that’s helped push inflation to 15-month high, watch on TVNZ+It’s the biggest jump in 15 months, with electricity prices spiking in a way not seen for decades. Economists had picked the 3.0% figure in their forecasts for today’s release.Stats…

An Auckland plasterer who defrauded the Covid-19 Wage Subsidy scheme of more than $125,000 has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.Deva Brown Phuhathakarn, a plasterer from Avondale, was sentenced in the Waitākere District Court on October 15 after pleading guilty to two representative charges of using a document for pecuniary advantage.The charges related to 23 applications Phuhathakarn submitted between March 2020 and March 2021 under his own name and thorugh his company Complete Plastering Solutions Limited.Nine of the applications were successful, resulting in $125,103.20 paid into his bank accounts. The remaining 14 claims, worth $33,976.40, were…

One person has been taken to Waikato Hospital in serious condition and police are investigating following an assault in Hamilton. Police were called to the scene on Waimarie St in the suburb of Nawton just before 1pm on Monday.St John responded at 12.39pm with an ambulance and a rapid response unit, with an operations manager also attending. A police spokesperson said the public may see an increased police presence in the area as officers made enquiries to identify and locate those believed to be responsible.

Several flights have been either delayed or cancelled, hundreds of homes are without power, and a major state highway has reopened after being blocked by a rolled truck trailer as heavy rain and gale-force winds sweep up the country.Almost the entire South Island and part of the lower North Island were under severe weather warnings and watches while a front, preceded by a strong and humid northwest flow, moves over New Zealand during Monday and Tuesday.Several bands of ‘very strong winds’ set to batter the country – Watch on TVNZ+MetService called today’s conditions a precursor for a “potentially more impactful”…

Small airline Originair is operating new weekday and Sunday flights connecting Blenheim and Christchurch. The Nelson-based carrier began the service yesterday to restore a regional air link after Sounds Air cancelled flights on the route. Originair’s 18-seat British Aerospace Jetstream 32 aircraft, crewed by two pilots, will operate return flights to support business, tourism, and patient travel to specialist healthcare. The timetable gives travellers about seven hours in Christchurch to fit in medical appointments, business meetings, or sight-seeing. Christchurch International Airport aeronautical development general manager Gordon Bevan said the team effort with Originair and Marlborough Airport was keeping the South…

The world’s largest variety of blueberry will soon be grown and sold in New Zealand.Described as “up to the size of a ping-pong ball”, the blueberries are being planted in the Kerikeri and Waikato regions.The Fresh Berry Company, which grows and markets berries, said it had partnered with international berry producer Driscoll’s.General manager Simon Tallon said one of the monster Eterna variety berries, that was grown in Australia, is offically the largest blueberry in the world.Tallon described the Eterna berry that made it into the Guiness Book of World Records as a good large blueberry that weighed 20.4 grams.Tallon described…

By Lillian Hanly of RNZ Labour has launched its first key election policy this term, announcing a fund which would invest in New Zealand infrastructure and businesses only. The party is calling it the first step in its plan to “back New Zealand’s potential”, create “secure, well-paid jobs across the country”, lift productivity and ensure wealth is made and remains in the country. As well, it has pledged to focus its efforts in its first term on helping businesses grow and succeed: “no endless reviews, no relitigating everything.” “We’ve heard the lesson of last term: too much, too fast – not enough…

Labour is set to unveil its first major policy ahead of next year’s election, signalling the announcement as part of a broader plan to keep jobs and wealth in New Zealand.Hipkins will be joined by finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds to make the announcement in central Auckland.”For too long we’ve leaned on overseas investment, and too often the jobs and wealth that start here end up offshore,” Hipkins said in a video statement last week.Hipkins said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had made “big promises” to fix the economy but had instead made it worse.”Every day more than 200 Kiwis vote with…

Labour has revealed that it will create another future fund if it wins next year’s election – which would begin with a $200 million investment.It’s the party’s first major policy release in two years.The fund would exist alongside the Super Fund, but Labour said a greater amount of investment would be made in New Zealand, compared to just 11% currently from the Super Fund.Leader Chris Hipkins said “New Zealanders are inventive and resourceful, but years of underinvestment have left too many great Kiwi ideas without support, while the wealth we create flows offshore”.When the Super Fund was set up in…

By Gyles Beckford of RNZ Inflation has edged to a 15-month-high on the back of higher rents, rates, electricity, and food, touching the top of the Reserve Bank’s target band but unlikely to prevent further rate cuts. Stats NZ said the consumer price index rose 1.0 percent in the three months ended September, pushing the annual rise to 3.0 percent from 2.7 percent, the highest since June last year. The 11.3 percent rise in electricity prices was the single biggest contributor to the annual increase. “Annual electricity increases are at their highest since the late 1980s, when there were several…