Author: Press Room

The Queenstown Lakes District Council has received a record number of objections to a liquor licence for a proposed Super Liquor outlet in Lake Hāwea.The council confirmed it had received 538 submissions in opposition and two in support.The small town near Wānaka has a population of about 2000 people.Lake Hāwea Voices spokesperson Lisa Riley said the level of opposition demonstrated the strong feeling against the store.”There’s no place in Hāwea where you can purchase spirits or hard liquor – we rely on Wānaka stores for that at the moment,” Riley said.”For people living in this development struggling with their relationship…

Auckland Council has voted in favour of a housing intensification replacement plan that will see 10-15-storey high rises built around public transport hubs.The council’s plans to allocate up to two million new homes across the city in the coming decades have become clearer this afternoon.Councillors voted for the plan by 18 to five, and were limited between voting for the original Plan Change 78, which focused on three-storey residential buildings across Auckland, and the high-rise alternative called Plan Change 120.RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has directed Auckland Council to allocate up to two million homes in the coming decades and…

A person has been critically injured following a crash involving a car and bus in Tauranga this evening. Emergency services are responding to the incident after police were alerted to the crash around 6.15pm. The collision occurred on Welcome Bay Rd between Waitao Rd and Water Ln in Waitao.”One occupant of the car is in a critical condition,” police said. “The occupants of the bus were not seriously injured.”The serious crash unit has been notified.Welcome Bay Rd is expected to be closed “for some time”, police said.Diversions are in place between Kairua Rd and Water Ln.

Port Otago has more than doubled its net profit over the past financial year despite a decline in both cruise ship numbers and container movements. The company announced yesterday a net profit after tax of $64.6 million for the 2024-25 year, compared with $30.4m in the previous year. This net profit result included property re-evaluations of $33m, while the profit made from its four core business units — container, bulk, cruise and property — rose 7% to $36.9m. It also paid an annual dividend of $18m to its shareholder, the Otago Regional Council (ORC). Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders…

Vehicles will soon be banned from accessing a scenic stretch of South Wairarapa coastline for at least two years, but pedestrians and cyclists will still be allowed.At a bylaw deliberations meeting on Wednesday, South Wairarapa District councillors agreed to scrap its initial proposal which aimed to ban all access to an unformed legal road in the Cape Palliser area for three years.Council chief executive Janice Smith said the initial proposal would not have been enforceable and “could have led to legal challenge”.The paper road, which gives public access to a stretch of South Wairarapa coastline, traverses both privately-owned Māori land…

Fonterra is “confident” it can get another double-digit payout over the line after handing farmers a record $10.16 for each kilogram of milksolids produced in 2024/25. Last season will go down as a record year for the dairy giant after the highest ever payout was combined with a record dividend of 57 cents per share. This topped the $9.30/kg payout of 2021/22. Overall, a total $10.73/kg was paid to farmer shareholders for a record $16.2 billion in cash payments. A full-year result released yesterday included $26b in revenue, up 15%, on just over 1500 million kilograms of milk solids collected…

Does the research really show a link, as the US president claims, between paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism? Academics at The School of Women’s and Children’s Health in Sydney, Nicholas Wood and Debra Kennedy, look into the data. United States President Donald Trump has urged pregnant women to avoid paracetamol except in cases of extremely high fever, because of a possible link to autism.Paracetamol – known as acetaminophen or by the brand name Tylenol in the US – is commonly used to relieve pain, such as back pain and headaches, and to reduce fever during pregnancy.Paracetamol is marketed as…

The former operator of a popular Dunedin restaurant has been liquidated owing the IRD $650,000. The directors of PSVC Limited, which operated the Lone Star Dunedin franchise for a number of years, blamed Covid-19 and the George St roadworks for the insolvency. The liquidators’ final report said the company was placed into liquidation after the restaurant was sold to new owners. The restaurant continues to trade under new management. “However insufficient funds were realised to pay all company creditors in full,” the report said. Hospitality New Zealand Otago branch president Mark Scully said the news was a little bit surprising,…

Millions of cigarettes are being intercepted at the border each year, and the methods criminal organisations are using to smuggle them are growing more sophisticated. According to numbers released to 1News by Customs, over 3 million individual cigarettes have been caught at the border in 2025 so far. Over 8 million were intercepted last year, and it’s expected to hit similar levels by year’s end. The size of the shipments also appear to be growing, with the “overwhelming majority” of seized items destined for the black market. In late August, customs investigators seized nearly one million cigarettes imported illegally, evading…

House prices are generally flat, but values are starting to pick up in some of the cheaper parts of the country, Cotality says.The property research firm – formerly Corelogic – has released data showing the performance of suburbs around the country.Over the three months to September, 56% of suburbs recorded falls in house prices.But about 40% of these had falls of less than 1%.In total, 33% of suburbs had house values drop at least 1% and 44% had values rise or remain flat.Some areas had house price rises of more than 5%, including Cobden, in Grey District, Springs Junction, in…