Author: Press Room

Cocaine use is rising so rapidly in New Zealand it is replacing MDMA as the most commonly used party drug in some regions, police say.Concerns for both police and health services are growing, as the Class A drug is generally much more addictive than substances like MDMA, ketamine, and LSD.National Drug Intelligence Bureau manager Tim Chao told 1News cocaine use was already surpassing MDMA use in some “party town locations”.A quarterly police study sees wastewater from around three-quarters of New Zealand’s population tested for several drugs, including MDMA, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl.Nationally, cocaine use has increased by 86% towards the…

A man has been caught on camera allegedly luring, beating and then stuffing a black swan into a bag at Auckland’s Western Springs Park.Authorities are now investigating the incident, which took place this morning. Photographer Lydia Gillies and her partner were at the park at around 7.15am to take photos of birds when they noticed a man crouching down on the far side of the lake. Gillies said she initially assumed the man was flouting council rules against feeding birds.”Then [my partner] goes, ‘I think he’s just grabbed that swan by the head’.”We noticed that the guy had pulled the…

New Zealand risks becoming a “net exporter” of population in the next few months if current trends continue, economists are warning.In November, there were 12,800 migrant arrivals and 10,600 departures, for a net migration gain of 2200 people, compared to 7100 a year earlier.For the year to November, arrivals were down 32 percent and departures up 28 percent.The numbers could quickly reach a point where they started to cross and more people left New Zealand than arrived, said Craig Renney, policy director at the Council of Trade Unions. That would hit some parts of New Zealand particularly hard, he said.”People…

Passenger trains will make their return to an upgraded Pukekohe Station from tomorrow, carrying Auckland commuters every 20 minutes on the new electrified line.The station closed over two years ago for KiwiRail to electrify the rail line between Papakura and Pukekohe. More than 800 mast structures have been installed to support close to 130 kilometres of overhead electric line.Trains will begin running every 20 minutes from Pukekohe to Britomart from tomorrow.Auckland Transport chief executive Dean Kimpton said the reopening of the station was a “gamechanger” for Pukekohe and the surrounding area.”With buses linking directly to Pukekohe Station from surrounding areas…

King Charles is to feature in a new documentary to “show, not tell” people how to transform the planet.The feature-length Amazon film began shooting in January at Dumfries House in Scotland and will examine the approach the 76-year-old monarch outlined in his 2010 book Harmony: A New Way of Looking At Our World.The book, written when he was still Prince of Wales, called for a “dramatic revolution” in people’s ways of looking at the world.Filmmakers will look at the King’s charity work, both in the UK and overseas, and focus on his belief that people, nature, and the built environment…

Dame Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi, who spearheaded the Kōhanga Reo movement and helped thousands grow up immersed in te reo Māori, has died at the age of 95.Tāwhiwhirangi (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāpuhi) passed away peacefully on Saturday surrounded by whānau at home.“She challenged the status quo and pushed for better outcomes for whanau,” Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust said in a statement.Born in Hicks Bay, Gisborne in 1929, Tāwhiwhirangi became involved in the kōhanga reo movement in the 1980s when there was growing concern around the state of te reo Māori — with less than 5% of Māori school children…

New Zealand diplomats in the United States have contacted Texas Senator Ted Cruz to clarify New Zealand’s treatment of Israeli visitors, a spokesperson for the Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.Cruz posted on X, sharing a story by Israeli media outlet Haaretz which incorrectly stated every Israeli must detail their military service to receive a visitor’s visa for New Zealand.He questioned whether New Zealand should be treated as a “normal ally”, and said the country punishes Israelis.Peters replied that the story was fake news.His spokesperson told RNZ that the New Zealand embassy in the US has contacted Cruz to alert him…

US President Donald Trump has ordered 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports and 10% on goods from China starting on Tuesday, risking a new trade war that economists say could slow global growth and reignite inflation. Trump signed three separate executive orders on the tariffs after a long golf outing in Florida on Saturday, vowing to keep the duties in place until what he described the national emergency over the drug fentanyl and illegal immigration to the United States ends. Responding to concerns raised by oil refiners and Midwestern states, Trump imposed only a 10% duty on energy products from…

So you want to save $500,000 for retirement. What does it take to get there?New retirement spending guidelines from Massey University this week have provided updated information about what retirees are spending for a “no frills” and “choices” lifestyle in metropolitan and provincial parts of New Zealand.The university estimated that, for a “choices” life in a city, a one-person household would need to have saved $271,000. In a provincial centre, they would need to have saved $252,000.For a two-person household, each person would need to have saved $571,000 in a city, and $223,000 in a provincial area.Here’s how you might…

A new studies shows where the pathways may lie to our future. It has been quite exciting over the past few years to watch the start of decarbonisation and sustainability transitions unfold. There have been shifts in wider thinking, businesses prioritising sustainable actions and a general sense that things were shifting. However, roll onto 2025 and things feel a bit different. The new President of the United States has stated he will pull out of the Paris Agreement, the EU has been re-looking at their green deal and here in Aotearoa-New Zealand there seems to be a move away from prioritising building…