Author: Press Room

Award-winning New Zealand children’s book illustrator and author Gavin Bishop is about to have his work immortalised at Te Papa museum.The museum’s modern art curator, Lizzie Bisley, was in Christchurch to look through his many original works to select what belonged in the vast collection in Wellington.”Gavin is one of our most important illustrators and has this amazing practice that’s ranged over 40 years of producing these incredible artworks. For me illustrations like Gavin’s are often the first artworks children have contact with in their lives,” Bisley said. Bishop and Bisley spoke in detail as they looked through his paintings,…

The coalition plans to scale back the number of rules agencies must follow when tendering contracts, which it says will make it easier for New Zealand businesses to access government contracts worth $50 billion a year. Minister for Economic Growth Nicola Willis wants to axe one third of 71 rules which include paying the Living Wage in contracts for cleaning, catering and security guard services. Union E tū says this will send some of those workers into poverty and is “heartless”. Cleaner Liam Shaw said he was concerned as the Living Wage allowed people like him to buy basic things.…

A 4.99% two-year rate has been enough to pull New Zealanders back from a strategy of short-term home loan fixes, the country’s largest mortgage advisory firm says.Data released from the Reserve Bank this week showed that in January, 89.5% of new owner-occupier loans were floating or fixed for less than a year.But Squirrel chief executive David Cunningham said that had since changed dramatically.”It’s a point in time thing. We saw in November there was a massive amount of money going into floating and six-month fixes because there was the OCR reduction, which was widely expected.”People held off. That was the…

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ As New Zealanders move to carry more cash, it is becoming less common to go into the bank and ask for a withdrawal. Those who want to withdraw large amounts of money may find they are asked to phone ahead, and can expect to be asked questions about where the money is going, in line with the banks’ anti-money laundering obligations. Banking expert Claire Matthews, of Massey University, said she would expect banks generally to allow people to withdraw from a branch, without notice, a similar amount to what is available from ATMs – $2000…

Police have issued the first dispersal notice to gang members and associates, three months after new laws bolstered enforcement of offending involving gang members.As of March 11, 403 charges had been laid for insignia breaches under the new law which came into effect on November 21, 2024. Over the same period, more than 4000 charges were laid against gang members.Assistant Commissioner Paul Basham said on Friday afternoon the Waitematā officers reponded to a “firearms event” in Torbay on Auckland’s North Shore.A report was made about a gun at an address on Toroa St, before offenders left in three vehicles.”Two vehicles…

A Tauranga councillor who was among those replaced by the commission has called for an independent inquiry into the decisions and transparency during their tenure.Councillor Steve Morris tried to gain support from the elected council for staff to provide options for an independent inquiry into the Government-appointed commission governance, decisions and transparency.Mayor Mahé Drysdale said while it was “frustrating” to deal with past decisions, “stringing the commissioners up” would not help the current council move forward.Tauranga’s council, elected in 2019, was replaced in 2021 by the four-person commission that led the city until the local election in July 2024.Morris’ push…

Property valuations are set to be posted to owners in the Queenstown Lakes and the average house value is now above $2 million. The values are updated every three years for All 32,604 properties in the district by independent valuers Quotable Value (QV) on behalf of Queenstown Lakes District Council. They reflect the likely price a property would have sold for on September 1, last year, not including chattels. Since the district’s last revaluation in 2021, the value of residential housing has increased by an average of 18.3%. The average house value is now $2,035,732, while the corresponding average land…

Gisborne residents who successfully petitioned for lower speed limits years ago say they are “absolutely disappointed” and “frustrated” stretches of State Highway 35 could return to higher speeds.New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) is consulting on the speed limit on a 10.5km stretch of road from Makorori to Pouawa after a Government rule change that requires speed limit reversals on some local roads and highways by July 1.The road will go from 80km/h to 100km/h unless there is enough public support to retain the current limits.Public consultation ends on Thursday.The road had been part of a petition in 2019 when locals…

The EU announced plans to send peacekeepers to Bosnia after the nation’s top court suspended laws adopted by its ethnic Serb regional entity. ADVERTISEMENTReserve peacekeepers arrived in Bosnia on Wednesday amid rising tensions in the country, a day after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reaffirmed support for the country’s territorial integrity and peace. Italian and Czech military personnel touched down at Sarajevo airport and were greeted by the EU force in Bosnia, known as EUFOR. Romanian troops, helicopters and military supplies will arrive in the coming days. Rutte had pledged NATO’s “unwavering” support for Bosnia’s territorial integrity after a series of Bosnian…

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ KiwiSaver members spooked by market movements have been shifting to more conservative funds, but not at the levels seen when Covid hit in 2020, providers say. ANZ Investments managing director Fiona Mackenzie said there a couple of hundred ANZ KiwiSaver members had got in touch wanting to shift to more conservative funds in recent days. But she said that was a fraction of the Covid-19 times. “This may in part be because we have been providing regular reminders – via our website and emails/letters to customers – about how to deal with short-term market volatility,”…