Author: Press Room

The coalition negotiations have dragged on for four months after Austrians voted in September — the longest in the country’s history. ADVERTISEMENTThe leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), Herbert Kickl, has called for “quick new elections” after coalition talks with his party and the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP) collapsed on Wednesday. Kickl came first in elections held in September with 28% of the vote, however Austria’s other parties banded together in order to keep him and his party out of power. When those talks failed, Kickl was invited to hold coalition talks with the ÖVP.Yet negotiations between the pair…

MPs have gone head to head on health in a special debate about the recent resignation of Health New Zealand’s top boss.Margie Apa resigned as chief executive last Friday, shortly before Dr Nicholas Jones confirmed he would also step down as Director of Public Health.It followed Health Commissioner Lester Levy telling The Post newspaper he wanted a chief executive that did stuff, instead of writing about it.The Labour Party asked for an urgent debate on the developments on Tuesday, using it to take aim at the coalition’s handling of the health system.”What we know is that this government has continued…

Top economists have called for action on the pension age at a University of Waikato economics forum. ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner, ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley and Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen spoke as a panel on Thursday morning. Panel host Steven Joyce asked whether New Zealand’s current settings were right and whether the country was “in a box too much” with its thinking. Zollner said a place to start “unconstrained thinking” was the age at which people become eligible for the pension and capital gains tax. “If we are going to be different from almost the rest of…

A Nelson principal is “really happy” with a ministerial U-turn on speed limit consultation and was “cautiously hopeful” that the speed limit on the state highway near his school might stay at 60km/h.Residents might soon be given the opportunity to submit on a potential speed limit increase in northern Nelson after they were told two weeks ago that the change would be automatic.On January 29, the Government announced that dozens of sections of state highway around the country which had seen speed limit reductions over the previous five years would be reversed while many others would be consulted on.One of…

ASB has announced further decreases to its 6-month, 1-year and 18-month fixed mortgage rates from today.The bank dropped its 6-month fixed home lending term 10 basis points to 5.89%, and the 1-year rate dropped 5 basis points to 5.49%.The 18-month term also decreased 15 basis points to 5.19%.”We’ve lowered rates across several terms three times in the past month, giving our customers and prospective buyers a range of options – whether they’re after short-term relief or longer-term certainty,” said ASB’s Adam Boyd.He said the bank had seen growing interest in the 18-month term this year, and “competition is fierce when…

New Zealand is backsliding on much of its social progress, as food and housing become increasingly difficult to afford, says the Salvation Army.The charity’s latest State of the Nation report highlights a cost of living crisis forcing families onto the benefit in record numbers.”It’s increasingly difficult for people to achieve those basics, to achieve food security, have enough kai to feed the family sustainably, to have an affordable house… Those things have got tougher in the last year,” the charity’s social policy director, Bonnie Robinson, said.”Food insecurity has gone up in the last year, for about a quarter of all…

A Hamilton woman has returned from a trip away to discover she had been holding onto a Lotto Powerball ticket worth $10.5 million. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, had bought tickets for multiple draws before leaving for her trip and remembered to get them checked after they fell out while she was rummaging through her bag. “I won a few bonus lines on one which was great, and then the Lotto operator just stopped and looked at me, then back at the screen, and back to me again – I wondered what was going on. “He said ‘you’re…

Police are searching for a man who pulled a gun at an officer and member of the public in Palmerston North yesterday.At around 8.30pm police attempted to take him into custody after he was seen walking to a property on Brentwood Avenue in Highbury.The man became agitated and pulled out a gun before fleeing on foot, Inspector Ross Grantham said.”He is also believed to have been involved in an earlier reported firearms incident, where a gun was allegedly pointed towards a member of the public while walking on Featherston Street.”The officer is being offered support and was not physically injured.Police…

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ Fixed home loan rates are now 2 percentage points lower than they were at the peak of the market, but the longest terms might not have much further to fall, ASB economists say. They have released their latest home loan report ahead of the Reserve Bank’s next official cash rate (OCR) review next week. The OCR, which can influence bank interest rates, currently sits at 4.25% but will be reviewed on Wednesday at 2pm. The ASB economic report notes interest markets were “volatile” and could change quickly, which could flow through to mortgage rates. Despite…

Hutt Valley mountain biker Erice van Leuven says she endured the “biggest crash of my life” at the Red Bull Hardline event in Tasmania over the weekend.The 18-year-old broke her neck, back and wrist and suffered some “small internal injuries” when she went down hard after catching her rear wheel while trying to clear a massive 85-foot jump near the bottom of the course.In a post on social media, van Leuven said she was lucky to be able to walk and would have to wait for her lung to heal before she could fly back to New Zealand to rest…