Author: Press Room

Mortgage holders may have to wait longer for an interest rate reprieve, following stronger than expected jobs figures.The Commonwealth Bank has shifted its forecast for when the Reserve Bank will lower the official cash rate, now saying a 0.25 percentage point reduction will happen in December, as opposed to previous predictions of a November rate cut.The revised forecast followed the unemployment rate staying at 4.2 per cent for August, with the number of jobs added to the market almost double what economists had predicted.The unemployment rate stayed steady at 4.2 per cent in August. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)”The recent strength…

BNZ has lowered some of its fixed mortgage rates as cuts continue in the wake of last month’s drop in the official cash rate (OCR).It is lowering its one-year fixed rate 0.16% to 6.29% and its two-year fixed rate 0.10% to 5.79%, effective from today.The bank offers the same rates to those with 20% equity and those without.Previously there was a .60% difference in the rates.Low equity premiums will still be applied based on the individual customers’ equity positions.All banks have dropped home loan rates after the Reserve Bank trimmed the OCR to 5.25% last month.Term deposit rates have also…

Albania’s “unconditional love” for Italy means Rome has the exclusive privilege to house asylum seekers on Albanian soil, Rama told Euronews. ADVERTISEMENTGovernments seeking to replicate the deal struck between Italy and Albania to outsource the processing of asylum claims should not look to the Balkan country for a partner, Albanian prime minister Edi Rama told Euronews.”This is an exclusive agreement with Italy because we love everyone, but with Italy we have unconditional love,” Rama said, speaking in the European Parliament on Thursday.His repeated warning comes days after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her British counterpart Keir Starmer had expressed…

A Dunedin GP has set up a new clinic offering $15 appointments to support an increasing number of patients who cannot afford standard fees.Dr Adrian Hindes has dozens of enrolments at Dunedin Community Health since opening a few days ago and is operating under a very low-cost access (VLCA) funding model which allows for slightly more government funding than typical capitation. However, he is still running at a loss.Hindes worked with a community support medical centre for several years and said there has “always been need” for low-cost clinics serving “the most needy people” in Dunedin.”It’s been a model that’s…

With 80% of thermal plants destroyed, Kyiv is facing a difficult winter – but some worry EU support means higher prices for Europeans. ADVERTISEMENTFrozen Russian assets seized by the EU will be used to help provide 15% of Ukraine’s energy needs ahead of the winter, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on Thursday (19 September). The EU is ready to send €100 million for repairing power plants and boosting renewables, offering around 2.5 Gigawatts of capacity, and a further €60m will go to humanitarian aid, shelters and power generators in Ukraine’s worst-affected regions, von der Leyen said.  The Commission…

A charity that connects assistance dogs with children is so strapped for funding that it hasn’t been able to add anyone to its waitlist for two years. Assistance Dogs New Zealand Trust is the country’s only internationally accredited organisation that works with kids.It was founded in 2008 by Julie and Rick Hancox after she found people with disabilities such as autism and Downs Syndrome didn’t have access to service dogs.Its waitlist currently has 34 families waiting to be connected with a dog, and since it closed in 2022, 600 more have shown interest in joining. Speaking to Breakfast this morning,…

In Kharkiv, ballistic missiles were launched around midnight, and bombs were dropped in the morning, local reports say. ADVERTISEMENTAn overnight Russian drone strike has destroyed buildings and homes in three districts in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. In the northern Shevchenkivskyi district of Ukraine’s second-largest city, local prosecutors recorded at least three missile strikes, which destroyed two houses and set fire to outbuildings and a nearby forest.In the Industrialnyi district, a bomb is reported to have fallen between a kindergarten and a school, and in the Saltivka district, residents and volunteers are repairing the smashed windows of multiple buildings.There have…

Thirty properties were left without water for a few hours last night after a high-pressure water main burst on an east Auckland street.Watercare crews were fixing a small leak in the water network on Ti Rakau Drive near Botany when the water main burst just after 10pm, a spokesperson said.”The crew managed to fix the burst in about 20 minutes.”Thirty properties in the area experienced a water outage, however water was restored to these properties after the full repair was completed about two hours later.”Footage captured by 1News shows cars driving through a high wall of water.

The third and final eastern German state of Brandenburg heads to the polls in just a couple of days. With the government already adopting far-right policies in a bid to hold on to voters, how is the vote likely to play out? ADVERTISEMENTBrandenburg is the last state in the east of Germany to vote in regional elections ahead of next year’s federal vote. The state has been governed by the Social Democrats since the 90s, when Germany reunified following the fall of the Berlin wall. Following similar elections in other eastern states, where the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD)…

The term “waka jumper” has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.The colloquial phrase, which is used almost exclusively in New Zealand politics, is among several new words the dictionary has included in its latest update.It defines a waka jumper as a member of Parliament who moves from one political party to another during a parliamentary term.The dictionary says that the phrase has been in use since 1999.”Waka jumping (1999) is the name for this practice of party switching, and a waka jumper (1999) is a member of Parliament who engages in it.”The most recent waka jumping legislation passed in…