Author: Press Room

Westpac said it was aware of the outage and was working to fix it. (Source: Getty)Westpac has been hit by its second outage in two days, leaving thousands of customers unable to access their internet banking once again. The outage is impacting Westpac, along with its subsidiary banks St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA.Westpac customers first started reporting issues on Tuesday at around 2pm AEST, with Down Detector showing a spike of more than 3,400 outage reports. This is around the same time an outage was reported by customers yesterday.Westpac told customers it was aware of the second outage…

The Finance Minister says Wellington’s council is a “shambles” and the Local Government Minister says he is looking at options to intervene.The comments came after the the city council voted on Thursday to stop the sale of its 34 per cent stake in Wellington Airport.The sale was part of the council’s long-term plan, with money raised from it set to be used to establish an investment fund.Simeon Brown said on Tuesday he was seeking advice from officials on the options available to him and the thresholds for action against the city council.He would not give any timeline for developments.Prime Minister…

One person has been found dead at a commercial premises in Christchurch this afternoon.Emergency services responded to the Carmen Rd address in Hornby at around 12.40pm.”Police will make inquiries into the circumstances of the death of behalf of the Coroner,” a spokesperson said.WorkSafe has been advised.

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ Interest rates might be dropping, but borrowers still need to prove they can pay back their loans at more than 8% at New Zealand’s main banks. On Monday, two-year fixed special rates were advertised at either 5.69% or 5.79%.  But the banks confirmed that the rates they use to test borrowers’ applications against remain over 8%. This is designed to ensure that borrowers can afford to pay back their loans, even if interest rates rise. Westpac said its test rate was 8.15% ANZ said its test rate would drop from 8.5% to 8.05% on October…

The NSW government is introducing new laws to force the major insurers to pay their public hospital bills in full. (Source: Getty)Private health insurers will be forced to pay their public hospital bills in full, under new legislation introduced by the NSW government this week. Industry groups say the “health tax” could increase premiums by $114 per year and force some to drop their cover.NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookey will introduce the new laws to force the major insurers – Bupa, Medibank, NIB and HCF – to pay the correct rate for single-bed hospital rooms. It follows months of failed negotiations…

Melbourne woman Isabella said she was charged a $150 cleaning fee despite not making any mess. (Source: TikTok)A Melbourne woman is warning Aussies to “be careful” of “scammers” when using rideshare services after she was falsely charged $170 for a six-minute DiDi ride. A spokesperson for the popular rideshare platform told Yahoo Finance an “error” was to blame for the charge.Isabella shared she was slapped with a $150 cleaning fee on top of her $20 fare from Richmond to Prahan. In a message, DiDi informed her she had left the driver’s vehicle “messy/damaged” and “based on the supporting info provided…

Police are appealing for the public’s help after a man was found critically injured on a Waikato road overnight.The man was found “in the early hours of this morning” on Hampton Downs Rd near Whangamarino, a police spokesperson said.He was taken to Auckland City Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition. The man was found on Hampton Downs Rd near Whangamarino, police said. (Source: 1News)”Police are in the early stages of determining the circumstances that led to the man being injured,” Detective Senior Sergeant Kristine Clarke said. Cordons were in place between Hampton Downs Rd at the junction with…

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is promising his party’s proposed $100 billion ‘‘future fund’’ will not be paid for with asset sales, but may involve cutting taxes for offshore investors. Mr Peters unveiled the policy at his party’s conference in Hamilton at the weekend, saying it would be used to ‘‘invest solely in a multi-decade infrastructure build, to ensure our future infrastructure security and to enable future economic growth and social enablement’’. The funds would be ‘‘ring-fenced from politicians and political interference’’, and used on projects ‘‘in our national interest, and not offshore globalised ownership’’. Asked how much of…

An old RSA site which has sat empty and unused for two years will be home to the new Papakura District Court.The project was included in Government’s fast-track resource consents list of developments.Up until recently, the 40 Elliot St site’s future was unknown.Ministry of Justice acting deputy secretary corporate services, Eve Padgett, said they were progressing plans to construct a new purpose-built courthouse.”The new Papakura courthouse will replace the current courthouse at 250–260 Great South Road, Papakura,” Padgett said.The vacant site was bought for $11 million by the Ministry of Justice in 2023, and was intended to replace the old…

Labor has promised to wipe out card surcharges by 2026 pending a review from the Reserve Bank. (Source: Getty)Labor has revealed it will be launching a full-scale crackdown on card surcharges, but relief won’t likely come until 2026. The government is giving more funding to the consumer watchdog and will wait for the Reserve Bank (RBA) to design safeguards.Card surcharges were introduced by the RBA back in 2003 due to fears credit would outstrip debit spending. Swinburne University’s Professor Steve Worthington told Yahoo Finance the mission has been achieved, but it’s given rise to businesses slapping unnecessarily high surcharges.”I think…