Author: Press Room

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council wants a $225 million water storage facility to be built on a small tributary of the Ngaruroro River.The council has announced it will share the cost of a feasibility study for the 27 million cubic metre project near Whanawhana.The cost of the study will be about $3.2 million and will be shared by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) and central Government, supported by a 2020 loan from the Provincial Growth Fund. The spend is budgeted for in HBRC’s long-term plan.It is HBRC’s latest attempt to provide water security in the region after it abandoned the failed…

Foreign Minister Winston Peters says Phil Goff’s position as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom is now “untenable” after remarks he made about Donald Trump, which he described as “deeply disappointing”.The one-time Labour leader and former senior minister was appointed to the high commission job in London in 2022 after he served two terms as Auckland mayor.Goff made the comments on Trump in a question he posed at a live-streamed Q&A event with Finland’s foreign minister Elina Valtonen, on Tuesday.He asked the speaker: “I was re-reading Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons in 1938 after the Munich Agreement, and…

Although one source of odours plaguing Ōpōtiki residents has been located and rectified, there are still complaints about a bad smell in the town.Bay of Plenty Regional Council regulatory compliance team leader Trudy Richards said an abatement notice had been issued to Whakatōhea Mussels (Opotiki) Limited for breaching its consent in relation to wastewater quality discharge limits.The notice required the mussel factory to cease exceeding the consented limits immediately.“This is an ongoing investigation however, and further enforcement action is possible,” Richards said.Since December 18 there had been 32 odour related complaints concerning the Ōpōtiki area, 25 of them during February.…

A 5.1 magnitude earthquake has jolted North Canterbury this morning.The quake hit at 6.45am, and was centred 35km west of Culverden at a depth of 5km.At the time of writing, 2421 people reported the shaking to GeoNet’s website, where it was described as “light”. “Well, that was a bit of a jolt,” one user on X said. “Definitely a jolt there,” said another. Those who reported the quake stretched from Christchurch to Hanmer Springs, and some near Greymouth. Two earthquakes strike near HaastTwo earthquakes struck near Haast an hour after the tremor in North Canterbury.The first quake was a 4.6…

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr’s shock resignation has created an unwelcome distraction, one economist says, and more information is needed from the Reserve Bank board about exactly what has gone on. It was announced on Wednesday that Orr was stepping down. Deputy governor Christian Hawkesby will take over in an acting position until 31 March. Orr was first appointed in 2018, and reappointed March 2023. His second term was due to end in 2028. From April 1, Finance Minister Nicola Willis will appoint a temporary governor for up to six months. Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen…

Land Information New Zealand was a no-show at a meeting to consider the future of a Taranaki daycare centre the government agency last week evicted from a building it had occupied for 44 years.The Waitara and District Community Childcare Centre now faces a race against time to find new premises for the more than 50 tamariki in its care before losing its licence.More than 100 people crammed into the North Taranaki Sports and Recreation Centre in Waitara — most wanting answers from Land Information New Zealand — or Linz — about the daycare’s sudden eviction.Gina Blackburn says LINZ no-show was…

The Government is lowering the eligibility age for bowel cancer screening tests from 60 to 58, as part of a wider plan to progressively align with Australia. Health Minister Simeon Brown said the change would come from redirected funding of $36 million over four years set aside by the previous government to lower the eligibility age from 60 to 50 for Māori and Pacific people.”Advice from the Ministry of Health clearly states that lowering the age to 58 for all New Zealanders will save even more lives than the previous government’s approach to lower the age to 50 for Māori…

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ The country’s housing downturn is over, property data firm CoreLogic says. CoreLogic has released its latest update, which shows house values across the country rose 0.3 percent in February. The median national value was $807,164, down 16.9 percent from the peak in 2021 and early 2022, but 17.1 percent above the pre-Covid figure of $689,353 in March 2020. CoreLogic NZ chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said the small increase was expected given earlier signs of a return to growth. “The rise of 0.3 percent in the national median property value is fairly modest by past standards…

Police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand are investigating a string of suspicious scrub fires across Port Waikato and Tuakau earlier this year.Counties Manukau South CIB Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Taylor said the first of seven fires being investigated began on January 11.Taylor said five of the suspicious fires occurred in February, and police were working with Fire and Emergency New Zealand to understand the scope of the series of fires.In Port Waikato, 14 homes were evacuated and power turned off to more than 250 households during one of the scrub fires on February 17.”At this stage, we are keeping…

The European Commission has refused to say whether it would launch legal action over Poland’s refusal to implement the Pact on Migration and Asylum. ADVERTISEMENTBrussels remained conspicuously silent after Poland doubled down on its refusal to implement the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which was once described as a “historical” legislative achievement to allow member states to manage the arrival of asylum seekers in collaboration with each other.The scene played out in plain view on Wednesday evening, after a meeting of home affairs ministers chaired by the Polish presidency of the European Council.Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s Minister of Interior, was asked…