Author: Press Room

Thousands of Kiwis are dreaming of what they’d do with a spare $40 million as Lotto’s highest Powerball jackpot in more than a year looms this Saturday.But for anyone who wins, one of the first and hardest decisions isn’t what to spend the money on – it’s who to tell about it.Lotto NZ’s Winners Booklet reveals secrecy is a major concern for many winners.”It’s very important to think carefully about this as soon as you find out about your win,” the booklet says.”Be careful who you tell. The more people you do tell, the greater the chances of others finding…

Horizons Regional Council is inviting the public to a rare behind-the-scenes look at the Moutoa floodgates –the largest piece of river management infrastructure in the Whanganui-Manawatū region.A tour of the floodgates will be held on Saturday, November 22 allowing people to see how the gates protect properties and farmland along the lower Manawatū River.Horizons river management team leader projects Diandri van Zyl said the event will help people understand how the floodgates work and showcase recent upgrades.”The Moutoa floodgates provide protection to communities living along the lower reaches of the Manawatū River. We’ve created this event to help these communities…

The final evaluation for the Government’s military-style boot camps found it was too small to provide any meaningful data, and its implementation was rushed.The 82-page report says the pilot contributed to “meaningful and positive change” for the young people involved, while acknowledging the cohort was too small to draw firm conclusions. It also highlighted a range of barriers and challenges to achieving outcomes.Those barriers included rushed implementation, challenging transitions, a lack of continuity around therapeutic support, a lack of capacity in the residential phase, and support for whānau began too late before the rangatahi returned home.It also noted the efforts…

A 20-year-old has been arrested after an explosive device, weapons and drug paraphernalia was found at a Takapuna address on Auckland’s North Shore this week.Officers were led to the Karaka St address while investigating an incident involving threatening behaviour.During a search of the address, police had located an antique pistol, a BB gun, class B controlled drug ketamine, scales, a hunting knife, three other knives, a set of knuckle dusters, and other drug paraphernalia.Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Williams said police also located what appeared to be a “small improvised explosive device”. Staff and nearby residents were then evacuated as a…

Help may be at hand for West Coast farmers and landowners plagued by growing mobs of feral deer – but probably not for another year.The West Coast Regional Council was about to put deer on the list of pests it worked to control, and planned to consult the public about options for getting the numbers down.South Westland farmer Thomas Condon told LDR this week that deer were destroying native forest on public conservation land and mobs of up to 30 animals a night came down onto his farm in the Mahitahiti valley, south of Fox Glacier, to graze on his…

The film industry is paying tribute to acclaimed Kiwi filmmaker Lee Tamahori, who passed away aged 75 on Friday.Tamahori’s family confirmed the Once Were Warriors director passed away surrounded by family after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. Tamahori (Ngāti Porou) forged a successful career in Hollywood and Europe largely due to the phenomenal success of his first feature film, Once Were Warriors, which was released in 1994.Tributes have poured in from many film stars who worked with the Kiwi. Among them was fellow Once Were Warriors star Temuera Morrison, who described his close friend as “just an amazing man”. “I…

Fishery officers have caught two separate groups of illegal pāua gatherers in consecutive nights – confiscating a total of 456 shellfish from a closed area in Taranaki. Three people were caught on Wednesday night with 118 pāua, and another three people were caught Thursday night with 338 pāua – all of it taken from a closed area. All six people were likely to be prosecuted, said Fisheries New Zealand district manager Aaron Mendoza. In the first incident on Wednesday, the 118 pāua were taken near Ōpunake, with 16 undersize.Mendoza said officers then received a call on Thursday night reporting suspicious…

Cocaine worth a street value of $12.25 million has been seized by Customs from a shipping container at Port Chalmers in Dunedin.Officers discovered 35kg of the drug on a container that had originated from South America. It was flagged by Customs intelligence for inspection before it arrived at Port Chalmers on October 26.When inspected, offices found the drugs hidden inside the empty container’s refrigeration unit. Customs, with the assistance of police, removed 35 bricks of cocaine branded with the Lacoste logo.Customs maritime manager Robert Smith said the seizure was a strong reminder that Customs puts pressure across the entire maritime…

Published on 07/11/2025 – 21:48 GMT+1 EU officials and the Belgian government have failed to break the deadlock over the proposal utilising of immobilised Russian assets to fund Ukraine reconstruction over the next two years. A technical meeting between the Commission and the offices of Prime Minister Bart de Wever and Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot took place on Friday. According to sources close to the discussions there’s growing concern in the Belgian government at the lack of alternative proposals from the European Commission to using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine. The EU is pushing for a plan to use…

By Mary Argue of RNZ Callaghan Innovation’s shutdown has so far cost taxpayers more than $10 million in redundancy payouts for 209 roles lost, according to recently published documents. The crown-owned science and innovation entity has been a casualty of the Government’s overhaul of the science sector, which has also seen the merging of Crown Research Institutes into Public Research Organisations and a newly established advanced technology institute. While some functions of Callaghan Innovation were retained, other parts have been wound up over the past year, with all funding expected to end by mid-2027. Documents released to the Public Service Association (PSA) under…